Erik's Rants and Recipes: Photography: 2007 Archives

August 6, 2007

San Francisco Ferry Building

Here is a photo, simply because I haven't posted anything visual in awhile. I know, it has been even longer since I posted a recipe, but those take time to type up. Anyway, here is a view of San Francisco's Ferry Building:

Posted by erik at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2007

Great Photos

Did I mention before that Don is one fantastic photographer?

Go check him out. His daily photos make me want to jump on a plane and visit this one of the few states I have yet to visit.

Posted by erik at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2007

Isla de los Altcatraces

It is just one of those things.

Just as New Yorkers don't go to the Statue of Liberty, Bay Area folks don't go to Alcatraz. Strictly for tourists, along with the restaurants at the wharf, waiting in long lines to drive down Lombard Street (locals do it in the middle of the night during the winter, when it can actually be a shortcut to North Beach), or eating anything out of a bowl fashioned from a loaf of sourdough bread.

But that is where out of town relatives come in. Just as every New Yorker, when pressed hard enough, will admit that, "well, there was once, when we had family in from Iowa," you will get a quiet, "a few years ago we had some guests from Tennessee..."

Well, yesterday we had family in from North Carolina.

Now, this was not my first time. I had gone on the obligatory childhood trip to Alcatraz many years ago. Growing up in Sacramento made that OK. And I have sailed around Alcatraz, I have passed it on the way to Angel Island (which is very much frequented by locals), and I see it, if not daily, then close to daily. Neither Melanie nor Amalia had ever been, though.

A trip to Alcatraz begins on a boat, which leaves from Pier 33 in San Francisco. Even if you are not going to Alcatraz, at some point in your life, you should take a boat offshore from San Francisco, as it offers some interesting views of the city:

After a short and pleasant voyage you approach "The Rock," as locals are supposed to call it. We don't, but it's what we tell tourists. You see, it is good to know that you are dealing with a tourist (as if the under-dressing, hastily covered by a last minute purchase of a fleece jacket that says SF on it isn't a dead enough give-away).

You can be forgiven, as you walk up, if you think that you are somehow on some Mediterranean fishing village on an island.

"Ah yes, up ahead is the stone millhouse where the village has made its olive oil for centuries."

Ruins and a shimmering blue sea heighten the effect:

A blooming century plant lends the aura of subtropical balminess (and too many photos like this are responsible for the miserably cold tourists you see every summer):

I mean, c'mon! This could be Portugal:

Wildflowers, cypress trees, pleasant pedestrian paths...

Allright. Fun's over. Strip. Shower. Into your blues. If you break the rules, you go to prison. If you break the rules of the prison, you go to Alcatraz...

From 1934 to 1963 Alcatraz was the hardest, most severe outpost of the Federal Prison system. Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, Creepy Karpis, Birdman Stroud, are just a few of the names that became numbers in this wind-swept penitentiary.

The shimmering blue of the sea, which looked so inviting on the lee side of the island, where the officers lived, takes on a stark and even brutal character when framed by razor wire and the cement walls around the recreation yard:

The Golden Gate Bridge bekons, "come on Tantalus, reach...for...it..."

But, for an inmate, this was the more usual view:

Sometimes the prisoners could hear the music and voices from fetes at the yacht clubs accross the way. Especially on New Years Eve...

Well, I hope you enjoyed your tour. Be sure to visit the many fine shops and restaurants of San Francisco before you return home! Thank you and come again!

Posted by erik at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

March 9, 2007

Salsa Verde or The Formula for any Salsa de Molcajete

I am showing how to make a salsa with tomatillos, roasted garlic, and chipotles. You could use the same formula, and use roasted tomatoes for the tomatillos, haban~eros for the chipotles, just fresh garlic instead of roasted garlic, etc. Use your imagination, as the Purple Lizard says. Just keep in mind that if you use tomatoes, you may need to add some lime juice to boost the acidity.

Proportions are to taste, because the intensity of flavor varies so much depending on where the thing was grown, when it was grown, how much water it had, etc.

1. The first step is to roast the tomatillos. First peel off the papery husks, and wash the sticky goo off of them. Put them, along with the unpeeled garlic cloves, in a pan and stick it into a 375 degree oven. If you are using fresh chilies, roast them, too. If you are using dried chilis, toast them, then rehydrate them, but generally dried cilies go into fried salsas, so we will discuss their handling in the upcoming entry for enchilada sauce:

2. Grind up a couple of cloves of fresh garlic with some salt in your molcajete. Now, you might think that you can do this in any order, but any Mexican cook will tell you that you must do things in this order (if you are substituting ingredients, just substitute the ingredient in the proper place). If you have never used your molcajete, you will need to season it by grinding up some dry rice in it and throwing it out and repeating until there are no more little bits of rock and black sand in it:

3. As the tomatillos soften (you want them to be mushy), remove them from the oven:

4. Now, grind up your chilis, in this case chipotles (with a little splash of the adobo they were packed in):

5. Add the roasted tomatillos and grind them up with the rest:

6. Taste, correct for salt, fire, acidity (you will probably have no problems with enough acidity using tomatillos). Ready for chips!

