Potato cubes, cheese sauce, jalapeño, bacon

It's the way I make macaroni and cheese with potato instead of macaroni.

Chick-Fil-A green salad, fruit salad

There aren't many cars in the parking lot. There isn't a person in sight. I park my truck in handicapped slot near the front and boom two teen males suddenly appear directly in front of my truck. One sits on the sidewalk in front of my truck's grille and the other taller teen paces. I must walk past them.

They're sizing me up. I am sizing them up. 

Apparently I look a lot worse than I feel. 

I admit that I must be a sight. Tall, using two canes for balance, my movements are measured and slow. Very slow. Achingly slow. I actually am having trouble getting my legs to cooperate. But it doesn't feel like it. It just is.

I sense the tall one hovering near me is trying to access a way to approach me for a handout but seeing me have so much difficulty walking throws him off his game. He opens the first door for me, then he opens the second door. It's a very gracious thing to do but I'm still thinking he is trying to panhandle but cannot. I place my order and he stands back still inside the restaurant. After I move on he steps forward and orders a drink and then he leaves. 

When I was done eating the two were gone. 

Am I wrong? Did I misread the whole thing? 

I kept asking myself how I could have handled that differently. 

I could have asked, "You two dudes hungry? Busted?" Depending on their answer I could have invited them in and paid for their lunch or dinner or whatever that was between those two times.  I could have invited them to sit at my table. I could have made it an introductory thing.

But instead I kept isolated. I kept up the wall. I said nothing that could have confirmed or dissuaded my reading of the situation. 

I never eat fast food. Never. Except now. A few weeks ago I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and the exact same thing happened on the other side of town. Two dudes suddenly appeared at my truck as I drove in. At the time of day between meals when nobody else is inside. From out of nowhere and with no other people around. Then one of them helped me with the door. 

I don't need any help with doors!

But apparently I look like I do. 

Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich and waffle fries, macaroni and cheese

Oops. 

I didn't think of taking a picture until I was almost done.

I ate this at the store and brought a bunch of crap home.

This is two of the things I brought home. I actually ordered 8 chicken tenders and it appears they gave me eight popcorn chicken pieces instead.

I was there at 4:00pm and there were never less than six cars in the line.

Some people in the cars in the line took a long time causing everyone to wait while most other cars passed right through.

And that tells you ... um ... something about something ... and timing.

Chocolate, banana, peanut butter, malted milkshake

A teaspoon of peanut butter goes a very long way.

Ovaltine is what makes it malted (and chocolate duh).

Scrambled eggs, pork tenderloin, whole wheat toast, apricot preserves, blueberries

Scrambled eggs made the French way. Oddly, a British dude demonstrates. 

Oh, those Yurpeans.

Hear that?

When he gets a new cook he has him make scrambled eggs. Because if you can do that right then you can cook anything.

That's funny.

He burned the toast.

In my house the alarms scream so loud that they burst your eardrums.

He doesn't mention this is exact same thing as a failed sauce. 

Egg rolls, dipping sauce

Filling: 

1 teaspoon grated garlic

1 teaspoon grated ginger

3 Large carrots

1/2 Cabbage

1 LB ground pork

2 Tablespoons sugar

3 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar

1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil

2 Tablespoons vermouth

1 Teaspoon fish sauce

Dipping sauce:

1/4 Cup very hot water

1 Flat Tablespoon sugar

3 Tablespoons soy sauce

1/4 Teaspoon fish sauce

1/4 Teaspoon sesame seed oil

1 Tablespoon vermouth

Apple pie with ice cream

The apple pie has dehydrated cherries in it instead of raisins so every now and then POW cherries right in the kisser.

I don't have brown sugar. What? It's included for its molasses so that's what I added; white sugar and molasses. It turned out very nice. Cinnamon, of course, but also faint clove to buttress it. 

