Dance After Dark Photography

Getting back into the kitchen tonight was great. My fingers normally smell like garlic after I’ve been cooking, but I went easy on the garlic this time. Instead, I smell like pumpkin pie.

I’ve been trying to watch An Affair to Remember all day. I started it this morning but had so many interruptions that I decided to hold off until after dinner. I’m on my fourth phone call, two of them coming from my mother who’s two doors down. (Aggravated? No, of course not. I’m a bad liar, too.) I’ve never actually seen this movie, despite my reverence for Cary Grant’s movies. My favorite is still To Catch a Thief.

I took mom to visit Grandpa Wilson today. He looks good. He’s wearing normal clothes now instead of the hospital gowns. He walked 72 feet today, so he’s getting closer and closer to the 100 ft goal that means he can go home. He seemed in pretty high spirits, too — cracking jokes with us and flirting with his favorite nurse, Dana.

Mom and I went to Polonia for lunch before visiting Grandpa. I got chicken paprikash, which was excellent. My favorite dish is still their smoked kielbasa & sauerkraut platter, but I’m trying to explore the rest of the menu.

Last night’s sweet potato experiment got me thinking, and then at the farmer’s market today there were some insanely cheap sweet potatoes. The Universe was speaking to me. I had no choice.

2 chicken breasts
1 vidalia onion, frenched
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp five spice powder
2 large sweet potatoes, sliced 1/4″ thick
pumpkin pie seasoning (or allspice & cinnamon)
canola oil
kosher salt

First I began by frenching the onion. Get your minds out of the gutter. It’s a culinary technique wherein you cut the onion in half and then slice thin wedges off.

I peeled the sweet potatoes and cut them into thin rounds. I say 1/4″ thick, but it was a little thinner than that. The pieces that came out 1/8″ thick tended to curl in the pan, but I really didn’t want to be so specific as to recommend 3/16 of an inch.

I used a plastic zipper bag to coat the sweet potatoes with oil & spices. I did it in small batches, about 1/4 of each potato at a time with a dash of oil and a dash of pumpkin pie spice. Then I’d squeeze out the air, close the bag, and squish it around to coat. That’s about the same amount of potato I can fit into the pan at one time, so I’d be working on the next batch while the first batch cooked.

Since they’re cut thinner, the potatoes took 3-4 minutes per side on medium-high heat. I didn’t salt the potatoes themselves. Instead, I sprinkled kosher salt in the pan before adding each batch of potatoes. They’re best when crisp, too, so if you want to be truly dedicated you can remove them from the pan and put them on wire cookie racks to cool.

While the sweet potatoes cooked, I cut the chicken into strips. 2 breasts should make 6-8 strips. Be sure to trim off any tendons or otherwise inedible bits. In a large bowl, I liberally coated the chicken with canola oil. In a separate cup, I mixed together the cumin, ancho chile powder, garlic powder, five spice powder, and about 1 tsp kosher salt. I mixed it all together to coat the chicken and set it aside.

Once the last of the potatoes were done, I put the chicken in the pan. I had 8 strips, so I did 4 at a time. Again, I salted the pan first. Add the chicken, and then DON’T TOUCH IT for at least 3 minutes. I averaged 3.5 minutes per side, but that’ll depend on how thick you cut your chicken strips.

As the last batch of chicken was cooking, I took my frenched onion and threw it into the now-empty chicken bowl. I tossed the onion around with my tongs to coat it with the remaining oil & spices. Once the chicken was done and set aside, I threw the onions in the pan & let them sear and sweeten. You just have to be sure to cook long enough to kill any nasty things that were lurking on the raw chicken. Maybe 4 minutes, with lots of stirring.

Last, but not least, I pushed the onions to the sides of the pan and used a little water to deglaze. Normally I’d use wine or chicken broth, but I was lazy and didn’t want to change the flavors I’d already created. Even without any thickener, I wound up with gooey brown goodness coating the onions.

The chicken came out crispy and golden-brown. The cumin I used was Indian rather than Mexican, so it has a fruity aroma to go with the smoky flavor. The cloves from the five spice powder helped to set that off. Even though the sweet potatoes rocked mightily, the chicken was the star tonight. I intended to make a salad to go with all that wonderful meat & starch, but as usual I forgot.

I wanted to try something a little different tonight. I prepared the tilapia in my typical manner, but in an effort to avoid my traditional starches (i.e. rice, mashed potatoes, or pasta) I decided to use sweet potatoes. I’m very happy with the way things turned out.

