Warning: This stew is somewhat time consuming, but you could do some of the steps ahead of time, or even in parallel, such as roasting the eggplants and cooking the lentils. Don’t skimp on the final long simmer, otherwise the flavors won’t mesh together as well as they could.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup brown lentils (unhulled masoor), picked over and rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 3/4 to 2 pounds (before being roasted) of roasted eggplant, sliced into 2-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• salt, to taste; I used about 1/2 teaspoon
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• (optional) 1/4 teaspoon red Indian chili powder
• 3/4 pound tomatoes, roughly chopped; a 14-ounce can of tomatoes could also work.
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 sweet (mild) red chili peppers, seeds removed and roughly chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons mint leaves, minced
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup garlic-infused olive oil
• 3 to 4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (depending on your tomatoes’ flavor) + 2 tablespoons water
• optional garnishes: roasted pine nuts or almonds, crumbled cheese, more mint, parsley, etc.

Method

1. In a small sauce pan, cover the lentils with about an inch or so of water, about 3ish cups. Toss in the bay leaf, and bring to a boil and cook covered until tender; make sure the lentils don’t go dry — it’s okay if there’s a bit too much water. Depending on how desiccated the lentils are, this could take from 20 to 40 minutes. When done, discard the bay leaf and drain off any excess water, then set aside.
2. In the meantime, sauté the onions in 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil over high heat, until barely translucent, about 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Stir in the salt, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, allspice, cloves and chili powder, if using, until they become fragrant. Lower heat to medium. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and chilis, and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes until those become a slightly (but not completely) softened.
4. Transfer the tomato-onion mixture to a large bowl, and stir in the mint.
5. Coat the bottom of a large pot (a Dutch oven would work) with 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Evenly spread a scant cup of the tomato-onions on the bottom.
6. Layer in half the eggplants, followed by spreading a layer of half the lentils. Drizzle half of the garlic oil (2 tablespoons).
7. Add half of the remaining tomato-onions, and repeat the previous step with the remaining eggplants and lentils, then ending with the last of the tomato-onion mixture.
8. Drizzle the top with the rest of the garlic oil, plus an additional tablespoon of olive oil. Then drizzle the pomegranate molasses and water. Bring the stew to a gentle boil, and simmer covered over low heat for 1 hour.
9. Add garnishes, if desired. Serve with flatbread, basmati rice, a mild, crumbly cheese (e.g., paneer, or even queso fresco!), or simply by itself.

But to answer some questions (or remarks) you might have lingering:

1. Yes, I enjoy both dark and milk chocolate. I’ve had excellent versions of both, as well as yucky ones best reserved for the trashbin.
2. Why pay for a beta program? (Aimed especially at those who get free TCHO tastings: Hey! Not all of us have that opportunity.) Well, I consider this on par with eating food that, like a restaurant, someone has shopped for (ingredient-wise) and produced — more so than with software betas. For example, a software beta might have big, annoying bugs worth tolerating. But food betas need to be free of big issues such as, oh, parasitic or toxic contaminants, or being spoiled. And unlike software which can be delivered online for free, food shipments do carry the cost of transportation.
3. Also, TCHO is one of the few (remaining) independent Californian chocolate producers, as opposed to confectioners. So far I don’t mind contributing to their efforts.
4. Moreover, I’ve already enjoyed several of their chocolates — an even stronger reason to support them. Of the four dark chocolates they offer, I recommend “Fruity v2.0″ (plum-y and round, like a good port) and “Chocolatey v1.0″ (lush, spicy coffee).

On to the results…

Milk results

Batch Milk C0.2A: Ick. In spite of its strong caramel flavor, this one was almost painfully sweet. It hardly had any chocolate flavor. It did have some creaminess. Even though texture shouldn’t be considered, one of its few redeeming features is that it lacked the waxiness that cheap chocolates (especially milk ones) have.

Batch Milk C0.2B: Slight improvement over (A) by being not as sweet. Still rather sweet, and low on the chocolately side of things. It did, however, have an interesting salty note which eased off during the finish.

Batch Milk M0.2A: About the same as the C0.2 batch, but perhaps more caramel in tone. Still too sweet, too little chocolateyness. Simon thought he tasted some spicy notes, but I didn’t sense any at all.

Batch Milk M0.2B: Ditto, although perhaps a slightly nicer, maltier finish than (B). So far I’ve not been impressed with any of the four samples I’ve received.

Batch Milk K0.2.MB (A): Still too sweet, inferior to (B), although it had an interesting hint of saltiness. Didn’t care much for MB, which while having more caramel notes than (B), had an annoying bitter finish, almost like an unpleasant licorice.

Batch Milk K0.2.CB (B): Best batch so far. Rich, deep chocolateyness. Spicy, gingery notes, with a deep chocolate flavor. Definitely a (near) winner!

Batch Milk C0.4A. Slight spicy smell. Nice subtle flavoring, combining caramel with cardamom, with a bit of toastiness. This batch and K0.2.CB have been the best to date.

