Currently playing on my computer (tune in: pls, asx)
Sat, 06 Mar 2010
Eliana's 6-yr-old Birthday Party with Friends
Eliana turns 6 this year. To celebrate, she asked for a "tea party"
themed birthday party with her friends. Her first gift was from us,
a brand new tea party dress and hat. She was very happy and smiling
widely after putting on the new dress:
Kristy kept the party pretty simple. We set up just two
tables (in the garage): one table for an activity/craft,
and a second table for the tea party lunch Eliana is hosting.
Her friends were asked to attend in a fancy tea party dress and
bring their favorite doll. Here is a picture of each of the
guests:
Before lunch was served, Eliana and her friends used special markers
to decorate white tea cups. After the marker dries, the tea cups are
baked to set the ink. The kids had a lot of fun.
Time for tea!
Fortunately, the very best waiters were available for the tea party.
Time for dessert! And there was plenty to go around, including
petit fours, macaroons, mini cream puffs, divinity, and chocolate
covered Oreos.
Before dessert could be served though, there was the small
matter of the birthday song and blowing out the candles.
After dessert, the presents were opened. Each guest posed with
Eliana for a quick picture:
:: Posted by rus on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:17 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2010
Sometimes Less is More
A few days ago I posted an article about making
better
bread with less kneading. As I confessed in my comments
on the article, I don't always knead my wheaty heartier bread
doughs to "windowpane" status. My
stand
mixer has a handy timer on it that I just set for 10, 12, or
15 minutes. Today I went down to 8 minutes (daring I know!),
yet the final product was just as lovely and tasty as any loaf
I have baked in the past. Check it out:
:: Posted by rus on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:01 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2010
Madeleines
While we were in Paris, the kids quickly developed their
favorite pastries and/or confections to eat. For Eliana
it was a chocolate éclair, Berkeley loved the pain
au chocolate, and Olivia could devour several
madeleines
in one sitting. I don't think I have the patience to make
the former two desserts, but madeleines are simple to
prepare. Today, the
Chicago
Metallic nonstick madeleine pan I ordered from amazon
showed up at the doorstep. On the pan's packaging was
printed this recipe... I thought I should preserve it
before I toss the cardboard in the recycling bin.
⅔ cup flour
¼ tsp baking powder
½ cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup powdered sugar
For orange madeleines:
½ tsp orange extract
½ tsp orange peel
or
For lemon madeleines:
½ tsp lemon extract
½ tsp lemon peel
or
For strawberry madeleines:
½ tsp strawberry flavoring
1 tbs finely chopped strawberry rind
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray pan with PAM or other non-stick
spray. Sift together flour and baking power in a small bowl. Set
aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs, orange extract,
orange peel (or alternate flavoring) on high speed for 5 minutes.
Gradually beat in powered sugar. Beat another 5 minutes or until
thick.
Gently fold in flour mixture, then melted butter. Mix until
smooth. Spoon the mixture into the cups, filling about ¾
full. Bake approximately 8 minutes, or until edges are light brown.
Cool in the pan around 1-2 minutes. Loosen cookies with a knife,
then invert pan on a rack. When cool, sprinkle the tops with
powdered sugar.
Note: almond extract and finely ground almonds can also be used
as a flavoring, but I'm allergic to almonds so that is right out
for me.
Editing RAW Images on Linux
I have a confession. I almost never shoot RAW. However, after
reading a bunch of articles (and chatting with a few folks
that are far better protographers than I am), I downloaded
several RAW processing software packages that are available
on the Linux platform (one of which is bundled with a plugin
for GIMP), these include:
UFRaw,
Raw Therapee, and
RawStudio.
Of these, Raw Therapee is the most feature-rich IMHO, but
UFRaw works right inside of GIMP. I'll probably end up
using both for awhile until I get a better feel for them
and then pick one or the other.
I shot a picture today in the RAW, which I then processed
using Raw Therapee to convert it into a JPG. I then
post-processed the JPG using GIMP. That is my workflow
right now - a bit clumsy, but it works. See below...
viva springtime!
(Update Fri Mar 12 16:39:56 PST 2010 // I'm using Raw Therapee almost exclusively now.)
:: Posted by rus on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:33 pm
:: Filed under /photography
February 2010 Photos
The February 2010 photo galleries for Berkeley, Eliana, and Olivia are
now closed. We took quite a few pictures in February... both abroad
while vacationing in Paris
and here at home. The galleries can be reviewed at
Berkeley's web site,
Eliana's web site,
and Olivia's web site.
Or just access the galleries directly using the following links:
WHEN I started making bread back in the 1970s, whether an establishment
loaf from James Beard’s “Beard on Bread”
or a countercultural one from “The Tassajara Bread
Book,” it was a hands-on workout, kneading a stiff, elastic
dough for what felt like a very long 10 to 15 minutes.
[...]
Labor-saving bread books are nothing new, but the current crop includes
several by respected professional bakers, and a consensus that kneading
just isn’t necessary for good homemade bread. Most proclaim
the virtues of doughs that are too wet and sticky to knead, nothing
like the resilient doughs of the past. What happened to the idea that
prolonged kneading works a dough’s gluten proteins into
alignment, making it more elastic and capable of rising higher into a
lighter loaf? Is it really true that less work can make better bread?
To find out, I baked variations on the same loaves daily for a few
weeks — firm and wet, kneaded and not. Then I got a
professional’s perspective from Michel Suas, founder of the
San Francisco Baking Institute, a school nearby.
[...]
Several things became clear from my experiments. Wet, unkneaded doughs
can make very good bread. Manipulating them for 10 to 15 minutes
usually didn’t affect the results. Firm doughs do benefit
from a few minutes of kneading, but only because it helps mix the flour
evenly with the smaller proportion of water. Prolonged kneading
didn’t make much difference in the finished loaves.
So why did we ever bother to knead? Mr. Suas explained that like
supermarket breads today, homemade bread in the 1970s was modeled on
English pan loaves, with a tight, even, fine-grained interior ideal for
tidy sandwiches.
