foodliker – let's eat

October 31, 2010

Adult Caramel Apples

Filed under: bourbon, cooking, dessert, food, halloween, recipe — Vince @ 10:03 am

Bourbon Caramel Apples

Hannah was craving Caramel Apples this Halloween season and it just didn’t seem right to buy some pre-made thing at the supermarket that was probably produced last Halloween. A little bit of searching and a fair amount of fire later we had the perfect Adult Halloween Treat, Bourbon Caramel Apples. With a recipe I found and tweaked a bit it was easier than going trick or treat.

Bourbon Caramel Apples

Making these caramel apples is child’s play, but with the addition of bourbon the result is a decidedly grown-up confection.

8 small apples

2 cups light brown sugar

1/3 cup honey (children under 1 shouldn’t eat honey)

1 cup bourbon, I used a mixture of Bulleit Bourbon and Maker’s Mark (children under 21 shouldn’t drink Bourbon)

1/2 cup cream

4 tablespoons butter

First things first, do you want to get the booze out of the bourbon? I did since I wanted to share with a pregnant wife and little ones. I wasn’t sure of the right way to do this but I poured 1 cup of Bourbon into a saucepan (we love Bulleit Bourbon) and warmed it outside on the gas grill. Once the bourbon was warm I turned the burner off and carefully lit the bourbon on fire, letting all of the alcohol burn off. This took a few minutes and requires paying close attention, the fame is a translucent blue color and difficult to see, but it’s there. If you take this route be careful and have a fire extinguisher handy. OK, disclaimers done, let’s get to it.

Wash and dry apples and remove stems. Insert craft sticks into stem ends of apples and set aside, or if the stems are firm you can skip the sticks like we did and just use tongs to dip the apples in the hot Caramel. This makes the apples last longer and allows you to cut them up into slices and share.

Combine sugar, bourbon, corn syrup and cream in a medium-size saucepan and boil over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally. Cook until mixtures reaches 250 degrees. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Dip apples into caramel letting excess drip off and place on parchment paper which has been lightly coated with cooking spray. Roll in crushed-salted blister peanuts for crunch and a little salty contrast. Cool until set. Once set in an hour or two you can also dip in dark chocolate, white chocolate or whatever your fancy. If you don’t eat them all first.
Bourbon Caramel Apples

Recipe adapted from: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1582293.html

March 26, 2010

Movies I Didn’t See at SXSW 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Vince @ 6:40 pm

Once again I had a great time at SXSW this year, but as I was sorting through my canvas shwag bags I’m reminded again that I didn’t see a single film, short or movie. Last year I got to see a great talk with Robert Rodriguez on 3D in film, but this year I really stuck to Interactive as usual. That’s OK with me, I met some great folks at nearly every talk or panel or party I attended, but next year I’ve got to try and sit still for 2 hours and catch a film.

It’s tough though, SXSW is such a social experience where you want to meet and catch-up with people that I don’t know if I can really sit in the dark and be quiet for a feature-length film. My buddy Daniel always does it, so maybe he can show me the ropes. This was also my first year staying for Music, so I was pacing myself I suppose, more on that in a future post.

I may not have attended any films this year but I did a ton of research and I think I know what I missed out on, here’s the short list of films that are going on my must see list (with some help from Doug Benson):

  1. American: The Bill Hicks Story
  2. The People vs. George Lucas
  3. Barry Munday
  4. Cyrus (I’m a big fan of the Puffy Chair)
  5. Leaves of Grass (Ed Norton tends to be universally amazing in my opinion) — Roger Ebert called it a “Masterpiece” and I can’t wait to see it next month!

Finally, I must admit I do kind of want to see Kick Ass, but I’m not running right out to watch it.

Here are some trailers for you, I just saved you like what, 5 web searches? Enjoy the movies.

