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Category: cooking/baking

Mon. Dec. 29, 2025 – interregnum … sorta

The cold front got here right on schedule. Temps yesterday started falling and the wind started howling, and it was only 45F when I went to bed. So I expect it to be cold today. Windy too. Pretty much the definition of a blustery day.

I did nothing of note yesterday. Wife read. Kids did their thing. I worked on a puzzle. And read. We ate leftovers all day. No fires, big or tiny. Too much wind.

Today W and the kids are headed home. I’m staying later, like usual, and will do some ‘wrap up’ things. We got the tree down last night, but I have lights to take down and put away. At home I’ll leave the lights and decor up until after New Year’s Day, but I don’t want them up here without knowing when we’ll be back up.

We’ll have a few more days of “between time” and then we’ll get into the new year and the rush to summer. But for now, it’s time to relax and reflect and recharge.

And stack of course.

nick

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Sun. Dec. 28, 2025 – another day ‘between the years’

Cool, but warming, and humid. Possibly getting cold tonight. Yesterday was just like Friday- other than being moist, it was a beautiful day. It’s a mild end to a mild year for us.

I arose late, somewhat sore and stiff, ate and did very little. I spent several hours working on a puzzle while W put Thompson’s Water Seal on the teak furniture. She sanded the top surfaces last visit. They look much better. Teak is pretty sturdy but it does benefit from maintenance.

I did manage some other very small tasks, and made dinner, so it was a pretty relaxed day.

We still haven’t decided if we’re headed home today, or tomorrow. I’ve got more small stuff I can do, and W wants to just do relaxing things and enjoy the place a bit. The only real reason to head home is D2’s plans and it might be easier to drop her where she wants to go on the way home tomorrow. (She wants to visit a friend who has a lakehouse on another sorta nearby lake.)

I’ve been pretty good about not thinking of all the things piling up on my lists. Mostly. Still, it niggles.

I have been taking notes about some stuff that needs to be bolstered here, or replaced. I let that slack off for a bit, but some basic stuff needs refinement. I really really need some secure storage here… and to sort out the networking.

But that’s for another day. Stack what you can, while you can. And stay frosty.

nick

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Fri. Dec. 26, 2025 – store returns day

Cool, mid 60s all day, and maybe some overcast? It was pretty grey most of yesterday, so I expect the same today. It was 67F when I went to bed but also very wet.

We spent the day eating, opening presents, cooking, and playing board games. We played Catan in the afternoon, and Ticket to Ride after dinner. I had terrible luck with both games, and D1 dominated.

Santa brought good stuff, everyone was happy with their gifts. I got a couple of tools and another Morakniv. My fisherman friend brought be a box of 9mm for my next range day.

The oven roasted duck was a very simple recipe but was delicious. I made chopped carrots sauteed in butter with marjoram, and sauteed cabbage and onions as sides, with a loaf of shelf stable bread and some baked garlic clusters with blue cheese as appetizers. We were too full for dessert.

It’s only the second time I’ve made duck. It was cheaper than hamburger at Costco, and the kids liked it the first time, so I tried it again. Success. We’ll have a lamb roast this weekend,and probably a sirloin cap roast as well. They’re defrosted, and easy to cook, so they’re on the menu.

The “summer kitchen” idea of having an oven in the garage worked out well again. I’m glad to have that heat out there and not in the kitchen. I am thinking about where to put a 2 burner stove, and maybe a place for the deep fryer out there too. If I can get a small stainless steel table, about 2ft or 2x3ft, that would be perfect.

The prep for the week was to bring up the 5 buckets of Wise emergency food I got from that estate sale. At $6/ bucket I’m not too disappointed that two of the buckets are breakfast stuff, and three are essentially side dishes and soups. That’s typical for emergency buckets sold to preppers. Worth adding to the stacks, not worth buying at full price unless you supplement them and can’t get Mountain House.

Other than cooking, I tried not to ‘work’. Mostly succeeded.

Today I’ll take a look at networking and cameras. That should occupy me but not be too taxing.

Even on the holidays, always keep improving. And stacking if it doesn’t take away from family time.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 28, 2025 – a pause that refreshes?

