Almost Tailgate Time

As we wrap up August, the hearts of University of Washington fans are beginning to beat a bit faster... College football is almost upon us, and Husky nation is looking forward to a new era with Coach Sarkisian and our "revamped" football program. However, we won't be able to ease into the season -- our first game is against LSU. It's going to be a HUGE game. And although the gametime start is officially at 7:30pm, tailgate-time will be earlier. Much earlier. Maybe 8am early.

I tell you all this because this year, two of my friends and I have inherited the roles and responsibilties to make the entree(s) for the tailgate. Since we're playing LSU, we are going with southern theme. I decided to try making a gumbo for the tailgate. And although I've had some delicious gumbo in the past (I worked in Lousisana for 6 months), I've never made it before. So to ensure the dish is good enough to serve 25-30 people, I decided to make a test batch yesterday.

The recipe I ended up was a personal hybrid of common components I found in various recipes, with my flavor preferences thrown in. And in the end, the dish came out. I think for the tailgate, I might make a few minor changes here and there, but overall, I was happy with the result. It may not be the most authentic, but here's the recipe I ultimately ended up with...

Spencer's Chicken & Andouille Sausage Gumbo

Ingredients
The Chicken
1 tablespoon olive oil
1.5 lbs of chicken legs

The Rue
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup AP flour

The "Holy Trinity" -
1.5 cups (3 stalks) celery
1 cup (1 whole) red pepper
2 cups onion

1.5 cups of Andouille sausage (cut in half circles)
3 tbls chopped garlic
1 diced jalepeno
1 can 28 oz crush tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1 tbls Creole seasoning - cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper (add ingredients to personal preference). I added 2 parts paprika to 1 part garlic powder and cayenne.

Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a cast iron dutch oven over medium heat.
Add the chicken. Turn occassionally. Once browned, remove from the pot, including the big bits stuck to the bottom. Don't cook the meat all the way -- you'll add it back into the pot later to finish cooking.

Remove the chicken meat from the bone and set aside.

To the dutch oven, add 1/2 cup of oil, heating to medium heat. Whisk in the flour to make a golden brown roux. Stir constantly, and don't burn the flour.

Add 75% of the Holy Trinity, and all the sausage. Cook until the vegetables soften (or about 10 min).

Add the cold stock, tomatoes, creole seasonings, and garlic. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to let simmer for at least 30 min. If the gumbo looks too thick, add a cup of chicken broth or water. As it cooks longer, it should also thin out a little since the veggies will release more water into the pot.

About 10-15 minutes before you're ready to serve, add the chicken meat and the rest of the ingredients, but only 1/2 of the Green Onions. (This is optional - I like the texture of some crunchy veggies. You can add all of them prior to the stock in the beginning of the recipe if you wish.)

When the chicken is cooked through, serve over rice and garnish w/ green onions.
Serves 4-6 people.


As I said earlier, there are a few things that I will probably change next time... I would cut the tomatoes by half, and increase the amount of spice by double. Also, I think my gumbo was bit too thick so next time I'll use more chicken stock as well. And finally, the chicken legs worked well (great flavor), but for the tailgate I think I might cheat and just use boneless chicken breast. It'll be easier to manage when I increase the size of the batch to feed the horde of Husky fans.

So there you have it. A little gumbo to fill our bellies before we go and play the LSU Tigers. Hopefully, the meal won't be the only winner of the evening! Go Dawgs!

My State of Unemployment

So now that I've been unemployed for almost two months, you'd think that I might be getting nervous about not having found a job. Thankfully that is not the case! My "sabbatical" has been fantastic so far... if you read this blog, you obviously know about the road trip, but aside from that, my days have been filled with spending time with B, sunshine, some favorite friends from Ireland, hiking here and there, and getting to know B's extended family better. Oh, with a little job searching sprinkled in for good measure.

The last time I was unemployed this long was when I first graduated from college, and had returned to the States from spending a summer in China. If I remember correctly, those days were not nearly as relaxing. Each day was filled with the tension of when I might find a job and the frustration of not having any job offers.

This time around the sense surrounding my unemployment is 180 degrees different. It's been a time of rejuvenation. And now as I kick my job search into a higher gear, I'm able to start looking for a job that will not only satisfy my paycheck, but also my sense of purpose. My hope is by the time I do find my next position, I'll be refreshed and reenergized to tackle the job with boundless vigor.

So all in all, I am fortunate enough to say that being laid off has been a very positive experience for me so far. I know that I am probably in the minority for thinking this way, but I am thankful to be able to enjoy my sabbatical.

Tomatoes Gone Wild!

Up until this week, it has been unusually hot here in Seattle. Temperatures were in the 90's, with the hottest temperature reaching 103 (the highest temp EVER recorded in Seattle). But what was blistering for us humans was perfect for the tomato plants we have in my back yard. They went crazy! After months of forming green, round teasers, they finally started changing to a beautiful red over the past few days...

We have a variety of tomtoms in the garden, but the ones that seem to be doing the best so far are the romas and cherry types. Here are the romas...

And a few cherries...

We picked our first batch a couple days ago for a salad, and they were succulent... We are awaiting the avalanche of ripening tomotoes with eager anticipation. We know that won't be disappointed.

(Updated: We made a Caprese salad today with some of our home grown basil and tomatoes. Very tasty.)

"Great Road Trip" Photos

Just a heads up -- I've posted more of my photos on Picasa... to take a look, click here, or click my online photo album link on the right side of this page. - SC

The Final Drive

I have a confession to make. I've been home in Seattle for the past week. My road trip actually ended in the end of July, but since I still had a couple things to post, I decided not to end my travelogue right away. Plus I thought it would allow me to mentally process some more of my trip before I shared my final "Great Road Trip" insights. But first a synopsis of our final driving day.

We left South Dakota Thursday morning bound for Des Moines, IA that evening. We knew it was going to be a long driving day since we had to cover over 600 miles. But even then, we had a couple stops that we wanted to make. The first being to take a tour of a decommissioned missile silo, the second at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, and the third was to dine on some delicious corn fed beef in Omaha, NE. The route we selected wasn't the fastest nor most direct, however, I needed to cross over the SD/NE border so I could cross Nebraska off of my "visited states" list. (Norman was gracious enough to comply with my request.) A brief review of each place:

Minutemen Missile Silo: An interesting glimpse into the Cold War, and that thought the end of the world literally could come at the push of a button. (Fortunately, there were numerous checks and balances required to the actual button pushing could occur.)

Mitchell Corn Palace: Disappointing. I envisioned a large structure made entirely of corn. The reality though was a building with corn-laden displays.

Omaha Steak: We had dinner at Johnny's Cafe in Omaha. The restaurant is an old-school steak house, family owned since the 1920's,and a fixture in city... The place is decorated with overstuffed chairs, dark wood, and styled in the chic of the 1950's. I ordered the "Omaha Strip", similar to a New York cut. It was tender and delicious, as were all the sides (a cottage cheese spread for bread, sauteed mushrooms, and homemade onion rings). Definitely worth the stopover. We arrived hungry and left stuffed and satisfied.

After leaving Omaha, we only had a couple more hours of a drive. As soon as we crossed the Iowa border, we were greeted by fireflies along the highway, blinking their unique welcome message as we drove past. For me, the road trip finally ended when we pulled into the Fairfield Inn parking lot in Des Moines, IA. For Norman, his trip continued to Illinois (so he could visit some family over the weekend), and from where he would returned home to Ann Arbor.

So what have I learned from this epic Midwestern journey? A few posts ago, I had listed a "Lessons Learned", so I thought it might be a good way to wrap up this adventure by sharing some more things that I've come to realize on this trip.

1. One of the reasons I set out on this trip was to see if the "there's nothing in the Midwest, especially in the Dakotas" myth was true. The result? FALSE. There is beauty in "those-thar-hills"! And some good food too!

2. Related to #1, wherever you may travel to, whether a roadtrip, backpacking, cycling, sightseeing, etc, there is always something to see. You just need to keep your eyes open and sense of adventure up.

3. I really missed my girlfriend Beth and wished she could have been there with us. (She was off having an adventure of her own.)

4. The only times I was disappointed in a site was when I had preconcieved notions/expectations (Mt. Rushmore, Corn Palace).

5. There are a lot of dirt roads in the Midwest.

6. The United States is a great place to visit. Especially for Americans. We speak the language, understand (most) of the customs, and the exchange rate is always 1 to 1 for us.

7. The Indian Taco is not what I remembered it being. Having said that, it was still tasty - you can't go wrong with frybread.

