Dale Berra's Stash

Cranberry -- Protectorate of the North

2012-01-28T22:22:00.004-05:00

Continuing in a counter-clockwise direction around the compass, the next population center outside the city to highlight is Cranberry to the north. Cranberry exploded in population all throughout the 1990's, to the point that it was one of the top 10 growth areas in the United States.

Cranberry is located just over the border from Allegheny County, in Butler County's southwest corner, which is part of the allure for its population growth thanks to a much lower tax rate. It also sits at the point where the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) passes over Interstate 79. This provides great access for trucks to service the large amount of commercial and industrial businesses here, while also providing fantastic access to major roads for normal motorists. And by the way, Route 19 (leading to McKnight Road) and Route 228 also come through here, too.

All of this traffic, coupled with the volcanic increase in population, led Cranberry to experience terrible traffic. Within the past 7 or 8 years, though, PENNDOT and the Turnpike Commission have done some major projects to try and alleviate the mess. The Turnpike Connector allows vehicles on I-79 to go straight to I-76 without having to clog up Cranberry's roads. Additionally, the Cranberry toll booth was eliminated and replaced with a mainline massively wide toll station 3 miles outside of the original exit.

The interesting part of Cranberry is that the vast majority of the commercial and residential developments are located in the southern sector of the Township. There are huge swathes of land in the north and eastern part that remain rural farms or woodlands. It is conceivable that if the City of Butler continues to struggle and rot away on the vine that Cranberry Township could become the County seat within 50 years. The drawback to that would be that it would be located in the southwest corner of the County and not be geographically centered for the other residents of the County.

Cranberry Township is well run, with a fantastic manager overseeing the growth and development in Jerry Andree. They have a robust staff of senior officials in the Public Works and Engineering departments as well. Cranberry received a huge shot in the arm when Westinghouse relocated their entire corporate headquarters from Monroeville to Cranberry a couple of years ago.

Cranberry has better planning than the previous post of Monroeville, but it is still a sprawled out community. They do have a very impressive array of parks and speciality parks, plus their own municipally-owned golf course. They also have a "neo-traditional" neighborhood that pushed the homes closer to the road and closer together to encourage communication between neighbors.

Similar to all four municipalities that I'll be discussing, Cranberry is the kind of place that you can live, work, shop, and play all without leaving the community. It's not a perfect place, but it is a good place to set up shop while still having access to Pittsburgh (about 12 miles north of the city via I-279/I-79).

Monroeville -- Protectorate of the East

2012-01-26T21:08:00.003-05:00

Back in the days of the Roman and Greek empires, outlying cities would be the scouts for the main cities of Rome and Athens. If trouble was brewing, they would send scouts to the main city to report on it.

Fast forward to the 1980's and 90's and people were fleeing from the main cities to the suburbs, accelerating a trend started in the 1960's known as White Flight, when the white middle class abandoned the urban areas of America.

Due to better services and lower tax rates, Pittsburgh is no stranger to this phenomenon. As I was going to a seminar last week in Monroeville, it dawned on me that Pittsburgh has 4 major population/commercial nodes on each point of the compass surrounding the city. Today's post will be about Monroeville, our gateway to the East. Gateway is ironic in the usage there, as that is also the name of the school district that serves Monroeville.

As a child growing up in the North Hills during the 1980's, my parents frequently dragged me to the Monroeville Mall when they wanted to go to a "nice mall". This was pre-Ross Park Mall opening in 1987. Many a Sunday was spent in the back of my parents car driving Allegheny River Boulevard, Lime Hollow Road, Rodi Road, and then business 22.

I go to Monroeville on work related reasons about twice a year now and view it in a whole different prism, now from a land development/urban planning perspective. Monroeville is stuck. They're stuck between the "dying on the vine" big box mall complexes, rapidly becoming dinosaurs and the newer sleeker strip malls that serve a younger, tech-savvy population.

There was a pretty interesting looking new strip mall with a gym and an AT&T store on one end of Monroeville, replete with a lot of glass and aluminum cladding. But it was the exception and not the rule in this slip-shod of a design business district. A driver's eyes are visually raped as you move from the Turnpike down Business 22 and into Wilkens Township. There are practically no trees, tons of garish signs at varying heights, and strip malls stacked on big boxes intertwined in chain restaurants. And that doesn't even get into the abomination of the old Expo Mart and Monroeville Mall, both criminally underutilized at this point. I won't even start a rant about how pedestrian unfriendly Monroeville is, either.

Monroeville is trying, though. I did notice a small stretch of decorative street lights in front of one re-developed mall. The old Wickes Furniture is now a halfway-decent Convention Center with a Doubletree right next door. Monroeville is a by-product of the 60's and 70's, so it's change to at least the early 2000's will take some time.

Losing Westinghouse's massive operation to Cranberry (an upcoming Protectorate post) probably stung Monroeville a bit in terms of income taxes and business taxes. Hopefully Monroeville has heard of this new thing called "green design" and incorporates that into any potential re-designs.

Sifting Through the Discarded Memories of Others

2012-01-21T21:52:00.005-05:00

DB~ and I like to watch Storage Wars on A&E, as does most of her family. While watching an episode a month or so ago, we used the Google machine to see if there were any storage auctions in the Pittsburgh area. Sure enough, there's a circuit of auctions throughout the region.

We found one today that started in Robinson at 8 am and went to Etna at 11 am, with a stop in Forest Hills afterwards. We went to just the Etna one and took DB~'s parents and met her brother there. There were 7 units for auction at the Etna facility under the 62nd Street Bridge, but unlike the show the auction itself was held all in one place, so you had to take notes to remember what was in each unit.

The one unit had some interesting furniture that could appeal to a restorer, but it wasn't for any of us. That one sold for about $200. Five of the other six units had mostly junk and all went for under $100. The real prize unit, compared to the others, had an interesting shuffleboard/bowling type of game. It seemed old, perhaps 40-50 years old, and we overheard another buyer saying it could be worth $1500 by itself. There were also some interesting furniture pieces and a plate tamper for construction. This locker went for $1800, so those buyers may have been right about that bowling shuffleboard game.

After that auction, we headed to Burgatory for lunch. It was fantastic, as always, but the best part was we got there at noon and didn't have to wait at all. As soon as we got seated, the waiting area started to fill up. By the time we left, they were waiting out the door.

After we left Burgatory, DB~ and I still felt like poking around, so we drove into Lawrenceville. DB~ heard about this cool store called Divertido (Spanish for "fun") so we checked that out. We came away with a Pizza "Pi" cutter in the shape of the mathematical symbol for pi.

When we left there, we stopped in an antique store called Scavengers. Its owner, a gentleman named Al, was quite interesting to take to about his love of Pittsburgh beer brewery collectibles. None of the stuff behind the counter was for sale, as it was part of his personal collection, which was a shame as there was some cool stuff from a brewery I never heard of before called E&O Brewery at the site of the current Penn Brewery.

Aside from the brand-new Pizza Pi cutter, we didn't buy anything today. But we met some saw some interesting folk at the storage auction and got to meet a quirky antique dealer and hear his stories. That alone made this snowy January day a good day. Getting to see DB~'s dad elated to go to a storage auction was the icing on the cake.

The Devil in the White Kitchen

2012-01-20T20:01:00.004-05:00

On Thursday, DB~ hosted Book Club at our house to discuss The Devil In the White City. I imagine that the night goes like this:
Talk about work and/or kids for 30 minutes
Discuss the book for 30 minutes
Complain about husbands/boyfriends the remaining 2 hours
Eat and drink wine throughout all these things above

Of course, I'm just guessing about this because --- The First Rule of Book Club....You don't talk about Book Club.

So I got scarce and hung out at my buddy's house for the night, watching old episodes of G.I. Joe that he DVR'ed and then the premiere of Archer. But before I left, I got a picture of DB~ in the kitchen.

Since the book is set at the Chicago's World Fair in the 1890's, DB~ wanted to make Fair Food. She had Cracker Jacks (invented for the Fair), Kettle Corn, and made Funnel Cakes from scratch. Here's the recipe she used:

3 eggs
2 cups of milk
4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp. salt
1T baking powder

Beat eggs with milk and gradually beat in the flour, sugar, salt and making powder. Beat until very smooth. While holding the opening of the funnel closed, pour the batter in the funnel. Open end of funnel over hot oil swirling to make patterns…starting at the center and working outward. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes about 30 funnel cakes (depending on size).

The snowfall scared a few girls off, but the 5 that were there enjoyed the funnel cakes she said.

Shrimp Stir Fry with Daikon

2012-01-18T22:36:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday, I cooked an Asian meal for us. I wanted to do some different textures and cuts on the vegetables to make it interesting. I peeled the skin off of 2 carrots and then continued peeling them into thin slices in the bowl. I then julienned a handful of celery sticks, diced some red peppers, and diced some white onions. I added some canned baby corns, as well. I put 1/2 tsp of white pepper into the bowl for some spice and mixed it all up.

I bought daikon, which is a Japanese radish, but didn't want to put it in the stir fry and overpower the rest of the veggies. I read up about daikon and saw that it is popular shredded and mixed in a ponzu sauce (citrus flavored soy sauce). So I got out the shredder and did a medium shred on the peeled daikon. I squeezed all the water out of the daikon and put in a small bowl. On the side, I mixed 2/3 cup of orange juice and splashed in some soy sauce. Once I was happy with the taste, sweet yet salty, I poured the faux-ponzu sauce on the daikon and let it soak in to it.

I stir-fried the vegetables in a bottled stir-fry sauce and at the end put 12 shrimp in to the wok to cook for 2-3 minutes. I kept the daikon on the side and it complemented the spicy stir fry quite well. On the side I had some store-bought egg rolls as well.

I served the dinner with chopsticks to give DB~ and I a challenge, too. Everything turned out quite well.

Pork Chops with Quinoa

2012-01-12T20:07:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday night, I wanted to go a little outside the normal zone. I'm pretty comfortable making pork tenderloins, but I haven't really done much with pork chops. This past weekend I purchased some butterflied boneless pork chops, but didn't have anything specific in mind.

I did have some leftover butternut squash that I tossed in nutmeg from a few days ago. To the squash, I added some half-and-half cream, and a few leaves of tarragon and pureed it all to a smooth slightly-runny consistency.

For the pork chops,I put a touch of salt and pepper on both sides and I ran them through an egg wash on both sides and coated them in bread crumbs. Once coated in the bread crumbs, I added some sprigs of rosemary to the chops. Over medium heat I melted 4 tablespoons of butter and cooked the chops 7 minutes per side. Once I flipped them over, I added some leftover champagne from New Year's Eve as a deglazing agent in the pan. This added an excellent touch of flavor to the chops as the finished product.

I used the butternut squash puree as an accent splash on the plate and a small portion of dipping sauce for the chops. As a side dish, I made some quinoa in lieu of rice. Quinoa is a Peruvian grain that is considered a "superfood" due to its high quantity of vitamins and grain. It was a package that was garden vegetable flavored, not the pure quinoa in its raw state, but it was still tasty. It has a slightly crunchy texture to it. I also made some broccoli and just melted some butter on it and sprinkled some garlic salt.

I still prefer tenderloin (and was intrigued by the pork belly), but the pork chops were quite tasty.

What's In A Name?

2012-01-09T20:36:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite prospects in the Pirates' system (along with many other people who follow the system) is Starling Marte. Starling is a cool name. Can't think of anyone else that I've ever heard with that name. There was a Wardell Starling for the Pirates' minor league system a while back. There's a Starlin (no adverb) Castro for the Cubs. But no Starling.

The Pirates have some players with other cool sounding names, like Colton Cain, Stetson Allie, and Zack Von Rosenberg. As fellow prospector 5'ish Finkle says "They sound like gunfighter names". Each of these guys is regarded as a high end prospect, even though for some of them their stats don't regard them as such.

This brings to mind a thought I have periodically:
"Do we think more of a player based on his name?"

What if Starling Marte was Sam Martin -- white guy from Indiana? What if Stetson Allie was Steve Adams from Virginia? If Colton Cain was Charlie Jones from Kansas? Would they lose some of their luster?

There's also the inverse of this theory -- I sometimes feel that sites like Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and the like overrate Latin players. Even though most Latin players are better than age-appropriate for their respective leagues, it seems like American players consistently rate behind them. I wonder if Wilmer Flores was Wilbur Smith if he would have been (way) overrated all these years?

On some level, it's only human nature that we think differently about people based on their perceived "coolness" of a name. It's why actors and singers change their names. Paul Hewlitt doesn't have the same ring as "Bono" now, does it?

Next time you think about a prospect with a cool name, take a step back and think how much of it has to do with his name.

New Year's Eve 2011 - We Were Crabby

2012-01-06T21:10:00.006-05:00

As mentioned previously on this blog, DB~ and I are not huge fans of New Year's Eve. Each year that we've been together, we have just stayed in by ourselves and I've cooked us a nice dinner. In 2009, it was grilled quail and in 2010 it was steak for me and salmon for DB~. Last week, we went down to the Strip District on New Year's Eve Day and shopped around.

I tried in vain to convince her to let me cook rabbit for dinner from Jo-Mar Meats. As soon as we walked into Wholey's, to our right was a huge display case of crab legs. The King Crab Legs were $17.95/lb so we got 1.5 pounds of them. That was about 7 or 8 legs, which the fishmonger assured us was a good portion for 2 people.

The legs in most places, if red/pinkish, are already cooked so for dinner I just put them in a large stock pot of water for 6 minutes to heat them up. I seasoned the water in the pot with Old Bay, plus I melted some butter in a saucepan and combined that with some Old Bay for a dipping sauce.

I get frustrated with things very easily, so cracking crab legs for me was a recipe for frustration. Eventually, I just started smashing them and extracting little chunks of meat. All the while, DB~ was patiently cracking the legs at the knuckle and pulling out the whole segment of beautiful meat.

I served the crab legs with some hush puppies we bought at Wholey's and a roasted Eggplant dish I created that was not one of my finer creations. All in all, it was another very good New Year's Eve dinner and we didn't have to pay inflated prices, be rushed at dinner, or deal with a bunch of drunks on the road or in bars.

What If Andrew McCutchen was drafted by the Rays?

2011-12-31T20:26:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that the Rays were at one time not The Little Franchise that could, but you have to go alllllll the way back to the year 2005 to find when they were still flailing away. At that time in 2005, they were in the midst of the final death throes of the GM Chuck LaMar/Owner Vince Namoli era.

It was June 2005 and the annual draft was upon the "Devil" Rays. The Rays were in their customary spot of picking in the Top 10 of the draft, this time in the 8th slot. There was a great amount of internal debate within the Devil Rays' front office on who to take with their first round pick. There was a faction in the front office that wanted to take Florida high school star Andrew McCutchen, but there was a larger more vocal faction that wanted to get a college player to help the team much sooner (read: try and save their jobs). If anything of these first two paragraphs sound hauntingly familiar to you, just flash forward two years to the summer of 2007 when the Pirates went "safe" and picked Danny Moskos in the draft. It's no coincidence that LaMar and Littlefield were both considered two of the worst GM's in modern years.

I thought it might be interesting to contemplate how Andrew McCutchen's career may have been different had that minority faction in the Devil Rays' front office won out.

Let's assume that McCutchen signs with the Devil Rays and at the slot amount, just as he did with the Pirates. He would probably have been assigned to Princeton of the Applachian League, as the Devil Rays don't have a Gulf/Arizona League team for HS players. The Rays are notorious for going slow with their young pitchers, but not as much with their hitters, so in 2006 let's say that McCutchen would have been assigned to the Southwest Michigan Whitecaps in the Low A Midwest League. The Midwest League is a much tougher hitting environment, especially in the early part of the year due to cold conditions, but it is safe to assume that McCutchen would still have done well.

In 2007, McCutchen would have been promoted to Vero Beach in the Florida State League. The FSL is considered to be a pitcher's league, due to the oppressive heat and humidity in the summer, plus some expansive outfields at certain parks. The Pirates aggressively promoted McCutchen to Double A Altoona Curve in 2007, but the Devil Rays would probably have taken it one rung at a time with him.

2008 would have seen McCutchen promoted to the Montgomery Biscuits in the Southern League, which skews towards a hitters league. It is easy to envision the 21 year old McCutchen doing quite well in this league. Continuing with the one level at a time theory, McCutchen would have gone to the Durham Bulls in 2009 as a 22 year old in the International League. The Devil Rays are very cost conscious and like to control their assets more than any team in the league, so it is not hard to imagine McCutchen spending all of 2009 in the IL.

What would have happened in 2010, though? At the major league level, BJ Upton was firmly entrenched in CF for the now-Rays. Carl Crawford was ensconced in LF, but would soon be leaving the Rays for free agency at the end of the year. Ben Zobrist was coming off of a huge breakout year in 2009, even though his 2010 was a down year, but he wasn't going anywhere in RF.

If the Rays were out of playoff contention, it would be conceivable that they could have traded Crawford mid-season to recoup some value in prospects. However, the Rays made a playoff push in 2010. As a result of the playoff run, plus the presence of three solid options, it seems as if McCutchen could have spent a 2nd full season in AAA.

McCutchen may not have made his major league debut until the start of the 2011 season (as a 24 year old), replacing Crawford in LF, as Upton is considered to be a high quality CF. This past season may have been McCutchen's rookie season if he were a member of the Rays, not his 3rd overall season and 2nd full season like it was with the Pirates.

As we have seen with Evan Longoria, Wade Davis, and recently Matt Moore, the Rays are not shy about locking up young talent early on in the process. The Pirates are trying to do that right now, but McCutchen may have concerns about the future of the Pirates. That may not be the case with the Rays, as they have been quite successful in recent years.

As difficult as it would be to imagine McCutchen in any other uniform, it is possible that he would have had a slower yet ultimately more rewarding career, in terms of both team success and short-term financial success, if the "Devil" Rays had made a different decision in that draft room in 2005.

Meat and Potatoes

2011-12-18T22:55:00.004-05:00

On Saturday I was at Piratefest and near the end of it DB~ met me down at the convention center. We were joined for dinner by my friend Tim and originally intended to go to NOLA on the Square. However, when we called ahead the earliest possible reservation was 9:15 (it was 7'ish).

A restaurant that I've had in the back of my mind is Meat and Potatoes. I liked the name, liked the logo, and liked its description as a pub. That was about all I knew about it, though, aside from it being on Penn Avenue. We walked from the Convention Center to Meat and Potatoes and were surprised that it is practically IN the O'Reilly Theater.

There's a seperate entrance, but the hostess stand is kind of in an O'Reilly-feeling lobby and is a little exposed to the elements when the door is open and closed. Those minor concerns were all that we could find wrong with Meat and Potatoes, though.

When you enter the restaurant, it's darkened to give off a relaxing mood. There's a large chalkboard to your left that show the specials of the day. Also to your left is a private "party" room that has a white farm-style sliding door with glass panels and black hardware and handles. The private room might hold 10 people tops.

There was a long wait for a table here also, but we were able to be seated immediately at the bar. DB~ and I actually prefer to eat at the bar sometimes because you get quicker service and the bartenders tend to engage you more than a typical server. It also seemed as if the granite top bar had more depth to it for your plates and drinks than the typical table here.

The bartenders wore dark colored vests and ties tucked in the vests. The one bartenders had a "chaffeurs' hat" on with his pinstriped vest, reminding us of the bartenders at the erstwhile Embury (single tear in memory of that great place). As it turns out, our bartender was actually the head bartender at Embury at the time of its closing.

He was able to mix a mean Sidecar for me. DB~ and Tim both had special craft beers -- one was a raspberry chicory stout and the other was a winter ale.

For dinner, DB~ wanted one last hurrah with her autumn beau of pumpkin, so she ordered the pumpkin ravioli. Tim ordered the pork chop. I ordered the chicken pot pie.

Unfortunately, my pictures turned out very dark (no flash on my phone), but DB~ loved her dish. It was in a brown butter and sage sauce with parmesean, but the key here were the pecans that were roasted in (I believe) nutmeg. They really finished off the dish.

Tim's pork chop looked like it came straight out of the Flintstones. I was concerned it was going to tip his plate over, just like the brontosaurus chop did to Fred's car. It was served with some baked beans and a spicy slaw that had Tim sweating a little bit.

My chicken pot pie was great. The peas were actually whole sugar snap peas, slices of carrot, slivers of celery, roasted sections of chickens. However, the star of the show here were the tiny purple Peruvian potatoes and tiny white potato halves. Quite tasty.

All 3 of us loved the restaurant and would definitely check it out again. Perhaps in conjunction with a show at the O'Reilly next time.

Will they elect a fake City Council, too?

2011-12-12T20:44:00.003-05:00

Here we sit at the tail end of 2011, with large masses of people around the country upside down on their mortgages, or worse...homeless, living in their cars or the streets. And what does one company, Pegasus Holdings, propose to do?

Build a ghost town from scratch in the desert expanse of New Mexico. Seriously. If they want to utilize a ghost town, what's wrong with Detroit? Snark.

Pegasus is proposing to construct the Center for Innovation, Testing, and Evaluation (CIT-E, get it?) in order to implement different energy-saving technologies in building and streets and then field test their performances. They may bring in some human test subjects from time to time to groundtruth the mechanisms, but for the most part the only humans will be confined in underground laboratories watching every quirk and nuance of these different experiments, ranging from surveillance to power grids to smart streets to security systems.

And this won't be some 10 city block testing lab. It will 20 square miles, consisting of an urban core, suburbs, and outlying rural areas. The infrastructure (water, sewer, electric, cable, gas) will be laid out to accomodate a potential 30,000 person population.

Coupled with PlanIT that I wrote about, the egghead community sure seemed to play as much SimCity2000 as I did growing up. But then my 2nd-tier thinking/conspiracy theorist starts kicking in....

By locating in New Mexico's deserts near Las Cruces, rife with energy and defense contractors, I highly doubt that CIT-E will be only for energy and traffic experiments. I have a feeling that the military will be field testing tactical weapons shortly after this opens -- to see how a city block reacts to different cutting edge technologies dreamed up by DARPA.

Just as long as the government powers-that-be don't set up their own Science City Zero, we should be OK, I suppose.

Now that the dust has settled....

2011-12-08T19:06:00.002-05:00

Today marked the end of the annual Winter Meetings in Dallas that started on Monday. The Pirates weren't as busy as the Marlins or Angels, but they did churn quite a few moves up during the meetings, with some fairly interesting little moves.

Here's a summary of some of the Pirates moves:
1. They signed Nate McLouth. I guess McLouth didn't completely burn all bridges with his crying and whining after his trade in 2009. McLouth signed a 1 year, $1.75M deal with the expectation that he would be the 4th OF. McLouth may be a good reclamation project, as he readily admitted that he dug himself into a hole in Atlanta that he couldn't get out of easily.

2. The Pirates traded Brooks Pounders and Diego Goris to the Royals for Yamaico Navarro. Set aside Goris, who was a 4 year player in the DSL -- without going to the trouble of tattooing it on his forehead, you can assume Goris is not a prospect. Pounders was my personal #31 prospect, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over him. Pounders pitched out of relief this year in West Virginia (and did well), but he may lack the stamina to be a starting pitcher long term. The Pirates have a large amount of starting pitching options going to Bradenton next year, so this was a good use of trading from depth. In return the Pirates get Navarro, who will be 24 in 2012. Navarro was a well-regarded Red Sox prospect that was traded to the Royals last summer for Mike Aviles. Navarro has his warts -- he has an attitude problem and concerns about his weight -- but he should be a nice option as the utility infielder this year for the major league club.

3. The Pirates signed Erik Bedard. This was the most surprising one, to Pirate fans and the media alike. Bedard signed a 1 year, $4.5M deal with some incentive clauses. When healthy, Bedard is a legit #2 style pitcher. The problem is that he hasn't been healthy much in the last 4 years. In 2011, he pitched 129 innings, which was the most since 2007. It's too bad you can't time pitcher injuries, because if Bedard can hang in until Morton comes back from his hip surgery, then get injured, then come back and hang in until one of the AAA pitchers (Owens, Locke, McPherson) are ready....well, that would be handy.

Additionally, the Pirates cleared some space for these guys by:
1. Releasing Ross Ohlendorf. This one hurts a little because Ohlendorf seems like a real good guy that will probably do better things in his life post-baseball. Ohlendorf has had too many injuries to warrant his $2M arbitration award that he was likely to receive this year.

2. Designating for assignment Jason Jaramillo and Pedro Ciriaco. I hope Ciriaco saved all that money he accumulated by being, inexplicably, on the ML squad in 2011. He barely played, even as a defensive replacement or pinch runner, yet hung around for the better part of the year. Jaramillo is a completely fungible back up catcher that will not be missed long term.

Derrek Lee also treated the Pirates like the chubby girl at the dance by declining arbitration, in hopes of getting a gig with whoever missed out on the Pujols-Fielder sweepstakes. It will be interesting to see if the Cubs have interest in bringing him back, as they had some interest in Pujols. I can't see Fielder going there, though.

I have a feeling that the Pirates will be definitely in on Lee or Carlos Pena, as I can't buy the notion that Nick Evans and Garrett Jones will be platooning there in 2012.

The Pirates also signed Jose Morales as AAA depth at catcher. In the Rule 5 draft, the Pirates lost Brett Lorin to the Diamondbacks and picked up Gustavo Nunez from the Tigers. I just don't see where Nunez will fit in at the ML level or even at AA if they can work out a trade.

I will continue to beat the drum that the Pirates should trade some prospects for a pitcher like Ervin Santana or Gavin Floyd. The Angels need to offload some payroll to accommodate the new salaries of Pujols and Wilson. The White Sox are in the midst of a rebuild and can use every prospect they can get their hands on.

The Pirates have made marginal improvements around the edges of the team, with Bedard being a nice upgrade pending good health. Not a bad Winter Meetings period, but I expect another move or two.

Salt of the Earth - Part Deux

2011-12-03T20:55:00.012-05:00

It's rare, if ever, that I have posted about a restaurant a second time. But DB~ and I had a gift certificate to use up by the end of the year at Salt of the Earth. We asked our closest friends to join us for dinner last night (Friday). The first time we were there was in June.

My friend and his wife are casual readers of the blog (meaning that they read it once) and he had one request during dinner -- he wanted a nickname, too. He even provided his own suggestion -- Mickey Mantle's Liver.

So last night, the four of us (DBS, DB~, MML, and MML*) got to Salt of the Earth at 6:30 pm. It was packed and we were told it might be a 1 hour wait. So we had a cocktail. None of us anticipated it would be that long and it wasn't. After about 20 to 30 minutes, we were asked if we would like the kitchen-side seats. I practically blurted out "absolutely!", even as MML sort of made a face, not realizing what a great opportunity this would be to watch the artful masterpieces be created in front of us.

We strategically laid out the seating order to maximize conversation potential. It went MML*, DB~, DBS, and MML from left to right (I guess if you've been married for 9 years, you don't need to talk with each other all the time!).

As soon as we sat down, I noticed the grill master had a sleeve of tattoos on each arm, a buzz crop of blond hair, and a placid look on his face. He sure looked like Kevin Sousa, but he was not wearing his thick framed black glasses that I was familiar with. But sure enough, DB~ confirmed via her iPhone that he did not always wear his glasses.

It was fascinating to watch the kitchen staff of Salt of the Earth work together in harmony during the night. It is said, and I believe it to be true, that the demeanor of any operation starts at the top. This was true last night...Salt was very busy, yet Sousa calmly and coolly tended to the great quantities of duck and hangar steak on the grill in front of him. Each cut of meat was salted and seasoned in the same exact manner -- his hand was held at mid-chest height, with his wrist cocked, and the salt was released and gently sprinkled. Coming off the grill, each cut was plated and sliced with calm and detached efficiency.

We started our dining experience off with two appetizers. The first were Vegetable Lettuce Wraps for the girls. The chicken was a spicy Korean type of chicken with excellent flavors. Check out the great camera work by Squiggle to get Kevin Sousa in the background of the wraps picture.

The second appetizer was for the carnivores of the group. We got Gnocchi, but it was primarily a meat appetizer. The dish was tiny cubes of beef cheek, with spots of persimmon puree, small bites of sweet potato gnocchi, all served on cow tongue. Our server called it Tongue and Cheek when he presented it to us.

It goes without saying that both were excellent. Even the girls tried the paper thin tongue and liked it well enough. The beef cheek was perhaps the most tender piece of red meat we have ever had. It disintegrated in my mouth upon touching my tongue. The tongue itself was pretty neutral. It absorbed the flavors of the cooking liquids that it was braised in, plus it blowtorched for a few seconds upon plating.

For dinner, all four of us ordered something different.

MML* ordered the Mushroom. I didn't really get a good luck at it, but it had farro for the starch, some pear, and "root". Not sure what type of root that entailed.

DB~ ordered the Trout. The skin was well seasoned and slightly crispy, but tender on the inside. It was sitting in a broth known as Birch Dhani, that DB~ asked me to reverse-engineer. I'm not sure I can. There were also udon noodles, turnips, and in the words of DB~ "a nice little touch with some peeled grapes".

MML had the Duck. It was served on a puree of parsnip and served with apple butter, pomegranate, and brussel sprouts. The duck was a shade less than medium rare, but MML liked it that way. MML stated that the Duck was easily one of the top 5 dishes he has ever had in his life. Judging by the amount of duck dishes we saw being prepared at our kitchen-side seats, there were a lot of people that might be saying that today.

