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One of the best parts of my day is rocking our sweet baby girl to sleep. We have a couple different playlists on my iPhone and she really likes the Avett Brothers (BTW, how sweet is having a speaker in the iPhone? It’s like having a portable baby boom-box). Anyways, we’ve been listening to them since we were at the hospital, and we both like our special music bonding time . . .
I love my wife. I love my daughter. Life is good . . .
Hope you and yours had a Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today I wore my Yard Dog (Folk Art Gallery) t-shirt I picked up in Austin four years ago. PS - If anybody is looking for really nice 30th or 35th Birthday ideas, a Jon Langford print would be pretty sweet!!
Seriously, this book was entertaining, inspiring, and a (relatively) quick read. (It’s difficult to summarize 240 pages into one post, but) Seth basically explains how the world (economy) has changed, and the only way to succeed in this new environment is to be indispensible (a linchpin). The last 250 years, we’ve lived in a “factory” society (it makes no difference if the factory makes cars, food, health care, or tax returns), and according to Seth, the American Dream was:
I’ve been following Seth’s blog for about a year. In December he gave his readers a chance to get a preview copy of Linchpin a few weeks before it was released. Pretty sweet, huh?? All Seth asked in return was to make a donation ($30 minimum) to the Acumen Fund and share your thoughts on the book if you so feel led. In 49 hours, he raised over $108k. When I received my copy in early January he included a note thanking me for the donation and said there would be another surprise a few weeks later (aka now).
Well, today I've been streaming (FOR FREE) a good bit of his stuff on his website (and myspace) and I'll say it's pretty good. Nothing helps you tie down a Statement of Cash Flows like crazy, lo-fi, jangly noise pop (with a touch of faux British accent!). But seriously, he put some good stuff out there, and you should at least check out his (major, errr Matador) indie label debut, Watch Me Fall.
What is a CSA you ask??? Rachel Zoe Insler (via the AG) gave a pretty good run-down last fall, but basically, if you live in or around Birmingham, Snow’s Bend will provide (and even deliver!) fresh, farmed fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc. all year long (ok, about 40 weeks long) for a (very reasonable) flat fee!
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters – The LOML gave me this for Christmas, and although the beginning was kind of a downer, I think it will have some good points/perspective.
Asian Bites – I’m a little hesitant to introduce some of these spicy foods to my little muchkin (and wife), but there are some really good looking “bites” in here.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Mrs. and I are so abundantly blessed in all aspects of our lives, and one area that we won’t have to worry about for these next few months is MEALS!! Our wonderful community group at church has scheduled to bring us dinner three nights a week, BUT that means YOU the reader won’t be able to “enjoy” as many cooking/food related posts (since we won’t be cooking ourselves dinner as often). Busy Season started this week anyway, so it’s not like I could dedicate that much free time to cooking in the first place, but I just wanted to put that out there.
First, here is my strobe (Nikon SB-26) attached to my lighting stand using an umbrella adapter. I’ve never tried any other external flash/strobe, but I am really pleased with the SB-26 (and since it has Strobist’s seal-of-approval, I won’t have any trouble trading it in, should I ever decide to do so). The LOML actually got me the lighting stand last year for Valentine’s, but it wasn’t until I (semi-recently) purchased the umbrella adapter, that I was able to use it for anything.
Next, are my new CyberSync Trigger Transmitter and Receivers I received this week. These handy little guys let me fire my flash remotely up to 350 feet away, and now my flash won’t be limited to my Nikon’s hot shoe. PRETTY COOL!! (PS – these were purchased with some of my Birthday/Christmas funds . . . Thanks, everybody!!!)
And, here is my umbrella. If you read David Hobby’s original thoughts on photo umbrellas, you can see he (originally) preferred silver, reflective umbrellas (shown), to the shoot-through, white variety. Two years later, and it looks like he actually would recommend the white variety, but there are obviously pros and cons to both.
I think we’re in the final week!! Last night the LOML and I went with some of our friends to Lovoy’s Italian restaurant. Supposedly, if a (pregnant) woman orders the lasagna (near her due date), it will induce labor shortly thereafter. We actually went a few weeks ago (on the 29th or 30th?), but our waitress said it wouldn’t work that early (and she said it’s worked on every woman who’s worked there).
24(ish) hours later, and still no baby, so I’m not sure how much I believe it. Last night, our waitress did say the LOML needed to finish the entire meal for it to work, but since she took some of it home (garlic bread is so filling), I guess she’s disqualified.
Fresh mozzarella only has 3 ingredients: Milk, Citric Acid, and Rennet. After calling every grocery in BHM (and a few kitchen supply stores), the only place I found that carried this elusive Rennet was WHOLE FOODS. A pack of 8 tablets was about $1.50 and the Citric Acid (in the hippie herb/supplements section) was around $5. The Rennet also came with a handy little recipe guide that had more recipes for homemade cheeses (so folksy!).
