I was up in Boston for an amazing ROFLcon weekend and last night I stumbled into/crashed a birthday pig roasting part for a guy named Craig, who I’d only met the day before (our mutual friend Christine paved the way). The victim was a 75 lb pig, purchased from Mayflower Poultry (“Live Poultry, Fresh Killed”). Lots of fish, scallops, shrimp, crabs, and mussels also perished. It was incredibly delicious. Here’s the whole gallery of crappy cell phone pics. Roasting a pig this size not a one-person operation. Three guys who love food, Craig among them, did the bulk of the work. These guys were having a blast, though after 15 or so courses they started losing steam, understandably, so I tried to do my part by slicing up some fruit for dessert.

The roasting box they used is called a La Caja. It’s insulated, it has aluminum walls, and you set the coals on top. A La Caja cuts the roasting time in half (down to 4 hours in this case) but still requires a lot of charcoal (set on top of the box, not underneath) — about 40-50 lbs total I think. At one point they removed the charcoal top and set it on the driveway while basting the pig, and the driveway’s tar started to melt. Wow.

But seeing the whole process gave me confidence in roasting a big animal, should the need arise. Sure, you need some outdoor space, a bathtub to brine it in, a big work table to cut it on, and a lot of people around to eat it, but otherwise it’s just like a chicken!

Dear Blog,
How are you? I am fine. I miss you. New York is big. I am busy. I know you worry about me. Am I safe and warm? Am I happy? Am I eating enough?

Blog, you don’t have to worry.

See, here I am. Eating, all safe and warm and happy.

Lentil soup Winnie made tonight

Smoked turkey drumstick and cheese on Balthazar’s raisin-walnut bread

My version of pasta with Bittman’s double sun-dried tomato sauce

Eggs baked into a baguette

Karl’s amazing & simple tofu satay

Broiled trout with ginger

And Winnie’s huge corned beef -n- veggie dinner on St. Patrick’s day

I will write more often, Blog. I promise. Now that we’re finally settling into our new home, I will try to make more time for you. You are special to me. I’m sorry.

Love,
Carl

See also: Dear Rabbit and Dear Microwave via Get In My Belly.

Frontline has made an incredibly well-produced and thorough analysis of the war from 9/11 through late 2007. It’s 2-3 hours long but I highly recommend it because it reveals so much about what happened, especially inside the administration, the pentagon, and the CIA. The focus is on the political side and there are many interviews. There is violence but not too much—but it was very hard for me to watch how the political games, confidence games, partisanship, ignorance, subtle pressures and overt manipulations led to horrific distortions of data and, therefore, to failures of strategy. But I now feel caught up on what’s going on. I hope you’ll make the time to watch this.

Frontline: Bush’s War

Bittman’s jamaican rice & beans, chicken & turkey sausage, red chard with soy sauce, and basil/goat cheese/tomato salad.

Cross-posted on Thing-a-day

• dice and roast a parsnip and 3 yams at 425° for 20-30 minutes, shaking occasionally
• meanwhile, saute 3 shallots, finely chopped
• add chicken broth, bay leaf, thyme, and a bunch of kale, chopped small
• bring to a boil, simmer for 15 minutes.
• add roasted vegetables, 3 cloves whole garlic, and a can of great northern beans
• season with salt & pepper and simmer for 10 more minutes to blend flavors.
• garnish with shredded beets
• enjoy with buttered baguette bits

I love microwave ovens with dials. One dial for the cooking time, and one for the power level.

What more do you need, right? So you can imagine my surprise when I saw exactly how much you could screw up this simple, elegant solution. I spotted this in a gas station in Crescent City, California a couple months ago:

The designers of this microwave really went the extra mile to be helpful. Instead of the usual numbers showing how much time you’re dialing in, which are just so confusing, they used letters! What a novel approach. And they provided a handy heating guide below the dial that maps the letters A through S to different foods you might want to cook. The guide evokes nostalgia, too. It is sure to bring a tear to the eye of anyone who remembers when we all subsisted on hamburgers, microwave popcorn, hots dogs, and pizza, before burritos and sushi ruthlessly invaded the culture of single-handed eating.

But the table is still quite applicable in today’s convenience stores, and the nice thing about this letter dial design is that the convenience store owner could augment the table with her own sign listing additional convenience store foods that were invented after this microwave. You know, “for Hot Pockets, dial F. For Easy Mac, dial H…”

But the bad thing about this dial design is that it sucks. Even in 1981, when some people were surely confused about how long it takes these magical ovens to cook common foods, they did not need letters on the dial. The letters only add myth to the magic. Here we have a new and exciting technology in our culture, and people honestly want to know how it works and how long things take to cook in it. But if all they remember is to dial E for their hamburger, they are not learning anything. This dial encourages a whole new mental model for microwaving that is redundant, confusing, and, worst of all, proprietary.

Now, I will admit this is a very old microwave, made during the “wild west” days of microwave oven dial design, an era when we still hadn’t reached consensus, an era of wild experimentation and lots of illicit drug use. And I am thankful that they used letters and not arbitrary numbers. But I still think they should have known better.

The saving grace is that there are smaller time indicators. You know, for compatibility with other microwaves.

Oh, you might have noticed one other thing. The dial markings are backwards! They go counter-clockwise, so when the microwave is off, you read “S, R, Q, P, O…” from left to right. I struggled with this for a minute, because you do actually turn this dial to the right, just like most other dials. But the difference with this dial is that the letters are actually marked on the dial itself, which is uncommon, and the indicator for which letter you’re on is in the space outside the dial.

Put another way, which of these kitchen timers would you rather use?

My brother Daniel leads a band called The Silver Seas, which has seen a lot of press after their recent name change (from The Bees (U.S.)) and the re-release of their album High Society on the Cheap Lullaby label. They scored a glowing review over at Cool Hunting, and AMG (Allmusic) calls the album “A stunning achievement.” If you’re in Nashville by chance, you should come see the Seas at the Basement this or and next Wednesday night. You won’t regret it.

Update 12/14: A long interview with my brother at Puremusic.