So...whats for dinner?
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Wally - I don't particularly dislike winter or have a problem with pretty snow, but…. On my.
Woke up to discover the furnace was out. House was 60 degrees. Spent the day trying different tricks to make it kick in and to find heating & A/C people who might come out - including the one I have a contract with. Nope - everything shut down & they won't sent techs out on the road. In any case, all the suppliers are shut down so no way to get parts.
Thank heavens I didn't lose power or water (so far). I have a Presto Heat Dish, so I can heat a small room adequately as long as we have electricity. And I have a gas stove so I can cook!! I'm choosing to have leftover pork & mashed potatoes & corn tonight, but I can have soup tomorrow - if the power stays on.
Snow stopped around 2pm and there's 2-1/2 + inches at my house. A/C heating companies expect they might be able to send a service call tomorrow between 1-3pm.
Since the sun came out after 3pm, there was some snow melting this evening. But it just left moisture on the driveways & roads. Projected 18 tonight. Can you see the ice? I understand those temperatures are nothing to those of you in snow country since I've lived in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City, but in Houston it's a major emergency. Hope everyone stays safe.
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Carole, Sorry that your DH has to wait longer for his surgery but that is better than driving in unsafe conditions.
Minus, It's good that your new computer is set up but too bad that your son had to leave early because of the weather. At least he got to have his favorite meal. I hope your power stays on and your furnace gets repaired quickly.
Wally, The Sichuan beef sounds good to me but DH would find it too spicy.
We got 8" of snow and temps are staying sub zero but at least this area of the country is prepared to deal with the cold. Hopefully everyone living where this weather is an anomaly will manage.
Dinner tonight was sis kofte, Turkish lamb meatballs, on rice.
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Nance - where in Texas did your BIL move? The state often has freezing weather around Lubbock or Dallas - but I've been here 50 years and never seen snow on the Galveston beaches.
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Hi all, happy to say I tested negative for Covid - yeah.
It’s 15 degrees here and the snow was minimal, just a few inches. It warms up a bit in a few days. Amazing to read about how you all in more southern climates are getting the snow. I get lazy about going out in this weather, so I’m doing my steps and YouTube videos for HIIT routines and strength/balance.
Minus - Hoping you don’t loose power ! And that the new mic works some magic for you. Which lavilier mic did you get?I’m having a craving for some curried potatoes with peas and tofu .. make that tomorrow. Tonight was leftover red lentil pate and spinach with brown rice and roasted cauliflower. Over the weekend I baked a raisin and chocolate chip quick bread with whole wheat flower/oat flour , adapted from a Peter Berley recipe. His called for walnuts which I’d didn’t end up having so used chocolate instead lol. Even my DH loved it.
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Minus - they are in Missouri City. Terrible about your furnace! Hope you can get it fixed ASAP.
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Rischaller - my son ordered a Maono USB Lavalier Microphone - AU-UL10. I'm using a desk top so don't have a built in camera. My accessory camera has a built in mic, but by the time I get close enough for clear speech my face is bigger than the entire screen. I really don't want to use a headphone w/speaker so hope this works.
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Minus, I'm glad you have a small space heater at least. UGH…I easily keep the house at 62 for comfort but i know it isn't for everyone. Reminds of the the 4 days of 90 degrees and our heat pump/ac went out on a weekend/holiday. Misery. Stay safe.
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"Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina....in a blizzard!!" Ha, not really, but we do have four more inches coming and very low temps (ice!). DH said "I can't believe I have to unretire my snow shovel!" Lentil and ham soup tonight since I did not have any white beans. Keep safe and warm everyone. Everyone is going nuts here and we are staying in!
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It's down to 61 in the house, with the boiler still trying to keep up. Ironic that it's older than the one in our 1908 Chicago house, which we replaced 5 years ago. This place was built in the 1950s, and I'd be surprised if the boiler's much newer than that. Wearing 3 layers on top (hoodie over sweatshirt over long john top) and heavy jeans over long john bottoms. Heating pad across my chest. When I go up to bed I will nuke the buckwheat pad and put it under the covers again—don't want to sleep with anything plugged in.
