Wow! Where did you get fresh dates? Those are hard to find.


I went to Safeway. Got a few things. Pork shoulder, grapes, milk. Spent about $24. Look at the bottom of the receipt, and it says that I saved a small fortune. They must be lying. No way for that to be real.




Filled up the 27 gallon gas tank. Almost $7 a gallon. $6.89. The gas cap says to use BP. There's no BP around here. I hope nothing bad happens.

Did the percentage of ethanol go up? It seems like my mileage has gone down. It's all stop and go city driving. Mostly idling in traffic and short trips of 2 miles. But 10 miles per gallon is really low. And there's nothing wrong mechanically to burn that much fuel. The truck is well maintained and running as it should. I used to get around 17 to 19 mpg with all freeway driving. And tank average was about 15. The last few tanks of fuel, have all been around 10 mpg.

 

Our local Safeway has been doing a remodel. Last week they re-did the produce section and they had organic pitted dates. Don't know how "fresh" they are, but the sugar content is so high, I doubt there's any issue with spoilage.

A few weeks ago I had to fill up the F150. 36 gallon tank, so the total came to $197.

 

Power went out yesterday at 1:50pm and did not come back on until 1:36am... What a boring day. No TV, no computer, can't get into my recliner (it is electric, and I keep it up when I get out of it) So nothing to do for 11 hours. tried sleeping but it was too hot. So when the sun went down I went outside with some of the other neighbors. Around 11pm I came in and tried to sleep. Power came on at 1:36am, so I moved to the recliner, and slept there. Most boring 12 hours of my life. I pray that never happens again. (transformer blew up, but last time that happened, it only took 3-4 hours to fix)

With gas prices so high I am glad I put so little miles on my vehicles. I rarely fill up because I don't want anyone to poke a hole in my tank and steal all of it.
Don't know if I have Covid or not. I don't have any other symptoms. Just the cold.

Jim

 

No air conditioning in The Central Valley heat. And you couldn't charge your Tesla.

Nobody ever considers that. If every home on The Grid had a Tesla, and they all charged at the same time - like plugging it in to charge overnight - how would the infrastructure handle that kind of load? I would only guess that people buying a Tesla would pay for a 220 volt charger. Very few people would pay for a 110 charger.

If the dates are pitted, and sugared, they are not fresh. My memory is fuzzy from years of intoxicants. I recall stopovers in the desert at that place with all the date palm trees. Cabazon. The girls like going to the outlet center. The kids like The Dinosaurs. Everyone likes the date milkshakes. I seem to recall that someone who worked there told me that fresh dates just don't ship and store well enough for the supply chain. It usually takes weeks for any produce to go from a farm, to a wholesaler, to a distributor, to a grocer, and then to your house. In between, it goes through different cold storage facilities with different humidity. The only way to buy them is either fresh from the farm, a real "green grocer" with daily deliveries, or at a farmers market where the fruit was picked that morning. Same reason it's hard to get figs and loquats at a supermarket. Very expensive produce stands and restaurants will pay the premium for the product, and pass it on to very rich people when they resell it. Regular people just don't get to eat stuff like that.

My local Safeway has tri-tip on sale. Again. I don't get tired of eating it. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn off oven. Resist all urges to open the oven door and look at it. Leave it for a few hours to continue slow roasting in the residual heat. The thick part is pink, every time.

 

What I meant was that dates have a very high natural sugar content. They were not "sugared".

Our Friday afternoon get together featured tri tip. The hosts went overboard and got 4 of them from the RWC Key Market. They BBQ'd them, and did them slightly under-done. After the host brought them back, they wrapped them in foil (or maybe Key Market wrapped them), and stuck them in the oven at 200° for a couple of hours. That was some of the best tri tip I've ever had!

 

Fresh dates, off the tree, definitely are not as sweet. The dates most people eat are left on the tree to sun dry. Kind of like a raisin. The fruit looses moisture, and the sugar develops. Very few people eat fresh dates.

That Keys Market trip tip sounds really good. High heat to sear and add smoke. Then slow roasted until the meat is perfect. I'm doing the same with pork right now. High heat to get the outside crispy. Then slow roasting until the meat falls apart. It takes all day. But the fat is rendered and melting, plus the meat slides off the bones. And it was 88 cents a pound at Safeway. Whenever pork is that cheap, I buy it.

