Finished reading Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss.
I think it was intended to be an indictment of the food industry but I read it as a fascinating discussion of how the industry has to adapt to changing circumstances. How do you square what people want to eat with what they really should eat for health?
I recommend it!
New this year will be making Demi-glacé. We ff to buy some bones…
Aldi sells whole beef tenderloins for $10.99/lb at Christmas. The catch is they’re not trimmed and you have to butcher them yourself. Costco sells them trimmed for $19.99/lb. but what fun is that?
This is my third year butchering a tenderloin and I have to say I’m getting batter at it. I got a nice filet knife for Christmas last year which really helped. Ended up with a chateaubriand roast and two filets.
Did the calculations and figured out that the three roasts average out to $19.90/lb - just what Costco sells them for already trimmed. But I also ended up with 2 pounds of “chain” meat - really not suitable for eating by itself - to make stock from. With bones and trimmings going for some $7/lb. these days that’s a nice bonus. Harry and David get $90/lb. 
for their chateaubriand so there is that. Theirs looks nicer than mine but not THAT much nicer.
I also ended up with about 2# of beef fat. Last year I rendered it in to tallow but never used it. I saved it this year too just in case.
Maybe I’ll make a candle or something. 
I didn’t expect that they would be cooked in a skillet.
I’ll have to try them!
My chives and tarragon overwinter nicely in a pot. I stuck the little rosemary plant in the ground and heaped mulch around it. Right now it’s covered in snow.
We’ll see how it goes.
House update.
I’ve replaced all of the receptacles and switches. Happy to find that whoever wired this house did a decent job.
Installed board/batten wainscot in the living/ dining room. It will be painted kind of a dark sage green. Nice to use my tools again!
https://share.icloud.com/photos/031Bzi4lj4-5CODYyM5E1yc9w
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e0hEagxf1AZ90YB-ctEQ4hQw
Board and batten detail in Jack’s room. Not sure what color it’s going to be. It’s a “Minecraft” room - not sure what that means. You can see some samples on n the wall.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0a6HC2Cd77AifJlCkIembdIgw
Kim painted her office walls herself. I call it the Pumpkin Room. The rest of the house will be painted by pros in about a week.
Carpet going in!
Currently subscribe to WaPo but the rightward slant (and it so obvious - to the point of being comical) and sanewashing of the current administration is becoming more than I can bear. Had thought of switching over to the NYT but with everyone bending the knee I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.
OTOH I’ve pretty much divorced myself from political discussion until the current nightmare ends. I do send $ to wiki and the Guardian but don’t much read either one.
You can’t make this stuff up and the jokes write themselves!
Vote for clowns…
Beautiful!
Dinner tonight. It’s just too easy to be this good. Chicken and bean chili. No recipe, Sharon made it up.
Sweat mirepoix in a big pot with a sliced green chili and a couple of cloves of garlic. Melt a block of cream cheese on top of it. Add one can each of white beans, black beans, pinto beans, corn, and diced tomatoes. Add shredded Costco rotisserie chicken. Heat up.
Season to taste - cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, pepper.
It’s way better than it should be with those ingredients. Even for a no UPF warrior with a Mediterranean diet mindset it’s hard to fault it other than maybe too much cream cheese
Very creative guy and a great salesman. The fact most of those buildings ever got built is something of a miracle.
RIP.
Yahoo!
Congratulations!
No. Very light.
I like those too. They’re silent and the safest as far as setting nearby things on fire.
IIRC, your house would be wired at 220V with 16 amp receptacle circuits. An 800 watt heater will draw only 3.5 amps at 220V - well within safe operating limits.
In the US that same heater would draw around 7A on a 15A receptacle. Still OK - it’s when you use the 1500 watt setting you start inviting trouble.
Great story!
Temps in the single digits by the end of the week. Time to bust out the portable heaters.
Every house has a room or two that needs a little supplemental heat. Big windows, outside walls, distance from furnace, etc. Portable heaters work great to even up temps but you need to pay attention.
Nearly all portable heaters offer a 1500 watt setting that provides 5120 BTUH of heat. None offer more than that no matter what the ads say, some offer less. Many are adjustable but 5120 BTUH is all you’re going to get when set to high. 1500 watts is all you can draw from a household receptacle.
Even 1500 watts can be problematic. It’s right on the edge of the capacity of a household receptacle, and that’s a receptacle that’s fairly new and perfectly installed. With time things get loose and the connections deteriorate. What worked fine for years may one day get hot - sometimes even start a fire. It happens more often than you’d expect and I’ve seen it more than once.
Vigilance, then. No need to get crazy, but feeling the cord/plug connection for signs of heating from time to time is a good practice. If it’s warm, figure out why and fix it. It doesn’t hurt to lay your hand on other receptacles on the same circuit to see if they’re getting warm as well. There are related connections in those boxes too. Same for the associated circuit breaker - if it’s warm, it’s failing.
Best practice is not to run them at 1500 watts at all. Most are adjustable - 500w, 750w, 1500w is typical. Low, medium, high. 1, 2, or 3. Running them at the lower settings eliminates most problems and is much safer. They’ll run longer cycles but will probably heat the room just fine and won’t put as much stress on the connections. I set the one in my basement to 500 watts and after a few hours to stabilize the room temp it works perfectly.
Note to Daniel: This especially important in manufactured homes. They’re wired differently than stick built homes and the receptacles are not as robust. A lot if them (60’s/70’s) are wired in aluminum which is especially problematic.
Keep warm out there!
