zutroy.net

So for the last couple years I have kind of put photography on hold because of time and money issues. Mostly time. But since we closed Main10 almost a year ago, I have felt the photo bug inside me trying to get out. The kind of film I like to shoot with gets rather expensive and the only good digital camera I have had access to doesn’t quite cut it.

I did get a hold of a half decent DSLR while I was in Amsterdam and I got some really nice shots there, but that has really been the extent of the photo excursions since my last photo class.

But something fantastic happened this week. Joel got a new camera. And he has humbly asked me to babysit his 20D while he isn’t using it as a second camera for some wedding shoots. We went and explored the last of the autumn colors Tuesday and I remembered how much I love photography. Even though we didn’t have very good conditions or light, we had a good time and got some decent shots.

Now as both of you know, I’m looking for a traditional job, the 9 to 5 (or close to it) type. I am hoping/expecting that since I’ll have more free time and a good digital camera at my disposal that I’ll be able to start shooting again. I may even put up a photo blog.

My wife loves “My Best Friends Wedding”, I don’t know how many times we have watched it. When I first watched it, I had never tried Crème Brulee. But I had tried Jell-o. And honestly I don’t really like Jell-o. And sorry Kimmy, you could never be Jell-o. Crème Brulee could NEVER be Jell-o.

It made me want to try crème brulee. And then I noticed a boxed crème brulee at the local Harman’s. I couldn’t pass that up. And Julia was right, Jell-o could never be crème brulee. So now when we eat out at a new place, we score them on two main things; their calamari, and their crème brulee.

When we got into the cooking phase of our marriage, we started looking for the right crème brulee recipe. Failure after failure we couldn’t get it right. Either it would come out like flan or quesillo or it would come out like a bad pudding gone more bad.

Then the other day I stumbled onto the most simple recipe for crème brulee that I had seen. It seemed too simple. But so simple that I couldn’t write it off without trying it first. And it had good ratings and comments so I had to try it right?

So I tried it. And HOLY CRAP! It worked. This was the best crème brulee that I had tried. Ever. Even better than the 4 star hotel in Amsterdam.

So you want me to share it with you? Hmmm, I think this recipe might be too good to share. Sure, you could stumble upon it like I did, but if you don’t read the right comments on that website, and try the same mistakes I made when preparing it, it won’t turn out the same.

Maybe if you ask nicely, I’ll make some and invite you over to try it. Maybe after a nice Italian sausage lasagna dinner.

Hmmm, I think this means I have to learn how to do the perfect calamari now…

So ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to have a big sailboat. I designed some catamarans, and trimarans back when I was in my “design big machines and weapons phase” of jr. high school. And they always seemed like one of those types of dreams that’s just unreachable. So I never really thought about it as a possibility, just a dream.

Then about 2 months ago Dave shipped off to Monterey to learn to speak towel head. Monterey is full of real estate. All of it with insane prices. So he looked at the possibility of living on a boat. He even found a 54 footer for sale in LA for $12,000.

Wait, that’s big enough for a family to live on. $12,000? That can’t be right. Granted, it wasn’t a sailboat, but still. So then he found out that the mooring fee for anywhere in the bay area is like $1000/month or more. So he didn’t do it.

But it got me thinking, if I had a reliable internet connection, I wouldn’t have to live in a big bay in CA, I could go find a little hurricane safe harbor in say, the DR. What would be the cost of living there? $500/month? I could deal with that. I work remotely or COULD have worked remotely for 4 of the last 5 places where I have worked. And my kids could get to know both sets of grandparents. I could go spear fishing any time I wanted. Rome, the Riviera, exotic islands, New England, they are all suddenly reachable in a lazy, fashionable, but not quite on vacation kind of way.

Hmmm, so now I’ve really been looking into this. It’s not as unreachable as I always thought it was. In fact, sailboats are largely more affordable than motor-only boats. So now I just need to learn to sail. I figure a summer or two spending every Saturday on Utah Lake and then a year or two on a coast or an island with something that’s a little less ocean going would prepare me for it. That and I probably need a friend like Captain Ron.

I’m not really one for following the current blogging trends but my wife has inspired me. And I found this tag on the Barkermeister’s site and thought it looked fun. So here goes.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags
Wrapping paper. Gift bags are for sissies

2. Real tree or artificial?
Is this really a question? Real. Duh. Just like everything else where real vs. fake is an issue.

