August 19th:
Had a great lunch with B. from yoga. We celebrated our 10th anniversary graduating as trained yoga teachers! J We talked about what we knew of the others who were in our class at Desert Song. She still teaches there and I still go there for classes.
We sat at the bar which was quite comfortable because people were waiting to be seated at tables. She found the seats and they worked out well. We had these wonderful veggie burgers, and a creamed corn with some kind of curry and cilantro. I want that recipe! The burgers and the corn as a side dish were delicious. Their Cole slaw was pretty good, too. I have leftovers for dinner or lunch tomorrow.
Then she remarked on how the restaurant, Houston’s, didn’t look like there was a recession but there were lots and lots of empty commercial spaces in that mall/complex. There used to be small retail shops and offices and businesses but so much of it is empty now. This is true for all kinds of commercial properties these days; the large fancy ones and the little neighborhood strip malls (even if the strip malls have been completely redone like one near me.) The two other restaurants in that complex seemed to have a good business going today at lunch.
Her law firm has had revenue coming in slow down a lot in the last year. I don’t think they’ve had any layoffs there though.
“Excessive heat “for today and Thursday. But the temps are supposed to be “only” 110 and not 115 or so!
Lows sweeping in this weekend to lower temps. Dark is here by 7:15 these days.
August 21:
Overcast day and getting more overcast as the day goes by due to low and moisture coming into the state from the south in Mexico. It is a good day to try the hotter solar oven to see how it does on a day like this. Global Sun oven gets a little hotter than the Tulsi especially on days like this, I bet.
So, I chopped up zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, an ear of corn split in two, celery and carrots and olive oil, salt and pepper and a little garlic. The pepper and zucchini needed to be used in the next few days anyway day or so. Anymore, letting produce go bad seems a terrible thing to do to me especially since I have the easy way of cooking solar. Also, I made a brown rice and split pea dish. These are both in the Global Sun oven, rice dish on the bottom and the veggie sin the sun oven roaster pan on top of it.
I figure I’ll just leave it all out there for longer than it would take with a bright sunny day. Since no meat dish is involved, I’m sure it will cook just fine left out there long enough.
Later in afternoon: sun came out in full force about an hour after I put the food out.
Notes on State budget situation, From PBS program, Horizon on August 20th current
State Treasurer is explaining Arizona budget situation.
-State is broke. General Fund borrowed 386 million dollars to keep the lights on as of August 19.
-need balanced budget signed by Gov. or next Tuesday, we’ll need to borrow again and more.
-State gov can get 5-6 million by interagency borrowing. State agencies can borrow from each other but still need to leave enough money in each agency to fund that agency.
-Banks don’t want to lend to us unless we can pay it back.
-Will be running out of money by the end of October without a budget.
-Takes 6-8 weeks to set up credit facility for State to borrow money.
-some banks may not want to participate.
-Our rating is on a watch of some kind because of budget problems. This causes higher interest if we borrow and our rating is downgraded.
-If no resolution in budget by end of October, we might end up like California with IOUs, delayed payments, etc. Gov will have to decide who gets paid etc.
-New budget doesn’t allow for vote on possibly raising the sales tax in Nov. Why don’t these fools, Republican fools! (is my bias showing here?) in the legislature want the people to vote on this?? They can blame us for voting higher taxes in then and they can avoid any blame! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
-we had last year in 2008 at this time 650 million dollars in the bank. State is spending at the same rate as last year.
all for now, Shamba
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
August 1-3, 2009
I have to confess I helped the consumer economy along a bit by consuming a useful utensil—Global sun oven with the discount I got from using Chile Chews name. I also got one 3 qt pan to use with it. I don’t have anything quite like that in my pots and pans.
This thing is really easy to use after using my Tulsi oven. I'm pretty sure from looking at it that it's easy to use and I will be able to cook the more traditional mid-Western, farm like, WASPy cooking that I learned from my Mom! The Tulsi isn’t hard to use but with it’s flatter design and the pans it came with, I had to adjust the way I cooked foods and what foods I could use in it.