I thought the first hour went pretty well. Looking back, I probably stirred my milk too often, but I did start to see some curds form. After the first hour was up, I stirred in the warm water and Rennet mixture, and waited for the magic to happen . . . and waited . . . and waited. Another hour went by, and I never achieved the “stiffened milk mixture.” I mean, I achieved a few more curds, but nothing firm.
I might not have achieved mozzarella curd perfection, but I decided to strain what little I had and drain them in the cheese cloth. If you had seen the pictures in Gourmet, it looks like you would get about a basketball sized portion of curds from 1 gallon of milk. I got about a tennis ball’s worth. Maybe.
After hanging around for about three hours, the curds did lose some moisture, and even looked to be compacted into a little mozzarella ball shape. But this final step is where the curd really becomes mozzarella.
You’re supposed to ladle hot salted water on top of the milk curds, and let it slowly melt into a gooey mixture, which you’re then able to form into mozzarella balls (before suspending the process in cold water). I’m sure my curds weren’t robust enough in the first place, but when I placed them in warm/hot water, they just seemed to dissolve. And I definitely couldn’t form them into a ball.
Looking back, I don’t think it was a complete loss. I bet my “cheese” would be half-way decent on pizza, but I’ll definitely try this again. What else am I gonna do with all this rennet and citric acid???
Do you ever wonder what that icon is that looks like the North Face Logo?? It’s the RSS logo, and basically means you can add that website to a RSS feed reader.
Anyways, if you find yourself checking the same sites every day, expecting an updated post (Big Girl, huh??)*, only to leave feeling sad and lonely, you might want to check this out. Srsly.
Hellz yeah, I bought a bottle!! And at $6.99 a bottle, I think it was a steal . . .
In baby news, the LOML turned 37 weeks today and you know what that means . . . "STOP THE PREGNANCY PICTS!!!" But seriously, she really does look great, and starting tomorrow, we're going on a steady diet of spicy food and long walks around the block to see if we can squeeze out a (healthy and fully developed) tax deduction before New Year's.
I found it was easiest to pre-slice all the veggies, prep the meat, make the dipping sauce*, and have yourself a (merry) little assembly line. When everything is in place and ready for assembly, dip the rice paper in warm water for maybe 5-10 seconds then set it on a plate, and let it soak in the water for maybe 30 seconds (I mistakenly left my first piece of rice paper in for close to a minute, and it got CRAZY pliable!!). The first item you want to lay down is a piece of Napa for support. Then add your meat and other veggies, and wrap the roll up “burrito style.” Since the Rice Paper is pretty sticky (almost saran-wrap like), they’ll stay wrapped pretty tight. I ended up making 8 (some chicken, some pork) and storing them on top of damp paper towels, while finishing the others.
Peanut/Hosin Dipping Sauce
These rolls seriously were AWESOME!!!!!** Go to your kitchen and make them tonight!!!!
Even though I’m a HUGE foodnetwork fan, I really don’t get into the Next Foodnetwork Star. A few months ago, the LOML and I watched as Melissa d'Arabian beat out the spice smuggler, Jeffrey Saad, and after stumbling across this, I thought I’d try one of her recipes (I do want to get some harissa after watching Jeffrey’s final presentation).
To make the Meatballs, add the egg and tomato paste and stir until smooth (was this where my meatballs went wrong – too much tomato paste??). Add the cilantro, ginger, cumin, and cinnamon and mix until well blended. Stir in the ground beef and oats, season with salt and pepper, to taste (was I supposed to taste RAW MEAT???), and combine gently after each addition. Rolling with your hands, make about 20 meatballs, about 1-inch in diameter. (I have NO idea how Melissa got 32 meatballs out of this recipe, especially with .75 lb ground beef)
We had this with Couscous (and some leftover apricots thrown in). There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do.
(click to embiggen)
A few notes though . . . We cut this recipe in half and used boneless/skinless chicken breasts (I don’t think we missed any of the flavor). Also, I didn’t think the curry was that tart at all, and we didn’t add any additional sweeteners (the thought of aspartame in this gives me the shakes).
The first attempt was made with the squash roasted still in its skin. I wouldn’t recommend this method b/c it was pretty difficult to get all that good squash flesh out. I didn’t take a picture of my remains, but there was a lot left in the skin.
For the family version, I ended up skinning the squash first and cutting it into large chunks. Although it took some more time on the front end, I would go with this approach in the future. As you can see from these pictures, I roasted a lot of butternut squash (and I did experience some temporary Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) dermatitis – don’t be alarmed. it eventually washed off).
So, my office kinda got the raw end of the deal on the topping. I didn’t really look into my “crumb” topping and ended up just throwing random amounts of brown sugar, flour, oats and chopped pecans in a bowl and then sprinkling it on top before putting into the oven.
And then we had a Happy Thanksgiving.
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