One of my favorite food bloggers is Carol Blymire, author of the blogs The French Laundry at Home and Alinea at Home. Her concept is that she takes a high-end cookbook, follows each recipe and blogs her results; errors, mishaps and all. That combined with her wit and sense of humor makes for a very interesting read.

I’ve been inspired by her and I’m considering writing a similar blog, so this past weekend I decided to take some practice photos while making pound cake. This is a much simpler recipe than most of the ones that Carol makes, but it served as good practice. Any suggestions of which cookbook I should cook through? Leave them in comments.

The ingredients for pound cake: a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour, and a pound of sugar (are you noticing a theme here?), Grand Marnier, nutmeg, and salt.

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My mise en place; all the ingredients are measured and the eggs are separated.

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You begin by creaming the softened butter with the whisk attachment. The key to this recipe is keeping everything “fluffy.”

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After adding the sugar, keep whisking in order to keep everything light.

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Add the egg yolks two-at-a-time.

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Slowly add the 1/4 cup of Grand Marnier followed by the salt and nutmeg.

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Add the flour in thirds and transfer the batter to another bowl. At this point, the mixture should look a lot like mashed potatoes.

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After cleaning the mixing bowl, add the egg whites in preparation for whipping.

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Whip the egg whites to firm peaks, but not so much that they dry out.

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Fold the egg whites into the batter in order to keep it light. The egg whites are your leavening.

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Evenly portion the batter between two loaf pans which were prepared with butter and then lined with parchment paper.

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Smooth the top of the batter so it fills each loaf pan.

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Ready to bake.

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After baking for 70-80 minutes at 325F, the top should be split and a tester should come out clean.

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After cooling for 10 minutes in the loaf pans, remove and let cool fully on a cooling rack.

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After a little whipped cream, raspberries, and powdered sugar, it’s ready to eat!

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I don’t currently work in the automotive industry, but I feel at least somewhat qualified to voice my opinion on this matter because a.) It’s my blog and I’ll write whatever I want, b.) I grew up in the Detroit area and had plenty of friends and family of friends who worked directly for the automotive companies, c.) our injection molding company was an automotive parts supplier for many years, and d.) to reiterate: it’s my blog.

The Problem
The companies Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors all say that they can’t survive the current downturn in the market without an infusion of cash. The fact that no private sector investor, or investment group has stepped up to the plate should be a big warning sign that the future doesn’t look good for U.S. automotive companies.

In November, the CEO’s from all three American companies appealed directly to congress for government assistance. Not even thinking twice about it, all three flew from Detroit to Washington D.C. on their corporate jets. While I agree that private jets have their usefulness (mainly saving time by having the ability to reach small airports in remote areas), reaching Washington isn’t one of them. The fact that neither the CEO’s themselves nor their yes-men (and yes-women) thought this was a bad idea is very telling of their mindset.

Public outrage ensued, so what was their response? To fly coach on their next visit? No, all of them decided to drive to Washington in their most “green” vehicles. In the early morning on the eve of their next visit to congress, I watched an interview with GM CEO, Rick Wagoner, as he left for Washington in his “Chevy Malibu Hybrid with OnStar technology.” He was a rolling commercial! In the passenger seat was his driver who would take over the driving duties once they were out of sight of the news cameras so Mr. Wagoner could “work on his upcoming testimony and make calls on [his] OnStar system.”

My major problem with the current proposal is that, as a conservative, I don’t favor government involvement with private companies. This violates a whole tenant of conservatism. While I do realize that currently there is plenty of government involvement with business in the form of taxation and regulation (to differing extents in different industries), this proposal (which smacks of a nationalized auto industry) is a grand step in the wrong direction. I do realize that almost 30 years ago, Chrysler received assistance in the form of public loan guarantees, but this is a completely different situation.

Additionally, the idea of the government investing in or loaning money to the auto industry opens up a whole new host of problems. Obviously if someone is passing out money, there should be some oversight (unless it’s to the financial sector, but that’s another post). This need for oversight further illuminates the problem. Congress is currently proposing the creation of a position (the “Car Czar”) to oversee the business operations of the auto companies should they receive government funds. The government hasn’t proven itself capable of managing anything, let alone a vast manufacturing operation. In the now immortal words of Ronald Reagan, “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Outside of my general principles about the separation of government and business, here are my main “beefs” with the American automotive industry in no particular order:

