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Meal of the Month: Red Snapper en Papillote

January 27, 2008 / posted in Food / 8 Comments

Don’t you like “things”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003636.html “of the”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003625.html “month”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003616.html? I hope you do because, with the Meal of the Month, that’ll make four monthly types of content that you and I can expect from me. This month’s meal is the super-easy Red Snapper _en Papillote_, which is a delicious, light meal for people who want some good, healthy flavor.
First, a bit on the whole Meal of the Month thing. Since I’m writing it, the meal can either be a recipe or a cooking technique of the month. This month it’s more of a cooking technique, as many things can be cooked _en papillote_, all using the same techniques, and pretty much whatever you have around the house will be great to go inside your _papillote_. Since this month is more of a cooking technique, please bear with me that there’ll be no firm measurements here. I’m sure you can do fine without. If I present a real recipe, then I promise specific measurements.
Steaming is a healthy way to cook, but often too much of the flavor and nutrition of a steamed food will end up in the steaming liquid. The French to the rescue![1] Cooking _en papillote_ involves placing your meat, vegetables, herbs, and cooking liquids inside a pouch made of parchment. The result is a dish cooked delicately using moist heat, and yet retaining all of the cooking liquid as a delicious sauce.
Red Snapper _en Papillote_ fully lived up to our expectations for the cooking method. The dish was light yet filling, and had great, delicate flavor. Best of all, it took less than 30 minutes to prepare, including cooking time.
The first step is to cut up some vegetables very finely. I used carrot, yellow squash, little pearl onions, and mushrooms here.
!/images/motm/papillote/papilloteveg.jpg!
Take a strip of parchment just longer than piece of fish you’re planning to cook. (I only picked Red Snapper ’cause it was cheap. There’s probably something awful about Red Snapper considering the price I got it at.) Fold it in half lengthwise, and cut it into a heart shape — tapered at one end, and two little curves at the the top. Open the folded parchment and, on one side, build a small mound of the finely-cut vegetables, and place the fish on top. Put any aromatics — as the chives here — on top of the fish.
!/images/motm/papillote/openpapillote.jpg!
You can probably see here that I used frozen fish. It turned out fine, with totally acceptable texture. The fish was thin enough to easily cook through, and I’d probably be open to using frozen vegetables next time.
When you’ve put in the fish, fold the unused half of the paper over the fish and start closing the _papillote_ from the pointy end, by folding over about an inch and a half of parchment at a time. Per Alton Brown’s suggestion, I stapled each fold shut.[2] I left the last fold at the top open, then poured in a combination of 50% Dry Vermouth[3] and 50% lemon juice,[4] then sealed the pouch and placed it on a baking sheet.
!/images/motm/papillote/closedpapillote.jpg!
!/images/motm/papillote/papilloteedge.jpg!
Then into the oven for 15-20 minutes at 425°. Out of the oven, place the whole package on a plate and cut open tableside for a great presentation!
!/images/motm/papillote/donepapillote.jpg!
If you want to make a bit more of a complete meal, add some fingerling potatoes to your _papillote_. For a richer presentation, put a pat of butter on top to thicken the sauce. If you don’t like the scorch marks on the parchment, then don’t use liquor — the sugar will burn (you can use a stock, if you like, although white wine is actually quite traditional).
We loved our _papillote_; as quick as it was, it’s actually something I’d choose in the future as a weeknight dish. I can’t wait to try it with other vegetables and with wine — in fact, I might even go crazy and try it with chicken.
fn1. As so often, at least in food!
fn2. The staple, of course, being an ancient French culinary invention.
fn3. If needed, you can fix a martini at this stage.
fn4. Or a lemon drop, although I don’t think the Dry Vermouth would go quite so well there. Try lemon juice, Dry Vermouth, Bourbon, and soda. Tell me how that works out since I never have.















Easy GTD with Outlook and the Palm Treo

January 25, 2008 / posted in Elsewhere / No Comments

Almost no matter what you want to do with it, it’s tough to bend Outlook to your whims. This goes double if you follow the precepts of Getting Things Done. There’s the high-powered but somewhat obtuse GTD Outlook Add-in of course, but that loses a lot of fidelity once you go to the ubiquitous smartphone. Because I can’t be separated from my Treo, I set up my system to be low-fi, while still providing a reliable inbox and review set-up.