Batch Milk C0.4B. Rich malty flavor, but that’s about it. A bit sweeter than (A), though not nearly as interesting.

Batch Milk M0.8A. Very sweet, milky and somewhat malty. Maybe slight hint of cardamom? Mild, but rather unremarkable in flavor.

Batch Milk M0.8B. Like (A) this one has a milk flavor reminding me of Cadbury’s. Not that Cadbury’s is bad, but a great milk chocolate should stand out, not just appeal to the masses. However, (B) does have a near perfect level of sweetness and creaminess. Maybe there was a slight coffee-like finish, but again M0.8 just lacks the spice and fruit aromas that the previous batches (i.e., K0.2CB and C0.4A) had.

Batch Milk K0.8A. Deep and bitter, yet creamy, with tones of coffee and roasted nuts. Not bad!

Batch Milk K0.8B. Sweeter than (A). Definite caramel and cardamom notes. Also quite creamy; very good.

Overall

The best batches were K0.2.CB and C0.4A, and perhaps K0.8B. It’ll be interesting how v1.0 will turn out, and what if any aspects of those batches will exist there.

Citrus

I missed the beta period for TCHO’s “Citrus” dark chocolate. However, I bought a packet of version 1.0. I kept expecting some citrus aromatics, but hadn’t sensed any. Midway through tasting, a pleasant tartness arose and lasted to the finish with an added fruitiness. Good, but more like a general fruity tanginess rather than anything specifically citrus. To my senses, there were no hints of lemon, lime, orange or tangerine. I think I’ll just stick with Fruity v2.0, unless another Citrus version comes out.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need only a note-taking application. Having checkboxes and to-do lists would be a plus, but not really necessary for my own needs. I still don’t need a GTD tool, either. Because notes can be lists for my purposes, this entry focuses more on notes compared with my previous entry (nearly two years ago!).

While using Evernote, I’ve noticed some features I’ve become dependent upon:

• Offline (a.k.a., local) access to my notes and lists. Useful when there’s no network or WiFi access.
• Being able to categorize or tag notes for sorting and searching is important. I have more than a couple dozen notes, so I need some way of organizing them instead of one big list. Tagging has the advantage of allowing more than one tag per note, but even categorizing (e.g., into labeled folders) helps. The big limitation with categories is that typically a note can be in only one category.
• Desktop access to edit my notes and lists. Or, at the very least, desktop access through a web interface. Why? When I’m in front of my computer, it’s much easier for me to type with a hardware keyboard. Another reason: If I change note-taking apps in the future, I want some way to migrate them, even if it’s as basic as copying and pasting text.
• Web access is good only if it’s a secure (https / SSL) connection.
• Nice to have: The ability to either photograph or record notes and lists. Voice transcription would be swell, but not really required.
• Free or low cost.

I didn’t spend equally extensive periods of time using each app, so these reviews are summarized in places. I spent more time with apps which felt easier to use, with features that interested me more. I’m sure there are other note-taking apps I’m unaware of. If there’s one you highly recommend using, feel free to suggest it, although I cannot guarantee I’ll have time to look at it.

• My growing disappointment with Evernote
• Overly busy-looking apps, including AwesomeNote Lite, Smartnotes Lite, Mental Note Lite, and NoteMaster Lite
• reQall
• SyncBook
• Take A Note
• YouNote Lite
• Apps not tested
• So how about Simplenote?

So how is Evernote working out?

It ain’t. Allow me to enumerate the issues I’ve had with Evernote (free | iTunes link) that’ve been accumulating for over a year:

• Offline access has been implemented as a feature called Favorites. It has always been problematic, especially with an issue where Favorites couldn’t be accessed while in Airplane mode (offline). That hasn’t been a problem for me recently, but with the advent of version 3.2.x, the order of my Favorites (which are manually sortable by drag and drop) went haywire. It was no longer sorted according to all the dragging and dropping I had done over the months. And no matter how I tried to sort them again, the order was suddenly forgotten. Sometimes I’d pass by a duplicate of a note while dragging it during manual sort mode. Quitting and restarting the app did not help, nor did clearing the app’s cache, nor did restarting the iPhone. Upon filing a support request, I was told to remove and reinstall the app. Which would erase settings for my Favorites. But since I’ve got Premium service, I was told that Favorites aren’t necessary anyhow: Why not just make my own offline Notebook, a folder containing notes? But I went through all that effort to create and maintain my Favorites. I have to do it all over again? A solution that effectively requires data loss seems so wrong.
• Crashy crashy crashy. I access Evernote on the iPhone several times a day. It crashes at least once a week. If I’m editing a note and a crash occurs, the changes are lost; such data loss not too surprising, but remains very annoying.
• Too many steps to edit and save a note. 1. Open a note. 2. Hit Edit button. 3. Tap in textarea to start editing, i.e., bring up the keyboard. 4. Tap Save button. Steps 2 and 3 do distinguish between viewing and editing modes, but it’s more effective for me if they were merged as a single step — like the built-in Notes app.
• At some point, iirc, Evernote used to remember where in the app I was between sessions. i.e., whether I was viewing or editing a note, viewing a list of notes, etc. Not anymore, the New Note page is always displayed on startup. It makes the previous issue even more aggravating — especially if I suddenly crash, or quit while editing a note. I admit, though, that with iOS 4, this is less of an issue, since Evernote continues running in the background; but of course the state is forgotten if I completely quit the app (or when it crashes).
• I thought that having rich text would be nice (especially allowing URLs to launch Safari), but it’s more of a hassle. Why? Rich text cannot be edited on the iPhone. Evernote works around this by offering to append changes or make a copy of the original. Too complicated; I’ve found I’d rather stick with plaintext, to allow changes where I want them.
• The Evernote Mac desktop app never allowed conversion rich text into plaintext. The web UI used to, but no longer does. Great, now both tools are consistent with each other. But now I’m stuck with the aggravation of dealing with Evernote’s clumsy handling of rich text editing on the iPhone. Ugh.

