A Blast for Breakfast

Has it really been nearly a month since I last posted? I guess that time really flies when you are busy with work and wedding planning. Even the extra day in February didn't seem to buy me any free time to write. Anyway...

A few weeks ago, I read an article about a new entry into the breakfast food market, Batter Blaster. Yes, what you've always wanted, pancake batter conveniently sold in an aerosol can. After hearing some more buzz about this product on the radio later that week, I decided that I wanted to give it a try.

An opportunity came up a few days later when Jeremiah invited Karen and me over for Sunday morning brunch. I eagerly offered to bring the ready-made pancake batter as my contribution to the meal. Jeremiah seemed a bit skeptical about the batter, but told me to go ahead and bring some, no doubt swayed by the fact, which I repeated multiple times, that Batter Blaster is USDA certified organic.

When Sunday morning came around, Karen and I dropped by a neighborhood grocery store to pick up a "fresh" can of batter. As I was checking out, the clerk mentioned that the pre-made pancake batter had been flying off the shelves ever since they started stocking it. I guess that Batter Blaster had been selling like, well, like hotcakes...

When we got over to Jeremiah's place, he had already fired up the griddle on his Viking stove and had started browning up a batch of home fries. Fortunately for me, he had reserved some room on the griddle for some hotcakes. So, I shook up the aerosol can of batter and pressed the nozzle, forming neat, little circles of soon-to-pancakes on the hot cooking surface.


Just like that - quick and easy with no mess. (Well, you do need to clean off the nozzle, but that's a snap - just run it under some hot water.)


A short while later, after Jeremiah cooked up some bacon and eggs to go with the home fries and stack of pancakes, we were ready to eat.

The verdict? Eh, honestly I was a bit disappointed. The pancakes had a distinct sweetness to them, not like the flavor that you get from maple syrup, but more like that of straight sugar. I guess that I could have expected that, given the third largest ingredient in that batter (after filtered water and organic wheat flour) is organic cane sugar. However, it probably would have been fine for waffles, which is an alternate recommended use for Batter Blaster. Also, the product information indicates that you should be able to get approximately 28 4-inch pancakes from a single can, but we did not get nearly as many, even though we nearly exhausted the can. However, that could have been due to user error, as I may not have shaken the can enough, especially for the last few cakes that I made.

Well, it was worth a try, but at $5.99 a can, I had really hoped for more.

"Hey, did you go to Carleton?"

For whatever reason, I seem to hear this question quite often when I am wearing the attire of my alma mater. Karen is amazed at the number of random places where people, seeing me wearing a Carleton shirt, ask me if I actually attended the college in Northfied, Minnesota. The encounters have occurred in many different situations including, while eating lunch in Maui just before exploring a volcano, during a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park on a trip to Boulder, and while seeing the terra cotta soldiers in Xi'an. Of course, there have also been a lot of Carleton call outs during my eight years in the Bay Area, including shout-outs on the streets of San Francisco and a few brief exchanges in various locations in Wine Country. You might think that my entire wardrobe consists of college gear, but, in reality, I only have a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. (Okay, I do have more Carleton shirts lying around, but none that I ever wear; I doubt the '89-'90 Third Myers floor t-shirt even fits anyway.)

Yesterday, while wearing my Carleton sweatshirt, I went over to the Ferry Building's Saturday morning farmers' market in search of some Fatted Calf bacon. While wandering around the stalls, I was asked not once, not twice, but three separate times in the course of an hour if I attended the small liberal arts college. One of the people who asked me, Dave, is actually a vendor at the market. After procuring some bacon, I stopped by his booth, Andante Dairy, to check out his offerings and picked up some butter, which was hand-churned by Dave himself. After trying some of the butter on some crusty bread that I picked up from the Acme Bread Company, I can attest to the quality of this delectable, creamy, high-fat content butter. I'll definitely go back for some more butter in the future.

One place where I haven't gotten a Carleton shout-out is in Europe, even though I've been there almost a dozen times over the past few years. I guess that it's a function of me not really wearing much Carleton gear during my business trips over to the Continent. Perhaps I'll have to include one of my Carleton shirts to wear during one of my forays into Heidelberg after working hours. I'll let ya know when happens.

The Food-Loving Comedian

I was recently introduced to the humor of Jim Gaffigan, a hilarious stand-up comedian who has made several appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman. Much of Gaffigan's humor involves food, including routines about eating out, cake, and bacon. His signature piece revolves around his fascination with the microwaveable sandwiches in a sleeve, Hot Pockets.