Desktop of the Month: Trees at Sundown

January 20, 2008 / posted in Desktops / 2 Comments

If you’ve ever seen my computer, you know I like to switch up my desktop pictures (or, in Windows speak, “wallpaper,” which inspires thoughts of pastel flowers and Victorian patterns). For the past few years, since I’ve been shooting photos again, these desktops have been things I’ve shot. So, in an effort to make me shoot good, clean, landscape photos more often, I’m going to share my desktop with you.
I like very simple photos on my desktop: the image should be beautiful, but not distract from the fact that I’ve got files and folders I work with on there. One day, in b-school, sitting next to a friend of mine, I was moved to comment on the hot, substantially-naked cowboy photo he had as his desktop picture. He looked over and said “yeah, pretty much the opposite of what you’ve got, huh?” I asked him what he though this said about us. “That I want to meet a hot boy, and that you want to find inner peace.” That sounds about right.
So, here’s this month’s desktop, in use. Download the image for yourself and enjoy a peaceful, useful desktop!
“!/images/desktops/nighttrees_preview.jpg!”:/images/desktops/nighttrees.jpg















Amazon Unbox + Tivo: Compelling VOD

January 18, 2008 / posted in Reviews / 3 Comments

The AIG and I are big “Battlestar Galactica”:http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ fans. Don’t laugh; I’ve been saying for years that it’s incredibly well-written, and, given that she’s a professional TV writer, I’d say there’s some evidence I’m right. Anyway, I’ve been catching her up thanks to my DVD collection, but Season 3 isn’t on DVD and Season 4 starts in just 3 months. Getting all the episodes in is hard work. That’s where “Amazon Unbox”:http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=16261631 comes in.
I have a few of the season-ending episodes on my Tivo, and the AIG was on-the-ball enough to Tivo a lot of other episodes from a marathon that SciFi was having. But we missed a few others, and what good is a partial season of a show with ongoing plotlines?
Since Unbox can download to Tivo, we decided to try that out.[1] Initial setup was trivial for my Tivo Series 2, but Amazon incorrectly told us that the AIG’s Tivo Series 2 was incompatible. Turns out that she had never set it up on the Tivo Web site to Allow Transfers and Video Downloads. (If only the error message had pointed this out! I had to deduce this cause on my own.) Once I checked those two boxes, completing setup was simple.
Unbox movies can only be bought with One-Click, which is reasonable given that there’s no physical item to be delivered and the price is so low (just $2 for the BSG episode). Download of one episode took about 25 minutes, but another took several hours. It’s not obvious why this time difference existed. I also had to initiate a connection to the Tivo servers to start the download; I guess there’s no way to push a download to a Tivo, since the box is used to getting its instructions by dialing in. Unbox is no replacement for true Video on Demand, at least yet.[2]
The episodes were clear and ad-free. While they auto-set to delete 24 hours after being watched, I was able to manually reset the delete date and kept one episode for a week before deciding to delete it to free up space. Save to VCR did not appear to be disabled, which makes it easy to keep the episode (this is only fair since I bought it, if you ask me).
Would I buy more TV from Unbox? In a second. The AIG — not, by any stretch of the imagination, a geeky woman — actually suggested canceling her Netflix subscription, stating that we rarely watched movies[3] and “we could get something off Unbox if we really wanted to see it.” The download wait is at worst shorter than the turnaround for a new movie from Netflix, and I don’t know anybody who still goes into a (non-specialty) movie rental place anymore.
So I’m an Unbox convert. Setup out of the way, it’s user-friendly. I might try putting “It’s a Wonderful Life”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003601.html on my laptop next Christmas to make sure I catch it!
fn1. Surprisingly enough, Battlestar is not on iTunes — just the kind of geeky tool that the show’s demo would probably use. Anyway, Unbox downloads to the Tivo, which is already hooked up to the TV, rather than my laptop, which I’d have to figure out how to do. Score one for Amazon and Tivo (and here’s one good guess why Apple wants us to buy the Apple TV).
fn2. Although I wouldn’t put it past Time Warner to somehow sniff out Unbox packets and slow them down.
fn3. True















