Cocktail Confessions

Following on the tails of the previous entry (they were originally together, but my beer memories grew too lengthy), here’s my take on homemade sausage.

It’s another hobby I really enjoy.  There’s a lot of creative freedom in making your own sausage, the marrying of fresh meats such as pork and beef with all those fresh ground spices.  It’s very satisfying to stuff your own casings and see how very plump and juicy they are, and you know how fresh your ingredients are.  There is absolutely no comparison when it comes to store bought, pre-packaged sausage and the stuff you make on your own.  There’s no sulfates, preservatives, colorings, or questionable cuts of sub-par filler meat you have no idea what part of the animal comes from (lips and assholes anyone?).

And like brewing your own beer, there’s definetly some bragging rights somewhere in the mix when you can cut off your own links and grill ‘em up for your friends.

I was never too keen on breakfast sausage.  It’s okay, and I’ll eat it, but I normally don’t go for the little maple infused breakfast sausages.  They always taste either a bit too greasy or to burnt for my liking, and I know the meat in those comes from questionable sources.  I’m also not a fan off too much fennel seed, or sausages that have been frozen weeks ago in their travels to the store.  A lot of larger grocery chain stores will have their own ‘mild’ or ‘spicy’ Italian sausages, but I always think they lack the flavor I’m really expecting.

My favorites include the oh-so-bad-for-you Mexican Chorizo, and German (or is it Polish) Kielbalsa?  Of course a good beer-brat with grilled onions on an artisan roll is also divine.  And if you make your own beer, how can you deny the perfect synergy of craft beer and sausage…they go togother like Lindsey Lohan and….well…everybody I suppose.

Just over 7 years ago, (even before I started brewing my own beer), I got a small electric meat grinder by Rival, I think.  I even bought a book of professional sausage recipes that went way beyond just pork and beef.  There were exotic game ones that included venison, ostrich, boar and some to be made with poultry and veggies such as artichoke hearts and others that incorporate other mixtures such as pesto or a tapenade.

I also made them pretty traditionally, that is with actual hog casings (meaning cleaned intestine lining) and not this artificial paper-esque collagen stuff.  I used to go to a local butcher an get a few pounds of both beef and pork, and often needed to call ahead of time and ask them to same my all the back fat they could (a required ingredient for ‘real’ sausage making…by controlling the fat..you’re controlling the amount of flavor and moisture you introduce into the mix). 

And not being satisfied with over the counter spices that may have been sitting in my pantry for years on end, I even bought my very own stone morter and pistal to grind my spices and release their fresh aromas and oils.  You can’t beat the taste or smell of freshly milled spices, and that’s the sign of an above average sausage.

I made a chicken and artichoke pesto sausage once.  Turned out pretty good, but I was super nervous handling the chicken and keeping it cool while I worked.  Stripping raw meat off the bones was harder that you think as chicken tends to get a little slimy, and can cause major food poisoning if not handled correctly.  You must clean all your surfaces both before and after, at least twice, and I suggest using those new Lysol or Clorox towelettes to clean counter tops to avoid any change of contamination.  I’ve had food poisoning from bad and uncooked chicken before…..it is the worst!!

Of course, the beer infused ones are even better, because often during my mixing process, the recipe may ask for a few ounces of beer.  So what do you do with the rest?  Well, drink it of course.  I don’t think I ever made a round of sausage in my kitchen that I also didn’t have a buzz going on from Negro Modelo.

It was a sad day about 5 years ago when I made a fatal mistake of becoming lazy for a moment and put the plastic stuffing tube into the dishwasher.  It was only after I ran the dishwasher did I realize that the spinning arm inside took a chunk out of it and deformed it, and thus my electric grinding and sausage stuffing days were over….

Until now.

Today I found two replacement universal stuffing tubes on Amazon.com for the low, low price of $9.98.  I added it to my electronic shopping cart (as well as a copy of WoW: Cataclysm for all you gamers out there), and now I’m already salivating at the idea of breaking out my old grinder (wife says it’s in the garage somewhere….I’ll try and find it this weekend.) and getting wrist deep in ground meat in the coming weeks.  Oh the joy of soon calling my long lost friend, the butcher, to once again request he save me 2 pounds of back fat and make sure he has about 10 feet of hog casings.  I’m actually looking forward to making a nice spicy summer sausage.

There are two past hobbies of mine I’d like to bring back this year: making my own sausage (upcoming post), and making my own beer.

I used to do both at regular intervals from 2001 thru about 2004, but ever since we moved to our new house around the beginning of 2005, I haven’t done either.  That’s just over five years.

I got my Mr. Beer kit as a gift from a close friend of mine, Sam, and was quite intrigued with the prospect of making my own flavorful creations.  I was imagining they’d be somehwat cheaper to produce in home than buying a twelve pack at the store,  that they’d be a bit more robust in both flavor and alcohol, and also garner myself some bragging rights along with those nice summer BBQ’s I used to have.  I mean who isn’t impressed and wants to try a home craft beer made by a friend?  Even if it isn’t the best beer in the world, you walk away thinking you just drank something very unique, something that took time and great care in handling of  ingredients instead of that commerical cheap marketed corporate swill.  It also helps that I bottle them in 16oz  grolsch bottles that are generally reserved for nice European brews.

