House Husbandry

So ... I made the best meal last night.  Sous Vide duck breast. Step 1: Buy more than you think you'll want to eat cos you'll want more. Step 2: Get a sous vide thingy. Step 3: 135 for 2-4 hours. Step 4: Eat

Only thing to do is to make some soup beans.  Already made chicken noodle soup earlier this week, so I can't eat that again. Started yesterday.  Soak the beans for a day.  Yes, a day.  Bay leaf in the water. The next day, drain the beans and add fresh water to cover.  I then added some garlic, celery, carrots, onions, dried mustard and salt pork.  I've also got a veggie bouillon cube in there for a little more flavor. It's sitting on the stove now and has been there for about two hours.  Need to go check it soon.  It smells good.

The better half and I moved again and we're nearly settled in.  It's taking most of my time.  This is a big place.  Lots to do.  Lots of husbandry.  Lots of things to figure out. The water here in Chicago is really hard and the prior owners never bothered to wipe the walls down after taking a shower.  Nearly every time I'm in the shower it's getting spritzed with one chemical or another and then getting wiped down.  It's slowly improving, I think.  I've used straight vinegar, Lime-A-Way and Barkeeper's Friend so far. There's been a bit of deferred maintenance, too.  I was shocked to hear that in the 8 years the prior owner (let's call them PO) was here, they never once had the exterior windows cleaned!  I could not believe it.  Since the house is four stories in total, with a two story window brightening the foyer, I wasn't going to get on a ladder to do it, but it was only about $250 to have it done.  What a difference cle...

We had some pillows on our couch that we've had for about two years.  They'd gotten sort of sad and flat and I was looking at possibly replacing them.  Not necessary!  Pop those bad boys into a dryer for 10-12 minutes on medium heat and you can pull out fluffy, full pillows in no time.  I spent about an hour fluffing all the pillows in the house back up and you can too!

Yes, I can say it works.  Boiling water, a slurry of baking soda, and then make that high school science experiment go with a little vinegar.  I spent 3 hours or so in total clearing the drain and eventually it did work.  I can run water in the second bathroom sink!  I'm so happy.  I think this may need to become one of those things that I just did on some sort of rotating basis.

Been making soups all week now that I'm back from San Francisco.  It was an interesting trip.  Took super-pup Buster along with us for the first time.  Sweetie threw down some Regional upgrades and got us posted in first which made everything all better (for me).  The Boy did pretty good on the trip.  Who's a Good Boy?  The only thing that was odd was that on the way there and the way back there was an uncrated dog in the aisle right behind us.  Good Boy was not thrilled about that, but he dealt.  He barked a little during some turbulence, but it was pretty bad, so I don't blame him.  Other than that he was a real trooper.  I could see trying it again sometime. Started the week with a Hungarian Mushroom soup that turned out pretty good.  It didn't make much so we ate all of that up Tuesday night. Green Soup The gremolata that goes with it Wednesday, I needed some green soup and put together a hearty delight with broccoli ...

This Daly City comfort food staple has reopened after at least a year hiatus to freshen up the interior, and I have to say they've done a mighty job.  I most expected the food to have changed, like the San Francisco location seemed to have done, but it's the same great comfort food that it's always been, but with a much cleaner, more moderb atmosphere.  I was really impressed by how they updated the interior without really changing it.  Gone are the tired red booths replaced with an avocado green that somehow works and maintains a feeling of nostalgia.  The biggest thing they did was to open up some of the walls to let a lot more light in.  The place seemed light and airy and the ceiling had been worked over to really dull the noise in the place. We had some excellent, crispy friend calamari paired with crunchy-gooey arancini.  I had the lamp chops. a Joe's special was had, as well as a meatball sub an Sweetie indulged in a hunk of prime rib with sides of...

We had dinner tonight at the Cotton Duck as a part of checking out the new hood. OMG was this place good. We started with a foie gras mousse that was subtle and divine. Followed that with Duck Scrapple which was so much better than I thought it sounded.  The star of the show though was the Duck Sugo. A trick of flavors, sort of like the lightest barbecue sauce you've ever had with decadent bucatini and an incongruous toasted wild rice on top. So good!  Sweetie had the Bavette steak which, while good, made me yearn for the Sauerbraten. Four thumbs up!

