Sunday morning - taking a break and sorting pictures...

So this morning I finally managed to get a minute and sort all my travel pictures, which I have online and I have to say. It turned out that I was in a lot of different locations in the last couple of years. But I wish I would had travelled a bit more and not so often to the same places.

The pictures can be found here

I think I need to spend the next couple of weekends and rediscover some places, where I have no pictures of for some reason.

• ave of the giants in eureka
• joshua tree national park (won't happen for a LONG time)
• lassen national park

Maybe I need to sort the 40k pictures I have on my harddrive next. Do I really want todo this?

realization: 1

I bought the pathfinder 2 months ago and just reached 5k miles on it and need todo an oilchange. I think I drive too much..

realization: 2

since buying the pathfinder I only use the motorcycle, when it's 60F+ and not raining, hence I put barley 300 miles on it in the last 2 months...

Crepes + Espresso == Saturday

7 am, like every saturday morning I like to start the morning with something tasty and simple to eat. So after considering the fact that I didn't had crepes for a long long time I decided to make some for breakfast. Obviously knowing me this meant I had to take another nap to make sure that this is a good idea.

2 hours later, I finally manage to get out of bed and running/stumbling down to the kitchen to be challenged with the eternal question. Do I actually have everything I need in the pantry. Or did the roommates beat me to the flour and eggs again.

I turned out I only had to 'steal' a lemon from my roommates stash and returned it 2 minutes later without it's zest. I think this is just a minor crime? After all I know I had a lemon somewhere in the fridge.

After combining all the standard ingredients,

I got painfully reminded that a roommate in the past highjacked my kitchen aid hand mixer and so I had to bring out the whisk again...

I swear the day I get a permanent visa I am going to buy a 500$ kitchen aid artisan mixer and call it a day.

now the final product with a nice shot of espresso was rather tasty and a good start into a saturday filled with work. I really need to write the talk for my berkley visit now.

Thank you mum and dad for the espresso machine, it really enriches every morning of my live.

p.s. yes I shared the crepes with one of the roommates.

rack of lamb - with asparagus and potato wedges

at christmas 2009 I got a wonderful little book as christmas gift and I have been using it since them all the time and cooked nearly every dish out of it. Still working on the deserts, since I'm not huge on eating deserts.

Of all these wonderful dishes my favorite is still rack of lamb with mint sauce and since my snowboarding vacation today was cut short, thanks to rain. I had the chance to prepare this dish instead.

Step one, prepare all the ingredients

freshly minced mint, thanks to having a 12" chefs knife

 and the finished product looked like this and was rather tasty

I think I made this dish now 5 or 6 times and love it every time more. By now I figured out the perfect temperature for the meat is around 137F

grav lax - the finishing

this morning I happily awoke at 5.30 am to finish up the grav lax experiment and to make sure that I eat than and have a 12h contamination period, before I serve it guests.

So after 36h of waiting I took the salmon out of the fridge and it looked rather 'flat' and red. Maybe related to the 20 lbs of weights sitting on it?

than I went to honing my trusty slicer and filet knife, only to realize they are way to dull to make decent salmon cuts. Don't get me wrong there are really sharp, but the blade is just to thick to efficiently cut the salmon in a nice and proper way.

and this turned out to be my breakfast and finished product.

now the big question is, is it feasible todo this at home?

Well it is incredible tasty and I ended up with 2lbs of salmon after cutting. Which would cost around 120$ in the store. So yes it's much cheaper. Specially if I go with atlantic salmon next time, which cost about 8-9$ the pound instead of wild sockeye salmon which runs around 15$ the pound.

tenderloin

since I decided to not eat out this month, I have to cook more myself. Not that this is going to be much cheaper in anyway. But definitely tasty.

So this night I decided to provide the roommates with some good old roasted tenderloin. Which is a rather simple and so tasty dish.

