Hows my little '12 recap?

Oh two thousand and twelve where have you gone? Why, it seems like only a few days ago I was complaining about the winter that never was, or bitching about the frost that bit all of our plants hard. Heck it doesn't seem so long ago that we were walking the red line through Boston. Even with the looming end of the world there seemed to be a lot of new things coming my way, new constructions, new motorcycle, new car, new adventures, new food, new ferments, new growths (in the garden), new kegs, and new wands. I don't miss the beating sun and stifling humidity this summer brought, but I do miss swimming around the canoe trying to beat that heat.

So, here are some things worth remembering from the year that ended before the world:
Best: 
Movie (in theater):
Cabin in the Woods - I love horror movies, a lot. This one was so great for many different reasons, the best was how perfect they made fun of the often predictable horror genre, and nailing it.

TV Show:
True Blood had been my favorite show since 2008, The sex, sexyness, blood, and violence are what hooked me, this year they opted for 20 slow moving plots to follow (fire monster, really?). To me, True Blood met the true death this year, a giant failure in 2012. No show replaced it.

Concert:
Trampled by Turtles. Fun, upbeat bluegrass in a college town! I hadn't seen that much flannel and beards in one spot in ages.

Performance:
The Donkey Show. A midsummer nights dream with a crazy modern twist set in a 70s disco, with matching soundtrack, pasties, and glitter. Wonderful.

Album:
Nothing this year, I really fell off the new music wagon.

Song:
Gorillaz- DoYaThing - I just liked the video a lot.

Game:
Angry Birds Star Wars, Although Angry Birds Space was fantastic, Star Wars took everything fun about the original angry birds and space, and changed it to a new experience for the tired angry birds fan.

Book: 
The Twelve by Michael Cronin The book was nonstop excitement and curiosity from beginning to end.

Gadget:
A Vitamix blender. This is no ordinary blender. Especially good for someone who cares about the ingredients (or lack of) in their food.

Getaway: 
A week to Florida and back with my lovely wife. Visiting family, Universal Studios, Wineries, Breweries, The beach, and eating. What's not to like on a trip like that (aside from like 20+ hours in a car)?

Garden Growth:
Pickels! Our cucumbers went nuts this year due to the heat, we have tons of yummy pickles now and I'm happy about it.

Construction:
A tie, the hatchet target has been a dangerous albiet fun, hoot, but I did construct a kegerator and thats had pretty satisfying results.

Intoxicating Beverage Tour:
Harpoon Brewery. Tasting beer right from the tank, whats not to love about that.

Food Ferment: 
Sauerkraut! This year I managed to make not only edible kraut, delicious kraut!

Alcoholic Ferment: 
The baltic vanilla porter. Big, Boozy, and full of vanilla and yummy.
Whats in the carboy: Cucumber Mead, Vanessa grape wine, Pumpkin Wheat.

Athletic Endeavor: 
Tough Mudder Twin Cities - This was crazy. It was challenging before we got stuck at the quarter pipe, then we all nearly froze to death. Fun stuff!


Events of Note: 
Random:
A 100% free Goorin Brothers hat. Appearing on Local TV

Obsession:
Learning about fermented anything.

Newsworthy:
A massacre at an elementary school, the how and why are going to be interesting details.

News I'm oblivious to: 
The sports announcer on some gun control statement. Personally I think we need bullet control let the guns roam free. NFL Ref strike, wow did people get worked up, give the union anything! No wonder unions are still around.

Travels:
Washburn, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Twin Cities, Southern Illinois, Springfield, IL, Florida, and Asheville

More events of note:
The death of my wonderful Grandfather, Harold Summerville
Purchasing a motorcycle, 1999 Triumph Legend
Repairing my broken motorcycle
Selling the old Stratus
Another Successful BockFest
Re-Roofing the garage
Running a half marathon in less than 2 hours
Refinancing our house to save loads of cash in the future

When I first started thinking about this entry Laura asked me how I thought the year was, and I initially said, I don't think this is going to be a very exciting post. Now that I've gone through it, I see that I was completely wrong. 2012 was crazy and eventful! We traveled to some new places that were wonderful, I began a new hobby/learned a new food group with fermenting, and stayed busy with a bunch of my past hobbies. Looking into the new year and comparing it to last I think I'm going to try harder to keep up with my fitness year round instead of just the first half, maybe a fall/early winter race? Laura and I also want to go on a big adventure and this year we might be cutting back on adventuring to save for it. I truly enjoy my job and I'm still learning so much, I think I'm getting a decent handle on this winemaking business but its too soon to be getting confident. There were some significant changes in 2012 around my life and I honestly don't know what to expect in this new year, but I'm sure its nothing I can't handle.

