June 27, 2020
June 26, 2020
June 16, 2020
June 11, 2020
June 10, 2020
The last few days of cooking
The last few days have been busy for me. On Monday I tried to make fluffy dinner rolls and they came out chalky, but I did make a great pizza, Ron helped. I think I over mixed the dough with the hook. The instructions said kneed it for 4 minutes, but the dough came together and looked good in one minute. But I kept going. I will trust my self more next time.
Here is the pizza we made for lunch.
I browned ground beef, garlic, peppers, onions in one pan, then in the other pan I did the same with ground sausage and drained both. Then I rolled out and baked the crust for about 8 minutes. Then Ron and I added items such as sauce, the beef, sausage, cheese, then mushrooms, and last the pepperoni. I like the pepperoni last because I don’t care for it and it is easy to pick off that way. I give them to Ron, he loves them. I was wiped out for the rest of the day.
Tuesday I got up about 3:40 AM. Why do that I hear you ask. Well I have my alarm set for 4 AM. I used to not be able to sleep through the night but with my pain medications increased I can now sleep longer. However I do prefer to get up and start my cartoon blogging and start any computer work around 4 AM. I have two alarms, the one on my phone set for 4 AM which always goes off at 4 AM. The other one is mobile, orange, furry, has four legs, a fluffy tail, and a wonderful cute face. He also has a rather sharp get up now yowl. He is not so careful with time as my phone. Any time between 3:30 and 4 AM he will start to trying to get me up. He sleeps on my pillow, so when he is ready to get me up he will walk down the length of me. I push him off and try to ignore him. He then sits on my bedside table and softly meows in my face. If that doesn’t work he goes for the big guns. He gets down on the floor and ramps up the volume and sharpness of the now demands to get up. So to keep him quiet I get up.
So that morning Ron was home and he was sort of fussing, so I made breakfast. I fried up some potatoes mixed with shredded potato we bought, I baked some bacon in the oven, took some eggs and mixed them up with a dash of water and whipped them and made scrambled eggs, and finished with home made toast with whipped butter. I don’t have pictures of that.
Ron was struggling with filing for Medicare which he has to do now that he is about to turn 65. I have helped him with a lot of it, so I decided to make a tomato spaghetti sauce and some thin spaghetti. I used the left over meat I browned for the pizza, that was the plan. I added some more minced garlic ( I love garlic ) peppers, onions, celery, oregano, basil, celery salt, regular salt, black pepper, and a couple dashes of crushed red peppers. After it is well hot and simmering I added two bottles of small whole “button” mushrooms. Some times I take some small meat balls, bake them 3/4 of the way cooked and then add them to the cooking sauce as this flavors them well. But I was just too tired and worn out yesterday.
For supper that night Ron took over and made chicken supreme. It is his mothers recipe and I love it. Take a baking pan, line the bottom with dried beef, add the chicken breasts and as we tend to love the dish Ron cuts and packs in any extra chicken breasts he has left over. Then in a large bowl mix a couple cans of cream of chicken soup, Ron prefers to work with Campbell’s brand, different cheeses, sour cream and pour the entire thing over the chicken. Bake at 325 uncovered for 2 hours. Ron cooked up elbow macaroni to go with it. The gravy is wonderful over everything. He also made broccoli and again the gravy is great on that also.
This morning, Wednesday for those keeping track, I was awakened by Milo at 3:50 with him softly meowing into my face. I decided to get up before he woke Ron. I am in a lot of pain and struggling to walk. So no cooking or other chores for me. Besides we have a bunch of left overs. Ron has gone for a nap and will need my help doing more of his filing for Social Security retirement. But for me it will be a news day and hopefully a small record. I was listening to Tucker Carlson complain about how the left is bullying the conservatives / country and wont let the right use their voices and taking away all their rights by claiming unfairly that there is racism in the US. He attacked Sesame Street for corrupting our children by telling them that the people were protesting how some people were treated unfairly do to their skin color. Wow what an alternate reality he lives in. Hugs
June 6, 2020
I am wiped out, my afternoon project.
Good news is Ron says they are wonderful. I made Ron oatmeal raisin cookies today. I wont eat them because I dislike raisins so I made a small batch. He was like a kid when they cooled enough to eat but were still warm. Here are the pictures. I need a nap. Hugs
June 4, 2020
Secret police, no way to complain against a single officer if they abuse you because they wont ID themselves.
