Minimalistic Healthy Cooking: Cabbage

Hands on time: Half hour or more, depending on skills.

We call it simply cabbage. Angela and i. It has the same ingredients and largely taste of a dish that cannot miss during any holiday in Romania. The local version of cabbage rolls minus the wonderful flavour of pickled cabbage. Much easier to cook though.

Not complicated, not sophisticated, this recipe is good for those who never cook and want to try. Driven by the principle: Anything cooked at home in a reasonably decent manner, is better than anything fast food. Cabbage even better because it is low calories though loaded with vitamin C, minerals and fiber. It is a recipe developed by the two of us derived from family recipes in Romania, many Romanians would be surprised how it evolved. It can be used as side for meat.

Need one healthy fresh ripe cabbage (not exactly like this one, bought two days ago), a few carrots, half onion, parsley (optional), half bell pepper (optional), (either) tomatoes, tomato juice or paste or V8 (You probably figured by now. There are a number of ingredients that repeat in most of my recipes, for practical reasons, can only have so many ingredients in the fridge). Even canned pasta or pizza sauce leftovers will do it (though it will surely ruin the taste because of the number of ingredients they use).

One large cup of rice.

Spices.

(Please ignore what you see in some pictures on the counter on left upper corner. It is crystalized borax and sugar, for ants. For humans borax has the toxicity of table salt. In fact, it is used to preserve caviar. If i remove it, ants will come.)

Wash, peel the bad parts and cut thin aiming pasta like appearance.

Separately start some rice. Know how to cook rice? One big cup (300 ml) of rice, two same size cups of water. Boil the water, add the rice and set it to lowest setting, preferably with a clear lid to see if it's boiling. Simmering that is. For ten minutes. Never mix. By that time water will be absorbed by rice. Then stop the burner and let it sit for five more minutes. At the end can add some olive oil, parsley. Do not salt if you want to use it with soy sauce.

Put the cabbage in a big pot with half inch of water at the bottom. Grate some carrots, dice a tomato or two, add some tomato juice (optional), chopped parsley (optional), half onion, half bell pepper (optional), spices, salt. Put the lid on, set it to medium low, listen for the boiling sound. Because of the small amount of water at the bottom it will be mostly steamed, not boiled. Half hour to 40 minutes total steaming time for first ingredient, cabbage. Mix any time you want. I do it after i'm done adding all ingredients, this way i do not work twice. At this time, can add some olive oil.

There is something about combining the taste of rice and cabbage. It happens in the original Romanian recipe, i saw it at the Best Teriyaki restaurant in Beaverton where i ate of course best teriyaki ever. Many times, many years; there was a decent amount of lightly steamed cabbage with a bit of pepper on top next to the rice that made it special. Always wondered how they cooked that perfect rice (and finally figured it and i'm passing it to you). And of course the perfectly cooked meat.  (This recipe is strictly vegetarian though).

Corroboree Corroborate This

I've been intrigued by this word the first time i've encountered it search results regarding Australian indigenous people. Especially by a painting that i can't find anymore. Here's another one, equally interesting.I am familiar with the word from my extensive readings (at some time, one book a day) from the "Aventura" collection during the spring of 1980. Used mostly regarding "detective" work (nowadays i believe during communism detectives existed only in these writings) in adventure books for youth which probably imitated similar writings in the west. "this witness' declarations does not corroborate with the other" etc..

Last night i searched a bit on Romanian and French etymologies of the same word and both indicate Latin origin. And in Latin, according again to Google Translate, also with an important online French etymological dictionary, it means support, confirmation, which confirmed my first guess when i read those books and didn't have any dictionaries on hand. ("Empr. au lat. class. corroborare « donner force à, confirmer »").

Google's first quote from a linguistics site gives a very, how should i say, nonconventional? definition for the current word and etymology.

"The Latinate morphology may have had some influence on the English form of this word, but the word corroboree is borrowed (with small phonological changes) from an Aborigine word – a word from a group who lived near Port Jackson, NSW, and whose language does not exist anymore."

