Lots of things going on!

Sorry it has been a busy month here it is September and I see I had no posts in August at all.   Well Here goes a couple :)
As you know Sandy is a big couponer - and that includes Groupon and Living Social too.  Well she got an email about a thing called "Chef Unplugged".  This is a repeating event with different chefs and appetizers.  Chef Ben Vaughn from the Food Network show "Health Inspectors" is the main chef, with "celebrity" chefs rotating through.  The chef for the event I went to was Emily Ellyn from Food Network star show this year.  Both couldn't have been more sociable and friendly in a very intimate setting.  The menu was very eclectic, with themes from the chef's perspectives. Ben's was southern comfort items and Emily's  is retro rad - "raid your grandmother's cookbook and put your spin on it!"  Anyway here is the menu for that evening:

• Humpty Dumpty Devilish Egg Canapes with Cracked black pepper edible spoons (they were pretty cool) and pickled pearl onions (Emily's)
• Peas Pudding Hot - Yorkshire Pudding with Maple Leaf Farms Duck Fat with Maple Leaf Farms Candied Duck Bacon Jam (Ben's)
• Duck Duck Beef -Roasted Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast, Smoked Brasstown Beef Osso Buco Stuffing with Grilled Southern Grit Cake and Lemon Preserves. (Ben's)
• I'm a Little Tea Cake - Short and Stout! Chocolate Tea Cake with Rose Water Frosting. (Emily's)

Duck Duck BEEF - Really good

There was also a nano-brewery there from Yorkville IL - Three Angels Brewery... Extremely good craft beers - and brewed by some people with a real passion for local sourcing...     Check out their link too...
Three Angels Brewing

All of the little plates were very good...    Here are some links if you want to know more about the chef's history and future.  Great people shared some great stories from their lives and their shows...  



 

Ben, myself and Emily

Emily Ellyn's Home Page       

Ben Vaughn's twitter page

Not cooking per se` but interesting none the less

Hi everyone.... While it isn't really cooking I wanted to post some pics of a project I (as well as others) have been working on.  We recently had our kitchen floors refinished and sold our table we have had for 11-12 years so my sister in law Jan gave us the idea of using some old lumber from a machine shed we tore down at least 15 years ago we had saved in our barn..   So we did just that I found some old Ponderosa Pine (cue theme from Bonanza here) and had a person from Sandy's company that makes furniture in his spare time agree to make the table...  He did a Fabulous Job!!
Here are some pics from beginning to end of the making of the table top!!


Here is the old wood before power washing

Same board after washing

Tabletop after cutting to size and planing

 

Now it's looking like a table - double biscuit and cleated together... HEAVY

BEAUTIFUL

 Now comes the frame!! Sandy had seen an example of many frames on the web and I liked the pipe base... So off to Home Depot and Menards we go.. We proceeded to buy out all of the flanges, nipples and elbows they had and Friday night I got started....  It is kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle - you have to remember when you tighten one, you may loosen another so you had to think through the steps in the right order..  Well what do you think?  Thanks to all that helped (even Ike that helped me assemble the chairs too!)

Dry fitting the frame

Engineering all the placements

Fitting it on the table 

Finished Product

New addition to the family

Now that I have your attention.... It isn't what you think... It is a new grill to Ike's Grill Team... (It's the Big Weber Ranch Kettle Grill on the right....

Check out the fleet...    Some are old, some are new... But they all have a purpose....

Note the Boss down in front!