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Posts Tagged ‘Chris Lisanti’

Some Noteworthy Surf Sessions

Posted in Surfing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2010| 2 Comments »

Normally I save all the day to day surf experiences for the surf log but I felt the last two sessions I have partook in were worth a more insightful recount.  Not the actually surfing or conditions although I must admit yesterday Emma Wood was rather fun and Cstreet did offer up a few waves this afternoon as well.  What I would like to talk about here are two instances that I found amusing.

The Abstruse Rob Machado

Last night I was super stoked at the sight of clean chest high Emma Wood, super bowly lefts and rights with only three guys out.  I tore on my wetsuit and ran down the trail so that I could take full advantage of the miniscule moments of daylight left courtesy of the time change, thank you 100 year out dated customs for making my life even more annoying.  As Im boring down the path I see a very familiar looking persona behind an open hatch back of a mini van.

I get closer and notice it is some strange looking scruffy dude with a fro fooling with a blow up mattress.  Then when I was with in fifty feet of this character I realized it was none other then once world number two, goofy foot aficionado, free surfer extraordinaire Rob Machado.  He looked right at me and I exclaimed “whats happening bud” in typical Santa Barbara surfer speak.  “Not much” he retorted and then jumped into the back of the van, closed the hatch and that was the last I saw of him.

I guess Rob Machado was going to spend the night sleeping in his van in front of Emma Wood.  I would have thought he would be in Hawaii by now for the Triple Crown.  Its not like there was a good swell in the water that he was trying to chase.  Im sure there must be more then a dozen people he could have called to crash at home in either Santa Barbara and Ventura, yet the dude was going to sleep in the van.  Shit Im still kicking myself for not inviting him to come home with me and crash in my spare room.  I guess Rob and I are destined to cross paths in the strangest of circumstance.

Those Darn Groms

Today after work I thought I would take advantage of the NW/SW combo swell in the water down at one of the Ventura beach breaks.  My buddy claimed it to be light winds and with the mid tide Emma was out of the question.  Stoked I hauled ass down the 101 and sure enough the wind was pretty light.  That was of course till I got with in earshot of Cstreet.  From there South it was howling WNW.  At that point I was not left with any other options besides Cstreet and there I found myself.

The surf was not bad solid chest high with the bigger peak or so, but the line up was mobbed with grommies.  I mean there had to be at least fifteen after school specials frothing all over the wind blow rights.  I took my time getting dressed for what was a forced paddle out.  Upon getting in the water I was equally let down by a sudden upwelling making the holey 4/3 I chose to wear a bad choice.

I sat out there for the first thirty minutes or so feeling rather un aggressive as the groms swarmed all around me poorly slicing and chopping away at the broken up lines.  All of these factors were enough to send any sane person running for the hills, but I stuck it out and actually ended up getting a handful of five and six turn rides.  I knew most of the groms out by face from both Emma Wood and New Jetty, just stoked Ventura kids.

Towards the end of the session one of such paddles up to me and says “I remember you, you used to rip New Jetty all the time, what happened?”  I did not quite now how to respond.  I still rip New Jetty somewhat regularly and was not sure to take his words as an insult or just plain stupid grom ignorance.  Before I formulated a replied he continued with “How come you don’t have any stickers on your board any more?”

Ahh it all made sense now.  I must not surf anymore cause Im no longer sponsored.  I tried to explain to the kid how Globe and Body Glove dropped me and that I was kind of over the whole thing anyway, tired of starving.  I did my best to try to annotate that I was now living life after “professional surfing” (in my case meaning I helped to pay into the profession of other surfers and industry type people) and have more fun surfing now then I ever had when I was a logoed rider. Now when I paddle out I have nothing to prove or contests to train for and other things of that matter.

I just get to go out and surf and surf however I want.  If I want to spend the entire session boosting airs I can.  If I want to fuck around in waist high close outs trying to perfect the drop in floater basically making a fool of myself kooking it its my choice.  I can surf rights, lefts, straights, wherever I want, however I want, whenever I want and because I work I have money to boot (ok that last part is a lie Im still pretty damn poor).  I did my best to construe my situation on him, but at 16 years old he just could not grasp how I could give up “living the dream”.

Then he caught a wave and about five minutes later a different grom paddled up to me and we basically went through the same saga.  I don’t understand these kids.  I suck at surfing, especially by California standards of performance.  Why would any of them believe I could still be a pro surfer?  Shit all I want to do is surf as much as humanely possible and cook food to support my living.

