Irrelevant Giant

This is a short film from ESPN about a player for the NY Giants in the early 80s. Very very moving. Plus a Regis Philbin appearance...

Figueroa Mountain, April 2013

We went up Figueroa Mountain this weekend. Went up the west side, spent the night at Figueroa campground, went down the east side, then went in to Los Olivos for wine tasting at Qupe. Nice weekend.Full album here.

we went for the flowers, and the green new leaves on the oaks

from the lookout at the top of the mountain

ladybugs not flying away home

fun with the 16mm nikkor

she got a tick, I got a nice photo

Poppies + lupine = traffic jam

rack focus

really sweet pull-off/view point, 16mm

more fun with the 16mm

cows, greenness, oaks along Alisal rd.

Killing Bees

interesting

Pizza Night

Red sauce, cilantro pesto, co-op mozzarella. Red wine from a Newcastle glass...

Piña Colada Ice Cream

'Ice cream' is a bit generous, but this is the closest I've gotten to it. If there's dairy involved I have used either buttermilk or crème fraîche for frozen desserts. I like my dairy cultured. And prefer yogurt in non-frozen form. But crème fraîche is just so darn full of fat it really doesn't make a very balanced dessert. So for this I mixed yogurt with crème fraîche, along with lots of fruit, and it's pretty damn good. Oh, also I used a trick that I read about in Saveur -- you can reduce the icy-ness of  homemade ice cream by reducing the liquid that is available to form ice, and you do this by adding cornstarch so you are freezing a pudding instead of a syrup. Awesome addition to the Sorbet Chronicles.


Piña Colada Ice Cream
1.5 c water

3T cornstarch

1c dried coconut

1c sugar

salt

1 frozen banana

2c frozen pineapple

2c creme fraiche

1/4c sugar

 

2T vanilla

 ~1.5c thin yogurt

Mix water, cornstarch, coconut, sugar, salt; bring to a simmer and cook till it thickens.

Stir in frozen fruit to cool the pudding, chill in fridge

Culture 2c heavy cream with a couple of tablespoons of buttermilk for 24 hours at room temperature

Whip to soft peaks, then add sugar and whip harder

Fold in pudding, vanilla, and the yogurt. Freeze with some stirring, but not too much is needed

Pumpkin Crème Fraîche Sherbet

I made this 3x, 1st and 3rd were great (sugar pie pumpkin and butternut squash, respectively), 2nd time (using a sunshine squash instead of a sugar pie pumpkin) was bad. Awesome addition to the Sorbet Chronicles, when it works... The pic is from the 3rd batch, done early summer when peaches were towards being in season.

Pumpkin Crème Fraîche Sherbet
1 small pumpkin, ~8" diameter
1c sugar
pumpkin pie spice
1t salt
2c heavy whipping cream, cultured with buttermilk to make crème fraîche
1/4 c sugar
1T vanilla

Cut pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds, put in a pot with a little water, cover, steam for 30 min or so
Let it cool, then scrape flesh off of shell
Put in a small pot with 1c sugar and alot of pumpkin pie spice, salt, cook for 30 min or so
Culture the cream with a couple of tablespoons of buttermilk for 24 hours at room temperature
Whip cream to peaks, then add sugar and whip a little more, mix in the pumpkin and vanilla

Tempeh / NPR

nice story