More tales about food and buildings

 This isnt a food blog.  I am a dad parent trying to help bring up my two kids.  It is about me and the topics of modern dads with their kids.  However, I seem to be thinking more about food these days.  I dont know why it should be a continuing topic, but... here it is again. 

As I said in my last post here, I dont want to spend TOO much time in the kitchen.  There is a limit to it.  (But admittedly in the last couple weeks I have spent no time as I have had to work in the shop every day, but maybe that will swing back come next September. It can change again).  Three hours is the limit really. I like Mexican and Italian food and they are easier to prepare, and everyone likes them.  

My old specialty was Lasagne and now it is becoming homemade spaghetti sauce with spaghetti.  There is a degree of trial and error when you are making the meal for the first times. For instance I used grated pork meat one time for the spaghetti sauce and that did not taste the same. Grated beef it had to be.   My daughter didnt like the grated pork, but i had to agree with her. But as much as I would like to experiment with the recipe and add this or that or take away this, I just cant with my daughters. 

I have been making Lasagne now for about three years. I have it down so I can kind of make it in my sleep.  But, no I cant.  Because i have to be careful of everything along the way to make sure it is done correctly.  Listen now on the process and what can "go wrong".   

so many, but only one will work

A long time ago I learned I had to make it only one way. I couldnt experiment with spinach or other cheeses or other meats, they had to stay the same.  I used salami ham once and my wife complained and said dont use the cheap salami ham. You have to use the real ham.  Dont cheat on the ingredients just to make it cheaper.  (Boy, she would have been fired a long time ago if she worked at a food services company.  Making it more economical with lower priced ingredients is the name of the game).  

I did get away with buying a cheaper lasagne but my daughters found me out once and said, "dont use that cheap lasagne noodle. That one isnt good."  So what I did was get the expensive brand once and keep the box and put the bargain brand in the more expensive box.  They havent noticed.  The noodle which costs less is A LOT less. I just cant splurge all the time on the premium brand. It is twice as much money.  

And I have settled on a gouda cheese.  It is not too pricey but tastes good. I guess I would like to try a mozzarella some time, but that means extra pay and I am afraid by now that my daughters would complain and say, "what is that?".   So I get a chunk of gouda. 

Luckily the sauce and the yogurt are pretty steady and always the same and not difficult to make. I did once put my own spaghetti sauce into the lasagne sauce when I started my own spaghetti sauce making.  It was so so. It wasnt extra time because I just used extra sauce from my spaghetti, but it means a spaghetti meal and then a lasagne meal and that is too much back to back.  And the extra time and work wasnt worth it. The standard sauce was good.  

Once I get down to the making of the lasagne I have to have checks along the way. The biggest let down and problem I have is that the bottom layer lasagne noodle is always harder than the other layers. I have experimented with more oil, or none, different cooking configurations, soaking the noodles first and other things, but nothing works or just messes up the recipe.  And it isnt because of the brand of lasagne noodle as the more expensive one does just the same thing.  This is a continuing monkey wrench in my creation. 

What I do now is I let my younger daughter test the cheese and yogurt sauce before i put it on. I got into trouble a couple times with messing up that sauce.  Too much pepper,  too much salt, that is bad.  Not enough cheese. Unless I make it after the girls go to school, I have to let her taste it to make sure it wont not pass her test.  

I was getting bad comments from my younger daughter on the bad quality before that.  In the end she would always eat two pieces (her allotment) and take one of Mommys pieces.  Or else she saves two pieces for her lunch for the next day. After all the complaints she made, she always ate her shares AND the next days anyway. In other words, there was something wrong, but it was good enough.  

These days my older daughter is complaining about my lack of cooking time length.  "Cook it longer," she says.  "You have to cook it till the cheese is browner in more places."  "But I have been cooking it for an hour," I say. "It has to be cooked for an hour and ten minutes then. The cheese has to be brown on the top".   The last time I made it and just put it in the fridge for them to cook before dinner.  When I came home it was in fact cooked so that MOST of the cheese topping was brown, not burnt, but brown in more of the top.   All the same she was usually taking two pieces and eating them. She always eats it by layers.  She makes such a mess of it, it pains me to see my creation mutilated before it is downed. And some of it remains on the plate. The hard bottom layer is usually left on the plate.  

