Entries categorized as ‘Editorial’
at $56,000 per household. Paid for by, you guessed it, US. That’s what the FCC wants (http://www.slate.com/id/2248074), according to Chris Wilson from Slate.
My husband, a software engineer and son of a farmer/rancher in Nowheresville, US, says the market is sorting it out. Five years ago his parents were on dial-up. His mother kept looking for new installations to go up, on her drive to work, and would call the farmer and see if it was worthwhile getting on that service.
When we camped out there during Hurricane Rita Jim packed up a whole bunch of goodies and set them up with wireless internet and we brought our laptops and cell phones and tethered so we could get on with our lives for those few days.
Now they have very good service, except the other day lightning fried the router and network card. At least a tree didn’t fall and knock down the roof into their bedroom (yeah, that happened ten years ago during Jim’s grandfather’s funeral).
I’ve worked at a computer center for low-income residents and only the willing came in for free classes. I found one man, age 89 at the time, in his car crying because his gnarled fingers couldn’t grasp the mouse or type on the keys. He said he’d wait for voice recognition software.
But for many years, certain folks have not wanted or needed internet access. Now that I think about it, we probably had a hand in getting Jim’s folks to even get dial-up. Now his techno-phobe father is embracing the new technology, but only because we made sure they had a MacBook and trackball mouse (and wireless full-sized keyboard, but that was broken before they opened the box). He’s now doing cattle sales and genealogical research online, and all that over the past few months.
To the FCC: let the market do its job. If you need to put minimal infrastructure in the most far-flung places, let the demand get the companies to serve those communities. Forget about $30/month internet charges (I’ve never heard that low an amount) and ask why these folks don’t have a computer at home. No, I’m not suggesting the US public buy every household a computer. Bet they don’t have cell phones either.
Wait, I’ve a great idea! Let’s force a free computer, cell phone and broadband on every Amish and Mennonite household in the US of A! At only $56.000 per household, it’s a bargain. Aye, the luck o’ the Irish be with ye today, Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: Chris Wilson, rural broadband, Slate
It was this week last year that we braved a 1,600 mile trip north and west to our current location in ski country. Two cars loaded with clothing, two laptops, my food processor and Jim’s PlayStation, and the dog.
I didn’t bring one cookbook with me. Since then I’ve bought three, plus a couple of cooking magazines that caught my eye. HELP!!! I miss my “stuff!” It’s all in storage back “home.”
Not even having time to travel over the past year, I opened my suitcase a few weeks ago to a large piece of bubble wrap, and realize that I brought one photo with us, our wedding picture in a frame my mother-in-law gave me when she and I first met, a few months before we were married. Why I saved the bubble wrap in the suitcase was evident: this was a temporary move, but now we’ve stayed.
Cookbooks, books in general, are a comfort to me. Living in another family’s home with their furnishings is one thing; living with the things one has amassed over a lifetime is better. Searching through new and old recipes to get ideas for dishes to please friends and family is a passion of mine that I now have to do online. I have found old sauce recipes and new dishes online and that’s great! Still missing the books, though. I don’t care about the Kindle or any other book reading device, give me paper.
Now we have snow tires that will need to be taken off and replaced by all-weather tires next month (we didn’t need snow tires in Texas) and our small garage is being taken over by Things We Need To Keep (a one-car garage storing eight tires). It’s a joy to live here with a view of the mountains and wildlife, and ironic that we’re happy here and envision city life or country life for our long-term future.
There’s a box that came a couple of days before our actual move, from my mother’s estate. We were in such a state of chaos that it was moved, sight unseen, to storage. Air-conditioned storage. We look forward to having our own things about us, and having a few memories unsealed as well.
Happy St. Patricks’ Day! I didn’t make anything but bought some shamrock cookies for my hairdresser who will hopefully transform me into someone who doesn’t live in a desert climate! Cheers, Slainte, Dee
Categories: Cook Books · Editorial
Tagged: temporary lodging
… gauges. Ah, but yes, we do. What is the cook’s handiest implement (except for a brain?), the hands. I use that as a gauge for steaks et al. When it is a larger piece of meat another gauge may be needed. I don’t want you to get a turkey with the pop-out button because the turkey breast, well first the turkey doesn’t resemble any turkey known to humankind. Its’ breast is horrifically large. It still gets dry.
As to an entire turkey, you’ve a novice here as I’ve assisted but have gone elsewhere the past ten years so have not done one on my own. Can I roast a 3-4 lb. chicken and know when it’s done? You bet. All I need is to stick my boning knife into the thigh and see that the juices run clear, after basting it ever 20 minutes.
A turkey is a different thing. Given the chance (and I don’t want that chance because it’ll mean our dear Nanny is gone and 60 of us won’t go to Thanksgiving at her home any more) I’d break it down, and again, if I had a small group would look for capon instead.
