The Annual Playoff Guide

I started this a few years ago. It's a pretty simple guide to how I view the teams involved. I've included both teams in tonight's game 163 elimination game.

Brunch for Four (plus Tegan)

Sunday, around mid-day, my niece, her husband, and their one-month-old daughter Tegan dropped in. They are moving from Brooklyn to DC and had come down to inspect the house they've bought. We're thrilled to have family living so close. My family is either in Tidewater VA, central and western North Carolina, or NYC. Ms. F's family is in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Chicago, and Arizona.

Sarah is a veg, Dan is an omnivore, and Tegan is, well, almost one month old. So the challenge of cooking for mixed omnivores and vegetarians presents itself. Also, I'd rather be free to talk to guests than stuck stirring or flipping at the stove or grill, so the menu was quiches, salad, and bread.

Quiche is actually pretty simple. At its core, a quiche is a custard in a pie shell. I decided to make two quiches: one veg--asparagus, leek, and gruyere--and one not--bacon, leek, and gruyere. I also decided I didn't want to go whole hog and make the shells, so I bought shells--go ahead, judge me.

The ingredients are here:

Bacon, leek, and gruyere.

frozen pie shell
1 and 1/4 cups heavy cream or half & half
four large eggs
one leek
slab bacon (I used double smoked)
gruyere
thyme

Asparagus, leek, and gruyere.

frozen pie shell
1 and 1/4 cup heavy cream or half&half
four large eggs
three leeks
a handful of asparagus
gruyere

Get the oven started: set it to 350F.

Dice the bacon into good sized pieces. Toss it in a pan over medium heat. Once it's about halfway done add the white and light green portions of a leek--halved and sliced. Stir in some chopped thyme (or shake in a little dried thyme). When the leek is soft and the bacon is done, take it off and set aside.

Clean out the pan and start on the next batch of leeks and asparagus. Slice the asparagus into small (1/4 inch) pieces, reserving the tips at about an inch and one half long. Halve and slice the leeks, add a spot of olive oil and set the leeks and the small pieces of the asparagus on medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste--you might use white pepper. Once they are cooked through, take them off and set aside.

When this stuff's all done, you' re ready to start assembling. Set your crusts on a baking sheet, side-by-side. Add the leeks and bacon to one and the leeks and asparagus to the other. Then whisk the eggs in a bowl and stir in about three quarters of a cup of shredded gruyere. Pour this mix onto one of the pies; then repeat it for the other. Finally pour the cream or half & half over all of this. Set the asparagus tips atop the vegetarian pie. Put these in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes or until the center is set. (When you can slide a knife tip into the center of the pie and it comes out clean....)

Serve with a salad and bread.

Pulled Pork

Once again venturing into contentious territory, bar-b-que. This time we're smoking a pork shoulder. It's not hard to do, but there are some learning points along the way. Most important: be patient.

The hardest most tedious part, really, is the prep work. Start with the pork itself. I used about a five pound shoulder. My butcher didn't have one with the bone in, but that's actually the better way to do this to get more flavor. Regardless, the process is the same--but bone-in takes longer.

Start first thing in the morning by brining the shoulder. Put the pork into a large bowl, add a quarter cup each of kosher salt and brown sugar. Cover with water and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Cover with plastic or foil and stick it in the fridge for about four hours.

So, if you started first thing in the morning, around lunch time come back to this. Drain the brine and dry the shoulder well. Create a rub out of the following: 

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon chile powder

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon dry mustard

Mix this well and rub it on the shoulder. It's rub, after all, so really rub it in. Once you're done, cover the shoulder and put it back in the fridge. 

Go get your smoking chips or chunks and start soaking them. 

Sometime late in the afternoon, at least three hours before you'll want to eat, start the grill. You'll need lots of charcoal for this, but not all at once. In fact, if you use a chimney to start the charcoal, fill only about half a chimney. Once it's lighted, set the grill up for indirect heat and put the shoulder on the cool side of the grill. 

Cover and go turn on the game. Every couple of innings, you can come back and check on the fire and the shoulder.  

This is after about half an hour. See how small the fire is? That's really all you need. I added a few briquettes to this but the idea is to cook this slowly over low heat. Cover and go away again; let the smoke and heat work. Come back every half hour to check. Save a few of your soaked wood chunks to add once in a while--the goal is to always have smoke and heat. 

