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| Sunday, March 21st, 2010 | | 12:59 am |
If it's Ostara, it must be grilling weather
Okay, so I am not a neo pagan, and I don't celebrate any of the sabbats in a religious way. I do have some rituals to my life. Make a turkey at thanksgiving, avoid parties at Halloween, spend the winter solstice with friends and family, oh and as soon as daylight savings time and warm weather allow, I start grilling. This year is no different, and with the new early date for DST, I can actually grill dinner on the first day of spring. So tonight I bring you cedar plank grilled chicken breast with alder wood smoked salt. Simple, but it requires a few things. Cedar grilling planks, and alder wood smoked salt. Oh and a grill of course. The one I use when I am lazy, need good heat control, and am not looking for real charcoal flavor is a medium sized (3 burner) Weber gas grill fueled by LP (propane for those of us not being technical). If I want to get my charcoal on I have an off brand kettle cooker, and lump charcoal. It is almost as fast in heating up as the gas grill, but it doesn't have an off switch. For Cedar plank grilling I thought the gas would be the better tool. Planking wants medium heat, and I never seem to get anything but blast furnace from the charcoal. The grill was started, and set to medium on all three burners. So enough about the hardware, on to the food. I started with 2 large chicken breasts, and made a rub using ground sage, dry thyme, some strange pulverized chili that was more sweet than hot, and garlic powder. sprinkled both sides with rub, and some alder wood smoked salt that was a gift from a friend of mine. Rub the rub in, and take the planks (soaked for about 5 hours in water) and the chicken out to the grill. Put the planks on the grill, put the chicken on the planks, close the lid. Turn about every ten minutes, until done. The chicken does cook faster if you don't get a freak wind blow through the yard and actually blow out the grill. That is the first time that I have had that happen. It will probably take about 35 to 45 minutes. I pulled the chicken off at about 150 degrees, it was safely cooked, and not bone dry. That's it. slice, and eat with a small baked potato finished with olive oil and Hawaiian pink salt, and some braising greens from the CSA box. The chicken was possibly the best non marinated thing I have ever grilled. There was the smokiness from the planks, and plus the herbs from the rub, no real heat, and a complimentary smoke from the salt. Sort of like the good smoked turkey legs you sometimes find in the better markets. The rub, were I to actually measure was probably: 1 teaspoon ground or rubbed sage 1 teaspoon dry thyme 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon of this funky chili I sprinkled the salt separately, so I couldn't guess how much. Guess that is all for now. [edit] the funky chili was Aleppo. This and the alder wood salt can be found at World Spice on Western Ave behind Pike Place Market. | | Sunday, September 13th, 2009 | | 7:09 pm |
| | 6:22 pm |
At least as evolved as a chimp
I used tools, and I accomplished a home improvement. This past summer when we had some major outdoor plumbing work done the entire yard including the path from the driveway to the back door was torn up. The plumber did a lousy job putting the path back, so I had to make a new one. I chose concrete pavers because the idea of building forms and pouring a new walkway seemed like it would stress my carpentry and masonry skills. So behold my new pathway. It is either paved with tumbled concrete paving bricks, or good intentions.  | | Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | | 10:36 pm |
Do you think ....
That the previous post was overly dramatic, laced with cliche and bad metaphore? Or more slightly ironic and somewhat self mocking in tone? These reflective moments brought to you by spending well over an hour reading fine print, correcting mistakes, and signing my name. I think I was getting a bit punchy towards the end. | | 10:34 pm |
Writer's Cramp
My long personal paper nightmare has finally come to an end. With the stroke of a pen, or rather well over an hour of pen stroking I have reached the culmination of 4 plus months of documentation supply, credit checks, constant updates of my financial health to semi anonymous strangers. Yes, it is finally over. I closed on buying the house this afternoon. Finding the house wasn't difficult, I looked under my butt and there it was. Financing wasn't really difficult, but it was tedious, and I had to constantly ride the mortgage broker like the town mule to get anything done. But, I am once again on the real estate rollercoaster, only this time I have someone with me to scream at the drops. I guess that is it for now. | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 8:37 pm |
My big fat greek turkey burgers.
