September 15, 2016

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 15, 2015, carbon fiber spokes.
Five years ago today: September 15, 2011, there’s my baking dish!
Nine years ago today: September 15, 2007, once the dreamer is gone . . .
Random years ago today: September 15, 2012, a $150 dollar day. THIS ONE

MORNING
           Cooking for one or two describes 100% of my kitchen experience. Now that I have a real kitchen, I’ve decided I should have a new specialty. How do you go about that? Well, first you wait until you are really hungry and start reading old recipes books. Damn that works good.

           There are a few rules. No beef, it is not even allowed on the premises. No GMOs, particularly corn or soy as best as can be avoided. (Careful, as of today only New Jersey requires all GMOs to be labeled.) And as little HFCS as possible. And I would like it to be something that is a little bit “fussy”.

           I thought about one of those recipes you have to start a day in advance, you know, things that reflect stability and tradition, it’s a Texas thing. It also has to have a non-oily aroma and if possible be irresistible to women. I’ve long since noticed impressing women involves baking, not just frying them up a pork chop. I have a nominee, that’s the recipe, guys, not the woman. At my age, I’ll choose the recipe over most of the available women.
           And the contender is, from page 243, Orange Chicken Kiev. Not that I’m a fan of the way they grow chickens these days. I like chicken breast, yet to me it’s akin to a larger thigh, you know, nice but twice the price. So I examined this recipe and tonight, you are invited over. I don’t know if this will be the winner, but who cares? There’s no such thing as bad baked chicken.

           I put in another four hours on the floor, one joist. By this afternoon, I should have a deck I can stand on, making the rest of the chore faster. I must say, I’m enjoying this work. The very thought that it is equity is a spur. I had to buy an expensive saw blade to make two cuts. Didn’t bat an eyelash over it. As soon as I have a work deck, I may take a break from carpentry and launch into that electrical.

           Here is a picture that may not make sense to a non-carpenter. This shows the two sets of joists, the older 24” on-center, and the new 16” on-center. One of the joists is laying flat still. Also, the sister joists are just being installed, so they are not aligned yet. In the end, it took three full tries before finding a solution, and it was the most difficult work of the whole operation.
           That floor is now level, at least at this time, and there were no shortcuts. The entire job had to be done the hard way. For the technical minded, this new floor is 1/4" higher than the old one. Brilliant.

           Y’day I mentioned that mansion for sale in Cleveland Heights, and also that that is where I would have been except for the four year delay caused directly by Wallace & Theresa. I ran the numbers last evening. Yep, I could have done it. During those years I paid $31,000 in rent and another $24,000 in avoidable expenses. I spent $16,600 over budget in household expenses because Broward simply costs more, and another estimated $12,000 down the drain because I had to do such things as maintain a vehicle and get the hell out of town once in a while. That’s $93,000 right there that would have been plowed into a super nice place.
           Instead, I’m in the pit, fixing floorboards. Floorboards, but they are MY floorboards. And if anyone like Wallace or Patsie show up, I throw them off my property. Well, maybe not strictly. I’d accept an apology from Wallace. But he’s Canadian, so like, what are the odds of that? I’ll get you some more pictures of the mansion if they are available.

Picture of the day.
German castle.
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NOON
           Then shopping, where I see that there is a more limited selection at the nearest market. I need to find out where the locals go for deals. If you want half chicken breasts, you may be cutting them in half yourself. And chives? No such thing to be found at Publix in these parts.
Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the Chicken Kiev. Well, I misread parts of the recipe, and had to leave out one ingredient, but it’s ready for baking tonight. I made four pieces rather than the six called for by the book. I want to taste Chicken Kiev, not look like it.

           The watch word is “innovate”. I mean, what do they mean by “flatten” the chicken. Then it hit me like a pun, they mean hammer it flat. I can do that. Here’s my “Hammer of Thorski”. Takes the work right out of flattening chickens, large or small. Two pieces of wax paper and a real mallet. How flat did you say you wanted it?

           I was overzealous in estimating the value of the appliances that came with this place. There are comparable stove models for under $500 and I notice that my fridge is, well, too low. About 8” to low, I have to stoop over to use the bottom two shelves, and the freezer opens below eye level. Is it a special fridge for short people? I’ll look into buying or building a drawer that fits underneath to boost it up, lord knows I need the storage space. Say, maybe I’ll check the church thrift. Yeah. See you later.

AFTERNOON
           It got too hot to work, so I looked into the Judge’s House a little for you. Five bedrooms, if you include the loft, three bathrooms, and a separate 12x12 work shed. Two carports and a detached garage. Built in the 1880s, it seems to be listed for sale, say the locals, around Halloween every year, but rarely sells. This leads to haunted house stories, but more likely it is due to the annual taxes in November. I traced the history from 2002 when it last sold.

           Here is a picture of the actual entrance hallway. Looks to me like a couple of operators bought the place for $144,000 and tried to flip it for a half-million just as the 2006 recession hit. That, plus the same old story played out in most of America—the kids leave town and the economy shifts to the big cities.

           Now, mom & dad get stuck with a palatial estate in a town where there are no jobs that pay enough for anybody to buy such property. And the town has too few attractions for the noveau riche. For culture, there’s the ball park. Even I moved here mostly since I would rather not die in a trailer court.
           Anyway, it is listed for just over $100,000 and I’ll keep any eye on that. My interest in the matter is that I have twenty or thirty such houses in my new neighborhood. Boy, did I score great on that regard. I think the crime rate here could be negative.

NIGHT
           Awright, a library coffee and home to bake the chicken. It’s a great recipe and I’ve had this before. Just it didn’t click that it was Chicken Kiev. It’s delicious yet somewhat bland, I can’t quite pin down what’s missing. But it’s likely a spice. The aroma is also subtle, not the “oh boy” sensation of deep fried chicken. This is a start, I’ll examine other recipes. It could be a winner, if only because each portion is the correct size for a single. You like this blog because it will tell you the failures as well as the successes. Shown here is my first attempt.

           I didn’t have the required size baking dish. Also, shown are the different sizes despite my best attempt at standardization. One of the rolls is larger and I forgot to soak the toothpicks, so they scorched and I had to remove them before finished in the oven, so you can see there is a bit of unwrapping.

           I’m learning. One, if you can’t buy the specified chicken breast halves, flatten the entire chicken breast, then cut it into perfect halves. Otherwise, it was nearly impossible to make each “kiev” the same size and shape. Now if I could just figure out a way to freeze the butter into the correct shape. Cutting it into six pieces like the recipe specifies is a chore, there has to be an easier way. Frozen butter only stays frozen until you have to touch it.

           At the library, I got sidetracked on-line with newscasts, one of which has Trump making veiled but the strongest yet inferences that the election is going to be rigged. And no, he is not referring to stuffed ballot boxes, much as the media would like him to mean that. No, the entire charade of voting for a party instead of a candidate is already a corruption.
           And how about that Libtard that says since Trump didn’t contradict every point in the newest Clinton slander attack, that means Trump is admitting the un-contested accusations are true. How do newspeople like that even get in the front door? It must involve some Mickey Mouse ears and an awful lot of lubrication. Hey, Libtard, Trump also failed to deny he causes cancer. Run with that for a while.
           Wake up America, the establishment is scared shitless. Trump is the only viable candidate. The rest are not running for President, they are running against Trump. This has been so for nearly a year, in retrospect. The ad was full of intentional misrepresentations. Trump never said Mexicans were rapists, he said illegal immigrants were rapists. He never said you-know-what to women, he was talking about China. And you know darn well he never said he’d date his own daughter, only stupid people think like that. But when they think like that, they go the limit.
           The message is getting clearer all the time. If the Trump gets the majority of votes and they block his Presidency, there will be trouble. The only question is on what scale.


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