We dropped Aaron off at school today; the original plan was to take him up yesterday, but the snow delayed our trip. We kicked off Aaron’s second semester with lunch at Szechuan House near Trenton on the ride up.
I read about the place years ago and added it to my bucket list back then. Since I find myself up near Bordentown in between home and Rutgers, I always wonder about it when we’re nearby.
It was a great lunch. The restaurant strikes me as authentic, to the degree that I would be able to identify such. Here was the specials menu when you came in the door:
We ordered some apps to try: dumplings in chili oil, scallion pancakes, and fungus with chili vinaigrette.
The fungus was the surprise hit for me. The dumplings were awesome, though: big, pillowy, and floating in some spicy chili oil.
I tried the dry fried shredded beef from the specials menu. It had that great numbing burn you get from Szechuan peppercorns. It was really salty, though. Rhonda had a roast duck special from the lunch menu.
Aaron ordered the Ma Po tofu with minced pork, which is one of his occasional orders from the joint around the corner (without the minced pork). It too was excellent: the tofu was soft, and the sauce, spicy and salty. Lots of salt at this lunch!
So we’ll miss Aaron again now that he’s back at school, but we made a good day of his return trip.
We were fixing to take Aaron back up to New Brunswick today, but the snow in the forecast is forcing us to wait until tomorrow. I am thankful for the all-wheel drive on the WRX. Our original plan was to roll up to New Brunswick yesterday and spend the night; I found a Marriott in Somerset and a nice little French bistro, Sophie’s. Aaron preferred getting in another day at home, though, so I cancelled the reservations and we hung around. He was hard at work on a model for his fraternity yesterday. We did the required errands and had cheese and salami at home with a growler of rosé. Rhonda and I have off from work tomorrow, so it’s no trouble either way.
Bellview Boreas Red Wine
It would be easy to let the merriment surrounding Bellview’s release of their new rosé overshadow a new dry red blend, but ahem: I draw your attention to their new Boreas. They describe it thus:
A medium bodied dry red blend of Cabernet Franc and Regent with an herbal taste on the tongue and a long, lasting finish.
Bellview Boreas
It’s pretty fruity up front, with a nice dry finish. We got a 500 ml growler last weekend and it was really good with dinner last week.
Hookmark Pal: Hookmark for iOS
Hookmark is a fascinating utility for the Mac. In short, it allows you to copy links from one file or application to another, and it is invaluable if you spend a lot of time managing various bits of data across applications on your Mac.
I’ll give you a simple example: Here’s my “Car Maintenance” project in OmniFocus:
OmniFocus Project
You can see in the project’s notes field, there’s a link to a folder on my Mac, “Maintenance.” There are lots of different files in that folder that I might need access too, including some how-tos, reference materials, and maintenance logs.
Similarly, you can link to files (even blocks of text in PDFs) using Hookmark. Here’s a screenshot of some specific files I linked (I linked the project to the files); invoking Hookmark shows the files I’ve linked to the project.
Hookmark Links
I can link emails from MailMate to tasks or projects, link Google Suite links to projects and tasks, and more. You can even send links to Instapaper. It’s a great service for keeping yourself organized, and I’m not sure I’m even scratching the surface of what it can do.
One of the central frustrations of being a Mac user who likes to use an iPad, though, is that many of the utilities that make the Mac so great aren’t available on the iPad. And that was a central limitation of using Hookmark until very recently, when CogZest introduced Hookmark Pal.
The upshot is that your Hookmark links work on your iOS devices. It’s called a “pal,” I suppose, because it’s not a universal app that works across all of your devices; Hookmark Pal gets you some of the features you depend on, without the full experience of using Hookmark on your Mac. It’s a welcome addition for sure.
A week back into the routine after a long holiday break! We’re having spritzes and cheese now; I have a pork tenderloin in the sous vide tank for tomorrow (I’ll grill it off before serving after a quick dunk in the tank again tomorrow; it will come out in about two hours and overnight in the fridge), and there are chicken thighs in the oven.
We had a fun weekend: out with the ‘rents for Joe, Sorayah, and Dad’s birthdays (bunch of January babies!) at Maplewood, then hot pot/Korean BBQ with Aaron for lunch yesterday. We made a trip to a vinyl shop he loves in the Hamilton Mall after lunch, too. We fancied going to Guitar Center, but Rhonda and I were meeting an old friend at Bellview for wine in the afternoon, so we had to cut Guitar Center out of the plans. Today was just groceries. I did take the dog for a walk, which was nice.
