APRIL 2022
Wednesday 2022.4.27
Haunted Computer
A really strange, and somewhat frightening, thing happened this week on this computer. This is the one on which I work on my videos and my web site pages. I keep it permanently off line, as that is probably the best way to avoid viruses that might damage all my work (even though I also keep backups).
I was in the kitchen experimenting with a recipe (see below) and I heard loud talking coming from the office, like the TV suddenly turned on and the volume went way up. Checking, the TV was off and this computer was still off line. So why were there loud voices coming out of the computer's speakers?
I don't believe in ghosts; so there had to be a reasonable explanation. The little audio amplifier I recently purchased has a blue-tooth antenna on the back. Could it have picked up a signal from a passing car? Probably. I removed the antenna and put it in the drawer.
Lyonaisse Potatoes Revisited
As mentioned in Sunday's blog, I experimented with an America's Test Kitchen recipe for Lyonaisse Potatoes, named for the culinary city of Lyon, France. It failed. I knew I could do better.
First I caramelized the onions, which I then transferred to a bowl to hold until needed. Next, I sliced Yukon Gold potatoes rather thick, about half an inch (about a centimeter) and arranged them in the skillet in a single layer. I sautéed them, uncovered, until lightly browned on one side. Then I flipped them over to brown the other side. Then I placed the onions on top and covered the pan to let the steam finished cooking the potatoes.
They came out beautiful, nicely browned, and delicious with the flavor of onions. I plan to video the process someday because side dishes do well on YouTube as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach. My Scalloped Potatoes video is very popular in the fall.
Feeling good about myself, (I actually did better than America's Text Kitchen? Go figure.) I celebrated by making a smoothie with bananas, grape juice, pomegranate juice and Greek yogurt. Delicious.
Simplification
A week ago I blogged about wanting to simplify the recipe folder. There are two versions of each recipe, one of them being a print friendly version. There is no need for a print version anymore; there are no photographs. The PDF is a better option. I started removing the unnecessary files on Sunday. I like to be organized; so I worked alphabetically, starting with the A's. Hopefully this won't be a problem for anyone (not that my web site is very popular). I can always reverse everything using the backups, but I doubt I'll ever do that.
The project also gave me a good opportunity to update the older recipes stylistically so that they match the newer ones. The style is not important for how the web site functions; it just unifies the appearance.
It also gave me an opportunity to correct some errors. There were none that damaged the functions of this web site, but they were not what I intended. For example, when referring to a recipe in a blog, I link to the regular web page so that visitors can then jump to the video if they want to see it. There were a few references that linked to the print friendly page where there is no video button. Those are all fixed now.
By yesterday morning the project was done. I reduced the number of recipe pages by half, to 382. As I get older, anything that can simplify my workload is a welcome improvement.
Next up: The smoothie recipes.
Revelation
Revisiting so many old recipes, I see a trend. There was a time I was adventuresome with cooking for this web site. I didn't mind standing in the kitchen all day, cooking and working my camera. Now I'm seeing signs of slowing down. I'm looking for simple recipes that will be easy.
That's not a bad thing. Many people live a busy lifestyle. They look for simple recipes. That's why the Instant Pot is so popular. So I might be making a good contribution to my body of work by actually slowing down.
New YouTube Feature
YouTube announced a new feature this week. I can see a list of the most popular search terms relevant to my cooking channel. What do people search for when looking for recipes on YouTube? Now I know. For one, recipes that use potatoes. Good. I'm still planning that video of Lyonaisse Potatoes.
Pill Pusher
Unfortunately, the latest doctor is a pill pusher. I told her I don't want to be one of those people who take a lineup of meds each day. I have five now. Two in the morning. One at lunch with food. One in the evening. One at bed time. I'm glad she's going on maternity leave and won't be back until September. I'll be safe for a while.
Sunday 2022.4.24
The Billable Procedures Treadmill
Wednesday afternoon I picked up my blood pressure medication. It was really inexpensive, $2.49. I also got a tetanus booster shot. That was free (paid by my insurance).
Thursday I drove down to the city for a CT scan to look for nonexistent kidney stones. Why? Don't those cause a lot of pain? I have no pain in my lower back. There is no history of kidney stones in my family. Is it only to be thorough? Or is it another example of a medical office getting their piece of the pie?
Meanwhile, I've had two needles in my arms for drawing blood for a panel of tests for each doctor. What will they find? More opportunities for billable procedures? I'm not an ATM. I sometimes suspect doctors look at insured patients as cash machines.
I'm trying not to be depressed about this whole thing. My life is not in danger. Other than this one annoying issue, I'm quite healthy for my age. It's the inconvenience. As I get older I feel like I'm becoming one of those people who loses friends and gains doctors.
Cooking
Even though I haven't felt like spending much time in the kitchen, I tried something I saw in an America's Test Kitchen video (actually Cook's Country) — Lyonaisse Potatoes. I followed their directions but instead of nicely browned potatoes I got tender steamed potatoes. They tasted good, but they didn't look appetizing. Some possible issues.
- They said they used a 12-inch skillet. Yep. Got that.
- They used two pounds of potatoes. That seemed to crowd the pan.
- The cooking temperature was "medium." That seemed too low.
- They said to cover the pan. That seemed to hold in too much steam.
I suspect too many potatoes were crowding the pan. All that steam was cooking the potatoes, but the potatoes weren't browning. Even a higher temperature didn't help much, and I really cranked up the heat toward the end.
If I make this recipe for a video (when I feel up to it) I'll slice only enough potatoes to fit in the bottom of the skillet. I'll leave the cover off most of the time. I can always cover the pan and reduce the heat if the potatoes are browning faster than cooking. And I'll use sauté heat, which is slightly higher than medium.
The Compensation Plan
My mobility is reduced for a while; so I need to think of other ways to maintain my YouTube channel.
Now that I am currently unable to do as much as I was accustomed to, I'm thinking of resurrecting some of my older videos — the ones no one is watching anymore. With a little updated editing I might attract some attention to them again and eliminate some of the obsolete information. Many of them are too long because I was also doing videos for a local TV station. They wanted 28 to 30 minutes of content in each show. With some judicious cutting I might reduce the time by almost half, maybe more.
Many of those videos refer to PDFs on this web site "with step-by-step photographs." Those photos were removed a long time ago. So, some editing seems appropriate.
I think the one I'll work on first is Butternut Risotto. During the past year it was watched only four times and it earned 2¢ revenue — hardly worth mentioning. However, it might be too much of a challenge. I did a 30-minute show about butternut squash. Can I extract enough video clips only for a risotto recipe? Maybe I'll work on it this week.
Wednesday 2022.4.20
Dutch Babies
A friend occasionally talks about them. I never tried making one. But one thing led to another and last week I made my first Dutch baby.
In this past Sunday's blog I mentioned seasoning one of my Lodge cast iron pans. That led me to some Lodge videos. In one of them a Dutch baby was demonstrated. I looked at more videos. They all used a large 12-inch (30cm) skillet. I wondered: What if I were to make a small batch of batter, about a third of the other ones, and use my small 8-inch (20cm) skillet? It is also cast iron. Why one third? That sent me to the internet to learn a little math.
How do you calculate the area of a circle? The formula is pi times radius squared, or π•r2. I measured the bottoms of my large and small skillets. I used the inside bottom rather than edge-to-edge because the bottom is the cooking surface. And, it turned out that the bottom of my 8-inch skillet is almost exactly one third the area of my 12-inch. So, preparing one third of the original recipe batter was just right.
Whole butter or clarified butter? The oven needs to be heated to 425°F (218°C). That's way too hot for butter, which starts to burn at around 350°F (177°C). Clarified butter (the water, salt and milk solids removed) has a smoke point of around 485°F (252°C), well above the oven temperature.
The skillet needs to be pre-heated in the oven; so why not add the butter and let it melt as the skillet warms up? It worked perfectly.
Finally, I used one of the small blender cups for my Vitamix rather than the big blender jar. It made sense for such a small volume of batter. That worked well too.
With the pan heated and the batter blended, I opened the oven door and poured the batter directly into the hot skillet. Then I closed the door and baked the pastry for a little more than 15 minutes until it was puffed and golden brown. You can garnish it anyway you like. I prefer a little melted butter and a drizzle of honey. Delicious.
Hack
We can learn so many useful tips on YouTube. What is the easiest way to de-crystalize a plastic jar of honey? Place it on the dashboard in your car on a warm day. In about an hour it will be liquid again. It works. And it might be a good idea to transfer it to a glass jar for storage.
More Simplification?
There are two versions of each recipe on this web site — the standard one and the "print-friendly" page. Print-friendly came about because I used to include step-by-step photographs of the preparation process. I thought they might be helpful. I put out a question to some of the fans and they said they didn't look at the photographs. I removed them all and no one seemed to notice.
So a question occurred to me this week. If there are no photographs, why do I need a print-friendly version? The only difference between the two pages now is the buttons. And, besides, there is also a PDF of the recipe, which prints very well.
There are currently 760 pages in the Recipes folder. Do a little arithmetic with me. Eliminating the print-friendly versions would reduce that number to 380. It would also reduce the work of maintaining this site, basically cutting in half the effort of writing new recipe pages.
I don't want to rush into something too quickly; so I'll spend this week thinking about it. And I'll do a complete backup before I start.
Something Else
A few years ago I removed the Contact page from this web site. I was getting dozens of spam emails each day. When I deleted the button the spam stopped. So it was the right thing to do. However, now the only way to contact me is through the comments on my YouTube videos.
I used to have a Facebook page. Someone in Nigeria copied my page and used it to solicit funds. I took it down.
One element that contributes to the popularity of many YouTube content creators is their presence on social media. So this week, while I was thinking of removing the print-friendly pages, I joined Twitter.
There must be a way of sending private messages on Twitter. What if I were to but my Twitten handle on one of my web site pages? How would that work? I have a friend who is totally into that sort of stuff; so I'll work with him.
And, Finally, Getting Old
I have never felt so old. Without going into details, I've had a condition that I didn't understand. I went to my primary care physician. He said nothing is wrong, but he charged my insurance for a billable procedure. Okay, but the pain didn't go away, despite my efforts.
This week I went to a specialist. Oh boy! I was shocked. It's serious. So far, it isn't life threatening, but he gave me a prescription for a medication to take once each evening. This morning I also had an appointment with another doctor to get a blood pressure med. Meanwhile, my mobility is limited; so, I probably won't be creating any new cooking videos for a while.
I don't mind telling people I am 70 years old. For my age, I felt pretty good. No meds. No issues. There are people younger than I am who are dealing with medical conditions. This week I feel like I finally caught up with all the others. I'm old now.
Sunday 2022.4.17
Happy Easter
Be nice to your bunny today. I'll bet you didn't know rabbits laid eggs. Only the magical ones do.
An Oddity
I don't know how to describe this. Someone recommended a foodie web site that accepts recipes and videos from home cooks. It's sort of like a mini-YouTube for food only. It was recommended as a possible way of increasing the popularity of my cooking videos on YouTube. The idea intrigued me; so I visited the site.
First of all, rule out any idea of fine dining. I thought of my mother's cooking. She'd make Beef Stroganoff with ground beef, sour cream, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and noodles. She didn't buy fresh mushrooms. We ate the stroganoff. I liked it. My mom adequately fed the family, although she didn't know how to thaw steaks. (See that story on my Cook page about me.)
The first video I watched was of the web site's host making a macaroni dish in his Instant Pot. He called it Cheeseburger Macaroni. There are other videos along the same line and many of them claim to be homemade versions of Hamburger Helper. Some are called Cheeseburger Casserole.
Maybe I live a sheltered life. I am 70 years old and in all my life I never tasted Hamburger Helper. However, I will admit to buying the blue box of macaroni and cheese many times, and ramen, and those Noodle Roni boxed mixes. Okay, you get the idea. Hamburger Helper never appealed to me because I'm not much of a beef sort of guy. In fact, I didn't know how to spell it — "berger" or "burger"? Ground Lamb Helper is something I might have tried if it existed. Or, better yet, Italian Sausage Helper.
I do have to ask: What is the appeal? One video had been viewed more than 40,000 times in its first year. Another had more than 100,000 in one year. Yet another had nearly 900,000 in two years. And one in particular had accumulated 1½ millions views in only six days! How do they do it?
Is the word Gourmet off-putting? What else begins with G? Garbage? Glutton? Must it be a G?
One video gave me a good laugh. He used Worcestershire sauce, which he called "worst word in the world sauce."
Inspired, I had to try that burger casserole thing. And so on Thursday I cooked a small-ish batch, using about half the quantities in the videos I saw. I did not add ketchup, but I did add a little tomato paste. The result?
Hardly haute cuisine, but it actually tasted rather good. Many describe it as tasting similar to a cheeseburger. No. I make good cheeseburgers. I called them Picnic Burgers (but I changed the name to Cheeseburgers) because they seemed especially appropriate for the backyard barbecue, although I make mine in the kitchen. The Cheeseburger Macaroni tastes like, well, ground beef, cheese and pasta with gravy.
I wouldn't go so far as to serve this to guests I might invite for a Sunday dinner, but I can see turning to this recipe when I want comfort food in winter. I still prefer my mom's American Chop Suey, but this beef-cheese-pasta casserole thing deserves a good second place.
Would I do a video for YouTube? Maybe.
Cast Iron
One issue I observed fairly often when viewing cheeseburger macaroni videos on YouTube is the use of skillets that seemed too shallow for the amount of food being cooked. Three years ago I purchased a deep 5-quart (4.75-liter) Lodge cast iron skillet with plans to use it on the grill. My Weber grill's grate has a removable round center piece and the skillet fits perfectly in there, allowing me to pan-cook food while I'm grilling. The skillet also has a lid.
I never used the pan. In fact, I gave up grilling because I was using oak firewood and it smoked too much. One of these days I'll buy some good charcoal briquettes and try grilling again.
The skillet went into my shed. This week I used it to experiment with that macaroni dish. And I learned something. Although it was "pre-seasoned" by Lodge, the seasoning wasn't good enough. After washing and allowing it to drip dry, a thin film of rust developed.
Cook's Illustrated magazine published an article in which they said unrefined flaxseed oil is the best oil for seasoning cast iron. There is a lot of science behind it, which I'll spare you, other than to say it is 57% alpha-linolenic acid, the stuff that makes a good coating on the iron pan. And so the process began this weekend. Scrub well with Bar Keeper's Friend to remove the rust, dry thoroughly with paper towels, and season with flaxseed oil.
If you're not familiar with the process, you rub a very thin coat of oil on the pan. It should barely look wet. Then heat in a hot oven, like 500°F (93°C), for one hour. Let cool two hours in the oven before repeating the process. Open the kitchen window and run window fans because the pan will smoke a lot. You might want to disconnect your smoke alarm too.
Repeat the seasoning process a few times until a beautiful black sheen develops on the surface. Afterward you'll have a piece of durable cookware that will last a lifetime, and it will be an heirloom you can pass down to your grandchildren. And worth mentioning: A good seasoning coat helps the pan to be more non-stick. Also worth mentioning: No coating lasts forever. It might need to be refreshed occasionally.
I wish I had taken before and after photographs. A newly seasoned cast iron pan is a thing of beauty.
Wednesday 2022.4.13
SmoothieTube
The work continues. Evidently, in my rush to launch the new channel in 2018, some tasks were overlooked or done incorrectly. I'm finding many errors — not enough to disable the pages on this web site, but enough to cause me a little embarrassment. And I must admit to something else — I'm changing my mind.
As I said in an earlier blog, SmoothieTube is not monetized and never will be. It doesn't generate enough interest. I have three smoothies on my Mobile Home Gourmet channel, which is monetized. Two of those videos have been viewed more than 1,000 times. The videos on SmoothieTube do well eventually, but they generate no revenue. With summer and therefore warm weather coming, I'm considering putting more smoothie videos on my Mobile Home Gourmet channel. Eventually, I'd like to remove SmoothieTube altogether.
Furthermore: SmoothieTube has fewer than 370 subscribers. MobileHomeGourmet has more than 52,300.
Numbers Don't Lie
The truth is in the statistics. On Saturday I uploaded a video to SmoothieTube. Two days later the video had been viewed 15 times. On Monday I uploaded a different smoothie video to my Mobile Home Gourmet channel. By the following morning it had been seen 200 times. That isn't spectacular, but it's far better than 15. (By contrast, my recent uploaded video of Cold Brewed Coffee has accumulated more than 6,000 views.) Nonetheless, I think I made the right decision.
How About Some Global Politics?
This week there is news that Sweden and especially Finland are considering joining NATO. Finland shares a long border with Russia and if the Fins join the Alliance, that would put NATO at Russia's doorstep. Putin is already threatening the country.
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also known as the North Atlantic Alliance, is a collection of European countries, along with the USA, dedicated to help defend each other if attacked. Putin hates NATO and considers it a threat to Russia. He certainly knows NATO has no intention of invading and occupying Russia, but he also knows that NATO is committed to preventing Russia from expanding into Western Europe as it is now trying to do by warring with Ukraine.
Putin longs for the glory days of the USSR. The collapse of that union left him with only Russia, which is a far weaker country than Putin will admit. Some news reports declare Russia has already exhausted as much as 20% of its military capability fighting with Ukraine, and that war is far from over.
And, Finally, a Bad Haircut
My hair was driving me crazy again. It gets in my ears and in my face. I hate when that happens. So yesterday I gave myself another haircut. I wasn't as careful this time. I didn't hack it up too badly, but it certainly looks like a DIY job. No one seems to stare and no one ever says anything; so, I can live with it.
Sunday 2022.4.10
Warm Indeed
As I wrote in Wednesday's blog, it was projected to be hot here this past week. And, as I usually say, where I live the temperature is usually about 10 degrees warmer. The forecast for Thursday was 83°F (28°C). By 2:00 in the afternoon it was nearly 96°F (36°C) outside. A news report said the Santa Barbara airport recorded two new daily record temperatures on Thursday and Friday. The airport is at the beach, though; so they benefit from cool ocean breezes.
Friday it was 97.5°F where I live. I resisted the temptation to turn on the air conditioner until I started to wonder why I was enduring the heat. But an odd thing happened.
When I came home from grocery shopping my home office was dead. The electricity was off. Evidently the air conditioner and two computers were too much for the circuit breaker. Note to self: When using the AC, especially on a really warm day, turn off one of the computers.
Meanwhile, I turned my temptation toward…
An Ice Cold Smoothie
It had been several months since I enjoyed my last smoothie. I had the ingredients, but the weather hadn't seemed right until now. I looked around in the refrigerator and freezer and found frozen chopped bananas, frozen grape juice, unopened Greek-style yogurt and an unopened bottle of pomegranate juice.
It was perfect. Cold and creamy, just thick enough, not too sweet and not too tart. And, I made enough for two tall glasses. I need to start adding videos to my SmoothieTube channel on YouTube again. Otherwise, I continue to enjoy my iced coffee.
SmoothieTube
I started SmoothieTube on YouTube in 2018. I had high hopes for my new channel. I even did a big roll-out, uploading 16 smoothie videos to publish on the first day. I didn't go so far as to order 10,000 business cards, but I designed them.
And then nothing happened, or nearly nothing. I think I blogged about my disappointment at the time. Discouraged, I started deleting some of the videos, especially the ones no one seemed interested in. I wanted to delete the channel altogether, such was my dismay, but I left some in place, just in case.
