(.)_(.)

I can make pad thai

2011-05-22T15:48:00.003-04:00

When it comes to cooking I fancy myself an advanced intermediate. Gumbo, pasta, salads, pizza, fried chicken, etc. are all above average. With a decent recipe, some time to shop and execute, there's nothing† I can't make, usually pretty well. I strive to make meals which are better than what I'd get ordering the same dish in a restaurant and I've been able achieve that more often than not. I've even added in some baking recently, turning out a few birthday cakes for Reen and a random batch of cookies here and there.

A simple motivation is wanting to be able to cook the food I like, at home, on demand and for cheaper than I'd pay at a restaurant. One of the earliest dishes I tried out was pad thai. This was during our first stint in northern VA, more than 10 years ago. Being street food, and very quickly served in any thai restaurant, I thought this would be an easy one to learn. There are a preponderance of recipes out there for reference, most of which say the same things: mix sauce, prep ingredients, soften rice noodles then fry everything up. Garnish with ground peanuts and a lime wedge.

God bless Maureen for eating every attempt that I offered up, but over the past 10 years I can recall only a single plate that was up to par...and I wasn't able to repeat that success. Each version was edible, sometimes even tasty, but I could never get the noodles themselves correct and the sauce correct at the same time. It must be the longest standing effort to get a dish consistently good that I've undertaken.

Two of the recipes I've tried are shown below, with the requisite battle stains demonstrating their use.

From Joy of Cooking...not really that bad actually, despite being based on western pantry items.

My desperation is revealed by this well worn recipe from Wolfgang Puck. In hindsight, perhaps not the best chance to find a reliable recipe.

To date, I've only written down two recipes* for documentation in the family recipe box. But tonight, a third is getting the star treatment.

I've successfully made pad thai about 3 times in a row now, with the ease and confidence one has when there's finally no more trial and error going on during the execution. I really know I've arrived because the results each of the 3 times were consistent with each other.

Here are the basics that I've got down and will leave the details (how much garlic, how spicy, what herbs you'd like, egg or no egg) to each individual. Those things are a matter of taste and difficult to mess up.

Noodles
The number one issue here is how you soften the dried noodles before frying. You must soak them, not immerse in boiling water as you'd do with pasta. And the soaking water must be cold, not warm or hot. I assume it's an issue with activating the gluten in the noodles, but stick with cold water to avoid a mushy/clumpy/broken noodle mess for dinner.

I was convinced that the problems I was having related to how I was cooking the noodles once they were softened. The heat of the pan, length of time in the pan, amount of oil, amount of water...all the while, prepping my noodles in warm or hot water because it was a little faster. Now that I'm starting with cold-soaked noodles, they are wonderfully forgiving as far as the details of cooking go.

A second, smaller improvement I've found is to buy the skinnier rice stick noodles which are about 1/8" wide. The bottom one in this photo. This is more an item of preference as opposed to the hot/cold soaking mentioned above.

Sauce
For a standard serving of 4 oz/100 g of dried noodles:
1 Tbl light brown sugar (palm sugar is more authentic if you've got some)
1 Tbl fish sauce
1 Tbl tamarind concentrate

Have a little water on hand to help the noodles along when frying, add sauce about 1 minute prior to noodles finishing up so that the fish sauce gets cooked and the sugars begin to caramelize.

And that's it. The rest is window dressing and a bit of practice to perfect it to your own tastes. Enjoy.

† My first attempt at making hotdogs yielded something that was really stomach churning. I can't actually say if it was inedible, because I didn't taste it. I had worked for a good 3+ hours preparing these and once 'done' I promptly threw them in the trash and took the trash out of the apartment to the dumpster. That was nearly 10 years ago now and I haven't tried to make hotdogs since.

The other blinding failure was an attempt at Coq au vin, the classic french dish of braised poultry. Another long session, which yielded a brownish purple mass with the rock hard feel of an over-inflated football. I did taste this one and would not have served it to a dog.

* the two originals in the box are a chile flavored sloppy joe type dish which I termed a Sloppy José. Served on a cheap white hamburger bun with a slice of american cheese metled on top. Awesome.

The second is a penne pasta with a cajun cream sauce, shrimp, chicken and smoked sausage. This was borne from a restaurant dish that Maureen liked and I was able to recreate (dare I say..improve?) at home. A pasta based jambalaya if you will.

country ham...the conclusion

2010-04-04T20:31:00.006-04:00

I did well at changing the water in the cooler twice a day, once before I went to work and again in the evening before bed. I just used water from the hose each time.

I added ice to the water for the first two days but none at all on Saturday. Temps were in the low 70's that day and for a time I was concerned about the ham spoiling. In the end it was fine. I've come away with the impression that the average country ham is quite the resolute object, both physically and chemically. If cured properly, the ham should prove largely immune to the nasties that would go to work on a raw piece of meat floating in coolish water for a day.

In the end the ham soaked for about 42 hours. God help me but I did taste the smallest bit of ham water from the cooler prior to draining it for the last time. I couldn't taste any salt so I figured that while things were likely still in a hypotonic state, the osmotic pressure had abated to the point where further soaking would yield deminishing returns vis-a-vis reducing the salt content in the ham.

Here's a pic of the ham after leaving the cooler and being rinsed again. The smell is still an important detail here since from the start this thing never smelled "good". It did not smell spoiled or rotten either, but there is a cloying/earthy/meaty aspect to the smell that is quite unique and not very appetizing. The soaking lessened this smell but it never disappeared completely.

From here I inserted a probe thermometer, filled the pan with about 2 inches of water and added some brown sugar, pepper corns, allspice berries and cinnamon. I covered the whole thing with heavy foil and put it into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes, dropped the oven to 250 and went to bed. It went in the oven just prior to midnight on Saturday night.

When I checked the temp at around 7am Sunday morning, it read 170 degrees (at bit higher than I'd have liked) so I turned off the oven and took the pan out, leaving it uncovered to cool while we went to church and breakfast.

When I first woke up I'll admit to being sad that the house smelled like the odd smell, but just in the background, was the familiar and welcome smell of sweet porkiness, familiar from times Dad and I have finished pork butts off in an oven. This familiar smell was the first ray of light that helped make me feel like this experiment might actually yield something edible.

Here it is out of the oven and cooled.

From here I sharpened up my boning knife and went to work cutting off the skin and fat from around the ham. The fat was mostly rendered, but still a bit tricky to get a good clean trim without nicking the meat below. The trimming process took about 15 minutes.

Here is a pic with the skin and fat removed...and for the first time the object starts to look like food. Perhaps not hugely appetizing, but when I got done I was happy to see that it looked like ham.

And now the final step was to carve out some slices, which I did again with my boning knife as I don't own a carving knife. This was not too tough, following advice I read in multiple places about how to carve a whole ham. I did at least as well as this guy, although the glaze/coating on the ham he's working on makes clear that I have plenty to learn in other arenas.

In the end, I thought it tasted very good. The meat is very lean and pretty dry; the thin slicing helps make it easier to chew. The flavor is intensely...hammy and only later does the salt shock your palate and back of your mouth. After eating a few slices, I had an odd feeling in my tummy because of the salt intake. But as soon as that faded, I wanted to have another bite. I find myself snacking on the leftovers now as I write this.

We served a dry reisling with it, which I think went well due to the sweetness. Reen also made a salad with strawberries and a raspberry vinaigrette, again the sweetness of this helped round out the whole meal.

The common application of serving thin sliced country ham over biscuits with white gravy would be really great I think. I look forward to trying that soon. Soup is also another likely candidate for how best to use the huge amount of leftovers.

wooo pig Sooeee!

2010-03-31T22:52:00.005-04:00

Mom and Dad Holland are coming up for Easter this weekend. In celebration of our newly sprouting Virginia roots, we'll be taking a turn at preparing a country ham for dinner which is a first for me.

Smithfield - a Virginia tradition

14+ lbs, cured, peppered and smoked. Some small bit of mold on the areas not covered with skin. The smell is strongly of smoke and pepper. I scrubbed the entire outside under running water to remove the mold and any surface residue. This picture is right out of the bag, prior to the scrubbing.

After fretting about not having a food safe 5-lb bucket to soak the ham in, finding Alton Brown's suggestion of using a cooler was a welcome piece of advice. It's Wednesday night now and this will come out to cook on Saturday night, so it'll soak for roughly 36 hours. I plan to completely change the water twice a day.

more nerd please

2007-12-06T16:55:00.000-05:00

I recently read The Kings of New York, by Michael Weinreb which is a book about a top highschool chess team from New York City.

It chronicles a year in the life of the Edward R. Murrow chess team. The interest in this story is that the team is a dynasty of sorts, winning multiple national titles over the past decade, despite the fact that Murrow is a public school. The students on the team are from vastly different backgrounds, quite often from immigrant parents who are struggling to make a stable life for themselves in the US.

About halfway through the book Reen asked how I was enjoying it. I said it was fine, but that there was too much stuff about how Murrow was a unique school and the backstory of each student player and the inner working of the NYC public school system and the politics of disadvantaged youth etc. etc.

I wanted more chess. He writes that the kid traps a grandmaster level player with a surprise move. That sounds cool, why not show the details in the book? A few graphics of the positions and some annotation on the crucial moves maybe. There's precious little of this in the book. Almost none in fact. And so I told Reen that the book was fine but it was all human interest stuff. It didn't have enough chess.

Reen reminded me that not having a lot of chess would be considered a bonus by a large majority of the readers. I conceded the point and we both marveled at what a nerd I am.

This was all well and good. Until...I borrowed the audio version of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon to listen to on my drive to PA for Thanksgiving. The book is standard thriller fare, a la Clancy or Grisham. The plot centers on both the codebreaking of WWII and data encryption in modern day computers. But where Clancy is beloved for his detail in describing the weapons and military machinery, Cryptonomicon is renowned for it's detail in describing the mathematics of the codebreaking and encryption schemes.

The book is on many a nerdy must-read list and so I was looking forward to 'reading' it during the drive. What I had overlooked however is that the audio book I had was abridged. Instead of simply omitting portions, there was a voiceover narration used to describe the plot points of what was being skipped. So while I greatly enjoyed the conceit that the main character befriended Alan Turing at Princeton, when the story continued on to their code breaking effort for the Allies, the details were completely omitted. The voice over would explain: "meanwhile, back at Bletchley Park, the team had a major breakthrough with the German naval cryptographic codes..."

AHHH!! The details of that breakthrough are exactly what I'm listening to this book for and they gloss right over it. And it was the same thing with the modern day digital encryption stuff. Just a passing mention from the narrator and then back to John awkwardly trying to express his feelings for Amy. Curses. To be honest, without these bits of nerdery to keep my interest, they story itself was quite poor and I didn't listen to the final 2 tapes to even see how it ended.

Again I was foiled by an effort to make something more broadly appealing than it ought to have been. I suppose it's my own fault for not seeing that this version was abridged. I'll know better next time.

Final nerd item, but this one is a test. Feed the hungry and improve your vocabulary all at once!

Free Rice. My score hovered around 40 for the most part and I maxed out at 42. I even have the screen-cap to prove it. I got the next word shown correct too. Yay me! Leave a comment with your score.

p.s. if the quiz was spelling the words instead of knowing their meaning my score would be about 23 I think.

about ryan

2007-09-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

are you enjoying the Women's World Cup? If you missed it, there was quite a bit of controversy involving the US v. Brasil match which was played Thursday morning.

The short version is that the US had won their last 51 games in a row, during which Hope Solo was the starting keeper for 40 of them. She had started in all 4 WC games, allowing 2 goals in the first match and then 0 goals in the past 3 matches. Two days prior to the game vs. Brasil, the US coach Greg Ryan, announced that he'd be starting Briana Scurry (36 year old former starter, probably the best keeper ever in the woman's game in her prime) in place of Solo for this match.

The team was thrown into disarray, the media hounded the coach and players for the two days leading up to the game and then Brasil proceeded to demolish a sluggish US side, winning 4-0.

so here's an email I received from Jason earlier today

So, is Greg Ryan as big a dope as he's being made out to be?

Two issues here:

1) The US would most likely have lost that match anyways. Even without the GK controversy and the awful call for a red card on Boxx and the own goal. Brasil didn't just show that they've closed the talent gap, they showed that there's a gap in the other direction at this point. They were amazing.

2) As for mr smartypants, he should be fired immediately after the 3rd place match. The Olympics are next summer and it would be scandalous if he's still coaching them. The last minute goalkeeper change was indefensible. There is not a single scenario in which this was a good idea. It's on par with Steve Sampson (everyone's favorite OKIADB) kicking the serving captain off the US Men's WC team in 1998 and then benching 2 of the veteran defenders en route to a last place finish in France.

In addition to the goalkeeper issue, you have the inexplicable substitution of 2 defensive players when the team is already down 3-0.

And finally you have the fact that Ryan badmouthed the Brasil team days before this match, saying that during a recent game between the two sides that Brasil had just fouled the US the whole time and didn't try to play real soccer. Multiple Brasil players and the head coach cited these comments by Ryan as strong motivation for their team.

So not only did Ryan seemingly choke under the pressure of this match and throw his team into disarray, he also provided prime content for the opponent's locker room, giving them something to rally around.

So yes Jason, despite his success over the past few years with the team, Ryan folded like a paper fan, make a series of inexcusable decisions and is every bit (and more) the dope that he's being made out to be.

hawks vs. gulls

2007-09-19T17:09:00.000-04:00

-fledgling soccer team builds stadium on the shores of Lake Ontario
-team recieves excellent support from local fans, despite poor performances on the field
-the local seagulls also develop a strong interest in the goings on at the stadium

sounds like your typical love story to this point, right? Well check out what happens next....

-team employs a hawk named Bitchy to watch over the stadium and keep it clear of seagulls. A real, honest-to-goodness, 4-foot wingspan, if you fly in here I'm seriously going to kill and eat you, carnivorous raptor.

Just another reason why soccer is the greatest game in the world.

2007-08-31T16:03:00.000-04:00

I had another rough day at work yesterday. I had to visit all the beaches in Chatham. What a drag.

And now we're heading on vacaction for 2 weeks. Hooray!

soccersoccersoccer

2007-08-14T16:54:00.001-04:00

it was a good weekend for folks like me*. The English Premier League kicked off on Saturday, so seeing the To Do List stacked with EPL games was just joyful. I got to watch 1 whole game, one half game and pieces of a 3rd match on Saturday and those games included 5 Americans on the field.

And then Saturday night, Reen, Andrew and I made the treck to Gillette to see the Revs v. LA game. It was funny to sit in traffic just getting up Route 1 to the stadium and then having to walk a fair distance to get into the stadium. Goldenballs didn't play, but the Revs won and it was nice to see 30k there to watch soccer.

Then Reen offered that we could stop at Taco Bell** on the way back and she would drive us home from there so I could enjoy my Nacho Supreme and Mountain Dew. I told you she was awesome.

And then last night I watched the MLS game that was on Fox Soccer Channel while we were out at the Revs game.

Like I said, life is good for folks like me. I could understand if you're feeling a bit let down about how your life isn't quite as awesome as mine right now, but check this out: If you have Comcast cable, you can tune in to a free preview of Fox Soccer Channel from Friday, August 17 to Sunday, August 26! All those EPL and MLS games can be yours for 10 days. Enjoy!

*soccer fans who have an awesome wife as well as Fox Soccer Channel and TiVo.

**I love Taco Bell but there are none very close to us. So when we're out and about I try to stop in to get my fix.

done and dusted

2007-08-02T14:48:00.000-04:00

we submitted the first draft of the work I've been slaving away at for the past few months. About 200 pages all told, plus appendicies. I had been working some long hours trying to get my parts wrapped up so I'm very glad that it's finished (for now). Thanks to Reen for her encouragement and patience, you rock!

Soccer news:
1) Revs are in first place in the East and have been looking good.
2) Beckham is here but still injured. LA v. New England is in 10 days...will he be coming to Gillette?
3) Freddy Adu has left MLS to play for Benfica in Portugal. From what I can tell, this is an excellent move for him. The style of soccer they play fits him very well and the club has a history of developing young players. Despite the 'failure' label which has been unfairly placed on Freddy, he's still only 18 years old.
4) Manchester United just signed a 9 year old kid. Here are some highlights of his play

Reasons this video is awesome:
i) about 30 seconds in (3:30 or so) he sends his buddy through on a breakaway and then sprints (at least the 9 year old's version of it) to support the play. As luck would have it, his teammate is tripped and the young lad is there to take the ball home himself. Most everyone else, pros included, would have made the pass and then stood back to watch.
ii) when he gets repeatedly fouled, he just keeps getting up and trying to play. No sitting and whining to the refs.
iii) none of the defenders foul him on purpose. They foul him because they lunge and miss. Each time he puts a move on a kid and skates past I keep expecting the defender to drop him with a forearm to the chest or take out his legs from behind. The game is much nicer to watch when the defenders aren't hacking down every guy that gets past them.

links

2007-07-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

in the spirit of Pete's detailed tour of his fridge, I thought it'd be funny to share a brief look into a portion of my internet favorites. Specifically the part which deals with sausage links (nyuk nyuk). Please drop a note if you need any of these for your own bookmarks.

Click for a larger view

And if anything is more annoying than the recent Beckham hype, it might be the news of the Harry Potter book which is coming out. In fact, here is a 12,000 word essay about the Snape character and whether he is good or evil, and what might come of him in the final book. Are you freaking serious?

And who am I kidding, nothing is more annoying than the Beckham hype.

two pics and two stories

2007-07-03T17:23:00.000-04:00

story 1 - corn
I'm in the grocery last week, and decide that I'll chance the fresh corn over the canned corn. It's still early in the season but even bad corn on the cob is pretty good. As I bring my two cans of corn down the aisle and put them back on the shelf, up struts a woman with a young sales associate in tow. The lady is looking for corn, specifically the little baby whole corn that look like mini corn on the cob. She seems upset, and apparently of the mind that it's this 16 year old's fault that her object of desire is so elusive. The poor employee obviously has no idea where the item is and just stares at the shelf with the normal canned corn, waiting for the lady to get frustrated and leave.