Speaking of Rob Machado in strange settings...

With awesome moves like this it is a wonder no one wants to sponsor me...

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Shrimp In A Coconut Curry

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2010| 5 Comments »

Shrimp In a Coconut Curry Over Egg Noodles

This is a bit of Thai or Malaysian cuisine and something I sort of borrowed from the college kitchen making some minor embellishments.  It makes for a very unique and elegant meal sure to empress both the eye and taste buds.  This one is definitely a bit on the expensive side.  If your on a tight budget leave out the pine nuts and okra.

 

Total Cost: 16.18
Feeds about 4 people

Ingredient List:

  • Shrimp – 1lb
  • Coconut Milk – 14 oz
  • Coconut – 1/3 Cup (Shredded)
  • Salt – Tablespoon
  • Pepper – Teaspoon
  • Garlic – 3oz (minced)
  • Bay Leaves – Teaspoon (Dry, minced)
  • Bamboo Shoots – 8oz (Chopped)
  • Thyme  – Teaspoon
  • Egg Noodles – 1lb
  • Peas – 15 oz
  • Leeks – 4 oz
  • Okra – 12 oz
  • Pine Nuts – 6 oz (roasted)
  • Thai basil – ½ cup, Fresh (Chopped)
  • Chili – 1 dry (minced)
  • Ginger – 1 tablespoon (minced)
  • Olive Oil – 1 tablespoon
  • Butter – ½ tablespoon

 

Step 1: Cook Egg Noodles – In a large boiling pot bring water to a boil and add Egg noodles.  Stir occasionally.  Let boil for around 12-15 minutes or until noodles are soft.

 

Step 2: Boil Coconut Milk – Pour Coconut milk into a small sauce pot and bring to a boil.

 

Step 3: Cook the Shrimp – In a wok (or large frying pan) melt ½ a tablespoon of butter with 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil.  When completely dissolved add shrimp, ginger, Thai Basil, Chili, Okra, Pine nuts, Leeks, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, Peas, Bamboo Shoots and Bay Leaves.  Sauté for around ten minutes, stir constantly. Then add coconut milk and let simmer for another ten minutes.  Stir in shredded coconut.

 

Step 4: Put It All Together – Put egg noodles in plate and pour Shrimp and Vegetable mixture over it.  Sprinkle some shredded coconut on top and enjoy!

 

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October 2009; Oh How You Are Missed.

Posted in Blast from the Past: 2009, Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

Yesterday we ran the top five sessions from this October being a La Nina year. Today I though it would be fun to write about the best five sessions from last October, the El Nino year and compare the two.  Since it is technically a continuation of Devin’s UCB from yesterday (see What a Difference a Year Makes) he will get a half point for his efforts.  My records from last year were not as good as this year so these are the best out of what I had written down.

 

5: Rincon Cove, Wednesday 10/14, 8:30am: 3-5ft Bumpy Glass, No one out!

Wednesday marked the third straight day of torrential down pour, the first time it has rained here since May. In that three-day span I think we picked up at least five inches of rain. With rain comes run off and you can only imagine how dirty the runoff is after nearly 6 months of no rain. The result was near toxic water at all river mouth fed breaks (basically every spot here). Coming down there was plenty of swell, Santa Clause Lane in Carpenteria, usually a small shadowed beachie was solid head high and clean.

When Santa Clause looks like that I know to immediately go to Rincon. I pulled into the parking lot and there were only about 5 cars, a bad sign already that it was not working. I on intuition walked down anyway. In front of me was The Cove section of the point with two guys out and lines running all the way past the call box at the bottom of the point, a solid 100 yard plus ride. It looked a little mushy and disorganized but far from something to walk away from.

I ran back to my car and got dressed. The water was completely brown and there was certainly a healthy amount of garbage and dead animals floating around, but the waves too good to stop me. As I was paddling out the two guy who where surfing got out leaving the place all to me. I surfed the cove alone for a solid hour before five other guys showed up, ten guys at the height of the crowd. I ended up surfing till 12:30pm a solid four hours and my legs burned so bad from the absurdly long rights that I almost could not make the walk back up the trail.

I think it is safe to say that number 5 from last year was far better then 5 this year.