I normally consider myself better than these but I think if I set a nice small goal here I can hack it. Plus when its in writing it becomes harder to break.
Resolution:
In 2013 I'm going to drink more/learn about bubbly.

Show me what you've got 2013.

Hows my little 1400 mile trip?

Since my parents left Laura and I in the dust and ventured back to Minnesota Laura and I were able to swing past both families for one round of travels during the holiday season. We kicked it off right by driving at the front edge of a great Blizzard, we skipped our hotel we booked for the night and pushed through the evening to Washburn and avoided all of the snowy mess. Once again proving me right, worrying about something you don't even know for sure will happen is a waste of energy.

Washburn was great as always, we spent a couple of days relaxing with the family, did some geocaching, lots of eating, and even managed to get a white elephant game in. This was my first White Elephant experience and I loved it! Giving and getting weird old odd things was great! I think I did pretty good getting a sweater sleeve, a couple of candles, and several tiny bottles of booze (perfect for flights!).

Tim's 7 lb Prime Rib Roast...yum!

On our way out of Wasburn Laura and I stopped in Duluth to swap out Brewhouse Growlers and to check out the new brewpub Canal Park Brewing. We were very impressed with the joint, they've only been open for a few weeks now and I think they have to iron out their beer recipes a bit more but they have a good IPA and think they have the knowledge and excitement to get some really good stuff going. Laura knows the guy who is running the place and managed to get us a behind the scenes tour and it was really cool to geek out over things like filters and tanks, while still learning about their brewing process.

One of the biggest things I miss about Minnesota is aside from hills, snow, and trees, are my friends. This year I was able to catch up with a bunch of old friends and it was so great. I got a night at Gasthofs organized which was really fun. My parents also hosted a gathering at their house for a bunch of friends as well, which was another great evening of catching up. I had the sudden realization that life is in fact marching on, and words like consulting, business, babies, and future, were casually tossed around. I'm really trying to embrace this newfound adulthood but its challenging.
Not as hard as when I turned 10 and my Dad told me that I'll never be a single digit age again, that sucked.

Using the most plentiful resource in MN, Cold and Snow.

Christmas with my family was grand ol time. We added some possibly new traditions at my parents new digs in North Oaks. One was the family pool tournament where my Mom and I sucked it up big time. Another was a Christmas Trivia where we all did surprisingly good, Andy has an impressive ability to recall Christmas songs on the spot. We also had a dramatic reading of Twas the Night before Christmas, which I really enjoyed.

The trip as a whole was great for so many different reasons. The most important one was seeing so many of the people I love. I've got the best group of friends and family anyone could ask for, and for that I'm thankful.

Hows my little fermentor part 2?

I've been a busy fermentor lately. Well, my neighborhood airborne bacteria have I guess, I just give them a place to eat.

Part one:
Hot Sauce
Did you know that tabasco is a naturally fermented product aged in barrels? Yeah, me neither. Ever since I had my eyes opened to the ease of fermented foods and the excitement (and nervousness) they bring I've had my eyes on the Hot Sauce prize.

Due to a plentiful hot pepper producing fall I figured I should take advantage of the excess cayenne peppers and a few others to ferment some into a spicy goodness. As you might remember from part one I used some of my yogurt Whey as a starter for my earlier ferments. I've since learned that this actually isn't the most Ideal whey =) to do this, mostly because bacteria that like dairy, don't typically love vegetables as well, which makes sense to me. The ferments worked fine but I decided to attempt the more hair raising, natural ferment. AKA let a bowl full of peppers in water hang out for a few days until they have transformed into a fermented bowl full of peppers in water.

The ingredients: Bell Peppers, Hungarian Wax Peppers, Jalapenos, 3 Ghost Chilis, Kosher Salt, and natural airborne bacteria.

A bit of chopping got everything to hang out in the bowl better. All I did was add a bunch of Salt, water, and a lid to cover everything. The ferment took about 4-5 days. Once I saw a clear film over the mixture I knew that no more CO2 was being produced and it was time to blend.

First I separated the water from the peppers, this was quite the spicy mixture. I should have saved it for a future ferment, I'm still bummed I didn't.

Throw everything into the blender and turn everything into a nice liquid.

I found out I was left with all these great seeds! Everyone knows that the seeds are the spiciest part of the pepper so into the blender they went!