With the Tulsi and after reading food/cooking/prep blogs I have tried more new foods to me and ways of cooking them in the past 18 months than I have in my whole previous life! Couscous, quinoa, beans, lentils, various nonyeast breads, some egg dishes beyond scrambled or hard boiled and all kinds of vegetables I never ate--or knew I had eaten. That would be chards, kales, collard greens and winter squashes. I've liked most of them. The greens just go well in salads and sometimes in vegetable soups. But mostly beans and butternut and acorn squash aren't going to be my favorites. I could cultivate the taste of acorn squash, I think, it smells so good cooking. However, split peas and lentils with veggies and/or rice are just fine.
After reading some other bloggers who deal with solar cookers, I realize how easy I have it using these ovens where I live. On my north patio, where I cook from mid May to mid October, it’s perfectly flat, I have sun all afternoon with no trees/bldgs anything to block the sunlight at all. I have sun well overhead mostly coming straight down. The sun does move across the patio during the day but the middle of the patio close to the north wall gets sun for a good 4-5 hours. I put the ovens out there with stuff in them and they hardly have to be adjusted at all June until after early/mid September. After end of October I’ll have to cook in the front yard. I didn’t do any solar oven cooking after mid November last year until this June. I’m going to try to do more this winter and see how it works.
There’s plenty of unshaded yard to use although the sun angles are much different and my neighbors can see what I’m doing. ;) Two nice African sumacs give us shade and a pleasant yard in this common area. Some neighbors cook on their front porches or use the barbecue that’s near the pool so several of us see each other cooking outside.
Chicken breasts (2) and some liquid I put in with them were in the big oven for 2-3 hours. Great! They didn’t need to be in quite that long but I put them out and did some stuff and took a nap and it was 3 hours later.
Tomorrow, I’m going to use the liquid, maybe with some soup stock I’ve got on hand, or maybe not, and make a soup.
The next Day:
Pot of broth from yesterday and various fresh veggies and it’s in the oven. Wish I had some crackers of some kind. This came out pretty well except it was more stew than soup!
Monday Aug 3: Put the last two pieces of “old” frozen chicken in the GSO to cook. That’s the last of the frozen chicken parts, breasts, legs, thighs, whatever. In for 3 hours, that was more than enough to cook them thoroughly. The cats will get some of it for dinner. Easy to smell it cooking when I go out the patio doors!
AIP thoughts on Monday:
1. Keep on with as much solar cooking as possible through cooler weather even if it’s out in the front common area.
Have to watch where I’ll set oven as the cats will probably want to check it out. So, no balancing it/them on the porch wall; put it on the ground or on the small table out front. I’m at the end of the building so it’s probable if it’s on the sidewalk it won’t be in anyone’s way except mine.
2. Keep closer track of BTUs this winter. I’m sure I could get this usage down some more.
3. I ‘ve hardly used hot water for bathing this summer. Water in cold taps is plenty warm for showers most days July-August from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
4. Idea: Keep plastic pitcher available to put water in that is “extra” at the kitchen sink. It’s surprising how much water this is.
5. When rewiring, put some outside outlets in from and back, please.
6. Idea: Could schedule using electric oven for more things at the same time.
7. Idea: For refrigerator, could schedule taking things out and putting things in instead of so many individual grabs from the fridge. Tricky!
8. When I’m cooking breakfast, either hot or cooler weather, I’ve been bringing cereal to proper temperature and then taking it off the burner to finish cooking or turning the burner off altogether. Also, I’m using the pot lids while this off the heat is taking place.
9. Idea: Have a whole energy audit done? Sometimes utilities will do free audits; but I don’t know if mine would do this.
enough for now, Shamba
This thing is really easy to use after using my Tulsi oven. I'm pretty sure from looking at it that it's easy to use and I will be able to cook the more traditional mid-Western, farm like, WASPy cooking that I learned from my Mom! The Tulsi isn’t hard to use but with it’s flatter design and the pans it came with, I had to adjust the way I cooked foods and what foods I could use in it.
