Kaimusailing

I had bought a package of meatloaf meat, a mixture of beef, pork, and veal, because it was on manager’s sale. That meant it had to be cooked right away. I didn’t really have a plan for this meat. I ended up making it into hamburger mix and fried 4 cheeseburgers, one of which I had for breakfast on a ciabatta roll.
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At the Food Lion I got mushrooms, broccoli head, assorted sweet mini peppers, red onion, a can of crushed tomatoes with basil, a can of diced tomatoes, mozzarella, and a bag of 15 bean soup beans. We were planning Pizza Night and also I would make an Azorean soup to use up one of the chorizos.
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The pizza extravaganza got off to a start at 3 in the afternoon. I brought my trusty cutting board and dollar store chef’s knife over to the Shanty. The pizza oven was there already, although stowed away in the back. I brought that out and a propane tank, set up the oven.
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Inside the shanty I started prepping ingredients. The broccoli head produced florets, the mozzarella was sliced enough for 4 pies, the mini peppers were halved with seeds removed, mushrooms sliced, and the onion was diced. The chorizo sausage was too mushy to slice. I ended up plopping down little sausage blobs on the pies.
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I was out of garlic salt and dashed a brand new bottle of olive oil on the pavement. Cuddily asked if she needed to bring anything, yes, please.
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I forgot to start the dough my usual way and had to improvise. Instead of my several stages of dough production I cut corners. 2 cups of water, 3 cups of flour, a tablespoon of honey, and a sprinkling of yeast went into a large bowl, and the ingredients were whisked smooth, no lumps. After a half hour rest I added 2 more cups of flour and kneaded the result. The shanty was quite warm, so I hoped the dough would catch up with the schedule.
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We were behind schedule, but no one had showed up yet, so when Cuddily arrived I started the oven. It roared to life and quickly shot the temperature up to about 800 degrees. Teri arrived with her son and a couple from my dock showed up. The lady of the couple is from Montenegro on the Adriatic, where they are planning to voyage. Cuddily had been there a few years ago and they had a talk while I prepared the first pie.
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We had a beautiful sunset, lots of wine, and pies popping out of the oven. After it got dark we had trouble finding things, putting things away.
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I ended up with lots of leftover pizza. Great for breakfast, but not so great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I had to make the Azorean soup.
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It is a bean soup with chorizo sausage, but the Azorean sausage is spiced with pimiento, paprika?, and the stuff I had was Mexican, chili pepper spice.
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I poached the beans, this is the bag of 15 different kinds of beans normally used to make a cajun or ham flavored soup. I brought the beans to a boil and then let them sit for about 15 minutes while I prepped zucchini, small dice, garlic, minced, and fried the chorizo in a small skillet. The chorizo is a bulk sausage in a tube. As it fries it falls apart. It has a lot of fat. I spooned out cooked sausage into the beans, then sauteed onion in some of the leftover fat. Then the garlic went in, then the whole mess went into the bean pot along with the diced zucchini. The beans needed about 3 poaching sessions, so about 45 minutes, while I was prepping other things. A can of diced tomatoes went in the pot. A taste of the broth revealed this soup had some kick to it.
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This recipe is all over the internet with variations. When I spoke to my brothers, separately, in Hawaii, my older brother said he could get Portuguese sausage, my younger brother said there are as many recipes for chourizo dishes on the Big Island as there are Portuguese. The recipe I ended up making was almost identical to the one on the back of the bean package.
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The news from the flooded mountains of North Carolina was that armed hill folk were threatening FEMA workers who were there to help with the flood crisis. I am now absolutely sure that this disruption of social order is a result of foreign intervention.
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We have been experiencing fatigue and aches. Covid tests are negative.
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I say this is election anxiety. We are having trouble sleeping and then are slow to get up.
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I made the mistake of arriving at Sysco at 4 PM on Saturday, again. That was my main reason to travel to Pocomoke, to get wine at Sysco. I had a short list of some other things, not things I would have to drive all the way to Pocomoke to get. One item was smoked ham or black forest ham, but the only decent ham available was honey ham. No provolone. I ended up with colby jack.
