He's at it again!

20 Aug 20

06:45 hrs

     Chef Blaine is at it again!

     Feeling the need for some basic comfort food I asked him to make an old family favourite - Poor Man's Borscht. It's nothing special and it's not complicated but it is something that my L'il Sis and I grew up with. My Lobster, who wouldn't eat soup on a bet, pooh poohed the dish calling it dirt soup and as a result the only two people who ate were myself and the Sr. Couch Monkey. That's okay that just means there was more for me.

     Chef Blaine has also branched out on a new pursuit - the dry aging of meat. Meats can be smoked to preserve them for future use but another method, a more ancient method is to cure and dry age the material. By drying the meat, not as dry as jerky, moisture is removed and spoilage from bacteria is also removed. 

     He took two pork tenderloins, butterflied them and then weighed them. Next, sea salt or non-iodized kosher salt is measured out at 2.5% of the weight of the meat. To that, curing salt at .25% of the weight of the meat is also added. These salts were rubbed into the meat before they were sealed in a bag and allowed to rest for 6 days. For the next step the meat was rinsed off, dried off and seasoned with paprika, cumin, fennel and black pepper. The tenderloins were then rolled, tied, wrapped in cheese cloth and tied to hang in the shop bar fridge. How long does it hang? Again, the time is determined by weight. Before hanging the meat was weighed, 510 grams and 506 grams respectively. When they have reduced in weight by 35% it will be ready for consumption. Look in any delicatessen and you will find meats of all sizes and shapes and flavours hanging from the rafters ready for sale.

21 Aug 20

13:00 hrs

     We just finished Trouble Game #895 - at least it seems like it. The Oma-nator won. She doesn't always win and the style of Trouble that we play could be best described as cutthroat. It's everyone for themselves and no quarter given. Go get 'em!

22 Aug 20

05:00 hrs

     I have no idea why I am awake and up at this hour. Something popped I to my head while I was sleeping and I couldn't shake it. So now I'm enjoying some roof tar while watching the news. Of course, it's still dark outside. The sun won't be up for another hour. The seasons are changing here in the Valley. Leaves are starting to change colour already, especially on the big leaf maples as the heat of summer stresses them out. I remember when we lived in the 'Peg the seasons could and would change in a couple of weeks and skip one season altogether. From 30°C and mosquitoes to -10°C and swirling snow. I prefer being here.

Back from the Weeds

13:45 hrs

14 Aug 20

     This years expedition is now over and as much as I really enjoy going out into the Weeds hosting an expedition adds multiple layers of stress onto what should be an enjoyable outing. Overall, the expedition was a solid B in the success department. We had no injuries, there were no fights, no accidents, two possible sightings of the big and hairy kind, several rocks were throw in our general direction and a number of vocalizations were heard.

     While I was slogging through the trenches my Lobster had to take the Oma-nator for an appointment in River City and for a bubble tea as well. On the drive up the coast she noted the number of large new apartment/condo buildings that have gone up in the last little while. I had seen the construction when i went fishing with my Friend from over the Hump. If I had the time to stop and take some pictures I'm sure that my Lobster's Travelling Relatives would like to see the changes taking place in their old neighborhood. What really strikes me is how the contractors in River City can build condos over four floors in height and the morons at the city halls here in the Valley will not allow, under any circumstances, a building to be more than four residential levels tall. To gain height the developers are placing these four floors atop of a two level above ground car park. So guess what? Its six floors tall.

     My Li'l Sis and Aynsley made a trip to the Sage's place a week or so ago. It was the first time Aynsley had met this portion of her family and from what I was told all went well. L'il Sis said that it would be good if I went to visit the Sage's. My Better Half suggested that I go for Thanksgiving as we will not be travelling to the north end of the Rock anytime soon. I may or may not take one of the Loin Fruits with me. If I did it would most likely be the Jr. one as it our hope that the Sr. one will be gainfully employed by then. The only issue with bringing the Jr. Loin Fruit is that he has taken it upon himself to really push my buttons with his regurgitation of the high fallutin university psycho babble. I'm getting too old to care anymore. 

     What I do care about is this...I'm looking forward to the day when the Wayward Inn is paid off and when this Beer Flu is gone and when we are both retired to sitting on a tropical beach for a month at a stretch. Cold beers, warm sand and my Lobster beside me.

     I haven't touched any of my writing projects in the past six months. I know that I should pick it back up and get the shit done. The rewrite of Who Let the Goats Out  is pretty much done. I have to come up with a couple more stories and it still has to be edited mind you. Then there is the cook book and the last non fiction work. Five books. All different subjects.

19:45 hrs

     Tonight was not good night for games. I lost at Sludge Pit cribbage and two games of Trouble. My only consolation was finding and eating the first two ripe cherry tomatoes on our plants. We didn't plant these plants nor did we propagate them. My Lobster found them on marketplace for free. They were ten inches tall when we brought them home. They are much bigger now and the largest of them has grown taller than our blueberry bushes. I figured they would get so big, flower, produce fruit then die. But no. They just got bigger and bigger. And all the while flowering and producing fruit that wasn't ripening.  I talked to the Sage about this and was told that I had to prune off the male branches if I wanted to have the fruit ripen. But which are the male branches i asked. Simple, son - the useless ones with no fruit or blossoms on them. Thanks mom.

