The easiest dish to make?  Ice cream! 

I put the currants in sugar last night and let them macerate.  As I stated in a previous post, currants are quite tart but with enough sugar, they taste pretty . . . → Read More: Currant Update]]> Well, I did manage to “de-stem” some currants this weekend!  Not all five pounds, but enough to use.

The easiest dish to make?  Ice cream! 

I put the currants in sugar last night and let them macerate.  As I stated in a previous post, currants are quite tart but with enough sugar, they taste pretty good.  Sort of a juniper flavor really, perfect for the holidays!

We have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, the kind with the chilled vessel.  You add the mix and let in spin about half an hour.  Toward the end of the cycle, you dump the fruit in.  It’s going to be a delicate balance putting in just enough currants for flavor and not so much as too throw off the sweet.

If this works well, my immediate friends will likely be treat to this newest ice cream flavor at our awesome Christmas retreat this coming weekend.  For today, the family will be the judges.

Other uses for the currants?  I mentioned muffins and that would definitely work.  It also seems that a holiday drink of some kind would work quite well.  I’ll do some more investigating.

I was introduced to true currants on a trip to Ireland several years ago.  We were offered fresh currants muffins for brunch while traveling the Ring of Kerry.  . . . → Read More: Currants, Currently]]> Some background first.  First off, currants are NOT the raisin-looking thingy you can buy locally.  These are likely Zante raisins.  They are good, but they are not currants.

I was introduced to true currants on a trip to Ireland several years ago.  We were offered fresh currants muffins for brunch while traveling the Ring of Kerry.  They were quite good. 

Currants are tart.  They are a sort of cross between and cranberry and and a blueberry but smaller.  They have to be really high in antioxidants I’m thinking.  Eating them plain would make your mouth pucker, they are not particularly sweet.

I didn’t give currants a whole lot of thought after returning from Ireland until I was faced with brewing a beer for the holidays.  This is when I thought, “why not put the berries in the beer?”

Well, this started an interesting investigation.  In my pursuit of currants in the United States, it turns out that they were banned from commercial cultivation for almost 100 years!

This is because currants were a host to a  tree disease which threatened White Pines.  This stood until 2003 when a New York farmer challenged the ban and got it lifted.

I ended up ordering currents from an Internet site in New York state.  As I recall, it cost as much or more to ship them to me in dry ice than the berries themselves!  I got 10 pounds. Sometimes there are things you just have to have no matter what and for me, this was the currant berry.

 I put the currants in two winter brews that year.  The success of one brew was masked somewhat by the fact that I added  way to much clove.  The other beer came out alright.

Now, the reason I’m writing this today is because I still have at least 5 pounds of currants still sitting in the freezer!  One problem is that they were shipped fresh which means a lot of small stems are still on the fruit.  While this wasn’t a problem when they were added to a boiling beer wort, it is a concern if I want to use them, let’s say, in a muffin!

So, one of my holiday goals is to slip on some non-powder surgical gloves and commence with the stem removal!  The gloves are, of course, to prevent my fingers from turning a permanent shade of purplish-red.  Once stripped of their stems, I’m open to suggestion as to what to make with this curious fruit.  Jam comes to mind.  I’ll consult with my rising star culinary expert wife on this as well!

My . . . → Read More: Musical Sushi]]> My daughter plays on my Kawai ES4 keyboard by “karate chopping” with both hands, a technique she calls “cutting musical sushi”!  I had to laugh, I’d never heard that before!  Between that and reading from the latest Junie B. Jones book “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells (P.S.) So Does May)”, it has been a creative morning!

My creativity will hopefully kick in with Christmas lights today.  This is the main project of the day for me today and a fine day it will be to hang outdoor lights (self back-patting under way!).

 I went to Wal-Mart yet again after the news last night to buy some more Christmas lights.    I didn’t buy enough CS 7  blue LED lights for our outside tree the first time and I couldn’t find any last night.  So, I switched to red for the tree and will move the blue strings somewhere else.   The house already had a bunch of white hooks for hanging icicle lights from but I needed a few more as well.

So it will be a red tree, a candy-cane red and white approach on the two flanking evergreens on the front steps, snowflakes around the front door and the blue strings, well,  somewhere.

Of course, the tree has to be moved up stairs today along with the rest of the indoor Christmas decor.  We have to decide where the tree will go in the new house, it will be a choice between ceiling height, visibility and convenience.

Well, that’s the name of the song playing in the background anyway.  My two kids, especially my oldest, love the Vince Gaurdaldi collection of Christmas songs.  In particular, they play “Linus and Lucy” over and over again.  Funny, we all call this the “Snoopy Song” even though that isn’t the . . . → Read More: Christmas Time is Here!]]>

My Christmas Light Canvas

Well, that’s the name of the song playing in the background anyway.  My two kids, especially my oldest, love the Vince Gaurdaldi collection of Christmas songs.  In particular, they play “Linus and Lucy” over and over again.  Funny, we all call this the “Snoopy Song” even though that isn’t the title.

More on the Peanuts characters later because it is Christmas time for me!  I try very hard not to kick into Christmas mode until after Thanksgiving but society makes that somewhat difficult.  But lights, trees and holiday music are worth the wait in my opinion.

