I had the good fortune to find myself at home alone most of yesterday and today. This past weekend I spent in Milwaukee visiting family I had not seen in +2yers, and while we were away my good friend, from North Carolina, Heather came and house-sat the dogs. Since Heather had been so great to do this for us, I decided she deserved a great meal. So for Dinner last night I made a spread worthy of Kings.
Our salad was a simple tomato, mozzarella salad. I found some Locally grown (Kurlbaum Farms) Heirloom Tomatoes at the area Hen House. Unfortunately this has been a slow year for good tomatoes, several local bloggers and my friend Meryl www.mybitofearth.net just recently posted that they are taking forever to ripen, and looking pretty poor. I used some excellent Buffalo Mozzarella, and fresh Basil from the garden. I made a Rosemary Balsamic reduction (Shallots, Garlic, Balsamic Vinegar, and Fresh Rosemary reduced to 1/4) and drizzled it with olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt.
For Dinner I grilled Asparagus with a little minced Garlic and lemon, the smoker uses wood pellets that give a divine flavor to the asparagus. I marinated some chicken in Champagne Vinegar, Olive Oil, Sea Salt, Cracked Pepper, Garlic, Thyme, Basil and Oregano. I also did Strip Steak in a similar marinade, but switched Rosemary for the Basil and Thyme. Lastly I did something completely new. I took Radicchio, Belgian Endives, Portobello Mushrooms, and Garlic and wrapped it all in a proscuitto lined foil packet and grilled it all together.
Dinner was a complete success, Heather even said it may have been the best dinner she has had in Years! For breakfast I chopped up a neat litlle Sprite Melon (so Sweet!) and Strawberries, and tossed them together for a fresh and light treat, and served with a Kona Pea Berry Coffee. Tonight, I believe I will be doing salad and a pasta with a lemon-Veloute sauce, with chicken, asparagus, tomato, garlic, and feta cheese. Unfortunately We were so hungry that I did not think to take a picture till after we were done!
A few weeks ago I made mention of a TV Series known as “Legend of the Seeker.” This television series was produced by ABC studios as a syndicated broadcast and carried by several networks, but mostly by Tribune Station Groups (think CW). Earlier this spring Tribune dropped the series due to poor ratings which has propped the show to end, unless some miracle occurs.
While I learned to like the show, at first I was entirely detested by the show. Its blatant disregard for cannon, disruption of events and misinterpretation of the original literature was barely balanced by an ability to make the show watch able, and the characters believable and true to form (mostly) . I mourn to see its passing in some ways, but in others am glad its over, as I won’t be forced to re-examine every episode and convince myself to like it, and now the book series can re take my imagination.
Now there is a small group of people who think they can get the show back if they cry enough. I wish they could make this happen because a part of me would like to see more, but they need to understand media. The cost to produce and air a television show is more than all of there annual incomes added together. There is billions and billions of dollars in every show TV show when all is said and done, and especially a show like this that I seriously doubt made much if any profit. People- let us remember this is America home of the money grubbers, not America the place where TV gets made because its good stuff. Any network will make a ton more money off of a low cost reality show than a show with elaborate special effects, costumes, and well paid actors, so keep trying but don’t get your hopes up. Its over.
Semester grades were turned into the registrar Tuesday, and we have been given our grades! I have some great news to report to all my lovely readers the number of which has now gone from 3 readers to 4-thanks to my awesome cousin Rachel (who I happen to know is secretly obsessed with my blog) I have achieved the goal of goals a wonderful 4.0! I would bore you with details but instead I will just practice my klingon and say “Quapla’! (success!) Now I have already signed up for classes, but am having some small hiccups with residency and cost, so as this works out I will keep you updated, needless to say at this point Summer and Fall classes combined are going to cost me over $10,000, some of which can be paid with student loans (around ½) and that’s not including books, parking, and the fact that I wont hardly be able to work, so I have some kinks to work out, and there is an issue with UMKC possibly cutting off my financial Aid, they say I have borrowed too much for my grade, which makes no sense as before this semester my average student loan was like maybe $1000 since I was still considered a dependent of my parents. All this goes to show that the government needs to step in and regulate these costs or give more subsidies to people going to school, I am not sure why all my tax dollars are being spent on useless $9 Billion wars, when I can’t even get enough funding for school to make more money for the government to tax. They are totally selling themselves short!