Noisy UIs: Awesome Note Lite, Note Master Lite, SmartNotes Lite

Skimming the long feature lists of these apps at first made me eager to try them out. But they all had something painfully in common: Cluttered interfaces. I might think Evernote is turning into a Microsoft Office-like kitchen sink morass, but at least on the surface its iPhone UI is clear and straightforward.

Awesome Note Lite

Awesome Note Lite (free | iTunes link) is the same as the paid version ($3.99 | iTunes link), but limits you to seven notes.

Allows memos, lists and to-do tasks. You can even attach photos. Syncs with either Google Docs or Evernote, which requires web access. The app is very colorful, and has so many tabs, buttons and popups that it makes me dizzy. For example, you have to dig into a popup to delete an item. Popup menus in an iPhone app? Eh? Trying to squish the windowing UI metaphor into a small display feels awkward.

SmartNotes Lite

Lite version (free | iTunes link), paid version ($2.99 | iTunes link). This app includes both text note and todo list features, with a bafflingly colorful UI: many backgrounds to chose from, many ways to sort, multiple setting screens, a couple ways of viewing items. The overabundance of choices gets in the way of dealing with notes and tasks. For example, on an iPhone, why would I want to differentiate between the Desktop and Cascade, and why not simply call those icon and list views? Most of the time reinventing the wheel is just not needed.

Mental Note Lite

Mental Note Lite (free | iTunes link) is the same as the paid version ($2.99 | iTunes link), but limits you to two notes. Mental Note allows text, audio, photo and sketch (finger-drawn) notes, and has some nifty features:

• Always remembers where I was in the app between sessions.
• Not only can I mail a note, I can also save it as a screenshot to the iPhone’s Photos app.
• I can tag with both color and text labels.
• I can easily undo and redo sketch movements by tapping the Pencil button.
• I can easily append (but not insert) multiple media in a single note.
• I can crop and resize photos within the app.
• I can delete individual sections in a note.

However, this app suffers from some UI complication. How do I get a simple list of my notes? Oh, hit the tab button (eh?). Why does flagging have such low contrast that I can’t tell what’s going on?

NoteMaster Lite

NoteMaster Lite (free | iTunes link) is the same as the paid version ($3.99 | iTunes link), but limits you to seven notes. NoteMaster Lite allows both text notes and notes with photos, but like other apps I’ve seen, its UI feels heavy handed.

It also syncs with Google Docs. I could email notes, too, but I’d need to setup the email account from which I’d send, which feels kludgy. Why not use what’s already setup in iPhone Mail? Even Evernote handles that gracefully.

reQall

reQall’s (free | iTunes link) strengths lie in voice recognition and transcription, and tracking time-dependent tasks. With these services reQall for iPhone competes with Jott. So far its service and iPhone application remain free; Jott’s free service terminated on 3 February 2009. At first I thought reQall required a network/WiFi connection, but both audio recordings and transcribed notes seem to be accessible while offline — an improvement over Evernote’s flaky offline access.

Sadly, reQall’s iPhone interface is only somewhat less maddening than Jott’s:

• Transcription seems to take somewhat longer than Jott’s service. However, a copy is always mailed, which is handy.
• Searching is available (string search), but cannot tag or categorize anything.
• I cannot create my own labeled categories or tags — unless I pay for the Pro service to add custom folders.
• Once created, you cannot change the type of Thing (Note, To-do or Shopping item). This drives me nuts, since you must remember to pull down a menu to select the type when you create it. (Another reason against adding menus to mobile apps.)
• Each voice recording is limited to 30 seconds, even with the paid Pro service.
• Lists are called Shopping Lists, which for a list-y person like me isn’t a useful name since I don’t consider all lists to be shopping lists.

Overall, reQall has more time dependency features than I need or care to use. In addition, I doubt I’d use the People aspect, as that depends on contacts actually using the reQall service.

SyncBook

I had purchased SyncBook for $3.99 (free | iTunes link) some time ago; its price went down to $1.99, then ultimately became free. It handles plaintext notes, desktop syncing (via Bonjour) is available through a free Mac client application, not requiring any web-based registration.

