Penny is our 7 month old shih-tzu (here she is with Brooke):
Penny has a nose for beef:
Penny lets you know when she doesn’t want to be moved:
Penny sleeps on her back and snores like a trucker:
posted on Sun, 30 Oct 2011 at 22:37 | permanent link | view comments
Joseph’s vs. Taylor’s Biscuits
Our family took Heirloom Restaurant Group’s great biscuit showdown challenge. Here’s the summary (tl;dr at the bottom):
Mixing ease
Taylor’s biscuits were easier to make: dropping vs. rolling and a higher oven temperature made for quicker to make and quicker to cook biscuits. I think Taylor’s biscuits came out 10 minutes earlier than Joseph’s.
Texture
Joseph’s biscuits had a flakier and slightly more buttery texture. At the 10 minute mark on Taylor’s biscuits, I could see the butter bubbling at the bottom of the biscuits, some of which eventually soaked in. Joseph’s biscuits cooked more evenly but required rolling and cutting.
Flavor
Some differences: we opted for buttermilk for Taylor’s recipe and heavy cream for Joseph’s recipe. The difference was plain to taste. Joseph’s biscuits tasted familiar to me and were comfortable to eat. Ana thought Taylor’s biscuits had superior flavor, but then admitted that she liked the texture of Joseph’s biscuits and preferred eating them.
A funny thing
Ana followed Joseph’s recipe and I followed Taylor’s; each of us liked the other’s biscuits better. Our children showed the opposite pattern: the two oldest (who express more of my genes) preferred Taylor’s and the two youngest (who express more of Ana’s genes) preferred Joseph’s biscuits.
Caveats
Some things we probably didn’t get right: Ana cut the butter a little too much and possibly let the dough warm up too much: the result was that Joseph’s biscuits raised fine but then fell slightly. For my part, I’m not handy in the kitchen. I noticed I could have folded the buttermilk a touch more (there was some unmixed flour on top of some of the biscuits) and maybe been more careful sizing the drops (my biscuits were of all shapes and sizes).
Things to try
Ana thinks she’d like to try Taylor’s recipe using Joseph’s method (rolling and cutting).
tl;dr
Our family was split evenly between the two, but because this is my blog, I’m giving Joseph’s biscuits the edge. If Ana cooks up Taylor’s recipe with Joseph’s method, I’ll update this entry.
posted on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 at 20:48 | permanent link | view comments
Brooke was invited by an old friend (as old a friend as an 11 year old can be) to hike Mount Timpanogos last Saturday. While we didn’t make it to the saddle or peak, we did make it all the way to the upper meadow just below the saddle. What a great little hiker! Here are some photos and video clips.
A little stinging nettle. If you’re in the hills and feel like you
have to go potty, these leaves are a great choice to help you
eliminate that desire.
(full size)
A medely of trickles.
We made it to Scout Falls.
(full size)
The cliffs of insanity.
A well-worn stump.
Here’s the slope up to Pika Cirque that Ana and I took in 2005. It was still covered in snow at the end of September that year.
Sassy!
(full size)
Girls and dads (but me).
(full size)
Looking north to Little Cottonwood Canyon ridge.
Tiny spheres of rain trapped in the leaves (view the full size).
(full size)
Mountain Brooke.
(full size)
Scott & Brooke.
(full size)
So close and yet so far.
(full size)
Brooke, Emily, & Katherine
(full size)
posted on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 at 09:16 | permanent link | view comments
The other day, I went to Chinese Restaurant with some cow-orkers for some Nice Chinese Food. Why do these things tickle me so?
posted on Sun, 02 Aug 2009 at 10:11 | permanent link | view comments
We finally made it up to the cabin this year. Between school, finishing the basement, layoffs, and scrambling for work, we haven’t set aside any time to get away until this weekend. Here are some of the highlights.
Here’s a tick I picked off of Preston’s neck (it hadn’t embedded itself yet, thankfully). The lines on the paper are a quarter inch apart to give you a sense of scale.
Some forest shots:
A little archery:
A variety of mushrooms this year:
I also spotted a small flock of wild turkeys wandering around our lot:
We also went on a hike. We were intending to go to Shingle Mill Lake, but it was just a little too far for the time we had.
We went about half way instead and visited an old hunter’s hovel on top of a glacial moraine.
Old frying pan:
But a beautiful view of the Shingle Mill drainage and beyond. Looking north.
Looking south-ish:
Me and the kids:
Brooke and Ashton on the way back:
Arches National Forest?
C. Wilde left his mark over 80 years ago in this forest. He was a rancher from the Oakley area. I wrote a Wendigo-style ghost story about him a few years ago.
I’m not normally into scatology, but this was pretty fresh cougar scat. I noticed this on the way up and took a picture on the way back.
My uncle Dave carved this about 30 years ago with his then fiancée Linnea (now my favorite aunt):
We need to do this more often! (I say that every time).
posted on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 at 11:24 | permanent link | view comments
Taken in Tibble Fork, American Fork Canyon, Utah on June 13, 2009.
posted on Sun, 21 Jun 2009 at 20:50 | permanent link | view comments
I was minding my own business this morning when into my office bursts a bear holding a shark. The bear looked like it had outgrown its own skin a little (and perhaps eaten my daughter Brooke), but I believe this made it look even more terrifying. Here is the blurry photograpic evidence to back up my claim:
posted on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 at 23:13 | permanent link | view comments
I took this shot of Mount Timpanogos from our van just before we pulled onto the freeway.
I guess it would have been more impressive with a panoramic lens. Trust me, it was breathtaking.
Here’s a landscape view:
That’s the problem with photography: it’s a lie.
Something amazing and good is often made to look stupid and terrible, and vice versa. One of my favorite sayings in recent years goes something like this:
A picture is worth a thousand words, but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any meaningful sets of a thousand words can be adequately described with pictures.