Just another guy with a photoblog. Feel free to follow along as I work on various hobbies and projects around the house.
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Recent posts
It’s been a few months since the wife and I cut the cable cord. We’ve gotten into a new groove with media consumption and I thought I’d post an update for those who are considering making the move. Plus, everyone who comes over to our house wants to know all about the Roku, so I’ll get into that below. Not much has really changed The wife and I have always watched more films than TV shows (I’m not a big fan of lawyer/doctor/cop/reality shows). After cutting the cord, we still watch just about everything that we used to watch. In that sense, the conversion has been a success. But our set-up has some drawbacks. The Roku 2 XS has been great little device for connecting streaming apps to our HDTV. It works seamlessly with the biggest and best services...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 2 weeks 2 days ago.
There are several drawbacks to being married to a someone who hosts sewing lessons in our home, but one of the benefits is that I get to ask for the occasional favor. For instance, I have a little Roland Micro-Cube practice amp that’s a whole lot easier to cart back and forth to the garage than my 57-pound Hot Rod Deluxe. The problem is that it’s a pain to carry the guitar case, the amp, and all of the wires that are necessary to make my noise. So I had the wife create some amp pockets so that the system is self-contained and I can carry everything in one trip. How cool is that? Now, if only I could play better…...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 6 weeks 1 day ago.
I’ve never liked brussels sprouts. It’s probably because I didn’t eat them growing up and have rarely had good ones since. Brussels sprouts are cruciferious vegetables along with cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. I’ve developed a real affinity for caramelized cauliflower and roasted broccoli, and I like to grill some bok choy as a side for my barbecue, so I figured I’d try to roast some brussels sprouts as well. The results were better than I hoped...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 6 weeks 3 days ago.
My Creamy Pimento Cheese recipe makes almost 2 quarts of the delectable southern spread. I usually make it for guests, but I also make it for the wife when she’s craving some. In those situations, there’s always a good amount left over. I try to be creative with the ways I incorporate it into other dishes. We make things like pimento cheese grits, pimento cheese burgers, and pimento cheese omelets. But my favorite way to finish off the leftovers is to make jalapeño poppers. Do you remember when I wrote about my weight management regimen last month? This has nothing to do with that. It’s also so easy that I’m not going to write out an ingredients list. Just buy a bunch of jalapeño peppers—the bigger the better. Split and seed them...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 7 weeks 4 days ago.
I’ve been experimenting with white pizzas lately. White pizza is a northern, olive-oil based pie that’s made its way south with the growing prevalence of NY-style pizzerias. It can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. I still haven’t mastered the art of making good pizza crust. Much of my disappointment stems from the fact that I can’t replicate a domed, brick oven at home. There are all kinds of hacks to superheat the top of a conventional oven, and I’ve tried some of them, but this pizza is good with store-bought crust as well. That’s all you need for this recipe. These pictures were a bit of an afterthought late one night last week, so they’re not very good. I was just so pleased with the results that I thought I’d write down the precise cooking process before I forgot...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 7 weeks 5 days ago.
Last week, I blogged about my trip to the Pacific Northwest: The wife and I recently took a business/pleasure trip to the Pacific Northwest. The business part consisted of the wife competing for a spot on Sew It All TV at an expo near Tacoma, Washington. After that was over, we drove to Gig Harbor on Puget Sound to have dinner and drinks. The next day, we headed down to Portland, Oregon, where we took in the downtown sights and toured the Lan Su Chinese Garden. We spent the next couple of days exploring Seattle before flying back home to a very welcome three-day weekend. The wife has posted some pictures and a summary of her experience at the Sew It All TV Casting Call over at her Project Blog...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 8 weeks 4 days ago.
The wife and I love wiener schnitzel. Every couple of months, I’ll wreck the kitchen by preparing a table full of schnitzel, spaetzle (mini dumplings), sweet and sour cabbage, and German-style potato salad. My only problem with schnitzel is that veal is so expensive. And when you’re buying scallopini, you pay even more for less. At some point—I’m not really sure when—I stopped using veal in my recipe altogether. Frying foods is a bit of a production. If you’re going to go through the hassle of pounding and breading meat, then you may as well make a lot of it. Since I rarely feel like dropping $60 on veal for a big dinner, I’ve started using pork instead. Actually, I use cube pork steaks instead of pork loin. It has more fat, more flavor, is already tenderized, and it’s cheap...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 8 weeks 5 days ago.
When the wife and I were at the Lu San Chinese Garden in Portland, we sat down for some tea and snacks. I ordered a marbled tea egg, which is an egg that’s been hard-boiled and simmered in a mixture of tea and soy sauce and other aromatics. I thought it was delicious and decided I’d try to make some myself. Apparently, The marbled tea egg is the Chinese equivalent of the American hot dog. It’s sold in malls, at sporting events, and on street corners. I can’t decide if that would smell better or worse than onions, relish, and sauerkraut. I should start off by admitting that I’m not a big fan of hard-boiled eggs. Being a southerner, deviled eggs have been shoved in my face at every get-together since birth...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 8 weeks 6 days ago.
Here’s a six-minute video from Mental Floss debunking 50 common misconceptions. I’ve encountered most of these misconceptions at some point in my life, mostly in elementary school. Sadly, I was taught several of these by my teachers...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 9 weeks 15 hours ago.
A year or so ago, the wife went to the farmers’ market with me. That’s a very rare occurrence since she hates grocery shopping the way I hate being stranded in large department stores, forced to “watch the cart while I try this on.” Anyway, she bagged a couple of pounds of fresh green/string beans while I was in the cooler doing something or other. She asked how I usually like to prepare them, and I replied, “from a can.” She decided she would cook them herself. She dug up this recipe from the Pioneer Woman’s blog and we both liked the way it turned out. Ever since then, she’s been willing to step up to the plate (pun intended) and cook these green beans whenever I buy them fresh...
read more at Chad Chandler's Blog Posted 9 weeks 2 days ago.