Walt's Corner

It is hard to pinpoint when I started loving coffee. As a toddler I remember asking for coffee as my grandparents and mom seemed to always be drinking the stuff. Their answer? Always a resounding NO! IT WILL STUNT YOUR GROWTH! Did that keep me from sneaking in a sip or two here and there? Absolutely not. Was I afraid that I might be trapped in that small body for the rest of my life? I sure was!

By the time I was 10 years old I knew how to brew it for my parents in our trusty stove-top percolator. Brewing the evening coffee soon became one of my evening after-dinner chores that I gladly performed knowing it would earn me my own legally obtained cup of java. I don’t think we had a Mr. Coffee until I was 12 or so. And boy, let me tell you what, I would put a spoon between the brew funnel and the coffee pot so that it would collect them first few drops that come out and I’d savor that extra strong flavor.

Fast-forward to when I had my own house, I preferred the under-the-cabinet mounted brewer with the automatic timer. Black & Decker was my preferred brand at the time. I would set it to start brewing at 4, so when I got up at 4:30 it would be waiting for. I’d wake up to the smells of fresh brewed coffee wafting through the house. The problem with those is that they would eventually begin leaking at the connection of the water tank and brewer.

Eventually I learned about Bunn-O-Matic, or just Bunn for short, and its superior tasting  pot. Even before I knew why it was better, I knew it just tasted better. This would have been around 1997 or so. I’ve had nothing but Bunns ever since as my main brewer.

The real question this article addresses is when did I become obsessed with Coffee? For that, we have to go back to hurricane Katrina. By then I loved my restaurant version of the Folgers single packs of grounds designed for commercial Bunn brewers. Kept it “fresher” I thought. And in the world of store-bought coffee, it did keep my entire stash fresher longer. When Katrina landed, it took out the Folgers warehouse that my beloved coffee packs came from and once the  supply chain ran out, that was it. It would be a while before those packs became available again.

In the meantime, I set out to find my replacement. Like a modern-day Karen doing her own research on the coronavirus and Ivermectin I madly scoured the interwebs in search of some fresh coffee. And that is when I came across this group of people who called themselves Home Roasters. Prior to this, I hadn’t given one thought about where this coffee came from and how it was roasted, other than I knew I really liked Columbian Supreme and it was generally a medium to dark roast. 

I learned a lot from Tom from Sweet Maria’s and so it was only natural that I bought most of my items from his store in California. To this day (with the exception of COVID time), I supply all my raw green coffee beans from Tom and roast my own. Once you’ve had fresh coffee, there is no going back, unless you just ain’t got the time to roast your own or find someone/someplace that does it for you.

It’s no secret – I love coffee. Back in 2008 or so, I had an entire page dedicated to my coffee on BasilWeb. Somewhere in the transition of BasilWeb from Apple’s iTools/iWeb to the more standards-based WordPress that page disappeared. I figured it was high time to correct that oversight. I post a lot of coffee pictures and my Coffee page will go over where my coffee comes from, the roasting process, and the various ways I brew.

So without further a-brew, I mean ado, enjoy my dedicated coffee page. Easy access on the menu link up at the top as well. It also contains direct links to my featured coffee articles, The Four Bs of Great Coffee.

I learned a while ago that a domed kettle is the optimum shape for grilling and smoking. Along with proper venting control this provides a stable temperature environment for your cooks as well as quick temperature changes up or down as needed. Which is why I ended up switching to Weber charcoal grills – the de facto standard in charcoal kettle grills. Weber grills have treated me so well, in fact, that I quit using my dedicated smokers. My professional smoker (which was my pride and joy) hasn’t been used in years. I need to sell it or something.

Another kettle/domed type grill that was out there that I didn’t give much thought to was the ceramic kamado style cooker. Your Big Green Eggs, Kamado Joes, and the likes. The cost was prohibitive. I thought Webers were overprice, kamados were triple the cost for comparative sized Webers. The is why I never tried them. Until this little guy came out, the Cadet by London Sunshine. Cheap enough to give it a go. See what all the hype is about. The problem? It is tiny. The Weber Smokey Joe 14” sells for around $69. The London Sunshine Cadet? $239. Quadruple the price of a standard weber that small. To add insult to injury, the Cadet has an even smaller grid diameter than the Smokey Joe. I also ordered the small deflector plate London Sunshine makes to fit this little kamado. I ordered that on May 20. It has yet to arrive. Or even ship out for that matter.

The Cadet arrived. It was heavy. Duh. One of the major drawbacks of ceramic grills is the weight. These things are heavy as fuck. This small one is 50 pounds. Required some assembly – the stand, handles, etc. Your normal assembly of a standard ceramic kamado. I had it complete in less than 20 minutes. The next day I fired it up.

Initial burn of a ceramic is not supposed to exceed 400 degrees F, though the grill makers claim you can get up to over 700. With that 400 degree limit in mind I dropped in 12 Kingsford charcoal briquettes and placed a tumbleweed under the cast iron grate. Once the coals were lit I placed a chunk of mesquite on the coals, placed the small grate on top, and closed the lid. Both bottom and top vents were wide open until I got within 50 degrees of my desired temp – 225 (desired temp was 275). Once that was hit I restricted both top and bottom vents and it settled in between 275 and 300. Good enough for this test so I left it.