I guess there are still some problems with cooking it and I cant cook it in my sleep. Still, a simple thank you, "it was a good meal" would be nice. But it is usually a twenty minute meal and run back to see who wrote on the phone messages to them.    I guess it is too much to ask for a thank you.  Kids dont seem to see the need to pet the egos of their parents, UNLESS they know they are going to get a serious yelling at if they dont administer praise or sorrys.   But, I am not in that category. 

Oh well.  A lot of things parents have to do for their own joy and satisfaction.  And only they know they got it right.  

PS - I cooked it yesterday and my younger daughter said, "the ham was strange. But it was still tasty, but the ham was strange".   She had half the lasagne. 

Cook it yourself.    And listen to great music while you do. 

Math Equation : Cooking Dinners

The more I cook at home the more I realize that in some respects it is a lost cause.  

It is kind of sad that I start a post like that.  I like cooking more and more and would like to add to my repertoir and be able to create LOTS of interesting meals for me and my kids.  

The frustrating problem is that there is this math equation.  It is an inverted truth.  Something like Arrow up on PT as arrow goes down on ET.  In other words the more time you spend in the kitchen preparing (preparing time) the food for dinner or whatever , the less time it takes for the family to eat it (eating time).  I would say that every hour in preparation equals 10 minutes less on eating time.  So that if I spent two hours cooking a meal including preparation and cooking time, then eating time is going to be around plus minus 30 minutes and maybe 20 minutes.  If I spent 3 hours in the kitchen then eating time is going to be 20 minutes for sure.  

Recently I added some "new" meals to my abilities.  I made homemade sauce

We had an orange one

spaghetti. This was a specialty of my fathers'.  He had a famous recipe which was never written down and thus was lost with his death. Except that he told it to us in person once or twice.  Sort of sliding off my original topic it went like this, "oh a pound of ground beef, some onions, stewed tomatoes, garlic, one green pepper, a can of tomato paste, a pinch of spices a, b, c, d and e and f, salt, pepper.  Cook in the crock pot for five hours".   Yeah, something like that.  So I got my mothers recipe which she related to me in the same manner but at least I think I have it down.  And she is still alive so that I can ask if I have missed something.  But she cant remember it either by now.  

In any case, you have to cook the sauce for a long time.  The throwing of everything together takes about half an hour to 45 minutes of mixing and cooking.  And I calculate that it should cook for another hour and a half once I have everything together.  It comes down to about two hours of cooking. I wish I had a crock pot I could cook it proper for four hours in there like my Father used to do.  But we dont... yet.  So I cook it for two hours or more.  Plus the shopping and getting the goods.  Cooking the spaghetti when the sauce is just about cooked and this and that it is at least two and half hours.  (Note, my father did this in much less time).  

Well if I can even get the servings out before my kids have snuck a bowl of the sauce away and eaten it in their room, the eating time is approximately 20-25 minutes depending on if they have a second helping or not.  Lasagne takes about an hour and half to make with prep and then cooking, maybe even less, hour and fifteen to twenty to minutes and I think the eating time on this is 30 minutes, although my older daughter can do it in the same 20 minutes.  

I guess to some extent it does depend on the age of the kid too. Older daughter, teenager, twenty minutes and then she is back on her gadget watching, playing or listening.  I dont allow her to do any of that while she is eating, so the result is she eats quicker, "finishes" her meal and is back online AFTER dinner.  Even though I am eating still. My Younger daughter takes a bit more time during dinner, but that is often because she is trying to make it look like she took a lot of time to eat not so much.  If she can get away with sitting at the table for half an hour and make it look like she ate a lot then she can leave half her meal on her plate and say she ate a lot and for a long time.  Although she does love my spaghetti and lasagne.  

Pork fried rice they didnt eat a-t all!!

I am not about to make a meal which takes 4 hours to cook, but I assume that might be eaten in world record time.  Unless it is some roast fowl which takes a long time to cook, like turkey or duck.   Maybe the math equation is, "kids take 20 to 30 minutes to eat dinner... no matter what".  I shy away from trying to cook something really grand, because I really dont want to spend all that time on the meal and then it is done in 15 minutes. I couldnt take that. 