You've got plenty of time, but when you're ready, get the rest of your meal together. We're having collards, corn, and grits. It's nearly the end of the fresh corn season, but I got some at one of our local farm stands. I think this is from New Jersey. Shuck the corn and grill it right over the hot portion of the grill. Just char the kernels a bit; you don't need to fully cook it. I've talked about this dish before, but this time we're doing it with the grilled corn. 

I bought some double smoked bacon at the butcher on Massachusetts Ave. Dice the bacon into good sized pieces. Toss them into a pan over medium heat. Next dice up a small onion or about half of a big onion. Once the bacon has started to render its fat, toss in the onion. Stir every little while until the bacon is getting crisp and the onions are translucent and quite soft. Strip the grilled corn kernels from the cob, and add them to the pan. At this point, just turn off the heat and cover the pan. Let the flavors blend. 

Given that you've used a rub, the shoulder should be pretty flavorful on its own. But if you want to add some bar-b-que sauce you might try this one:

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup yellow mustard

2 tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons pepper (red or black)

Add all of this to a bowl and whisk together. This is a typical South Carolina mustard sauce. 

Once the pork is done, you can separate the meat and stir it in the sauce. How do you know when it's done? Well, the short answer is when it reaches 165 degrees. The longer and better answer is that it's done when it's done. You can cook this over low heat for about three or four hours without overdoing it. The longer it's in the smoke, the more flavor you'll get. The longer and slower the cooking, the more the connective tissue dissolves and the more the meat falls apart. That's the goal: meat that you can pull apart with your fingers. I personally prefer chopped pork but the classic is pulled pork and that's what we're working toward with this.  

So let the pork sit for about 15 minutes and start pulling it apart. You'll have lots of charred fat on the outside, just peel this away and discard. Separate the shoulder into sections and then shred the sections into strips like these above. Mix with your sauce: let the meat absorb the sauce--make sure the sauce is warm--and serve. The standard is to make these into pulled pork sandwiches but it's just fine on a plate rather than on a bun. 

The Persistence of Memory

Wow. Just took a quick trip in the WABAC Machine. I snatched up a pair of Allen Edmonds Amok boots just before they went the way of the DoDo. If you've never ordered shoes from AE through their website, you might not have had this experience. You order the shoes and pay, then you get an email from AE explaining that while they said the shoes were in-stock, the craftsmen in Wisconsin are actually making a pair for you just at that minute in the AE atelier. So you steel yourself for a month's wait. Then the shoes arrive.

So this happened to me yesterday afternoon. I bring the package in from the porch, and open the outer, shipping box. Inside that is the dark grey AE shoe box. I slide that out and open it to see the cream-colored protective shoe bags holding my new boots.

Then the smell hit me. I guess it's been 45 years since I smelled it: the smell of newly-made shoes. Certainly I've bought lots of new shoes since I was ten years old, but I don't remember that smell since I was a kid and my mom took me shopping at the Thom McAn shoe store out on Princess Anne Road in Norfolk.

Thom McAn was a Scottish golfer whose name and signature were taken up by Ward Melville for his shoe business in 1922. By the 1960s, when I was a kid, there were over one thousand Thom McAn shoe stores in America, including the one a few miles from our house. When I needed sneakers, my mom shopped at the Navy Exchange on the base at Little Creek where my dad was stationed. I wore a lot of PF Flyers, I think because they were linked to the Jonny Quest cartoon show. But for dress shoes--real leather, hard-soled shoes--it was Thom McAn.

When you walked into that store, the whole place smelled of leather. It was comforting. That's where I went yesterday when I opened the box from Allen Edmonds. All at once it was 1968, I was ten years old and bounding into the Thom McAn store again--the salesman measuring my foot on the Brannock device, using a shoehorn to slide my foot into the new shoe, getting me to stand up and then pressing hard on the toe box to see where my big toe was inside.

Outside, the world was spinning seemingly faster and faster. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King had been assassinated, the Democratic Convention in Chicago spawned riots in the streets. Parents and older brothers were shipping out for, or already in, Vietnam. My wars would come later, but for that moment, I was safely cocooned in the warm smell of leather, my hard soles slipping on the carpet and tile of the Thom McAn store.

162

...And with a broken bat pop-up from Adam LaRoche, the Nationals' post-season hopes end. They will play a 162-game season. Last year, the Nationals made it to the play-offs and lost to St. Louis in the fifth game of the Division Series at home in DC. Tonight, in St. Louis, they wound up six games out of the Wild Card race with five games to play in the season. Two more in St Louis, then a trio in Arizona. It's a shitty way to end the season they were picked to win the World Series. Let's go buc-o's

Bucknor's Ridiculous Call

There is a controversy among baseball fans over just who really is the worst umpire in the game. At the top--or bottom as it were--of most fans' lists are Angel Hernandez, and C.B. Bucknor. We've already awarded Angel our coveted Mr. Magoo Award, but is was Bucknor who stole the show last night with his performance behind the plate in the Nationals-Braves final contest of the season.

