Jabberwocky for 2005 April 29

(2) Fri Apr 29 2005 19:04 Mr. Dudley: I received Mr. Dudley for Christmas, from John and Susie, I think. He came full of peppercorns and (I thought) salt. He grindes pepper exceedingly well, leaving some bits less "ground" and more "cracked", which adds zip to the cuisine. Rachel and I, however, could never get salt to come of of Mr. Dudley's head.

Upon closer investigation, I discovered that Mr. Dudley's head is indeed not filled with salt. There was a white paper wrapped around the stem of the mechanism inside which made it look like salt, but did not deliver any saline morsels.

I filled Mr. Dudley's head with salt, but in the meantime we have become hooked on sea salt, so we have a separate grinder for that.

Aside: When Leonard and I drove back from Utah, we ate breakfast at a restaurant in Beaver that was selling a brand of sea salt that looked like it had dirt in it. (The label called it "minerals." ) I didn't buy a shaker of the stuff at the time, only to regret it later. So on the way home this trip, Ruth Davis and I pulled off in Beaver to buy dirt salt. The restaurant in question is gone, and it's Chinese now. I seriously regret this, as it was a very good restaurant, and who knows if one can trust the Chinese food served in Beaver, Utah.

I used Mr. Dudley today to grind a whole bunch of black pepper for salad dressing. I made a whole quart, with pepper, garlic, white wine vinegar, oregano, olive oil, and emulsified with bleu cheese. Later on the quart jar jiggled and jumped out of the refrigerator and smashed onto the floor. What a mess. I was bummed because bleu cheese is pretty expensive.

Things do a lot of bailing out of our refrigerator because the top shelf is full of TPN, which makes items put on top teetery.