Why is this extremely important to me. Because it confirms for the first time the hypothesis of injection of non-European populations early in southern Europe, which could be the seed for this mysterious force, the Romans, who raised out of nothing or out of the well settled Indo European population in that time and place to one of the most aggressive and historically important empires in the history of our civilization. Whose demise in turn might have been brought by a population equally aggressive, from the same origin. The Huns of Attila. Again, another wave meeting the older self? Different "nations" of Australia, from the same genetically isolated population for more than 70 thousand years, one from North and one from South, fighting over the rich resources (gold, land, climate) of Europe?

In Ancient Australia (largely ignored by eurocentric historians) corroborees could have meant among other things, forging alliances.

And then my mind flew all day today towards more possible confirmation of this hypothesis.

One thing i remembered, is the name of emperor Caligula. Could been formed by two roots, one Cali, same as today's Kylie, and Gula, which is a frequent modern Hungarian name for people and places. Which is also the name of a Mesopotamian god, of healing i believe.

Corroborees where also a mean of connecting to the "dreaming", the central concept of the Australian indigenous culture and civilization.

Never mind, i found the original painting i was looking for. Done by a modern painter of Australian origin, it suggests some sort of deeper level of communications between the members of a group, through the dreaming of course.

Very intriguing are also the names of indigenous Australians.

Identifying a migration and other cultural and genetic marks of the Australian indigenous by tracing the skull deformation practice around the world.

Don't know how Google pulled this map out of this article, but i'm glad it did. It shows though carbon dating earliest known human skull deformation occurred in Australia. It also shows a migration may have occurred, at the end of the last Ice Age. It confirms my theory that tries to show that ice age are actually north-south alternating, with a complete cycle every approx. 26000 years. Don't know about the genetically isolated for 72k theory, but what i think it happened is a number of several nations spent last northern ice age in Australia easier then those in the other continents and kept more elements of the previous "flourishing age", an age similar to ours right now. That gave them some advantages over the others when the climate started to heat up in Eurasia.

Just remembered something. A picture i took in a museum in Oregon City. I wish i knew the dating of those artefacts.

Huns who nearly conquered Rome in 451 were known to practice this. However, to this day they are people among Hungarians who have a naturally deformed skull.

Can't finish this until i mention the Pama-Nyungan paradox. Around 5000 years ago, the current family of languages used by Australians, much younger than the population itself, spread across Australia, before its original speaking population disappeared. Where? The last migration out of Australia and into Europe of a group that was originally from Eurasia and spent the last "winter" in there, and then emigrated in waves back in the rest of the world? (Naga Sadhu of India could be just another example).

Talking about orange

Wait a minute. Forgot about Pangu and Pannonia. Presence of god Pan in Pelo_ponnesus, Greece.

Everybody knows. Penguins never lived in northern hemisphere.

And the penguin on Attila's shield

A Night at the Refuge

Jiffy Lube in Lake Oswego

At Sussex, the first manager, Cindy Dunster, Christine, Carol King, wouldn't let me change the oil in the parking lot. Back then you had to do it the old fashion way, that is remove the plug, drain the oil, etc.. Over the years it's always been a terror to me to go to change oil. Every time something happened, if not only the show.

When i was in there last time in November i thought i saw in there Mnuchin. Last time, last Friday i thought i saw in there Prince and Gerald Butler.

I told them wrote on a piece of paper and handed it to them to put 5W20 oil (as required) an OEM filter, .3 quarts less (that car has a tendency to "spit" oil through PCV valve), other indications.

In the same day i noticed the oil was above the upper limit on the dipstick. On the paper they said they put 4.2 quarts. I went to O'Reillys and bought a transfer pump and removed through dipstick hole unexpectedly easely almost one quart of oil. When i saw how easy it was i planned to change next time oil myself. (have to apologize for coffee stains on the invoice).

Anyways. I was in a hurry (in the manual oil change interval is 7000 miles, i was at more than 8, i went in there and during the weekend i noticed a decrease in performance, like 2-3% mpg drop, a drop in power. Then i looked and i saw they put an aftermarket filter. With a dried oil stain on it. Could it be they put an used one? In the end they charged me 47 bucks, most ever. The guy who printed the invoice pulled the mask and let me see him, and he looked like Prince.