23:15 hrs

     The one thing you don't get a lot of when you are Out in the Weeds is news of current events - local or other wise. One thing that surprised me is how the Tangerine Tyrant has gone about facilitating a failure of the postal system to prevent mail in ballots from ever reaching the counting stations. Not only did his buddy, the Postmaster General, begin to remove neighbourhood mail collection boxes from across the country he also began the dismantling and the destruction of automated mail sorting machines which means the 10k peices of mail that is electonically sorted per hour will now have to done by hand. So, not only will it take longer for your mail (personal, business and government) to get to you but it will be almost impossible for you to send back a reply. I guess if he can't win by preventing mail in ballots from being used he's just going to prevent the mail in ballots from going anywhere. 

     Tomorrow is adventure day.

15 Aug 20

06:15 hrs

     I probably would have slept longer but we have a new rental cat who takes great pleasure in bolting up and down the hallway in the early morning. She's only nine months old and Miss Maggy Baggybits hates her. This is our second rental since Mr. Teddy Buttnuggets passed away and as important as it is to facilitate the habituation of these rentals so they can be adopted I have no attachment to them at all.

     I'm an old guy and being an old guy I'm partial to original things. Original art, songs, movies, etc. In my opinion, very rarely does the remake out shine the original. American Woman by the Guess Who is great. The Lenny Kravitz version not so much. Original Coke is far Better than any new recipe. The 1980 remake of the Mustang sucked. However, I recently watched a remake of the movie Death Wish that was really good. The original, starring Charles Bronson, came out over forty years ago. The updated remake starring Bruce Willis is just as good. You should give it a look see on Netflix. 

     Chef Blaine has a new experiment on the go. Previously, on several occasions, he has created a smoked and cured pork loin which was delicious. The only issue was when it was drying in the refrigerator the rich smoke scent, as deliciously intoxicating as that is, had permeated up through to the freezer compartment. The Jr. Couch Monkey once asked me why the frozen french fries smelled of mesquite. The new goal is to produce his own dry aged meats. If you have the ability, would you rather make your own home made salumi/salami (where you have control of the ingredients) or the mass produced stuff found at your local deli?

19:45 hrs

     Yes, today was adventure day which started out with yours truly not being able to find his wallet. For the next 2 1/2 hours I searched high and low in every nook and cranny. Finally, when I had reached the end of my rope the Oma-nator said a prayer and I found it. This is the nice version. Deal with it. 

     We drove south towards Hub City but not quite that far. I had to pick up something for the PBR Wayward Inn and on the return leg we stopped for an icecream cone. Coming back into the Valley there were three Queens's Cowboy ghost cars. We skated through.

     Well, Dear Readers...there's more on my plate but I think this is just about all you can digest.

Out and About

01 Aug 20

05:00 hrs

     The Valley is on a watering restiction so yours truly is awake and manning the pumps. I'll spend my time to catch up on the news programs that I recorded. Over the past few days I've been prepping the Mobile Wayward Inn to go Out in the Weeds. Its pretty much done now being loaded with food, water and libations. I did some clean up around the house too including a dump run. Our landfill is located out by the Wild Wild West. When I drove through I saw that they are building a  new firehall. This a good thing as the current firehall is probably a heritage building. The new one is more centralized to the ever expanding community. 

18:00 hrs

     Chef Blaine has ribs and a pork tenderloin on the Flame Pit. His sous chef is making the salad. The Oma-nator will be happy to chew on the ribs.

     My Li'l Brother is flying in from the Peg on Monday. I invited him to come Out in the Weeds with me next week. As the organizer I'm not charging him anything. I don't charge my Friend from Over the Hump either and he has been out on at least three other expeditions that I can remember. 

     Out for a walk with my Better Half she commented that the Beer Flu has not put in a dent in the housing market, at least locally. In the past week we have both seen at least a half dozen moving trucks in just our neighborhood. What has changed is the way people are conducting their house hunting. Gone are the days if trudging from house to house with your realtor or attending an open house with a crowd of other shoppers. The new method is to take an online virtual walk through from the cocooned safety of their current home. Buyer beware. It is risky to buy anything on line and this risk increases as the value increase but the risk of possibly catching the Beer Flu - and possibly dying from it - is worse.

     Our latest rental cat has been put up for adoption at one of the local pet stores. When we got her we had been told that she had an anxiety issue and was urinating anywhere she wanted. Well, we saw none of that. First, she's only a nine month kitten. Her first owner, from what we were told was an older person, who may not have scooped the box every day and after a few days a fastidious feline will be looking for a cleaner place to do its business. 

     A friend of mine posted this unique trick where instead of pouring out your bacon grease she stirs in oatmeal to it as it cools. This is now distributed as bird feed which is far better than bread crumbs. Here at the Wayward Inn,  we're going to give it a whirl.

     This will probably be my last post for a while as there is no cell access from Out in the Weeds.  Be safe and take care of each other.