JULY 2013
Wednesday 2013.7.31
Contract Fulfilled
On Monday afternoon I drove down to the TV station and delivered the final 15 shows to fulfill my contract for 2013. On one hand, it was kind of weird because I couldn't find anyone at the station. I gave myself a self-guided tour through every one of their offices, upstairs and down. It was as if an alert had gone out to abandon the building and everyone heard the announcement but me. Finally, I found someone in the back. It felt good to hear somebody say, "Hello Dennis. Do you have more shows for us?" It also felt good to know that I had finished what I had set out to do—produce 45 television shows, all on my own, without any assistance.
A friend of mine also sent me a URL of a site that estimates the value of web sites. You plug in any URL and if it has data it will provide a value along with other statistical information such as page views and visits, etc. My site is valued at $866.34. Any buyers? I'm not sure how serious to take that estimate, but maybe it means all my hard work is worth more than nothing. My friend's site is worth more. He does reviews and provides other information about Alfred Hitchcock movies. Evidently Hitchcock is more popular than white trash cooking. Sad, but true.
Now that I have all the shows submitted, I am really feeling like I can take some time off—and I can. In the past I've used the expression in the vault to refer to the projects that are finished and waiting for uploading to this web site and to YouTube on some future date. I have enough projects complete and in the vault to cover all my uploads through the middle of October. I can take a couple months off, but there won't be any lapse in my weekly uploads.
I am not giving up cooking entirely, but I am getting back to some of my former routine. I used to bake two loaves of bread every other weekend. Yesterday it was cold outside, a good day for baking. I made two loaves of bread. It's amazing how much I forget when I get away from something. The dough didn't feel right. I don't know what I did wrong, but thankfully I was able to make adjustments (I added three tablespoons of water, one at a time) to get the dough's consistency where I like it. They turned out well. Two loaves, golden brown and nicely risen.
The bread tasted good too. It has been a while since I enjoyed the flavor of home baked bread. I almost waited until the bread was cool before cutting into it. It was warm when I put butter on a slice. And then another. The remainder of the bread went into the refrigerator where it will go stale more rapidly. Yes, more rapidly. I use my bread primarily for toast, for which I prefer the bread to be less tender.
And that brings up one final point. I use my electric slicer to slice the loaves. I slice the entire loaf and then refrigerate the slices, ready for toasting. That had been my routine for years. Now it feels good to get back to basics again, at least for a while.
Sunday 2013.7.28
Happy Birthday to Me
Today is my birthday. I am 62 years old. I made it to Social Security benefits age. True, I would get my full benefit if I waited until 66 to collect, but that would mean forfeiting 48 payments. With the increased benefit at 66, it would take 12 years to recover those lost 48 payments. I'd be 78. I do plan to live that long, but I don't know that I'd be in any position to enjoy life at 78 as much as I am enjoying it now. So I chose the smaller benefit while life is still good.
I don't have any plans for my birthday. I'll hear from my twin brother today, if I don't contact him first. We don't communicate a lot, but he is very enthusiastic about my accomplishments. He loves the idea that I do all my own videos and TV shows by myself, without any assistance. From concept to computer to content, it's all me. Watch any TV show and you'll see a list of names in the ending credits. At the end of my show there is only one name. My brother and I are both proud of that.
And, speaking of my TV show, I have another reason to celebrate. This past week I completed the last of the 45 shows for which I contracted with the TV station. I've been viewing them and found a few mistakes—for exameple, use 900kg of shrimp, which should be 900g. I fixed the errors and encoded the shows again. I hope to deliver the complete third season (15 shows) to the station tomorrow or Tuesday.
I suppose I should buy something for myself for my birthday, but nothing comes to mind. I did buy a bench grinder (few of you will know what that is). I removed the stone wheels and replaced them with fabric polishing disks that I also bought. Then I set up a way to mount the machine while I use the wheels to polish my stainless steel pans.
