GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Category: Kitchen Sink

  • Checking out the New 2011 Fords

    Checking out the New 2011 Fords

    Last night I was a guest of the Ford Motor Company in Manhattan. They invited me to come check out their new cars, trucks and SUVs before the opening of the New York International Auto Show. Really Cool. Craig Patterson and Scott Monty spoke about how they were using social media to introduce the new Ford Explorer. The 2011 Ford Explorer is the North American Truck of the Year, and it gets the best fuel mileage in its class.

    Craig Patterson and the 2011 Ford Explorer

    For 2011 Ford has redone the Explorer. What I thought was interesting are the new inflatable rear safety belts. In an accident the seat belts become airbags and cushion the occupants. There’s a video on the Ford Explorer website you can watch that explains the inflatable seat belts better than I can.

    Ford Escape Hybrid

    The 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid was on the show floor. Ford gave us an Escape Hybrid a while back and we did a review video about it, watch the video here. Our Labradors really like the Ford Escape Hybrid, lots of room in back for them and 34 miles per gallon in the city its pretty cool. The Escape Hybrid has echo friendly seats; biologists at the Ford plant in Chicago have devised a way to make the seat covers out of soy instead of oil-based products.

    Eric likes this truck.

    A favorite part of the Ford exhibit for me was the new 2011 Ford F150 with their Echo Boost Engine. It’s a dual turbocharged direct fuel injected engine that they torture tested full speed ahead for 164,706 miles.

    Ford took took a random Eco Boost engine off the assembly line ( engine #448AA ) and started running it. First on a dynometer for 300 hours, simulating 10 years of use, then hauling timber, then running 24 hours on a Nascar track, then trailer pulls against the competitors, and then, Ford took the same engine to the Baja 1000. Ford has a neat series of videos documenting the story of engine #448AA on their site here. Click here to watch the whole series of videos . Well done videos.

    Click the play button to watch the Torture Test videos
    2011 Ford F150 with EcoBoost Engine
    Underside of the F150
  • Rescuing a pup – am I preaching to the choir?

    Rescuing a pup – am I preaching to the choir?

    With GardenFork’s audience, I’m sure that I’m preaching to the choir on this, but I still felt compelled to say what I want to say and share the video.

    In the video is Waverly, a 9 month old Weimaraner pup. With two Weimaraners already in our home, our cup runneth over long before she showed up. We do love the breed and we love our dogs. Friends of ours know this and when others have Weims, we tend to hear about them.

    This particular pup was bought by an elderly couple who thought Weims were beautiful and friendly, which they are. However, they didn’t know how much energy they have and what dangers the breed bring along with them. 

    Weims are super friendly and VERY attached to their family. However, Weims don’t understand that running up to their 110 pound owner, or 40 pound child to give them a “full body greeting” is, at best, traumatic for the receiver.

    Also, these dogs are smart. To a fault. If you don’t exercise them, challenge them, and give them something to do, they’ll find stuff to do on their own — Like dismantling a couch, one thread at a time. 

     If you decide to cruelly lock them up in order to keep them “good”, you’ll find that a locking up a Weimaraner is like winding the spring on a toy; when you let them go, all of that energy is going to be released at once. And the longer they’re in there, the tighter that spring gets!

    Really, this isn’t meant to be a lesson in Weimaraners. It’s meant to be a lesson in preparing for getting a dog properly. Also, if you know about dogs, making sure your friends who are thinking of getting a dog know everything they need to know.

    Before we got our first Weimaraner, we read every guide on the breed we could find. They are all over the internet and in book stores. We spoke to others with the breed and we visited as many Weimaraners as we could find.

    I knew very well that if I fell asleep on the couch, I would wake up with two 70 pound dogs sleeping on or under me.

    I also knew the costs. A spay, shots, licenses, food, toys, crates, and everything else. We made sure we could afford the dog(s).

    It’s easy to sympathize when someone can’t keep a dog because of an illness, injury, or worse. It’s infuriating when I feel compelled to take on a third dog because someone didn’t do some simple homework. We were told that  “It’s either you take her, or she ends up in a shelter or just released in a field. PLEASE… Take her.” How do we NOT take her?

