Food & Cooking
Recipes, Food Experiments and Commentary, Etc.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Jay: A Happy Day
Well, kind of. I have some work to go do for someone. Not on-site, unless I can find a way to diagnose and fix it at his office, which is doubtful, even though I am already 90% sure he needs the power supply replaced. So I’ll pick the machine up, which isn’t so bad as I need to go that way sooner or later for other reasons, and it will also give me visibility in person to other people who could potentially have me do work, underscoring the e-mail I sent Friday.
So later today I’ll probably set that up to troubleshoot on the kitchen table. The mission is to retrieve files, or fix it if it can be done cheaply, then they’ll start grabbing files while shopping for a replacement. This is one I helped them buy in something like 2000 or maybe 2001, before the point when I’d have built him one myself. If I have to spend some time letting it run long enough to fail, that may be a good time to start making soup.
In my travels I’ll hit the old business PO box and the store for a classic sounding list: diapers, milk, eggs, sugar, bread, peanut butter. Probably something I’m forgetting, as well as borderline needs. Also have some baby clothes for charity to drop off in the same place I am going for the computer. Convenient.
Anyway, another coffee and then I’ll get moving.
Jay: A Sad Day
We are drinking the last pot made with the several pounds of Dunkin Donuts coffee beans we received for Christmas.
Today we will use the last little bit of the three pounds of sample decaf we were given. I need to buy decaf immediately if we are to keep up our habit of a full strength pot, a quarter or half decaf pot, and all or part of a fully or mostly decaf pot during the course of a day.
There are still three pounds of assorted sample beans, then I will also have to buy more leaded. I’m tempted to check the price buying beans versus pre-ground, in case we can save money that way. I doubt it, but perhaps I am mistaken.
None of which is nearly as bad as the upcoming need to buy more powdered creamer, which is $2.94 at Wal-Mart, plus $2.50 in gas divided among whatever we buy that trip, and yes, that matters these days. I believe the rate we use them is about two per week. Hmmm… never thought about it before, but coffee probably costs about $2 a week for coffee, $6 a week for creamer, $1 or so a week for sugar, $1 a week for the pink packets, and not enough to be worth counting for filters. I may be overstating the creamer use; perhaps it’s one every five days. I should track it.
Oh well.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Jay: Random Morning Post Gone Crazy
There are no birthdays today, but I need to write a post to get some better flow going. Putting a repost over at Bizosphere doesn’t really qualify as writing and collecting thoughts, interesting as it was to read a few of my old posts. I have two good ones, already located and selected to be reposted on other days. All of which is not entirely superfluous, even if it isn’t immediately remunerative. I need a “best of” portfolio of sorts ready to show for the possibility of writing work, or even related work like blog managing or editing.
None of which takes working on a more technically oriented resume off my today list. Associated with that is updating my LinkedIn profile, which helps me review the details and causes my info to show as recently updated, attracting views.
That also matters because it’s a marketing tool even for side or part time work through the business. After all, I am marketing the business as me. Suppose I were to send solicitations out to local small businesses. It would be reasonable to make a resume part of that package, along with a cover letter/flier. I know someone who had remarkable results with that approach in a similar service business.
This weekend I also need to complete an e-mail to a former client.
Along with the pitch and personal update e-mail I sent to the employees of my former big client yesterday, which resulted in an immediate bit of work Monday, there are others like that I will want to remind I exist and point to what I am offering. Word of mouth and all. The fact that I will be going to the former client’s place Monday should underscore the e-mail.
Speaking of which, I am also waiting on a tiny bit of work from said former client. I believe it’s a go, but now I have to wait for them to give me the information I need.
Stopped and lost my mojo on what I was writing. Where was I?
I’d been thinking of roasting a small chicken today, but come to think of it, that’s still in the freezer. Perhaps I should put it in the fridge, cook it tomorrow, then we have residual food enough from the exercise for at least Monday. Days of little or no cooking are useful. We’re falling into more of a system of turns cooking, strategic use of leftovers/large batches for no or light cooking days, and some meals that are inherently quicker to make. If the chicken is tomorrow, and there are no leftovers for tonight, that just leaves the question of what to make for supper today. Last night was fried leftover mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. Mashed potatoes will feature heavily in the next couple days or so as well, I think, since we have a second 5 lb bag eager to repopulate the earth with potato plants. Silly potatoes.
