Busy weekend outdoors.

So I was drawn for Howard slough for Saturday and ended up going up even though my friend who knows what he is doing, was not able to make it. Overall it was an exciting trip which ended up with a few birds and a quick dinner on the table. I was already tired for the weekend by Saturday night but the fun was not over.
On Saturday night, while calling my brother to brag out my day, he informed me that he is going squid fishing on Sunday. I made an impulse decision to go out with him and it was truly alot of fun, except for the sea sickness of course.
These squid are insane. I was hooking into these anywhere from 700 feet down all the way to the surface. They will follow other squid as you bring them in so you actually pull them closer to the surface. I was so tired after the trip, that I didn't even want to cook them up last night. One day this week I will attempt to make a dent in the 100+lbs of calamari I now have in my Deep Freezer.

Thanksgiving week

Not much went down for thanks giving, but it was much needed time off for mental health.
Here are a couple pics.

I have had my new dog for almost 2 weeks now and she has been awesome. I am stoked that I got her.S.W.A.T. was in the hizzle over the break.


That Happened!

I did not participate in cooking Thanksgiving dinner at all except for working up a spiral Ham (re heating and glazing). It was quite nice to not cook. A very simplistic and awesome dinner with a good beer. Exactly what I wanted.
I did however cook breakfast the next day with leftovers from dinner. Eggs Benedict with Biscuit and gravy. Whaaaat? All from scratch.

Decided to take advantage of Thanksgiving sales and put a couple Turkeys in the Deep Freezer. Also picked up these game hens which I stuffed with two types of rice, onions, garlic, asparagus, cheese, and spices. They were very good, but I will probably not do it again unless they are my own birds. It is just wrong to by these commercial hens.
I also made one of my favorite meals. Pasta Carbonara. I do mine a little different than traditional and follow zia carman's recipe. It is made with hot italian sausage, pancetta, thick bacon, eggs, cheese, garlic, and s&p.

And finally, I decided to get up off my ass and build a coop for my chickens. They were just starting to get too big for their pen. I am going to try to make these birds as close to free run as possible. Put a mat in the bottom to keep them a little warmer while I make their boxes.

This one is for the BIRDS!!

After taking a miss for duck hunting on Saturday because of a rough Friday night I was double dinged this weekend because my humbolt squid trip was also put off on Sunday due to Gale force weather in the bay area. Even after two botched plans this weekend, I was fortunate enough to be invited to go pheasant hunting on Sunday, and I took up the offer.

The day resulted in three birds being taken and a pretty good dinner. I have been trying to read up and completely re design my take on cooking meat including game to make sure that the dishes created are what you would consider a compatible dish. What I mean by being compatible, is to make sure that you are providing a cooking method that accommodates the choice and cut of meat in which you have in your possession. After my current understanding of pheasant, and some research on the bird, I decided to go with a curry that is more southern India in flavor (From what I know, but am not positive). One of the big decisions for this meal, is I could create it without having to go shopping. Luckily I had everything I needed in my pantry except for some plain yogurt I picked up right down the street.
The End Result!!

New Faces around the house part 2.

If you know me, im sure you are tired of hearing how I feel that it is super important to get away from store processed meat. Anything bought from a super market that is not free range or better-yet organic, is absolutely discussing to eat. And for you guys who eat Fast Food like McDonalds, you have no idea what you are putting into your stomach.
Attached is a picture of my new chickens. I am going off the dome piece here so I may not be correct, but the breeds are. Americana, Buff Orpington, Striped Suxxten, and Maran's. These are all dual purpose birds but used mostly for egg laying. I am holding off until these are mature and my coop is separated before I order some chickens to rear for meat.

Some new faces around the house

I have been getting super excited to receive my new dog. She is just now being weened and I hope I will be able to take her home in 2 weeks. I cannot wait......REPEAT: CAN NOT WAIT!!!!
Mine is the one in the Middle. She is the child of my Roommates dog and my moms.