    Sure the people were heartbroken and ashamed, but is that enough? I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do hope this is the last dog we need to rescue. She’s only here temporarily, but in my house, fostering a Weimaraner “temporarily” is like “temporarily” touching one finger to the other when there is super glue on them.

    My son has been wanting a third dog, I’ve been saying “No”, but I may be powerless against the cosmic powers behind the prayers and wishes of a 14 year old boy who loves his dogs. 

    Watching her sleep peacfully with the other two dogs, it’s easy to imagine that some angel brought her to us…

    … actually, watching the video again, it may be repayment for something bad I’ve done. I’m not sure yet.

  • Forest Park Community Garden Seed Swap

    Seeds

    On February 27th, Forest Park Community Garden hosted it’s first public seed swap and it was a great success and tons of fun!

    A seed swap is where a group of gardeners get together to trade seeds, information about the seeds, and just have a great time hanging out. I’ve gone to one prior that was held in a friends house and she hosted about 15 to 20 people, but the Community Garden hosted about 75 people. We laid out five tables filled with seeds. Three tables alone to held all the fruit and veggie seeds. People brought in everything from garlic to hyacinth, amaranth to zucchini. Every Vegetable, Herb, Flower that does well in our area was represented.

    There was also demonstrations about seed starting and one of the committee member’s daughters showed how to use seeds in greeting cards. It was very cute.

    All in all, it was a great success. We had a ton of fun and got to spend the afternoon chatting with the neighbors.

    Now, I’m just on edge waiting for the snow to stop and the weather to finally warm up. Have Seeds! Need Planting!

  • Eric guest hosts Martha Stewart Living Radio next week

    Eric guest hosts Martha Stewart Living Radio next week

    This is one of those fall out of your chair kind of things.

    After being a guest a few times on Martha Stewart Living Radio, I’ve been asked to guest host the afternoon of March 7th and March 8th.

    How cool is that?

    I’ve been working with the producers this week about guests I’d like to have on the show, and confirmed the following cool people:

    Nichelle Stephens, Cupcakestakesthecake blogger & social media expert

    Ulla Kjarval, grass fed beef farmer – advocate – blogger

    Gennaro Brooks Church, green contractor, EcoBrooklyn.com

    Jaden Hair, SteamyKitchen.com cookbook author , TV personality

    Robert Newton, Chef & Owner, Seersucker Brooklyn NY

    Megan Paska, urban homesteader, beekeeper, BK Swappers

    Joshua Stokes, chef with the answers to  your questions, GrillAChef.com

    I’ll be on from 1-4 pm Monday and Tuesday. You can listen to Sirius ch 112 – XM ch 157 on your computer and smartphone. They offer a 30 day trial, you can learn more here.

  • Winter Project 2011 Hammond Organ

    Organ

    Jim found a Hammond Organ M100 on Ebay. Just before Christmas we drove up to Lansing Michigan to pick it up.

    Starting on February 1st, I’m determined to learn all the piano basics on Garageband. This is my Winter Project. Like Mike has his pinball machines and Eric has his podcast and website, I need something too to keep my hands busy and mind working. Previously I’ve taught myself to knit, needlepoint, roast the perfect chicken, use a sewing machine, and several various garden projects. None of these skills I can do really well, but I do know the basics. Except roast the perfect chicken.

    Winter is when I have time to learn new things. It’s cold outside. There’s not many projects that I have with the garden at this time. I know January equals June in sowing seeds and getting stuff ready for the garden. This year I have the greenhouses and am going to start sowing stuff as soon as we get some more sun light. We’re getting the same amount of sunlight now as we did in October, when everything was starting to go dormant. Every day gets a little bit brighter and the sun gets a little higher. It’ll be warm before we know it.

    Learning a musical instrument is not something I would have picked for myself. I’m not particularly musical. My camera man, Jim, plays guitar. I’ve always like listening to Organ Jazz and love machines with bulbs, bells, and tubes. So, Jim decided this project for me. I’m enjoying it so far.

