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Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Blunder from Down Under
So we weren't really down under, but it sounded good. From the stand today President Howard was conducting our Sunday service. He announced our worship hymn today, which was "Master the Tempest is Raging", a song about Christ's calming of the seas. A slight mispronouncement had President Howard utter the title as "Master the Temptress is Raging", which I suppose would be a song about Potiphar's wife.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Migration Celebration
On my way home from work yesterday I heard an announcement on the radio for a Migration Celebration hosted by Cornell's Lab of Ornithology up in Sapsucker Woods on route 13. It sounded neat, so naturally I forgot about it.
Enter this morning wherein I saw the announcement online. Having no plans for the afternoon, and having just begun birdwatching with Lindsay as an activity, I called Lindsay and she brought the boys down and met me afterwork. It was a lot of fun. There were all kinds of activities for the kids (including one that has motivated me to want to band the birds who come in to my backyard). The facility there for their ornithological studies is really beautiful too. Trumping it all, however, was the display of live Raptor birds outside. They were incredible. It was amazing to be able to see them, walk around them and observe them.
FYI most birds have scaly feet, but barn owls have giant furry hobbit feet. It's amazing to observe nature.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
The "Hands Down" Pie
I am not the least inclined to cooking. I don't like the time it takes. I don't like the dishes that it creates. I don't like the way it never tastes or looks as good as it did in the pictures or stores. My favorite meal is the one I don't cook or clean up after (though our budget does not allow enough elbow-room to even joke at this as a possibility). I'm sure that seems shallow or lazy, but I take comfort that 75% of the people I've ever known feel the same way as me. I also take comfort in my father-in-law who is situated among the other 25%.
My father-in-law loves to try new recipes. He'll spend hours making something he's never even heard of before and then again hours in cleaning up the resulting dishes. I appreciate people like him who enjoy cooking because these people usually love sharing their results and Sunday it resulted in my enjoying a delicious, completely homemade chicken cordon bleu dinner. It was awesome and I was so glad that he loves cooking as much as he does. I, so as not to seem too much of a mooch, provided dessert. Lindsay and I provided dessert. I made it, but it was at her directions that I made a second attempt at banana cream pie. The result was a text from my father-in-law later that night claiming it was "hands down the best banana cream pie" he'd ever had.
From a man who loves his food and is so given to cooking and experimenting, that was quite a compliment. I still can't claim I enjoyed too thoroughly the process of making the pie, but I did so very much enjoy the post-pie analysis of why it was so good—especially because it was really good and much better than the first one I'd made only a week earlier.
After some discussion between Lindsay and myself, here's what we determined (these are important notes for improving pies in the future).
1. Most important was the custard. The deliciousness of the custard portion of the pie really added to the taste. I think it was the biggest difference/improvement.
2. Don't mix in the bananas. First of all, bananas like to brown, and that's just bad press for people to bite into your pie and find brown bananas. The pie is supposed to be yellowish after all, so the brown spoils the appearance and could spoil others appetites. Second, bananas love to share their love, by which I mean everything ultimately ends up tasting like bananas when exposed. —Bananas in the fridge = a fridge full of banana smelling/tasting things. Also any one who's ever left a banana peel in a room know how fast that smell takes over. —Well, if you mix the banana into the custard, or put them on the bottom of the pie, ultimately you end up with an entire pie that tastes more like banana than banana and cream (this is only avoidable if the pie is eaten immediately after you mix the ingredients, but because the custard has to chill in the crust too, this is nearly impossible).
3. Before serving chill bananas by placing whole bananas in the fridge. In this way you chill the bananas to the same temperature as the pie, then you can slice them on to the top of the pie just before serving avoiding any browning or flavor imbibing.
4. Finally, Lindsay had the idea of slicing up strawberries too, because there're always all kinds of things flavored strawberry banana.
The result of all this was the "hands down" pie that we've eaten two of since Sunday, and it's only Thursday. Try it out, and never be reserved about how much vanilla you use in everything.
