Friday, December 28, 2007

Moving

So the move has swung into full gear and I will be w/o the internet until Sunday evening. My computer is pre built in wireless so I need to get a USB Wireless thing.

The house and Garage are covered with boxes and we move tomorrow.


Heres a grumpy unshaven Eikon (I've been cleaning since the day before christmas and am a bit grumpy)

Flopper hit a deer on the way to Iowa and so the car will be needing repairs.

Eli as ever is just bemused by all the fuss and in precicely the wrong place when we are moving things around.

~Eikon

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Woo hoo!

A singular judge in Iowa makes my day. . .

Judge strikes down Iowa's same-sex marriage law

DES MOINES, Iowa - A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning gay marriage and ordered the county recorder to permit gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Less than two hours after word of the ruling was publicized, two Des Moines men applied at the Polk County recorder's office for a marriage license, and for the first time the application was accepted. The process of granting a license to marry in Iowa takes three days.

Read the article here. . .

Friday, August 17, 2007

Tony.s lunch that only opens at nine

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Off to the East Coast!

Tommorow we will be headed to the East Coast to see family and friends.

We are going to drive through the night with Flopper's dear Friend Mandy and should arrive in Centallia Pennsylvania at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing my family (especially my two little neices) and my friends from high school amny of whom still live in that area.

We'll go to Knoebels on Saturday (Easily my favourite amusemnt park) and then head down to Philadelphia that night to see Fred and lodge in the rectory.
Mandy really wants to see the historical parts of Philadelphia so they'll have Sunday to do that and I'll hang out with Fred and kvetchas I am wont to do.

Monday it's off to DC to see all of our friends there. I"m looking foward to Faeries on Mondaynight and getting a haircut form David my stylist whom I sorely miss. Oh and the food I am really looking forward to the food. We'll be in DC until Thursday around noon.
~Eikon








Tuesday, August 07, 2007

New Blog, Big Changes

I've started a new blog since our most recent post. A lot has changed and we're still working through some things. Eikon and I will certainly keep posting here too!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Garden Photos





Eli and George playing





George is Eli's Friend next door. He and Eli like to wrestle and Eli almost always gets pinned.

It's terribly cute.

~Eikon

Pictures and Poultry from The Sherburne County Fair

So we went to the county fair across the river with our dear friend Dan and his friend Patrick. We encountered the entire gay population of Saint Closet.

I of course was interested in the excursion as a cultural experience but seeing as it is rude to take pictures of people I instead took pictures of poultry.

Polish Howdans.

Booted Pigeons . (priest is the name of the breed I think)

A pretty little Bantam rooster.

And an assortment of other fowl; all brought to you by the 4-H.

I also went to my first cow auction. It was fascinating and somewhat sad but unfortunately the camera was not working at the time so no pictures of cows.

I did get a few pictures of the local sports club exhibit though. Is it conservation if it is done by Republicans?



Fish; it's like a Chinese Restaurant but with more deep fried food

Minnesota is odd.

~Eikon

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Sourdough Challah

Until the late 1800's when dried yeast became readily available all bread was "sourdough"
I got the recipe for this challah in Wild Fermentation and am quite pleased with it. The only downside to sourdough is that it requires a very long time to make or more specifically it requires considerable time between steps.

I made the sponge last night and kneaded the dough at 11 this morning. It rose for about 4 hours. I kneaded it for a few minutes and then braided this loaf.

It rose for another 3 hours until it doubled in size and then baked at 400 for 40 minutes.

Maybe a half hour of work spread over a 20 hour period for a loaf of bread. Next time I'll add more honey though the sourdough flavor is actually very sweet.

~Eikon

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Friday, July 27, 2007

Jarring pickles


I jarred the pickles this morning and was connfronted with many lovely small pickles and many soft large pickes. The moral of this story is to use the smallest cucumbers you can.

The result of this lesson is that instead of getting five jars of pickles I only have three. One for Niko, one for Dan, and one for my belly. I may have to make more. I wanted them to be slightly hotter than are and will experiment with peppers next time I make them. The pickled garlic tasted almost better than the pickles themselves; which bears consideration for future projects.

Tonight we see 1776 !

~Eikon

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Flopper's Birthday




Flopper is 24!

For his birthday we're going to go see 1776 at the Guthrie Theater tomorrow night.

Now Flopper is dieting but every man deserves a cake on his birthday.

I don't know how to make cake really ( I stick to deathly fattening tortes) but in our cooking arsenal we have a copy of the parish cookbook from Flopper's place of birth Guthrie Center , Iowa. I thought it fitting to use a recipe from there and after passing up anything entailing a boxed mix (I love Midwestern cooking) I settled on "Mom's Chocolate Cake".

I got the icing recipe from the St Mary's cookbook and in a fit of whimsy constructed this.

It's double layered with the center soaked in the strawberry syrup I made a few weeks ago.

I bet Flopper will like it.

~Eikon

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Education relic from the 70,s at my school

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Pickles

Pickles are ridiculously simple to make.

Well brine pickles; I suppose canning the pickles would extend their life span but am illing to bet they'll last a few months in the fridge without it.

This recipe is courtesy of the book Wild Fermentation ; Which I have now bought.

So a number of little cucumbers plus a cup of kosher salt to maybe a gallon of water.

I now have a five gallon crock thanks to our dear friend Dan that cost less than my 2 gallon crock. (miso is soon to come). I opted to use one of my big moving Tupperware containers to try to cut out the bad smell aspect that bothered Flopper when I made sauerkraut.

Toss all of that into a the crock and put a plate on top of it to prevent any of the cucumbers from floating to the service. I added black pepper, 3 heads of dill, coriander, and a dozen cloves of garlic as well.

Then put a gallon glass jug filled with water in to weight it down.
They should start being pickles in a week or two and then I'll put them in mason jars in the fridge before giving them away and schlepping some across country. I suspect I'll get 4 or five liter jars with a break down cost of maybe 3 dollars each (2 of which are from the jar itself). Not bad considering Bubbie's costs 8 dollars for a similarly sized jar.

~Eikon

Friday, July 20, 2007

Flitch?

According to the Coal Speak Dictionary Flitch is :

flitch : candy made of peanut butter rolled up in a mixture of mashed potatoes (yes, mashed potatoes) and powdered sugar. Often sold at block parties and church/school functions.

Now my family didn't make flitch though I have vague recollections of my Aunt Barbie having it at her house in Aristes.

First you dice and boil a single potato. One is more than enough; and a small potato at that. I made way too much potato.

Mash it.

And Mix in about a pound of powdered sugar until it is stiff like a cookie dough.

Roll it out between two layers of wax paper at about a quarter of an inch and spread peanut butter (CHUNKY) in a thin layer over it. Now I think that I should have chilled the potatoes first as my roll is no nearly as lovely as what I remember as a child.

Then roll up the flitch using the wax paper as a lead and separating the potato fudge from the wax paper with a knife if need be.

The roll needs to chill for a few hours and can be cut and served. This is a summer party staple in the Coal Region. My roll is of dubious authenticity as I recall the flitch of my youth having peanut butter as the outside layer and being an almost perfect spiral but this stuff tastes good in any case.

Now the question is what to I do with all of it. I can't possibly eat it all and Flopper is dieting.

~Eikon

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Our First Tomato


To be devoured by Flopper .

The Yellow Pears should be ridiculously abundant starting next week.

~Eikon

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Sourdough Starter



I've decided to name my starter Lucinda. It's good to name living things and judging by frothiness this is definitely alive.

I started it Sunday Evening and sure enough this evening it was happily bubbling away. I'll make my first loaf tomorrow night and post pictures.

~Eikon