Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
With most of the gardening chores completed things have slowed down around here a bit. Who am I kidding? We’re just killing time until the day the “Fair” opens. That would be the Fair held every year in Fryeburg, Maine. It’s by far the largest event in the state and it’s a week long party for the many thousands of attendees from all over the country. We’ll be attending next week and it will be twelve hours of farm animals, large crowds, crazy good food, and hundreds and hundreds of photographs. So like I said we’re just killing time until the Fair.
Today I’ve been completing a number of small projects which required very little effort on my part. As I was walking through the house I remembered one thing that I absolutely had to do sooner rather than later. It was time for the Concord grape wine to be bottled. It’s been almost three months in the making and the fermentation has finally stopped.
The final product is a beautiful dry ruby red wine with an unbelievable bouquet. So it’s a half hour of washing bottles and making my usual mess. I tend to be a bit clumsy and if I don’t spill at least one bottle of wine in the process I just don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything.
There’s nothing like siphoning wine through a little plastic tube, spilling it on the floor, down your leg, and onto nearby books, papers, and house pets. Curiosity may have killed the cat but in this house a good squirt of wine onto a persistently nosy cat is as good as it gets.
After filling and corking nineteen bottles it was then time to put on the fancy gold PVC covers. This requires a large pot of boiling water into which the bottle tops are quickly dipped causing the cover to shrink and seal the corks. It’s imperative that the bottle not remain in the hot water for more than a few seconds or there will be trouble. That truth became immediately evident when my first cool glass bottle was held into the boiling water for more than four or five seconds and the top exploded. Now I’m down to eighteen bottles but with a much better understanding of things I shouldn’t do.
I finished the remainder of the job but held back another bottle for the better-half and I to have with dinner. I poured myself a large glassful and waited for her arrival from work. I found out in the middle of the second glass that there was definitely a sufficient amount of alcohol in the wine. I had a wonderful glow on which translated to my canceling dinner. There was no way I could safely cook without possibly burning down the house.
When the better-half arrived home she drank a couple of mouthfuls of the wine, declared it delicious, and then immediately opened a beer (she isn’t much of a wine lover). She made her own meal and I ended up having an off-the-cuff snack consisting of Wheat Thins, a dab of Smart Balance and peanut butter with a dash of triple berry jam.
This batch of wine has passed my final acid test. Any wine that can make me eat this slop for dinner contains more than enough alcohol. I tested it with my vinometer and it contain just a hair more than 9 percent. That makes for an excellent batch of 18 proof red wine, more than enough to make almost any food edible.
I’ve been a coffee addict in a serious way since my time in the U.S. Army. During those years my Army buddies and I drank a great quantity of what was called coffee. It was strong and thick and black as night. It was really just a poor man’s substitute for “speed. It would keep you alert for hours on end while patrolling or carousing in the nearby villages until all hours. It was as important to us as the food we ate and there was an endless supply available in the mess hall around the clock.
I returned to the states to resume my civilian life and within a short time became a member of the Pennsylvania State Police. The coffee was a little weaker but we drank it constantly as we patrolled both at night and during the day. And no, donuts weren’t as prevalent as the media and stand-up up comics would lead you to believe. It was all about the caffeine.
I come by my coffee addiction honestly and it still remains an important part of my existence to this day. Just as a point of information I feel the need to reiterate; I hate Starbucks. They’ve made coffee a yuppie joke to those of us who are real coffee drinkers.
With International Coffee Day approaching on September 29 I thought you might find a little coffee trivia interesting since it’s been an important commodity for millions of people throughout the centuries. Here we go. . .
* * *
Once in the past, coffee was believed to be the devil’s drink. Pope Vincent III heard about it and decided to taste it. He enjoyed it so much he baptized it, saying "Coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels (Muslims) have exclusive use of it."
Both the American Revolution and the French Revolution were born in coffee houses. The American Revolution was developed by patriots who were customers in the Green Dragon (some say it was the Green Lion) Public House in London. The infamous French Revolution in 1789 was spurred on by Camille Desmoulins’s verbal campaign in coffeehouses.
-
Vincent Van Gogh was a big frequenter of the café society and famously said “I have tried to show the café as a place where one can go mad.”
