If you didn’t order anything, and you get an email confirmation, chances are it’s the scam I’m seeing. Even if you did order something, it’s possible to get this scam email mixed in with your own legitimate Amazon.com correspondence.

The object is to get you to enter your password at the scammer’s forged site. Most people store their credit cards and billing info with Amazon. Hacking your Amazon account can allow others to buy things at your expense and possibly export your personal information. Also, if you use the same password for Amazon as for other things, responding to the scam can open up your accounts at other web sites.

Just receiving the email is no danger. Clicking on the links in the email is a danger to your information security.

It’s important to remember that clicking links in received emails, even when you think you know the sender is a dangerous proposition. Much better to type the name of the site into your browser.

Please be careful to practice safe computing.

McGonigel’s is a neat Irish style pub with an excellent calendar of music. I’m glad to have happened onto it.

Steve Forbert is a folk/rock artist from the late 70s/early 80s, that has had a good long career recording and playing music. His story can be found in his Wikipedia article. Like so many artists, his career was interrupted by a dispute with his record company. I had two of his albums on vinyl, but lost touch with his music when we switched to CDs. As I told him afterwards, it’s good to re-connect.

McGonigels has a nice discounted rate with the local Courtyard by Marriott, and we’re staying here for both Friday and Saturday nights. I have some entertainments to choose from for tomorrow (Saturday) night, so it should be a good weekend.

The challah was done. I cheaped out this week and let the bread machine finish it up, since there was just too much going on to braid loaves and bake them in the oven.

It really grew in the break machine. It was almost touching the top. The best part was that it was really, really good.

We started with the leftover Borscht from the second seder. This is my mother’s mother’s recipe. It’s a hot borscht, with beef, garlic and beets in it. It’s seasoned to sweet-and-sour, using Splenda and Sour Salt (citric acid powder.) Words do not express how good this is. My Grandmother was born in Zhitomir, in the Ukraine, but since she came here at two years old, we can only assume that she learned it from her mother, or an aunt or something.

Next I unwrapped the brisket. This is what I got. It’s black on the outside, a mixture of caramelized fat, burned seasoning, and I’m not sure what.

I made the first cut on the end, specifically to take a photo. Thereafter, I cut 90 degrees from that cut in order to cut against the grain.

Note the red “smoke ring” around the outside, that Jon says is so important, and hard to obtain. I have one here. The meat is juicy and pinkish grey, the edge is red, and the outside is black. I think we hit.

I served it with some barbecue sauce. We had two of the baked potatoes that had been in the fire.

How was it? Everything was excellent, and we ate till we could eat no more. There are two more meals worth that went into the freezer, plus three slices for breakfast.

The meat was not as tender as I expected, and there was no stringyness, or falling apart. Perhaps it could have used some more hours in the smoker. I’m not sure. I’ll take it though, and I look forward to (a) the leftovers and (b) doing it again.

I’ve always watched TV cooking shows, and when the dish is ready, and the chef and his guests taste the meal, and exclaimed, “excellent”, I felt left out. Now you can be left out, because I had it for dinner :)

Time to light candles in about 20 minutes. Good Shabbos, All.

When we entered Texas, we started seeing places selling barbecued brisket.  In Texas, food cooked over an open fire is called “grilled.”  The term “Barbecue” is reseved for slow cooked, smoked food. There may be additional nuances.

I really loved the brisket. Soft in the middle, charred with a “bark” on the outside. Served with hot barbecue sauce. Yummy. I bemoaned that I could not do this myself, but could not imagine that I could ever carry a suitable smoker with me. Then, a friend told me that he smokes brisket in a Weber Kettle Grill. I realized that my portable fireplace was a really good equivalent.

So I’ve adapted the instructions in the article linked above, and started a fire. When the coals burn down, I’ll add some soaked Mesquite, then place the rubbed brisket on the other end of the smoker, over a pan of water, to catch the drippings. There will be more photos, as the day goes on. Tonight, we eat.

