Voltron

I quite like tofu, but this dish could easily substitute chicken or pork to make it at least more Stretch Worthy.

I used the Serious Eats recipe as a start and used their method, and looked at others for ideas. It can be flavored many ways to your preference and with things on hand, so I had to make various substitutions, including the following: I used dried arbol chiles, some dried small chiles I grew, and some dried peppers from my cousin's house in France. I didn't have Sichuan peppercorns so I used a peppercorn blend. I don't have MSG or dried mushroom powder so I skipped those and added some good soy sauce for umami. I subbed a cinnamon stick for star anise and cashews for peanuts. Cardamom pods are green, but the seeds are black--this confused me especially in a tiny quantity so I opted to get out the seeds from three pods and crush them. Lastly, they don't expressly say it but I chopped up the fried shallots and garlic before adding them, and tossed the cinnamon stick of course. Came out pretty tasty. https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2018/04/homemade-spicy-chili-crisp.html https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/chili-crisp/ Tofu and Green Beans With Chile Crisp https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020993-tofu-and-green-beans-with-chile-crisp?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

First I made chile crisp and then I made tofu and green beans with chile crisp.

^That is a very cool rig.

COVID-19 has claimed two great bassists in one day. RIP Matthew Seligman of Soft Boys and many others including David Bowie, Thompson Twins, Morrissey, Chrissie Hynde, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos, and Thomas Dolby. RIP Henry Grimes, another jazz player taken from us. Grimes played and recorded with everyone in the ’50s and ’60s, including Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus, Sunny Murray, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and McCoy Tyner. After being broke and out of the scene for a couple decades, he had a renaissance in the aughts and played with John Zorn, Marc Ribot, and Nels Cline. 🙁

Ric was more articulate than my snap post last night. I was phone and text banking for Bernie before and after super Tuesday, and my daughter poured her while being into working for him. I join in your frustration that Bernie's supporters failed him by not voting in huge numbers and that people in this party/country chickened out after starting with the most amazing group of candidates ever assembled. But Biden pulled ahead and then the pandemic sealed our fate with him as the last man standing. Maybe that sucks, but it's reality and the GOP alternative is completely unacceptable. The larger part of the trigger for my post last night was your FB posts pounding the drum against Biden, saying Bernie is the only option, and claiming defeat without him. I don't buy that on substance, but everybody who does will help reelect Trump by failing to participate positively in the election and failing to vote in November. I wish you would change your mind, but I figured your FB page is up to you. The Slow Forum is a refuge --thanks largely to you, Knucks -- so I'll shut up and let you get back to it.

The more you spread this stuff about Biden being a senile rapist, the more you help Trump. It's as simple as that. Do you really want to score points against the Democratic party and the putative nominee so badly that it can justify assisting the worst president in our history to maintain control over the country?

I'm not a knife collector or aficionado, but the two pocket knives I have and carry daily are both Benchmade. When I used to go to an office, I carried the Emissary 740, which is smaller and fancier looking in anodized aluminum. For outdoors and working around the house, I have a Mini Barrage 585S with a partly serrated edge. They have both been excellent tools and I haven't had any desire to change or supplement them.

I know he was 92, but coronavirus is a terrible and unnecessary way to go. RIP Lee. And fuck coronavirus some more!

Have a great one WFH / quarantine / birthday Jeffy! Cheers!

Thanks Jim. Where do you hang the hat?

RIP Mort Drucker, one of the Usual Gang of Idiots.

Smoked chuck roast. Much better than I expected. And a great excuse to use plenty of horseradish cream sauce.

I tried Tidal and Qobuz and preferred Quobuz for the volume of high res and jazz options, but Tidal seemed to have more new music. I ended up just using the Spotify family plan that Claire and the kids had been using for years. If I get serious again, I'd pick Quobuz.

RIP Hal Wilner and John Prine, who was a regular at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Not sure whether we'll be ready for such gatherings by October... Fuck COVID-19!

You should talk to @jp11801. He has a system I think he really likes and has been experimenting for some time.

https://memes.yarn.co/yarn-clip/3b7d8e18-7ecc-4c71-8ab6-3e879167b101

Good girl ZoeBelle. RIP Condolences to you and the kids, Brent.

Thanks Antonio, and everyone else for the kind comments. The ladies wanted one bench against the wall and then chairs around the rest of the table. Could be because that is how our table is set up in Mayberry.

Beautiful mallet!

Beautiful shot as always Peter, even though your subjects are all going to be close to home this Spring.

This is going to be tl:dr for many, but Steve and I have delivered the first completed project from our Shelter Shop. By far the biggest woodworking project I have attempted, and both Steve and I are very proud of the results. Steve, Claire and I promised to build a dining room table and bench as a wedding present for Claire's sister and her new wife. Here are some pics during the process of building through yesterday's delivery. I forgot to take pictures of the 8/4 (aka 2") cherry wood boards before we started milling them down, but the lumber was excellent. We only ended up with one board that was twisted a bit, and we were still able to use it. Here is a board after some planing for thickness, and you can see the planer snipe several inches from the end, which we cut off anyway. After planing and then jointing an edge, we chop sawed the boards to rough length and then cut them to width on the table saw. The top is four boards and the bench is two. Next, we cut in mortises on the mating edges of the table and bench boards to receive floating tenons. I forgot to take pictures of that process using a Festool Domino machine, but you can see the mortises in the first picture below. That is the two halves of the table top being glued up before gluing them together later. After everything was glued up and cured, we used a track saw to cut them to final length and width. All edges have a 15 degree angle, which turned out great. Next up was sanding and finishing. We sanded from 80 or 120 through to 320 grit, and the cherry was smooth as a baby's butt. We then applied two coats of raw linseed oil followed by two coats of Tried and True original finish, which is linseed oil and beeswax. Ultimately, we also put on a coat of carnuba wax because Thos Moser does its oil finished furniture that way, which is good enough for me. Here is a piece of raw cherry next to the bench top with some linseed oil applied. This is the bench top after the first coat of Tried and True. This is great stuff that Doug introduced me to, and I love. You don't even need to wear gloves it is so natural and your hands feel better after applying some than before. We bought metal legs for the table and bench from a seller on Etsy, and they turned out to be even better than expected. We decided to rout out the underside to accept the base plates, and we also used threaded metal inserts so we could use machine screws rather than wood screws. It is very sleek and worked beautifully. We assembled everything at my house to make sure it was all good, then wrapped it up with moving blankets yesterday for delivery. We haven't been around my sisters in law for a couple of weeks so we took precautions and wore PPE. The table and bench look pretty stunning in place, and like I said, Steve and I are very pleased with the outcome. The happy couple are even more thrilled with the finished product and have been obsessively looking for the perfect chairs to complete the set. The cherry will darken over time and will only become more beautiful. Another great thing about the Tried and True finish is that it can be maintained with an occasional waxing, or it can be freshened up or repaired if necessary without the need for stripping the original finish first. From buying the lumber on March 20 to installation on April 5 is pretty quick work. Now, we have to finish another project already under way, and then move on to other projects. This Shelter Shop will stay busy for the duration, assuming we both stay healthy. Thanks for reading if you got this far. 😁

Nagra stack is badass.

Amazing. And the kitchen looks great as well. Chicken provencale, cauliflower gratin, and rice tonight.