January 27, 2010

DIY Whiteboard for the Home Office incredibly easy, cheap

Filed under: business, diy — Vince @ 8:22 pm

Recently I’ve been working from home a lot more (doing my own things) and found the need for a whiteboard more and more critical. First it was a big paper calendar which really helped me get organized, but I needed more than just a schedule, I needed a visual queue and representation of what needed to get done. For whatever reason my favorite online list app just wasn’t cutting it, plus, I might have to draw some things out and think aloud from time to time. I had been taking those white boards I had access to at work everyday for granted and now it was time to bring that same idea of the home office.

After doing a little research and calling around to Home Depot and Lowes I found that some of the names and prices were outdated, but the concept was basically the same. The woman I spoke with at Lowes was incredibly helpful. You just need to ask your Lowes, Home Depot or Build Material store for Smooth White Panel Board, it should come in 4′ X 8′ sheets. Sometimes it’s called White Melamine or Tile Board or even Shower Board. Whatever you call it I found it in Aisle 48 with big sheets and boards and such. One side is like rough particle board and the other is smooth, glossy and white just like the white boards you’ve always used.

So $12 later I had run to Lowes, secured the board to the top of my vehicle and drove home. And on the way home I pulled over to duct tape the thing to the top of my car to keep the air from getting under it, because it wasn’t nearly as secure as I thought, but oh well.

Once home I took a measurement or two, chopped about 2 feet off the long end with a circular saw and boom, I was ready to hang it.  I suggest you use a helper, but I didn’t have one at the moment so I just used some duct tape to hang it exactly at the height I wanted and made sure it was level. Then, I placed a drywall screw in one corner followed by a little more duct tape leveling and then the second screw. Now I was ready to tie it down and so I ended up with about 6 screws total. *Warning if you decide to use duct tape for this don’t expect it to hold for very long,  if at all, the board fell at least once while Iwas loading up the drill. You’re probably better off using a helper, it shouldn’t only take a moment.

Of course, for just about twice as much, you could buy some Dry Erase Paint but that doesn’t seem like it works very well. If you’ve had experience with it I’d love to hear about that. There is another, pricier dry erase paint out there and I’ve heard it’s still just not worth the money. That’s too bad, but tell me more.

What did I do today? not much really, but hopefully I saved about $400 and tomorrow will be more likely to get a few more tasks done.

December 20, 2009

Killjoy Cop (didn’t get the Tweet about the Snowball Fight?)

Filed under: Favorites, obvious, rants — Tags: — Vince @ 10:54 am

I know this recession is turning into the great depression, but where’s your Holiday spirit?

Cop Pulls Gun at Twitter Snowball Fight

December 17, 2009

Working Two Jobs and Still Underemployed — how does this affect your statistics Federal Govt?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Vince @ 11:56 am

The unemployment rate stands at 10.2%, but what about the Undermployment rate? It’s pretty scary to think about. There’s a lot of job competition out there, especially for those “right out of college” jobs.

“The number would be much higher if we included the mechanical engineers working at 7-Eleven,” says Heidi Shierholz, who studies underemployment at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington think tank.

More over at The WSJ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125962111284270397.html


QFRGB7JGYHJE

December 16, 2009

What’s up with City Sourced?

Filed under: Local, business — Vince @ 1:56 am

Over on Robert Scoble’s blog about 3 months ago http://scobleizer.com/2009/09/18/the-unknown-story-behind-citysourced/ one of the guy’s from City Sourced offered to bet me $1000 (or was it $2000?) that his app was going to take off in the next year.

They won the TC50, got on stage with a city councilman and launched submitted an app to the Apple Store for the iPhone. That’s some fantastic momentum. I’m sure they got funded, too.

(looks like the app is live now though I couldn’t get it to work)

The Recent Press section of their site has some cool pictures but no news, so … what’s up? We’ve got potholes in Sunnyvale, I see broken lamps posts in San Jose. How’s it going guys? I just installed your iPhone App but is there anyway to see what’s being reported around me?

