New pedals

New pedals, originally uploaded by MelanitaC.

So I went clipless on my bike over the weekend. This means I have those funny looking shoes which clip into the pedals. At a bike store, while purchasing shoes, I got the pep talk which was, and I quote, “You will fall”. Great. Thankfully, Melanie got a trainer for Christmas, so I am practicing clipping in and out from the comfort of my bedroom. I’ll try to hit the streets in a few days.

Freezer

Melanie and I recently purchased a freezer for our back room.  Now I won’t get all the eye rolling and comments when I tell Melanie to save the bones so I can make stock.

Lamb Risotto

For both Christmas and Easter, we ate lamb, and I stashed the bones and leftovers in the freezer until a later date.  Using the bones, I made up some lamb stock.  The stock was used in a batch of risotto as well as the lamb, leftover juices, and peas.  It was really good.

Petraeus Speech

At the Harvard commissioning, the university invited General David Petraeus to speak.  I am a big fan of Petraeus, so I took the day off from work to hear his speech (he talked about the qualities that make a good leader).  This was an important event because Harvard has had s strained relationship with the military dating back to the Vietnam War; in fact, Harvard still does not have an ROTC program because they find the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy to be discriminatory.  The president of the university gave the opening remarks and announced that Harvard would be providing tuition assistance for all vets.  Fox News personality Bill Kristol was in attendance, as his son was commissioned into the Marines.

Onion Soup

At one point, Melanie and I received a ton of onions from Boston Organics (an organic food deliver company).  Not knowing what to do with them, we finally decided upon making onion soup.  We’ve tried a few recipes for this in the past, but they kinda let us down.  I picked up my Anthony Bourdain cookbook, I mean a French bistro cookbook should have a good recipe for onion soup.  I won’t give the recipe, as it is copyrighted material.  However, the cooking of the onions to a deep, dark brown took way longer than indicated.  Also, having a mandolin makes slicing all those onions much easier (not to mention they are more uniform in thickness).

Hainan Chicken

Mark Bittman is my new favorite food writer.  What he does is quick, simple, and for the most part healthy.  Better still is the video collection he has of himself making the recipes.  A while ago, I made something called Hainan chicken (if you scroll down you will see a link to the recipe as well as the video).  Essentially, you create a poaching liquid with lots of garlic and ginger to poach a whole chicken.  You shred the chicken by hand, serve it atop some rice with a sauce of more garlic, ginger, and some sesame oil.  It was really good, but way too much for just the two of us.

I reduced the poaching liquid a fair amount, and then froze it.  We very much liked the dish, but decided to make a smaller dish in the future.  We have some chicken thighs kicking around the freezer, and I hope the reduced poaching liquid will impart a more intense flavor the next time I prepare it.

Not My Finest Moment

This is not the most timely post, but when Melanie when to visit Christine in Georgia, I had a little cooking accident.  When trying to make some flat bread, I gave myself a second degree burn on my right hand.  The recipe calls for cooking the bread in a non-stick skillet.  When I took the pan out of the oven, I set it on the stove so that I could clear the cutting board.  Without thinking, I reached over and grabbed the skillet.  Anyways, I ran my hand under cold water like I learned in my first aid class.  Even after an hour of this, it still hurt like hell.  So I looked it up on the computer, and they recommended that you go see a doctor if you are to get serious burns on your hands.  Luckily, the nearest hospital is only about a twenty minute walk.  After a long wait in the ER, I was sent home with some pain medicine and enough supplies to wrap my hand for the next several days.

Rabbits

So our land lord has a few rabbits that he keeps out back, and he let the male into the cage of one of the females to create some babies.  Below is a link to a few photos Melanie and I took (sorry the quality isn’t the best).

Image of the day

Patrick and I both find this .gif image hilarious. If you don’t think it’s funny, don’t bother to comment because we don’t care that it’s mean. :)

Cell phone cases

Fresh from Taiwan