As sides we had garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed bell peppers.

the onions are chopped, and being sauteed with balsamic vinegar and some brown sugar.

the next step is to cover the tenderloin with the now sweet onions and let it sit in the oven for the next 45 minutes.

which turned into this rather tasty dish.

and tomorrow night it's pizza time.

I really need to work on my food photography. All the pictures are a touch blurry. But tasty food was tonight more important, than correct lighting.

I do have to say with these colors, I should had used more red bell pepper and not 50/50 red and yellow. It would had improved the presentation quite a bit.

gravlax

About 3 years ago my parents gave me a cookbook for christmas, which contained a couple of rather delicious dishes. Like gravlax. Sadly I was always to scared to actually try to make this dish. Fish poisoning and so on.

Well today I finally managed to get to it and make this dish. After all I have about 4-6 times sushi a month and so it should be not that difficult.

After searching for a couple of days I bought previously frozen salmon from the local speciality store, aka nuggets for an astonishing 50$. I used to buy whole salmons for 20$ a couple years back...

This nettoed me 2 filets with 3lbs in total. A touch pricey, but than they sell gravlax for 10$ a 1/4 lbs. So I should come out ahead and have the satisfaction of making it myself.

Preparing it for it's destiny, yes we still have our christmas tree in the kitchen!

Also this dish required the following tools:

• espresso machine, to provide me with a coffee to wake up
• laptop with recipes
• book to crosscheck and see differences
• random onions, which have nothing todo with this recipe. They are for the tenderloin, which we gonna have later tonight...
• mini scale, because I fail at using tablespoons and cups
• sun glases, for no special reasons

anyway here is the salmon awaiting it's tasty fate:

after added the salt/pepper/sugar mixture, the dill and putting the second filet on top. It turned out that they sold me two left ones, which makes it rather uneven...

after trimming of excess dill and wrapping it into plastic foil to keep the juices in

we are ready to put this into the fridge and defend it for the next 48h from curious roommates and so.

being a copycat or, giving things up.

Last year my friend Keith decided to give certain things in live up for one month at a time. And I was always interested in doing this my self.

So let's start this project for the next 12 month and each month we give something else up.

January:

dining out. Basically I will only eat at home or invite myself over to friends. But won't eat out in restaurants or eat delivered food.


modification to the rule: If friend invite me out for dinner, this is totally acceptable.

new years resolutions

• no soda, except in long drinks
• reduce cost of living by 20%
• less chocolate...

this should be more than enough for this year. After all we don't want to overdo it.

back in Davis after a wonderful trip down south, full of joy and laughter. Life just seems perfect during these rare moments.

I think next year I will finally build up the courage and make this dish.

My mum gave me a cookbook 'Born to Cook' a couple of years ago and I always wanted todo this, but was to afraid. Now after giving a talk tonight about changing your behavorial pattern from

I can't do this

to

When can I do this and how can I archive this

I decided it's time for me to man up and try to make this dish. In the worst case I will really bad for a couple of days. And It's one of my favorite dishes to begin with.

What are I'm talking about?

Grav Lax

 

Yay christmas gifts, also referred as 'truffel mania'

yes these are 2 x 120 chocolate truffles, as a size reference, it's a 13" mac book with a full sized keyboard next to it.

Thanks mum and dad :)

after being back from Washington DC, I finally found a moment of peace, not disrupted by work or other regards.

the lincoln memorial

the reflection pool, with the washington memorial at the end

the washington memorial

the white house

this post is for a change not motorcycle or car trouble related. I know I know it's a rare event. This time it's about the third standard topic of mine.

Travelling and taking pictures.

So currently I'm in Washington DC and it does not really agree with me and being spoiled by californian weather. It's basically cold (25F/-4F) and slightly snowing.

So I've been walking around a bit and looking at DC in the dark. 5 Minutes into the walk the GPS was out of battery and I was randomly discovering things and searching for a hotel. 4 something hours later I caved in and payed 100$ for a night at the 'comfort inn' after getting quotes for 150$, 200$ and 400$.