I had the Hangar Steak. It was served on a bed of rice porridge, a kimchi and broccoli mix, with toasted ginger on top of the steak. Kevin Sousa fermented his own kimchi for this dish. It was a new kimchi...only fermented for 4 days, instead of 3 months. My steak was done medium and it was perfectly tender. The toasted garlic was fantastic, the kimchi spicy, and the porridge gave a different texture that otherwise may have been missing.

Kevin Sousa leaned over to talk to us after our meal. I asked him how his new place, Union Pig and Chicken, was coming along in the construction. He said he hoped to be open by the end of February. I asked him when he was going to go on Iron Chef and show them how it was done. He responded by saying he hadn't been invited yet (things to do -- submit Kevin Sousa to Food Network), but if he did he wanted to take on Morimoto before he was shuffled out of the Iron Chef show. Morimoto is basically a machine that never loses, so it's commendable that Sousa would want to challenge himself like that.

It was yet another fantastic meal at the best restaurant in Pittsburgh. It was only heightened by the fact that we got to interact with the chef, see the process in action, and spend the night with our great friends.

Butternut Squash Lasagna

2011-12-01T22:14:00.005-05:00

Much like any good pair of dancers, DB~ and I have found a good rhythm in the kitchen. Up until now, that relationship consisted of "I make the food and you enjoy it." It always left me feeling like she would just eat whatever I had the interest in making that day...kind of like a restaurant but with only 1 or 2 choices on the menu.

But in recent weeks, DB~ has found her niche. She is on a huge roll of finding great recipes for me to make. It started with the Cheddar Chicken Crumb recipe, moved to a Stuffed Pepper recipe (a variation on a Greek stuffed pepper recipe I've been doing) and then last Sunday came the Butternut Squash Lasagna.

I've probably mentioned this before, but DB~ with a little extra convincing could easily be a vegetarian. She doesn't like red meat very much, doesn't eat barbeque (!!!), tolerates pork, and is OK with eating chicken. So in turn, I've become a bit of a vegetarian myself. That's OK with the Moroccan tagines, and the stuffed pepper with no meat, but...lasagna? I'm used to a nice little layer of ground meat inside all that melty ricotta.

She found the recipe on this site called Design Sponge. After looking at it, I realized this needed to be a weekend meal, because it seemed time-consuming. I modified the ingredients for this post to correspond to my experience making it. This will serve 4 people.

1 medium butternut squash - peeled, cored, and sliced width-wise
6 lasagna noodles - cooked
1-1/2 cups of spinach leaves
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 stick of butter
scant 1/4 cup of flour
1-1/2 cups of 2% milk
2 cups of mozzarella
1/2 cup of parmasean cheese, shredded

Start your large stockpot of water boiling. Turn your oven on to 375 degrees Farenheit.
While the water is coming to a boil, peel and slice the squash into the wing-like shaped pieces (make sure you cut in half and remove the seeds too). Drizzle some olive oil on a baking sheet, place the squash on the sheet and season with salt and pepper. Bake the squash for 15 minutes until softened.

Hopefully your water is boiling by now and you can drop your lasagna noodles in to cook fully.

While that's going on, start making your cream sauce. Take 1/4 of a stick of butter (half of your half stick) and melt it in a small saucepan on medium heat. Mix the flour in to create a roux. When this is whisked together, slowly pour in the milk and mix well. Add in the garlic and let the mixture thicken a little bit (keep stirring periodically, as the milk will cause the mix to bubble up with the flour).

Once thickened, pour this mix into a food processer and add the spinach. Process this thoroughly and add some salt and pepper to taste. There's your cream sauce.

Your lasagna should be cooked and drained by this point. Your squash should be out of the oven, too. Time to start assembling the lasagna.

Use a 9 by 13 baking dish for this. Pour some of the cream sauce in the bottom (enough to cover the bottom), then add one layer of lasagna noodles. Add some of the mozzarella cheese, some of the parm cheese, then a layer of the squash. Repeat as necessary (I did 2 layers) and end it with some parmasean cheese on top.

Bake covered in foil for 40 minutes, then take off the foil and bake for 15 minutes more. Let it rest for 10 minutes when you take it out or else it will fall apart when you cut it.

The link has a recipe for a sage-butter sauce, but we felt the lasagna stood on its own merit. And you never even notice there's no meat.

Smoke gets in my eyes (and stomach)

2011-11-27T20:22:00.007-05:00

A friend of mine told me about a new taco place in Homestead a couple of months ago called Smoke. We've been meaning to check it out for a while now, but we wanted to wait until we had a reason to go to the Waterfront as well.

Last night, with DB~'s brother in town from Cleveland, the three of us decided to check out a movie at the Waterfront and go to Smoke beforehand. The day before DB~ and I looked at the reviews online at Urbanspoon -- they had an amazing 95% approval rating.

We had heard that there was very limited seating at Smoke, so we were a little worried about getting there at 5:45 pm on a Saturday. Smoke only has 15 seats because of a Health Department regulation based on the fact that they only have 1 small bathroom. When we got to the restaurant (no illuminated sign so you have to keep your eyes peeled at night), all the tables were occupied but after a couple of minutes, the two young people at a 5 seat table invited the 3 of us to join them. We accepted their gracious offer.

Smoke is quirky and deliberatly so. None of the chairs match. There may be different silverware at the same table. There is a staircase that goes up to a dead end in the ceiling. The large incedescant bulbs reminded me of the bulbs that Nikolai Tesla (played by David Bowie) handed Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) upon arriving to his Colorado retreat. The bulb lit up in Angier's hand, due to the natural current running through our bodies and the current in the field they were standing. I didn't grab one of the lights last night to test that.

We spoke with our server and she told us that if things keep going well, the owners have plans to expand into the rear of the store plus renovate the downstairs as well. But first they have to add more bathrooms to accomodate the extra seating. The owners are originally from Texas and they couldn't find good tacos up here, so they opened up their own place. Because they are from Texas, they incorporated some barbecue efforts into their taqueria.

Prior to us going, we had read about how great the mac and cheese was, so we definitely planned to order that. Our dining companions did order it and got it before us, so we eyeballed them and asked them what they thought of the mac and cheese and the tacos they ordered. They loved it all. The guy and girl, both around 22 or 23, were very pleasant to talk to and we were very happy they allowed us to share their table.

DB~'s brother ordered the Brisket taco and an order of mac and cheese ($4 for the taco and $3.75 for the mac and cheese). The taco had sauteed onions, jalapeno pepper slices, and a barbeque mustard sauce. No lettuce, no cheese, no tomato. Each taco is served wrapped up in aluminum foil with a black magic marker scribbled on it to designate what type of taco it is. Each tortilla shell at Smoke is hand made when you order it, so they take a little extra time to arrive. The whole taco experience reminded me of what it must be like to eat at a taco stand in Mexico. From seeing them on TV, there are only a few chairs and you squirt your own sauce on the taco as it is laid in front of you.

DB~ ordered the chicken taco, with the sublime avocado cream sauce and picked onions (no hot sauce for her), and the mac and cheese. Both she and her brother really enjoyed the mac and cheese (so did I from the forkful that I had).

I ordered the pork taco with an apricot habanero sauce and onions. My side that I selected was the Red Potato Salad that had leeks and bacon ($3.00). It was equally awesome.

The tacos are small, so her brother and I each order another one before we left for the movie. He got the chicken taco and I tried the brisket taco. We both enjoyed our second tacos as well. Tacos that are on the menu also include: ribs, chorizo, a chicken apple, and a philly cheesesteak type of taco. They also serve breakfast style tacos all day long with eggs in them.

The drink I had with my meal was called horchata. I asked our server what it was and she told me it was cooked rice milk with the rice strained out. Cinnamon and organic sugar are added to it and served over ice. It was, with no exaggeration, one of the best drinks I have ever had. I wanted to keep ordering it and hang out drinking it all night, but we had a movie to catch.

Much like Blue Dust, there are good places to eat outside of the Waterfront, in case you want to try a local joint instead of a chain restaurant.

Treetops Restaurant at Polymath Park

2011-11-26T22:57:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday we spent the day in the Laurel Highlands at Polymath Park. That evening we dined at Treetops Restaurant, located on the grounds at Polymath. When we entered Treetops, there were 3 other tables occupied.

Each of the tables had high-backed chairs in the style of furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We both agreed that the restaurant would be very pretty in the summertime, as the restaurant has a outdoor seating area that overlooks the forest and the mountains in the distance.

We were given an amuse bouche, a tiny complementary appetizer that roughly translates to "happy mouth" but I prefer to think of as "party in my mouth". It was a little piece of crostini with a tomato/basil mix. It was tasty enough.

For dinner, DB~ had the Chicken Roulade. It was a chicken dish stuffed with spinach and ricotta. The side dish was a classical risotto that she loved, although not as much as the risotto she had in Greece. I had a fist-sized and shaped piece of steak filet done perfectly medium-well. It was crusted in espresso and then served in a pool of bourbon cream sauce.

After our dinner, the chef came out to see the patrons in the restaurant. We ended speaking with Chef Miller for about 15 minutes and he was quite pleasant to speak with. He had spent a few years performing various jobs at Nemacolin Resort, from food and beverage coordinator to executive chef at one of the restaurants. He was there at the same time as Dave Racicot, the owner/head chef of Notion in Oakmont.

Chef Miller also shared his vision concept for a restaurant that he would like to start up in Pittsburgh in the near future. I don't want to say what it is, because his concept is a unique one that I would hate to see scooped up by someone else. It's such a great concept that I would love for DB~ and I to be part of it...even if our stake would only involve us getting a free meal now and then.

Treetops is worth going to even if you don't want to stay at Polymath Park. It's that good of a restaurant.

Just a standard weekend in the Laurel Highlands

2011-11-23T20:59:00.006-05:00

Last weekend, DB~ and I used a gift card we received as a Christmas gift (cough, back in 2009, cough) to Polymath Park in the Laurel Highlands. What is Polymath? Well, I'm not sure of the "polymath" part, but the place is set in the forest and is composed of 3 separate houses, one of which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (Duncan House). The other two houses (Balter and Blum) were designed by apprentices of FLW. We stayed for one night in the Blum house.

We drove up early on Saturday and got to the general area around 10 a.m. I say "general area" because we couldn't find this place for at least 15 minutes. We were looking for a side road called Dillon, but the problem was that there was no sign marking the road or a directional Polymath Park sign pointing to the right (like there was in the opposite direction pointing to the left once we doubled back).

Then once we got to the place, we followed the sign to the Blum house, but it was locked. There isn't a check-in place, so we drove to the Duncan house just to verify no one was working there, either. DB~ called the number on the website and Heather answered. She was surprised when we told her we were at the Blum house, because apparently the gate into Polymath was supposed to be closed and we drove right through the open gate. Heather blamed it on a group of Chinese people from Hong Kong that had a "language barrier".

We were the only people scheduled to be in the 3 bedroom Blum house that night, but our room wouldn't be ready until 2:30, so DB~ and I decided to see what the area had to offer. She had never been to Seven Springs, which surprised me, but I knew she was more of a Hidden Valley girl.

After we wandered around the ski shop and checked out a bunch of ski and snowboard apparel that we would never buy, we went into the main lodge to see if anything was cracking. As soon as we walked in, there were a large group of people clustered around the entrance to one of the convention halls. Most of them had blue T-shirts on with lanyards, so we knew it was some type of conference. As we continued to walk through the hallway of the lodge, we saw more and more people with their blue shirts that said Start to Live! on them.

"When we sit down, we should Google..." I started to say.
"I'm already on it," DB~ replied as she furiously was thumbing away at her iPhone.

By the time we bought our hot chocolate, we found out that Start to Live is a Narcotics drug rehab group that stresses positive thinking during the recovery phase for users. So for the next 20 minutes, she and I were deciding what type of drug each person was addicted to and what their back story was. We saw a lot of boyfriend-girlfriend types and wondered if they were both ex-users or if one was supporting the other. There were packs of young 20-something guys, older women, older men, people both black and white. We couldn't imagine what it would be like if we were staying the night at Seven Springs, instead of Polymath. Would the bar be packed or empty?

After that experience, we headed down the road to a little bar/restaurant called Black Diamond Pub. It was good, nothing spectacular. Once we left there, we did a couple of multi-caches in Laurel State Park. By the time we did those, we were able to check in at Blum House. The house was unlocked and our key was waiting in the foyer, delivered by Heather. We started to joke that Heather would be our server at Polymath's restaurant (Treetops) later that night...until we needed a chirping battery looked at and our eventual chef (in his chef outfit) came over to replace the battery. I've have a separate post about our excellent dinner at Treetops.

Neither of us had ever heard of Polymath before. Of course we knew about Fallingwater and I have checked out Kentuck Knob in the past, but I wondered how many Pittsburghers know about Polymath.

It's pretty expensive and I'm not sure it's entirely worth it. The house is in Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style. The Blum house is a low-slung ranch, with a single sloped roof. The center piece of the house is a large dry-stack massive fireplace that really throws out the heat. The bedrooms were nice enough, although we weren't sure how it would have been if all the bedrooms were occupied. There was a nice sitting room that we couldn't fully enjoy because it wasn't heated. The house had a large amount of glass full-length windows, which was great for us to enjoy the views of the forest and mountains in the distance.

However, the decor was very dated and seemed like cheap 1960's stuff. The bathroom was very dark in color scheme and the water from the shower head smelled like rotten eggs, indicating the presence of sulfur dioxide in the system somewhere. The rate for the Blum house was $250/night regularly and for the Duncan House it would be $350/night. We didn't pay full-rate, as we had a gift certificate, but I don't think I would pay that rate normally.

2012 DBS Top 30 Pirate prospects - #5 to 1

2011-11-20T20:26:00.002-05:00

Everyone keep calm and try not to rush the stage....it's the finale of the annual DBS Top 30 Prospects.

As always, 130 AB's or 50 IP or 30 relief appearances in the majors disqualifies potential candidates from the list. The age in parentheses is the 2012 season age for the player, using the July 1st cutoff date.

5. Josh Bell (19) OF, A -- Bell received a record-breaking amount of bonus money for a 2nd round draft pick in 2011 ($5 million). That's "we think you're going to be a star" money. He is probably the best power threat in the whole system. So why isn't he higher? Bell has yet to swing a bat in anger and his lack of arm/range will confine him to LF (RF in spacious PNC Park). I've seen his videos on Youtube of his defense and he looks awkward and lanky. All that said, it would not be surprising to me if he is #1 on this list next year...even if Cole and Taillon are still eligible.

4. Luis Heredia (17) RHP, SS -- He's only 17. (Seventeen!!). Yeah...Winger!!! Uh....right...Heredia. For all of the 2012 season, Heredia will be 17 years old, which is the equivalent of a high school junior. He'll be at State College and will hopefully pitch around 60-70 innings. Even though he is an International phenom, his progress will be slow for the next 2 years. I could see him spending all of 2013 in West Virginia, maybe maybe splitting time between Bradenton and Altoona in 2014, and then all year in Indy in 2015. That will have him debuting in 2016 and the ripe old age of...21. Jeebus.

3. Starling Marte (23) OF, AAA -- The future of CF. I could probably end it right there, but I'll infect your brain with his numbers from this year. Marte hit .332/.370/.500 (870 OPS) at a park in Altoona that is not conducive to offense. Marte actually had a road OPS significantly higher than his home OPS. It also helps that his defensive range is spectacular and his arm is a small howitzer. Even though Neal Huntington recently said that Marte needs a full year at AAA, it wouldn't surprise me to see him blitzkreig AAA and be here in July 2012.

2. Jameson Taillon (20) RHP, A+ -- I had to decide which future ace to put 1 and which one to put 2. It's nothing that Taillon did wrong to be here instead of Cole. In his first full year, Taillon pitched 92 innings, gave up 89 hits, walked only 22 and struck out 97. He worked on commanding his pitches and not striking out everyone he faced. All while sitting 93-94 and hitting 97 at times. His curveball is major league ready right now and his changeup is developing as a plus pitch.

1. Gerrit Cole (21) RHP, A+/AA -- Cole is only 1 year older than Taillon, but his fastball is already sitting 96-97 and he routinely touches 99 and 100. His changeup and curve are both plus pitches right now. He was dominant at times in the Arizona Fall League, even in 3 inning stints, so it would not be surprising to see him start the season at Altoona. If Cole does what everyone expects Cole can do, there is an outside, remote, maybe but don't tell anyone chance that he's here in September 2012. More realistically is that he is here in June 2013 and fronting the rotation.

2012 DBS Top 30 Pirates prospects - #10 to 6

2011-11-17T20:04:00.002-05:00

Here we go into the Top 10 of the DBS Top 30 prospects.

Just a reminder that the thresholds for prospectiness are no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 30 relief appearances at the major league level.

The number in parentheses is the player's 2012-season age, using the standard July 1st cutoff date. The level shown is my assumed level that the player will start at in 2012.

10. Robbie Grossman (22) OF, AA -- Grossman is the belle of the ball as far as Pirate prospects were concerned this year. A lot of people are fawning over the 100 walks and 100 runs he had this year, the first person since Nick Swisher in 2004. Grossman had a fantastic year for Bradenton this year with a line of .294/.418/.451 (869 OPS), but the questions still remain that Grossman may be a tweener. He played most of his games in RF this year, as he is said to not have the range to play CF consistently. If he is confined to a corner, his 13 HR's won't cut it -- unless you think he has 20 HR potential long-term. I'm waiting to see what AA brings for Grossman. I'm thinking the pitchers will challenge him much more and his walks will drop. Keep in mind that Altoona is a very difficult place to homer, for both sides of the plate, which is a problem for the switch-hitter.

9. Colton Cain (21) LHP, A+ -- Cain's velocity wavered at times this year, with on-site reports putting him at 86-88 mph some starts. But Cain has been in the 93-95 mph range in the past, so I'm hoping it was just the effects of being in full-season ball for the first time. Cain's walk total was impressive, just 31 in 106 IP, coupled with 81 K's. He'll be part of a great potential Bradenton rotation if Cole starts there instead of Altoona. At this point, I still have hopes for Cain becoming a #3 starter, but if his velo doesn't improve in 2012 he may get dropped down.

8. Tony Sanchez (24) C, AA/AAA -- Sanchez is this year's version of Chase d'Arnaud for me. In 2010, d'Arnaud had a horrible year at Altoona due to pneumonia, but his K/BB rates were still intact. Move to 2011 and Sanchez had a horrible year, but kept his fundamentals together. Sanchez's defense was also good, as I witnessed him live 3 times. He presents a very quiet target behind the plate and has good reaction times on his throws, which are strong. Sanchez was scheduled to be the starter in Pittsburgh in 2012, so this is a setback for him, but I'm confident he will rebound this year.

7. Jeff Locke (24) LHP, AAA -- Locke was the most successful of the Altoona Four from 2010 (Locke, Owens, Morris, Wilson) and he actually made 4 starts in Pittsburgh at the end of the year. So Locke gets the benefit over some other pitchers below him because of his proximity to the majors and success at upper levels. Locke was pretty well gassed by the time he got to Pittsburgh, but the Pirates were out of healthy arms and needed him. Locke could become a Maholm-lite pitcher, but is probably a #4 long-term. He had 3 average pitches and didn't seem to have a strong out pitch, but I'm accounting for a long year as well.

6. Kyle McPherson (24) RHP, AAA -- This may be one of the higher ranks you'll see for McPherson, but I'm a big fan. McPherson had a dominant stint at Bradenton to start the year (71 IP, 60 K, only 6 BB) and then had a real nice AA run (89 IP, 82 K's, 21 BB) for 170 total innings. McPherson has a 92-94 mph fastball, killer curve when it is on, and a great changeup. McPherson is not afraid to pitch inside and establish the inner part of the plate, as evidenced by the numerous welts from the high number of batters he hit this year. It would not surprise me to see McPherson in Pittsburgh in August.

I'm really porking up

2011-11-15T21:05:00.003-05:00

On Saturday night, we had one of my work friends and his wife out for dinner. Originally I wasn't going to do anything crazy, but his wife saw me in the parking lot a few days before the dinner and said "I can't wait to try one of your crazy recipes on Saturday!"

Well...you can't serve breaded chicken after a comment like that, right? So I racked my noggin for something interesting to serve and came up with Pork Belly.

Pork Belly, in today's high-speed cuisine couture, is already a little passe. Up until about 5 years ago, pork belly was an afterthought in American cuisine...mostly relegated to stews and stocks. It has always been popular in Asian cuisine, especially Korean, as it's fatty flavor and tender meat are quite revered and prepared in a variety of different methods. The American chefs got a hold of the cut of meat, identified by its striated layers of fat and meat, and made it gourmet. This caused the price of pork belly to go from "cheap" to "still affordable".

I went to Market District and paid $3.99/lb for a 2-lb slab. I decided to pay homage to the Asian influences by doing an Asian-esque preparation.

First you have to score the fatty side of the pork belly in a cross-hatch pattern in order for the flavors to soak in to completely.

In my dutch oven, I sauteed 1/2 of a white onion in some oil. I then added 3 sliced garlic cloves and 1 tbsp of ginger once the onions were translucent. To that I added 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar, and 2 teaspoons of white pepper (the key to all Asian recipes, in my opinion).

I added the pork belly slab in to the dutch oven and then rubbed 2 tablespoons of honey on top of the pork belly. Then put enough water into the dutch oven until the water level comes up to the top of the pork. Bring this up to a boil and then reduce it to low heat for 2 hours.

I put the meat in fat side up for the first hour on the stove and then I flipped it fat side down for the last hour. I took the pork belly out after 2 hours, tented it on a platter covered in aluminum foil and let it rest for 30 minutes.

While that was going on, I brought the remaining liquid up to a boil and reduced it down to a glaze to put on top of the pork.

I served a slice of pork belly to each of us on a bed of Udon noodles. These noodles have some weight to them and absorb flavors naturally. They are very versatile to use in Asian cooking. The side dish was a Bok Choy salad that I prepared as well.

We all enjoyed the pork belly, but we all trimmed the fat away for the most part. It's kind of like the prime rib of pork, in that respect I guess. The pork tenderloin is still my favorite cut of pork ($5.99/lb at Market District) and we actually had that for dinner on Monday, but pork belly is interesting enough to try again.

DBS 2012 Top 30 Pirate prospects - #15 to 11

2011-11-12T16:38:00.003-05:00

Before we have a small dinner for friends tonight (post to follow tomorrow), I thought it was time to squeeze in a post about the start of the top half of the system, as determined by me.

Just a reminder that the thresholds for prospectiness are no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 30 relief appearances at the major league level.

The number in parentheses is the player's 2012-season age, using the standard July 1st cutoff date. The level shown is my assumed level that the player will start at in 2012.

15. Nick Kingham (20) RHP, A -- Kingham is like a good Cuban cigar...once he starts, it's like a slow burn and he never goes out. OK...I've never had a Cuban cigar...I'm watching Die Another Day right now and they talked about a certain type. In real life, Kingham is the best prospect that you never hear about. He was drafted in 2010 and has been completely overshadowed by Taillon and Allie in terms of hype. This year Kingham pitched at State College and was fantastic. He pitched 71 innings, gave up 63 hits, but walked only 15 while striking out 47. From early July to the end of the season in September, Kingham did not give up more than 1 ER in any of his individual starts. At present, Kingham possesses an 89-92 mph fastball, curve, and developing changeup. He'll be at West Virginia in 2012 and is the best candidate to spring into the Top 10 next year.

14. Jarek Cunningham (22) 2B, AA -- Cunningham has incredible raw power, which is a bigger plus considering that he is a 2B. In 2011, Cunningham hit 15 HR, 23 doubles, and 6 triples in an injury-shortened 310 at-bats. Cunningham had a concussion in late July and never felt comfortable enough to come back. He did recover enough to play in the Arizona Fall League (going on right now). The bugaboos for Cunningham are twofold -- the first is his alarming K/BB rates. In 310 at-bats, he only walked 17 times (just under 6%) while striking out 82 times (around 26%). The second problem is his less than fluid defense at 2B. There may be a time when Cunningham has to move to the OF, but his bat should still carry him.

13. Rudy Owens (24) LHP, AAA -- Owens pretty much had a season to forget in 2011. In 112 IP, he gave up 129 hits, walked 32, and only struck out 71. He's this high based on what he showed in 2010 when he was dominant at Altoona. His velocity was down this year and there were rumors that he did not come into the season in shape. He missed some time with various injuries, as well. Owens was supposed to be a mid-sesaon callup in 2011. Now he's almost an afterthought. This is a make or break year for him.671

12. Justin Wilson (24) LHP, AAA -- Wilson has always been a half-step behind pitchers like Owens, Morris, and Locke. This year, though, Wilson started off hot before he fizzled out by the end of the year. He pitched 124 innings, gave up only 121 hits, and struck out 94, but he had an unseemly 67 walks which undercut his effectiveness. Wilson had a short stint as a reliever at the end of the season and was clocked at 97 mph from the left side. His future has always been suspected to be a reliever...there's a chance we'll see him in Pittsburgh in 2012 as one.

11. Matt Curry (23) 1B, AA -- Curry was placed too low at the start of 2011 and responded by abusing Low A pitchers, to the tune of .361/.477/.671 (1148 OPS). He was promoted to Altoona in late May, which was a 2 step jump in level. Curry did struggle at the level as he hit only .242/.320/.374 (694 OPS) with a marked increase in strikeout rate to 30%. I'm giving him a pass because of the 2 level jump, but he needs to prove himself in 2012 with the newly drafted Alex Dickerson presumably one level behind him at Bradenton.

Cheddar Chicken

2011-11-10T17:29:00.003-05:00

DB~ found a great recipe this week for a simple chicken dish, perfect for a mid-week meal. She found it on a website called Real Simple and it's called Cheddar Chicken.

I used 4 small chicken tenderloins for this recipe. First I crushed up 16 Ritz crackers, which was about 3/4 cup. I then put the crushed Ritz crackers into a bowl with 6 oz of shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and 1 clove of garlic diced up. All of these ingredients were mixed and tossed together.

I dipped the tenderloins in an egg bath and then rolled each one in the Ritz cracker/cheese mix. I pressed the remnants of the mix on to each side of each tenderloin.

I baked the chicken at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. The cheese was bonded to the Ritz, so there was a crunch to it on the outside with the cheese not completely melted, yet still nice and smooth when eaten. The garlic, salt and pepper were mixed into each bit of the cracker and cheese when I tossed them together.

I served this with some fresh aspargus and a risotto mix that DB~ got from Trader Joes'. This recipe was definitely a keeper. Next time I might do a few more crackers to get an even better crust.

2012 DBS Top 30 Pirate Prospects - #20 to 16

2011-11-08T20:15:00.003-05:00

This will be the post that covers the first half of the Top 30 prospects in the system, according to...this guy.

Just a reminder that the thresholds for prospectiness are no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 30 relief appearances at the major league level.

The number in parentheses is the player's 2012-season age, using the standard July 1st cutoff date. The level shown is my assumed level that the player will start at in 2012.

20. Bryan Morris (25) RHP, AAA -- Morris is the lone wolf remaining in the pack from the Jason Bay of 2009. Morris was forecast to be a mid-rotation starter, or even a #2 starter if everything went right, but last year he was injured again and moved into the Altoona bullpen where he experienced success and a velocity bump. At this point his durability must be questioned and the Pirates should try and get value out of him as a power reliever.

19. Zack Dodson (21) LHP, A+ -- Dodson started off well in West Virginia and a case could have been made early on that he was the best starter on a staff that included Jameson Taillon and Colton Cain. Then Dodson got injured and started a long rehab sojourn that saw him spend time in the Gulf Coast League and State College again. His Low A stats were 66 IP, 61 hits, 15 walks, and 46 strikeouts with a 2.57 ERA. Dodson should move up to Bradenton to start 2012 and be part of a stunning rotation that may be Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Dodson, Colton Cain, and...some other guy (maybe Fuesser?).

18. Jordy Mercer (25) SS, AAA -- Mercer has seen fellow 2008 draftees Pedro Alvarez and Chase d'Arnaud experience the good life at the major league level. Mercer's turn may come at some point in 2012. After a down 2010, Mercer rebounded to have an impressive display of power at Altoona in 2011 (13 HR's) and another 6 HR after being promoted to AAA Indianopolis. His overall season line between the two levels was a so-so .255/.317/.440 (757 OPS), but 30 doubles and 19 home runs plus above-average defense at shortstop, will get you a look in just about any system. Interesting note about Mercer -- here's his batting averages by year with the Pirates: 2008 (.250), 2009 (.255), 2010 (.282), 2011 (.255). So let's just pencil him at a .250 batting average in the majors and move on.

17. Clay Holmes (19) RHP, SS -- So a tall, projectable high school righty pitcher walks into a bar...Holmes is a 2011 draftee (6'-5") and has a fastball that sits 91-93 right now. His other pitches are a mixed bag right now, but the Pirates offered him $1.2 million on the promise of better things to come. He will join a bunch of other tall righties at State College in 2012.

