Journal

Miss Moonshadow

We went through a number of hoops to initially get Moonshadow, Initially for a short period of time, but as she settled into the house, the situation changed and she became our cat.  She has bounced through several members of the Kurth family over the course of her life due to situational changes.

She was definitely set in her ways, which created a bit of a rough edge between her and our other cats.  But she was generally polite and understanding for people.  She would sit on my lap in the morning which actually changed my morning routine.  At night, she liked to sleep between my legs, and as I am getting older, she politely would move to the other side of the bed as I got up to relieve myself.  Then settle back in shortly after I did (unlike our other cats who are more like, screw you I'm comfortable).  Eventually she allowed Loki to sleep near her, Freyja and her just kept their distance.  And well, Mani...he was being Mani and being a bit dickish as he is (trying to become dominant kitty in the house) so they didn't get along at all (Probably a similar relationship that she had to Tor).  We'll miss her a lot.

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10th Wedding Anniversary trip to Mason City (Fall 2016)

The Hotel is really cool in the sense of design.  It was a wonderful weekend.  A Frank Lloyd Wright fan must.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Around Denver

I cannot express how much I enjoyed being in the forest in the mountains around Denver.  Partially cause it reminded me, sort of, of the cabin of my Great Grandma Mimi around SLC.  And part of it was probably the general recovery of lack of oxygen from coming down the mountain.  I kind of like Denver, pretty expensive though.

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - Wyoming

Late Summer 2016 Road Trip - South Dakota

2018 - Week 5 Cooking Results

Spicy Turkey Meatloaf

So uh... I may have made some adjustments because I ran out of cumin, and the adjustments apparently made this very spicy.  Enough so that I even had a difficult time eating it.  I will have to make apology meatloaf

Spiced Uzbekistani Plov

This was actually really good.  I used ground mutton as opposed to lamb leg,  Good flavor, very filling.

Chicken Noodle Soup

This can also be called emptying the freezer.  Frozen veggies, Duck Stock (yes duck stock).  Also I used rice instead of noodles.  I added turmeric and that worked too.

Brat's Unbound (on buns)

There is something about being able to sear every side and then have that to go.  Good things.

Brat Unbound smooshed into Patties

Also good (Counts as a separate meal, I swear)

Hamburgers

White park beef, num num.

Positives and Negatives

So as my mood slowly faded down, with a correction here and there, but the eventual decline.  My morning routine changed.  After my walk, instead of sitting down and eating breakfast and flipping / reading through my subscribed to cooking magazines, I spent quite a bit of time with cat lap time.  So this me sitting on a chair, flipping through the news on my phone, drinking my cold brew coffee with 2% milk and I'll usually be joined by Moonshadow, sometimes Mani, and occasionally Freya (sometimes two at a time).

Frankly I like this as a start to the day. 

Even after the cloud of misinterpretation has cleared, I realized that most of these magazines don't make sense.  Cook's Illustrated / Country, I subscribe to them online ($), so getting the paper copy doesn't really make sense to me.  Food & Wine turned into the direction of Saveur (more travel, more wine and a bit of food), which is why I let Saveur lapse a while ago (though Lucky Peach's extra time has re-subscribed me to Saveur).  Food & Wine also has an over saturation of ads, making their website obnoxious to use.  Bon Appetit, I'm debating on keeping that, I kept the renewal card from the most recent magazine, but I'm going to call amnesty on the stack of issues and just donate them for re-sale. (hopefully a quarter a piece for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland).

So on the other side of the cloud, I can see that some of the spending was wasteful (we're trying to cut back quite a bit), so it doesn't make a ton of sense to keep paying for them.  Others, I just don't enjoy enough to justify the cost.  Sure I'll pick up the Thanksgiving issues probably, but beyond that...

2018 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Roasted Chicken Thighs salad on Tortas

Having Monday off, I roasted these during the day time, let the rest a bit, then put then in the fridge to cool down.  Later I pulled the chicken off the bone, and combined them into a nice salad.  Good stuffs.

Open Faced Sandwich, finished with blow torch.  I think I know how I'm going to do this. (requested)

Little bit of deliciousness from the Cheese Shop + a blow torch.  It certainly speedy.  I have to be careful around the bread, which easily goes from toasted to charred.  I added a touch of sear to the pate, then added a soft cheese and added a bit of fire to that.  Melted a bit.  Quite a bit of goodness in a small amount of time.

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Sausage

Delayed!

Chorizo and White Bean Stew (minus spinach)

I've made this before.  It is a good thing. and comes together pretty quickly.

Grilled Cheese and Jam (Richard provided)

I made a regular grilled cheese, so...delayed!