We have Charcoal and Wood Chunks with which to smoke

We have fire to burn

We have wood chips soaking, to provide the smoke.

We have the grill prepared, with fire a'burnin' and a pan of water to catch the drippings.

And most importantly, we have meat!

When the fire has burned down to coals, we’ll add the wood chips, place the meat and cover.

Fire and Meat, Upon the Grill

More as we proceed.

OK, so now it’s almost 11:30. The brisket has been in the “smoker” since about 9. I started it about 8:30, but I wasn’t happy with the fire, so I uncovered it almost immediately, took about 1/2 hour to make some adjustments, and covered it about 9.

My advisors, Jon and Art, advise me that it’s pretty hard to keep the temperature regulated. After a few hours, I’m getting the hang of it. With this rig, it’s mostly done with the lower vent. I have an electronic thermometer that beeps when it gets too high, but I have to go out and look to see if it’s getting too low. If I close the vent, the temp lowers. If I open the vent, it rises.

I keep going out there and trying not to take the cover off. I’ve added more wet wood a few times, and added a few coals when it got down to 200 deg.

At 11:15, I decided to pull the cover and turn the brisket 180 degrees to the fire, as recommended at the smoker site. This is what we have so far:

11:30: The adventure continues

3:00 PM: The brisket has a nice black/brown coating over much of it’s outside. I cut a small piece off the end. It has a nice pink smoke-ring around it. Jonathan says that this is hard to achieve, so in the words of the LolCats, “I’m doin’ it right.” I shared the “pitmaster’s test piece” with Roseann, and we both agree that it’s going to be good.  I put some foil wrapped potatoes into the fire.

4:16 PM: Well, we’ve been smoking all day. I’ve tried to stay out of there, and am no longer feeding it coals or wood. Temp is about 250. Can’t get it lower, even with the vents all closed. The brisket is cooked through, so now it can only get softer. A good thing.

This is our brisket at 4 PM

So here we are at 4 PM. I think it looks great. This is the “up” side, and I’m going to turn it, to see what the down side looks like.

This is the "down" side of the brisket at 4:00 PM.

This side looks nice as well. We’ll let this live face up for now, and see how it changes.

If you look at the extreme top of the photo, you can see a hint of the foil wrapped potatoes.

The Challah is about 50% baked. When it’s done, we’ll clear and set the table and set up the Shabbos candles. See you after dinner :)

]]> http://www.greenberg.org/archives/484/feed 3 http://www.greenberg.org/archives/482 http://www.greenberg.org/archives/482#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:04:18 +0000 Ed http://www.greenberg.org/?p=482 We ended our stay at the Conroe Condo, and thankfully returned to our trailer at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails. My folks installed themselves in a local West Bestern. We pretty much spent the weekend eating at local restaurants.

On Sunday night, we bid the Parental Units good bye, and on Tuesday Morning, we packed up and left Thousand Trails to go back to Livingston, and Rainbow’s End. This is the National Headquarters of Escapees, Inc., under whose auspices we get our mail, register to vote, and in general, make Texas our domicile.

We got in at around 11. By 11:30, we had disconnected the trailer, and gone to the Clubhouse for lunch. They had Meatball Hero for lunch, served with potato salad and chips. All that for $4.00.

We may be the youngest people here, except for the employees. The place is packed with activities each day. They serve several meals a week. They have something to do every day. The population here is a mix of transient members, owners of deeded lots, and lessees of leased lots. There are lots with trailers on them, lots with homes, both built and manufactured, and also the various spaces for traveling members.

Everybody here is a member of Escapees. We all have this commonality of purpose as either full-time travelers or former full-time travelers. Lots of conversation is about who we are, where we are from, how long we’ve been on the road, what sort of rig do we travel with, etc.

In order to fit in socially,  you have to believe, at least a bit, in the Escapees customs, practices and values. On the other hand, you can rent a site and go about your own business, and not talk to anybody. There are all kinds of people here.

