Fall Photos Series #3

Here are a few more I took over the last week. The first one is a group of cattle that I pass every day on the way to work.

Next is a field complete with deer.
Here is a photo of the Humboldt downtown last night.

And finally, me in 2 strip technicolor.

New baby!

We have a new baby at our house. She is 10 pounds and 21 inches long. Enjoy!

Fall Photos Series #2

Here are a few more photos for my Fall in Iowa series. I took a few photos over the last few days. The first 2 were on the way home from the Iowa vs. Iowa State game. The last one was Monday morning on the way to Boone.

Hash Brown Casserole

This is a tasty casserole. When you are thinking French fries, think about this casserole.

Hashbrown Casserole

1 can cream of chicken soup
3 T melted butter
1 t salt
½ t black pepper
½ c diced onion
2 c grated colby
2 pounds thawed hash browns

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X13 pan. Mix together the potatoes, soup, spices, onion and half the cheese. Dump into the pan. Top with remaining cheese and bake uncovered for 35 minutes.

It makes a pretty sizeable amount of casserole but it cooks down. For 2 people you might want to cut the recipe in 1/4.

Humboldt Chicken Sandwiches

Last night we had some tasty chicken sandwiches. They are really easy to make.

Humboldt Chicken Sandwiches

These are really easy. Slice a chicken breast in half and pound with a hammer or use a needler to tenderize. Sprinkle with seasoned salt. Place onto a cookie sheet. Top with a slice of tomato and a slice of raw bacon. Bake in the oven at 350 for 25 to 35 minutes, until it is done and juices run clear.

In the last minute or so of cooking top with a slice of processed white Swiss-Style cheese. Melt.

Serve on a griddled bun dashed with garlic salt.

Humboldt Cheese Steaks

I was out running this morning when I got an overwhelming craving for a cheese steak. Readers may remember that I absolutely love them and I have done a considerable amount of research on the subject. I even have gone so far as to fly to Philadelphia for a sampling.

The problem was that I didn't have any decent meat to use for the steaks. I have been on a real cube steak kick lately. I have this great needling tool that tenderizes meat like crazy.
A few passes of the tenderizer on some round steak and I was in business!

Humboldt Cheese Steaks

Makes 3 sandwiches

1 pound round steak, tenderized with the needler and cut into strips
seasoning salt (sprinkled over cut up meat)
1/2 onion, diced
butter
a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce

3 slices cheap processed cheese, like Velveta
buns, buttered and grilled and dashed with garlic salt

1) Melt a couple tablespoons of butter and saute the onions until nice and done. I like to shoot for caramelization.
2) Remove the onions from the pan but leave the butter.
3) Turn up the heat a little and add a little more butter.
4) Brown the meat in the butter.
5) Return the onions to the pan.
6) Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce
7) Cook, uncovered, until sauce thickens up a little bit and everything is nice and hot.

To serve, put the meat on the bun and spoon a little sauce over. Add a slice of cheese on the top. Let sit until the cheese melts.

Fall Photos Series #1

This year I think I will take some photos of Iowa. I shot these 2 yesterday on my way to work.

Greek Meatballs

This is another recipe that came partially from a book. I had to adapt it quite a bit to locally available ingredients. One thing that helps is having a jar of Greek Seasoning.
The meatballs remind me a lot of one of my favorite dishes - porcupine meatballs - only more naughty and more Greeky.

Greek Porcupine Meatballs

Sauce

2 cans vegetable broth
1 cup dry white wine
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 small can tomato paste
2 t Greek seasoning
1 t cinnamon

Dump everything into a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until the sauce thickens up quite a bit. Meanwhile make the meatballs.

Meatballs

1 pound ground beef
1 cup cooked rice
1/2 of an onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
1 T dried parsley
2 t Greek seasoning
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t pepper
1 t salt
1 egg

Form into meatballs and gently fry in a skillet. Drop into the sauce and simmer, uncovered, until sauce is nicely thickened and everything looks nice and tasty.
We had our meatballs with some squash from the farmer's market and some Uncle Ben's - NJ's favorite!

The book says you are supposed to serve with a little dollop of thickened yogurt but I forgot. It also would be really tasty with some garlic yogurt sauce.

Greek Eggplant with Yogurt

My wife made a very tasty eggplant spread tonight. Her naughty mother gave us an eggplant from the farmer's market. You should serve this with a very crusty bread. I got this recipe from a book but I am living in a town of 4300 people and had to adapt a bit.

Greek Eggplant with Yogurt Spread

1 small 12 ounce eggplant
1 cup plain yogurt (thickened, see below)
1 large t Greek Seasoning (see photo below)
6 T chopped Kalamata Olives (can substitute green olives in a pinch)
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 t salt

Prick eggplant with a fork and bake at 450 degrees until the skin is wrinkled and it has collapsed, about 1 hour.

Slit eggplant open and scoop out all the pulp. Finely chop the eggplant and transfer it to a large bowl. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Cover and chill. Serve with crusty bread.


For thickened yogurt, line a colander or sieve with paper towels. Set it in another bowl so that it can drain and dump the yogurt in. It will thicken up over an hour.

Sunday Dinner

We had Crabby Patties on the patio tonight.
We also had corn on the cob and some tasty mac and cheese.
Then we went to the park and the little one played on the slides.

Crabby Patties

Crabby Patties - brought to you in glorious Technicolor!

Grilled Corn

My current favorite way to have sweet corn is to butter it and throw it on the grill. Add a little salt and pepper while grilling. You don't have to cook it very long, just long enough to get some of the corn browned.

Mac and Cheese in the Dutch Oven

Tonight my wife made the Barefoot Contessa's Mac and Cheese. We decided to have Sunday Dinner outside and on the grill. I baked it in the Dutch Oven.

Race and Lunch with Sleazy T

I had a really good day on Saturday. I went down to Des Moines to race in the Governor's Cup. The Governor himself handed out medals and his wife did the announcements.

His son was also hanging about the podium.

I ran the 8K and posted my record time for that distance. In fact, I beat my best time by a full 2 minutes! I was glad because I haven't really felt like I have been racing all that well lately.

After the race Das Sleazemeister and I watched a little of the Hawkeye game and then went for lunch. We were going to go to one of my favorites, The Royal Mile, but Sleazy T was sick and didn't think he could handle greasy pub food.

Instead we went to this little hole in the wall Italian joint on the south side. Can you say HEAVAN? I got a coppacola sandwhich which was served on a hogie with marinara and cheese in the bun. MMM!

Technicolor Experiments

I have been interested lately in Technicolor photography. You can learn more about it by clicking on the link.

A recent movie that has used digital processing to make a film in technicolor was The Aviator. I read up on how they did it. Although they never published exactly how they did it, they did publish enough information for me to reverse engineer some of the photos from the films.

I did some complicated color calculations in Photoshop and I have been able to reproduce how the Aviator did 2 strip and 3 strip technicolor. I made a little program so that with the click of a button I can transform a photograph into either format.

Here is our little one in 2 strip technicolor:

And here is the original:

3 strip technicolor was a lot harder but I finally got it. Here is Buzzy's Farm Site in glorious 3 strip technicolor:

And here is the original.

Anyway I am excited.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been busy designing a new website for my practice. I finally finished it yesterday.

Tonight I am planning on going to a highschool football game with Easy E and NJ. It should be loads of fun. Tomorrow morning I am planning on running a race in Des Moines followed by lunch with Sleazy T.