My nephew has expressed an interest in learning how to cook. This makes me happy. In my experience, a person who can cook well and with an open heart is welcome anywhere.
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Archive for the ‘Food and…’ Category
A Slice of Happiness
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, Thoughts, yay on March 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Pi Today, Pie Tomorrow
Posted in Food and..., Holidays, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, pie, science, Thoughts on March 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Ladies and Gentlemen, we regret to announce that because this year’s annual Pi Day celebration falls on a Tuesday, it will have to be postponed. The good news is that pi is infinite. Any day can be Pi Day!
I will focus on pie at a later, more auspicious time. Until then, please enjoy both the mathematical concept and culinary reality of pi/e.
Happy Pi Day! Here’s all you need to know – CBS Boston
10 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day with NASA on March 14
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Busy Day, with Volcanoes
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, fun, Thoughts on January 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »
We’re having friends over for dinner for the first time in (what seems like) decades, and I’ve apparently forgotten everything I knew about giving a dinner party. So lots to do, but I did take the time to update my chocolate volcano recipe to metric.
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Mother of Sauces
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, cooking, lessons on January 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Apropos of nothing: how to make béchamel, one of the classic French mother sauces.
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“I Thought I’d Give It A Try”
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cooking, creativity, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on November 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Need a bite of encouragement? Ever wonder how gyoza are made, or how an architect might make it into the Michelin guide for his dumplings? All this and more, including dough “as tender as an earlobe” await your edification and enjoyment!
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What the World Needs
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, creativity, history, innovation, inspiration, Thoughts, Writers, writing on October 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A young family member tried her first root beer float this past week. She preferred straight ice cream, in the end, but it got me thinking about the complex history of what appears to be a fairly simple treat.
From a societal standpoint, the road to such a dessert requires an understanding of the science of crystallization as well as carbonation, plus the ability to package and distribute the ingredients while maintaining temperature and freshness.
From an entrepreneurial perspective, who came up with the idea of merging frozen dessert with thirst-quenching beverage in the first place?
A lot of folks, it seems.
Meet the people who claim to have invented (some version of) this classic dish:
- Robert McCay Green, 1874, Philadelphia
The Delicious History of the Root Beer Float
As he was serving soda to his costumers, he ran out of ice to put in their drinks, so he decided to put ice cream in them to make them cold.
- Also claiming credit? Fred Sanders, Philip Mohr, George Guy, and Colorado gold mine owner Frank J. Wisner, 1893, Colorado.
The Root Beer Float Was Invented In 1893 By A Gold Miner In Colorado – South Florida Reporter
The full moon that night shined on the snow-capped Cow Mountain and reminded him of a scoop of vanilla ice cream. He hurried back to his bar and scooped a spoonful of ice cream into the children’s favorite flavor of soda, Myers Avenue Red Root Beer. After trying, he liked it and served it the very next day. It was an immediate hit.
Whether these somewhat fanciful stories reflect the full truth we can’t know. What we do know is that by the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. was awash with ice cream floats.
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Why so many instances of similar inventions, all around the same time? That takes us back to the bit about this particular creation being part of a complex system of social, technical and economic factors. Simultaneous invention happens all the time, with ideas big and small.
In the Air | The New Yorker (Malcolm Gladwell)
The history of science is full of ideas that several people had at the same time.
So don’t worry that your idea for a vampire story or cake recipe or video game or mousetrap has already been done. The world needs new creations, and new versions of old inventions, all the time. Learn from what’s gone before, of course, but if a project captures your attention, pursue it.
It hasn’t been done your way. And your way may be exactly what the world needs right now.
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Time for a Nap
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, Thoughts on September 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Today: mushrooms. That is all. (Literally. Eighteen pounds of mushrooms and 8 quarts of mushroom soup is a Lot.)
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Worth It
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, Thoughts on September 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Mr Man: “What do you say we go for a bike ride?”
Me: “Good plan. Let’s head over to that ice cream shop that’s just a little too far away for a walk.”
Mr Man: “Wouldn’t that undermine the point of exercise?”
Me: “It’ll be great, we’ll earn our calories!” (Secretly thinking, “It will be great, we won’t have to earn these calories!”)
/delightful interlude involving a low-key afternoon ride, a dipped hazelnut praline cone (his), a very large cotton candy milkshake (mine, they were out of strawberry), and a complete lack of guilt despite the fact that we consumed much too much sugar. It was a perfect way to say goodbye to summer.
Me, leaving the ice cream place: “Um, pretty sure your front tire is flat. How far do we have to go?”
Mr Man: “Walking? About an hour.”
And that, folks, is how we paid for that ice cream.
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Just A Little More Research
Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, CB Droege, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, Nature's Futures, writing on August 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I tested out yet another version of my tofu pudding recipe, hazelnut chocolate this time. It’s a little sweet, but I may try layering it with passionfruit whipped cream and see what that’s like. Because half the fun is in the making.
Ok, maybe not half. But it is fun.
In honor of the connection between food, experimentation and the evolution of humanity (by humans or… not), check out this short story by CB Droege in Nature.
Alfie’s ice cream
It was almost time. After months of calibration and fine tuning. After dozens of years of research, theory, testing and production. After centuries of anticipation and dreaming. The SCS Alfred Nobel, Alfie as he called himself, was finally going to try some ice cream.
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Lots to Do!
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, home, Thoughts on August 18, 2022|
Oh, hey there! I’m in the middle of baking a new recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie and working on a bunch of other fun things. Have a happy day!
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J.R. Johnson 
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