Then again, the chicken would thaw partway in a couple hours, and could be cooked from frozen far more easily than I’ve done with turkeys. Hmmm…
Let’s see. Resume, LinkedIn, resume info at other job/hire me types of sites, clean out cars, make sure they still run, gather info like mileage so I know what to say about them so I can list them for sale, more work on the web site, yada yada.
There was another break most of the way through that paragraph. Lunch was burgers, popcorn with parm & romano, and cheesecake flavored pudding (which is excellent). Well, except Henry had apricot baby food and oatmeal. Tried giving the girls their burger (they each get half) on bread for a change. Sadie ate the whole thing, but didn’t even want popcorn on her plate. Valerie ate 1/4 of the bread, no burger, and a pile of popcorn. They both ate the pudding, of course.
I’ve discovered that I really like the horseradish mustard I bought a while back, and a dab of that, a tiny bit of relish (which I’d call optional), and a dollop of mayo swirled together make a great “secret sauce” sort of thing.
We decided supper will be my attempt at homemade pilaf/Rice-a-Roni, plus veggies, probably butternut and grean beans. The chicken will be tomorrow, followed by leftovers and/or soup, then Tuesday can be a day for cooking a pot of beans. Those go in burritos and/or chili (or can be turned into other things), and will cover Tuesday and Wednesday, or Tuesday and Thursday if we skip a day between. Perhaps some homemade tortillas, if we have burritos in mind. Not to mention those are cheap and can make many other things.
Since I’m looking forward at what we’ll eat for the week, I think it’s safe to say that the first open day will probably be filled by pasta, which takes us to Saturday before we have to consider what to have for anchor meals.
I should make more bread somewhere in there, get practiced at it.
Anyway, kind of silly I am still working on my obligatory morning “get my bearings” post. I think it’s time to get to work, soon as I pour a mug of coffee to keep me company.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Jay: Carnival of Meant to Write About That
This is a dump of a bunch of links I’ve been accumulating in Firefox with the idea, when saved, that I would post and write something about each of them, or sets of them. I may yet.
12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them
WaPo “blogs” reflective of bureaucracy in D.C.
New life inside the depressed brain
Web Video: Move Over, Amateurs
3 simple ways to optimize for Google PageRank
(Skipping the set of four Grapenut pudding recipe links.)
Is the United States on the Brink of Bankruptcy
Magma may be melting Greenland ice
(More recently there was buzz about a volcano under the Antarctic being a factor, too.)
The New Year’s Cocktail: Regret With a Dash of Bitters
Why CNET Is In the Mess They Are In
Mayor Mumbles Menino attacks plan to have clinics in retailers
Chertoff on final Real ID rules: “Reconfiguring our society”
Cutting Through the Katrina Krapola
The Broken Window Fallacy in Software
Cholesterol as a Danger Has Skeptics - New York Times
Best Business Advice - Short and Sweet
New Leisure Suit Larry game announced: Box Office Bust
44 Ways To Improve Your Productivity
Maybe there will be a recession. Here’s what to do just in case
End user training - Whose job is it?
What if the Internet went down...and didn’t come back up?
7 Powerful Steps to Overcoming Resistance and Actually Getting Stuff Done
The Lazysphere and the Decline of Deep Blogging
Can Their Wish Be the Market’s Command?
MySpace wins UK domain name that pre-dated its service
(Would be post, summarized: Utterly absurd result.)
Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers: Workplace Generation Wars
Online Schooling Grows, Setting Off a Debate
Scientist: All Blue-eyed People Are Related
(Actually, didn’t I post this one? Oh well, it’s still in the list.)
Where the Capitalism Is (Always on Display)
Growing Great Garlic: The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers
(Hi Dad! Hi Wally!)
The Wages of HillaryCare
(Well, this one is from this morning, but I had added it to the bookmarks. HillaryCare = RomneyCare and it impresses me Obama understands the problem.)
