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Sugo? It's Pasta Sauce. Goooood Pasta Sauce!

I made this (with a lot of adaptations) and it's great. Sugo is Italian for "sauce." It's a hearty pasta sauce, meaty -- almost like a chili or a sloppy joe sauce!

Perbacco, by the way, is a high-end restaurant in San Francisco.

Here is what I made (less meat, more vegetables, fewer ingredients, more tomato); followed by the original, which I found on Foodgal Carolyn Jung's blog

Simplified Version of Perbacco's Pork Sugo

Serves 4-6

1 onion, peeled
4 stalks celery
3 allspice berries
2 cloves or 1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 peppercorns
1-1/2 ounces dry shitake mushrooms, soaked in 1 quart water, liquid strained and reserved
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound ground pork
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 bottle red wine
1 quart low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon thyme leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sage leaves, finely chopped
3 bay leaves
1 large can crushed tomato
1 can tomato paste
2 pounds pasta
Butter, to finish
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Chop carrot, onion, celery and mushrooms in a food processor.

In a spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, grind allspice, cloves and pepper.

In a large Dutch oven, sweat vegetables and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat until they become soft, 5 to 7 minutes, then add the pork, stirring until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Add wine, broth, mushroom liquid, herbs and spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and reduce by half for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.  Add tomatoes and simmer on very low heat for 5 hours.

Allow sauce to simmer gently until it has emulsified, about 20 minutes.

Boil the pasta in well-salted water. If using fresh pasta, toss the pasta in butter and season it well with salt and pepper. Then serve immediately in shallow bowls, topped with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sauce. If using short pasta, toss the pasta in the sauce with some butter and serve immediately in shallow bowls. Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese.

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Perbacco's 5-Hour Pork Sugo

(serves 8-10)
1 carrot, trimmed
1 onion, peeled
4 stalks celery
2-3 juniper berries
1 allspice berry
2 cloves
2 peppercorns
4 ounces dry porcini mushrooms, soaked in 1 quart water, liquid strained and reserved
1/4 cup olive oil
2 pounds ground pork
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bottle red wine, such as Barbera or Dolcetto
1 quart low-sodium beef broth
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon thyme leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sage leaves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup crushed tomato
1 cup cream
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds fresh pasta such as tagliatelle, fettucine, papparadelle or tajarin, or dried short pasta such as rigatoni or penne
Butter, to finish
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Chop carrot, onion, celery and mushrooms in a food processor.

In a spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, grind juniper, allspice, cloves and pepper.

In a large Dutch oven, sweat vegetables and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat until they become soft, 5 to 7 minutes, then add the pork, stirring until cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Add wine, broth, mushroom liquid, herbs and spices. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and reduce by half for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Add tomatoes and simmer on very low heat for 5 hours.

Add cream and allow sauce to simmer gently until it has emulsified, about 20 minutes. (If freezing the sauce, wait to add the cream until just before serving the pasta).

Boil the pasta in well-salted water. If using fresh pasta, toss the pasta in butter and season it well with salt and pepper. Then serve immediately in shallow bowls, topped with 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sauce. If using short pasta, toss the pasta in the sauce with some butter and serve immediately in shallow bowls. Garnish with fresh Parmesan cheese.

Pan-Seared Ostrich

Ever had ostrich? It's a lot like beef, but much leaner.

It must be cooked no more than medium. It sears really well, developing a great crust. A very hot cast iron pan works especially well.

Here is how I prepared it. I had about 12 oz.

Pan Seared Ostrich Steaks with Shallot-Mushroom Pan Sauce

Serving Size: 2

12 oz. ostrich
1 onion
2 shallots
1 oz. dried shitake
3/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon rosemary, finely chopped
1 tablespoon thyme

Soak dried mushrooms in hot water for ten minutes. Salt and pepper the ostrich pieces on both sides. Slice onions and shallots. Saute in heavy pan, preferably cast iron, until lightly browned. Toward end, add mushrooms. Cook until any water released by the mushrooms has mostly cooked away. Remove all ingredients to a plate.

Wipe pan and place on high heat. Heat until very hot. Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil and add ostrich, leaving room between the pieces. If there are any juices left from the ostrich pieces, save. Leave the ostrich alone, resisting the temptation to move them, until well seared, about 2 minutes. Turn once to sear the other side, another 1-2 minutes.

Add vegetables back to pan to heat. Allow to cook (another minute or so) until meat is rare or medium-rare (no more than 145 degrees internal). Note that it will continue to cook after being removed from the pan, so remove when it is more rare than you would like.

Remove meat to platter and add all other ingredients, along wit any meat drippings. Cook on high heat to make a pan sauce. If you lose too much moisture, add 1/2 cup water and continue to cook down. Pour over meat and arrange meat atop onions and mushrooms.

Car Buying Aids

A friend, Dave Lloyd, bought a car recently and summarized several ways to get a good deal:

AutoCheck and CarFax let you check a vehicle's VIN number and report on title/ownership history, reported accidents, and odometer readings. AutoCheck is the better deal, as it's 20% less (go with unlimited rather than single vehicle), easier to read, and a bit more comprehensive. 

