Fat Duc

Wow, a whole year's passed by...

2011-05-06T11:17:00.002-04:00

And I've been crazy busy!

I'll see if I can't fill in many of the blanks here soon, but I have to share a recipe first:

Matthew’s Chole Dal# for Pressure Cooker#

Ingredients:

1.5 cups dried chickpeas
2 Tbsp cooking oil
15 oz can diced tomatoes
about 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated or chopped
2 -3 medium cloves garlic, chopped or pressed
about 2 cups fresh spinach chopped roughly
¼ tsp Hing
2-3 Tbsp curry powder, your choice, taste dependent, I like hot
at least two fresh chiles, chopped, again your choice but I like ‘em hot and use 2 large or 3 small Serranos
Salt to taste at end
Cilantro garnish to taste at end

Instructions:

Wash chickpeas and soak in 4 cups of water overnight. Don’t drain this water, these aren’t like beans and the soaking water has much flavor left in it.
In pressure cooker on Med-Low heat, heat oil for a few minutes and add Hing and curry powder, then let saute for a minute or two. This should sizzle a bit, but not burn.
add in garlic, ginger and chiles, and let them saute another couple minutes, again watching not to burn.
Add can of diced tomatoes, and tun up the heat to Medium. This should start to get to a low boil, and you should let this go for a few minute to reduce the liquid by about a third.
Toss in chopped spinach, stir it through and let it wilt a minute or two.
Add the chickpeas with the soaking liquid, stir and raise the heat to high.
Place the lid on pressure cooker according to your pressure cooker’s instructions, and wait for the cooker to reach the appropriate pressure. This recipe is based on 15 psi., but if you cooker doesn’t go that high you may need to cook a bit longer.
Let cook at pressure for at least 15 minutes, then turn off heat and let pressure release naturally, no cold water or manual release.
Check chickpeas for desired tenderness, and cook longer if not as tender as you like.
Finally season with salt to taste, I use about 2 Tbsp Kosher salt.
Garnish with cilantro and serve as desired. Options include simply plating as a side on another dish, or as I like it, as a main dish in a nice bowl with some good flat bread on the side, and sometimes some roasted or boiled potatoes. This would also work well with rice.

This has been a great recipe, and I'm trying to include many more high protein lower carb dishes in my diet. In the last 5 months I've lost about 32lbs. I'd like to lose another 25 or 30, but we'll see.

Anyway, cooking's been fun again and I'll likely be adding more recipes and possibly some videos soon.

More regular than a river otter...

2010-04-07T21:01:00.003-04:00

I can count on the Wysteria to welcome spring to the South.

I've needed to make this post for a few days, as I've been appreciating the incredible sight of the lavender and white waterfall-like bursts of blossoms pouring out of the host trees and plants that this parasitic vine slowly strangles. I love this time of year.

The rest of the year I curse the rough and hard to eradicate plant, but when it blooms I can't help but smile as I admire it bringing color to mansion and mobile home properties alike as I pass by with the window down on the car. The Wysteria's blooming time is a signal to roll down the windows, eschew the air conditioning (not that my Jeep's is working at the moment), and drive with an arm bent and resting on the sill, collecting a fair bit of welcome turbulence that directs a warm breeze into the passenger compartment.

These blooms will soon die and fall off the vine, and before too long I'll need to turn the A/C on, if I get it fixed, and go back to the sealed cocoon of my vehicle. The Southern heat will pass through the 90°F mark, and the humidity will be right behind it, making anything less than highway speeds unbearable while driving without the artificial cooling coming from the dashboard vents. It takes a special type of masochist to drive a convertible with the top down on a hot July afternoon in the South. Between the slow as molasses tourists around town blocking traffic and making breezy speeds attainable, to the bright sun that almost seems to be magnified by the heavy moisture hanging in the air like an invisible shower curtain just holding the sweat against one's skin and preventing even the faintest cooling evaporative sensation of cooling. It's brutal. At least my Jeep's got a roof the size of a circus tent, and power windows all around, so even if I don't get the A/C repaired before this sweltering season comes, I'll at least be able to trick my senses into believing that it's cooler in the shade.

Sure, I could be writing about the incredible cherry blossoms that burst forth this last week, stopping me in my tracks right outside the back door of my workplace, and making me stand there like a fool admiring them when I got home and stepped out of my truck to view my neighbor's tree in full bloom, leaving me pained that my own cherry tree died this last summer, but that would just be derivative of so many other homages to the cherry. Those stupid trees are a dime a dozen around here, though no one seems to have one that bears any fruit.

A bit of reflecting on being a parent

2010-03-22T19:33:00.004-04:00

One of the guys on the International Full-Sized Jeep Association forum posted a note about learning that he's going to be a father, and the news was, as expected, received with a chorus of congratulatory replies, and followed by a number of questions about how soon the family addition would be out offroading in the family Grand Wagoneer. Many members piped in with stories about how young their own children hit the trail with their parents in the Jeeps, and not surprisingly many children were still in diapers when they were first exposed to four-wheelin'.

I've been reflecting a bit, in the back of my head, about kids and being on the road. This thread on the forum made me finally want to put some thoughts down for the record...

Many years, decades even, ago I was on a family trip. Much like one of the Griswald adventures, this family trip involved a long journey in a funky American made chunk of steel, painted in a god-awful shade of faded metallic puke green. While this vehicle was not a faux wood paneled monstrosity of a station wagon, it was the next best thing, a Ford Econoline van of early 70's vintage, and was not part of my nuclear family's stable of cars, but a loaner from my Uncle, who to this day is my inspiration when it comes to all things mechanical. My own father may take issue to the last statement, as he was the one who actually taught me how to sync a pair of SU carbs, set the clearance on the valves of a British solid lifter motor, and handed me the keys to the old Vovlo P1800 with the caveat of having to replace the clutch, generator and other items myself before I could actually use that most classic piece of Swedish engineering. Sorry Dad, Bruce raced open wheel racecars. Bruce taught autoshop, and let me tear down transmissions in the shop before I can remember you letting me raid your toolbox. Bruce almost had as much patience with me when I was scattering his stuff all over the place, and his bachelor pad always smelled of the most glorious blend of gasoline, 10W30 engine oil, and solvent. He also had that sweet set of safety wire pliers that I coveted so much. Yes, I have my own well worn pair now. It's hard to compare with that, but you know you really are the root of the education about the mechanics, if he was just the inspiration. But I digress...

So the whole family is on this trip in the Econoline, on Interstate 5 South, taking the great roadtrip from Sacramento to Los Angeles. Ok, more correctly, Anaheim. We were making a family pilgrimage to Disneyland, and while the family Volvo was great at hauling all of us around town, and for those weekend visits to San Francisco to see the grandparents, the Ford van was just the ticket for hauling us all to Southern California along with all the gear needed. No it wasn't the fastest of rides, and it wasn't really riding in luxury, as I don't recall there being any carpet, and the vinyl seats in Summertime were borderline torturous, but there was an abundance of room, easy pass-through space for Mom to take care of any needs of those of us riding in the second row, and the panoramic view was par none. All these positives were shortly forgotten when the major malfunction occurred.

Somewhere along the way, on a stretch that had to be somewhere that the only proximity could be measured in its difference of mileage from Kettleman City was the closest point of reference, the Ford starting sputtering. Now, as children, my sister and I had little in the way of mechanical experience to add any constructive information or collaborative suggestions to the discussion going on in the front seats about our predicament, but we availed ourselves to the conversation regardless. It's just a kid's mindset to believe that we're the only ones noticing that the car isn't running well, has slowed to a snail's pace, and is blocking quite a line of traffic. It's also from this same instinct that a child has to ask about how long it will be before we get there, complains about the temperature of the back seat, always seems to want the stereo louder or quieter based on the perceived counter interest from the front seat, and always says they need to go to the bathroom or are hungry within ten minutes of leaving the last know place of said requirements for at least an hour's journey. Anyway, the van wasn't running well, and I don't seem to remember just how well my father dealt with this, but based on my own observations as a parent now, this fact must be monumental. I don't remember him losing his temper, at all. Key point there.

The first implications went unnoticed by my sister and I, I'm sure of that now. See, the fuel filter in the Econoline had become clogged. This condition can be understood by anyone with even a remotely rudimentary concept of how an internal combustion engine operates, whereby a mixture of fuel and air are combined in a combustion chamber to produce a release of energy, in the form of rapidly expanding hot gasses when this mixture is ignited by a spark, that is then turned into rotation by the downward travel of the piston in the cylinder through the connecting rod and transferred to the crankshaft. This rotational energy is transferred, through a transmission no less, to the rest of the assorted parts of the drivetrain and finally to the wheels which turn and produce forward motion. Together it's an incredible thing, deserving of all sorts of adulation, and it's just the rest of the non-car-loving population, that fails to understand this incredible phenomenon, who just don't get it. Without the free flow of gasoline to the engine, through the now constricted fuel filter, the whole works fail. Fail it did.

Once noticeable by kids under 10 years old, it's obvious to anyone that something has gone afoul with the inner workings of the motor, and it's time to address the situation. For some reason I seem to remember my father plugging along with a progressively worsening condition happening under the cowl of that Ford, and only stopping momentarily to try a quick fix a couple of times while we languished in the hot afternoon sun, moving down the highway in an exceedingly slow fashion. I seem to recall that it got to the point that we would go what appeared to be just a few hundred feet, stop, wait, restart the engine and go another few hundred feet before the motor quit, wait and repeat. I do know that at some point a tow truck finally came and yanked us to a service station where all was quickly put in order, but it was surely a time of much stress and reflection by my parents, and more particularly my father, particularly when one considers this was at a time before GPS nav, or even cell phones. Thank God there was AAA. Our trip was only delayed a short time, and Disneyland was incredible. The problems with the van are memories that my sister and I laughed about for years. It's only recently that I've taken that trip into consideration from my parent's point of view.

Present day North Carolina, and I recently bought the old, by today's standards anyway, 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. I bought this rig knowing full well that I had things to do to make it a more reliable daily driver, but I had a minor malfunction of my own while on a family outing that made me appreciate my dad that much more. We took the Waggy (Go ahead, search Google with that, you'll get a majority of hits relating to Jeeps and more particularly, Grand Wagoneers) out on the North End of Carolina Beach, NC, to Freeman Park on a nice Sunday afternoon. My wife, Melanie, has a nice '08 Honda Odyssey minivan for a daily driver. What can I say, but it's a Honda, nearly new, and if a problem arises with it I'll be shocked. It doesn't have to 4x4 needed to tackle the beach, so my Jeep was bought for just that thing, getting the family out on the beach, with all the needed gear, and safely.

So, on this Sunday, we are tooling along on the sand, in 4WD Hi range, and I notice the temp gauge slowly climbing, along with the kind of sickly sweet scent of engine coolant when exposed to fresh air. I have to admit I said nothing to Melanie, let alone the kids. I kept my cool until we we found the nearest decent spot to park the truck (Yes, it is too a truck!). When we stopped I pulled the hood release to find a veritable fount of coolant springing forth from a small hole on the top of the upper radiator hose. While not alarming in its amount, it was formidable in its pressure while streaming all the way to the completely raised hood of the Jeep, a distance that seemed at least 4 feet at the time. My first thought was, "Great, now I've stranded the whole family out on the beach, miles from the nearest proper road, and hundreds of yards from the nearest porta-potti. I freaked out, momentarily, until a little bit of reflection put it all in perspective and I got back to what I went there to do, fish. Oh, and enjoy a nice egg salad sandwich and a beer.

The truly ridiculous part was just what I had at my disposal to deal with this inconvenience. I have a cell phone, and Melanie's got an iPhone. While I started rigging a pole, she started pulling up numbers for the nearest auto parts stores and calling for a new hose. I was smart enough to pack a small toolbag, and happened to have a half full container of 50/50 coolant blend in the back of the Jeep. There I was, honestly going a bit spastic inside, and there were fellow offroaders within shouting distance, the reassuring assistance of a towing/recovery service at the other end of a local cell call, and just a couple miles hike to the paved asphalt roads of Carolina Beach, NC. It wasn't but a couple moments after I took stock of the situation and my feelings shifted from ones of concern for my family to feelings of simple frustration about a broke hose. The things I took stock of were that I hadn't actually overheated the motor, so there weren't any signs or indication of catastrophic damage. I hadn't overheated the cooling system to the point of loosing more than a few cups of coolant. The truck still ran fine. All in all, I really had nothing to be more than passingly distracted by, but I was still worried.

Melanie got my Step Mother In Law on the phone, who most graciously volunteered to pick up a new hose for us, as well as another container of coolant blend. Meanwhile I was conjuring up my best MacGyver job and hatching a plan to either make a portable nuclear device, or patch up a leaky radiator hose. I got enough parts together to effect the latter, and reached for the nearly full roll of black vinyl electrical tape, my trusty Victorinox Tinkerer Swiss Army knife, and an empty Miller High Life can. After relieving the pressure of the cooling system by carefully removing the radiator cap, once the stream of fluid had subsided from the leak in the hose, I meticulously wrapped about 3 football fields worth of electrician's tape around the hose. Not satisfied that this would hold, I cut the ends off the beer can and made a nice sleeve that I proceeded to wrap around the tape covered hole, and followed up with just two football field's wort of more tape for good measure. To my surprise, this field repair not only held pressure in the cooling system until we made it off the beach, it held the following 25+ miles home. The run back to our home wasn't without anxiety, as the kids who rarely seemed to take notice of what was on the radio suddenly decided that having the stereo off was a problem, even though I just has to have things quiet for my own presence of mind. The same kids who seldom seemed to pay attention to ol' Dad, while he tried to make conversation with them in the car, now seemed dead set against any modicum peace, and I have to admit my patience was wearing mighty thin. We made it just the same. Once I pulled in the driveway I had to say I was a bit proud of my handiwork, and sat there admiring it with the hood open, engine running. I went back to the driver's seat and shut down the engine, returned to the engine bay and got a bit prouder, but only for a minute while the cooling system's temp rose a few degrees now that there was no circulation through the radiator. The fix, well, it broke. Coolant started weeping out of my patch, but I was only partly let down. It had done just what it needed.

Back to the previously mentioned escapade with my own parents, on the trip to Disneyland, I can't even begin to fathom what kind of thoughts were racing through my Dad's mind. There he was, on an isolated stretch of I5, in a borrowed van that he wasn't familiar with, in the heat of Summer, and a rapidly deteriorating mechanical situation. Aside from what guilt/concern he may have had brewing of his own accord, there were a couple young kids in the back chatting away about everything, with no DVD players or iPods to distract them. There wasn't a DC powered fridge to keep a bunch of juiceboxes cool, or Nintendo handheld gaming devices to entertain the kids instead of the heat and line of cars behind the van. It must have been hell. Wow, what clarity a bit of perspective brings!

Someday I'll have to review my memories of the return trip from Oregon, in a borrowed CA State truck with an overloaded U-Haul trailer full of law books attached to the hitch. There was some point on the downhill run from Lassen that got a bit hairy, if I recall...

A little mechanical reminiscing...

2010-02-22T21:35:00.007-05:00

A long time back, in a blog far, far away, I wrote about some cars that I have loved in the past, and some of the things that made them special. Such a big part of my memory of particular vehicles is the smell. It just sets the tone before you even turn the ignition on. The old Volvos, the MGA, the Jensen-Healey and even the 1980 Datsun long bed pickup had distinct scents that I can seem to almost smell even now. It was the blend of different petroleum products mixed with the electrical insulation and various leather and vinyl protectants applied over many years that combined for a nasal kind of symphony that one might find similarly appealing when walking into an old library or den that's been appointed with old woods and leathers that had been oiled and polished for decades, the kind of old smell that is good and comfortably inviting, not dirty or moldy, but rich and weathered well.

I bought an older Jeep this last week. Now, mind you, this isn't old in my book, as it's a 1989, but I guess at 21 years old it's approaching near antique in some people's eyes.

This particular model is the Grand Wagoneer, and was a luxury SUV in its day, and was plush while still being a Jeep in every sense of the word. Sitting on a fine pair of American Made Dana 44 axles, with a Select Trac 4x4 system, it's quite a capable off road machine, and with a Chrysler sourced 360 cubic inch V8 under the hood, it's got the muscle to back up the image conveyed by that wood grain vinyl siding and forward tilting front grill that looks ready to shove anything in its way. It's a good ol' body on frame, live-axled on both ends, honest to goodness truck. I don't think there's a bit of aluminum, save for the wheels, on this thing. It's all steel. And then there's that scent...

I knew I had to have this truck from the minute I opened the door. Of course the seller had taken time to detail the rig out, and nicely wiped down all the vinyl door and dash bits with some protectant, as well as giving the rich burgundy leather and cloth seats a good cleaning, but that only added to the aromatic orchestra already playing with the motor oil and power steering fluid section in particularly high state of tune leading the band! The Grand Wagoneer might not fulfill the desires of today's crossover market, who demand luxury sedan ride in a package that hints at off the beaten path lineage, but it has seating for 6 in only 2 rows, with an actual middle seat belt in between the front bucket-style seats where the armrest folds up to provide a perch that would have been prized by myself as a child.

Sure, as with any car of this age, and having over 180,000 miles, there's a pretty good list of things that I will be needing to address, but for the most part these things are pretty minor, like getting into the door panels and lubing up all the inner workings of the locks which are pretty tough to operate now. The rear window defroster isn't working, and the right turn signals seem to only operate when they feel like it. This last thing doesn't really seem to matter much, as North Carolinians don't use signals unless they're trying to trick you into thinking they're turning one way before going the other. I think I may have caused an accident before by actually turning the way I signaled my intent, and by not veering wide into the opposite lane of the direction I was turning. I have been called a madman for not coming to a complete stop in traffic before entering a driveway off a main thoroughfare before too! But I digress...

If you've been following along here on my journal, you'd know that I have grand aspirations of spending some quality time in the great outdoors with my wife and children. This vehicle is a means to that end.

If you know me, but haven't seen me in the last few weeks, I don't want you to be alarmed at that picture. No, you shouldn't be surprised I'm fat, because I cook. Alot. It's the lack of facial hair that's been freaking some people out. I've been sporting a goatee or beard for the better part of 15 years now, but with this last transition from goatee to beard I was a bit alarmed at the amount of gray in the mix, and I just can't bring myself to emulate a retired MLB player and comb in some coloring. It was easier to just shave it all off.

Anyways, that pic above, as well as the one below, are from a short jaunt the family and I took this last weekend on the North End of Carolina Beach, NC, to a place where one can still drive on the sand called Freeman Park. This is one end of Pleasure Island, with the opposite end surprisingly called the South End at Fort Fisher. Both ends, along with everything in between have a rich and colorful history dating back to before the Civil War, and as with many things in the South, are filled with interesting people, along with a few scary ones. Thankfully, we didn't run into anyone remotely frightening on our outing, and everyone agreed that we would be back soon.

I have to admit that I ventured out there with more than just a slight trepidation, and the fact that I have only had this truck for a few days and didn't really know its capabilities only compounded my concerns. Was this thing too heavy? Are those tires up to the task? Do I have the ground clearance? Should drop the air pressure? Does the 4x4 system in this new-to-me SUV even function properly? (On this last question, I did operate the transfer case in both Hi and Lo ranges before I purchased it, but I didn't actually put the thing up on a lift to see that all 4 wheels were in fact operating, I just saw that the 4WD light came on, and that the Lo range turned this thing into a torque monster that felt like it could move buildings)

That old Jeep handled the sand like it didn't even know it was off the pavement! Seriously, I drove around in the sand like I would in a parking lot, and in comparison to Melanie's 2000 Chevy Blazer, this thing was ridiculously easy to drive on the beach.

So, mission accomplished, we've now got an outdoor capable vehicle that I can count on to haul the family and accouterments safely and surely out to the beach, where the kids can build sand castles, Melanie can watch them, and I can fish. Ok, Melanie can tan, while I watch the kids and fish, but it's going to be great!

I think I need to get some new tackle.

Gotta give another plug here:

2010-01-28T18:07:00.009-05:00

While I've been rounding up all the camping gear around here I unpacked my trusty old MSR XGK stove. I bought this stove with full knowledge that it was not the kind of camp stove you use for simmering a pot of chili on all day, as it doesn't have a reputation for having the easiest flame control, and tends to be more binary in nature. It's got two basic states, off and HOLY COW, IT'S A VOLCANO!!! The reason one bought this model stove was easy to figure out; it's simple to operate, and it always works. I mean it works when your life may depend on it, and it'll burn near anything flammable. This stove is called "Expedition" quality, and it's designed to work anywhere you may be, with even the most questionable of fuel. If it can be ignited the MSR XGK stove will boil water with it. Fast.

My particular XGK is one I purchased back around 1991-2. It's the original model, and was unchanged for a couple decades. The newest model utilizes the same basic burner design, and can claim the same old reliability, but it's got an upgraded support design, which was a small shortcoming of the original design.

As you may be able to tell in the top picture, the original design had four pot supports that folded away from the center to rest your cooking vessel on. In study it looks great, but in practice it was a pain, as the supports never stayed in place while cooking. They did pack up nicely though. The second picture here is of the new design. I have no doubt that those legs and supports do a great job and also pack away nicely.

Finally, this last shot, which isn't my personal stove, is exactly how mine now works. See, a couple weeks ago I sent a short email to Cascade Designs, who owns MSR ( that stands for Mountain Safety Research, by the way), about my old stove and to inquire about getting the updated pot supports for the original XGK. Not only did they tell me how to get other parts, they sent me the new supports. Free. No questions asked. No postage required. How about that?

So, as I've done in the past, I have to recognize that kind of truly awesome customer support, and say that it's just one more reason that I will always look to MSR for the kind of camping gear I need when I need that gear to just plain works. It's worth every penny. Thank you Cascade Designs and the crew at MSR!

Another year well under way

2010-01-16T21:31:00.002-05:00

As this Saturday evening wraps up, and I was sitting here on the couch with my wife, I was reflecting on the day. We had an early start this morning. Even though Wally's fifth birthday was earlier this week, we celebrated it with a birthday party at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, with Wally's friends and classmates. A good time was had by all!

As a good omen, I hope, for this beginning of Wally's sixth year with us, we began the week with an all too brief visit from a friend, the Cape Fear River Otter that comes around every January since we've lived in our home. Sadly, I was not able to capture any video this year. The otter, which I assume to be the same one, looks plump with winter fat from dining on the ample supply of sunfish that have been multiplying with little predation in the ponds around our neighborhood. Although we've had an uncommonly cold winter to date, the trend this week has been a warming one, and maybe the otter was enjoying this weather with a little fishing to celebrate. Whatever the case, I do hope I get another chance to see it this weekend and take some video. At least Wally got to see the otter on the morning of his birthday, and hopefully he'll remember with fondness the wonderful wildlife that we have been able to view literally right out our breakfast room window.

We had a great turnout at the birthday party, and I can't help but feel that I've made a wonderful choice, along with my wife Melanie, in having and raising our family here in North Carolina. A visit to the exemplary Fort Fisher Aquarium is such a great reminder of what a neat part of the world we live in, with such a diverse amount of wildlife all around us, and the aquarium putting it all in perspective by displaying many of the species of fish, reptiles, amphibians and plants that make up our regional habitat in one place where one can be simply amazed, and grateful, to call it home. Well, except for the bugs. I can't say I've lived anywhere with so many bugs that were lying in wait to bite me before. The only place I've ever felt more threatened by various biting things was when I was serving in the Navy during Desert Storm and on detachment to Masirah, Oman. With camel spider, venomous snakes and other assorted scary desert creatures, that was a freaky place after the sun went down, but I was only visiting there, I live here and call it home. Anyways, even though I question some of the Carolina tendencies, I love this place.

