- taught my daughter to play Uno
- made a huge Christmas turkey and then made lots of good things with the leftovers
- played board games with friends
- read several novels
- watched movies with my daughter
- watched "Yes, Prime Minister" with my wife
- converted my old how-did-I-ever-get-a-job resume into a great functional resume
- played a lot of "Scrabble" on Facebook
- went to "thesis therapy" sessions at the pub with fellow GLSers
- procrastinated some more by blogging about ten things I've done instead of working on my thesis...
28 December 2007
Ten Things
In no particular order, ten things I've done over the holiday season instead of work on my thesis:
19 December 2007
Marc Tempé Gewürztraminer Rodelsberg (1998)
For my birthday dinner, to complement the scallops with orzo and caramelized carrots, we had a bottle of wine - a 1998 Marc Tempe Rodelsberg Gewurztraminer.
I've had some really tremendous white wines before, and this one definitely qualified. It's a common misperception that you cannot age a white wine.
This one had a beautiful golden colour, wonderful smooth mouth feel, heady aromas you typically expect in a Gewurz, and on the palate had an extremely long finish and hints of minerals.
A lovely wine. I wish I had 10 more in the cellar.
I've had some really tremendous white wines before, and this one definitely qualified. It's a common misperception that you cannot age a white wine.
This one had a beautiful golden colour, wonderful smooth mouth feel, heady aromas you typically expect in a Gewurz, and on the palate had an extremely long finish and hints of minerals.
A lovely wine. I wish I had 10 more in the cellar.
12 December 2007
Happy Birthday to Me!
Today's been a truly nice and relaxing day.
For dinner tonight - pan seared scallops finished with lime and dill, orzo with a nice light tomato cream sauce, and caramelized carrots. Paired with a 1998 Marc Tempe grand cru Gewurztraminer from Alsace.
For dinner tonight - pan seared scallops finished with lime and dill, orzo with a nice light tomato cream sauce, and caramelized carrots. Paired with a 1998 Marc Tempe grand cru Gewurztraminer from Alsace.
09 December 2007
My 40th birthday party
This coming Wednesday, the 12th, I turn 40. Since a mid-week party isn't really reasonable, I had my party last night.
Almost forty people came and wished me well and shared food and wine and laughter.
I am truly blessed with good friends.
Almost forty people came and wished me well and shared food and wine and laughter.
I am truly blessed with good friends.
10 November 2007
Automated Rejection
Yesterday, I visited SAP.com to see what kind of job opportunities they had, and one of them was the generic "please submit your resume so we can keep it on file. So I did.
A short time later, I received an automated email from their site that said:
A short time later, I received an automated email from their site that said:
Thank you for your interest in exploring a career opportunity with SAP.Nothing like automation I say.
We have reviewed your background and experience as compared to our position requirements. Upon review, we have decided to pursue other candidates that we believe are stronger matches for this position. We felt it was important to advise you as soon as we made this decision so as not to delay your job search.
SAP is continuing to grow as a dominant leader in technology and further opportunities will develop. Please be assured that we will retain your application in our database for at least six months should a job opportunity develop that matches your background.
Feel free to continue to visit http://www.sap.com/usa/employ for future opportunities.
Thanks again for expressing an interest in SAP and we wish you much success in finding a position that matches your career objectives.
Sincerely,
SAP Talent Acquisition
01 October 2007
The Pike Brewing Pub (Seattle) Review
On Sunday, one of the Seattle sights we visited was the Pike Place Market. At one end of it is the Pike Brewing Company, and they have a pub... So Gerry and I stopped in for lunch.
The place is nicely appointed with lots of Pike Brewing paraphernalia, and reminded me favourably of other brewpubs I've been to, such as Swan's and Spinnaker's in Victoria, and Wild River in Richmond.
The menu was replete with the usual pub fare one might expect, with a Pacific Northwest emphasis on local cuisine.
I ordered a bowl of the dungeness crab chowder and the "half" Rueben (the full Rueben has double the meat!), Gerry had the chowder as well and halibut & chips. I couldn't decide between the wheat ale and the Belgian style tripel so the waitress brought me tasters of both. Gerry had the stout. I settled on the tripel, though the wheat was one of the better ones I've tried.
The soup came fast, and it was hot! The mains were both ample and delicious. In short, it was nice simple fare, well prepared.
Recommended.
Ratings:
Service: 4/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Food: 7/10
Price: $$
Score: 14/20
The place is nicely appointed with lots of Pike Brewing paraphernalia, and reminded me favourably of other brewpubs I've been to, such as Swan's and Spinnaker's in Victoria, and Wild River in Richmond.
The menu was replete with the usual pub fare one might expect, with a Pacific Northwest emphasis on local cuisine.
I ordered a bowl of the dungeness crab chowder and the "half" Rueben (the full Rueben has double the meat!), Gerry had the chowder as well and halibut & chips. I couldn't decide between the wheat ale and the Belgian style tripel so the waitress brought me tasters of both. Gerry had the stout. I settled on the tripel, though the wheat was one of the better ones I've tried.
The soup came fast, and it was hot! The mains were both ample and delicious. In short, it was nice simple fare, well prepared.
Recommended.