Now for some reason I know that the mini whole corn is in the same aisle, but at the far end with the canned mushrooms, right next to the Asian food stuffs. So I walk down there, grab a can and bring it back to the other end of the aisle.

"Excuse me ma'am. Is this the type of corn you are looking for?"

She looks down at my hand, holding the can out to her.

"I guess sometimes it pays to eavesdrop." she says to me, and reaches out to take the can. I smile at her and turn to head back towards the produce. I'm halfway down the aisle when she calls out "Wait a minute! Where'd you get this from? I need another can." I pause, and then turn around to head back towards her and point out the other cans on the shelf a few feet from where she's standing. She picks one up, wondering aloud "who thinks to put this stuff with the Chinese food?" I smile at her again and receive a grudging "Thank you" as she walks away in the opposite direction.

picture 1 - spam
we've all grown accustomed to getting spam in our email. But I now appear to be getting spam from my email. boooooo

picture 2 - hope
and speaking of hot...here's Hope Solo, modeling the new uniforms for the US Women's National team.

story 2 - prom
which brings us to the second story. My coworker (who we'll call Sarah for the sake of the story) tells me she's got a funny story to tell me. Her friend was on a flight from Philly to Providence the other weekend, and was sitting next to a young woman of about the same age. They get to talking: where'd you go to school, do you know so and so, etc. Somehow my name comes up and apparently this girl not only knows me, but says that we went to the prom together!

One part of this that's funny is that I've met Sarah's friend maybe twice over the past 3 years. I actually forgot who he was when she started telling me the story. So I'm a bit surprised that this guy knew my name, or anything else about me with which to connect the dots when talking to this girl on the plane. So Sarah's friend has a pretty keen memory I guess.

The second part that's funny is that Sarah says she can't recall what this girl's name was, but of course I'd know since she was my prom date. But as it turns out (and Maureen is fond of teasing me about this) I went to four (4) proms during highschool. As a sophomore I was aksed to the Junior prom, as a junior I went to my Junior prom and was asked to the Senior prom that year, and as a senior I went to my own Senior prom. So I'm actually in the dark about who Sarah's friend met on the plane!

the promised land

2007-06-14T11:35:00.000-04:00

first we have the Chinese National team playing an exibition against the MLS team in Utah. The game was almost abandoned when some of the Chinese players refused to play when some fans refused to stop waving Tibetan flags in the stands. Much to the surprise of the fans, the MLS team officials together with the stadium security threw the fans out of the stadium.

Then we had the defection of two players from the Cuban National team, who sought asylum in Houston.

And then yesterday 13 of the 18 players on the Haitian Under-17 National Team disappeared from JFK airport during a layover. They were headed to South Korea in preparation for the U-17 World Cup.

I need a cab for 13 teenagers....Flatbush Avenue please.

Drew

2007-06-06T11:01:00.000-04:00

alright Jason, you goaded me into it. There've been lots of topics I've thought about blogging about, but they're often soccer related. I know that never stopped me before but they just didn't seem generally interesting this time.

For instance there is the fact that over the past 6 months David Beckham has gotten back on the field for Real Madrid, become an integral part of their late season push to win the league title and has been recalled onto the England National team. In short he's playing some of the best soccer of his career lately and being hailed as a savior for both club and country. This of course has all the europhiles gnashing their teeth over the fact that he's quitting europe to come play in a soccer backwater like the US. These are the same people who declared Beckham washed up 6 months ago mind you. These people are idiots.

I was also going to write about the upcoming friendly between the US and Catalonia. About how Catalonia (with Barcelona as it's capital) is one of the 17 autonomous communities of which Spain is comprised, how simply holding a match involving one of these regions is perceived by the political right in Spain as a brazen act of political nationalist propaganda, pitting regional nationalism vs. Spanish nationalism. I find it fascinating that the rich national history of the country is interwoven with it's soccer to such an extent that the two can not be properly understood separate from one another. It's one of the things I love about 'the world's game' and it's stuff like this which makes the sporting rivalries in the US (Sox v. Yankees, Ohio State v. Michigan) seem like that much child's play.

But I did find a soccer item which I think will be generally interesting, which involves Drew...

No, not my little boy (who I've never called 'drew anyways that I can recall) but rather Drew Carey. Surely you remember him from that sitcom with those other people in it? Or perhaps from his stint hosting the US copy of Who's Line Is It Anyway, where comedians 'improv' on situations they've been performing for the last decade? Wait, Wayne Brady is going to make up a song on the spot!? But I digress...

I know Drew in another light, and that is as one of the US Men's National Team's biggest fans. Over the past 5 years or so Drew Carey has been found at most every US game in the States and abroad, traveling to Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, over to Germany for the warm ups for the world cup and of course for the WC itself.

Well he recently concocted an idea for a fund raiser which I thought you may get a kick out of. He set up an tournament where he's going to play against 6 US team members (guys and gals) in FIFA Soccer 07 on Xbox 360. For the first 5 games, if Drew loses he'll donate $10,000 to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund. In the final game, against US poster boy Landon Donovan, Drew will donate $50,000 to the Mooch Fund if he loses.

I thought that was a pretty cool idea. Here are some photos of the setup and the press passes issued for the event.

the s is for selebrity sightings

2007-04-29T13:39:00.000-04:00

the MLS season has begun. Once Beckham arrives, it is a foregone conclusion that the league will be flooded with hollywood hangers-on. TomKat will be regulars at the Galaxy games while other celebrity types will flock to be seen at their home town MLS games.

So before it gets lost in the noise, I just want to note that local popstar...maybe that's too strong....local mini-celebrity, JoJo is a legit Revs fan. Here's a pic from the home opener two weeks ago.

Note the scarf...that's the one sold by the supporter's club, not one of the crappy ones sold inside the stadium. She's wicked hahd core.

for the greater good

2007-04-12T13:30:00.000-04:00

so I use StatCounter to keep track of the traffic that the blog gets. One of the neat things to see is how people find the blog in the first place.

A majority of the hits do not come from following a link. These are fine folks like you who happen to have the sight bookmarked and just come directly here. And of course I get a bunch of hits from people following the links on the blogs maintained by my friends and family.

What can be fun to see however, are the links that people follow from search engines. By looking at these, you can see which words they searched for and what the results were that lead them here.

Most of the time, these are searches which overlap with my own interests and happen to be stuff I've posted about. Food, sausage and soccer being prominant themes. Then there are some funny ones which don't really seem to make sense, like 'boggle arena', which hit because I used the word boggle (as in boggles the mind) in a post that also mentioned former US National Team coach Bruce Arena. What was that person hoping to find exactly?

And needless to say, very often my blog is not the most relevant or helpful place for the searcher to learn more about what they're interested in. At best, it's at least relevant and not a complete waste of time. Like hits for the recent lamb dinner post. I assume those folks searching for 'boneless leg of lamb' might be happy enough to read how the meal went.

But never has my blog been the best place to find an answer to a question....until NOW! I recently received a visit sent from the results of this search, where one of my blog posts was the only result! That post is the only place online to find out how to correctly pronounce Sesachacha.

So to whomever that was searching, I'm glad you found that post and I hope that the folks you next spoke with about that pond were duly impressed that you could correctly pronounce it's name.

lamb redux

2007-04-10T17:16:00.000-04:00

just a quick note to mention that I made up some shepard's pie from the leftovers for dinner last night. Sweated some shallot and added in the stock which had been rescued from the roasting pan yesterday. Thickened that with some roux and then mixed in a bunch of chopped lamb. I layed that into a caserole and added corn and peas to my half of the dish and left the other half veggie free for Reen. Topped it with mashed potatoes made from the leftover boiled potatoes and into the oven to heat through and then a quick broil for the top. It might have been the first shepard's pie that I've eaten which wasn't too salty. Man was that tastey.

leg o' lamb o' god

2007-04-09T12:41:00.000-04:00

we had family down for easter dinner on Sunday. Reen and I enjoyed putting the meal together very much. I searched for and pondered ideas for lamb, and settled on a recipe from Tony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook, Gigot de Sept Heures. Which is French for 'braised lamb leg'.

I bought a 7 pound, semi-boneless leg o' lamb. The semi-boneless means that it has the femur part in there but not the knee joint, although there is meat from that area. So there's a large single bone for about 3/4 of the length, then a bunch of floppy muscle at the end. While at the grocery, there were also things labeled at 'boneless leg of lamb', but they were much smaller (2-3 pounds) little balls of meat held together by the elastic twine I've seen used on boneless pork shoulders. They had no resemblance to a leg of anything so I'm wondering what part of the animal they are from? If you boned out the piece that I bought and then rolled and tied it, it would still retain a clear leg/cyliner shape.

The first obstacle is that the recipe suggests a dutch oven for this but our large one wasn't quite large enough. I could have rammed it down in there but didn't think that was a good idea. So I picked up a proper roasting pan from the restaurant supply place. While certainly less than an All-Clad pan, it still cost more than the meat itself! Hopefully we'll get a lifetime of use from it.

I set the alarm for 5:30am Sunday and spent a quick 50 minutes putting this thing together. I first trimmed the fat from the top of the leg, which was quite thick in places. The fat is a cross between beef and pork fat. The larger areas were smooth like pork fat, but it also had a tendency to crumble a bit like suet does. I was happy with my trimming job, getting most of the fat and only nicking the meat in two places. From there I rubbed olive oil over the meat and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

I added one large chopped onion and 5 chopped carrots to the bottom of the pan, placed the meat on top, then added a bottle of white wine, 32oz of beef broth, 15-20 cloves of garlic and some parsley, thyme, bay leaf and rosemary bound up in cheesecloth.

I covered the pan tightly with heavy tin foil, trying for a good seal all around and then placed it into a 300 degree oven. And here's what came out seven hours later.

The top surface was a shade dry, but the desired effect of meat falling off the bone was achieved in spades. I was reminded of the pork butts that dad and I have made during the past year. The meat fell apart and was served like that, rather than in slices, which would have been impossible. The interior meat itself wasn't dried out per se, but also wasn't moist and unctuous like the pork butts were. It was somewhere in between. Some pieces were quite great while others seemed a bit dry.

We served this with simple boiled potatoes, asparagus, challa bread, kielbasa, and salad. The lamb was accompanied by simple mint sauce as well as an apricot/chipotle syrup.

So some notes:
the recipe does not suggest browning the meat prior to the braise, which is a bit odd. But seeing as I was tired and have never browned a huge chunk of meat with my oven broiler, I decided to pass. I think this would be a good step to include in the future.

the recipe does suggest studding the leg with slivers of garlic. With the sauces planned, I didn't feel this was necessary.

the recipe calls for only 1 cup of wine to serve as the braising liquid. My bottle of wine and the stock totaled just over 7 cups of liquid, although it still covered only the bottom inch or so of the meat. I'd guess that about 1/2 of that liquid was left in the pan when it was finished, so I'm glad I added extra. It is also some of the best tasting broth I've ever been responsible for making. The recipe asks you to make a flour/water dough and seal the lid of the dutch oven closed with that, but even still, 1 cup seems like too little liquid to me.

Final thoughts:
In general I'm not sold on the whole braised meats thing. Cooking something until it's 'falling off the bone' is not a goal in and of itself. The texture of these meats is not always devine and they are often fairly bland by themselves. What these dishes do offer is a chance to make an amazing sauce from the braising liquid.

At this point in my cooking education, I'd say leave the braise for meats which can't be cooked any other way. With this leg of lamb, I kept wishing it were charred outside and medium rare and pink inside. That's what meat is all about in my book.

Here's a pic of the lovely table that Reen set. We finally put our wedding china and silverware to use which was nice.

having a ball

2007-04-03T10:11:00.000-04:00

Fiona had sent Andrew one of those super bouncy balls a while back. On one side it had the black and white pattern of a soccer ball while the other side was clear. Suspended in the middle is a little plastic soccer player and set in the background is a photo from a real soccer match.

Of course I was curious about what players those are in the photo. So I got in touch with my network of soccer nerds and in very short order I learned that the guy in White is David Platt (captain of the English national team at the time of the photo), the guy grabbing him is Ronald Koeman from Holland and the guy who you can see behind them both is Jan Wouters.

In fact, this specific play is quite famous. Would you like to hear more about it? Really!? Alright then.

Rotterdam, Holland, October 13, 1993

England have struggled for results in a difficult qualifying group and at least a tie is needed against the Dutch to have a chance to book a ticket to the USA for World Cup 1994. The first half is an even affair with neither side taking control and the score is 0-0 at halftime.

Early in the second-half, David Platt finally breaks free and looks to be in on goal alone. In a last gasp effort, Dutch defender Ronald Koeman cynically pulls down the English captain. The rules are clear on the punishment required for such a foul: red card. However, the Dutchman is only shown a yellow. To add further insult, the German referee appears ready to award the penalty kick, only to decide at the last moment that the ball should be placed outside the box.

"It was worth a red card," admitted Koeman, while maintaining that the offense was committed outside of the penalty area. "I tore at Platt and unbalanced him and was clever enough to stand up outside the area."

And then it was Koeman, the man who should have been in the dressing-room, who popped up at the other end of the pitch not ten minutes later, to chip in a free-kick which gave Holland the lead. Six minutes later Dennis Bergkamp beat David Seaman with a low shot from outside the penalty area to wrap up the game and virtually end England's World Cup life.

So if you were curious why England didn't appear in the 1994 World Cup, that's a big part of the story. Thanks Fiona, for this great lesson in soccer history!

breakfast improv

2007-03-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

I sometimes run into the situation when I'm at a place for breakfast and the listed menu items just don't tickle my fancy. I'm 2 or 3 years running trying to get vanilla ice cream on a honey glaze donut from Browns at the shore. But they just won't serve it...yet.

Well I lucked out this weekend when the waitress at the local diner put in my order for an omlet with hash and cheddar cheese. Mmmmmm...it was really good. And she even just charged me for a normal omlet, when I was prepared to see a charge for a cheese omlet and a side of hash.

And don't forget to get your veggies in!

mow-beel

2007-03-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

the good tide range and good weather forecast finally overlapped this week and so I headed back to Mobile, AL to finish my work there. I had been trying to make this trip since the first week in January and had canceled it 3 times due to poor weather.

I basically spent 2 days on a boat driving back and forth across Mobile Pass on Monday and then across Pass aux Heron on Tuesday. We were measuring tidal currents so that I can have some real data to compare my computer model results to. The instrument itself is rigged over the side of the boat and looks down into the water. We mount a GPS antenna above it and the data cable from the instrument and GPS run inside the boat cabin to my laptop.

The metal mounting bracket is attached to a 4x6 which runs across the beam of the boat. The brakcet can turn 90 degrees so that the instrument can be lowered into the water when needed or raised up when motoring to and from the survey location.

The rig looks like this. (click for larger versions of the photos)

here's the instrument pulled up out of the water and then another where it is turned down in working mode.

Here's the laptop and my notebook inside the cabin.

It's only a 28' boat and the cabin fits 2 people sitting and maybe 2 others. With 4 people on the boat you grab room where you can find it. The days are both about 14 hours long plus driving to and from the docks so you get a bit run down. Here's one of the boat operators making up for his 3am start time, napping on the cabin floor beneath the counter.

And we certainly weren't the only ones on the water. There are tugs pushing barges along the intracoastal waterway, a local ferry running around and many supply boats running from land to the multiple oil rigs in the bay and offshore. In addition to all this, the oystermen were our each morning. Oysters are big business and mostly harvested by hand. In the photo below, the boat on the left is culling his catch while the boat on the right is still working. The harvesting is done with these long tongs which look like giant chop-sticks hinged in the middle. The ends in the water have tines like a metal rake which fit together when the sticks are closed. So the guy opens them wide, lowers them down to the bottom and the works them closed and pulls the rig back up to the deck of the boat and hopes that he grabbed a few oysters. The fleet worked for 6-8 hours before harvesting their limit and heading back in.

The ride back to the dock on Tuesday was beautiful. You can see some oil rigs on the right side of the picture.

Other fun facts from the trip:

My hotel room was on the 13th floor. Room 1314. I though most tall buildings went from floor 12 right to floor 14? So far I have noticed no negative effects of staying on the unlucky floor.

I found (and consumed) Yuengling in each place I had dinner while down there. I can't even get this on special order here at home.

I visited Dreamland BBQ for dinner on my first night in town. It is billed as the 2nd best bbq place in Mobile. Their sweet tea was excellent but in all I'd say the ribs were a distant second to what I enjoyed at Brick Pit back in November.

I made a point to stop in at the Dew Drop Inn for lunch on Wednesday morning before catching my flight home. Although Jimmy Buffet prefers their cheeseburgers I had the house special chili dog and a roast beef po' boy. The dog was really good. The place itself just oozes history so it was neat to visit. I have eaten dogs at 3 of the 5 places on that linked list of top dog places in the country. I would rank them in order of Ben's Chili Bowl, Pink's and then Dew Drop 3rd.

I don't have a current book going so I bought 2 magazines to read on my flights to and from Mobile. Scientific America and All In's Poker magazine. I enjoyed both very much.

A woman on one of the flights home was in hysterics that she wasn't allowed to carry her dog on the flight with her. I'm still not clear if Fluffy got put in with the normal luggage or what.

the best and the brightest

2007-02-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

I was recently asked to review some applications for a fellowship which is awarded to first year graduate students in engineering at UD, where I got my masters degree. Maureen and I have enjoyed reading them over and so I thought I’d share some of what we’ve seen.

In keeping with conventional wisdom, the students from China have a much more rigorous undergraduate education than here in the US. All seem to have taken up to 10 different classes each semester as an undergrad, while US students typically take about 5.

And although the transcripts I looked at were understandably focused on engineering, do not think that the notion of a liberal arts education is out of the question over there. With so many classes each semester, there is time to squeeze in some non-science stuff such as:
Cultivation of Ideological Morality
Principles of Marxist Philosophy
Appreciation of Famous Dramas
A Carnival for Happy Writing

The personal essays are great too. If a good introductory sentence should serve to grab your attention, then this one is the best of the bunch:
“My obsession with microcosms and my profound desire to associate with a diverse set of people, develop a broad skill set, and serve the community, are sysnergistically cyclical…” Aren’t you dying to know what comes next!?

