Check it out.

At the end of April I’ll return to California, TIBCO, the wonderful world of SOA, and everything else.

I started this blog about a year ago. Initially, I just wanted a place to stick things so I’d be able to share them with friends and so I’d be able to find those things again later. From there, I started posting longer articles on products and services that I was really happy with. In December, at work, we launched TIBCO ActiveMatrix and I wrote about that a few times. Slowly, folks found my site and the traffic grew to about 70 unique visitors per day and 50 feed subscribers. Co-workers found the site and people started to mention it when I ran into them in the hallways.

With all this attention, I took a look at my site. Frankly, I was a little embarrassed. The site was painfully slow, the design was awful, and the content was all over the place. Looking around at some of the other sites out there, I had some ideas. I didn’t have the time or knowledge to do what I really wanted, but I did manage to improve things. The major changes include:

• faster web host
• latest version of Wordpress
• new site design
• separation of content into “sub-blogs”

As a result, things should work properly and I’m happy enough with the site that I’m comfortable posting content here again. Looking at what I was writing about, and looking at what people were interested in, I divided the site into three “sub-blogs”: (1) SOA, (2) Technology, and (3) Random Junk. If you’re interested in my technology related posts, just check out rourkem.com/tech. If you liked the SOA and TIBCO related posts, check out rourkem.com/soa. If you really want to read my food and travel related posts, there’s always rourkem.com/random. Of course, there’s always rourkem.com if you really want to read all of the above.

For each of the above sub-blogs, there’s a corresponding feed. Take a look at the above-listed pages and shift your subsciptions if one of the specific feeds is more appropriate to what you’re interested in. If you’re currently subscribed to the main site feed and only want the latest SOA posts, for example, go to rourkem.com/soa and subscribe to the feed listed in the sidebar on that page.

I’m not very happy with the theme, but it’s an improvement. Given the time, I’d love to build a new Wordpress theme based off Sandbox. For now, though, this should work.

• Category Based Permalinks with Wordpress
• Segmenting My Personal Blog - Why?
• Standalone List Items in IE and Firefox
• Feed to Email Service Roundup
• Feed Hacks: FeedShake and Feedcatch

I’ve always enjoyed french toast, so when I saw the Toast Modern episode of Good Eats I figured I’d give making it a shot. The very first time I made Alton’s recipe, though, I was shocked at just how well it turned out. It was so good, in fact, that I poked around and looked at other recipes to see what made my amateur rendition of Alton’s french toast so good.

There are three things Alton suggests that aren’t generally described in french toast recipes. Both of these differences require that you do some prep work the night before you intend to breakfast on french toast.

First, you need stale bread. Really, you want the bread to be stale around the outside but still fresh on the inside. As per Mr. Brown, I made some fresh bread stale by cutting it appropriately and leaving it out over night to go stale. In order to have the bread go stale quickly enough, I placed the pieces upright in the wire rack from my toaster over (see picture, middle left).

After setting up the bread to stale, I prepared the “custard” that I’d dip that bread into the next morning. Allowing that custard to age in the refrigerator overnight enhances the flavor considerably. The custard takes no more than five minutes to prepare, and then you’re ready to go to bed while it sits in the ‘fridge.

The next morning you need to start by preheating your oven to 350. You’ll use this to finish the french toast rather than cooking it completely on the oven. I set up an assembly line on my counter: soak in custard, move to drying rack, fry both sides, place in oven to bake.

Do follow Alton’s recipe, but make sure you allow the french toast to cook slowly over a medium low heat — do not raise that heat out of impatience. Trust me. All this extra work is worth it, as it somehow ends up generating exceptional french toast. Now that I know I like the results from following this method I’d like to try mixing things up a little and making stuffed french toast, or cinnamon raison french toast.

Both times I’d tried this recipe it has turned out really. Both time I used bread from Acme Bread Company. Of the two different breads I tried, I definitely prefer the Pain de Mie to the Challah. I highly recommend picking up some Pain de Mie and trying Alton’s recipe with that bread. You won’t be disappointed.

• New Waffle Hardware
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• Waffles, lots of Waffles
• Peanut Butter Eggs

To serve two hungry people you’ll need:

• small can of Spam
• half pint of heavy cream
• two cloves of garlic
• pinch of salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• pinch or two of cumin
• 1/2 lb of angle hair
• sauteed onions (optional)

Prepare the pasta al-dente and set it aside. It’ll cook a little further later, so don’t overcook it now. Cool the pasta with water and toss it in olive oil so it won’t stick together.

Dice the Spam and saute it over medium-high heat until it is a little charred and has a crispy outside. Spam is cooked, so you don’t need to worry about undercooking it. Spam is indestructible, so you don’t need to worry about overcooking it. Crunchy is nice, and takes about 15 minutes. Remove the Spam to a bowl for later.

Crush your garlic and saute it in a little olive oil until fragrant. Bring the heat up to high for just a minute and add the cream. De-glaze the pan (scrape the bottom while the heat is high, just after the cream has been added). Bring the heat back down to medium and allow the cream to come up to a simmer. Add the salt, pepper, cumin, and spam to the simmering cream and stir. Allow to simmer for another five minutes to reduce and so the cream picks up the spam flavor. Optionally, add the onions at this point.

Add the pasta back to the cream sauce and mix/toss until the pasta picks up the cream and the Spam is well distributed. Plate and enjoy.

• Smoked Salmon Pasta
• Overnight French Toast
• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• New Waffle Hardware
• Wheat Crepes with Gruyere and Lamb Sausage

Apple juice is the most basic and versatile liquid you can use for making smoothies. Any berry smoothie will work well with apple juice, including banana-berry smoothies. You won’t get much in the way of flavor out of apple juice, but it will add sweetness.

Orange juice is excellent in more tropical smoothies. I use orange juice with mangoes in particular, because the acidity cuts the chalky flavor that you find with that fruit. Peaches and pineapple also work well with OJ. For a unique taste, try banana, strawberry, and orange juice. Make sure you’re using enough sweet fruit, as orange juice is quite acidic.

Coconut nectar goes really well with pineapple. Pineapple-coconut smoothies were a favorite of Jen’s until I started using soy milk.

Any milk will work in a yogurt smoothie, producing a very creamy, right smoothie. Soy milk is one of the healthier options and produces excellent smoothies. The first couple of times I had a soy smoothie the flavor seemed a bit odd to me, but its definitely something that grows on you. I’ve tried a number of different soy milks and found that they vary quite a bit. My favorite for blending is the Silk Vanilla, in the blue bottle.

Berry and banana-berry smoothies work well with soy milk. Jen’s overall favorite smoothie is just pineapple, yogurt, and soy milk — so simple and yet so good.

Protein mixes work okay, but the taste of your smoothie definitely suffers. If you really need the protein then I’d recommend adding whey powder to your smoothie instead. The taste will still suffer, but not as much.

This isn’t a complete list. Try whatever suits your fancy and see how it works. Leave a comment below if you find something that you really like.

• Practical Smoothies: The Fruit
• Practical Smoothies: The Basics

What sort of chocolate will people pay $250 for?

Knipschildt Chocolatier was founded in 1999 by Fritz Knipschildt, who got his culinary education as a chef in Denmark. The most-expensive chocolate he sells–a $250 dark chocolate truffle with a French black truffle inside–is available on a preorder-only basis. It’s made of 70% Valrhona cacao, which is blended into a creamy ganache with truffle oil. The truffle is then hand-rolled with a dark truffle on the inside and dusted with cocoa powder.

I really enjoy savory dishes made with small amount of black or white truffle, but I’m slightly alarmed by the idea of eating such a large chunk of black truffle.

All that aside, I highly recommend Richard Donnelly Chocolates in Santa Cruz. Donnely has the worst packaging and marketing of any major chocolate producer, but he makes some of the best and most interesting chocolates out there. If you happen to live in northern California, stop by and visit Richard’s shop in Santa Cruz. It doesn’t look like much, but you’ll probably get to meet Richard and try a chocolate before you even buy anything.

Related Link: Expensive chocolate gift have to be fresh, you should also be able to choose the chocolate to fill your own chocolate box. Fast Delivery to the recipient is also important.

Jen actually reads her junk mail, so she noticed that her 55,000 US Airways miles were about to expire. We poked around a bit and discovered that transferring US Airways miles into any other program is nearly impossible. points.com will allow you to transfer miles out of a US Airways account, but your 55,000 US Airways miles will amount to less than 3,000 AAdvantage miles. On the other hand, award tickets are really flexible. You can buy a ticket today and change the time and date without penalty for up to a year (thanks, Jimmy).

As the Times article points out, though, you can simply donate a few miles or buy a magazine subscription and you’ll have another 18 months before your miles disappear. I extended the expiration on my Delta miles by getting Mary that subscription to Teen Vogue she’s been wanting.

To make batter for six crepes, use:

• 100g buckwheat flour
• 25g all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 25cl milk
• 25cl water

I followed the below instructions to prepare the batter, substituting my blender for the author’s food processor. I made twice as much batter and used the first half three hours later and the second half the next day. The batter did hold together much better the second day.

Step 1 : Prepare the dough batter.

If you have a food processor , break the eggs in the bowl of the food processor. Add the flours, and mix until well blended. Add as much of the milk as your food processor allows and mix again. Transfer to a large mixing bowl, and add the remaining milk and the water. Whisk until thoroughly blended.

In both cases, cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge for at least two hours, overnight is best.

Step 2 : Make the galettes crepes.

Take the bowl of dough out of the fridge and prepare all the fillings beforehand. Whisk the galette dough again, as some of the flour will have settled at the bottom of the bowl.

