Category Archives: Health

Curry Chicken

A tasty single pan curry dish.

Prep Time: 10 min.
Cooking Time: 20 min.
Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

    1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
    1 tbs. sesame (or olive) oil
    1 small onion, diced
    3 garlic cloves, minced
    2 1/2 Tbsp. yellow curry powder
    1 tsp. ground ginger
    1 head cauliflower, cut into florets (~ 4 cups)
    1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
    1/3 cup lower sodium chicken broth
    Salt and black pepper to taste

Cooking

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, add chicken and cook until lightly browned (about 5 min.). Transfer chicken to plate.

Reduce heat and medium-low. Add onion, garlic, curry and ginger to the same skillet. If you drained off all the liquid after cooking chicken, add a small amount of oil to pan. Cook until fragrant (about 2 min.).

Add cauliflower, coconut milk and broth, cover and simmer until vegetables are crisp-tender (about 5 min.).

Add chicken back to the pan and cook until sauce reduces and thickens (about 8 min.)

Notes

Draining off the liquid after cooking chicken produced a thicker sauce. Some chicken is injected with water and this step will ensure the sauce is not too thin.
You may want to use less chicken broth if you like a thicker sauce. One option is to use 1 chicken bullion cube, instead of broth; this maintains the flavor without the extra liquid.
Instead of ground ginger powder, try freshly grated ginger root, increasing amount by 50%

Baked Catfish with Lemon Aioli

A family favorite, this catfish recipe is simple and flavorful, but not fishy tasting.

Prep Time: 5 min.
Cooking Time: 15 min.
Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

    1 tsp. dried thyme
    1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
    1 1/2 pounds catfish filets
    1/4 cup mayonnaise (light works OK too)
    1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
    1 small garlic clove, minced
    1/8 tsp. salt
    1/8 tsp. black pepper
    Additional salt and black pepper to taste.

Cooking

Heat oven to 400F.

Mix thyme, cayenne, salt and pepper and rub onto fish, seasoning both sides.

Coat a 9″ x 13″ baking dish with cooking spray (I prefer to use an olive oil spray). Bake fish until opaque and cooked through; about 15 min.

While fish is baking, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice and garlic in a small mixing bowl to make aioli topping for fish.

Notes

Always best with some vegetable side dish.

Mustard Crusted Steak

Steak and mustard provide a nice flavor profile for this meal.

Prep Time: 15 min.
Cooking Time: 15 min.
Servings: 4 Servings

Ingredients

    2 garlic cloves, minced
    1 Tbsp. course Dijon mustard
    1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
    1 tsp. ground mustard
    1/8 tsp. salt
    1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
    2 lbs. bonless top round steak; 3/4″ thick

Cooking

Heat oven to boril.

Combine garlic, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ground mustard, salt, and pepper into small mixing bowl.

Line a broiler pan with foil and place steak on top. Coat evenly with mustard mixture and let stand f10 minutes. Broil steak to desired doneness, 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Let stand 5 min. before slicing and serving.

Notes

Broil for 3 minutes longer per side when thicker top round, or when cooking for people that like to waste mean (aka. well-done).

Life and Death – confronting the reality of our existence

That sounds pretty ominous, and in a lot of respects, it is.

Yesterday was a strange day indeed. While working from home during the building emergency water shut-off, we noticed Police presence next door, and not the typical type.

Here is the reason: the Coroner had arrived to remove the body of one of the people living in the unit next door. It’s a little weird to know that someone had just died next door, just a few feet away:
IMG_1594_death

They are both aged, and have in-home nursing care. I guess when that is the case the Police have to very carefully investigate the death. There were 3 detectives, county Coroner technician and a patrol officer all going over the scene.

