Author Archives: Jim Vanderveen

About Jim Vanderveen

I'm a bit of a Renaissance man, with far too many hobbies for my free time! But more important than any hobby is my family. My proudest accomplishment has been raising some great kids! And somehow convincing my wife to put up with me since 1988. ;)

Garden chili

Posted on 2010-07-26 by Jim Vanderveen

Barb and I made some *amazing* chili tonight. We didn’t take notes while whipping this up, but I’m pretty sure we remembered all the ingredients. We haven’t got many ripe tomatoes yet, so we just grabbed a bunch of cherry … Continue reading →

Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Another excellent meal from “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”

Posted on 2010-03-19 by Jim Vanderveen

Barb and I made an awesome dinner tonight (if I do say so myself)! We put our own spin on two recipes from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”: Suprêmes de volaille aux champignons (chicken breasts with mushrooms … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Boeuf bourguignon

Posted on 2009-12-30 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tonight’s dinner…

Posted on 2009-12-28 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Mastering the Art of French Cooking”

Posted on 2009-12-21 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Twinlead slim-JIM antenna

Posted on 2009-11-28 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Artichoke dip

Posted on 2009-11-26 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

T minus 1

Posted on 2009-11-25 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

T minus 2

Posted on 2009-11-24 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Getting ready for Thanksgiving 2009

Posted on 2009-11-24 by Jim Vanderveen

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment