A good day, I got a lot of cooking done and a few more frets on the bass guitar. I started with a batch of spaghetti noodles to go with the rest of the bolognese sauce I made yesterday. I’m planning on bringing in a big batch for Tuesday lunch to share. Maybe with garlic bread, a Caprese salad, tomato, mozzarella, basil and balsamic dressing. I bought some mozzarella balls in water today for it.
Next I made a big batch of chicken veggie soup, onion, mushrooms, garlic, garden herbs, chicken breast diced, celery, carrots, cabbage, green beans from the garden, zucchini, a small eggplant and TJ’s O chicken broth plus a dash of wine. At the end I added a little tube tomato paste to finish it and a handful of chopped spaghetti noddles. Four and a half buckets for lunches, The half will go good with a Nathan’s hot dog.
Next up, I bought a fat broccoli head as it’s in season. I cut it up separating the stem slices and florets in the steamer. I have an idea, Bacon. I diced up the half pack of thick cut farmers market bacon and fried it up in Dad’s iron pan. Onion, a sweet small one from Steve at the farmers market, perfect size. In the Emeril pot with bacon fat to cook, add garden herbs and garlic (my garlic, from Dad’s stock, all day). Flour to make a roux, add half and half slowly. TJ’s chicken stock slowly. Grated mild cheddar cheese, a little at a time to melt in. Add the broccoli cut up stems and a few florets, using the immersion blender from Sally’s I chopped it all up. It needs more cheese, grated and added slowly. Add the florets and bacon, bring to simmer, off. This is fantastic Broccoli and Cheese with Bacon Soup. Two buckets and a bowl for now, way better than the cafeteria serves, yum.
I went out and picked a bunch of small tomatoes from the patch and divided them into four packs to share at work.
I still need to process the cornichon pickles I prepped yesterday. I bought tarragon, really didn’t need to as it’s growing well. I picked a lot of thyme I have too much of. Chopped Steve’s onions, garlic in larger chunks, mustard seeds, to the vineyard for small grape leaves. I tasted the prepped gherkins, mild salt, I’ll soak them, then add extra to the fifty fifty vinegar water solution to keep them balanced. A grape leaf, garlic, onion, thyme, a lot of tarragon, mustard seed and pickles, jammed in tight. I got two pints and two cups processed. I spaced it and cooked them too long at 15 minutes, hoping they’re not too done. I’ll try a small batch soon.
I went out and worked on the bass guitar frets, got up to number 18, just six more to go. It’s a slow process, set the fret in the groove even, mark it to length with the file, file the tang back, cut with the file to the mark, lightly rounded, then sand it all smooth with 400 grit sand paper both ends. Hammer it in the rounding jig to a fair curve, then hammer it down using the arched piece of wood. This process works. It takes time for each fret. It would have been easier to set the frets before mounting the fingerboard to the neck, next time, on the ukulele.
I’m really happy with the way the ukulele neck is coming along, the whole uke is coming along nicely.
I went out back and picked some Granny Smith apples in abundance, and nearing the end of the pears, but I got a full bag. More treasures for work.
A fine day.
8shotoflove8 