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!

More Badger Fun!

When I was in North Carolina, my friend Bob told me about a local car sales company that had some very funny television advertisements. They had hired the same agency that does Geico's Gecko commercials. The result is pretty darned funny, with the message of "Johnson Auto Sales - No Badgers." Guess you will just have to watch for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlnojyrSx_g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG8cdMutLwA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18SeqcDtPEI&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn0xM6m4STs&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9F1z21G2J8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPigcNxXVog&feature=related

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!

Blowing the Surprise

My brother Benjamin was married in November 2006 to a great young woman whom he was (is!) really in love with. It wasn't easy for me to get away from work to attend the wedding, as harvest was ongoing, and there was still a LOT of work going on.

In fact, on the very day that he was married, November 4th, we had a couple vineyards scheduled for harvest - so I decided that I would make some wine for him from grapes that were picked precisely on the day of his wedding, and get enough bottles for him so that he can have a bottle every anniversary until the wine starts to go over the hill. (I am sure that their marriage will outlast the wine!)

We just bottled that wine a few weeks ago, just before I left for El Salvador, and I am setting aside several cases for them. But in addition to the small bottles of wine, I had a bottle etched by a local artist for them; a really BIG bottle in this case, 5 litres!! (A normal bottle of wine is 750ml, so this bottle definitely qualifies as 'Party Size!')

The back of the bottle has their names, and the date of their wedding, as well as a passage from the Song of Solomon, which Kristin read at their wedding, and had a passing mention of the vine and agriculture;

My beloved spoke and said to me, "Arise my darling, my beautiful one. Come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing is come. The cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come my darling, My beautiful one, come with me!"

On the front is a copy of a painting that Ben painted when he was in art class in High School. I think that he gave it to me as a graduation gift, and I have hung it on the wall wherever I have lived since, from California to Oregon and back again.

I think that it turned out really well, and I had to show it off, even though it might spoil the surprise for them; but it will look so good when they get it, that I am sure they will forgive me!

Besides, if you see it displayed on the mantle, you should scold them; this bottle needs to be stored someplace dark and cool so that it won't spoil. I think we should all get together with them on their 5th anniversary and drink through this - I can always refill it with something else in the future, and the many other small bottles will allow them at least a small taste from that very special day in 2006 for many years to come.

Ben & Michelle, we love you guys!

Day at the Beach

Kristin and I have our best friends, Jordan & Elaine, and our niece & nephew, Nathan & CeCe in town for a week. We went with CeCe & Elaine to the Avila pier to buy some fish for Cioppino, and when we were there ran across these sea lions...

I only had my cell phone to take a photo with; it doesn't look all that impressive, but these guys were HUGE and amazing to see close up! We also saw a sea otter, chomping on a rock crab, but the pic didn't turn out at all, unfortunately.

CeCe was really impressed, and loved them all - "I want to pet it," she said about the sea otter.

Kristin's Toilet!

Dad and I put in this toilet last night. Now I know how to swap out a toilet, something that I guess every guy should know eventually. Not as bad as I thought it might be.

I'm posting here, so that Kristin can see, as she has been in Napa for a couple days (staying at Meadowood Resort with our friend Elaine. Those poor girls really know how to go camping!)

Dad comes to help out!

Dad offerred to come for a visit and lend a hand with things around here. We obviously took him up on the offer. (I suppose that after all the child labor he squeezed out of Benjamin and I, it is only fair, but it is really nice to have him here. It has been a long time since I have been able to work on any kind of project with my Dad, and it will be really satisfying to look at things around me every day and think that Dad and I did that together!)

I have been keeping him busy, as I had to work yesterday. He did some electrical wiring, started building the stair railing, and we ripped out one toilet yesterday before I went to work. Also, dad has been ripping out the tiles in the downstairs bathroom, so that the flooring guys can prep it for staining the concrete next week.

I met with the concrete guys, one of them stains floors, and the other builds countertops. We are thinking about using concrete for the countertops in the downstairs bathroom, as well as the kitchen - we will see how it all goes, I don't know what the quote is going to look like yet.

Little Fingers

My brother, Benjamin, took this photo last night. It is of he and his new son, Emmett Curtis Carlson, born just a few weeks ago in Minnesota. I can't wait to fly out for a first visit, to meet my new nephew!