Dinner was from our neighborhood generic Chinese joint (Great Beijing, though I call it "Adequate Beijing")—Bob picked up hot & sour soup, pu pu platter and moo goo gai pan. Had a 2 egg+1 white omelet with peppers, onions, & Swiss cheese for breakfast (along with a small slice of sourdough) and a 42gm protein shake for lunch. Bob is off tomorrow so I'll make French toast for brunch. Various leftovers for dinner—stir-fry stuff from the crisper, leftover ribs, soup & the chicken-veg dish. Alternatively, Lou Malnati's is only 1/2 mile away, so we might order pizza.
My Apple Watch 9's battery refused to charge past 44% and even when on its Qi pad charger kept going down as far as 34%—despite saying "charging to full." Turned off a lot of stuff, especially background refresh; and was able to put it back on when it hit 60%. I generally sleep with it on its charger and wear an old Timex Indiglo to bed—so if I want to see what time it is, instead of stretching across my nightstand to tap the Apple Watch I just push the Timex's crown and it lights up.
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The sun is shining brightly and the snow scenes out the windows are brilliant. We ran dribbles of water in the kitchen sink and in our bathroom and the well pump out in the pump house did not freeze. DH has lights set up and is also using a little electric heater. Today the snow will be melting and ice will be forming on surfaces. By Friday the traffic should be humming again. I'm hoping dh's knee surgery will be scheduled for Monday.
We lowered hurricane shutters over some windows to help the furnace keep the house warm when we're up. Last night we set the thermostat at 60 degrees. We like sleeping in the cold. So far so good.
I had warmed up gumbo and rice for lunch yesterday and a big romaine salad for dinner. DH had warmed up chicken soup for lunch and gumbo for dinner. Today I'll thaw some Italian sausage to cook with Rao's and make a pasta dish for dinner.
Minus, I hope your furnace gets repaired today and your power is still on.
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It was 3F degrees this morning. Our well seems to be good (added…freeze proof) down to about -4F degrees, but…just in case, I got a roll of the pink insulation that I had left over from another project, wrapped the well head, and put an upside down trash can over all of that. I made sure it's a fairly snug fit so it shouldn't blow away.
Late last week I made some pumpkin soup. As others have noted, soup, on a cold day, is wonderful.
Last night Sharon cooked some salmon and asparagus with (lots) garlic and then put it onto some noodles. That was good. She was hoping to have enough for leftovers tonight, but I kind of dashed hat hope. :-)
I'm going to look through my collection of recipes and cookbooks to see what kind of soup I can make without having to go into town to shop. It is completely dry here—no ice, no snow, no rain—so not wanting to go into town is pure laziness.
Minus….has there been any progress on getting the furnace fixed?
I do quite a few video conference calls. I use a headset-microphone somewhat like an pilot's headset. it has clear audio, and leaves my hands free to type on the computer or take notes.
Carole. That will be good when the knee surgery is done. it's better to wait than to "ice skate" on the roadways.
Chi. I wonder if it got cold enough that the watch battery protection circuits "engaged". It's probably a lithium ion battery and those can't charge or discharge if the temperature is too hot or too cold.
I have a "no electricity needed" kerosene heater that is rated for use indoors. I mostly use it to keep my coffee and hands warm when I'm working in the garage. I've tried it, and it will keep the house comfortable if the furnace were to quit. I do keep a carbon monoxide detector with the heater just in case something "goes wrong" with the heater.
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Rhonda, Yay for the negative Covid test. The raisin and chocolate chip quick bread sounds better than the original recipe. Sometimes missing an ingredient has great results. Once when making shortbread I didn’t have enough flour so I added oatmeal to get the proper dry measure. It was so good that I now bake it that way on purpose.
Sandy, Sometimes the analog oldies like the Timex Indiglo work better. I haven’t been able to wear a wrist watch for several years but my Indiglo is on my nightstand. I empathize with the layers since I lived without central heating for ten years in the British Isles (coal fireplace / electric bar heaters.) The only place I was warm was in the car with the heater blasting. Our previous rental in NH (circa 1800) had no central heating but a wood stove kept every room but the bathroom warm via floor/ceiling grates. The rooms with plumbing were added on in the 1940’s.
Eric, No leftovers is a sign of a delicious meal. I hope the well doesn't freeze. In AR we had a tap connected to the well which could drip like an indoor faucet. We have town water now so that's one less thing to worry about.
Minus, I hope you are staying warm.
Reader, It’s a good thing you kept your snow shovel when you moved. Here it’s only going down to -20 tonight, better than last night’s -29. Thankfully it’s not windy.
