Christmas 2020 duck, before and after

 The duck was brined overnight, seasoned with Chinese 5 spice and coarse salt, loosely 'stuffed' with half a n apple, on 375f for almost 2 hours. It was....delicious. 

There was at least half a cup of clear duck fat harvested after roasting......it will be the basis for some delicious hash browns or fried potatoes. 

Cheers all, hope your holiday was good. 

Christmas eve breakfast

 Duck liver and eggs. Delicious. 

2020 Thanksgiving

 Now, two days after, I'm looking askance at the 3-4 pounds of turkey meat leftovers in the fridge. There were just the three of us: my youngest, Emily and her partner Jeremy. We got the smallest turkey available, it was around 16 pounds. Emily also did her usual pecan and pumpkin pies. The pies are mostly gone, 'natch, as well as the sides. The turkey meat still sits in the fridge, like a gym sock on a shower rod. 

Update of sorts

Still in the South Seattle area, still unsymptomatic of the virus, still going slightly crazy (but who can tell that from the norm). Voted already, nothing else new. =Tonight is chili....ground beef, lots of garlic, some thai garlic-chilie sauce, beans, slasa, seasonings.

Dinner tonight

All is well with me, at least for a 74 year old (don't start, Bruce). Tonight I made a relatively traditional English sheperd's pie, substituting small chunks of carrots for peas.

Fiona first day 5th grade

More seafood from Da Nang

Not sure how people feel about squid, but I love them.

What they are eating in Danang, Vietnam

My friend who's been living there since October, sent me these picture of recent meals at a local restaurant. Until the recent case of covid, Danang has had no cases for a couple months.

As a country, Vietnam has a population of just under a third of the US. They have had fewer than 500 cases out of their 93 million people. And zero deaths. No wonder my friend is in no hurry to return.

Anyway, here are three seafood dinners. To me, they all look delicious. The huge shrimp have a sauce of garlic, butter and sweet chili. Not sure what the oysters have, but it looks excellent to me.

Hope all are well. 

A report of sorts from the epicenter.

So, I came over to Seattle from Montana in early October, frankly expecting to move on to whatever is next in the existence experience.

And what do I fucking get?? That I'm living in the, until recently, the main focus of the covid19. Currently New York is battling for first place.

I'm in a two bedroom apt south of Seattle, not too far from the airport. My youngest, Emily, lives here with her husband. They moved to a two bedroom to accommodate me. It's a large complex, probably at least 500 people live here, many, many 6 plex buildings. Neighbors are fine, seems pretty middle/lower class, lots of kids.

When this started, over a month ago, we started getting stuff, hand wipes, sanitizers, amazon-ordered rubbing alcohol and alo gel...is there a 'a' in alo? Aloe? Yeah, that's it. A digression, pardon.
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Now, both my daughter and I have symptoms, fever in both cases, cough in hers. Her husband so far has none, we've endeavored to do all the precautions around him and with common articles handled.

So....y'know? This is not how I'd spend my twilight years. Pisses me off somewhat, but hey, that's my problem.

So, you all out there. Emily and I took every fucking precaution for the last three weeks we could think of: glove when shopping, wiping down the cart, wiping down everything that went into the cart, wiping the screens and keyboards of the self checkout. And yet, we probably have it. I'll know this coming week about my swab done on Friday. 

Stay home, trust no one. Lol.
Mike

Update on The Adorable One

My granddaughter Fiona, aka The Adorable One yesterday. Her mom said she had a fabulous time.

Doing the 'pinky promise' with Elizabeth Warren.