Farmers' Market Goodness

Awesomely fractal romanesco

I always tell people to hit the farmers' market in the last half hour; they always look at me like I'm crazy.  "Won't all of the good stuff be gone?"  Well, I suppose it's possible you'll miss a gem or two, something someone just managed to harvest a few of.  But you get some great deals when you show up at the end--some of these folks won't have another market this week, and they'd rather give their produce to you than throw it out.

My finds this week included a free pile of amazing, juicy, tangelos, a basket of enormous, juicy strawberries, some slender, beautiful sweet carrots, and some heavily discounted romanesco, which the geek in me just loves. Sunday night, I put the carrots and tangelos together to come up with a very nice braised carrot recipe.

Tangelo-braised sweet carrots
1 bunch of fresh sweet carrots, washed and trimmed, but with some greens left
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
~1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano or rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 cup beef broth
juice of one tangelo

Melt butter in oil over medium heat, toss in garlic and sautee with frequent stirring until just brown.  Add carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots begin to soften, about seven to ten minutes.  Add herbs, cook a minute or two longer, then add broth and juice.  Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until nearly all of the water has evaporated, about ten more minutes.

Southern BBQ in North County

Update 3/20/12:  As of a few weeks ago, ApeHangers is no more.  Unfortunately, the city wouldn't permit their smoker.

After spending college in the South, I love me some Southern BBQ.  Slow smoked, tender, juicy, meaty goodness.  But where to find non-barbacoa BBQ in San Diego?  Some will no doubt say Phil's, but once you've had real Southern barbecue, Phil's not-so-tender pulled pork and ketchupy sauce does not cut it.  Well last year Randy and Charli Brown filled the void, opening ApeHangers Grill in Oceanside.  Randy mans the smoker and Charli--a South Carolina transplant-- serves up some wonderful Southern-style sides and desserts, from fried okra to banana puddin'.

From the smoker, they serve up Carolina pulled pork, Texas-style brisket, Memphis ribs, and (of course) California tri-tip, all finished with a sweet and spicy KC BBQ sauce, which comes in three varieties: sweet, regular, and spicy.  The spicy sauce is perfect--enough kick to make you gasp, but sweet enough to go down smooth.  From the fryer, delicious fired okra and zucchini, awesome hot wings (including the deadly 100 mph wings), and my favorite dish, the fried catfish po' boy with aioili and slaw, which I've had on about 90% of my visits.  Wash it down with a great selection of mostly local craft beer and wine-based cocktails.

The name and decor might lead you to think that ApeHangers is a biker bar.  Though plenty of motorcycles may be parked out front, it is not.  The staff and regulars are a friendly as can be, even a Raiders-Chargers game is a good time.  So next time you're looking for BBQ in North County, do yourself a favor.  Skip the looooong lines at Phil's and give ApeHangers a shot.

Friday Link Roundup

It's been an extremely busy couple of weeks, and I hope to get some posts done this weekend about Vincent's in Escondido, Ape Hanger Grill, and Sunshine Mountain Winery.  Until then, here's a few good links for a Friday:

• @Chemjobber has an amusing list of questions you don't want to hear on a job interview
• Via @LouDPhillips the Prosthetic Medic just had an above knee amputation
• The #SheriSangji case is getting more interesting every day, Jyllian Kemsley covers new developments at The Safety Zone
• Very cool chemistry/mixology spot in NYC
• Scientists telling their career stories on Twitter #IAmScience
• John Boehner totally looks like the Smoking Man (vote for my LOL!)
• And for San Diego-area folks, I'll be up all night making chili for a cookoff at Biggs Harley-Davidson in San Marcos tomorrow.  The event is free, fifteen chilis to try!

Hope everyone has a good Friday and weekend!

Vegas, Baby!

To celebrate Mrs. Pegleg's after-Christmas birthday a tad late, we flew to Vegas last weekend.  Up at three thirty, in Vegas before eight.  Since hotel check-in isn't until noon, what's there to do?  That's right--breakfast, bloody Mary, and mimosa!  We headed to one of the three (!) Vegas locations of Hash House a go go, having loved the original back in SD.  The SD location is tiny; this one was huge, so no thirty minute wait for breakfast.

As you can see, the bloody Mary was huge, and garnished with an assortment of pickled veggies, just the way I like them.  I had mine with gin, and the waitress thought I was off my rocker.  What can I say?  I like gin.  Not having quite the appetite for one of their enormous benedicts, I had a scramble that was very good.  Mrs. Pegleg had the french toast, which she thought was a bit disappointing.  The bread is about a foot thick, and it was like pulling teeth to get some syrup.