First, it's important to point out that these two teams really don't like each other. Historically, the Nationals' primary nemesis has been Philadelphia, but after sweeping the Phillies four straight at The Bank to close out the 2011 season, things relaxed a bit. Until, that is, Nationals COO Andy Feffer created "Take Back the Park" nights when the Phils were in DC--trying to limit the number of seats sold to out of town fans, putting on special between innings "entertainment" denigrating Phillies fans, etc. Then Cole Hamels drilled Bryce Harper intentionally. Harper settled the score by stealing home in the same inning....But I digress. For most of 2012 and 2013 it's been the Braves.

When this three game series began with a double header on Tuesday, Braves skipper Fredi Gonzales and Nats bench coach Randy Knorr met at the plate to deliver line-up cards. The previous series between the two teams had been a particularly nasty one in which Braves pitchers plunked Harper twice in one game, clearing benches and bullpens, resulting in several ejections and knocking Harper out of a game because he was just too sore to play. There was, of course, retaliation from Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg who plunked Justin Upton the next day. Gonzales, on Tuesday, asked Knorr, "Are we done?" To which Knorr replied, "I don't know, you tell me." Gonzales said, "We're done."

The Nationals had swept Tuesday's split double header and the final game was on Wednesday. Braves pitcher Alex Wood was throwing a pretty damn good game. He had a shut out going into the fifth, but loaded the bases with one out and Jayson Werth coming to the plate. Werth is probably the hottest hitter in the game right now and he worked the count full. Wood threw him a 92-mph fastball to the inside and Werth took the pitch. Wood and almost every one else in the park thought it was a strike. But Werth dropped his bat and trotted towards first--pushing in a run. Bucknor had called it a ball.

Wood exploded, yelling and pointing at Bucknor. Fredi Gonzales ran out to save his pitcher and, while arguing the call with Bucknor, was tossed for using the magic words. When things calmed down a bit, Harper smacked a sac fly to right and the score was 2-0 Nationals. Braves bench coach Roger Tosca pulled Wood and as the rookie right hander was walking to the dugout he let fly with a flood of curses and finger pointing at Bucknor, who promptly tossed out of the game a pitcher who was already out of the game. Wood's rant was caught live on TV and I suspect he'll get a pretty hefty fine and/or a five-game suspension.

Television viewers got to see the Pitch-Track show that the pitch to Werth was just off the plate. It was probably too close to take, but maybe Werth felt like he knew Bucknor's strike zone and worked it. In the clubhouse after the game, and after seeing the Pitch-Track shot, Wood said, "He called it a ball and it was a ball."

But wait, it gets better.

Just to set the scene, in the sixth, Nats starter Dan Ohlendorf left a couple pitches over the center of the plate for Dan Uggla and Justin Upton--he also air-mailed an easy toss to first over Adam LaRoche to put Jordan Schaffer on--and the Braves took the lead 3-2. In the bottom of the frame, Braves reliever Anthony Varvaro had two outs and no one on when he hung a breaking ball that hit Nats second-baseman Anthony Rendon square in the number 6 on his back. It clearly wasn't intentional, so Rendon trotted down to first and everyone got set to move on. Everyone except Bucknor.

Now this is the ridiculous part. Bucknor stepped out towards the mound and pointed at Varvaro issuing a warning. He then pointed to both dugouts and issued warnings.

WTF C.B.?  Warnings to both dugouts on a two-out, none-on pitch that was clearly unintentional? Do you really have no understanding of the game of baseball?

So, Bucknor's Ridiculous Call wasn't on Wood's pitch to Werth, it was the decision to issue warnings after Varvaro's pitch. Bucknor said later to Nats skipper Davey Johnson that the umpiring crew had been told by MLB headquarters to keep a tight lid on the game, particularly involving hit batters. Still.....

But wait, there's more. That's right, if you act now you can get more blown calls.....

Later, in the ninth, Uggla took a pitch inside that looked to me to be in the same place Werth's pitch was and Bucknor called it a strike. Uggla rightly argued the call and Bucknor, his arm apparently worn out from tossing Gonzales and Wood and from issuing all those warnings, let him have his say. Braves reliever Craig Kimbrel was back to being unhittable (he'd been pummeled by the Nats in the first game of the double header on Tuesday), and the Braves won 4-2.

