Another Trip to Washington, North Carolina? Hopefully.

January 22, 2025April 27, 2025 bgibson135

I’m hoping to travel to “Little” Washington on Friday, but am wondering if the restaurant, “Down on Main Street,” will be open for lunch then, and/if the Friends of the Brown Library will still be having their Book Sale. *I see from the Friend’s Facebook page that they are suggesting Wednesday (today) be a snow day, and for volunteers to show up on Thursday, so it looks like a go for now.

We had a “big” snow last night which has been reported worse east of I95 and on the North Carolina coast. It doesn’t look that bad out my front door. There is snow on the ground and on the cars, but my sidewalk is mostly clear, with a little salt from before the snow.

I enjoyed my trip to Washington, North Carolina last year (the 19th of January, 2024). I had determined that both the Wilmington, North Carolina and Washington, North Carolina libraries were both having a book sale on January 19th. This was the day after my birthday. Actually, the day after mine and Mary Ann’s birthday, which we normally celebrate together. I was born on her 16th birthday, January 18th, 1954.

I asked Mary Ann if I could stay overnight on our birthday so that I would already be down on the coast. Still, it was about an hour, each way. First I drove down to Wilmington and bought several Michael Connelly novels (Harry Bosch), and then drove back up Hwy. 17 back through Jacksonville, and on to Washington, North Carolina to the Friends of Brown Library Book Sale at the Washington Civic Center. I wrote about this visit here. After the Book Sale, I drove over to Down on Main Street Restaurant for lunch and enjoyed another Shrimp Po’Boy & fried okra.

I found a Washington, North Carolina waterfront web cam sponsored by WITN TV7. I can’t find an easy link or embed code for this web cam view so here is a link to the WITN web cam page. The Washington web cam view is a LIVE Stream, and usually there is some traffic crossing the old Hwy. 17 bridge, so that you can tell you are looking at a video and not just a still picture. I will be able to see how much snow has disappeared by Friday morning.

I really have no books this year that I want to buy at the book sale. I have read all of the Harry Bosch novels and now regret that a little, because I’ve ran the gamut of the Bosch character. I am thinking that I may try to find some books that either Ray & Jacqueline’s children might enjoy, or Ashlyn Mitchell might be able to get some artistic ideas from. *I did leave a few books with Mary Ann on Saturday that I hoped Ray’s children might enjoy: 2 pictorial books about the Titanic & 1 pictorial book about George Armstrong Custer, and a set of 3 books about either Ireland or Scotland in the 1,300s. I’m not sure if they were fiction or based on historical facts, but the covers of the books reminded me of knighthood.

Surprised I found these, on Amazon.
This seems to be historical fiction about Robert the Bruce, of Scottish fame & lore.
Author: N. Gemini Sasson

I plan on going down to Washington, North Carolina tomorrow, but drove up to Raleigh today to go to Wegman’s. I like their sliced White American Cheese. But, I also stopped in to Whole Foods first and bought a couple of links of Chroizo sausage. I talked to the butcher girl who said she and her husband wanted to open their own butcher shop. I told her about Golden Hex and suggested she go there for ideas on exotic sausages. She said their Andouille sausage didn’t sell well so they quit making it. I told her that I liked the spiciness in my lentil soup.

While in Wegman’s I saw the black woman at the Service Desk and went over and asked if she was the one who had the daughter that thought her “labor” was induced by drinking Raspberry tea (or maybe some other Raspberry item). She was, but had not tried the tea yet. That’s been weeks, so maybe not much hope in getting a convert to love Bigelow’s Raspberry Royale tea like I do.

So, I’m in my car and pull up the Washington, North Carolina waterfront web cam. It played perfectly in real time, and even when I went into the grocery store. Whatever web cam and Internet connection they are using is working great. “Angel” I think. I do see that the camera angle adjusts slightly from day to night. At night you see further away over the Hwy. 17 bridge and during the day the bridge seems to be closer, but you don’t see much above it.

I did stop at the Harnett County Library on the way up to Raleigh and bought two large books. They were priced @$2 but I left a $5 for a little extra donation. One book was on Salvadore Dali and the other was on historical Russia. Funny, the Harnett County Library is also having a book sale tomorrow, but I’m only planning to visit the Friends of Brown Library Book Sale. I’ve already got my large gray book bag, or shopping bag that I use when buying a lot of books.

Well, it was a pretty good trip today. Instead of ordering the shrimp sandwich on a Kaiser roll, I ordered it on toasted Sourdough. The sourdough bread was good, but I think next time I’ll go back to the Kaiser Roll. Too much bread for the sandwich. Too few shrimp. I had the coleslaw on the sandwich, and not on the side. The fried okra were delicious. Comes with a small container of Cocktail Sauce.