8. There are a lot of RV's in the Midwest. Everywhere we camped, it seemed tents were outnumbered 2 to 1.

9. Wall Drug in Wall, SD. HOLY CRAPOLA. (Facebook'ers, sorry for the repeat lesson.)

10. Some statistics (approximately):

• 3000- the number of miles we drove.
  
• 23- the number of mosquito bites on the back of my legs.
• 150+- the number of bison we saw
• Infinite- the number of bugs splattered on our windshield, front hood
  

11. It is confirmed that Rupert has a bigger following than I do. He really should Twitter or something.

So that's it for my "Great Road Trip". I'm not sure how to close, so I'll just say thanks for following along on this trip. Until the next trip (or post)!

Roadside Surprises

One of the best things about a road trip are what you see outside the car windows as you're driving across state, county, and city lines... . The scene is constantly changing, especially if you decide to take local byways and backroads rather than the interstate. The landscape can change from green vegetation to golden grasses, rolling hills to vast prairies, and sparkling lakes to rectangular plots of crops. This was my expectation coming into this trip, and the Midwest did not disappoint.

But perhaps the best things are the surprises that you do not expect. On this trip, we experienced multiple such moments and locations. There was Theodore Roosevelt National Park (as I blogged earlier about). Another was the never-ending Lake Superior coastline, which we followed all the way to Marquette. Never before this trip did I ever consider that the Midwest would have so much beachfront. (It turns out that the Michigan apparently has the 2nd most coastline of any state, only following Alaska.) If the weather was 15 degreees warmer, I am sure northern Michigan cities would be as popular as ocean bordering beach town. And then there were the fireflies that greeted us with a blinking lightshow as we crossed into Iowa.

It wasn't all Mother Nature's doing though Along the way, we encountered many man made novelties as well... Sue the world's largest Holstein (New Salem, ND) crowd, Wall Drug (Wall, SD) and the Corn Palace (Mitchell, SD) already have a devout following.

However, some reputations have not trickled into the general public's awareness yet. One of these places is located on highway 81 in ND, running north/south on a highway that This 32 mile stretch of road has been named the "Enchanted Highway". On the "Enchanged HIghway", you will come across fish, pheasants, and grasshoppers of epic proportion.

Overall, our drive through the Midwest uncovered numerous "diamonds in the rough"... Some known, some not. But each unique in their own way. And although I probably won't revisit all of them, I was glad to have seen them at least once.

Patriotism & Transgressions

Hi all, once again, this a delayed post due to not internet connectivity. And after reading it again, I apologize for any perceived sappiness. Just writing it like I see it. - SC
***********************


Over the past couple weeks, Norman and I have seen a lot in the Midwest. And one of the common themes we've noticed is there seems to be a higher level of patriotism. Old Glory hangs from the front stoops of houses and can be seen painted on the barns. N & I have even joked that we are performing our patriotic duty by supporting middle America's economy rather than spending money overseas. We're buying from the local grocery store and gas station. We even are driving an American made car ('92 Dodge Spirit baby!).

The past couple days have been a climax of this observation. After we left North Dakota, we made a stop in the "geographic center of the United States". Actually, we made two stops. The first was the convenient and glamorous visitor center in Belle Forche, SD. The only problem is that the real US center is in the middle of a grassy plain, 20 miles outside of the town. They built a "more convenient" marker for the tourists. But it just didn't feel right, so we trekked it out to the actual site as well.

The "convenient" geographic center of the US.

The REAL geographic center of the US (photo courtesy of N. Meznarich)

The climax of patriotism was after we arrived in Keystone, SD. The town is a combination of western facade and Vegas glitz. But the main reason that Keystone is popular is because it's two miles away from Mt. Rushmore. I've never visited the memorial before, and to be honest, my initial reaction was not great. We arrived in late afternoon, so we decided to head up to the site for dinner and then catch the evening light show. The buffalo stew was tasty, but the light show left much to be desired. Most of it was displayed on a big screen, with narration by James Earl Jones. I'm sure it was a riveting video, but we wouldn't know since we couldn't see it where we were sitting. Another reason we were probably put off was the entire area was the antithesis of Theodore Roosevelt NP. Large crowds, lots of pavement, gifts shops, and a four story parking garage... I think we experienced culture shock. Nonetheless, we took our pictures,and left the presentation thinking disappointed thoughts. After taking a day off, we decided to return to the memorial during the day this morning. And I do have to say, after spending some more time looking at faces etched in granite, my opinion changed a bit. Sure, I still think what I said earlier rings true, but I have the utmost respect for the vision and labor put forth to transform a piece of massive rock into a natural treasure. Too much blood, sweat, and tears have gone into making it for me to blow it off because of all the hoopla surrounding it.