16. Stetson Allie (21) RHP, A -- This will probably be one of the lower rankings you'll see for Allie this offseason. I just can't hype up a pitcher that had as bad a 2011 as Allie did. His final line at State College (as a starter and reliever) was 26 IP, 20 hits allowed, 29 walks, 28 strikeouts, 9 hit batters, and a 6.57 ERA. Add in that his age makes him one year older than most HS players in his 2010 draft class and his projection of being a reliever (a sentiment shared by Allie himself) and you see why I have him here.

DBS 2012 Top 30 Pirates Prospects -- #25 to 21

2011-11-07T20:07:00.002-05:00

Let's keep on rolling with my personal top 30 prospects in the Pirate system for 2012.

Just a reminder from the last post, the thresholds for prospectiness are no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 30 relief appearances at the major league level.

The number in parentheses is the player's 2012-season age, using the standard July 1st cutoff date. The level shown is my assumed level that the player will start at in 2012.

25. Ryan Hafner (20) RHP, A -- Like most HS drafted pitchers, Hafner went to short-season State College in his first true season. Hafner played second fiddle to Nick Kingham in the Spikes' rotation (3rd if you consider Stetson Allie's aborted attempt at starting this year) and acquitted himself well. In 65 innings, Hafner allowed 58 hits and only 20 walks. Hafner only had 31 strikeouts, but with the caveat that State College is primarily about establishing fastball command and control. There is not much emphasis on strikeouts. Hafner does not have an overwhelming fastball, even though he is 6'-6", as it sits 86 to 89 mph at present. He'll move up to West Virginia in 2012.

24. Jose Osuna (19) 1B/OF, SS/A -- Osuna was a 2009 international signee that made his stateside debut in 2011. Much of the attention in the GCL, among position players, was on Willy Garcia, Jodaneli Carvajal, and Luis Urena. But it was Osuna that outshined them all with a .331/.400/.511 (911 OPS) line in the GCL. I'm not sure about his 2012 placement, as I'm wondering if Eric Avila and Elias Diaz's complete failures in jumping from the GCL to Low A will make the Pirates reconsider such a jump with the next batch of internationals in 2012.

23. Alex Dickerson (22) 1B, A+ -- Drafted in the 3rd round this year, Dickerson is by some accounts the best 1B in the system right now. So why isn't he higher? Dickerson is a bat-first player, which is OK since his defensive position is 1B, but he does not have a great physique. Plus he has already had some back issues in his college career, so I'm going to ding him for that until I can see him have a complete season in the system. During his time at State College in 2011, Dickerson hit well with a line of .313/.393/.493 (886 OPS).

22. Gift Ngoepe (22) 2B, A+ -- This one in retrospect may be too high for Ngeope at the end of 2012, but I'm putting high on Ngoepe, especially after it seemed he was on his way to a huge breakout season in 2011. Ngoepe started out hitting .306/.359/.459 (818 OPS) with West Virginia, showing power previously untapped. Ngoepe had 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 HR's in his 85 at-bats before getting injured. He returned in July for 2 games in the GCL, but that was it. His defensive range is fantastic, so if he can hit at all he will be an asset. Ngoepe has been aggressively moved, so he could start out in Bradenton in 2012.

21. Tyler Glasnow (18) RHP, SS -- Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Pirates like to draft tall, projectable right-handed pitchers. Glasnow is a 6'-7" specimen that has an already nice fastball that sits 93 mph. Right now that's all he has, but has the makings of some good secondary pitches. He'll be at State College and because of his birthdate, he will be considered 18 for the 2012 season -- just one year older than Luis Heredia at the same level.

DBS 2012 Top 30 Pirate Prospects - #30 to #26

2011-11-03T19:26:00.003-04:00

It's that time of year again to start reverse ranking the Top 30 Pirate Prospects for the 2012 season, as determined by a panel of one judge...me.

The thresholds for prospectiness are no more than 130 at-bats, 50 innings pitched, or 30 relief appearances at the major league level.

The number in parentheses is the player's 2012-season age, using the standard July 1st cutoff date. The level shown is my assumed level that the player will start at in 2012.

30. Yhonathan Barrios (20) SS/2B, SS/A -- In 2011, Barrios debuted in the United States at the Gulf Coast Rookie League and put up an impressive line of .299/.382/.433 (815 OPS) while committing only 5 errors in his short season. Barrios will definitely be promoted in 2012, but time will tell if he plays at State College or West Virginia to start 2012.

29. Jake Burnette (19) RHP, SS -- Burnette is a 2011 draftee that had a 1 inning cameo in the GCL. Burnette is your standard tall, projectable righty that the Pirates love to draft. He will most likely follow their standard path of going to the Fastball Academy known as the State College Spikes in 2012.

28. Matt Hague (26) 1B, AAA/MLB -- Hague did Matt Hague-type of things in 2011. Great strike zone discipline (47 walks, only 68 K's in 534 AB's) at AAA and only average power (12 HR's). He did also have 37 doubles and 3 triples, but his power does not profile as a typical 1B in the majors. He may be a JT Snow or Casey Kotchman type of player if everything goes right. The telling part to me is that during the Lyle Overbay Chronicles of 2011, there was never a hint from the Pirates front office or manager that Hague was a candidate to come up. Hague did not receive a September callup, either, in order to preview what he may provide. For all of these reasons, plus his advanced age for a prospect, are why he is here.

27. Zac Fuesser (21) LHP, A+ -- Fuesser had a great season in Low A in 2011, as he pitched both in the rotation and out of the bullpen and was effective in both roles. In 108 innings, he gave up 111 hits, struck out 95 and only walked 33. There were no major splits between rightie and leftie batters, either. The downside to Fuesser is that he is a little bit of a soft-tosser at this point, with his fastball typically sitting 85-88 mph. Fuesser will get promoted to Bradenton, but with the potential super rotation on tap, he could be back in the bullpen.

26. Elevys Gonzalez (22) 3B/2B, AA -- Gonzalez is just "that guy". He consistently gets overshadowed by other teammates, but continues to produce great numbers. This year in 2011 at Bradenton, he put up a line of .322/.374/.467 (841 OPS) with 48 extra base hits (36 doubles, 6 triples, and 6 homers), but most of the attention was focused on Robbie Grossman all year. Gonzalez does not really have a truly great defensive position, but there is some value in a super-utility player with his hitting potential.

French to the rescue --- that's a new one

2011-10-31T18:32:00.006-04:00

Last week it was reported that Veolia Transportation may (triple underline "may") be interested in taking over the Port Authority in the future.

I, for one, would like to welcome our new French overlords.

Veolia Transportation is a sector of the overall Veolia conglomerate that includes a wide variety of functions like water, wastewater, transportation, energy, etc. The headquarters is in France, but they are a global megacompany with plenty of offices here in the United States.

Veolia Transportation is running public transportation systems in New Orleans, Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Toronto. By all accounts, those systems are doing fairly well.

The Port Authority in Pittsburgh is so underwater, to use the parlayance of our times, that there is a common perception that the only way for them to be successful long-term is to go bankrupt. This will get them out from under the long-term legacy costs of pensions and retiree healthcare. In cold, bloodless theory that sounds like a great way to rectify the problem. Just the scorch the earth and let the pine trees grow anew from the enriched soil.

But those are good hardworking people that worked a long time to get those benefits. Are they in some cases overpaid? Sure, they are. But no one put a gun to the head (I think) of the Port Authority's management team to approve those Collective Bargaining Agreements over the years.

Part of my problem with the Port Authority is that they have no vision. Well, I shouldn't say that in light of the new North Shore Tunnel/Connector/Money Pit getting ready to open soon. The inevitable leaks in the tunnel under the Allegheny River will start probably 1 month after it opens. Their lack of vision stems from not realizing the demographics of the region and how they fluctuate, then adapting to those changes.

Trying to do light rail, by piggybacking off of the PENNDOT High Occupancy Vehicle lane up I-279 North, to the northern suburbs is about 20 years overdue. The "T" in the South Hills is a decent enough system, but the North Hills line could have less stops and higher speeds.

They could also link the "eds" and "meds" more efficiently to downtown and some of the more popular places to live in the City, thus making it easier for students and young professionals to live in the City and work at the various medical centers or go to schools in the Oakland/Shadyside area.

Would Veolia do any of this? Maybe, but probably not. But I would feel a heck of lot better getting a fresh set of eyes on the problem and trying to revive the patient currently on the operating table that is the Port Authority.

Mussel Up

2011-10-25T21:01:00.004-04:00

DB~'s favorite restaurant is Point Brugge in Point Breeze. Nearly every time she eats lunch with her aunt, this is the place they go. Point Brugge is probably the most underrated restaurant in the city -- you never hear about or see any advertisements about it, but it is constantly filled to the gills with people waiting outside (sometimes the wait is 1 hour plus).

Point Brugge is a Belgian themed place, with their speciality being mussels served with pomme frites (french fries, basically). I've always asked DB~ if she would like me to make her mussels here at home, but she has always demurred.

I decided this past Sunday to "surprise" her and make us mussels for dinner. I say surprise because I can never surprise her and she guessed it when I told her I was going to make her a special dinner. A little frustrating sometimes.

I did some research ahead of time and it turns out that mussels are a real pain to get ready to cook. If you get them fresh, they are actually still alive, which was a shock to me. I thought it was like shrimp or crabs, but inside those little black shells is a living...mussel, I guess. So if you get them fresh you should put them in water so they can take in the water and filter out sand inside. They also have little fuzz that needs to be sometimes cleaned off, too.

I'm not one to shy away from work when preparing food, but when DB~ found a 2 lb bag of fresh frozen mussels at Wholey's for the same price as fresh, fresh mussels in a 2 lb bag...well, that's an easy choice.

I went with a Mussels Provencal recipe. Here's what I did:
Diced 1 shallot
Diced 1/2 white onion
Sauteed the shallot and onion in 3 tbsp butter in a deep saucepan

Diced 2/3 cup of celery
Diced 1/2 cup of red pepper
Once the shallots and onion were soft, I added the celery and red pepper plus 1 cup of wine to the saucepan and stirred it up.
Put a sprinkle of black pepper over top

Once that mingled together over medium-high heat, I added 1 lb of mussels to cover the base of the saucepan then covered with a lid. After 6-8 minutes, the mussels popped open (indicating they were cooked) and I took them out with a slotted spoon.

I put the mussels into bowls and poured the wine and vegetable broth (plus the veggies) over top of them.

I cooked the 2nd lb of mussels the same way, just added a little more wine to the pan to replace what was poured out.

The mussels were tender and tasty, but like chicken wings of the sea. You only get a tiny amount of meat from each one, but it was kind of fun to pluck them out with a fork and watch them float in the broth.

Next time I might try a coconut milk red curry broth as something different for my squiggle.

We went to a real Dive last night

2011-10-21T20:33:00.009-04:00

I didn't feel like cooking at home last night, so DB~ and I braved the cold, damp rainy night and went out to eat. After brainstorming over email while at work, I went to Urbanspoon and searched the area around our house.

After sifting through the list, one name popped out that I did not recognize -- Dive Bar and Grille. After eyeballing the approximate location, it appeared to be in the old Devine Wine Bar in a strip mall off Route 19 (shared by Arhaus Furniture) next to that megachurch complex.

Looking at the menu online, it seemed very creative and the menu was very diverse with a lot of different options. I texted the choice to DB~ and she seemed game to try something different.

When we got there, it was in the location of old Devine and it sure seemed Dive used parts of the same sign for their sign. Eventually we asked our server that question and she assured us that was not the case, but that other people have asked the same question. What was true is that Dive did not change much of the decor from Devine, but that's not a bad thing. The cut stone border around the bar shelves is still there, the hightops and normal tables are still present, and the little alcoves with a couple of tables are still tucked away. They may have added some giant white ball lanterns from Crate & Barrel, but that's about it.

The music was an interesting mix of two stations: 90's rock and Top 40, so that appealed to me (90's rock) and DB~ (Top 40). The only problem is that it was turned up too loud, which makes me sound like an old man, but it was hard to talk at times.

Now that I've moaned and whined all over this post, let me say that Dive Bar and Grille is awesome and we will be going back again, probably with more people in tow. The food was outstanding.

We were there on a Thursday night around 6 pm, so Happy Hour was in effect until 7 pm. That meant appetizers were 1/2 off and we took advantage of it by selecting the Loaded Croquettes. These were a drool-inducing combination of a potato pancake (the potatoes were whipped smooth and then covered in breading and fried) and a loaded baked potato, as they were topped with sour cream, green onions, and BBQ shredded pork. The portion size is three croquettes, but I was so busy stuffing food I forgot to take a picture until the last one was left.

For dinner, DB~ selected the Mahi Tacos dinner. The tacos were chunks of mahi tuna, shredded cabbage, and a nice aoili sauce. For her two sides, she selected wilted spinach and the Sweet Potato Tater Tots. If you are reading this and live within driving distance of Wexford, go to Dive Bar and Grille and at least get a side order ($3) of the Sweet Potato Tots. Holy. Crapola. Sweet potato side dishes can go pear-shaped on you...fries can be soggy, fries can be bland pieces of cardboard, sometimes the potato by itself is not cooked all the way through.

Not here. They are scrumtrilescent coupled with a side of cinnamon butter to dip them in.

For whatever reason, slider dishes were half-off last night too. There's about 6 different options, so I figured I would take advantage of a $4 dinner (plus $3 for my side of tots). I went with the Cheese Steak sliders, which are shaved prime rib, carmelized onions, melted Mozzarella, and peppers. They were served open-faced in an interesting plating pattern.

Dive Bar and Grille's name was selected for its irony, but it is anything but a dive. Highly recommend this place, especially if you can grab some of this great food during 1/2 off happy hours.

Charm City Weekend - Fells Point

2011-10-20T21:51:00.007-04:00

The Sunday after the wedding in Baltimore, DB~ and I went with my cousin on a quick tour around Fells Point in downtown. Fells Point was its own neighborhood based on maritime endeavors until it was incorporated into Baltimore. It was named after Admiral Fell, who now has a charming little boutique hotel named after him in the form of the Admiral Fell Inn.

When I was a younger hellraiser, Fells Point was known as the South Side-esque area of Baltimore, with bars layered on top of pubs. The summer of my 21st birthday, I went down to visit my cousin and meet up with some friends from college. We partied in Fells Point one night and one of my friends from college did the most outrageous stunt I have ever seen in person. For purposes of this family blog, I'll just refer to it as the Squirrel Nut Zipper in the middle of a crowded bar named Bertha's.

I got so drunk in another establishment named the Greene Turtle that I had to be carried out and on another occasion we went down for a Halloween bar crawl to a bar that I can't remember its name. Perhaps the $10 all you can drink cover had something to do with that. Or all the naughty nurse/trashy pirate/Catholic school girl costumes. One or the other.

I also bought my first Tricky CD, Pre-Millenium Tension, in 1997 while in the midst of the Squirrel Nut Zipper bender of a night.

In short, Fells Point to me was party central and a semi-rough neighborhood with a lot of tattoo shops and proximity to drug dealers (not that I partook in that sort of thing).

But here we are in 2011 and Baltimore is cleaning up Fells Point and making it trendy. There are now establishments like a whisky bar that also serves sushi, an interesting furniture store called Su Casa, and a whole block of residential loft-style housing.

The bars are still there, but now they are augmented by Spanish tapas restaurants, Greek restaurants, and a great looking Cajun restaurant called Louisiana. And it is all a short water taxi ride away from the Inner Harbor. DB~ and I will probably go back in the near future and stay either in or around the Fells Point area.

Our little Fells Point is growing up. Sniff. Makes me so proud.

Charm City Weekend

2011-10-18T19:23:00.009-04:00

This past weekend DB~ and I went down to Baltimore for one of my cousin's wedding. Most of my mom's side of the family moved to Baltimore from Pittsburgh in the '60's. We re-discovered that side of the family in 1984 and since then Baltimore has been like a second city to me.

Like all good cities, Baltimore is in the midst of re-vitalizing itself. The city is still rampant with drugs and crime, but they are doing a lot to rehab some neighborhoods (like Canton) and augment others (Fells Point).

One neighborhood that doesn't need any changes, though, is Little Italy in Baltimore off of Eastern Avenue. My mom's side of the family is Italian, so growing up we would go to Little Italy periodically when we would visit. Unlike Bloomfield in Pittsburgh, Baltimore's Little Italy is just Italian restaurants. And this past Saturday, every single one of them was packed to the brim. The family wedding was a smaller one, only around 85 people, so we had the entire upstairs of Chiapperelli's located on High Street.

The food was fantastic at the restaurant. This sure wasn't your typical Italian wedding at the fire hall. The appetizers were pretty good, but not spectacular, but the dinner was excellent. The salads were a light Caesar dressing with black pepper giving some bite. The dinners were family style portions of the following:
Penne in Vodka Cream Sauce
Lasagna
Meatballs
Sausage and Peppers

All were great, especially the penne and the meatballs. I'm not a huge fan of sausage and peppers typically, but I tried the sausage and was stunned by how soft it was. Sometimes you bite into a little fat pocket or the sausage is overcooked. But this sausage had none of that and the sausage was perfectly cooked and tender.

The lasagna was a touch watery, but it had excellent flavors and the ricotta cheese mixture was very smooth. The penne in vodka sauce had a yellowish-orange tint and wasn't drowned in sauce, which can be the downfall of that dish sometimes. Big thumbs up to Chiapperelli's.

Around 8 pm, I needed to get up and stretch and catch a breath of fresh air (it was a little tight seating arrangements) so I went outside to take in the scene. When I went out, I actually checked my phone to see what time it was. Sure enough it was 8 pm, but there was a car everywhere you turned and massive traffic backups when the valets would grab a vehicle to park.

After he caught his breath, I asked one of Chiapperelli's 5 (!!) valets if this was normal. He told me it was never this busy. I wandered a couple of blocks away to Vaccaro's. Vaccaro's is a famous restaurant that specializes in desserts.

Even though I go back to Baltimore at least once every other year, this trip felt different. I felt like I was going back to the beginning of things, like I was re-discovering Baltimore for the first time. Maybe that's due to DB~ and how I wanted her to see the city with me and how I feel when I'm with her. Whatever the reason, I flashed back to one of our earliest trips to Baltimore when we went to Vaccaro's after dinner. I was probably 9 or 10 and my cousin Paul practically triple-dared me into ordering the Death By Chocolate dessert. It was a massive orgy of chocolate cake, hot fudge, and chocolate gelato. If I finished it, he would give me a dollar. I did.

So this past Saturday after the wedding reception broke up and before we went to the after party, my parents and DB~ and I went to Vaccaro's for dessert. At 9 pm, the line was out the door and into the center of the street. After a few minutes wait we were ushered in by an employee who finally split the line into take-out and sit-down.

When we settled in, I didn't realize I was going to be an idiot. Truly, I didn't. But we were telling DB~ about the Death By Chocolate and I was still kind of hungry after dinner...

Boom. There it is in the forefront. My dad's peanut butter gelato dessert is in the upper left hand corner, my mom's rum cake is the upper right, and DB~'s sensible single cream puff is to the right of the Mount Rushmore Of Chocolate. It was a huge piece of chocolate canoli cake with 5 scoops of chocolate gelato, drizzled with hot fudge.

"Don't eat so much that you get sick" was the warning from DB~. I laughed it off. I ended up finishing all but 3 bites of it. And true to DB~'s warning, I had some stomach indigestion later that night. But it was worth it, even if I didn't get a dollar this time.

Did I Sleep Into March 2012 Already?

2011-10-12T21:32:00.004-04:00

With today's announcement by Pirate President Frank Coonelly that the Pirates would most likely not pick up Paul Maholm's $9.75M option for 2012, coupled with yesterday's announcement that Charlie Morton would undergo labrum surgery on his hip, most Pirate fans on the forums went into full-scale freak-out mode.

One particular poster respected by some in the blogosphere went so far to proclaim that the Pirates were sliding towards a 100 loss season in 2012.

This is October 12th, right? The World Series isn't even started, let alone over when free agency starts, yet some have bypassed the whole offseason and gone right to the ol' Pirates Suck Card.

Neal Huntington himself has previously said that the Pirates will actively explore the trade market this offseason. They will probably sniff around some 2nd tier free agents, as well. And keep in mind, this is Paul Maholm we're talking about. The same Paul Maholm that some of the same people decrying this move as "Pirates are cheap!" were busy slamming all during the 2011 season and predicting his eventual downfall.

These same people will also wring their hands and cry into their bushy salt-and-pepper beards when Ryan Doumit's dual options are not likely picked up. The same Ryan Doumit that is hurt all the time and in possession of some of the worst, if not the worst, catcher defense in Major League baseball.

The type to say the sky is falling on the Pirates' 2012 season should probably start in, say for example, 2012.

Kevin Sousa's Next Adventure

2011-10-06T22:20:00.005-04:00

I've had an interesting range of feelings on Kevin Sousa and his culinary delights over the past few years. A few years ago, I went to Yo Rita! on the South Side and was underwhelmed by his genious being infused into foodie tacos.

Then a few months ago, we went to Salt of the Earth and I was moved by the artistry on a plate.

So in today's Post-Gazette comes word that in early 2012, Kevin Sousa will be opening a new restaurant in the heart of East Liberty called Union Pig and Chicken. It's not just any restaurant, either, it's a barbeque (I sure could go for a good barbacoa) restaurant.

Confession - I'm a recovering BBQ-holic. I've allowed it to recede into the background because DB~ isn't a fan of BBQ sauce and is a borderline vegetarian. When she goes out with her friends or has a night meeting, this place turns into the Kansas City Stockyards. Red meat flies all over the place, I rub BBQ sauce on my face, and roll around in baked beans. (Not all true).

I'm intrigued by Sousa's take on barbeque, as he wants to fuse different regions and flavors into something local. He has pledged no vegetarian dishes to the menu. Delightful.

East Liberty is already arguably the top neighborhood for dining in Pittsburgh. With the addition of a Kevin Sousa restaurant (Salt of the Earth is technically in Garfield, not East Liberty), this will probably tip it over into first place hands down.

Pumpkin Gnudi

2011-10-05T21:59:00.005-04:00

Around late September of every year, the murmurs start. Once the calendar flips to October, it is in full effect...Pumpkin Lust from DB~. At times it is like the end of the Michael Jackson's Thriller video, except DB~'s eyes glow orange instead of yellow.

Last year I wrote about a great new recipe I discovered called Gnudi. It's a gnocchi-like dish, except the dough is composed primarily of ricotta cheese. I thought it might be a good idea to try and incorporate some canned pumpkin into the recipe.

I used the standard recipe, but added 1/2 of a small can of Libby's canned pumpkin into the mix. I needed to increase the flour from 3/4 of a cup to 1 cup to account for the additional softness and extra liquid.

I split the ball of dough into two ropes, as usual, and then sliced them up into 1 inch wide disks. I got about 16-18 pieces out of the recipe. Instead of the cream basil sauce, I went with a melted butter and cinnamon mix to drizzle over the cooked gnudi. It just felt more like fall.

Both of us agreed that the recipe was a winner and DB~ asked me to make it one more time before Thanksgiving.

Something Wicked this way comes (thru my intestinal tract)

2011-10-02T21:35:00.002-04:00

DB~ is a fan of musicals; I'm more of a theatre play man, myself (but more of a movie guy above all of them). Rent is her all-time favorite...I think she's up to seeing it 8 times...but Wicked may be her 2nd favorite with 4 viewings before Friday night.

DB~'s good friend and work associate organized a group of nearly 20 people to go to dinner beforehand and then go sit in 2 rows together at the Benedum. There was also the added bonus of 2 people being able to go back stage after the show to see the sets and costumes. To decide which 2 of us out of 20 would get the tickets, a blind drawing would be done at the restaurant by putting all of our names in a bag.

The restaurant selected for our dining pleasure was McCormick and Schmick's on Wood Street, next to Capital Grille. McCormick and Schmick's is perfectly fine, but it has always struck me as a stuffy, clubby restaurant where captains of business power lunch over a martini and a non-sustainably fished Chilean Sea Bass.

There are plenty of fine choices on the menu, including the Cashew Crusted Tilapia that DB~ selected, but I felt like having some Fried Buttermilk Jumbo Shrimp and fries with Old Bay seasoning. Just felt right. Foreshadowing!!

At the end of dinner, the selection for the backstage pass occured and guess who got it? That's right...your favorite baseball/city of Pittsburgh/food blogger and his Wicked-loving new wife.

Upon arrival at the Benedum, we settled into our balcony seats 2 rows from the front with a great view of the stage. And then approximately 2 song numbers into the show, the rumblings from somewhere within my 6 feet of large intestine started. Uh, oh. If I left to go to the bathroom, I would probably not be able to come back into the theatre until the intermission. So I started to think pleasant thoughts and focus on the love-hate relationship between Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

At intermission, I thought I had it kicked so I didn't run out and enjoy the finest porcelain toilet on the 2nd floor of the Benedum. Mistake. Two songs into the 2nd Act, I knew this wasn't going to work, so I asked DB~ for a Pepto Bismol tablet (she's like a mobile Walgreens with her purse).

That Pepto helped, but it was just a Band-Aid. But we still had the backstage tour after the show. We did a run through of the backstage area and it was very cool. We were there 10 minutes after the end of the show and everyone was already cleared out. All the costumes and makeup was off and the actors gone. The theatre and backstage area were dark. It was sweet to walk around the Benedum's stage and try to envision what it must be like during the actual production.

We asked our backstage guide (one of the flying monkeys, I think) how long it took to set it up when it came into town. He told us it takes a huge crew 2 days, working around the clock, to set it up. It takes 6-8 hours to break it down and put it in the trucks at the end of the run, which for the Pittsburgh leg was today.

It's a grueling tour with 43 cities on the run. I can't imagine what it must be like to do the SAME thing EVERY day for your job. Unfortunately, all the pictures I took with my cellphone turned out too dark to adequately put up here. Bummer...there was a nice one of the giant Wizard Statue Head.

Teams to target in the offseason

2011-09-29T21:46:00.003-04:00

I've been writing about how the Pirates should be looking into shanghai'ing talent this offseason by trading for young veterans with multiple years of control left on their contracts.

Rather than discuss players like I did last year, even though I think most of those players would be good candidates to obtain this year, I thought it may be interesting to evaluate which TEAMS may be in the market to trade.

Teams with financial problems:
NY Mets
LA Dodgers
Oakland A's

The Mets and Dodgers' financial problems are well-known, but perhaps lesser known to us East Coasters are the A's problems. Owner Lew Wolff desperately wants to move the A's to San Jose and build a corporately funded stadium, to the point that he recently backed a mayoral candidate who vowed NOT to build the A's a taxpayer-funded stadium in Oakland.

Further complicating the situation is that the Giants feel that San Jose is part of their "territory" and are actively fighting against them being able to move there. If things continue to drag on, the A's will be looking to burn the whole team down, perhaps this offseason.

Teams that need to cut salary and reload/rebuild:
Chicago Cubs
Houston Astros
Baltimore Orioles
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Seattle Mariners

Whether or not all these teams realize they need to reload or rebuild is another story (I'm looking at you Minnesota).

Teams that may want to move salary in order to add salary:
St. Louis Cardinals
Florida Marlins
Washington Nationals
San Francisco Giants
Toronto Blue Jays
Los Angeles Angels

Oddly enough, all of these teams are in the market potentially for either Pujols or Fielder. All of these teams are up against their self-imposed salary caps, so they may need to move a mid-sized contract in order to clear space for these top 2 free agents.

With the Pirates showing increased attendance and Huntington already alluding to the idea that they may explore the trade market to improve the major league club, it makes sense that these teams will be mined for potential players. Each of these teams, with perhaps the exception of the Mets, has at least one interesting player with multiple years of control that could be a trade candidate.

The offseason will be an interesting one for the Pirates.

So...yeah...my bad about the Pirates

2011-09-25T11:06:00.002-04:00

On July 23rd, DB~ and I were married. A few weeks earlier, Ben Roethlisberger and I got together for lunch and decided how to handle the media pressure on both of our weddings that day. Ben was a good man and stepped up and said he would bear the brunt of the media, allowing DB~ and I to have a paparazzi-free day.

The day we were married, the Pirates were 51-47, coming off a 9-1 loss to St. Louis that night. DB~ and I stayed downtown at a hotel that night and had a celebatory drink in the lobby with some in-town St. Louis fans. They were in their baseball jerseys and shorts. We were in a tux and full length wedding dress (as per DB~ --- if I'm paying all this money for it, I'm going to get some use out of it).

At that point in the season, all pistons were firing for the Pirates, especially the pitching. The hitters weren't all that hot, but Alex Presley was the sparkplug at the top of the lineup and the Pirates were getting just enough from a different person each night to win. Every pitcher was pitching well above their standards, especially Jeff Karstens, but you just wanted it to keep going.

After that night of July 23rd, the Pirates have gone 20-40, which is a .333 winning percentage -- which equates to a 54-108 record over a full season. That's very close to the Pirates 57-105 record they posted last year. Maybe after getting married, I somehow lost my laser-like focus on the Pirates and this resulted in the Pirates free fall into 5th place from 1st place.

Today is the final home game for the Pirates and DB~ and I will be in attendance. Sorry that our blessed union is apparently the cause for the Pirates slide. We'll try harder next year.

It's Alive!!

2011-09-22T20:46:00.007-04:00

I went to a seminar today about Sustainability in design of engineering projects. I have a moderate interest in the subject, but to be honest I was mostly there to get the last few Continuing Education Units I need for my Professional Engineer's license renewal.