There are about 20 Escapee parks around the country. Some are owned by the club (company) and others are co-ops owned by their occupants. We’re really glad to be members, and we feel at home here.

We’ve been here in Conroe, Texas, at the Conroe Condo, since last Friday, and after much preparation and work, had two Passover Seders. I did almost all the cooking, preparing, serving, and about half the cleanup, for our four person family, and I will tell you, I don’t know how my mom (and so many others that I know) did it.  I was beat. It should be remembered that many families go through a much more intricate and intense Passover preparation including a stem-to-stern cleaning, changing all dishes, covering countertops and shelves, and, in general, making almost everything in the house new again. We aren’t that religious, and didn’t do that, but even so, I was exhausted.

I made Matzoh Balls, Gefilte Fish, a turkey, a pot-roast, Charoses, Maror, Passover cake mixes, and all the trimmings and trappings of the holiday. I did all the shopping and planning as well. I also conducted one of the two Seders.  It was a labor of love and I’m very pleased with the result, but as I said, I was totally wiped out.

Yesterday, after all the hoopla was over, Roseann and I took all our carefully obtained and collected documents, and drove over to Livingston, Texas, county seat of Polk County. There we visited the office of Marion A “Bid” Smith, the assessor and tax collector for the county, where we registered the two vehicles, receiving license plates and stickers. We then went down to the driver’s license office at the state Department of Public Safety, and got our new Texas licenses and IDs. We have a booklet, How To Become A Real Texan to thank for being prepared, and being able to do this process in one try.

Once all this was accomplished, we drove down to Rainbow’s End, to get our mail. As I wrote above, this is the headquarters park for Escapees, and houses the mail service. Our address is here, one of many on Rainbow Drive. This is kind of symbolic. The name, Rainbow’s End, implies a destination, and we’ve been on the road heading here for the past month.  (To be fair, it was only nine days of driving. The rest of the days were stay-over days.) Nonetheless, it’s only a stop along the line, as we are not going to stay here for more than a few weeks to a month.

We’ll be here in Conroe till Monday, then over to Livingston to stay at Rainbow’s End for a week or so. Roseann has a medical visit scheduled. I have work to do, so we’ll dwell here for a bit and then move on.

Future plans are made, but as I always say, Man plans and G-d laughs, so we’ll hold these plans until we’re ready to execute on them.

(There are few photos, and I’ve been separated from my CF card reader, so we’ll catch up on those in a few days.)

We shunpiked again today, leaving Columbus, TX to the north, rather than to the east. First stop was Columbus Tire, where we got our trailer inspected.  This completes the pre-work, and we are now good to go for our visit to the Polk County Clerk for vehicle registration.

The ride then took us north on FM 109 to Brenham, TX, then on Texas 105 through Navasota, and on to Conroe.

Brenham is a nice old town, the biggest we’ve seen since San Antonio. It’s also the home of Congregation B’nai Avraham, the oldest orthodox synagogue in Texas. We learned about this on a website of small synagogues. I went to photograph the building. I had no expectation of finding anybody to let me in, and so my lack of expectation was properly met. I was really saddened by this. The building stands empty, with occasional visitors. There may be High Holiday services, and there may not – it depends on which website you read. I was thinking that if I could get in, I would take my Tallis and Tefillin, and say the morning prayers. Perhaps G-d would appreciate hearing a “still small voice” coming from this old synagogue.

Moving on, we arrived at Conroe by about 12:30, went over to Thousand Trails and dropped off the trailer. By 4:00, we were ensconced in the “Conroe Condo” at Silverleaf Piney Shores.

We’ll be spending the next week making the Passover seders here, and during the week, we’ll try to get the vehicles registered.

We’re encamped with the back of our trailer facing the river, although we can’t see it. We just see a grassy field and trees. That’s fine. Beats seeing the trailer that would otherwise be behind us.

