Christian McLean

• The secret of my success

  Ok, I’m lying a little bit in the title but seriously everyday I follow this simple rule to try and keep a little more stress out of my life. It also helps me keep a little perspective on what I should actually be spending my energy and time focusing on.

  September 9, 2011

  Daily sketches

  decisions, life, success

• Why the GOP is failing to run the government like a buisness

  On the extended cut of The Daily Show last night was the interview with Senator Dick Durban (D Illinois) where him and Jon Stewart discussed the debacle that was the debt ceiling debates.

  In that interview Senator Dick Durban (D Illinois) explained that he and some of his fellow senators from both parties had spent 16-18 months working on a composed solution to how we would not only cut spending but increase revenue. He explained by limiting the solution to only one or the other would significantly hurt one or the other.

  Spending 16-18 months on a solution, and then disregarding because it didn’t fit into an ideology?? That is a large waste of money. I would understand if they spent 16-18 months on something and it turned out to be crap, but then the people who worked on the project would be fired as to not use up company resources frivolously.

  I guess I just don’t understand how all the GOP can yell about running the government like a business and then waste the people’s time and money by throwing out 16-18 months of work.

  August 5, 2011

  frustrations, politics

  business, debt ceiling, GOP, government, stupidity

• What one thing did you really want when you were a kid?

  

  Teddy Ruxpin, I remember begging my parents to get this for me when I was just a little kid. I remember wanting it sooo bad, that it was the coolest thing ever. Needless to say i nver got one, and I forgot about having one a little while later. This is probably one of the more important time in my life, because this was the first THING that I can remember really wanting as a kid. There was something about it. It actually told you stories, albeit in a creepy animatronic way, but stories nonetheless. I never got it, and this was a good thing.

  Throughout my life there was always that new thing that I really wanted, and I would beg my parents to get it for me, sometimes constantly for weeks. To their credit they didn’t cave in to my relentless annoyance, most of the time. I think they knew something about me before I was able to realize it. I like to be on the wave of the fad, whats cool and new and wonderful. Those few times where I actually got that THING I was ecstatic. I realized though that after a little while this THING was just ok. No one thing really changed my life as much as I had thought it would, and I’m pretty sure my parents knew that.

  I am glad I learned this lesson early in my life, because now as I live my life simply and with as little stuff as I can.

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  August 2, 2011

  letsblogoff

• Why Thanksgiving is the best and most American holiday

  Above all Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It doesn’t have the pressure and running around to gather the perfect gifts, lacks the need to run around all night in a silly/complicated costume, isn’t as dangerous as fireworks and alcohol (though sometimes that is fun), doesn’t have the let down of ending at midnight, and it doesn’t have a silly bunny running around hiding eggs (which never made any sense to me). What it does have is your family and/or friends gathering just to celebrate a meal and hang out together.

  With that said, I know what some people might be thinking, ‘What about the pressure and chaos of the family coming’. My answer is embrace it, and let it fold into the event. I got both experiences growing up. My family at Thanksgiving consisted of my dad, mom, sister, and me. We have always had a pretty quiet Thanksgiving which is much different from a lot of my friends. We would make a turkey and maybe three or four side dishes and that would be it.

  I also like the BIG Thanksgiving. The one where massive amounts of people descend on a chosen family member’s house and bring their appointed dish making for a very large spread. The appeal of this probably came from me not really having a large extended family close to where we lived, but still it was an event. My favorite place to be a part of this was my best friends house, catholic. They had a sort of organized chaos.

  Here is my list of why Thanksgiving is the best and most American holiday…

• Food, and lost of it
• Family
• Friends
• Wine/beer
• Football
• Tryptophan (it gives us an excuse for napping)
• PIE (apple or otherwise)
• Canned Jellied Cranberry (it just slices so neatly)

November 8, 2010

Weeklly Food Posts

american, family, food, holiday, thanksgiving

What Makes You Laugh??

What Makes You Laugh

This is the current topic of #letsblogoff. This being my first blog off I’ll try and make it a good one.

These are some of the things that make me laugh….

Katz doing stupid stuff

People falling on ice

Dude’s getting hit in the Jewelz

Drunk people

Laughter

People who take themselves too seriously

Odd pairings of things

Giant leaps of logic

Much more that I just can’t think of right now

These are all items from my life that I have experienced at one point in time or another. I try and find humor in these items when they occur in an absurdity. When things are on the brink of tragedy/absurdity, when events line up so improbably that you have to laugh at it otherwise there would be no other meaning for it to happen.

Life affords us these moments if we are willing to see them and laugh at them. Laughing for me is a group activity, it is what can bring random people together and lighten the mood. We laugh at things because we have experienced it and through that it becomes a common experience that is relatable with others.

I tend also to laugh at myself a lot. Admittedly, I am not the most elegant person. I am neurotic about things somethings most of the time and when my friends make fun of me for that it reminds me not to take myself too seriously.

What makes me laugh is life. Life needs to be light hearted otherwise we get too focused on goals and tasks and forget that there is a journey. Laughing at life reminds me to pay attention to the details and the roses around me. Sorry if I got off topic a little bit, hope you enjoyed reading.

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November 1, 2010

letsblogoff

absurd, culture, funny, humor, laughter, life

Recipes from the weekend of 22/02/2010 – Stuffed pepper and Strawberry Pots de Creme

Thanks to anyone who came and ate one of the specials I worked on last week, it was a busy weekend all around so my apologies that there aren’t any photographs to accompany the recipes. If you would like to send pictures of your plating of the dishes I would appreciate it very much. To send pictures just TwitPic them to me @chirn9980. Enough with the jibberjab here is the stuffed pepper recipe.

Stuffed Pepper

For this recipe I am just going to give instructions for a single stuffed pepper, to make it easy to scale up. (or down but I am not sure how you could make a 1/4 stuffed pepper)
Veggies and Stuff

1 green pepper

1/4 zucchini (med diced)

1/4 eggplant (med diced)

2 button mushrooms (or your choice of mushroom – I wish I had had morels, but thems the breaks)

1 roma tomato (med diced)

1 thinly sliced shallot (not necessary)

1/4 yellow onion (diced)

1 garlic clove (minced)

1 cup rice (I used Basmati, but general long grain rice will do)

1/2 tsp tomato paste

Seasonings (My note on my thoughts on seasoning)

thyme

cayenne

salt

pepper

oregano

Other

parmesean cheese

butter

olive oil

Directions

The rice will take the longest to cook, so I start that first. Rinse the rice by placing it in a pot and running cold water over it until the water runs clear. Drain the rice. Place the rice back in the pot and fill with water, until the water is about a 1/4 to 5/16 of an inch about the rice. Place pot on the range on low heat and add about 3 Tbsp of butter and some salt and let cook until the rice is about 3/4’s soft (it should barely be crunchy). The rice should take about 20 to 25 min.

After the rice is going, start chopping up all of the veggies. Get a medium to large sautee pan on the stove on about med-high heat and coat the bottom of the pan with the olive oil.

Once the oil is heated add the onions and shallots and turn down to med heat. Let them brown a bit, not burn. When the onion starts to turn translucent add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the mushroom and zucchini and tomato paste. Cook for 3 to 5 min or until zucchini starts to soften, then add the roma tomato and eggplant and cook until everything is soft (5 to 6 min).

Once all the veggies are cooked mix them together with about a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese in a bowl with the seasonings and cooked rice. Set aside.

Take the green pepper and slice the top off, and scrape out the seeds. Fill the pepper with the stuffing and roast in the oven at 350º F for 35 to 40 min.

Strawberry Pots de Creme

This recipe makes about eight 8oz servings

Ingredients

1 qt heavy cream

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

6 large egg yolks

8 cups strawberries (frozen of fresh, if frozen make sure they are completely thawed before working with them)

Start by placing the quart of heavy cream, 1/2c sugar, and vanilla in at least a 2 quart sauce pan ( just in case the cream boils up too much), and place it on med heat. Bring the heavy cream to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove cream from heat and set aside to cool down.

Take the strawberries, and place them in the food processor until there are no chunks left. Strain the strawberries through a fine chinois, of through a fine mesh cheesecloth to remove any unwanted seeds. Set the liquid aside for now.

Separate the egg yolks and place them in a mixing bowl. Beat the yolks just enough so that they come together, while still mixing slowly incorporate the other 1/2 cup of sugar. Continue mixing until the sugar and yolks turn a yellow custard color (Ummm, kinda the color of a lemon). After that fold in the strawberry liquid until incorporated.

Here comes the tricky part, tempering the liquids. The goal is to slowly add the warm cream to raise the temperature of the eggs without cooking the eggs and “scrambling” the proteins. SLOWLY ladle the cream into the eggs while stirring the eggs. Continue to do this cream to eggs until you have added about a third of the cream. Add the egg/cream mixture back into the cream only mixture and fold until fully incorporated. Set aside and let the mixture cool to at least room temperature.

To cook them, you will need some ceramic ramekins and a cooking tray that is about an inch higher than the ramekins. Soak a kitchen towel in cold water and place in the bottom of the tray. Place the ramekins on the towel in the tray. Fill the tray with water until the water reaches half way up the ramekins. ****SCIENCE NOTE We use the towel and the water because we want the custard to cook evenly at the edges and the center. The reason this works is that water has a pretty high heat capacity (Q=mc∆t anyone????), which means that the water will heat slowly and evenly allowing for and even rise in temperature. We also use the towel in to bottom because other wise the ceramics will be directly touching the metal pan which will allow for a very quick heat transfer. END SCIENCE NOTE*** If any water splashed into the ramekins make sure to wipe it out before pouring in the filling. Now fill each ramekin halfway with the custard mix, the custard should be at about the same level as the water in the tray. Place in the oven for about 30 to 35 min at 350ºF, or until the middle has just set (the middle barely moves when you giggle the pan).

Take out of the oven and the water bath and place in the fridge to cool. It takes about and hour to completely set.

So thats what I made last weekend. Funny enough the Strawberry Pots de Creme ended up tasting like strawberry Quick and reminded me of being a kid again. A very large thanks to everyone who ate a Kona last weekend to support Think Pink Weekend, we all appreciate it. There will be more to eat and experiment with this coming weekend.

C.