That's right. Buttress. Just like a cathedral. You got your soaring heights of thin walls supported on the outside with short stocky wings that lean on it to help it stand up. Just like that. Exactly like that. 

'Cept different.

Update: I emailed these photos to my brother who opened it while his family was inside a pastry shop in California. His wife and his boys decided to leave the store and go across the street to get pie with ice cream. They talked about getting me to send them a pie through the mail. 

Ham sandwich, malted whole wheat bread

Malted whole wheat bread, videos

The bowl contains hot water. Sugar is added and whisked so that it disappears. Yeast is added. Then whole wheat flour is added. Bread flour and salt is added and the dough is allowed to rise to its shaggy state before being kneaded.

The cell phone pooped out. 

And I didn't know it.

There I was kneading away thinking the whole thing was on track. Then I noticed the screen was black. Totally black. Like off. I brought out its wire and hooked it up to recharge while it photographed the rest.

The kneaded dough is transferred to a clean bowl with olive oil. 

Psych!

It's the same bowl. I cleaned it and dried it.

The bowl is covered with plastic. We see it rise. 

It's taken out of the bowl and stretched in cardinal directions and folded back onto itself in thirds. Third one way, then the other, then the side way, then the other side. This redistributes the yeast.  The dough wad is placed into a baking pan. The baking pan with dough is covered with an upside down storage bin. We observe it rise.

Then baked.

Somewhere along the way the main supplemental light went out, it's on a timer, yet the camera inside the cell phone adapted.

Scrambled eggs on whole wheat toast

With rasp breeze. 

Old Santa Fe restaurant, Denver

Grub Hub again. 

I could have walked over there but I didn't feel like it.

It's very close.

The first photo is a salad if you can believe that. There is lettuce underneath.

The second photo is a burrito, a chile relleno, and an enchilada, rice and beans. 

The third photo is guacamole and it is very good.  

Napa cabbage with shrimp

The shrimp is frozen so it sits in water for a few minutes. It's weird. It doesn't have the slice down the back indicating that it's been de-veined. But I didn't see any poop in it.  I probably bought it for sushi.

It also has onion. 

The seven magical Asian ingredients (below) are combined in a bowl first. 

This whole thing goes very fast.  

Pork tenderloin sandwich

The two pork tenderloins that come in a package to look like one reasonable tenderloin were carefully strung together as butchers do sometimes and carelessly over-marinated in a carefully combined mixture of 50% salt / 50% sugar, half the customary Asian ingredients with western ingredient substitutions.  It's 2/3 careful and 1/3 careless. The extra time did not damage the meat because the marinade was weak to begin. That is, 1/2 cup sugar and salt rather than 1 full cup of each.

But that over-marination caused it to penetrate the meat thoroughly especially since the tenderloins are actually two thin lengths. This meat is gently flavored throughout. And it tastes very good.

So now additional Hoisin sauce increases the flavor significantly, alters it a bit, but most importantly makes it moist for a sandwich. It's a sauce added directly into the meat. But it is not enough so mayonnaise is added to supplement mostly for additional moisture. The whole thing worked very well.

The malted whole wheat is excellent although fairly small. So two sandwiches are made from the pile of meat. I enjoyed these two sandwiches very much.

I am so sick of cucumbers going soft in the crisper that I made pickles out of them to prevent that waste. 

I should start calling those drawers "limper" because that's what happens to everything that goes into them.

It worked!

The pickles are amazing. I used fresh ginger and garlic. I've never tasted anything like them and that makes me wonder why ginger isn't more popular for pickling. It's a great ingredient.

I am so sick of pineapples going soft before I can get to them that I put two of those things in jars too. Except those were not pickled. I notice they're lasting a lot longer than pineapples do just sitting in the refrigerator. There is something about the glass protecting them. 

These two ideas I will use for the rest of my life. 

Because I really love ginger-pickles and fresh pineapple. 

Why aren't these two ideas more popular? Ginger with cucumbers and fresh pineapple saved in jars.

