A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
by A.J. Coltrane
Somebody tell me how I missed this one:
Seattle Pinball Museum. $10 all-you-can-play in the I.D.
There was even a Seattle Times piece written about it two years ago.
I couldn’t find their homepage. They do have that facebook page though.
And they got a walkthrough on youtube:
That walkthrough led me to another arcade I didn’t know existed. Dorky’s Barcade in Tacoma:
Do I hear…. Roadtrip!!!
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
There are issues with the zucchini, and I think there is more than just one thing wrong with them. The symptoms:
1. The patty-pan leaves are more yellow overall than it had been. (It was never as dark as the cucumbers or the cocozelle.)
2. The cocozelle has fruits that are rotting from the blossom end. I cut off four bad fruit yesterday.
3. Sometime in the last week white mold appeared on the cocozelle.
Which is kind of strange, because the cocozelle has produced seven pounds of fruit in the last few days. I thought it was ramping up for the summer.
My totally stab-in-the-dark diagnosis is that the fruits are experiencing blossom end rot caused by a calcium deficiency. (Which I’m pretty sure is correct after looking around the interwebs.) I’m also of the suspicion that the plants need fertilizer. I dosed the feed tube with a 14-14-14 granular fertilizer and calcium nitrate last night. In retrospect, that’s a double dose of nitrogen, which will be either good, bad, or indifferent, but, why not? I also pruned the heck out of the two plants, removing all of the really yellow leaves, as well as the most beat-up older leaves and the leaves with a lot of mold. The intent is to let more air and sunlight in, and to try to make it so that all leaves are getting more optimal use. Finally, I sprayed the plants with an organic mold inhibitor. The aftermath:
Zucchini from the back:
Onto “sunnier things”.
By Iron Chef Leftovers
It is a gutsy move in the Northwest to put out a beer style that you don’t normally see and it is even gutsier to put that style out in a cask, but that is exactly what the guys from Reuben’s did with their Auld Heritage Ale. Auld or Old ale is defined as follows (from Wikipedia):
Old ale is a term commonly applied to dark, malty beers in England, generally above 5% abv, also to dark ales of any strength in Australia. Sometimes associated with stock ale or, archaically, keeping ale, in which the beer is held at the brewery.
Reuben’s version clocked in at 8.7% alcohol and 58 IBU; not exactly a small beer.
Auld Heritage is mahogany brown in color. There is lots of malt and caramel on the nose with hints of toffee. The beer builds slowly as you drink it, starting off with little fanfare before showing lots of toffee then transitioning into burnt sugar and caramel before finishing off with a slightly alcoholic and sweet with notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit. The finish is long – several minutes after taking a sip, you still get light notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit, and it is not a bad thing. The beer is like enjoying a nice toffee or hard candy and the caramel notes made me thing of eating a confection and wanted a sprinkle of sea salt (salted caramel is one of my favorite flavor). For a moderately IBU beer, any of the hop character is lots in the deep flavors, but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.
If you are an advanced drinker or just someone who wants to try a new style of beer, you should head down to Reuben’s to have an Auld Heritage when it is on their tap list, and doubly so if they have it on cask. Because of its alcohol and deep flavors, it is a heavy beer and not one that everyone is going to enjoy, but it is different than most Northwest beers and you should at least give it a taste.
Reuben’s Brews Auld Heritage crosses the pond and collects 4 family heirlooms out of 5.
By Iron Chef Leftovers
It is a gutsy move in the Northwest to put out a beer style that you don’t normally see and it is even gutsier to put that style out in a cask, but that is exactly what the guys from Reuben’s did with their Auld Heritage Ale. Auld or Old ale is defined as follows (from Wikipedia):
Old ale is a term commonly applied to dark, malty beers in England, generally above 5% abv, also to dark ales of any strength in Australia. Sometimes associated with stock ale or, archaically, keeping ale, in which the beer is held at the brewery.
Reuben’s version clocked in at 8.7% alcohol and 58 IBU; not exactly a small beer.
Auld Heritage is mahogany brown in color. There is lots of malt and caramel on the nose with hints of toffee. The beer builds slowly as you drink it, starting off with little fanfare before showing lots of toffee then transitioning into burnt sugar and caramel before finishing off with a slightly alcoholic and sweet with notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit. The finish is long – several minutes after taking a sip, you still get light notes of toffee, caramel and dried fruit, and it is not a bad thing. The beer is like enjoying a nice toffee or hard candy and the caramel notes made me thing of eating a confection and wanted a sprinkle of sea salt (salted caramel is one of my favorite flavor). For a moderately IBU beer, any of the hop character is lots in the deep flavors, but I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.