-
An interesting Turkish law decreed that it was quite acceptable for a woman to ask for a divorce if her husband failed to provide her with adequate coffee rations.
-
Coffee was denounced by many religious leaders as the drink of Satan. Coffee houses were known as “hotbeds of sedition”. In the 1700’s many coffee houses were ordered to close.
-
There are 900 different flavors of Arabica. Complex and very volatile, they deteriorate if exposed to air and light.
The original blend called "Maxwell House" got its name from The Maxwell House Hotel, where it was first served in Nashville Tennessee in 1886 (also where Teddy Roosevelt was heard to say "good to the last drop", creating the Maxwell House slogan).
In 1732, at the height of his creative genius, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Cantata No. 211 or Coffee Cantata. It is considered by many to be a work of perfection.
In Turkey, bridegrooms were once required to make a promise during their wedding ceremonies to always provide their new wives with coffee. Failure to do so would be grounds for divorce (no pun intended).
-
The second most widely used product in the world after oil.
-
It is a living to more than 100 million people.
-
It is consumed at the rate of 1400 million cups per day.
-
The world’s second most popular drink after water.
Beethoven, a known coffee lover, was not only particular about his music. He was also particular about his coffee brew. He always wanted 60 beans for each cup of his coffee.
Today, there must be 10,000 coffee shops in Venice alone! (In the year 1763, there were already over 200 coffee shops in Venice)
Cappuccino derived its name due to its similarity in color to the robes of an order of Monks called the Capuchins.
Well-known performers such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan began their careers performing in coffeehouses. Another singer, Lightnin’ Hopkins, complained about his woman’s neglect with her domestic situation because of her coffeehouse socializing in his 1969 song, Coffeehouse Blues.
* * *
Well there you have it. Every thing you always wanted to know about coffee but were afraid to ask. It’s now time for me to get back to my new friend, the K-Kup coffee maker, for a hot and sweet cup of vanilla/biscotti. Man that’s the cats ass.
I’ve spent most of this Summer documenting my activities in the garden and elsewhere. It was fun for me and I always had plenty of things to do which supplied me with lots of material for posting. With Winter fast approaching material concerning my outside activities will become a little more difficult to find. That’s okay I guess if all you want to read is a continuous steam of snow stories and photographs of more snow. Believe me when I tell you I’m no snow bunny and while I like Winter and snow that doesn’t mean I want to be outside playing in it. That’s for other people to do and for me to talk about, photograph, and make fun of.
Useless Quote #1
“The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.” Karl Marx
As most of you know I have a huge collection of material that contains nothing but thousands of facts about everything and nothing. This blog was initially created to share some of that totally useless information and I think it’s time to lay some silly, stupid, yet true facts on all of you once again.
Useless Quote #2
“High School is like a spork it’s a crappy spoon and a crappy fork, so in the end it’s just plain useless.” John Mayer
Here are ten items which might be considered a teaser for things to come. You can judge that for yourself.
-
People magazine began it’s Sexiest Man Alive covers in 1985. The first man to be so named was none other than that calm and rational Mel Gibson.
-
The first federal census in this country was conducted in 1790. A population of 3,929,625 which included 697,624 slaves was recorded in the seventeen existing states.
-
There are roughly 47 billion chickens in the world (this fact is supplied primarily as a jab at my better-half). She’s been strong arming me for months to buy a few chickens. Not happening lovey.
-
American Gothic, the famous Grant Wood painting was completed in 1930. The couple posing for the piece were his dentist and sister. I hope Mr. Wood was better looking than his sister.
-
More than half a million gallons of water pour over Niagara Falls every second. An interesting factoid but who really cares?
-
Peter Merholtz is credited for coming up with the term "blog". Never heard of him before and I suspect I’ll never hear about him again.
-
The first US intercollegiate athletic competition took place in August of 1852. Yale competed against Harvard in a rowing contest. Yawn. . . . .!
-
In Arizona it ‘s against the law to have more than two dildos in a house. Is there anyone out there who wants to move to Arizona anyway? I think I’ll stay right where I’m at.
-
The average person in the U.S. eats more than 50 tons of food in his or her lifetime. I’ll bet 30% of this food was purchased from drive-thru’s.