A tough loss for the Nats but at least Atlanta didn't clinch the division at Nationals Park so they'll have to lug all the champagne and plastic sheeting up to Chicago.

And for C.B. Bucknor? How this guy stays in the game escapes me, but there is now a Facebook page declaring "MLB Needs to Fire C.B. Bucknor." Congratulations, C.B.

Uniform of the (Sad) Day

A tough day in Washington yesterday. Twelve civilians killed at the Navy Yard before the cops killed the shooter. I'll refrain from ranting about lax gun laws and spotty mental health care in the United States.

The Washington Navy Yard is only a few blocks from Nationals Stadium, so the scheduled Monday evening game between the Nats and the Braves was postponed and they played a double header on Tuesday. The Nats took the afternoon game in a rousing bottom-of-the-ninth comeback, scoring three runs against Braves closer Craig Kimbrel, who is arguably the best pitcher in baseball. Kimbrel had only blown three saves this season. But he couldn't find the strike zone today, so make that four. If I'm wrong about the Nationals being metaphysically eliminated and by some miracle they make the playoffs, we will all look back on this game as the turning point. The Nationals had not beaten Atlanta in DC this season.

In the second game, Nats rookie right-hander Tanner Roark pitched six innings of shut-out ball, and the bullpen held the shut-out. Roark got his seventh consecutive win in seven major league starts--something no rookie has ever done. And the Nationals swept the double-header.

Flags in the stadium--and indeed across the city--were at half-staff, and many fans were wearing some sort of Navy blue, or a hat or shirt emblazoned with NAVY, in memory of the Navy civilians killed on Monday. DC is a very somber place today.

The temperatures in DC have hit normal late September ranges--63 at game time, and dropping to 58 in the ninth inning heading for 52 overnight in the city.

J.Crew cords, LL Bean blue and white Oxford stripe OCBD, Bass Weejuns, Monetti Merino sweater, Harrington jacket from Orvis, LL Bean saddle leather belt, Korean War vintage Elgin "garrison" 

(non-hack) watch on nylon.

Lachs und Spargel--Redux

I've done salmon and asparagus on the grill here previously. But salmon is so good and it's such a flexible meal I'm doing it again, this time without the plank and with a different flavor.

To start, set up your grill for direct heat and spend a little extra time cleaning off the grate. Rub a little oil on the portion where the fish will go.

Tonight we're using King Salmon because it's what the fish monger on Connecticut Avenue recommended. The "rub" so to speak is a mix of Dijon and stone ground mustards, some soy sauce, and a little honey. I salted and peppered the salmon and rubbed the asparagus with a little olive oil. 

Just before you take the salmon out, spread the mustard topping on it. (You'll see of course in the picture below that I waited until a few minutes after mine was on the grill, but it's not necessary.)

Once the grill is ready--this won't take long and you don't want the grill too hot, so wait a few extra minutes--just set the fish over the heat and spread the asparagus out over a corner. Cover and wait a few minutes. Check and turn the asparagus every few minutes. Once the salmon begins to sweat a bit and render some of its fat you can turn the fish. If you'd rather not, that's fine, too. I did and it worked fine. If you do, you'll have to clean the grill a little bit more than usual the next time you want to use it. 

I thought some jasmine rice might go well with this. When it was ready I spread some black sesame seeds atop it. 

We served it with a crisp, minerally French chardonnay.

Uniform of the Day--Public Reading, Not Me.

When I was a child, my mom used the old chestnut, "Red and green must not be seen except on the dress of the Irish queen," as a model for training me how to match my clothes--this was, you see, pre-Garanimals. When I was a soldier, we used to joke that getting dressed was simpler than having Garaminals, but cause we didn't even have to recognize the animals, the uniform was either green (field) or tan (garrison).

As a grown up, and now that my uniform of the day isn't prescribed for me by the first sergeant, I do my best to not look like the Irish queen or a Christmas decoration, but I do to try and use color in interesting ways. Thus, I'm not afraid to match the right shades of red and green, and in this case adding blue--RGB to the printing and publishing world.

So this afternoon when I went to a public reading by one of the instructors in my non-profit writing project, and some of the people we've taught and published, I put together what I thought was a pretty subtle RGB set, although the iPhone photo doesn't show the red very well.