 

Okay, I splurged and bought two rib eye steaks today. Just under $20. I will have my caregiver cook them tomorrow so I can remember what steak tastes like. LOL I don't want to wait until my church has another tri-tip lunch for the congregation. I have a electric skillet I haven't used in years. It has a glass top so the grease does not splatter all over the kitchen. Not having cooked a steak this way, I am open for suggestions on what temp to set and how long per side to cook them. Last time I cooked a steak it was with an electric BBQ I bought from Omaha Steaks in Fountain Valley, CA. And that was over 20 years ago.

Jim

 

I don't know how hot your electric skillet gets. If you have a good cooktop and decent pan, use that instead of the electric skillet. I think that you could take it out of the refrigerator an hour before you intend to cook it. Allow the meat to come to room temperature. Then rub in olive oil, salt, and pepper. With the oil rubbed into the steak, you won't have to add a bunch of oil to the pan. Although I suspect that an electric skillet probably has a nonstick surface. I usually use cast iron, over a gas range, or a camp fire. I have no idea what the temperature is. I just get it really hot. Melt a half a stick of butter over very low heat. For a grocery store size steak, which is typically 1 inch to 1.25 inch, I would do 5 minutes, flip, 5 more minutes. As the steak comes off the pan, smother the steak with melted butter. Then let the steak rest in the hot melted butter for about 20 minutes. Some people say cover it with foil while it's resting.

 

My skillet looks similar to that one, but with a black color instead of tan. I bought some A1 sauce for the steaks, but totally forgot to get mushrooms. I have plenty of butter. Will need to go to store tomorrow morning before caregiver gets here and get the olive oil and mushrooms. Thanks for the advice. When I cooked steaks on the electric BBQ I kept them on for 7 minutes per side. However, the ones I bought today are smaller, so 5 minutes sounds about right.

Jim

 

So everyone should get together, carpool to Fresno. And have your caregiver make steak for us? What time?

 

When I do steaks in the fry pan, I do it the way that America's Test Kitchen taught me.

Set the heat for medium-high. Salt and pepper the steaks as you desire. Place the steaks in the pan, and let them go for 2 minutes. Use tongs to flip them over every 2 minutes until you start to get nice browning on both sides. Then check the internal temp with a meat thermometer until they reach desired doneness. For us, that's about 130° for medium rare. Enjoy!

 

It must be tri tip season. The GF and I went to Mushroom Mardi Gras in Morgan Hill for a bit on Sat just so she could get the Mansmith Trip Tip Sandwiches. https://www.mansmithsbbq.com/

She also picked up a couple tri tips from the store so going to cook one on the BBQ later. I don't know how to operate an oven, so BBQ it is.

I got the Shelby GT350 Widebody Convertible all cleaned up so hopefully go for a nice cruise in it sometime today.

 

Mmm tri tip.... Mmm Shelby GT-350. Awesome looking car. Everybody's coming to my house eh? I hope the caregiver has no problem cooking more than one steak. Going to be crowded though, this apartment is only 960 sq ft.
Oh, btw, I like my steaks medium well. So maybe a bit longer than 5 minutes? Or I could just do the 2 minute per side thing until the pink just barely goes away.

Jim

 

When I do tri tip on the barby, I start out with fat side up in the center of the grill for just a few minutes. Then I turn off the center burner, and (usually) go about 15-20 minutes while monitoring the temperature. I aim to keep the grill at about 400°, so I turn up/down the outside burners to try to hold that temp. After the 15-20 minutes (adjusted for the size of the tri tip), I flip the thing over with tongs (NEVER pierce the meat with a fork or anything!), then go another 15-20 minutes.
At that point, the tri tip should be swollen up and become a bit "bouncy". If it looks like it's at that stage, I check the internal temp, looking for ~~ 130° at the thickest part of the cut. If it's up to temperature, I put it on a platter, wrap it in foil, and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing. The rest is important because it continues to cook for a bit after removing it from the grill, and because it helps the juices distribute through the meat. Cut it too soon, and all those juices leak out.

 

There is no way I am going to wait an hour for my steak to get done. The caregiver cooked both at once on the stove using my largest frying pan. She used butter to grease the pan. Seven minutes per side, and flip over. I eat the whole first one with A1 sauce applied. Tasted good to me.

Jim