Three days left. Or 3 hrs, 45 min. Either way you look at it, time is getting close on this semesters classes and I could not be happier. Today I finished one class, it was a 2nd 8 week class that was held only on three weekends. It went from 8:30 AM- 4:00 PM Sat & Sun. However we only stayed till 4:00 once, and today we were out by noon. The class was relatively useless, it was called career and life studies, and was supposed to help us figure out how to be successful, or something. I really got nothing form the class, but it fulfilled a random requirement, which is fine with me.
This week I have two more classes of my Urban Studies course, which I enjoy greatly but makes me want to punch a few of my fellow classmates square in the head. I have the final for that class on Monday the 3rd. Then I have 2 blissful months of no school, but unfortunately will need to work a ton during those weeks, and in July 2 more classes, one history, and one Philosophy and at this point it looks like three classes this fall, unless my situation changes with in state/ out of state tuition crap.
Going back to school has been fun, I think I can be done in 2 years, maybe less, time will only tell. I did spend this week getting my ass handed to me, I had a paper due on Monday, one on Wednesday, and the final section of my portfolio this weekend, I have let all things non school related fall behind, such as keeping up with my friends lives, a blooming relationship left dead and all working out stopped as well.
However I hope to reverse all that this week, I have just a few more classes and have a few weeks before I begin my next round of classes, and until then I just need to find a job that is a little more exciting and pays more. Good luck to me!
Today for lunch I made a wonderfully easy steak salad I thought would be nice to share for everyone.
I wanted to keep it simple and since I am really picky about my salads this was relatively easy. I used Romaine Lettuce, Sliced Red Onion, Freshly picked Cilantro, Feta cheese, a Parmesan Ranch dressing and a delicious steak. My dad grilled the steak last night, it was a filet, wrapped in bacon and he cooked it to medium rare which worked fine for the salad, I did warm the steak (cheated and micro waved). The dressing was very simple, Parmesan/Reggiano cheese, Chives, Cilantro and ranch dressing, mixed together and tasted fantastic.
In addition to the simple salad I wanted to include some add on’s that while I find them not as appealing would work wonderfully for the salad, Grape tomatoes, radishes, mushrooms (sliced cremini would be best), and some red cabbage. I would also suggest adding some nuts, I would have used toasted pine nuts, but candied pecans would probably be amazing. I also understand my proclivity for Feta cheese is not always appreciated so any number of cheeses could be easily substituted based on your own tastes such as Bleu Cheese or Goat Cheese. Even some fine cheddar such as Vermont would be a tasty addition.
Fresh herbs. What a wonderful and delicious thing! My little tiny green friends are coming along fairly well with only a few hiccups along the way. My Basil took a shock at the beginning of the week, it got very cold overnight, and I did not even think about the poor buggers, and the next morning I was looking at 6 little shriveled green guys, so I did the only thing I could think of. Nothing. I thought, hey they are in shock and likely anything I do will probably make it worse, so I gave them a few days, no watering or anything and they came back a little worse for the wear, but I think they will be ok. All the other guys are doing very nicely, the cilantro was cranky at first but is now coming along even better than I could have imagined, and while the others are not exactly taking off, I think in another week or so I am going to have to start pinching them back.
So after a rather droll class today I thought to myself I should make something with some of these tasty treats and came up with this delicious pasta .
I used a tri-color rotini pasta ( tomato, spinach and egg) and leftover pulled rotisserie chicken ( slightly smoky, but no skin and white meat only!) A lemon herbed veloute sauce, and Feta cheese.
