Author: bhayes952

October 8, 2021 – Still Piecing Together My Office

October 8, 2021 /

One of the ways of working that I have discovered is that I cant afford to spend my entire working day in the office. Between kids that need to get out the door and animals that need to be in and out to answering the door, I need to take my computer out of the office for parts of the day. For that reason, I don’t want to plug in 5 or 6 cables several times a day.

Because of that, I bought one docking station to try out. You can see it under my monitor on the upper left. It is meant to have the laptop sit on edge on top of the docking station. If you look closely, you can see that I have two (work) laptops and so I have tried both with the new docking station, so I am looking to get one more.

A word about docking stations. Five years ago, docks were a proprietary device that mated with specific brands and models of computer. These days, there is less of that but beware when looking at them as they are not all the same. For instance, most of them are termed USB-C port extenders and do not power the laptop at all defeating the purpose of one connection. Also, many of them support only one monitor, so if you are using a multiple monitor setup as I am, then you need to verify that will work with the docking station you are looking at.

To me, the power of docking stations gives you the flexibility to unplug and move the location you are working and then come back and pickup. If you do not work in that manner and your computer mostly stays put, then you probably don’t even need a docking station. Also, note the power requirements for your machine. I found several that didn’t output enough watts to adequately charge the battery. It is OK if is putting out more power, but not less. One last thing, if your computer is a consumer grade machine it may not be able to power through USB-C and you can get most of the features with a port extender.

To then use these optimally, I am in the market for a KVM switch. That is an acronym that stands for Keyboard, Video and Mouse switch which allows me to use the same keyboard and video setup to switch between the two computers with the click of a button. Once I have those two additional items, I can go about cleaning up all of the cable mess and my desk will be finally setup.

That doesn’t mean that my office is done. I had a couch that I was going to put in but I found out that my baseboard heater didn’t allow for the couch to be put in (so, I guess it is to the dump with that). But, my wife wanted me to take the loveseat that was in the kitchen area. Which I did and Leo thought it was a good decision.

That means that I had to take the stereo receiver out. I have made the measurements and I can build a table that will fit behind the couch and provide the optimum space to bring that back in. The downside is that with everything going on, it will be a while before I get to that project (hopefully this winter).

I still have stuff to hang up and really make it personal and I think that will help with the sound as well. But, overall it is getting close to finishing. Like everything, just money and time to get everything the way that I want it.

End Your Programming Routine: Like every project, there are the ‘wish that you would have known’ things. I wish that I would have anticipated the space the heater consumed I might have sacrificed my re-use principle to something that uses less space. I also wish I would have known how warm just the electronics would get and possibly add a window for ventilation. Those two things aside, I am still very happy with how it came out.

October 7, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

October 8, 2021 /

**Note: I restored from backup 10-8-21 and I didn’t realize this post wasn’t included as the latest post from an Oct 7 backup. I don’t feel like rebuilding it completely but I will try to capture the essence**

It is hunting season, although I am not going out this weekend. I am hoping to do so next weekend. Today I thought that I would do a gear dump and explain what and why for the different pieces.

First, I will start with the bag. It is a Kelty that I am guessing is 24/28L. The most important thing about the bag is it is made from fleece which reduces the distinctive nylon on branch sound. It has a bright orange rain cover as well that helps you find it when set down. I also carry 2L bottles which is always more water than I need. One other thing that I have noticed is when they are not entirely full, they make a splooshing sound as water moves around. What is on the inside from upper left to right

  • Orange gear – I usually carry a cap and stalking hat. I also have some extras in case I have some guests. These are worn or stored
  • Spare ammunition and cartridge loop – I usually carry a box (20) which is way more than I need.
  • A headlamp (with corroded batteries) – Its a good thing I checked
  • Toilet paper
  • lens cleaner pen
  • bug spray – don’t need that for hunting
  • Survival kit – I will go through that next week
  • deer tag
  • field glasses
  • fingerless gloves
  • hatchet and saw
  • hunting knife

I can fit all of that in with a lunch. I always walk a fine line between having everything I need and having way too much stuff. I don’t know what to do. I guess my thoughts were always better have it and not need it rather than not. I also have used this bag as a day pack for hikes and such. When I use it that way, I usually purge all of the hunting specific items.

End Your Programming Routine: I have several other things that I take with me, I think I will cover them in the following weeks. These are things that are left in the vehicle or camp. This will be the second weekend of deer season. I am hoping to catch weeks 3-5.

