A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
by A.J. Coltrane
Link to the 2011 (brief) post on the same subject. It includes a video of the wrestling. Schwingfest is wrestling meets alchohol meets dancing. In no particular order. And a day-long playlist of polka-ish music.
I find the Swiss music to be fairly monochromatic to the point where it becomes almost hypnotic after a few hours. It’s just there because it always is, and always will be.
Continue reading “Schwingfest 2013 at Swiss Sportsmen's Club In Bonney Lake”
by A.J. Coltrane
Link to the 2011 (brief) post on the same subject. It includes a video of the wrestling. Schwingfest is wrestling meets alchohol meets dancing. In no particular order. And a day-long playlist of polka-ish music.
I find the Swiss music to be fairly monochromatic to the point where it becomes almost hypnotic after a few hours. It’s just there because it always is, and always will be.
Continue reading “Schwingfest 2013 at Swiss Sportsmen’s Club In Bonney Lake”
By Iron Chef Leftovers
about the love of ravioli…but I still wouldn’t get the tattoo.
From Pearls Before Swine on 7/18.
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
I tried for some photos that were a little bit different this time. At the very least, there are some pictures of ripening fruits.
The sweet peppers are starting to ripen:
The bunch onions and marigolds. Bugs stay away from this box:
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Finally the last of the Stone Collaboration Beer reviews. This one had been hiding in my notebook, so that is why I missed it. I love stout, I love cherries and I love chocolate and when you put them together well, it can be an out of body experience. Stone got together with Troegs brewing out of Pennsylvania and a couple of San Diego home brewers, Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard, to produce this beer. From the Stone website:
The rich, smooth stout was brewed in late April, with a blend of dark-roasted specialty malts, Callebaut chocolate liquor, vanilla beans, and 9000 pounds of dark and tart cherries. “Seeing how much the recipe was blown up to brew it on this system is amazing,” Jason chimes in. “And getting to work with everybody… it’s been so cool.”
Single 12-oz bottles
Available in: AK AZ CA CO DE FL IL KY MA MD MN NC NJ NM NY OH OR PA SC TX VA VT WA
7.3% abv, 37 IBUs
2448 cases produced
I paid $4.99 for my 12oz. bottle.
The beer pours jet black with a mahogany head. Copious amounts of roasted malt on the nose with hints of cocoa nibs and a very small amount of cherries if you go looking for them. The beer starts out slightly sweet before quickly transitioning to the roasted malt and finishes long with hints of cherries during the fade. As you make it further into the beer, the cherries become more pronounced and the roast is replaced by a pleasant milk chocolate finish – it reminded me of a Theo Chocolates cherries and almond bar and I was looking for the roasted almonds when I was drinking it.
This beer was fantastic and I really wish that they would brew it again.
I cannot tell a lie, the Stone Collaboration Cherry Chocolate Stout coms in swinging a 5 Cherry Trees out of 5.
By Blaidd Drwg
In a league where you have Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, would you consider Alex Smith the best QB in the league?
Well apparently Chief’s Offensive Coordinator Doug Pederson does:
“Ultimately, every team has to have a quarterback,” Pederson told The Kansas City Star. “I think we have the best in the league.”
…
“There are a lot of great ones, but over time, Alex has proven he can get it done,” Pederson told the newspaper. “He’s a sharp guy, he brings a wealth of knowledge, he’s experienced, he’s a proven winner the last couple of years, and he needs a team to embrace him.”
Alex Smith has proven he can “get it done”? Really? The same Alex Smith who has only two seasons in 8 years in the league where he started more than 10 games? The same Alex Smith who proved so inept at running an offense earlier in his career that he has managed to compile a 38-36-1 career record? The same Alex Smith who last season couldn’t win back his job after he got hurt from a guy whom, up until that point had thrown 14 passes in the NFL?
Must be a different Alex Smith we are talking about.
The whole story is here on ESPN.com.
by A.J. Coltrane
At least I think it was chevre. I didn’t look that closely at the package.
Basil, chevre, salt, and olive oil got buzzed in the food processor while the Glacier tomatoes roasted.
and
The basil and tomatoes were taken from the Earthboxes. The dough was the standard “pizza dough” recipe. I didn’t milk the goat or anything, but it’s about as close as I can get to totally homemade.
Continue reading “Grilled Flatbread with Basil, Tomato, and Chevre”
by A.J. Coltrane
Clint Dempsey! And I couldn’t be happier about it! The Sounders inked the #1 or #1a USMT player for the rest of this season and three years beyond it.
Grant Wahl, on how the deal got done:
…He was up for coming back to MLS, but the only teams he was interested in playing for were Seattle, Los Angeles and Toronto. What’s more, Dempsey’s side was asking for a huge financial commitment: $40 million at first. According to a source with intimate knowledge of the deal, Seattle countered with a first offer of $30 million — $20 million of its own money and $10 million from the league — including the transfer fee to Tottenham.
Los Angeles and Toronto were also interested in ponying up for Dempsey, multiple sources said, but Toronto (which is working on its own Designated Player deals) accepted that it was better for the league if Dempsey were playing in a U.S. city. Moreover, Los Angeles is expected to announce soon that it has filled its maximum three DP slots with the extension of Omar González’s contract.
“I think it was important that [Dempsey] ended up … how do I say this politely? … not in Los Angeles,” said Roth. “Because from a perception standpoint it would make MLS look essentially like a one-team league when it came to important international players. The Red Bulls are probably in there as well. But if not us, who? We double the attendance of everybody else [in MLS]. We’re in the top 25 in the world in attendance. I had promised the team if there was an available star player we would get him, and I thought he was a perfect match for Seattle.”
From July 18 to July 20, Seattle’s owners put together their best possible offer, and with Durbin handling the negotiations a deal took shape that involved a total commitment of $33 million. The transfer fee for Tottenham would end up being $9 million, and Dempsey’s three-and-a-half year playing contract with Seattle would end up paying him a total of $24 million — or $6.86 million per year, breaking David Beckham’s MLS record salary of $6.5 million. (Keep in mind that Beckham also earned a percentage of ticket and jersey sales.)
Pretty awesome. Dempsey is my favorite U.S. player. He’s 30, so the Sounders get his late prime plus additional tread left on the tires. As of today, he’s the probably the best player in the league.
The Sounders offense is going to be scaaaarrrry! Dempsey and Eddie Johnson supported by Obafemi Martins, Lamar Neagle, Brad Evans, Mauro Rosales, Steve Zakuani, Osvaldo Alonzo… that’s a ton of talent.
I’ll say it again! Awesome!
By Iron Chef Leftovers
Eric Ripert recently had Wylie Dufresne on his web series. In addition to a new way of poaching an egg, Dufresne shares his thoughts on why he became interested in Modernist Cooking. I am surprised that his reasons and my reasons are very similar and I could have very easily been Wylie had I made different choices. The best part of the description starts at about the 5:30 mark, but the entire episode is worth watching.
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
We’ve now harvested almost 30 pounds of assorted veg since early June. Last week was a large amount of basil:
It took a while to clean all of that basil from the stems. Here’s what the plants looked like right afterward.
And this week. The current state of the basil plants:
FlatbreadGarden 