     

     

     

  • Compost Tumblers + Auto Chicken Feeders New on the GF Forum

    Compost Tumblers + Auto Chicken Feeders New on the GF Forum

    Anyone have any experience with Compost Tumblers? I am thinking of buying one for our daughter who lives in an urban area where piles of rotting ’stuff’ are frowned upon. What’s the best brand, size for a family of 4 ?

    Is there any sort of automated way to feed chickens when you are going to be gone?

    Thise and more in the GardenFork Forum https://gardenfork.tv/community/activity/

    photo by matthewbridges

  • Curry with raisins stew today photo

    Curry with raisins stew today photo

    This seemed a good choice for December. Lots of root vegetables and cumin and tumeric.

  • Christmas Gift Wish List

    Christmas Gift Wish List

    Here comes Santa Claus! Here comes Santa Claus! Right down Santa Claus Way!

    I Love Christmas! The gifts and friends. Parties that drag you out into the cold. Everyone is happier! Like many of you, I’m involved with more than one gardening project during the spring, summer, and fall. Winter rolls around and we can show case the fruits of our labors. Heat our kitchens with bread in the oven and stew on the stove.

    As much as I would love to bake cookies or bread for everyone on my gift list, that’s not possible. My sister, is getting married in February and would KILL me if I made her cookies. She’s even sworn off baking until the big event. Poor thing.

    Like Eric, I try to spend my money in socially responsible ways. Last year we adopted olive oil trees for my stepmom from nudo-italia.com.We got a mix flavor pack for ourselves and have really enjoyed it. I had asked for a donation to www.heifer.org and some beans from Rancho Gordo. I got the beans and lots of them.

    I’ve put together a little list of interesting items what I think would make great gifts. Some items are handmade, others are locally made from sustainable materials, and almost all are found at local, independent shops.

    You can never have too many cutting boards. These footed cutting boards from Gray Works Design look perfect for showing off that one perfect tomato I can seem to grow a year. If you don’t care for footed cutting boards, etsy.com has tons of other designs.

    While still on the subject of cutting boards, some of us (me) insist on having cutting boards that are dishwasher safe. Thank you epicurean. The cutting board feels good to work on and is made from sustainable materials in an energy friendly factory. For my sister, I’m getting her the pastry board and rolling pin.

    Everyone needs a dutch oven. Once you have one, you need two. One for bread, one for stew. Lodge makes some great cast iron dutch ovens, now they have some really good looking, affordable enameled dutch ovens. Lodge Cast Iron.jpg

    What really caught my eye was the skillets. I don’t have a cast iron skillet.

    In the Chicago we have an awesome kitchen supply store, Northwestern Cutlery. They call themselves the candy store for cooks and that’s right on the money. I take my work knives there and generally spend 15 to oh, 30 minutes wandering around and looking. They carry epicurean, lodge, le crueset, and more cooking and baking gadgets than you can imagine. Most importantly, they are an independent shop and have a good website for people outside of Chicago.

    This is a little treat I picked up for myself a couple of months ago, the Sodastream Genesis. I love this gadget! I’ve used it almost every day since bringing it home. Lots of us love soda but hate the cans, hauling them back from the store, and most importantly, you can never run out of soda. Green Home Experts in Oak Park carries the sodastream, CO2 cartridges, and flavors.

    Have a happy and safe holiday season!

  • Simple Way to Test Your Car Alternator

    Simple Way to Test Your Car Alternator

    Is your battery or alternator light on? Here’s the first step to determine if your alternator is not working.

    You will need a voltmeter – I prefer a digital one – they are all less than $20.

    Open the hood of your car/truck, set the voltmeter for 20 volts DC or whatever DC voltage setting it has between 15-25 volts DC.

    12.67 volts DC means the alternator is not charging

    Place the Black lead from the voltmeter on the negative post of the car battery – the black cable from the engine is attached to the negative side of the battery.

    Place the Red lead from the voltmeter on the positive post of the car battery – a red cable from the engine is attached to the positive side of the battery.

