Con Nooga and Biltmore weekend

Adventure 20110219

A hint of Spring is in the East Tennessee air so this weekend I tried to pry myself out of hibernation and engage my sense of adventure.

First up was a Saturday trip down to Chattanooga with my Step-Dad to day-trip Con Nooga.  This was the first time we have had a chance to attend Con Nooga and I was very impressed.  Lots of costumes, a good sized crowd without it being difficult to get around, a wide selection of programming tracks, and a very friendly atmosphere.  I particularly enjoyed the Ms. ConNooga contest, and you could tell the ladies were having a great time and enjoying being silly and putting on a show.  We will definitely be back next year.

Next up, Kathy and I drove over to Asheville on Sunday to visit Biltmore.  I can't say that I was very impressed personally, I kept noticing signs of maintenance issues like cracks in the ceiling and cobwebs in the windows.  Also, the sense of scale was off for me, huge cold and drafty rooms were offset by small cramped corridors.  I felt more like I was visiting an old bank than anything else.  Although impressive architecturally, I certainly wouldn't want to live in it.

2010 Thanksgiving Spread

Experiment: 20101125

Here we have a few snapshots of the massive feast that Kathy, my Mom, Step-Dad, and I had for Thanksgiving this year. 0_0 Yeah.... We barely touched all this food. My Mom and I have these images stuck in our heads of what a Thanksgiving meal should look like and we just can't quite get that to line up with the fact that we are only feeding four people.  Leftovers anyone?

Dubious Chef Episode Seven: Scallops!

Dubious Inclinations is the name of the pen-and-paper role playing game group I belong to, and a couple of months back we decided to try something a little different and have been playing our own home version of a cooking challenge show that we blog about under the name of The Dubious Chef:

In an odd turn of random chance I (Sam) won the die roll for this week's Dubious Chef with Greg providing the secret ingredient. Apparently Greg and I have decided that we need to monopolize all the attention since we didn't get a turn until after everyone else....

My featured ingredients were:

• Cheese, Cottage cheese, or Cream cheese
• Eggs
• Mollusks (Clam, Oyster, or Scallop)

I started the week with a very strong idea of what I would like to focus on because the night before I won the die roll I had noticed that my local Walmart had scallops available for just under $5/bag. The Epicurious app on my iPad quickly pointed me towards an excellent Seared Scallops with Creamy Noodles and Peas recipe that I felt could be easily adapted to use cream cheese, would look attractive garnished with boiled eggs, and that I felt had a good chance of allowing for the incorporation of whatever random ingredient was presented. As luck would have it Greg happened to choose lemon juice as the secret ingredient this week and it quite handily complemented the dish.

Seared Scallops with Lemon Cream Sauce Noodles and Peas

• 8 ounces medium egg noodles
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 pound bag small bay scallops
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to boiling and cook noodles until almost ready then stir in peas and cook about 3 minutes more. Drain in a colander, then coat bottom of pan with olive oil and toss noodles and peas to coat until ready to plate.

In a second small pot hard boil two eggs, then set aside in sink under cold water.

While water is boiling, rinse and pat scallops dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, then add scallops. Increase heat to high and sear scallops until golden brown and just cooked through. Add wine to skillet and deglaze by boiling, stirring and scraping. Stir in cream cheese, chopped chives and lemon juice and boil until slightly reduced and then pour sauce over plated noodles. Garnish with slices of hard boiled eggs and chives.

Final Score:

• Creativity–9
• Presentation–10
• Taste–9

Items Purchased:

• Bag of Bay Scallops - $4.97
• Cream cheese - $1.98
• Half dozen eggs - $0.59
• Egg noodles - $1.75

Total: $9.30

Did not use:

• Half the cream cheese
• Two thirds of the eggs
• Half the egg noodles

Brought from Home:

• White wine
• Olive oil
• Fresh chives
• Frozen peas
• Half stick of butter
• Salt & pepper

Dubious Chef Episode Five: Cherry Ham Holidays

Dubious Inclinations is the name of the pen-and-paper role playing game group I belong to, and a couple of months back we decided to try something a little different and have been playing our own home version of a cooking challenge show that we blog about under the name of The Dubious Chef:

For our fifth episode we decided to skip our random die roll to determine who would be next, and instead I (Sam) won a coin flip with Greg to be the next Dubious Chef.

