John Wulff

Started with totally fresh 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04 Server install.

sudo apt-get install build-essential libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev
wget http://wwwmaster.postgresql.org/redir/333/h/source/v9.0beta1/postgresql-9.0beta1.tar.gz
tar zxvf postgresql-9.0beta1.tar.gz
cd postgresql-9.0beta1
./configure
make
sudo make install

Add PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/pgsql/bin" to the end of /etc/profile

source /etc/profile
sudo adduser postgres
sudo mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/data
sudo chown postgres /usr/local/pgsql/data
sudo su postgres
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/pg_ctl start -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
exit
psql -U postgres

Duck confit is easy to make and deliciously decadent. 1 duck leg per person is a reasonable portion but no one would complain if you served them 2. I experimented with using duck breasts in addition to legs (couldn't get my hands on enough legs last time I made it). Breasts seem to take on a lot more salt when you cure them, their skin is far fattier/thicker and doesn't crisp like the leg skin does, and the meat is not dense enough. I'd stick to whole duck legs.

Ingredients

• 6 to 10 whole duck legs (Whole Foods normally has them frozen)
• 2 to 3 lbs duck fat (asian markets normally have it frozen)
• 2 to 3 cups kosher salt
• 2 heads garlic
• 2 large shallots or 4 small ones

Cure

Chop the roots off of two heads of garlic, put them in your food processor paper and all. Toss in a few shallots too, no need to peel. Add 2 or 3 cups of kosher salt, depending on how much duck you're curing. Process until there're no visible chunks of garlic or shallot. Put a layer of cure in a casserole dish, lay duck on top, cover duck with rest of cure making sure duck is as encased in cure as possible. If you don't have enough cure to completely cover just pour some more kosher salt on. Put in the fridge overnight (8-12 hours).

Cook

Put the duck fat into a pot, heat slowly until the fat melts and is clear. Burning duck fat is a sin, be patient.

Put the duck in the fat. Try to get all the pieces completely submerged. If a few bits stick out a bit don't worry too much. As the duck gives off moisture and fat it will shrink and sink a bit.

Cover and put in a 180 degree oven for 6-10 hours. Longer the better. A few hours in, your house will smell amazing and people will start to ask why you won't let them eat the duck yet, why you are so mean, and why you are torturing them.

Remove the duck from it's bath, let the fat drain off but don't try to pat it off with towels or anything, you'll just massacre it. Serve over quinoa, in a cassoulet, in a salad, or just eat it over the sink. It's hard to go wrong.

Strain the duck fat and freeze it for next time, you can get several/many uses out of it. Also, I recommend filling a ramekin/small glass with some duck fat and putting it in your fridge. Use it in place of butter. Eggs scrambled in duck fat are amazing, bonus points for duck eggs scrambled in duck fat.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the finished product. It was so tasty I forgot. It doesn't look to different from how it started, just a little browner.

Inspired by Roger Mooking and my grandmother.

Ingredients

• 2 to 4 racks of baby back pork ribs
• 1 cup dark miso paste
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 to 4 oranges (depending on desired "orangeness"), zest and juice

Directions

• Set oven to 300
• Mix all ingredients, except for ribs, to smooth paste
• Cover bottom of one large or two small cookie sheets with foil
• Cut ribs into desired serving portions
• Slather paste all over ribs, do this over the cookie sheet so any that drips off ends up in the pan
• Arrange ribs, bone side up, in the pan
• Cover ribs with foil TIGHTLY, tent the foil to keep it from resting on the ribs. The goal is to create an air-tight flavor chamber for the ribs to tastify in. I use two or three layers of foil to make sure I get a good seal.
• Bake for three hours
• Enjoy!

Making cocktails is fun. Came up with this one last night when Courtney asked for an herbal beverage.

Ingredients

• 1 small sprig of rosemary, 2 or 3 inches long, for garnish
• leaves from 1 large sprig rosemary (dozens of leaves)
• leaves from 1 sprig parsley (4 or 5 leaves)
• 2 TB sugar
• juice from a quarter of a lime
• 4 oz Dry Fly Washington Wheat Vodka

Directions

1. Put leaves, sugar, lime juice, and 1/2 oz vodka in mortar and pestle. Grind until sugar dissolves and rosemary looks well pulverized.
2. Pour mortar's contents into cocktail shaker filled with ice along with remaining vodka. Shake vigorously.
3. Strain into chilled martini glass and garnish with small rosemary sprig.

One of my favorite breakfasts: poached eggs in a nest. I've been ordering this for years at Roses. Recently my dad started making it at home. Inspired by him, I gave it a try. It went very well!

Recipe:

1. Grate potatoes
2. Squeeze the heck out of the shredded potato (make a ball with your hands, squeeze) to remove as much moisture as possible
3. Toss salt and pepper with shredded potato to taste, add green onions if you'd like
4. Heat skillet medium-low, add butter, heat should be well below smoke point, butter should NOT burn/brown
5. Evenly distribute shredded potato in hot skillet, lightly pack
6. Flip potatoes when nicely browned, add more butter for new side (To keep potatoes from breaking up cover pan with cookie sheet and flip skillet/cookie sheet so skillet ends up upside down on the cookie sheet. Slide the potatoes back into skillet.)
7. While potatoes finish browning poach egg(s)
8. Plate and enjoy!

Disappointed by the quality of store bought blue cheese stuffed olives I decided to make my own. It’s so much more enjoyable to have a stuffed olive with MY favorite blue cheese than the generic “blue cheese” pre-packaged olives use. I used Point Reyes Original Blue. It’s creamy texture blended well with the cream cheese. I’m also a big fan of St. Agur, I’ll try it next time. But, it’s a little thicker so it may not spread as well.

Ingredients

• 1 10oz Jar Pitted Green Olives
• 1oz Blue Cheese
• 1oz Cream Cheese
• ~10 Peppercorns (adjust to taste)

Directions

• Mix equal parts blue cheese and cream cheese until completely combined.
• Microwave mixture for about 20 seconds until just warm so it will spread easily.
• Spoon mixture into plastic bag, forcing into one corner of the bag.
• Using scissors, cut off the tip of the corner of the bag, making a peppercorn sized hole.

• Drain the olives, reserve their brine in original container.
• Squeeze cheese mixture into each olive and return to original container.

• Add a peppercorns to olive and brine mixture.
• Let sit for a few days (time for peppercorns to season olives and cheese to mellow).
• Enjoy in a martini.

Update on March 22, 2009: Made them again, this time used canned olives (not in a glass jar, canned in metal can). Turns out canned olives are much smaller than the fancy pitted green olives that come in a glass jar. They still turned out all right but they’re awfully small. I recommend springing for the larger, glass jar, pitted green olives.

I get a couple of these emails a day. Joan Young and Linkstar UK Limited, please stop hurting the Internet.

from: Joan Young joan@linkstar.co.uk
to: John
date: Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 3:02 AM
subject: Advertising on Johnwulff.com

Hiya,

Good day. It’s me again, just want to know if you are getting my mails because I haven’t received any reply from you. This is regarding our business project about link sponsorship. I am still interested in acquiring a link from your website(Johnwulff.com).

Cheers!

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best, Joan Young Account Executive

This message was sent by Linkstar UK Limited, it is STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL and is solely for the individual or organisation to whom it is addressed. It may contain PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication and its contents is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication and its contents in error, please notify us at info@linkstar.co.uk and delete it and any copies from your computer.

This e-mail has been checked for viruses but it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that the opening use or onward transmission of the e-mail and any attachments will not adversely affect its systems or data and no responsibility is accepted by Linkstar UK Limited in this regard.

PS – I hear Joan loves receiving porn at work. If you know of any hardcore email lists please subscribe her to them. She and I thank you. joan@linkstar.co.uk

I started with two 1.5L jugs of apple cider. I poured half of each jug into a saucepan with 2 cups of white sugar and 2 cups of brown sugar. I simmered the mixture until the sugar completely dissolved. Then I let the sugar cider mixture cool to 105 degrees fahrenheit (the yeast I used operates best between 101 and 109). I added 1 packet of champagne yeast to the sugar cider mixture and gave the yeast fifteen minutes to “bloom”.

Then I poured the remaining cider out of jugs into an empty pitcher. I poured half the sugar, cider, and yeast mixture into each jug. Then I topped off each jug with the cider in the pitcher. (I had about two cups cider left over. Courtney mixed it with some cinnamon tea, it didn’t go well.)

Finally, I topped each jug with a balloon and pricked each balloon with a needle. (The balloons act as a poor man’s airlock to keep bacteria out while allowing gases to escape.)

I’ve read it can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 9 months for optimal fermentation. I’ll test one jug in three weeks. Depending on how it tastes the other jug will either be opened in 3 weeks and one day or in 9 months.

Really unhappy with this bug. I hope the Rails team agrees that this is a bug unlike my last “bug” report.

If you’re unfarmiliar with “changed?” attribute updating I recommend reading Living on the edge (of Rails) #14 before continuing.

Here it is, the nasty:

class Node < ActiveRecord::Base
  serialize :data
end

>> n = Node.create! :data => { :a => 1 }
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>
>> n.id
=> 417950
>> m = Node.find 417950
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>
>> m.data[:b] = 2
=> 2
>> m
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:b=>2, :a=>1}>
>> m.changed?
=> false
>> m.save!
=> true
>> m = Node.find 417950
=> #<Node id: 417950, data: {:a=>1}>

Changes to the hash are never saved and that makes me really, really sad.

I’ve opened a ticket.

My burger at Shultzy’s is no longer on the menu. It’s gone. I hope you had a chance to try it.

It was a sweet ride while it lasted. I guess I’m just not cut out to be a gastronomical rock star.

Thanks Bruce, Don, and everyone else at Shultzy’s.