Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I was promised a recession.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This fight is for everything.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Busy Day On the Homefront

Busy Day On the Homefront

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So much canning!!! Breyona and I started the day by going out for a nice breakfast. It never ceases to amaze me how much that girl can eat- she inhaled an omelet the size of my head and a quart of chocolate milk.

Today we pickled another half bushel of cucumbers, and will let them sit for just a few days before I can them, and I also put down another 24 heads of cabbage and filled up two of the crocks, so they can sit for a couple weeks and ferment.

I made a big crock of my favorite “special” sauerkrauts that is actually my favorite concoction I have come up with the last few years. I use half regular cabbage, have red cabbage, cut them and macerate them with salt like normal, but I also peel a bunch of fresh horseradish and a couple dozen radishes, throw it in the blender, and mix it in with the cabbage.

The stuff that comes out of the blender could melt your damned eyebrows and damned sure will clear your sinuses, but after fermenting for two weeks, it really mellows, and what you end up with is a sauerkraut with a nice horseradish flavor and just a touch of heat. It’s one of my favorites and my friends Harry and Chatman love it and “ordered” a half dozen quarts. I’m making a dozen quarts over all for them this year.

Also picked a bunch of blackberries from the back yard. Have to run those over to dad tomorrow since they are his favorites.

Next week- PEACHES.

Somewhat related, have any of you had any success growing your own sprouts? They disappeared from the grocery for several years because of e. coli concerns, but now I see them back, and thy are very spendy- 3-4 bucks for a little container and it is always in plastic which I try to avoid. Wondering if any of you have some secret way of growing them.

It’s a nice Friday night for a movie, which means I am going to spend the next hour trying to pick one then go to bed half way through.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    MagdaInBlack

    I’d love your special blend sauerkraut.

    I saw something the other day you’ll appreciate, John. I know I did.

    “A large gathering of people is called a fuckthat.”

  5. 5.

    Danielx

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Excellent description, though I’ve also heard that described as a “clusterfuck”, also “goat rodeo”. Any large gathering, say hundred and up, will involve somebody not acting right.

  6. 6.

    Peter

    There are screen lids for wide-mouth canning jars designed for sprouting. They work pretty well, provided you remember to rinse and drain them twice a day until they’re ready. It’s a cheap and effective method.

    Try mustard seeds in your kraut sometime! You get a similar horseradishy heat and it kills on a brat or similar.

  7. 7.

    West of the Rockies

    Breyona probably has the metabolism of a hummingbird at her age.  I’m amazed at how much I once could eat.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    I also put down another 24 heads of cabbage

    Yeah, those cabbage uprisings can be murder.

    ;)

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    I sprout my beans and legumes, harder to do in the winter than in the summer. I don’t even know many of their names in English.

    Mung beans, matki, tiny black chick peas (chana) etc..

  12. 12.

    CaseyL

    Harry and Chatman are your friends who run a B&B, aren’t they?  How wonderful that they love your ‘kraut; do they put it on the menu for guests?  (“Sauerkraut that’ll get your attention, clear your sinuses, and make you love life!”)

    You should write a cookbook.  “Cooking for Curmudgeons.”

  13. 13.

    Leto

    The special kraut sounds really, really good. We can only hope he starts an online order form it.

  14. 14.

    HumboldtBlue

    Mmmm, I can smell mom’s blueberry pie now. I love blueberries.

    We kids still joke about the indentured servitude our parents put us through back in those 70s summers when they took us to the local fields to pick blueberries and strawberries. You’d have thunk we had been sold into bondage as we toiled for what? An hour and a half filling up baskets with fresh fruit that mom would turn into amazing pies and jams.

    We moaned, we bitched, we complained and mom lost it one day after one of my older brothers started singing “li’l black Sambo” something or other and she could whoop an ass too and his ass was firmly in the sights of her wrath.

    Then again, we were a large family that took a movie night to see Song of the South and of course we picked up on every tune from that racist epic, but mom never appreciated our attitudes.

    I miss mom.

  16. 16.

    zhena gogolia

    So I’m assuming The Hobbit is terrible, right? I’m running out of Richard Armitage stuff to watch.

  17. 17.

