Okra

A friend of mine has been encouraging me to try grilling some okra so on Monday night I did just that. It turned out well. I brushed the okra with olive oil and sprinkled it with seasoning including red pepper. Try it yourself.

Today I decided to try another okra recipe. This time I fried the okra but instead of using flour or cornmeal I used Parmesan cheese. This was surprisingly good as well. My motivation for this attempt was a recipe I saw while trying to memorize the entire internet. I didn't follow the recipe per se, but I did find motivation there.

Laugh Out Loud

The very same day I planted my garden, I spotted a rabbit in the back yard and put up a chicken wire fence around the garden to keep the bunnies out.

Today I noticed something new. A little hole covered with grass clippings and bunny fur. And inside the hole are three (or more) little gray bunnies. I didn't notice the bunny clutch on Saturday when I was trimming the grass around the garden so I suspect the bunnies are less than 3 days old.

Did I mention the nest is on the inside of the fence? {Cue Laughter}

OK, I have now re-routed the fence to place the bunnies back on the outside. I also battened down the fence in the spot where I suspect the momma bunny may have accessed the garden interior (and cabbage).

On a related note, my cabbage took on the appearance of Swiss cheese almost over night. By that I mean holey. Today I sprayed some pesticide on it and the okra. After spraying the cabbage, several worms crawled out into sight on each cabbage plant. After inspecting each plant and counting the worms, I gave up on the cabbage, pulled them all from the ground and tossed them into the woods so the bunnies could feast tonight. I had been needing to thin the garden in that area anyway to make room for the ever expanding squash and cucumber vines. I don't think I will be planting cabbage again.

I mentioned the okra was also sprayed. The okra has aphids. I didn't notice the aphids, but I did spot the ants which were apparently feasting on the aphids. Hopefully the pesticide will clear that up whole mess. Once the aphids are gone, the ants will leave too as they don't really care for okra - boiled or fried.

Today was a wonderful day to be outside.

I drove over the Athens this morning (in the freshly painted Miata) to attend Cars on the Square. It was a really nice show centered around the old downtown square. It was a really big show considering it was only its second year. I ran into several folks I knew while I was there. I also looked over several old Corvettes with for sale signs in their windows. All in all, it was a very pleasant morning.

During the afternoon I finished planting the garden. I added cantaloupe, okra, cucumbers and more corn. For a small garden, I definitely over-planted. I will have to thin it out some once I see which plants are strong.

I recently read that the new U2 album was schedule for release in October. And then it was changed to November. They have a working title which I have inconveniently forgotten.

This week I picked up 3 lbs of okra at the big garden down the road. Mmmm. Fried okra is good. I boiled a few pods too, just to gross you out. It never occurred to me to try to steam it. I read about that here: Okra and Proud of It.

I have used some of my free time this week to work on rebuilding the differential out of the GMC. I was very lucky during the assembly process. I got the backlash within spec on the second try and the pinion shim was already correct. All that is left is to get the pinion pre-load set by crushing the crush collar and then button I can button it up.

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

What a glorious weekend we had. I got the opportunity to sleep late, work on my old trucks, and play with the kids. The only thing missing was perhaps a little bit of fried okra.

With the new week starting, so did classes. This evening I attended my speech class. After agonizing over the topic/object for a week plus I have finally accepted that it is my fate to use a computer as the point of departure. Sounds easy enough, aye? But what does it really say about me?

Whatever I want it to! After a mere hour I have managed to write a 300 word speech. Based on a typical delivery rate of 125 words per minute, this should put me smack dab in the middle of the 2 to 3 minute goal.

Perhaps your wondering about my computer. Perhaps not. Regardless, the computer I will be presenting is one that I designed and built about 15 years ago. Want to see a picture?

It has been smokin' hot lately. We have had a streak of triple digit days. And a deficit of rain on top of that.

Yesterday evening we had a rapid drop in temperature. In a relatively short interval we had a storm roll in and the temperature dropped from 3-digits down to about 70 degrees. Lots and thunder, lightning, and buckets and buckets of rain.

A little bit earlier in the evening when I arrived home, one of my neighbors crossed the street to let me know that the water conservation level had changed to level 3. Level 3 means even numbered houses like ours are only allowed to use outside water between 12 AM and 4 AM on Monday and Wednesday nights. No other outside water use of any kind allowed. Good thing my neighbor told me. The new level was announced on the news and in the paper. I don't watch the news nor read the paper.

G had to work today and the kids spent the night at Grandmas. What to do, what to do? I decided to take the turnip truck out. My local okra pusher lives just a few miles away. This was my destination. After purchasing a couple of pounds ok okra, I gave Mr. Lacey a ride around the block. He loved it.

On my way back home I stopped by Joe G's. This gentlemen lives a few miles away. He has a 1932 Ford parked in his garage. I have blogged about him at some point in the past. He also enjoyed giving the truck a once over.

And on my way home, again, I stopped by Tammy's to let her family see the truck. I offered to let Ken drive it and he drove the kids around the block.

And then I actually went home.