Cold. Yeah, seriously, 50F is cold here. I’ll have to run the heat if it doesn’t warm up. Cold morning, nice day. Like Thanksgiving Day.

Well, we did the traditional feast yesterday. Kids contributed with pies and a casserole. I just ate. And while they were cooking I did some sorting and disposal of canned food, some work on my cameras, and a couple of other small things. I took it easy, but didn’t want to lose all my momentum.

Today I’ve got a couple of auction pickups to do. One for resale, one for Christmas presents. I’ve got some people covered, or more than covered, and some that are currently present-less. And I haven’t found good White Elephant gifts for my non-prepping hobby get together. That means I’m on the prowl for good/appropriate gifts.

I also have stuff to do on my truck, like headlight replacement, radio install, stereo install, cleaning… and stuff to do around the house. Many of my neighbors started their Christmas decorating already, so I might do some of that today too. Who knows? If I make plans the universe is bound to screw them up somehow, so better to just see what I get done.

The first pass through my stored canned food tells me I need to do some more culling and cleanup. Add that to the list. Buying food and stacking it is a solid prep though.

I’m always gonna tell you to stack something, even if it’s just good experiences. They can keep you warm and sane when the going gets tough.

We can all use a little help when that happens.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 27, 2025 – Thanksgiving day, US

Cold. By Texas standards anyway. It was in the 50sF last night and damp, so it felt even cooler. Probably it will be cold, then cool, then warm today with sun and clear skies. Nice.

I spent yesterday doing small things on the list. I got several done, and kept moving forward. Baby steps are still steps, right?? For an unhurried day, there was a lot going on. We even had some carnivore drama in the back yard to deal with.

D1 had a date, and the guy seems nice. She had a good night and was beaming. Her previous dates have been pretty lackluster, so I’m happy for her, but I’m still a dad with my little girl going out with boys. Kid is tall, in good shape and confident. Nice change from the emo simps.

Between D1, D2, and their friends, I’m coming to think that their emotional maturity is a couple of years behind where I’d expect it to be. Certainly it’s behind where my generation was. There are a couple of reasons that could be, 2 years of pandemic and social media are the obvious possibilities. And of course, we’re mostly talking about middle and upper middle class white kids. The hispanic kids have a different experience and point of view from what I can see.

It will be interesting to watch how this generation grows up.

But, that’s all for later. Today we take the time to pause and give thanks. There are always things to be thankful for, even at our darkest hours, and Thanksgiving Day gives an opportunity to stop, take stock, and find those things.

I’m thankful for Bob giving me this opportunity, and for Barbara’s faith and trust. I’m thankful for all of you who stop by and share your lives and thoughts with me and the rest of this community. I’m thankful for the world we live in, for the beauty of the natural world and everything in it. I’m thankful for the opportunity to love and be loved, and for my family and the support they give. I’m thankful to be alive. When I was young, I never thought I’d see 26 years of age, and here I am 33 years past that point.

There have been good times and bad during those years, but they made me who I am and I’m ok with that. They have all been a gift; one I’m glad to share with the people in my life. I look forward to many more, no matter the challenges and heartbreak that may be ahead of us.

Thank you all,

nick

(stack something good)

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Wed. Nov. 26, 2025 – cooking today

A bit cooler, and clear today. It got chilly last night. I still expect it to be high 80sF or even into the 90sF like yesterday by late afternoon though.

I was less productive than I’d hoped on Tuesday. I did get the grocery shopping done. That’s a good thing.

Today should be more small tasks and cooking pies, as well as getting prepped for tomorrow’s feast. We are cutting back on sides for Thanksgiving dinner, but there will still be some french meat pie, and several dessert pies. And a 12 pound bird.

And while I feel like a slacker that we didn’t go to the BOL, this is a much more relaxing plan.

I feel the need to adjust to the kids’ plans and to encourage the desire to work that D1 seems to have found. Building good kids is sort of the ultimate prep, so I’m trying to be flexible. We have much to be thankful for, and where we celebrate that thankfulness isn’t as important as taking the time to do so. Besides, if you are smart, you take your joy where you find it.

Build. Improve. Stack. Live.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 14, 2025 – half way through November already…

Cool and damp, followed by warm and damp, but the radio said no rain for a few more days. Back to watering the lawn I guess. It’s still very nice in the afternoon.