I check www.theflightdeal.com every morning and today it panned out!  $435 RT ORD to NRT this Spring.  I think I paid that much for two tickets the last time we went.  This is too good not to take advantage of, so we're going again!  Can't wait to have an assault on the senses! Time to brush back up on my Japanese.

I've spent most of the day in the kitchen.  After taking the Dog on an epic 4 mile walk, I rested my feet for a minute and thought about what I wanted to do today. Decided I wanted to make some pasta.  I used to do it on New Year's Day for a couple of years in a row, but it's been probably three or more years since I last did it.  I've got the equipment and had bought some semolina back in January, so decided to just go for it. Started by making the dough in the Kitchen Aid. 1 cup Semonlina flour 3/4 all-purpose flour olive oil salt water 2 eggs Mixed that up till it was coming together and took it out and pressed it in shape.  In retrospect I probably should have used a little more water. Then got out the attachment that rolls it out.  Started running chunks through that on the fattest setting.  Fold it, next setting, fold it, next setting ad nauseum.  I really like playing with my food. I got it to the 5th setting today.  The do...

Soaked up some lentils until the water was clear.  Sauteed some onion, celery and carrot in some olive oil and added a bit of garlic.  Then added some Anatolian spice that I got in Ístanbul to the mix, followed by the lentils for a moment.  Added the veggie broth I made the previous day and some tomato paste.  Let that simmer for about a half an hour.  That's all it needs. Stuck a hand blender into the pot and pureed that mess up.  Added some salt and pepper and then the juice of about 3/4 of a lemon.  Voila.  Another hearty, tasty meal.

Getting into the soup thing this week. Sliced up a big leek and sauteed it in a big pan with olive oil, garlic and a white carrot.  Made it wilt.  Added some chopped up cauliflower, Ottoman spices, and some tomato paste thinned with water.  Simmered that for about a half an hour in a box of veggie broth. All the ingredients in the pot Got it all mushy, and then tossed it in the Vitamix with some raw cashews and pureed the hell out of it.  Added a little more water to clean the container and poured that back into the soup.  Super good.  You have to make this. To go with dinner, I also cooked up some farro in mushroom broth.  On the side I did a mirepoix of celery and onion, plus those white carrots I was talking about earlier.  Added some garlic.  Then added a container of chopped up mushrooms, and then some thyme.  Blended this mix with the farro.  Yum. Tossing the trimmings into a pot All of the trimming from all of...

Working on some soup for dinner tonight. We the pan with some avocado oil.  Add a spoonful of crushed garlic.  Once that's sizzling and popping all over the place, throw in the white park of the leek I chopped up.  Wilt that a bit.   Add some Ottoman spice I have too much of. Cut up two big bunches of kale and add that.  Start with about half first and wilt it down a bit depending how big of a pan you're using.  Then add the rest.  I also diced up about a quarter of a potato to eventually thicken it with.  Add a bunch of vegetable broth.  Simmer to wilt the kale down some more.  Add some white wine because everything tastes better with wine.  Cook that about a half hour. Plan next is to let it cool down and them I'm going to puree it in the Vitamix.  Baking a sweet and regular potato in the oven now, in case the soup doesn't seem like enough.  Crudite chopped up in case there's some munchies that need quelling. Updat...

Sweetie and I had some free nights to use courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton, so we hunted around for what would strike a balance between a sort of exotic, beachy weekend, but not too far away and not too stressful. Aruba and San Juan made the short list, but ultimately we settled on Cancún. I think we made a good decision. It was only a three hour flight down from Chicago, and about a 70 degree difference in temperature. The worst part was getting through customs, which took about 45 minutes, though it felt a lot longer.  Not all of the rat mazes are quite the same, so look for one that's a little narrower to speed your time through immigration.  That being said, our bag was waiting for us at the baggage claim, so you usually end up waiting somewhere. Coming out of the airport was a little crazy and felt a little scammy.  Not a good start.  For one, the hotel zone is about 20 minutes away and everyone needs a ride.  Cabs aren't allowed to do pickups and it's just s...

