December 2016

Wednesday 2016.12.28

Reflections on 2016

So what about 2016? As usual, a little bad and a lot of really good.

2016 might not be worth mentioning if not for one highly anticipated event — the election on November 8th. I looked forward to it all year. I was part of a world news discussion group and most of our conversations were about Donald Trump. Like most of the intelligentsia here in Southern California, we fully expected Hillary Clinton to be elected President. We were not prepared for what happened.

I watched the evening unfold on MSNBC. They were excited about the prospects. All the prediction web sites gave Clinton a clear victory. Everyone was more closely watching the outcome of the Senate races, wondering if the Democrats would take control of the chamber again. As the returns came in, state by state, the atmosphere changed from excited anticipation to woeful disbelief. It was an amusing evening.

What else?

To get some bad out of the way (which actually turned out well): I had a stack of sandstone along with two piles (dirt and sand) in my driveway for a year. The plan, according to the wishes of the park owner and the manager, was to cover the easement along the back of my space with sandstone to assure proper drainage to the street. That's a park rule: Any landscaping needs to be done with consideration to drainage during rain storms. All runoff must drain to the street.

I waited and waited, brought it up at least once a month, but nothing was ever done to clear the way for the project. I finally told the manager I would not hold onto the materials for longer than one year. Finally, when the deadline arrived, I sold the stone to a neighbor across the street and I gave him the sand. I scattered the topsoil on the railroad property to the north of the park, putting an end to an irritating problem. On the plus side, the neighbor's yard is no longer a jungle of crab grass that scatters seeds before he gets around to mowing it. I dug up crab grass in my front yard for 20 years. And my driveway is clean again.

On the positive side: My YouTube channel does better and better. It has been earning enough revenue lately to supplement my income a little. It isn't enough to pay my cable bill, but every little bit helps. That will end in January. The monthly revenue will drop by half to maybe enough to pay my cell phone bill (which is a very cheap plan). People look for recipes during the last three months of the year, as they plan their holiday cooking. Come January, that interest tapers off. I'm okay with that. As long as the pastime pays for itself, i.e. buys the food I use in my videos, I'm satisfied.

This year I also added vlogging. That is more of a hobby. The videos are not monetized. There would be no point to monetize them. None of them has even 50 views (compared, for example, to my Salmon Jerky video, which is approaching 50,000 views). Even at that number of views, a video doesn't pay a lot. You might think that with more than 250 videos on YouTube I might earn a lot due to volume. However, almost all of my videos earn less than $2 per month, and most of those earn less than $1. Some earn only pennies. Cooking is an over-saturated subject on YouTube.

The vlogging is enjoyable. No cooking. No shopping. No dishes to wash. Just sit and talk for ten minutes. I can usually do it all in one take, which makes editing easy. If I make a mistake, I can cut it out rather than shoot a pick-up. Unlike a recipe, in which every detail matters (I can't cut out "one cup of milk"), few details are important in a vlog. It's the overall subject matter. My vlog videos will never be as popular as my cooking videos, but they provide one more little activity to enjoy in my retirement.

One more negative I just thought of: Another friend became a former friend this year. We've known each other since 1975, and we were good friends most of that time. Maybe 30 years ago she and her husband moved to Oregon where they have a spacious (and at the time affordable) home on a decent piece of land. They lived out in the country, until the country was subdivided and built upon. Now they are surrounded on all sides by sprawling housing developments and the nearly constant drone of traffic.

She doesn't like me now. She told me she thinks it is unfair that I collect a pension, plus Social Security, and I don't have a job. I'm not wealthy, but I planned for the future. I live in a mobile home in a park where there is a rent control ordinance. She and her husband have thought about living here in Southern California again, but they can't afford to. This is a very expensive area, unless someone (me) is lucky enough to live in a rent-controlled park. And because these spaces are difficult to find, when one becomes available it is expensive. For example, an old poorly maintained single-wide mobile home in this park might list for $75,000. It is so old, it must be removed and replaced with a newer one. A well-maintained double-wide, which I own, can sell for as much as $200,000.

Getting here was not easy. I worked in a job where I had to put up with a lot of office politics and age discrimination. The director only liked young people and would never hire anyone over 30. My supervisor recognized my talents with computer database systems and hired me to maintain the database. I liked the work (it was easy for me), but I endured the office environment. Some people wouldn't even speak to me unless I spoke to them first. I put up with it and retired on short notice, taking a nice pension with me. It will be six years in July and I never regretted a day of retirement.

Back to the positive: This year saw another major expenditure — a new home theater system. Last year I built two new computers. The previous year it is was landscaping. Before that was new plumbing, and before that was a new storage shed. Again, planning for the future. I expected those projects. I planned and saved my money. This year I knew Cox Cable would be converting to all digital. We were warned well in advance. I knew my old picture-tube TV would be incompatible. I'd need a new TV, but all my components (receiver/amplifier, DVD player, etc) would be incompatible with a new TV because it would be HDMI and my components use old-style phono plug connections. So more than a TV would need to be replaced.

I bought a 65-inch 4K UHD flat panel (and I love it), all new speakers (my old ones were crumbling), and new components. The last piece added was the receiver, which I got at roughly 45% off, taking advantage of a rebate and an end-of-year sale. I did well. The seven speakers were half-off in a Black Friday sale. The TV was marked down (but not half off). The only device I paid full price for was the Yahama disk player. I wanted something that would play all video formats, especially MKVs. It was expensive, but with everything else I bought, there was no reason to suddenly go cheap. My former components lasted more than 20 years. If these last as long, I'll be 85 when I need to replace them. By then I might be a doddering old man in a retirement home. That's one advantage to being elderly. You don't need to plan as long ahead. I can start planning for the present now.

What about my web site? Looking back more than a year, I have witten more than 600 individual blogs. I can't claim my web site is popular. It isn't. People today don't like to read. They like to watch. I grew up with books. I read everyday. We had books in the house and I could walk to the public library. I would venture to guess that most people today, especially the younger ones, know what the inside of a movie theater looks like, but probably not the inside of a library. That probably explains why my YouTube videos do so well. I have nearly 11,000 subscribers and more than 1.2 million views.

Those numbers aren't something to brag about. By YouTube standards, I'm a small fish in a huge sea. But I do take pride in my consistency. I've kept it up for more than six years.

As for looking ahead, I'll save that Sunday. It will be the beginning of a new year.

Sunday 2016.12.25 — Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Today's YouTube Upload and Feature Recipe was my first attempt at making an English plum pudding for Christmas. As I said in Wednesday's blog, I've seen many of the Scrooge movies. I have often wondered about that plum pudding that Mrs. Cratchit brings to the table after the family eats their Christmas goose. (I've made Roast Goose too in the past, and would do it again if they weren't so expensive. A single goose here can cost close to $60. I look for it on sale after the Christmas holiday. Sometimes they sell at half price.)

The plum pudding was a pleasant surprise. It cooked perfectly. Even though I gave away half of it, I still had enough to nibble for several days afterward. The original recipe says it serves 8, but it is so rich and heavy, I think it would feed 16 people satisfactorily.

I have a good excuse this year for enjoying a quiet Christmas: I threw out my back again. As usual, I wasn't doing anything; just standing in one place, looking at my yard. It was probably a buildup of fatigue from having worked in the yard the day before, trimming the Dymondia. The strain turned into a sprain, and now I'm walking around a little hunched over.

The injury isn't serious. I've done it so many times in the past I know what to do at the first stroke of pain — relax and drop to the ground. Wait. Then move, and keep moving so that it doesn't seize up. If I go to bed I'll be there for two or three days. If I keep moving, I'll be fine.

I did keep my yearly ritual of reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol this year, reading the last chapter yesterday evening.

One tradition I didn't observe this year: I didn't make my annual big bag of Chex Mix snack crackers. I thought about doing a video in the past, but there are so many recipes out there already, and there is nothing special about mine. Maybe next Christmas.

Rain Again

We had a tiny amount of rain Wednesday evening, during the night, evidently not enough to record. The following day's report didn't even acknowledge the storm. Friday, however, was different. We had plenty of rain, heavy at times, during the day and diminishing overnight.

Most areas reported an inch of rain. We saw 1.33 inches here. One station, up in the mountains, reported 2¼ inches.

Again, it wasn't a long-lasting storm that would contribute significantly to our reservoir, but it was enough to water lawns, cause a few traffic accidents, and add to the water supply. Our reservoir is currently at 8.1% capacity, up from a seasonal low of 7.3%. As I said a week ago, the reservoir is still more than 90% empty, but at least the rains we've seen so far are keeping us at normal rainfall for the season.

And Speaking of the Reservoir…

My reservoir of cooking videos is again empty. I'll need to video something this week or there won't be an upload next Sunday. I'm thinking of replacing an old video, Briouats (supposedly pronounce bree•WAH). It's a Moroccan street food, made with highly seasoned lamb and phyllo dough sheets, and typically fried in oil. I originally baked mine because that was the method in the recipe I used at the time. This time, I'm thinking of frying half of them and baking the others to compare the flavors.

Briouats will also be easy. I need to do something that doesn't require that I stand for hours in the kitchen. Making the plum pudding might have added to the strain in my back, but the recipe doesn't require a lot of kitchen prep time. Most of the time is the steaming, during which I sat and watched TV.

Wednesday's Vlog

There's another matter. Again, I am running out of videos, and ideas. I think I'll upload a vlog I did about Internet trolls. It's a little amusing, but slightly out of sequence. I did the video before I did the vlog about cutting boards. I did a vlog about people and their pets, but that one would probably offend too many people. I like animals, even snakes, but I'm not fond of the way some people treat their pets like fashion accessories. I erased the video. Maybe I'll do another one when I can find a less offensive angle.

And Wednesday's blog will be the last one for this year. Next Sunday will be New Year's Day. I suspect I'll have plenty to vlog and blog about after Donald Trump moves into the White House. What a country!

Wednesday 2016.12.21

Winter Solstice

Welcome to the shortest day of the year. From this day forward, for the next six months, the days will get longer — not by much, at least for a while, but still a little longer each day.

I like this time of year. It seems hopeful to me. I don't suffer from the kind of depression people experience when the nights are long — seasonal affective disorder. But I do love summer. I moved from Connecticut to California because I don't like cold winters. Snow, ice, etc., you can have them. Me, I like warm sunny days. Here in Southern California I can walk around without a jacket most days, even in January and February. That's my kind of living.

On Time

This morning I uploaded to YouTube another Wednesday vlog. I talk about why I don't believe in time. It has been a personal conviction for many years, but I couldn't explain it. And, I wear a wristwatch and keep a decent schedule. If I have an appointment, I arrive a little early. I observe time, but I don't believe in it. Call it a concession to those who do believe in time.

It was a documentary by Stephen Hawking that helped me to understand it. There are two definitions of time — the cultural definition (clocks, calendars, Jules Verne's The Time Machine, etc.) and the physics definition (or space-time).

I vlogged about it, explaining my disbelief.

Christmas Plum Pudding

Christmas is on Sunday. Hopefully you will have all your last-minute shopping done before the rush on Saturday. I don't plan to go anywhere on Saturday. The traffic will be a madhouse. The furthest I'll venture, maybe, is out to the yard to do a little light gardening.

One Christmas tradition I enjoy each year is reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, reading a chapter, or "stave", each evening, starting on December 20. I finish the book on Christmas Eve. It's only five chapters. I also watch a lot of the movies on TV, especially now that I have a new TV.

One fascination for many years, decades actually, is the plum pudding that Mrs. Cratchit makes for Christmas. I always wondered what that was. As a child, enjoying dessert, I was curious to know a true English plum pudding. The day to satisfy that curiosity finally arrived. Yesterday I made my first plum pudding.

It was an amusing challenge. Thankfully I found a decent recipe in my Larousse Gastronomique Culinary Encyclopedia. I wasn't happy with some of the proportions, especially the amount of raisins and currants. I cut in half the blanched almonds too. I wanted more of a cake rather than a lumpy fruit cake.

It was more amusing when I unveiled the pudding after it had steamed and cooled. When I poured the batter into the mold, it seemed too wet. Like Mrs. Cratchit — "she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour" — I too was concerned. I resisted the temptation to add more flour.

If you watch the video, which I'll upload on Sunday, listen to my voice when I remove the foil from the mold. I sound surprised that the pudding set up into a firm cake. I actually expected to find a plum and raisin soup when I looked into the bowl.

I gave a good half of it away to a couple neighbors who, like me, had never experienced a genuine English plum pudding.

One good variant is that the recipe uses dried plums, otherwise known as prunes. Most people don't use prunes these days, probably because of their reputation for being a laxative. However, one of my encyclopedias says the name comes from the fact that the pudding was originally made with plums. The switch to raisins is more modern. I wanted an original, like Mrs. Cratchit made; so I used dried plums.

Another interesting discovery from the research I did was that I learned some people make the pudding well in advance of the Christmas holiday and let it age for several months in a cool dry place. One bit of research even said that some people make their pudding a year in advance, eating last year's preparation for the current holiday. Supposedly the aging improves the flavor. That might also explain the use of plums, which are easily found in summer.

I must admit that there was some concession to modern cooking techniques. The original steaming time is four hours. However, in a pressure cooker, the time is reduced to 1½ hours. I used my pressure cooker, partly because of the anticipation of seeing the finished product, and partly because of the setting sun. I needed to get the finished pudding on the table, in front of my windows, for the photography using natural lighting, which always looks best. It also fulfilled a request — someone asked me to do more videos in which I use a pressure cooker.

Another departure was the avoidance of a flambé, or igniting the pudding with some warmed brandy or rum. The flame doesn't show up well in a video. And after the conflagration I experienced when I made Steak au Poivre, I wasn't willing to risk setting my kitchen on fire. And rather than sticking a sprig of holly (which I didn't have) into the top, I decorated it with a few pieces of candied orange peel, which I made the previous day (and also used in the pudding).

Ultimately, I am very satisfied with the result. I'm still nibbling on the pudding. And I'm thinking about making it again and storing it in the back of the refrigerator for three months to see what happens. Will the flavor improve? Or will it be covered in mold. Maybe the rum will protect it. There is only one way to find out…

Sunday 2016.12.18

The Silver Lining

Sometimes, all you can do to comfort yourself is look for the silver lining.

I was expecting a package on Thursday. It was that cable thing I blogged about on Wednesday, something that would allow me to connect my laptop computer to my new TV so that I could enjoy true 4K content. The tracking system said the package was delivered at 12:32 and I should check my mailbox. No package. No key to a parcel locker. Once again, the mail person delivered the package to the wrong place, probably putting the parcel locker key in someone else's mailbox.

This happens a lot here. More than once I found a locker key in my box and saw the package was addressed to someone else in the park. I hand deliver those parcels, knocking on the door to make certain the owner properly receives it.

I called the post office. There was nothing they could do but send a message to the delivery person and, hopefully, it would be delivered correctly the following day. "Hopefully" because there is always the possibility that the other recipient would keep the package. Who would know? How could it be traced? Of course, what they would do with a converter and HDMI cable, I don't know, unless they recognized the value of a good quality high speed video cable.

So where is the silver lining? Each Christmas I like to give a gift to the people who provide a useful service to us in the park. It might be a card with a $50 bill inside. I've done it before. People gift me through the Donate button on this web site; so I like to be generous too.

I enjoy rewarding good service. When I had the old galvanized pipe in my home replaced with copper pipe, I gave each of the plumbers a $50 tip. When I had my home resided with vinyl siding and new awnings, I tipped each of the installers $50. Good service deserves its rewards. But this time…

This time I saved myself $50.

I did get my parcel the following day, but not because of the mail person (who was supposed to locate it and then deliver it directly to my door). When I went to the mail boxes, the park manager was there. He was checking one of the mail boxes set aside for temporary use by short-term residents (typically 90 days maximum in a camper trailer). There, in that box, was my parcel, along with other pieces of my mail. Never mind how, or why, it got there.

So equipped with my new cable, how did the plans for true 4K video content go?

Hookup was blissfully easy. Connect the adapter to the laptop computer's mini Display Port and attach the HDMI cable. My new Denon receiver/amplifier has an "Aux 1" HDMI port in the front. It's easy. Plug in the cable, select Aux 1 as the source, and watch the video on the TV. The receiver takes care of the sound and the video. It really is very easy. The only adjustment I needed to make was to increase my laptop's screen resolution to its highest setting and the video was perfect.

The results are magnificent. The details in 4K video are astounding. And on a huge 65-inch TV, it's like looking out through a large picture window. It is breathtaking.