I did some small things, including trying a new way to cook dinner. I tried a pork roast in the crock pot without all the liquid, going for a slow bake. It worked out better than I expected, although I chickened out and added 1/2 cup water so the new potatoes and onion wedges would have something to cook in. I think it’s a good choice when I have to leave the house and won’t be home when a roast would have to go into the oven. It was well past 150F in 3 1/2 hours on the crock pot’s high setting. I would normally put it in the oven at 320F for about an hour for the 3 pounds. It might take an extra 20 minutes after that.

Packet gravy, and heat and eat bread rounded out the meal.

Today I don’t have any pickups so I can work my list. That’s my plan anyway. Nose to the grindstone, feet to the fire, once more into the breech…

And some sort of stacking is always appropriate.
n

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Wed. Oct. 22, 2025 – hoping to catch up, knowing I won’t

Cool, and warm later. Some clouds. Probably not any rain though. And that’s what yesterday was like too. Just gradual changes day to day, and soon we’ll be headed into Winter. Such as it is in Houston.

I got nothing done yesterday morning, except sleep. I can rationalize that sleeping helps fight off any infection from the little disease bags, but it’s a rationalization and part of me regrets the loss of usable time. Part of my likes to sleep though.

In the afternoon, I did pickups, getting some housewares for here, 100ft of direct burial gas line, small engine parts, and some Christmas decorations. The gas line will go to the BOL against the possible eventual need to replace my main line to the house, or for future use either in a shop space, or second living area. It was so cheap I couldn’t say no.

Then it was home to leftovers for dinner, some auction stuff, and a tiny fire by the water feature…

Today, I’m going to try to wrap up the wall repairs, and get as far along on the pantry project as I can. Now W is talking about repainting the whole laundry room instead of just doing the 2×8 ft repair area in a match color. I think I’ll at least get primer on it, and that might be “good enough” with the cabinet covering most of the repaired area. I don’t want the project to take forever.

And there is the rest of the list that needs work, including a Costco run for paper products and anything that might be on sale this period. There is always more to do.

Stack, work, improve. Do what you can.

nick

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Thur. Oct. 16, 2025 – oh oh, we’re half way there, oh oh livin’ on a prayer

It’s a good thing you can’t hear my voice when I sing. Continuing with the cool morning, warm afternoons, with overall cooling trend. Also supposed to be clear for the next couple of days. That’s a lot of clear, dry days in a row. My grass is crunchy and the grass over the septic field at the BOL is probably completely dead. That’s not good.

I did a couple of the things on my list, but avoided drywall mud again. It’s messy and I have to move stuff to do it, as well as diving deep in the garage for the tools… so I’ve been putting off what is a short and straightforward job. I have to get better at this. Picked up my stuff yesterday, with some stuff for the BOL, and a couple of household things. I’m stacked up on “pet stain and odor” remover. Damn dog.

Now to move a couple of things along, and then collect my stuff today. More stuff for the BOL, as well as some gub stuff. I won some mags and refills for the hole puncher. I’m stopping at an estate sale this morning to see if I can’t get some more. This sale also has a bunch of pews and a few dozen cans of freeze drieds… guy had some of his priorities straight.

The brand of FDs is unfamiliar to me, but matches the typical “buy this and you’ll be set” exploitive strategy employed by pretty much everyone but Auguson Farms and Mountain House. In other words, it’s all carb heavy, but still under caloried, and about half is breakfast or side dishes rather than main courses– with no real main courses except the few additional Mountain House cans. “Mac and Cheese with meat” is not dinner. A serving of meat, with a side of mac is. Soup mixes and oatmeal, cereal and pasta dishes are not really the best way to spend money on freeze dried foods, and are just in the kits to bulk out the days they can claim, and to extract extra money from your wallet.

Little protein and no fat isn’t going to keep you working in the fields all day. That’s one of the reasons I save all my bacon fat in jars. Fat is good energy and helps you feel full. The Oregon Trail cookbook I read has a surprising number of recipes that start with “melt 5 pounds of bear fat”. Heritage breeds of pig have about twice the fat of modern piggies (iirc), and the fat was more important to the household than the meat in the old days.

