DECEMBER 2015
Wednesday 2015.12.30
Reflections
I usually reserve the last blog post of the year to reflect upon the past year and to look ahead a little into the future.
I accomplished a lot during 2015. Probably the most important accomplishment was monetizing my videos on YouTube. I could never live on the little amount of money those videos earn, but they are beginning to pay for themselves. I will probably never recover the money I spend on professional audio/video equipment. My video camera alone cost more than $6,000. At least the videos are earning enough to pay for the food.
Some videos are inexpensive to make. How much is a loaf of bread? I can make bread for as little as 25¢ per loaf if I buy flour in the 25-pound bag at Costco. Diver's scallops, on the other hand, are around $30 per pound at the seafood market. Some videos, especially if I need to make the food more than once to get all the video clips I need, can easily cost more than $50. Pastimes and hobbies can be expensive. Mine at least gives me some good food to eat or share with my neighbors. And it keeps me active in retirement. It's better than watching daytime television.
Another important accomplishment this year was to work through my entire web site — currently 544 HTML pages — and restore everything back to the "best practices" guidelines I started out with more than five years ago. This web site is not an important one on the Internet. I doubt I have more than 20 visitors per day. You no doubt noticed there are no advertisements. No one is required to register for anything. Everything is free, even my cookbook; so go take anything you want. A commercial web site is expensive to host. I want a simple, and inexpensive, fun little web site where I can share some of my cooking experiences and recipes.
I don't know if I can describe this as an accomplishment or not — maybe more of a change — but this year I seemed to be less affected by negative criticisms on my videos. Most of them I leave in place because they are amusing. I like to say there are people who think having an opinion makes them an authority. It doesn't. It makes them opinionated. A recent debate was whether or not a Kitchenaid stand mixer is a luxury appliance. It's amusing because when I do something by hand, someone comments: "You have a Kitchenaid. You should use it." When I use it, someone criticizes, "You should show how to do it by hand because some people don't own a Kitchenaid." They watch only one video and assume that is the way I do everything. I ignore those comments. And, of course, there is always the "ban" button. I do sometimes ban some people from ever commenting on my YouTube channel again.
Probably the one accomplishment I most enjoy is that I built two new computers this year. And, this time I built them with the best consumer-grade components money can buy. It doesn't bother me that they cost about $6,000 each. I know I can buy a computer at Costco for around $700. I wanted "extreme desktop production rigs." I've always wanted to build dream machines. At my age, this might be the last time I build computers. So I wanted the very best. And I am super happy with them. They are working perfectly and they do everything a lot faster than my old computers.
Looking Ahead
I bought a Paleo cookbook. I want to learn more about that type of diet. Recipes might appear here.
Among my personal accomplishments I can list having lost 70 pounds. I actually started in 2014, but during this year I reached a goal weight of 165 pounds. However, I started to relax a little too much toward the end of the year and I ate too much, gaining some of the weight I had successfully lost. I don't want to return to the obesity of two years ago. So…
New Year's Resolutions
A friend and I are starting a new meeting group to support those who made a New Year's resolution to lose weight and/or live a healthier lifestyle. He runs the World News Discussion Group I attend every other Saturday. The idea for the new group was mine. I want to be a part of a community that encourages each other to stay with the program and achieve our goal.
I know how I am. I can easily deceive myself when I know no one is watching. However, if I am answerable to a group, to a program, I feel I am held accountable and that keeps me better disciplined because I don't want to look like a failure in front of others.
We'll be starting out new meeting group in the next couple of weeks.
Children of an Idle Brain
"I talk of dreams." —Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet; Act I, Scene 4
I had a strange, but potentially useful, dream this week. I dreamed I worked in a professional kitchen as kind of an errand employee. "Get me a #40 pan," or "Go downstairs and bring up a 10-pound bag of onions."
There was a pile of roasted ducks, maybe 18 to 20 of them, and the chef asked, "What should we do with all these cooked ducks?"
"I can debone them," I volunteered.
"You can do that?"
"Sure," I said. "I've deboned hundreds of chickens."
While I was deboning the ducks, the chef asked, "What can we make with the duck meat?" The other cooks were standing around, listening.
