Sharks love to eat seals. It’s their favorite meal, and with good reason — sharks gain a lot of energy from seals. One bite of a seal is the equivalent of a human eating 200 burgers or 500 candy bars in one sitting.

And what does that have to do with me?

Well, this charming comparison is part of the Discovery Channel’s new Perfect Predators program, produced by Tigress Productions. And whose candy bar will illustrate the point? My very own…

Perfect Predators will be airing in the US on the Discovery Channel this Saturday, Aug 4. In Los Angeles, my listings show that it will be on at 2pm on channel 210. It is actually about sharks’ array of mechanisms that make them such skillful hunters.

This image will be shown for approximately 2 seconds at some point during the second of its two hours. A scientist will point to it, and I believe that the number “500″ may be superimposed on top of it. So, you can’t miss it… Just. Don’t. Blink.

I’ll post updates of futures airings, esp in Europe and the UK.

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Btw, I like the equation: 1 Bite of Seal = 500 Candy Bars = 200 Burgers = A Lot of Energy

I also like the corollary to this: 1 Burger = 2.5 Candy Bars.

When given the choice btw 1 Burger, 2.5 Candy Bars, or 1/200 Bite of Seal, I think I know what would win for me most every time…

EDIT: Now Chad has been, too.

I’m not sure how accurate my simpsonification is, but it’s pretty cool to see myself in that world, in whatever form.

http://simpsonizeme.com/#

Be warned, this went pretty slowly on my computer… I am now all too well aware that the pink-frosted donut used in promotions is actually a jelly at heart.

Please enjoy this shameless plug for my boyfriend’s new website, Socialverse!

You may already know that Chad’s good at thinking up dreamy birthday cake ideas, but you should also know that his true area of expertise is software engineering. With Socialverse, I like to think that his company has developed a way for people to walk the world from the comfort of their computers.**

When you sign up, you get your own little doppelganger who can stroll around a map of the US. While you can explore cities and states that you dream of visiting, the site is mostly geared towards local search and social networking. So, you can chat up locals and friends near and far as well as browse businesses. Of course, people like us would probably first think to check out and add our thoughts to the restaurants and markets, but even I sometimes need to go to the hardware store or see a dentist. Socialverse lets you put your favorites on the map and find new places to go.

I suppose that it’s like citysearch and yelp, but Socialverse is cooler because it’s in real time (using Web 2.0 in clever ways) and you can actually see where these places in the country are b/c “you” are there, too.

In a typical move, Chad has thoughtfully provided lots of goodies that go above and beyond basics. So, here’s a cheat sheet to my favorite things that you can do that might not be obvious right away:

• Click on the “online” line on the upper right of the screen to see who else is online. Click on someone’s name to move closer to them.
• Place your blog (as an object) in an area where people will find it useful. You’ll find Sweet Napa already on the map somewhere in LA.
• Find the nearest ATM.
• If a location isn’t on the map yet, add it and talk about it.
• Use additional motions — such as sleeping, meditating, dancing, and acting scared.
• Adjust your appearance — clothing, size, hairstyle.
• If you are a business owner, you can promote your business online.
• Check the weather.
• You can’t zoom in or out on the main map, but if you click on “Self” then “Mini Map” in the “Navigate” menu, you can see where you on a zoomable mini map.
• Share photos.
• Search local classifieds and post your own.

Please keep in mind that this is, as Chad says, “the early public beta.” There are still bugs, but he’ll happily be the victim of anyone’s criticism… or suggestions… or insouciant banter. When the basics are ironed out, the long-term goals are to make it a nexus of local search for any type of person, business, or organization you may be interested in, and in turn, a way to build relationships and become closer with your community. More features will be added — such as perhaps coupons and ads for shops around the corner being implemented, trees being planted, menus being posted, icons being customizable, and whatever people want that the world can support.

So, feel free to sign up, check it out, and tell everyone you know about it. The world is wide open.**

**Right now, the map only functions in the US, but there are plans to make it international down the line. Also, the faster your internet connection is, the faster you’ll be able to do things. Broadband is recommended. It is also only compatible with Firefox and IE for now.

And according to Nigella Lawson, in about six weeks, I will have a perfectly lovely Rhubarb Schnapps.

All I had to do was mix together sugar, rhubarb, and vodka. I also sterilized the jars in a 225 oven for about 10 minutes and let them cool a little, just to be safe. I will happily shake them up every day for the next four weeks or so… because they’re gorgeous. I also manipulated that a little by using the reddest parts of my rhubarb stalks for the schnapps; the (green) remainder I made confit out of, with just sugar and water. This is the first schnapps that I’ve attempted. As with all of my preserves, I am trying to figure out how little sugar I can get away with, and will probably decrease the prescribed amount next time.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I’m really into preserving now, and it’s remarkable how fun and easy it is. Fun because I enjoy selecting and fabricating fruit, and easy because making these things require little more work than that… mostly stirring, perhaps boiling, and maybe ladling. There’s a bit of waiting involved w/ the liqueurs, but waiting for a long period of time for something to come to fruition isn’t really waiting when you’re busy with other things. It’s more like giving your future self a gift. You’ll only need to open and enjoy it, or share it with others.

So far, I’ve also made strawberry preserves (camarosas have been the most flavorful to me, but I’ve also tried gaviotas and chandlers), apricot preserves (earlicots and royal gold), candied cherries, and brandied cherries. Tonight, I’ll pickle for the first time ever, to make the pickled onions that I had with the Zuni burger.

