Browse Author: beakatude

Scotchfest 2010

Saturday was Scotchfest 2010 at our place and we had a great turnout.  Friends from all over came to partake in the festivities – including Dayantha and Krissy!!  We had a total of 11 different whiskeys to taste and some were much better than others.  Here’s the lineup:

  • Glenrothes
  • Glenlivet 18
  • Clynelish
  • Aberlour
  • Glenmorangie
  • Auchentoshan
  • Glenkinchie
  • Talisker
  • Bowmore
  • Coal Ila
  • Laphroaig

Each participant got a shotglass labeled with his or her name and the different whiskeys were poured and tasted one by one with some food in between.

Meanwhile, Jack was snackin’ on cheese and crackers, watching “Up”, and feeding carrots to his pal Koa.

We served salami and cheese as well as smoked salmon with creme fraiche as appetizers.  Then the main item was the prime rib sandwiches with sauteed onion, horseradish aioli, and arugula on an Acme roll.  When eaten with some salty Kettle potato chips, it was perfect.

Everyone had their favorite Scotch of the night and pretty much everyone did not appreciate Talisker, which most said tasted like Band-Aid.  Nice.  By the end of the night, some were drinking more of their favorite while others broke open the 100-proof Captain Morgan and Coke.  I think everyone had a good time.  Most left before 12 am but some of us were still going until 4 am…including me.  Good times…

OK…let’s try this again.  Click here for photos.

Bananas are only good in muffins.

I hate bananas but for some reason, I like banana-nut bread.  I’ve been using the same recipe since 2003 and it has never failed me.  I also make muffins instead of a loaf so I get a little extra crust.  They come out moist inside, not too sweet, has a light banana flavor, and crusty on the outside.  Jes had a bunch of bananas that got neglected last week so I made some this weekend and thought I would take some photos of the process.

Here are all the ingredients:

I mixed all the dry ingredients together and then all the wet in a separate bowl.

In the meantime, I creamed the Crisco.  Yes, I used Crisco. You got a problem?!  Then I added sugar and eggs.  Once that’s all creamed, I alternated between adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients for a total of 4 additions.

Next I added the chopped walnuts (instead of pecans) and greased the muffin tin.

I used a disher to scoop out equal portions that filled the tins half-way.

In the 350-degree oven they went for about 30 minutes (until golden brown on the top) and then cooled on a rack.  Tasty.

It makes about 24 muffins if you fill the tin only half-way.  Make sure they cool completely before storing in an open or loosely-closed container.  If you close it all the way, they sweat and get sticky.  I like them on the drier side to keep the crust chewy.

Weeee!!

The Sokol-Juns invited us for dinner last night and they made a mean bunch of ribs and potato salad.  I brought creamed corn and Tracy made peach pie.  Jack was on hyper-mode and he’s in the stage where he wants to just show off all his toys and tricks.

This kid has 4 different vehicles parked in the livingroom and took each one out to show us his stuff.

After dinner, Jes was playing around on Ryan’s new iPhone4 and got hooked on the Angry Birds game.  The animation and sound effects are hilarious and Jack got a kick out of watching Jes play and saying “Weeee!” just like the birds do when you let go of the slingshot.

After dessert, Jack went back to Jes and asked “Uncle Jesse play more weeee?”  Haha.  Cute.  And so he played and Jack watched with such delight.  It’s still funny to see a kid that is totally unafraid of Jes.  In fact, he would every once in a while tackle Jes and then nuzzle his shoulder.  You can tell in this photo that even Jes is confused by all the spunk.  What a goofball.

Black vs. Lime Green

On Saturday, I went to lululemon to shop for a new gym bag.  I looked at 4 different designs and finally decided on this one called the Classy Classic II Gym Bag.  The next decision was the color and material.  It came down to the black neoprene with black trim or the gray leathery one with lime green trim.  Given away by the photo above, I chose the sassy gray and green one.  I figured that I had enough boring black bags.

Anyhoo, the bag has handles that are big enough to sling over my shoulder but also has a longer strap to cross over.  Inside it’s HUGE with lots of little pockets along the inner lining.  It also has a pocket that’s big enough to fit my laptop if I want to use it as a carry-on.  The bag also comes with a handy-dandy waterproof pouch that’s perfect for my stinky shoes.  The outside has pockets big enough for my water bottle and it’s in the shape of the omega, which is their logo.

Call me silly for blogging about a bag but I don’t get around to buying things like this very often.  Can’t wait to use it this week!

I gave in.

While we were in Hawaii, Jes couldn’t stop talking about how awesome it would be to have an iPad for reading, surfing the internet, and watching movies on vacation.  He went on and on and on and I fought back with “you don’t need it you don’t need it you don’t need it”.  Unfortunately, I’m a sucka for good design and gadgets so I eventually gave in and secretly ordered one for him as soon as we got back.  When I picked him up after a hard day at work, I surprised him with my order confirmation email and it sure did lighten his spirits.

On Tuesday, I got an email notifying me that it was shipped (from China!!) and it arrived via FedEx yesterday.  Wow, that’s fast!

This morning Jes picked up the package from the Association office (they accepted and signed for us) and he broke open the box this evening.  It’s gorgeous and so much fun for surfing and reading.  Jes downloaded the Netflix app and it’s ready for On Demand movie watching.  I went into the app store and downloaded a few books for myself and searched for some free games.

Yes yes…we’re suckers…and now we have another Apple product added to our ever-growing gadget family.

First Day of Gym Class

I’m back from my first class and T-Rex totally got her ass kicked.  I took a supposedly laid back class that involves hanging out on a 6-inch-wide balance beam for an hour but no one told me that I’d have to spend half of the time with 5-pound weights in each hand held at shoulder-level or above!  Didn’t they know that the girl with the wimpiest arms in the world was attending this class?!  And so, I walked a mile home with what felt like the heaviest gym bag ever and a stomach that felt like it was doing backflips.  Yes, the balance beam class made me tired and a little sick.  *sigh*  This is so embarrassing.  I’ve got strong legs but my arms and abs are like jello.  I think this is why I joined the gym.  Yep, this is EXACTLY why I joined a gym.  Luckily I only stumbled off the beam 2 or 3 times and I kept up with the rest of the class.  Hopefully I’ll be able to lift my babies at work tomorrow.