Bulk Cooking

Cooked for multiple meals. In the foreground: slow-baked beans, carnitas, and pan gravy. In the background: sides for this evening (polenta and steamed broccoli).

Categorized as Cook

Good Writing Wins

Sausage, ice cream, and a movie are key ingredients for Sausage Saturday. Dwight usually researches movies, then sends me links to reviews of three movies. Tonight’s winner: Living. The screenplay is by British author, Kazuo Ishiguro; the writing will be good.

No Batteries Required

It was time to adjust leveling screws to fix a wobble with the help of a spirit level my dad gave me when I was a kid.

Categorized as DIY

No Big Deal

Today, I realized I’d probably left my Amex card in a restaurant that’s closed today. A couple taps in the Amex app delivered an immediate digital replacement to Google Wallet. A physical card will arrive tomorrow morning. Pretty neat, I thought.

I Never Knew That…

We’d been doing this wrong for 35 years! While making coffee this morning, used a tip we recently learned: add one drop of water before grinding. This reduces static which causes coffee grounds to clump and stick to the grinder. The grinder only needs a quick wipe with a sponge.

Paperwork

Today was chilly, windy, and damp, a good day to go through a heap of papers, scanning what I want to retain, then shredding every last sheet.

Rehabilitating Spam

Lined up the ingredients for Spam musubi, a Hawaiian take on Japanese onigiri. I’ll pretend it’s healthy: the Spam has 25% less sodium, and the brown sugar is organic. The nonstick musubi mold is convenient, but a Spam can lined with plastic wrap also does the job.

Categorized as Cook

Chinese Eggplant

Cycled to an Asian supermarket. The produce section has a large selection of vegetables familiar and exotic to me. Chinese eggplant was an easy choice for dinner tonight.

Categorized as Cook

Pulling a Cable

Recently I managed to destroy a video cable, so today I replaced it. This was easier said than done, as I had to remove wall plates and thread it down a conduit inside the wall. The computer is 13 years old, but with some simple hardware upgrades Windows 10 performs well.

Categorized as IT

Everything in its Place

My walk today took me to three food stores: Kramarczuk’s for Ukrainian sausage for Sausage Saturday, Surdyk’s deli for bread, and Lunds & Byerly’s for supermarket stuff. In Palm Springs we prepared most of our meals, but cooking in our own kitchen is always the best.

Categorized as Cook