    Read the voltage: if it is around 12.5 volts, the alternator is not charging the battery. This may be caused by several things, it may be a loose or disconnected wire, a loose belt, the voltage regulator may be bad, or the alternator is bad. In many cars, the voltage regulator is attached to the back of, or incorporated into the alternator.

    When my Ford F150 truck battery went dead, I pulled out my voltmeter and tested the battery. I was able to tell the problem was not a loose wire or connection because soon after I started testing at the battery, the alternator started to smoke, which is a pretty good indication that it needs to be replaced.

    On many cars and trucks, if you have some mechanical ability, you can replace the alternator yourself. Look online for a discussion forum about your vehicle and search the posts for alternator replacement tips and tricks. When you go to your local parts store to pick up a new alternator, its ideal to bring in the broken one, most parts like this require a trade-in of the old part ( so they can rebuild it ) AND it is good to confirm that the new alternator is the right one. Save yourself a trip.

    Tell us your alternator stories below, be good to learn other tips and tricks from you all.

  • It’s What You Make It Out To Be

    It’s What You Make It Out To Be

    Jim Smoking Ribs

    On September 11th, 2010 Jim and I competed in our fourth Forest Park Ribfest Cook Off and had a great time. We came in fourth this year, after coming in third last year. I’m hoping that it’s not a trend. Personally, I think the ribs we handed in for Judging were slightly under cooked, where as the earlier batches came out perfect. It is what you make it out to be.

    Most importantly we had a great time and fed a bunch of people!

    Smoking meat is relatively easy. You take Meat, you add fire, and cook till tender. The fun comes with how you do it. The winning team this year, Don Cheval and the Forest Park Firemen, used a Weber Kettle Grill. We are lucky to use a Southern Pride smoker. Our unit is just slightly smaller than what you might find in many BBQ Joints. There were smokers and grills at the Ribfest in every size, shape, and configuration. Some were homemade and some were professional grade.

    It doesn’t matter what kind of cooker you use, if you don’t put a product that you believe in, into it. I know our ribs are the best ribs. Mr Cheval just made a rib that was better. We were lucky to compete right next to him.

  • Ingimundur & Ulla Kjarval Raising Grass Fed Beef by Food Curate

    Ingimundur & Ulla Kjarval Raising Grass Fed Beef by Food Curate

    When the stars are in the right alignment, ( or whenver I can get my act together to schedule it ) Ulla Kjarval will be on GardenFork Radio. In the meantime, here is a great video about Ullah, her dad Ingimundur and their farm, Spring Lake Farm in Meredith, NY , by Liza de Guia, who blogs about food and makes great videos at her site, Food Curated.

    To me, Ullah is one of a few people who walks the talk; she has her feet in both the ‘social media food world’ and the ‘farm world’. Ullah is an advocate for grass fed meat, who farms and blogs. You can read more on her blog: Goldilock’s Farm Notes . She also runs a social media company, Sheep Dog PD.

    Liza’s site, Food Curated, is a great example of how people can use off the shelf technology to get out the message about a topic or issue they are passionate about. Liza’s energy clearly shows here, and she tells great stories. If you want to make videos and put them on the web, Food Curated is how to do it.

    Follow Ullah on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nyculla

    Follow Liza on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SkeeterNYC

  • Giant 9/11 flag today

    Giant 9/11 flag today

  • Towers of Light at World Trade Center

    Towers of Light at World Trade Center

    a few people have asked me what the lights down at World Trade look like. In the evening you notice these beams of light shooting straight up. These lights are turned on every year near September 11.

  • Mushroom Hunting – Foraging for the Chicken Mushroom

    Mushroom Hunting – Foraging for the Chicken Mushroom

    One of my best friends drove over from NY state yesterday and arrived with a bag full of interesting mushrooms. He and his wife have become quite adept at finding Morels and Oyster mushrooms.

    He had found these near their house, down the road a mile or so, and stopped to pick a few.

    Chicken Mushrooms

    We brought them into the house and I pulled out my mushroom books. We found the mushroom, identified as the Chicken Mushroom ( Laetiporus sulphureus ), in my favorite book, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.