If you’re making several galettes in a row, preheat the oven to 180?C (360?F). This is where you’ll keep the galettes warm while you make the others.

Heat up a large non-stick skillet over high heat. When it is very hot, put in a sliver of salted butter. When it is melted, but before it browns, use a paper towel to (cautiously) spread the butter evenly on the surface of the skillet. Pour a ladleful of dough in the skillet, and swoop the skillet around so that the dough spreads out in a nice even circle. Let cook on medium-high heat for a few minutes, peeking underneath with a spatula from time to time to check on the cooking.

These crepes are not nearly as easy to handle as earlier recipes; I now understand why there are specialized crepe tools. Adding the crepes to the pan only after the pan was very hot helped. Leaving the crepes completely alone until at least two minutes had passed helped. Using tongs to lift up the edges before using a wide spatula to flip the crepe also helped.

For crepes made with 1/3 of a cup of batter, three minutes per side seems right. For crepes made with 1/4 of a cup of batter, two minutes per side is more appropriate. Any more than 1/3 of a cup of batter is obviously too much. The inside of the crepe never cooks completely.

After watching a few other people make crepes, thinner seems to be the way to go. 1/4 cup of batter is probably the right amount. The challenge is keeping the crepe from getting too crispy.

Flip the galette when it’s nicely golden underneath, cautiously or brazenly depending on your self-assurance. Put the fillings of your choice in the center of the galette. … When the other side of the galette is nice and golden too, fold it as best you can: the traditional way is to fold the four sides in and make a square galette, but when there’s a lot of filling and the galette isn’t very big that’s a little difficult, so just fold two sides in.

I fold my crepes in half, as you need a very large (think 14″ or larger) pan in order to get a square crepe of reasonable size. For filling, I made the first batch of crepes with lamb sausage and gruyere cheese. The second half were filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, ground black pepper, and cherry tomato halves. Both were excellent, but next time I’d like to try the traditional egg, ham, and cheese. I watched the owner of the Crepe Maker make such a crepe: he cracked the egg directly onto the crepes, scrambled it around the crepe with a fork, and then added cheese and a single slice of ham. I’d also like to try making smoked salmon, sauteed onions, and creme fraise crepes.

If you’re stuck with an electric oven, lowering the heat to medium or medium-high isn’t going to do much as the temperature won’t change quickly enough. The chef at the Crepe Maker in Los Altos uses two crepe stoves. I’m guessing one of them is set to a lower heat, as he moves the crepe from one stove to the other after the crepe itself has set. It seems you should be able to do the same thing with two frying pans on an electric stove.

I burnt the butter every time, as you can see from the dark color on the inside of the crepe above. I don’t know how to fix that.

Put the galette in a large baking dish or on a cookie sheet and into the oven to keep warm while you make the others. Serve with a green salad and liberal amounts of Cidre Brut, an alcoholic apple cider from Brittany.

In my experience, crepes placed in the oven on a cookie sheet get soggy very quickly. A wire rack works better, but even better still is to eat the crepes right off the pan. If that isn’t possible, putting the crepes back on a hot pan for 30 seconds on each side before eating them also helps.

These crepes looked right. The color was perfect. The taste was good. The texture was close. I need to work on the level of crispness. Jen’s single complaint was that these waffles were a little too crispy. Perhaps moving them to medium heat before they crisp will do the trick.

If you’re not sure what to put into your crepes, check out Williams-Sonoma’s catalog of crepe recipes. Better yes, have dinner at Ti Couz or Beau Monde.

• Wheat Crepes with Gruyere and Lamb Sausage
• Sweet Crepes, Part II
• Sweet Crepes with Nutella and Banana
• Overnight French Toast
• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce

After just a little poking around I was able to narrow the search down to two models, the $80 Waring Pro Waffle Maker and the $240 KitchenAid Pro Line Waffle Maker. Both wafflers elicit nearly unanimous praise in reviews on relevant websites. The Waring Pro has a Wize rating that’s a touch higher, but that seems to be because there are so many reviews for it — the few negative reviews are completely overwhelmed by hundreds of positive reviews. After asking folks in various stores and really poking through the reviews I decided that the extra $160 would definitely buy me the ability to make two waffles at a time (not a huge issue for me) and might buy me a little durability and a non-stick surface good enough so I wouldn’t need PAM. That didn’t seem worth $160, so I went with the Waring Pro. You can see the new addition to our kitchen in the above-right picture.

I couldn’t resist firing the waffle iron up the next morning, so I made a batch of AB’s waffles. The waffles were more even, thicker, and crisper than when made with the Villaware waffle iron. In fact, with the waffle iron turned all the way up to maximum the waffles were as crisp as a non-yeast waffle is going to get. As long as you don’t mind your waffles a little darker in color, I’d recommend making AB’s waffles with the waffler turned to full power.

