Hi, everyone.
It's about 58 degrees F outside this morning, windy and not so damp. The figures are rather sketchy, as I am not going outside to check the instruments. For me, the worst offender is the wind. I am so sick of the wind creating a wind tunnel effect in the carport, I could spit. The weather people are forecasting 39 degrees F overnight. The manatees in our waterways are suffering already, this could be very bad for them. The sharks and the lionfish can freeze their tails off, for all I care. Manatees congregate near nuclear power plants where the heated water from the reactor's cooling system creates a zone of localized warmer water. They cram themselves in that area like sardines in a can. If you've ever seen a manatee, you know they look nothing like sardines. But not all manatees have access to a warmer water supply. So, they're cold and they suffer. Every winter, some die from exposure. My heart goes out to them. This 39 degrees overnight will be the coldest temperature we have ever seen in Florida in 11 years.
Friends called last night to inform us they'll be paying us a visit today, at the end of the morning. Good news, everyone: they'll bring lunch. They are the cheap people who bring us Bulgarian Cabernet-Sauvignon, pomegranate-flavored fizzy Pinot Noir (Yecccch!), and the like. She's very nice, and a good friend of Gail's, but he is a mizer. I can barely stand him, but I have strict orders from the archduchess
Marie-Caca de Taratata not to let my dislike show. He's mainly dad's friend. They're currently suffering through Winter in a cold and damp condo because the heat would cost too much. To that one, I say: "Freeze in the dark, fool!". It's his wife that suffers most in all that. They're bringing lunch... how odd... I guess they're having a sale at Little Caesar's. At any rate, I don't eat bread except when I absolutely have to, anymore. I love baking, but I only give the finished product a taste. All those carbs are worse than bad for me. I don't digest carbs anymore. I'll make a big salad and we'll call that lunch. There is chocolate fudge available for a munchie later in the afternoon. I know they won't stay for dinner; they never do.
I saw the International Space Station swing by overhead this morning. I was up in time. I threw on some clothes and went outside just in time. It's always wonderful to see the ISS. This morning's sighting lasted 3 minutes and 35 seconds for me. The trees on the horizon obscured it for a bit at the beginning and the end of its visibility. As soon as it was gone, I returned inside because this weather is not conducive for scantily-clad ISS spotting.
Tonight's dinner menu will be "Spaghetti night". Actually, I'll make some baked penne al arrabiata and Parmezan for Gail and dad. I have a spaghetti squash I'll nuke for myself and finish in the oven alongside the penne. Dad hinted at carrot cake yesterday. Sly fox, he asked if I had lost my carrot cake recipe. As if! When company leaves, I might mix a batch and cook it in muffin tins. They freeze well, and so do individual portions of the cream cheese frosting one typically slathers on them. Sounds like a plan.
Bagels are not hard to make. There are 2 main stumbling blocks: the yeast itself and the kneading. Fifteen to twenty minutes kneading a dough that gets stringier and more elastic as time goes on gets tiring after a while. Once you have an active yeast culture working in there and your dough is made, the rest is child's play. With company here, the bagel project might be pushed towards tomorrow. Bagels are boiled, seeded and then baked. And unless you own an industrial Hobart mixer taller than you are, don't even think of throwing that in a stand mixer is a good idea, unless you're planning to throw it away and get yourself a more serious machine. I use the recipe I found on ChefSteps:
https://www.chefsteps.com/acti...
It works beautifully. I had to order diastatic malt powder. It really makes a difference. As I understand it, it's barley that they sprout, dehydrate and turn into a flour-like substance. It doesn't glow in the dark and every well-stocked pantry should have some. As a matter of fact, it should be sold in grocery stores in the baking section. This stuff rocks. In the video, they use a Kitchen Aid to mix the dough, but it's the biggest KA I have ever seen. I have no space to store that in my dinky kitchen and I am not willing to invest that much to make bagels, so kneading by hand it is for me. We wuz poo'! (and please don't get me started on that). I think of kneading bagels as a good cardio exercise. Dad will give the kneading a try, conk out before the 15 minutes are up and I'll finish the job. It will give him a reason to appreciate the work I do in that kitchen. It's not all about making roses out of tomato peels in there, you know. Serious hard work takes place in a kitchen. We all know that.
I played with Lucy last night. As soon as I sat down in my recliner, she held on to my watch with her tail, went behind my neck and rested her head on to of my nose. Then, she found out that I was warm. The Daddy is always warm. She waited a bit and crawled under my T-shirt, with the tail hanging on to the neck opening. And she found herself happy in there, as she so often does. I rubbed her this way and that through the T-shirt while she pushed against my hand to rub harder where it felt good. That's living high off the hog for a snake, you know. She stayed under there over 30 minutes. Then, I sensed movement. Lucy was exiting my T-shirt through the left sleeve, looking all proud of herself. Such a cuddly snake we have.
After dinner and dishes yesterday, I watched YouTube because Gail and dad were watching Tree House Fools followed by pok-pok, aka tennis. I watched a video of someone who had just received a new snake he had ordered. Unboxing a snake you have been expecting for a while must be exciting. It turned out Lucy was not in that there box. That snake was just plain pissed off having been held in a dark, vented box for 2 or 3 days. It had no manners whatsoever and no upbringing at all. No sooner had he opened the box that the snake started hissing at him and shaking its tail like a rattlesnake (although it wasn't a rattler). It was poised to strike, its body in that characteristic double S position. The owner noted the position, laughed a bit and reached in anyway. He got bitten and laughed again. I hope it's not too late for that snake to learn some manners. I wouldn't want one of those. Hissing, attacking and biting? Say it ain't so. Lucy has never hissed, attacked or bitten. Actually, I am certain that Lucy could hiss, attack and bite, but she was never given an occasion to any of that stuff. Good rearing shows in a pet, no matter what kind of pet it is. Lucy lives in the lap of luxury. We wouldn't have it any other way. Although Lucy never hissed, attacked or bit, she does snores and we find that so funny.
I hear my noisy neighbor next door, jostling the stuff in his recycling bins again. He does that 2 or 3 times a day. Why he does that is beyond me. He just likes to make noise. They're only here 2 to 3 months of the year. The rest of the time, their house is empty. So, it's always a surprise when we hear noise coming from there. And he does enjoy his noise. Here I am tying up the wind chimes when the wind blows too hard because I don't want to disturb them. I understand turning compost around, but recycling doesn't need aerating. They're nice people. He's just noisy. It could be worse.
There is no room on the couch for anyone, but if you care to drop in, we do have a guest bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and a queen-sized hide-a-bed in there. The mattress is almost brand-new. We don't have that many overnight guests, so the hide-a-bed gets very little use. And we do own a queen-size inflatable mattress that could be set up in the living room in a pinch. But nobody on the couch, please. So, just give us a bit advance notice and come on down.
Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.
