At least once a week I run by the as-yet-unopened North Point Park, part of a three-city effort to spruce up the space at the junction of Cambridge, Charlestown, and Boston proper. It looks beautiful, about the same as it did last summer when it was in roughly the same visible shape. But there's no sign it's going to open anytime soon. Instead it's surrounded by foreboding fences and "DO NOT ENTER" signs.
What's going on here? The latest Globe article I can find is from last November, with a promised slated opening of "Spring of next year". Well, that's come and gone, as I'm sure this blogger has noticed as well. And it's not like the place is abuzz with activity. Whenever I peek around, there are maybe a few contractors milling around in one corner. You'd think they'd be in a rush to get this finished, given that it's been delayed by years from its scheduled opening (2004!) and that the peak park season will be over in a month or so.
DCR and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority need to get their act together.
3.05.2007
Dining at the woodfinish abode
First, hopefully, in a series. The woodfinish abode (tm) is increasingly given to more complicated recipes than your basic frozen pizza or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (not that we should disparage those oh-so-convenient sources of deliciousness). Vanity requires that I occasionally record the latest culinary exploit.
In this instance, it was a recipe from nancy silverton's sandwich book. Imagine a Pritchard Scale of cooking, wherein we plot the difficulty of the recipe along the X axis, then the gustatory appeal along the Y axis, and measure the total area to approximate a recipe's greatness. Ms. Silverton's book would blow the lid off. Every sandwich sounds delicious, but almost every one involves 5 sub-recipes, each about the amount of effort I put in for a really good Sunday night dinner. Luckily there are a few low-X recipes that can be managed with the encouragement of a Beefeater and tonic. In particular, her grilled cheese with marinated onions and whole-grain mustard was pretty straightforward and absolutely delectable.
The first step is to marinate sliced yellow onion in a mix of olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This nicely softens up the onion without cooking, while at the same time mellowing the flavor... oh, and incidentally getting it soaked through with olive oil. Buttered sourdough bread (in this case, Iggy's) is spread with whole grain French mustard and layered with thin sliced gruyere and the onions. Pressed on a Cuisinart Griddler for about 8 minutes, the result was crispy on the outside with molten cheese enveloping savory onions on the inside. It went perfectly with a Dogfish Head Burton Baton. Highly recommended.
In this instance, it was a recipe from nancy silverton's sandwich book. Imagine a Pritchard Scale of cooking, wherein we plot the difficulty of the recipe along the X axis, then the gustatory appeal along the Y axis, and measure the total area to approximate a recipe's greatness. Ms. Silverton's book would blow the lid off. Every sandwich sounds delicious, but almost every one involves 5 sub-recipes, each about the amount of effort I put in for a really good Sunday night dinner. Luckily there are a few low-X recipes that can be managed with the encouragement of a Beefeater and tonic. In particular, her grilled cheese with marinated onions and whole-grain mustard was pretty straightforward and absolutely delectable.
The first step is to marinate sliced yellow onion in a mix of olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This nicely softens up the onion without cooking, while at the same time mellowing the flavor... oh, and incidentally getting it soaked through with olive oil. Buttered sourdough bread (in this case, Iggy's) is spread with whole grain French mustard and layered with thin sliced gruyere and the onions. Pressed on a Cuisinart Griddler for about 8 minutes, the result was crispy on the outside with molten cheese enveloping savory onions on the inside. It went perfectly with a Dogfish Head Burton Baton. Highly recommended.
2.21.2007
Let the snack obsessed be thankful...
...at least for the time being, there's a new flavor of Combos available in at least some parts of the country: Zesty Salsa Tortilla (the link goes to e-bay since they're not listed on the official site).
I found a bag (the last one!) at a rest stop on the Maine Turnpike this weekend. The "tortilla" shell is interesting: kind of gritty, with some corn flavor. The filling is spicy-licious: similar to the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker variety, but hotter and with more tomato underpinnings.
As far as I can tell, this is the first new flavor since the ill-fated mustard variety, which showed up about 10 years ago. I never got to try it. Hopefully these have better luck, since they're quite good. Combos are my absolute favorite junk food: like pretzels and dip or cheese and crackers without the effort!
I found a bag (the last one!) at a rest stop on the Maine Turnpike this weekend. The "tortilla" shell is interesting: kind of gritty, with some corn flavor. The filling is spicy-licious: similar to the Pepperoni Pizza Cracker variety, but hotter and with more tomato underpinnings.
As far as I can tell, this is the first new flavor since the ill-fated mustard variety, which showed up about 10 years ago. I never got to try it. Hopefully these have better luck, since they're quite good. Combos are my absolute favorite junk food: like pretzels and dip or cheese and crackers without the effort!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)