Not sure if I have ever put asparagus and mashed potatoes together, other than if they were both separately on a plate. But, I peeled three medium Irish potatoes, cut them up into relatively small dice, and then boiled them. I diced about 12 stalks of asparagus (normally I cook asparagus as single stalks) and steamed them, knowing I was going to add them to the mashed potatoes.

Once the potatoes were done, I mashed them adding both lots of margarine and some Half-n-Half. I thought the potatoes were smoother, but actually ended up liking the semi-chunkiness of the finished product. The asparagus worked really well mixed into the mashed potatoes. Good flavor!

I had this with a re-heated lamb round-bone chop, some pickled beets and cabbage slaw. The potatoes would also go good with beef liver or maybe even a hamburger patty.

I have some spaghetti sauce, curried chicken and Mexican Salsa Chicken in the refrigerator. I bought a wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano at Wegmans the other day, and grated some on what I don’t recall. I still had some of the Publix Roasted Chicken that I had pulled the meat off the bone and had in a Tupperware container in the fridge. I put half of the chicken in a curry dish, and the other half in the Mexican dish.

In the past I have started with chicken thighs or breast meat and cubed it. The basic ingredients are the same, the main difference is whether I add curry powder & paste, or Herdez Salsa Ranchera (along with pepper flakes, Chipotle & Cayenne powder, jalapeno and/or Poblano). The other common ingredients to the two dishes are “fire roasted” diced tomatoes, carrots, onion, and sweet (yellow, orange or red) bell pepper.

Whether the curry or salsa dishes, both go well with rice… or a baked sweet potato (with sweetener, margarine and sour cream).

I’ve mentioned this previously, probably several times, but for years I used either Delmonte or Hunts Spaghetti Sauce starter. The cans got smaller through the years, but basically were about $1 each, until Covid. I’m not sure when I started adding a can of diced “fire roasted” cubed tomatoes, but that is now a necessity. I will also add ground beef & onion and brown them. *For years I added a small can of mushrooms, but don’t find that necessary any longer.

I’ll cut up some sweet (red. yellow) bell pepper. Some red pepper flakes. *I also started adding fennel seeds several years ago. I had bought some Italian sausage (which I found included fennel seeds) and found the liquorish flavor pleasant. Once, I bought pork sausage & some ground lamb, and added that with the ground beef. I can’t say there was a great difference, and especially for the extra money, it wasn’t worth it.

Within the last year, I was watching ATK or Cook’s Country and they mentioned RAO’s spaghetti sauce started. I looked for this some time later and I think I found it in WalMart, then saw it in Food Lion also. A jar of Rao’s costs about $8. So when I opened the jar of Rao’s Marinara sauce, I decided to only use half of it at a time.

I was completely surprised at how good my spaghetti sauce was when I used the Rao’s. *Through the years I had come to make spaghetti sauce about every couple of weeks. One “batch” of sauce normally would provide 3 or 4 meals. Lately, I only feel like making spaghetti sauce at home about once a month.

Oh, I normally like to use Angel Hair pasta (because it cooks much quicker), but have tried various shapes of pasta through the years. Farfalle (is that bow tie) doesn’t cook evenly. The pasta fans cook quicker than where they are pinched together. I like pasta shells, but normally like them for other dishes. *The pasta shells (small/medium) work well for my shrimp/kielbasa/zucchini dish. They soak up the sauce. I have used the egg noodle pasta, but that does not sit well on the fork. They fall off too easily.

I stopped at Wegman’s in Raleigh today. I recalled hearing that they were going to start charging for grocery bags, unless you brought your own. I decided to only buy what I could carry, but ended up paying a nickel for one paper bag.

You enter the store near the vegetable section and the vegetables looked so vibrant and good. Deep green broccoli and thick stalked asparagus. But, I wasn’t interested in veggies.

I turned to my left and headed through the bakery section. Almost immediately I noticed an assortment of rolls. One type that caught my eye was an Onion Roll. Note the beautiful crust above. And they were shiny. I went online to try and figure out what the other roll was, but don’t see it, or don’t recognize it. They were each $1 but I only bought two.

