The Answer to the Big question (42)

mmmmm diner

2008-04-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

So next years dinner was born last week. Every year at scattergood friends school their is a day that is set aside for famly, friends, previous staff and alumni to come and visit scattergood. For this day the school cooks prepare a lamb or a pig. They spit roast it and it always comes out tasting amazing. Now i dont know if we will be eating this particular lamb but we will be eating one of them. This particular day on farm project we happened to witness this birth. mark (farm manager) was kind enough to let us take time off from shoveling shit and/or planting a variety of fruits and vegtables to watch the lamb come into our little world. It happened very fast and the mother kept moving so the actual video of the birth is very poor. we also had to keep our disstance.This was the first time I have seen anything born. I however was lucky / unlucky enough to see the after birth of my guinne pigs but that was a long time ago. The other lamb was born right before we arrived.

Vampire Weekend review

2008-04-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Vampire weekend is a new and inspiring group. Their songs have a tone that is very up lifting as well as creative. Their music is similar to that of They Might be Giants and the song Mansard roof makes you immediately think of the Beatles. Each song is similar sounding in a way that help’s the album flow. This dosent mean its repetitve infact they are all very unique. The best part about this album is they do not limit themselves to the typical instruments. The song M79 incorporates what sounds like a cello and the Rostam Batmanglij's keyboard adds a unique background that helps create this poppy sound that will excite the listener. This album will defiantly get you tapping your foot to it. If I have one problem with this very talented group it’s the vocalists high pitched voice that is only brought out in a few songs such as One(Blake’s got a New Face). I give this album a rating of 9.2

coffee with superman

2008-04-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

The other day I had a very strong urge to drink coffee. At the time I was with my "pal" superman, he flew off to fetch some beans. Little did I know he went to Africa and picked them himself. 10 seconds after he left he returned with a bag of green coffee beans. Talk about all Braun and no brains (unlike batman). We went down to the kitchen to roast the beans ourselves. Superman tried to do it with his eyes but kept burning them. I made two batches; the first was in a pan over the stove. This is the quickest method. First you preheat the pan. Then you put the beans in the pan so that they lie flat and never on top of each other. After that it is a simple process of moving the beans around in the pan while they cook. Depending on how dark you want the beans you keep them in the pan over the flame. An important thing to remember is the beans will still roast in the pan after it has been removed from the flame. I then took the beans and put them in a colander. This is to rid the beans off the little flakes that form while roasting. The pan method doses not provide a very even roast. The second method I used was in a convection oven. I first preheated the oven to about 500 degrees. I then spread the beans evenly over a pan and put it in the oven. I let it roast till it was dark enough. This method produced a perfectly even roast.

Tune in for more adventures of Superman and the art of roasting coffee beans, listening to good music, woodworking and a city boy living on a farm.