4 tilapia filets (approx)
1/8 cup canola oil
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup rice wine vinegar
dash lime juice
kosher salt

1 large sweet potato, sliced in 1/4″ rounds
1 sweet vidalia onion, thinly sliced
radishes (an experiment)
kosher salt

I set the tilapia to marinate in the ingredients listed above. Sometimes I add garlic or garlic powder, but I left it out this time. The tilapia needs about 15 minutes at room temperature. While waiting, I set a large skillet on medium-high heat and started slicing the sweet potatoes. I cut them in half, ran the knife down the sides to remove the skin, and then cut across to create 1/4″ rounds. The biggest slices, I cut in half. Put in a bowl with canola oil, and toss to coat. Ditto on the radishes, which I just sliced thinly.

Sprinkle kosher salt into the now-hot pan, and add the sweet potato slices in a single, flat layer. I had to do two batches on the sweet potatoes so I wouldn’t overcrowd the pan. 5 minutes on each side, and they’d seared nicely. When I started batch #2, I also set the 2nd pan for the tilapia to preheat at med-high. I included the radishes in the last batch and turned them a little sooner. I think 2 minutes per side for them.

Once the sweet potatoes and radishes were done, I took ‘em out and added the onions to the same pan with a dash more canola oil. There was enough residual salt in the pan that I didn’t need to add more. Cook the onions over med-high heat for about 6 minutes, stirring only occasionally so they would char as well as sweeten.

When I began the onions I also began cooking the tilapia, 2 filets at a time. Sprinkle the pan with kosher salt first, and let the fish drip dry before adding to the pan. About 2 - 2.5 minutes per side, with the thicker half toward the center to get the higher heat. After all the fish was done, I poured the leftover marinade into the pan and let it reduce, stirring to get the crunchy bits off the bottom. Once it cooked down, I poured it over the tilapia filets.

Voila! Much happiness! The sweet potatoes were very popular. In retrospect, I might add something else next time. A dash of cinnamon, maybe a little nutmeg. They’d be like crispy little slices of pumpkin pie heaven. The radishes were very peppery when raw, but cooking made them a little milder. They would have been great with a ranch dipping sauce. The fish was excellent, as always. And, of course, I remain humble about my culinary mastery. *grin*

Daniel and I went to see Balls of Fury tonight. I thought it would be funny. I didn’t expect to be alternately cracking up and giggling like a little girl throughout the whole film. I came into it eagerly awaiting Walken to ham it up, but I really think James Hong (a.k.a. Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China) stole the show. You must see this movie. Expect silliness, and expect to laugh your arse off. Also expect to fall in love (or lust, at least) with Maggie Q.

Is it just me, or is Sheboygan more fun to pronounce than it is to visit?

Just an impression. I’ve never been there or anywhere else in Wisconsin. I’m just saying.

Alt title: Again with the alligators?

Today I set off in search of the Silver River. The plan was to put in at Ray Wayside Park in/near Ocala, paddle upstream on the Ocklawaha River to the Silver River, and then follow that to Silver Springs. I looked up directions online. I looked a lot. In fact, I was supposed to go on Monday, so I’ve got the whole route memorized.

How I managed to NOT find the Silver River, then, is beyond me. What’s worse, I could barely get out of Eustis. It’s like the Universe twisted in upon itself. I’d take the correct turn according to my directions, the street signs, and my own impeccable Zen Driving Skills. All signs and portents agreed that I was headed in the right direction, but somehow I kept getting turned around (without making any turns) and hitting 441 right back in Eustis or Leesburg.

The short version of the story is that after an hour and a half of increasing frustration with the obvious geographic instability and with the incredibly slow traffic around me, I gave up. I had already resigned myself to heading north on 441 and taking the long way to Ocala, but nature stepped in and changed my mind. The forecast said there was only a 10% chance of rain, so when the sky opened up and spat forth a deluge as I made my 4th turn onto 441 North… Well, I’ll take that as a sign. Of course, being stuck with other cars that would only occasionally reach 25-35mph played a part in my decision. The interminable construction zones helped, too.

As a default backup plan, I went out on the Wekiva. This time I headed north and explored the Lower Wekiva instead of heading south, back toward the springs. I’m not sure I’ll do that solo again. It was very pretty, but I saw several very large alligators. I’ve seen big ones before, but in the Upper Wekiva there’s more boat traffic. The gators tend to be smaller. The Lower Wekiva is narrower, which means both fewer boats and less room for me to get by without risking a reptilian confrontation.

I have no clue how far I went today. It took me an hour and a half to get back against the current, so I’d estimate the total round trip at 9-10 miles. If you go in a straight line, it’s 5 miles from where I put in to the St Johns River. The Wekiva does not go in a straight line. About a mile before the St Johns, the Wekiva broadens out again. I didn’t make it that far, but I think I came close.