"I can make a reduction sauce with plum wine and some chicken stock. Maybe mince up some dates to go in it."
"If he can pull off that sauce," he said to the other cooks, "we'll put him on a stove. How would you plate it?" he asked me.
"Over noodles. Not rice. That wouldn't do. Noodles would be better."
"What vegetable would you pair it with?"
"Something kind of red," I said. "Steamed carrots, or maybe cubed butternut squash."
"Prepare that for me, " he said as he walked away. "I want to taste it."
In my dream I knew I had passed some sort of test. I could not only cook something, but I could come up with an original recipe to use food on hand. The following day I went shopping and bought duck and plum wine. Duck with Plum Wine Sauce is in the Recipe Archive.
And, maybe I can squeeze a second video out of if I reserve some of the duck meat and use it in ravioli. I would like to make ravioli again. Duck Meat Ravioli is also in the Arcdhive.
So 2015 was a good year. 2016 will probably be just as good, if not better. My health is excellent. My weight is down. I have a good outlook on life. Assuming a Russian satellite doesn't come crashing down through my roof while I'm sleeping (I'm not worrying about it), I expect to be around for a while and continue making cooking videos and writing recipes.
Sunday 2015.12.27
I Love YouTube
Something started happening earlier today that was annoying. I'd open DreamWeaver and I'd get "on load Javascript error" messages. I went onto the Internet and there is a simple YouTube video in which someone shows how to fix the problem. He said the cache file gets corrupted and he showed how to locate it and delete it. DreamWeaver will then create a new, clean one, getting rid of all the garbage that was causing the Javascript errors. It was easy and the problem is gone. My favorite comment in the video is: "This is a persistent problem that Adobe knows about but, like everything else, they let us figure out how to fix it on our own," he said with a snicker. Yeah. Got that right.
Another Plus for Smart & Final — extra!
The new Smart & Final store that opened recently here is easily within walking distance. I usually walk there, unless I stop in the car on the way home from somewhere. As one example why: Yellow onions at 69¢ per pound compared to nearly twice that cost at the market across the street. It has become my go-to grocery store. And, it's on the same side of the street; so I never need to think about traffic.
Each time I visit I walk around the store to look at the items they have in stock. I was surprised on Wednesday to see they have safflower oil. Safflower oil isn't an important oil for flavoring. It has almost no flavor at all. Its one advantage is a high smoke point. It is one of the best oils for high-temperature cooking, such as on a stove top grill. Peanut oil, another high-temperature oil, starts to burn at 450°F (232°C). Safflower oil can be heated to 510°F (266°C) before it starts smoking. I've had a bottle of safflower oil in my cupboard and I've been frugal about using it because I would need to drive down into the city to replace it. Now, with it stocked a 10-minute walk away, there is no need to be thrifty about it.
And if you're wondering where extra virgin olive oil ranks: It starts to burn at about 375°F (191°C). It has one of the lowest smoke points; therefore, I don't fry with it. I use "pure" or refined olive oi, which has a smoke point of 390°F (199°C). I use extra virgin olive oil as a flavoring oil.
Pain de Mie Encore
Last week I needed to do a new Pain de Mie video to replace the old one on YouTube. A fan of my web site pointed out that the formula in the video is not the same as it is in the recipe PDF on this web site. It is very different. Evidently, at some point after making that video, I decided I didn't like the recipe formula and wrote it again for a lighter, less dense, loaf of bread. I hadn't thought about the video.
On Thursday of this past week I shot the new video. I've been wanting to replace some of those old videos anyway; so this was a good excuse. However, once again I encountered the need to simply learn how best to make bread. The dough seems to rarely turn out the same way twice. After preparing the dough, it was very dry. I could tell by the feel of it and the way it moved in the mixer bowl. I added water, a little at a time, until I got it where I wanted it. I like it moist and a little sticky.
So many factors affect dough — the climate, the type of flour, the moisture in the flour, the water in the butter. I wish I could give a one-size-fits-all formula for making bread, but you simply need to make it enough times to know how to make adjustments when the dough doesn't seem correct.