This is how you clean up the remains of a very upsetting pumpkin vegitation.

This is how you do it, when you are not too happy with the results that your pumpkin gave you.
Until next year.

Homemade (real homemade) chicken noodle soup.

I have been trying to practice alot of meat thrift these days. That consists of creating ways to reuse whatever meat is left as much as you can to create new meals. One of the most effective ideas of meat thrift, comes in the form of stock. One of the most productive forms of stock is chicken stock, and one of the most used forms of chicken stock is chicken noodle soup.

I made a culinary decision (and I am not looking back) to only purchase full fryer chickens for dinner (no less than FF, but free range is preferred). I am not ever ever ever purchasing that filth called supermarket meat ever again. With the whole fryer, comes the whole carcass, and with the whole carcass comes a lot of stock.
When my freezer went over half full this weekend with bones ect, I decided to simmer down (for real) and make some stock.
Stock included 4 chicken carcasses, red onions, white onions, fresh chives, thyme, parsley, oregano, carrots, celery, and some S&P, about 5 hours and that's it.
Chicken soup consisted of all of the stock, chicken breasts and thighs, celery, carrots, corn off the cob, chives, thyme, parsley, garlic, rice, pastina, two different types of egg noodle, eggs, S&P, and some peppers to help clear the sinuses.

The stock made the soup. It is honestly the only way to go, and well worth the extra time it takes to watch something simmer all day while you are doing other stuff.

Stuff for the week.

Not alot going on. I have been somewhat busy with some pretty cool stuff at work but nothing that I can disclose in a blog. So here is a weeks worth of events into one post.
First, Is the pumpkin weigh off in elk grove. We took my niece and nephews pumpin up only weighing in at 252lbs. My friend Pete Glasier who is the California Record holder came in this year with a pumpkin weighing 1378lbs.
Then was shooting for the weekend. Nothing special, but it was needed.

Then Was the Motorhead / Reverend Horton Heat Concert. It was pretty bad ass.

Pumpkin Update 9/28

Just wanted to post a quick picture of my brothers pumpkin taken along side my niece.

Gotta Get Down On Some Prime Rib

Decided to get down on some Prime Rib over the weekend. Thought I would try to make it from scratch as much as possible. This consisted of a home made rub, Au jus, home made roasted garlic mashed potatoes, etc etc.
Turned out Awesome.

Tennessee Squire

Thought I would share a picture of my squire ship. I love this thing and love the odd ball letters that I receive in the mail. I was nominated through my brother who inhereted his through my dad. I have been reading squire letters since I was a kid. Pretty Cool Stuff.

Rockfishing this weekend: Result is a Deep Fry Extravaganza.

Went out RockFishing out of Bodega Bay this weekend with my twin brother and a good friend. We were all able to get our limit before 11:00am. It was pretty cool being able to go out and hang out with my twin for once.


Anyway, the result was an entire night of deep frying. You name it, we deep fried it. Corn Dogs, Chicken strips, Sweet Potato French Fries, Curly Fries, and the main event, Vermilion and China's. After whipping up some homemade tartar sauce, we were ready to grub.
Rockfishing is a lot of fun. When the bite is on, there is not really a "sport" feeling to it. The next time I go out, I am going to target big lings. Got to test out my new Motion Sickness Prescription and it worked perfectly wearing off just as we were heading back.

Pumpkin Update: 9/4

I have had the most difficult time with my pumpkin and have been so disappointed with it that I dont even want to think about it let alone write about it. It seems that my pumpkin itself has been very fragile to heat. The second the sun comes up, my plant falls on its face. I am not sure if this is a direct issue but I have not been able to successfully pollinate a pumpkin into growing. I have had over 15 pumpkins come up only to wither away and die at a very small age.

What I did want to post, are some pictures of my brothers and my friends pumpkins. These have all come from the same seeds that I received. It is unfortunate because my pumpkin was looking so promising. I have one last female pumpkin on my plant that might be a successful pollination. If it is not, I will discontinue watering it because October is right around the corner. I was hoping to have a pollinated pumpkin by July 10th. That obviously did not happen.

