Author: Brandon

October 1, 2020 – Review: My Life in France

October 1, 2020 /

“My Life in France” by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme was the August book club selection for the Left Coast Cellars Culinary Food and Wine Book Club. That’s right I said August and I just finished reading it last night. I think I have been upfront with how busy I have been so now I am at least one month behind.

This is a biography written in first person style (by Alex). He did all of the interviews and arranging of the narrative directly from and with the consent of Julia. The book chronicles her life through her formidable years as an writer and TV personality. It is weighted pretty heavily toward her pre-cookbook days and the amount of content and details thin out as book goes on.

As a relatively young member to this culinary club, this was another personality in the food world that I have little exposure to. Not being around when the ‘Frenchiphile’ food craze dominated that scene, it all seems so integrated and second hand to me. But, of course she was instrumental in painting the landscape of today’s food scene. I have enjoyed learning the history and perspective of these early media pioneers. There is also a movie, I haven’t seen it yet, but I am going to watch it with my wife this month.

The most interesting aspect of this book to me was just what a labor of love and effort ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ was. I took years to develop and was a huge tome, over seven hundred pages. This was all largely done manually and over international correspondence. I have observed that many times in life it is not the final outcome that designates success but the process in which that task is done. Julia discovered a fervent delight in testing and perfecting recipes and techniques that could be achieved in the United States using imperial measurements, different tools and a culture that was more aligned with TV dinners than centuries of tradition.

It wasn’t always an easy read for me, as evident on how long it took me. The story lines were filled with names of people that breezed in and out. As seems to be customary to that generation, many of them got nicknames which added more names and I got kind of lost at times. The other criticism I had was there were a lot of French phrases in the book which made me tune out at times because I didn’t understand what I was reading.

All that being said, it definitely made me appreciate what she had accomplished in her life. I can certainly understand the technical challenges and appreciate people’s passion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the August dinner, so I am not totally sure what the menu was. From skimming through the menu it was beef burgionon, garlic mashed potatoes, formage blanc (fresh cheese) and gougeres (pastry). There are some vague descriptions of preparations in the book, but definitely no recipes.

As for wine, there is mention of many French varietals, none that I really recognized other than Dom Perignon which champagne seemed to be very common. Pop a cork, I would recommend Pinot Noir unless you have access to a good French burgundy and build your culinary history foundation.

September 25, 2020 – Writing proper job bids and contractor communication for success

September 25, 2020 /

What I wanted to talk about today is the contractor communication process. In my experience, this is a weak link in this type of arrangement. I saw it over and over in software where it was impossible to get enough detail to accurately bid jobs. That lead to weak quotes and proposal without a lot of proper detail and gaps. That lead to both sides not being on the same page with expectations.

One trick with bids is to provide the right level of detail. It cannot be so vague as to not provide any specific details or scope of work. It should be clear why this is a problem. Under this circumstance, there are no deliverables, end points or success criteria.

It also cannot be so detailed as to provide line item costs. This one is not quite as clear. Why would too much detail be a problem? Unfortunately, human nature causes people to want to cheapen the price. To do that, they want to eliminate steps that are likely integral to executing the project. Using software again, you can save a lot of money by skipping design or testing. But, if you think that is a good idea then I would argue you are probably not experienced enough to be looking at bids. Nevertheless, just don’t have the detailed conversation in the first place.

Here is the bid that I put together today. I deleted some of the details because this contract is now accepted. But it contains the price first, so the cost is out there. There is an expiration date, so if circumstances change it would need to be requoted. In this case, there is no lead time to order materials. There is an expectation of how long the work will take, where the work will be done and does the bid include materials.

I think that the description is adequate for the scope of what is being done. I didn’t give the exact door so my work of sourcing will be paid for. Or said another way, the client buys the door and pays someone $10/hour to install it. I mention which parts of the old door I will re-use. I will also remove the old door and material.

I took a picture of the door that is to be replaced because this house is empty and I wanted no confusion about which door I was bidding on. If this were a larger project, I would take daily pictures of the progress. I would text them to the client so that there is a chance to intervene before it is too late.

Now, I am not super busy at the moment. I can jump right on jobs immediately. I also know first hand that contractors are notorious for not stating when they will be on site, work consistently on site or the progress of the job. I always believe that honesty is the best policy. With my daily status checks, I also provide my next time on site and what I hope to be completing.

