For anyone who might fall off the list in error, feel free to contact me on this site. Or, for people who just want to stay in touch for social networking or business purposes, try these:

My LinkedIn Profile

Follow me on Twitter

There are different levels of friendship, and I think people are often more concerned with numbers than quality on Facebook. If you’re big into numbers, I think we’ll get along great on Twitter. In addition, I really value my business contacts and want to see you over on LinkedIn. Nothing personal, I’m just keeping it real. I’m finding the right places for the right faces.

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I’m thrilled to have a camera again! After several follies, I received a replacement from Best Buy for the camera I lost to unknown circumstances a few months back. I still have to eat, so it’s not as though I haven’t been cooking. But I don’t feel great about publishing any recipes without a visual to accompany it.

In celebration of the occasion, I decided to make a simple, elegant and delicious meal. When I think simple luxury, Filet Mignon is never far from my imagination. Here’s a quick and easy recipe.

Ingredients

Beef Tenderloin Filet
Sea Salt
Fresh Ground Pepper
dash Cayenne Pepper

Trumpet Mushrooms

1 4oz package (about 6-7) Trumpet Mushrooms
2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup milk or cream
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Sage
2 tsp lemon juice
salt
pepper
cayenne

Cover a cookie sheet with foil. Top with your Filet(s). Season both sides with salt, pepper, and (lightly) cayenne. Preheat oven to Broil or get your grill going nice and hot.

Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet until hot. Add mushrooms and turn until browned on all sides. Add Worcestershire, stir to coat. Pour excess liquid over your Filet(s).

Reduce heat on your mushrooms. Add milk/cream and broth, and stir gently until combined. As this sauce reduces, continue to turn mushrooms individually with tongs so they remain firm, cook evenly, and don’t break up from overly zealous stirring. This will take about 25-30 minutes. As the sauce thickens, add sage and stir around and over the mushrooms.

Place the Filet tray into the oven or onto the grill. For medium rare (on the rare side), I cook 1-2 minutes per side to sear and a total of 6-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a minimum of 5 minutes before serving.

Plate the Filet(s). Adorn with a couple mushroom, and ladle the sauce over all. Grind a little fresh pepper over the top and provide salt at the table. Perfection! I served mine with a vinaigrette of roasted green beans and slivered carrot, plus a scoop of brown rice tossed with steamed leeks and roasted garlic. If you went cream instead of milk, you might as well toss some butter in there. I learned to resist.

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I have a DDMWorks Racing Backbone in the mail installed, to stiffen the chassis over the drive shaft/exhaust tunnel. Being a convertible, the car has an inherent flex that this will eliminate. Basically it’s another 5 lbs. of metal to compensate for not having steel up overhead like normal tops would have.

I upgraded one of the intercooler pipes and I’m working on installing the second. I have an AEM Methanol injection system that is mounted and ready to install–cooler temperatures, advanced timing, and it’s basically like running 115 octane all the time.

I dropped my car at the shop to have my Solo Performancecatless downpipe installed. They called and refused to install it, so now I’m out a fair amount of time. They claimed they can’t install it. I made one call and have another place which will. The new place probably won’t try to sell me their own part, instead of the superior product I already had when I delivered it for install–unbelievable!

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• Zero Percent Financing, or How I Ended up with Another New Solstice
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• Moving to a Faster Tune
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• A nice long trip to the Bahamas – highlights:
  • Snorkeling – Guana Cay, Pete’s Reef, Mermaid’s Reef, Sandy Cay
  • Dolphin fishing
  • Lighthouse Hike
  • Blue Hole Hike
  • Cave Hunting
  • Bi-Annual Buccaneer’s Bandana Cook-off
  • Nipper’s Wild Pig Roast
  • Hopetown Golf Carts and Bar Hops
  • 2 Locals Nights at Pete’s Pub
  • Bronze casting at the Johnston Foundry
  • Tour of Pete’s Gallery
• Lost one and broken two cameras
• Winter’s over, back to cooking healthy
• Picked up an iPod touch
• Started and finished a one page website for a client
• Met and outlined projects with two clients (pending)
• Have continued working on a client project that is 60-70% complete
• Purchased 3 new domains
• Went camping twice
• Got Snoop a Grinch harness so he can pull me on my bike
• Guitar Hero drumset
• Finished up Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes
• Went to Star Trek, Wolverine, The Soloist

The iPod touch is only a phone away from being amazing. I probably won’t travel without one of these again. Between e-books, movies, music and games, the trip goes by quickly. Once I’ve arrived at my destination access to email, web, and IM are about all I need. The location-based service apps are just icing on the cake.

The camera curse really holds me back from posting. I make food all the time, for instance, but if I can’t post a picture of it I just stave off writing it down as I’d have to do it all again for the photo opportunity. I’m deciding now whether to get an HD camcorder or another $100 semi-disposable. With my luck in photo gear, I should probably avoid upping the ante, but we’ll see…

I have a few recipes which I do have pictures for that I intend to post soon. I’ll post more news about the domains and what I have planned for them when I get a little bit closer to finishing all my outstanding client projects.

Camping in March was very cold, icy even. Went again recently and it was perfect. I took the tent down to the Bahamas, but the accommodations were too inviting to pass up. I ended up sleeping the indoor experience and outside all the rest of the time.

New camping gear:

• Marmot Trestles Trails Sleeping Bag: Synthetic
• MSR Ground Hog Stake Kit
• Eureka Solo Spitfire Tent
• Mens Vibram FiveFinger KSO

Ciao,
-Dan

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Last but not least I applied several coats of Zaino polish. It’s a polymer finish that really smooths out swirls and gives a surprisingly 3D sheen to it. It seems a little pricey, but you actually apply very little of the product and it is reported to last between 6 and 9 months. The really great part is that it actually layers once dry, so you can do 2 or 3 coats, and actually make an additional impact (unlike wax). Great stuff, very pleased by it.

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