NOTE: I think I’ve written about this elsewhere, but search isn’t finding it today.
If you like beef liver, Skylark has a great little frozen 16 oz. package. It costs from $4-6 depending upon where you get it. I’ve bought it at both Food Lion and Walmart, and see that Publix is also supposed to have it, but the same package is a little more expensive there. There are 4 individually wrapped packages (4 oz.) in the 16 oz. package. *I know from experience, that it lasts a long time in the freezer, and still comes out good. I had bought a package of this, don’t recall from where, and had it in my freezer for probably more than a year. I was unaware that there were four individually wrapped packs of liver in the one 16 oz. package. When I saw this, finally, I took out one pack to thaw. *I’ve found a frozen pack will thaw in about an hour and be ready for cooking, which only takes about 3 or 4 minutes total. Just cut one end of the single serving pack and hold up the other end over your frying pan and it just slips out easily and starts cooking. Flip the slice in about 3 minutes and the other side cooks quickly.
I like liver. I like beef and calves liver, and chicken livers (and gizzards). Fry up some onions in the same pan, and maybe have garden peas and some mashed potatoes as sides.
A couple of days ago I ate at Smithfield’s Chicken-n-BBQ. I had a BBQ plate with slaw and potato salad as my sides. I’ve noted this before, that the potatoes in the potato salad are mostly mashed in texture, not diced or chunks of potato. I don’t like mushy potatoes in dishes or soups, but I do like mashed potatoes.
So, a day or so later, at home, I thought about German Potato Salad, and I thought why not try mashing the potatoes instead of leaving them as chunks. I don’t think of German Potato Salad (or American Potato Salad for that matter) as not being chunky. That way you get a vinegar & sweetener coated chunk of potato which also has a little, pure potato center. My mind repulsed at the thought of mashing the potatoes for German Potato Salad, but it also logically told me, “You like the flavors, its just the texture you are ‘bawking’ at.”
So, I had a couple of small potatoes that I peeled and then diced, and then boiled until they were soft. And then the unnatural act, for me, I poured a little red wine vinegar and some sweetener on the potatoes and then mashed them. Surprisingly, the potatoes took the consistency of mashed potatoes (when you use margarine & half-n-half), although a slightly more pinkish hue. I sauteed some small diced onion in bacon grease until they began to take on burnt edges. I also fried a couple of pieces of bacon in the microwave. Then I mixed all of it together and tasted it. *It was good, after all it had all of the ingredients that I love in German Potato Salad. It was however, German Potato Salad Mashed Potatoes. This would be good wherever you might normally eat German Potato Salad… fried pork chops perhaps.
Recall that I fixed some mashed potatoes to which I had added some steamed, chopped asparagus. Strangely, I loved this combination, but I had no desire to eat the left-overs. Well here are two variations on a potato side dish.
After my pacemaker operation, I returned home to my apartment, but I also had a knee brace on my right leg because I had fallen, when I passed out, due to low blood pressure. For a short time, I could not drive myself and was home bound. Both Russ & Deborah Savage, and Jeff & Robin Mitchell stepped in to help me greatly during this time, when I was so helpless.
The Savages bought me a Lasko 16 inch oscillating standing fan because my apartment was uncomfortably warm, even with air conditioning. *I just saw a video of how to put together one of these fans.
Here’s the thing. The operation was in 2019, and I have run the fan pretty constantly during the night by my bed. At some point I realized that the fan wasn’t circulating air very well, and I noted that the grating, both front and back had become clogged with lint & dust. But, as I often do, I became used to the fan not performing its function, except for that comforting sound as it swept back and forth.
Until today, this afternoon. I went into my bedroom and sat on my bed in front of the fan. I took an eyelet screw, that was on top of my night stand and started to try to remove the lint & dust. This would have been an extremely long and almost useless process.
I turned the fan in a different angle toward my night light, which the Savages also bought for me, during my time of helplessness. I was now able to see that the fan was manufactured by Lasko. I got online and searched for this fan, and see it is still advertised by WalMart for about $29.
I was looking for the suggested way to clean the fan, but instead found YouTube videos on how to put the fan together. But, this was enough to find that I could simply press the edges of the two fan grates and they would disconnect. Sure enough pressing around the edges popped the two pieces apart. Viola!
From the video, I knew the various components and how they were put together, and so I now also had a good idea of how to reverse the process. A few missteps, but nothing broken, and I had the two grates apart, and the fan blade assembly off. I took all three into my bathroom and turned on the shower and quickly the dust & lint was washed into the tub. I dried each part off with a paper towel.
I put the cleaned pieces back together and started the fan motor again. Oh my… I once again had a working oscillating fan. I’m not sure what I will do with all the fresh air blowing across my body, from foot to head, to foot to head… ad infinitum, tonight. And, as my mother reacted to getting new glasses and the world once again being opened to her. What did I ask her? Well, you had the money, why didn’t you buy new glasses long before now?
Why didn’t you clean the fan a long time ago, Bill?
I still had some pastrami, from Wegman’s, left over, some Swiss cheese slices, and a couple of slices of the seeded Rye bread, from WalMart. There was a container of sauerkraut, but I chose to throw it out and open a new can. But, the thought was that sauerkraut is probably one of the things that might last the longest, just because of the way you make sauerkraut… salt, water and cabbage… over time. *I tried to make sauerkraut once and it did not work, but I think that I used too much salt to water concentration.
I went through my routine for making this sandwich and I’ve got it down. I opened a bag of wavy potato chips, which surprisingly had remained opened for several days. I bought this bag of chips at IGA for about $1.38 plus tax. This is a small bag of chips, not the regular size, but perfect for me… who doesn’t have portion control.
The sandwich wasn’t bad, there was nothing I could point to that I would say was “off,” but as I finished the sandwich, sauerkraut & Thousand Island dressing, and wavy potato chips, I realized I hadn’t actually enjoyed eating this. *I am thinking that I don’t want to buy my pastrami at Wegmans next time. Have to find some other source. Probably not use the seeded rye bread from WalMart. Looked good, and had no off taste, but just want to try somewhere else for it.
NOTE: As I was putting the homemade Thousand Island Dressing back into the fridge, I saw my jar of spicy dill pickles. How could I forget to have a dill pickle with my pastrami sandwich?
I made some spaghetti sauce yesterday, and had some with some Angel Hair pasta. I used a half can of diced roasted tomatoes, about a half jar of Rao’s starter sauce, some sweet bell peppers (red & yellow), onion, chopped some raw garlic, fennel seeds & red pepper flakes. I add sweetener which, for me, makes the sauce. This turned out well, and it looks like I have enough sauce for two more helpings.
I took out some frozen chicken breast from my freezer and let it thaw. This morning, I fixed my Salsa Ranchera Chicken dish, and had half a baked sweet potato and finished off the cucumber & onion in vinegar with sweetener. The chicken dish had some diced tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, carrot diced, and onion. *The sweet potato, that I bought at Sprouts has been perfect for cooking in the microwave. I set the timer for 4 minutes, and these three times, the sweet potato cooked perfectly not too hard and just soft enough to be easily mashable, with sour cream, margarine, sweetener and ground cinnamon.
The Salsa Ranchera Chicken dish was delicious, the baked sweet potato perfect, and the pickled cucumber & sweet onion refreshing. This all worked together well.
ADDENDUM [ 09//27/23 ]: I was shopping in WalMart this morning and walking along the deli meat section. I wasn’t actually planning on buying any deli meat because I have uncooked pork chops, later bought round bone lamb chops, and have left over spaghetti sauce and some Salsa Ranchera Chicken in the fridge. But, I looked up and spied several Hillshire Farm offerings. And, there was a packaged pastrami, and it was in the little clear plastic container that has the red plastic top. The price was under $6 and I knew this was a good price because they make the containers to be easily re-usable. The top has printed advertising attached with removable glue that is easily peeled off and the container is microwavable and can go into the fridge also. I use these containers to store my sliced bacon after I open the bacon package.
I decided to try this pastrami from WalMart to make a sandwich. I did however, use the White Mountain Bread, from Publix, instead of the seeded rye. I made the sandwich the way I do, buttering on one side, flipping the toasted slices and melting the thin sliced Swiss cheese on the other side of the bread. Added about three slices of pastrami, a little sauerkraut on each side of the sandwich, and then the homemade Thousand Island dressing. I also put some extra sauerkraut on the plate and added some Thousand Island dressing to it. This time I remembered to get an icy cold spicy dill pickle spear. But, as I sit here writing this, I realize that I forgot the wavy potato chips.
But, today this sandwich and fixin’s worked really well.
There is a black man at Sprouts that is the “green grocer” and is friendly to me. Recently I saw some good looking sweet potatoes at Sprouts and bought one (because I had bought a not so good looking one earlier at another grocery store). When I got to the checkout there was a woman with a young daughter (the girl sitting in a grocery cart) just ahead of me, and I saw that she had a couple of the same sweet potatoes. This potato cooked in 4 minutes and was perfect. It was soft, and mashable, and mixed with sour cream, margarine, cinnamon and sweetener, was delicious. I bought a couple more sweet potatoes another day and have cooked another half of one, 4 minutes, perfect again.
I had told the green grocer about these good sweet potatoes and told him how I had cooked it in my onion cooker. He had said he had never tried cooking that way but wanted to. I recalled this a few days later at home, and happened to see an unopened onion cooker (had bought several a few years ago to use as Christmas presents) up on the shelf above my stove. I pulled it out and set it aside so that I would remember to take it with me the next time I went to Sprouts. This I did today, and took the cooker in with me in my bright yellow grocery bag. I walked to the back of Sprouts, where the vegetable section is located. I saw what appeared to be the black gentleman I had talked to earlier, as he was disappearing into “the back”. I waited near this door a short time and the man came back out. I asked if he was the one that I had talked to previously and we established that he was. I asked if he could “receive gifts” and showed him the onion cooker. I gave it to him as a gift, and he said he would take a couple of types of potatoes home and cook them with this cooker. *I recall that we give gifts to make ourselves feel good, not the person we are giving the gift to. However, if the recipient feels good about the gift, it does make me feel better.
Yesterday morning, I felt like having a waffle for breakfast. It had been a long time since I fixed waffles at home. I have one of those little waffle irons that the cooking surface once closed flips. I’m not sure why it flips, and I really would have preferred to have the old style that you just lift the top lid to pour in the batter, and lift it again, once the waffle is done to get the waffle. Not sure when I last had a waffle for breakfast at a restaurant. It might have been at the Shoney’s that was across town, but that has probably been closed for about a year. And, yesterday I went online to try to find a breakfast restaurant that offered waffles. There isn’t another Shoney’s in town. I don’t want to go to Waffle House. Had a weird experience several years ago at the Waffle House, in front of Lowe’s, down the street. Had ordered, received, and finished my breakfast there, and it was busy… I stood up and went to the cash register and no one was there. There was at least one cook, and several (maybe at least 3) waitresses all bustling around, but no one recognized me standing, for a long time, at the register. *I don’t recall what the catch phrase was, but I finally yelled it out, and the cook and all the waitresses stopped and looked over to me, momentarily. They then went back to what they were doing, and shortly thereafter someone came to the register to assist me. Still, you don’t want to have to make an “ass of yourself” just to pay your bill and leave.
I knew where my unopened box of Bisquick was. I have used almost the entire shelf in my bedroom closet for kitchen related overflow. I have a bunch of empty glass bottles & jars, even keeping some of the smaller spice-type bottles inside the larger Ball/Mason jars. Many of the regular sized Ball jars have the yellow plastic jar lids that I have kept from the myriad of Duke’s Mayonnaise jars I have had in the past. The regular sized Duke’s lids fit perfectly on regular Mason jars. The plastic lids do eventually crack and wear out, but they last a very long time, and you don’t have to fiddle with the two-piece Ball canning jar lids.
NOTE: I don’t recall the name off hand, but there is a company that sells various flavors of popcorn seasoning (dust). *I discovered these, and used several flavors profusely during the heart of the COVID epidemic. They have colorful labels, a different color for each flavor, and these labels are printed on a plastic film which can be peeled off the white plastic container. But each container has a colored plastic, flip lid. You just pop the lid open, sift out the desired amount of flavoring dust, and then pop the lid shut again. I found this sized container good, and useful for some other spices that I use regularly (garlic powder & celery seeds being two). If I could find a flip lid that fits my glass spice jars, I probably would use that instead. They exist, and I have a couple of spice jars that I’ve already put the flip top lid on (nutmeg & mace maybe). Recall that when I fry apples, I sift a little Splenda on the apples, and then use all of the following spices, not just cinnamon (cloves, mace, nutmeg, ground coriander and ginger & pumpkin spice).
So making the batter using Bisquick is as easy as making the batter for Jif-E Cornbread… Bisquick meal, milk, eggs and some oil. *And lately, I have gravitated toward making my cornbread more exotic by using my 3 types of dates, dried cranberries, and almonds or walnuts, etc. *I’ve already gone through my more savory cornbread period adding onion, jalapeno, poblano & various other peppers.
The waffle turned out great. I used some sugar free maple syrup and a little Agave Nectar also with some margarine. Bacon and a waffle, so good. *My waffles had begun to taste a little mealy and dry, so I added some sour cream, Greek yogurt and even an extra egg. Some of that made the waffle more moist and not mealy.
For dinner, I cooked a slab of calf’s liver, and steamed some asparagus, and some broccoli. I also microwaved an ear of corn on the cob and quartered one small Campari tomato.
A waffle and bacon for breakfast is probably the quickest meal to prepare. About 4 minutes to cook the bacon and even less, once the iron is hot, to cook a waffle. Add some margarine to the hot waffle, and pour on some sugar free syrup and Agave Nectar. *Note 12/18/24: The waffles have been a little dry and grainy for a while. I thought to add some Greek Yogurt and sour cream to some of the Bisquck batter and that did the trick. The waffle was moister and not grainy. I should add yogurt or sour cream each time.
Fried apples and bacon is the next quickest to prepare. About 4 minutes to cook the bacon, and about 8 to 10 minutes to fry the apples. Sift on sweetener, and then ground cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger, mace, nutmeg & pumpkin spice.
Egg salad and bacon takes the longest time to prepare, because you have to wait for the water to boil and then another 9 minutes for the eggs to cook. Four minutes to prepare the bacon that can be done while the eggs cook. When the eggs are cooked, their shells need to be peeled, and then the eggs mashed, margarine, and also mayonnaise, salt & pepper, ground garlic dulse and celery seeds added.
It’s been a while since I made polenta, or polenta cakes. I don’t see the need to make polenta because it is alot like grits. If I wanted a wet, grit-like item, I would just fix grits. Which I rarely do. But if I make a polenta cake, and that is as easy as cooking some polenta and then pouring the wet mixture into a pan to let it cool and then firm up, also losing some of its moisture. Then I have a base for sopping up some delicious gravy. Years ago, while visiting Asheville and “Trillium a Bistro” when Leisa Payne was the young chef there, I had a delicious polenta cake with some alligator sausage gravy.
Polenta is one of those things that when I fix it, I say to myself “Oh how delicious,” and I greatly enjoy eating it. But then I go a long time without fixing it again… until the next time when I do fix it and say to myself, “Oh how delicious!” I do that with the Curried Apple Soup also.
ANOTHER NOTE: The reason I just thought of polenta again, was because some time ago, I poured the wet polenta into my waffle iron and made a waffled, polenta cake. The idea was to provide even more surface area for gravy. The polenta did not brown up well, but did take the form of a waffle & this should be tried again.
Curried Apple Soup
Garden Pea, Leek & Tarragon Soup
Kielbasa, Shrimp, Zucchini, Onion, Tomato, Pasta Shells, Cayenne & Red Pepper Flakes
I found a small booklet, “Life’s Little Instruction Book” by H. Jackson Brown, Jr., in one of the Little Free Libraries that I have been visiting recently. I don’t read all the books that I get from these lending libraries, especially the large, adult books, but I do try to read the children’s books. The “Instruction Book” lists 511 different suggestions for having a productive and happy life. Upon Mr. Brown’s son going off to college, Mr. Brown wrote down a list of suggestions for having a happy life, and gave the list to his son. *If we reach an age of maturity, many of us probably have the urge to do something similar. After all, don’t we want to pass along our accumulated wisdom.
So, I started to read the suggestions. And, one of them, #114 “Keep fire extinguishers in your kitchen and car” inspired me to go online and order a couple of small fire extinguishers for about $30 total. *I have a cook stove that has a burner problem. It seems to overheat according to even a medium setting, so it has to be watched. Finally, I realized that having a small extinguisher for my kitchen would be prudent, and so inexpensive for the service it might have to perform.
Something that I should have ordered long ago, and that has been worrisome for a long time, is a belt. I bought a couple of the adjustable “military style” belts a couple of years ago, but these did not have a suitable sinch, and the belt would start to slip when wearing it until it didn’t hold the pants up effectively. *I didn’t order these belts, for about $25, because of a suggestion read in “Life’s Little Instruction Book.” But seems like I am motivated to make some changes and try some new things not tried before… now!
NOTE [ 09/22/23 ]: The belts arrived and appear to be of really good quality… but two problems already. The first problem is that the width of the buckle is too big to fit through my belt loops. I finally figured out that I could leave both buckle connectors connected to one end of the belt, and just thread the belt through the loops. Once the belt was threaded, I could then thread the belt into the other buckle connector. *But, and this leads to the other problem… how short can you make the belt, have the buckles fasten comfortably, but still be tight enough to hold the pants up. I’m not sure if the belt was slipping or if I just hadn’t tightened it enough at first, but the pants began to slip again. **It may be that I will have to get serious about learning how to wear suspenders.
My hammock (not the stand) arrived yesterday and although I have not completely unraveled it, it appears to be well made. It is a “family” hammock and is supposed to hold up to 650 lbs.
Having ordered the fire extinguishers from Amazon, my mind began to wander on to something I had been looking at regarding using a hammock for my nightly sleep. *This all began because some time ago, I started sleeping with matching bed sheets having been reversed upon my bed. There is a “fitted” sheet which has corners that slip over your mattress to hold the sheet in place. The top sheet is completely flat. But for some reason, I started putting the top sheet next to my mattress, and then using the fitted sheet on top. It felt good to slip into the fitted sheet, catty cornered, my feet going into one corner of the sheet, and my head into the opposite corner. The fitted sheet then acted somewhat like a banana peel and wrapped my body in a cocoon, and this was very pleasing to me.
I’m not sure how I toss and turn during the night, those few hours that I am actually in bed, but at some point I thought of sleeping in a hammock. This is not something I have ever done, or don’t think I have ever done. But I think it was a couple of years ago that I started pricing hammocks & hammock frames. There was an outdoor, bowed, wooden hammock frame that I liked, but I think I read a review about the wood splitting if the frame were left outside. Not sure why this hindered me from purchasing this frame since I was planning to use it entirely indoors.
So, for whatever reason, and maybe in a small purchasing frenzy, I ordered the hammock frame and a handmade hammock. Hoping that the hammock fits the frame, or that I can figure out what kind of connectors I might also need to purchase.
NOTE [ 10/10/23 ]: When the two fire extinguishers, from Novete, arrived, the box they were in was slightly discolored on one side, and there was the smell of ammonia. The safety pins were still in both extinguishers, and they both felt heavy, but I knew there had been some leakage, by at least one of them, during their transportation. I decided to keep them and take the chance that they both would “do their job” if, and when necessary. But, I did write a review in which I mentioned the leakage, thinking no more of it.
I don’t recall how long afterward (perhaps several days) but I noticed an email from Amazon that said my review had been rejected because I had violated their rules and asked that I re-write, and resubmit my review. My simple heading for my new review was, “If you smell something besides smoke when your extinguishers arrive, perhaps these units are not for you.” Yes, you would have to know that I am referencing smelling ammonia instead of smoke. *But, then I went back to read reviews and that is when I read at least 4 reviews that stated basically what I had said, ‘the extinguishers arrived, box discolored, funny smell. After I read these reviews I was confused in that Amazon had allowed these other customers, or potential customers, to write their honest reviews, but had not allowed me to do the same. **So, I decided to ask about a return. The Amazon rep on CHAT was polite, and the responses seemed to come way too quickly for it to be a live human being responding to my queries. There would be 3 or 4 “canned responses” meant to appease, quell my fears, belay any anger, that appeared immediately after my question or comment displayed upon the CHAT screen. No time for a human being to read, think about and then respond. This was a Customer Service bot that had honed it’s skills on thousands of customers.
But, after about 15 minutes, and me asking twice, “are you still there, are you currently working on my problem” the CHATter returned and offered to refund the amount, I chose from my VISA account, without me having to return the extinguishers to them. This is at least the second time that Amazon has refunded my purchase amount without me having to make a return. The other time was when I was attempting to order a 6-pack of Lime/Habanero flavored Tiger Sauce. When it arrived, the 6-pack was of Original flavor Tiger Sauce. Now I like the original flavor, but I thought the new Lime/Habanero flavor was better. ***The new flavor had been discontinued, but I guess someone was attempting to replace the new flavor ordered with the original that they actually had in stock. It is amazing to me that Amazon has determined that they can just “write it off”. That it is actually cheaper, and they would not do it otherwise, for them to just give the customer the item, and refund the purchase price. They don’t have to worry about whether I am trying to bilk them out of an item and they don’t have to pay someone to process a faulty (or potentially faulty) item back into their system… where they are probably just going to throw the return box, unopened on the trash heap.
