damn, moose. i don't know what you've done for a living over the years, but...you coulda been a famous chef! 
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WHAT ARE YOU EATING TODAY?
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Contrary to the old adage about finding something you love to do, and doing -that- for a living, my observations have been that for the most part, or at least fairly often, when you find something you love, and you do that for a living, with the fickle and whiney nature of human beings, you'll soon find you no longer love doing that (whatever that was/is) because of the conditioning process built into having pissy people complaining about the product left, right, and center.damn, moose. i don't know what you've done for a living over the years, but...you coulda been a famous chef!
So, my limited time in restaurants at a counter dealing with people, taught me that restaurants are a great place to deal dope from or get cheap or free food and drinks, but not the best place to retain the love of cooking and eating.
Prep-cook work, from a secluded room with a good/decent stereo system, allowed a relatively safe distance from humans and was still strategically situated suitably for the drug dealing. a win-win, in my opinion.
*But if it's a sports bar and restaurant where the phone's frequently used by people calling their bookies to place illegal bets, that phone might not be the best choice for making drug deals, no matter how refined the agreed-upon code is.
The end conclusion is that one should cook for themselves and those they care about, not the general public. My sense of it, anyway.
Hey Moose,
That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.
Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat)
mad Irish eh..Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..
OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.
I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.
yellowfin and salmon sushi..
had it recently but this is for science
why?
finally got the real stuff..the fake wasabi japanese horseradish/mustard is good but I wanna try actual wasabi
almost grew it to being ready but shouldn’t have brought it outside,,it got whiteflies i could not get rid of
[painful loss after more than year.. may try again]
had it recently but this is for science
why?
finally got the real stuff..the fake wasabi japanese horseradish/mustard is good but I wanna try actual wasabi
almost grew it to being ready but shouldn’t have brought it outside,,it got whiteflies i could not get rid of
[painful loss after more than year.. may try again]
Very nice..The peas are great for a munch attack.
I recall being on vacation with herself, we has just dabbed some mdma and went to a Japanese restaurant along the beach front, I just wanted some alcohol, herself was up for a feed. She was yabbling away none stop, I couldn't get a word in edge ways.
The lighting was dimmed inside the restaurant and was rather dark, a platter of sushi arrived at the table
we both started sampling the different types and her goodself asks what is the paste in the bowl ?We couldn't tell the color of it as the place was in darkness and we were both of our bap.
Herself woofs down a good forkful of wasabi, minutes later she was gurgling on the jug of water..
Funny when I look back, there wasn't another word out of her for the rest of the night..
Deluxe mashed potatoes here get mayonnaise, butter, cream, sour cream, garlic, salt, black pepper, white pepper, granulated onion, a bit of either spicy brown mustard, Dijon mustard, and/or a touch of yellow mustard powder. Whipped nicely. If they're still too stiff after all of that, which can happen with good heirloom spuds, then a touch of almond milk adds just a bit more of the liquid.Hey Moose,
That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.
Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat)
Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..
OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.
I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.
We'll typically do a meal like this for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though not always the same main dish or side courses.
Birthdays, the people involved used to get to choose their 'special meal'. (*I look back on how my 2 of three adult children are now, and sometimes resent having gone all out for them, frankly).
4th of July here has always been a mixed bag for me. For our family as a whole, it has been just casual summer fare; maybe some smoked ribs or smoked pulled pork, or burgers, etc. Some watermelon, which used to be a spring, summer and fall routine occurrence for me, but whereas the fructose in watermelon (specifically) didn't used to affect me poorly, I can't say that anymore.
For me, as a former political activist, the 4th was and is a day of some resentment, so I would frequently or often not attend the local community shindig and/or picnic with any vim or vigor. My resentments about the recreation of many of the same plights by people who claimed to have achieved 'independence' as those they threw off that were invested in monarchy. Quasi-monarchy recreated in the way of Oligarchy. Dishonest use of the military via wars for profit, the greatest number of people imprisoned/incarcerated/arrested per capita in the world while celebrating 'freedom', the drug war(s), restrictions on travel/movement, and more.
