Food

Typical lunch:  A ham or turkey sandwich with lettuce and onions (actually usually just a half sandwich), surrounded with some crunchy veggies and tomatoes, green tea and half a Coke.  Usually a mug of chocolate milk too, but I had cheese on the sandwich.

Typical dinner:  3-4 oz of meat, a green veggie, a yellow/orange/red veggie, a tossed salad, 2 small glasses of wine.  I only make shrimp rolls about once a week though.  Pic is from last year, but the best one I could find.  And assorted fresh fruit for dessert.

I seldom make breakfast.  When I do, it is usually 2 fried eggs on a pancake with maple sausage.  I have the pancake down to a science.  3 spoonfuls of commercial mix, stirred with enough milk to leave it thick but pourable.  Small non-stick pan, heated to 375F (I have an infrared thermometer, sprayed with extra-virgin olive oil).  Pancake mix poured in immediately.  Two minutes on each side.

Turning the pancake can be tricky.  I can't just flip it up and have it come down centered in the pan, but I have a very thin flexible spatula that helps.  Another brief olive oil spray and both eggs go in.  The instant the egg whites are set, I turn off the heat, flip them, and count to 10.  I like a slighty runny yolk, but I can't stand runny whites.

I have both maple and country link sausage.  Maple goes with the pancakes and eggs.  On the rare occasions when I just make pancakes with maple syrup (the real stuff), I use the country links or bacon.  I pre-cook and freeze them, so it is just a matter of thawing them out.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about my diet, but I had the first picture and wanted to use it.  And all the rest just naturally followed.  😁

A Pleasant Surprise

Sometimes I get lucky.  Sometimes I forget stuff but get away with it.  For example decades ago, I abandoned a grocery cart full of food.  Not deliberately, of course.  The store was trying to prevent people stealing carts, so they install pylons around the entrance that prevented customers from rolling the carts to their car.  Instead, you had to drive to drive to the front of the store, wait in line and load your groceries from the imprisoned cart directly into your car.  

Well, one time, I walked to my car and simply drove home.   When I got there, no groceries!  I drove back immediately and the cart was still there.  👍.   The store abandoned the policy soon and removed half the pylons.  Too much negative feedback I assume.

Well, today I did something like that again.  Walmart has a self checkout area that is way faster than waiting in the cashier lines.  Unless I am buying cases of cat food (where each one has to be scanned individually) I go there.  A cashier can scan one can and enter "24" but customers can't do that in self-checkout.  

I wasn't buying cat food and I am used to the quicker self-checkout anyway.  Loaded my bags, but them in the cart, but the bags in the car and drove home.  But unloading everything I realized I didn't have the milk and 3 other items.  I had left 1 bag at the checkout station!

About $10 worth of stuff.  So there was a dilemma...  Was it worth driving back to Walmart?  The next customer might have simply taken the bag along with their own stuff (innocently or not).  The clerks might have just taken the stuff and restocked the shelves.  And gas isn't free.  And it was hot outside.  And I had other things to do.  And I didn't want milk that had been sitting around for 45 minutes...  👎

But I decided to drive back.  I stood in line at Customer Service for 10 minutes.  I explained to the clerk there about leaving a bag behind and showed him my receipt with the missing items.  He checked some place in an adjoining room, then simply walked away halfway across the store.   

I didn't follow him because I didn't want to lose my place in the line.  But I watched him.  He finally waved at me and pointed down.  So I went.  3 of the 4 items were there in a bag but no milk (which I wasn't sure I still wanted anyway - I am very careful about perishable items).

But he said "just grab another and you can leave".  Cool!  Literally, nice fresh-cold milk!

So many parts of that could have just not worked.  So as I said, I am lucky sometimes.  Just thought I would share this...

Cooking

 I love to prepare food and cook it.  I find it satisfying to do the knifework, plan the timing, handle the food, and then eat it (and preparing food and eating it are two different pleasures).  I don't know exactly when that started, but I remember being in the kitchen as a young teenager.  Mom listened to Broadway musicals and that probably lured me in to start.  But I've always enjoyed good food.  

So when I asked "can I help?" I got a few minor jobs.  Peel potatoes and carrots.  Mash the potatoes.  Watch the timer.  Eventually, I got to actually cut some veggies.  I got better at stuff.  

It's not like I liked it better than a lot of other activities (golfing, bowling, building simple wood stuff, HO trains, Marvel comic books, reading sci-fi), but it was one.  And both Mom and I enjoyed classical and Broadway music.

I had always been the primary dish-washer (being eldest child) and baby-sat the younger siblings (being eldest child).  But one of the pleasures of baby-sitting was that I was also trusted to make a simple dinner at 12 (Chung King Chicken Chow Mein in the old double cans was my favorite, being easy to manage).

I was a Boy Scout.  And I had this idea that a guy should be able to do anything it took to get by day-to-day.  I would have taken Home Economics in school, but that was reserved for girls (guys took wood-working shop) back then (mid 60s).

I came across a funny phrase back then; "If you like bacon, you have to get down in the mud and keep the hogs happy".  Meaning, if you want something, you have to be able to do it yourself.  I liked good food.

I've probably mentioned this before (you blog long enough and you can repeat yourself) but Mom was a very average cook and seldom met a vegetable that couldn't be boiled for too long.  When I discovered stir-frying and steaming later it really opened my eyes to food.

In college, I earned money and/or free meals by cooking sweet&sour pork for other guy's cheap dates in the dorm rec room.  

There's a slight story behind that.  Male dorms never had stovetops in the rec rooms.  Female dorms did.  In 1969, the Univ of MD arranged for a coed dorm by application and approval.  I was approved.  WOW, there was a stovetop (and a bathtub in the shower room BTW).  

Well, I had nothing to cook WITH, so I took a job selling cookware.  Great stuff.  Stainless steel inside and out with a layer of copper in between for heat diffusion.  But if you sold one set, you got to keep the sales kit.  I sold one set and quit and had a full set of cookware that was worth a year's tuition!