So, Jim used his new instant read thermometer for the steaks grilled outdoors in the snow, and with one steak we even have enough left for me to make him steak and eggs tomorrow. Tonight is chicken, but roasted, more later. Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: badges, Blazing Saddles, old movies
My grandfather played violin, and concertina. Dad learned violin from his father at an early age and managed a US Army symphony overseas before heading back home, getting married and raising a family.
Dad worked his way through college (the first of his generation to gain a higher education) by playing square dances at local dance halls, then after college for a brief time he taught all instruments at a school on Long Island.
He gave us not only rented and owned instruments, he gave us music, music from his family for all to sing and enjoy. My grandfather died weeks before I was born, a refugee from Germany. I don’t think Dad even got his violin, concertina, or accordion after he died because three of my grandparents died before I was a year old, and he sold his father’s home fully furnished with his Dad’s carpentry intact.
I’ve given up guitar for the time being, but am still interested and studying on my own without the guitar. I’m listening, now music from Crazy Heart, but am working out the tunes in my head. I don’t have the skill yet to play them as I’d like but want some time alone to figure things out and decide if/when I’ll return, and to whom, after some music theory kicks in. See, Dad had that.
I was dumb enough to give it up at age 12 because the mall was more interesting. I grew up in a small village and had never seen a mall! And going for a couple of hours after school with girlfriends was great, especially after I could buy an extra shirt or pair of jeans with months of saved babysitting money!
Our Edelweiss
Everyone, even the poor, had multiple talents in those days. The rich had pianos in their homes but everyone learned a musical instrument. Thanks, grandfather I never got to meet, and thanks Dad, for introducing me to music via records and instruments. I love you, Dee
Categories: Editorial
There are red-winged blackbirds telling my dog not to walk beneath their tree (it’s on a public path) and geese coming in. Soon there will be snowmelt and the ducks and my favorite Greater Sandhill Cranes will re-appear.
This is the first and last I saw of these incredible cranes last year, from April through October. I love watching wildlife here, but love veggies as well and cannot wait until the farmers’ markets open once again. Since my organic mystery box is no longer an option, I’ll go to the markets and find whatever’s fresh and piques my interest.
I’m already thinking of planting herbs and flowers but my few containers are still covered in snow and the shovel has broken a couple of drip pans, which can easily be replaced.
Today I may make a stew. No, pot roast. And instead of regular egg noodles I’ll get pappardelle. Yesterday it really looked like holiday snow, big, fat flakes. That may continue today. A nice pot roast with noodles and tomato gravy, fireplace going, sounds like Sunday to me! Enjoy your weekend, Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: Sandhill Cranes
The privacy team. Now there’s a new government facility to be located nearby to listen in to anything anyone might say. Will its installation help the economy? Yes.
Years ago we had a P-Team pre-Internet that saw dangers in banking, healthcare, insurance and other industries that would erode personal privacy. My area was cable TV, and potential interactive situations that would leave consumer information out there to be mined.
Little did we know what was down the road. I still think our own self-appointed privacy team had the right idea in the 80’s. I’m proud to have been a part of that brotherhood and to see fellow members succeed in their careers.
I did a lot of work, plugging holes in the dike and pushing paperwork. This is the first chance I had to focus (and lose big) and it shaped my life, helped me focus on the important things and know for the first time it’s OK to have enemies.
My loving husband calls me a “feminist homemaker” because I had my share of battles in the workplace, as an advocate and volunteer. Cooking is always something I come back to, a grounding force, and cooking for two is much better than one.
Yes, I get my ire up over major government issues but so should everyone, pro or con. We’ve been too complacent over the years and the biggest battle over this healthcare issue is disinformation and lack of information. Insurance companies et al vs. The Bill Payers, which is us.
Just as we financed the banks that formerly financed us, now the insurance industry wants us to fund them too, because their business is to take our money, invest it and not give anything back.
We need to take this past the healthcare issue and the newly-issued jobs and education initiatives (to make healthcare pass or mask its flaming defeat) and think about where we’re going as a nation. A serious post, Dee
Categories: Editorial
There are specific and non-specific gauges. Like finding out about who likes a political candidate or the most popular television shows. Then there are specifics.
My dear husband, non-cook (but a phycist and software engineer) does grill while I’m in the kitchen preparing side dishes and setting him up for anything he needs on the grill.
The other night I made Jacque Pepin’s Grilled Lamb Robert with a 2.88 lb lamb leg cut. It was an unwieldy cut and I wanted to do the entire piece with bone and on the grill. As you may know, all of our stuff is in storage so I don’t have an instant-read thermometer.
Jim ran out to get one. What did he come back with was a tong device to instantly measure meat temperature on the grill, an instant-read thermometer, and an oven temperature gauge. Leave it to the physicist to get every gauge imaginable.
The lamb was very tasty, coming out at 135-140 degrees and resting. It turns out that at lower temps my oven seems to be 25 degrees above the set temperature, and at 350 degrees the oven thermometer registers 400. Nothing can be placed on the bottom two shelves because it’ll burn up.