Well I’ll tell you. The 2 page essay which follows that lead in uses the word ‘microcosm’ 15 times. 3 of these are knocked out in the single sentence, “My association with the UCI university microcosm resulted in association with other university microcosms and travel to different city microcosms.” And yes, this was one of the better applicants.

A different essay afforded me the pleasure of reading about a river which used to be ‘vigorous’ but had now become ‘moribund’. How sad.

Another student had difficulty motivating students when teaching a science class. She was such a dedicated teacher that she “even learned to play on-line game [sic] to understand teenagers’ sub-culture.” What a noble sacrifice!

becks

2007-02-01T12:23:00.000-05:00

“I’m the prince, and I’m sort of slaying a dragon, which is something I’ve never done before, obviously,”

just for the record, I think it’s a great signing for the league. His real salary is closer to $10 mil. per year where the league itself only pays $400,000 of that. So it’s not really a financial risk, more of an investment by the team owner who pays the rest. The owner's net worth is about $9 Billion so it’s not going to bankrupt him either.

If you have a moment, an old Ali G interview with Becks and Posh is pretty funny.

merry new year

2007-01-02T11:17:00.000-05:00

The final tally for sausage made in 2006 was 37 pounds. You may recall that the 2005 total was 75 pounds. So for people like Pete who are wondering how life might change when your child arrives, I have this advice. In addition to your sleeping patterns, sense of free time, and familiarity with poo that is not brown all changing, you can also count on your sausage production dropping by half in the first year. Now there is some important parenting preparation that you just can't find in any of the books. All you prospective parents out there are most graciously welcome.

I was so happy last Friday. I had just installed some new RAM and a new video card on my computer and they worked fine. The new LCD monitor looked great and all was well in the world. And then I tried to do some fine tuning of the BIOS settings so I could squeeze every last bit of awesomeness from the graphics card and the computer wouldn't boot. Not loading windows and not even getting far enough to let me back into the BIOS to change the settings back. I was crestfallen and SO angry with myself for not leaving well enough alone. And so with sadness in my heart and desperation in my voice, I did the only logical thing: I called my sister. And although it was late (and as I later found out she was also nursing my 4 week old niece) she helped her pathetic brother with his problem. She was able to locate the manual for my motherboard online and went about searching for some advice on how to fix my mistake. A section on 'Resetting the CMOS' sounded promising and so we decided to give it a try. While Sister guided me over the phone to the place on the motherboard where I could reset a jumper, I asked her what the heck the CMOS was anyways. And my dear sister told me, "It's the thing you shouldn't have fucked with in the first place!"

And I would be remiss not to mention our fantastic new years eve dinner. I had chosen to try my hand at coq au vin which is basically a chicken braised in red wine with some veggies. I set out to follow the recipe from the Les Halles cookbook. Noting that this dish was originally meant as a way to handle an old hen which had stopped laying, I specifically sought out a stewing chicken to use in the dish. I was happy to find one at the local grocery and went home to get to work. I removed the backbone to butterfly the bird and set it to marinade in two bottles worth of pinot noir overnight. The next evening it was proceed as expected: season and sear the bird, remove and cook veggies, add bird and reserved marinade back in the pot and let simmer on low heat for a few hours until cooked through.

Well after about 3 hours of cooking the meat on the 'chicken' was certainly cooked through but the bird was amazingly rigid in the pot. After a long slow cook you'd expect the connective tissue to be broken down and for the 'fall off the bone' thing to be happening, but not in this case my friend. I removed the bird from the pot and let it rest for 30 minutes but this saw no change in the rigor mortis impression that was going on. The skin seemed almost glued onto the meat at this point and looked disgusting. So I removed that and cut small slices from the breast, thigh and drumstick to sample them. The meat was chewy, dry and tasted like a fart trapped inside an old gym sock. This was only the second time I can recall setting out to make 'food' and ending up with something inedible. I wouldn't have served that chicken to a dog. As you can imagine I was fairly disappointed.

Happily the braising liquid still tasted good and so I continued to reduce it into a fine sauce. After consulting with Reen, we defrosted a chicken breast from the freezer, grilled that up and served it with the sauce, bread and a nice red wine. All in all it was not a bad dinner.

I'm still left wondering what the heck went wrong with the dish. Despite being a 'stewing chicken' the raw bird did not display any outward signs of being spoiled or anything like that. I did have the lid on during the first half of the braise and so perhaps there was an issue with the cooking temperature being too high for too long? Anyhoo, it may be a while until I have the courage to try that one again. I hope your meals went off a bit smoother than ours!

hoolidays

2006-12-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

Christmas saw us staying close to home this year. While I did miss our family in PA I did not miss the drive down and back one bit. The whole MA family gathered in Plymouth for gifts and dinner on Saturday (gumbo for dinner again with freshly homemade andouille) and then breakfast and stockings on Sunday morning. This left Sunday afternoon and Christmas day to us.

For our first Christmas dinner to ourselves we had decided on a simple roast chicken with Mom H's double cheese potatoes. Not wanting to buy Monday's dinner poultry on Friday I put off the shopping until Sunday. However, due to the Pats' game and a general feeling of comfort at Oma and Opa's house, we didn't get to the grocery on Sunday until 6:05pm which found us standing outside a locked set of doors as the store had closed at 6. Some people were making the dash through the 'Out' doors as they opened to release the shoppers from inside but I didn't want to be one of those people. We quickly made the rounds to the other 2 grocery stores only to find that they too closed at 6pm today and that all 3 stores were not opening on Christmas day at all. So instead of moping for very long we decided to put my new pizza peel to immediate use. Although I was quite sick on Monday you can clearly see that I was up for the job.

While the toppings were entirely pedestrian by some standards (sausage instead of salumi and mozzarella instead of mutz), it really hit the spot and I was glad to see that I haven't completely forgotten how to make a passable pizza dough. And the new peel worked great. Much nicer than using our wooden cutting board as I've done for the past 6 or 7 years.

chirp chirp

2006-12-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

first things first. Welcome to the world, Ivy Joanne.

I'm very happy you're here and that your arrival was much easier on your mom then when your big brother was born.

all baby and no desire to keep a baby blog means not many updates I guess. One fun thing about being a dad is that I've slowly been learning how to do many things with only one hand. Unscrew caps, get food from the fridge, wash out dishes, open beer, play computer games etc. All advanced-beginner level stuff really. However last night saw a new level of monodextrousness: I put on one of Andrew's socks with one hand only. Clothing can be tough in general and socks in particular can be difficult due to small socks and small baby feet which are usually spazzing all over the place. But last night I spread the sock open across my fingers and then swooped in to smoothly slide the little bugger onto the babe's fleshy foot. It was amazing. I felt like Daniel Larusso when he caught a fly between his chopsticks. Even more special was that Maureen was on hand to share in the joy and wonder of the moment.

Two weeks ago I got to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi for some software training. It is a pretty dreary place, but still has many more options for lunch than we have here at home. One highlight of the trip was visiting a casino with two guys from the UK. There was an awful cover band playing and we just sat at the bar and had a few beers. The Brits enjoyed their American honkytonk experience very much which was only made better when we got hit on by some women in town for a real estate conference. The one girl took the unique tack of trying to list all the odd things that people had found washed up on the beaches after Katrina. Her description of a half-octopus, half-lobster type critter was the most interesting by far. She didn't seem to have been drinking too much so maybe she was just crazy.

field of screams

2006-11-14T15:47:00.000-05:00

and so the Revs play in another dour MLS final and discover a new way to lose the championship match. Oh the irony. In the previous two loses, the Revs were the better team in both overtimes, only to be hit on the counter attack and surrender a sudden death goal. And this year, when they are the team which manages to score first in overtime? Well the rule has been changed so that the overtime period lasts the entire 30 minutes regardless of any goals scored. No sudden death means that Houston has 7 minutes to tie the match and force penalties. Of course, Houston needed fewer than 20 seconds after the ensuing kickoff to tie the game. And the injured Ralston, and an inexplicably absent Clint Dempsey meant that defender Jay Heaps stepped up to take the 5th and deciding penalty. The result was inevitable.

And just to have something to look forward to regarding next season, Gillette stadium is installing field turf. How perfectly awful. We'll have bright and clear football lines on the field year round now as well as an unnatural surface where the ball rolls faster and bounces differently than natural grass. If you felt that MLS games had a tendancy to be too athletic and less artistic than a soccer match should be, well.....this isn't going to help any.

This is my 100th post. w00t!

indian summer

2006-11-09T16:36:00.000-05:00

yes, there is also stuff of interest in my life that does not involve mr. baby head. However I'm not sure if anything discussed below is of any more interest than diaper changes and pacifiers.

The Revs are in MLS Cup for the second year running and 3rd time in 5 years. Of course you’ll recall that they lost the two other chances to win the championship, both 1-0, both in overtime and both to the LA Galaxy. This will definitely the last best chance for the team to win it all as there are some aging veterans as well as a few top players who will likely be gone to Europe this winter. The team is also in the best position to win when compared to the 2002 squad (just happy to be there) and the 2005 team (supremely talented and also supremely injured and tired). The only stumbling block is that the Houston team they are playing matches the New England strengths very well. Both teams have strong midfields, a dynamic attack, and solid, but beatable defenses. The Revs midfield is stronger down the middle while Houston excels on the flanks. If the Revs really have Pat Noonan, Steve Ralston and Clint Dempsey all back from injury, then that should be enough to put them ahead. The game in this Sunday at 3:30 on ABC.

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Mobile, AL for 2 days this past week for work. I was staying on the outskirts of the city and the area reminded me of the suburban sprawl of Northern Virginia with the foliage and general decay that I associate with Florida. There’s something about the warm, damp weather that just seems to make most everything seem a bit run down. The highlights of my visit were as follows:
I was referred to as a Yankee, we stopped for a fried steak biscuit on the way to the boat on Tuesday morning, my work went off without too much trouble, there are a whole lot of oil rigs in Mobile Bay, I had a fired shrimp po’ boy for dinner on Monday night and ribs for lunch on Tuesday. The ribs were fantastic. Interestingly, there was no dry rub from what I could tell, it was just pork, smoke and a little sauce added just prior to serving. I admired the simplicity of their approach. The single item on the dessert menu was home made banana pudding, and it was excellent.

Here’s my brief rundown on the fall TV schedule. I still look forward to seeing The Office every week, but so far it has been very good rather than very excellent. I enjoyed the pilot episode for Studio 60 but have come to dislike it since. While it still enjoys a spot in the TiVo, I have relegated its viewing to late night, just trying to settle the baby status, well behind Dawson’s Creek reruns on Noggin as well as any bowling that might be saved. 30 Rock is funny and I’m enjoying that. I think the role that they’ve made for Tracy Morgan is just perfect for him. The highlight of the season so far has been Friday Night Lights. I thought the first few episodes were excellent and it has continued to be strong since then. While I do not care for the soap opera storyline of the girl cheating on her hospitalized boyfriend with his best friend, I do very much like the stuff that focuses on the the coach, his relationship with his wife and the storyline about the new starting quarterback.

This blog is neat.

baby days

2006-11-04T13:49:00.000-05:00

and so the beat goes on with life at home with Andrew. In the past few weeks he got to meet many of his cousins and aunts and uncles as well as spend time with his Grandmom while she stayed with us. He also became a Christian, got his first cold, met his great grandmother and is showing the very first signs of smiling and cooing. Thanks to Reen's tireless efforts, Andrew continues to gain mass like an object approaching light speed. (you have to admit, that was relatively funny....)

He is a joy to be with during the good times and there are very many more good times than bad.

sharp shooter

2006-10-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

things Andrew has peed on during those brief moments when he's not got a diaper on:

the changing table

the carpet

mom's shirt

dad's shirt

dad's right shoe

the rocking chair

the turtle lamp on the changing table

His determination, keen sense of timing and impressive range make me very proud.

mommy baby adventure day

2006-10-08T13:57:00.000-04:00

and what an adventure it was.

I don't quite have the energy or clear-headedness to express what the past few days have entailed, so I'll stick with the basics and share a few photos. A written summary and expression of the magnitude of it all will have to come later, if at all.

Andrew Patrick
Born October 5, 2006
7lbs 5.5 oz
20.5 inches long

His middle name is in honor of his maternal grandfather. Andrew was simply a name that we both liked, although Andrew and Patrick are also the middle names of Reen's 2 brothers, so that's neat too.

Thank you all for the kind wishes and words of support. We're all doing great.

day trippers

2006-10-01T11:48:00.000-04:00

we took some time yesterday to get to the outer cape to see parts of the National Seashore. We also had lunch in Wellfleet and I got to show Reen the largest oyster bed that I've ever seen. No picture of that, sorry.

Two different women, both well into retirement age, commented that they had the same fleece sweater/jacket that Reen is wearing. We were wondering if this made Reen a bit out of date or if those were just two hip AARP members.

the waiting game

2006-10-01T11:41:00.000-04:00

here's Reenie last Thursday, one day before her due date.

Note the play pen and bags packed for the trip to the hospital. Aww, how cute.

grass

2006-09-13T10:13:00.000-04:00

our lawn needs some tlc and so I thought it would be a good idea to overseed in the decent places and reseed the bad parts. In preparation for this, I mowed the lawn extra close on Saturday and the got out the dethatching rake. I picked this funny looking rake only because it has pointy things on it and the plan was to rough up the bad parts so the new seeds would have some place happy to land and grow, rather than sitting on a surface of dead grass. Out of curiosity, I also gave the rake a few pulls across the 'good' parts of the lawn, just to see what would happen. Lo and behold, the rake magically gets filled with dead grass and leaves the healthy stuff in place. When properly worked over you're left with green grass and dark dirt beneath and that's it. So I spent a fair amount of time over the weekend running that rake over every inch of the lawn, not just the crummy parts as I had originally planned. The dethatching was more work than I had expected but I think I've given my new seedlings a good chance to become grass. On Monday over lunch, I spread the new seed and some starter fertilzer and am hoping for the best. I had my first dream of young new seedlings growing last night. How pathetic.

The whole notion that keeping a 'nice' lawn should be a priority for every homeowner still doesn't still too well with me. It strikes me as the height of suburban vanity and I know first hand the impact that excess nitrogen from fertilzers can have on local estuaries. But I was raised in the suburbs and can't shake the annoyance of my lawn being crummy. There's also the issue of having a nice place for Wolfie to learn how to play soccer. Hey Mike, what was that book about lawns that you read?

a little light

2006-09-05T15:33:00.000-04:00

remember the final match of the World Cup? You know, the one where the balding French guy dropped the Italian guy with a headbutt?

you'll recall that towards the end of the match, Materazzi pulled on Zidane's shirt at the end of a play and that Zidane told the Italian, "'If you want my shirt so much I'll give it to you afterwards." Materazzi said something in reply while Zidane was walking away. Upon hearing the remark, Zidane turned around and delivered a vicious headbutt to Materazzi's chest.

There was much speculation as to what sort of comment could have caused such a violent and stupid reaction. Some professional lip readers, who work for reputable newspapers, offered their opinions that Zidane had been called "the son of a terrorist whore" while Zidane offered only that the remarks "concerned [his] mother and sister." FIFA had no clue and punished Zidane ($6,000 fine and a 3 match suspension, to be served as community service now that Zidane has retired) and Materazzi ($4,000 fine and a 2 match ban) almost equally.

Well at least one side of the story is out now, with Materazzi offering his version of the "remark" recently as Italy prepares to play France on Wednesday. In response to Zidane's offer of his jersey after the game, Materazzi replied "I would prefer your sister."

Talk about boring. I've heard worse trash talk at a church social. It will be interesting to see if Zidane agrees with this version of the exchange. If he does not contrdict it, it would seem that 100% of the responsibility lies with the Frenchman and none with Materazzi and I would hope that FIFA recinds their punishment of Materazzi.

When asked about offering an apology to Zidane, Materazzi offered, "If anything, I owe apologies to his sister, although I swear, before all this mess I didn't even know Zidane had a sister."

finally...the butt

2006-08-27T16:19:00.000-04:00

This is your basic smoker setup. You've got your propane tank, burner underneath with Amy's cookie tin for holding the chips. You've got an empty water pan lined with foil to catch any fat. On top is the headliner, your basic Rubbed Butt with meat thermometer inserted beneath the bone (but not touching) and to the center of mass. A hose for safety and also for dampening the wood chips in the bucket. Mom's garden trowel to shovel the chips into the tin is optional. We used a mix of maple and hickory woods, just for the record.

Dad and I lit the fire at 4pm or so and tried to adjust the smoker temp near 220° F. The breeze blew out the burner a few times and it was generally a pain in the ass to get the temp steady. A quickly constructed wind screen helped a bit. We soon accepted that any temp between 190 and 230 would have to be acceptable.

I left for dinner at this point and over the next 5 hours Dad became intimately familiar with how much attention the thing needs, even with the fancy propane and remote thermometer for meat and smoker temps. It's a good thing he just got two new knees for all the squatting and bending required to make sure the burner is still lit and to feed chips into the pan occasionally.

After returning from dinner, Dad and I decided to remove the butt from the smoker and place it in the oven to finish cooking overnight. We put the meat on a rack in a roasting pan and into a 205° oven. We awoke to a very porky household and the butt was within 10 degrees of the 190° internal temperature that we were shooting for.

It was finished just after breakfast was cleared up. I believe the total cooking time was in the neighborhood of 17 hours.

Erin and Dan and Duncan were leaving before lunch so I cut a hunk off the end to send home with them. Slicing the meat was like cutting through a well toasted marshmallow, but with no stickiness inside. Crispy outside with slight gelatinous resistance as you went through, truly a unique feeling. We wrapped the rest of the meat in foil and placed it in a cooler with newspaper around it to help insulate.

When lunch time rolled around, we grabbed some forks and started pulling.

Mom had made some great sides of coleslaw, fancy baked beans and broiled tomotoes. Dad and I had also made 2 sauces for the pork on Saturday which we reheated. One was the typical tomato based KC/Memphis style sauce and the other was mustard based. Both were good but the mustard based was the unanimous favorite.

