Text 35350, 184 rader
Skriven 2006-07-30 20:23:14 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
  Kommentar till text 35111 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
Ärende: IQ Test
===============
29 Jul 06 20:17, Carol Shenkenberger wrote to Roy Witt:

 CS>> Inspections happen every 6 months and while I dont expect 'perfect'
 CS>> (after all we arent!) there's been just normal wear and tear.
 RW>> I had put a new roof on my house in February of last year, before I
 RW>> mo to Texas. I also had the house painted, inside and out and when
 RW>> the painters were done, I had the carpets super steam cleaned. The
 RW>> garage opener had a gliche in it that required some expertise and so
 RW>> I had somebody look at it and they said they fixed it. It didn't
 RW>> work when I there. The rental agents had their own 'handymen' to fix
 RW>> things, but t jerks wanted $80/hr. So I had a friend of mine (who's
 RW>> in the handiman business) go over and replace both faucets at the
 RW>> washer when the tena complained that they leaked. They leaked the
 RW>> day we moved into that ho

 CS> Well, my rental fellow seems to have decent handymen that do the job
 CS> for a reasonable price though I could always wish they charged 5$ an
 CS> hour (grin).

Some would argue that you'd get what you pay for. OTH, if a job rate is
over-inflated by incompetence, what are you paying for? Union labor being
the worst kind of labor one could find, inept labor being next; finding
that one individual who is fair and also knows the trade is hard to come
by. Going through people who've had the experience before you is a very
reliable source.

 RW>>> That's ok, I've noticed the lack of oriental food stores here...so
 RW>>> whatever we get in the H.E.B. supermarket, is what we have to use.
 RW>>> Bes

 CS> Ohh I remember those.  That and VONs.  Not a bad chain overall.

We've seen them all and have always gone back to VONs. Even WalMart super
stores don't comare with the value for the buck that VONs has.
Unfortunately, they're non-existant here. HEB has it's own brands like,
Hill Country and HEB that aren't too bad, but don't meet the standards of
our experience with VONs. They try hard to compete with name brands and
the prices of their generic goods are lower, but the quality isn't quite
the same. We take advantage of the prices as much as we can, but we've
learned not to buy the baked goods with the HEB or Hill Country label.
That's because they get moldy within a few days, while the name brands
stay fresh up to two weeks.

 RW>> restaurants serve chinese or go out of business.  BTW, one of the
 RW>> next door neighbors to my house in MM was a Mexican/Japanese couple.
 RW>> She is nice and he is from Texas. They met while he was stationed in
 RW>> Japan. They're retired now, although he has a part time federal job.

 CS> Tell them Konnichiwa from Sasebo!

I would, but they're in San Diego. We'll probably include them on our Xmas
list again this year and I'll try to remember to put a note in there about
you and definately the konnichiwa part. She's a cat lady, so our Zues is
always on her mind...

 CS> It's middle-end burdock season here now and just before melon crop
 CS> time.  Major meekan season (Meekan=Mandarin oranges).

We're still waiting for the melon (cantalope) season to get here. When it
does, the prices drop to within reason. Meanwhile, they're pretty
expensive. Been experimenting with Mango instead. There's got to be
something one can do with that giant pit, but I haven't found anyone who
knows.

 CS>> a smoker but i want to check them out.

 RW>> Reading your comments in the COOKING echo, I gather that you're more
 RW>> experienced in that than most. I've thrown things together and have
 RW>> ha some very good luck with it and so has Nancy. But yours reads
 RW>> like you cooking talent comes naturally. Ours is learned.

 CS> Domo Arrigato Gozimas Roy-san <g>.  Mine is learned too but once one
 CS> reaches a certain plateau, the rest gets pretty easy.  I'm not a
 CS> super-chef but no one will starve in my house.

Not here either, but if we depend on Nancy's cooking, all she knows is
Italian and a variation of it. She learned it from her father, who was an
excellent chef in his own right, even if he was a railroad carpenter. One
cannot live on Italian alone [sigh].

 CS> I'm curious to try out a simple smoker unit but never have.  I make
 CS> lots of things though from all over.  Probably California least
 CS> impacted my cooking style (they dont really have one as far as i can
 CS> tell).

Heck no...everyone 'eats out' or has frozen dinners in California... :o)
There's no time to cook, then stop and eat...

