Summer Gardening

I believe it is well known that, in contrast to those of you with green thumbs, I have a black thumb of death. I am very good at killing plants, whether through neglect or through over-watering or what have you. Pancho, however, thrives on yard work, and my mom loves growing things, so between the two of them we ended up with 4 tomato plants, 2 bell peppers, an assortment of lettuces and herbs, a dwarf lemon tree, and a frankenstein-like apple tree with 6 different varities plumbed in, all to nurture into fruitfulness.

The lettuces thrived faster than we could eat them, especially after I went off leafy veg early in the stages of my own nascent fruitfulness. You will notice in the picture that one is actually taller than my head. We have now learned not to plant too many lettuces, and that they love the spot right next to the apple tree, but aren't too keen on being on the back porch step. So I didn't manage to kill off these hardy little guys, but that's largely because the sprinkler system seemed to give them everything they could ever want.

Our other success was the tomatoes, which apparently thrive whether you neglect them or shower them with care. We were pretty chuffed when they just seemed to spring up without much help, and we glowed with excitement when we saw those first glimmers of ruby red.

Then, they started taking over the path and growing taller than me standing up. (You can't really see this, since the vines got so heavy they plunged back to the ground or looped around each other.) If you walked along the path, you inevitably were tinged with a slight shade of chartreuse and emerged faintly scented with tomato. I would have stripes of color on my arms and legs pretty much every time. I learned quickly not to walk back there with khaki pedal pushers on.

Given the bumper harvest, I'm thinking next year we'll stick with 1-2 plants, instead of 4. I'm running out of ideas for what to do with so many tomatoes! This morning, I took a boxful and am now slow-cooking and also oven-drying them all. Although people say that you can just individually freeze cherry tomatoes, I don't quite have the freezer space for that, so I thought taking some of the water out via drying would help. Apparently, I can put the results into a jar with olive oil and herbed vinegar or (for longer storage) in an airtight container and into the freezer. So that's why, on what promises to be a hot day, I am running my oven on the lowest possible temperature and why the slow cooker was banished to the dining room floor.

And I still have another box left...and more coming...

And lest you think that the black thumb of death has found new life, let me assure you that I have substantially weakened (if not killed) two expensive golf-ball plants, and the lemon tree is sick.

Mitigated Triumph, that is

Ah, the espresso battles are not yet over. Some sort of hidden variable was at play, and I cannot yet with consistency make myself an espresso of which I can be proud.

*sigh*

That said, I think I'm on to something. Our tap water is very cold, and I think that may be influencing the time that it takes for the water to come up to the right temperature for the espresso ooze to do its magic, Bialetti-style. Yesterday afternoon met with more success, as I pre-warmed the water chamber a bit before adding the water. Well, actually, I filled it with near boiling water and then nearly burnt my hand. Yes...aluminum definitely conducts heat very well. I then decided merely "warming" and not raising the pot to scalding temperatures, was sufficient.

Anyways here are the results. I was feeling very continental yesterday, and so added the rolled chocolate wafer and book to my espresso experience. This, my friends, is an espresso macchiato, an espresso "stained" or "marked" with foamed milk. Unlike the latte macchiato, there is little hot milk, so the charm of the drink lies in the concentrated blast of rich, dark espresso. And in the cute white and blue tablecloth...

Triumph over Espresso

I have now, thanks to Wikipedia and YouTube, made a latte macchiato. It is a beauty to behold, so I thought you should behold it.


And...it stays in layers while you drink it, at least at first. I just realized that I'm enjoying experimenting with espresso-making more than the drinking of the espresso made. I think that's partly because I really can't drink more than three shots a day. Which I'm hoping is a virtue. Of some sort.

Yum!