They say you should only use lump charcoal in kamados. Not regular briquettes. They say regular charcoal will clog the pores of the ceramic. I say, why does that matter? Pretty sure them pores are clogged already because of that glazed paint coating on the outside. But what do I know. I fully intend on using lump charcoal, but this was all I had on hand at the time.

You learn real quick with ceramics that getting the temperature up is easy. Getting that temperature to lower once you overshoot is not due to the ceramic insulation. It takes forever to lower your temperature. Those 12 briquettes held that temp steady for 5 hours. I was thoroughly impressed. Enough to begin my next stage – figuring out which full-sized kamado I would be added to small grill collection.

The most unfortunate part of this testing phase was the timing. I was within the week prior to my upcoming colonoscopy which meant red meat was off the menu. FML. My first cook was BBQ chicken breasts. Seasoned with Marion Kay’s Chicken seasoning (rumored to be the Colonel’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices) and slathered with Rudy’s BBQ sauce. Quite tasty.

Once that little deflector arrives, I’ve got the perfect small picnic roast to smoke on this Cadet.

At first we didn’t have any camping plans for Memorial Day weekend. I had some doctor’s appointments on that Friday in preparation for the upcoming colonoscopy. But then at the last minute we decided what the hell – why not! Wednesday I picked up the Runabout, parked it out front, and turned on the fridge.

Friday arrived. Filled up the fresh water tank (45 gallons in the tank, 6 in the hot water heater), finished packing the last-minute groceries. I was getting ready to head out to my VA appointments when I noticed it. The fresh water tank. Kinda hanging on the driver side back. WTF. Had it always come down at an angle from front to back adn I just hadn’t noticed. I checked the other side. Nope. It is defintily horizontal and level with the trailer frame. Further inspection revealed the cause. A busted bracket. That last camping trip we made to Three Rivers Campground was a rough 6 or 7 miles of dirt and hole filled road. Seemed to recall a couple hard unexpected hits. Initial thoughts as I left for my VA appointments were to cancel this trip. But then I wondered if there were a way to temporarily support the tank for this trip. Turns out there was. Some handy cargo straps and a piece of plywood did the trick. Secure. Stopped a couple times on the way to our usual playground in the Lincoln National Forest to verify the integrity of the straps and we were golden. 

Found a nice secluded spot about 4 miles down Forest Road 223. All Our usuals were taken this late on a Friday evening of a 4-day weekend, so this was the furthest out on this road that we have camped. Not by far, though. About another 50 yards. We were next to a few trails. Hiked Benson Ridge Canyon (4-mile loop) on Saturday and Lucas Canyon (6-mile out and back) on Sunday.

There is currently a fire ban in the whole forest, meaning no charcoal grills or log fires. Only propane. No problem. We brought the propane grill and propane campfire. Meals were my home-made brats on Saturday and k-bobs on Sunday. The weather was wonderful. Low was 49 and high at 66.

The hardest part was spreading the ashes of Abby in one of her favorite meadows in the forest. There, she joins her sister, Dolly. Over the past few years whenever we walk through that meadow, and we do a lot, we say hi to Dolly and remember a story or two about her. Now we’ll add Abby to the conversation.  One we like to remember is how she loved the water. Whether it be the serene clear lake, white water rapids of a fast moving river, or a dirty ass mud-puddle. We had to make her avoid them when we didn’t want her wet or dirty. This meadow she’s now a part of has this huge mud hole at the beginning of it that we would have to leash her around to make our way to the meadow. And then again on our way back to our camping site. Otherwise she would be in it and one filthy dog. One day when there was this particularly huge mud puddle (because sometimes it was dry), she managed to sneak from us and took off at full speed towards it. I had to run full bore to be able to cut her off and prevent her from jumping into it. Good times. But also foreboding. Knowing that one day, Bailey and Lotty will also join this exclusive club. In the below picture from last year, Abby is the far left pup. The meadow is barely visable in the path that leads up between the trees on the left. 

Now to focus on that water tank bracket. I think I can weld a new end on to it and secure it back to the trailer frame. A handy man’s work is never done. But he’s always saving money.

A lady falls into an open manhole after exiting her vehicle. Falls 10 feet and dies. But not from the fall. Medical examiner “determined she died as a result of scald burns with inhalational thermal injury, along with blunt force injury to her chest.”

Scald burns with inhalational thermal injury. What. The Fuck. Why is it so hot down there? Putting on my best Karen outfit, I researched. Because – I wanted to know. Just in case I’m not cognizant of my surroundings when stepping out of my vehicle while parked on a city street, where does this scalding danger come from? What do I need to be aware of?

I learned these are utility tunnels that house steam pipes and other utility components. These temperatures can easily exceed 180 degrees F. Crazy, right?