I got to Washington, North Carolina about noon on Friday, and went directly to the Book Sale for the Friends of Brown Library. I found an open parking spot directly in front of the Washington Civic Center Exit door. The sidewalk still had salt on it, and there was slush in the street gutters.

I actually went to the book sale twice. Once, before I went to lunch, and then once afterwards. I had my large grey tote bag that holds a heavy amount of books. On my second visit, the books were so heavy that I left the bag at the exit door and then brought my car back and found a parking spot almost at the exit. I hope to show you images of all of the books that I bought today. I think I paid a total of $35 and donated an additional $5. Sounds like a lot, but the hardbacks (no matter how large & heavy were only @$2 and the paperbacks were 50 cents each. I brought the largest & heaviest one ,in with me when I got back home, and it might just be the largest book I’ve ever owned. $2 for a book that easily could be resold for $30 or $40, and that person would think they were getting a bargain, and they would be getting a bargain.

I did not buy any books for my own personal reading. I looked at a few biographies, but didn’t see any that piqued my interest. I did buy a number of Art books, and a few history books. The art books are for Ashlyn and the other books are for Ray’s kids. Not sure if they will be interested, but when I was a child, I think I would have been interested in a few of them: General Custer, the Titanic, WWII & it’s airplanes, and Sienna, Italy. *A few years ago I went to the Titanic Exhibit at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Great Book of World War II Airplanes (1996, Crescent Books, pp. 632)

The cover of the above book is solid silver, on the front & back (no writing or pictures), but the spine has the book title & publisher. I paid $2 for this book. It is heavy, very heavy, and it has a great number of large fold-out pages, with colorfully illustrated drawings of various aircraft of World War II, and pages of detailed writings and illustrations.

Baron Von Richtoffen & His Bright Red Fokker.

*When I was a boy there were three things that piqued my interest: Ivanhoe & the Knights of the Round Table; WWI Bi-Planes, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker/Baron von Richtofen, his bright red Fokker & the Blue Max; and hell if I can recall the third thing of interest, but when I do, I’ll write it down here. But, I can see a boy becoming engrossed in the above book and spending hours looking at the illustrations, reading the details, and probably buying and building several model airplane kits… and painting them.

***USS Nantucket (Monitor Class Civil War Battleship)***

I’m thinking that my third interest as a boy was the Monitor and the Merrimac. Civil War Era battleships. But I never really had a concept of how large the Monitor was as a boy. I thought of her as perhaps being a little bigger than a row boat, but in reality she was a large vessel capable of carrying about 85 crewmen.

As a boy, I built a version of the Monitor and the Merrimac out of balsa wood. My Monitor was shaped like a canoe with a flat deck and a round gun turret. Nothing like the real thing. Kinston has the Ironclad CSS Neuse, or her hull, on display.

The USS Nantucket, shown above, was a Monitor Class battleship. Built low to the water, and subject to sinking easily in rough seas, a dangerous vessel to be assigned to. George L. Morton, a distant relative living down in Wilmington, North Carolina for a while would command the above ship during the Spanish-American War but it would never make it to Cuba before the short war ended. The joke among the crewmen was that “they killed more Spaniards in front of the Orton Hotel (downtown Wilmington hotel) that they did from the decks of the Nantucket. In other words their verbal braggadocio of what they would do as they stood in front of the Orton Hotel far exceeded any actual combat victories. *As I recall they were afraid of firing their large cannon because the large oak beam that held it in place had been cracked at some point and they were afraid that if they fired the cannon, the recoil might push the gun turret off the ship.

The Spanish-American War ended abruptly and the officers & crew of the Nantucket returned to Wilmington on the train. They had been on maneuvers around Hilton Head and Beaufort, South Carolina but never headed further south. The vessel had a “rapid fire” machine gun (probably not called a machine gun at the time) and it’s my belief that one of these was procured from the Nantucket and used in the Wilmington Race Riot later that year, 1898. It was mounted on a horse drawn cart and hauled about town and used to kill “darkies.”

*I do recall that the actor/comedian Bob Cummings, had a TV show, and every so often he would play a relative of his (maybe his character’s grandfather) that had been a WWI pilot. I always perked up when this character came on, dressed in his old pilot’s headgear.

Oh, the web cam view of the Washington, North Carolina waterfront has about a 30 seconds lag time. This camera and/or it’s Internet connection is excellent. It streams fluidly showing automobiles both on the waterfront and crossing the old Hwy. 17 bridge without “skipping a beat.” In fact, this web cam view is the only one of about 10 different web cams that is LIVE. The rest are stills that update periodically. And the stream played fluidly both on my Chromebook at home and while I was in my car on my Android phone.

