It’s been a while since I updated the blog so I figured I would post a few photos of things I cooked recently. Enjoy.
Food Photos 1
Yellowstone 2012 Photos
In August of 2012 I visited Yellowstone National Park with my family for a short vacation. The weather ended up being great and it was really a photographers dream trip. There was a lot of people but we really did not have to wait in line much around the park. I took a ton of photos but narrowed them down quite a bit to my favorites. I have 5 photos posted below and then more in my Gallery Link. The new gallery is HTML5 so it’s compatible with all of your mobile devices!
Minestrone
This morning I decided I need to make something hearty and mostly healthy to eat for the next couple of days. After looking through some things I decided on Minestrone Soup. This is a favorite of mine but one I had not made before. After looking up some recipes it was not difficult and decided to go at it. I really like Allrecipies.com to find good dishes. They always have lots of reviews, with people making suggestions on how to make them better.
Minestrone soup is most often a vegetarian dish, however I had some ground beef I wanted to use, so I started with that. Next added the aromatics to make a mirepoix with some red wine and tomato paste. I added about 1/2 of my stock and some Quinoa in place of about 1/2 the pasta to make the soup healthier. Since this has a long cooking time I added it early. I added the rest of the ingredients minus the spinach and zucchini since I did not have any. I let it simmer for probably about 40 minutes until the vegetables were al dente added my pasta and let it cook for about another 10 minutes. Minestrone Soup I and Jamie’s Minestrone.
The end result was quite good. The quinoa was a good substation and I am glad I put it in. This made a dutch oven full so lots of taste leftovers. It should freeze well too.
Bill Nye – Science!!!
A couple of weekends ago I was able to see Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy speak at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice NE. It was a beautiful fall day for 300-400 people to sit and listen. I was expecting a few basic experiments similar to the TV show, but instead it was more of a speech lecture. The topic varied but some of the main points were sustainability, and the future and importance of science.
At the end there was a long Q&A session, and the topics were all over the place. Controversial questions were asked and they were handled in a dignified way. Bill Nye did not try and stay in the middle of the road, instead voicing his strong opinion on some topics such as global warming, nuclear energy’s future, etc. He did keep stressing finding a way to store energy efficiently and that it could “Make you Rich”!
I took several photos during the speech, and a few are below. I was glad I went.
Live Music: Silversun Pickups
On Monday night I went to a great concert in Papillion, NE at the Sumtur Amphitheater . It was a cold night but a great concert. I was able to get up very close to stage. Close enough to reach out and touch the band at times if you wanted. I was able to capture these pictures with my old Motorola Droid X smartphone. I was shocked at the results I got, but they got even better after I did some noise reduction in Lightroom. This was one of the first performances the band had with the new (Temporary) bass player. She did a great job, but you could tell was a little rattled by the support of the crowd. Other than that it was a great performance. The bands sound live is very similar to the recorded sound, but you could tell it was live, no lipsync here. Overall it was one of the better shows I have seen this year.
A couple of Videos too
Cooking Chicken Marsala
I have not updated the blog in a while so I figured I would post an update showing some of the cooking I have done recently. Below is some Chicken Marsala I made for the first time last night. It turned out great, considering it was the first time I tried making the dish.
Transit of Venus 2012
Tonight was the Transit of Venus. This is where Venus comes in line between the Sun and Earth. As a result you can see a small black dot appear on the sun. This is Venus. This will be the last time this happens in any of our life times with the next one happening in year 2117. After work I stopped by the observetory to look through a telescope and had kind of given up at trying to photograph it but after a bike ride I decided to give it a go after someone on twitter asked if I had any photos. I am glad I did because the results turned out pretty well for the equipment I have.
I shot these with a Canon 7D and Sigma 70-200mm lens. I used live view on the 7D so I would be looking at the LCD to not damage my eyes by viewing the sun directly or through the magnification of the lens. The results are what you see below.
Clicking on each image will load a larger version that allows you to see Venus better.
Greta’s Gourmet, Lincoln NE Review
It looks like I am turning into a food blogger. I enjoy trying lots of new places in town, so it’s fitting. I will need to remember the P&S camera since my cell phone photos are only so so.
Friday I packed my lunch and intended on eating it at work, but that all changed once I smelled coworkers warming up things in the microwave. Browsing my stream on Google+ I noticed Brian’s postabout a great Friday burger deal from Greta’s Gourmet here in Lincoln. Since this was fairly close to work I decided to give it a shot.I walked in and ordered the Greta Burger, which was the house ground beef patty with bleu cheese crumbles mixed in with the meat, seasoned with KC Steak seasoning. This was served on a toasted gourmet bun with tomato, onion, and mixed greens. I am a bleu cheese fan and have had several other bleu cheese burgers around town, but this one tops them. It was very flavorful; every bite had a great bleu cheese flavor to it. It was a juicy patty that was cooked perfectly, with a hint of pink in the middle. It was seasoned nicely and the onion was a great addition. One of the problems with other restaurants bleu cheese burgers is that they are always messy. Sometimes they crumble from too much bleu cheese or the bleu cheese just falls off the top. Since this one was mixed in it had none of these problems. I had Sweet Maui Onion kettle chips, which were similar to a more subtle sour cream and onion flavor. They were a good fit for the Greta Burger.
The atmosphere of the shop is nice. It is a butchers shop so the cafe takes second place, but there are tables up against the window and some nice butcher block tables in the center. It reminds me of a kind of deli that you would see in a place like NYC. It has a good lunch spot vibe.
For a total of $6.40 after tax I got a good sized gourmet burger, kettle chips, and a large iced tea. I thought this was a pretty good deal. It was cheaper than “Value” meal choices at the chain fast food places and much better food. Compared with other gourmet burger places in South Lincoln, for what you get it was a great deal. I plan on going back to try the other things on the menu. They have a lunch special every day that ranges between $5-6 and chef specials on the weekend that they post to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Update 10/05/12: Since this original post I have been back to Greta’s probably a dozen times. The Greta Burger (Blue Cheese) is my favorite. The balsamic burger is my second favorite. It really is the best burger in town in my opinion and the opinion of many people I have brought with me. The potato salad is a great side, and the baked beans are to die for. They are more of a cowboy bean with several different types of beans, and small pieces of meat. I also recommend getting their house Iced Tea. It is a black tea, but just a great blend. Nothing fruity just great simple Iced Tea. The specials on many of the other days are very good as well. You really can’t go wrong with anything at Greta’s.