What is Chuckbert up to now?

Chuckbert's been up on the roof. The questions on everybody's minds are:

• Why did Chuckbert strap a Guinness can to his weather machine's tripod?

A closeup of the can:

• And why did he strap some paint cans to the chimney screen?

Only time will tell.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A herd of ironwood turtles.

Here's Lance!

A recent water bill had a note enclosed telling us that the intersection just to the north of our house was going to be closed today for an hour because the Amgen Tour of California was going to be passing through. Lance Armstrong was going to be in it!

Since it was just a two minute walk to the intersection we decided that we'd watch. It turned out to be a fairly popular spot to watch the racers. We watched from a little way up the hill so we had a view of the racers' approach and turn up Bear Valley Parkway. We just saw the mass of bikers so we couldn't pick out Lance from the rest of the main pack.

There's not much to see but I made a movie of the event. After all, how many times does a major bike race pass through your neighborhood?




Here's the line of cars leaving our little street (and some parked ones).

And here are the cars parked in front of our house. Notice the pickup parked beyond our mailbox.
The driver of the pickup is the person on the phone in front of the SUV on the left. He's asking somebody for help getting unstuck from the mud. He decided that the spot where our water pipes were replaced would be a great place to park. Unfortunately, it wasn't. He sank into the mud.

He got out of the mud. We have new depressions for water to fill when it rains again.


Here's a Google Map of the part of the race we saw.  We watched from the red pointer and the bikes travelled along the blue line (in the direction of the arrows).

View Larger Map

Seriously, if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane

Back when Sirius and XM's programming was combined, I said that I was looking forward to listening to the channel that plays music from the 1940s. The music that was popular before the Rock-and-Roll era is interesting, varied, and sometimes very silly. I am enjoying that addition to my satellite radio's programming.

There seems to have been a need for happy, silly songs back then. I guess with a war going on that was taking a terrible toll on the world, perhaps people got to have their spirits raised a bit by hearing these novelty songs.

Recently, I fell asleep while listening to the '40s channel. I woke up to a strange, silly song that started to sound familiar. It was "The Hut-Sut Song."

Why, you ask, would I be familiar with a silly song like that? Well, back at the turn of the millennium, there was a spate of obituaries of people who had written some of the World War II-era novelty songs. (This was at the real turn of the millennium, not that faux one when the whole, misled world, even the parts that don't use the Christian calendar, celebrated at the end of 1999. Fools!)

One of the obituaries that I remember was for Leo Killion, a co-author of "The Hut-Sut Song (A Swedish Serenade)."

Whenever I read about an obscure song like that I would head over to Napster and search for it. I miss Napster. I used it mostly as an on-demand radio service to listen to long out of print music. And my searches would find music I would never have encountered otherwise. For responsible people like me, Napster could have generated sales of recordings but it's gone. YouTube is mostly filling its role now.

I found several recordings of the song and smiled. I hadn't heard it since. Till that nap. And I got to smile again.

A few months after Mr. Killion's obituary ran, another novelty song's author's obituary came along. This one was for Jack McVea, the writer of "Open the Door, Richard." Off to Napster I went. There was The Merry Macs' version, a happy, cheerful story of somebody locked out of the apartment. And I found this version that includes the vaudeville routine that inspired the song. Not being part of the time, its appeal escapes me. I haven't heard it in any of its versions on Sirius XM.

By the way, did you know that the Andrews Sisters didn't realize that "Rum and Coca Cola" is a dirty song? And it was scandalous not just because of its celebration of prostitution but because it advocated drinking rum. And Coca Cola. And I thought that political correctness was a recent phenomenon.

While we're on the topic of laughing in lieu of insanity, here's a review of the latest Liō desk calendar: You should have bought the latest Liō desk calendar. It is full of wit and insight. This weekend's page fits the theme of this post.

But I digress...

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Malachite turtles (and a hippopotamus).

One more crack at this

I made the cheese crackers again. I did a few things differently:

• I used a different cheese (some Pecorino Romano left from our crack and cheese experiment)
  
• I rolled them thinner using KitchenAid Mixer's pasta roller attachment
• I cooked them on uninsulated sheets
• I took them off the parchment paper while they cooled on the rack
• I forgot to sprinkle the coarse salt on them :-(
  
• I MADE A MOVIE!