The pork itself was amazingly tasty. Once you're past the bark, a large majority of the meat is not flavored at all, even from the brine it seemed. You just get 100% pure porky goodness. So if you have a smoker, by all means dive right in and make the real thing. But absent a smoker, a modern oven which can hold a low temp reliably (210-230° F say) and a meat thermometer would be all that's needed to come up with a really special meal. If you're not into bbq then use the butt for carnitas, perhaps making some home made mole sauce if you're up for it.

windows and steak

2006-08-27T16:04:00.000-04:00

on Saturday morning we spent some time removing the vertical blinds on the bay window in the living room. Reen had bought some curtains to replace the blinds and I think they are a modest but significant improvement.

And later it was off to Boston for our siblings night out at the steakhouse. For starters, this was my first trip on the T with the new Charlie Card in place of the old tokens. This is a step into the modern age for the city's transit system and I was familiar with a card system from DC. You can buy a card at the automated kiosks in the station, adding value by credit card or inserting cash. But nowhere is it marked what the fare is from this station to any of the others. Do I need $2? Or $14? Who knows. We all bought $5 tickets which got us to Park Street and back, however I have no idea how much money that trip cost and how much is left on the card. And as icing on the cake, Erin bought her card with a $20 bill and proceeded to get a boatload of $1 coins as change. When she later tried to use said coins in the machines, they weren't accepted. Oy vey. Well at least they have cash to tip the pizza delivery guy for a while.

And there was also a meal....The restaurant is located in Old City Hall which is on School Street, right in the historic center of Boston. The building and restaurant space are really nice. As expected, the entire menu is al la carte and silly expensive. The steaks are prime beef and aged...yadayada, so I expect them to be pricey. I'd say the most rediculous item would have to be the lobster. The waiter said they ran 2.5-3.5 pounds and then smoothly sneaks in that they cost $30 per pound. So you could quite easily wind up with a $90 lobster, which is more than the US grown Kobe-style NY Strips they sell. That's a higher markup than you typically see on bottles of wine. All that for lobster, which is readily available at most any fishmonger, grocery or restaurant in a 100 mile radius and takes no special skill or understanding to prepare.

The steak however was another matter. We all ordered one, fillet for all the sibs and ribeye for Reen and me. Mine was just about perfect. The cut wasn't monsterously thick (which I liked) and it was cooked pefectly. It must be a sign of my growing cynicism about restaurants, but just the fact that the steak was cooked well was a pleasant surprise. It was very lightly seasoned and served with some butter on top which had melted. One interesting thing is that they serve the steak on a very, very hot plate. This seems to fly in the face of most meat handling guildelines which have you rest the meat prior to serving. In the end, this steak was truly one of the best that I've had, ever.

Beyond the steak (and the excellent wine list) I will say that the balance of my experience was fairly crummy. The service was substandard, both in attentiveness to the table and showing interest/respect for the food they were serving. I was left with the feeling that they had you in the seat, the prices are set, so they're going to make their money off of you. No need for formalities like getting drink orders correct or apologizing for spilling water on you when refilling the water glasses.

All of the food stuff aside, we had a really nice time. As our lives get more complex, it gets more and more difficult to get together, especially without children to look after. So the dinner was special for that reason alone. Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping us do that.

We did manage a group photo just outside the restaurant.

steak and butt

2006-08-23T16:01:00.000-04:00

it will be a fine weekend for meat.

Saturday night has out in Boston to enjoy a dinner at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse with our siblings. This dinner is a gift from my parents to the kids from about 20 months ago which we are now finally enjoying. I ate at another famous steakhouse chain, Morton's, in St. Louis maybe 6 years ago. Trey and I were there on business and ate on the cheap for the week, saving our per diem so that we could have a nice dinner out. I remember being fairly disappointed in the steak however. So I’m interested to see what Ruth’s Chris has to offer.

And on Saturday/Sunday Dad and I will be taking our first shot at some real BBQ. I’m bringing my smoker up to his place and we’ll be cooking some pork butt. Brine it, dry rub and then into the smoker for about 12 hours probably. I’ve seen this done on TV and read about it so many times that I’m really looking forward to finally cooking one ourselves.

If you miss playing risk, check out Dice Wars. Unless of course you have the board game in your closet, in which case you can just play at home. Like we do.

zomg!

2006-08-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

Fiona has her own blog now. Sweet work girlfriend! Once you get your alphabet, spelling and typing down you'll be the Queen of the blogosphere :-)

family gifts

2006-08-11T02:22:00.000-04:00

heeeeeeeeere's Reenie! At about 33 weeks and looking great. Apologies for the blurry picture.

We were down in PA recently for Reen's baby shower. Which for me involved saying hi to most of the guests and then spending the afternoon with Jason and the boy wonder Kellen, then finally returning to the house to see all the phat loot that we received. Thanks everybody! Two gifts must be singled out however, as they are handmade family heirloom type stuff.

The quilt from Reen's mom

and a knit blanket from my dear sister.

The pictures aren't great but if you click for the full sized version you can see the details a bit better. Our child will surely be kept warm, wrapped in the love of his/her extended family. Awww.

Speaking of said baby. The working nickname for a while now has been Wolfie and this name is still sanctioned by the parents. However...we recently watched the new King Kong movie and as the onscreen Ape was bellowing and pounding its chest, the baby was going to crazy in Reen's belly. So I started using Baby Kong as a nickname that day. Then we had our 32 week ultrasound and the hand which we could see clearly was balled in a fist, lending more credence to the notion of a Baby Kong.

I recently stumbled across this creepy, creepy online version of a cartoon I remember from childhood, For Better or For Worse. She Blinks! Ahhhhh!

awwww

2006-07-24T00:43:00.000-04:00

isn't this just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

If the cliched image of dad cursing his way through 6 pages of directions, trying to assemble the crib is to be believed, then we passed with flying colors. We read the directions, worked together and it was set up in less than an hour.

a season of growth...and pig heads

2006-07-19T02:05:00.000-04:00

a coworker had given me some tomato seedlings a while back. We had them in the bay window for a while and then Reen potted them and they got moved outside. We watched them get larger and now the tiniest 'maters can be seen on the vine, in place of the pretty yellow flowers. I look forward to them growing up so that I can eat them.

also continuing to grow is Reen's belly. Reen commented the other day that although we don't typically go to many concert, baby O has been to concerts by BeauSoleil, Bruce Springsteen and Dar Williams. Not to shabby. Although I'm not sure if Wolfie's ear buds were developed enough to actually hear the BeauSoleil show.

Looking for an engineering job in Louisiana? How about Chief of the Hydrology and Hydraulics Branch of the US Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans? "Recruitment Bonus may be authorized." Well yes, I would think so.

And just so you know that the old world ways aren't completely fading away, I'll point out that it's still relatively easy to find concise instructions on how to split a pig's head in half. Can't decide between a saw or a cleaver? Wondering where to safely hold the porcine noggin whilst severing the Rational from the Intuitive? Look no further.

p.s. As for the pronunciation of Sesachacha, it's something like SACK-a-chuh or SACK-a-jah. I still pronounce it phonetically though because I like that way better.

zizou's petals

2006-07-11T10:33:00.000-04:00

it’s not fair to judge a career by one moment, but for most sports fans Zinédine Zidane is now that French guy who head butted the Italian guy and got thrown out of the World Cup final. It’s too bad, because Zidane gave the game a lot more than that throughout his career.

Insults and cheap shots are commonplace in the game, with players constantly trying to get under the skin of their opponent in the hopes that it will throw off their concentration, or even better, provoke the player to do something stupid and get a card. So I was astounded that Zidane would allow himself to get wound up like that, given all that was on the line, both for his team and country and for himself personally. I wonder if we’ll ever know what was said between the two players. The initial rumors are that he was called a terrorist or that the comment was a racial slur. The one part I found humorous is that in most sports, if something has snapped and you’re out to hurt the guy, you haul off and punch him. But this being soccer, you’re not allowed to use your hands, so Zidane’s first instinct was to head butt the guy. Too funny.

A final piece of interest in this whole incident was that we may have seen the first use of instant replay in the sport of soccer. The head butt occurred well behind the play that was going on upfield, so the main referee didn’t see it at all. Typically this sort of off the ball stuff is spotted by the linesman or 4th official. They get the ref’s attention, they pow-wow and the ref takes action based on what his team has told him happened. This did happen eventually with Zidane, but it came about very slowly. The referee only walked back to the play because Materazzi was still down on the field, not because he’d been called over by the linesman. During this time, they showed a replay of the incident on the screen inside the stadium (typically a no-no for controversial plays), then the refs all got together and finally Zidane was red carded. So it seemed fairly clear that the linesman only saw the play from the replay shown on the screen, not when it happened on the field. It was certainly the correct call, but strictly speaking it was a violation of the rules of the game for the refs to make a call based on a replay rather than what they had seen (or not seen) themselves. I will be curious to see if FIFA addresses this, and clarifies the policy going forward.

postmortem

2006-07-07T16:44:00.000-04:00

as for the US’s world cup performance this time around, there’s no doubt that I was supremely disappointed at the results. However, with some time to reflect I’ve come to feel that most of the pundits are overreacting. This World Cup came down to two things: the US team didn’t play well and it was in the tournament’s toughest group. Just consider the French team for a moment. They won the WC for the first time in 1998, and then in 2002, the defending champs failed to score a single goal and crashed out after the first round. Now they are in the finals again. So it’s a very fine line between success and failure even for the best teams and this time around, the US was on the wrong side of that line is all. There's plenty of blame to share about why the team didn't play well, but the fact remains that there's not a huge difference in the quality of play by the US between this World Cup and the last one. What was definitely different were the intangibles like confidence and luck, which both seemed to be in short supply this time around.

Watching Zinédine Zidane play these past few games for France has been a joy. He is truly the best player of his generation. My personal hope is that France wins the final, but I don't think that's likely unless it gets to penalties. The only player I enjoy watching from the Italian team is Cannavaro. This guy is 5’ 9”, 165 lbs, and has been the best defender in the World Cup.

dawn the shoar

2006-07-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

there must be a word to describe the feeling of having left too large a gap in your blog, and thus fearing that a single post will not be sufficient to cover all the stuff you would have mentioned if you had been posting on a regular basis. But I don’t know what that word is. So let’s just hope that such a large gap has simply left time for the winsome wheat to be separated from the common chaff of a typical post. Yeah right.

The yearly visit to Ocean City was great, as usual. The explosion of babies from the next generation is just crazy, and our time with Fiona and Sara and Samantha left Reen and I all schmoopy thinking of the imminent arrival of Wolfie. The house rentals this year were huge compared to past years and yet both places were filled to the rafters. We’ll be renting out a whole block before long. Some highlights of the week, as I remember them:

seeing in person that the mentos and soda trick actually works

Reen being more fired up about the US soccer games than I was

TT matching Nathaniel’s waffle intake during Chicken and Waffles/Ice Cream and Waffles dinner night. (they tied at 7 each)

Neil’s delight at seeing his older brother screw up at mini-golf

My winning another free game coupon on the last day of mini-golf, just like last year.

Holding Sara while she progressed from playful to calm to groggy to asleep.

Celebrating Tim’s birthday about 5 times.

The crazy guy at the rest stop Burger King being annoyed at Seamus and I joining Mike and the ladies ahead of him in line. That guy seemed entirely too young to be so close to snapping.

The Bruce concert with Mike, Amy, Reen and Seamus. I especially enjoyed the song John Henry and singing along with Pay Me My Money Down.

Fiona's funny face

adios

2006-06-17T05:25:00.000-04:00

yipes was that a bad game. The poorest I've seen from the US team in a long long time. Losing to a good Czech team is no disgrace but the team showed no urgency or belief in themselves and that was so disappointing.

So today is a chance for redemption, but against a team which is most likley stronger than the Czech team they played on Monday. Even a win here and against Ghana won't ensure a place in the second round, but it would be a redemption of sorts for the team. However I just don't see it happening. The Italians are too strong, and god forbid they score an early goal. However, they do tend to let teams hang around in games so it may end up being close. A strong US performance will depend a lot on Keller's play in goal. He is capable of keeping a team in the match all by himself.

Off to OC, NJ right now for vacation with the family. Have a good week!

8 for 8 (+1)

2006-06-12T09:56:00.000-04:00

so I head home for lunch on Friday, just to watch the first half of the fist game of the WC live and am shocked to see no red light shining on the bottom of the TiVo. It's not recording! I get the TV on and start recording. It turns out I missed the first 13 minutes of the game which happened to include the first goal. Looking at the upcoming recording schedule, it looks fine. So I have no idea why the first game got missed. A timely lesson to double check the To Do List each night to make sure I'll have the games waiting for me at home after work.

Finished watching that game on Friday night. And in all honesty I was going to skip the 2nd game from Friday (Poland v. Ecuador..zzzzz) because I was tired and there were 3 more games ahead on Saturday. But at Reen's urging I flipped on the Poland Ecuador match Friday night after finishing the 1st game. Reen proceeded to fall asleep right away but I am glad to have watched it. Saturday brought 3 more games and then 3 again on Sunday, two of which we watched at Mom and Dad's. Soccer is HD is really nice to watch.

So that makes 8 games (minus 13 minutes) plus the Revs game Sunday night for a grand total of 13.3 hours of soccer so far.

Kickoff for the US v. Czech game is in less than 2 hours. The plan has been to just TiVo it and watch after work with Reen. But I'd go crazy. The odds of a mishap are just too great. I'd read or hear the score somewhere, TiVo might get eaten by vultures...anything could happen. So I'll be taking an extended lunch break today.

And I arrived at work today to see this mail from the guy in Denmark I worked with many years ago. We have continued to be in touch maybe once a year.

Hi Mark,

A big day for you today ?!?

Good luck with your team !

Kind regards

Peter

And then when I wrote back saying that I wasn't sure about sneaking away for a long lunch.

Have a nice lunch (you have to go for the extended lunch ! – there is 4 years to the next world cup !).

And he's exactly right.

memo

2006-06-09T10:30:00.000-04:00

I sent this email around the office yesterday.

The World Cup starts tomorrow at noon. So over the next month, if you
happen to learn the score/result of a match during the course of your day,
please do not mention it to me. This is especially important next Monday
when the US plays its first match around lunch time. And on the flip side,
all are welcome to come over after work to watch the day's games.

Your cooperation in the matter is most appreciated.

Sincerely,

Resident Soccer Nerd

And this goes for you blog readers too. No emails or comments about 'I thought Mexico had a good team this year, how come Iran just beat them?' I'd say a 12 hour window is good. If I haven't watched a game by then, chances are I've moved along to the next one.

family, soccer and snobs

2006-06-07T13:18:00.000-04:00

we had Mike, Amy and Fiona here for a visit last week which was great. Candlepin bowling (check), seafood dinner (check), The Office marathon (check), Amy painting dragonflies, a turtle and a cute cow jumping over the moon on the nursery walls (check), teaching Fiona how to roll a ball along the floor with her nose (check). So it was a pretty complete visit I’d say.

The World Cup starts this Friday and I’m just tickled pink about that. I’ve cleared out the TiVo and set recording options for all the games. I just need to find and print out a group bracket type thingy to record the scores on but that should be easy enough. The plan is to record the 3 games every day and watch them during the evening, although it’s likely I’ll only watch 2 of 3 each day. It’s a true tossup to say if the US will advance from the group stage. My brain says that they won’t but most of the rest of me can be convinced that they will. At any given moment I can make an argument one way or the other, so obviously I’m conflicted. I do feel that they’ll play well and make a good impression either way.

An important social marker among we provincial New Englanders is pronunciation of place names. A slight mistake in saying Peabody, Billerica or Cataumet and it’s instantly revealed that you ain’t from ‘round these parts. While I’m usually insulated from ridicule due to my local roots, I ran into Sesachacha Pond here at work and it stopped me dead in my tracks. I’ve only recently mastered this beast after hearing it said for about a week. Place your best guess on pronunciation below.

baloney tree

2006-05-22T18:27:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was one for yardwork. Mowing of lawn, removal of 2 viney type things, removal of one large shrub including roots, removal of 2 dead arborvitae, transplant of one flowering shrub, and major pruning all around.

There was one leafy bush thing that I was enjoying pruning. The leaves and stems are nice and thin which made it easy going. The plant also had a beautiful fragrance which was especially noticeable as I was trimming it. I pointing this out to Maureen, who remarked quite casually that the reason I was enjoying the smell so much is because the thing smells like bologna. I hadn’t quite put my finger on it, but Reen was 100% correct. The little green bush smells like bologna. Did we buy the right house or what?

two countdowns

2006-05-10T02:29:00.000-04:00

Reen's oven continues to function very well. Baby flutters have been felt in recent weeks and could be perceptible on the outside before too long.

The World Cup kicks off in less than 30 days! A majority of the squad have left their club teams and reported to Cary, NC for training camp which opened today.

Training will last about 3 weeks and culminate in 3 friendly matches played at the end of May. They will fly to Germany on June 1 and get prepared for their opening match against Czech Republic on June 12.

joy in dempseyville

2006-05-03T10:49:00.000-04:00

well the roster for the US World Cup team was announced yesterday and that sort of thing is exciting for me. With the names in hand you can now spend some time thinking up lineups and formations that will best counter the strengths of Italy, Czech Republic and Ghana. Feel free to post your predicted lineups as you get them finalized.

Your favorite rapper, Clint Dempsey, made the squad from the Revs while 4 others were named as alternates. 3 of the 4 were long shots, but Revs forward Taylor Twellman was widely considered a lock to make the team. His exclusion is an enormous disappointment and I will be surprised if his play for the Revs does not decline sharply, as he adjusts to the reality that he was passed over for the squad. The MLS season doesn’t break while the World Cup is under way, so he’ll be watching the games from Germany as he tries to focus on the MLS matches each week. I just don’t see that going too well. Of course there’s an outside chance that one of the forwards on the main roster will be injured in the coming months and Twellman could be called up from the alternates roster.

The rod rack is back on the Jeep which means it’s fishing time!

