Tree planting day!

Last fall Ashley and I ordered some fruit trees from a locally based national organic tree and seed supplier.  Those trees were ready for pick up this past weekend.  We drove all over rural Maine, lost but eventually found the trees!    We got 3 apple trees, 2 plums, 2 pears, a cherry, and a peach.  We were super excited.

Excited until we realized how much work we had ahead of us.  That same night I went out and dug all 9 holes for our new mini orchard.  I was wiped and figured I would be sore the following day.  When I awoke the next morning, I felt pretty good, a little muscle soreness but nothing too bad.  We decided it was time to get them in the ground.  More digging.  Lots more.

A few hours later we had all the trees planted.  Just in time for Kaleigh to help with the last two and
get her to karate.

Once home from karate I watered the trees and it was dinner time.  I was really too tired to make anything so we had a rarity in our house, Sub Sandwiches!  We all loved them and agreed that we should have them more often.  It turned out to be a great day filled with lots of hard work.

A refreshing fury

Since being back in Maine, I have been easing my way back into the punk scene.  I am trying not to step in the way of what other folks are doing but still be active.  It is a tough balance but things are going well.  

However, most of what Maine is at the moment is pop punk.  Personally, I really do not like pop punk.  There are some great kids working really hard to build the scene and I respect that so I have been going to see pop punk bands and even setting pop punk bands up with shows.  Personally, it is just not what I like.  I like my punk to be more abrasive and angry.

Saturday, there were 3 bands playing in Portland that I had yet to hear.  They were not pop punk so I jumped at the opportunity to go.  Picking up a good friend, we hit the show and met up with a few other friends.

First up was a band called Force Control.  They were awesome.  Fast, angry, catchy, very early 80's US mid-west hardcore.  It was just my style.  It felt great to see a band play this style of music and they did it incredibly well.  I am thrilled that a band like this is in Maine right now.  I will go out of my way to see them when they play going forward.  The rage was a breath of fresh air from the pop punk I have been seeing recently.  Sheer brutality.

Next up was Gout which was billed as a D-Beat band.  I thought they had some D-beat influences but I would not have called them D-Beat.  They were quite good though.  It is always fun to see a bassist doing vocals.  Nice, angry, loud, yelling. 

Bad Leg was up last.  They were a mid tempo punk band with almost a SoCal feel to them.  They were really good and a lot of fun to watch.  The singer is really animated and interacts well with the crowd which is always a plus at a punk show.

I really had a great time.  It was amazing to see a refreshing fury of bands in Maine and even better to see some old friends.  I am really excited about the state of Maine punk and looking forward t working with all of these bands.

BBQ Tofu Update!

For several months I have been trying to really master the perfect Bar-B-Que tofu.  I have roasted it, pan fried it, deep fried it, baked it, marinated it.  I made some last night that might have been close to where I want to be with the recipe.

First, I used quality tofu.  I really find that cheap tofu, no matter how hard you try still ends up too wet.  Starting with good quality tofu, I pressed the water out, then tossed it in my Bar-B-Que dry rub.  I let it sit overnight then deep fried it to get a crispy edge while keeping the soft center.  In a side pan I fried some onions, added some Bar-B-Que sauce, then once it was hot I added the tofu.  I cranked up the heat to get a nice sear on the tofu.  It was really great.  I am on my way to making the best tofu I have ever had!

We had it with smashed sweet potatoes and severed it on a bed of sesame oil spinach!  Awesome meal!

Coconut lime rice for Ashley!

Coconut lime rice with tempeh and bell peppers is one of Ashley's favorite dishes.  She asks for it nearly very week and I rarely deliver.  This week was an exception.

For the first time ever I steamed my tempeh before cooking it.  I had heard it removes some of the bitterness.  It in fact did remove some bitterness and I do not think we lost anything in the flavor.  It turned out really well.  Almost well enough that Kaleigh would eat it.

Ashley is working her magic!

Ashley works hard to provide for our family.  She puts in the hours and occasionally has to stay late.  She does a great job and we all appreciate it.  Given this, I take on most of the cooking responsibilities in the house.  While I enjoy cooking, sometimes it is a shame because Ashley is actually quite a good cook as well.

Sunday she woke up with the urge to cook.  I got right out of the way and let her take over the kitchen.  For breakfast she baked some donuts and covered them in chocolate.  They were great!  I really miss donuts so these were a nice treat.

For lunch she made some really fun tacos.  They were filled with her famous cole slaw this time with a tex mex touch, roasted spiced cauliflower and topped with cilantro and avocado.  They were really good.  A unique lunch for us and super tasty.

It was great to be kicked out of the kitchen for the afternoon.  As much as I enjoy cooking, it is nice to have a break without a drop off in foods I like!

Sugar Cookies!

Kaleigh has been on April vacation this week.  She and I have been knocking out big cleaning projects all week.  On our way home from her private karate lesson on Thursday, she asked if we could make sugar cookies.  I figured since she had been such a hard worker all week it was a good day to make some fun cookies!

We made the dough, let it set.  Then rolled it out and Kaleigh got to use whatever cookie cutters she wanted/could find to make the cookies.  We had some pretty cool ones, a small teddy bear, a couple dinosaurs, a coffin, a cauldron, etc.

After baking them we whipped up some icing and dropped some color in some.  She went to work icing cookies!  She had a blast.  They came out pretty cool, we even made a little scene!

No Pho-ken Way!

It has been years and years since I have had Pho.  I never had it in Atlanta which is odd since the city has a high population of Vietnamese restaurants.  That means it has been over 10 years since I have had the soup dish.  Additionally, I have never made it or even attempted to.

Over the past few weeks, Ashley has been requesting that I make her some Pho.  I thought it would be a fun challenge and went all in.  It was actually quite an easy dish and turned out fantastic.  The only ingredient that is a little difficult to come by in rural Maine was the Thai basil.  Since it is just a garnish, I bet I could use something else without an issue though.

After trying to get the Pho all ready for Ashley when she got home from work, she had an emergency case at work and was forced to stay until nearly midnight.  Kaleigh and I had Pho without her.  I stayed up until she got home and made her a fresh bowl though.  Pho dinner in bed!

Wordless Wednesday!

Nachos

Stir-fry

Beans and Veggies

Working the pallets!

Sunday afternoon we hosted a small event at our house.  Fun with Pallets.  It was short notice and only family came but we had a blast.  We had a cookout with my new birthday grill: potatoes, BBQ mushrooms, corn on the cob, melon, and pasta salad,  It was great to cook outside like this.  It is something I have never done in my cooking "career".

After lunch, the kids and I all started working on pallets.  We made about 10 raised beds for the garden and a 2nd compost bin so we can allow the one I made last fall start to decompose fully.  After the pallets, Ashley and some of the kids started another 200 seedlings while I took a couple of the kids and planted 3 raspberry and 3 blueberry bushes.

My mother was at the house as well.  Everyone got a chance to get some Reiki done with Returning.  We got a ton of work done in an afternoon.  It was a really productive day and it felt great.  Spring is coming and we are going to grow some food!

More Squashed Orders!

My new company, Squashed kept me busy over the weekend with a number of orders.  We had an order on for delivery on Saturday that went well.  We made 4 different type of cupcakes and they looked great.  The customer was very happy.

Sunday I made another dozen of the cardamom with lavender icing for another order.  I also had been meaning to try to use my jumbo cupcake tray.  Since I was already baking I figured it was a good time to try.  They came out perfect, super moist.  I just did a simple vanilla cake with chocolate icing but it was great, and huge!