(no subject)

Dear Diary,

This evening I butchered a Muscovy duck, all by myself! The legs and wings are in the fridge lightly curing, to become confit in a few days time. The breasts are heavily curing in the fridge, to become duck prosciutto in a week or so. The rest of the trimmings have had the fat rendered out to add to said confit, and the rest of the carcass is in the fridge awaiting the stock pot. Anyone know what one does with duck gibblets? Toss 'em in the stock perhaps?

Our garden is doing fairly well, we've harvested about 5 zucchinis, lots of snap peas, and enough green beans for Meg to put up about 4 quarts of pickled green beans this evening. The blueberries are about done, but we picked quite a pile for their first year in the ground. Our carrots are nearing harvest, as are our beets. The cucumbers are starting to have small prickly fruit, so hopefully we'll be rolling in those soon as well. The herb bed has finally taken root and is starting to thrive, and we have LOTS of Italian and Thai basil. Home-grown pesto will most certainly be on the menu this winter.

Also Colbert introduced me to Movits! tonight. Swing/jazz/hip-hop from Sweden, which makes me wonder why more people don't rap over big-band/swing. Youtube here, and here, and definitely here.

For a day that started out with a shitty headache, it sure ended pretty well. Cooked yummy things, snuggled the wife, found new music... life is pretty good. Now to stay awake for a bit so as to sleep gooder, unlike most nights lately.

(no subject)

Dear Diary,

This evening I butchered a Muscovy duck, all by myself! The legs and wings are in the fridge lightly curing, to become confit in a few days time. The breasts are heavily curing in the fridge, to become duck prosciutto in a week or so. The rest of the trimmings have had the fat rendered out to add to said confit, and the rest of the carcass is in the fridge awaiting the stock pot. Anyone know what one does with duck gibblets? Toss 'em in the stock perhaps?

Our garden is doing fairly well, we've harvested about 5 zucchinis, lots of snap peas, and enough green beans for Meg to put up about 4 quarts of pickled green beans this evening. The blueberries are about done, but we picked quite a pile for their first year in the ground. Our carrots are nearing harvest, as are our beets. The cucumbers are starting to have small prickly fruit, so hopefully we'll be rolling in those soon as well. The herb bed has finally taken root and is starting to thrive, and we have LOTS of Italian and Thai basil. Home-grown pesto will most certainly be on the menu this winter.

Also Colbert introduced me to Movits! tonight. Swing/jazz/hip-hop from Sweden, which makes me wonder why more people don't rap over big-band/swing. Youtube here, and here, and definitely here.

For a day that started out with a shitty headache, it sure ended pretty well. Cooked yummy things, snuggled the wife, found new music... life is pretty good. Now to stay awake for a bit so as to sleep gooder, unlike most nights lately.