My mother and I used to fix this problem by having a really long dessert at dinner with coffee.  I mean with the dessert dinner could often stretch to an hour and a half easily.  Those were great meals. And we ate them outside on our porch overlooking the lake in summer.  

The more time you spend eating meals, the happier life is.  Can I say that? I think so.  Eating meals slowly and peacefully is better than heroin (not that I have ever taken heroin).  The sheer relaxation and good inner feeling caused extends your life by some magnitude of time.  Fast food (and heroin) destroys you.  

I didnt actually cook this one

But I am getting way off topic.  

Suffice to say that I have enjoyed learning and making new meals for my family and I would like to continue that.  I recommend this much more than ordering from some new ordering line, grubby or unter.  Take the time to make more home made food.  UNLESS it takes too much time in which case I am not interested because I dont want to spend SO much time in the kitchen just to see it wolfed down by my kids... and its gone.  

Covid : Stuck around too long... in me.

A lung destroyed by Covid

 It has been a long time now.  It s been a real big pain.  

I havent written in so long because for two months I was wading through the affects of covid.  Every little problem you have with your body is accentuated and brought out.  It s like open day, open house for all the evil problems in your body to drag you down.   

First I had the covid - probably the omicron variation - and then I had it for two weeks. And then I went back to work but still felt tired so I got tested and... I still had it.  T'hen, I had the after affects, the lingering affects. I had the coughing, the tiredness, the low energy.  In all I was still fighting it and coughing into April.  Over two months after I got the covid.  What a pain.  Yes.  

I made 7 trips to 5 doctors with two x rays taken. First on my lungs and then on my back.  Then a trip to a different lung docter to see if it was in my lungs. I did all sorts of fun breathing tests (the nurse yelled at me because I shut the machine down by coughing and she had to reboot the whole computer).  And every night feeling these little hairs, what felt like hairs, in my throat twitching back and forth and knowing they were covered with phlegm which was making me cough.  Sometimes feeling like throwing up in the morning. 

I tell you, I am an old man now.  My whole energy level was / is way down.  When I was sick, I could stay up for a couple hours after lunch and then I had to go back to bed.  Even after several months my energy is not what it was before the sickness and I havent started exercising again.  Not exercising just lowers my energy level more and gets me fatter.  I come home from work in the evening and I am tired and dont feel like doing anything more.  How do you like that?  I used to stay awake till Midnight reading articles and studying.  Now, its dinner time and I would rather just go to bed.  My wife says I am an old fart now.  Ugh.

What does this have to do with being a father?  Well that is obvious.   What kind of father can you be when you just want to go to bed and sleep?  I havent been very good at all.  Finally after several months, late in March, there was a nice Sunday and I went to the park and played ping pong with my daughter for two hours.  That was tiring, but it was great to be a father again. 

It is really terrible that this virus takes everything from you and just leaves you a spent empty husk.  I miss being a father.  It has stolen that from me too. I havent been 40 per cent father... maybe.. maybe 20 per cent.  Its terrible.  

Please Dads, make the smart move and be careful and take care of yourself.  You really dont want to lose the ability to be a good father.  Dont try to be a Jon Wayne with this virus.  

I know it is subsiding now. I know all countries pretty much are trying to get back to normal.  Most people want to lead a semblance of normal lives now.  Even mask wearing isnt necessary on public transport.  Which feels weird to me. I feel like putting on my mask because I feel all these diseases floating around the compartment.  

The point being, dont let your guard down.  Being a father is much more important than trying to be some tough guy.  Stay vigilant right now and get your shots.  I know, lord I know, that the shot might not work.  We have other variants wandering around and we dont know if they can be batted down with a dose, but let me tell

you YES, a vaccine shot, a booster will keep you out of the hospital.  It could be the difference between the disease sending you to bed for a week or without it sending you to the grave for eternity.  

¨Stay a father and for your kids do the right thing.  

Covid for Dad

 I have not written all month to this blog even though I have a number of topics I have planned for writing about.  It just couldnt happen.   I got the covid.  

