The Twilight Report

P.O. Box 1663

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 01:51:00 GMT

e and d came out for a few days. I'm sad because now that they are gone again I realize it will be a long time before I see them again. Tell me again why I can't just bring my friends to Australia with me? e said she would try to come out within a couple of years. It's going to be hard getting used to not being able to meet up with her and Jack after herding practice to go for a hike in New Jersey.

On the bright side, It was great to see them, and I was pleased that e finally got to meet my mum. The first day they were here we went skiing at Brighton. d said that he actually liked skiing so he may be back for more at some point.

That night we had Posole (prepared by myself) and invited Clare and Val over as well so we had an interesting discussion about whether or not Biology could ever be a predictive science or not. We also discussed the stupidity of large organizations, such as IBM and LANL, and how open systems are safer to closed ones.

Everyone had seconds, and some even had thirds. Right before I left New York, e told me that she likes Mexican food... all these years I thought she was just being polite and eating the food that I make for Enchilada Night. Seriously.

The second day we took a drive to Park City to see two photography galleries. We drive through the mountains and took a number of pictures and had lunch at somebodyorother's Grill. That night e and d took us to the Red Iguana, where we had more good Mexican food.

New Mexican Recipes - Green Chili Enchilada Sauce

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:25:00 GMT

Background: I get asked for recipes for my Green Chili Enchiladas, Guacamole and Posole from time to time, so I thought I would write them up here so that I can point people to it when they ask for it. These are the instructions for the Green Chili Enchilada Sauce which should be made well in advance of the rest of the Whole Enchilada. I usually make some midweek or so (Wednesday) in preparation for a party on Saturday. Once prepared, you can store the sauce in the fridge for a couple of weeks. I will write up the other recipes later.

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth, if you are cooking for vegetarians)
green chilies (see note below)
¼ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon salt

Start off by heating up the oil. Once it is nice and hot, throw in the onions and garlic and cook at medium until they start to wilt and begin to become translucent. Stir in the flour, cumin and black pepper. The mixture will tend to ball up, but don't worry about that. Pour in the chicken or vegetable broth and stir with a wire whisk to smooth out the lumps. Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Note on "amounts": This is vaguely based on a recipe I got out of a book, but I don't measure things out anymore. I throw in the stuff that I like until it tastes good. One of the fun things about cooking is that you can sample as you go along.

The green chilies in particular play a big part in how spicy the sauce will be. The tricky thing is that spiciness depends in large part to the lack of humidity where the chili was grown. This means there is an enormous variation in the spiciness of two of the supposedly same kind of chili. I am usually making two sets of sauce, one hot and one mild. The mild one is pretty easy. I use canned chopped green chili; frozen is better; fresh is best; but I live in New York so I have to work with I got. Anyway, I usually put one or two 8oz cans of green chilies in the mild version and dump a whole lot in the hot one and sample it until it tastes right. This is important, because you are not throwing in all the chilies just to make it hot, you are throwing them in to make them taste good.

If you have fresh green chilies, you will need to roast and peal them. Chop them up and throw them in at the appropriate moment. If you can, you should get Hatch green chilies, as Hatch claims to be the green chili capital of the universe. Since I don't know of anyone else vying for the title I assume it is legitimate.

New Mexican Recipes - Green Chili Enchilada Sauce

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:25:00 GMT

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth, if you are cooking for vegetarians)
green chilies (see note below)
¼ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon salt

I Cannot Be Hurt by Anything this Wicked World Has Done

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:13:00 GMT

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

(Read more...)

In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.

Mike's Visit

Sun, 31 Oct 2004 22:08:00 GMT

Mike

My high school and CORE coding buddy Mike came up yesterday and brought his wife Sarah so they could attend my much anticipated Halloween party. It is hard for me to convey just how nice it was to see Mike. Sarah is also from Los Alamos, so I had the rare opportunity to talk with people who grew up on green chili and who know about Mrs. Moss and have heard about Mr. Farley's Butt-Ear. They stayed at my place last night and this morning we wondered around the city of Beacon. I am equally looking forward to seeing Tyler in February now!

Mike, Mike's manager, and Mike's weed

Anyway, the enchiladas came out like clockwork. I've got a fairly established procedure for it now. I threatened to give people costumes if they didn't bring their own, but alas... they were not worried, because most didn't come dressed up. Enchiladas, Posole and Guacamole were a huge success, and everyone was super impressed with Mike's fire breathing prowess. When I get the slides back (and if they come out) I will scan them and put them on my web site, along with the digital general party milling about pictures.

For some reason, iTunes "randomly" chose to play Born Slippy like three times during the course of the party. Granted, they were different versions of the same song, but still. The third time I swore vociferously and got up to advanced to the next song. My consternation made Steve laugh quite vocally, which is always fun, because he is usually so quiet.

I was so glad that Mike was able to meet all my friends. I love it when friends from different aspects of my life come together and get along well. It sort of affirms what I already know: my friends rock!

Halloween Party Arms Race

Sat, 16 Oct 2004 01:45:00 GMT

Went to the bar tonight to meet up with some friends. The idea was to hang out for a bit before the movie. I asked Joe if he and Cicely were coming to my party, and he said that he might stop by, but that he also wanted to hit someone else's party that night. So it has come to this: The Halloween Party Arms Race.

Mike

Personally, I think I have the advantage, since Mike "The Blowtorch" is going to put on his fire eating, and I got the Enchiladas. The Enchiladas gets me Brad, and Brad gets me Sherry. Apparently Brian was sold on the fire eating. Joe and Cicely are a harder sale. I guess I will be working on them. I just wish I knew what my opponent had in store. Perhaps if I could intercept an invitation...

The movie we went to see was Team America : World Police. If you like Southpark you may feel the need to go see this movie out of devotion to its creators. I thought it was pretty terrible, although it did have me laughing at times. But anyway, I was watching this silly movie and it occurred to me that I have been taking life too seriously again. I have to get in touch with my humorous side.

A Very Special Nintendo Halloween

Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:46:00 GMT

So yesterday hiking up Wilkinson Ridge I accidentally volunteered my apartment for a Halloween party. It's not so bad; I was actually planning on having another of my New Mexican Enchilada Parties^TM anyway, now it will just have to do double duty and include costumes. So: What to be for Halloween. My first thought was to be Starscream. I was comforted by the fact that in all the time that I have been a fan of The (G1) Transformers, Starscream has always been my favorite transformer. I'm not sure why that comforts me, but somehow it does. Anyway, then I was thinking that Starscream's wings are going to be very awkward, especially if I go down to the city for the parade. Now I am leaning toward being Simon Belmont. No masks required for that one. I think with a whip, and some medieval armor I could make a passable Belmont. The only thing which gives me pause is the religious paraphernalia which goes along with being a Belmont.

I'm really going to need some Castlevania music for my party now... hrm... wonder where I could get some of that... *hint* *hint* : )

Oh... and it also occurs to me that the first two costume ideas I had are also names for my computers that I use. Totally accidental of course.