Walt's Corner

I saw this recipe for State Fair Lemonade that involved cooking/infusing the zest of lemon into the simple syrup and thought to myself, I could apply that to margaritas. What better day to try this than on Independence Day?

Making homemade lemonade is pretty easy. All it requires are some lemons, water, and sugar. Without the lemons, you are making syrup – water and sugar. How syrupy it is depends on the ratio of water to sugar. Want a nice cheap syrup for pancakes? 50/50. Same for what is used in drink mixology that is commonly called simple syrup. Making a single pitcher of lemonade? You may want to mix almost quarts of water with 1 cup of sugar and the juice from 4-6 lemons. Same as Kool-Aid.

More condensed levels of syrup, such as simple syrup, can be pre-made and stored for convenience. Want a single quick glass of lemonade? Water, ice, juice of a lemon, and a squeeze of the simple syrup to taste. Which brings me to my current subject matter, the lowly margarita. My favorite mixed drink. The only one I make on a regular basis. Now these aren’t the official ratios for a margarita, but are what I prefer.

My own recipe is as follows:

• 4 cups ice
• 1/2 cup tequila (any tequila)
• 3oz lime juice (freshly squeezed)
• 2oz Cointreau (triples)
• 2oz simple syrup

Blend all ingredients until smooth, garnish with lime in a salt (tajin) rimmed glass. My usual Tuesday evening drink. Be warned, if you currently enjoy regular old triplesec in your margaritas, don’t use Cointreau. You will never again be satisfied with regular triplesec again and be forced to spend 3-4 times as much per bottle.

Here’s where the State Fair recipe comes in. When I saw that recipe for State Fair Lemonade, I thought to myself, what if I applied that to my simple syrup I make? In case you didn’t go read that recipe, it involves peeling the lemons and adding them to your sugar and letting that mixture sit overnight prior to adding to boiling water. After 5 minutes you stir, strain, and add to your lemon juice and ice.

So that is exactly what I did with my limes for my next batch of simple syrup. I peeled 7 limes (they were small) and mixed the peelings with 321 grams (1 1/2 cups) of sugar. Mixed them up real good and let them sit on the counter overnight. By morning it’s a moist concoction. I boiled about a cup and a half of water, added my sugar/peel mixture, let sit for 5 minutes (or until all the sugar has dissolved), stirred and strained. I now have my lime infused simple syrup. Although technically it is no longer a simple syrup. Guess I’ll call it lime syrup.

The result? Man, this was the best-tasting margaria I have ever made. Hands down.

I recorded all this so I can put together a video test-driving Final Cut Pro. If/when it happens, it’ll be linked here.

I’d like to share the story about the David Muir exclusive, climbing up to the top of the Statue of Liberty. But when I go to ABC News website and literally type in “David Muir Statue of Liberty,” not a goddamn thing pops up about David Muir climbing the Statue of Liberty. So fuck ABC News. I’ll post a competing news site’s story instead. See here. Maybe it’s there someplace and ABC just has a horrible search engine built into their website.

Anyways, I happened to catch Muir on Kelly & Mark where they were interviewing him about his climb. Muir stated how he was shocked to learn that the statue sways. Really? Shocked? I mean, I’m not in the news business and I’m only a few years older than him, so surely he remembers when the whole swaying thing was an issue back in 1982-1986 when they had to shut it down for a while to restore it by July 4, 1986. Reagan. Iacocca. Statue of Liberty. Truly, an all-American story for Independence Day as we celebrate America 250!

In the spirit of patriotism, here is a picture of a set of uncirculated coins from 1979 that I have.

No camping this year for us during the long weekend. Almost done fixing the bracket holding up the fresh water tank on the RV.

According to my report from Honeywell, our air conditioner had to run 11 hours more in the month of May than last year. System is 17 years old now, plus the average temps were 1 degree higher than last year. Our system struggles to maintain 74º during these hot triple digit days.