Syncing requires a bit of effort, though. On the Mac side I can use any editor which will save .txt files; pop the files into ~/Library/Application Support/NotesSync/, then sync. No mobile network access needed, but WiFi needs to be enabled for both your Macintosh and iPhone. I can also use the desktop app to import HTML and RTF files, but I need to convert them to plaintext in order to view them on the iPhone.

Some other features that SyncBook has:

• Very easy to edit and save notes, in fewer steps than Evernote.
• The app uses categories, not tags.
• Notes are organized by category, and you can sort within those by name or date modified. There is no manual sorting.
• I can add a colored label (as a dot) to a note for extra emphasis.
• All note names must be unique, even across categories.
• Notes are searchable.

Unfortunately, it looks like this app has been orphaned, as it hasn’t been updated for over a year.

Take A Note

Take A Note ($4.99 | iTunes link) by Readdle has a layout very similar to Evernote, but a style reminding me of Classics. As a paid app, how does it compare? I can have text, audio and photo notes, like Evernote, but I can also have drawings as notes.

In spite of the beautiful appearance, the WiFi Access Help page contains typos and has a completely different style from the rest of the app. (Reminds me of the pulpy English-roughly-translated-from-elsewhere leaflets that come with small household appliances.) The information there does help setup syncing, but to be consistent that content really ought to be cleaned up.

There is no online access, so syncing limited between a computer and the iPhone via WiFi. This is done via WebDAV, rather than by Bonjour. Readdle doesn’t have a desktop application like Evernote or SyncBook. I just mount the iPhone with the IP address given in Take A Note’s WiFi Access page, copy whatever files I want to and from that virtual drive, et voilà. The disadvantage, however, is that there’s no obvious backup of your notes to your desktop machine, other than in the hidden manner when you sync via iTunes. To have an easily accessible copy of my notes, I’d need to create another folder on my desktop computer, then manually copy them through WebDAV.

Take A Note uses categories, not tags, so a given note can be in only one category. Audio, drawing and photo notes have an additional Comment tab, which contains creation date info and any additional notes I might wish to add. Notes are also searchable.

Take A Note has some other nice features not found in the Evernote iPhone app:

• It remembers whether I was viewing a note or in the Add Note page, rather than always starting at the Notes page. However, I wish it would remember if I were viewing a folder listing, rather than always going to the toplevel Notes page. This is less of an issue when running in the background under iOS 4, but crops up when I fully quit the app.
• I can change the font size and font family settings; even though text itself cannot be styled, it’s a nice way to customize the interface.
• A password lock for the app.

By default, photo, audio and drawing notes use a timestamp as the title, but I can change a title by editing the Comment field. Take A Note seems a bit slow overall, though, so I’m not sure how well it could handle my 100+ notes.

YouNote Lite

YouNote Lite (free | iTunes link) offers several note formats. The app’s quirky, cute icons come in flavors of TextNote, PictNote, AudioNote, DrawNote, and WebNote. A note containing a mix of these media becomes a MultiNote. Sounds like a good candidate, but YouNote Lite remains quite limited:

• Although button bar items do sort — alpha (“T”), date (calendar icon with “1″), and note type (odd diamond thing) — I cannot categorize or tag notes.
• It took me a while to go through the app and SophiaCom’s website to finally realize that I can enter data only onto the iPhone. Because there’s no web or desktop editing, there’s no way for me to import notes from elsewhere.
• Even though the developers offer the free YouNote Desktop application, it offers only barebones functions of backing up and restoring notes in an all-or-nothing manner. You might as well stick with Time Machine.
• I cannot email notes unless I get the paid version of the app.

I didn’t bother testing the paid version of YouNote ($2.99 | iTunes link), because I’d still be unable to transfer existing notes into the app. From what I can tell, their navigator would only allow read-only viewing of notes within YouNote.

Some apps not tested

Notebook by Appigo

Notebook ($4.99 | iTunes link) by Appigo allows HTML notes in addition to plaintext notes. Notebook has a rich set of features, and even offers a way to import Palm Memos from the Mac Desktop. I haven’t bothered testing it yet because in order to sync I’d have to sign up with yet another web service — in this case Toodledo.com. It also doesn’t support photo or audio notes.

Notebooks by Alfons Schmid

Notebooks ($5.99 | iTunes link) by Alfons Schmid, like Notebook, offers many features including Palm Memo importing. Notebooks also offers syncing through WebDAV, or Bonjour via SyncDocs. I’m holding off on testing Notebooks, though — not just because there’s no way to create and maintain audio and photo notes, but because I don’t wish to spend time now to go through the sheer number and complexity of its features. (Awesome Note et al. burned my attention span in that respect.)

SplashShopper

SplashShopper has apps for both the iPhone ($4.99 | iTunes link) and the Mac OS X desktop. These apps do lists, and only lists, in text, with no options for photo or voice entries. The desktop app is $19.95, but includes a free 30-day trial period. Fortunately, SplashShopper is no longer the only app offering offline access to data, so I decided to spend my time testing other apps.

SplashShopper also looks is a dead-ringer for HandyShopper, which I had loved using in Palm OS. Except that HandyShopper is freeware.

