Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[clo]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

Tonight it was neck of lamb fillets

A local rancher has those and I bought a pack. Looking forward to doing something like you did which looks fantastic. And we're in Seattle right now and I'm listening to it thunder and pour down rain.

[FlyingScotSailors]

25 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

The outage ended up lasting 30 hours! And amazingly, all of our fish survived. So that was a relief. I can't really figure out how that happened. We lost a fish a few years ago after just 8 hours with no power.

 

And the freezer never went above 30 degrees, so we shouldn't have to toss anything. Remarkable all around. Guess we got lucky this time. It's time to pony up and buy a generator.

 

JP, we guess you live in Loudonville (based on a previous description of your drive home from the VA).  Up north, in Clifton Park, we were without power for 59 hours.  Like you, somehow the food in the freezer remained frozen, and we did not, with the temperature inside remaining above 60º F. 

 

And again like you, we think it is time to get a generator. After all, last night we were afraid to open the freezer, and had to choose drinks that did not require ice cubes! 🙄

 

Also, the outage was the reason we did not respond to the "schmaltz" discussion by Jeff and Lois.

[jpalbny]

2 hours ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

JP, we guess you live in Loudonville (based on a previous description of your drive home from the VA).  Up north, in Clifton Park, we were without power for 59 hours.  Like you, somehow the food in the freezer remained frozen, and we did not, with the temperature inside remaining above 60º F. 

 

Your guess is spot on. But JPLoudonville doesn't have that same ring as JPAlbny. 😄  I deliberately misspelled ALBNY as a portmanteau of our local Albany International Airport (abbreviation, ALB) and our beautiful state of NY. And no doubt, after driving about 1200 miles in the last week, covering many counties, our state is indeed a beautiful place to see.

 

Wow, I guess we got really lucky with the power being out only half as long as yours was. We picked the right time to be away, and luckily the consequences of the power failure were minimal. 

 

I had been meaning to defrost our accessory wine fridge one of these days, but the power outage took care of that for me! I am glad that all worked out for you as well.

 

Hopefully @UpstateJan is doing OK as well?

 

2 hours ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

And again like you, we think it is time to get a generator. After all, last night we were afraid to open the freezer, and had to choose drinks that did not require ice cubes! 

 

That is a tragedy. But on the bright side, the big bin of ice cubes in our freezer was intact when we came home. That's the reason that we knew for sure that the food had remained frozen as well. Our fridge has a high temperature detection feature which said that the freezer reached 30F and the refrigerator reached 55F. But it was good to have that secondary confirmation from the intact ice cubes.

 

Once we get our generator, the party is at our house during the next outage! And ALL drinks will be on the menu, with or without ice cubes. 

 

***

 

Dinner tonight. A simple preparation of Alaskan Rockfish, poached in a mix of wine and broth, with peppers, onions, and tomatoes (the latter from the garden). Finished with a sprinkle of fresh oregano. Served with a defective bottle of Trentino Pinot Grigio (defective, because it's already empty).

 

 

Time for a G&T in the hot tub. Our muscles are sore; we did a lot of hiking the last 3 days and our step count for the last week is averaging over 16000 per day. Lots of good climbing too. One of the hikes gained 900 feet in about 1/2 a mile. That was a doozy. But the views were worth it!

 

 

Chris atop Azure Mountain.

 

 

A reminder of our Canadian Friends. Miss all of you and hope the border opens soon. Right now the only things crossing are those pesky Canadian Geese!

 

 

Chris atop Severance Mountain this morning. Schroon Lake in the background.

 

Have a great weekend all!

Edited October 10, 2020 by jpalbny

[Emtbsam]

2 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

Fletcher, your meal sounds excellent! And the Gigondas... yum!

 

I'm making some fish tonight. Pix later. But I'll have to save my Gigondas for another day.

 

 

 

I was referring to the "real" PTO that you find on a tractor, as you know.

 

Yes, I grew up on a dairy farm in Central NY and worked like a dog every summer. We baled about 14-15,000 hay bales every year and I touched every one of them. Several times! In fact, I decided to go to Medical School because it would be easier than farming...

 

Back to PTOs. For the uninitiated, it's a shaft that sticks out the back end of a tractor, and you hook up a piece of farm equipment to it. The rotation of the shaft powers the equipment. It's much more reliable than ground-driven equipment, because the equipment works no matter how fast you're pulling it.

 

The original design spins at 540 RPM when the engine was revved to the optimal speed. Later on they introduced a faster PTO which spun at 1000 RPM. The two aren't interchangeable because the PTO shafts have a different spline pattern, and you can't hook a piece of 540 equipment to a 1000 RPM PTO.

