Jay Gaulard Blog

Driving Up The Shawangunk Ridge - New Paltz, NY

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

I don’t have much time to write this because Lost is on in twenty minutes. This is going to be a crazy episode. If you are interested in theories about the show, click here to read some. This is my favorite one, by far.

Ok, so Laura and I drove up to the store today, but this time, we took a different way than we normally do. We usually drive up Rt.209, but this time we took Rt.44/55 through the ridge towards Kerhonkson. I wanted to drive this way because of my itch to get out of the normal routine. It worked pretty well because I feel good right now. That may be because I just had a beer though.

I did take some video of the trip. There are so many nice things to see…I just wish I was a better videographer. Oh well, I’ll learn. Here are the videos…

Smuttynose Robust Porter In My Glass

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Today, we took another trip up to Emmanuel’s Supermarket in Stone Ridge. The season premier of “Lost” is on tonight and that called for some Sushi. We got around seven boxes of it, along with some more beer. I also got those bagels I told you about before. Ohhh, so nice.

Today’s beer is “Smuttynose Robust Porter” from New Hampshire. It’s a nice dark beer with a dark/light taste, if that means anything. The reviewers over at Beer Advocate gave it high marks. The reason I say it has a dark/light taste is because it looks dark and does have some rich qualities, but it doesn’t get stuck in my gums. If I have to floss after drinking a beer…to me, that’s dark. For regular people, this is an excellent beer. I think this company does an excellent job brewing it.

I checked the tracking on my Coopers Brew Kit and UPS is telling my it will be here on Feb.5. That’s a while away, but I think I have enough beer in the fridge to hold me over.

My Beer is Coming

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

I received an email today from Amazon that told me my beer kit is on its way. That makes me quite excited. I told Laura last night that we will have some heavy duty drinking to do, once my first six gallons are ready.

I saw some videos on YouTube last night about the Coopers Home Brew Kit. It’s a pretty simple process. I think it’s kind of hard to screw up with this kit. I can tell that I am going to go through the different types of beer rather quickly and then expand onto more complex brews. I just want to make my mud.

How To Stop Getting Catalogs in the Mail

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

I already opted out of junk mail here and here, but I had no idea there was a websites that helps you stop those un-asked for catalogs. I mean, thank you for sending me these huge wastes of paper, but I really never asked for them and they make me feel guilty as hell. The thing is, I never even order anything out of them. You think they’d get the picture.

So how do you do it? Stop on by the “Catalog Choice” website and sign up for an account. The instructions are very clear after that. You can enter precisely which catalogs you don’t want to receive any longer. I would say that’s a pretty good deal, considering it doesn’t cost anything.

Where did I learn about this website? I was just reading Paul’s post about his garbage mysteriously disappearing last night and learned that he already was a member.

Making Luscious White Bread in My Breadmaker

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008

While I get ready for my new beer making kit to arrive, I decided that it would be a good idea to start making things from recipes again. One item I haven’t made in a long time is bread.

Well, today I whipped out my breadmaker and got to work. On the menu was “Luscious White Bread.” This is usually the recipe I make because I have had such good luck with it in the past. It’s a nice, rich, heavy white bread.

There were a few times back in the day when I had a little trouble. I once bought whole wheat flower thinking I was going to get fancy. This was before I knew the stores sold flour made just for breadmakers. I made a few “brick like” loafs that had to be tossed on the front lawn for the deer to eat. This was back when we were renting. I wouldn’t invite the deer here to this house.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 pound loaf
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 eggs (I use 2)
- 2 1/2 Tbs. butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 3 cups bread flower
- 2 1/2 tsp.yeast
- 2 Tbs. honey (optional…I like it)
- 1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
- A sprinkle of oats (optional)
- A sprinkle of mashed potato flakes (optional)

I added the optional items in there. Some of them were just found in the cabinets, while some are just damn good. The honey is damn good. I probably add more than I wrote above. The thing you want to be careful of is to not throw off the moisture and yeast levels too much. An example would be adding three cups of honey. You are going to have issues if you do that.

Ok, for some photos…

This is a picture of the breadmaker I got for free from Pam a few years ago, where I used to work. She said she couldn’t figure out how to use it because she lost the manual. All I have done since I got it was to press “Start.” It works fine like that. My mother got me this old, but good breadmaker recipe book. It has about a hundred recipes in it…all types of breads. It’s very cool.

I like to use soymilk. In case you weren’t aware, this milk doesn’t come from a cow’s udder. Using soymilk really doesn’t have any effect on the taste…it’s just as good. I also use eggs from free roaming hens. This means these hens weren’t crammed tightly in a cage with multiple other hens. The eggs are more expensive, but when you think about what you are doing for the hen, I think it’s worth it.

This is right after I put all the ingredients into the mixer. I put the ingredients in order of how I wrote them in the recipe above. My mother told me a while ago about some issue with the salt touching the yeast. Something goes wrong in that department, so I put the salt in below the flour and the yeast up on top.

This is a few minutes of the spinner at the bottom of the mixer doing its work.

A few hours into it and this is what I got. Now, that’s a loaf. I like it when it’s too big to fit in the machine.

When it’s still hot, I like to shake the loaf out of the mixer and toast it up. The inside of the toaster gets all foggy and then bread is perfect for some nice soy based butter. The hole in the bread slice in the photo above is from the spinner in the mixer. A few slices up, that hole doesn’t exist anymore.

I think I am ready to start making beer.

Coopers Brewery Micro Brewery Kit - Oh Yeah!!!