So I was able to cook meals at the new coed dorm.  I told the other guys in the dorm that I could cook sweet&sour pork.  The cost was either $5 above ingredient cost or I would buy enough to feed "them and a date and me too.  I had dropped out of the dining hall expense and bought a mini-fridge (good for beer and cheap steaks).  Fed myself better than the dining hall did, and cheaper too.

A business major on my floor of the dorm arranged to sell cheesesteak subs for 2 hours each night for his major.  I cooked a LOT of those.  He offerred better than minimum wage and 1 free sub each night.  So, I love to cook.

Anyway, here was dinner last night.  Cubed smoked pork with smothered onions, broccoli, bicolor corn-on-the-cob, and a nice tossed salad.  With zinfandel wine and leftover cocktail.  I love variety in a meal.  

A bit of pan-frying adds taste and appearance to corn...  Well, there was oil in the pan, so why not use it?

And it makes a salad better when you have variety to choose from.

Dessert was assorted cut-up fresh fruit.

Meal Prep

I enjoy preparing and cooking food.  Slicing, chopping, peeling, etc is relaxing in a way.  I have a good set of Wusthof Classic knives and holding block that I bought from a cutlery store going out of business that was literally putting up the "Going Out Of Business" sign as I walked past.  25% of original price.

I added some individual knives later at regular price online but they weren't worth it mainly.  I find I don't really use the slightly curved "chef knives" often.  But there were 2 real gems.  The "Deli Knife" is great.  Though designed for cutting sandwiches without tearing them apart, the serrated blade and offset handle makes it easy to cut anything.
 

The Santoku knife has airpockets on the sides to reduce food sticking.

I use the Santoku for almost everything, the deli knife frequenty, and my paring knife next most. 

I use the Santoku daily, the deli knife frequently, and my 2 paring knives often (one is a mini santoku).

I have other cheaper sets, some knives of which are not bad.  And a set of Ginsu knives (they are actually decent.  Someday, I am going to built a knife block to hold them all.  The construction is not all that complicated, but it would be about 2' wide.  I would lose some counter space, but gain some drawer space.  But at least that "once in a month knife" would be easily available.

Like that "scary-as-hell-cleaver"...  I almost cut off a fingertip the first time I used it!  Sharp AND heavy with a round slippery wood handle.  What could go wrong with THAT?  I think I should reshape the handle..  It might be safe after that.  Or in case of zombies or werewolves...

But I'm not writing this about knives and prep work.  I'm writing about cooking food.  I'm not really great at it.  I forget to start the timer for simmering spaghetti while I am cutting up my salad.  Or the timer goes off and I turn of the wrong burner.  I do a lot of M/W reheating to adjust, LOL!  It all works out well enough in the end. 

I'm somewhere between the harried parent cooking boxed mac and cheese, that show "Worst Cook", and Iron chef.

Partly, I try to do too much.  When Dad was here in his last days, he said "Wow, you cook Sunday Dinner every night".  Maybe...  I got into the habit of a small amount of meat, a green veg, a red or yellow veg, sometimes a starch, and always a fancy tossed salad.  Yeah, healthy, but I like that stuff.

Dad was a "meat&potatoes guy.  I could give him a small piece of steak and a potato, and he wanted bread with it (starch city).  But he hadn't had green veggies that hadn't been boiled to death before and was a bit surprised by them.  Mom learned to cook from her Mom and she was French, so veggies were boiled within in an inch of their lives. 

The first time I ever had "Chinese Food" a whole world of veggies opened up for me.  "Chewy veggies?"  what a concept!  I learned streaming, I learned stir-frying, and later M/W all of which delivered a "crunch" to veggies.  Dad said the best meals he ever had were here.  Which did lead me to think why he hadn't learned to cook and share that duty with Mom.

But even THAT is not why I'm writing.

I'm writing because sometimes I DON'T cook.  No, not "takeout" or "delivery".  The cold plate...

This was a recent dinner when I was too tired to actually cook.  Sliced hot sausage, cubed cooked ham, cooked shrimp, chicken breast, olives, diced tomatoes, reheated potato, reheated spinach, and the small container has homemade cocktail sauce.  The glasses have Zinfandel wine and a cocktail of gin/pomegranate juice/gingerale (I call it a "Cavebear Sling").  And not a SINGLE thing I cooked that day.  LOL!



 

My Personal CoVid19 Situation

This is partly to organize my own thoughts and partly to keep friends and family informed...

I am prepared for a long stay at home.  Some of it is just routine habit; some of it is in response to concerns about food and energy systems.

I am a homebody.  I routinely don't leave the yard for days at a time.  Granted, "day's at a time" is not weeks at a time, but I could manage.  I routinely have weeks  of home-cooked meals in the freezers (kitchen fridge and older basement fridge). 

When I heard that CoVid19 ad escaped China months ago, I added more canned goods to my pantry.  Nothing I wouldn't use up eventually, but stuff I normally wouldn't eat except in an emergency.  I even bought bottled water for the first time ever. 

As things have gotten worse, I have added to that.  A pack of TP here, a 3-pack of kleenex there, a few more cans of soup, a few cans of fruit, cans of tomatoes.  Bags of potatoes and oinions (I can't cook without them).   I missed out on the antiseptic-wipes, I thought for sure I had several packs of them from when Dad was here.  Maybe I sent them with him.

If the electricity doesn't fail for more than a couple hours, I actually have enough food for 3 months, and I'm not talking about frozen TV dinners.   If the electricity fails for 24 hours, I'm screwed!

One never knows what will happen in the face of social disruption.  I trust that we will all get through this OK with some cooperation.  People in democracies tend to rise to the challenge.

The thing that might challenge me most is not having fresh fruit available.   I like meat.  Small amounts are fine.  But 75% of what I eat is veggies and fruit.  Its not a diet, just my taste preference.

I have mentioned before that I have been immune to influenza virus since childhood.  This CorVid19 is not that virus.  I might be as vulnerable to it as anyone.  That's oddly scary.  After a lifetime of seeming-immunity to viruses, I'm not sure about this one.  It is entirely possible that the genetic reasons I have been free of them in the past makes me equally or more vulnerable to this one.

