Tiny E was down last week, Z has been pretty much face down since last Sunday. I started down the slope later Monday. About a month ago Z started having some stomach cramps, came and went. Figured it was lactose, then maybe wheat? Now the cramps are coming inbetween food and yesterday he popped a decent fever. Have an appointment was awesome doctor this morning. Eyes are running, coughing up small furry animals, brain dead, that’s me!
Food? Any food we have is slowly rotting in the fridge. For dinner was chicken noodle soup and I had nalley’s chili. I went all out and put the chili in a bowl this time instead of eating it out of the pot. Ugh! Dishes have been in the sink for usually 2 days before I get to them. COUGH.
xo, Biggles
Cloudhenge – Wildfire Sunrise
Wildfires & humans rarely mix well. We’re 300+ miles away and our air smells like the arse end of a city bus. Nature loves its mechanism for rebirth, it’ll still look like hell for a while though. But damn man! Look what wildfires do for sunrises!
Course you have to be up at sunrise to catch it, this is why you have me. You’re welcome.
xo, Biggles
Addition later on that same day.
Okay, so I’m going through the 20 some odd shots I knocked off this morning and found more worth posting. Man, oh man oh man oh man.
Now this one, this one, wow. Just take a moment with the picture enlarged and check out the detail and contrast and colors in those clouds. To the right first, then to the sun itself. I want to walk around and look at these every second of the day.
Biggles
It’s a Champion – Juicer that is!
Biggles spent the workday at his computer, didn’t pull away. He’d finally figured out a few things while he was htmmelling and was running late to get out of there. Off went the two 21″ tube monitors, camera bag in hand and off he flew. Out and down the hallway, keep going and make a left through the machine shop. Ever so quietly he tossed the deadbolt to the side and slipped out in to daylight. Biggles cursed, “Owie, that orb burns.” As he approached his shiny blue wagon, he noticed something huge and mechanical on the ground at the driver’s door.
Creepy E said, “Here’s your juicer, foo.”
Meathenge Rules! – The Cutting Board
Awesome Z (my 12 year old boy) started middle school this year. Wahoo, for several reasons. I believe one of his favorite things is that he doesn’t spend the entire day of school in one classroom. Every hour or two he’s off to another class, neat eh? Yeah well, one of those classes is something called Woodshop. Yup, you know the one. Uh huh, you’re getting the idea now. One of his projects was to make a cutting board, a really nice one too. And as you can see, this woodshop is sportin’ some fancy ass … thing that allows one to put pretty letters in to wood. My chest is out at least 3′ feet today, am so proud.
Biggles
Poor little porky chops of love, or are they?
It was a sunny, yet brisk Thursday afternoon. We hadn’t had high roasted chicken in quite some time, my mind turned towards gravy. Chicken fat, translucent minced shallot, flour, broffs & a dollup of creme fraiche. Oh yeah baby, chicken and gravy for dinner!
After hairs cut, off to El Cerrito Natural for some Rocky Jr. feel good chicken bodies. Tiny E wanted to come in too, he’s a come-with kinda boy. At the meat counter he asked what was for dinner, roasted chicken of course. “Oh Papa, can’t we have delicious pork chops instead?” Even at $10.50 a pound, I conceded.
Tell me why my heart sank when I saw these chops in the butcher’s case?
Biggles
Beef Brisket – Pulled an all nighter
Saturday morning found Biggles thumbing through a few cookbooks. He ran across a recipe wherein the roast was cooked all night at 250 degrees F. With a nod, some rustlin’s, and note taking, he was off.
Please read on and find out why he’s never going to do that again.
Head Colds & I’m in love with clouds
Hi everyone and happy October! I’m on the trail ends of a dumb head cold and am still wacked out on cold medicine. My food related inspiration doesn’t exist at the moment and I have nothing in this arena to offer. I need to get muh stremfs back and choose a path to wander down. And then?
I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life and I don’t remember seeing clouds like the ones I’ve seen for the last few months. The air here seems to be tons clearer than years past. The blues are bluer and the contrast, textures captivate me. Oh sure I’ve seen amazing clouds before. I’ve driven through Oklahoma in tornado weather, Kansas in the same. One year in Montana I was able to spend an entire July with daily thunderstorms. We just don’t get weather and clouds like that here. But I have to say, we’re kicking some serious cloud ass these days.
Want another?
Do you see what I’m talking about here?
I’m seeing this stuff nearly every morning. As I’m driving out to lunch I have my nose pressed up against my wagon’s front window in total and complete awe. And yesterday as a rainstorm was heading in, I was getting images like this at 2:20 in the afternoon!
I love clouds.
Biggles
ps – And oh by the way …
Knife Sharpening Class with Eric E. Weiss
Monday, October 15, 2007
6:30pm – 8:30pm $65.00
Paulding & Company, A Creative Kitchen
1410 D 62nd St., Emeryville, 94608
You will be taught to sharpen and hone your knives to perfection by hand. The sharpening stone and honing oil is included in the price of this class. Bring your quality chef’s knife and paring knife plus any others you wish to learn to sharpen. Should you want Eric to bring your knives back to life, you may arrange that during class.
Eric’s sharpening experience spans 30 years. Born in England, raised in Germany, his love affair with all things sharp began in boyhood, grew with him through military service to the Queen, and comes to fruition at Bay Area Farmer’s Markets, restaurants, catering companies, retail and private homes. During this unique hands-on class Eric gladly shares his true wealth of historical, cultural, and scientific knowledge about the blade.