-
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, was stillborn. It could really have been interesting if his brother had survived. Just imagine two Elvis’s, what a duet that would have made.
Useless Quote #3
“You’re useless, I’m bored – yes or no” Simon Cowell
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about nothing in particular, right?. I hope to keep these tidbits coming on a regular basis throughout the winter between the snow storms. snow blowing, snow shoveling, and falling on my ass a few times.
I’m sitting up in my bed and the electric blanket has been resurrected once again. The nights are chilling down dramatically as reflected by my new morning wardrobe. A heavy robe, wool socks, sweat pants, and an extra cup of steaming hot coffee. Things like that can only be properly appreciated while sitting up in bed at a minimum of level 4 on the electric blanket. Just saying.
Last night no one really wanted to cook the evening meal so we made a trek to the Maine Mall to window shop, eat some almost nutritious food at the food court, and possibly spend a little money. Forgetting that it was a Saturday night was mistake number one. The place was packed with large numbers of rude people all rushing around, pushing, shoving, and generally being ridiculous. I also realized something else as we walked around observing many groups of teenagers huddled here and there looking for things to do. I’m truly glad I’m not married and don’t have any young daughters to worry about.
Any parent that permits their daughter to loiter around any mall just boggles my mind. If any daughter of mine insisted on hanging out at a mall with her friends I’m afraid of what my reaction might be. I can see myself in a tacky disguise scurrying around the mall, hiding behind plants, just to keep an eye on the activities of her and her friends. There are way too many unthinkable possibilities just waiting to happen in this kind of atmosphere.
I was in dire need of a few new T-shirts and was intent on finding some. We visited a store called ‘The Hot Topic’ where we seemed to be a little out of place. It’s very much like a ‘Spencer’s’ without all of the sexual paraphernalia. My better-half and I were the only people in that crowded store over the age of 25. I made my way to the back wall because I’d been told they have offer quite the collection of T-Shirts made with images of vintage rock groups.
I decided some time ago to make a few changes to my boring wardrobe. I concocted a few new rules to help make my life a little easier when it comes to making a personal fashion statement.
-
No more white T-shirts of any kind. Being as clumsy as I am makes white t-shirts a nightmare. Everything I eat eventually leaves it’s mark somewhere on the front of the shirt..
-
No more stupid or cute sayings on my shirts. It make me either look stupid or uncute.
-
Buy only T-shirts about classic musical groups. There aren’t any current groups I’d allowed to be displayed on this body.
-
No more extra-large shirts. I’m now just a large and proud of it.
I found a few shirts (see the photo’s) I absolutely loved, made my purchases and we headed to the food court.
It’s a place with long lines, plastic sporks, and borderline delicious foods. There were representative kiosks from most Asians cultures as well as many of the standard American calorie and fat factories. We pigged out on a selection or two from Arby’s because the lines for Chinese food were too damn long.
I think it’s quite possible the decline of this county was part of a well planned attack initiated many decades ago by the Chinese. I’ll bet years ago they decided as a first step towards invasion to build as many Chinese restaurants as they could in the US and get a large majority of the population addicted to their food. If by chance over the next decade we begin to see Islamic restaurants springing up everywhere it could mean only one thing. Eventually this country will be the prize that goes to the winner of the Chinese/Muslim food wars.
With indigestion in our near future we left the confines of the mall and headed home. That Arby’s feast was so good it keep coming back up all night reminding us just how good it really wasn’t.
Lesson learned, no more fast food from the food court.
Today will be a general update on a few of the useless things I’ve been doing or trying to do. I’m happy to report that the highchair restoration has been completed. It was a relatively simple project that took only a week to accomplish. The last posting on the chair had me sanding my heart out to remove the old layers of paint, stain, and shellac. Once that was completed I then pulled out my handy-dandy Dremel tool and wire brushed all of the hinges and other hardware. Fortunately I was able to remove almost all of the corrosion.
I discovered quite by accident that this highchair was made from an assortment of woods glued together and painted. This made my staining job a bit more difficult but I persevered. The results were satisfactory but not as good as I’d hoped. Once the stain was on then came three coats of a good polyurethane and a few days to let it dry.
