SemiAntics

It’s been a really hot, dry summer here in North Carolina. Our cucumbers shriveled up. The tomatoes stopped growing. The basil is the only thing that has done well. It’s thriving! Check out today’s harvest.

We tried out a new recipe this Christmas. It was a little ironic because the recipe is supposed to be a Hanukkah recipe. Anyways…we tried our hands at making Apple Cake. Nathaniel and I, being the almost-teetotalers that we are, were very excited that the recipe called for Apple Brandy. This necessitated a trip to the ABC store where a bottle of Captain Apple Jack was purchased. Unfortunately, neither Nathaniel nor I read the recipe very carefully, sooo we missed the part where it said we only needed 1/2 teaspoon of brandy. That fact put a damper on our $15 purchase and the bragging associated with it. Oh well, I guess we’ll be making a lot of Apple Cakes. We have a lot of brandy to use up, and the cake turned out really well.

The recipe came from the New York Times.

Babette Friedman’s Apple Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

2. Mix the butter (softened), 1 1/3 cups of sugar, and salt together until blended. Add eggs and mix until smooth. Fold in flour and baking powder and thoroughly mix. Fold in a few apples (we folded in two). Spread batter evenly in pan.

3. In a large bowl, toss the remaining apples with the brandy, ginger and cinnamon. Arrange the apple slices in closely fitting concentric circles on top of dough. Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon sugar over the apples.

4. Bake until the apples are golden and tender and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake dough comes out clean. About 50 minutes (It was over an hour in our oven).

Our Notes

Why would I take baking bread so seriously? Because it is something I can brag about. At least that is what Grace thinks. Is she right?

This is my first attempt at making sourdough bread. It looks pretty good; we’ll have to see how it tastes

Plastic is everywhere. There are a million ways that plastic is good for humanity; there are also a lot of ways it’s bad for humanity (and the environment).

Plastic is not easily recycled; at least not all of it. For instance, how do you recycle a computer? What is it, number 1 or number 10? There is a lot of plastic in a computer, and there is a lot of metal mixed with it. It’s not a good idea to just dump this kind of stuff, but that’s what we’re doing for the most part.

Plastic is in your food. Several studies have shown that some chemicals leach into bottled water. You can taste it, so there must be something to it. What about microwaves? Microwaving certain types of plastic can lead to leaching into the food as well, or so I’ve heard. Plus, microwaving things like spaghetti in a plastic container pretty much ruins the container.

For food, we should try to use reusable containers. In cases when we can’t use reusable containers, we should try to use recyclable containers as best we can.

For me, I have found that Pyrex makes a really nice glass container set with plastic lids (which you remove before microwaving, and which don’t touch the food typically). These containers are very nice, easy to wash, easy to stack, and reusable until you break them.

Glass, unlike plastic, does not biodegrade. ( Edit: I meant to say glass doesn’t degrade. Plastic does degrade which is bad, but it doesn’t biodegrade; it simply breaks down chemically, especially when exposed to UV light. ) Therefore, it is less harmful to the environment, in my opinion. Another thing about glass is that it’s recyclable. No questions asked. Finally, it is not directly derived from petroleum products; therefore it is probably more of a renewable resource than plastic.

Let’s not forget that metals are usually recycleable and reusable.

Ipanema is a great restaurant in the Fan of Richmond, near VCU. If you like vegetarian, vegan or just good cooking, this is the place. We’ve had a lot of the items on the menu and have always been pleased. Service is very polite and friendly. Here is a map in case you should be in the area:

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Today Grace and I had the pleasure of using a gift certificate we got from her sister for Christmas. It was for a restaurant just a couple blocks away called The Nile.

I’ve never had Ethiopian food before, so this was an entirely new experience for me. Grace had been there once with a friend. My best quick description would be that it’s something like a cross between Indian food and Mexican food. It isn’t either of those, nor should it be compared to either one, but the whole experience was similar.

For starters, you get your food on a wide square plate that is covered with a pancake-like, tortilla-like piece of bread made from teff. This bread is called injera. It’s a lot like how Mexicans eat, except they don’t put the tortilla on the plate. But, you tear off pieces of injera and pinch the food between the injera. (Then you put it in your mouth and chew!)

Overall, the food was tasty. I had lamb, and a nice tasty salad. Grace had lentils, salad, and a variety of vegetable dishes. We were too full to have desert, but maybe next time!

I am often asked why I am a vegetarian. In fact, I am interrogated on this subject so often that I am getting very tired of answering. So, today I was happy to see an article in the New York Times outlining the main reasons I have for being a vegetarian.

I confess that I have not done mountains of research to validate my lifestyle choice. So, I cannot vouch for all the claims put forth in the article, and I do not intend to defend them. All I can say is that I have read a bit about the environmental impact of a meat based diet, and what I read was enough to persuade me to change my diet. I also think a vegetarian diet is healthier than a meat-based diet and am somewhat sympathetic to the animal rights arguments given in defence of vegetarianism.

I’m a bit dogmatic about my vegetarianism. My diet is my business, and your diet is your business. I don’t want to hear about the virtues of eating meat, so please don’t try to convert me. I promise I won’t try to convert you. I’m not the militant type.

New York Times-”Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler”