OCTOBER 2022

Sunday 2022.10.30

I Ain't Dumb

In Wednesday's blog, under the subheading "The Cost of a Favor," I wrote about my bathroom light fixture going dead. Why? I suspected there was some connection, no pun intended, to my letting the workmen plug their extension cord into the outlet on the outside wall of my home. What to do?

I knew enough to trace down the problem and, thankfully, I have an electrical current tester. First I removed the light fixture because I wanted to modify that a little anyway. It used to hang lower by its chain. A previous owner shortened it some by tying a few links together with wire. Why not just remove a few links?

I connected the lamp to a switched outlet and tested it. It worked fine. So, that eliminates the lamp fixture.

Using two wooden clothes pins I attached my electrical current tester to the wires in the ceiling. I flipped the wall switch on, but no current. However, I saw a very brief flicker. Then I wiggled the light switch. Again, that were brief flickers, but no steady current. So, that pointed to the wall switch as the potential problem.

Some of you might be familiar with wall switches and outlets. The lazy-man's component works by pushing the copper wires into small holes in the back of the casing. A spring clamp inside holds the wire in place. It works, for a while. Eventually, the little spring clamp loses it's tension and the wire comes loose. My switch has been functional for the full 25 years I've lived in this mobile home.

On the side of the switch are two screws for those who are not as lazy. Bend the copper wire into a U shape, fit it around the screw, and securely tighten it in place. I did that and, after turning the circuit breaker on again (always disconnect the power at the circuit breaker when you're doing electrical work) I switched the power on again. The current tester lit up and stayed lit. Turn off the circuit breaker again and reassemble the wall switch. Turn on the power again and flip the switch. The current stayed on. One step complete.

After turning off the circuit breaker again, I modified the lamp fixture, removing a few links from the chain to raise it higher. Then I attached the wires, getting the polarity correct (I put a bit of tape around the wire that connects to the red lead). I installed the bulb, turned on the circuit breaker again and flipped the switch. The bulb lit up and stayed lit.

Finally, I attached the lamp fixture to the ceiling again and the job was almost complete. No job is done until all the tools are put away. And so, with the right tools and, of course, a little bit of cussing, the job was done and all is well again.

Maybe needless to say, I walked around with a smile on my face afterward because I solved the problem myself without having to pay for an electrician. Now when I walk past the bathroom door I have an urge to flick the switch just to see the light come on — not to make certain it is still working, but to enjoy the satisfaction of having fixed it myself.

And Speaking of Electricity

We received another notice telling us the electricity is going to be turned off again for a pole upgrade. The power will be off from 7:00 this evening until 7:00 tomorrow morning. I'm ready. I have two oil lamps and three battery-powered storm lanterns. My laptop computers will be fully charged and although I won't be able to connect to the internet — the WiFi modem plugs into the wall — I can still watch a movie or two in the evening. I've been watching a few Halloween movies this month.

Another Book

I finished reading another book this week. I haven't been reading books as much as I used to, but some intriguing ones are coming out. I just read The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017 - 2021 by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.

I've been saying future history books would tell us how awful a president Trump really was. The future is now. The books are being published. On Friday I started reading Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman, a journalist for the New York Times.

So far, there hasn't been any major surprises. We already know a lot about Trump, but the books go into details about the stories we heard only briefly on the news. We know Trump was angry when he didn't get what he wanted. We know he cussed a lot. But how long were his rants, who did he yell at, and what did they do, if anything, in response?

It was new to me to learn how many people, and groups of people, committed to resign en masse, because of Trump's actions. Some did. Others allowed themselves to be talked into staying in their positions to provide some sort of controls on Trump's wild and radical behaviors. As one example, General Mark Milley had to call his counterpart in China to assure him the president was not about to launch a nuclear attack against the Chinese.

Shorts

I've been getting a lot of email from YouTube lately, informing me I can create a new handle for my channels and telling me about shorts. If you're not familiar, they are something new on YouTube, short videos under a minute in length and formatted to look good on smartphones. My plan is to use them to promote my full-length videos.

A few years ago I stopped uploading to one of my channels. It got only ten subscribers. I removed the videos and renamed it Gourmet Shorts. I was surprised that handle was available to use. Surely someone must have grabbed that one by now. Evidently not.

And I've been creating short videos to upload to the channel. As always, there is a learning curve and it took a couple days of struggling with the software to figure out how to format the videos to YouTube's requirements, but in the end I figured it out (and I wrote a short set of instructions so that I wouldn't need to dig through the menus again).

I created only two shorts so far and neither of them is published. I'll upload and publish them this week.

However, the gurus at YouTube recommend uploading to the channel with similar content, my Mobile Home Gourmet channel. The reason seemed reasonable. That channel already has more than 50,000 subscribers — better than ten — and the shorts might appeal to those who want to watch a quick video rather than one 12 to 15 minutes long. That is now the plan.

And Finally

I voted. I put my ballot into the mail on Thursday morning, allowing plenty of time for it to be postmarked before election day and be counted.

Wednesday 2022.10.26

Breakfast Sausages

As planned, I made the breakfast sausages on Sunday afternoon, using natural hog casings. They turned out well, although I did have one blowout as I was filling the casing. Thankfully, one strand of casing was more than enough to accommodate the 2½ pounds of meat filling I prepared.

The flavor is good, but I felt they could have used a little more sage. So, I adjusted the recipe to allow for a additional seasoning. They fry up nicely, better than the sausages I made with collagen casings. They don't burst.

I finished the video by making a plate of scrambled eggs with two breakfast sausage links. That was my dinner. These sausages I would definitely make again.

On Monday morning I copied the video files to this computer. This is my Mobile Home Gourmet production computer. The other one, not counting the laptops, is for play. That's the one I use for email and for responding to comments posted to my YouTube videos.

And then I started looking at the video clips. The very first one, the introduction, was wrong. I kept saying I was using lamb casings instead of natural hog casings. And I didn't catch myself making that mistake. I must be getting old. And, to make matters a little worse, I had just pulled down all the blackout fabrics I use to cover the windows when I shoot videos.

I needed to shoot a pickup, but I wasn't going to cover all the windows again. Thankfully, the days are getting shorter and the evenings are getting dark sooner. In two weeks we'll be back on standard time, but I couldn't wait that long. So I waited until the evening when it was dark to shoot the pickup.

Meanwhile, I viewed the other clips, selected my in and out points, and wrote the script for the voice-overs.

With the pickup shot and the script written, I was able to edit and encode the Breakfast Sausage video yesterday and upload it to YouTube. And that's why I put an "advance view" link at the bottom of this web site's Home Page. The video won't be published until Sunday, but you can watch it now with that link.

My Weird Sense of Humor

Someone suggested I research Toad in the Hole. It's made with sausages cooked in Yorkshire pudding batter. I have some leftover breakfast sausage filling meat. I want to make a sandwich for which I might flatten a portion of sausage meat with my tortilla press and call it toad in the road. You get the reference.

I probably won't do a video for my Mobile Home Gourmet channel, but it might be okay for my Kitchen Vlog channel.

Got Chicken?

In Wednesday's blog I mentioned having purchased chicken thighs at Costco. Yesterday afternoon I finally fileted them, saving the bones and other trim for stock, and freezing the meat for meals later. I put 19 thighs in the freezer. Again, I should be using up the foods in the freezer, not adding more, but chicken meat is something I always keep on hand.

The Cost of a Favor

Yesterday morning a workman asked if he could plug an extension cord into my outside outlet. They were cutting holes in the ground to plant trees outside the wall that borders the edge of the trailer park. I said it would be okay. Past managers have plugged into my home when they needed a short-term supply of electricity. One manager who used my water tap even gave me a free month's free water.

While they were working a couple lamps inside my home on the same circuit started flickering. I turned the lamps off. Then, when I tried to use the bathroom lamp it flickered and then died.

The bulb is okay. I tested it in another lamp. It has to be either the wiring in the wall or the ceiling fixture. The outlet in the bathroom, on the same circuit, works fine; so, that leads me to conclude the fixture failed.

That's my project for today. Pull out the fixture and then check the wiring to make sure it's working. Then, disassemble the fixture to see if maybe the problem is only a loose or corroded wire or go buy a new fixture. If the workman shows up again today, I'll have to tell him he can't plug into my home. The equipment they were using evidently drew too much electricity. Or maybe it was just a coincidence the bathroom light fixture failed on the same day. I can't take any chances. The last thing I want is an electrical fire inside the walls of my mobile home.

Sunday 2022.10.23

Hibernation

This week I hibernated my portable air conditioners. I have three, but I never used the one I keep for the bedroom. The other two — one in the office and one in the living room — I used only once — maybe twice, but I only remember once.

Wednesday was an odd day to put those away. The forecast was for temperatures in the low 80s. By noon that day it was already 92° outside. Warm, but not enough to require air conditioning. My computers didn't seem to mind. However, by 1:30 it was 97° outside and I was beginning to regret I hibernated the air conditioners. Thankfully, I never saw 100°.

And maybe worth mentioning: For the first time this season my heat came on during the night last night.

Breakfast Sausages Revisited

We're entitled to change our mind, right? I was planning to make the sausages using the collagen casings I have. I want to us those up. However, they'll last for a long time in the refrigerator. I have a package of natural hog casings on the kitchen counter. It doesn't need to be refrigerated until it is opened. It keeps reminding me I want to make sausages again.

And so, on Friday I moved a 2½ pound (1.1kg) bundle of pork shoulder and pork belly from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw.

I looked again on Amazon for narrow sausage casings. They're usually sheep casings, which might be typical for homemade breakfast sausages. The prices varied a little, but $17 per ounce was a close average. (Hog casings are around $1 per ounce). Some of the listings are deceptive, or maybe downright dishonest. Rather than listing the cost per ounce for the casings, they advertise the cost per ounce per finished sausage. One advertised 6¢ per ounce. The actual cost of the casings came to $1.45 per ounce, which isn't expensive. However, I have hog casings and I therefore will use them.

