ness

I went to bottle my latest batch of cider yesterday and found one last bottle of this that started in 2017. I didn't know it was down there. I wasn't really sure what to expect because of its fairly low alcohol content (~6%) and light body. But, it is very good! Nice and crisp.

I remember you doing lobster tails in butter. That’s on the list for sure when I can get over to Fareway in KCMO. Not too far from my office and the best meat and seafood in town.

I never was too interested in sous vide. Not because I thought it couldn't help, it was more about not really wanting another kitchen gadget knocking around. That and thinking I get it pretty darn close without one. But, son got me one for Christmas, so I sorta got pushed into it. I gotta say I really love this thing. First thing we did was a strip steak at 130 for a couple hours with a couple minute sear in a screaming-hot cast iron skillet (no alarms sounded ). Perfect! Since then we've done a lot of stuff like...Cod: What I'm calling surf and sty (scallops and pork loin -- using up what we had) Shrimp, scallops I really like the outcome, and the process. It's nice to get something started and not worry about it while you're doing other things. Get everything else ready, come in for the sear. Nice. I'm sold!

Good luck!

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/derelict-balloon-air-traffic-control-recordings-capture-pilots-spotting-chinese-spy-balloon

We went to the newly redone Truman Library earlier this month. It's a great library/museum, and way better than it was before. Anyhoo, I thought this was really cool:

Not sure if this was the same trip, but this was 2006.

Brian's a good guy, though I haven't seen or fished with him in years. I remember we fished the NFOW one time and came to that gate near one of the islands - that gate that isn't connected to any fence. I said, 'Somebody better go back and get a sh**load of dimes.' He laughed, so he's good with me

We've got a Shake shack here. Tried it and it wasn't bad, but there are probably 50 or more fast-food burger joints closer. I had In-N-Out many years ago in San Diego, and remember it was pretty good. Not sure what I'd think now as my palette is so much more sophisticated

It used to be a pretty sweet arrangement. Our mail guy Eddie was always lugging packages to my office or taking stuff to the post office for me, since he went every day anyway. Just run whatever through the postage meter, give me the total and I'd write a check. He retired, we're in a new building and I don't even know who does our mail now. The last swap I hosted I had to lug that crap to the Post Office all by myself. Worse, I got stuck in line behind some folks getting passports.

One of the search results had her referred to as 'The Tying Nun'. Folks over 60 should get that one.

A little Googling turned her up as a teacher at a Catholic school in Hot Springs, AR https://sjshs.org/about-us/

According to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia anyone can edit, Freddy's founded 2002 and Steak 'n Shake 1934.

I like that they're crispy, but I have to bundle several together to get a decent bite.

Seed Savers is a cool place. I've been there a few times and have fished the stream there. Caught a nice little brookie there in 2021. I do mostly heirloom, but have some hybrids too. Heirlooms can be more fussy to grow, but the flavor can beat the hybrids, making it worth the trouble. Heirloom tomatoes I like: Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and Brandwine. Great flavor on all three. Hybrids: Celebrity and Sun Gold. Celebrities are pretty disease resistant and have excellent flavor. Sun Gold is a very prolific indeterminate cherry. Delicious flavor. I also do several heirloom varieties of lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson, Tom Thumb, Forellenschlus, Paris Island Cos and Yugoslavian Red. Baker Creek at Mansfield, MO and Seed Savers both sell only heirloom seeds and some starts, and both do a good job. It's about time to plan the garden, do an inventory of seeds and place some orders.

There are a few in the Kansas City area now, and each opening had press coverage, the huge lines, redirected traffic, etc. Silly. We were out one evening last month and happened to drive by one. There wasn't a line so we went through the drive thru. First off, it took a really long time to get through with only a couple cars ahead of us. And...it was just a fast food burger, like all the rest. I wouldn't bother to go again. Do you guys have Freddy's down your way? They do a good smash burger, shoestring fries and fry sauce.

I don’t think so. I don’t have the equipment and don’t think I’d want to deal with hot bottles anyway. I used Star San to sanitize. It’s widely used in dairy operations, breweries and wineries. Pretty easy to do. I’ve run bottles through the dishwasher without soap before.

And… Look what the postman brought! Thanks @BilletHead and Pat!

We racked the wine off the sediment into a clean carboy on Wednesday and let it settle for a couple days before bottling. The not-so-fun and time consuming part of all this is the cleaning. I bought a couple gadgets to make bottle cleaning a little easier: a rinsing contraption that shoots sanitizing solution into the bottle, and a bottle tower that helps with draining the solution out. After the bottles were washed and sanitized, we set about to bottle. Kathy has been involved all along the way, and her mom is here for the holidays so she helped out with the bottling too. We ended up with 29+ bottles of wine. We tasted the + after we were done. Of course it’s a little raw, but it has excellent potential. I’m gonna wait three months before cracking open the first. Hopefully it will be ready to gift next Christmas.

After the Yukon Jack party of ‘81, I swore off sweetened whiskey for life 😀

I just looked -- about 3 to 3-½ pounds of honey per gallon. How much honey are you producing? That does sound like a lot.

Good color, and nice and clear too! Yep, we’ve got a couple things going. 6 gallons of a Chianti-style red wine from a Winexpert kit, and 5 gallons hard cider from a local cider mill. Wine is done fermenting and settling out. Should be ready to bottle in a week or two. Cider is still bubbling away nicely.

I had to look it up as I wasn't familiar with that style. Looking at all the pictures out there, really nobody is able to make it look very appealing. I think regular stroganoff is the same. But it sounds really good!

Ran across this article https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/02/bobwhite-quail021616.html. The link to another study in the article is broken, but I found the document here: https://ag.ok.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Forestry-landowner-assistance-Bobwhite-Quail-Habitat-Evaluation-and-Mgmt.pdf

Congrats, and nice looking Britt! It’s cool when they figure it out.