    Honus

    @raven: when?  And why?  I mean it’s nice, but I’m only going for the family reunion.  Did you ever get out to the Alpha Club or Figaretti’s?
    My aunt, who lived in Wheeling, did take me there to day camp back in the 60s

  18. 18.

    Benw

    Yes! For indoor sprouts we use https://www.hamama.com/

    With their kit you can grow sprouts and microgreens easily. We’ve had success with sprouts, wheatgrass and some other little guys.

    Who’s Breyona?

  19. 19.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Peter: I just use cheesecloth.

    And I was thinking the e coli threat was from purchased sprouts. Seeds not so much so long as you follow good cleaning rules.

  20. 20.

    HumboldtBlue

    @raven: ​ 
    If you haven’t read yet, Ian Toll’s Pacific War Trilogy is very good. I’m on volume three, and it’s one I will definitely re-read.

  21. 21.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Danielx: As a confirmed introvert, I’ve said “fuckthat” more often than not to large gatherings, regardless of CF potential ?

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    Culled from somewhere on the ‘net a goodly amount of years ago.

    Brussels Sprout Kimchi

    4¼ oz. salt
    1½ lb. small Brussels sprouts, trimmed, halved
    ½ small onion, coarsely chopped
    2 scallions, sliced
    4 garlic cloves
    ¼ cup Korean red pepper powder or ⅛ cup flakes (or to taste)
    2 Tbsp. fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)
    2 Tbsp. Sriracha
    1 Tbsp. grated peeled ginger
    1 Tbsp. soy sauce
    2 tsp. coriander seeds, crushed
    2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed
    .

    Combine 3.5 oz. salt and 2 quarts warm water in a large bowl, whisking to dissolve salt. Add Brussels sprouts and top with a plate to keep sprouts submerged. Let sit at room temperature 4 hours; drain. Rinse, drain, and place in a large bowl.

    Pulse onion, scallions, garlic, pepper, fish sauce, Sriracha, ginger, soy sauce, and coriander and fennel seeds in a food processor until smooth. Add to bowl with Brussels sprouts and toss. Transfer mixture to two 32-oz. canning jars, packing down to eliminate air gaps.

    Combine remaining salt and 1 quart warm water in a large bowl, whisking to dissolve salt. Add to jars to cover Brussels sprouts, leaving at least 1” headspace. Cover jars with lids. Let sit out of direct sunlight at room temperature until kimchi tastes tangy and releases bubbles when stirred, 3–5 days. Chill.

    Kimchi can be made 2 months ahead (flavor will deepen). Keep chilled.

  24. 24.

    Hungry Joe

    Peaches just starting to come in (San Diego, about five miles from the coast) — so many so fast that I’ve already used the dehydrator on about a dozen. Apricots are gone; figs (Black Mission) are next. Avocados looking good. Meyer lemons always on tap, as are oranges. Mexican limes coming back, pineapple guava about to produce for the first time, still a few kumquats left — we got around 1200 this year, off a fairly compact tree. Tomatoes only doing so-so, but somehow the chard, usually fried by May, is still rip-roaring. Even a little lettuce left because it’s in standing beds under a pergola.

    And we have a smallish back yard. Yeah, it’s … crowded.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    Just found out that they are opening the blueberry barrens for picking at no charge. I’m going to head over there tomorrow and see if I can get enough to make a pie.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Presuming am awake when the morning thread drops tomorrow, got a link for a little something from WW2 warming up in the batter’s box.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    It’s all good, man

    Mr. Bob Odenkirk @mrbobodenkirk 6h
    Hi.  It’s Bob. Thank you. To my family and friends who have surrounded me this week. And for the outpouring of love from everyone who expressed concern and care for me.  It’s overwhelming. But I feel the love and it means so much.

  31. 31.

    Danielx

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I feel you. In some ways this past eon wasn’t all that great a crisis except for being shut up with the same people (family) for too long and being afraid to go into the local library.

    But I did see the first live music I have heard in a year and a half over July 4th weekend. Was a Grateful Dead cover band, but a really GOOD cover band, thankyewverymuch – no wandering jams. They – band called Hyryder, minor plug- are playing the same venue this weekend on the anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s birthday – yeah, that kind of place.

    And thanks to these unvaccinated assholes I’m afraid to go and I…am…so…pissed.

  32. 32.

