© 2011 Joshua Stark
My copy arrived yesterday, and it looks great!
Pick you up one. While you are at it, see if you live near where he'll be stopping by on his tour.
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label websites. Show all posts
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Friends' blogs and sites
© 2011 Joshua Stark
You'll notice the addition of a few sites to my blog list over on the side there. I just thought I'd mention the who/what/where of 'em. In no particular order then:
This Old Blog
Two good friends, one of whom is a darn good videographer (see the good work she can make out of some poor content here), have a nice blog up about, "the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of owning our first home." It's got nice recipes, good tips on home improvement, and a fun vibe.
ASpinnerWeaver
Annie MacHale is the real deal. If you take a look at that video I linked above, in fact, you'll see some of her wonderful work - the strap to my pickin' basket. That strap will eventually become my 30-30's gun sling, because it is the only thing I've found to be beautiful and soulful enough to adorn it.
Those two words describe her work. Annie spins yarn and weaves straps and other things, and they all have a great look and feel to them. She can occasionally be found at mountain man rendezvouses, and also prowling the visitor centers of the various state parks of Santa Cruz, where she manages their gift centers for the local friends' organization. Her blog (above) details the works of her craft, and also has links if you care to buy any.
Erratic Sewer and Crafter
Yes, I know: Kari hasn't updated her blog in some months. I don't care, it's full of fun, creative ideas, and I know how busy she is, so I'm bucking the "constant content required" trend and linking her awesome blog. Kari makes great, creative period costumes, riffs on period costumes, some amazing art, and the best strawberry brandy jam you'll ever taste.
Hippo on the Lawn
Tom is a British ex-pat living in Angola, with some great culinary skills acquired the hard way (in actual battle), and a perspective on life from which we all can draw inspiration and knowledge. This blog is a narrative of things going on in his life in Angola, a very fascinating read. He also has a blog (Cooking in the Front Line) with some great recipes and amazing stories.
Suburban Bushwacker
My first oversees blog acquaintance, SBW (as he is known in virtual reality) has a goal: To take an elk with a bow and arrow. His blog is his journey, as he puts it, "from fat boy to elk hunter." I'm still wondering if he means a moose, but that's for another time. His writing is witty, the products he reviews show that he has an eye for craftsmanship and things of functional beauty (he really should buy a strap from Annie!), and if you are ever interested in reading English as it is blogged by the English, his is a great place to start.
Last, even though she's been on my blog list for a while now, I wanted to point out that Holly at NorCal Cazadora is selling some beautiful photos of feathers. Definitely check them out, they are amazing!
I keep my blog list short, and haven't really branched out much in my reading, either, though I've found Phillip's and Albert Rasch's lists particularly intriguing and informative. I don't plan to have a huge list, because I can't keep up, frankly.
If you get a minute, or if you have an eye for quality writing and crafts, then please click over to one of my friends. I get no money from these promotions, either (yet...)
You'll notice the addition of a few sites to my blog list over on the side there. I just thought I'd mention the who/what/where of 'em. In no particular order then:
This Old Blog
Two good friends, one of whom is a darn good videographer (see the good work she can make out of some poor content here), have a nice blog up about, "the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of owning our first home." It's got nice recipes, good tips on home improvement, and a fun vibe.
ASpinnerWeaver
Annie MacHale is the real deal. If you take a look at that video I linked above, in fact, you'll see some of her wonderful work - the strap to my pickin' basket. That strap will eventually become my 30-30's gun sling, because it is the only thing I've found to be beautiful and soulful enough to adorn it.
Those two words describe her work. Annie spins yarn and weaves straps and other things, and they all have a great look and feel to them. She can occasionally be found at mountain man rendezvouses, and also prowling the visitor centers of the various state parks of Santa Cruz, where she manages their gift centers for the local friends' organization. Her blog (above) details the works of her craft, and also has links if you care to buy any.