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Jay: Blarg
I feel like crap, probably a combination of lack of decent sleep, weather, and standard sensitivity to airborne whatever.
Sleep last night was decent enough from perhaps 12:30 to 2:30, when bladder and Sadie woke me from a sound sleep. Instead of laying down with me, luckily she demanded I go in her room, where I saw the flooded bed. Diaper overflowed. She and the bed had to be changed, which was traumatic. She is extremely bothered by leaks or accidents in the first place, because it’s an imperfection. No idea where she could have inherited those genes. I laid down in there. but never slept, ending up at the computer at 4:00. Shortly after that, she came to get me and again I had to go in her room, once it became clear that I was going to fall asleep with her on me in the desk chair, except it wasn’t going to work because it was the desk chair.
New parents: Holding a baby can be the most relaxing thing in the world, to the point of making it almost impossible not to fall asleep. Sadie was doing that, despite being a big kid.
I did a better job nesting in her room that time, probably falling asleep by 5:30 and waking up at 9:00, feeling like it was 7:00. Sinuses are a mess and the left eye is doing the thing where it can barely be opened and feels like it has something in it or has welding flash.
Speaking of which, I love the Star Trek teaser trailer, where they show guys welding, building the Enterprise, and give a glimpse of the scale of the ship to those guys, and the whole thing under construction.
When I got up, Sadie did too, and insisted on occupying my lap.
Which may be part of Valerie’s problems. She stayed up super late, with hyperactive brain, weather discomfort, and apparently envy for Sadie’s tendency to monopolize us for things like book reading. Sadie picks the books. Sadie sits on my lap. Sadie won’t allow Valerie on the lap if she can help it. Val was pretty distressed by it last night, then this morning Sadie did the same thing, when what I really wanted was neither of them. I try to make up for it with Valerie whenever I can, and she’s just so sweet and cuddly.
I managed to get Deb’s latest sale to the post office before 12:00, which is great because it can mean a package ordered late Friday could get to the buyer Monday, versus at least Wednesday. The line was absurd, which is the downside of last minute. They move it right along, though.
Then I remembered I needed to replace the passenger wiper (at least), but couldn’t puzzle out from looking or the tiny diagrams on the package just how to get the old one off. Need to look online or get a magnifying glass.
I’m still waiting for the ATM card for my new account. Got the checks. More so, waiting to be able to access it online and tie it to PayPal. In this day and age, taking over a week to create a new account of that sort seems absurd. Good thing I’m not relying on that quite yet, though I was thinking the next chunk of rent I pay might come from ad sales, which would mean PayPal.
I got my final OnForce approval in the wee hours. It actually arrived during the 4:00 AM hour when I was at the computer, with a mailing time of 2:30 AM. I had figured it wouldn’t be until Monday. So one of the weekend things will be to get acclimated there and start monitoring it for prospective work orders. Which is the other thing that will be tied to that account.
As for selling things, I remembered this morning we need to buy a scale. Presumably about $20 at Wal-Mart for something that’ll do.
(Insert long pause here that included making French toast regular and banana bread for lunch.)
Since the only thing we’ll really miss at a store by tomorrow is bread, and I didn’t grab some yesterday or think to get some when I went to the post office, Deb suggested I make more bread. Which, as she said, would go well with the pea soup I plan to make. I investigated the “ham bone” we were given and found it includes major amounts of ham and has not, as I naturally feared, spoiled yet. I’ll just need to scrape off some of the impressive amount of pineapple.
Thus it would appear my afternoon will center heavily on those two things. Want to be careful this time not to liquefy the peas completely, and make it a bit less spicy. It ought to help that I have a bag of whole peas (as well as a bag of split peas I already had on hand. The bread gives a lot of down time. Speaking of which, I’ll have to remember to buy flour. Each two loaves of bread take close to a third of a bag, so it’ll go fast.
There are things I can poke with a stick in the down times, so that all works. In fact, about the time I finish getting the bread to where it must sit and rise for 90 minutes or so, it’ll be a good time to start the soup. Here goes… (At least I’ve started feeling better now, if still a bit dull and sinus-burdened.)