 Mmm, seed juice. Tasted sort of like a hot gritty tahini.

Next I blended seed juice into the main batch.

Lightly screw the lids on and refrigerate! Fortunately peppers have a natural anti-mold property so we should be able to enjoy these completely natural jars of food for many months.

Part Two:

Brussels Sprouts Sauerkraut. (Brusselskraut)

This year Laura and I were so excited about how good our brussels sprouts turned out last year that we thought we should plant even more than last year, 8 plants. Which, for two people is a bit on the heavy side. After stumbling across a recipe in our Preservation Kitchen book for this type of kraut early in the year I was pretty much counting down the days until I could ferment my own. My favorite part was substituting vinegar for time and you have basically the same thing.

Those few shorter ones were what was left on the stalks that we actually harvested from and ate in dozens of meals.

In hindsight (always 20-20) I have now come to the realization that Laura and I need to do three things next year. Wait a few weeks longer (depending on the weather) to harvest, Eat more if possible, and give away more to our friends/family. Destemming/chopping this many sprouts was absurd. My neck hurt from looking down for so long and my shoulders ached from old fashioned repetitive stress/chopping.

This is what the sprouts looked like after a couple of weeks outside in the cold, they are quite the cold hardy buggers.

Chopped, halved, and cleaned sprouts. The wine bottle is for perspective.

Four Jars of canned sprouts from the recipe in Preservation Kitchen.

Almost fermented sprouts. A few cayenne peppers for kick and mold prevention, bay leaves, other spices, cilantro, and a splash of "live" hot sauce to help things get started.

Another stainless lid I had around nearly fit perfect to weigh the sprouts down and keep them submerged. Submersion is key to a mold-less and successful ferment.

The looks of things after a week and a half. The ferment smelled very strongly throughout the house. Laura was not a fan. Without a doubt it smelled better than this disaster though.

You can see a ring of goo where the lid wasn't pressing the sprouts into the water. I scooped this out knowing that what was below was safe to eat, the goo was questionable though.

8 jars later we now have more Brusselskraut than any two people should have. It tastes alright, there is not a lot of crispiness, but the flavor is there. I think adding a bit of lemon juice/zest and maybe some other spices with heat it will be delicious. I think alone it could be great on a sandwich corned beef with cheese perhaps?

Part Three, Bonus!
Horseradish
I've learned one or two things since this post and have now better armed myself for my horseradish harvest. This isn't a ferment, which is why it's a bonus.

Number one, eye protection is a must.













Number two, so is a breathing apparatus. I used one of Laura's Scarves.













Number three, access to fresh air is completely necessary. In fact, it should probably be done outside.

Post harvest dig shot.

This bugger was the longest root of the year measuring somewhere beyond two feet. Which means I can expect a new plant to spring up next year somewhere beyond two feet away from the main root. Yay.

Cleaned up!

Chopped and ready to blend, this is the scariest part knowing that soon all of my pores will be excreting whatever they can.

Action shot with my eyes still functioning.

A pile of horseradish root reduced to painful gasses and delicious spreadable happiness. My eyes were actually sensitive to light after all of the grinding and scooping, Laura's eyes were actually tearing up and she was sitting two rooms away. The weirdest part to me was using my fingers to scrape out the root with no burning sensation at all, in fact, later I rubbed my eyes and almost wet myself knowing what a pepper would have done and I barely felt anything at all.

I didn't think about it this time around but should have added a splash of Vodka to the food processor to aid in my grinding. Oh well, Maybe this spring!

Hows my little bookworm 2012 edition?

77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz I love Audiobooks for long drives, generally I try and choose one that sounds like its exciting with the hopes that the excitement will keep me awake while I'm driving. This book was a fun adventure that reminded me of an expanded yet very different version of 1408. Every 38 years the residents of the Pendleton experience a shift in time, generally with disastrous results. Creatures literally crawl out of the woodwork, ghosts from the past walk and talk, and The One is orchestrating the death of his captives in time. There are plenty of residents and stories to follow throughout the story and they are all very different individuals which makes each of their perspectives interesting. There is also The One, a creepy and vile mystery that when he reveals his origins is either really corny or really clever, I personally liked it. If you're into the thriller/sci-fi genre this incredibly visual book is for you. I loved it.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin The second book in the Passage Series is fantastic. I doubt you remember my review from last year of the first book so quickly refresh yourself. Book two is like book one, the first half takes place in modern times, and when the part two begins, after having read the first book, it's not quite the shock as before. The world is still recovering and cowering from the outbreak, and people are surviving their day to day. This book is different and fresh, it is fantastically exciting from start to finish. Cronin keeps it going at a blazing pace right from the start. Several familiar characters reappear and some new and interesting lines are drawn from the past into the future. After book one ended I wasn't sure what direction the series would take, after book two it's pretty clear whats going to happen in book three, and I'm excited for the ride. This is another thrilling adventure novel, I've recommended The Passage to everyone I thought who would enjoy it and will continue recommending the series to anyone who enjoys fiction.