Bellview’s Dry Rosé
Rhonda and I met a friend at Bellview yesterday, and their new rosé, made with Chambourcin grapes, was on tap! That means it will be bottled soon, but on tap is the way to go. It’s been out of stock for a few months, so this was a very welcome development. I need a few more swigs to weigh in on the difference between this and other vintages, but it was familiar for sure.
Bellview Rosé
FlexTime
In addition to the excellent MarsEdit, Daniel Jailkut’s Red Sweater software offers the very cool FlexTime utility, a “versatile timer for repetitive activities.” I found myself, late last week, feeling especially overwhelmed by a crap ton of of urgent, open loops. OmniFocus is my central planning tool, but the challenge of overload is prioritizing, and sometimes, that means setting some time limits so that you can make some progress on a few projects.
I’ve written a bit here about how I deal with this aspect of productivity, most notably trying to plug into Neil Fiori’s Unschedule technique. OmniFocus’s Planned Dates feature helps tremendously with daily planning, but outside of allowing you to estimate how long something might take, it’s not a tool for timing.
There are no shortage of timers for the Mac and iOS timers, but Red Sweater makes some great stuff. I tried it out a few years ago, and I liked it, but only used it for a spell. I downloaded it again and am planning to try it out again.
FlexTime by Red Sweater Software
FlexTime lets you create a variety of timers and save them for reuse. You can specify a number of different activities per timer, and set notifications for each activity. You can even spit your timers out to Apple Music, which seems like a smart alternative to having the app run across platforms.
Top Pot Hot Pot and BBQ
Aaron and I first (finally!) tried hot pot about a year ago at Kung Fu Hot Pot, after a tour at the University of Delaware. We really enjoyed the experience, especially on a cold day. Our second visit occurred after a visit to Rutgers, also cold and drizzly, and we both agreed that the Happy Lamb was a superior experience to Kung Fu.
Yesterday, we headed to Mays Landing to try out Top Pot Hot Pot and BBQ while Aaron is still home on break. It, too, was exceptional.
Some niggles: the broth situation is such that there’s no easy way for two people to share broth; the pots are arranged such that they’re conveniently near one diner, not in the center of the table. This is to make room, of course, for the brazier, which takes center stage on their tables (and in the experience of having KBBQ at Top Pot). Hot pot or BBQ are $31.99 as of yesterday, but you can combine them Also, the vegetables, rice balls, and other non-meat goodies are ordered from the menu, which we didn’t prefer; it’s a lot of fun at Happy Lamb, for example, to go up to the buffet or ingredient station and pick out different root vegetables and rice balls (and all kinds of other things) that look good, whereas you have to ask for everything at Top Pot.
Top Pot Hot Pot
Top Pot does newbie diners a great service, however, by not only offering a fulsome selection of sauces, but also a display behind the buffet of sauces you can concoct for yourself. Similarly, there are some brief cooking directions and diagrams posted at each table. Like dining on phô, the experience of eating hot pot is different from your standard western dining situation. We are, happily, adventurous diners, but some know-how is appreciated to maximize the experience. To become an expert, learn the rules first.
Meats, before grilling
We had a couple of kinds of tongue, and really loved the version they prepare for hot pot (the BBQ preparation was less exciting), and there was a lemon pork belly we both adored. Everything was good, though. It was a really big lunch.
There’s nothing like the last Sunday at the end of a vacation to inspire the Sunday Scaries! Here’s a list of things to check out to ease your re-entry into the world of work, if that awaits you. I kept up my exercise routine but I do need the routine to keep me on track!
Today’s Joey’s 21st birthday too!
Joey and Aaron
Callsheet
I was enjoying Upgrade’s Upgradies episode over the break, and they mentioned Casey Liss’s Callsheet, which I had tried a while back but never really took to. The truth is, though, that like books, I do need a place to park a kind of TV Show/Movie wishlist. I’ve been trying Sofa for a number of years, and I like it, mostly, except it doesn’t lend itself to the most obvious setup for my use case: a list of things I’d like to watch, and then an archive of things I have watched. Sofa has branched out from TV and Movies to books, restaurants, and all manner of other interests.