Friday, February 01, 2008
Jay: Yasoft? Microhoo?
No birthdays.
Big news this morning: Microsoft bidding big for Yahoo! Not unexpected per se, but landscape shifting.
Erm… let’s see. Just trying to dump what’s interesting and can be typed fast so I can move along.
Today I need to run to the post office to send a package to Australia. Seems like not only will there be more business from there, but also Deb has found a winning focus for her shop. Which you’ve visited, right? See the sidebar. Also need to hit the store. Should try to get outside before the rain hits. Need to put at least one of the new wiper blades on the truck. I seem to recall they were a pain to install last time.
I need to correspond about an upcoming job wiping and reinstalling a computer that’s had way too much trouble for the owner and I would have flattened, or flat out replaced, long ago. Friend of mine doing the support for it free for a friend of his, now lives a few states away so for the hands on they’re paying me. Thought it was going to be a while, but it’s moved up to almost immediately. Which also means I need to review the dump of support correspondence between my friend and Microsoft and Adaptec and be sure I am firm on the situation. Though as much as anything I figure I’m the knowledgeable hands on-site, with my friend doing some of the driving otherwise.
I need to continue the web site updates and flier project. Actually, I should do sample fliers and show them to my landlord, who suggested the concept.
I need to compose another e-mail soliciting work from a few dozen people.
Then there’s another e-mail I need to compose, that could result in money.
Today or tomorrow I’ll want to make a pea soup. My mother and grandmother had a plague of ham bones and already made three in rapid succession, so the basically insisted I take home the one they had in the freezer, plus a bag of peas. That’s thawing in the fridge.
Enough typing. Gotta get rolling.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Jay: Salmon Burgers?
We have some frozen salmon burgers we were given, and I wondered if there any suggestions out there on the care and cooking of those.
Also, I was looking at a food encyclopedia page on beans the other day. Recently I saw cranberry beans in the store. I was intrigued to learn that those are what we always called shell beans, one of my father’s favorite foods, and something he routinely grows fresh for himself.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Jay: Blargh
Woke up way too early, before 5:00, couldn’t get back to sleep. Now I feel like I’ll keel over, at the point when everyone else is about to start waking up.
Our coating of snow yesterday turned into a coastal thing that dumped real snow out there, enough that I may have to go shovel. Or not, since three days of temps are supposed to be 35, 44 and 48.
Made an amazing blueberry pound cake with some frozen blueberries Sadie got from her grandfather. She loves blueberries.
Made bread for the first time ever, with a recipe from my brother that he e-mailed me in 2001, which turns out to be almost identical to the CIA bread recipe I found online to try to determine the amount of sugar to use, as that wasn’t listed. I screwed up the steps at a key point, but still ended up with something about as good as anything we’d buy. When it calls for putting the warm milk mixture in a bowl and then adding flour, it says to put in 2 cups then mix, then add the yeast water. I put in all the flour, then saw what the directions actually said. Decided to cut the yeast into it anyway, and hope for the best. Fudged it with a little warm water to make it mix in better. It rose stubbornly, but it did rise. The loaves ended up perhaps smaller and heavier in texture than they would have. In my travels I learned about skimming versus not skimming the milk to make it fluffier or heavier.
Making bread was easier than I’d expected. I routinely cook things that are more time and trouble than making a couple loaves of bread, so I’ll do it again for sure. I want to figure out what the ingredients cost, versus buying, say, a couple loaves of Italian bread.
I also made chili yesterday, slightly heavier on the beans than usual, but still meaty. The girls devoured it, and in fact gave it preference over the bread, despite having tried and enjoyed tastes of the bread beforehand. I also experimented with giving them glasses of water with supper. They have sippy cups of milk, watered juice, or lemonade all day, but usually have nothing to drink at the table with a meal. Figured it was time for them, especially Sadie, to learn to drink from a regular cup better. She loved it. Valerie, who drinks expertly from a bowl, had, or pretended to have, trouble.