The onion roll was really good, and the other one also.

I found the dried Chorizo that I had bought there before. Then there were some Castelvetrano olives. I saw some Mirin style sauce and bought it. Never bought Mirin before and “style” means it’s not actually Mirin. Sweet, corn syrupy… I think I would just use some Agave Nectar if I wanted to sweeten an Asian type meal. *Not too long ago, I found that “toasted sesame oil” is the flavor that I associate with “fried rice”.

I have found that I can order the “Thai Basil Chicken” lunch special at Maguro’s, eat half, and take the rest home. I then sauté some onion and sweet bell peppers, add a little more toasted sesame oil and add that to my lunch leftovers. I actually think that my addition makes the dish better. And having done this several times, and thinking the same thought, this is true for me.

I haven’t used the electric wok that Yvonne gave me in a long while, but have always thought it was really easy to use. Cut up some chicken into cubes, cut up onion, carrot, colorful sweet bell pepper, add some sugar snap peas, flavor with toasted sesame oil, and/or soy sauce, und viola. And cleanup is a breeze… if you do it immediately after.

Bought a small wedge of the “1924 Bleu” Cheese. I think the first time I bought this was within the last 3 years. Bought it at Whole Foods in Raleigh, and when I tried it, it was the best blue cheese I ever had. It is a good flavored blue cheese. *Haven’t tried this yet.

I boiled a couple of eggs this morning (9 minutes). Cooked some bacon in the microwave (about 4 minutes). Made some egg salad with a little margarine, some Dukes mayo, a little ground Long Pepper… salt, regular pepper, powdered garlic. Warmed a slice of bread in the microwave for 12 seconds. I think I warmed left over coffee, from yesterday, with a little Half-n-Half, some Splenda, Agave Nectar and a little Coconut Sugar. *The coconut sugar doesn’t have a coconut flavor, to me, but a cocoa flavor which I like with the coffee.

I’ve written about this type of breakfast before, but what I don’t understand is that this morning, when I sat down in my easy chair and took my first bite of the egg salad… it was delicious! And the bacon was delicious! And the bread went well with the egg salad and bacon. From the first bite, I knew this was special, but I couldn’t tell you why. I’ve used the same steps above on many mornings, but everything came together today. A real “comfort food” meal!

I continued to organize my Christmas presents for Mary Ann, Jamie, Raymond and Lawrence (and Jeff Mitchell) and decided to use the little glass jars for the replacement nib for the Everlasting Pencils. I saw advertising on one website that said one of these pens is equivalent to 22 No. 2 pencils. You don’t have to sharpen them. They never grow shorter with use. So, a pen, with a replacement nib would be equivalent of 44 No. 2 pencils.

I’ve got just enough Murray River Salt and Long Peppers to give all a good sampling, if they want to sample (or just throw them away). The Murray River Salt is in small flakes, so you might use some of this as a “finishing touch” on some food. The Indian Long Peppers have to be ground, and I have a nice little “mortar -n- pestle” and I grind just one pepper piece at a time. Of course, if you have a little coffee grinder, that should work well for grinding the Long Pepper. I’ve included a small amount of the Coconut Sugar, if someone wants to try it with their coffee or Egg Nog.

I’ve included “Lady Cream Peas”, Green Split Peas, and a little Country Ham bits. If they want to try, then it won’t cost them anything… a little onion, chicken stock, a carrot and/or leek (maybe).

I had noted to myself earlier in the day, that I might not want to drive to Southern Pines to Maguro’s since I would be driving up tomorrow (Saturday) for Christmas dinner with the Mitchells. Planning on Christmas dinner, on Christmas, in Hubert this year. And, later it came to me that I could go down to Lumberton, NC to Pier 41 (seafood restaurant) and I wouldn’t have to prepare any Hot Mustard (for the egg rolls) or Toasted Sesame Oil (for their fried rice).