I installed the new modified safety straps which put me one step away from completion. The toughest part of the project was finding the proper decals for the chair. The original had some sort of cutesy puppy on it which I immediately sanded away. A little too lame for me or any kid who might eventually be using it. After visiting a few dozen websites and a few actual retail stores I found two stickers that I felt were acceptable. I installed them yesterday and officially declared this project complete.
Now to the garden which is slowly coming to an end. I harvested the remainder of the kale yesterday. I picked the plants, cut and cleaned the leaves which left me with a large bag full. The process included washing the leaves twice, blanching them all in boiling water, dropping them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process, and finally a last thorough washing. A spin dry in the good old Salad Spinner and it’s into the vacuum bags and then the freezer. The process took a little longer than I liked but it’s important to keep the food as clean as possible at all times.
‘In the Garden’
‘In the Wash’
‘Into the Freezer’
Another week and I’ll start the final cleanup of the garden to get it ready for winter. That includes removing all of the fabric from the frames and composting the entire garden with three or four inches of prime compost. Once that has been rototilled in I can concern myself with the remaining yard cleanup and storage of all lawn furniture and equipment for the winter.
Just another slowly fading Summer week here in Maine.
I’m a child of television. I come by it honestly because I was a member of the first generation that had TV. So for good or bad I’ve spent a great deal of my life listening and watching the tube. In my early years television was unsophisticated and simple with only three networks to choose from and a 12” black and white screen.
Years later it was still black and white pictures but there were rumors of something called ‘Pay TV’ on the horizon. It was the latest and greatest evolution of Television where you paid a monthly fee and there would be no commercial interruptions. Around that same time full color TV’s were introduced. The worst thing about ‘Pay TV’ was that we bought the fiction hook, line, and sinker. Before we knew it cable TV was born and so began the steadily rising monthly fees, surcharges, and the reintroduction of commercials but only on a limited basis (so they said). Yeah, we bought that BS as well.
Move forward a few more years and the monthly rates continued to increase based solely on the companies ability to increase the number of channels that you really weren’t all that interested in having but they were “part of the package”. More commercials were then added because the companies claimed a need for extra revenues to help cover their costs of production and maintenance of their infrastructure. Another giant pile of BS.
Move forward in time to yesterday. I’m now receiving my TV programming by the satellite dish hanging off the side of my house. Pretty impressive but only if you live somewhere where it never rains or snows. I never see any reduction in my monthly fees due to all of the weather related interruptions in service. I especially enjoy winter and those numerous trips I’m forced to make in my bathrobe to clear the dish during snow squalls. I also don’t appreciate all of the extra channels I’ve been involuntarily stuck paying for because “it’s part of the package”. You’d think by now they’d have a better list of stupid reasons for inflating our monthly charges.
I never thought I’d see the day when advertisements would come to be thirty minutes long on virtually every channel for a good part of the morning viewing hours. How stupid is it that the advertisers then take short breaks during those half-hour infomercials for a commercial or two. Commercials inside commercials, unbelievable right?
We are inundated with commercials everywhere everyday. Planes flying over our beaches. Talking digital images on every end cap at Walmart activated as you walk by to spew their annoying messages. Gas station pumps talking in your ear with more lame and unimportant messages. It just never stops, so I decided to do a little research.
