No Pressure

Just a thought here, no pressure or anything. These will be in the garage, just in case.

Back in the Gym

Well, at the risk of jinxing myself, my back's feeling marginally better and I'm ramping the workouts back up gradually. I did 30 minutes on the bike this morning and have started back with weights again, albeit without squats for now. I've been doing some abdominal work with light weights, mostly situps on the stability ball, some woodchoppers with about 60 pounds, etc. I've been bookending my workouts with stretching and a little yoga, so hopefully I'm on the road to recovery.

You Say You Want a Resolution...

It's that time of year again - pronouncement of plans for self improvement. In the spirit of setting my personal short term agenda, here are some resolutions:

• Be thinner. I lost a bit of weight last year, but I'd like to lose another 25-30 pounds. I don't need six pack abs, nor will I get them as long as I enjoy six pack beers while working on the house, barbecuing, and so forth, but I would like to flatten out the gut and send the love handles packing. I'm declaring a fire sale on flab - more to come on that one, fo sho.
• Be nicer. I'm nice, but I could be nicer, especially to people I don't know (most of whom are in their cars driving like morons). Instead of loudly professing their shortcomings, I will take a breath and try to focus on what I'm meant to learn from the experience. Usually, no doubt, I will be meant to learn that the person going 40 in the fast lane is a damn moron, but it's not my fault if that's what the Universe wants to teach me today...
• Be a better gardener. The weeds aren't really winning, but they're not losing either. Moreover, there are structural changes I'd like to make to the yard this year including new, improved irrigation, raised beds, roses, retaining walls. If possible, I'd like to find a way to either make the dogshit disappear or turn it into gold. More on that one later, I'm sure.
• Be greener. I drive a car with a big V8 engine and I'm not getting rid of it any time soon (unless the Sierra Club would like to float me a couple grand to square away the bank so I can get a Hybrid). To offset this, and just on general principle, I got a compost bin and am starting to compost our green waste. This should play nicely with my gardening goals in a couple of months. I'm looking for other ways to reduce my carbon footprint as well, if for no other reason than to balance out the carbon I release by smoking meat every weekend in the summer.
  
• Be a better husband. See thinner, nicer, and better gardener - they all tie in here. No matter how good you are to your spouse or partner, you can always improve; no matter how much you improve, they can always find new areas of improvement for next year.
  
• Be a better golfer. Being a better husband will be my bargaining chip to get the time I need to improve my golf game. I'm an 11.4 handicap today and would like to be a 7 or lower by the end of the year. This will require commitment, dedication, and focus, not to mention a healthy back and some lessons. I've reached the point where I'm tired of being on the cusp of being good at golf. I feel as though I went through that once with music - I was the guy who was really good amongst his peers at Junior College but couldn't get work when I tried to do it for real in LA.
• Be a better communicator. I've never been one for correspondence; it's easy for me to let long distance relationships lapse. I feel very lucky that I have friends and loved ones in my life, even if they're scattered across the country and I should make more of an effort to keep in touch with them. Not just email, but on the phone as well, and, hopefully in person.
• Be a Dad. Which really means that I probably won't have time or energy to call, send emails, go to the range or play golf, work in the garden, go to the gym, or be nice to people. But hey, it'll be worth it.