Red (burgundy, actually) and white Oxford stripe OCBD from L.L. Bean, Green chinos from J.Crew, Blue linen blazer (looking pretty worn down comfortable at the end of summer) from Brooks Bros., Allen Edmonds Black Hills oxfords, 1940s Breitling Chronomat (good for timing readers...), L.L. Bean leather belt. 

Two Fires: A Tale of Two Seasons

We're a week from the equinox. It's that perfect time of year when we reap the benefits of summer without the heat. In the week just past we had temperatures in DC in the 90s, but they broke a few days ago and we're enjoying near perfect weather.

So, for a Saturday night at home, I put the game on the radio and headed out onto the patio for some grilling. Tonight's menu: steaks, salad, and a new corn dish I'm just testing.

Go light the fire and set it up for direct heat. Now, let's start with the corn. 

This is a really simple dish of sweet corn, onion, and bacon. First, dice the bacon into good sized pieces. I got some slab bacon at the butcher, so it is nice and thick. I cut off a piece about three inches long and then quartered it. Then I chopped the quarters into small pieces. Toss that into a pan over medium heat. Next dice up a small onion or about half of a big onion like the one in the picture. Once the bacon has started to render its fat, toss in the onion. Stir every little while until the bacon is getting crisp and the onions are translucent and quite soft. Shuck the corn and strip the kernels from the cob, then add them to the pan. At this point, I just turned off the heat and covered the pan while I worked on other parts of the meal.

Put a little salt and pepper on your steaks--we used New York strip steaks tonight. When the fire is ready, add the steaks. Turn them a few times, but not too often.

While the steaks are cooking, start on the salad. We use a vinaigrette we make at home--I like to experiment, but the basic recipe is from The Joy of Cooking. Sometimes I use a lemon base, sometimes red wine vinegar. Sometimes I add Dijon mustard, sometimes not. Anyway, tonight we wanted something nicer than Honeymoon Salad, so I made goat cheese croquettes. Scramble an egg in a small bowl. Slice a round of herbed goat cheese into quarter-inch disks. Dunk these one by one into the egg wash, coat them well with breadcrumbs or Panko, and fry them in a little olive oil until they are brown. Add these to the salad with some pistachios and dried cranberries. You can do the actual cooking of the croquettes just as you take the steaks off and they are resting.

By this time, the corn should be cooked through. Check it, if you need to warm it a bit, or if it's still toothsome, you can put it back over medium heat for a couple of minutes.

Serve with a big red wine--we had a California cabernet sauvignon.

So the best part about this meal and this time of year is that you're enjoying the freshest vegetables--particularly the sweetest corn, but it's still cool outside. So, after dinner I ran upstairs and pulled out this: 

L.L. Bean cotton sweatshirt. 

And then I built this: 

Yep, at 58F it was cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and to really enjoy the first fire of the season. Two fires, actually: the grill and the firepit. Two seasons: summer and fall. Shorts and a sweatshirt. Most excellent. 

Uniform of the Day--Meeting (Maybe) My New Boss.

Off to a debate this evening at George Washington University. Senator Tim Kaine and former Virginia governor Gerald Baliles are both speaking on the subject of presidential war powers. Then, six university debate teams will have at it. Pretty timely given the discussion at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue on the AUMF for Syria.

But I'm also going as part of a job hunt. There is a new dean at the school I'm trying to get hired by and he'll be at this event. Fingers crossed.

Dark blue chinos, Allen Edmunds Grayson slip-ons with spotted socks, white OCBD from Brooks Bros., blue and white rep tie by Eddy Monetti, Faconnable sport coat, pocket square from The Knottery, 1985 Submariner 5513. Ooops. there's a black belt with a silver buckle somewhere..... 

Metaphysically Eliminated

There comes a point in every baseball season where teams at the bottom of their division are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs--when the team is further behind in the standings than they have games remaining to play. This season's first out were the Houston Astros, who actually may have been eliminated in August. As of September 7, Bo Porter's team is 34 games behind Oakland in the American League West. Not far behind, or ahead in this case, are the Florida Miami Marlins who trail Atlanta in the National League's Eastern Division by a mere 31.5 games. For the Astros, changing leagues might be part of the problem. For the Fish, maybe it's that ridiculous sculpture in the outfield.

