Trial by Fire

Last weekend, Scott and Amoreena came to pay us a visit and to help out on our work day. Scott was eager to try out the new kitchen, which I had (foolishly perhaps,) described as 'Scott-Proof.'

Scott is a fantastic cook, having worked early in his career both at a Whole Foods Market and at a Pan-Pacific Restaurant, learning to wok over very high heat. He has taken this technique out of the professional kitchen into the amateur arena, leading to some exciting culinary experiences that have variously involved minor grease fires, blaring smoke detectors, and clouds of thick greasy smoke forcing the opening of every window and door in the house, even in the midst of a cold rainy Oregon winter.

With a new range that can kick out serious BTU's and a range hood with professional-style grease traps and 400+ CFM of airflow, I thought that finally we had a workspace that would stand up to the worst that Scott could dish out.

I was wrong.

Although the sirloin tip roast turned out fantastic and tasty, alas we were defeated in our effort to have a smoke-free dinner. Somehow the range hood just could not seem to keep up with the smoke from the hot oil, and we indeed had most of the windows and doors open in an effort to clear the air so that we could see each other over our delicious dinner.

But at least we haven't gotten around to installing the smoke alarms yet!

The Carlston Zoo

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/

Amy thought that we should include this link in honor of the animalian activities that have been going on around these parts of late. Let me know what you think!

Work Party at our House

We have had a lot of our friends saying 'we want to come see your place' and 'hey, if you need any help give us a call...' The problem is that the pace of our remodel is less structured - it is hard to say, "come by on next Wednesday, and we will be changing doorknobs." Everything takes an unpredictable amount of time, and our energies & enthusiasm ebb and flow. We don't really know what we are working on until we start to work on it.

So we had the idea to have a work party, invite a bunch of our friends, and get them working on diverse projects throughout the house. It worked out fabulously! I am sure that we accomplished more last weekend than we would have been able to do in a month or more on our own! Here are some of the tasks that were accomplished:

Cut out baseboards, touch-up painting, painting cabinet doors, hanging pictures and artwork, painting baseboards, lining cabinets with cork sheeting, replacing doorknobs, setting a post with our house number and lights by the end of the driveway, putting up shelves in the office, hanging blinds and curtains, and unpacking & organizing lots of boxes of stuff.

The house is definitely looking much more home-like now. Thanks everyone for a lot of fun, and all your hard work!

Pancakes & Pinot Noir

Pancakes & Pinot Noir- (As served at our “Pinot & Pancackes” Work Day Party 4-20-08)

I adapted this from a recipe that I found online; I never seem to make it exactly the same, adding or subtracting spices to change the aroma a bit. It makes some of the best pancakes, fluffy, light and crispy, that I have had. It is not a batter to make ahead of time, as it depends on being mixed together immediately prior to going on the griddle. Use this as a general guide, and have fun! -NRC

Part #1: Separate 2 eggs carefully into 2 stainless steel bowls. Add a pinch of salt to the whites, and whisk them briskly until they form thick, firm peaks. (The firmer, the fluffier the pancakes!) Set aside.

Part #2: Grab the bowl with the two yolks. Add 1 cup of milk, and 3 tbsp of melted butter. Whisk together. (You could also add some spice like ground cardamom or vanilla if you like; orange zest is delicious as well.)

Part #3: In a third bowl, sift together 1 ½ cups of flour, 3 tsp baking powder, ¾ tsp salt, and 1 tbsp sugar (don’t make them too sweet, or they won’t pair well with Pinot Noir!) Sift it back slowly into the egg yolk / milk mixture, and mix. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit more milk to make it lighter – I usually have to use an additional 1/8 cup or so.

Assembly: Using a rubber spatula, move the yolk / batter mixture into the beaten egg whites (whisk them again if needed to make sure that they are really firm and fluffy.) Add 1 cup of fresh blueberries, and with the spatula LIGHTLY mix them together – almost like how you would toss a salad – you don’t want to break the blueberries, and the egg whites don’t need to be totally incorporated – they will make fluffier pancakes if there is still a lot of air trapped in the egg whites.

Preparing: Get a large griddle or cast-iron skillet hot enough that butter starts to smoke, and then back it off a little bit to maintain a constant, even heat. Brush lightly with butter to grease the surface. Make a few tiny test pancakes the size of a quarter to make sure that the temperature is right. They should get crispy on the outside, but not burnt, and should fluff up nicely, with the inside moist, but cooked. If all looks good, you can start your pancake production line, making 3-4 at a time – the best size seems to be a little bigger around than a beer can, with 4-5 blueberries in each cake, and nice and thick.

Serving: These are best right off the griddle, as if you hold them they cook all the way through, and the outside gets soggy instead of crisp. Maple syrup is okay, but the sweetness clashes with Pinot Noir. Amoreena made some butter with Pixie tangerine zest, which was amazing, and Scott made a Pinot Noir reduction with blueberry-soaked Amaretto, which he wasn’t too sure about, but I loved. Whatever you do, make sure to serve it with a big pile of thick-cut bacon!

Photos from the Grassy Knoll

Kristin woke me up yesterday early in the morning, and told me to come down to the window. In the meadow next door, there were two furry animals running around, chasing each other. At first, we thought that they were both foxes, but then after watching for a while, it was clear that the other was something else - a Badger!!

The badger seemed to be in a hole of some sort, and the fox would come in and bite at it, then the badger would rush out of the hole and attack the fox. The fox then danced away and the badger went back to his hole.

This went on for 45 minutes or so - at one point two deer came wandering by and one went right up and looked right in the hole, as if to see what these two were fighting about. Eventually, the fox lay down to watch the hole, and eventually wandered away as the day got started.

A young neighbor kid came by later and introduced himself, and told us that there were foxes living up in the field. Now I wonder if the fox had a den here, and the badger came and got her pups. That would be sad, but it makes the most sense - I can't imagine a fox being that persistent and risking that much danger without a good reason. The badger was huge, and obviously powerful, like a little bear or something!

Here is a short video as well (click on this link)

Welcome to A-Town!

The early ‘80s vintage Chevy Silverado idling in front of me is spewing thick black smoke from where the tailpipe probably used to be. My little Japanese truck vibrates right along with the throbbing of eight cylinders of its Detroit-built, gas-guzzling motive power. The truck is lifted several inches to accommodate extra-large off-road tires and aftermarket shocks – but this is no coddled, weekend plaything; the grey paint is blistered from heat and time, and worn through to the bare metal in several patches. A large American flag sticker graces the rear of the tailgate, ironically grimed with the clouds of oily petroleum smoke drifting up from somewhere in the nether-regions beneath the chassis. A peeling NRA sticker in the rear window shares space with a bumper sticker that reads, “I’m not Mean; You’re just a Sissy.” The license plate frame plainly states; “Jesus Loves You; (but the rest of us think that you’re an asshole…)”

Welcome to A-Town!

This is the second morning that I have woken up in Atascadero, and I feel a little bit like I am back in rural Oregon. Kristin and I have been enduring the jabs from our friends who tease us with “Oh, you’re moving to A-trash-cadero?” We’ve heard it all, I suppose – Meth-Cadero, White-Trash-Cadero, etc... Obispeans always seem to think they are s-oooo cool!

I am going to have to champion the good things about 'A-Town!'

I comfort myself with the excellent blueberry scone in my hand from Hush Harbor bakery – the only place that I know of in the county that makes a decent baguette, right here in A-town.

We are off to El Salvador tonight, so probably have a lot to put here in a couple weeks when we return! Thanks to everyone who helped with donations and moral support. Check back for photos from our trip in April!

-NRC