Sofa for macOS
Callsheet is a more focused app, showing you popular television shows and movies, which you can pin for later viewing. Callsheet will help you find where to watch a show or movie, and you can dig deep into an actor’s oeuvre if you’re curious about where you saw what’s-his-name before.
Callsheet for iOS
Interestingly, Mike and Jason crapped on Tapestry, which is an app category that, too, initially found mystifying, but found myself returning to time and again. As I’ve written, I’ve set up the New Reeder and subscribed to it, as it’s a lot less expensive than Tapestry and I still love the original Reeder.
ExtraBar
I’ve really been enjoying Amerpie by Lou Plummer; his tech-focused blog is an endless stream of app recommendations. He highlightedExtraBar, which proposes an alternative to utilities like Bartender, Ice, and Barbee.
There’s no way to test drive the app, which seems a little scummy to me. I did buy one seat to try it out, and it’s not a simple swap from, say, Bartender to ExtraBar. You have to know a bit out apps that support links, such as OmniFocus, to start setting things up.
This is one of those apps that I’m going to want to get a lot of use out of, but will struggle to find a place for. Just a hunch.
ExtraBar for macOS
Georges DuBoeuf 2025 Beaujolais Nouveau
I coworker gifted me a bottle of this just before the holiday, and I was terribly excited to try it after many years. I do believe this varietal was my introduction to red wine, and it really is a great place to dip your toes into the sea of red wine. It’s not to be drunk aged, just glugged after bottling. It’s a lighter, fruitier red, without being a sweet wine. We had some with our grilled chicken thighs last night in fact. Such a fun wine.
Rhonda had a great idea the other night… let’s abscond for a night! We’ve been scheduling things around the family for a couple of weeks, which is always a treat, but we hand’t really gotten a chance to do something together besides the quotidian running of errands, etc.
I’ve been wanting to set up and overnight trip to nearby Atlantic City for a while, because it’s a great restaurant town, your opinions about gambling notwithstanding.
Atlantic City is a pretty bombed-out town; it’s incredibly poor, with a heart-breaking stratification between the haves and have-nots. The haves, I don’t think, live in town at all. Whatever money the restaurants, hotels, and casinos pull in must, through financial tricks I could only fathom, remain with the businesses. It’s pretty wild, when you consider the relative affluence of towns like Ocean City, Avalon, and Stone Harbor.
But this isn’t a treatise on Atlantic City or the socio-economics of South Jersey shore towns. Because for however much I hope for a more equitable distribution of wealth in a town like that, I still enjoy the fuck out of the nightlife.
First thing’s first: there are great–and I mean great–restaurants in Atlantic City. You can discount the casino-based places if you like and it’s still a great restaurant town.
We’ve been going to the Knife and Fork since it reopened back in the early 2000s, and it’s always an experience. We’ve wanted to go down and stay over and make a long night of a visit, though; we’ve been down for many dinners over the years, but we have always returned in the same night. So there’s 45 minutes or so each way before and after dinner, or a 90-minute commute, however you like to calculate it. How fun would it be to get a room, have dinner, and make a night of it?
A lot, unsurprisingly.
Hanging out at Renault Winery
We hit Renault Winery in Egg harbor City on the way down. Their bottled wine prices are outrageous, but it’s quiet a place: a resort, ice skating rink, outdoor fire pits, little huts and igloos you can rent, a nice bar… We remarked that we’re lucky to live near one of the best and most affordable wineries in NJ in our local Bellview. But we like to try them all! Renault is way out in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a long road. The sign on the street is huge and really old; you get that it’s an old place with subsequent upgrades.
Charcuterie at Renault Winery
Anyway, we tried their Chardonnay, which was excellent, and a sip of the Meritage, and we took a bottle of each to go. We also split the charcuterie for two.
Renault Chardonnay
I found a newly established Marriot in AC for a decent rate, right on the boardwalk, and within walking distance of the Knife and Fork. It wasn’t so cold that we couldn’t stroll down there, so walked we did. We had a great meal and then got lost in the Tropicana for a while.
Knife and Fork
Breakfast the next morning was at a cute little diner called The Little Goat, which I found when we both realized we wanted some breakfast. They had a special omelette which included ham, avocado, tomato, and Cooper sharp, and I ate the home fries too.
We did a rib roast again last night; Shop Rite always has a sale on them prior to the holidays, and it’s been Rhonda’s habit to grab one in the rush up to the holidays, and then freeze it until New Year’s Day. I chuck them in the sous vide tank all day and finish on the grill. We’re always impressed by how good they are for the price.
