Sunday, February 27, 2011

wetlands - the third trip


A couple of days ago there were a couple of storms in Davin and the surrounding area and so we thought It would be great to visit the wetlands again.
Sadly most of the water drained already of the street and instead of a muddy adventure, we just had to deal with paddles and dirt roads. Which promptly made me feel overconfident in my offroad driving abilities...
Thanks god I got lucky and did not skid of the road into the creek, after all it got a bit scary for a second. But drifting at 40mph was fun :)

To say I enjoyed it is a clear understatement and it gave me sometime to teach robins sister a couple of things about photography and different lenses.

This days motto was, reflections and so It was all about getting close and low angle shots.

Needless to say, tomorrow I'm going to wash the truck again. It's getting way to dirty and the windows were splattered in mud after this trip.
But I'm quite sure I had more fun in this car than the people in front off us in there brand new wanna be SUV's. Driving around every puddle. It does have some advantages to have an old car, where you don't care if you have a scratch more or a ding in the pain.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

davis - wetlands the second trip -

yesterday I managed to get out to the wetlands a second time, shortly after a storm and they were totally deserted except for me and one other person. So it gave us enough to take some pictures of the birds and the surrounding area.

entrance to the wetlands
white heron
ducks
great white heron - on flight
unidentified with wet feet
still in one piece afterwards
Basically it was a short relaxing afternoon in the rain and realizing that my windshield whippers can't keep with driving throw water at 30mph. I had fun.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

wildlife refuge area - 

after driving back from sacramento today I noticed an awful lot of pickups and other cars driving under the causeway and so I went there to investigate. And it turns out that they opened the wildlife refuge area again to the public. So of I went to grab the Pathfinder and do some quick exploration...

iPhone...
and to be sure it's beautiful and I will grab the real camera tomorrow and take some more pictures around sunset. And my oh my it's so nice to have a 4 wheel drive capable vehicle.

Friday, February 11, 2011

seared ahi tuna with sauteed bell pepper -

not much to say, sometimes you just need these quick 5 minute 8$ dishes.


picture taken with an iPhone, forgot the camera in the office today...

Sunday, February 06, 2011

missing knife -

after having a quite extensive knife collection I never thought I would complain ever again that I need one more knife. But the sashimi/gravlox experiment showed me. I need one more knife.

Well maybe in a month or so, once I am done with the roasting book and so can focus a bit more on sushi preparation techniques.
After all this knife is a touch pricey at 170$, but it would go well with my other shuns..

Saturday, February 05, 2011

crepes with chocolate sauce -

after making the turkey tonight I had this incredible starving for something sweet as desert and so I wanted to make a lemon loaf. Which did not work out, since I was all out of baking powder and baking soda.

So instead I made some crepes again. Now it also turned out I was out of applesauce and had to create an impromptu chocolate sauce from my Saint Nikolaus gift. Yes I kept the 2 bars of Lindt chocolate till tonight. This has to be some kind of record for me. (Or is related to the 240 truffles I ate in the last 2 months...)

So the first attempt of presentation, was not really a spark of creativity...

standard crepes with chocolate sauce presentation
 this got me thinking, how could I present the crepes in a less messy way...

lost at sea
And I think the ducks work rather well in this case.

crepe recipe:

-> here

chocolate sauce:


  • 2 bars lind dark chocolate ~50-70%
  • 2 tbs butter - unsalted
  • 1/4 cup 1% milk
  • chili powder to taste

directions:

  1. break the bars into even pieces
  2. melt with the butter and milk on low temperature
  3. add chili powder
  4. turn off the flame
  5. put in cold water bath
  6. keep steering the sauce while it cools

turkey breast with pears -

since I'm slowly running out of lamb and beef dishes and want to live healthier, well now It was time for some turkey. Specially since the last great turkey I had was about 2 thanksgivings ago and boy I could had need somebodies carving skills here.

Since it was a rather sweet dish, I was kinda nervous about the side and so just choose rosemary roasted potatoes with it.

turkey breast is ready togo into the oven

The dish itself was remarkable simple and only took some minor adjustments, since I could not find a 6lbs turkey breast and so had to settle with 3lbs. So barley and leftovers...

and the dish is done
After the recommended cooking time it was very tasty and flavorful (well it's turkey...), but sadly a bit tough. Maybe a variation would be to marinate the turkey first for 1-2 hours in an orange marinade, which should go well with the pears,

And next week we make another lamb dish...

poached eggs - recommendation for a colorful side? Maybe a dill sauce?

it is saturday and this means It's time for a late breakfast after catching up on some sleep. I mean I need to keep the gray hair under control somehow.

poached eggs with toast
next time I need to cleanup the plate better, but I was hungry...

I really should start to take food stock pictures, maybe I can sell some of these. The wooden table does make a great background.

Now off to costco to find some turkey or so for dinner.

Oh and my new cookbook arrived,

Thursday, February 03, 2011

seared ahi tuna steak -

after a 16h day at work I wanted nothing more than something tasty to eat, which doesn't need to much work reparation wise.
So after looking into the fridge I discovered that my possibilities are between...

  • trader joe's teriyaki chicken
  • pizza magherita
  • vanilla yoghurt
  • and a fresh tuna steak from the sashimi left overs
Since I just had teriyaki chicken yesterday and didn't feel like pizza there was only one possible solution. Seared Ahi Tuna with yoghurt dip.

So while taking a quick shower the tuna was happily marinating in a mixture of whiskey, olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar for about 20 minutes and than was tossed into a salted pan over medium heat. About 1.5 minutes each site provided a nice medium rare steak.

Sadly the picture does not do the tasty fish any justice...
the finished tuna steak
I think there is one knife missing in my collection. A very sharp fish knife.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

sashimi -

since I haven't dined out last month I didn't had sashimi in a while, so I thought I make some quick tuna sashimi, since I can't really find sashimi grade salmon here.

fresh piece of sashimi grade tuna
 It's remarkable simple. You just buy some fresh sashimi grade tuna and slice and pepper it. Since all the tuna you can buy here is ahi tuna. I normally add some slices of lime and let it site for 10-15 minutes to absorb a bit of the flavor.
sashimi
It is tasty, but salmon is so much better...