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Winter is on the way, Thanksgiving is over. What's been happening?

 Well, as my last post had been about the town chiropractor murder case, I'll start there.

The defendant, Daniel Moore, changed his plea to "not guilty," and the case was set to start next March.  It was the talk around the Courthouse that "Dateline" had been "snooping around" looking for info to go with the developing story of this case on the day of the preliminary hearing. Oh, yes, he's decided he wants to open his office back up to get back to making some money. Although, several of his past clients, include Stacy and me, won't be utilizing his services any time soon. 

Winter, again!

We have had some very cold days so far and a couple of overnight over two-inches snowfalls. However, like winters past it is already going the route of a day after the snow the weather changes direction bringing in warm moist air from the Oregon way instead of the Canadian direction. Like it used to in this part of the region, cold air dropping down from Alaska and Canada. 

Like winters of the recent past, all that icy air and weather is now funneling down to western Montana, about 60-miles east of here, and east. So, a day, or a night of snow, and then it warms to rain for the afternoon, already happening this year. 

I did like the photo I got the other morning of the frost and freezing fog of the property across the street. 









We had a mostly Sous Vide Thanksgiving!

Two years ago, when our son Sean and his wife moved to the area, he brought his Sous Vide immersion cooking machine. While he had gotten it after being really interested in that method of cooking, he had never tried it much himself. 

Stacy and I love it! Stacy was watching some YouTube videos about Thanksgiving options. I watched some of them with her, and we thought, why not try it ourselves?

So, we picked up a 12-pound turkey and cut it up into quarters to make it work for a Sous Vide cooking. We vacuum sealed the sections, 2-bags of legs and thighs, and 2-bags of the breast meat. The back section was pressure-cooked for juice and meat for later projects, and the wings were later fried as Stacy was prepping the turkey for Thanksgiving day. 

Above: the packs of thighs in their 150-degree water during the 12-hour cook.
Below: 12-hours later, and the packs of white meat were added, the cook temp reduced to 130-degrees for the next 12-hours of cooking. 

Left: 24-hours later, and the packs were taken out, all cooked!

Above: Stacy used her french-fry maker, cut up some Russett potatoes, and cooked the Red-potatoes in the photo also. Then the Russett potatoes were vacuum-sealed, and the pouches were also cooked in the Sous Vide container along with a pouch of Cranberries and added ingredients for her own homemade Cranberry sauce. Everything came out great! 
The Russett potatoes and Cranberry pouches were cooked at 185-degrees for an hour and a half. 



A Thanksgiving dinner for two, with lots of leftovers! 
After being Sous Vided, the turkey was browned in the oven and came out perfectly cooked and incredibly moist. 
From the top to the bottom, Pasta Salad, and an egg and veggie tray. Some salad. Then plain mashed potatoes and some garlic-mashers, and some homemade gravy. 
On the bottom left some stuffing and a pan of sweet potatoes! 
Sous Vide will be the way we go from now on, and we highly recommend cooking white meat especially but also just about anything you might want to cook and ensure very moist and perfectly cooked poultry or meats! 
Cooking the 'Sous Vide' way is definitely NOT fast food!! However, whatever is cooked is thoroughly cooked to the exact temperature you set the machine to and just needs to be browned in a pan or oven for that crispy texture. 

As with many things, there are hundreds of 'how-to' videos on YouTube regarding Sous Vide cooking, so check some out if interested! The cooking machines aren't too expensive, and while we used the vacuum sealer we own to make the pouches and the plastic container I got from Amazon to cook in, we've seen videos that work fine with zip-lock bags as cooking bags and using a cooking pot or even an ice-chest to hold the water that seems to work great too! 

COVID land.
Like many rural areas in the country, North Idaho is getting hit pretty hard now, and it is getting easier to know someone who has it or is dealing with it right now. All of the northern counties are now all classified as 'RED' due to climbing cases. Two people we know, in particular, are people that work for the state, and both kind of 'scoffed' that it was all a hoax and not "real" or wouldn't be much more than a cold should they get it.
Well, they got it! 
One person, not too bad but still had some of the normal symptoms, loss of smell and taste, congestion. And the other that is having a hard go of it and could be looking at hospitalization soon. 
The region's health organization, Pan Handle Heath, had ordered a mask mandate with masks required to be worn if in any public building, with no public gatherings allowed except schools and religious services. 
Of course, that has many local people busting their guts about their "constitutional rights" being trampled on, even if they're not! 
Last week, there were stories about how several area county sheriff's "were too busy" to take any action should complaints of violations be received. Bonner County, the county just south, would try and 'defund' the health district in protest. 
On the local am station news today, the county can't do that without budget hearings, so they withdrew the threat. 
Also, in the news, several of those same county Sheriffs are now saying they would have their officers "educate" the public if they see or respond to any mandate violation complaints instead of blowing them off. Methinks, someone high up must have said something?

All I'm certain of is we are being as careful as we can be and doing a lot of "stay safe, stay home," which with most all of any meetings being over 'Zoom' now, which helps make that easier to do. 
Myself, I am looking forward to being able to get one of the vaccines next year at some point. 

History made, every day!

In addition to the pandemic, there was also that little thing about an election last month. As Idaho is a RED state, and not just for COVID, many are upset about their guy losing. Their flags are still flying, hoping against hope that he won even with everything, including his own guy, Barr, now saying that the acting president lost too!
But I've seen the breakdown of how the voting went across the country. 
I've seen it before too. 
Years ago, back in California, I was all on board for the measure getting on the ballot to split San Bernardino County into two, making the entire high and low desert areas and becoming a new county, Mohave County, and San Bernardino County being only the area below the mountain range and in that "greater Los Angeles" region. 
I agreed with the idea of all the people in the valley, creating many of the problems for the mountain and desert communities, and a Mohave County could better serve our, my, areas. 

Nope. It seemed all those people in the valley didn't want to split the county and since more people that voted lived in the valley, the measure lost. Didn't even get a chance!

A similar thing happened in this election, with the much larger population areas voting for Biden and the less populated 'flyover states' voting for trump. 
Oh well, as with all things like this, it is just "the will of the people," and you can't do anything but accept it! 
I knew my presidential vote wouldn't amount to anything here, but I had high hopes that a person that I feel is a total lunatic in Idaho would have been voted out; I wouldn't vote for her. 
But in this state, there are still A LOT of people that don't bother with anything but voting for the person of what affiliation they're going with, whether that person is good or bad for the job. 
I can only hope that as the younger generations get voting, changes will ultimately get made! No more OLD people! BOTH of these guys are just plain TOO OLD! 
Also, term limits so there can't be people in the government for 40-years or more!!

OK, enough, ranting. Until next time! 
Tad



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