I guess I could click “My City”, oops:

Any uptake on the app? how it’s going working with city government?

That Was Easy (wordpress upgrade + adding a bunch of plugins)

Filed under: business — admin @ 1:17 am

This is mostly a note to remind myself and the WP team, of their nice work!

I have to say Wordpress has come a long way in what seems like a short time. It looked like my template was hacked and I hadn’t posted over here for a while so I thought I would sweep up a bit, boom …

I was able to back everything up and do an upgrade in about 2 minutes. New default theme that needs some love (any suggestions?) and I’m on the latest version of WP with upgrades to Google Analytics tracking, some Feedburner stuff, comments from Disqus and oh yeah, almost forgot I really like the latest changes to ShareThis. It’s looking really nice.

Now to login as myself and see how well trackbacks are working.

May 2, 2009

Really excellent drinking water for just 12 cents a day

Filed under: Uncategorized, health, money — Vince @ 10:52 am

OK, so maybe you think water has nothing to do with food but you know me, I can’t pass up a great deal. With the Economy tanking why not save some cash and the hassle of hauling bottles or water home from the store? Pay for that next vacation by dumping pricey bottled water that’s probably full of impurities anyway.

We’ve been happily using a faucet mount water filter for at least 5 years, but I’ve been tracking our usage for the last year and just can’t believe how good of a deal this is. You get all the clean water you need for drinking, cooking, making coffee and all that stuff for about 12 cents per day, on demand.

We’re using the PUR 3 Stage Faucet Filter to remove all kinds of impurities and medications I don’t want to think about and on top of it getting some natural mineral bonus that makes plain tap water taste rather good. Here in my early 30’s my taste buds are still mostly in tact and I’m pretty picky about my water, and this is good stuff. The details:

How long does a PUR filter last? the PUR 3 Stage Filter 6-Pack last us about 14 months (a family of 3). That’s just about 12 cents/day.

Is it easy to install? Yes, if I can do it you can do it. It comes w/ a bunch of adapters, too.

DO Drink better water.

DON’T Run hot water through this filter, at least in our house there is so much junk in the hot water pipes it jams the filter up in no time.

January 7, 2009

For you Scharffen Berger it’s Chocolate Bacon S’Mores

Filed under: cooking, dessert, food — Vince @ 10:23 am

(my entry into the Chocolate Adventure Recipe Contest)

Chocolate Bacon S'mores

What could be better than Dark Chocolate, Squishy Maple Marshmallows and Crisp Bacon? I know, right? So this is what I came up with for this years Chocolate Adventure Recipe Contest using Scharffen Berger chocolate and cacao nibs.

Without further ado, here’s my recipe for Chocolate Bacon S’mores

Ingredients:

For the Bacon

-12 oz. Bacon, Applewood Smoked
-1 9.7 oz. Baking Bar Scharffen Berger Chocolate 62% Cacao Semisweet
-1/2 cup Scharffen Berger Roasted Cacao Nibs

For the Maple Syrup Marshmallows

-3 Packets of gelatin (approximately 3 tbsp.)
-1/2 cup water
-2 cups maple syrup (Amber Grade B makes beautiful, rich tasting off-white marshmallows)
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

For the Chocolate Wafers

-1 cup butter
-1 1/4 cups sugar
-1 large egg
-1 teaspoons vanilla extract
-2 1/2 cups flour, all-purpose
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-5/8 cups Scharffen Berger Natural cocoa powder (unsweetened)
Preparation:

Make the Marshmallows:

-Pour gelatin and water into mixer bowl.
-Cook the maple syrup to 250 degrees (hard-ball stage). Pour it slowly into the gelatin-water mixture while the mixer is running on low.
-Add the salt and cream of tartar.
-As it starts to get fluffy, crank the mixer up on high.  Once it is very fluffy and seems to be done growing, pour the mixture into a greased 8″ by 8″ pan.
-Let it set for an hour or two.
-Once it’s firm you’ve got marshmallows. Cut them into 1 1/2″ thick strips and each strip into 4 equal pieces. This should get you about 20 marshmallow squares.