I took the short route to Washington, but took the scenic route back, and stopped once, in Snow Hill, to buy a pint of whole milk at the Piggly Wiggly. This was the same Piggly Wiggly that I had bought really good pork chops one time.

The scenic route from Little Washington comes near but not actually by “Voice of America.” I considered this the “Cold War Era” propaganda tool by the United States. There were large radio towers spread across a large field and American propaganda was streamed 24/7 across the Atlantic Ocean and across Europe to the Communist countries. I just recently came across YouTube videos of the Voice of America towers being demolished in 2016. I went over there before that time and did see them. There was a home in the area that I think had an underground component, but when I went looking for it via the Google Street View, I couldn’t find it.

Then stopped again in Newton Grove at the Pharmacy to eat a Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream on a regular cone. One scoop of ice cream on a regular cone is still just $2. Nothing for tax, or tax included. *Harris Teeter carries the “Roadrunner Raspberry” ice cream, which is the same name as the Hershey’s version. I have yet to buy any since the Newton Grove Pharmacy stopped selling it a couple of years ago.

Of note, both going and returning, when I neared Greenville & Washington, NC, there was a whole lot of untouched snow still left in the fields and the yards. There is something almost melancholy about snow going undisturbed by laughing & playing children with red noses. As I recall, the snow was still on the ground down near the coast, but as I returned to the Fayetteville area, it was mostly gone from the ground.

Dried Fruits, Nuts & Cheeses.

January 21, 2025February 18, 2026 bgibson135

Dried Fruit

Apricots (Turkish)
Cranberries
Dates
- Deglet Noor
- Medjool
Prunes (pit less)
Raisins

Nuts

Almonds (24 in a 1 oz. serving = 165 calories)
Cashews (18 in a 1 oz. serving = 160 calories)
Peanuts (35 in a 1 oz. serving = 163 calories)
Pecans (15 pecan halves in a 1 oz. serving = 196 calories)
Pistachios (49 in a 1 oz. serving = 160 calories)
Pumpkin Seeds (Roasted – 1 oz. serving = 140 calories)
Walnuts (14 in a 1 oz. serving = 185 calories)

Seeds

Chia Seeds (hulled)
Hemp Seeds (hulled)
Sesame (white)

Cheese

Herve Mons 1924 Bleu
- Best flavor
Bucheron (goat – Wegmans, discontinued)
- soft, mildly tart
Capricho de Cabra (goat)
- Fresh, soft, tart – paired w/ jam
White American (Wegmans)
- Most flavorful
Cello Smoky Pepper Rubbed Fontal Cheese (Wegmans) X
Got Your Goat Brie (Wegmans)
- Soft, good flavor
1916 (Wegmans) X
- firm
Brie de Paris (Lactalis – Whole Foods)
- Soft & good flavor

Exotics

Nueske’s Smoked Liver Pate
Castelvetrano Olives
Dolce K Sweet Olive & Fruit Mix
Okra Chips
Peppadew Peppers
Ranch Corn Nuts
Ranch Dill Pickles
Raspberry Jam
Smoked Oysters
Vegetable Chips (especially with tomato)
Wakami (Seaweed) Salad

Bread & Crackers

Rice Crackers
Black Sesame Rice Crackers
French Baguette
Hummus

NOTE [08.06/25]: Three of the four items shown above are NOT diabetic friendly. Although I enjoyed the rice crackers, I later found that they turn to sugar fairly quickly as does the French baguette. [end NOTE]

There was only the Pizza Hut & Taco Bell in one corner.

January 21, 2025January 21, 2025 bgibson135

When I first arrived in Fayetteville to work, 1995, I lived in Heather Ridge Apartments on Ramsey Street. In the mornings as I traveled down Ramsey Street on my way to work, I would pass a Pizza Hut and next to it was a Taco Bell. They were in one corner of a large wooded area and the woods came almost up to the drive around next to the buildings.

I don’t recall when, but at some point this large area of woods was cut down and the Walmart was built with a large parking area in front of it. In my mind it is as if the Walmart has always been where it is currently located, but that’s not the case.

It hasn’t been that many years ago that the I295 Extension was built from I295 on its way to the southeastern side of Fayetteville. It now takes about twenty minutes to travel the 18 miles on the Extension. There is another Walmart over there.

When they first cleared the thickly wooded area near the location where the Ramsey Street overpass would be located I recall that there was a small house or hut that must have been in the middle of these woods. It had been isolated and now it was starkly in the middle of an open field.

I’m sneaking around, but dressed like Bozo the Clown.

January 20, 2025January 21, 2025 bgibson135

I’m watching another episode of “the Lone Ranger,” and he’s sneaking around, but he is as distinctive as Bozo the Clown. “The Masked Man” often goes “incognito,” because I’ve already seen him impersonating an old man (a different episode).

I was looking at “Silver,” the Lone Ranger’s horse, and I was thinking it would be almost impossible for the Lone Ranger to be incognito, wherever he goes. His mask hides his face, but nothing about the rest of him is understated. Tonto even cleaned the Ranger’s hat and left it out in the sun so that it would be brighter. *I heard him say so.

And, here comes this guy into town, wearing a mask, with a bright white hat (so that we know he’s a good guy), on a shiny white horse, that’s unmistakable from any other horse.

I thought that if the Lone Ranger really wanted to go incognito, he would have to have a backup horse. A horse that looked like most of the other horses in the Old West. Maybe a drab brown, and he would have to name him “Fred.” No one is going to forget, as he’s riding away on Fred, and say, “Hi Yo Fred, Away!” No, he’s going to be in character and say, “Giddy Up, Fred.” And Fred is going to mosey out of town with the maskless Lone Ranger on his back, with only the little boy playing with a stick, noticing.

I just noticed that the Lone Ranger is wearing a much darker outfit as he is riding along, during the opening credits, and firing his gun right next to Silver’s ear. And Silver, “what a trooper,” he doesn’t even flinch each time the gun goes off.

Yeah, the incognito Lone Ranger is going to have to lose that scarf he’s wearing around his neck. Nothing is going to attract more attention than that faggy looking scarf. You think Gregory Peck’s character, in “the Big Country,” got harassed because of the Eastern fedora he was wearing (a Bowler I believe), heck no, just look at the dude that just walked into the saloon wearing a scarf around his neck. Only women wear that kind of garb. And, he’s going to have to lose those Spandex pants that highlights his delicious rump. Get some weathered Jeans, and beat them on a rock to make them a little more weathered.

Look at those pearl handled shiny six shooters the Ranger is wearing. This seems to be a theme with Western “good guys.” Think about it. Would you know the good guy from these other distinctive weapons?

The Lone Ranger has to “sleep with one eye open,” because that gun belt of his has got to be worth thousands of dollars in silver bullets.

I knew of Bozo, but there was a local version on WITN TV7 out of Washington, North Carolina. This was an NBC Affiliate. The children’s clown was called WITNEY the HOBO, with the emphasis on WITNey.

I didn’t get to watch Howdy Doody & Buffalo Bob because their show was televised on WNCT TV9 (CBS) out of Greenville, North Carolina, and our TV reception for Greenville was horrible.

Rick Tash wasn’t a clown and didn’t dress up in makeup, other than what a normal TV personality might use. Apparently he had a children’s show on WECT TV6 (or WWAY TV 3) from Wilmington, North Carolina. One Saturday he came up from Wilmington and did a “meet with the kids” at the Jacksonville Colonial Store in New River Shopping Center, and gave away balsa wood gliders. I got one.

The New Bern TV station changed from WNBE to WCTI about 1970. This was an ABC affiliate.

As a child, after school and on Saturdays & Sundays, I would have watched shows like “Yogi Bear,” “Huckleberry Hound,” “Space Angel,” “Dark Shadows,” “The Wonderful World of Disney,” “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” “Johnny Quest,” “Captain Kangaroo,” “Bugs Bunny,” “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” “Sunrise Theater,” “The Three Stooges,”

“The Twilight Zone,”

“The Outer Limits,”

“Peter Gunn,” “Andy Griffith,” “Dragnet,” “The FBI,” “Get Smart,” “The Invaders,” “Daniel Boone,” “Star Trek,” and on special occasions, just once a year, “The Wizard of Oz,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “A Christmas Carol,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” & movies like, “Ivanhoe,” “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Time Machine,” and “The Birds.”

And rarely do I pass this sign that I don’t think of the iconic Time Machine goddess, shown above.

More Good Food…

January 19, 2025January 29, 2025 bgibson135

Rotisserie Chicken, Bean Salad
& Corn on the Cob

Thin Cut Pork Chop, Okra
& Corn on the Cob

I made some really good black eyed peas, with potato & seasoning meat today. I’m thinking that the homemade chicken broth may have been the determining factor. I’ve made this same meal several times before and although good, they weren’t “really” good.

NOtE [01/29/25]: I baked the pork chop in the oven in my large Guy Fieri oven proof frying pan. I added some onion to the pan and it charred some. The total cooking time for the pork chop is about 9 or 10 minutes. I already had pickled beets in the fridge. I had made them by adding some Balsamic Vinegar and Red Wine Vinegar with a little Splenda sweetener. I left them cold. I also had some Asian Cabbage. I’m calling it that because I used the same flavorings I do for the Asian Cucumber Salad., but the cabbage is steamed so it remains hot. I put the steamed cabbage in a Rubbermaid container, added some “Spicy Chili Crisp” (in this case the “Fried Chili Oil” which has toasted peanuts), toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, white sesame seeds, and some Splenda sweetener put the lid on and shook it all together. On the plate, I threw in a few halved yellow grape tomatoes for color & a savory hint. I added a small tollip of the Fried Chili Oil on the cabbage and the peanut appears as a reddish pea in the photo.

Everything about this worked together for a delicious meal. *This is about the third time I’ve made a version of the Asian Cabbage. I’ve liked it each time. The first time & last time I did not add any Red Wine Vinegar, but it is also good with the vinegar. [end NOTE]

Candies I have loved:

January 19, 2025January 21, 2025 bgibson135

I liked “Mounds” because they didn’t have the almonds, like Almond Joy. But I would definitely eat an Almond Joy, but probably take the almond off until the last. MARS Bars had a good chocolate flavor.

If I could only have one of the above candies, I am torn between the Orange Slices and Peanut Brittle. I guess I would choose peanut brittle and have an orange slice every so often to reminisce.

Making Chicken Stock at Home

January 19, 2025December 2, 2025 bgibson135

In some ways, making my own chicken stock at home was like making my first Pastrami Reuben at home. Very messy the first time, but so many lessons learned that it will become much easier the next time. For instance, I will know to use a ladle to transfer the stock liquid from the stock pot into the collander, instead of trying to pour the liquid from the pot into the collander.

Making chicken stock at home is just a simple mind set of saving all the necessary ingredients and then letting them all cook down into the stock pot, and then pour off the rich broth into containers, to either refrigerate or freeze. Save your onion tops & bottoms, your carrot ends and each end of your celery to go with the left over rotisserie carcass. That’s about 5 chicken dinners & chicken broth all from an $8 Harris Teeter rotisserie chicken and veggie parts that you would normally throw away.

I already had all the necessary equipment for the process: a Guy Fieri stock pot, a Frugal Gourmet soup ladle, a shiny new collander, a glass mixing bowl, and a spoon.

*An additional thought is that the empty Greek Gods Yogurt containers are about the perfect size for my homemade chicken broth, and I am generating a new container about every four days. However, the truth is that I don’t have enough freezer space to store ANY containers of chicken broth.

*And another thought just came to me. Since I have limited space, why not use the empty yogurt containers to save the carrot, onion & celery pieces that will be used to make the broth? I can just recycle these containers. Empty one that has broth and start filling it up with veggie waste. And I’ve put a shiny cat sticker on my veggie waste container to make it distinguishable from the ones filled with good broths. No extra space needed and my last batch of broth filled about 5 of these Greek Gods containers.

I already see, and taste, that the homemade broth is so much richer in flavor, and how can that not affect the outcome of the next soup, stew or “mess of” beans?

I owe this jaunt into culinaria to Lynn Wells, who is a personal chef, a food writer, food stylist, culinary consultant, and the recipe developer/writer for Our State. I was watching her YouTube video where she was showing how to make her “Fireside Stew,” and she made a comment about saving & freezing the ends of your onions (and how many of those have I chopped off in my cooking life, and just thrown away) to use in making your homemade stock.

That “right word at the right time” reminds me of the time my mom told me why I should spread out the shower curtain after I was through taking my shower. Probably for years, I had “forgotten to” spread the curtain out, just leaving it’s wet self, folded upon itself, as I dried off with a towel and then left the bathroom. But this time, mom added the additional comment to “spread the shower curtain out… so it will dry out and not cause it to mildew.” When she added this extra comment, as to “why I should do this,” I came immediately “on board” with her command and I think for the rest of my life, with a few exceptions, I have spread the shower curtain out after each shower, and that has been thousands of showers.

So Lynn Wells provided me with that one “teachable moment,” for what I could do productively, with those chopped off ends of onions… carrots, & celery stalks. “Bag ’em, freeze ’em, and cook ’em down with the rotisserie chicken carcass from Harris Teeter.”

I used one of my empty plastic Cranberry Juice containers to save most of my fresh batch of chicken broth. I found that that container fits well on the bottom rack of my refrigerator door, when it may participate with “the other usual suspects” that include the Greek Gods Yogurt container, the orange juice carton, the Ocean Spray® Cranberry juice jug, the plastic 2% Milk jug, and the glass bottle of Half-n-Half.