A firm, well-kneaded dough makes good sandwich bread, but not the open,
irregular interiors of “rustic” loaves now in
vogue. These are best made, Mr. Suas said, with a looser, wetter dough
and gentler handling to preserve the pockets of gas from the yeast
fermentation. The elastic gluten network develops slowly as the dough
rises, and the baker helps out by occasionally lifting the dough edges
and folding them over.
Some wet doughs can still benefit from kneading. [...] Whole grains
tend to absorb more water and produce weaker gluten networks, and I
found that kneading, [...] gave a lighter, loftier loaf.
I wasn’t happy with all the wet doughs I tried. While some
held their shape and baked into beautiful loaves, others would flatten
out and turn themselves into something like a focaccia, with a thin
crust and a coarse interior that seemed more gummy than bready.
Mr. Suas said that these disappointing recipes were too wet.
“Water doesn’t give you any flavor or structure,
so enough to hold the flour together is enough,” he told me.
“Any more and you don’t get bread, you get thick
blini.
e recommended choosing recipes under 75 percent hydration: a weight of
water that is 75 percent or less the weight of the flour. (A calculator
is handy for understanding baking.) His favorite hydration for a
workable dough that produces a well-aerated, crusty loaf is 68 percent.
Some recipes that I tested exceeded 90 percent. James
Beard’s basic loaf was 60 percent.
[...]
Look for recipes that give ingredient weights, and avoid measuring in
cups and spoons, which include variable amounts of empty space. This
will also let you calculate dough hydrations and avoid overly wet
recipes. Just divide the total liquid weight by the total flour weight,
and if the answer is much above 0.75, expect a relatively flat loaf.
If your bread comes out bland, as a number of mine were, check the
salt, which is essential for good aroma as well as taste. Mr. Suas said
wet doughs need more salt than firm ones, around 2 percent of the flour
weight. [...]
It’s easier to get a good oven rise and an open, airy
interior with elongated loaves or small rolls instead of a large round
loaf. These shapes also give you more surface area for a flavorful
crust.
And there’s nothing like cutting into a loaf of bread
you’ve just made and seeing the signs of its exuberant rise
captured in every slice.
I have to admit that I don't always follow
my own advice when kneading my own sourdough breads. In fact, more
often than not I will not knead my bread dough enough to pass the
"windowpane test". I typically will knead my breads anywhere from
10 to 15 minutes. For doughs that are "lighter" (white flour only),
this is typically enough time to create a very elastic and soft
dough that will "windowpane" just fine. However, for any recipes
that include whole wheat flour, I usually end up with an
"underdeveloped" dough that looks a lot like the one featured in
the NY Times article (above). So, I feel that this article somewhat
vindicates my own laziness.
:: Posted by rus on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:46 pm
:: Filed under /links/baking
Ward Game Night
Here are some pictures that a friend took of our kids at the Ward
Game Night. It was a good time. We rented an inflatable for the
kids, played rock band on the stage, and various board games on
tables set around and about in the gym. The kids had loads of
fun.
:: Posted by rus on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:56 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2010
Eliana Showing Off Her Smile
I was just playing around with the camera this afternoon (shooting
RAW) and took this photo of Eliana. She was doing her best to show
off her smile, but she has had very low energy since we returned
from Paris... she may still be affected by the jet lag. Still pretty:
:: Posted by rus on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:59 pm
:: Filed under /daily_journal/2010
Finally got around to seeing the 4th installment of the
Terminator series tonight:
Terminator
Salvation. I'm not a huge fan of the
series as I am loathe to embrace sci-fi that is based
on the paradox of time-travel (one must have scientific
principles after all!). But, if you ignore the
far-fetched nature of the series' mythology and you
consider that this movie pretty much stays in one time,
then it ain't that bad. The movies occurs in the year
2018, when a small rag-tag group of rebels are waging an
asymetrical war against an overpowering army of
various versions of robot Terminators. (There is even a
digital-film reproduction of the original Arnold
Schwarzenegger Terminator!)
Using a low, scratchy voice for dramatic effect, Christian
Bales does his best impression of Batman, er... I mean John
Conner, to lead the rebels in their
assault aginst the main robot base located in the
silicon valley area of San Francisco. Connor must also
find the young man that will become his future father (or
is it past father?) who has been taken prisoner.
Erstwhile, a new Terminator emerges who is part human
(complete with a human heart and other organs) and is
infiltrating the rebels (or is he?). Well, I'll spoil it,
the Terminator really has a heart (*sniff*) and turns on
his creators in defense of his fellow(?) human soldiers.
Not compelling stuff... but the action and special effects
were top notch.
:: Posted by rus on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:55 pm
:: Filed under /reviews/movies
Tutorial: Exposure Blending Using GIMP
While traveling in Paris, I took some bracketed exposures of
interesting architectural features with the intent of combining
them into an HDR photo.
Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the "RAW+JPG" setting on my
camera. Oops. But I still have the three different exposures
of the images.... but just in JPG format. So I did a little
research and found a very handy
exposure
blending plug-in for GIMP that will blend three different
exposures... it is super simple and super easy to use.
First you need three different exposures of the same scene: one
short, one normal, and one long. Like these three:
To blend three different exposures into one in the GIMP, first download and
install JD
Smith's exposure blending plug-in. Restart GIMP and perform the
following steps:
Step 1. Create the In the main GIMP
toolbox, click on the "Xtns" menu and then hover over the
"Photo ▶" menu item until the "Photo" sub-menu items are
showing. Click on the "Exposure Blend..." sub-menu item (shown in the
screen capture at right) to open the "Exposure Blend" dialog box.
Step 2. In the "Exposure Blend" dialog box, select the three
exposures using the file browser buttons and then review the options
available for building the blended image. It may be helpful to read the
documentation
about the options and then play around with options to get a feel for
how tweaking the settings affects the final composite image. After
adjusting the settings (or leaving them alone), click on the "OK"
button to build the blended image.
Step 3. The blended image will include three layers: "bright",
"dark", and "normal". The base layer will be the normally exposed
image. The "bright" and "dark" layers will be overlaid on the
base image with masks created based on the settings (above). You can
change the order of the "bright" and "dark" layers to allow the
"bright" or "dark" layer to take precedence.
