respublica

Spicing it up Japanese style

After reading a short piece on the Japanese spice, Shichimi, this month's Food Network Magazine I went on the hunt for some. It seems it is something that will add a lot of flavor to almost anything. "the complex seven spice blend is citrusy, savory and spicy all at once". It seems chefs use it on almost everything including vanilla ice cream, sweet corn, pasta, cocktails, meat, fish, churros. And on and on.

Well of course I just had to get some of this. I could not find it in any local grocery store, but could order it on Amazon or Walmart. I did end up ordering it on Amazon and it should come today. But then when I was in Schnucks yesterday I looked through their spice aisle and found it, just under a different name. They had it as Japanese spice rather than Shichimi. I am waiting for the one I ordered but it's good to know anyway.

The Food Network Magazine is a great one and worth buying or subscribing to. Lots of interesting things each month and not full of page ads.

Reminded of a bad memory

My Facebook Memories section had a post I put up in 2012 which involved our car just stalling on 64/40 as I was driving over to Collinsville. I was in the middle lane when it just died and by some miracle I was able to jerk the car to the left and onto the only grassy area on the whole highway. It was really hot and I had no idea what to do. As I recall Dale was out of town so I called his assistant and she drove out to wait with me for a tow truck and then drive me back to the seminary.

This only got more crazy when the mechanic gave me this advice and I wrote it on Facebook:

"As an update to my car dying on highway 40 Thursday, here is the explanation the mechanic gave me when I picked it up yesterday. He couldn't determine whether it was the fuel pump or the fuel injector valve and not wanting to bill us for 800$ if it wasn't the pump, he said, "drive it til it dies again, then get another person to crawl under the gas tank and pound on it while you turn the ignition key. If it starts up, it's the fuel pump".

Right. Like I'm about to even consider driving it anywhere in hopes it will die on me again."

 

In the end we never drove that car again and found a new one, the truck we still have, Ford Explorer. All too often I pass that spot on high 40 and think about that day. 11 years ago today.

 

 

Our dinner last night

I went to Keller's Farm Stand yesterday and loaded up with some of their new sweet corn. So wonderful. I decided right then that our dinner would be sweet corn and a platter of our own tomatoes which are turning red seemingly out of the blue. It was actually a very satisfying meal. I added some of our green beans and our basil and tossed it lightly with olive oil, salt, and minced garlic. The garden is fantastic this year.

A couple of things I learned today

It's only 7:15 in the morning and already I've come across things I did not know or did not care about.

The first was the name of a cheese I have never come across and I do like cheese. This came up in an article on the best Trader Joe's foods to use in an air fryer. I'm a sucker for stories like this. But the food which stopped me was a cheese named Halloumi. Kudos to anyone who is familar with this. The thing is, the article did not explain this cheese other than to say it is found in sliced cheese shelves. So here is what I learned by googling Halloumi.

"Halloumi is a Cypriot cheese traditionally made from goat's and sheep's milk, or a mixture of the two. Cow's milk is sometimes used. It's most appreciated as a grilling cheese because it maintains its shape when heated and grills well. Halloumi is moderately high in fat and a good source of protein. It's rich in calcium and is also a source of zinc, magnesium, vitamin A, and B vitamins."

Now that I know goat and sheep milk are involved I won't be buying it. And where is Cypriot? ( I know, Cyprus. They'd be more likely to have goats and sheep than cows.)

The other thing I picked up was how to clean blinds and there are lots of different ways to do this it seems, some involve paint brushes, dryer sheets and even taking them outside and hosing them down. We don't have blinds so I'm off the hook here. I'm not linking this because you have to "accept" some issues before the story will come up.

What weather does

I have to say, this year's spring weather has worked marvelous things in our garden. The vegetables have grown enormously and are bearing wonderfully. The flowers in other beds have been lush. We haven't had prolonged hot and dry periods which is unusual for this area. We've gotten rain when needed, although like yesterday maybe a bit too much. All in all this has been a good year for gardeners...so far.

And today! Kellers Farm stand opens for the sweet corn season! The absolute best and I am very anxious to get over there.

The never ending house projects

Just when I believed we were finished with doing things to this house, along comes another Dale idea. In our basement we used to have a bathroom-walk-in shower, toilet and sink. The shower got eliminated when we had the basement water treatment work done. The base of the shower is still there, but it holds the treatment machines. But, the toilet and sink were taken out for reasons I've long forgotten.

So Dale got the great idea to sort of wall the sink area in and build, I think, shelves in there. But, he bought a new sink today so I guess a sink will go in the middle of the new walls. He bought wood panels in recent weeks and began putting them up all around this area. He has been quite proud of this. He had to go to Chicago this weekend to preach at a new seminary graduate's ordination/installation at Dale's family's church.

Before he left he told me it would be really great if I would paint the walls he'd constructed so the sink things could go in. I felt I had nothing better to do this weekend so I said, I'd do it. I've painted many many walls, fences, doors, you name it, over the years so I wasn't really intimidated with this until I began. He built this area in such a way that to paint meant often trying to crawl under a 2 X 4 he put in at a height between my knees and waist. This job would have been better done by a contortionist, it was tricky and painful. But I got it done.

Here is how it looked at least on one side and how it looks now.

The middle wall.

And the all 3 sides.

I am still unsure exactly what his intentions are, but there will be a sink in the middle.

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An overdue highway update

With business back to almost normal, so are the mattresses and ladders falling onto St. Louis area highways. So here is an update long overdue.

For 2021 thus far-Ladders 49 Mattresses 24

Ladders being way ahead surely means work is being done in many places. I actually suddenly came across on in the middle lane of highway 40 near Kingshighway last week. it was a metal ladder already sort of smashed from cars rolling over it and luckily I saw it in time and no one was in the lane next to me so I could avoid it.

Helpful hint day

This is turning out to be a day of advice from many posts and news stories I'm coming across. This one is about mosquitoes. Specifically, there only 2 ways to keep them away when you're outside-Bug spray and a fan.

People who research these things found that the Citronella candles don't do much to ward off mosquitoes and neither do the electronic bug zappers.

But, DEET bug spray does work as does a spray mixture of Picaridin and oil of lemon and eucalyptus. I have no idea what Picaridin is and can't imagine finding any oil of lemon and eucalytus, so DEET it is.

Then enter a fan. If you are on a porch or deck and can plug in a fan, that will keep them off of you. Combine the two and you're probably less likely to be bitten. And after all this rain and stormy weather we're getting today, it won't belong before the mosquitoes pop up.

 

 

It's the time of year to recirculate

Came across a bit of car information I did not know. Many cars, except some really new models, have a button on the heat/air conditioning section on the dash which is a sort of sideways U which is recirculate.

I never use this button because I had no idea what it did and surprisingly, neither did Dale. Well, thanks to a post I saw this morning, now we know.

"When you first get into a sweltering car and start to crank the AC, hit the air recirculation button, too. This will recirculate the now slightly cooler air from the car and cool it down even further, rather than pulling in more hot air from outside. The process cools your car down quicker than using the regular fresh air mode.Once the air reaches a reasonably cool temperature, though, you can turn off the recirculation button to avoid the air becoming too stale within the vehicle. If you encounter a particularly dusty area or get behind a bus spewing out exhaust, you might avoid some of the smell permeating your car by temporarily switching the air recirculation back on until you’re past it."

But do not use it in cold weather to try and circulate the warm air. Only use it in hot weather. Recirculation in winter traps moisture inside the vehicle which means foggy windows.

Best advice is use it in hot summer weather, don't use it during winter.

Hot Dog!

Dale came across the Oscar Mayor Wiener mobile yesterday at a car wash. It's a humorous sight and he took a picture. There is no way we could figure that vehicle could fit into the car wash system, but there must have been an outdoor cleaning set-up. Men with hoses, scouring down the hot dog.