What in cornation?!

 Corn is amaizeing.  

By Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81224187

Corn bread has been a staple of southern cooking for a very long time.  I think of my mother in law when I make it.  She stayed with us for several months while my wife sorted out her health issues and we had it a lot.  It is filling, slightly sweet, and holds up well as side or in a dish like beans.  I've added my take on it with a few fun additions.  

Ingredients

Corn bread mix.  Yes, it's easy enough to make your own.  I just didn't feel like making it today.  

Jarred jalapenos.  Refers to the container and not the state of shock of the jalapenos.  You can use fresh if you want.  I like the salinity of the jarred here.  

Cheese.  Any kind you like, though feta would be weird.  

1/3 cup milk.  The box called for it.  Obey the box.

One egg. Same here.  

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400F.  Line a pan with parchment paper.  This makes for easy unloading of the pan once the cornbread is cooled.  

2. Combine corn bread mix, egg, and milk in a high sided bowl.  Mix well.  Let sit 20 minutes to let the leavening agents do their thing.  

3. While you wait, chop the desired amount of jalapenos finely.  

4. Add chopped jalapeno and shredded cheese to your mixing bowl.  Add cheese until the dairy association calls you and tells you that you caused a shortage.  Mix well.

5. Spread evenly in pan and cook for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  

6. Once cooked and slightly browned on top, let cool in pan.  Pull parchment from pan, slice, and enjoy.  

Pressure Cooker Beans

 Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

By 維基小霸王 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88894798

Beans have been a staple in my household from as long as I can  remember.  From Slavic dishes to rustic southern cuisine.  They are cheap, filling, and versatile.  Using a pressure cooker takes a lot of the work and time out them.  

Ingredients

Dried Pinto Beans.  Easy to find.  Shelf stable.  What's not to love?

Ham Hocks.  Do not hock or huck the ham hock.

Crushed red pepper flakes.  In a house where the majority of people don't eat anything spicier than ketchup, I sneak this in.  It adds a slight kick.  It's real easy to overdo, so I would go with a pinch and incrementally add more. 

Stock (beef or chicken).  For the two of you that read this, you can use this recipe to make your own. You'll need roughly 64oz.  You can freeze what you don't use.  

Salt and pepper. Ham is extremely salty, so be sure to taste the finished product before adding more salt.   

Directions

1. Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and spread your beans out.  You are looking for small rocks and debris.  Yes, you need to do this unless you have a thing for broken teeth.  No, I won't do it for you.  

2. Place your ham hocks in the pressure cooker pot.  

3. Use the parchment paper to lift the beans like a hammock (for your ham hocks.  See what I did there?) and pour the beans into the pot.  

4. Toss some crushed red pepper flake to taste.  My kids have a weak tolerance for heat, so this is the most I dare.  

5. Add stock.  If yours is out of stock, get a carton at the store.  

6. Cook on high for about 25 minutes to start.  Use a natural release of pressure.  

7. Check tenderness of the beans.  If they're still pretty firm, cook for another 10-15 minutes on high. Mine were, so more time and more stock.  

8. Beans are tender now.  Time to remove the hocks and remove the bones and extra fat.  Not good to eat.  It's a good time to check the beans and ensure no small bones were left.  

9. My hocks didn't seem to have a lot of meat on them, so I added some additional diced ham I had.  Let it sit for a bout 20 minutes on low and it is ready to serve after you check the salt and crushed red pepper levels to ensure they're to your liking.  Enjoy!

Speaking in code

"It says Drink your Ovaltine..."

My mother gifted me a 2008 Chevy Trailblazer in 2018.  It had over 200,000 miles and a variety of errors on the dash. I am not a car guy so I bought one of these: OBD2 Scanner.  

It helped show what the errors were as well as allow me to turn them off so they wouldn't be annoying.  

Additionally, a coworker had an issue with his remote start on his vehicle.  This nifty little device allowed us to reset the condition and allowed it to work again.  No visit to the dealer required.  

Prices vary between $14-30.  I was not paid for this post; merely appreciative of the tech and sharing knowledge.  

Makin' Bacon

 Step one...acquire bacon

Image courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/23178876@N03/2222309331/

Bacon is nature's perfect food.  Works well as it's own thing, such as a pork belly steak, or in a dish.  You can even use it in largely sweet dishes to balance out with a bit of salty and smoky goodness (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_bacon_donut). However, the process of cooking bacon on a stovetop is messy and can add an odor to your domicile that some find unpleasant.  The best way to cook bacon is using a sheet tray, your oven, and parchment paper.  A press grill will work well for this also, but you'll need to clean the plates afterwards.  

Ingredients

Bacon. I prefer thick cut.  Thin cut will cook faster but you'll run the risk of burning it faster as well.  The timings here are for thicker bacon. 

Parchment paper. Will do the heavy lifting of making sure the bacon is nice and crispy as well as make clean up minimal.  

Sheet tray.  Unless you plan on just throwing the bacon in your oven (not recommended), you'll need something to cook it on.  

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.  

2. Place sheet pan on a stable surface.  Cover it with parchment paper to fit.  If you do not fit the paper to the pan, you risk having to clean the pan after cooking, and what was the point of doing all this?

3. Add bacon to pan.  Try to leave a little space around each piece of bacon.  Avoid eating the bacon.  The wait will be worth it.  

4. Cook the bacon for approximately 25-35 minutes, depending on the thickness and efficiency of your oven.  

5. Remove the bacon from the sheet pan and drain on paper towels.  Once cooled, enjoy.  

6. As a bonus, once the pan and bacon grease has cooled slightly, carefully pour it into heat proof bowl to save for cooking.  It's wonderful stuff!

In the soup

 "You buy a hat like this, I'll bet you get a free bowl of soup, huh?"

Continuing on from my last post here,  what better thing to do with chicken stock than to make chicken soup.  This is a fairly straightforward recipe without frills.  You could add cream to make it creamy, or more herbs to make it complex.  But this is your basic chicken soup.  Perfect for a cool fall day.  It also freezes well, provided you don't add dairy to cream it up (dairy splits in the freezer). 

Ingredients

Stock.  Hopefully you maintain a good stock of it. 

Chicken.  Wouldn't be chicken soup without it.  

Bacon Fat. To cook the mirepoix.  You can use butter or olive oil if you prefer.  No shame here. 

Noodles.  You can use any you want.  Noodle on the kind you'd use.  

Mirepoix. A blend of carrot, celery, and onions in equal amount all chopped uniformly.  I got mine pre-done at the store because I'm fancy like that. 

Salt and pepper. I don't know why you add these to a recipe.  They're ubiquitous.  But there they are.  

Concentrated stock.  Just to bump the flavor up a bit.  You can also use bouillon.  

Dill Weed.  Adds a nice complexity to the soup.  Plus it is fun to say. 

Directions

1. Put a stock pot on medium to medium high heat.  Melt the bacon fat.  Once hot, add the mirepoix.  Cook until tender.  

2. Once the vegetables are tender, add the concentrated stock and stir.  Then, add your stock.  

2. Pull the meat off the thighs and the drumsticks, removing any fat or cartilage, and then dice along with the breast meat.  Then add to the pot.  Simmer on low for an hour or two.  

3. Once simmered, raise temperature to medium high again and add pasta, stirring well.  Cook until pasta is tender.  

4.  Your soup is ready to eat.  Serve with rolls or crusty bread.  

Taking Stock

 I keep stock of bad jokes for any contingency.

Chicken stock is one of those great things that can be used for a great many recipes.  Braising, sauces, soups, etc. It freezes beautifully.  Pair that up with the fact that grocery store rotisserie chickens make obtaining a cooked chicken a simple process, and you have no excuse to not make your own chicken stock.  

Ingredients

Chicken. If you are making chicken stock with anything other than a chicken carcass, what are you doing?

Celery. Otherwise known as that thing that comes along with buffalo wings, but no one really eats. 

Carrots. Otherwise known as the only vegetable my kids will eat.

Onion. Do not tell children onion is in this, or they won't eat anything made with it.  

Directions 

1. Clean the vegetables and peel the onion.  It's not important to have them uniform or to even peel the carrots (the skin has nutrients).  Roughly chop the vegetables so they fit in the pot.  Size is not important. 

2. Put the vegetables in the pot.  See, this is grad school level thinking. 

3. Take your cooled rotisserie chicken (or hot if you have hands of asbestos) and remove the  goofy string that keeps the chicken together.  Don't cook this; it is not tasty.  

4. Carve off the breasts, thighs, and drumsticks.  You could remove the wings if you wanted, but I generally leave them on the carcass.  Reserve the chicken for chicken salad, soup, or serving with a sauce.  

5.  Place the chicken carcass in the pot.  Season lightly with salt and pepper.  You will more than likely season again when using the stock for soup or a sauce, so less is more here.  

6. If you'd like, add a bit of bouillon or concentrated stock to enhance the flavor.  I elected to do so here because It's my blog and I'm going to do what I want. 

7. Cover the vegetables and chicken with water.  Bring to a boil (big bubbles), and then reduce heat to a simmer (little bubbles).  Simmer time is about 3 hours.  

8. When your simmering is done, strain out the solids and reserve the liquid.  Be sure you get any small bones that may have fallen off the chicken.  

From here, you can either make soup or wait for the stock to cool completely and freeze for later use.  Enjoy!

Capturing Mini DV Tapes on a Mac

 It just works...until it doesn't

I found myself recently in need to convert Mini DV tapes to MP4 files with a 2021 Macbook Air.  There were several steps to overcome. 

1. We are in the middle of trying to sell our house and could not find our Mini DV camcorder. 

2. The easy way to convert Mini DV to MP4 is through the use of a firewire cable.  I have no computer with that interface nor a cable to do so. 

3. Once 1 and 2 are solved, errors abound and made simple capture impossible.  

Solving for 1, I found a cheap Mini DV camcorder on shopgoodwill.com for $20.  It did not work.  Every tape that I put in errored.  It took removing the front housing and prying the board up away from the retention clip and it worked as it appeared to be grounding.  I'll add a link here if I can recall the site that guided me as well as recall the specific error.  So, #1 is resolved.  

Solving for 2, my daughter had an ancient Macbook Pro from 2011 she was not taking to college. Finding an appropriate firewire cable off Amazon was easy.  So, #2 (heh) is resolved.

3 was a problem.  I would fire up Quicktime, start the camcorder playback, and eventually (sometimes within seconds) the capture would fail.  I had no way of updating the MacOS and didn't want to purchase old software just for this project.  After considerable googling and bashing my head against the table, I found this blog: https://leolabs.org/blog/capture-minidv-on-macos  Léo has a very easy to follow section regarding the packages and steps needed to run capture through a script rather than rely on a very flaky Quicktime import process.  Even though the tapes were riddled with errors, my captures worked.  I suggest giving it a read if you happen to be doing something as ancient as I am.