The glass bottle of Half-n-Half was the rescued and repurposed bottle that originally contained the Fresh Market “Homestead Creamery” Christmas Egg Nog from two years ago. I just love the feel of the cold glass bottle in my hand as I pour some cream into my morning cup of coffee or tea, and it has the slightly smaller shape of a milkman’s daily milk delivery from a past, that I never actually knew.

NOTE: I’ve recycled an empty 52 oz. Orange Juice container for making my “Bill’s Drink Mix.” I marked off 2 one-cup marks to put in 1 cup of orange juice and 1 cup of cranberry juice. After that I add about 32 oz. of water and add two flavor packets of the Walmart flavor drinks: sweet tea w/ lemon and pomegranate lemonade. I haven’t grown tired of this mixture for probably a year, and almost every day, and about 52 oz. each day. *Recall that you can remove the label glue by adding olive oil to the surface and letting it sit for a while, then wiping off, and using Dawn dishwashing liquid and washing that off. [end]

*And I just checked and there is an actual “Homestead Creamery” located in Wirtz, Virginia. I thought it might just be a “made up name” that was just meant to provide a “feel good” opportunity. Wirtz is about 30 minutes south of Roanoke, Virginia.

I made some blackeyed peas a few days ago and then some more this morning. I used my homemade chicken stock both times, and they are really good. It may be something else, but I’m guessing the chicken stock is special.

BEEF STOCK

AI says, “For making beef stock, you can use a variety of beef bones including neck bones, beef shanks, rib bones, marrow bones, knuckle bones, oxtail bones, and even bones leftover from roasting a roast; the key is to choose bones with some meat still attached and connective tissue for maximum flavor and gelatin content; ask your butcher for “soup bones” or “stock bones” for the best selection.“

PORK STOCK

Although I’ve not seen Pork Stock at Walmart, is that possible?

And AI was even smart enough to know I might ask that question: “Yes, “pork stock” is definitely a thing; it’s a stock made by simmering pork bones, vegetables, and herbs in water, just like you would make chicken or beef stock, and can be used as a base for soups, stews, and sauces; while it might not be as readily available in grocery stores as chicken stock, you can easily make it at home.“

INSTANT POT MINI INSTRUCTIONS — CHICKEN CARCASS BASE STOCK

My thought was to incorporate some of the cooking time using my Instant Pot Mini. It’s not large enough to cook the whole batch of broth, but cooking the chicken carcass & left over meat and skin for about an hour should give a real good flavorful broth.

Break the chicken carcass into smaller pieces so it fits below the MAX line of the 3-qt Instant Pot Mini.
Add the carcass pieces to the pot. Optional: add a few onion pieces, a garlic clove, or a small celery piece. (Do not add carrots at this stage.)
Add water until the pot is just below the MAX fill line.
Close the lid and set the Instant Pot to Manual/Pressure Cook for 45–60 minutes. Use Natural Release when the cooking cycle ends.
Open the lid and carefully strain the liquid into a large stock pot. Discard the cooked bones and skin.

This liquid is now your concentrated base stock.

Add additional water to the stock pot to reach the quantity of broth you want.
Add your vegetables to the stock pot: carrots, celery, onion, parsley, bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns, and any additional chicken scraps. Simmer uncovered on the stove for 1–2 hours.
Strain again to finish your full batch of chicken stock.

ADDENDUM [02/25/25]: I made homemade chicken stock again yesterday. I had saved onions, celery and carrots in my freezer. In fact, I had saved too much, and I will try this next time, to save less, and try to save equal amounts of each of these veggies. That will be difficult, because I use way more onion in my cooking.

I actually blended the veggies before putting them in the water. I thought they might release more flavor that way, but I haven’t read whether it is just better to leave the veggies whole. I think they suggest leaving them whole because it is quicker that way.

Small sticker to label containers
with veggie waste.

I had enough empty Greek Gods Yogurt plastic containers, with lids, and filled four of them (leaving a little space for the liquid to freeze without overflowing) and partially filled a fifth container. I used some of the fifth container to make my Avocado/Chipotle/Chicken Soup, adding a little store bought chicken broth also. The plastic containers fit perfectly in my freezer with one on top of the other (a height of two). I should be able to freeze the veggies beside the frozen broth, or I might fill a container with the veggies after draining the broth from them. I have a couple of extra containers. [end]

ADDENDUM [09/28/2025]: I have more than enough Greek Gods yogurt containers. I only need about 4 or 5 of these when making a pot of stock. I haven’t bought a rotisserie chicken from HT in quite a while (maybe a couple of months at least. I’m in the process of cleaning out my freezer to make room for some stock, and probably pork chops, ground beef and some chicken tenders and cilantro. I think I will freeze both cilantro and assorted peppers to keep them from going bad, and take them out as needed. I tend to leave stuff in the freezer until it goes bad, and I need to label each item as I am adding it because once I have either pork or ground beef, I often can’t tell which one it is.