Erratic Sewer and Crafter
Yes, I know: Kari hasn't updated her blog in some months. I don't care, it's full of fun, creative ideas, and I know how busy she is, so I'm bucking the "constant content required" trend and linking her awesome blog. Kari makes great, creative period costumes, riffs on period costumes, some amazing art, and the best strawberry brandy jam you'll ever taste.
Hippo on the Lawn
Tom is a British ex-pat living in Angola, with some great culinary skills acquired the hard way (in actual battle), and a perspective on life from which we all can draw inspiration and knowledge. This blog is a narrative of things going on in his life in Angola, a very fascinating read. He also has a blog (Cooking in the Front Line) with some great recipes and amazing stories.
Suburban Bushwacker
My first oversees blog acquaintance, SBW (as he is known in virtual reality) has a goal: To take an elk with a bow and arrow. His blog is his journey, as he puts it, "from fat boy to elk hunter." I'm still wondering if he means a moose, but that's for another time. His writing is witty, the products he reviews show that he has an eye for craftsmanship and things of functional beauty (he really should buy a strap from Annie!), and if you are ever interested in reading English as it is blogged by the English, his is a great place to start.
Last, even though she's been on my blog list for a while now, I wanted to point out that Holly at NorCal Cazadora is selling some beautiful photos of feathers. Definitely check them out, they are amazing!
I keep my blog list short, and haven't really branched out much in my reading, either, though I've found Phillip's and Albert Rasch's lists particularly intriguing and informative. I don't plan to have a huge list, because I can't keep up, frankly.
If you get a minute, or if you have an eye for quality writing and crafts, then please click over to one of my friends. I get no money from these promotions, either (yet...)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Some dairy ideas
© 2010 Joshua Stark
Smarter people than I know why buttermilk (and yogurt!) make better biscuits, cornbread, and cakes. Smarter people have shown me how to easily make them.
My Dad would occasionally set out some buttermilk with regular milk out to "clabber" (sometimes he wouldn't even put the buttermilk in it for a real taste treat!), but I didn't know it was just making more buttermilk. Now, I do.
For a great website on making everything from buttermilk to good, hard cheeses, check out Dr. Fankhauser's cheese page. It is as informative as you can get, yet it is still very accessible. He starts with buttermilk, goes to yogurt, and then on to cheeses.
I don't use the good Dr's. yogurt recipe, though. My sister pointed me to Crockpot365's yogurt recipe in a crock pot. It is very easy, if a little finicky. The yogurt is a bit runny, but that's how yogurt is supposed to be; if you want it firmer, squeeze out the liquid. If you are as cheap as I am, you can use that liquid for making pasta or rice.
Right now, I've got a half-gallon of milk sitting next to the wall heater, hopefully clabbering, and I'll be whipping up a batch of yogurt in a couple of days.
Making these things takes a little leap. Of course we have a good reason to be nervous keeping milk out of the refrigerator, or heating it just a little and letting it sit. But it is only by taking these little leaps, putting ourselves into slightly uncomfortable places with the hope of accomplishing something, that we learn. We might fail, but we learn. (see my myriad pages on trying to grow a garden with three ducks).
Cheese (and dairy products) is one of these places where we can feel a little uncomfortable, learn some hands-on chemistry and biology, and feel like we've accomplished something special when we are done. It can be a very rewarding process, even when the end result is less than desirable.
I made queso blanco a couple of years ago, and though I didn't fail at the recipe, I learned that I do not like queso blanco, not one bit. I also learned that many, many people on the internet think that queso blanco and queso fresco are the same thing, and I'm here to tell you that they are absolutely not the same thing. Queso fresco is fresh tasting, wonderfully fresh tasting, creamy with little ridges where you cut it, while queso blanco is the dairy version of rubber.
I will definitely try for queso fresco soon, as well as mozzarella (also not queso blanco!) and ricotta. Perhaps next year sometime, I might even make a cheese press and see if I can get a nice feta or cheddar.
Have any of you had fun with dairy lately?