Noter & Noter2

Noter is a free web app, whereas Noter2 is a paid ($1.99 | iTunes link) native app. Unfortunately, online account access for either appears to go over a non-secure connection, so I didn’t spend much time with either of these.

So how about Simplenote?

Simplenote (free | iTunes link) used to cost $1.99, but is now available for free, so I downloaded it even though I know it’s limited to plaintext notes. It has one big shortcoming for me: I can neither tag nor categorize the notes. The good news, though, is that a future version will include tags. If I can handle not needing audio or image notes within the same note-taking app, I just might move to Simplenote.

I did manage to crash Simplenote twice while going between editing a note and the list of notes. I haven’t been able to dependably reproduce it, sadly; their support team responded saying the crash might be resolved in the next release, a big update currently in Apple’s review queue. In addition, I wish tapping to edit a note places the caret where I had tapped, not at the beginning or end of the note.

On a related tangent, I recommend reading John Gruber’s compelling article on Simplenote. If you’re interested on how note-taking apps behave, his article clearly differentiates between online and desktop syncing, which I found informative.

Nevertheless, if a lack of taxonomy doesn’t bother you, this app might still work for you. Simplenote is indeed refreshingly simple, and easy to use. For example:

• I can sort notes alphabetically (first line serves as title), by last modified, or by last created.
• Simplenote has provided developers a means of extending the app, which includes JustNotes (free) and Nottingham ($19.95; free demo available), two Mac OS X applications for maintaining and syncing notes locally.
• It remembers where I last was, even after quitting the app.
• Search is a simple textfield appearing at the top of the note list.
• Even though notes are plaintext, there’s an option to activate URLs. When on, tap-holding will bring up the option to open in Safari, or to copy it. Nice!
• Simple services: a free web service for online syncing (the connection and login forms are secure, but the signup form oddly is not), a $4.99 one-time fee to get rid of the ads, and an annual $8.99 premium service.

During the cold months I develop a serious hankering for this purple fruit that it got me thinking of a way to preserve this summer’s generosity. Actually, I don’t know whether there’ll be eggplants left over, because I’ve been eating them up soon after cooking them. But just in case, roasting then freezing them turns out to be an easy way to create eggplant insurance.

The nearly black ones are the Japanese “Oriental” variety; the lighter magenta ones with the green sepals are “Pingtung Long,” a Thai variety

The eggplants I’ve used are the thinner Asian varieties pictured above. The larger globe style eggplants would take longer, I’d imagine (30 to 60 minutes, perhaps). Following the advice from this Washington Post article, I didn’t bother pre-salting the fruits. I think I’ve been lucky enough so far to have fresh, young enough fruit that haven’t yet developed bitterness in the seeds or skin. (I might change my mind with the fruits at the end of the season!)

Oh, here’s another encouraging eggplant article with more suggestions.

Before roasting, stems trimmed, fruit poked and sepals removed.

Ingredients

• a bunch of eggplants
• extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF to 425ºF degrees. I used the “convection roast” setting at 400ºF. Line a roasting pan or dish with a non-stick silicone mat, or with parchment paper.
2. Rinse off the eggplants, and trim down their sepals and stems. Poke each one several times with a sharp knife or fork, so they don’t explode while cooking.
3. Lightly coat each eggplant with the oil. A little goes a long way — I’ve used less than 1 tablespoon for over a dozen eggplants. The oil helps prevent sticking and scorching. Place them on the prepared pan, then put it in the oven.
4. Roast for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until quite soft. Midway through roasting, turn over the eggplants with a pair of tongs, in order to cook evenly and reduce the chance of burning the skin.
5. Serve(*), or cool to room temperature and freeze. You can also store them in the fridge for a few days.

(*) I’ve yet to go beyond the “cut in half, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with garlic oil and balsamic vinegar” scenario for consuming them. So simple and tasty! But I bet they’d be great in sandwiches, pizzas, dips or stews.

After being roasted, they’re more mustard yellow and brown than purple!

If you have a large enough pot, it’s easy to double this recipe.

If you can find the spiced clarified butter nitr qibe (a.k.a., nitter kibbeh), do use it, as it adds a more flavorful dimension to this dish. But a vegetable oil, or ghee, will suffice.

Another variation uses green string beans instead of cabbage, which is also yummy. Hmmm, since the zucchini are coming in now, I wonder how they’d work here…

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup nitr qibe, ghee, or canola oil, or a mix thereof.
• 1 large onion, diced into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
• 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 to 3/4 inch of ginger root, grated
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 to 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 pound round cabbage (about half a head), cut into 1 to 2 inch chunks
• 3/4 pound boiling-style potatoes (Yukon Golds are fine), peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
• 3/4 pound carrots, cut into 1 to 2 inch chunks
• salt, to taste

Method

1. Heat the nitr qibe or oil in a large pot over high heat. Sauté the onion until translucent, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and ginger, and stir for a minute or two until fragrant.
3. Stir in the turmeric, tomato paste, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and salt. Cover, lower heat to medium-low, and cook until the thick vegetables have become tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Stir every 5 to 10 minutes so that bits don’t stick and burn at the bottom of the pot.
4. Adjust salt levels, if desired. Serve with basmati rice, or a flatbread like injera.

