AUGUST 2021
Sunday 2021.8.29
Football
Yesterday was the beginning of the regular season of college football. There were three games on TV, starting at 10:00.
I'll occasionally watch the NFL, but I enjoy college ball more because the athletes are younger and more agile. The pros are heavy and lumber down the field a little more slowly. College players also seem to take more chances because they want to be noticed by scouts and hope to be drafted into the pros.
Another reason is the abundance of games. How many NFL games are there each week? Yesterday there were three college games. Next Saturday there will be 14 on TV, and even more on the subscription channels. If one game seems boring, channel surf to a different one.
The down side is that favorite quarterbacks don't stay in college very long. Justin Herbert left the Oregon Ducks for the L.A. Chargers. Sam Elinger was a Texas Longhorn; now he's an Indiana Colt. And Trace McSorley went from Penn State to the Baltimore Ravens.
Pizza
The beginning of college football seemed like a good opportunity to celebrate with pizza again. You already know of my experiments with the pie. Yesterday was for thin crust. I like a thick crust pizza, but I wanted to try cooking a thin crust in that shallow griddle pan I bought.
I also wanted to experiment with a method I saw in a YouTube video by America's Test Kitchen. They placed the dough, after letting it proof, in a cold cast iron skillet. As it heated on the stove they added the toppings. When they were satisfied with the browning underneath, they transferred it to a hot oven to brown on top.
I did all that and the pizza was satisfactory. It was well browned on the bottom and lightly browned on top. The crust wasn't as crisp as I wanted. Maybe next time I'll cook it longer and at a lower heat in the skillet. Another experiment that might be worth trying is to transfer it from the skillet to a pizza peel, then slide it onto an oven rack. Being browned on the bottom, the crust might crisp better outside the cast iron pan.
I'll have plenty of opportunity to experiment. The dough recipe makes enough for two pizzas. For thin crust, I cut the dough into thirds. I put two of those thirds in the freezer.
Another thing: I've always been a fan of fresh pizza dough, that is dough allowed to rise only about an hour and then cooked with toppings. Some people like to let the dough slowly ferment in the refrigerator overnight, or as long as 72 hours. So, okay; I can't say I'm willing to experiment unless I really am willing to experiment. This morning I moved one of the frozen portions of dough to a covered glass dish to thaw and ferment in my refrigerator until tomorrow. I'll make a pizza and test for flavor.
And yet another thing: Most of the local pizzerias here use those conveyor belt pizza ovens. I did a little research and found the baking temperature to range from 250°F to 575°F. That's not unlike a conventional kitchen oven. I like the texture of the crust. There are a few pizzerias down in the city that have true wood fired ovens. I haven't tried their pizza yet. And there are some shops that have those wide pizza ovens that are gas fired with a temperature range from 300°F to 650°F. Those pizzas are good too.
And I haven't yet attempted a Detroit style pizza yet. I'll get to it eventually.
Wednesday 2021.8.25
Oh Joy! Oh Rapture!
A while ago I wrote about a dentist I do not trust. She pushes crowns too much. A former dentist (now retired) warned me about such practitioners. Crowns are big ticket items and some dentists earn a living promoting them, even when they are not necessary.
Last month I wrote about a rear molar that needed to be pulled. Since then, there has been a little discomfort in my tongue where it rubs against the forward molar.
I felt suspicious, so I fashioned a crude probe with a safety pin and a chop stick and felt the tooth, using a mirror to guide me. There is an area of tooth just above the gum line that feels a little rough. I was worried I might have broken a chip off the existing tooth. If so, I know what the dentist would say. "To save that tooth we need to replace the crown." There goes another $410!
I saw a different dentist yesterday for a consultation. He had a really neat camera he stuck in my mouth to photograph the suspect area. Together we looked at the pictures on his monitor. All is well. He also photographed the area where the tooth was pulled. There is a little spur of bone sticking out. "That's typical," he said. "That is probably causing the little bit of pain in your tongue. It's best to do nothing. Leave it alone. Your body will take care of it."
What a relief! And the visit was fully covered by my dental insurance. If in doubt, always get a second opinion, especially if your insurance covers the expense.
The French Chef
Yesterday I finished watching the first season of The French Chef videos I blogged about on Sunday. Meanwhile, I've been creating a list of the shows in case I need to look for one at some point in the future. For example, this week I bought some potatoes. I want to watch the episode named "The Potato Show" in which she does a few different preparations. In the video she says she looked at a cookbook and found more than 200 different recipes for potatoes.
I think Seasoned Potato Wedges are the easiest because I only need to cut a potato into wedges, season them and cook the pieces in the air fryer. I actually prefer them seasoned only with salt and then plated with a little ketchup on the side. Normally, I don't like ketchup; but I enjoy it on a potato preparation like french fries (chips in England or pommes frites in France). The name french fries isn't derived from France; it comes from the preparation. The potatoes are "frenched" — cut into long strips, and thus we don't capitalize "french."
I also want to watch the Scallops episode again. I don't know why, but I never thought to cut up large sea scallops into smaller pieces so that they resemble bay scallops. Besides the potatoes, I purchased some onions. I have cans of clams in the shed and I have prosciutto in the freezer. So today I am making Clam Chowder again.
Coming up with a name for that chowder was difficult. The late Clarissa Dickson Wright, in an episode of Two Fat Ladies, called it American Clam Chowder because it contains potatoes (something they evidently do not add to chowder in England). It contains milk, which is like New England Clam Chowder, but it also contains prosciutto, which is more European. I thought of calling it Anglo-American Clam Chowder, but decided on just plain Clam Chowder.
And I want to make Seafood Fettucine again because I have shrimp in the freezer and heavy cream (whipping cream) in the refrigerator. When I first ate the dish in a seafood restaurant (where the chef gave me the recipe) it had bay scallops in it. I'd like to try adding some coarsely chopped sea scallops along with the shrimp.
As I said in Sunday's blog, I get a fair amount of inspiration from watching such videos. I like to watch others cook because although I know a fair amount about cooking, I certainly don't know everything. At some point in the future I'd like to start looking for videos by Jacques Pepin.
Maybe Worth Mentioning
Monday was another anniversary. Two years ago the terrible neighbors with the barking dogs moved away. I have since enjoyed many days of sitting on my deck, something I hadn't been able to do for many years.
Sunday 2021.8.22
Google/YouTube
Things have improved considerably on YouTube. I now only need to validate my identity once when I enter my Mobile Home Gourmet page. Previously I needed to verify myself each time I moved from one page to another, such as from Comments to Analytics. I'm less annoyed, mostly because I keep my YouTube account open on my computer all day. And so I went ahead with my plans to publish the Griddle Pizza video and recipe today.
Maybe I now know the cause of this difficulty. On Friday T-Mobile sent me a text message, saying there had been a data breach on their end. They believed someone got my name, address and date of birth. They claimed my Social Security Number and credit card information were still secure. Earlier, YouTube reported there was some suspicious activity on my Mobile Home Gourmet page and thus the need for the added level of security. I also changed my passwords.
California Fires
Some who read this blog might be wondering how, or if, I am affected by the fires here in California. So far, all is okay where I live. I occasionally check the fire news and there are no fires in Santa Barbara County. Most of the fires are in the northern part of the state. I live in Southern California.
There has been one notable effect however. I've been noticing the sunsets are more yellow/orange than usual. The smoke from the fires has spread across many states here in the USA.
Inspiration
Where do I get some of my ideas for cooking videos? I like America's Test Kitchen. I also watch other video content on YouTube. I felt a little lucky this past week when I found all ten complete seasons of The French Chef with Julia Child in a video format I like. I won't go into boring details, but it's a format my Blu-ray player can play. The shows were done live on WGBH-TV Boston back in the 1960s and 70s. The early shows were in black and white. After those ten seasons she moved to network television and did shows with different titles, such as Julia Child & Company.
I grew up in Connecticut. Occasionally I saw her shows on TV. Back then we didn't have cable; instead, there was an antenna on the roof. I lived in one place where I had to go outside and turn the antenna by hand to get shows from Boston, MA or Providence, RI.
I have some select shows on DVD, but these latest acquisitions are full seasons. There are 200 shows altogether. To my best knowledge (which can be a bit iffy at times) there is no complete set of those early shows available. I checked Amazon. How did I get them? There is a little-known area of the internet known as usenet or newsgroups. The episodes were posted there.
To preserve what I have, I burned all the shows to Blu-ray blank discs. Each disc has enough space for two seasons; so my collection spans across five discs. When I place the disc in my Blu-ray player it is seen as a "data disc." The player has its own menu system, making it easy to select the show I wish to watch.
Gratiner
While living in France with her husband, Julia Child attended the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school. That was one of the roots of her French Chef TV show. She often gave the French name for her dishes and she occasionally used French terms for some of the cooking methods. One word was gratiner, which means "to brown." That is important to me because I have a recipe for Potatoes au Gratin.
A lot of people (myself included at one time) think au gratin means "with cheese." It doesn't. Fromage is the French word for cheese. Potatoes Dauphinois is made with cheese and cream. This preparation is often referred to as Potatoes au Gratin in the USA and it is where Americans got the notion that au gratin always includes cheese. Technically, Macaroni and Cheese with browned bread crumbs on top is a gratin.
It's amazing what you can learn by doing some research.
Wednesday 2021.8.18
La Niña
A news report this week said NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) is predicting a 70% probability of a La Niña condition again this winter. That means lower than normal rainfall for Southern California and higher than normal rainfall for the Pacific Northwest. It does not bode well for other parts of the United States.
Last winter's rainy season produced less than 50% of our normal rainfall. Our local reservoir is currently at about 50% capacity.
Griddle Pizza
Next week's feature recipe will be Griddle Pizza. Like my recipe for Skillet Pizza, the object was convenience and minimal heat in the kitchen on a warm summer day.
The Skillet Pizza is good, but it lacked browning on top. After watching many videos about the Breville Pizzaiolo pizza oven (a whopping $1,000), I wanted to achieve similar results without the expense. It turns out a cast iron griddle (Lodge 10½ inch (27cm) purchased on Amazon) is the best so far.
Using avocado oil, which has a smoke point around 520°F (271°C) the griddle can be heated to brown the bottom of the crust well. The griddle can also be placed safely under the broiler, unlike my skillets with plastic handles, to brown the top. The result was the closest I've come so far to achieving a close duplicate of a wood-fired oven pizza.
Then Again, Maybe Not
YouTube has an annoying problem right now. It keeps asking me to verify my identity. I go through all the steps, get approved, but if I change to a different page, such as from Comments to Analytics, I have to go through the validation process again. It doesn't happen on My Kitchen Vlog channel; only on my Mobile Home Gourmet channel.
I've sent comments and provided my email address. Google/YouTube hasn't replied, which isn't surprising. They probably get millions of comments each day.
If the problem isn't cleaned up by Sunday, there won't be a new video. There are more things to do to get it ready. It needs end screens. I usually add a card at the five minute mark to point to the recipe on this web site. If I need to validate myself each time I attempt each step, it won't be worth my time. This web site still works and for the moment that's good enough for me.
Afghanistan
I suppose I should say something about Afghanistan — everyone else is. Yes, I agree mistakes were made with the drawdown of USA troops. That's where the expression comes from: Hindsight is always 20-20 (perfect vision).
Lots of armchair advisors are now saying how it should have been done. I have my opinions too. But when the decision was made, where were all those advisors? The president did what he believed was the best for the American people. After more than 2,500 American soldiers were lost, $2 trillion of training and equipment, and 20 years of war, it was time to quit the region.
Sunday 2021.8.15
Anniversary
Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of this web site blog. I wrote my first blog on August 14th, 2010. I used to observe each anniversary with a new recipe for biscotti. Now I simply note the passing date on my calendar.
All the blogs, by the way, are still in the Blog Archive. I feel a sense of accomplishment that I have faithfully published this blog every Wednesday and Sunday for 11 years.
Economical?
Can you save money by doing something yourself? Not always. This computer is one example. I built it myself for $6,000. Another example, it turns out, is Italian sausage meat.
I watched a video from America's Test Kitchen in which they made their own Italian sausage meat. I went to Costco to compare the cost of Italian sausages to the price for pork. I thought "Country Style Boneless Pork Ribs" might be the best to buy because those pieces are not ribs at all; they're strips of pork shoulder. They have a good fat content, which seemed ideal for sausage meat. And I have a recipe for Italian Sausages on this web site. The pork costs more per pound than the sausages. Maybe Costco justifies charging more by calling them "ribs."
Another price comparison was chicken. A local market where I shop has chicken thighs and drumsticks on sale for 99¢ per pound this week. That's the everyday price for chicken thighs and drumsticks at Costco. Whole chicken is also 99¢ per pound at Costco, and you get the breast meat, which is always more expensive (and the wings, which are outrageously expensive).
I actually prefer to buy the cooked rotisserie chickens at Costco. They're still only $5.00 each and they're already cooked. I only need to debone them, portion and package the meat for freezing, and save the bones and trim for making stock. I enjoy a little cooked chicken meat in my salads.
One do-it-yourself food I really do appreciate is my home grown tomatoes. You simply can't buy delicious vine ripened tomatoes at the grocery store. You can find them at the Farmer's Market during summer, but I enjoy having my own tomato plant. It is still producing fruit and I have enjoyed many salads this summer. And I really enjoy the convenience and pleasure of going outside to pick a tomato when I feel like having a salad for lunch or with my dinner.
And Speaking of Ribs
I did a little inventory of the freezer this week and found some pork spareribs I sealed in packets with some marinade, then froze. Dinner last night was salad, some potato wedges with a little ketchup on the side, and some ribs that I first cooked in the pressure cooker to really tenderize them, then cooked in the air fryer. I used the marinade with some barbecue sauce and a little honey, plus a small squirt of ketchup, to make a finishing sauce. Half of that was brushed on the ribs when they went into the air fryer. The remainder was used as a garnish when I cut up and plated the ribs.
ANTS!
I have never been so overrun with ants. Friday evening they were in the bathroom. I set up one of my easy little bait traps and they were gone by the morning. However, yesterday morning the kitchen was swarming with ants. Having an impulse heat sealer and some poly tubing, I easily made half a dozen bait traps.
Trap might not be the best word. It's a little packet with food inside, mixed with some boric acid powder — a poison effective for eliminating insects. My protein ants love chicken, and they seem to be especially fond of white meat. I grind that up as fine as possible and mix it with the poison. I punch a few holes in the packet and place it near an ant trail. They swarm to it in less than an hour and usually in about 12 to 24 hours they're gone. They bring the food back to the nest where the boric acid kills the entire colony.
I placed five packets inside my home and one outside where there was an ant trail (probably the same colony that was swarming into my kitchen).
So many ants might mean one of two things: 1) Either I so disrupted their habitat outside by digging up the Dymondia and replacing it with cement mortar, thus causing them to look for somewhere else to live; or 2) there will be abundant rains this winter and therefore the ants are seeking a dry place to live away from the rain. That second one might seem a bit odd, but I've seen it before. Maybe the ants know something the meteorologists don't.
Worth noting: This morning I saw that some ants had taken up residence inside the bait packet. There were a few dozen along with one large ant, evidently their queen. I put most of the packets inside a zipper bag, sealed it, and placed it in the freezer. They'll be good enough to use again with the next infestation.
And, Finally, Some Spelling
When I write this blog I often have my dictionary or food encyclopedia at my side to help me correct my spelling. The blog gets run through a spell checker anyway, but I prefer to get the spelling right as I write. Yesterday I remembered I have a little Franklin Spelling Ace gadget. It's sort of like an electronic calculator, but it does words instead of numbers. I received it as a gift many years ago — at least 15 years, if not longer because there is a © date on the bottom: "1994-2001". It's a handy little gadget. I needed to look up "meteorologist," which I initially spelled wrong.
The Spelling Ace I have is evidently now a collector's item. It sells on Amazon for around $150. There are newer models that start at around $20.
Wednesday 2021.8.11
First Smoothie
Okay, it isn't exactly my first, but it's my first smoothie since before the beginning of the pandemic.
1 apple
1 carrot
1 orange
1 banana
1 ice cube
As I mentioned in Sunday's blog, the plan was to juice some fruit first rather than buy juice at the store (which can contain extra sugar, preservatives, and other stuff I might not want). I juiced the apple, carrot and orange. Cleanup was easy. Then I peeled the banana and dropped it into the blender jar with an ice cube. After adding the fresh juice, I blended it on high for about 20 seconds.
It wasn't as cold as I would have liked, but two more ice cubes in the glass with the smoothie mixture cooled it down nicely. I am sipping it through a stainless steel straw as I write this blog. It has a pleasant tropical flavor. I can especially taste the fruit. The carrot juice is in there more for good health than flavor. Later today I'll bicycle to the store to purchase more fruit.
A Good Little Gift
My twin brother and his wife sent me a nice gift. It's a "Garlic Twister." You open it up, place one or more peeled garlic cloves inside, then twist the two parts back and forth to mash the garlic. You can even use the Twister to lightly smash a garlic clove to loosen the skin for easy peeling.
I haven't had an opportunity to use it. There hasn't been any fresh garlic in my cooking lately, but I need to make another batch of marinara sauce this week; so I'll get my chance to test it. If you want to see one being used, there are several videos on YouTube.
Worth Experimenting
I've been watching a lot of America's Test Kitchen videos on YouTube lately. I learned something new: A cook (I think it was Dan Souza) added a little baking soda to a recipe (I think it was pizza crust dough) to help with the browning. I'll be experimenting later today because I plan to make New England Clam Cakes again, adding maybe 1/8 teaspoon of soda to the batter. And for those who don't like using yeast in the batter, I also have a recipe for Clam Fritters. That recipe uses baking powder rather than yeast.
Bitten By the Bug?
I don't want to become a LEGO enthusiast. A friend is one and he has an impossibly large collection of sets — about 1,100. Some he bought new and some he assembled from tubs of LEGO bricks he found at thrift stores. His largest set is the Ghostbusters Firehouse at 4,634 pieces. One advantage of thrift store purchases, besides the lower price, is that he often finds one piece, such as a mini figure, that is a collector's item and currently valued at more than he paid for the entire bin. He estimates he has as many as half a million bricks in sets, tubs and bins.
Yesterday I ordered a 10½-inch Lodge seasoned cast iron griddle pan. It looks like a very shallow skillet. I want to experiment again with my Skillet Pizza. Maybe I'll call this one Griddle Pizza. Why a cast iron pan? Because unlike my aluminum skillets with plastic handles, I can put this pan in the oven. And it doesn't require me to heat a pizza stone for an hour or rlonger, heating up my kitchen on a summer day.
I've already done it with my 12-inch my cast iron skillet. I heated the skillet really hot, laid in the pizza dough, and while it was browning on the bottom I added the toppings. Then I transferred the pan to the pre-heated broiler in my oven to brown the top. The problem with the skillet was that it's deep, making it a little difficult to get the pizza out. The shallow griddle pan should be easier. I might even be able to use my pizza peel. When it arrives next week I'll do an unboxing video.
What's the bug? I ordered the skillet from Amazon and I needed to bring my order up to $25 for free shipping. So I added a little LEGO kit to the order, less than $10 and only 139 pieces. That's my second LEGO kit.
Unlike the previous LEGO build (a little sports car, #60285, 89 pieces), I have no plans to assemble this one in a video, although I might do the build while I'm waiting for the dough to rise when I test the griddle in a video.
Sunday 2021.8.8
Coronavirus
Friday was the return of the masking mandate when attending any function or entering any building that is open to the public here in Santa Barbara. I went shopping at Costco to see how people were responding. Everyone in the store was wearing a mask. By contrast, a friend in Kentucky occasionally tells me that almost everyone in the stores there doesn't wear a mask.