Smarter people than I know why buttermilk (and yogurt!) make better biscuits, cornbread, and cakes. Smarter people have shown me how to easily make them.
My Dad would occasionally set out some buttermilk with regular milk out to "clabber" (sometimes he wouldn't even put the buttermilk in it for a real taste treat!), but I didn't know it was just making more buttermilk. Now, I do.
For a great website on making everything from buttermilk to good, hard cheeses, check out Dr. Fankhauser's cheese page. It is as informative as you can get, yet it is still very accessible. He starts with buttermilk, goes to yogurt, and then on to cheeses.
I don't use the good Dr's. yogurt recipe, though. My sister pointed me to Crockpot365's yogurt recipe in a crock pot. It is very easy, if a little finicky. The yogurt is a bit runny, but that's how yogurt is supposed to be; if you want it firmer, squeeze out the liquid. If you are as cheap as I am, you can use that liquid for making pasta or rice.
Right now, I've got a half-gallon of milk sitting next to the wall heater, hopefully clabbering, and I'll be whipping up a batch of yogurt in a couple of days.
Making these things takes a little leap. Of course we have a good reason to be nervous keeping milk out of the refrigerator, or heating it just a little and letting it sit. But it is only by taking these little leaps, putting ourselves into slightly uncomfortable places with the hope of accomplishing something, that we learn. We might fail, but we learn. (see my myriad pages on trying to grow a garden with three ducks).
Cheese (and dairy products) is one of these places where we can feel a little uncomfortable, learn some hands-on chemistry and biology, and feel like we've accomplished something special when we are done. It can be a very rewarding process, even when the end result is less than desirable.
I made queso blanco a couple of years ago, and though I didn't fail at the recipe, I learned that I do not like queso blanco, not one bit. I also learned that many, many people on the internet think that queso blanco and queso fresco are the same thing, and I'm here to tell you that they are absolutely not the same thing. Queso fresco is fresh tasting, wonderfully fresh tasting, creamy with little ridges where you cut it, while queso blanco is the dairy version of rubber.
I will definitely try for queso fresco soon, as well as mozzarella (also not queso blanco!) and ricotta. Perhaps next year sometime, I might even make a cheese press and see if I can get a nice feta or cheddar.
Have any of you had fun with dairy lately?
Thursday, October 14, 2010
BlogHer Food '10
© 2010 Joshua Stark
Last Saturday, I found myself surrounded by women. Typically not an uncomfortable thing for me (I've two sisters, a mother, a wife, a daughter, and four female pets), it was a tad disconcerting that they all were looking at me. In fact, I was sitting on a stage of sorts, behind a table and with a microphone, a la' Congressional hearings.
I glanced to my right, but no lawyer. Instead, there sat Margo True from Sunset Magazine! Next to her sat Novella Carpenter of Ghost Town Farms, and last at the table a frightfully hideous woman with a well-trimmed goatee and... wait, that's Hank. Whew!
But, how did I end up in such knowledgeable and skilled company? Then I remembered: back in the Summer, I'd agreed to sit on a panel at the BlogHer Food '10 conference in San Francisco. This must be it.
Well, that's what a newborn baby will do to you. Different parts of my brain have to take naps at shifts, and obviously the few cells holding this tidbit of information had been dozing. Nevertheless, here I was.
I had an absolute blast the precious few hours I was able to attend the conference. The morning welcome and breakfast was full to the brim with people way smarter about food than I would ever be. I know enough about food to be dangerous, but only to myself (I know the minimum temperatures and boiling water bath times). These folks are the real deal.
I arrived earlier than most, driving and taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit... I can't wait for Fresno's version) to the InterContinental Hotel, a swanky, beautiful place. When the folks started setting up breakfast, then, I had my pick of tables (nearly all of them empty), and I chose the one farthest to the back.
Soon, the only person I knew there, Hank, came along with a friend of his, a gentleman from Atlanta. Then a third man sat down with us.
After a bit, the place was full. Engrossed in fun and interesting conversation, I didn't look up from my table much. But occasionally a person would walk by, glance at our table and declare, "ah, this must be the guys' table." And walk on. After the fourth such comment, I glanced around the room, and, well, we did stand out.
Thus, BlogHer.
Hank had invited me to speak at a panel on food values, with the focus being urban farming/homesteading. I consider myself a part-time homesteader-in-learnin', so I felt comfortable talking about what I'd learned about raising ducks and a garden and the like.
The panel format was awesome: Fast-and-loose, and definitely audience-focused. The room was filled with a mix of folks, all of them astute food-minded folks, a few farming and homesteading experts, and all of them positive and excited about the topic.
Of course, I was outclassed by the other panelists - authors, James Beard Award winners, and the like. But they were gracious to me, and I provided something they simply could not: Since I'm new and not very good, I was living proof that anybody can do this!
Thank you to the BlogHer folks for putting on a great show, and thank you especially to the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, for providing me a grand opportunity.
P.S.: If city folks think that urban livestock are problematic due to the smell, they should walk down Mission Street in San Francisco and take one big, long inhalation of that aura. There are spots along the City (which I love), that if you smelled that on a farm, you'd start culling animals for fear of some horrible virus.
Last Saturday, I found myself surrounded by women. Typically not an uncomfortable thing for me (I've two sisters, a mother, a wife, a daughter, and four female pets), it was a tad disconcerting that they all were looking at me. In fact, I was sitting on a stage of sorts, behind a table and with a microphone, a la' Congressional hearings.
I glanced to my right, but no lawyer. Instead, there sat Margo True from Sunset Magazine! Next to her sat Novella Carpenter of Ghost Town Farms, and last at the table a frightfully hideous woman with a well-trimmed goatee and... wait, that's Hank. Whew!
But, how did I end up in such knowledgeable and skilled company? Then I remembered: back in the Summer, I'd agreed to sit on a panel at the BlogHer Food '10 conference in San Francisco. This must be it.
Well, that's what a newborn baby will do to you. Different parts of my brain have to take naps at shifts, and obviously the few cells holding this tidbit of information had been dozing. Nevertheless, here I was.
I had an absolute blast the precious few hours I was able to attend the conference. The morning welcome and breakfast was full to the brim with people way smarter about food than I would ever be. I know enough about food to be dangerous, but only to myself (I know the minimum temperatures and boiling water bath times). These folks are the real deal.
I arrived earlier than most, driving and taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit... I can't wait for Fresno's version) to the InterContinental Hotel, a swanky, beautiful place. When the folks started setting up breakfast, then, I had my pick of tables (nearly all of them empty), and I chose the one farthest to the back.
Soon, the only person I knew there, Hank, came along with a friend of his, a gentleman from Atlanta. Then a third man sat down with us.
After a bit, the place was full. Engrossed in fun and interesting conversation, I didn't look up from my table much. But occasionally a person would walk by, glance at our table and declare, "ah, this must be the guys' table." And walk on. After the fourth such comment, I glanced around the room, and, well, we did stand out.
Thus, BlogHer.
Hank had invited me to speak at a panel on food values, with the focus being urban farming/homesteading. I consider myself a part-time homesteader-in-learnin', so I felt comfortable talking about what I'd learned about raising ducks and a garden and the like.
The panel format was awesome: Fast-and-loose, and definitely audience-focused. The room was filled with a mix of folks, all of them astute food-minded folks, a few farming and homesteading experts, and all of them positive and excited about the topic.
Of course, I was outclassed by the other panelists - authors, James Beard Award winners, and the like. But they were gracious to me, and I provided something they simply could not: Since I'm new and not very good, I was living proof that anybody can do this!
Thank you to the BlogHer folks for putting on a great show, and thank you especially to the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, for providing me a grand opportunity.