Step 4. If you snapped the exposures on a tripod, then the
pictures will all match up perfectly. However, if you took the
pictures by hand then you'll notice that if you zoom in you'll see
that they don't line up perfectly and will be a few pixels off.
Hopefully, the exposures will just be off on the X and Y axes
(translation) and not off on the Z axis (rotation). Zoom in on
the blended image in various locations to review whether or not
the "bright" and "dark" layers need some adjustment.
Step 5. It is trivial to align the layers on the X and Y axes
using the built-in "viewing modes" of the exposure blend plug-in.
(Addressing rotation around the Z-axis will not be covered here.) To
align the "bright" layer with the normally exposed base image it is
helpful to activate the "align bright exposure" viewing mode. To do
this, right click on the image to open the GIMP pop-up menu. Move
the mouse over the "Filters ▶" menu item until the sub-menu
items pop-up.
Then move the mouse over the "Photo ▶" sub-menu item until
exposure blending sub-menu items appear. Select the
"Align Exposure Mode: bright" menu item (as shown at right).
Step 6. After the "Align Exposure Mode: bright" has been
activated, the "dark" exposure will be turned off and the "bright"
layer will be overlaid on the base exposure using a "difference"
method. In this mode, it will be easy to spot misalignment of
the "bright" exposure by examining the image anywhere that edges
are present (see image at right).
Step 7. To translate the "bright" layer (or the "dark
layer below) along the X and Y axes, select the "Move Layer" tool
from the GIMP tool palette. Be sure the "Move the active layer"
radio box is selected. Then use the right-left-up-down arrows
on the keyboard to align the layer with the normally exposed
base image.
Step 8. In order to
align the "dark" layer with the normally exposed base image it is
helpful to activate the "align dark exposure" viewing mode. To do
this, right click on the image to open the GIMP pop-up menu. Move
the mouse over the "Filters ▶" menu item until the sub-menu
items pop-up.
Then move the mouse over the "Photo ▶" sub-menu item until
exposure blending sub-menu items appear. Select the
"Align Exposure Mode: dark" menu item (as shown at right).
Step 9. After the "Align Exposure Mode: dark" has been
activated, the "dark" exposure will be turned off and the "dark"
layer will be overlaid on the base exposure using a "difference"
method. In this mode, it will be easy to spot misalignment of
the "dark" exposure by examining the image anywhere that edges
are present (see image at right). Repeat
Step 7 to translate the "dark" layer (or the "dark
layer below) along the X and Y axes. With the "Move Layer"
tool active, use the right-left-up-down arrows on the keyboard
to align the dark layer with the normally exposed base image.
Step 10. After the 'dark' layer has been aligned,
reset the viewing mode by right clicking anywhere in the image.
Then mouse over the "Filters ▶" menu item until the
filter sub-menu items pop-up.
Move the mouse over the "Photo ▶" sub-menu item until
exposure blending sub-menu items appear. Select the
"Align Exposure Mode: none" menu item (as shown at right).
Step 11. If you had to move either of the "bright" or
"dark" layers, then there will be areas around the edges of
the image where not all three of the layers overlap. To trim
the the image to only the areas that overlap, right click
anywhere in the image.
Then mouse over the "Filters ▶" menu item until the
filter sub-menu items pop-up.
Move the mouse over the "Photo ▶" sub-menu item until
exposure blending sub-menu items appear. Select the
"Trim Image to Overlap Area" menu item (as shown at right).
Step 12. Before flattening the image, adjust the opacity of
the "dark" and "bright" layers such that the image doesn't look as
flat and surreal. The "bright" layer will almost always need to
be adjusted.
That's it. Now just flatten the image and
enhance
the image using GIMP to bring out some of the color. Here is the
final result of the image I used in the example above:
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the normally exposed (enhanced)
image with a blended image of three exposures. It is clearly evident
that the blend brings out a lot of details in the shadows and softens
the hard light in the highlights.
Wheat Parisian Daily Bread
Same recipe as the white
parisian daily bread I made yesterday, but split the flour roughly
in half - using a bit more white bread flour than
white
whole wheat flour. To be precise, the ingredients
include white flour, white wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast
in baker's percentages of 54/46/68/2/1.
270g (1¾ cups) unbleached white bread flour (King Arthur's)
230g (1½ cups) unbleached white whole wheat flour (King Arthur's)
340g (1½ cups) tap or bottled water, tepid
10g (1½ tsp) finely ground sea salt
5g (1 tsp) yeast
Mix the dough. In a bowl combine the water with the flour
and mix by hand until the water is absorbed and a rough dough
forms. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes to hydrate the flour.
Place the dough along with the salt and the yeast in a bowl of
a stand mixer (like a KitchenAid).
Knead the dough. Using a kneading attachment (dough hook) mix the
dough on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid mixer, 5 on a Cuisinart
mixer) for 10-12 minutes. The dough will be soft and tacky, but
should clean the sides of the stainless steel bowl. Test the
dough using the "window pane" or "membrane" test. To test, take a
golfball-sized piece of dough and flatten it slightly. Put the
fingers of both hands underneath it and very gently stretch it.
If the dough can be stretched such that the center is thin enough
to see through, then the dough is ready. If not, knead for another
2-3 minutes.
Ferment the dough. After kneading, form the dough into a ball.
Spray the inside of a
square
food storer with a little olive oil (or Pam).
Place the dough ball into the container and cover.
Place container in oven (with oven light or pilot light on) and let the
dough rise for 1 hour.
Turn the dough. After 1 hour of fermenting, dump the dough out on to
a floured surface. Gently pat the dough into a square that measures
roughly 8 inches by 8 inches. Fold the flattened dough into thirds,
first one way (like a business letter) and then the other. Place the
folded dough back into the container. Place container back in warmed
oven until dough has doubled in size... about 1 more hour.