They're much crisper than the first batch. Some are browner. Much browner. (I was watching the videos of the process while they were baking and I should have been watching the crackers.)

The first, thicker crackers had more flavor. I don't know if that was because the cheese had more flavor or if I used more cheese or if the extra thickness and slight undercooking made them more flavorful. Or maybe it was the added coarse salt.

Much of the problem with the flavor is that I think I might have made them too thin. I ran the pasta rollers down to the fifth setting. That makes some pretty thin sheets of dough. Maybe I should have stopped at three or four. But I'd better stop making these things altogether. I just eat them up.

There are several people who have subscribed to my YouTube channel. I haven't made a movie since August. To give my subscribers (and you, I hope) a thrill, here is my latest movie. I made it with my new MacBook Air. It came with iMovie and that makes movie making easy and snappier. I hope you like it.

You crack me up!

I shouldn't read the New York Times' food articles. I don't look for them but when they show up in the list of most popular stories, I just have to check them out. This time it was Parmesan Cream Crackers. I made them tonight and they are tasty.

I should have rolled them out thinner and baked them longer. They're a bit soft. But that's not going to stop us from eating them. Once again we have a rich snack.

I need to learn how to roll the dough into a nice rectangle. I guess I could have rolled it out and cut the irregular edges off and rolled out the edge pieces again. (The article says that additional working of the dough makes them flakier.)

My first batch of crackers:
I should have scored them into smaller crackers. But then I would just eat a larger number of them.

An advantage to making these crackers with the Parmigiano-Reggiano we get at Costco is that I can cut off chunks and scarf them down while preparing the crackers. I can eat that stuff all day and not get tired of it.

Parmesan Cream Crackers

Time: About 20 minutes

1 cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
Coarse salt, pepper, sesame or poppy seeds, minced garlic or whatever you like for sprinkling (optional)

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly dust with flour. Put flour, salt, cheese and butter in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and butter are combined. Add about 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit; continue to add liquid a teaspoon at a time, until mixture holds together but is not sticky.

2. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1/2-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed. Transfer sheet of dough to prepared baking sheet (drape it over rolling pin to make it easier). Score lightly with a sharp knife, pizza cutter or a pastry wheel if you want to break crackers into squares or rectangles later on. Sprinkle with salt or other topping if you like.

3. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature or store in a tin for a few days.

Yield: About 4 servings.

I'm not sure how thin they meant to say to roll out the dough. Half of an inch is definitely not right. Mine were about 1/8 inch and they were still too thick.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic covered bowl from Australia (by way of Victoria, BC) in the style of Aboriginal art (it's signed but I'm not sure that it is a traditional form).

Crack and cheese

Recently, one of the items in the list of the most-E-Mailed stories from the New York Times caught my eye. It was their food blogger's quest for the best macaroni and cheese recipe. The one she settled on as the best is Martha Stewart's "Perfect Macaroni and Cheese."

Last night was nobody's birthday but we decided that we'd try it out.

It's the cheesiest! It has about 12 ounces of cheeses. (We halved the recipe.) According to the NY Times blogger, this stuff is nicknamed "Martha's crack-and-cheese" because it is so addictive.

The Crack-and-Cheese fresh from the oven:

And on our plates:
You'll notice we had some wine with supper. Because of this, after supper I took a nap from about 7:00 till I went to bed around 11:00. Then I slept through the night. It doesn't take much wine to put me out.

Jerry said the mac-n-cheese is "rich." He says that when people want just a sliver of a cheesecake because it is so rich he has no trouble eating a large helping. So you know this mac-n-cheese is rich.

But it's not going to be part of our birthday celebrations. We'll stick with our traditional mac-n-cheese recipes. In the meantime, we'll have to try some of the runners-up in the mac-n-cheese quest.

Speaking of Martha Stewart, she sure does live a charmed life. In a recent posting on The Martha Blog, she told us how convenient it was that she "happened to be in the Tampa area" for a book signing one Saturday and the Super Bowl was played there the next day. "Gee, since we're in the area, why don't we just drop in and watch the game?" So she watched the game from the 50-yard line right behind the Steelers. Too bad they put up some sort of screens around the half-time show so she didn't get to see Bruce Springsteen. But she tells us that he sounded good.

I never have such good luck.

More water issues

When we last discussed this subject, the city had reconnected our water and left some steel plates where they had dug up the road. They repaired the road the next day and life was back to normal. That event wasn't worth a blog posting.

