Sunday, October 27, 2013

Happy Sunday

Sitting in church this morning, I happened to think of a few things that stressed me out. (Yes, ironic. Isn't church supposed to be calming, comforting?) After getting home, I decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing and rejuvenating, and getting prepared to deal with the stressful things this coming week.

Why, yes—that does mean I decided to just ignore those things for the rest of the day.

So, this…


And this…

Page from a Nook book

And maybe this…


Then, later on, this…


Happy Sunday, everybody.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Mmmm…

I read the Foodie With Family blog faithfully (really, love her!), and last week she posted this about Bo Ssäm (Korean Pork Roast Lettuce Wraps). It looked so luscious, and I'm all about the putting the meat on at a low temperature and letting it cook all day thing*, so I was hooked. I've also been thinking lately that I need to branch out from my usual pork meals:
  • Grilled pork chops
  • Smothered pork chops
  • Pork loin roast
They're good, mind you. In fact, the pork loin roast is practically heaven on earth when it's cooked slowly, and the source of some pretty good pulled pork the next day. It's just that they've become The Usual, and not all that interesting. I wanted something new.

I also had, once upon a time, a most delectable piece of pork at Smith & Wollensky (I think it was the one in Las Vegas). It was their Crackling Pork Shank, and it looked like a whole roast, served on a plate in front of just me. It was tender, flavorful and succulent.

I wanted to make something like that. So I looked for a pork shoulder at the grocery store.

By the greatest coincidence, Kroger had them on sale this past week for $1.49 a pound. That's not outrageously cheap, judging from the price Foodie with Family Rebecca pays, but it's pretty good. I cooked a 7+ lb roast for less than $11, and that's going to end up being four meals for the two of us. I sprinkled it with sage, thyme, garlic powder, onion granules, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper, and rubbed it all in. I had planned on cooking it right then, but I realized that time had kind of gotten away from me, so I had to postpone it a day. Which meant, of course, that it sat in the fridge overnight, tightly covered, absorbing the herb flavors and getting better and better. I cooked it the next day, at 300°F, covered for about five hours, then uncovered for about another hour or so, until the internal temperature reached 190°. Then I let it rest while the kugel baked.**

I would have taken pictures of it, but after smelling it cooking for several hours I didn't have that kind of time.

It was so good, I can't even explain. This was without the Bo Saäm crispy sweet-and-salty crust, just the crisped-up layer of fat and the flavorful juices. It was pull-apart tender, and so very, very good that we stuffed ourselves, then sliced off a few pieces for sandwiches. I'll be pulling the rest of it apart in a few minutes to make pulled-pork sandwiches tonight. I make the post-pork-loin variety of pulled pork by simmering it in barbeque sauce, but with this I think I'll just reduce the pan drippings and see what happens. Something good, I'll wager.

Incidentally, Foodie with Family also has several informative entries (see, I really do read it faithfully) about grinding up pork shoulder, and using the resulting ground pork to make Italian sausage (nice enough to have around) and chorizo (one of the staples of life). Yes, you can buy ground pork, but this is $1.49 a pound. Plus I know for sure and certain exactly what's gone into it.

I went back to Kroger and bought three more of the shoulders. I'll let you know how it goes.



*Ever since I saw Adelle Davis on the Tonight Show, or some such thing, when I was a teenager, all the way to this very day. That's another story, and it's a little bit interesting. Remind me to tell you sometime.

**FYI, the rest of the menu was my own variation on Kugel von Túrós csusza, Alton Brown's 10 Minute Apple Sauce, and sauerkraut (not homemade, but I have plans in that direction). It was good!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Hockey post: Did you SEE this?!?

(Former Stars) Goalie Mike Smith made his first career goal last night. It's a beauty, and the fact that it's against Detroit only makes it better!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Women (or woman) and drinking

According to a report just on ABC News, four or more drinks in less than two hours is binge drinking. According to me, it's flirting with unconsciousness.

Now, I'm no lightweight when it comes to drinking (and in several other senses, as well), but I feel like I'm knocking it back pretty hard if I have three drinks in under two hours. And, BTW, I also have a pretty good buzz at that point. Four or more?!?

At Stars games, there's a guy who used to sit in the row ahead of us, who brought dates to the games. His dates were all little bitty women, and they all had a couple of large beers during the game. Considering that beer sales stop during the third period, that means they probably drank what ABC News would call four drinks (two big glasses) in a little less than two hours.

The reason I mention it is that if I drank that much, that fast, I wouldn't be able to walk to the car afterwards. Even if I were still awake!

Maybe I'm more moderate than I realize…?

Monday, October 14, 2013

No, no, no!

Four squirrels. Not one. Four. (Or possibly rats. I'm just going by the long skeleton tails.) Apparently I was running a squirrel-killing machine out there and didn't realize it.

Sorry! So sorry. And if there's a squirrel hell, I'm in big trouble.

I went looking because Andy came back in the house last night crunching on something unspeakable. When I told him to drop it (thank God he obeyed) and I looked at it, I could see what appeared to be loosely-connected little forearm bones. Ick. It was lying on the living room carpet, and I told the dogs something to the effect of there not being enough noes in the world to make them understand what I meant.

So now, a revolting half hour later, all (I hope) the squirrel remains are in their plastic bag coffins (or, I guess, Kroger body bags), awaiting transport to their final resting place, i.e., trash day. Again, I'm very sorry, feel terrible about it, and have learned my lesson about leaving open containers out in the rain. Won't happen again.