Class details/registration at
www.pauldingandco.com
510-594-1104
Perfection in Pan Seared Pork Chops
Ya ever have a hard time frying a pork chop? Ever sit down to your meal and just shake your head and think maybe some day you’ll get it right? Well, we’re smarter now, huh. We have that dumb Cook’s Illustrated and we all know now that we need to brine or make sure we get a thick one. Blah, blah, blah. But what if you’re at the store doing some shopping and you get the urge for a nice pork chop dinner for tonight? No time for brining and finding a thick pork chop at the local grocery can be few and far between. Aroo?
Where’s Ted? – 1st in a series in which we experience a Sighting of Ted
Who the hell is Ted? And what the heck are you talking about Biggles? Whoa there Tex, hang on. Ted is Highland Hills Farm and rancher extraordinaire. To say he’s a local character to our farmer’s markets here would be a small understatement. I remember working the Fatted Calf one fine morning and overheared Ted telling a customer in a certain tone after said customer asked for directions for cooking, “I’m a rancher, not a chef!” And that, pretty much handled that.
Being who I am, have always been impressed with his “ranchin’ truck”. A Ford 3/4 ton rig with dents, dings, mud, dirt, dust, scratches and now a missing tailgate. That and a permanent collection of random hay pieces that fly out the back at any given moment. Well, I’m not quite sure why or how the planets align with him, but for me and a few others, he’s spotted more about town than anyone we know.
The picture above was taken way back on September 1st at about 9:45 am, west bound on I-80.
I saw his truck again this last Monday at 11:22am, parked on Dwight Way heading east near San Pablo avenue. Quite a few bales of hay, a gaggle of humongous coolers (full of meat no doubt) and a piece of twine holding this all in the bed (no tailgate, remember?).
Here is Jlee’s report:
A couple of weeks ago, driving west on I80 around El Cerrito, there was a sudden “hay storm”. Enough hay blowing around to actually have to close my window. I’m thinkin maybe a horse trailer up ahead, some guy going to the race track. I get over to the next lane, speed up to pass it to avoid the chaff. Then just coming up to Albany, I see the offender. A turquoise pickup, beat-to-shit, spewing hay. And then I know. Oh right. It’s Ted. Of course.
So, as you can clearly see, Where’s Ted is going to be very exciting. Please stay tuned for the next, Sighting of Ted!
Biggles
Meathenge Garage – Yer blinker is out, ya doof.
Here we find Biggles’ 1964 Dodge D100 pickup circa 1995. To his right is Lisa’s ’70 D100, Creepy E’s ’63 Valiant Wagon and last but not least, Bones! Our company truck at the time, a 1961 Dodge D100.
On to the automotive lesson. Ya know how when you turn on your blinker to turn? Left or right, it’s the same bink, bink, bink, bink, bink, bink. Okay, so years down the road, your blinker now goes, binkbinkbinkbinkbinkbinkbink (much faster, eh). This is telling you that you have a light bulb in one of those sockets that has blown. Stop at a safe location and run your blinkers to see what bulb is out. Then? Replace all your bulbs. Because if one is old and blown, the others will follow. And brother, or sister, it’s easier to do it now rather than later. And by later I mean after the nice police person has hauled you in for a dui because your blinker was out.
xo, Biggles
Chile Verde – slow simmering fun with food
I found the pitchers!
This isn’t necessarily an exact recipe, this time. This batch was something I did on the spur of the moment, not sure what happened really. I was doing my weekly shopping (fer kid’s lunches and junk) and walked passsed the chile peppers and thought to myself, CHILE VERDE. It was just like that too, chile verde. If you’d like a more exacting recipe, try my Pork Chili recipe. In any case, come along for some stewing fun, eh?
Frypan Fine Art
You, “Hey slackass! Where’s the chile verde post?”
Me, “Um, I can’t find the pitchers.”
You, “Whaddya mean you can’t find the pictures, moron.”
Me, “I uh, well, like I checked boffe computers and they ain’t there.”
You, “Find them asshole.”
I’ll keep looking, I’ll bet they’re here someplace. I think my computer is too big, too many pockets.
I snapped this shot last night while laying down some corn oil for to sear some pork steak action. The colors on the little screen on the camera were even bright and happy. The only photoshopping I did was jack the contrast a bit. Pretty cool, eh?
Biggles
NagelHenge – a portrait of the biggles
Muh friend Bart Nagel took this shot with a real polaroid 680 SE. Thank you Cookiecrumb & the most awesome Cranky for hosting the party in which this was made possible. I’m pretty fricken proud and yet most happy of the outcome of this photograph and plan to use it for anything I can.
Not only do I rule, but am one handsome Guy.
xo, Biggles
Blacken those chile peppers Biggles!
I absolutely adore fussing with a large pot of something stewy. I don’t cook this way using a recipe, more along the lines of ratios. Ya know? Such as, if you have 3 pounds of pork shoulder, then you use about half that in tomatillos. And how many green chile peppers do you use? A lot, about *this* much I’d say.
All ready for a chile verde post? Me too, but maybe tomorrow. Ha ha. Nope, today I just stopped by because I had great fun in blackening the chile peppers. I made this pot of green love last night, after work, after picking up the kids from school. I was a little impatient and didn’t feel like roasting the peppers one at a time. See, usually I just toss the suckers on a burner, jack the heat and use my giant tweezers to rotate the little guys. “What to do, what to do?”
Tinker and Tanker knew what to do! They grabbed the fire ring from the wok, tossed on a heavy gauge cooling/baking rack and made a little grill! It was awesome and the picture is pretty too. Ah, the simple things in life make the propeller on my straw hat whirl. And um, if you’ve been doing this for years, don’t point & laugh too hard, eh?
xo, Biggles