muse | no muse

Earlier this year, I decided that we needed a garden. Our home included a 200 square foot flower bed that was moving steadily towards total reclamation by aggressive, thorn ridden, noxious plant life. People who know me weren't surprised by the weed cultivation -- I insisted for several years that the back yard was xeriscaped with native plant life prior to Nat ordering sod. I spent several weekends and evenings digging out the undesirable material, tilling in compost, busting sod, and removing galvanized sprinkler pipe with my trusty sidekick. We started with eleven 9 foot rows over approximately 24 feet of garden.

Technorati Tags: black raspberries, boysenberries, cole, garden, jalapenos, lentils, pumpkins, raspberries, red bell peppers, roma tomatoes, tomatillos, yukon gold potatoes

Continue reading "how does your garden grow" »

Posted by jack hattaway at 5:07 PM | Permalink

My buddy Chuck popped in for a few hours on Sunday last to set the tile on the back splash beneath the cabinets on the south wall of the kitchen. The results are impressive.

Previous to our back splash session, FedEx finally managed to deliver the cabinets for my island without destroying or losing them. The island is quickly becoming space which I long to use. Once the cabinets were in place, I realized I had room for a bar overhang on the east end of the island. Chuck converted some 8/4 maple into corbels for me. The corbels turned out great and will be even better once I figure out how to stain them. In the near future, Chuck and I will need to set the beveled edge pieces over the exposed cabinet cap (the perforated metal below the marble visible on the island).

On President's Day, my buddy Erik phoned for help moving a dresser he and Debbie purchased from a local furniture store. While waiting for some muscle to pull his order, I found and purchased the hutch below. It goes incredibly well with the rest of the kitchen.

back to the babble

back to the babble

back to the babble

Posted by jack hattaway at 6:53 PM | Permalink

My very good friend Erik married Debbie yesterday in Moroni, UT. I volunteered to make a wedding cake and had fun figuring out the basics of wedding cake production. Debbie selected a cake design and I attempted an implementation.

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The kitchen is primed.

I am incapable of creating invisible sheetrock seams. The next floating job is getting hired out. End of story.

Posted by jack hattaway at 1:35 PM | Permalink

Floating sheetrock is not one of my favorite activities. Given the amount of time I spend dabbling in the kitchen, however, Nat and I are taking as long as the process requires to get the sheetrock seams as disappeared as possible.

Posted by jack hattaway at 6:42 PM | Permalink

And there was sheetrock.

Continue reading "kitchen in the rough" »

Posted by jack hattaway at 2:07 PM | Permalink

Nat observed that I had not taken any photos of the current self-inflicted house project as it progressed. I suspect my neglect is likely associated with the hours I've been keeping on the project.

Continue reading "the kitchen goes missing" »

Posted by jack hattaway at 1:17 PM | Permalink

Several years ago, while working for a company in Orem, Utah, I was taken to the Thai Chili Garden for my first exposure to thai food. I started with Pad Thai and quickly worked my way into Spicey Pad Ped before taking the plunge into thai curries. I fell quite in love with mussamun curry. I queried the proprietors for their recipe without success and I googled for potential recipes as well. I finally found a recipe which looked promising.

After investing well over $50 in exotic ingredients and spending several hours grinding whole spices by hand with a mortar and pestle, I rustled up the worst approximation of mussamun imaginable and terminated my efforts to make this thai dish at home.

Then, a few months ago, Nancie McDermott's Real Thai caught my eye as I was doing some poking for information on sourdough bread in the cooking section of a local Barnes & Noble. I bought Nancie's book and worked up the wherewithal for another attempt over the next few weeks.

The mussamun was exquisite. It is also labor intensive and I better understand why it is a special occasion curry in Thailand.

Do to my lifestyle changes earlier this year, I've had to make adjustments to the recipes from Real Thai. I've noted the omissions and substitutions at the end of each of the applicable recipes linked below.

mussamun curry paste
tamarind liquid
mussamun curry

Posted by jack hattaway at 1:12 PM | Permalink