For two hours last evening during good old TV prime time (6-8 pm), I began counting the number of commercials. In a 120 minute time frame on two different channels I was forced to listen to all of these in this exact order:
Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits, Back Support Device, Xarelto Drug, Hair Club, Sleep Number Beds, Belviq Weight Loss Drug, DR rapid fire log splitters, Hip replacement implant lawsuits, Dolphin Tale 2 Trailer, Little Caesars Pizza, Target, Gone Girl Movie Trailer, News Update, Lowry Law Firm, Toyota, Dick’s Discount Furniture, Dunkin Donuts, The Box Trolls Trailer, Hannaford Foods, Political Ad Maine, Kohl’s, Dodge, Scion Maze Runner Trailer, Sonic, Hershey, Dos Equis, Hanes Underwear, Nasacort Allergy Meds, US Navy, Dairy Queen, Geico, Reese’s Pieces, Dewars Whiskey, Gillette Razor, Dulera Asthma Meds, John Deere, Progressive Insurance, Tostados, Burger King, Hershey, Honda, Direct TV, Nasacort Allergy Meds, Pizza Hut, Fuse Electric Cigarettes, Schick Razor, Supernatural Trailer, Corona, Jolly Rancher, Walk Among the Tombstones Trailer, AT&T, Ace Hardware, Toyota, Sonic, Reese’s Pieces, Dewar Whiskey, Gillette Razor, Cricket Wireless, State Farm, Heineken, Dunkin Donut, Winter soldier Trailer, Kit Kat, Allegra Allergy Meds, UFC, Heinz, Evel Knievel trailer, Cricket wireless, Wendy’s, ROLO, Honda, Direct TV, Maze Runner Trailer, ITT Tech, Dos Equis, KFC, Reese’s Pieces, Nasacort Allergy Meds, Fiat, Domino’s Pizza, Ice Breakers Breath Mints, Sonic, Skittles, Cricket Wireless, Lipton Tea, Kit Kat, Dos Equis, Walk Among the Tombstones Trailer, Eye Exam PSA, Lending Tree Loans, Scion, State Farm, Reese’s, UFC, Sons of Anarchy Trailer.
Is it just me or is this pure insanity. 72 commercials of varying lengths in just 120 minutes. There’s little doubt that these money hungry cable companies will eventually supply us with only 10 minutes of actually programming per hour if we just agree to watch 50 minutes of effing commercials. Is it any wonder that we can’t just sit down and relax anymore. Even if the TV is off the radio chimes in with their commercials. Signs along the roads and on thousands of vehicles driving by make it impossible to escape.
Try and enjoy your day.
Today’s my day to brag a little. We finished the last of the canning yesterday which means that within the next three weeks I’ll begin to close down the garden for this year. I have to say it’s been a great gardening summer with more enough rain to keep the plants happy and a level of production at least 30% better than last year. This first list is the approximate amounts of veggies we harvested over the last three months.
- 10 – pounds of cherry tomatoes
- 6 – pounds of jalapeños
- 2 -pounds of cayenne peppers
- 6 – pounds of snap peas
- 4 – pounds of black beans
- 30 – pounds of zucchini
- 2 – pounds of kohlrabies
- 50 – pounds of cucumbers
- 4 – pounds of Beets
- 5 – pounds of radishes
- Two additional plantings of lettuce.
- Two additional plantings of snap peas.
- One additional planting of radishes
We then took most of them and processed them into the following list of usable foods for the winter months.
- 10 – pints of hot mustard dill pickles
- 15 – pints of pickled zucchini
- 12 – pints of pickled jalapeños
- 8 – pints of pickled veggie mix
- 24 – pints of hot B&B pickles
- 1 – pint of pickled jalapeño/habaneros
- 13 – quarts of roasted corn/black bean salsa
- 9 – half pints of radish relish
- 18 – large loaves of zucchini bread
- 5 – quarts of pickled kimchi
- 12 – quarts of chili for freezing
- 4 – pounds of kale, frozen
This last list are the herbs I harvested during the Summer to help refill our stocks for winter. We use a great deal of them in every meal we make and we also supply to to family and friends when requested. They’re extremely easy to grow and dry and taste great.
- 1 – quart jar of dried oregano
- 1 – quart jar of dried parsley
- 1 – pint jar of dried habaneros
- 2 – quarts of dried chives
- 1 – quart of dried garlic chives
- 1 – pint jar of dried jalapeños
- 2 – quarts of dried kale
- 9 – pounds of dried sunflower seeds
- 1 – quart of dried Cilantro
- 1 – quart of dried Basil
All of this was from a 350 square foot garden.
Gardening is not as easy as most people think but the rewards make it well worth the effort. My better-half and I really want to know what we’re putting into our bodies. While it’s almost impossible to do that 100% these days, it gives us a little more peace of mind than the average person. Along with gardening we’ve become two of the biggest pain-in-the-butt label readers anywhere. It’s something everyone should learn to do because it’s enlightening and at times a little scary.
The better-half has a few batches of jam to prepare in the next few weeks but there’s no rush. All the necessary berries are in the freezer and can be used at any time. I always look forward to the blackberry jam made from the berries we picked, there’s nothing better.
