Cook, cook coook cooooook cook cook, cook. Cook cook cook, cook cook, cook cook. Cook, and then? Seven years later? Egads man, you’re kitchen is a MESS !!!

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Sunset over Richmond last Thursday. Jacked levels oh so slightly with a little more contrast, nothing more. Handheld with little Canon p&s, auto-setting. Can you see the little star up there?

Each Saturday I gather my meat sack, camera and some change for the meters in Berkeley. They’ve gone to 1.00 for an hour now, just so you know. Always careful to make sure I have my quarters to park, I’ve got a secret place.
Berkeley can’t possibly be unlike other largish cities in regards to those old parking meters. You know the ones. The ones that look healthy, then procede to take your quarters? Yup, thems be the ones. So of course I always bring a few extra quarters just in case, one never knows.
It was a warm October morning and the boys were with me. The older one watched as I slid in my first quarter only to ge a message on the damned thing, “Error.” Indeed and it cost me 25 cents to find out. I wish they had a button on ’em so we could test first.
“Okay boys, back in the truck! We need to pull forward to another meter so Papa can lose another damned quarter.”
“But Papa, why not just use a nickel instead? That way you only lose 5 cents.”
Well, ain’t that just an ice pick in the forehead. If I were you, take an 11 year old’s advice and use a nickel or dime first to see if that meter works or not.
Biggles

Photograph hand-squeezed using a tiny Canon SD 700
To say I haven’t had time for Meathenge is like saying the Titanic was a pretty boat. And it’d be a lot easier if I didn’t sabotage myself along the way. Insert swearing here: “”
My PC at home was getting a little creaky and the operating system needed a boost. Gee, I had no idea Microsoft’s OS’s could be so buggy! Yeah, so Biggles removed the beast, and I do mean beast. It was a tower case that weighed in at over 30 pounds with no side panel. Off to the local computer chop shop we go! Yeah yeah, formatting and reinstalling windows ain’t rocket science, but I’m lazy. And remember, I have no time.
Minutes later we find Biggles in the Toy Store, ideas start to pop in to his red bearded hillbilly mind. (Minds have beards, hahhahahha) The idea was to move the guts to a new, small case and wipe the HD, install freshy fresh OS. “Hmm, well if we’re to wipe the HD, might as well install one of those new, fancy 10,000 rpm Raptor SATA drives, right? Right-o!”
Oh the visions of high speed data transfer coupled with a broadband connection just made him giddy.
It wasn’t until the following morning ol’ Biggles awoke with a start. What the hell had he done? Sure all the data was backed up, you bet. But do you have any idea of the time and effort it takes to put it all back? Tuck it in to all the right places? Reinstall dozens of little applications that make life nice? Let’s not even go in to the sheer volume of little serial numbers that need to be found. Akin to the archaeological dig at King Tut’s tomb, it is.
Know all those nifty little usb devices that make life so handy? Those little bastards have drivers that need to be loaded as well. Insert swearing here: “”
So, while it’s actually Thursday, this was supposed to be a cute little post about how nice the fricken weather was this last Sunday. Some rambling bull about trees blooming and green grass … greening. “Oh how bloody nice it is to be alive and view such splendor!”
I’ve changed the date to make it seem as though you missed a posting, cheeky me.
Insert swearing here: “”
Biggles

ambidextrous : am·bi·dex·trous [am-bi-dek-struhs]
1. able to use both hands equally well: an ambidextrous axe handler
2. unusually skillful; facile: an ambidextrous home chef, able to successfully make a roux and brown off a pound of andouille.
3. double-hot-pan dealing; badass.
[Origin: 1640–50; ambidext(e)r + -ous]
—Related forms
am·bi·dex·trous·ly, adverb
am·bi·dex·trous·ness, noun

Alright, so here I was minding my own business, in a flu riddled state. You get the picture, right? Honking up small furry animals, eyebrow bone pains & sinus fire. When Christine of My Plate or Yours tagged me for this meme I wasn’t sure when I was going to be able to get to it.
I’m thinking here, thinking back. I believe out of all the memes that’ve been around, this is the first one I’ve ever joined in on. Why this time, you axe? Well, me thinks it’s time to start posting again. My sinus fire has embered, the eyebrow bone aches have ceased for the moment and to be honest, I miss Meathenge!