Dinner tonight was chicken and cabbage stir fry with Cajun seasoning on rice.
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Heating tech showed up around 2pm. First thing he did was turn the heater on. (I'd turned it off since the gas jets weren't igniting but the fan was blowing 55 degree air. Damned if it didn't work. The best possible explanation is that the volume of the gas required in the line for a "newer" furnace is much greater than for a gas stove. So maybe there wasn't 365-375 WC. (whatever that is). So no one really knows why, but it's working. I've been gradually shedding layer by layer & only two left now. Fingers crossed for whatever reason it's fixed. But tomorrow will be 44 as opposed to 17 earlier this week, so the problem won't be as extreme.
Dinner was left over pork served as a sandwich on pumpernickel toast. After several bourbon drinks - either to celebrate or to hope it's true - I'm going to bed.
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The Sichuan braised red beef was incredible. Leftovers tomorrow.
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WC is "water column". It is measured with a U shaped tube (manometer) or an electronic device that simulates the manometer. It's for very low pressures.
I looked up a few things to make sure I remembered correctly. Sharon is uploading stuff and the internet here was too "bogged down" to be useful….so it was my wonderful book collection to the rescue!
The gas pressure inside the home is around 1/2 PSI (pound per square inch). I took a guess that the 365 number was millimeters. When I converted 365 millimeter water column to psi…it comes out to a tiny bit more than 1/2 psi.
I'm wondering if you had the natural gas equivalent of a "brown out".
Operating a gas appliance at too low of a pressure can be dangerous, so many regulators just "turn off" if they can't properly regulate the pressure.
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Eric - thanks for all the details. That's the only explanation I can think of. Furnace appears to be operating correctly 14 hours later - but I'm still wired. Only managed to sleep from 9:30p to 12:30a. Now that it's after 5am, I'm trying to decide whether to actually just get up & be productive or stay in bed & keep hoping to doze back off while reading a John Hart novel.
Wally - I searched for the Sichuan Beef recipe, but apparently you have to be a member of Milk Street to even see all the ingredients. If you posted it earlier, I missed it.
Carole - did your DH get the 2nd knee surgery re-scheduled?
Nance - the service tech today lives in Pearland - 18 miles from your BIL in Missouri City. He said they had more than 4" of snow.
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Hurray for the gas furnace working. We had a similar experience with our gas water heater. DH couldn't get it to ignite. The plumber came and ignited it with the first try. DH wasn't happy with paying the service call fee not to mention the male embarrassment. I know Eric will empathize.
He is now scheduled for TKR surgery tomorrow, thanks to a cancellation. We don't have the time yet. The temperature should rise into the 40's today so I'm hoping for safe driving conditions tomorrow. All the snow pictures on Facebook have been fun but I'm ready for getting back to our winter normal. I'm VERY ready to go back to the gym or walk in the neighborhood for exercise.
We had the Rao's with Italian sausage and linguine last night. Tonight will probably be leftovers of choice.
Milk Street is one of my favorite cooking shows to watch but I have yet to cook one of their featured dishes. It's interesting to see how much Milk Street has influenced ATK and Cook's Country. I watch them, too, along with some other Saturday PBS cooking shows.
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Minus, I too could not get the recipe. I found the ingredients on line (I'll post) and watched the video clip on PBS to get the order of things. SO glad your furnace kept working. (if the screen shot is too small, let me know and I can figure out something different).
Lots of leftovers.
Carole, glad the weather and time slot are cooperating. Nurse Carole will be great now that you've had the experience. Hope all goes uneventfully.
That site won't let me copy/paste, so I did a screen shot.
Here is the PBS link….https://www.pbs.org/video/the-sichuan-kitchen-8uCdxw/
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Wasn't Milk Street started by the same person that started ATK/Cook's Country?
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Yes, Eric. There was some huge falling out. I marvel all the spicy food they produce at Milk Street when he was such a fuss-budget about it on ATK/CC.
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Carole, I'm glad the surgery was rescheduled so quickly. Hope it goes well.
Minus, It’s great that your furnace is working. Now you need to catch up on your sleep.
With a high of 20 today and a low of 7 tonight it feels relatively balmy outside.
Dinner tonight was meatballs in Rao’s on spaghetti.
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Carole - wishing your DH a speedy recovery from surgery. Hope all goes well and it’s an easy procedure all things considered.