There is an ancient Chinese curse that say's "May you live in interesting times".  This is an "interesting time".  I don't want to live in "interesting times" like this! 

But I also look at this in another way.  Some bad things happen randomly.  The dinosaurs were wiped out by a random meteoroid.  There have also been other extinction events.  Shit happens sometimes. 

But I offer a word of hope.  This Corona Virus is not going to kill us off.  It is individually- threatening, but not species-threatening.  There will be some unfortunate individuals who die from it  (and probably fewer than from the regular seasonal flu). 

Be careful, but don't panic...  Always keep a towel nearby.

Indoor Gardening

Some plants grow well indoors under lights.  Lettuce is one of them, and I love my salads!

The specific names don't matter, but from left to right:  A loosehead , a purple romaine, an endive, and a red leaf.  The nice thing is that I can just take scissors and cut off a plant 1" above soil-level and it grows back.  Each 24" tray holds just enough that each plant grows back in time to be harvested again.  They go on for months that way.  And they are completely organic!

I got the planter trays from WalMart, I mix the soil myself (peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, and slow-release 12-6-6 fertilizer) but any houseplant potting soil will do.  I grow them under fluorescent lights on a rack.








I use standard lights (I used to use those Gro-Lux lights, but they are expensive).  But I learned that the white lights work fine IF the color index is right.  Plants like the red and blue ends of the spectrum so make sure the "temperature" listed on the box or label is at least 5,000K if you try this yourself.  BTW (possibly over-explaining) green leaves look green because the plants DON'T absorb that color.  But purple leaves do, so the 5,000K that produces all colors works for them too.

I also grow basil and celery, but I just replanted those trays, so no pics at the moment.

Since I'm discussing lettuce, here is my typical tossed salad:  Several lettuces, grape tomatoes, onion, mini-cucumbers (because they are seedless), chick peas, black olives, green olives, bell pepper, and sometimes a chopped mushroom or carrot or cubed ham.  Some people like cheese or croutons; I don't.  Otherwise, if you can eat it raw, I add it.  Except cabbage type stuff (I love them as sides, go figure).  They don't go well with tomatoes...

Well, since I'm discussing food, here's my typical meal:  3-4 oz non-fish meat (I hate fish), a large salad, and 2 side veggies (a green and a red/purple/orange/yellow).  With a couple glasses of Zinfandel (goes with everything I eat).  Dessert is nuts and fresh fruits. 

Sometimes some vanilla ice cream and Lindor/Lindt truffles...  Extra Dark, White, and Hazelnut.  I buy a 120 piece box of each about once a year.  360 pieces, 365 days. 


Tomorrow, I sit down with the seed catalogs and my seed tray and see what I need to order for next year.


The current model is on the left.  But the old one is good for carrying seed vials out to the garden.  All the vials (specimen containers I found on sale once) are numbered top and sides and I keep a descriptive list on a spreadsheet and the tray stays in the basement refrigerator (which I use as a root cellar for bulk stuff.

There is a fine line between "organized" and "obsessive", and I'm not sure which side I'm on.  LOL!  Probably, since I wonder about it, I am (barely, I hope) just under it. 

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year To All.

Chili

I make some of the world's worst chili.  Too bland, too hot, too many beans, not enough beans, too much or too little tomatoes.   But I got it right tonight!

A true chili affectianado woudn't like it.  I'm a New England boy and "hot spicy" is not part of growing up there.  My favorite fast food chili comes from Wendy's, LOL

But this one was perfect for me.  I think it was the leftover brown sugar carrots that I added.  Go ahead and laugh.  I had some scalp sweat...

Productive Stuff

Some days I just have to catch up on household stuff.  And yesterday and today were good for that.  I let things collect sometimes and then get through them all at once.

I made bread today AND rolls.  I make bread every couple of weeks.  I've tweaked the bread machine recipe until I LOVE my own bread and visitors who have any comment in surprise at the taste (yes, I'm bragging).  I use beer instead of water; and I add 2 tbls of dried oregano and a tbls each of garlic powder and onion powder.  It really makes a difference!  Making rolls is a bit new to me so I follow the recipe exactly, but I will probably start changing the ingredients in those too.  Bread and rolls freeze wonderfully, so I can store them.

The IRS sent me a notice that I owed them some money a couple of weeks ago.  I was surprised since I use tax software.  The notice didn't say exactly why.  I called them yesterday and got to an agent after 45 minutes on hold.  After going around in circles a few minutes with IRS terminology, I finally realized that I had simply forgotten to include a CHECK for the amount I owed above the withholding.  50 years of paying taxes and I finally messed up!

I figured out why afterwards.  I had intended to use the electronic payment the software offerred but decided not to because of the fee.  And then sent the tax form the next day thinking I had paid electronically.  At least the penalty was only $13.

Next on the list was a recurring fee on my credit card for an anti-virus software for the Windows computer I bought in March and then promptly stopped using because I like Apple better.  Researching the company, I found a number to call with questions.  The area code made me suspicious, so I looked up the software name and discovered it was a scam.

The recurring fee was $8.99 per month and that is almost $100 and I have never paid that for anti-virus software.  The scam-busting site stated clearly that it was indeed a scam program that prevented its own removal and also prevented other software from detecting it.  Further, it gave false reports of infections.   It could be downloaded directly OR unknowingly by a user visited a legitimate but hacked website without the user knowing about it.

Anyway, I contacted the credit card company and spoke to an agent who said they were removing the charges (I read them the scam-busting site description).  But they warned me the company could dispute my claim and then we would all have to argue about by letter.  I doubt the company will contest.  Meanwhile, I have printed out special instructions for how to remove the software.

You can't remove the software from the infected computer directly, but you can download removal software to another computer and transfer it to the infected one at boot-up with a USB thumb drive.  It's an annoying process, one of those deals where you have to press a couple of keys at start to enter a safe mode and do about 10 things after.  I've done that sort of thing a few times.

The last annoying thing was to change my Federal tax withholding so that I wouldn't owe anything next year.  I had printed out an IRS form and sent it to them in April, but it turns out you have to send it to the company that pays you.