1. As amazing as I sound on MH, as brilliant, motivated and larger than life I seem, I would rather hang out at home than travel the country. When the weekend arrives, I’m more than happy to lounge about the house and yard. Maybe start a project I know I’ll never finish, use gas powered lawn implements or tear in to something and clean it out. Using a ladder really gives me a thrill, you can get to places that are otherwise out of your reach. Plus looking down in to your neighbor’s yard when they aren’t looking makes me feel naughty.
2. This isn’t new to some of you that know me, but I think it needs official mentioning here. Butter scares me. Well, okay scare isn’t quite the right word. I don’t like butter on my bread or vegetables or any place I can really smell it. I can bake with it as long as I don’t pay too much attention to it. And if I can detect ghee in a dish, I’ll wretch and want to rinse my mowf with Everclear.
3. I buy vehicles based upon whether they make me smile when I drive them or not. Safety, quality or durability have nothing to do with it (read: common sense). If I can smoke the tires through 2 or 3 gears, that’s good enough for me. I enjoy engines that sound huge when you play with them. This is NOT because they have some huge muffler, no. They must sound huge because they ARE huge. If you see some red bearded hillbilly doing 90mph with the window down in a dusty old Dodge truck, that’s me. Flip me off if you like, I enjoy that.
4. I had the side of my house landscaped only because I felt bad that my neighbors were looking at old weeds. Why didn’t I do it myself? Because it’s hard and they got it done in a few hours.
5. I keep friends for a long time. I work with my friend that I’ve known since 1972. I spend weekends with a friend from the same era. I keep track of roomates I had in 1985. I met someone in a class I was taking in 1990. He got me a job where he worked, that was 16 1/2 years ago and I’m at the same company today. Neat, eh?

Well, there we are, 5 things about me. I hope you’ve enjoyed this time together on this wet Thursday morning. Now it’s time to go take a nap.
Tootles!

Here I find my conscious choice each day. Which feeds the soul?
“A view out muh bedroom winder”

I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, i just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the house of lords
I saw a film today oh, boy
The english army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But i just had to look
Having read the book
I love to turn you on.
Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, i noticed i was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and i went into a dream
Ah
I read the news today oh, boy
Four thousand holes in blackburn, lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall
I’d love to turn you on
(Lennon/McCartney)

Happy Saturday !!!
Listen up, yesterday Chilebrown and I headed out for Sacramento to visit Morants Old Fashioned Sausage Kitchen. While I only expected a drive up, raid of their smoker and a quick return home, we ended up with a nice morning spent with some sidetracking. What do I mean by this? Well, you’ll have to wait until I can find a computer to sit down to and compose my entry.
But Biggles, you’re typing this up, right now. Yeah, well see, this is a laptop mounted over the TV and I have to stand at a funny angle to use it. So, any longer than a few minutes and I’m done with it. I moseyed out to the garage to fire up my PC and it don’t even turn on anymore.
Surely Biggles with your mad PC repair skills you should be able to get that sucker up and going. Yeah, I can. But it’s 84 degrees, sunny with a cool breeze and I have 35 pounds of fresh sausage to tear in to. Not to mention 5 pounds of first class bacon to fry up. Plus I have a nice pork butt roast in the fridge awaiting my attention for an all day smoking session on Sunday. I’m busy! Besides I still have about 280 pounds of Custom Charcoal to use up.
Whatcha all up to today?
xo Biggles

Today’s music is brought to you by Carly Simon and Judy Collins.