One problem with doing videos in high def is that my pans look bad. Over the decades they have built up a coating that polymerized into a tough film that is difficult to remove. I've tried. It takes a lot of effort with polishing compounds and elbow grease. No solvent I tried would dissolve the polymer, not even oven cleaner. Anything more caustic might pit the metal.
Yesterday I worked on the ugliest of my pans. It took a while, but the wheels did all the work. I wrote about it on my Facebook fan page. One person said it would be less expensive and less work to buy a new set of pots and pans. That's a typical conspicuous consumption attitude. It ain't pretty anymore? Throw it away and buy new. Some people don't know the value of things. I spent $45 on the polishing setup. Just one new stainless steel pan, if it is a good one (and I have pretty good ones) can cost over $100. A decent set can be $600 or more. A neighbor just bought his wife a beautiful set of stainless steel cookware for $800.
The pans I am polishing are probably 30 years old. They are still in good condition, although one has a cracked handle. They still work well. So there is no need to buy new ones. Just polish them up to make them look good and then keep going. I made it to retirement and I am living comfortably in retirement—by not being wasteful. That's the value of frugal thinking.
Wednesday 2013.7.24
I Sooooo Didn't Want to Cook Yesterday
Sometimes I need to drag myself, kicking and screaming, into the kitchen to do a video project. Yesterday was one of those days. It wasn't that I didn't want the food. It turned out really good. I just wanted to be lazy. I would have been much happier watching a movie.
I keep telling myself that I need to take some time off, get away from the kitchen for a while, go do something else, something relaxing. But the light at the end of the tunnel is shining more and more brightly. With yesterday's cooking project done, another TV show will be finished. I'll need to combine yesterdays' project with another, as neither is long enough to fill a half-hour show, but that leaves only one show remaining to be finished. Season three will be done and my contract will be fulfilled. 45 shows. Can you believe it?
What did I cook yesterday? Lemon chicken. It was recommended by a chef who said he made it every day in a restaurant. I got the impression he is either retired or no longer works in a restaurant kitchen. The concept was perfect for me because it fits into my goal of adding more traditional, classic recipes to my site and YouTube channel.
I did a little research and the chef's recipe seemed unique. He used cream in the sauce, along with lemon juice. Many of you already know what happens when you combine milk or cream with lemon juice. You get curds. I have, in fact, made my own cottage cheese by doing something very similar and my Mascarpone recipe uses the same process. So I knew what to expect with the sauce. The chef said the lemon juice thickens the sauce. Well, yes, with curds.
I did a reduction sauce without the cream first. Vermouth in the pan, followed by lemon juice. There were other ingredients, of course, but those were the liquids. After concentrating the liquid quite a bit, I finished it with half a cup of cream and some lemon zest. The cream stirred into the reduction and thickened immediately. That was the acid from the lemon juice curdling the cream. The result was a smooth and creamy sauce, quite delicious. I was very impressed.
For side dishes I browned some pearl onions and then stirred them into cooked rice. I also gathered asparagus stalks into bundles of six each and tied them together with the green part of a green onion. After steaming them for a few minutes, each went onto a plate and was garnished with a little of the reduction cream sauce. Most of the sauce went onto the chicken breasts.
Everything turned out well. The chicken breasts were super tender because I used a digital thermometer to make certain they were not overcooked. Just before they reach a safe temperature, get them out of the pan and let rest. I cooked them to 155°F (68°C). When they rest under foil, the heat will migrate from the exterior to the interior, raising the internal temperature by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. The safe serving temperature for chicken is 165°F (74°C).
When I do a restaurant recipe for this web site and my YouTube channel, it is usually a recipe I find in a trade journal, written by a chef for his own restaurant. This was the first time a professional chef contacted me to give me a recipe from his own restaurant kitchen.
That leaves just one show remaining. I'm thinking of pulling something up from the vault, something that will easily occupy a full half hour of video time. One project comes to mind—my Perfect Gâteau Paris-Brest.