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson Book two in the Millenium series left me glad I listened to it as an audiobook. I thought it was an interesting story with a predictable ending. Larsson has a habit of going on about stuff that makes some long stretches relatively dry, then again mystery stories aren't always my thing either. As the story went I was pretty excited to learn more about the mystery of Lisabeth Salendar, but at the same time she no longer was this semi enigmatic creature as she was in the first one. The way the book ends is pretty satisfying but I'm not going to be reaching for book three quickly.

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks  I'm a firm believer in being prepared for anything possible and if the dead are going to reanimate I figured I should have a leg up on the rest of my human competition, and my enemy. This is a really interesting (fiction) book giving the reader plenty of excellent well thought out pointers of how one should prepare themselves for and survive a zombie outbreak. He creates a fantastic virus called Solanum that is responsible for creating a zombie and goes on to how it's transferred, and what happens to a person when they are infected. After that the book talks about survival techniques, like what weapons to choose, best modes of transportation, fortresses to build or utilize, and of course the best (and only) way to destroy a zombie forever. This first half of the book is actually really interesting and full of convincing ideas for survival in such a situation. The second half of the book is sort of a let down, it is stories of recorded (fictional) zombie outbreaks in history, some of them were clever but they were short, scattered and vague (obviously since historical details are scant, or a government covered up something). Since I tend to think about things as I'm reading I had a tough time getting over this and moved through the second half pretty slowly. Although if you're into the whole zombie thing, I'm sure you would like it. I would recommend this book to anyone in for a laugh and looking a bit of survival knowledge.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins Mockingjay was a very fitting end to the hunger games saga, there was all sorts of excitement, betrayal, twists, and love. A bit too much love for me though. I really enjoyed this book, there were a few parts that got a bit repetitive and drawn out, but as a whole I hated putting it down. By the time I reached the middle I had a good idea of how it would end, and when it ended, I got sad that there will be no more new books in the series. Good thing I've got the movies! I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes a good adventure now and then. They are quick and enjoyable reads for anyone.

 Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins Ever since reading the first book of this series I've been trying to figure out what book two would be about, in fact, I've asked a bunch of my friends who have read it and all I usually got was a long hmmm, well, I don't want to ruin it for you. After finally reading this book I understand what they meant about that. So I'm not really going to ruin any surprises for anyone. For fans of the first book this is a must read, I will warn though, this book is just a bridge to the third book, which is much easier to predict what it will be about. Catching Fire was really interesting and full of several twists, and a very abrupt ending. I'm very excited to read the third book of this series.

Maus by Art Spiegelman This book was fantastically different. I don't want to call it a graphic novel, because its more like a nicely bound comic book. It is an interesting story of survival of a Jew in Nazi Germany. The best part is the Jews are mice, the Nazi are cats, and everyone else is a pig. It is a captivating story of survival in this awful time to live and I enjoyed the story, but when I closed the book (there was definitely more story to tell) I didn't realize it was part one of two. Which for some reason I'm not excited about reading two books like this, but one is fine. If I had known it was in two parts I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. The drawings aren't very exciting and easy to skip over, just like this book.

Chasing the White Dog by Max Watman Chasing the White Dog was wisely recommended to me because of my interest in all things fermented. I have a special spot in my heart for whiskey (and how to make it) so I had I was very excited about this book. Its a really interesting documentary about moonshine, its history and where it stands now. It starts off talking about how the author made his own still and and attempted crafting his own white lightning. His forays into making moonshine sound a lot like how I would go about it full of disaster, caution, and humor. The historical parts are all really interesting, from George Washington to prohibition and onto modern moonshine cases. Of course a moonshine story isn't complete without a reference to Popcorn Sutton and NASCAR, both get some space in the book. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in prohibition, moonshine, or liquor production. I found it fascinating and I think most of my faithful readers would as well.

Hows my little Christmas Outtake?

Laura and I had fun with our Christmas cards this year.