Bizarre Bradyisms

Backyard Fire Pit

The retail store Cabela’s is no more than five minutes away from my house and I drop by on a fairly frequent occasion just to look around.  A couple of weeks ago they had a cast-iron camping set on sale that consisted of a dutch oven, two skillets, and a large pot.  I couldn’t pass it up, so I am now the happy owner the said camping set.  I’ve been wanting to try them out for awhile so tonight I used my dutch oven in the new fire pit that we now have in the back yard and cooked really great upside-down cherry cake.  I was not sure if I was going to burn it because the charcoal seemed really hot to me but it turned out better than I could have expected.

 

Chef Bob, Part Two

 

So, last night was my second class with Chef Bob.  The class was titled “Wok of Ages” and while there were more than 3 people in the class tonight, it was still just as fun.  We made Vegetable Pot Stickers, Tea Smoked Pork Egg Rolls, Stir-fried Garlic Shrimp, and Steamed Sweet Ginger Coconut Buns.  Everything was really good and I even enjoyed eating shrimp for the first time.  I’ve also decided I really like have a gourmet kitchen and someday I hope to have one of own to use as my heart so desires.  A couple of the other participants kind of laughed because I was taking pictures of the food, but as far as I’m concerned, I was simply taking more thorough notes.

 

Cooking Class with Chef Bob

Right after moving back here to Utah, I saw an advertisement for these cooking classes that I’ve really wanted to go to.  In the city of Draper, there is this brand new, very large grocery store called Harmon’s Grocery.  The store in and of itself is a site to see and is just fantastic on how clean things are, how aesthetically pleasing the layout is, etc.  In addition to all of this, there is a small room on the the 2nd floor that they have decked out with oven ranges and other kitchen equipment where their top cook, Chef Bob, teaches culinary classes almost every Friday and Saturday night.  Going along with my fairly recent decision to not wait for the a perfect date opportunity to go somewhere, I signed up for like 3 or 4 classes.  Tonight was my first one and the class was titled, “Grilling with Gusto.”  The menu consisted of the following:

• Pastrami Style Skewers with Tomato Horseradish Relish
• Lemon Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus
• Grilled Vegetable Gazpacho
• Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Reduction and Vanilla Gelato

It was so much fun.  There was only three of us in the class tonight which I guess is a little bit unusual, but normally there are about 8-10 people each session.  Chef Bob demonstrates what we are cooking right in front of us and you can either look at the LCD screen or walk right up to the counter and see what is taking place even more closely.  Bob even used a really expensive prosciutto (~$30/lb) for us because we were so few in number). It was very laid back and after we had everything prepared we walked right out in front of the store, fired up their grill, and ate as customers walked in and out.  Some were brave enough to ask what was going on, but not most.  Everything was so good and we all walked away recipes in hand without even having to do dishes.   I really enjoyed the evening and am looking forward to my next couple of classes.  P.S. - I’ve even started to build up my own online recipe database and added those for the items above.  Take a look here if you want.

On side note, as I was driving back from the class, I was lucky enough notice I was approaching 80,000 miles on my car. I found a place to pull off right after hitting the big round number and made sure I got a couple of pictures to mark the momentous occasion. I bought Gwen at something like 42,000 miles which means in the course of 3 years, I’ve put on 38,000 miles, or just over 1,000 miles a month. Not too bad really considering that has included a number of trips back and forth between Colorado, a trip down to Las Vegas, and my constant commuting all over Denver and Salt Lake when I worked as an IT consultant. Now that I think about it, Gwen’s birthday was the beginning of the month and it was her purchase that started my whole blogging experience. Happy Birthday Gwen!

Battle Creek Falls

After really enjoying my hike a few weeks ago on the Point of the Mountain, I’ve been looking for other places I could go hiking that were close enough that it wouldn’t take a whole day to hike.  For Memorial Day today I went down to American Fork and hiked up Battle Creek Falls.  It was a really simple trip up to the main waterfall attraction that has apparently made the trail so popular that I decided to just keep hiking.  I think I probably went on another 3 miles or so until the trail stopped and met a junction point with another trail.  The weather was starting to get really windy and a bit cold so thought it would be best to turn around.  On my way back down I saw a number of people repelling down the face of the waterfall and actually swinging into the falls themselves.  It looked like it was fun and I was a little jealous but maybe someday I’ll know someone who is versed in the sport of climbing who would go with me to do the same.  Here’s hoping.

Point of the Mountain

Often times when I walk out my front door I look at all of the mountains that surround me and the valley and think how beautiful they truly are.  I’m always looking for a new adventure so the other day I decided it might be fun to hike what is known in Utah as “The Point of the Mountain.”  It is basically the “hill” that sits between Salt Lake County and Utah County that you have to drive over when you travel between the two.  My house sits pretty much on the back side of it and it is really not all that tall.

I didn’t know of any trail that would take you up there so I pretty much packed some food and water and simply walked out my front door hoping I’d figure it out on the way.  I made it up there in about an hour and half and really enjoyed the hike.  It was quite a sight up there and so I decided it would a perfect place to have a peaceful lunch.  I had some other things to do later so I couldn’t stay for long and had to make my way back down fairly quickly.  Humorously, I didn’t see the signs saying the land was privately owned and there was “No Trespassing” until on my way back down.  Oh well.  No harm done.