Another Confession

Last Saturday I had a beer—my very first bottle of beer.

I know that this fact is hard to believe, but the truth is that I have never liked beer. And it was not for the lack of trying. I have tasted other peoples’ beers. I have ordered shot size samplers at restaurants. I have gone to beer tastings at breweries. All of those beers smelled good, but tasted bad to me.

I have more or less given up, and assumed that, just like my mother, I simply do not like any beer. That was until a few months ago, when I tried a Japanese white ale at a party. At last there was the beer I actually enjoyed drinking as well as smelling.

So last Saturday, when we went to have dinner at The Publick House in Brookline, famous for their enormous beer selection, I decided that I was finally ready to have a beer. The restaurant carried several Belgian white ales, and Nick picked Wittekerke for me. So there it was—my first beer, ordered specifically for me, consumed and enjoyed entirely by me.

Little Red Rooster

I started my own Etsy shop. (Etsy is an internet portal for people to buy and sell handmade items.) The one and only item I am currently selling is a blank greeting card. It is a Little Red Rooster greeting card.
While trying to pick a name for my shop, I realized that I work for a company called the MathWorks, I belong to a gym called the FitWorks, and my cousin-in-law runs a business called the Crowerks.

The Never Ending Fight Over The Yawkey Stop

Last week we sent the following letter to Mr. Daniel Grabauskas, the General Manager of the MBTA in reply to his last letter we received in June.

Dear Mr. Grabauskas,

Thank you very much for your letter of June 2, 2008. Again we appreciate your taking the time to answer our questions and address our concerns.

We would like to take this opportunity to present you with the reasons why the daily service to the Yawkey station should be restored for the P528 train. Each of the following reasons is explained in more detail below.
1) The P528 train is routinely on time when stopping at the Yawkey station for the Red Sox games, which demonstrates that the train will continue to run on time when making this stop on non-game days.
2) There is no evidence to show that the elimination of the P528 stop at the Yawkey station caused the on time performance improvements on the Framingham/Worcester line.
3) The number of people who regularly used the Yawkey station stop on the P528 train before the schedule change, and who will continue to use it if the stop is reintroduced far exceeds the count of 3 or 4 that the study you sited estimated.

1) In your letter you state that “between February 19 and May 12 [2008], P528 has been on time 59 out of 60 days for an OTP of 98%.” We are pleased to see such excellent on time performance. According to the Red Sox game schedule, there were 11 weekday evening home games between February 19 and May 12, 2008. We thus conclude that when P528 made the stop at Yawkey it was on time at least 10 out of 11 times (for an OTP of 91%), and potentially 11 out of 11 times (for an OTP of 100%), depending on when the single delay in question occurred. Such excellent on time performance on Red Sox evening game days when ridership is higher then normal indicates that the P528 train can consistently run on time while making the stop at Yawkey on non-game days.

2) We are happy to experience the improved on time performance of the trains on the Framingham/Worcester line. However, so far we have not been presented with any conclusive evidence that the OTP improvements resulted from the elimination of the stop at Yawkey. In fact, the elimination of the Yawkey station stop for the P528 train was one of multiple schedule changes applied to all trains on the Framingham/Worcester Line on February 18, 2008. Thus, there is no baseline data to which the current data can be compared.

3) We continue to believe that your estimates for the number of passengers regularly riding the P528 train and using the Yawkey stop are inaccurate and low. We hope you will look at the data we enclose, Survey Results of Commuters Employed by The MathWorks, which we collected from other commuter rail users who work for the same company that we both work for. Our data shows higher utilization of the Yawkey stop, and calls into question the accuracy of the MBTA study results you sited to support your decision to eliminate the Yawkey stop from the P528 schedule.

In your letter from March 21, 2008, you site the following reasons for removing the Yawkey station from the P528 train schedule: low utilization of the stop by P528 train passengers, insufficient time for both P528 and P531 trains to make the stop, and improved on time performance of the P528 train. The data from our survey suggests that the utilization of the Yawkey station by the P528 passengers was higher then 3 or 4 people a day prior to the February 18, 2008 schedule change. Also the data from the days when the P528 train stops at Yawkey shows that making the stop regularly will not delay the train.