My featured ingredients were:

• Oatmeal, Cornmeal or other Cereals
• Cheese, Cottage cheese, or Cream cheese
• Apricot, Cherry, Peach, Plum/Prunes or other Stone fruits

We did go ahead and randomly roll to determine that Ken would be the Mystery Ingredient provider for this episode, and much to my consternation he brought, drum-roll please.... Flour tortillas.... .... .... Yeah, I was so totally expecting THAT to be an option....

I actually had several false starts while planning because of the "Oatmeal, Cornmeal or other Cereals" selection. Immediately after the roll I thought I'd go with something breakfasty, but despite the fact that I almost always have oatmeal for breakfast myself I couldn't really come up with an idea "fancy" enough that I could see getting decent points for the creativity category. Once I had discarded breakfast as a theme I moved on to the concept of using Cornmeal and Polenta as my foundation. Unfortunately I've never made Polenta before and the couple of quick trial batches I made did not turn out well at all. About mid-week I was discussing possible options with my friend Miki and after he suggested a Roasted Peaches with Honey Mascarpone Cream recipe he was fond of my entire concept suddenly formed up as a holiday meal. Once the flour tortillas were exposed as the secret ingredient I was pretty sure how to incorporate them into the main dish, but failed rather poorly in an attempt to also include them in the desert. A quick experiment with the heat gun and some Cinnamon Sugar showed that I wasn’t going to be able to create anything similar to a cinnamon churro so I tossed the experiment and proceeded with what I had.

Roasted Peaches Flambe with Honey Nut Cream Cheese

• 2 peaches, halved and pitted
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons Philadelphia Honey Nut Cream Cheese
• 2 shots of Grand Marnier

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix the butter and brown sugar together to form a paste.
Place the peach halves, cut side up, in baking dishes. (I used small cast iron cauldrons for extra presentation points.) Place a large spoonful of the brown sugar mixture into the center of each peach half.
Put the dish in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
Allow to cool at least 5 minutes.
Top with a large spoonful of the Honey Nut Cream Cheese, insert a cinnamon stick for garnish, and add a half a shot of Grand Marnier to each dish and ignite.

Cherry Ham Steaks with Sharp Cheddar on a Flour Tortilla

• 1 pound fully Cooked Boneless Ham Steaks
• 1 can Del-Monte Dark Sweet Cherries
• 2 cups Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 1 package Flour Tortillas
• Dash of Liquid Smoke
• Dash of extract of Cinnamon
• Salt and Pepper to taste

In a small saucepan bring the cherries to a slow boil, add dashes of Liquid Smoke and extract of Cinnamon. While liquid in cherries is reducing by half, brown the ham in a large skillet then add the reduced cherries, lower heat, cover and simmer at least 10 minutes. In a another skillet brown the tortillas and melt the cheese.

Cornbread Stuffing with Pine Nuts

• Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing Mix
• 1/2 stick of Butter
• 2 tablespoons Pine Nuts

Prepare stuffing per box directions substituting real butter for margarine and adding Pine Nuts while fluffing.

Final Score:

• Creativity–9
• Presentation–9
• Taste–9

Items Purchased:

1. 2 peaches $0.79
2. 1 box Stove Top Cornbread Stuffing Mix $1.42
3. 1 pound fully Cooked Boneless Ham Steaks $2.98
4. 1 can Del-Monte Dark Sweet Cherries $1.00
5. 2 cups Kraft Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese $2.00
6. Philedelphia Honey Nut Cream Cheese $1.86

Total: $10.05

Did not use:

• Half the Cream Cheese
• Half the Cheddar Cheese

Brought from Home:

• Half an airplane bottle of Grand Marnier
• stick of butter
• brown sugar
• Pine Nuts
• Cinamon Sticks
• Cinnamon Extract
• Liquid Smoke
• Salt & Pepper

CompuLounger 1000

Experiment: 20100903

It’s been a point of geek pride for me to be able to say that except for my very first (A Power Macintosh 6100 bought in ‘94.) I’ve always built my own home workstations.  That being said, in recent years I’ve noticed a trend in my improvements where I have been moving away from attempting to build high-end computers, and focusing more on comfort and usability.  I believe I may have reached the culmination of this trend with the build I have dubbed the “CompuLounger 1000”.  Over the last several months I have been experimenting with the “living room computer” concept, and thanks to a very understanding wife and the purchase of a few final extended length cables I think I have found the right mix with a Lane Bandit Snuggler recliner and a Easy Chair Mount bolted to the floor for stability.