Of course, this is the salsa I use to simmer chicharrones in. Just heat up a small pan of this, add pork rinds and a little splash of chicken stock and cook until the rinds are soft. Serve on hot corn tortillas with freshly chopped onion and cilantro. Accompany with ice cold beer and some conjunto music!

Posted by erik at 11:59 AM | Comments (1)

February 4, 2007

A Lone Dog in the Sierra

This is a portrait that Amalia took of her dalmation puppy up at Lake Tahoe. Everyone ought to have a portrait of their dalmation puppy at Lake Tahoe.

Posted by erik at 1:12 PM | Comments (3)

Berkeley

I love Berkeley. It is full of the very worst sort of people, but also the very best. You can say the same about the architecture. Of course it is the best market town in the world for foodies, with the Berkeley Bowl, the Monterrey Market, The Cheese Board Collective, ACME Bakery, and so forth and so on.

I am thinking of doing a little photo tribute to Berkeley this week. We will start with this picture of the Lawrence Hall of Science:

Of course, you can just turn around and see the view directly, too:

Posted by erik at 9:08 AM | Comments (0)

February 3, 2007

Suitable for Framing?

It was pointed out that I had yet to post my photo on the blog. Since Amalia appears here, as does Melanie, it seems fair that I should paste my mug up here, too.

This is a picture Amalia took last summer up at Lake Tahoe. Holding the dog was her idea. She also made me take a portrait of the dog for her.

Posted by erik at 3:14 PM | Comments (2)

February 2, 2007

Fishies

I mentioned that the fishing is great in Medicine Lake, no?

These trout are from that lake. I caught all but one of them:

I like fish. I like to fish. I like to cook fish. I like to eat fish.

Part of the fun thing about fish is where they live, especially when the places look like this:

Or this:

Both of those are pictures of the Sacramento River at the Anderson River Park in Anderson, near Redding.

Now, I like ocean fish, too, and have this problem of going to the aquarium. I see things like this:

And I get hungry. Mmmmmm. Pack those babies in salt!

Of course you cannot have a peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich. I suppose perhaps some variety of jellyfish would be edible (I believe), but with peanut butter on toast? No. They sure are pretty, though:

And that is your photo tour for today.

And what goes with f-f-f-fish, K-K-K-Ken?

Posted by erik at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2007

O Volcano!

First, I am adding a new category to the blog: Northern California. This will be its first post, a little photo rumination on the Volcanoes of Modoc and Shasta County.

I am eating leftovers for lunch, a particularly molten, mouth-blistering piece of the aforementioned lasagna. That makes me think of lava, and that is going to be the main focus of today's lunchtime blogging.

The advantage (and sometimes disadvantage) of living on the Ring of Fire, is that the landscape is formed primarily by seismic upheaval: plates colliding, uplifting, cracking, magma chambers forming, stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes, etc. Even down here in the Bay Area we have some volcanic features (Berkeley's Round Top is a very old, fallen over volcano).

But to really take in the splendor of volcanism, you have to get in your car and head up to Shasta, Lassen, Butte, and Modoc counties. That is where you see the spectacular stuff.

Today I am going to show some pictures of the Modoc Volcanic Scenic Byway and some of the areas around it. I have tons, but I am just going to show a few. I could say, "you must get out here," but you probably won't, as it is remote, far from the sort of amenities that vacationers like, requires a sturdy car (4X4 preferable) and the skills to drive it on some rough terrain. Add the weather (scorching in the summer, freezing in the winter, muddy in between), and you have an area that is probably best appreciated by photos from the sorts of nuts who like that kind of thing.

Fortunately for you, we are just those sorts of nuts.

When you go up to this part of the world, your gateway to it is probably Redding, which is a strange mix of the Deep South and Southern California. Redneckery abounds, with folks wanting the government to stay off their backs, and yet, bitterly complaining at the suburban sprawl and nasty traffic that is the result of unchecked growth (and hordes of refuges from LA and the Bay Area seeking the unspoiled purity of wild Northern California). In a few years, the area could be absolutely unliveable, sort of a Valencia North, where vestiges of the former beauty can be made out among the rows and rows of identical cardboard houses.

One of the advantages of Redding is that it gets hot in the summer, outrageously and notoriously hot. I remember as a kid in Sacramento, when the mercury hit 105 we would assure ourselves, well it could be worse, we could be in Redding. Or Red Bluff. The two towns are about fourty miles or so apart, but in our minds they were twin cities, both with the "red" warning in their names. They were red because the land itself was on fire, or at least it seemed. We have been up there and seen the thermometer register 117 in the shade. It is brutal.