3. When do you put up the tree?
We cut it down usually the day after Thanksgiving and it goes up right away.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Usually right around new years.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Hold the eggnog, Wassail please.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Criss Cross Crash Hotwheels track.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My parents

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Me, Then my wife

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
We did, I don’t know where it has gotten off to. I’ll have to make a new one I think.

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?
e-mail Christmas cards are the scourge of the Earth.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
A stinky cigarette scarred stuffed animal that had been rescued from a dumpster. No really. It was from my aunt who didn’t even play cards. Bless her heart.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It’s a Wonderful Life. I have a ban on Santa Clause movies in my house. I don’t hate Santa, just all the movies I have ever seen of him.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
No regular time. But I always leave some things for the last minute.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
No. Not that I can remember.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Pumpkin Cheesecake. Hands down.

16. Favorite Christmas tradition?
Getting our Christmas Tree

17. Favorite Christmas song?
O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
Home

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
Not if I don’t have to.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
One Christmas Eve, The rest in the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Commercialization of something sacred.

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
My wifes turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, spiral cut honey ham, funeral potatoes, fresh rolls, deviled eggs, crackers and crab cheese balls, mixed nuts, stuffed mushrooms, Dominican cabbage salad, spit roasted pig (when I can get it), interesting salads I have never tried before, pumpkin Cheesecake, black forest cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, pumpkin pie, my mom’s wassail, Martinelli’s

24. What do you want for Christmas this year?
a shotgun, dress shoes, bullets, a night stand (already got it), a cooking torch, a golf hat

25. How many days left until Christmas?
3

So Grant, Jon, Yanilza, and Joel. You are hereby tagged.

Crust:
1 cup margarine or butter, cut in small pieces
3 cups flour
1 cup ice water3 egg whites
4 1/2 white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Cheesecake:
1 8 ounce package softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Optional:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (or suitable dipping chocolate)
1/3 cup fruit topping (Ice cream topping works well)

In a small bowl, cut margarine into flour with a fork until mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine water, egg white, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl; mix well. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until mixture forms a ball. Refrigerate for at least ½ hour before rolling out dough.

While dough is cooling beat cream cheese well in a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar a little at a time; add eggs; add vanilla combine thoroughly.

When dough has cooled, roll out dough and cut into pieces about 2 or 3 inches square.

Spoon a small amount of cheese cake mixture into each dough square. If desired, add a small amount of fruit topping into each square. Fold dough so that it makes a triangle and press edges together with a fork. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until the edges start turning a golden brown.

Optional:
Dip finished cookies in chocolate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

So the other day my wife says to me “Hey, we should make some stuffed chicken for dinner.” But then we didn’t make it, we had something like nachos. But the seed had been planted.

I just couldn’t get the thought of a really good stuffed chicken out of my mind. So Saturday, I made sure all the ingredients got into the grocery basket. And then Sunday we whipped up a fairly simple recipe loosely based on the recipe from our Christmas 2006 Costco cookbook.

Little cubes of mozzarella cheese, finely grated Romano, oregano, basil, roasted red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, and chopped garlic all stuffed in some average sized chicken breasts and roasted for about half an hour. Then we accidentally put fettuccini in the pan instead of linguini. That almost ruined everything. At least it wasn’t plain old spaghetti. We had to hurry and add some red peppers and quartered mushrooms to the stewed tomato sauce that had been sautéing on the stove to rescue the pasta. Then we made up some fresh garlic butter for our toasted french cheese bread.

Then Yanilza wanted me to also whip up my secret creamy piña colada recipe at the last second. (Which is actually the perfect time to do it. As long as you plan for it.) I almost didn’t have time.

Not once did I think I was going overboard. And not until I had finished my plate and sat pondering the fiesta of flavor still dancing across my taste buds did it even cross my mind that this might be a little out of the ordinary for some people.

I didn’t have to get after the kids. There were none of those sitcom threats; “You’re not leaving this table until you have eaten at least 4 more bites!” All I heard was “I’m full, that’s all I can eat, can I save this until later?”

And I started to ponder what we routinely eat for dinner, or breakfast, or even snacks. Maybe I’m ruining my kids. I hope they don’t become like those people who have to have the freshest seafood or the most expensive garnish and don’t appreciate what they are eating.

But then I thought about the steak in the fridge. It probably needed to age for 2 or 3 more days before I can make my chipotle steak with sautéed mushrooms and onions with asparagus and white rice. Or maybe I should serve it with the oven roasted red potatoes and sprinkle it all with green onions.

Hmmm, I should make some cheesecake to get my mind off the main courses.