Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
I’ve been a lover of good Mexican food for years and after meeting my better-half (a good old down home Texas girl) and traveling to Texas on a number of occasions I was hooked. During my recent trip to Dallas I was taken to this Mexican restaurant by my nephew who assured me I would be getting authentic Mexican fish tacos. I was excited for the meal and as we arrived I could hardly wait.
True to his word the fish taco’s were to die for. We ate two huge plates of tacos, chili beans, and rice. They drizzled an outrageous jalapeño cream sauce over the tacos that was so damn good it makes me hungry just thinking about it. Four gigantic peach margaritas later and we were destroyed. We slowly and safely made our way home and sat for hours because we just couldn’t move.
They also supplied us with chips and salsa which was good but the Verde sauce was the best. It was not quite a salsa and not quite a sauce. It also wasn’t quite hot enough for me so I decided upon my return to Maine to create a version of my own.
My better-half and I made a visit to a local South of the Border restaurant after my return to fulfill my ongoing taco obsession. It only made me want to create that Verde sauce even more. I thought about it on the way home that night and the next morning I was off to do some early food shopping.
I found the tomatillos, jalapeños, and pickled green chilies to which I added a few spices, some onions, a little jalapeno vinegar and cooked it all until soft. I threw it into a blender and liquefied it for five minutes and OMG. My eyes began watering as soon as I took the lid off of the blender.
Later that day the better-half made a pan of enchiladas over which I sprinkled a cautious amount of the hottest thing I’ve ever created. It was mean, nasty, smoking hot, and freaking delicious.
I was able to can almost a dozen jars of this sauce and it will definitely be used sparingly and as often as possible. I’m already planning the next batch so I can turn down the heat a little to make it palatable for all those so-called lovers of hot food who I’m pretty sure wouldn’t be able to handle this sauce.
“The Finished Product”
We’re having a rainy, gray, and gloomy day today with little or no chance of sunshine. It’s an inside day where I can catch up on a myriad of small tasks that I tend to ignore so I can go out and enjoy the nice weather. Honestly it doesn’t take much for me to blow off these tasks but unfortunately the list keeps getting longer and longer until I’m forced to do something.
I’ve been in the process of redesigning my man-cave which requires a few large tasks and many smaller ones. Sometime ago I ordered two wooden wine boxes. They arrived two weeks ago and were immediately stored away and pretty much forgotten. Today is their day.
Yesterday I made a short trip to one of my favorite retailers, Michael’s. My aim is to line both boxes with felt and to create brackets to hold many of my glass wine making tools. They include a small collection of hydrometers, a large thermometer, vinometer, and a wine thief. The hydrometer is used for measuring the sugar content of the wine during fermentation. The thermometer is a long one that is used to measure temperatures of the "must" in the earliest stages of fermentation. The vinometer is a small glass device that uses small samples of wine to determine alcohol content and proof. Lastly the wine thief is just a glass tube used to extract samples of wine in the final stages of fermentation to test the flavor and finish. I added a spray adhesive to my purchases along with four sheets of royal blue felt and two pieces of balsa wood. I was ready to get to work.
“The Finished Product”
In years past I’d been forced to replace these delicate devices due primarily to my clumsiness during moving from place to place or during general use. Hopefully this small project will keep future damages and costs to a minimum. I returned home and began pulling out old file folders from my archives looking for a collection of old and unique wine labels I’d collected many years ago. A perfect decorative addition to these boxes.
A few hours later I had one box completed to my satisfaction and the second coming along nicely. I should have the second one completed tomorrow and then I can move on to the next task on my list. The bigger tasks of building a new siphoning table and shelving units can wait until the better-half has vacated the premises and is on her way to the left coast.
I’ve spent the last few days complaining about United Airlines and the terrible time they gave me while traveling. So today maybe I should calm down and thank my nephew for being such a good host. I’d hate to make people think that my entire Memorial Day weekend had been totally ruined because of an unfortunate incident when it really wasn’t.
I managed to drag my camera around with us during my visit and took a few hundred photos. I thought I’d share some of them with you today, These first few are of the highlight of the trip as far as crazy delicious food was concerned. The name of the place is The Hard Eight and this was the line at the entrance when we arrived. You could smell that barbecue for miles around.
