I did get out.

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Yesterday, anyway.  Shopping here and there, butter, ice, milk, the regulars.  Plus the bread I had my friend pick up, and treats.  It wasn't fancy.  Then a meal and some time visiting.  My friend has as much trouble with paperwork as I always have.  Thankfully, mostly, my time with paperwork is over.  There comes a time, from time to time.  I wish I could help him, but I can't honestly help myself on that issue.

Before heading back home, I suggested we arrange for something in the future.  I may have to push, but that is sometimes what it takes.  A trip somewhere west of a nearby city, just over the pass.  Then a meal at my favorite steak house after.  He isn't in to steak.  They should have something he might like.  I need a well made steak.  I haven't had a treat like it in a while.  The steaks I have bought have been sub par for some time now.  I really should try at the real butcher shops, but those are so out of the way, and might be a bit too expensive as well.

I continue to work with the pan I seasoned.  It'll take time, but it is much improved compared to when it was ripe from the manufacturer.  Tonight I cut two different types of potatoes into two different shapes each.  Mostly playing, but with an eye on learning.  The jury is still out.  And my process wasn't the best.  It was entertaining and informative, up to a point.  Science, even the science of cooking, isn't a one shot deal.  Time, effort, product, other expendables, plenty of success and mistakes, all go into turning out the best.  Though there is more to it.  Science, more surely than any wish to admit, is an art.  And most people, no matter how well trained, are not artists.  I don't even claim such, if I do claim to have an eye for art, some forms of it... mostly human art, or the art of humanity?  In any case, beyond the fun and games and perhaps art, was the added seasoning of the pan.

Oh, as well, I used peanut oil tonight.  I do believe I will filter that and put it into a jar.  Next time I will be using tallow.  Tallow is a solid at room temp.  Now, for me, I am hoping to work up an oil blend I enjoy for potatoes.  Fries, chips, any form really.  A mix of peanut, tallow, and maybe a touch of lard, to add a meaty taste.  So, for now, I am thinking, as I use various oils, I will blend them as I go.  Oils actually last a while for cooking, if you don't burn them beyond their ability to be used again.  Most people don't know that, and waste.  Through, true enough, fussing with oil between cooking is a delicate and messy matter.  There is that.

Hmm, off to... something or other.  Good day... night... whatever it is you are facing.