Thursday, July 30, 2009

Oh bread

I took a half day off the other day, and i made some Sun and Rain Bread. It was super good. I also managed to get a bunch of cleaning done.

A Biking Adventure

For a while now I have been biking to work which round trip comes out to be about 15.5 miles. I have been doing this for a few reasons, one because it is good for me, two because it is good for the environment, and most importantly, because it gives me a chance to play out side, see the boats, the water, the birds, sand and to feel the wind in my face. It takes me about 30 minutes to go each way, giver or take depending on the oppressive heat or just my general energy level.

I rode my bike yesterday, to and from work, with a stop at Kwitzky's to have a beer with a friend on the way home. When I got home, I got a phone call from my friend James who wanted me to meet him to check out his new project.


He took a bike and put a little two stroke engine on it. It was the coolest thing. The craziest thing is that he assembled the whole project in about two hours. I met him, and his fancy bike up at the grocery, and followed him around town to the yacht club, and then to Shady's as he showed off his new toy to a bunch of his friends. It was fun, and hard trying to keep up with him on my bike, and he was going slow.

By the end of the day, I had managed to bike 22 miles. It was so much fun, and I realized that I should probably have a light on my bike.

I cannot wait for more of these biking adventures. I hope I get to try the motor bike out as well, although it frightens me a little.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It is Curious

Yesterday, I had planned on taking a day off. I had planned on doing a few things around the house, and spending most of the day out side. That did not happen, because I kept getting distracted by things at work, and ended up working most of the day.
I did leave the office around 4:45 though, and took a nice nap before going to dinner with my friend James at Chef Scott's new noodle house. If you are not familiar with Chef Scott of Ocean Springs, you should be. He runs a neat little sushi shop down town that has such an uncommon and tasty array of sushi. It is not your average sushi shop with coastal infused rolls with names like sex on the beach and fall in love rolls. The sushi shop was not his beginning to the culinary world. According to James, he used to work in the Kitchen in the White House. Anyways, this noodle house he has is real low key, and serves traditional vietnamese noodles. It is super affordable, and very tasty. The man knows what he is doing. While we were eating, Chef Scott came out of the kitchen to greet everyone in his new restaurant. He came to our table, refilled my tea pot, and noticed that James was eating Pad Thai. He quickly got a little dish, squirted some of his modified hoisin sause and saracha in to it, grabbed James' fork, and dipped a little of his pad thai into the new mixture. James tasted it, and loved it. I got a bite too, and it was delicious. The food was deliciously simple, but that experience made the meal!

We left the noodle shop, picked up Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and headed for a relaxing evening in front of the television. If you have not seen that movie, you should. It is so heart wrenching, and heart warming. It is also one of those hauntingly beautiful movies set in New Orleans, so that makes it even better.

Thats it for now.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Rough life


So yesterday, a friend of mine, called me up and asked if i wanted to round up some of my friends and go on this big big boat. I of course said yes.
it took us about 2 hours to get all together, but when we did, what an amazing adventure we set out on. we headed for horn island, met up with some friends,
went to the south side of the island, which you can see int he back ground of this picture, and had a picnic on the boat, then swam into the island, searched for neat debris, and shells and things, headed back and raced another big big boat in to the shore. We totally kicked their butts!!!!

all sunburned, and tired, we went to the yacht club to have a drink before heading home, and while we were in there, a wild storm blew in. It was so beautiful, and i was so happy that i was under cover. we watched the bridge disappear and the lightning pop.

after such an amazing day, i slept so well. I woke up sunburned, rested and tired all at the same time, which i think is another way to say happy!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Shrimp and wine!

Oh, I have just cooked the most amazing meal.

One of my clients gave me a cooler of shrimp, and i am talking big shrimp. I immediately froze all of it, and started searching for ways to cook it.

Tonight, I cooked shrimp in a ginger butter sauce, green beans, and basmatti rice, and paired with a nice white wine that was recommended by the guy at the wine store.

I cooked the green beans with just a little olive oil, garlic, and almonds. The rice was white. THe shrimp was yummy!!!! Please cook it!!!! and serve it with this beautiful Argentinian wine called Crios' Torrontes. It is sweet to the nose with a very fruity bouquet and a dry taste. It was perfect for this summer meal!

I stole this picture from the Gourmet website where i got this recipe. it is a better picture than i could have taken.

oh, the Message from that bottle


At times like this
I need to fly down
against a powerful
up draft__
in constant motion
with wings that push
slowly and evenly
and feel kind of forceful
against the pushing evenly
grey black
and white with red too
painted type clouds,

(we missed second saturday)

my shoulders where they
connect with large bird wings
are very happy__
and keep me sane__
cause i also love
hearing about my tiny animals
as i do this
to stay still in a
small place
or maybe larger
now!

Love
David and Felix
Bay St. Louis

A message in a bottle.


One of my friends, James, and I spent this past weekend seeking out adventure.
We started Saturday morning with a very nice breakfast of veggie filled omelets at the Bayview and conversation with some of his fellow sailors about the good ole times in the races and adventures they had. I learned the difference between starboard and port, and I think it only reinforced that i really want to start sailing. It sounds like so much fun.

After breakfast, we went and picked up a boat, and headed for the harbor. We got the boat in the water only to realize that the spark plugs were not working right. James called up the folks at the parts store, and we waited for a few hours for them to deliver the parts to us in the Marina. While we were waiting, we walked around the harbor, talked to a bunch of folks and looked at the other boats while James told me about most of them in detail, and their owners.

We finally got the spark plugs and because the water was so calm, we headed for Horn Island, and met up with some folks we knew, had a beer, and went off to explore the island. We passed a large group of dolphins on the way. In our exploration we found huge scallop shells and an old bench. We threw the loot in the boat, and went wondering a little more. When we were sufficiently hot, and hungry, we got back in the water, and in the boat and headed back to Ocean Springs, for some burgers at the Inn Zone, and some good music by the May James band. James even got up and played the harmonica with them.

Sunday morning, we went and got breakfast again, this time at the Yellow Mouth, another veggie filled omelet for me and eggs and hash browns for him. We cleaned the boat out, and went back out on the water, this time without the wait, and headed for Deer Island. We started walking the shore of the island, looking for shells, and glass and old pottery, and we found a message in a bottle. I will post the message another time, because i don't have it with me at the moment, but it was kind of a weird poem. I understand that when you tell someone you find a message in a bottle and don't tell what the message says, it kind of ruins the story, but oh well. It is not possible at this moment. I think the most important part of this story is that we found a message in a bottle. A real one, that had floated up on the shore.

We headed back to Ocean Springs, picked up his friend Tony, and went to the movies to watch Harry Potter. By the time i got back home that evening, i slept soooooo well. It was an amazing weekend.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I'm in love....

I'm in love with this composter!!!!!!!!

A few years ago, I was living at this place that had a compost pile. I fell in love with composting. I moved, and it wasnt realistic because I didn't really have a yard. Still, i rent, but i think that this might have just turned me. I dont care that i rent, i think i need this.

This composter can be found at People Powered Machines

There are some other neat machines at that website.... but none as cute as this!