Blah

That's how I've felt lately. Just....blah. It all started about 3 weeks ago when I realized that I had run out of reagents I needed to finish the work I was busting my ass to finish.

And all the air rushed out of my balloon. And then I moped around for a bit. I tried to figure out what to do. I waited for my trip to Chicago to see my brother. I moped around Chicago for a bit. I had a terribly non-productive date (can dates BE non-productive???) while there. My whole life seemed to be turning into this big...MEH.

D was in desperate need of getting her groove back.

And I only just got my mojo back this week. Tuesday, in fact. I don't know what happened, but I managed to drag myself to the gym and after that was my meeting, and suddenly, I felt like I could at least approach the horse again.

So I made a decision to spend what I had to spend, get the damn internet back so I wasn't playing Howard Hughes anymore, and get my life and career back.

And so, that is how I came to be in the lab on a Thursday evening of a holiday. It was a beautiful day today. At least I took my time getting here today.

Next Tuesday, I have so much to catch you up on.

My, my, my said the spider to the fly

Cameras are interesting things. With one big lens, we get a window on a world too fine for our optic nerves on a daily basis.

If a camera can give us this, think how a fly must see the world with all those lenses.

I wonder sometimes if the detail we miss by being big is just the tip of the iceberg. What else are we missing. Is there an entire social order just outside our comprehension? For a fly, every day is likely filled with travel, interesting smells, exotic meals, and busy diners.

Do they fly the same route? Do they have homes? Is home where you find your next meal?

And then I wonder. Do flies have personalities?

They might, you know. What about this guy? He looks interesting. He looks greedy. Look how he rubs his hands together. He might be the fly banker.


And this one. He might have talent.


I'll call him the Maestro.

And what about these guys?

Hanging out at the bar after the late shift.

Flies are just about as interesting as stinkhorns. Just about, anyway.

My poor neglected blog

I see that all my regular blog friends have been dutifully updating their blogs. Several times a week. I feel bad, but honestly, life got in the way.

First, teaching exploded.

Then the computer exploded.

Then, I needed some fun.

The good news is, I've lost about 10 lbs on my diet. Yay!

The bad news is, I may have to leave my classroom for the next 4 weeks. Boo!

Once we get over this hump, I promise a few posts about the weather, the dog, my food exploits, my weight loss progress, and the wonderful things I'm doing with the new baking equipment in my kitchen.

Until then, hang tight.

STINKHORN!!!

This year, my garden was a nearly complete failure. 36 tomato plants produced a grand total of 4 tomatoes. None bigger than the size of a golf ball. But I have had a bumper crop of something else. Stinkhorns. If the name doesn't say it all, the flies will say it for you. And yeah, they do stink. But they are interesting if not ingenious and slightly, dare I say it, beautiful in their own right. So please, stroll with me down the garden path and let's appreciate one of natural selection's more interesting end products. I present: the stinkhorn.

The Amazing Flying Scout

The Freezer Rules

So I was making pizza dough for Liv's visit (surprise!), and while pulling out the pizza flour, I realized I didn't have a lot of room in the freezer. How could I get my string beans from the farmer's market in if something else didn't come out?

Let's face it. Some of this food has to go.

It's hard, but these are desperate times. I have had to implement the Freezer Rules.


They're pretty simple really.

1. If you pick it up and don't know what it is, you have to thaw it and eat it for dinner.
2. If you pick it up and notice that its been in there over a year, you have to thaw it and eat it for dinner.
3. If you have more than 4 pkgs of the same thing in the freezer, you have to thaw and eat one for dinner.
   

It's sort of like playing Russian Roulette with dinner. And while these may seem like crappy rules, they're actually bad ass on every level.

1. I should be eating food I already have before I go out and buy more food. Obvious.
2. I eat the food before it really does go bad. The other day, I made some bacon for a quiche and the bacon was so old, I really did have to throw it out. It tasted funny. Not as in going-to-give-me-food-poisoning, but just not good. You see, I date most things I make and put in the freezer. My brother, who always gives me tons of venison, also dates the meat. I may think the old meat is going to be awful and tasteless, but sometimes it turns out to be delicious.
3. It's a creative challenge to figure out how to use what I've thawed. The challenge is to use it without another trip to the grocery store.
4. I cut down on the September/October grocery bill and considering that car tags, flood insurance, house insurance, and property taxes are all due in September/October, that's not a bad thing.
5. You never know what you are going to get. You may think it is chili, but it turns out to be spaghetti sauce, or taco meat, or beef stew. You may think it's chicken noodle soup, but it turns out to be stock for seafood gumbo.
   
