Matthew Rowley

Sometimes 2 blows in flight. And I’ve left one in a breast pocket 2 or 3 times over the years, then tossed shirt and pen together into the wash. Either way, a mess. Still, for everyday note-taking and longhand, I’ve been buying those by the dozen for ages. And if I do fly with some? Plastic zip bag.

I was going to say that you started it, but perhaps I did.

“I’m the Steven Seagal of stepbrothers.”
“The who?”
“Oh. Right. Skilled. Uhhh…ummm…got it. I’m the Bruce Lee of—“
“Say no more.”

Haha. “What’s that over there” is such a perfect fumble. That’d be my brain trying to yoink me out of a situation it got me into. I’m far more chill about it now, but that first summer was a wild ride.

The San Diego variant is that we have loads of adult entertainment talent. Local industry, like pharma or defense. When I lived in Philly, if someone seemed familiar, it was probably because we actually had met somewhere. In San Diego? If I can’t quite place a familiar face, I let it slide.

In LA years back. Antique store. Clerk: “Have we met? You seem so familiar.” Nope. Another time, high-end furniture store clerk: “We’ve met, haven’t we?” Nope. Yet again, clothing shop: “I’ve seen you in something, right?” Ahhh! It’s LA-specific fishing/flattery eg “Are you an actor I should know?”

The details themselves seem so old-fashioned. I don’t hear about living polymaths who manage to do so much.

Well. Maybe Dan Farber.

Same. Though I have no emeralds to sew into my coat hem.

World-class mustache, too.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been chased out of a country, but, hey, the hour is late and we’ll see how things go.

“So, Rowley, you got those edits done?”

No. No. Haha, oh god no.

Stock broker, descendant of stonemasons and dairy farmers. Salt of the earth. Taught me how to drive, donated regularly to the local zoo, let me puff on his cigars and steal the cherries from his Manhattans.

The other was a coal country alcoholic who beat his wives. We don’t talk about him.

They are, for sure. I saved maybe a dozen for exactly that. But even so, there was more than I could reasonably use.

Same bar today with 12 pages that needed edits. Was going to do my regular head-down iced tea red pen quiet work. Sat next to a cook from Sinaloa. We talked for an hour and a half. Told me about a Oaxacan treatment for the *exact* thing I need to edit.

Get out. Meet people. It makes life better.

Welp. The rosemary bush didn’t make it.

But my compost bin smells fantastic.

I’ve lived in a few lofts and city center place with no room for garden. There’s plenty I like about living in the midst of it all. But getting my hands rough feels good. Good luck with the garden!

Halved bacon slices upon a cutting board with halved fresh figs. To the side, assembly underway for roasting.

And pork belly…

I am one of a few dozen people on the planet who dislikes coffee, so I’ll pass on that aspect, but I like the idea of a trifle with fig leaf infused custard. There aren’t quite enough leaves for me to go start picking them willy-nilly, but these trees grow like weeds, so it won’t be long.

Now, I don’t have much Italian, but I’m not gonna repeat that one in front of my mom 😉

Love it. Excellent idea. I’ll have bushes leaves this year if I care to pick them.

I’ve been accumulating recipes that use fig leave. Not actively hunting them, but I save them as I come across them. For infusing whiskey, ice creams, panna cotta— I even have a few that call for the ashes of burnt fig leaves. One of these years, I’ll haul out the folder and make something

F*ckin figs, amirite?

I situated nine fig trees near a south-facing fence to catch more warmth than they would out in the garden proper. Some fig trees in the garden are just starting to show green tips. Those against the fence? Already pumping out figs.

Stainless steel kyphoplasty mallet.

IIRC, can score while warm. When I made it years ago, I put a clean kitchen towel on top to keep fragments from flying across the room and used a kyphoplasty hammer (small surface, clean edges: perfect for driving needles into spines and thwacking off precise chunks from ice blocks for cocktails).

I can’t readily shape proper MMB, but I think I could do a quick and dirty flavor test with chunks or tabs poured onto a slab and work on form later.

Just the project for when a deadline is moseying down the road my way.

100% with you on white chocolate. Husband found one that used that I dismissed out of hand. Completely wrong ingredient. And agreed that tweaking a honeycomb/seafoam recipe is the way to go.

This is the sort of sea foam type candy we landed on last night as we talked through the logistics of it after dinner. When I visited my grandparents in St. Louis (1970s-90s), my grandmother frequently got Bissinger's molasses puffs as a treat for us: sponge candy coated in chocolate.

Yeah, there are plenty of recipes online, but none from sources I trust or I rather, I’m not convinced those I’ve seen point the way successfully to DIY a manufactured candy.

Prohibition “Schooners” In a glass stein or beer glass, prepare the dessert form of gelatine and run this in the stein or glass up to about 1 inch from the brim. This gelatine run into the glass should be a light amber color and flavored to suit. After running it in the glass or glasses, allow it to congeal. Whip up a certain amount of acidulated gelatine which has been dissolved over a steam bath. Just before it sets place it in the steins or glasses, and allow it to froth over the top. The result is an accurate imitation of the way a stein of beer “would look.” This is a novelty that takes exceedingly well as a burlesque on prohibition.

Same era. From W.O. Rigby’s 1920 (13th ed) Rigby’s Reliable Candy Teacher comes this “burlesque on prohibition” — Prohibition Schooner.

From a long tradition of foods camouflaged, disguised, or masked as other food

Rice Crackle: 1Ib. (2 cups) granulated sugar ½ Ib. (1 cup) brown sugar 1/2 on (3/4 cup) Karo Syrup 1/2 pt. (1 cup) water Warm in the oven, stirring constantly until it is thoroughly dry and crisp, the contents of two packages of puffed rice. Cook: Stir only until the sugar is dissolved. Cook to 240 degrees on the ther- mometer. Then add: I oz. butter (size of two walnuts) 1 pinch of salt and cook to 242 degrees. Pour onto the warm puffed rice—pre-pared as above-and when well mixed turn into oiled cake tins, pressing out smooth with a rolling-pin to the thickness of the pan. When shaped, turn the pan upside down and remove the contents while still a little warm. Cut into squares with a sharp knife.

Side note: Malitta Jensen and Mildred Day invented Rice Krispies Treats in 1939 while working for Kellogg’s.

This Rice Crackle recipe from Mary Elizabeth’s My Candy Secrets (1919) predates that by 20 years. It’s not RKT…but you can see the foundation of the later confection in this.