Sunday 2013.7.21
The Influence You Have
The food I sometimes make for myself is often influenced by the questions or comments on my YouTube videos or through the "Contact" button on my web site (look at the panel on the left). Case in point: I am nibbling salmon jerky as I write this because I received some questions and comments about my salmon jerky recipe and video. I remembered seeing wild-caught sockeye salmon at the warehouse store; so I made a special trip (not really so special because it's a short bicycle ride) to the store to buy some salmon.
Other recent comments were about my New England Clam Cakes, which I will make this week, and my recipe for Clam Chowder, which I made two weeks ago. I can't get enough of that chowder. I love that recipe.
This also brings up an important point about the Contact page. Many of you might feel little inclination to give me your real email address. Don't worry; I'm not a serial spammer. In fact, your email is immediately forwarded to a second email address and the original is automatically deleted from the hosting service's server. I bring this up because I received a message from someone expressing a hope that I might someday do a recipe and video for bagels. The recipe is already on my web site, under "Breads" in the Recipe Archive, and there is a video on YouTube. I tried to let him know about this, but the email address came back with a "delivery failure" message. Oh well.
There is also one oddity that is still in the discussion stage. A friend of mine is planning on helping rid an area of destructive feral pigs. If you're not familiar with them, they started off as domesticated pigs that either escaped or were released into the wild. They wreak havoc on the local flora and fauna, damaging the environment, much like the boa constrictors are currently doing to Florida's beautiful Everglades.
He suggested I look into ways of making my own prosciutto, which requires a smoker, in which case he'll bring back some pig. Nothing will happen before September, but we're talking abou it. In a way, I'm hoping it will happen because it would make an excellent video. However, I don't expect many of you to attempt it. I'm not sure how the prosciutto would turn out. The really good stuff, like Parma Prosciutto, is made, I'm sure, from specially raised and fed pigs. I'm not sure how prosciutto will taste when made from pigs gone wild.
One more influence to mention: The availability of fresh ingredients in the stores. Many months ago a friend here in the trailer park gave me her recipe for blueberry muffins, along with her permission to put it on my web site. Back then, there were no fresh blueberries in the store. Now, it being summer, I made the recipe this week. Typically there is an eight to ten week lag time before a recipe and video are uploaded. However, I pushed this week's Blueberry Muffin featured recipe forward so that you might try it while the berries are still in the store.
And as for the Tour de France, the cyclists will ride into Paris this evening, and thus bring to an end another Tour. Chris Froome will win the Tour this year. I'll be looking to see who wins the final stage—Mark Cavendish? Peter Sagan? André Greipel? Marcel Kittel? I'll be watching…
Wednesday 2013.7.17
Taking Some Time Off
I am taking a break away from the kitchen this week, and I feel I deserve it. I currently have 11 projects in the bank to cover my updates and uploads through the end of September. I wish I could take all three months off, but that won't be necessary. I only need to escape the projected heat this week.
Yesterday was the coolest day of the week, 75°F (24°C) was forecast, but that was at the airport, which is just off the beach at the Pacific Ocean. I live inland about a mile from the ocean and up on a small rise. By noon the temperature outside was already 77°F (25°C) and indoors it was 80°F (27°C). The outdoor temperature eventually rose to above 85°F (29°C) before the end of the day. The remainder of the week is projected to be warmer.
During the weekend we had a strange heat day. It was warm all day, but as evening approached the temperature suddenly shot up by nearly 10° and the humidity dropped to 14%. That is usually an indication that the wind shifted to come down off the mountains, bringing the hot dry air from the valley on the other side. The temperature in my home reached 98°F (37°C), but with low humidity my evaporative cooler was able to bring it down. I sat in front of it, reading, until the evening brought cooler temperatures after the sun set.
