Ambivalence – again

Last time I wrote about ambivalence it was literally about life and death, with international import. This topic has less gravitas, but shows my propensity for seeing the world in shades of gray.

This morning, my favorite radio station announced an impending format change. To say that radio has played a serious part of my life is an understatement. Ask Phil Thompson. While I have found radio stations to listen to, I have never found one that I have really liked so much until moving to Pittsburgh. This station has literally changed my life. I have been a long time NPR listener, and sometimes NPR member. I have lived in larger and smaller markets than Pittsburgh with NPR news stations of which I have been a regular listener, particularly WAMC out of Albany, and KUNI out of Cedar Rapids. While I don’t listen to news ALL day, it’s been nice to know where to find it. I have also been enamored of some local talk programming that isn’t of the Rush Limbaugh persuasion, if you know what I mean. I particularly enjoyed the WAMC conversations with Gov Mario Cuomo. Those were the good old days.

When I moved to Pittsburgh (can it really be 13 years ago this summer), I naturally gravitated towards the local NPR station. I was initially a little annoyed that there wasn’t and NPR only station, but WQED offered more than other local public radio stations. The amount they offered was enough for me, for the most part. And they had this other major programming thrust. Their old slogan “Hot News, Cool Jazz” summed it up quite nicely, even though they have hardly ever been limited to one jazz milieu.

As I began to listen to this station a funny thing happened to me. I’d listen to the news, and then the Jazz would start. Knowing there was no other station that I wanted to listen to, in this Pop or Classic Rock dominated market, I’d hang around on this station. There is in fact another station here that I like quite a lot – WYEP. But there are reception problems with them. Anyway, I began to be infected with this Jazz thing. I had always enjoyed Jazz a little. But I didn’t know it very well. After 13 years of a News/Jazz radio diet, I can proudly say that I am a Jazz listener - not an aficionado, by any means, but a solid listener. So much so, that I have lost a little touch with what is going on in other contemporary genres. Peter West would be sad, but he always knew I wasn’t as avid a music listener as he.

So, Duquesne University is selling WDUQ to a consortium, partially owned by WYEP. This is good news/bad news. I stopped becoming a donor a few years back when the Catholic Duquesne University made WDUQ return a sponsorship donation from Planned Parenthood. Not that I have anythign against the catholic church. I understand that this is the church's stance, if not those of many of their members. I just don't agree, and have witheld my funds. So now maybe I will become a member again. We’ll see.

There is more good news/bad news, as the new ownership group announced programming changes. They are changing WDUQ over to an NPR/Talk format. They say they will keep, and actually increase their jazz programming, but it will be on-line and on HD Radio. No broadcast jazz. So I should be happy right? Well I am. I will be happy to have more NPR/News offerings. But I am also sad. I really like WDUQ’s jazz programming. Now I won’t be able to listen to it in the car, or on my work radio. I am not sure if I will overcome the hurdle of new distribution to continue to listen to jazz the way I have.

Growth is not always easy, even if it is for the better.

Floor taping fun

E-mail (almost) zero

A little later than last summer, but it still feels good.

mon petit chou?

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, because it's a closeup. But this is one of the smallest cabbages I have ever seen. A little larger than a softball. It came in our CSA box yesterday. Now we'll have to look up some more cabbage recipes. Got a favorite?

Our CSA - Excess Spinach

At the risk or turning my blog into a recipe blog, here's another way of dealing with excess CSA spinach, recipe courtesy of SimplyRecipes.com (we altered it slightly, but kep to the gist of this:

Potato Spinach Sausage Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra to grease the baking dish
  
• 2 teaspoons of olive oil
  
• 8 oz fresh spinach, washed, dried, and stemmed
  
• 1/2 lb of Italian sausage (we like 1/2 sweet and 1/2 hot Italian sausage), broken out of casing into small pieces
  
• 1 large red onion (about 3/4 lb), peeled and sliced thin
  
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
  
• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3 medium sized potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch chuncks
  
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
  
• 2 Tablespoons chicken broth
  
• 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
  
• Dash of nutmeg
  
• 3/8 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  
• 1 cup of shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a 6x9 or 8x8 inch baking dish.
   
   
2. Heat one of the teaspoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add spinach and cook, stirring often, until wilted, about 3 minutes. Transfer spinach to strainer and drain. When cool, squeeze out liquid and roughly chop the spinach.
   
   
3. Wipe skillet clean. Add sausage to skillet and cook over medium-high heat until browned, 5 to 6 minutes. Use slotted spoon to transfer sausage to bowl. Wipe skillet clean. Heat remaining oil in skillet and add onions, cooking until golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Scrape mixture into bowl with sausage.
   
   
4. Meanwhile, place potatoes in a large pot and add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring potatoes to boil over high heat, then lower heat to a simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain potatoes, wipe pot dry, put potatoes back into the pot, and mash with butter, cream, broth, vinegar, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir in spinach and 1/2 cup of the cheese.
   
   
5. Transfer potato-spinach mixture to prepared baking dish. Top with sausage-onion mixture and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Bake until potatoes are very hot and cheese is golden and bubbly, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

It's Garlic Scape season again.

Yep, last year when we got Garlic Scapes in our vegetable box, we were stumped as to what they were. Then we sautéed them in with some other veg and chicken, and they were tasty. This year I found a few recipes for Garlic Scape Pesto.

Following is a recipe altered to fit what I actually did with the ingredients (slight mod's on several of the recipes I read). I made the pesto, then sautéed some chicken and longer pieces of garlic scape, and mixed it all up with some angel hair.

Mmmm mmmm.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients:

• 1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into 1-inch slices
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
• ¾ cup olive oil
• ½ - 3/4 cup grated parmigiano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• black pepper to taste
  

Method:
Place scapes and pine nuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

Behind the scenes at the Inaugural Parade

This is a video created by a fellow member of USA local 829, of his experiences participating in the inaugural parade These images completely mirror my experience there. Thanks Phil!