But for other teams, mathematics matter less than metaphysics. This is the case for the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals. The Yankees have been beaten by the Red Sox on two consecutive nights in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion, add to that a 13-9 Boston win on Saturday afternoon and they are now 75-67. Read all about it here in this David Waldstein piece for The New York Times. The Yankees are out of it and mercifully perhaps with Texeira down, Jeter mostly down, and given all the drama with A-Rod. It's been a blast watching Ichiro (4000 professional hits!) as always and a shame we won't get to see Mo Rivera in the post-season, sort of. It's not impossible that they could sustain long rally for 20 games while Cleveland, Baltimore, and Tampa all collapse like the Red Sox did a couple years ago. But it would likely require something metaphysical. Nonetheless, it is important to note that no one should count the Yankees out of anything until they actually are mathematically eliminated. Ever.

On Opening Day of the 2013 season, the Nationals were picked by over half of Sports Illustrated's "MLB experts" to win the World Series. Experts. Alas, it is not to be. The Nats have struggled with offense and with pitching this year. First pick overall Stephen Strasburg is 6-9 and has had one of the weirdest seasons imaginable. Gio Gonzales is 9-6 with an ERA well below his career average, but he's got more no-decision games than wins--bullpen woes are to blame. Jordan Zimmermann is 16-8, but most of those wins came in the first half. First-round draft pick (number 6 overall), lefty Ross Detwiler has been out for months and reliever Ryan Matheus is still recovering from breaking his pitching hand when he punched a locker in L.A. Starter Dan Haren has struggled, not pitching up to his career stats, and closer Raphael Soriano has done well, but he's a bullpen morale killer and might be doing the same thing in the clubhouse.

Among position players for the Nats, another first pick overall, Bryce Harper hasn't been 100% since he slammed into the outfield wall in Los Angeles in June, and may need off-season surgery to repair his hip. Of course, Harper has been plunked a sufficient number of times this year that he has actually had to sit a game out. Adam LaRoche is batting 30 points under his career average, has hit barely half the number of home runs and RBIs he did last year. Denard Span has finally gotten hot at the end of the season--he has an 18 game hitting streak. Only Jayson Werth seems to be having a career year, and he has been out for weeks with groin pulls, a banged up knee, and a toe infection.

In Davey Johnson's final year as a manager, the team has just never gotten it together, hovering near .500 and holding on to second place in the NL East for most of the season. But 13 games behind Atlanta tonight, and tied with Arizona at eight games back for the second wild card with only 21 games left? Barring something rivaling divine intervention--metaphysics again--the Nats are out of it for this season. Nonetheless, there's a load of good baseball remaining this season and I'll keep watching.

But seriously, Let's Go Red Sox.

Surf and Turf

Surf and turf is a meal concept I remember from my childhood--back when the earth was still cooling. It was considered the height of elegance in the striving-class restaurants my family occasionally went to. It was always the most expensive item on the menu and it was always filet mignon and a lobster tail. Punkt. No variation, no experimentation.

But why can't we toy with the staid? Here's another take on the classic: clams and sausage on the grill with corn and a rocket salad.

The prep work for this meal is very simple: set up your grill for indirect heat, put the corn in its husks in water to soak--you can do this in a sink or in a soup pot. 

Once the fire is ready put the corn in its husks directly over the heat. Turn every few minutes for about fifteen minutes then move the corn to the cooler part of the grill. If the husks char, it's no big deal. Keep turning every few minutes to let it cook evenly.

Once the corn is off the hot section, put the sausage on. You can use whatever kind of sausage you like of course. I got some chicken sausage with roasted red pepper and spices from a butcher in our old neighborhood. There was something in it that gave it a little kick that worked well. But it's best to avoid anything too, too spicy, so I think a nice Italian sausage would work with this, too. Turn the sausages every few minutes. At about the ten minute mark, take them off the center and put to the side. About five minutes before you're ready to serve, slice the sausages in half lengthwise and set them back on the grill skin side up. You're letting the edges and interior char a bit for added flavor. 

I do clams on the grill in a cast iron skillet. The complete recipe is here, but the basics are: Put some fresh herbs (we used thyme and oregano from the herb garden), some minced garlic, salt and pepper in the skillet, add a glass (or two) of white wine (we used a Muscadet) and the clams. Set it on the fire about 15 minutes before you're planning to eat. The clams will open as the wine boils, their juice will mix with the wine, garlic, herbs and spices to make a terrific broth. Add a quarter stick of butter and stir when it's melted. Serve from the skillet--remember, please, the skillet is very hot. 

We made a nice salad from rocket with pistachios and Parmesan tossed in a simple vinaigrette. I also grilled some sourdough. Brush a little olive oil on the bread and set it on the grill. Let it brown, serve it with the clams. 

