Matt

Every day in the gym it’s not a question of will I hurt myself, it’s a question of what I will hurt this time. Today it was my Achilles tendon. This is what I get for getting old.

Pretty happy with the result, and despite never deep frying anything before I managed to not start a grease fire or burn myself with scalding hot oil. I ate the two that looked like they turned out the worst (not fried long enough probably), and like usual gave the rest to my neighbors.

Twelve çiğ börek on a cooling rack on a tray.

Dough balls on a tray and filling in a bowl for çiğ börek, sitting on a stove top.

A dough ball rolled flat with filling on half of it for çiğ börek, before it is folded and pinched closed.

Three çiğ börek deep frying in oil in a pan.

Made çiğ börek (or chebureki) this morning for the first time. Its a simple dough filled with a mixture of mince meat—often beef but could also be lamb or pork—grated onion, salt and pepper. I also added garlic powder because just about everything is better with garlic. Then it's fried.

A stovetop with a skillet and two bowls. One bowl has pancake batter, the other has utensils that are being used to keep the work area clean. The skillet has four pancakes cooking in it.

A tray of about two dozen pancakes

Had a bunch of buttermilk left over from baking last week that I didn’t want to go to waste. So I decided to make a ton of buttermilk pancakes to give to my neighbor. I ate a few myself and I still gave them about two dozen. Luckily, they have a big family.

And yes, I do realize I am very fortunate.

Just learned I will get a promotion and a ~16% raise next month. Looks like I'll be sticking around (also the job market is trash, so I better). Now my finances will be slightly less uncomfortable, which is wild considering salary, its just me and three dogs, and I am not frivolous with spending.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire . Alt: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table with a cup of coffee surrounded by fire .

Nothing like a bit of existential dread to start the day off right.

Also don’t think the red velvet is a deep enough red, and while it’s not dry, it’s drier than I would like. All around though, they didn’t turn out too bad, just have room for improvement. Neighbors appreciated them, at least.

Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting on a cutting board

Red velvet cupcakes without frosting on a cooling rack

A red velvet cupcake cut in half to show the crumb

Red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. The ermine frosting I made last night was absolutely unusable lol, so I had to whip up some buttercream instead. Meant to pipe flowers too but decided to leave that for after I’ve practiced some. #baking 1/2

Two deli containers laying on their sides with lids on. They are each about three-quarters full of freshly made ermine frosting.

A few cups worth of ermine frosting for tomorrow. Tastes good, but then it’s mostly milk, butter and sugar so kinda hard to mess that up. Not so sure about how it will look after piping. Guess I’ll find out. Tomorrow’s #baking will be a lot of new things.

A plastic container lined with parchment paper, with about 40 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies inside.

Had to try again. Used a different recipe this time. Still not completely satisfied, so the search continues. Now I just need to find someone(s) to give about 40 cookies to. I think I might give them to the dogs' vet staff when I pick up Arlo tomorrow. #baking

You're not wrong, but the never-ending performative outrage over minor things is exhausting, which I guess may be the point. Feels like it has been one tan suit after another since 2014. It's enough to make a person numb, which is a problem for when something happens that *should* piss everyone off.

A sheet of parchment paper on a baking tray, on top of which there are three rows of chocolate chip cookies.

Couldn't decide what to bake yesterday, so I went with chocolate chip cookies. Tried to make them crispy, but they ended up a bit too thin. I need to bake cookies more often. They can be deceptively tricky to get just right. But even an imperfect cookie is almost always still a tasty cookie. #baking

It feels like we are on a path where in a few years, "this product was made without any use of AI," will command a premium. Sort of like high end, hand-made products vs. cheap, mass-manufactured products now.

Does anyone know a good online source for food-grade beeswax? I need some for canelés but haven’t been able to find anything that I felt I could trust. #baking

a man in a suit and tie is holding a laptop and says " yeah that 'd be nice " ALT: a man in a suit and tie is holding a laptop and says " yeah that 'd be nice "

Can I have some too? I have been bleeding money for months and I hate it.

I'm not going to go looking for pulpy juice, but if I get a glass of juice and it happens to have pulp I'll still drink it. So I guess I'm mostly indifferent?

If it's not, it should be. They look great!

I wrote a long-form article a few months ago for work covering all the actions taken against wind in the U.S. and the impacts (which will only get worse). The timeline of federal actions took up nearly a full page, and that was *before* the latest stop work orders. He really hates wind farms.

I was in the USMC from 2007-2015, and there are still a lot of days where I really miss it, or parts of it anyway. I would dread still being in now. The positions they are being put in is absolutely insane. I just hope if the moment truly comes, their leaders have the courage to say no.

a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire with the words `` i 'm fine '' above him . Alt: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire with the words `` i 'm fine '' above him .

I feel your pain 😩 Worked yesterday and today because my plate overfloweth

I had to cheat to figure out what it was 😞 I have never watched that one. I know I should, it's on the ever-growing list.

I feel your pain. Get to wake up at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow to drive to IAH for a flight 😩 gonna ruin the day before it even begins

a man with a mustache is talking about eating food that is scared . ALT: a man with a mustache is talking about eating food that is scared .

Can't wait for mudbugs 😩

I had a full English breakfast a few times in Afghanistan—or what passed for one in that environment—when I spent some time on British bases during my first deployment. I don't know if I can say it is my favorite, but it certainly hit the spot when I had it. Way better than what I typically got.

Houston drivers are built different (in a bad way).