sherry peppercorn sauce

since years I'm struggling with making tasty light flavored sauces, which don't overpower my dishes. Time to try to write recipes down, which actually work

lets call it a simple peppercorn sauce

1/4 cup sherry
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 qt beef stock
1 tbs flower
1 tbs butter
2 tbs pepper corns
some salt

combine butter and flower over medium heat to a roux
lets it sit for a couple of minutes
add hot stock
simmer and skim for 30 minutes
add whipping cream
add pepper corns
add salt
simmer another 30 minutes
stir in sherry

serve with steak.

This should cover 4-6 people

Blackberry Mead

Over the last year and half we started to switch a bit over from beers, to making mead at our little house.

A simple, easy and flavor full mead.

Amount is ca 1 Gallon
primary fermentation: 6 months
secondary fermentation: 7-10 days.

Primary:

3 lbs of orange blossom honey
dilute in warm water
transfer to a 1 gallon sanitized Fermenter
cool to room temperature
pitch yeast, recommended champagne or other high fermenting yeast
put the airlock on it and store in a dark cold place for like 6 months

secondary:

move mead from primary to secondary fermentation, without disturbing the yeast
add 2 cups of frozen blackberries
put the airlock on and store in a dark cold place for up to 10 days, it might be necessary to push down the berries every day, if they float to the top of the Fermenter.

After secondary finishes, filter the mead and transfer to high pressure campaign bottles or store in a growler in the fridge.

estimated alcohol content, depending on the chosen honey ~20 by volume.

Miso Soup

still working on a good simple miso soup recipe

all ingredients scale

1 cup water
1/2 tsp bonito stock, granulated
1/2 tbs miso
1/8 cup chopped tofu
1/4 sheet nori
green onions, sliced

boil water
add tsp bonito stock, granulated
add miso
add nori, quartered
boil for 7 minutes
add tofu
add green oniones
serve

considering writing a cookbook

So over the last couple of month I started to consider the idea of writing a cookbook and so I thought, lets keep this blog for an intermediate reference of recipes and write down combinations I come up with.

Tonight sous vide tilapia on a bed of arugula with homemade salsa

Ingredients:

for the salsa:

bunch of different sweet tomato, think Roma, sun gold and heirlooms, 1/2lbs or so, diced
half a bunch of cilantro, minced
1/2 lime, squeezed
2-3 tbs of balsamic vinegar
2-3 tbs of olive oil
salt and pepper
1 small pomegranate, just the seeds
1/2 a red onion, diced

combined ingredients and let rest for 30-45 minutes

tilapia or other form of whitefish (think halibut, which should work better)
prepare sous vide to 135F
seal fish with a spring of thyme and some butter
cook for 20 minutes
salt and peper
sear in cast iron pan with some butter


serve over a bed of arugula, 2-3 cups worth

Breaking in our new Weber Genesis ep-330s

A couple of days ago we got a new Weber BBQ as a surprise 5th wedding anniversary gift and after assembly we needed to break it in with a couple of different dishes.

We started out with having a small backyard bbq with friends and grilling some delicious rare tuna steaks, which turned out wonderful, due to the 700F degree sear burner and followed it up with some tasty crabs, fresh from the California coast.

Mr. Crab, with his big meaty claws.

Mr. Crab surrounded by asparagus and his friends

dinner is served

Camping at Salt Point

Ever since buying Rocky the trailer, we wanted to go camping to some spots at the coast and take pictures there. Sadly half the time so far, the camera didn't work or I forgot it at home or I forgot the tripod or any other million things went wrong.

Anyway, now we finally managed to get away for a couple of days and head direction Salt Point using the route 1 North.

Which is a beautiful drive, but rather tedious with the jeep and trailer, coming in around 9000lbs and 32 Feet length ( roughly 10 meters) in comparison to the Porsche at less than 3000lbs, which we took to Point Arena (which is north of Salt Point) a while back.

beautiful curvy roads, steep cliffs and working breaks are a wonderful combination

And we went part of the trip off road, due to a navigational error, called trusting your GPS. Not something I would want todo under any circumstances ever... Needless to say, I was happy we didn't bend or break an axle and driving 4 miles, in about one hour time was a new record.