Alton’s waffles are a little cakey to begin with, and making them thicker doesn’t help in that department. The larger waffles also require larger zip-lock bags to freeze and won’t heat up in the toaster — I’m going to need to use the toaster over to reheat these waffles. Still, I prefer these waffles prepared with the Waring waffler over the same waffles prepared using the Villaware waffler.

The real test will be when I try the yeast raised waffles again. I won’t give up if that recipe doesn’t work out; the new waffle iron came with three different recipes for raised Belgian waffles and I’m tempted to make a small batch of each the next time I’m in the mood for waffles. I’ll keep trying until I find a recipe that produces crisp, light, waffles. I can’t use my equipment as an excuse anymore. Stay tuned.

• Overnight Raised Belgian Waffles
• Waffles, lots of Waffles
• Overnight French Toast
• Chocolate Waffles and Berry Compote
• Peanut Butter Eggs

Seriously, though. I’m on a flight from San Francisco to the Gartner show in Orlando and, out of habit, I chose the aisle seat on a plane that doesn’t have an adjustable headrest. In a window seat I would have been able to lean against the wall. If I’d managed to fall asleep there wouldn’t have been any need to get up during the flight. To make matters worse, this old plane has huge CRT screens in the aisle, and one of them is three feet in front of my face. I’d forgotten how bright those old sets could be with the cabin lights off. With a blindfold I might have been able to ignore it.

The backpacking pillow Jen suggesting bringing with me was a great idea. If only I had something to lean it against.

Since sleep isn’t an option, I’m glad to have the extra power supplied by the auxiliary battery I replaced the DVD/CD-ROM drive in my ThinkPad with.

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I found another recipe online and decided to give it a shot. I started by mixing the crepe batter together in my blender and setting it aside overnight. I made the batter by combining the following and pulsing the blender for around ten seconds.

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup buckwheat flour
• Pinch salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 eggs

The next evening I started out by preparing the filling.?I coarsely grated about 0.40 lbs of Gruyere cheese and put it aside in a?bowl.?I sauteed half?a large onion and put it aside in a bowl.

For the lamb sausage, I started by?taking the meat from?two Moroccan lamb sausages I’d purchased?from Prather Ranch out of their casings and chopping them up with a fork.??I put my 8″ frying pan over medium heat (6 on our electric range) and added a splash of olive oil and two cloves of garlic that had been?crushed with a chef’s knife. After the garlic became fragrant I added the sausage meat and used a spatula to continue to mince it up?until?it looked like ground beef. I cooked the sausage until it looked done (about six minutes) and put it aside in a bowl.

At this point I pre-heated?my oven to 350 degrees. It takes a while.

Now for the crepes: I prepared the crepes by heating an eight inch frying pan over medium heat (6 on my electric range) and putting a thin sliver over butter into the pan. If the pan is truly hot enough you’ll hear popping and sizzling as the butter hits the pan. I moved the butter around with my spatula until it was coated. I then lifted the frying pan and held it at a 45 degree angle before pouring?1/4 of a cup of the batter into the frying pan and moving the pan around so the batter spread evenly. This takes a little practice, so your first couple of crepes might not come out. Cook the crepes for about 2 minutes before flipping them. With this?batter I found it was easiest to flip the crepes with a wide spatula, using tongs to pick up the edge of the crepe.

Once the crepes were finished, I filled them with cheese, then lamb sausage and onions, and then more cheese, and folded them over. I tried to get them to seal around the outside by putting a thin layer of just cheese around the edge and then?pressing the edges down. These are supposed to be crepes, after all, and not tacos. Once the crepes were all ready, I placed them on cookie sheets and placed them in the oven for about five minutes, and then they were ready to eat.

The crepes turned out well. The lamb sausage was excellent and?the crepes tasted better than the all AP flour crepes I made before. Still, these crepes are a long way from what I’m trying to make. There’s definitely more work to be done in this area.

A few days after finishing this batch of crepes I saw a New York Times article on “Buckwheat Crepes” and was hopeful, but the recipe they were pushing turned out to be pretty much the same as this one.

• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• Sweet Crepes, Part II
• Sweet Crepes with Nutella and Banana
• Overnight French Toast
• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce

Then, two weeks ago, Jen and I had near-perfect waffles at breakfast at the Sunflower Hill Inn in Moab, UT. These waffles were exactly the sort of airy, crispy waffles I’d been trying to make. I asked the folks at the Sunflower for their recipe and I gave it a try as soon as I got home. Be forewarned — this recipe requires you leave some of the stuff overnight. First, the recipe. To make six waffles you’ll need:

• 1 cup of warmed milk
• 1/4 cup of melted butter
• 1/4 cup of warm water
• 1/2 tablespoon of dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar + 1 pinch
• 1 cup of?AP flour (or 1/2 cup of AP & 1/2 cup of whole wheat)
• 1 egg
• 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda

First, I warmed the milk and added the cut up butter to the milk to melt.