We’re gonna bug out of town for Atlantic City tonight. I got a reasonable rate on a Marriot room and we’ll have dinner at Knife and Fork.
It’s officially 2026, but besides making some eggs and ham, there’s not much to say about the new year yet. We took the boys up to the House of Fun in Barrington yesterday so they could blow some Christmas loot and we could try some pints from round-the-way Tonewood. We did exactly the same thing one year ago!
I had the Blackbird Schwarzbier, which is a low-alcohol, darkly roasted lager. It had a great roasty flavor and a tasteful, gentle hop profile. I was keen to try their Blipstream ESB, but it was can only. I ordered their Biergarten Marzen for my second pint, which was excellent but I thought that I hadn’t had it before; checking my posts here on Uncorrected this morning revealed to me that I had, in fact, tried it before.
Where my tastes skew German and English, Rhonda tends to go for more juicy, hoppy selections. She tried a pint of their Slopes Pale Ale, which was a moderate 5.2% ABV and “hopped heavily with Talus, Simcoe & Chinook,” with “notes of dank resin, honey & orange.” The hops put me in mind of Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, of which I have very fond memories, especially the time I turned 21 and my friend, Mike, took me to a German bar in Kutztown, PA, and we had many pints of it in a fireplace-heated, low-ceilinged bar. It was a great night. Her other selection was the Chilly Bin, which we have in cans here at home. It’s a West Coast Pilsner, which is kind of wild: you get the assertive, bitter hop bite that I grew to love with Sierra Nevada’s original Pale Ale, but the smooth body of a lager.
Tonewood’s Chilly Bin West Coast Pilsner
The bartender pouring yesterday mentioned that they have the ESB on cask at their Oaklyn location, so I’m gonna obsess over getting to that location until it happens. I love cask-conditioned ale pushed via hand pump.
Us Kids at Tonewood
Best wishes for a great 2026 for you. This has been the best year for my readership on Uncorrected; it’s peanuts compared to the internet-famous, but I can’t be anything but thankful that I get a fairly regular number of hits each day, week, and month. Thanks for stopping by and reading.
It’s been a quiet few days since Christmas here in our bucolic corner of South Jersey. Friday was just lazing about, and yesterday was a quick trip to Bellview for some wine and cheese before sushi with Aaron (Joe was working). My morning have been punctuated by reading a bit and then farting around with my Mac before exercising. We’re going to cook our “free” ham from Shop Rite today, since we didn’t need the turkey when we qualified for that.
Fishwife Slow-Smoked Mackerel with Chili Flakes
I’ve been grabbing all manner of canned fish for our winery trips; it’s a chance to pile on some protein and avoid some of the carbs that might otherwise tempt me. I’ve see this Fishwife brand at ShopRite a bunch of times, and while the art on the box is fetching, the price has put me off. They’re on sale right now and I grabbed a can of the mackerel and the sardines; Aaron and I split the mackerel yesterday at Bellview while Rhonda watched in horror. Simply the best canned fish I’ve had to date. I’m going to stock up today when we run over for some provisions.
Fishwife Tinned Mackerel and Sardines
Apple Fitness+ Yoga
I have an estranged friend who used to swear by yoga for both fitness and mental health. I tried it a few times by awkwardly watching workouts on my iPad in the basement, and I liked it enough to get a cheap yoga mat. I tried a few workouts back in 2022, and the idea hit me a couple of weeks ago–this would be a nice diversion from the usual rowing grind. I tried a 40-minute workout and loved every second of it.
I recalled being impressed at the reported calorie burn back in 2022 when I tried some Yoga workouts, and was disappointed with the report from my most recent workouts. Maybe being 230+ pounds makes that kind of exercise more calorically intensive. Still fun though.
Fitness app screenshot showing workout sessions and calorie burn for December 2022 and November 2022.Fitness app screen showing workout sessions and calorie burn for December 2025 and November 2025.
Melty Brie Plates
Rhonda’s been making these melty brie plates since we had one at Cedar Rose winery not long ago. It was our favorite at Bellview until they stopped serving it. We got some brie at Bagliani’s yesterday, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we had one later today.
It’s the day after Christmas, so that means The Week Between has commenced. December 26th for us is usually just hanging around the house, eating leftovers, and watching TV.
