The Perfect Fries

20 minutes hands on time, 40 minutes total elapsed time.

Five pounds of potatoes at Winco cost around 2 dollars. The cheapest. Could make 4 times if they were all medium size and healthy which sometimes are. Choose 6-8 medium size potatoes. Wash thoroughly rubbing with your hands, emptying the tub several times. Peel. I use my wonder peeler i bought in Vegas for about 2 dollars. Wash again. Could buy the pink potatoes and don't have to peel them, only wash. Fire the oven.

Don't mind the dimples, try to get rid of the mold stains. Cut in two, four, eight.

Spice. My favorite is dill, but i'm out of it. A bit of olive oil.

Mix by raising the spoon from bottom up. 10-15 times. Grease the pan (cookie sheet) thoroughly. I use a bit of coconut oil. This way you will be able to remove them from the pan. Arrange them.

Put in the oven at medium for 20 minutes. Check with a fork. Serve with yogurt, garlic sauce, V8 or as side for burgers.

Pandemic Cooking. 12" Angry Dough Pizza for About 2 Dollars

From scratch. Some, limited nutrition. 30 minutes hands on time. Elapsed time, about one and a half hours. Feeds 2-4 people.

Flour. One 5 pound (2.5 kg) bag for around 2 bucks at WinCo is enough to make 12 of 12" pizzas. Unbleached all purpose seem to be the norm and trend.

3 (240 ml) cups of flour (400+ gr) and one 300 ml cup of water. One+ topped tablespoon of dry yeast (dip the spoon in the yeast and pull, i keep my yeast indefinitely in a sealed jar in the fridge after opening the pack). A bit of salt. Keep some extra flour in the measuring 3 cup glass mug. First mix flour and yeast then salt then water. Mix for about 2 minutes with the spoon.

It's always hard to figure the flour/water ratio. Add a bit of water or flour while you mix until homogeneous (not like in the first picture below, only partially done). The goal is to make it as soft as possible to handle, later. Think ice cream consistency. Let it raise for about half hour. Indoor temperature is critical. Don't even think below 70 (20 C). If too cold, start the oven and let raise on top in a not too hot area. You will needed it later anyways. I call it angry dough because after raising, the face of an angry guy showed in the dough on the right.

Put some flour on the knitting board. Pour. Rain a bit of flour on top and knit for about 2 minutes. If too soft, add flour, keep knitting. Cut in two. Half will be used to make a pan bread. Or a second pizza, if  you have another pan which i don't.

I use a big jar to flatten one of the halves. A fingertip of coconut oil to grease the pan using your fingers. Essential if you want to ever remove the pizza from the pan after done. Transfer in the pan, add more flour on top and continue to flatten until it fills the pan uniformly.

Mix in a cup some V8, tomato sauce, pizza/pasta sauce, whatever you got with a bit of olive oil and a bit of hot sauce. Spread on the dough. Cut some thin tomato slices. Put on top. Aim to fill the whole pizza.

Grate some cheese on top (Second most expensive ingredient, about 50 cents/pizza). Add the pepperoni or other signature ingredients. Most expensive ingredient. For about 3 dollars you can get pepperoni for about 3 pizzas.

Thin slice a quarter of a pepper, onion. Ornate the pizza. These two give extra flavor, nutrition and help protect the pepperoni getting burned by the heat of the oven.

Let raise on top of the oven for about 20 more minutes. Bak at max oven temperature (500+) for 6-8 minutes or until done. I turned the other half of the dough into a pan fried bread, about 7 minutes on each side, at 4 (medium).

Best way to check if done is to open the oven door, wait a few seconds for the heat to pass, raise it a bit on a side with a stake knife an look under.

Can use your imagination to add or switch topping ingredients as you feel.

Pandemic Cooking. Quarter Pounder Under One Dollar

In about 20 minutes time.

(Can find a coupon for the 9 dollars/3 pound ground beef from Safeway. Sometimes they have the one pound same squeeze/"sausage" type pack for around 3 dollars).

Spice, mix energetically like knitting dough and turn into 4 equal bolls. Smash and form, about 5 mm or 1/4 inch thick.

Transfer. Fire up the electric pan at medium. No need for extra oil. Can be done on stove top in a regular pan. Crack your window. At this point all the kids in the building will gather under your window and that is the reason i write this recipe. It can be done by a 12 years or older. 5 minutes or until done on each side. They will shrink and thicken dramatically.

Did you know you can cut frozen buns and put them in toaster while still frozen?

I do use lots of foil wrap. I wash and cut the onions in two and keep them in the fridge, like peppers, cheese and other. (Don't have tomatoes right now to show how to cut in thin slices for the sandwich). Clean the pan immediately or it will stink. 