I got to them online and struggled to log in.  They are one of those places I visit once a year and the password expires in 3 months.  So they wanted me to answer some previously given security questions.

I keep a printed list of all sites I visit with the user name, passwords, purpose, and security question answers in a notebook.  I keep the list in Excel on a computer not connected to the internet, of course.  My list didn't have the security question answers!  And my best guess to the one they asked was not accepted.  ARGGHHH!

Turns out I had an old page of sites in my notebook and found my password on a newer page.  I really need to redo the list.  It is full of hand-written changes and arrows to new passwords, etc, that it is nearly unreadable.  That a new project...

But I found the newest entry and signed in.  The site was so slow, I fed the cats while waiting for it to load.  But after that, I changed the withholding easily.  Yay!

Having taken care of the serious things, I balanced my checkbook, then turned my attention to the clutter on the dining room table.  I have piles on clipped out newspaper recipes, interesting sites to visit, DIY ideas, and gardening suggestions.  I have several boxes full of that stuff.  One of these days I will go through them and save no more than a 6" high stack!  But not today.

With enough space on the dining room table to actually eat at, I turned my attention to the basement.  Lots of work to do there.  I have been working on the new compost bin few a few weeks, and things clutterred up in the basement.

So, do the projects that stuff was sitting around waiting to be used.  None took a lot of time, but there were many.  First, mark the places in the Spring Bulb garden where I can plant more bulbs without disturbing the existing ones.   You may have seen pictures of cardboard covering the tulip cages.  Well, I had to wait longer for the hyacinth and daffodil foliage to die back naturally..

I surrounded the daffodil areas with rope and held it in place with tent stakes.  Then I added more cardboard to the hyacinth cages held down with more tent stakes.  I have daylillies arounfd the front of the bed, but they will still be growing when it is time to fill the rest of the area with more daffodils  In a few days, I will cover the entire non-daylily area with black plastic to kill the weeds. 

The Spring bulbs like to stay dry in Summer, so they will be happy.  And I should be free of weeds there by October.  The voles will like the cover, but they can't eat daffodils or lilies and the tulips and hyacinths are in wire cages!  When they emerge looking for food, the cats will have fun...

Next was to put the 3 Venus Fly Traps into proper containers.  I researched it.  Those tiny 2" pots they come in are no good.  They need deeper containers and more soil.  Not "dirt" soil, but  a mixture of relatively sterile peat moss and sand, 2 parts to 1 part.  The containers for each one are 6" deep and wide.  They also need at least 4 hours of direct sun (a surprise to me) and water "with few dissolved solids" (distilled or rainfall water).  No wonder most people who buy them are unsuccessful at keeping them alive. 

So I bought a gallon of distilled water, and I'm saving the rain from the large rain gauge.  I'm also making a rain collection device.  It's a plastic trashcan lid with a hole in the center attached to a 1 gallon container.  Distilled water is only 88 cents at Walmart, but free rain water is even cheaper.  I LOVE to make useful things!

Speaking of the Venus Fly Traps, I have had a blast feeding them.  They catch some insects on their own, but I want them to grow well and send off baby shoots.  Eventually, I want to have a wading pool bog of them.  So I've been catching flies and small cabbage worms for them.  Heh-heh-heh!

I and the cats are in and out of the house often enough so that houseflies get in.  I've learned how to catch them by hand,  I sneak up on them against the window and their escape paths are limited there.  I catch them about 25% of the time.  A quick flick of the hand close to the floor and they are stunned.  Into the Venus Fly Traps they go.  Watching the traps close on them (a slight rub with a toothpick triggers the trap hairs) is darkly fascinating...

The next basement project was to plant lettuce and boy choy and celery in windowsill boxes.  I don't keep the boxes on a windowsill, but those are good containers for the top of the deck rails.  I tie them down so Summer storms don't blow them off.  I harvest individual leaves so they keep growing, but eventually they flower and are bitter, so I needed new plantings. 

I have endive, red romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and arugula in 3 containers.  Another container has bok choy (the grocery store stuff is old and tough).  Another has celery that was already growing in small pots but I transplanted to give them more space to grow.  If you have never just added celery leaves to a salad, you should try it.  They are MUCH tastier.

Refilled the regular bird feeder with black oil sunflower seeds (a weekly thing) and refilled the finch feeder with nyger seed (a daily thing).  Topped the 3'x5' pond with water; we haven't gotten much rain in June.  I have Sweet Flag and Oriental waterlilies in there.  I should add some goldfish.

Saw a groundhog in the backyard a few days ago, so I set up my live trap baited with a 4" piece of old honeydew melon.  They love melons.  Baited the squirrel live trap with peanut butter.  They can't resist that.  They get relocated.

I'm way late on planting the deck pots with flowers, so I reluctantly went to Walmart and bought 3 pots of marigolds; they were cheap.  They are all just 4 individual plants in each pot and easily separated, so I will have 2 in each small container and 3 in the larger ones.  I also have self-grown seedlings of Zinnias and Salvias which I'll add to the hanging baskets. 

I also found 4 matching 16" pots at Walmart and I will plant some Australian seeds in those.  The old pots are falling apart a bit and I wanted new ones that could stand being brought inside for the Winter.  I would have planted them sooner, but they need a lot of sand in the soil mix and I kept forgetting to buy some (my pre-printed shopping list somehow doesn't have "sand" on it, LOL!).

Finally, I went out and measured the tops of my new compost bin.  In spite of my best efforts, the 2-bin container isn't perfectly square and the tops have to be fitted to match what exists.  So I will be constructing deliberately non-square frames.  "Square" is theoretical; "Fitted" is reality. 

So after all that, it was time for dinner.  I splurged...  Thawed out a 4 oz beef tenderloin steak, cut up fresh asparagus, made a nice tossed salad, and de-silked a bicolor cob of corn.  Chopped up some cremini mushrooms, vidalia onion and red bell pepper.  Cooked all.  Got the steak to a perfect 130 degrees, the salad tossed with ranch dressing, and the aspargus and mushroom mix cooked al dente.  The corn was perfect.  Used the steak juice to make a sauce with horseradish, red wine, and garlic.

I think I earned it...

Thanksgiving Dinner

Before and after shots...

Smoked turkey thigh, corn on the cob, mashed sweet potato with honey and butter, tossed salad with italian dressing, asparagus with cheese sauce, assorted garnishes, and wine and a Cavebear Sling (1.5 oz gin, 1 oz of lemon juice, fill up glass with ginger ale over ice)...

 After...

Good holiday meal for oneself...  A bit late posting, but I enjoyed the meal. 

HAWKS!

WARNING, bird guts.  But not from cats...

There is a hawk around here lately.  I noticed it first a couple weeks ago.  It flew through the back yard catching nothing. 

Then last week, I happened to walk out onto the deck just as the hawk was going for a dove.  The hawk panicked and flew off.  The dove it was chasing panicked and crashed into the side of the house (flew away unharmed).

Yesterday morning, as the snow was falling, I looked out the bathroom window to see the finches at the thistle feeder and the other birds at the sunflower seed feeder.  None!  Huh...

Then right below the window, the hawk lifted off with some (ahem) mangled bird in its talons.  Well, that was sort of exciting; not something I've seen out the window before.

It took a few minutes to find out what happened (snow-blindness after just waking up from total bedroom darkness).  Then I found the spot.

It was some blackbird from the feathers.

The hawk apparently felt safe enough a few feet from the house!

And ate happily.

The other birds stayed away for 15 minutes.

I don't blame them.  But the lure of the feeders is strong.

They returned.  They have to.  Too much food.

I suspect that few birds live as long as they could.  They have many predators.  Hawks, weasels, snakes...  Cats too, but I doubt that cats kill as many as the other bird predators.  Hawks need a few birds every day.  So do weasels.  Snakes get some, but perhaps more eggs than adult birds.

So keep the cats from killing birds and it probably won't make much difference.  Fewer cats killing birds, more weasels and hawks.

But seeing that hawk fly off with the remains of the bird is caught WAS very impressive.

You never have a camera ready when the really SURPRIZE things happen!

Good Things

After mentioning the horrible beef short ribs recipe, Tuesday, I should mention that I did cook a lot of good food at the same time.  So its not me.

Cooked 3 chicken thighs, bone in, baked, with my own version on "shake&bake" coating.  Came out wonderfully.  Sauteed 3 hot italian sausages for later use in a sausage stew with roasted green and red bell peppers, cannellini beans, minced carrots and tomatoes.  Marinated some large shrimp in garlic, ginger, and onion for a few hours.  Then coated them in bread crumbs and deep fried them.  Added onion rings to the oil coated in pancake batter after that.  I love my Fry Baby.  Once a month though for the fried stuff.  

And I smoked slabs of Boston Butt pork in my offset cooker.  Came out great.  Most was cut into smaller pieces and frozen, but I made a wonderful pork stew with the bit I kept in the fridge. 

That was dinner.  With steamed asparagus in a cheese sauce, a corn on the cob, and fresh green beans, with a tossed salad with homemade Italian dressing.

I don't eat too plainly, LOL!  So that bad beef rib recipe the other day really annoyed me.  Maybe that why I made sure to eat well today, though.

Tomorrow, I'll have tenderloin steak.  I "fry" it, but with the good cast iron pans, its like broiling.

Bad Recipe

I like beef short ribs.  Tastey stuff, but I've never found a good recipe to keep them moist the next day.  So I tried one online for the slow cooker.  It sounded interesting.  Onions, brown sugar, ketchup, red wine vinegar...  And make a gravy after.

OMG, it was horrible!  I have certainly made stuff that I wouldn't serve to friends and eaten it myself just not to be wasteful, but THIS took some work to make palatable.  I had to remove the short ribs from the godawful concoction, rinse it all clean, and then remake a standard beef stew (potatoes, carrots, celery, tomato and add the ribs back in.  It is "OK".

Who makes these recipes and who on Earth rates them 5 stars of 5?  OK, tastes differ, but this had conflicting tastes only an orc could love... 

Waiting

Stream of semi-conciousness, "day-in-the-life" stuff...

And waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  For what?  Oh just the excavators who gave me a quote for scooping off the backyard ridge.  Why am I waiting?  Oh because they said they would be here "sometime this week" with  day's notice and "this week" is pretty much over now. 

OK, I actually needed some time.  It's amazing how much stuff needs to be moved to prepare for destruction.  I had to dig up 12 daylilies and pot them up for later replanting.  THey wren't happy where they were anyway.  And there were all those leftover posts and boards from the deck rebuild last Fall.  One can always use big chunks of lumber for "something".  I had to drag about a ton of THAT away from the ridge.

And then there was the birdfeeder on the pole in the ground.  Had to pull THAT up.  It wasn't easy.  It's been 3' deep for 20 years.  And just figuring where to PUT it during the excavation work was a trick.  I eventually did some minor repairs (well, as long as it was there, you know?) and propped it up against the deck.  If they get THAT close to the deck with their equipment, I want to know anyway.

Oops, I forgot the pots I sunk in the ground to make the stepldder level for refilling the birdfeeder.  Had to dig them up.  And, oh lord, the vinyl-coated wire cages I used to support the pepper plants last year were buried under wild vines, so they had to be cut loose with pruners. 

Wow, I forgot about the old heat pump support base that I used to help support the stepladder,  AND the old cement base that used to be a boot scraper and I'll-repair-that-someday.  Yeah right, but I had to move it.

So I'm ready.  Oh blast, the side of the slope is covered with flagstones from a previous project and I NEED them to make a stepping-off point for the new deck when I get around to THAT!  And dang, they are buried in vines.  So I need something to cut the vines and expose the old flagstones.  Ecxept the sickle is dull and needs to be re-sharpened. 

So into the basement I go with it to the grinding wheel.  2 minutes and you could dismember a mean bear with it.  Not that I have anything against bears, you understand, just a metaphor.  Or is that an analogy? 