We hosted dinner last night and I was annoyed with myself for forgetting to take a pic of the rib roast after it came off the grill. But I just check my E-PL5 and that was not, in fact, the case: I did take a pic! Thanks afternoon drinks!
Pat LaFrieda Roast
My dad has been ordering from Pat LaFrieda for a long time, and even when we switched over to Rhonda and I hosting the holiday dinners, he continued to buy the star of the show in the form of an aged roast. This was a 30-day aged roast, and I can see from previous entries in Day One that this has been our go-to roast for years. I will confess to wanting to try it low and slow in the spare oven upstairs next time; I’ve been sous viding and grilling the roast, which I like, but I would really like those chewy, well-done bits that you get with a dry roast. They are also hard to wrestle into a bag. I split the roast and the bones into two bags and everything worked out fine! I will say that this is surely the best meat I’ve eaten. We’re lucky to be able to host with such a superstar centerpiece!
I always make breakfast on the griddle for the family on Christmas Day; our tradition has been pancakes forever, and it’s nice to be able to use all the space on the Blackstone to make a big pile of pancakes at once. Bacon too, of course.
Aaron said something about making egg nog earlier in the week, so I looked up a recipe on Serious Eats and gave it a shot. The first batch I made featured some cheap cognac we’d gotten for making sidecars; Aaron really liked it. I made a bigger batch yesterday, and made a virgin portion for Joe and Sorayah, and then used Goslings Black Seal Rum for the big-kid version. Aaron preferred the rum version, and it was also very good.
Egg Nog
Aaron and I were talking about photography a bit yesterday since we got him a cheap point-and-shoot. He asked about aperture and I snuck this pick while grilling because of the sun and its angle against the cars, and what the whack TT Artisans might do with all that sidewise light. Serious lens flare but interesting in its way.
Cars!
Bellview Winery had, for a long while, a melty brie platter on their menu. It featured DiBruno Bros brie, and we loved it and ordered it many times. They don’t offer that one anymore, which is heartbreaking, but we manage. Our recent trip to Cedar Rose winery, however, revealed their take on the dish.
Rhonda’s been making a version ever since we went there, and made it at home both Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Rhonda mentioned that she wanted to have grilled steak, a cut that hadn’t spent the afternoon in the sous vide tank, since it had been a while. (It was a veiled complaint for sure.) We happened to have a frozen ribeye on hand, as well as some chicken, and were trying to use up some frozen foods, so onto the meal plan it went.
I gave it a quick trip on the Weber over some hot lump charcoal, and we were both really impressed. Sous vide is nothing if not consistent, but it’s hard to beat the char you get from a nice dry cut of beef. They don’t always come out like this, but I’m glad when they do.
There’s a slow, steady fall of snow outside today: it’s a dense, heavy snow. Rhonda and I enjoyed dinner at Greenview Inn Friday night; I had the duck. Yesterday, we check out Bellview’s December cheese plate, which was “Santa and Friends.” We supplemented with some salami from Bagliani’s and some sardines for me.
Greenview Inn’s Game Special–Duck BreastBellview’s Santa and Friends
TineeOwl iPad mini
My general rule of thumb is that an apple-branded case or folio is probably the best for my usage; I’ve largely stuck to Apple iPhone cases (most recently, a Beats case) and Apple’s Magic Keyboards and Folios for iPads. I have a nice green Apple folio for my iPad mini, which I like a lot.
The thing about the mini is, it begs to be carried around and not stuffed in a bag. I like to keep it in the car with me, on the passenger seat when it’s empty, and put it on the counter when I’m making drinks and things.
Apple’s folio has a great texture, but you don’t want to get it wet or stain it. One of the things that make their folios great–magnetic connection to the device–keep it from being reliable protectors in the event of a drop.
Enter the TineeOwl Arctic case. It’s more of a wrap-around phone cover, a clear rubbery plastic case that protects the back and sides of the iPad, with a decent lip to keep the screen from contacting a table or desk surface if you lay it face down.
TineeOwl’s Arctic Case for iPad Mini
The TineeOwl Arctic has grooves for the iPad’s TouchID wake/sleep button and the Apple Pencil, so it doesn’t interfere with the Mini’s helpful touch features.
It can feel a little rubbery when you’re reading and holding the device from the side; the edge of the case will pull away from the device, depending upon how you’re holding it. That can feel cheap and one imagines serial removals of the case will one day render it too stretched out to be useful. On the other hand, in a landscape of overpriced accessories, TineeOwl’s pricing is such that you don’t worry about it.