Ratings:
Service: 4/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Food: 7/10
Price: $$
Score: 14/20
Taphouse Grill (Seattle) Review
During my weekend with Gerry in Seattle, as part of the experience was to go to Bottleworks and buy and taste beer, we decided to check out the Taphouse Grill. We visited the location in downtown Seattle. Taphouse Grill's claim to fame is that they have 160 different beers on tap.
Writing a good restaurant review is easy, but writing a negative one is one fraught with a little more peril; it is not sufficient to just say bad things about a place, one has to be specific about what made the experience bad.
The easy rating is ambiance. The place has a nice atmosphere to eat and drink in, and there was nothing wrong with the decor. The pictures on the website paint an accurate picture.
However, everything went downhill from there.
Gerry and I arrived around 3pm, which is definitely the dead zone in the restaurant world. Our waitress was very friendly and nice enough, but service goes beyond ones individual server. My first mistake was to ignore Gerry's sage advice to not order the sampler. I'm used to samplers from places like Swan's, Wild River, Spinnaker's, etc - brew pubs where the samples are beers they brew. The sampler at the Taphouse was a mistake.
It was a mistake because of the four beers in the flight, one was off, one was flat, and one I didn't like. The one that was off had the classic wet cardboard aroma I've experienced with wine, but never with beer. Of course, Gerry's the beer expert, whereas I'm more of a wine guy. Also, none of the four beers in the flight was on the list of regular beers (they do say that some 10 or so taps are for whatever seasonal or special ales they have going).
I told the waitress to please take the flight away and bring me a glass of porter instead. She brought it back to the bar and Gerry and I saw the manager and she discuss my "concerns" and the manager even took a sniff of the off beer and make "that face" and put it down.
So when he came over and told me that all the beers "poured like they should" (i.e. that they were all ok), I knew he was lying. I didn't bother arguing - I just wanted my porter and my lunch.
And that was the other part. It took over an hour for Gerry and I to get out food. What did we order that took so long? I ordered the potato cakes and lentil soup from the daily specials menu, and Gerry ordered a beef dip sandwich. In other words, nothing that should take an hour.
When the food finally arrived, I was disappointed. The potato cakes were a little spongy, and the soup (very good) was only warm.
After the beer complaint, we were basically avoided by our waitress and she looked apologetic when she presented our bill. The faulty flight of beer was still on the bill, and I just gave her my credit card. When she came back she'd taken the flight off.
Too little, too late.
Ratings:
Service: 1/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Food: 5/10
Price: $$
Score: 9/20
A note: Having 160 taps is certainly impressive, but with that many, you're simply statistically going to have some bad ones there - especially since some of them won't be very popular. In contradistinction, as we went from the Taphouse to Elysian Fields, a brewpub right by Safeco Field, they have about 20 taps, but half of them are their beers, and the others are "guest beers", and they were all busily poured.
Writing a good restaurant review is easy, but writing a negative one is one fraught with a little more peril; it is not sufficient to just say bad things about a place, one has to be specific about what made the experience bad.
The easy rating is ambiance. The place has a nice atmosphere to eat and drink in, and there was nothing wrong with the decor. The pictures on the website paint an accurate picture.
However, everything went downhill from there.
Gerry and I arrived around 3pm, which is definitely the dead zone in the restaurant world. Our waitress was very friendly and nice enough, but service goes beyond ones individual server. My first mistake was to ignore Gerry's sage advice to not order the sampler. I'm used to samplers from places like Swan's, Wild River, Spinnaker's, etc - brew pubs where the samples are beers they brew. The sampler at the Taphouse was a mistake.
It was a mistake because of the four beers in the flight, one was off, one was flat, and one I didn't like. The one that was off had the classic wet cardboard aroma I've experienced with wine, but never with beer. Of course, Gerry's the beer expert, whereas I'm more of a wine guy. Also, none of the four beers in the flight was on the list of regular beers (they do say that some 10 or so taps are for whatever seasonal or special ales they have going).
I told the waitress to please take the flight away and bring me a glass of porter instead. She brought it back to the bar and Gerry and I saw the manager and she discuss my "concerns" and the manager even took a sniff of the off beer and make "that face" and put it down.
So when he came over and told me that all the beers "poured like they should" (i.e. that they were all ok), I knew he was lying. I didn't bother arguing - I just wanted my porter and my lunch.
And that was the other part. It took over an hour for Gerry and I to get out food. What did we order that took so long? I ordered the potato cakes and lentil soup from the daily specials menu, and Gerry ordered a beef dip sandwich. In other words, nothing that should take an hour.
When the food finally arrived, I was disappointed. The potato cakes were a little spongy, and the soup (very good) was only warm.
After the beer complaint, we were basically avoided by our waitress and she looked apologetic when she presented our bill. The faulty flight of beer was still on the bill, and I just gave her my credit card. When she came back she'd taken the flight off.
Too little, too late.
Ratings:
Service: 1/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Food: 5/10
Price: $$
Score: 9/20
A note: Having 160 taps is certainly impressive, but with that many, you're simply statistically going to have some bad ones there - especially since some of them won't be very popular. In contradistinction, as we went from the Taphouse to Elysian Fields, a brewpub right by Safeco Field, they have about 20 taps, but half of them are their beers, and the others are "guest beers", and they were all busily poured.
Seattle
Some six weeks ago, my friend Gerry and I made plans to go see the Mariners play a game and spend the weekend in Seattle. Little did we know at the time that the Mariners, who had a clear 4 game lead in the wild card race, would go on an extended losing streak and be out of the playoffs or that the Canadian dollar would reach parity with the US dollar.
In any event, we had the tickets and the hotel booked, and off we went. It took a little over an hour to get through the south bound customs lineup, and it was probably much longer by the time we finally got through at 9am!
We stopped and shopped a the "Seattle's Best" outlet mall and found some bargains. One of the nice things about "guy shopping" is we know what we want and if they don't have it, we move on. I found some shoes (long overdue to get replacements) for cheap at Eddie Bauer, and a new lasagna pan (Le Creuset, at an outrageously good price) which will last me forever, complete with roasting rack to go with it.
The game was good and featured everything I want to see at a baseball game - the home team winning, and a home run. (Mariners 5-1 over the Texas Rangers). I also didn't know that Sammy Sosa played for the Rangers (as their DH) so I actually got to see him at bat.
Safeco Field is a great baseball venue, and the thing that impressed me the most was that the concessions were a mix of stadium facilities and local franchises (e.g. the Ivar's fish and chip place, and the barbecue place whose name escapes me but had a fabulous pulled pork sandwich). There were also other options available, like sushi.
The most surprising though was that while Bud and Coors were the "default" beers, one in three taps featured a local microbrewery's craft beer. Very shrewd marketing!
The hotel we stayed at was close to the Space Needle so we were able to walk everywhere, including a late lunch at the Taphouse Grill (reviewed separately) and Safeco Field.
On Sunday we had lunch at the Pike Place Pub (reviewed separately) and checked out the market and the Science Fiction Museum.
The Science Fiction Museum was a lot of fun, and most of the collection is from Paul Allen, whose brainchild it is (as well as the Experience Music Project). Notably absent from the collection was anything British (Dr. Who, Space 1999, Blake's Seven, etc), and with the exception of a couple of minor items, nothing Babylon 5. Lots of Star Trek (old and new) and Star Wars, and the queen alien from Aliens. Well worth the admission ticket.
Coming home, the border lineup was a mere 30 minutes, and the customs guy, after checking the trunk to see all the beer we bought, waved us through. Lots of people being pulled over to go pay sales tax at the customs office though.
I really like Seattle, and it had been 14 years since I'd last visited. It won't be that long before I go again!
In any event, we had the tickets and the hotel booked, and off we went. It took a little over an hour to get through the south bound customs lineup, and it was probably much longer by the time we finally got through at 9am!
We stopped and shopped a the "Seattle's Best" outlet mall and found some bargains. One of the nice things about "guy shopping" is we know what we want and if they don't have it, we move on. I found some shoes (long overdue to get replacements) for cheap at Eddie Bauer, and a new lasagna pan (Le Creuset, at an outrageously good price) which will last me forever, complete with roasting rack to go with it.
The game was good and featured everything I want to see at a baseball game - the home team winning, and a home run. (Mariners 5-1 over the Texas Rangers). I also didn't know that Sammy Sosa played for the Rangers (as their DH) so I actually got to see him at bat.
Safeco Field is a great baseball venue, and the thing that impressed me the most was that the concessions were a mix of stadium facilities and local franchises (e.g. the Ivar's fish and chip place, and the barbecue place whose name escapes me but had a fabulous pulled pork sandwich). There were also other options available, like sushi.
The most surprising though was that while Bud and Coors were the "default" beers, one in three taps featured a local microbrewery's craft beer. Very shrewd marketing!
The hotel we stayed at was close to the Space Needle so we were able to walk everywhere, including a late lunch at the Taphouse Grill (reviewed separately) and Safeco Field.
On Sunday we had lunch at the Pike Place Pub (reviewed separately) and checked out the market and the Science Fiction Museum.
The Science Fiction Museum was a lot of fun, and most of the collection is from Paul Allen, whose brainchild it is (as well as the Experience Music Project). Notably absent from the collection was anything British (Dr. Who, Space 1999, Blake's Seven, etc), and with the exception of a couple of minor items, nothing Babylon 5. Lots of Star Trek (old and new) and Star Wars, and the queen alien from Aliens. Well worth the admission ticket.
Coming home, the border lineup was a mere 30 minutes, and the customs guy, after checking the trunk to see all the beer we bought, waved us through. Lots of people being pulled over to go pay sales tax at the customs office though.
I really like Seattle, and it had been 14 years since I'd last visited. It won't be that long before I go again!
Jethro Tull at the River Rock
Last Friday (the 28th of September), I went to see Jethro Tull at the River Rock Casino.
The concert venue at the River Rock is fabulous - it's very intimate, and I can't say that there's a bad seat in the place, although I had a truly premium seat in row three.
The seating is part of an elaborate $10 million system (so said the promo guy who came out to tell us about the lineup of artists coming soon) that lets the room be configured pretty much any way they liked - from music, to boxing, to a cabaret, it's all possible through automation. On my way out after the show I got to see the inner workings as the crowd filtered out through the exit corridors.
The last time I saw Jethro Tull was during their 1991 tour (at the Orpheum). I was pleased to be able to see them live again, and I expect that it will be the last time I get to see them in concert.