This meal offers a great mix of textures and flavors: sweet corn, spicy sausage, tender clams, crunchy pistachios, tart vinaigrette, crusty bread. 

We served this with the same Muscadet we cooked with, but any crisp white or even a dry rose would work. It would also go well with an IPA. 

Chapeau: Mark Bittman, The New York Times. 

Amazing Play, Great Call

It's not often that we get to point out just how good an umpire is. Last night in the Nationals-Phillies game, Chase Utley was on third with Darin Ruf at the plate. Craig Stammen struck out Ruf but the ball got away from Nats back up catcher Jhonatan Solano and Utley scampered home.

Solano scrambled back to get the ball but Stammen hadn't yet gotten in position to field the ball as Utley was cruising in, so Solano dove back towards Utley and slapped the tag on his ribs just before Utley's hand hit the plate. Stammen did a nice roll over the top of Utley, too.

It was a serious Bang-Bang play and even Nationals' color commentator F.P. Santangelo thought the Nats caught a break. But after the commercial, the X-Mode camera showed clearly that home plate umpire Chris Conroy got it right: it was an inning ending, run saving double play. Nats won 3-2.

Pretty amazing play, damn good call.

Watch it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_09_04_wasmlb_phimlb_1&mode=video&c_id=was

Ribs

Barbeque. Admittedly, this is a contentious field of play. Texas, Eastern North Carolina, Western North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas City, Your Town's Name Here. Everywhere one turns, there is a barbeque culture. I'll do my best not to dive into the middle of this, but tonight's dinner is barbequed baby back ribs.

Pork ribs, collards, and grits. Did I mention I'm from the South?

We start with the ribs.

First, set up your fire for indirect heat and put a drip pan under the area where the ribs will go. You can use whatever charcoal you want, but whether you use regular briquettes or lump charcoal you might want to use some smoking chips. We use applewood.

I'm a believer in keeping things simple. No matter how good the sauce or the rub, I still want to taste the pork. So nothing but salt and pepper for me on the ribs before they go on the grill. When the fire's ready, lay the ribs on the grill over the drip pan, bone side down, and put the cover on. Leave it alone as much as you can from this point forward. Let the smoke and heat do the work. Go put some music or a baseball game on the radio. Open a beer. As long as there is smoke coming out of the vents, things are fine. Ask your friends to tell you their life stories. Make them sing their High School fight songs.

After a while, once you've heard some great stories and laughed until you've cried over your friends' singing voices, you can start on the collards.

Wash the collards to make sure they aren't sandy. Cut out the thick stems and chop the leaves well. You'll need fat to give this real flavor. Some people use fatback--you can find this in the cheap meats section of your local grocery or ask your butcher for advice on what to use. I'm using some bacon we got at a farmer's market in Portsmouth, N.H. Cut the bacon into one inch dice and toss it in a pot over medium heat. Once the bacon has rendered most of its fat, stir in the collards until they're coated with the fat. Add a half teaspoon of baking soda to a couple cups of water or chicken stock and stir. Add the water or chicken stock and a little more if needed until the greens are covered. Add a teaspoon of crushed red chiles. Let it simmer for about half an hour, stirring once in a while. You can drain when you're ready to serve or serve in a small side bowl along with the juice, which is called pot liquor. Either way, I recommend serving with the juice, provide your guests some white vinegar to season the collards.

Go out and check on the ribs.

This is at about the twenty minute mark. The big chunks you see in the fire are applewood. Maybe I should have soaked them a bit more. Regardless, this looks fine. Cover and go back into the kitchen; open another beer.

Grits are really pretty simple. Use a four to one ratio: add cup of dry grits (and a big pinch of salt) to two cups of heavy cream and two cups of water. Reduce the heat to low. Stir. Cover. Wait five minutes. Stir. Cover. Wait five minutes. Turn off the heat and add a quarter stick of butter. Once the butter has melted, stir well and then grate about four ounces of a good, sharp cheddar--I used an Irish cheddar. Cover. Wait a couple minutes. Once the cheese has melted, stir well and you're ready to serve. They will need salt.

About ten or fifteen minutes before the ribs are ready, maybe this is at the forty-five minute mark, you can add the sauce. Now this is the contentious part: everyone has a different idea of what sauce or rub to use. If you're using this method, it's too late to use a rub. Rubs go on early. We're using a sauce and we're using a sauce we buy. Judge me, go ahead. It comes from Rocklands Barbeque here in the District. It rocks. Put some sauce on the ribs, cover for ten minutes or so and you're done. You can also cook these over even lower heat for a couple of hours to good effect. If you're using St. Louis style ribs (a different cut), you'll need to do this to get the same, falling-off-of-the-bone effect you get with baby back ribs.