Anyway, I start chopping vines with the newly-sharpened sickle.  Works great.   I can see the flagstones again, first time in years.  Woah, what if there are snakes under those flagstones?  Better go get the leather gloves.  Where DID I put those?  Oh yeah, in a sealed tub so that spiders wouldn't crawl in.  You laugh?  I have black widow spiders around here.  And I'm not allergic to MUCH but I don't want to stretch it too far.  Just in case, I stomp on the gloves a few times...

So, with leather gloves on (and nothing wet inside), I go after the flagstones.  Oh damn, there's poison ivy growing in there and I'm wearing shorts.  So into the house to put on long work pants...  That being done, back out to the flagstones.  Oh wait, where are the gloves.  Back in the bedroom where I changed into long pants. 

So now I'm at the flagstones (really finally).  I lift them up, one by one and toss them onto the lawn.  Something is weird about that.  Not only no snakes but no ant nests or anything.  I check...  The dirt is oddly solid. 

Whoa, there is carpet under the flagstones!  I forgot about that.  Old stuff to supress weeds.  I can't pull it up; the vines have sent roots through it, nailing it to the dirt below.  I think I will just let the excavators take care of that part!

So now I have 3 dozen flagstone pieces sitting on the open lawn, I'm drenched in sweat (yes real salty sweat - my maternal grandmother would have been offended "animals sweat; people "perspire" - yeah right)),  and the wiping towel I have with me is as soaked as I am.  Time to go inside.

Inside, I collapse.  So it starts to rain.  Oh damn, I have a radio outside.  Up I jump to retrieve the radio.  With that in the basement, I go out and look around for other items.  While I'm out there the rain stops suddenly.  Not even 1/8th inch...

So... I decide to try an save some azaleas.  Noyt to dig them up (there is way too much poison ivy around them) but I can try some cuttings.  Even THAT was tricky.  The poison ivy is thicker than I realized.  But I get branches cut off of 3 bushes that I think I recall being one each red, white, and pink.  Maybe. 

I'm starving.  When did I eat last?  Lat night.  I don't bother with breakfast much and I think I skipped lunch to get the worksite ready.  So I eat a whole peach, a plum, a handful of grapes.  And brew a cup of green tea to keep me going...

Its not enough and it is close to dinnertime.  I feed the cats a LOT more regularly than I do me.  So I feed them and then look in the fridge.  I have cooked hot italian sausage, so I can make sausage stew. 

Don't laugh, its good.  Coined sausage, sauteed green peppers, minced onion and carrot for sweetness, and cannelini beans (OK white kidney beans), tomatoes and tomato juice for broth.  OK, its more a soup than a stew.

So I decide to change my usual recipe to a true stew.  Hot water, flour and chicken paste. 

I cook for myself.  Have done it since I was in college.  Not having any criticism is nice.  I know what I like to eat.  BUT!  You know how sometimes things don't come out as planned?  Well, I eat it anyway.  But sausage SOUP is good and sausage STEW is horrible.   Don't EVER add a flour-based thickener to sausage.  *I* sure won't ever again...  Worst meal I've made in a YEAR!

The meal was sort of saved by the salad I made of 2 heirloom tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and shaved carrot with Italian dressing.  And an ear of corn.  And 3 chocolate truffles...  And another peach, plum, and some strawberries.  And more wine than I usually drink.  I deserved it...

And I'm STILL waiting for the excavators to call me about the proposed schedule for removing the ridge!

Good thing I'm finally ready for them to arrive...  Finally.

Complaining

Have you ever felt you were cheated at a store?  And didn’t know what to do about it?  I did today, and I did something about it.

I shop at a particular grocery store.  I normally don’t question the weights of the fresh fruits and veggies.  I mean, how can I tell the difference between 2 pounds and 2.5 pounds of apples? 

But I CAN tell that a small handful of snow peas ISN’T .85 pound!  But that is what the register scale said.  When I challenged that as “ridiculous”, the cashier re-weighed it as .5 pounds.  THAT was still ridiculous, but several re-weighings got the same weight.  So I paid and went home.

I have a good quality Salter digital kitchen scale.  I checked the accuracy  by carefully measuring a pint of water (minus the container weight) and it showed PRECISELY 16 ounces (to the nearest 1/8 ounce).  So my digital scale was VERY accurate.

The .5 pound (8 ounces) of snow peas (according to the store receipt) actually weighed only 1 7/8 ounces according to my verified kitchen scale.  That’s a bit of a difference.

So I weighed most of the other fresh produce.  Same over-weight charge pattern!  I was annoyed.  But it would be my home scale against the store’s certified scales.  Of course they wouldn’t admit any error, and if I brought stuff back to the store for a reweigh, how could I prove I hadn’t removed some of the produce?

Ah, but there was the scale in the store. 

I called them.  I told them I suspected they had an inaccurate #4 register scale.  It took a while to get to the store manager...  First was the customer service desk.  They insisted the scales are accurate because they are checked every 2 weeks.  Then I got to the cashier, who remembered me because of the snow pea reweigh. 

When she couldn’t explain a way where the scale would be examined AND I would be advised about the result, I got to the store manager.  HE took it seriously.  I explained why I was sure my scale was accurate.  He agreed to check the scale immediately and call me back in 10 minutes.

I assume he simply grabbed a large can and compared the weights on different register scales.  I doubt he had a certified test weight on hand.  I expected a callback saying that the scales are tested regularly and were accurate.

I was wrong (which means I was right).  He reported that the #4 register  scale had some produce debris in it that caused inaccurate readings.  HE AGREED I WAS RIGHT!  So I asked about getting an adjustment to my bill on the percentage of inaccuracy.

He immediately assured me that I should come back soon with the receipt and he would refund 100% of the cost of all my weighed produce.  Wow, that was almost everything I bought.

I also asked “what about all the other customers who went through that register and were overcharged?”  He said they had no way to identify those customers.

They do.  I studied my receipt, and the register number is identified there.  There is a data string in the receipt, and I’m good at figuring those things out.  Date/time/store#/register/etc/etc.

