Inertia, Bachelor Style
by jharder on Feb.02, 2012, under Ruminations
The weirdest thing happened to me tonight.
It was about 6pm. I was still at the office, mostly because I had run across an intriguing Mac problem around 4:30 and didn’t want to let it go (the customer runs on CST, so they weren’t really staying late because of my curiosity). That issue had been dealt with, though, and now I was left, sitting at my desk, not wanting to go home. I blamed inertia; that feeling that getting up, locking up the office, and then going out to the car and heading home to make dinner was entirely too much effort. Staying parked in my chair was effortless. This seems like an easy choice.
However, I was not in a mood to spend money to eat downtown, and you do have to go home eventually, so I found the strength to overcome the inertia and get up and go home. While on my way across the parking lot, I realized something: it wasn’t a desire to stay in one spot that had kept me anchored so firmly, it was the fact that I was going to have to go home and figure out what to do about dinner, and then go about making said dinner. This was not something I wanted to do.
I have never, up until tonight, wished that I could just come home to a ready meal and a waiting significant other. I’ve always considered myself highly self-sufficient, and the fact that I can cook means I’m not doomed to a life of Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese, delicious as that may be. Yet here I found myself tonight, wishing that I could come home and at least realize that dinner was in progress. The hard decisions of what to have and when to have it and getting it ready were theoretically largely taken care of. This sounded spectacular.
Don’t consider me converted to the notion of finding a housewife. That’s not the case. I blame this mood largely on a failure to plan: I didn’t put together an option or two this weekend that would yield adequate leftovers for the week. A week spent eating ad-hoc can pretty easily generate this dilemma. The lesson from this moment of inertia? Make some friggin’ scalloped potatoes with ham on Sunday for when nights like this strike.
40 Recipe Challenge, Part 4: Orange-Chipotle Chicken
by jharder on Jan.29, 2012, under Food
Last night my parents asked me to cat-sit at their place, so I decided to take advantage of the fact that they have a grill and do a recipe from a grilling cookbook a friend gave me for Christmas. I was originally going to grill some chicken in a bourbon-molasses sauce, but this seemed a lot easier (and it was).
Orange-Chipotle Chicken
1 large orange, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chile chipotle powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 clove garlic, minced
Combine the ingredients in a shallow dish large enough to hold the chicken. Marinade for at least 10-15 minutes, or up to 4 hours in the refrigerator, turning occasionally.
Grill over high heat (around 400 degrees) for 10-12 minutes or until cooked through.
I paired this with some of the updated rice pilaf and some frozen corn that I put on the grill with some butter, a little lime juice, and some of the chipotle powder. The chicken definitely had a strong orange taste, and didn’t have a lot of heat from the chipotle. If you want a little more kick, I’d probably increase the powder to 1/2 teaspoon or a whole teaspoon. This was fast and easy enough that I could probably do it on my George Foreman grill at home if I ever get sick of the packaged marinades. Definitely a keeper.
40 Recipe Challenge, Part 3: Classic Marinara
by jharder on Jan.24, 2012, under Food
This is another one of the recipes I pulled from the Two Dudes One Pan cookbook. It’s used with the ricotta and pancetta-stuffed pork chops, but since I only used half of the sauce on the pork chops, I threw the other half in the freezer for a week or so with the intent of trying it out with some pasta.
This sauce is a little different from the usual tomato sauces that I normally put together. For one, it includes 20 cloves of garlic, sliced up. Twenty. I like garlic, but I’ve never put that much in anything. I was a little concerned this thing was going to taste like garlic-flavored tomatoes, but they really didn’t overwhelm the sauce that much. I also decided to give store-bought tomatoes another try (I usually go with frozen Roma tomatoes that I put together around Labor Day from the Farmer’s Market) and was pretty satisfied with the results. The sauce, given a chance to sit overnight in the refrigerator, did a great job of mellowing. I warmed it up, tossed it with some linguine, and got a pretty good meal out of it. Definitely a keeper.
A day long remembered.
by jharder on Jan.22, 2012, under Ruminations
Since January 2 2010, A-TEAM SOCCER has taken the field 50 times. 3 sessions of indoor soccer, 3 sessions of outdoor soccer. We lost every game we played. Some games were ugly. Some games were close. We’d have a strong first half and then collapse from fatigue in the second half. But not today.
