Pinehaven Rice Patties

 

 Mom used to make a rice patty that we both loved. I remember she got the recipe from Kettering Memorial Hospital. They were Seventh Day Adventist and served meatless meals. This one immediately got our attention. Trouble is, I have no idea what happened to the recipe. In fact  Mom only made it a few times. I remember it was a lot of work.

 What to do? I figured I could recreate the recipe if I had some basic guidelines to  follow. So I looked at several recipes on the internet for rice patties. I modified quantities and added (and deleted) ingredients and think it's fair that I call this recipe mine.

Pinehaven Rice Patties

1 cup long grain rice - upon cooking you'll end up with a few cups to work with
    [Note:  Use a nice long grain rice. Do not use a quick rice!]
1/2 small onion
1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese [or whatever]
1/2  cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes [optional]
1 cup chopped pecans

 Just follow the directions to cook the rice and then allow it to cool somewhat before continuing (so you don't scramble the eggs).
 I mixed the onions, cheeses, salt, pepper and and red pepper flakes in a large bowl.
 I whisked the eggs.
 Add the rice to the bowl with the onions, etc. and mix thoroughly.
 Add the egg mixture and mix again.
 Finally add the chopped pecans and stir everything together.

 Refrigerate this mixture for half  an hour or so until it's easier to handle.

 Heat s skillet with some vegetable oil. I started on high and backed off to just above halfway to finish them off. It's best to cover them while frying to heat them thoroughly through the middle.
 Use a tablespoon  to gather fistfuls of the mixture and press into a  ball. Mine were an inch to 1.5" thick. Then can be pressed down a bit while frying.
 Add them to a skillet and fry about 7 minutes per side (I like them fairly crispy on the top and bottom)

 This recipe makes an even dozen rice patties.

 Too dark for you? Back off the heat or fry them less time.

Before frying - this is an 8" non-stick skillet

After about 14 minutes

 Tom has to limit his salt intake but I added more salt to mine on  the plate. If this isn't a concern, more salt could be added to the mixture before frying.

 When Tom first saw them he said, "These look just like crab cakes".

 Tom ate three; I ate four (I'm a pig). I have the rest in a container in the refrigerator for later this week. They're an absolute hit as a meat substitute.

Gnomon Experiment

  This is an experiment I try to remember to do every October 8. I’m walking in the neighbor’s lane every morning (weather permitting)  and on that date – if the sun is shining about 8 AM – my shadow exactly hits the middle of the last large tree nearby. The left image is 10/08/13 at 7:51 AM and the right image is 10/09/22 at 8:10 AM. Near enough. Yesterday, when I was set to do the experiment, it was cloudy at sunrise and we also went out for our Saturday morning  breakfast. It means that the Earth is in the same spot in its orbit and the tilt is exactly the same for this line-up to occur. I think it’s a good demonstration of how precise celestial mechanics is.

 I am effectively making myself a gnomon, the vertical piece that stands up in the middle of a sundial that casts its shadow to the time. I suppose I'm demonstrating both time  and date because if neither are the same, standing in the lane my shadow will not shine on this tree but at about 8 AM.

 Click on  the image to enlarge. See my original post here.

How to vent our dryer?

  We've lived here 35 years and had a washer/dryer for most of them. The pair sits on an inside wall for two reasons: 1. There's nowhere else they could possibly go and 2. That's where the electrical and water hook-up's are.

 I've always wanted to vent it outside. Had it been a gas dryer, it would have been required (because of the carbon monoxide risk). But seeing as how our dryer is electric the outside vent might have been convenient but it wasn't required.

 How did I manage venting for all these years? In the early years I vented into water. The idea is that lint will "stick" to the surface of the water. It does. Somewhat. But not well.

 Then I decided a better choice might be to wrap a pair of women's hose  across the outlet pipe and make a sort of filter. It works,  too, though it pushed warm, humid air  against our wood wall and I was afraid it would either stain it or warp it. Even so, I managed many years with that set-up.

  But now  I'm trying a BetterVent®. I bought it from SupplyHouse. Click here for information.

 It easy to install: four screws. And I've used it once and really liked the way it spread the humid air our into a gentle flow through two filters.

 It'd be better to get the vent outside but this is a reasonable alternative for my set-up. Sure, it adds hot, humid air to the house in the summer (a negative) but it also adds that warm air in the winter (a plus). So I think economically it's a wash.

 More about the product can be found here.

Furnace Filter Woes

  I've been changing furnace filters here for 35 years and I've never liked it. Lately I've come away from each change bleeding.

 Here's what the last filter looked like after I got it removed on 09-21. Yes, it was in shreds. And it in turn shredded my hands. That red is blood.

 The slot has never been wide  enough for a 14x20x1 filter. And recently the filters I've been buying fit even tighter than before. They'll  drop down into the slot but they can't be pulled back out. I've tried screwdrivers along the edge and needle-nosed pliers in the center. They just jammed every time.

 So I called Dave and asked if a new holder for the filter could be made. This is what the furnace looked like with the existing filter holder removed  and the filter just taped onto the bottom of the furnace.

09-29

 In just five days Dave brought the new aluminum piece.

 Rather than drop the filter in from above, it's inserted in a track that allows it to slide in horizontally. Much nicer! And the filter size was increased to a 16x20x1 so the air flow should be a little better.

 We've had the furnace on today and all is well. This is going to save my hands ... and my fragile temper.

Flight Radar

  As a kid I used to look up to the sky and watch jets passing and wondering where they were going. For some time now, technology has provided that answer in the palm of our hand: Flightradar24.

 It's available on the web and also as cell phone apps. I use the Android version.

 This morning I saw a very high jet coming towards me from the  east  and I could see that it was passing south of me. It was just a dot in the distance but I pulled up the  app and found that it was flying at nearly 34,000 feet. It was an American Airlines Airbus traveling from Philadelphia to Phoenix. How I'd have loved the kind of information when I was a kid.

 And who would have thought it would ever be available to the man on  the street?

 This is a zoomed shot as the plane just passed me to the south. It was so high I could barely see it and I couldn't hear it at all.

 Flying 530 mph, it was soon disappearing to my west.

 I thought: here I am walking among farmer's field, part of the dark shadows passengers would see if they looked in my direction. The sun was barely risen (and behind a cloud). And yet I could see them heading to the warm Southwest while I exercised amid nearly freezing temperatures.

 It's nice that I can be a virtual part of the travels ... and they mine.

 

First Frost

  It came just five days before the average date of first frost. Usually we see a frost by 10-09 but this year we found a light, patchy frost on the morning of 10-05. That's based on 49 years of my own record-keeping.

 While I didn't see any frost in my yard, as soon as I began doing my morning laps in the neighbor's lane, I found frosty grass lining my walkway. The area adjacent to Clayton Road, by her mailbox, was patchy white, too.

 Here's Millie's yard, also covered with patches of light frost. My Tempest weather station recorded a low of 32.7° at 7:45 AM, exactly when I stepped out the back door for my walk.

 And so we can't avoid thinking about winter. Cold weather isn't far away and the hint of its nearness was clearly etched on blades of grass this morning.

Incredible Sunset

  Last evening (10-01-22) I had already locked the door and turned on the security system when I happened to look up at some of our white curtains and saw that they were glowing orange. It looked almost like a fire was burning outside. I went to a window and saw that the  western  sky was alive with the deepest red I've ever seen.

 So I called Tom, turned the alarm off and headed out the back door with camera in hand.

 Hurricane  Ian had ravaged Florida, crossed the peninsula from west to east, then come ashore again in South Carolina as a renewed hurricane. It then quickly lost its punch and became a low pressure system, staying ever east of us but forcing showers into Ohio as far west as the Columbus area.

 But throughout the day clouds streamed across Farmersville from the east to the west. And at sunset they opened enough for the glow of the setting sun to light these clouds from beneath. As the sun sunk ever further below the horizon, the reds got richer and deeper.

 But as Tom and I stood beside the garden, they also quickly faded. Still, it was a sunset to remember, all thanks to the remnants of a hurricane.