Carnage du Jour - 25 June 2011

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

You know, crock pots are wonderful things.
We had some spectacular pulled pork a week ago or so, made simply in the crock pot with a pork butt cooking down low and slow to tasty perfection.
Now, when there were some lamb chops to use up, a little light went on in my head.

Why not pulled lamb?
Why not indeed.

So, four chops nestled close together in a dry crock pot on high for a bit. The seasoning was simply salt and pepper on each side. A trip to the herbs growing on the back porch yielded some gorgeous rosemary - four large sprigs were dropped on top of the chops.
After they had gotten a bit of colour (and the kitchen began to smell wonderful), I flipped the chops and added a bit of braising liquid - in this case, some coffee - and dropped the temp to low.

Several hours later, the meat was falling off the bones (as expected) and shredded with a spoon, so that seemed like enough cooking. That was fortunate, as it was now time to eat.

Some nice whole wheat buns were loaded with the pulled lamb, which was enhanced with a bit of crumbled feta cheese, just because it's so good, and we tucked in to a most enjoyable sandwich.
On the side we had some beautiful ears of corn which had cooked in a bath of water with salt and sugar and some powdered chipotle.  All in all, an excellent meal - one I wouldn't mind repeating.

Carnage du Jour - 23 June 2011

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

It's a nice problem to have: what to do with extra filets? (Yes, as in Mignon.)  Well, with a bit of a nod to Eggs Benedict, we had a very tasty little treat.

Once a batch of Bearnaise sauce was complete, the steaks - which had been cooked on the grill a few days before - were reheated while an English muffin (don't you just love all those nooks and crannies?) toasted.

Straight from the toaster, the muffin halves were slathered with a bit of chipotle cheese, then topped with the steaks.

Into the pan vacated by the steaks went the eggs to be cooked to a perfect over easy, dusted with a bit of marjoram, oregano, and thyme.

The eggs topped the steaks and then were covered with the beautiful Bearnaise.

Slicing into this lovely stack of flavours, we were treated to a perfectly thickened yolk oozing over the rest of the savoury goodness.

Yum, is as good an expression as most, and actually quite apropos.

R.I.P. ReadyMade

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

Thursday 16 June 2011 was a sad day in publishing. Meredith announced that they're shuttering ReadyMade, a very fun, very cool magazine they had only fairly recently purchased.
It had been published since 2001, and was a snazzy part of the Maker movement, giving us all inspirational tips and tricks for ways to use things that otherwise might be dumped in the trash.
The monthly MacGyver challenge - e.g. "what can you do with a shipping pallet?" or "what's the coolest use for old vinyl LPs?" - was a highlight to me, but their extremely active blog was the tops.

A cool magazine that will be missed. One hopes they will find a way to persist online, if not in print.

grr.

Adult Bever-age du Jour

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

This is one solely for those of legal age, but it's good enough I thought I'd share nonetheless.

This is a cocktail called the Privateer:

1. Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice.
2. Drizzle some nice maple syrup over the ice.
3. Fill with dark rum - Gosling's Black Seal 151 is the preferred one here.
4. Enjoy.

I came up with this one quite a while ago, simply based on what was in the house and what seemed like a good idea to mix and drink. It was.

Hard to believe it's been a year

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

and we're still missing Sydney.
One year ago today our good friend Sydney went home to his Lord.


We're missing a good friend, but more importantly:
Dorothy is missing a good husband.
The whole Williams family are missing a good father / grandfather / etc.
- They all still need and appreciate your prayers.
The congregation at the Avenue Church are missing a tireless worker and brother.
Christian Aid and the folks in Africa are missing a helper - a man who raised money and dug wells to help others to have a brighter present and future.

The world is missing a good man, but there is rejoicing in Heaven.

Oh yes, Sydney is missed here and now, but we know we'll see him again.

Triple D Road Trips

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

Back in March, my son was home for a pre-deployment leave and we got to spend some quality time with him.  One of the fun things we did was to revisit a "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" site, as well as adding a new one to his list.

The revisit was to Joe's Gizzard City in Potterville, Michigan.  It's a fun little dive bar with some wicked gizzards and a great battered, deep-fried cheeseburger.  Definitely worth the drive.

The new one (for him, but not for me) was a visit to Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger in Ann Arbor. Once again, a fun dive kind of place with excellent food and atmosphere.  Again well worth the drive.

Christian has been a Triple D fan for quite a while, to the extent of having an autographed copy of Guy Fieri's first cookbook from the show.

OK, the food was good, but the long drives where we could talk - about the places we were going, about the places he would be going, about random nonsense, about nothing - those long drives were the best part.  Not even a fully battered and deep-fried bacon cheeseburger could compete, and that's saying something.

So, next time you're looking for an excuse to drive and talk - and wouldn't mind a fun meal half-way through the driving part - give one of these a try.  Both are highly recommended.

Kindles, Books, and Reading in General

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

First off, let me disclose that I haven't actually taken the plunge into ebooks, ibooks, epubs, and the like so far.
I really like having a book in my hands when I read, and being able to leave different books in different places where each will be read in turn.

In my best "why would I ever want that instead of the way I already know how to do it," mode, I largely dismissed the Kindle and its ilk. This past Christmas, I did do some investigating, mostly as a means to make sure the gifts being contemplated were not unreasonable - they weren't.

There are now three Kindles in the family, and as far as I can tell, there is so much more reading going on now than there had been - and more than I would ever have guessed - that my pseudo-Luddite recalcitrance has been shaken and my interest stirred.

When my son says he's trying to figure out what to read next when he finishes the last of a series of books he's been reading; and that he's wondering whether to go to something new, or to reread the Iliad or the Odyssey, well, the world's turned upside down, and time is out of joint, or something.

I said - aloud, not just to myself - that with all that reading going on, I might have to change my opinion on this whole Kindle thing, and I may be doing exactly that.

Yes, I may be doing exactly that, but I'd appreciate feedback from folks with experience with these devices. What do you love? What do you hate? Et cetera? Kindle? Nook? Kobo? Sony?