"Last updated 54 weeks ago"
Time for a bit of a life update. Figured I'd update every once in a while. I'd like to be better about posting. I think I do more exciting things in the summer, so perhaps that will actually happen.
Karin was out of town this weekend, so Sam and I got the opportunity to hang out, just the guys. Or at least, that was going to be the case. Because of some re-scheduling, we ended up spending Friday and half of Saturday with Karin's Mom and Aunt Cathy. That was fine though. I really like my in-laws and other relations so we had lots of fun. I still did many of the things that I had planned for the weekend already.
Winter has had me investigating more culinary pursuits. Not anywhere near as much as Troy as of yet, but still fun. Here are a couple from recently.
The one thing I knew that I would be doing during the weekend was making Onion Confit. I had stumbled upon the recipe and a forum discussing it some time ago. It sounded like fun, however Karin does not like onions and was not enthused about me spending a significant amount of time cooking lots of onions when she was around. So, it got delayed until an opportunity presented itself. Even then, when she got home a day after I had finished she complained about how she could still smell the onions. :-) I didn't have beef demi-glace, so I did without, and used some homemade red wine vinegar instead of the sherry or port, but despite my modifying the recipe fairly heavily, I believe things turned out quite well.
Did I say homemade vinegar? I did. Another thing I've done recently is make some red wine vinegar at home. I currently have a batch in the fridge that's all done, and more fermenting in the basement. Quite easy, and tasty too. Only real problem is that I don't drink wine, so I don't have a ready source of left-overs to use, and have just used Charles Shaw wines from Trader Joes because they're inexpensive. If anyone wants to give me leftover wine that you're not going to finish, I'll put it to good use, and give part of it back later.
So far, I've made homemade vinaigrette for a couple salads with it which turned out excellent and chicken adobo on Troy's recommendation, which was okay, but I used way too much soy sauce and that kind of dominated the flavor. I plan on using it for sandwiches as well and any other whims that come to mind. Probably some mustards at some point, I like mustard. Maybe I'll grow some mustard and horseradish plants and I can have all the major elements. Then I'll need to grow grapes. :-)
I also tasted Limburger cheese this weekend. Not for me.
Moving on. Being a Dad is a blast and I continue to love every stage of Sam's development. He is growing and learning at an amazing pace. His vocabulary is getting to be pretty enormous and his pronunciation of most things seems to me at least to be quite excellent. It's easy to be proud and enjoy his development. It's also becoming very easy to relate to the little dude on a personal level as his personality and temperment become clearer. We love playing our little games and giggling and laughing as we wrestle and run around. Yesterday, I had him in peals of laughter as we tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues outside. He's a pretty typical little boy too, he loves tractors and trucks and all that stuff. He's also fascinated with Uncle Trent and all the big equipment that seems to show up in front of our house when Trent is around. Twice now, Trent has brought the Bobcat over from snow removal at the nearby parking lot, with its huge plow on the front and cleared our driveway for us. Sam loves to talk about that, and about Uncle's "Dirty Truck". :-)
We've been praying before meals with Sam since forever, but yesterday I decided to be a bit more intentional with showing Sam prayer and so I decided to spend some time praying with him when I put him to bed. When I asked him if he wanted to pray, he was immediately excited and grabbed my hand, because we hold hand when we pray. I said a quick prayer about the coming day and when I said Amen he signed and said more, and this kept on happening, so in the end we ended up praying for Nana, Papa, all his Aunts and Uncles, his friends from nursery and church, friends from the Library, and more. It was pretty fun. Then this morning when I got him up we sat at the breakfast table and he initiated and said "hold hands", and then when I did he said "pray". So, we did again. Pretty cool. So I need to be consistent in this, and also try to find other ways that we can introduce him to a life of faith and faithful observances.
Speaking of faith, I'm not sure how much to share in a public post, but our church has been and is going through some tough times still. Things are better than they were months ago, but we have a road ahead of us still. In particular, as our Deacon of Student Ministries, in the absence of a Youth Pastor, the youth group and other student ministries like small groups and sunday school if they were to actually be going on, are mine. It's not a role that I feel well matches my gifts, but it's a position where I still feel called to serve. There are lots of things I need to learn and do and I continue to need more people to help as well. I would welcome any and all prayer that you could offer up for this part of my life. If you are a confessing Christian and want to help with youth in the twin cities area too, I may have a place for you. :-) They are, for the most part, awesome kids who need to know Jesus.