Although I wanted to talk about how this affected my ability as a father and what happened, I just wanted to say first, that THIS WAS NOT THE FLU.  I know a lot of people who poo pooed the disease and just said things like, "its just the flu, stay at home, drink tea and rest for a week", and I certainly know that every case was probably different and some got it worse and some nothing at all, but that said, you really do not want to catch this disease.  It really doesnt matter whether you are the healthiest, most active, strongest person on the earth.  It can take you out.  And you should know that many of these "strongest, healthiest, most active" people, even young people under 40 got taken down.  Completely down.  It really didnt matter.  I wouldnt say I was the most healthiest person, but I did exercise and I am not obese nor much over weight (more now though, but before about 5 lbs, 2 kilos) and I didnt catch anything for close to two years, until I did.  And it got me bad

I wasnt in the hospital, but it has just dragged on and on and on.  Every night sleeping with a cough which wont go away.  Needing two more hours of sleep than normal (normal for me about 7.5 hours).  Not being able to have teaching classes in person because I was still positive.  Ugh... on and on and on.  Even if it didnt kill me,... yet,  it still was AND IS difficult.  Very difficult.  And I had two shots too. I was about to get my booster, but the disease got me before I got my booster.  

For the first week, I was sick in bed. All duties were off. It was just a matter of lying in bed and maybe reading or watching TV.  Dad couldnt do anything. I dont know how single parents with kids could have managed this.  A relative or somebody else would have had to come over to help.

I was in bed for two weeks and the third... half half.   Think about that?  A single parent either would have had to suffer greatly and pushed themselves everyday to get things done, get the minimum done, or paid someone to help them or get a relative or friend to help them.  If you have kids who need nursing or a great portion of your time, you are just screwed.  This disease, even if you dont end up in the hospital, is not for single parents.  Two to three weeks.  And if you had it longer....yes, I ll say it again, you are screwed. 

I went back to work both in the home and the workplace in the third week.   I had full days, but by 7pm I was down on my energy.  Often that happened twice during the day and this was not something that coffee could spruce up. Maybe it is just me, but coffee stole any energy I had and made me cough. (Cof  fee.  Get the bad joke?)

Yes, that is me

In the second half of the fourth week I took a PCR test and it came out positive.  I have a feeling I was positive the whole time.  So I spent another five days at home and mostly in bed.  Though you might feel you were better and could do stuff at 10am, by later in the afternoon, it was nap time and exhaustion.  

Other disabilities were exaggerated.  I had a blood test to test my heart because I have a little tiny tiny problem with my heart.  That became worse.  Not terrible, but a little bit worse.  As did my sugar levels so that diabetes was a closer reality.  Maybe.  You know, it was like an invitation to all the problems in your body to call it a field day and take advantage of the situation.  

Again, I wont say this happened to everyone, but I am wondering about the statistics of how long the disease lasted for everyone when they got it.  Maybe I am an exception and I was the unlucky one who ended up with "long" covid even though the average was a week.  

But the point is, even for those that got it for the week, all parental duties were off the table, or exercised under extreme duress which would only make you worse.  

Yesterday on February 27th, I got outside with my daughter and we went over to the park and played ping pong on the out door tables and badminton for two and half hours.  I am happy to say I managed, though she beat me two out of three in ping pong.  I did take an hour nap when I got home, but perhaps I can manage now, after having some degree of sickness for 6 weeks, being daddy 40% at home again. Hmmm, maybe 30%

I did not listen to any music this time while writing. I just did not get to turning it on.   Didnt totally feel like it. But I recommend this triple LP again to everyone for great dub techno for background music, for listening to in depth as you lay on the couch, or for the dance floor.  Echocord 20 years.  Looks kind of like a cell theory too. 

Nostalgia I

 

I was riding in the streetcar to work today and I saw a man about thirtyish get on with a stroller with a kid in it and another kid who was ambulatory on his own.   The older kid sat in a seat and the Dad held the stroller and stood.  For some reason the dad didnt want the little kid in the stroller touching a metal bar across the window.  He kept saying "no" and then he pulled the stroller away from the window so the kid couldnt reach the bar. But the kid was still trying to stretch out of the stroller and reach the bar.  Whatever, kids like to touch stuff or push buttons or stuff like that. I couldnt think at first why he didnt want the kid touching the bar, but then I thought he was pretty smart because you know it is flu season and you figure that so many sick people are still going outside and they touch the hardware in the street cars and then someone else picks up the germs.  You know little kids always put their hands in their mouths too, so it is easily passed on.  Come to think of it it was pointed out to me how much even adults touch their eyes and mouth during the day even every couple minutes, so we arent much better.  