That was nearly four years ago. Occasionally someone subscribes. The channel has 367 subscribers and averages only a few new subscribers each month. Of my original 45 videos, only 19 remain. However, I'm thinking of renewing some of my interest in the channel. It will never generate any revenue, but I do enjoy drinking smoothies, especially in summer; so why not restore the channel a little when I have nothing better to do?
To get things going, I needed to get organized. I still have all the videos. They were archived onto blank Blu-ray discs. How do I distinguish those on YouTube from those that are not without checking my channel every time? I tried different lists. That didn't work; so this week I did what I knew I was supposed to do — I programmed another little database.
Well, actually, I cheated. I have a database in which I track my Mobile Home Gourmet videos. So I made a copy of that database, changed a few things, and now it's my SmoothieTube database. I can easily see which videos are published, which are not, and on which disc they are stored. But it wasn't easy.
It was an obsessive-compulsive's nightmare. Titles change between editing and uploading. I had to research my videos to figure out which was which. Thankfully they're all numbered and that number is at the bottom of the PDFs. I was done by noon on Friday; so now I think I'm ready to devote some attention to SmoothieTube again.
There are 26 smoothie videos that are not on YouTube. Some were deleted from the channel, some were never uploaded. So I have some material to start with. And I can always create more. If I decide to do banana, grape juice, pomegranate juice and yogurt, I can quickly check the database to make certain I haven't done that combination already. (I haven't.)
Juicing
And all this blogging about smoothies makes me want to start using my Breville Big Squeeze juicer again. The weather is warming up. There will be plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms in the stores. If I remember correctly, April is the beginning of strawberry season here.
Ants
My ants like salami. I learned that this week. I wanted to eat something cold, or at least not hot, during the warm weather. So I made Italian sub sandwiches, for which I needed salami and a few other ingredients. When the last of the salami was used, I tossed the empty plastic package into the recycle box in my kitchen. Bad idea.
The following morning the ants were swarming to it. It was a good reminder to take the recyclables outside to the bin, but it also gave me a good idea. The cotto salami I buy is well ground, almost into a paste. A little of that should mix easily with boric acid powder to make a bait packet for the ants.
Meanwhile, I placed one of my poisoned chicken bait packets on the ant trail and they swarmed to that. I'm still waiting for the nest to be eradicated.
Wednesday 2022.4.6
Something New
I learned something new this week. I have a GoPro camera that I occasionally use when recording a video. I position it directly over my cooking area so that I can show what is going on inside the pan, especially if it's a deep pan like a stock pot or my pressure cooker.
I was charging the camera with one of the GoPro cables that came with it and the jack end looked familiar. It resembles the jack on the cord I use to charge my new Samsung cell phone. Is it worth an experiment? What's the worst that could happen? I tried it, plugging the other end into a USB port on my computer and, sure enough, that charged the phone. I like knowing I have more than one charging cable.
Something Else New
I received an alert on my phone informing me of a new app, CA Notify, that supposedly monitors my location to see if I come into close proximity with anyone who also has the app and who tested positive for Covid-19 lately. The concept is to notify me when I might have been exposed to the virus.
I wasn't sure what to do. Do I really want to be tracked for possible exposure? Well, why not? So I installed the app and enabled it on my phone. There is just one tiny little problem: I don't take my phone with me when I go out. It always sits on the desk in my office. I might, on a rare occasion, take it with me when I go to Costco so that I can order a pizza (still only $9.95 for an 18" pie) while I'm in the store. And that's the reason I installed the app.
Costco seems like a potentially dangerous breeding ground for the virus because, unlike a local grocery store, the warehouse attracts people from a wide area. On the positive side, Santa Barbara is a somewhat isolated city. To the north, Santa Maria has its own Costco and to the south, Ventura and Oxnard have their store too. The only people likely to shop here are residents in the local area. It's easy to think we're safe, but this area has very little affordable housing. Hundreds, probably thousands, of workers commute daily from those other areas.
