I got free tickets to see Rush at the United Center. I was actually planning to pay for tickets, but Jenn had class that night, so I didn't buy them. When my boss told me his brother had tickets, I found a babysitter and went. All I can really say is wow! Seriously, those guys may be old, but they still rock. Enough said.

Got this from Cooking Light Magazine. It's spice-rubbed pork tenderloin with mustard barbecue sauce and it's very, very tasty. Unfortunately, I slightly overcooked the pork, but the cue sauce helped cover that up a bit. A small warning, though - the recipe makes too much rub and too much sauce. We liked this one so much, however, that we refrigerated the sauce and plan to make it again later this week. One other warning - this had some kick to it.

Mango / Coconut / Black Tea Ice Cream

I saw a recipe online that called for lychee and black tea and I thought it looked interesting. Unfortunately, I wasted my only can of lychees on a failed version of this recipe and decided to try something different. The coconut and black tea are very subtle, but add a nice amount of depth and character to what would otherwise be a pretty basic mango ice cream.

1 1/4 cup mango puree
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
2 bags good quality black tea (I use darjeeling)

Combine mango puree, whipping cream, coconut milk, sugar and salt in 2 qt. sauce pan and heat over medium-high heat. Stir constantly until mixture just starts to boil. Remove from heat. Steep tea bags in mixture for several minutes. Refrigerate mixture over night. Follow ice cream maker's manufacturers directions to make ice cream and either serve right away for soft-serve consistency or freeze for harder consistency.


Asparagus Chicken Hoagies

Scrambling about for something to make for dinner one night, I happened upon a cooked chicken breast in the fridge. Digging through what little produce I had, I found asparagus and scallions and thought those things might be good. I chopped those ingredients up, melted cheese over the top and put it on some hot-dog buns I had. The cheese made all the difference. It was a 4-year aged cheddar that I'd picked up from the "remnants" basket of cheeses at the local Whole Foods. The sandwich was so good, I felt it necessary to share. I replaced the hot-dog buns with hoagie rolls and guessed at the amounts, so this one might need a little tweaking before it's final.

1 cup chopped chicken (cooked)
3/4 cup chopped asparagus
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 avocado
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (use a good one)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Hoagie buns

In a medium skillet, combine chicken, asparagus, scallions, olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat until vegetables are crisp-tender stirring occasionally. Place shredded cheddar on top of mixture and heat until just melted. Lightly toast hoagie buns if desired. Mash avocado (optionally adding salt and pepper to taste) and spread on buns. Place chicken and asparagus mixture on buns and serve warm.

The strawberry ice cream / balsamic caramel idea was a good one. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get the ice cream base right. It was more like ice milk than ice cream because the water from the strawberries threw the fat ratio out of whack. Also, the swirl idea I had didn't work for shit. Even straight out of the fridge, the caramel raised the temperature of the ice cream so much that it needed to churn a lot longer.

My next try will leave the caramel sauce as a topping and use a different recipe - one that is specifically for strawberry ice cream. Alas, attempt two just ended pathetically with me curdling the cream / egg mixture. In the words of the immortal Homer - d'oh! Now I don't have enough heavy cream to try again, so it will have to wait until another time.

Let me start with this - I've pretty much given up trying to post regularly to LJ. Just too much crap going on.

We got an ice cream machine a while back. My first attempt was not so good. Part of the reason was because I tried to not use a recipe. Duh. Anyway... I thought the flavor concept was a good idea: orange zest, honey and cinnamon. I just didn't know how to execute.

My most recent attempt was MUCH better. Peanut butter ice cream. I pretty much followed the recipe except that I used 2% instead of whole milk and I used "sugar in the raw" instead of regular sugar. It was really, really good.

Tonight, I decided to play with a strawberry - balsamic vinegar combination. Jenn and I bought some chocolates a couple of weeks back that had a strawberry and balsamic-caramel center. They were really good - the balsamic-caramel was a nice way to soften the blow of the vinegar.

I found a recipe for a balsamic caramel sauce on Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_33467,00.html?rsrc=search) that is supposed to be served over vanilla ice cream. I'm making a strawberry ice cream instead and I think I'm going to try to swirl the caramel sauce in. By the way, the caramel sauce by itself is AMAZING! It is SOOOOO tasty.

hahahahaha
breathe
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I love my wife and I wanted her to have a happy first Mother's Day. I wish I had been able to do more, but there's always next year. She takes care of our daughter and that is not an easy job. She also keeps our lives organized and that may be an even harder job. Unfortunately, however, this day is also a sad one for me. I followed cluebyfour's link to post secret and came across this:

Today is a day of mixed emotions for me. I am thrilled that my wife is a mother. I am thrilled that I am a father. I am deeply saddened by the fact that Biz will never know one of her grandmothers. I believe, however, that that grandmother knows her. I miss and love you mom.

Today, we leave for Florida. We're meeting up my dad, his wife, my brother, my sister, jkolovos's mother, aunt and uncle. We rented a house in the keys and are renewing our vows later this week. I'm looking forward to spending the time doing not much at all. However...

