"The best camera is the one that's with you." - Chase Jarvis

Photography has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Partly because my photography road trip with my cousin is coming up in a couple weeks. But probably mostly because I've been reading through photo blogs in my spare time.

The most recent blog I've come across is a photographer by the name of Chase Jarvis. I find both his work and his insights about the medium interesting and engaging. One of the things that he's been focused on over the past couple months has been using his iPhone to take photos. To quote, "The best camera is the one that's with you.". As a gear hound, it's a great reminder for me that photography is not about the equipment, but rather the person using it. And although the 3G camera isn't great, it's always with me, so I never have an excuse not to shoot.

A perfect example of this happened yesterday. After dinner, B proposed that we take a walk around my neighborhood... I was feeling lazy, but somehow managed to motivate myself to throw on some shoes and take the stroll anyway. The weather was pleasant, it was about an hour until sunset, and the overcast skies had started to burn away. My original intent was only to walk, but shortly after starting, I realized this was a perfect opportunity to put CJ's reminder to work.

One of the great things about walking is that we often start to notice the little things that are often missed when one drives by. For instance, the large cherry tree about a block from my house, with ripened Rainiers dotting the ground beside its trunk. Or the number of traffic circles that people had volunteered their time and money to beautify with various flora (Thanks to all of you!). It's these little things that provide ample subjects for my lil' iPhone. I've posted a few of the results from our walk below -- just a tiny glimpse of the good ol' neighborhood of Maple Leaf.

Four Food Filled Days...

It's been a busy past few days. My brother arrived a few days ago from Miami. He's spending the summer traveling cross country photo-documenting Push America's summer cycling and build teams. Since one of the teams kicks off from Seattle, he was here to capture the festivities.
As luck would have it my cousin from Australia also came into town, having decided to swing by Seattle for four days on his way home back to Sydney. Even Mother Nature cooperated by providing perfect 70 degree sunshine for the fellas' time here. I couldn't have scripted it any better if I wanted to.

During their stay, Calvin (the cousin) played tourist, and Jenkins (the brother) played guide/driver. I unfortunately still reported to work, but I know they were able to extensively explore Seattle. And at least I was able to get home each day at an early hour to join them for dinner... And what meals we had!

Here's a breakdown of the food during their time here: Sunday night: I made dinner -- stirfried pork loin w/ julienned carrots, sauteed garlic green beans, and rice. Quick, easy, healthy, tasty.

(photo courtesy of C.Chan)

Monday night: Taste of India on Roosevelt in the UDistrict. The former owner of Cedars' relative (brother or son maybe?) own this place. The food's just like Cedars (terrific), and their home-brewed, bottomless Chai is heaven. I'd come for the food alone, but their service matches the tastiness of the food.

Tuesday lunch: J & C were downtown, so they swung by and picked me up for lunch. We went to the renowned Salumi, and proceeded to get three of the messiest, satisfying pork sandies ever. Calvin chose the "Porkchetta", I selected the daily special of "pork cheeks" , and Jenkins went w/ the classic meatball sub. Since Salumi is such small establishment, we went around the corner to the downtown waterfall, and dug in. Succulence ensued.

(photo courtesy of C.Chan)

Tueday dinner: With a guest in town from as far away as Sydney, we decided to go to one of Seattle's premier restaurants, Canlis. It met our very high expectations easily. The service was second to none, and the food was cooked perfectly (For those keeping track- appetizers: pork belly, Kona ceviche, crab cake, and the Canlis salad. Entrees- lamb chops, wild king salmon, and two orders of duck breast. Dessert (shared)- A pear cake with thyme ice cream in a pear consumme).

Wednesday dinner: Since this was Calvin's last day in the US, we thought it would be fitting to end his time here with hamburger. But not just any burger would surfice -- so we headed to the Lunchbox Laboratory. Calvin was introduced to the Dork... I'll let the pictures below tell the rest of the story.

(photo courtesy of C.Chan)

So all in all, it has been a great few days. We were able to send an Aussie cousin home with a grand impression of Seattle, both of the area as well as the dining. Hopefully it was enough to warrant a quick return!

A New Pig In Town

My coworker and I headed out to lunch in the beautiful sunshine and stumbled up on this metallic swine of beauty...

Move over Rachel (the beloved mascot of the Pike Place Market)! There's a new pig in town, and he goes by "Maximus-Minimus". Max, as I will refer to him/it, is the newest taco-truck-type-vendor in the street food craze that's hitting Seattle. And that is a very cool thing indeed.

Today was their second day serving lunch on the corner of Second & Pike... So far, their menu is pretty small, but the line for food was not. Fortunately for us, we beat the noon rush, and were able to grab a pulled pork sandwich with Beechers cheese in about 5 minutes. The sandie was decent -- the meat was a bit dry, but the flavor was good, and the addition of cilantro added a nice twist.