Ian Anderson was in fine form, cracking many jokes, and poking fun at their age. They opened their show with "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You" from their first album (This Was, 1968) and then joked their next one would be from "their more recent album from 1969".
I wrote recently about Al Stewart's musical talent, and I need to make the same comment here. Everyone in the band can play multiple instruments, and play them well. I know that Tull's music isn't everyone's cuppa tea, but there's not denying their musicianship.
Ian Anderson's voice isn't what it used to be, but he's adjusted his singing style and his passion for his music is still apparent. Their playlist did feature more instrumental pieces than one might normally expect at a rock concert, but for the better part of two hours, they provided great entertainment.
Here is the set list from the show...
Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You (Ian & Martin only)
Living In The Past
The Donkey And The Drum - from their new album, "to be released some time in 2012" [joking]
Thick As A Brick - from the eponymous album, a rather lengthy excerpt and very well done
Pastime With Good Company (King Henry's Madrigal)
Mother Goose
My Sunday Feeling
Bourée
Sweet Dream
After You After Me - from one of Martin Barre's solo albums
Aqualung - a new arrangement with lots of flute (Ian noted that this song, probably Tull's most famous work, features no flute in its original incarnation)
America - From "West Side Story", an arrangement by Emerson (of Emerson, Lake, & "the other lawyer in the firm")
My God
Budapest
Locomotive Breath (the obligatory encore finale)
The concert venue at the River Rock is fabulous - it's very intimate, and I can't say that there's a bad seat in the place, although I had a truly premium seat in row three.
The seating is part of an elaborate $10 million system (so said the promo guy who came out to tell us about the lineup of artists coming soon) that lets the room be configured pretty much any way they liked - from music, to boxing, to a cabaret, it's all possible through automation. On my way out after the show I got to see the inner workings as the crowd filtered out through the exit corridors.
The last time I saw Jethro Tull was during their 1991 tour (at the Orpheum). I was pleased to be able to see them live again, and I expect that it will be the last time I get to see them in concert.
Ian Anderson was in fine form, cracking many jokes, and poking fun at their age. They opened their show with "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You" from their first album (This Was, 1968) and then joked their next one would be from "their more recent album from 1969".
I wrote recently about Al Stewart's musical talent, and I need to make the same comment here. Everyone in the band can play multiple instruments, and play them well. I know that Tull's music isn't everyone's cuppa tea, but there's not denying their musicianship.
Ian Anderson's voice isn't what it used to be, but he's adjusted his singing style and his passion for his music is still apparent. Their playlist did feature more instrumental pieces than one might normally expect at a rock concert, but for the better part of two hours, they provided great entertainment.
Here is the set list from the show...
Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You (Ian & Martin only)
Living In The Past
The Donkey And The Drum - from their new album, "to be released some time in 2012" [joking]
Thick As A Brick - from the eponymous album, a rather lengthy excerpt and very well done
Pastime With Good Company (King Henry's Madrigal)
Mother Goose
My Sunday Feeling
Bourée
Sweet Dream
After You After Me - from one of Martin Barre's solo albums
Aqualung - a new arrangement with lots of flute (Ian noted that this song, probably Tull's most famous work, features no flute in its original incarnation)
America - From "West Side Story", an arrangement by Emerson (of Emerson, Lake, & "the other lawyer in the firm")
My God
Budapest
Locomotive Breath (the obligatory encore finale)
25 September 2007
The Mathematics of Finance
When I look back at my undergraduate days and do a mental inventory of the courses I took, a select few really stand out.
One of them, which was an elective, was a second year mathematics course called "The Mathematics of Finance".
Of all the math courses I suffered through (calculus, linear algebra, statistics), this one was by far the most useful one I've taken. Mortgages, declining balances, amortizations, simple and compound interest, stocks, bonds, coupons, strips, and so on.
Over the years, this course has been worth its textbook's weight in gold (probably literally) in helping me make smart decisions about money. It has saved me literally thousands of dollars on my mortgage (a tale unto itself).
Recently, I've begun working with a professional financial planner. I know about stocks and bonds, and to avoid mutual funds like the plague, but there is simply too much inherent complexity in the system for a retail investor like me to deal with intelligently - at least if I don't want to simplify my life with just investing in an index ETF.
My financial planner calls me about once every two weeks or so and he's been educating me about the markets on the whole. Jim educates me about the markets for two reasons - one so that I feel confident in his recommendations, and two so that if he's feeling bullish on a particular investment idea I have to be able to understand what the idea is. Because as he says, if I don't understand it and he can't explain it to me, then it might not be such a good idea after all.
Thanks to that math of finance course, I can make intelligent decisions with Jim's help. That is an amazingly useful tool.
One of them, which was an elective, was a second year mathematics course called "The Mathematics of Finance".
Of all the math courses I suffered through (calculus, linear algebra, statistics), this one was by far the most useful one I've taken. Mortgages, declining balances, amortizations, simple and compound interest, stocks, bonds, coupons, strips, and so on.
Over the years, this course has been worth its textbook's weight in gold (probably literally) in helping me make smart decisions about money. It has saved me literally thousands of dollars on my mortgage (a tale unto itself).
Recently, I've begun working with a professional financial planner. I know about stocks and bonds, and to avoid mutual funds like the plague, but there is simply too much inherent complexity in the system for a retail investor like me to deal with intelligently - at least if I don't want to simplify my life with just investing in an index ETF.
