This is my blogchalk:
United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

Subscribe to this blog in Radio:

Friday, May 21, 2004

By The Pricking Of My Thumbs...   The evidence shows that Chalabi personally gave Iranian intelligence officers information so sensitive that if revealed it could, quote, "get Americans killed." The evidence is said to be "rock solid." Sources have told Stahl a high-level investigation is underway into who in the U.S. government gave Chalabi such sensitive information in the first place. 8:29:20 PM    comment []

Double, double toil and trouble   Yeah, I doubled the garlic to about 6 tablepoonspoonies, onions to 6, and seeds (coriander, cumin, celery) to a total of 6. 6-6-6 – get it (haw-haw!)? It’s about a quart of unwrung sauce there – murky, contemplative, introspective, still water running deep. He was a nice boy, he used to cut my grass. Serves 6.   7:13:37 PM    comment []

Here’s the pepper liquor from 40 minutes of pressure-cooking. It has a well-rounded heat and, if it’s bitter, it’s not too bitter. It has a good pepper flavor. When it has cooled, the nearly indestructible skins (and the easily destructible seeds) will be run through the food processor and wrung out in the VillaWare strainer, just like the last batch. Then, as before, cooked with onions, garlic, and spices. 1:58:05 PM    comment []

Everything is broken.   This is a photo of my TV remote. That purplish dot is IR light. You can also see this invisible light through the LCD viewfinder. I learned this troubleshooting method after my Roomba failed this morning. Before giving up, I googled around and found this document on the Roomba diagnostic mode. One of the tests involves testing the IR sensors that prevent the Roomba from jumping off a cliff. The author (George F McQuary, Swiftracer.com) suggested using a digital camera to test IR since it allows you to see it “quite easily.”   Yes, the Roomba is broken. I learned that it has a 3-month warranty and 6-month extended warranty, but for $95 I can get a brand new Roomba if I return this one. That’s not a bad deal, but my enthusiasm has been replaced by disillusionment.   I remember many years ago that a friend told me his wife had gone to see a lawyer and filed for “disillusionment.” I thought he was being funny, but he looked deeply hurt when I laughed. He was even less pleased when I explained his own joke to him. What should I have done?   Anyway, it looks like the Roomba is like a Model T and you can do quite a few of the repairs on it yourself. There are many DYI sites on the web. My enthusiasm will be renewed when I check out the prices for replacement parts. A few years ago, I learned that replacing a motor on my Sears humidifier cost nearly as mush as a new humidifier. Next time I bought one, I bought a full warranty and they just replaced it when the motor failed on it. A motor on the replacement is now beginning to fail. Don’t know if that one is covered too.   12:29:39 PM    comment []

While cutting up the Food Lion dried peppers, I grabbed the nearest container for them. It turned out to be the pressure cooker.   Hmmmm…. Okay, the original plan was to cover them with hot (near boiling) water, then let them simmer on “LO” for a few hours. I still am heeding the warning not to use boiling water, cause it makes the chili bitter, but the need to experiment is winning out. Pressure cook for a half hour or so and see what happens, you know.   11:54:36 AM    comment []

These are the peppers I used in my chili sauce last weekend. Nothing special about them, they are the 4 varieties available for bulk purchase at the Food Lion. At $3.99 a pound, dried peppers are the flavor deal of all time. To give you an idea, rehydrated vegetables typically increase for about 3 to as much as 6 times their dry weight. My half pound of mixed peppers (no picture, imagine a bag filled to the size of a soccer ball.   The Scoville unit (or SCU, as it is usually called when used to rate pepper sprays) was developed by Wilbur Scoville for Parke Davis Pharmaceutical Company in 1912, officials say. It represented to the amount of dilution in water required to make the capsaicin undetectable to humans. That’s a bit subjective, but if you ever bit into a habanero you’ll understand the concept. Nowadays, since it became difficult to recruit testers, the measurements are made with liquid chromatography.   The following table is a best guess, made by looking at various photos of peppers on the web. Food Lion did not individually label the peppers since they all have the same PLU of 4700. Also, since dehydrating increases the relative capsaicin level by a factor as great as 10, the SCUs may be incorrect. Two of these peppers have different names when dried, but the SCU scales I used did not differentiate between them. Feel free to correct any errors you see and I will update this post (pssst…that means you, Mark Preston). The basic idea here is that I have 3 mild chiles and one that is very hot, all in roughly equal weights. .     Tabasco – 30,000 – 50,000 SCU Paprika – up to 2,500 SCU Ancho or mulatto – a dried ripened poblano pepper, 1,000 – 1,500 SCU New Mexico – a dried Anaheim, 500 - 1000 Scoville units   9:38:16 AM    comment []

Those were the days, my friend... 12:16:07 AM    comment []