I'm not bragging when I say I've made hundreds of loaves of bread. For several years it was routine to make two loaves of bread every other weekend. That's 50 in a single year. Even with all that experience I still mess it up sometimes. We're all human; we all make mistakes.
Another Christmas Passes
I enjoyed another quiet Christmas this year. I successfully sidestepped the few invitations to Christmas dinner I wanted to avoid. I didn't cook anything. I didn't even get involved with any gift exchanges this year. I used the day to relax and recover from all the work of updating this web site earlier this week. I did give a few small gifts. Have you heard of wine glass charms? I made some for the members of the World News Discussion Group I attend every other Saturday.
The charms are like little bracelets that are stretched around the stem of a wine glass (or a water goblet, for those who don't drink alcohol). It has their name on it, such that if they put their glass down somewhere and then come back to it later, they don't need to ask, "Which glass is mine?"
That leaves only one more blog entry this year — Wednesday — which I usually reserve for reflecting upon the year. It is typically a long one; so I'll keep today's blog a little short.
Hopefully you had a merry Christmas. Have a safe and happy New Year.
Wednesday 2015.12.23
SEO
Do you know what SEO is? Search Engine Optimization. A friend of mine is conducting a series of free seminars on the subject. Several years ago he made SEO his specialty, and he made a lot of money along the way. How much? He doesn't say, but he bought a house here in Santa Barbara and he paid it off in three years. That's how much.
He looked critically at my web site. See that blue text at the top of this column? It's there because he said I need "Heading 1" text as the first line on every one of my HTML pages. Who knew? I didn't. There are currently 544 HTML pages in this web site. Have you any idea how many of my pages were correct? I'll give you a hint. The number is less than one, but not a negative number. It took all day to go through them all and correct each one to have the "<h1>" tag for the first line of text. I laughed about it afterward, but it wasn't funny at the time.
Now here's the worst part. Is it in the right place? What if it's supposed to be in the header div where the graphic is, not at the top of the main content div? Way back in the early days of this web site the header was h1 text. Much later I created a graphic to use instead. I looked at the code. The <h1> tag is still inside the header. Maybe I'm not done fixing these 544 pages yet.
Heading 1 Tag
After spending an hour or two reading some HTML and SEO "Best Practices" web sites, I learned that the <h1> tag up in the banner (where the little picture of the camper trailer is) was wrong. There should be only one use of <h1> on each HTML page. 544 pages later, all those tags were changed to the <p> tag. I still don't know if that is the best choice, but it's only Wednesday. There is still plenty of time for a lot more to go wrong.
Thankfully "Heading 2" <h2> and the subsequent ones aren't as important. I'm supposed to use them because they help search engine crawlers understand the structure of my web pages. This current blog page and future recipe and blog pages will use them. I ain't going back, though, through 544 pages to fix them. I simply won't tell my friend about them.
Title Tag
Then I learned about the <title> tag. Make each title unique. Keep it to 55 characters, including spaces, or less. Separate the key words or key phrases with hyphens and separate those from the brand name (Mobile Home Gourmet) with a "pipe." If someone had told me there was a pipe on my computer keyboard, I would have said jokingly, "My computer runs on electricity, not steam." What's a pipe? It turned out to be that little vertical line on the same keytop as the backslash. On my keyboard it's the key below the backspace key.
Yet another 544 pages later, and another day lost, all the title tags are fixed.
I don't know where all these tedious and time consuming repairs will get me. I was perfectly happy with my web site before. It has been on the Internet for more than five years and, to the best of my knowledge, nothing blew up where it shouldn't have. My site isn't buried at the bottom of Google's back pages.
Last night I did a Google search for "mom's italian christmas cookies". Boom! (Not literally.) There was my recipe at the top of the Google page. I did the same search in Bing. Same thing. "Italian christmas cookie recipe" didn't yield the same results, but I was still on the first page. However, "italian christmas cookies video" put my YouTube video at the very top. So what's with this SEO thing anyway?
To be honest, my friend does tend to exaggerate a lot. "You could be earning ten times what you're making now! A hundred times!" I tried to explain to him that if I make chicken pesto pasta, I can't call it "spinach feta ravioli" simply because those search words are stronger than chicken, pesto, and pasta. "It is what it is." But the argument hatched an idea. What if I were to learn that the words spinach, feta, and ravioli are powerful SEO search words? Could I then invent Spinach Feta Ravioli for this web site?
