Cold Monday in the neighborhood

There's a simple reason why nothing ever comes over my transom; it's painted shut.

...or tell another story about your chain saw.

By golly, I sure wish I had a chain saw.  I have no need for one, it's just one of those tools that puts a gleam in my eye.  Perhaps Uncle Ken lacks the gene that causes an increased heart rate when a Snap-On truck drives by.  But I have a decent equivalent for an apartment dweller, a portable bandsaw.  It can cut wood or metal depending on the blade, and since it's electrical the noise level is tolerable.  It's a fun tool to use.

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Ah, the Hawk!  It seems that the inner city folk have their own language.  If you hang out long enough you may get called out for selling wolf tickets.  I never heard that expression until I worked for the city in the Model Cities program, which was about 90% black.  Good times.

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I wonder what is the unique Finnish twist on rye sourdough bread...

Ever see round flat bread with a hole in it?

Glad to see the Old Dog baking again.

Oh, I've been baking a little but doing more cooking, fooling around and tweaking recipes I run across.  A while back I ran across a recipe for brownies and though I'm not a big fan some of the ingredients sounded intriguing.  I gave it a try and it was quite the learning experience and I learned something new about cocoa.  I wasn't happy with the first batch so I started tweaking the ingredients, a little more of this, a little less of that, and a secret ingredient or two.  By the fourth batch I nailed it, as far as I'm concerned.  I'd much rather bake them than eat them so now I have a whole lot of brownies from the different iterations in the freezer.  They'll keep for three months or so, from what I've read, and will come in very handy for any upcoming family gatherings.  Chocolate has always been very popular with the ladies and maybe word will get out that a certain geezer knows his way around an oven.  A fella can dream, can't he?

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If you guys like sardines I have a recommendation for you, smoked sprats.  The flavor is less intense than sardines and they are quite tasty; my first encounter with a Latvian delicacy was a pleasant  surprise.