What are the chances Erik Prince has a hand in this?
Note: they were prison guards. Not far off from Nazi brown shirts.
June 2, 2020
June 1, 2020
May 27, 2020
May 21, 2020
Coronavirus survivor shares shocking body transformation photo in hospital
https://nypost.com/2020/05/20/coronavirus-survivor-shares-shocking-photo-of-his-body-in-hospital/
A 43-year-old California man has shared a shocking photo of the toll the coronavirus has taken on his strapping body — turning it into an emaciated shell during his six-week stay in a hospital, according to a report.
Mike Schultz, 43, a nurse from San Francisco with no underlying health conditions, weighed about 190 pounds when he pumped iron almost every day, according to BuzzFeed News.
But after dropping 50 pounds amid the ravages of COVID-19, Schultz decided to share two images to his 30,000 Instagram followers — one taken about a month before he fell ill, the other snapped at a Boston hospital.
May 19, 2020
May 13, 2020
Some meals I have made over the last few days.
So I have been off the computer a lot lately and one of the reasons why is I am trying to cook more. I enjoy cooking but a lot of time my pain levels get too high and I simply can not do stuff.
Yesterday as I said I made a meal for Ron of breaded pork chops, deep fried french fries, and green beans. I used the two store bought mixed breading stuff and added my own seasonings which I felt might go good with this.
Tonight I made tacos. I will include in the pictures our seasoning rack and drawer. This is not all of our seasonings, but the ones we use most often. Yes when you have cats you learn to work around them on counters. I like to brown my meat and season it to our tastes, then drain it, put the water in the pan and bring it to a boil, stir in the mix mixing it up really well. Then add the meat back in. Hugs
May 11, 2020
Time for a new aviator
I was not going to stay clean shaven, but then Ron asked me to please stay clean shaven for at least a month. I do not know if I will ever grow my face hair back while Ron is alive. On and off in my life as soon as I got out of the military I had a beard. When I had a job that wouldn’t allow it I shaved it off. Years ago when my beard first started to come in grayish Ron demanded I shave it off as he was too young to be with anyone who had grey hair. Remember he is 8 years older and had gone white / grey long before I did. But he has always been sensitive about his age. When he wanted to grow a mustache / goatee and it came in all white he suddenly decided white was not a problem.
During my teleheath appointment this morning my pain doctor noticed my clean shaven face. She was laughing at how I looked decades younger. Not sure how I feel about that, with my history about being young. Now I have to have every two months spine shots to keep walking and shoulder shots so I can keep using my right shoulder. I have to have them every 2 months as it was explained to me. Oh well what is a lot more pain suddenly to save having pain over a longer time frame?
But I am old enough now and secure enough that outward appearances mean little, and the fears I have carried since childhood can be abandoned. If Ron would like me to be clean shaven then I am okay with it, I just must find a face cream moisturizer as shaving is making my face burn and chap. Really it feels like my face is going to either melt off or peel off. Ron says that is because I had a beard so long, but I do not think so.
OK, so here is where you all come in in this wandering stream of my thoughts, the avatar. Which would you think I should use? Now I don’t promise to use, but it gets a lot more weight depending on how many pick it. Hugs
*** After post edit *** Ron cut my hair to the new style and he is rather proud of it. Hugs
How have I been spending my time.
Hello all you grand wonderful people. Ron has been home for a longer period than normal, he has been off work about two weeks. If you noticed I have not been posting as much since I got over the bug I had it is because while it took me 6 days to get over, some of them rather miserable, the rest I just couldn’t stay awake, I slept and slept and slept. Ron caught what I had and had one night of chills and a couple days of being really tired and wanting to sleep. He told his bosses at work, he works in the ICU’s of a large hospital here. They sidelined him for 10 days and he had to take a CV19 test. The test came back negative but as the tests have such a high error rate they still had him stay away from work.
Ron and I have a wonderful relationship and one of the reasons why is we do not feel the need to hang on each other, allowing each other to do our own thing. Ron and I do not share the same TV, YouTube, Netflix, or any other media source interests. Ron created a whole office space for me so I could just do my own thing without bothering anyone especially him. I am into news, electronics, my blog, others blogs, and humor as you know from what I post. Ron loves wood working ( he has a really nice collections of tools I add to now and then, and that he suddenly seems to need for every home project no matter well how the other tools worked for the same job just days before ) he loves home project channels, tool channels, new car test channels, and anime, and all these Oriental movies and shows that need subtitles to watch. Those drive me nuts.
