Ole!

Today, the post office called and let me know I had a package waiting.  Oh, what could it be?  What could it be?  I always love opening care packages from the States.

Yes, it's a tortilla press!  Looks like it's time to make some Mexican dishes!

Results when I have them ...

Scary Needles!

I'm afraid of needles. Really scared ... not sure why. Just am. Can't even watch someone getting an injection in a movie. It's not about the pain. Compared to some of the less-than-intelligent things I've done to myself by accident, a little needle pales in comparison.

Still, when this thing came in the mail, I got a quick twinge of EEEK. While it looks like something out of a bad low-budget zombie movie (probably holds the liquid goo that made the first brain-loving zombie) ... it's not. This is a meat injector.

This particular model holds two ounces (that's a quarter cup) of material. Either liquid or very small solids. You can inject the contents deep into a piece of meat to get better flavor inside.

Why do I care about this? Because in my quest to make as much as I can myself, I want to make ham, Canadian bacon, and other cured items. Those really like to have cure, flavorings, and other goodness injected.

My only problem right now is finding the right cuts of meat. Yes, honestly, that's not always easy here. For example, pork ribs are very hard to get because most are snapped up by the local restaurants long before they might hit the retail fridges.

I think we've solved that problem, though. There's a meat shop we're going to visit later this week that butchers daily. Getting my greedy hands on pork ribs, whole loins (Canadian bacon), pork butt ... real cuts of pork!

Very exciting stuff. Yes, yes, I realize that I'm saying that getting normal cuts of meat is exciting. This seems rather minor. Let me relate a little story.

My brother-in-law and I were driving to a nearby town (while it was near, the road made it effectively very, very far ... what should have been three hours round trip turned out to be eight) in search of the local version of queso blanco, a simple farmer's cheese.

My brother-in-law asked "Kuya," that's the Filipino word for "older male brother/cousin", "why is finding cheese so important to you?"

I, being the wise old man that I am, replied with a question "If you were in a place that had no rice would you do?"

He replied immediately ... no thought required ... "I'd look for it, kuya."

"There you go ..."

It's the little things that make us happy. Enjoy all the minor victories.

Nifty Chest Fridge

A while back I wrote about my chest freezer/fridge. I was about to start making Canadian Bacon and try out that New York Times chocolate cookie recipe when my wife decided that she needed our chest fridge to switch over to freezer mode.

What should I do? What could I do? She needed to store some prepared goodies for our son's fifth birthday party next week. I couldn't say no.

For months, I'd wanted a second unit. Oh yes, I craved it. Only problem? I couldn't justify it. Especially with my thrifty wife.

Now, my wife herself handed me the leverage I needed. Yes, the second unit will be mine. Mine, I tell you! That, of course, is what I was thinking at the time. The unit is plugged in, cooling things nicely already.


It's just like the first, except twice the size. It doubles as both a freezer and a fridge. Oh so great. I love the chest configuration.

It's also just the perfect size for my large stainless steel chafing/steam table dishes. It couldn't have been better had I planned it myself.

Now I have the room I need (and deserve!) to start trying out things that require a few hours to a few weeks of refrigeration.

I'm so easy to please. If I weren't so happy about my new fridge, I'd lament how easy I am.

Knife Magic

I like keeping my knives sharp. Not just a little sharp. Really sharp. As in, don't drop the knife on your foot because it'll slice through the bone (almost) sharp. As such, I religiously use a steel to keep my knives honed.

Many years ago, on a lark, I put a diamond-dust coated Wüsthof steel on my Amazon wanted list for Christmas. I never thought anyone would get one for me. Much to my surprise, my dad bought me one.

It was love at first use! Oh, my blades went back to straight, true, slicing through tomatoes like Ginsu knives promised they would.

I loved my steel. When I packed it to come here to the Philippines, I packed it well. Packed it to protect against getting banged up, bent, scratched, etc. I forgot about one little thing ... the ocean salt air. See, most of our household items went across the Pacific in big containers. So, they were exposed to the ravages of the nasty, salty air.

My steel, my poor steel, arrived DOA. Dead. D-E-D, dead.

Of course, my knives became more and more dull. Didn't cut like they should. And, that's frustrating. Finally, I said ENOUGH! I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore! (actually, it was more like ... hmmm, let's see what's out there that I can get shipped here quickly ... but, that doesn't sound quite as cool and outraged).

While I love Wüsthof products, I thought I'd give Henckels a try. I'd heard many good things about them over the years, but had never purchased one of their knives. I decided on a J. A. Henckels 10-inch Diamond Sharpening Steel. The price was reasonable at $39.95 (reasonable for a steel coated in diamond dust that is).

It took three weeks. But, the steel finally arrived. Was the Henckels steel as good as the Wüsthof? Did I immediately fall in love with it, eschewing the many years of loyalty from my old steel?

Yes! YES! My knives are sharp and honed again! They slice through nearly anything with ease. This is so great. I'm back to sharp knife happiness.