Monday, January 28th, 2008

I am wicked excited. I just placed an order on Amazon for my soon-to-be home brewery kit. It’s the Coopers Brewery Micro Brewery Kit. My brother-in-law got me all wound up tonight when we were talking about his first batch of home brew. Do you know what kind of jealousy I have when I see a nice home brewed beer sitting on someone else’s table? For some reason, whenever I think of home brew, I always think of that nice sampler of 4oz. beers I had at Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. I had the best non-filtered raspberry beer there.

Anyway, Steve had great luck with his first batch and is now going to dive into a batch of Stout. Now, that’s what I am talking about. That’s what stout’s about, no doubt. HAHAHAHHAHA.

The home brew kit I am getting makes six gallon batches. That should be good for a while to see if I like doing this kind of stuff. Then, as soon as summer rolls around and we open the new porch back up, we can rock out to Crosby, Stills & Nash and drink beer out of the bucket all day, every day.

Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ bout.

New Dishwasher Plumbing

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Ever since I went out this past Saturday and purchased a new dishwasher, I have been preparing for its delivery and installation. The appliance store will be doing the delivery and I will be doing the installation.

Setting everything up is actually pretty fun. This post is about the plumbing part of it. Here are a few photos to get things kicked off. It’s simpler than one might think…

The first thing I did was to drill two holes in under the sink in the wall facing the dishwasher. In this photo, you see four holes. That’s because I drilled the two upper holes first. Then, I thought for a little while. I figured that I had no idea what the back of this new dishwasher was going to look like and how tight the fit was going to be. Those two first holes may be too high and go right into the side of the dishwasher “tub.” I then thought that it would be a better idea to drill two holes in the floor of the sink cabinet and then out the side down below. I know the tub part sits up a few inches, so this should clear everything. For now, these two hoses don’t go to anything, since the dishwasher isn’t here yet, but just in case you were curious, the fat hose is the drain hose and the braided one is the hot water feed.

This next picture is of the drain hose hooked up to the sink drain. This was pretty simple to install. Lowe’s and Home Depot sell these pieces of pipe with the drain spout sticking out. All I did was to remove the existing pipe and trim the new one to length. Then, I popped it in and hooked up the hose with a hose clamp. On the inside of the pipe is sort of a “shield” so the water will only go in one direction. Pretty nifty.

This is a photo of the hot water feed that is currently connected and the new braided hose with the “T” connector. Lowe’s and Home Depot sell these connectors especially made for this. I am going to connect the white hot water hose in the back to the top part of this T. That will also give that white hose some slack.

That’s about it for the plumbing part of the dishwasher preparation. All that’s left is the electrical and the actual dishwasher installation. I will share when they are finished.

I Had My Text Messaging Turned Off

Monday, January 28th, 2008

About a week or two ago, I was on the phone with some company. I can’t remember which one. The guy said to me, “Do you have a cell phone number you want to add to that?” I replied, “You aren’t going to send me junk mail, right?” He said, “No.” This was a company that I have worked with before and trusted. I gave him the cell phone number to add to my account.

Well, that was a mistake. Almost every day this week, I have received a spam text message. I have been finding this annoying, cubed. That is a little math joke…HAHA. Really, do these people seriously think I am going to click the link in their spam message and visit the website on my tiny, little cell phone screen? Please, let’s get over this whole mobile web thing. The internet on your cell phone just sucks.

After I received two more spams this morning, I called Verizon Wireless and had my text messaging capabilities shut off. Now, I can’t send or receive any text message or picture messages. This is a good thing, because every spam message I received cost me money.

Finally, I Can Show You the KitchenAid Mixer

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Here is a photo for my sister, Lauren. It has been such a long time since I called her when I was on my way home from Lowe’s. I was so proud of myself for the purchase I had just made…a KitchenAid Mixer for Laura as a Christmas present.

The mixer that I got her was the KitchenAid Artisan Series. I’m not sure why I got it for her. I think it was because she mentioned it once and then again when she asked me to stir the brownie mix she was making for me. I really didn’t want it to be one of those typical “appliance” gifts that spouses love so much. I mean, getting a guy some tools is one thing but getting your sweet baby honey an appliance is quite another. When I gave it to her, she was very polite. She knows how proud I am of my gifts.

Anyway, now that the kitchen is 99% done, I was able to finally put the mixer on the counter. I took a quick photo of it…

I had a better photo than this, but it was weird because you could see my reflection in it. Kind of like that beer picture I took the other day.

So, there it is. After I took the picture, I put the mixer away in the closet. It will come out for its debut when I make the next batch of brownies.

Hanging Some Window Moulding

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

I had a few things to get done today. One of them was to go to the appliance store and buy a dishwasher. The other one was to fix the windowsill in the kitchen and to hang some window moulding.

I did buy the dishwasher. I went over to the store, walked in and told the guy I wanted a cheap (inexpensive) dishwasher. He led me to two inexpensive ones. They were about $279. I picked out the Frigidaire somethingorother. I put up a little fuss about the price and he gave it to me for $230. That’s not bad. Lowe’s sells the same thing for $228, but this place delivers for free. That’s the kicker. It should be here in about a week. They didn’t have a black one in stock so they have to find it. The whole visit took about ten minutes and the majority of it was waiting for him to come over and say hello. What the heck do I know about dishwashers, besides the fact that I don’t want to pay a lot for one?

I also fixed up the window in the kitchen. I had to trim the windowsill about an inch, because the counter top was a little high. I also hung the moulding around the window. Here, take a look at my handiwork…