As we waited in line the smell of cooking meat was overwhelming and as we approached the grill station it got even worse. This is their outrageous version of a menu hanging on the wall.
And then you walk to the grill and see this.
You can almost smell it just by looking at these pictures. You choose your meat, it’s placed on a tray covered with wax paper, it’s weighed and priced and then your off to the dining room to choose your side dishes.
We enjoyed the band playing C&W music as we ate and OMG was it incredible. We ate until we couldn’t move and then just sat there to enjoy the atmosphere for a few minutes. The prices were reasonable and I’d recommend this establishment to anyone going anywhere near Dallas. It’s barbecue heaven.
This was just day one of the trip and I have many more photo’s that will follow in the next week or so. I also feel somewhat obligated to introduce all of you to my new best friend and Texas bedmate. She made me feel right at home and actually snored and kicked less than my better-half does in Maine. Her name is Pepper.
Thanks for a great time Mike.
Well the Texas trip is finally here and I’ll be flying off to Dallas tomorrow. I don’t intend to do any blogging until sometime next week, probably Wednesday at the latest. I’ll be taking a break from working out, blogging and everything else as well. That’s what a vacation is supposed to be and I’m going to make the most of it.
This week I finally planted the last few plants in the garden. I have others breaking ground as we speak and so far everything is doing fine except for the asparagus. All of those I gently planted are doing absolutely nothing. I purchased a bag of asparagus roots and knew at the time it was a big gamble. I have yet to buy either flower bulbs or veggie roots packaged that way that have actually grown. I’ve finally learned my lesson, never again. Next year I’ll try to find asparagus seeds and start my own plants. Hopefully I’ll have more success.
“Zucchini”
As you can see the garden has made significant progress in the last week. The plants are loving the warmer nights and are jumping out of the ground. As you can see I have more chives than I know what to do. When I return I can look forward to a day spent filling the dehydrator with chives for our use through next Winter.
“Cherry Tomato’s”
Starting tomorrow I can kick back and relax for a few days and enjoy my trip. It will be nice to enjoy the warm and sometimes hot weather in Dallas. It should help me shake off the effects of this last Maine Winter. My summer will officially start when I return home next week fully rested and relaxed.
“Left Side”
“Right Side”
I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and that the weather cooperates. Show the flag, cook a few burgers and dogs, and toast all of our former and current Vets. Without their service we wouldn’t have much to celebrate.
My goal today is to give all of you a tip. After you get to a certain age never, I repeat never, make dandelion wine. I know that sounds stupid but let me explain. Over the years I’ve made dandelion wine a few times and it always tastes so incredibly good you might wonder why I’ve only made it a few times. The main reason is the amount of work that goes into making it. It’s a labor intensive project that becomes more difficult as you age.
Yesterday I was out in the garden just walking around and happy to see that everything I’ve planted has broken ground and looking healthy. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the garden is well underway and my batch of red wine is bubbling happily along. I knew I wanted to make a second batch of wine but really hadn’t decided what it would be. As I was thinking and walking the mail lady pulled into my drive way with a package for me. It was a small order of winemaking materials I recently ordered to replace what had been used on the red wine. It must have been a sign from the wine drinking gods.
As I opened the box to check the order I glanced out the window and noticed that my yard was covered with freshly blooming dandelions. I decided at that moment to make a batch of dandelion wine out of those blossoms found in my yard. I should have had my head examined but foolishly prepared for the project anyway.
I dragged a plastic bag, a pair of latex gloves, and an already sore back into the yard and got to it. Over the next hour I harvested a few thousand dandelion flowers and filled the bag to the top. I started out just bending over to get the blossoms but the sorer my back became the more I thought about calling it a day. It wasn’t long before I was forced to my hands and knees to complete the collection process. One of my latex gloves had torn and that hand was now a bright yellow that took some serious scrubbing to remove. I now had the hands of a thirty-year smoker.
I finished up and returned to the house to try and work out the kinks in my back and neck. Unfortunately the worst was yet to come. I wanted to make at least three gallon of this wine which requires five full cups of petals per gallon. The next step was to sit on the deck for another two hours with with a fresh set of gloves and a huge glass of icy cold Sangria. I sat there and slowly and meticulously began removing the petals from the stems. With my hands painfully cramping I finally reached my goal of fifteen cups of dandelion petals.
“Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab”
To make a long story short, I returned to my man-cave, gathered the remainder of the required ingredients and finally had the batch prepared. I placed the blossoms into two gallons of filtered water and boiled them for twenty minutes making a beautiful golden yellow liquid. I added the other ingredients as well plus seven pounds of granulated sugar and allowed the mixture to cool. That took a few hours and it wasn’t until after dark that I was able to finally able to add the yeast.
If I’m lucking and barring any unforeseen catastrophes, I should get at least 15-17 bottles of a gorgeous golden wine in approximately three and a half months. Was it worth the effort? I’ll let you know as soon as I can use my hands again and I can bend over without screaming.
This had better be the best damn wine ever made.
After thoroughly enjoying my day-off and cruising around the area with my better-half it was once again back to work. It seems that we’re finally free of the frost for this year so we I began planting the next group of plants which included black beans, green beans, wax beans and snap peas. Any or all of these are delicious to eat fresh from the garden but they also can be canned without losing their flavor. Normally we use them as part of the vegetable mixes we make for use through the Winter in stir-fry’s.
The vegetable mixes are usually the last thing we do before closing down the garden. The mix can contain any number of veggies that are left over at summers end. We try to make a number of different assortments as you can see by the photo’s.
The better-half has been trying unsuccessfully for years to grow gourds. She gives them a great start in the house under glass as you can see. Then they are moved to the cold frames before final planting. We decided this year to move some of the gourds out of the garden to a spot closer to the house where they can get sun and be better protected from the weather. We’ll cross our fingers and hope for the best one more time. In my opinion it’ll take a minor miracle to get them to grow large enough to produce anything useful. She’s forever the optimistic and is certain it’ll work this year. Half full is her manta in all things.
I wanted to plant the jalapeños and cayenne peppers but stopped myself. As a rule peppers do best when they have warm nights so I decided to wait another week or two. I’ll be able then to put the cucumbers, zucchini, and squash in and finally be done with the garden planting. So for now they remain in the cold frame.
My winemaking efforts continue and that red wine I mentioned in an earlier post has completed it’s hard fermentation and moved into glass jugs and sealed with air locks. It’s now just a wait of a few months for the jugs to clear. Eventually gravity will cause all of the yeast to drop to the bottom of the jugs and I can siphon off the clear and finished wine. I have to say I love the smell of yeast and wine when it’s fermenting. I wish some company could bottle that smell because I’d make sure my man-cave was always filled with that fragrance.
While I was cleaning and organizing my man-cave I was pleasantly surprised to find this bottle of wine.
This is a bottle of blackberry wine that I made back in 1986. I’ve recorked it a few times over the years and each time I’ve taken a small taste. It’s pretty potent after all those years but I think I’ll put it back in storage for a few more years before I try it again.
A day-off was really becoming necessary after the last few hectic weeks of gardening and lawn clean-up. Today was the day. The better-half was also on a day-off so we slept in a little, loaded up on coffee and breakfast, and then jumped into the car and took off. It was a semi-beautiful day but the cloudiness was going to make taking pictures a challenge.
We drove east towards the shore and the traffic was light. In two more weeks the tourists will arrive in force and make traveling a little more interesting in these beach areas. We drove up the coast for a few miles and stopped briefly in a small cove used primarily by local lobstermen. I snapped of a few photo’s of them at work and a few of the birds covering the nearby rocks. Neither seemed too happy about my picture taking but I persevered.
It was breezy as hell and the temperature had dropped just low enough to require a hoodie if you planned on walking around. We returned to the car, turned on the heater, and warmed up a little. As we proceeded north it was great to see everything struggling to become green again and the sun finally decided to make an appearance. We stopped briefly at the Portland Head Light which is one of the most visited and photographed lighthouses in Maine. It guards the entrance to Portland harbor.
As you can see it’s just a place made for photographers. It’s almost impossible to take a bad picture there. Normally this place is mobbed with tourists but we were lucky to get here before the Memorial Day madness.
Our trip continued north as we entered the city of Portland. If you you’ve never visited Portland your missing something special. It’s a small city with a small town feel. It has a colorful waterfront as you can see and if you like the ocean the aroma of low tide here will enchant you.
