Urban Logging

All around my walk this morning there was the sound of change in the urban landscape of Merced.

The tree companies were out in force. Several homes were going through pine tree eradication. People plant pine trees in this valley. This time of the year they begin to pollenate and drop tons of ginger colored pollen in the air.

I talked to one of the people that were cutting down the pines. He said that people plant a pine and then baby it to death. The pine is used to seeking its own water source, but people keep watering them as part of their lawn landscape and they out grow rather quickly their space.  I was marveling at the rings that the fallen tree had produced from its cross cut logs. They were well spaced out and looked way too healthy. This tree person said that he preferred that people plant redwoods if they needed a big tree. They do not have branch structures that require training as they grow older.

I asked him if he took out palm trees. He immediately gave me the crossed finger sign... denoting stay away from me.  He said the main issue is that people have to climb them to get them cut down. He said that he had done that for 22 years and that he felt that he had put in his time. I told him that I had a 20 foot Mexican fan palm that needed obliteration. He gave me his card and said that he thought that he could do that. He went on to tell me that there are places in the tropics that they are planting these just for the heart of palm vegetable and that if I were around when he took out mine, he would harvest my "heart" of palm for me. 

After I left I pulled up the card and noticed that it was the father of one of my daughters friends in Jr. High, Vanessa.

In other parts of the walk some of the big trees around the apartment complex looked like they were headed for transition.  A big storm is headed our way this afternoon and tonight.  I do not think that the cedars and the redwoods that they were cutting down were going to be a factor in this storm, nonetheless the logging was taking place on trees that have had too much water over the years and were vulnerable. The city arborist was in close consultation with the tree service owner over that project. After all, we are a national tree city.   : ) Pat

A Minister's Monday

At the coffee shop today I ran into the minister who makes the local Starbucks his office.

I told him that I remembered that Monday was a day that many ministers take as their day off.

He laughed and said that he was not likely to take Monday off since he had preached and interacted with his congregation on Sunday and he used Monday as a day to put into action the information and connections that he had acquired on Sunday. He said that he was more likely to use Friday as his day off in the week.

He showed me that he was working on a sermon in May for Psalm 23. He is using some pretty cool computer software to integrate his references and quotes from literature that would support his theme. I told him that he should have a couple of hard drives for back up since the one sure thing in this world is that storage is always temporary and everyone will lose a hard drive.

He backs up to a cloud as well as his local backups. A lot of sermons need components that go with them as well. The software that fires those other components are setting on his Dell too. 

He has an Ipad 2. I mentioned to him that he should consider downloading the lesson software/ textbook generator that just came out from Apple. He said that he looks forward to the day that he could design and use his Ipad to do all of his work instead of his lap top. He should have to wait that long.

: ) Pat

New Blog!

I have just started a new blog. You may be interested in it.

I have recently become interested in a whole group of new artists that are sketching their way through life as they know it and publishing some of it in blogs.

I had the idea of doing the same with a recipe or two that I was making for dinner.

The first blog entry is something that we had for dinner last night.
Its Kraut Burgers.
Not really using sauerkraut.. but rather cabbage.. and Worcester sauce.

The blog's name is  Illustrated Dinner.

I am doing the illustration of a huge moleskin that I plan to scan into the blog periodically.

The idea came from a recipe that I made from the pistachio biscotti recipe illustration that I did in my regular sized moleskin. 

The first one is always one of those things that you have to kind of zero in to make sure that it will work so... I am sure they will get better with more experience and practice.

I can see that will the illustration of the objects do nicely in brown or red, the lettering has to be in black in order for there to be enough contrast.

It should be fun. When it is not.. I am out of here! LOL!

: ) Pat

Electric Pressure Cooker Update

It looks like I am not the only one to "misplace" the instruction booklet that goes with the electric pressure cooker. In the comments section of the device, there are numerous referrences to the same plight. Someone got one for a gift, and alas no instruction booklet was included. Someone moved and it was gone. Several people bought them on QVC and HSN and when they  got their appliance it was gone. 

After reading many of the same tales of woe with no solutions that followed it, I noticed that 35 entries down someone made reference to "manuals online." With that in mind a quick link to that source had all of the Wolfgang Puck manuals categorized by appliances. I found mine and discovered that it had a pdf (acobat file) reference. In seconds I was back in business. 

As mentioned in the previous pressure cooker blog entry, I cooked both the beef chuck and the chicken at 35 minutes.  The proper chart shows whole chicken at 20 minutes and beef chuckroast at 75minutes.

With this new information, the chicken soup was cooked at 25 minutes and included a whole foster farms chicken, and a little less (about a 1/2 cup less of chicken stock.)  I filled the pot up to the capacity line for liquid. Again it made a chick soup that was memorable.

While the chuck roast was certainly good at 35 minutes, the extra time would break it down more and make more of a traditional fall off the bone roast.  I am anxious to try this out soon. it suggests 2-3 cups of liquid to go along with the roast.

The roast that I made ended up in to three meals for us as it was. First it was roast beef and mashed potatoes. Then it was the the meat in a chef salad with lettuce and cheese and fresh tomatoes. The third meal had thinly sliced roast beef with some sauteed mushrooms and some cheddar cheese in a dinner omelet.  There was still a small handful of meat left over.

The second run with the chicken soup was great. I made it with boxed chicken stock. A couple of chopped celery stalks and a diced up onion and some black pepper was all that was needed for this soup.  I was really careful about not including the small bones from the chicken parts in this chicken soup but still ended up with a coupl in the process. Picking the meat of the bone in "pulled" fashion was pretty easy with this method.