Yedoro tibs on (yep, store-bought) injera.

Yedoro tibs might be a bit time-consuming to prepare, but the process is actually rather straightforward. Other than chopping, sautéing and simmering, the trickiest aspect us finding two key ingredients: the berbere spice mix and nitr qibe (nitter kibbeh), the spiced clarified butter. I recently discovered an Ethiopian grocery within reasonable driving distance (Abadir Grocery in Santa Clara, for the curious), so I was glad to have a chance to make this at home.

Berbere makes me think it’s an Ethiopian equivalent to India’s garam masala, but also containing LOTS of chilis. For nitr qibe, a bunch of herbs and spices are steeped in the butter for a long time while it clarifies. You could use ghee, or just oil, but the dish would lack complexity.

There’s a bone-in Ethiopian chicken stew, yedoro wat, which adds hardboiled eggs — something I’d like to try in a future version of this recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large onion, chopped finely
• 2 to 3 tablespoons nitr qibe
• 1/4 to 1/3 c white wine (something dryish and fruity, but not too acid) plus 2 teaspoons honey; but if you’re able to find Ethiopian tej, or even mead, use that instead of the white wine + honey combination.
• 1 tablespoon berbere powder; this yields a mild, yet warmingly tingly dish, but feel free to adjust the amount to taste.
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon coriander
• 1 whole black cardamom pod
• 1/8 teaspoon ground (green) cardamom
• 1/8 teaspoon ground fenugreek
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup water
• salt, to taste

Method

1. Slice the chicken breasts into small, bite-sized pieces; set aside.
2. In a large pot, sauté the onion in the nitr qibe until browned. This could take 20 to 30 minutes, but the onions really need to become caramelized for this dish.
3. Stir in the wine and honey, followed by all of the spices, chicken, and water.
4. Stir in salt, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes, until the chicken becomes tender. If the sauce seems too thin, thicken it by leaving the lid ajar during the last 10 or so minutes.
5. Serve with basmati rice, injera, or other flatbreads.

My version uses a rice cooker, because, well, it’s an appliance I frequently use.

Adapted from Daksha Mehta’s kesar, kaju bhaat (Gujarati saffron and cashew rice).

Ingredients

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1/3 cup slivered and blanched almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 2-inch piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 whole black cardamom pod
• a tiny pinch of saffron threads
• 1 tablespoon ghee, or vegetable oil
• salt, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups water

Method

1. Rinse the basmati in water until the water is no longer cloudy. I do this by putting the rice in a seive over a bowl, pouring water over the grains, swishing them around for a few seconds, then pouring out the water from the bowl; repeat 3 or 4 times. Drain and set aside.
2. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, roast the almonds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, black cardamom pod and saffron, until the almonds become golden and the spices fragrant. This takes about 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add the ghee (or oil) to the spices, and sauté for a minute or two.
4. Add the basmati, and sauté for another minute or two.
5. Pour the rice’n'spice mix into the rice cooker, add salt, and pour in the water. Cook according to your cooker’s instructions for white rice.
6. When the the rice is done, loosen the grains a bit (rice fluffing) with a large spoon before you serve it.

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Here’s another way to make use of both the zucchini and tomato piles! This soup has a gentle curry twist. If you want a sweet touch, add in the raisins. Otherwise, if your tomatoes are naturally quite sweet, you can omit them.

Ingredients

• 1 to 1 1/4 pounds zucchini, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 small to medium onion, chopped
• 1 to 2 tablespoons ghee, butter or olive oil
• 4 to 6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 1-inch ginger root, roughly chopped
• 2 to 3 teaspoons curry powder; I used Penzey’s Hot Curry Powder (Madras style).
• 1/2 pound tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 to 3 cups hot water
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup cashews
• a small pinch of saffron threads
• (optional) 1 to 2 tablespoons raisins
• salt and pepper, to taste
• garnishes (optional): yogurt, cream, etc…

Method

1. In a large pot, sauté the zucchini and onion in oil (or ghee or butter) over medium high heat until the onions become translucent. It’s okay if the zucchini fall apart or become somewhat mushy — they’ll get puréed in the end.
2. Stir in the garlic, ginger and curry. When those become fragrant, add the tomatoes, stock, water, almonds, cashews, saffron threads, and raisins, if using.
3. Bring to a simmer, set the heat to low, cover and cook until the tomatoes soften (fall apart) — about 15 to 25 minutes.
4. Purée the soup; I used a hand blender. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Serve with a dollop of yogurt or cream, if you want.

Ingredients (pretty similar, eh?)

