He's so cute...

I could just eat him up

Grow your own food - SPU Guide

Seattle Public Utilities has a handy guide on growing food in the city.  Check it out!

http://atyourservice.seattle.gov/2011/02/25/grow-your-own-food/

Ryan's 5th Birthday Party!

With Ryan's B-day on March 1st, we held his party the Sunday before. Loads of fun. All junk food for eats! Gummy Bear, worms, slugs, and swedish fish! Animal crackers and frosting covered Animal Crackers with sprinkles!

Ryan requested cupcakes this year and our very good friend Charra made some amazing cupcakes, with Ryan's fav animals!

Here's a close up showing the details. Amazing!

Of Course there were many friends and family who came over too.

Once it was time, the 5 candles went the cupcake that Ryan choose and we all sang the Song!

Clyde was there and had a great time too, and even got some hands on Grandma Time.

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 3 - Pulled Chicken

Yep, the Chicken did not work, but I had a plan.

It involves a Crock Pot, water, many hours and low heat.  Oh and a over cooked and tough stewing chicken.

All that went on for almost 24 hours.  Well, closer to 18, but in the end the meat was just falling off and most of it was rather tender by this point.

Then came the process of separating the meat from the bone and other stuff.  Kind of gross, but fun too!

I was left with a nice bowl of chicken!  I was also left with some really great and yummy juice that I added my frozen veggie and made a deep rich stock from. You know how much I love making stock right?

I had cooked up some beans and rice all ready, now for the pulled chicken.  As is the nature of this blog, this was truly a Back of the Fridge plate.

The sauce was a combination of beer - a pale ale, stock, water, white vinger, molasses, maple syrup, a dash of OJ, and spices (salt, pepper, cumin, cyan, red pepper flakes) and onions, garlic, and red bell pepper.

In a pot I heated up Olive oil, added the veggies and cooked until soft.  Deglazed with the beer, added the rest and a little corn starch for a bit of light thickness (does that make sense?).

Heated up until bubbling and then added the chicken and mixed well.

Served the chicken over the rice and beans with a side of boiled greens.  Bammo Mitch.

It was super yummy.  Hot dang was it good.  It could have been spicier, it was rather sweet and a little heat would have been nice.  But wow.  Redemption.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

Of Chicken and Redemption Part 2 - Dessert

Sunday dinner was a bit of a flop.  The chicken was crap o la, but the rest was good.  The veggies were near perfect!

I love Sunday Dinners that include dessert and during the cooking of the chicken and cleaning of the kitchen I was inspired to fix dessert.  Pear tart!  But I had no dough, and I lack in dough making skills.  But I can make a mean shortbread cookie.

I made a normal batch of shortbread

• 1/2 cup butter
• 11/2 cups flour
• 3 T sugar

Mixed and patted into my french tart pan.  Then I sliced up 3 pears thin and dusted with a little sugar and cut some butter over the top of that.  Baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 ish minutes.

It was super yummy.  So yummy it may make an appearance at a special large dinner party I throw every year,  Maybe.

Part 3 of the story is coming around the corner...  The redemption phase.

Read Part 1

Read Part 3

Work Life Balance

Finding a Work Life Balance is a very important thing to us (one reason I quit Facebook).  I personally have to try to keep it Work Life Balance and not Work Versus Life.  There is a wonderful phrase - Do you Live to Work or Work to Live?

Watch this video -

My Other Blog - personal journal

Hello dear readers,

I am glad that many of you are enjoying this blog and I hope you too are getting creative with what you have in your kitchen!

I wanted to let you know that I have started a personal journal type blog as well.  You can find it here at

A Harehl Musman Production - hmprod.blogspot.com

You'll find stories and pictures and videos of our everyday life.  I hope you'll check it out.

E

Post #1. This first Entry. One. The Beginning. Not the Last.

TA DA!

Well here it is post #1.  Hope you're happy.  

First up, some over due photos.

Here is sleep Clyde with hands folded.  A Classic Image. 

Here is Ryan feeding Clyde for the first time.  He did a great job!

Here we find Fezziwig the cat enjoying a nice place to sleep.

And lastly, because it has to be a bit weird in here - I found this hanging in the hallway at Starbucks on 1st and Pike in Seattle.

Now really, who doesn't need more slack in their life?  Dobbs will help you out.

Of Chicken and Redemption.

Thanks to Johnny & Joe for leading this 3 part post off.

Stewing Chicken - is an old hen that is past it's laying prime.  Tough, dry and requires a long slow heat cooking process.

That's where I screwed up on.

My In-laws gave me stewing chicken that my brother in law had processed during a farming class.  The bird looked good, and I had a grand idea for Sunday Chicken dinner.




I cut the bird down into sections, put it into a pot with olive oil and potatoes, fennel bulb, onions, garlic, and vegetable stock.  Covered and put into the oven and cooked for about 1.5 hours.

Lets say that the veggies were wonderful!

The chicken it self was dry, tough, rubbery, and plain dull.  I was sunk.  My pride was hurt and I felt just dumb.  I should have know better I thought.

There was though a grand plus side to the dinner - The Wine for starters.

My friend David over at La Buona Tavola turned me on to a wonderful bottle of Italian red wine.

Good round flavor, not too fruity.  It was a pleasant drink to go with the vegetables!

I came up with a plan, but not until we finish dessert.  You'll have to wait until the next post for dessert: Pear tart with a shortbread crust.


Read Part 2
Read Part 3

A better potpourri - warming pot

While cleaning our kitchen the other day I found several objects that were new to me.  One of them was my wife's Warming Potpourri pot.

