LAST ROSE
A few week's ago I posted a picture of a rose Linda had cut off of the "Dad Rose" bush. This plant has just surprised us this fall with all the beautiful, big flowers it has produced. This past week she cut off another one, and this one will likely be the last bloom we get this season. It is absolutely HUGE, and besides that, it gives off the most lovely scent. Just sitting in the living room you can occasionally get a whiff of rose-scent. It always reminds me of Dad. It's starting to look a little ragged around the edges, but we are going to keep it there until it starts shedding petals.
 |
| A Huge "Dad Rose" |
A FORGOTTEN VIDEO
When we took our walk at Tahoma Cemetery a few weeks ago, I had taken quite a lot of pictures and video. I posted the pictures but totally forgot about the video. I just realized that I haven't taken any video since then! I intend to rectify that in the near future, but to tide you over, I give you my video of the Black-Billed Magpie.
A NEW ENDEAVOR
One of the main things that I like about being retired (believe me, the list is long), is that I can now try out new things. I have always loved learning something new, especially when it involves cooking techniques. That's one reason why I like cooking with my Instant Pot so much. I know Linda probably gets tired of it sometimes, but I am sure my use of it will slow down when the "new" wears off. However, this past week I tried out something totally different. First off, to do this thing I needed some additional equipment (isn't that always the case). So I had to wait for my order to arrive from Amazon. Below is a picture of what I had ordered.
 |
| Latest Amazon order |
In case you are wondering just what the heck these things are, the article on the left is an A-MAZE-N Smoker Tube, and the item on the right is a Kitchen Sophisticate Professional Culinary Torch. The smoker tube is filled with wood pellets and the torch is used to light these pellets. I purchased the smoker tube to be able to use my Masterbuilt Portable Electric Smoker to smoke cheese! I don't know about you, but I love smoked cheese. You can find it in the gourmet cheese section of the grocery store. It is usually very expensive and most of the time you can only find one or two kinds of smoked cheese. I decided to try my hand at smoking my own cheese to lower the cost and also give me more flavor options. To give you some background on how this process works, let me explain about the two types of smoking. One is called "hot smoking" and it is the usual way to use a smoker. In this method, the smoker is set to a temperature usually between 225 - 250 degrees with wood chips in the smoker box. At this temperature, raw food (usually meat) will cook as well as take on a smoky flavor. The other type of smoking is called "cold smoking," a method in which the food is subjected to a temperature not to exceed 90 degrees. This isn't used to cook food because the temperature is not high enough, but it will impart the smoky flavor. So when you have something that doesn't need to cook or that you don't want to melt (such as cheese) you use the "cold smoke" method. This way you infuse the smoke flavor at a low temperature.
I set my smoker up with the A-MAZE-N smoker tube on the bottom rack and lit the pellets. I couldn't use the regular method of smoking because turning on the electric burner would take the temperature too high, and the cheese would melt. With this method, the smoker tube provides the only heat and it isn't that much. Below is a picture of the cheeses I chose to smoke for my first try at this.
 |
| Jalapeno Pepper Jack on top corners with Sharp White Cheddar in the middle, and two slices of Colby Jack on the bottom |
It wasn't long before the smoke was rolling, so I placed my rack with the cheese on it inside the smoker. It was a pretty warm day, so I had to leave the door to the smoker cracked so the temperature inside would not go above 90 degrees.
 |
| It's getting smoky up in here! |
 |
| Temperature is right on the money |
The cheese is supposed to smoke for a minimum of two hours. I let things go for an hour, and then as a test I ate one of the pieces of sliced cheese. It was quite good and had a nice smoky flavor to it, although it did have a bit of a "bite". This is the reason why you have to leave your smoked cheese in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic, for two weeks before you eat it. This is so the smoke flavor will mellow and not be too harsh-tasting. After I ate that one slice, I replaced it with another slice so I will have one slice of cheese smoked for the entire time of two hours and one slice smoked for just the last hour. After the two hours was up, I removed the cheese and here is what it looked like.
 |
| Ummmm, smoked cheese! |
 |
| Cheese is all wrapped up for two weeks in the fridge |
A NEW PUZZLE
When Linda's sister came over to visit a couple of weeks ago, she brought us two new jigsaw puzzles. We are always excited to get new puzzles because we enjoy it so much. This is such a fun activity that we can either do together or by ourselves. It is so nice to have a puzzle set up on the card table in our "office" so that we can walk in and work on it whenever we want to. It really does make the time go by, though, and I have been late getting supper started quite a few times because I was looking for "just one more piece" before I stopped. The picture below is one of the puzzles Linda's sister brought, which we just finished putting together. It proved to be rather hard, but we really enjoyed it. And the fall colors were most appropriate for this time of year.
 |
| "Harvest Time" |
ANOTHER MILESTONE
This coming Friday Linda and I will celebrate another milestone in our lives. Twenty years ago today, on November 7, 1998, Linda left California in her little Toyota to drive across country to be with me. On Friday, November 9, 2018, it will be twenty years since she arrived in North Carolina and we began our life together. A lot has happened in the ensuring years, but I can honestly say that it has been the happiest twenty years of my life. Not everyone gets to meet their soulmate and live out the rest of their lives together. On Friday, my sister and her partner are treating us to lunch at our new favorite restaurant, Provisions, in Terrace Heights. More on this next week.
 |
| Living the Dream |
PARTING SHOT
Twenty years ago we had no idea that our little family would consist of the two of us plus a sweet little calico kitty. And we certainly didn't anticipate it including a Black Cat Ninja. But we are thankful that we were blessed with both our Precious Baby and our Summer Girl. This week's "Parting Shot" must include them both.
 |
| Precious |
 |
| Summer |
That's all for this week, my friends. See you back here next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment