Christmas: Count Your Blessings

 

I spent this Christmas with my parents - something that from time to time has seemed unlikely based on their various health challenges. We had Christmas dinner the evening of the 24th and invited my close friend Dan over for dinner as I hate to see friends spend a holiday by themselves.

I did a fair bit of the preparation and cooking. We had a 15-pound hormone free, free range, organic turkey that had never been frozen (although he was missing a wing - late purchase gets 'scratch and dent' bird I guess). I roasted it between 350 and 325, most of the duration with the lid on the broiling pan, with some added pilsner (two bottles) as lubricant and moisture source. The turkey turned out quite tasty.

With the turkey, we had my mom's signature stuffing: Bread 'chunks', some yellow onions, apple, raisins, a cup of melted butter, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, and poultry spice. At one point, I poured a bit of the turkey juice (beer) onto the mixture to keep it moister so it didn't get really crunchy while being baked at 275.

There was a salad - ontario greenhouse tomatos with some tomato balsamic dressing and some grated parmesan for Dad, tomato chunks with spring greens, tomato balsamic dressing and grated parmesan for the rest of us. Dad's new top plate isn't good for chewing field greens and won't be until he gets the bottom one.

And then there were sweet potatos mashed with some maple syrup, yellow potatos boiled then mashed with some butter and grated parmesan cheese, a steamed broccoli, some white buns warmed in the oven, and a lovely white wine.

The turkey was accompanied by a new discovery - a cranberry sauce made locally with whole cranberries, honey, and a bunch of spices to give it a little 'zing'! Very good stuff, I must say!

Dessert consisted of a sherry triffle with fruit, custard, raspberry jello, and some sherry, a layered dish, with whipped cream on top.

I made some raspberry ice cream for my mother in the Cuisinart ice-cream maker my friends Doug and Cathy got me for my birthday. It turned out well, but the freezer at home turned it rock hard so we settled for the whipped creme.

This was the first time I'd made a turkey. It was the first time I'd made the stuffing. It was the first time I'd made (or even peeled) sweet potatos. And it all came off rather without a hitch.

Dan was excellent company and seemed to enjoy himself, departing at around 9 pm as I was falling into a stupor of 'winter storm/sinus headache' misery that persisted for about 12 hours. Still, it held off starting until after dinner and the dinner was a special occasion for all of us, I hope.

On the 25th, I added some steamed asparagus to the leftovers to make another good feed, and then spent an hour or so carving up turkey to create materials for turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pies, and turkey soup. Another first for me was boiling the carcass and then straining off the liquid to make a turkey soup stock - we got about 7 quarts off of the big bird. I am looking forward to using that cooking, both to make some turkey vegetable soup and to use in place of chicken stock when roasting pork in the slow cooker.

I'm glad the food worked out. I learned a few useful things and convinced my mom she had bought too large of a broiling pan for me - which she hadn't believed - when it turned out to fit in neither her oven nor mine.

The important part was spending some time with my folks and with Dan. Life is about the connections we make with other humans and the way those connections help affix meaning to our few score passages around the sun....

Merry Christmas, I say to one and all. It is the season to find things to be thankful for and be happy about. The New Year can keep its concerns until we get there!

 
 

Fridges: Taken For Granted

 

Well, last night my fridge died, late. I thought I had overpacked the freezer so I moved a couple of things into the fridge as stuff didn't seem to be chilling right.

This morning, it was all thawed. I had a big water mess to clean up and the fridge was dead. I took the fridge and freezer contents, loaded them into shopping bags, and chucked them on the balcony (already thawed out though).

Then I called the super. Well, shortly, a new fridge appeared. I'll shortly get into the rant, but let me give you the gist: Newer ain't necessarily better.

So, my old fridge, I had to look up to see what was on top. This one, that's at about eye level. That means it lost a couple of inches in height and this means less interior space.

The freezer is bigger (sort of good) but this is a newer fridge hence more insulated hence more energy efficient but at the cost of interior space (bad).

I think the newer fridge is slightly narrower, hence less internal space (bad).

And then we get inside. Formerly, I had 3 full width door shelves. They were full of condiments, dressings, and so on and a wine bottle on the door as well. There was a butter storage thing, but it housed a block of butter and some honey (separately). But that was a third or less of the top shelf!

Now, the new one has a third of the entire vertical space devoted to pop can storage shortening all 3 shelves. There wasn't room in the old fridge for pop cans AND what in heck do you do if you are a healthy eater? That space is *wasted*. I tried to put in condiment jars, but most are taller than the pop cans and bind on the shelves preventing the door from closing! So I lose a third of the door space right off.

Then we have the 2/3rd width middle shelf as one big (and mostly useless) dairy holder. Geez, Louise. I didn't even use the old one for its intended purpose!

Then we have the top shelf that won't accomodate any jar or bottle higher than about 2.5"! A tobasco bottle (small) will jam the door from closing! So that shelf is nearly useless for most condiments or jam containers or the like.

No middle shelf (dairy container), a third of the space missing for pop cans (on all shelves), a useless upper shelf (for anything of any height), and a smaller overall width: NOT ENOUGH SPACE!

So where do all of these condiments end up? Tightly packed into the first and second shelves of the fridge (and not leaving room for much else!). Good luck trying to find anything now. And digging for condiments will be really 'energy efficient' as heat leaks out the open door and must be replaced.

This is how all of the new fridges appear to be designed and it's crazy. It assumes everyone drinks pop or other canned stuff and wants to allocate the space for that. That alone was a bad design decision. Then having a useless upper shelf and a less than useful oversize dairy container in the second shelf compound that.

And the third shelf: On the old fridge, I'd store a staggered double-column of condiment containers. The new third shelf is only 2/3rd as wide but in theory is as deep (if you look at the placement of the front bar that holds things in), BUT the scultped part of the door that sticks out underneath IS NOT. So I can put in two or three really wide things, but not the staggered double column. MORE wasted space.

So, suddenly, I have a poorly organized smaller space.

I also have a a pile of food that has thawed and needs cooked more or less now. And then I have to figure out where to store this food. I'm not sure how I'll do that right now.

So, love your fridge if you have a good one. A full sized one. Full sized fridges have gotten better over the years (bottom freezers, in some cases top compressors, well laid out doors and shelves) and the small apartment fridge has, IMO, become a piece of poorly designed junk. (And the warranties on these are very short too)

I may have to get a separate mini fridge just for the condiments, jams, sauces, etc. to clear them out of this poorly arranged new fridge. THAT's energy efficient! I'm glad this fridge uses a couple of less kW per year, given it means I'll be runnign a SECOND one.

Now that's Green!

Anyway, back to cooking. And trying hard not to grind my teeth.

Because I always like to leave posts here on a good note:

Muskoka Hefe Wiessbier - made with hops, malt, water, and some Bavarian strain of yeast by the Muskoka craft brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario - get some! It's a great taste with fruity hints and a wonderful flavour. I poached some sausages in the half-glass I didn't drink and they were marvelous.

Cheer up, Tis The Season!

 
 

Cat Braves Siberian Woods To Get Home

 

The Cat Came Back

I understand the cat being nervous after having a run in with a wild creature enough to leave teeth marks on his tail. Our last orange tabby, Sandy, had a bad run in with something that tried to eat him one night (deep punctures from teeth on the back, wounds on the belly, injured claw, etc... he'd clearly been on his back and raking with all 4 claws....). We never let him out after dark after that - he didn't deserve to get eaten by a Grue or whatever sort of nasty was lurking out there.

 
 

Get Well, Stephanie!

 

A friend's 18(? I always lose track ?) year old daughter is down with H1N1 and has ended up in Queensway Carleton hospital. They're trying to drain some of the fluid out of her lungs.

She's a good kid and I'm saying an extra prayer (can't hurt, can it?). Anyone else who keeps others in their thoughts or commends them to a higher power, please add Stephanie to your list. Seems like the young lady could use a little luck right now.
 
 

Challenge: Remembering Little Achievements in Design and Engineering

 

There are all sorts of awards out their for big, fancy, world changing developments in design and engineering. Things like the space shuttle, the international space station, the hubble space telescope, the mars rovers, developments in nanomaterials, some of the huge damns and skyscrapers, new methods of generating power, etc. all come to mind as the sorts of inventions or developments that will end up vying for such prizes.

Today, I was struck by the fact that many design enhancements or developments in our world are smaller, more banal or pedestrian, and yet for all that, incredibly useful. I think many of these are under-rated. So I thought I would throw out a small challenge to my reader(s):

Try to think of one or two small design enhancements or small inventions that you've seen over the past 15 or so years and post a line or two about them here. The idea is to identify the sort of thing that is a small invention, device, or feature enhancement and therefore that wouldn't probably make any sort of lists of bigger, more spectacular achievements, but yet one that has the sort of utility that makes you say 'hey, that was a good idea!' and the kind of ubiquity that should mean the other reader(s) would know what it was (or would understand why it was good even if they didn't).

So, bonus points (I'm keeping score) for the best replies!

I'll start with my own first candidate:

The screw-top orange juice carton

Now, this little baby was, if you think about it, a neat development. Maintains the same form factor generally (means package needs to change very little overall and larger scale shipping containers require no changes) as older cartons and keeps orange juice fresher for longer, makes for more convenient pouring, means you don't have to wrestle with reticent cardboard spouts (that can tear while opening and then where does that leave you?), and generally seems so obvious that you say 'wow, why didn't they think of that beforehand?'.

Of course, if it was so obvious, why did none of us think of it?

I hope the packaging designer who came up with this got a raise or a share of the patent revenues. He probably didn't, but it has now become fairly ubiquitous and it is a highly functional design.

So, what else have you got?