And in case any of you were looking for a tv show which is more offensive (and funnier) than Drawn Together, may I humbly suggest MTV2's Wonder Shozen. Mirroring the South Park concept of funny Content Advisory messages to start the show, this one ends with the blunt but truthful declaration that “If you allow a child to watch this show, you are a bad parent or guardian.”

thanks to Mike

2006-04-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

there is the rare gift that not only provides immediate enjoyment, but serves to engender an entirely new hobby or interest in your life. My brother Mike lending me Towing Jehovah was just such a gift. In short, I think Morrow's writing is brilliant, and following Towing Jehovah, I've enjoyed seeking out and reading all of Morrow's work as well as purchasing and receiving as gifts a few 1st Editions of his novels, which I cherish.

And now, with help from a gift card Mike gave me for Christmas, I've got my hands on Morrow's newest novel, The Last Witchfinder. After 9 years and two publishers, Morrow's book was finally released on March 15th. It was with great pleasure that I found his newest work in the fiction/literature section of the bookstore, rather than in the science fiction section. Morrow has found a good home in the Sci-Fi community and his early work was often carried along by a sci-fi plot. But beginning with Only Begotten Daughter and later the Godhead Trilogy, Morrow's stirling satire has deserved to sit on a shelf much closer to A Modest Proposal than to Elfstones of Shannara.

I'm happy that it's a fairly thick book which means I'll have some time to savor it, all thanks to Mike.

belly check

2006-04-24T21:28:00.000-04:00

I hope this blog isn't breaking the news for anybody and you already know that Reen is in a delicate condition. Lately we've been enjoying the gradual bulge of the belly.

MAKdaddy family

2006-04-19T13:00:00.000-04:00

we were down to visit the Crossetts this weekend which was great. We got to meet Alaina for the first time which was fun. I think Reen and I see a lot of ourselves in Matt and Kristen and so it is encouraging to see what great parents they are. I guess we'll have a fighting shot when it's our turn.

Sunday saw us out and visiting a local botanical garden which was lovely. And just to keep up with Jason, here are some pictures.

and now...

2006-04-05T11:57:00.000-04:00

...it's snowing outside. Oh this wacky New England Weather!!

back to the beach

2006-04-03T20:58:00.000-04:00

it was actually kinda warm out this weekend which was nice. Can't wait to get fishing again!

here we go again

2006-03-31T16:07:00.000-05:00

off into another MLS season. The first games are this Saturday and I'm looking forward to them. But to be honest, it's just passing time until the World Cup. Sure I'm interested to see which rookies are legit and following the progress of certain players this year, to say nothing of the Revs in general. But it all pales in comparison to the games this summer.

There's recently been a new proposal for a piece of the land involved with the proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound. While I think it's hilarious, the suits at the USACE might not be laughing.

Fr. Mark

2006-03-22T11:14:00.000-05:00

my long lost brother just happened to officiate over the baptisms this weekend in PA. Thanks to a request by Grandmom, we got to snap a few photos which was fun.

on the road again

2006-03-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

back to PA this weekend for the baptism of Sara and Samantha. Reen will become Sara's godmother which is very cool.

MLS is considering placing a soccer team in Glassboro, NJ which is across the river and just south of Philly. For you Eagles fans out there, Glassboro might ring a bell as being the town in which Donovan McNabb and Jeremiah Trotter recently failed to appear for a court date to address charges that they illegally parked in handicapped spots while visiting a sports bar in town.

much to Maureen's dismay, I'm thinking about going back to school. How else will I learn how to use a vacuum tumbler?

sniff

2006-03-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

when I left work last night it smelled like spring. This was kind of odd because there is still plenty of snow on the ground. I actually had a flashback of riding my bike to the soccer field on my way to referee a youth match, something I haven't done since I before I could drive. Funny what your nose will cause your brain to do. And while I’m reminiscing, I’ll mention that Reen and I made English muffin pizzas for dinner the other night. Talk about old school. And I must say that they were great. Makes me wonder if Pete ever thought to try this in his quest to make the perfect pizza. It might be worth a shot…

Looking to spice up an old classic? Get out the paring knife and some hotdogs!

two new friends

2006-03-03T16:22:00.000-05:00

no real news. It snowed yesterday. US defeated Poland 1-0 in another tune up for this June/July. We’re going to visit the sibs tonight.

Although there’s no action here lately, I have been remiss in not sharing some of our trip to PA two weeks ago. So here goes. We drove down after work Friday so that we could meet our new nieces Sara and Samantha. I recall Taylor showing us around the nursery room before the babies arrived. Two cribs, two quilts and two mobiles. Cute Noah’s Ark stuff all around. A changing table with diapers neatly stacked beneath. The whole room was newly painted and felt like a perfect place for the babies to be brought home to. I also got the distinct impression of this being the calm before the storm. It seemed a forgone conclusion that once the room was being used as intended…well…that all hell would break loose.

What we found when visiting the newly augmented family is that things are very much under control and life is proceeding as usual. Chris and Becky have things running like clockwork. A neat thing for us is that we got to feed and burp the young ladies which was fun. I don’t think I’ve ever fed my nephew Duncan and have maybe been involved with feeding Fiona once. So to feed a bottle to Samantha when she’s 3 weeks old was an enjoyable first for me.

I know that it won’t always seem so effortless for them. The dynamic must change as the people involved do. But right now everything is going quite alright and I couldn’t be happier for Chris and Becky and Taylor and the girls.

We brought home with us a case of A-Treat soda (Black Cherry) and boxes of Tastykakes thanks to Chris and Becky. It was ostensibly a birthday gift for me, but more likely a bit of sugary propaganda to make sure that we continue to visit on a regular basis.

We also got to sneak in a visit with J-Z and his family which was nice. We dropped off some sausage, Maureen made Kellen cry and I passed along my kitchen aid grinder/stuffer attachment to Jason. This was partially because I don’t use it anymore and Jason had expressed interest, and partially as payback for Jason passing along to me one of his addictions which I now share. So before long we’ll be moved in together sending support payments to our wives, and subsisting on home made meat products and computer games.

drum roll please....

2006-02-16T11:33:00.000-05:00

and so the verdict on the oysters…..good.

No problems with the little guys. Color and texture were fine and they smelled the same deep, clean, briny smell as when I shucked them. So that was happy times. Just to be sure I ate a small one raw when I was getting set up. I figured that I would get sick from that way before the smoked ones are shared with anybody. That was about 17 hours ago and no ill effects. What’s the time window for food poisoning?

I blanched them for about 5 seconds in boiling water and then smoked over cherry wood for about 30 minutes. They lost easily 50% of their size which is good because now they don’t look too scary to eat. I have them packed in oil in a small jar in the fridge.

After they were done I was able to smoke the remaining snack sticks I had to get done so I’m all finished now. Everything is cleaned and put away which feels good. Gift packs for PA are assembled and labeled as are two small ones for co-workers and the one for Dad whom I have to thank for the meat in the first place.

making headway

2006-02-14T11:32:00.000-05:00

I didn’t get to smoking the oysters…yet. If they haven’t spoiled (dear god let them be happy) I will try that Wednesday after work. What I did manage to do however is clear the freezer of the pork, pork fat and venison that was in there. I put the meat in the fridge to defrost starting around Thursday and also put 5 pounds of cubed pork in the fridge to cure for kielbasa on Wednesday. Saturday morning/afternoon I ground all the meat that still needed grinding and then stuffed and smoked kielbasa which came out alright. Then on Sunday I made a venison version of the Cheesy Jalapeno sausage and then smoked it. That was cool. And I also made a batch of snack sticks from the venison. You may know that we had a minor blizzard type event on Sunday so I can now add smoking sausage in a snow storm to my list of accomplishments. My biggest worries were that the low flame on the burner would be blown out and that the part of the remote thermometer that had to be outside wouldn’t like being exposed to the cold and snow. But neither was an issue so happy day for me. And finally I made up some breakfast sausage and plain ‘hamburger’ (for dad) with the remaining venison last night after work.

It was a long haul but good to get it done and we’ll have plenty of goodies to bring to PA this weekend. I didn’t touch the moose meat yet however, so that will be waiting for another fit of motivation. And mad props to Reen for (once again) being a great sport as I dirty up the kitchen and fridge with ground meat and fat everywhere, and permeate our home with the aroma from the smoker for two days.

You may notice a new feature in the sidebar. I found it difficult to do all the math of adding up the sausage made from last year, so I thought I could just keep a running total here. I’m confident that if I put my mind to it I can break the century mark.

urstas

2006-02-08T22:39:00.000-05:00

my coworker gave me more than two dozen oysters the other day as well as a few quahogs to boot. Straight from local waters, the upper reaches of Buzzards Bay in fact. So last night was a time for shucking.

I've done my fair share of opening bivalves, but never an oyster so I was looking forward to adding a new skill to my culinary arsenal. First step was to stop in the restaurant supply store and pick up a cut-proof glove and an oyster knife. We had a clam knife already and yes the two are different. I'm also glad to have the glove for use with the mandolin style slicer that Reen got me for my birthday.

First off, let me say how scary these critters look. The shells are jagged and irregular as well as being covered in muck and other beasts like small slipper shells (boat shells to me growing up) and jingle shells. The result is that they each need a good scrubbing and there's potential for a lot of crud and hard little shells to fall into your garbage disposal if you're not careful.

As for the shucking itelf I was pleasantly surprised. At the back of each, there is a clear gap right where the shells come together that is just begging to have a knife jammed into it. Having such an obvious starting point is itself a major step up from quahogs. [if you've never shucked a raw quahog, here's something you can try at home to get the feel for it. head outside and find a smooth round/oval rock that fits in your hand comfortably and feels a bit heavy for its size. ok, now take the rock inside and get a butter knife out of the drawer. now use the knife to open the rock.] So you work the knife into that spot and once you're in just a 1/4" say, you press the handle down with firm steady pressure and you are rewarded with the yielding of the top shell and a lovely, squishy *schlock* sound that is quite satisfying. From that point you simply work the blade along the top shell, getting forward to sever the single muscle holding the two shells together. Remove top shell, work knife under oyster meat to sever the other side of the muscle and you have a loose oyster, with most of the 'liquor' still there if you've been careful.

One interesting thing is that the meat inside these guys is BIG. Like fill the palm of your hand big. The shot below is of one of the smaller ones and even it is large enough to make your stomach turn at the thought of eating it straight up. So I guess the ones we get in restaurants are the babies, much like the cherrystones you might have raw are just baby quahogs.

The big question of course is what the hell to do with them if they're too big to enjoy raw. Well I considered a seafood gumbo and also a cream based seafood chowder. But then I remembered that my uncle used to smoke mussels and thought that smoked oysters might be alright too. So that will be the plan for this weekend. I'll let you know how they turn out.

don't tread on duece

2006-02-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

are you ready for hip-hop and soccer together in a single serving? Well have a look at this music video by the Revolution’s own Clint Dempsey. This one really has my brain scrambled to be honest.

Just a bit of background: Clint is sponsored by Nike who also sponsors the US National Team. Nike has come up with the “Don’t Tread On Me” campaign for the upcoming World Cup. The logo uses the familiar coiled snake from the Don’t Tread on Me flag you might recognize. I’m guessing that borrowing imagery (and the slogan to boot!) from the Revolutionary war is meant to rally the US fans around the concept that our soccer team is not yet a traditional power, but they are here to stay and will gladly fight to get the respect they deserve. I suppose the whole point is that US soccer is getting’ all up in your grill in Germany this summer. So that’s the general ad campaign.

Add to this the fact that Clint is a big hip hop fan and has always toyed around rapping like any music fan will when singing in the shower or just joking around. Now Clint is the next hot thing for US Soccer and has a decent shot of making the World Cup team. So Nike sets him up to record this song and video.

I don’t like the video because it strikes me as beyond comical to see soccer games and juggling tricks juxtaposed with the clichéd rap video images of pimped out cars, gold teeth and hand signs. There seems to be potential here to label Clint and Nike together as gigantic posers.

I do like the video because it’s well done and Clint shows just enough talent and attitude that it's clear he's not posing. I may think he looks silly, but I believe that he believes in what he's doing. Furthermore, the video presents soccer in a light which it hasn't been seen in before. For the sport to grow, it has to shed its soccer-mom, white suburbia association, so this should help that. Ultimately I think it’s a good thing and I think the reason I find it weird/funny is simply because it deals in a language and social currency that I have no clue about.

Are there any hip hop, non-soccer fans out there? What do you think?

wherefore art thou patches

2006-01-30T16:55:00.000-05:00

let me just say that I've been holding back on the soccer news, with MLS in the offseason. But there was a draft (Revs nabbed a player from Lehigh!) and the National Team is continuing to prepare for the WC in June.

pete’s picture of a funny lost cat sign reminds me of one Reen and I have seen for a full year now posted by the Chappy Ferry over on the Vineyard. I don’t recall the cat’s name but as it turns out, it’s not that important, so let’s just call him Patches. There’s the standard text describing what Patches looks like, where/when he was lost etc. And then beneath the description are the bulleted items which include the following two gems: (1) his collar has no name tag and (2) he does not answer to his name when called. So we saw this and both had a good laugh because obviously Patches is screwed. The image of people combing the neighborhood calling Patches’ name while he was huddled in the brush trying to stay out of sight tickled the funny bone. It was only fitting then that the posting was still up a year later. Poor Patches. R.I.P.

I am woefully behind on my sausage production this year. None will be placed in the 2006 logbook for January. Breaking my grinder set me back motivationally a fair bit. When the venny was fresh there was no option but to get it ground. Now I have a few pounds ground and a few more cubed and it’s all frozen. In addition I have a couple of pounds of frozen moose meat from my soster which I need to give some attention to. I’ll get there eventually.

We managed to finish painting the guest bathroom this weekend. Reen demoed the old vanity and disconnected the light fixture, spackled, sanded, washed and taped everything after work during the past two weeks. We chose a tan/medium brown. Reen calls it “coffee with cream” and Ben Moore calls it Algonquin Tan. We got the first coat down mid-week and the second coat up on Sunday. I must say that it looks good. It actually helps make the crummy tanish toilet/sink/tub color not look so bad. Instead they kind of just blend in now. Starting our painting adventure with the red in the living room really prepared us for the worst. If it doesn’t take 5 coats to cover then it seems easy. Although getting in behind the toilet wasn’t too much fun and there was a lot more cutting in to do in this small room due to the closet, window, shower, door and sink. Next steps are to get the new light fixture and mirror up in there.

For all you health nuts out there, good practice would now dictate that you limit your intake of haggis to once a week from here on out. One serving per week only please.

eyebrows, tivo and cannibals

2006-01-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

signal 238 that I am slowly aging: when I got my haircut today the lady asked if I wanted anything done with my eyebrows. Although I’d never thought of it before, I apparently associate a barber’s task with only trimming the hair on your head. Maybe the beard if it’s an old fashioned kind of place and you’ve got an extra $10. All other hair above the neck is your own damned responsibility. The only time you ever see things otherwise is when the funny old guy comes into the barber shop with hair coming out of every nook on his head. Uninterested or unable to groom himself, the fellow plops down in the chair and the scissors go to work.

So when she asked me if my eyebrows were “ok”, I said yes. Because they are just fine thank you, and I’ve got about 40 years to go until I’m the funny old guy with a Chia head.

And I suppose I should announce to the world that we bought a TiVo and are enjoying it so far. I actually got it talking with our wireless network last night in about 5 minutes. I was shocked.

Furthermore, I had my first glimpse of TiVo joy last night too. I was looking through the listings of movies to see if there was anything interesting and it turns out there was. First I found Drumline, which I believe I’ve mentioned before. But the real cool thing was that I saw a listing for Keep the River on Your Right. The book is a fascinating memoir of a young man who went off to live with natives in the Amazon jungle in the 50’s. He ends up living with them for a few years and at one point joins them on a raid of another village, watches his good friends murder the other people, and then partakes in cannibalistic rituals which were standard issue for the other tribesmen. I enjoyed reading this book a few years ago and was happy to learn that there is also a documentary which follows the guy, now 78, as he returns to the jungle to visit the tribe which he lived with in his youth. I saw it at blockbuster once but it’s not really a great Friday night date movie so I’ve always passed it over. But now here was TiVo telling me that it would be on in a few days. So I’ll record it this weekend and watch it at my leisure. Hooray for TiVo! And let’s not be miserly, hooray for cannibalism too.

like a boxer who is down to his last strike

2006-01-12T17:31:00.000-05:00

did anyone else catch this gem of an analogy from Senator Charles E. Grassley from Iowa during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing? ''You're the quarterback and your team is way ahead here in the fourth quarter, and opponents are very desperate. They haven't hit you all day, now for two days. And you're going to keep getting these last-minute hail marys thrown at you." I sure hope Brady doesn’t have too many hail marys thrown at him in Denver this weekend. I guess we can thank Joe Biden for starting this trend with his crappy baseball/strike zone analogy during the Roberts hearings.

But why dwell on that stuff when we can talk about glowing green pigs?! I’ll be accepting sausage recipe ideas for this at least until my mail order green pig butt comes in the mail.

And I will note with some sadness that reality tv may be coming to P-Town here on the Cape. Have I mentioned that I’m not a big fan of reality tv? Joyless humbug that I am.

klezmerized

2006-01-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

about a week ago I heard this story on NPR. The basic details are as follows: Somebody made recordings this old Rabbi singing prayers and songs which had long been forgotten. Kind of like the old recordings of early blues and folk music which are some of the only remaining evidence that these songs ever existed. And the singer’s grandson is now trying to get these recordings released to the public. Standard NPR story really, about the potential loss of a unique piece of cultural heritage. Yeah, yeah. Vote democrat, save unique cultural artifacts, we get it.

As I was half listening to this typical piece of liberal NPR propaganda, something caught my attention, and through the wonders of the NPR website and streaming audio, I can share it with you. If you follow the link above and then click on the Listen button (just above the photo) and after the add plays, the main story will come up. Listen to 4:13-4:52 and you’ll hear the part that got my attention. Go ahead and try it if you want to avoid reading the details which I have below.