Little did I know that it takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks for a batch of Mr. Beer to be ready to be consumed, and there is some pretty heavy duty up front effort in cleaning and sanitizing all the equipment.  It’s not hard to make per-se, but you do need to be careful not to contaminate the bottles during fermenation, or introduce anything that may disturb the yeast or purity of your concotion.  I think the hardest thing about these small kits is having patience.  It takes a few hours to mix sanitize, boil water, mix, measure, dilute, add flavoring and yeast, etc.  It’s a totally different thing after that to stare at this plastic amber keg, mocking you day in and day out for 2-3 weeks as nature takes it’s course and makes naughty..naughty with the yeast.  After the initial fermentation, you then bottle everything (and add sugar for to start the carbination process) and need to wait yet another 2-3 weeks, rotating the bottles every few days, checking its progress, all the while smacking your lips wondering how much longer this whole thing is going to take.

My personal fav - Stout

Finally that magic day comes and you can now put them in the fridge and wait a few hours for them to cool enough to enjoy.  Then you invite a few of your friends over for a BBQ and you’re beaming like a brand new father, passing out cigars in eager anticipation.  The finely rubbed steaks are coming off the grill with the right markings, the fresh potato salad is out, and your beers are being passed around for the first time.

Ahhh….that first taste is so worth it.  It’s like tasting chocolate for the first time, or looking forward to that one time a year your wife actually makes Thanskgiving Day stuffing.  But soon before you know it, like any relationship, your bliss on riding high with your whole 12 pack soon disapates in just a few short hours and you realize how much work, effort, and waiting you did, just for it all to dissapear so quickly.

Since the lots are small with this starter kit, I wanted to see if I could brew a much larger lot, but when I began to look at advancing to the next level of brewing I became concerned with the space required and investment in ‘professional’ equipment.  Even on the lower end of top grade home brewing you can expect to drop hundreds of dollars.  Then there was a question of space.  I don’t really have a spare room that can be left undisturbed and regulate temperature (a must in order to be successful).  So the next best thing I found was Brubaker’s in Huntington Beach, CA. 

Brubaker’s is a place where you can rent out a kettle and brew upwards of a pony or full keg at a time.  The nice thing is they have all the equipment, tons of beer recipes taht mimic many popular brands (or you can create your own), and when you are all done brewing for the day, they actually store it for you and call up when it’s ready to be bottled.  You can pay them to bottle it for you, or you can save a few bucks and go back and bottle yourself.  I made a keg’s worth a few years back and titled it “Frankie’s Beer” after my baby mini-schnauzer and had it ready to go for our block’s annual 4th of July party.  Needless to say it was a hit and there was some definite bragging rights and ego massaging going on.  But getting over all that, it was damn fine beer bottled in 22 oz brown glass bottles and clocked in at around 7%.  I even went as far as making my own labels picturing my dog’s face.

Is it worth it?  It depends on my mood.  Enough time has passed where the allure of making a new batch of beer makes it seem likes it’s going to be a new experience all over again.  I have a few old unused kits in my pantry, but I’m afraid the shelf life of 5 years isn’t going to help me.  I may have to start from scratch and buy a new pack (I’ll soon have a spare room to put it in as my step-daughter is moving out next week), but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.  I’m even trying to muster up some of my friends to go back to BruBaker’s for our own brewing appointment.

Just some various odd and ends this week:

