Food & Health: May 2004 Archives

I've been super thirsty for the last two days.

This resulted in me drinking seven (yes, seven) glasses of water at dinner last night (well, I had some help from garlicky pickles), then drinking four more glasses when I got home. Today I've had about six glasses.

No, I don't know why I'm so thirsty, except that I expect it has something to do with that accursed pine tree down the block that has been spewing yellow evil... erm, that is to say, pollen all over the neighborhood. Because I've also been sneezing and snuffing for the last few days, and I don't otherwise feel unwell.

The result of this drinking frenzy is that I can't go anywhere that doesn't have a bathroom for more than an hour. This has lead me to design a contraption (the only word for it) which can be attached into the underpants and snaked out a pants leg, allowing a person (particularly a female person, but a male person, too) to pee discreetly while appearing to merely stand fully clothed in the shrubbery.

The catch is that you have to wear it all the time, and I think it might start to smell like pee. I'm working on that part. Maybe little cleansing rinse nodules that can be flushed through the system. Or maybe an herbal supplement to make your pee smell like perfume.

In the meantime, Noel had better get home before I actually start making anything I've designed lately.

Rosie and I took a nice little hike at Kennedy Grove today. We went out along the reservoir, until we got to the top of the hill, where I decided we'd had enough sun and ducked us back down the hill through the trees (note to self: next time, climb up the hill through the trees). I stopped at the top to take some photos, with the digital camera and the 4x5. Taking these photos meant hauling about twenty pounds of camera gear up the hill, which did not help. Nor did the fact that Rosie had her poo right at the beginning of the hike, so I was carrying the poo bag in one hand and handling the leash in the other, packing piles of gear on my back.

Anyway, this is the digital version of the photo I also took on the Graflex:

The hike was interesting for another reason: I got to see Rosie learn something. There were all sorts of prickly things growing on the trail, and she stepped on them and discovered that sometimes, plants bite you. She was clearly confused ("but plants never bit me before!") and spent a bit of time figuring out that it was plants that looked prickly that bit her. Once she'd figured that out, she carefully walked around the prickly plants for the rest of the hike.

We also saw a dead bird. Reason #58 why the dog had to be on leash, no matter how un-fun it made things.

We played hookey today -- Noel from work and me from math -- and went up to Napa with Rosie. Not to go wine tasting, but to check out various vineyards to see if they would work for a Morris dance weekend thing Noel is putting together. We left late, because we had to stop and get a certain dog a New Collar on account of her growing out of the old one in a sudden spurt of neck growth, so it was after 3pm when we stopped for an early dinner/late lunch at Pizzeria Tra Vigne.

The service was a bit off; we stood in the foyer for a while before anybody seemed to notice that we were there. But once we sat down it was as attentive as you would wish. We sat on the terrace so Rosie could sit with us, and the waitress brought her a paper dish to drink water out of. The terrace was very pleasant in the late afternoon on a workday, with dappled light and few other patrons to bother us.

The food was good: we had the garlic rolls (excellent, although the dough had been over-kneaded) and a Napoli-style pizza (red sauce, basil, cheese, with two eggs on top, on a nice crisp thin crust from the wood-fire oven). The iced tea was drinkable, not overly bitter. They messed up my decaf latte, bringing me a caffeinated one instead, but I was full enough that it didn't matter. I would definitely go back.

On the way home we stopped by Point Isabel so Rosie could run off her boredom from a day in the car.

There are as many recipes for baklava as there are Mediterranean women. I don't make my mother's recipe for baklava because I never remember to ask her for it when I don't need to make some Right Now, but then again, I think I could make baklava blindfolded, having watched my mother make it about ten thousand times when I was a child. It's not very complicated, and the basic formula will accept a lot of fiddling and tweaking to taste. Here's my recipe:

Ayse's Non-Specific Baklava

Make a filling of chopped nuts, any spices you like, any flavourings you like (rose water or orange flower water, or vanilla if you're a heathen), and a sweetener (honey, or just white sugar) to taste. Don't ask me about proportions; you can figure that out on your own. Make as much as you like to have. I usually make about 2 cups.

Make a syrup from sweetener (honey or sugar are good bets), water, and, if you like, a flavouring (like rose water or orange flower water). Set it aside to cool.

You can make your own fillo, but, good heavens, why would you do that? Just buy it at the store like a civilized person. You don't want to be rolling out dough to 1mm thick to make the middle eastern equivalent of brownies.

Lay down about half a pound of fillo sheets interleaved with butter. Some people use margerine, but they are infidels. Fillo is easy. Don't get all worked up about the sheets sticking or tearing; that is inevitable. If you ever make a baklava and none of the fillo sticks or tears, throw it away uneaten; it is a cursed bakalava that will bring you bad luck, I assure you.

On top of the layer of fillo, spread out your filling. Then lay down another half pound of the fillo/butter thing.

The top sheet will tear into a million pieces. It always does. Relax. Fillo flakes like a bitch, so nobody will notice that gigantic tear.

Before you bake that sucker, slice it. You may think you can wait, but I assure you that you will be in a world of hurt if you wait to slice until the fillo has crisped up. Just slice it now.

Bake in a warm oven until done. Explicit enough for you? Roughly 350F for maybe 45 minutes. However long it takes to get all nice and golden brown on top, the way it's supposed to look.

Take it out, let it cool a bit so you don't burn your hands and say things you ought not to say in the presence of food, then reslice it (it will need it) and pour the syrup you made over the top. Let it cool completely and then cover it and let it sit for at least 12 hours; 24 would be better. Then you can serve it at room temperature with coffee or tea or whatever you like to drink with desserts.

Nobody around here seems to sell rose flower water. Certainly not on a Sunday, when the muslim grocery is closed (figure that one out). Not Andronico's, even. I combed the store in person after my attempts at letting my fingers do the walking were unsuccessful. The guy at Albertson's thought I meant Cal-Rose rice. The guy at Safeway said, "Oh, wait," and hung up on me.

I will have to make my baklava tomorrow, and hope it has enough time to get all tasty by potluck on Tuesday. And I still have to come up with something to make for the sculpture potluck on Wednesday. Maybe little gnome-shaped cookies or something.