Category: Uncategorized
Home Renovation, intro
| December 11, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
Laura and I bought our house in 2002. When we bought it, we knew it was going to need a little work – mainly paint and a new kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Following the advice of our realtor, we decided to live there for six months before doing anything besides cosmetic work. We renovated the kitchen with a general contractor who subcontracted out plumbing and electrical work for a six week project. That project went very well, and we’ve been happy with the work. I also renovated the basement, putting in a new bathroom and a new ceiling with all new electrical.
We’ve now lived in our house for 8 1/2 years and we have realized it’s time to consider some more work. The house is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath split-level built in 1950. There is an entry area, living room and adjoining dining room, kitchen with eating area, sun room, downstairs family room with a bathroom and laundry area, and three bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The house comes in at about 1700 square feet. The space is enough for us, but there are multiple areas that need improvement.
- The rear entry of the house has nowhere to place clothes and shoes, and ends up being a big mess
- The sun room has poor electrical with only one outlet, very little insulation, and is built on a slab instead of crawl space. The room is too cold to use regularly in the winter, and has no walls for placing furniture against. It also has two large picture windows that have leaked and are are impossible to see through due to cloudiness.
- The siding on the house is in some disrepair and we would like to change the color.
- The roof has only about one or two years left on it, and we would like to change the color.
- There is no first floor bathroom.
- We would like to have a master bathroom attached to our bedroom, and there is no room to add one on our current bedroom.
- Front of the house, before the project started
And here’s a shaky home video of the back of the house.
U.S. drinking preferences
| August 23, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I saw this Gallup poll this week about the alcohol preferences of American drinkers. Of note is that wine is now almost caught up with beer (35% to 36%), and liquor is up 2% over last year. If you look at the breakdown, you will see that wine is heavily favored by women and older people. As the population is aging, I expect wine to continue to get more popular. However, for drinkers aged 18-34, beer dropped from 51% to 39% in just one year. That’s a huge drop, but looking at the more detailed breakdown of men vs. women tells me they must have had more women in their sample than last year.
One thing that really cracked me up:
Additionally, 2% of young adults this year volunteered that they most often drink cordials, up from less than 1% in 2010 and in most prior years.
Really, cordials? Who drinks cordials? What is wrong with you young adults!
No Bake Cookies
| May 24, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I remember my mom making these cookies for me as a kid, I loved them with a glass of milk. They’re perfect for that time when you decide you want a cookie but don’t want to go through any of the work to bake. I can whip these up in about 10 minutes time.
No Bake Cookies
- 3 T cocoa powder
- 2 C sugar
- 1 square oleo (stick, or 8 T butter or margarine
- dash of salt
- 1/2 C milk
Stir above ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add:
- 3 C oatmeal
- 1/2 C peanut butter
- 1/2 t vanilla
Stir together and scoop onto wax paper with two tablespoons or an ice cream scooper. Allow to cool.
Makes 2 dozen cookies. About 160 calories/cookie.
Book Review: Dug Down Deep
| May 14, 2011 | Posted by matt under reviews, Uncategorized |
I read Dug Down Deep by Josh Harris on the recommendation of my pastor. It is a book about theology which Harris dedicated to his three children, saying “One day when you are older I hope you’ll read this book and realize I wrote it for you.” I wish that this book had been available when I was younger, it is a clear introduction to a number of theological topics including salvation, sanctification, the roles of the Bible and the Church, the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Harris’ writing style in this book is to mix narrative with sections on theology, making the book an easy read. The book also contains many quotes and references from well known Christian authors so digging through the bibliography for books to add to my ‘To Read’ pile is in order. There are ample scripture references, and I chose to read the book slowly and read them as I went along.
Like me, Harris grew up in a Christian home and was ‘saved’ at an early age. It took him much longer to grasp what it really meant to be a Christian and to understand how much of his view of God was incorrect or misinformed. I can identify with him in this area and found myself relating to many of the experiences he describes as he grew up. I can also look back over the years and see how I have let my lack of knowledge about theology allow me to have incorrect beliefs about God and what the consequences have been and still are in my daily living.