One small caveat with an aggressive steel like this one: it wears out the knife faster. However, if you're an amateur chopper like me, it makes little difference. And, what difference you do see is more than offset by having knives stay sharper, longer.

Highly recommended. I love it.

Love My Freezer ... um, Fridge ... Both

We have between seven and ten people living here at the house at any given time. Our fridge just wasn't enough to hold everything that we need. And, the upright freezer we had was less than pathetic. Not to mention that in the heat here, every time we opened the freezer all the cold air would fall out and be replaced with 25-degree Celcius meat-defrosting nastiness.

So, a trip to the appliance store was in order. Oh, they had a sea of appliances that said "buy us, buy us". Yes, I do love gadgets and buying them. Even big, white gadgets.

I, of course, want to buy the biggest chest freezer there. My wife, Joan, thought maybe that was a little excessive. We managed to come to a compromise where we'd buy a smaller unit and buy a second one if needed.

What we did buy was seriously nifty. It will function as both a refrigerator and a freezer. I insisted on the chest configuration because of its efficiency and how it doesn't let tons of hot air in when you open it.

Since I want to try making some wet-cured ham, having the wide range of adjustment is great.

I know, seems like a small thing. Yeah, it is a small thing. Still, I like it.

Requiem for a Cell Phone

My beloved Nokia N95 suffered screen-death two days ago. I rely so much on my phone these days. Pictures, notes, texting friends (here in the Philippines, most people just text, it's dirt cheap and easy). I use it daily. All of the pictures I've taken for this site and my other site (My Tacloban) were taken with my N95.

First, it started going green, shifting its little face around. Finally, the screen just went black. Oh, the humanity!

It wasn't brain-dead. I was about to plug the phone into life support (otherwise known as my computer) and drain its contents onto my hard drive. So, it's brain and heart were alive and ticking. Just that it couldn't show itself to the world.

So, I took the phone to the electronic emergency room and begged them to fix it and bring it back to life! OK, I actually said something to the effect of "I believe it's under warranty, what are our options?" I was told it was going to have to be shipped to Manila and that I'd be without the phone for a month.

A MONTH?!?! OK, that's just not going to happen. Well, it's going to happen. In fact, it's likely to take two months. At least the phone is under warranty and the repair is free. However, I am not going to be without a phone for two months.

So, what beckoned to me at the store? The nifty Nokia N95 8G. Oh, it's black and steel and shiny and has a bigger screen, more memory, and a longer battery life. The buttons work better, the slide feels nicer.

It called to me like the mythical harpies callings ships to their doom. I heeded its siren song and my credit card fell victim to its price (approximately P29,000).

I am happy again. When my beloved Nokia N95 returns from Manila, it will discover that I have an even more beloved Novia N95 8G doing its work.

Onion ... Meet The Garlic Press

My mom was craving a good salad dressing. I don't like to disappoint my mom, so I made an Asian vinaigrette for her.

I looked at the recipe and noticed that it called for a tablespoon of chopped onion. OK, I knew what that meant for this ... it meant seriously minced. And, to be honest, it was really hot out, I was tired, and I didn't feel like taking even the short amount of time to cleanly chopify the onion.

Since the recipe already called for some garlic, I had the garlic press out. So, I cut up the onion I needed and crammed it through the garlic press.

I was happily surprised with the results. First, the texture of the resulting onion mash was the same as the pressed garlic. So, the dressing didn't have various textures in it. Just the liquid and the garlic/onion mash. I like that because I want the dressing to interfere as little as possible (aside from taste) with the salad on which I'm pouring it.

Second, I was amazed at the amount of onion flavor present. I guess I shouldn't have been. The pressing process brought out a lot of onion juice and exposed a lot more surface area of the onion material.

Next time I make this dressing, I'll use half the onion listed. And, I'll post it ...

It's Here! It's Here! Sausages To Come ...

I've wanted to make some sausage and hot dogs for a while now. But, my only plate for my Hobart's sausage grinding attachment has small holes. Makes it hard to stuff the sausage.

So, I looked into buying a sausage stuffing plate from a supplier in the States. Looked like by the time shipping was included, it'd cost me about US$40 and would take three to four weeks to arrive. Not bad.

Still, I'm trying to wean myself off of having things shipped in as much as possible. So, I went to a friend of mine in town and he pointed me to a machine shop. A scale drawing and P500 down payment got them started.

What I thought would take only a few days, took two-and-a-half weeks. Turns out, finding a piece of stainless steel the right size was hard around here. That took the bulk of the time. In the end, my plate was made from a piece of stainless steel sawed from the end of a piece intended to be a propeller shaft.

When all was said and done, total cost was P1700 (US$38.20). A little less money, made in less time, and I didn't send to the States for it. A victory, I'd say.

Plus, now I can make some nice country-style breakfast links. Haven't had those since I left the US. Looking forward to playing with that recipe.

I'll be sure to post ...