October 6, 2021 – Tomato Soup

October 6, 2021 /

What do you do when you have a lot of tomatoes around? The answer is whatever you can do like salsa or sauce, . My dad gave me a bunch and we have eaten some but it is time to finish them off before they go bad. To top it off, yesterday was a rainy day and something warm would be just the ticket.

The ingredients are simple and the technique is easy. I looked up several different recipes and kind of made my own. I coarsely chopped an onion and smashed four cloves of garlic. Those were browned in the pot. Then, I chopped up about 2lbs of tomatoes and put those in the pot after the onions were sweat.

After the tomatoes have cooked down, I added two cups of vegetable broth. That was to give me enough volume to use the immersion blender. I added some basil and some time and blended the entire mixture. I finished it off with a couple of tablespoons of cream. Be sure to taste for salt.

End Your Programming Routine: It is officially fall and the harvest is winding down. The rains are here and our annual frost date is within the next two weeks. It is likely the last hurrah for summer veggies. I paired the soup with grilled cheese and a slice of peach pie.

October 5, 2021 – Fresh Fish on the Menu

October 5, 2021 /

I don’t think that I can express in words the difference that fish being fresh can make. It is not ‘fishy’, in fact I would say sweet. The texture is firm but not rubbery or even flaky. It is moist and mild. We ate the fish I caught on Saturday and even that was not straight out of the lake fresh, it was on ice for two days.

I heard an interview with Josh Niland who is an Australian and fish chef. He has some radical ideas about aging and taste. I am very intrigued and would like to get his book ‘The Whole Fish Cookbook: New Ways to Cook, Eat and Think’. But before I change my paradigm, I have to say that it has probably been 20 years since I ate fish this fresh and, wow what a difference. That is not to say that I haven’t caught fish and eaten it, but sometimes they have been frozen first or sat in the cooler for longer than optimum, but it is also rare.

The prevailing theory on Salmonids (salmon/trout species) is less is more. I have experimented some with different flavors and one that I like is onion, dill and lemon. Another combination that I have found I like is curry on salmon. Yesterday I tried a something a little different.

To begin the preparation, I scraped the scales and rinsed the slime off of the fish. Usually, trout is cooked whole, but I wanted to make sure the portions were equitable so I decided to filet the fish. I have never filleted a trout before. In many ways, I think that it leads to waste. I am planning to make some fish broth with pho soon so I saved the heads and the rest of the carcass in the freezer. But if you do, trout have the same pin bones as a salmon would, so you can pick them out or eat around them.

I added plenty of salt and pepper with a dash of cajun seasoning. On top of that was four cloves of garlic and rubbed the seasonings with olive oil. I sliced some lemon because they were there, not because I needed to and sprinkled with fresh thyme. The fillets were baked at 400 degrees for fifteen minutes.

End Your Programming Routine: It was said that the original pilgrims got tired of eating lobster every single day because it was abundant and easy to obtain. I am sure this could be the same thing, but I sure wish that I had a few more fish. It is definitely enough to make me want to go back out there and fish again. I think it was the perfect cap to a great trip.

October 4, 2021 – Let the Pictures Speak

October 4, 2021 /

This was my view when I woke up yesterday morning. You are looking at Mt. Thielson in central Oregon. As I said on Friday, I was going fishing last weekend with my family. Because of Covid, because of everything that went on this summer, because of some philosophical differences I have with my wife, this was the first and probably only family campout of the year.

Nearly everything was perfect, nearly. The only thing that wasn’t great was the fishing but it was OK in that we caught some fish. The weather was in the mid-seventies, the lows were above the freezing. The wind was light and the company was nice.

A little bit about my philosophical differences with my wife. We both enjoyed camping when we met. It is just that her idea was a camp ground that required showers and bathrooms with running water. I would say that I am not entirely opposed to that concept but there are so many beautiful and new experiences that we could do that are limited by that criteria. Over the years our necessities grew as well and required a trailer or second vehicle to haul everything that I get burned out just packing.

I suspect that at some point, there will be an RV in our future. With that, there are definitely more creature comforts and hopefully less packing to get out the door. I would also like an RV from the standpoint that it makes it easier to enjoy some of these places like I was this weekend without the constraints of running water required.