So i decided to change the oil one more time myself, just for piece of mind. I went and ordered online the filter (9 bucks cause i was in a hurry), a tool (10 bucks) together with oil, 15 bucks, Quaker State, Hyundai's prefered brand.

I went to the Amazon locker to pick the items, when i left there was smoke in the parking lot, had to cover a (man made) hole (moles don't come near the building anymore since i put the buzzers), there was a group of Australian looking people from Hungary, with several women and a man and the man released two kids with pink pants who ran in the light of the car, giggling. On the street more than half of the drivers were blinding me with high beam.

However when i went outside to check, i saw the filter they put in is smaller, probably with a different material in it which may explain the flow resistance, decreasing performance and possibly damaging the engine. So the tool i bought doesn't fit.

While i was outside, there was smoke all the time, that change into cat litter smell. Got nauseated right away, now my stomach hurts. The curly kid from the picture with Tualatin Police, also looking Australian passed twice, throwing arrogant glances at me.

Now i got to go somewhere, get a star shaped tool, remove that filter or go back to Jiffy Lube. In a different place. But where? If they won't screw something, there will be a show, like anywhere i ever been too.

Last time when i was in  Tigard on Hwy 99 i saw in there several guys from the Hungarian extremist party Jobbik.

But over the years, they never did what they did this time in Lake Oswego, only from what i figured out.

I said i'm going outside, they had like a 1 minute notice, they organized another show. This time i looked for thickness and i don't think oil is 5W20 which will explain also the drop in mileage.

Follow up 4/23

I asked Angela to get a tool at NAPA, based on what i measured last night (it's on her way from work. However that didn't work i think because of different flute numbers).

Went at NAPA myself but i could not find a tool to remove the no-brand filter they installed at Jiffy Lube. After many trials, i came with this idea and taped the tool that i bought with Gorilla tape to the filter and cracked it open.

With this i think you can open any filter that has a reasonable close diameter.

In that moment i thought i heard some people (kids) cheering on the alley (do i have fans).

I was right. Filter is smaller, has no anti-drain valve as  the OEM has and probably a different flow rate.

I haven't change oil by myself in a long time. So after i cracked the filter open, i tried to unscrew it and oil started to flow. Good think i had a pan under. For some reason i thought it was above the oil pan level. Or it was and there was some residual oil on the lines on top of the engine. Anyways i gave up and came with the pump. Pulling the oil was harder then expected. Pump did not work as easy as the first time. Next time i will use some PVC tubing which is larger than the thin rubber intake line i used (not the one shown in picture). That one is very thin and it takes a lot to pull the oil with it.

At this point i was explaining (yelling) to Angela who was watching TV and could not hear me, the door was one inch open and i heard outside the "veteran" yelling in the alley. "Should call the Inspection! He's working on car!" So i went near the door without opening and he said: "Yeah! To you i'm talking! Come outside!", while his "wife" was pulling him aside. He was obviously drunk. Haven't seen him in one year or so. Since there is a woman dressed in black who smokes at that entrance outside, i figured he passed away.

People in here work on cars all the time, there is a guy with a garage that works inside and outside the garage, i myself hate to change oil but this time i had no choice because of what Jiffy Lube has done.

Had no problems installing  the new filter, tightened it by hand, tomorrow i'm going to torque it (spec is 10). Finally went to pour in the oil. 5W20 Quaker State synthetic. On the previous invoice Jiffy Lube said they put in 3.7 quarts (i asked them .3 less). On the last one, 4.2 and was overfilled. So i first poured 3.5 quarts and was under the low sign. I put one more quart and after i started the engine to fill the filter it went down in the middle of the signs. Another surprise here.

Then i decided to take out half of the paper towels i used at one bin and half at the other. They predicted this move too. I passed by the truck and found a towing notice. Due today (Friday) at 1 PM. Reason: Stationed vehicle.

Since they cut my catalytic earlier this year, i tried to avoid using the truck. I go in (near) the park on foot. I keep it in one spot only. I saw many people doing that. I think i last moved about a week ago.

However truck was still there. I went to move it at the street. Brakes work worse than last time (had to purge the front circuit, purging screws are damaged), braking mostly on rears. i was squeezed between and SUV and a Nissan Z on a non-standard 8 ft spot. Steering wheel was moved to the right and i was about to hit the Nissan but i figured on time. In the back, the same sliver Tacoma that makes the biggest sound around here. I had to go back and forth about 4 times, it was almost impossible to get the truck out of there. Then when i finally did, to the left there was the bearded Hungarian painter who lives in a one level building, carefelly watching me, etc..

From this morning to this point there was smoke in here and outside big time. My brain is on slow motion.

4/24

I went to NAPA and O'Reilly's to buy a 3 inch 3/8 extension to attach it to the oil filter cap wrench i bought online. The 10 inch was the smallest i had and could not squeeze it together with the cheap dial torque wrench i got. with the 3 inch one i got to see the dial and everything. The guy at O'Reilly's thought i was joking. "Torque the filter? I do it by hand ". And i told him, "I don't want the filter to get unscrewed and loose all oil" and he said, "Yeah, it happened to me a couple of times".

On the filter it says 10 (actually around ten, it's in meters, have to convert) or 4/5 of turns until you meet resistance (after you oiled the rubber ring).

It was under ten when i put the torque wrench on it, i was again a bit surprised. After about half turn it went to 15 when i stopped. I must have done at least one quarter turn by hand, so i think i'm a bit over, but i think it's ok.

BTW, i know remember, i only had to turn it less than one quart of a turn when i took off the old one (with the Gorilla tape cap). It was way loose, probably dripping small amounts of oil on the exhaust.

I remember when i first looked at it i saw the logo of the "no brand" Champ or something in a different position then when i took the pictures. Could it be it was slowly unscrewing by itself?

Cloaca Maxima

La căsuța cu capace, vara nu-i ca iarna.

De data asta la propriu. (Acest nume este de multe ori folosit în mod greșit cu referință la ceata politicienilor, care de fapt formează un tsunami de minciuni căruia nimic, dar nimic nu-i poate face față).

O avem de-a gata. O ignorăm. Nu ne interesează. Pășim sau conducem zilnic non-șalanți peste capacele de canale, eventual înjurând estetica precară, zgomotul (bufnitura) sau uneori chiar mirosul. (Când am fost ultima dată în București, adică acum vreo 30 de ani, și mai înainte, am simțit acel miros și în metrou).

Guvernanții au grijă fiindcă și ei trăiesc pe aici nu-i așa. Cel puțin part time. Cel puțin un pic.

Nu cu mult timp în urmă am postat despre oamenii canalelor. Ei există. Sunt o realitate. O realitate mult mai aproape de noi decât credem. Pentru că toți suntem într-o anumită măsură oamenii canalelor.

Să explic.

Memoria pământului și arta de a o dezveli, arheologia, ne arată că în Mesopotamia stratele arheologice erau de fapt stratele de gunoaie care umpleau străzile. Neavând nici un serviciu, de fapt, probabil nu exista nici un serviciu sau o primărie, în sensul de azi, gunoaiele se adunau pur și simplu pe străzile primelor ur_be cunoscute oamenilor. Cu timpul, ei nu aveau altceva de făcut decât să se mute cu un etaj mai sus. Adică să construiască alte case peste case. Foarte posibil casele de sub ei erau ocupate de cei mai puțin norocoși sau avuți.
Romanii au fost mai inteligenți. Ei și-au construit unul din primele sisteme de canalizare din lume numit chiar așa. Cloaca Maxima. Asta le-a permis să stea la parter tot timpul, să-și tragă Colosseum, să invadeze pe oricine au dorit și să umple Roma cu statui de daci.

La noi, right now. De la fiecare bloc pleacă țevi care se adună în țevi mai groase care mă rog până la urmă se varsă undeva sau ajung la stații de epurare, unde mai nou se folosesc bacterii care schimbă chestia în altceva, dacă nu s-a schimbat între timp în lunga și lenta ei călătoria ei de sub marile orașe consumând oxigenul și în general făcând schimb de gaze cu suprafața.