But the point being that here was a dad. Here was a dad being a dad to the young ones.  

I thought about my days 10 years ago when I pushed the big baby buggy and

held another kid by the hand and we walked down to the park at the train station.  I still remember quite clearly being very conscious of being the only person walking under the viaduct while the cars went by.  Not only the only one walking, but a dad with a carriage and kid holding my hand.  But I wasnt the first to be in such a situation.  No no.  In fact I was impressed in the 90s a good friend brought up his son alone.  And he was a foreigner bringing up a kid alone as a Dad.  How tough that must have been? 

I remember even then, after we got to the park, I guess the littlest one wanted to follow her sister. I think it was that day that her older sister climbed to the top of the rope pyramid. (Pictured above in the upper right corner)  She was three and over, probably four.  The younger one wanted to climb the ropes too, but she couldnt even get on the first rung.  

The point being that it was fine. It was a nice day, I had fun.  I remember it fondly. I dont know what was wrong with me bringing the kids to the park.  Just the walking to and from the park along the busy street got my nerves shaking.  

Well, I hope this guy on the street car didnt feel conscious carrying his kids around. I hope he had a nice Saturday out with them, maybe took them to a park for the couple "warm" hours (this is the beginning of January, so warm is relative) in the day.  I hope he watched them and helped them climb the bars and get to the top and afterwards maybe some french fries from a restaurant or better some fruit slices.  I hope he had a nice day that he will remember for much longer than ten years. 

Be strong dads.  This is not weakness being out with your kids. The opposite. It is stronger to be a dad to your kids.  

FLU time again is back

 Hi folks. I hope the new year 2022 is starting out well.  I did nothing that I normally do on the first of January this year.  I stayed in bed all day and watched an old sitcom.  I did not eat the soup with the scales in it , or where you have the fish scales under your plate.  So maybe,... no, it has never worked in the past.  So I didnt really care HOW I started the new year this year.   

I would like to say though that I think the year will be heading back to normal as we progress.  I know you might be saying I am crazy.  200 000 new cases of covid in one day in France.  The US averaging 500 000 new cases a day when the last biggest day was 250 000.  1.5 million new cases in the whole world every day. It is still going strong and especially now as the Northern hemisphere is going through winter cold season.  But you know... besides this... I think things will be heading to normal through this year.

Let me explain.  

I always get the flu.  Every year.  I got the flu vaccination one year. I got the flu that year too.  The shot gave me the flu and I got it pretty bad actually.  Then I decided I didnt want to take the flu vaccination after that. As a result.. I got the flu every year.  

When it was later, it came in December. If it was earlier, I got it in November.  But I can remember that I have had the flu every fall for the past at least 5 years if not ten.  Even longer.  That one flu shot I did get took place around 17 years ago.  

Every year.  For a long time. 

Until last year, 2020.

I did not get the flu last year.  Why not? Well because everyone had covid.  Everyone had a face mask on and we werent breathing on each other.  We had lockdown since the beginning of the flu season till the end. I had a normal open retail for about 5 weeks total.  There was very little contact between people.  I met very few people except my family.  And they met no one either.  So there was not much flu.  Some types of flu disappeared even.  They became extinct from what I understand.   I did not get the flu.   Wasn't that crazy?  

One year forward and guess what happened this year?  Bingo.  I got the flu again.  

My wife had stopped booking vacations for Christmas vacation because EVERY YEAR someone in our family would be sick during that time.  But in 2019 we took a long vacation and no one got sick and in 2020 no one got sick even though we were home all Christmas vacation.  So she thought the curse had been broken.  So she booked a small New Years 4 day weekend skiing trip for the whole family this year in 2021.  

The Curse wasnt lifted. I got sick and had to stay at home.  We lost the money on my booked bed and ticket.  Rats.  Rats moreso that the flu is back.  I was in bed for 4 days and STILL had the stuffed nose. I thought it would be a 3/3/3 cold but so far the last three lasted 5 then 6 days and there was an extra three of "still not that great, still not better".  (I got a PCR test and it was negative so it wasnt covid, not even omicron).  And that was a doozy of a flu. The middle three days were terrible, kind of terrifying even.   I think I will try the flu vaccination next year.  Remind me in the Fall to get one.  Remind me that the flu I got now was very scary.  I dont want that one again.   