What got my attention was that I recognized this little snippet of music from the recordings. This seemed odd because I’m not well versed in much of the sacred Jewish musics. But here is this old recording of a guy singing in Hebrew and I know the tune from somewhere. Eventually I was able recall that I knew the song from a movie. With a bit of googleing, I found that I knew the song from Pulp Fiction and it was called Misirlou and was recorded in the 60’s by Dick Dale and his Del-Tones.

Lo and behold I’m in the car again this Sunday and hear that NPR got a bunch of people writing in who also recognized the song. And so the folks on NPR did a follow up story about how this melody could be part of a sacred religious music and also make such a large impression as a part of modern pop-culture.

The story is worth listening to, but the short version is that the melody originated from Greece and Turkey and became a staple in the folk music in the Middle East. Dick Dale’s grandparents were from Lebanon and he first heard the melody as a child from his relatives.

If you do listen to the story, the most interesting part for me was listening to Dick Dale talk about how and why he ended up putting this tune from his childhood into his modern repertoire when he was an up and coming musician.

75 in '05

2006-01-06T17:45:00.000-05:00

I had a year in review thingy compiled but it now seems much too late for that so I canned the whole thing, save for the next little gem which I feel is still worth sharing.

I started keeping a notebook of the sausage I’ve made in February of 2005. The recipe, notes about how it was smoked, comments on how the final product turned out etc., just so I can keep track of what works and what doesn’t. So with each recipe is the amount of meat that I started with. I added that number up for each entry and came up with 75 pounds of sausage made in 2005. That doesn’t include the weight of the spices or water added or of any weight lost in the smoker, but I’m guessing it’s fairly accurate.

gumbo

2005-12-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

with the sausage out of the way, tonight was a night for gumbo. And in the spirit of Jason's apple tart cook-along, here's a quick lowdown on how it went. From left to right we have: beer, veggies, AP flour, chicken pieces overnighted in seasoned buttermilk, baggie of seasoned flour, floured chicken ready to fry, stock pot with chicken broth in it, cast iron fry pan with 1/4" of oil in it for frying.

There are 4 basic steps along the way to gumbo land:
-fry the chicken

-make the roux

-cook veggies in roux

-assemble gumbo

My most favorite part of this exercise is the roux. Just making it is cool because of the dirt simple ingredients of oil and flour. But together with some heat added, it's a whole complex animal. It's great fun to watch the roux slowly darken as you continually whisk it. I tried to photograph the stages of the different colors but it didn't come out. Maybe it's all for the best as I wouldn't want to diminish the joy of watching the process yourself for the first time. And by the way, I do mean continually whisk. This isn't like risotto where you read/hear that you must continually stir it or else, but once you've done it you realize that paying such detailed attention to the dish would be overly conservative and wasteful of time that can quite safely be spent cooking the rest of dinner. Oh no. You must keep this stuff moving or else you will burn the flour and taint the roux and thus have fatally wounded the heart of your gumbo. So have a beer (I enjoyed 3 through the course of the evening) and focus all your love and attention on the roux. It will repay you in spades.

The best part about the roux is once it's darkened to a deep red/brown it's time to add the veggies. Again very plain components: onion, celery and green pepper. Adding this into the roux is the single coolest cooking...meneuver that I have personal experience with. For me this is on par with the magic of taking sausages out of the smoker, but better because you can see/hear/smell the magic happening right in front of you. In making the roux, it sputters a bit as you first work in the flour but for most of the time it is essentially inert. Just slowly changing colors and giving off the lovely nutty/burnt popcorn aroma. You just keep stirring until it's as dark as you want it. Upon adding the vegetables, the whole pan springs to life, bubbling and sputtering wildly as the water from the greens evaporates and escapes as steam. In an instant your cast iron transitions from boring dark pan to furious cauldron. What's really cool is that you always take the roux just to the limit of the color you want but invariably once you add the veggies, it goes a full shade darker. For me this means a clear jump from deep red/brown to a sinister black, which looks and behaves just like the evil goo from Creepshow 2. And the smell! There's nothing like it to compare with. In the vein of when you start a sauce with just onions and garlic and are amazed for the umpteenth time of how good it smells. But more intense than that. It is truly the concentrated essence of the wonderful gumbo that will soon be born.

Once the veggies are cooked for a bit you are home free. Work the veggie/roux into the boiling stock in batches, add the fried chicken and sausage and let cook for a few hours. When you are ready, remove the chicken, discard skin and bones, shred the meat and return this to the pot. This batch will sit for 48 hours before serving but that isn't necessary although it does benefit from a little age.

And I guess I forgot the very important 5th step to gumbo
-clean up

Happy late December everybody!

andouille indeed have fun

2005-12-21T00:30:00.000-05:00

we got back from PA christmas around 4pm on Monday. By 7:30 I had 5 pounds of andouille stuffed and nestled into the fridge, ready for action. Tonight was the trial of my new propane setup for the smoker and here's how it went.

The hookup went fine after some tinkering and I realized that the connection from the regulator hose to the burner should be more than hand tight. I used a bit of TFE tape (although I think there's special stuff for propane connections) and cranked her down. I also turned the gas on very low and put soap solution around the connections to check for leaks. Happily I found none.

The burner worked well although at the lowest flame I could get it was prone to getting blown out so I couldn't keep it on really low. But it was about 26 degrees out so I had plenty of heat to make up in the smoker. Getting up to 130ish wasn't a problem, in fact I think the burner would be too hot if I try to use it in the warmer months, unless I can figure a way to reduce it's output even further than just by turning the valve down low.

I fashioned a wind screen out of tin foil to shield the bottom and that seemed to work fine. One of the problems I faced was what to put the wood chips in. I needed something to sit level on the burner but small enough to fit within the diameter of the smoker. I first tried a small cast iron frying pan, but that was too dense and wasn't getting hot enough to smoke the chips. I then tried just a sheet of heavy duty tin foil but that quickly disintegrated leaving me with a hot, smoldery mess to deal with. I finally settled on a cookie tin (thanks Amy!) which was perfect. It conducted the heat directly enough to get a good smoke but also didn't fall to pieces. I felt just like Goldilocks, after she finds the right bed but before the bears eat her.

In all it was a 3 hour smoke with the 1st hour on cherry wood and the rest on maple. I hadn't used the cherry before and I found the smoke kind of fruity and perfumey which I didn't think would suit the andouille. It would be good with poultry I bet but I was happy that I still had some maple around. Supposedly pecan wood is the authentic smoke wood for this and I'd love to try it some day. Perhaps Reen and I can make a drive to Peoples Woods in Rhode Island some time.

Next up is to fry some chicken and then finish off the gumbo. Man do I enjoy doing this.

grinder update

2005-12-16T11:27:00.000-05:00

I wanted to pass along my experience with the folks at Maverick when I called to talk about a repair for the grinder base which I broke because I'm an idiot.

So I call the number in NJ which is in the back of the manual. Tell the girl that the grinder base is broken. She says to go ahead and send it in for repair. Just send the base, nothing else. No questions about why it broke, where I bought it, how long ago I bought it, nothing like that. Just mail it in to us, Attn: Bernie on the address.

So I mail it out last Tuesday. And then I call on Friday to see if it got there. I get to talk to Bernie himself down on the floor. He says they've received it and he'll have a look at it Monday or Tuesday. And then today (Friday) in the mail is a box from them. I open it up and it's a brand new grinder in the box with all the stuff that came with the original. So it has a new base obviously, but also the auger, plates, knife and all the other bits. A whole new setup from scratch, with a little note saying the old one was shot so here's a replacement, free of charge. Didn't charge for return shipping or anything.

Needless to say I'm just amazed. After buying this thing from some noname online place I never expected to receive customer service like this.

plastic doodads

2005-12-14T11:24:00.000-05:00

As you know, this is the time of year for cutting down trees and hanging plastic doodads on them and watching them die slowly in your living room. And that’s just what we did Tuesday night. Well at least the doodad part. The living room looks very cozy now, what with the new paint job around the fire place and the Christmas decorations up. We also got the chimney inspected and it got a clean bill of health so all that is needed is to get some wood in there and light her up.

The home of childish insults and blinding homerism under the best of conditions, the online soccer forums are going crazy now that the WC groups have been announced. Just absolute garbage posted in a seemingly endless stream, each serving topped with a large dollop of nationalistic vitriol. The US sucks, MLS sucks, Italians are diving whiners, Czech Republic will stink if Nedved doesn’t play, Ghana will lose all 3 games, not 1 US player could play in Serie A, Italy’s 3-1 win over Holland a month ago doesn’t mean anything, Ghana can’t play defense and blah and Blah and BLAH. I loathe reality TV and yet I put on my hip boots and wade through this cyber-offal looking for what exactly? Who knows.

One thing that is neat however, and unique to soccer, is that this typical sportsmonkey chest beating is a global hobby. The people posting about the Italian team are in Italy and there’s folks from Africa talking about Ghana and how they did during qualifying. So that part is cool I think. And then, like a KC Royals fan weighing in on the Red Sox/Yankees debate, we have a post like this from a fine gent in South Africa:

I admire all the United State supporters on this forum backing there boys and talking about qualifying but have you seriously looked at who you coming up against? I mean Italy are head and shoulders above of you in terms of players and tactics. Czech Republic is an awesome side with Nedved, Rosicky and Pobosky all quality players. Ghana has Essein and Appiah both could easily win a game individually.

The U.S.A like every team has a chance and you have proven to mix it with the big boys before but I think the group you find yourselves in is one of the toughest to get out of. But anything is possible, good luck to all the teams.

And that about sums up what I’ve been feeling over the past few days. The US do have a shot at being one of the top 2 teams from the group and thus earn themselves a place in the final 16, but it would be an amazing feat. A sizeable step forward from their impressive run in 2002.

You know you want it and so here it is…a World Cup IQ test. I’d be fascinated to know what you score, so please post results. I will happily boast that I scored 11/11! Hooray for me!

the draw is bloody

2005-12-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

The US was drawn into Group E this afternoon, along with Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic. This is easily the most difficult group of the eight, with perhaps a nod to Group F which consists of Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan.

If you consider each team's current world ranking and sum them up for the four teams, Group E's total is the lowest at 72 with 50 of that accounted for by Ghana. The next lowest is Group F's 85 and then 3 groups in the mid-90s, 2 in the low 100s and Group G's total soaring to 126.

I'm not quite up for a full analysis of the group right now and there's plenty of time for that between now and June anyways. I will say that a small piece that fell in the US's favor is that they won't play their opening match until the 4th day of the tournament which will allow the players to settle in and observe how the games will be refereed. And of course there's the fact that it's impossible (not very difficult, impossible) to say what will happen once the games start being played. The US team will be in full control of their destiny. Provided they can keep key players healthy, the Americans are good enough to beat any team over the course of 90 minutes.

So for now, just brush up on your German.

broke down kitchen

2005-12-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

I am very sad to share with you the fact that I broke my new grinder Monday night. It seems that a big chunk of venison fat doesn’t break down very well but rather creates a chalky smear that was enough to bind up the auger and blow something in the motor. I really should have known to break down the fat into smaller pieces but I was in a bit of a hurry to get the meat ground and in the freezer. Not a mistake I will make twice. The gear teeth on the base and auger aren’t stripped but when the motor is running, the gear teeth on the motor base don’t turn. The motor also smelled a bit like burnt hair which can’t be good. So I’ve sent it back to a warehouse in NJ and have been told that it will be repaired or replaced. No questions about when or where I bought it or how it broke which I thought was a bit odd but nice. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon.

The first piece of the conversion of the smoker to gas arrived today. Very happy about that. With any luck the burner will be here soon. PA Christmas is just around the corner so I needs to get busy.

Of the myriad web site reviews focusing exclusively on hardwood charcoal this site is the clear leader of the pack. It’s never too early to decide which lump charcoal you are going to use next grilling season.

So the draw for the World Cup is tomorrow but the seeds were announced on Tuesday morning. And…………the US didn’t get one. Our regional rivals Mexico did get one but our fine country missed out by a hair’s width. We ended up ranked 9th, losing the 8th and final spot to Italy by a single point. It’s worth noting that of all the different variables that were used to determine the rankings, the single item which lowered the US’s score the most was the team’s performance in WC 1998. And we all know whose fault that was don’t we? That’s right, everyone’s favorite ODB, Steve Sampson. So thank you Steve, for humiliating the country 7 years ago in such a profound way that the negative shockwaves are still being felt today.

welcome welcome

2005-12-05T17:24:00.000-05:00

welcome to the world Alaina Kelsey Crossett. So nice to have you. We’re glad that you and your Mom are healthy and we can’t wait to meet you.

We took the plunge and painted the wall around the fireplace this weekend. With some excellent guidance from Pete and my brother I felt like I had a passing idea of how to proceed and what to expect. I taped in and got the coat of tinted primer down on Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday I was able to get up 3 coats of the topcoat itself. Cutting in and then rolling out took about 2 hours total and then an hour or so to dry. It looks great from up to 3 feet away but any closer and you start to perceive the differences in shading in certain places. This may drive me to a 4th coat but we’ll wait a few days to see how we feel about that. If it’s any indication, I didn’t take up the masking tape yet…

Saturday afternoon found us in Plymouth for some venison carving and then dinner. Dad had come back from the Vineyard with some deer parts in the cooler which we broke down into sausage meat and steaks for the freezer. Trying to carve out the more complicated joints like the shoulders and hips is akin to those 3-D tavern puzzles that have to fit together just right and in the proper order. Except the butchering is in reverse, where you’re trying to take it apart in just the right order. A few beers and some sharp knives helped us through it and we did alright.

The draw for the 2006 WC will take place this Friday and will be shown live on ESPN2 at 3pm, so set your VCR/TiVo. There’s a tiny slim miniscule iota of a chance that the US could earn one of the 8 seeds. If this happened eurosnob fans across the US and most fans from across the footballing world would simultaneously soil themselves. So I think it’s worth tuning in for that reason alone. Aside from that, at the end of the day each of the 32 teams will know which 3 teams they will face in the round robin opening groups of the tourney. Because of how the seeds are assigned and how the draw proceeds, there is usually a “group of death” which contains one of the seeded teams and also one of the top teams who just missed out on a seed (Holland for example). In addition, the other 2 teams in this group will be above average and thus round out a group of 4 teams who each have a clear chance at advancing out of group play. Such a group is bad news for all four teams involved. The perfect scenario is that you are drawn into a group with the seeded team, you and then 2 other relative minnows from say Africa or Asia. It should be noted however that just making the final 32 team field is a major achievement and there are no easy games. Seeing the 2002 Cup should drive that point home when defending champs France as well as Argentina and Portugal each failed to advance from the group stage. Check out this riveting interview with world class hottie Heidi Klum as she discusses her roll as hostess for the event.

please stop hugging my kid

2005-11-29T17:51:00.000-05:00

PA was great. For some reason our Thanksgiving visits always seem to be extra fun. We left in a driving snow flurry, but for some reason the roads weren’t being treated or plowed so the pavement was completely covered for most of Rhode Island. Reen suggested that the folks in charge didn’t want to cover holiday pay to get the plows out. After an hour or so of doing 35 in single file the snow turned to rain and the drive quickly improved.

Turkey dinner was great and included cheesy potatoes which are normally Christmas fare. What a treat. On Friday evening Reen and I went out with Mom and Dad for dinner at Speckled Hen where I enjoyed a Scotch egg and a fine dinner. While we were at dinner however, the rest of the gang was back home preparing the house for the surprise party which was planned for Mom’s retirement. It was a total surprise and good fun. It even included a retirement song, written, produced and starring TT, with the O’Neil chilluns performing in support.

Saturday saw the womenfolk head in to NYC and leave Mike, Dad and me to look after Fiona which was great fun. We ran some errands around town which provided an opportunity for me to steal Fiona away from her Granddad, at least for a little while. It took me some time to figure out why people were holding the door open for me and generally being polite. Such are the perks when you are carrying the queen of the castle around. We had BBQ for lunch while we were out and towards the end of the meal we were surprised to see a manic little girl putting the squeeze on Fiona as she sat trapped in her (is it height chair or high chair!?) thing, unable to get away. This girl was like an overzealous lamprey, leaving Mike leaning across the table with his hand pressing against her chest trying to separate her from his daughter, saying “Please stop hugging my kid!” After this wrestling match had lasted for about 2 minutes, the girl’s mom finally noticed what was going on and put her child back in her carrying case. Ah, the holiday season is wonderful, isn’t it?

And back on the homefront...my current setup for smoking sausage is a pain in the ass. Depending on the temperature and wind outside, the amount of heat needed to keep the proper temperature in the smoker can vary quite widely. And after the initial smoking period (usually 2 hours) you want to raise the temp in the smoker by about 30 degrees, which can be difficult with charcoal. My current system is to start a large charcoal fire in the base of the weber grill and then transfer some of the charcoal into the bottom of the smoker. But the fun doesn’t stop there. If it’s warm out and you only need a small fire in the smoker, it can be so small that it doesn't properly smolder the wood chips and so you have very light smoke. Which is bad, mmkay? On the flip side if it’s cold out, the fire can be so large that the chips will skip the smolder and just burst into flames. This isn’t good because the smoke is different from the full combustion to say nothing of the fact that your chips are all used up much too quickly and the burning chips can raise the temp in the smoker higher than you want it to be.

With that as a little background info, I happily share with you the news that I’m set to take the plunge and migrate from charcoal fueled smoking to propane. I’m pretty sure that I can get away with this for under $50, and if it brings down my smoking time from the 4-5 hours it takes now I’ll be very pleased. The idea is that your heat source becomes a propane burner which you set a frying pan on. The chips go in the fry pan and don’t burn because they are not in contact with the open flame. And you can easily adjust temp in the smoker by simply turning the valve on the propane tank. I will be making Kielbasa and Andouille in the coming weeks for the holiday season (mmmmm…..gumbo) so I’ll be sure to let you know how this plan works out.

break dance fighting

2005-11-21T16:18:00.000-05:00

i finally got to see You Got Served after almost renting it a few times. And yes, it totally rocks. In the best traditions of Bring it On and Drumline, this is another movie that is so filled with poorly written teen melodrama that it’s an instant classic. And what’s better is that after looking the movie up on IMDB just now, I see that the girl’s name isn’t Leah, but rather Liyah. Didn’t I tell you this movie is awesome?

