Readership Capture

Been an eventful week around here. I had my first physical in 18 months (my last one had been scheduled for last March, but we cancelled it for obvious reasons), and apparently I have dropped ten lbs and my blood pressure is down 8-12 points, so as I suspected, not being around people on a daily basis has been good for my health. I was chatting with the doctor and told him that my days of people breathing on me are over, and that I am wearing a mask and carrying hand sanitizer from now on when it comes to crowds, and he noted that he basically no longer sees anyone for colds anymore, they are almost non-existent. So keep washing your hands, you filthy fucking animals.

In other news, we got a whole host of road signs around here put up, marking turns that really didn’t need to be marked because the only people who drive them have been driving them for 40 years and can do the drive in their sleep. Honestly, on the seven mile drive to the big city I brake twice, because I have driven my entire life and know how to straighten the curves, so I don’t know why they put signs up instead of, ya know, FIXING THE ROADS, but they did. At any rate, here are some of their helpful signs:

YOU HAD ONE JOB, GUYS. As my brother joked when I showed him the photo: “Wow. I don’t even blame the guy who did it. I blame the six who were inevitably standing around watching him when he did it.”

Made another trip to Pittsburgh today and hit two Asian markets, a Mediterranean market, and Penn Mac, and I got a whole bunch of new cooking supplies to try some new stuff out on the wok. Very excited about that!

Finally, here is a pleasant surprise that showed up in my email box:

If you know, you know.

Friday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (124)

I feel like I have been in a rut for about 4-5 months now, maybe longer. I kinda lost interest in a lot of the things I like to do, lost interest in cooking for fun and ended up just cooking to eat, etc. I’m not sure what it is, maybe just depression, maybe I’ve internalized everyone else’s hatred of being cooped up, whatever.

I’m starting to creep out of it, though, and started cooking for fun. I finally purchased a hand hammered wok from China last week, and it was delivered, and I spent several hours yesterday scrubbing off all the shipping oils and stripping it down. I then tempered it over a burner, and finally have it nice and seasoned.

She’s a beauty. I’ve always wanted a good one- I’ve been using an electric one I found brand new at a yard sale for a while, but it just did not get hot enough for me. Because I was motivated, I also stripped down my carbon steel skillets, and spent several hours re-seasoning them. It felt nice having something to do and getting the kitchen back together.

For a couple weeks, at last once or twice a week, I have been making this stir fry cabbage dish that I really like, with napa and green cabbage, a little bacon, chilis, sechhaun peppercorns, aged vinegar and soy, and crushed red pepper. I want to learn some new dishes to prepare (I like spicy and I like cabbage and radish and mushrooms, not so much noodles), so if you have any suggestions, holler.

I’m ready for spring.

Coming Out of the RutPost + Comments (122)