P.S.: If city folks think that urban livestock are problematic due to the smell, they should walk down Mission Street in San Francisco and take one big, long inhalation of that aura. There are spots along the City (which I love), that if you smelled that on a farm, you'd start culling animals for fear of some horrible virus.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
My new digs here
© 2010 Joshua Stark
Well, I've been poking around here for a bit, trying to get it in order and presentable, and I must confess, it is because I've been invited to speak at the BlogHer Food '10 Conference. There is nothing like the threat of publicity to get one's rear in gear.
So with this in mind, please let me know what works and what doesn't work considering my changes and content. I originally intended this site as a place to bounce off a few ideas and keep some notes for my expanding attempts at gardening, and later, raising laying ducks. Now, I'm moving it up a few notches.
One thing I'd like to offer are a few recipes. I'm no cook nor chef, but I put together a few things now and again, and I'm pretty good at running down fine, easy-to-use recipes from the internet.
I will continue my experiments with nocino, and I'll provide a page dedicated to this great drink and its amazing offspring, the Thrifty Italian.
I will also blog more about my canning and preserving experiences.
Last year, I set a goal for my family garden/ducks/"orchard": one meal per week completely from our place. It has yet to come to fruition, but I'm confident the theory is sound, and I hope to start hitting this mark as soon as practicable. I'm also including barter and gift-foods from the likes of Hank & Holly, as we do provide some surplus products, in particular eggs from the three sisters:
So help out as you like by offering suggestions, answers to my questions, and questions of your own. Are you interested in urban farming/homesteading? Are you interested in dabbling with ducks? Do you have a desire to try new things in the dirt, or learn new things about your neighborhood? Please stop on by and share.
Well, I've been poking around here for a bit, trying to get it in order and presentable, and I must confess, it is because I've been invited to speak at the BlogHer Food '10 Conference. There is nothing like the threat of publicity to get one's rear in gear.
So with this in mind, please let me know what works and what doesn't work considering my changes and content. I originally intended this site as a place to bounce off a few ideas and keep some notes for my expanding attempts at gardening, and later, raising laying ducks. Now, I'm moving it up a few notches.
One thing I'd like to offer are a few recipes. I'm no cook nor chef, but I put together a few things now and again, and I'm pretty good at running down fine, easy-to-use recipes from the internet.
I will continue my experiments with nocino, and I'll provide a page dedicated to this great drink and its amazing offspring, the Thrifty Italian.
I will also blog more about my canning and preserving experiences.
Last year, I set a goal for my family garden/ducks/"orchard": one meal per week completely from our place. It has yet to come to fruition, but I'm confident the theory is sound, and I hope to start hitting this mark as soon as practicable. I'm also including barter and gift-foods from the likes of Hank & Holly, as we do provide some surplus products, in particular eggs from the three sisters:
So help out as you like by offering suggestions, answers to my questions, and questions of your own. Are you interested in urban farming/homesteading? Are you interested in dabbling with ducks? Do you have a desire to try new things in the dirt, or learn new things about your neighborhood? Please stop on by and share.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Buzz off, turkey, the lady's with me!
© 2010 Joshua Stark
I had forgotten how fun the BackYard Chickens website was, until I returned to it asking about pond liners (thay have a great backyard duck forum, too!).
Then, I went browsing through the interesting conversations, and stumbled upon this gem. The accompanying picture is absolutely terrific!
Normally, I shun the type of obscure writing I'm doing, but I really want you to read the link and see the picture, it's great.
I had forgotten how fun the BackYard Chickens website was, until I returned to it asking about pond liners (thay have a great backyard duck forum, too!).
Then, I went browsing through the interesting conversations, and stumbled upon this gem. The accompanying picture is absolutely terrific!
Normally, I shun the type of obscure writing I'm doing, but I really want you to read the link and see the picture, it's great.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The sweetest, most sincere cooking video I've ever seen
Innocently looking up a decent mackerel recipe, I found this little video by one MaryJose. I don't know anything about them (I just found it and had to post it here), but I think they are cute. Don't be mean, they are very sincere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)