To better explain the sauce I did a twisted Veloute/Bercy. For those of you who are unfamiliar with these sauces, volute is one of the “five mother sauces” used in French cooking. They are the base sauces that all other sauces are built upon. They are Bechamel (milk and roux), Espagnole sauce (roughly a very dark roux with veal stock and meat and bone) AKA Brown sauce, Hollandaise (egg yolk, butter and lemon juice) this is the amazing sauce served on eggs benedict, Tomato sauce (need I say more), and Veloute (light roux with one of many kinds of stock added to it). Bercy is simply Veloute with the addition of Shallots and white wine (basically) SOOOO… I made my roux (equal parts butter and flour cooked till straw colored, then added chicken stock and lemon juice (2T butter/Flour; 1cup of broth, and +2T of lemon juice) let it simmer for 20 minutes then added my basil (the poor damaged leaves) minced garlic, and Oregano and gave it another 5-10 minutes or so to release the flavors. Then I tossed the pasta in the sauce and chicken and added Feta (lots) to the top with some more julienne basil and oregano.
The result was fabulous! And I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture, but I think you all get the picture. Now you will have to take note, when I am cooking I often do much by feel, smell, and taste so my times are not exact and often my measures are not as exact, however, one does not mess wit the proportions of roux, or veloute. Not without some terrifying results anyway, so consider yourself warned.
So I got to make a pasta dish I have been toying with and use my fresh herbs, as well as pinch back some of my tiny friends, all a great night for yummy foods! As Julia says “Bonne Appetite!”
All hail that fabulous time of year known as SPRING BREAK! WOOO! Now it has been several years since Spring Break meant anything to me, even in my past college experience it was pretty lame, and this year it was looking pretty droll, I took no time off from work and had few plans, but as the week has gone on I have managed to get rid of a few shifts, and have made some spectacular fun days! On Monday I helped clean out the garage (lots more to do) and few small errands, then today (A beautiful day) I Spent some quality time reading in the sunshine, and then I took my nieces to the park (what fun can be had on jungle gym equipment!)
To finish the night, I made a fantastic dinner for the family. It went better than I could have imagined. Their was grilled chicken, grilled asparagus, wheat rolls, and salad! The asparagus was simple, blanched then a little olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, cilantro, and pepper. I let it sit for just about 10 minutes then plopped it onto the grill for about 7 minutes, maybe more, just till they were warm and looking a little crispy.
The chicken marinated for several hours, I used the leftovers of a sauvignon Blanc from the night before, (Pomelo-this SB has the flavors of the pomelo fruit which is a large citrus fruit that is the ancestor to a grapefruit.) olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, onion (white) and just some simple Italian herbs (namely basil, and rosemary). And Voila a moist and delicious chicken! After I pulled the chicken off the grill I did place a dollop of Pesto on each breast and a slice of Fresh Mozzarella and broiled them just long enough to melt and slightly brown the cheese. This is my favorite way to zing up boring old chicken breast.
The salad was more of a salad bar, I put everything for salads in small bowls on the table namely because I don’t like any of it in my own salad but the family does. The rolls were actually straight form our local Hy-Vee so just plain old dinner rolls, but were perfect with dinner! After dinner it was time for a quick walk/run. More walk than run on my part.
SO my plans for this week are simple, its supposed to be about 80 degrees tomorrow, so after coffee and breakfast I think I will try to get some yard work done, then off to see Alice in Wonderland 3D during the afternoon, then maybe some simple hoagie sandwiches for dinner, or perhaps panninis, I was thinking Fresh mozz, leftover pulled chicken, tomatoes and pesto!
As for the rest of the week, who knows, but I am definitely going to enjoy it!
I think its time for me to come out…about my obsession with SciFi/Fantasy. (Got yeah!) Most of my friends and family are already aware of this, but I am totally obsessed with all things SciFi and Fantasy. I mean books, movies, TV shows, games, on and on and on. One of my biggest obsessions was with Terry Goodkind and his Sword of Truth Series. I loved this series so much that I wanted to be in a Richard and Kahlan sandwich (sandwich only because I know Richard would only have me if I dealt with Kahlan). The Characters, the relationships, the story, it was a wonderful tribute to writing, even if the end was a little weak-sauce. Be aware if you are planning on watching the series this post has spoilers that may either deter you or encourage you to watch the show.
A few months ago my dear little brother and I were in Lawrence having dinner with our friends Meryl and Blaine and we all discussed the series and the TV Show that has evolved around it. I had seen parts of episode 1 and was disgusted by its lack of any sort of closeness to the book other than some of the basics. However, Little brother has been hounding me to give it a go again, and with my Birthday gifts (Blu-Ray with Netflix and a 9 month Net-Flix subscription) I had no more excuses.
I am trying really hard to like the series, and I mean really hard, I have given up all preconceptions that it will be anything like the books and look at it as a new series with the characters I love. But after the second episode I don’t know if I ever will make it. I mean I can’t believe how different it is! There is no previous relationship with Zedd and Richard, so there is no deep feelings of friendship and concern that is so important to Richards Character. I believe Richards feelings are the most important part of his character, not to mention his powers as both seeker and later as a wizard. And speaking of Power, I have to say the Sword of Truth may have some extraordinary magic, but where is the consequence? Where is the balance? Magic in the sword of truth series often has a relationship to science in the real world, one big similarly is to Newtons Third Law: To every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction. The magic in the sword of truth is embedded in this principal! It is a magic of duality, of Life and Death, of Anger and Love, of giving and taking! It will give you the power to smite any enemy but it takes its price in pain, and without the ample supply of anger that price will kill you, and your first kill is both test and an action of bonding, bonding the magic of the sword with its twin in the Seeker. But Richards first kill does nada! AHHH!
Kahlan and Richards relationship is jacked up too, they are making a mistake showing her power so soon and having Zedd warn Richard so soon. There is no time for their friendship to evolve and them to fall in love.
And lastly what’s up with the Caribbean Addie! And Zedd and her lacked a whole series of important discussions involving sex and growing back her foot.
Well I will keep trying but I am not expecting to fall as in love with this series as I did with the books, but only time will tell.
I just watched “Did You Hear About the Morgans.” While the movie has two of my favorite stars (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) The movie itself was…terrible. It had a few laughs but the whole plot was well not much of a plot! Lol! I do have to mention a few great things, some of that feel good family crap you know, but for me was SJP quoting the most quotable master of verse. Master Shakespeare. She used Sonnet 116 as her wedding vow, now this sonnet is widely known, but I have decided to leave it here for all of those people who devour my blogs ☺ Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose Worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom: If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.[1] –William Shakespeare
I am beyond excited that spring has begun! The grass gets greener everyday, we have had several days of semi-warm weather, and plants are beginning to bud! The best has been seeing my flowers planted last fall come to bud, and I have gotten my herb garden started.
Our neighborhood has an unfortunate amount of rabbits. I mean wow! So in an effort to keep my wonderful herbs from succumbing to their gnawing little teeth I have gone the route of a potted garden. There are several advantages to a potted garden, you can easily move your herbs indoors during the winter for an extended season, you don’t end up with “runaway herbs” (My brother has mint running amuck in his backyard, some of which I will be going to take off his hands, if anyone needs mint, see me and you are welcome to some) and it looks brilliant!
I planted Garlic Chives & Onion Chives in one larger planter. I placed Italian Oregano & Thyme in a second planter, and Sweet Basil in the third large planter. I also planted Cilantro in a medium pot, and Rosemary in a smaller pot. Basil and Cilantro are used by my entire family all year in a ton of cooking, and with fresh herbs coming out all year I think their will be pesto’s and sauces galore this summer.
I procured all of these wonderful starters from a local nursery by the name of Family Tree Nursery. I did quite a bit of research on local nurseries trying to decide which one to go with and Family Tree guaranteed locally grown starters, all of which came from A town in Missouri (Clever or Cleveland or something) and the lady in the Nursery said they don’t use pesticides or growth accelerators and the herbs all came from Organic Seeds, which was a huge plus for me!
So only a few more spring projects left, I need to fix up the compost bin, and reseed some grass in the backyard, and possibly some other small things, I really want to do some Veggies, so I am considering a sort of elevated planter to keep the lettuce and tomatoes from the rabbits, but I am not sure this will really work, so I will have to do some research on how to accomplish this.