Happy Labor Day for what it’s worth. It’s one of those holidays that has slowly morphed into something it was never meant to be. It currently is the day to celebrate the end of Summer instead of a celebration of the citizens that made this country great. I understand that everything is destined to change at some future point but sometimes it’s not all that great.
My better-half had the day off which is always something to celebrate so we decided to do a little cruising around southern Maine to enjoy the sunny and warm weather. Cameras in hand we made our way south along Rt. 202 towards the city of Sanford. I enjoy returning to Sanford because I lived there as a single parent to my cat for nine years. It was fun to cruise around and see all of the changes that have taken place in a town that really needed a lot of change.
In the small village of Alfred, ME we made a quick stop at the Notre Dame Monastery. This is a religious group of Brothers who maintain and work a large farm as well as a bakery and a small gift shop. Much of the money raised by the sales of baked goods helps to fund the York County Community Shelter. It’s home to some homeless folks, victims of domestic violence, and a variety of court ordered individuals.
We love stopping to get pictures of their large sunflower patch and to visit the bakery. We picked up an incredibly delicious loaf of wheat bread, a cookie for her, and a raspberry crisp for me. Everyone needs a little sweetness once in a while.
We decided we should stop in some small out of the way place to enjoy a good hearty breakfast. Years ago we occasionally lunched at a little hole-in-the-wall located just outside of Sanford that unfortunately went out of business shortly thereafter. It’s since been reopened with a new owner and a really nice face lift. It’s now called Mel’s Raspberry Patch.
The place is small with maybe ten small tables and six stools along a counter. We plopped at the counter, ordered coffee, and then our meal. Some things haven’t changed. The food is still great, the people are still friendly, and the morning newspaper is still free and readily available for reading. I had my standard breakfast: Two eggs sunny side up, two sausage patties, crispy home fries, toast coffee and jam. The better-half ordered the same meal with bacon and the food was delicious. The conversation with the waitresses was light and fun and it was a nice start to our day. The total bill with tip was less than $20.00.
From there we headed south through Sanford with the intention of cruising east along the border with NH to visit some old haunts and see the sights. We visited the towns of North Berwick and Berwick before ending up in Somersworth, NH. Actually Somersworth is the other half of Berwick which straddles the state border. We’ve always enjoy riding through this somewhat rural farming community which offers lots of opportunities for picture taking.
We cut cross-country and made our way slowly northeast to Rochester, NH where the better-half had an attack of shopper’s withdrawal. I was forced to stop at the local K-Mart so the better-half could run free for an hour. I just have to let her loose occasionally or she gets testy just sitting in the car. I don’t totally understand her need to run since I always leave the car window cracked just a little.
I think her whole point of cruising today was to finally end up in Lebanon, ME that as a town has little to be proud of except for a longstanding flea market. It was located approximately ten minutes away from Rochester but on the way we ran into another flea market (junk sale) in the parking lot of a small strip mall. I was once again strong-armed into pulling over to spend twenty minutes handling a lot of junk that was cheap, dirty and more than a little disgusting. I think the better-half feels she’s required to make a purchase of at least one item no matter where we stop. She threw her questionable purchases into the trunk and we moved on down the road.
We made a really short visit at the flea market in Lebanon but was once again disappointed. It was Labor Day and we expected a large crowd. We were the crowd. We made a quick stop, one minor purchase (required) and headed home. All in all a pretty nice day.
‘Korean Kimchi’
With the Harvest season in full swing I’ve been wanting to come up with a recipe for something new and out of the ordinary. I’m tired of the same old things and need to step out of the proverbial box if I can. I reached back into my past for inspiration and actually found some.
Having spent a few years in the Republic of South Korea I was introduced to hundreds of dishes I couldn’t have ever imagined. Some were killer and some were more than a little disgusting. After my first year there I was able to adapt my pallet to a much more exotic range of foods.
One thing in particular that at first glance turned my stomach was Korean kimchi, a foul smelling concoction that is eaten by every Korean at every meal. It smells to high heaven and is as hot as blazes. It’s a fermented Korean cabbage dish covered in a smoking hot red pepper mixture and fermented in clay pots buried in the ground for a month or two. Sounds pretty nasty I know but I eventually I came to like it a great deal. Thankfully, once you’ve eaten some of it you can’t smell it on the breath of others which was a blessing when you intended to spend time with native Koreans. It was a learned survival technique.