The time off suits me well. The Tour de France is in its final week. Watching Chris Froome maintain his lead over the other contestants has been fun. He increased his advantage today by a 20 seconds. Today was a Time Trial. I'd like to see him wear the yellow jersey all the way to Paris. I think he deserves it, after sacrificing himself last year for Bradley Wiggins, who won the race. (But tomorrow's live broadcast starts a 3:00 am here on the West Coast. I know I'll be asleep.)
As for the TV show, I am now down to two. I am planning to prepare a blueberry muffin recipe a friend here in the trailer park gave me. Already I'm planning variations. On Monday I saw an episode of Giada at Home, in which she made blueberry corn bread. She added a little cinnamon and nutmeg. I like the idea, and so I am planning to do the same for the muffins. I also have some mini white chocolate morsels. Maybe I'll add some to the batter. Maybe not. I need to dwell on that for a while, which is fine because I am taking time off.
It's funny, but even Sunday's upload seems appropriate for the heat—homemade salad dressing. Did you ever try Good Seasons salad dressing mix? It comes in an envelop and you add your own oil and water. The water always bugged me. Why water? It has no flavor. When I was in college I started experimenting with juices. The oil, of course, should be extra virgin olive oil. Recently I began experimenting with the mix itself. I even bought a good little bottle in a thrift store. It only cost me 50¢ and it makes an excellent cruet.
Finally, to make my days a little easier, I made some nibble food for myself. I received a few questions about salmon jerky this week. The warehouse store has wild caught salmon (I avoid the farmed salmon—it has no flavor). The nice thing about the jerky is that it dries in a warm, not hot, oven overnight. It barely warms the home up. And I just tasted my first piece. It's delicious.
Sunday 2013.7.14
Coming Up On Another Anniversary
The middle of August will be this web site's third anniversary. I started this web site during the early part of my final year of employment, July through June of 2010/11. My goals at the time were to publish my most popular personal recipes (long since achieved) and to give myself a hobby to keep me occupied in retirement. That second goal has been successfully in progress ever since I retired.
I didn't work hard when I was employed. My job involved maintaining a university's database as part of a statewide system to help community college students transfer to a university and be fully prepared—or as prepared as possible—to enter their major as a junior. If any of you are familiar with ASSIST here in California, that was the database in which I spent most of my time. The job was easy because I knew the database so well. It could, at times, be very time consuming, and boring. I don't miss it.
One of the first recipes I posted on this web site was for Almond Biscotti. Among some of my friends that is still a favorite treat. In fact, when I make it I need to keep it secret from some of them because they'll question why they didn't get any. I can't give away all my food. In fact, a favorite defense of mine is to say, "Biscotti? Sure. No problem. You'll find the recipe on my web site."
Having introduced this web site with biscotti nearly three years ago, I now observe each anniversary with a biscotti recipe. I started thinking about possible ideas this past week. I enjoy the process of making biscotti so much, I try to create my own recipe from scratch rather than rely on one from a book, magazine, or the Internet. The biggest issue is the weather. July and August are typically the hottest months of the year here in Southern California. It is not a time to have a hot oven heating my home for an hour or two. In such cases I typically do most of the prep work during the evening before, and then bake the biscotti during the morning before my home gets too warm.
Another project that came to mind this past week was inspired by all the messages I get, either through email or as comments on my YouTube videos. "Why do you call yourself trailer park white trash? You are the furthest thing from it," etc. A thought occurred to me. What if I were to do a recipe and video that was quintessential trailer park white trash cooking?
And so I started cooking a pot of rice, which I flavored with the chicken flavoring that comes in the little foil packet in a package of ramen noodles. I deboned and cut up some left over Kentucky Fried Chicken, original recipe, and I heated the chicken in a skillet with some heavy cream, which I also flavored with the ramen packet. When the rice was done, I put some on a paper plate and spooned chicken chunks and cream sauce over the top. It's rather good.
The video is short, which is not surprising. It isn't a difficult recipe. However, the biscotti I finally made was also short. So I am thinking of combining the two recipes to fill a half hour TV show and the final one of my first year on TV. I think that white trash chicken video might make an excellent finale.
