Rain

I stayed home from work today because my back had given out. Eventually I was able to get up and once up I was a bit better. Getting up and down was still pretty hard, though. A little after 5:00 PM it started to rain quite heavily. I took this picture of the rain pounding on the glass table in our back yard. Taking pictures of rain isn’t very easy because if you focus on the rain, everything else is out of focus. If you focus on the background, you cannot really see the rain. Also, if you use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the rain, it doesn’t look like rain. If you use a slower shutter speed, it’s just grey. In this picture you can at least see the water splashing on the table.

Messiah’s Covered Bridge

Dorothy had no school today because it was the end of the quarter and teachers were doing grading. She took the opportunity to spend a couple days with her friend, Stephanie, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Saturday evening the campus was pretty quiet because it was their fall break, as well, but she was able to get a bit of a taste of college life. Today she went to classes with Stephanie and then I drove up to pick her up after work. Messiah has a pretty campus and before we left I took a minute to take a few photographs including this one of the covered bridge across the Yellow Breeches, which runs through the campus.

Hookahs

I love living in a fairly cosmopolitan area. In particular, I’m glad that we can get ethnic food from the four corners of the globe. Whether we have a hunger for Thai, German, Iranian, Jamaican, Chinese, Ethiopian, Greek, Brazilian, Afghan, Japanese, Italian, or even Burmese (to name only a few), we can easily find it close at hand. There are also small groceries and specialty shops where a surprising variety of products are available. For instance, only about three miles away we can shop for a hookah. It’s not something we shop for often, but if the situation arises, well, we know where to go.

Edgar Allen Poe, by Dorothy Hartley

In her art class, Dorothy has been looking at the works of an artist named Vik Muniz (http://www.vikmuniz.net/, requires Flash). He is a photographer whose photographs are of art that he creates with unique media. For instance, he reproduced a photograph by Hans Namuth of the artist Jackson Pollock making a drip painting. His reproduction was done in Bosco syrup. He “drew” Marlene Deitrich (among others) out of diamonds. And side by side Mona Lisas out of peanut butter and jelly.

In that vein, Dorothy did the portrait shown here of Edgar Allen Poe out of bits of his works. I think it turned out quite well.

Water

A man once said, “if there is any magic in the world, it’s contained in water.”

Anaheim Peppers

I didn’t take many pictures today. That happens when I’m in my office all day and don’t really do much else. So, this evening I took a few pictures of Anaheim peppers that were left over from the chili I made on Saturday (for Sunday).

Birthday Cookies

For her birthday, our good friend Spencer gave Dorothy a dozen custom made cookies. They were made by a young woman named Mariel who does business as Belle Vie Cookies. I’ve had a lot of cookies in my time and I have to say, these are really, really good. In fact, a couple times we’ve cut one cookie into four pieces because a whole cookie is too much. They are made without preservatives so they won’t last long, although they won’t last long in any case.

http://belleviecookies.com/

Chili Ingredients

I find chili interesting from a cultural perspective. Most everyone knows what they mean by chili but it’s fairly common for us to mean different things. One person’s ideal chili is another person’s waste of time. For some, chili has beans, for others (like me) beans are just wrong. I suppose there really isn’t any one chili recipe that can be called “authentic” to the exclusion of all others. That’s not to say there aren’t ingredients that are inauthentic, even if they happen to be traditional in particular places. For instance, cinnamon is certainly traditional in Cincinnati but it’s not particularly authentic. As far as I’m concerned, pasta and beans fall into this category. Chili, to me, never has beans in it. You certainly can put beans in chili but as far as I’m concerned, it ceases to be chili as soon as you do.

Chopping The Beef

Anyway, this is what I put in my chili. We start with about 5 pounds of chuck roast. You can use ground beef but I prefer to start with a known entity. I chop it up pretty fine but you could easily cut it into fairly sizable chunks, since it’s going to fall apart by the time you’re done. The next ingredient is not authentic, I’m pretty sure, but I like to add some salt pork. You could easily use bacon or pancetta if that’s what you have. I cut it up into fairly small (0.5cm) pieces and then cook it until it’s a bit crispy. I add the beef, a little at a time, to that. It’s important to turn the temperature up to high so you get some good browning of the meat. At medium temperatures you’ll just stew the meat.