So, in the afternoon, I headed out to I95 and south toward Lumberton. It was windy, and the Interstate had digital signage warning about the wind. A lot of traffic heading south, which began to periodically grind to almost a halt. No accidents, but just some many people that I guess someone would slow down unexpectedly and that would cause a chair reaction for all. I decided early on to try and get on Hwy. 301 as soon as I could… but that ended up being the off ramp to St. Pauls. But, that was perfect. It took about 15 minutes to get on the other side of St. Pauls past the traffic light for their “Main” Street. *I asked my phone to show me the “fastest route to Pier 41 Restaurant” and it didn’t direct me back to I95. I actually think it took into account the unusually high traffic on I95 which was causing major slow downs. I was to stay on Hwy. 301 for a short distance and then veer off on a road, with “Siding” in it’s name. I was hoping that the app was directing me to the restaurant, and not something else with 41 in it’s title.

And, sure enough, after a few turns… and I actually ran a Stop sign. I can’t remember ever running a Stop sign but I was on it so quickly, and the actual Stop sign was low and in the shadows before I saw it. If someone had been crossing the intersection, I could not have stopped, and did not stop before I was mostly across the intersection and fading to the left. Very glad the intersection was in the ‘country’ and no one in sight on the cross road.

I finally came to a section of the country road with which I was familiar. I was coming from the opposite direction, but this was the route that I had used many times to go to the Mitchell’s house when they lived in Lumberton. And, sure enough, I had been directed in the fastest route, even coming up on Pier 41 from the opposite direction on Hwy. 41.

The Google Timeline segment above shows that I came through St. Pauls on the way down, but because there was a lot of traffic on Hwy. 301 heading north through St. Pauls, I decided to check I95 on the app after lunch and saw that heading north on I95 there was only a little section at St. Pauls where the route showed “red” for warning. And, sure enough, heading north on I95, it only became really congested at St. Pauls.

Okay, I finally proved to myself… Smithfield’s Chicken N BBQ has really good sweet tea… has awful unsweet tea! I would normally not order sweet tea at Smithfields. I’m Type 2 Diabetic and don’t need the easy sugar, so I did order unsweet tea, and then I had some really lousy unsweet tea at Smithfields. I have had really bad unsweet tea there several times, not just one location but many. I’ve sent emails to the company, and no reply.

When I say the unsweet tea tastes like someone put cigarette ashes in water, that is genau (exactly) what it tastes like to me. It is no exaggeration. And, no amount of sweetener is going to make it taste good. I’ve told this to friends, and have even said several times, “I used to love the tea at Smithfields, before I had to switch to their unsweet tea.” I didn’t think to actually try their sweet tea again, until yesterday. Damn, what a surprise. Their sweet tea was fantastic! It had a distinctive flavor, and it was sweet… and even the remainder, this morning was still a good flavored sweet tea.

Why would Smithfields intentionally make good sweet tea and intentionally make awful unsweet tea? Well, cigarette ashes are probably much cheaper than tea.

So, I had a stack of frozen beef liver (Skylark) that I had for some time. The liver slices were packed neatly as a solid frozen block, but slices individually wrapped also. But I just never seemed to have the desire to unthaw some of it and cook it… and I love beef liver. Get it sometimes at the Rainbow.

So, when I finally take the package out, each slice is also packed in a sealed plastic package. I take two out to thaw in the refrigerator. A couple of days, and now I am ready to try to cook this at home. I finally decide to peel a couple of potatoes and boil them and make some descent mashed potatoes, with margarine and half-n-half. They turn out well. I also open a can of garden peas, put some margarine in them and they heat well. When I slice the packages of liver, I pour out a little blood, and then the slices, which now appear as very thinly cut, ooze out into the pan. I don’t add any flour. A little olive oil in the pan, and oh yeah, I’ve also sauteed a small onion which I now add back to the liver in the pan.

Bottom line is that the liver turned out okay. The mashed potatoes with a little more margarine were good, and the garden peas were also good. I would say however, that although none of the four items mentioned (onion included) had any off flavor or bad taste, the whole experience wasn’t a super positive. Not really negative either. Let’s just chalk this up to my old age, and my taste buds not serving me as well as they have most of my life.

I think this thin sliced liver will make an excellent sandwich, with maybe some sweet mustard. Susssenf.

Here was another day trip to Goldsboro, North Carolina. I like the Longhorn Restaurant, which is in the Berkeley Mall parking lot. Although Longhorn is part of a chain of restaurants, their Crab & Lobster Chowder has better flavor than two others of this chain (Fayetteville & Southern Pines). Mistakenly, I asked for my burger to be “medium rare” where I normally just want a little pink in the middle. A good portion of this burger was too raw for me.

So, I normally go up Hwy. 13 which passes through Newton Grove. If I have the time, I will go around the circle in Newton Grove fully so that I can see all of the destinations.

I drove down to Mount Olive to get a small chocolate Frosty at Wendy’s. The price, and I was surprised, was about $2.34 cents. Now, the small cup was slightly larger than the size of the small cup when Wendy’s had a 50 cents special, but I’m not sure that four times as much for maybe a third larger container is actually worth it.

There is a dead end road which ends near the runway fence at Seymour Johnson AFB. I found it, and like to return to see if I can see some jets taking off or landing. I’ve missed them at least twice. Yesterday I saw a couple of jets that looked like they were on approach to land (passing nearly over Wilber’s BBQ Restaurant), but by the time I got around to my dead-end vantage point they were nowhere to be seen. Another thought was that they might be practicing approaches, and didn’t actually land that time.

The above three images were taken on a different visit to my “dead end vantage point for SJAB”. I’m guessing that the large airplane is a “tanker” used to refuel the smaller jets. It was landing. There were several smaller “fighter” jets that were taking off.

After SJAB, I headed back into town and stopped at the Library. The article regarding Margot Robbie wasn’t very interesting, although I think she, in the character of Harley Quinn looks a good deal like Jamie Pressly.

The picture of the Crab & Lobster Chowder shown above was actually the second one they brought to my table. I had already finished the first one, before the burger came. I didn’t eat the second bowl of soup, but the first was good. I love the bread they give as an appetizer.

I saw that the vessel San Alberto was travelling down the Cape Fear River toward the Atlantic Ocean. I wanted to see if the web cam at Southport would be able to capture the passing of the San Alberto. This web cam has a set of positions that it cycles through of various points of the Southport waterfront. You can’t control where or when the camera focuses in on a certain location, so I had to hope that it would capture the passing of the San Alberto, and you can see that it did.

I think the app says that the San Alberto is next destined for Norfolk, Virginia.

Web cams:

Downtown Wilmington [Surfchex]

Southport Waterfront Park [Surfchex] Should be able to see some ocean going vessels as they pass by (as San Alberton above).

Taco Bell is my “go to” place for a simple, comforting meal. I would like a beef burrito supreme, a bean burrito and a crunchy taco (regular). I might leave off the crunchy taco, or the burrito supreme sometimes.

I’ve spoken elsewhere about spiffing up my beets. I buy a cheap can of beets, sliced or whole, and pour off the canned liquid. I then add back some balsamic and red wine vinegar, with some sweetener (Equal). *Yesterday I was spiffing up some sliced beets and before pouring off the liquid, I tasted it. Surprisingly, the canned juice was both sweet and vinegary. I actually thought that if beets came in this sweet vinegar, I wouldn’t need to spiff them up myself. I then looked at the can and it said, “Pickled Beets”. I checked some other cans, and they didn’t say “pickled” but just sliced beets. These beets were bought at Walmart. If I can buy the beets with the sweet vinegar at a price close to the regular beets, I will. *I also thought that I might use the pickled beet juice to try and pickle some cauliflower. The white cauliflower would just soak up that reddish beet juice.

Late night, I decided to make some spinach dip. I checked and had a couple of packs of frozen spinach in the freezer. Just need one of those. Had the cream cheese, the Ranch Dressing packet, and some sour cream. Chopped up some yellow bell pepper and sweet onion, and a can of water chestnuts. Defrosted the frozen spinach and squeezed out most of the moisture. Mixed it all together and found some wheat crackers. It was good. I did not use a recipe for the amounts, and it might have been better if the ingredient portions were in the correct amounts.

