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I’m still getting settled, but in the mean time, here are some pictures.

I realize I haven’t updated in a while. I’ve still been cooking, but have also been busy planning my move. I’ll be driving to Austin, TX at the end of the month, with whatever I haven’t sold packed into my car. I already have a place leased, and sold my bed. Someone should be picking up my dresser tomorrow. After that, I’ll pack up all the clothes I didn’t already give to Goodwill.

Adios, California!

Pork Tenderloin - Kosher Salt, Fresh Cracked Black Pepper, Dusted with Powdered Oregano

Base of romaine with feta and a peppercorn viniagrette

Pickled Vegetable Salad - Organic Cucumber, Red Onion, Red Bell Pepper, Red Jalepeno in lime juice and red wine vinegar, with salt and pepper

I felt like having nachos for dinner. I used grilled marinated flap steak, fresh homemade salsa and guacamole, organic black beans, queso fresco and cilantro/mexican onion. The salsa was made from organic roma tomato and red onion, jalapeno, fresh lime juice, salt, pepper, mexican oregano and a pinch of sugar.

Eff yes.

I made too much, but that’s fine with me.

I made gingersnaps. They don’t look like much, but they’re damn tasty.

My Calphalon Commercial 9-piece set showed up today. To make some good use out of it, I decided to roast a chicken and make a meal out of it.

I was really hoping to get a nice, free-range chicken, but the local market only had Foster Farms in whole roasters. Here it is, posing for the camera in its bag and some of its new roommates.

I removed the innards and neck and threw them in the sink. Technically I could have used them, but I still consider them gross. I noticed the chicken’s nuts were still attached up in the cavity so I had to pull them out. Awesome and appetizing, huh?

Here he is all dried and ready to go!

And a mirepoix with garlic all chopped and ready as well.

That, along with some rosemary and bay leaf, were about all that went into this. I should have added some sage, in retrospect.

Everything went into a hot casserole/dutch oven with some good olive oil.

I flipped him over, after it was a little browned. I will continue to refer to the chicken as a “he” since I had to actually handle his balls, out of respect.

A little butter , then into the oven.

A little while later, things got pretty cluttered. I made a salad and put it in the fridge, then I boiled some potatoes, blanched some green beans, and got everything ready for the next step.

The camera died at this point, so I charged the battery while I finished up. I chopped up the boiled potatoes, tossed them with olive oil and minced garlic, and pan fried them for a while until they were golden brown. I sauteed the green beens with some butter and tossed them with pepper and feta. The juices from the chicken were strained, half-assedly de-fatted and then thickened with some corn starch.

The chicken rested during some of that, and then I “carved” it. I butchered the fuck out of it. I did manage to get the drumsticks off intact and separated the breast nicely into two good looking pieces.

Here’s the whole meal, everything dumped on a plate. I wanted to make bread but didn’t have time, so it’s fresh but store bought.

and that’s my chicken story the end

A few days ago I was experimenting with chocolate chip cookies. I added some molasses, which added much more flavor than I intended, and I also (accidentally) used jumbo eggs instead of large eggs. I completely neglected to account for the extra moisture and ended up with very thin, almost crunchy wafers instead of normal cookies.

Today I decided to make proper, by-the-book chocolate chip cookies to negate the fucked up batch. They turned out pretty good. King Arthur flour, cage-free eggs (I suppose it was the chickens were cage free, really), organic vanilla and brown sugar and plain old C&H cane sugar, plus baking soda and salt. The chips are Ghirardelli.

I made 40, and here’s a picture of 39 of them:

Meanwhile the cat helped by doing nothing while I played Rock Band between batches. Lazy slut.

I had a pretty long day and week, and missed lunch today, so I made myself a ton of food. The weather’s been great, so the grill was the clear choice tonight.

My meal included pork tenderloin, locally made andouille sausage, organic onion, green beans, tomato and yellow potato. Everything was grilled except the beans, which were sauteed with olive oil and a tiny bit of European style butter (85% butterfat). The grilled foods were seasoned with only kosher salt, and the pork also got a little pepper. The onion was cooked directly above the pork, so that some of the juices would drip down and add some mild flavor to the meat.

I have leftovers that will feed me all week, and I’ll be making some tasty sandwiches.

Sunday morning at 2 am, as most of you know, was the beginning of Daylight Saving Time in the US. That means you lost an hour of sleep, probably enjoyed the fact that sun stayed up until a reasonable hour, and might have been a little annoyed this morning if you had to go to work.

My coworker was lost in the time warp. While he is sitting only a few feet away, his actual thought process is trapped in the future. Everything he says or does refers to events that have yet to happen. The real problem here is that by mentioning these future situations, he’s altering the present in a way that causes ripples in the future. This is driving him insane at a rapid pace.

For example, he has already sent out several instant messages to myself and Graham, with seemingly no context whatsoever. These messages, to him, are supported by a conversation about something that will presumably take place soon. Because we haven’t yet had this conversation, our uninformed responses make him think that we either ignored him or are possibly fucking with him. In reality, we haven’t even had a chance to ignore him.

Because he can’t reconcile the future he is unknowingly destroying and his perception of reality, he is beginning to lose his connection with the actual present reality. This is interesting to watch, if nothing else.

If you’re paying special attention to details and are thinking “wait, shouldn’t he be trapped an hour in the past?”, I’ll note that my theory is still in its infancy and is subject to change.

I’ve continued to work on my pizza, and tonight’s result was worth mentioning. I focused on controlling the moisture in the toppings so the crust would have a chance to develop a nice “snap” to it. I pressed the mozzarella and tomato slices between papers towels, with my large cutting board on top. This squeezed a lot of extra moisture out. I also chilled the sausage after I cooked it to keep it firm.

Fresh out of the oven:

And a side view of a slice. The crust is very thin and crispy, yet not hard or cracker-like.

I realize all of my pizza pictures probably look the same. This pizza was the best one so far, even if it’s not clear from the pictures.