 

4: Little Rincon, Thursday, 10/15, 8:30am: 4-6ft Oil Glass

Manasquan stalwart Kevin Malone decided to make his first winter pilgrimage to Santa Barbara this year and lucked into what I think is the best Little Rincon I have ever surfed. That’s a lie cause number three was the best Little Rincon I have ever surfed. Brook-o actually was the guy who tipped me off on the place although I was rather skeptical since the tide was super high, almost 5ft (Little Rincon barely breaks sometimes on low tide). Not believing his usually overzealous surf reports I had a look at Rincon first, which turned out to completely swamped with the excessive high tide causing me to give Littlie Con’ a shot. Sure enough when Lindsay, Malone and I pulled up I saw a set wave brush the top of the little pier that goes out to this fake little island built by the oil companies for the rigs that created the wave. When that happens you know its solid 6ft at least.

The crowd was light only about 6 heads out and it looked pretty mellow. Sometimes Little Rincon can have a pretty agro crowd and since there is really only one take off zone in front of gnarly rocks 6 guys could be too crowded. This day however that was not the case and there were actually so many waves in each set and good in between waves that lots of waves actually went unridden. I started on my 5’10 but quickly due to the power and intensity had to move to my bigger board, which completely turned the session around.

Before that happened on my second wave I took off super late and deep after this guy sitting deeper then me got hung up in the lip dropping in. I was deep and late but totally confident that I was going to make it. I grabbed my rail and set up for a quick little pig dog off the drop. I guess this older guy sitting a little down the line from me thought that was the end of me and decided to go for the wave underestimating my ability. I ended up coming out of the bottom of the foam ball straight into my bottom turn only to look up at what I expected to be the falling lip I was anticipating on hitting. Instead I see this dude coming right down on top of me. I quickly attempted to torque the section gabbing my rail to cut my bottom turn shorter, but it was to no avail and the guy landed square on top of me. I don’t know what happened but what I do know is someone was looking out for me cause somehow I did not get hurt and my board was fine. Dude was super apologetic and considering the difficulty of the wave I was attempting to make I did not make a big deal of it.

3: 10/23/09 – Little Rincon 6-8ft

The swell went nuts. I was awoken by a call from Dave that Little Rincon was going berserk with the occasional 12 footer sweeping over the pier and cleaning up the entire line up. I grab my 6’1 round tail and I needed every inch of it. It was solid 6-8ft with occasional 10-12ft sets. There were about 15 guys on it but only three of us wanted anything to do with the bombs. I caught some of the best waves I have ever ridden at that spot or even Santa Barbara for that matter.

This is me on one of the small ones from this session

2: 10/24/09 – Pitas 4-6ft+

I got the best Pitas Pt I have ever surfed in my life. It was only about head high to slightly overhead but not a drop of water out of place. Pitas is a very sectiony point unlike Rincon despite its similar proximity in size. Usually if you can bang out three turns or get a quick barrel your stoked on your ride. This session however the lines were just running down the point connecting each section. You still had to be very fast but on the right one the rides had to be close to 300 yards. Did I mention there were barrels too? The crowd at its max was 15 guys and no one was hassling.  My very last wave I rode from the top of the point all the way to the top of Mondos, which is probably close to a 700 yard ride.  To this day it is still the best Pitas I have ever surfed.

 

1: 10/26/09 – Rincon 5-7ft

I had some friends from NJ visiting for this session and it blew their minds.  I was skeptical on how big it would be, but as we began to get in gazing distance of the top of the point I could tell just by looking at the swells hitting La Conchita that Rincon was solid. I was just sitting there in the back of the car saying “We have to turn around, Rincon is really really good”. Then we passed the point from the highway where it comes into full view and everyone was screaming with pure stoke.

From there it was a mad dash into our wetsuits and down the point, despite one salty local whom I surf with everywhere who upon seeing me with four friends shook his head at me. C’mon due its fucking Rincon. It’s no secret spot and there were 100 people out already anyway. What is four more at that point? California surfers really piss me off with shit like that.

As we come out of the trail and behold the line up it was pretty amazing. Everywhere you looked someone was getting barreled. It was almost stupid. The place looked like a beach break but it was Rincon. The crowd was focused between Lower Indicator and High to

Mid River Mouth. I opted to surf Low River Mouth, High Cove where there was only a handful of people sitting and still plenty of great waves to be had, plus on a 5’9 I was a little under gunned for the well overhead bomb sets coming off the top of the point. I still had to grab my rail on some of my bottom turns to keep from maxing out. I did not bring a bigger board cause I was not expecting there to be so much swell.