Macworld 2008 and Apple’s Strategy

January 17, 2008 / posted in Elsewhere / No Comments

There’s nothing like a Steve Jobs keynote address for a Mac fan like me. For a lot of years in the ’90s, the Macworld keynote was just a list of products; but, since Apple’s turn-of-the-century rebirth, it’s been a window on the company’s emerging strategy. In Macworld after Macworld, Apple has revealed products that represented long bets — the iPod, the iTunes Music Store, Apple TV, iWork — and, if you look at Macworld with the same strategic eye as Jobs, there’s indications of the future there.















An Exercise in Fiction

January 13, 2008 / posted in Writing Practice / 7 Comments

It’s enjoyable enough to write essay-style stuff here, but I do miss when I used to actually write fiction. So, in a new feature here, I’m going to write monthly entries on a continuing story. Now, this isn’t quite the way I usually write: no outlines, no character studies; in fact, I really know virtually nothing about this story other than what I’ve written already. So, you’ll learn it at the same time I do. Also, I’m not spending much time on editing, so quality may be, let’s say variable. So, without further ado: a bit of ongoing storytelling, in the sci-fi genre.
The road’s white cut stretched to the horizon in both directions, flat and straight as if to defy any curve the packed sun-browned soil might throw up. But the road’s gentle left-hand turn had been enough to spread this glittering metal in a cone, a wheel here, a wheel there, in a sharp triangle from the black scorch of the rover’s impact. Midafternoon sun in the cloudless blue sky made the debris too bright to look at, or all but the dark bits of the tires and console and bodies. The one in light blue-gray overalls pulled his cap’s bill down to cover his squint.
“That’s a mess.” said the one in light brown that almost disappeared into the endless terrain. His cap was already down to touch his ears, and dust caked in the sweat on his arms below his rolled-up sleeves made him even more a match for the terrain.
“Yep.” said the one in light blue-gray, holding out his hand for the water bottle. “And what’s that track running from right to left there?” The outstretched hand pointed to the track as he spoke.
“Well, that was here when we got here, Lieutenant. So we don’t figure they hit anything going along it, you know what I mean?” The one in blue nodded; he knew, or as much as anyone else. The young mining colony, and young mining colonists, were untroubled by the ancient tracks that ran across most of the mapped surface of the planet, zig-zagging every klick or less to dodge some long-absent obstacle.
“When I was an Ensign on Owen’s World, you know what we had? These little pyramids of rock all over. About waist-high, stacked ever so perfect, and a metal rod in the middle of each one. The damndest thing. And you know what they were?” asked the Lieutenant in blue-gray.
“Guess I don’t, sir.” Replied the one in brown, wiping his brow with the arm that held the water bottle, as the Lieutenant had brought his hands to his waist to talk.
“Absolutely nothing. Never did anything, not in a hundred and fifty years. They were just there.”
“Ain’t that something.”
“Ain’t it.” This time he took the water bottle.
“I figure these tracks are the same. Don’t go nowhere. Not anymore, anyway. Anyway, I’m sorry to bother you about this, but the Prefect said to call you, so I did. It’s just too fast, and the bump, and that’s it.”
“Spread his load of ore all over the horizon, didn’t he.”
“Yes he did.”
“Gonna be an empty seat at Ruby’s tonight, won’t there.”
“Yes indeed.”
“Wife? Kids?”
“No, ain’t but the three families that came here last year, and of course old Mrs. Hawkshaw, still says her husband and son’ll be back any day, if you want to count that. And that ain’t him.”
“Kim, esquire, deceased.”
“That’s about it.”
“So there’s no-one to tell.”
“Not except for someone waiting to upgrade their claim. If his was any good. Can’t say I remember.”
“Well, thanks, Elon. Tell the Prefect I’ll mention the lost rover in my next report. Maybe the late-year supply ship will bring a replacement.”
“Much obliged.” It could’ve been for the rover, or because the Lieutenant handed him back the water bottle. They walked back to the Lieutenant’s shuttle. As they climbed, the packed-dirt road became nothing but a too-straight white line in the brown soil, cutting to the horizon, then splitting into a Y and beyond that a grid, as first one and then two lakes emerged as the horizon grew. And the line of the ancient track juked willy-nilly except to miss the foothills on the left; to the right, five such lines came together, a star radiating out in some forgotten intersection. Beyond were the mesas, steep peaks cut off at the top; and finally the mountains, topped with a sparse snow.
(“Next”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003652.html)















