Category: cooking/baking

Thur. Jan. 30, 2025 – youtube shorts are the devil…

Cool and damp, but warmer overall. That’s the trend and I don’t need to bet against the trend. I think it made it to 70F yesterday despite the overcast. And it never really rained, although the dew point was making everything wet with condensation. I think we’ll get more of that today.

So I did my pickups for the day, got gas, went to Costco… did some other auction stuff. Moved some stuff around the house to make room for Girl Scout cookies. Yup, it’s cookie season again. Get ready to support your local troop.

The threat of rain did limit some of what I wanted to do. I had some stuff I should have moved to storage, but I didn’t want to get it wet in the back of the truck… or that’s the excuse I’m going with anyway…

Today, after helping to stack cases of cookies, I’ll be moving and cleaning up more stuff. Can’t have all my crep stacked around the house if people are coming to get their cookies. I should have gotten it all taken care of before now, but didn’t. I really need deadlines.

The problem with that as it relates to prepping is that you never know the date of the thing you are prepping for (Y2K being an exception). Most bad things happen suddenly, and while there may have been plenty of warning, the actual event doesn’t usually kick off on a schedule. Some people try to maintain that top level of readiness for any disaster, but I mostly end up trying to maintain a baseline of readiness that meets most needs most of the time, but might leave me short in some specific areas and some specific scenarios. It’s easier my way, and I’m generally comfortable with it, but it may not be good enough for anyone else.

Find a level you are comfortable with, aim to achieve that. Then work to build on that incrementally. Always be working, just maybe not always at a fever pitch.

And stack of course.

nick

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Fri. Jan. 24, 2025 – weird week, glad it’s ending…

Cold, dry, and clear. Warming later. I hope. Easy to make predictions, harder to make CORRECT predictions… but warming would be nice.

So another day went by without a massive amount of backlogged tasks finally being cleared. I did manage some domestic bliss. And I put some more Christmas stuff away. Didn’t have any pickups, so I was actually home all day. Did have kid taxi duty, and that ate a few hours.

I had time to make dinner though. Lamb chops. Yum. I had the lamb from Costco to bag and freeze, but half of it had already spoiled. I’m taking that flat back to Costco. I had two flats, both same dates, both same shelf in the fridge, but one stunk. So it’s going back, probably later today. I decided to cook half the other flat for dinner and freeze the rest. Usually I grill the triangle chops, but it was cold out…

I seared them in my cast iron, in fat, oregano, basil, and rosemary, then added chopped baby potatoes, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Cover and simmer with a bit of red wine, turning frequently until the potatoes were done. Remove meat and potatoes, make a red wine reduction with the pan drippings and voila’, dinner is served. Chops were medium rare to medium… and it was good. For bread I tried the new shelf stable baguettes from costco. They were pretty good, and are ready in about 10 minutes. We normally like lamb a bit more rare, but I felt better cooking them a bit more this time.

I’ve got a pork rib roast thawing for today or this weekend that I froze in 2018. I’m finally getting down into one of the chest freezers…

Today I’ve got an appointment with my eye doctor, and a couple of pickups to do. And of course, kid taxi later.

Not much time for more domestic bliss. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend…

That’s right, stackin’!!

Don’t be slackin’ (like me)

nick

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Mon. Jan. 13, 2025 – back to it…

Warmer, and damp but maybe not wet. It was misty,drippy and grey most of Sunday, but it did get a little bit of blue sky before dusk. I’m hoping the blue was a harbinger of today’s weather. But if not, I’ll deal.

Spent yesterday casually doing stuff around the house. I was poking at my office cleanup, watching some auctions close, putting Christmas decor away, and half a dozen other things. W did get the tree stripped and the bins loaded for the attic. I put them away at the end of the day. It’s opened up the foyer and living room… and if I can get some of my auction stuff out of here it will open up even more. That’s the goal anyway.

Today I’ll be on the phone making some appointments, if I can. I’ll be trying to get an auction set up too. And I might head south to do a pickup, so that I don’t have to go in opposite directions tomorrow. I’m sure some domestic bliss will happen too. Then it’s a kid pickup in the middle of the afternoon, and the other kid in early evening. I have to build my schedule around that. Finally, if it’s dry enough, I’ll get the last of the outdoor decor down. Or maybe I’ll go back to bed, and spend the day reading. Probably not.

There is always work to be done, and preps to be stacked.

So I’ll get to work, stacking.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 29, 2024 – Slightly less red Friday

Cold but clear. Warming later but IDK how much. Funny thing is that at the beginning of the week the forecast was for warming. Cooling happened. Oh well, that’s why I no longer pay much attention.

Thursday was a lot of cooking, some great smells and even better tastes, sitting around watching tv, and the smallest bit of work… and only because it enabled cooking.

I made bread in the machine. Had to hit one of my “bread kit” buckets for sugar. The buckets have 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds sugar, yeast packets, and a liter of peanut oil. I realized I should add some salt to them too. Add water and there are several variations on bread that can be made from the bucket. I’ve got buckets of the bulk ingredients and salt, oil, and yeast in other places, but the “kit” bucket puts them conveniently together. Oh, there is a pound of corn meal in there too, for variety. Yeast was from 2022 but worked fine.