Shape and proof the dough. Turn container upside down on floured
surface. Knead gently and then divide into thirds and form the
dough into the baguettes. Place formed baguettes on a
perforated
baguette pan. Cover lightly
(like with a damp paper towel) and let rise in a warm place for
about 30 minutes. The dough is ready to score and bake when you
press your fingertip into the dough slightly and the resulting
indentation springs back slowly.
Prepare the oven.
Preheat oven to 450°. If using a baking stone, place stone on
middle rack and preheat for at least 30 minutes. Also place a
cast iron skillet on the lowest rack (to aid with steam generation
later).
Just before placing loaves into the oven, score the baguettes using a
lame or a sharp serrated knife (lubricated with olive oil if necessary);
make cuts approximately ¼-inch deep.
Bake the bread. Place dough on the baking rack or baking stone.
Put about a 8-12 ice cubes in the skillet to produce steam.
Close the oven door immediately. Add additional ice cubes if
required during the first 10 minutes that the loaves are baking.
Reduce heat to 400° and bake using convection heat until
internal temperature has reached 200°.
The crust should be golden brown and the bread will sound hollow
when tapped.
You should end up with something like this:
:: Posted by rus on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:10 pm
:: Filed under /recipes/breads
White Parisian Daily Bread
Inspired by our recent trip to Paris where we ate crispy baguettes
with butter nearly every day, I made this simple Parisian-style
bread by following a recipe in my favorite baking book -
Local Breads. The
ingredients for the bread are nothing but flour/water/salt/yeast
in baker's percentages of 100/68/2/1.
500g (3¼ cups) unbleached white bread flour (King Arthur's)
340g (1½ cups) tap or bottled water, tepid
10g (1½ tsp) finely ground sea salt
5g (1 tsp) yeast
Mix the dough. In a bowl combine the water with the flour
and mix by hand until the water is absorbed and a rough dough
forms. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes to hydrate the flour.
Place the dough along with the salt and the yeast in a bowl of
a stand mixer (like a KitchenAid).
Knead the dough. Using a kneading attachment (dough hook) mix the
dough on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid mixer, 5 on a Cuisinart
mixer) for 10-12 minutes. The dough will be soft and tacky, but
should clean the sides of the stainless steel bowl. Test the
dough using the "window pane" or "membrane" test. To test, take a
golfball-sized piece of dough and flatten it slightly. Put the
fingers of both hands underneath it and very gently stretch it.
If the dough can be stretched such that the center is thin enough
to see through, then the dough is ready. If not, knead for another
2-3 minutes.
Ferment the dough. After kneading, form the dough into a ball.
Spray the inside of a
square
food storer with a little olive oil (or Pam).
Place the dough ball into the container and cover.
Place container in oven (with oven light or pilot light on) and let the
dough rise for 1 hour.
Turn the dough. After 1 hour of fermenting, dump the dough out on to
a floured surface. Gently pat the dough into a square that measures
roughly 8 inches by 8 inches. Fold the flattened dough into thirds,
first one way (like a business letter) and then the other. Place the
folded dough back into the container. Place container back in warmed
oven until dough has doubled in size... about 1 more hour.
Shape and proof the dough. Turn container upside down on floured
surface. Knead gently and then divide into thirds and form the
dough into the baguettes. Place formed baguettes on a
perforated
baguette pan. Cover lightly
(like with a damp paper towel) and let rise in a warm place for
about 30 minutes. The dough is ready to score and bake when you
press your fingertip into the dough slightly and the resulting
indentation springs back slowly.
Prepare the oven.
Preheat oven to 450°. If using a baking stone, place stone on
middle rack and preheat for at least 30 minutes. Also place a
cast iron skillet on the lowest rack (to aid with steam generation
later).
Just before placing loaves into the oven, score the baguettes using a
lame or a sharp serrated knife (lubricated with olive oil if necessary);
make cuts approximately ¼-inch deep.
Bake the bread. Place dough on the baking rack or baking stone.
Put about a 8-12 ice cubes in the skillet to produce steam.
Close the oven door immediately. Add additional ice cubes if
required during the first 10 minutes that the loaves are baking.
Reduce heat to 400° and bake using convection heat until
internal temperature has reached 200°.
The crust should be golden brown and the bread will sound hollow
when tapped.
You should end up with something like this:
:: Posted by rus on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:45 pm
:: Filed under /recipes/breads
Chopped Spinach
I made this very simple preparation of spinach following Julia
Child's recipe a few weeks ago. To my surprise, the kids will
eat it (Eliana especially loves it) despite the very green
appearance. Super easy to make.
2 lbs of fresh spinach, washed
2 tbs butter
1-2 tbs deglazed steak or chicken reduction (or 1 tbs chicken or beef broth)
salt and pepper
Drop the spinach in handfuls into a large stockpot of boiling
water. Blanch spinach for 2 minutes until tender. Drain away
hot water and immerse in spinach in cold water. Squeeze water
from spinach and coarsely chop. Set aside.
If serving with chicken or steak, sauté meat in a
skillet. Deglaze skillet with ¼ cup stock, bouillon,
or white wine and boil it down rapidly until it has been
reduce to 1-2 tablespoons. Add butter and swirl until
melted. Increase heat and add spinach. Cook spinach about
2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.
:: Posted by rus on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:38 pm
:: Filed under /recipes/side_dishes
Grilled Tuna
It's that time of year when Costco is carrying some very fine fresh
sashimi-grade tuna steaks. I've
broiled
tuna steaks in the past, but today I decided to use the grill.
two 1½-inch thick tuna steaks
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs soy sauce
about 1 tsp fresh ginger (or ½ tsp dry ginger)
1 tsp minced garlic
5-6 sprigs of fresh cilantro
wasabi paste to taste
In a mortar add the ginger, garlic, and cilantro. Smash into a fine
paste using a pestle. Add oil, soy sauce, and wasabi and thoroughly
mix to combine. In a ziploc bag place the tuna steaks and the sauce,
marinate several hours or overnight.