We’ve taken the first tentative steps into the world of painting. Spurred on by tales of Pete and Susanne’s success at their new digs, we brought home some paint samples from Home Depot on Saturday morning. So now we have 3 reddish squares painted on the wall around the fire place. The 3 colors have small differences on the color card thing but look almost identical when up on the wall. In direct natural sunlight you can tell them apart but with indirect or lamp light they seem identical. I guess we’ve picked one so the next step is masking tape and drop cloths I suppose.

I cooked my first dish from the Les Halles cookbook which I bought a few months ago. It was a braised pork roast and came out quite well. Believe it or not, this may be the first time I ever cooked with leeks. I know that can’t be true, but I couldn’t recall when I last did. I also got to use my stick blender for the first time. This is one of many wedding gifts which had sat unused at Reen’s folks’ house since June 2002, but is now home with us. I served pumpkin risotto as a side.

Heading to PA for Thanksgiving on Thursday morning. Happy Turkey everybody!

birthday weekend

2005-11-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

the Revs lost the final 1-0 to LA in overtime. This is the same thing that happened in ’02 except that year the game was at Gillette, overtime was sudden death rather than 30 minutes and the Revs were just happy to be there. They’d played a mediocre season and getting to the final was a win-win situation. But when you have the best season in club history and are playing the 4th place team in the West (who’s record would have seen them miss the playoffs altogether had they been playing in the East), well that’s a game you expect to win. And yet it didn’t turn out that way.

Donovan had some chances but was generally handled pretty well. Matt Reis and the defense had a pretty good game in the back. The front 8 players however just seemed lost out there. Constantly second to every ball and not able to string simple passes together, the offense was just terrible.

So the best team in Revs history didn’t seem to show up to play in the championship game and that is a bit painful. But what’s worse is the guys on the winning side. Foremost among them is head coach Steve Sampson. Steve was once the Chosen One of US Soccer and the first US born coach to qualify the US for a World Cup, losing only a single match during qualifying to gain entry to WC 1998 in France. Following that successful run-up to France ’98, Sampson proceeded to cut long time team captain John Harkes from the squad, change the on field formation to the infamous 3-6-1, bench veteran defender Jeff Agoos (who burned his uniform after the tournament), reduce other team veterans to substitute roles, start 2 virtual unknowns in the midfield and lose all 3 matches of group play (including a loss to Iran) while only scoring a single goal and finishing last out of the 32 teams entered.

Couple this with the fact that the guy is an egomaniacal asshole and has never admitted fault for France ’98. He was given the LA job last year, with the Galaxy firing their coach despite the fact that they were in 1st place in MLS at the time. Then at the start of this season he had the best player in the US (Donovan) fall into his lap because Landon wanted to play in LA so the league let him go there.

To have this odious know-it-all douche bag be vindicated somehow by winning the league championship is just a bit much to swallow right now. There’s more to it too, like having the player with the worst shots/goals ratio in the history of MLS (not hyberbole) score the lone goal in the match. This friggin’ guy (el Pando! Ramirez) had literally become a running joke in the league. Once trumpeted as the next great talent from Central America, it became great sport to watch him take shot after shot from long range and never, EVER put the ball on target let alone score a goal. He scored his only goal in the regular season on a penalty kick where he hit the post but the ball ricocheted across the goal mouth, off the keeper’s back and into the net. He hadn’t played a single minute in the playoffs after having finally been benched towards the close of the season. I actually said to Reen “Oh good” when they showed him being subbed into the match. And so what happens? He scores a really nice goal on a volley from outside the box in overtime. Super.

So we’re left to suffer the "Pando-monium!" headlines and wish that it had turned out differently. Now here’s the good news: Preseason starts February 20, getting to MLS Cup qualified the Revs for the regional club championship tourney in March, yesterday Reen and I bought our season tickets for next year and MLS Cup 2006 is scheduled for November 12. Could be a special Happy Birthday next year…..

…much like my happy birthday this year. We had a fine time up in New Hampshire. It was about a 3 hour drive to Ashland, NH and the B&B Reen had booked us was really nice. Most of our time was spent reading, driving around the Squam Lakes and Lake Winnipesaukee and eating. We were introduced to the persistent presence of the Common Man Restaurants throughout central NH. It seemed that we couldn’t go anywhere without seeing one of their establishments. Luckily they serve some decent food, so it’s not a bad thing. We also had the pleasure of meeting Snickers, which was the horse I rode on Saturday. He seemed mild mannered enough, gnawing away at the fence rail when I first met him. While adjusting my stirrups, our guide explained to me that old Snickers had been acting funny lately and that I shouldn’t let the other horses get too close behind him on the trail. “Watch his ears,” I was told “and get him moving if they start to lay back because that means he’s about to kick.” Riiiight. I’ll keep an eye on them ears. Snickers was fine in the end and the ride was nice enough. We basically walked single file along the trail, some of it with a nice view of the Mad River as well as the brief jaunt along the side of I-93 for a little free advertising.

Our time was very relaxing and good fun. The guy Jim that runs the Glynn House is really nice and did a fantastic job at remembering everybody’s name and other details. I was very impressed.

In addition to the getaway up north, Reen also hooked me up with a mandolin style slicer which is a fantastic addition to our kitchen. I will have to whip up some potato gaufrette as a thank you. Many thanks to Pete also, who I am told provided some top notch research assistance.

three things

2005-11-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

So this is a big weekend.

Firstly, the Revs will play for the MLS cup on Sunday. 3:30pm, ABC. While there’s always the chance of another dyslexic word fight, this game should actually be pretty entertaining. The Revs are almost universally favored over the Galaxy, but it’s hard to say what will happen with Donovan on the other side of the field. He’s probably the only player in MLS who can single handedly take over a game for his team in a Larry Bird sort of way. The best case scenario would see the Revs midfield choke off service to the flashy front man so he has limited time on the ball. If you see Landy cakes coming back past midfield just to receive the ball, then things are looking good for the Revs. If he is getting the ball anywhere near the Revs’ goal with some room to run, then all bets are off.

Secondly, the US plays Scotland at Hampden Park in Glasgow. The game is just a friendly but should be entertaining nonetheless. Scotland failed to qualify for Germany 2006, but had a strong run of form at the end of qualifying following a coaching change. Meanwhile, this is one of the few remaining matches where the fringe players for the US can make a case for their inclusion in the WC squad. At some point early next year, The Bruce will have to stop looking around and finalize his choices for who’s made the team and who hasn’t. This game is on Saturday morning, 11am on Fox Soccer Channel.

And thirdly, my 30th birthday is on Saturday. We are taking Friday off and Reen has arranged a weekend in NH at a B&B. We will go horseback riding on Saturday, which we hope will be a bit better than our experience on the flea-bitten mountain ponies we rode in Mongolia. There are also plans for some hiking and good eating. It’s going to be a might chilly up there, but it should be a really nice time. I find myself remembering our few days in Santa Barbara a few years back. If it's half as nice as our time there we should be in fine shape.

and then there were two

2005-11-08T15:57:00.000-05:00

The game itself wasn’t noteworthy in a SportsCenter sort of way. In the 4th minute the Revs play a quick restart from about 40 yards out: pass into the box, muffed shot to the far post, a sliding Clint Dempsey knocks the ball in with his fanny. It’s hard to recall an uglier goal, but it served the dual purpose of putting the home team in the lead and making the whole Chicago back line look foolish, so it was alright with me. And that was how it ended up. 1-0 Revs. Eastern Conference Champs (2nd time in 4 years) and on to MLS Cup.

But of course something must have happened during the 86 minutes of the match which remained following the goal, and indeed it did. What was most interesting about this matchup on paper was that these two teams are among the few in the league who can actually stroke the ball around and give you some sense of what the phrase “the beautiful game” is all about. So where you might see a lesser team (or any Italian team) bunker in and throw 10 men behind the ball, content to defend the 1-0 lead for the balance of the match, we saw the Revs endeavor to play the same style that they have played all along. And Chicago must have felt that they had the entire game to nab the tying goal and it would only be a matter of time until they managed to break through.

What resulted was some sort of odd hybrid of a game, where neither team was able to gain the upper hand. It was like two dyslexics battling it out for the debate club title. There was plenty of passion, and each side clearly knew what they were supposed to do but could never put the pieces together and craft a coherent argument.

To be fair, a vast majority of this back and forth took place in the Revs' half of the field as Chicago dominated possession, especially in the second half. But that possession never translated into dangerous scoring chances. The best chances they had were always shots from outside the box, not from decisive passing to tear open the Revs defense. And when the Revs gained control of the ball they were consistently clattered to the ground by the Chicago midfield and defense. The persistent fouling was left largely unchecked by the officials and definitely served its purpose, allowing the Revs little time on the ball and hence no rhythm upon which to compose an attacking melody.

There was some drama at the death, where Chicago had a goal disallowed due to an offside call which thankfully, was correct. And we also saw Fat Zach Thornton (the Chicago goalie) charge into the crowd of Revs players who were celebrating at midfield just after the closing whistle. Early speculation suggests that the thought of missing out on a free trip to Pizza Hut Park was just too much for old tubby to handle.

The Revs will play the final against Landon Donovan this Sunday at 3:30pm. The game is on ABC.

k v. d

2005-11-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

I was recently reading through some of the testimony given by Dr. Michael Behe, the Lehigh biology prof who is a proponent of Intelligent Design and is serving as an expert witness for the defense in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (DASD) Case.

I realize that this stuff is quite boring, but if you’re interested, here are some of my favorite parts. Make of it what you will:

(1)
discussing the textbook Of Pandas and People which has been proposed as a reference text to be made available as a part of the Dover School District’s biology curriculum for 9th graders.
Q What did you review and comment on, Professor Behe?
A I reviewed the literature concerning blood clotting, and worked with the editor on the section that became the blood clotting system. So I was principally responsible for that section.
Q So you were reviewing your own work?
A I was helping review or helping edit or helping write the section on blood clotting.
Q Which was your own contribution?
A That’s -- yes, that’s correct.
Q That’s not typically how the term "critical review"
is used; would you agree with that?
A Yeah, that’s correct.

(2)
Q I just want to get it clear here, intelligent design is about cause?
A Well, cause is a broad word, and when you re trying to explain how something came about, you can say it came about for a variety of reasons. But intelligent design is one reason or one aspect or one cause to explain how the purposeful arrangement of parts that we see did come about.
Q Back to my original question. What is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes?
A And I wonder, could -- am I permitted to know what I replied to your question the first time?
Q I don t think I got a reply, so I m asking you, you’ve made this claim here, "Intelligent design theory focuses exclusively on the proposed mechanism of how complex biological structures arose." And I want to know what is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes for how complex biological structures arose?
A Again, it does not propose a mechanism in the sense of a step-by-step description of how those structures arose. But it can infer that in the mechanism, in the process by which these structures arose, an intelligent cause was involved.
Q But it does not propose an actual mechanism?
A Again, the word "mechanism" -- the word "mechanism" can be used broadly, but no, I would not say that there was a mechanism. I would say we have an aspect of the history of the structure.

(3)
The most interesting bit for me was the excerpt from a 1999 publication of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (the main outlet for ID research), where Behe is a fellow. This article discusses a "five-year strategic plan" and describes the effort to stem the tide of “scientific materialism” which is fingered as the source of materialism in our society as a whole. I honestly have no idea what that means, but here’s what the article says should be done about it:

We are building on this momentum, broadening the wedge with a positive scientific alternative to materialistic scientific theories, which has come to be called the theory of intelligent design. Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist world view, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions.

For me this is scary stuff and not remotely connected to reality, but there it
is. Behe’s response to this being brought up was simply that he didn’t write it,
didn’t know who wrote it and didn’t much care that it came from his Center.

the weather outside was frightful

2005-10-30T13:01:00.000-05:00

Reen and I arrived at Gillette last night around 6:30pm, with snow on the ground and continuing to fall. It was quite dark and wet and uncomfortable as we lit the grill and tried to enjoy ourselves. The field inside had snow on most of it. The players looked sluggish and the quality of the game was poor, as passes skipped about or stopped dead in the snow.

The ref was doing the home team no favors. Blatant hand ball in the box by the Metro is flagged by the assistant ref on the sideline but is not called by the center ref. WTF!? All 238 fans on hand are going nuts. Eddie Gaven gets the ball and gets around his man along the sidelines. Anyone who's seen him play can just feel the dive coming. Get past his man, then suddenly slow up and crumple to the ground when he feels the slightest contact. It's like his bread and butter meal. And so it happens and still the ref calls the foul. This was when I jumped out of my seat and yelled "That was BULLSHIT!!" at the top of my lungs. Reen reminds me that there are kids sitting around us. "Well they should know that was a bullshit call."

0-0 at halftime. Steady rain. $7 hot chocolate in a Patriots mug.

Early in the second half Parkhurst makes a bad play at midfield and Djorkaeff is off to the races. Parkhurst does well to recover and pressure him from behind but a player of Youri’s caliber will not miss in a situation like this. 1-0 Metro and 2-0 aggregate for the series. Revs need 2 goals now to force a playoff period. About 30 minutes left to play in the game.

Nicol starts with the subs and in comes Cancela and James Riley. The subs have had an impact on the game and the Revs are attacking in waves now. Cancela works himself free of a scrum in front of the net and puts one in. 2-1 aggregate now. More attacking from the revs. Meola comes off his line to grab a corner kick and misjudges it badly, not touching it at all. Noonan rises above Bradley at the back post and buries the ball. Series tied, 20 minutes left to play. The field is tilting down sharply towards the Metro goal now and they are hanging on for dear life. But the dam will not hold. Khano Smith is charging down the left flank. And he’s rounded the corner on his man and is 1v1 with Tony Meola. The former middle school teacher from Bermuda and member of the Dandy Town Hornets is faced with the 3x World Cup vetran (Captain of the team in ’94). But times have changed. It’s 2005 and the Rev’s will not lose this series and Khano beats the goalie cleanly with a left footed blast into the far side netting.

It’s pandemonium. The stands are shaking. The referee falls to the ground and gives birth to two gleaming Clydesdales, which charge forth and bear Khano away across the sky in a golden chariot.

Well maybe that’s not quite how the game ended, but it was something like that. The DC/Chicago games is today at 4:30 and the winner will play the Revs at Gillette next Sunday. See you there.

Khano sees the chariot and comes running

man-size plush-made foal

2005-10-28T11:08:00.000-04:00

Game 2 of the Revs-Metro series is tomorrow night at 8pm. Here’s the weather forecast:

Weather.com predicts light rain, 38 degrees, wind chill of 31, with 70% chance of (light) rain or wet snow.

Intellicast.com is calling for "steady light rain in the evening. Showers continuing late. Low around 35F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%."

The National Weather Service says "rain likely before 9pm, then snow likely. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy, with a low near 30. North wind between 9 and 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%."

This is one of the exact reasons that we bought tickets earlier in the week. There is 100% certainty that we could get good seats that night at the stadium, regardless of the weather, and avoid paying the ticketmaster fees. But we bought early so that we would be forced to go, no matter the weather or our waning motivation to get off our duffs on a Saturday night.

To liven our spirits, Reen bought us a Smokey Joe grill for the tailgates. Isn’t she great?

some random bits...
I spent about one minute this morning trying to figure out in my head if 23 is a prime number. That’s normal right?

And here’s a picture of the titular hero of this post

we did it

2005-10-25T16:40:00.000-04:00

the party seemed to be a success. We enjoyed many compliments about our home and the sausage and the mustards. What few leftovers we had went home with a few guests, leaving us with enough for lunch on Sunday and one remaining Kielbasa link, which I set aside mainly to head off the onset of empty nest syndrome.

Of the 5 sausages I made, 4 were new to me. Of the 4 new ones, 2 (brats and kielbasa) were based on recipes from a trusted source while the other 2 (cj’s and mole) were made up on the spot on Thursday evening. So to have the whole shooting match so well received was a thrill. Much to my surprise it seemed that the mole sausage was a favorite for many guests. The idea for this came from Pete who mentioned a mole salami which he’d seen. But being a bit esoteric, I made the smallest amount of this and expected it to go largely untouched. Shows what I know.

Aside from the food fun, we had 30+ guests from all different parts of our lives present which was a blast. Reen’s folks and Mike and Jason drove up from PA, my whole family was there, and then we had the various work people and high school friends and Reen’s work people. It was like having a mini wedding reception all over again, which was great fun for us.

If you came for the party, thank you. And if you couldn’t make it, let this serve as an invitation to join us next year.

The only damper on the evening was the Revs dropping the first playoff game 1-0 to the Metro in NJ. The first round is a home and home series, with total goals scored deciding the winner. The 2nd (and final) game is this Saturday at Gillette. The Revs are more than capable of winning at home by 2 goals AND the Metro have seldom had 2 top level performances in a row this year. But it’s still enough to get you worried about the result.

hitting the links

2005-10-21T02:34:00.000-04:00

I took the afternoon off to make sure that I had enough time to make all the sausage. I'm glad I did as I needed the extra time. Now I won't have to be working when Reen's folks get here tomorrow. Here's the final tally:
Cheesy Jalapeno Sausage (CJ's?): 6 lbs
Bratwurst: 5 lbs
Kielbasa: 5 lbs
Hotwurst: 4 lbs
Mole Sausage: 3 lbs

The math majors among you will surely notice that the total is 23 lbs, one more than mentioned in the last post? Can anyone out there solve the mystery of the appearing pound? The answer is contained within the previous 2 posts.

Behold!

the daily grind

2005-10-19T23:05:00.000-04:00

The bad news is that due to a shipping error, I only received my sausage casings today by FedEx. As a result I’m just a shade behind schedule. The good news is that I took the new tools out for a test drive tonight and they work great.

I ground all the meat (turned out to be 22 lbs worth) and cleaned up in about an hour. That’s easily 4-5 times faster than with the KA grinder. Here’s what I ended up with:

You can see the meat on the right looks darker. That’s the meat for the kielbasa, which has changed color as it cured. The white stuff up front is ground pork fat. Mmmmmm. After the grinding I seasoned, mixed and stuffed the kielbasa.