1. My progress on my diet has slowed down a bit this past week.  I knew the first week was going to be easy to drop some excess water weight and that the real challenge begins in week two, and it sure did.  It’s becoming harder and harder to slough off the extra pounds even by following the same procedures the previous week.  I actually weighed in on Saturday at my lowest yet, 228.8, and while I was in-fact surprised, I also knew I was on empty.  That morning I woke up so hungry.  The reason I weighed in on Saturday morning instead of Sunday was that my wife and I were going to her company party, and I figured I was going to cheat a bit.  I didn’t cheat bad, but I did have a few drinks of whisky on the rocks.  I also has a nice dinner, albeit the fillet Mignon was smaller than I would have liked.  The dinner also came with risotto, a salad, some bread and veggies.  I’m pretty sure I limited myself to one piece of bread.  As far as desert went it was an apple tart topped with a single scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Well, I ate the scoop of ice cream and pretty much passed on the tart after one bite.  The tart was below ‘meh’ and didn’t end up tasting like a desert at all.  The rest of the night I drank water and danced with avrious people to work up a good sweat.  On the way home I did have one single Jack-In-The-Box taco (I would have had two, but they screwed up my order and I got stiffed one taco) and a few french fries my wife had.  Anyway, the next morning I was shocked to step on the scale and see I was up to 234!!!  WTF??  My wife told me to calm down, it was probably water weight from the somewhat salty food and excess liquid I was carrying around, although the first thing I though was the whisky.  It wasn’t a lot of whisky, but I figure 5 stiff drinks throughout the night was quite a few calories, but it didn’t compute, especially after my dancing.  Sunday I was dead tired so I didn’t go to the gym, and Monday I forgot my gym clothes after work, although for dinner I had a steamed fillet of salmon and steamed veggies.  So this morning, I weigh 230.6…clearly not 234 from Sunday, but up almost 2 from Saturday.  So I’ll be hitting the bike after work today, having oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch, and some pure beef London broil for dinner.
2. Finances have been a little tighter than I’d like to admit, but I can’t fault my wife or myself on wasting money.  There may have been that one night we went out for sushi and spent $90, but that happens once in a blue moon.  So I’ve been packing lunches for work, eating oatmeal for breakfast, and trying our best to clean out our freezer.  It just seems like the next 11 months are going to take forever as I continue to pay off my car.  But then my wife is going to want a car in the next year or so, but no way are we getting one with the payments as high as mine.  I hate to admit, but I haven’t been turning down my parents little extra help here and there when they offer to help, although it does pain and embarrass me to some degree.
3. One thing that may help is my step-daughter is moving out on the 25th.  She’s totally not ready, but I am.  As much as it pains my wife, my step-daughter desperately needs to experience the real world to understand the value of a dollar, and more importantly hard work and respecting others.  Inherently she’s a good kid, but her sense of entitlement that everyone else can see but my wife is a bit tiresome.  And the fact she only pays us $125 in rent, while might be missed upfront, I try and tell my wife that when she moves out, our bills will decrease dramatically.  I expect our electricity and water to go down dramatically.  My wife will save a lot in gas as well as she doesn’t need to shuffle her to and from work multiple times a week.  Our grocery bill will also drop dramatically, and that’s one thing I’m looking forward to the most.  The kid eats a lot, and she eats “my” shit and never replaces it.  For example, last week I bought a ‘large’ box of Cheerios, and I only had 1 bowl, and when I went to have some this morning, I realized the box was empty.  That’s the second time that’s happened and I’m just talking cereal.  There have been plenty of times I’ve come home to see ‘my’ yogurt gone or the last soda that I pick out for myself.  Also, it will be nice to have a clean house again.  She NEVER offers to mop the floors, or vacuum, water the plants, dust, or clean up after herself in the kitchen.  So it’ll be nice to come home to a house and watch my TV when I want, go to the fridge and see that the stuff I look forward to is still there, and hopefully all my bills will be lower.
4. Camping – Trying to organize a camping trip with my friends and it like herding cats.  Deserves its own post really…so look for that.
5. Train Expo – This upcoming Saturday I’m going to the Anaheim convention center for the Great Train Expo.  I’m really looking forward to this.  I’ll be shooting some video with my Playsport, buying some tools, maybe even a structure, DVD, and quite possibly a train.  I’ll be going by myself and I’m okay with that.  I like to do something for myself once in a while, and this is a treat….finances be damned!!
6. Speaking of trains, I’ve added a new banner (see right hand margin) for the Union Pacific Steamer Excursion.  Basically you get to vote for a route (there are four different ones in different parts of the country) in which an older steam train will take and you get a chance to win and get two tickets for this historic ride across parts of America.  How fun does that sound?  See a piece of America the way it was some 60+ years ago.
7. New tech:  Looking into buying a new external hard drive, most likely a Western Digital 1 terabyte drive to back up music and pictures.  Also eagerly awaiting to see the price and release of Motorola’s new Xoom 10″ Android tablet.  I’d really like one of these, but the $600 price point may be a deal breaker.
8. Talked to a friend about doing some brisket or rib smoking in the near future.  Probably when it warms up a bit.

This is a fairly easy recipe and even harder to screw up.  As a matter of fact, there really isn’t any hard measurements here at all, everything I did here was more or less by eye-balling it and made it up as I went along.  I like it because it only has a few key components and the rest is totally up for you to decide. 

You can take a lot of extra veggies, spices, and other extras you may have lying about the fridge or pantry and come up with a satisfying concoction of your own.

Since I’ve been on a diet lately and trying my hardest to drop a few extra pounds I’ve been lugging around, my main component here was ground turkey instead of beef.  Your local grocery store most likely carries Jenny-O brand turkey and they generally come in 1-1.25 lb packages, and that’s what I used here.  Also I’d like to think this is probably healthier that most stuffed peppers because I didn’t use any cheese or processed stuffing, and the peppers and spinach you’re going to use are both full of iron, vitamins, and of course fiber.

You can either finish this in the oven (preheat oven to 425, if you choose this route) or on the grill over indirect heat (more on this later).

