Recipe Time with STxAR

During the cold snap, I wanted some hearty goodness.  I remembered some leftover pork roast, and it started a memory hole.

I took the job I have now in 1997.  My manager's office was in SE Houston, just inside the beltway.  I think the address was on Fuqua.  Don't ask, I never could get that right.  He delighted in pronouncing it as pornographically as possible.

My manager took to me to Pe-Te's on Highway 3, right across the road from Ellington Field.  Like every great place to eat, it looked like a shack.  Gravel parking lot, LOADED with real folks and that weirdly Houston poser/zipper-head type guy.  If you've been there for a while, you know what I mean.

 

 

Most are carrying these styrofoam to go cups, with steam billowing out, and the smells are heavenly.  Jim says, "just get a medium, that's plenty."  So, I order a medium red beans and rice, with sweet tea.  As we sat down, I looked around.  Pictures and license plates on the walls so thick you couldn't see what was under them.  Poloroids or Kodak snaps, not framed stuff.  Astronauts, pilots in front of jets, lots of history hanging there.  It's right across from an Air Force base, makes perfect sense, they know good food.

And the food!!!  WOW!  Very good, better than I ever deserved to eat. 

Sadly, like all good things, it's history.

I decided to make something that at least looked like what I remember.  I had to go to the gettin-place to pick up some spicy that I didn't have handy.

I took the completed mess to my epicurean daughter, to get her reaction.  She was smitten.  It turned out really tasty, and it kept me warm and windy for most of the week.

My daughter asked me for the recipe, and I thought you might like to make some.

Pe-Te's red beans and rice (well, almost a reasonable facsimile)

Parts:

Cook up a pork shoulder roast.  Easy peasy.  Sear before cooking, simple spices: salt,pepper, cut onions, some coffee (not stale!)  Slow cooker until falling apart tender.  Optional step: hide on the bottom shelf of the fridge until you forget about it.  Cut it up a bit, then mash it.  Instant pulled pork.

Cook up some red kidney beans, I used dried ones and put them in the slow cooker.  Spice to taste: cut onions, salt and pepper.

Louisiana brand Cajun Seasoning AND Frank's Red Hot.

Realize you've never made rice before.  Read how ridiculously easy it is. Get ready to fail, cause it seems to always happen.  Cook the rice and be surprised at how easy it is.  (beginner's luck)

Assembly:

Take a quart or so of the beans and juice in a big bowl, add in a few heaping heated piles of pulled pork roast.  Add too much cajun seasoning by pouring instead of shaking .  Open Frank's Red Hot, and make a mess on the cabinet.  In disgust, forget to put the top back on, and pour entirely too much into the beans and meat.  Mix well.  Drop rice by rounded serving spoonfuls between the stove and cabinet.  Move the bowl to the stove and try again.  Spread the rice around, and drop the near nuclear waste beans and meat mixture on top.  Serve to unsuspecting family members.

After Action Report:

I made enough to last the entire week...  It was really tasty, and was close enough to the original to give me a memory jog about the good days.  Days when my company was like a family, and not another major, international, corporate playground for lawyers and cpa's to foul up.  

Curiosity

 Stuff like this is really interesting to me.

 

Neat little geegaw on the video editor too.

Sunny South Texas!

Gravy, it is here.  Every day I checked the weather, they would lower the low temperature forecast.  If they are correct, we won't see the high side of 32 degrees Freedom until Tuesday.

 

 

I needed some parts and had to head over to the Gettin Place.  The dirt is still warm enough to keep water wet, but the windshields are frozen.

I figure some of you southern boys would need this info, so, it's worth what you are paying for it.  They don't sell ice scrapers this close to the sun.  So what do you do?

Any old Boy Scout electricians out there besides me? 

Good luck folks, keep warm, and let the faucets run a bit...

Calendar is on FFWD

 The speed of this year is impressive.  Time is flying.  

I've been working a project, and I have found multiple parts needing rework.  Not sure if it was contracted first to a foreign shop, or if these are parts that didn't make the cut, but were sold anyway.

Lots of work for me, anyhow.

One of the parts that was specified wrong was this little gear.  It's used as a stop of sorts, so no rotation or power transmitted with it.

Finished Product

I figured it would be interesting to film a bit of the process and make a little video of it.  

WARNING!

What follows contains language from a nearly lost dialect of American English from West Texas.  This is noted by hard R's among other irritating and hard to decipher vocal sounds.  Proceed with audio enabled at your own risk.  You have been warned.

Hey, if Phil and 4GSR could do, I figure I can, too.

Featuring a 1946 Logan 200 lathe.

Thanks, Phil

 So Phil made a comment and it sparked a memory.  

Story time...

We drove all day to go to my brother's wedding.  His buddy decided to throw him a bachelor party.  So, saddle up, boys, we are heading out...

Side note:  My bachelor party was pizza, pinball, goofing off, no major big deal at all, but just tons of fun with guys I grew up with.  All I really remember is joking around with a bunch of farmers, smiles, laughs, and friendship. This could be fun.

I hop in my brother-in-law's truck and off we go.  It's getting dark, I'm bushed from a 12 hour road trip, and start dozing off....  The RV point was a strip club parking lot...  "Wait, what? Where are we going?"    BIL says, "okay men, what happens here stays here. No tales will be told."  Not quite what I was expecting, but then I'm a simple hick, not a man about town...