Okay, they aren't so big, or so fat, but they were reasonably palatable. 20 oz extra lean ground turkey 1 half vidalia onion diced (You go to dinner with the onion you have) 2 cloves of garlic minced The zest of one lemon 1.5 tsp chopped fresh dill (approximately) 1.5 tsp ground cumin (approximately) salt and cayenne to taste. 2.5 oz reduced fat Feta Cheese. Cut the feta cheese into 1/2 oz chunks. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, or some other vessel. Divid into 5 equal portions. Make patties, wrapping around the feta chunks, one to a burger. Find a heat source, flame works good, or charcoal. Cook until halfway done, flip, continue cooking until all done. On my smoking hot gas grill (Set to kill not stun) that was 5 minutes a side. Serve with fat free tadziki. Now where do you get fat free tadziki? I am glad you asked. Fat Free Tasziki 8 fluid oz fat free greek yogurt 2 cloves chopped garlic 1/2 teaspoon finally chopped dill 1/4 of an english cucumber small dice (about 1 cup) the juice of half a lemon lemon pepper salt to taste. Mix it all up on in a bowl, let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. Serve on turkey burgers, or your partner, or maybe a rock. Thus another Sunday ends. Oh, for those that care with a new OroWheat (Arnolds for those on the east coast) Whole Wheat Sandwhich thin the burger is 4 points in weight watchers calculations. 1/4 of the tadziki is 0 points. | | Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | | 10:28 pm |
It must be the lack of martial arts.
Your results: You are Will Riker| Will Riker |
| 75% |
| Geordi LaForge |
| 75% |
| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) |
| 70% |
| Jean-Luc Picard |
| 65% |
| James T. Kirk (Captain) |
| 60% |
| Worf |
| 55% |
| Deanna Troi |
| 50% |
| Mr. Scott |
| 45% |
| Spock |
| 39% |
| Uhura |
| 35% |
| Leonard McCoy (Bones) |
| 35% |
| Data |
| 29% |
| Chekov |
| 25% |
| Mr. Sulu |
| 25% |
| Beverly Crusher |
| 20% |
|
At times you are self-centered
but you have many friends.
You love many women, but the right
woman could get you to settle down.
 |
Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz | | Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | | 10:07 pm |
| | Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | | 6:48 pm |
The gas weber lives
It has been sitting in storage since I moved out here, I finally have a level solid patio where I don't feel frightened of fireing up a gas grill. With some minor inconvenience (Had to get a new gas cylinder, stuffy moving company wouldn't ship an LP cylinder across the country) and the regulator fittings have changed. But I got an adapter, leak tested it, and fired it up. So now we have a choice of gas or charcoal depending upon mood and weather. Tonight Balsamic grilled chicken thighs. Grilled aspargus, and mushrooms, and rosemary roasted potatoes. | | Friday, January 25th, 2008 | | 9:51 pm |
Some of this is true
| What Jeremy Means | 
You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.
You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.
You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.
You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.
You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.
You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.
You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.
You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!
You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.
You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.
You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care. |
| | Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 | | 4:11 pm |
| | Sunday, December 16th, 2007 | | 10:32 pm |
A quick and easy one.
Somethings look and taste impressive, but are easy, and involve little to no actual work. So take that Sandra Lee. Roast Pork Loin. 1 Pork Loin, ribs attached about 2.5 lbs. 7 cloves of garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit Cut slits in the pork between each bone, and at either end and slide the garlic cloves into the slits. Depending upon the number of ribs for your roast you might need more or fewer cloves. Rub the pork with the oil on both sides, sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides and rub that in. Place on a rack in a roasting pan, put in oven. Cook until the internal temp is approximately 145 F. Remove from oven, put on a plate or cutting board that has a rim, cover with foil, and let rest for at least 10 minutes, 15 would probably be better. Carve into chops, and eat, repeating carving and eating until your gluttony is satisfied. I didn't get a lot of fonds in the bottom of the pan, otherwise I would have made a gravy, pork is getting too lean these days. For an added treat, cut some little red potatoes in half and put in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil on them, and then salt, pepper, fresh chopped garlic, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary to taste. Toss the potatoes to coat, and put in the bottom of the roasting pan about 15 minutes in. They come out better if they are on the bottom of the pan, rather than the rack. | | Friday, November 9th, 2007 | | 11:40 pm |
You never know what you will find.
