Friday Nights

Our usual Friday night is for Sharon to go directly from where ever she is working to the Bistro and work on desserts. I show up at the bar at seven or so with a bottle of wine. I usually take two bottles with me on the off chance that one is bad. Tonight one was bad! I had two Haut-Medocs. A 2000 and a 2001. The 2000 was done, over the hill, finis. The 2001 was delicious! The bar was too busy though tonight and I moved to a table. I ordered a risotto and baby shrimp appetizer that really hit the spot - it spoke of comfort to me and, it went well with my wine. One of the servers said that he could tell by my body language that I was happy with the risotto. Sharon joined be around 8:30 and she had the same appetizer and it made her happy too. We finished with dessert, chocolate bread pudding, one of Sharon's specialties at the Bistro. It was also delicious with the wine. We had a nice evening as it was quiet in the dining room allowing us to talk easily and enjoy our time together. Home by 9:30.

The photo is not my usual iPhone grab. I just got a new 17mm f2.8 for my Olympus Pen EP-2. This was one of my first half dozen images with the new lens. I am very happy and will be pleased to be using this in Spain in less than two weeks. Many wonderful photos to follow! The 17mm along with my wide and long telephotos round out my lens collection for this camera. The whole system is a joy to use and quite compact with everything fitting in a small, lightweight bag less than a quarter of the size I used to lug around.

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo. We've got five neighbors and three others coming over for an evening of Mexican food and margaritas. A good time is in store for all of us.
Today was the 42nd anniversary of the deaths of four students at Kent State. There seemed to be little remembrance of that day and more remembrance of Star Wars day. To me the deaths at Kent State were something we should all remember and ponder. In 1970 we were demonstrating on campus across this country to draw attention to the war in Vietnam and the invasion of Cambodia and hoping to bring it all to an end. I did my little part, marching in Austin, but the students who were shot at Kent State brought more attention to the movement. The shootings should not have occurred, but they did and the resulting ground swell to end the war grew stronger after Kent State. As a country we were terribly divided, in a different way than we are now. It took a long time to heal but we did heal

Fun with Picasa! I've been using Picasa for quite a while for editing but have not played with it. Today ends that. I am experimenting and the first experiment is collage! Let's see what this looks like in the blog. This is a collection of recent food photos - all taken with the iPhone. I need to use a better camera and lighting and I do have that technology.

Sichuan Style Shrimp Stir Fry

Sichuan Style Shrimp Stir Fry

This was in Cook's Illustrated as Sichuan Stir-Fried Pork in Garlic Sauce. I made it once with the pork, following the recipe and it was great. I liked the sauce and thought it might work well with shrimp. The following is the recipe with the changes I made to make a version with shrimp. The chili paste is one of the keys to this dish - providing a little heat but not too much.

Sauce
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons fish sauce2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water

Stir Fry
4 minced garlic cloves
One bunch scallions sliced thin
3 tablespoons chili bean paste - find this in most Asian sections of your local grocer
6 ounces of destemmed and sliced shitakes
A container of stir fry veggies from Whole Foods! I took the easy way out here. It contained a variety of bite sized veggies.
About 1 pound of raw, peeled shrimp.

1. Sauce - mix it all together and set aside.
2. Combine garlic, scallions, and chili paste in a bowl.
3. Heat some oil in your wok and cook the mushrooms until tender.
4. Add the garlic, scallion, chili paste mixture and cook for a minute or so.
5. Add the veggies and cook for a few minutes.
6. Add the sauce and continue to cook.
7 Add the shrimp and cook until done.
8. Serve over rice and garnish with some reserved scallion greens.

Hops and Photography

One of the hops plants is growing. No sign yet of the second one. Here's hoping! Or is that hopping?

A few years a go I started writing notes for either a class or an article for beginner photographers. My thought was that I could provide helpful hints to help people improve their photographs. Today I was looking at some one's photo posts on Facebook and realized that with some people, there is no hope for improvement. There are a few basics that you must have for a photograph - hold the camera steady to avoid motion blur, focus the camera so that your subject is in focus, and composition - make sure your subject is at least obvious to viewers. If you can't get at least two of these three you are in big trouble.

The use of digital cameras has made motion blur a bigger problem than it once was. Because people tend to hold their camera out in front of themselves, they tend to introduce blur. With your arms extended you cannot brace the camera. Many digital cameras have partially corrected this with built in electronic image stabilization. But still, you can help yourself by taking a little care.