I've invented recipes before. My recipe for Linguine with Clam Sauce is purely my own creation. The name certainly isn't unique, but I created the recipe from scratch; it's not an adaptation of something I found in a cookbook or magazine. (The photograph is awful though.) So, it is possible…
Meanwhile…
Yesterday evening I received yet another SEO email from my friend. "This might save you some time." Attached was yet another spreadsheet of search terms. He's still going on about it and I'm still fretting about HTML. Some might diagnose him with perseveration issues.
At some point in the near future (or maybe not) I'll tackle SEO. My friend says it took him ten years to learn it. Then he makes it sound like it's something I should master in 72 hours. "You gotta do it! You gotta!" No. Not yet. Two hours with him and I feel like he performed a lobotomy on my brain with a Roto-Rooter. Have you ever met someone who is so "intense" he's overwhelming? That's my friend. I really like the guy. He's a dynamo of organization and fresh ideas. I'm more like the Muddy Mississippi. I meander along and eventually get where I'm going, but I don't set any speed records. The problem is: He can't condescend to basics. He jumps from arithmetic into quantum mechanics.
How many fans would my web site and YouTube channel have if I only said, "A sauce is easy. Roux + liquid + seasoning + ingredients = sauce. Now do it."? Not many, if any. First you have to learn how to prepare a proper roux.
Needless to say, I am wiped out. My brain is functioning only in survival mode — keep the heart beating and the lungs breathing. Everything else can wait. If you believe in Christmas miracles, writing this blog with my brain in its current state is a miracle.
Enjoy your holiday. Hopefully you got all your shopping done. And if you find an SEO book under your tree, re-gift it.
Sunday 2015.12.20
California's Bounty
I love living in Southern California. It was a dream of mine to live here when I was growing up in Connecticut. I moved to the state to attend college and never looked back.
A neighbor has three orange trees and they are burdened with fruit. He urged me, practically pleaded, to take some fruit. An idea hatched. I have a citrus juicer attachment for my Kitchenaid; so I told him I would take as many as he would give me and juice them, dividing the juice evenly between us. I picked a full box of ripe oranges.
This yielded more than a gallon of orange juice. The flavor is unlike anything I ever bought in a store — so sweet and no hint of bitterness. It took about half an hour to squeeze all the oranges and then clean up the mess. It was well worth my time and effort. I love California.
When I gave my neighbor his juice, I assured him that I was available any time he wanted me to pick oranges and squeeze more juice. He probably has a dozen boxes of oranges on those trees. They are loaded with fruit.
A Little More Color
I might have mentioned that I attend a semi-weekly news discussion group. A new group formed recently, the focus being on web sites and SEO (search engine optimization). One feature discussed yesterday was using more color in web pages. I don't know whether or not it will do my web site much good, but I added color to my subheads. It looks good. If anything, it looks festive for Christmas.
Wednesday 2015.12.16
Keeping Things Working
I am thankfull I ain't stoopid.
For the past five years I've been using a Sony lavalier microphone to capture the audio as I make videos. For a $500 component, parts of it are shamefully poor in quality. I've broken a battery case, which was easy and inexpensive to replace. The clip that holds the microphone to my apron is plastic. I broke it once and was able to repair it (and make it stronger) with epoxy putty. I finally replaced it with a metal clip and I really like the quality of the new one.
The wire has been the most problematic. The insulating jacket covering the cable is so thin, it breaks up easily. Evidently it isn't made with an oil resistent plastic either. It has become softer and more fragile as oil from my fingers has weakened it.
Everywhere the jacket broke I wrapped it with blue tape. I had four of those bandages on the cable.
When I shot the lamb chops video on Sunday I had issues with the audio. There was no sound. Obviously a connection had broken. Bending and twisting the cable in a few places, I was able to get it working again, but it was time to come up with a more permanent solution.
I should probably mention I have a spare — still new in the box, never used except to test it. I also have a spare battery case. I like having spares. They're good to have, should something go wrong in the middle of a shoot. At $500, I can't justify a spare lavalier microphone system though.