Everyone got some really epic waves. Charles was in serious awe of the wave. I think for the rest of his trip if not still mystified by the whole experience. The wave can be a real siren for some. It is the reason I gave up my entire life and moved out here. Alex got some good ones but unfortunately had some equipment malfunctions, ripping out one of the fins off his Merrick keel fish. Then he went back to the car and borrowed Dave’s long board which he subsequently lost to the rocks dinging both the nose and the tail. Mark was buzzing on his new J7, no surprise considering it was Keoni’s magic board. That left a very stoked Dave and I who traded super fun waves in the cove practically to ourselves till we could not see anymore. The whole crew was stoked as could be.
Well I think it is pretty clear that 2009 in October kicked this year in the ass by a landslide.

Nothing like the beautiful view of open face in front of you.

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What a Difference a Year Makes: October 2010

Posted in Surfing, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2010| 1 Comment »

This week the UCB gods, err; just me actually (I am in no way insinuating that I am The God or a god although I could be a god, but I would just settle for leader of some type of sick twisted cult that wears all black sneakers with bright orange shoe laces, spandex shorts and white netted tank tops and worships the invention of processed cheese in a can) makes a winner out of my friend Devin who suggested I do a comparison blog on the surf of last season (being the start of NW season is September and runs through May) to this one.  I thought it a rather good idea and not just worthy of a UCB but a new monthly segment.  As a result for his genius (Devin may really be a genius, he definitely is one of the smartest people I know) I will award him 2 points!

Here is how this segment is going to work.  At the close of every month I will pick my five favorite sessions for the Surf Log and compare them to my favorite 5 sessions from Last winter’s unprecedented near epic El Nino season.  I will also throw down a by the numbers on how many sessions I had for the month, how many days I surfed and which spots I surfed the most.  Enjoy!

October 2010 by the numbers:

Number of Sessions – 31
Days Surfed – 25
Average Wave Height – 2-3ft

Surf Spots

New Jetty – 9
Rincon – 7
River Mouth – 4
C Street – 3
Emma Wood – 3
Pitas – 2
Hollywood – 1
Jalama – 1
Leo Carrillo – 1

Top 5 Sessions

5: 10/13/10 AM Session – 2-4ft, Leo Carrillo
I had high hopes for this session, but when I got to Ventura it was foggy, cold, windy and small.   This led me to car surf for over two hours before using the benefit of intel from both my friends Ryan and Devin I decided to go to Malibu for some late season south swell action and better winds.  I met Devin at Leo where it was a bit inconsistent but fun chest to head high peaks coming in with a light crowd of ten or so sitting on the rock.  Leo is a super tight line up so on an inconsistent day like this ten was still almost too crowded.  I had the whole day and in the course of a three and a half hour session managed to surf a bunch of fun rights despite the typical rude selfish L.A. surf mentality.

4: 10/14/10 PM Session – 2-4ft, Santa Clarita River Mouth
I never have high hopes for an after work session especially if I have to go to Ventura where more times then not the wind is going to be on it.  The Cstreet cam was showing clean chest to head high waves coming in behooving me to believe that the harbor would have good conditions also. I headed that way figuring on surfing New Jetty, but upon checking it noticed that the late season south swell was working its magic on the ledgey sand bars at river mouth, a sight I have not seen since late spring time this year.  I called this new guy at work Kevin, who met me in the parking lot at the knoll and together with about five other guys spread along 8 different peaks we enjoyed glassy slab lefts.  It was a fucking below sea level, backless barrel fest.

3: 10/5/10 AM Session – 2-4+ft, New Jetty

Its pretty ironic that today was also what I would call a “Jersey Session” except unlike yesterday I am using it to describe an awesome surf.  The wind was offshore, a California rarity, sure there is always that myth about “Santa Anna Winds”.  They blow for like a day and a half.  I think if I see a dozen true offshore days a year out here it is a lot.  This morning was one of them.  I pulled up to New Jetty and Im not going to lie it looked a little fat with the high tide and around eight guys one it not making it look all that fun. Then after ten minutes of watching I saw a left or two a bit up the beach from the usual take off spot suck out and throw.  That was enough for me.  What ensued was an onslaught of barrels.  If I did 12 turns the entire session it was a lot.  I got pitted off my ass on left and right keggers all fucking morning till the wind went side shore at noon but it was fine cause I had been out since around 8:30.

2: 10/15/10 AM Session – 3-5ft, Jalama
There is nothing like getting a break from humanity and making the trek up to Jalama especially with no wind and a holding south swell.  Conditions were glassy and the sand bars have finally gotten back to normal allowing for plenty of fun barrels.  I ended up cruising up with Lindsay being her first time there she was more then amped on the conditions. Crowd was surprisingly heavy with a solid thirty guys from T-Cracks to inside Tarantulas.  I mean this time of year your lucky if there are more then five guys out, but the water was crazy warm so I guess it evens out and besides I still got a ton of great waves.    I also found out they sell a Jalama pass for $44 bucks for the year.  Im all over that.

1: 10/29/10 – AM Session – 4-6ft, River Mouth

There are good surf session, there are great surf session and then there are sessions that go down as all time. This morning at River Mouth was one of the latter. It was a barrel factory out there. The first hour was nothing but perfect left and right hand draining barrels with light offshore winds. By 11am I had gotten so many deep barrels I had lost count. It reminded me of really good Hatteras. Everywhere you looked someone was getting spit out of a tube or there was a perfect cylinder running through unridden. After three solid hours the wind came up ending one of the better sessions I have had this fall and in the last six months.

***If you like these little synopses of my surf sessions feel free to visit my surf log on this blog where I post my surf sessions daily.***

Here is my favorite picture of me from October and also from the best session as well.

This guy is all ready to join the cult.

mmmmmm...processed cheese in a can

Stay tuned for last October’s comparisons tomorrow!

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When We Become Food

Posted in Deep Thoughts, Life, Surfing, tagged , , , , , on October 24, 2010| 11 Comments »

By now I think the word has gotten out in surf communities up and down California and around the US as well.  This past Friday 10/22/10 a surfer (well body boarder to be exact, not that it makes a difference) was attacked here in Santa Barbara County up at Surf Beach, a meager surfing out post up in the northern portion of the County, 30 miles or so north of point conception.  Im not going to talk of the particulars of the incident because I was not there and only know what I read similar to you.  If your interested in the particulars click here: http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/shark-attack-at-vandenberg–ucsb-surfer-loses-leg-and-dies-from-blood-loss_49145/.

 

For me and many of my surfing brethren up here in Santa Barbara this attack came as quite a shock and rude awakening.  Sure I have heard plenty of shark attack stories on the news, heard the second and third party exaggerated horror stories even gave my sympathies to Bethany Hamilton.  But overall it was all second hand smoke.  This one was very different.  Some one was taken in my own backyard at a surf spot that I on occasion surf.

 

Shit I almost went up north to surf that very day but at the last minute found out I had to go do ding work at J7 so I decided not to bother.  Never before in my life has an attack happened in the near vicinity to my personal surfing scope.  All I can say is it’s a heavy realization.  The men in gray suits are out there and you never know when they are going to strike.  I could become food just as much as the next schmoo.

 

Then I started thinking man Im never going to surf up at Surf Beach again.  Yet it is a key summer spot exposed to swell from all angles.  On further introspection I decided that yeah I probably will go back.  I have never lived my life in fear and I don’t intend to as of late.  As this crazy body boarder I met in Oz once said “I reckon mate if you get taken and live to tell about it you wont ever have to buy a beer again, and if you don’t well no worries then”.

Ahh good old surf beach, apparently there are angry locals both outside and inside the water.

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Shrimp Scampi

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , , , , on October 23, 2010| 6 Comments »

Shrimp Scampi
Over White Rice with Balsamic Roasted Vegetables

 

Little pumpkin in the foreground for the season.

 

I have not eaten shrimp scampi in years.  It was always one of my favorite dishes as a kid to order at restaurants.  Then on a family vacation to Charleston South Carolina I ordered shrimp scampi for dinner before getting on our flight home.  Half way through the flight I threw up all over myself and this oversized toy rubber fly I must have picked up on the trip.  I was unable to get the barf bag out and opened in time.  I always have been one of the worst barfers in the business.  As a result I had an unpleasant association with shrimp scampi and refrained from eating it up until just recently when I made it myself.  There is nothing like introducing a recipe like a story involving vomit.

Total Cost: $10.25
Feeds about 4 people

Ingredient List:

  • Shrimp – 1lb (unshelled)
  • Butter – 2 tablespoons
  • Salt – 1 tablespoon
  • Pepper – 1 teaspoon
  • Garlic – 2 teaspoons (minced)
  • Vermouth – ¼ cup
  • Lemon Juice – 2 tablespoons
  • Parsley – 2 teaspoons
  • Lemon Zest – ¼ teaspoon (grated)
  • Oregano – 1 teaspoon (Dry)
  • Basil – 1 table spoon (Fresh, Chopped)
  • Olive Oil – 1 ½ table spoon
  • Cayenne Pepper – 1 teaspoon
  • Parmesan Cheese – 4 teaspoons (Grated, Optional)
  • White Rice
  • Roasted Vegetables

Step 1: Prepare the Shrimp – take the shells and legs off all shrimp.  Lay all shrimp in a plate flat and pat completely dry with a paper towel.  Put shrimp in a medium size mixing bowl.  Combine Salt, Pepper, Oregano, and Cayenne pepper with shrimp and dry rub all the spices with the shrimp till all are evenly coated then lay all shrimp back flat on a plate.

