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The Creative Side of Leftovers?

December 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Egg in Skillet

Eggs are one of my favorite foods.

Now and then creativity rears it’s head in unusual ways with me. This morning it just so happened to be with a tub of leftover white chili. Our food supply is low as we are purging out a lot of foods that will no longer be acceptable in a diet we are soon to start. We will be cutting out all sugar, starches, alcohol, dairy items, grains, and other various foods for a while. So at this point we have already rid our cupboards of a lot of stuff.

So I’m looking for something extra to eat with my eggs this morning and I find nothing, and I mean nothing, to eat with them. I used to eat eggs and toast. Now I have to find a new companion for my eggs. I rummaged around for a short while wondering what in the world to have with them. Then I noticed a small tub of leftover white chili (which already had rice added the second day for leftovers) and creativity struck. “What if I spooned a little of that chili into the skillet with some butter?” I pondered. At first I thought “no that won’t work”, yet once the idea had a hold of me it wouldn’t let go. I tried it.

Fried White Chili Patty

Fried chili anyone?

I heated up the iron skillet and dropped a dollop of butter in. Grabbed the chili from the fridge and nabbed a spoon from the drawer and I was off to cookin’. I spooned some into the delicious butteryness and added a touch of salt. I used a spatula to form it into a round shape. It held it’s form fairly well thanks to the rice, but did come apart some when I flipped it.

After it was golden brown on both sides I removed it and placed it on my plate. Then I fried up three eggs and laid them each atop the “white chili patty”. Turned off the stove, got a glass of water and sat down to try it out. I was mildly skeptical, but I knew it would be edible whether I like it much or not. Boy did my skepticism leap out of my brain and run down the hall after I tasted it! It was darn good!

Sometimes it is good to just follow whatever crazy ideas may pop into your head, even if you are fearful of the result.

Fried White Chili With Eggs

The finished product!

Filed Under: Food, food Tagged With: , , , ,
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The End of Empire… and the Dream?

November 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I happened across this article with accompanying video a week or so ago about a small town of around 300 in Nevada called Empire. It nearly completely dissolved due to the economy when U.S. Gypsum closed down shop. U.S.G. provided most of the jobs for the community and so when it closed it’s doors there was nowhere left to work.

I have a hard time with this. On one hand I am sad and feel rather sorry for the folks that lived in this town. I grew up in a small town myself, albeit a little larger with a population of around 4,000. My hometown was, and is, also dependent on such businesses which employ such a high number of the locals. In fact, this past few years has seen businesses shut down in much the same way and to the detriment of the town.

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Filed Under: business, Contemplations Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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Along the Main Street Bridge

Along the Main Street Bridge

I went downtown yesterday and walked the river walk and then across the river to Chamblin’s Uptown and just so happened to have my camera in-hand. Here is one of my favorite photos from the walk. I’ll have to scour through the others to pick others to share.

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Feasting In Worship: A Seven Course Meal

October 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Finishing Touches

Chef Paul putting the finishing touches on a platter.

While on our trip to Texas this past couple weeks I made a slightly vague post on twit-book (twitter + facebook) that I had eaten a meal to brag about. It was last Friday evening’s meal leading into the Sabbath. Being a holy day we always suit up in our nice garb and feast on a nice meal. This is always a treat being that we are at a feast with like minded people whom we have grown very fond of over the years. Having a professional chef as part of the church also has its perks. ;-)

At the feasts he goes by “Chef Paul”. He is a superb chef and restaurant consultant/developer. He’s been trained by some big cahonies over-seas, apparently some of the best chefs around as I understand… I don’t care if he was taught by Ronald McDonald. The man can cook. Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Auto-biographical, Food, food Tagged With: , , , , ,
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My second maternity shoot (the first was my wife’s), and really my first paid shoot all around that wasn’t done for friends. My experience is somewhat limited in regards to portraiture, but I was excited despite my apprehensions. I actually arrived a few minutes late. NOT cool with me. The clients, also clients of my wife’s doula business Chara Doula, didn’t seem to mind all that much. They were utterly cool.

I surveyed the area, Memorial Park in Jacksonville, briefly as I walked in with my assistant (my wife) and thought for sure we would get some good photos. It took a moment to get comfortable, but the clients seemed very kind and willing to take our instruction. Early on I did some test shots to get things set up on the camera. Then we got moving. [Read more...]

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I’m still here and I am awake! I know I haven’t blogged in a while. It’s been too long, but I have been busy. Things are crazy as they always are at this time of year. You see, my family and I are Christians that keep the Sabbaths, holy days, and feasts as outlined in the law of God. In the several weeks leading up to each feast season things always get hectic. It doesn’t matter which feast really. Passover, Pentecost, or the Feast of Booths. Things get busy. They get crazy. They get hectic. Sometimes even strange.

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For a long time I’ve wanted to learn to do panoramic photos. I gave it a couple shots a year or two ago, but I’ll be honest here, they were downright awful. I didn’t use a tripod and I didn’t have my exposure locked so they shot at different exposures leaving some really ugly bands. You can see in the photo below that the stitching software I used (PhotoStitch) to merge the photos together didn’t do a very good job either as there are some jagged spots.

JaxPano

I went out yesterday morning as I had no reason to go into work (thanks to the economy) and I gave it another shot. I have been wanting to do this photo for a good while now as there is a pretty nice view across the Trout River from Lem Turner. I woke up earlier than normal, got dressed, grabbed my gear, and away I went walking down the street. I was stoked that I was up before the sun for the first time in quite a while. It’s no small feat for me. Since I was a kid I’ve always been the sleep-in type. For some reason I just get my best sleep in those last few hours of the morning when I need to be getting up. I’m more of a night owl and always have been. The difference now is that I used to stay up to watch movies or some other time-wasting activity like eating peanut butter sandwiches or nachos, which as we all know is not very healthy, but that’s another story.

This time I used Photoshops automate > photomerge function to merge the photos together. In this pano I have taken 4 photos. I merged them in Photoshop as I just stated and just left it on the automatic setting to allow it to choose which method on its own. I figured that would be a good starting place. It did a swell job. I really can’t tell where the stitch seams are. Someone with more experience with panoramic photos or a better eye might be able to see it, but I don’t. Of course I see about as good as a bat.

Sunrise Over the Trout River Panorama

I did a few minor adjustments after that and uploaded it to my facebook page. I later downloaded GIMP for Mac and cropped it to what you see above and made one other minor adjustment to the saturation. I think this is so much better than my previous attempt. Don’t you?

Now to get back to Stinson Park and redo that first one because I love that view!

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