I'm a little worried about the flight. I know Biz is a baby and she'll cry. I just hope it isn't a screaming meltdown during takeoff or landing when there's very little I can do about it. We're taking the train to the airport, then we'll just be there for two something hours. It's a three hour flight and then we have to find our luggage, get the rental car and drive an hour to the house. That's a lot for little Biz. She could go two ways: 1) She might sleep through the whole thing or 2) She might bitch about all the commotion most of the time. I'm praying for option 1.

After all of that is done, though, I think it's going to be a great trip. I'm not even taking my laptop. While my cel phone and PSP are sophisticated devices, I would have to work hard to get them connected to my work email and I'm fairly sure I've forgotten the address :).

Biz has lately developed a real interest in musical and/or flashy light devices. She's currently sitting in her "Itsy Bitsy Bouncer" talking to the Itsy Bitsty Spider and listening to the songs, but her absolute favorite is this Baby Einstein turtle thing that's attached to her crib. It's got green, blue and yellow lights, fish that spin around in a circle and it plays a variety of classical selections. It's amazing. When she's tired or overstimulated, we put her down in her crib, turn off the lights and turn on "mister turtle" and she just stares and stares. Sometimes she smiles at "mister turtle". It's fantastic.

On Dec. 31st, 2006 at 12:48 pm I posted this:

I resolve to post a little more often than once every six months.

HAHAHAHA! Oh well **heavy sigh**

What can I say? I've been ridiculously busy - Biz, work, church. Every minute of "downtime" I have, I've been using to practice the violin or work on learning Ruby or sleeping - a luxury I can rarely afford. Not that I'm bitching. I love my life right now. Things at work, while hectic, have also been pretty good. A project I've been working on for over a year and a half is finally in production and working. I am still working out a few kinks, but all in all, it works as expected. Unfortunately, no one will ever actually see my work since I everything I do goes on behind the scenes, but for those of you who know my website and maybe even use it, it's there. Trust me.

During the week, I use my train ride to get caught up on either reading (just finished A Farewell to Arms - excellent) or video gaming (currently playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the PSP - it ROCKS!). On Saturday's, I've been getting up with Biz, so no sleeping in for me. I like it, though. I get to spend some quality time with my daughter and, after she falls back to sleep, I get caught up on the week's DVR selections - currently BBC America's Robin Hood and The McLaughlin Group, but eagerly awaiting the final five episodes of the Heroes season. Sunday's, we go to church. I played in the Palm Sunday and Easter services. Poor jkolovos had to deal with Biz alone and I felt bad about that. She actually had to leave during the Easter service because Biz was pitching a meltdown. Those performances could have gone better - I get more nervous than I ever used to - but it still felt good to play. I'm working on the second solo violin part of the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor to maybe perform at Biz's baptism (I still haven't decided if I'm going to do that or something else).

This weekend we leave for Florida. It's my father's first chance to meet Biz. He's so giddy! It's funny. I don't think I've ever seen him this way. I'm dreading the flight, but looking forward to the vacation. It will be nice to get away for a while.

WHEW. There's a lot going on in my life and it's fantastic. Seriously, I'm much happier when I have too much to do than when I don't have enough.

Now that I've found the TMBG kids albums, I'm curious. Are there more like these - fun for kids and listenable for adults? Anyone have any suggestions?

I have to apologize in advance for this post. I am way too tired to actually try and make it interesting or bother to really proof read it.

We took E to the Magnificent Mile today. Jenn's mom didn't get to see much of the city the last time since her husband wanted to go out to the Morton Arboritum (which is in the burbs) and just wasn't that enamored with the city. So, we decided to show her around a little today. It was a bit cold, so we had to keep E bundled up pretty tight. I kept worrying she was going to overheat, so every chance I got, I checked on her. She was fine, of course.

In order to get there, we took the L. She slept through the whole thing - completely unfazed. I know she's less than a week old, but if her current disposition is any indication of her future, we're in good shape.

We had lunch / early dinner at Weber Grill. I gave up meat (currently everything but poultry, but I'm trying very hard on that as well) for lent and this restaurant specializes in grilled meats, but I was able to get a salad and a grilled pizza. E woke up and needed feeding and a change while we were there. I offered to take care of it since we want to travel and I had better figure out how to do it. What a disaster! She peed all over her snow-suit and screamed for the whole ten or so minutes it took me to complete the process. Thankfully, Jenn had the foresight to bring a change of clothes.

I've got to put a bunch of photos on disc for S and Jenn's mom. Maybe I'll get more sleep tonight.

My friends who are parents probably already know, but They Might Be Giants have a kids album. It kicks ass. It's TMBG... for kids! I've always loved their weirdness and a lot of their stuff would probably work as kids music, so this is right up their alley to me.

[Edit] Just goes to show what I know. They have two children's albums. The one I was talking about was Here Come the ABCs.

table. I don't know what that means.