Pull the ribs off the grill and let them sit under some foil for a few minutes while you're setting the table. Slice into pieces and serve. This is going to go well with beer--I think it's best with a rich amber or an IPA--but it also goes extremely well with a Zinfandel.

Enjoy.

Uniform of the Day--Actually for the Entire Season

It's Labor Day. Ms. F and I are off to visit some friends and watch the local parade from their front yard. With minor variations, this has been the uniform of the summer. Two trips to the ER (back, appendix), running a week-long writing workshop at George Washington University for 40 veterans (poetry, fiction, non-fiction, playwriting), a couple weeks in the Hudson Valley finishing a book (bears), vacation in mid-coast Maine (lobstah), beating around in the District, walking the dogs, going to the grocery, grilling on the patio: most of this accomplished in some variation of this outfit.

One of several pairs of Khaki shorts from J. Crew, yellow and white Oxford stripe (or blue, white, yellow, pink, blue and white or red and white Oxford stripe) OCBD from RL Polo or Brooks Bros or Nordstrom, surcingle belt from J. Press; Top-Siders, 1985 Rolex Submariner 5513. Not shown: beat up pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers in black, or the ubiquitous Ray-Ban aviators, a Red Sox or Nationals
Senators cap.

Uniform of the Day--Dinner Out, It's still Hot.

Dinner out on the last night of August. Hot and humid. A nice drive through Rock Creek Park with the top down on the way downtown.

The linen jacket from J. Crew is looking a little rumpled at the end of the long summer season, pink OCBD from Brooks Brothers, summer weight white jeans from RL Polo, black horse bit loafers, black belt/silver buckle, 1950 Omega jumbo bumper cal. 332. 

What is appropriate attire?

Ms F and I went downtown to meet her cousin from Cleveland for dinner last night. We went to an old-favorite restaurant near McPherson Square and drove the Beetle with the top down. The restaurant has recently expanded a bit and now has a bar, so we popped in there for a glass of wine while we waited for cousin Sally.

The District of Columbia is a tourist destination, especially in summer, and there were lots of folks wandering the streets in the official uniform of tourism: shorts and t-shirts. Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with this choice of attire. DC is bloody hot and humid and one does what one must to be comfortable on the walk between the museums and the monuments.

But out to dinner is another thing altogether. We had just sat down at the bar when two couples walked in for a drink while they waited for their table. The women were dressed appropriately for a nice restaurant dinner: One was in a dress and strappy heels, carrying a shawl in case she was seated under an air conditioning vent; the other was in a pair of trousers and a blouse. The men wore shorts: One, a pair of plaid shorts and a camp-style shirt with a hipster, woven hat (which he wore throughout their dinner); the other wore a pair of satin finish, below the knee basketball shorts and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off.

We were all seated together at the bar. They ordered drinks (a tequila shot and a beer for Mr. Sleeveless; proseco for his (presumed) wife; Club Soda with lime for the lady in the trousers, nothing for Mr. PorkPie.). They seemed perfectly nice. But I couldn't get past the men's attire.

It seems to me that if one's date is wearing a dress and heels, it is inappropriate and disrespectful to wear gym or yard-work attire--especially out to dinner and especially if it is ragged. Further, a sleeveless t-shirt exposes far too much of one's body to other guests trying to enjoy their squid ink capellini with PEI mussels. I mean really, must I be faced with some guy's hairy shoulders and armpits while trying to eat? And, then there is Mr. PorkPie. Seriously, dude, lose the hat indoors. This bit of decorum seems to be lost in the days since men routinely wore hats and were routinely taught to take the damned thing off indoors. 

Is this a gender issue? I don't think so. If one of the women were wearing a sleeveless top, I wouldn't have objected. But if it were a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, as this was, I would still have objected. It's simply not appropriate in my book to go to a nice restaurant wearing ragged clothing. 

The chef, an old family friend, came out to say hello about halfway through the meal. The look on his face when he spied the couples at their table--they had been injudiciously seated right at the front of the indoor dining area of the restaurant--was priceless. I suppose the hostess and most of the front-of-the-house staff heard about it later. This was their error. But management must set the standards of dress, advertise them on the website, advise nearby hotel concierges, and enforce those standards at the door. Otherwise, this lovely restaurant may as well be a sports bar.