Muchacho Polaco

Yun and I have been buying some old furniture on craigslist to replace what we sold prior to our move. Neither of us are fans of furniture made from particle board, or other cheap feeling options. And as it turns out, you can buy really solid items locally for next to nothing that people are trying to get rid of. We bought a nice dresser that is really solid. We also bought an oak table, also solid, but rather quite ugly.

Yun had the idea to paint it with chalk paint and it turned out rather nice in comparison to what it looked like before.

She did a couple coats of varnish to finish it off and it’s held up pretty well to use so far.

We have a rather large nopal cactus (pear cactus) in our new front yard which we both think is rather ugly. So I thought it would be worth trying to prepare a piece for consumption.

There are a lot of varieties of this type of cactus and not all are for consumption. But as it turns out, the one we have works fine for that. I’ve never been a big fan of the taste (it mostly lacks any), but with enough seasoning, it can begin to resemble a green bean. Even so, I am always a fan of free, so perhaps we could make use of this front yard monstrosity.

I ordered a dehydrator a few days ago. In light of the current pandemic, Amazon states delivery time would be in excess of a month. In reality, in only took a couple days. I put it to work immediately with some apples.  They turned out pretty magnifico, but the lesson learned was to cut them consistently thin. After the first apple cut, I used a guillotine and that made things much easier.

Dried apples make enjoyable snacks and a much healthier option than what I normally snack on.

After the fruit, I moved on to try my first batch of beef jerky. That was my primary motive in ordering the dehydrator. First-world beef jerky is ridiculously expensive. So making it yourself for a substantial reduction in cost was too attractive to pass up.

I bought a kilo of beef bottom round as it was one of the more affordable options and a quick google search at the store led me to the conclusion it was also one of the best cuts you can get for jerky.

I marinated the meat with whatever I could find in the fridge. Terriyaki, soy sauce, and lots of salsa with chiltepin. As with the apples, the challenge was to cut the meat thin enough. I froze the meat for about 20 minutes to make it easier, but it was more difficult than I realized. As such, there were quite a few pieces that were too thick.

Overall I’d say it was a success, but given my lack of will power, I ate half of it in about 10 minutes which made me feel a bit sick and no longer wanting any more beef jerky any time soon.

Today I plan on trying some fruit leathers (as they’re called), which is just blended fruit poured out into the dehydrator and dried to make what is essentially a fruit roll up. I always loved those in my earlier years, but they were always expensive, so it was not a regular option.

I came across this old photo in the archives recently. It is of the drill hall on Beatty Street in Vancouver. I have many memories as a child in that place.

These are interesting times to be sure. Upon our arrival to the New World, we find ourselves in relative isolation due to quasi-quarantine imposed upon all. Churches understandably are shut down for precautionary reasons, even though we are amidst a high point in the liturgical calendar. To remedy that, most churches have been meeting virtually for weeks now. It’s not the same, but it’s better than nothing.

Daniel preached from Malachi 2 last Sunday and did a fine job.

Yesterday was a historic day in that it was the first time I have ever sold my bread commercially. I only made 8 loaves to sell along with Dana’s 68 loaves, but surprisingly I actually sold 6 of them within an hour. Not bad for my first try and given this isn’t exactly the culture for spicy bread. I did a 4% Chile de Arbol (15k-30k scoville).

Matt and Dana sell their bread on Fridays from 2.30 to 3.30 (or sold out) at Total Wine. Normally there is a flow of a lot of customers. But yesterday, given the current pandemic, there were very few customers.

Even so, I enjoyed every moment. It is my dream to do this regularly.

Our first meal was outside on the back patio, but this was our first on our “new” dining table.

Dana has generously offered me a place selling bread along with her own this Friday. Therefore, I’ve been trying to work on one particular option to sell. I began the week practicing with a pain rustique with chile de arbol, but with Dana’s suggestion I switched to a no-knead recipe with the same chilies.

My personal preference is scorching hot bread. But I’ve been cautioned that will likely not sell well, so I’ve tried to minimize the impact of the chilies. I’ve been adding about 2% per loaf, but I’m trying to second batch this evening with 4%. The 4% batch is noticeably redder, but I don’t think it will be significantly more spicy. They will sit in these tubs for 15 hours.

Since we are now back in Tucson, I have the time to apprentice with Matt and Dana in their bakery. We began last Thursday preparing for sales yesterday. We made 91 loaves with six different options. I enjoyed every moment. The repetition of certain steps was very helpful for me to create a sort of muscle memory of each step.

We sold nearly every loaf within the first 45 minutes of setting up. That’s nearly 500 dollars in profit for less than an hour of sales. These guys do this only once a week. I would love to double that daily.

Next week I am going to sell one style of my own, so I need to prepare something and practice this week to be ready. I made some poolish last night so as to work with some pain rustique today.

We have been fed pretty well since our return to the first world. On Sunday Matt and Dana had us over with Charles and Julie for some spectacular fillets along with some pretty fine wine. If we ate like this daily I could see enjoying Tucson.