The seminar was at Phipps Conservatory. The final topic of the day was regarding the recent expansion effort of Phipps -- the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, also known as a Living Building.

The CSL is going for LEED Platinum certification and the highest rating for the Living Building Center's rating. One of the core tenets of the building's planning was the use of Integrated Design. The concept of Integrated Design is that all of the design team (owner, architect, mech engineer, plumbing engineer, site engineer, electrical engineer, landscape architect) gets together at the very beginning to explore the conceptual design, rather than wait for the design and then go off and work in their own vacuums.

On large buildings, it certainly makes sense. The other interesting facet of the design is the exclusion of certain products that are deemed environmentally unsound. These include PVC pipe, which is on the naughty list for the way it is fabricated. It also includes lead fire sprinklers, which is a problem because commercial-grade fire sprinklers not made of lead are few and far between.

The building external cladding is going to be made of wood re-purposed from old barns throughout Western Pennsylvania. It will be a net zero power and water building by re-using discarded water for irrigation and flushing toilets. There's a whole host of other enviro-friendly nuggets with the building, which will be completed probably within 18 months.

Just another nice feature to an excellent facility at Phipps Conservatory.

A Northerner making a Southern meal

2011-09-17T16:26:00.004-04:00

DB~ and I used to love going to a restaurant on the edge of Bellevue called Mojo Bistro. Sadly it closed last year as the owners wanted to go back to New Orleans. Every dish there was fantastic and the place was always packed, but they still closed anyway.

One of the best dishes we had there were Shrimp and Grits. The grits were cheesy and had a hint of bacon flavoring. We sort of had a hankering for grits, so I thought to give it a shot making them.

I have a huge bag of yellow corn meal in the pantry, so I thought I could make the grits out of those and give a little additional flavor. I mixed 1 cup of corn meal in 1 cup of cold milk. Once they started to set, I added 1 cup of water to the sauce pan and heated them up for 5-10 minutes. I sauteed the shrimp with some Luzienne's Cajun Seasoning sprinkled on top and placed them on top of the grits. When the grits were ready to be topped, I added some honey to them for a sweet flavor addition.

The two sides were fried tomato slices -- yes, I did think of Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy from Fried Green Tomatoes...I didn't sleep well that night -- that I made by dredging them in flour, dipping them in egg, and then breading them in seasoned bread crumbs (oregano, salt, pepper).

The second side was Red Swiss Chard sauteed in onions and garlic and olive oil. Once the chard wilted down and was ready to be served, I sprinkled romano cheese on top.

All in all, it wasn't as good as Mojo Bistro, but it was still a pretty great meal.

Maybe I was just a year too early...

2011-09-15T17:11:00.002-04:00

Going into the 2010 offseason, I wrote about how that offseason was an Inflection Point for the future of the Pirates franchise. I advocated that the Pirates make a serious attempt to improve the major league team by utilizing some of the minor league depth to trade for young veterans with multiple years of control.

Some of the same players I advocated trading for last offseason (Scott Baker of Minnesota, Gavin Floyd of the White Sox, Ricky Nolasco of the Marlins, and James Shields of the Rays) are still possibilities again this year.

The 2011 season gave us all a taste of winning baseball, like crack fiends getting that first vial for free. Now we're ready to sell all of our furniture (read: minor league system) to get another taste. I'm not saying we trade Jameson Taillon and Starling Marte to get some players, but I wouldn't rule out too many other people. Perhaps I was just a year too early in my advocating for trades to improve the major league team.

The Pirates may have been playing over their heads until the end of July, but the fact remains that they were 5 games over .500 going into the end of July series with the Phillies. At that point I felt the losing streak of 18 years would be over, even if I didn't truly believe that they were a completely legitimate playoff contender. The fact is that were contenders based on the record, but I would have been thrilled with 82 wins and getting that silly losing streak monkey off their backs.

But August smacked this team in the jaw and like a mid-1980's opponent for Mike Tyson, the Pirates could not get up from the canvas after that 10 game losing streak. It really left a bad taste in some fans' mouths on how sour this season turned.

The Pirates will again have a great deal of payroll flexibility after they decline the options for Doumit, Snyder, and probably Maholm. Even with some arbitration cases on the horizon (Hanrahan, Veras, Morton for example), they should still have around $10-$15M to potentially spend on either free agents or trades for younger veterans with multiple years of control. That doesn't even factor in the whole increased attendance and revenue they acheived in 2011, although the decrease to revenue sharing is unknown.

In short, last offseason the Pirates got Clint Hurdle and he has been a huge improvement over John Russell. Now it's time to get Andrew McCutchen some help on the field. You can't rely solely on your own prospects (but I can't wait for Starling Marte to get here in 2012!) because they flame out too often.

Hey, Dad! The Food Truck is here!

2011-09-11T22:01:00.002-04:00

While I was watching Food Truck Race 2 on Food Network tonight (salivating...eventually I had to raid the fridge), I was again frustrated by the lack of food trucks in Pittsburgh thanks to the red tape that you have to cut through to have a food truck.

Apparently you can't park for more than 1 hour in Pittsburgh and sell food, which kind of inhibits business. Normal, forward-thinking people would understand this, but Pittsburgh at times needs dragged out of the 1980's, let alone the year 2011.

Anywho, my revelation that I had was "Do you need to be downtown to have a successful food truck?" Could you use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and the like to announce that you were going to set up in a big industrial park like an RIDC in the suburbs? Could you go to a construction site in the suburbs?

Or even better...could you drive around a neighborhood during the day, like the ice cream man from your childhood, and sell tacos to adults?

So as I'm typing this, the final part of Food Truck Race for this week in Memphis is on...it's the elimination ceremony. Tyler Florence announces that 1 of the teams cheated by adding $2700 of their own money to the cashbox without selling the corresponding food. It's the Korilla BBQ truck, my personal favorite truck and a front-runner to win it all. They had to slink off totally embarassed and they never even gave their side of the story...I guess nothing needed to be said.

The sad part is that they didn't even need to cheat. They weren't the lowest grossing team for this city. Kind of a sad end to a great team.

Trying to recapture the Greek magic

2011-09-10T22:41:00.007-04:00

On Friday night, DB~ and I had our close friends over. I decided for the 4 of us I would attempt to replicate some of the meals we had in Greece.

I started off with the rusk, using the best available ingredients I could find. I went with a rustic Italian-style bread and "scalped" the top of it so I could place my ingredients on top of it. I made this about 1-1/2 hours ahead of when I planned to serve it, so as to allow the olive oil and tomato juices soak in deeply. Instead of the anthotiro cheese, I went with feta, as I couldn't find the anthotiro anywhere in town (even online at Penn Mac in the Strip District). I topped the cheese with some rinsed capers and greek oregano I brought back from Athens.

The juices saturated the bread, but not as much as in Santorini. It was still great and well-received, but not the exact same as we had it.

I "cheated" and bought grape leaves at Giant Eagle's antipasta section and cut some lemon wedges to squeeze over top for each person's individual tastes.

In addition to a simple Greek salad (greens, onion slices, kalamata olives, tomatoes, and feta with a balsamic/olive oil mix), the main course was lamb kleftiko. Using my Dutch oven, I cut a lamb roast into chunks and browned it. I wedged some potatoes and drizzled them with lemon juice and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Additionally, I sauted some onions and garlic together and added them in. After all that, I topped the entire pot with tomato slices (approx. 1-1/2 tomatoes) and sprinkled some crumbled feta on top.

The lamb kleftiko was baked at 325 F for 2 hours. A nice base juice developed and the lamb was done well. It turned out well and all of us liked it, but it just wasn't quite the same. Perhaps it has something to do with not having the Parthenon in the background?

Andrew McCutchen is having a down year

2011-09-07T20:55:00.004-04:00

Last year, I wrote about how some Pirate fans felt that 2010 was a down year for Andrew McCutchen. I attempted to refute those claims on the basis that it was his perceived defensive shortcomings that held his season's perception down.

So it is somewhat surprising that I am here to type that 2011 was a down year for Cutch-22. On the surface this seems counterintuitive as McCutchen is in the midst of a 5.3 WAR season after his first two years being 3.5 and 3.7 respectively.

The first half of the year looked like McCutchen was on the verge of becoming a legitimate superstar in the league as he went .291/.390/.505 (894 OPS) with 14 HR and 15 SB's in the 88 games prior to the All-Star break. But McCutchen came out cold from the ASB and has stayed cold in the 2nd half, with a .226/.335/.382 (717 OPS) line and 6 HR and 5 SB's in 52 games.

Contrary to last year, when McCutchen and the rest of the outfielders were subjected to the bizarre defensive alignments, Cutch-22 has a very favorable Ultimate Zone Rating for his fielding (4.8/150 versus his -12.9/150 in 2010). So last year's 3.7 WAR was held down by his poor defensive rating while his 5.3 WAR may be buoyed by his positive defensive rating. I'm becoming evermore skeptical of defensive ratings, so when I see a player greatly augmented by one, it sticks out.

My reasoning is that McCutchen's Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) has held steady from his first two years. His three wOBA's are (in order) .368, .363, and .364. Additionally, his OPS's are steady at 836, 814, and 830. So McCutchen's offensive component of his WAR rating has held steady, but his defensive rating (the part that I'm skeptical of true value) has fluctuated which has caused his high WAR total of 5.3 in 2011.

Something else to be concerned about is that his overall contact percentages have dropped this year too. As per his Fangraphs page, his contact rate within the strike zone has dropped from 90.6% to 87.9% this year. His overall contact rate for all pitches has also dropped from 84.6% to 81.0% and his swinging strike rate has increased from 5.8% to 7.6% this year.

Let me clarify something -- I am still a huge, huge McCutchen fan. I think he has another gear in him and he is capable of having a 25 HR/40 SB season, which would be monsterous. But this season is not his best one. The good news is that Cutch-22 will not turn 25 until October, which means his peak seasons of age 27-29 are still ahead of him and in line for us as Pirates fans.

Oh yeah...the Pirates

2011-08-31T20:49:00.003-04:00

Now that the Greek flag is not flying prominently over the blog anymore, it's probably a good idea to get back to the topic of baseball.

A lot has changed in one month. Back on July 31st, the Pirates were still above .500, but at the start of their death spiral by preparing to get swept by the Phillies. That lead into the season-killing 0-7 homestand about the bottom feeding Cubs and Padres.

The month of August has not been kind to the Pirates, as they are 7-18 and any dreams of slaying the .500 Monster have evaporated. What happened?

Is it the injuries, especially to the starting pitching? The season long anemic offense finally rearing its ugly head? Regression to the mean?

Yes, yes, and yes.

The Pirates gave us long-suffering fans a lot to be proud of and cheer for through the end of July, which is much longer than we usually get. It's like people in Wisconsin getting one less month of brutal winter.

I don't regret advocating picking up players at the July 31st trade deadline, even though Lee and Ludwick were uninspiring to me at the time, and not "trading high" on Maholm and Hanrahan. Contending teams don't do that and at the time the Pirates were contenders, at least on paper.

Last season, I wrote about how the 2010 offseason would be "an inflection point" on the course of the Pirates. Maybe I was just a year ahead of myself, because I think the expectations have been raised now and the front office needs to capitalize on the goodwill garnered this season. I still don't think free agents are the answer, but in the offseason I will once again advocate for making trades for players with multiple years of control.

At least it beats 105 losses.

Going Greek - Petros Tavern

2011-08-23T07:57:00.004-04:00

Things got all out of whack chronologically with the Oia posts, so let's go back to our first lunch in Oia at Petros Tavern.

Petros Tavern, like most things on Santorini, doesn't have a true address. It's just "over there" or "up on the main shopping street". What is does have is good seafood with a fantastic view of the caldera. With our first meal, we wanted to be awed by the view and weren't super concerned about the food. We ended up having a great meal, too.

We started off by ordering, perhaps, my most-remembered dish in Greece. It was an appetizer called Rusk with Anthotiro cheese. We had to ask our pleasant Euro waiter what "Rusk" was, and he explained in semi-broken English that rusk was a hearty peasant bread (maybe it is short for "rustic").

The appetizer came out with a circular portion of the rusk with tomato slices and olive oil on top of it. The tomato juices and olive oil soaked into the bread giving it a fantastic flavor. On top of the tomatoes/olive oil was a thick layer of the anthotiro cheese, capers, and oregano. Anthotiro is a must find for me back home here in Pittsburgh; I hope Penn Mac carries it. It is a milder and more malleable version of feta -- feta either crumbles into dust or big chunks (I still love it, though).

The rusk set the stage for both of us ordering shrimp dishes for lunch. DB~ went with a standard Grilled Shrimp, while I went with the Shrimp Saganaki.

Shrimp doesn't really do the term justice...these things were borderline prawns in terms of size. In Greece (at least), they are very big on giving you the shrimp with not only the tails (a personal peeve of mine) but also the heads. With the heads included, these shrimp were easily 6 inches in length from aft to stern.

Much like the infamous soft-shell crab incident, DB~ doesn't like to engage in hand-to-hand with her food. She likes to put it on a fork and into her mouth and chew it a few times. I could tell she was a little creeped out by the shrimp heads, as she had to take the shells off of them too, so I twisted a few off for her.

The saganaki dish was a mix of tomatoes and feta cheese with the shrimp mixed in. The tomatoes in Greece were a deep red and have an excellent flavor to them, almost borderline sweet. I enjoyed the sauce, but it may have been a bit too much tomato sauce for this dish -- maybe a little overwhelming.

As I mentioned above, they give you them shrimp heads, tails, and shells...even in a red sauce. So, I "ugly Americaned" it and reached into to twist off heads, take off the shells and strip the tail out. By the time I was done, our table cloth looked like it came from the Tate-Bianca house. Our server quietly set down a pile of wet naps for me to use.

Yes. I'm American. Aside from my a stray thought or two, this is probably the last Greek post in the series. PS - All the pictures were done under the artful eye of my new wife, DB~. She really got into the food ones, I think.

Going Greek - Port of Ammoudi

2011-08-17T07:26:00.005-04:00

As I've mentioned before in the Oia posts, the villages on Santorini all are perched on cliffs with the sea in the caldera directly below you. Below each main village is a corresponding port. The one below Oia is called Ammoudi.

We stared down at it for a couple of days until we decided it was time to go explore down there. Theoretically you could drive down, but we didn't have a car and that seems weak. So the two choices are to walk down 300+ cobblestone steps in a switchback pattern or take a donkey.

We decided to walk down and re-evaluate our mode of transportation once we were ready to come back up. We walked down with the intent to have lunch at the port, as there are at least 5 portside tavernas down there. As such, when we went down it was blazing hot and there is no where to hide in the shade during your 15 minute walk, so we were drenched with sweat.

Once there, we checked out each fish taverna and eventually settled on Dmitri's, mostly because DB~ liked its bright colors of the building. Our table was directly adjacent to the water. Like, if a fork fell off it was in the water, kind of adjacent. This led to DB~ and the girl at the table next to us both chumming the water with chunks of bread to get the little fish to all swim to it as a school.

Back home in the States, I'm not a huge fish guy. I like shrimp and will have some tilapia and swordfish, but overall I like my food to run away from me not swim away. But when in Rome...(or Athens...or Oia, I guess).

Side note - We were very surprised that fish was kind of expensive in Greece. You would think that having a whole sea surrounding the mainline and being on an island it would be plentiful and cheap, but it wasn't. Another odd thing is that all the fish are shown on the menu priced by the kilo. It's shocking to see $60/kilo for a fish, until you realize that you're only going to get a 1/4 kilo worth of fish.

DB~ ordered a seafood pasta dish that was linguini with mussels, scallops and shrimp. She sort of chickened out on ordering a fish that was caught fresh that morning. I went for it, though. Our waitress led me inside and showed me the case of fish and told me all their names. I went with a red mullet and got 300 grams worth (they weigh it in front of you on a scale).

The grill was right behind us and we watched a man toss it on a wood fired grill and cook it right up, after some rudimentary scaling of it, and then toss it on a plate with a hunk of lemon and a couple of vegetables.

As you can see, that's head and tail and all, including a whole mess of bones. Different than back home where you get a prepared fillet. I kind of felt a little ripped off paying for a whole bunch of "weight" that I wasn't going to eat, but oh well. It was worth it for the experience to try it.

So after lunch we stared back up the huge set of steps and decided there was no way in heck we were walking back up. A Greek man that only knew a couple of words of English asked if we wanted a donkey ride for 5 euros per person. We each got our own donkey (DB~ had this pretty white one, of course).

Let me tell you...you haven't lived until you've held on to a bridle of a donkey for dear life while you and your new wife take turns getting run into cobblestone walls by donkeys engaging in a blood feud up 300+ steps, all while a Greek man yells at them in Greek and beats them with a whip. Good times.

The password is "harrowing". That's...."harrowing".

Going Greek - The 1800

2011-08-16T07:38:00.005-04:00

I'm jumping around here a little bit in chronology, but this post is sort of gnawing at my brain and I wanted to put it out there on the blog. Plus the legions of people (read: 7) who read this blog were asking about it.

Saturday the 30th of July was our last night to hit up a nice restaurant in Oia. The next day we were going on a dinner/swim sunset cruise in the caldera of the volcano and Monday we were going to rent a car and drive the island before our flight that night at 11:30 pm.

I was reminded of a comedy bit by Dave Attell while in Greece. He once said, "You know what Vegas doesn't have? A zoo. And you know what? After 4 days of drinking, doing drugs, and seeing strippers...you kinda wanna see a panda." To modify that quote, after 5 days of eating nothing but authentic Greek food, I kinda wanted to eat something different.

We found it at The 1800 in the center of Oia's main shopping street. The 1800 is an old sea captain's house that overlooks the caldera. It's filled with all kinds of interesting artifacts which we never saw. The reason is because as soon as we got there at 7 pm (first and only ones there again!) we were ushered up to the rooftop seating area to enjoy the view, while all the stuff is inside the restaurant.

The funny part is that when we got up there, they asked "Do you have a reservation?" We said no and the host said, "You can have one of these 2 tables," and gestured with his hand. Keep in mind...there is no one here at all. It kind of reminded me of the scene in Meet the Fockers when Greg couldn't board his flight even though no one was at the gate. To put a bow on that story, by the time we left around 9 pm, only 4 other tables were seated out of the 12 up on the rooftop deck, so I'm not sure why they made a big deal about the reservations.

But this post isn't about semi-snobby Euro maitre'd's. It's about Iron Chef-level food porn at its finest. The interesting thing that caught our eye immediately about The 1800 is that every one of their menu items is "The ____". For instance, DB~ tried to re-create the magic of Kandouni's by getting "The Risotto" which was a very good tomato-infused risotto. But it wasn't the same for her. She enjoyed it, but it wasn't a life-altering experience like with the Butter Risotto.

For an appetizer, we had The Rabbit. I'm a fan of eating rabbit. DB~ is a fan of looking at furry rabbits and petting them. And never the twain shall meet. Until now.

One of my favorite dishes of all time was a rabbit loin that I had at Mesa Grill in Caesar's Palace in Vegas. It was expertly prepared and seasoned with a light cream sauce and dill. My mouth just watered.

The Rabbit at The 1800 may have just entered my personal top 10, even as an appetizer. This dish had everything going for it -- presentation was off the charts and the taste was outstanding.

The rabbit was shredded and served on a rectangular piece of warm brioche bread. Surrounding the rabbit were little dots that looked like those yellow-red pills in a drugstore. Except the red part here was rhubarb extract and the yellow was an orange cream sauce. The gray circles you see are eggplant panacotta. You were encouraged, borderline ordered, to utilize the various sauces to accent the rabbit.

DB~ actually enjoyed the rabbit, against all internal restrictions she may have had. Periodically, I encourage her to let me make it for her at home and she gets a look of sad regret on her face like I'm going to run over Thumper from Bambi with my car, wipe his still fresh blood under my eyes like war paint, and use his pelt as a hat...all after I flop it down on a plate for her to eat. (Maybe I'll sneak it in on her one night and tell her it's chicken...).

For my dinner, I went bold. I'm a big proponent of ordering something on a menu that you can't make yourself or that you don't see commonly. I went with The Rooster. Recently on Chopped, one of the ingredients was Coxcomb which is the rooster's fleshy red plumage on top of his head. This was just the rooster meat itself.

When it came out, I was again moved by its presentation. The perimeter was lined with Greek grapes and tiny pillows of ricotta gnocchi that were melt-in-your-mouth/can-I-sneak-into-the-kitchen-and-steal-more great. Connecting the two sides of the plate was an asparagus extrusion cream for dipping.

The rooster (or The Rooster) itself was odd. It came out looking like a water bottle turned on its side. It was topped with a nice garnish of shredded asparagus, which was a creative way to serve it. The only problem I had with the rooster was its texture. It was dense. This sounds weird, but chicken and pork have some "air" between the meat strands when you chew it. The rooster just hung around your mouth until you had the audacity to swallow it. I liked it, but would probably not order it again.

Subsequent posts will get the Greek back in this joint, but I'm glad to get that one off my brain.

Going Greek - Kandouni's in Oia

2011-08-15T08:07:00.007-04:00

Our hotel in Oia was the Aethrio Hotel, but "hotel" in Santorini means it had 18 rooms. The Aethrio was a little like being in a version of the board game Clue. There were 3 entrances/exits, two of which felt like secret passages right up to the main shopping street.

The main entrance was into a "main" back alley of Oia. This alley was a secondary street of the main street and had some shops along it. It also had 2 great restaurants that were less than 100 feet from the main gate. One was Roka's, where we went for mezes (appetizers) and drinks one night. The other was Kandouni's.

DB~ scoped this place out as we were checking in. It had an outdoor, enclosed courtyard with soot marks indicating where the candles were inset to the walls. We passed by it a couple of times at night and it was a really cool scene with the candles lit up.

We made our reservations for 7 pm one of the nights we were there. Here's a little interlude about dining in Europe. You can sort of tell the nationality of people by what time they show up for dinner. The Americans are used to eating at 6 or 7, plus are usually goofed up by jet lag, and are waiting for the places to open at 7 (this was usually us). The Australians are totally goofed up time wise, so they roll in at 7:30 pm. The Spanish are refreshed after their afternoons siestas, so they cruise in at 8 pm. The Germans arrive precisely at 8:30 pm, because everything they do is precise. And finally, when we were leaving our dinner at 9 pm (dinner is 2 hours minimum typically...no rush), the French take over the restaurants. Which is ironic since the French are usually the ones being taken over.

After some small talk with our server who was a music student at some school outside of Chicago (not sure if he was an active student or not), we ordered an appetizer of pureed fava beans. Side note 2 - hummus, although associated as Greek, is actually more Middle Eastern but we still thought we would see it. It was rare to see on menus. Saw some pureed eggplant, but it was mostly fava beans. The meze at Kandouni's was excellent.

The piece de resistance, especially for DB~, were our main courses. DB~ has always dined well, even before me, but we jointly "stepped our games" up while together. When we go to these restaurants in Pittsburgh, she enjoys them all and gives good feedback, but for this meal she RAVED about it.

The dish was called Butter Risotto. A healthy portion came out on the plate and was cooked perfectly. If you don't mind the store on risotto it can go sideways on you, but this one was spot on. The flavors associated with it are what won her over. It had some local mushrooms, capers, and peppers that were woven into the risotto. The two things that made it stand out were a mellowed out balsamic drizzle over top of it, plus some grated hard Greek cheese. It wasn't myzathira and I don't have a recollection of what is was. There is chance, because Kandouni prides itself on being a fusion style, is that it was an Asiago grated cheese.

DB~ called it the best meal of her life. Even now, 3 weeks removed from it, she still goes into a trance like state when she recalls it.

As for me, I went with a pork steak wrapped in bacon. I also had a balsamic blended glaze on the steak which accented the perfect temperature and composition of the meat. It was a tenderloin, which is my kryptonite when I see it on a menu, but rather a "steak" cut. It was paired with a whipped potato mix, sprinkled with some peppercorns, plus a wilted greens mix.

Since we were 1 of 3 tables occupied at our dining slot (see above), we were able to talk with the owner quite a bit. He was a younger man, possibly late 30's, named Panos. It was great to get some insight from him about life on Oia. He really had no use for going to the mainland of Greece, especially the "smog filled and polluted" town of Athens. He had some friends that moved to the "big" city of Fira, which is the capital of the island and not that much bigger ultimately, but he was very content with his life in the village of Oia. He had everything he needs there.

DB~ and I were wondering about that part. There isn't a super market on Santorini, as you will later see we drove the whole island on our last day, but there also aren't a lot of markets per se. They have a lot of little corner pharmacies here and there, but we didn't see a ton of markets where locals would shop for rice, fish, and meat. We were a little stumped on how people get things on this island.

There are so many food type posts I want to post, so I think the next post will be about our "food porn" night out in Oia.

Going Greek - The Island of Santorini

2011-08-12T07:33:00.006-04:00

We left Athens at 8:30 in the morning and touched down on the island of Santorini at 9:15 am. It was an easy flight over the Aegean Sea. We got to see a lot of the islands below us (DB~ always gets the window seat as she's a nervous flyer) and the crystal blue waters.

Santorini's airport is officially the smallest airport I have touched down in. It had 3 gates, but you all entered in and out of the same door. There was 1 baggage carousel.

After collecting our bags, we found the "transport" (their word for shuttle/taxi) that our hotel, the Aethrio, sent for us after we requested it. It was kind of funny to see a Mercedes being used as a taxi. We shared the transport with an Australian couple on honeymoon going to a different hotel, the Laokisti Village. They must have had some serious $$$ as they were on a 1 month honeymoon to Greece, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic (his heritage).

You quickly find out that the roadway system on Santorini is not like in Pittsburgh. First, they have no names or numbers on the roads. Second, they are windy as all get out. Third, they are super narrow. At times, going through the little villages during our 30 minute drive to our village of Oia, there was barely enough space for one car to pass another car in the opposite direction.

When we arrived in Oia, we dropped the Aussies off at their place and then were at our dropoff 3 minutes later. We got dropped off in this little parking lot and were met by the porter for the Aethrio. He grabbed our rolling suitcases and then led us through a narrow, cobblestone alleyway to our hotel. Our alleyway had a name, but in Santorini they aren't real big on addresses or names. The alley was just wide enough for 2, maybe 3, people to fit through at a time. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for an invading force to fight their way through these types of streets during less peaceful times of Greece's history.

Our "hotel" had 18 rooms and we were fortunate to request ahead of time their largest suite. It had a little sitting area, the bedroom, a nice shower, and our own private terrace. There were also stairs leading up to the jointly shared Sunset Terrace. From there you could turn one way to see the caldera, the other way out to the sea for the sunset.

Santorini is actually made up of 5 islands. It used to be 1 island until it's volcano (still active today) exploded in 1000 B.C. and ripped a hole in the side, letting the Aegean Sea in to it. Now the main island looks like a backwards C, there are two volcanic islands named New and Old Burnt Island, Therissia, and some other tiny uninhabited island I can't remember.

Oia is perched about 400 feet directly above the sea. They built homes right into the cliffside in a cascading pattern. The main shopping street in Oia, on the ridge top, is made of stone and marble. When you actually come out of the alley and on to the main shopping street, it is very crowded when the cruise ships are in from the island's capital of Fira. But when you make your way to the wall or the top of some series of steps, the view of the caldera takes your breath away the first time you see it.

The white-washed walls of most of the buildings are common to this series of islands in Greece known as the Cyclades. The blue roofs on churches of the Greek Orthodox nature are a landmark, too. There were many windmills at one time on the island, but very few (and none that we saw) are active anymore. But they do help set the mood for a great picture.

For a sleepy little village such as Oia, there were no shortage of great restaurants for us to sample. Some were only steps away from the gate of our hotel.

Going Greek - Dining in and around the Plaka

2011-08-11T07:10:00.007-04:00

Before I start this post, I'd like to apologize for the recent pace of the posts. DB~ and I moved on Monday into our new home, so naturally we were busy in the runup to that plus the actual move day. However, we thought that on Tuesday we would be fine once Verizon hooked up our FIOS. And then the whole company decided to strike....

So I'm coming into work early to do this post before my day starts.

Back to your originally scheduled post:

While in Athens, the hotel that we stayed at was on the edge of a neighborhood called the Plaka. The Plaka is an interesting mix of jewelery shops, shoe stores, souvenir places, bars, and restaurants. It essentially runs between two subway stops, Monastariki and Syntagma. Syntagma (Constitution in Greek) Square is where all the rioting happened in early July. It's disturbing to read about the first leg of your honeymoon on CNN.com with the phrase "tear gas still hangs in the air over Athens".

But they got that all out of their system by the time we got there, although there were still some protestors camping out in the Square. Plus while going to breakfast one morning, a whole Greek SWAT van rolled up and the guys got out with the riot shields and gear. It seems like that is normal procedure though for the Square.

Anyway, back to the Plaka. Like most of Athens that we visited, the side streets in the Plaka were narrow and only fit for pedestrians or scooters. A few of the streets were made entirely of cobblestone. There was always action in the Plaka district; it's pretty much a self-contained little neighborhood.

A common practice, which we did not anticipate, are the waiters standing outside the restaurants gesturing and leading you into their places. You have approximately 8.6 seconds to look at the menu before one of them descends upon you. You can politely wave them off, but then it's on to the next one and the cycle repeats. It reminded me a lot of Jamaica and how every shop owner would try and get you to come in off the street.