Wally - thanks for posting the recipe, I wonder if it would work with seitan.. might experiment this weekend.
Reading about the variety of temps and snow out there, I’m ready for spring. lol a bit of a wait … weather is warming up here, was a high of 28 degrees, but a bit warmer tomorrow. DH and I are going out tomorrow, for a date night.. just because it’s Friday and before the semester begins next week. Our neighbors are having a just because it’s still January party on Saturday, and then my son and his wife are coming to brunch on Sunday. Lots of visiting !
Tonight was Trader Joe’s spanikopita with steamed carrots and zucchini with brown rice, side salad .1 -
rlschaller, I can see it work with seitan. Probably less of the fermented paste and not as long a cooking time would be necessary, so I'd cut back on the water too. Ma po tofu uses the fermented paste but only a few tbs and that is tofu with a small amount of ground meat or veg.
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Macaroni and cheese and tomato with a side of fish sticks ( DH loves..) was Wednesday. Tonight was Taco boats with lots of veggies since the mac and cheese yesterday was homemade and hefty but delicious 😋
Maggie my husband's snow shovel was in demand!
Temps are expected to go up tomorrow. I'm ready. Also hoping we go out to eat tomorrow since it will be warming. I hesitate to go out with raynauds and other things when it's below zero- ish. Our favorite saying right now is " we didn't move south for this!"
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When Kimball was in charge of the ATK/Cook's Illustrated empire, he made a great show of being just a simple Vermont country boy/gentleman farmer (IIRC, he was born in Iowa). He was quite condescending to the women chefs on the show (and there was an undercurrent of a definite not-so-benevolent crush on Bridget Lancaster). When he left to start Milk Street, Lancaster & Julia Collin-Davison made the show much more enjoyable even as the recipes became more ambitious (even on Cook's Country). I love Dan Souza's science segments. The only time I tune out is when Erin McMurrer presents a recipe, because it's always multi-step, complicated, and often requires too much "resting" time. The cold brew coffee recipe—which required 24 hours after going through all the rigamarole—sent me rushing to the store for a bottle of LaColombe cold brew. I watch Milk Street, but I've never cooked anything from it. But half the products & equipment in my kitchen were ATK recommendations (the rest Consumer Reports, Alton Brown, or NYT Wirecutter).
Last night at Francesca's, against my better judgment, I ordered spaghetti Bolognese (I prefer tagliatelle, but they hadn't made any) and a Caesar salad, because I hadn't had either in at least a year or two. I allowed myself to be talked into gelato—one scoop each (allegedly) of pistachio and dark chocolate, but more like half a pint each because it was near closing time. It was the first time in a year I ate to the point of discomfort; and I couldn't face breakfast till noon today (wasn't going to work out on an empty stomach).
Tonight was the Rombauer Vineyards dinner at McCormick & Schmick's. (If the name Rombauer sounds familiar, Irma Rombauer of "The Joy of Cooking" was the founder's aunt). Started with tuna poke (with ponzu-marinated pineapple and Fresno chiles, napped with avocado nage, with sesame nori chips on the side. (Fun fact: one chip had as much calcium as a quart of milk, so no Citracal horse pills at bedtime tonight). Next course was a lump crab cake with butternut squash puree; then Ora king salmon wrapped in prosciutto and grilled, over wild mushrooms. Last savory course (and last with a wine pairing) was sliced wagyu sirloin with truffled au gratin potatoes and roast Roma tomato. Dessert was a Basque-style cheesecake (airy & fluffy, no crust, baked quickly at a high temp to brown the exterior, drizzled with caramel). No more food for me till tomorrow's paella-making class at Ba Ba Ree Ba.
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Ah heat… And yes Maggie, I slept for almost 10 hours straight. Today's meal was x-thin deli chicken breast & Monterrey Jack cheese on two Hawaiian dinner rolls. It was very late when I remembered I had to eat so I just nuked them until the cheese melted.
Carole - fingers crossed that all goes well with DH's knee surgery.
Wally - thanks for the recipe.
My long time BFF is coming to to town tomorrow & will stay with me for the weekend. We have tickets for La Boheme at the Houston Grand Opera Sunday afternoon. She's never seen it before. I have no idea what meals I'll serve. She's such an excellent cook and still make everything from scratch.