AFTER I get my refund, I will point that out to him, and “suggest” he have the IT department arrange for similar refunds to those customers (via shopper club numbers). But if they don’t I’ll never know.

I did my part by checking something suspicious and questioning the store. 

You know what ELSE I did?  I decided to make a scale-tester for future use.  I took my bowls of accumulated coins (who uses coins anymore?) and scooped out about a pound of pennies.  I found the smallest lidded container that would hold them and even cut off enough duct tape to seal it.  Then I weighed the container, tape and pennies on my verified accurate digital scale, taking out pennies until the container and all weighed PRECISELY 16 ounces.

I’ll bring that to the store from now on, first to show to the manager, and for verifying the register scales in the future.

It pays to be willing to check on things you doubt.

A Food Interlude

I've been talking about losses, finances, and projects too much lately.  There is also food...

The medical charts I see say I should weigh 153 pounds.  I weighed 162 this morning, but its hard to get rid of those last pounds.  I don't worry about that TOO much.  The insurance charts say people about my weight over the medical charts live longer.  Living longer seems good.

But let's talk food here.  And not lots of it, but GOOD food!  And I don't mean really fancy food either.  I mean just good basic food.  I like fresh food I prepare myself.  I don't mean that I grow and grind the wheat for the bread for my sandwiches or anything like that.  But I do grow some food myself and shop mostly through the produce department of the local Safeway and bake some great bread (with my bread machine and lots of herbs and spices).  I buy my meat at a local butcher and liquor shop (it's an interesting place).

My garden wasn't much this year, as I am tearing it up to rebuild it.  But I did manage to grow bicolor corn, russian fingerling potatoes, and leeks in containers, and cukes and italian flat beans around cages in the old asparagus bed.

So here's what happened yesterday...

I cooked 3 chicken thighs (bone in for additional flavor) in the oven, and the thighs were coated in my home-mixed "shake and bake" .  I like thighs because they have more flavor and you can't really overcook them (anything from 175 to 190 is "just fine").  I had a small ear of corn-on-the-cob from my garden.  I won't get many, but they sure are sweet straight from the cornstalk.  I picked a dozen flat italian beans and simmered them 4 minutes dropping in the ear of corn after 1 minute.  I made a salad of a home-grown heirloom Aunt Gertie's Gold tomato, a home-grown 4" (and therefore seedless) cucumber, and a slice of a vidalia onion (purchased) and minced, with home-made italian dressing.  And I had a dessert of cut-up fresh peach, strawberry, green grapes, cantelope, a navel orange, and a plum.  With 2 glasses of old vine zinfandel...

And with a dark chocolate and a white chocolate Lindor truffle and a Dove caramel...

While watching my local Washington Nationals baseball team beat our closest rivals again, (sorry to all you Atlanta Braves fans) on TV and Marley AND Iza on my lap and feet... Wearing fleece-lined leather slippers...

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get better than that.

Food

Just some food thoughts that work for me...

Brussels sprouts cut in half or quarters, mixed with 4:1 ratio mushsrooms, steamed fer 4 minutes.  With simple butter, melted shredded cheese and milk, or cheese and a little lemon juice.

Or asparagus the same ways...  Or broccoli.

Or pork stew.  Boston butt cut into 1" cubes, simmered with cubed Yukon Gold potatoes, celery, carrots, and leeks for 20 minutes with a flour slurry or cornstarch added the last few minutes.  With crushed garlic and a lot of oregano.  Boston butt doesn't get tough.

Or hot italian sausage smothered in onion and green bell peppers.

Or chicken thighs sauteed in little olive oil covered so they sort of bake, but brown nicely.  Its hard to overcook chicken thighs.

I love thinking about food even when I'm not hungry, LOL!

GROCERY SHOPPING!

I live on fresh food.  And by that, I mean I don't get meals at fast-food places.  I LOVE fresh veggies, fresh meat and fresh fruit.  I only keep refined sugar in the house to feed the hummingbirds. 

And don't get me wrong on the fast foods either.  I think Taco Bell Nachoes Bell Grande and steak soft tacos are great.  I think MacDonald's Big Mac is fantastic.  But I haven't had either for years.  I just think that whatever I cook is better for me.  I mean, I know what's in it. 

And, in a weird way, this relates to Dad.  Just before he arrived here last May, I had a freezer full of stuff I liked that he didn't.  He was strictly a "meat&potatoes" guy.  Hey, I'm adaptable, so I ate what I cooked for him - pork chops, or sausage or a chicken thigh plus a M/V potato and a tossed salad (an insistance I made for his health and my love of salads).  It worked OK.  I would normally slice up pork and stir-fry it with a lot of veggies but he wanted to see the pork in a whole piece, and I could deal with that.

So he's been gone a month now (and happily in the assisted living facility where they also like to cook things in chunks and offer potatoes).  Well, I decided to live out of my freezer and pantry for 3 weeks.  I used up 10 cans of soup, tupperware containers of frozen ham and pork, 5 cheap chicken pot pies, containers of cooked kale, frozen meatballs, and frozen shrimp.  It wasn't bad.

But today I went GROCERY-SHOPPING!

They say never to go grocery-shopping on an empty stomach, and I can see why.  I bought pickled beets, marinated artichoke hearts, a big bag of navel oranges, 6 plums, a big ginger root, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grapes, a pineapple, 6 cans of soup, a couple cans of "chili beans in mild sauce", a can of white canelli beans, a can of garbonzo beans, milk, a half dozen eggs, marinated mushrooms,  and if they had had yak milk chocolates I probably would have bought them too.  LOL!

At the meat store. I bought a whole filet mignon on sale (1.5 inch thick slices) and with a free bottle of dry rub; I bought chicken thighs, a chicken breast, 3 hot italian sausages (for adding to the canned chili beans).

Three weeks of living out the the freezer can drive you to madness.  I am in a cooking frenzy of the stuff I haven't made in a year.  And next week, I plan to have large quantities of Moo Goo Gai Pan, hot&sour soup, spring rolls, char shu ding, and shrimp fried rice delivered.  Most to be frozen for "later", but some for an orgy of eating. 

I'm thinking I might want a Big Mac pretty soon too.