    RaflW

    “It’s a nice Friday night for a movie, which means I am going to spend the next hour trying to pick one then go to bed half way through.”

    This is why I watch single episodes of  ~1 hr serial shows. I only have to pick among the dozen or so I have in rotation on streaming, and it’s the right size commitment. I think the last feature film I watched was a couple months ago. I suppose I’d see one more often if I felt comfortable going to my favorite bargain second run cinema, but alas.

    (The other main place I’d see 2-4 movies a year was on the usually two per year round trips transatlantic. Again, not happening these days.)

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @RaflW

    “It’s a nice Friday night for a movie, which means I am going to spend the next hour trying to pick one then go to bed half way through.”

    First Zeroth world problem.

    ;)

  35. 35.

    Hungry Joe

    @mrmoshpotato: Happened to my sister in San Rafael last week. Peach tree loaded … and the next morning she found it stripped. At least 200, she said. They filed a police report, so I’m sure the thieves will be apprehended soon, and the booty returned.

  36. 36.

    RaflW

    @NotMax: I mean, it’s true. OTOH, the MN Dept of Health is warning people to not go outside or, for parts of the next few days, to not even exert ourselves indoors.

    The Manitoba wildfire smoke isn’t too bad right now, but broke all time state records in the past few days.

  37. 37.

    StringOnAStick

    My plans for tomorrow include the farmers market so I can make some chutney to can.  It’s an old Joy of Cooking recipe that disappeared from more recent versions.  A guest from Nepal pronounced it worthy many years ago, so maybe it’s close enough to authentic.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @MagdaInBlack

    Back during the 80s a friend visiting came back one night raving about a wonderful bar he’d found. Soon as he mentioned the name I explained why it’s earned reputation as (to put it mildly) a rough and tumble establishment made it a place I couldn’t be dragged to.

    Sure enough, he went back the following night and during the evening someone burst in the door and shot the guy sitting two seats away from him in the leg.

    (Place also made a great Sicilian pizza; even so i would think thrice before popping in only long enough to grab take-out.)

  39. 39.

    CatHairEverywhere

    I love the Spout People. Small business, high-quality seed blends for sprouting, and great growing advice.

    https://sproutpeople.org/growing-sprouts/

    I’ve done quart mason jars with the mesh lid, layered spouting containers, and some other sprouter I can’t remember. I think I like the mason jars the best

    Here are the lids I’ve used. They wash well, and have lasted for years.

    https://www.masontops.com/products/bean-screen-bean-sprouting-lids-for-mason-jars

  40. 40.

    Richard

    @zhena gogolia: I would have to watch it again. Only saw it once, and it was not very good. It was like eating leftovers, and the vendors were saying here we have the scraps. I’d have to say it was not a very good movie.

  46. 46.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: I don’t know which chutney recipe StringOnAStick is using. My copy of The Joy of Cooking (1975 revision) has four: apple or green tomato; curried apricot; peach, mango or kiwi; and basic.  The basic is apple and green tomato.

  47. 47.

    craigie

    I am going to spend the next hour trying to pick one then go to bed half way through.

    This is definitely my pattern, and I don’t even have to wait for Friday!

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    Not gonna lie, after never being able to nail the Hard Day’s Night guitar solo in Beatles Rock Band it’s a little messed up to learn that George Harrison played it at half speed an octave lower and then sped up the tape.

    — Daniel Radosh (@danielradosh) July 31, 2021

    Tina S. could probably do it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Morzer

    I just want to know which of you jackals taught Cole to use fancy words like “macerate”. Come on now, don’t be shy. Confess and be… well, not forgiven, exactly.

  51. 51.

    Origuy

    A long time ago, I got hooked on Cornish pasties, the traditional lunch of Cornish miners. The place that made the best closed down and moved to Elko, NV. Most of the pubs around here are Irish, rather than English; you’d think they’d have pasties in Celtic solidarity, but no. One English pub that did have them closed down recently.

    So I was happy if a little confused to find a food truck in East San Jose that had them, spelled pastes, along with similar pies of chicken and pork mole, along with fruit empanadas. Turns out that after the Mexican Revolution of the 1820s, the new impoverished Mexican state rented some silver and gold mines to an English company called the Company of the Adventurer Knights. They imported several hundred Cornish miners and their families to work the mines in the Mexican highlands of Hidalgo. While many of the men had their wives to cook for them, others were single and hired the local women, who learned to cook the pasties. The local women adapted the new food to their own tastes and even though the miners went back to Cornwall when the mines played out, the cuisine remains in the area around the town of Real del Monte.