So... it's the timing belt. Well, that and a cracked water pump. Oh, and some other bearing things around the timing belt that "make noise" but ultimately need to be replaced or they might freeze and break the brand new timing belt we're installing and then you'll have to pay us to crack open the whole thing all over again so you might as well do it now. Therefore (I know it's cliche, but whatever - get over it):
Timing Belt: 450ish dollars
Water Pump: 450ish dollars
Blinker Fluid (that's for jkolovos): 175ish dollars
"Working from home" because you need to get your car fixed: Priceless
Unfortunately, the sombitch won't be ready until tomorrow and it's too freakin' cold to go outside longer than it takes for the dog to pee, so I won't have a car until after work tomorrow.
Oh, and while I knew I should change my furnace filter a little more frequently than I have, my furnace decided to remind me of it last night by turning off. When we woke up this morning, it was 60 degrees and falling and it seemed a little too quiet. But I've decided to push my luck since I'm not going to walk to buy a new filter (see aforementioned peeing rule). Let's hope it keeps running until I have a car.

Hopefully this is the end of the Rex Grossman era. He was basically mediocre to awful. Then to add to my night, the car broke down on the way home. Special thanks to Bunny for coming to our rescue. He (yes, "he") kept us warm, gave us a ride to the mechanics and back home. Now, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that this isn't the end of the Camry.

I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen tonight. Doesn't sound like much fun generally, but jkolovos was downstairs clearing out the utility room, so I had my iPod on loud. So, I danced around the kitchen listening to everything from the Dixie Chicks to Prince to Eminem. Seriously, I like all of that stuff. Some songs have great lyrics, some have great beats, some have both and more. Fact is, there is great music in virtually every genre out there. What hit me about all of this music was the range of emotions it lead to. I am so excited about Elizabeth. I'm sad about the 5 year aniversary of my mother's death - it's not until March, but as Jenn was cleaning out the utility room, she found several pictures and it just got me thinking. Those pictures also brought home lost friends and my lost youth. I really didn't think I had changed that much, but I have. It's ok. I'm in a different place now. I know I'm rambling here - it's probably the two glasses of wine and a couple of Baily's and creme, but whatever. I'm happy. I made salmon in a garlic and scallion cream sauce for dinner tonight. The salmon was already marinated, so it made the cream sauce much easier, but it was fun to experiment. Of course, the side dish was just frozen broccoli and cauliflower, but when you pour cream sauce over it, it's none too bad. I finished "South of the Pumphouse" last night. Les Claypool is a strange dude. Just in case you hadn't heard - the Bears are in the Superbowl. The current "news" story is about a Bears wedding dress. Let's just say, Chicago is pretty darn pleased to be going to Miami. Da Bears. Ok - that's enough rambling. Oh, in case I didn't mention it. I'm super-excited about Elizabeth.

Several months ago, I started playing the violin again. I played violin as a child up until high school when I decided it was much cooler to play something - anything - else. But recently, I started missing it. It's a very difficult instrument to play, but I used to be pretty good at it.

Picking it up at first was painful. I really sucked. I was too embarrased to play around Jenn and I had no desire to subject her to my suckfulness, so I invested in a "silent violin". It's an electric violin made by Yamaha that closely mimics the feel of an acoustic and sounds pretty good through headphones, but it's very quiet otherwise. It's turned out to be a great investment.

One of the driving reasons for picking up the violin again was seeing our pastor play during a church service. I realized that I might be able to use that as a musical outlet so I mentioned that I too played violin and she encouraged me to play for the church. I had my first public performance during our Christmas Eve service. It was nerve-racking, but a lot of fun and it turned out well.

Shortly afterward, our pastor submitted my name to a man who was putting together the "Bach for the Sem" concert. It's a benefit concert for the Lutheran Seminary here in Chicago. I was very excited to be playing in an orchestral role again. I had played for several years with the Michigan Youth Symphony and, while I'm not sure I fully appreciated it at the time, I now look back on that experience with a good deal of fondness.

Today's performance went very well. I made a few mistakes, but all in all it sounded good. We played part of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, "Ihr Lieben Christen" by Dietrich Buxtehude, and the Epiphany portion of Ralph Vaughn Williams "Hodie". The Vaughn Willams was very challenging, but it really pushed me. I feel much more confident about my abilities and I'm excited about my prospects as a violinist.

Ultimately, I'm hoping to audition for a community symphony so that I have more of an excuse to practice and play. I'm fairly certain that my church will let me do some solo work as well. I'd drifted a long way from classical music, but I've begun to drift back.

My sister came to visit. Unfortunately, the start of her trip was delayed by several days because of the storm in Denver, but she got here on Christmas day. I had the whole week off, so I got to spend quite a bit of time. It was nice. For New Years, we went to Lincoln Square Lanes - a bowling alley above an Ace Hardware store. They had comediens, a DJ (who had a fun playlist) and of course bowling. It was a fun.

After nearly two years in Chicago, I still often miss my friends and family. I truly love Chicago and would miss it terribly if we were to leave, but I still find myself missing Denver sometimes. I imagine having a child here would anchor us more. I guess we'll see.

I resolve to post a little more often than once every six months.

Stolen from mama_gryphon

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Become a modern-day Johnny Appleseed. Get your resolution here.