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Food Thread: Don't Ham It Up, This Is A Serious Place

That's the sort of thing I think about when I think about ham. But there is a vast world of holiday ham about which I know almost nothing! I am not suggesting that I don't eat a slice of traditional baked ham when offered, but it isn't in the rotation. I remember when the spiral-sliced hams came into vogue...that was fun to eat at Christmas parties, but again; it simply never entered the, "What should we make this week" discussion.

Why do I have ham on the brain? Well, my local supermarket has about 25 feet of refrigerator case filled with hams at a respectably reasonable price. The last time I had a whole ham in my refrigerator was about 30 years ago, and it was from a wild pig, and it was stupendous. I know I won't be getting something that good, but it is tempting...

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I promise I didn't make this up, and as far as I can tell it is the genuine article...NBCNews.com, and not a spoof!

Why Americans are going hungry despite a strong economy

By traditional measures of the economy, where unemployment has been at historic lows and wages have been rising, more Americans should be prospering and the need for help with basic necessities like food should be easing after surging during the pandemic.

But those on the front lines of feeding the hungry say they are seeing the opposite. Instead, they say a growing number of Americans have been seeking out help from food banks and government food programs over the past year amid a perfect storm of persistently rising costs and shrinking programs to help households cope with these growing expenses

As is their wont, they lead with a sob story...a woman whose $2,400/month budget is insufficient to feed a family of seven. What? That's $80/day, and unless she is serving them high-end stuff, that should be plenty!

But the real issue is of course the careful, willful ignorance of what inflation is. Two years of high inflation trumps the lagging rise in wages. And read a few paragraphs in and you will discover that social programs are being cut. On what planet? They don't specify, but the multi-billion dollar boondoggle of government spending on every social program in America apparently is just a figment of our fevered right-wing-Nazi-white-supremacist imaginations.

This is just pure, unadulterated propaganda, and it isn't even done well.

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I guess this is interesting, but really, if red wine gives you a headache...don't drink it. Or am I missing something? My new internist thinks I am an alcoholic*, so it is entirely possible that my thought processes when it comes to alcohol are warped.

Study Reveals Unlikely Culprits of Red Wine Headaches

*Not really, but she thinks I drink too much. She is also extremely disappointed that my liver function is perfect and the other indicators of excessive drinking (certain vitamin deficiencies) are nowhere to be found. When she finished my exam and said "I'll see you next year," I couldn't resist saying, "Sure! We can have a beer!"

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What's that? You want to make fun of Sous Vide? Yeah...I thought so. That is a very nicely cooked filet roast.

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My new hobby is becoming a bit of a pain in the ass. Now I have to seek out better rice, better seaweed, and definitely better pickled ginger, since the stuff I bought on Amazon was horrid. There is a huge Japanese supermarket about 30 minutes from here, and I got a bunch of really good stuff from there a few weeks ago. But still, my technique is mediocre. Those sushi chefs really are skilled!

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80% white flour and 20% rye flour. 24 hour cold rise, then handle it as usual once it warms up. Damn...it is delicious, and I think some of that flavor is the new starter I got from a fine restaurant's chef, who took pity on me when I begged for his starter. The fun part of this was I didn't knead it much at all. I just stretched it a bit after the cold fermentation.

I think I may have been overthinking this whole Sourdough Baking Is HARD! thing.

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The oyster imperative remains in effect, and send pork rib roasts with the pork belly attached, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk (and speaking of vegetables; were all of our snap peas stolen by space aliens?), garlic...lots of garlic! (and basil! My basil did not do well this year!), well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

And don't think that the rest of you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: so why don't you put maple syrup on your steaks and chops and chicken?

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.