More to Tell

It's getting harder to make time for these posts, but I will keep muddling through. My notes tell me that I was supposed to mention Wii, beer and Nick, but now I can't remember quite exactly what I was supposed to be blogging about. Oh well, I will start running off at the keyboard and something will end up in the post.

We Have a Wii

Embracing our second childhood, we've decided to start investing in video games. Actually, we purchased the Wii Fit, on the assumption that it will be way less embarrassing attempting yoga in front of a virtual trainer than it would be with an actual human being. And, it is actually kind of fun. I am getting a little tired of the way the system sort of wheezes when I step onto the balance board, but overall it's entertaining.

I suggested that to achieve the greatest fitness improvements one should Wii naked, allowing the greatest range of motion, freedom of movement and, if nothing else, serving as a powerful appetite suppressant. Denise is not supportive of this notion.

The bad news is that I have developed a little bit of Wii shoulder, hyper-extending the thing playing Wii Tennis. The good news is we haven't hurled the remote through our HDTV or knocked over any lamps or things of that nature. And we've had no wee Wii heart attacks working out, which is a good thing, given that our virtual trainers are probably not CPR certified.

Biology Experiment

I have, at long last, started my home brewing experiment. Actually the experiment has been running for the better part of three weeks and is approaching fruition. I refer to this as a biology experiment because God only knows what is growing in those bottles. I mean, the little yeasties are hopefully in there converting sugars to alcohol and CO2, but for all I know I've killed them somewhere along the process. And the greater concern is not that I've killed the benevolent yeasts, but that I've introduced some sort of bacteria that's converting everything to toxic waste.

I freely admit that I may have made plenty of mistakes in cooking up my first batch. I failed to introduce my hops at the appropriate time during the boil, proceeded to boil the stuff too long, for all I know may have contaminated the whole batch and who knows what else. Strangely, after a week of fermentation I went ahead with the bottling and sneaking a little taste of the results after the primary fermentation, I was surprised to find something that tasted oddly like an ale. Who'd have thunk it.

The bottle conditioning has been proceeding for a week and I've yet to have any bottles explode in the closet, so that's good news. Next Saturday is B-day. I'll crack one for a taste test then, but the recipe calls for another 3 weeks of aging for best flavor. For this first batch I'll be happy if I come up with something that will at least make a good marinade or beer-battered fish, even if it is otherwise undrinkable.

If it is the least bit drinkable you will be among the first to know.

Higher Learning

Nicholas continues to apply himself to his college education as exemplified in a personal best ski jumping for UC Davis.

This last weekend we drove to Davis for another UCD Waterski Team Parent Day and Benefit Dinner. It was a lot of driving, but a lot of fun as well. My advice to anyone who cares is to prolong ones college career as long as financially viable. Based on Nick's experience I think I'd like to retire to college. I mean ski all day, party all night, plagiarize the occasional term paper; what's not to like?

Jacob made the sojourn by bus and train from Humboldt to join us at the dinner and then joined Nick and team for the post event partying. Denise and I returned to the hotel for an attempt at a good night's sleep.

We arrived home late Sunday night after a 7-hour drive, pretty tired, but glad to be home. Leo seemed a little peeved at us for having abandoned him for the weekend. It took a while, but he finally warmed up to us and before long I was covered in dog slobber.

Time to go to bed. I am still really tired from last night's drive. And I'm sure Leo will want to get a little more slobber on me before the night is through. More later...

A Brief Post from the Man Himself

Jacob made it home this weekend and we prevailed upon him to provide the following post, succinct though it may be...

Hello all,

I am writing this from the small town of Temecula and as far as I can tell, it’s about the same as when I left. It’s weird how strange civilization looks after you’ve been in the forest for a couple months though. What’s up with all these red, yellow, and green lights above the intersections? I can’t say I particularly miss driving. It’s a lot more fun to eat food and walk then it is to go to Shell and watch those irritating advertisements as you fork over your money. I truly realized how small Humboldt is when it took me longer to drive to a friend’s house than walk across Arcata. Speaking of which, HSU (and I guess college in general) is amazing. If it wasn’t for all these damn classes it might even be fun. I kid… mostly (if anyone’s thinking about pursuing a degree in botany, good luck). I found myself becoming much fonder of eating the subject matter than looking at its gametangia. The salad bar is a daily now. Apparently everything’s picked the same morning they serve it, which is supposedly good. That’s about the only consistent good food except for drinks (my favorites are Nantucket Nectars, Calypso Lemonades, Guayaki tea, and a reverse energy drink called Purple Stuff whose slogan is “lean with it”). Everything is good, but I can’t say I’m too stoked on the dorms. They were designed by a prison architect and it’s apparent by the design and I feel like there’s equal yelling to a penitentiary. The guards are a lot nicer though and I haven’t gotten tazed yet. Overall, I’m very pleased with my choice in college and I don’t think my spirits will be dampened by the impending rainfall.