All in all, it was a memorable lunch experience. I had read about the metal porker on various food blogs over the past month, so it was cool to actually see it in person. I look forward to seeing how things change and improve over the next few months for Max.

For more info on Maximus-Minimus, you can go to their website and/or check this out. For a couple more pics, see below for the business side of the swine, and what he serves up...

34 days left (and counting)

I'm getting laid off July 2nd. So to turn that lemon into lemonade, I've been busy planning "activities"for myself after that day.

First, I have a 2.5 week photography road trip planned for the Great Lakes/Great Plains states (which I've coined the "Great" Road Trip -- so clever, I know). Then in October, I'm off to the Washington/Notre Dame football game in South Bend. Since we're flying into Chicago, we decided to get tix to a Cubs' game too. And to top it off, my crowning jewel will be heading south in December to Antarctica with a short stop in Buenos Aires.

I know what you're thinking (or at least what my parents are thinking)-- "What about getting a new job?" The short answer is that I'll start looking for a job in August. The honest answer is that I think I need some time off before I jump back into the grind. Besides, who wouldn't want to travel rather than attend meetings?

So as you can see, I've got plenty of reasons to be looking forward to my upcoming "sabbatical". The excitement grows more and more each day. And the countdown clock is continues to tick away.

Homemade & Home Grown

It's been a slow evolution. It first started with trips to the Ballard Farmers' Market. We'd see stacks of produce, cheeses, and meats. All supplied by local farmers. Then came the homegrown eggs. (Well, homegrown by one of my coworkers who sells them to me. ) These eggs, most brown, but a couple green, some freckled, some not, have the richest golden yolks... When placed side by side with store bought, there's no comparison. And now I've created a vegetable garden. What's next I wonder?

*******

For a while now, one of my "popcorn" ideas was to have a garden where B & I could enjoy some fresh cherry tomatoes and maybe even save some money by having home grown veggies. So about a month ago, I decided to act upon that idea, and build a garden box. I scoped out the location, took some measurements, and went to my nearby home store for some lumber. Quickly I realized that any notion of saving cash in this venture was quickly dashed -- untreated Cedar is EXPENSIVE. But nonetheless, I bought the wood, and hauled it home. Too bad the buck didn't stop there.

Another thing I realized was I didn't have enough dirt around my house to fill the boxes. So I decided to load one box half full of garden soil (I'm fortunate enough that the dirt I do have has is pretty rich), and combined it with store-bought top soil. In the other box, I filled it with only purchased potting soil. I figured I could compare the two throughout the summer, and whichever box produced more, I would do the same with both boxes next year.

So after dropping around $250 on wood and dirt (Two things I never thought I'd have to pay for), I have myself two nice garden boxes. But no veggies. So, it was time to go shopping again.

Long story short, after purchasing vegetables from the Seattle Master Gardeners' sale, Home Depot, and three school fundraisers (Olympic View Elementary, Nathan Hale HS, and B's own Franklin HS), we have following: multiple tomato plants, spearmint (2 types- one regular, one chocolate), basil starts and seeds, various lettuces, snap peas, broccoli, fennel, cucumbers, strawberries, cilantro, chives, and carrots. We planted some of the lettuce and seeds right after the garden box was installed, but most of them we "hardened" (keep indoors until it warms up more outside) until last weekend. And the lettuce we planted first? We were able to enjoy our first "harvest" on Sunday. The romaine was the perfect wrap to go with our homemade grilled chicken skewers. Just thinking of it now makes me hungry again.

So in what started as a simple home project for me has morphed into something bigger. After hundreds of dollars, and tens of hours, I have my own garden. My hope now is that my plants will grow as large as my expectations. If so, B & I will literally be eating the fruits of our labor all summer long!

(Hopefully, the first of many harvests to come!)

A Desert Oasis

Wow. It's been three weeks since my last post so if by chance you were following my blog, I apologize. But most likely nobody out there is reading this anyway since I haven't done any major PR whatsoever. So it's a mute point anyway. :-)

One of the reasons that I haven't written for a while is because a couple weeks ago, B and I fled the rain-ridden Pacific Northwest to the oasis of Palm Springs. Well, technically Palm Desert. We traded the dreariness of mid-40's temperatures for the inviting heat of 100+ degrees. Three of the five days were spent by the various pools around the Marriott resort, drinking Pina Coladas floating in the water, or playing Scrabble. Sunday was used to explore the desert landscape and round boulder formations at Joshua Tree National Park, and the last day was spent at the airport for 7 hours, only to have our flight get cancelled, and to redo the entire fiasco the following morning. But even then, we were chillaxin' (that's a term B uses) at what could be quite possibly the most laid back airport I have ever been too. And I've been to quite a few.

Since most of you are probably familiar with swimming pools, I'll skip ahead and share a bit about Joshua Tree. The park is about 800K square miles, spread over three ecosystems. It's name sake was named after Mormon visitors saw the tree, and associated with Joshua (in the Bible) for having outreached arms, as if it was praising God.