    But to make sure we knew what this was, we cross checked with our other mushroom books, and confirmed that the mushrooms were indeed Chicken Mushrooms.

    Always make sure you know exactly what you are doing with mushrooms found in the woods, if you’re not sure, don’t eat them, OK?

    Considered Choice Edible by the Audubon Guide, we first simmered them in salt water, as suggested online, and then sauted them with a little butter. They were quite good. Not amazing, but good enough that we will pick these again and add to a meal.

    What fun mushroom or wild food finds have you found lately? let us know below:

    a quick simmer in salt water was suggested
    Sauteed in Butter, yum.
  • Tree felling at the house

    Tree felling at the house

    We have 2 large pine trees right next to our house. Last winter, the top 8 feet of one of them missiled into the ground right between the house and the wood shed. So we decided to have Entire Tree Service, who remove trees in Litchfield County, Northwest CT, to come cut down the trees.

    Climbing up the tree
    cutting limbs
    These trees were too much for me to take on, so i called the experts
    see how close they are to the house?
    cutting the top off
    Removing the last limb from the 2nd tree
    a lot of gear hanging from their belts
    cutting the wedge
    Dropping the tree
    You can see the hinge that guides the tree here
    It was my job to haul off the logs with my neighbor's John Deere
  • Kinpira Gobo Burger, Cooking with Sesame Oil

    Kinpira Gobo Burger, Cooking with Sesame Oil

    On an episode of Gardenfork Radio, Eric and I asked for a recipe using sesame oil. Listener Jasmine came through and sent Eric a recipe for an interesting veggie “burger”.

    The “bun” is cooked sticky rice that is then formed into a patty and then fried. The filling is a carrot / burdock stir fry which Jasmine described:

    “Kinpira gobo is a traditional vegetable side, however in this case I like to use it as my “burger” filling. If you can’t find burdock root this works just as well with just the carrots or really any root vegetable.”

    I was looking forward to seeing Eric make it.

    Ever see that scene where they ask a line of soldiers for a volunteer and everyone steps backward, leaving one guy standing there? Eric responded, “hey thanks for that and the recipe. mike will make this and report back!”

    I have said that Eric does all the work and I get to have the fun, so I guess I need to pull my weight here and actually make something.

    I was buying the ingredients, but I couldn’t find burdock. I bought parsnip instead. (My camera operator said I should have gone with celery root and I think she’s right) I loaded up on sesame oil, soy sauce, rice, and the other ingredients and then one ingredient stumped me. I sent a text to Eric from the store:

    Here was my guide from Jasmine, but there was only one choice, Aji-Mirin.

    “I suggest either hon mirin or mirin-fu chomiryo. Hon mirin is true mirin and contains alcohol while mirin-fu contains less than 1% alcohol. Either way I would steer clear of shio mirin as it is the same as hon mirin except with salt added.”

    Rice Burger Patties
    1 1/2 cups (per sandwich) Japanese-style medium grain rice or similar
    1/2 Tbs. olive oil for frying/grilling
    Cook an appropriate amount of rice for the number of servings desired. Take the rice and press it into ½ inch thick circles. I use plastic wrap to do this as the rice will otherwise stick to the skin. (It is important to use a medium grain rice as instant or long grain rices will not stick well on their own. You can still use these but it will require other ingredients to get them to stick.) Once your patties are shaped simply fry them in the oil or grill them on a well oiled surface.
    I suggest using wax paper or kitchen parchment when you eat them so it doesn’t stick to your hands.

    I used an ice cream scooper to dish out an appropriate amount of rice, and then I smashed it between layers of wax paper. It made reasonable circles.

    Classic Kinpira Gobo
    2 burdock roots, well scrubbed
    2 small or 1 medium carrot, peeled
    1 Tbs. sesame oil
    1 tsp. dry red chili pepper flakes, or 2 small fresh red chili peppers finely chopped
    1 Tbs. sugar
    1 Tbs. mirin
    2 to 3 Tbs. soy sauce

    I wanted to buy Japanese rice, but unless I wanted 25 pounds of it, I had to settle for this brand. It worked fine.