A-TEAM WINS!
I had expected that this would happen soon. I was not expecting it to happen today, to be honest. But finally, after a year of taking the field week after week and facing defeat, we can put one in the W column.
I want to thank the team, including the three surviving members who were originally cut a year ago and formed the core of the team. I want to thank the people who played with us for a time but weren’t able to take the field with us tonight. Your contribution was not unnoticed.
I don’t expect that we’ll win every game from here on out. I don’t even expect that we’ll win half of our games. But I feel like we can finally field a solid team. We’ve reached the end of the beginning, and when we take the field next Sunday we’ll be all the more pumped up for it. After 50 games we finally demonstrated that we can win, and it’s made the entire trip worth it. And the three times I got hit in the head tonight (including two in a row).
Here’s to A-TEAM!
40 Recipe Challenge, Part 2: Ricotta and Pancetta-stuffed Pork Chops
by jharder on Jan.22, 2012, under Food
Last weekend I took a crack at a recipe from Two Dudes, One Pan, a cookbook that I got a few years ago and never really took a close look at. I was flipping through it a few weeks ago and figured that this would be a good one to try. The recipe also calls for some of their classic marinara, which I’ll cover in a separate post, but as a standalone dish this one was surprisingly quick and easy; I came home and did this on a Monday night and was eating by 7pm.
The first, and messiest, part is searing the pork chops. The recipe called for four chops, but I could only either find them in 3 packs or 6 packs, so I went with three and stuffed them about as much as I could. I had already resigned myself to the notion that this was going to make a ridiculous mess out of my pan ahead of time.
After searing the pork chops on the stove for a few minutes, I covered them with some of the marinara and threw the whole pan into the hot oven and baked them at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes. I finally had a good justification for getting an All-Clad pan; the nice thick frying pan did wonderfully in the oven.
Prior to putting the pork chops in the oven, I made up some quick garlic bread by taking a loaf of soft French bread, slicing it lengthwise, adding butter, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning, then throwing the whole thing open-faced under the broiler for a couple of minutes. I wrapped it up in some foil to keep it warm and used the garlic bread to soak up the marinara that was left over at the end.
It’s not the prettiest dish, but it turned out well. Definitely worth making again.
Fauxberon, adventure style
by jharder on Jan.22, 2012, under Brewing
One of my favorite summer beers is Oberon. Oberon Day is a day that I eagerly anticipate from about January 4 forward, since it marks more or less the end of winter and the promise of summer’s arrival. A week or so ago, I was thinking about this year’s Oberon day and how awesome it would be to make my own imitation Oberon and have that on Oberon day, just for kicks. I even managed to do what about 99% of homebrewers who seek to imitate Oberon do and decided to call it Fauxberon.
A couple of friends decided to join me, and we got together yesterday to make the Oberon. It was quite the adventure.
I’m used to doing full-grain brews with the mash tun and the cracked grain and the thermometers. This was a lean operation, though, so we did away with the mash tun. And the thermometer. And the wort chiller. I borrowed my friend’s burner and swiped the propane tank from my parent’s grill and headed over with some Gingerbread Joe to sit in the snow in 25-degree weather while we made a smaller 2.5 gallon batch of beer. Instead of mashing in a traditional mash tun, we poured the grain into a special sock and steeped it at what we assume was 150 degrees for about a half an hour, then boiled for about 60 minutes with various hop additions.
The resulting wort (at double density) tasted pretty good.
As we didn’t have a wort chiller to get it down to temperature quickly, we racked the beer into the primary fermenter and let it cool overnight. Not sure what the original gravity is; last night when the wort was still pretty warm (and at double-strength) it was around 1.110. It will probably be ready for bottling by the end of February, and should have enough time to condition in growlers and bottles before Oberon Day on March 26.
Ultimately, I’m not too concerned about the beer turning out. As one of my much more experienced brewer friends likes to say: “Relax. It’s just beer.”