Well I ended up with some pictures, but they were all taking at ISO 3200, so they are rather noisy and the camera shows it's age a bit. Compared to it's more modern brothers. One day I gonna have a D700 and a small portable camera.

capitol at night

christmas tree in front of the capitol

smithsonian institute

institute of agriculture

washington memorial

national press building

I also tried to avoid to create the standard pictures of these building, which you can see on every postcard.

this sunday I decided it's time to practice a bit for my alaska trip next year. If I find a way to afford this somehow. Right now this part is a bit unclear. Depending when and where I'm going to move.

Anyway, It was a beautiful day today, just a touch over 40F (5 Degree Celsius) and sunny. So it was perfect to practice on rainy, muddy roads. Since the are standard conditions for Alaska, as far as I know.

So about half a mile into the trail with my 80% Street/20% Gravel tires (not the best choice, but I want to see what I need) I found a large puddle on the muddy road.

This gave me 2 choices:

• be a man and go through it, but I tried this with the pathfinder and got nearly stuck this way...
• be smart and go around it

I tried the smart choice for once and ended up landing in the puddle. Guess choice number 3 was to swim throw the paddle...

The next 2 hours I spend trying to lift the bike in the mud and once I accomplished this to get back onto a paved road.

Turns out that my tires got clogged up and had literally 0 Traction and kept digging myself into the road over and over again. My best chance was to put the front tire at a 45 degree angle and try to move slowly out of this area.

And lifting a 500lbs bike in the mud was no fun, but no damage what soever. The frame guards worked again and I completely expected that I gonna drop the bike at least once during this practice run.

Lesson learned:

• street tires work on loose gravel, but not in muddy conditions
• expect to pay 500$ for tires before going to alaska
• I need a certain momentum to keep going or I get stuck...
• forcing the bike out of the mud is not good for my back

this is so amazing, the future of Legos...

Yesterday I finally got the right oil delivered and so it was time to replace the transmission fluid. Which was remarkable easy.

• get the car somewhat level
• unscrew the filling bolt
• put a oil pan below the drain bol
• unscrew the drain bolt
• drain it
• make coffee
• screw in the drain bolt
• find handpump and pump the oil in till it overflows
• replace the handpump after 2 quarts, with a new pump because it broke
• screw in the fill plug
• tighten it all to specs (25-28 foot pound)
• cleanup any oil spills and the bell housing with ester based cleaners
• drive around and be happy how simple it shifts now

the only issue I encountered is that I only managed to put about 4.5 quarts of oil in and not 5.1 or so as it was called for. I think I need to drive it a bit and than fill it up at a spot where the car is perfectly level.

Now I just have to learn which O2 sensor is broken and replace this on. And to replace/relocate the knock sensor. It's going to be fun...

this last weekend we finally managed to get us out of the boredom of daily life and drive out to Twain Harte to prepare some stuff for the repairs and pick some other stuff up.


I decided to take the Pathfinder this time and not the bike, since I really wanted to learn how it behaves on longer trips and how to use a stick shift in the mountains.

Well while enjoying a nice dinner

• rib eye steak
• sauteed zuchini
• whiskey onions (sadly had to use some nice 16 year old scotch, since I was out of bourbon)
• fresh bread
• a Cabernet Sauvignon

 

It started to snow outside...

Actually to storm is a better description, since this was, what I woke up too in the morning, 12" (33cm) of new snow.

and the surrounding area looked quite nice too

This also meant that the power went out, which translated in wood stove SLOW cooked eggs...

And on the way out I was really happy that I took the pathfinder, otherwise I would had been stuck (actually there are worse things than being stuck out there). But atleast I started to learn how to drive a manual transmission with engaged 4WD in the snow and only skidded once of the road into a 'ditch', when I left the driveway.