FastScripts is a utility from Red Sweater Software (purveyor of Mac-assed Mac apps, including the excellent MarsEdit) that collects your AppleScripts and gives you access to them via Finder’s menu bar. You can set a global keyboard shortcut to expose the menu, and even per-script shortcuts, and search your scripts. I’ve tried pushing a lot of my favorite Applescripts to Shortcuts, but in cases where I’m just executing scripts via Shortcuts, why bother?
FastScripts
One of my favorites is this script to create what I call a “classic” Finder window: no sidebar, toolbar, nuthin.
tell application "Finder"
activate
if (count of Finder windows) = 0 then
make new Finder window
end if
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Finder"
try
-- Toggle the Toolbar
if exists menu item "Hide Toolbar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Hide Toolbar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
else if exists menu item "Show Toolbar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Show Toolbar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
end if
-- Toggle the Status Bar
if exists menu item "Hide Status Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Hide Status Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
else if exists menu item "Show Status Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Show Status Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
end if
-- Toggle the Path Bar
if exists menu item "Hide Path Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Hide Path Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
else if exists menu item "Show Path Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1 then
click menu item "Show Path Bar" of menu "View" of menu bar 1
end if
on error errMsg
display dialog "An error occurred: " & errMsg buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end tell
end tell
Bellview Winery’s San Marco ’23
Bellview owner Jimmy Quarella said the ’23 San Marco was just bottled, but it’s not for sale in said vessel as it has to settle a bit. It is, however, on tap at the winery, and after a taste yesterday, I couldn’t help but commit to a growler to take home. It’s a dry red, medium-bodied by my tastes. I’ve had San Marco blended into other reds they concoct, but this is my first time having the pure distillation.
Rhonda and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary this weekend. We both took off on Friday and headed down to Cape May, NJ, for an overnight. My mom was generous to send us for our 20th anniversary in 2023–we stayed at the comfy but swanky Virginia Hotel, and dined at The Ebbitt Room. We liked it so much that we went back and stayed at Peter Shields Inn and Restaurant the following year, and then again last spring at the Buttonwood Boutique.
Christmas in Cape May is a busy time, and it’s hard to find a room period, let alone one at a reasonable price. Because we decided on this trip a bit late for planning purposes, we ended up staying at the Cape, which is a nicely converted motel on Route 9, just outside of the historic downtown area. I would totally stay there again, especially if Cold Springs, Cape May Winery, and Hawk Haven are your points of interest. If you want the historic downtown experience, it’s a bit of a drive and a crowd to navigate to boot.
Cape May Winery
Our visit to the Cape May Winery was not our first, but we were excited to go back, as we really enjoyed our visit there last April. Sadly, they did not have their excellent rosé available. We ordered the brie plate, which was a menu special. It was kind of disappointing; for eight bucks, you got three pieces of cold bread smeared with an uninspired brie. The charcuterie plate was good, though. We tried their Chardonnay and White Blends, and I preferred the latter. The Chardonnay was pretty bright and tart for a barrel-aged specimen. We took a few bottles with us so that we’d have some choices to take with us to dinner.
Cape May WineryCape May ChardonnayBrie
Il Riccio
I made a rez at Ił Riccio , which is a BYOB in the heard of the madness that is Cape May at Christmastime. It is a charming old house, a la Peter Shields and the Washington Inn, and we dined in a dim corner of a small back room. We split the fried calamari, and then one of the whole fishes, which was filleted and served table side, with a side of spaghetti. Everything was great, and the dessert we split was excellent as well. Eight bucks will get you some bread, too, which made us roll our eyes. But hey: limoncello shot on the house after dinner.
Il RiccioCalamariFish and PastaDesert at Il RiccioLimoncello
We came back home via Route 47, which is always how I got down to Wildwood when I was younger. We had omelettes at Mel’s Place, a nice diner in Villas. We had some of our own salami and cheese, and Rhonda redeemed yesterday’s brie let down by making her own version. So that was dinner!
Dad was kind enough to ship eight duck legs to us. With Aaron home for a holiday visit, we figured it would be a good time to make them. Rhonda vocalized an idea, briefly, that we could just nip out for a bite with him, but he had mentioned to me over text that he hadn’t had home-cooked food for a spell. So I voted for the duck legs.