As I mentioned in Wednesday's blog, the plan is to make the links only 3 inches long so that they somewhat equate to the small breakfast links sold in stores. Rather than being thinner, they'll be shorter.

The meat is almost thawed; so, probably today or tomorrow I'll make the sausages.

Inflation

One of my staples, something I always have in the freezer, costs 50% more now. The chicken at Costco used to cost 99¢ per pound. I ate the last of my chicken this past week; so, I went to Costco to buy more. I like bone-in chicken thighs. They were $1.49 per pound. I save the bones and skin, freezing it for making stock later.

And that leads to…

Ribs

On Friday I was sitting in the living room, using my new laptop computer, and an email from Costco popped up. They are selling pork ribs — baby back or spareribs — for $1.99 per pound. I called a friend. He and his father headed to Costco. So did I.

I was supposed to meet them there. If my friend says he'll be there in 20 minutes, I know to expect at least 40 if not an hour. So I took my time brushing my teeth, flossing, and changing my clothes. After about 25 minutes I was ready to drive to the store.

I looked around, waited around, and did my own shopping. I had a small list, which included a bag of Jose's Columbian Supremo whole bean coffee. I was surprised to see the avocados were not expensive, only $5.99 for six. And, of course, I selected a package of spareribs. I waited a little longer, and then I went to the registers to pay for my groceries.

When I got home, I put everything away, changed my clothes again to put on my more comfortable lounging wear, and sat down at my computer again. About half an hour later my friend called to say he and his father were at the store.

Yesterday I sectioned the ribs into three-bone portions and vacuum sealed them in pouches for freezing. The plan is to eventually sous vide cook them slowly, maybe several hours. I found one web site in which the owner lists the temperatures and times he uses to sous vide cook ribs. I'll put the settings to the test and if all goes well the first time, I'll do a cooking video.

And that leads to…

Compromising

I know I gave myself a mandate to use up the foods I have in the freezer before I add more. I'm still trying. If you know Costco, nothing comes in reasonable portions as far as food is concerned. One package will feed a small army.

The ribs were packaged three racks to a bag. Each rack had 15 to 16 ribs. So, I put 15 vacuum sealed packets of ribs in the freezer. I managed to get them all onto one shelf, and that was a little encouraging. I'll try to cook ribs for dinner once each week, which should get me through most of the winter.

And, in case you're wondering, I seasoned them with only salt and pepper before sealing them. I'll sous vide them and then finish them in the air fryer with a little barbecue sauce before plating.

And, Finally

I was invited to dinner yesterday evening. I told you above about the friend and his father who were supposed to meet me at Costco. They bought ribs too. So that was dinner. He likes to grill them slowly for about five hours. He asked me to bring a jar of my homemade bourbon barbecue sauce, which is on my recipe page for Pork Spareribs. It's also listed in Basics as Barbecue Sauce. Besides ribs, there was garlic bread and Potato Salad (he used my recipe).

I don't have many friends left. I like to say, "As we get older we lose friends and gain doctors." Among the few here who know me, my barbecue sauce is well known. It might be only a tiny fame, but it's still a fame nonetheless.

And on the way home I filled my old SUV's tank with gasoline. Thankfully, it wasn't $7 per gallon as I'd seen at some gas stations. The fillup cost me almost $100.

Wednesday 2022.10.19

Phew!

One helluva week. Actually, it started on Wednesday. I couldn't upload to my web site. I spent a lot of time and a lot of money — one purchase was a new $500 WiFi modem that I bought on sale at $50 off.

I tried FileZilla, and made a mistake entering my login ID, but it worked okay when I fixed it. The app is okay, but I've been using Dreamweaver since before I retired, maybe 15 years, so I'm comfortable with it. We tend to stick to things that way.

I went back to Dreamweaver and made one more change to the settings, then I was able to upload my updates normally again. So, okay, all is well with the web site again. I feel a little disappointed that I didn't upload my blog on Wednesday, but as King Solomon said, "Time and unforeseen circumstances befall us all."

Although my hosting service, TangoHosting.com, doesn't offer much in the way of extra features, they have one of the best customer service teams I ever encountered. They were so helpful as we tried to troubleshoot my connection issues over several days. I think they knew I was trying as hard as they were to troubleshoot the issue and so they were willing to work with me. Besides which, I threw enough money at the problem; I earned some of that assistance.

I Have Stuff

I like to watch movies on my large flat screen TV. I have a flash drive nearly full of Christmas movies and that gave me an idea. I looked through my box of flash drives and found an empty 128GB drive, plenty of space to store all my Halloween movies. Unlike movies like ParaNorman and Hocus Pocus, many do not have a true Halloween theme. But they're macabre enough, and fun enough, to enjoy as the holiday approaches.

For example, Monday evening I watched Shaun of the Dead. It's a classic.

And, thankfully, I also discovered I have an empty 1TB hard disk drive on the shelf. My movie hard disk is nearly full. Now I can put that empty drive to good use. It's always helpful to have a few spares lying around.