Soft public opinion gauges say that measuring your oven temp and large roast temp’s are worthwhile. But that’s only my opinion. Cheers, Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: Grilled Lamb Robert, Jacques Pepin, oven thermometer
Last night, while deciding not to cook dinner and waiting for my husband to arrive home, I turned on Create TV and ‘Mexico: One Plate at a Time’ with Rick Bayless. He explained tacos (no, not the kind you get at a fast food US “Mexican” restaurant).
One preparation really interested me, Tacos al Pastor, with thinly sliced, marinated grilled pork, onions, and pineapple on small, soft corn tortillas. When Jim got home I asked where he wanted to go to dinner, knowing the answer. Our local Mexican joint.
In the past few weeks they’ve re-vamped their menu and right in the center, staring me in the face, was Tacos al Pastor! I mentioned to our Mexican waiter that sure enough, Rick Bayless had talked about and prepared that dish a couple of hours before! He evidently knew who Rick Bayless is. My husband asked, as expected, “Who’s Rick Bayless?”
Since we’re regulars and have had this waiter a number of times before, I asked if I could explain and he agreed. I told Jim, “he’s arguably the best gringo chef of Mexican cuisine in El Norte.” Our waiter laughed. I loved the dish! Folding up mini corn tortillas with pork, onions and pineapple and dunking it in a tomatillo salsa. Yum!
Find the recipe on www.rickbayless.com. Enjoy! Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: Rick Bayless
Nasty title, but it comes from Monty Python’s “Holy Grail” movie. It was funny at the time. Last year a stoat/ermine lived beneath our empty hot tub for a couple of months.
He was so darned cute.
Well, we saw him bring a dead mouse by and leave it for a few moments because Zoe flustered him behind the glass doors. The story is that our neighbors fired their hot tub maintenance man because he raised his prices so they hired a new person. The new maintenance person kept finding rats and other critters in the hot tub. The owners, who don’t live here, thought the old maintenance guy was sabotaging their hot tub by putting dead stuff in there.
A couple of months ago we met the owner and pieced together the real story. The stoat/ermine was living in our hot tub and keeping his extra prey a few feet away, and the old maintenance guy was re-hired on our recommendation.
And no, thank you, I don’t want a recipe for par-boiled two week-old rat, nor will I give you one. We told a real cowboy that story and he liked it. Cheers, Dee
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: ermines, stoats
aka “Why I Don’t Twitter.” Yes, I edit myself and try to provide you with the best copy/stories I come up with. But hear this. I’ve been bothered by a recent episode of Rick Bayless’ One Plate at a Time.
Permit me a setup. Twenty years ago I slaved in the kitchens of Margaret Fox at Cafe Beaujolais, in Mendocino, CA. It was a month-long unpaid internship and I wasn’t even allowed a portion of the kitchen’s share of the tip money, which I could have used for firewood because it was freezing in my unheated cabin. I’d spent all my savings on cooking school and a rental car to drive to and from work. Luckily the subletter left a mattress and several blankets, and flying termites by the thousands.
The infamous Diana Kennedy was coming to visit, doyenne of Mexican cooking. One cook was caught rinsing a painstakingly roasted chili to rid it of seeds and skin. NO! Diana Kennedy is coming! She came and went, I got to spend three hours driving her to the airport (I was the only one with a day off, new car and insurance) and she made us some lovely shrimp with garlic, and picked fruit and made us berry ice cream.
I very much enjoy chef Rick Bayless, can’t wait to go to Chicago to visit his restaurants, and am a new devotee of Create. I love Mexico: One Plate at a Time. He makes his dishes sound so easy for the home cook. Recently I watched him rinse off a roasted chili pepper to get rid of seeds and skin. I was told 20+ years ago that was a no-no because you lose all the flavor you imparted through the roasting process.
So I asked him, and congratulated him on winning Top Chef Masters. If there’s any top chef I’d like to apprentice with, it’s him, because he’s a perfectionist, an innovator, a classicist and seems to value the people who work for him. And his website made me make it 300 characters. That took four edits. Perhaps they just want to weed out people without the patience to whittle down to 300 meaningful characters. Anyway, this is MY blog and hopefully you’re still reading.
I love getting inspiration from others, moms who bake, cooks/chefs with other styles of food and ethnic traditions. Right now I just wanted to know if it’s OK to rinse the pepper and retain the flavor! It’s a pain not to use water except to get the skin pieces off my hands. I’ll let you know if he answers. In advance I’ll say Thanks, Rick Bayless, for being the creative chef you are and I’ll see you in Chicago! Cheers, Dee
p.s. 452 words, and I do this as a hobby! I would’ve been horrified to get this assignment in high school…
Categories: Editorial
Tagged: Margaret Fox, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, Rick Bayless