Now I did go to Wal-Mart last night in search of deals but since the sale didn’t start until midnight, I technically did wait until after Thanksgiving to participate!  Besides, I’m not sure buying Christmas gifts should count anyway because it is about inspiration and opportunity.  In this case, the motivation for me was savings to be sure.

It was quite entertaining actually.  Most items were shrink-wrapped and shoppers were not supposed to get into this stuff until midnight.  But somehow, cracks developed in the system for a few items and they started ending up in charts!  Some things, like trampolines, were unwrapable and heavy yet they managed to end up on a cart.

The real fun was the unshrinking of the video games and videos.  You know when you visit a place were you can feed fish and the frenzy that develops when you throw the food on the water?  It was like that!  Actually it was fairly civilized compared to what I’ve heard it can be.  Only a little bit of shoving.  But these items went fast!

My shopping is over now for just a bit as my attention shifts to the hanging of Christmas lights.  Now, I should have gotten this done when it was warmer (shouldn’t I know when this will happen?) and I tried but other things sidetracked me.  I do have the lights I’ll need (I think) and will spend this morning gathering tools, cords and such.  The main assault is Saturday.

I have some great inspiration in my neighborhood. Since we’re in a new house now, I have more to work with in terms of a new porch and more “shrubbery”.  Pictures will be forthcoming!  Ideas welcome!

Anybody who knows me knows I love ketchup.  I have for as long as I can remember. I put it hash browns and mix it with leftover mac and cheese.

My . . . → Read More: Heinz 57]]> As I eat my Alpine Swiss burger from Ruby Tuesday’s (as opposed to the lower elevation Swiss burger), I started thinking about ketchup packets.

Anybody who knows me knows I love ketchup.  I have for as long as I can remember. I put it hash browns and mix it with leftover mac and cheese.

My kids have picked up on this a bit.  I think my son favors this red sauce a bit more than my daughter.  I know, I know, it has high fructose corn syrup and it’s not its own food group!

The Weather Lab has a collection of ketchup packets.  I’ve made it my obsession to collect as many as I can when I eat fast food and then save them for times of severe weather or when I either forget to ask or are given only a couple.  After all, two is not enough for a burger and fry order! Six is about right.  I could blog separately about which restaurants are generous or stingy with these packets and perhaps I will someday.

Actually, I wonder if any serious study could be done on the proportion of ketchup packets in the Weather Lab to severe weather in the Ozarks? Perhaps a “Ketchup Packet Cam” to monitor how many are available as a short-term predictor of severe storms!

I have never attempted homemade ketchup but then again I’ve yet to can anything in my life.  I remember my father would boil and boil on canning weekends and the two tomato dishes were ketchup and stewed tomatoes, both of which were good as I recall.

I noticed in a quick perusal of  Wikipedia that the origins of ketchup and the etymology of the word are a bit uncertain with conflicting theories.   But it does appear to be a fairly old idea in food circles.

None of this shines favorably on my wife’s culinary adventures which are clearly above mere “ketchup”.  I, of course, agree.  She will be learning about all types of wonderful and classic sauces in her class later in the semester.

The service is great, I like the channels.  Rain fade (caused by attenuation or a weakening of the signal as it passes through heavy rain) does occur but not often enough to be a pain.

My complaint is with their equipment and customer service.

So far this . . . → Read More: Dish]]> O.K. Dish Network, give me a break!

The service is great, I like the channels.  Rain fade (caused by attenuation or a weakening of the signal as it passes through heavy rain) does occur but not often enough to be a pain.

My complaint is with their equipment and customer service.

So far this year, we have returned four receivers!  Twice for the larger DVR unit and two of the smaller ones.  On the plus side, Dish does give you a convenient return label for the unit.  But if you don’t return it within ten days, they bill you for it.  With my life and family, it is unlikely an equipment swap will be dealt with in ten days!

O.K. so I’ll get credit for returning the equipment later right? Well, maybe.  For the two larger units I shipped back last winter, credit never appeared until we got on the phone and complained.

What is interesting is that on two separate occasions talking with employees of The UPS Store, they insisted that I get a copy of the tracking number because “Dish is terrible at keeping track of returned receivers”.  Most recently, it was estimated that about four of these a day were going through one particular store.

Then of course customer service doesn’t have a U.S. zip code if you know what I mean and this breakdown in communication just adds to the frustration.  We had a game channel turned on for a while now but we never use it after the Wii was purchased so I recently called to take the extra $5 per month taken off my bill. The charge for a programming change? Five dollars! Seriously, to press a key on a screen somewhere? Outrageous!  They must be in cahoots with the bank charge people!

Anyway, to attatch positive feeling to the word dish, be sure and check out my lovely wifes’ blog “Danielle Dishes Up” and follow her culinary journey!

I’m not a stranger to this club.  I have talked to the group on two occasions about my storm chasing exploits.  I also have several friends in the club.  One of them, Paula, sponsored me and was . . . → Read More: Rotarian]]> I made it!  I was officially accepted into the Sunrise Rotary Club of Springfield early this morning.

I’m not a stranger to this club.  I have talked to the group on two occasions about my storm chasing exploits.  I also have several friends in the club.  One of them, Paula, sponsored me and was there this morning for the official photo op!  Thanks Paula!

It will take me a while to learn names and procedures.  I also will have to remember to visit the ATM more often in case the Sargent at Arms picks on me for a fine (all for a good cause of course!)

I’ll let you know more about my involvement as my activity grows!