My favorite chapter is the last one, Humble Orthodoxy. Our church has adopted this as one of our ‘ethos anchors‘, and I can appreciate it much more after reading this book. Harris introduces humble orthodoxy as the opposite of what we see so often in the evangelical church today: arrogant orthodoxy. I have seen this arrogance play out in real life and my reaction has been to hold less tightly to some truths because those fighting for those truths have been arrogant and confrontational. Just because someone is being arrogant doesn’t mean they are wrong or agreeing with them is taking on their arrogance. While my reaction has been the incorrect one, I hope that I won’t push others in the same direction through my arrogance. We should contrast that with the charges that Paul gives to the young pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy, which Harris sums up as “Don’t be a jerk.”
Dug Down Deep is a good introductory book on theology for younger Christians, or a good refresher for older Christians who need it.
Brood parasite?
| April 26, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
While at my in-laws over the Easter weekend we got to check out two birds nests located on top of wreaths outside their front and back doors. The girls had lots of fun looking in them – one had eggs and one had baby birds. The interesting thing is that the one with eggs was populated by a house wren and there were two different types of eggs. I’ve been wondering if this is a case of a brood parasite?
A possible brood parasite?
Spring flowers
| April 16, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I love seeing new flowers in the spring since I always forget about what I planted in the fall. My goal is to plant one bag of bulbs every year.
Becoming a morning person
| February 19, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I woke up this morning at 5:29, on a Saturday, no less. My alarm went off about 30 seconds later. I jumped out of bed and am writing this while the rest of the family is sleeping. Why on earth would I be doing this?
I found this post (from 2005) on hacker news a few weeks ago. The basic premise is to set your alarm to the same time every day, 7 days a week, and get up as soon as you can without snoozing. Then, in the evening you have to fall asleep when you are truly tired and can fall asleep quickly.
This has worked really well for me. I used to snooze my alarm for 30 minutes every weekday and sleep about an hour or two on weekends. I’d try to go to sleep about the same time every night and often would end up spending lots of time waiting to fall asleep. Now I’m falling asleep almost immediately, and getting up at exactly the same time. I have felt very well rested and haven’t been tired except for in the evenings when I should be. The best part is I think it has bought me about an extra 5 hours a week. That’s time I can use for exercise, reading, writing, and other things.
Yes, you can make your own beer!
| February 5, 2011 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I first made my own beer with a friend a few years ago. After getting some exposure to the process, I realized it was not that hard and produced a pretty drinkable product. However, the second batch we made turned out a bit skunky and I had to throw it out. The beer had a slight banana taste, not what you’re going for in a beer. That experience turned me off to beer making for a while since I was afraid that I’d screw up my next batch and waste all the time, effort and money that went into it. This summer, my friend Frank and I decided to give it another go, and the results were much better. Since that batch, I’ve brewed six more times with much better results.
A typical batch of beer
Making beer is not much more complicated than boiling a big pot of water. You can basically brew two different ways: with malt extract or all grain. Using malt extract, either in liquid or dry form, is much easier than brewing with all grain and is where most homebrewers start out whereas brewing with all grain is considered an advanced technique. You need a large pot for brewing (mine is 32 quarts), some equipment for fermenting the beer, and then some more for bottling. Several companies sell starter kits for less than $100 that will get you everything you need to make batches for years to come. Ingredient kits can be had for $25, although some can cost much more. My current favorite store for buying home brewing supplies is Northern Brewer.
Brewing beer takes three basic steps: brewing, fermenting, and bottling. On brew day, you boil water, add malt extract and hops to the boiling water, then cool the beer (known as wort) and finally add yeast. For the fermentation step the beer is then stored in a sanitized container (glass or plastic) for at least 2-3 weeks. Finally, some sugar is added and the beer is placed in bottles. It’s usually ready to drink in a week or two.
Like any hobby, homebrewing can be much more involved than what I describe here, including advanced equipment and techniques. However, making a basic recipe is not complicated, is affordable, and can be quite rewarding. I enjoy it since it is fairly easy to make a very good beer with little knowledge or effort, but the more you want to learn about the process and ingredients, the more you can appreciate the skill and effort that goes into a fine beer.
Review: ATC Best Recipes and Reviews 2010
| March 28, 2010 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
I got the magazine version of The Best of America’s Test Kitchen Kitchen: Best Recipes and Reviews 2010 (that’s a mouthful) a few months ago. I have been working my way through the recipes and have tried about ten of the 64 recipes so far. If you aren’t familiar with America’s Test Kitchen, I would describe them as a Consumer Reports for cooks, but with a few extra side businesses. First, they have an excellent cooking show on PBS that performs food product taste tests, product reviews, as well as recipes and cooking techniques. They are also known for Cook’s Illustrated magazine.