While writing the above note, I checked the Tiger Sauce web site and surprisingly they are advertising the new Habanero Lime flavored sauce. I then went back to Amazon and they are also adverting the new flavor. The Tiger Sauce web site even has a “find a store near you” page that will show several stores and whether these stores are supposed to have the original and/or the new flavor sauce. Food Lion in Westwood Shopping Center is supposed to have both flavors in stock. I hope to see if the new flavor is actually in stock there later today. It’s a little after 1 am now.
In my Pastrami Reuben (Rachel) sandwich, the Thousand Island dressing and sauerkraut are the two ingredients that make the sandwich “messy”. But, to minimize the messiness, I toast the Swiss Cheese on both insides of the bread (toasted butter on both outsides). Then I put a few slices of Pastrami on top of each of the melted Swiss, then a little sauerkraut (moisture squeezed out) on one side, and some of the Thousand Island dressing on the other side. Then you put the two sides together, viola, a delicious Pastrami Rachel.
But, you only use a little sauerkraut for each sandwich. Previously, I have put some of the left-over sauerkraut in small Tupperware containers, and put some of those in my freezer. But, I don’t normally make my Rachel’s at home but every couple of months or so, so I finally came up with a most desirable solution. I just put some extra sauerkraut on my plate (not on the sandwich) and put some Thousand Island dressing on the extra sauerkraut. This is an excellent little side for this sandwich.
WalMart in the past, has sold both Dill PIckle Spears and Spicy Dill Pickle Spears. I like the flavor of both, but the Spicy Dills were better. But, I haven’t seen the Spicy Dills for sale at the WalMart that I regularly visit, for quite some time… maybe even a year. But, I found that I could pour out the pickle juice from the regular dills and pour the spicy dill juice from a previous pickle jar. An icy cold spicy dill pickle spear goes well with this sandwich.
When WalMart still sold them.Seeded Rye Bread at WalMart.Kosher Dills in Spicy Dill Juice w/ Spicy Dill Lid.
I’m not going to make fries at home for this sandwich (but fries are the way to go if you are at a restaurant). But wavy potato chips are just fine, with dill pickle, some extra sauerkraut and a well toasted Reuben.
NOTE: I just tried to put in a product request to WalMart (bring back the Great Value – Spicy Dill Pickle Spears), to start selling the Spicy Dills again. They apparently have been discontinued. Not shown on their web site. *But, I know this request is probably very low on their priority list, but Fresh Market has renewed my belief that things that have been discontinued could show up again on the shelves, even years later… maybe even 10 years later.
Fresh Market, a long time ago, used to sell various items, nuts (Cashews in this case) in large open bins, with a hinged plexiglass cover and a scoop inside. Customers would lift the bin lid, take the scoop and scoop out the desired amount of an item into a plastic bag… label it, and seal it, and then take it to the checkout to make their purchase. Well, Fresh Market sold “Wasabi Soy Cashews” for at least a couple of years. I liked the flavor of these cashews, and found that the flavoring powder which often remained after the cashews had been consumed, also flavored Toasted Pumpkin seeds well. So, the extra flavoring powder that was impossible to keep from the scoop was a welcome addition to the purchase.
So, at some point there was signage at my local Fresh Market letting the customer know that they were going to discontinue the Wasabi Soy Cashews. I visited several times and bought the last of the Wasabi Soy Cashews in their big bin. But, they also had a few small, plastic containers of these nuts which I also bought, the last. I did mention that I liked the flavor of these, more than once I mentioned it, but after several years, I was the only one that I reminded of this. I did try to create my own Wasabi Soy powder. I bought the greenish colored Wasabi powder, but couldn’t find a Soy Sauce flavored powder, except for the flavoring packets in the Oriental (Soy) Flavored Ramen Noodles. This didn’t quite match the flavor of the Fresh Market cashews. *These Ramen Noodles packets do work when trying to make a chip dip that requires Soy Sauce with cream cheese.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was shopping in the Fresh Market in Southern Pines. I go over there once or twice a month to eat at Maguro’s Hibachi Restaurant. The Fresh Market is nearby, but I normally don’t go there afterwards. I’m walking past their nut bins and happen to look closely at one of the cashew flavors… Wasabi Soy Cashews. WASABI SOY CASHEWS! Oh, my gosh. They were selling the Wasabi Soy flavored cashews here. I bought a small bag of them and there was a little flavoring powder in the bag.
It may have been the next day that I went into my local Fresh Market. They didn’t have this flavor of cashews in their bins, but I turned around and behind me were the small plastic containers, and sure enough one of them included the Wasabi Soy Cashews. I think they cost about $8 (maybe a half pound) and there was some of the flavoring powder visible in the bottom of the container.
I used the left over flavoring powder from the cashews and put it in a container of toasted pumpkin seeds. Yes! The powder made the pumpkin seeds just as good as they used to be (10 years ago).
**Decisions, decisions… I went back to buy another plastic container and noted that a couple of them had hardly any flavoring dust. But, there was one container that had a bunch of flavoring powder… but, this container was heavier, much heavier than the others. Apparently flavoring dust weighs more than cashews. And this container cost $11.02 while another was just $8.99. So, do I pay a couple of dollars more for the flavoring powder, or not. I chose to buy the dust, and already see that that was a very wise decision. Today I bought a container of regular roasted cashews at a different grocer. It only cost about $5.49. I put half of these regular cashews in with the Wasabi Soy Cashews and they became flavored. It looks to me that I will be able to flavor all of these regular cashews, and probably even a couple of containers of toasted pumpkin seeds.