And Speaking of a Silver Lining…

We had more rain this week. It was more than forecast too. The meteorologists predicted around a quarter of an inch, but more than half the local stations reported more than an inch, with one site reporting 2.3 inches. The county is currently at 103% of normal rainfall for the season. As I've said before, we're not making any gains. But we're not falling further behind either. The reservoir, which at its lowest was at 7.3% capacity, is now at 7.9%. That's still more than 90% empty, but we are seeing progress.

Here at home, another storm is another month I don't need to water my Dymondia.

As for Cooking…

…that's another matter. Again, this week's feature recipe is the last of my videos. I've been spending too much time with my new home theater system.

I received a request to cook something with my pressure cooker. I don't use it for actual meals. It's not like you can prepare spaghetti and meatballs in a pressure cooker. Well, you could, but it would take a vivid imagination to predict what it might look like. I use my cooker for preparing parts of meals.

Take dry beans, for example. You normally soak them for several hours; most people soak them overnight. You can put dry beans and water in a pressure cooker and they cook in about half an hour (less for small beans). Brown rice, which usually takes around 45 minutes to cook, is done in 15 minutes in a pressure cooker. They really do save a lot of time.

I'm thinking of doing a new video of my Pasta Fagioli recipe, but using the pressure cooker to eliminate the soaking time for the beans. I love Pasta Fagioli, a bean and pasta soup, in winter. I make it at least once each winter; so here would be a good opportunity to do a video and fulfill a request too. As mentioned more than a week ago, I also received a request for taquitos/flautas. I need chicken or pork that can be easily shredded. I might cook the meat in my pressure cooker.

Wednesday 2016.12.14

This Gets Technical

Feel free to skip to the next section if you have a low tolerance for gobbledygook. By now you're probably tired of hearing about my new home theater system. I'll try not to repeat myself too much.

Something new was added late Sunday. I looked for a download of the new show series The Grand Tour available on Amazon Prime. The best resolutions I'd ever seen were HD (720p or 1080p) versions. Meanwhile, someone made a 4K (2160p) version of the first episode in the series. At more than 27 gigabytes (GB) it took a long time to download, but I did and I copied it to a 32GB flash drive. I wasn't sure if it would work through my Yamaha disk player (which is not 4K), but the video is in MKV format, which the player handles. So what could go wrong?

Resolution, that's what can go wrong. I tried to play the file from within my player and a message appeared on the TV screen, informing me that the resolution was not compatible with the player. The TV would be okay with it, but the player can't handle anything beyond Blu-ray resolution, or 1080p.

If you read my blog on Sunday, the player I would need costs $700. I said I'd wait, and I still will. As more players and content become available, the price will eventually come down.

However, I have a Microsoft Surface 3 Pro laptop computer. I plugged the flash drive into the USB 3.0 port, started up my latest version of Cyberlink PowerDVD, and it plays the video fine. But who wants to watch 4K video on a 12-inch screen. I want to see it on my new 65-inch TV.

My laptop has a Mini Display Port (mDP) that, with the right cable, can be connected to a full-size computer monitor. I ordered an mDP to HDMI adapter (2.0) and a high speed HDMI cable. They'll arrive tomorrow or Friday. If all goes according to plan, I can connect my laptop to the TV via the mDP (others have done it) and watch the 4K video that way. I'll let you know what happens.

Meanwhile, I've been searching for more 4K content. There isn't much out there, and most of it is woefully too incomplete to repair with parity files. However, I found The Life of Pi. It has an 8.0 out of 10 rating on IMDb.com; so I downloaded it too.

I also pulled out of storage some solid state drives I might be able to use to store the files. I bought those drives back when I hoped to maybe use Windows XP on my new computers, as an alternate operating system, if needed. Nope. That operating system doesn't know how to deal with the hardware architecture and memory. Oh well. Maybe those drives will have another purpose, one in 4K.

Okay, enough of the jargon.

Today's Kitchen Vlog

With Christmas only 11 days away, I decided to upload my vlog about cutting boards. I've written about this before. The University of California David Food Safety Laboratory determined that wooden cutting boards are safer than plastic boards.

If you are still looking for a Christmas present for your kitchen sweetheart, or just to add something more to put under the tree, go out and purchase a good quality maple (or other hardwood) cutting board if you don't already have one. If you already have a wood board, you're safe. If you have plastic, watch the vlog and then reconsider.

More Rain

Another storm will blow through tomorrow and Friday. It will be storm number six. We're not gaining much water, but we are, at least, staying normal so far this season.

There is more good news. The heaviest rain from this storm is expected to fall during the night. This is Southern California. Drivers here are not accustomed to driving in the rain. When it rains a lot during the day the automotive accidents pile up.

What we need, and don't need, is a big storm that will either move slowly through the region or stall for a couple days. Those storms dump a lot of rain and that fills the reservoirs. They also cause a lot of damage from floods and mud slides. We need the rain, but not the damage.

And one interesting little statistic to report: The ants didn't attempt to move indoors this year. I know they're out there. I've see them when I trim the Dymondia. I wonder. Are the large slabs of sandstone providing the safe shelter they need to stay dry during rain storms? They are welcome to harbor where they like, outdoors. I hate dealing with ants in my home.

Sunday 2016.12.11

Moms Italian Christmas Cookies

As planned, I made the cookies on Thursday. I frosted some with the colored frosting as an experiment. I garnished them with the sugar bits a woman sent me from Italy. She says the name is Granella di Zucchero. I never studied Italian, but that name seems to suggest "sugar granules." The other cookies, garnished with white frosting and multi-colored nonpareils, are the traditional decoration for these cookies. The recipe made 6½ dozen. I delivered plates of cookies to four of my neighbors. I finished editing the video on Friday. So I am ready for the upload today.

Anticipation

I was ready. I was waiting. The rebate I expected on Tuesday arrived early, thanks to my paying my credit card early. There was no amount due, but the TV and accessories were in there, scheduled for billing. I paid them anyway, even though they hadn't been invoiced. The rebate was processed and I ordered the receiver/amplifier I wanted.

They promised two-day shipping. They shipped it the following day and I had it in my possesion 24 hours later. Thankfully, it was sent from the Los Angeles area to Ventura and then to here. It was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, but it made the cut and was "out for delivery" yesterday. Everything was ready. I had the HDMI cables I needed. The speaker wires were in place and connected to all my speakers. I only needed to connect the cable box, disc player, TV, and speakers to the new receiver and then, finally, my new home theater system was complete (days before the rebate was originally scheduled to be issued).

However, it didn't go as quickly as I hoped. There were some troubleshooting tests and some setup menus to work through. Thanks for those. They revealed I hadn't tightened down two of the speaker wires enough. The worked loose. The receiver configures itself with a little microphone included in the box. I don't know that I would know the difference between sound signals balanced and timed to the microsecond, but okay, I worked through everything. 2½ hours later, I inserted the first Blu-ray movie to watch as a test — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Perfect.

Then I started playing a little. I found my favorite FM station and saved it in the memory. I also copied an MKV video file — The Grand Tour — to a flash drive and then plugged it into the front of the disc player. The video played beautifully, in 1080p HD. Still testing (playing), I put in a music CD — Five for Fighting: Two Lights. It played perfectly. Happy happy. And then, just to enjoy a bit more fun, I encoded one of my recent cooking videos, Potato Chips, at 1080p. (My videos are shot in 1080p; so the data is there.) Then I watched the video on my 65-inch TV. Phenomenal!

Although I had a system a few weeks ago, very little of it was really usable. Old TV, old components, old speakers — almost everything was too old to be enjoyed.

I should probably mention that I did look into 4K movies and a 4K disc player. To get all the features I wanted (MKV compatibility mostly) a player would cost $700. And there aren't many movies currently available in 4K format. I'll wait. I did learn something a little disappointing — the Lord of the Rings movies will never be released in true 4K. I read that they were shot in digital 2K. There isn't the data, the resolution, to encode 4K versions. 2K was cutting edge at the time. Had the movies been shot with film, the negatives could be scanned anew for 4K encoding. That, however, is impossible. There are no negatives.

Waiting for my new receiver yesterday was a bit of a challenge — like a child waiting for Christmas morning to open the presents. I'm not too old to have forgotten those days. I still remember the sight of my new bicycle, a red Schwinn, parked in front of the tree on Christmas morning. I also remember when my father took off the training wheels, sending me biking down the street without them. He didn't tell me how to stop, to put my foot down to keep from falling over. I wonder how much of that bike still exists as it rusts into oblivion beneath tons of trash in a landfill in Connecticut. Thankfully we recycle today.

And thankfully memories last.

Wednesday 2016.12.7

Taquito or Flauta?