One of the things we have a joint interest in is cooking, and cooking stuff. We both have different things we like to cook or specialize in. That is why we started the kitchen remodeling and tore the entire old kitchen / dining room area of our house out ( finding massive wall damage that needed repairing and are rebuilding a kitchen that two people can cook and create in together without cursing each other out ) We are refining the kitchen plans as we work together. Like we found out a microwave over the stove is not really a good idea despite what the appliance store people say.
So as I said we both enjoy cooking and we have different interests. That is true of cooking, we each have things we like to cook, that we are good at cooking, and we trade off according the meal as to who cooks and what. Surprisingly what is hardest for me is being without my media, so for those who do not know I need a constant inflow of information to keep my mind focused. If you want more on that then ask and I will explain. But I have my Iphone, my earbuds, and the new super TV we bought last year for my office has Bluetooth which means I can get my stuff in the kitchen while Ron watches his stuff in the open concept living room kitchen we have and he is building.
We both love home cooked bread and now I have given up using a bread making machine, and instead use our kitchen tools and do it from scratch. I like it better doing it that way. However I have never made pies, cookies, or other desserts. Ron use to make them but has lost desire or interest over the years. So we have been working together to make different things, showing each other what we know and tips to make things better. For example I understand dough and can tell when it is done or needs to either have something added or needs more kneading. So lets start a week or more ago and here I will insert pictures.
So I am experimenting with Different types of bread recipes, this one makes two loafs so I decided to make one a cinnamon loaf.
As you can see on the cinnamon one I did not roll it thin enough and used too little of the cinnamon sugar. But not bad for a first try. Nan says I buy Ron all these kitchen toys is so I can use them.
So next it was on to the next try. An apple pie.
It tastes great and I just finished the last piece for lunch. However both Ron and I both were frustrated over the store bought crust and as we had far more apples than could be forced into one pie despite Ron trying had to do so. So we put the leftover apples into the fridge to make a second pie the next time with homemade crust.
But first there was a second try at the cinnamon bread yesterday. I used a different recipe. It came out much better and with a lot less fussing. It was so much better and softer. I think I found the recipe I like for bread.
Sunday after the Sunday news shows I made Ron a bunch of pancakes for lunch.
Then today. We did not like the way the store bought crust worked so Ron told me he had a recipe for pie crust made from scratch. Oh man did that turn out to be a morning ordeal. There are no pictures of this. Ron had a recipe from his grand mother he wanted us to try. However he forgot how to do it. So for a couple hours this morning we fought and cursed the crust. Then after we got the pie ready to cook, Ron remembered all the steps he forgot that would have made it workable.
But here is today’s pie with less apples and home made crust.
What new cooking experiences will be tomorrow? Here I must add that in the US I am lucky. Ron and I are not among the many that are food insecure. That is not bragging, I wish no one was. We are barely in to the lower ranking of middle class. We are not wealthy and we are definitely working poor, but Ron has a job that pays him less than it should but enough to live on and we combine that with my disability from years of working until my body just gave out. As hard as it is for us trying to fix our home and keep things going we realize it is a lot harder for others. In our park we often made a point to invite those we knew were cash strapped to meals or events, our treat, doing so in ways that did not make anyone feel uncomfortable or that they were less than. I still fix anyone’s computer or help them out with no charge, because if they can not call on me, they have no ability to get any help. Our country has a huge gap in living conditions and we are all so close to being with out, being the ones living on the streets. The thing is it doesn’t have to be this way. There are alternatives, 33 other countries in the world we claim to be more wealthy than, do those alternatives. Hugs
May 8, 2020
Last set, no face hair and new hair cut.
The space between my nose and upper lip is not used to being shaved and the first couple days burned like heck, still burns a bit. But time will see what happens next. Do I stay clean shaven, grow the mustache back, grow the mustache and goatee or grow the full beard back. I am leaning to something new, a mustache with long tails to the jaw line, with from the top of the mustache to the jaw near the ears grown in on an angel. No side burns. Basically what is called the friendly mutton chops but no side burns. I forgot to turn the lights on for these pictures so they may not be as detail or as sharp as the other ones. Any way as always comments are welcome. Hugs
