Mayhaw Man

Ani and Jude Woods atAlbany Woodworks can help you out. THey ship this stuff all over the world. It is not the cheapest, but now that I think about it, #2 pine planking is going for $7.50 US for a 6X10, so the prices look a hell of a lot better for finished, ready to nail flooring.

THat is a VERY cool refrigerator. (I guess all refrigerators, when working properly, are cool-but you know what I mean )

There are several sources listed in this thread: Silicone Molds You have to scroll through it.

Just to make sure that I am understanding correctly- You guys are talking about raw milk-like milk straight outta the cow-unpasteurized. Not Creamline milk-milk that has been pasteurized but not homogenized. Correct? I buy creamline all of the time from Mauthe's Dairy in Folsom, LA and from Smith's Creamery in Mt Hermon, LA. I love the unhomogenized milk and I am CRAZY about the unhomogenized cream. It is another world from that ultra pasteurized gunk that has become the norm. This list of organic dairies might be a good place to start your search.

Varmint could only be jealous if he admires those that live in a quagmire of filth and debris (but he IS a varmint ). I have hatched a new plan which I cannot fully reveal until the things get final, but I am bidding on a number of fixtures on ebay. THis all started when I found out that the sink Robin had selected was more than any of the refrigerators I was looking at (how the hell can anybody charge $1400 wholesale for a sink? ) I found the same thing, NEW, on ebay for $175. THen I started looking at fixtures (halogen lights, drawer pulls, some cabinet hdwe., etc). I don't know if I will even like the stuff, but at the prices I am trying to buy it at I am sure that I can fall in love with it quite easily. I will let you know the results of my bargain hunting.

Just remember to use 4 inch lag screws that have pre-rusted tops to really achieve the "it was built in the 30's" look Funny you said that. I have a bunch of hand cut/square head nails that I could use for that super authentic look. Those nails came out of some old buildings on our farm. I wish that I had had the wherewithall to get all of them out. They are still pretty much as good as new (they were buried in cypress-cypress does not rot and neither does the hdwe. that is in it-miracle wood really-too bad they cut it all and hauled it up North about a hundred years ago). I am probably going to use them on a small outdoor kitchen that I am going to build before I die (I plan on living a long time ).

I would consider Bob and Doug a step up from thier current campaign involving "ways to get chicks" or whatever they call it. I consider "Strange Brew" to be a high point in comedic stupidity (that is to say that I loved it-I am nothing if not a fan of absurdity). That movie is roundly loved by beer guys the world over. Incidentally, Beer is not the way to get chicks (or at least not one of the high percentage ones ). Of course, what do I know about these crazy kids today?The last one I got was almost twenty years ago (this Aug. 17th, as a matter of fact) and in the long run beer would have been cheaper than the wily methods I had to use to snare her.

That's no problem for me. I am always breaking them on my teeth. That's when my hands aren't busy pulling my hair out. What's left of it, anyway.

They exist, but now we're starting to get into the multiple-thousand dollar range, like SubZero or GE Monogram. Too much. AGGHHHHHH! What if I just screwed some boards to the front and called them "the Rustic Line"? They really would not be that far out of line, price wise, but I am buying a bunch of appliances (fridge gear, oven, ice machine, new dishwasher, and a cooktop of some sort for the island), the flooring is rediculously expensive (even though I am buying it from a friend locally who saws up the stuff from big beams that formely were holding up industrial plants), and I am going to have to do a fair amount of rewiring (some of which I can do, some I can but am not willing).

It's my homepage. Isn't it everybody's?

This morning's thought is along the lines of Rachel's suggestion. I do, in fact, have a seperate freezer, but it is a chest type (and I love it-I can always put it in the garage-I'm not getting rid of it-I get halves of beef a couple of times a year from a guy I kind of coop with-I buy the calves at auction and he takes care of raising them and then I go supervise the butchering-FFA membership pays off for some of us rural types-we all took meat cutting in high school). I have tons of room now and am thinking about a seperate freezer and refrigerator. My wife thinks (design element interferes with engineering/practicality again-ever seen that ad where the engineer is married to the supermodel? That is much like my real life situation ) that would be a good idea if we could find a set that accepts cabinet fronts. I agree that it would be appealing, but so far I have not found any of that type that are seperates. Incidentally, I had a 21 foot cypress bar top fall into my hands this morning (most of my friends are crazed collectors of junk and I have a friend that is a set dresser in the movie industry-he finds GREAT stuff all of the time). It is probably pre prohibition and really cool, so that will now have to be incorporated into the countertops. I really need to post a drawing so that I can show you what the hell I am thinking about. It actually makes pretty good sense. The island that you see at the end of the photo is really large and already has a deep sink with a disposal and I (up to now) have been doing most of my chopping chores and all of my baking stuff on it (it has a huge piece of corian on it and is great for dough, etc-I may eventually change the top, but not now). I am thinking of putting a 2 burner set of eyes in it for parties (keeping gumbo warm, etc). What if I just put a large electric griddle instead of the burner eyes? Does anybody make those things to be built in as stand alone units? Try to imagine how much fun it is to have all of these knowledgable people at my fingertips. If I ever finish you are all invited over for a big hoe down.