Our first night, we selected a random taverna to eat dinner. For an appetizer, we got a plate of hot, softened feta with olive oil and both black and red pepper flakes mixed in. The red pepper flakes gave it the heat and the black got your attention. It was quite tasty.

DB~ had Moussaka, as she went for the kill shot right off the bat. It smelled fantastic when it was brought out and she felt it was one of the best she's ever had.

I had a Pork Souvlaki dinner platter. The souvlaki is the Greek kebab, although kebabs (more Middle Eastern) are uber-prevalant in Greece as well. Typically, a souvlaki is skewered meat that is taken off the skewer and put into a pita with lettuce, tomato, and tzatziki sauce (cucumber with yogurt). Mine was on a plate with little wedges of pita on the side. I wasn't sure how to construct it with the tiny wedges, so I sort of ate everything individually. I'm sure the waiters just rolled their eyes at me.

For lunch on Wednesday, we got gyros (pronounced "heros") from a corner stand that was reputed by a Greek person we know back in Pittsburgh to be the best ever. The great thing is that if you get them to go, they are 2 euros rather than 4 if you sit down. Same gyro, just that they don't have to serve you, I guess. So we ate our gyros, lamb for me and chicken for the Squiggle, in the Monastariki Square and observed Athens life.

Here's a few observations from our short time in Athens:
1. Pakistanis/Indians are 2nd class citizens in Athens. The street vendors and beggars were primarily from these countries (maybe a Sri Lankan tossed in there too). When you would eat outside, the little kids would try and pull on your heart strings by playing instruments or selling you flowers, even at 11 pm.

2. Europe has not gotten the memo that smoking will kill you. Coming from a city and country that is trying to make it as difficult as possible to smoke, it was jarring to see all these Euros (young and old) firing up a heater before dinner, waiting for dinner, after dinner, after visiting the Acropolis, waiting for a subway, etc.

3. Euro dudes wear capri pants. American guys wear them here too, but it is a rare occasion and they are usually on their way to buy tickets to see Celene Dion or Cher.

4. Surprisingly, Euro women did get the memo to shave their armpits. This was welcome, as I didn't want to constantly see a woman and it look like she had Buckwheat in a headlock.

5. Scooters are the primary and accepted method of transportation for guys in Greece. Again, something a little effeminate about them here is OK over there. It's almost a necessity with the narrow streets and lack of good parking areas. Smart cars were very popular, too.

6. Lot of graffiti. Lots. And not just because of the recent riots against the austerity plan.

Our last night in Athens, we wandered through the Plaka looking for a nice romantic off-the-beaten-path place. We found it at a place on Adrianou that I do not remember right now and do not have access to DB~'s camera to find the picture. It had the interesting feature of having tables up the inclined alleyway next to it. Some of the tables were at the angle of the alleyway and some, like ours, were on platforms to keep it level.

That night we had some fantastic dolamathedes, which are grape leaves stuffed with rice and drenched in olive oil until they are soft to the touch and can cut with a fork. Another nice touch in Greece is that feta cheese is, literally, everywhere. They can't give you enough of it. When you ordered a salad, they gave you a block of it doused with oregano. Here's a picture of the grape leaves and the typical Greek salad.

For dinner that night, DB~ had a deconstructed chicken kebab dish and I had lamb kleftiko. This is definitely something I'll be reverse-engineering back here, as it was chunks of lamb slow roasted in foil with some tomato sauce, potatoes, and other vegetables and seasoning. It was a very simple dish, but had a lot of flavor.

Our time in Athens drew to a close on a Wednesday night. It would take just a short 45 minute flight for us to go to perhaps the most picture-esque place that either of us have been to...the island of Santorini.

Going Greek - Ancient Athens via Modern Athens

2011-08-06T21:01:00.004-04:00

There are certain places you go and admire them for their beauty or skill or craftsmanship. An impressive skyscraper perhaps, or a beautiful sports venue, or a work of art. There are places you go that you are struck by their awesome scope and power, like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls. And then there are places that humble you.

For DB~ and I, the Acropolis in Athens (and the Parthenon in particular) was one of those places. The Acropolis (High City) is perched on a hill high above Athens. We were able to look out of our balcony at the Magna Grecia and see the Acropolis looming over us, keeping watch while we slept at night.

The Acropolis is the conglomeration of different buildings that made up Ancient Athens. It was built in 430 B.C. and for being 2400+ years old is looking remarkably well. The centerpiece and most well-known piece is the Parthenon, which was the meeting center of the times. Surrounding it, at least what remains today, were a few temples (the Erecthion was to Athena and a few others), the Theatre of Dionysus (the God of Wine...kind of the party god), and an amphitheatre that has been preserved and restored to the point that it still serves as a space for live theatre and crappy new-age music like Yanni.

While looking at the Parthenon, I was struck by thinking of all the world events this structure has lived through. It was around 430 years BEFORE Jesus, lived through the Bubonic Plague in Europe, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the Crusades, Roman occupation of Greece, Turkish occupation of Greece, the birth of America, Industrial Revolutions, multiple World Wars, and our current entertaining state of world affairs. And yet, in some fashion, it still stands.

As an engineer, the structures that most of us build are expected to have 50 to 100 year design cycles. This one is going on its 25th design cycle. Here is Pittsburgh, there is ample debate over demolishing the Civic Arena that is all of 45+ years old. That is an eyeblink in the Parthenon's life.

To get to the Parthenon, we walked 3 blocks from our hotel to the Syntagma subway stop, which is a main hub on the recently completed Athens subway system. The system was done in the runup to the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics and is a pristine system. It is clean and bright and has shiny marble-esque floors in the station.

It is extremely handy to get to many key points of the city all for a very reasonable fee for a 24-hour pass. We also took it to get to and from the airport, especially handy because all taxi drivers were on strike while were there, for only 7 euros ($10) per person for the 42 minute ride.

It was an interesting juxtaposition for me to be enjoying modern transportation while hiking up hand carved rock steps all the way to the top of a hill to see a 2400+ year old structure. I probably didn't fully grasp it while in the moment because it felt like we were on the surface of the sun (not much shade in Greece) and surrounding by pushy, sweaty citizens of Earth.

The Parthenon is one of those places that I wish everyone could see once.

Going Greek - Meeting the Poet Sandal Maker

2011-08-04T21:56:00.006-04:00

DB~ and I were married a couple of weeks ago and were fortunate to save our Canadian Pesos up for a 9 day honeymoon to Greece. There will be a whole series of blog posts about our adventures, people we met, and food we ate over the course of the next month.

Our first two days of the trip were spent in Athens, the cradle of democracy. We are both researchers, so we did a lot of Googling for places to check out. One that caught my eye was The Poet Sandal Maker in Athens.

Pantellis Melissinos is a 3rd generation sandal maker in the heart of downtown Athens. His grandfather started the business in the 1920's and passed it on to Pantellis's father in the 50's. Pantellis's father caught a break one day when Sophia Loren wandered in to the little shop one day and was enamored by the sandals. She bought some and put the store on the map.

After that celebrities made his store a regular stop, such as Barbara Streisand, Lily Tomlin, Jackie Onassis, and John Lennon. When the store was officially passed to Pantellis in 2004, stars like Jeremy Irons and Kate Moss still show up among many others. He is known as the Poet because in addition to making hand-crafted mid-priced footwear, he is actually a poet and renowned playwright. He had a very highly reviewed play a few years back in Athens that was a modern re-invention of the Greek Gods known as Bacchus.

Let me interject for a second here and mention about my footwear. These toes have not seen the light of day for many years, pools not withstanding. They are regularly encased in Nikes or Steve Maddens or Timberline hiking boots. I have ugly feet, in my opinion. But I was so taken with all of the sandal stores over there and the idea of having sandals hand made by the Poet, that I decided to get a pair.

The Poet's store is a neighborhood called Psiri. It started a few blocks from our hotel, but at night the Psiri gets a little edgy. It's darker than the more touristy Plaka district, with more locals inhabiting the area. During the day, the Psiri is artisan shops like leather makers, tinsmiths, and markets. At night it turns into bars and restaurants.

After dinner on Tuesday night, we were trying to find a good entry point into the Psiri, but every street was dark and narrow and edgy. We said "let's try one more" and wandered onto this street where we were greeted by the Poet's shop. Dumbfounded by our good luck and surprised it was still open, we wandered in. It was a tiny, crowded store with sandals strewn in no apparent pattern all over the walls. Very dimly lit, it reminded us of the Asian food markets back in the Strip District.

Sprawled on a bench, taking a nap, was the Poet. A young man was hammering away at sandals in the backroom. After he awoke, he handed us the color list of his 30+ styles of sandals he makes and asked me to pick what I like. I asked which were the men's sandals and he said all of them were unisex. We both giggled at the idea of a man wearing the laceup gladiator sandals popular with women, as shown on the sheet.

I picked the Diogenes model that the Poet himself was actually wearing. He asked my size and got a template down from the shelf. Once it fit, he hammered the sandal onto the sole and added extra nails for support and strength. He did this right in front of us, which reminded DB~ and I of our friend Tony from Jamaica who made our fish right in front of us. Both the Poet and Tony had hands that told a story of their hardworking lives.

So now I have sandals from a famous cobbler. I wore them all around Greece for the rest of the trip. My big toes, unaccustomed to such things, got huge blisters on them, but it was worth it.

DB~ and the Blog Hibernation

2011-07-24T20:14:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, DB~ and I tied the knot. It was a massive techno-geek-fest all day long. The wedding was shown live on UStream by one of DB~'s friends. It was a smaller type of reception, with only 85 people, and you had to find it by coordinates (we gave the address, but not the name, for those scared of GPS'es).

At the reception, the favors were geocoins for everyone. Even though we had a jazz trio, we still had DB~'s iPad to fill in when they were on break.

The best part was that as soon as the limo door closed at the church, DB~ updated her status on Facebook to "married".

As for the blog, this will be the last post for about 10 days while we honeymoon. But don't fret loyal reader(s)...we are going to Greece, which will supply ample material. And the Pirates are still in the thick of the race! August should be a good one at DBS.

Azul - where it all started

2011-07-22T23:01:00.003-04:00

On Thursday night, DB~ and I had a date night of sorts. More like the calm before the storm of our wedding on Saturday. So we decided to go back to the place it all started, Azul in Leetsdale. Leetsdale is a fly speck of a municipality up Route 65 from Sewickley.

Our first date (DB~ says it wasn't a date, but she knows it was) was to cache together in the Sewickley area in mid-December. I asked her to pick the meeting place, but only tell me by coordinates, not the name. She picked one of her favorite restaurants.

After we cached all afternoon in December 2008, we went inside for some appetizers and drinks. Only last night did I find out that after that "encounter" with me, she went on a 2nd date that night! What a playa!

Last night's weather was a shade different from Dec 2008's weather, as it was holy beejezus hot last night. We figured we could enjoy some nice air conditioning, sip some beers, and have some great Mexican food. In the words of Meat Loaf "two outta three ain't bad".

When we got there, the place was packed solid. Couldn't even get a seat at the bar for a while. We waited about 30 minutes and were seated. We then realized that the AC wasn't on. At all. Sweat was pouring off of us. Our server wasn't super attentive, either, and didn't appear to have nearly as many tables as some other servers.

It took a very long time to get our food (braised beef enchiladas for me, fish tacos for the Squiggle). I had a salsa verde on mine that had a great amount of kick, sour cream drizzled over the enchilda and enough cool lettuce to give it crunch. The side of pinto beans were very smooth as well.

I was thinking about a lot of things last night while we were there. A lot of it had to do with the end of my single life. And I couldn't be happier about that because of DB~. Without her encouragement, this blog wouldn't exist. And then what would the six of you that read it do for food, travel, and Pirate advice?

Red Star Ironworks

2011-07-17T13:41:00.003-04:00

I had the occasion to have a sign created as part of a project for my day job. I wanted the sign to be a little bit different, so I scouted around for different artists in the area. My love of wrought iron steered me in the direction of Red Star Ironworks in Millvale.

Red Star Ironworks is owned and operated by Peter Lambert, who has an inspiring back story of his own. Peter, 30, was not an apt student in high school and dropped out at age 15 and didn't really have a direction for his life. Knowing that he had an artistic side and liked working with his hands, he latched on with the owner of Iron Eden, an iron works studio in Bloomfield.

After getting his welding degree and apprenticing at Iron Eden, Peter started Red Star in 2001. It was originally in Oakland, but moved to a warehouse in Millvale a few years back. Red Star has built pieces for restaurants in Pittsburgh (a sign for the new BRGR in Cranberry just went out the door), falcon statues for gravesites, ornamental fences, and anything else that can be pounded on an anvil, welded together, and bent into shape.

When I went down this past week to check on the progress of the sign, Peter took me for a short walk around Millvale to show me his other passion. Peter and some others with Red Star have worked with Allegheny Grows to plant urban gardens on vacant lots in Millvale. He showed me three separate lots. The first, planted 2 years ago, had 20 cedar raised-bed boxes on it. There were a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, and pumpkins. The second lot, planted one year ago, had a large amount of sunflowers and other flowers planted. The sunflowers, in particular, are rather adept at remediating pollutants that may have existed on these urban lots.

The last lot, started this spring, will be an orchard with apple trees and other fruit-bearers. It reminds me a lot of what Detroit is trying to do on a larger scale -- reducing the footprint of the city by turning vacant and abandoned parts of the city into urban agriculture. Detroit wants to shrink the footprint by reducing the infrastructure load (roads, water, sanitary, power) on certain parts of the city. They are doing this by buying out the few remaining residents in certain blocks and ripping out the infrastructure.

Maybe that's not what Millvale needs to do, maybe it does. But it's good to see that there is a grass roots effort to make Millvale's vacant lots useful. All by one of the top iron artists in the City. So when you go to Sonoma Grille or the new BRGR in Cranberry, think about Peter Lambert and his artistry and his passion for urban agriculture.

Tagines, the Pirates, and Homeless People

2011-07-14T18:27:00.003-04:00

Last Wednesday, DB~ and I went to the Pirate game with my company's two IT consultants. Before we went down, I made the gang dinner at our house using our new tagines. This time, I did a diced vegetable mix of red peppers, squash, onion, and garlic with a chicken broth. I then topped each tagine with a piece of tilapia and let it cook for 35 minutes on the stovetop.

It was served with a couscous (Near East box of Toasted Pine Nut) and some roasted asparagus topped with a pesto mix and pecorino romano cheese as a finisher. It sure beat having another hot dog, fries, and Coke for $20 at PNC Park.

After dinner, we made our way down to the game and enjoyed ourselves in the seats just a few rows behind the 1st base dugout. DB~ was on high alert for foul balls for the first few innings, but then settled down after that. Around the 6th inning, I made my way over to the left field bleacher section to meet in person for the first time a poster from Only Bucs. It's always good to put a face to a (screen)name.

Unfortunately, the Pirates lost and quite badly at that, to the lowly Astros. But they still won 2 of 3 from them in the series. This game was my 5th of the year and brought my record to 2-3 (they won both of the Red Sox games I went to). An interesting anomaly is that I have now seen every pitcher in the rotation exactly one time. There were many years that I would see Maholm 4 times or Duke 3 times and Snell 2 times.

After the game, when we were walking back to our car, there was a lull in the conversation. I decided to pipe up with "In the summer of 2008, I spent a whole night walking around downtown observing homeless people." That was a conversation stopper. 2008 was a "transitional year" for me, as I was working through some things. It was also a few months before I met DB~ in December of 2008. So one summer night in July, I put on some beat up clothes and wandering around town trying to see what the homeless did in the City at night. Saw a few prostitutes and probably a drug deal, too. I went to the Terminal Building around 2 or 3 in the morning to watch the tractor trailers come in and off load. There were a few n'er-do-wells there waiting to help off load the produce shipments for a few dollars. I watched from underneath the Veterans Bridge mostly.

So all in all, that night last week was the epitome of this blog -- it involved food, the Pirates, and Pittsburgh. Maybe the seemy side of Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh nonetheless.

Something Else I'll Never Be Able To Do

2011-07-09T22:20:00.003-04:00

When ever I hear the word "banjo", I think of the movie Deliverance. The infamous "dueling banjos" scene where the inbred is playing on the porch, of course. And then I think of Ned Beatty getting butt raped and I shudder horribly.

Tonight we went over to DB~'s cousin's house for a small family get-together because her cousin (Kane) and his wife were in town from Colorado. After dinner, Kane went to get "Allegheny" and returned with a case with a banjo inside. He proceeds to tell us about how he hand built this banjo and he would play gigs in order to keep funding its construction. He remembered each grommet and bridge and string and where the money came from. The banjo had beautiful detailing and design on the neck. The bridge that suspends the strings over the "circle part" was made of wood raised from the bottom of Lake Superior that never decayed after it sank, making it super strong.

Kane hand-etched the word "Allegheny" in script on the banjo to remind him of his roots, the Allegheny mountain range home to good bluegrass, and the cemetery where Stephen Foster is buried.

He played a few songs and sung them to the 8 of us there. He talked about how in 1986 he hitchhiked across the West to explore the world and he would busk in different towns. He did quite well in Jackson Hole, Wyoming even though you weren't allowed to have an open case to encourage tipping. He said people would just stuff money in his shirt pockets as he played.

Just being a wanderer, as Kane was for a while in his youth, is such a foreign concept to me. My life is scheduled and planned and organized. I can't imagine just...freelancing your life. I found myself thinking of how semi-jealous I was of thinking of Kane just living on the tips of strangers and seeing the country one town at a time. It's time like this that make me wonder if my hectic schedule is really the best way to live life.

His songs were about life in the 1800's and involved a lot of outlaws, because that's what he liked he said. He even played an original bluegrass song that he wrote and fighting a fire (he was a forest fire fighter for a while back). I was struck by the simple beauty of these songs and reminded that along with jazz, bluegrass is America's contribution to music. I can't imagine there are a lot of banjo players among the youth nowadays, but I realized that these traditions need to be passed down. It's our way of keeping our heritage alive through the storytelling form of music.

Sadly, I have zero musical ability, so it will have to fall on someone else to progress this forward.

Trade Target - Conor Jackson

2011-07-07T22:37:00.003-04:00

In perusing around the teams that are seemingly out of contention already, I stumbled on Conor Jackson as potentially being a low-cost platoon option in a trade.

The A's are one of those teams that I really don't follow a whole lot. I think they're phenomenonally boring as a franchise. I see them mired 10 games under .500 and in last place, but don't really think much of it.

So when I went to check out the A's today on Baseball-Reference, I was stunned by how putrid their offense is.

They have since traded Mark Ellis and installed Jemile Weeks, but when you look at their starters there is not a single one above 100 in OPS+.

I went on to Athletics Nation and they are talking about building around Weeks, Scott Sizemore (trade acquisition from DET who washed out there), and Chris Carter on the offensive side of things. Yikes.

They also lament how all three of their OF's are free agents at the end of the year. Now, they do have Michael Taylor in AAA, but he's a corner OF only. So I'm thinking that maybe they would go for a Gorkys Hernandez-Conor Jackson swap straight up.

About Conor Jackson:
He was a hot prospect back in 2005-06, so Neal Huntington immediately likes that.
Somehow, after all his struggles with Valley Fever, he procured a contract for 1 yr $3.3M this year, so he will be owed $1.1M from 7/31 onwards.

He's a RH, so his splits against LH's are:
.316/.402/.395 (797 OPS) with more BB than K's. He's not good at all against same-siders.

He came up as a 1B, but he's been playing the OF too in recent years, so he can help in 2 spots against southpaws.

Conor Jackson is not made of pure unicorn horn, but he could be a low-cost acquistion that may do well back in the NL. Wouldn't be my first choice of a trade target, but there may be something there. Essentially Conor Jackson would give you what Steve Pearce would, but how can you count on Steve Pearce for anything at this point?

Gorkys Hernandez is reputed to be the best defensive CF in the minors, but even with his surge this year in his numbers, I still see him struggling to maintain a 700 OPS in the majors. With McCutchen, Tabata, Marte, and possibly Presley in the mix, it's hard to see where Hernandez would fit in with the Pirates. He may be more valuable as a trade chip than as a prospect.

Trade Target/Obsession - Michael Cuddyer

2011-07-04T21:49:00.004-04:00

Recently I laid out why the Pirates should be looking for a trade in order to improve the Pirates for 2011. One of the players that I have had my eye on in recent weeks is Michael Cuddyer from the Minnesota Twins.

Here's the lowdown on the sitch with Cuddyer and the Twins:
The Twins are currently 36-46 and in 4th place in the AL Central. Even though they got hot for a little bit in June, they are still 10 games UNDER .500. You can't be considered a contender until you are at least .500.

If they win 10 games in a row, that would put them at .500 approximately at July 18th. At that point, keeping in mind this is a perfect scenario, they would still only be .500 and probably 3-4 games out of first place with 2 weeks before the deadline.

Cuddyer is a free agent at the end of the year and makes $10.5M this season. By July 31st, he will be owed approximately $4M.

The Twins had their highest payroll ever in 2011 at $113M. Their season has been submarined by injuries to Mauer and Morneau, plus Nathan's ineffectiveness. Their offense has been wretched for most of the year.

The Twins have both Matt Capps and Joe Nathan up as free agents after this year. Capps ($7.15M) and Nathan ($11.25M) are not living up to their contracts. The rest of their bullpen is awful, as well.

The Twins have a very bland farm system, with no "wow" players on the 2012 horizon. Kyle Gibson is good, but not a future superstar.

All that said....
The Twins can save $4M and pick up 2 prospects that can help them in 2012. I would think a Diego Moreno/Alex Presley package would work for them. If the Pirates pick up all $4M, I would say only trading 1 of them would be fair.

If the Twins and Cuddyer want to get together for 2012 at a reduced rate, so be it. They would save $4M in 2011, pick up a prospect, and get him back for 2012. Maybe things go really well and the Pirates re-up him for 1-2 years, too.

Either way, Cuddyer gives the Pirates a much needed power threat and true RH'ed bat in the lineup against lefties.

It all makes perfect sense. To me at least.

Bloomfield - Pittsburgh's Little Italy, but how much longer?

2011-07-02T20:15:00.004-04:00

DB~ and I have been spending some time in Bloomfield lately. It is the site of the church where we will be getting married 3 weeks from today (eye twitching ever so slightly..jk!) and it is where her parents grew up together. It holds a special place in the DB~ clan's heart.

When you enter into Bloomfield, you are greeted by a sign that reads "Pittsburgh's Little Italy". But when you cast your eyes to the right, you see the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern with a Polish Eagle flag painted on the side of the building and Polish Night Thursdays advertised.

There was a time when Bloomfield was a completely homogenized enclave of nearly 100% Italians, I'm sure. Even the Bloomfield Bridge Tavern aside there are other influences now penetrating the neighborhood. There's the Wai Wai Cafe restaurant of fine Chinese food, with a sushi place being built next door. There's a Starbucks, which is universal in heritage, I suppose.

The neighborhood has Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and a whole host of "mutts" from mixed heritages nowadays. Not everyone's last name ends in a vowel. There's nothing wrong with any of that, of course, but you have to wonder how much longer the old staples like Del's, The Pleasure Bar, Alexander's, and d'Amicos will still be there. There's a new place called Stagioni in the neighborhood, but it is gourmet Italian, not the true red sauce on a plate like these other places.

Bloomfield is a neighborhood in transition, partly because of pressures applied by the other neighborhoods around it. Shadyside is relatively stable and preppy still, with CMU backboning many of its residents. But Lawrenceville is in a huge upheaval of re-development, both due to Children's Hospital and the re-invention of Butler Street with great restaurants like Piccolo Forno, Round Corner, and Tamari. East Liberty has been well discussed on this blog, due to its restaurants, but I probably haven't detailed the commercial side of things as well as I should have. The new Target will join Whole Foods, Home Depot, and Bakery Square in leading the revival of this once-thriving "2nd Downtown".

And there sits Bloomfield. There are still plenty of tiny Italian grandmas shopping at Groceria Italiana for their plum tomatoes, basil, garlic, and oregano to make Sunday sauce, but they are shopping next to a more diverse clientele than in years past. That's encouraging, but also a little bit sad at the same time.

Why the Pirates should make a trade for a run in 2011

2011-06-28T20:21:00.003-04:00

Although not as widespread as Steeler Nation, there are pockets of Pirate fans all across the United States and around the world.

But that expansive reach also means that most are detached from living in the City of Pittsburgh itself. You can read about it online, follow on TV, call friends back home, but it is not the same as actually being here.

Pittsburgh is dying for a winner with the Pirates. The fact that after 18 losing seasons ANYONE shows up at PNC says that there are good fans here (and/or masochists). The ownership and front office of the Pirates owe it to the fans to take every advantage of this season in 2011. For a team and a front office that is not the best at public relations, this would be the signal to the cynical talk show fans that don't believe this ownership wants to win.

Life is not a binary proposition. It is possible to both keep building for 2012 and beyond AND contend in 2011. No one is saying to empty out the farm just to try and win 82 games. But it is possible to trade 1 or 2 guys, not the key guys of Taillon/Allie/Heredia (*I know they can't be traded until August -- theoretically they could be Players To Be Named Later), and get a bat or arm for a run at the NL Central.

Just because the Pirates may not be the leading contender to win the NL Central in 2011 does not mean you should just bag the season and start trading guys like Maholm and Hanrahan. At some point you can't treat the season like an Etch-a-Sketch and just erase it because you may finish in 3rd place. You need to draw a line in the sand and say "We're building from here on out".

Most of the reason for my distaste of not going for it in 2011 is The Streak. If the Pirates had a 3 or 4 year streak, I would probably agree that trading guys would be the best course of action if the team was .500 at the ASB. But this magical season has been dropped in the Pirates' lap and they can't just squander it by saying "We're not all the way there yet". It's like a musician that keeps tweaking a song and never performs it on stage. Sometimes you just need to go with it.

I like that players like d'Arnaud, Presley, and maybe in the near future Hague, have come to Pittsburgh. But if a chance to obtain a quality, established bat or arm for a stretch run comes along, it should be taken. The market on June 28 is vastly different than what will exist on July 15 or July 31. Teams will be desperate to sell and obtain prospects and salary relief. It happens EVERY year.

There are also off-field aspects that give reason to making trades to improve the team in 2011. In most cases, Perception is Reality. Most hard-core fans feel this team is on the way up, but the vast majority of Pittsburghers don't see it yet. Showing committment leads to 2011 ticket sales. It leads to 2012 season ticket sales. It helps with future free agents to see that Pittsburgh wants to win. It leads to increased sponsorship from the corporate level.

When life presents you with an opportunity, you can not squander it. You don't know when the next one will come along.

Quite a Friday for the City of Pittsburgh

2011-06-26T10:26:00.006-04:00

Do you ever read the newspaper (does anyone besides me still read the newspaper?) and see "On This Date 10 Years Ago..." (or 25 or 100 years) and it tells you what happened in the City?

It will be fun to look back on June 24, 2011 as the day when these three things all converged on Pittsburgh:
President Obama visiting the city to tout manufacturing and robotics going on here
The Anthromorphocon (otherwise known as The Furries) Annual Convention
Red Sox Nation descending on our fair city for the Sox-Pirates weekend series

I had ties to two of these events and a morbid curiosity on the third. I'll explain which is which, rather than let you guess.

President Obama came to the National Robotics Center in Lawrenceville, underneath the 40th Street Bridge, to tour the facility and meet with 3 separate companies. One of those companies, Redzone Robotics, is a firm that I work with. They build robots that autonomously inspect sanitary sewer pipes. It has greatly sped up the work flow and the quality is great. (Aside from when one gets stuck 19 feet deep and you have to dig up someone's back yard).

As an avid Pirate fan, I was lucky enough to get tickets the first day they went online (thanks to DB~ we got tickets within the first 5 minutes!) for the Saturday night Red Sox-Pirates tilt. We were in Section 116, which is directly behind home plate and just under cover in case of rain. Perfect seats. However, thanks to a friend from Only Bucs, I was able to go to the Friday night game with my dad. They were also great seats in Section 128.

The Pirates won both games, with plenty of great baseball on display. However, this time the majority of the great baseball was done by the Pirates. Joel Hanrahan is not 100% human...he is part cyborg at this point, especially his right arm. He consistently was pumping 96-98 mph fastball in to quality batters and getting outs and strikeouts. Both nights in the 9th inning, he had to face Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, and Adrian Gonzalez (who will be the 2011 AL MVP). Last night he also faced David Ortiz. Only Pedroia got a hit, a double off the Clemente Wall. On Saturday night, with the score 6-4 and Pedroia at 2B and Gonzalez the tying run at the plate, he struck him out with a perfect slider.

The first two games were not only sellouts, but over sold with standing room only seats. Each game was 39,300+ in a 38,500 seat stadium. Last night was the largest crowd in PNC Park history.

And last but not least in this odd convergence of events is the Furrie Convention. At this point in my life, I'm pretty much at the "whatever makes you happy" stage, but....wow. This is weird. For those that don't know, the annual Anthromorphocon is held in Pittsburgh because we are very tolerant of their lifestyle. Pittsburgh back in the day was really known to be tolerant of much that was different, so this is interesting in and of itself.