The idea is simple.  It is two pieces. The bottom bowl is for the candle.  It has air vents.  The top bowl is for water and the scents.

In the picture I am using water, cinnamon sticks, cloves and a few dashes of cardamon.

Light the candle and allow the water to warm up gently and slowly steam the nice odors around the room.  All natural, potentially organic, and cheap.

I have other ideas for scents and I have been exploring stores in the Seattle area that may carry stuff that I am looking for.  I am leaning towards cooking spices and teas, just so I won't have a drawer full of things that have only one use.

Marketspice in the Pike Place Market will be my next step.

Steak Dinner

It was St. Valentine's Day dinner and my in-laws were kind enough to bring us a porterhouse steak.  Being the sharing type, I cut it into two sections; the "New York" Strip and the sirloin.  Steamed vegs and tators as side dishes.

 

Read on...

Garlic & Rosemary Potatoes - 

All I did here was slice the tators into halves or quarters, tossed in some olive oil, chopped garlic, rosemary, caraway seeds, salt, pepper.  Roasted in the oven at 350 for about 40 mins until soft to a fork.

Steamed Veggies - 

Chopped up some broccoli, bok choi, fennel,  and garlic.  Steamed until soft.  Dressed it with olive oil and salt and pepper.

The Steak - 

Simple pan cook with a little pepper until medium rare (had I been paying more attention I would have preferred mine rare.)  Steaks come out and rested while I cooked up some sliced onions with butter in the same pan as used to cook the steaks.

Little more pepper and truffle salt over the steaks and call it done.  Served with a bottle of Cafe Negro porter.

Happy Valentine's day indeed.

BotRG - Iron Chef Style!

Well, this post doesn't quite count, but screw it, its my blog and I cooked the main dish.   The company I work for held a team retreat day.  First half meetings, the second half we had a Iron Chef cook off challenge!  We split the company into 2 teams and had at it.  Each team had a secrete ingredient.  They had chicken and we had salmon.

There was a chef roaming through out the contest helping each team, but once I had my plan I was pretty much on my own.  I was in charge of the main dish, salmon in paper.

I chopped and sautéed veggies (potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic)  and place them in little plies on circle cut paper folds.  The salmon went on top with a little lemon and grapefruit slice.  Into the convection oven for less than 10 minutes.  The salmon was perfect.

Our team served it up with mushroom risotto, french green beans (quick cooked, with oil and garlic) and a near perfect creme brulee.

The other team had a stuffed chicken three way (not what you think) and Kale chips and roasted veggies, and a tart that was a bit more soup like than tart like.

We won of course!

This is our dish....

And theirs....

If you want to know more about the school for yourself of your company check this out!

Blueribboncooking.com

Say hello to one more mouth to feed!

Today, Feb 8th, 2011 We here (and by we I mean me) welcome CD to our family.  One more mouth to feed here on BotRG.

Yes that means baby food will be added to the mix!

Cheers.

Poutine - BotRG Style!

First off, I could eat Poutine everyday if I had my way.  I would dies quickly and fat, but man would it be freaking tasty.

Poutine in it's base form is noted to be a East Coast Canada dish.  Thin cut french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy.  That's the basic.  Now you'll find Poutine in many many different styles.  Here's what I did the other night.

I started with hand made french fries, cutting by hand meant they were not so thin cut, and bathed in hot oil in small batches.  I kept the done ones in the over at warming temp.

My sauce was a left over tomato sauce that I added beans to it.  In this case, cheddar cheese was used and I got some chopped onions on it as well.

Everybody loved it!

Drinks I like part 1

I write this late at night, _____ days / hours before the birth of our second child who at this point is still yet to be named.  So in theory I should update this post, but I bet I won't.

I am going to diverge a bit from my normal writings and talk a bit about some of things I like.  Drinks.  Beer & Tea.

First up beer.  I like beer.  I think I should write about the beers I like and why.

The other day for a staff meeting I bought a 6 pack of Bridgeport Café Negro Porter.  A smooth porter that has been infused with a dark coffee flavor.  My tongue couldn't pick up the coffee flavor, but man o man was that a wonderful beer.  Dark, rich, smooth.  Not overly sweet like some porters can be, and it wasn't PWN Hoppy!  It made me very happy indeed.  You should try some.  NOW!

You can find out more about it at their website - -bridgeportbrew.com

Now on the other side of the coin, I also really enjoy tea.  Black or herbal, I like both.  Since working down in Pike Place Market I have also started mostly using loose leaf brewing methods.  I like it better.  It's cheaper, fresher, tastier, and well funnier too.

My mother-inlaw got me this wonderful tea pot with a built in screen.

I will chat more about teas as we progress.

Veggie Casserole with Biscuit top

My mind often wanders to my single young man days when I am in the kitchen.  Not what you're thinking.  But I day dream about the ease of prefab box meals.  Open fridge, toss in nuker, eat.  I also didn't concern myself with health, the planet, and flavor.  I though use those thoughts to create meals.  Like this one.

Veggie casserole with a biscuit top.

This was pretty simple.

A variety of veggies get chopped up and mixed in a bowel.  The color of mine came from just one beet!  Some EVO, stock, seasoning (salt, pepper, ect...).

I precooked this in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minuets with a tinfoil cover.  While this cooked, I mixed up the batter for the biscuit top.

I used a simple drop biscuit recipe here.  I added some extra seasoning for fun and topped with caraway seeds.  Plopped the batter on top of the dish and back into the over it went.

It took about 20 minuets longer to finnish.

Filling, yummy, and colorful!