Prepare the grill. Ignite the grill burners and turn to the highest
setting. Place a piece of aluminum foil over the grill, leaving
about ½-inch gap on either end. Close grill and let stand for
about 10-15 minutes; this will superheat the grill plates (mine will
turn white hot). Scrape grill thoroughly and spray grill plates with
PAM or brush with a paper towel drenched in olive oil. Immediately
place tuna steaks on grill. Sear each side for 2-3 minutes. Remove
from grill, slice, and serve with sushi rice and steamed veggies.
Variation: I watched a video about preparing tuna steaks using
coconut oil. Sounds like a worthy substitute for the olive oil!
(Update Thu Feb 25 09:18:44 PST 2010 // added picture)
Theater Review: Lost in Yonkers
We shrugged off our jet lag and attended the local
production of Lost
in Yonkers tonight at The Village Theater. Set in 1942,
the plot concerns a father (Eddie), his young two sons (Jay and Arty),
and the overbearing paternal grandmother (Grandma Kurnitz). The
mother of the two boys has recently passed and her terminal care
imposed a great deal of debt on the family. To pay it off, the
father is forced to leave the two brothers with their formidable
grandmother and their mentally unbalanced and eccentric aunt
(Aunt Bella) for a period of several months while the dad goes
out on the road as a traveling salesman in order to pay off the
debt. The boys also must work in their grandmother's candy
store located downstairs from the apartment to earn their keep.
The story is told through the eyes of the boys and both young
actors do an exceptional job with their roles. The younger
actor that plays Arty, Nick Robinson (13½ years old),
delivered an especially solid performance. The understudy that
filled in for Jay tonight (Elias Higham) also did very well.
The best performance belong to Suzy Hunt, who played Grandma,
who pulled off the role as being both a heavy-handed and
sympathetic character. I was less impressed with Jennifer
Taylor, the actress who played Aunt Bella. Her performance
seemed a bit silly at times for the seriousness of the subject
matter. The roles of Eddie, Uncle Louie, and Aunt Gert weren't
on the stage long enough to really be memorable.
:: Posted by rus on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:52 pm
:: Filed under /reviews/theater
Product Review: Tamrac Velocity 6x Camera Sling Pack
For the benefit of a
recent
trip to Paris and based on the recommendation of my
friend Khan, I purchased a
Tamrac Velocity
6x - Compact Sling Pack from
amazon.
The bag is perfectly sized for my Canon 30D with the
2.8L lens
attached (if I ever go full-frame I
may have to get something bigger).
My 430EX speedlite fits on one side, and my 50mm
prime on the other side. There is also a front pocket where I
kept the battery charger, extra memory, and some spare change.
The sling strap allows you the bag to be worn "backpack style" or
it the strap can easily be rotated to bring the bag around to
the front, remove the camera, snap a picture, stow the camera,
and return it to your back... all without taking the bag off.
Highly recommended travel camera bag. Very handy and compact.
:: Posted by rus on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:59 pm
:: Filed under /reviews/products
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Returning Home and Postscript
We made our way back to Seattle today by way of Salt Lake. We flew
on Delta which wasn't quite as nice as Air France. The extra
connection on the way back was not fun either (90 minute delay, 3
gate changes). All in all the experience was well worth it. I
think the kids had a great time and (hopefully) it will be an
experience that they remember... at least until we return.
Before we went to Disneyland yesterday, we asked each of the kids
what their favorite part of the trip has been. For Berkeley it
was the Catacombes, for Eliana is was the Eiffel Tower, and for
Olivia it was the Opéra. I'm glad we saved the Disneyland
visit for the last day. If you ask any of them now their
favorite part of the trip, they will all respond "Disneyland"
(Olivia is quite specific - the "Peter Pan" ride at Disneyland).
Though we half-heartedly attempted to talk the kids out of going
to Disneyland, it was a good way to end the trip. The kids did
thoroughly enjoy the time spent there.
For anyone that is planning on traveling to Paris with kids, we
did learn a few lessons.
Fly Air France... direct if possible. The SEA->CDG Air
France flight was great; easily justifies a small bump in price.
Paris is colder than we thought it would be in February.
Kristy prepared us well and packed coats, scarfs, boots, hat,
and gloves. If we were to go again, I don't think we would go
in February. But if winter travel to Paris is unavoidable,
then pack snow pants, ugg boots, and extra gloves (between the
5 of us, we lost 3 pairs of gloves while we were out and about).
Bring your own rain ponchos for Disneyland; if you are caught
in bad weather inside of Disneyland... be warned, Disneyland
prices are exorbitant.
Buy the
"Paris Visite"
Métro pass for the zone that
you will be traveling in. There is a formula somewhere on the
net that calculates how many times you must take the train to
break even on the Métro pass. However, the calculation
fails to consider the wait time in lines to buy individual
tickets and the convenience of just having a buy-once-use-anywhere
Métro ticket for any public mode of transportation
(e.g. including the bus). We may have come out ahead from a
cost standpoint if we had bought individual Métro tickets,
for each different segment we traveled... but you really can't
put a price on the convenience and hassle saved from having that
Métro pass.
Research "kid-friendly" restaurants ahead of time. When
the kids got hungry, we just walked around wherever we were until
we found something that looked like the kids would like. Even
then however, a couple of places turned us away because they
would not seat young children. I think we ended up eating at
decent places, but there were a couple of misses. Had we
planned ahead, we probably could have dined at much better
restaurants.
Definitely bring along a collapsible umbrella stroller
for any child under 5-years-old. There is just so much walking
that small legs tire quickly. Expect to carry the stroller
(with the possibility of a sleeping child inside the stroller)
up and down flights of stairs; not every Métro station
is stroller-friendly and the museums are often easier to
navigate by stairs rather than circling around looking for
elevators. Bring ibuprofen along for your back. It will
get sore... especially at my age (40).
Prepare your kids for the trip in advance by reading
children's books on Paris and seeing children's movies set in
or about Paris. Kristy did this and, as a result, the kids
knew a lot about the monuments and museums that we were going
to visit ahead of time. This helped them get excited about
going to sites that they may otherwise have been disinterested
in.
Travel lightly around town but be prepared.
