2008-07-24

Summer CSA Week 8

Yikes. Week 8.
  • another “not for storage” onion and its top
  • 4 ears of fresh sweet corn
  • 2 zucchini
  • cucumber
  • green bell peppers
  • green beans
  • kale
  • (Hillside orchard) apricots
  • peaches
  • tomato mountain beefsteak and juliet tomatoes (these guys grow basically two things: tomatoes, and garlic.)

last week's box

I was remiss last week because we were busy dealing with Scott’s parents visiting – so here is last week’s box + other stuff from the market on Wednesday…
  • peaches & apricots (I forget which farm)
  • blueberries
  • mizuna
  • beets!
  • onion “not for storage”
  • cucumber
  • collard greens
  • daikon
  • red bok choi
  • (Smits) cherry tomatoes
  • (Smits) cilantro
  • basil
  • (Iron Creek) tomatoes

2008-07-23

to make

  • corn pudding with basil; to go with broiled or poached fish and some thai-like sauce
  • last week’s bok choy, with tofu
  • green pepper, summer squash, and mushroom fajitas
  • moong dal with zucchini; methi roti
  • prik khing with crispy ground pork; cucumber and tomato salad

2008-07-14

Last week's box, and now preparing for scott's parents.

I zipped up to the market last Wednesday morning at 7 before heading off to the Political Methodology summer meeting on the 8:30 train, but we did manage to take a picture and I didn't get around to posting it before.

  • orange and white carrots
  • [smits herbs] basil
  • chives
  • scallions
  • [smits herbs] fennel
  • squashes
  • cherries
  • potatoes
  • eggs (I usually don't include them since we get them every week)
  • [klug] apricots
  • and the bag at the left is two chickens (about 3.5lb each)!
  • We made an awesome salad Tim and Steve’s last night: baby lettuce, arugula, spinach, fennel, basil, parsley, chives, fresh and dried apricots, dried cranberries, and pine nuts, with pomegranate molasses and orange olive oil vinaigrette
  • Some basil and scallion and a nectarine also went on some broiled chicken with trader joe’s red thai sauce. Also very tasty but we filled up on bread and cheese and salad.
  • The squashes will become something Indian most likely. We also went up to Patel Brothers on Devon yesterday and got just about everything we wanted (many pounds of dal, nigella seeds, etc.)
  • The cherries and apricots were gone toute de suite.
  • One of the chickens will be used in a dish from 660 Curries: kori gassi, “Mangalorean chicken curry with tamarind and coconut milk,” of which Iyer writes,
    Thick, coconut milk-based curries from Mangalore, in southwestern India are called gassis. They are made tart with tamarind and are spiced with roasted assertive spices like chiles, fenugreek, and peppercorns. This classic curry incorporates pourltry, but fish and other meats are also fair game. Two forms of coconut, one as shreds, the other as milk, surprisingly do not overpower the curry, so any of you coconut-phobes out there, go ahead and indulge in this. Mound it over red or white rice.
    Among its ingredients: coriander, white poppy seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, 4–6 thai dried chiles, tamarind paste.
  • Among other curries to make soon that now we are prepared for is gujurati-style black and yellow chickpeas, and black chickpeas (kala chana) with coconut-chile sauce. His head notes for the latter are also excellent:
    A robust legume like this one needs assertive spices, and I usually find myself looking to the south (india, that is) for its dried red chiles, coconut, and coriander seeds. Serve this with the other southern (USA, that is) delicacy: warm, jalapeño-kissed corn bread. You’ll rethink your traditional chili–cornbread strategy for dinner.
  • Scott’s mother has requested that I make a “spaghetti and meat sauce” for them / with her. I really like my bolognese (informed by the likes of Marcella Hazan and Mario Batali, but bending obviously to what is on hand; improvisation is a must). Somehow I don’t think they’re anticipating a sauce of 4–5 meats (ground beef, pork, veal, prosciutto ends, pancetta), a bottle of wine, and finsihed with cream.
  • One of the things I was excited to get at Zingerman’s last week in Ann Arbor that I have not been able to find (admittedly I could look harder) was La Quercia (Iowa) guanciale. I will not be sharing any of this dish with Scott’s parents. Scott indeed is lucky to get any, especially because along the lines of “brown sauce” and “scallop vegetables” guanciale for him is “special pancetta.” Kind of like Batali saying prosciutto bianco for Americans when serving them lardo.

2008-07-13

apsrTable

I have needed to do this for a very long time: apsrtable is now completely rewritten. It is temporarily called apsrTable to avoid much confusion with the old one, does things that the old one didn't, and is on its way to being more extensible. It handles lm and glm objects for now. Documentation and formal packaging I will wrap up in the next week.

Its latex code is now much readable, still uses dcolumn, still handles user-supplied standard errors, and it adds a host of features like omitting some rows of like controls, and model naming is flexible. Most importantly it matches variable names across models and leaves holes where they belong. Here's a snippet of sample output:
apsrTable(m1,m2,m3,omitcoef=4:17,lev=.1,align="c",model.counter=6,se="robust")

%Latex table generated by Mike Malecki's apsrTable()
%Uncomment the following line and the end one to change figure versions
%if you are using a full-featured family such as Minion Pro.
\figureversion{tabular}
\begin{tabular}{cD{.}{.}{-1}D{.}{.}{-1}D{.}{.}{-1}}\hline
 & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Model 6} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Model 7} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Model 8}\\ 
%                   & Model 6  & Model 7  & Model 8 \\ 
(Intercept)         & 71.95    & 35.95    & 38.83   \\ 
                    & (44.44)  & (38.63)  & (45.81) \\ 
maj.parl            & -2.03    & -4.81    & -0.86   \\ 
                    & (3.38)   & (3.52)   & (3.98)  \\ 
maj.pres            & -10.50   & -14.45 * &         \\ 
                    & (6.32)   & (5.42)   &         \\ 
lrCentered          & -1.26    &          & 3.71    \\ 
                    & (5.07)   &          & (5.52)  \\ 
pro.pres:lrCentered & -3.59    &          & -6.27   \\ 
                    & (6.61)   &          & (6.34)  \\ 
maj.parl:lrCentered & -4.46    &          & -8.52   \\ 
                    & (5.78)   &          & (6.73)  \\ 
pro.pres            &          & -8.81 *  & -3.36   \\ 
                    &          & (4.99)   & (5.46)  \\ 
N                   & 46       & 46       & 46      \\ 
$R^2$               & 0.82     &          & 0.81    \\ 
adj. $R^2$          & 0.70     &          & 0.67    \\ 
AIC                 &          & 310.38   &         \\ 
BIC                 &          & 434.72   &         \\ 
$\log L$           &          & -87.19   &         \\\hline
\multicolumn{ 4 }{l}{ Robust standard errors in parentheses} \\
\end{tabular}

\figureversion{proportional}

2008-07-10

bikes v cars

from will wilkinson:
For example, I ride home almost every day the wrong way up a one way street, and nobody coming the other way gives a damn. Why should they? I honestly don’t give a fig about my carbon footprint (and anyway, since I’m not a breeder, I really should get carbon carte blanche).

2008-07-03

It’s like the August 2001 PDB

I can just hear the cries of, “no one could have predicted this!” American car companies are just bloody stupid. I will give some credit to GM, though its effort with the Chevrolet Volt is probably too little too late for it. It spent most of the past decade making Hummers.

The seismic shift by consumers to small cars from large vehicles has blindsided virtually every automaker. Only Honda Motor, where sales rose 1 percent in June, appears to have been prepared. The Japanese automaker’s Fit subcompact nearly doubled its sales during the month, and its Civic sedan set a June record.

By contrast, Toyota executives said they could not meet demand for its Prius hybrid-electric car or its small, fuel-efficient Corolla and Yaris models.

2008-07-02

lists

indian store

  • kala chana (black chickpeas)
  • toovar (pigeon peas), whole and split
  • rajma
  • lobhia (black eyed peas) – curiously absent from both jewel and wholefoods!
  • urad (black lentil)
  • mung
  • besan (chickpea flour)
  • prepared kala masala?
  • methi, fresh and frozen
  • kokum if possible
  • tamarind paste

thai|viet store

  • coconut milk
  • lotus root
  • red curry paste
  • lemongrass
  • chilis!

chinese store (one with japanese stuff)

  • sesame oil
  • furikake!
  • sushi nori
  • mirin

interrupted week

We are going down to St Louis this weekend, so I can do some stuff before the methods meeting next week, and for Sebastian’s birthday and party. This affects food planning in two ways: we might bring one or two things down with us (in addition to the beautiful berries purchased for a sauce to go with his cake), and other stuff it would be nice to make a lot and freeze for next week. The box this week is extremely green and leafy, making that task a little trickier.

  • massive nappa cabbage
  • a giant kohlrabi
  • bekana
  • lettuce
  • spinach
  • arugula
  • cherries and raspberries from a MI farm whose name I forget
  • black raspberries from Klug
  • calzones with spinach and ricotta
  • macaroni and cheese with chorizo
  • collard greens with bacon
  • bekana and some nappa stir fried somehow, perhaps with noodles, and oysterbrown sauce
  • lettuce salad with trader joes flax pasta, egg (for me), maybe lentil patties
  • thai salad with nappa (much fish sauce, basil, cilantro, lime, toasted rice, maybe chicken or beef)
  • swordfish with arugula and basil sauce