Hell, I would end up tearing down my whole house. I won't be able to go on a trip for another three or four years (actually that is not true, we are going camping in Baja over Thanksgiving, Lord knows what I will destroy before that trip )

I head for the cold water tap immediatly. Then to the aloe vera plant in the kitchen window (or what used to be the kitchen window ) Bad ones get the triple antibiotic. Never had a really bad one, but I would head for the emergency room it I did. Not only do they produce scars, but burns are particularly prone to infection.

Rachel, It is definitely going to be electric, whether convection or not. I hate electric ranges, but electric is the way to go with the oven (especially given the local price of gas-you would think since it came from here it would be cheap bt your cf price in NJ was probably lower than ours this winter). Baking is soooo nice in one that has cool timers and programability. I can't wait. I love my old OK and M, but it is not exactly state of the art baking in that thing. I have a seperate freezer and so tons of freezer space is not an issue. I don't really care much about water and ice in the door since my intention is to get a new ice maker (app 15 lbs per day-big I know, but for 8 months a year we use that much). I would like to get one that makes cubes and not "wet ice", but really don't have very strong feelings either way. My house has wood floors in every inch of it and for some reason we decided to tile the kitchen when we redid it twelve years ago. I must have been hammered when I thought that idea up. I have hated that tile since the day I put it down. This place is a mess, but I am glad that I am not looking at that tile anymore.

O.K.-Two weeks ago I was ready for my families big Fishing Adventure in Ontario and a couple of days in Winnipeg when I came home to water all over the tile floor of my kitchen. It would seem that my dishwasher blew a hose and then blew water all over my kitchen. Unfortunately the only way to get the dishwasher out was to remove some of the flooring. No big deal, the boys and my wife were out of town and I figured I could get it out and repaired in one day. Well, it turned out that there must have been a slow leak and that the subflooring was soaked. I was gonna have to tear out all of the tile. Well, that's ok, we had been talking about doing it for a while. Somehow, eight hours later, without asking anyone or thinking it through beyond the end of the tear out, I had removed two walls and torn out the laundry room. Leaving myself with no kitchen, no cabinets worth saving and nowhere to cook. So there you go. My wife, well she's kind of a trooper after twenty years of living with me, took it pretty well and said that it was about time. My kids, they don't care much as long as they get fed. So here we go. As you can see from the photos the place is a mess. But the good news is that it is a very big mess (13x30 rectangle plus the area where you can see the pots hanging and the floor still down-that is a very large island with a pot sink in it and it now houses a large griddle, a hot plate, a rice cooker, and a crock pot. I also have a nice bullet smoker, a cool brick pit, and a just purchased stainless steel BBQ Pit of undetermined brand from Sams which has two burners on the side of it as well-so we won't starve) The long boards that you see there (with the yellow paint on them are cypress and perfect and straight and you couldn't buy them for love or money these days) came from the interior of my plaster walls (the ones I hammered out) and they will be planed and become cabinet fronts. We have measured (or the cabinet guy did) and there is plenty for what I want to do. We are having new cabinets built, I am replacing the ice box (which has needed to be replaced for about five years ) and adding an ice machine. The laundry room will be moved (actually that should be complete by Monday afternoon) and the kitchen will then be huge. There will be a sitting area by the fireplace that you see there and pretty much the rest will be cabinets (primarily drawers-big ones) in the base cabinets and open, glass fronted ones on top. All of this will be farmhouse style (for lack of a better term-I live in the country, but we don't decorate that way and in fact artwork display is a major consideration-my wife is an artist and a dealer and we have been collecting since long before we could afford it) cabinetry as that is what should be here given the age of this place (100 yrs) and the way that it is designed. It will all be wired for sound and there will be a cool built in desk for a computer and stuff (replacing the desk that you see the computer on now). As I said, I have done all of the tearout myself and I will do most of the electrical, plumbing, and rough in. Someone else is making and installing the cabinets. I will put down the floor (8 inch heart pine tongue in groove, just like the rest of the house) and finish out all of the walls. Here are my questions for today- My wife seems to think that a refrigerator freezer with a bottom, pull out freezer is the way to go. Is this the case? Yes or no and why not. I need a new ice machine. Ice is key to a good life here and we go through plenty of it. Any recomendations? My old whirlpool was prone to conking out, so I need some fresh ideas. I am keeping my OKeefe and Merrit Stove because I love it, but am thinking about putting in an electric oven. Convection or no? Why? Any suggestions? Incidentally-don't bother with telling me about commercial grade appliances. I'm not falling for that and am not interested. Top quality home appliances are where I am looking and any advice would be most welcome. I will update the photos as we go along for those of you that are interested. And no, this is not the first time I have done something like this. I once hooked a chain to my Ford F350 4WD and hooked the other end to the back support post in my old garage/barn/tool shed. It looked worse than the kitchen, but it was really fun and the neighborhood boys were VERY impressed (the adult neighbors seemed less so ) So that's what I did today. If I'm lucky the whole thing will be finished by the time it starts cooling off (mid October is what I am shooting for. Once I get the floor down (this week) I can kind of start living in it again, so it won't be that bad.