What is a "furrie"? It's someone that likes to dress up in an animal costume and behave as if they are that animal. They adopt different animal names and when they meet someone they are interested in they scratch them (known as "yiffing", thanks 5'ish) for approval. Typically every year, there is always one or two requests for human sized litter boxes to be placed in a hotel room adjacent to the Convention Center. That poor maid.

And this isn't 10 freakazoids either...it's 5000 strong and growing every year. Not everyone dons a full head to toe costume either. Some just wear ears or a little tail...maybe paint some whiskers on. Some are there for the artwork. But there is that hard core sub-set that are truly bizarre.

Here's the weird part. I'm fascinated by the Pierogie Race at PNC Park. I regularly bet on with whoever I'm at the game with. I would love to do it sometime, somehow. But Pierogies aren't animals, so it's not weird that I want to dress up in a costume, right? There are furries, but there are already "foodies"...so what would I be if I want to dress up as a food item?

Looking back at the Trade Targets series

2011-06-19T07:55:00.005-04:00

Last fall I felt that the Pirates should deal a package of prospects in order to improve the Major League club. I was specifically targeting pitchers with multiple years of control remaining, not expecting the starting pitching to be a strength of this team.

Here's how the four pitchers I wanted are doing this year so far:

James Shields has followed up his worst season with his best season in 2011. The Rays traded Matt Garza last off-season and hung on to Shields, probably because they realized his value was at its lowest point.
In 2010, Shields was 13-15 with a 5.18 ERA (4.24 FIP), but he had his highest K/9 (8.28/9). The problems with Shields were two-fold. First, his HR/9 was 1.50, easily the highest of his career. Second his BABIP was an ungainly .341, which was well above his career average of .304. The Rays probably saw both of these things and hung on to him.

Good thing, because he is a complete beast so far in 2011. To date he is 6-4 with a 2.60 ERA (3.43 FIP) with an 8.51 K/9. His HR/9 has receded to 1.04, his BABIP is .263 and he has pitched 4 complete games already. That's one less than he pitched his whole career coming into this season.

Scott Baker in 2010 was 12-9 with a 4.49 ERA (3.96 FIP) for the Twins. He was also coming off a career high in K/9 with 7.82, but I targeted Baker because of thoughts that the Twins may want to offset some salary because of rising contracts to Mauer and Morneau. I certainly wasn't expecting the bottom to fall out completely on their 2011 season.

In 2011, Baker is doing pretty much what Baker does. He's quietly pitching well, but this time on an awful team. He's 5-4 with a 3.24 ERA (3.65 FIP) and is in the midst of re-establishing another career high in K/9 (8.64 K/9). He would have made an excellent addition to the Pirates as well.

Ricky Nolasco was another arb-eligible pitcher that I targeted, but was then signed to an extension by the Marlins. In 2010, Nolasco's numbers dropped slightly as he went 14-9 in only 157 innings. His K/9 dropped from 9.49 to 8.39 and he became more homer prone (1.37/9 in 2010). His 2010 ERA was 4.51, with a FIP of 3.86.

In 2011, his numbers are continuing to decline in certain areas, especially K/9. This year to date he has a K/9 of 6.96, but his other numbers have improved. He is 4-3 with a 4.48 ERA (3.54 FIP). There's no noticeable change in velocities on his pitches to indicate the drastic drop in K/9. Perhaps he has been instructed to not try and strike everyone out and to pitch to contact more.

The final pitcher I targeted was Gavin Floyd. Again, I tossed him in thinking that the White Sox would want to offset some salary, not expecting them to come out flat in 2011. In 2010, Floyd was coming off another solid season. He was 10-13 with a 4.08 ERA (3.46 FIP) with a 7.26 K/9 rate.

In 2011, he has been solid again with a 6-6 record, 3.94 ERA, 3.66 FIP, but his K/9 has dropped to 6.67/9. In looking at his pitch stats, his FB velocity has dropped nearly 1.5 mph this year. It hasn't affected his FB run stats, but with his changeup remaining steady it has wreaked havoc on the effectiveness of his changup, causing it to be -3.22 runs/100 pitches to date.

So all in all, I would have been very happy if the Pirates got any of these four pitchers. The way things are shaping up with the Pirates becoming resurgent in 2011, plus the impending 40 man roster crunch after the season, it appears this could be the year that the Pirates trade some minor-league depth for additions to the Major League team.

Tag(ine)..you're it

2011-06-12T11:24:00.005-04:00

Ever since DB~ and I went to Kous Kous Cafe in Mt. Lebanon, I've been fascinated by tagines. The tagine is the popular cooking vessel in Moroccan cuisine that functions as both the place the food is cooked in and also the serving dish itself.

I've cruised around the Internets pricing them and hemming and hawing about buying a couple. I wondered how much I would really use them. I brokered a price for 2 at the Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip a few months ago, but backed out when I got tagine cold feet.

My birthday was last month and sure enough The Squiggle got me 2 for my gift. She's good like that. We've been running around like madmen this past month with wedding stuff, selling my house, buying a new house, finalizing the honeymoon, so they have been patiently sitting in my basement waiting to be used.

That time was last night. I decided to go with a safe recipe, so to speak, from my tagine cookbook that DB~ also got me. It was a recipe similar to one that I had a Kous Kous Cafe when we went. It was a tomato based sauce with vegetables (in this case eggplant and yellow squash), onion, shallot, cilantro, and Moroccan-style seasonings like cumin and tumeric.

You place the tagine directly on the stove top. They are clay pots with holes at the top to allow heat to vent slightly. They can also be placed directly in the oven. Once the shallot and onion softened up in the tagine with some olive oil and butter, I added the seasonings, eggplant, squash, and canned tomatoes with their juice. I let this all cook with the lid closed for 40 minutes. After those 40 minutes, I added the fresh chopped cilantro and cooked that for 10 more minutes.

After placing a trivet down, we took the tagine directly to the table and spooned our portions out of it and on to the plates. I served couscous as a side dish, with a red pepper/feta dip and crackers as well.

I will absolutely be using the tagine more in the future, especially in the fall. I see a very hearty short rib with wine sauce and root vegetables being prepared in it. Some lamb and squash would be tasty too.

Salt of the Earth

2011-06-10T21:34:00.006-04:00

Our present-day times have fostered an era of selfishness unseen since perhaps the 1980's "Me Generation" when everyone was all coked up and greedily trying to emulate Gordon Gekko. Everyone today thinks they are a special and unique snowflake. This mindset lends us to having everything our way, especially our food. Any food dislike can be taken off a prepared dish. Anything can be changed because the customer is always right.

Enter Salt of the Earth. This is Kevin Sousa's vision. It's his restaurant. He's not Executive Chef at Alchemy...wowing us with Molecular Gastronomy in the Bigelow. He's not Executive Chef at Red Room. He's not biding his time re-visioning Yo Rita's menu. This is his vision, we are along for the ride, and there is no room for your personal epicurean quirks.

I mentioned in the last post that 2011 may be the height of Pittsburgh's dining scene. Part of the reason for this crescendo may be Kevin Sousa. He's the closest thing to Pittsburgh's version of an Iron Chef. He was recently named Pittsburgh magazine's Chef of the Year.

Salt of the Earth was a long time coming. Sousa decided to locate Salt of the Earth in a section of town that is more often avoided, because of perceived crime problems, than explored -- Garfield. It's not named after the fuzzy orange cat. His restaurant of Penn Avenue, whether by design or not, expands the Interest Zone from neighboring East Liberty, which has started to revitalize itself through new restaurants (Spoon, Dinette, Plum, BRGR, Paris 66, Abay).

When you walk into Salt, you're staring directly into the all stainless steel open-style kitchen. When you're greeted by the hostess you are staring directly into and up at the 20 foot high chalkboard that serves as the menu for Salt. There are no paper menus. If you are seated right adjacent to the chalkboard, you feel as if you are in the front row of a movie theater looking up at the screen.

The walls are a soothing sage/celery green. There are three long communal wooden tables with square, backless chairs. There is also a mezzanine above you with standard tables, which is where the reservations are seated.

The menu is like what I imagine goes on inside the mind of noted mash-up artist Girl Talk -- a bunch of random things jammed together that ends up coming out great. Have you ever wondered what scallops, cauliflower, banana, lobster roe, and sesame would taste like together? Well, that's one of the apps.

DB~ and I went with her aunt and her's aunt's friend to Salt on Tuesday. This was their 4th time to "Salt" as they only call it. We got there at 7:45 p.m. on a Tuesday and it was comfortably busy. A very underrated part of Salt is their drink menu. Much like Embury, Salt does Prohibition era cocktails (in addition to a massive beer and wine list). DB~ had "Vodka" -- Boyd and Blair potato vodka, Creme Yvette, rose, elderflower. I'll admit I only know what Boyd and Blair is. Her aunt had "Gin" (a cucumber mint drink) and I had "Punch" -- kind of a Planter's punch-esque drink. Her aunt's friend had a beer.

As for dinner, both DB~ and her aunt's friend had the Halibut dish. They both said it was flavorful and perfectly executed. It was served with avacado and tamarind on a bed of buckwheat.

DB~'s aunt had the softshell crab (of course we talked about DB~'s SSC experience!) which had a deep-fried crust on a bed of seaweed with a delicate dollop of tartar.

I had the flank steak, served on a puree of black-eyed pea with a zone of chimichurri that I couldn't get enough. I wanted to rub it on like a skin moisturizer and let it soak into my pores. There were just the tips of asparagus, which is even better than a bakery that just does muffin tops (who eats just the stumps?). I usually order steak as medium-well, but of course at Salt you get what the chef makes. That meant a medium-rare for max chef-ing flavor. I was OK with that because you have to accept that you are placing your dining hands into the hands of the chef.

Sousa wasn't there...not sure how much he actively cooks, especially on a Tuesday night. Salt of the Earth, and Kevin Sousa in particular, should be commended for being a worthy addition to the Pittsburgh dining scene.

All Hail Gerrit Cole

2011-06-06T21:09:00.005-04:00

At a few minutes after 7 p.m. tonight, the Pirates called Gerrit Cole's name as the 1st overall pick of the 2011 MLB draft. For months leading up to the draft, it was assumed/hoped/demanded that the Pirates select Anthony Rendon, the power hitting/smooth fielding 3B from Rice. A couple of problems happened though -- Rendon lost his power and was a DH for nearly the whole year. Rendon had a shoulder injury at the start of the year (he said from overstretching) that prevented him from playing 3B and sapped his prodigious home run power.

His medical records were released over the weekend and the diagnosis was severe enough to cause Rendon to drop all the way to 6th overall to the Nationals. He will most likely need some sort of surgical procedure -- the only determination is the severity level of it.

But enough about what could have been. Time to discuss what is in front of us.

Gerrit Cole was a late 1st round pick by the Yankees back in 2008. The only reason he fell to the tail end of the 1st round were his high bonus demands. The Yankees took him and offered him $3M, but Cole decided at the last minute to forgo that bonus and go to UCLA. What was even stranger is that the Yankees were a young Gerrit Cole's favorite team growing up. There is a famous photo of a young Cole holding a sign at the 2001 World Series that reads "Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever". So the fact that he turned down life-changing money and the chance to play for his childhood team was striking.

Even more striking is Cole's current arsenal of pitches. It starts with his fastball which sits 96-97 and touches 100. It is complemented by a plus changeup and a great slider. The bugaboo with Cole in 2011 is that his stats did not reflect the level of his stuff. He finished 6-8 with a 3.31 ERA in 16 starts. In 114 IP, Cole allowed 103 H, 24 BB, and recorded 119 K's. Those are very good, but not eye-popping numbers, especially compared to rotation mate Trevor Bauer who had 203 K's in 136 IP, with a 13-2 record and 1.25 ERA.

Cole's 6 foot 4 inch frame is the perfect pitcher's frame. It is said that his less than awesome stats were due to a mechanical flaw, most likely his front shoulder opening up too early and causing his stuff to flatten out. The Pirates front office are confident that it can be resolved.

With Cole's selection, he becomes the top prospect in the Pirates' system, even ahead of uber-prospect Jameson Taillon. The reasoning is that Cole's stuff at age 20 is a half-step better than Taillon's present stuff at age 19.

Cole will debut in 2012 in the minor leagues; his negotiations this summer will go right down to the wire with "advisor" Scott Boras. Most likely he will get a $7M signing bonus as part of a $10M+ major-league contract. Cole's progression could very well be:

2012 - High A/Double A split year
2013 - Triple A/debut in Pittsburgh mid-season

If all goes well with Taillon, he could be on a very similar timeline to Cole. In July 2013, the Pirates rotation could very well be Cole, Taillon, McDonald, Morton, and a fifth starter from Owens/Locke/Lincoln/Wilson/Morris. I drooled a little bit just thinking about it.

Brighter days are here for the Pirates, with blindingly good days around the corner. Now about that hitting....

Is this the height of Pittsburgh's dining scene

2011-06-05T21:41:00.003-04:00

This month Pittsburgh Magazine unveiled its annual Top 25 Best Restaurants issue. If you could have gone to Vegas and put money on who Pittsburgh Magazine would have named as its Chef of the Year, the odds on favorite would have been Kevin Sousa. His Salt of the Earth is the most talked about restaurant of the year in the City of Pittsburgh. (DBS Blog Preview -- DB~ and I will be meeting people at Salt of the Earth on Tuesday)

DB~ and I went through the Top 25 restaurants and came up with 14 restaurants that each of us has been to. About 10 of them we have been to together, with the other in the pre-history of the two of us.

The list of restaurants is so electic and chef-driven, with such passion and drive and dedication to the food. When I was growing up, it seemed the only places that were high end restaurants were on Mount Washington (LeMont, Tin Angel, Pasquerelli's, Shiloh Inn) or in the City (Top of the Triangle, Carlton, Grand Concourse). They were stuffy, white tablecloth style places. Now a restaurant isn't worth its salt unless it features locally grown produce, regional meats, stripped down table settings, and a chilled out vibe.

The types of restaurants in the City are no longer singled out for being "that Thai place" or "that place that does Indian". Now the term Latin-Asian Fusion is part of the lexicon, a Mexican place is set up next to a Pan-Asian restaurant, a French restaurant is no longer an oddity.

All of the great restaurants sous chefs or chef de cuisine are branching out and starting their own visions for a restaurant. It is easier to find an investor who believes in you to fund your vision than ever before.

We are living at the height of Pittsburgh cuisine. Great restaurants occur in every part of the city and even in the suburbs, ranging from East Liberty to Lawrenceville to Shadyside to Upper St. Clair. But if we are at the height, that means that we are due for a regression. Unless we are still climbing that mountain and there is another peak to find. Perhaps the next great untapped frontier is the mobile food cart to add to the chef-driven restaurant explosion.

June 1st and the Pirates are still interesting

2011-06-01T21:30:00.003-04:00

As I type this, the Pirates are on the verge of winning against the Mets and will go to 26-28 on the year. As this is the 54th game, they are now exactly 1/3 of the way through the season.

Using the DBS Project-o-meter, my highly advanced math skills tell me that the Pirates are on pace to go 78-84 on the year. That would be a 21 game improvement on last year's Exxon Valdez-esque season of 57-105. Even more interesting is that tonight's road win at Citi Field would be the 17th of the season. While that by itself is not news worthy, it is when the 2010 Pirates went 17-64 on the road last year. Do you know how hard that is to suck that bad at something like the Pirates did on the road?

That abysmal road record says to me that there was no leadership in the clubhouse to get young players ready to play while outside their comfort zone. The robotic Russeltron 3000 and his coaches must have had no ability to stave off losing streaks on the road.

At the end of May last year the Pirates were 21-31, so the Pirates have improved by 4 games from last year's record. But that doesn't tell the whole story, as the 2010 Pirates had an eye-popping run differential of -127. By comparison the 2011 Pirates (if the score holds at 9-3 tonight) will have a -1 run differential. That's a 126 run improvement in one year. That tells you how atrocious the Pirates were last year and how much better they have played this year.

The starting pitching is the reason. After tonight's game, Pirate starters will have allowed 2 earned runs or less in 13 straight games, which is the longest stretch since 1968!. Kevin Correia has been one of the best free agent signings of the past offseason. For the affordable price of $4M/year, he has already given the Pirates 8 wins, 7 of which are on the road. Again, to compare to last year...Paul Maholm lead the 2010 Pirates with 9 wins all...year.

The starting pitching will regress, of course, but the Pirates are also doing this well with a less than vibrant offense. All of the Core Four (McCutchen, Walker, Tabata, and Alvarez) have slumped through long stretches at times this season. Alvarez has been a huge disappointment with the bat this year and is currently injured with a sore quad.

If the Pirates get through the soul-crushing experience known as Interleague Play (they were 2-15 last year) at the end of June, it may be time to re-adjust expectations for this team. In 1997 (the terribly named "Freak Show" team), the Pirates were rewarded for their efforts by getting Shawnon Dunston in a late season trade to help push them to the NL Central title. It would be nice for the players (and the fans) to have their hard work rewarded in 2011 with a similar trade if they are flirting with .500. The Pirates don't have to trade a top prospect to get some help here -- there will be plenty of teams looking to dump a bad contract for a low-level player in order to save a few million.

But we have many miles to travel in order to dream about that. Or 1 month. Whichever comes first.

NOLA on the Square -- a taste of N'awlins in the Burgh

2011-05-27T20:24:00.008-04:00

As loyal readers of this blog know (all 6 of you), I'm a huge fan of the city of New Orleans and Cajun cooking. So it has een with a great deal of anticipation that I've been looking forward to the opening of NOLA on the Square in Market Square downtown.

NOLA on the Square is the latest entry from Yves Carreau (Sonoma Grille, Seviche) to the Pittsburgh dining scene. DB~ and I were originally supposed to go a couple of weeks ago when my parents, sister, and brother-in-law went before the Mozart/Beethoven concert. All four of them, especially my dad, raved about it. Secretly I was disappointed that we didn't go, but we were pushed for time that day as we were moving DB~ from her place into mine.

Of course The Squiggle realized this and filed it in her head that the two of us should go. She surprised me today by telling me that tonight's dinner was a surprise. As soon as she told me to dress up a little bit (from my engineering chic outfit), I guessed where we were going.

We got down there at 6:15 and the bar scene was packed. Looks like a lot of the people (mostly in their late 20's/early 30's) were there since work ended. The restaurant itself was probably half full. We were seated right near the open kitchen so we were keeping an eye of the line of cooks and chefs. No one seem stressed out or rushing around. Everyone had their job, did their job, and did it well. No arguments, collisions, or extraneous movements.

The decor of the restaurant is tastefully done to reflect New Orleans. There were some painting of jazz musicians, exposed red brick, some Mardi Gras masks placed in strategic spots, but the walls were a mellow shade of red and a soothing yellow.

We decided to splurge a little bit. Usually DB~ will have 1 glass of wine and I don't usually have a mixed drink, but tonight she had 2 and I had a well-made Sazerac (whiskey, rye, bitters, and absinthe).

*SIDE NOTE -- A few years ago, I had an Absinthe Phase. I was fascinated by the culture of it around the turn of the 20th century over in Europe. A bottle of real absinthe, not the diluted crap sold in the U.S., was given to me as a gift from someone who got it from France. I got into the whole scene...bought a slotted spoon, got the sugar cubes to strain ice cold water over to generate the louche effect in the absinthe...everything. I wanted to chase the Green Fairy, but not get too goofy to carve off my ear like Van Gogh did after an absinthe binge. Nothing. I had a bunch of it, too. Absinthe, distilled from fermented wormwood, has a licorice taste that eventually you find off-putting. Before tonight, I had not had it in 3 years.

We got an appetizer of "BBQ" shrimp, which was actually shrimp with the shells on sauteed in a stock with a large amount of paprika and red pepper for spice and scallions for flavor. They were excellent, especially using the French bread to soak up the broth at the bottom of the bowl.

We had a great waiter named Greg. Greg knew the menu back and forth, made suggestions to fit our tastes, and shied us away from certain items in favor of others. Enthusiastic without being fake. He also had a killer Rollie Fingers-esque mustache with mustache wax and everything. Good guy.

For our main courses, DB~ went with Shrimp and Grits (sans bacon -- she hates the stuff). The grits were smooth and creamy and the flavor base was the Trinity of Cajun cooking -- bell pepper, onion, and celery. There were some scallions as decorations that were curled up on themselves, which was a nice touch.

I had the Roasted Quail that was stuffed with oyster stuffing. The stuffing had a fantastic flavor, but I found the chunks of oyster too big. Maybe if they were chopped smaller or instead was stuffed with andouille sausage. The quail itself had fantastic flavor and had just a tiny bit of char on the crispy skin -- made me think of an outdoor barbeque.

NOLA on the Square, a bulky name that is probably in place so that Emeril doesn't file infringement against them, is a fantastic place that I would like to go back to check out for lunch. They have a nice selection of po' boys, muffalettas, paninis, and salads for lunch. And if you go, stop and observe the action in the kitchen. They don't mind.

Honey Mint Corn Meal-Crusted Shrimp

2011-05-23T20:49:00.006-04:00

Last week I had a hankering for some shrimp and there was also some mint staring back at me from the fridge that was aching to wilt away, so it was time to get a little creative.

A couple of months ago, maybe for the Mardi Gras party we had, I needed to buy some corn meal for a recipe. I ended up being forced to buy a 5 lb bag and I needed maybe 1 cups worth. So I've been thinking of ways to use the yellow corn meal (I'm close to making my own tortillas, I think). Recently I bought some honey, as well, and short of putting it in tea for a sore throat I'm not liable to use it very frequently in cooking.

I decided to jam all these variables into the DBS Processor and see what shoots out. Typically when I coat a piece of chicken, I'll use an egg yolk or even some cornstarch. I decided to roll the shrimp around in the honey as the base.

Then I took the shrimp and sprinkled some finely chopped mint on them. The honey, of course, caused it to stick perfectly. Next I coated the shrimp in a blend of yellow corn meal and Penzey's Old World Spice (paprika and celery salt, primarily). A whole box of unopened Penzey spices have arrived at my house now that DB~ has moved in -- what she never used will be used anew!

I got some vegetable oil nice and hot in a skillet and fried the shrimp for 2-3 minutes a side. The shrimp were served with standard corn niblets and a rice/lentil mixture. Not too shabby, but not "restaurant quality" either.

Trying to culture this pearl

2011-05-15T20:46:00.002-04:00

When you're an engineer, there's not a lot of room in the toolbox for the fine arts. But I greatly appreciate those who are part of the fine arts because they have creativity that I can only fantasize about having. My favorite modern-day artist is Michael Flohr and I had the chance to meet him last year and observe him painting in real-time. To take an idea from your head and translate it to a canvas via the medium of gessoed oil paints is a gift that I will never possess.

Even more of a distance away on the spectrum of "things DBS can never do" is being a musician in a classical orchestra. Last night my brother-in-law got DB~, myself, and my parents tickets to join he and my sister at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performance. They were performing three separate pieces: one was a modern piece called Stroke by a composer named Joan Tower, the second was a series of four pieces from Mozart, and the third act was three pieces by Beethoven.

Joan Tower was wrapping up her year in residency at PSO with Stroke, which was a piece about her brother having a stroke three years and his life changing due to his paralysis. It had tympanies and bass providing a slow heartbeat, with periodic rapid crescendos symbolizing the rapid flow of blood, then downbeat solos to represent the actual stroke. It was a very personal and moving piece for her and it must have been a thrill to hear an orchestra perform it in front of an audience.

I'm not a classical music afficianado at all, but the skill level of the PSO was outstanding. I found myself just watching individual musicians and then watching entire sections of instruments, like the 12 violinists in the first chair section on the left, then the 10 violinists in the second chair section on the right. I wondered about the group dynamics and how much professional jealousy must exist among the prima donna position of violin. I watched the percussion section play 10 notes and then sit back with rapt attention the rest of the piece.

Especially during the Mozart and Beethoven pieces, you really appreciate how the string sections all move their bows in unison. Everyone has to be on the same page or it doesn't work at all. You can't say that about most professions. Most people will approach a problem in different ways and still be able to solve it correctly. But when you play a piece of classical music that is over 200 plus years old, there is only way to do it or it will be noticeably wrong.

I found myself wondering about how much the first chair violinist makes and then wondering how much the "lowest" violinist in the 2nd chair makes. Their lives are 180 degrees different than mine in terms of their work day, but we still both eat out at great restaurants, have families we share time with, people we love, and go shopping at grocery stores. It seems as if they live glamorous lives, but I'm sure they get burned out at times, too.

I respect anyone who is at the top of their game. I'm sure there are orchestras performing at an even higher level than the PSO, but to my untrained ear they sure are great. Tip of the cap to being in the presence of an art form that I usually don't talk about or get a chance to enjoy.

French Silk Chocolate Pie

2011-05-11T17:48:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday was Mother's Day and my sister and I decided to split the menu duties for the Mother's Day dinner for our Mom. My sister, who I've remarked before is CHEF-quality in the kitchen (while I am COOK-quality), was going to do the main dish and a vegetable. I would do a vegetable also, plus a salad, and a dessert.

For all of my interest in food and in cooking, I'm not much of a dessert guy. I enjoy eating a good chocolate mousse and I'll emotionally-eat 3/4 of a Dutch Crumb Apple Pie on occasion, sure, but for the most part I don't like sweets and don't really make them when I do a dinner.

But I volunteered to do it after a magazine randomly showed up in my mailbox called Cook's Country. I have no idea where it came from. As a gift I was given Chef's Illustrated, but this was totally different. I was paging through the magazine and found two great recipes that I wanted to try for Mother's Day. The first was a recipe for Honey-Goat Cheese Sugar Snap Peas and the second was for French Chocolate Silk Pie. Most likely it was the "food porn" style picture of the pie that drew me in. I can't resist good food porn pics. Watching too much Food Network in HD makes me want to take a shower sometimes.

The recipe seemed complicated to me, but it was worth it for my Mom. The first step was to double boil 8 oz of bittersweet chocolate. I bought some 50% cocoa bars and broke them up into chunks. I didn't buy 70% cocoa because I used that a few months ago for a recipe and it is very dark and bitter. Double boiling involve getting a saucepan of water boiling on the stove then reducing it to a strong simmer. Place the broken chocolate chunks into a metal mixing boil and set it atop the saucepan so that the bottom isn't in the boiling water. The chocolate melts by the steam heating the bowl gently. Once the chocolate is melted, take it off the stove (keep the water going) and let it cool.

Next I took 1 cup of heavy cream and whipped it with a hand mixer on medium speed for 4 minutes until the peaks were stiff and fluffy. Put that in the fridge to chill.

In a second metal mixing bowl, crack 3 eggs, add 2 tablespoons of water, and 3/4 cup of sugar and mix well for 5 minutes on medium speed. Once this is mixed, take it to the stove and double boil it until the mixture is 160 degrees (note - I don't do temps, I guesstimate with the finger test). Once it was heated up, I mixed it on medium again until fluffy for another 6-7 minutes.

Add the melted chocolate into the sugar-egg-water mix, plus 1 tablespoon of vanilla (I used extract -- my chef-like sister said I should have used pure. Ehh.) and mix for 2-3 minutes. Take the whipped cream out of the fridge and fold by hand with a spatula into the mixture until no white streaks remain.

I used a pre-baked graham cracker crust and poured the French Chocolate Silk Pie mix into this crust. Chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours. It is a rich dessert and kind of a pain to make, but it's worth it. Note -- I didn't take a picture of it...the picture above is a stock Internet photo. I didn't slather additional whipped cream over it like in the picture.

DBS, Dave Littlefield, and a Pastrami Sandwich

2011-05-08T13:46:00.003-04:00

As I watch the Pirates today with a strange feeling (I think people call it "optimism"), my mind wondered if Dave Littlefield looks in on this team at all. For those that don't know, Dave Littlefield was the GM before Neal Huntington and is widely considered to be one of the 10 worst GM's of modern times.

His list of sins that he committed on this franchise are too numerous, but well-documented, to go into here but suffice it to say that Huntington had his work cut out for him when he arrived in October 2007.

Littlefield was all about minimizing risk. He would routinely take "major league ready" players back in trades, who would subsequently show they weren't ready for the major leagues. DL would avoid dealing with difficult agents (Scott Boras) at all costs. Draft picks were made with signability in mind. What brought me to thinking about DL was when I started to think about the Pirates current bullpen. Hanrahan, Meek, Veras, and Resop all routinely gas it in to the plate at 94 mph at a minimum. That was a trait unheard of with a DL-constructed bullpen. Sure, Mike Gonzalez was a flamethrower for a few years, but he was the exception not the rule. And there sure as heck weren't multiple guys like that in the pen. Huntington, especially in recent years, has targeted players that bring the heat but may have needed some delivery tweaks to fully harness it. For the most part, it has been a successful strategy in recent seasons.

All of this reminiscing about Littlefield made me think about the time I got to meet the man. Well, substitute "meet" for "accost while eating". It was 2004 and I had just finished reading Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It was a game-changing book for baseball and for me, as well. The surface takeaway from the book is that Billy Beane, the GM of the Athletics, found guys with bad bodies but could get on base a lot. The deeper message in the book is that Beane found market inefficiencies in free agent costs and draft picks and exploited them to the A's advantage.