In a separate bowl I sprinkled the yeast into the warm water and added a pinch of sugar to feed the yeast. I put this aside for five minutes so the yeast could fully dissolve.

Next,?I mixed the milk, butter, salt, sugar, flour and the yeast-water and beat until it was smooth. I covered this with plastic and put it in the ‘fridge until morning.

The next morning I started up my waffle iron set to its highest setting. I then?beat the egg and baking soda into the mixture from the refrigerator and stirred until it was all well mixed. I poured the appropriate amount of waffle into the iron and cooked.

My results with this recipe were mixed. As you can see from the picture above, one side came out really well, while the other side looked collapsed and somewhat uncooked. This was true for each and every waffle. At the Sunflower, some of the waffles came out with small sections like this, but none where an entire side looked collapsed. Why did their waffles come out so much better? Perhaps they had a waffle iron that allows you to flip the waffles while they’re cooking. Perhaps my iron is failing on the top side. Either way, this inspired my to go out and get a new waffle iron, so we’ll see how this recipe works with the new iron. More on that in the future.

I?made two versions of the above recipe; one with all purpose flour, and one with 1/2?a cup all purpose and 1/2 a cup whole wheat flower. Both came out the same texture-wise, but both Jen and I preferred the flavor of the waffles with some whole wheat flour.

Both the whole wheat and all-white flour waffles survived the freezer: the morning I made the waffles, I let them?cool and put them into zip-lock bags two at a time and threw them into the freezer. The next morning we pulled a few out and put them directly into the toaster. They were as good, if not better, than they were?the first morning.

• New Waffle Hardware
• Waffles, lots of Waffles
• Overnight French Toast
• Chocolate Waffles and Berry Compote
• Peanut Butter Eggs

Grocery stores and organic food megamarts sell a wide variety of flash-frozen fruit. Unless you have piles of free time, these stores will provide you with the bulk of your frozen fruit. The good news is that you can find a huge variety of frozen fruit in most stores — including cherries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, pineapples, blackberries, raspberries and even premixed fruit blends.

Not all Frozen fruit is created equal. In San Francisco, the frozen fruit at Whole Foods is noticeably better that the stuff you get at Safeway. Moreover, the organic frozen fruit from Whole Foods actually makes better smoothies than the non-organic stuff from Whole Foods. Even that rule isn’t absolute, though, as the cherries from Safeway beat the ones sold at Whole Foods by a wide margin. Experiment and decide for yourself.

Using fresh fruit is a bad idea, but freezing your own fruit is an option. Frozen bananas aren’t generally available, and bananas are a smoothie staple. The process is pretty easy — you buy the fruit, you let the fruit fully ripen, then you cut the fruit up and put it in a zip-top freezer bag and put it in the freezer. Be careful, though, when putting the fruit into the freezer. Make sure you lay the pieces out as flat as possible in a fairly large zip-top bag and let the fruit freeze in as flat a configuration as possible (see picture below left). If you don’t do this you’ll end up with a huge glob of fruit that you need to chop up with an ice pick.

Let the fruit ripen before you freeze it. In the case of bananas, the riper you let them get the sweeter and creamier the smoothies will taste. In fact, you might even want to let the bananas get riper than you’d normally want them to be for eating. Frozen fruit is generally picked at or near full ripeness and flash frozen before transport. Most grocery store fruit is picked well beefore ripeness. The farther you are from where the fruit is grown, the less ripe that fruit was when it came off the tree. This means that, in general, you can buy better tasting fruit frozen than fresh.

Even so, you can’t buy all fruit frozen. You can freeze anything you buy, though, which opens the door to melon smoothies, mango smoothies, and just about anything else you can think of.

Sometimes you can get better fruit fresh than what’s available frozen. For examples, fresh picked May cherries from Brentwood, CA are far better than what you’ll find in the grocery store. Try bringing home a few pounds of those cherries, pitting them, and freezing them. The best smoothie this author’s ever had was made with cherries picked that way.

Don’t go too crazy freezing fruit and buying frozen fruit, though; fruit doesn’t last forever in the freezer. Store-bought frozen fruit begins to develop freezer burn at about four to six months. Fruit I’ve frozen myself is best used in the first month or two after freezing and starts to develop freezer burn and degrade in taste noticeably after that. That said, I’ve used fruit that’s been in the freezer for over six months and didn’t get sick or

You have quite a few choices when it comes to getting fruit to use in your smoothies. If you make smoothies every day then you have the option of buying a wide variety of fruit and trying out different combinations. If you make smoothies less often then you’re probably better off just keeping a few staples like bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple in your freezer. Either way, though, experiment some and try different fruits and different fruit sources rather than always using the same frozen fruit in every smoothie you make.

• Practical Smoothies: The Basics
• Practical Smoothies: The Liquids

Note to self: be very nice to the TSA people. Very, very nice.