Much more to tell, but I wanted to get his posted this evening. Bye.

A Busy Week

It has actually been a very busy week or so since last we spoke.

I suppose I should update the Squid Ink Risotto incident. It was only fabulous. Actually, the squid ink adds a very subtle flavor, but the color is unmistakeable. I'm not sure I'll get the black out of my cutting board anytime soon. And really, the surprising thing was that the Green Onion Vinaigrette was probably the highlight of the dish. We made potato salad the other night and dressed it with the leftover vinaigrette and it was very good. If you are interested it's on The Food Network's web site.

The downside of my Spanish food order was the anchovie stuffed olives. Eeeww! I was expecting something significantly less fishy. Now I have to figure something to do with the two cans I ordered. Maybe they'll work OK in some Putanesca sauce.

I had thought earlier in the week that we may have had a death in the family, but my resuscitatory skills seem to have saved the day. Back about the time of Jake's accident I had been baking up sourdough goodies on a regular basis. My Mom had brought the starter home from her trip to Alaska and I had been feeding it ever since. Sometime around the accident I put the starter in the fridge and hadn't thought about it in months. When I finally took it out this week it had a leathery sort of skin developed on the top and looked like it was dead. Not wanting to give up on it I pried off the nasty bit of skin, gave it a good feeding and it started to come around. This morning I was able to fire up some pretty decent sourdough biscuits (which I of course smothered in sausage gravy).

The biscuit making reminded me of making biscuits when the boys were little. I would make penguin shaped biscuits, painting their beaks and tuxedos with yellow and black food coloring. The boys liked the biscuits, but were not too hot on the gravy. The first time I tried to serve it to Nick he was about 4 years old and said "If I ate that it would kill me." I had to agree that it eventually probably would, but it would take quite a few servings and a general lack of cardiac fitness.

I was sort of bummed about Jake not visiting, but it turns out that he will be coming home next weekend. Flying into LAX on Friday night and out the following Tuesday morning, with an orthodontist visit on Monday. I am not looking forward to venturing into the jaws of the beast that is the LA freeway system on a Friday night, but worst case scenario I will find a bar to kill time until the traffic thins out. Maybe by midnight. Of course, then Jake will need to be the designated driver. While he is home, perhaps I can persuade him to do a guest blog entry so that everyone can hear how the horse is doing straight from his mou...keyboard.

Leo continues to entertain in the absence of any children to keep us occupied. The other night he made a new friend...

Actually, hearing Leo you'd have thought he was planning to eat the guy. Of course, if he had actually gotten the thing off the fence he would have had his paws full. Nasty looking little possum. I guess technically it's an opossum.

For some reason, Leo has lately taken to disemboweling his squeaky toys, systematically sorting through his toy box and ripping the stuffing out of anything that squeaks.

This morning, having exhausted his supply of squeaky toys, he had to console himself by ripping the skin off a tennis balll.
This weekend brought more efforts to process all the stuff from our garden. I was cooking up the last of our pumpkins on Saturday morning when I decided to try something I thought to be truly original. It turned out following a Google search that the idea was not entirely original, but I think my particular approach is unique. Denise claimed they were delicious, but she has to humor me so I don't know for sure.

Pumpkin Enchiladas

For the Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp chipotle chile powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 cup chicken broth
1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Saute garlic in olive oil, add remaining ingredients, simmer 15 minutes. Thin with chicken broth if sauce is too thick.

Filling
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup roasted corn kernels
1/2 cup diced green chili
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Mexican oregano
1 cup grated Oaxaca cheese
1/4 cup grated Cotija cheese

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add corn, green chiles, pumpkin and spices. Cook 5 minutes, longer to thicken sauce if necessary. Stir in cheeses.

Assembly

8 corn tortillas

Cover bottom of baking dish with a couple spoons of the sauce. Dip a tortilla in simmering sauce to soften. Place tortilla in dish, cover with some filling, roll seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Top with more Oaxaca and Cotija cheese. Bake at 350 (Fahrenheit) for about 20 minutes.

You could substitute canned chipotles for the chipotle powder and Monterey Jack for the Mexican cheeses. I'm thinking that, just for kicks, next time I might try some grilled chicken instead of the corn and green chiles in the filling.