While looking for an old document on my system, I ran across this gem from back in the days of Lucent Technologies. And people wonder why I was always an individual contributor. Phrases you can use at work This seemed relevent & potentially useful... 1. Ahhh...I see the fuck-up fairy has visited us again... 2. I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce. 3. How about never? Is never good for you? 4. I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public. 5. I'm really easy to get along with once you people learn to worship me. 6. I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter. 7. I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message... 8. I don't work here. I'm a consultant. 9. It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying. 10. I can see your point, but I still think you're full of shit. 11. I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid. 12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers. 13. I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a damn. 14. I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth. 15. I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you. 16. Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view. 17. The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist. 18. Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental. 19. What am I? Flypaper for freaks!? 20. I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant. 21. It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off. 22. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial. 23. No, my powers can only be used for good. 24. You sound reasonable... Time to up the medication. 25. Who me? I just wander from room to room. | | Sunday, October 21st, 2007 | | 11:21 pm |
Cooking in general
My beloved partner has decided to change her eating for health reasons, and this is requiring me to change my cooking. I am having to relearn how to get good flavor and texture, without using obnoxious amounts of fat. Fat is a carrier of flavor, as well as being a carrier of heart disease, and obesity. By using a lot of herbs and other flavor agents, and concentrating my flavors, I am finding that I can get tasty foods with a good mouthfeel, without using a lot of fat. I am not cooking fat free, but when I am using fat I am using it to my best advantage. Interesting oils, flavored oils, judicious use of butter. When I had to lose a large quantity of weight ten years ago, I cut back on my fat intake somewhat, but I now I am trying to make balanced and tasty meals, that are not fat heavy. The trick is not to mourn the ingredients I am excluding (heavy cream, I so love heavy cream, let us hear a dirge in memory of heavy cream. I come here not to praise heavy cream, but to bury it...) But to take the most advantage I can of the ingredients I am including (reducing stock to within an inch of its life can give you a good mouth feel. Yukon gold potatoes have a buttery texture when mashed, and you can add a bit of lowfat buttermilk and chicken stock to help them along.) So when you are looking to change the way you eat, don't look at what you have to cut out, but at what you can include, in new and different ways. Oh, and never overlook the power of cabbage. | | 11:12 pm |
And they call this diet food?
A quickie for tonight, as there was some serious baseball involved. Pork Chops with Mushroom Gravy. 2 bone in loin pork chops, @ 1/2 lb each. 1/4 cup bread crumbs 1/4 cup egg beaters salt pepper rosemary sage thyme cayenne garlic powder Preheat the oven to 350 F Mix the bread crumbs with the herbs and spices to taste. Dredge the chops in the egg beaters, and then the bread crumbs. Coating lightly but thoroughly. Place on a baking sheet that has been very lightly sprayed with release spray. Bake for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 145 F, you can bake to 160 if you like, but it will be dry. Mushroom gravy salt and pepper 1 medium shallot, finely diced 1/2 lb crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced 2 small sprigs of fresh thyme 2 tbls butter 2 tbls AP flour 1/2 cup dry red wine 1 1/2 cups mushroom stock 1 bay leaf Saute the shallot and mushrooms, salt and peppering to taste. When the veggies have softened and expressed a lot of their liquid add the thyme. Sprinkle on the flour, and reduce the heat. Cook for a few minutes, and then add the wine. Reduce until far too thick, and then stir in the stock. Add the bay leaf and simmer until the gravy coats the back of a spoon. Correct seasoning, and serve over pork chops, and anything else that might be interesting, such as mashed yukon gold potatoes. This was served with (Now here is a suprise) Mashed yukon gold potatoes with buttermilk, but no other fat added, and steamed cabbage with salt, pepper, and a wee bit of white truffle oil. God I love the flavors of fall. This meal was relatively low fat, the pork was pretty lean, and the gravy makes enough to serve 4. The cabbage should serve 4 normal people, but we like cabbage. I think I like diet food. | | Sunday, October 14th, 2007 | | 10:55 pm |
Something Yummy
Okay, this is about as easy as it gets. This is a variation on something I learned from a friend\housemate 20 odd years ago. I apparantly don't precisely recall who it is, but they did it with pork chops. Tenderloin works quite nicely. Pork Tenderloin baked in saurkraut Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 1 Pork Tenderloin, from .5 to 1 lb enough Saurkraut to make a bed, and cover the tenderloin 2 to 3 cups, probably. 1 tablespoon carroway seeds salt and pepper to taste. Salt and pepper the pork on both sides. Put enough saurkraut in a glass or pyrex (not aluminum or cast iron) baking dish to act as a bed for the pork. Put the pork on the saurkraut, sprinkle with 1/2 of the carroway seeds. Cover over the pork with more saurkraut. Sprinkle remaining seeds over the saurkraut. Place in the preheated oven and bake until the internal temperature is 145 degrees, or your desired level of incinerated about 45 minutes, depending upon your oven, and your piece of pork. (I will not cook pork to 160, I don't like dry pork). Take out of oven, let rest for five minutes, slice up, eat with saurkraut, or other veggie. I made herbed mushroom, shallot barley, and steamed red cabbage with mine. But you could just as easily have had speatzle with a sage brown butter, or roast potatoes. You can do this with any kind of pork, but lean cuts should work better. You can also do this with sausage such as kielbasa. The pork comes out juicy, and tasting of saurkraut and carroway, with no fat added to the cooking process. Every day in every way we are eating better and better. Oh, and the red cabbage is because it is fall, and we all need more gas in the fall. | | Thursday, October 11th, 2007 | | 10:23 pm |