Kristy kept a bag over her
shoulder that was well stocked with a water bottle, quick
snacks for the kids (we had baguettes with butter),
band-aids, umbrella, ponchos, toilet paper, tissues, maps,
emergency meds, money, travel books, and a pocket french
dictionary. (Kristy kept her passports and credit cards in
inside coat pockets.) I carried a
Tamrac
Velocity 6x that I bought just for the trip. It carried
our DSLR camera, two lenses, camera battery charger, extra
memory, my wallet, and some euros. Both bags were compact
and were tight against our body (beware of pickpockets!) and
unobtrusive so that we could still carry the kids in tight
quarters when the umbrella stroller was not an option.
Bring a couple of grocery tote bags. The supermarkets
in France (at least the ones we visited) do not supply bags
for transporting food. We used these to carry fresh bread
and pastries and food back to our hotel from the local town
square merchants.
Don't buy pastries in grocery stores, buy them fresh
from the locally run patisserie. On our first day, we bought
a bag of pain au chocolate from the supermarket. The quality
was not even close to the fresh stuff baked daily at the
nearby patisserie. Any money saved by buying in bulk is not
worth the dramatic drop-off in quality.
Potty breaks, potty breaks, potty breaks. Take advantage
of clean museum bathrooms when possible; some of the alternatives
are a bit scary. For our
wait-until-the-last-minute-I-really-gotta-go-Dad-now(!) kids, we
were trained early in the week to have the kids stop for
potty breaks when the potty was close... instead of waiting
for the cues from the kids.
Pre-purchase tickets to museums/monuments/parks etc
ahead of time to avoid lines.
Visit the Paris Opéra in the morning when there
is less of a likelihood that the self-guided tour will conflict
with a rehearsal.
Visit Versailles... it's worth the train ride. Pre-purchase
tickets or buy the tickets in town just across the street from
the train station. The line to buy tickets at Versailles is
very long. Also, view the gardens in the morning when the line
to enter the palace is very long. And take the mini bus - the
place is huge! In the afternoon, we were able to walk right
into the palace as the lines had long since dissipated.
Visit Disneyland last... or try and talk your kids out of
going. It ain't that great; Disneyland California is far better.
Take a river cruise during lunch (or in the afternoon). The
lunch cruise was much more appropriate for fidgety kids.
Expect to take unscheduled breaks. Kids tire easily. We
stopped at cafés for hot chocolate, snacks, potty, etc
much more than we thought we would. If you consider the
amount of time it takes to de-bundle and re-bundle-up three
kids for the weather during these breaks, it can quickly eat
up an hour. Really. We planned to do 4 "big" things per day
when we were sitting here in our home doing our pre-trip
planning. However, when the rubber hit the road... we really
could only fit in 2 "big" things per day.
If attending an LDS service, the Paris Ward that meets in
on 12 rue St Merri
in the 4th Arrondissement was an ideal
location. Translation in English is available, the location
is central, and the sacrament meeting start time is 11:20am
(giving ample time to travel).
Check the foreign transaction fees of the credit cards
you carry. For example, after calling American Express I
found out our Costco AMEX card incurs a 2.5% fee for each
transaction made outside the US. Yikes! Our AMEX card
issues by UBS charged 0.5%, so we used that when possible.
When we had to use Visa, it was helpful to know that our
Schwab-issued Visa card charged a 1% foreign transaction
fee compared to the 2% we would incur by using our
UBS-issued Visa.
Buy foreign currency at a local bank (in the US). Several
local banks (including US Bank, Wells Fargo, etc) will have a
branch where you can go buy foreign currency... that is, if you
have a bank account opened there. We do not have a personal
bank account with a local bank, but Kristy's business account is
with Wells Fargo. So she was able to go up to the Redmond branch
and buy about €500 at the most favorable exchange
rate for that day at no commission. It was nice to have
the spare cash on hand when the occasion demanded.
(Update Fri Mar 12 17:01:07 PST 2010 // added note on foreign transaction fees and foregin currency)
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 7: Disneyland
Ah, Disneyland... in Paris. Basically the same as Disneyland in
California: same rides, long lines, loads of people - but no sunny
weather. Well, the sun was out in the morning when we entered the
park...
... and here we are in front of the castle:
But not long after, the rain came... and it didn't deter people
either. Everyone (including us) just put on their rain ponchos
and carried on about our business of walking and waiting.
Most of the queues are covered, so staff (as well as patrons)
must expect a certain amount of foul weather. In fact, we were
chatting with a family waiting in line with in Autopia. They
were from Ireland. About the weather, they made the comment:
"The weather's better here than it is at home!"
Despite the weather, we had a good time... especially the kids.
Leaving for home tomorrow. I'll write a postscript after we are
back in Seattle.
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 6: The Catacombes and The Louvre
This morning we traveled into Paris for the last time on our trip to visit the
Catacombes of Paris.
To get there we took our RER A line from Paris Disneyland into the
Châtelet - Les Halles station where we transferred to the RER
B line and took that down to the Denfert-Rochereau station. I love
the Paris Métro - it's a wonder. Once at the Catacombes, we
had to wait in line for about 45 minutes before we could enter the
Catacombes (only 200 persons are allowed in the Catacombes at any
given time). While we waited, Kristy found bought us some
Petit Fours
and other yummy pastries at a nearby bakery/restaurant
Paul. Here are a couple of pics
taken outside the catacombes:
Once inside, we descended down more than 100 stairs to about 60
feet below ground. Then we walked the tunnels and viewed some of
the millions of remains deposited in Paris' famous underground
ossuary.
After the tour was complete, we ascended back to ground level. We
walked so far that ended up two Métro stops away at the
Alésia station on Line 4. From there we made our way up to
the Paris Opéra to see if we could see the Opéra hall,
but alas it was closed for recital again. We had a small bite to
eat (at another restaurant Paul in the Opéra train station)
and then headed down to the
Musée du Louvre:
Once inside, we took a self-guided tour and hit all of the famous
spots. Here are a couple of pictures, one of the Mona Lisa and
one of the Ruben's room.
We toured the Egyptian part of the Louvre to see the mummies
and the sarcophagi as well as the old foundations of the Louvre.
