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December 17, 2020: Sticky Wicket

33 Comments

Jane reported a brownish, blackish liquid leaking from under the refrigerator. I've been waiting for this thing to go for awhile now, so I started thinking about how best to approach the situation. Then I found the tipped over, not well sealed jar of kalamata olives in the door shelf...

33 thoughts on “December 17, 2020: Sticky Wicket”

  1. We received a foot of snow and counting but because school is remote, no snow day. Feels a bit mean to not let everyone take a day off anyway. I think everyone deserves a break even with winter break starting in a week.

    2. And of course, the snow blower's impeller decided it's too much work to actually spin. It does sort of move so the shear pins must be fine and instead something jammed it. Super thrilled to check that out later today.

      1. Cable to add tension to the impeller belt had too much slack. Thank goodness for an easy fix. Just finished 90 minutes of throwing snow around.

    3. I haven't fired up the snowblower here yet. While I like a good winter for spite's sake, I am just fine with not having added semi-weekly shoveling and blowing to the workload. I don't need it this year.

    4. I was an idiot last spring and forgot the gas in our snowblower, so when we got that foot out of nowhere in early November, I had to siphon out the contents of the tank, then slowly work the rest out. It was a lot of fun.

      THEN I found out that the snow itself was far too heavy for my snowblower to actually move, so we had to have my father-in-law come plow us out. Double fun!

      1. Since I finally caved and bought a snowblower a few years ago, I learned after that first winter that I'd better fire it up in the late fall to make sure it will start. Adding Stabil to the gas for the summer did not eliminate the need to tear apart the carb to clean it out.

        1. That's the really nice thing about my mower turning into my snowblower - it gets year-round use so I don't have to worry about the gas.

                  1. The temperature may have dipped below freezing last night in the city that care forgot. May have. I miss four seasons, but really I do enjoy the shit out of not shoveling. Though I do need the exercise....

  2. I had to get a new tube on the right tire, and then stupidly filled the snowblower with "bad" gas (it should not have been bad because i had just gotten a little in the fall to finish off the lawnmower). Still, it's all ready to go with nothing to do.

  3. Given we were to get 12" total, I got up at 1AM and did the first pass on the 8" in the driveway/walks. My neighbor did the addtional 4" around 8. Other than shoveling the walks, there's no point in doing anything else now until they plow the streets (which will dump onto our driveway/walks.
    At least it's fluffy snow...

        1. it was an impulse buy that didn't work with anything other than this sando. Something about the sharpness of both the garlic and the cheddar complimented the sweet spicy JHB sauce and smoked meat flavor. One of my best efforts during the ronas.

          1. mmmhmm. Admiring from afar. Including the garlic cheddar. Which might go really well with ham, too??

        1. Crock pot carnitas ... rub the butt with spice mix of your choice - chili, garlic, bit of ginger, salt, brown sugar, black pepper, cumin - dash of nutmeg. Let sit overnight, in the morning brown on all sided. While in the pan slice half an onion into rings or half moons, smash two cloves of garlic, open a beer (drink half if you live like a wild man), open a can of green chili. (or use half an adobo or whatever heat source you prefer). Put half the onion in the bottom of the crock, add half the beer, put the butt in fatty side up, throw the garlic and remaining onion on top, and cook on high until 1 pm, turn down to low until a hour or so before dinner. At that point the meat should be falling off the bone. Pull the butt, and set on a cutting board. Defat (if being healthy.... boooooooooooooo to healthy!) the cooking liquid by rapidly cooling it on your balcony (or in the freezer) (or use a separator), scrape frozen fat off top and reserve for not being healthy. While waiting for the fat to separate from the braise shred the meat into big chunks discarding any large pockets of fat and connective tissue that remains and put into a lightly oiled cast iron pan. Heat pan to screaming hot and fry the everloving life out of one side of the meat. When proper stuck to the pan dump in the defatted braising liquid and scrape the bottom of the pan to release the meat. Simmer the liquid til it is mostly gone and remove the pan from the heat. The result should be some crispy bits with some soggy bits and everything in between. Serve as taco, as nacho, as main over rice and beans..... the world is your oyster.

          You can braise in any liquid - I've found that spiced apple cider makes for a delightful pork cooking liquid. Great with black beans.

            1. or Twice-Cooked Pork!!!!!111one111!!!!

              Man, I haven't made that in decades. Sooooo good. This recipe is pretty close to what I used to do. Calling a pork shoulder "lean" made me laugh, however. Part of the point of this is the delicious, delicious pig fat.

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