Charlie Freedom

Another Great i-90 Snowshoe

charliefrench — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Commonwealth basin: about 2.5 miles to great views of the alpine lake wilderness.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/commonwealth-basin-snowshoe

Bomb Digs Tomato Soup

charliefrench — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:06:54 +0000

Double this and call it a day: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/homemade-tomato-soup-recipe/index.html

Ginny Sees Snow for the First Time

charliefrench — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:59:33 +0000

Great snowshoeing trip to Lower Gold Creek Basin with Ginny. Even though the snowman scared her, she had a blast.

Spring Ro’ Fo Sho

charliefrench — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:52:26 +0000

These spring rolls are tasty little guys. Not amazing, but definitely fun to make, especially with guests. I’d serve it with Alton’s sauce at the bottom of the website below or a basic peanut sauce.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/thai-shrimp-spring-rolls-recipe/index.html

Oil Based Banana Bread

charliefrench — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 01:50:06 +0000

Wet ingredients

- 2 eggs

- 1.5 cups of sugar

- 2 teaspoons vanilla

- 2/3 cup of canola oil

- 1/3 cup of greek yogurt

Dry Ingredients (whisk into wet ingredients)

- 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour

- 2 teaspoons of baking soda

- 8 ripe small/medium bananas mashed. Heating them in the microwave briefly helps you mash them.

- Pinch of salt

Do the usual thing and bake at 350 until it is just right inside.

Carrot Cake Bread Pudding

charliefrench — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:16:03 +0000

On a recent vacation, I had the opportunity to eat the moneyest of bread puddings: a carrot cake version. I have no idea how the guy made it, but I’m gonna give it a go using this recipe as a base: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-best-bread-pudding-recipe/index.html. And then I’ll top the sucker with some vanilla mascarpone.

Italian Cauliflower What?

charliefrench — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:08:42 +0000

Tonight I watched an episode of Good Eats on cauliflower. While none of the recipes jumped out at me, the topic did remind me of a recipe I learned from my Italian host father, Fausto. It’s one of those Italian dishes that is so stupid simple that unless you actually ate it, you wouldn’t bother trying to make it. Well trust me, you should try this. And why wouldn’t you? It’s cheap and easy.

Take a chopped up head of cauliflower and steam it in a large pot with a few inches of water. While it’s steaming, take old crusty stale bread and toast it. Peel one clover of garlic for every piece of toast you prepare.

With the cauliflower steamed, place a piece of the toasted bread (aka toast) into a wide bowl. Then grab a clove of garlic and rub it into the toasted bread. It should rub into the bread as easily as butter. Now place a heaping pile of cauliflower on top and then pour some of the cauliflower water onto the whole mess so that the bread gets a little soggy. Finally, top it with the best olive oil money can buy and a little kosher salt. Bob’s your uncle.

Duthie Trip #2

charliefrench — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:05:11 +0000

1 round on bootcamp: first ride of the year and I was rusty.

1 round on step it up: steep banks make this a challenging ride. deserving of its intermediate rating.

1 round on moving on: less banked turns than bootcamp and step it up left me feeling like this was the most natural and authentic pnw trail.

2 rounds on bootcamp: flowed with little breaking in the last sections. felt amazing.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

charliefrench — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:00:12 +0000

Great ice cream – 1 cup cream, 1 cup half and half, 1 cup whole milk. 3/4 cup sugar. Make a custard with 7 egg yolks. Add spirulina for color and a half teaspoon of mint extract to give it its characteristic taste. And then just before hardening, fold in the chocolate chips.

Ants in Trees

charliefrench — Fri, 13 May 2011 03:54:30 +0000

Alton Brown pulled through for once. His Ants in Trees recipe, from a great episode on asian noodle dishes, was terrific. It’s not mind blowingly good or anything, but when evaluating the cost (amount of time and money) and benefit (taste) of the recipe, it’s well worth it. It’s pretty straightforward. Get a pound of pork or beef, 4 oz of rice or bean based asian noodles, and couple condiments and you’re good to go. Now that I think about it, there’s no point in me trying to replicate foodnetwork.com, so here’s the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ants-in-trees-recipe/index.html.