When Life Gives You Chicken Bones, Make Chicken Soup !

Every once in a while we roast a whole chicken in the oven Afterwords you're left with a whole lot of scraps, bones, and less than desirable meat. The solution I found is to make Chicken Soup!

Save some of the good meat (or get a boneless chicken breast or two) to add to the soup at the end. Then you boil the leftovers down to make stock, add some fresh vegetables and noodles, add the good meat and you have chicken soup.

I usually put the whole batch in the fridge for a day and the fat will congeal to the top. Then skim it off and and its good to go. You can then freeze some in individual containers, or divide it up any way you like. I definitely think it's better after a day of the spices and flavors melding together.

It's cold out so stay warm!

Friday night Krista and I ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Kenwood Towne Center. The wait was extremely long but worth it. We had a gift card from Krista's mom which we really appreciated. To start off, we split a (huge) bowl of New England Clam Chowder while eating the warm sourdough bread brought to the table. Krista ordered a blackened salmon salad, that was presented very nicely and I ordered a featured dish called 'Chicken Bellagio' which was made with Procuitto Ham (my favorite)!

Lots of News: Little Space

It's been a long time since the blog has been updated. Where do I start?

In Late October I asked my long time girlfriend to marry me (and she said yes!)

In early November, my architecture firm, where I had worked for 8-1/2 years decided to lay me off. They let go another employee who had been with them for 35 plus years, so I am only a quarter as mad as he is. . .

My cat was diagnosed with diabetes and has to be given a shot of human insulin every 12 hours for the rest of his life. He'll be fine, if fact he sitting on my drafting table next to the computer knocking stuff on the ground to get my attention. . .

In late November I my Grandmother had her 90th birthday party in New York. Spending time with relatives while being unemployed is a bit like going to the dentist. . but still great to see everyone.

The positive side was I was completely free for the Holidays and spent a great Christmas with my family.

New Years eve was relatively calm, I cooked a standing Rib roast and asparagus for dinner with Krista and myself, and we went to a club in downtown Cincinnati.

So currently I am working on silk screening T-Shirts full time.

More to come soon and I'll try to be better about updating the blog.

Happy New Year's everyone !

The Great Grape Crush of 2008

We finally got our shipment of California Grapes, delayed by weather - specifically by Hurricane Ike that hit Cincinnati. . . Yes that’s right, the Ohio Valley was hit by a Hurricane around 2 weeks ago. Never thought I’d say that in my lifetime. . . Luckily, we sustained little damage and never lost power. Not so for many people who had lost power for over 7-10 days. . . craziness.

But back to the grapes. . . .They looked great and most of them are happily fermenting away as we speak. Three of us usually make wine together, and between the three of us we are making a Chardonnay, Muscato (Muscat), Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Petite Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Our big shipment of Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon is coming in at the end of October. . . . and it is arriving frozen. They pick the grapes and flash freeze them within a few hours of picking, so we know they will be fresh. Can’t wait !

Until the next post, Cheers !

Go Guest !

Guest is a local (Ohio) band that has been around 10 plus years and they still absolutely rock the house !

Ryan "Buzz" Bussey designed a really nice shirt for their 2 upcoming shows. Thanks Buzz for a great design and the referral!

Here their band rep Louis Kontos drove down from Columbus to pick up shirts. The shirts turned out great and everyone is happy !
Friday Guest is playing in Columbus and they will be in Athens, Ohio Saturday night! Check out their myspace profile at :
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=66510205

Cincinnati needs to get these guys to come play a show soon.

Ten Fiddy is here! !

It’s been a while since I have posted. 2 weekends ago we were at Bill and Jill Levenderis’s wedding in Oxford. We saw a bunch of old friends, ate some great food, and heard some phenomenal music by a band called Guest.

My friend Rob from Wisconsin brought me a ton of Ted Fiddy. . .an Imperial Russian Stout from Oskar Blues in Boulder, Colorado. Its as thick as oil coming out of the can, with a great nose of chocolate, malt, coffee, cocoa and oats – rated 100 points out of 100 by http://www.ratebeer.com/ . Some friends and I will be disecting these beers in an attempt to clone. . we'll see how it works out. . .
But I’ll be tucking away quite a few of these babies away for aging for sure. Thanks Rob !

We took pictures, which I’ll post later . . . I’d hate to be the person cleaning up our hotel room. . .

Listermann Mural

Baby steps. . . .a little each day. . .

Watch as soon as I am done. . . .someone will hit it with Graffiti. . . knock on wood. .

Going Into The Sign Business

Several days ago I began the Listermann mural. We set a projector up in the middle of the street, put out orange cones, and attempted to direct traffic around the project while I was up on scaffolding tracing the image with a sharpie. Fun !

As I was up on the scaffolding, 2 police came racing out of nowhere. . . . and I thought we were in trouble. Turns out they were curious what we were doing. . . and they wanted to know how to make beer! Dan Listermann chatted with them for the next 30 minutes while I finished up the tracing.

I started painting a few days ago and its going slow. The white pops out pretty nice and I think it will look great when it’s done. . . .

And the sign said you got to have a membership card to get inside. . . .

Spraying the black and the finished sign.

Mr. Ming exhausted after helping. . . . .

“Off The Beaten Path” is officially open for business ! ! This new retail store is owned and operated by Johnny and Shelley Helfinstine in Oxford, Ohio. . . .and today is their grand opening. -
I finished the sign last night and Johnny came by early this morning to pick it up. I think it turned out pretty nice. This is just a temporary sign until we can get permits for the big Storefront Sign (10 feet by 2.5 feet).

Veggies, Meat, and Cigars!

The vegetables are starting to come. This year we have 6 or 7 different kinds of cherries, romos, and the beefy slicers. . . .also some jalapeno peppers and some green peppers . . . .all much tastier than the ones in the store. This was our first year for cucumbers and they were very easy to grow. Next year we’ll plant more.

Over the weekend we grilled salmon and veggies. The next night I got a hankerin for Caribbean Jerk marinated Rib eyes ( thank you Food Network and Bobby Flay) and rib eyes were on sale at Meijer’s, so we had a super late dinner on Saturday. These are the rib eyes with a store bought Caribbean Jerk marinade spiced up with some fresh thyme and mango. Thanks to Krista’s mom for hooking us up with all this food !

Every once in a while I’ll enjoy a nice cigar. I’ve been trying to stock up my humidor and it it’s slow going. . . .my father’s humidor, on the other hand, is looking good in these pictures! All the yellow labels are cigars from Spain that he brought back. Man are they tasty! Thanks Dad!