The Limitations of Technology

I'll make a long story short. Last week I was in Costco with some friends. They saw a bottle of B-complex vitamins in my cart. I explained I have issues with ants and if they get on me they sometimes bite. When I was in college I regularly took B-complex and fleas never bothered me. I hoped the vitamins would work against ants too.

It has been a week and although I might see an occasional ant on my arm, it doesn't bite. I tried to send a text message to one of the friends mentioned above. I like my smartphone's voice recognition app for sending texts. The spelling is very accurate. However, every time I said "ant" it spelled it aunt. No matter how many times I tried, ant came up aunt. I sent the text anyway. I knew they would understand. And the idea of aunts biting me added to the amusement.

More OCD

I think I blogged about it in the past. I don't like cleaning my computer keyboards. It's tedious and it takes too long. I used to remove every key cap and clean it. There are 109 on this keyboard in front of me.

To spare myself the ordeal, I now cover my keyboards with plastic. Finding the ideal plastic has been a challenge. Some is too thick, not flexible enough. Some isn't transparent enough. Some isn't strong enough, my fingernails tear it.

It turned out I already have some ideal plastic. Under my desk I have a box of plastic liners for my wastepaper baskets. I also use them in my paper shredder. Yesterday morning I removed the worn out plastic cover from the keyboard in front of me and replaced it with a piece of wastepaper basket liner. So far, it's perfect.

I Want to Try Making Breakfast Sausages, However…

Homemade might be better. Making them myself would eliminate chemicals. However, the cost is prohibitive.

Breakfast sausage links are thinner. The customary casing is lamb. It's around 19mm, as compared to the collagen casings I've been using, which are 32mm. You don't want to check the price of lamb casings on Amazon. A 1-ounce package sells for $16.99. That's per ounce! An 8-ounce package of natural hog casings is $8.36. That's a little more than one dollar per ounce. Which would you buy?

I'll make breakfast sausage links, but I'll use the collagen casings I have. I want to use them up anyway before I start working with hog casings again. And I'll tie them into shorter links, maybe 3 inches each rather than 6. That will work for a breakfast sausage.

Sunday 2022.10.16

Did You Miss Me?

Wednesday was a strange day, and the following days were no better. Among a few other problems, the FTP server for my web site's hosting service was not working. I tried several times during the day and into the evening to upload Wednesday's blog post, but the server was always down. I went to bed that night hoping it would be working the following day. It wasn't.

I contacted technical support and they told me my web site was migrated to a new server. I was given a new login ID, new password, and the address of the new server. That didn't do any good.

Despite experimenting with different settings, nothing I did made any difference. I couldn't connect. Just to make certain it wasn't something wrong on my end, I tried using two different versions of the software on two different computers. And, to make matters even worse, I wasn't able to open any of my web site's pages using my internet browser.

I am about to try a different FTP app — the free version of FileZilla. If that works, you'll see this blog and I'll publish my sausage video today.

It Gets Worse

On Friday I tried accessing my web site from both desktop computers, my laptop, and the browser on my smartphone. My site wasn't available. But I have normal access to all the web sites I usually use such as Google News and Bing Search. So I drove to Starbucks and bought a cup of coffee (for nearly $3!) and used their WiFi. I had no problems at all accessing my web site there. I also contacted some friends. They could access it.

So, is the problem inside my WiFi modem? Could someone have gotten inside and changed something to block access? I received a nasty comment on YouTube: "I am going to kill you. I now know where you live." Is it ransom ware? I didn't get any request for ransom in my email. Or is it somehow blocked at Cox Cable? I called. They said everything looks fine. To eliminate WiFi as a suspect, I disabled it and connected my computer to the modem with an ethernet cable. That didn't work either.

I spent a good part of Friday morning on line with Cox technical assistants and they couldn't solve anything. Frustrated, I disconnected the modem — an Arris SurfBoard — and returned it to Best Buy. I had bought it six weeks ago. They gave me a store credit and I bought a new one — supposedly a better one. I'm paranoid enough not to reveal the make and model, lest there really is someone out there who is trying to sabotage my stuff for a ransom. With the sale discount, it cost me $450.

All this was especially important because today I planned to feature my latest recipe, Beef Sausages. The video was uploaded to YouTube as "unlisted". It's ready to publish. I really need to get my web site updated to feature the new recipe and video.

Below is Wednesday's blog post. I've been posting to this blog since my first entry on August 14, 2010. I was a little late a couple of times, but during all these years I never failed to post my blog twice each week — Wednesday and Sunday. And, if you're curious, they're all still there in the Blog Archives. Every one. I keep them because sometimes I need to refer back to something I wrote several months ago, or maybe even several years ago.

How many blog posts have I written since my first one? That's easy. On the internet, ask the question: "How many Sundays in 2011?" Then, "How many Wednesday … ?" The total for 2011 is 104. Do that for every year from my first blog to my last one on Sunday, October 9th. The total is 1,299 blog posts. I've written that many? Evidently so.

Doctor's Appointment

On Wednesday afternoon I met with the doctor again. This time I let him do the cystoscopy. I told him about the last one and how much it hurt. He promised me I wouldn't have the same experience. It really was different. I barely felt a thing as he put the camera all the way up into my bladder.

Nothing significant was seen. The surgery went normally. There is no scar tissue. The inside of the bladder looks okay. He gave me a bit of a scare though. He said my bladder was full. I wondered why. Moments earlier I did a catheterization there in the office to give them a sample. My bladder should have been empty. I feared he would want to insert a permanent catheter in me again. But he told me he filled my bladder with water during the procedure. I was asked to do a cath again there in the examination room to make sure I was doing it properly. I was.

We both agreed I will probably be using catheters for the remainder of my life. He assured me some of his patients are worse off than I am. Some of them get up several times during the night to use the bathroom. If I wake up at all, it's only once.

I've discussed my condition in past blog posts. Very likely, my bladder was over filled for too long, stretching the muscles and damaging the nerves. It might never recover. Or, I could get lucky and slowly recover over the next year or two.

Cathing after the cystoscopy was unpleasant. Although I felt almost no discomfort during the procedure, some minor injury was caused because inserting and removing a catheter was painful. From what I've been able to learn from medical web sites on line, the pain was expected to last a day or two. Analgesics, such as Tylenol, are supposed to help reduce pain when cathing. They don't. But here it is Sunday and I'm already feeling better.

So, okay, I have to cath regularly, but at least it's something I can take care of myself and it limits my mobility very little. And (and this is a little selfish) it gives me a convenient excuse. If a relative is sick and dying on the East Coast, I can claim I can't travel because of my need to use catheters. I would need to ship a case of them there in advance. I hate to fly.

And speaking of mobility, I rode my Pedego bicycle to the doctor's office. It wasn't a long ride — maybe six miles round trip. On the way home it started to rain. I wasn't drenched, but my clothing was spotty like a leopard.

A New Toy

Back to Best Buy… I brought my laptop computer with me when I returned the modem, just in case there was some way of testing it there. There wasn't. I showed them how shabby my computer was and I said I wanted to look at new ones while in the store. In particular, I wanted something with an HDMI-out port so that I could plug it into my home theater system. The goal is to watch 4K movies from my laptop because my Blu-ray player isn't 4K compatible.

The salesperson (who happens to be born in the same month and year as I am — were less than two weeks apart — twins separated at birth?) showed me an Asus Zenbook that was irresistable. It has a 15.6-inch OLED screen. The keyboard has a number pad, which I like. Although it was expensive, there was a $150-off special at the time. I was really only browsing; however, although I rarely am guilty of impulse purchases, I went for it.

Friday evening I tested it. I connected it to my receiver with a good HDMI cable and put a 4K video on a flash drive — Episode 1 of The Grand Tour. The beauty of it is that I don't even need to copy the video file to my computer. The computer is powerful enough to play it from the flash drive without any flickering or pausing. It works perfectly. And that particular video is brilliant anyway. It's like looking out a picture window on a sunny day. It looks magnificent on my 65-inch 4K TV. Now I want to get more 4K movies.

Wednesday 2022.10.12

Ramen

I don't go out as often as I used to. Partly it is because of the Covid pandemic and partly it is the need to use a catheter several times each day. When two friends invited me to lunch on Sunday, I was reluctant, but I agreed to go. I need to get out more. They wanted me to experience Ramen at a Japanese restaurant.

I never tasted real ramen before. I occasionally buy a box of those cheap ramen soup packets sold in the grocery stores. They're convenient for a quick bowl of noodles when I don't feel like preparing a real meal. They're usually inexpensive too, but with inflation these days everything is going up.

At the restaurant I enjoyed a bowl of pork ramen. Besides the pork and noodles, there were some vegetables — I recognized the Napa cabbage and seaweed — and a delicious velvety broth. I was especially pleased with the broth. It intrigued me. What would give it that velvety texture?

Now that I am in my later years, I tend to eat smaller meals. When I was young I could eat an entire 12-inch pizza. But now two slices are usually enough. So, I couldn't eat my entire bowl of ramen. The serving was large. The waiter gave me a cardboard container (polystyrene is banished in California now) to take the remainder home. It went into the refrigerator.

That evening, when I felt like something quick and easy before going to bed, I opened the ramen container and saw the broth had gelled. That was the answer. What would gel like that when refrigerated? Bone broth. Rather than a meat stock, like chicken stock or beef stock, which is usually made from the meat, the soup broth was made with bone broth, which contains some collagen from the bones and cartilage of the animal.

If you can't find real bone broth in the store, you can make your own by dissolving some gelatin powder or sheets in water and then adding it to meat stock.

I make my own chicken stock every fall. I prefer to buy bone-in chicken — either whole birds or full chicken legs — and filet them to get the meat off the bone. The trim goes into a ziplock bag, which is then stored in the freezer. When I get several of those bags I put two or three in a stock pot with water, a mirapoix of onion, carrots and celery and a few herbs. Lately I've been using my pressure cooker, letting the mixture cook for about 20 minutes. When cool, I strain it and portion it into 1-cup containers for freezing.