As a newly energized stat-dork, with a nascent interest in minor league prospects, I was quite taken with the lessons learned in Moneyball. It was early in season in 2004 and it was quite obvious that Kris Benson was going to be traded by the Pirates at some point that season. At the time, there were three high-end 3B prospects in the minors (Dallas McPherson from the Angels, Andy Marte from the Indians, and David Wright from the Mets) and I hoped that the Pirates could get one for Benson.

So on one sunny May day, the previous IT guy at my job and I went to lunch at the Smallman Street Deli. We're just finishing up our fantastic sandwiches when in walks in the hair gelled-one himself, Dave Littlefield, and a small entourage of other front-office types.

"That's Dave Littlefield," I said to the redneck-tinged IT guy.
"Who's that?" said the IT guy. If he was a NASCAR driver, he would have known.
"He's the GM of the Pirates. I'm going to talk to him."

DL had ordered and was waiting in line so I approached him cautiously. He was way bigger than I thought, at least 6'-3" or 6'-4". He had on a well-cut navy blue pinstriped suit with a gray shirt. And, of course, the hair was perfect.

"Mr. Littlefield?"
He turned with a pleasant enough look on his face. It wasn't the countenance of a person you would expect to be synonymous with "incompetance" by the end of his tenure.
"I wanted to know if you had read Moneyball and, if so, what you thought of it?"

He seemed amused.
"Yeah, I read it. It sure is easier to run a franchise and have a book written about you when you have Mulder, Zito, and Hudson in the rotation."
Wow. I guess DL was going to wash his sandwich down with a warm glass of sour grapes.

"OK, but are there any philosophies in there that you found interesting enough to adopt?" I asked.
"There's some things in there that we already do," he answered. No you don't, I thought.

I decided to change tack, like an expert sailor on the high seas.

"I know you're going to trade Benson. The Angels need a pitcher. You should ask them for McPherson."
He sort of chuckled.
"There's no way the Angels will give him up."
"They should if they want a chance to win the AL," I answered. "Look, the Pirates desperately need a 3B after you traded Ramirez and there are 3 guys...Wright, Marte, and McPherson...who are going to be stars." I didn't mention "after you traded Ramirez in one of the worst trades in Pirates history".

We went back and forth for a minute or two until his sandwich was ready and I bid adieu. At that time, I didn't quite realize how awful of a GM he was. He was still riding the Jason Bay-Oliver Perez trade which looked like a huge coup for the Pirates. That was the last time I ever had a chance to speak person-to-person with Littlefield, but that day made quite an impression on me.

History would show that of those 3 high-end prospects, only David Wright would succeed. McPherson had debilitating back problems and strikeout issues, while Andy Marte (ironically currently the AAA starting 3B for the Pirates farm team) just never amounted to anything in the majors.

The Scourge of the Pirates would last for 3 additional seasons until the end of the 2007 season, which was one of the worst single GM'ing displays in a single year. It's only now in May 2011 that I feel good days are ahead for this franchise.

Giving Route 28 an upgrade -- 25 years past due

2011-05-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

Last week I was driving down Route 28 on my way to a meeting at the Department of Environmental Protection on Washington's Landing below the 31st Street Bridge. Washington's Landing (on an Island named Herr's Island) was once the site of a massive series of animal rendering factories. The uber-steep hill, Rialto Street, was known as Pig Hill because they would herd the swine down the hill and on to Herr's Island to meet their bacon-flavored makers.

There are many times when I go to a meeting at DEP feeling just like those pigs.

But my post is not about my intense dislike of DEP, but rather the better days that in the medium-term future will occur for regular motorists of Route 28. This important arterial links the City of Pittsburgh to the northern riverfront communities. It draws daily commuters from Millvale up to New Kensington and over the river to Oakmont and Plum, plus some points beyond.

For years, motorists have had to deal with narrow lanes, bridges that inexplicably narrowed from 2 lanes of thru traffic to one lane, and traffic lights at the 40th and 31st Bridges that would snarl traffic while they completed their convoluted cycles. Route 28 became the forgotten major transportation link in the region. I-279 and I-79 are the most important, everyone jumped on re-branding I-376, and Onorato only funneled money to roads that would directly service the Airport Corridor.

But in recent years, PENNDOT has upgraded bridges and ramps at the Route 28/Route 8 junction to take out the 1 lane bottlenecks and sub-standard infrastructure. They are now in the grand finale...the act of removing the traffic lights from the equation all together by lowering and relocating Route 28 so that in order to get on the bridges you will take an offramp.

After the project is done (in 2015) you will be able to travel traffic light free along Route 28 all the way into the city. Having traffic lights on a road that services nearly 100,000 vehicles a day is silliness. The widths of the travel lanes won't get wider, so it will still be a "cozy" drive in with your neighbors, but at least it won't be stop-go-stop-go-stop.

I like to think of a roadway system like our blood vessels. The City of Pittsburgh is the heart, with I-79/I-279/I-376/Route 28/and Route 60 as the arteries. Route 28 has had a major cholestorol problem for many years and now it is getting a much needed angioplasty. The construction headaches will stretch for probably 4 more years, but in the long run it will be well worth it.

Tusca - If you like bad service, here's your place

2011-04-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

As I stated in the last post, DB~ and I went down to the South Side last night to do a little pre-race scouting of the territory. After we were done it was 8 p.m. and we were hungry. We saw a cool looking new place on Carson (around 14th'ish Street) called Local, but we couldn't find a parking spot. We turned down Dish Osteria because we wanted to save it for a dinner with her aunt. Eventually we headed back to our starting point at South Side Works and landed at Tusca.

The only other time I was a Tusca was in early December 2007. I went with one of my married couple friends to see an uplifting little movie called There Will Be Blood. After the movie, the 3 of us went to Tusca to have some dinner. At that time, we just got some tapas (small plates) to share between the 3 of us. That night my friend and I dubbed that place as There Will Be Hunger, because tapas is a rip-off. You pay way more money than just getting an entree and you're still not full.

But this time DB~ and I went thinking we would get entrees instead. Things started off promising with our female server. She greeted us and got our drinks relatively quickly. That would be her high point. DB~ got the Mediterranean Salmon and I order the Shrimp with Polenta. Her salmon dish came out from the kitchen and we waited for mine....and waited...and waited...and waited until at least 8 minutes passed by. Our server didn't seem the least bit apologetic/enthused/interested when she flopped my "entree" down on the table. I had told Squiggle to start eating, but she still held back a little, making her dish not optimal temperature.

My dish was tiny. It had 4 small shrimp served on a bed of flavorful polenta, but the whole thing was on an appetizer plate for $16. No side dish, no salad, just this. DB~'s salmon was awful according to her. The texture and feel of the salmon was not well-prepared. The seasoning was OK she said, though. She did have a nice creamy risotto with her dish.

The worst part is that our server never came back once. Not to check on our dinners, not to refill our drinks. The place wasn't full when we got there and by 9 p.m. certainly wasn't that busy. She just was a terrible server.

She dropped off our check without ever asking if we wanted dessert, coffee, or an after dinner drink. And then after we had our credit card in the holder and she back for the check, she asked if she could clear our plates (which had been sitting there for at least 15 minutes...a huge peeve of mine).

DB~ and I agreed to only leave a 15% tip exactly, which is basically a huge middle finger nowadays to a server. Congratulations, you are in my top 5 worst servers ever.

Tusca -- There Will Be Hunger and Bad Service

Go on, I Dare you

2011-04-28T22:47:00.003-04:00

It's pretty well established at this point that DB~ and I are huge nerds, but we're also athletic (sort of) nerds too. We enjoy hiking, geocaching, kayaking, watching DB~ stomp me at basketball, that kind of stuff. But we really enjoy competition first and foremost, especially if it is modeled after The Amazing Race, DB~'s favorite show.

Last year we teamed up to do Urban Dare Pittsburgh (15th out of 95 teams) and Diamond Dash (8th out 200+ teams) within a month of each other. In October of 2009, we recruited one of my friends and one of her brothers to come in 1st place at Transit Treasure Hunt in downtown Pittsburgh. Each of these combines solving puzzles or clues and doing challenges then quickly either running the course around the city or riding a bike, like during Diamond Dash.

This year, Urban Dare is on Saturday, Diamond Dash is May 21st, and Transit Treasure Hunt (after a year hiatus) is in mid-June, so we're pretty psyched for these three. We just got back from doing some scouting of the South Side. We catalogued key memorials, pieces of public art, restaurants and bars with funny names, churches, and parks.

Both of us felt we didn't give our best effort last year. DB~ tripped and did a yard sale 10 minutes into it on the North Side, right by Bettis 36. She ripped her jogging pants and bloodied her knee. I wrenched my knee pretty awful about halfway through and peg-legged it the rest of the way. We also should have planned our route better at the start of Urban Dare.

If you are reading this and did Diamond Dash last year (there's approximately a 0.002% chance of both those things occuring), we were the team where the guy did the whole race on an adult tricycle, due to my irrational dislike of bicycles. I broke my leg when I was 10 after falling off my bike and have never been on one since, but because I love DB~ so much I told her I would ride a trike for Diamond Dash. She rode a bike like a normal person and I rocked the heck out of that trike.

But first things first and that's Urban Dare. I want a top 5 finish this year!

Cleaning out the Fridge (again, with more success)

2011-04-27T20:45:00.003-04:00

Sometimes in the middle of the week I just stare into the fridge and think "what am I going to eat out this hodgepodge?" It's like I'm on a one-man, unjudged version of Chopped on Food Network.

I had a pork tenderloin thawed in the fridge, so I knew that was going to be the centerpiece, but my creativity tank was a little low. I decided to brush it with olive oil to minimize the charring and infuse moisture when I put it in the oven. After thinking of some lame sauce ideas, I decided to just rub the whole 1 pound pork loin with one of my favorite seasonings, Luzianne's Cajun Seasoning. It's a nice blend of paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic, and salt.

I roasted this at 400 degrees for 1 hour. At the end of that hour, I took it out of the oven and let in rest covered in the baking dish for 20 minutes while I continued working on the side dishes.

I had a box of lentil rice pilaf, but it said it was going to take 40 minutes to cook and I didn't feel like waiting that long. So I got some plain white rice and started that going on the stove. I went back to the fridge and saw some pureed tomato sauce that I had left over and wanted to get rid of. It was just a little too harsh of a bite, though, to put into the rice by itself. Went with a nutty, robust theme by adding a few shakes of and crushing some pecans I wanted to get rid of into the boiling rice. The tomato sauce had an interesting reaction once added -- it turned the rice a burgundy-brown. The rice absorbed the water and tomato sauce nicely and this turned out well.

I cracked a can of green beans and heated them on the stove, but I wanted to augment them too. I thought some crumbled blue cheese (also something I wanted to move out of the fridge) melted on top would be tasty. That prognostication came true.

I bias-cut the pork tenderloin and plated it with the rice and green beans. The tenderloin was cooked perfectly and had plenty of spice and flavor. Not bad for having no idea what I was going to make at 5 pm when I walked in the door. The judges on Chopped would have been proud.

The 2008 Draft - A One Year Too Early Look

2011-04-22T21:20:00.003-04:00

It's commonly said that it takes 4-5 years to properly evaluate a baseball draft. So naturally, let's take a look at Neal Huntington's first draft one year too early.

The scouting rule of thumb is:
Draft 50 players
Sign 30 players
Get 20 to AA
Get 1 starter and 1 bench/bullpen guy from each draft class

Let's see how the Pirates 2008 draft class has done so far:
Drafted 50 players (check)
Signed 32 players (check)
Got 8 to AA so far (not great)
Got Alvarez to the majors as a starter (very good, even if he is starting slow this year)

There are 6 more players that have the strong possibility of getting to AA in the form of Robbie Grossman, David Rubinstein, Jarek Cunningham, Quinton Miller, Benji Gonzalez, and Calvin Anderson. That would make 14 players, which is still less than the rule-of-thumb, but would be a good group of 14 players from the draft.

Right now Chase d'Arnaud, Justin Wilson, and Matt Hague are in the holding tank at AAA awaiting a callup. It's quite possible that 1 of the 3 will at least be a bench guy and 1 guy will be a starter. That would be 2 starter and 1 bench/bullpen guy. That doesn't even account for the 6 guys mentioned above that have yet to reach AA. It's quite possible that 2 of the 6 will reach the majors and be at least a bench player.

So out of Huntington's first draft, it's very realistic to see 2 starters and 3 bench guys, at worst. That would be a very successful draft class and give us all confidence that future draft classes will be as fruitful.

PlanIT Valley - Bring on the Arcologies

2011-04-21T19:29:00.004-04:00

When I was a young nerd in my early 20's, fresh out of college with an engineering degree, I became addicted to Sim City 2000. It was a computer game in which you were given a empty canvas with terrain and were able to build a city from the ground up. Roads, power lines, water pipes, power plants, the whole nine yards. You designated what areas were zoned residential, commercial, and industrial and the appropriate types of structures to build. You needed to account for the proper amount of schools, police departments, and fire departments.

In short, you were god of this little city and could watch it grow before your very eyes, as long as you kept things running smoothly. The citizenry could riot against you, cause fires, floods may occur, even an alien invasion if you were so inclined.

I guess Sim City 2000 was popular in Portugal in the late 90's, too, because outside of Parades, Portugal is growing an eco-city called PlanIT Valley. The city in its built-out state will serve 225,000 people in an array of eco-friendly buildings that are embedded with a host of sensors to monitor environmental conditions and adjust accordingly. The green building techniques and the energies that will power this city will make PlanIT Valley a zero carbon footprint community...a completely green city.

All this for the low, low price of $10 billion dollars, while the world is in the midst of the biggest worldwide recession in decades. However, PlanIT Valley has some backers already in the form of Microsoft and Cisco, with Microsoft reportedly putting $300M into the kitty.

The city will be a testing lab for the integration of information technology, urban planning, and construction. I'm not sure if I could handle the sensation of feeling like a lab rat being studied by someone remotely as I went about my daily business. In order to put 225,000 people on 4,000 acres, along with all of the necessary functions like schools/police/fire departments/etc, PlanIT Valley will be a densely built environment.

This reminds me of when your city matures in Sim City 2000 to the point that arcologies are introduced. Arcologies (a combination of architecture and ecology) were a city-within-a-city in the game. They were a way for you to fit 20,000 people into a small area by building vertically and containing functions within that arcology. Most of the arcologies available were benign and pleasant, but there was one that was dark and forboding. It did not have a lot of natural light and it affected your citizens. They almost became a sub-set of humans, it was said.

Reports are circulating that the world's population is expected to double from 6 billion to 12 billion in the next 30 years. That's unfathomable to me. It seems that some glass ceiling will be hit long before that happens. The Earth can simply not support that many people. As it stands now, there are vast tracts of land unable to grow food and clean water is scarce. How are we going to jam 6 billion more onto this little blue marble and have any semblance of life? I'm not even talking about the United States. Look at some of the cities in India and China...that's not exactly the model of good urban living over there. It will be primarily that part of the world experiencing the bulk of the population increase, too.

I watch and enjoy a lot of movies that have dystopian, post-apocalyptic futures. I fear that these escapes from reality are primers for what we are moving towards at a breakneck pace.

I'm not sure if PlanIT Valley is something to be admired for its vision or feared for it's depressing look into what our future may become. A race of people jammed into cities-within-cities like files in a filing cabinet. Unable to breathe the air, drink the water, or have more than a 10 foot radius of personal space.

New Stat - Wins Above John Russell

2011-04-18T21:38:00.002-04:00

After watching the first 15 games of the season (well, watching and reading about the first 15 games of the season) it seems obvious to me that the Pirates have a different attitude and swagger about them. They had a pretty wretched homestand after losing 3 of 4 to the Rockies and then both games of the rain-shortened series to the Brewers. In recent years, that was the clarion call to begin The Suck.

But the Pirates went to Cincinnati and won 3 of 4 games against the division leader. Repeat -- on the road. The same place where they went 17-64 last year. In addition to the maturation of The Core Four of Alvarez, McCutchen, Tabata, and Walker there is a new man at the helm in the form of Clint Hurdle.

I was a fan of his from the moment I saw his confidence fill the room at the Pirate Fan Fest in January. He is a leader and has already shown that he will stand up for his team. He supports them when necessary and reprimands them when needed. In short, he is nothing like what John Russell was as manager.

After watching Hurdle lease, with the option to buy, space inside of Jim Tracy's head during the 14 inning game against the Rockies (in which Hurdle put McCutchen in the on-deck circle to psych out Tracy), I realized that there was no way in hell that Russell would have ever thought of that move. You could have gone 4 levels down into his sub-conscious like in the movie Inception and you still couldn't have convinced him to do that move.

This led me to conceive a new tracking stat...Wins Above John Russell (WAJR). It even has a cool pronunciation like "wager". Very similar to the widely-used Wins Above Replacement (WAR) which tracks how a player does versus a hypothetical replacement-level player fresh from AAA, WAJR will see how Hurdle does versus a replacement-level manager in the form of John Russell.

Every time Hurdle pulls a pitcher who's struggling, instead of "saving his bullpen" for the potential that he can use his set up man and closer for a mythical situation...that's a partial WAJR. When you start a guy who's hot, even if it's because of your gut feeling...that's a partial WAJR. When you own Jim Tracy in extra innings...that's almost a full WAJR.

By my rough estimate we are at 1.5 WAJR already, which would project to 16 more wins than last year. It's yet to be determined if Russell will lead the Pirates to a championship, but he already has them respecting themselves and giving them confidence. Eventually that will lead to gaining respect from the rest of the league. That might be worth a WAJR or two.

Development around PNC Park over 10 years

2011-04-14T19:03:00.005-04:00

I have a poster in my basement of an aerial view of PNC Park and the surrounding North Shore on opening day in April 2001. The jewel that is PNC Park looked the same back then as it does today. Not a single thing has slipped at this park. But surrounding the park is a sea of jet black asphalt parking lots.

Last night I went to my first Pirate game of 2011. A friend of mine was coming in from Columbus and we set this up last month; I had no idea at the time that it would be the opening night of the Penguins playoff run!

As I was walking to the game from a parking lot adjacent to Heinz Field, I drank in all of the buildings that have sprouted up in the 10 year period of PNC's existence. The development by the Sports and Exhibition Authority, Steelers and Pirates, and Urban Redevelopment Authority has accelerated greatly in the past 5 years. The General Robinson Parking Garage was built to account for the loss of surface parking, due to the development of other various buildings such as Hyatt Place Hotel, Marriott Spring Hill Suites Hotel, Stage AE concert area, and two office buildings (one houses Root Sports/bars/restaurants, the other Starkist operations).

Obviously, it is better to have development instead of a sea of parking. That's part of what doomed Three Rivers Stadium -- the white elephant effect. It's almost as if the Pirates, whether consciously or not, are trying to replicate a Wrigley Field effect at PNC Park. Nowadays PNC Park is nestled into the North Shore, rather than standing out stark for all to see. Not that you overlook it, but it's just a lot more protected than in 2001.

As for the game itself, my friend sprung for seats in the Pittsburgh Baseball Club section, so we got some relief from the cold night by ducking into the interior bar and lounge area (which enabled me to check the Penguins score too). However, after the 7th inning we made a pilgrimage to Manny's BBQ behind CF. My prey was the new Pulled Pork Pierogie Stacker sandwich. How could I be disappointed in two of my favorite things combined into one sandwich? I envisioned making a love sonnet to this sandwich of ecstacy. I wondered if DB~ would feel that I was cheating on her if I professed my love to this delectable treat.

Much like the 6-0 loss to the Brewers, this sandwich was a big disappointment. Here's a cross-section of it after I put some of it in my CAKE CRUNCHER (that's for you 5'ish):

The pork didn't have a lot of flavor. It didn't have a lot of BBQ sauce, nor did it have a dry rub to keep the mess down and the flavor up. Also, the pierogie was extremely salty. The bun was fantastic. It hailed from the brioche family...maybe a 3rd cousin of some sort. The Pulled Pork Pierogie Stacker is going up against a Spicy Sausage/Provolone sandwich. I fear that in the second half of 2011 Cheese Chester, Oliver Onion, Jalapeno Hannah, and Sauerkraut Saul will not have to hear the tortured wailings of their cousins being devoured while they run the bases.

Wexford Ale House

2011-04-09T08:33:00.006-04:00

DB~ and I are getting married later this year, but apparently the mindmeld has already started. She sent me an email in the afternoon that said "How about trying the Wexford Ale House for dinner tonight?", which was the exact place that I was going to send her an email about trying.

The Wexford Ale House is essentially a remodeled version of Poor Richard's Pub. In fact, the full name is Poor Richard's Wexford Ale House and the credit card receipt still says Poor Richard's at the top. Poor Richard's, and presumably the refurbished Wexford Ale House, was owned at one time by Richard Jahn, who also owns the small used car lot next to the W.A.H. I have a soft spot in my heart for that car lot as that is where I bought my first car -- a 1988 Buick Skylark, with burgundy plush interior, back in 1995 for $5000. That was my college car although I kept the eventual rust-bucket until 2001, 3 years after I graduated. Lot of stories in that car, including the one where my friend yakked all over the back seat and in my hair and my passenger's hair while we were driving through Oakland. We looked like Jules and Vincent from Pulp Fiction after Jules shot Marvin in the face.

Wow...what a diversion down Memory Lane!

Back in present day, DB~ and I walked into the Wexford Ale House and were greeted by a clean and streamlined bar. Not a lot of clutter on the walls, seemed like it would a be a nice sunny place if the sun ever shines again in Pittsburgh. To the right was a small dining area, maybe 8 tables (with another 4 tables up front facing Route 19, I think).

We had a very attentive server who helped us through the very extensive beer selection they have on tap. They had a nice special where all of their $5 beers were $3 until 7 pm. DB~ had a Fransinkaner and I had a Long Trail Pale Ale. DB~ was a little peeved that I told her NOT to get a Hoegarden and to expand her horizons. She said "what about Blue Moon" (which is her 2nd favorite beer). I said to keep expanding and she picked that one. I'm not much of a beer guy, but even though mine had a hoppy flavor, I enjoyed it. DB~ enjoyed hers as well.

For our actual dinners, DB~ (being the good Catholic) went with the Tuna Melt. DB~ got a side salad in lieu of fries, but we saw other people had the fries and they looked good. She ate the whole thing and said she enjoyed it. This was after she wrapped her pickle up in a napkin, so that it looked like a pickle body bag. I went with the Guiness Pot Roast and chose diced redskin potatoes to go with it. It was such a chilly, dreary night that I wanted some comfort food. The pot roast, as it should have, fell apart when you cut it with your fork. I would have liked to have seen it already "shredded", but was OK with the actual slab of pot roast too. The diced potatoes, each the same size amazingly, were very tasty as well and the perfect compliment to this dish.

Overall, it is a very "meaty" menu with not a lot of seafood or veggie choices. Maybe one or two more would be a good idea, although I'm guessing the jumbo shrimp appetizer could easily be turned into a dinner portion. There were many other choices that we would have tried and I'm sure we will be going back.

After dinner, DB~ wanted to try the Penn Chocolate Meltdown beer that she heard about through Facebook. Our server brought a sample out in a large shot glass for her to try. As DB~ accurately said while I sampled it too, "it goes from beer to chocolate back to beer back to chocolate, all in 5 seconds". It was way too rough for me to drink a whole glass of that and DB~ agreed. There was a second attempt at chocolate beer brought to her in a shot glass that we can't remember what it was called. Squiggle described it having a more mocha taste to it. I think her craving of trying chocolate beers has been satiated.

I was only at Poor Richard's once and that was probably 10 years ago, but I remember it having little rooms (it is a house) set up with games and cards to play. Sadly, with an expanded kitchen and a bigger area for the servers to stage out of, those rooms are gone. It has a great bar and small dining area and is definitely worth a look-see, especially if you are a beer afficianado.

2350 Osteria - a right-sized dining experience

2011-04-06T07:04:00.004-04:00

In one of my recent posts, I wrote our trip to Spoon and how we were able to have access to the chef. This allowed us to sample a variety of appetizers and desserts, plus get to talk to the chef personally about our dinner dishes. It was a great experience and one that I thought I would never get to do for a long, long time.

Apparently one month is a long time.

DB~'s uncle noticed in the paper that one of the chefs at 2350 Osteria in the Strip District had the same last name as them. So the one uncle contacted the other retired uncle and these two went down for lunch a few weeks ago to grill this poor guy about his family tree. They struck up a relationship with him and set up a family dinner for others in DB~'s family to check the restaurant out and meet the chef.

DB~ has a large extended family on her dad's side. At one point I thought there may be 20 of us going down, but because it was a Tuesday night that number settled out to 10 people.

2350 Osteria (2350 is the street address and Osteria means small Italian cafe) is next to Cioppino and owned by those owners as well. We went to Cioppino a few months ago with DB~'s aunt, but I never blogged about it for some reason. Cioppino was fantastic, so I was curious to see what 2350 Osteria would be like.

There is nothing fancy about 2350 Osteria. It's very stripped down and the plates and silverware are very straightforward. Simple white plates and bowls, with Crate & Barrel-esque bread baskets. And that's just fine.

The chef brought us two antipasti plates to sample. One was the various meats (proscuitto, salami, soprasecca) and cheeses (provolone and mozzarella). The second had the olives, roasted peppers and picked vegetables. The picked cauliflower was excellent. I was shocked to see that the regular price for this plate would have been $6. Then when I looked over the menu, it was shocking and refreshing to see that the rest of the prices were low, as well.

I ordered a Caesar salad for $3. The croutons were extremely light with a perfect amount of crunch. The dressing was tart, but not overpowering and there was plenty of shredded romano on top of the salad. I ordered the rigatoni, which was the house speciality fede pasta (a combination of macaroni and pasta, according to the chef) with a braised pork ragu and a couple of links of their homemade sausage. It was topped with a dollop of chilled ricotta. The portion was just the right amount to leave me full, with no leftovers, for $12. The sausage was amazingly tender. It didn't fall into pieces when I cut into with my fork, but at the same time it also cut into a perfect disk.

DB~ had the Riccolina ($10) which was the fede pasta with carmelized mushrooms, argula, and truffle oil. She loved her dish, too.

Both Cioppino and 2350 Osteria are located directly across from the Cork Factory, a hub of downtown living in a restored factory. I imagine that 2350 Osteria does quite well with the inhabitants of the Cork Factory for quick, easy, and affordable meals.

It's not fancy, but it's worth checking out this great little place. Here's to their success, especially if the chef truly is a future relation!

The DBS Book Corner - The Devil in the White City

2011-04-03T20:28:00.005-04:00

I'm an avid reader, but in recent years it is more magazines, newspapers, and work journals. I wish I had more time to read books. DB~ is a voracious reader and can finish a 300 page book in a day...she's basically a speed reader. Frequently I ask her if she remembers what she reads.

Anyway, DB~ got a book at Barnes and Noble that she had heard was really good called The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I had heard about it as well, as Leo Dicaprio has bought the rights to and will be the Executive Producer and lead role of H.H. Holmes (scheduled to open in 2013). The book juxtaposes two stories on parallel tracks relating to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.

The first story is the tale of famous architect Daniel Burnham and his herculean efforts to oversee, create, and build the World's Fair. Chicago had the fortune/misfortune of following the World's Fair in Paris, which unveiled the Eiffel Tower for the world. It was widely hailed as a masterpiece of a festival. Chicago fought off New York for the right to host the festival, but back in 1893 Chicago was viewed as a cow town of uncultured hicks. Sewage flowed into the rivers and black smoke filled the streets. The air was thick with the smell of butchered cattle and hogs. Burnham (and his artistic partner John Root) were selected to oversee the festival and supervise the works of a group of 6 other architects. Burnham basically built a city within a city, complete with its own police force, garbage collection, and fire department. It built buildings higher than had ever been attempted, all for a festival only lasting 4 months. It had canals, islands, and a roadway system...all built upon a desolate wasteland of a park space on the edge of Lake Michigan.

Chicago only had 2 years to design and construct the World's Fair. Burnham's vision was called the White City, due to all the buildings being painted white for effect. The White City was beset by design delays, material shortages, labor strife, and terrible weather. But somehow it all got done and was, overall, a success. The Chicago World's Fair "Eiffel" moment was the Ferris Wheel, designed by Pittsburgh engineer George Ferris. It was over 200 feet high.

The second story in the book revolves around a young man new to the city, named H.H. Holmes. Holmes' stated profession is a pharmacist, but young women have a habit of disappearing around him. Holmes eventually builds his own building that occupies a full city block and uses it to scam people out of money (pharmacy, hotel, storefronts) but also set up a murder hotel that he uses to dispatch at least 70 people, most of which were young, blond women.

The book is a fantastic look at what life was like, not only in Chicago, but in America during 1893. Everyone wrote letters filled with flowery language. High society dinners had 12courses, broken up with cigars and cognac. Hygiene was hit or miss at best.

As an engineer, I got a lot out of this book, especially the struggles with schedules and how you can never miss a deadline. Not only were the construction schedules insane, but they were working with machinery that is primitive by today's standards and labor that was uncooperative and unreliable at best.

There is no way that I could have done what Burnham could have done. He had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had to not only represent Chicago (especially in the eyes of New York), but also the United States in the eyes of the world. He had to deal with deaths of those close to him over the course of that two year period. He was isolated from his family and became obsessed by the fair. In much the same way, but less murdery, that Holmes was obsessed with his work.