6. If you have to eat the food you already own, you are less likely to go out to eat.

So today, I had homemade chicken and rice soup for lunch. (Hell if I remember when I made that!) Since I've decided to clean out the fridge once a week, I'm making a carrot cake with the leftover carrots I had in the bin. I didn't have walnuts for the cake, so I'm using pecans that I did have. Sure hope it's good! I bought about 20 poblano peppers, so I'm saving some for the pizza tomorrow and the rest are going into a poblano pepper and polenta casserole. I'm making it up as a go along! I have too much flour in the freezer, so I'm making pizza dough and dog biscuits. I bought a TON of yellow squash so I'm going to make zucchini bread. OK, technically, I guess it's yellow squash bread, but if you don't tell, I won't tell. I've got so much squash that I'm sure I'm going to have extra loaves of the bread. I guess I'll have to pull something else out of the freezer.

Fish for dinner!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs and more Bugs

The Best Sight in America

A campground bath house!

Oklahoma is interesting

I'm assuming some sort of swallow nest and not the world's largest honey bee colony.





















Probably a rare plant.


Nifty red rock canyons.

Reminiscent of Long Canyon. Ok, not really.


It was beautiful.


Bonus: snow cones!

Damselfly or Dragonfly?

I think the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly is the ability to close the wings over the back when at rest. In any event, this little one from Red Rock Canyon, OK, had the ability.

My Traveling Companion

Meet Ivy. Sweet girl. She's 23.


Inquisitive mind.

Hard worker.I am reminded of how green I was on the camping front on my first road trip with Liv. It was painful to watch her struggle with her tent the first time in the dark.


She's got it now.

Another one bites the dust

Like a red rubber ball

I am not a morning person. I don't get to see many of these. Let's savor this moment.

This man is my hero

Granted this is an old picture. Before he became a husband. Or a papa.

But he saved my ass and kept me from looking like a complete idiot in front of important people.

And that, is what friendship is all about.

This is my friend. Always will be.

To you, J.

Around the Kitchen

I'm on an organizing kick. Blame the outrageous amount of work I should be doing. Blame Liv who is moving and got me thinking about having to move myself. Blame my own foodie tendencies. But whatever it is, I'm tortured by thoughts of what I actually need in my kitchen and how to make better use of it.

I have a lot of crap in my kitchen.

A lot.

This photo belies the amount of stuff I actually have. This was shortly after I moved in. I have accumulated since then. I'm a foodie. And I'm a collector. Even though I have a big kitchen, it's getting overrun. I have one hell of a utensils drawer. And even my best efforts at organization are getting overwhelmed. It's seriously time to purge.

Anyhoo. I recently dumped recycled a lot of old cookware to Liv and other friends. And I have begun thinking about moving. I can't take all this with me. I guess I could, but I shouldn't. So, I'm trying to compile a list of things that a foodie's kitchen actually needs. Consider this a working list.

Cookware: at least one cast iron pan. Whether you get a preseasoned one from a discount store or find one in a junk shop or antique place, this is a must. Properly seasoned, cast iron skillets are virtually non-stick and are great for everything from searing meats to frying eggs. I currently have three cast iron skillets. The largest is big enough and deep enough to fry a entire chicken. Not that I fry chicken, mind you. It's much too dangerous. Someone might propose. I also have an All Clad non-stick omelet pan. I can't tell you the last time I used it. Must have been sometime before I discovered Poach Pods.

In the pots and pans department, I have found that I use three pans regularly. One is a 2 quart saucepan made of heavy aluminum. It was given to me and has no lid. Oh how I wish it did. I use a lid from another pan--which doesn't quite fit this piece--when I'm in need. Like when cooking rice. The other is a lighter 2-qt copper bottom saucepan with a glass lid. This is the lighter one. This is also usually the lid I borrow.

I think you need two medium sized sauce pans to make a standard meal. Think rice and vegetables. Yes, I do have another 2-qt. anodized aluminum pan, but I don't use it as my "second". I have no idea why. That lighter pan just fits the bill most of the time. My last pan is a cheapo non-stick 4-qt. pan that gets chosen because it has a colander built into the lid. Roughly $16 at Wally World. I gave the rest of my pans away. Oh, I think there is a stock pot in the back somewhere for when I am boiling ball jars for canning jam. It's about 25 years old. And that's it or my standard cookware.

