Old Crank
Old Crank's JournalThe marathon has begun.....
I made stock for the gravy, Used the duck carcass from earlier and some bits of chicken carcass, with the usual veggies.
I have enough stock left over for the carrot, ginger, potato soup my wife wants to make. Bonus.
I made and canned the cranberry sauce. It will be enough to make it through Xmas, at least. Two 1 cup jars may become gifts.
My new 90 cm wide cooktop helped having stock, cranberry sauce cooking, and heating up the big pot to can the sauce. So much easier than the 60 cm units I've had for 10 years.
I'll be roasting a goose for Thanksgiving.
We do our meal on Saturday or Sunday since there is no day off on the thursday. Plus it gives me 2 more days to procrastinate.
We have my wife's old work mate and his child over. So instead of any traditional stuffing/dressing I'm going with Mac and cheese. Cheddar, gruyere, gorgonzola blend with a little spec. Probably roasted carrots and mashed potatoes. Might do biscuits. I have to keep it simple since my rent abdominal surgery doesn't allow me to push myself.
Of course there will be pumpkin pie.
If you had any doubt about Homeland Security being run by racist nazis
This should remove it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/20/coast-guard-swastika-noose/
The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops that died fighting in World War II — as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month.
Instead, the Coast Guard will classify the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive” under its new guidelines. The new policy, set to take effect Dec. 15, similarly downgrades the definition of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter remains banned, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
.....
Women will be the next general target, other than the leaders already relieved of command.
Life is good in a dictatorship
until you say or do something to gather attention.
The handy man who is helping do some installations in our new flat is from the former Yugoslavia. He was there when Marshal Tito was in charge. As a young man he said life was good. But never say anything political. Oder du warst weg. Or you were gone.
It echoes what a former coworker I had from Pakistan in the late 70's said. He and his wife were in a great place, good schools, money, hired help for the house keeping and, and.
But they gave that up to come to the US. Why? It was good to be with the "in" group. You didn't want to be in the "out" group. And you never knew when that could change.
I think some MAGA voters are beginning to realize this now. I didn't vote for this, they bleat.
Advent Calendars
I'm in Germany and we are awash with Advent Calendars. From cheap to expensive. From small to large couples ones.
Here is one I saw at my local home improvement center. Hagebaumarkt.
It is tempting....
The cover
List of contents.
Evidently this is a yearly thing....
Roast duck for dinner
Stopped by a local bargain food store on Friday. They had fresh local duck in the meat case.
Perfect. Sunday dinner and at least one more.
Able to use my large for Europe oven the way I hoped. Duck on one side and the veggies roasting beside it.
The new kitchen, almost done.
A month or so ago I posted about the joys of moving and having to supply your own kitchen in Germany. I said I would include some pictures of before and after.
It is functional. I combined some of our 4 year old IKEA kitchen with new IKEA cabinets. Kept the dishwasher but replaced the 10 year old fridge and went with a large oven, 36 inches. Along with the same size induction cooktop. Since IKEA doesn't do 90 cm, (35.6 inches) I had to order a cabinet from an other vendor.
Left to do is wait for the missing part of the counter top.
Set up a support for the drawer rail for the under sink drawer.
Hook up the under cabinet LEDs
Install the panels under the cabinets
Install the backsplash material
And decide on how to handle the storage of spices.
Oven, hood and cooktop waiting. Door goes to our balcony.
Some of the bits in the barren space
Getting there.
The other way
Nearly done.
Other view.
Now to get used to everything being backwards from the last kitchen.
The extremely wealthy just don't care
They are burning carbon like there is no tomorrow while having a large say in how we will cut emissions into the atmosphere/
America’s super-rich are running down the planet’s safe climate spaces, says Oxfam
The data, produced by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute ahead of the Cop30 climate summit, highlights the chasm between the carbon-guzzling rich, who are most responsible for the climate crisis, and the heat-vulnerable poor, who suffer the worst consequences.
At one end, the wealthiest 0.1% emit an average of 2.2 tonnes of CO2 every day, equivalent to the weight of a rhinoceros or an SUV.
At the other, a citizen of Somalia burns off just 82 grams of CO2 each day, barely the mass of a single tomato or half a cup of rice.
In between, the average for everyone on the planet is 12kg a day, about as heavy as a standard car tyre.
Any cooking superstitions out there?
I have two.
The first is I can't close and put away the flour container before I have mixed the liquid into pancakes. I just know I will put in too much liquid and have to pull the flour out again.
The second is my French toast batter has to be made in an old Marie Calendar's pie tin. Mine is at least 20 years old and been used on 2 continents. Perfect for putting slice bread in the batter before the pan.
Piled carved stones on a rocky hill in Athens.
A few from the Parthenon in Athens. Glad we were there in the off season. Even so there were a good number of people. Ten years ago it was mobbed in September and teh temp was 95F plus. Still worth seeing. The scale is enormous. Currently doing renovations hence white areas where they have replaced or stabilized sections.
One that Lord Elgin missed.
A capital idea.
Profile Information
Name: RalphGender: Male
Current location: München, DE
Member since: Tue Nov 14, 2017, 06:17 AM
Number of posts: 6,462