My financial planner calls me about once every two weeks or so and he's been educating me about the markets on the whole. Jim educates me about the markets for two reasons - one so that I feel confident in his recommendations, and two so that if he's feeling bullish on a particular investment idea I have to be able to understand what the idea is. Because as he says, if I don't understand it and he can't explain it to me, then it might not be such a good idea after all.
Thanks to that math of finance course, I can make intelligent decisions with Jim's help. That is an amazingly useful tool.
22 September 2007
On Making Sausage
Today I made sausage for only the second time ever. The first time was at the tail end of the Dubrulle "serious amateur" 6-day advanced culinary class.
My cousins Anita and Karlheinz from Germany are visiting my parents and so I took the adorable granddaughter to be doted upon and took up Karlheinz's offer of showing me how to make classic German bratwursts (his rendition of them naturally). He'd made a batch before our trip out there last weekend, and they're really awesomely good.
I brought along my KitchenAid stand mixer as it has a stronger motor than my dad's, and after lunch, we set to work.
First is the meat (all pork) - the ratio is 8 parts shoulder to 2 parts belly. If you want slightly moister sausages you can go 7 to 3. You want the meat ground coarsely - I learned that commercial ground meat is actually twice ground, but as a general rule for sausage you just want it run through once.
Then after mixing the secret seasoning recipe (secret = I'm not going to post it) you sprinkle it over the ground meat (we had 6.5kg of it), you knead it. Like bread dough. Aggressive, hard, making sure you mix in all the seasonings well and thoroughly. And you know what - if you want to see how the taste is, to make sure the seasoning is right, you taste it. Raw.
Now, I'm sure lots of people will freak out - but that's because we've been conditioned to avoid raw meat, especially chicken, as if it were radioactive waste. But let me tell you something - it was GOOD. So good in fact, that last week I spread some of the "we ran out of casing" sausage meat straight onto bread. Mmm mmm mmm. It's really no different in any fundamental way from steak tartare.
Once the meat has been worked, it becomes quite firm, very much like bread dough when it's ready. The proteins in meat have the same reaction to the kneading as the glutens in flour.
We let the meat mixture sit for about an hour to let the flavours infuse (that, and we went and had lunch). After lunch, we went down and set up the KitchenAid with all the attachments and got to work.
Slipping sausage casing onto the end of the nozzle where the meat comes out suggests and looks exactly like what you think it might, and no doubt contributes to the notion that those who love the law and sausages should watch neither being made.
Once the casing was ready, you need two people - one to feed the meat into the machine, one to deal with the extrusion of meat into the casing. To process 6.5kg of prepared meat took us about 40-45 minutes. I joked at the start that I would probably get the hang of it about the time we were almost done, and I was right.
It was interesting to me that we did the links only after the casing (about 2m long) was filled. At Dubrulle we made the links as we went along (using artifical collagen casing), but Karlheinz did it after the fact and showed me the easy technique to do it - at least it looked easy, kinda like how an old Italian grandmother makes fresh pasta look easy.
After the sausages were in links, they were hung to dry. The sausages "settle" into the casing, and also change colour. The sausage recipe we made is very flexible. You can cook them as bratwursts of course, but you could also let them dry out in a cool room and in about eight days they'll go from fresh to coated in white (salt) to turning red (cured). You can also cold smoke them (aka Mettwurst) and then cook them or spread it raw on toast (sprinkled with a little bit of onion, mmmm...).
The local JN&Z deli said any time I want sausage casing I can just book ahead, and that if I like they'll make me 50lbs of sausage to whatever recipe I like. I might just take them up on that, especially as I'm not getting a side of pork this fall.
My cousins Anita and Karlheinz from Germany are visiting my parents and so I took the adorable granddaughter to be doted upon and took up Karlheinz's offer of showing me how to make classic German bratwursts (his rendition of them naturally). He'd made a batch before our trip out there last weekend, and they're really awesomely good.
I brought along my KitchenAid stand mixer as it has a stronger motor than my dad's, and after lunch, we set to work.
First is the meat (all pork) - the ratio is 8 parts shoulder to 2 parts belly. If you want slightly moister sausages you can go 7 to 3. You want the meat ground coarsely - I learned that commercial ground meat is actually twice ground, but as a general rule for sausage you just want it run through once.
Then after mixing the secret seasoning recipe (secret = I'm not going to post it) you sprinkle it over the ground meat (we had 6.5kg of it), you knead it. Like bread dough. Aggressive, hard, making sure you mix in all the seasonings well and thoroughly. And you know what - if you want to see how the taste is, to make sure the seasoning is right, you taste it. Raw.
Now, I'm sure lots of people will freak out - but that's because we've been conditioned to avoid raw meat, especially chicken, as if it were radioactive waste. But let me tell you something - it was GOOD. So good in fact, that last week I spread some of the "we ran out of casing" sausage meat straight onto bread. Mmm mmm mmm. It's really no different in any fundamental way from steak tartare.
Once the meat has been worked, it becomes quite firm, very much like bread dough when it's ready. The proteins in meat have the same reaction to the kneading as the glutens in flour.
We let the meat mixture sit for about an hour to let the flavours infuse (that, and we went and had lunch). After lunch, we went down and set up the KitchenAid with all the attachments and got to work.
Slipping sausage casing onto the end of the nozzle where the meat comes out suggests and looks exactly like what you think it might, and no doubt contributes to the notion that those who love the law and sausages should watch neither being made.
Once the casing was ready, you need two people - one to feed the meat into the machine, one to deal with the extrusion of meat into the casing. To process 6.5kg of prepared meat took us about 40-45 minutes. I joked at the start that I would probably get the hang of it about the time we were almost done, and I was right.
It was interesting to me that we did the links only after the casing (about 2m long) was filled. At Dubrulle we made the links as we went along (using artifical collagen casing), but Karlheinz did it after the fact and showed me the easy technique to do it - at least it looked easy, kinda like how an old Italian grandmother makes fresh pasta look easy.
After the sausages were in links, they were hung to dry. The sausages "settle" into the casing, and also change colour. The sausage recipe we made is very flexible. You can cook them as bratwursts of course, but you could also let them dry out in a cool room and in about eight days they'll go from fresh to coated in white (salt) to turning red (cured). You can also cold smoke them (aka Mettwurst) and then cook them or spread it raw on toast (sprinkled with a little bit of onion, mmmm...).
The local JN&Z deli said any time I want sausage casing I can just book ahead, and that if I like they'll make me 50lbs of sausage to whatever recipe I like. I might just take them up on that, especially as I'm not getting a side of pork this fall.
11 September 2007
Nostalgia for Sale - SOLD!
In my last year of high school, I became best friends with "the new kid". Mark's step dad was the manager at CKDA, 1200AM, the local rock station. AM radio was still cool in those days, albums vinyl things you had to flip over half way through and came with covers with cool artwork and liner notes. CD's were on the cusp of becoming mainstream, and mp3's and iPod's weren't even a glimmer in Steve Jobs' eye - heck, he and Wos were still selling Apple IIe's.
One of the perks of being the manager of the local rock station was free concert tickets. One of the perks of being best friends with the son of said manager was getting to go to the concerts with him (until he got a girlfriend, but then that's how these stories go - I still remember her breaking up with him just before Dire Straits was in town the day "Money For Nothing" hit #1 on the charts, so I got to thank her for that ticket).
It was March of 1985, and Mark said "Hey, my dad got me some tickets for the concert this Saturday, wanna go?"
"I guess so. Who's playing?"
"Al Stewart."
"Who's he?"
"I dunno, never heard of him."
"Ok!"
I need to mention that this was the first "real" concert I'd been to - ever. I loved music, had tons of LP's, but I'd never been to a rock concert.
That Saturday, my musical landscape changed. Al and his band totally blew me away - and Mark too for that matter. I didn't stop listening to the bands that I'd always listened to before, but something had definitely changed - an appreciation for the sense of musical craftsmanship was born. It was a musical epiphany, the like of which I did not experience again until I heard the Comedian Harmonists (through the biopic The Harmonists on New Years Eve 1999).
As Fate had it, I was looking on eBay yesterday and I stumbled across ... the promotional poster for that 1985 concert. It was being sold by one of the guys who was on stage that night, Steve Recker.
I bought it. It was obviously meant to be.
09 September 2007
Book it Danno
We've been planning a trip to Europe for a while and we've finally booked our tickets. We used Aeroplan points to do it - 180,000 points and $849 later, we're all set for next April/May.
$849 might sound like a lot, but the regular fare would have been $3187.78. We can spend some of the over $2K savings on good food and wine while we're over there.
$849 might sound like a lot, but the regular fare would have been $3187.78. We can spend some of the over $2K savings on good food and wine while we're over there.
05 September 2007
Pumping Iron
Well, for the past four weeks I've been working on Lisa's "100 program", and today I did 5 rounds of sets of 20, or 100.
Yay me!
So, because it's nerdy, and annoys people who know that it doesn't work that way, I rowed 4,000 lbs, pressed 3,500lbs, and squatted 23,900lbs.
Yay me!
So, because it's nerdy, and annoys people who know that it doesn't work that way, I rowed 4,000 lbs, pressed 3,500lbs, and squatted 23,900lbs.
27 August 2007
The 2007 First Annual Slow Food Cycle Tour
This past Saturday, the Vancouver Slow Food folks organized a cycling version of the Circle Farm Tour in Agassiz.
My darling wife and I packed our car, put the bikes on the rack and after leaving our delightful daughter with her doting grandparents in Chilliwack, arrived at the starting point and were on our bikes by 9:30am.
It was a splendid way to spend the day - we visited the eight sites on the tour and had a pleasant spin through the pretty countryside in Agassiz. It was almost completely flat too. Five hours later, pleasantly sated and with pannier bags full of goodies (mostly fabulous cheese from Farm House Cheese), we headed back to my parent's place.
The finale on the tour was the Valedoorn Farm dairy, the twelfth largest dairy in BC, with 400 cows, half of them milkers, the other half everything from new born calves to pregnant cows. They produce about 14,000 litres of milk a day.
Every cow has an ear tag, and the tags use RFID chips to talk to the milking machines, which in turn provide all manner of data to the farmer; and the daily report gets sent to his Treo.
Three people run the farm, and it's a 24/7 operation. Our "tour guide" told us he's up every day at 4:30 and by the time the last rounds are done, he's up until midnight.