My goal this time was to be light and agile. I did bring some extra stuff like my hunting pack (just in case) and camp chairs (and the dog which was easier than finding someone to watch her). We only brought no cook or freeze dried meals which made cleanup easier and cooking faster, so we could spend more time fishing.

You can see my biggest freshwater fish I think that I have ever caught. I measured it at 16″. That is on the dinner menu tonight. That was the only fish I caught. Unfortunately, my son didn’t catch a fish. I think all told, our party caught around twelve in the duration of the trip from Thursday to Sunday. Not great when you consider the limit of (5×3)4 + (2*5)2 = 80 possible. But hey, I said my favorite kind of fishing was the one I was doing, and that is the truth.

End Your Programming Routine: As I said on Friday, I have passed up too many opportunities to spend time with my family because I have been ‘too busy’. I suspect that if I was not a single parent and not blocked it on the calendar, I probably would have found an excuse to miss this one as well. I am very happy that I made the effort to make part of the trip even though it was a lot of work. I hope that I can get my act together so that this will happen again in the future.

October 1, 2021 – It is Opening Weekend of Deer Season and I am Going Fishing

October 1, 2021 /

Let’s hope that caps the week of food with more food. When I was a kid, I was so excited for opening weekend of deer season. When I was a teenager, I used to dream of when I was older, I could spend more time in the woods. Now that I am here, I hope to get out once in the season. This isn’t going to be the weekend for hunting but I will spend some time with my family fishing.

I talked about this a few weeks ago when I was talking about the decline of the outdoorsman. While my dad didn’t spend months straight in the woods, we did split hunting and fishing about equally. He always has owned a boat and we would go out at least once a year. He would take a fishing trip with his friends usually around Father’s Day. We used to go salmon fishing as kids. So, I like fishing too.

Since my dad has retired, we have been applying for draw tags in eastern Oregon. We get them about every three years. Since we won last year, this year we didn’t and decided to go fishing instead. I have applied every year for the last ten years. But I have only gone one time even though we have gotten tags three times. We did get his rifle sighted in last Friday however.

When I left my job in South Carolina, I moved back to Oregon and joined the company that my dad had worked his entire career. I remember talking with my uncle and he said “That’s great. Now you can have lunch together every day.” I remember feeling a little guilty that I barely saw him, let alone had lunch. And to some degree, I carry some of that guilt today. We live about twenty minutes apart and yet it will frequently be months in-between talking.

I do believe that the quote “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” applies here. But I can’t help and think that there isn’t something slightly wrong with me. If I get truly personal, I am overwhelmed by the size and volume of my wife’s family and when I am not in that I want my personal space.

The events over the last six weeks have definitely had an impact on me. I have seen my parents aging, I have seen the slight decline in physical ability and I know that the horizon is in view. It definitely has gotten me thinking about trying to spend more quality time while I have the chance to do it and I need to be more aware of the signs of decline.

My brother, dad and uncle left yesterday. Me being a single parent right now, I couldn’t swing the time off, I was hoping to leave tonight. but my kids have to play pep band at the football game tonight. So, we will have to settle for Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t do any family camping this year and I have never gone with my kids and without my wife but I am really looking forward to it.

End Your Programming Routine: I don’t really care if we catch any fish although I think it is likely we will. The weather is supposed to be pleasant and I have a good time with that crew. The point of this is to spend some time together doing something we enjoy. It is looking like next weekend is out, but I am still going to get some time in the woods this season before it ends.

September 30, 2021 – Blood, Bones and Butter

September 30, 2021 /

It’s been a long time coming, but today I am going to review the Left Coast Cellars’ Culinary Book Club August 2021 selection. The book was “Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef” by Gabrielle Hamilton.

I think that I have been pretty clear that it has been a challenging period in my life. Most nights, I am hitting the pillow and passing out to be up at 4AM the next day. So, while this book is short, it took me probably ten weeks to read. I was reading concurrently with 1984 as well, that is how long this has taken me.

If you are like me, then you have never heard of Gabrielle Hamilton. She is the owner and chef at a New York Restaurant called Prune. Again, this is another establishment that I don’t know anything about. But, I trust that companions at the book club to make choices that are interesting and worthy.

I am going to be blunt, I thought that this book was a train wreck. The writing style was neurotic and the story ends on a cliffhanger. Gabrielle obtained a MFA in Fiction and is an accomplished columnist and non-fiction writer as well as being a chef. However, I found the sentence structure overly flowery; like every noun needed two or three adjectives.

