On Ziplock And Other Home Mysteries

The Perpetual Ziplock Bag

As I did the dishes tonight, I looked at the one quart size Ziplock bag on the counter. I should check and see if there are any holes in it, then clean it if there are none. Can I state that I DO NOT LIKE washing Ziplock bags? Washing them is a pain in the ass. There was a time when one just used your bag and then tossed it. Then there was a gradual movement that said that was wasteful. You should wash and reuse your bags. But if you used such a bag to freeze things the likelihood that it could be reused was slim. It would get holes. Great. Now I could throw the bugger out, not have to clean it, and not feel guilty. 

But sometime a few years ago, the Ziplock folk changed the formulation of their plastic. Now this stuff lasts forever! It seems so counter to U.S. corporate culture. They should want us to throw these away all the time so we buy more. But no, due to their pursuit of quality, I am condemned to washing bags over, and over, and over.

The Eternal Dishwasher Tablets

Some time in the distant past, we purchased a box of Cascade tablets for dishwashers. They do a reasonably good job. There is only one issue. The box never empties. It has been at about 40% full for as long as I can remember. This is good economically, but is truthfully a bit weird. It seems to me it should have been empty ages ago. What going on? Is reproduction taking place? And if it is, is it asexual reproduction like amoebas?  Or is there an ongoing washer tab orgy taking place on the bottom leading to new tablets being born. Even more disturbing...is there a window to another dimension on the bottom of the box and we are getting leaked dishwasher tabs from somewhere else in the multiverse? Is there another reality where a different incarnation of de-I is blogging about the amazing disappearing laundry tabs that diminish faster than they can possibly use?

We live in a strange universe.

Pulled Pork Innovation

We have eaten down virtually all of the smoked meat in the freezer. With the coming of the warm weather, it is time to start the smoker up and begin barbecuing. I already had a piece of pork shoulder in the freezer so pulled pork was first on the agenda. I have kept refining my pulled pork technique over the years. 

I've learned that you won't get a large piece of meat cooked to the proper temperature unless it is truly at room temperature when it starts smoking. That means taking it out of the refrigerated brine the night before. 

I learned about the chemical reaction that causes the internal heat rise to stall and the ways to get around it. 

I've refined my brining technique so the flavor is evenly distributed through out the meat. 

This weekend, through necessity, I've discovered a way to get around the super long time necessary to get a true pulled pork. Actually I haven't gotten around it. I have learned how to turn it into two separate cooking events. 

This started because (as I've mentioned previously) Wife and I don't like to eat large meals in the evening. But to have a pulled pork ready for a 2 PM dinner would mean starting at 2 in the morning. That isn't going to happen. So I conjectured, what if I brought the meat up to about 85% of the way on the smoker (that takes about 8 hours) the day before it was desired. Then took it off. Refrigerated it overnight, and then cooked it the rest of the way in the oven the next day. The challenge would be to get the cooking process restarted so it emulated the long, low cooking in the smoker. If it heated up too fast it would get tough. If I heated up too slow we'd be eating on Monday.

My technique was as follows.

• I had the meat wrapped in aluminum foil while in the refrigerator over night. I kept it in the foil during this entire second cooking process (that helps with overcoming the 'stall' mentioned above).
• I took the meat out 5 hours before the cooking started, again to get the internal temperature up.
• My initial oven temperature was 400 degree. The meat's internal temperature was 65 degrees. 
• I kept the meat at this oven temp until the meat internal temperature got to 120 degrees. This took an hour.
• I reduced the oven temp to 300 degrees. It took the meat another 2 hours to get to an internal temperature of 185 degrees.
• I reduced the oven heat again to 250 degrees. Over the next hour, the meat gradually got to my target of 200 degrees internal temperature. 
• But just before it reached that internal temperature, I dropped the oven to 200 degrees. Now the heating temperature was matching the internal temperature. 
• I left the meat at that state for about 30 minutes while prepared the rest of the meal.

Now the moment of truth. Meat is placed on a cutting board. I take my two large forks to start (I hope and pray) the pulling process. I have been at this point many times only to find I had a very nice roast pork but not pulled pork. Like Zorro, eight quick pulls and the entire roast is in shreds. I am bemoaning not having someone taking a video of this. 😭😭😭😭

And the flavor? Magnificent (he says with traditional de-I modesty). 

I am thinking I might use this as the 'go to' method for producing pulled pork.

My NEW FAVORITE Condiment Direct From Sweden

Talk about GREAT imports from Sweden

 Crispy Chili in Oil!

What?

You claim this is not Swedish!

Well I made the acquaintance of this delicious condiment in the #2's refrigerator in Malmo where it is a favorite of 3A. Then on my last couple of days in Gothenburg, I was in the supermarket and by golly, there it was. So I snapped it up and brought it home.

It is very dry so it keeps the heat somewhat localized on the tongue and mouth and not so much going down the throat (which for those of us with reflux damage is a great thing). It also has some kind of umami component but since the label has no English, I'm not sure what. 

