OCDiva

A few tours ago, my kids started calling me the "OCDiva" due to my love of organization. "A place for everything and everything in it's place" doesn't completely describe me, but I absolutely do enjoy organization and getting there.
We have a one car garage and due to fabulous weather, almost never put the car in, so it has, of course, been shopped out. It is chock full of projects, camping gear, random sports equipment, and more projects. The IKEA shelving that John and I purchased during our weekend Daytona vacation went up and our garage breathed a sigh of relief. We got the wall uprights and brackets only and decided to go the plywood from Lowe's route for the shelves.

The picture below is the right side of the garage now.

Next is the left side. We got a bike hook too.
This is the back wall right next to the door into the house. These shelves hold all the recyclables. A while ago we managed to get some peg board up over the workbench and to be completest, here's a picture of that too.

NC

We headed up to John's folks last weekend to celebrate our niece's 8th birthday. Her party (a surprise) was at Chuck E Cheese. I'm pretty sure I'd been to one of those when I was a kid, but it has to have been at least 20 years ago. Things I learned while there: unlimited soda means unlimited trips to the bathroom, skeeball is fun no matter what it's called, and the rat-tail hairstyle is alive and well and living in North Carolina.

This little guy was not part of our group, but he was definitely having a good time. Our niece had 3 very well behaved friends with her and had the most fun crawling around in one of those kid sized hamster tube extravaganzas.

On the way up we passed my favorite obscene ice cream sign and I remembered to take a picture.

Birthday Surprises

John's birthday is coming up. Normally, right now I'd be in a quandary of what to get him. He has many interests: some small, some large, some expensive, some not.

But lucky for me the Daytona 500 was 2 weeks ago. And as many of you know, John is a big NASCAR fan. Not the "throwing chicken bones" kind, but definitely a fan. So unbeknownst to him I started stalking EBay for tickets. I managed to find 2 tickets for great seats for both the Saturday and the Sunday race for about half of face value!
The tickets came by UPS just as John was trying to talk me into going... The UPS man was not on my payroll, but should have been for his excellent timing! We took our tent and camped from Thursday night till Monday morning at a family campground a couple miles from the track and had an excellent time. Indeed, I thought it would be ok, but I actually had fun. The key was earplugs and actual seats instead of bleachers.

The picture above shows John with all the gear necessary for race enjoyment, in the track-allowed-containers (snacks, binoculars, advil, earplugs, a couple of back issues of the New Yorker for me in the clear backpack, lunch and beverage in the cooler).
Our campsite was small but shady and we did a bit of grilling. The weather was cool enough for camp fires; between 50 and 60 degrees at night. Also, we met up with our Goodspeed friends and caught up on the gossip and had some great seafood at one of their favorite restaurants.

The Saturday race was short and sunny, but the Sunday race was scheduled later in the afternoon and was cloudy and is a LONG race! It started to rain about 50 laps before the end and the race was called because the radar looked terrible. That was fine with me, because I was tired of sitting.

A good time was had by all even if my favorite vehicle didn't win.

I must confess the trip was not just for John, we made a pilgrimage to IKEA in Orlando (which, incidentally, is at the same highway exit as the "Holyland Theme Park" where dinosaurs are known as Jesus horses...) The IKEA trip was perfectly timed because we have been needing some organization in our garage.

Seen recently

As seen on a bumper sticker in the grocery store parking lot:

Don't tell Mom I'm a pilot. She thinks

I play the piano in a whore house.

Guest Series: Peasant Dishes

Hotel Room Cooking

Frequently, the meals that one experiences on the road are hurried, soulless and by no means home cooked. That’s why it is so important to know how to improvise while sequestered to hotel living space on the road. Knowing the basics of any dish will give you a palette of options on how to create your home away from home cooked meal.

One of the easiest dishes to cook may just well be “chicken and rice”. You may say to your self, “that sounds boring”. Listen, any food cooked in a hotel room by your hands for your enjoyment will surprise you with its level of excitability. Even grilled cheese will give you a sense of, “I can do anything. I am Survival Man”. Keep in mind that we are talking about a very basic dish here. The culinary arts offer many varying degrees of difficulty. Once you master the basics you can try spicing it up a bit. Here in this segment of Peasant Dishes we are going to explore the bare necessities of making the “home cooked” meal “Chicken and Rice” in a hotel room. Why this meal would be considered a Peasant Dish you might ask. Peasants are people of necessity. They are a people willing to use any ingredients and cooking styles necessary to deliver a tasty and filling meal to their tables.

Before you board the plane, bus, or car on your next trip, get yourself a rapid hot water boiler that holds about (4) cups of liquid. Most models have a dial setting that will allow you to regulate the temperature. I’ll explain how to over ride this feature later. A small disclaimer is prompted here. Generally speaking, it is against hotel policy to operate a hot plate in your room. The rapid hot water boiler that you are going to be using here is not considered a hot plate, per se. It does have and exposed heating element, however, it is concealed inside the appliance. When the hot water boiler is used properly it is not a potential fire hazard. Just don’t let the water boil completely out. The heating element will then be exposed to anything that could fall into the pot. This is bad.

As soon as you arrive at the hotel, check in, put your bags down, and then make a grocery list. Of course Chicken will be first on your list. Boneless, skinless chicken breast will do but since we have a relatively small cooking surface, we want to buy some unseasoned, uncooked chicken fingers. These bits of chicken heaven are just smaller portions of the chicken breast. Usually half a pound will do. It may be hard to find packaging that small but you can ask your butcher to repackage it for you. Second on the list is Success Rice. This is the rice in a plastic bag that cooks in a few inches of water, usually in a microwave.

Did you know, that based on an annual report in 2007 the world wide consumption of rice per capita stood at 127/kg (280/lbs)per person per year. Asia ranked highest with 80/kg per person. And as you would guess, the United States and Europe rank lowest with only 10/kg per person per year. In comparison, the per capita consumption of corn in the US is 2.27/kg (5/lbs) per person per day! I'll let you do the math yourself for the yearly results. That figure of course takes into account all the products we consume that have corn based ingredients. Most of our meats are corn grain fed.

Now where was I, oh yeah, after the long day of meetings and company training seminars the only thing on your mind is a home cooked meal. Thank goodness you brought along your water boiler. Now it’s time to piece together the puzzle that is hotel room cooking. First things first, to get your mind in the right frame, pour yourself a glass of wine. This is a cooking exercise and cooking is best experienced with a glass of wine. Think of it as your egg timer. When the glass is empty, it’s time to eat. Ok, ready? Now place the chicken into the water boiler and pour in good clean filtered water up to the “max fill” line. Bottled water will do, but I usually carry a “Brita” filter to take water directly from the sink. Next, plug in the water boiler.

The dial on the side of the water boiler is a crude thermostat. You can dictate the temperature of the water based on the setting of the dial. Now, the problem with these thermostats is that they regulate the temperature of the water you’re boiling and that slows the cooking process. Well, truthfully, you're only suppose to boil water in the darn things. They aren't designed to cook with. Anyway, on a conventional oven the thermostat of the burner controls the temperature of the burner. See what I mean. In other words, the heating element will shut off once the water temperature reaches the preset level of heat. Generally, these water boilers have minor thermal saving properties like a coffee thermos. The water temperature is retained for sometime. Even at the highest temperature setting the heating element will shut off and stay off until the water cools below the thermostat preset. The initial way to avoid this hurdle is by making sure that the lid of the boiler is open while the water is boiling. An attentive eye will be required for the second layer of fooling the boiler. And that’s okay, because you don’t want your water to boil out or over. Set the thermostat on medium. Once the thermostat turns off the boiler just give it a slight turn toward high and the element will turn back on. This will allow you about an hours worth of adjustments. And that will be perfect because that is how long it will take to boil the chicken to perfection. (The chicken will take up to 2 hours to cook fully if you let the water boiler act naturally.)

Once the chicken is cooked to the right temperature the juices will run clear when you cut into it. Unplug the boiler. Take the chicken out and set it aside on a paper plate. Oh yeah, don’t forget to pick up paper plates at the grocery store while you’re shopping for the chicken and rice. If you place a sheet of printer paper over the chicken it will stay warmer longer. Not to worry though; the rice will be piping hot when it’s finished cooking. Using the water and chicken stock that is left over from cooking the chicken, place a bag of Success Rice in the water boiler. Pay very close attention to this process. You have now introduced a plastic bag into the heating element’s space. Typically, the bubbles produced when hydrogen is separated form oxygen, a.k.a. boiling water, will provide a safe cushion between the heating element and the plastic bag. Give it a stir or jiggle once in awhile to make sure that it is not sticking to the bottom of the pot. If the bag melts to the element, you will have a long night of clean up ahead of you, at the least. Not to mention, your dinner will be spoiled.

Usual cook time on Success Rice is about 10 minutes. The clever thermostat monitoring that comes with cooking this way may add a couple minutes to that. Use your instincts, if it seems soft, then it is done. Be careful; don’t get burned by the steam. When you’ve determined that the rice is to your liking, unplug the boiler. Close the lid and drain off the excess water. Make sure your water boiler's lid will lock shut. Use protective cloves or the bath towel if you have to hold the lid closed while the hot water drains. Carefully pull the bag out of the boiler. Drain off the excess water that will be in the bag. Very hot steam will still be present. Once the rice is cool enough to handle, open the bag and pour out the contents onto the paper plate you have the chicken resting on. Season to taste and enjoy.

Mind you, that I don't speak from experience, but, I can’t stress enough how careful you have to be for this operation. The probability of getting burned by steam, melting plastic, letting the water boil out and causing the water boiler to melt, subsequently catching on fire, burning down the entire establishment and then law suits being brought against you is very high. The shame and ridicule that your friends and family will place on you will take years to remove. Without special and sharply defined attention to detail you will get hurt. But on the other hand, there’s nothing like home cooking from a hotel room.