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I arrived at the Legion right on time after wasting a long drive to get almost nothing. I had grilled chicken on salad greens with raspberry vinaigrette dressing, what bottle did that come out of?
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The next day was nautical, pull Cuddily’s runabout out. It was a nice day and we ended up taking it out for a very short spin. The engine alarmed and we cautiously went back to the dock. I was dropped off to bring the boat trailer to the launching ramp while Cuddily and Cornelia Marie took the boat.
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When I got to the ramps there was a large fishing boat on a trailer being backed into a ramp by an older gent. It barely fit in the ramp but he backed it in quickly and smoothly in one shot. They unhooked the boat from the trailer and he pulled forward, then backed with a sudden stop, the boat slid a couple feet down the trailer, he did it again and the boat was afloat. They pulled the trailer out and parked it an it was my turn to back a trailer in. Cuddily was bringing the runabout into a ramp.
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I failed at backing the trailer. I had the old gent giving me instructions and eventually Cornelia Marie asked if she could do it. Of course. She backed the trailer right in. Impressive. We got the boat on the trailer and I was enlisted to roll up my knees and wade to the hook up at the front of the bow. Grind the winch and bring the boat right in place.
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We took the boat up RT413 to get non-ethanol gasoline for it, then brought it down to the car wash where we could wash off the soft growth on the boat’s bottom, then drop it off at Marshall’s Marine. Recommended boat services.
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It was then Sunday Night Football and my NY Jets were playing. Hurray! Things started out well , then the opposition, the Pittsburgh Steelers, shut them down and went on to trounce the Jets. Boohoo. I was on the phone with my brother in Hawaii when I realized halfway through the second quarter of the game that the Jets will lose. My fears were realized.
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I returned to Sysco and bought my wine. Cuddily browsed dining tables at H&H Furniture. Teri roamed about that store while I picked up some RV antifreeze to winterize SUNSPLASH. We visited Dollar Tree for their excellent and cheap Awesome cleaner, very effective on mold and mildew. We stopped for late lunch at .
the Dockside in Pocomoke City. These cities around here are towns, villages in some instances.
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I had read mixed reviews about Dockside. It was Tuesday when a lot of restaurants are closed. If it is good, it is the nearest good restaurant to Crisfield. It is good. I had Buffalo Chicken LT sandwich and a couple of Orange Crush drinks. We all agreed that we would come back here again. We should have tried it earlier in the summer.
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The next day I was frustrated, working on the Atomic 4 again. I guess I will have to leave that project for next summer. I have the cylinder head separated from the block but still jammed on the studs.
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I made beef bourguignon and ended up overcooking the beef, hard to do, but it was a phone call that kept me away from the stew pot. I also made mashed potatoes with turnip and a carrot. The result was very flavorful. I used a fresh herb mix called “poultry mix” with the beef. The next day I put away 3 portions. Comfort food, French style.
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I ran into the second season of “Ancient Acopalypse”, a series on Netflix by Graham Hancock, who I have read and listened to on YouTube and other places. The premise is that the similarities in cultural elements of the oldest civilizations is a result of an even older civilization that expired due to the recent ice age.
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It is certainly entertaining, it is one of the most watched series on Netflix. I eat this stuff up, but I know it is speculative and mainstream archaeology has plenty of effective rebuttals.
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Graham Hancock has experience with a jungle vine drug called ayawaska, which plays an important role in his researches into Amazonia. In summary, the first expedition of Spaniards to run down the Amazon told of large cities with huge populations. Later explorers found no evidence. Mainstream archaeology ignored looking further in the Amazon. It was considered an impassable rain forest with very poor soil. Now researchers are finding huge expansive landscapes of geometric mounds, circles, rectangles, parallel long straight mounds. I can see these could be canals, instead of roads.
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By scanning the territory with Lidar, which produces landscapes with vegetation removed, researches can look at these patterns. They mimic patterns of designs by artists who have experienced the ayawaska drug. The same patterns appear on rock drawings made about 12,000 years ago. Intriguing.
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The marina is starting to winterize and it’s time to go South to the boatyard in St. Marys, GA. I will miss my dearest friends up here and return to those I left in Georgia 6 months ago.
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The image is of another sunset at the Legion, a picnic table awaits you.