  52. 52.

    John Revolta

    @Another Scott: They did the same thing with the keyboard solo on “In My Life”.

    When Adrian Belew was playing with Bowie, Bowie and Brian Eno didn’t bother to tell him that some of the guitar solos on Bowie’s current album had been assembled bit by bit in the studio. So, Belew just went ahead and learned them.

  54. 54.

    Chacal Charles Caltrop

    @Hungry Joe: this is why everyone who doesn’t live in California hates those who do. Meyer lemons are a once a year prized specialty item where I live

  55. 55.

    sukabi

    Wow John you’ve been busy… I’ve grown sprouts, it easy…I use one of these, https://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Natural-Products-Sproutamo-Sprouter/dp/B019P0QJM8/ref=mp_s_a_1_21?dchild=1&keywords=easy+sprouting+kit&qid=1627704439&sr=8-21

     

    There are several sprout blends you can get as well….

    https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sprouting+seeds+mix&sprefix=sprouting+see&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_5_13

     

    Only takes a couple of days and are much better than store bought…

  56. 56.

    BeautifulPlumage

    I used English cucumbers to make bread & butter pickles for the first time. I didn’t have tumeric but I did have a little packet of Penzeys curry mix. Gave them just a little bite. Yum.

     

    I also made pickled onions from thin sliced red onions. Also yum. Great for those of us who don’t want to go the canning route.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    OT. Sweat-soaked clothing must be in abundance at mission control rooms.

    The International Space Station unexpectedly shifted in orbit on Thursday when thrusters on a newly docked Russian module began firing uncontrollably. The thrusters reoriented the football-field-sized laboratory’s position by as much as 45 degrees, NASA said. The station is back under control, a NASA spokesperson said, and its seven-person crew of astronauts, including three US astronauts, are safe, according to the agency.

    The erroneous thruster firings from Russia’s Nauka module, a new 23-ton multipurpose laboratory, began a few hours after it docked to the ISS at 12:25PM ET, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said. Mission control at NASA’s astronaut headquarters in Houston first noticed the space station deviate from its normal position a few minutes later, triggering an automatic alert to the astronauts on board. By 12:42PM ET, the space station had lost control of its positioning, NASA’s ISS manager Joel Montalbano said during a press conference on Thursday.
    [snip]
    “Just to update you guys,” mission control communicator Drew Morgan told US astronauts from Houston, “right now we’re in a little bit of a tug of war between thrusters firing from both the [service module] and [Nauka]. We are sorting through the best course of action right now.” Source

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    Schlock alert!

    The Swarm pokes up its head on TCM at 4:15 a.m. Eastern. Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray.

    Absolutely dreadful.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Yeah, TCM has been trying to “modernize” past about the early ’70s, usually late at night, and they don’t always choose . . . wisely. I guess it’s based on the libraries they have available. Admittedly, a lot of their “old” stuff is not that great, but it often has some historical interest. The Swarm? Yeah, no.​

  68. 68.

    Mary G

    Bought four citrus trees a couple of years ago to grow in pots in the driveway. Lime and two tangerines doing well, Meyer Lemon right in the middle died a slow death. Will try again in March.

  72. 72.

    Origuy

    @Chacal Charles Caltrop: I’ll put that on my list of books to check out. I’m not a big fan of gothic horror, but something non-European might be different. I couldn’t find it in Spanish; I’m at the point where I should try reading actual books. I got the info about the Mexican pastes from a Mexican food and drink site called Chiles y Maiz.

  75. 75.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    The Hobbit are a trio of great Warhammer movies, with a lot of really cool action and fantasy settings.  They are a fantastically bad and downright offensive adaptation of Tolkien’s book The Hobbit.  They reverse the book’s anti-war message, add a lot of stuff not in the book, and shove in female representation only to reduce those women to love interests.

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    @Origuy:

    That’s so weird, but those oddball cultural blends pop up in the West. Was tickled to learn of the German crossover with mariachi music, an influence from German settlers in the Tex-Mex region in the 19th century (can’t do oompa without tubas and accordions!). IIUC it’s also why Mexican beer tends to be lagers.