There is another concern — the University of California Santa Barbara. The school attracts students from all over California — actually, from all over the world. We never know what infections the students might be bringing with them. I don't blame them for every outbreak here, but I can't help wondering if any new variant might come from a student. The local student community, Isla Vista, worries me sometimes too.
The CA Notify app is probably too new to be of much use right now. How many phones have the app? However, this fall when the student body returns to the University, it might be a fun little test of the app if I carry my phone while riding my bicycle though Isla Vista and onto the University campus, especially around the dorms.
And Even Something Else New
One of the pleasures I look forward to every afternoon is my glass of iced coffee, even though we are not in the warm days of summer yet. I make a large jar of Cold-Brewed Coffee, which holds only four cups of liquid. I need six. So I add another two cups of water after the coffee is brewed and filtered.
I got to thinking — something I do occasionally — why not pour the extra two cups of water into the remaining grounds to rinse out a little more of the coffee flavor? I did it. I'm not sure how much good or harm it does. The iced coffee still tastes delicious, but I feel like I got a little more yield out of my brew. Water adds no flavor; so, something is better than nothing.
And Not So New
The weather. We're in the midst of another warming spell. A "heat advisory" was issued for this week. The forecast for yesterday was 88°F (31°C) and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. It's usually warmer where I live; so I set up my office air conditioner again. At this point, I might as well leave it set up until fall.
Sunday 2022.4.3
More Poly Tubing
If you've watched enough of my videos, you know I often use poly tubing and an impulse heat sealer for food storage. One roll of tubing lasts a very long time. I use only a few inches per packet. I'm almost out; so I ordered a new roll from Amazon this week.
Being more specific: A 2,150-foot (655 meters) roll on Amazon is about $60. That comes to around 2.3¢ per foot. When I portioned and packaged the Chicken and Wild Rice Soup for freezing, each packet used 6 inches (15cm) of tubing at a cost of about a penny per packet. That's quite a savings over other storage bags such as ziplock bags or vacuum bags.
I buy the 2 mil tubing that is 6 inches wide. It comes on such a huge and heavy roll, I wind some of it onto a smaller cardboard tube and store that in my cupboard where I keep my impulse heat sealer and vacuum sealer. (Poly tubing does not work with a vacuum sealer.) The large roll gets stored in the shed. My impulse heat sealer, also from Amazon, is an 8-inch (20cm) model. It's just the right size for the 6-inch wide tubing.
If you're wondering about the safety of plastic, it isn't all the same. Look at the bottom of your plastic bottle of water or olive oil. You might see a 1, 2 or 5 inside a triangle. The triangle means the plastic can be recycled. The number means the plastic is formulated to be safe for food storage. The poly tubing I use is FDA and USDA approved for use by the commercial food industry.
How often do I buy poly tubing? I believe the last time I ordered a roll was about 20 years ago.
Better yet, it arrived early. It was originally scheduled for delivery on Thursday of this week. Then it was moved up to Wednesday. It actually arrived this past Friday, April 1st, almost a week early, and that's not an April Fools Day joke.
Something New
I learned something new this week. I probably should have known this since I first started cooking. Soups made with rice should be served immediately. Keeping the soup in the refrigerator with plans to serve it later allows time for the rice to absorb moisture. The soup will thicken to a paste eventually, better suited for eating with a knife and fork rather than a spoon. It can be diluted before serving, of course; however, the rice will have lost its texture.
I say I should have known this because I've seen the same thing happen with noodle dishes. Store the leftovers in the refrigerator and it will turn into a paste over time. I've eaten a lot of noodle dishes in my time and I know not to save the leftovers.
When I make a big pot of Pasta Fagioli, I make the soup base without the pasta. When I want a bowl, I cook enough macaroni for one serving and then spoon some of the soup base into it for heating and plating to a bowl. Perfectly cooked pasta every time.
And Speaking of Soup
As planned, I made Lentil and Ham Soup. This one won't be one of my annual favorites. The flavor is strong. I don't know whether it is from the ham or the lentils, or both. However, I found that if I dump some heavy cream (whipping cream) into it, that softens the flavor quite a bit.