We saw the crown jewels, the Napoleon apartments, the Venus
de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and a host of other
artwork. The Louvre is massive. Here are a few more pics:
The kids were done with the Louvre after about 2 hours, but we
managed to stretch them out to about 4 hours. From the Louvre,
we toured the nearby Carousel du Louvre and snapped a couple of
pictures at the inverted pyramid there:
We had dinner at the food court there and Kristy picked up some
chocolate eclairs from
La Maison du
Chocolate. At about $5/each they were super spendy, but
were also super yummy:
We exited the Carousel back through the Louvre to have one
last look at the pyramid, and our last look at Paris:
Disneyland Paris tomorrow. (Unless we can talk the kids out of it!)
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 5: Versailles
Almost everyone we spoke with before we left to come to Paris insisted
that we must see the
Palace of Versailles.
Versailles is not in Paris, but located about 30 minutes to the south
(by train). Since we are staying about 40 minutes to the east of
Paris (by train) near Paris Disneyland, we had to travel for a little
over an hour to reach Versailles.
Once there, we were greeted by
King Louis XIV himself... on horseback:
Once inside the gate, we found ourselves in the Royal Courtyard where
we snapped a few pictures.
The exterior detail and beauty of the palace is jaw-dropping. The
gold
leafing extends all the way around the courtyard. And the place
is H-U-G-E, huge! The little pamphlet we were given states that the
surface area of the roof was 11 hectares or - wait for it - 27 acres!
The expansive roofs cover more than 550,000 sq.ft. of floor space!
Incredible. There was quite a long queue waiting to enter the Palace,
so we walked around to the
rear
of Versailles and caught a tram to the
Grand Trianon,
Petit Trianon, and
Queen's Hamlet...
all located in a secluded section of the
the Gardens of Versailles.
The Gardens are expansive... covering some 800 hectares, or almost 2000
acres. The scale of this place is absolutely mind-boggling.
We toured the Grand Trianon first, here are just a couple of pictures:
After a small tour of the Petit Trianon, we walked along the winding
paths past the "Temple of Love" to the Queen's Hamlet. The hamlet is
a small rustic retreat that was built for Marie Antoinette who would,
with her attendants, dress up as "common folk" and pretend to lead a
more ordinary life. Here are a few pictures of the buildings of the
Queen's Hamlet:
After our walking tour of the grounds and the Grand Trianon, Petit
Trianon, and the Queen's Hamlet, we returned to the Palace of
Versailles itself to have a look and see what all the fuss is about.
We started on the chapel side of the Palace and work our way around
counter-clockwise. The chapel is stunning. I'm beginning to think
that I should convert to Catholicism for the architecture alone.
Room after room inside the Palace is completely and utterly and
unbelievably ornate and sumptuous. The ceilings - in each and
every room - are amazing. Here are just a few:
After about the first dozen or so rooms like that, I realized that
it was pointless to shoot any more pictures. Each room was nearly
indistinguishable (yet completely gorgeous) from the next... that
is, until we came to the
Hall of Mirrors.
This is one of those must-see-in-person-to-believe places. I
snapped a picture of each of the kids:
All told, I'm not sure how far we walked today... but it was quite a
distance I would guess. Olivia was understandably exhausted, and
fell asleep in the stroller on the walk from the Palace back to the
train station.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped in the
7th arrondissement,
walked the streets around the École Militaire looking for
a place to take supper. We found a place on Avenue Bosquet called
"Le Bosquet" and had
a nice dinner to finish off the day (I had the Châteaubriand,
Kristy had the lamb). Tomorrow... the Catacombes and the Louvre!
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 4: The River Seine and The Opera
While we were in Paris two days ago at the Tour Eiffel on
Saturday,
we booked a cruise on the River Seine for today (Monday) with
Bateaux Parisiens for
lunch.
We took the RER train to the Arc and then hopped on Métro
Line 6 to the Trocadéro and walked down to the Seine.
Since had to walk past the Palace of Chaillot we snapped another
picture of the kids with the Eiffel Tower in the background:
Once aboard our cruise ship, we we seated at our table:
Just before we set sail, we placed our orders from the
lunch menu.
We picked at least 1 of every option from each course hoping we
would find one or more that the kids would eat. For the first
course, we ordered the scrambled eggs for Berkeley and Olivia,
and the salmon for Eliana. Kristy had the beef tail and cheek
terrine, and I had the lentil soup with foie gras mousse. I
think the consensus (between Kristy and myself) was that the
soup was the best of the bunch. For our main course, we ordered
the pollack and rice for Eliana, the chicken for Olivia, the
duck for Berkeley and Kristy, and I ordered the pork filet.
I had some of each and everything was wonderful. For dessert,
we ordered the chocolate (and coffee) cake for Eliana and
Berkeley, the lemon tartlet for Olivia, the pear for Kristy,
and the crêpes suzette for myself. All were very good,
but Kristy's poached pear was the best.
While we dined, we enjoyed the wonderful scenery of Paris as
viewed from the River Seine.
The kids were well behaved for the most part, but Olivia got a bit
restless after about the main course and engaged in some table-side
dancing to the live violin and piano music provided by the cruise:
After the cruise, we walked to the nearby RER train station at
Champs de Mars with the intent of transferring to the
Opéra National de Paris. We took the RER C Line to Invalides
and transferred to Métro Line 8 and rode that to the Opéra.
Here is a picture of Kristy and Olivia waiting at a typical Métro
platform:
The Paris Métro is absolutely magical. It transported us from
the Champs de Mars to a stop immediately opposite the incredibly beautiful
Paris
Opéra. The sortie from the Opéra train station is a
stairwell that faces north and terminates at street level to a point
just to the north of the Opéra itself. It was quite
stunning to walk from the underground station, up the stairs, and then
turn around to see this:
I snapped a picture of Kristy and the kids in front of the
Opéra:
Inside the Paris Opéra is even more captivating than the outside.
The grand entry staircase is inspiring. I took a few pictures with my
24mm lens (1.6 crop factor makes it about a 38mm) posted below, but
even zoomed all the way out... I really couldn't capture the massive
cavernous size of the space (but please refer to
this
one on wikipedia).