It is with that sentiment that I have been planning the camping trip/s that I have mentioned in previous posts, and while I don't think for a moment that my sons will seriously appreciate the outings while we're there, I am hoping that they will at least remember them later and be able to recollect them with gratitude for their parents when they mature. Ok, so I also want to go camping so I can go fishing, but not just that...

Lets hope that otter's visit really was a good omen, and that this year brings great things for my family, and good fishing for both the otter an I.

Did a little research...

2010-01-14T11:58:00.002-05:00

Ok, so the contenders for new family tent are...

The Eureka Copper Canyon 10

This tent has a few things going for it, with the Amazon price right around $160 shipped it's certainly a pretty good price. Then there's the fact that I've already got a Eureka tent that I've been happy with for years, so I'm familiar with the brand. This tent's also got a nice full mesh ceiling underneath that rain fly, so it ventilates really well and has the potential to be a nice star-gazing tent on warmer nights when there's no threat of rain. The design of this tent, with closer to vertical walls, really appeals to me because I should be more comfortable standing in it, but how much time does one really need to stand in the tent? I just think I would feel less claustrophobic in it. It's also freestanding, which is nice if the soil's particularly hard and not easy to set a stake in, or even at the other end of the spectrum with the soil being too loose to hold a stake at all. This one's at the top of my list.

Next there's one from Wal Mart that Melanie and I both agree seems to be a good deal, the Ozark Trail Family Dome 16'x9.5':

A couple major pluses for this tent are price and size. Wal Mart sells this tent for $78, which is ridiculously low, but the quality of some of the parts seem to be in question, and they're also out of stock at the moment, so we may not even be able to get one. Reviews seems to be mostly positive, and having a tent this large seems like it'd be a good thing. It's also appealing because my sons can be a bit rough on stuff, and with the low investment cost it wouldn't be too great a pain if the kids caused a tear or something like that. I wouldn't feel bad repairing it with some duct tape. Among the many reviews I read of this tent was a common complaint that it wasn't really waterproofed well and leaked, but that was remedied with liberal amounts of spray waterproofer, so that's not a really big deal either. My concern with weather handling on this tent are with the slanted windows, and the fly not extending over them. It looks to be a place that would just trap water. I will say that the color of this tent is kind of appealing to me, and while that might sound superficial, I don't want to be the one campsite at the campground that looks like it was decorated by a night club designer.

There's another tent at Wal Mart I'm liking, the Coleman Weathermaster:

This tent has the large space that Melanie wants. It's also got a nice mesh ceiling in the center section, which could be nice for stargazing. At $90 on clearance right now, it falls in nicely between the Ozark and the Eureka price-wise. I find it kinda drab looking. I also have a couple concerns about it not being freestanding, but few of these large family tents are. It looks like it should handle a rainstorm better than the Ozark Trail tent above. Like the Ozark, this one may be hard to find soon, so we'll see about that after the tax refund comes in the next month or two.

Sure, there's plenty of super-fancy family tents out there, but on the budget I'm dealing with they're simply out of the question. I also have to say that unless we were going camping every other weekend, I just can't see the justification in spending over $500 on a tent. Part of the appeal of taking the family camping is keeping costs under control, even if it's not the primary concern. Primarily, I want to get my wife, sons and I outdoors and actively enjoying nature a bit more, but the fact that a campsite is way less expensive than a hotel or motel also makes camping that much more attractive. Of course one of the other things that makes camping appealing is being right there at the place where you want to do the activities you want. A short walk to the lake to fish, or to the trailhead for a hike, sure seems better than loading up the car and finding a parking space. So what I guess I'm saying here is that it may look like I'm really cheaping out on tents here, with all these incredible products from companies like The North Face, Sierra Designs, MSR, Bibler and others, but if this family activity doesn't really pan out to be something we do more than once or twice a year I just can't justify that kind of financial commitment.

Anyways, I guess it's all going to come down to what's available once the money's available...

Since I listed tents first in the last post...

2010-01-13T15:08:00.003-05:00

Regarding things that I need to get sorted out and ready for a family camping trip, I guess I need to recall what I have currently, and then locate them in the garage somewhere to see just what might work, or if I need to replace the current setup.

Way back in 1991, while serving in the Navy and spending part of my Desert Storm experience on a little island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, I was introduced to an awesome mail order company, Campmor. See, one of the sacrifices that military members make while serving far away from home is commonly having no where to go shopping for any luxury items, or items other than the simplest of supplies that the AAFES store or Exchange offer, if there's even one of those. There's also usually a lack of decent entertainment to partake of if there's any free time while deployed to remote locations. It's for these times that things like mail order catalogs can be such a great thing. Sure, now most places our troops are have internet access, but back in '91 I didn't even have a PC until after I had returned from Desert Storm, and that computer's online time was via a 2400 baud modem to local BBS'. Anyways, there was a need to have some "luxury" items above and beyond what Uncle Sam provided while overseas, and mail order companies that would ship to APO/FPO military mail addresses were great!

I don't really recall ever ordering anything via mail order before I enlisted, except for maybe some odd trinket or book or something small, but everyday items like shoes and clothing I would get from a local store. One of the first things I realized I would need, besides a really good towel, was a proper jacket that would provide protection from rain and wind, be easily packable and not look like a military issued piece of clothing. LL Bean answered the call with a Gore Tex jacket called the North Col jacket, and I still have and wear that jacket. That jacket has been around the world, literally, a couple times, been crammed into backpacks and suitcases, been used as a blanket and rolled into a pillow, seen monsoons in Okinawa and hurricanes here in North Carolina, and still looks great. Sadly, LL Bean doesn't make this same jacket anymore, so once mine's shot I don't know what I'll do.

My next order of desired goods from back home was a couple other traveling goodies. From Campmor I ordered a new sleeping bag. I was plenty fortunate to get to stay in pretty decent housing most of my Navy career, but I was an Aviation Electronics Tech and got to fly around a bit as needed to support the squadron's aircraft. These flights on military aircraft tended to be pretty rough, as personnel comfort was not usually a high priority, and having a decent sleeping bag along was extremely helpful. It also provided a comfortable retreat when staying in less than new, sometimes downright unsanitary barracks. The first bag I got from Campmor was a Coleman model rated to somewhere around 32°F, and this bag was pretty good. It didn't break the bank, as I recall, was a nice neutral grey color that didn't show dirt, and packed quite small. I used that bag for a couple years until a couple of the seams started to blowout. I'm still using the follow up bag from Campmor, a nice Sierra Designs one, circa 1993 model year. I believe it was rated to somewhere around 15°F. That bag cost about double what the Coleman one did, but it's held up well over the years, with my only complaint being that the little plastic spring-loaded slide on the bag's duffel, the one on the cord that closes the top of the storage bag, has broken.

Somewhere during that Navy time I bought other camping goodies including things like a nice external frame Jansport backpack, an MSR XGK stove, various lanterns and flashlights, aluminum cookware and much more. The tent I bought had to pack small, be light, and not be too pricey. I got a Eureka Timberlite. It's a basic little A-frame tent with aluminum poles, a rain fly, room for 2, and I added a nice ground cloth and an annex. This may be considered a 2 person tent, but I really consider it a roomy solo tent, with plenty of space for me along with any gear I may need to keep out of the elements. While this tent isn't considered a freestanding model, as it has some guylines on the sides that help pull out to provide more interior room, it can be easily used without them if needed. This old Eureka tent will probably last another couple decades and see some service with one or both of my sons before it's worn out. The other tent in the garage is a dome tent that I believe is an Ozark brand or something similar. It's my wife Melanie's. We got it from either Wal Mart or Big 5 in Lompoc, CA many years ago, and if I recall correctly, it's a decent enough tent, completely free standing (most domes are, aren't they?), and made for 3 adults. The drawbacks from a backpacker's point of view are the fiberglass poles which weigh a ton, and the general bulkiness overall of this tent. It doesn't pack all that small, but for car camping none of that matters. It just has to protect it's occupants from rain, bugs and other weather. I really need to find this tent, as it's the one that might likely be big enough to fit my wife, my two toddler sons, and myself into for a couple nights this summer. Of course, if it seems that it might be a little claustrophobic in there, I may need to get shopping for a more family friendly tent.

I gotta run, I've got some research to do!

Talk about long range planning...

2010-01-12T19:10:00.003-05:00

I'm starting plans to go camping with the family this summer. I know, it's January, but with my budget, and seemingly non-existent amount of available time it's never too soon!

While the majority of my posts to the blog would lead one to believe that my interests lie mostly with making beer and cooking food, but there was a time when my main motivation in life was fishing. I still have this need to fish, though I haven't been in years now, which is a shame when you consider my proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and Intercoastal Waterway. I have to add that a major contribution to my fishing addiction is all the tackle and accessories. I am a gadget nut.

So, another pastime that has oodles of gadgets is camping. This runs somewhat contrary to the whole idea of getting away from civilization, but I don't think I've seen such a rabid bunch of new technology zealots as campers, with those from the "ultralight" backpacking group being the ones that are borderline fanatical about the latest materials and gadgets. In order to reach a new geek nirvana, one only has to combine a couple tech heavy hobbies.

Since I'm the father of a couple toddlers, and not in tip-top shape at the moment, I'm not likely to be found backpacking on some remote part of the Appalachian Trail as much as I'd like to do that one day. No, I'm thinking that in order to get the kids on the same page as ol' dad I'm going to have to do a little car camping and easy fishing. Of course that doesn't mean I won't be going "gadget strong", and to that end I'm doing research now on the kind of things that I can take to make the trip both more enjoyable for the family and nerdy for me!

Over the next few months I'll be taking stock of my camping gear and figuring out what is going to work for a family trip, what needs to be replaced, and finally what I simply can't do without for new equipment! There'll be tents, sleeping bags, lanterns, stoves, utensils, cookware, and probably most important activities for the kids.

This should be fun...

Made a change to the comments section today

2009-12-30T13:52:00.003-05:00

Following a couple spam posts, I added a simple "Captcha" word verification to the comments section. I still don't require email or account verification, but I won't have spam posts, and I will delete them quickly.

Wally's Brownies!!!

2009-12-27T15:58:00.001-05:00

Whew, what a busy couple days!

2009-12-26T20:34:00.003-05:00

The last few days have kinda been a blur. Sure, Christmas is a busy time for everyone, but when you've got a couple toddlers to look after and provide that holiday spirit for it's just that much more stressful.

It's Saturday night, and I just started a batch of No-Knead Bread, which I haven't made in ages. Wally, Wil and I took the new Easy Bake Oven for a trial run today. I'll have video up later of the session, but the boys each got to make something, with Wally getting to make a batch of gluten free brownies first, since it was his gift.

I haven't had the pleasure of writing about our new dog Ms. Manny yet, but she's had a great few days and has really seem to have gotten in the swing of things around the place. She's a German Shepherd from a kennel in Fayetteville, Newmanhaus Kennels.

Finally, I actually spent a nice part of this afternoon taking down the lights. That's right, I already have the Christmas decorations off the house!

Darnit! Way too late to add to the Christmas list to Santa...

2009-12-22T14:19:00.002-05:00

Those are the Special Star Wars Edition Adidas! More specifically, they're the Samba X-Wing model, and I would so rock them!!!

This database was fast!

2009-12-22T09:29:00.002-05:00

I saw the news this morning about Kim Peek passing and was a bit saddened. Being the real life inspiration for Rain Man, Kim was a pretty neat guy, and being only 58, he wasn't all that old either. While I have no connections to him, and I really only know what I saw about Kim on TV during various documentaries and prime time news show interviews, I feel his death should rate higher on the Care-O-Meter than Brittany Murphy's by a mile. If you don't have a clue about Who Kim Peek was:

That wasn't SQL running in his head...

Waited until I had received a picture before posting this...

2009-12-20T12:33:00.004-05:00

Ask and ye shall receive!

Friday night I mentioned that I had a craving for Chicago Style Hot Dogs. I don't remember why this might have been, but I think it's something along the lines of a blend of healthy and junk foods that appealed to me. That or I must have recently seen it on The Food Network and their subliminal advertising is working. Whatever the case, Melanie had no idea what I was talking about, even though she's probably been to Chicago dozens of times while I've never been in my life. Ok, I have landed at O'Hare airport before, but only to make a connection and I had neither the deep dish pizza or a hot dog while there.

Saturday morning I was trying to get a few things done around the house, and trying to keep an eye on the boys, when Melanie says she's going to make me the Chicago Dogs I've been craving. The night before she had no idea what I was talking about, so I hit Google Image Search for some pictures of exactly what I was describing, and based on those she put together a short shopping list of what was needed to make me a special lunch.

I gotta say, this was an awesome hot dog! It's my understanding that one of the ways it's ordered is to ask for a hot dog, and when queried about topping one says, "Drag it through the garden!" or close to that. I was unsure about poppy seed rolls for a hot dog, but they were great. One variation on ours was the use of chopped jalapeños instead of "sport peppers", the latter of which I had no clue about. I now think that these sport peppers are probably like pickled banana peppers, or pepperoncini that are often put on deli sandwiches, and that the vinegar from them would add a dressing for the cucumbers and tomatoes. To test this, on Sunday morning I made another Chicago dog with no jalapeños, but extra pickle. The heat from the peppers would have been nice, but the extra vinegar zing was good.

I give Melanie 5 stars for the Chicago Dogs!

Another pigskin season, another reminder:

2009-12-19T21:02:00.001-05:00

Dave Pear has a message for you.

"Don't let your kids play football," he says. "Never."

It is an odd thing, hearing these sort of words from a man like David Louis Pear, University of Washington standout, Pro Bowl defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Super Bowl champion with the Oakland Raiders. His five-year NFL career was one thousands of high school and college athletes would envy -- charging out of a darkened stadium tunnel, 70,000 fans screaming for you, loving you, praising you, idolizing you.

"You wanna know the truth?" says Pear.

The question lingers -- the 56-year-old ex-athlete preparing to unload one more skull-splitting hit.

"I wish I never played football. I wish that more than anything. Every single day, I want to take back those years of my life ..."

Another one of those unpaid product endorsements...

2009-12-14T13:07:00.005-05:00

I got a new kitchen gadget last week that I've been all excited about, and I wanted to share my early impressions about over here instead of on Amazon's reviews.

I bought a Lexen Healthy Juicer, Manual model fruit and wheatgrass juicer.

(Picture from Lexen's website)

I assume most everyone's seen the infomercials for Jack Lalane's electric juice machines, among others, and I know that there's all these hyperbolic claims about the health benefits of juicing. I can't say that I don't have some expectations of getting some health benefits from juicing, but I will say up front here that I don't expect my health to suddenly improve incredibly because I began adding fresh juice from various fruits and veggies to my diet. What I am hoping for at least is to start getting my young sons to start getting some more varied dietary intake of the aforementioned produce.

How did I come to the idea of getting a juicer, and why did I pick this one?

Well, to begin with, I don't believe that my oldest son, Wally, in particular, is getting enough fruit and vegetables. He eats bananas, and the occasional apple, but that's about the extent of the fresh stuff, with juice boxes being where a majority of his fruit intake is taking place. With Wally's dietary restrictions from his gluten allergy, it's hard enough trying to find the kinds of foods that most kids want to eat for him. At one time, when Wally was under 2 he would enjoy about anything we put in front of him, but as his tastebuds got more picky, and we found out what foods he was allergic to, we suddenly found that we not only had a kid with a very limited diet, he also narrowed it down further himself with his own tastes. I don't own a cat, but from what I've been told it's only slightly easier giving a cat a pill than getting a 4 year old to eat something new.

One of Wally's doctors has said that we need to get him to start eating asparagus. Right. Ain't going to happen. So I'm thinking that perhaps we can juice the asparagus...and slip it into the boys' fruit juice. The problem here is that Wally knows what color apple juice is, so I'm not going to be able to truly pull one over on him. He's going to have to know that I'm adding stuff to his drink, but I'm hoping that if I let him help make the juice he'll be a bit more acceptable to the idea. Which brings us to one of the reasons I chose this particular juicer...

The Lexen manual juicer is an auger type macerating juicer. I didn't know exactly what that meant a few weeks ago, but basically there's two kinds of juicers available to home consumers (Ok, there's a third one, but I'm talking about the kinds that most people have heard of), masticating and centrifugal. The masticating ones crush and press the produce through a slow speed process. The centrifugal ones operate at high speed, shredding the produce into bits with a cutting action and then spinning the liquid out of the bits. I read many positive things about the high speed centrifugal machines, but a couple of the things I didn't care for included the size, noise, and cleanup. I also read that many of the Juiceman and Breville units that people can find easily online at Amazon, or even in Wal Mart, at a reasonable price, don't handle leafy greens and fibrous veggies as well as the masticating juicers. I'm not saying that these centrifugal units aren't good, but they don't excel at what I wanted to do with juicing in my home. So the type of juicer I wanted was established, but then there was the choice of electric or manual. Based on my budget, plus the fact that I wanted my kids to be involved, I went with a manual unit that was very inexpensive, and didn't have a big horsepower electric motor turning it that wouldn't know the difference between a carrot stick and a toddler's finger. I got the Lexen Healthy Juicer for well under $50 from Amazon . I will say that the Z-star manual juicer looks to be a very nice similar type product to the Lexen, but it's over twice the price. I don't know how much I'm going to be using this juicer, so I figured it might not be to good an idea to invest too dearly in it to begin with.

So, what do I think of my new juicer?

I'm really enjoying it so far! The day it arrived I was working late, but being the impatient type that I am, I unboxed that juicer right when I got home, tore through the veggie cooler in the fridge and, after a quick wash of the juicer, got to juicing. The ingredients for that first batch were carrots, pear and parsley. The end product wasn't exactly very enticing in appearance, and the parsley tended to be a bit more aromatic than the other ingredients, but it tasted wonderful just the same! I was also a bit surprised how much juice I had rendered from my produce, based on some of the less positive reviews I read on Amazon. This juicer works great, particularly on harder root veggies and the leafy greens, exactly as advertised. The pear really just got mushed up into pulp and I didn't get very good juice extraction from it until I followed it up with the parsley, but once those greens went down the auger and squeezed that pear pulp the juice really flowed. Last night I made juice from carrots, Gala apples, kale and parsley. I have to say that I like the parsley, and if any of the health benefits are to be believed, it's some pretty good stuff for you too. The kids really had a good time turning the handle, and we're talking a 3 year old and a 4 year old, so the turning effort isn't too bad at all. I also let them feed some of the ingredients into the hopper, making sure to only let them do this with the handle stopped. No fingers were lost, and all had a good time. Sadly neither of my boys would try the dark green juice I ended up with, which was a real shame because it was wonderful and I'm looking forward to making more when I get home tonight.

Finally, I think clean up on the Lexen Healthy Juicer couldn't be easier. While the short instruction manual that came with the unit doesn't go into great detail, there are a few really well done videos on YouTube that show assembly and operation of the Lexen unit. The pieces go together very easily, and when you're done they come apart just as easily. I toss all the washable pieces in a sink filled with warm soapy water, give it all a light scrubbing with a brush, and towel dry everything before placing it all in the box to be used again soon. There are no fine straining screens or blades that I have to watch out for, and I honestly feel all the parts would probably be fine on the top rack in the dishwasher, but cleaning it by hand really only takes about 5 minutes or less and isn't hard at all, so I do it that way.

This is my first foray into juicing at home, so I don't really have any idea how it compares to all the real expensive units out there, but I'm quite happy with this juicer. I don't recommend this unit for doing really high volume juicing, because it's just going to take forever. If' you're wanting something to make that incredibly tasty unfiltered apple juice you'd be better served using a purpose built press, one that allows you to make a bunch of juice really quickly from fruit like apples or grapes. Where I think this is going to be great is using a base juice like apple or grape juice from the store, and supplementing it with some really healthy veggie juice that my family doesn't normally eat.

Facebook is a drug.

2009-12-14T12:10:00.003-05:00

I haven't been one to follow many online fads for the most part, or at least the things like blogging I try to do in a genuinely honest and productive manner. I try to record things here that I believe will have some value to someone, be it my children many years from now who want to be able to see what their father was like earlier in his life, or for those people that I really should be talking to more frequently but seldom get the chance to, so I hope they can follow along with my silly life on this journal.

Facebook is like online marijuana. It robs one of the motivation to actually convey more thought or feeling than can be said in one or two rudimentary sentences. I've had the very fortunate reconnection with people on Facebook that I may have never had otherwise, and it's also enabled me to open up lines of communication to relatives I care about but never get to see. I can even say that Facebook has enabled me to see a different side of some people that I would likely completely missed in any other context, and that's been a positive thing, but the big problem has been this sense of complacency that I've had with Facebook. I've been perfectly happy to just click on the "Like This" button to show my agreement with someone's feelings. I've been lazy in just using an emoticon or two, and giving a 2-3 word attaboy where I really should have expounded on my feedback. I really need to block applications like Mafia Wars and Cafe World, not just because I'm aware of the deceptive marketing practices of Zynga, but because I actually think at times that when I send some virtual gift in one of these inane time-wasting games I'm giving someone something of value.

Am I gonna quit Facebook? No, but I will focus my online energies a little more positively on constructive pursuits rather than the quick fix of a hit from Facebook. There's a place for Facebook, and for some people who have a hard time communicating in little more than a few sentences, it can be a good thing. The problem I have is that it also makes people censor themselves, ok not everyone does (lord knows, some people there need to!), but many people don't write what they truly feel or mean out of fear that everyone else reading the posts may judge it harshly. I know I do this very thing.

I'll still be over there, but much less, and I'm gonna try to be over here writing for myself more often.

Sad that my motivation to write today...

2009-12-14T11:02:00.002-05:00

Came from such a predictable place, a movie about a blogger.

My wife and I watched Julie & Julia last night, and I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie. While I got a kick out of Amy Adam's role of Julie, it was Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child that had me smiling throughout the movie. I am by no means an expert on the biographical accuracy of Mrs. Child, I just know that I loved the lady and her belief that cooking, really good cooking, should be accessible to all.

Julia had a way of taking a simple dish, like eggs, and reminding the viewer that the dish was special in its simplicity. She'd also take those same eggs and remind us that they needed to be done properly in order to really appreciate them, and then she'd show us how to execute the process step by step, making no assumptions of the viewers expertise on the subject other than the expectation that they'd be impressed with the final outcome.

That video just happens to be the first one a YouTube search brought up for Julia Child, and yet it really epitomizes what I admire in her.

Anyways, I got a little fired up about writing again, and while I don't really have any following, let alone any deadlines over here on my little online journal, I have to admit that I had began to feel a little ashamed of myself for not keeping up with putting my thoughts down on record. I think I've been somewhat reluctant to write because I've got many things going on in life at the moment, yet it seems so many of them either don't really need recording, or, I'm ashamed to say, that I just haven't had more than the desire to do something new, without the means to do it.

How about a list of things I've been meaning to do?