I set aside Monday afternoon (taking some time away from practicing my Rubik's Cube) to replace my microphone's cable. It took a couple hours because the work was so intricate.
I don't like soldering really tiny wires. Give me the good old days of lamp wire. Have you ever seen any of Julia Child's old French Chef videos? Occasionally you might see her walk from the kitchen to the dining room dragging a thick black cable along the floor. She had a microphone hidden in her clothing. In these days of micro-miniaturized electronics, fine wires are unavoidable. And I don't know why, but the microphone uses a stereo cable. Maybe they're positive, negative, and ground. Whatever.
While I waited for my soldering pencil to heat up (it takes a while) I found a suitable cable in my box of computer stuff and prepared my work space. Soldering such miniscule wiring is ridiculous, more guesswork than skill. I also set up a candle for heating the shrink tubing I used to build up a stronger jacket and insulate the bare wires.
As an added bonus, the new cable is a few inches longer than old one, giving me a little more freedom in how I set things up.
I tested it several times. The first was to check the soldering, to make sure I had done it correctly. Satisfied, I heated the shrink tubing into place and tested it another two times. It works.
I Learned Something New Yesterday
I knew it wasn't good to refrigerate onions. Something to do with them spoiling or sprouting or something. I had to use onions no later than about a week or two after I bought them; otherwise, they would get moldy or rotten. When I lived in New England some people kept their onions and potatoes in the cellar. A mobile home doesn't have a cellar; so I went onto the Internet to see if there was a better way to keep onions other than just leaving them on the kitchen counter next to the stove. There is.
I read that onions, like garlic, shallots, potatoes, and other root crops, need some air, but not a lot. Storing them in a plastic bag is especially bad. I thought about those illustrations and warnings on some plastic bags: "This is not a toy." They're not for storing onions either.
One web site demonstrated storing them in a paper bag punched with holes to allow enough air to keep them happy without exposing them to too much air. Maybe like some people, onions don't like drafts. Supposedly they can be stored like this for several months without spoiling. It certainly isn't an expensive experiment; so I'm giving it a try.
I also learned that onions and potatoes shouldn't be stored together. They should be kept separated because they each give off a gas that can spoil the other.
Meanwhile…
I mentioned in earlier blogs about the new Smart & Final store that opened a few blocks down the street — easily a 10-minute walk. For their Grand Opening Sale they had whole Foster Farm chickens on sale at 69¢ per pound. Such a deal! Yesterday was the last day of the sale; so I walked down there to take advantage. "Do my eyes deceive me?" The chickens were on sale as a "Manager's Special" for 49¢ per pound (normally $1.49/pound — Costco, across the street, is cheaper at $1.19/pound). Evidently they bought more than they needed for the Grand Opening Sale and wanted to move them before they expired.
I bought two and this morning I filleted them. The meat is roasting in the oven now. It's kind of cold here anyway; so running the oven will warm up the place. I'll portion it for my Minute Meals. I set aside the trim to make stock (later today).
And that means lunch is already planned — Chef's Reward. I call it Chef's Reward. It's the meatier wing pieces, the drumettes and wingettes, plus the livers, giblets, and the neck. I'll fry those in butter and enjoy them at noon. Now I must go to the store to buy carrots and celery for the stock. I already have the onions. They're in that bag.
Sunday 2015.12.13
Chicken Breasts Saltimbocca
I don't know whether I can use the term saltimbocca with chicken. The word, which literally means "jump into the mouth," is Italian and, according to one of my encyclopedias, is used for veal and prosciutto cooked a certain way. Another of my encyclopedias concurs.
I think of just about any meat wrapped in prosciutto as something akin to saltimbocca. On this web site is one of my favorite preparations of lamb chops — Lamb Chops Saltimbocca. The lamb chops are wrapped with prosciutto before being being pan fried, and thus I chose the term to name some chicken breasts I made on Friday.
I got the idea for the recipe from something I saw in a magazine. It was a rather plain dish and I knew I could ramp it up a little. I started with skinless boneless chicken breasts that I had filleted from whole chickens (the legs of which were used to make Braised Chicken, a recipe that will be on this web site in coming weeks). I described that dish in last Sunday's blog entry.
For the Chicken Breasts Saltimbocca, I chopped some fresh herbs — thyme, rosemary, and sage — and seasoned the breast meat with those herbs before wrapping the meat with prosciutto and then fastening everything together with some kitchen twine. You could substitute many different fresh herbs. Or you could go beyond herbs. I'd like to try chopped fresh basil and lemon zest in this recipe someday.
Then the breasts were browned on both sides before they were transferred to a glass baking dish and roasted until done. The final flavor was lighter and more delicate than I imagined. The herbs and prosciutto added their own flavors, but they were not strong enough to overpower the mild flavor of the chicken.
I cooked enough to easily feed eight people. Often I deliver the food to my neighbors, but this time I saved all the chicken, slicing it thinly and portioning it for my Minute Meals (formerly my Lazy Man Meals). I put 13 portions in the freezer. And this points out something I like about some of my videos — getting to eat my own food.
Often I make something high in calories, too fattening to keep in the house. I give that food away, no matter how expensive the ingredients might have been. If I remember correctly, the Lamb and Sausage Pie I made a few months ago cost me more than $40 in ingredients. Other than one piece I cut for myself to record the "tasting" portion of the video, all the remainder of the pie went to my neighbors. This time around, I was able to keep my video food for myself. I feel like that is a double benefit; I get a video to put on YouTube (and earn a little money) and I get some food for myself. That is a good investment.
I could have made a sauce for the Chicken Breasts Saltimbocca; there was plenty of liquid in the bottom of the baking dish, about 2/3 of a cup (almost 90ml). However, I strained it, added a little water to bring it up to a cup, and then added a cup of my homemade chicken stock. From there I made Chicken Soup for dinner — a third benefit.
Next up: Lamb chops with a sauce made with dates and dried figs. I haven't figured out what to name that one yet. "Tuscan Lamb Chops" comes to mind, but that might be really incorrect. How about Lamb Chops with Fig Reduction Sauce? It's in the Recipe Archive now.
Rubik's Cube
When I was in college, I had a Rubik's Cube. Like many, I didn't spend eons trying to figure it out. I learned from others how to solve it. Here is an interesting statistic: With all the possible configurations of colors around the cube (4.3x1019), if you could complete three turns per second it would take 452.2 billion years to work through every possible configuration. I don't have a lot of time.
I bought a cube from Amazon. Some really good models are available, better than the one I had in college. Some incorporate colored plastic rather than those stickers that would fall off after a while. And many are built to be more fluid and comfortable when turning the layers.
I went onto the Internet to find a set of solutions I could live with. There is more than one way to solve the cube. So why bother? Sometimes I want something mindless to do while I'm watching the news. How many times can one listen to Donald Trump? Or news about him?
The best line I'd read about Trump: "The Republican Party is caught between a rock and a jerk" — Jeb Bush adviser Ana Navarro.
Not that it matters, but I memorized the last of the routines for solving the cube yesterday. I'm still weak on the memory, but I've got it.
Speaking of Trump
I miss Keith Olbermann. I haven't had as much fun watching news and politics since the days of Olbermann trashing Bush/Chaney, Fox Noise, and Bill-O. Can you imagine MSNBC's ratings if they had Olbermann erupting into vitriolic diatribes about Trump? I can. They would be a force to be reckoned with. Even without him, the news has been entertaining lately. I anticipate a lot of fun between now and the election in November.
And, Finally, More Cooking
I shot another video today — the reason why I am so late at updating this blog. I experimented with another bourbon reduction sauce. Besides the bourbon, I used homemade beef stock, sliced figs, minced dates, and fresh herbs. I grilled some lamb chops and plated them with the sauce on top. It was delicious.
Wednesday 2015.12.09
Maybe I Have the Wrong Hobby
I mentioned in Sunday's blog the Facebook response to two photographs I posted. One was of my latest cooking adventure — Braised Chicken, a photograph of which is on the recipe page — and a picture of one of the two computers I built. Less than 24 hours later the chicken photo had reached 88 people. The computer photo had reached 299. Although my Facebook fan page is a place to promote this web site and my YouTube cooking channel, there was nearly four times more interest in the computers I had built. This got me thinking.
