Monsoon Reflections

I sit on the outdoor deck just outside the Man Tower. I am watching the sunset play its reds, oranges, and purples on the remnants of the thunderstorm we had a few hours ago. As is often the case during this season, there is a significant wind and I'm watching the trees sway in rhythmic harmony with the music I'm listening to through my headphones. 

I've working on my story as I do almost every night now. I keep looking up to see the next permutation of the colored light tableau in the sky, feeling the near perfect low 70's degree temperature, sipping my after dinner drink.

The Monsoon, the time when the summer heat causes the air over the mountains to rise, pulling moisture from the far away Pacific and Gulf of Mexico into our area. This then rises, cools and causes thunderstorms. It gives us humidity that is in the 35% range, three to four times the norm here in the desert. 

The days have a rhythm. There might be lingering moisture and clouds in the early morning. But it is usually clear and dry during the late morning and early afternoon. But you see the clouds building over the mountains. And by late afternoon, the storms come. Some times it is just a dribble. Sometimes it is serious rain. Then by mid evening it is all blowing off and the cycle will start again. 

This year we had a very dry winter, followed by a cooler and wetter spring. We only had a few weeks of the exceedingly hot and dry weather that usually marks May, June, and early July. Instead we got a much earlier Monsoon than usual. This has been a blessing for our garden, in particular, my tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles, and cooler loving herbs like parsley. I already have harvested some from all the above which is unheard of so early in the season.

The Monsoon. So lovely. So appreciated.

THE EPIC, COSMIC, SPECTACULAR REMODEL BEFORE AND AFTER POST!

I Was Wrong! 

I had a whole bunch of 'before' pictures. I just hadn't posted them when we started the project. 

When we started the project, I remember the two contractors saying confidently that this was a straightforward job and they should be able to knock it out in about a month. Well we are here at 4 and a quarter months and we're still not all the way finished. BUT, we are still going to do our before and after post because most of what's left is pretty small stuff. 

Living Room - Before

Living Room - After

Lounge and Library - Before

 Lounge and Library - After

 

 Front Bedroom - Before

 Front Bedroom - After

 (Sorry - Either a very bad picture because of bright back lighting or an astral plane image)

Oops - Somehow forgot to take 'Before' pictures of the Master Bedroom so only 'After' ones

Master Bath - Before

Master Bath - After

Small Bathroom - Before

Small Bathroom - After (including disco mirror and cosmic Japanese style toilet)

Small Upstairs Office - Before

Small Upstairs Office - After Man Tower Transformation

Large Upstairs Office - Before

 Large Upstairs Office - After (aka Eldership Bridge)

 Upstairs Exercise Room - Before

 Former Upstairs Exercise Room - After (use still to be determined)

 Other parts of house that were transformed but for which there are no 'Before' pictures

Three Cheers for the Impresario of our Remodel

WIFE!

Do You Remember The Remodel?

Do you remember that project that totally dominated the postings on this blog from February through early May? Wondering what happened? Assuming it was all an illusion and magically disappeared? 

Somehow in the Brouhaha of violent attacks on Wife's foot and trying to get back to normal on our return from Sweden, we kind of have just settled in without actually having an 'official end' to the project. One of the problems is there are still a number of small things that have not been completed. So if the job is 93% done, and it has been very frustrating getting those responsible to finish these last pieces. So, in fact, it isn't done. Another issue is Wife has declared that until we do all the final decoration (throw rugs, additional paintings, getting existing paintings up, etc.) completed the job is not 'DONE'.  

Now the problem with this is 'scope creep'. This is the fact that Wife Always has another idea of how to improve the beauty of the Towers. In this scenario the Remodel is actually never done! It's just a steady state of existence. 

Despite this at least three times I've started to take pictures to show the 'almost' finished product for a 'before' and 'after' post. Then I've been confronted with having done a piss poor job of taking 'before' pictures. I took a couple sad pictures of the bathrooms and COMPLETELY forgot about the flooring and painting which were major components of the job. 

SO. I've reconciled myself that I will only be able to show 'after' photos and have committed myself to doing so this weekend.

A #2 Family Fourth

Beloved #2 (aka Dowger Empress Poo Lee Shah) and the remains of her clan are scheduled to go off to their next work post, Medan, Indonesia, on July 27. It will be a much reduced clan. 2.2 is continuing her studies in Spain. 2.3 will be starting his university studies at Xavier in Cincinnati in August. So it will only be 2B and 2.4 who will be going off this trip. We very much wanted to see them before they leave. However, with Wife still in her boot and with limited mobility due to her broken foot. It was just not practical for us to fly and see them. Despite all the stuff they have to do to get ready to depart, they made the decision to come visit us for the 4th of July weekend.

We were very glad they did and we had a really good time. 

Put 2B and I in any given physical space and one can be sure there will be massive amounts of gastronomic activity. #2 wanted to be sure to get her NM Chile fix and bring certain things with her to Asia she can't get there. 2B also was on a NM food reminder kick. He also brought 4 bottles of wine with him for us to do a wine tasting. 

I planned a major 4th of July feast with smoked ribs, three kinds of kebabs (lamb, pork, chicken) and four kinds of vegetable kebabs (yellow squash, eggplant, mushrooms, onions) with Syracuse salt potatoes, and a strawberry pie (made by #2) for dessert. That was followed by our watching the entire city of Albuquerque a glow with home delivered fireworks from the upper deck of the Man Tower. 

A particular highlight of this trip for me was the time I spent with 2.4. As is the case with all of our grandchildren who have had their growing up years far away from us, it can be very difficult to develop a relationship. 2.4 is 11 and he has developed a real interest in cooking. This turned out to be a major opportunity for he and I to bond.

We started on Thursday. 2B & #2 really wanted to go out for NM food for lunch, there first real meal here. I suggested to 2.4 that he and I could go get a burger at local chain, Lottaburger, and then he could help me start prepping all the meat for the 4th. He jumped at the opportunity. 

 Me showing my pathetic selfie skills showing us at Lottaburger

 This young man has seriously good knife skills for his age. He wanted to and I let him cube all the meats for kebabs. This was some 4+ pounds of meat. Then we got to work on the flavorings. I seasoned the lamb with classic French garlic, thyme, rosemary & red wine, the pork with a Georgian combination of grated onion, oregano, & pomegranate molasses, and the chicken with an Indonesian inspired Salt Soy Sauce, Sweet Soy Sauce, & Five Spice Powder. 

2.4 showing some serious mortar and pestle skills pounding herbs taken with his own selfie video

Here are our meats ready to marinate overnight

 While we were doing our Georgian Pork marinade, 2.4 said he had seen a way to avoid the onion eye burning by doing the grating under the stove exhaust hood. I decided to give it a try.

You can see what happened

The next morning on the 4th, he and I went out again to Lottaburger for their great breakfast burritos.

Slightly better selfie of us taken by me with local mountains and blue sky in the background.

That afternoon he cut up all the veggies for the kebab (there were a lot). Today, on Sunday, he helped with making brunch. I had a grilled veg frittata. He cracked and mixed all the eggs. I fried up potatoes. He cut all the potatoes. 

Seriously, this young man was a GREAT help and saved me a lot of time...not to mention us having real quality time together.

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!

😁