Anyway, here is my brothers pumpkin. It is looking awesome.
Then I went over to my buddy Chatchy's house and took this picture. Chatchy's pumpkin started alot later than my brothers, so he does have a chance of catching up. Chatchy actually has two pumpkins of this size on his plant.

Now I have fished with Jack Daniels, but it usually involved just consuming it.

Check out what this guy is doing. I will try this out and report.
Link

Awesome Video on the Death Of Hot Rodding

Dont Bother Watching this video, It is great to just listen to it. This guy can paint a better picture with is narration than the pictures that are supplied (which are not bad either). Awesome Video.

Totally stolen from my friend Josh's blog at Better Than Some, Worse than Others.

Yeee.....Corned Beef and Cabbage.

One of my favorite meals ever. This was an old pic. One of those ones where you are browsing though your camera and take a nice pause on it.
I will need to cook up some, This was i believe 14 pounds of brisket in two different slow cookers for St. Patti's day. I had almost a couple dozen friends over for corned beef and guiness onion soup.

Car Bombs Of Course, were in the mix.

Quick Catch, nice 28 inch Butt

Weird Lookin Fish, That is for sure! When they are born, their eyes are actually on both sides and they actually start to move over to one side. They got some mean lookin teeth too.

Hella good cooked up though. Halibut is up their with one of my favorite cooked fish.
Caught this one right out in front of San Quintin. This one is for all my homies locked up....WORD

Doesnt look very big from my huge hands in the picture.

First full Dinner from the Garden

Last night, I was able to go out to the garden and put together a pretty complete meal. I did not feel like going to the grocery store so I did the usual and came up with something that would work.

Behold a stuffed 8ball zucchini stuffed with seasoned ground beef, basmati rice, garlic, onion, tomato, parsley, and cheese. This thing was pretty bomb and I have found a new must have vegetable in the garden which is the eight ball zucchini. These are perfect for stuffing.

I accompanied the zucchini with a mock up Greek salad with all veggies out of the garden. It consisted of Snow white tomatoes (which are awesome), cherry tomatoes, green beans, and lemon cucumber. I tossed it all together with red wine vinegar and crushed feta cheese with some S&P.

Im stoked to have regular dishes straight out of the garden from this day forward through the summer.

Pictures - July 3rd - Silverado Country Club Fireworks

I got some pictures back last night from the Silverado Country Club Fireworks. Silverado puts on fireworks every July 3rd and it has become a pretty large event. Someone told me that there are more than 50,000 people that attend. They shut down their golf course and allow the public on their greens to watch a firework display. I live almost across the street and my roommate and I each have our own golf cart. This was good times and I look forward to it every year. Good times getting hammered with friends.

Pumpkin Update 7/14/09 - Gopher Count = 7

Yes, we have fruit. And actual pumpkin growing. It is now starting to pay off. I actually caught a gopher that was right under the hole that was created last week. I know that he is not the last, but it is a step in the right direction.
Thats it for words today.

LTKG - It has come down to this! Varmit Cong

The war has escalated to the home front.

Holy Crap. I did not expect to come out this morning to water, and find this huge gopher hole 4 inches away from the end of my primary vine. Yesterday when I got home from work, I checked my gopher traps and was almost bitten by a gopher who was still alive and in one of my traps. He must have only been there for a matter of minutes I would think. That brings the gopher count up to 6, but it seems that I am still loosing ground, and maybe even the war.

I am not sure what I am going to do at this point. Do I scrounge up a bottle of oxygen and propane and start fabrication on the Gophernator? Do I continue to trap, hoping that I am wearing them down every time that I catch one. I have pulled six gophers out of my garden just this year, How many more could their possibly be? With just my luck, I will kill all but one, and Rambo underground will become a one man army and completely destroy my dreams of growing a "World Class Pumpkin".

