Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Seltzer wars

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seltzer.jpg I bought myself a seltzer bottle for Christmas. Isn’t it pretty?

At first, I couldn’t make it work. Then I noticed the cartridges not only said “Cream” but also said NO2 instead of CO2. (I had those cartridges because that’s what the chick at Williams-Sonoma sold me, okay?) I took the cartridges back, got the ones labeled “Soda,” and discovered they work much, much better.

Normally I drink carbonated water mixed with a slug or two of Torani syrups, available in nearly every flavor you can think of (and even more, if you buy the full-sugar ones — currently i use the sugar free ones flavored with Splenda). I hope adulterating perfectly good water with syrup removes it from my “glasses of water per day” total, but I can’t say that with certainty.

The best thing about making the bottle of soda is, of course, adding the CO2 to the water. You add the cartridge to the cartridge holder, carefully screw it in… and when the seal on the cartridge is pierced, WHOOMP! The water bubbles up. Then you shake the bottle a few times (to distributed the CO2?) and you’re good to go.

Now that I have used the seltzer bottle (successfully), I can give you a side-by-side comparison of how the bottle stacks up against a bottle of carbonated water (say, Crystal Geyser) bought at the store:

Seltzer bottle Bottle of water
Attractiveness High None
Start-up cost $50 inc. in price of bottle
Price per liter .50 (assuming box of cartridges at $5.00) .88 (assuming 1.25 liter bottle at $1.10)
Sodium As much as your drinking water Low, but definitely there
Fizziness On par with beer On par with soda
Trash left over One small cartridge per liter(recyclable) One plastic bottle per 1.25 liters (recyclable)
Liberal guilt assuaged Much None

Clearly in the short run it’s much more cost-effective to keep buying the carbonated water at the store, but I much, much prefer using the seltzer bottle. It tastes better, there’s no sodium, and best of all, I’m not filling up our recyclables container every week with four or five bottles.

So if you’re like me and a)like carbonated water and b)like to make your own Italian sodas with Torani syrup, I highly recommend picking up a seltzer bottle. There are both cheaper ones and bigger ones out there, depending on your needs.

Recycled paper and chocolate

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Via the Accidental Hedonist, there is a settlement to the Hershey’s trademark infraction suit concerning a Hershey’s bar appearing on the cover of a biography of Hershey. The story contains the best quote of the Foodie year:

Author Michael D’Antonio called the settlement “a victory for people who can’t tell the difference between recycled paper and chocolate”

Hahahahahahahaha.

Seriously, I don’t like the mouthfeel of Ghirardelli’s anymore — I can’t imagine trying to stomach a Hershey’s bar.

Despite being fairly sick yesterday — I didn’t get out of bed until 11am, and I don’t know when the last time that happened, other than it was undoubtedly Before Kids — I felt an urge to start baking. Like Christmas didn’t cure me of it. So I made Layered Brownies last night and Cocoa-Chocolate Chip Muffins this morning, both from Lisa Yockelson’s ChocolateChocolate. And it’s not like I have a fleet of people coming in to celebrate the New Year!

(The Cocoa-Chocolate Chip muffins seem to have turned out better than the Chocolate Chocolate Chip muffins I made from Baking By Flavor for my birthday — today’s muffins are a nice deep brown, whereas the ones on my birthday were kind of a light brown and nowhere near chocolatey enough.)

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I am wondering how I’m going to get back into the swing of things next week. We’re all waking up late — even the kids aren’t getting up until 9. Have I really been in the habit of getting up at 6 to meet my friends for early morning runs? This is going to take some doing.

Whole Fish

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I was reading Barbara’s post at Tigers and Strawberries about shopping for lemons at Whole Foods. One paragraph definitely stood out for me:

However, once I got up to the fish counter, and leaned in to take a look, the heavy smell of fish once again got to me. It was bad enough that I will not buy fish from them, but at least the smell is confined to within a few feet of the fish counter.

I have the same problem at the Whole Foods near me. At both of them, in fact. I do not buy fish from Whole Foods. I have no problem buying beef, chicken, pork… but I skip right past the fish counter because the smell is so overwhelming. I have no such problem at Lunardi’s, which has beautiful fish nicely laid out. What’s Whole Foods doing wrong?