These Injustices Will Not Be Soon Forgotten

As some of you know I entered the county fair this month. Last year, my entries took a number of first place ribbons as well as the reserve grand champion ribbon. While certainly guilty of being argumentative, I am not usually very competitive which is why I've been a little surprised at the tenacity my quests for a grand champion ribbon has taken.

This year I pulled out all the stops and submitted the earlier posted about Almond Chocolate Cake from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. I also submitted a blue berry pie with a butter based crust. The pie received a first place ribbon having been beaten out for the grand champion ribbon by someone's cherry pie. The cake, however, was shamed with a white, third place ribbon behind a pistachio bunt cake which got second and an apricot upside down cake which got first. To add insult to injury this saltine cracker sucking judge wrote on the back of the tag "underdone". I may have over-reacted some and had some stern words with a group of the Beta Sigma-Phi ladies (the groups that runs our county fair), but really! under done! Admittedly this was probably the wrong kind of entry for a rural county fair. Your first bite is not what you're expecting for something labeled as chocolate cake. It takes until around the third bite before you realize that no matter what this is called it is amazing. I took the cake home and ate most of it to assuage my hurt pride. In my butter and chocolate infused coma I began plotting my assault for next year.

If You Have Some Time

This came up as an ad before a video on YouTube and I just couldn't hit the "Skip This Ad" button, and despite its 8+ minutes length I'm glad I didn't. I got a big kick out of it.

New Things

Granted, it's been awhile since I actually put a post up here. It's been a busy summer, but at any rate here we are.

First off, I finally talked my way into a job here. It's not a full time job yet, but my work schedule has been steadily picking up. The railroad also double my hours and pay at the beginning of the summer so I've been busy. I started with Reck Bros. in time to finish up the new county swimming facility. Below is the sign that was posted as you exit the job site. 

One should always be wary of children.

The house remodel is progressing. It's been hard to find time to work on it with all of the jobs going on at work, but I think I'm still making traction. 

New windows got put in all the way round.

Walls have gone up, floor repairs have been made and other adjustments made (hopefully I'm almost done with that). I also got all of the old insulation removed. A new power service and breaker box was also installed. The new plumbing has been started too.

I've been trying out some exterior paint colors. I think I'm going for the darker green. More work still to do. 

I also bought this:

It is that ugly in really life. It's a 1986 Tercel Wagon 4WD. It has has nearly 230,000 miles and nearly that many rattles and odd noises. It blows some blue smoke, but still gets better gas mileage than the Blazer for running around town. Not bad for a few hundred dollars (at least I think so).

We had a nice 4th of July in Ely with all of the usual events. Soon after that we had a fun Robertson family reunion camping in the Uintas over in Utah where I donated copious amounts of blood to the local mosquito population (aren't I generous).

The White Pine County Fair is coming up and I'll be submitting a chocolate almond cake and a blueberry pie with a butter based crust. Fingers crossed for the grand champion ribbon!

In other new:  This--

It's called a Cherpumple. It's a three layer cake with pie baked into each layer.

 

Pumpkin pie baked in a spice cake

Cherry pie baked into a white cake

and

Apple pie baked in a yellow cake

What will they come up with next? (I may have to try this)

Ouch.....

That really smarts.

While I posses an irrational soft spot for both countries in last night's world cup match I was really hoping for a Brazil win and at the very least a more competitive showing by both teams rather than a massacre. Brazil may not make it through this.

(Germany on the other hand is better equipped to deal with crushing defeats). 

Sinto muito, meu país.

Track Inspection

Last week the engineering firm we've hired at the railroad came up to do their field inspection on the 33 miles of track that we are rehabbing this summer (hopefully). The weather was (surprisingly) beautiful for mid April in Northern Nevada with temps in the mid 60's and the occasional quick afternoon thunderstorm. I spent most of the time riding on top of the tool box in the back of our Hi-rail truck soaking in the sunshine. The work consisted of getting out every quarter mile to count ties and look at ballast (gravel). Consequently I didn't get much work done on the house that week, but I was back at it today. As for everything else, all quiet on the western front.

Slightly Obsessed

This group is more fun than they should be. Listen at your own risk. 

The God of Cake

It seems best to start this post out with the picture first. Once again, Julia Child's magic book has turned me into something more than I am. My cousin and I decided to tackle one of Julia's cake recipes this weekend. Despite being horrible at reading directions and (quite frankly) crap at execution this vision turned out better than we thought was possible! This cake blows every expectation you have of chocolate cake out of the water. It's dense and smooth and the almond and rum make for a chocolate experience like you've never had before. A word on rum: I'm not sure how pirates (or anybody) drink the stuff. It smells like paint thinner. Use in a well ventilated area. The icing is basically chocolate butter, and speaking as one who is normally not a fan of frosting it is a revelation. So far we are 2 for 2 with Julia's cook book. Chocolate Almond Cake is a winner for sure.