I love this time of year

I love the gray clouds and the leftover bits of rain in the morning. I love the fact that it's actually cold enough to wear vests and scarves and maybe occasionally a suit-coat to work. I don't love that it's too dark when I get off work to feel safe bicycling among the commuters heading for the freeway, so I give up the bicycle for the winter. I love the process of hacking back everything in the garden. I don't love having to dispose of all the hacked-off bits, one green-trash can at a time.

I am now going to experiment with the mechanics of hiding text behind a cut. It is not intuitively obvious.

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The Great Beef Jerky Taste Test

There's this guy at work who goes fishing regularly and trades parts of his catch for goods in kind. My first trade was for some home-made beef jerky but he found it rather bland. So now I owe him for a second trade and needed to get some outside input on some more strongly spiced recipes. Thus, the beef jerky taste test. I made up nine different recipes (only about 4 oz. of meat each) and set them out at work with comment sheets. The principal taster conceded that some of them were heading in the right direction but needed to be significantly hotter. I think next time I go straight for the fresh hot peppers. The problem is, I have a hard time preparing food that I, personally, consider inedible. But I've got some initial judgments on the first set.

My basic jerky recipe is to take a nice chunk of London broil, half-freeze it so that it slices more thinly, then marinate in the chosen flavorings. (Usually I marinate for a day or two, but this time it was only 4 hours.) Then I put the (gas) oven on the lowest setting that still keeps the flame lit (allegedly 150F), drape the meat across the oven rack, and crack the oven door open. Usually I'll start it going around dinner time, turn the meat just before I go to bed, then take it out when I get up in the morning. Makes the kitchen smell good!

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