If you are an advanced drinker or just someone who wants to try a new style of beer, you should head down to Reuben’s to have an Auld Heritage when it is on their tap list, and doubly so if they have it on cask. Because of its alcohol and deep flavors, it is a heavy beer and not one that everyone is going to enjoy, but it is different than most Northwest beers and you should at least give it a taste.
Reuben’s Brews Auld Heritage crosses the pond and collects 4 family heirlooms out of 5.
By Blaidd Drwg
On July 7th, the Hillsboro Hops and Vancouver Canadians played a single game double header plus, going 19 innings in just a hair under 5 and a half hours. You can view the box score here.
The most interesting thing in the game, as told by Rich Burk’s Blog:
Hops outfielders recorded only two putouts in the 19 innings, both by center fielder Taylor Ratliff. Left fielder Jordan Parr fielded four Vancouver base hits, and Ratliff fielded two (their only other hit was a bunt single). Hops right fielder Zach Esquerra never touched the ball in 19 innings.
Amazing that in a game where the opponents had 70 plate appearances, the right fielder did not touch an in-play ball a single time in 19 innings. Just amazing.
by A.J. Coltrane
First James Harden wouldn’t take a steep discount to stay in OKC. So OKC downgraded to Kevin Martin. Now Martin has decided not to stay at a discounted rate either, opting to sign with Minnesota(!) instead. As a Plan “C” the Thunder then pursued free agent and super long wing guy Dorrell Wright, but he signed with Portland for 2 years and $6 million, total. Now, they’re basically out of answers.
OKC can’t, or won’t, make room under the salary cap for a 20-minute per game decent rotation player in Wright. The Thunder could amnesty (waive) Kendrick Perkins’ ~$9 million in an attempt to create cap space for guys like Martin and Wright — but they won’t because they’d still have to pay Perkins *not* to play for them, and the ownership group has made it clear that they’re not going to shell out funds beyond the standard salary cap. They’re stuck with Perkins two more years.
The upshot is that the Thunder are going to have to rely on 21 year-old Jeremy Lamb to play some important playoff minutes. Lamb played mostly in the D-League last year, and he only saw 147 minutes of action at the NBA level. Is he ready to contribute to a championship contender? The word is, he’s looked good in the D-League, but I’d say being a key cog for OKC is likely a stretch.
The interesting part of this to me is that nobody has been willing to sign with OKC for a discount, even though they’re a championship contender. LA? Sure. Houston? Ok. Miami? You bet! Usually championship contention will buy you veterans looking for a ring at a cheap price. Not in this case. There’s not much help coming from the roster, either. Many fringe championship teams will draft experienced college guys who can contribute right away. See: Spurs – DeJaun Blair, and, Celtics – Big Baby Davis. The Thunder have chosen to go with high upside raw prospects (Perry Jones III, D-Leager/benchwarmer). Their guys are not currently functional rotation players.
Remember all the articles that talked about how the Thunder players were a tight-knit group, and that they’d hang out together and watch movies and such. You know why they did that? I’m betting it’s not because they really dug each other’s company. It’s because there’s nothing else to do in OKC! It’s movie night every night! And again. And again! I wonder if Durant’s new wife is into movie night, or if they’re going to start doing “couples stuff” instead. Maybe she’ll finally be the one to “break up the band”, if it hasn’t already broken up.
And This: Durant now has Jay-Z as an agent. Jay-Z also owns part of the Nets. Is there any chance that Jay-Z is trying to sell Durant on Brooklyn? I think Durant’s wife would prefer Brooklyn. I think any potential “I want to try to win a ring” veterans would prefer Brooklyn. I think the ridiculously weathly owner in Brooklyn will spend around the edges for those types of spare parts. Brooklyn has Garnett and Pierce, but they’ll be retiring, and taking their salaries with them at about the time that Durant comes onto the market. Durant would instantly become A Legend in Brooklyn.
I have no idea how irritated I’d be right now if this franchise was still here.
Actually, I do. I’d be livid.
——————
…and now for something completely different…a beer review in the style of a fairy tale.