• TSA and Zip-Top Bags
• Solid Toiletries
• TSA: Sunblock is More Dangerous than a Knife
• How Not to Survive a Redeye

McNamara’s wife, Jennifer, accidentally carried a three inch pocketknife onto the plane in her backpack. The backpack was searched and her dangerous-looking camera duly inspected, but the knife was not seen as a threat.

True story. The tube of sunblock was an accident and the only liquid or gel in the backpack. I didn’t give it up without asking the supervisor, either. Remember your one quart sized zip-top bags, folks. TSA isn’t flexible on that rule.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

• TSA and Zip-Top Bags
• Solid Toiletries
• READ THIS: Flyertalk Member Arrested by TSA for Rubber Band Ball

I make smoothies every morning before work. I know, I know; how very California of me. Years before moving to California I bought a blender and started trying to make smoothies. The blender came out a couple of times, but making smoothies was always too much work to do regularly. What’s different now? I’ve learned how to blend quickly and easily.

The smoothie recipes that you find in cookbooks and in smoothie books are all fairly complicated and take too long to prepare. I’m going to explain how I make great tasting smoothies quickly and without hassle. These days it takes me less than five minutes to make two smoothies, pour them into to-go cups, wash out the blender, and clean off the counter top.

So, what do you need to make these amazing, quick, healthy smoothies?

• yogurt
• liquid: soy milk and apple juice work well
• frozen fruit

That’s it.

Making daily smoothies is hard on most blenders. I went through three different blenders before I bought the Oster Classic Blender. The other blenders I bought (the $50-ish dollar models from the top three vendors) all failed after a few months of daily smoothie making because the blades are connected to the drive motor using plastic gears. For some reason the Oster is the only blender in this price range that uses a metal gear to drive the blades. That metal piece seems to make a huge difference when you’re grinding up frozen fruit every morning. You should be warned, though, the Oster is the loudest blender in this price range I tried.

The smoothies I make are all yogurt based, so they’re pretty healthy. Over time, I’ve also started using Silk vanilla soy milk instead of fruit juices. The soy taste took a little getting used to, but now I really like it. I’d recommend you start with apple juice, as that flavor profile has broader appeal.

Here’s the basic order of things for making 2.5 cups (20 oz) of smoothie:

1. empty an 8oz yogurt (vanilla or banilla) into the blender cup
2. pour in a liquid until you fill the blender cup to 1.5 cups
3. add about 8 oz. of frozen fruit to the blender
4. blend until smooth

That’s it. You can easily measure the amounts by eye or by using the measurements on the blender cup, so things go very quickly. The order is important, as adding the ingredients in the wrong order makes it harder to get everything to blend smooth.

You can vary the ratio of yogurt:liquid:frozen fruit to taste, but the more solid:liquid you get the harder its going to be to get it to blend together. I like my smoothies thick so I’ll often add more frozen fruit. If it doesn’t blend at first I’ll try rocking the blender back and forth while it’s running (grabbing at the top and just letting it pivot from the base). If that doesn’t work, I’ll stop the blender, take the pitcher off and shake it, and then try blending again.

Some easy starter smoothie recipes might be:

• vanilla yogurt, frozen pineapple, and apple juice
• banilla yogurt, frozen blueberries, and apple juice
• banilla yogurt, frozen strawberries and bananas, and apple juice

If you like the smoothies with apple juice, give the Silk soy milk a try. To me, the smoothies taste better with the soy milk. Let me know what you think by commenting below. I’ll get more specific in future posts.

• Practical Smoothies: The Fruit
• Practical Smoothies: The Liquids

It really does. Alton Brown covered making popcorn without a special popcorn maker or a microwave on Good Eats using this recipe. Inspired, I bought some white and yellow popcorn from the bulk food aisle at Whole Foods and tried this over the weekend. “Real” popcorn truly is better than microwave popcorn. Even without a topping, the popcorn I made came out at least as good as the best movie theatre popcorn I’ve had. Adding just a touch of real melted butter really completed the “dish.”

This was really easy and took no more than five minutes. I was surprised, because it normally seems harder to make the TV recipes in real life. In this case, it seemed easier than it had looked on TV. Next time I’ll have to try some sort of topping.

Popcorn keeps. This was just as good the next day.

Use medium heat — the first time I tried this I used high heat and the popcorn looked fine but didn’t taste as good as it did made over medium heat.

The different popcorns really do taste different. I liked the yellow quite a bit more than the white, even though the yellow was slightly less expensive. I’m going to try ordering some of the more interesting varieties from Wisconsin Gold. They have red, blue, and various heirloom popcorns for sale. A sampler pack (a half pound of each type) from them seems like it should be fun to try. Searching the web for folks selling heirloom or specialty popcorn returned only references to Wisconsin Gold — if someone knows of another source, please let me know.