• (reduced) 4 ounces whole wheat pastry flour
• (reduced) 1/2 ounce rice flour
• 1 1/2 ounces powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt
• (added) 1 3/4 ounces hazelnut meal or flour
• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
• (added) 3 to 4 teaspoons nut-flavored liqueur, like Frangelico
• extra sugar for sprinkling

Method

Basically the same as the whole wheat shortbread, except that I don’t sift the hazelnut meal with the other dry ingredients; I just add that separately to the processor bowl. Because the hazelnuts make the dough drier, I add liqueur at the end of the mixing phase, after the butter.

For another experiment, I might pan roast the hazelnut meal to deepen the nut flavor!

I’m slowly updating my previously read comics lists as well, most notably pointing out ones I highly recommend. I’ll also need to check for obsolete links, as well as to add a few more comics I’ve forgotten about…

• Furniture. We need a sofa, a dining table, and MOAR chairs.
• Window blinds. Including one for the sliding door, which hopefully won’t be a pain to operate.
• A new front door. We ordered it, but since the door is custom-made, it’ll arrive sometime in May or June.
• Shelves, etc. for organizing the pantry and hallway closet.
• Bookshelves and hanging pictures.
• Painting the exterior of the house.
• Painting a couple more rooms inside the house.
• A much better toaster oven.
• Unpacking (and re-storage) that never seems to end.

…Not to mention lots of cleanup.

If you have any favorite or recommended vendors or products for the above, online or brick and mortar, please do share! (I predict visits to the Container Store will exist in my future.

In terms of construction, the new bathroom is officially functional with its new shower door and medicine cabinet.

The refrigerator was finally moved into the kitchen, and its various waterlines connected. Simon did an awesome job of leveling the beast, as well as attaching the wooden panel. Like the dishwasher, it possesses a panoply of lights and sounds. Although it doesn’t trill every time we open a door, thankfully.

There’s still some carpentry remaining, namely getting more door moulding, and fixing the pocket door between the kitchen and den-entryway so it doesn’t bang about and get damaged. The carpenter did construct a code-compliant landing in the garage; it’s rather large, but at least it’s useable. As for remaining punch list items…well, most of them are either taken care of, or fall into the we’ll-deal-with-it-later-somehow basket.

I did decide to hire a cleaning service to wipe away the sawdust and other construction dust from the remodeled areas. So worth it, because I now cough significantly less.

Clean, but for how long? Answer: Less than 24 hours.

You may see more photographs at the gallery. With four pages of albums for this project, here’s a link to week 26.

The backyard landing was finished, and mouldings for new windows and some doors were installed. Sadly, it turns out the garage steps don’t meet city code, and will need to be rebuilt as a 3-foot landing with steps.

In addition, final work on the cabinets was completed, now that the kitchen flooring is finished. This consisted of corner piece trims and base shoes.

Added base shoe to the cabinets’ toe kicks.

You may see more photographs at the gallery. There are four pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to week 25.

Plumbing work brought us sinks, faucets, bathroom fixtures and a dishwasher. It’s great to have more than one working sink now, especially with all the counter space we have. More ways to wash things! More space for stuff! More than one toilet in the house!

“Upgrade your seat to a Washlet®!” Now they tell us, after we had that conveniently located wiring removed.

We also got a lot of floor work done. Not only did we get white oak flooring installed in the living-dining room (to be sanded and finished later, after the wood acclimates), but we finally had Marmoleum Click installed in the kitchen!

More messy drywall work ensued while fixing the firewall within the garage, in order to comply with the building code.

Carpentry continued: Steps from the kitchen to the garage and some door trim were installed. We learned that we need a proper landing to the backyard to satisfy code requirements; part of that has been built, but is incomplete since the framers ran out of wood.

Another painting milestone reached: We made a quick decision on the color for the new bathroom, and Simon carefully prepped and painted the room.

You may see more photographs at the gallery. There are now four pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to week 24.

Week 22 saw only one day where construction work occurred: Some cabinetry fixes to accommodate the microwave and convection ovens, and tuning of the HVAC system. No name selected yet for the humongous heat pump.

During week 23 framers started a backyard landing (or steps) at the sliding door, but did not complete it because they were unsure if, for purposes of passing inspection and adhering to plans, it needed to be a landing or a set of steps. We had some more electrical work bits finished, which finally resulted in plugging in the ovens and an outlet for the kitchen ventilation hood.

In addition, the Swanstone shower surround was installed in the new bathroom! And after much delay, the kitchen subfloor has been leveled, ready (we hope) for Marmoleum Click installation.

You may see more photographs at the gallery. There are three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to weeks 22 and 23.

…And several more electrical bits hooked up — including HVAC! Well, the HVAC system needs a lot of tweaking — but, hey — except at a dorm back in college, I’ve never lived in a place with air conditioning. My Bay Area mentality still resists the idea, but our HVAC system has a heat pump, which apparently is more energy efficient than a conventional A/C condenser. Not only will there be no gas fueling the system, it will be powered by the juice squeezed from the future solar panels, however indirectly.

In addition, the contractors recently started to install the appliances, but due to a lack of prepping and missing parts, that aspect is temporarily on hold. Part of confusion is a notably absent inner metal shelf for the microwave to sit on top of the oven. Bosch shows it in their parts’ catalogs, but there is no part number or name associated with it. As if it shouldn’t exist!

