http://www.coolsnap.net/landon Twitches from a Reforming Contrarian Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:05:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My twelve-year-old wanted a fondue birthday party, with both meat and cheese. The thought of a bevy of tween girls jostling around a pot of near smoking oil was pretty terrifying, but I was game to give it a try. Fondue is meant to be a communal activity, but with fondue ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=222 I can make bread. This isn’t bread in four easy steps or bread in under two hours. It is a bread which requires the careful cultivation of invisible organisms. It is a bread that demands incorporation into your daily routine. It is a bread that instills the knowledge, the feeling, ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=183 Well, this year's ham is done. It's the first one we've prepared in California, so there was whole new crop of friends to scandalize. I owe my dad a huge thanks for getting the 40lb carcass here (in addition to the boiler). I doubt such as thing has been seen ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=168 I don't want to like carefully crafted rough interiors. I don't want to hang out with the too-hip-for-words post-college twenty-something crowd. I don't want to wait a hour for a table standing in cold doorways inches away from the pouring rain. I do all of these things, however, at Mas ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=137 When I got on the plane headed to Disneyland last Friday, having a fantastic dining experience was at the bottom of the list of my expectations for the weekend. I would have put securing a starring role in a major Hollywood motion picture above finding a great restaurant. True to ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=147 One of the culinary debates I seem to have repeatedly is over the proper way to roast winter squashes, including pumpkins. To roast a winter squash, typically you split them in half, seed them, and pop them in a medium hot oven for an hour. There is little contention over ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=117 Many of us foresaw the death of the publishing industry a decade and a half ago. An inking business executive who I know well had the revelation in the mid nineties after looking over his son's shoulder for five minutes while he surfed the Internet. So I was shocked to ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=131 Tonight as I was sitting with close friends dining on a spectacular meal of our own endeavors, the subject of our last suppers came up. A pall fell over the table as we gave due reverence to the topic at hand. We started with those that would be at our ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=129 Biryani is comfort food. On cool evenings, its sweet aroma mills through the house promising a warm hearty dinner. But I don't know what biryani is. Many have prepared it for me; restaurants, foodies, Indians, and Bangladeshis. Rice cooked with herbs and masala spices seems to be the baseline of ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=118 Cumin seeds appear frequently in my kitchen. They are essential to much Indian cuisine as well as Hispanic foods, likely a cultural remnant from the Arab rule of Iberia. Black bean soup benefits from a healthy dose of the ground seeds and chili is positively insipid without them. I am ... http://www.coolsnap.net/landon/?p=114