Cool! I thought for sure I was the only meat related entry. Apparently not and I win Meatiest Category at this version of Does my blog look good in this?
What is this happening? It’s a contest where you are asked to choose a post with the best image out of a specific month. You send this url to the hosting food blog and then at some point they judge it. Cool, eh?
If you take the time to check out the entries, they’re pretty darned good. I like the chicken stock ice cube one, neat.
Congratulations to me.
Biggles

Don’t look bad for Richmond, eh? A handful of seasons ago I bought and had built this “barn”. It’s only 10’x12′ but it holds the crap from our 20’x20′ garage. What this means is, our detached garage is open for my library of cookbooks, records, computers and the boy’s xbox gaming area.
How would you like to wake up each morning to this view? I do. And I want to personally thank Cousin Bob and Uncle Eddy for the job. I had planned on painting it for sure. But after so much time, I realized I was never going to get it done.
I’m happy, pleased and well taken care of.
Biggles

My sister Kallisti of Blastmilk gifted me this set of little piggies and a stove the other day. She figured it was time to get some new props for Meathenge, she’s right. Said she bought them a while back and enjoyed them long enough, now it’s our turn.
I ran home early so I’d have time before dinner to set up and take me a shot. Something new to take pictures of, I couldn’t wait. They were all wrapped up in this clear plastic holding thingy and had cardboard props to make it look as though the pigs were in a country kitchen. This is what Furryville is, a country place. You know, out in the country? Pollen, pickup trucks and fruit pies, you know the place. They win the Furryville cooking competition each year, so says the little story book that comes with. I wanna know what they cooked with that 12 burner stove. I would do something with gravy, I think.
They need a little proppin’ up, don’t ya know. But how can you possibly resist? They gots chile pepper aprons !!! And, of course, they’re pigs. No sane person can ever resist a piggy.
Please welcome the Pigby family to Meathenge’s prop department, I’m sure they’ll have fun wherever they go.
Biggles

Isn’t goat beautiful? Look at that marbling, notice the rich pinkness of the flesh. How clean it is, glistenny in the glow of my floods. Kinda tough to see the breed, that’d be cashmere for those who have an interest. These goats are grazed on natural range and irrigated pastures. They’ve never even remotely seen a feedlot, that makes me feel better right there. No antibiotics, pesticides, GMO’s, synthetic hormones (what about natural ones?), herbicides, chemical fertilizers … you get the idea.
Isn’t goat beautiful?
Ted of Highland Hills Farm thinks so.

Or at least that’s the unconfirmed rumor I’m starting (keep reading, no really). I just received a comment in one of the posts I did about Tina Nordstrom. And if you’ve done any googlin’ on Tina or Andreas in the last year and a half, Meathenge is either beat out scandcook.com or is at least #2. Not bad, eh? In any case, here’s the comment:
We’re glad you like the shows — we do to! You’ll be glad to know that Andreas will be back with a third season of “New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad” in September 2006. Let your local PBS station know that you want more! Tina just had a baby, so a second season with Tina is a little further off. We’ll let you know when it’s confirmed. American Public Television distributors of “New Scandinavian Cooking”
As far as rumors go, this sounds as solid as any. Tina just had a baby and Andreas will do a season, then Tina comes back and does another one. YAY !!!
If you haven’t heard of or seen New Scandinavian Cooking with either Tina or Andreas, you’re missing out. Rarely do I enjoy a cooking show this much. It’s a total package deal, from the passion, cinematography, production, editing and commercials. It’s all outstanding.
Have you flipped through Andreas’ Kitchen of Light cookbook? The photography is better than most fine art photography books let alone a dumb cookbook. How is this possible?
It was Andreas’ first season that inspired me to even remotely consider visiting Norway. Not because I thought Norway sucked, but because the passion this man has for his country and cuisine is that inspiring.
So, while this is an unconfirmed rumor, scandcook still bears Andreas’ likeness on their first page and it’s too good to let it pass without saying something.
Meathenge Labs will most certainly be hosting a small party to view the season premier of New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viastad.
Xo Xo