This morning, I was looking on the Marine app and saw a new vessel in the Wilmington, NC harbor, the Yang Ming – Warranty. The icon for the vessel was large, and when I viewed the image for the ship, she was a large container vessel. I see that she was built in 2019, three years ago.

I was also looking at my various, favorite web cams, and stopped to look at the Wilmington view. Surprisingly, at about bridge level, the name “YAN MING” was displayed as if underlined by the bridge. I caught the vessel, in mid-stride as she was being turned around in the Cape Fear. I’ve seen that she was due in port at about 9 am today. Looks like she is inching her way to the dock.

ADDENDUM [12/23/22]: “Wilmington NC Sets Record for Largest Container Ship Arrival” article published 10/28/20. I just came across this article on the Maritime Executive website. The article includes three photos of the Warranty, the first time she came to the Wilmington, NC port. One of the photos shows the Warranty as she is being turned around, and as I commented, she looks as if she is almost touching both sides of the Cape Fear River during the turn. *This is one of those things, that “was meant to be”. That I happened to view the Warranty, as she is being turned around at Wilmington… that I just happened to view the Warranty as she was in the Panama Canal lock at Cocoli and that they had a webcam. [end addendum]

Looks like she came through the Panama Canal on November 3rd, and then headed up to New York City where she was in-port for almost three days. Then she came back down to Norfolk, VA and then is now docking in Wilmington. She is now hidden by one of the tall supports of the Cape Fear River bridge.

It is Wednesday, December 21, 2022. I just checked the Maritime App and the Yang Ming – Warranty was in the Panama Cocoli Lock.

There is a web camera at Cocoli Locks (Panama Canal Expansion). When I pulled up the page, the Warranty was there in the lock. It was moored, while the lock water line was being adjusted. I took several pictures (stills) and saw the mooring line going limp and then the ship beginning to move through the lock. She will now be in the Pacific Ocean, and I see from the Maritime App that the vessel is headed to Busan, Korea. The ETA to Busan is 01/20/23. *I checked online and 18 days is the suggested crossing time from the Panama Canal to the port of Busan, so I am not sure why the extra time for the crossing.

I was attempting to upload the lock pictures of the vessel, and am having a problem with Windows not being able to find the images. They would have been impressive. Perfect timing of the vessel in the Canal.

Managed to recover 5 of the 6 canal images I took.

ADDENDUM [ 01/26/23 ]: The YM-Warranty arrived a few days early and waited for her time to dock/moor and offload/onload. Today she made her way to the docks and moored in Busan, KO. She is scheduled to depart on 01/28/23. *Amazing about the turn around time, but nothing special about the “monotonous” circuit: Busan, Pacific, Panama Canal, Atlantic, New York, Norfolk, Wilmington, NC Port, Charleston, Savannah, Panama Canal, Pacific, Busan…

Addendum [01/26/23]: The BBC Volga arrived in Shanghai, CN yesterday, and proceeded to moor at a location on the Huangpu River Minhang District of Shanghai.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Shanghai,+Shanghai,+China/31.09484,121.4384354/@31.099631,121.4576454,376m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x35b27040b1f53c33:0x295129423c364a1!2m2!1d121.473701!2d31.230416!1m0!3e0

There is something wrong with the Google Map for Shanghai. All the streets are offset by about a block, so you see gray street lines that end deep in the river.

*Not sure if the BBC Volga has been sold. I would imagine that this vessel will stay near the China coast and run in the Asiatic Pacific. Doesn’t make sense for a vessel of this size to travel back and forth across the Pacific Ocean (like the YM-Warranty).

ADDENDUM [02/04/23]: When I referenced the “monotonous” circuit of the YM Warranty, I did not know there were several other ports to be included in China before returning across the Pacific to the Panama Canal. And worrisome, to me, is that the YM Warranty is currently anchored, along with many other cargo vessels, a short distance from Qingdao, CN. Worrisome, is that she is currently showing an ETA of 03/09/23? Why would you put the vessel “on the shelf” for over a month? It would seem that keeping her going, from port to port, efficiently (with just a few days in each port for loading/off loading) would be the goal.