Tomorrow I will smoke and/or complete mixing and stuffing the rest of the sausages. After seeing all the meat I have, Iron Chef Mashpee might even have time for a 5th sausage style. We’ll see...

sausage schedule

2005-10-18T09:27:00.000-04:00

so the odyssey begins. Reen picked up about 20 pounds of meat for me yesterday which I had ordered on Saturday. 3 pounds of veal and 2 pork butts. And so the week of party prep begins. Mostly as a reference point for myself, here's the sausage schedule:

Mon: cube and mix 5lbs pork with cure, sugar and salt for kielbasa
Tues: grind, mix and stuff the Kielbasa
Weds: grind the remaining meat. Smoke the Kielbasa
Thurs: mix and stuff brats, hots and a 3rd type of fresh sausage? Mole* maybe?
Fri: safety day, simmer brats in beer then into fridge?

So that’s my plan. I hope to remember to take some pictures along the way. Reen’s almost finished up with her mustards. Last night she was preparing a dijon style as a base to create some different herby type mustards. The dijon requires that you simmer it for a while on the stove top. At some point the simmer broke into a low boil and boy howdy! The vapor put off from that small bubbling pot was amazing. It burned our eyes to the point where we could both still feel the sting 30 minutes later, long after the mustard was cooled and put away.

*for the unintiated, the word up there is mole, not mole, mole or mole.

postseason

2005-10-12T10:43:00.000-04:00

I recently upgraded my sausage making hardware with the purchase of a stand alone grinder and vertical stuffer which should handle 5 pounds of sausage in no time flat. I love my Kitchen Aid and it got me by for 3 years now, but I am quite happy to have tools that were built for the job. Turning out the goods for the party will be a fine test as I’ll be making quite a few batches.

Maybe I’ve mentioned this, but I really hate Coors Light billing itself as the “coldest tasting” beer. Knowing how much money is spent to design add campaigns and such, it’s troubling to know that this was a calculated decision on their part. “Alright boys, gather round now. We’ve decided that the best option on the table is to promote our product with this grammatical train wreck of a phrase. We think it will appeal quite well to the already drunk frat boy demographic.” Talk about the dumbing down of America.

The Revs tied at KC Saturday night, coupled with DC losing at home, this means that the Revolution will have home field for the balance of the playoffs. A just reward after being the dominant team in MLS from start to finish. Despite all this success, I’m not feeling great about the Revs playoff chances; they just haven’t been playing the same dominant soccer lately that was the hallmark of the first 2/3 of the season. I guess we’ll see what happens soon enough. One more regular season game and then the fun starts. I would like to beat Chicago and DC in the first rounds and then play San Jose in the final. Could you please arrange that for me?

Mirroring the Revs’ late season swoon into mediocrity, I’ve fallen to a lowly 5th place in my prediction league. So sad.

they're back

2005-09-30T11:52:00.000-04:00

This one snuck up on me, but there's a new Wallace and Gromit movie coming out next week. Sweeeeet.

fun in the sun

2005-09-29T15:59:00.000-04:00

Matt and Kristen flew up here last Wednesday after work and the 4 of us went over to the Vineyard for 4 days. When we scheduled this little trip in March, the thought of late September on the water seemed to be a crap shoot as far as the weather is concerned. Well we lucked out on that front with warm days and cool nights.

Matt brought a ton of fishing gear and Kristen brought her 7 months along belly. The Derby is currently underway and typically the early fall on MV is some of the best fishing anywhere, any time. So when there were albacore breaking all around the pond and Matt lands one from the beach a few hours into a first day, well things were looking bright.

Although it is too painful to recount in detail, let me simply say that over the balance of our time there, we spent a fair collection of time driving the beach or in the boat trying to build on the success of those first fateful hours. We fished at night and during sunrise and most moments in between. We looked North and we looked South. And Matt caught a rat blue on Sunday afternoon. That was it. I had 2 strikes and one short hookup but lost the lure and fish straight away. What made this more maddening was that the albies were in the pond each day. We were consistently close enough to see their blitzes but they seldom came up near us. Through shear force of will, Matt manufactured about 2 more decent shots at breaking fish over the four days but was never as lucky as his first.

Undeterred by our lack of success with the fin fish, and buoyed by the love of our womenfolk, we turned our attentions to various other edible selections from the pelagic pickings that were available.The slower and dumber the better. And so a great scourge befell the bivalves. Fingers dug and dislodged and rake tines probed and plucked from the marine sands relentlessly. Fueled by our fishy frustrations and the recurring habit of drinking beer at 9:30 in the morning, a great harvest was collected. We used the big quahogs to make a chowder and ate the steamers and cherrystones straight up and served with butter.

When not in hunter-gatherer mode there was bocce played (Crossett’s won) and horseshoes (Mark and Kristen won) and Yahtzee (Matt won). The girls perfected the art of the 2pm nap. In all we had a wonderful time. If you’ve ever had guests who do more than their share of work around the house, are great fun to be with and completely maintenance free then you have some idea of what our vacation with Matt and Kristen was like. Here’s to hoping that we can make it an annual event. And may the Good Lord please see that the fishing is better next year.

house sweet home

2005-09-19T17:28:00.000-04:00

Ophelia was a bust and worse yet, she scared away Fiona and her parents. Oh how a weather forecast can change is just 24 hours. At least everyone is safe and sound.

OslerWurst ’05 is officially on the calendar and I’m excited about that. Aside from bratwurst and hotwurst I’m going to try my hand at some kielbasa. I’m a bit nervous about this one because I love it so much. If I get it wrong I’ll be bummed. I’d like to make at least one more style but am having trouble deciding. Any suggestions are welcome. P.S. If you’re reading this, aren't a complete stranger and haven’t received an invite let me know and sorry for the oversight.

The Kris-Crossett’s are coming up on Wednesday night for a 5 day fishing extravaganza on the Vineyard. Looking forward to seeing them and catching some fishies. Kris is 7 months along with the first baby Crossett. So exciting!

The new house is starting to feel like our home slowly but surely. We even went to a neighborhood association meeting on Saturday morning. We were the youngest people there by 15 years easy, which was a shade disappointing. Maybe there are younger people around but they are just not interested in their community. Super!

alemania 2006

2005-09-08T10:09:00.000-04:00

Viva Estados Unidos! The US beat Mexico 2-0 in Columbus Ohio Saturday night to clinch a berth in the next World Cup. They were the first to clinch a berth from our region (although Mexico also qualified on Wednesday night by pounding Panama 5-0), and did so on US soil, against Mexico and by the same score that the US beat Mexico in the Round of 16 in the 2002 WC. Life is good. Just for the record, this was the first time the clinching game for the US was shown on live TV. The previous 3 (for the ’90, ’98 and ’02 World Cups) were not shown live for one reason or another (Tape Delay, Tape Delay, Live coverage on ABC is preempted by coverage of the invasion of Afganistan, game is shown on Tape Delay later).

Qualifying this early leaves the US with 3 games remaining where Coach Arena can experiment with the fringe players who are all competing for a spot on the final 23 man roster. Oh what luxury. It also means that the top US players in Europe won’t have to pull any of the 3 games in 8 days including a 72 hour visit to the US (or worse, Panama or Costa Rica) and then back to the home club for a match. Really good stuff for everyone involved.

Our Spanish lesson for today is that Alemania means Germany. Do you find it at all humorous that the word for Germany is ‘ale mania’? I didn’t think so….neither did I.

kith...rip

2005-08-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

What a crazy busy weekend for us. Up to Stoughton for a visit to the Boston Bed Company to pick up a platform bed for the new digs. We could easily have bought this exact bed online and had it delivered, but the platform beds are lower than your standard frame>box spring>mattress set up. Because of this we felt that it would be best to actually see one in person and get a feel for whether or not it would drive us crazy being so low. So the verdict is that we think we'll like it but if not we’ll buy a different bed, put this one in the guest bedroom and let you all have the crappy low bed when you come to visit. In general, the idea of driving about an hour off cape on a Saturday morning really isn’t that appealing. So the fact that we scored the bed, the 3 boxes fit perfectly in the jeep and there was no traffic coming back over the bridge was fitting reward for our efforts.

Stopped at the grocery on the way home to pick up food for tailgates that night as we were taking Mom and Dad O. to the Revs game. Made guacamole, steak tips, scrimps, and some smoked salmon/goat cheese spread stuff. Then it was back over the bridge to pick up our guests in Plymouth and then the hour drive to Gillette. It was fun to sit and grill and drink beer and hang out with mom and dad for a bit. The game itself was a real slog with neither team making it their own. The highlights were DC’s Bobby Boswell deftly heading the ball past is own helpless goalie for his 3rd own goal of the year. I hope that puts an end to the talk of him winning the Rookie of the Year award. We also got to see Dema Kovalenko get yet another red card, leaving his team a man down for the final minutes of the match where Twelllman beat Floppin Facundo to Andy Dorman’s cross and scored the game winning goal in the final few seconds of the match. Revs win 2-1, beat DC and 18,000 people go home happy. Drop off Mom and Dad and are home before midnight.

Sunday finds us up and at church in the morning and with a bit of free time in the afternoon. Much to her credit, Reen made it to the beach, something we’ve done appalling little of given our proximity to the salty sea. That evening we drove in to Cambridge to have dinner with Pete and Susanne. Great to see them and chat for a bit. It’s good to know that all the odd changes in our lives aren’t just happening for Reen and me.

While the dinner and visit was great, the motivation to get into boston on a school night was found in the form of Kicked in the Head’s final show. So after dinner we drove down the street a bit to The Middle East. The downstairs here is a great space for a show and maybe my favorite place we ever played back when I was still with the band. It was fun for me to be back there again. Sanocki hooked us up with tickets and we got to see Gary as well as some random Hingham folks while listening to the opening acts. Right as we walked in, the band that was on was actually playing a cover of an old KITH tune and the crowd was loving it. It was really cool for them to cover one of the old songs and lots of fun for Reen and me to hear it.

KITH themselves put on a great great show, the highlight for me being the return of Overbeck to the stage as he took the mic for an explosive performance of the KITH classic, “Bitch”. There were a few other oldies thrown in there and energy was amazing throughout. The whole 18+ crowd would go nuts when they heard the chords of the next song and figured out which one it was. Along the front of the stage is a mob of skanking and moshing kids throwing their arms in the air and yelling the lyrics back at Gary as he’s wailing away on stage. Tons of stage dives and general chaos for well over an hour. It was a great set and a fitting finale to over 10 years of rock and roll mayhem. Seeing all the love sent their way from the other bands and the fans that were there made clear that their music actually did have an impact on a large group of people. They left the crowd, Reen and I included, literally screaming for more. What better farewell could you have than that?

soccer on tv

2005-08-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

ABC and ESPN will broadcast their fourth straight World Cup next year and will televise all 64 games in high definition. HD baby. The World Cup kicks off on June 9th, 2006 (2 games that day: first one in Munich and the second one from Gelsenkirchen). So that leaves only a single birthday and christmas for me between today and kickoff. BUT, the birthday has a zero at the end and being married means that there are actually 2 christmases. If either of these facts compels you to buy us an HD TV, that would be super. You could totally come over and watch the games with us/me.

And just for the record, Reen and I will someday take a vacation to go watch the World Cup in another country. Germany would have been fun.

hotwurst

2005-08-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

Boy have I been unmotivated to write lately. I haven’t jumped off any docks or won any trivia lately so it’s all pretty hum drum at the moment.

As for all that soccer stuff I mentioned, well let’s just summarize by saying that while soccer in the US is still a new phenomenon, US Soccer is going strong. The US won the regional championship (Gold Cup). The club season is just starting in Europe and some of the very biggest of the big dogs came by the US as part of their preseason and played some MLS teams. While the local teams all lost, they each played quite well. There are a ton of mitigating factors that cloud the judgment of just what it ‘means’ for our MLS puppies to show that they can run with the wolves. Setting all that aside, let me just say what a thrill it is for a fan like me to see the guys from ‘my league’ out there with Paolo Maldini and Arjen Robben. The gap is closing quite quickly…

I fell into a new sausage recipe last weekend which was fun. I was planning on making some bratwurst for a cookout with some of the frozen pork in the freezer. The night before, our neighbor had lent us two bottles of hot sauce which he likes. The one bottle was regular stuff but very hot, more so than our longtime favorite. The second bottle was Mad Dog Inferno Hot Sauce and this is in a different class all together. I’m not wimp when it comes to spicy food and this stuff made me uncomfortable. Just a dab on my pinky and pretty soon it felt like the soft tissue at the back of my mouth was swelling up. It only lasted a few minutes like that, but that was enough. In honor of our neighbor I thought it would be fun to add some of this stuff to the mix, to create a hotwurst if you will. So I set aside about a pound of the seasoned brat mixture and added 2 Tbl paprika (so the sausage would look different than the regulars), 2 Tbl brown sugar and 1 tsp of the Inferno stuff. Boy did these turn out well. Quite spicy and yummy. They had one of our friends coughing and hiccupping, but for everyone else they were just spicy enough to be interesting but still edible. Of course our neighbor enjoyed them but would like more heat. Apparently he eats this sauce straight up on crackers. Right. So I’ve promised to make him a special batch of hotwurst. I’m thinking I’ll try 3-4 times as much of the hot sauce to see how that works for him.

all hail

2005-08-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

I know you're all excited to hear my thoughts on all of the great soccer from the past month (Gold Cup, All-Star game, AC Milan, Chelsea etc. playing vs. MLS teams) and I promise I'll get there, but for now just bask in the glow of my fame.

After e-mailing with Jason all morning about how we are both huge nerds, now this. What a special day. Last time "I" was in print I had a question answered, now I'm out there for having answered a question. Just got my t-shirt in the mail today.

night swimming

2005-07-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

So we lose power yesterday and schedule a morning appointment to have it fixed. This means we are looking at no AC for the bedroom, which is a serious bummer since it’s been hot and humid all week. With the prospect of an uncomfortable and loud (traffic from the road with all the windows open) bedtime, our survival instincts kick in. It’s every man for himself to get through the night with a minimum of misery. Reen opts for the pharmaceutical approach, taking a Sudafed at 8pm and quickly conks out on the deck reading. Clever girl. I choose to head out fishing, with plans to make it a late night so I can collapse into my humid and deafening bedroom when I get home. So it’s rod onto roof, wading shoes on and off we go.

I drive by the lighthouse, wanting to fish the rocks there but there are people already fishing here and I’m not into crowds. Onward into Woods Hole, but it’s teeming with folks there for dinner etc, so there’s nowhere to park near where I’d like to fish. It’s looking like the old standby of Quissett. The quick trip up the road provides a few beautiful sunset views over the bay. Really spectacular, nuclear glowing sky type stuff.

Once on the scene, my plans to wade around the edge of the harbor out towards the open water are foiled by the extra high tide which has covered the entire beach face. The water is up into the bushes, which I’ve never seen before. So fishing off the dock it is. As I’m fishing, the folks who were out at the Knob watching the sunset slowly filter back to their cars and leave. It’s a lovely calm night, warm summer air, quiet and getting a bit dark as the full moon hasn’t risen yet. About an hour into my session, I realize that I didn’t hear my lure splash as it hit the water and then notice that my line is tight. It is stuck fast and this not good. With the little ambient light, I can see that as I tug on the lure, the mooring line from one of the many Herreshoff 12 ½’s is moving too. My lure is stuck there and will remain so until purposefully removed.

At this point I stand there on the dock for probably 5 minutes, slowly noodling over what I should do. I could cut the line and head home, but that would mean losing a $10 lure plus leaving about 40’ of line out in the water, so that’s out. There are a number of dinghies tied up at the dock that folks use to get out to their boats, but none seem to have oars in them and I’m really not keen on seeing if this is the one instant where some guy heads to the harbor for some reason and sees me paddling around in his boat. So as I’m untying my wading shoes I’m thinking of what options I have left. I dip a foot in the water (which is a mere 2-3” below the top of the dock) and it feels like a bath. As I take off my shirt and glasses, I wonder to myself how many people are left out on the Knob and just when the security guard for the yacht club gets on duty. Staring now at my shorts folded neatly next to my shirt and shoes, somehow I remain unsure of how exactly I’m going to solve this problem. But when you’re standing on a dock at night in just your boxers, there’s really only one question left. Do I dive in or use the ladder off the side? I choose the latter approach and let me tell you that the water is fine. Swimming on a summer night is always a thrill.

As I dust off my backstroke, I can clearly see the fishing line just above my nose, frozen in place like the light from a tiny beacon pointing me in the right direction. Upon my arrival at the boat I am able to use the mooring ball as a float and use both hands to extract my lure from the line. Another 4 minute swim, being careful not to tangle my legs in the now slack fishing line, and I’m back on the dock. A guy walking his dog about 30 yards away sees me get out of the water and stops to make sure I’m not up to any funny business. I don’t think it’s apparent from his vantage point that I’m in my underwear and he slowly moves along. After air drying for a few minutes I see the security guard pull in for the evening and so I put on my t-shirt and shorts. I’m pretty wet still, but kept my head dry and am warm nonetheless. The full moon is rising now, a deep orange Hyde of a moon, peering through the trees on the far side of the harbor. It’s so bright that it’s lighting up the bottoms of the few clouds overhead. I keep fishing for another 30 minutes or so, until the moon has finished its slow diminishment back into harmless Henry Jekyll. I’m dry enough that I don’t get the seat wet on the drive home. Reen’s fast asleep in bed and I slip in along side her. Just as I had planned, I’m exhausted and am asleep moments later.

this and next

2005-07-13T15:40:00.000-04:00

I’ve recently been reminded of a learning disability that I seem to have. Picture, if you will, a lovely Wednesday afternoon and a friend asks what you’re up to next weekend. Would you mention your plans for 3 and 4 days from now, or 10 and 11 days from now? What I’ve found is that for me, “this” weekend and “next” weekend are quite often one and the same. If it’s Monday through Wednesday, they are the same to me. If I’m asked on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, then we are currently enjoying “this” weekend and “next weekend” is clearly about 7 days away. If it’s a Thursday, I may have the presence of mind to ask for clarification.