If you still have concerns on any of these points, or if there are other issues preventing the regular stop that we are not aware of, please explain. If our points and data are not sufficient to return the stop, please consider running a pilot P528 schedule change to include the Yawkey stop for a period of 2 or 3 months. Then you will have the P528 on time performance data available that will include the overall schedule changes that came in effect on February 18, 2008, and the stop at Yawkey. We are confident that the analysis of the data will show that making the stop is not detrimental to the P528 on time performance.

We thank you for your time, and hope you will consider our suggestion. Please feel free to contact us directly.

Sincerely,

[Names and addresses edited out here]

Enclosure

And here is the enclosure:

Survey Results of Commuters Employed by The MathWorks

We work for a private software company, the MathWorks, located in Natick. In July, we conducted a short survey of the MathWorks employees who regularly commute to work, in order to determine how many of them regularly use or used the Yawkey stop while riding the P528 train. The results are as follows:

Before the schedule change of February 18, 2008
6.7 --> Average number of people riding the P528 train
5.5 --> Average number of people getting off at Yawkey
After the schedule change
5.1 --> Average number of people riding the P528 train
If P528 train stopped at Yawkey every day
6.1 --> Average number of people who would get off at Yawkey

The results of our survey indicate that prior to the February 18, 2008 schedule change 5 or 6 MathWorks employees got off the P528 train at the Yawkey station daily. The results show higher usage of the station as compared to the results of the MBTA survey. Moreover, our results do not take into account any riders who do not work at the MathWorks, any new riders who have started working at the MathWorks in August or later, and the rapidly increasing population of the Fenway area.

A Canning Attempt

Inspired by my aunt Marina's marinated cucumbers and tomatoes I decided to make some of my own. I asked my aunt for a recipe, but I had to diverge from it a bit. A few ingredients were hard to obtain even in a prosperous country of excess such as the United States unless you grow your own--e.g. currant leaves. Otherwise, the process was easy and fun--here is what I did

• Lay out dill at the bottom of the jars
• Put washed cucumbers and tomatoes into the jars
• Add garlic
• In a pot boil water with salt, sugar, bay leaves and pepper corns (for 1L of water, 1 tsp sugar, 1.5 tbs salt (course grained), 3-4 bay leaves, 10 pepper corns
• Pour the above brine into the jars and let them stand for 2-3 minutes
• Return the brine into the pot, and bring to boil
• Pour into the jars, and put on the lids (previously boiled for 5 minutes in water)
• Invert the jars, cover them with towels, and let them stand for 24 hours

Now the jars can be stored. According to my aunt, the tomatoes and cucumbers will be ready in about a month. She says that cucumbers can be opened earlier--they will taste less salty, "малосольные."

I made 4 small jars--2 with tomatoes and 2 with cucumbers. Once I open any, I will let you know how they turned out.

Successful But Less Than Classic Tarte Tatin

The Chocolate & Zucchini recipe for Tarte Tatin was indeed simpler. I followed every step in the recipe precisely—a rare occasion, and the result was tart and sweet but not too pretty. A fine combination. Of course I am no expert, but my tart seemed far from what I think a "classic" Tarte Tatin ought to be. No serious caramel formed around the apples, and the crust was very sweet. I may try to merge the best of these two recipes, if I don't lose interest in this dessert first.

Interestingly enough, I am not the only one with Tarte Tatin on my mind and in my kitchen.
Clearly the above photo is not of one of my creations, butI have been completely seduced by Smitten Kitchen's recipes and photos. Notice how one of the photos in the linked recipe shows using a mellon baller to core the apples--I must try that as soon as possible!

My "Classic Tarte Tatin" Adventure

Bags of apples in the grocery store have been speaking to me. “Bake me, bake me!” they say. So last Sunday I embarked on another cooking adventure—baking the Classic Tarte Tatin.

