Episode № 61: Food Trucks on Little Rock AFB, French toast at home
Welcome back everybody!
Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share. I’m happy that you’re here with me.
In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military (including something that I enjoy about our current duty station), then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with my most recent domestic diversion.
Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update.
The squadron’s Key Spouse and I held our first Zoom of the year with some of the new spouses, and we have already scheduled the next call. It’s always fun getting to meet the new students and their families - and thanks to a certain never ending pandemic I can meet the spouses separately from their other halves. This is good for my brain because I can let some of their details sink in, and it’s easier on my brain to only meet five people now, then five later - instead of ten new faces all at once. Mister Jupiter has the clear advantage of spending more time with the students, so it is easier for him to get familiar, meanwhile it usually takes me a few months to reliably match up faces, names, and details - especially for the folks I don’t see in person.
And now I want to tell you about something that I really like on Little Rock Air Force Base. Unlike previous years there are now food trucks that regularly park outside of the BX and they effectively supplement the food court during lunch. It all started years ago with our friend Kyle and his truck Excaliburger. As far as I’m aware he was the first one to break that barrier and forged a path to getting regular civilian food trucks on base. The local base exchange typically shares daily food court and food truck information on Facebook like which trucks to expect, and especially if a truck has to cancel. The current rotation is gourmet hot dogs, and southern food like pulled pork and fried chicken. As a humble observer, I have zero insight into what trucks are going to be on base next, but I trust that there will be some options. Little Rock is a city that loves to eat and drink, so we have a very healthy food truck population (healthy as in there is a great variety of trucks, not necessarily that they contain healthy choices).
📌 LRAFB BX on FB
For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…
I am definitely sounding like a broken record because I have only really updated Outfits of the Day Q1. But I did manage to lightly update photos for two older posts.
When I started ladyjupiter.com part of the branding I chose in the very beginning included some specific image templates for my posts. Last year I got tired of looking at them so I made new templates and started using them right away. So for the last several months I have been slowly trying to update old images to reflect the new style. This year I want to actually catch up on this self-directed homework - because when all of the images are in line with the new template, then my brain will be more free to try to write original content in the night.
Aaaaaand It’s going pretty slowly to be honest. Part of me thinks that I can easily update one post every night, but then another part of me says that one post every two or three days is more realistic. Either way I still haven’t had the mental bandwidth or the time to get anything written. I want to write about my vocal booth, and the journey to travel with my ebike and sidecar in my Prius (said journey is still unfolding so I really can’t write about it now, but I’m happy to announce that I’ll be able to haul two fat tire bikes once we install the hitch receiver).
📌 Outfits of the Day :: Q1 2022
And now for my most recent domestic diversion I don’t have anything to speak about! Last night I did not feel like going to bed at a reasonable hour, so I listened to Project Hail Mary while folding laundry, putting away clothes, and having a beer. I did put off doing one thing though. I wanted to make an overnight French toast bake for Kid Jupiter to enjoy for lunch, but I did not, and instead was able to quickly and carefully make his French toast in the late morning.
He has been quite the picky eater lately, but Mister Jupiter discovered that the child enjoys French toast, as most children do. And I was interested in overnight casserole versions to avoid cooking on the stove (which is not bad or difficult, it’s just not wise when there’s a loose toddler in the house who can and will manipulate the knobs, or get into something elsewhere in the house when he knows that I’m occupied). The most recent no-stove French toast used both the instant pot, and the upper oven that my kid can’t reach.
I’ll give you the quick rundown here, but the full recipe is written out and easy to access in the show notes blog. The direct link to this episode’s show notes will be in this episode’s information tab.
I beat one egg with a quarter cup of milk, and a half teaspoon of vanilla sugar. Then I cubed 2 slices of brioche loaf, and poured the egg mixture on top. This went into my instant pot in a small cake pan (I love pot-in-pot cooking), and cooked it for five minutes on high pressure. It remained warm for about half an hour before I could move it into a 350° convection oven. It was only in there for maybe five or six minutes, before kid Jupiter suddenly decided that he wanted to eat early. I wanted the top-most pieces to get a little brown and crispy, but maybe next time.
From there he enjoyed it as is. No cinnamon, no brown sugar, no crumbly topping, no butter, no pancake syrup. The quick custard with that sprinkle of vanilla sugar, in brioche was plenty sweet. Next time I will make the custard in a larger mixing bowl, and actually toss the bread into the custard so The bread can soak it up better. At least, that’s the plan and we will see what actually happens.
And a follow up from last episode - I realized immediately after speaking last week that I said that I was recording in a closet. I wasn’t in a closet, I was in the laundry room (specifically where clothes were hanging) and I didn’t have time for a second take when I realized my accidental inaccuracy.
You may have questions - maybe I can answer them. If you’re saying “Hey now - don’t you have a treated vocal booth?” Yes, I do, but it’s in the office. The office is near two fans (which are not awesome for recording audio), also the office only has a sliding barn door. Did you know that my dogs can open and SLAM sliding doors?! They can. Those clever boys have made recording in my own booth kind of a nightmare, so it’s easier to get a clean take anywhere else. Then you ask “why didn’t you just record in a regular closet?” well…mine and Mister Jupiter’s large shared closet only has pocket doors. The dogs can slowly open those too…by banging and scratching on the pocket doors until they open enough to push open with a snout.
The laundry room by contrast has a traditional (dog-proof) doorknob, and isn’t near any fans. So now you are asking if I can move my vocal booth into the laundry room…and I have definitely thought about trying to treat that room a bit, but it’s not worth it. We’re only going to be in this house for another 18 months, and I don’t usually have time to record in the house anyway. But I’m still keeping my booth set up in the office, because sometimes Mister Jupiter takes Kid Jupiter out of the house and I can sometimes record in the house if the dogs aren’t being belligerent.
And that’s it for today’s episode recorded in the car (actually in the car; I know where I am this time). Show notes and transcript are available online. Visit LadyJupiter.com/podcast - scroll down to the link for Episode № 61: Food Trucks on Little Rock AFB, French toast at home
📌Ladyjupiter.com/Podcast
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I will talk to you when I can record next - bye for now!