• Overnight French Toast
• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce
• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• New Waffle Hardware
• Wheat Crepes with Gruyere and Lamb Sausage

TSA can find a collection of liquids and gels if they’re together in your carry-on. They can’t easily spot all liquids, though. I just found a bottle of Afrin that’s been in my laptop bag since well before the ban on liquids in carry-on luggage. My bag has been through airport security in the US and the EU maybe a dozen times without anyone noticing the liquid.

• Solid Toiletries
• READ THIS: Flyertalk Member Arrested by TSA for Rubber Band Ball
• TSA: Sunblock is More Dangerous than a Knife
• How Not to Survive a Redeye

You’ll need the following to serve two:

• 8oz. smoked salmon, cut into small rectangular pieces (I like the sockeye, personally)
• 2tsp. capers
• 1 yellow onion
• 1/2 lbs of pasta (angel hair work well)
• 1 lemon, zested
• dill
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• pint of cream
• 1 clove of garlic, minced

Make the pasta, drain, toss with 1tbsp of olive oil and set aside.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over medium high heat. I find a wok works really well for dishes like this, but not everyone has one. Add olive oil and garlic. Allow to cook for two minutes. Add onions and lemon zest to the pot and allow to cook for three or four minutes. You don?t want the onions super soft, but you want them to start to cook. Next, toss in the smoked salmon and capers and allow to cook for two minutes. Now add the cream and stir. Add a good sprinkle of dill. Adjust the heat so your the cream is simmering and allow to reduce to taste, but at least three or four minutes.

Once your cream sauce is just about where you want it, add the pasta back into the pan and toss, stir, and generally move everything around with the heat going so the sauce gets into the pasta and the salmon gets pretty evenly distributed. Plate, adding a sprink of dill to the top of the heap of pasta on each plate.

• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce
• Overnight French Toast
• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• New Waffle Hardware
• Wheat Crepes with Gruyere and Lamb Sausage

I reshaped the ground elk into proper, thick burger patties. Jen showed me how to do this by mushing them up into balls in my hands and then flattening them some by throwing them from hand to hand. I then placed the patties into a griddle pan over medium heat (6-7 on our stove) with a little olive oil.

I didn’t use a thermometer, I didn’t stick to a set amount of time, and I didn’t cut into the burgers until it was time to eat. I monitored for doneness by watching the outside change color and by pushing on the top middle of the patties. I ended up cooking for about six minutes a side, most of which time the patties were covered with a round pot top that was too small for the square griddle pan I was using. This helped keep some of the heat in so the burgers cooked inside. Immediately before the last four minutes on the second side, I covered the patties with provolone cheese.

Google claims you should cook elk meet slowly, so I stuck with low heat and a long cook time.

After the patties were done I put them on buns from Acme Bread Company with slices of heirloom tomato from Capay Organic and just a little mayo.

I have to say, this turned out really well. I’d definitely do this again, and the only things I’d do differently next time are adding bacon and raw onions. The buns were truly awesome, and the elk meat was really tasty. Elk is somewhat gamey and very flavorful without being nearly as greasy or heavy tasting as beef.

• Buffalo Burgers, Take 1
• Overnight French Toast
• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce
• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• New Waffle Hardware

Imagine it this way: you get to the stack of trays in front of the x-ray machine. You remove four: one for your laptop, one for your jacket, one for your shoes, and one for your liquid toiletries. You remove your blackberry, your wallet, and the change from your pocket. You take your shoes and your belt off. You take your laptop out of your bag. You open up your carry-on, open up the toiletries kit, and grab the baggie full of liquids. You walk through the puffer. You walk through the metal detector. You wait for your stuff. You put your stuff back together again, put your belt and shoes back on. Now you can fly.

I tried leaving the baggie of liquids in my carry-on. It seems they’re not bluffing and they can see that you have liquids. I’m going to continue sticking to solids to save time and aggravation at security.

Food and drinks you buy in the secure area are allowed on the plane. That’s all good.

The fellow sitting next to me had carried his bags on. He explained, in a matter of fact way, that he’d asked his secretary make 43 copies of his toiletries kit and mail those 43 copies to all of his company’s global offices. His travel always takes him to the local office first, so this was the perfect plan. How nice for him.

At Jimmy’s suggestion, I had also carried my bags on with me. In my case, it meant I had a nearly empty toiletries kit that included Jen’s antiperspirant since mine was a gel. I had shaved on Monday and was only gone for a day, so this worked out, but I need to find some solid toiletries I can actually carry on.

Toothpaste is easy. I can’t imagine a hotel that doesn’t stock some. When I checked in on Monday night I simply asked for toothpaste as I was checking in and it didn’t even slow me down. I bookmarked a couple of sites that carry tooth powder for those that don’t want to rely on hotels. I think I’m just going to carry a few Brush Ups and breath strips just in case.

