2010

That pretty much wraps it up for 2010. That also means I've been posting assorted crap here for a full three years now, which is kind of a long time. But you know what they say: time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

Happy new year.

End of year dog photo.

Brew

Simply stated, I like beer. And in a way, I see beer as a food, and just like food, I would like to be able to make it myself. After some self-education and investing in some equipment, I went ahead and made my first batch. It's an American pale ale and despite a couple minor missteps, it is now sealed and stored, happily fermenting away.

I look forward to sharing a drink with you (in two to four weeks). Until then, happy holidays everyone.


Measuring gravity.

Cookie Exchange

Cathy hosted a cookie exchange the other night which I heard went swimmingly. I don't personally know exactly how it went since I was busy "studying" at the local brewery, but when I got back home I found dozens upon dozens of homemade snacky cakes.

Roughly 4-6 dozen each of 21 varieties. Going from from top-left to right: a white chocolate Oreo truffle and a milk chocolate Oreo truffle, monster cookies, double chocolate cookies, triple chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies, red velvet cake balls, chocolate cake balls, lemon cake balls, gooey butter cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, toffee chocolate cookies, cherry thumbprints, peanut butter blossoms, mint brownies, pretzel Rolos, peanut butter mint cookie bars, peanut butter brownies, chocolate hazelnut crinkles, almond spritzer cookies, and almond biscotti. Missing from the photo are the chocolate sugar cookies, apparently all eaten/taken.

Soup

Low temps = more time inside = I make soup. Here's a basic one:


Potato + Leek


= Soup

I don't know. It's a slow month.

First Snow

Got our first snow over the weekend.

It's around this time I start dusting off random projects that I've been neglecting. I look forward to changing it up a bit. Although honestly, I haven't been doing much lately except observing the passage of time...but no big. My go-to excuse for now is that December is kind of a transitional month anyway, as the seasons change, the year ends, it's pre and post-holiday, stuff like that. Yeah.

Morning walk, Chicago River.