Bake the Chocolate Wafers:

-Cut two 14×12 inch pieces of waxed paper or plastic wrap; set aside.

-In a bowl, cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.

-In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cocoa powder.

-Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture until evenly distributed.

-Divide dough into 2 pieces.

-Shape each piece into a square log, about 8 inches long, and wrap each log in plastic wrap.

-Place in freezer container with a tight-fitting lid, or wrap airtight in a piece of foil.

-After 2 hours or more, slightly thaw a roll of dough.

-Preheat oven to 350F.

-Lightly grease baking sheets.

-Slice dough into very thin slices in order to make crispy wafers
-Arrange slices on prepared baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart

Bake 8 minutes until cookies are set on edges and slightly firm on top.

Remove cookies and cool on wire racks.
Make the Chocolate Bacon:

Crisp the bacon:

-Line a baking pan with foil and lay down the bacon strips.
-Bake at 400º F for 10 to 15 minutes or more until the bacon is crisp.  Crisp bacon is best for this recipe.
-Drain and cool the bacon on paper towels
-Once cooled,  cut each slice of bacon into three equal pieces

Coat the bacon in chocolate:

-Prepare a double-boiler on the stove top with a glass bowl for melting the chocolate
-Chop the chocolate into small pieces suitable for melting
-For best results temper the chocolate following these steps: http://www.scharffenberger.com/howto.asp#temper
-When the chocolate is melted and warm on the double-boiler, dip each piece of bacon into the chocolate using a fork and coat thoroughly. With the bacon resting on the fork, tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate from the bacon.
-Place the dipped bacon strip on wax paper to cool.
-Sprinkle the cocoa nibs on the bacon strips while they are still warm.
-Repeat until all the bacon strips are completed.

Assemble the Chocolate Bacon S’mores:

-Turn your broiler to high
-For each s’more place one marshmallow on top of a wafer and broil each marshmallow until toasty
-Top with 2 to 3  chcolate bacon strips, and enjoy while hot.

Recipe Help credit goes to:

http://www.squidoo.com/marshmallow

http://recipes.recipeland.com/recipes/recipe/show/Slice_&_Bake_Chocolate_Wafer_Cookies_23302

and my Wife, Hannah

October 28, 2008

Dear John McCain, can you define winning (in Iraq) for me?

Filed under: obvious, politics, rants — Vince @ 5:14 pm

“Have you ever heard the word `victory’ pass through Obama’s lips?” McCain asked backers. “My friends, we’re winning in Iraq.” We must have heard “we’re winning in Iraq” from John McCain dozens of times in the last few months. But really, John, are we winning in Iraq. Really? Really???
(McCain most recently delivered this message in Fayetteville, N.C., a battleground with a big military presence, like nearby Fort Bragg.)

I have so many questions for John McCain, but I thought a Republican or at least a fan of the IRAQ War might stop by here and explain me how we’re winning, exactly?

  • Is winning the part when we spend over $550 Billion on a war the American People feel we shouldn’t be fighting? This could amass to over $2 Trillion in debt. No, that can’t be it.
  • Or is winning the part where we’re running up debt by having to pay the medical bills of returning soldiers? That could be another $500 Billion right there. So, no, that can’t be it.
  • Oh I know, it’s the part where what’s left of our soldiers in Iraq send our sons and daughters home in a box? Over 5,000 of our soldiers and contractors have been killed already John.

So, by your definition, is winning the part when we get out of Iraq with trillions in debt and (if we’re lucky) less lives lost than ‘nam?

If that’s the case, you know, I think I’m going to vote for “calling it even” in Iraq. Let’s quit while we’re ahead John. That’s what Barack Obama wants to do. I know where my vote is going November 4th.

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