Onions, Peppers, and Spices

While that’s happening, coarsely chop the onions and put them in a food processor with the peppers, minced garlic, fresh thyme, ground cayenne, cumin, oregano, coriander, and salt. Shown here are large, dried Ancho and smaller Chipotle chilis, which are smoke-dried jalapeños, as well as fresh Anaheim chilis. Not the hottest combination but the smokiness of the dried peppers is important. You can control the heat with the ground cayenne. Shown here is a little less than a quarter cup, which means this will be a mild chili (you have to gauge your audience). A full quarter cup or more, or perhaps a chopped up scotch bonnet (Capsicum chinense) or two and you can bring the heat up as high as you like.

Two More Hours and It’s Done

For this amount of chili, I needed to process it in two batches because my vintage Moulinex La Machine II won’t hold that much all at once. If you find that it’s too thick to chop well, pour in a bit of the beer. Once it’s been given a good whiz, add it to the meat that’s been seared in the pot. Add the rest of the beer (or all of it if there isn’t any in the onion mixture). I find that using a pot that’s way too big is easier than one that’s just barely big enough so I use a great big pot. At this point, you can cover it well, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for a couple hours. In this final photograph it’s just started but in a couple hours it’s going to be a rich, dark color and really yummy.

That’s about it. For this batch, Dorothy asked me to add two cans of chopped tomatoes, which is fine. Or you can blend that with the onions so there aren’t any tomato pieces. Or leave it out entirely. It’s up to you. If you must add beans, then I can’t stop you, but it won’t be chili, as far as I’m concerned. I prefer to eat chili with fresh, chopped onions, grated cheese, and sour cream.

Lake Needwood

I stopped at Lake Needwood again today on the way to work to get a brighter picture of the lake. I really need to keep checking to see when the leaves turn, because this is going to be quite pretty then, I think. This morning there was more sun, although it wasn’t high enough in the sky to hit most of the lake. There was a light mist rising from the lake, which gave it an other-worldly feel. Of the left side of this photo there was a small boat with two people fishing. I wonder if they caught anything. To be honest, I’d rather have been fishing myself, than going to work.

Pad Poh Tack

If you like seafood, specifically shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels, and you don’t mind a fair amount of heat, you could do a lot worse than the Pad Poh Tack at Thai Pavilion in Rockville. You can temper the heat a little by avoiding the “green beans,” as Kendra called them, or you can eat everything, as I did (except the mussel shells, of course). The flavors are quite good, although it lived up to it’s three-pepper rating.

From the Thai Pavilion menu:
54. Trang PAD POH TACK
Combination of shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels sautéed with lemon grass, galangal, chili paste, and kiffir-lime leaves.

Needwood in Fog

I drive past Lake Needwood most mornings that I drive the carpool. Today was such a morning and with the rain we’ve had over the last 24 hours and with the fog that was so thick this morning, I decided to stop for a few pictures. This is a picture of an island in the middle of the lake, looking through the fog. Quite a peaceful scene, but of course I had to leave and get to work. What I need is a laptop and a lawn chair. Oh, well.

Costco Shopping Carts

Interesting to me that I have grocery shopping themed photos two days in a row. Not that interesting, I guess. Anyway, ran up to Costco for a few things after work today. I liked the patters made by the shopping carts in the parking lot.

The Frozen Food Aisle

I needed to stop at the grocery store for a few things on the way home this evening. I sent Dorothy a text asking what she wanted for dinner and she said that for a vegetable she wanted unshelled edamame. For some reason, I took this picture of the frozen food aisle at our local Safeway. So, I give you Frozen Foods.

Neon Sign

Dorothy finished Driver’s Ed this evening, making up the day she missed back in July. We went to York Castle to celebrate. Actually, she didn’t feel like having ice cream, so only Cathy and I did. Anyway, this is a neon OPEN sign in their window.