September 7, 2025Sep 7 A couple of pies for dinner with friends from across the street. One with Mexican chorizo, red onion, corn and jalapeño, over cheddar, mozzarella and topped with grated cotija, which was the clear winner. The other with pepperoni, shaved fennel, mushrooms, and fresh basil grown by the neighbors over mozzarella, which was tasty but more basic. Working with a shitty oven and a pizza stone instead of a pizza steel was a handicap, but it worked out fine.
September 8, 2025Sep 8 One of my young coworkers has had a very hard time of late. His Father just quit as a parent and moved back to Ireland, where he's originally from. His son Arlo just graduated high school. He's a phenomenal worker, especially for one so young. He's just the kind of young man that's always positive and always very well mannered. We bonded over fishing at first. He loves my stories of commercial fishing in the Bering Sea. More recently he was told about my woodworking. He's seen several pictures and is fascinated and is wanting to learn. His former principal is Al and Claire's Sister in law, which Al and I have done many projects for. If you want to befriend me, showing an interest in woodworking is a surefire way to be successful. Almost a year ago, I made my own macaroni recipe and took it in for the Saturday crew. When Arlo took his first bite he had the biggest grin on his face. He has hinted several times that more macaroni would be appreciated. I've made it 5 or 6 times now. I think he may actually like it more than myself even. A few months back his Sister started working for Fairfax Lumber too. She's in the Nursery. She's as well mannered and as pleasant as her Brother, and adorable too. About a week ago Arlo asked if he could sit with me at lunch and get some advice. That's when he told me that his Father abandoned the family. I'm a good talker. I can talk your ear off. But this time I just listened. He just needed to vent, so that's what I let him do. I did give some advice, but mainly I just let him talk and let him express his anger. Something I've never seen out of him. There's not much I can actually do to ease his pain or make the situation better. He's going to go through several stages of grief and anger. ATM he's focusing on helping his Mother. She's shocked and in a financial crisis. He's working full time and taking fire fighter training (His dream for many years). So he's overwhelmed, but still focusing on helping Mom. He said she's been working all of the overtime she can get. So, one small thing that I could do was save her a night of cooking, and make Arlo's favorite meal. I told his Mom that I'd be cooking and delivering Saturday dinner. I made a giant batch of Macaroni, enough salad ingredients to last a week, two loafs of fresh baguette and a giant apple/berry pie from Costco. And topped it off with enough disposable dishes and lids to freeze/refrigerate all of the leftovers. He didn't know anything about it, but was very surprised when I dropped it all off. His ear to ear grin was worth any laborious prepping tasks. I've had several texts from Mom, Arlo and Sister Nina. Very sweet family and I'm feeling like I did a good deed. The pic is not the macaroni I took them, it's the leftover ingredients that I cooked up today. Lunches for the future.
September 8, 2025Sep 8 He's smart and understands that working hard will payoff. I wish that I could do more for him. I will be there when he needs to vent again. My Dad was rough, but he never once thought about leaving us. That's a tough thing to wrap your mind around.
October 3, 2025Oct 3 Not cooking until tomorrow, but gathered lunch ingredients for Al's Sister (Rini) and myself. Going to cook it on the Weber flattop. Skin down and squirt a little water under the steamer lid. Then sauté the green beans and mushrooms at a fairly high heat. Have a loaf of Kirkland rustic bread as well. Hopefully Al will cook up the unused portions Monday or Tuesday.
October 4, 2025Oct 4 So sorry for the image of that faux butter. Rini brought it out, then promptly put it away after seeing the look on my face. I used a little EVOO and slightly grilled the bread. Edited October 4, 2025Oct 4 by swt61
October 8, 2025Oct 8 I made stroganoff the other day. I put too much black pepper in, but other than that, it was delicious. It was super spicy, and I wasn't even trying to make it so (the spiciest thing I put in there was black pepper, but I put my usual amount, which is about 1 cubic inch).
October 12, 2025Oct 12 This morning before finishing up our bathroom remodel cabinetry project, I prepped and Al cooked breakfast on the flattop. Kind of a mimic of Waffle House's Smothered, covered, loaded hashbrowns. All the eds were used. Bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, smoked cheddar and scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. We made a ton, and I think that I hurt myself a little bit, as our project required me to move and conform in ways that I found difficult. Lot's of groaning and weezing involved. But we prevailed. The homeowners left fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, which I still can't quite consume, even though they look amazing.
November 15, 2025Nov 15 My reward for getting up and getting my laundry done early. A scramble of orange bell pepper, shallot, tomato, avocado and eggs. Bacon, biscuits and fried potatoes with shallots. Iced coffee with Irish Cream Liqueur.
December 1, 2025Dec 1 Decided to have a go at Chicken Korma. Bites while seasoning were pretty great. Naan is staying warm in the oven to go alongside.
December 15, 2025Dec 15 Had not made empanadas in a while. Decided that needed fixing so I defrosted some left over carnitas and that was that. Well, first I made a double batch of dough so I could make them more hand-pie sized. This was half of them.
December 17, 2025Dec 17 I had to do it! I had extra shoulder bacon, English muffins, eggs and so on. I did cook more hash browns than intended.
December 22, 2025Dec 22 Ironically (?) on the day that Al was supposed to have Detroit-style pizza, that's what I made for dinner.
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