It hit 97 here today (third day in a row) with a heat index of like a million F. I cut the grass and when I got finished I had to rest for a large part of the afternoo. I grew up somewere hotter than this (Mississippi Delta) but it was damn hot today. All I wanted. Hit the neighbors spring fed pool for a while with the boys and the dogs and all was right with the world for a while. The water here (Abita Springs Water-if you watch the Quicktime thing, that bridge she crosses is next to my house) comes out of the ground at 62 freeflow, no pump needed. Some of the old pools are at least 75 years old and really cool (both literally and figuratively) Everything had to be prepared outside as I don't have a kitchen (I am going to start a thread and explain the insanity, but for now suffice it to say that I lost my temper at a dishwasher and two walls and all of the cabinets had to pay) and even if I did it was too hot to heat up the house. We had Tacos al carbon: Corn and Flour Tortillas (warmed on the grill by the diners) Grilled Flank Steak Pico de Gallo Black Beans Grilled Onions Grilled Yellow and Green Peppers Homemade Peach Ice Cream for Dessert Big hit with all of the mouths that seem to arrive here around dinner time. Big paint ball match manana. Lots of 14 and 15 year old machismo flying around our house tonight.

Lew, My point (not very well made ) was that Coors (and clearly A-B--A Busch visit is the constant fear of all distributors and they happen regularly-I should write about them as I have been through a couple including one at a production plant in MX-it was one of the most tense 10 hours that I have ever spent) is very concerned about distributor operations. At some point Miller, probably right around the time of the P-M takeover, stopped riding their distributors and things started to go quickly downhill. There was a serious lack of understanding about how beer distribution works on a local level and they were also blinded by the then still pretty good cash flow generated by Miller Lite. I think Coors will be a good partner in the US for Molson. Much better than Miller Brands. Coors, at the time they decided to go National, was very careful about who got the local distributorships (the first time I ever got involved or was around the business was when a group of local men in my town (including my Dad) went after the local distributorship in N.E. Louisiana. That application looked like a phone book). Coors ended up with some pretty strong partners, many of which are still their distributors today, some twenty five years later. For example, here in New Orleans it is hard to do better (with the exception, again, of AB) than Crescent Crown Distributing. Probably the best draft technicians in the Gulf South. If you have draft to move and want it done right, they are the go to guys.

I bought a Santos. They make great coffee and are really fun to make coffee in. Impress your friends and neighbors! Be the first on your block! Somewhere around here Owen has a series of very cool photos of one of these things in action, but it must be buried in an unrelated thread (he is a notorious off topic poster ). Perhaps he will check in later and link to them.. They were great photos. I love mine and highly reccomend it.

I would buy salad in a jar. I loathe making them but several of my household eaters demand them. I like to eat them, and find them interesting, but take little pleasure in making them. After I cleaned my plate I could have this delicious treat. We have some Ranch (carrot dipping and so forth, now that I think about it I have never seen one of my family actually put it on a salad). A couple of kinds of vinegarettes concocted by my wife. A big honking mason jar full of poppyseed dressing for adding to my favorite salad:Butter Lettuce, Grapefruit, and Avacado with a little thin, not too sweet poppyseed dressing.

Hey don't knock saltines. How else do you expect to get your Hormel Potted Meat Food Product out of the can. Captain's Wafers will never do. They have neither the tensile strength or the strong salty taste to overcome the even stronger taste of that delicious combination of all of that top quality .Saltines are another useful tool in the fisherman's box of survival and I salute the men and women who make saltines, along with the good folks at Hormel - makers of Vienna Sausage, Potted Meat, and Spam for their fine work and wish them continued success for many years to come.

Miller began a long slow slide (that was oddly caused by their biggest success) in the mid seventies with the introduction of Miller Lite. Miller houses saw their longtime flagship brand, High Life, take a back seat to the giant advertising budget (an all the eggs in one basket situation, if there ever was one) of Lite. At the same time (or milliseconds afterwards) Anheuser Busch saw the success of Miller Lite through sports oriented marketing and started spending huge amounts of money on ALL of their brands, as St Louis recognized that there was a huge mistake being made in Milwaukee. There was a point when the joke was that AB would sponsor a tiddliwinks match as long as the logo was going to appear on cable in Greenland. The combination these two things caused Miller Houses to lose the one thing that they had heretofore----SHELFSPACE. Miller took shelf space away from it's premium product for Lite. As Bud Light sales (and to a degree, but much smaller on, Coors Lite-Coors had started going National outside of it's original 5 state area around 1980 or so)increased the shelf space once held by High Life and now held by Lite was lost to the Miller Brand Houses completely as the nice folks on the Mississippi steamrolled over another brand (something they have been doing handily since the repaeal of the Volstead act). Where the hell am I going with all of this? Well, as someone who interviewed and worked with a hundred or so beer distributors over the last 15 years or so I can tell you that the current state of the average Miller house is much worse than the average Coors house and nowhere on the same level as an average A-B House (the average A-B distributorship is nicer than YOUR house they are amazing-physical plant, rolling stock, etc. etc.-first class even in the smallest areas). Miller is not the way to get your beer moved from a distributorship to a shelf. Were I Molson and looking to increase market share in the US, and I had made the decision that A.B. was not in my future, I think that Coors would probably be my second choice of partners. Currently on local levels (where in fact beer is sold) Coors is doing a much better job of running their day to day business than Miller (and although it's another issue-I believe that part of this is due to the fact that Coors is a BEER company and Miller is now just another brand owned by a giant holding company and that means that Miller is not being run by "beer guys". This is never a good thing for a brewery).

I am with the analysts who are confused over this merger. Molson may have something to gain here, but not much in my opinion. Of the Big 3 in the US, Molson is joining with the weak younger brother of the family. Molson will certainly benefit from being in a "real" distribution network as opposed to the mixed bag of beer, wine, and liquor distributors that now handle their product. I am sure that they will both save money and get much better product handling and more opportunity to grab shelf space. I seriously doubt most Canadians care much who gets the stock dividends as long as Molson continues their current brewing and packaging operations in the places that they are currently brewing. National identity is important in the beer business and apparently even more so to Canadians, so beer brewed elsewhere and imported is going to be a bad plan and I seriously doubt that this will be considered as a real possibility.So it may not be such a bad deal for Molson. OTOH-It is very unclear what Coors has to gain by this deal. Clearly they will be able to put some more brands in their houses and ultimately gain shelf space (the holy grail of the beer business), but make more money than they would by spending money on their own already well established brands? I don't think so. Coors, in the late 80's early 90's, spent some serious money making a run at being number 2. They couldn't do it, despite a massive adveritising budget, new brewery acquisition and expansion, and the addition of new brands. I don't see why this will be any different. I would much rather see Coors spending money and time on their own well recognized and established brands. Probably taking on Miller head to head as they don't have a prayer at outspending or outcompeting Anheuser Busch, a monolith in the beer industry and also, quite possibly. the best run large company in the World. This is a strange deal. The other part is that I believe that if the Molson family was acting responsibly that they would have spent some time looking for a Canadian buyer. Seagrams seems a likely candidate, but I don't know how trust laws are set up in Canada and under Canadian law this merger might not even be possible. It is an interesting subject though. Thanks for bringing it up.

The coverage has been great and I have really enjoyed the way that the race is being handled (although I could do with less shots of fat guys in speedos running along side the riders and judging frim Armstrong's comments after the race last night, he could do with less of it as well....Yikes! ). Now, to make this more of an eGullet topic---does anyone have any idea what all of the campers and cycling fans eat while they are on the side of a rural road for days? Somehow I picture it as kind of a Mardi Gras Parade with vendors passing up and down the streets of France, ahead of the race, with French Stuff. Is this the case? Or do people bring giant picnics? I notice that there are tons of motorhomes (caravans?) and I guess that they have the ability to make their own stuff. So what gives? What are they eating out there?

CDM is good stuff, but when I make V. coffee at home, I prefer Community New Orleans Blend.. THe CDM is a fine coffee, but I like the roast of the Community product better. OTOH, this is the only time that I drink anything with Chicory in it. As my father once said, " If I wanted coffee that tasted like boiled acorns, I would join one of those Civil War Renactment groups."

What about that delicious Vietnamese Iced COffee? Does it have a name besides "delicious Vietnamese Iced Coffee"? I love that stuff.