The days are getting shorter and cooler now, so probably during the next week or two I'll make up a few batches of chicken stock. The last time I did an inventory of foods in my freezer there were only three cups of stock left.

I put my recipe for Chicken Stock on this web site. It's in the Basics section of the Recipe Archive.

Which reminds me: I need to do a video about how I make Marinara from canned tomato paste.

Downsizing

Why is downsizing so difficult? This week I'm working on the bathroom cupboards.

The truth is: I have way too much stuff. I'm not a hoarder. My home is neat and organized, but I hold onto things I really don't need anymore. For example, I still had a colorful beach towel a family friend gave me back in 1975 when I was leaving Connecticut to attend the University of California, Santa Barbara. I used it many, many times when I went to the beach back then.

UCSB borders the Pacific Ocean. I could walk to the beach. I've had that towel for nearly 50 years. It doesn't look new anymore; so why am I saving it? It doesn't even look good enough to donate to a charity thrift store. I threw it into the trash on Monday.

Many years ago I bought two bundles of hand towels at Costco. One is white cotton terrycloth. I later learned that terrycloth isn't recommended for the kitchen. A flat weave is better. The other bundle is yellow microfiber. I burned a sliver of one towel to test for fiber content. It's polyester — microfiber usually is. So those will go into my kitchen for use when drying my hands. When they look dirty, I won't bother laundering them. They'll go in the trash.

Compound the storage problem somewhat by having to stock a 90-day supply of disposable catheters — four cartons.

As Planned

In Sunday's blog I mentioned making sausages again. As always, some meat filling remains in the sausage stuffer and tube after the plunger is all the way down. I usually try to force that filling into a casing for one more sausage. This time, I wrapped it and put it in the refrigerator. I had plans to make patties for panini. There was 5½ ounces, about 150g of seasoned meat, enough for two patties.

Yesterday I toasted one of the square rolls I like to buy at Costco. They're similar to ciabatta. Then I shaped and fried a sausage patty, placed it on the roll, topped it with a slice of provolone cheese and grilled it to melt the cheese. It was one of the tastiest panini I ever enjoyed. It will be a YouTube video in coming weeks. Listen to the crunch when I bite into the sandwich.

Now I have a good use for that sausage meat that is left over after making sausages.

Sunday 2022.10.9

Umami?

Umami is a savory kind of flavor. It has me wondering if I could grind few anchovies into my sausage mix, or add some fish sauce. Maybe not an entire batch of sausages. I learned that by experimenting with some bourbon in sausages. They were too bitter, but edible. So maybe separate out a small portion of the stuffing and add a little anchovy paste or fish sauce, mix well, shape into a patty and cook it for tasting. Besides anchovies, shiitake mushrooms might be good.

Last week I ate the last of my homemade sausages to clear the way for making more. Which leads to…

Making Sausages

This week I moved a 2½ pound bundle of beef meat and fat from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw. Meanwhile, I've been watching beef sausage videos on YouTube to get ideas.

I saw one video of sausages made in a factory. They processed their own casings, starting with raw intestines. That part is gross, but the remainder of the video is fascinating.

 

One thing I appreciated is how clean everything is. I was also impressed with the power of some machines. They were able to grind blocks of fully frozen meats. I would never attempt that with my KitchenAid and meat grinder attachment.

If you watch enough sausage videos on YouTube, you can't help but see some commercial settings, like a kitchen in a butcher shop. They have equipment I would never own. It wouldn't fit in my little mobile home kitchen. But those videos are fun to watch, especially if they give me some ideas about flavoring sausages.

I assembled a sausage recipe and yesterday I made links again. I used collagen casings again because I have them and I want to use them up. On Friday I ordered natural hog casings. They're available on Amazon.

The sausages are delicious. Look for them in a YouTube video soon.

It's a Little Thing, But it Matters

Thursday I ate the last of the oatmeal I bought at a grocery store. It was time to open that big ten-pound (4.5kg) box of Quaker Oats I bought at Costco. As I've said already, I grind it up in my Vitamix to make something like baby cereal. No need to go into that story again. I blogged about it last month.

How much ground old fashioned oats would fit in the container I selected for storing it? I weighed as I worked and 1 pound 3 ounces (~540g) is enough. That's important because the next time I grind up some oats for cereal, I'll weigh out that amount to fill the jar. The first attempt made too much, requiring a second jar. That's okay. I have them.

How many servings in that jar? Each scoop is 0.8 ounces (23g). Do a little arithmetic and it comes to 23 servings per container. That's good.

And worth mentioning: The bags in that box of Quaker Oats do not have a zipper top. How do I keep the bugs out? Thankfully I have an impulse heat sealer. I sealed the bag as good as new.

Wednesday 2022.10.5

The Thing About KFC

Earlier this week I watched yet another video about the coating mix used for making Kentucky Fried Chicken. The creator of the video made a credible and convincing argument for his formula being the exact original. He listed the herbs and spices, but not the amount of each, lest he be sued. A story:

When I first tasted Seafood Fettuccine at a restaurant I asked if the chef would give me the recipe. He came to the table and told me he makes enough to feed 40. I asked him for only the ingredients, knowing I could figure out the proportions. That's how I came up with my own recipe.

