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i had bruce's hoppin' john for lunch. it was pretty good, a blend of salty, sweet, and spicy. i don't think i've ever had black-eyed peas before (they taste just like regular beans).

i went to rite aid to buy some shampoo and chocolate, citizen's bank in union square to cash a check, and then market basket for groceries. i was lacking in cooking inspirations so i just got the bare essentials: english muffin, prosciutto, frozen pizza, and some bananas. i also picked up a cut of beef to make some jerky. the two criteria were relative leanness and cheap. i went with 3 lbs. of a bottom round rump roast ($2.29/lbs).

i walked to star market to get some bengal spice tea, the closet approximation to my favorite good earth tea which i still can't find in any trader joe stores in the area. i still have two packets of good earth tea but i'm saving them for a special occasion. i also picked up a bottle of lea & perrins worcestershire sauce (10 fl oz. $2.79 on sale, but that was still more expensive than at market basket where i saw 15 fl oz. bottles for about the same price).

i put the rump roast into the freezer to make it easier to slice into strips. i then went to work in my bedroom (dual monitor work station) and promptly forgot about the meat until 5 hours later at 7:00, when the beef was frozen solid and too hard to cut. i set it out to let it defrost.

3 lbs. rump roast
1 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp honey
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp vietnamese chili sauce

so i was making beef jerky again. pretty much the same recipe as last time, except i doubled some of the ingredients. i only had half a cup of soy sauce so i added a little more worcestershire sauce to make up the difference. speaking of which, i went with the more sophisticated lea & perrins over french's. besides the 3x price difference, lea & perrins is a thicker and more flavorful sauce. here are the two ingredient lists:

french's worcestershire sauce (99¢): distilled vinegar, water, molasses, corn syrup, salt, contains less than 2% anchovies, tamarind extract, sugar, spices, dehydrated garlic powder, caramel color, xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, and natural flavors (soy)

water is the 2nd ingredient which can explain why french's has a watered-down taste. it also has things like xanthan gum and propylene glycol alginate.

lea & perrins worcestershire sauce ($2.79): vinegar, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, anchovies, water, onions, salt, garlic, tamarind concentrate, cloves, natural flavorings, chili pepper extract

i'm surprised lea & perrins has high fructose corn syrup (which maybe says more about the ubiquity of corn syrup). i can definitely taste the chili pepper extract, the sauce has a distinctive hotness to it.

with rump roast thawed enough to cut, i began slicing it into strips. the round roast size was harder to work with, so i don't think i got the nice thin strips i had last time (but hard to tell, since the meat shrinks during dehydration). i then put all the strips into a large ziploc bag and dumped in the marinade ingredients.

i'm sure there aren't anymore bugs so i'm going to set up my dehydrator outside on the deck. the only problem is it may be too cold, and the strips of meat might freeze solid first before properly dehydrated. tomorrow's daytime temperature is supposed to be above freezing, but even if i set up the dehydrator at the crack of dawn, that still gives me only 9 hours of daylight before it gets dark and the temperature drops again. maybe i have to dehydrate over the course of 2 days. i guess i'll find out tomorrow.

for dinner i had some dan dan noodles. i was going to make macaroni and cheese, but even that seemed too much of a hassle compared to just boiling some noodles and mixing in a packet of spicy dan dan sauce.

later in the evening when i took the trash out i noticed a UPS sticker on my front door; apparently they tried to deliver a package but i didn't hear the doorbell. they'll try again tomorrow, between 2-5.