I'm happy I am vaccinated. If you follow the news you've heard of people in an ICU somewhere wishing they had gotten the shot. One doctor said on TV that only 51% of the patients at his hospital come out of the ICU alive. The others come out in a body bag. Another doctor said virus mutations only occur when transmission happens from one person to another; therefore, to reduce variants, get vaccinated.
I'm trying to be optimistic, but I see another pandemic winter coming. Will I need to limit my shopping errands to once a month again? Will I need to add more foods to my freezer? Will I need to return to using powdered milk and cream in my coffee?
The COVID-19 news here isn't good. I receive a report in my email each Friday. In Santa Barbara County slightly more than half of the population, 52.7%, is fully vaccinated. Last week there were 459 new cases of infection. Only 34 were hospitalized, which is optimistic, but there were two deaths this week, up from one last week.
Maybe another severe pandemic winter would be a good thing. It might encourage many more people to get vaccinated. The news of thousands of people needlessly dying could change the mind of those who refuse the vaccine for inane reasons.
Juices and Smoothies
When I went shopping I came home with fruits and veggies for making juices and smoothies again. I have the Breville Big Squeeze (currently out of stock) for which I paid $420 and I haven't used it in more than a year because I wasn't shopping for fresh produce. I did use it once to squeeze a pound of fresh basil for making pesto, which I portioned and froze.
As I sit here typing this blog I am enjoying a healthy apple and orange juice drink, to which I also added a carrot and some kale (and some ice, as this is summer). The color isn't pretty, thanks to the kale. It's close to an army green. But the flavor is good, and I can't help wondering how much good the kale and carrot are doing my body.
Some people don't like juicing because of the cleanup afterward. I don't find it difficult. It only takes a few minutes. The Big Squeeze has only a few parts and those come clean quickly with the help of a scouring sponge and some running water.
Smoothies are a lot easier. I use my Vitamix. The jar only needs a few drops of dish detergent and some warm water. Give it a whirl with the motor to clean the blades and jar, then rinse well with running water.
I haven't made a smoothie yet; I'm waiting for the bananas to ripen more. My first smoothie in more than a year will probably be banana, apple and orange. I have those on hand. But I will need to juice the apple and orange first; otherwise, I'll end up with a mass of fruit purée in the blender. And the bananas are still a little green, otherwise I'd be making a smoothie later today. Maybe tomorrow.
SmoothieTube
I'm thinking of turning my attention to my SmoothieTube channel on YouTube again. I started the channel back in 2018. It went nowhere. Compared to my Mobile Home Gourmet channel, which has nearly 50,000 subscribers, SmoothieTube has fewer than 250.
Discouraged, I deleted most of the videos, keeping only those that were the most popular, and abandoned the channel. I still have all the original videos and recipes. It might be worthwhile to upload them again, little by little, and expand the channel to include juices (rather than create yet another channel, JuicyTube).
Books
I finished reading Michael Wolff's latest book, Landslide and I started Frankly, We Did Win This Election by Michael Bender. There wasn't a lot of new information in Wolff's book, but I was surprised at how consumed Donald Trump was with the results of the November 3rd election. He could think and talk about nothing else. During those weeks after the vote the White House staff was left to run the country in Trump's absence.
Wolff concludes that Trump really does believe the election was stolen from him, despite all the evidence the vote was free and fair and despite the total lack of any evidence that proves the election was rigged. And so do his devotees. Trump was willing to listen to any weird and crazy conspiracy theory about how the vote was stolen — the weirder and crazier the story, the more he believed it was true.
In Bender's book I was surprised to read about the groupies who faithfully attended all of Trump's rallies and arrived at each one days in advance to sit in the front row. They called themselves Front Row Joes. I couldn't help thinking of the girls who screamed in the audience when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show back in the 1960s.
The weather here has been pleasant. It was too sunny and warm to work on the landscaping, but good enough for me to enjoy sitting on my deck and reading. The foggy and cloudy weather has returned; so it's a good time to return to the landscaping.
And, Finally, How About Something Awful?