Sadie has also started using big kid toothpaste you have to spit out. For some reason, that resulted in her having me brush the teeth for her, but she wants them to be properly clean and admires them in the mirror afterward.
I think I’ll lay back down after all. I have the can’t stay upright feeling that’s like being sick as much as sleepy.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Jay: That Was Worthwhile
I eventually ended up with the kid’s room rearranged to have, clockwise around the edge, the toy kitchen, box of toys, big coffee table with Sadie’s computer and lamp that’s their night light, Nemo pillow, Sadie’s bed, Valerie’s bed, smaller coffee table with Val’s computer, and Val’s chair facing the end of the table. That was the only way to make it usable for her to sit at, as the table is really too narrow.
Ideally they’d have both been at the big table, each at an end, but now the living room has lots of exciting floor space. Much more fun for playing with the 36 of their Hot Wheels, Matchboxes, and mini Tonkas I turned up and shelved while moving things and picking up. Their room also looks more open, though they should quickly cover the floor with toys again.
Previously Sadie wouldn’t sleep on her bed, but instead would nest partly on the Nemo pillow between the two beds, which now touch each other. The excitement, and apparently preferable position, made her eager to sleep there. I didn’t expect her to last all night, though.
They’re also totally excited to have the computers more usable, even if Sadie does try too hard to “help” Valerie. I still need to get some games onto Sadie’s, or give it sound so she can use the Magic Schoolbus CDs. Val brought up Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure on hers, somehow, and Sadie apparently remembered Ctrl makes him jump and the arrows move him, from watching me weeks ago. She made him jump onto his ship, and I explained to her she didn’t want to use the left arrow exclusively, since he had to go the other way to get into the game. Still, it’s cool she remembered and did that much. I didn’t stick around to see if she managed more. But somewhere along the line one of them successfully exited the game, intentionally or not.
Today I need to get other stuff done. I was hoping to get back to work-like stuff late last night, but didn’t, for all I had a brief burst of maybe wakeful enough.
Then again, I would love to move things around the office, too. Clean out the closet. Put a bookcase in there and reorganize. That sort of thing. It’ll wait, though.
More likely I’ll do some cooking. It’s baking weather, but what I’m assuming I’ll make is chili or beef stew or beef and gravy over potatoes. On the other hand, I could invent a casserole or do chicken in the oven or bake some squash or potatoes. Haven’t baked squash before, but it worked well for pumpkins. Mainly don’t want to get to 5:30 again before deciding on supper, for all the burgers were yummy and the kids devoured 1.5 hot dogs each, plus some cheese, chips, condiments and bites of my burger. And lemon pudding, which might actually be even better than butterscotch.
I should start by reading the CotC entries I started on last night and couldn’t concentrate on…
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Jay: What’s In Your Freezer?
Taking a break from working on my to do list and backups, here is why we will undoubtedly want a freezer someday:
That’s a little less neat than I had it, as we removed and moved stuff after I completely repacked it to make it all fit. For instance, there’d been two loves of bread on top of the veggies, but those were used and replaced by a roast. Since the pictures, we’ve used a couple chicken breasts and added a small whole chicken. The other one being in the fridge to cook tomorrow or Saturday.
Hmmm… I wonder if it would work to cook it in the crockpot toward the goal of a shredded chicken dish.
Anyway, this is a lot and yet surprisingly little food, and I can absolutely see maintaining a separate freezer and rotating stuff through it.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Jay: Milk
Yesterday I took Valerie with me so she wouldn’t go stir crazy (apparently it wasn’t sufficient). We picked up mail in Easton. Then we went to Market Basket in Taunton, inspired by having looked at a flier and seen butternut for 39 cents a pound, and some other good sales, and not being sure whether it had ended. Even if it had, there are usually bargains, and walking the whole store made it a bigger outing for Val.
Butternut was no longer 39. It was 49! Amazing! It’s normally 99 in supermarkets, and at Lambert’s it’s 69, which makes it worth getting there normally if there’s reason to be in the area anyway. I got $5 worth, which would have been $10 at Hannaford.
The big story is not that, or the butter for $1.99, or the 85% burger for $1.99, or whatever.