These are some tips that I use successfully, and maybe if you are not in this field you can use the information to get a better bid next time. Have a good weekend.

September 23, 2020 – Fall is here

September 23, 2020 /

It feels like there are a lot of half done or almost done things around here. I have got apples in buckets waiting to get canned, I am halfway through last month’s book, the dog’s invisible fence wire is laying on the ground, the trailer is almost filled with a load to go to Habitat for Humanity, my leaf blower is kind of working, my dirt pile is waiting to get moved away from the house, the shop is almost cleaned up from my last project and I am in the middle of troubleshooting a new/used CD carousel as examples.

I have said multiple times that this is the harvest time and it very well can be the most busy time of year. Obviously, some things have a greater sense of urgency than others. For instance, the apples need to get dealt with in the next day or two. Items outside would be better served doing now before the weather turns. We are expecting rain for the next four days but we should get some nice weather after that. Temporarily, it seems like the outside to-do’s need to wait.

Sometimes I suffer from too many interests and a focus on the wrong priorities. Take for instance the CD player, I bought that on a whim at Goodwill and I figured at eight dollars, it would be no sweat if it really didn’t work. Well, it almost works, I replaced the belt to open the drawer and with a little finger pressure it opens and closes but not by itself. This leads me into a spiral of research and more testing. I keep thinking one more quick test before I move onto other things and pretty soon, those quick things add up to real time and certainly focus on the wrong things.

I also tend to be very single minded. I focus on one project to the exclusion of most everything else. Take for instance my remodeling project. That was everyday, all day. I suppose some of my urgency was knowing that was the kind of effort necessary to get it done it a timely fashion. However, I really did prioritize it over many things, including eating at times. I definitely couldn’t relax knowing how much work was to be done.

One thing that has usually worked for me is keeping a list of things that need to get done. That list get’s prioritized and then steps are broken up into subtasks on a calendar. I have had projects get stalled for years sometimes like when I built my potting bench. After I finally got tired of the lumber being in my way, I broke down the remaining to dos and assigned tasks into daily achievable milestones on the calendar. I gave myself about a month to finish and I completed the project in two weeks.

The advantage to using a calendar format is that it also integrates planning into all the other life commitments as well making a more realistic plan for completion. I usually only do it intensively for a couple of weeks out or the duration of one project otherwise it is too cumbersome to shift around on an Excel document frequently. The disadvantage is that it is time intensive. One of the reasons that I don’t use this format as much as I would like is that it takes a lot of time to plan successfully. I could probably spend thirty minutes a day going over this file if I tried. So, I try to set a rough plan for the week and adjust it next week.

I have been using this file since 2003. My active use waxes and wanes depending on how much I have to do and how much planning time I spend. There are times when I open it every day and there are times when I open it once every month. I just depends. I guess that this is my version of a project management program.

I feel like this would be a good mobile app to build, I would certainly use it. I would also be interested in hearing about other productivity tools. Let me know if there is something better out there with goalsetting and project management. As you can see, I have a lot of work to do.

September 22, 2020 – Review: Rigid 12/3, 50 foot extension cord

September 22, 2020 /

How many people actually read the little instruction manual provided with electrical powered tools? Probably not many people, but if you did, often there is a chart that lists the minimum size cord per distance of run. It would follow something like 25′ needs 16 gauge, 50′ needs 14 gauge, 100′ needs 12 gauge.

Why is that? The thinner the wire in the cord, the hotter the cord gets with more amperage draw because the resistance over distance reduces the amount of delivered amperage. That is why they heat up, the lost current is turned into heat. Reduced power chokes the motor, or said in other words not enough amperage to properly drive the motor.

Generally, this is not a big problem because most tools draw way less current than a circuit (or cord) can provide. Typically, I use any old extension cord to get the right length (and I don’t consult the chart ever). However, there are certain machines that really is not the case. And a good hint is how long and how big the cord on the tool is. For instance, the wisdom with an air compressor is that it is better to get more hose than plug it into an extension cord because they draw near 15A when running.

I once watched painting contractors try to use an 18 gauge household extension cord on an airless sprayer and it tripped the breaker about every two minutes until I gave them an appropriate extension cord. Talk about not having the proper tools for the job. I recently decided to add a 12 gauge extension cord to my stable because I was borrowing someone’s paint sprayer and I wanted to have enough distance and not burn out their tool.

One of the first things to appreciate is how supple the cord is despite it’s diameter. Cheaper cords are stiff and when rolling often have a mind of their own. Not this one. It also has a lighted plug so that you can see the power is on the cord, kind-of nice.

ScorePositivesNegatives
Value4/5Spending on extension cords protect a much more expensive tool or prevent a fireThe worst thing that I can say is that these thicker cords are expensive. $80 for fifty feet or $120 for 100 feet
Quality5/5Fit and finish, everything as expected
Performance5/5Rolls and bends nicelyVery heavy. But all cords of this size are.
Lit plug indicates power to the cord

What else can you say, extension cords are not sexy or fun. They can be pricey and bulky. At best, a necessary evil. But it pays for your job and your tools to have the right cords when you need them.

September 21, 2020 – Kiss my grits

September 21, 2020 /

Remember when that was a saying? I seem to remember that I was real young, so I looked it up and it came from a TV show called ‘Alice’ which ran from 1974 to 1985. I didn’t watch a lot of TV growing up, especially at that age but I would have been in grade school during some of that time but I sure remember that saying.

Anyway, that is not what I wanted to talk about today. But, I did want to talk about grits. If you have only had them at Cracker Barrel or never lived in the south, then I would wager that you probably don’t like them. Grits are ground corn, more coarse than cornmeal and very similar to Polenta. It is prepared as a porridge consistency, like cream of wheat and is typically eaten at breakfast time, although they can be a side for any meal.

My wife and I have been watching a show on TV about creative chefs and their restaurants. One of the dishes made is grits and liver. That really caught my eye because I have a lot of liver in the freezer and I am always looking for ways to use it. So, I put grits on the shopping list and my wife wanted some for breakfast. That is what I made today.

What makes these grits so much better? Well first of all it is all about the recipe. You can just boil the grits in water and a little salt but to do it up right, you need to do a more.

Start by bringing grits (3/4 cup), water (2 cups), salt (1/2 teaspoon) and a bay leaf to a boil and once it is there, set the pot aside for fifteen minutes.

After the grits have hydrated, bring the pot back to the stove and add butter (4 tablespoons) and cream (1/2 cup), I used half and half because I am trying to use it up before it goes bad. Keep the contents at a low simmer to reduce some of the liquid and grate some parmesan cheese (1/8 cup or 1 oz) into grits. That’s it, but so much richer than boiled in water.

I fried up some sausage links to put on the top. But you could also add eggs, like over easy, or some extra cheddar cheese, bacon and onion as other suggestions. When my wife worked for the state of South Carolina, they would have fundraisers in the morning where you would buy a bowl of grits and then add your own toppings to the bowl.

If you don’t live in the south, this is a simple and different breakfast idea. Give it a try if you are wanting something different than oatmeal in the morning.

September 18, 2020 – Mowing my lawn for the first time in eleven years

September 18, 2020 /

It’s no secret that we have been rescaling our lifestyle while I continue to look for work. One of the latest victims of our budget cuts was our landscaper Jose. I talked a little about him in an earlier post, so I will leave it at that.

We let him go at the end of August and it is now mid-September. It is a good thing that things are relatively dormant because I haven’t done anything in the meantime. The fire danger precluded the use of power tools. I have been watering the grass to get some seeds started and with the cooler weather, the lawn is really greening up again.

I actually found the grass (and ground) to be really wet, so I turned off the sprinklers for the year. That made mowing a chore as the bag was getting filled with one trip around the yard. Another bit of fun is the Hazardous air quality caused me to do this with an N95 mask. It was hard to breath with the mask on and not safe to work without it.

The mower is an OK unit, it was a cast-off John Deere that was given to my son to try and make some money but it is small (21″ deck) an is not self-propelled. It worked fine though once I finally got it started. I have no idea how old the oil is or how sharp the blade is. I traded my string trimmer for canning jars years ago so I will be on the lookout for an inexpensive or used replacement. For now, I will live without it. My blower is still not working even though I tore it apart.

I plugged into my podcasts and got to work. It wasn’t the glorious start to my new responsibilities as I quite expected with squishy feet and puffing through the mask. I really don’t mind doing yardwork but honestly I will need to make a mental shift from only doing the things that I want to do to keeping up with routine maintenance, especially the weeds in the flower bed. Those can get overwhelming quickly.