Jury Duty
So I am actually posting something. For the first time in my life, I finally get a call to jury duty, and don't have a major exemption (being in the military) or get it dismissed the night before (CT calls huge numbers, and then dismisses many without serving.) Unlike many people out there, I want to serve on a jury, maybe it is because I have a chance to pass judgement on people, or maybe because it is a way of participating in our democracy that is real, and tangible, and I suspect you can see you are having an effect. Or maybe it is that I have always been fascinated by law, and our legal system, but far too ethical to ever be an attorney. So here I am, reporting to jury duty, actually excited by the chance to serve. There is a catch of course. My employer is a contractor/vendor supplying services to a large software company on the east side. I will let you guess which one. Because they can only bill hours that I am providing service to the client company, they won't pay me for hours not billable. In other words, while they are happy to let me have the time off to serve on a jury, I don't get payed. I figured I could afford to miss one, maybe two weeks worth of pay. I really want to do this service. So sitting in the jury room, I am called for the first panel of the day. We finally get up to the court room, and I get a bad feeling. There are 55 members of this panel, and a large host of lawyers. To me this starts to smell of a civil trial. Turns out to be a medical malpractice case. Then the other shoe drops, the judge announces that he has targeted November 1st as the day he thinks he can hand the case over to the jury. I am screwed. I want to serve, but I can't afford to serve that long. This would be in excess of three weeks, and I just can't see having to let everything else lapse to pay the rent. The judge then gives us a pep talk about duty, and justice, and all sorts of good stuff, and asks us if there is anyone who doesn't think he can give their full attention for the length of this trial. Reluctantly I put up my hand. Of course he doesn't dismiss anyone at this point, which may be doing us a favor. So I got to sit through 75% of a day and a half voir dire. And then was dismissed on a hardship. I went back to the jury room a few minutes before lunch, and then knitted for about 3 hours (interrupted by a brief jaunt to my favorite Pioneer Square lunch spot, Soup Daddy). Finally in early afternoon, the call comes down no more panels needed. So we are free to go. So I don't get to serve. So now that I am free of all ethical limitations, I research the case a bit, and have backed up some of my guesses. This is a bullshit case that is going to be heartbreaking for the jury. The first question from the Plaintiff's council for the panel was "Does anyone know what a frivoulous lawsuit is?". As soon as you start trying to defuse that argument, in voir dire, you might be in trouble. She also had a question to a juror objected to, and had the objection sustained. I googled the defendant, and found no complaints or disciplinary actions, only a few papers co-authored. I think this is an angry, and grieving family, trying to take out their grief in court. I strongly suspect there is not a whole lot of merit to the case. Frankly, malpractice insurance companies prefer to settle, if they have any doubt that they might lose. They were throwing some serious effort into this case. The doctor's attorney, the attorney for the practice where the doctor works, and a third gentleman who would be there while they picked a jury. Yes, they had a "Jury Doctor". The defense had brought in a specialist in picking juries. They were very serious. Granted, I don't know the merits of the case, but were I reporting for the courthouse beat of the local paper, I wouldn't bother with this one. Three weeks of tragic testimoney from family, and then lots of expert witnesses on both sides, and I strongly suspect it will all come to naught. Ah well, probably a good idea I was not able to serve on this jury, but I might try and follow the trial. I must see if the county keeps the dockett on the web, and if they post the verdicts, or settlements. | | Sunday, July 15th, 2007 | | 8:42 pm |
Summer is a tasty time
Not a real entry, just a culinary success. Summer Pasta Salad 1 12 oz pkg of Oricette, or other small pasta shape. 1 yellow pepper 1 orange pepper 1/2 red onion 1 lemon 1 tablespoon olive oil two tablespoons (very approximately) fresh basil 2 small sprigs of fresh oregano 2 oz Feta Cheese Cook the pasta per the package instructions, rinse it with cold water, and refrigerate. Dice the peppers (the size of the dice depends upon the size of the pasta, for the oricette it was between 1/4 and 1/2 in dice, for orzo it would be smaller. Dice the onion to the same size as the peppers. Take the leaves off of the herbs stems, and roll into a cigar shape and slice thinly (Chiffonade, but I don't know how to spell that word). Put the vegatables and herbs in a bowl with the pasta. Zest the lemon with a grater into the bowl. Juice the lemon into the bowl, being careful to not put the seeds into the bowl (crunchy but bitter). Salt and pepper to taste, drizzle the olive oil (It was a medium dollop) and toss the salad together. Crumble the cheese over the top, toss to mix through. Taste to check seasoning. We think it might be better with some diced cucumber, but the garden isn't ready to give those to us yet. The peppers and onion came from the big garden with cash registers in front of it. This salad is light, flavorful, tastes of summer, and is simple to make. I love summer, easy flavors. This went well with some grilled pork tenderloin, and field greens. As to my life, work is good, relationship is great, health is good, free time is non-existant. | | Sunday, May 20th, 2007 | | 1:53 am |
| | Thursday, April 26th, 2007 | | 8:38 pm |
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