Tonight I am sipping one of Dogfish Head‘s beers which I, to my surprise, hadn’t tried before: Indian Brown Ale. I first tried this last week at IPM and I really, really like it. Normally I think that brown ales are just so-so, but this one, with its extra bittering hops and extra malt really does it for me. I really enjoy this beer.
I really wanted to go for a nice 25 mile ride today, but the rain is making that difficult so instead I’m sipping coffee, eating vanilla yogurt with Trader Joe’s berry granola, and poking around online.
There was a really nice rainbow hanging over M-59 on the way home from work yesterday and then a hail-producing, sky-blackening storm right at dusk, which I hoped would be the end of the inclement weather. Unfortunately it’s not.
Maybe I’ll go clean up the kitchen and start (and hopefully finish) laundry, and then if I’m lucky tomorrow will be a bit nicer out.
Paperclips at Taco BellWhen at Taco Bell† on Schoenherr and Hall Road / M-59 on Saturday morning before helping
Here’s a few more recently uploaded moblog photos I find interesting:
· The band Margin of Error claims that 21,000 friends and 140,000 plays is on MySpace is a positive attribute.
· Costco’s tasty and reasonably decent food counter.
· A nicely anachronistic cable TV error message.
· A decent falafel plate while waiting for an appointment to start.
† No, I didn’t eat there… We were just grabbing a quick bit of food for
New Tires!On Wednesday I left work at about 11:00 PM, and took almost an hour to drive home, turning my car almost sideways on M-59 twice. It was only once I got home that I noticed the main reason: my tires are down to the wear marks, leaving very little tread.
So, I hurriedly sorted out getting new tires and had them installed Friday morning. By the way, if you are in my area and need car work done, I suggest Shelby Tire over in Utica. Their prices are reasonable, and they are an independent shop which does both tires and other car repairs. This is where Danielle had a new wheel bearing done as well, and the price was good and the service was really quick (~2.5 hours).
Anyway, here’s a bunch more moblog photos which I uploaded this morning:
· Mushrooms on toast, farmhouse cheddar, and cheap red wine. This is the perfect dinner after working until 11pm. Danielle prepared the mushrooms while I was at work.
· The Burger King breakfast menu board, as I stopped on the way to work after getting new tires on my car.
· My car at about 11pm after leaving work really late one evening in the middle of a snow storm.
· Lil Tater! at Penn Station in Rochester, MI.
· Two hunks of farmhouse cheddar, a dulce de leche brownie, and some jamón ibérico, all from Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor.
· The coffee roaster at Nino Salvaggio in Troy, MI.
· Sending the lens for Danielle back to the person I bought it from via eBay. It doesn’t work right (front element is loose).
· Wow. A Mac running OS 9. I haven’t seen one of these in years. (In Bob’s basement at IPM.)
· Inside of the U of M Dearborn SLRC, where Danielle works.
700mg of Caffeine700mg of caffeine in a glass vial sure looks questionable, doesn’t it?
If I can find a use for it, I’ll just order a whole 8oz from from United Nuclear. It’s only $16 plus shipping…
That means that this is six or seven cups of coffee worth of caffeine is only worth $0.05. Personally I’d rather have the coffee, as it tastes better.
Yesterday Danielle and I trekked over to Zingerman’s Deli to pick up the half-pound of jamón ibérico which she ordered. Total for that was just about $60.
That’s it right there, sliced thin, and wrapped in paper. We then took it to her parents house where it was shared with her parents, grandma, and her grandma’s best friend. There was also chorizo served, although I didn’t have any of it.
I’m still not sure how much I liked the jamón ibérico. The fat melts in the mouth and is extremely strongly flavored, almost too much for me. The muscle parts were just… excellent and sublime.
I’d also picked up some cheddar; 1/4 pound each of both Keen’s Cheddar and Montgomery’s Cheddar. The Keen’s has an incredible bite to it, almost stinging the roof of my mouth while eating it. The rind is really powerful, and I’m not quite sure it should be eaten. The Montgomery’s is a bit softer and creamier, but still wonderfully powerful. Mmm. I can’t get over how absolutely excellent it is.
We also decided to get some lunch at Zingerman’s, and while I was originally going to get a bacon-riffic sandwich, the guy cutting the cheese for me suggested that I grab a #99, the Randolph’s Grand Début (scroll down). It is described as:
The Deli’s take on a classic Parisian croque monsieur – Arkansas peppered ham, Switzerland Swiss cheese & Dijon mustard grilled on farm bread with an extra layer of butter & Swiss cheese grilled on the outside.
Yes, that’s precisely what it was. Cheese. Fried. On. The. Outside. Here’s photos of the whole thing and after eating half of it.
I then had a latte after eating and Danielle had a small cup of hot chocolate with chilis and cinnamon in it.
On the way home from Danille’s house we stopped by IPM where I actually played some silly records while other folks played less… campy stuff. At least I got to hear Kyper’s Tic Tac Toe and some Chaka Kahn. Yay!
I can’t stop eating this cheddar. At least I can refuse to Rent-a-rim.
Have any of you ever used any induction cooking stuffs? Or, better yet, do you have any?
I’m contemplating acquiring an induction cooktop for more efficient cooking and whatnot, but I’ve never actually used one. It seems to me like it would be just as responsive as gas, as the moment the current is cut the cookware will begin cooling. It is far more efficient than either electric coil or gas. It would also likely be much easier to clean.
For dinner tonight I think I made an upscale version of Tuna Helper.
It was:
~ 4 oz of goat cheese
~ 6 oz of half and half
~ Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a sauce pan.
Pepper To Taste1 Can Trader Joe’s Smoked Alaskan Salmon
One Pound Fresh Fettucini
Cook the sauce, toss with the cooked pasta and salmon, and serve.
Materva Yerba Mate SodaI feel a bit twitchy. This stuff has caffeine, sugar, and yerba mate in it. It’s quite tasty too…
3L of Ginger BeerYesterday Danielle and I stopped by Cap N Cork so I could check out prices of the champange bottles for when I finally get around to bottling the cider. While there we picked up stuff to make soda (basically, a small funnel, yeast, and some soda flavor).
Today we made it. 383g of cane sugar, a bit of honey, 2.5 tsp of ginger flavor, yeast, and 3L of water went into the three bottles. That’s it sitting right there. The rightmost bottle also has minced ginger in it, to boost the flavor. Hopefully it’ll be good.
