east tn

This summer I’m getting into the “campfire cooking” a little bit, though mostly it involves me trying to roast hot dogs or bake potatoes. My biggest undertaking so far has been a recipe for mac n cheese in a dutch oven, which is another story in itself.

 

Most of these times I find that I have the fire to myself, so I get to do whatever I want, whether its put as much wood as I’d like, or cook/toast anything I prefer to eat. On one such evening, I decided to snap the two hot dogs I had over the fire

 

I use Hebrew National as I don’t eat pork, and the spit was a $2.99, 4-foot length I found at Wal-Mart. It’s real handy so you don’t have to be right next to the fire, I recommend a long one if you’re out at the fire frequently.

 

Otherwise, came out great. The fat from the hot dog crusted and toasted nicely, and the both hot dogs tasted wonderful.

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So I tried to make my own frappe thing based from ingredients in the store. I have caramel syrup in the coffee, then topped it off with whipped creamed and caramel drizzle. It didn’t taste too bad, but I found that the caramel syrup didn’t taste at all like the caramel in the drizzle, and the whipped cream did leave a bit of a miss. Overall not a bad concoction.

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When people ask me what I do to relax to sleep or get in the mood for writing, they’re often shocked when they hear my response. Most likely because they don’t hear me say I need to lock myself in a corner of a room with a blanket, or whatever a typical introvert would say.

Apparently going out into public to write is such a big shocker.

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Unlike last year, I actually took some time to properly decorate my office space now that construction was done more or less. Since I did have a fair amount of work this month, I especially tried to make sure it looked real Christmas-y around the workstation, and even had a garland going around under the monitors! And while I did set up the community tree, I didn’t get to do anything community with it this year, unfortunately. I’ll try to do better next time!

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In 2005, I was basking in the sudden influx of uninterrupted Internet access at Walters State Community College. DeviantArt was my 2nd go-to place, I was getting a lot more writing done and I could use the Internet without having to bother what my parents would say.

A lot of time would be spent here. Hours beyond than what I usually needed to be at school. All because I didn’t have a proper computer at home, and didn’t have free Internet access.

It was one afternoon in early fall of 2007, I had joined a forum and discovered by the name of Game Maker. The people of the forum had recommended it to me when I have voiced how I wanted to make a game. I figured that I would bomb at computer programming since I had failed Visual Basic a semester before. What harm would it be to fool around with it?

Turns out I was wrong.

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Took this a short bit ago, this mushroom had sprouted randomly in the yard next to the shed. Dad didn’t mow it over, letting me look at it first.

 

I can say with certainty I’ve not seen a mushroom this big, especially close to the house. I definitely think it’s in the Amanita category; while it’s not the color, the 2nd biggest mushroom on the property was an Amanita of some sort, and has the same patching on top. So fairly accurate in the ID, I think.

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This is the second time I’m grilling this dish, and I think wings are going to be my favorite thing to be grilling this summer. Had to snap this shot to show you how they’re coming along under my care, almost ready to come off.

 

These are dry rub, and I use this spice rub from Puckett’s, specifically the Chicken/grill rub. Works pretty well, gives some heat but most of all that savory, salty flavor. When that hits the oil, makes you feel like you found a hole in the wall place while on an urban walkabout.

 

If I grill more stuff, I’ll definitely share them with you as the season goes on.

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Decided to snap my breakfast this morning, as I don’t think I’ve shared you guys how my Mom’s blueberry goop syrup looks on pancakes. Something like this.

 

Not sure of the exact ingredients, but frozen blueberries are used. I think in this case a little bit of blackberries were used as well. Then some sugar was added for the final effect. Definitely better than the sweet butter syrup in my opinion.

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This is another of those “grab a photo to show Dave what I’m eating”, which then works for all of you to see what I’m also eating. Win-win both ways.

 

On this Friday night I show you what’s for dinner, spicy dal and very well-made roti. It’s a simplistic but very tasty dish. There’s also some chutney in there for added tang; you can’t go wrong with this combination.

 

Suffice to say Dave was very pleased. He’s now claiming we need to mix bratwurst with roti and have a combination/cross-cultural cook off one of these days. That actually sounds very enticing.

 

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