But first I have to take my car back to the shop. Struts, spring & links were replaced a couple of weeks ago & the car aligned. I discovered on the freeway airport trips with my son that it pulls to the right, so another alignment indicated. Hope I can get it back before noon so I can hit the bank & grocery store & liquor store.
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Minus, hope the snow & ice are gone—it's even dicier when your car is misaligned. My DDIL sent me a pic of her BIL helping her toddler nephew build a snowman…in Katy.
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Carole, please let us know how DH's surgery went.
I hope the alignment fixes the pulling. I agree with Chi about a misaligned car making icy road driving more challenging.
Thanks for the info on the ATK/Milk Street split. I knew there was a split, but didn't know the behind the scenes details.
Talking about the television cooking shows bring back a lot of memories.
I remember Mickey and I sitting in front of the television, watching "The Frugal Gourmet" or other similar PBS shows. Usually I'd note the ingredients and she'd note the process (she was the faster writer). Sometimes the recipe would work the first time. Often it took a few times to get it right and sometimes, it just wasn't to be. I still fondly remember the epic failures—her scrunched up face look and the tone of voice, "Ahh, if we have company, let's, ahh, not do this" :-) One truly awful beef recipe we took over to Mitzy, the neighbor's dog. Mitzy sniffed at it and walked away without eating any of it…obviously agreeing with our "truly awful" assessment.
And then Sharon……she and I made up a very nice recipe that called for beans. Until we sat down to eat it, I didn't realize she had used dried beans instead of canned beans. Dried beans don't work out well with just 15 minutes of cooking. She was both a naval officer and a merchant marine officer, and she used both dialects of "sailor language" when she encountered one of the beans.
And then there was my "oops". It was fortunate the fire extinguisher was a CO2 one that didn't leave any residue when the carbon dioxide "evaporated". I cut away the burned part and ate the rest. It was a bit like when folks char meat with a torch…except I used a stove….
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I don't watch cooking shows much, although I do enjoy them. I never was much of a fan of Kimble on TV - I thought he was a bit patronizing, but I was a big fan of Cooks Illustrated and Cooks Country magazines and had a subscription for many years. I have a number of tried and true often used recipes from those publications.
Due to a large late (unhealthy) lunch out at Five Guys dinner last night was the layered egg, potato, ham, broccoli dish. I don't know if it has a name. It's sort of a cross between a frittata and Spanish tortilla except it's baked. Whatever the name, It's delicious.
I never got around to making the ham and beans so that will be on tomorrow's menu I think DH is making pancakes tonight. We seem to be in a breakfast for dinner mode.
Sandy - too funny about the snowman. My BIL sent me pictures of something I've never seen - snow on the beaches at Galveston 😲
Eric - I've never actually caught a meal on fire (although I've burned plenty) but I have melted the entire front of an over the stove microwave by letting a pot run dry on the burner beneath it.
Good luck today Carole!
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I occasionally watch cooking shows for fun but more often those that make excursions abroad like Lidia Bastianich and Pati Jinich. I'm always amazed by the number of ingredients and the amount of time Pati's recipes require. It's interesting to watch but too time consuming for me to replicate.
Eric, I've done worse by ending up in a burn unit while cooking dinner. After I developed a baker's cyst and was hobbling around on a cane a medical provider sent me home to wait and see how my knee was in a month. While I was cooking dinner my knee buckled and my shirt caught fire when I fell. As the burn surgeon predicted since I have fair skin and am "older" the scars resolved in a year but I still have nerve damage in my hand and radiation field (it happened 6 weeks after finishing rads.) Needless to say when the same thing happened to my other knee I was given an immediate MRI to diagnose the arthritis and a cortisone shot which is the magic cure for me.
Sandy, Happy birthday! Your celebration dinner sounds scrumptious. The paella making class should be fun. I cook it in a skillet occasionally for the two of us but I think it tastes better when made in iarge quantities in a real paella pan.
Reader, Hopefully your temps will return to normal so you can go out to eat. I wear thermal gloves covered by cashmere mittens and wool socks to bed but have had to add a second pair of mittens and socks during this cold snap.
Minus, Enjoy La Boheme. That was the first opera I attended. Even excellent cooks enjoy eating a meal they don't have to prepare so I'm sure whatever you decide to make will be fine.
Carole, I hope your DH's surgery went well and he has a speedy recovery like the previous one.
Nance, DH would have breakfast for dinner every night if I would go along with it.
Dinner tonight was chicken Kung Pao on rice.
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