I did a little research on Serious Eats and found some compelling articles on the value of sous vide for this particular version of preparation, but used this one as my guide. I put the legs in on Saturday afternoon at 155 after a quick sprinkle of garlic and salt, and let them go for about 26 hours.
Duck Legs in the Tank
I lit the grill using Kingsford briquettes, hoping for a slower, more stable burn that I get with lump (my personal favorite for most applications).
Apps
While the grill came up to temp, Rhonda roasted some Yukon Gold potatoes in some duck fat (which Dad also generous to send along with the legs), some beets, and broccolini.
Confit-adjacent cocktails
I checked with Kagi Assistant for the grilling instructions; it recommended (without obsequiously complimenting my intentions or taste) that indirect heat, covered, for 10-15 minutes would be good. I sprinkled some apple wood chunks from Thursday’s turkey on the grill and covered about 10 minutes before I put the legs on.
I would have left them on the grill a bit longer, but we didn’t want to delay dinner since Aaron was getting picked up around 5 pm. In hindsight, we did have a bit more time, but we all enjoyed every bite.
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and with that, another birthday. In addition to hosting Thanksgiving, my parents took Rhonda, Aaron, and me out to Rocco’s Townhouse in Hammonton to celebrate my turning 51. It was, once again, excellent. I have some duck legs in the sous vide tank right now, which we’ll have around 4 pm before Aaron heads back up to New Brunswick for the final act of his first semester as a Freshman.
Rocco’s TownhouseRye ManhattanBig Meatball at Rocco’s
Black Friday is a great time to score some deals on software you’ve been ogling. The other side of that coin: It’s also an opportunity to drop some virtual coin on apps you don’t need, but want. All good! Here are some notables for you Mac nerds. I also ordered a Samsung T9 to replace Rhonda’s iMac’s spinning hard drives, which I’ll repurpose for something else.
Unclutter App Editors Choice
Unclutter has a collection of very cool utilities. It’s also a great way to update your Cleanshot X sub if you’re due soon. I grabbed Downie, which was featured on the latest Talk Show, as well as Forklift 4. I like apps like Forklift for interfacing with Google Drive instead of running the native app.
Take Control Books
Take Control Books is offering 25% titles, and 50% off their subscription-ish Premium tier (free updates to books after iterative updates). I grabbed these:
• Take Control of Photos – Ebook
• Take Control of iPhone Photography – Ebook
• Take Control of Notes – Ebook
Supasend
I tried Supasend when it first came out. I reminds me a bit of Drafts and Remind Faster, both of which apps prioritize input and quick filing to another application (in the case of Drafts, just about any app, and in the case of Remind Faster, Apple’s Reminders).
Acorn
Acorn competes in the same creative space as Pixelmator, and I’ve owned a license since it came out. It’s a photo editor for people who don’t need or want the complexity or expense of Photoshop. Developer Gus Mueller has been creating great Mac software for decades, and Acorn is his crowning achievement.
Retrobatch
I also have been trying out Retrobatch; I take a lot of pics for Uncorrected, and would very much like to streamline my resizing workflow (WordPress doesn’t like photos above a certain size). The excellent MarsEdit will take care of this for you, but I often post from Ulysses, because I like to be able to use my iPad to post as well. Retrobatch’s layout reminds me of Audio Hijack, with modules you string together into a module and save for batch processing images.
Retrobatch Workflow
MailMaven
I’ve been using MailMaven since it came out in beta earlier this year, and I have a great affection for it. I can’t stop using MailMate for work email, but I do like having all of my accounts in this productivity beast. I figured I’d pay the first year introductory price and decide if I wanted to continue the subscription after that, but this price was hard to pass out.
DevonThink
DevonThink is an impossibly feature-rich document manager and note keeper. The most recent version, version 4, is available for a 25% discount. I stopped using DevonThink after moving to Windows for a spell, and now that I’m back in the Apple ecosystem, I’ve been using Notes because I love handwriting notes and Notes’ amazing Smart Script.
Dad got a fine turkey from Butcher Box for Thanksgiving. I did the dry brine thing and smoked it on the Weber Bullet. The bird, near the end of the dry brine, was a grim sight. It produced a great dish after a leisurely smoke on the Weber, though. As good as could have wished, happily. Stuffing, Brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, mushroom gravy, family.
Turkey, Dry Brining Just Before the CookSmoked Turkey