I have not been able to pull up anything on the Web regarding why the YM Warranty is sitting just off from Qingdao, CN with a projected ETA of March 9th. But today, another reason for this extended anchorage came to mind. This may be COVID related. I see that some vessels were quarantined during the height of COVID. Although I have not been following COVID in China, I think they are having a resurgence. So, my current guess is that the YM Warranty is under quarantine.

The BBC Volga is again “on the move” toward Dalian, CN [ 02/10/23 ]. Interesting, to me, is that because the YM Warranty is currently sitting off from Qingdao, CN until about March 9th, the BBC Volga and YM Warranty will once again be near each other.

[NOTE]: Okay, March 9, 2023 arrived and the YM Warranty quickly made it into the port at Qingdao, CN. Not a clue why she sat idle just a few miles from Qingdao for over a month. I checked at least a couple of times to see the arrival dates of some of the other vessels that were parked near the Warranty, and all of them were scheduled just days from the date I was checking. The Warranty was being treated differently, for some reason. I still don’t know why you would take an almost new, extremely large, container ship out of the rotation, when we are having shortages due to supply line problems. [end note]

I found the airport on Lake Constance – der Bodensee, before I found Lindau, one of the shooting locations for the German detective show referenced in the above title.

I happened to go to Google StreetView for the airport and started travelling down a side road by the airport. Nothing of interest, except I started to see abandoned vehicles pulled off to the side of the road. I have images of three of these commercial vehicles. From the advertising on these vehicles, I visited their web sites… see links below:

Divario

Hunn Gartenmobil – Winterschutz

Transkona Logistik

Interestingly, while visiting the Hunn Gartenmöbel site I gravitated to a page entitled, “Winterschutz für Gartenmöbel” and I understood quite a bit of what was being said on the page, without referencing an online translation. e.g. “Wenn die ersten Blätter von den Bäumen fallen und die Abende kühler werden, ist es an der Zeit, die Gartenmöbel… ” One of the words, “Schutzhüllen” was translated “protective covering”. So, “Winterschutz” – winter protection, and “Schutzhüllen” for protective covering, were recognizable because I knew from my recent Duolingo practices that “Umweltschutz” meant “environmental protection”.

Eilguthalle (Restaurant)

One of the things I have gravitated to, in learning German, is to go to Google Maps and then the StreetView to see various locations. I’ve done this in connection with TV shows or movies that I have been watching. At some point I may see a restaurant icon, and I click on it to get a feel for that particular restaurant and inevitably, I take a look at their menu. Sometimes, rarely, the restaurant web site shows pictures of the food that they have on the menu. But often I have to type the menu item into a google search, along with some of the other included ingredients… and often I have been pleased to see several images of how others have produced the listed item. Their version.

Now, I don’t understand how baked beet root, risotto and green pea puree, even with Saffron foam can be priced at 22 euros. Still the four images above of baked beet root (none with Erbsenpuree or Safranschaum) “alles sieht für mich sehr lecker aus”.

So, just before I closed the web site for Eilguthalle, I came across their “Emphalung” for “Grüne Curry Suppe / Garnele / Bananen / Kokosmilch” apparently, a green curry soup with shrimp, bananas and coconut milk… hmmm? I couldn’t find any images for all of the ingredients listed above, but it sounds like something I might like to try. *I visited “Thai Lanna” restaurant today for lunch. This was the renamed “Thai Pepper” restaurant that I had frequented each week, for so many years. But, there is no more daily buffet, and the food I had, a “Basil & Chicken” dish, with rice just didn’t have a distinctive flavor. It was hot, very hot, and I had asked for very hot, but even sweetener did not “turn” this for me. I don’t get anything out of hot for hot’s sake. Oh, and no buffet meant very few customers, which I guessed at “probably no buffet” because there were very few cars in the parking lot, at a time, just after noon, when there should have been many.

Talked with a young black man, my waiter, in a protective mask (him not me) about “Tamed Jalapeno” peppers, and showed him a photo of the Mezzetas Tamed Jalapenos that I had tried previously. Also mentioned the “Jalapeno Pork” dish that I used to love, but hated the late night, early morning, results.