Rice Porridge

For dinner tonight, I made congee (rice porridge) in our rice cooker. I topped it with chives and two basils, I took from our herb garden and chopped. I also made a tea egg to top the congee. Heralthy and good for the stomach.

Cheese Blintzes For Shavuot

...with sour cream, crème fraîche, blueberries, and applesauce. Glass of milk, too!

Soba Soup

Dinner tonight was soba in a dashi and shoyu broth, topped with shrimp and vegetables.

Chilaquiles

Avocado Enchiladas

Mise en Place

Plated

Week 1016 - Noinks

I got nothin' this week. The Empress of The Washington Post Style Invitational didn't recognize me with ink this week. For Week 1016, entrants had to think up offspring of two named thoroughbreds. Here are my entries that did not get published;

* Abraham + Persuasive Paul = Foreskin Father

* Caviar Dreams + Back Off Buddy = OrthopedicSturgeon

* Dreaming of Julia + Looking Cool = Birdseye Foie Gras
* Caviar Dreams + Giant Finish = Fishy Sheets
* Abraham + Only In America = Sacrifice Nothing
* Python + Purple Egg = Grape Spam Benedict
* Mr Palmer + Purple Egg = NCI Eggs
* Only In America + Triple Cross = Not In My Park
* Abraham + The Candidate = Daniel Day Redford
* Abraham + Really Sharp = Easy Bris
* Incognito + Little Jerry = So Sad Meara
* Purple Egg + Revolutionary = Eggs Bénédictine

* Amerigo Vespucci + Palace Malice = I'llAmericanizeYa

* Oxbow + Malice Palace = I'll Lyncherize Ya

* I've Struck a Nerve + Revolutionary = BenedictWashington

* Dreaming of Julia + Looking Cool = Icy Haute Cuisine

* Dreaming of Julia + Looking Cool = Birdseye Foie Gras

* Curly Top + Palace Malice = No Room For Shemp

* Java's War + Revolutionary = BostonCoffeeKlatch

* Fear the Kitten + Perfect Set = Tawny's Fists

* Orb + Little Distorted = Bob Staake

* Orb + Caviar Dreams = Bluebird Caldecott

^ Departing + Leaving Trax = And last:

Pasta Frittata

Leftover rigatoni with chicken and mushrooms, mixed with eggs, grated parmaggiano and pecorino, s&p, and fresh basil and thyme. Heated medium high on the stove in an olive-oiled sauté pan for 5 mins. Then, more cheese grated on top with some torn basil leaves and a sprinkle of EVOO. Thrown into a 350° F oven for 3 minutes, upped to 500° F for two minutes.

Week 1015 Noinks

In Week 1015 of The Washington Post Style Invitational, entrants were asked to submit fictoids — totally bogus trivia — about music and the music world. I got one honorable mention, for "Chubby Checker has a chiropractic degree." Here are my noinks, i.e., the stuff that didn't get published:

W.S. Gilbert's early success as the inventor of the Erector Set freed him of financial concerns as he went on to become England's foremost librettist of comic operas.

The William Tell Overture is about a Swiss poker player.

Despite the rumor that Stephen Sondheim's real name is Oscar Hammerstein III, the fact is that at least four anonymous songwriters using the Sondheim nom de plume have been hired by the League of New York Theatres and Producers since 1950, to improve ticket sales.

The NBC chime -- the notes G, E, and C -- were used originally by RCA founder David Sarnoff to honor English genealogist George Edward Cokayne,  in an attempt to get a peerage. Instead, Sarnoff was made a general.

CBS Producer Don Hewitt, an original member The Dominoes, named his ground-breaking TV newsmagazine, "60 Minutes" after the band's 1951 song "Sixty Minute Man." (You can hear Hewitt here as the second lead: http://youtu.be/vG-wnBJn7Y0 ).

"Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo" is French for "my feet hurt."

The third verse of "The Chicken Dance" is performed at weddings only in Sicily.

Prior to the invention of the tuba, its part in oom-pah music was taken by the glockenspiel.

"It's a Hard Knock Life" was originally in the score of "Pajama Game," but was was cut for time.

Lady Gaga is actually 47 years old.

The Eurovision Song Contest was won in 1975 by Cyprus for Archbishop Makarios' rendition of "Μην νομίζετε ότι είμαι σέξι;" ("Do You Think I'm Sexy?").

Billboard's 1984 Year-End Country and Western song, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"by Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson, was written by John Major, who went on to become British Prime Minister.

Patti Labelle claims the Bluebelles' original name was somewhat different, but I think she's teasing.

The Beach Boys grew up in Vermont.

If he had been elected President, Mitt Romney promised to pardon Lil Wayne.

In an attempt to further broaden its fan base, in 2014, one of "The Voice's" judges will be Takuya Kimura of the Japanese idol group SMAP.

In 1989, Adam Levine and Matisyahu were in the same cabin at Camp Tel Yehuda.

Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song" has never been performed in Israel.

Hoping to restart their careers as East European rockers, the Bay City Rollers are currently in the studio recording a cover of their hit "I Only Want To Be With You" in Serbian.

"Weird Al" Yankovic sold the idea for The Style Invitational to The Washington Post in 1989 as a song parody contest for a proposed all-music edition of the Style Section.

The May 16, 2013, episode of "Glee" will be based on the music of Matisyahu.

Saying it needs to be in a championship city, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is moving from Cleveland to Miami.

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra has never revealed what the word "philarhomic" means.

The musical genre called "rockabilly" was named after its first practitioner -- "Father Knows Best" actor Billy Gray.

'Tis the Season(ing)

One thing leads to another. We used to have a vacation home, but we sold it. We had cartons of kitchen and other stuff in our basement. We started cleaning out our kitchen cupboards to make them more efficient and able to take in the vacation home things. Emptying out a cupboard, I found a (second) grillpan that was in poor condition. So...

I decided to clean and season all our cast iron cookware. Our medium frypan is Old Reliable and is in perfectly good season shape, but we also have a large frypan, two grillpans (including the found one), two small frypans, a small cornstick pan, and a medium lid. Out came the roll of paper towels, a bottle of canola oil, a carton of kosher salt, and a new scrubby sponge.

I used the scrubby sponge to scrub clean everything except the just fine medium frypan and its lid. I used kosher salt and hot water, then dried each thoroughly with paper towels. I used paper towels to rub a thin layer of canola oil on all the newly cleaned cast iron, then put them into a cold oven face-down.

The oven was turned to 400 degrees F. When it reached temperature, I set the timer for an hour. After the hour, I turned the oven off and let the cast iron sit in the oven until cool.

I'll store as much as I can of the cast iro in the bottom oven. Later on, I'll season the medium lid, but I didn't have space in the oven to do so.

We probably have more cast iron cookware than we'll ever use, but you never know. My Old Reliable medium frypan is the one we use most; and we've taken it (and our rice cooker) on vacation when we have rented or borrowed units with kitchens. That pan is slick as anything. We have a lid for it. I haven't seasoned the lid yet, but I haven't really ever found a need for it.

I bought the two small frypans with a thought to use them as individual cook 'n' serve plates. We also have two grillpans (I don't know why or how we ended up with two) to cook things indoors in the winter, or when we just don't want to fire up the Weber.

Finally, we have a honking big skillet with a long handle on one end and a short grip on the other. That's nostalgic for me. We bought it new, but it reminds me of camp when I was a kid. I had a counselor (named Dov Kentov) with huge muscles, who lashed a huge stick to the handle of a large cast iron pan. He cooked us eggs in it, holding the pan over a campfire. Dov was one tough guy. I don't expect to cook that way, but I may use it to make paella or somesuch for friends, probably on the Weber.

Fruit & Stuff

Raspberries, clementines, & bananas with Greek yogurt & honey. Toasted sourdough bread from San Francisco, with chive cream cheese. Coffee.

Sakura Mochi

It's springtime and the cherry blossoms are in bloom. So, it's time to have sakura mochi for dessert.