After skinning and coring apples for over an hour I no longer wondered who ever buys those special tools to core apples. I watched the butter and sugar melt together in a frying mesmerized by the deep mahogany of the caramel seeping through the buttery paste. The whiff of burnt sugar brought me out of my happy stupor. I laid out the apple halves and admired the perfect pattern they formed in the pan as they cooked. My rolled out pastry did not look as pretty, but it did not have to be. The tart would be flipped when done, and the pastry would remain at the bottom to be eaten but not be seen.

With everything ready for baking I pushed the frying pan into the oven, but… the oven door would not shut. Prior to cooking I spent a long time making sure that my frying pan could withstand the heat of the oven, but it never occurred to me to check if it will fit. The pan with its nice long handle was too big for my smaller-then-standard-size oven.

Panic! I could see the pastry slowly melting on top of the warm caramelized apples. I could see the apples starting to spread apart destroying the pattern. I called Nick, because in a crisis I always call my husband. Nick did not help with his “move the tart into a smaller baking dish” solution. “That would destroy the amazing apple pattern,” I protested. Nick was not too sympathetic.

I hung up and tried to think of any neighbors I knew on whom I could impose with my tart. I called a friend who lives across the street in hopes that he was home, had a regular sized oven and was willing to let me use it. Luckily for him, he did not pick up. Since I clearly had no other choice, I followed Nick’s advice after all. I scooped the tart into a normal baking dish, and off it went into the oven to bake.

Half an hour later I had my “classic tarte tatin”—a shapeless mass with blotches of torn pastry on top. Caramelized apple puree betrayed the taste of burned sugar. For me a large scoop of vanilla ice cream obscured the bitterness quite well. Nick, on the other hand, was not convinced that apple mush mixed in with the soft pie crust constituted a worthy dessert. So he went back to his beloved sherbet instead.

Since the failure, I have found a simpler tarte tatin recipe, where the frying pan does not need to go into the oven. Perhaps it is not "Classic", but I think I will try this one next time, hopefully with a little more luck.

A Busy Saturday

On Saturday morning I joined several coworkers to run the Somerville Homeless Coalition 5K Road Race. (A 5K race is 5 kilometers/3.1 miles long). I was up at 6, and in Davis Square doing warm up runs by 8:30. The fall morning was sunny and crisp, just perfect for the race, when we took the starting line at 9 o’clock. I am proud to say that I completed the race in 23 minutes and 55 seconds—surprised myself by finishing well under my personal goal.

More pleasant surprises awaited me at home. A shift in the planets as well as the beautiful fall weather made Nick take a break from work, and we went for a walk around the city. We browsed through some shiny old cars on exhibit at the City Hall Plaza, strolled through the North End, and headed for Charlestown. What better way to complement my early morning sub-8-minute-mile run then to climb 294 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument.

Bunker Hill Monument was completed in 1843 to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War. The battle took place on June 17, 1775, and most of the fighting actually occurred on Breed’s Hill.

The platform at the top of the stairs was crowded. People squeezed by one another trying to take photos and look outside. Small windows cut through the monument’s thick walls let in little light, but provided bird’s eye views of Boston, Charlestown and the ocean.

Back at the bottom of the Bunker Hill Monument, standing at the top of Breed’s Hill we were exhausted. We tracked back to North End and shared an enormous slice of incredibly good pizza at Ernesto’s.

Another Project: A Suitable Boy

Because you can never work on too many projects, I started another one yesterday. I am currently reading Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy." Set in the early 1950s in India, the novel follows several families and focuses on Lata, her mother Mrs. Rupa Mehra, and the quest to find a husband for Lata--the suitable boy.


Reading page 323 out of mere 1474 pages, I have decided to go back to the beginning. No, I am not mad despite what you might think. The novel is full of words refering to Indian culture. While I can often guess the general meaning of the word--a food item, maybe a sweet food item, or a piece of clothing--I still do not know exactly what the word is refering to.


So I am going back to the beginning of the novel to look up every unfamiliar word. Moreover, in the process I will humbly attempt to make my "research" useful to other readers by publishing the information I discover into a blog.


Yes, I started yet another blog: http://readingasuitableboy.blogspot.com/. I hope it will be a source of curious bits of information for all, but for readers of the novel especially.