I will assess the situation when I get home and check my traps that I have strategically placed around my pumpkin. I will most likely just place traps out tonight all around my pumpkin and hope to eliminate the recent threat.

And one last comment: To the maker of the noise spikes that you put in the ground to deter gophers......YOU SUCK....BIG TIME!!!

Halibut Fishing 7/5

So after coming up Ghost on last weeks fishing trip, I decided to head on out last Sunday and give it another shot. We launched out of loch lomand in San Rafael again and headed out to the flats. Within 20 minutes of drifting I hook into the first Halibut of the day. After a really quick fight, we were able to bring it into the boat and give it a quick measure resulting in being 1/2 inch under sized. I bait back up and head back to make another pass this time hooking into a 28 inch Butt and now I am excited because I have dinner on the table.
I end up leaving the day being 1/2 inch shy of limiting out and going home with a 26" and 28" Halibut. Overall it was a beautiful day and I am exited to go back out this next weekend.

When I got home, the first thing that I did was clean my catch. I was not sure how I wanted to prepare dinner but I was sure that I did not want to go shopping. Using ingredients that I currently owned, I was able to come up with a pretty awesome dish.

I lightly salted and peppered the halibut and pan seared it with olive oil. Placing my cooked catch on a bed of seasoned basmati rice and cooked asparagus and topping all with a Garlic Butter lemon parsley cream sauce that I was able to concoct quickly. Overall it was a very good quick dish and cannot wait to pick up some more this weekend and experiment with flavors some more.

Next time I will remember to take a picture of my catch, but I was burnt out from the sun and I completely forgot.

Pumpkin Update 7/7

Today is a big update for me in the world of growing "World Class Pumpkins". I am not really sure where to begin.
I called Pete Glasier and emailed him a picture of my pumpkin and he gave me the go ahead to pollinate during the "Golden time window" of July 1st-10th. Within two days of him giving me the go ahead, I have two female flowers coming up in the exact positions that I was hoping for (between 8 and 10 feet on the primary vine). You can recognize that it is a female flower by the small ball at the end of the flower. Before the flower has an opportunity to open up, I am going to cover it with a clear Tupperware container so that there is no chance of cross pollination. I will be cutting off a male counterpart and will be conducting a little self pollination to increase my chances for a successful pollination.
Overall the plant vegetation is coming into its own and growing larger and larger by the day. I am hoping to get a little more size out of it before all energy is focused on producing the fruit. For a world class pumpkins, it is said that they grow on an average 40 lbs a day (Truly Amazing).
I have also been able to successfully eradicate 5 dirty stinky flea ridden pieces of garbage gophers. The war is not over, but the battles have been swaying in favor of my cause, which is good news. And the fact that my pumpkin is still here, is a good sign (knock on wood).

Look at the Pelican Fly.....Gooo Pelican!!!

Just a video from this weekend.

Spending a Day, in the Bay. (Dont feed the pelicans)

Made an impulse decision Friday night at like 8:30 to go out Halibut fishing Saturday morning. We launched at loch lomond and headed out to the Berkley flats. When we got there, the halibut bite was really slow so we spent most of the day just messing around.

Travel too close to San Francisco, and the Pan Handlers start coming out. These pelicans or whatever they are, are actually pretty cool birds. As soon as you pull up to the oasis of boats out in the water grouping together trying to find the clear ocean water to drop lines out and drift or troll for halibut, the pelican spots a new boat and quickly makes his way over. These birds sit there and wade outside your boat waiting for a hand out. Once they feel that they are not going to receive any food, they take off looking for the next victim to try and get fed. These things will seriously try and take your hands off, if they think you are holding food.

Ended up with no halibut for the day catching only stripers and bat rays. Overall it was an awesome day on the river being the first serious hot day in the last couple weeks. I walked away with a mild sunburn and some good knowledge on setup and approach for halibut fishing.

I actually Own One of These.......Somewhere

Takin it To Another Level

Pumpkin Update 6/25/09