I have no reason to believe that the memoir was not truthful, it is the way she went about her life that was bothersome. For instance, she married an Italian because he needed help with his green card. There was never any real love in the relationship and in fact they lived apart for a number of years. Yet, much of the later part of the book was angled at the tortuous relationship and regret that it wasn’t better.

Prior to marrying the Italian, she was a lesbian for several years whom she abruptly left to get married after having a short, secret affair. I am not into judging lifestyles but the ‘in your face’ decision making definitely makes me think that there is no plan, no thought and no self reflection. What I am ultimately saying is that is just because you make a lifetime of poor decisions, I don’t think that is necessarily worthy of celebration. I think I would have liked it better if there was some sort of lessons learned from these things.

What I took from this was Gabrielle was trying to impart that hard work supersedes all of the missteps and misfortune in her life. I do believe that there is a large component of success that requires hard work. I do not believe that is the only ingredient. Another theme I can endorse is that relative career success does not translate into happiness.

Before I go off the deep end with criticism, Gabrielle is a human and it takes courage to be honest. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a lot of remorse to try and do things better. So, while I think sharing your life is gutsy, I feel a bit of pity for her because it seems like a lonely existence.

End Your Programming Routine: If you can’t stand my point of view most times, then this might be the story for you. This might be the most harsh review that I have ever written. I am looking forward to next months selection ‘Extra Virginity’.

September 29, 2021 – Repurpose Rice

September 29, 2021 /

Knowing what my week looked like, I set about making a plan on how to line up the meals. Usually, part of my strategy is to look at what we have and what is risking going bad and how I can try to ‘get rid of this’ (without waste). Looking at the schedule I also have need to have some leftovers or at least quick meals.

Currently, my biggest problem is that my freezer is at capacity. I also know that is a good problem to have. However, inheriting a lot of food yields things that we wouldn’t normally purchase or prepare. With that, I am trying to clear up space while trying to do new and interesting things (that will be eaten). We got an open package of pot stickers to finish off last night.

Yesterday, I talked about beans. I don’t always, but I did decide to pair with rice for my fish tacos. I partially did that because I was expecting to make fried rice with the pot stickers the next day. How do you make rice that pairs with beans and can then be repurposed to Asian the next day and by the way make it vegan and meat only eaters will eat it? Well it is not easy, but we found a way to make it work.

Let me diverge a slight bit, I am going to beat up on Mexican restaurants again. When you go out, the only rice you see is reddish in color and has some degree of seasoning. That is an attempt to make the classic rice preparation which is essentially rice made in salsa (at least that is the color). The best way to finish the combination is balance the remainder of the liquid with chicken broth and add some cumin.

I learned a long time ago that is only one way to prepare rice. You can omit the salsa and make a white rice (with onion). This is more typical in the southern part of Mexico. Cumin is out if it is to become fried rice tomorrow and of course chicken broth fails the vegan test. We also learned recently another way of doing it which is to use coconut water. This becomes more Caribbean and leans more to the Asian for sure. Plus, I think that it is highly appropriate for fish tacos.

I softened some onion and then browned some rice. Then, I added the coconut water and made rice the way you normally would. Typically, part of the recipe is also coconut milk as well, I just wanted a small amount for us, so I omitted that this time. and that is it.

The next day, I fried some vegetables and added the rice, some soy sauce and viola. Again, to keep this vegan I had to omit the butter, egg or fish sauce. But, it was good enough to pair with pot stickers and green beans in black bean sauce.

End Your Programming Routine: With planning and modification, you can span the globe in two nights with half the amount of work. That may be a slight exaggeration but the principle holds true. The other advantage is that it reduces the chance of orphaned side dishes that can sometimes be difficult to eat or pair. Not every meal is fancy, tonight there is enough from the previous meals in the last couple of days for leftovers too.

September 28, 2021 – Kick-Ass, Refried Beans

September 28, 2021 /

There is going to be a lot of food content in the near future. It is partially because I am cooking a lot, partially because it is harvest time and I have to take advantage of that and partially because I haven’t done much in the past year. Aside from running kids around and sorting through junk this is the one thing that is going on in my life.