Edmunds True Market Value Pricing is invaluable for getting accurate pricing on both new/used - more accurate than Kelley Blue Book.
<http://www.edmunds.com/tmv/index.html>http://www.edmunds.com/tmv/index.html

Consumer Reports is also useful for evaluating cars and lots more - $26 annually is a steal.

These were the best sites I found for pricing cars regionally:
www.motors.ebay.com/
www.automart.com
www.autotrader.com
www.carsdirect.com
www.carmax.com is good too but I found the volume limited and it's
based purely on dealer partnerships.

Ultimately, though, after driving a few through private sellers and knowing price ranges, I called 3 local dealers, told them I was pre-qualified and what I wanted, and bargained from there.

Internet Marketing Job -- for Obama!

As an Internet marketer, I see jobs fly by. Here's an interesting one. Interesting to me because -- well, what a cool job. But also interesting to see the listing and the requirements. This is more sophisticated than I'd vave expected in the world of politics.

They're looking for "Internet experts" in search engine marketing, search engine optimization, online media planning, Internet display ad buying, ad optimization analytics, DART ad server, brand advertising, etc.

I wonder if all the candidates are up to speed on how to use the Internet.

Gaaaa! Microsoft!!!!

Morons.

In writing the article on HealthVault, I tried to log in. Won't let me.

I tried "Forgot Password" and it tells me the e-mail address I am using is not a valid login. So I try to register anew using that login. It tells me that it's already in use.

Click for help and I get a non-helpful FAQ that resizes the browser window to a tall, 1-inch wide window. Huh?

Anyway. It doesn't recognize my login except when I try to use it to register and then it recognizes that it's taken (yes, I know!!). Stuck. How much you want to bet their customer support doesn't respond?

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Postscript. I went back to request support. There is a Feedback link. Guess what it gave me:

OK, that's funny.

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P.P.S. Microsoft, to their credit, responded to my tech support request within the promised 24 hours. They suggested going to the Windows Live ID site and managing the login there, where I was able to reset the password. But that password is not strong enough for HealthVault and a stronger form (which I use on financial sites) also was not strong enough. In fact, a random strings of letters and numbers, like frt67h8j98I is not strong enough!

I clicked their tips for making a strong password and it goes to a Help page (after resizing the browser window to that ridiculously narrow window again) that did not talk about making a strong password.

Shrug.

Google Health Joins Microsoft HealthVault

With the release of Google Health will come, I expect, another round of privacy paranoia. I wrote about this before, when Microsoft's HealthVault appeared. Both services are voluntary but it doesn't take much insight to recognize that before long, you won't have a choice. Your medical records will be consolidated and networked and if you want health care, you will be in the databases — just as you are if you drive a car, use a credit card, or have a job.

It is perhaps unnerving that the institutions that are rushing forward to fill the need are companies committed to cataloging and sharing information. But I think that's a good thing: These companies have a lot to lose if any of the information escapes.

Regardless of who does it, there is an urgent need. Health care makes poor use of information technology now, way behind other industries. There are great benefits in economy, efficiency, quality of medical service — and privacy. Consolidated records are safer. Most of us now have dozens of records, all different, under poor control, in each doctor's office, hospital, diagnostic lab, or pharmacy. Few of us even know where all our records are. I think this is a boon and it's been a long time coming. 

How to Create

A friend was having trouble getting a site design started. My two cents:

• Don't try to make something perfect, or even excellent. It will keep you from starting at all. Understand that it will evolve.
• Put a stake in the ground. Start at one corner and do something - even if it feels mediocre.
• Limit the flexibility. When you have a truly blank slate, the infinite possibilities can be paralyzing, so make up a theme, a concept. It doesn't have to be spot-on, or even relevant. Just something to give a direction. In product design, they sometimes refer to a "design language." Pick something -- colors, feeling, theme song, an imagined environment, a theme, a message.
• Take inspiration from other works but use that only as a seed, to grow your crystal in your own way.
• Just design. Let the content, the design process steer you. Stephen King, in his excellent book On Writing, talks about letting the characters tell the story. Imagine them and their situation and just write, letting them live in your mind. You become a spectator and just tell the story as they work it out. Likewise for a web site, your copy, or anything else. Build the  theme in your mind and let it guide you rather than you trying to guide it.
• Seek feedback from others but not too soon and don't listen too much.

Good Clock, Good Service

I have had a LaCrosse Technology Atomic Clock for years. Dead accurate, it sets itself by radio to the National Bureau of Standards' radio time reference, WWVB. And costs less than $20. Sweet.

But when the government changed the dates for switching to Daylight Savings, my clock didn't know, so for a couple of weeks in the spring and again in the fall, it's off by an hour unless I mess with it.

To make the story short, even though the clock is years out of warranty, LaCrosse Technology replaced the movement with one that's smarter, for free. They did it quickly and were courteous.

I would buy from these folks again.