So here are the key ingredients that you’ll need:

• 1 package (about a pound or slightly more) of ground turkey.
• 1 package of frozen spinach, thawed.
• 4-6 bell peppers, depending on their size and how much stuffing you make and can fit in them.
• 1/2 – 2/3 cup uncooked rice.  I used Jasmine rice, but if you’re partial to a wild rice blend, or want to mix a little long grain rice in with your white rice, then so be it.
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste.
• Instead of traditional tomato sauce or paste, I actually used fresh salsa, but you want to make sure it’s heavy on the pureed tomato side like Ortega or La Victoria brand, mild to medium.  Other salsa’s may be a bit to chunky, or heavy on spices, or too watery.  You can also do a 50/50 mix such as 50% salsa, 50% arrabiata pasta sauce.  As a matter of fact that’s what I did here.  In the end, you really can’t differentiate between salsa and pasta sauce if they are heavy on the tomato puree.

Finally, you’ll want some extra spices and content to make this yours.  For my southwestern blend, I used the following: 1/2 -2/3 cup diced white onions, 3 cloves diced garlic, white pepper and ground cumin to taste, pinch of ground chili pepper and/or chipotle powder to taste.  Optional ingredients include: black beans, 1/8 – 1/4 cup diced fresh cilantro, maybe some roasted corn kernels, and favorite shredded or crumbled cheese, sour cream, and sliced avocado for garnish.

Preparation:

• In a separate medium sauce pan, prepare cooked rice like you normally would.  Generally 1/2 cup rice to 1 1/4 cup boiling water and let simmer for 20 minutes or so until rice is cooked.
• While rice is cooking, heat some olive oil in large skillet over medium heat  and crumble in turkey to brown.
• Wash, stem (by cutting off the top 1/2“), and hollow out your bell peppers of any excess internal membranes and seeds.  You’ll want to make sure you cut the tops off straight so that peppers will stand up evenly when cooking in oven or grill.
• When turkey looks about 80% done (very little pink left) in skillet, go ahead and add your diced garlic followed by the diced onion.  Go ahead and cook an additional 5-10 minutes to get onions slightly translucent and garlic lightly browned. 
• OPTIONAL:  This is where you can choose to add a little bit of black beans, roasted corn kernels, diced cilantro, finely diced jalapeno, or any other goodies you like.
• Add a dash of your onion, chili, chipotle powders to taste.  Add a ‘few’ dashes of your Cumin powder.  The cumin really comes out here.  My ratios were like 3 parts Cumin to 1 part of the other dry spices. 
• Now reduce heat in skillet and begin to crumble in your entire package of thawed spinach and your cooked rice at this point. 
• Add approx 1-1.5 cups of your salsa/pasta sauce mixture (it was about 2/3 cup of each for me, poured straight from the bottle…remember, I “eye-balled” it).  Mix thoroughly.  We’re looking for the consistency of pre-cooked meatballs or meatloaf (see picture above and examine contents in skillet) so you may need to add a bit more salsa or tomoto sauce if mixture is too ‘dry’.
• Salt and pepper your stuffing mixture to taste.
• Now that your stuffing is thoroughly mixed, spoon into your hollowed peppers up to the top.  If you retained the pepper tops, you can go ahead and place them back on.  This isn’t crucial, but looks cool for presentation purposes (see picture).

Cooking:

The peppers themselves are pretty hearty critters so don’t worry about burning or drying out from the high heat and 1 hour cook time.  The pepper walls are full of water and will steam themselves over time.  If not cooked long enough, they don’t become tender and may be hard to cut through with just a fork and may still seem ‘firm’.  Don’t worry about the insides….you already cooked the turkey on the skillet…your just steaming the peppers at this point and melding the various flavors in your mixture.

Grill – If you choose to grill this on your BBQ, place stuffed peppers on proper grill plate or metal basket and arrange over indirect medium heat (Temp gauge should be between 400-425F) and close kettle to keep heat in and create convection.  Check once at 30 minutes and rotate peppers half turn.  Close kettle and continue to cook at least another 30 minutes.  Check again.  If pepper still seems a ‘little’ tough, give ‘em an extra 10-15 minutes. 

Oven – Arrange peppers in a ceramic or glass dish (or cookie sheet lined with tin foil) and place on middle rack.  Bake at 425F for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until flesh of pepper is malleable.

Serving:  Once removed from heat, let sit 5 minutes to firm up and steam to dissapate.  Careful, steam is hot and dangerous.  Remove tops and placeon side of plate (if you used them) and garnish with slices of fresh avocado, cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, and maybe some crumbled feta, cojito Mexican or like cheese.  Enjoy.

I have the unfortunate reality of sitting in a room with two bosses.  My direct boss is a female and sits behind me, so I can always feel her eyes staring at me at the most inopportune times.  Isn’t that the case?  I can be busy, solve complex problems, pump out paper work and work circles around some of my peers….and she’s never around.  It always that one time I’m 3 minutes late clocking in due to morning traffic, or that one time I want to read a news article on Fox or look at a new model train picture or read a joke someone sent me that she saunters on over and has something to say to me.  Never fails.