I have several baking sheets, an embarrassing amount of cake/cupcake/bundt/angel food/coffee cake ring pans tins, brownie pans, and Pyrex casseroles, but then again, I'm a baker. I have three pie pans (two glass which are perfect for crustless spinach quiche and a ceramic one for making actual pies, assorted Corning ware that is only used for pot luck dinners, and don't even get me started on the specialty cake-deviled egg-and insulated carriers. Fancy Christmas serving ware and dishes could fill a series of posts on their own.

I really consider only a few utensils indispensable. A set of wooden spoons and spatulas. Chop sticks. A large, restaurant quality spoonula. A zester, potato peeler, a meat thermometer, a candy thermometer, and a high quality set of kitchen knives and knife sharpener. I don't own a steel, but I will one day. In my opinion, if you can't afford anything else in your kitchen, you should have the best possible knives you can lay your hands on.

Specialty stuff I couldn't live without: a dutch oven. Got this one at an antique shop.

I have two. One is a heavy aluminum and the other is an enameled cast iron. Workhorses. Go from oven to stovetop. Great for stews, breads, whole chickens, roasts, soups, and even boiling spaghetti and making stove-top popcorn. Yes, two is probably overkill, but I can't be expected to give away some of my favorite pieces. The aluminum one can double as a mixing bowl in a pinch. I like making my cookie dough in this thing because when you cycle it in and out of the fridge while a batch is baking, it keeps the dough nice and cool as you work. You wouldn't want to put a hand mixer anywhere near an enameled pan unless you had a mind to destroy it.

A George Foreman grill. Quick easy hamburgers, chicken breasts, veggie burgers, steaks, pork chops and grilled vegetables. It's a bitch to clean up and I'd probably have bought the kind with removable plates if I was buying it for myself, but it was a gift. Still, I use it. I have the $13 version. Big enough for two good sized hamburgers at a time. It's a champ. In fact, I think that's the name of this size grill. Brilliant.


A crock pot. Been around forever and still wicked popular. There's a reason. I love these things. Makes the best Italian beef ever. Chili. BBQ spare ribs. Man, the possibilities are endless. I love these things. Folks, don't get the kind that has a crockery liner you can't remove. These things are under $30 for the top of the line version. You don't want to have to work around that cord and heating element to try to clean out the crock. Crack open your wallet, because this workhorse is a savior.

Bamboo steamer. I bought mine about 25 years ago. It came in a stacking set of two. I forced myself to use just one of the two (logic was I would save the other for when #1 wears out). I'm still waiting for #1 to wear out. Who would have thought that bamboo would last so long. Only drawback? When steaming broccoli, it retains the smell. This is no way affects the taste of the food.

Put this over a boiling pot of hot dogs and you can steam your bun while your dog cooks. See? There are some perks to not using your microwave for EVERYTHING.

A high quality blender. My idea of a high quality blender is not one with a million different speeds. Mine is an Oster beehive blender with two speeds. Low and high. A high quality blender is one that can chop ice easily. Like this one.



Then there is the thing I never thought I wanted that, once I got one, I can't believe I lived without for so long.

It really is a time saver and it is a breeze to clean. If you ever have a $200 windfall, I can't recommend this highly enough.

I saved the best for last. The pizza stone.

Queue the Hallelujah chorus. The day you receive one of these, the heavens will open up and all things good will come to you.

I'm not kidding.

Seriously, I'm not.

The other things I have in my kitchen.....well, they are nice, but I don't consider them essentials. Sure, I depend on them now and again, but for the average cook, they would be superfluous. Yes, I have a Kitchenaid mixer. Do I use it a lot? Yes. Could I live without it? Probably not anymore, but I use it to knead bread. I also have a hand mixer that I should probably pass along, but it is a retro thing and I sort of like it.

So that's it in a nutshell. The backbone of my kitchen. The stuff I'd recommend. And if I had it to do all over again, I'd not buy any of the cheap crap (I'd pick it up second hand at Goodwill), and save my money for the really top quality stuff, added a bit at a time. Now I've just got to convince myself that I can live without the rest of that stuff.

Fun Food on the Internet

Dim sum (h/t Steamy Kitchen).