jlet.org — Jack Letourneau

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  Soupe aux pois jaunes entiers

  A slightly revised version of the pea soup I’ve made before. This batch comes pretty close to the version I remember from La Binerie in Montréal: whole yellow peas in broth slightly thickened by their own starch. I gave the soup a few brief hits with the immersion blender to provide the appropriate consistency. Porky goodness is contributed by the addition of a smoked ham hock during the multi-hour simmer. I think the crowning touch of authenticity would have been the addition of herbes salées, mixed salt-preserved herbs and aromatics. Lacking these, I simply used dried savory, salt, and pepper for seasoning.

  November 16

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  Flip it good

  I was glad to see that the old beefy mechanical flip-lever voting machines stuck around for this election here in Troy. The yard-long master lever up front for opening the booth curtains and registering your vote is immensely satisfying to operate, and sounds the way I imagine a piano-sized typewriter’s carriage return might.

  November 4

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  Roasted potatoes

  This weekend I roasted a chicken, which is a fun exercise in making the most of your grocery dollar. After the bird finished cooking, I split it into five pieces: two breast/wing portions, two thigh/drumstick portions, and the rest. “The rest” got chopped into a few pieces with my heavy cleaver and went in a saucepan with a quart of water to make some broth. The roasting pan drippings turned into gravy. The broth and gravy went into the fridge overnight in their respective containers, after which time it was a trivial matter to skim off their fat, which was then melted in a pan to coat a couple pounds of potato wedges, to be then roasted in turn with some herbs and garlic. All that ended up in the trash were the chicken bones, which I suppose if I had a garden I could compost, but I’m not a country squire just yet.

  September 29

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  ValleyCats vs. Lake Monsters

  Ronald Ramirez of the Tri-City ValleyCats takes a pitch from Kevin Light of the Vermont Lake Monsters in the bottom of the eighth inning at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy, NY. Taken with my camera lens poked through the foul ball netting in front of section 120 at the park.

  August 31

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  Jack at Fenway

  I don’t think anybody in the park expected this to happen that night. Surely the craziest baseball game I’ve ever attended, and maybe even the craziest I’ve ever seen, period. The Red Sox jumped out to a 10-0 lead over the Rangers in the first inning, ended up trailing 16-15 by the sixth, and finally pulled out a win by a score of 19-17 thanks to a howitzer shot over the Green Monster by Kevin Youkilis in the bottom of the eighth. The game tied an AL record for most total runs scored, and the Rangers’ 17 runs were the most ever allowed by the Red Sox in a win. Just wild.

  August 15

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  Ferry Building

  An amazing, albeit pricey, food shopping extravaganza at the foot of Market Street. I wasn’t around for the farmer’s market here on Saturday, but the regular stores and restaurants kept me well occupied.

  May 29

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  Bay Bridge, seagull

  Around the back side of the Ferry Building there are nice views of San Francisco Bay, and plenty of grubby-looking seagulls.

  May 29

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  Coit Tower

  I was in Washington Square and the #39 Coit bus was coming by, so I rode up Telegraph Hill to take some photos with the rest of the tourists. Although the view of the city and the bay is great from way up there, the trees on the hill have grown a bit too tall to allow good landscape photography from ground level.

  May 29

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  Jon Lester warming up

  After doing long-toss, Lester moved to the visiting bullpen down the right-field line to throw off the mound before the game. John Farrell supervises here on the right. Lester went five innings in the game, giving up four runs (three earned), and striking out three batters. Oakland finished the three-game sweep of the Red Sox with a final score of 6-3.

  May 29

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  Saints Peter and Paul Church

  I shot some photos around Washington Square before meeting friends at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Café for lunch.

  May 29