A Knock Back
I’ve never really made it public on this blog about my intentions regarding… life I guess.
Often I sit around and wonder what I’m supposed to do with this blog, and the other day Kimberlee my beloved suggested that I blog about what my plans are. My plans are incredibly simple, but incredibly complex at the same time:
Move to America on January 31st.
I went back and forth to how best to start this process and like most processes it starts with cash.
This whole thing won’t be cheap and the primary expense is the plane ticket. It’ll probably cost anywhere between 550 and 650 euros. That’s a wedge of cash in my books and I think a lot of us would have trouble raising that sort of scratch in the current economic climate.
So I decided to start selling things. The first thing I decided to sell was a burberry coat that I own. I picked it up about a year ago, maybe a year and a half. I never wear it, because it’s too nice to wear. I know it’s stupid.
The knock back referenced in the title is my first attempt to sell the coat. It didn’t sell.
This was an immediate shock to me, least of all because it’s a genuine Burberry Coat; I’d assume people would have my arm off for it at that price. It’s missing the belt, but that’s the only problem with it.
It was difficult to understand that it hadn’t sold. I had to consider an unpleasant idea:
What if I can’t sell any of my stuff?
I spent the rest of the day rolling this over in my mind. Yeah, gamestop will take my DVDs, and any clothes and nick-knacks can be given away if I run out of time. It’s likely a lot of stuff will go to charity shops. But if I don’t sell my stuff, then that’s a significant amount of cash I had planned on being in the budget… not being in the budget.
Well you know what – fuck it. If I give up at the first hurdle I’ll sit here in this chair, in this house, in this place and I’ll never get anywhere. Sure, I might get a job, or find a woman, or any of that shit.
But that job won’t be my dream job and that woman won’t be Kimberlee.
No compromise, no surrender.
Go buy the coat. If you don’t have the money to buy the coat, spread this around until we find someone who does have the money for it.
The first ever Mc Girr Family Tartan
So after some false starts, and a little back and forth, the tartan is now in the registry.
The Mc Girr family has an official tartan now.
The next step is to get together enough cash to get the material loomed, and then made into a kilt.
There is a donations page if you wish to toss me a few quid.
By the way, Mc Girr means ‘Son of the short man’ so anybody with the surname Mc/Mac Girr, Mc/Mac Gearr, Mc/Mac Garr or even Short/Shortt can wear this tartan.
Zinc Saucier Edition 10 – Breakfast Burrito
I hear you all out there saying:
“Dave, all you make is dinner. Make something else”
And this morning that is exactly what I did, so welcome, to the breakfast burrito!
We start with the greatest ingredient nature has yet given us. Bacon! Yay Bacon!
I grilled my bacon, which a while, so I put it on first. Then I started making up some tasty corned beef hash
You can totally make corned beef hash on it’s own, and it’s delicious, but for today it’s an ingredient.
Oh, per person you’ll need:
Two slices of bacon, loosely shredded
One medium potato, chopped
One sausage, cut or crumbled
One third of a can of corned beef
One handful of grated cheese
One tortilla wrap
Yep that’s everything.
After the jump is the rest of the preparation.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 9 – Calzone
Today we make a a pizza pocket. Simple as that. Well not quite that simple.
So this recipe was a bit of a mixed success. I didn’t like the taste of the cheese combination I used, Sinead wasn’t a fan of the sauce. So I’ll have to perfect it at a later date.
Here’s the recipe I sort of followed. I used some gluten free pizza base mix stuff… that was not very good. It didn’t knead well. And the corn meal, polenta stuff was damn hard to come by.
I put sauce inside the calzone unlike the video, I probably used too much cheese.
I split 4 large chopped sausages between three calzones, and that worked incredibly well.
The recipe is pretty well contained and it has a video with it, so happy days.
It’s easy to make, very hard to perfect. Pretty much like all cooking.
So the response was mixed, but none of us regret eating it.
Try something new this week. I’m trying several new things every week.
Look after the jump for a picture of an uncooked calzone.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 8 – Fried Chicken and Biscuits
We have a bona-fide success from the kitchen: Fried chicken and biscuits.
Or scones, if you’re not American.
Doesn’t that look delicious?
The recipe for biscuits is easy enough, in fact I did a post about them. Which apparently I’ve pinged back to several times.
Once you’ve made your biscuits, it’s on to making the chicken, which we shall do after the jump.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 7 – Steak Pie
Let me just say right off the bat, this turned out much better than the peppered steak.
But it isn’t peppered steak so let’s move along with this.
For the first time ever I used a crockpot, and for the first time ever I made pastry.
Each turned out fine, however there is room for improvement next time.
First a picture of the finished pie, then the recipe after the jump.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 6 – Peppered Steak
For the first time in my trek through the world of better food have I come up short, and only partially enjoyed the food. The main problem I had with this dish was the smell. I know exactly what it was, and I will be sure to leave it out next time.
Creamy peppercorn sauce. It smelled absolutely foul and it really put me off the meal. I still ate it, and it tasted fine… but it would have been so much better without that damn smell. I bought a little carton of pre-made sauce and I really shouldn’t have. Next time I use a spice packet, or just go from scratch.
Anyway, on to a picture. Brief details after the jump.
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Shaving My Head For Charity
So it’s been a while since I posted a picture of myself here. But that’s not what we’re discussing today.
Today we discuss giving money to Cancer Research. I can’t say that I’m big into charitable causes, but this seemed like an opportunity to give money to a cause that’s helping a lot of people every day.
I gathered some donations, pledged to shave my head, then I went and did it. I raised 55 euros.