I do not think that they will continue to sell these flavored nuts. I like this flavor, and have found a way to stretch the enjoyment to another nut, but it probably won’t become suddenly popular, and sales will once again lead to their discontinuance. Still, I never thought I would see them again on the shelf, but they are.
As my education continues, I was using Google Maps & Street View to get to know Esbjerg, Denmark a little. The BBC Volga was on its way from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Esbjerg. I don’t recall the restaurant, actually I think it was a pizza joint, that had Burrata as an extra choice. I had seen something about burrata months ago at another European restaurant, but I thought burrata was a type of butter. But, this time, I googled and found that burrata was a form of stuffed mozzarella. Okay, not exactly, but the pouch casing looks like mozzarella and soft curds and milk are inside this package.
Well, I found Burrata by BelGioisio at Publix online. And, when I went to the Publix in Talleywood Shopping Center, it was priced even cheaper than it had been online. I think it was less than $5. Other grocery stores had burrata priced much higher.
When I got the plastic bucket back home and opened it, I was surprised to find that there were actually two cheese pouches (resembling mozzarella cheese balls). I took one burrata ball out to warm it up and the other I moved to a smaller Tupperware container. I cut up a couple of Campari tomatoes, grabbed a handful of Sweet Basil from my porch and added some salt and olive oil. I also toasted a couple of slices of White Mountain Bread, but it cooled completely before I got to try it with the Burrata.
I gave myself twenty minutes, timed on my microwave, to let the Burrata warm to room temperature. It may have needed more like an hour to get to room temperature.
I cut the outer cheese package with a fork and scraped some of the soft curds out, mixing it with the basil & tomatoes. I also tried the toasted bread mixed with a little olive oil and cheese milk. The burrata had a slight flavor, but nothing distinctive. I do not find burrata a pleasing experience, but then honestly I do not find Mozzarella pleasing either. Mozzarella and tomatoes look good in pictures, but mozzarella is pretty close to flavorless. Mozzarella and Burrata would be low on my list of cheeses to buy and eat.
Not at the top, but 1924 Bleu is a delicious Blue Cheese. I like Capricio de Cabra and Bucherondin. I like Smoked Gouda. I like fresh goat cheese. I like Swiss Cheese toasted on seeded Rye Bread for Pastrami sandwiches. I like Sharp Cheddar Cheese, and American.
ADDENDUM: After reading some reviews on burrata, I am guessing that I will never go to Naples to experience a quality burrata. Nor will I be willing to pay for a quality burrata experience, if even possible in the U.S.
As I wrote elsewhere, a short time ago I visited a Jersey Mike’s sub-shop where I40 and NC24 intersect. There are quite a few fast food businesses located here… Smithfield’s, Wendy’s, Jersey MIke’s, etc. There was a KFC, but it has been closed for about a year, I think, maybe more, but the building has finally been boarded up.
So, my first visit was after 8 pm, and they close at 9 pm. But, I wasn’t rushed, but ordered, answered the sandwich maker… “Mike’s Way” includes everything… lettuce, tomato, dressing, etc.
I think I got a bag of some type of chips, a drink, and then sat down to eat my sandwich looking out the front windows. I think there were two female customers who had come in shortly after I did, and seems another woman that must have phoned in her order and left shortly with a bag, her order.
The sandwich was good. I liked the sweet vinegar dressing. *The experience was good enough that I attempted to repeat it at home. Not quite as good at home.
But, earlier this week I bought a couple of rolls & a blueberry bagel at Wegman’s in Cary/Mooresville. One of the rolls was a Portuguese roll which looked like a short sandwich roll.
So Wegman’s was out of their Cranberry Bagels, and I got a Blueberry Bagel. I like blueberry, but my favorite bagel from Wegman’s is cranberry. I also bought a Miami Onion Roll and a half loaf of Seeded Rye Bread.
I bought the Rye Bread with the intent of making Pastrami Rachels (Ruben with Pastrami instead of Corned Beef) at home again. I also bought some Pastrami and Swiss cheese and later sauerkraut. I made some homemade Thousand Dressing, which is simple to make and tastes much better than store-bought. The Pastrami Rachels were very good. I was able to make three of them using one slice of rye bread each time, and also eating a slice or two of spicy dill pickles. Three slices of Pastrami for each sandwich made a fat sandwich.
So, I got around to fixing my Jersey Mike’s “Like” sandwich today. I knew I had to do it soon because the bread was beginning to get hard. I sliced it in half, and then put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.
But, here is the trick that worked really well. I shredded the ice berg lettuce, enough for about two sandwiches, and put it in Tupperware container. I also chopped up some Vidalia onion and put that in the container. I added some Red Wine vinegar, sweetener, coconut sugar, celery seeds, garlic powder, marjoram, basil & oregano. I put on the container lid and shook this all together. I figured that I would get better coating of the vinegar dressing this way, and I did. *Also, I found that I hadn’t put enough of the lettuce/onion mixture on my sandwich so I went and got some more and put it on the plate. It was much more enjoyable to eat a bite of the sandwich and take some lettuce mixture in my fingers. Messier, but delicious!
Oh, forgot that I sliced a small Campari tomato and put that on top of the meat. I used the Deli-Sliced Honey Ham and Honey Turkey along with several slices of the Estonskaya from Golden Hex.
ADDENDUM [09/10/23]: I normally shop at the WalMart located on Ramsey St. when I do my WalMart shopping. They have had consistently good sweet corn on the cob this year, although they ran out a week or so ago. I usually buy my supply of Splenda, and the Pomegranate Lemonade & Sweet Tea flavor packets, and Chopped Clams here also. But because they didn’t have corn the last time I was there, and they were out of one of the types of flavor packets also, I decided to visit the WalMart nearer the Mall, and Cracker Barrel.