We still had a couple of hours to kill, so we headed over to the Flamingo, where we remembered there was a Sin City Brewery taproom.  They had a very-good-for-Vegas early day/late night deal--two 48oz pitchers for $15.  The seasonal brew on tap was a nice IPA, less hoppy than most SoCal brews these days, but quite nice.

After a nice long nap, we were ready to hit the town again.  Dinner reservations were at Table 10, one of Emeril's Vegas spots.  Since I rarely cook seafood (Mrs. Pegleg hates it), I nearly always eat fish when out.  The salt and pepper crusted farm-raised striped bass did not disappoint, and the few bites I stole from the wife's suckling pig porchetta were absolutely phenomenal.  A bit more bar-hopping--we do more people watching than gambling--and I was beat.

Up the next morning, headed straight to Kerry's Gourmet Burgers (KGB), Kerry Simon's burger and vodka bar in Harrah's.  The USSR-themed decor was great, and the waitresses were dressed like someone's fantasy of a Russian femme fatale.  The menu is small, but the food quite good.  I especially liked the build your own burger option.  The waffle fry nachos were very good; reminded me a bit of the carne asada fries that are popular in SD, but the pulled pork made them even better.  We headed over to Toby Kieth's I Love This Bar & Grill for some gigantic southern-inspired drinks--served in mason jars, naturally--and to watch some football.  The guitar-shaped bar was pretty cool, and the decor was fun.

Off to the airport, where we discover our flight is delayed an hour...two...almost three hours.  We sit around a bit, then check the board to see that our gate has been reassigned, in another terminal.  Arriving there, I ask the gate agent why there was no change announcement.  She told me that there was, and she had just personally walked over after making it at the original gate.  Also, she promised a fifty dollar voucher for all passengers.  I head out for a smoke.  I return to find that our gate has been changed again, back to the original terminal.  I've heard every other airline making gate change announcements, but not one from Spirit.  Now I'm mad, and spend twenty minutes waiting for someone to come to the desk. 

The gate agent comes up, I ask for her supervisor.  She is the supervisor, and cannot reach anyone over her.  Finally puts me on the phone with another supervisor, and within two minutes I'm talking to the boss that's unreachable.  I get on the plane just in time.  And that fifty dollar voucher?  Never appeared.  When I asked a flight attendant about it, she looked at me like I was crazy and snottily asked, "Why would you get a voucher?"

In the future, I'll spend the extra few bucks to fly Southwest.

Prosthetic "Parity" in California Has a Long Way to Go

In the fall of 2010, I was starting to have a lot of problems with my stump, skin irritation leading to scarring and an eventual minor surgery to remove scar tissue.  During this time, my employer changed insurance providers, and I was introduced to the OG of managed health care:  Kaiser Permanente.  My new docs referred me to the Kaiser prosthetic clinic, and I thought all was well.

Then, I got a phone call.  The amputee clinic scheduler couldn't schedule me.  Why?  I didn't have coverage for prosthetics.  "Now," I thought, "that can't be right.  I've been assured that California had prosthetic parity laws."  Well.... kinda.  California's Health and Safety Code Section 1367.18 reads, in part:

(a) Every health care service plan, except a specialized
health care service plan, that covers hospital, medical, or surgical
expenses on a group basis shall offer coverage for orthotic and
prosthetic devices and services under the terms and conditions that
may be agreed upon between the group subscriber and the plan. Every
plan shall communicate the availability of that coverage to all group
contractholders and to all prospective group contractholders with
whom they are negotiating. Any coverage for prosthetic devices shall
include original and replacement devices, as prescribed by a
physician and surgeon or doctor of podiatric medicine acting within
the scope of his or her license.

So they have to cover prostheses... if you opt for the coverage.  So obviously my first thought was that my boss opted to not buy the coverage, and I was quite upset.  Of course, this was not the case; the broker who sold the plan never offered it, in direct violation of the law.  Should be an easy fix, right?  Appeal the denial, point out the error, and they'll fix it.  Well, not quite.

After the denial, I sent a letter to KP's Member Case Resolution Center, quoted the relevant section, and demanded coverage.  After a second denial, I filed a complaint with the Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates HMOs in California.  It seems I was the first person to make a complaint with regard to this law, so what was supposed to be a two-week review process stretched to nearly three exhausting, infuriating months.