Addition made 2/4/2006 at end.
Hooboy, take a close look, maybe click on the image. See if you can find my moldy que gloves there.
While I consider myself to be a year ’round griller and smoker, there can be dry spells. And this dry spell took place during the wettest part of the year, the last few months.
Look, you’ve only got a few days left to get your menu for Sunday ready. I haven’t a clue as to what I’m doing, except for tonight. Tonight it’s Cuban Sammiches, I can hardly wait. I knew my grill needed some attention, just didn’t know how much. If you haven’t checked your grill lately, you may want to do that.
Biggles is here to help.

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One of a few of my Nikon F series plain prism cameras sportin’ the ol’ 50mm f2.0 lens.
If you’ve ever used a film or digital camera, you’ve heard the news, friends and collegues talk about film versus digital. One doesn’t replace the other, they’re each good for different situations. I think there was this nagging little bug in the back of our heads that truly thought, some day, when my hair is grey and cars ride 4 feet off the ground, film will no longer be available.
Uh, game over pal, film is dead and Nikon has shut down production of all but 2 film cameras, the F6 and FM10. Oh, and they were nice enough to continue to manufacture a few manual focus lenses for those too. How thoughtful.
One might think that maybe Canon will carry the torch, I doubt it. This is business pal, and if the public ain’t buying? The companies aren’t going to produce the cameras. And that will be pretty much that.
Here’s one more experience that I’ll be taking to the grave. The experience of holding a hand-made Nikon camera to my eye, living in my own space and time with the ability to capture life, death and the world around me.
Rest in peace old friend, I will not forget the love.
Biggles

All is semi-evening out here at the labs. On Saturday we hosted a Tourtiere meal, mMmMm Pie. Mama really pulled out the stops and worked through some body pain that caused her grief. I was in charge of grinding the 3 pounds of pork and I completely screwed it up. We’ve got the Kitchen Aid with the grinder attachment, you bet. I nearly froze the pork, first in a large hunk. This didn’t work, so I pieced it up and froze those so they cut like an onion. I also froze the grinder attachment. All it did was turn the meat to a puree, nasty to say the least. So I minced it up using a knife and then the food processor to make it resemble something ground. Tasted fine in the pie for sure.
Sunday was of course, Christmas and we hosted a traditional roasted turkey meal. Other than using water instead of milk in the mashed taters, everything went nearly okay. Yeah yeah, I know. But you see, we eat mashed potatoes a lot here. So, to cut down on the fat I’ll use water instead of milk or cream. And this bad habit carried over to a holiday meal, sigh. That being said, gravy came to the rescue and took care of the wateryness.
Listen up, when you’re planning to host a meal and are expecting most stores to be closed, there are a few things you need to take note of. Sure you make a list for the store of all the ingredients you’ll need for the meal. This is easy and straightforward, all you need is a pencil and paper. But what can make or break you are the staples in your kitchen. Such as flour, garbage bags & broth! Man, try to make your traditional turkey gravy without flour. Luckily Sister was willing to make a quick trip home (she and Meathead live close) for her container of flour. So, Biggles suggests you do an inventory of your kitchen to see what else you’ll be needin’.
Here we find ourselves on the Tuesday, looks as though it’s about to rain too. Today marks #3 in a series of hosted dinner parties for Meathenge Labs. I’ll be picking up a leg of lamb roast that’s had the leg bone cut free and replaced. This way when I get home I can untie the lamb, toast the corriander seeds, mince up the garlic & cilantro. Zest me a few lemons and spread over the salt & pepper. Reinsert the bone, tie up & toss in to a 375 oven and we’re SET. Phew !!!
What’s next? New Years you say? Keeripes, we’ll see how that goes. I’m feeling a need for fried chicken.
Hugs