Then there is my departmental boss who sits in the same room, in the opposite corner that faces all of us.  Very Japanese in style, although he is Chinese himself.  It’a a cultural thing…many Asian companies tend to have their supervisors right in the mix of things, but it can be a tad stressful when two are presiding over six of us.  Yes, we have 2 bosses for 6 employees.  Overlap duties and decision making much?  No wonder we can never get anything done, we are so busy in repetitive meetings that the majority of tasks that need to be dealt with get talked to death and over analyzed before anyone even lifts a finger.

In all fairness, they are both nice people and not necessarily task masters, but due to their management finesse, (i.e. wrong prioritization and inability to make a decision on just about everything) I would have a hard time following any of them into battle.  It’s a little sad, as the six of us (well 5 actually, 1 person is just to shy to say anything (or is he really the smart one out of all of us?)) really don’t respect our managers as actual ‘managers’.

Anyway, all fluff aside this is an actual conversation I just had and decided to share with you.  This is very typical of a lot of stuff here and drives us all crazy.:

Boss #1: “Jayson, did we cancel all voice and data services for the property that closed down?”

Me: “Yes, all services other than the alarm lines have been terminated.”

Boss #1: “Including the data circuits?”

Me: “Yes, ALL services other than the alarm lines have been terminated.”

Boss #1: “And the tie lines between that building and ours?”

Me: “All data and voice services other than the 1MB alarm lines have been cancelled.”

Boss #1: “What about the ISDN?”

Me: -silence-

(At this point I figured I have answered this line of questioning already three times in the last 30 seconds so now I’m just ignoring shouting over cubicles again in hoping this conversation is over.  So of course Boss #2 (female) who sits behind me now has to chime in due to my apparent silence).

Boss #2: Jayson?

Me: “ALL VOICE AND DATA SERVICES…ALL OF THEM…EXCEPT ALARM LINES…HAVE BEEN CANCELLED AND/OR TERMINATED….ALL OF THEM….ISDN, VOICE, DATA, TIE CIRCUITS….”

Boss #1: Okay, I just wanted to make sure.

Me: Did you not receive all the official cancellation orders from the service provider I sent to you via email when I received them after I placed the termination orders?

Boss #1: Oh.

I could just scream sometimes.  That’s part of the problem; I have two bosses who rarely read their emails despite the fact that 90% of their questions would be answered if they just scanned their email.  Yes I get the most inane emails from them all the time asking me for this or that, and then I reply to those emails, and they still ask me verbally later.  Sigh.

On Christmas Eve I was introduced to a very nice bottle of bourbon by my parents.  My mom and dad know I enjoy a good whisky and these last few years they occasionally prurchase me a nice bottle on special occasions.  Which now that I think about it is very weird because I can’t even begin to guess how many times I was grilled when I was a teenager and even of legal drinking age of the dangers and ills of drinking.  I can vividly remember having to pass breath tests when I came home late at night when I was still living with my parents, and now today they are bringing over high end bottles of booze.  Mixed message anyone?

Anyway, I was introduced to a 750 of Bulleit Bourbon, which averages about $20-25.  All I can tell you it was very clean and smooth as I sampled it ‘neat’, not mixing it with anything, and I’d easily buy this again in the future.  The flavor profile is as such: hints of oak and spice, crisp, clean flavor that isn’t harsh in the throat along with notes of vanilla and honey.

I came across this blurb on the net and thought I’d share it with you, unedited, because it’s an interesting story:

Tom Bulleit is a Southern gentleman in the truest sense of the word, but his considerable charm and family pedigree are only part of the story. He is a former Marine, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, a successful Lexington attorney and the founder of Bulleit Bourbon, a brand he created based on a family recipe dating back nearly 200 years.

Bulleit’s great-great-grandfather Augustus emigrated from France to New Orleans around 1800, eventually following the commerce of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Louisville, where he became a tavern keeper. Of French heritage, he relied on his knowledge of brandy-making to create small batches of Kentucky bourbon in the mid-1800s. Soon his product was traveling with the tide of pioneers headed westward. Business was good, but in 1860 Augustus disappeared while transporting whiskey to New Orleans. One family story said he was killed by his business partner. Another said he disappeared into the sumptuous life of the French Quarter. In any case, his bourbon died with him. Until Tom Bulleit came along.

Tom Bulleit was raised in Louisville and worked in distilleries before joining the Marine Corps in 1968. Later he went to law school. During his law career, Bulleit was active in the campaign for a Vietnam Veteran’s memorial in Washington, D.C.

But Bulleit couldn’t get bourbon out of his blood. In 1987, venturing into a new frontier, he created Bulleit Bourbon from the original recipe.

“I always loved the business,” Bulleit said. “My father couldn’t understand why I would leave a successful law practice, but I was attracted to the creative and entrepreneurial challenges of making this brand of bourbon and doing it right. I guess you could say it became my passion, and it still is. We are creating one of the definitive styles of bourbon currently distilled in this country. It is one of the most distinctive mash bills out there. The high rye content, absence of phenol alcohol and at least six years of aging produces something really special.”