In one of my books — Todd Wilbur's A Treasury of Top Secret Recipes — Wilbur wrote this:

In 1983, in his book Big Secrets, author William Poundstone hired a laboratory to analyze a dry sampling of the spice mixture. The surprising discovery was that instead of identifying "eleven herbs and spices," the analysis showed only four ingredients: flour, salt, pepper, and monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer.

The fast food restaurant chain has been sold and resold and spun off several times (1964, '71, '82, '86, '97 according to Wikipedia) since the Colonel opened his first restaurant in 1952. Down through the years, several cost-cutting measures were implemented and the original formula for the coating was changed. The chicken sold in KFC restaurants today does not have the same coating it had 70 years ago.

Even the name changed. When fried foods became unpopular as unhealthy to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC.

Although the original recipe has been a guarded secret for decades, the formula was nonetheless leaked by some who helped prepare it for their restaurants. And thus that video I saw over the weekend was able to list the original ingredients. Packages of prepared coating mix are available on the internet, should anyone want to return to the original.

But, referring back to William Poundstone's book, what is the flavor of KFC chicken today? Is it really only flour, salt, pepper and MSG as the laboratory discovered? So, why bother trying to reverse-engineer the recipe? I say, find a spice blend you enjoy and use it. That's how I came up with the coating mix for my Finger Lickin' Chicken. It doesn't match the original recipe, but I like the flavor, and that's the important goal about cooking — make it taste good.

Maybe one other point worth mentioning: The KFC restaurants cook their chicken in pressure fryers. You can't do that with a standard home pressure cooker. Don't ever try — it's dangerous. Pressure fryers use oil, not moisture, and the cooked chicken is juicy and tender. So even if you could exactly reproduce the original recipe of Colonel Sanders, the chicken wouldn't be the same. Pressure fryers typically cost more than $900.

Got Oatmeal?

Last month I mentioned having discovered the baby cereal I loved so much was oatmeal, ground fine to be suitable for infants. I don't remember actually eating it, but I do remember the flavor. For years I did not know what that cereal was. A few years ago I figured it out when I tried substituting ground oats for bread crumbs, which works well and it's better for people who are gluten intolerant. I cooked some of the left over ground oatmeal in milk and added sugar. Voila! There was the flavor I remembered from my infancy.

On Monday I did a shopping run, stopping at two stores to buy the items on my list. One item was a box of Quaker Oats at Costco. The box is 10 pounds and sells for $12.99. That's $1.29 per pound or about 8¢ per ounce. And maybe worth mentioning: I wore in mask in the stores. Most people were not masked, but a few were.

The plan is to grind the oats in the grain jar of my Vitamix, reducing it to almost a powder, like flour, and then storing it in an air-tight jar. I have a little plastic scoop, 48cc or about 3¼ tablespoons. The scoop holds about 23g (0.8 ounces) of ground oatmeal. Do some math with me. That's about 6¢ per serving. Really? That inexpensive? If you're feeding an infant baby oatmeal, you might want to consider making your own. An 8-ounce cannister of baby oatmeal on Amazon sells for nearly $8.00. If using the Quaker Oats sold at Costco, the same amount would cost about 65¢.

I should also point out that ground oatmeal takes up a lot less space than rolled oats.

Put a scoop in a paper bowl (I bought some of those too), add a rounded teaspoon of sugar and ½ cup (120ml) milk. Stir and cook one minute in the microwave oven. Stir and cook another minute. Finally, stir in about ¼ cup (60ml) of milk to cool it down a little and improve the texture. Of course, a few drops of vanilla extract would not be inappropriate. A dash of cinnamon works well too.

I enjoy oatmeal at bedtime. It helps me fall asleep.

Ten pounds is a lot of oatmeal. What is the shelf life? According to two sources on the internet, it's 30 years. I'm 71 years old now.

Spared

Yesterday morning a notice was taped to my front door, saying the planned power outage was cancelled until later. "We'll contact you with more information if this outage is rescheduled at a later date." One less thing to think about.

Sauce From Paste

Yesterday I did my experiment using tomato paste to make Marinara, or something similar to it. Here is what I used:

1 12-ounce (340g) can Cento tomato paste
1½ cans water (using the same can)
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon granulated onion
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon dry basil
½ teaspoon dry parsley
½ teaspoon dry oregano
½ teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan, mix well, heat over medium flame until it begins to boil, stirring often to prevent scorching in the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat, cover and set aside to cool, allowing the herbs to release their favor into the sauce.

It works. I cooked some spaghetti, mixed in a little of the sauce, and garnished it with some Romano cheese. Of course, it lacks the texture of a sauce made with whole tomatoes, but for a smooth marinara it turns out well. For pizza sauce I'd double the amount of oregano.

