Daily Haiku - November 29, 2012

Late packing for trip
Cleanly fold or cram it in?
Wrinkles it is, then.

The Value of Self-Experimentation

I was proffered (Scrabble, anyone?) a link last week to a fascinating article entitled "The Value of Self-Experimentation." It's a fascinating article in and of itself, but more importantly, it contained some hopefully useful insights into my poor sleeping habits.

I knew that in a wide range of animals, including rats, a laboratory result called anticipatory activity is well established. If you feed a rat every day at the same time, it will become active about three hours earlier. If you feed it at noon, it will become active about 9 a.m. I had been eating breakfast at about 7 a.m. and waking up about 4 a.m. I had essentially found that humans were like other animals in this regard.

Not eating breakfast reduced early awakening but didn’t eliminate it. In the following years, self-experimentation taught me more about what caused it. By accident, I found that standing helped. If I stood more than eight hours in a day, I slept better that night. That wasn’t practical—after trying to stand that much for several years, I gave up—but the realization helped me make another accidental discovery 10 years later: standing on one leg to exhaustion helps. If I do this four times (left leg twice, right leg twice) during a day, even in the morning, I sleep much better that night. More recently, I’ve found that animal fat makes me sleep better.

Interesting stuff, yes? When I was doing my own experimenting I tested the effect of a number of sleeping agents (melatonin, generic sleeping pills, Nyquil) along with external elements like a humidifier, when I went to bed, when I stopped using electronic devices, and so forth and so on. After about a month of trying different combinations of all these variables I was still averaging about 3.5 hours of sleep a night, a rate that I still sustain today.

So my first step is pushing back breakfast until 10am. I figure I’ll give that two weeks and see if that has any noticeable effect on my sleep habits. And then maybe I’ll start branching out into some of his other suggestions. In the meantime, I think I'm going to start browsing the archives of Tim Ferriss' blog (he of the aforementioned article).

Daily Haiku - November 27, 2012

TV marathon,
Battlestar Galactica;
This is REALLY good.

Daily Haiku - Thanksgiving Edition

So many red wines;
How do you keep track past five?
Too drunk to recall.

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Stupid mama bird,
Why must you crap on my car?
It can’t hurt your nest!

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Fallen leaves line streets,
Sent aloft by passing cars:
Autumn’s vibrant snow.

Thanksgiving Round-up

I ended up staying with my girlfriend’s family for the entire weekend, and I had an absolute blast. The entirety of Wednesday (5pm-10pm) was spent drinking 11 (12?) bottles of red wine with six other people, of which I partook of a solid 14 glasses or so. This is impressive both because I’m not normally a fan of red wine and because I don’t really drink that often. The clear winner of the evening was the first wine we tasted, which I believe was an Ass Kisser from Rocland Estates (waiting for confirmation) was a 2010 A.S. Kiken from Reverie Winery.

As for the actual Thanksgiving dinner, I went ahead with the Broccoli-Cheddar soup, which was a hit, and the Butter Knots that my cousin Katy has made for years in Buffalo. The recipe for them is listed at the end of this post and I HIGHLY recommend you give them a go.

The rest of the day was spent drinking more wine, grazing on leftovers, and catching up with friends who made guest appearances during the evening.

Friday morning I woke just before 7am and drove off into the lovely, dense fog of Huntington Beach to find the local Verizon Wireless store so that I might finally enter the era of smartphones. Sadly, Verizon was the only carrier NOT putting the Samsung Galaxy S3 on sale (boooo!) but I went ahead and got it anyway. It came loaded with tons of apps, none of which I know how to use, so I’ll be spending a good chunk of today online researching them and playing around with the phone.

Friday evening turned into a culinary wonderland, as my girlfriend’s parents treated everyone to dinner at Old Vine Café in Costa Mesa. A bevy of four-course tasting menus, with a specific wine paired to each individual course. I went with the Comfort Tasting Menu which included the following:

First
~Seasonal Greens, Hearts of Palm, Artisan-Cured Ham & Crispy fried Artichokes Tossed in Creamy Tarragon Dressing, garnished with Aged Pecorino.
~Paired with a 2010 Domaine de Bernier Chardonnay, France

Second
~Porcini Mushroom Macaroni & Creamy Artisan Cheeses.
~Paired with a 2007 Dragani Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, Italy

Third
~All-Natural Australian Lamb Meatloaf with Sauteed Spinach & Peppercorn Demi Glace.
~Paired with a 2004 Chateau Jean-Pierre Gaussen Bandol, Bandol France

Last
~Pear & Cream Cheese Tart with a Savory Pate Brisee Crust.
~Paired with a N.V. Törley 'Fortuna' Doux, Hungary

It was AMAZING.

Saturday was spent reading, playing board games and watching both ‘Brave’ and The ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’, the latter of which I highly recommend you seeing when you have a chance.

Okay, that’s it for today. The recipe for the butter knots is below the cut. I’ll have more interesting tidbits for you tomorrow.

Let Me Feed You the Food of My People

As Thanksgiving is almost upon us (how the hell did that happen?) I thought I’d share with you a family recipe that is near and dear to my heart. I don’t recall the origins of this particular dish, but it is something that my father has been making, without fail, since I was but a wee lad. As far as I know it doesn’t have a proper name and is only referred to as the ‘Green Jello Dish.’



Now this side dish isn’t for everyone. I would go so far as to say that it isn’t for anyone, but clearly there are a few well-refined individuals out there who can appreciate the subtle combination of flavors this dish has to offer. Having been force fed it for most of my 33 years, I can say with great assurance that you’ll eventually get used to it. Love it, even.

THE GREEN JELLO DISH
(approximately, as I apparently don’t have the recipe on file)

3-4 cups of shredded green cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 15oz can of Crushed Pineapple (drained, with juice set aside)
1 3oz package of Lime Jell-O
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water (which includes the saved pineapple juice)

1. Make the Jell-O like normal.

2. Combine the Jell-O, cabbage, carrots and crushed pineapple in a ring mold.

3. Refrigerate until firm.

4. Watch your friends eye the dish warily and then opt instead for an extra helping of mashed potatoes.

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This year I’m actually doing Thanksgiving with my girlfriend’s family, which has left me scrambling for dishes to make. Apparently all the standard sides and desserts are already taken care of so I’ve had to think outside the box.

I’m going to fall back on one of my favorites, a Broccoli-Cheddar soup recipe from Cooks’ Illustrated. I figure both soups and broccoli aren’t normally featured during Thanksgiving, so doubling up is unlikely. Plus you can use it in place of gravy!

Beyond that I’m kind of at a loss. I can have another go at Cooks’ Illustrated Blueberry Pie, or I could hunt down a roll recipe of some sort. Right now I’m looking at these two, but my cousin Katy has a kick ass recipe I’m hoping she’ll be able to get to me by tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Daily Haiku - November 19, 2012

Dental Hygienist,
Stop stabbing me in the gums,
This ain't no knife fight!