Mt. Rushmore at night.

So that was this morning. After we visited the four presidents, we moved to the Badlands this afternoon... and what a change of history that is. One of the black stains in our US history is how we treated the Native Americans of the Badland region. The Oglala Lakota Tribe has resided in the area for hundreds of years. But once gold fever hit, the US government seized the land without regard for the Native Americans. Only in 1980(!) was this addressed by the Supreme Court as a "despicable act", and the Tribe was awarded over 100 million dollars. The Oglala Lakota turned the money down, stating they would rather have the land. And so it is to this day -- the OL Tribe hasn't taken the money, and the value has grown to 900+ million dollars in a trust fund of sorts. And the catch is that the tribe will never be able to recoup the land that once was theirs.

Sorry, this is the only picture I have to convey the culture of the Native Americans.

View from "Notch Point" overlooking the Badlands.

So what can I draw from this? That over the past 200 years, our country has much to be proud of and much to be ashamed for. But I do feel that although we can't correct our transgressions of the last two centuries, we can learn from them, and continue to strive for progress. And that is
something to be proud of.

A Walk (and Stay) on the Wild Side

It's been a whirlwind trip over the past few days... I'll try to give you a quick recap, and the delve into some more of the highlights.

The last time I posted, we were in Marquette, trying the local culinary fare. We then moved onward to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park North Unit on the west side of North Dakota. Along the way we stayed in Duluth, MN and Bismarck, ND (where we continued the eating trend by partaking in a Portland Chocolate Malt and a Cracker Barrel Country Fried Steak, respectively. Both were expectantly fantastic.) Once we arrived in North Dakota, we were able to see not only Sue, the largest Holstein Cow in the world, but also a strip of road called The Enchanted Highway. In total, we drove about a thousand miles (plus or minus) over two days... Definitely more road trip than photography. But we were able to get some camera time too.

Now before you think we're eating our way through the country, let me say that we've actually been quite frugal with our meals. A majority of the time we are on a European inspired menu -- we have deli meat sandies, cheese, and fresh fruit. All courtesy of the local grocery of the town we are passing through. Don't get me wrong, we're definitely not roughing it. But we aren't eating out everyday either.

Although the cuisine on our trip has been memorable so far, the highlight of the past week has really been our time spent in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP). The park is broken into two sections. The southern section is off of I-94, and is the better known of the two. We stayed there for the last night, but both Norman and I highly recommend the north unit. The wildness of the area is unreal -- you lose sense of the fact that you're in a national park. Rather it's a feeling of getting a glimpse of what it was to live like the cowboys of old.

A sampling of high points and pics from our time in TRNP. Click the thumbnail for a larger image.

Catching sunrise and sunset on the cliffs in the area. Waking up at 5am is not fun, but the resulting photographs hopefully outweighed the sleepiness.

The first morning, on the ridge behind us where the sun was rising, a herd of bighorn sheep crested over the hill toward us. We were able to get some silhouette shots of the sheep grazing their breakfast.

Also that morning, on our way back to our campsite, we realized the camping area was surrounded by bison. We slowly maneuvered the car around the beasts, and sat in awe that we were merely yards away from the gigantic animals. (A sad side note -- in the mid 1800's, there were an estimated 40 million bison in the US. From 1870-1890, that number was reduced to 1500 due to hunting and the fur trade). Thanks to T. Roosevelt and other conservationists, the numbers are now around 500K. They were saved from extinction.)

Seeing God's color palette on the sunset sky, the golden light glistening off the wild grass fields. If you can remember what the wheat looked like at the end of the movie Gladiator, you wouldn't be far off.

Strolling into a valley populated by a prairie dog town, and settling in on the grass, watching the dogs squeak out warnings that humans were near by. Then realizing that once again, the herd of bison were moving into the valley behind us. We moved to the side, and once again reveled in the opportunity to be as close (yet still a safe distance) as we were.

Hiking to the third largest petrified forest... once there, the landscape felt alien. It was perhaps the closest thing I will ever experience to walking on Mars and the Moon.

All in all, the TRNP skyrocketed to being one of my favorite National Parks. I can not say enough about it. It is a hidden gem and worth every mile we drove to get there.