Weaving- I'm not quite sure where this is coming from, but I've got this tremendous desire to learn to weave. On a loom. With natural fibers. I've been reading reviews, checking out videos, shopping various retailers, and perusing a number of blogs for information about smaller laptop and table top looms. Some time ago I picked up supplies and watched a number of videos about Loom Knitting, and it's fun, but the product just didn't really seem to practical for me because everything I was doing came out looking a bit too "puffy" and crocheted, which is fine for many ladies but really didn't satisfy the want I have to make everyday usable items for myself. The idea of weaving on a loom gives one the ability to make something like fine cotton or wool material that can then be sewn into something practical. I don't mean to say that knitting and crocheting don't produce practical items, but that they seldom produce very masculine goods. I've got some crazy idea that I may be able to learn to weave well enough to actually produce some Black Watch Tartan plaid material that I could utilize to make something I'd be proud to use. I figure I need to start somewhere, and the loom I'd like to get is called a Rigid Heddle loom. This kind of loom is small enough that I don't need an area the size of a baby grand piano to weave, yet still produces enough material that I could do more than simple fixed length items like tapestries or potholders. I'm thinking a Kromski brand Harp or Fiddle loom in the 16 to 20 inch width would suffice. We'll see.
Wine/Beer- Ok, how sad is it that I identify myself as a homebrewer of beer and maker of wine, and yet for the whole of 2009 I've made none? I have been enjoying the fruits of last year's productivity until very recently when I had my last bottle of homebrew. I've got some time off work for the holidays in the next couple weeks and I may be able to get at least a batch of wine started, some beer into a primary fermenter, and finally get the mead I started way back in the last couple weeks of December 2007 into bottles. It is clear as glass now, and really need to get bottled and stored properly.
Writing- I need to get back into the mindset of writing regularly. I see the mental cobwebs that come from not writing regularly whenever I get around to getting my thoughts out again, such as right here. The entries of a regular blog/journal almost write themselves when the author has been regular about posting. These thoughts get incongruous and hard to convey when I don't exercise my mind, or fingers, with capturing them via the keyboard.
Cooking right- I've been a bad cook lately. I haven't been pushing any envelopes of creativity in the kitchen, nor have I been very actively pursuing healthy and balanced meal preparations. I will say that I found a new kitchen item that I'm really enjoying, but I'll save the details for another post. (It's a juicer!)
Writing, part II- I've got some crazy idea that I've got enough crazy ideas that I could put together in some fashion of a book. There's not any one type that stands out at the moment, but I just have this yearning to create something that other people might find enjoyable enough to read a couple hundred pages of, and maybe ask me to write more. I know this one is about as likely as winning the lotto, but it's not like I have anyone besides myself to let down on this...

So, there's a start of things. Now I just need a start. Seems like a good place for a musical pick-me-up...

Hmmmm....

2009-11-27T21:56:00.002-05:00

Thank you ThatWIllBuffOut!

I like your hair

2009-10-26T17:29:00.002-04:00

Over the last couple weeks my older son, Wally, has been learning many things in this his second year of school. He's in Pre-Kindergarten, for 4 year olds, called Pre-K 4 to those of us in a parental status. Wil, my second son, is in Pre-K 3, at another school. Well, Wally's got some great teachers at the school he's going to, and I'm really impressed with the education he's receiving.

Wally is a rather late talker, with some big hurdles to overcome with his speech, so he goes to a school that caters to children of all types, with perfectly average kids to those with serious autistic tendencies, and while Wally really has only the speech to work on anymore, he's learning how to deal with conflicts with other children that have some real communication issues beyond just their speech.

Wil is going to a local private school. He hasn't exhibited the severe speech delay that his older brother has, and I really wanted him to blossom into his own person, not just live in the shadow of his big brother, so I wanted him to go to a school that still has music and arts as part of the regular curriculum, which sadly just isn't addressed in the public school system for most of this country anymore. But I digress...

Wally's education in conflict resolution, or how to get along with everybody, comes down to a lesson that I don't remember ever getting when I grew up. I do have to admit that while it sounds a bit strange, it does in fact lighten the mood of all those involved. See, the way it goes is this: Two kids have an argument about whatever kids fight about, like the one Thomas train in the whole toybox while there's 50 Gordons. Anyway, ultimately these kids get to yelling and grabbing and so on. This is where the new school of thought comes in, and the preferred way to deal with it comes down to 2 things, an apology and a compliment.

A scenario for this might play out about like this...

Boy 1: [seeing another boy has the toy he wanted] "I wanted that toy!"

Boy 2: [defending his posession] "No, it's mine!"

Boy 1: [grabbing the toy] "I said I wanted it!"

Boy 2: [taking a swing at boy 1] "Unh!" (that's supposed to be that mean grunt)

The teacher steps in at this point and breaks things up, hopefully figuring out who actually had the toy first and then has the child that took the toy apologize for what he did, and then he has to give the other child a compliment. Sounds like this:

Boy 1: [to boy 2] "I'm sorry I took that toy, and I like your shirt."

I am not a child psychologist, so I don't know the reasoning for this kind of communication, but in my own home it's made for some interesting entertainment. We never know what one son is going to say to the other one when we use this tactic to resolve a conflict between siblings.

So, Melanie's picking up Wil from school the other day, like she does every afternoon, and as is the normal practice for the preschoolers, they walk each child out to the waiting vehicles from the safety of the building. The parents queue up their minivans and station wagons, pull up to the specific stopping place and wait for their child to walk to the vehicle hand in hand with a teacher or assistant. As Wil is getting into our car he slips and stumbles into the back seat, and without a moment's hesitation he says to his teacher, "Oh, sorry!" and then adds," I like your underwear."

Apparently Melanie, who seldom has nothing to say, found herself at a complete loss for words.

Man's best friend indeed...

2009-10-13T21:55:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning with somewhat of a start. My oldest son, Wally, who had earlier in the morning displaced me from my own bed and made me walk cautiously through the house with only a sliver of lighting seen with my mostly closed eyes to seek slumber in his bed, decided that my bed was no longer so inviting since his mother's alarm started blaring. After the cacophony of the alarm clock, my wife began attempting to wake Wally and his younger brother Wil, who had decided that since Wally had figured out the parent's bed was a better place to seek refuge from whatever bad dreams kids have it must be a better solution for himself as well. This was good for both boys, until their mother set to waking them. Wil mistakenly did what he often does and popped up with a smile and eyes wide open. Wally, the more mature, and wiser to the world of the two, knew what had to be done. Mimicking his father's action from only a couple hours earlier, Wally crept down the hall to his own bed once more, only to find his dad there occupying the space. As if taken partly from an Arlo Guthrie tune, Wally decided that it was easier to make the best of the situation, and rather than return to the noise and light of Mom and Dad's bed he'd simply climb in his own twin sized bed that his dad was now keeping warm and toasty. Ol' Dad's a bit big for the twin size bed as it is, so while Wally fell back asleep almost instantly, I was now uncomfortably wedged up against the wall in an attempt to make sure Wally had plenty of room. Needless to say, I wasn't going to be getting much quality sleep for the rest of the morning. It was almost a relief to hear my wife yelling down the hall a little while later for Wally to get up and get ready for school.

Not long afterward, once the kids and wife had left the house, it was time for me to start getting ready for work. It was a morning with the same start as usual, but something was seriously amiss on this particular morning. My Standard Schnauzer, Britta, wasn't there to greet me when I woke up. She wasn't following me through the house. She wasn't whining at the door to go out, or doing the same from the reverse side to come back in. She wasn't sitting next to the corner of the counter where she begged for her dog cookies after she had been outside to do her business. She just wasn't, and it just felt a bit less like home this morning.

Britta was a member of the family, born over 13 years ago, and commonly referred to by both my wife and I's parents as the grand-doggy. My wife, Melanie, and I were not married at the time when we first brought Britta home. I had picked the breed, and done plenty of research on breeders before finding what I consider to be the best place to get a schnauzer from, Skansen Kennel in Cotati, CA. One would think that after all that research, exchanging emails, making telephone calls and even visiting the breeder before making the commitment to buy my dog from there, that I would be very particular about which dog I was going to take home. I wasn't. I let the right dog pick me out. I climbed in to the pen with all the pups and sat down. At first most of the pups ran right over and checked me out, and then one by one they lost interest, until only one had decided that it found me likable enough, and decided that I would be its provider for the next 13 years. Britta always was a great judge of character!

This puppy raising was no small undertaking for me at the time, and I actually took puppy leave from work for a week to get acquainted with the new dog. I had her housebroken in less than 3 full days, although this was done with a pretty large amount of cookies and until her final day she still insisted on a treat every time she relieved herself. What I hadn't counted on was the voracious appetite for wood and cloth that a Schnauzer pup has, and before we had discovered how well a peanut butter stuffed Kong toy was for a teething dog, Britta had eaten one full size futon, one comfortable recliner, countless shoes belonging to both Melanie and I, and finally the carpet off a couple steps on the stairs. Thankfully our landlord was a dog owner too, and a carpet installer to boot, so we got the stairs fixed at a minimal cost. The futon frame was unceremoniously burned in the fireplace that winter, and the recliner was likewise beyond repair, and had to be taken to the city dump. While Britta didn't completely destroy it, she also chewed a good portion of the way through one of the thick legs on my computer desk too. Britta had a great set of chompers.

Britta also found one of her many lifelong callings while living in that little condo in Lompoc, CA, varmint hunter extraordinaire. Britta let me in on this great talent by bringing me a reward of a very large opossum, sans entrails, one evening while I was sitting on the sofa that now sat where the comfortable recliner had once resided. She couldn't have been more proud, and was practically dancing with excitement while presenting me with her trophy. I almost screamed like a girl. It's not that I had never seen a opossum before, as I'd seen quite a few both live and dead, but to have one dropped literally at one's feet unexpectedly, without its organs, and that crazy set of teeth that opossums have, was alarming! That was only the first of many similar hunting expeditions for Britta, with the prey varying from seagulls to neighbor's cats that had made the most unwise decision to take a shortcut through Britta's yard. This dog would actually take bits of her uneaten treats out onto the patio to lure birds in and then pounce on them like a lion. Britta was a great hunter and even in the last couple months managed to catch a neighborhood cat in out much larger backyard now.

There was a time when I had the crazy idea that I would train this superdog to do incredible things, and maybe even try for a confirmation, or harder yet Schutzen training, but it turns out she was too smart to do that willingly, and I stopped with the new tricks once we had "Roll Over" down pat. This doesn't mean that she ever stopped training Mel and I, and we were still learning Britta's ways until yesterday.

Britta went with her tail still wagging, and a pig ear in her mouth. I only hope I did right by her while she was in my care.

Does make one wonder how this one's any better than the last...

2009-10-11T07:21:00.002-04:00

I love Day By Day.

Funny what kind of things jog my memories...

2009-09-14T22:34:00.003-04:00

Just last week I'm surfing some of my favorite websites, and one that ranks near the top of most frequently viewed is Jalopnik. For those that aren't aware of this one, it's a great site for those who love and appreciate the automobile. I'm not talking about those who just like new cars, or modified cars, or who have a passion for 60's era muscle cars. No, this website is for the people who love all those things, plus have a passion for the mundane transportation as much as the exotic. The car fans who can really appreciate the Chevy El Camino as much as a Ferrari, when presented in the proper context. Anyway, Jalopnik put up a poll this last week about which long since past racing class its readers preferred, Group B World Rally cars, or the Canadian American racing series of the late 60s to the early 70s, referred to as CanAm. I can't say that I've ever seen any rally car tearing up a dirt road at race speeds in my life, to date. What I can say is that I had the pleasure of seeing a number of CanAm cars competing on the track back in the early 70s. I was brought along to see my uncle racing in the Formula Ford Series at Sears Point Raceway, and then when my Dad started racing in the Showroom Stock class, spend more time at other tracks like Laguna Seca and Portland Raceway in Oregon. I loved the fact I got to ride in the race car all the way to the track, since the car Dad was racing was also a daily driver with a rollbar and a fire extinguisher. Once there I got to go exploring!

Highlights for a kid under 12 years old at the track don't always center around the action on the course, in fact some of the best times had included the mandatory stop at the donut shop on the way to the track, and even better, sliding down the dirty grass covered slope on the hill behind the concessions stand at Sears Point. When you were lucky enough to remember to bring a suitable piece of cardboard you could really get some speed going down that hill. When you didn't have the carboard you just went down on the seat of your pants, much to my mom's chagrin when I came home covered in dirt and in a prematurely worn out pair of Toughskins. This was a great distraction as a youngster, but I did spend some time paying attention to the track as well, rooting loudly for the number 42 Formula Ford car with the cool blue paintjob with orange and yellow striping and a Miracle Auto Painting sponsor. That was Uncle Bruce's ride, and with its loud exhaust and open wheels, it was much cooler to me than my Dad's '77 bright kelly green Buick Opel, but I cheered for him too. As I got old enough, I even got to spend some time in the scoring and timing booth recording lap times using the track's timing system. Being involved this little bit really made the racing even more exciting, even if the view afforded from that position only allowed a few seconds of each car's passing over the start/finish line. It really gave some perspective of how much faster certain cars were rounding the circuit than others. That made walking through the paddock later that much more interesting, because you could get up and close to the cars that you saw earlier making the best times. It was cool!

So looking at Jalopnik the other day I come across this video in the thread about which vintage racing class was better:

I voted for Can-Am.

Well, thinking about this reminded me of my uncle, and low and behold, his birthday was yesterday. My Dad reminded me of this, but I didn't get to speak to my uncle until this evening, but we had a great conversation, and I found a picture of his current No.42, a Lola T140 Formula 5000 car, with a Chevy Small Block powerplant. That thing has to be a hoot to drive.

Then, while talking to my uncle he reminded me that today's a special family day too! It's the 100th anniversary of the birth of my Grandfather, Wally, for whom my first son is named.

Now being the car nut that I am, and the rest of my family as well, I couldn't help but have a car memory of Grandpa Wally...

I don't remember the car too well, other than it was an early 70's Mercury, a Montego if I recall. It wasn't so much the car I remember at this point, but the dashboard. More correctly, I don't even remember the dashboard details that greatly, save for one thing, a pack of gum. Grandpa always had a pack of gum, usually Wrigley's Spearmint or Doublemint stashed up there on the dash where the wide expanse of a speedometer surround that created a nice little shelf, and which seemed like a purpose built gum pack holder to me. Even when we weren't going to go anywhere I'd sneak in the front seat of the Mercury to steal a piece of gum. Grandpa Wally passed way too early, and I don't remember him being a particularly huge fan of racecars, but I associate him with that car just the same.

I guess memories are just funny that way.

Happy Birthday Grandpa, and I'll Give Wally II a big hug in your honor.

So I'm listening to NPR again...

2009-08-29T21:33:00.001-04:00

While out on a grocery run this afternoon, and that damned Keillor guy is on again. His hilarious weekend show is rolling along, and he's reflecting on his youth again, and there's a tie-in to my previous post here...

"...We liked science fiction because... well, Earth didn't have alot going for us at the time." (Roughly quoted, as it's now hours later)

I just got a kick out of it, following all the science fiction shows I'm currently hooked on.

So let's talk TV...

2009-08-28T12:09:00.004-04:00

I'm a TVaholic.

Sounds a bit like an AA introduction, don't it?

Funny thing is these days I rarely get to watch any on the plasma at home, and when I do get to sit in my own living room and catch a program real-time from the comfort of my own sofa it's undoubtedly a kids program that's on. I've become quite the PBS Kids aficionado, and I know who Word Girl is, but I don't have a clue who's on Big Brother or what's the latest fad in home remodeling on HGTV.

Our house is currently subscribed to the lowest cable package that the local provider offers. We pay less than $10 a month, and receive only about 10 channels of broadcast entertainment. There's a couple home shopping channels, and of course C-Span, but I can't really call those entertainment, so they don't count. On top of that, we don't have a digital cable receiver, so there's zero HD content from that source anyways. The big screen is not even connected to the cable, and I like it that way. We get a pretty nice selection of programming over the air via the HD antenna I built myself using spare junk I had laying around the garage. Want to get a more accurate depiction of just how old your local news personalities are? Get yourself a good antenna and see 'em in 1080i OTA broadcast. I can see how they were reluctant to change. Flaws in facial features, and even the over abundance of makeup that were covered by the lower resolution of the analog TV transmissions are readily apparent now. You can literally see the sweat on their brow.

Along with the much higher quality local network affiliates, there's also a number of additional content sources now available with a decent antenna that weren't available before. From a couple local subchannels that offer up to the minute weather info 24 hrs a day, there's also a few independent channels that cable doesn't even offer. I was delighted to find the Qubo children's channel OTA, and Theodore Tugboat's a personal favorite.

This doesn't mean I don't miss cable altogether. A couple channels I dearly wish I had are ones like Dicovery, History, and SyFy. The latter has been tough because I really wish I had been watching the new series of Battlestar Gallactica. I avoided watching it on Hulu because I still think I can eventually save up enough to purchase this much lauded science fiction remake in its entirety on Blu-Ray and enjoy it in 5.1 surround sound with a HD resolution.

Thanks to EZTV.it and now EZRSS.it, I'm back in business with MIRO player and have been able to enjoy quite a bit of network programming at my leisure. Here's a list of the shows I've become really hooked on:

Warehouse13 from SyFy. It's not great science fiction, but it is a truly fun show, and the ratings are reflecting it. I found it pretty neat that this show's developed a big following among women, as that's a demographic that doesn't normally go in for science fiction.
Eureka, also on SyFy. This one's kind of like a personal treat, with some truly geeky references, but like Warehouse13, it's not unapproachable for the non-science fiction fan. Between this show and Warehouse13, SyFy's got a couple real winners in their original programming and they're really staking out there own territory on the TV spectrum. I really hope they keep it up!
Dollhouse on FOX, Joss Whedon's latest creation. I found Firefly much too late, but was fortunate to catch up with it online, and it's early demise was truly regrettable. Dollhouse really entertains me, and I was glad to see it got picked up for another season. This one's a bit more difficult for some to get into, but the show has me yearning for more. I was really excited to see that Summer Glau's now a castmember of this program, and we'll see how Whedon works in this actress that he's used successfully before.
Fringe, also on FOX. What can I say? Miss X-Files? Here's your fix, and then some. Great show, with a good sized fan base that's well deserved. This one's got the conspiracy stuff, the cop angle, the violence, and the well matched cast to almost make one forget about Mulder and Scully.
The Big Bang Theory. This show's hilarious. Jim Parsons as Sheldon is the far and away stand out star on this one, even though I imagined he was originally written as a supporting role. His character's idiosyncrasies are so over the top, but played to a tee that I'd almost watch a show just about him.
The Philanthropist was kind of a surprise to me. If you were to tell me that I should watch a show about a rich guy who's guilty conscience drives him to go on harrowing personal missions around the globe, while still retaining a playboy appetite, I'd say no way. Neve Campbell's in this one, but not really a standout for me. This show's location settings and somewhat grittier casting surprised me, and I enjoyed it very much over the summer. I can say that I'd be happy to watch it if NBC brings it back for another run.
I started watching Defying Gravity on Hulu, and while this show started really slow I stuck with it for a couple episodes and it's gotten better all along. The last episode found me really surprised with Ron Livingston, of Office Space fame, being able to pull off a dramatic role that is really starting to reveal some depth, and showcasing some of his ability to convey more emotion than previously seen in previous roles. A few of the other players here leave much to be desired, but I'm holding out hope that this show really develops into a great program. It's got potential.
From across the pond in England I count myself among the millions of fans that Top Gear so readily deserves. Jeremy Clarkson's a pompous jerk, but so entertaining, and knowledgeable about a personal passion, motor vehicles, that I can't help but love him and the program. I don't need a U.S. version of this program, ever. It couldn't hold a candle to the original, period. While covering the same subject, and possibly more technically informative, Fifth Gear is on my must watch list, but definitely back seat to Top Gear.

With Primeval no more, I have a hole in my lineup. I hear rumor that SyFy might be picking this series up for a remake on U.S. soil, but I can't see them doing the first season any justice. I am holding out hope that the Brits can put together another series of The IT Crowd. That was truly sidesplittingly funny stuff, and not just for the computer types. I've even rekindled my affections for a show with such hilarity from the UK, Chef with Lenny Henry as the beastly chef Gordon Blackstock, while I've turned a few friends on to it. It may not rate quite as high as Fawlty Towers on the classic British comedy list, but it's right up there. If you've never seen Chef before you really have to find an episode or two, sit back and enjoy.

Scored a new train this last week

2009-07-31T22:57:00.002-04:00

Got this one for the boys so I don't have to worry about my Marklin set so much. I think this Lionel is just the ticket for the next step up in trains from the wooden railroad stuff they've had up to this point.

For reference, this is the Lionel Sears Brand Central Zenith Express. It's set number 11821. That's a 4-4-2 Loco, with smoke, and a whistle in the tender. It wasn't perfect when I brought it home, but it's cleaned up pretty well and the kids are having a ball with it.

Asian Stroganoff?

2009-07-26T21:31:00.002-04:00

I have mentioned this before, but I'll say it again, pork is what's for dinner in these parts most of the time (if I'm serving meat). I do love a nice piece of chicken, but unless the fryers are going for under a buck a pound, then I'm likely picking up pork. It's hard to pass up nice country style pork ribs when they're under a buck and a half a pound, with little to no bones. I've been adapting many dishes traditionally made with other meats to a pork recipe, and I'm rarely disappointed.

Tonight's fare is Stroganoff, and I think I've got the makings of a pretty decent recipe here, but it's nowhere near perfect yet. I'll break down the way I made it, and then I'll add what I think it needs next time I try it...

2-3 lbs country style pork ribs (or probably even a Boston Butt, if the price is right), cut in to 1-2" chunks
2 medium white or yellow onions, sliced into thin strips
1 cup sour cream
1 oz dried Shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water and then chopped, reserve the liquid
4-5 cups chicken broth
5-6 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp Xanthan Gum, as a thickener (2-3 Tbsp. flour would be fine, but I'm trying to stay gluten free here)
1 pound wide egg noodles (I set aside some of the Stroganoff for Wally pre-pasta)

In a large pot or pan brown the pork chunks, in small lots if necessary to get good browning and not steamed pork. Remove the pork to a side dish and then brown the onions and mushrooms in the pan. Once the onions and mushrooms get browned nicely, add the pork back into the pan and then add the sour cream, broth, mustard and the liquid from rehydrating the mushrooms. Stir this up well and then add the thickener. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer and let it go until the meat's nice and tender. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Cook the pasta according to the package's instruction, drain and then mix it all up. Serve hot in a nice wide bowl.

Now, as for what I will change next time:

The sour cream wasn't enough. I'd double it in the future.
Fresh Mushrooms, and maybe a couple different types would be good too, but it's going to take at least a pound of 'em for this recipe, probably closer to 2.
The Dijon came through a bit strong, not that I dislike that, but it's not really Stroganoff-ey.
This is a real rib-sticker of a dish, so it might be better served in a colder season.
I'm sure there's some herbs and spices missing here that I need to work into the mix.

Enjoy pork!

On Wanderlust

2009-07-21T00:17:00.003-04:00

"I'm Yours" Official Video

So I'm watching the video for Jason Mraz's song I'm Yours, and it hits me. I see it in his eyes as he's cruising down the road in some tropical locale, presumably sitting in the back of a pickup, with the wind in his hair and the sun shining perfectly on his face. It's that perfect peace that comes from traveling to a place where absolutely no one, save for the hotel staff where you might have a reservation, gives a damn if you're there.

You're not going to ruin anyone's day if you take a detour, or decide to stay at a cafe for an extra hour having a conversation and another cup of coffee.

To be perfect, this situation really needs to be either undertaken solo, or with someone who's in the same state of mind, or more ideally not in a state of mind to have an agenda for anything more than those things or activities that occur spontaneously.

Sure, there's the schedule of the overall trip that needs to be adhered to, lest one misses a flight or lodging reservation, but the bits in between don't need to be perfectly planned. Having the freedom to take a backroad and stop at an appealing distraction makes the journey that much more memorable.

I've had a couple afternoons like this, in far parts of the world while traveling on Uncle Sam's dime, but they were pretty few. I've mentioned my weekend getaways to San Francisco before, either here or on my old Yahoo! 360º blog, and I think Jason Mraz caught the feeling I had in that video. Those times when I had a whole weekend to myself, with no obligations to anyone, just a set of wheels or a bus ride and no schedule to keep. Taking a walk around downtown SF, or cruising the motorcycle around the Santa Barbara hills, stopping for a bite to eat because a place looked interesting enough, and more importantly I'd never been there before, and no one had mentioned it before. It was a new personal discovery.