Dar până sub bloc. Există țevi verticale de câțiva inch care traversează băile oricui de sus până jos prin care circulă ceva care dacă vezi, vrei să tragi apa. Adevărul e că acel ceva nu dispare în acele găuri negre din pereți, ci doar se mută ceva mai jos, după care începe să se descompună, pe măsură ce călătorește pe sub străzi și să degaje un gaz care conține unele din cele mai nașpa bacterii care există pe planetă. Căruia americanii i-au găsit chiar un nume. Sewer gas. Gaz de canal, ca să spun așa.

Fiecare coloană de câțiva inch grosime din pereții din băi merge mai sus de ultimul apartament și se deschide deasupra blocului, undeva în atmosferă. Este o idee bună, fiindcă dacă ai undeva o scurgere, gazul este foarte mult diluat. Invers, apa de pe blog se scurge pe acolo când plouă și mai spală. În funcție de cum bate vântul, temperatură, etc, uneori poți fi destul de norocos să simți acel miros, mai ales dacă ești la ultimul etaj. Eu îl știu din vremea când mă chinuiam cu antene pentru ruși.

Cum poți avea scurgeri fără să știi. Când tragi apa, ea se duce în jos, dar pentru asta racordarea nu trebuie să fie perfect etanșă, ci doar etanșă în sensul în care apa curge în jos fără presiune. Racordarile pot fi deci de tip pâlnie. Țeava de sus intră în țeava de jos, apa curge în jos, prin gravitație, fără presiune. Dar gazele de canal pot scăpa printr-o asemenea racordare ne-etanșată perfect mai ales când trece apa, cu o undă de șoc și disclocând un volum egal de bio-gaz. Și cui i-ar păsa dacă ceva chiar lichid vâscos ar ieși puțin din pâlnie și s-ar prelinge pe acea coloană. Nu se vede oricum.

Este o moarte lentă. Te îmbolnăvești de tot felul de boli, mergi la doctori, dai șpagă.

Se știe. La facultățile de construcție nu mergeau decât cei care știau că nu intră în altă parte. Nu știu cum sunt gândite, făcute aceste sisteme de eliminare din apartamente, dar sunt sigur că nu respectă codul feng shui, ceva care era inclus în codul clădirilor din China antică iar ninja știu să folosească împotriva dușmanilor de mii de ani.

Oare să fie o coincidență faptul că prima mea postare de blog se numea Emanație, și conținea printre altele o trimitere la o teorie care spunea că romanii au dispărut mă rog le-a căzut imperiul din cauza țevilor de plumb, sau un răget din subconștient?

Posibile soluții:

Să se inspecteze și să se etanșeze sistemul la fiecare bloc. Să fie emisie certificate sanitare pentru fiecare scară și apartament, inclusiv ghenele. Pungile cu gunoi să fie obligatoriu sigilate.

Să se aloce o cantitate de apă suplimentară care să fie folosită la spălarea (diluarea) sistemului. La fiecare bloc sau scară să fie instalate supape automate care să completeze cantitatea de apă deversată atunci când este sub o anumită limită (ploaia se ia în calcul), în fiecare zi.

Să se controleze tipul de bacterii prezente în sistem prin adăugarea de bacterii ca cele folosite la stațiile de epurare sau prin alte metode specifice.

My World Famous Broccoli Omelet

Want in a weekend morning to avoid carbs and get some fiber, vitamins and proteins? It only take about 10 minutes implying you have the ingredients.  This recipe was developed lately by me around an Angela's idea she used for years. And one day i forgot to add oil and i figured i can do it very well without.

Wash thoroughly and chop a broccoli flower, chop a bit of onion and bell pepper. Add your favorite spices and a bit of water. Let it heat at high then move to medium low and boil that water for about five minutes with the lid on, careful not to run dry and burn the ingredients.

Mix with a flat nylon tool. Add a number of incredible edible eggs (previously mixed with a fork in a bowl). Let the eggs coagulate for a 2-3 minutes depending how cold they are from the fridge.

Turn on the other side (don't have to turn it whole, a piece at at time with a flat tool and then can "glue it" back together). Put the lid back on for one more minute. Put aside, grate some cheese and put the lid back on for another minute to allow the cheese to melt. Serve with yogurt, V8, saltine crackers.

(Once Again) Who's in Charge (In Oregon)

From what i know so far...