Side note:  I had a big spiritual problem with this.  And a big mental problem with it.  This is not something I condone or encourage.  Just like putting raw pork chops in your pocket and teasing all the bobcats you can call up...  I want to support my brother, but not like this.  What to do? Science brain speaks up, "Okay bud, observe, see what they do, this is an experiment and you are the researcher.  Problem solved! Detached professionalism....  

 

 

 

engaged.

We pay the 5 bucks at the door, and find a table to sit at.  Since I'm no drinker, I pay 3 bucks for a Dr. Pepper.  I'm always the designated driver in a situation like this...  Women everywhere, dressed to impress.  As the night progressed an older guy starts paying ladies to "dance" for my brother.  The amount of money he dropped was impressive.  "Wow, that was enough to pay my gas bill to drive here."  "Dang, He just paid for one of my new tires."  What is the point of giving that much dough just to see her bones wiggle through her skin?

 

Side note:  I'm a mid 30's, father of 3, working an engineering job, making less than median in Houston.  I didn't have 10 bucks to spend on anything.  I figured I could spend maybe 15 dollars there, max.  And then the covert Pete's Pastrami run with my daughter was still possible for lunch the next day.  Hmmmm....

Some young thing walks up and asks me to buy her a drink.  Sure! 

(Research for science in 3, 2, 1...)  I paid 5 bucks for her fruit punch, and she sits down to visit.

 

Me                           Her

Worked here long?  Yeah about a year.

Make good money?  Oh yeah, a lot!

More than your expenses? Yes! almost, *blush* money to burn.

Have a day job?  Not anymore, but I trained as a secretary.

How long do you plan to work?  They make you stop when you turn 26. 

Are you investing or saving the extra?  Bleep, blurp, ding, whiz, pop! What? No!

So let me get this straight, you have an almost unlimited earning potential, and a set point where you will not be able to do this anymore, and you aren't making any preparation for the end?  You could be set if you play it right!  I gotta go.

Right then, I realized that not only were the big spenders idiots, so where the wigglers.  This was a place that had no point.  It was stupid beyond anything I'd ever experienced.

Thank you, no.

And our wives found out anyway and they were beyond angry.  

 

My research project was only profitable for me.  No one else cared what I discovered.

And lest you think I'm a total block head, there was this ice cube that severely tested my professionalism and detachment, it is burned into my mind, and I will likely never forget it.....

 

That theory that you can't study something without influencing it?  I think it works both ways.

That excellent gif is from here.

Photo Essay

Okay, my previous post didn't paint a decent picture,so a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here is the gear in it's home.

Side View

and....

Overhead view

and finally....

Exploded view?

Those two black parts are collars, that keep the gear where you want it.  The builders turned down the bolt to make a stub shaft.  It bolts through the side.  BUT....  The shaft is supposed to be 0.5" diameter, and it's some bit bigger, each is different sized but all are too big.

I've got to resize the shaft bolts to fit correctly, and make the bushings to fit the 0.75" hole in the gear and the newly turned down 0.5" shaft.

Rework is a hoot!!! Or not, for small values of hoot.  I'd rather have these uniform and not a custom one off job on each bolt.  So, lathe work tonight!  Alright!!

Proof of Concept

 Had a quick job to do today.  Had to check and see if this was worth doing or not.

Small gear, Boston 20 tooth.  Needed a 'reducer' to fit a half inch shaft.  There are two stop collars that are half inch so a quick sleeve would make this work RIGHT NOW.  This was spec'd wrong.  It has a 0.75" hole for a 0.5" shaft. 

So, here it is, pressed in the middle and ready for install.

The neat part: this doesn't rotate.  It is used as a stop.  Very interesting design.

Any way, This week has blown by, and left me in the dust.  My plan to post a million times this year is now behind schedule.  

Library Additions

 

I spent a few minutes visiting with my mentor this week.  He gave me treasure....

Editions 1,2,3,4,6,7

I love books.  I like the way they smell.  I like the way they feel.  Their weight says value.  And I LOVE the information that they hold.  They are there, rain or shine.  Ready to give what they hold by candle light, in an afternoon porch swing or any place you have light enough to read.  I have had the most wonderful trips, met the most amazing people, and have actually understood the mind of the long gone author by reading books.  I know it's old fashioned, but a library is a good thing.  And the way our betters are cutting people out of the loop, it won't surprise me in the least if our access to knowledge is curtailed... for some 'sin' we may or may not have done.

 

Looking at a website that has a scanned copy just isn't the same as knowing that I am holding a cherished tool.  Maybe it helped make the Jenny of WW1, or the P-47 or P-38 in WW2.  Did they use it to manufacture the iron lung that kept folks alive in the 50's?  You just never know where they come from, or what their owners did.  Yeah, I'm a bit mystic about historical objects, but I have a pretty active imagination.  

 

Hey, quick, what does a lathe apron look like?  You know, a cut away diagram.

 

Created with a pencil, a ruler, and a hunk of rubber... among other things

 

Hey, have you ever seen the drill press the Keith Fenner has?

How cool is that?

Thanks for stopping by.