Oops
I’m going to get this in under the wire.
Breaking Traditions
Happy Thanksgiving!
Every year since the FLB started, we have featured a version of this post. And I like it. Deep down, I’m a hippy at heart, and the sentiment of those posts rings true.
But I have to say, I was never crazy about the audio quality of the video. This year, I’ve found something that sounds a lot better, and features some original illustrations instead.
What am I talking about? Well, I’ll show you.
Thinking about Thanksgiving
So tomorrow is the big day. I guess that makes tonight Thanksgiving Eve.
Somehow over the past several years, the night before Thanksgiving has become a big deal. And it makes sense. People go back to their hometowns on Wednesday, so they can wake up and start celebrating with their family on Thursday. But without family obligations on Wednesday night, you are free to meet up with old friends at beloved and once-frequented watering holes.
Thanksgiving day itself used to be sacrosanct, but over the past few years Black Friday promotions have crept earlier and earlier into the day on Thursday. When almost everyone had the day off, and there was really no place you could go—or anything else to do but spend time with your family—the day took on a magical tone.
Now, in some ways, it feels not that much different from any other day. Especially as the rush of consumerism reaches its annual peak.
Here’s a question to get us started, can we make Thanksgiving great again?
Thanksgiving Drinking
Family. We love them. Which isn’t to say family gatherings aren’t easier with a little lubrication.
Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe people really don’t care about which wine to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe the meal doesn’t matter either. Perhaps it’s all just an elaborate ruse so that one can day drink around family without additional judgement.
Because there is always judgement.
The Thanksgiving feast is only a couple of days away, and just today I learned there are some people out there who do not like stuffing. The only conclusion I can draw from that statement is that these people have lived their entire lives without tasting good stuffing, and it feels like a tragedy. But with two days until the holiday, there is no way to change anybody’s mind at this point.
What I might be able to do is help provide a bit of guidance about what to pick up at the local beer, wine, or spirits shop. And maybe in doing so, I’ll even clarify my plans a bit.
Learnings From Melt N’ Toast
What does it take to make a great grilled cheese sandwich?
Some will talk about the bread. Others will mention the cheese. The iconoclasts out there might suggest the fillings. But my answer is butter, salt, and time. And this is how I make grilled cheese sandwiches at home for my kids.
You need time, because the butter needs to slowly soak up into the bread, and turn each pan fried surface to an evenly edge-to-edge shade of deep golden brown. When done right, by the time the exterior is done, the cheese is perfectly melted. Although a little of the cheese may have run over the edge a bit to caramelize on the cast iron.
That’s okay too.
But even if you have nailed all the textures, if the sandwich lacks seasoning, all that work is for naught. Salt doesn’t always need to be added, if you use salted butter, and a flavorful cheese. Still, one has to know their ingredients.
With that in mind, let’s run through the seven contenders from this year’s Melt N’ Toast.
The Limits of Passion
Every restaurant owner is in business to make money. It’s a business. But almost no restaurant owners open a restaurant driven by the goal of financial reward. The work is too hard. The risk is too great. The profit margins are too slim.
People open restaurants because they are passionate about them.
Passion for restaurants can take many forms. Some are driven by hospitality. Some by food. Some by beverage. Some by design. But it’s unrealistic to expect restaurant owners to have an infinite well of passion, and that’s where things can get dodgy.
Here’s a good example. I know a guy who reads this blog who loves The City Beer Hall. Loves it. But he and his friends don’t go out to eat alone, they bring their wives. And the ladies aren’t beer drinkers. They are wine drinkers. And the wine program at The City Beer Hall is its achilles heel. There is clearly nobody at the place who has a passion for wine.
The argument here isn’t that everyplace has to be everything to everybody. But even just a few well chosen bottles would go a long way.
But I don’t want to talk about wine today. Today, I want to talk about beer.
Sullying Spinach
Subscribing to a CSA is a mixed blessing. The good side is that you get some amazing local, seasonal, and sustainable produce on a regular basis. The bad side is that you might get vegetables that half of your household refuse to eat.
And “refuse to eat” is probably too strong of a term for what happens in the Fussy household. The rule is that the kids have to try everything. But the corollary is that we don’t force anyone to eat something that will cause them distress.
Seriously, I’ve heard too many stories about adults refusing to eat certain foods because they were traumatized by them as kids. So we just don’t go there. My goal is to try and create positive experiences around food. And family dinners are a part of that.
Not too long ago, we ended up with a lot of spinach, and I followed the advice of my old friend Raf. His kids eat vegetables because they are loaded with salt and fat. The cooking methods Raf employs render green veggies as unhealthy as eating french fries, but his kids will eat spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, and the like.
With Raf’s example in mind, I set out to make creamed spinach.
When Life Hands You Ground Veal
Maintaining a daily food blog while growing the local Yelp community has been a challenge.
Maybe you’ve noticed that the daily posts are going up later in the day than they had in the past. That’s a problem I need to fix. Perhaps there are more typographic errors in my daily musing too. It’s certainly likely, since with a delayed posting schedule, fewer essays are getting a second set of eyes from Mrs. Fussy.
I’ve also been told that the content is getting further away from my core mission of improving the local food scene, and focusing more on the trivial and tangential. Those criticisms aren’t wrong. They are hard to hear, but I recognize the truth in them.
That said, I continue to find the FLB a fun and worthwhile pastime, so it persists.
But it’s not just the blog that’s been suffering from the demands of the job and the requirements of everyday life. Home cooking and family dinner isn’t quite what it used to be either. I haven’t even had the chance to leaf through “Sara Moulton Cooks at Home” which I’m hoping will have some quick weeknight meal ideas.
However, thanks to the New York Beef Council, I have a new go-to dish in rotation.
Reckless Abandon at the Diner
Making healthful eating choices can be hard. Especially when one really appreciates delicious food. What makes it doubly hard is when a menu is jam packed with options which are all appealing, but loaded with fat, simple carbohydrates, and salt.
For those trying to make good choices, diners are a minefield.
In the past, I would order the old man breakfast of oatmeal and black coffee. And I really did enjoy seeing how different diners treated this healthful and hearty classic. But most were pretty bad. Oatmeal is better when it is salted, and perhaps because this is the default healthy breakfast option, far too many diner oatmeals aren’t salted at all.
These days, I take a more moderate approach, and instead of trying to eat like a monk while out at a diner, I focus more on portion sizes than the milligrams of dietary cholesterol. And that often means an egg and cheese sandwich on a toasted hard roll, or maybe a couple of fried eggs on top of potatoes, hold the toast and hold the meat.
On Saturday, Mrs. Fussy ran a 15k in Schenectady. Afterwards we went out to The Bellevue Cafe in Rotterdam. She ordered something I would never ever get, for a variety of reasons.
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