De Fenestra

The girl and I went out to Reed Valley Orchard this morning. We came home with 42 pounds of apples (which we bought by volume, but which averaged out to 95¢/lb) and about 10 pounds of pears.

We may wind up needing to buy a dorm fridge to store our pomological excess.

Also, over the summer, I got the girl a dehydrator for her birthday. As it so happens, six large apples in 1/4" slices will just about fill its five trays.

And if you need to core a lot of apples in a hurry, a power drill with a 5/8" spade bit will do the job quite nicely. I advise wearing safety glasses and holding the apples in the sink as you drill them. The process produces a small amount of debris but distributes it widely...

ETA: Also, ran four miles this morning. Average pace was crap - 12:06 - but still. Four miles.

So, a post of updates not about running.

Friday was odd. I resigned from my job - the first time since high school food service and retail that I've voluntarily left a position rather than being booted for corporate budget reasons. It wasn't an easy decision but I have something new lined up which will be a massive step forward in terms of career progression. It's a major financial hit - elalyr and I spent a good chunk of the previous weekend figuring out the household budget revisions - but we can make it work.

I have a lot of regrets about leaving the current gig. The pay is good, the people are good, and most of the work (less the software documentation) is very interesting. But this new thing, which I shall refrain from naming until I start on the 28th, is likely to be better for my resume, skill set, and networking over the long term.

Also scored an iPhone 5S on Friday. My previous 4 was showing its age, mainly with a balky Home button, and I'd been hammering the Apple site to catch the new model in stock at the local Apple Store. I don't think the new machine is any better as a phone but by Kibo, as a pocket computer, it's phenomenal.

Saturday began with a run, shower, breakfast at Magee's, and a trip to the farmers' market for apples, pears, and fresh pasta. We returned home to drop off the spoils of our raid, then headed for Cincinnati. There's a relatively new REI store up there and we acquired some gear for running in cooler weather - we're about to run out of comfortable mornings, I'm afraid. Swung by Yottaquest, where I acquired a couple of Shadowrun modules from previous editions. We tried to get into one of the outlet malls north of Cinci but were stymied by a complete lack of parking, so we just parked and sat in the car with the windows open to enjoy the afternoon.

Dinner was interesting. On the recommendation of a co-worker, we tried a cook-your-own-food-and-eat-it dinner class at The Learning Kitchen. I prepared (!) filet mignon with whiskey/mustard/cream sauce and a sweet potato and parsnip puree - which is a hell of a lot better than it sounds, especially with nutmeg and honey in it. E produced a massive ribeye with cherry sauce - again, not a flavor combination I would've expected to be good - and sauteed snap peas. Om nom nom.

The basement remodel has been slow because weekends have been taken up with so many other things, but all the IKEA shelves are now assembled and we have all the other components necessary for fastening them together and bolting them to the walls. We just have to figure out the assembly sequence and do the work.

Made tonight: Brother Alton's granola bar recipe with the part of the "dried fruit" component played by 2 ounces toasted coconut, 2½ ounces semisweet chocolate chips, and 2½ ounces dried cherries.

I was hoping the chocolate chips would maintain some degree of structural integrity but they melted immediately on contact with the hot toasted grain/nut mix. The gooey mass of delight is now cooling. I'm not sure what the end result will be... other than tasty.

Also, we made fresh limeade for the first time ever. OMFG. I have a new respect for the amount of work required to juice enough limes for key lime pie.

A couple of weeks ago, elalyr ran across this post on Marksbury Farm. It's a local meat processing facility about 45 minutes south of Lexington that recently opened a retail shop. ( Today, we went exploring. )

Been meaning to share this one for a while: The Night Kitchen. It's a Seattle restaurant that runs 6pm-9am. No, that's not a typo.

Where the hell were you guys when I was hanging out with the old Louisville LARP crew? Pure evil genius, I tell you.

Bet your ass this'll be showing up in games I run.

Continuing with the emergency food reviews, we tried Chocolate Strawberry Crunch from Mountain House over the weekend. This was chocolate pudding with dehydrated diced strawberries and toffee crumbs.

Prep: Open main bag, separate ingredient pouches, open pudding mix pouch, pour pudding mix into main bag, add cold water, stir. Wait. Add diced strawberries. Stir. Pour toffee crumbs on top. Serve. As usual, Mountain House desserts make four servings, while the entrees make two - go figure.

Consumption: Meh. It's instant chocolate pudding. With dried fruit. And crunchy bits. I applaud the attempt and am always glad to see variety in this sort of thing, but it's nothing special or spectacular. We didn't finish the pouch.

Verdict: Two of five titanium sporks. This was an adequate dessert item with no outstanding features, positive or negative. I'm tempted to dock it half a spork for greater-than-usual mess factor, which I consider a downside for food intended to be consumed while roughing it.

Regular readers may recall last year's purchase of about 120+ pounds of Amish beef. We've not been consuming it as quickly as we should, so a majority of the batch remains in our freezer, still wearing its little overalls and straw hats. In an effort to increase consumption, we've begun experimenting with it. One particularly tasty science project was an adaptation of gyro burgers, using cow rather than lamb:

1¼ pounds ground beef (or lamb, for purists)
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
¾ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
4 crushed garlic cloves (or equivalent garlic powder)

Mix in bowl. Form into patties and treat like any other burger. Bonus points for serving with tzatziki sauce.