Being a kid is just so damn cool. You don’t have to work and you are virtually indestructible - you can spend all of your free time jumping BMX bikes over cars. If that isn’t enough, you get to watch all sorts of awesome TV. I grew up a devotee of Sesame Street, Zoom and The Muppet Show. Sesame Street is still going strong and had Feist on the other day performing a funny version of 1-2-3-4. Check it out - this rules.
I planted every pepper variety I could find from the nurseries on the North Fork of Long Island: green bell, red bell, yellow bell, orange bell, purple bell, cubanelle, paladin, cayenne, poblano, jalapeno and habanero. 24 plants in total = Peppertown USA.
Although I am a big fan of peppers, I can’t say I personally cook with them all that much. I like to stuff bell peppers with a sausage breadcrumb mixture, make an occasional spicy Thai soup, but I don’t have a vast repertoire. Given that it’s about to rain peppers, I have got to get my house in order.
My first foray will be to make the perfect Jalapeno Popper, a favorite guilty pleasure. There is an incredible farm on the North Fork named Catapano that makes some of the best goat cheese I have ever tested. I think that cheese, jalapenos from the Shambaugh Victory Garden and a light tempura batter are going to produce a real winner. We’re also growing a lot of tomatoes and some really hot peppers so Salsas are a given. But what next?
If you have a great pepper recipe, please post a link in the comments section. I’d love to try a number of recipes and could really use the help!
The Dukes are gearing up for our Reach The Beach relay race in mid September. I’ve recently begun to slowly target my running towards the goal of being able to effectively run 3 legs of varying distance in a 24hr period. It’s kind of a wonky requirement and I’ve been at a bit of a loss on how best to tailor a program. Fortunately I came upon this bit in July’s Runner’s World (pg. 40):
Q: How should I train for a road relay in which I’ll run about five miles three times in 24 hours?
A: Train as you would for a half-marathon, but add these strategies: (1) Do two-a-day runs of five miles each at least once a week starting six weeks before the event. (2) Run a hilly route once a week to increase overall leg strength. (3) head out for a few runs in the dark (with friends, reflective gear and a headlamp); night runs are an inevitable part of the relay experience. (4) Find foods you can digest easily because you’ll be eating at all different times of the day and night.
The cumulative mileages vary for each runner on the RTB team and some will log a good deal more than 15 (more like 20-22). But this seems like sound advice and a good place to start. Seeing as the author is Sean Coster, I’m guessing he knows what he’s talking about. I can’t say as I’m looking forward to initiating 2 x days much, but think I’ll get cracking on that this week. My dogs be barkin’ just thinking about it.
Stay tuned for more Dukes RTB updates from our RTB Captain: The New Guy.
The Victory Garden is at full cruising speed and starting to yield fruit. We harvested a first round of succulent cukes this past weekend, as well as some delicious green beans and kickin’ romaine. But the real news is all about mulch.
After hours spent toiling in the hot sun doing battle with weeds, we finally wised up and mulched the f out of virtually all of the garden. The results are damn fine to behold and should dramaticly reduce the amount of weeding required to ensure intended plant primacy. It’s our garden, we play god and we decide the natural order. We hope…
Peppertown USA - a great place to live with an excellent school system.
Prized Tomato Trellis; trespassers will be drawn and quartered by order of The White Witch.
Basil patch right next to the tomatos for gustatory convenience. If we could grow a prosciutto bush, a mozzarella plant and a Rose vine in the same plot, I’d never leave the property.
Imagine seeing a unicorn running through Times Square shooting $100 bills out of it’s magical money shooting horn. Pure bliss. That’s what watching this video is like…
We take a break from our normal programming to discuss the New York Mets. The Mets are on fire as they head into the All Star Break and this hot streak is a long time coming.
They have won 9 in a row, have 4 shutouts in their past 6 games and have come back to within 1/2 game of 1st Place.
Let’s hope these guys can keep their act together over the All-Star break and keep their winning ways in the 2nd half of the season.
I know these were a long time coming, but I think worth the wait. Here are some candid shots of us crossing the finish line. Have to love the faces after 13.1 miles
Update - Now with 100% more Eve
Enjoy
For obvious reasons, this part of the movie Super Troopers has been getting a lot of play lately in my circle of friends. A classic.
UPDATE: Just ran across this remake which is funny in it’s own right…
The Dukes have an ever-growing arsenal of 2, 3 and 4 wheeled craft, not to mention the humble beginnings of a navy. Each of these are unique in their own right, having been built over the past 80 years:
1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado Police
Everyone’s particular taste in vehicles comes from somewhere, usually some amalgam of early childhood exposure, covetous teenage desire and you’re unique taste-triangulation point in the flash/esoteric/performance matrix. It’s safe to say that my own love for older vehicles which aren’t necessarily beautiful, but are long on character, started with this most beloved of rides: The Splat.