My better-half has a overwhelming desire for beer at almost any time so I decided to make a quick stop at Three Dollar Dewey’s, a local ale house and restaurant. It’s located on Commercial Street in Portland, adjacent to the harbor. It’s a charming area with fish markets, micro breweries, and some serious parking issues if you visit in season. We try to stop at Dewey’s whenever we’re in the area for a quick cold one and a large order of fries. They are just what the doctor ordered.
We finished our fries and drinks and then walked around town for a few minutes of people watching. Everyone was out in large numbers enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. Check out this little project someone created along the street. Snap a padlock of some sort on the fence and write your name on it. I though it was pretty cool so take a look.
It was mid-afternoon and time for us to depart. We enjoyed this relaxing break from our normal lives and were ready to head home. Tomorrow is another day.
I really seem to be getting readjusted to this warm Spring weather. Yesterday was in the low seventies for the first time in almost seven months and I was loving it. I actually wore a pair shorts for the first time and got a little tan on my legs and they were loving that. I’m still working on the garden but the yard work took precedence this week. Being the dedicated and well trained slave that I am, I was able to make short work of the grass cutting.
Once that was finished I took on the semi-unpleasant task of organizing my compost pile. Some of you have little or no idea what I’m referring to so let me explain. It’s a gigantic pile of decomposing organic material collected by me over the last few years from yard clean-ups and grass clippings. It’s smelly and disgusting but it’s what makes the garden grow as well as it does. Each Fall I cover the garden with it and then plow it under. That gives most of the nutrients time to leech into the soil and reinvigorate it before Spring. Each summer’s garden uses up a great deal of the existing soil nutrients and they must be replaced.
It’s also very important to never plant the same plants in the same area two years in a row. You’ve got to switch it up a little because individual plants requires different sets of nutrients to thrive. In my experience that doesn’t always apply to herbs. They seem to grow well in just about any soil and require little of no fertilizer. The only issue I’ve had with herbs is that some do poorly if planted near certain others. Also, if you plant mints such as oregano, catnip, or spearmint too close together they cross pollinate and their specific scents become diluted.
Once the mowing and composting was completed I decided to do something I really enjoy which is set up my first batch of wine for 2014. I decided to make a nice semi-sweet red wine out of Concord grapes. I mixed the grape concentrate, acid blend, yeast nutrient, yeast energizer, and four and a half pounds of sugar into three and a half gallons of filtered water and set it aside. I then set up what’s called a yeast starter. It’s two packets of brewers yeast dissolved in luke-warm water with one cup of sugar. I let the yeast activate for a couple of hours before mixing it into the the fermenter with the grape concentrate.
Now it’s sit back for a week to let the yeast eat up all that good sugar and create the proper level of alcohol for the wine. Sometime in early August if all goes well I should have approximately sixteen bottles of a beautiful ruby red grape wine.
I normally prefer making fruit wines because getting the ingredients is much easier that coming up with a quantity of grapes. Grapes are expensive and the processing of them into a usable form is time consuming and annoying. Using a simple grape concentrate is much more affordable and makes a better quality wine (in my opinion). This batch will end up costing me approximately $2.00 a bottle including the cost of the bottle and cork. Not too bad for a small amount of work and a month or two of monitoring and tweaking the batch. I’m already planning a second batch for this year if I can find someone nearby with a Mountain Ash tree. The orange berries from that tree make a smooth and tasty white wine that is to die for. I’ll keep you posted.
“Spring Has Definitely Arrived”
Yesterday was one of those days I look forward to every year. My better-half and I both love this time of the year regardless of the work involved. It was a day spent traveling around southern Maine visiting nurseries and buying the plants needed to complete this year’s garden. We like making a day of it and we visit as many nurseries as necessary to find the plants we’ve decided to grow.
For many years now we’ve shopped at a small nursery or what once was a small nursery along the border of Maine and New Hampshire. In the intervening years that nurseries reputation has spread and it’s no longer considered little. Healthy plants should be the goal of any nurseryman or woman and these people are the best. We tend to find their plants healthier and produce better than those purchased elsewhere. We spent at least an hour roaming through their greenhouses and making our selections. We picked up a few jalapeño and cayenne pepper plants and a selection of herbs to replace many of the ones that didn’t survive the winter.
We found some beautiful cherry tomato plants that should keep us in salad tomatoes until Fall. Those kind of tomatoes are also added to our vegetable mixes and canned. There’s nothing like having a selection of tasty garden veggies in the middle of a cold and snow covered February.