Anyway, this is more of a PSA post than anything else… Anyone who wants to capture summer in a jar (before summer even starts!) so that they can enjoy, say, lovely liqueurs and cocktails on hot summer nights might want to start doing something about it right about now.

Books that I’m looking at for preserving ideas…

How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Room for Dessert and Ripe for Dessert by David Lebovitz
Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers
Perfect Preserves by Hilaire Walden

Elise also has good posts and recipes.

And I’ve never loved a ladle more than my square ladle; the flat edges do wonders to get everything out of the pot, and it pours cleanly.

Once I get more certain with my preserving technique, I’ll write about more it. But… I can’t help it — for further encouragement, here are some things that I’m doing…

• In the past, I was always discouraged by the thought of boiling water to sterilize the jars and then moving them around with tongs. Hot shattered glass and boiling water are among the last things I want to deal with in my life. Then I learned about the very dry and very neat oven method, which June Taylor uses. Simply put your jars (without lids) on a sheet pan in a 225 oven for about 10 minutes. I do this when I begin cooking, and then turn off the oven until my preserves are ready. Then I slide out the rack with the sheet pan and ladle in the preserves from above before sealing and moving them to a wire rack to cool overnight.
• If you’re making preserves to eat soon, don’t worry about jars. Just put them into a container that you can refrigerate, and keep them chilled.
• I took a marmalade class with June Taylor last year, and her advice has stuck in my mind — use the least amount of sugar possible, choose the smallest fruit, and avoid commercial pectin. All of this is to create a preserve that has the purest, most intense flavor. Traditional recipes call for a lot of sugar — often equal weight as the fruit. June Taylor’s preserves are about 20% sugar… and yours can be be, too. She said that large fruit is often amped up with water, which dilutes the flavor… and goes against a “bigger is better” mantra. Luckily, you’ll sometimes find smaller fruit on sale for lower prices, simply because of their size. Take advantage of that because low sugar, no-additive preserves means that each jar contains a lot of fruit — and fruit is always more expensive than sugar. When I calculate the cost of fruit for each pint jar of preserves that I’ve made so far, they run between $3.00 to $5.00/jar.
• Cook at high heat in relatively small batches (I do about 2# of fruit per pot, and have made a couple pots in a night). This will help preserve the flavor of the fruit, so that it doesn’t taste cooked. If cooking that much at once is intimidating, cook in batches in a non-stick saute pan; you’ll get more familiar with how it acts with every batch — and such a small size will only take 3-5 minutes each. The LATimes does it this way.
• Firm-ripe and organic fruits are best. Herbs, spices, and combinations of fruit are fair game in preserves.  Always have lemons on hand so that the juice can add acidity.

And thanks to Erin for starting me on the preserving-with-alcohol kick. Back when I was looking up rhubarb recipes, I came across this post about her rhubarb schnapps last year. It made me realize that the only thing better to add to fruit than sugar and water is alcohol.

And thanks to my reader, Aaron, who gave me great advice to start off my preserve-making.

I’ve given a lot of thought to temperature recently. I’m often boiling sugar… and watching my candy thermometer… and reading through books and recipes specifying temperatures… and noticing how temperature can affect everything edible.

Objectively, the temperatures that affect food are in a relatively narrow range, and I thought, why not put them together onto one list?

So, that’s what I constructed on my Temperature Scale page in the sidebar on the right-hand side of the screen; you can also click here to see it.

I’ve always liked historical timelines that incorporate disparate events to put things into perspective, so I just think it’s cool to see so many disparate foods together — sweet and savory — on a temperature basis. You can see how foods act individually… and get some idea of how they act in the presence of other foods… and how different foods act differently or the same at the same temperature… and how there’s somewhat of a progression, from animal fats to meats to sugars to vegetable oils to salt. I like looking at it with the concept of simultaneity in mind.

It’s not a complete list… but it’s quite a start… and I’ll add it through the course of more research. Also, the temperatures cannot all be taken as absolute gospel; it’s probably most useful to insert the words “around” before many numbers. This uncertainty can be due to the effects of time, the presence of other ingredients, the different substances that can be contained in one type of food, and the fact that sources differ on some numbers.

It’s also interesting in the context of cooking temperatures. Although ovens are usually btw 300-450F, it’s very rare for the temperature of the food to actually get that hot. Only sometimes, the exterior temperature of a food matches the ambient temp. I think about it like this — the temperature of the oven (or pot or whatever cooking vessel) doesn’t really dictate what the food will be cooked to, it affects the rate at which the food is cooked; I guess like acceleration. A 450 oven will try to pull the food up to that temp faster than a 350 oven. That’s why, say, cupcakes that are baked in an oven that is too hot won’t necessarily burn them to a crisp — but they’ll get pointy tops, and may be underbaked on the inside and overbaked on the outside.

Anyway, just try skimming the list slowly — letting your eyes run down the temperatures and foods. Maybe they’ll want to jump back to connect some dots… or just keep going.

And the next time you pre-heat your oven to 450, think about how many foods would be affected on the way to that temp.

The information on the scale comes from (the absolutely extraordinary book) On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee; Cookwise by Shirley Corriher; The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart; The Bread Builders by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott; Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Remolif Shere, and my notes from CIA-Greystone.