I weighed 163 when dad arrived and I weighed 169 when he left.  I'm down to 160.5 today.  Let the food celebration begin!

The wok is "in the building" again...

A Small Dinner Party

"Ding-Dong"  Oh hello, thank you so much for coming!  For everyone's convenience, I have set the Einstein time-converter to 5:30 pm local time whenever you arrive and I think the Heisenberg stabilizer is on (but you can never really be sure about that).  It is so nice to meet you; please come in.  You are JUST on time.

The appetizer table is there on the right.  There are stuffed celeries, marinated mushrooms, several cheeses and crackers, and some lemony-dill cucumber slices. 

On the left, there are small glasses of various liqueurs (Pomegranate, Razzleberry, and Triple Sec), a pitcher of Bloody (well, V8) Marys, a pitcher of old-fashions, and bottled water (note the lime and lemon twists in the bowl there).  There is also green tea on the warmer and I have plenty steeping in the kitchen.  Choose a glass that suits your fancy.  It is seldom I get to put out all those odd glasses, so feel free to experiment.  Have some tea in a martini glass or liqueur in a teacup.  It's a relaxed event.

Dinner will start in about 30 minutes, so feel free to mingle, talk, toss cat treats or toys, etc.  It's OK to wander through the kitchen too.  I already have the herbed saffron rice and sauce and salad prepared, so I only have to saute the shrimp and asparagus.  I can even talk while doing that.

Please let me know if the music is too quiet.  I didn't want it to be too loud for talk or too quiet to enjoy.

Dear friends, dinner is SERVED... Now, who would like some wine?  And with THIS dish, it can be anything.  I have zinfandel and riesling, and Megan has brought an Australian wine!

For dessert, we have an assortment of Lindor chocolates and some Van Otis Swiss Fudge.  Plus Tina has brought a smoked Salmon Cheesecake!

There are also bowls of cat treats and toys for tossing to any of the Mews who venture out among us, and Iza is showing off her tummy and rolling skills...

[Oops, the smoked salmon cheesecake has been moved the the appetizer table]

An Informal Dinner Engagement

Megan left a comment last Thursday that included "The tribe of women who are planning to move in to enjoy your cooking now that you're Dad has moved have asked me to ask you what day next week it would suit you best for us all to arrive. Don't go to too much trouble - no need to re-decorate or anything. Just a thorough spring clean, vases of fresh flowers and a stock of chocolates will be enough. LOL".

Well, the new oven arrived last week and I have tested it out and Spring-cleaning will take a while, but I can do a decent general cleaning in a couple of days.  But for planning purposes, let's say Monday 29th.  I will still have some of the front yard fragrant daffodils to place in vases then.

Now as to the food:  I don't often make appetizers, but I think I can manage some peeled celery stuffed with chive cream cheese and some marinated mushrooms.  For the main dish, how about stir-fried shrimp and asparagus in a mild horseradish/wine sauce over herbed saffron rice, and a heart of buttercrunch lettuce salad with cucumbers and cherry tomatoes with fresh Italian dressing?

For desserts, I have Tollhouse cookies, Lindor dark chocolate truffles, Lindor extra dark chocolate truffles, and Van Otis assorted Swiss fudge.  Which to choose... Wait, we will have one of each!  I hope Old Vine Zinfandel is satisfactory in the wine department.  If not, I always keep some semi-dry Riesling in the wine cooler too.  It off-sets the sweetness of chocolate well.

For background music, I suggest classical (Ravel, Debussy, and Prokofiev), but I also have 60s/70s Broadway musicals, Simon&Garfunkel, or Chariots of Fire and Tubular Bells if your tastes run in that direction.  There is some older jazz and swing music around too.

As it will be strictly an early evening social supper, casual (but appropriate) dress is suggested.  We are not formal here.  Attention to the Mews is not only permitted but encouraged and a bowl of cat treats will be available for tossing to them for mutual enjoyment.  Iza has offered to conduct personal Garden Tours for any guests who wish to arrive early for that purpose.

I had a personally awful experience with Canon Customer Service, so I would never buy their products again myself.

Living With Dad, 10

I wonder how long it takes before I realize that asking Dad to make simple decisions is just wrong?  I really try to allow him to make as many decisions as he wants to.  He has preferences.  I eat my dinner in several bowls, Dad likes his food all in one large plate.  I like to eat dinner watching TV,  he likes to eat at a "proper table".  So I always try to ask him what he whats.

It never occurred to me that he doesn't WANT to (or really can't) make decisions.  I thought I was being considerate; I was making things hard for him.

He doesn't want to make decisions, and I have had a hard time grasping that.  I thought "deciding" small things for himself would be the last thing he would give up.  I was wrong...

Today, I was making the lunch sandwiches and Dad asked if he could help.  Of course I said "yes"!  Anything to make him feel useful (and, yes, I recognize a patronization about that).  But, for almost 2 months, we have had sandwiches for lunch on medium size plates.  One half a sandwich, with some pickle, carrot sticks, pickle, etc.  So Dad decided to get out the plates.  Coffee saucers...  Then said "How will we fit the potato chips on this"?  I said they wouldn't fit, so he brought out bowls.  I mentioned that he likes plates for his sandwich.

I should have shut up.  He got upset and said "I don't know what to use, I'll use whatever you tell me to use"!!!

He was right.  He is depending on me now to make even simple decisions for him.  And I didn't quite realize to what degree he was expecting/needing that.

He's my Dad.  I want him to make decisions for himself even if they are very minor decisions.  I guess I had in mind that it was GOOD for him to make some decisions.  Thinking back over the past few weeks, I realize he doesn't WANT me to ask him whether he wants green beans or broccoli with his dinner.  Even that decision is too challenging.

It's ironic.  I've lived my life making my own decisions, and deliberately NOT trying to influence other peoples' decisions (except in a few ways like politics I'll avoid here).  And now I'm being asked to do just that.

I mean all this just as an example.  I could have used towels in the bathroom, or which shoes to wear.

I guess I have to learn to JUST DO IT around Dad and trust to my judgement...