“The Rhubarb is Up”
We purchased a number of pickling cucumber plants that should deliver many dozens of cukes for making our Bread & Butter and Dill pickles as well as sweet and hot relishes. If this year’s production is as good as last year we’ll be very busy come September.
One of the items my better-half desired was a licorice herb. It’s leaves have a heavy licorice scent when heated. I personally like fennel or star anise for that flavor but I’m keeping an open mind for now. It would be a nice surprise if this new plant were easier to grow than the others and tasted better. We found the plant at our fourth nursery we visited and were very pleased. That plant can be difficult to find but certain nurseries are known for carrying the more unusual plants and we know them all.
“The Sprinkler’s are Installed”
It made for a really pleasant day and we returned home tired but happy to have found everything we were looking for. We should also have an excellent selection of herbs to harvest and dry this year to fill our requirements for the winter. Another week should get us past the danger of frost for this year and all of the new plants will be planted and left on their own to flourish for a month or two.
Our last purchase next week will be a large number of really fragrant marigold plants. We’ve learned over the years to plant them in and around the gardens to keep the critters away. Apparently small animals and even deer have a real aversion to those flower and their strong odor. If that doesn’t work then I may be forced to go the high-tech route. I have a neighbor who installed a system last year that has a motion activated sprinkler. If visited in the middle of the night by deer or other animals the sensors detect the animal and shoot a blast of water at the trespassers to scare them off. It sounds too good to be true but I’ll keep an open mind. We’ll just have to wait and see.
This morning is rainy and gray but the plants need the water and I need some time to loaf. We’ll be back at it soon enough. A few hours on the X-Box today should clear my head nicely.
Needless to say the Spring garden work and yard cleanup continues apace. The only part of my body that’s not sore or aching is the tip of my nose. Everything else is shot to hell and letting me know about it every time I move the least little bit. Fortunately all of the hard work is finally paying off which is rather satisfying for so early in the year. The better-half who is in charge of the flower gardens is already seeing amazing results as you can see by these pictures.
It occurs to me that the plants in Maine understand what a short growing season we have and make the most out of every minute with whatever rain and warmth they can find. The grass can look like a field of dirty dead plants one day and within a week it turns into a lush green carpet that very quickly needs to be cut. I added the first mowing of 2014 this week along with all of the other chores I had on my To-do list.
The herb garden suffered a little more from the winter weather than I first thought. The neighborhood cats will be highly upset when they discover the huge catnip plant has passed away. Our garden was a regular stop in their travels where they could roll around in and eat some catnip. It was like the town’s feline opium den. I suppose I’ll be replanting it once again even though my cat Stormy is unaffected by it’s influences. I made enough room in the herb garden so that a larger than normal patch of parsley can be planted. We use a great deal of parsley through the winter and we ran a little short this Spring.
“Asparagus”
The asparagus roots have been planted and hopefully within the next two years we’ll have a thriving patch to harvest from. I love it with my meals but it takes such a long time to establish before we can use it. It’s recommended that we don’t harvest from this planting until early in 2016. Patience for this I just don’t have.
The lettuces were planted yesterday as well. I’ve put in three varieties this year along with spinach and two varieties of kale. The kale is freezable and my better-half tells me that kale chips are in my future. They don’t sound all that appetizing but I’ll withhold final judgment for now.
“Spinach/Lettuce”
I’ll be waiting at least another week or two before putting in any plants that could be killed by a frost. I’ve gotten ahead of myself in past years and been burned when a late frost wiped out a large number of my plants. I guess gardening is a great way to learn patience but it’s not something I’m known for.
This garden is much smaller than most people think when they see the results each Fall. The excellent level of production takes good planning, crop rotation, great compost, and plenty of good old sunshine and water.
I consider this a modern version of the old WW II Victory Garden. It takes a little hard work and investment of time but growing and eating your own crops makes sense to me. I know what I’m eating without fear of spoiled plants or diseases and it’s fresh and tasty. It hasn’t been sitting somewhere in the back of a truck or warehouse for weeks before the store displays it for sale. Enough of my preaching, it’s time for me to climb down off my soap box and go accomplish something.
Another week of this and I’ll be all out of a gardener’s best friend, Ben-gay. I should start buying it by the case every Spring based entirely on how my butt and legs feel this morning.
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