Tonight I got a little industrious.  Cleaned up a baking potato and two sweet potatoes and baked them in the convection oven.  Chopped up a couple of heads of broccoli, half for juice and half to just munch on.  Also cleaned the stalks so I could eat those. Juice has the aforementioned broccoli Some kale Three large golden beets with the greens A huge jicama 1 green apple some carrots a zucchini a turnip ginger turmeric

Used 4 cups cashews, a jar of green salsa I picked up on sale yesterday, a little nutritional yeast and about a cup of water. Puréed the hell out of it in the vitamix. Delicious.

So after the stock was done, cut up 1 1/2 onions and diced two poblano peppers. Threw that into a pot with some olive oil and garlic.  Cooked that up for a few minutes and then added some ground coriander, cumin and ground chipotle chili.  Kept cooking that. Added the stock I made and a touch more from a box.  Got that simmering really good and then added a can of white beans and another can that I mashed up.  Added the juice of 2 limes and about a half a cup of white wine.  Simmered that for about 30 minutes or so.  Shredded the rest of the chicken from last night's dinner and added that along with some fresh cilantro.  Cooked for a few more minutes to warm up the chicken. Served it with with some crushed up blue corn chips and a dollop of sour cream.  Pretty tasty.  Ended up having about a bowl and a half.

Made a roasted chicken, stuffed with lemons on a bed of onions.  Good stuff.  Picture above is some green beans with mushrooms in Ottoman spice from our last trip to Istanbul.  We also had some Brussels sprouts tossed with some balsamic vinegar.  Good stuff. For the Superb Owl I'm making a stock from the bones from last night's chicken.  I added a bay leaf, some poultry seasoning, 1/4 of an onion, old celery, a few baby carrots, a dash of lemongrass and maybe a half cup of white wine.  The rest of it's water and I'm just going to let it simmer on the stove until I'm done with the movie I'm watching.  Pro-tip, simmer very gently to get a clear broth. The stocks going to be the base for a chicken chili.  I've also whipped up a batch guacamole to go with it.  Can't wait to see how the soup turns out!

We had a run of eating out due to being out of the house so much in the past few days. I spent last Friday seeing two movies with a friend, "Anomalisa" and "The Big Short."  We got a glass of wine and some fried calamari and by then it was about 3:30 and I wasn't in the mood to make juice.  Talked Sweetie into checking out a nearby Thai place, Star of Siam.  Ick.  They claimed to have Massaman curry, but it tasted like Jif with pineapple chunks.  What is this, 1976?  I was seriously disappointed.  The spring rolls even had some sort of syrupy-vinegary mess all over them.  Not sure what they were thinking. Saturday was spent house hunting.  We got home about four after neither of us had much to eat that day so we checked out a nearby Irish pub, Timothy O'Toole's, that had pretty good food.   No Irish beers oddly enough, other than Guinness, but they had some buffalo chicken rolls that were interesting.  Might have liked th...

Sweetie and I put an offer in on an actual house and it was accepted!  Inspection Tuesday.  It'll be fun to go from downtown condo living to actual city neighborhood house living.  Stay tuned for more updates and lessons to be learned from our experience.

Had some cavatelli leftover from the soup. Threw it in a pan with a little butter to get it going and some creme fraiche from NYE with too much pepper and a pinch of salt that's made a yummy snack. 

Tonight's green juice consists of: 1 bunch of leafy green kale 2 Fuji Apples 1 Granny Smith Apple 1 Bosc pear 1 parsnip 1/2 bunch of parsley 3 celery stalks 2 large cucumbers 1 orange some leftover ginger Shopped somewhere else today.  They didn't have the wide, wide range of veggies I can get at Whole Foods, but I got most of the primary, green components. One thing I haven't been mentioning is that I tend to add water or coconut water to the mix.  It's good the same way adding a little water to a glass of whiskey brings out the flavors.

