20131110 First Brew Bottled

My BrewMentor Lee split a recipe with Katie & me, in case we didn't like it (he's so nice) and so here is our first bottling of the Alaskan Amber Clone, recipe from DIYBrewing in Ludlow, MA, 13 22 oz and 4 12oz, to be rationed judiciously.

Also, I have the primary going with an American Brown Ale

20131030 The Carving of the Pumpkin (...and the running of the deer?)

Katie and I decided to go symmetrical this year.

With a drill!!

20131013 Something Yeasty This Way Comes....

Katie and I have a new hobby...

Beer

20131010 Walnuts

Brought a walnut to work today; had the inevitable multitude of conversations about what it is, can you eat it, why do you have to pick them up, you whine too much about picking up 16 wheelbarrow loads, you must be lying, you should sell them, make me an offer, etc.

One question was new, though. "What's a walnut tree look like?"
Fair enough. Here ya go, Mike. This one's beside the garage:

This one by the mailbox

This one in the side yard, next to a maple

This one's kinda between the side yard walnut and the mailbox walnut

This one's in the far back corner next to the shed

And my personal favorite, the one that drops walnuts into the pool:

They make lovely rollers for shoes

And cover every inch

And I have a pile of walnuts in the back by an old woodpile:

And a pile under the "shed" walnut tree:

And a pile on the far corner of the back lot

And, there are still plenty to fall:

20131003 The Girls opening presents

20131003 The birthday cheesecake

4 recipes combined to make this marbled raspberry chocolate delight.


I started with a comingled recipe for crust using graham crackers, vanilla wafers and chocolate wafers

After the crust was put down and baked,

I added a schmear of chocolate

The batter is a Martha Stewart recipe using 32 oz cream cheese

I made raspberry puree, sieve out the seeds, mix batter in, same with some ganache and batter

Put half the batter in the pan, pipe in chocolate

and marble with toothpick

Add remaining batter

Pipe on raspberry and marble. Bake in water bath half way up pan

and when it comes out, cool very very slowly

20130930 Katie's Phinished Phrame

20130930 we have passed steady state walnuts

Today marks what could be the peak or beginning of the peak. We now have limited time-to-back-out but still have walnuts falling. Today, more dropped than ever before. On the plus side, I wasn't hit while performing the ritual end of day walnut-ectomy from the yard. But there are so many more to go...












Oh, and why at the end of warm weather do the Hydrangeas go nutsoid?

20130929 Making a Story

A short story: A long time ago a man built a cradle out of cherry for his first granddaughter, and he was nice enough to let his son in law help.

And it was beautiful.

And it was used by the first granddaughter, and then the second, then then by their two cousins in turn.

When the grandfather sadly passed away the son in law took wood he found in the man's workshop, and has made many lovely things over the years.

 

But the time came recently to make a frame. A very special frame. The granddaughter now had a college diploma that needed to be proudly displayed.

Out of leftovers from the very same pile of cherry that was used over 20 years ago to make the cradle. I also used some maple.

The end.

No princes.

No frogs.