The truck now has more dirt on it than it has probably had in the last 15 years. During my journey I drove though a patch of gravel. The gravel dust stuck to everything. Nice white dust on glossy black paint. Great!

You may be wondering how the GMC is coming along. I have not even glanced in its direction in a couple of weeks. For a few weeks I was busy with school and right now it is just too hot. It is time to do more sand blasting and I just can't imagine trying to do that with the current temp and humidity.

The Quest For Perfect Okra (The Never Ending Saga)

Most days when I take my usual route to work, I pass a house which is adjacent to lot which contains a fairly large garden. A garden is so large in fact, that only a retired gentleman would attempt such an undertaking.

The gardener/farmer often has a sign in his yard indicating what veggies he has for sale. Last week okra was added to the list of tomatoes, squash, and peas. As I drove past Friday morning I resolved by swing back by on my way home to acquire some okra.

Friday evening I did stop by. Unfortunately no okra was available. I was informed by the gardener that he cut the okra every morning and that it went pretty fast. I thanked the gardener for his time and promised to return soon, except much earlier in the day. Today I stopped in again. This time at 6:50 AM. The gardener was about half way down one of many rows of okra when he spotted me. He returned to the driveway with a 5 gallon bucket full. He remembered me from Friday and asked if I had returned for some okra. I purchased two pounds which was barely a dent in his bucket. I also bought a greenish-red tomato.

This evening I once again attempted to fry me a mess of okra. And make some corn bread. The cornbread turned out bad. Really bad. The okra was good, but it could have used a little salt. (This weekend we discovered that we were out of salt which probably isn't a bad thing.)

I decided last time I fried of a batch that I needed to use less oil, less heat, and less meal. And so I did. For the two pounds of okra I used 3 heaping tablespoons of cornmeal (mix). This turned out to be just about right. Basically I put the okra in a bowl, poured the meal of the top and agitated it until all the okra was evenly coated. There was no excess meal remaining in the bottom of the bowl.

As for the oil, I put just enough in the skillet to cover the bottom. Barely. I had previously decided that frying okra was not really about frying okra, but rather about cooking out the moisture. With this reasoning, perhaps false reasoning, I decided that the cooking process should be more similar to sauteing.

Wikipedia defines sauteing as a method of cooking food that uses a small amount of oil (or fat) in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. It is my opinion that high heat is not necessary, but that medium heat should suffice. This may be flawed thinking. My reasoning was that turning up the temp would only create a mess as the oil would splatter everywhere. But wait, I didn't have much oil in the pan so perhaps this wouldn't be a problem. Regardless, I stuck with the medium heat.

The okra took quite a while to cook. Perhaps because the heat was too low. Perhaps because I had too much in the skillet. Perhaps both. Next time I will attempt to reconcile this situation.

One other thing to note. I think I 'stirred' the okra to often. This is my opinion because more seeds seemed to be liberated from the pods than I had noticed in the past.

The final result I would call a success. It looked right. It was not burnt. It was not oily. It was not to mealy. It could have used a little salt though. And perhaps some fresh corn meal.

Ssh! Don't tell, I cut up a green tomato and a three pieces of pickled okra and added then to the batch. A little something something.

To be continued.

What Happened To The Weekend?

I noticed earlier today that I hadn't posted in a few days. I guess I was busy. What was I doing?

Wednesday, February 14th was the last post.

Thursday evening I attended school. I got my test back from the previous week. I did better than I thought I did but not as good as I should have. I should have made a 100%.

Friday the family headed to Memphis and left me home alone for the weekend. Friday night I had take out for dinner. My choice was a Whopper Junior from BK. I watched a little bit of the Barrett-Jackson auction I recorded back in January and then fell asleep with the light on while reading Cobra In The Barn.

I woke up about 6:30 Saturday morning. The wife left her alarm clock set and it woke me up. I listened to it for a few minutes before I decided that I couldn't block it out and decided if I reached over to turn it off, I might as well get up. I decided to start the laundry early to get it out of the way. Upon opening the washing machine, I discovered a load of wet towels probably left over from Thursday. I gave them another spin to freshen them up. Once they were done I moved them to the dryer and put the whites in the washer. Once the whites were done, I discovered I had forgotten to turn the dryer on. Those towels sure were putting up a fight. So much for getting the laundry done early.

About 8:45 AM David, no not that David, one of the other Davids, called to request some help. He is building a reciprocating nose. His wife is stage managing a local production of Pinocchio and he either volunteered or was volunteered to make a remote control nose. Each time I hear the story, it changes. Regardless, he came over and we spend about half the day building a drive mechanism for an extend-o-nose. He had already modified a servo to be free spinning. I machined out a case using several pieces of polyethylene. These were fastened together using machine screws and then a 1.5" hole was bored through the center. This hole contains a reel with a piece of metal tape fastened to it. I fabricated a metal plate to fasten to each side. If you can picture it, imagine something similar to a remote controlled measuring tape. Once the box was complete, we called it a box and quit for the day. It is always amazing how many hours you can put into creating something.

David invited me over to his house for dinner. In one of my many past lives, I practically lived with David and Penny. My first year out of college I probably ate dinner there no less than five times a week. Penny still calls me her first son.

Dinner was great. I stopped at the store on the way over and picked up a jar of Hot Pickled Okra and a bottle of Piesporter Michelsberg (German wine is my favorite). When I arrived we cracked open the pickled okra and Dave made a big bowl of Guacamole (3 avocados, a small lime, and some Frontera Guacamole Starter). The Guacamole was excellent (Terry, you would have loved it. We will have to make some next time your in town.) Penny handed me a chilled bottle of muscadine wine and a fancy cork screw and put me to work. The wine was good, and you could definitely tell it was muscadine. Dinner consisted of grilled ribs, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade mac-n-cheese, rolls, and coconut cake, complete with a chorus of Happy Birthday.

After dinner, David, Ben, and I watched part of The Parent Trap remake on the tele. Ben is about 10, maybe 11. During the show, there is a scene in a wine cellar. Large barrels of wine running the length of the room. I pointed to the big corks sticking out the top of the barrels and asked Ben if the know what they were called. He didn't, but I did. I had recently learned what they were called while watching the discovery channel. The cork is called a bung. Next I asked Ben if he knew what the hole was called that the cork was placed in. Again he didn't know and again I shared it with him. David and Ben were laughing hysterically. Of course the answer is a bung hole. Why is that funny? It's not. Unless you were there. Later Penny asked me to explain to her why it was funny. I explained simply that it was just a good example of 12 year old male humor. I still think that stuff is funny. ***attempting to straighten my face***

Before dinner I said something else really funny to David. I have never seen anyone laugh so hard. I wish I could remember what it was. Actually I was on fire that day. This audience hadn't heard most of my material.

Around 10:00 PM I headed to the house. They wanted me to stay and watch a movie, but I am not a night owl. Once home, I went on to bed, and once again fell asleep reading.

And guess what. I forgot to disable the alarm clock on Saturday. Doh! That is how Sunday morning started. This time I did manage to ignore it and went back to sleep. I did finally get up around 8:00. At this point I put the last load of laundry in the washer. Two hours later and it was finally done.

That is where most of the weekend went.

Have you ever had muscadine wine and pickled okra?

Cast Iron

As I sat here watching Jordan play Star Wars Lego on the Nintendo, waiting for the Barrett-Jackson Auction to start on the Speed Channel, I decided to find something to read. I have grown bored with YouTube and Google Video, as well as MySpace.

I headed over to Mr-Miata as it was the first blog I had ever read, and my motivation for starting my own blog. I thought I would traverse some of his links.

At the top of his list of Miata blogs is one called Ain't Chicken. I wonder why they didn't use Ain't Skeerd. Must have been taken. Off we go.

Now this is something I can relate to. This person, is obsessing over a purchasing a toaster oven. I am all about obsessing over purchases. Finding what you want is the high point of shopping and the research is the thrill of the hunt. Now don't think I enjoy shopping for shopping's sake, but how can one not enjoy shopping for a new power tool kitchen appliance. (Isn't a kitchen appliance just a power tool for the kitchen?) I fondly recall getting my first blender and food processor, and I was all for it when we got a Kitchen Aid. It's like a mini-drill press for the kitchen, only without drill bits or mortising attachments. I digress. Perhaps someday I will tell you about when I made my first purchase of Tupperware, wooden spoons, a cutting board, tea glasses, or the year I bought myself Revereware stainless steel mixing bowls for Christmas ('92). (These things I will liken to hand tools, as that is pretty much what they are. Hand tools for the kitchen.) (Each purchase is it's own story.) The mixing bowls by the way are the perfect size for making Toll House cookies. I digress again. And I haven't even mentioned Amazon.com yet. But this post is about cast iron.

So over on Ain't Skeerd Chicken, Carol asks "Who needs new cast iron?" Why me of course.

Back in college, I decided it was time to learn how to fry okra. I know you are probably tired of reading about me frying okra, but I promise I want mention it again until this summer, after I finish up here.

To fry okra properly you need a few things. The primary ingredient is of course a cast iron skillet. I had no relatives dying off leaving me their cast iron, which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending upon how you look at it, so I obtained some new cast iron from Wal-Mart. A very sensible 8" skillet for frying okra and a nice 6" skillet for making cornbread just like dear old Dad. (I even used his recipe, verbally passed down a whole generation.) A few years later I got a more reasonable 10" Lodge skillet which allows for a larger batch of okra, or perhaps some chicken.

My first experience seasoning a skillet was less than optimal. It required some Crisco, and a little guess work on my part, but no cleavage. I seem to recall I set off the smoke alarm in my efficiency apartment. Glory days.

I think I just found the cure for blogger's block. Now you will have to excuse me as I resume my normal blog subject matter: a red Miata and an old rusty truck.

I never got a deviled egg tray, but then some things should be reserved for the girls.

I think the auction has started. Latter I need to head back over there and find out if "Ain't Chicken" refer's to dare devel stunts or the fried stuff.