I decided I’d make an attempt to create a kimchi dish that had less stench, more flavor, and still have a decent level of heat. Much of the kimchi available here in the US is a milder Americanized version with a medium heat level for the faint of heart. I also have an real aversion to eating food that’s been left to ferment in the ground. I prefer something a bit more sanitary.
Step one was to purchase ten pounds of good old American cabbage and a quantity of good quality habanero peppers. Instead of fermenting the cabbage I decided to pickle it to allow for longer term storage.
I shredded the cabbage into smaller than normal pieces to make it easier to handle when filling the jars. I grated the onions and fresh ginger, mixed it together with the shredded cabbage and minced garlic. I’ve developed a pickling mixture of jalapeño vinegar and a handful of other spices and seeds which I think should mimic the Korean flavor pallet. I decided to make only six pounds of the mixture in case this first attempt failed.
As you can see the end result looks good but will it taste good? It’s been a week since I completed the batch and I’m about to give it my taste test. It has that familiar pungent aroma and the level of heat is exactly where I wanted it to be. I’m pleased to announce that the flavor is a little sweet with a serious bite of vinegar. The spice mixture works well with everything else and of course the habaneros are working their magic. I’m a very happy person. This will make an excellent side dish for any meal and could even be used as a relish of sorts for hot dogs, hamburgers, and the occasional taco.
‘Actual Korean Kimchi’
‘My Version’
I look forward to many meals with this dish as a main component. I do anticipate a few adjustments in future batch’s to increase the heat and to refine the flavor to be closer to the original. Cooking is such fun.
What does beautiful weather and a lack of humidity mean to you? To me it means a day in the woods and swamps with my camera and a gallon of bug spray. This summer hasn’t allowed me as much time as I’d like to roam around. We’ve been much too busy to take the time and I’m not at all happy about that. So today I decided to make time for a little of Mother Nature’s healing influences.
I’ve been attempting this summer to collect as many photo’s as possible of the illusive dragonfly. I packed up the car and made my way back to my favorite swamp for another attempt. In years past there were a constant supply of dragonflies beginning in July and lasting until Labor Day. This year has been quite a bit different possibly due to the higher than normal rainfall. The number of dragonflies in the skies around our home has steadily increased over the last few weeks and I’m hoping for the best here in the swamp.
As I arrived at the sanctuary I discovered a few vehicles parked around meaning other visitors in the area. Hopefully they’re here to pick black berries and aren’t stumbling around near the swamp scaring the wildlife away. I cover myself in bug spray and head into the woods. The milkweed pods are in bloom in really large numbers this year. I’ve also noticed a much large number of thistle plants as well which always makes for interesting photographs.
The closer I get to the swamp the more dragonflies I’m seeing and as I enter the swamp they’re everywhere. I also notice that most of the ones I’m seeing are all the same color. In a normal year I would see at least a dozen brightly colored variations but not today.
There are a few mallard ducks flying around but they refuse to sit still long enough for me to get a few photo’s. They seem a little jumpy which could mean a few visitors had been in the area before my arrival. I stumbled into an area with a large cluster of dragonflies so I stood perfectly still and waited for them to come around to check me out. This was my best picture of the day. This guy was a rather small specimen who’s actual size was only about an inch and a half long.
Since the selection was somewhat limited I decided to move on to a secondary swamp located nearby that usually has large numbers of frogs and turtles. I hope to find a little more activity there. It’s unusually quiet today which can only mean previous visitors which for me isn’t a good thing. I arrive in the area and there’s no wildlife activity at all except for this stupid frog. No dragonflies, one frog, and no turtles. I decided to call it a day and began my trek back to my car. It seems today was a wasted trip.
As I made my way along the trail I came upon that group of visitors. They were all clustered around my favorite blackberry patch filling up their containers. It appears a number of new people have stumbled onto the patch which translates to less berries for me and my better-half. We’ll need to stop by in a few days and hopefully collect enough berries to make our usual batch of summer jam.
We shall see.
everyuselessthing.com 