40 Recipe Challenge, Part 1: Lasagna
by jharder on Jan.15, 2012, under Food
I had mentioned previously that one of the things I want to do this year is try about 40 new recipes, either completely untested before, or revisits of family recipes that I haven’t ever done before. Last night I took a crack at lasagna, based on my grandmother’s recipe. Here goes:
Grandma’s Lasagna
1 lb ground beef or Italian sausage
1 small onion, chopped
1 12oz can tomato paste
1 28oz can tomatoes
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons parsley
12 lasagna noodles (most of a box)
1 lb pizza cheese
2 C Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 C Parmesan cheese
Begin by browning the ground beef or Italian sausage. Add the chopped onion, tomato paste, an additional 12oz can’s worth of water, the tomatoes, garlic powder, oregano, and parsley. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about a half an hour.
While the sauce is cooking, cook the lasagna noodles (unless you got the no-boil kind). Much like hot dog buns and hot dogs, the amount of noodles they put in a box never seems to line up with however many you’ll need. I used about a dozen to do 3 layers. You’ll also want to preheat the oven for 350 degrees.
In a separate bowl, mix together the Ricotta cheese, eggs, and shredded cheese.
Grease a 9×13 baking dish and put a layer of sauce along the bottom to keep the noodles from sticking, burning, and making a complete mess. Layer the cooked noodles, cheese, and sauce. Be sure to save enough sauce for a top layer (this keeps the top layer of noodles from getting dried out and crunchy). I finished off the last bit of Parmesan I had in the grater on top of that.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. I put a large baking sheet under my dish to make it easier to get in and out of the oven and to prevent any spillover from making a mess.
Let it cool for about 5 minutes, and then serve. Makes approximately 8 decent servings.
Suggested alterations
My grandparents weren’t big on garlic, but I am. I’d recommend increasing the garlic powder to 1 teaspoon, minimum. Even at that point I wasn’t getting a huge garlic flavor. I’d also recommend adding some salt to the sauce.
If you have fresh basil, try throwing a layer of that in somewhere (thanks to my friend for suggesting it).
Finally, if you like your lasagna to have a little more heat, use spicy hot sausage or throw some crushed red pepper in the sauce.
Runfos, freaky January weather-style
by jharder on Jan.15, 2012, under Running
This week’s weather has been a little nuts.
Tuesday, I did some interval training downtown. It was 50 degrees outside. I decided to head west, away from the main loop and all of its stoplights and traffic, and headed down to Kollen Park to run along the boardwalk. I’d watch people do it all the time when I’d be playing Ultimate Frisbee or doing a soccer practice, but I never actually ran the boardwalk up until that point. It was a wonderful evening for a run.
The warm weather, combined with the fact that it was 5:30 and the sun was just then beginning to set, made for a great run. I miss those kinds of evenings, and I can’t wait for the evenings to start getting brighter. I’ll take 50 degree runs over runs that end in me trying to bail my friend’s car out of a foot of snow any day.
Unfortunately, the denial had to come to an end. This is what I’ve got to run in now.
My attempts yesterday to do 3 miles on the treadmill at the fitness center at the apartment complex ended in complete failure. I just cannot suspend reality and run on a treadmill in that place. The two miles I did at MVP earlier this week went really well though, so I guess I’ll be doing it there from now on. The equipment is nicer, there’s usually something happening on the basketball courts to watch, and, most importantly, there are usually a dozen or so other people working out. Having others around pushes me to finish the workout in the same way that running a 10K in a race is more enjoyable for me than waking up in the morning and running 6 miles around the boonies.
Recipe: Rice Pilaf (Updated)
by jharder on Jan.09, 2012, under Food
Previously, I had posted a recipe for a basic rice pilaf I cooked up out of my head. It had been a while since I had made this, and after my last few batches of wild rice turned out rather disappointing, I decided to head back to the pilaf.
This time I decided to not be quite as precise in measuring out my ingredients (I’m usually not when I cook out of my head), partly because I was experimenting and mostly because it was 7 at night and I was hungry. Here’s (roughly) what went into the pilaf tonight:
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small yellow onion, minced
1-3 tablespoons olive oil (regular vegetable or canola oil would probably work just fine, too)
1 cup of brown rice
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon cracked wild rice
Chicken soup base, to taste
1 small can of mushrooms, drained
1/8-1/4 cup of pine nuts, toasted lightly
Begin by mincing the garlic and onion. I attempted to hurry things along a bit by heating the oil with the garlic while mincing the onion (use medium heat to avoid getting the oil too hot too fast). Add the onion and give it a good stir for a few minutes, until the onion is wilted, soft, and golden colored. Add the rice and stir briskly for about 15 seconds to get it properly mixed with the onion, oil, and garlic. Add the water and increase the heat to high. Add the cracked wild rice, chicken soup base, and drained mushrooms. When the rice reaches a boiling point, reduce the heat to low and let simmer for 45-50 minutes (it takes longer to cook with the oil and the mushrooms).