There are also numerous rock formations around the park, making for some interesting landscapes, hiking, and bouldering. Additionally, rock climbing is very popular in JT.

I could be assuming too much here, but I think the general concencus is that deserts are usually devoid of life... Although this may be true in others locations, Joshua Tree is brimming with vegetation and animal life. In the short day that we were visiting, we saw, cactuses (cacti?), lizards, cottontail rabbits, snakes, and birds. (One of which I accidently transformed to roadkill. Sorry.)

All in all, the weekend was exactly what we needed. B & I were able to recuperate and rejuvenate (as well as reheat). We were able to get tans (and burns), catch up on reading, and enjoying each other's company. And we were able to view a national park that was beautiful in its own right, and enjoy the natural spendor of another little corner of this planet. All in a long weekend!

Burger Me

These burgers tasted as fantastic as they looked. If you would like to get your hands on one (or three), head over to the Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. Mine was the bottom left burger -- the "Mork's Dork from Ork" special. The "Dork" means the patty was a combination of Duck and Pork. Excellent.

What do you get when you add a half pound "Dork" patty + six pieces of maple bacon + Zillion Island sauce? A heart stopping, flavor filled burger of tastiness!

Faster (& Better) than Delivery

I love pizza. I can't seem to get enough of it. You know that childhood comment, "If you love it, why don't you marry it?"? Well, I would if I could. Except I wanna have kids one day, so I don't think it would work out between the two of us. Plus, do I really want offspring that are half Chinese half Canadian Bacon? No.

But I digress. The reason I brought up pizza is that tonight, B and I made a tasty - and dare I say gourmet - pizza in the time it would have taken to get delivery. We had a hodge-podge of ingredients that we thought would go well with one another. And at the last minute, we decided to use some fruity olive oil instead of tomato sauce for the base. The end result? I still love delivery (Pagliacci's!), but this definitely is up there.

So how did our homemade pizza idea come about? Well, this past Saturday, B and I were grabbing a quick lunch from the Metropolitan Market. We had our Ethic Dinner group later that evening, so we didn't want anything heavy. We decided that we would get some cheese, some soup, and a few slices of Salumi salami to tie us over until dinner. Well, through a mixup with the deli-guy, instead of ending up with a few slices, we ended up with a mega-batch of salami. And since I didn't have the heart to tell him the mistake, we ended up taking home a pound of Salumi's finest (at $18/lb!). Needless to say, we didn't want the sliced cured meat to go bad, so we came up with idea of using it on pizza. So we had picked up some premade pizza dough from Trader Joe's on Sunday, and made ourselves a pie tonight. So if you get the hankering for a few slices, consider this. It's quick, it's easy, and it's delicious!

Much like the vegetable soup recipe I posted previously, this recipe is very flexible. You can add whatever toppings you wish. Want pineapple? Go for it. Love anchovies? Throw 'em on. Hate mushrooms? Skip it. It's really whatever your heart desires. A couple tips for you: 1) although you can pick whatever ingredients you want, don't pile them on too high. Otherwise, you just might end up with a "deconstructed" pizza. 2) I have a pizza stone that I leave in the oven. They're pretty cheap, but I've also heard you can buy a large, terracotta planter plate at your local gardening store, and use it. Just flip it upside down, and you're good to go. 3) And finally, you can use premade pizza crust like Boboli, but I recommend buying pizza dough (or making your own if you're feeling ambitious) and baking it yourself. Just bake it according to its instructions, but without the ingredients. When it's about done, pop it out, throw the toppings on, and then stick it back in the oven. I found by doing this, your dough is cooked through.

The Salumi Salami Special

Ingredients

• 1 package unbaked pizza dough (I bought mine at Trader Joe's)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• A tenth of a pound of salami
• 1-2 large mushrooms, sliced thin (not paper thin, maybe a fifth of an inch)
• 2-3 cloves of diced garlic
• 1 cup sliced red onion
• 1 cup sliced cherry or romalita tomatoes
• Pinch or two of kosher salt
• 1 sprig of rosemary, leaves removed from stem
• 8 oz of fresh mozzeralla, sliced

Prepare the pizza dough according to the instructions. However, do not add the ingredients.

While the crust is baking, in a fry pan, saute the mushrooms, red onion, and garlic together until the mushrooms are soft. Take off the heat, and put aside.

After the crust is complete, drizzle the olive oil over the crust. Then proceed to add your ingredients. There's no order, but I do like to add the cheese last... I feel like it binds the ingredients together when it melts.

Place back into the oven at 350 degrees for 6-8 min. This will allow the cheese to melt, and the tomatoes to sweeten a bit. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Take out, let it rest for a minute, and then devour. Careful of the hot mozzeralla. You don't want to burn the roof of your mouth.