I'm missing that sensation about now, with too much work, and too many phone calls.

I've started working on a plan. Don't tell my wife and kids, but I'm working up a list of items needed, and plotting a rough set of general directions to take a short weekend roadtrip on the Ducati. I've got a tent, a sleeping bag, some simple cooking utensils, a candle lantern and, of course, a pocket radio. I figure that I need to make a pilgrimage to one of the ultimate motorcycling destinations in the country, Deal's Gap, aka The Dragon. It's located in the western part of NC, near Asheville. If I were to leave one early Saturday morning I could be up there in time to make a late afternoon run, and make camp at one of the campgrounds there. The following day I could have an early breakfast, break camp, and hit another of the famous roads there, then head home. It'd probably be a 600+ mile weekend.

Yup, that sounds fantastic, and I think I'd have that same grin under the helmet the whole time.

Slap all your troubles away!!!

2009-07-14T16:58:00.001-04:00

Had the kids out on the 4th for fireworks

2009-07-06T09:32:00.001-04:00

REPORT: Alfa Romeo to lead American charge, Fiat 500 to go it alone

2009-06-26T11:17:00.004-04:00

Once again, I know it's a Fiat, and I know it's gonna break at some point. Still, I can't really say why but I have to have a ragtop 500 one of these days. I'm really hoping it doesn't get too molested by the DOT, or a restyle before it makes it to these shores, and I'm praying the 1.3 MultiJet diesel powerplant makes it across the pond as well.

One can dream, right?

REPORT: Alfa Romeo to lead American charge, Fiat 500 to go it alone

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It's got to be more likely to happen than me getting one of the most minimalist vehicles I long to have in the garage one day, the Citroen 2CV. Although I did find a place that's importing these cars with a pretty good reputation, reportedly.

Felt like cookin' tonight

2009-06-24T19:52:00.003-04:00

So I plucked a bunch of Wally's basil from the porch garden...

And I had picked up a great head of Cauliflower at the supermarket...

I added to the approximately 2 cups of basil above:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (yes, it's Reggiano)
4 fresh cloves of garlic

All that was blended well in the food processor and tossed over a pound of fettuccine pasta. The end result when served with fresh Cauliflower, and a bit of green salad:

Wil seemed to like it:

And he had a hard time staying still in the pictures, but he was smiling because he like daddy's noodles:

Rollin' on the river...

2009-06-23T11:05:00.002-04:00

Was out this morning takin' a few cell phone pics of the Cape Fear River. We're experiencing a pretty high tidal cycle this week, and it's kind of cool to see the river so close to overflowing its banks downtown at the moment. Last night the tides caused some pretty minor flooding in some areas, and it'll likely happen again tonight with this evening's tide predicted to be over 5 feet at somewhere around 11 pm.

A couple shots I took over the last couple months, for comparison:

From phone pic 5_22_09

And what it looks like today:

From Phone pics

So, while it doesn't look too extreme, it is neat to see nature's activities like this. Sadly I won't be able to be downtown to see how high it actually gets tonight, but I'm sure there's going to be pics or webcams available at a couple of the local TV station websites. Just Google up WECT or WWAY.

Not too many posts ago...

2009-06-11T11:49:00.002-04:00

I had a couple videos posted featuring 80's hits I loved.

In reading a couple posts and seeing a couple videos today, which interestingly enough began with an odd feature about "World's Most Deadly Model Train Wrecks" on a site that is quite possibly going to be a new favorite of mine, Urlesque, I got sidetracked (pun intended) by another post about a 70's hit from Toto, Afrika... but this time in acapella by a large group and complete with beatbox intro.

Which then led to me tracking down a video for another Split Endz song I saw done acapella a couple weeks back on YouTube, Six Months in a Leaky Boat:

That song's another classic by the Finns, and takes me back, but in reading the comments there I saw the mention of a band that might just bridge the gap between me and my sons, The Wiggles! Just a couple more mouse clicks and there it was, Tim Finn singing Six Months in a Leaky Boat with The Wiggles:

Ahh, serendipity.

Now, where's Jeff?

It should come as old news...

2009-06-01T10:49:00.003-04:00

That I finally broke in the grill I got for Christmas this last Saturday night. Yes, it took that long. It's not that I hadn't wanted to, as the new grill is incredible and I couldn't be more grateful to my father in law for a most generous gift.

It's a Weber Performer, and it's about the penultimate charcoal grill! It's got a gas connection, but it's for one of those small disposable propane canisters, and that's only for use when lighting the coals. It doesn't even require a match, as there's a piezo type one button push ignition system. As you can see in the picture, there's also a nice counter space for resting the food and utensils on while cooking. The black trashcan looking bin is a charcoal container that tilts out to the side and helps keep the underside of the grill tidy while keeping the briquettes dry. The wheels are quite easy to roll, and having four points of contact with the ground is much easier, and safer, than the 3 point setup on most Weber kettles. Finally, there's that contraption on the bottom of the kettle. The black stockpot looking piece is an ash-catcher, and the bottom of the two levers is the handle for this, with a simple twist and drop release to remove the thing. The upper lever is the combination kettle bottom vent opener and it also acts as a kind of sweeper, by pushing the spent briquette ash down and out of the bottom vents into the aforementioned ash-catcher. A few side to side sweeps of the vent handle and the ashes all fall down. Cleanup's a breeze! The top grill grate even has flip up sections on either side that allow coals to be added while you're cooking, without having to remove all the food and the grate. There's also thermometer built in to the lid, so you can get an idea of how hot you're cooking, but I found it was a nice gauge to tell when the temp of the coals had started to drop, and when I needed to add more.

This thing is so nice to grill on I felt spoiled using it. Considering I've got a nice cover, and the grill is built like the rest of the Weber lineup, I should be enjoying it for many years to come.

So, What'd I make? Why, ribs, of course, and some chicken. There were a couple hot dogs tossed on the grill as well, for the kids. For both the ribs and chicken I used Weber's recipe for their classic Tangy BBQ Sauce, which is one of those sauces that I'm yet to find someone who doesn't enjoy. I made it on Friday night, and let it rest overnight which I find allows the flavors to mix and mingle a bit. I can't recommend this recipe enough, regardless of what grill you use, or whether it's pork or chicken you're cooking. I will say that I prefer something a little more savory for beef, though. I get a craving for beef ribs from time to time and I hate to say it, but I really like Bullseye sauce for these.

Anyways, the grub was tasty, and I enjoyed myself immensely!

Stretched my legs along the riverfront this morning...

2009-05-22T11:42:00.003-04:00

It sure is handy having a camera in the cell phone, but I could use a bit more resolution.

And the highlight of my 80's flashback today is...

2009-05-21T12:46:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's cheezey, but god I love that tune.

And just for good measure, my current favorite tune:

08 - Jason Mraz - Coyotes - MyVideo

And Jalopnik's addition to much needed laughter for the day...

2009-05-19T17:04:00.000-04:00

The simple joys that Boing Boing brings...

2009-05-19T11:20:00.001-04:00

Ahh, the stars aligned finally...

2009-04-17T13:31:00.002-04:00

And I got to go for a ride!

I worked most of Easter weekend, and I had some comp time coming, so I took a Friday off. As luck would have it, Mel had a lunch date with a friend and her daughter, so I got the morning and afternoon to myself. After getting the wife and boys out of the house I have to admit that I seriously considered simply climbing back into bed and sleeping another 4 to 6 hours. I could probably use the rest, but it was really just too nice a day to sleep through.

I had a slice of leftover pizza and a cup of Chinese black tea for breakfast. I followed that with a nice hot shower and then went out to the garage to give the Ducati a once over. I've had the bike on a Battery Tender for a couple months, and fired it up from time to time, but she hasn't been out on the open road since this last Autumn. Before I took the time to do everything I decided it was a good idea to make sure there was plenty of oil in the Duc, and then jabbed the starter button to make sure the charger had done its part. She fired up instantly. I had taken the precaution of making sure I had Sta-bil in the tank, and I guess it did its part too, as there was no smoke, and the bike ran fine all morning on month's old fuel. Before hitting the highway I aired up the tires, lubed the chain and gave the bike a nice visual pre-ride once over.

This was also the inaugural outing for the new Fulmer M1 Modus helmet in Flamethrower paint. The helmet worked fine, and I have to say that I'm in love with these helmets that have the releasable chinbar now, and the price was fantastic from my local Honda dealer. The paint scheme is kind of wild, with a somewhat tribal looking trident graphic in day-glo orange over a wildly reflective metallic white, and the effect in the bright sun is simply dazzling. I can only imagine how visible this helmet's going to be at night.

My mission, though one isn't really needed when motorcycling, was to get a bottle of Fernet Branca. I made a few calls to various liquor stores in SC, near to the state line, and I found a place in North Myrtle Beach that had it. Eureka! The shop is Pavillion Discount Liquors, and it's right on HWY 17. This place had a pretty good selection of imported liquor, and I now know the first place I'm going to call when I need something that the NC ABC stores don't stock.

The trip was just about 60 miles one way. It was uneventful, and it really felt good to be back in the saddle. I think going on a Friday morning after rush hour was a good call too, because there was little traffic on the road, and I only passed about a half dozen cops the whole trip. The bike felt like it wanted to just keep going forever, and while it's hardly the ideal touring machine, I really would like to start doing some longer rides. I really need to look into a set of soft luggage...

It was a bit cooler this morning, and I'm glad I zipped the liner into my Fieldsheer jacket. I was perfectly comfortable. I figured that if it warmed up I could remove the liner and toss it in the backpack along with the Fernet Branca, but I didn't need to.

My trip took a bit over 2 hours, and I had a blast. It really is nice that the weather's warmin' up and I can start riding again. Now I just need to start commuting on the bike a bit more, because I don't know when I'm going to have a day to myself again for some time.

Started the foray into kids' Bento...

2009-04-12T20:54:00.002-04:00

I used that video to make some pretty cool hot dogs for Wally's lunch. I wasn't sure if he'd be that into it, so I did a trial run with them tonight. They were a huge hit!

I diverged from the video and used the microwave for the octopus' I made. Wally almost didn't want to eat them, and he insisted on carrying the plate around for 10 minutes to admire before digging in. He recoiled at the first mention of octopus hot dogs, but I let him watch me make them, and he saw that they were simply regular hot dogs that were cut up to make an octopus shape. He even counted the legs to make sure there were enough.

The rest of his Bento contained a bed of shredded carrots surrounded by "ocean cut" cheddar cheese, and some ketchup. For the bottom container of his Thomas Bento box I made a simple sliced banana and a side of fruit Roll-up. I'm really hoping it comes back home empty tomorrow afternoon.

I didn't take pics, because I don't think they were anywhere near the Bentos I've seen all over the web. Once I get some sure-fire winners figured out, and I get the presentation nailed, I'll share the box pics.

Found myself getting a little tired at my desk today...

2009-04-09T15:51:00.002-04:00

So I took a walk down on the waterfront. Gorgeous day out, and Wilmington's historic riverfront was bustling with activity.

Take a look:

"One is never enough...

2009-04-03T10:26:00.002-04:00

and three is too many!" Herb Caen, fellow native of Sacramento and a fellow Aries, on the subject of Martinis. Happy Birthday Herb!

I had a marathon bottling session yesterday. I've had a batch of Cream Ale sitting in the primary fermenter since 11/22/08. Yup, over 4 months, no racking, no messing, just let it sit there on its yeast cake. I was a little worried about what I might find when I popped the top, but all was well and it smelled pretty good. I added no fresh yeast, so I'm hoping that there's plenty of those little buggers still viable in suspension to condition properly. I also bottled up a batch of really simple cider that I started not long after making that Cream Ale. Got 51 bottles of beer, and 49 bottles of cider. I got a pretty good workout on my capping arm. I'm also out of caps now, so I guess I'll have to stop by my local brewing supply shop soon.

I still need to bottle up my 14 month old Mead, but there ain't no harm in where it's resting now, still in a glass carboy.

Going back to that opening line, I was reminded of Herb by Garrison Keillor on Writer's Almanac this morning. I'm frequently quoting this radio show because I'm frequently listening to it on the way to work. Can't say I was a fan of Garrison's until I started being late on a regular basis. The guy seemed like a popous jerk whenever I saw him out of context, and I can't say that I can relate to much of the Northern Experience comedy he frequently uses to espouse his opinions, but he's growing on me these days. What he's really contributed to my entertainment of late has been poetry.

I'm not into that Beatnik (Mr. Caen apparently made this term popular, by the way) stuff, and there's a bunch of really confusing poetry based on too much symbolism out there. No, I don't need a poem to confuse or bore me. I am beginning to really appreciate some modern, realistic and sentimental poetry. I've quoted it many times here before, and I feel the need to quote a couple more, so bear with me on these.

First, I got a real kick out of this morning's poem on Writer's Almanac:

Lies My Mother Told Me

by Elizabeth Thomas

If you keep eating raw spaghetti
you'll get pinworms,
then I'll have to make
a necklace of garlic for you to wear
each night while you sleep,
until they go away.
If you're mean to your younger brother, I'll know
because I have a special eye
that spies on you when I'm not home.
You cannot hide from it,
so don't try.
If you touch your "down there"
any time other than when using the toilet,
your hand will turn green and fall off.
If you keep crossing your eyes
they will stay that way
until the wind
changes direction.
It is bad luck to kill a moth. Moths are
the souls of our ancestors and it just
might be Papa paying a visit.
If you kiss a boy on the mouth
your lips will stick together
and he'll use the opportunity
to suck out your brains.
If you ever lie to me
God will know
and rat you out.
And sometimes
God exaggerates.
Trust me —
you don't want that
to happen.

"Lies My Mother Told Me" by Elizabeth Thomas from From the Front of the Classroom. © Antrim House, 2008. Reprinted without permission.

The line about "God exaggerates..." had me laughing out loud on my drive in today.

Second quote, and much more somber:

Meditation on Ruin

by Jay Hopler

It's not the lost lover that brings us to ruin, or the barroom brawl,
or the con game gone bad, or the beating
Taken in the alleyway. But the lost car keys,
The broken shoelace,
The overcharge at the gas pump
Which we broach without comment — these are the things that
eat away at life, these constant vibrations
In the web of the unremarkable.

The death of a father — the death of the mother —
The sudden loss shocks the living flesh alive! But the broken
pair of glasses,
The tear in the trousers,
These begin an ache behind the eyes.
And it's this ache to which we will ourselves
Oblivious. We are oblivious. Then, one morning—there's a
crack in the water glass —we wake to find ourselves undone.

"Meditation on Ruin" by Jay Hopler from Green Squall. © Yale University Press, 2006. Reprinted without permission.

That one really stopped me in my tracks. I don't need to bring myself down explaining why that one really strikes home, but both poems make me want to go see what else these writers have that strikes such a chord with me.

Thanks again Garrison, you arrogant jerk. ;')

Flicks!!!

2009-03-25T23:17:00.004-04:00

I could use a tube right now.
Funny thing though, I don't remember the tubes looking quite like that when I used to have them as a kid in SF. For some reason I seem to recall less small type, and more "Flicks" written all over the wrapper.

Anyways, I just got home from work about 25 minutes ago, and I'm now sitting down to this blog entry well sated. I was a bit hungry before I even walked in the door. A quick review of the pantry found a nice can of Kirkland chunk chicken in a can, which was whipped up into a very nice chicken salad with pickles and jalapeños in no time. I spread that on a bit of bread with a slice of sharp cheddar, and grilled it up in my nice big cast iron pan that had preheated while I was mixing up the other stuff. Dessert was a small palm full of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolated chips, but as I sat there looking at the bag I imagined, or should I say fantasized about having a nice big ol' tube of those Flicks that my sister and I loved as children. She always made her's last longer, but that always seemed to be the case in those days. Whether it was an ice cream cone from 31 flavors, of which she almost always got bubble gum flavor so she could chew the gum long after the cone was gone, to a bag of fries from McDonalds, she always had much more patience than I.

I still power through a treat these days, and I imagine that's part of the reason I'm a fatty and she's still skinny.

Yeah, so along that same impulsive thread, I'm jumping on the Bento wagon. I've convinced myself, most assuredly falsely, that my sons will eat everything they should if we could simply make it fun looking in a colorful lunchbox with a Japanese flair. I've even ordered special Bento boxes for each boy, as well as one for myself, so that I can finally break out some of the Japanese cookbooks I've got in the library and try some dishes like Onigiri, even if I'm the only one who'll eat 'em, which I find actually likely. As a warmup though, I picked up some ingredients for a staple dish from Hawaii that I haven't had in years, Spam and egg Musubi. For more details about that simply hit the old youtube and search for Spam Musubi. So I picked up a couple cans of Spam the other day, and somehow the boys found the cans in the pantry and demanded some from Mel. She gave me quite a fright when she called me to tell me she was cooking. I almost called 911. Then she said the boys were fighting over the can of Spam and demanding it be served to them at once. My joy at their enthusiasm for a food they had never tried before overrode my terror that my wife would burn down our family's home.

Have I ever mentioned that I do the cooking in our house?

Yeah, so following a brief tutorial about the finer points of sautéing a nice piece of Spam, I think she must have done a fine job, because I found no leftovers when I got home, and was informed that the boys ate the whole tin in minutes. Woo-Hoo, maybe I'll be able to get 'em to try Musubi this weekend!

WooHoo! (again)

2009-03-22T12:11:00.004-04:00

The Anise Plant

So I got a treasured recipe yesterday. It's an old family favorite, passed down generations and a genuine crowd pleaser. I have made this recipe many times, but I didn't have my own copy of it until now.

As a young man, when I was often broke come holiday seasons, I made goody baskets full of cookies for friends and family. These weren't filled with run-of-the-mill Toll House™ cookies, which I do love, but rather with rare treats the likes of which most don't get to partake.

I think my favorite to make, and the ones I most wanted to keep for myself were the biscotti. These traditional Italian cookies, baked till they were crispy, were great on their own and hard like a crouton. They rewarded the teeth with a good bite, yet once on the tongue they released the sweet blended flavors of butter, anise and nuts. If you didn't want to give your jaw a workout for this kind of experience then you had better have a proper freshly brewed coffee ready in waiting to baptize your little biscuits.

This recipe was typed on an old piece of paper, with handwritten notes along the margins and many stains. The paper had multiple creases and wrinkles from being stored in different locations and in between the pages of various books.

So now, without further ado, I DON'T give you the recipe.

Sorry, like my Alfredo sauce, this one doesn't get to go public. It's for family only, and if you aren't in my tree you don't get the recipe.

Don't let that get you down, though, as I am known to make these cookies in larger quantities, and they travel and store extremely well, so friends and acquaitances are highly likely to partake in the family treasure.

Family members who might wish to receive a watermarked and numbered recipe, complete with DRM that makes Apple's iTunes products look wimpy, contact me and be prepared to give hair and oral swab samples for DNA verification. Of course a non-disclosure agreement will be required and strictly enforced.

As for the Alfredo recipe, no one, save for one of my two sons (whichever one proves more worthy) will inherit that.

I gotta say I'm a bit concerned if...

2009-03-17T19:43:00.003-04:00

This is what we have to look forward to with a national socialized health plan.

On that health related note, I have been really lax in my brewing as of late, and with Wally starting T-ball and the cold weather we had for the past couple months, I just haven't really be that into making any beer. Hopefully with Spring on the way I'll start back up and get some more beer made soon, because I only have about a 12'er left of my Bratwurst Brown Ale, and that's it. Well, that's it except for the California Common 12'er I made for my brother quite a while back, and I really need to shop that out to him. It was a good beer.

Next on my alcohol related wishlist at the moment is an after dinner drink. I'm on a mission to find Fernet-Branca in North Carolina. I imagine I'm going to be calling a few different ABC stores to find that one. It's a "Digestif", which is supposed to aid in soothing the stomach and aid in digestion. I'm really missing the ability one has in CA to simply pop into any local supermarket and buy a bottle of liquor. I find it ridiculous that the only place you can buy a bottle of alcohol in NC is from a state run liquor store, and at severly limited hours, yet you can go to a bar that simply posts "private club" on the door and drink all night long. Back in CA I'd be able to drop in at any one of hundreds of BevMo stores and have my choice of thousands of different products. Here in NC, if it ain't from a state approved distiller or ditributor you ain't getting it. No wonder this the land of NASCAR, born from the moonshiners driving hopped up cars around dirty back roads eluding the revenuers. The only people who have the free time to drive out of their way, and during the middle of the day, to a liquor store 'round these parts are the unemployed drunks. That's probably why there's always a few scooters out in front of the ABCs, as they don't require a license to drive in NC, so after a couple DUIs they can still get around town.

It's easier to get heroin in this state than it is to get a lesser know vodka.
(ETA- I've been advised by my attorney that I should add that I do not use/condone/purchase or in any other way partake in heroin, or any other illegal drugs for that matter. I'm perfectly happy with a couple beers, a nice glass of wine or a couple fingers of a fine liquor! The point is that in my own little community, here in SE NC, one doesn't have to look far back in the local newspaper's archive to find multiple heroin busts, even UNCW's campus, and it's obvious that the efforts of many to attempt to hide behind false morals and values while profiting on the closed marketing of alcohol is a joke, and that the time and effort spent on enforcing these pretend teetotaling virtues is wasting resources that could be better used to fight actual crime. )

I'll be here all week! [is this thing on?]

2009-03-12T20:08:00.002-04:00

I've been having an evening of one liners.

"I loved the 80s even in the 70s..."

"You know it's good fish when it makes paper plates see-through..."

I'll have to fill in the blanks later, but for now ponder the greatness in my observances.

A belated Happy Birthday Ethan Matthew!

2009-03-04T00:29:00.003-05:00

Some time ago, in October of 2007 I had the pleasure of writing a bit to welcome your big sister into the world . Back then I had some words of advice to give her, and I think that they'll be a good starting point for you. I did not write this kind of thing down for my own boys, but frequently it takes someone with more clout than ol' dad to get you kids to listen sometimes, and hopefully they'll pay attention if they feel their dad held out on them with some useful life lessons...

"Happy Birthday and welcome to the world.

You're going to be well cared for, and much loved.

Your family includes more than just your Mom and Dad. You're lucky enough to
be born with a bunch of people, like your grandparents, aunts and
uncles, and many cousins who are really looking forward to meeting you.
The great thing about this family is that they will love you before
they've even met you. In the future this will serve you well, as
there'll be days you want to talk to someone who loves you when you're
feeling low.

Your parents are very special people, but you might
need to show them a little patience. I guarantee that they will always
do what they believe is the right thing for you, even if you don't
understand or believe that at times. They have alot to learn, just like
you, so try not to be too hard on them. The nice thing for them is just
like the great thing you've got, family. If they ever need anything to
help bring you along through life they can count on their family, just
like you can, to lend a hand. Don't hesitate to ask if you need help,
and hopefully your parents will do the same.

Just a couple more pieces of advice:
1)Don't smoke, it sucks trying to quit and it really doesn't make you look
cool, rather it makes you look irresponsible and ignorant.
2)Don't get any tattoos. They don't just wash off. You will regret it
eventually. Piercings generally close up after a while and aren't a big
deal, but ink just sits there.
3)It's way easier to get away with things if you don't look guilty. Dress and act like a punk and you will be treated as one.

That's about it for now.

I'll have more later, just as I do for my own kids. They'll probably ignore
it all, but I'll still be able to say "I told you so!"

We can't wait to meet you!"

That advice works for you as well, and I feel a bit like elaborating some more with some advice that I feel will help you directly...

Be nice to your big sister and you'll be rewarded later in life with a good friend, as well as someone who's going to bring home cute friends from time to time.

If you follow the bit about not looking like a punk above you might not think you're going to be a big hit with the ladies, but remember girls that only fall for bad boys tend to be, or at least eventually turn into, bad girls.

Learn to make things. It's much easier to take things apart all the time, but it's the creating of a thing, not the destruction, that is truly rewarding. Sure, you're going to need to tear some of your dad's stuff apart from time to time just to learn how it went together in the first place, but don't just break something without learning what went into the thing. It's also much easier to deal with someone asking, "Who made this table?", instead of, "Who made this mess?". See the difference?

Sing when you feel like it, or at least keep a song in your head and dance to your own internal jukebox. Doing a job that you don't care for goes much easier when you've got a decent soundtrack.

Read. Read whatever you like, but read. You'll learn to command your words much better than your friends very quickly, and you may find solace in the stories of others when you're feeling low.

And now for one of the biggies, but I believe misunderstood ones:
Follow your heart. Yeah, that's a regular piece of glurge, and I'll need a few dozen lines to really get to the meat of that one. Your parents are going to be doing all they can to make you do things that may seem like they're no fun. They're going to insist you brush your teeth and bathe regularly. They're going to tell you to sit up straight, don't pick your nose, say "please" and "thank you", don't talk back to adults, do your homework, don't skip school, and many other things that don't seem like much fun. This is where you might think that "Follow you heart" means to have fun and do what you want, not what your parents say. I'm telling you now, you parents are going to want the very best for you, and in my opinion parents sometimes make you believe that they only want you to be rich and successful when you grow up. I am learning that what I really want for my own sons is for them to be happy in life and with themselves.

Don't confuse having fun with being happy. While these descriptions aren't mutually exclusive, they often don't go hand in hand.

Looking back on the times in my life that were truly happy, they were fun times, but there were plenty of times I was having fun and yet I wasn't happy. The happy times are when you're spending time with people that really care about you, and you about them, and you share an experience that you can honestly say you'd like to be able to repeat with everyone in your life that means something to you. Times I can reflfect back on that really stand out in my own younger years, times that I can only hope to replicate with my own sons, weren't times I had with high school buddies, they were time spent with my family.

Your dad, your aunt and I can probably all recall some of the greatest times we used to have were conoeing down the Russian River from Alexander Valley to Camp Rose in Healdsburg, CA. We caught bait and fished along the way, ate snacks and listened to stories your grandpa made up along the way about the history of the wrecked cars that were dotted along the shoreline in a few places along the riverbanks (apparently this wasn't considered an environmental concern back then, rather a way to prevent a washout during the stormy times of the year). Other happy times were learning to sail a boat with Uncle Bruce on Lake Shasta, and having him turn me loose solo in the boat he made with his own hands to venture out on the lake's waters. There was waterskiing on the Sacramento Delta with the family. Times like this were fun, but more importantly they were happy. They made memories for me that I only hope I can make for Wally and Wil. Make sure your parents take you boating, it seems to be a recurring theme in my happiness. Fishing while you're there definitely adds to the happiness. It's fun to catch fish, but you can be happy fishing without catching a thing. Make sure your dad takes you fishing.

Sometimes parents say things about having to go to college, and becoming a doctor, that make it seem like all they want you to do in life is make money, but what they really want is for you to not have to suffer through life, and being successful financially usually means that you can have fun, but I say that if you're not happy doing something, even though you make plenty, then you're not following your heart. I don't mean that you should give up school and party your life away, because that's just having fun and not being happy. No, what you need to do is stay in school and give yourself a shot at finding something that you can work hard at, yet not feel like you're wasting your talents. If that's being a contractor or a plumber, do it, you'll be fixing and creating things. If that's art or music, pursue that too. Just because something doesn't make the most money doesn't mean it won't make you happy. It's when you find a thing that allows you to create, add to other people's lives, and be able to make a living doing it that you will have found happiness. The friends that will push you to do things that are only temporary fun very often have no actual concern for your happiness, only their own. Follow your heart and do the things in life that lead to feeling good about yourself and that you want to share.

Me? Yeah, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. Your grandma seems to think that happiness only comes with a Masters Degree, or at least a BA, but I just don't know yet. You've got plenty of time to figure it out, so don't rush life's lessons.

I guess it's the stories that pull at my heartstrings...

2009-03-01T00:07:00.003-05:00

That induce the need to write these days.

Paul Harvey died today.

Those that know me, and I mean know me well, know that I have been in love with radio all my life. Yeah, I'm a Ham radio guy since '05, but I mean a commercial radio fan since I can remember. I've been listening to radio since I was a little boy in Sacto, on old clock radios and portables, and even crystal. A short time after I moved to Wilmington I was lucky enough to fulfill a lifelong dream and was a member of the WAAV 980 AM broadcast team. I worked weekends on an AM radio station, and though it wasn't playing music, it was on the air live just the same. Had it not been for the need to put food in the mouth of my first child, I'd surely still be there on the weekends, 6 AM till noon, working the board for various shows and hosting the local swap shop show. I would have done it for free, but in reality they paid me not much more anyways. I'd go back to if it I possibly could. I love the radio.

I've taken radios around the world with me, into the UAE during Desert Storm, and Japan on later deployments.

I sleep to a radio. I mean I have to have something, be it talk or music, playing over the small tinny speaker of a portable or clock radio in order to make me feel at ease enough to sleep restfully.

My blog here speaks to the recent affinity for NPR, with the references for Writer's Almanac. Back when I lived in a better reception area I'd go to sleep to Art Bell. Back in Lompoc it was KNX 1070 AM out of LA and the old time radio hour. I've got hours of downloaded 30's and 40's radio shows, with "Tales of the Texas Rangers" still being about my all time favorite.

So now one of the most instantly recognizable voices on the air is dead, and I'm in mourning.

I don't need to end this with a quote from Mr. Harvey, as I find that trite and disrespectful at this point, but I will say that another era in broadcast radio is over.

I really know better...

2009-02-19T12:00:00.003-05:00

But I'm falling hard for the new Fiat.

I've had my share of experiences with a few European vehicles, namely a couple old Volvos, an MGA, a Jensen Healey and my Ducati.

The Volvos were both real workhorses, although the 164 had a habit of eating up transmissions after having the engine massaged a bit. The old P1800 just seemed to be pretty bulletproof, but it had a habit of drinking oil, and drooling most of it back out on the garage floor.

The Jensen was a blast to drive, and the Lotus sourced engine was pleasing to the ear and the eye. Alas, it was torture on the wallet, and nary a week went by that it'd didn't shed some costly part, or leave me stranded somewhere.

The MGA was gutless, but gorgeous. It was tractor like, with the non-synchro first gear that was ridiculously useless in all but the steepest grades. Second was all you needed to get that car rolling. It was with the MG, though, that one starts to get to the real heart of driving matters. It's when you're in the seat of an open-air, small, nimble vehicle that you really begin to feel like you're actually driving, and not simply directing, your vehicle around. I've driven Miatas, and there's a reason they sell so well, even without a back seat, or a trunk that fits no more than a small duffel and a sixxer.

My current vehicle's a Buick Century. It's on par with a Taurus, just with less character. It's not a vehicle I drive for excitement, but hey, it's got 4 doors, 4 seats, room for the kids, and still manages to get over 25 mpg around town and over 32 on the highway. Still, I don't feel connected to the car or the road when I'm piloting the Buick. Yeah, it goes right when I turn right, but I still find myself looking closely at the curb when I turn right at a street corner. Even though I've been driving this car for a couple years now, I still have to concentrate on its dimensions, and I don't have that instinctive feel of where each wheel is planted on the road.

Driving something like a Miata, or the JH or MGA, you quickly find you know exactly where the tires are tracking, and don't have to think about how close you're clipping the line on the bike lane, or how far over the stripe you are on those few well-banked onramps that make you feel like pushing the tires a bit.

Anyways, I have no way of affording a new car for quite some time, but it's still nice to dream, and for now it's fun to think that I could get something like that Fiat pictured above, or if I get reall lucky, the Alfa Romeo MiTo.

Either one of those Italian vehicles is going to be fun to drive, with decent fuel economy, space for the boys in back on those few days I need to take 'em somewhere, have unique styling, and bring some enjoyment to my boring current commute. We'll still have the minivan to do the long hauls and regular kid duties with, but a new Miata just won't have the required back seat that having a family necessitates.

(Pics borrowed from Jalopnik and Autoblog)

"Look," they said, "it's up to you. How many years do you want to live?"

2009-02-06T10:19:00.004-05:00

...and Uncle Jim held up one finger. The middle one.

(Quoted from this morning's Writer's Almanac on NPR. Originally in a poem from: "Uncle Jim" by Peter Meinke, from Liquid Paper: New and Selected Poems. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991.)

Being perpetually late for work is at least increasing my knowledge of literature!

I made a big ol' pot of pork chili last night. I had more of the Country Style Ribs that I had bought on sale sittin' in the fridge that needed to be used.

Ingredients:
1.75-2 lbs pork stew meat, or whatever pork you want, cut in to 1" or smaller chunks
2 medium onions
2 28 oz cans of tomatoes, I used petite diced with green chiles
2 cans kidney beans, dark or light, you decide, don't drain first
3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
1.25 tablespoons ground cumin, I used a bit more, but I like the stuff alot
2 heaping tablespoons of your favorite chili powder
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons masa harina, polenta, or perhaps a few corn tortilla chips
1-2 teaspoons salt, your call as to salinity

Directions:
Brown the cubed pork in a sufficiently large pot. Pork usually has enough fat that you really don't need much, if any, oil to start browning, and you may find you need to drain some of the fat off after browning the meat. I trimmed the fat pretty well on my batch so I didn't need to drain and had just enough drippings to nicely coat and brown the onion after browning all the meat. Once meat and onions are nicely browned you can add everything else, but I like to add the dry spices first and let them coat the meat a bit first, then add the wet stuff. Let this get up to a slow boil, and then drop the heat to a low simmer. Let simmer for at least 2 hours. The pork should be at the very least fork tender. Serve immediately, but as with about any tomato dish, it's better the next day!

Notes:
I really enjoy the corn flavor in a good chili, and the masa harina adds the right note, without adding yellow kernels of corn that I don't find appealing. If you use salted tortilla chips to get this corniness, be conscious of the salt you're adding, and adjust the seasoning accordingly.

Enjoy!

One of those school girlish giggling moments...

2009-02-03T09:24:00.002-05:00

Paul's Boutique has just been remastered and re-released on the 20th anniversary!

Don't tell Mel, but I'm going to be dropping $11.99 on this tonight. I've still got a cassette tape, but I never had the CD, and now I'll be able to load it on the iPod!

OK, back to the task at hand...

2009-01-29T21:00:00.002-05:00

Cooking!

I just sat down to dinner, and I was in the mood for some "Stick to your ribs" down-home style grub.

I found a nice 1.5 lb pack of country style ribs on sale at the market, and I couldn't pass 'em up, as good pork is plentiful out here in the Carolinas, and a deal's a deal.

I had no idea what to do with 'em, though.

I started digging through the pantry and put this together:

Ingredients
1.5 lbs pork, cubed into stew sized pieces
1 half a large onion, diced
1 pack Shake & Bake for pork
1 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 small can diced green chiles
2 tbsp veggie oil
1 pint of water

Directions
If the pork's not already cubed, cut it up into 1-2 inch chunks. Coat well in Shake & Bake and brown on all side in a Dutch Oven or oven-safe pot, with the veggie oil. Preheat oven to 375ºF while you're browning the pork. As you brown the pork remove it to a plate, a little at a time so you don't crowd the pot. When all the pork has been nicely browned toss the diced onion in the pot to sauté a bit in the oil. Once the onion has turned transparent, toss in the rice, can of chiles with the liquid, the can of soup and the water. Stir this well until all is mixed up and then return the browned pork to the pot. Cover the pot and place in the heated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Scoop in to a nice wide shallow bowl and enjoy!

My case just keeps getting affirmation.

2009-01-27T21:37:00.003-05:00

Football (American) is about the stupidest sport in which one could participate.

Permanent brain damage as a result of repeated collisions. Similar to the effects of Alzheimer's disease. The facts speak for themselves.

I'm not kidding, my sons are absolutely forbidden from playing football. Not even flag football.

Had a wonderful show in the backyard this morning...

2009-01-18T23:08:00.003-05:00

We had a ball watching this otter throughout the day. He's (or she, I haven't checked) quite a pig, and really eating a bunch of fish.

Long overdue update...

2009-01-14T12:40:00.002-05:00

My folks have been in town visiting from CA. We've been having a good time, and eating plenty of excellent meals.

I received a most unexpected, and genuinely incredible, gift from my father in law. He got me a Weber Performer charcoal grill. I won't go into too many details, but it's about the top of the line in charcoal kettles, and I'll be saying thanks every time I see him for months to come.

Funny thing about my parents being here is that my own father is responsible for giving me such an appreciation for how versatile a good grill can be, and why I will always prefer to cook on charcoal instead of propane. Anyways, Dad has prepared 3 meals in the last 5 day on my new Weber, and I've never cooked on it before myself! Anyone else I would have asked to wait for me to fire up the coals, but when Dad asked if he could use the new BBQ I couldn't think of anyone else I'd rather have break it in.

Saturday night's main course was baby back ribs. The sauce was the classic, and to my own tastes never bested, Weber Tangy BBQ recipe. For ribs or chicken it just can't be beat, and has never failed to be a crowd pleaser. Those baby backs were great.

Sunday night we had a turkey breast, on the bone. My oldest son Wally made the request for the bird, and he had quite a feast. There were plenty of leftovers that he's been snacking on since, and I vacuum packed some to save in the freezer for when he says he want more.

Monday night's grilling saw flank steak, marinated in a sauce that came from a vintage Weber book that I received with the grill as well. It was Korean, with toasted sesame seeds and soy sauce, among other tasty ingredients. Served with a salad featuring Gorgonzola and walnuts on mixed greens, and a loaf of my homemade bread, no one left the table hungry.

As for my own contributions, I bought the wine.

For the ribs I broke out a bottle of Penfold's Shiraz Cabernet. I got this at Costco for $8.99 a bottle, and it's a steal. Wine Spectator rated this at 91 point, and we could tell why. I'm a Shiraz fan these days, and I really enjoy the fruitiness, but the addition of a 30% blend of Cabernet gave this vino just the bold punch that was needed to cut through the sweet vinegar twang in the BBQ sauce. I really need to get more of this wine if I get the tax refund before they sell out.

To go with the flank steak on Monday evening, I got a bottle of Capistrani Montepulciano. This red was great and at $10.99 per bottle, it's still a good deal. I'll be stocking the cellar with a few more bottles of this as well, particularly since it tastes like it's just going to get better and better with a couple years on it.

I still haven't bottled up my Cream Ale, and I sure hope that I don't have any issues with autolysis. I can only imagine the few extra weeks sitting on the yeast cake are going to give this brew an very good clarity and hopefully a bit of depth.

The other fermentations on the bench are the ongoing clarifying of my show mead, which has now been racked to its fourth vessel, and is finally attaining a crystal clarity. This is ready to bottle, and then to sit. It'll be a few years before this honey wine reaches its full potential, but based on the last sampling it should shine. I've got a unadulturated cider finishing up in a Better Bottle, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. The last batch of sparkling cider is down to the last sixxer of 22 oz bottles, and I'd call it a successful batch, but it's pretty potent at over 9%ABV, and not really an everyday refresher. It sneaks up on ya, and you need to really practice moderation when drinking that one.

If there's one thing I think I might regret on this visit from my parents, it's that we really didn't have time to put together the Barolo wine kit from Vino Del Vida. While it doesn't take an extraordinary amount of time to mix up, sanitation is paramount when fermenting anything, and it does require some patient cleaning and preparation to ensure not having any infection problems that would mean pouring $70+ of ingredients down the drain. I guess I'll just have to send a bottle of two out to my ol' man when it's ready...

Doin' a little experimentation today...

2009-01-03T10:45:00.006-05:00

That pot on the left is the Lodge brand six quart Dutch Oven I normally make No Knead Bread in, while the one on the right is a classic ~~Le Creuset French~~ Copco Danish D2 Oven. That orange one is porcelain over cast iron. It works in much the same way as the Dutch Oven on the left, but it's pretentiously smaller, and has an arrogant attitude.

Anyways, the goal today is to get a loaf of a different proportion, with a larger cross section. I'm hoping for a better sandwich loaf. The dough is a bit wetter today as well. I am thinking, perhaps mistakenly, that a wetter dough will get a bit higher of a rise as it heats and bakes. This may not be the way it works on a wide flat surface, as the dough spreads and produces a wide flat loaf. My thinking is that in the smaller vessel, the loose dough will be forced up as the air bubbles inside expand, and the sides of the pot restrain the outward growth, and restrict the rise to a vertical action.

Yeah, we'll see.

Edit:

What a wild looking loaf! It's cooling as I type, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it came out inside. I used a lower temp, 475ºF, for this bake, and I'm hoping it also lead to a slightly less developed crust that's more friendly to a PB&J...

Happy 2009!!!

2009-01-02T12:39:00.004-05:00

I don't have many new things to offer today, except that I thought I might recap some things that I did over the last couple weeks that I think should be publicized...

As my friends and family know, my oldest son, Wally, has had speech problems and while we have been getting him treated we found out that he had a sensitivity to cow's milk dairy products and a wheat allergy. Now neither of these allergies are that uncommon in this day and age, but what's alarming is how common this is in certain groups of children with similar delays and conditions. Wally has been diagnosed with Apraxia, and for a while there were concerns that he was actually Autistic. He also slept very little, and I mean like 4 hours out of every 36. It was horrible, and Melanie and I were in an exhausted state for months because it was all we could do to keep an eye on the little guy. Fortunately, we finally got Wally in to see a neurologist who was able to get Wally screened for a number of things, including toxins and heavy metals in his body, and allergies. The neurologist was able to help us get Wally on a regular sleep schedule using Melatonin. This supplement was a Godsend in itself, because Wally was now able to go to sleep at a decent hour, around 9 PM, and sleep through the night. This meant Mel and I could start getting some rest as well. Of course Wil sometimes has his nights now and makes for a sleepless night for Mel and I, but that's not too frequent like it was with Wally who never slept.

The other thing the neurologist found out was Wally's allergies to dairy and wheat. What this news brought was a whole new set of challenges that we had to face. Wally had his favorite foods, and dairy was at the top of the list. He loves cheese. Milk was next, and together this boy would happily make a meal of a few slabs of cheese and a sippy cup of chocolate milk and that's all he'd care to have. How were we supposed to deal with this, and how does one explain to a 3 year old that his favorite foods were now off limits? Melanie dealt with it first by simply telling him that he could no longer have cheese. Next she told him milk was out too. Surprisingly, he said ok. He just stopped consuming milk and cheese, but we knew he needed some of the nutrients that those foods supply. First thing we substituted was soy milk. Chocolate was a temporary success, but Wally stopped drinking it after less than a week. Now, months later he still doesn't care for it, and simply drinks fruit juice or water. I still use soy or rice milk for cooking, and we're using Smart Balance instead of butter, and all of the family is doing this. After the milk, the next challenge was cheese. Wally couldn't have cow's mil cheese, but goat or sheep's milk was fine. I was aghast at the cost of goat/sheep milk cheese! The local Harris Teeter has both kinds of cheeses, but the goat milk one that Wally has really taken a liking to is Rosey Goat, and it's over $24 per lb. at Harris Teeter! Thankfully we've since found it at Costco for only $14 per lb. Finally we just tried the Manchego sheep's milk cheese from the same distributor, also available from Costco at ~$9 per lb., and it's fantastic. Goat's milk and cheese can take a bit of getting used to (I now am a fan myself), but the Manchego is one that I think anyone would enjoy and I highly recommend it if you're finding yourself in the situation of needing to get away from cow's milk products. Costco also has Kirkland brand chocolate soy milk in individual single serving sized boxes that our youngest son, and myself as well, love. They're easily half the cost of the similar products from the health food stores. They pack in a lunchbox fine and don't need to be refrigerated.

As for Wally's wheat allergy, there's a ton of gluten free products on the market these days, and I was only half surprised to find De Boles gluten free pasta in Wal Mart. Wally can have corn chips or corn tortillas, and there's also corn-like Quinoa products out there too, but I'm not a big fan of these just yet. What we have found that is a tremendous success with both kids is Pamela's Products Pancake and Baking mix. One of my personal favorite foods is pancakes. It's understandably a favorite of both kids as well. Wally had to have pancakes, and I swear, the wheat/gluten-free ones I make with Pamela's mix are every bit as good as any wheat flour one's I've made from a mix. I'll gladly eat the GF ones now anytime.

This last week I found our pantry had 3 nice big bananas that were turning brown and just perfect for bread, and the first place I turned to was Pamela's for a recipe. Pamela, whoever she is, didn't upset. They had a recipe that called for the powdered pancake and baking mix that I used, but I made cupcakes with the batter and reduced the baking time to 25 minutes to account for that. Holy moly, they're great! In order to satisfy the boys' sweettooths I decided to frost the cupcakes, and I again turned to Pamela's for her Confetti Vanilla Frosting, and it's fantastic too. The kids couldn't get enough.

While we're still trying to find a decent GF bread recipe that will allow some close approximation to basic white bread for PB&J, we're pretty happy with how things are working out so far.

If you find you're told to remove glutens and dairy from your child's diet, don't despair! There's plenty of alternatives to be had these days, and we're building up a small library of cookbooks and magazine recipes that we're yet to try, but I'll post here when we have successes.

Quick update...

2008-12-28T23:45:00.001-05:00

With a short video of the boys and their new Jeep:

Picked up a peck last night...

2008-12-18T13:49:00.005-05:00

Of oysters. It's December, and the saying round these parts goes, "Only buy oysters in months ending with an R".

I didn't count 'em, and since I don't have a well defined dimensional space for measuring cubic inches, I don't know if I got the actual 1/4 bushel that makes up a peck, but I actually think I got more than that. I must have shucked at least 4 dozen oysters last night, and we battered and fried about half of those. Melanie likes 'em fried or steamed. I eat mine on the half shell with a dash or two of hot sauce. Needless to say I shucked all hers first and fried those up, and then got to go to town on mine. I was drinking a nice glass of Italian Pinot Grigio, and had the last of my olive bread that I made Sunday as well. The Tobasco Habanero sauce was incredible on the oysters, and every nick and cut I have on my hands this morning was more than worth the effort!

I still have around 1.5-2 dozen left in the fridge that I'll eat tonight.

I'll add a picture later, once I get it off the Canon.

Goin' rustic French vegan tonight...

2008-12-14T18:41:00.002-05:00

Ratatouille!
Yup, it's eggplant (a personal favorite) and a slew of other veggies like squash and onion, along with some herbs and seasoning, and all stewed up in a nice cast iron pan.

This tastes great already, and it's just supposed to get better overnight; hot or cold!

I took the recipe from Joy of Cooking, and loosely stuck to it, but not exactly. I did use tomatoes from Italy, and I used two different kinds of squash.

I've got another loaf of the olive and herb bread to cook tonight, and I'm thinking a late night bowl of this ratatouille and a slice or two of fresh buttered homemade bread is going to be just the thing to make for some sweet dreams.

OMFG!!!

2008-12-13T22:18:00.002-05:00

I'm not usually one to use hyperbole, but this is the best bread evar! I swear, I have never tasted something so close to the perfect loaf of bread ever. The only thing that would send this completely over the top would be a few nice thin slices of Molinari Salame and maybe a slice of mortadella as well, and a hint of Dijon mustard. I doubt I would be able to contain myself at that point!

