The Real Secret Sauce

Why do so many dishes cooked in high end restaurants taste so much better than those prepared at home? Steakhouse steak almost always tastes better for example. There are a few reasons for this actually, some you can do something about, some you can't. Firstly they use a LOT more salt than you do, way more actually. Secondly, they probably use better butter than you do, and more of it. Third, I often hear it said that restaurants get much better cuts of meat than a home cook can. While this is undoubtedly true if you get your meat at a run of the mill grocery store, you can pretty easily find excellent cuts of meat at a butcher shop (yes, they still exist, you just need to look). I find both Whole Foods and Costco have excellent meat, try to find "Dry Aged" meat rather than cuts straight from the Cry-o-Vac. The Fourth item on the list is heat, commercial stoves, broilers and grills can get exceedingly hot and easily produce a nice sear on the meat without over cooking, not much you can do about that. Lastly, they probably used a touch of Demi-Glace on it, or more if there is an actual sauce accompanying the steak. Demi-Glace is a French concoction that is basically Veal/Beef and Veggie stock which has been reduced down to a super concentrated, turbo stock. The trouble with Demi-Glace is that it takes forever and a day to make. The concentrate pictured above is a high quality, shelf stable Demi-Glace paste. You'll choke when you see the price given the quantity, but in reality it is much cheaper than going it on your own. Give it a go on your next steak, whip up a little Demi-Glace mushroom sauce, you won't regret it, like a good Catcher in baseball, Demi-Glace is a value multiplier. More Than Gourmet also makes a number of other sauces and stocks that are quite good, and their site has a number of good recipes incorporating their products. More Than Gourmet

Blundstone Boots

While we are on the subject of oddball footwear, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Blundstones, or Blunnies as they are known colloquially. If you have spent any time in the Pacific Northwest, you probably familiar with the conceptually similar "Deck Slipper". Since you can't really get deck slippers on the East Coast, I picked up a pair of Blundstones on closeout from L.L. Bean. That was 15 years or so ago, and they are still going strong and are probably the best knock around boots I have ever had. Comfortable and indestructible, Blundstones make superb work shoes and I heartily recommend them, although not without a few caveats, as follows; Blunstones originated in Australia, and while it may not snow in Oz, it certainly does in New England, and Blunnies are slicker than goose shit on snow - dangerously so in fact. The most comfortable traditional Blundstone Boots (the one pictured) have no steel toe or any reinforcement of the toe box. If you drop something (like a hammer for example) it will hurt. Keep in mind, despite the premium price, these are not high performance hiking boots and are neither insulated, or waterproof. All that can be said of other shoes and none of it is a show stopper for me, but you should know the deal going in.

Vibram Five Fingers Shoes?

This new trend in footwear has been brewing for a while now, primarily in the running community, though I have yet to see anyone wearing these in the wild. Advocates claim that they are better for your feet than the now ubiquitous running shoe. Personally, I don't run unless there is something is chasing me, and I haven't tried a pair yet, but my guess is that we will be seeing a lot of these in the future. They may be weird looking, but certainly no more so than Crocs, and I would be willing to bet they are a lot more comfortable. A pair of these would be perfect for the beach and most likely for driving and generally bumming around.

Nimbus Motorcycle (What Hagrid SHOULD Have Ridden)

Unless you are a hardcore bike nerd or Danish (of the non-pastery persuasion), you have probably never heard of Nimbus motorcycles. Unlike the Nimbus 2000 of Harry Potter fame, this one runs on petrol as opposed to ye old magickal spelz. Note the unusual (for a bike) 4 cylinder inline motor. If you look closely, you will notice another oddity, these guys were shaft drive, even way back when. The Nimbus was made by a Danish company that also made vacuum cleaners and was manufactured from the 1920's until 1960.

Manhasset Music Stands - Not Just for Band Geeks

Even the most rabid HS Band Fanboys probably never gave a second thought about what was holding up their copy of "The Wizz". That's okay though, because the Crinkle Black Manhasset music stand is so common that almost nobody knows they exist, outside of music store owners and orchestra accounts payable clerks. It's a shame really, because it's very good at what it does, namely holding stuff up. Manhasset now makes a variety of stands, all with the more or less the same music desk that graces countless high school stages. Besides being good for holding music, the various stands have loads of potential for usage outside the music hall. The table top stand pictured above for example would be great for holding cook books up so you can more easily read the recipe while you are cooking, or for holding textbooks in an upright position for studying and transcribing. The company also makes a wall mounted version and the familiar height adjustable model, both of which would be handy for a host of uses where there isn't room for a table or when you need to consult reference material while standing - plans in a woodshop for example. Oh, and they are made in the U.S. and come in different colors. The Manhasset Specialty Company

Tecumseh Small Engines - Closing up Shop

Well, a truly sad day for motor heads, Tecumseh closed it's U.S. small engine plant and apparently there will be no more Tecumseh engines produced. The power equipment Co. Ariens always used Tecumseh engines and they were incredibly reliable. The Tecumseh Snow King engine on my snowblower is close to 40 years old and still runs reliably, burns no oil and starts on the second pull every time.

Making Unions Successful and Relevant in the New Economy

A Recipe for the Teacher's Unions Judging by the public discourse during the auto industry meltdown, a large segment of the population prefers handing over tax dollars to investment banks over giving even more modest sums to struggling auto companies. There are many different motivations to this, lefties don't want to reward the auto companies for building gas guzzlers and shitboxes, but the larger block seems driven more by anti union sentiment, and that's a shame. Although they have largely been immune to this sentiment, even the teachers unions find themselves facing increasing increasing anti-union sentiment. With continued, drastic school budget shortfalls, the teachers unions will soon be in a more perilous position than the UAW, and that takes some doing. The UAW only has to negotiate with the manufacturers they serve, the teachers have to negotiate with the public, and a positive perception of the union is required for their survival. Even in the progressive and relatively wealthy town where I live, the teachers union is loosing the support of the normally sympathetic parents, and that's not good. What can the teachers union do to ensure the survival of unionized teachers? More... Well, in my view, there are basically two different types of unions; labor unions and trade unions. A labor union is one where, in general, the workers are not united by trade, but rather by industry. The auto workers for example are a labor union, they don't all have the same skills (some are electrical workers, some are welders, some are upholsterers etc.). The Carpenters Union is an example of a trade union, they are all carpenters (more or less). For the Teachers Union to succeed and thrive, they NEED to stop acting like a labor union and start acting like a trade union. Promoting quality, consistency and convenience are the keys to success. The Carpenters and Electricians have been selling this for years and it really works. Trade unions essentially act as certification organizations, much like Universities do when awarding MBA degrees, it indicates that the worker has the skills and knowledge required for their profession. To the employer, this provides the benefit of knowing what you are getting from a technical training perspective. Teaching on the other hand is a different animal, all the education in the world can't guarantee a good teacher, there are too many intangibles. What if being in the union guaranteed a good teacher? If the Teacher's Union was self policing and worked with the school administration to root out poor performers and help improve overall performance? Certainly the parents would favor this arrangement, and it would save the administration a lot of labor and headaches. Teacher's work conditions on the whole are undeniably tough and could be improved, but in order to get the community to fork out the extra dough to improve things for the teachers, there needs to be a something in it for the community. That something can really only be one thing, better quality teachers- give the public a reason to prefer unionized schools.