All the milk for cooking was LaLa UHT full fat milk in shelf stable half liter cartons. I keep them in the fridge for even better life. They are a great choice to have milk on hand in places where you don’t use enough to keep fresh around, or don’t have fresh. I have the single serving box milks too, but they tend to age out before we use them. They won’t kill you, but the taste changes and they get chunky like tapioca if you let them get more than a few months past ‘best by’.

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Plan for today is to put up the Christmas lights and some decorations, and then maybe do some of the other stuff on the list. The attic work gets pushed to another day.

We’re headed home on Saturday, without much time to do more than pack up and secure the house. I don’t think I’ll get into the bigger projects in the attic without an extra day of wiggle room. I’d love to stay until late Sunday like normal, but wife and kids have stuff to do in Houston, and I have an auction pickup Saturday afternoon- ham radio stuff for me and for my swapmeet in March.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable” or something very close to that was said by a very successful General. I’m going to go with it.

Do some planning. Use some preps. And do some stacking. Maybe there will be a sale!

nick

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Thur. Nov. 28, 2024 – Thanksgiving Day

Cool and damp with a small chance of rain today. We’ll see. Most of the local weather goes around us here. Yesterday turned out very nice, with moderate temps and not too much sun.

It was a good day for working and I did get stuff done. I spent some of the afternoon doing meatspace things, building relationships. Getting a feel for people. Trying to become an insider, rather than an interloper. This is not an easy process. It takes a lot of time. And a lot of work.

Speaking of work, I think I’ll try to not do to much of it today. This is a great time to be mindful of what we have to be thankful for. And there is a lot. Time together, and time to get our stuff together.

Thank you all for continuing to come around and participate in this shared endeavor. Thank you Barbara for your continued support. Thank you Rick for all you do.

Count your blessings today, and give thanks.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 27, 2024 – progress is being made, albeit slowly

Cool, even cold this morning, warming later, then cold again. Another beautiful day, if a bit on the chilly side.

Got the walls in the dockhouse buttoned up. Still need to buy and install the trim, but at least the walls are closed.

For every new receptacle I put in two duplex outlets. I flip one upside down so that no matter how the flat plug is built, you should be able to plug in and have the cord point down. I do quad boxes because if you need a receptacle, you probably need more than one…and I’m doing the work anyway…

Today I’ll clean up my mess, put the room mostly back together, and move onto the next thing on the list. Not sure what that will be, but I’ll do something.

I should probably start brining the turkey, if we’re going to brine it…

Time to do the ten thousand things.

And stacking. Can’t forget about that.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 25, 2024 – a week off… sorta

Should be cool and clear again today. Other than the crazy wind, yesterday was very nice, staying in the 70s most of the day. The sun was very hot, but the wind kept me cool. Today is supposed to be a little warmer, and without the wind.

I slept in,but not as late as some times when we’re up here. I was up and productive anyway. Although daytime reading is like daytime drinking… once you start, you won’t get much else done.

I got the speakers hooked up on the dock, did more of the electrical work, and started on finishing closing up the walls in the dockhouse. Then I ran out of daylight.

Had a nice fire and chat on the patio instead of my usual time alone on the dock with my radio and tiny fire.

Today I’ll keep working on getting the dockhouse back together from the flood damage. After that we’ll see about some networking or some other stuff on the list. There’s plenty on the list, but if it’s nice out, I might shift stuff around a bit to take advantage of the weather.

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The turkey is defrosting in the fridge, and we’re debating whether to brine it and bake, or brine and smoke… or maybe some other technique will jump out at us. Dunno, brining seems to be a common denominator, so maybe I’ll start with that. I generally cook at home, and my wife does most of the cooking when we’re up here. Thanksgiving will take both of us though. And maybe the kids will get involved with something other than just the baking. Maybe.

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Meanwhile the world continues to race headlong towards global conflict. Make your preparations. Learn what you need to know. Meet the people around you. Stack.

nick

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Fri. July 26, 2024 – not feeling the love…

Hot and humid, raining? Maybe. Rained all day yesterday, so why not today too? I’ve got things to do and would like to use the pickup truck, but don’t want everything to get wet… The rain did cool it down yesterday which was nice. Started at 72F and ended at 78F.

Got through a whole day without hearing about issues with my hobby website. Guess I did finally get the DNS fixed and everything critical working right. If it’s not, I’ll hear about it. Didn’t get a lot else done except auction stuff. I did get two small woodworking projects knocked out. That gets the pieces out of my office and the pile of stuff needing attention. It feels like work but it is really work avoidance.

The new fridge is nice and cold, but as it was wet and raining, I didn’t move it into the garage. I have the fridge and freezer on riser stands to make the tops level, and to raise them so it’s a bit easier to get into the back and bottom of the fridge. The new fridge is taller but narrower than the old one. I’ll need to remake the riser for it if I want them to match. I’ll delay that for a day or two and hope for dryer weather. I need to pick up some 2x4s or hit the piles of fence wood…

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Got a quote from a facebook guy to connect the whole house gennie. Keep in mind it’s 10 feet from the electrical service and the gas service. $3000. $700 for the gas line, and the rest for the electrical work. Yeah, I don’t think so. At least not yet.

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Today I’ve got pickups all over town, east side, west side, south side… and tomorrow, north side. I got some good stuff for the house and the BOL, and even some hobby stuff. I’m definitely shirking getting the house back together though.

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Dinner last night was a pork loin roast (frozen in 2023), sauteed zucchini with cheese sauce (fresh from store), and shelf stable sourdough bread. Ate about 2 pounds of the roast… For dessert, white chocolate macademia nut cookies, from mix with a best by of 9-21. All the cookies got eaten too. Tonight will be a nice chuck roast in the slow cooker, and another loaf of bread.

Stack some food and the means to cook it. And practice. Yum.

nick

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Mon. Jun. 17, 2024 – at the BOL where there is work to do

Hot again, with a chance of rain. It was hot and clear yesterday, but cooler in the shade with a nice cooling breeze off the lake. We are very fortunate to be on the downwind side of the lake, and the breeze comes into our cove and up the hill past the house. That side is cool in the shade. The other side of the house doesn’t get that breeze and is stifling.

I had a nice breakfast with the family, then got to work. I knocked out a couple of easy and quick things to get started. One was adding a screen to the garage door opening. It’s not a complete seal, but if it blocks 90% of the bugs it’s totally worth it. It attaches with velcro to the bottom of the door, and has straps to the side rails. There is a seam held together with magnets in the middle that works very well.

I unloaded the truck, moved some things around, but I have some more to do today. The youngest child ran the pressure washer most of the afternoon, cleaning the driveway, a rug, and the side patio. She likes it, it’s “so satisfying” to see the dirt blown away. She was in shade for most of the work, and the mist is very cooling. Eldest child was mostly doing cleaning inside but also brushed all the spider webs off the outside of the house.

I spent the late afternoon and early evening running the string trimmer doing all the edging and cleanup that I’ve been in too big of a hurry to do the last three times I cut the lawn. The clean edges make a huge difference in the appearance of the property.

Spent some time floating in the lake to cool down and even did some fishing around dusk. Didn’t catch anything though.

Today my wife will be working remotely using the Starlink, while I do more cleaning and organizing. I think I’ll concentrate on the garage and shed. They may go home tonight, and I might stay until Tuesday morning. Mostly it will depend on if the weather is nice. Wife wants to stay up if it’s nice. The forecast has a chance of rain, but we’ll see. This area is outside the local forecast areas, and the lake and geography means we don’t get the same weather as surrounding towns anyway.

I’ve got a generator carb to clean before I put it away, and lots of tree limb stuff to do if I run out of motivation or parts, or decide to switch it up and work on other parts of the list.

Stacks provided a lovely Father’s Day dinner, kerosene for the lantern, cleaning supplies for the rug, and gas for the pressure washer and trimmer… They’ll help you too. Stack it up…

nick

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Thur. May 9, 2024 – time keeps on slippin’ into the future…

Warm. Damp. Supposed to get into the 90s, with overcast but no rain. Pretty much how yesterday went. Muggy. Grey. Too warm. The heavy rain got into my Ranger and the carpet and floor mats got wet. I can’t get them to dry because the humidity has been so high.

I did my home stuff, then did a pickup. It was too far away for what I got, but I wasn’t paying attention when the auction closed and didn’t win the second item that would have make it worth while. That’s a bummer.

Made it to my client’s house and did some troubleshooting. Gear failure. Same mode as 4 or more other times. Don’t know what to do to prevent it that we haven’t already done. We’ll replace the gear again, and see what happens.

Picked up the kid and there had been another fight at her school. That’s about 4 in the last couple of days. We finally got a vague note from the Principal about how they don’t tolerate safety risks, but they actually do as the kids involved are still in school. The video is at least as dramatic as any viral school fight video. Principal doesn’t want the kids sharing the video around… yeah, that’ll stop. Our cops were there, and they did break the fights up, but kinda too little too late. D1 doesn’t have any clue to the root causes, but now there is retaliation for the earlier fights happening. So much fun. Mostly invaders fighting, with a couple of white boys involved too. Girls throwing vicious punches too, not the clutching and hair pulling you normally see. It will be nice when school is out for the summer.

While waiting for dinner to cook I started assembling one of the 3D printers. It’s a small Creality filament machine. I got it together and was just about to turn it on and start the alignment and checkout when dinner was ready. I’ll try to find some time today to get it finished. I’ll try to find some time today to do a bunch of stuff that has been pushed back. Hey, it could happen…

I should prioritize, but it seems that grabbing little bits of the various tasks when I can is about the best I can manage at the moment.

Do what you can. Stack some food this week, and some ways to cook it. Or learn to like the taste of bugs…

nick

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