Dear Wade, Thanks for Keeping All That Fast-Food Sauce

January 10, 2008 / posted in Dear So-And-So, Food / 4 Comments

Thanks so much for keeping those two containers stuffed full of sauces you took home from fast food places. I really needed a Hot sauce from Taco Bell to go with my new “Fresco Menu Taco”:ttp://www.tacobell.com/fresco/, and our forethought ensured I had just such a sauce.
Still, it was a little worrying that said Hot sauce was in a packet featuring a design that had been discontinued years ago.[1] Perhaps we’ve been keeping these packets too long? Especially the ketchup, which I haven’t been able to eat since, like, 2001?
!/images/fastfoodsauce/muchsauce.jpg!
In fact, there’s some argument that, since I’m allergic to most all this sauce,[2] I really shouldn’t bother to take up room with it. I mean, I have good soy sauce and salsa and whatnot!
!/images/fastfoodsauce/closeup.jpg!
So, thanks for keeping those two containers of sauces. But it’s time to find a new hobby. Maybe philately?
fn1. It tasted fine.
fn2. Including, sadly, Taco Bell’s Fire sauce















Startup Postage: Endicia vs. Stamps vs. Business Reply

January 10, 2008 / posted in Elsewhere / No Comments

At my company, we send out a moderate amount of mail. There’s the bills, of course, and also reply envelopes to help get feedback from customers. Obviously, keeping mailing costs down is key, but so is having convenient access to postage and minimizing the amount of work I have to do (after all, there’s only one of me, and I have a lot more than just sending mail on my plate). After trying out some options, I decided to stick with plain old-fashioned stamps, bought at the USPS Web site.















Drink of the Month: Rob Roy

January 5, 2008 / posted in Drink of the Month, Food / 2 Comments

The regularly-updated content I promised here on Juniorbird.com? Well, here’s part 1 of the complete calendar: a monthly fun drink that you can join me in boozing it up with! This month’s drink is the Rob Roy — a version of the Manhattan made with Scotch. (A Manhattan is basically a Martini, but with whiskey, traditionally Rye.) A Manhattan should be sweeter, richer, and more flavorful than the dry, understated Martini; the Rob Roy adds on to that Scotch’s traditional peaty flavors.
So why’d I pick the Rob Roy? Well, first of all, I love Martinis, but sometimes one wants to go a bit afield. Also, I wanted to make sure that — as is a requirement for all the drinks in this series — the ingredients are fairly easy-to-find; let’s face it, I don’t enjoy rooting around for rare liqueurs, and it’s more fun to make drinks that my friends can share in anyway.
And I wanted to have a whiskey.[1] Since I’m allergic to corn, this means that blended whiskeys and all Bourbons are verboten for me. Single malts on the other hand, are safe; Irish whiskeys are usually blended, so this really leaves Scotch.[2] I found a couple of affordable single-malts and determined to see what I could do with them.
Scotch #1 is “Lismore Single Malt”:http://www.bevmo.com/productinfo.asp?sku=00000002173. From the Speyside region, whence comes most Scotch, this is a pretty accessible beverage when drunk neat, with just a little peat and an overall sweet, caramel-y[3] taste. Scotch #2, “Finlaggan”:http://www.vintagemaltwhisky.com/product-finlaggan.html, is an Islay single malt; Islay Scotches are typically the peatiest of the Scotches, and Finlaggan didn’t disappoint, with a tremendous peaty, smoky flavor that was much more challenging when drunk neat. Of course, the real test was the Rob Roy.
!/images/dotm/robroy.jpg!
A Rob Roy typically contains a 2.5:1 or 3:1 mix of Scotch to Vermouth, with a few shots of bitters to round it out. I found that the Speyside worked much better with Dry Vermouth and Angostura bitters, and the Islay with Sweet Vermouth and Fey’s bitters, which are a bit sweeter than the Angosturas. I substantially preferred the flavor of the Finlaggan Islay single malt, which had more flavor, as well as a rounder taste. Overall, I’d definitely drink a Rob Roy on a regular basis; it’s not as refreshing as a Martini, but it’s delicious, matches well with food, and provides access to a whole new set of flavors. I’ve found that most bartenders know the Rob Roy, so this is a drink I could order out, too; I’ll have to learn the names of a few common Islay single malts so I can get a Rob Roy with my choice of call liquor.
fn1. Or, as the Scots spell it, “whisky.”
fn2. There are a small number of all-rye American Ryes, but these challenge my “easy-to-find” rule. For people who can tolerate corn, the Jim Beam Rye, which is pretty common, is supposed to make a good Manhattan.
fn3. I’m told that the proper term for whisky-philes is “toffee.”















Another Year, Another Resolution

January 4, 2008 / posted in Adult Problems, Otherwise Uncategorized / 1 Comment

I really do like the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. Heck, I like it enough I’ve done it “four”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/000353.html “years”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/001004.html “in a row”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/002166.html “now”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003045.html Life presents us with many daily challenges and, let’s face it, keeps most of us busy. Making resolutions around now can really help get the old head above the trees, to see the forest. I could use that, especially after the last year. So, in the ol’ Juniorbird tradition, here’s last year’s resolutions reviewed and some new ones for 2008.
h3. Last Year’s Resolutions Reviewed
# Find a networking group to go to, like I used to go to Ryze events
_Say hello to the Trojan CEO Network!_
# Join a local Toastmasters club
_Bet this one appears on my ’08 resolutions!_
# Keep up with people I met in school
_Did pretty well, actually, for ‘ol introverted me_
# Join a martial arts studio, probably either Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, or Krav Maga
_I also must resolve to blog about Krav Maga, which I’ve been attending for 3 months, more in ’08_
# Say “no” more often
_Boy, I did bad at this one_
# Keep my plants alive
_Good news: they’re all here, even the one the pit bull tried to eat!_
# Get into a habit of regularly reading and outlining business books.
_Honestly, there’s such a thing as too much business. Didn’t do it, didn’t regret it._
# Start keeping my finances in some kind of program again — I ditched Quicken two and a half years ago, as it was corrupting my accounts all the time, but I think it’s time to start keeping records again.
_Switched to “Moneydance”:http://moneydance.com/, which was fine, and used it for a year; now moved to “iBank”:http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/, which appears to be slicker and more Mac-y (perhaps more on this later). Anyway, kept it all up-to-date, which has been handy budget- and planning-wise._
So what’s the tally: 5 out of 8 nailed, 1 abandoned, and 2 busts. Not perfect, but I feel pretty proud.
h3. This Year’s Resolutions
It’s going to be a big year, but I think I can wedge a little self-improvement in.
# Join Toastmasters
# Stick with Krav, and, especially, use it to improve my conditioning
# Post twice weekly to “WadeArmstrong.com”:http://wadearmstrong.com — one 4-600 words, one links
# Post twice weekly here. I’ve got an exciting publishing calendar for Juniorbird.com, including a recipe of the month; drink of the month; photo that you can put on your desktop (I like to switch mine up), and even an attempt at ongoing fiction (I promise low quality!)
# Kick up the ‘ol wardrobe a notch, by being a bit more daring
# Assert myself more in restaurants — I don’t always ask what’s in a dish when I order it, and sometimes, what with my food allergies, that reaches up and bites me
# Set up a regular get-together with school friends
# Appreciate the AIG as much as she deserves
See you in a year to check in on my progress!