Step 2: Cook The Rice – See Cooking White Rice Blog.

Step 3: Cook Balsamic Roasted Vegetables – See Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Blog

Step 4: Fry The Shrimp – In a large frying pan melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 ½ tablespoon of Olive Oil on a medium flame.  When fully melted place plate of shrimp over the pan and let shrimp fall as they laid in plate so that all sit flat in pan and raise heat to a high flame.  Squeeze some lemon juice over shrimp.  Cook shrimp for about a minute with out moving them.  Then add garlic and turn shrimp over.  Cook for two minutes more.  Remove shrimp from pan.

Step 5: Make the Sauce – In the same pan you cooked the shrimp pour in ¼ cup of Vermouth (if you do not have Vermouth you can substitute White Wine) and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.  Boil on high flame for about 30 seconds till it thickens a little bit.  Lower flame to low and scrape any brown bits from bottom of pan.  Add lemon Zest and Parsley to Sauce and stir it in.  Return shrimp to the pot and stir it all together constantly stirring for about a minute or so.  Serve over white rice and sprinkle parmesian cheese over the top of shrimp.

 

This is how your finished shrimp should look.

 

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Roasted Vegetables in a Balsamic Vinaigrette

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , , , on October 23, 2010| 1 Comment »

Roasted Vegetables in Balsamic Vinaigrette


You can’t have a meal with out a good side dish.  This is a tasty and elegant way to do vegetables. It is quick easy and painless and a recipe that anyone will love.  I cooked this one up for someone who does not really care for vegetables and she ended up going home and replicating it to furnish a side for a repast between her and her boy friend.  Enjoy this Recipe Djour bonus this week!  These are the vegetables that I usually use but you can use just about an array your heart desires.

Total Cost: $8.50
Feeds about 4-6 people as a side dish

Ingredients:

  • Yellow Squash – 1 Sliced (julienne)
  • Zucchini – 1 Sliced  (julienne)
  • Mushrooms – 6 Sliced (julienne) any variety
  • Celery  – 2 stalks Sliced (julienne)
  • Carrots – 2 Sliced thin
  • Olives –  8oz Chopped
  • Red Pepper – 1 rough chop or Julienne
  • Red onion  – ½ julienne
  • Balsamic vinegar – 2/3 cup
  • Basil – Fresh – 2 oz
  • Oregano – Fresh – 2oz
  • Parsley – Fresh – 1 oz
  • Sage – Dry – tea spoon
  • Olive oil – 1/3 cup
  • Thyme – Fresh – tea spoon (2 stalks
  • Salt – table spoon or to taste
  • Pepper – Tea spoon or to taste
  • Garlic Fresh – 1 piece off clove (minced)
  • Rosemary – 1 tea spoon (Dry)

Step 1: Blanch Vegetables (boil) – In a medium size boiling pot add carrots, onions, celery, and Red Pepper.  Boil for around 8-10 minutes till vegetables are soft to touch. Strain vegetables.  If you don’t wish to blanch your vegetables you can skip this step and then just roast them for 35-40 minutes in step four.

Step 2: Make Balsamic Vinaigrette – In a food processor or blender (I prefer a blender) mix Balsamic Vinegar, Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Olive oil, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, Garlic and Rosemary.  Blend till you have a uniform liquid, all herbs should be totally ground up.

Step 3: Roast Vegetables – In a medium size roasting pan put all vegetables form step 1 and your zucchini, mushrooms, squash and olives.  Pour Balsamic Pesto from step 2 over vegetables.  Pre heat oven to 375 degrees F, roast vegetables for around 12-15 minutes or until they reach desired quality.  If you decided not to blanch your vegetables roast for 35-40 minutes.

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Little Green Men From Mars (UCB)

Posted in Deep Thoughts, User Choice BLog, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2010| 3 Comments »

After a brief reprieve Kooky Kyle climbs back into the limelight with this week’s UCB win.  He asked for my thoughts on aliens, not people from other countries living in the United States but extra terrestrial beings from Space.  He wanted to know if I thought they exist and if they have visited earth.

