Frankenstorm Weekend

Pie from Maine Apples. Running a little short so  threw in some pears. Ger said, "Wow this pie is really good!"

It usually takes a bit into the season for me to find all the baking accoutrements, like the pie side shields.

 

This week's soup - Pumpkin Black Bean Chili - This was awesome I'll be making it again!

 

Meanwhile, we are right into Turkey season. I was never a super fan of Turkey, growing up. However it is one of my husband's favorites and so I've made the effort to try and make a consistently good one. There is something satisying about having Turkey dinner in the fridge.

 

However, making Turkey reminds me of the parable of stone soup. In for a penny, in for a pound. If you are going to make Turkey, you might as well soak it overnight in salt water. You might as well baste it. You might as well go through the trouble of flipping it.

Flip and finish face up. Yay for Turkey!

Matt decides to watch the storm from the window.

Maine - Cider Making Weekend

This past weekend we drove up to Maine to take part in Cider Making. Forty people processed 2 tons of apples to make 200 gallons of the clearest, most awesome apple cider I've ever had. After so much time working on projects at work that are paper and software based, it was nice to get involved in a project that required your hands (or feet rather - to pedal!). Needless to say, we had an awesome time!




Wash, Maul, Bike and Smash station. A bicycle turns the gears that turns the apples to puree.

Ger takes a turn on the bike

 

 

 

 

Matt loved washing the apples and being part of the action.























Matt plays with a kite after working hard on apples.



A very muddy and happy Matthew.





Random Fall October Weekend

Squash soup prep

I will never make squash soup without pear and vanilla again.

Apple Pie Prep

Apple Pie before it goes in the oven. No finished picture, we ate it all!

Paella Prep

Paella- Shrimp in the pan

Veggies and Sofrito

Seafood Paella!

My mom and dad came to help wire the yard.

Ger working hard on his day off.

Ger drilling in the automatic lights.

Pretty french appetizer from La Tartine Gourmand. Shrimp, avocado, grapefruit with a ginger sauce.

Matthew practices his fine motor skills...

Fall!

 

I don’t really know a whole lot about gardens and plants having grown up in Jersey City, but boy am I sold on the transformative power of sod.

Meanwhile I did some Italian baking. The one thing I learned from the Italians I grew up with – the counter must remain spotless when building your trays.

 

 

Dear reader, are you sick of this soup? Alas, I am not. It is very tasty. This time I added white bean and spinach. ( I try for one soup, one baking dish, one tray of food on the weekends to send us off into the chaos of the work week.)

This weekend we went for a scarecrow walk…

 

Matt totally loved all the scarecrows. I think next year I want to try and design one and submit it for the walk.

 

Once Matt saw all the scarecrows, he totally saw what the operation was about. With the help of our neighbor’s kids, we made a soccer goalie scarecrow.

 

 

Then we did some pumpkin painting…

 

 

 

and headed home for some apple cake.

Notes from a recent data conference

90% of all data generated in last 4 years

Managers understand their business, not necessarily how to leverage data

73% of all CEOs are making investments in business analytics.

Interactive data visualization is increasingly a requirement.

McKinsey recently reported people who have these talents are currently in a shortage.

Trees!

Some pictures are on Ger's iPhone, so I'll post more later, but here is what the finished project looks like! (Well, almost finished, it needs sod).

A big thank you to Broc for helping- what you don't see us a buried electrical cable under there!

But you knew Ger wasn't going to rent a skid steer without busting some walls- and that's what they did on the stalls.

Meanwhile my compost was sacrificed to the trees- a worthy cause. From here on in I think we'll only do container composting.

Also- in my never ending quest to feed Matthew- I'm experimenting with cute plating. Here's my Mater. Of course Matt could not be coaxed to take a bite- he just wanted peanut butter from the jar!