While the rice is cooking, toast the pine nuts. Toasting pine nuts is an exercise in patience; they’re best toasted over medium heat, and it’s important to stir them constantly, especially after a few minutes in the pan. Once they’re lightly toasted, set them aside.
When the amount of liquid in your pilaf is just below the top of the rice, remove it from the heat and allow it to sit for about a minute. Add the pine nuts and mix well. Serve immediately. Yields approximately 3-4 servings, depending on how hungry you are. I find this goes pretty well with most chicken and fish.
A quick comment on pine nuts: don’t get these at the grocery store if you can at all help it. A tiny little thing of pine nuts, maybe about double what you could use in this recipe, could easily go for $5-$10 at most supermarkets. Check out your neighborhood Sam’s Club (ours has them somewhat intermittently) or Costco, or your local natural foods market. Any of those would probably suit you better than the $5 glass jars of pine nuts in the grocery store.
2012 Goals
by jharder on Jan.01, 2012, under Listacular, Ruminations
2011 was a decent year. I ran my first 5K and 10K, biked 100km for the first time in a couple of years, and got quite a bit better at soccer. I made my first batch of mead and capped the year yesterday with a bottling party at my friend’s place.
We bottled 4 growlers and 11 liter bottles of Gingerbread Joe. Final gravity was 1.018, for a rough ABV of 6%. It won’t be carbonated for a few more weeks, but I’ve got a 12oz bottle that I’ll crack open in February to test.
Anyways, the goals.
Run a 25K
I had originally planned to run a half marathon last fall, but I didn’t do a very good job training for it and injured myself in August. I’m signing up to do the 25K for the River Bank Run this year, which is 15.5 miles, or slightly more than a half marathon. I’m also hoping to beat my pace times for the races that I ran last year (St. Patty’s Pacer, Panther Prowl, and Lakeshore Miracle Run).
Pwn that dune from Hell
Last year I ran the Lakeshore Miracle Run 10K, which took you down the road, through the woods, along the beach, and then up this beast:
This year, I’m going to run up the entire thing. All thousand feet of it. It’s probably going to mean that I spend a fair amount of time after the River Bank Run running along the beach, but if it means I can work on my tan, then I’m all for it.
Bike 100 miles in a day
My cycling buddy got a new road bike for Christmas, so this year we’re gonna tear up the roads. Last year with a little more training we probably could have done the full 100 miles in the Holland Hundred, but this year it’s definitely being done. At the tail end of the season in September, there is a 100 mile ride in Three Oaks that I’m also signing up to ride in. I figure it’s a good follow-up to a half marathon the day before in Holland.
Get certified
The problem with studying for certification exams is that it reminds me of the worst parts about college (the studying). I haven’t been doing a lot of it lately, but that’s going to change. Professionally, my goal for 2012 is to get my MCITP Enterprise Admin certification, and my VMware certification. It’s going to mean a lot of reading, but it will pay out eventually.
Try 40 new recipes
Living on your own is pretty nice. There’s no roommate taking a shower at inconvenient times, no arguments about the utility bills or who’s doing the dishes, and nobody has to suffer my taste in music. Another upside is that you can cook whatever you want, but the downside to that is that there’s only one person around to eat it. This means that when I make bean and bacon soup, or almost anything else, I’m eating it for a week. This meant that I was content to cycle through a somewhat limited set of recipes and didn’t have much incentive to try something new (aside from a few spectacular experiments involving a grill).
My goal, from a culinary perspective, is to try 40 new recipes this year. It doesn’t have to be a complete meal; it can just be a side dish or a dessert or a bread recipe, but I figure if I’ve got a kitchen as stocked as mine, I should put it to use.
Anyways, those are a few of my goals for the year. Since many of them also encourage fitness and intelligence, when the apocalypse comes next December I’ll last more than five minutes, which I think is a pretty handy bonus.