Vent hood set, but not functioning — no electrical outlet, for one. But I like how it makes the kitchen feel more like a kitchen. And yeah, those bright white wall plates and receptacles will depart soon, to make room for the steel and dark grey bits (sample near left).

You may see more photographs at the gallery. There are three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to week 21.

My, I’m large. What will you name me?

To add to the list of setbacks: We had told the general contractor about the uneven nature of the kitchen subfloor, due to the transition between old and new parts of the house, and they assured us that the flooring subcontractor would be able to make it level enough to lay down the tiles. But when the sub arrived, the subfloor wasn’t properly leveled by their (the sub’s) standards. Thus another delay.

Let’s step back, this being 20 weeks into the renovations, to review the major tasks remaining to do:

• Finish electrical work: install remaining fixtures, turn on remaining circuits (like HVAC!), label the electrical box, etc.
• Fix tile in bathroom floor, and install kitchen backsplash tile.
• Install plumbing fixtures in kitchen. It’ll be great to have more than one working sink on this property.
• Install kitchen appliances.
• Install the shower surround and shower door.
• Install bathroom fixtures.
• Correctly level kitchen subfloor, then install Marmoleum Click tiles.
• Install refrigerator and its waterline.
• Install and repair hardwood floors.
• Finish installing interior doors.
• Build wood landings for the garage and backyard.
• Install gutter downspouts.
• Install trim for windows, doors and baseboards.

The above list isn’t by any means comprehensive, of course. For example, it doesn’t include the punch list of minor items, such as debris to be removed, holes needing patching, and so forth.

As usual, you may see more photographs at the gallery. There are three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to weeks 19 and 20.

We were happy to find a color for the living-dining room, then paint it ourselves. That just leaves the den-entryway, hallway and new bathroom — eventually. Also, we had two sun tubes installed in the new hallway, the darkest region of the house. They’re only 10 inches in diameter, but wow, do they bring in a lot of light!

In addition, the counter tops were finally installed, after some delay in either fabrication or shipment (or both). The result, though: beauteous.

Zodiaq and Caesarstone are two of the more popular brands of engineered quartz, but we lucked out by seeing samples of Legacy, a similar material by the Verona Marble Company. We wanted a dark grey, but not too dark, with a grain that was neither too fine nor too chunky. Legacy’s “Africa” fit the bill perfectly. For contrast, we got a lighter grey surface with the same variable granularity for the island counter tops, called “White Ash” by Caesarstone.

It was also good to finally get a door installed between the kitchen and garage, as seen in the above photo. The door really helps cut down on drafts, especially after Simon sprayed in insulating foam between its frame and the drywall. There’s still a sizeable gap at the bottom of the door, but that should be fixed after the floor is installed.

Unfortunately, the shower in the new bathroom had to be redone by repositioning the pan against the studs, so that the (future) surrounding surface will be flush against both the pan and the greenboard. (We learned that a shower pan should ideally go in before any greenboard, and of course before setting tiles. In our case, though, the shower pan was installed after the drywall phase.) This also means repairing the floors tiles that were so carefully installed a couple weeks ago.

Again, you may see more photographs at the gallery. There are three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to weeks 17 and 18.

In addition, we had floor tile installed in the new bathroom.

They also completed the brown coat layer of the exterior stucco. We’re eager for the third and final coat to be applied, because then the gutters can be finished (downspouts would be handy in this weather), as well as get the HVAC running.

Another item from the past week, a particularly beautiful one IMO, is that Simon patiently wrangled our new network wiring chaos into a neat compartment. (Okay, so there are still some cables needing termination. But this is SO much better than our previous situation, which consisted of wires all over the place and haphazardly positioned devices. Interwebs, tellyvizhons and fonez, bring eet on!

Once again, you may see more photographs at the gallery. There are three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to week 16.

The following week saw more activity: Second “brown coat” layer of exterior stucco applied, kitchen subfloor raised with 1/2″ plywood so that the cabinet height is more usable, the template made for the engineered quartz countertops, and some electrical fixtures installed, including lights, outlets and ceiling fans.

Lamp shades for the pendants will come later.

We’re now in the finishes part of renovations, which means going through another round of “hurry up and wait” — essentially waiting for materials and labor to be ordered and scheduled, respectively.

But speaking of finishes, we (well, mostly Simon) managed to paint the kitchen. Pretty easy (okay, except for the time in prepping), since there’s not much wall space remaining after cabinets and tile. The tile, though, will come after the counter tops, which will be next week, maybe?

Plus, here’s another cabinetry photo, because why not? At a glance the panels have a Shaker look, but up close you’ll see the inset trim which sets it apart from that popular style. Subtle, yet profound — for us, at least.

For the curious: The doors are a cope and stick inset style called “Denmark,” constructed from beech, by CalDoor. Our cabinet maker applied conversion varnish to give the wood a warm, durable clear finish.

Again, you may see more photographs at the gallery. There are now three pages of albums for this project, so here’s a link to weeks 14 and 15.