The weather was mostly nice, though we did get caught by a little drizzle, but it was a fun experience. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.
My darling wife and I packed our car, put the bikes on the rack and after leaving our delightful daughter with her doting grandparents in Chilliwack, arrived at the starting point and were on our bikes by 9:30am.
It was a splendid way to spend the day - we visited the eight sites on the tour and had a pleasant spin through the pretty countryside in Agassiz. It was almost completely flat too. Five hours later, pleasantly sated and with pannier bags full of goodies (mostly fabulous cheese from Farm House Cheese), we headed back to my parent's place.
The finale on the tour was the Valedoorn Farm dairy, the twelfth largest dairy in BC, with 400 cows, half of them milkers, the other half everything from new born calves to pregnant cows. They produce about 14,000 litres of milk a day.
Every cow has an ear tag, and the tags use RFID chips to talk to the milking machines, which in turn provide all manner of data to the farmer; and the daily report gets sent to his Treo.
Three people run the farm, and it's a 24/7 operation. Our "tour guide" told us he's up every day at 4:30 and by the time the last rounds are done, he's up until midnight.
The weather was mostly nice, though we did get caught by a little drizzle, but it was a fun experience. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.
18 August 2007
Flatlining
I took this week extra easy. I did go to the Y on Tuesday morning for spin class, but that was mostly to help me recover from the Saturday ride. I'll make up the missing pieces of my 100 workout next week by going every day I'm not doing the spin class.
I took my bike to the shop this morning to repair my broken spoke, which they said would run me about $25.
I took a look at my fitness "spreadsheet" which mostly keeps track of my weight and after 27 weeks, the graph looks pretty flat. It's down from where I started, but to misuse an analogy, if it were a stock in my portfolio I'd sell it for under performing.
Of course, all the good food and beer and wine I've been drinking can't possibly be contributing to my lack of weight loss progress *koff*koff*. Ironically, it's not escaped my attention that in the past, when I've taken weight off, it's been in the fall or winter, when summer's party's, my summer preference for beer, my love of ice cream, and so on, are much more easy to forgo.
Oh well. As a good friend of mine says, fit comes in all shapes and sizes - and a good thing that's true.
I took my bike to the shop this morning to repair my broken spoke, which they said would run me about $25.
I took a look at my fitness "spreadsheet" which mostly keeps track of my weight and after 27 weeks, the graph looks pretty flat. It's down from where I started, but to misuse an analogy, if it were a stock in my portfolio I'd sell it for under performing.
Of course, all the good food and beer and wine I've been drinking can't possibly be contributing to my lack of weight loss progress *koff*koff*. Ironically, it's not escaped my attention that in the past, when I've taken weight off, it's been in the fall or winter, when summer's party's, my summer preference for beer, my love of ice cream, and so on, are much more easy to forgo.
Oh well. As a good friend of mine says, fit comes in all shapes and sizes - and a good thing that's true.
12 August 2007
The 2007 MS Vancouver Scenic City Bike Tour
For the second year in a row, I signed up for the MS Bike Tour here in Vancouver. They changed the route from last year, no doubt in part because of the mess that Stanley Park is still in, so instead of 60km it was 65km. It was also a LOT of hills. A lot of them. Fortunately, on the whole, they were not as nasty as the steep monster down Slocan.
For the record: 3h 13m to do the ride this year, and my heart rate monitor claims I burned 3,102 calories. I didn't eat that many calories at the best event bbq ever after the race, which is put on by the Terminal City Club.
My company's team came in 2nd for overall fund raising, at a little over $6,000, of which $2,188 was me (not including the extra amount everyone on the team received for group activities like the 50-50 draw we ran last week). If I were a "team", I would have come in 7th.
My darling wife and beautiful daughter were on hand at the finish line, and my daughter rode her tricycle alongside me through the finish line, wearing the "Club 1000" cycling jersey I received for my fund raising effort. She looked really cute and many photos were taken.
I'm definitely signing up again next year. :-)
For the record: 3h 13m to do the ride this year, and my heart rate monitor claims I burned 3,102 calories. I didn't eat that many calories at the best event bbq ever after the race, which is put on by the Terminal City Club.
My company's team came in 2nd for overall fund raising, at a little over $6,000, of which $2,188 was me (not including the extra amount everyone on the team received for group activities like the 50-50 draw we ran last week). If I were a "team", I would have come in 7th.
My darling wife and beautiful daughter were on hand at the finish line, and my daughter rode her tricycle alongside me through the finish line, wearing the "Club 1000" cycling jersey I received for my fund raising effort. She looked really cute and many photos were taken.
I'm definitely signing up again next year. :-)
20 July 2007
The 100 Plan
Today's personal training session with Lisa featured two things. One, that she's taking the month of August off, and two, since it'll be about five weeks before I see her next, that I get to do the "100 Plan".
The 100 plan is deviously good. You start small and work your way up. To wit, my new regime is:
Each week, add 2 repetitions to each individual exercise (i.e. 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). By the last week in August, I'll be doing five rounds of 20 each, or 100 of each per workout.
Scary. Cool. Very cool.
