Author: doug

It’s been so warm yesterday and today that our poor cherry tree is blooming.

 

Often I take a picture as a throwaway just to see what comes out. And sometimes my model is ready for his close-up.

Gandalf has an injury (from his brother) on his back, which he’s been picking at. So Lis bought some thrift-shop baby shirts to try to dissuade him. We’ve been gradually introducing him to the concept, and tonight for the first time he’s actually wearing a shirt. He seems oddly OK with it.

(Yes, that’s my thumb in the picture, trying to get his attention)

In the bottom of a jug of maple syrup there are often a few maple sugar crystals. This jug was particularly impressive.

Here is my antique waffle iron, trying to bake its last waffle. But it turns out its top heating element is broken and so the waffle came out half-baked. I opened it up and the wiring inside is asbestos-insulated, so I don’t want to attempt a repair.

The Staub 4-qt enameled cast iron dutch oven is on ridiculous sale right now — about 1/3 of normal retail. I suspect it’s either overstocked or about to be replaced with a newer design since it’s about the same price everywhere. But there’s nothing wrong with the old model so I could not resist picking one up to complement our larger Le Creuset. Here I’m breaking it in, making a pot of long-simmering beef/lamb ragù.

At Michael’s 50th birthday party, here’s the birthday boy playing the piano.

I received this game in my office’s Yankee Swap this year, and we played it last night. It was better than I expected!

Whole duck was super cheap at the store today, so I bought one. This is the fattiest duck I have ever cut up — it yielded 2.5 lbs of cuts for the freezer, 1.5 lbs of carcass for the stock pot, and over 2 lbs of fat and extra skin. Rendered, the fat produced over 3 cups of clarified duck fat and about half a cup of cracklings.

Christmas cactus, this year as billed.