Focus! It is hard to look at a photograph that is out of focus. Most cameras today have auto focus and all it takes for it to work is to slow down a bit, hold that camera still, point at what you want in focus, and press the shutter release. It does not take a genius!

Composition. This is where most people fail. Stick with the basics. If you are doing a portrait of someone, move in close. Fill the frame with them - face or head and shoulders. Don't cut their heads off. Don't get fancy, center your main subject. Photographing a child or a pet? Don't shoot down on them from above! Get down to their level. Think about what you are photographing and ask yourself if someone is not there would they understand what your are trying to photograph?

Simple rules. Follow them!

Marc Chagall Windows in Reims Cathederal.

 These are the Marc Chagall Windows in Reims Cathederal. We were there last year and they are beautiful. I was going through old pictures because Larry and Dave want to do a Colby Jordan wall in their condo entry. I'm enjoying picking photos for that spot. This will not be one of them!

I put this here as an intro what what I am thinking right now. We are trying to plan a trip to China with Larry, Dave, Ginger, Audra, and Claire. We had a very nice itinerary but as Larry and Sharon make changes the trip seems to become more complicated with more transfers, time in airports, and more time in big cities. I hope we can work something out. The basic premise of this trip is to accompany Claire to Shanghai or Hangzhou for the fall semester where she will be studying.

Sharon has scored a great deal on American Airlines using miles to fly us non-stop from Chicago to Beijing and back from Shaghai. First Class seating both ways for about 270,000 miles. We have to book this by tomorrow, so we at least have to have our China dates nailed. This will empty our bank, though we are supposed to get double miles for our trip to Madrid in May. I sure liked flying first class from Portland last week and I would like to have the miles to do that again!

Oh well. We shall see what we end up with. No signs of hops yet in the garden.

Planting Hops

Today I planted two hops rhizomes. Cascad and Zeus. They are both on the northwest corner of our garage which gives them full sun and allows room to build a trellis and attempt to train them. Photos will follow as they develop! I suspect it will take a couple of years for them to fully establish themselves. We shall see. If they grow and produce a hop crop I will share the results with my beer brewing friends - and see what they can do with them.

Here is some info:

Zeus Hops, although genetically different, gets shuffled into the CTZ group of Hops. CTZ stands for Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus. There is a brief history time line involving different hop growers with the same or similar varieties. They each got their own name, as can be seen, however they emerged back into simply CTZ as they were identified as .

After the merging of the brands it was later discovered that Zeus was in fact a seperate variety through gas chromatograph. Even still, its brewing characteristics are so bitterly close that it makes sense to simplly move forward with CTZ as the revised brand name. HUSE-CEZ, LLC is the resulting joint venture that manages the trademark for this variety.

All of the information you need can be found on the Columbus Hops Page.

Cascade Hops aroma and flavor is best summed up, as simply, American Pale Ale. There is also New Zealand as well as Argentinean Cascade. This particular variety took life in 1972 and has certainly won some hearts in the brewing industry. Bread by the U.S.D.A in Oregon, Cascade Hops can be found overwhelmingly in a number of commercial U.S. beers.

Cascade hops contains moderate alpha acid content ranging from 4.5% to 7%. Its real strength is in the aroma, as it was the premier aroma hop developed in the U.S. This mettlesome grower bears a verdant, botanic bouquet. It carries some spicyness to it as well. The aroma of Cascade also comes with citrus, sometimes compared to grapefruit. This no doubt comes from the higher levels of myrcene. Farnesene also registers fairly high in Cascade, which is used in the perfume and food industry.

Cascade is fairly resistance to disease and fungus, but its inability to store well, makes it lose some hops points. Its parents include Fuggle and Serebrianker, which is a Russian Variety. Cascade is one of the most accessible and ritual hops (in the U.S.), and rhizomes are readily available as well.

Kathy and Brady

This is one of the photos from our trip to Brookfield Zoo this week. I think it is a wonderful image of Kathy and Brady. Brady is at a great age for photos, lots of expressions and she is not camera shy as she may well be in a few years so I have the chance now to capture natural expressions. We will have lots of photos of Brady as she grows! It is my goal to provide Kathy and Kevin with many well composed, in focus images of their family.