Ice and cookery

[altivo]

So yesterday around sunset they cancelled the winter weather advisory and told us we wouldn't be getting an ice storm after all. Before going to bed we turned on the outside lights and looked. Yup, Freezing rain, with about an eighth of an inch of ice accumulation. That's enough already to make driving pretty hazardous, and especially with the speed demon idiots who are on the roads around here.

This morning at dawn it was snowing on top of the ice. Great, that will keep it from melting even if the temperature gets above freezing. I just now checked the NOAA web site. They say today's high will be 28° F. They also say the current temperature is 32° F. I swear the feds have fired everyone with any brains from the weather service and hired inexperienced newbies in order to save money.

Assuming that we decide it's safe to drive by afternoon (Gary did go to church this morning but that is a degree of insanity to which I do not aspire) then some friends are giving a musical performance in Crystal Lake at 3pm. If we go to that, we'll get back after 5 and therefore after dark, and still have chores to do and animals to feed, so I have just set supper to cook in the crock pot. Partly from a cookbook, partly from imagination. It may be good, or it may be awful. "Southwest Chicken" has beans, corn, and salsa cooked with it, and is served sprinkled with shredded cheese along with rice and salad. I added some chili powder and will probably add a sliced up jalapeño near the end because it looks pretty bland for "Southwest," at least to me.

Comments

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Weather forecasting has a notorious statistical
record of about fifty percent.

So you can flip a coin most days. XD

As for Gary and church...I agree with your comment.

And crockpots are a gift from God. It doesn't matter
if its perfect, its just /their/ when you need it
after an icy cold day. You can scoop out dinner and
its hot and wonderful.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've always liked the crockpot, but it sometimes seems rather limited in terms of what you can do with it.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

I won't presume to my betters to teach
cooking but Chili is usually excellent in
the crockpot, as is a roast. Soups of all
kinds and even fish with teryaki, though
fish can be delicate.

Hope you had a goodly dinner. ^_^

Crock pot cooking

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not yet, but soon. Just returned from the concert and fed the horses and sheepies. It smells good.

I haven't made chili in the crock pot mostly because I have my long standing way of doing it and we are loathe to risk tampering with that. We have tried a lot of other things though, I even baked a cake in it once. First time I ever baked a cake for four hours, but it turned out well.

I have several books of recipes for the thing, but nearly everything turns out as a sort of stew one way or another. That's the rub. I think I did a meatloaf once and it was good, but that only takes an hour in the regular oven. All the prep time is the same anyway. Gary tried a pot roast but it was tough compared to his usual method. Might have been OK if he'd cooked it a couple hours longer, though. With our electric rates set to go up by 25% in the next month or so, we may be taking it more seriously as a saver of electricity rather than a time saver.

My mom relied heavily on the pressure cooker and I'm somewhat more adept with that.

Re: Crock pot cooking

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

I understand. I mean you tend to learn
/how/ to cook and then its not usual to
deviate from what works. I learned to use
the crockpot in college and your right,
mostly its stews and such. Big cuts of meat
with sauce work nice if you set it on
low and tend to it now and then but its
pretty much a "soups and stews" deal.

The part I like about it is the "set and
forget" thing. I can put the chili mixin's
(and for me chili demands the crockpot,
I know there are other ways, its just what
works for this guy) in the crockpot,
set the bread machine for time delay and
come home and say YUM!

I'd love to be able to stay home and
just cook (and do laundry and be the
domestic version of myself) but this
lets me have work AND yum.

Perhaps when I retire I'll use those
odd things in the kitchen like pots and
pans.

^.^

Re: Recreational cooking

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, cooking as self-entertainment. I do that too, though not as much in recent years as I once did.

Gary's mom used to have a fit when she would come to visit. "You're spending too much time cooking! How can you stand to do that?" She was a stay-at-home housewife with three sons and cooking was work to her. Now she lives off frozen dinners. Ech! I had to repeat to her several times that I find cooking relaxing and satisfying before she quit complaining about it. She never objected to the end product, and would talk to everyone for weeks about what she had to eat here, but she kept objecting to my spending time preparing it.

Re: Recreational cooking

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

We lived in an apartment complex for
the better part of seven years. It was
"the projects" and we, as an escape,
spent more than I care to admit on
"going out". I swore that once we got
our own house I'd cook like there was
no tomorrow. So now I'm doing it!
I'm living the dream! Unfortunetly the
kids, being kids, like the simple
meat and potatos things (though I've
tricked them into loving fresh veggies
lots). When I want to do something like
baked tomatos with mustard and mayonaise
or something like ginger and rice I get
EWW! from the kids. Retirement will be
nice (If I ever get one) because my
wiff actually likes me cooking and the
experiments I do. Mostly, I do make
mistakes.

*tries to cook goose and sets off the
smoke alarm*

Doh!

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Actually, you're not too far off the mark. I talked to one of the NOAA technicians out of Gray, Maine and he told me that because of cutbacks, they've closed most regional offices and replaced humans with ASOS stations. Apparently, weather instruments work for a lot less than humans, and they don't ask for retirement.

So if it seems like NOAA forecasts suck a bit more than they used to, you're absolutely correct.

Now, where there used to be trained weather observers at every airport, they've reduced it to only having them in regional offices.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, at least there still IS an NOAA. Republicans in Congress wanted to do away with it entirely during the last session. They proposed turning all responsibility for weather study and prediction over to the likes of The Weather Channel and accuweather.com. I think the military probably killed that idea, thank goodness.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

I'm worried about this in a way.

It seems we have moved from a "citizens should
be alert and your government is alert" cold war
standing to a "You expect us to tell you its
cold? Fuck you! Get the Weather Channel!" kind
of world.

I also worry about being called a Consumer,
Cancer is a Consumer, I'm a citizen.

But thats another post. ^.~

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, NOAA weather transmitters have become a part of the Homeland (In)Security early warning system. Although they've always been used in places near nuclear power facilities to trigger warning receivers, they've extended that to terrorists threats et. al.

Partly cloudy this afternoon, with a chance of showers. Tonight, lows in the 30's with a chance of enemy missiles from the southwest. Enemy missiles will bring with them a warm southern flow, resulting in possible nuclear retalition. Tomorrow, skies should brighten considerably, bringing the possibility of scattered mushroom clouds.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

http://casanovasadventures.com/catalog/misc/p3930.htm

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow it will be warm and sunny with
tempertures reaching eighty thousand
degrees.

XD

;.;

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You two are gonna give this pony nightmares.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

We're children of the Cold War, forgive us!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm older than either of you. I remember actual school air-raid drills where we had to hide under desks or go outside and lie in a ditch. Conelrad radio alerts. Fallout shelters. And more... My brother unable to sleep at night because he was sure he heard sirens in the distance and bombs going off.

Y'know? I don't miss it at all. It was stupid then and it's even dumber now. If we wanna give kids nightmares, better it should be about pollution or global warming, things they can DO something about.

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

But then it wouldn't be a nightmare.

^.~

I give my kids nightmares that I might
actually be some normal dad only /pretending/
to be odd so that they will rebel against
me and /be/ normal.

Shhhh.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bah. You'd wish normalcy on your kids? That's sad. ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*waits beside the crockpot watching it intently*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It turned out very tasty. There's some left if you like...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*zips back with a plate and a napkin around his neck* Hooray :)
By tasty you don't mean hot as hell do you?

*Thanks the pony for the food :3*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, actually, it wasn't hot. So very unhot that I dashed some Tabasco onto mine after tasting it, but the chili, beans, and chicken did develop a very nice flavor.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*snarfles the food*

Scrumptious :)