Bulleit Bourbon was awarded the Brown Spirits Gold Medal at the 2004 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

The Bulleit legacy is a compelling chapter in the story of Kentucky bourbon, that most American of spirits. Bulleit resurrected a whiskey that was not only a lost piece of his family’s history, but of an American era. He is one only a few remaining scions of a Kentucky bourbon-making family whose name is on the bottle.

Now, onto the fun part…(you knew it was coming you cheeky little monkey’s, didn’t you?)

BLT

• 1 1/3oz Bulliet Bourbon
• Lemon wedge
• Tonic

Preperation: Serve over ice in a rocks glass and garnish with generous wedge of lemon.

Bulleit Mint Julep (serves 12)

• 15 oz Bulleit Bourbon
• 30-40 fresh mintleaves
• Simple syrup (1 cup sugar disolved in 1 cup water)

Preparation: Wash mint leaves, pat dry and place them in small mixing bowl.  Cover with 3 oz of Bulleit Bourbon and let soak for 15 minutes.  Remove mint, then place in a clean cotton cloth and wring over bowl thus bruising the leaves.  Dip back into bourbon and wirng again.  Repeat this process several times to create mint extract.  You can put leaves back in for an hour for a more concentrated mint flavor.  Combine mint extract (leaves included, if preferred) with symple syrup in a covered glass container or jar and refrigerate overnight.  Fill julep cups with crushed or shaved ice and insert a fresh mint spring.  Add 1 oz of Bulleit to each cup and then add marinated julep mixture to taste.

Well, I didn’t get to all the posts I wanted to do, but I did make some progress on some other fronts:

- First and foremost, I’ve been hitting the gym again…like I used to some ten years ago.  It’s been surprisingly good to me, the fact that I’m feeling pumped up and good after a workout, and just 10 days into the new year, I’m already seeing some results (or is that just wishful thinking on my part?).  When I bought that digital scale on January 3rd I was weighing in at approx. 236 and some change.  As of yesterday morning (1/9), I weighed in at exactly 231 pounds.  So in the course of 7 days with me hitting the gym 5 of those days and riding the bike at least 20 minutes each time in addition to lifting weights, I dropped around 5 pounds.  Now some of that may be water weight, but that’s hard to determine as I’ve also been increasing my water intake and by hitting the weights harder than usual, I wonder how much lean muscle mass I used to have started to come back.  My body is a mixture of being sore and energetic at the same time.  The last few nights I’ve been sleeping better and feel a bit more awake during the day, but I’ve noted I’m a little stiff in my joints including my lower back….but damn….this may sound highly egotistical, but the look of being pumped up and full of endorphins while standing in front of the gym mirror makes me want to try even harder.  I’ve also began eating earlier dinners and keeping my portion sizes down all the while while eating healthier as well.  A second benefit of all this is that I think my wife is secretly resenting my success and thus driving her to work out again.  This past week she attempted jogging at least once, and also rode the bike and walked the treadmill at her woerk.

The one thing I can tell you that I’m jonesing is the whisky.  Friday night I had an extreme urge to pop open one of my bottles and have a stiff drink or two of Maker’s Mark or Jim Beam, but I didn’t..  I had to put the bottles in the liquor cabinet so their labels weren’t staring at me…mocking me….seducing me….with their oakey and carmel aromatics.

Last night I kinda cheated with the food though.  I had two turkery burgers (healthy), but I has some mayo and cheese on them as well (no other sides), but finished the evening with three chocolate chip cookies.  Tonight I’ll be havings teamed veggies and salmon and maybe some fat free/sugar free Jell-O for dessert.

- I listed some items up on eBay and Amazon to sell off and make room in my spare bedroom for my train set.  I always feel good about getting rid of excess stuff in the house, especially when I can make a few dollars, but I’m excited to go to a train show on 1/22 and I plan on buying a beginners book on ‘benchwork’ possibly tonight to push me even further into getting my ass in gear.

- Yesterday my friend Al and my wife and I went to a RV lot and looked at various class-C campers and looked at even renting a RV for an upcoming camping trip I’m trying to plan for all my friends sometime this late Spring or very early Summer.  I’ll detail that more in an upcoming installement.

- I still need to post some New Years Eve photos here, and got a great article and drink recipes for a stellar Bourbon I got for Christmas (and finished New Years Eve by the way).  I have a podcast episode to edit and post soon, and taking a renewed interested in some techy gadgets as well as really looking forward to the BBQ’ing season.  I’m already thinking about smoking some ribs or another brisket in the coming months.

- My step-daughter is planning on moving out soon, which I think is a good idea and I’m not going to stand in her way.  She really needs to get out into the world and experience how tough things really are and get a dose of ‘reality’ and learn the value of money and hard work.  If she moves out, I need to get my wife to “buyin” that she is on at least a 6 month moritorium before she can come back if things get too tough.  Our house is not going to be a safe-haven or flop-house because things didn’t work out teh way she thinks they will….especially because we are trying very hard to give her advice, guide her, make her think of certain things and all we get back in return is attitude and the “I know this already, old-man” look I get.

