What I Heard This Week 05-16-2024
Every single week, I try as hard as I can not to sound like a total dope in this column, but this may seal the deal. Do you know where pine nuts come from? I guess I never really thought about it AT ALL. I do know that I really like pine nuts… better than most other nuts, except almonds. But pine nuts are not really nuts at all, they’re the seeds of mostly stone pine or pinyon pine trees. There are many different types of pine trees, but not all have edible seeds. I sprinkle pine nuts on salads, use them to make fresh basil pesto, soups, pasta, and main dishes. So, the next question is why are they so expensive? Pay attention. So to harvest, first you have to find low branches containing both open, and unopened pinecones. The open ones have already been robbed of their seeds by birds and animals, so you gather just the unopened ones in a bag because they are so close to popping out. I imagine using a cloth bag. Leave your bag of unopened pinecones in a warm, dry, sunny location and the cones will release the nuts/seeds. Shake the bag. The cones should release some of the seeds on their own. Then you need to remove the shells on each seed with your fingers. That, my friend, is why the seeds/nuts are so expensive. Time extensive. Have you ever had a Pignoli Cookie? Pignoli is Italian for pine nuts. The Italian pine nut almond cookies that Mary Meyers makes are the best. I went home last night promising myself that I was going to make a batch, but I didn’t have almond paste, but here is the recipe. This one is from Food Network Kitchen.
Pignoli Cookies
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 7-oz tube almond paste (Odense brand is good)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 large egg white
1 cup pine nuts
Preheat to 300 degrees. Position racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Pulse flour, granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add almond paste and orange zest, pulse until fine crumbs form. With the motor running, slowly add egg white, process until dough comes together. You can also mix dough in a bowl with your fingers.
Put the pine nuts in a small bowl. Form tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with damp hands – you can use your cookie scoop for this – roll in pine nuts to coat completely. Arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until light golden around the edge, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely on the baking sheets or they may fall apart.
The only difference between a flower and a weed is judgement. Wayne Dyer
On the way to the office this weekend, I saw what I thought was an old Falcon truck. I immediately called my sister (I love cellphones) to ask her if there was such a thing. Yes, there is. Now, I’m sitting at the office, reading about the Ford Falcon as described online … entered the U.S. motoring public in October 1959, three-speed manual transmission (3 on the tree), base price was just under $2,000, it could handle six passengers and go 30 miles on a gallon of gas, which was totally unheard of then. The Falcon Wagon was introduced a few months later in January 1960 and the Falcon Ranchero with the open-bed pickup body was introduced a few months after that, based on the 2-door wagon and considered to be the world’s first mini-truck. Daddy had a Falcon and I remember him telling me that instead of all gauges, it had, in his words only, idiot lights on the dash. In other words, as human beings, we were no longer smart enough to watch a gauge and know when a vehicle was crying for help. I was required to know how to change the oil in the Falcon, change a tire and I could gap spark plugs, because I always helped him work on our cars. Still talking with my sister, Dani and I started reminiscing about daddy teaching us how to drive that white Falcon. I just remember trying to get the feel, sound, and timing down, to be able to shift gears at the right time and remember which direction I was supposed to go with that “H” on the column. When it was Dani’s turn to learn to drive, daddy took her to the levee in Dallas so she could practice going up and down the hill. She mentioned to me, in no uncertain terms, that she was scared to death, but he made her do it anyway. When I was either 14 or 15, he had me drive my mom’s station wagon from Shreveport, Louisiana to Dallas – at night, on a road under construction, in the rain, and wouldn’t let me slow down to a reasonable speed. I too, was scared to death, and believe that’s why I don’t like driving at night, in the rain, to this date. I always remembered my own past experiences when I was teaching my two kids to drive. My son was very cautious and never in a hurry to get his license, while my daughter who is afraid of nothing, wanted to get her permit the first day she was eligible. Wish I had that Falcon sitting in my driveway now.
NBC’s Lester Holt (I have total trust in that man and would believe anything he reported to me), took his son to 30 Rock on Saturday mornings when he anchored Weekend Today, while Stefan was still in high school. In fact, Lester Holt started teaching his son how to drive in the parking lot of MSNBC. The 37-year-old Stefan Holt is now married with three children, working as an anchor at a Chicago NBC station. Describing his dad, he says, “From day one, he has been a constant support and my go-to confidant for advice on how to navigate our profession. He’s my mentor on being a great journalist, but also my example on how to be a great dad.” If you’re teaching your child how to drive in the near future, please make notes.
A husband surprised his wife with a night out to celebrate the anniversary of their first date. She was reminded of the man she fell in love with. They arrived at the theater and learned the movie was playing at a different location a full hour earlier. She was reminded of the man she married.
Nutrient depletion in soil can happen because of soil erosion, poor management practices or intensive agriculture. There are studies and great concerns about the depletion of nutrient-rich topsoil and the loss of nutrients like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, but scientists are now warning about the depletion of potassium and how it could threaten global food security in our future if we don’t make plans to correct it. In a perfect world, the cows and chickens poop, fertilize the ground, then we plant the crops, then turn what’s left of the crops back into the soil, then the process starts all over again. Our grandparents taught us to compost and use Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) in our gardens. Organic compost is rich in magnesium. Without magnesium, chlorophyll is unable to capture the sun’s energy required for photosynthesis which means the leaves would never turn green. For potassium you can add kelp or seaweed, wood ash, compost, potash, and more. This is why it is recommended that you rotate your crops by not planting the exact same vegetables in the exact same spot year after year. Just saying. Without nutrients in the vegetables, your body will not get what it needs to run efficiently.
At my age ‘getting lucky’ means walking into a room and remembering what I came in for. Unknown
Mexico City, with nearly 22 million people, is facing a severe water crisis and may be out of water by summer. The Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo movie,13 Going On 30, is 20 years old. One of my favorites. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of performer inductees for 2024 are Mary J. Blige, Cher, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & The Gang, Ozzy Osbourne, & A Tribe Called Quest. Musical Influence Awards includes Alexis Korner, John Mayall and Big Mama Thornton. Musical Excellence Awards include Jimmy Buffett, MC5, Dionne Warwick, and Norman Whitfield. The Ahmet Ertegun Award goes to Suzanne de Passe. Everyone is talking about the cicadas and they don’t understand why this year is so big… two different broods of cicadas, one that lives on a 13-year emergence cycle and the other that lives on a 17-year cycle, will emerge at the same time after tunneling to the surface from underground when the soil reaches 64 degrees. That only happens every 221 years. Thomas Jefferson was president the last time this happened. I read that South Texas is quite safe. Aren’t you glad you have me around for such useless information.
Have a great week. Thank you for reading us. Sell something. I mean it!
LISA
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