It's been raining. The rain is helping settle the soil where they dug in our front yard. Because the soil is settling, there is a depression in the front yard that is now a lake.

Lake Bear Valley (and the repaired road):
Over the years the rain will wash new soil into the lake bed and things will get back to normal. We don't see that part of the yard very much so it's not a big deal.

Oh, look, there is a volunteer peach tree blooming! We can see that from the house. (I hope the tree doesn't drown.)

Luck with "Lucia"!

Today we saw the Met's HD broadcast of "Lucia di Lammermoor." Unlike "Thaïs," this broadcast went without a hitch. (By the way, the rebroadcast of "Thaïs" had no problems. And Ms. Fleming didn't even throw in any of her annoying, jazzy swoops.)

Well, the broadcast went without a hitch. The poor Met is having troubles with their cast again. (You might remember that last season's "Tristan und Isolde" had six performances and about that many different combinations of singers in the title roles.) This was the fourth performance in the run of Lucia and they've already had three different Edgardos. The original singer apparently has ruined his voice and was replaced (they said that he is "ill"). Today's replacement seemed to do a very good job (at least to my untrained ear). As did Anna Netrebko as Lucia.

The production was nice. And the camera always looked at what was important and didn't make me grumpy.

So it was a nice time at the opera.

And what's more, baby, I can cook!

Every Friday, Jerry and I have scrambled eggs for supper. We usually have toast and sausage patties with them. We've been using the double boiler method from Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food" for cooking the eggs for a long time. I was using a stainless steel mixing bowl on a sauce pan. When the eggs were cooked they'd leave a very tough coat of dried eggs on the bowl. It would always take a lot of effort to clean the bowl. And a lot of the eggs went to waste!

What I needed was a non-stick bowl.

One day we were at the kitchen shop in our local mall that was holding a quitting business sale. One of the things they had was a Nordic Ware nonstick double boiler insert! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Now we get to eat all of our eggs and cleanup is easy!

One Friday after a tough day at work I was not looking forward to cooking our eggs. I was beat. Somehow Jerry must have known because he was all set to fix the eggs, breakfast patties and toast. He had recently gotten a bunch of herbs and spices from Penzeys Spices and was going to try something new. He added some Fox Point Seasoning to the eggs. I was in heaven! Not only did I not have to cook but I got to eat a delicious new dish.

I try to remember to add Fox Point when I cook the eggs. I remembered tonight. Here they are:
This is:

• Six eggs
• 4 tbs. half and half
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. Fox Point

Remember, if the eggs look done in the pan, they'll be over-done on the plate. They were about right when I stopped to take the picture and they got a bit more done looking by the time I got them on the plate. Oops!

Jerry cooked us some potatoes and onions. Mmmmmm!

The eggs were cooked on our new Fagor portable induction burner. Induction cooking is supposed to be the most energy efficient way to cook. Almost all of the energy it uses goes into heat in the pan. Gas and electric stoves heat the air and that heats the pan and a lot of the heat just misses the pan. So maybe we're using a little less energy now. In any case we have a new gadget!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Glass turtle by Timothy Lindemann of Santa Barbara.

Karen and Doughie! By popular demand!

Recently, Izzy posted some pictures of Karen and Doughie and requested a better version of her favorite picture of the two of them. It took me a bit of time to track down my box of pictures taken with my Polaroid Swinger camera. But I finally found them in a box tucked in the closet.

Here is the picture she requested.

My little box of Polaroid pictures has tabs dividing the collection by subject. The largest section is "Karen." The next is "Dogs." Ties went into "Karen" (and most of those feature Doughie).

Here is my favorite of the Karen/Doughie pictures.
Karen had a toy that had a ring that you put around your ankle and had a cord with a bell-shaped weight at the end. You'd spin the weight around your foot and jump over it as it passed under the other foot. Hey, I found it! Someone says it was a Footsie by Hasbro but can't find any other reference to the toy (so I'll bet that's not the toy's name). Anyway, the ring was big enough to go over little Doughie's head. And the bell was big enough to go over her muzzle.

Karen and Doughie sleeping.
Karen, Doughie, and Beth.
Karen and Doughie.

Doughie isn't here but I like this picture of Karen. She was being a fountain. I had her fill her mouth with water and spit it out but I guess I couldn't get a picture of the water. But she's cute anyway.