I must write that I am a realist in most of my beliefs and that I don’t really have much strong inkling in the supernatural on a whole.  I don’t feel strongly either way about the presence of a god, but will consider myself an agnostic.  I don’t obsess of ghosts yet wont put the possibility of their existence completely out of my mind.  The existence of aliens falls into similar respects to the previous two categories, although I think out of the three it is the one I feel the most strongly about.

Yes I do believe that there are or were other beings out in space.  If one was to just go by the pure mathematical probability of their existence a sensible person could not rule out the possibility that life exists outside of Earth.  There are billions of planets, galaxies, etc out there in space.  Their numbers are infinite.

Now knowing that fact can one really sit there and say that Earth is the only planet in the entire universe and so forth that is able to sustain life?  That’s impossible; some where out there Im sure there are others.  Of course the issue is where, when and how far.  We can be pretty sure that in our immediate solar system there is no life or at least life in such as us considering the climate and make up of the other planets.

Then when one looks at solar systems and galaxies light years away well the possibility of life becomes more probable.  How far away are we talking?  Light years, billions of light years?  Whatever the case we are talking about places too far away for us to reach under our current situation of reasoning.  Also maybe life did exist in other places but had died out.

Our own planet has a dead line.  At some point our sun is going to burn out making sustainable life on Earth impossible.  Evidence has been found on both Mars and a moon off Jupiter of the possibility that life once existed there.  For me its not a question of if aliens exist but more of when and how far.

For these reasons I think the possibility of us actually making contact is slim to none.  Our ability to travel light years successfully is far far away.  I would say a hundred years or better if we can manage to keep a stable world economy to allow for such progress to happen.  I don’t see us ever having the technology to make such travel a reality.

If there are alien life forms out there who have developed the technology to travel such distances I would think either they would want nothing to do with us deciding that the inhabitants of Earth are too simple to be bothered with or would decided to show up and mow us down with their superior technology.  Hopefully the former and not the latter is the case.

Could extra terrestrials have already visited Earth?  That is a possibility as well.  If for instance an entire race of people existed some hundred of light years away and they reached the sophistication of such travel then they may have already reached Earth some hundreds of years ago.  Many primitive cultures such as the Egyptians and Mayans certainly had similar beliefs in a higher power and both also built pyramids that are somewhat a mystery to us of their construction.  Both had a highly advanced understanding of math and science as well that was far beyond their time of reasoning and comprehension.

Did aliens come down and teach these primitive peoples a thing or two and even live amongst them? It certainly although rather far fetched is not out of the question.  It is a bit of a coincidence that two races of people living far apart from each other on different sides of the globe built very similar structures during the same time period.  Shit maybe aliens are living with us right now and we don’t even know it.

So are aliens real? Do they visit us?  I think its very plausible but at this time Im still not going to commit to any side of the issue.  I personally like to believe that there are others out there.  It just does not make logical sense that we are the only planet that has or had sustained life.   

 

The Aliens Have Landed!

 

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Coffee table Saga, Day 9

Posted in Coffee Table Saga, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2010| 4 Comments »

Coffee table Saga Day 9

Table Date: 8/17/10

Hours Worked: 1

Total Hours Worked: 16 ½

Amount of Job done: 39.2%

Money Put Into the Project: $29.73

Total Investment: $83.46

Day 1 –Day 2 –Day3 –Day 4 –Day 5 –Day 6 – Day 7&8 – Day 9

Ok this is kind of a bullshit post cause in actuality nothing has changed in the physical appearance of the table.  No, all I did was get in my car bringing along my friend Brennan who is currently traversing through Spain on Holiday for an undetermined amount of time or until his money runs out.  We took a trip to the hardware store here in town where I deliberated on what to buy after in Day 8 I resolved to try paint stripper as opposed to the current method of painstakingly sanding every nook and cranny.

Turns out that is how the professionals do it anyway.  I decided on some pretty serious chemical that can kill a human in a hundred different ways and in under a minute if not used properly.  The bottle had more warning pictures and messages on it then a tanker truck full of nuclear waste.  This being the case I decided an investment in gloves to be a wise idea as well.

All this extravagant purchasing now puts me out of pocket $28.46 from the original $15 profit I made when I initially purchased this mistake (see Day 1).  I have been getting a lot of inquires about the table as of lately so I thought I would give everyone a little update on the progress or in this case lack there of.