So over time, I simply grimaced on that day, and if need be, attended the parade with my wife and kids because that's what kids want to do. And of course, occasionally sitting through the local village barbecue, where a fire-roasted young pig was often on the spit.
Other than Christmas, what are some of your big feast days that I, as a proud Irishman, should be aware of?
i grew up as a fishing brat, being allowed (nay, REQUIRED!) to lay out of school when the stripes/crappie were spawning in spring to fill family freezers. spent so much time on local rivers that i could cross the Hugh B. Day bridge at Rogersville and could tell where the striped bass would be. fed myself for years like that, being "professionally unemployed", lol. toyed with the idea of becoming a guide, but came to the same conclusion as you espoused. it might have been a career, but at what cost to my enjoyment of life? nobody has offered me a job eating bacon...yet.
Oops! Failed to reply to this inquiry, SX. Apologies.Hey Moose,
That was like reading a excerpt from 'bone in the throat' (Anthony bourdain)
Well done on bringing it all together, what did you wash that fine meal down with.
Shame about the breakfast sausage (sausage meat)
Deluxe potatoes? Are we talking nutmeg and cream.
I would of enjoyed being a fly on your kitchen wall, hope you all had a pleasant and enjoyable feast..
OK, I understand we are still in the month of November.. Will you be repeating this great feat on the 25th December? Do you guys tend to push the boat out just for Thanksgiving and not as much for Christmas or the 4th of July.
I'm clocking off soon enough, it's that time of the week for the black stuff..
Hope your feeling better.
Drank it all down with a Susitna Brewing 'Blizzard Blonde' ale at 5.5% abv, on sale at a local/rural quick stop and fuel station for $9.99/six 12 oz. cans (same place I scored a nearly half-price deal on half-size bottles of Patron Reposado and Blanco tequilas the other day), and some plain seltzer water and RO water, as well as medicinal green tea X's 32 oz., and 16 oz. of a marginal seasonal 'winter blend' coffee with a touch of 40% heavy whipping cream added.
While I went to our older son's place to pick him up my wife made a good, lower carb (not Keto but lower carb) apple pie in a crust that was 50% almond flour and 50% whole wheat pastry flour, and rolled thinly but still durable and loaded with a variety of cut up pie apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, whole wheat pastry flour, butter, etc., and sweetened mostly with what we now know to be a health hazard, erythritol and monk fruit blend, as well as a couple TBSP of 100% pure organic Canadian maple syrup.
Hey Moose I hear ya on the 4th, maybe something greasy to mark the occasion. St Patrick’s day and Christmas would be the 2 big ones, through out the year it would vary from season to season with the emphasis always on locally sourced produce. ( same as you guys) birthdays and special occasions would usually mean hitting the city.
We’re a nation of pork lovers, no getting away from it if you tried. We wouldn’t be known for our culinary delights when dinning out, some would disagree not me.
I get more fun cooking for others. Eating for one and left to my own devices it’s usually something simple like a bowl of rice noodles in stock. I tend to spend a fair bit of time in Asian supermarket’s when I can.
We’re a nation of pork lovers, no getting away from it if you tried. We wouldn’t be known for our culinary delights when dinning out, some would disagree not me.
I get more fun cooking for others. Eating for one and left to my own devices it’s usually something simple like a bowl of rice noodles in stock. I tend to spend a fair bit of time in Asian supermarket’s when I can.
There are a couple of Asian markets here, but the real treat is New Sagaya Midtown Market in Anchorage, where sometimes they're spendy, but they have (or used to) some of the best seafood, fresh produce, a hot buffet with a variety of foods, and a variety of Asian items that aren't found elsewhere, as well as a large selection of yuppie chocolate from all over the place, in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They also have cook ware, and my wife's HEAVY DUTY green stone mortar & pestle came from there when I had spine surgery down that way about 6-1/2 years ago.
At the moment I'm headed into town at -35 f. to pick up a deal on lifetime guarantee tall, heavy knit wool socks that are guaranteed for life and on this Black Friday (a gimmick for corporate America if ever there was!!), where a store in town is having a buy-one-get-one-for-$1 sale on them.