When you see detectives leaving with bags of marked evidence, you wonder if something foul had occurred.
IMG_1596_death

We later spoke with the complex maintenance man (for reasons related to the water shutoff), and he confirmed that they believed it to be a simple case of death by natural causes, but they have to impound medications, equipment etc. to make sure no crime was committed. He also confirmed that it was the first death in the building. Hm.. some consolation. :/

It was a very strange day, indeed. Godspeed to our neighbor. I hope they are now in a much better place, and able to get some deserved rest…. and no longer woken up in the middle of the night by the bar patrons across the street… :/

Santa Cruz – a Day in the Life

8:00 AM
  • Woke up to a sunny morning
  • Spoke to my son about he latest developments in his Minecraft adventures
8:30 AM
  • Researched local prices on BMW M3 convertibles. Not ready to pull the trigger, YET.
  • Got pricing and installation instructions for trailer hitch on the ML320
  • Started research on attending next year’s Isle of Man TT

  • Hugged everyone in the house
9:15 AM
  • Hopped on mountain bike and rode Wilder Ranch
  • Noticed my tires were a little on the flat side and decided to not go full agro
  • Checked out the coastal loop trail for the first time

  • Watched seals play in the surf, and dolphins swim by for about 15 minutes
  • Marveled at the beauty and splendor that is California
11:30 AM
  • Walked down to the pool, slipped into the hot tub
  • Sunned poolside and mused about the fact I feel like I’m vacation every day here
  • Watched Monarch butterflies fly by the pool, expressed need to walk down to beach and see if they have officially arrived
  • Reaffirmed the strong desire to buy a two seat convertible, even though it’s totally impractical with 2 kids
1:30 PM
  • Returned home, relaxed, agreed that we need to go to Costco
  • Looked for clothes to wear, considered shoes for about 3 seconds, decided that would be lame
1:45 PM
  • Costco run to get veggies for juicing
  • Checked out the Food Bin for organic foods to cook for dinner (success!)
3:15 PM
  • Hiked down to the beach and checked out the incoming Monarch Butterfly migration, in the eucalyptus grove
  • Checked out the many butterflies resting in the trees, and flying about the grotto
5:00 PM
  • Dinner preparations underway
  • Opened a Rothchilds Cabernet for dinner
6:15 PM
  • Organic pasta (whole wheat) dinner with a sausage, mushroom and onion red sauce
  • Discussed the wonders of the day
7:00 PM
9:15 PM
  • Retired the crew to their quarters, myself included
  • Turned on iTunes on the Apple iMAC, streaming ‘On the Edge Radio‘ from Seattle, set the sleep timer to 90 minutes
9:18 PM

Flavored coffee, the healthy way?

MmmMmmmmm Spicy!
“Hello, my name is David. And I’m an addict”

I’ll admit it. I’m an addict. A caffeine addict. I seldom go a day without a 10 or more ‘cups’ (what do they call a cup, 6 oz. or something.. pffft.. rubbish) of coffee. That means I go through beans like a Mexican canned foods factory.

To keep from going broke (and falling asleep any time of the day), I’ve been buying coffee in 3-5 lb. bulk sacks. This also means that these beans are bulk roasted, and the options are limited. Well.. not any more!

After reading one of the famous “Eat this, not this” books, somewhere inside I ran across some tips on herbal enhancements (not *those* kind of enhancements!) you can make to foods to assist with blood pressure, diabetes, stress, etc.

One such suggestion was Cinnamon added to the ground coffee to give it a slightly ‘Mexican Coffee’ flavor. Cinnamon also has some nice benefits including increased brain function, improved blood flow and assists in sugar control. Sounds good to me, so I tried it. And honestly, I like it. A lot. It’s adding a nice variety to my morning, afternoon and evening coffees. And, an upside to all this is, I can vary the flavor based on how many pinches I put in the grounds, or just not use it one of those days I want the full trucker-coffee effect.

Along with the Cinnamon, I’ve experimented around with cloves, and that adds a nice nutty / smokey flavor to the coffee. I don’t do it all the time but again, it provides some variety. Another recent add that sounds totally insane (perhaps….) is chili pepper. Yes.. I’ve added chili pepper to my coffee. In fact the cup in front of me right now has some in it and you can taste the spice! I love spiced foods, so this is what I’d consider a good thing.

So.. there you have it. Bored of your current sack of coffee, maybe try out some variety. Variety is the spice of life, right? Now that you’ve recovered from your guffaws.. you might actually give it a run.

** Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor, herbalist, actor, nurse, parasitologist nor new anchor so… there you have that too

Airlift Northwest – N951AL Night Photos

Last night, around 1:00 AM I popped outside to try some free-hand night shooting with the Canon 50D camera. Being so early in the morning, light was basically non-existent. I’ve never shot the camera at such and extreme ISO. It’s and experiment to see what noise levels are experienced at those speeds.

There are camera body options to push the ISO to an incredible 6400 and 12800! I have no idea what the noise level would be with those settings, but the next chance I get to photograph the helicopters at night, I’m giving it a try.

For this mornings experiment, I armed myself with the 5.6f 400mm lens and ISO set to a whopping 3200, I took my best shot(s) (so to speak).

Photos of new Airlift Northwest helicopter EC135 N139AM

Over the last week, I have seen a new emergency airlift helicopter landing at the hospital.

Airlift Northwest - EuroCopter EC135 tail N139AM

I’ve seen this airframe type in use before, but the livery is different from anything I’ve seen to date.

One of the nicer aspects of this type of aircraft is the ducted tail rotor. This abates most of the rotor noise. Although calling it quiet would be a lie, it’s a lot quieter than the Agusta A109 un-ducted tail aircraft most commonly used in this area.

EC135 - EuroCopter N139AM

It also appears to provide more room for equipment within the fuselage. I can’t guarantee that I’ve properly identified the airframe, but it appears to be a Eurocopter EC135.

Unfortunately the photos are not sharp at all! I’m not at all sure why. Using the new camera (which I know works) and my trusy 100-400 ISL Canon lens (which I also know works). Must have been the very slow (100/th sec) shutter speed I was trying to use to capture blade movement. Oh well.

AirLift Northwest photos – Canon 20D + 400mmL IS lens

The last couple of days have been pretty nice. I had my older 20D camera body loaded with the 100-400L Zoom and next to my desk. More than a few times a week, the AirLift Northwest helicopters bring people into the trauma center at Harrisons. So, I decided to snap a few pics.

They have a number of helicopters, and at least two different models currently in use. This one, photographed on two separate days. I believe this to be an Agusta a109.

Climbout from Harrisons Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 lifting off from Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 departs Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.
Agusta AW109 departs Harrison's Hospital, Bremerton WA.

Note about these photos. These are re-sized by the blog software, and they loose a little bit of their quality. The originals are tack-sharp. I’ll have to look into adjusting the blog software to not mangle my photos. Not sure if it’s possible but worth a try.

Interesting Health Care conversation

While riding the ferry to Seattle yesterday, I could not help but overhear a conversation between what was most certainly (in my eye) a heavily Liberal leaning older woman, and a pair of travelers from the UK.

Talk of Tony Blair, George Bush and Gordon Brown (whom the travelers thought was a complete mistake), eventually moved onto the topic of health care. This sparked my interest.

It’s a single point. An opinion from one person whom lives in the UK, and is very familiar with England’s version of Universal Healthcare;

WA Liberal:
“How do you like your healthcare?”

He’s simple frank response.

UK Traveler:
“Rubbish!”

“I’ve been waiting since April for a checkup.”

“If you have an emergency, you can get treatment.”

I would certainly hope so!!

So.. straight from the mouths of those the live under Socialized Health Care.

“RUBBISH”.

It was sad, but again slightly amusing, listening the Liberal try to paint our world leading health care as ‘as almost as bad as that in the UK’. Hm.. well, with Obama.. soon our health care will be worse!

At least this Liberal, and I think many more than the Democrats want to admit, think that changing the entire system to help a few with under or no insurance is a BAD idea. Anyone that’s been in a Federal program (like the V.A.) probably has an opinion on the ability of the Federal Government to administer any thing more that nt. purchase of $5000 toilets.

Now, there’s change we can all get on board with, right? Personally, this is not the sort of ‘Change’ I want, and, other than a core group of fanatics, neither does anyone else.