    Cut the burdock root into matchstick size pieces and soak in a bowl of water. Strain the burdock and refill the bowl with clean water to soak a few more minutes. Drain again then pat the burdock root dry. Cut the carrots into matchstick size as well. As long as you rinsed the outside of the carrots there is no need to soak them.

    Heat up a wok with the sesame oil. Add the burdock root, carrot pieces, and any other vegetable you might like to add. Sauté briefly, tossing to coat the pieces with oil. Add the chili pepper flakes and toss. Add the sugar, mirin, and soy sauce and about 1/2 cup of water. Lower the heat to medium, and continue cooking and stirring until the moisture has disappeared from the pan. Taste a piece of burdock root: it should be crisp and tender. If it’s too crunchy for you, add a bit more water and cook some more.

    As it cooks down. I know, I wasn’t patient enough to make match sticks. These are more like, uhm, giant match sticks.

    Finished Product

    Here is the finished product. I picked up some Japanese beer to go with the “burger”. It was a little messy, but it was fun to eat and it tasted very nice. Sweet, salty, spicy, with interesting textures. The sesame gave it a little smoke flavor too. It was worth the work and I can see this as somethign easy to whip up if you already have the ingredients around. Thanks Jasmine!

  • New Favorite Hot Weather Cool Downs

    New Favorite Hot Weather Cool Downs

    It’s only the first week of August and it’s been Hot. Very hot. Hot marked with pockets of dumping rain and mosquitoes. One can’t drink beer all day long to stay cool and still function. I’ve been drinking buckets of iced tea.

    Now I’m not a commercial iced tea fan. I don’t like the sickly sweet stuff with fake lemon flavor. I like the astringent taste of black tea and just a ton of fresh mint and herbs. I brew my iced tea just like I brew regular tea, by using a tea pot. Depending what is growing in my yard, I’ll shove it in the pot with a couple of tea bags and let it seep. Then I’ll pour the tea over ice in a very large glass. Today was a combination of mint leaves, sage, rosemary, dragon wart, I mean tarragon, and lavender. I’ll toss in two bags of black tea and two bags of a lemon herb tea.

    It’s very tasty stuff and I can vary it as I feel. Fresh sliced peaches would be very good with the iced tea!

    I had stumbled across a post about Mexican Ice Pops or Paletas. They are a less sweet version of a popsicle using fresh. One recipe stuck out at me. Cucumber Lime Chile Pops. ingredients
    They are just a sweet, sour, spicy explosion! Which is good because I found Rocket Pop Models in which to make them.

    I added a healthy handful of basil and didn’t peel the cucumber. It’s one of those pops that you can’t stop eating. Just spicy enough to force you to keep chomping on them and cooling enough to beat the heat.

    I’m going to try the peach ginger ones when i get around to it. Or I’ll just sit in the yard with a big glass of ice tea and try not to melt!

  • Jacques Torres, chocolatier with a wrench.

    Jacques Torres, chocolatier with a wrench.

    The first time I checked out Jacques Torres’ chocolate store in Dumbo Brooklyn, I could see Jacques behind this big glass window that allowed people to see the chocolate being made.

    He had an adjustable wrench and was whacking some sort of machine with it.

    I decided immediately: ‘i like this guy’

    jacques torres chocolate
    Pick up these chocolates, make everyone happy.

    I have since bought a bunch of chocolate from him. He makes these small chocolate squares in a ton of ever changing varieties, and you can select which ones you want to make up a box. These boxes of chocolates make great gifts. Anybody I give them to loves them. ( you can order them online here )

    Jacques and Jaden Hair invited me to an evening at Jacques’ Manhattan store last week with some other food bloggers. It was very nice being in chocolate heaven. Jacques provided the food, and Taittinger Champagne & The Seeker Wines provided the drinks. Jacques is one of those guys with an infectious personality, he likes food and likes to share it with others, and a big thank you to him for sharing it with me. ( we talk about my visit on GardenFork Radio here )

    Kinda decadent, chocolate and nice wine, hanging out in NYC. But decadent in a good way.