They're a sock brand I initially scoffed at, as they're notably more expensive than what I typically bought in the past, but the prospect of having a GOOD, well-made pair of heavy, tall wool socks that, if they get a hole, a dog chews them up, or they simply unravel, I just send the socks to their factory and they send me a new pair.
And at the time I first bought them, the tall wool socks I'd BEEN buying (Fox River) were starting to go to shit after about 6 months or less of winter use, with holes at the ball of the big toe, etc., so I figured that even if the ones I'm getting a couple pairs of today for Christmas for our oldest son are almost twice the price of the Fox River, I've never had a hole in the Darn Tough brand, never had them unravel, etc., and as stated, if they did suffer a flaw, I get a free pair for some postage.
I've now got a collection of the buggers, have given a pair last year to my younger son (regretting that at this time, by the way), and am going to give the full-price pair and the additional $1 pair to our older son this year. Functional gifts, especially considering how often he's out in the cold doing his primary job, and his accompanying me to the mountains/bush on occasion in the later winter.
On that note, I'm off to town 20+ miles away, as the Sun just barely starts to light the horizon here, but for the clouds. Giving me yet another chance, in addition to chauffeuring my older son last night, to assess the roadworthiness of this particular vehicle, as it's in cue as one of the possible rigs I might drive to Los Anchorage on Monday to score my rims and tires for my truck on Tuesday. Or the camper van, as it would provide a place to hunker down and sleep, were I to find a place near the city where I'd not get fucked with, or maybe the truck, and rent a cheap cancer patient-rate room. Who knows?
Anyway, the car's been running and warming up, so I'd best cease pontificating.
The Asian Market sounds a fantastic place to spend your day in, umami enters my train of thoughts every time i go through the doors, couldnt be in a better place. Always on the hunt for something different and inspiring to dish up, the King prawns are quality, the dumplings are cooked in front of you, dumplings I really like, the fillings are endless and are served with blanched chinese leaf, you really have to let your imagination go wild when making them I guess, creativity goes out the window. I'm guessing you would give these a wide birth because of the carb content, you might have to travel to Tokyo for the gluten free ones.
The mortal & pestle will out last your socks, im sure of it... Ya can't beat quality socks, I wear black socks and usually buy 10 pairs at a time, I stick with the same colour as they are easy to identify, I'm sure there's a sock fairy in the house somewhere.
Minus 35? my conversion is giving me -37 degrees Celsius Surely not..?
I've tried converting that into Celsius several times..
Campervan sounds perfect Moose, at least it will give you some sort of peace of mind..
Though, if those temps are correct a nice warm room would probably be more fitting, im sure you'll have the vape with you..
The mortal & pestle will out last your socks, im sure of it... Ya can't beat quality socks, I wear black socks and usually buy 10 pairs at a time, I stick with the same colour as they are easy to identify, I'm sure there's a sock fairy in the house somewhere.
Minus 35? my conversion is giving me -37 degrees Celsius Surely not..?
I've tried converting that into Celsius several times..
Campervan sounds perfect Moose, at least it will give you some sort of peace of mind..
Though, if those temps are correct a nice warm room would probably be more fitting, im sure you'll have the vape with you..
Your conversions are accurate. At -40, Celsius and Fahrenheit match up more or less.
We've seen much colder years ago. While I was down in SE Alaska on Prince of Wales Island, the unofficial low temperature at my old A-frame cabin on the Tanana River at Mellow Land hit -74 f. the winter of 1989/1990. A COLD motherfucker, for sure. Even down in SE where we were, in an ancient cannery cabin the Traditional Village Council President there had permitted us (my wife and I) to move into and fix up, in what was typically a relatively moderate Alaska climate zone, where we had the warming effect of the Pacific Ocean and could throw a rock into saltwater from our porch, we hit colder than -10 f., and our water line was made of flexible ABS plastic on top of the ground (not buried). Yes, it froze up that day or 2.
I love potstickers and Dim Sum too, but I have to eat micro-amounts of that stuff. The Japanese steamed barbecued pork buns used to be a favorite.