When I went shopping I also bought a box of chicken ramen packages and a quart of heavy cream (whipping cream). I have some cooked chunked chicken in the freezer. Boil some ramen with only enough water to cook the noodles. When soft (3 minutes), add cooked chicken and some cream, heat to serving temperature and enjoy. It's good comfort food. I sometimes call it chicken chop slop. That will be today's lunch.
Wednesday 2021.8.4
Freedom
I gave the trapped squirrel its freedom on Sunday. I drove west several miles, exited the freeway where there was a wooded area and pulled over to the side of the road. There is a stream there. It was not the full ten miles away as recommended in the web sites I saw, but it seemed far enough.
I don't know that I can believe the web sites anyway. One said a squirrel can't live more than 24 hours without water. It was trapped in the cage for five days and seemed very feisty when I was moving the trap into the back of my car.
Meanwhile, I reset the trap with fresh bait (peanut butter) and placed it beneath my porch again. When I next mix up some mortar, I'll try to seal up the dirt where the squirrels dig an entry. I also covered the existing tunnel with bricks, hoping that might keep them out until I can seal the hole.
Another Dental Appointment
Two down, only one more to go (I hope). Yesterday I went in to have a crown removed and the cavity beneath it drilled and filled. And that raises an important issue.
I almost never have a cavity. When I go in for my twice yearly cleaning and exam the hygienist always tells me my oral hygiene is excellent. One once told me, "Keep it up; you'll have your teeth for the remainder of your life." Why did I have two cavities this time? One was so advanced the tooth had to be pulled.
The only change was a different floss. I was using the Glide product sold at Costco. I switched to a new brand, Reach, that I liked better. It's a waxed cord. I've been using it for the past six months and I had two cavities. During my next visit to Costco I will buy more Glide.
Meanwhile, the dentist wasn't skilled at avoiding my tongue with the drill. I have a really painful sore. I'm supposed to meet with a friend online today for lunch, but it is too painful to talk when I move my tongue. I might need to cancel this visit unless the two ibuprofen I took reduce the pain enough to allow me to talk.
Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to sip a cup of coffee.
2024
I'm already thinking — maybe worrying — about 2024. There has been a lot of news lately about the minority conservatives working in all 50 states to rig the next presidential election in favor of the Republicans. There has also been plenty of news about efforts in Washington to guarantee the right to vote to non-white voters. Who will win? For a long time I've been seeing this nation inch slowly toward authoritarianism.
I've been around for a while. I'm 70 years old. We're a long way from the presidency of John F. Kennedy, both in years and in politics. I also read a lot of books. The trending is subtle. If it were more obvious, maybe the citizens would rebel the change. There has been some pushback, but will it be enough?
I don't know if 2024 will be as discouraging as I suspect it might be, but the next few decades might be depressing. I can only hope it's a pendulum and it will soon swing the other way.
Sunday 2021.8.1
One Less Squirrel
The trap works. I was outside, watering my herbs, when I heard a noise that I would have wagered was the sound of a squirrel trying to bite its way out of a steel cage. I looked at the base of the tree where there had been squirrel activity before. Sure enough, the decorative rocks had been disturbed again. I opened the access panel beneath my deck and there was the cage, closed, with a squirrel inside. It's a humane trap.
I wasn't sure where to release the varmint. Like rats and mice, squirrels are vermin. They're worse because of the damage they cause, despite how cute they might look with their silvery coat and bushy tail. I did some research on the internet. A location ten miles (16km) away was recommended. Ten miles. That's quite a distance. I'd have to drive up the freeway to the west and then look for an exit ramp. It would be a good location because there are fields and empty spaces out that way. I decided to give it some thought.
Did you know there are people who eat squirrel? I'm not that inquisitive. However, purely out of curiosity I went onto YouTube and searched for how to skin and cook a squirrel. There are videos.
I watched only one — it was informative, but not entertaining. The video creator had a squirrel he killed with buckshot. He skinned and gutted it before cutting it up and cooking it. It actually looked pretty good (I'd like to try doing it with chicken meat), but squirrel is definitely not something I would try. And I have no intention of trying to kill, skin and cook that squirrel outside in the trap. Is it even safe to eat?
Here in California we're not allowed to have a skunk as a pet. There are places where you might capture a baby skunk, have it deodorized and then raise it as a pet. It's illegal here because they are known to carry rabies. After surviving the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic this past winter without even a cough, the last thing I want to do is make myself sick and die from eating a bad squirrel.
Besides, there is a Costco only a few blocks away. Why kill and gut something for food when I can go shopping instead?
Belated Birthday Celebration
A friend and his wife invited me to dine with them yesterday in observance of my 70th birthday. Our get-togethers are always enjoyable because he is as good a cook as I am, if not better. Dinner is more of a joint project. When he slow-cooks ribs on the grill I typically make the barbecue sauce. Yesterday it was rack of lamb.
He usually asks me to bring some things. For the salad, I brought a few of my vine-ripened tomatoes. I also brought a small packet of my fresh herbs and some pesto I made with my Breville juicer.
A juicer might seem like an odd appliance for making pesto. Why not a food processor? Here's the thing: For the best pesto you need to release the juice from the basil leaves. That's why pesto is traditionally made by crushing the leaves with a mortar and pestle. With a juicer, I can easily crush the leaves to release the juice. Then I combine the pulp and juice again before adding the other ingredients, like garlic (which can go through to juicer too), pine nuts (or toasted almonds), olive oil and Parmesan or Romano cheese. When I last made pesto, I stored packets of it in the freezer.
Besides the rack of lamb and salad, there were roasted potatoes, seared Brussels sprouts, and sautéed mushrooms. I would have preferred my lamb cooked a little more. I'm okay with rare, but raw and warm is a little too underdone for me. Nonetheless, the dinner was delicious, as usual, and it was a fun evening.
How Are My Projects Going?
The landscaping was delayed because of how I felt after the tooth extraction. I suffered a mild case of depression. I got my master's degree in clinical psychology and, all modesty aside, I was the best diagnostician in my class. I diagnosed myself with adjustment disorder. My treatment plan was to eat more fresh vegetables, which was made easier by having a thriving tomato plant in my yard. Good nutrition really improves my moods.
I was also told by the dentist not to engage in any strenuous activity while my jaw healed. I'm not sure why. So nothing was done outside for more than a week. I was hoping to have the main project done by my birthday or no later than the end of July. This week I'll return to working in the yard. There is still much to be done. Hopefully I'll have everything complete by the end of August.
How about eating the foods in my freezer? I continue, albeit slowly, to use up some of the frozen foods I stored for the pandemic. Although I had planned not to add any foods until I used up what I had, there have been some additions. I made Split Pea Soup and stored portions in the freezer. I bought two Costco rotisserie chickens, deboned them, and stored the cooked meat in 4-ounce packets. All the trim was also frozen for making chicken stock this fall. And I bought some ground beef at Costco and stored that too.
I need to dig around in the freezer because I think I still have some stock in there from this past winter. I need to use it up for soups before I add more.
As for the basil I am growing, it still lives beneath the grow lamp I bought, but progress has been slow. The basil growing outside is doing well, but I'm not getting the big leaves I see when I purchase a bag of basil from the wholesale produce market down in the city. When the season comes to an end in the next few months, I probably will have less than a pound of basil, despite having more than a dozen plants. The farmers must use really good fertilizer.
And, Finally, That Gin Drink
I think I finally have the formula worked out for the gin and limeade drink I wanted to make. Last month I wrote about a former friend who would make it for me when I visited. It was delicious, despite my not liking gin.
I'm not sure if I'll video that drink for my Mobile Home Gourmet channel on YouTube. The video of Bailey's Irish Cream does well, as does the video for making Kahlúa at home. People have asked me to do more drinks video; however, I'm not a drinker. I don't know anything about mixing drinks. I do have a small collection of liquor bottles on a shelf outside my kitchen, but those are all for cooking. I have a bottle of store-bought Kahlúa and I really enjoy Kahlúa and cream, but I never feel any desire to mix myself a drink.
I can get away with a little ignorance in my cooking videos, but I don't want to come across as a total novice when mixing drinks. If I do the gin and limeade drink video, it will probably be only as an experiment without any promise of future drinks videos to come.