What prompted me to turn around was the biggest alligator I’ve ever seen. Well, the biggest one I’ve seen outside of a zoo. I was drifting along silently, taking pictures of an ibis and a cormorant. I drifted past a log that reached halfway out into the river, and on the other side of the log was a mud embankment. Upon said embankment rested the extremely huge alligator. He saw me first. I was looking the other way, and I only turned when he bulled into the water. Because of the mass quantities of water being thrown about, the only part I saw was his tail.

Did I take a picture? Noooo. I dropped the camera (with the strap around my neck, thankfully) and snatched up the paddle, brandishing it as if it were a spear and screaming my fearsome battle cry: “WHAAAaaahuh?”

A few seconds later, I saw his head resurface about 100ft upstream. I’m not kidding when I say that his head was the size of my torso. You’d think I would have turned around at this point, but I decided to keep going for two reasons. Three if you count stupidity. First, I didn’t want to turn my back on the alligator. It was obviously scared of me, but it didn’t go all that far away. It’s as if the gator paused and thought, “Wait… Is he tasty?” Second, turning would have been a very slow process because of the narrow stretch between downed tree and opposite bank.

I splashed as much as I could and put on some serious speed, zooming past the gator as it shrank back under the roots of an overturned cypress. I continued slowly exploring for about an hour before I ran into another gator in a similarly narrow and confined space. I decided I’d had enough, so I very noisily made my way back upstream.

I forgot to bring my sunblock and sunglasses, so my only protection was my very silly, very floppy hat. No, you will not see pictures of it. My shoulders are pretty crispy. Downstream I made as much use of the shade along each bank as possible, but after encountering 5 alligators I opted to keep to the center of the river instead.

I’m watching Pathfinder right now, and I’m wondering why. I didn’t pay for the rental, so I’m not terribly upset. Most of my frustration comes from obvious fallacies in the movie, some of which are pretty standard fantasy conventions.

The hero finds a sword in woods, so of course he teaches himself to use it. Of course he’s better with it than Viking warriors who’ve fought their entire lives.

The Viking baddies in this movie are supposed to be settlers, but there are no women. They brought horses, but they didn’t bring women. (No comment.) Never mind the fact that they should’ve had room for both in the huge wooden boat that Vikings didn’t actually build. These guys all look like an album cover from Molly Hatchet rather than anything remotely historically accurate.

When an enemy pops out of the river in front of you, you should strike down at him. Under no circumstances should you swing horizontally, well above his head even if he weren’t still ducking, so that he can easily gut you.

In the snowboarding scene (yes, there’s a snowboarding scene), the hulking Viking warriors with their armor and big sleds that they just happened to have handy slide down the snow-covered mountain at the same speed or slower than a much smaller, half-naked teen sliding belly-down on a stolen shield.

Since when do action movies have to be dumb? I know you’re supposed to suspend disbelief, but help me out! I can’t do all the work.

I’m in line at the video store, turning in a few movies to get free rentals, when I spot this poorly written sign over the credit/debit card reader.

“Penisbroken. Pleaseusefinger.”

It’s not my fault. They squeezed it all together.

I’ve been listening to the Finnish folk group Värttinä for quite a while now. I no longer remember how I found their music, but I’m very glad I did. I like a large number of their songs, even though I don’t speak a word of the language. Two of my favorites have risen higher in my esteem now that I’ve found the group’s website and the song lyrics. Some of their songs and translated in their entirety. These weren’t, but at least now I know the general idea.

Oi Dai
I think the title means “I Wish,” and the song comes from the album of the same name. It’s a song of homesickness. Think Medieval Baebes in Finnish.

Äijö
There are two published versions of this song. The tame studio recording comes from this album, Ilmatar. The video of the live recording is much more… spirited. The song is about an old coot (their word) who gets bitten by a snake and uses spells and incantations to counteract the poison and take revenge on the snake. I heard the live recording first, and I knew it had something to do with witchery. You’ll understand when you hear it.

You know you want to. Beautiful blonde Finnish women singing and rocking out with tambourines. How can you resist?

On Thursday afternoon my grandfather fell and broke his hip. He lives in Pierson, pretty isolated from other houses, and he was outside at the time. No one heard him yelling, so he had to set off the truck alarm to get Genie’s attention. (My step-grandmother.)

Yesterday they operated. They didn’t need to replace his hip, thankfully. They put in pins instead. The only complication now is that he aspirated some fluid during the surgery, so with fluid in his lungs there’s a chance of pneumonia. Took him a while to wake up after the anesthesia, too, and I think this was the first major surgery he’s ever had. Those factors kept him in ICU last night.

I’ll be taking mom tonight to see him. The last time we saw Grandpa was for his birthday a few months ago. For those of you paying attention, this is the grandfather who sounds like Foghorn Leghorn.