1. The U.S. auto unions absolutely had a place at some point in time, but in the past 50 years they’ve gotten entirely out of hand. They’ve taken the notion of entitlement to a whole new level. They’ve continually fought automation and other improvements in manufacturing technology in favor of keeping the same amount of people “on the line.” All the time this was happening, most of their rivals were pouring billions of dollars into technology and automation and have maintained their lead on the Detroit automakers in quality. As proof that unionized labor is a problem and not American labor in general, I can point to other manufacturers in the U.S. who make quality products with American labor: BMW (South Carolina), Mercedes-Benz (Alabama), Toyota (Kentucky), and Honda (Ohio). Just a small side-note here: If you even want to hear the most hilarious “stupid things we did while at work” stories, talk to a current or former automotive assembly line worker.
2. A division of our family business supplied plastic injection molded parts to the “Big 3″ for many years (and parts for the Nissan Qwest for a few of those). Mainly, we supplied different types of under-hood shrouds and shields, interior parts, and were the major supplier of HVAC blower wheels (known in the industry as “squirrel cages”). When I worked there in the 90’s I saw first-hand how they treated their suppliers.
   They’re arrogant. They displayed an attitude that said we “should be happy to have any work at all” (most of our work had an 8% gross margin. After subtracting costs for inspection, scrap, tool maintenance, financial carrying cost, and overhead, our net margin fell somewhere between 0%-2%). Representatives of those companies regularly threatened to “pull the work” or “look somewhere else” if we wouldn’t “meet them” (read: capitulate) on price decreases. Their way of dealing with out-of-control health care costs, labor costs, and spending was to squeeze their suppliers for things like a 5% price reduction per year for the next 3 years (alas, now that well has run dry). As normal course of business, they would also pay their invoices far past their due dates. It was not at all abnormal for GM to pay their bills 180 days after receiving them. Ford and Chrysler were better in this respect, but not by much.
3. Executives of the “Big 3″ love perks and living the good life and I don’t believe that government backed loans or government investment would change that attitude. If finances are really that dire then they need to operate their companies and conduct themselves in the same manner that a small bootstrap company would: save and scrimp. This “good life” attitude is so ingrained in the culture, I have almost zero confidence that it can change.

I just read today that now Tesla, hardly credible as a high-volume auto manufacturer adversely impacted by high gas prices, is looking for a $650 million slice of the government “bailout” pie. They’ve stated that the money will be used to finance development of their new Model S for which they were unable to get private-sector funding. Where does it stop?

The Solution
Get smaller. No government funding. Some people believe that without government intervention, the U.S. auto industry will just die a quick death. This isn’t the case at all. They’ll just need to file bankruptcy and reorganize into a more efficient and sustainable organization. Whether that means a merger of one or more companies, I don’t know. Personally, I think that some of the freedoms that filing Chapter 11 could give the auto companies is attractive. Painful, but attractive in the long run. Will it be pretty? No. Necessary? Yes.

This evening the boys carved their pumpkins in the backyard while Jamey helped the little girl paint hers. I took some pictures of the event:

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Last week, I ordered a kit car for the boys and I to assemble. I figured it’ll be a great way to spend quality time together and we’ll end up with something to always remind us of those times. I’ve known about Factory Five Racing for a long time now; I even ordered information from them a couple of years ago.

Previously, there were two things that prevented me from ordering a kit. For one, the kits didn’t come with all the parts you needed; a donor car was required for the engine, suspension, electrical, etc. Two, some of the sheet metal work seemed a little too daunting for me.

Factory Five Racing is the world’s largest kit car manufacturer, and they were founded by car enthusiasts, like me. They were founded in 1995, but even in that time have developed a heritage of continuous improvement. The proof is in their numerous satisfied customers. There are many blogs and forums devoted to detailing the build process of kit cars. Factory Five Racing is regarded as making the best kits.

They recently introduced a kit for a ‘33 Ford-ish hot rod which doesn’t require a donor car and comes with everything (and I mean everything) you need except for: Engine, transmission, rear axle, wheels, tires, battery, and fuel pump. Everything else comes with the kit, including all the fasteners. I have decent mechanical skills, but limited sheet metal experience, but the sheet metal work looks manageable.

The time estimate on their website for assembly is 300 hours. I figured that’s for an experienced kit car builder, but after speaking to a company representative directly, they said that timeframe is for someone who has never built a car before. That’s me!

The car is essentially a modern spaceframe tube chassis with modern suspension, brakes, and steering with a retro-style body put over it. The only thing that’s old about it is its looks.

We’ll build everything mechanical, but I’m going to buy a race engine and transmission locally from Levy Racing and have the body work and paint done by a professional, also. The car weighs approximately 2100 lbs. and I’m looking for an engine with about 500 horsepower. This will provide a power-to-weight ratio of 4.2 lb. / Horsepower. For comparison purposes, a super-expensive Ferrari Enzo’s is 4.5 lb. / Horsepower (lower is better). I’d rather have the Ferrari, but I’m just trying to give you and idea of how fast the car should be.

The kit will be delivered at the end of January or early February of 2009. That’ll give us time to have the garage floor epoxied, buy and install a lift, and have the garage air-conditioned (it’s a necessity as we do live in Arizona). I’ll post information as there are updates.