 

We were poor farmers back in the day so we only had old tractors which had 540 RPM PTOs. None of that fancy 1000 RPM stuff for us! We had to work twice as hard! 😉

 

***

 

We made it back from our New York adventure this afternoon. It was fun! We discovered some new cool places and revisited some old favorites. 

 

Niagara Falls were still spectacular. The Thousand Island area was pretty but the towns were nothing to write home about. The Adirondacks were glorious. The colors were beautiful. But the crowds were insane. Luckily we found some hiking off the beaten path, and enjoyed the solitude immensely.

 

It was mostly relaxing, except on Wednesday at 4PM I got a notification that the power was out at home. As the outage dragged on through the evening, we figured the fish tank was a lost cause. We considered coming home to try to hook up our power inverter to the car,, and salvage what we could, but we thought that the outage would have to be over soon. And we were 4 hours away...

 

But it continued... after 24 hours had passed with no power, we gave up all hope. 

 

The outage ended up lasting 30 hours! And amazingly, all of our fish survived. So that was a relief. I can't really figure out how that happened. We lost a fish a few years ago after just 8 hours with no power.

 

And the freezer never went above 30 degrees, so we shouldn't have to toss anything. Remarkable all around. Guess we got lucky this time. It's time to pony up and buy a generator.

Our Kubota has both 540 and 748.  My Kitchenaid has neither.  If I had known what property ownership in a rural area entailed, I might not have bothered with an MBA but might have gotten an advanced degree in agriculture.   In any event, we love our country life even if I have to pick up the slack while Bob is recuperating.  Blowing leaves will be next.

 

poached salmon in an orange chardonnay sauce with a risotto and a lovely French chardonnay.  Ah life is good.  Do any of you use copper pots from Dehillerin?

[QueSeraSera]

Glad the power outage did not too adversely affect you JP & FSS.  You do live in a beautiful part of the country.  For many years our vacation spot was a cabin in the Northeast Kingdom region of Vermont, but as we were driving up I-87 through NY I'd think if the cabin was here, we'd be there by now.

I really like copper pots and pans, will look into Dehillerin @Emtbsam.  Salmon in orange sauce sound intriguing.  Here, tonight's clam chowder should be ready soon.  Ordered the minced clams from a place in Maine that gets them off the coast of Rhode Island.

The savings from not cruising are evaporating as I find all these neat places to mail order from...

 

[FlyingScotSailors]

1 hour ago, QueSeraSera said:

The savings from not cruising are evaporating as I find all these neat places to mail order from...

 

Thanks QSS.  We have ordered more wine and whisky online in the last months than ever before.  Unfortunately, rather than buying art a la mysty, we now have to spend the money on a tree service to remove a few of our 100+ foot pines, mainly the ones that did not fall in last Wednesday's 100 mph winds/microburst/tornado(?).

 

Of course tonight we did not take photos, but Ann made a sauté of chicken thighs, onions, garlic, red and jalapeño peppers, with cilantro, fresh rosemary, and lemon juice, served over casarecce pasta with pecorino romano.  We finished the Midsummer's Solstice G&Ts first and then started a Matua "sauvie B", as our New Zealand friend used to say.  (We do need a new wine order soon)

Edited October 11, 2020 by FlyingScotSailors

[jpalbny]

37 minutes ago, FlyingScotSailors said:

Ann made a sauté of chicken thighs, onions, garlic, red and jalapeño peppers, with cilantro, fresh rosemary, and lemon juice, served over casarecce pasta with pecorino romano.  We finished the Midsummer's Solstice G&Ts first and then started a Matua "sauvie B", as our New Zealand friend used to say.  (We do need a new wine order soon)

 

Dinner sounds delicious! 

 

You are low on Matua as well? We order it by the case. And we're down to our last bottle. Luckily (?) I'm on call next week so the liver gets a break.

[Fletcher]

8 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

Luckily (?) I'm on call next week so the liver gets a break.

 I refer you back to my liver recipe last week.  

[zqtchas]

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

[zqtchas]

This just in!!

[Lois R]

Good morning,  not sure if any of you have a restaurant called "Seasons 52" near you but they have a wonderful

menu.  I had dinner there last night with my BIL, who is in town on business.  Had a golden beet and goat cheese

salad and a grilled Pork Chop with purple cabbage and raisins.....the chop had to be 1.5-2.00 inches thick.......

The chop was so moist and tender and the flavor? OMG.....probably one of the best I have ever had. A honey-lemon

glaze.........simply delicious!!!!