With the Tulsi and after reading food/cooking/prep blogs I have tried more new foods to me and ways of cooking them in the past 18 months than I have in my whole previous life! Couscous, quinoa, beans, lentils, various nonyeast breads, some egg dishes beyond scrambled or hard boiled and all kinds of vegetables I never ate--or knew I had eaten. That would be chards, kales, collard greens and winter squashes. I've liked most of them. The greens just go well in salads and sometimes in vegetable soups. But mostly beans and butternut and acorn squash aren't going to be my favorites. I could cultivate the taste of acorn squash, I think, it smells so good cooking. However, split peas and lentils with veggies and/or rice are just fine.
After reading some other bloggers who deal with solar cookers, I realize how easy I have it using these ovens where I live. On my north patio, where I cook from mid May to mid October, it’s perfectly flat, I have sun all afternoon with no trees/bldgs anything to block the sunlight at all. I have sun well overhead mostly coming straight down. The sun does move across the patio during the day but the middle of the patio close to the north wall gets sun for a good 4-5 hours. I put the ovens out there with stuff in them and they hardly have to be adjusted at all June until after early/mid September. After end of October I’ll have to cook in the front yard. I didn’t do any solar oven cooking after mid November last year until this June. I’m going to try to do more this winter and see how it works.
There’s plenty of unshaded yard to use although the sun angles are much different and my neighbors can see what I’m doing. ;) Two nice African sumacs give us shade and a pleasant yard in this common area. Some neighbors cook on their front porches or use the barbecue that’s near the pool so several of us see each other cooking outside.
Chicken breasts (2) and some liquid I put in with them were in the big oven for 2-3 hours. Great! They didn’t need to be in quite that long but I put them out and did some stuff and took a nap and it was 3 hours later.
Tomorrow, I’m going to use the liquid, maybe with some soup stock I’ve got on hand, or maybe not, and make a soup.
The next Day:
Pot of broth from yesterday and various fresh veggies and it’s in the oven. Wish I had some crackers of some kind. This came out pretty well except it was more stew than soup!
Monday Aug 3: Put the last two pieces of “old” frozen chicken in the GSO to cook. That’s the last of the frozen chicken parts, breasts, legs, thighs, whatever. In for 3 hours, that was more than enough to cook them thoroughly. The cats will get some of it for dinner. Easy to smell it cooking when I go out the patio doors!
AIP thoughts on Monday:
1. Keep on with as much solar cooking as possible through cooler weather even if it’s out in the front common area.
Have to watch where I’ll set oven as the cats will probably want to check it out. So, no balancing it/them on the porch wall; put it on the ground or on the small table out front. I’m at the end of the building so it’s probable if it’s on the sidewalk it won’t be in anyone’s way except mine.
2. Keep closer track of BTUs this winter. I’m sure I could get this usage down some more.
3. I ‘ve hardly used hot water for bathing this summer. Water in cold taps is plenty warm for showers most days July-August from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
4. Idea: Keep plastic pitcher available to put water in that is “extra” at the kitchen sink. It’s surprising how much water this is.
5. When rewiring, put some outside outlets in from and back, please.
6. Idea: Could schedule using electric oven for more things at the same time.
7. Idea: For refrigerator, could schedule taking things out and putting things in instead of so many individual grabs from the fridge. Tricky!
8. When I’m cooking breakfast, either hot or cooler weather, I’ve been bringing cereal to proper temperature and then taking it off the burner to finish cooking or turning the burner off altogether. Also, I’m using the pot lids while this off the heat is taking place.
9. Idea: Have a whole energy audit done? Sometimes utilities will do free audits; but I don’t know if mine would do this.
enough for now, Shamba
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