    The Nevada City-Grass Valley area still has Cornish roots from the hard rock gold mining days, and pasties could still be a regional specialty. Don’t get up there as much as I once did. (Pasties were a practical lunch in the mines.)

    Can’t count the times I’ve heard people pronouncing it “paste-ees” and getting a laugh out of the waitress.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    All-in-one oompa band!

    ;)

    Distantly related, the boomba*, and the briefest of stunned nods to the lagerphone.

    *Closest tavern to where we were in the Poconos had a jukebox 90% filled with polka music** and it was not uncommon to be in the room with a dozen boomba-equipped patrons all trying to play along with the records.

    **The rest were selections such as the Andrews Sisters (could probably still belt out Rum and Coca-Cola by heart), and the sole concession to modernity, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Every time that came on the surly bear of a bartender/owner would reach over to the remote volume control underneath the bar and turn the sound down to 1.

  81. 81.

    Msb

    John, with your liking for spices, have you tried making kimchi? Or are you already doing so?

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    @Yutsano

    10 cent draft beer and the best (and free!) shuffleboard table for miles around allowed forgiveness of a raft of sins. Oh, and the chip steaks, similar to a sloppy joe sandwich only served more dry, overstuffed inside a full-size hoagie bun, topped with a tomato-y, peppery sauce.

    The song? One couldn’t help but commit it to memory after sitting through it for the 1000th time.

    ;)

  86. 86.

    JoyceH

    This is so weird! I haven’t done sprouts for a few years, and just today I was thinking I wanted to try some again – I was just at Amazon looking at their sprouting seed listings, come over here and people are talking about sprouting. It’s in the Gestalt, or something.

    But something that’s been puzzling me lately – when talking about the new info about the Delta variant, news folk keep telling us impressively that it’s ‘as infectious as chicken pox!’. Like it’s just common knowledge how infectious chicken pox is? I had chicken pox as a kid, but I have no notion in the world how infectious it is, compared to other infections.

  88. 88.

    prostratedragon

    @Steeplejack:  Late night Fridays are cult classics,  and in some cases definitely klassicks.  Next month they break the pattern though,  with all-day star festivals.  Mitchum,  Jane Fonda,  Heflin, and Oberon.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    It’s a cool and cloudy morning in central Virginia. Finally getting a break from the hot weather. We may get a little break from the drought tonight.

  90. 90.

    J R in WV

    I had a dentist appointment Thursday afternoon, was for 3:45, didn’t call for me until more like 4:30, so was really late finishing up. I’m getting a guard made, I’ve crushed several crowns, creating sharp edges which can cut my tongue. Stewart used a hi speed diamond tool to take off the sharp edges, and then came two trays full of rubber goo. ample gobs of it.

    At least  modern plastics tech allows that stuff to set up quicker than it used to. Anyway, late that night going on bed time I went to floss… there was tiny bits of rubber in between my teeth. It took forever to floss that crap out of my mouth!

    Anyways, after a long afternoon with Dr Stew, we cursed TFG, SFBs together, snarling about the plague and TFG’s total inability to do anything correct in regard to anything that matters. We simultaneously started a rant about how could anyone run 3 or 4 casinos into the ground in Atlantic City!!

    So then, not being in a mood to cook, I went to the best local Indian restaurant and got their top two favorite dishes, with nan and raita, and chutney and pakoras, Saag with lamb and Vindaloo chicken. Was a great sweaty summertime dinner.

    Then last night I thin sliced some left over steak and put that in the two batches of left over sauce with some Greek yogurt and Jamaican Jerk curry and onion, which I then simmered with some chicken broth. It was much better the second time, more tender, more variety in the spicey flavor. Plus I didn’t have to cook as much as if I made it all from scratch.

    Cole, you could make a good living just manufacturing and canning up your sauerkraut recipes, peaches, pickles, etc. My grandma made a mean green tomato pickle chow-chow with dill spice in, and big flat beans, bits of red pepper, sliced onions, vinegar and salt and garlic, was great. We mostly used it with bean dishes, white beans and ham, pintos and ham, or bacon.

    Yum, thems was the days!​

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