I have Thursday and Friday off this week and may give the table a revisit on one of those two days or both considering the surf is going to be rather small those days.  Then again conditions look good for a possible Jalama excursion so I guess its up in the air really.  Heck who am I kidding this project still has a 67% chance of ending up a pile sticks after being subjected to my personal frustration towards it.  Time will tell my friends, time will tell.

Here is all the junk I bought more then a month ago that I still have not used. I thought for good measure I would take the picture of them on the neglected coffee table.

Here is all the junk I bought more then a month ago that I still have not used. I thought for good measure I would take the picture of them on the neglected coffee table.

I think the picture says it all.

While searching for pictures of bulls in the act of taking a shit I found this and just had to post it.

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Fried Tofu Stir Fry in a Sesame Sauce

Posted in Recipe D'Jour, tagged , , , , on October 15, 2010| 1 Comment »

Fried Tofu Stir Fry in a Sesame Sauce
Over White Rice


I have always loved Sesame chicken and other like varieties at all types of eateries of the Asian sector.  Then at work we did a faux version of this with fried tofu.  I thought I would give the real McCoy a shot myself.  Im not a big fan of tofu but fried it makes a rather tasty treat.  As far as the sauce goes you can use it over anything, beef, Chicken, seafood etc.  This one is a bit tricky to make so if you have any questions or need help feel free to hit me up for extra insight.

Total Cost: $11.85

Feeds 4-6 people

Ingredient List:

  • Sesame Sauce
    • Brown Sugar – 1 ½ Cup
    • Soy Sauce – 3 Tablespoons
    • Rice Vinegar – ¼ Cup
    • Vegetable Oil – 1 tablespoon
    • Garlic – 1 clove (minced)
    • Sesame Oil – 2 table spoons
    • Dried Chile – 2 (minced)
    • Sesame seeds – ½ cup (paste,roasted)
    • Salt – 1 tablespoon
    • Pepper – 1 teaspoon
    • Ginger – 1 ½ oz (minced)
    • Scallions – 1 oz (minced)
    • Corn starch  – ¼ cup
  • Green Pepper – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Red Pepper – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Sweet Onion – ½ (chopped Julienne)
  • Sugar Snap Peas – 12 (whole)
  • Shitake Mushrooms – 8 (Chopped)
  • Tofu – 14 oz (cubed)
  • Sesame Seeds – ¼ cup to liking (roasted)
  • Ginger – 3 oz (grated)
  • Vegetable Oil – 1/3 cup
  • White Rice

Step 1: Make the Sesame Sauce – This step is optional since you can buy bottled sesame sauce in any supermarket.  Like pasta sauce I find something intricate such as this is better made fresh.  In a measuring cup dissolve 1 ½ cup of Brown sugar and ¼ cup of Corn Starch in about 1/3 a cup of warm water or so.  Stir vigorously.  In a blender combine all of the ingredients in the Sesame Sauce bullet of Ingredient list and the sugar, water, cornstarch mixture you just made.  Blend on high till everything is one liquid consistency.  No need to chop up raw ingredients such as garlic, ginger, chilies, and sesame seeds they will puree and then blend into the conglomerate.  Should blend around 5-7 minutes.

Step 2: Cook White Rice – See Blog on “How To Cook Rice”

Step 3: Fry Tofu – Cut Tofu into ¼” cubes.  In a plate or mixing bowl whisk together 1 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds.  Roll tofu cubes in flour mixture till completely covered.  On a high flame in a medium size frying pan filled with 1/3 cup of vegetable oil fry tofu till golden brown.

 

The flouring process

 

Step 4: Chop and Sautee Vegetables – Cut all vegetables as described in the ingredient list and grate the ginger. In a wok (or large frying pan, although if I were you I would invest in a wok for nothing makes stir fry better) heat up 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.  When hot add in Green and Red Pepper, ginger, Onion and Zucchini Sautee for around 5 minutes then add mushrooms, peas and add fried tofu.  Throw in some salt and pepper also.

 

This is an idea of how your vegetables should look after being chopped.

 

Step 5: Cook Sesame Sauce – Pour blended Sesame sauce into a small saucepot and bring to a boil, stir constantly.  Reduce flame and let simmer for 3-5 minutes till sauce gets thick.

Step 6: Put It All Together – Pour sesame sauce into wok over entire stir fry on a medium flame and mix together with a spatula, also add ¼ cup of sesame seeds as well.  Sautee entire mixture for 3-5 minutes.  Serve over white rice and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for look and texture.

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