Some friends brought us over a meal the other night. It was black beans, chicken and tortillas with salsa. I would call it basically burrito fixings. We ate on it a couple of times. But I can’t get my kids to eat the same thing more than twice in a row, so a big container of beans sat in the back of the refrigerator for a week. And the reality is one of my son’s is vegan this month so he wont eat anything that is unknown origin so it was just the two of us eating all this food.

I got really introduced to beans when I started hanging out with my wife. As a child, we would open a can of refried beans and make burritos about once a month. We didn’t go out to eat much and we just weren’t really exposed to the different preparations. Somewhere in that journey, I was introduced to repurposing whole beans into refried beans. I just never gave it much thought. Mind you, this is really a leftover technique, which is right up my alley.

Have you ever gone to a Mexican restaurant and had tasty beans? It is pretty rare. Most of the time, the stale tasting beans pairs nicely with the crappy, bland rice and pour excuse for fiesta food. They lack salt and depth normally, the only thing that fixes the situation would be some fiery hot salsa so that you cannot taste them. OK, I am going to stop bashing Mexican restaurants now.

Why is that? What is going wrong? There are two things, one is that no one is tasting as time goes on. The other is that there is nothing going into the beans to make them taste any better. It is very simple to take beans from meh to great.

Sometimes, if I have leftover pico de gallo, I will add that. In this case, I added a small tomato and a little bit of onion and a clove of garlic. I also added a heavy spoon of bacon grease. There is no real recipe for this however, think about proportions. If you open one can of beans, then I would say about a 1/8 cup of additions. is about right.

Add additional water to the mixture and boil the heck out of it. The object is to boil the raw ingredients until they disintegrate and are easy to mash. You also need to keep boiling off all of the extra water, so don’t carried away with adding too much water. After boiling for a bit, start mashing the mixture. Then, taste for salt and adjust accordingly.

You can always add more water and keep boiling if things aren’t as soft as you would like it. When I was done, I put the beans into a bowl and got a little heavy handed with the Feta (I was trying to get rid of the container and it had more than I realized). That is it. No cheese is necessary but for more authentic touch, use Cotija.

Other variations substitute olive oil for bacon grease or even skip it altogether. The bacon fat add smokiness and the fat in general adds to the texture to the beans. Sometimes I will add a little cumin. I like my beans a little coarser than puree so the masher works well, but an immersion blender would have a more uniform mix.

End Your Programming Routine: If you don’t like beans, it is probably because you haven’t had them done well. I really like them for breakfast with eggs and fried potatoes and a little bit of Cholula on them. I like them in my breakfast burrito as well. Another thing I discovered earlier this year was to put them on the bottom layer of a tostada. It will keep the giant chip from breaking up when you take the first bite.

September 27, 2021- Making Pesto

September 27, 2021 /

Harvest season is still going strong although I think that we are over the peak. Making pesto has been on my list for a couple of weeks now as my basil has started to flower. It is pretty easy with a couple of ingredients and a food processor. It stores well in the freezer for later.

I trimmed the majority of the stems off of the plant. I do leave some in case the plant wants to grow again or I have a little basil to use for a short while before the plant gives out. Strip the leaves and rinse them off. Gather the rest of the ingredients.

  • Parmesan cheese
  • garlic
  • Pine nuts (or walnuts)
  • olive oil
  • salt

Here is a rough recipe that I use.

  • 2 cps, loosely packed basil leaves
  • 1/2 cp shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 2 tbs nuts
  • 1/4 cp olive oil (approx.)
  • 1 clove garlic
  • salt to taste

Here is the process that I used minimizing cleanup with the food processor.

  1. Determine the amount of basil leaves so that I can scale the recipe proportionately
  2. Shred the cheese
  3. Add the nuts to the cheese
  4. When the nuts have been broken down with the cheese, add the basil and process as much as possible.
  5. When the mixture stops moving, add olive oil to the active mixture and additional chopping will begin to occur.
  6. Keep processing to achieve uniform mixture
  7. Add garlic
  8. Taste for salt

If you eat pesto, then you probably have an idea about how much you use per serving. I would say that we use for about a 1/2 cup of pesto for a family of four’s pasta. I would suggest that portion is how the batch gets distributed for storage. That way, when you pull it out to use, then you have the proper amount for the meal.

End Your Programming Routine: Basil is easy to grow, it likes hot weather. I used some from the plant throughout the summer but the majority went to make this pesto. Pesto is easy to make and delicious. It’s great this time of year, but it is also great in the middle of winter for some reminder of the flavor of summer.