May 12.2011
My father-in-law loves to try new recipes. He'll spend hours making something he's never even heard of before and then again hours in cleaning up the resulting dishes. I appreciate people like him who enjoy cooking because these people usually love sharing their results and Sunday it resulted in my enjoying a delicious, completely homemade chicken cordon bleu dinner. It was awesome and I was so glad that he loves cooking as much as he does. I, so as not to seem too much of a mooch, provided dessert. Lindsay and I provided dessert. I made it, but it was at her directions that I made a second attempt at banana cream pie. The result was a text from my father-in-law later that night claiming it was "hands down the best banana cream pie" he'd ever had.
From a man who loves his food and is so given to cooking and experimenting, that was quite a compliment. I still can't claim I enjoyed too thoroughly the process of making the pie, but I did so very much enjoy the post-pie analysis of why it was so good—especially because it was really good and much better than the first one I'd made only a week earlier.
After some discussion between Lindsay and myself, here's what we determined (these are important notes for improving pies in the future).
1. Most important was the custard. The deliciousness of the custard portion of the pie really added to the taste. I think it was the biggest difference/improvement.
2. Don't mix in the bananas. First of all, bananas like to brown, and that's just bad press for people to bite into your pie and find brown bananas. The pie is supposed to be yellowish after all, so the brown spoils the appearance and could spoil others appetites. Second, bananas love to share their love, by which I mean everything ultimately ends up tasting like bananas when exposed. —Bananas in the fridge = a fridge full of banana smelling/tasting things. Also any one who's ever left a banana peel in a room know how fast that smell takes over. —Well, if you mix the banana into the custard, or put them on the bottom of the pie, ultimately you end up with an entire pie that tastes more like banana than banana and cream (this is only avoidable if the pie is eaten immediately after you mix the ingredients, but because the custard has to chill in the crust too, this is nearly impossible).
3. Before serving chill bananas by placing whole bananas in the fridge. In this way you chill the bananas to the same temperature as the pie, then you can slice them on to the top of the pie just before serving avoiding any browning or flavor imbibing.
4. Finally, Lindsay had the idea of slicing up strawberries too, because there're always all kinds of things flavored strawberry banana.
The result of all this was the "hands down" pie that we've eaten two of since Sunday, and it's only Thursday. Try it out, and never be reserved about how much vanilla you use in everything.
May 12.2011
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Chicks and the Key
Today my family adopted baby chicks for the first time. No this is not charity. We have 9 more on the way. We're in it for eggs and adventure. Nolan named the yellow one Tweety and one of the brown ones Cutie. Gerret named the other brown one Chonco-Boppo, because he's awesome at giving names—obviously.
The key, you'll notice, is missing it's top and appears cut/mangled. The reaon for this is Gerret stuck his middle finger through the key's hole and gotten it stuck. Really stuck. Soap and water wasn't working and the finger was turning purple from loss of blood flow. The result was a very careful surgery involving my wire cutters, this plastic key, and close proximity to his fleshy, swollen finger. All went well, no blood.
On My Lunch Break Wednesday May 11.2010
On my hike today I almost stepped on top of these poor deer. I was jumping across a creek and lending all my attention to nit falling in as I moved from stone to stone and the moment I made foot fall on the opposite bank a gang of deer sprang to life. I was startled, fascinated, regretful, and frigtened all at once. I felt bad for disturbing them, they'd obviously been resting. It was also neat to be so near so many of them (the photo doesn't really show all 5 or 6 of them). I also remembered that deer sometimes attack when threatened, so I backed around and made it dry-ly bck to the bank I'd just come from. That was a fun way to spend my lunch.
I also discovered today that my 5 MP Kodak Playsport camera turns photography into impressionist oil paintings when it is pushed too hard. The zoom is all digital, and it's a pocket came ram, so when I zoomed in on the deer and on this bird, the result was not clarity. I like it though. Another fortunate accident. I'm glad I found it and I'll be remembering this effect for the future.
The green thing growing out of the sink was just a cool plant I found out hiking. I thought it was interesting enough that I had to bring it back. It looks like a leaf, but it is it's own entire plant. I think my co-worker Daniela put it behind her desk in a vase with some other flowers, so it's term in the sink was short lived (just long enough for me to get changed and knock the mud out of my boots.
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