All of this is being done in an effort to become more sustainable, and to join a small group of people that my good friend, and fellow blogger, Meryl calls Urban Homesteading, while I don’t see myself ever going to the impressive lengths she has (Chickens! I think my dog would eat them!) I feel she has the some great ideas concerning ways to make ourselves healthy and richer (in spirit and money) by doing all we can to make ourselves sustainable. Thanks Mers for the great ideas!
Be aware this a total rant blog, I mean I go at it hard!
As a young man raised in a small community in a semi-rural town in America I was raised with some basic rules of thumb.
1.America is the best place to live
2.Capitalism makes the world work, and other forms of socio/economic fundamentals are wrong.
.Christianity is the only religion worth believing in, as you go to hell if you are not a Christian.
These were not things that my parents taught me, or were forced upon me by anyone person, it’s the general feeling you get when you live in a city of “Good ol boy” types, good Christians who work hard, and the richest people in the town really aren’t that rich. A very Midwestern middle class city, and lucky enough to come from a home that was blessed to not have suffered any big financial issues, and a neighborhood that was filled with homes of very similar people.
So as I entered High School and began to go down a path of “free thinking” (or as my favorite eccentric English teacher would call it “THINKING” ) Some things became clearer to me. If you are not Christian, you don’t go to hell. Sorry to the bible beaters, but I cannot believe that more than 70% of the worlds population will go to hell because they believe different from you, especially since Christianity is so young compared to many other faiths (Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc). I also went through a change in what I considered social normality’s as I found that I was a homosexual. But lets keep moving.
I began to see lots of strife in America as I went to college, and then left college to experience ‘real life’. I could see people being treated wrong, persecuted for their beliefs, their race, their sexuality. I could see a disparity between the rich and the poor. I began to see that America was great, but not the greatest country in the world. I moved to Hawaii thinking maybe the distance would help, but it was still America. Here is where I began to really want to see a change in American policies and attitudes. I wanted America to be this great country we thought we lived in, one where we truly are treated as equals, where we the people make decisions in a democratic and united way. One where hate and bigotry were obsolete. I could see Americans take a step forward and then one back, and wondered how this would all end up.
Then tragedy ensued, the financial crisis of 2008.I endured this as many Americans did, however, the chaos of the crisis had me moving back home, and instead of continuing on in my profession (which had lost all its glory in the face of –you guessed it- capitalism) and I returned to college. Now was a critical time for America, we elected a black man president, a man who promised us many things, financial reform, free rights for all people, healthcare reform. I thought great things were coming to America, maybe the things I hoped for would come true. So far we have seen some steps in what I believe are the right direction. #1 being the biggest reform to healthcare seen in the US in years. We have seen some big moves by the US people to hold the banking system accountable (although I think the changes were not enough) And at this time I began to get really in to my Urban Planning Major. Here Socialism began to rear its ugly head at me again. We had discussed Socialism in High School in our American Government Class. In HS Socialism was taught to us as a failed system of socio/economic planning that leads to a downward spiral towards communism and chaos. However my time in the world had taught me to discount this theory. Even in Hawaii, where we were still part of the US, a small piece of socialism had crept in. Anyone employed had to carry healthcare. Surprisingly, the healthcare was good, and affordable, mainly because more people were forced to carry this important insurance.
I find that as I get older, and things like school, and healthcare, and even social welfare programs mean more to me. I find that I believe this country formed our Government to help ourselves. I would like to think that man is placed here to help one another, that we all belong to one vast system of life, and our actions to help others in this life is what will decide our fate in the life after. I believe it is our duty to work together to better ourselves, and to learn from one another and that this learning will help us become a great people, one capable of mighty deeds, one able to offer freedom to all people, one that will end poverty and strife, but the thing that I see standing in our way is very powerful and has already sunk its teeth very deeply into the hearts and minds and souls of many people. Not just Americans, but many people of many countries. I see that evil manifested often in capitalism and the drive to “own”. We have become slaves to the all-mighty dollar, and have forgotten that there is more to ourselves than what we own. How can we compete with something as powerful as this? I see socialism as the possible end to this. I think I see many young people starting to think this way as well. We have become more conscious of our Earth and we seem determined to save it, to stop causing damage and begin to repair this damage. I think this love for the planet can be expanded to a love of people as well, and as we age and begin to take our places in society and our governments I hope we will be able to effect these changes.
