What happens when you leave JJ alone with toys...

JJ's latest and greatest stop-motion animation action!
Kinder Egg Toys vs Energizer Bunny

Someone has the munchies

Yummy!

Yay Dell Days of Deals (updated!)

Dell Deals:

WD 160GB 7200RPM External USB Hard Drive
List Price: $140
Final Price: $69

Harmony 880 Advanced Universal Remote
replacing the old

List Price: $249
Final Price: $69 AR

Coldplay Twisted Logic tour 3/30/06

Coldplay never fails to deliver an awesome show complete with video, excellent use of the arena screens, balloons filled with gold confetti, and even lasers. Chris Martin's voice is incredible in a giant arena. They even had one of the American Idols sing a verse and it is only then do you realize that Chris Martin's voice seriously has some power. He sounds like he does on a studio album but is so much clearer, cleaner, more beautiful. Saw them at the ACC (Toronto) a few years ago and they were playing half the arena. At the United Center (Chicago), they practically sold out the entire stadium. Only about a third of them showed up for Richard Ashcroft's opener and his sound was off (levels?). He did play some old Verve favourites like Bittersweet Symphony and The Drugs Don't Work.

Here's Coldplay's setlist:

1. Square One
2. Politik
3. Yellow
4. Speed of Sound
5. God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
6. What If
7. Don't Panic
8. White Shadows
9. The Scientist
10. Til Kingdom Come/Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash)
11. Trouble
12. Clocks
13. Talk
Encore
14. Swallowed in the Sea
15. In My Place
16. Fix You

Lincoln Park Zoo

It was one of those nice warmer days in early Spring and we went to the zoo! Yay!

Taken on March 10, 2006

"Catching" some waves

On a cold but sunny day, we decided to go "catch" some waves by the lake...

All bundled up:


That wasn't too big:


Oh look! Here it comes!


Whoosh!

The actual wave actually was much higher... I mis-timed it :(

hahahaha

Chopping Block class - Cupid's Arrow

JJ and I did our first cooking class together and we learned some great recipes and techniques! This is going to be a long post with lots of pictures :) (All photos taken on Feb 3, 2006)

First up is Mussels in Spicy Red Sauce... who knew tarragon was such an amazing herb! I love that Le Creucet pot... but at $220, I think I can do without...

Butter, shallot, chili flakes, tomatoes, tarragon, white wine, and mussels:


add cream:


and eat!


Note the sauce is perfect for bread-dipping!

Next up is the Caramelized Onion Pizzettes. We didn't have to make our own dough so that was easy... we just caramelized the onions, grated cheese and put it all together to bake in the oven.

Rolling dough, each pizzette will have its own character:


Grating cheese (and snacking on it with our Penfolds Shiraz):


And throwing it all together in the pan with our caramelized onions:


Now we wait for it to come out of the oven.

In the meantime, we're going to marinate the beef flank steak skewers:


Now we prep our Tempura Green beans. The tempura batter: flour, beer, and sesame seeds, so simple!


Apparently, bernaise sauce is one of the 5 "mother" sauces; its base is the hollandaise sauce but with a bernaise reduction of champagne vinegar, white wine, minced shallot and tarragon, add some lemon juice and cayenne pepper and voila: bernaise. It's so bad for you (3 egg yolks and 2 sticks of butter) and very tempermental: it breaks if it's too hot, breaks if there's too much or not enough butter, breaks if your butter is too hard (too cold), the list goes on...

Teamwork on the bernaise:


But it still broke:


The fixed bernaise (thanks to Peter, our chef instructor):


Finally, JJ is going to fry the tempura green beans while the steak skewers are being grilled:


And voila! The final product: