One up:

On Saturday, I unshipped my chain. I not only remembered that when
the chain falls completely outside the chainwheels, one must get off
the bike at once (fiddling with the levers while moving is apt to get
it so thoroughly jammed up that the crank has to be pulled), I
remembered to get a paper towel and my little box of A&D ointment out
*before* I got my hands dirty.

For frosting, I did get it back on by fiddling with the levers (and
kicking the pedals), so that only one fingertip got a small black
mark. I could have wiped my finger on my tights and been fine, but it
was much nicer to wipe it on a paper towel, then grease it up and get
*all* the black off.


One down:

I've completely lost the habit of thumb-testing my tires *during* a
ride, not just when I'm getting ready to leave. I don't think it's
ever been a habit, just a lot of "dang, that oughta be a habit".

Was the tire all right when I left Kroger on Monday afternoon? I
dunno. Emerging from a parking lot, looking in four directions when
crossing McKinley, immediately picking my way to Penguin Point through
another parking lot, there wasn't a lot of attention to spare.

More grump: I asked for four thighs. The clerk said they hadn't any
thighs, but if I waited fifteen minutes, they'd fry some. "What's
ready?" Breasts and wings. I ordered a breast and four wings -- and
waited about a quarter hour for them to put them into a box and give
them to me. And when I got them home, they weren't at all good.
Penguin Point chicken used to be a rare treat! But I think I'll try
the Penguin Point on Lake Street again; they have always been better
than the one on Center Street. Before the plague, I'd frequently
order a three-piece meal at Lake Street, put two pieces on ice, ride
all over town, and have an excellent supper for two in the evening.
And they didn't taste left over.

The tire must have been flat when I left Penguin Point, but I walked
to Center Street -- distance too short to make it worth my while to
mount and dismount again, and Center Street is much easier to cross on
foot at intersections where there is no traffic light.

Whatever, I'd gotten to the little park in McKinley's median strip
(the Interurban used to run down the middle of McKinley, and for a
short distance McKinley is still two parallel streets) before it
struck me that the thunk-thunks were not synchronized with the
transverse cracks. (I was using the neglected side of the street;
both lanes are now two-way.)

So I called my spouse, then unloaded my groceries and packed them in
plastic bags -- I always carry a bag of plastic grocery bags to use as
packing material -- and he showed up in the truck just as I'd
finished.

So I took my insulated pannier apart, put the papers into the recycle
bin, hung all my bungees on the shelf, and forgot to remove my cable
lock -- I didn't have the key in my pocket, and something else caught
my attention before I got around to fetching it.

On Tuesday I walked to the Trailhouse. And a couple of hours later I
walked there again and rode back. I needed a new casing, of course. I
don't know whether the sidewalls were damaged, because the mechanic
stopped looking at it when he saw how thin the tread was.

About $38, and *much* cheaper than taking off a back wheel myself.

Shucks, I'd call it cheap if it had been a *front* wheel. I really,
really don't like changing tires.

My hair insists on staying brown even though I wash it in peroxide,
but I'm playing the "white-haired old lady" card for all it's worth.

---------------------------

Friday: I re-insulated the pannier in anticipation of tomorrow's
farmers' markets tour, then insulated the other one too, to be ready
when Duck Down & Above has a dinged-duck sale on a good day for riding
to Leesburg. Much to my surprise, I'm running low on plastic grocery
bags. Perhaps I've been a little too enthusiastic about getting rid
of them.

Also we've stopped using Martin's curbside service, so we don't get a
bushel of bags every other week.

--
Joy Beeson
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.

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On Friday, May 28, 2021 at 1:16:37 PM UTC-5, Joy Beeson wrote:

One up:

On Saturday, I unshipped my chain. I not only remembered that when
the chain falls completely outside the chainwheels, one must get off
the bike at once (fiddling with the levers while moving is apt to get
it so thoroughly jammed up that the crank has to be pulled), I
remembered to get a paper towel and my little box of A&D ointment out *before* I got my hands dirty.

For frosting, I did get it back on by fiddling with the levers (and
kicking the pedals), so that only one fingertip got a small black
mark. I could have wiped my finger on my tights and been fine, but it
was much nicer to wipe it on a paper towel, then grease it up and get
*all* the black off.

One down:

I've completely lost the habit of thumb-testing my tires *during* a
ride, not just when I'm getting ready to leave. I don't think it's
ever been a habit, just a lot of "dang, that oughta be a habit".

Was the tire all right when I left Kroger on Monday afternoon? I
dunno. Emerging from a parking lot, looking in four directions when
crossing McKinley, immediately picking my way to Penguin Point through another parking lot, there wasn't a lot of attention to spare.

More grump: I asked for four thighs. The clerk said they hadn't any
thighs, but if I waited fifteen minutes, they'd fry some. "What's
ready?" Breasts and wings. I ordered a breast and four wings -- and
waited about a quarter hour for them to put them into a box and give
them to me. And when I got them home, they weren't at all good.

i have never enjoyed chicken

I like things that are made with bechamel sauce. I just discovered that bechamel and “white sauce” are the same thing so I’ll look for that too. I remember seeing “brown sauce” in the store, perhaps there was white there too and I didn’t
notice it.

mk5000

I have found that adding a some lemon juice and melting in a bit of shredded cheddar cheese (optional) makes this a decent substitute for hollandaise sauce when you put it on poached or over easy eggs. It's good for when you don't want sacrifice four egg
yolks just to make a sauce that also goes on top of eggs.--sam coulter

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On Fri, 28 May 2021 13:35:00 -0700 (PDT), marika
<marika5000@gmail.com> wrote:

I like things that are made with bechamel sauce.
I just discovered that bechamel and “white sauce”
are the same thing so I’ll look for that too.
I remember seeing “brown sauce” in the store, perhaps
there was white there too and I didn’t notice it.

mk5000

I have found that adding a some lemon juice and melting
in a bit of shredded cheddar cheese (optional) makes this
a decent substitute for hollandaise sauce when you put it
on poached or over easy eggs. It's good for when you don't
want sacrifice four egg yolks just to make a sauce that also
goes on top of eggs.--sam coulter

I wonder whether Wikipedia still contains the fatuous remark that
[Famous] Sauce couldn't possibly have been named after [Famous]
because it's based on bechamel, and thickened milk wasn't called
"bechamel" until long after [Famous] died. How is this wrong? Let me
count the ways.

Alas, I don't recall enough detail to look the sauce up again.

I have, somewhere around here, a first-edition copy of the Fanny
Farmer School Kitchen cookbook. The entire first lesson is dedicated
to learning how to boil water. (Most of the time was spent getting
the coal range going. Paper to light the kindling, kindling to light
the wood, wood to light the coal.)

When I was in Home Ec, the equivalent "ease them in at the shallow
end" was "how to make white sauce". Like the art of lighting the
stove (how I appreciate "turn the knob and wait for the 'poof!'"!),
the techinques used for white sauce are used to make many other dishes
-- not just sauces and gravies, but puddings, pie fillings, and the
like. Come to think of it, taco meat is white sauce, with a pound of
hamburger instead of two tablespoons of butter, a packet of taco
seasoning instead of flour, and water instead of milk.

And brown gravy is white sauce with a dirty skillet instead of butter.
One might also scorch the flour a little.

It being asparagus season, here's my recipe for creamed eggs with
asparagus:

Asparagus

One or two boiled eggs, cut into pieces, and/or duck confit or ham

Two tablespoons of butter

Two tablespoons of whole-grain wheat flour

salt to taste

One cup whole milk

A thin cracker-size slice of aged extra-sharp cheddar, cut into
pieces.

If you plan to use all the asparagus, cut diagonal paper-thin slices
off the tough ends, cutting thicker slices as you get into the tender
part. The last two pieces should be about an inch long -- set them
aside to add just before stirring in the cheese

If you plan to save some asparagus for later, cut the spears into
uniform lengths by cutting paper-thin diagonal slices off the tough
ends.

Melt butter in a skillet and stir the asparagus around in it until the
color brightens,

Dump in the flour and stir around until well mixed with the butter.
Then add milk little by little while stirring constantly. When it is
white sauce, stir in the cheese. Do not allow the sauce to boil after
adding the cheese.

Add the eggs or meat, stir until hot, and serve from the skillet, with
toast or brown rice on the plates.

Or toasted English muffins, or fresh biscuits, or . . .

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

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