As if in answer to a previous post...

2008-12-13T20:01:00.003-05:00

That's our Linux Tux out front. I had to hit the honey-do list today, and high priority was getting up the season's dressings. I think I need to see if I can get a Linux Mint T-shirt for that penguin!

And here's the crib with the icicle lights up, and Santa hangin' in there in the background. The kids sure liked their ol' man getting all this stuff up for them.

And that's an unbaked loaf of my No-Knead bread, but it's a special one, as indicated by those little black flecks spreckling the dough. That's chopped olives. I added about two rounded tablespoons of the chopped black olives, and about two teaspoons of Italian seasonings. The oven and the Dutch Oven are preheating as I type this, so it's going to be at least another hour until I see how this turns out. The dough smells absolutely incredible right now!

Anyone else feel like skipping Christmas this year?

2008-12-12T11:40:00.006-05:00

I know I just don't feel like doing the whole holiday thing. It probably sounds terrible, particularly when you consider that I've got two young sons, and this should be a time when I want to celebrate the season with them, but I'm just not into the thing anymore.

I don't really know when exactly, but somewhere along the way, many years back now, I just lost the will to be "Christmas-y". I guess I'd like to say it has something to do with not getting have a celebration in San Francisco again, at least not with the same 50 year old ornaments and tree placement by the front window in Sea Cliff. No, that kind of lost it's luster some time back too.

Perhaps I lost the spirit following my Navy enlistment? There were some special holiday celebrations overseas, and they were almost made all the more special because I was sharing the same feeling of homesickness that everyone else was feeling, and in drowning our sorrows together, around a table of whatever special meal we could conjure up, and marinate the whole mess in gallons of beer and liquor, we got to share each person's unique family traditions that was being missed. Sailors are great and getting inebriated and telling stories, so I imagine there might have been some exaggeration, but just the same, there were tales told that made you want to go home with some of the others if only to experience their holiday for yourself. I guess that wouldn't necessarily cause one to lose the spirit, would it? Nah, but it did make the "same ol'-same ol'" seem a bit repetitive.

Now I now there's plenty of guys out there who relish the whole idea of getting their home decorated for the season, and they can get a little crazy with their own version of a SETI experiment, with enough lighting that's synchronized to music to challenge Spielberg's vision of a mountain crater UFO landing site. I do have a few strings of lights. We've got various wreaths and bunting for the house. There's even vinyl stickers of icicles to paste on the windows, and a wooden train set for the porch. But I'm really not in the mood to get all this stuff put out on the front of my home for display, and it's not because I'm lazy, but because I feel a bit like it'd be false advertisement. Maybe not in the case of the kids, but I think it's like I'm lying to my neighbors about how jovial I am this year. I'm sure I'm still going to at least put up part of the lights, and erect the tree this weekend. No biggie, I guess, and it is more for the boys than anything else.

Still, I almost feel like finding a new non-traditional tradition to start this year. While I can't do something like unplug all the electricity in the house, shut off all the communications and have an Amish candlelit Christmas Eve (which actually sounds heavenly to me), there's got to be a way to do something spiritual that means something to all I share it with. Maybe not for a whole day or weekend, but just for an hour or two?

I'm open to suggestions.

Sorry, no pics for this post

2008-12-07T21:50:00.002-05:00

But take my word for it, the crock pot chile verde was a winner!

I took around 2.75 lbs of pork stew meat right out of the supermarket butcher section, and a jar of Herdez Salsa Verde, and simply dumped it all in the crock pot. about 6 hours later I had some really good grub. Now, I've had better authentic chile verde, but this was damned good, inexpensive, and too easy.

Now, on to this evening's happenings. I'm bottling up my apple cider made with demerera sugar. This started at ~1.066 specific gravity, and it measured at 1.001 corrected this evening. The Nottingham yeast attenuated a bit more than I would have liked, but the aroma of this cider is outstanding, and very "apple-y".

Since the Better Bottle will now be empty, I'm starting another cider right away. This one's even more traditional, as I'm using the juice only. No additional anything, except the yeast. It's Mott's 100% natural apple juice from concentrate, no added sugar, but it does have a bit of ascorbic acid. The acid has no effect on the fermentation. Original gravity for the juice is ~1.060. Depending on what a poll on HomeBrewTalk.com says, I'm either pitching Coopers Brewery ale yeast, or Safale S-04 ale yeast. Both should leave a bit more residual sugar behind than the Nottingham. We'll see. It should also be ready a bit earlier.

Well, that's another Sunday in the books.

Mmmm, Pancakes!

2008-12-06T08:48:00.002-05:00

I love pancakes!

So does Wally.

He and I have the place to ourselves this weekend, and when we woke up for the final time this morning, around 7:15 AM, the first thing I did was get the little guy a juicebox, and then I started making pancakes. Now those of you who don't know, Wally's on a dairy-free and gluten-free diet. I made the pancakes using Pamela's Pancake and Baking Mix that I get at the local health food store, Lovey's. Both the mix and the store are highly recommended. I'm by no means a health food fan, so for me to praise either is a strong endorsement. I've also made Pamela's chocolate chip cookies from a mix and, for gluten free, they're excellent.

I got a super simple recipe for the crock pot the other day that I am just going to have to try. I was on the brew forum and reading a thread about Carné Asada, and after a few marinade recipe got posted I asked about a good Chile Verde recipe. Someone posted what must be about the simplest way, and it's nearly as easy as my brisket. In a crock pot, place pork shoulder or butt, cut into chunks, toss in a couple cans of Herdez Salsa Verde, cover and slow cook until tender. Looking at the various recipes I've been researching, most of the proper ingredients are already in the Herdez Salsa. Serendipity!

My brisket is easier only in that I don't cut it into chunks. I simply put a suitable sized, trimmed, brisket in the crock pot with a couple cups of Bullseye BBQ sauce and let it go overnight. If I really need an outdoor cooked flavor I add a cap full of liquid smoke.

So it looks like I might have to make some Chile Verde and homemade tortillas this weekend.

I love livin' in NC!

2008-12-05T09:29:00.001-05:00

Fun Video

2008-12-03T12:39:00.001-05:00

It's not the maker of the video I love here, and it's not even the driver, even though both are pretty highly regarded in their fields.

Nope, it's the Lotus. Man, I love Lotus cars...

There's a reason they still sell the "simple" stuff...

2008-12-02T13:00:00.005-05:00

It's good.

I'm picking at my lunch today and really enjoying it. I pulled the leftover Chicken Cacciatore out of the freezer that I had made last week. I really didn't feel like having rice with it again, so I opted for the rustic polenta. I got out a cup of Goya brand Mexican yellow corn meal and a couple tablespoons of Smart Balance. I added 3 cups of water and brought it to a boil, then lowered the temp to a simmer. I stirred this just until the water was absorbed an the consistency felt right, then I removed it from the heat and placed the cooked polenta in a shallow cookie sheet and presses it out to about .5-.75 inches thick. I placed it in the fridge to cool and really set a little firm, and then I later sliced it into roughly 2x3 inch rectangles that I fried in a bit of extra virgin olive oil. This is an old school, cheap, and easy to make food that is just awesome as a side dish, or even as a main course with a simple sauce. Heck, some leftover polenta with just a drizzle of nice olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper makes a great snack with a glass of wine or even a beer. Don't bother with that stuff in the plastic sausage wrapper unless you really can't even boil water without setting off the smoke alarm. It's just too cheap and easy to make it youself. As I've said before, don't let anyone tell you that it's a long process that you need to watch like a hawk, and labor over with a spoon. somewhere along the line polenta got confused with Risotto and it's been scaring novice cooks ever since.

Now if only I could get a batch of mayo to come out right...

I had to make this again...

2008-11-30T09:52:00.002-05:00

The first one came out so good I had to make this bread again. I let Wally help make the dough. We used the same King Arthur all purpose flour, Hodgson Mill Active Dry Yeast, Morton's Pickling Salt (no iodine, fine crystals) and tap water.

The dough after rising overnight

The loaf fresh from the oven

I got a very nice camelization again, and the bread was actually making little crackling noises as it cooled. One of these days I need to get a better cooling rack setup!

I got the seam right this time too.

This bread really is a no-brainer, you just need to follow the instructions. Don't remove the dough from the first rise until it's got bubbles in it, similar to the ones in my first picture. Use a heavy iron pot and lid. Thin-walled stainless just isn't going to keep the heat and steam locked in there, which appears to be the real trick to getting such an incredible crust.

I have to say that this last loaf was finished much quicker. I did the lid on bake for 30 minutes, but after only 14 minutes with the lid off the loaf was starting to get brown enough that I didn't want to risk burning it at all.

Oh Yeah, This Bread Rocks!

2008-11-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

Just a flurry of bloggin activity here, huh?

2008-11-28T11:15:00.003-05:00

OK, so I hit the"Black Friday" shopping early today, and was waiting in line at Home Depot at ten to six this morning. They had a deal on a small compressor and a pair of brad nailers for $59 and change. This is to be my moulding and chair rail installation arsenal. I believe the 18 gauge brad nailer will be up to the task...

Following that stop it was over to the mayhem that is Wal Mart on this capitalistic orgy of a shopping day. While people at Home Depot were courteous and helpful, the staff and customers at Wal Mart were simply pretending that no one else in store was there besides themselves. It was actually hilarious to see, and I got a kick out of how asinine greedy shoppers can be. Anyways, I made my way back to the camping and sporting goods section, because that's where the Dutch Oven I was seeking would be found. I needed this for the bread I was making from the NYT recipe below this entry on this blog. I opted for a "camp" style model because I do cook outdoors from time to time, and because they didn't have the all cast iron flat bottom Dutch Oven in stock. There's other cast iron pots to be had, but they have handles and hardware that can't take heat over 400ºF. Only an all iron model will do for this bread which I cooked at 500ºF. The other things that make a Dutch Oven camp style are feet, a lid with a lip, and a wire bail type handle. These all facilitate cooking with coals fireside outdoors. You can place coals underneat the pot for heat, and the lip holds more coals on top, to make an actual oven out of the thing, and the whole thing can be hung over a fire by the wire handle. It's old school for sure, but there's a reason they still make 'em, they work wonderfully.

I think the bread turned out excellent, with maybe just a touch of overbrowning on the crust, but it smell absolutely wonderful. I need to pay better attention to the orientation of the seam next time I make this No Knead Bread. This loaf is cooling off as I write this and I'm still looking forward to a tasty turkey sandwich on it, but it ain't going to have homemade mayo...

I made two attempts at mayo this morning, and the second one almost made it to completion, but it broke with about 3 tablespoons of oil to go, and I cursed the lot of it as I chucked another useless bucnh of ingredients down the drain. This is one of those kinds of recipes that ain't salvageable once it fails. I believe I had two things going against me on this, and the first is probably the real killer, patience. I really rushed the oil addition on the first batch and it broke about halfway through mixing. Both kids are sick at the moment, and I was trying to keep an eye on them while making mayo and it just doesn't work. Second problem was the cheap mini food processor I was using. I really need a decent one eventually, but I don't have room in the kitchen for one at the moment. Fortunately there's still a jar of Hellmans in the fridge for sandwiches later.

It really galls me when I have an utter failure in the kitchen. Partial successes can still be enjoyed, and they leave room for improvement, and also leave me with a desire to try the recipe again soon. Failures that leave nothing but tracks down the drain kind of make one feel it's just better to keep buying that particular thing over the counter rather than make it at home. I'll try making the mayo again, but it's going to be a while and I will do it when I've got the house to myself and plenty of time.

I almost forgot!

2008-11-27T21:49:00.002-05:00

What's the number one thing to do with leftover turkey?
Right, Enchiladas!
Second best?
Sandwiches!

I had planned on making turkey enchiladas for the entree today, but I was overruled by tradition. Then I had visions of the finest enchiladas with the leftovers, but I had another temptation which was just too much to forgo...

I'm making a no-knead rustic bread, and I plan on a homemade mayonnaise, for the greatest leftover turkey sandwich ever.

The recipe for the bread as cut and pasted from the NY Times:
"

November 8, 2006

Recipe: No-Knead Bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

"

And for the video:

It just can't get much easier than that, and I have a batch of that dough rising on top of the fridge right now.

I plan on picking up a Dutch Oven at Wal Mart tomorrow. I've needed one for some time, as my Le Cruset cast iron pot in the inventory at the moment is only a 2 qt model, and I need a larger iron pot.

I've got plenty of eggs and olive oil right now, so I should be good to go for mayo ingredients. I just need to visit Alton Brown's recipes on Food TV for the directions...

I'm already drooling thinking about the sandwiches, with a nice bottle of my Bratwürst Brown Ale and some nice pickles on the side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T20:53:00.006-05:00

So I think it was a success...

We gave thanks for the following:

Mashed potatoes with Silk soy creamer and Smart Balance non-dairy margarine
Green salad with Green Leaf lettuce, oil and vinegar dressing ala Elliot
Roast turkey, brined with recipe from previous blog entry
Green Bean casserole, classic from Nancy
Jello with diced fruit, another classic from Nancy
Sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, yet another Nancy contribution
Homemade turkey gravy, made with Smart Balance, but I did use regular AP flour as Wally doesn't do gravy
Pepperidge Farms stuffing, also made with Smart Balance and fresh onion and celery
Dinner rolls from a local supermarket bakery
The wine was my Peach Apricot Island Mist Chardonnay
Fresh brewed decaf sweet tea, with Sweet 'n Low and lemon
Dairy and gluten free pumpkin pie, from previous blog entry recipe
Fresh ground San Francisco Bay Organic coffee

There were no cranberries or whipped topping for the pie.

It was tasty.

One thing I didn't get quite right on the pie was that I put the pie dish about mid-oven, and I had a rack 2 slots down that I put a tray on to catch any overflow. This deflected direct heat from the bottom of the dish. This prevented the crust on the bottom of the pie from getting crisp. The edge got a nice bite to it, but the crust under the midsection of the pie was mushy. It tasted great just the same and I'd totally do that exact crust recipe again, it's a winner!

The bird came out great and I can't believe I never brined a turkey before. It was seasoned well and I might add a bit more Thyme and Rosemary next time, but they were present and accounted for in the flavor. Moisture content was great and I honestly enjoyed the white meat on the turkey for a first! I did the first 1.5 hours @ 325ºF with a loose foil tent, and then the remaining 1.5 hours at the same temp without the foil. I overshot the measure thigh temp by about 10ºF, at 175ºF, but it was all still moist and I think this was because of the brine treatment. The bird was unstuffed, as I did the stuffing in a casserole seperatley.

Another fun aspect of today's repast was that we dined on our wedding china. This is the first outing for this dinnerware, and I have to say it was fun to do up the whole table in the diningroom. We even busted out the fine crystal stemware, which was way overkill for the wine I made.

I couldn't ask for better company than being at the table with family, and a good time was had by all.

I'm grateful.

And so it begins...

2008-11-26T23:40:00.003-05:00

It's 11:40PM EST and I just put a pie in the oven. A while ago I got an eleven pound turkey emptied of it's assorted "trash" parts and into a brine consisting of 2 gallons of water, 2 cups of salt, 2 cups of sugar, about a Tbls of dry Rosemary, a teas of ground Thyme, about 1/2 teas of celery seed, and finally around 6 whole pepper corns. I have no idea how I came up with the herb blend, I just grabbed stuff and tossed it in. It's probably not enough of any of 'em to actually influence the bird as much as the salty sweet brine. We'll find out tomorrow.

The pie is a bit special. No, not because it's a pumpkin pie, but because of the steps I've taken to make it a dairy-free, gluten-free pie that Wally can eat. Rather than deal with rice and garbanzo flours instead of wheat AP flour, I decided to to a crumb crust. I didn't use grahams though. Instead I used Mi-Del brand gluten/dairy-free Ginger Snaps. I crushed up enough cookies to make about 1.5 cups of crumbs. Then I melted about a 1/3 cup Smart Balance margarine and mixed it into the crumb along with a couple tablespoons of sugar to make sure it was tasty. I pressed the crumbs into a Pyrex pie dish and worked them out to the edges nicely. I then made the pumpkin filling per the direction on the Libby's can, but instead of evaporated milk I used a reduced amount of Silk soy creamer. Like the brine, I'm not really sure how any of this is going to work, but I'm thinking positively here, okay?
That's a shot of the pie before going into the oven. I'll try to get the after shot up tonight, but don't hold your breath.

Nostalgia Food...

2008-11-25T19:48:00.004-05:00

Most people think of meatloaf, or some other diner type fare when you get to the subject of home cookin' and "Stick to your ribs" grub. Granted, many of those older recipe dishes are great when you want a meal that sates you, and that has no pretensions about itself. I'd go so far as to add spaghetti and meatballs as one that fits the category, but tonight's meal for me has fond memories of home. While it's cooking now on the stovetop the aroma is taking me back. I don't even know if I'm making it like Dad did, but it sure smells like I'm on the right track!

Chicken Cacciatore(The picture was taken with the new Sony w350a)

Ingredients:

1 chicken, fryer type, cut up
1 28 oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 15 oz. can whole black olives, drained
1 8 oz. package mushrooms, I used baby bellas, sliced
1 med to large onion, I used a red one today, chopped
1-2 cups flour
1 tablespoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon dry basil
salt to taste
olive oil
ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon minced garlic

Preheat a decent sized saucepan, or a nice pot, and pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Get a large freezer bag, or similar, and toss in flour and herbs, salt and pepper, and then toss in some of the chicken parts. Close the bag and toss it about so the chicken gets well coated. Open the bag and remove the pieces of the bird one at a time, giving each a good shaking to remove excess flour. Toss the dredged pieces in the heated and oiled pot. Brown on each side, and remove to a suitable plate while repeating the process to the rest of the pieces. Let each get a nice brown color, but don't burn the flour that comes off in the pan. Med heat should be more than enough. When all the chicken's done getting browned (don't worry about cooking through), add the chopped onion to the pot. If the pan's too dry add a little more oil. Let the onions start to get translucent and add the mushrooms. Let the shrooms cook down a bit and then toss all the chicken back in. Now add the tomatoes, garlic, olives and then break up the tomatoes some so the juice runs out. Give everything a nice stir, and let it come up to a low boil. Drop the heat down to med-low and let simmer for about an hour. Check the seasoning and add salt if needed. Poke the chicken and see if it's done. It should be almost falling off the bone. Let simmer for a bit longer if needed.

To serve simply spoon it over your favorite Italian carbs, like pasta, polenta, or like in my case this evening, rice.

Now that's homestyle for me.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

2008-11-19T11:23:00.002-05:00

Mitt Romney has an excellent essay in the NYT today. I highly recommend giving it a quick onceover if you're inclined to see why America's automakers are doomed. Basic investing 101 says not to throw good money at bad investments. It seems to me that a whole lot less than 25 billion dollars would be needed to retrain and employ the current employees of the big 3.

Chickens...

2008-11-18T10:49:00.003-05:00

Nature's peacekeepers!

Who knew?

(found on BoingBoing)

Productive Weekend in the Brewery...

2008-11-17T11:52:00.002-05:00

Otherwise didn't get a whole lotta stuff done.

Warning: Potentially boring stuff to follow if you're not into beer/wine!!!

Saturday I bottled up the Island Mist Peach Apricot Chardonnay. After rackings and such I ended up with 27 bottles. You're supposed to get 28 bottles from most of these kits, but unless you're diluting the wine with constant topping of the carboy to make up for losses, then you're just not going to get all the wine out that you put ingredients in for. These losses can be blamed on samplings for attenuation, as well as leaving some behind with the less and yeast when bottling, so as to not cloud up the final product. No biggie really, and I think this should be enjoyable wine for Mel and anyone else who would prefer something with lower alcohol and a more fruity wine experience. I got to taste it Saturday, and I could see myself enjoying a glass on the rocks.

I also racked my mead and the batch of apple cider I currently have going. in case "racking" is an unfamiliar term to anyone, it's the act of moving the liquid from one vessel to another, usually to leave behind any undesirable sediment. By moving the cider over from the primary carboy (big glass water bottle) I was getting the cider that has already gone through its primary fermentation off the old dead yeast. There's still live yeast in the cider, but it's in suspension and it hasn't completely finished all its work yet, because this cider is still a little bit cloudy. It'll be ready to bottle when it's clear. It's been over 2 months now, but I figure another couple weeks yet and I'll be able to bottle the cider up with a bit more sugar so I'll have a nice fizzy end product. The mead got racked into the fourth vessel it's been in since I made it a few days after Christmas 2007. There's no yeast alive in that one anymore, as I started out with more fermentable sugar in the mix than the yeast strain I used can handle. At 14% ABV the yeast could no longer survive, and I have a sweet mead. It's definitely strong, and will take a few years of aging to be really enjoyable, but the last sample I had tasted pretty good already. This racking saw another cup or two left behind, but it was a bit dark and nasty looking with the remnants of what little yeast was left previously, and since I did not boil the honey and it wasn't overly processed honey, there are some bits of whatever in there that settle out as well.

Finally, on Sunday night I bottled up the Special Bitters I made a month earlier. The sample I pulled to check the final gravity tasted fantastic, and though I have a recipe for Cream Ale that I plan to make next, I'm going to be making another batch of bitters very soon.

On the culinary side of the kitchen, I didn't really expand my horizon on any groundbreaking fare. I had a hankerin' for pork. Nice, simple, tender and tasty pork. So I got out the crock pot and tossed in half a bottle of K.C. Masterpiece and a 4-5lb pork butt. That was it, really. Set the cooker on low and left it from 6 pm Saturday evening until about 8:30 am Sunday morn. Fork tender and delicious. Shredded the lot of it and have been picking on it since. Together with a batch of homemade flour tortillas, it's a tasty treat.

Ree, is that you?!?!?!?

2008-11-13T09:47:00.003-05:00

Service Ribbons

2008-11-11T08:15:00.001-05:00

Maybe kids are a little like dogs, in that...

2008-11-06T13:43:00.003-05:00

They seem to have a kind of sixth sense when it comes to telling if a person is good or bad.

I know that might seem odd, especially when we hear about the horrible things that happen to children when they are so easily tricked into bad situations, but sometimes they know when someone is good without even meeting or speaking to that person before.

Case in point, my oldest son Wally was with me at work one day. He was around 16-18 months old, and not exactly able to keep up with me while I was walking him around the campus to show off. One of the things about bringing in children to your workplace is making sure that they are seen by everyone around the place, and this is particularly important when they're babies. So Wally could be quick when he put his mind to it at this point in his life, but when pointed in the same direction as his old, and not allowed to be distracted by other paths, he didn't put much effort into keeping up. I would usually end up just picking him up and carrying him so that his eyes and mind were free to wander while we stayed on my designated path to whatever destination I was aiming for at the time. While walking down one of the corridors with Wally on my shoulder I saw a friend coming down the hall in the opposite direction. It was one of the parking lot security guards, Al. I don't believe Wally even saw that I recognized Al. Almost without effort, Wally spun around in my arms and just as Al got within reach, and my son leapt into Al's arms. It took both of us by surprise, and Wally simply wrapped his arms around Al's neck and acted like Al was family. He'd never met or seen Al before. It was something Wally had never done before, and while he's really friendly to everyone he meets, he's never really just taken to someone like that since.

Al passed away this morning. He always, and I mean every time I ran into him, had a new joke. I don't ever recall seeing the guy without getting a smile, usually accompanied by a handshake. He was someone I never heard a bad thing about from anyone on campus, which is rare in the South, where gossip is not only normal but expected. Al was a Shriner, and the Shriners here in town have an annual Fish Fry for charity. Al sold tickets to this event every year all over the campus, as well as all over town, and he delivered to-go plates to everyone he sold tickets to on Fish Fry day. It was hard work, I'm sure, but the guy smiled the whole time.