I was telling Dad about the adventure. He had a comment.... you need a pressure cooker when you lose your teeth. I reminded him how much he liked my sister Kelly's corned beef. That got him off the idea that the only reason you need a pressure cooker was that it made food easier to chew.  He went on to say that Kelly could have been a chef for one of those boutique restaurants her cooking is so good.  I reminds him of his mother.  She made a living cooking for many people. She would always put it together. 

: ) Pat

Post Leap Year

Yep, this year is a leap year.

This February 29th seemed to be celebrated more than usual.

Disneyland had an all day all night opening. There were specials for the leap year with local merchants that did not seem to happen in any previous leap year.

The local paper, published the photo of a leap year baby that was born in the local hopital, along with 6 others. Sue mentioned to me that she read an article in the Huff about a lady that has four leap year babies living in... Utah.

There was a teacher of the deaf that was born on a leap year. She would put little gifts in every district mail box on the days of the years that it was not her bithday and would expect that on her real birthday (every four years) that everyone would remember her birthday and shower her with gifts. Her side of it worked beautifully and we all felt sorry that she didn't have a birthday most years, but sadly when it came to celebrating her birthday the plan didn't work out so much.

This is also post Chinese New Year. Its zodiac sign is a Dragon.

Electric Pressure Cooker

What is the most important part of a new appliance?

The directions, of course. So when I bought the new electric pressure cooker.. I got a wonderful price of 35 dollars through EBay.. you would think that I would have held on to the directions. Well no..

So I didn't want to buy another just yet. And I did not want a 35 dollar door stop... yet. So I figured that I could make something simple.  I just had to make sure that I had enough liquid in it that it wouldn't dry up and explode in the kitchen.

I have used pressure cookers in the past that sit over the stove and chirp chirp away for a hour or so and the result was pretty nice corn beef in less than the four hours it takes to make corned beef in a pot over a slow simmer. But.. its been a long time.  With this set up you take the whole pot and you run cold water over it until the steam subsides inside of the pot. Its easy then to separate the handles and out it comes. The key to this set up is to make sure that the seal is functional and that the little weight is appropriate for the the function of the food inside. You do your own timing when the weight moves up and down as it maintains its pressure.

Some of these concepts work with the new pressure cooker and some do not. The seal is still important. The area around the release needs to be clean. The pot does not go under the cold water before the steam is released. In the electric pressure cooker the pressure is allowed to release naturally if there are soupy kind of material in the cooker. If it is just meat that is cooked, a manual release button is provided at the top of the cooker that allows the pressure to release quickly. Caution is the operative word around  hot stuff so being careful is important as steam will burn.

I figured that I would make up some super rich chicken noodle soup. I took the dark meat pieces off a chicken (drums, thighs wings and backbone) and put them in the inner pot. I added a chopped up onion and a couple of smashed garlic cloves and a chopped up stalk of celery.  I added a quart of chicken stock and set the timer for 35 minutes.  When the process was through, I let it set with the cord pulled for about 20 minutes. I pulled the chicken parts out and pulled the meat off the bones. The stock was dropped into a pot of the stove where I added the 8oz of egg yolk free noodles. When they were finished I added the chicken off the bone to the bottom of the dish, put the noodle and stock over it.. and it ended up being a very nice chicken noodle soup. Its a soup that you still have to watch for little bones. A slice of french bread was used to soak up the stock. Sue needed seconds on this.

The next venture was with a 2.6 pound chuck roast. I browned it first with a skillet with a coating of pepper. It went into the pot with an added a chopped onion and 2 cups of beef bullion. It turned out great too at 35 minutes. I think that the next time I do the beef it will need to go to 45 or and hour and Sue really likes it broken down. It was perfectly acceptable as far as a roast beef could be. I sliced it cross gain like a corned beef. 

Even though it looks like someone kicked my red and stainless table top appliance in the side. All functionality seems to be there. Wolfgang Puck and HSN was selling these models for over a 100 dollars. Mine came from Ebay through a scratch and dent re conditioner.

I know that with limited counter space this appliance does not seem a viable option. It is if you don't want to use a crockpot or have to time to wait for a nice weekday dinner to be done from an economy cut of meat.

In the mean time I will continue to look for the instructions and recipe guide.

: ) Pat

Blooming Order

Its blossom time in the valley.

Your nose is going to run.

The trees along the road are in various stages of bloom.

In my front yard the bloom cycle is somewhat predictable. The first trees to bloom are the pluots. They are nearing the end of their cycle. The bees have hit them hard. Next come the peaches. They are a little more reluctant to be covered with masses of blossoms. The first week just a few pink blossoms show and before that just little hot pink tips show on a light white knob are evident.

We are now at the next stage. The peach trees are fully bloomed. Its a a little different show even in full bloom from the pluots. The pluots have blossoms that completely cover the the branches of the trees. The peaches on the other hand have just well positioned blossoms on the tips of the branches and down the arms in well separated spacing. The smell coming from these trees is as strong as they have ever been. The bees completely nailed the pluots when they came out. The peach trees seem to attract fewer bees. It may be that the bees were responded to the pluots because they were in the fields of the almond trees waiting for blossom days. Now that the almond blossoms are out, they bees are staying close to home and doing what they were intended to do... pollinate the almond trees.

During this time of the year, bee keepers from all over the United States bring in their hives and have contracts to commercially pollinate the huges fields of almonds around Merced, Modesto and Madera. They come from the Dakotas and further east. California has its own bee keepers but they cannot keep up with the demand required by so many nut farmers.

I saw the first signs of blossoms from the apricot tree in the backyard this morning. The apricots are the last in the string of stone fruit to bloom. The oranges will bloom around Easter. The pomegranate shrubs will bloom in June. The kumquat tree will bloom whenever it wants to..  

: ) Pat