I’ve been more attentive to the amount of sodium in the various foods I’ve been eating lately. Now I have become aware that the Walmart GV brand of Chicken Stock I’ve been using has a very high amount of sodium 900 mg?! And you’ve got to read the labels even for “Reduced Sodium” options. Some of that may have as much as 570 mg of sodium, at that’s supposed to be low sodium. But, there is “Unsalted Broth” which has less than 100 mg of sodium for either beef or chicken broth. *So the key word is “unsalted” and not “reduced sodium.” And not too long ago the price of the GV brand 32 oz. of broth increased from about $1.35 up to $1.50. *I bought 3 – 32 oz. cartons of GV Unsalted Chicken Broth today (09/28/25) at the Walmart near Cracker Barrel. It was hidden behind other boxes of broth, and I had found none at the Walmart on Ramsey Street, nearest my apartment.

830 mg of Sodium is about 1/3 of a tsp of salt.
530 mg sodium ≈ 0.23 teaspoons of table salt (a little less than ¼ teaspoon).
45 mg sodium ≈ 0.02 teaspoons of table salt (about 1/50 of a teaspoon — just a tiny pinch).

There are 4 cups of broth in a carton (32 oz = 4 – 8 oz cups). A serving size of broth is one cup and I usually use at least 2 or 3 cups of broth, with about another 1 or 2 cups of water when making a soup or stew.

[end]

Select Photos Until I Move Them Elsewhere…

January 18, 2025 bgibson135

Lyde was one of the Morton sisters which included Kathleen, Carrie, Zeta and Vivian “Mick/ey”. Lyde had been married to Hurley Jones. She lived in the little “logger” cabin off the back porch.

This is a poor photo of the Morton Cemetery, but mom and I were down, probably on a Saturday morning and she was mowing.

Mom sitting on the hood of the Old Mercury. I don’t recall the exact story about the Mercury, but I think it was wrecked by someone who drove into it while it was parked in front of the house at 204 Johnson Blvd. in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Sticks -n- Stones Pizza in Greensboro, North Carolina

January 18, 2025January 18, 2025 bgibson135

I’ve written about Sticks and Stones Pizza in Greensboro, North Carolina in several locations, but I wanted to add a set of images of one of the pizzas that might have been the best I ever had. I now consider my time passed, for having an excellent pizza at this restaurant/bar. I think the people that knew how to fix a really good wood fired pizza have left and the skill hasn’t been passed on. My last two visits have produced a poorly flavored pizza, but I have had quite a few really good pizzas since my first visit. Hopefully I’ve written elsewhere, where I first heard about this restaurant, on some morning news program that said something to the effect that this was one of three pizza joints in the whole United States that produced a really good wood fired pizza. When I heard that I made up my mind that I was going to visit this restaurant and see if their pizza was really that good… and it was!

The above pizza was called “To Be the One” which was a margherita style pizza and featured a bubbly crust, crushed San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of salt. The one extra ingredient I ordered was Jalapeno peppers. Done well, the end result of a really good pizza should be the empty pie tin, as shown above.

For quite a few years, we (Fayetteville State University) outsourced our instance of Blackboard (our Online Learning System for about 16 years) through the UNC-Greensboro IT department. During my last six years at FSU, before my retirement, we switched our OLS to Canvas, and were pleased with that. Blackboard was a more powerful system, but Canvas provided almost all the necessary functionality and was easier to learn (a lower learning curve). *All this to say that when we switched from Blackboard to Canvas, I went up to Greensboro and “treated” those involved at UNC-G to pizza at Sticks -n- Stones. It was a good send off.

David’s, Burge, Library & No. 1,,,

January 15, 2025May 25, 2025 bgibson135

I decided to make another trip to Asheboro, North Carolina today. I needed to return a gift to Jeff in Aberdeen, and decided that the extra distance to/from Asheboro would be dooable, especially since I really wanted to eat at No. 1 China Buffet again, and David’s, for breakfast, wasn’t a non-incentive either. I like the food at both places, and I like the Asheboro library. They are all comfortable.

I decided to go via Hwy. 87, Hwy. 421, and then Hwy. 64 and I detoured through Ramseur again. I had thought I might tour Ramseur on the way back and then I realized that I would be going back a different route because I needed to go back to Fayetteville via Aberdeen. The trip is about an hour and a half, one way.

About four miles west of Siler City on Hwy. 64, I passed a gigantic facility (to be the largest of it’s kind in the U.S.) that was still under construction. I finally saw a sign, “Wolfspeed” which I thought might be an Internet Provider, but I see just now online that it is a microchip manufacturer. “Why Wolfspeed Stock Plummeted 84.7% in 2024 and Is Sinking Even Further in 2025“

The John Palmour Manufacturing Center for Silicon Carbide in Siler City NC

And now I see that Wolfspeed has filed for bankruptcy. Sort of saw that one coming, but damn, that’s a billion dollar factility they’re building. Ain’t no tariffs gonna bring that one back to America.

David’s Restaurant

I still don’t know how they do it. A breakfast special for $5.69 plus tax, including coffee, and you get 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, a large sausage patty, and hash browns. But you could get bacon, or toast, or grits instead. Oh, and they have sugar free syrup also.

*They open at 8 am, and I asked why they open so late. I’ve never seen a breakfast restaurant that opened at 8 am. Most of them want to get the morning rush hour people that have to be at work by 8 am and for that you probably have to open by 6:30 am. The food is consistently good.

Burge Flower Shop

Burge Flower Shop is located next door to David’s Restaurant.

It was before Christmas, when I heard on WRAL TV5, that Burge Flower Shop was highlighted in the current issue of Our State Magazine. The Editor of the magazine, Elizabeth Hudson, had grown up in Asheboro, North Carolina, or near there. When I heard them mention Burge, I thought that I had seen this shop when I had eaten at David’s Restaurant. After breakfast, I was sitting in my car and watched a woman walk into Burge’s, and some time later, I watched her leave. I had never been in Burge’s until today (01/15/25). I can honestly say, they had nothing that I was interested in, or even thought I might have a place for it in my apartment… except for the “classic” candies, of which I bought a bag of the Peanut Butter Logs, and a bag of Orange Slices. I haven’t had either of these in years. I opened the Peanut Butter Logs bag (it was resealable), unwrapped one, and ate it.

And enjoy listening to and reading along with, “From Elizabeth Hudson: By Bread Alone” *I see that this posting was published on January 15, 2025, yesterday, and the day I visited Asheboro, North Carolina again.

Asheboro Public Library

I don’t recall if I ate the orange slice before I went into the library, or after, but here is the photo of me, after biting into the Orange Slice candy. I loved them as a child, and they are still good.

I looked through the current issue of “Our State” Magazine, January 2025 and then two cookbooks and an “Emerging Technologies” book that gave me some ideas for what things might be coming along the “Pike.” *As in “Turnpike,” not “pipe,” as in “down the pipe.” But I understand that either phrase is interchangeable.

There was a recipe in “Our State” for a vegetable/chicken soup. I have a bunch of rotisserie chicken (from Harris Teeter) that I need to use. I just need to get “poultry seasoning,” which I don’t know what spices are included in it. Actually, I just looked on one of the images for this product and see that some spices include: thyme, sage, marjoram, black pepper & nutmeg.

The next day, I went shopping for the few ingredients that I didn’t already have for this “Fireside Stew,” that included celery, frozen garden peas & the poultry seasoning. The one ingredient in the poultry seasoning that I didn’t mention above is rosemary. The stew was good, but not great. I even tried a variation by adding a little sweetener and some Spicy Chili Crisp. I had thought that maybe creamed corn might also be a good addition, but I didn’t try that.

I saw an interesting idea in one of the cookbooks. You thread string beans on a string and hang them up to air dry. After they have dehydrated they are called “leather britches.” I really do like green beans, but I overlook them quite often. I had some at No. 1 China Buffet today and went back for seconds, and I’ve made a really tasty side dish at home of green beans, white potato & bacon. And, I recall that Essie Davis about 45 years ago made a delicious dish of green beans, bacon & white potato for a Senior Citizens’ Pot Luck Lunch at Queens Creek. They were so good that I went back for seconds for them instead of having dessert.

No. 1 China Buffet

I knew I was going to have to try and come back to this Chinese buffet from my first visit, and funny they sat me in the exact same seat as I had sat in the first time.

I enjoyed their seasoned green beans, and the chicken on a stick. I mix the won ton soup and the egg drop soup, add some chopped green onions and eat it with some of the fried won tons. I peel the shell off the shrimp. I think you might call it Jalapeno Pork.

I am writing this to help me get a feel for Asheboro, North Carolina.

Distances & Populations