I need to complete two more shows to fulfill my contract, and then I'll take some much-needed time off.
Wednesday 2013.7.10
Then There Were Three
As I have blogged about before, I am nearing the completion of my contract with TVSB, the local public-access TV station that is airing my Mobile Home Gourmet TV shows. I signed to provide 45 shows for the 2013 season. I am currently down to needing only three more shows to complete the terms of my contract. I am looking forward to seeing this obligation satisfied.
As I have also blogged about in the past, I am uncertain as to whether or not I wish to do a second season. I am somewhat caught on the horns of a dilemma, as the cliché goes. On the one hand, I will continue to make cooking videos for my web site and YouTube. Encoding for the TV station is only one additional step. On the other hand, there is the pressure of trying to edit a video to be between 28 and 30 minutes in length for the station's needs. On another hand, I gain nothing from the additional effort. There was talk at one time about putting the videos out for distribution, in which case I might earn a few dollars if my shows were picked up by other stations. That never happened. On yet another hand, although my show is aired often (12 times in the same week on this week's schedule), I get more attention from YouTube. The TV station broadcasts to the two local counties. YouTube broadcasts to the world.
I recently read something about the American writer, Tom Wolfe, probably best known for his novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. He said he doesn't try to attract attention to himself, but he doesn't mind being noticed. How do I apply this to myself? I don't seek attention, but I like it when someone appreciates something I share.
Recently I received two amusing emails from people who wrote: "With Paula Deen out of the picture, that leaves an opening on the Food Network." Well, yes, but then that would mean going back to work again. I like being retired. My pension, and soon my Social Security benefits, are enough to live on. I am comfortable. As pressured as I feel trying to fulfill a contract for a local TV station, what would I feel if I needed to satisfy a network contract? They're more fussy because I would have less time, to make room for commercials, and I would need to edit my show into segments to fit between the slotted commercial times. A long time ago I read that TV stations consider commercials the "content" because that is where the revenue comes from. The stuff in between, the shows, is nothing but "filler" between the content.
Not that I ever need to think about it. Not having been to culinary school, it is highly unlikely I would ever get noticed beyond YouTube or a little local station. I am only a cook, which makes me a small fish in a very big ocean of very big fish.
And so I am enjoying the completion of my contract. I'll have the fall season delivered to the station before the end of July. Then I'll have time to think about next year. Right now, that seems very far away.
Sunday 2013.7.7
Too Hot to Cook
Never has the cliché "If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen" been so appropriate than at the beginning of this past week. If you were following the news you know that the Southwestern United States was nearing record hot temperatures. Where I live, near the ocean, the temperatures weren't so bad. Better yet, we had no fires here. I don't live in a fire danger area, but the smoke that can sweep over the area from a large fire up in the mountains can really irritate the eyes, lungs, and throat.
I have an evaporative cooler (it uses water and evaporation to chill the air—much less expensive than an air conditioner) that I keep maintained for the warmer days of summer. It won't bring a room down to 72°F (22°C), but it will pull 10 to 15 degrees out of the air. If I sit in front of it, watching the Tour de France, the breeze is cool enough to feel like 72°. Outside, the temperatures rose up into the low 90s. So I was well equipped to deal with the heat and remain relatively comfortable. (One thing about evaporative coolers: They need dry air. If you live in a humid part of the country, an air conditioner is your best choice.)
As I was saying, it was too hot to cook. This week I observed my second anniversary of my retirement. Two years of being gainfully unemployed. I'm not wealthy, but I'm comfortable. My pension suffices.
I was going to celebrate my anniversary with a pizza, but I couldn't make myself turn on the oven. The pizza idea came about because of an oversight. I was glancing at a pizza recipe in a restaurant trade journal (those are magazines that only go to businesses) and I thought I saw "2 ounces tomato dough." I did a double-take and looked again. "2 ounces pizza dough." But this gave me an idea. I got to thinking, what if I were to incorporate some chopped sun-dried tomatoes into the pizza dough?