Yours truly in the middle

The “taking it back” mantra has been with me now for a few weeks and really began to be put into practice on Jan 1st.  I realize that was only a few days back, but I figure if I try an stay positive and keep reminding myself of certain attainable goals I offered up in my previous post, I have a decent chance of completing or at least attempting a few of them.

Case in point: Buying a scale.  Now you may think buying a scale is not really that big of a deal, and by most account you’re right.  However, I’ve never been satisfied with just ‘getting by’ (unless it’s work where my motivation not to strangle somebody on a daily basis keeps me in check), so buying a typical bathroom scale is not a simple task.

I went to the gym on Monday and of course, as is the case at least half of the time I go and work out, the professional doctor’s office caliber scale they have onsite was broken.  That thing is never calibrated correctly and just by moving it an inch to the left or an inch to the right on the tile floor will generally produce different results.  I have learned over time to take an average of my readings based on that scale and came up with a Jan. 1st starting weight of about 235 lbs. That’s not erally taking into account food I may or may not have eaten for breakfast, if I’ve used the restroom, how heavy my clothes are, etc.

Well, I finally gave in and went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a scale.  I wanted to avoid the older analog scales so I went directly to the various digital ones to compare.  They range in price from $29 all the way up to $99.  Some of them have various additional features as well, including memory for multiple people, measuring of water, bone density, muscle mass, and BMI (to name a few).  I settled on one that cost me around $52 that does indeed measure much of this stuff.

I can now weigh myself at home, first thing in the morning after I use the restroom and before I get dressed to get a reading.  The only crappy thing is that stupid BMI calculation.  I don’t really don’t put any stock into that very much because I believe the calculations are based on Ethiopians.  According to any BMI chart I’ve ever seen, I’ve been considered ‘morbidly obese’ since I was around 18 years old.  I’m 5’10″ and 40 years old, and according to these charts and my current weight my BMI is roughly 33.7.  Anything over 26 is considered ‘overweight’, and to reach that fine line I should be 181 pounds.  I haven’t been 181 in close to 20 years!!  What BMI doesn’t take into account are bodybuilders or those with above average muscle mass.  What I’m getting at is that BMI is a pipe-dream for me.

Now, back to the present:

I’ve starting hitting the gym again.  I’ve been riding a stationary bike for 20 minutes at a time, followed by some moderate weight lifting on at least 2 body parts.  This past winter break where I was off work for 11 days straight afforded me to hit the gym at least 7 times.  That’s probably the amount of times I go in a whole month these last few years let alone a week and a half.  Today is Wed., and after work I plan on going again to ride the bike and lift.  I haven’t gone to the gym after work in over 3 years!  I’m actually looking forward to it and hopefully I can keep this up for a while.

So what else am I doing? 

1. I’m trying to drink more water.  I usually don’t drink soda or put cream in my coffee anyway, but I’m really trying to drink more water on a daily basis.  I still drink Ice-tea and coffee and any soda I do drink is diet or zero calorie.  Cutting back on the booze will help as well (no empty calories).  I know you may not think this is a big deal, but this far I haven’t had a sip of alcohol in 4 days now.  That’s a big deal, as I usually like a stiff Manhattan or a nice craft beer after work.
2. I’m trying to eat on a more regular and earlier schedule…meaning I’m not skipping breakfast and having my dinner between the hours of 6-7pm instead of later (often between 7-8:30pm). 
3. I’m eating more fiber and fish.  The fiber is taking a little toll on me right now as I’m having a little abdominal discomfort, but the added benefit is lowering my cholesterol as well.  Fish oil tablets at night provide Omega 3′s if I don’t have regular fish (which I want to eat more of anyway….I love salmon BTW).
4. Making some minor modification along the way including: eating less (but not eliminating) carbs altogether, smaller portions, less red meat.

Now all this is a work in progress and I’m kinda winging it.  I’m avoiding Weight Watchers, Atkins, PX90 and all that other stuff.  I want to ‘enjoy’ my life, not become a slave or punish myself for over night results in which may make me give up in a few weeks like so many other people with weak will power and no results to show for it.  I don’t want to give up baby-back ribs, BBQ, and the occasional piece of dark chocolate (my personal kryptonite).  I’m not gonna be that guy that can’t enjoy a nice meal and order salad with dressing on the side while out with my friends, or avoid gourmet food trucks…..I just need to be smarter about my choices and let my stomach, not my eyes, do the ordering.

2010 wasn’t the best year I’ve had. 

I look back at a year of complacency, a few minor health and personal issues, an un-motivating career, some financial struggles, some marital gaffs between my wife and I and my step-daughter and I’m glad to say the year is over.  That doesn’t mean all the issues are over, but at least there is an imaginary line drawn in the sand on January 1st to wipe the slate clean if you will and try again, harder.

