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...