The temperatures cooled a few days later and I set about making the pizza (and recording it for a video). The chopped tomatoes worked into the crust easily and gave it a mild tomato flavor, which worked well with the other flavors in the pizza. Over the next few days the temperatures continued to be mild, allowing me to work on two other video projects I started but could not finish due to the heat.
And then a neighbor received a bushel of sweet corn and offered to share some with me. I received ten ears of corn, which was important because I had done a steak video earlier and I needed to do some pick-ups and cutaways to raise the length of the video from 24 minutes to 28. We had made corn on the cob; so I did it again, only taking my time about it, showing more, and adding nearly two minutes to the video. We also name Brussels sprouts. I'll do those again, taking my time again, and hopefully I can squeeze a couple more minutes into the video to qualify it for a TV show.
And speaking of my TV show, someone from the TV station emailed me to say how popular my show was. The station has been receiving positive comments. I never knew anyone even noticed.
So, all in all, it was an excellent week.
Wednesday 2013.7.3
Celebrations
Monday was the second anniversary of my retirement. I recently read an article about happiness among people. Although there is some cliché that says "Money can't buy happiness," the majority of people who declared themselves happy said it was because of money—not a lot of money, just enough money. I would change the cliché to "Wealth cannot buy happiness."
Happy people, the article said, found happiness in financial security, not wealth. They only needed enough money to free themselves from having to think about money. Too little money and the mind dwells on how to pay the bills and keep the family fed. Too much money and thoughts turn to taxes, investments, and feelings of insecurity about the stock market.
I read another article about money and happiness. It described two categories of people: (1) Those who get their thrills by procuring things that invoke feelings of pride through ownership and (2) those who gather satisfaction by seeing their financial security grow and strengthen. I have one friend in the first category. He is rarely happy because the thrill of owning something wears off. Then he needs to buy something new. He makes far more money than I do, but he complains about money more than anyone else I know. He is always in debt because his income can't keep up with his spending. It's like an addiction. I'm a happy person in the second category.
Another source of happiness is leisure. A simple thing like watching the Tour de France each day, rather than rushing home from work and trying to catch most of the evening review of the day's race stage, makes me happy. Having time to cook, write recipes, and make videos is a pleasure. Sure, it costs me a little money, but I can afford it and most hobbies involve some investment of time and money. It would be nice if it paid for itself, but the hobby costs so little, I don't need to worry about the money.
So how did I celebrate my retirement anniversary? With food, of course. I made one of my really decadent pizzas, with one new twist. I recently glanced at a pizza recipe in a restaurant trade journal and I thought I saw "6 oz. tomato pizza dough." I looked again and saw that I had read it wrong. But that gave me an idea. What if I were to chop up some sun-dried tomatoes and add them to the dough for the crust? I did, and it was a fantastic pizza, one of the best I ever made. The recipe and the video will be uploaded here and to YouTube in coming weeks.
Tomorrow is another celebration. Here in the USA we celebrate our Independence Day with fireworks in the evening on the Fourth of July. It's a national holiday. A friend here in the trailer park is hosting a simple evening potluck dinner outside her home. The weather will be ideal. She asked me to make something with homemade pasta; so I am making my linguine with clam sauce. After dinner we'll sit and talk, maybe sip a little wine, until 9:00 when the fireworks display begins. They launch the rockets from a park only a few blocks from here. We won't even need to get out of our lawn chairs to watch the display. Her home is well situated, no trees in the way. It will be a fun evening.
I remember reading somewhere that celebrations with food came from an old way of sealing a covenant—with food. Think of weddings. If you have a good knowledge of history, you can think back to some of the covenants mentioned in the Bible. I am happy today that we use celebrations and observances as an excuse to break bread with family and friends. As I get older (62 at the end of this month), those are the things I appreciate most—and my continuing good health, which makes it all possible.