In Star Wars Episode 3 Padme says to Anakin, “What if the democracy we thought we were serving no longer exists, and the Republic has become the very evil we have been fighting to destroy?” I often wonder if this has not happened in America. After WWII We helped many countries to build just democratic states that are oddly socialist, and yet we never seemed to go that direction, in fact I believe that capitalism thrived on the downfall of these countries and grew like a virus during the time we should have been continuing to look inward and restructuring ourselves to some of these ideas.
So I will continue to learn and watch and hope that we as a country will continue to work on ourselves and become more than we are.
This Fall upon returning to KC My mother asked me to use my long dormant green thumb to spruce up some small areas around the lawn. Now it has been quite some years since I really applied any effort to gardening, not for any big reason other than after High school I have not really lived anywhere where gardening would be practical or even easy. As many of you know that if it is not practical or easy then I am more than likely not going to participate!
Back to the story, I went to the local plant store (aka Home Depot and picked up a variety of bulbs for some easy spring planting, Tulips, Irises, and 2 others I have some how forgotten what they were! Well the other day, when taking baby niece for a little walk around the block in the wagon, I noticed that my little plants were starting to bud! I recognized the Tulips and the Irises right off the bat! Now when I went to plant these suckers I had a hell of a time, the planter is conveniently located under a Japanese Maple Tree, which has some terribly shallow roots. In conjunction with the shallow roots, I was also competing with some of that tarpy crap that keeps weeds from growing that my parents put down when they built the planter. The last issue was the soil. Here in Lenexa we are blessed with some fantastic clay like soil that is a b**ch to dig up. I was very worried when planting that I would not be able to get the bulbs down far enough, and then I decided to place more bulbs than recommended in the trench I had so painstakingly cut out of the earth.
Then we had a huge snow storm to cause me anxiety, but my dear friend and fellow blogger Meryl assured me they would be just fine. In fact last year her daffodils were bloomed and got encased in ice and still did well, so this pesky snow should be nothing but an annoyance.
So The next Project? Well we have an area to use as a compost heap, and I really think I will be building an herb garden! Some well placed Basil, Cilantro, Chives, Oregano, and maybe thyme seem like some wonderful choices, I just need some free time away from School and work to get this next project going! I plan to place the herbs into planters, and I really want to do tomatoes, lettuce, asparagus and green beans but we will have to see. I am definitely feeling the crunch of time with school speeding up and project after project due, but that’s for another blog.
After a short Hiatus I have returned to the blog world. Much has happened over the last two months, number 1 is my return to school. I am enrolled at UMKC (University of Missouri at Kansas City) and am working towards a degree in Urban Planning and Development. I plan to use this degree (or one similar) to someday work with cities, and corporations on developing green practices. While my current degree is not geared 100% to this kind of action, I believe it is a close shot to furthering my career goals.
So far school is going well, I enjoy my class (only one this semester) and am learning lots about Urban development—the field is very…theoretical. There are lots of different ideas in the world that have been used to describe how we have developed from hunter/gatherer’s into more specialized occupations and every 20 years or so another idea seems to surface utilizing economic and political thoughts to assist in the formulation of these ideas. The next step in our world will be convincing the governments and economies that if we want to continue to grow as a world wide community needs to be done in an environmentally positive way. This is very hard as it takes cooperation from countries across the world.
I am sure that with the mind set of many corporations and countries as well as people this next step in our urban evolution will be an exciting field to be a part of. I am hoping by next semester to have a better idea of which degree in Urban planning will be the best fit, as well as a possible internship lined up. If not I have a few more semesters to go and am confident this will be no problem for me. I will keep you posted on this exciting new course of action my life will be taking! Until then, remember to reduce your carbon footprints, recycle what you can and reuse anything you can to help keep our trash down. Also turn off the lights in parts of your house you are not in.