But, given proper shade and irrigation, you can grow all sorts of flowers in the summer, for instance this fly-polinated flower:

Now, fly polinated flowers are a special interest of Melanie and I. We have been known to drive to various flower conservatories and arboretums to see rare fly-polinated flowers. Of course the old adage is that you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Perhaps, but if you really want to attract flies, try rotten meat.

Fly-polinated flowers smell of rotten meat, usually for a day or two, thus attracting flies. So, imagine 110 degree heat, and the smell of rotten meat.

Ah, good.

Time to head for the mountains, no?

Alright. Let's pack up and drive to Dunsmuir.

Well it is still hot, but you can cool off in waterfalls!

Here is Melanie cooling off in Black Bart's hideout in Dunsmuir.

Well, Dunsmuir is a pretty town with an interesting history (Black Bart and all), but we really were after volcanoes. So, let's move on, shall we?

The Big Mama Volcano is, of course, Mt. Shasta.

But it is not the biggest of the Cascades. No, that honor belongs to a Hawaiian shield volcano that is so big most people think of it as a region, or a micro-range: The Medicine Lake Volcano.

The caldera is a lake, as I mentioned earlier, a pleasantly warm lake filled with delicious trout:

The really interesting volcanic features surround the lake and are on the flanks of this large volcano. So, driving through the area, mostly full of large conifers, you know you are getting close because you encounter lava beds, some even with large conifers growing in them:

And, in the glass mountain area, the lava beds have obsidian outcroppings:

Yes, it is not every day that you encounter naturally formed glass hanging around:

And these pieces can get big:

Now, even up in the mountains it can be hot. Imagine daytime highs in the nineties and you will understand our surprise at this (note the obsidian outcropping in the back):

But that snow does melt, and it fuels the various creeks and rivers of the Sacramento River system.

On a hot day, those streams and rivers can look so inviting. And they are, but they are also cold. Jumping into this 40 foot deep pool at the base of the McCloud Lower Falls was something akin to jumping into that cocktail shaker in the recipe for martinis I posted earlier:

Now, there are a lot more photos to show, and plenty to say about the area, and we will post and say, in due time, but I have spent enough time at this, and have to get back to work (future painting photos depend on getting actual paintings done, alas). I hope you have enjoyed this little trip through Northern California's Volcano Country!

Posted by erik at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

Two Views of Lake Tahoe Area

Here are a couple of photos I took last summer of the Lake Tahoe area. I think you will get an idea of why I am so smitten with my home state.

Posted by erik at 11:39 AM | Comments (3)

January 29, 2007

Brussels Sprouts

So, the very first photo I posted on the blog was of a bowl of Brussels Sprouts. It was taken on Christmas Day of 2005 by either myself or Melanie. Now, I know that you have been lying awake at nights, wondering what I did with those brussels sprouts, and I have just been leaving you hanging.

OK. Some folks, who harbor irrational prejudices against brussels sprouts, are probably thinking by now, "who cares, so long as I don't have to eat them!"

Well, here is a picture of them finished:

The way they got there, from here:

is as follows:

1. First, you start with super fresh brussels sprouts. I buy mine off the whole stalk, and trim them right before cooking. You want the color to be very pale green. Dark green will be overpowering, but you can shred the dark green leaves and add them to soups.

2. Parcook the sprouts. I steam them. It is one of two times I ever steam a vegetable (a generally barbaric way of cooking, but for parcooking brussels sprouts and for cooking artichokes, it is good).

3. Finish them by sauteeing them in EVOO with finely chopped goose pancetta (take extra skin from your goose, rinse it in hot water, dry it, rub it with sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, ground allspice, and soak it in grappa overnight to two days), and garlic.

4. When they are just starting to brown, take them off heat, squeeze a Meyer lemon over them, and sprinkle with crushed, toasted hazelnuts.

5. Serve with duck, goose, beef, venison, or wild boar.

Posted by erik at 9:34 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2007

Paella on the Grill

I went to the studio to take art pictures, and the camera's battery needed recharging. So, that will happen this afternoon, no big deal. I went to the pictures folder to see if I had any art photos, and didn't, but I did find this picture of a paella I made on a barbecue while camping last spring:

I always like paella, but there is something extra good about it when it is made outdoors over a fire. This one was with rabbit, sausages, clams, and mussels.

Posted by erik at 10:51 AM | Comments (3)

January 19, 2007

Test of a different size.

Of course, if I am going to give you pretty scenery while I test sizes and formats and such, you can't beat this. You just can't:

Posted by erik at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

More Tests

I am just playing with settings and seeing what looks best. I will try to post interesting views, since why waste space with just boring old tech tests? This is an obsidian outcropping at Glass Mountain on the Medicine Lake volcano, a Hawaiian-type shield volcano in far Northern California. It is the largest of the Cascades, and its caldera is a lake (a lovely warm lake full of tasty trout)!

Posted by erik at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)