Grate some cheese while still hot. (I cut the big cheap coupon bought cheese bricks and wrap them in foil). Can wrap burgers for later microwave. Can serve them with a glass of V8 (or cheaper store brand vegetable juice, same ingredients) so much better than ketchup and soda. Next, the perfect fries and our favorite, baked peppers.

Actually baked peppers are ridiculously easy to make. Wash them, peel the label and put them vertically top or bottom first depending how they want to sit on a rack in the oven at medium for half our or until soft. On a lower rack put some preferably glass pans with water so it will catch the drips (otherwise the oven will stink big time). The only difficult part is to peel the thin peels after they're done using very clean hands. Try to save the juice inside, add a few drops of cider vinegar to make a sauce, cut to slices and add some thin cut onion like above. Serve with sliced tomatoes.

Welcome Back my Friends

To the show that never ends...

Astăzi căutam deci pe cineva, și am dat peste coperta unei cărți reprezentând ceva care amintea de coloana lui Brâncuși, dar din lemn. (Apropo ați știut că acea coloană este formată de fapt din 32 de piramide puse cu bazele mari față în față, au existat modele mai vechi făcute de Brâncuși din lemn, etc.)

Am scris acum câteva zile o postare de blog despre didgeridoo, și am amintit pe fb lângă postare cred de bădița Mihai Lăcătâș, etc.. Într-o duminică, în jur de 1972, în Câmpulung, "Profesorul de cineclub", Ferdinand Michitovici, de la Casa Pionierilor (Contabil la FCL, Fabrica de Conserve Lactate "Lapte Praf Rarăul", fotoreporter la ziarul Zori Noi din Suceava), a venit, după ce mama la cererea lui m-a îmbrăcat în "costum național" local, cu boandă din blană de dihori, împrumutat de undeva din vecini și m-a dus "la o filmare" cum spunea el, pe un deal de prin zona Izvorul Alb, nu departe de casa lui bădița, care avea o tutungerie în centru (nu știu, era gestiontar, ceva) unde lucra fiică-sa, și făcea tulnice din lemn ca hobby (nu știu, nu am mai văzut niciodată în zonă, am văzut doar din metal la înmormântări). Dar dacă așa spunea profesorul Michitovici, așa trebuie să fi fost. Filmarea aia care includea găsirea și tăierea unui brad "de rezonanță" a devenit un filmuleț color gen documentar-artistic pe 16 mm (care era destul de profesional pe vremea aia) de vreo 5 minute probabil, care vroia să arate "transmiterea meseriei" sau a artei whatever dintr-o generație în alta. Totul fake. M-am întâlnit ani de zile după cu domnul Michitovici și mi-a spus că filmul a ajuns la un festival în Australia. Australia? Am întrebat eu mirat. Poate Austria? Nu, Australia a insistat el. Nu știu în ce an a fost făcută poza asta.

Până acum câțiva ani, poate vreo zece, nu știam cum arată Polanski. Dar când l-am văzut prima dată, am zis că trebuie să fi fost el, adică semăna foarte bine. Michitovici a locuit într-o vilă în Câmpulung împreună cu soția, care la rândul ei semăna cu Sharon Tate și a fost învățătoare la o altă clasă la școala Nr.1 unde director a fost un tip Teodor Darie, proful de istorie, care și el semăna cu actorul acela din filmul Sissi, în timp ce nevasta lui semăna chiar cu Romy Schneider. (Bine, diriginta și profa de mate și desen era Elisabeth Taylor, care în perioada aceea, 72-74 "a stat prin Italia"). El (Michitovici) a avut o fiică ce s-a mutat în Constanța care a avut un fiu care a dispărut într-un accident de avion în Florida, la o zi după ce cred că l-am văzut ultima oară în Lake Oswego unde cred că locuia în aceeași clădire cu mine împreună cu o tipă care semăna cu cântăreața aia de blues am uitat cum o cheamă, e singura de fapt de vârsta ei. Samantha Fox.

În Lake Oswego m-am întâlnit de mai multe ori cu un tip cu o cameră cu un obiectiv foarte scump, pe care o ținea pe burtă (stilul lui Michitovici), jos în parc lângă furnal, și chiar am vorbit de câteva ori cu el. Parcă mi-a bătut apropo-ul că ar trebui să mă mut de acolo. Dar eu habar nu aveam ce era cu mine, eram high tot timpul de la fumul ce venea din pereți și de la paraziți de pisică. Totul a fost ca un vis în ceață care s-a transformat treptat într-un coșmar.

Deci văzând coloana de mai sus am avut un impuls de curiozitate și am căutat pe numele autorului (autoarei) și am dat de o față care semăna cu a lui. Bădița.

Un sculptor în lemn maghiar din România care semăna cu el. Dar el este născut în 1937 (dacă asta este identitatea lui reală). Bădița Mihai Lăcătâș era cred cel puțin cu zece ani mai în vârstă.

În orice caz toată faza m-a dus la descoperirea unor poze de-ale lui Michitovici pe care nu le știam. Nu știu de unde a învățat el fotografie în Câmpulung (de fapt povestea spunea că era din familie de refugiați din Polonia) dar acum pot să spun că se descurca destul de bine. La compoziție nu l-am ajuns cred. Bine, trebuie să ai și o anume personalitate dar și autoritate, pentru a conduce scena. Cu fotografia color era foarte dificil pe vremea aceea. Trebuia să trimiți filmul la București. Filmele color pe 16 mm se developau totuși în laborator la Casa Pionierilor, pe întuneric beznă, timp de vreo 2 ore și includeau multe faze, din care una transferul de pe partea negativă pe cea pozitivă a aceluiași film (solarizarea).

666 LJQ

At noon (3 EST) i left the apartment. Went through the back and saw the bulges under the bedroom's window. That explains the market going up until i left. They did it so many times before. But haven't seen it under that window in a year or so so i didn't check. It' hard to realize either when you wake up in smoke. With smoke showing on AQI website 3 miles from here. That's where the high was coming, especially on vibrations. Tricks, tricks, tricks. People like it though cause it's their retirement money caught in the market. My advice? Pull them out. Invest in gold.

Woke at 8:30 (11:30 EST)

Took a picture when i left too, however it didn't catch much, i went and took another one right now. What is not seen. The whole soil line meeting basement under window (between the two metal guards) was a "ridge" that is like a ditch. I pressed my foot all along. When i came back i met with the same Asian guy whom i think used to be part of Tualatin Police i met when i went outside the first time, contributing to making me nervous and not check under that window.

So i left on the upper alley, and when i got at the mailboxes, i saw this guy in a low modified suspension silver car making much noise with his trunk speakers. I turned my head and looked behind only to see this pickup coming real fast which i saw earlier in the alley, when i noticed the LPN. 666 LJQ. I saw the driver too, a tall dry guy with moustache, moving fast. Would he had ran me over? I don't know, could have. But i was too absent to get a "real feel" of the whole sequence. It took me some time until i decided to pull the phone and take a picture, almost lost him. But no readable LPN.

Right now trying to air however more smoke is coming from other places outside.

So i went again on my 2.9 miles route. They were these guys at the corner between 65th and Borland. One of them was blowing a blower again tuned on A1, though he wasn't blowing nothing on the wet sidewalk. On Borland, much annoying traffic with guys seem like dreaming at the wheel. All kinda symbolism, i didn't catch it, wasn't sober enough. Felt tired (6 hours of sleep, smoke). Hard to walk.

The interesting part comes when i got back. In the first point marked on the map i first heard a turboprop plane. Nothing unusual (ok, a bit unusual since they always show at that point, annoying me).

But  then i thought i heard, covered by the first sound, the sound of a fighter jet. Then another. Sirens went off. Apocalyptic sounds. I went on the right sidewalk just before the kindergarten. Though kids were not present today, only 3 cars in the lot. Where the last point shown is, where a chain closes that RV camping area, i saw a Tualatin Police SUV coming towards me, signaling left. I could have passed but stopped cause i was curious to see what it was doing and to see the cop's face. However, he extended his hand  under the tinted windshield, where i could see it and made that gesture Bruce Lee was making in movies. Come to me! So i passed, he went on the blocked alley, did a 360 degrees turn (3x6) and went forwards on kindergarten's alley, on the other side of the road. However he did not went there and i got to see him, as i continued my walk on Nyberg, from 7-11 crosswalk. He went around that building that is a transformer or something and then inside. Muscular, Latino, bearded. Could had been a homeless in there?

As i said before. They don't do much. They just sync events. So it only appears they do a lot. (Boomerangs and throw stick always hit from a distance, on a meeting point, our human nature can't figure where the hit is coming from). But in the case of an of inquiry, nothing can be traced to them.

Many other things happened on my trip, it's an ongoing script filled to the max, it's just too much for me to remember and write it, with the smoke and everything.

Ok a last one. In one of the recycle bin somebody put an empty beer case with the word STONE on it. Vertically, keeping the lid on, so it would be visible. In the mail, an Ilani add and an envelope with a sounding jar of vitamins or supplements ordered by Angela online.

Went outside and crushed a few more bulges. They switched from chemical to bio, with the laundry.