In the past, I wasn’t one for New Year’s resolutions.  Hell, I think if we are truthful to ourselves, we can admit that 80%, perhaps even more of our resolutions are broken within the first few weeks.  Past resolutions may have had some sort of meaning back when I was a  teenager, maybe some even during my early twenties.  That’s when I was ideal, young, and believed that the whole world was waiting for me to make a move. 

How naive I was.

Somewhere during my late twenties I began to become suspicious of all the hype, and became more and more cynical through my thirties.  I never got my dream job, never had my own kid, lost members of my family, and was beset by some injuries and health.  I blew out my rotator cuff…..twice.  I developed chronic urticaria based upon extreme stress which I battled for a few years (and knock on wood, haven’t had a relapse in just over two years now).  This last year the doctor warmed me against readings of high cholesterol, and to top it all off, my perfect 20/15 vision of 40 years soon found me wearing reading glasses as things are becoming more blurry before my eyes.  Lastly, the medicine I’ve been taking to combat my cholesterol (which is a genetic disposition in my family by the way) makes me extremely tired and sometimes short term memory issues.  I know that sounds weird, but it’s true.  It’s a missing feeling sometimes within my head.  I begin to speak to someone and I struggle for the words, although my gut instinct tells me I should know it.  I’ve actually caught myself experiencing this a few times now….noticeable enough that it can become frustrating.

We also didn’t go on vacation this year.  The stove needed to be replaced.  As did the garage door.  And the economy was tough and we found ourselves like many other Americans….with our heads just above the water line.  Thank goodness I think….and pray….we can’t go any lower.  Oh, there’s always the possibility of losing a job, or yet another appliance disaster that could once again stall our personal recovery, but it’s not all bad.  I just have to remind myself to be thankful for what I do have everyday as all I have to do is turn on the news and see the wore plight of so many others.  Yeah, I may be a little depressed at times, but it could be much worse….and for many people it actually is.

But I did have some positive things to help me through the year.  Old friendships re-ignited through Facebook, or through other social events have proved to me once again how lucky I am to have such good friends.  A person is lucky if they can maintain  one or two good friendships throughout their lives.  I happen to have quite a handful actually, dating all the way back to my friends Steve and Brian from my early grammar school days.  This past year I’ve reconnected with more and more of my childhood friends, and even those in college.  We ocassionally have block parties on my street and I am so stoked to report here that a few of my old chums drop by and we have a whole new set of pictures and memories to share with each over at 40 as we did when we were 10.

Sure, some of my friends may be better off than me, and one might be tempted to be envious or jealous.  I’ll admit, those strings do pull occasionally, but they are always trumped by the fact that we don’t judge each other and none of them try to out brag or out-do each other like those wenches on all those Bravo “Housewives of…..” series.  I also have good neighbors.  We do a lot together, and we’re all in the same boat more or less, so perhaps that makes us relate better to one another.

So anyway, a few weeks ago with 2011 rapidly approaching, I really began to look at the New Year more seriously than I had in years.  I want to set new goals….but realistic ones.  Ones that are actually achievable and not so outlandish that I’m doomed to fail from the get go.  I want to do more, travel more, entertain more, and try to improve my health, attitude, and outlook.  A positive outlook can help improve the way you rub off on other people.  Call it an aura, or karma, or whatever the hell New Age crap you want to term it as, but in order to feel better, I need to start ‘behaving’ better in various aspects.  If that means volunteering more, taking more chances, exercising more, eating better, rolling with the punches…so be it.

Anyway, I don’t know exactly what to call this, but let’s just call it a bucket list for 2011.

• I want to drop 15-20 lbs and keep it off, preferably by my birthday in mid-March.  Not exactly sure of my game-plan just yet, but eating smarter, drinking smarter, and exercising more this year seem obvious.
• I want to lay the ground work, or should I say ‘bench-work’ for my N-scale model train in my spare bedroom.  It’s a hobby I stared about a year ago but hasn’t really progressed into anything other than a few collected train pieces, some structures I’ve built, and an oval track on a folding card table.  This year, I want to build at least a 4′ x 8′ plywood bench and a track plan.
• I want to try and get back to recording and publishing some podcasts on a semi-regular basis.  Maybe 6 to 8 this year?  Seems realistic.
• I want to take either a camping trip with my friends or a train excursion for a few days.
• I want to have one high-school reunion BBQ in my backyard this summer.
• I’d like to volunteer for a local animal shelter.  This will be harder than it actually seems for me….I get attached to animals very easily and it may prove to be too emotional for me, butI realize there is a need to do this because abandoned pets are often overlooked and don’t have a voice for themselves due to shitty former owners.
• I want to post on a fairly regular basis here, including more recipes, adventures, and humor.
• I’d like to have a more positive outlook at work.  I need to make it at least 12 more months (due to financial obligations), and preferably 18 before I begin to look for a job that will make me happy for once.  I’ve been pretty sour on my career for at least five years now.

Anyway, that’s a decent start I figure.  It’ll be interesting to look back 12 months from now and see how many of these I’ve actually checked off, or at least attempted.