One day Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks was wandering through the concrete forest of Ballard and he stumbled upon a small brewery on a path called NW 49th street. Curious, he stopped in to find a friendly looking barkeep pouring 3 different porters, all infused with fruit. Thirsty from his long walk, Iron Chef Leftoversly-locks decided to taste all 3 beers.
First, he tried the Populuxe Raspberry Brown Porter. There were strong notes of raspberry with hints of chocolate on the nose when he smelled the beer. Upon tasting it, he noticed slightly tart raspberry that lingered for a long time before joining up with lots of chocolate flavors in a very long finish that kept going and going. Our hero thought “this beer reminds me of eating a raspberry filled chocolate and it was really tasty. I declare this beer received 3 ‘this porridge is too hot’s’ out of 5.”
Next, the friendly barkeep poured Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks a Sour Cherry Brown Porter. Our hero took a whiff of the brew and noticed mild notes of cherry and chocolate, reminding him of chocolate covered cherries. He took a swig and noticed the beer was chocolate forward, with an almost milk chocolate like characteristic, before it moved on to a long cherry finish with a light tartness to balance the light sweetness of the malt. He thought to himself “the finish on this beer reminds me of eating fresh cherries with all of the juice. I can almost picture myself eating a handful of cherries and a chocolate bar while drinking this beer. I give this beer a 4 ‘this porridge is too cold’s’ out of 5.”
Finally, the friendly barkeep poured out hero a Roasted Plum Brown Porter. “Roasted plum?” Iron Chef queried. “It is a traditional Czech jam of caramelized plums that were used in the beer,” the friendly barkeep replied. Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks raised the glass to his nose and notices very light notes of plum and caramel with overtones of chocolate and malt in the foreground. Upon sipping the beer, he noticed light notes of sugar with hints of dark caramel in the foreground before moving on to light notes of chocolate and malt before finishing with a slightly sweet jam taste that lingered at the back of the palate. As the beer warmed slightly and more was consumed, our hero began to notice notes of dried fruit, raisins and plums becoming more noticeable throughout the beer, in a very subtle and pleasant way, complimenting the chocolate notes. Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks declared “this beer is subtle and delicious, with lots of character without being overpowering. I will rate this beer 5 ‘this porridge is just right’s out of 5.”
Just then Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks wife came through the door, Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks ordered a Plum Porter and a Blond (for Mrs. Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks) from the friendly barkeep and they went outside to drink their beers in the warm Seattle summer evening.
The End.
Roll Credits…
The Actors:
Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks……….. Iron Chef Leftovers
Mrs. Iron Chef Leftoversy-locks……… Mrs. Iron Chef Leftovers
The Friendly Barkeep………Jiri Zatloukal
Cast of Thousands……… Peter Charbonnier, Amy Besunder, Judy Scarcia
Prince Charming………Johnny Depp
Four Headed Alien………Betty White
And introducing………… Populuxe Brown Porter as Raspberry Brown Porter, Sour Cherry Brown Porter and Roasted Plum Brown Porter
This has been a cheapseateats.com production in association with Populuxe entertainment.
No animals were harmed in the making of this production, but there were a couple of cute standard poodle puppies on set. Plenty of beers were consumed however.
Editor’s note: All 3 beers were based on the same Brown Porter with the fruit added at the very end of the process. These beers were only done in 5 gallon batches, so watch Populuxe’s Facebook page to see when they are on tap.
By Blaidd Drwg
Jeremy Bonderman is a nice story this season because he is coming back from about a dozen surgeries. That story is now unfortunatly finished as the M’s DFA’ed him today and called up Lucas Luetge.
The M’s need a starter for Thursday. My guess is that they will call up Erasmo Ramirez for the rotation slot. You can bet that if it is Taijuan Walker, Blaidd Drwg will be playing hookey to go to the game.
By Blaidd Drwg
Jeremy Bonderman is a nice story this season because he is coming back from about a dozen surgeries. That story is now unfortunatly finished as the M’s DFA’ed him today and called up Lucas Luetge.
The M’s need a starter for Thursday. My guess is that they will call up Erasmo Ramirez for the rotation slot. You can bet that if it is Taijuan Walker, Blaidd Drwg will be playing hookey to go to the game.
by A.J. Coltrane
Previous post here.
Midweek part of the cocozelle zucchini plant broke most of the way off:
So this mass was cut off, including two pounds of small zucchini:
FlatbreadGarden 