Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Family that Games Together.....
Rowen and I playing the Song of Blades and Heroes wargame. The first set is Schleich toy knights, led by Sir Gunderbunderbeder (of bathtime story fame) against the Saracen hordes. Then it was the Golden Golem vs the world. The next weekend it was Strawberry Shortcake and her Bunny warriors vs the Capt Thwack and his pirates. Yes, those are bunnies with axes.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I count myself lucky to grow up where and when I did. Barnegat, NJ on the shore in the 70s and 80s. Now I know what you might think about Jersey from TV and movies, but South Jersey was a whole different world back in the day. We kept quail and rabbits in the backyard. The woods behind my house went on for about two miles before you hit the Parkway and after that you were deep in the Pine Barrens. They used to grow corn (Silver Queen) the next town down and sell it by side of rt 9. The men in my family all hunt and and most fish (not me, fishing is a good day sailing spoiled).I learned how to canoe and sail. On the other hand, in the summer, all the shoobies(local word for tourists) came to the Island and we had rides, movies and skeeball. School trips to Philly and NYC museums, shows and zoos were the norm. I think I grew up pretty well balanced.
To be fair, during my teenage years, I thought I was growing up in the ass end of nowhere and would have killed and maimed to live in NYC, London or Paris. Now, not so much (except for Paris or Munich or Lucerne, I'd kneecap someone to live there).
Nowadays, Barnegat is changed in so many ways that I barely recognize the town when I visit. The woods are gone, replaced with McMansions, less people hunt, but the deer and squirrels are everywhere, the shoobies stayed and changed the towns into tiny clones of the NY and Philly exurbs they fled.
Not sure how this all ties in with Sesame Street, I was a Captain Kangaroo and Captain Noah kid myself. But I think the branding of everything has created a tasteless homogonization of Amreican regional culture. Do you want a Chilli's in every town? Really? There seems to be a disdain in popular culture ( except for maybe country music) for making money from the sweat of your brow and having skill with your hands. Who do you see on TV doing work outside an office? Cops, firemen, soldiers and interior designers. Maybe it has to do with killing off the small manufacturing and small farm industry?
Ok rambled enough.
To be fair, during my teenage years, I thought I was growing up in the ass end of nowhere and would have killed and maimed to live in NYC, London or Paris. Now, not so much (except for Paris or Munich or Lucerne, I'd kneecap someone to live there).
Nowadays, Barnegat is changed in so many ways that I barely recognize the town when I visit. The woods are gone, replaced with McMansions, less people hunt, but the deer and squirrels are everywhere, the shoobies stayed and changed the towns into tiny clones of the NY and Philly exurbs they fled.
Not sure how this all ties in with Sesame Street, I was a Captain Kangaroo and Captain Noah kid myself. But I think the branding of everything has created a tasteless homogonization of Amreican regional culture. Do you want a Chilli's in every town? Really? There seems to be a disdain in popular culture ( except for maybe country music) for making money from the sweat of your brow and having skill with your hands. Who do you see on TV doing work outside an office? Cops, firemen, soldiers and interior designers. Maybe it has to do with killing off the small manufacturing and small farm industry?
Ok rambled enough.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Heaven is Apple pie
Well almost. I found this recipe when I was looking for a Coffee Granita recipe.
I used granny smiths, because that's what I had. I substituted Maker's Mark for Calvados because the Class VI doesn't carry Calvados (more's the pity). It was like a tarte tatin and vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!
4 Fuji or Royal Gala apples, peeled, cored, and each cut into 16 wedges
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons Calvados
Preheat broiler.
Toss apples with lemon juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Melt butter in a shallow baking pan 6 inches from heat. Remove from oven and tilt pan back and forth to coat bottom completely with butter. Arrange apples in 1 layer in pan. Broil apples 6 inches from heat until edges are pale golden and apples are just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over apples and broil until sugar is melted, 1 to 2 minutes.
While apples are broiling, boil maple syrup and Calvados 2 minutes.
Serve apples and ice cream topped with sauce.
I used granny smiths, because that's what I had. I substituted Maker's Mark for Calvados because the Class VI doesn't carry Calvados (more's the pity). It was like a tarte tatin and vanilla ice cream. YUMMY!
4 Fuji or Royal Gala apples, peeled, cored, and each cut into 16 wedges
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons Calvados
Preheat broiler.
Toss apples with lemon juice and 2 tablespoons sugar. Melt butter in a shallow baking pan 6 inches from heat. Remove from oven and tilt pan back and forth to coat bottom completely with butter. Arrange apples in 1 layer in pan. Broil apples 6 inches from heat until edges are pale golden and apples are just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over apples and broil until sugar is melted, 1 to 2 minutes.
While apples are broiling, boil maple syrup and Calvados 2 minutes.
Serve apples and ice cream topped with sauce.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Spicy Chicken Whatchacallit
I made this today after staring at a can of beans all week. It's the first time I've tried a roux.
Ingredients
Blonde roux
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can butter beans
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup wine
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
Spices
Tools
Fry pan or skillet
Heavy bottom pot (chili pot)or dutch oven
Spatula
Pancake flipper
Paring knife
Bowls
Spoon
Cutting board
Make a blonde roux out of flour and butter. I took the easy way and melted 2/3 cup butter in a fry pan and added 1/2 cup flour, slowly. Stir it all the time with a spatula and it slowly turns this awesome honey brown colour. I slipped the roux out of the fry pan and into its own bowl.
Rinse the fry pan.
Chop the onion and saute over high heat in the chili pot, taking care the onion doesn't burn. Add the tomatoes, drain one can of beans and add them. Add the other can of beans along with its water. Add the wine. Turn down the heat.
Slice your chicken meat, season with garlic, black pepper and onion salt. Saute the chicken in the fry pan until the it's golden brown, add it to the chili pot. Stir in the roux. How much depends on how thick you like your stew. Add your spices to your prefered spice level. I used Zataran's Cajun spice mix, maybe 4 tsp. I just shake and taste. You could use chili powder or curry powder. Even just some more black pepper.
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for at least 3 hours.
Serve with tortilla chips and mexican cheese blend or oyster crackers and blue cheese. Maybe just with a dollop of good sour cream?
Robert Vela 's box rose goes good with this. Hey, be nice, I had a coupon.
Ingredients
Blonde roux
1/2 yellow onion chopped
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can butter beans
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup wine
2 boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts
Spices
Tools
Fry pan or skillet
Heavy bottom pot (chili pot)or dutch oven
Spatula
Pancake flipper
Paring knife
Bowls
Spoon
Cutting board
Make a blonde roux out of flour and butter. I took the easy way and melted 2/3 cup butter in a fry pan and added 1/2 cup flour, slowly. Stir it all the time with a spatula and it slowly turns this awesome honey brown colour. I slipped the roux out of the fry pan and into its own bowl.
Rinse the fry pan.
Chop the onion and saute over high heat in the chili pot, taking care the onion doesn't burn. Add the tomatoes, drain one can of beans and add them. Add the other can of beans along with its water. Add the wine. Turn down the heat.
Slice your chicken meat, season with garlic, black pepper and onion salt. Saute the chicken in the fry pan until the it's golden brown, add it to the chili pot. Stir in the roux. How much depends on how thick you like your stew. Add your spices to your prefered spice level. I used Zataran's Cajun spice mix, maybe 4 tsp. I just shake and taste. You could use chili powder or curry powder. Even just some more black pepper.
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for at least 3 hours.
Serve with tortilla chips and mexican cheese blend or oyster crackers and blue cheese. Maybe just with a dollop of good sour cream?
Robert Vela 's box rose goes good with this. Hey, be nice, I had a coupon.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Urban Homesteader
So the current financial meltdown is bringing back memories of the 70s. I remember only buying gas on M-W-F, because our pickup and Blazer tags ended in even numbers. Gardening, clamming, crabbing, fishing and hunting because we had to, rather than for fun. Chopping wood for the woodstove because it was cheaper than gas heat.
Luckily, back then someone thought gambling in Atlantic City would be a great idea and Dad worked on most of the casinos, so we weathered the inflation era ok. But I guess it planted a seed in my subconsious, because I keep coming back to digging in the dirt, growing things and raising stuff.
Those of you who know me, know I ain't no farmer, but maybe, just maybe, I can be a gardener. I've been evaluating my hobbies and the time they take. Other than the SCA, I have little to show for the amount of time they take in terms of real goods or useful skills. When some Chinese wage slave is happy to get 10 dollars a day to paint tabletop quaility miniatures, what future is there in it? Computer games are fun, but once again, other than entertainment, what do they create, other than a black hole that sucks up time better spent with my family? Same thing with RPGs. The argument for the current consumer culture is that it gives us more time, but time for what really? To buy more cheap stuff made, grown and packaged in developing nations?
Don't worry, I'm not going to spout off about how globalization is evil and Wal-mart is the devil (maybe an imp in Satan's service, but certainly not the Prince of darkness himself ;-)) It just comes down to me looking at the McMansions, giant SUVs, bass boats, LL Bean yuppie "adventure vacationers", media sensations and saying WTF? Is this all there is? Am I just a source of credit and revenue to the gnomes of Zurich? To hell with that! I want my daughter to know the value of food becuse of the effort it takes to grow and raise it. That the world isn't supposed to be chopped up into little quarter acre parcels of land with ugly huge houses squatting on them and expanses of tamed weeds. That golf courses are a desert, for all that they are green.
Growing vegetables and herbs may be time consuming, but i'd have something to show for it, provided the squirrels don't get there first, lol. I thought about turning more to SCA centered crafts, but two things come to mind. Other than clothes, anyhing I make will be pretty crude and not garner much profit after materials are factored in and the economic slowdown have many SCAdians selling off stuff and scaling back the hobby. Not the time to jump into the market.
I came across the idea in a New York Magazine story http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/37273/ about urban homesteading. There are some real hard core off the grid permaculture sustainable living folks out there, like the Dervaes http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ All I can say is WOWZERS!, more power to you. Not my thing, I just want some return on my time and a way to do something constructive with my time.
Maybe a bit of garden in Germany will cure me of this desire, we'll see.
Luckily, back then someone thought gambling in Atlantic City would be a great idea and Dad worked on most of the casinos, so we weathered the inflation era ok. But I guess it planted a seed in my subconsious, because I keep coming back to digging in the dirt, growing things and raising stuff.
Those of you who know me, know I ain't no farmer, but maybe, just maybe, I can be a gardener. I've been evaluating my hobbies and the time they take. Other than the SCA, I have little to show for the amount of time they take in terms of real goods or useful skills. When some Chinese wage slave is happy to get 10 dollars a day to paint tabletop quaility miniatures, what future is there in it? Computer games are fun, but once again, other than entertainment, what do they create, other than a black hole that sucks up time better spent with my family? Same thing with RPGs. The argument for the current consumer culture is that it gives us more time, but time for what really? To buy more cheap stuff made, grown and packaged in developing nations?
Don't worry, I'm not going to spout off about how globalization is evil and Wal-mart is the devil (maybe an imp in Satan's service, but certainly not the Prince of darkness himself ;-)) It just comes down to me looking at the McMansions, giant SUVs, bass boats, LL Bean yuppie "adventure vacationers", media sensations and saying WTF? Is this all there is? Am I just a source of credit and revenue to the gnomes of Zurich? To hell with that! I want my daughter to know the value of food becuse of the effort it takes to grow and raise it. That the world isn't supposed to be chopped up into little quarter acre parcels of land with ugly huge houses squatting on them and expanses of tamed weeds. That golf courses are a desert, for all that they are green.
Growing vegetables and herbs may be time consuming, but i'd have something to show for it, provided the squirrels don't get there first, lol. I thought about turning more to SCA centered crafts, but two things come to mind. Other than clothes, anyhing I make will be pretty crude and not garner much profit after materials are factored in and the economic slowdown have many SCAdians selling off stuff and scaling back the hobby. Not the time to jump into the market.
I came across the idea in a New York Magazine story http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/37273/ about urban homesteading. There are some real hard core off the grid permaculture sustainable living folks out there, like the Dervaes http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ All I can say is WOWZERS!, more power to you. Not my thing, I just want some return on my time and a way to do something constructive with my time.
Maybe a bit of garden in Germany will cure me of this desire, we'll see.
Beer is proof God loves us
My current cheap guilty pleasure beers are San Miguel (the Phillipine version, not the Spanish), OB, and Old Milwaukee. As a teen, I swore by the Silver Bullet, though.
Mass produced European beers I like,
Stella Artois,
Maitre Kanter,
Erdinger,
Paulaner,
Bitburger (only on tap)
Beers I will maim for
Shofferhofer Hefeweissen or Kristallweissen
Guiness on tap
John Smith's Best Bitter
Beers I would kill for
Konig Ludwig Dunkel
Hoegaarden Witbier
Grimbergen Tripel
Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock
Ettaler Kloster Edel Hell
Mass produced European beers I like,
Stella Artois,
Maitre Kanter,
Erdinger,
Paulaner,
Bitburger (only on tap)
Beers I will maim for
Shofferhofer Hefeweissen or Kristallweissen
Guiness on tap
John Smith's Best Bitter
Beers I would kill for
Konig Ludwig Dunkel
Hoegaarden Witbier
Grimbergen Tripel
Weltenburger Kloster Asam Bock
Ettaler Kloster Edel Hell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