Antiperspirant isn’t a big deal; there’s a wide selection available. I’m perfectly willing to use the hotel’s shampoo, conditioner, and soap. If you aren’t then you should check out Lush, as they have a selection of solid shampoo and conditioner.

Shaving is going to be a problem. I’ve ordered some shaving soap to use in place of shaving gel and an alum block to use in place of after shave gel. I don’t know how well that’s going to work out. If it doesn’t work out then I’ll probably buy a new electric shaver and use that while traveling.

Hair gel isn’t an issue for me, though it will be for some folks. There’s actually a solid alternative.

I also bookmarked some articles and threads that address other liquid/gel replacement needs. Particularly helpful are this USA Today article and this Flyertalk thread.

All in all, flying under the new restrictions wasn’t as bad as I had expected it to be. Planes are boarding faster since fewer people are carrying things on. The security line for elite flyers is no longer than it was before. The check in process takes longer if you have bags to check, but seems even shorter than before if you’re not checking anything. As long as you carry your bags on, it really isn’t a big deal.

• TSA and Zip-Top Bags
• READ THIS: Flyertalk Member Arrested by TSA for Rubber Band Ball
• TSA: Sunblock is More Dangerous than a Knife
• How Not to Survive a Redeye

What did I learn?

• using a thermometer inside the steak doesn’t make things easy
• you can’t tell anything by looking at the outside
• you can’t tell much by cutting it open and looking at the inside
• steak continues to cook after you take it off the heat
• better to err on the side of rare — you can always put the steak back

I overcooked the steak both times. The first time it ended up well done, and the second time is ended up medium. The next time I try this I’m going to cook the steak less and I’m going to rely on the time and the way the steak feels when you push on it. I can find no connection between the numbers on the probe and how done the steak is.

The second time through the steak was much better the the first time. I suspect that was due to the fact that I used the cast iron pot on medium high heat (3 o’clock) for three minutes on the first side and a minute and a half on the other side. At that point the smoke in the apartment started to worry Jen, so I moved the steak to the oven. The sear on the first side was excellent. The steak was probably in the oven for another ten minutes.

Also worthy of note was the fact that I salted the steak lightly on both sides before cooking it the second time, per Alton Brown.

I’ve got the sauce down. I saut?ed some onions in olive oil first, then put them aside. I saut?ed some portabella mushrooms (cut up) next and put them aside. Then, after cooking the steak I deglazed the pan and threw the onions and mushrooms back in. I added some salt and pepper and let that simmer for about five minutes.

• Overnight French Toast
• Angelhair with Spam Cream Sauce
• Closer to Buckwheat Crepe Perfection
• New Waffle Hardware
• Wheat Crepes with Gruyere and Lamb Sausage

As usual, a great event. All the wines were awesome, and I’ll be buying a bunch. In trying to differenciate, below are my notes.

• 2004 Realm Cellars The Tempest - USA, California, Napa Valley
  Nose of dark fruit and chocolate. This seemed a little soft and hot to me. I enjoyed the wine, but there didn’t seem to be enough tannin and structure to hold up to the alcohol and fruit. I tend to like hugely tannic beasts, though, so it might just be me. (89 pts.)
• 2004 Realm Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
  Lush mouthfeel, big nose of dark fruit and some green. In this mouth this was not as big as I expected, with some green flavors still. There seemed to be some tannin lacking, and the midpalate was a touch thin. Long finish of dark, sweet fruit. I left a bit of this in a glass for an hour+ and came back to it. After an hour the green blew off and was replaced by smoke. Later still, this was dominated by oak. (90 pts.)
• 2004 Realm Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Farella Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Coombsville
  My favorite wine of the Realm 2004 wines. This had the biggest nose, all fruit. Lush and perfect in the mouth, with just the right amount of acid and tannin. Don’t get me wrong, this is a *big* wine, but the massive tannin is balanced by the massive fruit and solid structure. Complex, long finish. (94 pts.)
• 2004 Realm Cellars The Bard - USA, California, Napa Valley
  This was my second favorite wine of the night, and very close to the Farella. Nose was somewhat muted but got bigger with air. This wine was very dark, full of dark fruits and chocolate. There was a spicyness here that wasn’t present in the Farella that was nice. There was even more tannin and structure to this wine. Jen thought this was “Zinny,” which is high praise from her — this was her favorite wine of the night. (93 pts.)

Interestingly, the only real distinct “oak” notes I got were in the To-Kalon that had been sitting out for hours. Normally, I’d expect wines this young to be dominated by oak.

I’m torn: in trying to decide how much of each wine to buy, I don’t know whether to trust myself or Tanzer. ST rated the To-Kalon highest and the Farella lowest (of the Cabs) and I had the exact opposite reaction. Were these older, I’d definitely go with my impression, but these wines are *very* young and I’m very inexperienced in predicting how wines will evolve with even a little age.

Posted from CellarTracker

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