Thoughts

Disclaimer Most of you aren’t going to have a clue what I’m talking about. I sincerely apologize ahead of time. I’ll attempt a layman’s explanation, but I make no promises. I’ll try to link to unfamiliar terms. Backstory Even before my new job - oh yea, by the way, I’m a web developer now, fancy that - I was practicing with DVCS as a hobby. A Distributed Version Control System is just a way of tracking the history of source code files throughout the life of a project. There are two major DVCS’s out there, Git and Mercurial . It seems Git is more widely used and more widely accepted for projects with multiple developers (and I’m learning it for work), but I like to use Mercurial for my personal projects because that’s what I taught myself.

I'm slowly becoming a machinist for an incredibly tiny part production company ( Inspire Products, Inc. ). Not a manual machinist, mind you. A better title might be a machine programmer, though my official title is manufacturing engineer. Whatever you call it, my position sometimes requires me to run CNC machines overnight or over the weekend, especially when cutting molds. These machines can sometime fail and require maintenance. We have a camera set up so we can check the status of the machine lights, but that doesn't always tell us a lot (especially in the dark when color is indistinguishable) and I don't intend to nervously watch the shop camera on my time off. However, if I were notified of a status change, then it would be a lot easier to enjoy one's time off and simply go in to solve the problem as needed.

I'm a bachelor. I live in an apartment. With my cat (who never helps me cook). And I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is having such an old oven that I can't set it to bake a Costco meal to be ready when I get home! If you aren't there, you aren't baking. I suppose I am a tad spoiled after renting from my manager before he and his family arrived in Reno. Now that oven was nice. So I'm contemplating an outfit to my apartment oven to provide room for programmability.

One might ponder: "Senpai Weber, do you ever tire of potstickers?" Without hesitation, I would respond: "Do you ever tire of breathing, student? Potstickers are the breath of one's culinary being..." I suppose that can be literal, as well. No, I cannot tire of those delicately wrapped morsels of meat, steamed and crisped on their bottoms in the likes of any pan. I never will. But the sauce... With that I can experiment. Today I whipped up a sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper flakes, honey, and lemon juice. Do not ask me for quantities, I did not write any down. Trust your stomach, pupil.

I was curious about gas prices in Reno and whether it is worth it to travel any distance for gasoline, or merely use the nearest gas station. Maybe you already know the answer, or know someone else who knows the answer, but I felt like doing a bit of math to prove it to myself. Here is what I found out.

I was about to pull out the pre-packaged stir fry from Costco, but I already had some noodles doused in olive oil in the refrigerator from the other night. Further, I had purchased some capers the night before, which I have never used in cooking before now. I've had capers and I know how they can add a nice kick to whatever dish uses them appropriately, so I thought I'd read some recipes and give it a try. I found a recipe online for a simple garlic and caper sauce. Sadly, I didn't have any garlic (or lemon juice) and I was too lazy to go out and get some (forgive me for my garlic sins, Jesse!). Instead, I melted a couple tablespoons of butter in a sauce pan, added 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth to simmer on high, and then added a couple spoonfuls of drained capers, 1/4 cup of sliced black olives, a 1/2 cup of chopped marinated artichoke hearts, and then simmered it down to a reduced sauce. I also added some dried basil, salt, and pepper.  Some Italian sausage searing ...

Well, I figure if my posts are going to be heavily influenced by the foodie in me of late, I might as well kick it up a notch. So I give you the breakfast pizza. The breakfast pizza, prior to being cooked. Pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese,  pre-cooked breakfast sausage and bacon and egg, frozen spinach, and olives. Crispy cheese. Overview. Dinner portion. In honor of Rhett & Link who partially inspired this : "Will it Pizza? ... Yes!"