The Splat has been in my family since it was purchased new by my Great Grandmother at the Ford dealership. It’s probably safer to call it a 1928.5, since the chassis is from the original but just about everything else has been replaced with scavenged parts over the decades. For the last 60+ years it has been under the loving eye/wrench of my Uncle Wint who has kept it on the road and in our family’s heart. Generations have learned to drive stick on it’s tractor-like transmission and I can honestly say that there are too many stories involving this car to relate in 20 posts. Suffice it to say that I consider it a great honor to be the recipient of Wint’s knowledge and love for the car as we seek to ensure it continues to weave along the roads of NH for generations more.
Wint’s approach has always been one that emphasizes utility, humor and good old Yankee ingenuity over gloss and polish; myself, the splat and our big crazy family will happily soldier on under those governing principals for years to come.
This past weekend was July 4th and, as is our annual tradition, we loaded The Splat up with all the family member’s she’d hold and entered the parade. Everyone gets pretty excited about this annual rite; young and old alike.
I’m pleased to report that we suffered no serious mechanical issues along the way and we took home a gleaming yellow third place ribbon. The fact that there were only three cars entered in our class in no way diminishes our pride in the accomplishment. We never thought much of those priss gussied-up resto-jobs anyway!
I’m absolutely sick of Hollywood blockbusters. They always show off awesome futuristic crap that you simply can’t live without. I grew up with 8 tracks and wired remotes. My grandchildren will be rocketing around on hoverboards while having sex with a virtual Carmen Electra. I mean it’s good for them, but can I get a little love?
Well, it’s far from Carmen Electra, but I just ran across a browser plugin that simulates an effect we all came to know and love in Minority Report. Remember when Tom Cruise was using that bitchin’ 3D interface to solve crimes? Well, a plug-in called PicLens allows you to search Google and Flickr images, YouTube videos and Amazon products using an exceedingly cool and useful interface shown below. I won’t search those sites the same way again - see for yourself.
It’s been dumping rain on Shelter Island and the Shambaugh Victory Garden has been drinking it up. I snapped a few pictures this past weekend to show progress:
As you can tell, everything is doing well. The tomatoes show remarkable progress, but the prize for “early bloomer” goes to the Cucumbers. I’m growing right meow…
I cook a lot of American, Italian, French food - I sometimes venture to Asia, but I have never cooked Indian food in my life. It sounds like I missed the boat, but I lived in a carriage house for 8 years on “Curry Row” in NYC (6th Street between 1st & 2nd Ave). This is a small street with approximately 20 Indian restaurants. My house was in the center of the block and the kitchen of one of the Indian restaurants faced my house. The kitchen staff were very cool and would send waiters into my house and serve me there. Why cook Indian food when you can get Chicken Tikki Masala brought with a moment’s notice?
I moved out of that carriage house, am no longer overloaded by it all and decided to try my hand. First, make some Basmati rice. Second, make some Chicken Tikki Masala.
Sound easy? Well, it actually is. It’s really a tomato based sauce with some type of dairy product to cut it, and lots of spices. I looked at a few recipes and freestyled my own. Here’s some inspiration:
I had a watermelon on hand and decided to carve a “melon boat”, although I opted for the “melon basket” variation (easier to carry). I saw these a lot in the 70’s when I was a kid, haven’t seen one in a long while. You usually add cantaloupe and melon. It only takes 15-20 minutes and is all kinds of awesome. I served mine as desert with vodka.
Today the UPS man brought what could be my fourth and final pair of Brooks Axiom 2. While I love these running shoes, I am hearing rumors of a new version, of course the Brooks Axiom 3.
The Brooks Axiom 3 is going to contain their secret weapon MoGo. This is the midsole that everyone seems to rave about and has been held back from the Axiom line so far. I have yet to try a shoe with Mogo, so I cannot comment on the feel, but I can tell you the logo looks cool on the sneaker.
Below is a picture of the Brooks Axiom 3 I found on a french Brooks website. Hope to be back soon with a review.
I live in New York and rarely go to see museums - it makes absolutely no sense. It’s like growing up in a brothel and never getting laid. At some point, you have to question the wisdom of it all. Well, I saw the Waterfalls last week and also made it to see the Murakami Exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It is one of the more enjoyable exhibits I have ever seen in my life. Period. It closes on July 13th, 2008 so if you’re in the City or nearby, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Here’s the official blurb on the show - “The most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of internationally acclaimed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami includes more than ninety works in various media that span the artist’s entire career, installed in more than 18,500 square feet of gallery space.
Born in Tokyo in 1962, Murakami is one of the most influential and acclaimed artists to have emerged from Asia in the late twentieth century, creating a wide-ranging body of work that consciously bridges fine art, design, animation, fashion, and popular culture. He received a Ph.D. from the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, where he was trained in the school of traditional Japanese painting known as Nihonga, a nineteenth-century mixture of Western and Eastern styles. However, the prevailing popularity of anime (animation) and manga (comic books) directed his interest toward the art of animation because, as he has said, “it was more representative of modern day Japanese life.” American popular culture in the form of animation, comics, and fashion are among the influences on his work, which includes painting, sculpture, installation, and animation, as well as a wide range of collectibles, multiples, and commercial products.”
But on to the eye candy…
DOFB
