What Were They Thinking? #3.14

Jeska asks:

If you were a company called PowerGen (the UK power co) and you had a subsidiary which operated in Italy, what would you call that company'swebsite?

And answers:

Probably not www.powergenitalia.com

But they did.

As for Marcus's reference...

Breaking down the reference:

"and Hashem [literally, "The Name," one of the ways the ancient Rabbis and modern observant Jews refer to God in writing and speech]

will redeem the crepe and it will become soft, cheese filled, and have jam. He will see its tshuvah [tshuvah literally means "return" but means "repentance" in Jewish parlance]

and call it blintz."

-Sefer Yuliasheild bet [sefer means Book; Yuliasheild is a reference to the "author" - if you need it spelled out, think of an aged and highly respected and much-loved TV chef/author who passed away recently; "bet" means it's the second volume. The entire citation is a loving homage to ancient Rabbinic texts like the Talmud.]

Grandma Helen's Blintz Casserole, Part Deux

Carol asked me to broaden her mind (and, I daresay, her belly) by explaining what, exactly, a blintz is.

Before I begin, I'll defer to my good friend Marcus, who, in his last email to me (recipes below) signed off with this:

"and Hashem will redeem the crepe and it will become soft, cheese filled, and have jam. He will see its tshuvah and call it blintz."

-Sefer Yuliasheild bet

If you think my humor is obscure sometimes, I've got nothing on this reference. Beautiful stuff, truly, that I'll explain later.

Anyway, a blintz is essentially a Jewish crepe - a soft pastry flour shell surrounding a (usually) cheese filling, usually served hot and topped with berry jam (strawberry and blueberry and cherry are common). Blintzes are, as Grandma Helen's recipe reveals, available frozen at Trader Joe's and other fine stores, but are of course best when made from scratch by Grandma.

Some links about blintzes: JewFAQ.org, the Golden family of kosher foods... look for more at Google and elsewhere, or just go out and buy 'em and make the recipe. You won't regret it!

Now, here are Marcus's recipes (this is red meat, folks, and it only works with the kosher stuff. When he refers to "brisket" the cut he means is not actually brisket, but what in Hebrew is called "imitation filet" and in Yiddish falsh filet. It's from just above the front shoulder of the cow, in the same region as the brisket, but I can't find the English name for it. I'll keep working on it):

Soy Sauce Based:
Soy Sauce

Honey

Pressed garlic

fresh ginger (although powdered will work in a pinch)

green onions

little olive oil

I use a lot of garlic four to five cloves depending on the size of the brisket. The rest of spices are kind of as you want. I never check and it always comes out well. The only important part here is that you should use qual parts honey to soy sauce. Maybe even a little bit more honey than soy sauce. I usually use about a cup of each and then dilute it up with some water.


Tomato sauce based:
Tomato (ketchup sauce)

Now this is a recipe that I stole from my mother in law

Cup of red wine

enough water so that the brisket is about 1/3 covered

3-5 cloves of pressed or chopped or diced garlic

1/4 -1/3 cup of ketchup

1/4 cup - 1/3 cup of honey

1-2 onions

table spoon of worchestershire sauce (optional)

Mix everything together in a bowl except the onions. I slice the onions coarsely and lay them in the pan and then put the brisket on top of them. Pour the sauce over the whole thing and cover well. Bothe recipes come out better with a littel marinating time, but it is not crucial.

So here is the key to getting everything perfect with either recipe. You need enough water to make sure the brisket gets 1/3 covered. Then cover the whole thing well so that the steam won't escape.Then cook it on low temperature ~350 for a long time (like four hours) I have recently found baking bags. They will make sure that the water stays in. Still I cover them well with aluminum foil just to make sure. If you need the brisket to be done sooner. Rather than try to hurry it along with hight temperatures (this will dry it out) cut the meat into slices before you cook it. This will speed things up. It also makes slicing it easier :)

New noise

So I'd never heard of The Polyphonic Spree, and Bryan pointed me to The Quest for the Rest. After getting through it, I was educated, and it is on my short list of new favorite bands. The new CD will soon make its home in my collection.

Then he pointed us to George W. Bush singing U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. What's next?

Genesis falters

Dammit. I read about the planned stunt chopper pickup of the Genesis solar probe in Time last week, then saw another reference to it in a national outlet somewhere, and then the stupid parachute fails to deploy. Dammit.

Garden State, again

Yeah, I know I mentioned it, but I don't think I linked to Zach Braff's blog, and it's about time to tell you to go see the movie again.

Another Jewish musician I didn't know was Jewish

Trevor Rabin from Yes? Jewish. Again, thanks to the Jewish Journal in San Diego.

Nice Jewish Band

Guster is made up of three nice Jewish boys. I had no idea (well, I like their stuff, but I never looked into it). Remember "Fa Fa"? How about "Amsterdam"?

Check this story out from our local Jewish monthly, then visit their site and buy their CDs.

Alternative perspectives

Mark Morford's style isn't for everybody, but you can learn a lot not only about how his brain works (it's frighteningly confusing) but about stuff going on in the world you wouldn't otherwise hear about. Here's a typical column (in terms of writing style, anyway) about escaping from the things we're exposed to normally.

People with too much time on their hands #1

This isn't really number one on the list - I've seen many more, but I have to keep track somehow...

Angry Alien, where famous movies are played out in 30-second Flash movies. By bunnies.

USA Today is Educational

Don't Drink and Drive

and

Why we need stem cell research

Currently going around

Space Robots

Starsky & Hutch

Watched it last night. Great fun. Only a touch more over the top straight comedy than the show (as I remember it), no pretentions, terrific performances (including a hilarious cameo by Will Ferrell), and a kick-ass cameo by Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul that's a fitting tribute. I'm gonna try watching with commentary in a bit, then get to Hellboy, then return both of them. Our free Netflix trial is over. When I get a job, if I have time to watch, we'll sign up for real.

Meantime, I'm digesting the latest bits of the Republican Convention. I'm trying VERY hard not to jump to conclusions, and to critique objectively and find things to respect. They're not making it easy.