I walk into the side of WalMart that has their groceries. I believe that it was an oriental lady that was leaving that forced her empty shopping cart on me. As you go through the gate, their baked bread section is immediately on the right. And, to my surprise, right on the corner was a good looking loaf of Seeded Rye bread. And also, near the rye bread was a good looking 2-pack of “bake at home” baguettes. I did not note the “bake at home” notation on the package because the two baguettes looked perfectly baked for the purpose of using them as Hoagie rolls. Made a deli sandwich at home later, and still did not note the “bake at home” posting on the plastic wrapper. Even had to go to the trash to temporarily retrieve the bread wrapper to verify, “Yep, Bake at Home!” The bread was good for sandwiches without any further baking, and I even sliced a couple of small slices to verify that eating them that way was OK. OK.
Oh, almost forgot, I think the price for the two baguettes was only $1.98 plus tax. That is an excellent price for two loaves of bread, even if you do need to finish baking them at home.
NOTE: I know it looks like I am enamoured of food, and taking pictures of bread in WalMart might be strong evidence for this, but I’m also currently using an app on my phone to track and visit the small neighborhood “lending libraries” (book depositories on poles in various neighborhoods). I bought about 15 books at the recent Cumberland County Library Book Sale. Paid 20 to 25 cents for each book. I didn’t even visit the adult room where most of the books were located. I went to the first little room, which had children’s books, and while there looked behind me to see that they also had a cookbook section. The majority of books were for children, although I did buy a book about potatoes, about soup, about pasta, about Scandanavian Seasonal cooking and something else, that I currently do not recall.
So, I’ve already distributed most of the books I bought at the sale, and I am trying to religiously adhere to the take 2 leave 2 books at each location. I see my tendency is to take one and leave two, but then I won’t have anything to leave in a relative short time. I try to take a picture of the little book house at each location, and then I take a picture of the two books that I have taken. I’m thinking that I can reference these photos so that I don’t have to bring a book back to the same location from which I took it.
There is a neighborhood that I regularly drive through, and I was impressed by the quality of the books in that little box. I even felt a little guilty that I had nothing of the same quality to leave. *And to whom do I leave the book about pigs? Oh, and I also try to read at least a portion of each book that I take. I did get a nice pop-up version of Green Eggs and Ham.
Now while my old schoolmates (and I think about Agatha Christie, as I use the compound word, “schoolmates”) are actually visiting far away places like Iceland and Las Vegas, I am living vicariously by tracking various cargo ships (of different sizes) as they travel about the world picking up, transporting and off loading their various cargoes. The BBC Volga started this cargo ship fettish last November, a few days before Thanksgiving. Saw her coming into the Port of Morehead City, and used an app on my phone to find her name. *Never would have thought it, but since that time, and it is only 10 months currently, she has circumnavigated the Earth completely, from west to east, starting in Shanghai, CN. During that time she went through both the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal, in both directions, and even the Kiel (DE) Canal in one direction. She has visited the Port of Morehead City twice during that time.
Now if you could get off the ship, at each port, for a few days and tour each port, that might be an interesting life, but I don’t think these officers & seamen get to do that… and that would very quickly become BORING! Still, for me, each new port gives me the opportunity to use Google Maps & StreetView when available to get to know each city or town better. And, finding a restaurant or two that have web sites, with a gallery of photos, and exotic menus becomes quite informative and educational. And, I am still learning German, almost every day. I see something on a menu that looks interesting, but there are no online photos from the restaurant web site. I just copy & paste the short description from the menu, especially in the foreign language, and viola, there are a myriad of photos for these dishes. Yes, some are not exactly as advertised in the menu, but what ideas. Or I think to visit an Aldis or Lidl online and peruse their weekly specials… or even a non-chain local grocer that has an online presence. Zutat, suss Senf, Schweinshaxe, Topf, etc.
Or for Tynemouth and Newcastle, UK where the BBC Volga is currently located… I can ride down various streets and see similar views that were recorded previously. I visit a couple of restaurant sites. I see a large parking lot for brand new autos fresh off the ROROs, and I get a better understanding of the area. I am familiar with Brunswick, GA, and even came across a YouTube video regarding a RoRo from down that that capsized with the entire vessel and about 4K autos all destroyed.
And, there are excellent web cam views at Southampton, UK, Gdansk, PL and the Panama & Kiel Canals.
And my latest interest besides playing several games of Chess online each day, and solving their daily chess puzzles, includes actually reading the Agatha Christie novel, “And Then There Were None.” This is one of my favorite stories and I’ve seen about 4 versions (one even set in the desert with Donald Pleasance). And surprisingly, there is quite a bit of “leeway” taken by these story presenters. Not everyone dies in the end… or some of the characters don’t make the same fatal decisions, or have the same love interests from version to version. And I believe I’ve even read where Agatha Christie actually changed the ending, “during her day” because her audience didn’t like her original ending. *Still, the first time surprise where “the bitch just shot and killed him” instead of “fooling the judge into thinking he had won” and the two walking away at the end, instead of the one just hanging around (Ha, Ha!) was interesting.