The large size Darn Tough Heavyweight Hunter socks are typically $30 to $33 a pair here. Today I got my older boy 2 pair for $29.45 USD after using the pittance of my wife's saved rewards points at the store.
I think these are a charcoal gray in color. They don't seem quite as tall to me as they once were, but who knows?
Down-side of the camper van is that it stands close to 10 feet tall, so in the wind, it's a bit of a sailboat. And the fuel economy is not that great, but also not horrible. It's also the only 2-wheel-drive vehicle we have here.
Haven't tried the furnace in the van in a while, as I have questions about the safety of the valve at the tank. But it is insulated a fair bit, especially the floor, but also the walls and ceiling, so when I had trouble with the furnace when driving it up from Washington State 2 winters ago, I left it idling with the defroster on all night at about 0 degrees f. in a bit of a wind and snow storm in Tok Jct., Alaska, and it was about 70 degrees f. inside when I woke up to make coffee on the stove. It's also nice to be able to stand up to take a piss, which is difficult in the bed of the truck or in the back of the CUV.
But due to fears of proper oil pressure in any engine, I hesitate to leave any engine idling for 8 hours. I've done it, but I get up even more frequently than I might otherwise to check oil pressure, etc.
On the other hand, the truck has HID heavy duty overhead lighting x's 4 lamps, plus the LED headlights and lower fog lights, the smaller CUV only has standard headlights, and the van has OEM old-school lighting that reminds me of the years I spent off-grid reading by a kerosene lamp, dull yellow. And coming back from Anchorage, about 5/6 of the driving will be in the darkness.
My wife is encouraging me to take the 13+-month-old German shepherd female, who is currently in heat. I'm thinking on it. Winter travel with a friendly critter that carries a body temperature of an average of 102.3 degrees f. is inviting, and she's a cuddler, but that also mandates a water jug, water and food bowls, and more stops.
And yes, the vape being onboard is mandatory!
I also found a new Vietnamese and Thai food place last trip down for the nerve conduction study earlier this week, and they do OK there. So, I had their lunch grub rather than the Himalayan and Tibetan place I was intending to go to. Might pay them another visit this time around. Their fresh spring rolls and deep-fried calamari looked inviting. Had the green curry with chicken the last time there.
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Those sort of temperatures are difficult to imagine, they really are..
Are nation comes to a standstill at -4/-5, I can't ever recall experiencing temps dropping below -9/-10 (talking record numbers) can you tell the difference between -10 and -30, just wondering the realisation of freezing point when your nose falls off.. Ruff sack with survival kit? Im guessing this is how the mind would be thinking having to face that every time. Moose, does your summer temperatures make up for the winter ones?
Hardy folk..
Your cabin sounds amazing and I have a nice Image of it..
Take the dog ffs, it's a bit of company if anything. If it starts snoring you can always check inn to that little room.
Are nation comes to a standstill at -4/-5, I can't ever recall experiencing temps dropping below -9/-10 (talking record numbers) can you tell the difference between -10 and -30, just wondering the realisation of freezing point when your nose falls off.. Ruff sack with survival kit? Im guessing this is how the mind would be thinking having to face that every time. Moose, does your summer temperatures make up for the winter ones?
Hardy folk..
Your cabin sounds amazing and I have a nice Image of it..
Take the dog ffs, it's a bit of company if anything. If it starts snoring you can always check inn to that little room.
Winter travel mandates that any thoughtful person have extreme gear with them; first aid kit, military bunny boots, shovel, markers and flares, layering of various warm clothing (I'm a fanatic for old-school woolens; nothing keeps like wool when wet in my opinion), heavy goose down arctic parka, scarf, headlamps x's 3, and the layering is so if you get stuck or have to be active, digging out or other exertion, you can try to control body heat and prevent from sweating. With layering you can adjust your clothing a little bit at a time to accommodate the temperatures and activity.
Sweating in severe (or any) cold can be literally a death knell if one gets too wet.
The old joke for back when we had more extreme cold was, "Yeah, but it's a dry cold".