Bacony Goodness

Do you love bacon? Well, one of the folks over at the Good Eats Message Board found someone who might like bacon even a bit more than you do...

Starting with breakfast, this connoisseur of the cured porcine product has found heart-stopping ways to enjoy bacon in sandwiches and in burgers. I can't wait for his next bacony creation.

The Angus Third Pounder

Yesterday was a bit of an unusual work day for me. I started the day at home, flew down to Irvine for an afternoon meeting, and then returned to the Bay Area on an evening flight. Unfortunately, the hour-long segments were not long enough for me to sample the airborne cuisine offered by American Airlines and compare it with the fare from United and Lufthansa.

However, as I was waiting for my return flight, I took the opportunity to try out an Angus Third Pounder, a new sandwich being test-marketed in Southern California by McDonald's. The burger, a premium offering rolled-out to compete with other high-end fast-food sandwiches like the "Six Dollar Burger" marketed by Carl's Jr., comes in three variations: the Angus Deluxe, the Angus Mushroom & Swiss, and the Angus Bacon & Cheese. I opted for the bacon version.

It was okay - par for the course for a fast food burger. Honestly, it wasn't all that different from the other burgers that I've had at Mickey D's, though the burger patty seemed a bit drier than their other offerings. Perhaps this was due to a leaner cut of Angus beef, but don't kid yourself - it has around the same number of calories as a Quarter Pounder, plus or minus a little depending in the version. Good thing that I did a lot of walking today. (I actually walked from the airport to the office and walked back after the meeting.) However, at $3.99 a pop for an Angus burger, I'll probably just stick to Quarter Pounders.

The Perfect Bacon Sandwich

Today, my ever-vigilant girlfriend pointed out an article describing the secrets to a perfect bacon sandwich. Apparently, a few British scientists are leaving other important academic research on topics such as quantum chromodynamics, cancer research, and the Riemann hypothesis to other luminaries while they focus on unsolved problems more important to the common man.

The Leeds University researchers were kind enough to share their secret formula on the Grand Unified Theory of Bacon (GUToB) with the rest of the world:

N = C + {f_b(c_m) · f_b(t_c)} + f_b(T_s) + f_c · t_a,
where N is force in newtons, f_b is a function of the bacon type, f_c is a function of the condiments, T_s is the serving temperature, t_c is the cooking time, t_a is the time to insert the condiments, c_m is the cooking method, and C is the breaking strain of the uncooked bacon (in newtons).

I do, however, have a few questions about the function f_b: What is its domain? Is it time, as the expression f_b(t_c) would suggest, or is it temperature, which one would infer from the expression f_b(T_s)? Could it be a multivariable function of time and temperature? Is it continuous or even perhaps differentiable? The world wonders.

While we are on the subject of bacon sandwiches, allow me to take the opportunity to right a wrong. In a previous post discussing the perfect BLT, I neglected to give proper kudos to the BLT sandwiches that were the centerpiece of Sunday brunch at lovely home of Jeremiah and Tesha during their stay in Germany. The combination of Alsatian bacon, garlic mayo, and fresh basil on crusty German bread was amazing. Now that they have made their return back to the Bay Area, I hope to partake in one of their bacon-filled brunches again soon.

Wake 'n Bacon

Last week, my sweetie pointed out a new alarm clock design to me. I'd be up for buying one of these, though I'm not sure whether it would remind my girlfriend of waking up on a Sunday morning to the smell of Mom cooking breakfast...

The Perfect BLT

This week, MSNBC is running an article about the secrets to a perfect BLT. Personally, while I love the 'B' and 'T' part of a BLT, I can pretty much do without the 'L', especially if the B_T comes with lots of mayo. I am intrigued, however, by one of the recipes in the article, where the 'L' doesn't stand for lettuce, but rather for liver. Liver, as in foie gras.

Hey, now before you make that Mr. Yuk face, you should give it a try, especially if you happen to be on the Chicago City Council. Who knows, you might even like it. I'm not kidding. A short while back, my girlfriend and I tried the PB&J foie gras sandwich appetizer at Hawthorne Lane (22 Hawthorne Lane; 415-777-9779). Both of us thought that it was absolutely fantastic. I hope that they keep that item on the menu as they go through some upcoming changes.