Nearing the end of Project Deck...

Yes, now I'm designing and building as I go, ahem...the surround of the A/C - Heater device that lives at ground level. It's a big square box...6' by 3' and on it's own concrete pad. To build the deck addition meant enclosing it on 3 of it's 4 sides and pretending that the top 6 inches doesn't show. A joke but there IS a plan about that will partially negate it's appearance. A piece of deck furniture will fit on top and allow it's full operation but pretty much hide the infernal (but well loved) beast. The deck addition has been a two person task with Kelly providing painting activities to protect the el cheapo nature of the douglas fir decking by applying a coat of grey primer then a coat of grey epoxy paint on the topside. It's not the most glorious deck ever built but it will serve the purpose of allowing us the use of the southside of the house and beautify it at the same time. I started the project about the same time that Kelly's Prius bellied up last month so we've been at it for about 6 weeks. Of course I'm not complete yet. Left to do is the painting bu Kelly of the existing decking from the old deck and touch up of the new one from walking on it prematuredly with dirty shoes. Then there is the part around the AC/Heater unit. Projects like these are pretty rewarding, it looks immeasureably better that before and will lead into the painting of the east and North sides of the house before winter really arrives...hopefully.
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I'm preparing Carnitas (Braised pork, pulled pork Mexican style) for dinner tonight. I use roasted dried chilies, chopped tomatoes, a piece of cinnamon, a teaspoon of mace, another of Cumin, 4 cups of chicken stock, 2 tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 2 rouchly chopped white onions onions to make the braising liquid. Then brown a 3 - 4 lb whole pork butt rubbed with dried chipotle or chipotle en adobo, salt and pepper. Chop up the roasted peppers and add all the rest to a large pot. Boil, then simmer for 20 minutes before adding the thoroughly browned pork butt to the pot, it should be about 1/2 way submerged in the braising liquid. Cook coverred for 1.5 hrs turning over every 1/2 hour. Remove the lid and continue braising for another 1/2 hour. (Total of 2 hours in the liquid.) This is all done on the stovetop, you can use the oven if you wish.
Remove the butt from the liquid and place in a baking dish. Tear off chunks and ribbons of the pork and spread them over the dish in one layer or use a second dish if it will not fit. Place this in a preheated 400 degree on the bottom shelf set the oven to roasting (top element ON). Brown the pork by cooking for 10 - 15 minutes. In the meantime, saute some fresh corn tortillas, put aside to cool and drain fat. Heat black beans and serve as tacos with tomatoe, strips of red and green bell pepper, and red onion.
Delicious! Vibrant and earthy!

Turkey Deboning with Julia and Jacques and Me!

http://video.pbs.org/video/1333042208/ is the video of these two Master Chef's having at the process of deboning a chicken and then a turkey. It is spectacular and while Audrey and Kelly and I tackled the job ourselves your favorite chef lost control and tried for a suicide instead. I really DID it this time and while I did NOT go to the emergency ward in Vallejo on a Saturday night to have the aforementioned injury sewn up properly I did have Nurse Kelly and Nurse Audrey and Head Nurse Furry wiping up sufficient blood to prove I probably should have. Now there's a sentence! That was 2 and a half weeks ago and it has not completely healed YET. But soon. Here's MY video...oops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSw2_IYh9n4

My way...early on I did the deed I previously wrote about.

Sous Chef and the Saladarie

Huh? You ask, what is this post about? Well, while I have been laid up these last three weeks my expert sous chef has been preparing meals, making salads and soups as is her will. I watch these goings on with some particular interest as the chef of the house and presumably the keeper of the kitchen. The division of labor is blurry at times admittedly so...as the sous chef Kelly takes all aspects of food preparation quite seriously. I do too but with somewhat less vigor I think. I have learned, over time, that she needs this creative outlet herself so that I don't get the idea that somehow I am the ONLY cook on the premises. Nooooo. So at this time she is making clam chowder, a soup, her recipe or her mother's and I am but a witness. This is definitely a sous chef job even in a professional kitchen, making delicious, nutritious soups and porridge's. I, as a chef person apparently do not posses that set of skills as she has been the only one to ever make soup under this roof that I can recall. The sous chef also has other assignments taken as her charge, ie: salad making and salad dressings. All hers...I do not meddle in greenery eaten fresh, I will cook it. The dressings are always hers as well and are uniformly delicious and properly applies to said salads. In France this division of labor is heightened as we possess no less than 2 kitchens under one roof. Thus we have her kitchen and his. I refer to her kitchen as a saladarie, a place where salads and associated foods are prepared, while my rustic, wood beamed place of cuisine is the True Kitchen. I make some of the things that she uses in the saladarie, that is true. I bake bread, roast chicken, make stocks that ultimately find their purpose under her careful eyes. Rarely does she venture into my kitchen except to be sure I've cleared all the pots and pans and dirty dishes to the saladarie where the kitchen cleanup chores are completed by the dishwasher (don't ask). I do the cleaning of all my pots and pans and put them away. Silverware is transported to the saladarie along with all dishes from the adjoining dining room and prep area. You see this is a serious undertaking this food preparation stuff and we both are quite involved much to the chagrin, sometimes, of the other. Such goes Life in France and Life in Suisun this day. The chowder smells great!

#94 Sundai School in Chezal Benoit

#94
Not just ANY Sunday either! Chezal - Benoit (Che-sahl - Ben-Wha) was having it's annual Brocante (junk sale) and mental health summit. You see Chezal - Benoiy is the home of a Mental Hospital and the sellers occupy the town right up to it's gate. Too, many of the patients are present adding their own color and grunts to the event. L came to the Ruin at 9 am and while she made the huge green salad for the party we were attending afterwards at A&R's, Kelly and I scrambled to both wake up from the party the afternoon and early evening of Saturday (yes we do these things serially it seems) (where 5 of us drank 7 bottles of the finest below 2 Euros sparkling wine and wine). I made Spinach Canneloni and it was very, very good if I do say so myself. Followed some hours later by a Pasta Povera with garlic, capers. It always works, a very simple dish that I've described in my blog before. That was Saturday's food scene, Sunday afternoons at our friends A&R's was an Asian-styled food fest. A and R had preped vegies galore, carrots, radishes, green and red bell peppers, onions, lemons and had various bottled sauces and condiments. I was put in charge by the Master Chef herself who provided me with the valued kitchen support I needed to create an asian feast. It was great creative fun and there was more than enough food at the end for A&R to have leftovers for two meals at least! I came up with Oyster Sauce Beef, Musselman Curry, Vietnamese Lemon Pork, Red Pepper Chicken, Chop Suey (YES!), and a couple of other ad hoc dishes thrown in for good measure. All over rice, thai rice noodles. Much wine was drank, as usual. The French couple from up the road (Chicken Farm) chatted amiably with all of us, in French of course...but we seemed to rise to the occassion. I had a bit of trouble understanding which isn't unusual as the speed at which the French speak is, at times, intimidating. They also brought along their own product...goat cheeses from their heard of Goats, it was, without doubt, the FINEST goat cheese I have EVER enjoyed! The Ash coverred round loaf was spectacularly good. Wonderful light texture and a lemony aftertaste that just faded to the next bite. Anyway, we all enjoyed ourselves emmensly in A&R's sunroom under ever darkening skies and eventually the late afternoon pouring rains. Here's the link to the YouTube movie of the Brocante we enjoyed in the morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT6Ztt_Iz1o
What a lovely day, rain or not. Great fun with great people, tons of chat and laughs galore, Life hardly could be better than this.

The Stoveman Commeth...

Ding-Dong! Off she goes! I jolt out of a deep sleep coverred by No-Lean as a blanket. Cat scratches, a complaining Maaa! she screams and I'm jogging to the front door. Who the hell is here at 8 am sharp?! It's barely light...it's the A&G mechanic to fix my ailing Whirlpool oven...great! I show him to her and tell him of my own troubleshooting, "an ignitor, I think", he nods and gets to work and I slunk back to the office/bedroom where I live my lonely nighttime life these days...snoring you know...disturbs the sleep of my ever faithful but easily disturbed mate Kelly. Sometime later he calls for me..."It's the ignitor alright, parts and installation will be 422 dollars", I nod and agree, it's high but what are you going to do? Can't replace it for 422 dollars and go thru all that work besides, I need it now I have 4 guests for Mexican dinner tomorrow night that Audrey and I are cooking up, I need my stove! Besides the US Govt has seen fit to send me 1200 USD in a tax rebate scheme that I'm supposed to spend to buy 42 inch HDTV's and such, looks like it'l pay for this stove repair instead and buy a smaller screen, good for the repair business, bad for Best Buy. He calls, finds the part, now can't get the dead ignitor to give up it's place in the back of the oven because it's retaining screws are stuck. Damn. I skulk back to my computer and keep writing.
The weather today you are thinmking? Oh it's Sunny California, windy, cold and raining, what else? I look at the forecast, samo-samo thru the weekend. Brrrrrrr.
Dead oven, bah humbug!