So, flu is back. The Christmas flu ruining our holiday is back.  How more normal can you get than me getting the flu during flu season?  Nothing. So that is why I say things will start to return to normal this year.  Me getting the flu is as normal as normal can be. 

Cheers.  

Thanks for reading. 

Hope you indeed will have a better year. 

Wishing everyone for the new year wealth and more importantly HEALTH for the full year

Listened to this CD at least three times while writing. Very nice strings and guitar downtempo.  Be reminded that I only listen to CDs or Vinyls I have or have for sale soon.  This is a cd I have. It is from 2002.  I do not listen to stuff on internet during writing.  And mostly only new stuff that i have to think about buying.  

Whoops first time I couldnt find the picture for it.  I guess I have to take it myself. 

SANTA aint allowed around here no more, if....

 

Well that wonderful time of year which never really is so wonderful has finished once again. Or at least we are into the second half of it past the gift giving and complaining and the usual Christmas tantrum past that to New Years Eve.  Thank goodness.  Although I do love the Christmas tree. It is lit now and I stop writing and take a look at it. Meanwhile the New Years Eve bombs go off on the street.  

The way it works around here is the daughters write to Santa in December what they want and leave the note on the windowsill.  Santa takes the note off the sill in the night and fulfills or does not fulfill her wishes.  My younger daughter always asks for a bunch of stuff most of which I can fulfill. And she always asks for the usual collection of fruits: grapefruits, oranges, and lemons and any other fruits.  That is nice.  Santa can get together a big box, it looks good under the christmas tree, which is filled with good fruits.  

What all kids should get for Xmas

My other daughter usually asks for a number of high ticket things which if we manage one it might be a small class miracle. And I am not talking about wishes for world peace either.  She usually asks for bicycles and ponies, and now for skiis, a snow board and on and on.  

But this year she asked for just one thing from Santa:  a Nintendo Switch.  Just that.  OMFG.  

See, if you have been following me over the year or two during the pandemic, I have been complaining every so often every third or fourth post about my daughters watching time on her telephone. Or rather her over watching time.  First it was her playing too much DURING school and not even paying attention during school in progress. Well it wasnt stated explicitly in that post maybe but duing that time I was very frustrated with their "combination" of playing on their gadget at the same time school was in progress.   And then about Steve Jobs and in general how iphones SUCK.

  Life used to be good before Iphones and general smart phones took over the world.  Now the world just plain sucks.  Oh and what about playing time on phones?  Now that is racheted up and encouraged by Roblox (tm or C or whatever) to block up as many daily hours of your loved ones starting from the age of five.  2.56 hours on Roblox, an hour or two on tv, maybe more, AND or while doing both, listening to the radio on the phone, but extra time too... say 6 hours a day looking at that demon dingy gadget.  That just is disgusting.  

So now, picture it, fathom it, get your mind around this!: my daughter is going to ask Santa for a box so she can spend another 2 to three hours watching and playing on the screen???  And that is the one thing she asked Santa to get!??

Well, I am sorry Santa but if you come around here showing your face with that Nintendo Switch my daughter asked for, or with any playstation or xbox or by any other name, the cookies and the milk will not be on the table, nor carrots for the reindeer, not even a pick me up for Rudolf's nose.  Santa dearie, you will NOT BE ALLOWED AROUND HERE NO MO'  

Well as it was my daughter did not get the nintendo or any other brand. She DID get this good quality speaker (I dont want to say the brand because I dont  do any brand promoting, but brand demoting, no problem) which can hook up to your cell phone and play your music through a quality speaker.  It cost a pretty penny but .. it was okayed by me.  

As a result, Santa is not on my shitlist.  He is welcome here next year

Happy new year to everybody and a better year to come for 2022.  In my next blog I will be telling you how I know it is getting back to normal.  

Just finished reading this ridiculously long, overly long book by Tomas Pynchon.  Now I have read three of his books. Although sometimes I think I read one three times.  And I was listening to a lot of music, including this old CD I want to sell.