Getting Sheepy With It

This turned out so good, I just had to post it. I made lamb a couple of times this year - I've always enjoyed it, never tried to make it. I suppose that's the culinary equivalent of "long time listener, first time caller." In the spring, I made braised lamb shanks with Provence style navy beans. I rubbed them with herbs de Provence and braised them on the stovetop in wine and spices for 3-4 hours. They were very tasty indeed! As were the navy beans, simply made with white wine, butter, mire poix, herbs, etc.
While these were really tasty, I was stuck on the idea of the leg and the traditional Sunday roast. There's something very enticing about doing work around the house or yard, sitting around with a good book, or watching an anticipated sporting event with the smell of yummy roasting meat filling the house. I roasted several chickens, smoked some pork shoulder, chickens, ribs, even a turkey for Thanksgiving. Through all of this, there was a thought that persisted in the deep recesses of my mind - leg of lamb. Not some shitass overcooked mutton jerky with mint jelly, a moist, flavorful, sensual roast that would fill the house with delightful aromas and burst with flavor in every bite.
I read through several recipes online and in our menagerie of cookbooks until I felt I had a grasp on the concept. I tried my first one in the fall and wasn't wild about the results, it was tasty, but not great. I didn't have it deboned by the butcher and I don't really have the knife skills to debone one myself. I was even less confident of my ability to successfully (and cleanly) debone the roast after reading Alice Waters' description of how to properly corkscrew a leg of lamb in her latest book. On a side note, I had to laugh when I read it because she was telling the story of making lamb nightly at the Union Hotel in Benicia in the 80s; I worked in the kitchen at the Union in the early 90s. I put the roast in at high heat for 20 mins to let it brown, then tented tightly with foil, turned it down to 275 or so, left a note for Michelle with instructions for checking it, when to take it out, etc, and promptly went out to play golf.
En route home from Mare Island, I called Michelle to check in on our little one (the leg). She pulled it out on time and set it on the cutting board to rest. It turned out okay, but lacked moisture. It wasn't dry, but it wasn't moist either. The flavor was great, but the dryness was a disappointment and the bone and associated tendons were an obstacle to carving. I quickly decided that I needed to have the bone removed and try braising on my next run.
This brings me to yesterday's meal. And what a meal it was. Legen - wait for it.... dary. So, here is what I did. I got a 5-6 pound leg of lamb from Sonoma by way of Vallergas market in Napa and asked the butcher to debone it. He butterflied it, which, after reading Alice's story of corkscrewing and really wanting to see it done by a professional, was a bit of a letdown. As it turns out, butterflying the roast made it easier to season it. So, when I got it home, I rubbed it with olive oil, grey salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence - inside the butterfly section as well - and trussed it with some kitchen twine. I wrapped it in plastic and let it sit in the fridge for two days. One could, conceivably, cook it same day, but I really wanted to let the salt and herbs work on the meat for at least 24 hours. Come roasting day, I took the roast out to let it come up to room temperature, a critical step for good roasts, steaks, and the like, and heated the oven to 475. When the oven and roast were ready, I put the roast in a dutch oven (any oven safe roasting pan will do) and put it in the oven uncovered for 20 minutes to put some color on it. Then I uncorked a bottle of white wine - I used a Bonny Doon 2006 Pigato - and put it on the stove, brought it to a boil, and let it reduce for five minutes. When the 20 minutes were up, I backed the oven down to 350, added the reduced wine, covered the dutch oven and put it back in for 2.5 hours, basting every 30 mins.
At the end of the roasting time, I removed the roast, placed it on a cutting board to rest for 20 minutes and turned my attention to the brown bits and wine reduction in the dutch oven. To these, I added vegetable broth and whisked fervently to loosen and integrate the brown bits - good thing I didn't use chicken or beef stock as it would have been too rich. I couldn't help but taste some of the little brown gems - they were packed with flavor like a lamb demiglace. While all this was happening, Michelle was making broccoli and creamed potatoes with horseradish (I'll post this one some other time - oddly enough it's a variation of a recipe I learned while working in the kitchen at the Union Hotel). I finished the sauce with a reasonable hunk of unsalted butter, then took it off the heat. The roast was so tender that the carving was more like a controlled demolition. As soon as I removed the truss, it was falling apart. I chipped off several pieces for each of us, dressed them with the pan sauce and put some on the potatoes as well.
During dinner, we spoke of nothing but the meal, each bite was punctuated by oohs, aahs, sighs, and groans. It was a very, very, very rich meal, but hey, it's Christmas. I would have been very happy to have been served this dish in a restaurant, so I consider it a rollicking success. I'm really looking forward to leftovers today, perhaps warm lamb piadines with field greens tossed in truffle oil...

Here, kitty kitty...

So, walking to work each day, I pass a gallery. From the street, you can see this enormous painting in the window and it catches my eye every time I walk by. It's big and bright and the colors seem rich, velvety, sensual, dare I say, stimulating. So, I keep meaning to look up the gallery online and check out the painting. I looked it up this morning and, as it turns out, it's a painting of a Thundercats action figure from 1982, and, as it turns out, I was really into Thundercats in 1982. The artist is Robert Burden - here's his site. Clearly, that was not an interest that stood the test of time. Still, it's pretty bitchin'. Click on the picture for a better look.

Yaaay! Fun Day!!!

Yaaay!!! Got to play some golf with my sweetie today. We had a really great time playing at Mare Island and met a very nice couple. It was a beautiful, sunny, breezy northern California summer day and I couldn't picture a better way to spend it than golfing with my Love.

Beer!!

What could be better than beer, you say? Beer with Legos!!