Since it was a bit colder up there, this pups finally got a chance to test their new traveling beds, it's amazing what you need to bring these days for a successful camping trip, to ensure everybody is comfortable.

could I have a blanket please?

usual slightly depressing north coast weather up here

really regretting that I sold my macro lens about right now again

Recap of the first Month of 2016

After a short trip to San Diego, for work related reason, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather in Tahoe right and test the jeeps offroad/snow performance.

After all since selling the Pathfinder we did not have any chance to go off-roading anymore and the Jeep is not really made for it, since it just a has an all wheel drive and is sadly no real 4x4.

rosie

there must be some snow squirrels

After our return we also attempted to make a classic dish, called beef wellington and do everything from scratch. Which I would have never tried, if I had known that Puff Pastry, is the translation for Blaetterteig.

odd to have no real sides, since the main side is integrated into the dish

came out absolutely perfect and couldn't have hope for a better grade

Adventure 3,

so after the last camping trip, which was kind of a drama with all the trouble with the hitch and the trailer.  We decided togo to Lake Camanche




Which kind of checks all our boxes, it's close by and easy to get too.
So looks good.

After reserving a pull through camping space, since we are still not so happy with backing the camper into narrow short spots, we thought all was perfect.

Well guess the people online gave us the wrong spot, which turned out rather different than expected. Apparently it was a tent campground with a car parking lot for 2 cars.

it was a bit tight, but basic geometry allowed us to fit into 2 spots somehow

Once we parked, and have everything setup, we started with our default tasks of making tasty food for dinner. I mean just because you are camping doesn't mean you can't have tasty food.

Meanwhile Rosie decided to be a queen bee and take over the camping chairs, while basil decided to be a spoiled brat and claim one of the beds, when no one was looking.

Sadly do to the drought, the lake was a bit dryer than expected.  Apparently lake Camanche lost over 60% of it's capacity in the last 2 years and the picture you see is supposed to be lake view.

all you are supposed to see is water, but sadly this seems to be missing due to ongoing drought conditions.

adventures with rocky

So after close to 2 years of researching trailers, campers and possibilities. We decided to buy a medium size popup camper.

Since it's a 2015 Rockwood Premier, we decided to call it Rocky. It seemed a bit fitting after all.

playing a bit with light painting, after setting everything up

a nice orange tint to the picture, do to the wildfires a couple of miles away

puppy swimming

2 puppies swimming

playing some more with light painting

one deer

one deer and a baby deer

Adventures in April

Latest adventures and stuff happening here in April/late March

found an efficient way cutting circuit boards after etching

started building a rose garden

realizing that my saw is just a bit small for 6" wide boards

visiting hog islands oyster farm

ordered more oysters than we could shuck. 100 were maybe a bit much

slowly starting to figure out how to shuck oysters and making progresss

enjoying the California country side a bit, but guess need another set of tires soon again.

basil is still adorable

finished the rose garden, now time to wait 10 years for roses and grapes to grow

first quarter of the year is over and what happened so

getting better with my circuit design and down to 0603 components. Sadly we got beaten by someone else to the market and I'm trying now to come up with some new ideas

managed to replace the screen on our iDrop 2, gladly it's now so old that new screens are literally 12$ a drop, so it's not that big of a deal anymore

basil is still trying to get away with being a puppy, never mind that he just turned 3. Rosie was not willing to have her picture posted. Apparently she is becoming a bit self conscious about her weight these days...

managed to spend a couple of days at my in-laws cabin

learned to make tuna tartar, which is rather delicious

our latest cider is finally ready for consumption, only took about 4 month for it to become clear

starting to become spring in our backyard

our 3 year old roomba, got some needed help in form of a little roomba who now mop's our floors once a day