 

 

[spinnaker2]

The sky was such a weird color last night I tried to capture it but failed. Instead one of the huge Florida Slash Pines we have on our property is the star. On the far left of the photo about 1/3 of the way down you can see a large squirrel nest. The owner, Madame Squirrel, loves to take aim and hurl half eaten pine cones at people below. I have been hit in the head a few times.

She then cackles demonically when she scores a hit. 

 

[spinnaker2]

[jpalbny]

15 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

 

Where did you find my High School yearbook? 

[mysty]

6 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

Where did you find my High School yearbook? 

 

JP, I'm guessing you are second row extreme right.  How did I do?  😁

[UpstateJan]

Howdy all, and thanks for the shout out.  From reading the current page, I was starting to wonder if I was really in the same area as @jpalbny and @FlyingScotSailors.  Wednesday evening coming north from Albany was interesting, but not terrible.  I got home to Jeremy & the pup asking "what's for dinner?".  Answer was leftover Chorizo stuffed peppers, German potato salad, and a green salad.  We took Wynne for a neighborhood walk at about 6:15pm, only to find the big circle of homes were without power (about 40 homes).  The 6 on our street were light up like nothing happened.   I think the neighbors were out for a couple hours, .... see, Halfmoon has its advantages!

 

As an aside, we have an automatic generator here at the new house, not sure that it has kicked on in the year we've been here.  We had one at the old house... lifesaver.  So lesson is, if you lose power, and its safe to drive to Halmoon, we have power!

 

Sorry I haven't been around much.  I've taken a bit of a break from social media, its too hard for me to keep up with everything.  So, my focus has been trying to work my job (currently 2 days office, 3 days from home), and get better.  On the surface, I escaped any major detriments from my anuerysm in December, but they are there.  It takes me a little longer to do everything, I am so fortunate to be as well as I am.  I'm back to cooking, but everything requires a recipe - including chicken & dumplings 🤪 

 

Here's a pick of me & my 60lb pup, yes, my hair has grown back curly & crazy!  Here's hoping 2021 is a better year, the Canadian border reopens to family, and we can travel soon!  Love to all, and I hope everyone is well.

 

Jan

[silkismom]

They say that animals and their people tend to look a like.😉

[UpstateJan]

lol... his hair is curlier!   He has a much better disposition too 😆

[Lois R]

Hi Jan, good to see you again🙂

[clo]

15 hours ago, QueSeraSera said:

The savings from not cruising are evaporating as I find all these neat places to mail order from...

 

We just bought our third and fourth 2oz jars of Idaho white sturgeon caviar so yeah 🙂

[TLCOhio]

1 hour ago, UpstateJan said:

lol... his hair is curlier!   He has a much better disposition too 😆

Lois: Hi Jan, good to see you again

 

YES, good to see Jan, again.  Working five-days-a-week does create some time challenges.  Clearly, we need to some space "away" to re-charge our batteries and rest that battered brain.  

 

Cute by mysty with the older lady using "white-out" on her cell phone.  Fun sharing!!!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

[mysty]

Now for something completely different.  Reminiscing about long ago visit to Kauai.  Favourite song during that trip was Ka'au Crater Boys "Opihi Man".  Here is the YouTube presentation for your enjoyment.  

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6I24ZVkzn8

[dusababy]

17 hours ago, Emtbsam said:

Our Kubota has both 540 and 748.  My Kitchenaid has neither.  If I had known what property ownership in a rural area entailed, I might not have bothered with an MBA but might have gotten an advanced degree in agriculture.   In any event, we love our country life even if I have to pick up the slack while Bob is recuperating.  Blowing leaves will be next.

 

poached salmon in an orange chardonnay sauce with a risotto and a lovely French chardonnay.  Ah life is good.  Do any of you use copper pots from Dehillerin?

Waaayyyy back in the 70s, first trip to Paris, I spent a day at Dehillerin.  Bought four tin lined copper pots/skillet, cost a little over $300 including shipping back to the States.  I used them all my life, loved them, and when I moved to retirement community gave them to my professional chef nephew.   I'm sure they're still doing great service.  How I loved that place!

Glad Bob is doing so well.

[TLCOhio]

Great buying savvy by dusababy with the French cooking skillet/pots.  Wonderful value achieved!!  Cute story.  

 

It's fall and the trees are starting to change significantly here in the Midwest.  Below are three pictures taken this afternoon   This includes some of the colorful pumpkins that my wife purchased and put in the flowers pots that had to be emptied due to the "dining" on them by our neighborhood deer.  Second gives a sample as the trees in the background are starting to change colors.  Like the colors and textures?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio