Cook Club: Week 5

This week I went back to making more than one new recipe.  If you're going to go through the hassle of making a new recipe on the weekend, you might as well make more than one, says I.

First, I made dessert.  Mostly because dessert needs to set.  I made two this week; both from the Hershey's Best Loved Recipes cookbook.  First recipe:  Chocolate Mousse for Two.  The recipe took maybe about 20 minutes to make, and it was easy.  The only problem I had with the outcome is that the texture was more pudding, less mousse.  The flavor was wonderful, though, so I'll try it again.  4/5 with one star being removed because of the consistency.  Second Recipe:  Peanut Butter Chocolate "Fudge".  How could you go wrong? Peanut Butter chips, Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and a can of Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Super easy to make and decent fudge-like consistency.  The only main problem was that it didn't really have a good peanut butter or chocolate flavor - it was much more of a plain 'sweet' flavor.  While Shawn didn't like it, I thought it was alright, and the coworkers seemed to love it. (no pictures - I'm apparently really bad at taking photos of dessert...though in my defense, the mousse was served in pint glasses even though they were less than half full.  I didn't have any photos of the fudge because it only looked nice when I had cut it all up into pieces and put them on a plate for my coworkers).  3/5 - I'd make it again, but it's most definitely not Shawn's favorite.

Second we started in on the Roasted Carrots from the Cook's Country Cookbook.  I went off-recipe and used baby carrots instead of the normal carrots like the recipe required.  While the carrots weren't necessarily roasted (the problem with using baby carrots per the recipe), they did taste good - sweet, but not too sweet.  Also not cooked to mush - my biggest complaint with cooked carrots.  4/5 - I'll do this recipe again, but maybe use real carrots instead to see if I like it better.

Finally, we made the Lemon Chicken which came from a recipe my Aunt gave me when I graduated from college (she had given me a nice Caphalon pan, a cookbook, a set of her favorite recipes and a bunch of Penzey's spices).  Shawn called the chicken, "chicken nuggets with lemon sauce."  Shawn wasn't much of a fan because he's not a fan of lemon flavor, but I liked them.  I'd have these again, but I'd add some veg and maybe some rice.  3.5/5

Served with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls since i wasn't positive that they'd go well with rice.

Molecular Gastronomy

For Christmas, my sister got Shawn a molecular gastronomy kit.  Shawn decided it was time to make something.  I present to you spherized drinkable yogurt (you can call them smoothie balls if you want):

Step 1:  Make your Sodium Alginate bath using your stick blender.  Find out that your stick blender is busted.  WONDERFUL!

Step 2:  Prepare your yogurt smoothie - add some Calcium Lactate and mix with spoon until dissolved.

Step 3: Drop teaspoons of the smoothie into the alginate bath.

Step 4: Wait.

Step 5: Fish balls out of alginate bath with slotted spoon and transfer to a water bath (to rinse).

Step 6: Yay! Yogurt smoothie balls!

Now then, you do have to be careful when adding the spoonfuls of smoothie to the alginate bath because if you don't get it all in in one fell swoop you end up with weird shapes...I can't quite decide if they look more like pink cat turds or little organs from a small animal.

Pink cat turds or pink organs?  either way, it's spherification gone wrong.

Enjoy your pink cat turds!

Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara November 2012

Ivy

Laying in the grass together on a lazy Sunday afternoon

Straight Edge

A little dated, but still relevant since I just took the pictures off of my camera. 

Before

Midway shaving off the beard with the clippers

This is totally about to happen

Ohmagerd! it's happening!

Pictures! the second

Pictures of the family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Hopefully Dani and/or Mary Jo will upload their photos to a location where they can be shared...

Butlers in Santa Fe

Pictures! the first

From Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe National Park

Are Teests

Some of the art that impressed me while in Santa Fe:

"Meet and Greet" by Barbara Meikle ($3,800).  Barbara was very outgoing and loves talking about her art.  You can find her artwork at the Pippin Meikle Gallery.

A giant ball made out of chain link fence - I think it looks like a lantern.  I don't remember who was the originator of this piece, but it is located at InArt

"Autumn in Taos" by Pamela Dewitt ($1,200).  This picture does NOT do this piece justice.  It is a reverse painted piece on shattered glass.  The effect is awesome.  We were told that this artist is relatively new so her pieces are currently very reasonably priced.  Her artwork is currently at InArt.

"Canon del Agua" by David Perez Escudero ($18,500).  First, this painting is huge.  I was standing at the door to the gallery and this is all I got of the painting (it's 5' x 5.5').  Second, this is pointilism and this guy sure does take it to a whole different level.  He was a programmer for Los Alamos before retiring.  He now paints full time.  His artwork can be found at InArt.

"Wyoming Sunrise" by Carol Shinn ($3,9,50).  This is freestyle sewing.  SEWING.  It's insane!  Her artwork can currently be seen at the Jane Sauer Gallery.

"Poppies Whirl" by Gregory Smith ($1,250).  Just cuz I like me some botanical artwork.  Gregory's artwork can be found at the Ventana Fine Art Gallery.

Family

The family at Buffalo Thunder Casino in Santa Fe, New Mexico

A photo showing how much space we all were keeping from Sickie Jim (hence why he looks a bit closer to the camera in the photo above).

From the Archives

The table at my cousin's wedding

TGO Shadow

Live Oak

Sunset

Sunset the other night...

Shutterbug: Birds

Foreground:  American Finch
Background:  House Finch

For those of you who don't know what size that is, a House Finch is roughly the same size as the common house sparrow.


-Catch of the Day
-Unlikely Duos
-Murals
-Those were the days
-Milestones
-State Parks
-Birds
-At the Fair
-EEK!
-Fall Leaves
-Curious Cats
-Man's Best Friend
-Heroes
-Cemeteries
-At the Cook-off
-Fun with Photoshop
-Baby, It's Cold Outside
-Going Nuts
-Yard Art
-Up Close and Personal
-Pet Tricks
-Oooops!
-Water Towers
-Night Photography

I have also realized that chances are likely that some of these I'll never get around to - like At the Cook-off or At the Fair  - mostly because I don't go to those things.  So I may remove them and add some more new challenges.

Family

The requisite Family Portrait for Christmas:

My family - Me, Shawn, Dani, Mom and Dad.

Gifting

A gift from my mom - a pitcher made by my cousin's wife, Dany.  She blogs at WellieBellie and she (and my cousin) sell their wares via etsy at Art Haus Ceramics.  They also do some art shows in Colorado, so keep your eyes peeled.

The yellow flowers (which are fake) are from my works' Christmas party from a few weeks ago. 

The pictures in the background were taken by yours truly (and Shawn), and in order from left to right, top to bottom are a gulf fritillary from my back yard (mine), a church in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland (Shawn), a lamp at Treasure Island in Las Vegas (mine), a ghost plant succulent in my front yard (mine), coneflowers from Mount Vernon (Shawn), and a California Poppy in our front yard (mine).  You can read how to set up your photos like this in this blog entry:  Procrastination: Over

Happy Halloween

Wait, what, that was last week? Well damn. Happy fall?

From the Archives

In other news, my niece, Stereo, was born today. YAY!

Shutterbug: Heroes

The Eternal Flame at the National Fallen Firefighter's Memorial along with two flags placed by someone attending the National Fire Academy the week I was there.

9/11 Memorial on the Emergency Management Institute's campus

-Catch of the Day
-Unlikely Duos
-Murals
-Those were the days
-Milestones
-State Parks
-Birds
-At the Fair
-EEK!
-Fall Leaves
-Curious Cats
-Man's Best Friend
-Heroes
-Cemeteries
-At the Cook-off
-Fun with Photoshop
-Baby, It's Cold Outside
-Going Nuts

Shutterbug: Cemeteries

Mortuary Chapel in St. Joseph's Cemetery at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

-Catch of the Day
-Unlikely Duos
-Murals
-Those were the days
-Milestones
-State Parks
-Birds
-At the Fair
-EEK!
-Fall Leaves
-Curious Cats
-Man's Best Friend
-Heroes
-Cemeteries
-At the Cook-off
-Fun with Photoshop
-Baby, It's Cold Outside
-Going Nuts