Well, for one post a year to this point, I hope you can excuse the length of the post. When I post, I tend to go on and on. :-)
Karin was out of town this weekend, so Sam and I got the opportunity to hang out, just the guys. Or at least, that was going to be the case. Because of some re-scheduling, we ended up spending Friday and half of Saturday with Karin's Mom and Aunt Cathy. That was fine though. I really like my in-laws and other relations so we had lots of fun. I still did many of the things that I had planned for the weekend already.
Winter has had me investigating more culinary pursuits. Not anywhere near as much as Troy as of yet, but still fun. Here are a couple from recently.
The one thing I knew that I would be doing during the weekend was making Onion Confit. I had stumbled upon the recipe and a forum discussing it some time ago. It sounded like fun, however Karin does not like onions and was not enthused about me spending a significant amount of time cooking lots of onions when she was around. So, it got delayed until an opportunity presented itself. Even then, when she got home a day after I had finished she complained about how she could still smell the onions. :-) I didn't have beef demi-glace, so I did without, and used some homemade red wine vinegar instead of the sherry or port, but despite my modifying the recipe fairly heavily, I believe things turned out quite well.
Did I say homemade vinegar? I did. Another thing I've done recently is make some red wine vinegar at home. I currently have a batch in the fridge that's all done, and more fermenting in the basement. Quite easy, and tasty too. Only real problem is that I don't drink wine, so I don't have a ready source of left-overs to use, and have just used Charles Shaw wines from Trader Joes because they're inexpensive. If anyone wants to give me leftover wine that you're not going to finish, I'll put it to good use, and give part of it back later.
So far, I've made homemade vinaigrette for a couple salads with it which turned out excellent and chicken adobo on Troy's recommendation, which was okay, but I used way too much soy sauce and that kind of dominated the flavor. I plan on using it for sandwiches as well and any other whims that come to mind. Probably some mustards at some point, I like mustard. Maybe I'll grow some mustard and horseradish plants and I can have all the major elements. Then I'll need to grow grapes. :-)
I also tasted Limburger cheese this weekend. Not for me.
Moving on. Being a Dad is a blast and I continue to love every stage of Sam's development. He is growing and learning at an amazing pace. His vocabulary is getting to be pretty enormous and his pronunciation of most things seems to me at least to be quite excellent. It's easy to be proud and enjoy his development. It's also becoming very easy to relate to the little dude on a personal level as his personality and temperment become clearer. We love playing our little games and giggling and laughing as we wrestle and run around. Yesterday, I had him in peals of laughter as we tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues outside. He's a pretty typical little boy too, he loves tractors and trucks and all that stuff. He's also fascinated with Uncle Trent and all the big equipment that seems to show up in front of our house when Trent is around. Twice now, Trent has brought the Bobcat over from snow removal at the nearby parking lot, with its huge plow on the front and cleared our driveway for us. Sam loves to talk about that, and about Uncle's "Dirty Truck". :-)
We've been praying before meals with Sam since forever, but yesterday I decided to be a bit more intentional with showing Sam prayer and so I decided to spend some time praying with him when I put him to bed. When I asked him if he wanted to pray, he was immediately excited and grabbed my hand, because we hold hand when we pray. I said a quick prayer about the coming day and when I said Amen he signed and said more, and this kept on happening, so in the end we ended up praying for Nana, Papa, all his Aunts and Uncles, his friends from nursery and church, friends from the Library, and more. It was pretty fun. Then this morning when I got him up we sat at the breakfast table and he initiated and said "hold hands", and then when I did he said "pray". So, we did again. Pretty cool. So I need to be consistent in this, and also try to find other ways that we can introduce him to a life of faith and faithful observances.
Speaking of faith, I'm not sure how much to share in a public post, but our church has been and is going through some tough times still. Things are better than they were months ago, but we have a road ahead of us still. In particular, as our Deacon of Student Ministries, in the absence of a Youth Pastor, the youth group and other student ministries like small groups and sunday school if they were to actually be going on, are mine. It's not a role that I feel well matches my gifts, but it's a position where I still feel called to serve. There are lots of things I need to learn and do and I continue to need more people to help as well. I would welcome any and all prayer that you could offer up for this part of my life. If you are a confessing Christian and want to help with youth in the twin cities area too, I may have a place for you. :-) They are, for the most part, awesome kids who need to know Jesus.
Well, for one post a year to this point, I hope you can excuse the length of the post. When I post, I tend to go on and on. :-)