I have always enjoyed the leaf season. It is probably because I don’t have a lot of trees that drop leaves, but getting out after the cooler weather sets in and exerting some constructive energy is therapeutic. I am also looking forward to pruning the roses properly next year. If I don’t cut down the apple tree, saving the water shoots for more smoking fodder as well. I think it will be good to get the kids involved in the work for character building.

The calculus was always paying Jose for one to two hours a week was much more efficient use of money and time as this took me an hour and a half just to mow the grass. I can remember spending weeks weeding just the front flower bed. Now, my time is free and money is harder to come by. Now, looking forward to raking some leaves soon.

September 17, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

September 17, 2020 /

Today, I wanted to show an example target and how to use it. The target in the picture below has one inch squares. It is meant to zero in your rifle at 100 yards.

So, that means that if you are at fifty yards, your adjustments need to double or if you are at 200 yards, your adjustments need to be halved. What in the heck am I talking about?

Many scopes have an adjustment that says 1 click = 1/4″ at 100 yards. So, if you are off one inch at fifty yards, the adjustment needs to be eight clicks because the error (or adjustment) projects at a multiple of your distance. You see, if you were and inch off and the target was one hundred yards, then the adjustment would match the scope’s metering. But, because the scenario is one half of the expected distance then the correction needs to double the stated value.

OK, what if your scope is in Mils or Radians. Well, mils are 1/1000 of a radian and a radian equals pi (or 3.14). To ignore all of the complicated math, one mil adjustment at 100 yards equals 3.6 inches. So, at 200 yards that would be 7.2 inches. That means, adjust your scope according to the proper instructions to get a good sight in. The math can be figured out, but I think it would be too much for this post. For mils, multiply by 1000. For instance, what if you were shooting in meters?

When sighting in your rifle, you need to consider other factors like parallax and bullet drop. For reference, I am ignoring those factors today. But for super high level vocabulary purposes, I will address the definitions. Parallax is the distance of the scope above the barrel. Bullet drop is is how fast the bullet drops in relation to distance.

That means when you sight in your rifle, the parallax means that your scope is pointed slightly down. When your scope intercepts the bullet’s point of travel, then it is sighted in for that distance. Drop is a function of where your scope is sighted in.

I am willing to go through the math in the future, but I think that for now (I hope) that I got the gist across.

September 16, 2020 – Island living

September 16, 2020 /

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a trip to Washington. I think that my wife and family have visited five or six times in the last five years. We have been to Victoria BC, the San Juan Islands and Whidbey Island.

If it were up to my wife, she would like to live on the coast. For me, I would prefer not to. Our coast is gray, windy, wet and rugged. I am OK for a weekend, but that climate is really harsh on things (and people). The Puget Sound offers some of the benefits without the drawbacks.

Let’s face it, it is still coastal Washington. So, it will be gray and temperate. What seems to be missing are the winds and waves of our coast. For instance, I would not hesitate to put a kayak into the water whereas here I can hardly imagine a protected enough environment. I guess what I am saying is that the opportunity to get into the water has a lower barrier of entry. Less serious boats can take advantage of the access to the water.

What does island living look like? I would say things are more expensive and you need to be able to wait, take things slower and prepared to do without. Because everything is imported, ferries and boats are critical to a normal infrastructure. Some commutes are doable on a ferry like Whidbey Island to Everett is only 15 minutes, but it takes thirty. Maybe Coupeville to Port Townsend is thirty five minutes. Many of the other ferries are quite a bit longer in total duration, so not really realistic for typical commuting.

I am speculating here, but I imagine town living is kind of like village living. These are small and tight knit communities of locals that are used to lots of out of towners but I imagine that breaking into the circle could be difficult. They are of course reliant on tourism for income, but guarded in true acceptance. Everywhere I have visited over the years have well apportioned amenities, from a grocery standpoint but it comes at a cost like $5/gallon of milk.

Property can be awfully expensive as any coastal town. Many price tags I saw were over the million dollar range, including on the main land too. I haven’t looked too hard, but I imagine the farther you get from services like ferries and water access there are probably some more reasonable prices. That really isn’t too much different than desirable areas in our area.

One of our favorite things to do is get on the island and just drive around and imaging what life would be like if you lived there. We did the same thing on the Hawaiian islands as well. You can get some really incredible views and serenity without being on the beach. Looking for Orcas and other sea life, watching for boats including Navy ships and enjoying the dynamic weather changes are some of the other benefits of island life.