 While calculating my gas mileage on the trip, well let's just say that 14mpg (16l/100km) are slightly pathetic and the car has so little power at higher altitude. I mean where the Passat drove 90mph without a struggle I had a hard time accelerating to 60mph. It get's there, but it takes ages....

But I did not get stuck or stranded. Let's see how Tahoe works.

the second project for saturday was to get some work done on the car and to get familiar with it.

So I my standard tasks for new to me cars

• differential oil change
• engine oil change
• transmission oil change
• transfer case oil change (new one, never had a 4x4 before)
• air filter

Well I tried todo this all, but took to long and only managed to oil the engine (twice, I overfilled...) and the differentials. At least it makes it easier to diagnose possible leaks after the changes...

Now for some reasons people always remember to replace the engine oil, but barley bother with the differential oil for some reason.

I don't know why!

I mean this is a differential

quite a lot of tiny parts and gears, which all want to be lubricated and over time generate tiny tiny metal shavings. These accumulate on the magnetic drain plug.

And look like this

For a comparison, the same plug looks like this after cleaning

Now how complicated is it to change the differential fluid? Well all you need is a 10mm square drives, oil catch pan and a pair of ramps.

and maybe a light, but this is optional. HIghly recommended is the wooden mallet, most useful tool I bought so far...

One tip I can give, do not use a fill nozzel! They tend to get loose and drop into the differential. And trust me, it's a major pain to get out. Since you only have 2 little holes to work with...

this is the fill nozzle after I recovered it 2 hours later and making impromptu fishing poles out of metal springs and wires...

Now what does this actually save me?

Air filter change:

20$ Garage vs 8$ Me
Engine Oil change:

60$ Garage vs 35$ Me (would had been 15$, if I had done it right to begin with)

Differential:

200$ Garage vs 50$ in oil and lubricants (would had been 30$, If I hadn't dropped the damn nozzle into the differential)

The sad part is, I still need TODO the transfer case (90$ Garage vs 15$ for oil) and the transmission oil (120$ Garage vs 70$ Oil). I guess I do this next weekend or as soon as I manage to get the correct transmission oil...

Now the big question is, what is actually wrong with the car?

• one failed O2 sensor - 20$ part (garage charges 200$ to change it)
• one failed Knock sensor - 30$ part (garage charges 600$ to change it)
• valve covers gaskets are seeping a bit oil - 100$ part (garage charges 1000$ to change it)

I will monitor how much the valve cover gaskets seep and replace them by myself if required. Don't really worry about the Knock/O2 Sensors at this point in time.

The O2 sensor is only needed for emission tests and the knock sensor helps protecting the engine and alters the timing in case of bad gasoline. Means I have to buy good gasoline and so far I did not hear any knocking or pinging and the car runs incredible smooth (except for my poor shifting skills)

If I have the feeling I need to replace the sensors I'm going todo this myself in an afternoon or two. After the passat disaster I have now all the tools I need, or friends from which I can borrow the missing ones.

review of my saturday projects.

Well the first prohject was rather simple. I wanted to use the smoker and completely fill it up. That we had a bbq on sunay was a perfect reason for me to make pulled pork.

Since this is a rather long procedure, well it needed some timing and the right amount of meat and I wanted to snack in between so my schedule was:

• get 18-20 lbs of pulled pork ~20h smoke time, so get up at 5.30
• get 2-3 lbs of trip tip ~3h smoke time, so will be done for an early lunch
• get 2-3 lbs of ribs ~6-12h smoke time, so will be done as an early dinner

now we need to season all the stuff. So the night prior I put salt and pepper on it, rubbed it in and wrapped it in foil. The tri tip was bought seasoned, since it was on sale.

now in the morning we put all this into the smoker...

and started to smoke it over apple wood at 200F/93 Celsius for several hours...

the tri tip was done and rather delicious and makes for wonderful sandwhiches...

than there were the ribs, close to be done

and after 19 hours the shoulder was done and ready to be shredded into tiny pieces to make sandwiches from.

Which were rather amazing!