 CS> I only refined some crockpot things there really.  Cooked rather
 CS> 'American Standard Southern' with some Hawaii (real Hawaii,
 CS> not ersatz add a pinnaple bit and it's called Hawaiian).

I do that, but it's just on pizza.

 CS> Tonights dinner was close to American.  Rice with Mahi and butter
 CS> plus a little 'bannana sauce' (a simple mild 'hot sauce'), canned
 CS> asparagus (we happen to like it canned), sliced cucumbers with canned
 CS> black olives (ok, a little California slipped in), and fresh grapes
 CS> for dessert.  They have these really lovely dark purple huge ones
 CS> here, a bit like the muskydine. Season for them now so we are getting
 CS> our fill of them.  Delicious...

They shouldn't, but grapes go to waste here. We buy them and then either
forget we did or 'save' them for something later.

 CS> The rice with Mahi isnt anything all that odd.  It's just sticky rice
 CS> (medium grain calrose with a little extra water), with a little
 CS> butter and a dollop of a mild 'hot' sauce then fish bits (cold) added
 CS> to the top.  I used to have something like it in South Carolina
 CS> though then it was catfish or trout and the 'bannana sauce' then
 CS> would have been ketchup mixed with a little tobasco.

I can't stand uncooked or cold fish...

 CS> If you see Bannana sauce at your local grocery, give it a try.
 CS> Jufran Banana sauce (one N on the label on the bottle) is the one i
 CS> have just now. Suspend your disbelief for a moment.  It doesnt taste
 CS> at all like bannanas. No tomato in there but is a decent sub for
 CS> ketchup.  Lasts forever in the fridge so a worthy thing to have
 CS> about.

Hmmm, I'll have to look for that. Might go good with hamburgers.

 CS> No soup this time.  We had udon for lunch (fat noodles in soup base)
 CS> which we 'beefed up' with kangkoon (local type of spinach, called
 CS> Hollow Stem, kang kong, and several other things where you are).
 CS> With the udon, we had more of the grapes and the last of Don's squid
 CS> special, so lunch was pretty 'Asian' I guess.

 CS> My crockpot is busy making pork stock for a neighbor (we get to keep
 CS> some which is the trade).  It's a heavy veggie type and you filter
 CS> out the veggies later which then get added in bits to store-bought
 CS> noodle packs (ramen is too simple a name for these but might be what
 CS> you would relate to best).  More on that in the cooking echo <g>.

Nancy might like that 'ramen' stuff, she's the only one who eats noodles
in soup. I'd eat it without the noodles though, if it hadn't been cooked
with the pig, however. :o)

 CS> Roy, my cooking is also self defense.  I have cholestrol problems so
 CS> had to reduce that, sugar problems (not diabetic, other type and
 CS> genetic but need diabetic almost level caution though i can cheat in
 CS> the short term if i dont do it too often),

That cholesterol problem runs in my family, but my parents and siblings
suffer from it more than I do. I attribute my lower levels to my own diet,
which doesn't allow the fat content in food that they do. I've noticed
over the years that they eat midwestern corn fed beef, pig and whatever,
including the fat. Mine was California beef and I've never eaten any
pig and I hate chicken.  They never trim the fat off of anything. I trim
every bit of it when it's on my plate. Their cholesterol was in the 600 to
900 range when mine was less than 220. Oh, and they salted food after it
hit their plate, before they tasted it. The only salt on my food was what
came naturally. Nancy nor I add salt to our cooking or if we do, it's very
little just to get a different taste.

 CS>  and Don has salt-reactive high blood pressure.  You can eat really
 CS> good even sugar-free, fat-low, and salt-low if you make it yourself.

Yes, you can.

 CS> prepared things though, dont work well.

You mean the boxed or canned stuff on the shelves...right.

 CS> Don would keel over dead if I used canned chicken broth all the time
 CS> (too salty) but he can have all he wants as long as i make it at home
 CS> as it tastes better yet is salt-free (we add touches at the table of
 CS> othe things to make that work right).

We do the opposite, we add a salt substitute at the table if there
isn't a taste of it in the food already...

Hmmmm, dunno why, but this very friendly, talkative lady about my age got
in line behind me while on a quick-trip 'ten items or less' to the store.
She was admonshing me for the box of cheddar crackers and I forget what
else was in the basket that bothered her. Guess she was some kind of
health nut and I looked to her like I was a cracker freak. The crackers
were for the snack tray at our BBQ a couple of weeks ago...


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