Did my morning erranding and ended up at Treasure Island Foods, a nice little independent market with a great selection of foreign products that you just don't see everywhere else.  Was happy to see that some of their produce was a little cheaper than Whole Foods'.  I'm getting a little annoyed with just how much it costs to shop there and am trying to ween myself away from them.  It's just been a little tough in the cold.  I think it will be worth it though, unless I need something last minute.  The walk will do me good. 

Still working on the soup.  Had some for lunch yesterday and should get some more of it today.  I love it when a little work goes a long way like that.  The juices have been lasting through breakfast and Sweetie has been able to take a thermos of it for lunch, as well.

Tonight's tasty concoction consists of: 2 Fuji apples 1 Granny Smith 1 big chunk of ginger 1 pinky of turmeric 3 small Golden beets 1 zucchini 2 large English cucumbers some parsley 1 Cara Cara orange 3 stalks of celery a ton of carrots 1 parsnip 2 medium jicama 1 bunch lacinato kale Good stuff!

Carrots galore 3 stalks of celery 3 cucumbers 1 zucchini 2 Fuji apples 2 smallish chunks of jicama 1 pear 1 parsnip 1 big red beet 1 big bunch of red kale Going for a red juice this time.  Don't forget you had this the next day.  You're not dying.

Baby, it's cold outside.  Let's make soup in no time. 1 finely chopped medium onion 3 carrots cut in tiny pieces 3 celery stalks in tiny pieces Fire up the pot, throw in some oil, and garlic and all those veggies. Chop up a package of sliced mushrooms and cook those in a separate pan with some butter and more garlic. Chop up some chicken thighs into tiny bite sized pieces.  Keep checking what's cooking. Transfer mushrooms to mire-poix pot and then add a little toasted sesame oil to the pan and toss in the chicken pieces with still more garlic.  Cook chicken until done. Add box of stock to the veggies and once the chicken is done, throw that in, too.  Added a can of petite diced tomatoes with jalapenos and cilantro.  Stir.  Bring to a boil. Add water to the chicken pan to cook some pasta in that with the double goal of cleaning the pan. Boil cute, tiny pasta separately.  Add some thyme and saffron to the soup.  Once it boils, turn...

Short flight last night to see my folks. Flew on United. Been flying with them forever. We were slightly delayed - a half hour - but still got to our destination only 15 minutes late.  We got an apology from them and an offer of 5000 miles or a $100 e-certificate! I don't remember them doing anything like that since 2010 or so. Thanks, United. I think they're really trying to turn things around.  Further, Sweetie, who has better status than I do because he flies for work and work from home, was offered 6250 miles or $125. Which would you take and why?

Last night's juice wasn't bad, but I won't be repeating it.  Tonight I present to you: 1 bunch of kale (because there must always be kale or some other good leafy green) 1 zucchini 2 small pieces of ginger (not a dismembered red-head) 1 pinky of turmeric that was big enough that they charged me 6 cents for it 1 jicama robusto 3 stalks of celery (can't have too much of this or it's nasty) 2 pink lady apples 1 granny smith apple (because it's Thursday) 1 big bag of carrots 1 turnip 1 parsnip 2 big English cucumbers 1 orange the balance of the parsley from yesterday Now let's cut them up and feed them to the Machine. Not bad.  1 hour 3 minutes beginning to end. (Cut - 30 minutes/feed/strain/clean.)  This one's pretty good!

Tonight's juice will consist of: 1 bunch of kale 1 lemon 1 yellow squash some parsley 3 celery stalks 1 bag of carrots 1 bartlett pear 1 fancy orange 2 English cucumbers 1 zucchini 1 granny smith apple 1 jicama 1 rutabaga 1 turnip 2 golden beets some fresh mint  Let's see how this goes.

Finally used the stock I made the other day to cook up some farro, add some corn with Tapatio, and the rest of the shredded chicken from the stock carcass to make a soup for this blustery day. Cleaned out a jar of crushed garlic and threw in a little thyme as well. Good stuff.

