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Smoked Turkey

Matt — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:03:00 +0000

We had a small group gathering today and decided to do a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving. I bought a 17 pound turkey and was going to do the traditional roasting but after seeing a Food Network show on favorite Thanksgiving recipes I decided to smoke the turkey first. I had some mesquite chips in the garage from the summer barbecue season so I took a few handfuls and soaked them in water. Then I spread them out in the bottom of a heavy roasting pan. Next I put a metal rack on top of the pan and placed the turkey on top of that so the turkey was basically sitting on the rim of the pan. The idea was to have lots of space between the chips and the bird. Then I wrapped the whole thing in aluminum foil and placed the pan on a stove top burner and turned the heat up to medium (5). As the wood chips heated and started to smoulder you could smell the sweet mesquite. I left this on the burner for about 1.5 hours. The bottom of the bird started to cook a bit but it was all good. After the smoking time I rubbed it down with olive oil and sprinkled salt and black pepper on the skin, covered it in foil and popped it into the oven. I let it roast covered for about 4 hours on 325 F. For the last 45 minutes I uncovered the bird and took the foil off so the skin would brown up and get nice and crispy. After a 30 minute cool down I carved it all up. The meat had a nice smokey flavor to it, especially the skin. If you are looking to do something different this Thanksgiving try smoking the turkey before roasting.

Sweet Creek Falls

Matt — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:33:01 +0000

Took a trip out to see Sweet Creek Falls on this Memorial Day. I really would have liked to have gotten out there earlier in the day when the light was not so harsh but we got a late start and as I expected it was difficult to get a good exposure. Here are a few I took that turned out ok. We hiked from the Homestead trailhead up to the head of the falls. Round trip it was about 2.2 miles. The trail is very well maintained and follows along the creek passing by lots of smaller punch-bowl type falls and shaded by large big-leaf maple trees. At one point you walk on elevated platforms that are bolted into the side of the cliff. The kids really loved that part. The falls itself was really beautiful plunging into a deep wide bowl. There is an other spur trail that goes up to an overlook at the top of the falls. I really want to go back either early in the morning or late in the evening to catch the better light and photograph these falls. Lots of opportunities there. Until then you will have to endure these mediocre photos. They look the same but they are slightly different. I’m interested to know which one you prefer.

Spring Is Here

Matt — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:32:53 +0000

It’s been a long time without posts on this site. Work and life in general have kept me pretty busy. But Spring is here and it’s time to get out and start shooting the flowers. Here is one I took recently of a Magnolia tree.

Food Safety – Who is really checking?

Matt — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 22:23:10 +0000

With the recent revelation that Peanut Corporation of America knowingly shipped tainted peanut butter products around the Country, I had to stop and wonder where does our food really come from and how safe is our food supply? It’s not like this is the first outbreak of salmonella or other food borne illness to strike. There was another salmonella outbreak at a peanut plant in Georgia in 2007 and I’m sure we all remember the somewhat recent spinach scare. And of course there was the whole melamine scare from Chinese products. One contaminated ingredient can affect many different companies and products. So who is responsible for checking and making sure that the food we buy and eat is safe? One of the main regulators of food safety is the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). They are responsible for inspecting 80% of domestic and imported food products but unbelievably they receive only 24% of federal food-safety spending (the other agency is the US Department of Agriculture which gets 76% of the food-safety money to inspect the other 20% of the food like meat and poultry). My guess is the they are understaffed and overworked considering they didn’t even know that Peanut Corporation of America made peanut butter. It seems to me that we need more inspections, tighter regulations and harsher punishments when laws are broken. I don’t really trust that the government can regulate anything considering they couldn’t stop any of these food illness outbreaks, they couldn’t see through the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme, and they sure didn’t seem to see the signs of a failing economy until it was much too late. So can we really trust that a government agency like the FDA really has consumers best interest at heart and is earnestly checking all the foods that sit on shelves in our stores and supermarkets? I worked as a cook in a restaurant once. We had inspections but they always seemed to be announced. So you know the inspectors are coming on such and such date so you clean the place up so it really shines. The inspector comes in and gives you a passing grade and then after they leave you revert back to old habits. I’m not saying all inspections are announced but we had quite a few that were and I didn’t really see the point to them. So I say eat locally. Support your local organic farmer. Make your own peanut butter. Stop buying packaged and processed foods and make a healthy meal at home. Sure it costs a bit more but what is your health and the health of your family really worth?