Unfortunately (for us), we were not able to see the hall as it was
closed for a recital. This also prevented us from visiting
Phantom's
box. We'll try and return another day as our tickets are good for
multiple visits. During the rest of the tour, the kids would stop at
various points that we didn't think were of much interest (by comparison
to everything else). Kids are funny that way... "Dad, look how big this
fireplace is!" or "Dad, look at the round chair!"
The pièce de résistance of the tour was the
Opéra's Grand Foyer. Opulent doesn't even begin to
describe it:
What a day... and we really didn't do that much. But it felt
like a lot. We traveled back to our hotel from the Opéra
and restocked our kitchen with fresh bread and pastries from the
nearby boulangerie:
Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 3: Walking the 4th Arrondissement
It's Valentine's Day, 過年 (Lunar New Year),
Mardi Gras, Carnival, etc. It also happens to be Sunday. We
made plans to visit the LDS Church in the
4th Arrondissement
on rue Saint Merri. And since Sacrament Meeting didn't start until
11:40, we figured it was a good one to shoot for given the
distance we have to travel. We made it on time without any
problems. We were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to find it,
but we walked right to it from the "Châtelet - Les Halles"
RER Métro stop.
The LDS ward there is a strange amalgamation of French, English,
and Mandarin Chinese speakers. In fact, there were several
missionaries there called to the Paris France Mandarin Chinese
speaking mission - they had name badges in Chinese characters and
everything. The services were translated from French into both
English and Mandarin. All of the headphones for the English went
rather quickly, so I grabbed a pair of headphones and tuned into
the Chinese version of the Sacrament Meeting. Kristy speaks a bit
of French, so she listened without the aid of an electronic device.
The kids colored. Olivia eventually became bored (typical) so she
and I walked around in the enclosed courtyard. The Church building
was quite lovely, probably built in the 1700s or so I would guess.
After Church, we walked over to a restaurant called "Cavalier Bleu"
located across the plaza from the nearby George Pompidou Centre. I
had the quiche lorraine, Kristy had a baguette ham sandwich. My food
was quite good; Olivia ate a lot of it and was quite fond of the
quiche. While we were eating in the cafe, we were struck by how
charming the neighborhood was... lots of locally run shops that
included plenty of options to eat, small bakeries, cheese shops,
fruit stands, and the like.
After our lunch we visited the museum inside the
Centre Pompidou
where an
exposition of modern art
by Pierre
Soulages was being shown. Berkeley enjoyed the abstract
art very much. The girls were not as impressed (they
loved riding up the escalators though). After we toured the
exhibit, we stopped by the kids area and made some crafts.
Unfortunately, because of the cold weather the whimsical
Stravinsky
Fountain (and pretty much all other outdoor activities usually
held in the plaza) were closed.
We left the theater and intended to walk over to the
Notre
Dame. We took a round-about way (unintentionally) but we
were able to see a few interesting sights along the way, such
as the
Saint-Jacques Tower
and the
Palais de Justice.
After a nice little walk, we turned a corner and found the
unmistakable towers of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Wow.
If I was ever to convert to another religion, I would convert
to Catholicism for the architecture (not
the jokes). To say that the Notre Dame is impressive
is an understatement.
After milling about in the courtyard for a bit and considering
the length of the line to enter the church (that stretched across
the courtyard lengthwise... which is about the size of a football
field), we eventually got in line to take the free tour of the
interior. After a short wait we were at the front of the line;
where the
two
towers of the Notre Dame hovered over us. Once inside, we
took the lovely self-guided tour and snapped a few pics:
After our tour of Notre Dame, we walked north along rue d'Arcole up
past the
Hôtel de Ville:
In front of the Hôtel de Ville was a double-decker carousel,
we stopped and let the kids rest and take a couple of rides.
Just as the kids finished their carousel rides, a combination
Carnival/Lunar New Year parade (which terminated at the Hôtel
de Ville along rue du Renard) showed up. So we took a spot on
the sidewalk curb and watched a Lunar New Year dragon as well
as a host of Brazilian Carnival dancers, bands, and revelers walk
past. Serendipity.
After the parade, we walked back up rue due Renard to the
intersection of rue Saint Merri and had dinner near the Centre
Pompidou at a little place called the "Paris Beauborg" (I had
the sea bass). When we eventually finished our dinner, it was
already past 8pm. Quite a day.
Oh... Happy Valentine's Day Kristy! Including our time dating,
this is our 19th Valentine's Day together. This one will be
hard to beat.
Product Review: Albert Ménès Marmelade d'Orange et Citron
I found my new favorite marmelade and I only had to travel to France
to find it. Before I proceed, first recall how much acclaim and
praise I gave the
Bon
Maman Orange Marmelade that is widely available in the States.
Yesterday I bought a can of
Marmelade d'Orange et Citron Écorces fines
manufactured by Albert Ménès
at the nearby market. When I saw the bottle, my first impression
was that the marmelade appears in texture and color to be the
very same stuff served at
Le
Pichet back in Seattle. One taste and it was confirmed. This is
marvelous stuff. Everything I said about the
Bon
Maman marmelade, take that and multiply it by 10. And as I noted in my
Le
Pichet review - Kristy likes it too. The stuff is expensive
though. The French market sold the Bon Maman stuff for about
3 € (or $4.50) per bottle, which is about what it
sells for in the States. The price of the Bon Maman brand is
at the high end of the US supermarket grocery prices for jams and
jellies. Now consider that the Albert Ménès jam
sells at this French market for about twice that of the Bon Maman,
or around 6 € ($7.40) per bottle. Very steep indeed!
But the stuff is so heavenly, it is well worth the price. I'm
smuggling as many bottles of this as I can back home to the
States.
Blogroll
These are a few blogs run by my esteemed friends and
colleagues. My personal comments about the blog (and
its author) can be accessed by clicking on the "wtf?"
graphic to the immediate right of each entry (wtf =
"What the flip?" as in "What the flip is grandma doing
at the sand dunes?").