On the Italian moka method of stovetop espresso-making, it turns out that the main factor affecting the outcome was not the fineness of the grind of the beans, but the amount and density of grinds put in the filter basket. I saw some people just absolutely stuff if with grinds on YouTube video demos, but that didn't work at all for me. As the grinds expanded with heat and steam, there simply wasn't enough pressure to push the espresso up the percolator and I would end up with over-cooked coffee exploding and sputtering from the top of the percolator after 10 minutes (instead of the 4-5 that is expected). Fewer grinds left more room for the steam to do its magic, and I would have espresso softly flowing, almost oozing out of the conical top, followed by that characeristic gurgle that signals the end of the brewing. Just watching that alone is a delight. Sweet Maria's had a helpful guide to brewing that set the record straight on a few of my questions and is, in general, a super-awesome coffee maven site.

Pancho, however, is worried about my caffeine intake, so the experimentation is going to have to slow to a more reasonable pace.

You know you're an academic when...

everything becomes a research project.

For example: I recently became entranced with the caffè macchiato, which is (contra Starbucks' souped up caramel version) a shot of espresso which is "stained" with a daub of milk foam and sometimes a little steamed milk too. In the darker days of my first semester of professor-ing, I pretty much needed one of these (and, depending on my mood, some biscotti dipped therein) to keep me my energetic self.As crutches go, it's a tasty one, and not too expensive. The coffee cart outside my office will do it for me for $1.10 (as it's not on the menu, some negotiating usually takes place); at Starbucks it's about $1.70. I first got into the habit of ordering this because it was the cheapest drink on the menu at Nero's, a cafe in Cambridge on my way in to work (and conveniently right next to where my friend Ali lived). I could plop down my 1 pound 20p. saved up from the change from groceries and work on my dissertation for a couple of hours without guilt and without having to just drink straight espresso. If I was feeling rich, I would plop down a second pound for biscotti, but I'd often just buy a dark hazelnut chocolate for 25p and have a bitter and sweet go of it. Lovely contrast, but probably reinforced those two cavities I've been working on.

But a latte, for which I also have an increasing affection, is about $2+ around here, so I decided it was time to look around for an inexpensive way to make it on my own with my favorite brand of Italian espresso, Illy. Now, I'm no connoisseur of Italian espressos, but Illy was the bean of choice at our favorite cafe in Cambridge, Savino's. (You know it's authentic when well-dressed and well-shod Italians are always lined up in droves outside! They had the most amazing cappuccino I've ever seen - foam that was light and silky and oh so lovely. Plus, they had this amazing hazelnut and dark chocolate croissant, which has certainly done its part in shortening our life expectancy.) So Illy it is.

I didn't want to a massive espresso machine crowding my glorious counterspace, so I was in the market for a petite stovetop espresso maker, and after some research (say, about an hour), I discovered that the classic Bialetti Moka fit the bill.

Ok, so that's the back story. I've got my beans, I've now (thanks to my brother-in-law) got my Bialetti and a milk foamer, so you'd think I'd be content, but I've been researching for hours and hours and hours the following:

• fineness of grind to use (and how to achieve it with the kind of grinder we have)
  
• water level
• how to load the filter basket
• what level of flame beneath and for how long
  
• placement on the stovetop
• timing
• when to pour
• optimum water temperature to start
• how to get the Bialetti not to sputter when it brews
  

And so was born the great espresso taste-testing of this morning, along with this over-caffeinated blog post. The winner: cold water start, with a 15-second grind of Illy's medium roast whole bean espresso, about 3 heaped teaspoonfuls, with 5 holes poked in the grinds with a chopstick in a pentagonal shape (the bottom ramekin). Runner-up: hot water start, with Illy's pre-ground medium roast espresso (fine), again about 3 1/2 heaped teaspoonfuls, no holes poked in (on the left in the pyrex measure).

Of course, I enjoy tracking all this information down a lot, but I'm trying to figure out if this is a virtuous habit of learning or a sign of an inability to not be perfect, even in my espresso m aking. The jury's still out on that one.

The other question: if you've been infected by the research bug, does that mean you should think seriously about being an academic? I.E., is the inverse also true? In that case, I'm worried that Pancho is on his route to a Ph.D in projectors and screens...and I'm not sure what the job market is like in that particular discipline...

Sixpence Widget

Just FYI, Sixpence is cooking up a new album, so I thought I'd post their widget with some samples. They also have a Christmas album just out, called Dawn of Grace...