Happily I can get it on Amazon!

😁

 

Sunset Cornucopia

I am sitting in the Man Tower. It is 7:45pm. The nightly show that is sunset is getting ready to begin.

The amount of variation from night to night amazes. Some nights you can see it build right away and announces it will be spectacular. Other nights, it seems as if nothing special is going to happen, only for a late display to occur. There are the variations for when there are clouds in the sky and variations for when the sky is completely clear. 

I used to prejudge. I would look at the sky and say, "Oh, we're not going to have a very nice sunset tonight." Then I would be surprised because something would occur much later. Now I take each night as it comes.

So each night as I listen to my music, write, read and/or watch YouTube, I am filled with the cornucopia of delights that is the sunset sky.

Hiking Resurrection

This morning I got up early. I put on hiking boots for the first time in years. I gathered up hiking poles for the first time in years. I went for my morning walk. In recent years, I have been happy just to do some walking along the neighborhoods. But as I have got into a more stable pattern of walking after a long period where doing any exercise seemed so difficult, I kept saying to myself, "You should really go back into the foothills. You can do it." But breaking the barrier of inertia held me back. 

I think to some degree Wife not being able to do her walking has motivated me. I felt the last few years, she was the one who was the fighter, going into the foothills and pushing to ensure we both were staying in shape because she motivated me to at least do something. Now I feel I must hike for both of us. I feel if I put in the effort it is not just for me, I'm psychically giving energy to Wife to speed up her recovery. 

All I know is it felt great to be back doing something I felt had been lost forever. 

Prognosis Good! (Foot Injury Update)

Wife had her appointment with the domestic podiatrist surgeon. They took new X-Rays and were happy to see things were still in place and showed signs of healing as they should. He confirmed that her activity level was okay and said staying in the boot was the optimum treatment (no cast necessary). 

This is all great news for Wife. He is okay with her taking the boot off as long as she is not moving the foot. He even gave her the green light to drive (as her injured foot is not the one she uses to drive. 

Wife will go in again for another X-Ray and check up in 6 weeks. 

Eldership Mission Sweden - The Navel Gazing Post

As is traditional after all of our trips, it is time for the mandatory self-reflection on the experience. 

The trip itself was almost an afterthought. We originally had planned to go to Malaysia in March but we had to cancel that due to the Wife blood clot scare in November. Once we got the green light that she had recovered, I pleaded for us to go somewhere, anywhere just to get back out traveling (remember we were in the middle of the remodel during all this!). Normally, I would not have chosen a Nordic country (You might remember our experiences in Norway, Tromso) and our experience in Finland where the whole country closed down on Oct. 1. But we wanted to be close to family and we hadn't seen the #3's is while so we selected Sweden.

As it turns out, maybe not a surprise to those of this area, the part of Sweden we were in was quite different from the other places in the Scandinavia/Finland we've visited. 

We Have A Name In New Mexico For Late Spring Weather In West Sweden. We call it...WINTER!

 I'm sorry, I may come back to Sweden many times because the daughter and family are here, but you will never get me excited about a place where everyone is pumped and in shorts when the temperature hits 65 degrees!

Easy Getting Around

Whether we were in our public transportation phase in Gothenburg or our driving phase after Wife's foot injury, it  wasn't all that hard getting around. Of course, we avoid rush hour times but in general, it was quite easy to get around. It wasn't necessarily cheap. Transit was okay, not a bargain, but not unreasonable. Parking for the car was expensive. Our vehicle got great gas mileage so we didn't spend that much on fuel. Driving was relatively mellow with most people following the speed limits fairly closely. 

 Ease Of Interacting

 In general, this part of Western Sweden is pretty English speaking friendly. We had very little difficulty no matter where we were at communicating. This makes for a much less stressful time.

Despite Injury, We Got A Lot Of Shooting In!

The whole area we visited, both in city, and in country, had way more of photographic interest than I would have thought originally. It was a bit of an unintended blessing to have the excuse via having a car to get out of Gothenburg and explore a bit more widely. I think Wife and I are looking forward to further explorations around Sweden when we visit #3 and family in the future.

So Important To Travel

 Despite all the drama, fear, and anxiety with Wife's foot, I was still so incredibly happy to be traveling again. It makes me whole. It gets me out of a routine in the U.S. where I like I am less rounded, less exploring, less expanding of my inner self. 

Discovering Swedish Cuisine - Finally

It took a while, specifically once we had a car and were out of the larger town of Gothenburg that we found 'local food'. And we were very happy with what we found, Like the Spanish menu del dia, lunch was a bargain in most of the places we visited with some kind of salad bar and a main course and drinks. There were way more veggies on the plates we ordered then we expected. They were well prepared and we were happy to have them. The food was almost always well prepared and flavored. Alcohol, in general, is more expensive since it is a State monopoly. But, all in all, eating was enjoyable and not horribly expensive. 

In Conclusion

If the #3's were not living here would I come back? I don't think so. However, with them being here, is this a country worthy of more exploration? Yes!