A bunch of other people came along pledging to have their heads shaved, their legs or chest waxed.
Click after the jump for the after picture and some pictures of other volunteers.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 5 – Enchiladas
On this week’s culinary tour we go to Mexico for the wonderfully rich dish of Enchiladas
Now I’ve seen a lot of recipes online for enchiladas, and there are a lot of variations.
So when making your own enchiladas – Just wing it. Go with what tastes good.
However there are three main components to this dish for me.
1. Fried ground beef.
2. Tomato and cream cheese sauce.
3. As much cheese as can be tolerated.
Here is a picture of the results, I’ll provide a recipe below.
Recipe and a bonus vegetarian version after the jump.
Zinc Saucier Edition 4 – Beef Cobbler
The Zinc Saucier [that's me by the way for those of us not paying attention] is hard at it again, but this time I’m making a childhood favourite of mine: Beef Cobbler.
As far as I know mema got this recipe from a cookbook she purchased somewhere in the 70’s or 80’s and she’s been making it ever since. I found my recipe here. But I’ll have to admit that I didn’t follow it religiously, mainly because I didn’t have all the ingredients.
After the jump there are details of what I did differently.
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Zinc Saucier Edition 3 – Sloppy Joes
A nice down home country, easy as… sloppy joes recipe for all you food fans out there.
Sloppy Joes are a fantastic twist on the regular old burger. The basic premise of the sloppy joe is that it’s a loose meat burger with ketchup mixed in. That’s it, the recipe is really simple, and if you put your chips on in good time, you can have a meal for the whole family in 30 minutes.
A picture of the results:
Recipe and details after the jump
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Zinc Saucier Edition 2 – Pierogi [Polish dumplings]
So anyone familiar with this blog will know that from time to time, that I like to cook.
(Here’s proof)
Now, on to the second Zinc Saucier post.
I had heard the name Pierogi thrown out on one of my favourite shows Corner Gas and after a little research I found out that Pierogi are dumplings from Poland. Generally the filling seems to be potato and cheese.
I love potato and cheese so I decided to whip up a batch using this recipe.
And here is the result.
Click after the jump for info about my cooking experience.
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Character Biography 1: Tin Star
Welcome to the first in what will hopefully be a medium sized line of original character biographies and details. Below is a picture of the first of these original characters and he is called Tin Star.
Just a little background information before I introduce Tin Star – He and all the other characters that I will introduce reside in Castlefinn City. This is my Gotham/Metropolis/San Angeles all rolled into one. I couldn’t manage to fit any of my crazy characters in any regular city I could think of, so I thought it best to create my own city and populate it with the craziest, weirdest, most evil bastards I could think of.
Without further ado – Tin Star.
His story after the jump.
Dieselpunk Draft 1
So the entire time I’ve had this blog, and there has been a writing category, and I have not posted any writing.
So here it is, the first few paragraphs of my as yet untitled Dieselpunk Novel.
The oil and grease didn’t wash off anymore, his fingertips were permanently blackened. Within a year he’d have black palms and wrists. Another year and he’d have black forearms and feet. It’s impossible to stop the progression and after it makes your hair fall out, it turns the whites of your eyes black.
Most men don’t even bother washing once it reaches the armpits, because it’s pointless. You can’t go back under the dome with the rest of the static folk; City Lords, Bucky followers and the tower residents. Most of them have never even seen a lifelong engineer with thick black skin and terrifying eyes. They didn’t even want to know about you once you stopped looking like them.
He put a hydro-tobacco cigar between his wet black fingertips and walked away from the engine room to one of the skeleton cars to feel the dirty air on his face. He lit his cigar and looked across the dry, crinkled earth. Danny was an engineer now, and he would never be getting off this train.
Men in sheds have all the answers
So these two lads came up with a solution to the oil spill that’s in the gulf right now.
Haven’t heard about this oil spill? Have a quick read and get back to me.
Caught up? Good.
Now on to my point. These Guys came up with an innovative solution to the problem.
Hay. Pure and simple.
If you don’t fancy heading over to the page to watch the video, here it is.
So it’s like I’ve been saying all along – Men in sheds will save the world, and they’ll get it done today with duct tape, hope, dollar store tools… and hay.
The deadline has passed and so have I
Now, bear with me here.
Both of the welding tests have to be evaluated before they are sent to the certification board so I can get my papers.
I was waiting for a phone call today, and if I did not receive a phone call, I was to assume that I had passed the evaluation and my pieces were winging their way to FETAC so they can send me my papers.
Man I am happy as hell. I love passing tests.
Welding by Gaslight 15
Welcome to the last post of The Gaslight Welder.
It’s been a fun ride, and it turns out that I love welding.
It’s hard on the back, it’s hot, it’s dirty, it requires a lot concentration…
However I have no desire to unlearn what I have learned and if it gets me a job; all the better.
Hit the jump for the picture of the second test piece.
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[Arc] Welding by Gaslight 14
This look familiar by any chance? If you’re a regular reader you’ll realize that this is the standard Arc welding test from Fas. And this time I’m happier with the outcome. Feeling good about it this time.
[Arc] Welding by Gaslight 13
So I did all of my exercises for the day so I started playing around.
I welded four piece together to make a box section, then I welder that to flat plate.
Unlike gas welding, you only get one shot at an arc weld.
I nailed every weld on the above picture. Water tight and everything.
[Arc] Welding by Gaslight 12
Doesn’t it look like I’m welding with pure silver?
Those are some fine welds there.
It’s just like riding a bike, you never forget. Just need a little practice.