I received a request this week — taquitos, which I am researching before I start doing the video. When I was in college there was a Mexican restaurant near the university. That restaurant made the best flautas I ever tasted. A friend and I enjoyed them so much, we were willing to ping cockroaches off our table with our fingers as we ate. Sadly, the owner/chef was shot and killed by his boyfriend. The restaurant closed.

However, are they taquitos or flautas? As usual, I did a lot of research. There are plenty of opinions on the Internet, but no definitive answers. Some say flautas are made with wheat tortillas and taquitos with corn tortillas. Others say just the opposite. Taquitos are small, appetizer size, and flautas are big, dinner size. The flautas in that restaurant were large and made with wheat tortillas. Another restaurant, down in the city, has flautas on the menu as appetizers. They are small. Another opinion says the name flauta is used exclusively in Mexico and taquito is used in other Spanish-speaking countries, such as Columbia. Costco sold packages of taquitos; now the same packages are labeled flautas. Which is it?

I think the best answer is that the two names are synonymous, used interchangeably for the same food. I'll research more recipes and make them eventually. A more important video is on my mind right now — Mom's Italian Christmas Cookies.

Mom's Christmas Cookies

It's time to make a new video. I did the original video more than five years ago. It's not getting much recognition on YouTube now; maybe a new version will be more successful, as Christmas is only a few weeks away. Maybe worth mentioning: When I did 45 shows for a local TV station a few years ago, these cookies were one of the shows. Every December they rerun this one show several times. It's a popular one.

I like to tell the story of my Mom's Christmas cookies. She used water rather than butter or oil. After several days the cookies dried out to the point they were hard like rocks. My brother and I still joke about them: "We weren't allowed to throw them in the house." If they weren't eaten soon enough, we gave them to the dog. He liked them. They were like sweet bones.

I had lunch with a friend yesterday and did a little shopping afterward to buy the two ingredients I need. I also have an extra garnish this time. A friend sent me some sugar decorations made in Italy. They look like extruded — think spaghetti — dry frosting broken into very short pieces. Although she doesn't recommend it, I'll color some frosting green or red, then sprinkle the little sugar bits on top rather than the nonpareils I use on white frosting. She says the sugar bits might dissolve into the sugar, but I'll experiment.

Potato Chips

I've been busy trying to put some videos in the vault. I let myself run out. On Monday, to fulfill a request, I videoed the homemade Potato Chips I blogged about on Sunday. This is a fun project. I've made them many times before; so I didn't even need a recipe taped to the wall. I just went for it.

Fortunately, I found some really fresh Russet potatoes. You've seen them in the store — dark and rough skin. I think those are warehoused potatoes. I went to a store that has quick turnover on their produce. The potatoes had a thin, light, almost creamy skin. I didn't even need to peel them; I just scrubbed them really well. Best of all, they are really economical. It's amazing how inexpensive it is to make potato chips. I used only three potatoes and the cost was $1.64.

For the photo on the recipe page I wanted the bowl to look so full, the chips are literally falling out of it. Sometimes I get lucky with a photograph and sometimes I don't. I wasn't happy with the photo of the Kahlúa and glass currently on the home page of this web site. It's okay. It has some nice colors in it. I could have done better, but I was pressed for time. I shot that photograph on Saturday afternoon so that I could use it Sunday morning. This time, with the potato chips, I had more time to think about it. The shot works for me.

Today's Vlog

I uploaded today's vlog to YouTube this morning. If you love Nissan Instant Cup Soup noodles, you might be offended. I don't say kind things about it.

Sunday 2016.12.4

Almost There

As I've been saying, Cox Cable is going all digital and my old TV and cable box no longer work. And with those gone, my old components (receiver, DVD player, etc.) are useless because they will not connect to the new TV. And, my speakers are so old, they are literally falling apart. So it was time to start replacing everything.

Thursday, a day earlier than expected, the four corner speakers were delivered. The cables were already routed to where they needed to be; so installation was nothing more than unboxing, placing, and then hooking up the wires.

On Friday the final speaker, the center channel, was delivered. Unlike the bookshelf speakers I received last weekend, the center speaker isn't notched in the back, allowing it to be hung on the wall. I've seen this before and I don't understand why. It seems to be a convention — design the other speakers to attach to the wall, but not the center speaker. Why? Set it on top of the TV? Mine is too thin, less than ½ thick at the edge and it sticks out from the wall only 4¼ inches. The center channel speaker is more than 9 inches front to back. It would fall off the TV.

I decided I needed either a shelf to place it on or a little table. I went to the furniture store down the street. You wouldn't believe the prices! They wanted $419 for a roughly hewn wooden box. It was supposed to look rustic. I get it. But more than $400 for something that looks like it was made by a teenager in his junior high school's wood shop?

I went across the street to Ross Dress for Less. They have a households section. I found a good little table for $17.99. It's just about the right size — I brought a tape measure into the store to measure what they had. I bought it and it looks good. The speaker is where I want it, right under the center of the TV. Happy happy.

Now I am only waiting for the rebate on my initial purchase of the TV. The credit will be applied toward the purchase of the amplifier/receiver I want. It will be the heart of the system. With that in place and the cables connected, my new home theater system will finally be complete.

Meanwhile…

I have been so busy replacing all my antiquated consumer electronics, I haven't had time to do a cooking video. Things were getting desperate. There was nothing in the vault. There would be no upload for today. Thankfully, one of the YouTube fans suggested I do a video of making Kahlúa at home.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to. I bought a bottle of Kahlúa at the store up the street for only $14.99, a dollar off their regular price. It might cost almost as much, maybe more, to make it at home. But I know there are a lot of people out there who make their own, so why not?

As usual, I did plenty of research. I looked at a dozen or more different recipes. There are plenty out there. Just Google "kahlua recipe" and you'll see them. Many of them contained some eye-popping surprises.

For one, they used something called Everclear for the alcohol. I have a bottle. If you're not familiar, it is pure grain alcohol, as pure as they can get it using a distillation process. 95% alcohol by volume, or 190 proof. Some people buy it as a solvent to clean tools, especially those used in a commercial cooking establishment because Everclear is ethyl alcohol, not isopropyl, which is poisonous, or methanol, which is worse. Ethanol can be consumed; it's the alcohol in liquor that makes you drunk.

So what were those people aiming at by using Everclear? Were they making Kahlúa or booze? I think booze. Kahlúa is only 20% alcohol, or 40 proof. And that might be one reason they make their own Kahlúa. They want strong booze.

Another surprise was that nearly half the recipes called for vodka. Again, why? Read the label on a bottle of Kahlúa and you'll see it is a "Rum and Coffee Liqueur." Rum, not vodka. Vodka is nearly odorless and tasteless, although flavored vodkas are becoming popular. Rum tastes like rum, and since it is a component of Kahlúa, why not use rum? Maybe that's the booze thing again.

And yet another issue: I've made Kahlúa before. It tastes good, but the one element lacking was that slightly syrupy texture. The makers of Kahlúa use corn syrup.

So what did I do? I aimed for as near a duplication of Kahlúa, including the alcohol content, as I could get — coffee, rum, vanilla, sugar, and corn syrup. The result was a little less sweet than genuine Kahlúa, but I'm okay with that. I don't like foods that are cloyingly sweet anyway.

On Friday, while I was waiting for the final speaker to be delivered, I edited the video and encoded it for YouTube. Yesterday I wrote the recipe for this web site and I did the final photography. It was easy, and it solved a problem. I have a video to upload today. Phew!

And the perceptive among you might notice an incongruity. I needed to shoot one clip again to fix something about the formula. If you watch closely, you might notice something different in one clip.

Thankfully, another request came in — homemade Potato Chips. That will be easy too. The fans probably won't like it though. It is nearly impossible to slice potatoes thin enough with a knife. Even a mandoline is risky. The potato slices need to be nearly paper thin. The only appliance I use is my electric rotary slicer.

It's is an old Toastmaster model, no longer available, but newer, better ones are available on Amazon. I like the Waring models and I would buy one of those if this one ever needs to be replaced. Search Amazon for "waring slicer" and you'll see them.

The slices need to be thin for the potato chips to be properly crisp. If they are too thick, they will be like french fries, crispy on the outside but tender inside. I'll probably shoot the video tomorrow or Tuesday.

Wednesday's Vlog

I'm thinking I will upload on Wednesday a vlog I did about some instant soup someone gave me. I found it amusing. I'm calling it Soup of Human Kindness.

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