If you don’t have fat stored, you might want to reconsider that. You can buy ghee, lard, bacon fat, and beef tallow in the store and they all keep a really long time, especially if you put them in the fridge or freezer until they are needed. Fat can be used to preserve food too, as ‘potted’ meat for example. Saving your own is not only easy, but you paid for the fat when you bought the meat, so why NOT keep it?

Stacks don’t have to be separate from your normal life, and it’s a lot easier if they are just part of it. Put some back for later…

nick

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Thur. Oct. 9, 2025 – things continue to get spicy in our corner of the multiverse

Cool-ish. It was still very comfortable after midnight so I think it might be a bit warmer this morning. And since it was well into the 90sF yesterday afternoon, a little bit of summer is still holding on. Unless we get rain and a front moving through, I expect today to get hot and muggy too.

I did auction stuff in the morning, and then met a young man to sell my buddy’s item. He had Radio Operator plates on his vehicle, so that was pretty cool. He said he got licensed so he could do more drone stuff, rather than from any love of ham radio though. Some of the video from the bigger more pro level drones uses part of the ham spectrum. He’s got a drone operator’s license too. I’ll have to meet with him again on Friday because I forgot some of the paperwork he needs.

That took about an hour and a half to do, with a bit of chatting, and then it was home to do kid taxi stuff, after a local pickup.

Since I was home I cooked some pork tenderloin for dinner. Oven roasted potatoes, and baked apple slices with cinnamon and honey in bacon fat rounded out the meal. It was pretty good. I am wondering when the girls will get a bit more interested in cooking. I don’t think that they really consider it a skill, since it’s always just happened. Baking, that they were interested in, but mostly learned on their own. Dinner hasn’t caught their interest.

We all need to eat and being able to cook with whatever resources you have is a pretty big plus in my book. It’s funny, because my dad cooked all the big meals at our house, and we (me and my sibs) considered my mom’s cooking to be … workmanlike is probably the best description. We’d joke that she could burn water, but she pointed out that we didn’t starve while she did most of the weekday cooking.

I didn’t really learn cooking from either of them. I did basics when I was in school and afterwards, with some time working in a restaurant kitchen that helped me get the mechanics of it down. I’m no chef, can’t make hollandaise or a souffle’, but I can follow recipes and can even get a good idea what a basic recipe will taste like from reading it, and what can be altered or improvised.

I use some of my dad’s recipes and do my own versions of a couple of his signatures, which were pretty variable anyway. I’ve mentioned and recommended several books before, including

    The Simple Fools Handbook to Cooking

(very helpful when I went away to school and needed simple meals), a pre-1975* version of

    The Joy of Cooking

, and for apocalypse cooking using all those stored can goods

    A Man, A Can, and A Plan

. There are others to fill in the gaps and I love the ‘church lady’ recipe books, but Joy of Cooking will teach you everything you need to know, and it’s filled with humor too. If I could only have one book, my go to is Joy of Cooking.

Those other gaps are filled with

    Two Burners and an Ice Chest

(focused on cooking on a boat),

    America’s Favorite Brand Name Recipes

(all the best recipes from the back of cans and boxes), and a couple of books on wild game cooking.

Someone here recommended a good cast iron book or D/L but I never got to actually try it out.

I’m a firm believer that in addition to everyday feeding the family, everyone should have at least one meal that they can make for guests that, with a little attention to presentation, is restaurant quality at home.

Like any knowledge based skill with a large practical component, the only really good way to learn cooking is with practice. And by eating all the things…

——
Today I’ve got some pickups. Yeah, I’m cutting back, but there was a thing for my non-prepping hobby, and some things for vehicles and the BOL that I just couldn’t pass up. I am buying a lot less, and I do have more time since I’m doing fewer pickups.

Then I’ll try to get some more work in here at the house, and maybe at the shop. Some of it is actually synergistic as I can move stuff from here to there and kill two birds with one rock.

And some of it is managing the stacks. More breakage means more replacement… so stack it up.

nick

*versions after the mid 1970s (of all cookbooks, not just Joy) start to harp on salt, fat, cream, etc with some very sketchy “science” and I prefer to not have my recipes constantly nagging me.

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