Oh, but I found several copies of this novel online. But, the author seems to atrociously jam words together, incorrectly, instead of hyphenating or dividing them entirely as they should be. So much so, that I’ve even taken to re-writing (just punctuation, and spaces, and maybe a few spellings) the text version I found online. She heads chapters with numbers 2, 3, 4 etc., but within each chapter there are sections with Roman Numerals, III, IV, VI…
Oh and as I am re-formatting this story, it looks to me as if Agatha Christie was writing this story with the stage or a movie in mind. In fact very little re-writing would need to be done to get a TV script ready. *Okay, I don’t actually know what a finished TV/Movie script would look like, but I have some idea.
Actually, I’ve just finished my second really good Pastrami sandwich. Yesterday I made one, but didn’t have any sauerkraut. But, it was still a really good sandwich. I made some homemade Thousand Island dressing (forgot to add hot sauce to it). The pastrami that I got at Wegman’s comes packaged with about 9 slices of deli meat. I use three slices of pastrami for each sandwich, and only one slice of seeded rye bread, cut in half. I butter one side of both slices and toast it (Broil) in the oven. When it has some color, I turn the two slices over and place the Swiss cheese on the two half-slices. *Just now, I took the three slices of pastrami and placed them on the cookie sheet that I was using to toast the bread. I only heated the meat up while I was melting the Swiss cheese, and that was just right to not dry out the meat, but have it nice & warm for the sandwich. The cheese melted really quickly. I took the cookie sheet out of the oven and began to build my sandwich. I place one slice of Pastrami on one half-slice and two slices on the other half-slice. I then took a little sauerkraut, made a little ball in my fist and squeezed out the excess moisture, exactly as I do the thawed, frozen spinach when making my spinach dip. I placed a dollop of Thousand Island dressing on the meat and on the sauerkraut. The melted cheese and meat help keep the bread from getting too soggy from the moisture in the sauerkraut and dressing.
This makes a fat little sandwich, which is very tasty! I took a couple of spicy, sliced dill pickles that had been chilling in the refrigerator and put them on a small plate. **This time, I also had cooked an ear of corn in the microwave, buttered & salted it. The corn doesn’t necessarily add anything to the sandwich, but good corn on the cob it like bacon… it adds something special to the meal.
$7.75 for 9 slices of pastrami = about $.90 per slice, so $2.70 per sandwich.
$.70 for a slice of seeded rye bread, for one sandwich.
$.35 per slice of Swiss cheese = $.70 per sandwich.
Let’s go .35 for one dollop of homemade Thousand Island dressing and another .35 for a small amount of sauerkraut, so $.70 for those two items per sandwich.
Let’s count the dill pickle slices at about $.85 per sandwich. So the sandwich and pickles come to about $5.65 without having to pay additional tax and tip. I did not figure in refrigeration, cooking energy nor cleanup but it should be somewhere under $7 for this tasty sandwich.
Pastrami Rachel Sandwich Ingredients, Minus Dill Pickle Slices.
NOTE [05/01/24]: Publix has a White Mountain Bread, but they also have a Dark Mountain Bread. I used the dark bread to make a pastrami sandwich today. Buttered & toasted on the outside, and I used Wegman’s White American Cheese instead of Swiss, toasted on the inside. I had about four small slices of the Wegman’s Pastrami left. I made a little Thousand Island Dressing (chopped sweet onion, sugar free pickle relish, Texas Pete hot sauce, Dukes mayo & some ketchup, S&P. I mixed some sauerkraut with the Thousand Island dressing and put it on the pastrami, so that it would be in the middle of the sandwich. Even with the toasted buttery outside, this makes a clean, delicious sandwich.
I squeeze the moisture out of the sauerkraut before putting it on the sandwich, but I have also found that putting some sauerkraut on the plate and adding a little Thousand Island dressing to it makes a nice “side” dish for this sandwich. French fries would be good, or potato chips. I also added one of the Ranch Dill Pickle spears to this. The sauerkraut side would probably go well with a pan fried pork chop or maybe a fried Polska Kielbasa sausage. [end NOTE]
I don’t recall where I bought this little tea pot. I’m thinking it was in some antiques store, and I don’t know how much it cost, but…
There is a dragon head which acts as a handle on the lid. Another dragon head is sticking out on each side of the pot.
The dragon head on top of the pot has an open mouth, and there is a tongue which moves when you shake it. There is a steam hole beside the head of the dragon. This little pot comes close, but with just a slight modification, it could have been awesome. Instead of drilling the steam hole to the side of the head, the artist could have drilled the hole so that the steam could come out of the dragon’s open mouth. Now, that slight modification would have made this a work of art.
There was another teapot that I bought at an antiques store in New Bern, NC. I had visited this store several times through the years, and it was fun to roam about it. It was sprawling. But, a few years ago, I turned down the road to where this store was located and as I came to the gate, was surprised that the store was gone. Apparently, a fire, and now there was nothing but the small parking area that was out front (not paved, but gravel I recall).
I bought a tea pot at this store, and I bought a couple of Turkish glasses also. Both purchases may have been the same day. *The date was on the photo of the teapot and the photo was taken in the store. I seem to recall that I saw the two Turkish glasses almost immediately as I entered the store, and quickly took them up to the counter, and then went back to perusing the rest of the store again. The tea pot was white porcelain, with narrow bluish pin stripes going around the bowl from top to bottom. It was obvious that the vessel had been broken, and pieced back together, but here is why I bought it. It was the sound that the lid made as I placed it on the pot. The sound connoted excellent workmanship, and the feel was of a well designed door that closed perfectly each time. I did not know that the glasses were of Turkish design when I bought them. They had an ornate gold rim around each glass, and sometime later I googled regarding these glasses and found that they fit the “Turkish Glass” theme.
Bill Gibson, II 