Belm Blog

The Return of Doctor Tony

David — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:02:23 +0000

The Yo Gaba Gabba! episode featuring Anthony Bourdain aired last week, and it was just as surreal as the preview made it out to be. There’s a tradition of notoriously foul-mouthed celebrities appearing on children’s shows: George Carlin was Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station (as was Alec Baldwin), go back and you ‘ll find Uncle [...]

“Scientifically Unsupportable”

David — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:02:45 +0000

Last Friday, special masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims released their findings on the second phase of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings, and found no evidence of a causal link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. (The first phase, decided last year, addressed the claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism. ) Test cases [...]

Looking for a Certain Ratio

David — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:41:39 +0000

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this comment on my BLT post: hi david, now you’ve got me wanting a BLT! nice chicken post as well. would you email me please. I need to ask you something. thanks, michael “Michael” was Michael Ruhlman, who has been mentioned here more than a few times (seven, to be exact). How did [...]

Chicken and Pig’s Trotter

David — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:48:50 +0000

Even though I cooked this dish last weekend, my writing about it today makes it the perfect conclusion to the bacon trilogy (trilogies aren’t just for fantasy novels). So we’ll pretend that I used my newly-smoked bacon instead of a slab of locally produced commercial product. I had been casting about for a recipe that would [...]

The Mostly-Homemade BLT

David — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:37:24 +0000

What to do with my newly-smoked bacon? Put it to the test in the vehicle designed explicitly to highlight its flavor: the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, the humble – potentially mighty – BLT. Inspired by Michael Ruhlman’s BLT From Scratch Summertime Challenege, I decided to create the ingredients myself. Sadly, it’s March in New England, [...]

Bacon

David — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:06:25 +0000

Last week I indicated that the two pork bellies from my meat CSA were destined to become bacon. He Who Will Not Be Ignored expressed an interest in helping me, so it was time for a lesson about Where Food Comes From. We began with the Maple-Cured Smoked Bacon recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie: The [...]

Feeding the Maws of Doom

David — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:47:36 +0000

It’s been three months since I set up my iTerrarium. I must be doing something right, because the Nepenthes alata has developed two fully-formed pitchers (front and rear in the photo), with a third (to the right) on the way. I was advised by Paul Riddell, the iTerrarium’s creator and curator of the Texas Triffid [...]

No-Knead Bread, Version 2

David — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:59:16 +0000

My first attempt at no-knead bread was serviceable, but, as I noted at the end of the post, I felt it could be better. By the end of the week in which it sat in the fridge, the last of the dough had become so wet that it was almost unworkable. It oozed water during [...]

Try Reason, Not “Everything”

David — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:09:14 +0000

Last week Time magazine published “The Autism Debate: Who’s Afraid of Jenny McCarthy?” As much as I’d like to rant about her, as I’ve done before, instead I’ll call your attention to this paragraph, buried halfway into the article: There are dark murmurings from scientists and doctors asking, Was her son ever really autistic? Evan’s [...]

Punching Your Ticket

David — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:20:23 +0000

In the dark ages of computer programming, mainframes like the IBM System 360 relied on keypunch cards for both program and data input. Programs consisted of huge stacks of cards arranged in a specific sequence, which, if spilled, lent a new meaning to the phrase “system crash.” My father’s entry into the world of mainframe programming [...]