Walt's Corner

Mid-80s I worked at a KFC in Illinois and some in St. Louis, MO. If you’ve ever worked for a franchise in the foodservice industry, you know you’ll be called to fill in for staff shortages in other locations. KFC. Hardees (goddamn those iced cinnamon buns were the shit!). Pizza Hut. Some ma and pop diner known for their paper-thin burgers and shakes. Disney World (Epcot Center). Lots of experience in the food industry. Not to mention KP-duty in the Army, back when that was thing.

KFC was where I developed my taste for some chicken. I’m not real big on chicken but breasts are OK. And the occasional thighs for my gyro meat. Today’s KFC slop tastes nothing like it did back then. Much like Pizza Hut’s flavors – nothing like the 70s-80s flavor they were known for. I’ve already written about that.

Hours of internet sleuthing led me to the closest flavor that resembles the original KFC flavor – Marion-Kay’s Chicken Seasoning 99-X. Some argue this *is* the original, created by the Colonel himself revealed after he was bought out and changed the recipe a bit. Some say if you deep fry in peanut oil with citric acid in a pressure cooker you get the exact flavor. Alas, I have no pressure cooker capable of deep frying in. In fact, mine specifically warns against deep frying under pressure. Back to the seasoning, this is a bigger batch that has you adding salt to the mix and you either add it to your flour for breading or season you chicken with if not breading. I don’t really do breading – just once with this spice just to sample. I’ll do it again soon to deep fry some chicken tenders. A smaller version of the seasoning that has the extra salt already included is called Chicken Seasoning Plus and is readily available on Amazon if you want to try it out. No, this aint no affiliation link. I get no kickback if you buy. This smaller version is what I’m currently using. Very close to that original KFC flavor. The small difference in taste can be attributed to not being cooked under pressure in oil. The makes a world of difference.

Having been satisfied with my seasoning, I set out to replicate that delicious gravy. Oh my god how I loved that gravy. I still remember Sunday afternoons as a teen, heading over to the restaurant and getting my order with employee discount. A bucket of chicken, large side of mashed potatoes, large gravy, and large baked beans.

KFC’s baked beans back then were really a restaurant specific item. By that I mean it didn’t come as a KFC brand that we just open and heated. It was made at the discretion of the cook for the day and when it was gone, it was gone for the day.

The gravy was made by mixing water, a packet, and a healthy scoop of chicken catchings out of the grease filters from the pressure cooker’s oil following the cook. Which is why my recipe here will not be quite up to par or appear the darker brown color. I ain’t pressure cooking any chicken in oil (save that for the social media challenges) so I don’t have any grease filter droppings to add to the mix. Next best thing I have would be some standard chicken broth. Assuming you already know how to make a basic gravy, here’s my recipe.

30 g flour (1/4 cup)
1.5 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp Marion-Kay Chicken Seasoning Plus

This made enough to produce 10 (almost 2oz) servings. Looking at the featured picture above, that is one full ladle over a serving of mashed potatoes. Same amount as I poured into each 2 oz container. Freezes/thaws/reheats well.

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 (triplesec)
• 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 margarita 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.