If I could get the donations, I would gladly change my pastime from cooking to building enthusiast computers and then donate them to local schools, charities, and nonprofits.
I would need some big donors though. The two computers I recently built for myself cost, with monitors, about $6,000 each. Bill Gates, are you interested? Mark Zuckerbug, have I got your attention?
Every silver lining has a dark cloud. The one issue I would need to emphasize when giving the computers away is that I do not provide service. A former friend used to custom build computers for people, for a fee, and they expected unlimited free service indefinitely. He told me about the problems the people caused themselves because they loaded something they shouldn't have loaded, such as a free game from the Internet, and trashed their data with viruses. He was expected to solve the problems, for free.
Would I really build computers in YouTube videos? Probably not. I can't imagine getting the sponsorship, and there are thousands of builders who are better qualified than I am. My only qualification above theirs is that I have nearly $20,000 of professional audio/video recording equipment and five years experience making videos. Then there would be the need to establish myself as a nonprofit, for tax purposes (all those donations), all the paperwork, etc. Nah. It sounds like a fun idea, but cooking is less of a problem.
Weird Dreams
Where do dreams come from? Before I went to bed I viewed one of my videos, Triple Chocolate Pound Cake, because someone asked a question, which I didn't answer.
She asked how I had prepared the bundt pan because the cake slipped out so easily and beautifully. In the beginning of the video I showed how I buttered the bundt pan. That's why I didn't respond to the question.
Maybe that is why I had a dream about oral exams before graduating from a film school. The reviewer was telling me he wasn't certain whether to graduate me or not because I was very good at directing (true) but terrible at writing (also true).
When I was in college I took some drama courses. They wanted me to do an emphasis in directing because I showed talent for it. I also took a course in fiction writing and, in kind words, the instructor told me my stories were crashingly boring.
I'm also really fat in that pound cake video. I've lost about 60 pounds and I want never to go back to being obese again.
Smart & Final — extra!
Today is the grand opening of the new Smart & Final - Extra! store down the street. If you're not familiar, S&F is another big box store (or warehouse store) similar to Costco. I like S&F because they carry many items not available at Costco, which is right across the street. I think both stores will do well.
The "- extra!" is because these are larger S&F stores that stock more items than the standard S&F. There is one of those down in the city and I occasionally shop there when I feel like driving that far. I dislike 12-inch wide plastic wrap. S&F sells the 18-inch wrap. They also sell the larger size jars of Better Than Bouillon soup flavoring bases. Now, with an S&F within 10-minutes walking distance, I have the best of all worlds — a grocery store and two big box stores.
Another advantage is that S&F opens at 7:00 in the morning. No waiting for Costco to open at 10:00. Get there early while shopping is easy. And, this being the Grand Opening, they gave away free canvas-type shopping bags. I was there when the doors opened this morning.
Although they are having a Grand Opening sale, I didn't take advantage of it yet. There is plenty of time for that this week. Mostly I wanted to walk the aisles and mentally note where some items are. If I had to choose one thing, so far, that impressed me the most, it is their bulk grains aisle. I look forward to buying some of those.
Because of the short walking distance, this is a store where I will probably shop often, almost on a daily basis. It's like a bigger and better grocery store. Costco will still rank high because of their prices and the items they carry, but Smart & Final will likely take care of most of my needs. I'm delighted they're in the neighborhood.
Sunday 2015.12.06
When Things Go Wrong
This week's feature recipe was a challenge yesterday. The original recipe, found in a magazine, was for Rabbit Ragu and Pappardelle. I know better, but it is so easy to forget.
According to one of my food encyclopedias, ragout (also ragoût) is a French word for "stew." Quoting from the book (The Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst) ragoût is "a derivative of the French verb ragoûtier, which means 'to stimulate the appetite'." Ragù is defined as "a staple of northern Italy's Bologna…a meat sauce that is typically served with pasta."
Without paying attention to what I was doing, I went with the magazine spelling. But I'm fussy about such things. I like my recipes to be accurate. And so yesterday, when it dawned on me that I was using the wrong spelling, I was nearing the end of the updates to this web site. I was nearly done. Then I had to work through everything again — the recipe pages, the meta titles, the photographs, the original recipe, and the PDF. And then I had to edit the title in the video and encode it again. It took well over an hour to make all the fixes (and I'm still not sure I got them all).
However, here is where the joy of new computers come in. The video is nearly 18 minutes long. With my old computers the encoding alone, to prepare the video for YouTube and for my personal DVD library, would have taken between 1½ and 2 hours. Using this new computer, with its much faster microprocessor (an 8-core Intel "Extreme Desktop" CPU at $1,000 for the chip alone), total encoding time was 15 minutes 32 seconds, timed on a stopwatch. Not painful at all. I love these computers.
And So, Back to Cooking
With the computers finished and nothing more to do but enjoy using them, I began to turn my attention to making cooking videos again. Yesterday I made Braised Chicken.
The original recipe was for Braised Rabbit, but even though I have rabbit in the freezer, I thought it might be easier for people to make the dish with chicken. Besides, when you serve something like rabbit, how many people say, "This is good; it tastes just like chicken"?
Rabbit is currently about $8.00 per pound. I bought two chickens at Costco for $1.19 per pound. Besides being a little easier (nothing to thaw), chicken is more economical too. And there was yet another advantage. I used only the thighs and drumsticks for the dish. I set the chicken breasts aside for another recipe I plan to prepare next — Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken Breasts (Chicken Breasts Saltimbocca).
When I was at Costco I also bought two racks of lamb. This is where cooking videos get a little expensive. The racks cost me nearly $37. However, I can't do just economical recipes using chicken and pasta. I need to mix things up a little sometimes with exotic foods. I don't mind spending the money if the food is something I will enjoy eating. I love lamb. Both the braised chicken and the lamb will be kept, not delivered to my neighbors, as I usually do with many recipes, especially desserts. I'm not much of a dessert person, although they're fun to make.
An amusing thing happened yesterday on my Facebook fan page. I posted a picture of the braised rabbit and a photo of my new computer (see Wednesday's blog entry). An hour later the computer had received more than three times the attention as the food, and it got four times the "likes". Maybe I should stop cooking and build computer instead? Nah.
And speaking of costs…
Your Donation Dollars at Work
A few of you have made donations to support this web site and you might like to know how the money is spent. This month I received the notification for the renewal of my web site hosting, which would expire on December 31. The cost for renewal is $166.80. I charged that amount to a personal credit card and then transferred $166 from my web site's PayPal account into my checking account to cover the cost. Your donations really are reserved for this web site.
Wednesday 2015.12.02
The Last of the Purchases
Yesterday the new Dell 27-inch monitors arrived. Getting them up and running was a challenge. My computers continue to surprise me. The other computer, the one to get the new monitors, has an EVGA Titan Z graphics card. It has three ports, and none of them are the same. The monitors came with cables that are Display Port (DP) at one end and Mini Display Port (MDP) at the other end. My graphics card has no MDP port, but there is an MDP "in" port on the monitor. That allowed me to set up one monitor because one of the graphics card ports is a DP.
The other two ports on the card are HDMI and DVI. Now what? It took two trips to Best Buy, and most of an afternoon, to find the right cable, HDMI to HDMI, that would connect the other monitor. That done, the rest was fairly easy — let the computer discover the monitors (they're plug-and-play) and then configure them for a dual monitor setup.
By early evening I was using both monitors and they're fantastic. The text is crisp. They are so much larger than the TVs I was using as monitors, one of which was a 22-inch panel. I love these new monitors. The money I spent for them was well worth it. I do have to say that they look odd on my office desk because they take up most of the space along the wall. But this is one of those beautiful sights that I can easily get used to.
And so, this brings the entire computer project to a conclusion. What started with the purchase of the first few parts in June finally came to a finish yesterday on December 1st.
The other computer looks the same, but it has only one monitor. If you're wondering what that blue pad is under the keyboard, that is actually a piece of material protecting my old Wacom drawing tablet. Most of the headers and buttons for this web site were drawn on the computer using that Wacom. It's very old, something I bought nearly 20 years ago, but it still works, even in Windows 10, and I still enjoy using it.