While Doppler Dave says we’ve had 6 triple digit days this year, Doppler Walt calls bullshit. Doppler Walt says we started hitting triple digits the last week in May and have hit them almost every day in June.

Time for a new HVAC system? Might as well do it before it has a chance to break down forcing us to go a week or two without AC.

Like every May/June timeframe here in the wonderful desert southwest, the temperatures are soaring more than plummeting. Yesterday’s high reached 110F here at Casa Basil with a relative humidity of 1%. Doppler Dave tried to look me in the eye during the 4:30 newscast and tell me the high was 105. Bull shit Doppler. Perhaps in the official temperature white box at the airport. But out here in the outlying areas of the city, that swing is much greater. The picture above shows 107. When I took the picture. But check out the little numbers under it. the low/high of the day. 75 and 110. And this is on my back patio. In the shade.

For example, right now as I write this at 0456, Doppler Dave’s team is reporting it has cooled down to 86F. But out here? Currently 78F with my weather station claiming it has in fact dipped down to a low 75 overnight.

June is traditionally the hottest month of the year for us – as in the month with the most triple digit temperatures. Honestly though, out here in the outskirts, we’ve already hit triple digits by the end of May and continue through September. Which is why heading up into the Lincoln National Forest to camp for the weekends are especially refreshing this time of year. The lows are still dipping into the 40s and highs are 60s. Can’t wait to head up there!

Guess I’ll start working on fixing that fresh water tank bracket on the RV.

Memorial Day weekend. Carol needs to get her car inspected for the new tags. She goes to her usual spot on our corner of Montana – Lube Express. She gets her oil changed there as well. Why? I have no clue. It’s not like I won’t change it. Maybe she trusts Lube Express more than me? Perhaps I should revisit our relationship.

I have always been leery of Jiffy Lubes and the like. They give you a cheap oil change and hope to get a bigger sell out of you when they try to tell you your engine is blown and they can fix it for $1000. Flash back to my first job at a full service gas station where I was told that when I add air to the customers’ tires and see a puff of dust come from the wheels, to inform the customers that they should get their brakes serviced. And guess who just happened to services brakes? Yeah. That guy was a crook.

Carol told them she needed an inspection, oil changed, and top off all the fluids. One time, I did have them change my oil. And cabin filter, because, that’s a real bitch to get to. And there they were, showing me my filthy-ass cabin filter I was thinking about replacing. I also witnessed them tightened up my exhaust manifold bolts which I also was thinking about hitting but didn’t say anything to them. So I thought to myself, wow, these guys really are cool. Maybe they aren’t all bad.

Inspection performed and oil changed, the lady told Carol she had checked her coolant and it was bad. Caked up. Smelled bad. Could be from a blown head gasket. Carol told her that they had just replaced it last year. She asked her to just top it off. The lady refused to top it off since it needed replacing. Carol asked if they had aired up the tires too. The lady told her that they had aired them up. They did not air them up. The tire pressure was all over the place. They didn’t touch them. She was mad.

Just after her experience, she received one of those emails asking for a review of her experience. And she let them have it. So much so, that on the June 4th, the regional manager called her up to get more information about her experience. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. Or Hearing. He asked her to go to any other Lube Express of her choice, free of charge, so they could inspect and top off all the fluids. They wanted to make it right.

Carol went to the Zaragoza Lube Express and they checked everything out. Including the coolant. Nothing was wrong. It was low, but in good condition. With the regional manager on speakerphone after that, he asked Carol about what the original lady had told her because he couldn’t really hear it well from their video recording of the event, which they were tracking. No they didn’t check her fluids. No they didn’t check her tires. Did that lady really tell her that it could be from a blown head gasket? Carol confirmed. She also told him the she is old enough and has been poor enough to know what a blown head gasket feels and smells like. And that wasn’t it.

Kudos to Lube Express for making it right. Guess there are still some good people left in the business.