The 100 plan is deviously good. You start small and work your way up. To wit, my new regime is:
- 10 standing bent over rows
- 10 ab crunches on the exercise ball
- 10 chest presses on the bench
- 10 squats on the leg squat machine
Each week, add 2 repetitions to each individual exercise (i.e. 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). By the last week in August, I'll be doing five rounds of 20 each, or 100 of each per workout.
Scary. Cool. Very cool.
16 July 2007
The 2007 Vancouver Folk Music Festival
After a week of being on the Sunshine Coast on a lovely vacation, we returned just in time to spend Saturday and Sunday at the Vancouver International Folk Festival.
The Saturday was amazingly hot and I managed not to get burned, but I sure did get a lot of colour... Sunday was nicely overcast and being right by the water, it was lovely and cool.
I have to freely admit that while I always have a good time at the Folk Fest, pretty much none of the artists at the show are on my normal music radar. The music they play there is the kind that is really enjoyable live, especially when two or three different bands/artists are in a collaboratory set and jam together, but for the most part doesn't really translate well as something you'd listen to at home. In part it's because at a concert venue, you're actively engaged with the artist and the music, but at home music is often relegated to the background.
My wife had a lovely definition for folk music, that goes something like this: folk music is music that is consumed by the people who create it. It's a lovely definition that works on several levels.
I was talking to one of my good friends who has been volunteering at the Folk Fest for over a decade now about how the festival runs and learned some interesting things. For instance, the festival does not pay its performers (one of the few if not only major festivals in North America to do so), and as such, they usually don't know until about May what the final lineup will be. Hence why, unlike say Mission or other festivals, they don't post the schedule/lineup until June. Of course, the few "big name" groups/artists are usually booked as much as a year in advance, but until the whole lineup is known, the schedule can't be published.
Anyways, to cut to the chase, I had a lot of fun at the festival this year, and we bought three CDs:
The Saturday was amazingly hot and I managed not to get burned, but I sure did get a lot of colour... Sunday was nicely overcast and being right by the water, it was lovely and cool.
I have to freely admit that while I always have a good time at the Folk Fest, pretty much none of the artists at the show are on my normal music radar. The music they play there is the kind that is really enjoyable live, especially when two or three different bands/artists are in a collaboratory set and jam together, but for the most part doesn't really translate well as something you'd listen to at home. In part it's because at a concert venue, you're actively engaged with the artist and the music, but at home music is often relegated to the background.
My wife had a lovely definition for folk music, that goes something like this: folk music is music that is consumed by the people who create it. It's a lovely definition that works on several levels.
I was talking to one of my good friends who has been volunteering at the Folk Fest for over a decade now about how the festival runs and learned some interesting things. For instance, the festival does not pay its performers (one of the few if not only major festivals in North America to do so), and as such, they usually don't know until about May what the final lineup will be. Hence why, unlike say Mission or other festivals, they don't post the schedule/lineup until June. Of course, the few "big name" groups/artists are usually booked as much as a year in advance, but until the whole lineup is known, the schedule can't be published.
Anyways, to cut to the chase, I had a lot of fun at the festival this year, and we bought three CDs:
- The Carolina Chocolate Drops: old time music from North Carolina. Fiddle, banjo, percussion, and very fun.
- Tapia eta Leturia: a Basque ensemble encompassing accordion, fiddle, keyboard, and tambourine. The tambourine player is unnatural - I've never heard or seen it played like that before. Has to be seen to be believed.
- Ndidi Onukwulu: This fine Torontonian has an amazing voice and an incredibly fun stage presence. She spans all manner of genres, and has endless energy.
05 July 2007
Progress
My personal trainer has been working with me for about four months now - we meet every three weeks or so, which has felt like the right amount of time. She refreshes my workout plan, and then I execute the plan just long enough to feel comfortable with it and ... I do something else.
So what's the prognosis so far?
Pretty good I have to say. When I started, I was doing an indoor cycling class twice a week. Now I'm still doing that but adding two Lisa-designed workouts, and now that the weather is finally nice, I'm cycling once a week - if only to prepare for the 60km Ride for MS in mid-August.
So let's see... in four months I have...
However, onward and upward - all progress is good! It's summer and fresh fruit and veggies about, and I'm getting enough sleep and sunshine to get me to the gym four times a week, and that's all very positive for me indeed.
My current workout, for anyone interested is...
I'm looking forward to what Lisa has planned for me next time.
So what's the prognosis so far?
Pretty good I have to say. When I started, I was doing an indoor cycling class twice a week. Now I'm still doing that but adding two Lisa-designed workouts, and now that the weather is finally nice, I'm cycling once a week - if only to prepare for the 60km Ride for MS in mid-August.
So let's see... in four months I have...
- distinctly improved my overall fitness level.
- distinctly improved my posture.
- strengthened my back and abs (those core muscles you always hear about).
- almost doubled the weight I can lift/push/press/pull around the weight room.
However, onward and upward - all progress is good! It's summer and fresh fruit and veggies about, and I'm getting enough sleep and sunshine to get me to the gym four times a week, and that's all very positive for me indeed.
My current workout, for anyone interested is...
- Three sets of 8 each on the rowing, chest press, and hamstring curl machines.
- Three sets of 12 each lunges with weights (front, back, and side), or 108 in all.
- Between all of those, in sets of three to coincide with above, crunches and obliques working out to about 115 crunches and 120 obliques all told.
I'm looking forward to what Lisa has planned for me next time.
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