Highly recommend if you like history, architecture/engineering, psychopaths, or just a good ol' fashioned book.

DBS Pizza Kitchen

2011-03-31T21:09:00.006-04:00

My muse DB~ was coming up tonight for dinner, so I wanted to pull out the stops and do something a little different for her. I put a finger in the air to gauge the interest in a Mexican pizza. The prevailing winds said "yes".

Using the always handy Boboli crust, I spread a pico de gallo mix that I whipped up over the base. I diced up two small stem tomatoes, a chunk of white onion, and a healthy section of fresh cilantro. I squeezed a little fresh lemon juice over the mix just to try and convince spring time that it was OK to come out and play.

On top of the pico de gallo, I placed some cooked chicken chunks seasoned with Penzey's taco seasoning mix. On top of that I put a healthy dose of shredded Mexican cheese blend. DB~ loves avacados (and I have rapidly gained a taste for them too) so I filleted some paper thin slices to be placed on top once the pizza came out of the oven. I also added some shredded lettuce for some crunch.

The pizza was fantastic and is one that we will probably incorporate into the DBS Things To Make List on the side of my refrigerator.

We're fans of Bedford Springs

2011-03-24T20:56:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned in the last post, DB~ got a deal through Groupon for a one night stay at the Omni Bedford Springs in Bedford, PA. We went last weekend and enjoyed magnificent high 60's degree weather, in contrast to the mid 30's as I type this. We both took a 1/2 day off from work to make the 2 hour trip from Pittsburgh to Bedford.

Bedford Springs is about 3 miles outside of the main "downtown" area of Bedford. You have to turn off of Business 220 to get there, which appears to have been relocated as a result of the expanded resort as evidenced by the apparent fresh cuts through a mountain, so when you come around the bend you see this HUGE Georgian plantation in front of you. The Bedford Springs has 216 rooms and stretches 1/4 of a mile. It's a long and narrow structure that's hemmed in between Business 220 and a small mountain that is the source of the springs.

The Bedford Springs was purchased by the Omni Group, who completely renovated and nearly doubled its size in 2007. A world-class spa (you need to make reservations 4 to 6 weeks in advance, apparently) is within the hotel and there is a links style golf course adjacent. Bedford Springs has been built in sections over the years, with the first part originally built in 1806. Additional sections were built over the next 100 years.

The Bedford Springs has been host to 7 U.S. Presidents, 4 of which were sitting Presidents. Our room was down the hall from the Polk Presidential Suite. If I remember correctly, the last President to appear there was Reagan when he was Governor of California during a Maryland Chamber of Commerce meeting.

It's no secret to the loyal 7 readers of this blog that DB~ and I love to go geocaching. It's our "thing" that we share as a joint activity. Right on the property itself there were 4 caches, plus 1 that is offline, that we were able to do and enjoy the natural beauty of our surroundings.

As we were hiking on a trail during our first trail, a man jogged past us in the opposite direction. We both turned to each other and said "Was that...Andy Sheehan from KDKA?" I'm not a local news guy at all, but pretty much everyone knows him. It was definitely him. Surprisingly, we passed each other again so I said "Hi, Andy!". He slowed down his jog and looked at us as if he was trying to decide if he knew us, so DB~ blurted out "We're fans!!!". Which we're not. It was hilarious how she blurted it out like a little schoolgirl meeting Justin Bieber. After we cached, we showered up and went to the Jean Bonnet Tavern for dinner, which I covered in the last post.

The next day we enjoyed a nice complimentary breakfast, as part of the Groupon package, and then did some more caches on the periphery of downtown Bedford, including one of the more unique ones that I have done in my caching career (in terms of method of hiding it). We also explored downtown Bedford, had lunch in a nice little cafe, and poked around some stores. Neither one of us are really into antiques, so some of the town's appeal was lost on us, but we still enjoyed our 24 hours in Bedford.

Jean Bonnet Tavern -- Creepy yet Tasty

2011-03-20T14:34:00.004-04:00

DB~ got a deal on Groupon for a one night stay at Omni Bedford Springs in Bedford, PA. I'll be discussing the town of Bedford and the Bedford Springs resort in a subsequent post, but today's post will be about our dinner destination on Friday night...the Jean Bonnet Tavern.

So...yeah...if you don't take the French out of your mouth, it sure sounds like you're pronouncing this person's name. I promised DB~ that I wouldn't make any jokes to our, presumably, 20-something server when we got there. And let me tell you, that was a hard promise to keep, especially when our blond 20-something server welcomed us to the (this person's pronounciation) Tavern as soon as we got there.

The building dates from 1762 and is divided into a restaurant on one side, a tavern on the other, with a bed and breakfast on top. According to the restaurant's menu, the Jean Bonnet was built along the only road connecting Eastern PA with the Ohio River and the territories to the west. The Actual Jean Bonnet and his wife purchased the tavern in 1779 (with the building eventually being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979). In the late 1790's, the JBT was the meeting site for PA farmers upset over the federal excise tax on whiskey that would eventually swell into the Whiskey Rebellion. Think of the Dan Onorato tax on booze, but with tri-cornered hats and muskets.

In present times, not only the Jean Bonnet have nearly 250 years of history behind it, but they have also fashioned themselves as a go-to place for those that believe in the paranormal. Unbeknownst to us when we got there, the Jean Bonnet is supposedly haunted by a wide variety of spirits of those wronged here in the past. During the Whiskey Rebellion and during those zany days of fightin' with Injuns, apparently quite a few people were hung in the tavern. Nothing like going down for a drink with the fellas and watching someone swing from the rafters. And people say Netflix is a bane on people interacting with society?

As our server told us, the TV show Ghost Hunters has filmed here a couple of times. She was also kind enough to bring a binder over to DB~ and I showing all of the apparitions that have been photographed over the years. Most of them were categorized as "orbs" which are little balls of light in the picture. We thought they looked like water stains. During restorations in the 1950's, while they were digging up the floor the contractors found an intact skeleton of a man dating from the 1700's (determined by the clothes and ornamentation) long buried and forgotten. Perhaps he's one of the noises that people claim to hear thumping about periodically.

All of the hanging, ghosts, Whiskey Rebellion aside, the Jean Bonnet Tavern (snicker) is a good place to eat. DB~ tries to not eat meat in general, but specifically on Fridays during Lent, so I didn't want to have seared animal flesh falling out of my gullet either. As a result, we both had the crab cakes dinner. The two crab cakes were jammed with crab meat and just the right amount of breading to hold the whole kit and kaboodle together. For her potato side, DB~ got the sweet potato fries. They were crispy outside and soft inside and served with caramel sauce on the side. It was unbelievable how much the caramel improved the taste of sweet potato fries, which if not careful can get bland on you. With our dinner we got a standard sized house salad, but we preceded our dinner with a spinach and artichoke dip. Typically when you get a dip or a hummus, the restaurant never gives you enough dipping instruments and you feel guilty asking for more. Not here. We got plenty of tri-colored (red, white, and blue of course) tortilla chips. We were able to snack on the remainder throughout our dinner.

In summary, if you are in the Bedford area, I highly recommend checking out the Jean Bonnet. Whether you believe in ghosts, are interested in Whiskey Rebellion history, or just want a decent steak, there's something for everyone here.

Is it worth it to have a Face of the Franchise their whole career?

2011-03-14T21:30:00.002-04:00

Perhaps as a fan of a small-revenue club, this whole post should be taken with an entire shaker of salt. In my beaten down mentality as a Pirates fan, I’m wondering if it is worth it to have a Face of the Franchise player spend his whole career with one team. At some point, it seems with the escalated salaries today that a player is being vastly overpaid for his services rendered.

Is it better to squeeze all the value out of player in his three minimum wage years plus his three arbitration years and then let some other team get saddled with an overpaid free agent contract? Of course the player I have in mind is Andrew McCutchen.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the first true five-tool talent that the Pirates have had since Barry Lamar Bonds roamed the outfield. His production, at an assumed salary of around $435,000 in 2011, is a steal in baseball salary terms. In fact, Fangraphs recently had an article discussing the top players in the majors in terms of surplus value over the past 2 years. Surplus value is the difference in a player’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and the dollar equivalent ($4.25M/WAR average over the past 2 years) minus their actual contract salary. For instance, if a player was worth 8 WAR combined over the past 2 years, his presumed WAR worth would be $34M. If that same player earned $500,000 each year ($1M total), his surplus value would be $34M - $1M = $33M.

Fangraphs anointed McCutchen as their pick, along with Jason Heyward, as the newest potential Surplus Value Stars. McCutchen produced 6.7 WAR over his first 1+ seasons (2009 was not a full season, as he was called up in June).
Let’s assume that Cutch-22 signs a contract extension similar to Grady Sizemore’s contract that he signed back in March 2006 when Sizemore had the same 1+ seasons under his belt as McCutchen. Here are Sizemore’s salaries and WAR’s for each season under that deal:

2004 (partial year, “free” year to Indians in terms of arbitration time) = 1.1 WAR, $3.3M value, $300K salary
2005 = 5.4 WAR, $18.4M value, $320K salary
2006 = 7.3 WAR, $27.1M value, $500K salary
2007 = 5.7 WAR, $23.7M value, $900K salary
2008 = 7.1 WAR, $31.9M value, $3.2M salary
2009 = 1.9 WAR, $8.6M value, $4.6M salary
2010 = -0.3 WAR, -$1.2M value, $5.6M salary

2005 to 2007 represent Sizemore’s min wage years, while 2008 to 2010 would be his arbitration years if he didn’t sign the contract he did. His contract bought out his first FA year (2011) for $7.5M, with a team option for $8.5M in 2012. At the time of signing this deal and even the first few years, it seemed like an absolute steal of a deal. But starting in 2009, Sizemore encountered a series of injuries, culminating with dreaded microfracture surgery on his knee last year.

The Indians have received 28.2 WAR from Sizemore during his first 6+ years with the club, the standard years a player gets before free agency. That WAR translates to a $111.8M value on the open market, yet the Indians only paid Sizemore $15.4M over this time, giving the Indians a Surplus Value of $96.4M. Even if Sizemore did not play a single inning for the Indians in 2011 and they paid him $7.5M for nothing this year, he would still be a ridiculous steal of a contract for them.

But what if Sizemore did not have that deal with the Indians and left them after 2010and then developed an injury going into 2011? That new team would be saddled with a player that could be paid nearly $20M/year, based on his career to that point and similar to a Carl Crawford-type of deal, and not playing up to his fullest potential. Then there would be no Surplus Value, as a $20M player needs to produce 4 to 4.5 WAR to justify that salary every year.

Going back to McCutchen, the Sizemore deal is eminently affordable for any team, even one with limited resources like the Pirates. Normally, I advocate signing hitters to a maximum of 5 year deals, but mentioned that 6 years is possible for a franchise cornerstone. A 6 year deal would buy out the first year of Cutch-22’s free agent years. At that point, I’m wondering if it would be better for the Pirates to release him into the wild and let some other team deal with the possibility of a 30 year old Andrew McCutchen developing knee problems (Jason Bay, Grady Sizemore, Carlos Beltran) or a declining skill set.

In my heart of hearts, I would hate to see McCutchen ever play in any other uniform, but in these wintery economic times that the Pirates have put themselves in, McCutchen may price himself out of our market and his true value to the club. You never want to pay someone in the present for past glories.

Spoon - a different prospective than expected

2011-03-12T15:40:00.007-05:00

The Squiggle and I are pretty normal people, relatively speaking. We're both nerds, she more of a tech-nerd and way hotter than me, but we're normal people. We go to a restaurant, eat the food, check out the decor, talk about the food (I think about reverse-engineering the food), and then we go home (and I sometimes blog about it).

But on Thursday night, we had dinner with friends at a restaurant that we have been meaning to try for a while, Spoon in East Liberty. The other two people that we were with made the night into a 3 hour dinner that we wished could have lasted even longer, because of their connections to Spoon and the great conversation we had with them.

The lady knows the co-owner very well, so as a result she has gotten to know the other co-owner well, too. The 2nd co-owner is the Executive Chef of Spoon, Brian Pekarcik. When he heard that we would be eating there on Thursday night, he made a point to roll out the foodie version of the red carpet for us.

Brian came out to the table and asked us how adventurous we were feeling that night. We all pretty much said we would give anything a shot one time. He started us off with an espresso sized cup of roasted fennel and pickled beet soup. I'm not a huge fennel guy, but the strength of the fennel had been mellowed by the slow cooking of the soup. The beets chunks added a nice punch to this tantalizing starter.

When that was done, three appetizers (also courtesy of Brian) were brought to the table. The first was one of the most popular appetizers ordered at Spoon, the Bacon 'n Eggs. This dish was a section of pork belly, perfectly cooked to be soft on the underside and crispy up top (like a thick slice of bacon), underneath a poached egg that upon any contact released the yolk on to the dish. Like nearly everything we ate tonight, it was edible art. You almost felt guilty ruining it by putting a fork into the dishes. Almost.

The second appetizer was Sashimi Tuna Duo. This was ahi tuna (the pink tuna) and yellowfin tuna (the brownish tuna) served raw with a delicate glaze of soy and sesame. The wasabi was dotted in little green circles along the plate. DB~ and I are sushi wimps. We prefer our sushi to be wrapped in rice where we don't have to think about it, but both of us devoured this dish. It was perfectly presented and our dinner mates weren't super wild about sushi, especially the gentleman of the pair.

Our third appetizer was the Lemon and Goat Cheese Souffle. Brian has recently changed the menu to reflect some more springtime ingredients. If you go to Spoon within the next few months that this menu will be in effect, I recommend this appetizer the most of the three we tried. The goat cheese souffle is done, I believe, in a tian form in which it is placed into a 3 inch high metal mold and then lifted off when done to create a mini tower of culinary delight. This dish had a more standard bacon, with pieces of applewood smoked bacon criss-crossing some arugula and a poached egg. Lemon + Goat Cheese = DBS is in food heaven.

Who's ready for dinner now? Both of the guys ordered the Grilled Filet with Braised Short Ribs, with the short ribs resting on some ultra-smooth garlic mashed potatoes. DB~ had the Crispy Skin Striped Bass, as Spoon had her at "hello" with the artichoke/spinach/goat cheese ravioli that it came with. Our lady about town ordered the Kennedy Chicken 2 ways and seemed to enjoy this simple yet elegant dish as well, in between telling a wide variety of stories that kept DB~ and I near tears with laughter.

After dinner, Brian came out to our table again to get our feedback and converse. I asked him about his background, as he said that certain dishes have followed him through all 5 restaurants that he has Exec Chef'ed at in his career. This is his first major Pittsburgh restaurant, as most of his experience was on the West Coast in San Diego and San Francisco, including working at one of famed restauranteur Bradley Ogden's joints. He came back after 10 years to his hometown to the Marriott before hooking up with Richard Stern, the other co-owner. His skill and passion for food will keep Brian successful no matter what.

Brian insisted, after we all demurred on dessert, that he bring us two desserts to try. I was glad, because my high metabolism had already burned off the meal to that point. The portions at Spoon are not large, they are "fancy gourmet size", but completely worth it. The Bananas and Cream dessert (toffee cake with bananas and caramel, topped with deep fried chunks of banana) and the Brioche French Toast with Poached Pears were brought to our table. There was nothing left by the time the 4 of us were done.

The best part is that thanks to our insider connection, we only paid for our entrees. It was a great way to see the restaurant in a way that DB~ and I may not have seen. With having a chef at our nigh-disposal, I regret not asking him to prepare me (us) something totally off the menu. Would have been the perfect chance.

As for the decor of the restaurant, it is a deep earth tone, near ochre shade motif. There are wall sconces adorning the walls, but not much else. Bridging the gap between the two main seating areas are a set of huge leather couches by a fireplace, which were quite inviting on this cold and rainy March night. DB~ didn't care for the tile floor, though, and was overall unimpressed with the decor.

Spoon is one of the best meals I have had in a long time and one of those gourmet restaurants that is worth going to for a special occasion. The taste, plating, and presentation (in Iron Chef terms) were all at a level that you just don't always see. Highly recommend checking it out.

Bringing the Mardi Gras to the Burbs of Pittsbugh

2011-03-06T13:56:00.005-05:00

Last year, the crappy weather around Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras was much earlier last year) prevented DB~ and I from going out and enjoying all of the great food and fun that Pittsburgh offers up to celebrate....wait...no one in this city really celebrates Mardi Gras? Were we really going to go to Hofbrahaus, a German beer hall, for a French-themed holiday? I think the Aspinwall Grille was offering an all-you-can-eat Cajun buffet starting at 10 pm. That's convenient on a Tuesday.

So we stayed in that night and I made a quick version of some Cajun food plus some hurricanes to drink. It was OK, but a pale substitute. I resolved that this year would be different. My love of New Orleans would not be stopped.

DB~ and I decided that if we're going to throw a party, we're going to go big. DB~ is in charge of "ambiance" (Evite invitation, decorations, music, making sure all guests having good time), while I'm the "food and beverage coordinator" (food and beverage). The guest list was 18 people so I went with full-size recipes of some solid Cajun favorites of Seafood Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Corn Fritters. But I wasn't going to toss some kielbasa into some rice and call it a day, so I bought some andouille sausage. For the seafood gumbo, I wanted do something different so I bought crawfish to add into the shrimp. I've never worked with crawfish before, so I Googled how to twist the tail segment off from the head and then yank the 0.0002 ounces of meat out of the tail. Luckily I bought 40 of these so I had plenty of opportunities to practice.

No Mardi Gras party is complete without a King Cake, so if you want a French speciality cake...find a French baker. That's what I always say. Transplanted Frenchman, Jean-Marc Chatellier, is a renowned baker with a storefront in Millvale. The tradition with the King Cake is that a) it tastes awesome and b) you get to surprise one of the people eating it by inserting a plastic baby into one piece at random. Note: make sure you tell the people about the baby, because nothing brings a party down by having to do the Heimlich maneuver. If you get the baby in your piece of cake, you get great luck for the next year and the privledge of buying the cake next year at a Mardi Gras party.

But even with the Shrimp/Crawfish gumbo, Chicken/Sausage Jambalaya, Corn Fritters, and King Cake....something seemed missing. It needed a piece de resistance that would have people talking. And then it hit me. Or maybe more accurately...bit me. Not literally.

Alligator.

After we found it being sold at Market District Shadyside, we bought a 1 lb steak. I browned it in the skillet, then diced it into small chunks. I mixed it with a melted cream cheese, shredded cheese, onion, pepper, and Tabasco sauce and then put this into a puff pastry shell and baked it.

Of course I didn't tell anybody it was actually gator until they ate it. There were some twisted faces, semi-gags, but overall everyone agreed they thought they were eating chicken.

And in case you would like to make your own Hurricanes for the upcoming Fat Tuesday, here's the recipe that brought so many drunken smiles to our guests on Saturday night:

1-1/2 oz light rum

1-1/2 oz dark rum

2 oz orange juice

2 oz limeade

1/2 oz triple sec

1/2 oz grenadine

The grenadine is strictly for a touch more alcohol and the red tinge to the drink. You pour this mix over some crushed ice. One hurricane and you'll be feeling fine. Two and you can't operate heavy machinery. Three and you won't remember your name.

Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll for all of you that took Spanish in high school).

A Medium-Term Look at the NL Central

2011-03-03T21:49:00.004-05:00

Why the medium-term? Because in the short-term, we know the Pirates will probably suck. Again. But there is a glimmer of optimism on the horizon.

First, the Pirates are building a nice young core of players at the ML-level. The Core Four of Alvarez, McCutchen, Tabata, and Walker will hopefully continue to progress towards great things this year. James McDonald is a very interesting potential starter in the rotation; I'm still reserving some judgement on him until he puts a full season in Pittsburgh. Evan Meek is a closer-in-waiting, perhaps as soon as this year if Hanrahan is traded at the deadline.

But the Pirates need more than that, of course. In 2011, not a lot of impact pieces will be seeing significant time (barring an injury opening up a spot). Rudy Owens and Brian Morris should get a taste of the majors, but both are potential #3 starters at best.

2012 is when the next Talent Train should arrive at the station at PNC Park. Both Owens and Morris could be established in the rotation by then, Tony Sanchez may be your opening day starter at catcher, Andrew Lambo and Starling Marte may be manning RF, Chase d'Arnaud could be your starting SS, and Jeff Locke and Justin Wilson could be in the pitching mix as well.

2013 is the earliest potential year we could see phenom Jameson Taillon. Plus, if the Pirates select Anthony Rendon in this year's draft at spot 1-1, he could be your starting 3B by June 2013. Slow down now, my heart is all aflutter at this potential influx of talent.

But it won't matter much unless we compare the Pirates to their opponents in the NL Central.

Cincinnati -- The 2010 NL Central champs recently placed 4 players in the Baseball America Top 100 prospects. The Pirates had the 2nd most in the NL Central with 3 prospects. The Reds have a good young team with some cost-controlled or pre-arb years still. Their window of contention should be open until 2014 when a lot of their key players will start to get expensive or become free agent eligible. Their farm should be able to supply enough cost-controlled talent for the next few years.

St. Louis -- Talk about a team in flux. All-World player Pujols appears set to test free agency after 2011. Adam Wainwright, their current ace, is out for the year after getting TJ Surgery. Ace Emeritus Chris Carpenter's contract is up at the end of the year. Young star Colby Rasmus feuds with the manager and the veterans. It will be interesting to see what plays out with Pujols, as the Cards at this point may have less than a 50-50 shot of signing him. The Cards only had 2 prospects in BA's Top 100, although one of them is Shelby Miller who could be a potential #1 starter. This team could be in a reload mode after 2011.

Milwaukee -- The Brew Crew had the dubious distinction of being the only ML team to not have a single prospect in the BA Top 100. The Brewers used the scorched earth policy on their farm this offseason in an attempt to load the ML team up for one last run with Prince Fielder. Three key prospects were traded as part of the Greinke trade. Brett Lawrie was traded for Shaun Marcum to further bolster the rotation. The Brewers were left with just some scraps on the farm, but they could glean a middle of the rotation pitcher or two out of that mess. Milwaukee has control of Greinke and Marcum through 2012, so even if Fielder leaves they could try again next year. But if both of these guys leave via free agency after 2012....yikes.

Chicago -- Ahh...the Cubs. A great example of how spending $130M doesn't guarantee success. This mish-mashed group of veterans has some bad contracts coming off the books after this year, with the remainder (except for the Soriano albatross) leaving after 2012. The Cubs put 2 guys in the BA Top 100 and would have had more, but traded a few promising guys to get Matt Garza from the Rays. The Cubs have some good cost-controlled pieces coming up from the farm, but this team will probably start to reload thru free agency after 2011.

Houston -- Before this year, I would always project the Pirates to finish ahead of the Astros and then every year the Astros would surprise me (and a lot of other people) and exceed expectations. This year I projected them to have 77 wins and the Pirates 73 wins, so I'm not sure if I'm reverse jinxing them or if I actually believe it. The Astros have finally decided to start rebuilding by trading Oswalt and Berkman last year. The Carlos Lee contract will weigh this team down thru 2012, but they don't have any other superbad contracts besides him. The farm put 2 guys on the BA Top 100. They have some interesting cost-controlled talent, but not enough to take them as a serious contender any time before 2015. They should be the least of the Pirates' worries.

So the short answer is that I think the Pirates can realistically contend for the NL Central (typed with a straight face) in 2013. Get your playoff tickets now! Maybe you can hire one of those Wisconsin protesters that are camping outside the State House in 15 degree weather to be your surrogate for waiting in line.

2011 Pirates and the NL Central by WAR

2011-03-02T23:01:00.003-05:00

So last year around this time, I did a series of predictions for the 2010 season as it related to the Pirates. I got some right and some wrong. And then I got 1 really, really wrong. I predicted, using WAR, that the Pirates would win 76 games. I was only off by 19.

But like a true masochist, I'm back for more. Here's my position-by-position estimates for your 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates. Keep in mind that 2 WAR is considered to be a league average player and that these estimates account for both offense and defense for hitters.

C - Snyder/Jaramillo -- 1 WAR
1B - Overbay -- 1 WAR
2B - Walker -- 2 WAR
SS - Cedeno -- 1 WAR
3B - Alvarez -- 2.5 WAR
LF - Tabata -- 2.5 WAR
CF - McCutchen -- 4 WAR
RF - Jones/Diaz -- 1.5 WAR
Bench -- 0 WAR

Hitters total -- 15.5 WAR

SP1 - Maholm -- 2 WAR
SP2 - McDonald -- 1.5 WAR
SP3 - Ohlendorf -- 1.5 WAR
SP4 - Correia -- 1 WAR
SP5 - Morton/Lincoln -- 0.5 WAR
Bullpen -- 3 WAR

Pitchers total -- 9.5 WAR

Grand total -- Baseline (48) + Hitters (15.5) + Pitchers (9.5) = 73 wins
As you can see from all the 1 WAR's, the Pirates still have a lot of room for improvement on this team. Their pitching, especially, is in need of an above-average arm or three. Alvarez and Walker's WARs were held back by their projected sub-par defense. I would love to say that I sold them short at the end of the season.

I won't show the position-by-position for each team, but I did it in an Excel Spreadsheet. Here's how I predict the NL Central to look:
MIL -- 90.5 (91 wins)
CIN -- 89.5 (90 wins)
STL -- 86 wins
CHC -- 83 wins
HOU -- 77 wins
PGH -- 73 wins

This shows how devastating the Wainwright injury was for the Cards. It's probably a net swing of 4 wins from Wainwright to his replacement, which is the difference between challenging for the NL Central title and finishing in 3rd.

The Cubs will most likely disappoint and finish under .500 again this year, but they have the makings of a very nice pitching staff this year.

Cincinnati had the best projected group of hitters (28.5 WAR), which was even better than St. Louis's 26 WAR. Milwaukee was the only team projected to get 20+ WAR from both their hitters and pitchers (22.5, 20 respectively). Their front end rotation of Gallardo, Greinke, Marcum could be excellent.

I had hoped that 2010 would be the year that the Pirates would flirt with .500 and 2011 would be the year they break this cursed losing streak. At best, it seems like that prediction is delayed a year. Maybe 2012 will be the year that the streak is broken. Just in time for the end of the world, as per the Mayans. Kind of fitting.

Will blue collar workers be in the green?

2011-02-25T17:13:00.003-05:00

Anytime you use the term "green" nowadays, people automatically think it's going to be about the environment. This post is not about that.

Rather, it's a post about a discussion that DB~ and I have periodically. As a teacher, DB~ talks with other teachers and parents of her kids about what kids do after high school. There is now a school of thought, which DB~ is warming up to, that says that kids should be directed into trade schools or 2-year schools to get skills in blue collar jobs.

There are predicted shortages, both in Pittsburgh and nationwide, in the blue collar fields like plumbing, HVAC repair, masonry, and welding to name just a few. As the workers in these fields age and get closer to retirement, there is not a backlog of young people ready to take all these jobs because the common perception is that type of work is "not working to your fullest capabilities."

I couldn't disagree more with that idea. These types of jobs are vitally important, not only in our day-to-day lives (your ceiling is leaking because a pipe froze while you were on vacation, but your normal plumber has too much of a workload) but also in advancing our region and nation further into the future.

However, the part I struggle with is that it is almost posed as if ALL kids should be going to trade schools instead of going to college. The theory presented to The Squiggle is that colleges are flooded with kids who simply shouldn't be there scholastically. They are there because that is what is expected of them by their parents or society, but in reality they can't hack it. But they'll stay there for a few years, drive their parents or themselves deep into debt, then come out with no useable skills.

In the meantime, that kid could have been going to a trade school or a tech school to learn a useable trade and make a very competitive wage in the real world.

I'm not saying that the next Will Hunting should be thrilled with doing construction work instead of pursuing the Fields Medal in advanced mathematics. I'm simply saying that there is value and pride in doing jobs that are "blue collar". Most of those jobs pay equivalent to or greater than jobs that require college degrees, too.

So take a look at your kid (boy or girl) or niece or nephew next time and really think to yourself "Am I pushing him into college when maybe he should go to trade school?" It's a discussion that I've already had with my own nephew who is 17.

Buffalo Chicken Nachos - thanks to my sister

2011-02-21T20:47:00.003-05:00

Within my post about Le Cordon Bleu, I mentioned how great of a chef my sister is (and my brother-in-law, too). Yesterday, DB~ and I went over to my sister's house for my nephew's birthday dinner. We were greeted by two things: 1) My dad grabbing The Squiggle and taking her out to his car to fix his Bluetooth and 2) these gorgeously presented Buffalo Chicken Nachos.

I've made some kick-ass nachos in my day, but the level of preparation and presentation was restaurant quality. My sister made some chicken with Quaker Steak and Lube sauce (and then topped it was Tabasco hot sauce). She placed the chicken on top of the nachos, added blue cheese crumbles, diced celery, and a few strands of cheddar cheese for color.

Then she finished it off by taking a butane torch to the whole plate to slightly melt the cheese and give the slightest char to the chips themselves.

This is to say nothing of the wonderfully tender pot roast with fingerling potatoes and carrots. Oh, and then she made her own puff pastries from scratch and topped them with vanilla ice cream and melted dark chocolate. Good Sunday meal. Thanks, DB Sister.