http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress Information, opinions, ideas and rants from my family and friends in Sacramento, California, US. Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:37:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Traditionally on Christmas Day we have my parents over for dinner. This year we made boeuf bourguignon for them, and it was *fantastic*! Anybody who's seen "Julie & Julia" knows that boeuf bourguignon was one of the uncredited stars of the show. It wasn't terribly difficult to make, although it took ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091230/boeuf-bourguignon/ I was feeling a bit ambitious tonight, so I made three new dishes from [Mastering the Art of French Cooking][mafc]: suprêmes de volaille archiduc (paprika chicken w/ cream sauce), risotto, and petits pois étuvés au beurre (buttered peas). I had been planning on making a longer-cooking chicken dish, so I started ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091228/dinner/ We got "Julie and Julia" via Netflix a week or two back. Good show, definitely worth watching. But the food *really* got our attention! We started looking for a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", (hereafter MAFC), and found the [2-volume set available at Amazon.com][mafc-amazon] for a very ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091221/mafc/ I finally finished my first antenna tonight! I made a [twinlead slim jim][] and tried getting on the air. Unfortunately, there aren't many people on this late on a holiday evening. I *was* able to make one contact with a gentleman up in Placerville. He reported me 5x5, so I ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091128/twinlead-slim-jim-antenna/ This is a recipe we got from Carol Hopfe. - 2 cans (~14 oz ea) *non-marinated* artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped - 1.5 c mayonnaise - 1 can (~5 oz) diced green chiles, drained - 1.5 c parmesan cheese - (optional) 4 jalapeños, seeded and chopped Mix all the ingredients and add to a buttered ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091126/artichoke-dip/ Thanksgiving Eve! :) Things to do today: - Make stuffing - Get mac-n-cheese ready for the oven - Make pie crust(s) dough - Hard-boil the eggs for deviled eggs - Make another pumpkin roll (Barb thought the first one would disappear too quickly) And finish cleaning up the house! http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091125/t-minus-1/ Two days until Thanksgiving, time to start preparing our feast! Today (Tuesday) is when we: - De-bone the turkey (which has been defrosting in the frig since Saturday) - Make turkey stock with the bones - Make the cranberry sauce - Mix up the spinach dip - Try the pumpkin roll recipe (in case it ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091124/t-minus-2/ It's just about time for my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving! My daughter thought I was going ***extreme geek*** last year when I wrote up our [notes from Thanksgiving 2008][tg2008notes], but a few weeks ago when we started planning for this year's feast she admitted how useful those geeky ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091124/thanksgiving-2009-plan/ Here's a recipe for spinach dip from one of Barb's co-workers. - 1 c sour cream - 1 pkg (1/2 lb) cream cheese, softened - 1 pkg ranch dressing mix - 1 pkg (10 oz) frozen spinach - green onions - parsley - dill - salt - pepper - garlic, minced - 1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts - 1 red bell ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091124/spinach-dip/ A few nights ago we watched "[Jet Lag][]", starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. With those two in the leading roles my expectations were pretty high for this movie, perhaps too high. It was decent, worth watching, and the score (by Eric Serra, who also did "[Subway][]") was pretty good. ... http://sonicchicken.net/blog/wordpress/20091123/veal-mignonettes/