Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Sign The Petition for Clean, Renewable Energy!

[The "We Can Solve It" people have a video that I had embedded here but it seems to be slowing down the loading of my site for some people, so... go to their web site if you want to watch it.]

We Can Solve It
“In this time of $4 gasoline, I strongly support the transition to a clean energy economy. We need an economy powered by highly energy-efficient industries, based on modern infrastructure, and fueled by clean, renewable resources like wind, solar and geothermal energy. Our planet – and our wallets – can’t afford to wait.”

I signed the petition that will be sent to my state’s governor. You should sign it too.

It’s WAY past time we quit our insane reliance on fossil fuels.

Lies, More Lies

Cheney’s Staff Cut Testimony On Warming – washingtonpost.com
Members of Vice President Cheney’s staff censored congressional testimony by a top federal official about health threats posed by global warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said yesterday.

I ask you, Why is that creep still in office? Why haven’t he and George “I shit on the Constitution” Bush been ejected from the public sphere as they so deserve to be?

Fear? Fear that without their “strong leadership” [gag] bad things would happen to our country?? Bad things like…oh, I don’t know…maybe we’d get into a pointless war in the Middle East or our economy would start going to hell? That kind of bad thing??

Bleh. The whole lot of them make me want to move to a remote cabin, a’la Ted Kaczynski. (But without that whole Unabomber thing.)

About That Raccoon

A month or so ago I posted a picture of this raccoon and commented that it was strange that “he” should be out during the daylight hours so much.

I just took this picture of the same raccoon, but I know a LOT more about her now than I did then!

For instance, I have learned that she’s not necessarily a young raccoon. It turns out that raccoons in warmer climates (like here in Northern Virginia) don’t get as big as the raccoons I knew from Minnesota. So, it’s entirely possible that this raccoon is a couple years old or older.

The other thing I learned from watching her is that…well…she’s a SHE. And she’s apparently got babies somewhere not too far away because she’s pretty clearly nursing.

My new theory on why she comes to eat during the daytime is that she’s eating while her young are asleep — so she can be with them at night when they’re more active.

As you may be able to see in the picture, I’m feeding her dry dog food now. The “woodpecker mix” bird food she was eating when she first started visiting is just too expensive for feeding to a heavy eater like this little raccoon! The dog food is much cheaper — and she seems to actually prefer it. It may also be healthier for her, too, seeing as how it’s higher in protein than the bird food.

The raccoon — we don’t name wild animals, she’s just “the raccoon” — has put on some weight and is definitely looking a lot healthier than when she first started visiting. I would imagine, too, that her kits are doing well — since she’s probably got lots of milk for them.

It would be nice to see the kits one evening. Maybe she’ll bring them by. In some ways, though, I’d almost prefer she didn’t bring them out during the day time. She takes a hell of a risk being out like this and, while we’d never hurt her, not everyone loves animals as much as we do. It would probably be best if she taught her little ones to gather their food at night like all the other local raccoons do.

—–

Later addition: I just found this interesting report on the Wildlife Rescue League web site that confirms my guess about why this raccoon is out eating during the day.

The Omelet — Take Two

After my really bad omelet experience the other day, I entered upon a quest to make a good omelet. A really REALLY good omelet. The best. Well… My best, at least.

Towards that goal, I went shopping yesterday for an omelet pan. I briefly considered a non-stick pan, but those are so fussy. Plus, I’ve been wanting a pan I could put under the broiler if desired — for other dishes, I mean. Not for an omelet! So, I was mainly checking out the stainless steel pans with metal handles.

Here’s the thing. I want really good stuff — but I’m cheap. It just pains me to spend $50 on a pan. Any pan. So, I knew I needed to stick with the stores that sell good pans cheap and that meant HomeGoods! (Love that store — it’s a place of great danger, though. More on that later.)

HomeGoods is one of those places that sells stuff that’s often “off” in some way. I think a lot of it is stock that, for whatever reason, wasn’t selling in the department stores. Sometimes it’s just because the thing is sort of ugly. Sometimes the item is slightly damaged. You have to really watch it when you shop there. Examine your item carefully before you purchase it.

Well, I started off with this big name omelet pan — very nice and heavy — and at first I didn’t see anything at all wrong with it. And it was only $19.99! Then! Happy day! I set it down on a lower shelf for a moment while I looked at something else and, when I came back to it I could clearly see from that angle that it was slightly dented on one side. Unsatisfactory! So I kept looking… and I found a very nice stainless steel omelet pan that was in perfect condition. It’s very heavy and seems to be well built. It’s made in China and the brand name is “Authentic Kitchen”. I went looking online for more information about that brand and all I can see is that it’s apparently a brand owned by the HomeGoods company. They must import them specifically for sale in their stores. Well… it was only $16.99 — and from everything I can tell, it’s a really good pan. If it weren’t dirty with omelet crust right now I’d take a picture of it for your adoration.

Anyway. So. I got the pan. On with the omelet.

This morning, I did it pretty much exactly like how they showed in the video I told you about a couple days ago.

I let the eggs come to room temperature. I stirred them briskly with the salt and pepper. I melted the butter in the pan. I even did the whole thing with the two forks and the scrambly-motion. And… it turned out great!!

Honestly, it was the best omelet I’ve ever made. It did stick a tiny bit while I was rolling it out of the pan. I probably should have used a little more butter. (Or added butter to the eggs like the guy in the video does.) But the sticking was minimal — just an extremely thin crust of egg left on the pan. That might be partly because it’s a brand new pan and doesn’t have any built-up non-stick qualities. (Which, if I’m not mistaken, is really just permanently burnt-on grease.)

[Bonus Later Addition! Gourmet has instructions for seasoning an omelet pan! I'll be doing this tomorrow.]

I filled this omelet with goat cheese, a little bit of avocado, and a little bit of sauteed shallot.

Do I even need to say, “Yummm!”?

The texture of the omelet was completely different from the rubbery mess of two days ago. This one was very light and almost “fluffy” but not quite. If you looked closely at the surface of the omelet you could see where little air bubble had been incorporated into the eggs during the “scrambly” phase. It was extremely tender and almost creamy in texture. In a way, it didn’t even seem especially “eggy”. It seemed like something else… Not a crepe. No. Not even close. Um… Okay. I guess the best way I can think of to describe the texture (and this only makes sense) is that it was like a souflee with just the minimum amount of shape-holding necessary to encase the filling.

Yeah. That’s what it was like.

It was pretty darned good.

—–

Oh yeah. I was going to tell you about the danger of HomeGoods. Well, here’s the deal with them. Their shelves are just loaded with all kinds of kitchen gear and dishes and glasswear and decorative household doo-dads and sheets and towels and… all kinds of stuff. And a lot of it is GREAT! Really charming stuff — and CHEAP! But! Not ALL of it is great and not all of it is cheap! You really have to spend some serious time looking at stuff to find the bargains.

There are bargains to be had, though, and sometimes you just can’t resist buying something you don’t really need just because the price is so good and it’s so cool-looking. (That’s how I wound up with a 2-foot tall painted metal robin.) So, inevitably, when I go to HomeGoods I wind up buying more than I went in for. This time, besides the nice omelet pan, I also got a rubber jar opener (I’d been looking for one! Honest!) and a pack of 6 really nice dish towels for only $5.99 — such a deal! Granted, I didn’t really need the dish towels and they’re not my preferred color, but… they were such a good deal….

The Omelet

This morning I made myself an omelet using a recipe I found on the Epicurious.com web site. It’s a tarragon and goat cheese omelet. Yum, right? I’ll put the recipe down at the bottom of this post, if you’re interested.

Anyway, I had been thinking about it since last night and was really psyched about this omelet. I love goat cheese and I’ve got tarragon, chives, and parsely out in my herb garden so I figured it was going to be fabulous. I used organic brown eggs from uncaged chickens. I cut the herbs just moments before creating the omelet.

Everything seemed to be going so well. It looked good!

Alas, I knew as soon as my fork cut off the first bite.

Rubbery.

I had created a rubbery omelet. Shit! Why this one — of all the omelets I’ve made over the years? Why this one that I so especially was looking forward to? Why? Why??

Since the internet is the font of all knowledge, I decided to do a little investigating online. Although there are a lot of people who have experienced the rubbery omelet, there’s no one reason — apparently — for why an omelet might turn out that way. Among the possible causes:

• I over-beat the eggs.
• The eggs were old.
• I over-cooked the omelet.

I didn’t think I over-beat them and I’m pretty sure I didn’t over-cook. So… maybe it was just the eggs.

I don’t know. It was pretty disappointing, though.

In the course of my investigations, I discovered a fascinating video that shows a completely different omelet technique from the one I’ve been using. (Maybe the problem is my technique? Hm. But I’ve turned out tender omelets in the past using it!) What I do with an omelet is heat the butter, pour in the eggs, and as the eggs begin to set on the edges of the omelet, I lift up the edges and tilt the pan to let uncooked egg flow underneath. I read about this technique somewhere and I was under the impression that’s how everyone did it.

Wrong.

The guy in the video (from Gourmet.com) does a sort of fast scrambling kind of thing until the eggs are not quite set — and then he briefly lets off the scrambling so they can form a solid mass. Wow. I had no idea. Cool. Here, see for yourselves:

The Technique: The Classic Omelet: Magazine Video : gourmet.com

(You might also enjoy the written article that goes with the video. Click here.)

And, here’s the recipe for the omelet I was making:

Tarragon, Chive and Goat Cheese Omelet

Source: Epicurious (Servings: 2)
5 large eggs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1 ¼ cups crumbled soft fresh goat cheese (such as Montrachet, about
4 ounces)

Whisk eggs, herbs, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in 9- to 10-inch-diameter nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add half of egg mixture to skillet and cook until very softly set, tilting skillet, running rubber spatula around edges and allowing uncooked egg portion to flow underneath, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle half of goat cheese over. Cover and cook until omelet is set, about 2 minutes. Tilt skillet and slide out omelet onto plate, folding omelet in half. Cover to keep warm. Repeat for second omelet with remaining butter, egg mixture and goat cheese. Serve immediately.