my ukulele progress

ripock said:

I actually felt your presence today because i bought some dried cilantro today and I know that you wouldn't be on board with that.

As for my aged father, I saw that he had called today. I called him back and he had just been trying to re-program his phone with its automated numbers. He had my correct number although my brother had told him he needs to update my number. It was very sad because I called my father and had nothing to say to him. I fell back on my vocational scripts and said "now that I have you on the line is there anything I can do for you?" I think I lost quite a few points in how I see myself as a human.

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ploverwing said:

My husband hates to chat on the phone. He dislikes the lack of extra cues that you get from an in person conversation, and it bothers him a lot. He'll do it, but he struggles. When the other person (e.g. his aging uncle) on the phone doesn't speak at all, or very little, my husband just doesn't cope. So it's hard enough making conversation when you're likely the one putting in most of the effort; I feel it's even harder on the phone because you're not getting that feedback of being in person with them. Don't beat yourself up too much.

I've never used dried cilantro - does it work? I've used dried coriander (seeds from the same plant) and that's effective; I would have thought dried cilantro was about as flavourful as dried basil (i.e. not especially), but then I've not used it so...

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ploverwing said:

My husband hates to chat on the phone. He dislikes the lack of extra cues that you get from an in person conversation, and it bothers him a lot. He'll do it, but he struggles. When the other person (e.g. his aging uncle) on the phone doesn't speak at all, or very little, my husband just doesn't cope. So it's hard enough making conversation when you're likely the one putting in most of the effort; I feel it's even harder on the phone because you're not getting that feedback of being in person with them. Don't beat yourself up too much.

I've never used dried cilantro - does it work? I've used dried coriander (seeds from the same plant) and that's effective; I would have thought dried cilantro was about as flavourful as dried basil (i.e. not especially), but then I've not used it so...

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ripock said:

I acknowledge what you're all saying but I at least think my father should hide it a little better by taking up a hobby

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• Combined some cooked millet with 4 eggs
• added carmelized onion, garlic, ginger, basil
• added chinese cabbage
• finished with sesame oil and tamari

ripock said:

I was trying some different things today. For my wife's stir-fry I was going for a fairly different flavor.

• Combined some cooked millet with 4 eggs
• added carmelized onion, garlic, ginger, basil
• added chinese cabbage
• finished with sesame oil and tamari

Then I played a progression which at this point is meterless doggerel. I think it has 13 measures but I'm not sure. As I said, it is doggerel and I essentially played a measure until it felt good to move on and I played it with a lot sauce and accents. Let me try to remember it:

Em7
A9
Em7 | F13
Em7
A9
[one bar riff using C# D# A# A]
Em7 | F#ø
Gm6 | Em7
G#m#5 | Gm#5
B9
A#9 | B9
Em7 | A9
Em7
B+ | C#+
B+

So it appears to be a 15 bar song which has 17 barre chords in it. I got kind of fancy by adding that C# in the penultimate measure. That is the V of V. So while I was moving to the V to create tension for the I I moved to the V of V to create tension for the V.

For myself I made something that turned out to be rather nostalgic. I combined an entire leek, a hashed potato, 3 eggs, pepper sauce, and seasoning. I fried it in a smoking hot wok. And it resulted in something akin to Egg Foo Yung.

I wonder if anyone else remembers Egg Foo Yung. I have never seen it in an actual Asian restaurant but it was ubiquitous when I was growing up. In every market they had one section of one aisle devoted to some Asian and Mexican food. That's where the sophisticates shopped.

Even in New Mexico my local market keeps up that tradition although it is an affectation. There is a "mexican" section but it has what gringos would consider mexican food: flour tortillas, cans of refried beans, tomato based salsa. But a greater part of the market has more authentic mexican staples like chili and tomatillo salsas, corn husks, posole, horchata, and votary candles emblazoned with the images of the Mexican president and the baby Jesus.

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ripock said:

I did my fortnightly visit to the pub for whiskies and poetry. A couple actually approached me as they were leaving asking what drink I was treating so delicately. I told them what it was and told them you would treat it delicately as well if you paid $14 per serving! I never been called delicate before and I suppose they were alluding to the fact that I savor my whisky. I have a tendency to inhale the fumes (since the olfactory is connected to the taste) and then sip a bit. I just take my time since I am abstemious nowadays. I only get whisky twice a month, so I try to make it count.

At the market I bought a red, white, and yellow onion. I probably should have been more methodical because different onions have different textures. However I am going to prep them and try to carmelize them. My last experiment with pressure cooked onions was less than satisfactory. I cooked my onion for 7 minutes and in retrospect they were a bit mushy. It was more like an onion jam. Don't misunderstand, it is still delicious but the texture is off and texture is flavor. So today I am going to pressure cook the onions for 1 minute. As I allude to above, there may be an issue with the different onion varieties. For example, a red onion cooked for a minute may come out differently from a white onion. But only time will tell.

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Down Up Dick said:

Wow! For $14 per serving, enjoying it is mandatory!

Come to think of it the Greeks and Romans didn’t have whiskey or even beer (?)! You, should be drinking some exotic and expensive Greek (Retsina?) or Italian vino.

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ripock said:

For me it is single malt or nothing. I prefer Islay scotches with a spoonful of water to disperse the surface tension and release more aromas and flavors. It would be more cost-effective to buy some bottles...but then I would drink them! I can tell you the moment I felt this was a bad idea. I work from home and I work a job where I have to speak with customers and tell them things that they don't want to hear. I found myself walking to the kitchen for a wee dram before I dialed the phone. It is at that moment when I realized that life offers many, many countless moments per day when one would need a dram. And if I had the availability to partake of a dram every time I needed one, I would quite tipsy all the time.

I actually read an article about coffee about a month ago. The article mentioned that despite all the health controversies surrounding caffeine-drinks, coffee does have one feather in its cap. It sobered the world. Before coffee, everyone was having elevenses and other periodic daily pick-me-ups with alcohol. The whole world was drunk. Now people have coffee/tea whereas they used to have a beer or spirits.

I personally drink decaffeinated mokka java for my daily drink. I do have some cannisters of red rooibos and a mixture of herbs that I use for tea, and I do use them occasionally. However it is the mokka java that I drink more regularly. That, and some water with lemon.

Those are my liquids. If I bought laphroaig, I could easily drink a bottle per week and that's with me being rather moderate: just a dram or two after work and then one before bed. And that's the better part of a C-note...per week. That's a lot of money. That's easily a Moore Bettah uke if the money was diverted from whisky to ukes for two years.

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