I truly liked Al, and so did Wally.

OK, so let's see if it fits the definition

2008-11-02T01:23:00.002-04:00

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ob·ses·sion [uhb-sesh-uhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun

I'm sitting here at 1:26AM local making cornbread.

You must have seen the chili recipe prior to this post, and what's chili without a decent cornbread?

Since Wally's gone gluten-free I've been trying to get him into cornbread. This stuff has got to be about as historical a foodstuff as honey and beer. If you've never had the pleasure of a simple goodness that is polenta then it's time you experienced how utterly gratifying something so simple can be. Honestly, the Italians have made this dish so much more complicated than is really necessary. There's all these recipes out there talking about simmering polenta for hours on end and stirrung it like it's the second coming of risotto, but it's honestly doesn't take anwhere near the effort or time that it's supposed to. For an honest and true polenta experience, go hit the Hispanic/Latino food section of your local supermeracado (supermarket) and pick up a bag of fine ground polenta. Oh, it won't be labeled anything as high falutin' as polenta. No, it'll be wearin' a simple title like "Fine Yellow Corn Meal", but trust me, it's polenta. Then go and get yourself a saucepan, or "pot" if you prefer. Take about 1 cup of corn meal to 3 cups water and some salt, bring to a boil, and stir until it's a nice smooth consistency...

OK, here's where you have to forget whatever Grandma said...

It's done.

Yep, that's it.

Really, don't futz with it, just let it be and forget about all this hour of stirring BS.

Seriously, LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!

Just set it aside and do your main course. Got some nice chicken breast, pork chops, whatever? Take care of that and just forget about the polenta. It's done!

When you're ready to serve, put a pat of butter, or a squirt of olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper on top.

If you're like me and you absolutely must make this more complicated follow these directions:

Get a nice cutting board out and tear of a piece of waxed paper to cover said board. Pour out polenta onto the waxed paper. Get a second equal sized wax paper to the first piece. Set on top of the polenta and begin pressing out the polenta to about one third inch thickness. Set this "pancake" of corn meal in the fridge and let it cool to a nice firm set. When it's firm, get out your pizza wheel and cut out nice pieces, not that it really matters but wedges seem most appealing, and either grill or fry these pieces to perfection.

Trust me, you're now a god in the kitchen. Honestly. Feed this to anyone who thinks that polenta is difficult and you just "took it up a notch".

Our old Italian Grandmas just made this seem hard because they wanted some recognition!

Yeah, so I've got this cornbread going in the oven at the moment, and I'm looking like a real "Southern" cook cause I make cornbread in a cast iron pan and I had to stir something. Seriously, I use this Tenda-Bake mix and some Crisco and I'm about as Southern as a native NC'er.

Don't overcomplicate things if you don't have to....

Just made a dish with a connection to Grandma...

2008-11-01T22:02:00.006-04:00

No, it's not one of her recipes. In fact I can't think that Grandma Lillian even would have made this dish.

I made chili. I made a fresh, spicy, huge pot of chili.

The connection?

I used a meat grinder from Grandma's place to grind up the big ol' chunk of chuck I used in this recipe. If you don't want to process your own beef then get ground sirloin or chuck, not just generic "ground beef", which is made from assorted bits and pieces.

This is really a pretty basic and easy recipe that about anyone could make.

Ingredients:

2.25 lbs beef chuck roast, coarsely ground
1 big onion, in this case yellow, chopped
3 28oz cans of whole tomatoes, I prefer whole and then cut them into pieces as the pot simmers.
3 15.5 oz cans kidney beans, drained
6 tablespoons Penzey's hot chili powder
1-1.5 tablespoon fresh ground toasted cumin (Toast your own whole seeds. grind in a coffee grinder you'll only use for spices. it makes a HUGE difference when you toast whole seeds, I swear)
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano (regular works fine, but Mexican has more Umph.)
6 cloves garlic, pressed
optional- a bay leaf or two (I used them out of habit, but not really authentic to chili)
salt to taste (I think I used about 1.5 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

(One thing you might want to add that I didn't was a nice diced pepper of some kind. I think a couple roasted, skinned and diced pablanos or other green chile pepper would have been divine.)

Process:
Brown ground beef. Do not remove beef of fat from pot. Add chopped onions and continue browning until onion become transparent. Lower heat and add tomatoes with juice from cans. Add everything else, except for the beans and keep the salt light. Simmer for 1 hour 15 minutes. Add 3 cans of beans, and continue to simmer for 45 more minutes.

Eat.

This is a hot chili. That Penzey's powder is no joke. It doesn't hit you right away. It builds a nice fire on the tongue slowly, like a really good vindaloo should.

Grandma's grinder worked wonderfully, and I'm sure she'd be laughing at my using it in this day and age, with perfectly acceptable ground beef already done in the store's meat dept. This grinder took a little bit of effort, but I honestly believe the final product was better because of its use.

It would seem I've lost interest in this...

2008-10-29T21:24:00.002-04:00

But nothing could be farther from that. In fact I'm experiencing about the opposite of writer's block. I've been flush with things I've wanted to express, or simply post here as a query, but getting my thoughts congealed into a firm piece of writing is difficult when I can't find a string that I can thread all these thoughts together with. I guess that can be a starter right there...

A string or a thread, or maybe more properly a great number of stitches made with thread.

This last week my wife was going through a number of things that the boys are no longer using, or that they've outgrown. One type of item that they still might be able to use, particularly because the boys are still about the sloppiest eaters I know besides myself, but they've outgrown are their monogrammed bibs. These things were made by a very industrious woman that Melanie's mom found on eBay. They are made from some pretty cool printed fabrics, with basic Terry cloth back, and they have each of the boys names embroidered on them. We have about 8 for each boy. Melanie was wondering which of these bibs we should be keeping, and I couldn't see how I was going to help pick out which ones would be saved from the trash can. I don't think the childrens' goods consignment shop would be able to sell these bibs with our sons' names on them. Then an idea came to me...

A quilt! I could make a quilt for each boy from the bibs. How cool would that be? A quilt made by your dad, using all these cool fabrics with surfboards and airplanes and sushi prints, and personalized to boot!

Problem is I don't know the first thing about making a quilt. Yes, I sew, but there's more to making a quilt then simply sewing a bunch of assorted pieces of fabric together, isn't there?

Geez, this is all I need. I need to learn another non-archetypal, archaic, solitary, and possibly costly skill like I need a 2 inch hole in my head.

I don't have time to make all the beer I want.

I don't have time to make all the various dishes I want to try.

I don't have time or money enough to finish my ham radio shack.

I don't get to fish, or take out the motorcycle, or play golf, or learn Java, or finish my AS, or tune up the Buick, or paint and waynescoat the dining room, or write the great American novel.

I guess it's a bit like the whole quandary with trying to spill out hundreds of ideas into a coherent stream of thought right here in this little read corner of the mass conglomeration of ego we call the world wide web.

No one really gives a crap, but I still pretend like what I'm doing is somehow adding value to other people's internet experience. It's really simply a ploy to get people to look at me. It's about the same as a mohawk and a tattoo, only with less dedication and staring.

Now just where the hell did I put the other sewing machine I have that does more than a simple straight stitch?

Anyone know where to read up quickly on quilting basics?

So I've been brewing long enough to know this...

2008-10-21T23:33:00.005-04:00

Erlenmeyer Flask
(photo from Wikipedia)

But I didn't make a starter for my latest batch of FDSB.

A starter is a batch of yeast that has been activated and is ramped up, or multiplied, before pitching into the wort. This is recommended by everyone with any real experience using liquid yeasts. To date I've only used dry yeasts that I either sprinkled right on the wort, or rehydrated in a cup of water for 15 minutes to get it started before pouring into my wort. With a tube or mylar pouch of liquid yeast there's supposed to be plenty of yeast cells to work with a lower gravity beer, but if there's any doubt about the viability of the yeast, a starter is the first thing everyone asks about. You make a starter basically like a micro batch of beer. A small batch of wort is made using either dried or liquid malt extract, with dried being the preferred ingredient, and water. No hops are required, because you're not going for good taste, just a healthy environment for the yeast. The starter is generally made in an Erlenmeyer Flask of 1000 to 2000 ml, and if it's a Borosilicate glass you can boil the malt and water in the flask right on the stovetop. Then you pour your liquid yeast vial/tube/pouch into the COOLED flask of wort and put a cover on it that can allow the CO2 to escape, like a stopper with an airlock. over 24-36 hours this will propogate a large number of yeast that you can then dump into your batch of beer and it'll be rockin' in the primary in just a few hours, instead of days.

I don't have any flask, and I don't keep any DME around the house since going all-grain.

I simply pitched the tube of White Labs WLP005 on my wort Sunday night around 10:30 PM.

It took until tonight, Tuesday, to get going. That's not really ideal because this lag really give any bacteria or other unwanted growths to get hold and infect the beer.

I sanitized pretty well, so I doubt I'll have any issues, but 48 hours is the longest I've ever waited for a beer to start fermenting, and I came really close to pitching a packet of Safale-04 on this brew to get it going. Fortunately the owner of my local beer supply shop, Lumina Winery, told me to wait it out, and I came home late tonight to a bubbling airlock on my Ale Pail.

Whew, I was sweating it there for a while...

So, if you need another idea for a Christmas gift this year, a couple Erlenmeyer flasks in the 1 liter size, and made from Borosilicate glass would be more than welcome, and shouldn't break the bank. Just don't bother with Amazon on this one, as these shouldn't be over $10 a piece, and they're going for like $40 over there.

Whew, glad that's over...

2008-10-20T10:23:00.003-04:00

Had a long weekend, and I'm a bit sore today. Got some chores checked off the "Honey-do" lost, and got another batch of brew made.

First, about the chores; I couldn't have done them without the Odyssey. I was kind of dreading doing many of the things I needed to get done around the house because I felt I needed a truck. I miss having a pickup. The old F-150 would have been awesome these past couple days, but in the end the new Honda was more than up to the task. I had a bunch of stuff piling up in the garage that needed to get to the recycler's or the dump, which happen to be in the same place here in Northern Brunswick County, NC. The Stow 'n Go third row seats were flipped down into their stowed position, and I had quite a bit of space available to haul a bunch of junk out of the garage to make more room for my Ducati. I also made more room on the front porch by tossing out some of the furniture out there that had been slowly falling apart. Problem with that was now there was a void that Mel just couldn't leave be...

A funny thing about the South is that people down here seem to be easily swayed into doing thing based solely on what their neighbors do. When I lived in CA I don't recall ever thinking to myself, "Gee, Joe SoAndSo got a new brass door knocker. Now I need one too!", yet that's exactly the kind of thing people down here appear to do. All our neighbors have patio furniture on their front porches, so apparently we need that too. It's Halloween time again and all our neighbors have ornate decorations up, so we need to get some up pronto! All our neighbors have nice looking yards, so I need to fix that while I'm at it as well. Get the Picture?

So after all the trash haulin', I put the Odyssey to work as a landscaping truck. On the list of things to get at the home store was pine straw, something I don't recall ever being considered a good thing in dried out and fire prone CA, for flower bed covering, and hay bales. The hay isn't for horses, or for ground cover, but instead for this display of Halloween pride that now graces the front porch of my home. There's pumpkins, of course, but there's also orange tinsel with black spiders all over, like I need a reminder about the recent Black Widow invasion! There's also a wooden witch, but if I were to say anything about that I might get in trouble, so I'll just say it's there. There's a few dollar store scarecrows, but they're hardly scary and we don't have crows. I don't recall ever having this kind of display in CA, and even if one neighbor did, no one else felt compelled to go to such lengths. They would simply go admire the work someone else did and go back home, where they had a carved pumpkin or two on the porch. Not here in the South. Our neighbors had dioramas with hay bales, we needed one too! So I loaded up a surprising amount of pine straw and hay bales in the back of the minivan, which Wally and I agreed smelled pretty good. Wally seemed to understand that his dad enjoyed using the normally docile school commuter vehicle as a brawny work truck, and we had a great time being guys checking out the cool lawn tractors, as well as playing with the garden fountains, at the home store. It's good to be men, but hard to look like it in an "Ocean Mist" blue minivan. Particularly one with a bumper sticker that says "Republican women are the life of the party!".

She can't believe me, but I already canceled out her votes...

So as a reward for all this 'round the house work I did get a bit of "me" time. I got the Bratwürst Brown ale out of the primary and into the bottles. I got the Wine Experts Island Mist Peach Apricot Chardonnay racked from primary into secondary. That last one's not really for me, but more for Melanie, but I love making beer and wine, so even if the end product's not for me I still get to enjoy the process. Finally, I got the beer made that I posted the recipe for here earlier. I'm calling it FDSB, which is Fat Duc Special Bitters. After having such a productive weekend around the homestead, it really felt rewarding to get in a good brew session on a Sunday evening.

The beermaking last night went really well, and I guess I had a number of things happen that just went right, which culminated in one of the best times I've had since I started brewing at home. I've been trying to get my mash efficiency, the amount of actual fermentable sugars extracted from the grain in relation to the potential, up to a higher number. Most of the senior brewers on HBT claim to be regularly hitting 90%+ efficiency, and I've been right around 70%, which is acceptable, but I wanted better. My grain mill is a Barley Crusher, and it's got adjustable rollers for crushing the grains used for making beer. The malted barley that you need to make beer needs to be milled before you can mash it, and it's pretty critical how this is done. Not fine enough and you don't get the sugars out of the grain. Too fine and you end up with a mass of goo that you can't get any of the water back out of for brewing with. I've been tightening up the rollers on my mill a little bit each time I brew, and I finally hit a sweet spot last night. I got 91% efficiency out of my mash! I locked them rollers down on that mill, and I'm not changing them again, unless they need to be reset to the exact same gap (.036" if you're curious). The boil went off without a hitch, and I didn't even have the slightest bit of boilover. The temperature was cool, down into the low 50's, and I had a really nice evening out in my garage cooking beer, and admiring the space I had, and the new pine straw in all the flower beds. I didn't even turn on the radio, I simply sat there stirring the brewpot and enjoyed my neighborhood. It was good.

Man I hope this beer turns out good.

I still miss having a truck.

On deck at the Fat Duc Brewery...

2008-10-15T10:07:00.004-04:00

(Nice shot of some hops)

I'm going to be making a nice Old World English style Special Bitters.

The planned recipe for this batch is:

Grains

9.5 lbs Muntons Maris Otter Malt
8 oz 120L Crystal Malt
4 oz Belgian Biscuit Malt

Hops

1.25 oz Kent Goldings 4.8% pellets at 60 minutes
.5 oz Kent Goldings 4.8% pellets at 20 minutes
.25 oz Kent Goldings 4.8% pellets at 1 minute

Yeast

White Labs WLP005 British Ale liquid yeast

Additional

.2 oz Irish Moss at 15 minutes

Mash

60 minutes at 151°F, single infusion, batch sparge

Boil

60 minutes boil

I'm expecting an original gravity of somewhere between 1.039-1.044, and a final gravity of about 1.012, which should bring the ABV in at about 4.8%. The bittering should be around 32 IBU (Rager), which is a tad high on the scale for the style, but I do like the hops, and it's still well within acceptable guidelines for this ale.

I'm just hoping that between all the things on Mel's list of chores for me, and getting my Bratwürst Brown Ale bottled up, that I'll find time to get this one done and in the Ale Pail before the weekend's over.

How the Special Bitters should look when done

The last few beers I've done have been a bit higher in gravity, which means a higher finished alcohol percentage. While that makes for a beers that has more "depth" and a brew that also ages well and has a long shelf life, it also doesn't do great as a beer that you can have more than one of without feeling the effects. By lowering the potential alcohol content, brewers make what they call a "session" beer. This is a beer that is more easily enjoyed while doing other activities and socializing over a few pints, without getting trashed.

I think I'll do a Cream Ale after I get this bitter done...

Hummmmmm-

2008-10-05T23:37:00.003-04:00

Us.

Get it, hummus!?

I made a nice hummus this afternoon. Pretty basic, really, and the wife thought it was outstanding. I guess that's why you're reading about it here.

Here's the recipe:

1 can chickpeas/garbanzos, drained
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2-1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon ( or 2-4 cloves) minced garlic

Put everything in a blender/food processor and blend until smooth. Serve with your favorite dipper.

Today we used both Trader Joe's Oganic Tortilla Chips, as well as Frito-Lay Scoops cornchips. Both were quite tasty, but the scoops were cheaper while the TJ's were healthier. Your call.

You could add tahini, but I didn't have any.

Either way, it's damn good, and not that bad for you either.

I have to say that I used the boat motor, or stick blender, on this and I was disappointed with the effort it took and the clean up. Use your blender or food processor, really.

Eureka!

2008-10-02T21:50:00.007-04:00

I found it!

What, you ask?

A song. Yep, I found a song.

We've all had an "ear worm" before. That's when some jerk puts on Beck a tune and the next two weeks your singing about "Two turntables and a microphone", or worse yet "Get crazy with the Cheese Whiz", and yet while you can't stand it, you can't stop.

How would you like it to be a sliver of a song that you liked? How would you like it to be from a song you heard on a radio station that was as short lived as a Summer? How about the idea that the tune was by a completely different band than you had believed for a long time? How long? Close to 25 years.

Back in the early 80s I was totally hooked on the Synth Pop, electronic, post punk, new wave, whatever you want to call the genre that included bands from ABC, Depeche Mode, English Beat, DEVO, you get the idea. I still love this era and genre.

Sacramento was hardly a hotbed of new music in the 80s. The king of the FM dial was still 98.5 KZAP, with Bob Keller's lunchtime cafe show and the daily blue plate special. It was all about Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, you get the idea. Not that I don't appreciate that sound now, it was played out in 1984.

Dr. Don on KFRC out of San Fran on AM was long gone too.

There was an English family that moved in behind my family home, and their oldest son, Nigel, was a huge catalyst in my exposure to everything labeled "New Wave" at the time. He had the hair, that hair with the cool long bangs that made a Japanese fan across his forehead and covered at least one of his eyes. It wouldn't move, even in a storm, from all the hairspray. He had the clothes, including the tapered leg pants in various plaids, and the genuine Jam shoes that he brought right from London. He had the accent. He played soccer, and well. He was a senior and my friends and I were sophomores. He made the girls at Elk Grove HS swoon, and for all these things he was some kind of idol that everyone in my group of peers were envious to know I lived near.

The Jam Shoe

My biggest thanks to Nigel King was that he somehow knew before me, a Sacto native, and introduced me to one of the radio stations (KPOP) that was renowned for being a disco/r&b format and had quietly changed to a modern rock station that was actually playing new music from Yaz, ABC and Blue Zoo among hundreds of other bands that people in Sacramento had never heard before. It was incredible!

I had a very small amount of income at the time, and what I had I started spending on clove cigarettes and records from Tower Records. Sacramento is home of the original Tower line of stores. We had a few of them. While the old store downtown was cool, it was the one on Watt Ave. that I always gravitated to, partly because it was closer to my home, but also because it had an ice cream and coffee shop next door called Double Rainbow. They had espresso. I could go there in my new wave getups at the time, buy a new Gang Of Four album at Tower and pickup a copy of the new Tower Magazine, and then go get an espresso at Double Rainbow and sit out front looking all unique reading that mag, displaying the new album, smoking a clove and drinking a coffee. I'm sure I looked like an immature punk, but I was sure I was the coolest thing there at the time.

And it was at this time that I picked up an ear worm. It wasn't even really a hook, just more like a feel and sound of a verse. While I can still sing along with songs from that time that I haven't heard in over a dozen years, there was this one tune that has haunted my brain for like 2 dozen years now, and while digging through Wikipedia tonight I deciphered my ear worm and possibly why I've been mistakingly searching through the wrong band's discography for years.

There was an Australian band called Machinations. They were big down under for a few years, and they had a few songs that actually made it into rotation on the US Modern Rock stations. One of those songs was called "Do The Sway". I remember liking a song by Machinations, and that possibly my ear worm was one of their songs, but with the advent of YouTube, and many people posting all the greatest videos from the early 80s, I actually found the Machinations couple most popular songs. None of them were the one.

Tonight I'm looking though other bands of the era on Wikipedia, and I start reading Shriekback's discography. In there I find a tune called "Sway". Is that it? Nope, not the one, but on the same album I start looking for other songs and one stands out that stops me dead in my tracks, "Lined Up". And there it is, my ear worm!

I don't know if this revelation has now dropped my stress level, or made room for me to now develop ESP or Telekenisis from the freed up processing power of my brain, but I do think I'll sleep a bit better tonight.

Odd stuff 'n things...

2008-10-01T22:51:00.002-04:00

So I'm visiting one of my favorite website (I know, there's like 200 of those...), Autoblog.com, and I see another story about another European car we'll never see on this side of the pond.

It's a Renault. Those old enough to remember when Renaults were sold here in the states will have pained looks on their faces thinking about the Alliance, or the Le Car.

OK, so how about a more reputable name? Perhaps one already well known to even the younger car buying crowd?
How about a Nissan Cube. Yep, Japan only... maybe. We might just get lucky and see this one in the USA.

The point I'm getting at is that I still don't understand the big 3 here, and why they insist on pushing unimaginative crap on the home market. Yeah, I'll gladly drive a new Mustang. Corvette? No doubt. Problem is, realistically, I'm not going to afford the 'Vette. Ever. Mustang? Maybe, but I don't think I'm going to score one any fancier than a v6 base model. Not as long as I have kids anyways.

Honda Fit? Now we're talkin'. Room for me and the family, at least around town. Great mileage. Kind of daring looks. CHEAP! The Scion lineup? Daring. I'm sad to say they toned down a model or two, though. Nissan can totally steal the "quirky" market with the Cube. PT Cruiser? it was daring for a couple years, but really, without any new "fun" different styles Chrysler was just asking to see their marketshare dwindle farther. How sad of GM to release the HHR after the PT and think they were exploring new and uncharted water?

Then Ford goes and forgets that there's such a thing as the internet and sells a compact that is environmentally kind, great mileage with over 50 MPG, and stylish, and they think that no one's going to find out about it back home while they sell it overseas. Really Ford? And the new Fiesta lineup as a whole? Think anyone here is going to be all excited about it here when it's years old and renamed the "New Focus" by the we have a crack at buying one?

And now the American customer has to bail out the same companies that ignore them, to the tune of $25 billion. I think it's time to use a fraction of that money and offer to retrain the UAW members a new trade, or offer to relocate them to towns where Honda and Toyota are building cars now, and save the taxpayers a whole lot of cash.

Screw the big 3.

...things...

I noticed my wife's minivan (HONDA!!!) is missing its McCain/Palin sticker. Maybe she's joining me on the other side of the fence for an election cycle? I doubt it. It's still kind of odd.

Had a nice weekend...

2008-09-29T21:02:00.004-04:00

That was just capped off by an awesome meal.

In somewhat reverse storytelling mode, I got a rippin' deal on some gorgeous sashimi grade tuna steaks today, $4.99 per lb.! I picked up an 8 oz pack of fresh mushrooms, and a nice big bell pepper. I already had a head of bok choi in the fridge, along with some shredded carrots and a few green onions.

First thing on the stove was a pot of long grain white rice, with a low sodium chicken buillon cube tossed in for flavor. Then I got out a suitable Tubberware container and put about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce in for a marinade. I placed the tuna steaks in there for 10 minutes a side. While that was doing it's thing I sliced up all the afore-mentioned veggies and set them aside. I got out a nice 9" saute pan, and my big a$$ wok (yes Simone, it's the same Williams Sonoma one you got me years ago) and put the pan on med heat and the wok on high. About a third a cup of oil was poured into the wok. Once the oil was shimmering and just starting to hit the smokepoint I threw all the veggies in the wok. I was rewarded with a lovely bok choi aroma, prodigious steam and that lovely crackle of hot wok. Turning my attention to the tuna, I cranked the heat up on the saute pan and placed the 2 steaks in to sear. about 2 1/2 minutes per side was all I did. The steaks were plated to rest, and the veggies were done a couple minutes later. I cheated the veggies and used a bottled stir fry sauce, but it was wonderful just the same and I honestly can't remember ever enjoying a piece of tuna quite as much. Mel ate her veggies, which is quite a feat in itself, and I take it as an extremely high compliment.

Mead.

I started a batch of mead, which is honey wine if you're not aware, way back in December 2007. That glass above is what I have about 4.5 gallons of at the moment, sitting in a carboy on my workbench. I've never made mead before, and I didn't really listen to all the advice about the stronger meads needing plenty of aging. This particular one started life as enough clover honey mixed with water to give me 5 gallons at an original gravity of 1.113. I believe it was 15 pounds with about 3.75 gallons of water. I added 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, and I used Lalvin D-47 yeast. The D-47 will normally ferment out to a very dry wine with some residual fruitiness, but I didn't want dry mead, so I counted on the D-47 petering out before it fully attenuated all the sugars in the honey. It worked, and I've got a sweet mead. Final gravity is 1.010. This is pretty sweet. It also got a high alcohol content, at 14% ABV. This isn't one you're likely to have more than a glass of at a sitting, and that sample I took pictured above definitely needs some aging yet. It's got a brandy-like warming sentsation to it, which is to say the alcohol is still a bit strong flavored. Over time this one's going to mellow out nicely, and I figure that I'll be able to store this for years. Having reached the yeast's tolerance, it's going to be a still, non-carbonated, drink. This means I can use wine bottles, and with synthetic corks, I could keep some around for the boys' graduations. We'll see...

On Saturday (still going in reverse here) I made a batch of my Bratwürst Brown Ale. This is a recipe I've got up on HomeBrewTalk.com, so I'm not going to break the whole thing down here right now. I took a couple ounces of the chocolate malt out this time in the hopes of lightening up the color just a touch. I'd really like to get this a tad darker than Newcastle, yet still able to pass light through. I also had to take a bit of care with this because it's still pretty hot down in this part of the country, and high fermentation temps can make for weird flavors produced by yeast at the upper end of their temp range. I used the guest bath to place the primary fermenter in, and while the ambient temp of the house is ~78ºF at the moment, I got the primary down around 69ºF with the help of a cool water bath and towels wrapped around the bucket that were soaked well with water. The evaporation of water off the towels kept the temp in check through this evening. The airlock bubbled away from Saturday Night until this evening, when the activity had all but completely ceased. According to the brewing books I've been reading I can allow the temps to climb now, so the fermenter was removed from the bath and is now on my workbench coming up to room temp. I'll probably see a bit of renewed airlock activity, but the yeast has done all the hard work already now, it just needs to clean up what's left. I've got a good feeling about this beer.

Well, that was about it for the weekend.

Do you know how to Nuoc Mam Cham?

2008-09-21T20:35:00.002-04:00

From Blog Food

Did the Vietnamese cuisine tour this evening. That first pic is of the packet of rice paper wrappers for the spring rolls I made.

This next picture shows how you soften the wrappers. That's simply room temp water in a plate. The wrapper needs to be moistened well on both sides. You don't need to wait for it to get soft at this point, just make sure it's wet, and then lay it down on the working surface of your choice.

From Blog Food

There's a difference in the texture between side on the wrappers. Place the smooth side down against the cutting board. Here I'm using some bean sprouts as a base for my filling, but more traditionally Vietnamese would be to use mung bean noodles.

From Blog Food

Next I put some sliced green onions.

From Blog Food

On top of that scallions I used some peeled, seeded and sliced cucumber. If you're sensitive to that leave 'em out, but I love cucumber.

From Blog Food

Then I used shredded carrots and finally a few salad shrimp.

From Blog Food

After folding like a burrito or egg roll, you're left with a lovely little package of healthy stuff that'd make a rabbit drool, except maybe for the shrimp.

From Blog Food

To serve, I made a Fish Dipping Sauce that the Vietnamese call Nuoc Mam Cham. The sauce was made with vinegar, sugar, water, garlic, fresh green chiles, and most importantly Fish Sauce. Fish Sauce is made from anchovies and is fermented. It's got a very, umm how do I put this... distinct aroma. Well, imagine fermented anchovies.

Anyways, the sauce is awesome, and really is the ideal compliment to the spring rolls. One last touch was to serve the rolls with a leaf of lettuce loosely wrapped around each roll. This is totally "kosher" with the recipe from what I read around the web and saw on YouTube (which is becoming an invaluable cooking tool for me these days), and the lettuce keeps the rolls from sticking together on the plate.

I'll be making these again before long, as they were super tasty, healthy and fun to make. They'd also be a nice thing for a real hot evening, as they are a cold entreé that is refreshing to eat.

For a pairing with beer I'd have to say that a Japanese lager would be great. I'm not too big on most Thai or Vietnamese brews, save for Klosters which I can't find stateside anyways. For wine I'd want a nice crisp dry white wine, perhaps a good Sauvignon Blanc, but then I'm a fan of that wine anyways, so I'm a bit biased. I imagine a Sake might be good too, but I don't know if that might be a bit much for the sauce.

Riddle me this...

2008-09-19T20:06:00.003-04:00

... Where's the appreciation?

The other day I head into the supermarket. There's a great special on for chicken breasts, ¢89 per lb. Quite a deal, no? So I buy a 3.5 lb pack. Then all I have to do is figure out what to do with 'em.

Have you ever had to do the cooking for 4 (including yourself) on a regular basis? Meal planning sucks, and it's even worse when I have very little self control when it comes to junk food and sweets. I know what's bad for me, and I eat it anyway, but when I need to keep a pair of growing toddlers, as well as my wife, healthy and satisfied with the food I prepare it's a chore! My youngest. Wil, is usually the easiest of the 3 to feed, as he's up for trying about anything I set in front of him. Next is Melanie, who was about the pickiest eater I ever met, until she bore me a son who eats about 5 different foods, and that's it. Wally, my first son, eats cheese, hot dogs, cake, chocolate milk and french fries.

Wally was diagnosed with a dairy allergy, as well as a gluten sensitivity. So, no cheese, cake, chocolate milk, bread, cereal, and about 3/4 of all the food the rest of us eat daily. Now he's not only picky, he's impossible to cook for.

So I'm deciding what to do with this bargain chicken. Chicken tenders. Yeah! Kids love chicken nuggets! Mel digs 'em too! I can make homemade nuggets, and I'll be feeding all of them a healthier, less expensive version to boot!

Things didn't go quite as I had envisioned.

I used yogurt and some various spices to marinate the chicken that I had boned, skinned and cut up. I got a box of Ritz™ like crackers and crushed them up for a coating mix.

I know, one has gluten, the other dairy, but neither was to be used in great quantity, and I haven't even had the chance to figure out how to stock my pantry with dairy and gluten free supplies yet. Give me a break.

Anyway, I also plan on getting the boys to try some good oven roasted potatoes. My cover is their love of fries. I cut up a few nice Russets into fries, but I put 'em in my nice Calphalon™ roasting pan and proceed to season it all up with a bit of olive oil and other good stuff. The nuggets are to be coated right before baking. I figure on the potatoes needing about 50-60 minutes, and the chicken at least 20-30 minutes.

Just about the time the potatoes get to the halfway point, and I begin coating the nuggets, Granpa calls and says he's got gluten free chocolate chip cookies at his place for the boys. Mel thinks this sounds better than what I'm making, packs up the boys and jams.

I make a lovely bunch of asparagus, as well as one dipping sauce of Honey Dijon mustard and another of Sweet & Sour. My dinner was accompanied by a glass of my Aussie Shiraz, and all was fantastic.

By the time the rest of the family gets back for dinner late I get treated to Wally's critique of the leftover nuggets. "Stinky!" he exclaimed.

Tonight I'm doing up a bunch of red beans. I'll be cooking them in stock I made from the trimmings and bones from all those chicken breasts.

This dish is all mine...

Latrodectus Mactans

2008-09-13T20:53:00.002-04:00

Southern Black Widows. Yup, we've got 'em.

I'm seriously freaked out about it too!

This last week, as I was getting ready for Tropical Storm Hannah to drop in on us I found a couple Black Widow spiders on a piece of a playset that we bought for the boys but haven't put together yet. It was at the back of our yard, but the kids do frequent the area and I told Melanie not to let the boys go down to that part of the yard for a while.

After the storm came through I was starting to move stuff back and found another big spider on my BBQ. We have a pest control service come through quarterly, and we were due in a couple weeks, but I called them up and asked them to come over sooner.

The bug guy found another half dozen or so spiders on our patio. Now I'm really spazzing out, and the kids are barred from the yard.

So today I spent the whole day with the pressure washer and a spray bottle of Spectracide. I went over everything on the patio and sprayed and washed to remove anything and then remove all the items from the patio.

I killed 4 more widows.

Our patio is now bare, and will be for some time now. The kids are going to be able to go play out there from time to time, but nothing that a spider can nest in will be left out anymore.

It's kind of a bummer, as I do enjoy grillin' and chillin' out back when the weather's nice, but for the time being I ain't spending any time out there till winter comes.

I haven't talked about brewing lately

2008-09-10T23:17:00.003-04:00

And this isn't really about brewing per se, but I started a fresh batch of cider the other day. Well, Sunday to be exact. This one marks a couple of firsts for me.

Anyone who's perhaps followed the links along side of this blog knows that I have relied on HomeBrewTalk.com for a huge amount of knowledge and support for my brewing adventures. If you've followed the link, and done any research, you've surely come across the recipe for EdWort's Apfelwein. To date close to 8000 gallons have been accounted for by members of the forum, not including countless others who lurked on the site and made a batch of their own without putting the numbers up on the site. My first foray into fermentation started with this very recipe, and it's a simple, surefire winner. Anyway, I've made a couple batches EdWort's way, but his recipe makes a truly German type apple wine, which is dry and more like a white wine than a traditional apple cider.

This batch I just started is a more authentic American type hard cider. For starters I made it with Demerara Sugar, which is a cane sugar. This differs from the Apfelwein which calls for corn sugar. I also used a beer yeast, specifically Nottingham ale yeast. EdWort's recipe calls for Montrechet, which is a wine yeast. In brewing an winemaking yeast plays a huge part in how the end product comes out. The wine yeast ferments almost every last bit of the sugar in the juice, and that makes for a higher alcohol content, but it also makes for a very dry tasting end product. by using an ale yeast I hope to not attenuate (fement all the sugar) as much, thereby leaving some residual sugar behind in the end product and having a sweeter, fruitier cider. It shouldn't be sweet like a soda, but it should have a bit of fruit flavor left.

This particular fermentation was also different for a mistake I've made. I filled the carboy (the glass fermeting vessel) pretty high, and I didn't account for the higher foaming ale yeast. I came home last night to an airlock full of juice and yeast. Fortunately, it didn't bubble out of the airlock and all over my workbench. I haven't had a beer do this yet.

After reading a bit more about ciders, though, I'm already planning on another one. See, this time of year is still quite warm here in SE NC, and sitting over a boiling pot of wort to make beer isn't all that comfortable. Since there's no cooking involved, wines and ciders are much easier, and they also do better with warmer fermentation temps, which tend to produce odd flavors in beers. I really want to get a good cider. I want to make one that isn't just a novelty, but rather a drink that makes people ask for more. What better time of year than autumn for such a potable. Even warmed up with some nice mullling spice for Thanksgiving, cider really seems appropriate to make as the end of summer approaches.

I want to try a naturally fermented, or spontaneously fermented cider. To do this I really need to find an orchard, and one that presses the apples on site would be even better. The goal is to get as natural a product as possible. Apple orchards are covered in wild yeast, and it's these naturally occuring yeast that thrive on the apple specifically. It's this yeast that I want alive and in the juice when it's pressed, before they do anything like add potassium sorbate, or worse yet cook the juice, to kill the wild yeast. I've read that for the best cider you need this wild yeast right from the orchard. I just need to take a carboy or two to the orchard and get 'em filled. Then I bring 'em home, set it up on the workbench and watch the magic happen. If all goes well, after a couple days the fermentation really gets going. Once the yeasts have really taken hold mold and bacteria no longer have a chance.

It doesn't get more American than that, and Johnny Appleseed was peddling apple trees for just that. We say apple pie now, but it was hard cider that was really the way our forefathers preserved the harvest. Look it up yourself!

(The image above was borrowed from http://www.holyrootfarm.com/HRF_images/Golden_Russet.jpg)

Storm Stories

2008-09-06T17:41:00.004-04:00

So we've come through the storm with everything intact!

Wally and I even slept through a majority of it, while Wil kept his mother up because he was a bit spooked by the noisy winds. I think he was also a bit freaked out because the power went out around 2:45-3 AM. He likes his night light.

I woke up around 7 AM. I don't think I would have slept so well, except that with the power out the house is quiet. Very quiet.

I think I woke with a start, and sat up pretty quickly. Without the ceiling fan I was pretty warm. Without the background noise of the fans in the PC it was eerily quiet, and I had no idea of the time because the clock was blank.

Woo Hoo!

I'd been prepping for just this scenario. I had staged the generator yesterday, and it was right at the opening of the garage ready to be deployed! Like the geek I've truly become, I had topped off the fuel and taken the 5 gallon fuel can, with the appropriate amount of Sta-Bil already poured in, to the fuel station and filled it with exactly 5 gallons. I fired up the generator yesterday and let it run for 10 minutes, or so, just to make sure it was in good working order. It was then positioned for optimum extraction placement near the garage door, with the lift handle facing out and the proper extension cords hung from the handle.

I also had placed my handheld VHF/UHF two-way radio on its charger. I have a 2-meter radio in the car, but being a HAM radio operator also had me at the ready with the portable (that's what they call the walkie talkie type handheld radios). I made a contact on the local VHF repeater, at 146.82 MHz, just to make sure all was well with the portable and then it was put away for the night.

I got my Dietz D-Lite Num.90 lantern down from the bookshelf it's perched on, and I refilled it up to a safely full level with Kleen Heat, which is a synthetic kerosene. It is almost completely sootless and works great in all the kerosene powered stuff I've got. It's available at Home Depot during the winter for use in those construction site heaters, and it can be hard to find during the warmer months. Anyway, I fired up the lantern and adjusted the flame to a nice level. It worked great. I extinguished the light and placed it in an easily accessible, yet out of kids reach, location. It got parked on top of the fridge.

I had a lighter in my pocket. I placed a small flashlight on the nightstand. I had a glass of Aussie Shiraz. I went to sleep and was out cold in minutes, at about midnight. The winds were just starting to kick up at that time.

When I awoke around 7 the house was silent, and my heart kicked into high gear pretty quickly as the geeky survivalist instinct began to take hold. I was about to become a household hero!

There was little need for the flashlight on the nightstand, as it was after dawn and there was enough light coming through the clouds and shades to get out of bed and into the kitchen safely. I think I only stepped on 3 or 4 of the kids rather sharp toys, placed a lot like land mines, in the hall. The bottoms of my feet were inspected for any serious lacerations, and finding nothing near the tourniquet requiring level, I retrieved the lantern from the fridge top. It was lit with the lighter that had jabbed me all night from the depths of my pocket. First thing first, there was light!

At this point I really had no idea how long the power had been out. I found Mel in the boys room, snuggled with Wil, who was still a bit scared. I think he was put at ease by my heroics, or maybe he felt better because of the laugh inducing look of his father trying to be Superdad. He went to sleep shortly therafter. He missed all my great deeds!

Mel informed me that the power went out just before 3 AM. A quick assessment of the freezer and fridge was performed, and happily all was still cold. The Ice hadn't thawed in the icemaker and no water had collected in the bottom of the freezer. All was good, but I had no idea for how long. Time for my second act of heroism.

I took my lantern into the deep dark depths of my garage and popped the release lever on the rollup door to allow opening of the door without the help of the now useless power door opener. The door opened pretty easily and I rolled the generator right out of the garage and on to the front porch. I went back inside, cracked open the window in the dining room and pulled the extension cord through. I rolled up a towel and filled in the remaining gap to prevent any exhaust from entering the home, and to keep the noise down. The generator fired up on the second pull. I gave it a minute or two to warm up and plugged the fridge in to the cord. Worked flawlessly, and even the light came on when I opened the door. All the food was saved!

Shortly after that I had the TV plugged in and on, so I could check out the weather reports over the air. This is another heroic thing for Superdad, who claimed himself one of those $40 FCC coupons for a digital TV receiver. Even though the cable was out, and I had no internet, the local TV stations are being pushed into digital over the air only in this market before the rest of the country and most of the major network stations in town are up and broadcasting digital content. It works great. We've got two TVs in the house on cable, but one's on the HD-OTA (High Def -Over The Air) and both WWAY and WECT have an additional weather station alongside their normal channel on the HD-OTA. Of course not long after I got it on both boys were up and complaining about dad watching a radar display. PBS Kids was on in short order, and I was a hero again! Say, you kids want a cold drink from the fridge?!

Now we had entertainment and eats.

I turned on the VHF radio and checked in with the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) over the repeater. The EOC representative gave me a quick briefing about what I missed overnight, and let him know what little I knew about when the power went out in my area. I kept it brief and cleared myself out of the communications so I could listen in on everyone else's calls. It was busy, but it always amazes me how everyone on HAM radio is so polite, well at least during an emergency anyways. Just like in any other hobby or interest, there's always some jerks that like to try to give everyone else a hard time. Thankfully even those idiots have better things to do when the stuff hits the fan, so the cream really rises and it's neat to be a part of it. Emegency communications established. Another Superdad deed done!

Since everything was under control at my home, I decided to hop in the car and go for a short drive around the neighborhood. Damage was relatively minimal around the area. One pine tree on my street snapped in half. A couple blocks over there were a number of new small trees uprooted. All my neighbor's homes looked good, with no siding or shingles missing. Only one of my neighbors had a generator out, and he's a painting contractor so I assume he had it for work. I find it kind of funny that so many people live here in hurricane country and don't have generators. Power usually doesn't go out for this long though, so I guess it's usually unnecessary. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more generators up and running on my street next time the juice goes out. I know a couple neighbors took note of me and the painter at the end of the block.

So I got home from my reconnaissance, and Mel looked forlornly at the PC. I suspected the cable might be out, but I also thought that it might be on, and I just couldn't tell because those TVs didn't have power, and neither did the cable modem. A couple more extension cords and the PC was on along with the 19” TV, modem, router, and cordless phone. Bummer. The cable was out. Well, at least Mel could play Solitaire or Minesweeper.

I began to tidy up the cords and then I noticed it, the clock was flashing. Power was back on.

I was crushed. No more Superdad. Mel saw it in my eyes and then noticed the clock. “Sorry honey” she said. That was it.

My glory moment was over.

I slowly began switching everything back from the connections to the heavy gauge orange industrial extension cords to their normal dull beige wall outlets.

I pulled all the cords out of the dining room window and replaced the screen.

I switched off the genrator.

It was quiet.

I went back in to the garage and reset the release toggle and let the power door opener go back to normal operation, and then I opened the garage door with the simple push of a button. I returned the generator back to it's staging area and gave it a pat on the fuel tank, then I closed the garage door again. The Dietz lantern was set back on the top of the bookshelf.

I even turned the VHF back on and tried to check in with the EOC. No one answered. I ended up striking up a conversation with another HAM a couple dozen miles away. It was nice to hear from him, but even he was back to the simple casual banter, and any sense of emergency operations was gone.

The HVAC was working again, so the kids' playroom upstairs was bearable again, and off they went to play with their trains. Mel climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep.

Now I'm just waiting for the internet to come back on, so you'll be reading this a bit after it was written.

I had some fun this morning, but but for this geek who never really succeeded as a Boy Scout, I still have those times when I feel like an Eagle Scout, as fleeting as the moment is...

Edited to add the following:

It's now about 5:45 PM. I just performed another Superdad post storm deed! I got us back online! I assumed that my whole block was offline, and had a lousy cable signal, but after a bit of investigations ( I knocked on a couple neighbor's doors) I found that we were the only ones offline. A little bit more troubleshooting and I found out that the signal splitter that feeds all the connections in my home is dead. Bottom line, I'm down to one working cable connection in the house, but it's the one with the modem, and that's the most important one!

Looks like we're in for a bit of a blow...

2008-09-04T11:23:00.003-04:00

I'm talking about stormy weather, get you mind out of the gutter for a few minutes!

Ms. Hannah looks like she'd planning on visiting the greater Wilmington area, and that includes Leland, NC.

This will be the first major storm for me in the new house (can I still call it new if I've owned it for over a year?). I'm pretty sure that the house is built well enough to handle the weather, but one of my major concerns at the moment is for my wife and kids first, and second my hops.

Hops?!?!

Yeah, my hop plants did relatively well so far this year, and I might even have enough of a harvest to brew a batch of beer up soon with them. Now this weather is threatening to take my precious Nugget hops out! One of the plants is in a pot, but both plants are not movable right now because they're vines that are well over 10' long, and fixed to string that's attached to the house and fence.

On the bright side, the BBQ grill I've been trying to let die might take enough of a beating in the storm that I'll be able to talk Mel into letting me get a replacement.

Got a late start this morning

2008-09-03T10:12:00.004-04:00

And I am going to have to replace my alarm clock.

Now that both kids are attending classes (Wally's actually the one really "going to school". Wil's going to day care with lessons) the alarm clock is set to go off at the ungodly hour of 4:45 AM. This is so Mel can get up and have the boys all dressed and out of the house before 7:00 AM.

There are two alarm clocks in the room, but mysteriously only mine seems to be the reliable one. This means that I now have to wake up at 4:45 just to wake up Mel. Normally I set the alarm for about 6:40 AM, and I hit the snooze button a time or two after that. I can shave and shower in under 15 minutes if need be, thanks to Navy boot camp training.

Problem today was that after I woke up the wife I went back to sleep. I don't have one of those fancy dual alarm clocks, so once I turned off the alarm it was off for the next 24 hours.

I didn't realize the time until I rolled over lazily and glanced at the clock while trying to figure out why the house was so quiet. It was 7:40, and I have to be in the office by 8:00. I leapt out of bed and promptly did what every panicked person does when they're going to be late for work; I checked my email. Isn't that normal?

Funny thing was, this morning's inbox held a note, a simple little reminder, that really settled me down.

It was a kindly birthday reminder for my late grandmother Lillian. While it's been over a year since she passed, I'm still missing her dearly. She would have been 95 today.

From then on the rest of the morning has been a bit more reflective, but not really somber.

I'm actually kind of smiling at the moment as I read over her obituary from the SF Chronicle which said, " Her legacy is that of a strong willed, hard working, independent woman, who's heart and home were always open to her family, especially her grandchildren." It doesn't get more true than that.

Grandma's house was a place of refuge. If there was one thing I could always count on, it was that when I went around back, any time of the day, any day of the year, that key to the house was always in the same hiding spot.

Now I could have easily had a copy made, and I don't think I ever really thought about it then, but I am just now and I honestly believe that having a key of my own to her home would have made me feel less welcome. It seems to me that going and getting my own key would have been a bit like taking the place for granted, but in using the key that she placed there for me (of course it wasn't just for me, as the whole family knew and used it too), I always had an open invitation to come on in, and I don't know how I would have taken it if the key was gone when I needed it...

Happy Birthday Grandma!