FeedMe

Hubbley Goodness

For Hubble Space Telescope fans: NASA has been achieving steady progress toward restoring operation. The 'scope failed on Sept 27 and NASA delayed a Space Shuttle repair mission, which will be the final service call to the Hubble.

They decided to switch over to the "B side" electronics -- a dicey proposition, since they have been idle for 19 years. Imagine finding a radio in your garage that you bought in 1987 and turning it on, and you get the idea. Except that this is a bunch of radios, three processors (including a pre-Pentium Intel '486 and a '386), and a mess of — well, other stuff.

The blow-by-blow description has been interesting to watch. The systems tossed themselves into "Safe Mode," powering down due to detected faults, but these so far have been artifacts. As they learned the causes, they have gotten more and more systems to wake up. Most recently, they found that the safety system was checking for a supply voltage before the monitoring gear had collected the data. The voltage was up, but the monitoring gadget didn't know it yet.

See the report from Popular Mechanics. If you want to really geek out, a blog from electrical engineer Steve Leibson goes into great detail on the engineering challenges. There are several articles. Click on the Hubble-threads listed under "Recent Posts."

Me on TV

A few days ago, I posted that a TV crew saw me on the street, recognized the untapped talent, and made me star of their show. Or something like that.

I found the clip online and added it to the original post. Go there, click play, and move forward  to 2:50 and there I am!

Penzey's in Menlo Park

Foodgal says Penzey's is opening a retail store (finally) in my area! See the details...

If you don't know about Penzey's, they are an excellent online spice merchant. I wrote about them in an article on herbs and spices.

Me Want Burger

Carolyn Jung's FoodGal blog details a gourmet experience in a burger. "A $12 burger made of dry-aged strip steak, bleu cheese, arugula, and onions caramelized with a splash of sweet-tangy balsamic."

Ohhhh, I need one. But they're in Los Angeles.

What do we have in the Bay Area? I will not touch the gray patties at the burger chains. Not to sound like a snob but I need a burger that is Worth the Sat Fat! Like Clarke’s and Kirk’s, charred well on the outside, medium rare in the middle.

Any suggestions?

Me on TV

If you're in the San Francisco area, tune in to Best of the Bay on KRON TV, channel 4, on Saturday at 5:30 and you just might see Mr. FeedMe!

I was in Lafayette yesterday with my brother, his wife, and my mother, visiting from New York. We say a TV crew outside the Yankee Pier, recording what turned out to be the opening segment for an episode of Best of the Bay. Host Janelle Marie did the "Let's go inside" bit (though ironically, they weren't going inside — those segments were recorded on another occasion — and laughed about the lobster door handle, which she called the lob-knob. (I want one.)

We talked a while and she asked if we wanted to help introduce the next segment on pubs. I am not a TV guy but what the heck? Suddenly there I was introducing Alameda's best pub.

See it here. My segment is at 2:50:

Meat in Chicken: Update

I updated one of my favorites: Chicken stuffed with meat loaf.

I love this recipe. It's takes some time but it's very showy and really delicious.

Roasted Squash and Beet Medley

Roasting is a great way to cook vegetables, especially root vegetables. The heat concentrates flavor as water evaporates away and the heat caramelizes the sugars.

This is a new combination that turned out to be simple, easy and really good. I liked having two different vegetables with complementary color and flavor. Dicing made it cook well and further intensified the roasting.

Roasted Squash and Beet Medley

1 butternut squash
2 beets

Prepare two plastic bags by filling with air, twisting closed and squeezing to make sure they have no leaks.

Peel vegetables and cut into 3/4-inch cubes. (Hint: Wear plastic gloves while handling beets so you don't wind up with ruby paws.) Put the beets into one bag and the squash into the other.

Add 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil and 2 teaspoons of salt to each bag along with spices or herbs. I used different but complementary herbs in each. I used 1 tsp. anise seed for the beets and 1/2 tsp. five-spice powder for the squash.

Close each bag and toss to mix, squeeze out excess air and leave while you prepare the rest of the meal (1/2 hour  to several hours or overnight).

Spread on a sheet pan and roast until tender, probably 45 minutes to an hour at 400 degrees.

Or cook on the grill using a perforated metal grill basket, an hour at medium heat.

Hubble Trouble

Who doesn't love the inspiring images we get from the Hubble Space Telescope? Alas, it has had troubles and just weeks before the launch of its lastrepair mission, Just two weeks before the next schedule repair mission, the whole machine has failed. NASA has a good record for rescuing victory from the jaws of defeat and the mission is delayed while they revise the strategy.

This interesting report, on the blog of electrical engineer Steve Leibson, gives an engineer's inside view of the troubles.