Maybe worth mentioning: The paste isn't made from certified San Marzano tomatoes. When I use those, the sauce is even better. However, for a quick and easy tomato sauce, I think the paste is good enough. And some people use tomato purée rather than whole tomatoes to make their pasta sauce. The paste amounts to the same thing. It just needs extra water.

Although I haven't tasted it yet, I expect the sauce to taste even better today.

See Sunday's 10/2 blog below for more information about the tomato paste.

Flu Season

Influenza season is starting. I get a flu shot every year. I usually wait until November because the vaccination might wear off before the end of the season if given too early. For people my age, they recommend a heavy duty shot. The needle is the size of a drinking straw and the syringe … okay, I'm only joking.

Sunday 2022.10.2

October is Here

October holds a little significance for me.

On October 10th, 2020 I cut down a former neighbor's tree. I hated that tree, partly because I so disliked that neighbor and her barking dogs, but also because she planted that tree to take away some of my gardening space. She moved away and the new neighbor asked me to cut it down. I was delighted to do so.

On October 25th, 2017 I bought my Pedego pedal assist electric bicycle. As I mentioned in last month's blog, the temperature outside was 103°F (39°C) that day.

There is one better reason to enjoy October. It is a month in which I watch Halloween-related movies. Not all have a Halloween theme. A Comedy of Terrors with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff is one example. The Addams Family movies are another. But they are macabre in a comedic sort of way and I enjoy them. Movies like Frankenstein and Dracula are spooky, but I prefer comedy. On October 31st I always watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A new acquisition, at the recommendation of a friend, is Monster House. I'll watch it soon.

The Weather is Changing

The nights are getting cooler and the days are getting shorter. I did a new inventory of my freezer. I've been working on using up the foods in there. It has been weeks since I added anything new. It will be soup weather soon. I can feel it in the air.

Such a Deal

On Thursday I ordered another case of Cento brand tomato paste from Amazon. 24 12-ounce cans for $57.11. I used a $10 gift certificate from Bing (I get points for searches) to bring the cost down to $47.11. Free shipping. That's $1.96 per can. The local grocery store sells 6-ounce cans for $1.99. So, for about the same price I'm getting double the tomato paste. I make a lot of Marinara and Pizza Sauce, especially in winter.

Of course, this is why brick and mortar stores are slowly disappearing from the land. They can't compete with web site stores like Amazon. I sort of feel a little bad about that, but I also need to consider myself. I'm 71 years old. I consider my immune system to be slightly compromised by my weight and my need to use catheters. So if I can do less shopping among people who might have the flu or Covid, why not?

I'm nearing my next level of 10,000 points on Bing. At that level I can cash in my points for another $10 gift certificate for Amazon. I'll buy a case of Cento San Marzano tomatoes. I currently have some in the freezer, which is another story.

The last time I ordered canned whole tomatoes they were not sold packed in a case. The cans were loosely shipped in a box. Every can was dented, some worse than others. I couldn't take the risk of bacteria getting into the cans and making me sick; so I opened each can and vacuum sealed the tomatoes and purée in pouches and froze them. And this leads to an experiment…

Marinara From Tomato Paste

What is tomato paste? According to Wikipedia, tomato paste is made by cooking tomatoes to remove water, filtering to remove seeds and skin, and then cooking a little longer to remove more water. Then it is canned.

What is pasta sauce? Tomatoes cooked with added ingredients to enhance flavor, such as onion, garlic, parsley, basil and seasoning such as salt and oregano, and maybe red pepper flakes if you're into that sort of thing. I'm not. Crushed whole tomatoes add texture, which I like, but are they necessary? Maybe not.

So, technically, couldn't I simply put some tomato paste in a pot, add some water and other ingredients like those mentioned above, and cook it long enough to bloom the flavors to make Marinara pasta sauce? With 24 cans of tomato paste (they arrived yesterday), this will be an easy experiment to try.

Also, add a little less water and more oregano and you have pizza sauce. Speaking of which, I remember reading somewhere that some pizzerias don't use sauce at all. They simply spread tomato paste on the dough before adding cheese and other toppings, then bake.

Preparing for Winter

You might have noticed in some of my later videos a printed list fastened to the door of my refrigerator with magnets. That's an inventory of the foods inside the freezer (as well as some foods out in the shed). I have plenty of chicken trim; so I'll be making chicken stock again this winter. I have only three cups of stock left.

In January I gave myself a New Year's Resolution to use up the foods in the freezer before I added more. I did okay for a while, but then I succumbed to the temptation of sales, such as pork shoulder I can use for making sausages. I still have plenty of that meat; so I'll be making more sausages too.

And Another Scheduled Power Outage

I can't complain. My twin brother and his wife were in the direct path of Hurricane Ian. Their home sustained only minor damage — a little water coming up through a closet floor and some screens lost from the "cage" that surrounds their pool. They lost power, but they have a natural gas powered generator attached to their home; so they had plenty of electricity from that.

In my case, the electrical company will be upgrading a utility pole. This time the electricity will be off from 7:00PM on Tuesday until 8:00AM the following day. I'll be prepared. The only nuisance, and it's minor, is resetting the clocks afterward.

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