It’s the milk. When I ever saw that whole milk was $2.99 a gallon, I grabbed two, even though we’d just opened a fresh one that morning. I’d been impressed enough that Stop & Shop had it for $3.69 the night before, when I ran in there for milk and bread as a matter of convenience. $3.69 was the price of the 1% and 2% at Market Basket, so it was not an across the board thing.
By comparison, I buy it at Wal-Mart for $3.20-something or $3.30-something, and at BJ’s for I believe about $3.29. Hannaford’s is the best, and convenient, but $3.99. Even Cumberland Farms is 4 cents lower, and is better milk than it was years ago.
$2.99 a gallon! That’s just amazing.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Jay: Overheard in Our House
Deb: “No, puppy sauce is what Glenn Reynolds eats.”
The context: Deb feeding Henry applesauce, Sadie pointing to the dog on his bib and saying something that sounded like “puppy sauce.”
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Jay: Not Sure How I Do It…
My first pot roast ever? Better than any my grandmother ever served. That also happened with my first pea soup.
We’re looking forward to the leftovers.
Unfortunately, the girls were too distracted by my feeding the baby applesauce while they ate, and their desire to have some of the applesauce, to like the meal as much as they did. Sadie ate a lot of her meat. Valerie ate all her carrots. Beyond that they nibbled at it and devoured the applesauce they got for dessert.
Apparently I am also good at cooking peeled, cut up chunks of apple into submission. Go figure.
Jay: Agenda?
I wouldn’t have told you that today’s agenda would include a crockpot pot roast experiment, making a batch of applesauce, or extensive tech support for a 3 year old. I wouldn’t have told you it included as much as possible trying to make things easier for the somewhat injured Deb (the offending slippery on hardwood floor toy will never be on the floor again).
I might have told you that it included a trip to the bank and pharmacy. I might have told you that it included some portion of the cleaning and organizing the office so I can focus better project. I might have told you it included work on selling off a domain, on redesigning the Bizosphere site, on writing a post about carnivals, on writing a post about blogging and business, on posting my blogging resume and linking it from LinkedIn and so forth, on perusing an invitation to join an ad network and firing back some questions, or posting about my plans for CotC more specifically. I might have told you it included more data mining in pursuit of an effort to persuade money out of a former client whom I didn’t bill for some work, or included an effort to guilt another former client who stiffed us out of a token portion of the outstanding $800. I might have included replying about an offer to blog for money, replying about a probably unintentionally pushy-sounding and fear of losing control inducing offer to help with CotC in its new form, or replying about a plea to host a last edition in its traditional form that I might like to turn into an invitation to be the first guest editor. I might have said I would work on pricing at Welcome to Help and an e-mail to potential prospects making sure they know I’m available and willing to work especially cheap for grocery money at the moment. I might have wanted to process some baby pictures to post, as he’s been photogeneric, about like Sadie at a similar age or a bit older, and it’s hard not to do a post with tens of pictures in it.
But whatever I listed would probably not have gotten done anyway. Not from a list on the blog as a “something to post that might be interesting” post, anyway.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Jay: Mmmm… Decaf?
I never drink decaf.
However, it got well into the evening and there was just a cup or so of coffee in the second pot, with us both knowing we’d want more but not necessarily needing the caffeine.
Three of the sample bags of Boston’s Best coffee are decaf, which seems useful to have around just in case. I broke one out and brewed a little on top of the remaining leaded stuff, about a three to one ratio.
I decided to open the French Roast. It smells as bad as I’d expect, in bean form, but at least mixed with the regular coffee it’s not bad. I’m not fond of a dark, burnt roast like that, which explains my disdain for Starbucks.
Fast forward to my waking up at 9:30 from laying down with the girls while they went to sleep. Which I think they didn’t do until I set the example. Two mugs of that sure felt and tasted good.
But it still seems weird to be drinking decaf, even spiked a little.
My brain hasn’t fully woken up yet, since that hour and a half or so of nap. I was able to do the followup on the outage, but other than that, I found I couldn’t remember anything about anything I might be needing to get done.
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