I Said It Was Hot!

March 27, 2022March 24, 2022 — Food, Humor — 2 min read

This post is about the results of eating the cheese with the red pepper flakes. It is Carolina Reaper cheese, aka, Monterey Jack Cheese with Jalapeno, Habanero & Carolina Reaper Peppers in it. While persons from Wisconsin are called “cheeseheads” because of how famous that state is for it various cheeses, cheese actually runs in my blood. I am genetically 50% Swiss. All four of my great-grandparents on my mothers side emigrated to the United States from Switzerland. In addition three of those four families were actual Swiss cheesemakers, one of which is still in business today. I know great cheese because I grew up eating the real thing. It’s too bad most people only eat the crap cheese made by the big corporations instead of the real thing, but it is what it is.

When we married my wife thought cheese was Velveeta and Cheese Whiz. From the moment she first tasted the cheese my grandfather always brought when he visited, she has never looked back. Recently she came home from the store with a new specialty cheese , the one described in the first paragraph. I like things spicy, but not spicy hot foods with a few exceptions. One of them is cheese. Maybe it is my Swiss genes, but whatever it is, I like spicy hot cheese, the hotter the better. I must say that Carolina Reaper Cheese is one hot cheese.

We recently had a Happy Hour with some dear friends. They like good cheese so we brought along some Carolina Reaper. Before anyone headed to the bar for the food and wine, I very clearly said that the cheese with the pepper flakes was very hot. I guess hot to some people in incendiary other people. For the unnamed person in the above photo it took two glass of milk to quench the fires in their mouth. Like I said, it is a really hot cheese!

When a Readout Isn’t Reading

March 26, 2022March 24, 2022 — Eclectic — 1 min read

The yellow arrow points out where on the tank monitor numbers should be that tell us how full our tanks are. The only one that really, really matters is the black tank (toilet waste) which we keep closed until this gauge says it is getting near full and needs to be dumped. My wife says she can tell by a change in sound when she flushes that it is getting time to dump. She has better hearing than I do, which isn’t saying much given how bad she has always said my hearing is.

The back side gives credence to the saying – An RV is a bunch of wiring surrounded by a box. The display was burned out and a replacement monitor is on order.

Wine Time

March 25, 2022March 24, 2022 — Eclectic, Food — 1 min read

Had some friends over for a 5 o’clock get together. Our house, our wine.

We make our own wine from wine kits. The bottles are collected from friends as is the box and blatter. The great thing is that I “tweak” the kits to what we like. For example for my wife I added strawberries to the primary fermentation of the Zinfandel Blush, while to the Sangiovese I add some wine tannin. While the kit wines can be consumed soon after bottling, I like to age them a year or more so they can mellow out. I also design and print my own labels. I like to joke that I spend more time designing the labels than making the wine. The best part is sharing what we make with friends.

Chili Sauce From Dried Chili Peppers

March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 — Food — 2 min read

For years I bought chili and enchilada sauce, but thanks to the magic of YouTube, I discovered it was easy to make your own and best of all I could make it just how I liked it. I use mostly Guajillo peppers along with some Ancho peppers. After weighing them out I cut the stem end off and then down the side so they will lay flat.

I like a spicy flavor but not a burning heat so I remove all the seeds.

Next they are toasted in a hot skillet. I use the potato masher to get better contact with the skillet.

The toasted inside of the chili becomes lighter in color and an intense flavor that fills the air is released. Into a sauce pan I put the toasted dried peppers covering them with water which is heated to boiling, letting them sit in the hot water for 15 minutes or more.

The soaked peppers are placed into a blender along with garlic cloves that have been sautéed, cumin and Mexican oregano. I have adjusted the amount to give the flavor I like. I also add a little salt after tasting the chili sauce so it tastes like I want it to taste. I have kept a couple of empty jars from my days of buying the sauce in the store, and use them to bottle it. I keep it in the refrigerator and use it perk up different foods.

It Sure Went In Easier

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022 — Eclectic — 2 min read

The “It” is the white topped green Tee Post in the center of the image. Little trees need support, and yeas ago I pounded that post into the ground near what was at the time a tiny tree. I then carefully tied the tree loosely to the post. Poinciana trees are beautiful at times. Unfortunately they are also very brittle and between the hurricane a few years ago and the freak storm last spring, many of its branches and its crown had been ripped off. I just didn’t feel comfortable up on a ladder with that tee post below me, so out it was going to come.

The shovel to dig out the soil from around the tree. The loppers to cut some of the roots growing around the tee post. The trowel to clean out the soil from the hole and the pipe wrench to twist the post when it became loose enough. Tee posts greatly resist being pulled out of the ground. This was my way of overcoming that reluctance using the tools I had at hand. Yes, I could have gotten the jack out of the Jeep and had a far easier time of it. But as the song goes, ‘I did it my way’.