Since it took until almost 8 PM to get installed there was no meal cooked on it last night. The maiden voyage was making a homemade version of an Egg McMuffin for my son this morning. Did the "burn in" of the oven this afternoon to flash off all the factory applied solvents. Tonight I am making a roasted pork loin with cabbage, carrots, onion, molasses, Guinness, beef broth, caraway seeds and other things like garlic, salt and pepper. Trying to give away our perfectly fine GE gas range to local charities, but have not gotten a nibble. One problem is that they are not willing to pay for natural gas service for the houses they are building or renovating. It wasn't so long ago that our local utility did that for free and gave a rebate. I used that at one of our rental houses (we are down to one). Times have changed for no real good reason. Natural gas used solely for heating is way better that coal based electric heating whether it is your house, water or a range. Simple thermodynamics. Natural gas directly heats things up and it is more water than CO2 as a byproduct whereas coal based electric burns coal (nearly all the byproduct is CO2) and converts it to electricity at best at 45% and typically much lower. I am not being political here. I cringe every time I see an ad that electric vehicles have zero emissions. Most electricity in the US is fossil fuel based so it isn't really when you take the entire view into account. But as we get more and more solar and wind and dare I say modern nuclear (Bill Gates has been involved with this and it looks extremely promising) it looks like a better and better option.
Tonight we’ve got a couple of good friends coming over for a back porch visit—our back porch is big enough for us to stay spread out and enjoy each other’s company, so— It’ll be ice cold longnecks and chilled wine along with the visit and we’re going to incorporate Fat John’s pizza into the evening for supper. Life is good in Gator Nation!
It's OK to be political here...we don't mind! Congrats on finally getting your new baby installed, Lurk. Also very cool with the donation of your old unit. You da man!
I try to be, You know that I am a Dem, right? There are things that I think are important. Rights of all kinds for every citizen. It isn't just 2nd Amendment rights. It is all rights. 2nd Amendment rights are important. but so are other rights.
My academic training was largely historical methods, and the focus was on government policy regarding a specific industry. The bs the Tennessee Valley Authority spewed about the “horrific dangers” of gas vs electricity is amazing. My wife grew up in the Deep South and I grew up on the west coast. After several decades of owning gas stoves and heaters she can’t believe what her parents bought into
TVA was why Oak Ridge was used for uranium enrichment and why Arnold Engineering Development Complex (with the huge transonic wind tunnel) were sited in Tennessee. They had cheap electric power. BTW, I was once inside the 16T tunnel at Arnold. Very cool. And hydro electric is good, but it is such a waste of it for heating anything. It is throwing away 100% energy.
We donated to the Repurpose Project in Gainesville. They are a non-profit whose aim is to take things that are still useful and recycle them into the community instead of having them end up in a landfill. My old range is perfect for a landlord that needs a gas range or a young couple in their first house that needs a gas range because what they have is a POS. Everything works and it was a decent level of GE gas range back in its day. They were very happy to get it. Could have sold it on Craigslist for a couple of hundred easily. I think that I bought it for that a long time ago. I did not give them the old flexible gas line for connecting from the shut-off valve to the range. It is not safe to reuse them.
I am going to have to go through a learning curve. I did not expect that. My old GE gas range allegedly had a 13000 BTU high burner and my new range has three 15000 BTU burners and a simmer burner. I have to say that either BlueStar was very conservative on their burner outputs of GE was very optimistic. I thought they would be closer in operation. But I am not complaining. I did buy the BlueStar range with the smallest BTU burners because it would be really hard to put in a hood at my house, but I do have 10' ceilings and an attic fan. My installer thought that I made the right choice.
Tonight we’re going with BBQ chicken halves seasoned with coarse black pepper and Everglades seasoning and yes—Pat’s Homade on the last two turns. Also there will be baked potatoes on the top rack and a pot of freshly steamed green cabbage. This evening’s weather is perfect for Jim Beam Black/extra aged and Canada Dry Zero GingerAle. Ms. Jan will stay true to her wine. Life is good in Gator Nation!
My knife sharpener arrived yesterday and I already sharpened 4 knives. I need to familiarize myself more with proper technique so will read through the user guide a little more plus look at some YT vids. I brought take-out dinner over to Mom's last night. Pappas drive-in BLT's. Fries with one and onion rings with the other so we could share. The onion rings were better than the fries. I also ordered a ham and cheese sub and cup of chili for her to have today. Tonight will be the coldest temps we've had in 4 years, according to the weather people. It's really windy though so if that keeps up it won't be so bad on the plants. I'm still bringing in my potted Aroids. I only have a handful so not too much work. Will leave the Bromelids out and cover with frost cloth if the wind dies down. Otherwise they should be good. You always have to shut off irrigation during these events so the next morning the frost isn't so bad on the foliage. Good luck!
Making carnitas for tacos today. Made a tomatillo/avocado salsa as one topping. Also have some pickled red onion that I made some time ago. Will chop up some white onion, cabbage and radish as well.
We’ve been smelling a big pot of homemade hamburger vegetable soup this afternoon that’s going to work well for a hot meal on a hard cold night. Looking at the low supposed to reach 24* + wind chill. I’m thinking a bourbon drink for sure, Ms. Jan will stay with her wine. Life is good in Gator Nation!
Boring but last night was scrambled eggs with bacon, red onions, jalapeños, and a local habanero sauce. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Been on a brat kick lately. Just cooked some Costco jalapeño brats on my grill for dinner tonight. Been adding pistachios to my lunch salads lately as well. I am a fan. A nice crunch and a little salty to add some flavor with the grilled chicken.
I do add pistachios in lots of things. I even make pesto with pistachios instead of pine nuts and it is great.