The politics of Washington and the surrounding area are very much in line with the rest of the west coast. There is civil unrest in the cities and a much more conservative outlook when you get out of the population zones. I will say that I have not seen as much political signage as I did on Whidbey Island. Unfortunately, I was driving so I didn’t take a good representative picture but suffice to say they were everywhere.

There are a few places that seem like a good compromise between what my wife and I would like. This area seems like it would be one of them. I could see a life taking advantage of the water. Who knows, maybe a job could be found in the future?

September 15, 2020 – What does bear meat taste like?

September 15, 2020 /

We just got back from an smoke escape to Washington. The air quality was quite a bit better, still not great. It was a good excuse to visit my sister and her family which we only see a couple times a year because of distance.

Before all of this wildfire madness began, my neighbors game me a little bear to try. It was my first time that I can remember. So, I wanted to cook it in a way that I could taste it, without a lot of sauce or covering spice. Steven Rinella has been said that pioneers moving west would eat deer and elk because they were plentiful, but they really preferred bear.

One other thing to note, bear is a carrier of trichinosis, the same parasite the can strike in undercooked pork. I don’t know how prevalent it is, but I do think that it is something you don’t want to have. Make sure that your meat is cooked to at least 150 deg F or more to eliminate the risk.

I decided to make some buttermilk biscuits, use up some left over gravy, fry up the bear meat with salt and pepper and some fried apples for breakfast. Even though I put the gravy on the biscuits, I put the meat to the side as to keep it separate.

My best description is that it tastes like part beef, part pork. There is an irony tint like you get from liver, but it was very faint and mild. No where near what liver is like. These cuts seemed to be a bit tougher, I am not sure what part of the animal they were, but I would liken them to tri-tip or sirloin in consistency.

I thanked my neighbor and told them about my experience. He gave me a pound of ground bear and ground venison as a result. I want to save that for something special.

September 11, 2020 – Staying productive in the midst of a new tragedy

September 11, 2020 /

Of course this is a day seared into my memory. For me, it was a different time on a different side of the country. My most vivid memories of that day were the photos of people that jumped off of the World Trade Center rather than risk getting burned (or as it turns out, lost to the collapse of the building). It also kind of makes me sick that this has turned into nineteen years of never ending and never winnable war. Isn’t that the very thing that caused the attacks in the first place?

Despite how tragic that was, there are many around that are engulfed in a new September tragedy. My own brother’s town has been evacuated and is in grave danger of burning. Speaking with him yesterday, he is planning for total loss. Literally no information is coming out of the area at this time as what appears to be the worst wildfires in Oregon’s recorded history.

I am safe, but the smoke is at the toxic level.

Being that this is harvest time, it is the absolute worst time to be picking crops or do anything outside. I guess that the silver lining is that since staying indoors is the safest option, preserving is a no brainer activity to pass the time with the radio (and TV) on monitoring the situation. I donned my N95 mask to harvest what little I had to get started this season.

For me, I don’t plant cherry tomatoes anymore. I find the return on investment of time and space to be lacking. But, they have a mind of their own and if they grow without my input, I let them. This year I had some volunteer plants.

The question in my mind is what to do with these types of tomatoes. There is only so many salads you are going to eat. I have made tomato pie before, it is not a wild hit at my house. I think the best use for them is to dehydrate them. I will cut the green off and slice them in half and dehydrate them for twelve hours or so. I usually store them in the freezer and then they can be added to salad over the year or added to pesto type sauce.

I previously mentioned my dad’s garden. He gave me eight giant beets. This is another plant that gets lukewarm reception at my house. When I have grown them, the kids will eat one slice of a beet (by force). My wife will eat one serving and I eat them for days. We usually have a jar of pickled beets in the refrigerator, although I don’t think that they are very good, so I decided to make my own.

This is a Ball recipe that I have not tried. It seems like a bread and butter type recipe with mustard seed, cinnamon, allspice and clove. I made a double recipe because it used all the beets so we should have pickles for at least a year to come and likely more than that.

I have apples on the tree that need to be picked. They are destined for applesauce as we usually eat 6-12 quarts a year. That is going to require more time outside, so I am holding off for the moment. I also have a big bag of jalapenos I bought at the farmers market with the intent of canning as well. We eat the heck out of those over the year too.

I like preserving and welcome the manual labor of the situation. I usually listen to podcasts of football games but not this year. It is news all the way.