How well your body's blood flow and acclimation is functioning dictates what each temperature break feels like. And each year adjusting to the extremes takes bit of time outside.
The other night it was close to -30 f. and I needed to inspect under the CUV to see if the tire shop had fucked anything up that they hadn't mentioned. I was wearing my wool shirt jacket over my fleece vest, with maybe a lighter merino wool sweater under that, and a t-shirt on under that, in blue jeans with my lighter weight fleece orange fishing gloves, and my beater (tore up) in-town bunny boots, and I noted as I lay on the hardpack snow next to the vehicle that it felt comfortable... for that moment.
The thing with cold is that one should NEVER wait until they're gravely cold to address the issue. Lighting a fire takes nimble hands and adept thought ability. Maybe even use of tools of one sort or another. Cold can affect all of those things negatively. NEVER wait until you're cold to address it. And -always- have back-up clothing so that if you get wet, either from sweating or falling in somewhere, you can immediately dry off and keep your body heat about you.
Many people don't realize that hypothermia actually is more apt to come into play at marginal cold temps, like from just below freezing to near 50 degrees f. I think it's because the cold in those temps sneaks up on the body and the body heat is lost slowly enough that people don't feel it setting in.
Riding motorcycles cross-country in a drizzle at 48 to 49 degrees f., previously greased leathers soaked to the bone, and realizing that things were suddenly humorous that shouldn't have been, or that the coordination between the brain and the leg muscles when I went to stop were not in synch with each other, or putting down the kickstand on the bike and nearly falling over, were all clues as to what can happen in moderate cold temps where hypothermia is concerned. Add exhaustion to that and you might be fucked.
45 to 48 years ago in the north, especially in the Yukon Territory of Canada and in Northern British Columbia, back when the majority of the Alaska Hwy/Alcan was gravel, it wasn't terribly uncommon in numerous places for people to leave a stash of kindling near a signpost. The Carcross Rd. cut-off about 15 miles south of Whitehorse was one such place. I built small campfires next to the highway many times back in the day in numerous places when hitchhiking in the cold.
One trick I used often back then when hitchhiking down the Alcan in dead of winter (which I did many times; an embarrassing number, frankly... the hitching, that is), and uncertain if the warm front I left Alaska or Whitehorse under would coordinate its movement to the SE with my rate of travel, I would take cellophane and wrap up a tab of blotter acid, then insert it in between the wool liners in my chopper mittens and the leather outer mittens. If it got into the temperatures like -40 f. or much colder, and I was uncertain if I might fade away in my sleep in the cold if my -40-rated sleeping bag failed to keep up, I could take maybe a quarter tab or slightly less and stay awake. Unlike amphetamines, coffee, nicotine, etc., all of which lower the body temperature, my experience with LSD is that it is less apt to do so.
Back then if I was stuck near or at a lodge on the highway, for example Coal River, and I got to a point where I was exhausted, I would typically stomp down an area in the snow slightly larger than I needed for ample room for my tarp to lay down, then put the sleeping bag down on one side of the tarp, then fold the tarp over the bag like a burrito or taco. Though there are risks to not letting your sleeping bag breath, as your body's pores and your mouth respirate all night long while asleep, and tarps rarely breath well, and trapping moisture from your body in there adds to dampness.
The nice bit about that technique is that if the snow is deeper than (for example) 18 inches, and you've stomped out an area for your tarp, if the wind kicks up, you're in a sort of snow pit, and the wind will cruise right over the top without fucking with you much.
If it was cold enough as to make me question the wisdom of going to sleep at all, however, as mentioned, there were means by which to stay conscious. But you didn't want to eat so much of the acid that you were giggling when or if a ride or cop stopped.
I learned what gear was best for hitching rides at -50 f. often through trial and error, and didn't lose any toes, so it was all a good learning adventure.
Never compress your woolens, or wear boots so tight that the air pockets in your wool socks are so compressed to the extent that they don't exist. You'll get very cold very quickly. I promise. Hard learned lessons. Wool is similar to fiberglass in that regard. The air pockets are what stores the heat. No air pockets and you'll get COLD.
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