Chuck Cook

Hope your birthday is delightful, Ryan!

RIGHT?!

Google a Great-Eared Nightjar, too.

Shoebills are definitely muppets.

I mean, it’s important to assert dominance.

SCORE! @sandiegobloodbank.bsky.social is handling out Thin Mints to donors at my location today!

Just make sure Jeremy doesn't get on the bus.

I like to eat a whole sleeve of Double Stuf Oreos™ to make sure they don’t get bored.

Half a century of working with computers makes me save new, dated versions of documents each time I work on them, even though I also have backups.

Glad you were able to recover!

I was listening to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” officer.

MOAR

I saw this simple-but-brilliant, “why has this never occurred to me?” solution for filling custard pies on someone’s timeline the other day. Put a baking sheet or jelly roll pan underneath to keep from making a mess in your oven when pouring, moving or baking your pies. 🤠👍

Elemental mercury is actually not all that hazardous unless you ingest it. Still wouldn’t want kids playing with it. Or making a lead-mercury amalgam in a saucepan in the garage. Not that I would know anything about that. 👀

I had a big jar of mercury from an old barometer in my garage cabinet; one of my kids’ friends wanted to ‘look at it’ and dropped it, shattering it on the concrete floor. I came home to HFD HAZMAT in my garage because my oldest called ’em.

A close-up of the front of a KitchenAid stand mixer.

[Christopher Walken voice]

“I’ve got a FEVER. And the only prescription is… more pumpkin pie!”

A large cast-iron skillet with bubbling flour and oil, and a well-loved wooden spoon

And now we begin the traditional battle between the roux and the condo smoke detectors.

She is, and I will!

Visit the web site of your 99 Ranch market first. The one technically closest to me only has frozen ducks. The other one has whole, head-and-feet-on fresh ducks, duck legs, duck wings and duck feet.

I have never made duck confit before, so I don’t have a preferred recipe. But the ones I am looking at do dry brine the duck overnight in salt, herbs, and alliums.

Cassoulet sounds fantastic!

I discovered 99 Ranch Market sells fresh duck legs, and I have a bunch of duck fat now, so confit is happening soon!

Damn. The part of chef life people don’t think about. 😢

We actually fed 10 people yesterday including me. The majority of stuff I made was vegan-friendly, but not the three roast ducks or the pumpkin pies.

Duck carcass start becoming stock immediately after carving. Today is Gumbo Day.

I bought my ducks at an Asian market so there aren’t any giblets. They sell those separately.

But I have feet and heads in the instant pot right now.

This is the way.

A cutting board with red bell peppers, celery and red onions

Day after Thanksgiving. Some of y’all know what’s up. 😉😋

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Happy Giant Hunk of Pumpkin Pie for Breakfast season to all who celebrate!

Get you a partner who will make a life-sustaining mini charcuterie board to snack on while you’re pulling the rest of the meal together. 🥰

Phaedra: "Hey, would you like a bag of dinosaur toys?"

Me: Heh, I was just quoting Firefly online. Can I pretend to be Wash?"

Phaedra: "They ARE those kind of dinosaurs."

Me: [looks] "Those should go to a child"

Phaedra: "That's why I thought of you."

Things are still terrible, but tonight, I get to go to bed with some hope.

Good night, and good luck.