Everyone should be doing this.

It's another of those mysteries about earth. 

Come to think of it I bet berries would save better in jars.

Whole wheat bread toast, pork tenderloin and eggs breakfast

It's not whole wheat such you buy a sack of whole wheat flour. No. It's whole wheat grain that was malted in intention of using for making beer and milled here at home. 

It makes a world of difference. Honestly, I've never tasted anything like it. The bread is truly outstanding. While the loaf itself is just, eh.

And now I have deep concern that this is not possible to repeat.

You see, CoBrew moved from downstairs directly below me. The glass blister was theirs that stuck out beyond my own balcony and that water from my plants dripped on and messed up. Maybe they couldn't take me anymore. Maybe I was the straw that broke their back. Maybe they just left instead of talking to management. 

It could happen. 

Now I bought malted grain from an outfit on Amazon. 

But I have no confidence it will be as beautifully malted. So I bought a lot of malt to enhance it either way. Now I have malt for other things like chocolate milk and ice cream. 

I discovered the coffee bean grinder works fine for milling wheat berries. It blasts through them much more easily than it does corn. Although it can only do very small batches. 

When I tasted this bread I couldn't believe this isn't already mass marketed. There is a giant blank spot in our national bread production and distribution. I am certain that anyone who tastes this will prefer it immediately and eschew all previous bread preferences. 

It was so easy to do. Only 1/3 the total flour content is this malted whole wheat kernels. The rest is standard Gold Medal bread flour.

The pork tenderloin is muy delicioso. Over marinated. Under baked. It is very easy to eat. And it goes very well with fresh pineapple as it does with fresh berries. And it's so cheap when compared with beef tenderloin. Both of those things are excellent to cook. Thin slices like this are very satisfying. 

Melita's Greek Café and Market, Denver

Grub Hub delivered, and boy, are those guys ever fast.

I called in the order then put on socks and shoes. Then walked back into the closet to change out my sweatshirt. 

This took a few minutes. All I could find was a knitted Hensley that does not have a waist band so the way it drapes over my kwashiorkor belly and covers my butt makes me look preggers. 

Ew, I hate that. 

It's the vanity in me. 

It's taken me two years to discover that stinking extended belly is the result of my kidneys failing. And now that I know that I want treatment soon as possible. But first I must have a biopsy. But first I must get the blood pressure down. And that right there is whatchacall a catch-22, since the kidney thing is causing the blood pressure to go wonky.

Know what the sad thing is?

Treatment can only repair them to 50% efficiency. 

What a bummer!

But even knowing this has been helpful. The pneumonia thing has lifted and that brings me back to this base situation which makes me feel great. I have energy to do things that have slipped. 

But this preggers belly is pissing me off. While the adjustments I've made on my own already have their affect. It's not so bad as it was. And it's getting better. Even without treatment, just by my own changes. 

So there I am in my maternity Hensley and the guy shows up as I'm on my way downstairs. We veritably met at the front door. He called from his car so I got there first by only one minute. That's how fast these guys are. 

Now imagine that. They cooked my lunch and a third party showed up there, a few blocks away such as a stair step, and brought it to me faster than I could put on socks and shoes and shirt and go downstairs to meet the delivery guy.

There is no way for this to have been more efficient. Even me going down to the garage and driving there and parking then doing that in reverse would be less efficient. 

I love this new world that we're making together. 

People hustle. Especially young people. 

Most impressively. 

God bless the young hustlers of this new world. They blow my mind.

And that does it. 

The Hensley sweatshirt is outta here. I'm not having that crap around anymore. While in the closet I can go one-by-one and pick out all the shirts and pants that I have no intention of ever wearing again. So that's what I'll do. Literally hundreds of shirts and pants are in fine shape and will go straight to Goodwill. Some of them were never worn. There is nothing actually bad among them. 

This is what my new energy will do. 

Care to hear something weird?