Two loads of laundry started, bed made, bathroom drawer and medicine cabinet reorged with additional items coming off the vanity. Looks a lot neater in there now. Next up: vacuuming and plotting the day's juice.

Sweetie's in the kitchen, making some nut "cheese." Easy and healthy. 2 cups raw, unroasted cashews lemon juice 1 cup nutritional yeast garlic Salt to taste Blend it all up in a VitaMix or blender. Eat with your favorite raw veggies.

Popped down to the market and grabbed 1 granny smith apple 1 small red beet bag of carrots 2 medium-sized golden beets 1 jicama a bunch of kale 2 English cucumbers 1 turnip a pinky of turmeric a chunk of ginger a lime a stalk of celery and an orange some mint Let's see how this goes. 30 minutes to chop all of that up.  Another 45 to feed and clean.  Not my favorite, but not too bad, either.

See the orange color of those yolks?  That's what eggs are supposed to look like.  Not that pale yellow crap that passes for eggs, normally.  Get a line on someone who likes chickens and lets them run around their yard and doesn't feed them "feed" - whatever that is.

Leftover chicken in the fridge means I make stock!  Clean out the larder and add some carrots, half a left-over onion, the rest of the celery, some leftover herbs from the weekend, thyme and rosemary, some gnarly garlic, a couple of bits of galangal, a bay leaf, and just let it simmer on the stove.  Still cold in here and I still don't want to turn on the heat.  I can use it to cook up some farro I bought last week and haven't used yet.  Maybe tomorrow's lunch. The stock's not warming the place up quite like I want it to.  Add some pumpkin bread to the mix.  Thought I had some walnuts from a while back, can't find them, but I have another trail mix that's been around for a while, so I'll just pour that in, too. Easiest pumpkin bread recipe in the world.  In one bowl add and mix together: 1 cup of sugar (or more or less) 1/2 cup of some kind of vegetable oil, I had canola 2 eggs (used some gorgeous free range eggs from Ohio with prettiest orange...

1 bunch of kale 1 fuji apples 1 pear of some variety 2 oranges of some variety 1 small piece of turmeric I keep getting for free because it's so small 1 smallish turnip 1 zucchini 1 large jicama 2 large English cucumbers 2 large golden beets whole bunch of carrots 3 stalks of celery Will cut into bite-sized chunks and feed to the juicer later this afternoon.  This makes a ton of juice - two glasses for each of us tonight and a breakfast glass for the morning.  A little coconut water added along the way will help stretch it and keeps the machine working well.

Dishes done.  Use Bar Keepers Friend on the All-Clad.  Someone remarked to me once that they liked their pots and pans to have an old, used look to them.  If you don't want your stuff to stick, use the BKF.  Keep them shiny.  They can almost look nearly brand new.  Stuff won't stick. Roomba running.  Get a Roomba.  It's on a schedule.  Everyday at 10 AM.  Changed my life.  Lots of windows and light here show off every dusty imperfection.  Dust bunnies multiple like, well, bunnies.  Roomba eats them like a fox eats, well, bunnies.

Good morning.  Downtown Chicago here.  56 degrees in the condo this morning.  I won't turn on the heat.  -8 outside. So this is what they were talking about when people looked at me like I was crazed for moving from San Francisco.  Add another layer!  Made Sweetie breakfast this morning.  Used up the rest of the bacon and the last of the eggs. Dog got one, too.  I cook exclusively in All-Clad and you should, too.  Done right, nothing sticks. While my bacon was frying, I cleaned out the utensil drawer.  Too many things I hadn't been using that were just in the way.  Now that's set. Used just one pan for all of breakfast.  A quick and easy way to clean a pan is to just add some water to it, crank up the heat and scrape the bits away.  Pour out the water and the bits and it was good enough to fry some eggs without them sticking. Chores for today: get soap.  I need dish soap, laundry soap, dishwasher soap, and TP....

Why house-husbandry?  Because I am managing a home and anyone that knows me knows I like old words.  Husbandry used to refer to managing a home, and it's alliterative.