Downtown Columbus held surprises. The town has a bunch of 1880’s buildings, a neat old courthouse, and a water tower shaped like a crenelated castle. Photos are at http://edgreenberg.smugmug.com/Architecture/Columbus-Texas/

I also got the truck it’s Texas inspection sticker.

All in all, a good drive on Monday, and a good stay on Tuesday, hopefully reprised on Wednesday and Thursday. We depart Friday for Conroe, Texas, and Passover in the Conroe Condo.

The Alamo is interesting, not in what it is, but in what it means to those who count themselves as patriotic Texans.  Newly entering the state, I find this a stretch. Certainly many men showed strength of character there, by choosing to fight to the end, rather than turn tail and run. I have great respect for that. As a rallying point for Texas Pride, the Alamo does the job quite well. We enjoyed seeing the Alamo and a bit of the surrounding city.

Well, we know. We left Fort Stockton at 7 AM this morning, after breakfast at Burger King. I never eat breakfast at Burger King, but the McDonalds had two busloads waiting in a long line, and not wanting to wait, we visited the King. What a mistake. Rubbery eggs inside microwaved tortillas. Oh well.

We chose to shunpike today, and to take US 90. This is what we came up with in trip planning:

Click to embiggen

So we figured we’d stop at Del Rio (”B”) where there is a very welcoming Elks Lodge. Leaving at 7, we were able to make good time, and arrived at Del Rio at about 12:00.

On our way, we traveled via US Hwy 285 down to Sanderson, and then US 90 to the east. The lady at the Elks Lodge said, “it’s a pretty drive” and indeed it was. The road travels through the rolling hills of the Big Bend Country region of Texas. As we’d top the ridges, we’d see huge valley vistas spread out before us. Vegetation is sparse and suited to dry country. This area is a desert region. After passing Sanderson, there’s little civilization until Langtry, wher e the state has built a Travel Information Center around Judge Roy Bean’s Opera House. Here Judge Bean dealt out high and low justice, establishing himself, and his 1876 “Revised Statues of Texas” lawbook as “The Law West of the Pecos.” The area also boasts a fine cactus garden.  Shortly after leaving Langtry, we crossed the Pecos traveling from West to East.

As we grew closer to Del Rio, we also grew closer to the Rio Grande and the border. US 90 has an interesting feature. The Border Patrol has graded a path, about eight feet wide, along both sides of the highway, and they regularly drag old tires along the path to groom the sand, so that tracks will stand out. Border Crossers leave sign behind that the Patrolmen are adept in reading. I had bought a few books at the Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, (see earlier blog entry) and I was seeing what I had read in action. We passed inspection checkpoints in both directions, both east and west of Del Rio, complete with dogs.

As we approached Del Rio, we started seeing the Amistad National Recreation area, which culminated at the Amistad Reservoir. This is the largest body of water we’ve seen since some time before leaving Los Angeles. It’s not as big as the Pacific Ocean, but we saw nothing bigger all the way along I-10. There is a community of motels, restaurants, boat/RV storage yards, and now McMansions, growing up along US-90, all supporting water-sport recreation. Entering Del Rio, we saw all the usual trappings of civilization. Every kind of chain store you could want.

Del Rio brought us Bar-b-cue lunch, fuel, and the possibility of an overnight stop, but we chose to push on. Now we found ourselves entering the “Hill Country.” (There are some really good maps of the various Texas regions to be found here. ) I noticed that things were a bit greener, then a lot greener. I saw land in cultivation, a thing almost unheard of to the west of Del Rio. I saw larger herds of cattle, as the land became able to support more head per section. We stopped in Brackettville, parked the trailer in a (closed) high-school parking lot and took a short nap. We passed Uvalde, which was a pretty bustling community, then Hondo, which was another active place. On arriving at Castroville, we decided we’d had enough. This is a good jumping off point for day trips to San Antonio, and we are camped for three nights at a city-run RV park in the Regional Park. Very nice.

So, did we make San Antonio? Well, not 100%, but we covered over 300 miles today, our longest yet, and we’re close enough to S.A. to consider ourselves “there.”