In the end, the DMHC saw things my way.  Kaiser upgraded me to a plan that included coverage for prothetics.  Of course, it took them another three or four months to approve the new socket I needed, but at least I finally won.

The lesson, of course, is that prosthetic parity laws are often not all  they're cracked up to be.  Limbs are not a luxury item, and we all--amputees and not--need to keep working to improve them.  And be prepared to fight for what you need from any insurer.  They're all evil.

Felony Charges in UCLA Lab Accident

The chemistry blogs today are abuzz with the news that University of California regents and a professor at UCLA are facing felony charges after the death of a lab assistant in a lab fire back in 2008.  The UC system and Professor Patrick Harran face three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards.

In the years I've spent in labs, both as an undergraduate and as a professional, safety has been treated in a fairly cavalier manner.   Sure, each lab course would give you a safety lecture, maybe show a video, give a little quiz.  But my biggest quibble is with the lack of training for and communication of specific hazards.  The lab assistant in this case, Sheri Sangji, had an undergraduate degree in chemistry; but was she ever trained in proper handling technique for pyrophoric materials?  Well...the prof says yes, but he never documented any such training (as required by Cal/OSHA and UCLA), so we may never know.  In addition, it is likely the lack of a lab coat that killed her.  Two months before the fire, a UCLA safety audit noted that safety glasses, lab coats, and gloves were not being worn in Harran's lab.  They were given a December 5th deadline to take corrective action.  Sherri Sangji's accident occurred December 29th.

So are the professor or the UC at fault?  This is a dicey question.  Glancing through the chemistry blogs and comments today, no one seems to think that professor Harran should serve time.  But most seem to feel that this may be the kick in the butt that academia needs to improve its laboratory safety culture.  But what about industry?  Most of what I've read on the tubes today seems to imply that industrial safety practices are far superior to those in academia, and that professionals are responsible for their own safety.

This is all fine and good when your lab is made up of PhD- and MS-level chemists.  The industry I work in, environmental analysis, is a different horse altogether.  The vast majority of analysts I've worked with had an undergraduate degree--in science.  For example, my BS is in Molecular Biology.  Yes, this is a great foundation for any laboratory work, but the amount of chemistry I didn't take means that I was not as well prepared as a chem grad might be.  In addition, a lot of work in our labs is performed by technicians, most of whom have never taken a chemistry course, and some of whom can barely speak or read English.  How can we just give these guys a stack of MSDS sheets and hope all goes well?

Some things I've seen that scared me:

- Analysts working with concentrated mercury salt solutions without gloves
- Folks walking around the lab with gloved hands, touching doorknobs, telephones, keyboards, etc.
- Technicians synthesizing diazomethane
- Organic extractions and metals digestions performed in the same hood; the supervisor didn't even know the dangers of nitroacetone

That's just a few I could remember off the top of my head.  So if these charges are going to clean up academic lab safety, what will it take to clean up industry?

Temecula Saturday

To mark our three-month anniversary, Mrs. Pegleg and I went out to Temecula, a local wine region, and one of the first places we went when dating.  We made a lunch reservation at Pinnacle Restaurant at Falkner Winery, and headed out to check out Chapin Family Winery beforehand.

We drove past the place at first, then realized it was the neighbor of another small winery we'd visited.  It's a tiny spot, what was originally the house for the plot is in the middle of being converted into a large tasting room.  In the meantime, we were hosted in the barn by a very knowledgeable employee named Gabriel, and met the owner, Steve Chapin.

The wines were excellent, and all bottle aged before release.  The estate vines are just coming to fruition, so expect more Italian varietals soon.  We went beyond our usual wine budget and grabbed a bottle each of the '07 Syrah and '07 Cab at $30-ish each.  They had an older Cab that was fantastic, but expensive.

We arrived for lunch a touch early, thought about doing a tasting first, but balked at the crowd.  Headed in to the restaurant, which wasn't crowded, and got seated immediately.  The decor was very nice, and the view of the valley from the hillside perch was awesome through floor-to-ceiling windows.

They must be getting a deal on ducks, because for the month of December they're doing weekend chef's duck specials.  Mrs. Pegleg had a blackened duck breast with gorgonzola mashed potatoes--she loved it, and I stole some bites and ate most of the blackened fat.  Mmmm....duck fat.  I had a very nice swordfish fillet with an artichocke risotto; swordfish is the other other white meat.

Since we visited Chapin, we've been to every winery currently open in the Temecula valley.  More wine reviews to come.