In the meantime, I concentrating on the circle of life. And I may stop buying birdseed, too. Ick.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Follow up to the Smells post

One of my dogs brought it to my attention that there had been a dead squirrel in the bird feed can. I feel terrible! The squirrels could get out of the can quite agilely before it filled with water; I watched to make sure of that (because both dogs truly hate squirrels and would eagerly do harm to one that was captive in a can). But I guess once the can had water in it, the poor thing either drowned right away (I'm hoping) or scrabbled around, unable to jump out, until it drowned. Poor thing.

I hope it's tiny little spirit is avenged by my repeatedly smelling the awful odor, then finally noticing its sad remains and having to dispose of them. Revolting. Completely revolting. Puke-inspiring. I'm going to smell that in my dreams for a while.

Poor thing! (The squirrel, not me.)

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Smells

We have a small garbage can, like the galvanized kind you put out at the curb but half sized, that we store bird feed in. A while back I opened it and noticed that the contents had gotten kind of damp, so I stuck it out underneath the oak tree by the pool so it could dry out (or so the birds would eat the top layer, maybe). Time passes. The can becomes invisible, no longer registering when I look that way. We have rain, several times.

Flash forward to Friday (yesterday). A skunk wanders into the yard while the dogs are out there. They run to investigate. I'm guessing the skunk had sprayed a few times by then, because they got only a small dose, but they walk away with a definite aura.

I hustle the dogs inside, then go out looking to see if the skunk is still around. Wandering through the skunk miasma, I came across the birdseed can. I thought, "Why, I forgot this was here," and very foolishly tipped it over where it stood to empty it.

I've never experienced anything like that. Honestly, I think that's the worst thing I've ever smelled, in all my 57 years. The good news is that the skunk smell was pure perfume by comparison. The bad news is that there was suddenly both skunk AND rotten birdseed wafting about.

The dogs had brought the skunk smell in with them, so we opened the bathroom skylight and several windows, and turned on all the ceiling fans, to air out the place. Unfortunately, we couldn't open any windows on the side of the house facing the birdseed tragedy, for fear we'd end up…well, just having to move.

Oh! I guess I forgot to mention—we had overnight company Friday night.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

More fun than detergent ought to be

I mixed up a new batch of laundry detergent today, since we were almost completely out and our post-Oktoberfest laundry is mountainous, as in there is a mountain of it.

BTW, I'll confess here that in the last (pre-Oktoberfest) month, I've discovered that going commando is actually surprisingly comfortable. Seriously, I might do it more often.

But I digress. Detergent. Right.

The recipe I have for dry laundry detergent (thank you to my good friend Barry!) calls for…well, here it is:

Small Batch Dry Laundry Detergent

• 1 lb Borax (19 oz)
• 1 lb baking soda
• 1/4 box (14 oz) washing soda
• 3/4 bar of Fels-Naptha or 1/4 bar Zote soap, grated or chopped fine
• 14 oz of OxyClean

Mix all together. Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load.

I happened to have both Zote and Fels-Naptha soaps, since the first time I made this I wasn't sure which one I wanted to use. So I grated up the Zote, which is pink, and the Fels-Naptha, which is gold, and put it all in the food processor with the OxyClean, which contains little blue granules. The result has a kind of Funfetti look to it.


Making laundry time more fun than it should be!

While I've got you, here's a liquid version that works nicely, too:

      1/4 of a bar of soap (Ivory, Dr. Bronner's, Fels-Naptha, Kirk's Castile, Zote
              or another other non-beauty, lotion-free brand)
      1/4 cup of washing soda
      1/8 cup of Borax
      1 cup, plus 1 gallon of warm water
      3–10 drops of essential oil, if desired

      Use all metal utensils for this!

      Grate soap into 1 cup of warm water. Heat until the soap is dissolved; set aside. Put the gallon of warm water in a bucket with a lid. Stir in borax and washing soda. When they're dissolved, add the melted soap. Mix (plunge the pan the soap was in up and down a few times). Add the essential oil, if you're using it. Cover and allow to sit overnight.

      The next day, the mixture should be thickened and gelatinous. Use a metal spoon to stir and break up and any big lumps.

      Use 1 cup (or up to maximum level in your dispenser) per load.

Thanks to the fabulous Foodie With Family blog for that one. You can read her eloquent explanation of why one would want to make their own laundry soap. My explanation is less eloquent: Rich and I both prefer unscented laundry products. (Well, actually, he does, and after a hundred years of marriage, I've come over to the dark side, too.) But I had more and more trouble finding a detergent that was unscented and also actually worked.

After using brand after unscented brand that only kind of got our clothes clean, I spent a little time (and more than a little money) buying detergent with scents I didn't mind. The last time, I was washing a load and realized that I noticed the perfume about ten feet from the laundry room door. Nuh-uh. That doesn't work for me. Back to the brands that have no scent but don't work very well.

And then I came across these recipes. I thought, "Well, if I'm going to use a detergent that only kind of works, I might as well pay 4¢ a load instead of 16¢.

The delightful news is that they work well. Really, quite well. I'm still experimenting with the different recipes, and I'm sure I'll eventually decide which one is my favorite. But for now, I'm making both liquid and dry versions, and testing them against each other. For what it's worth, I use a food processor for the dry version and clean up is remarkably easy!

Plus there's the festive, Funfetti look. I ask you, what commercial brand offers that?

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

I'm FREEEEE!

Well, almost. I'm still putting together numbers for the Oktoberfest budget spreadsheet (we did pretty well), approving invoices, and planning a volunteer thank-you event. Oh! And I spent most of yesterday cleaning up Oktoberfest remnants (actual physical things left lying around) from Town Square, because they're picky that way. (Okay, I'm loathe to mention that the time and effort it took to take note of the broom leaned up against the door outside our staff office and compose an email about it was much greater than what it would have taken to just unlock the door and stuck it inside. But I'm sure going to think it.)

I'm gradually getting back to the real work. Promise!