Koji Osakaya

Matt — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:30:15 +0000

This past week I had the pleaseure to eat twice at Koji Osakaya Japanese Restaurant in Portland Oregon on SE 82nd Street at the Fubonn Shopping Center. Fubonn is the largest Asian shopping center in Oregon. Inside there are wooden booths that follow along the open kitchen so you can see everything that goes on behind the scenes. There are 2 big screen TV’s that play sumo wrestling. I like that you can sit around the kitchen area and watch the flurry of activity. The first time we were there we ordered from the lunch menu. My sister-in-law ordered the Teriyaki Salmon plate which comes with steamed rice, miso soup and a salad for $8.50. I ordered the Broiled Mackeral plate which came with the same rice and miso soup for $8.50. This was absolutely fantastic! The mackeral was just perfect, so tender and it just melted in your mouth. The salad had a nice light dressing on it and also included were some cold soba noodles which were also very good. The miso soup was one of the best I have had although I will admit that I am not a miso soup expert. They have quite an extensive menu which includes sushi, japanese noodles and various entrees. I came away with a great impression, so much so that I returned with my wife a week later for dinner. Unfortunately we came at a very busy time and they had apparently run out of rice. Needless to say it’s hard to run a Japanese restaurant with no rice since it is a staple of almost every dish served. But they were very apologetic and gracious and we had them substitute cold soba noodles for the rice and only charged us the lunch menu prices. I once again ordered the broiled mackeral (can’t get enough of that) and my wife ordered Assorted Tempura which came with tempura fish, shrimp and vegetables. I sampled a bit and it was very good. We ended our visit with mochi ice cream of green tea and strawberry flavors which the kids really liked. Overall I really like this place and plan on going back.

Photoshop CS4 Processing

Matt — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:25:37 +0000

I have been messing around a bit with Photoshop CS4, trying some B&W conversions and other things. I really admire the work of Alan Young. Some of his work from China is just incredible. So on his website he posted a few tutorials or rather “Trade Secrets” so I thought I would try a few of them out. I won’t go into details regarding the process, as you can check it out on his website and download the PDF’s that explain everything. Basically I used Photomatix Pro 3 to create a pseudo-HDR image and then did some curves adjustments and B&W conversion. Here are a few that I processed using this method (with a few modifications). They are no where near as impressive as some of Mr. Young’s work but I do enjoy playing around with different techniques. Hope you enjoy these.

Jury Duty

Matt — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:01:39 +0000

So I just completed my first experience with jury duty. It was pretty much what I expected it to be with a few twists. Last year I was summoned 3 times. The first time it wasn’t convenient for me (when is it ever) so I postponed my service. The second time I called in and they said there were no trials scheduled so I was considered as having served. The third time was just a month after the second time and so I sent a letter to the judge saying that according to the County website I couldn’t be called again within the same calendar year. Apparently he agreed and promptly assigned me for the first full week of the New Year. So that is how I came to be sitting in a room filled with 100 other grumbling people who also didn’t want to be there. I arrived on time and checked in and sat down. There were a couple of TV’s going with CNN on the screen talking about the mid-East crisis. There were people telling the same tired jokes about how to get out of jury service like “Tell them you can spot a guilty person just by looking at them”, or “If they are here then they must be guilty”. They seem funnier when you’re not sitting in the jury assembly room. So about an hour after arriving a lady gets on a PA system and explains the process, assigns people into groups of 12 and then puts on a video that is supposed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy about doing your civic duty. The video was actually decent. While no one really wants to be called for jury service if you are called you should go into it with the idea that you will listen to all the evidence presented and make your own call on what the verdict should be. In this Country the person on trial is innocent until proven guilty and we should respect that and not view the defendant any differently. Sure we all grumble about it, crack jokes and try different methods of escaping it, but the reality is that a trial by jury is one of the basic rights we have in this Country and while it might make us uncomfortable or be an inconvenience we should continue to honor our duty and do what is right. We would expect nothing but the same were the shoe on the other foot. In my case today the defendant changed his plea and the entire jury pool was excused. I won’t need to serve again for another 2 years. If selected to serve again I think my attitude will be a little different than the past where I viewed it as just another inconvenience.

Timelapse

Matt — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:09:51 +0000

Here are some cool timelapse reels of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The first was taken with a Canon 20D. I’d like to try this with my 20D. I think all that is needed is a 20D or other digital camera, a sturdy tripod and a remote timer switch (Canon) which allows you to control the interval of shots as well as the exposure. $136 seems pretty expensive but I’ve seen cheaper knockoffs that have gotten good reviews, on eBay for around $50. I believe they are called the Phottix Timer Remote C3.

You can check out the time reels HERE

House of Koenig

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:08:27 +0000

This is the official start of the “House of Koenig” blog. I’ll be writing about things I am passionate about, things I know and even things I don’t know about. It should be an interesting and entertaining experience. Or it may be a complete and total disaster. More to come…