The greatest thing about America’s Test Kitchen is that they take every recipe and experiment with different techniques and ingredients, testing each one until they find the best recipe possible. They say they will try a recipe 30, 40, or even 70 times before they publish it. As a result, a number of the recipes have some very unique ingredients or techniques that can provide surprisingly good results. For example, their Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup uses white bread blended into the soup instead of cream to provide a creamy and thick consistency. I never would have thought to try bread in the soup, but it was quite good.
The Ultimate Cinnamon Buns are outstanding, although they were almost too rich. They are made with a cream cheese glaze that is very good, and the filling uses brown sugar instead of regular sugar with lots of butter. Since they freeze very well, we would eat them two at a time with a week or so in between.
The Baked Ziti uses cottage cheese instead of ricotta, fresh basil instead of dried, and fresh mozzarella cut into cubes instead of shredded. All of these ingredient choices make a big difference over the usual recipe. It is definitely the best Baked Ziti I have ever had, and they also solve the usual problem of soggy pasta by having you undercook the pasta before the baking portion of the recipe.
There are a few things I would like to see changed in the recipes. First, they don’t give you a very good idea what the total prep and cook time is for the recipe. I usually like to know how much time I’m going to have to set aside without having to read through the recipe and add up all the time periods. This is especially annoying for bread recipes that have multiple rise times. The second thing that is missing is nutritional information. This can be added up pretty easily, but for the more complicated recipes with many ingredients, this is a hassle.
This magazine has been a great source of recipes. I will have to think about whether the entire book is worth getting. It appears that the full book is 352 pages with about 133 recipes and a number of pages of tips, techniques, and reviews, but the magazine is 64 pages with 64 recipes. I think maybe an online membership might be the way to go, since it provides access to all their content, including historical recipes.
Community Supported Agriculture with Cedar Valley Sustainable Farms
| March 6, 2010 | Posted by matt under Uncategorized |
After watching Food, Inc. recently we started to investigate alternatives to the local grocery store for obtaining our meat products. We recently signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) meat share with Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm. The farm is a family run farm in Ottawa, IL. Their meat share program allows you to purchase a wide selection of beef, chicken, and pork products from their farm which are available for local pickup once a month. The program currently costs $255/3 months, $500/6 months, $975/year.
The usual meat share has several cuts of beef or pork, hamburger, 1 1/2 to 2 chickens, some pork products, and a dozen eggs. All the meat is delivered frozen, and is in a freezer bag that is returned in the next month. The local pickup is in downtown Evanston and is a quick and easy errand for us on a Saturday around noon.
We have received two shares so far, and the quality has been excellent. In February, we received 1/2 dozen eggs (the chickens were cold!), 1 1/2 chickens, two filet mignons, one large sirloin steak, 4 bratwursts, and a pound of ground beef. This seemed to be a light share, but the two cuts of grass fed beef were excellent and were a good size. We especially enjoyed the sirloin steak.
The January Meat Share
In February, we received a 1 1/2 dozen eggs this time, 2 1/2 chickens that were smaller than the previous month, 1 pound of italian sausage, 1 pound of ground beef, a package of beef patties, and a pork loin.
The February Meat Share
The eggs from Cedar Valley are quite different from what I’m used to. Their yolks are a bright orange, and the yolks are very round and firm. You can’t see this in the picture below, but the yolk in the Cedar Valley egg is probably twice as high as the Phil’s Fresh egg. I’ve had them scrambled and fried and they are very good.
A Cedar Valley egg (top) vs. a Phil's Fresh egg (bottom)
I especially enjoy getting a variety of cuts of meat and trying new recipes. We have been stuck in a ‘boneless skinless chicken breast’ rut for some time, and making meals with chicken parts or whole chickens is kind of fun. So far we have only had to supplement a pound or two of ground beef, eggs, and chicken breasts for a few larger meals we have made for larger groups.
I highly recommend Cedar Valley, and hope that Community Supported Agriculture continues to catch on and become available for more people. It feels good to support a local family farm and be more connected to our food and where it comes from.
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