Sunday, July 28, 2013

Chickpea Tacos


Chickpea Tacos

Chickpeas
Potatoes, Califlower Floretts, or Yams or all three
Your favorite Mushrooms
Oil
Curry Powder
Salt, Pepper, Cayenne 
Shredded Cabbage or Lettuce
Tortillas
Yogurt Sauce, Creamy Salad Dressing or Tzatziki 

Dice and toss Veg, Oil, and Seasoning
Spread on a baking sheet, roast until tender
Fold into warm Tortillas
Top with greens
Top with Sauce

Monday, April 29, 2013

Gazpacho Pasta Salad


Gazpacho Pasta Salad

Serves 4

Veg:
2 Tomatoes
1 Cucumber
1 Onion
1 Bell Pepper
One handful of Grapes
One handful of Basil
One handful of chopped Nuts
One handful of Dried Cranberries

12 oz Bowtie Pasta

Dressing:
Oil and Vinegar 2/1
A squirt Mustard
Heaping TBS Mustard
2 TBS Mayo
Garlic
Small amount of Curry Powder
Salt/Pepper

You can figure out the proportions etc.
Chop the veg med dice. Cook and shock the pasta. Mix together.
Whisk the dressing. Toss with the Pasta/Veg mix.
Job done.



Monday, April 01, 2013

Curry, Coconut, Seafood Rice

Liz and I went shellfishing this weekend in Penn Cove and brought home a bounty of Oysters, Mussels , and Clams. I created this recipe to celebrate our spring harvest. I hope you try it and enjoy.






Curry, Coconut, Shellfish Rice

Use amounts that look good to you and match the finished volume needed.

Clams, Mussel's, or firm Fish

Mirepoix:
Onion
Celery
Carrot
Garlic

Curry Powder and/or Paste
Coconut Milk
Miso Paste
Salt and Pepper

White Wine
Veggie, Chicken, or Fish Broth

Rice


Sweat Mirepoix in pot with oil and/or butter till aromatic
Add Broth and Wine
Stir in a Tbs Miso Paste
Bring to a boil
Add Seafood and cook until the shells are all open
Stir in Coconut Milk

Separate the Seafood, Strain the Broth, and reserve the Veggies.
Remove the creatures from their shells


Make a pot of Rice using the Broth for your liquid
When Rice is done mix in the Seafood and Veggies

Season to taste

Carl Meinzinger
04-01-2013







Friday, November 12, 2010

Childhood Memories of a Bar

Returning to town after a shopping trip with with my Mom and Aunt Marion, they spotted my Dad driving ahead of us and followed him. He drove away from the usual route home and we followed him to the Log Cabin Bar at the corner of Stoeflet St. and Worth. The log cabin in later years became a market but when I was four years old it was still a bar, a really old fashioned Michigan bar. The two crazy women responsible for me hatched a plan. The told me to run through the bar with my arms outstretched to my Dad crying "Daddy, Daddy, please come home!" 

After giving Dad a couple minutes to settle in, the women pushed me through the bar door for my acting debut. During my high-school years I gave an honest try at acting, joined the drama club to be closer to Kathy B., but found that I was better at, and more comfortable with working backstage. More of a nuts and bolts kind of guy.

I ran across the expanse of dark pine floor, climbed my Fathers bar stool, and was swept up in his arms, sat on his lap and treated to a sip of beer and a salty, smoked salmon jerky, without saying a word. Irene and Marion hovering at the door laughing their heads off.

The Moms left me with Dad and the regulars to enjoy a bit of time with the "guys", and I took in a vanishing snapshot of Michigan  history. The dark pine floor and bar, the log walls, the smell of tabacoo smoke,  beer, and whisky. The company of  men who had crewed on sailing and steam lake boats, who had built wooden ships and had worked in the steel mills, and early auto factories. 

Today of course we would all be put into rehab and counseling, but then it was just a normal part of life.



Sunday, June 27, 2010

Classic Rock Movies

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to wallow in nostalgia. Yes, I love the old tunes of my youth, but I need to keep up with the new in music while not loosing my roots. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Ting Tings, Airbourn Toxic Event, Cœur de pirate, Metric, The Dead Weather, The Dandy Warhols, Gogol Bordello, Pink Mountaintops … the list goes on and on and you can never catch up with all the great music being produced these days.

That being said — when the music of my youth is combined with great film making — the combination of nostalgic tunes and images is a heady brew indeed!

Two movies that create that "heady brew" for me are:

Almost Famous



Writer/director Cameron Crow's semi-autobiographical movie about becoming a rock journalist in his teens in the early '70s. This is a must see coming-of-age-rock-and-roll movie. The soundtrack is awesome and evocative. The picture here is of the band (fictional band Stillwater) hung over, traveling to the next gig, singing along with Elton John to Tiny Dancer. It was a tear jerker for me.


Pirate Radio




























The story of one of the ships that anchored off the coast of Briton during the 1960's to broadcast the then banned rock & roll music. It starts out with a scene of a boy going to bed in his pjs, tucking in, and waiting to be sure that his parents are busy with their evening routine (he hears the classic music swell) then he quietly sneaks his transistor radio out of its bedside drawer, puts it under his pillow and tunes in the all night pirate rock station. The scene expands to show kids all over the country covertly rocking out after lights out. Rock music wasn't banned in America, but I was that kid, pretending to be asleep while listening to Rock and MoTown on late night Detroit radio. I could soo relate to it!

Friday, May 14, 2010

My History With Cycling


















My History With Cycling

As a small child (about 3 years old) my parents would put me in our little rowing dinghy with my life jacket on, tie me to the boat, tie the boat to the end of our dock with a long rope, and set me adrift to row in circles while they retired to cocktail hour on the lawn. This was the start of my life long love of small boats and rowing. Living on the edge of Lake Erie in a town of islands and canals it wasn't long before I rowed many places in town, to friends homes, to the store, and through the marshes. My Father always contended "If you can't get there by boat, it's not worth going." 

The down-side to this is I didn't learn to ride a bicycle till an advanced age. During the 5th or 6th grade I was rebelling in the class room and was hauled off by the teacher to the store room that was used as a detention room (i.e. torture chamber). I was in trouble and had to find a way out of it so I formulated a quick plan and started crying, and between my sobs, told the story that I was upset about not having a bicycle and what a hardship that was. Rather then being punished I was consoled and taken back to class.

Then, quite surprisingly, a few days later my Dad suggested we go and buy me a bike. I didn't really want a bike, but had to go along with it so as not to blow my cover. We arrived back home with a new, red, two speed Schwinn.  No mention was ever made of the disturbance I caused in the classroom. 

The dinghy and the Schwinn solved my transportation needs till I upgraded at age 14 to a speed boat (Boston Whaler) and hitchhiking. At 16 I still had the Whaler and moved from my thumb to an automobile.

The next time I was seen on a bike was in my mid 20s while living in northern Denmark aboard an old fishing boat. In the harbor town of Fredrikshavn (as everywhere in Denmark) everyone rode bicycles. All ages, all walks of life. The Police patrolled by bikes (if they patrolled at all.) Grandparents wearing clogs, kiddies, fishermen in wooden soled knee high leather sea boots, everyone. I was fascinated by the old cargo bikes which routinely carried all imaginable cargo through town, cases of beer, produce, baked goods, baskets of fresh fish, even scrap iron. I got a bike shortly after arriving. I loved riding around the harbor and town doing errands and searching the trash bins for treasures. 

A few years later, having moved to Cascadia, and living on an island again I worked in a shipyard for two years. Instead of my usual car full of tools to tote around every day all I needed was my lunch as I kept my basic kit of hand tools at the yard. Freed of dependance on the car I found a new way to commute. I would bike a mile to the ferry dock, meet with a friend who kept a Norwegian style færing rowing boat beached there. We would then row the mile across the channel and dock the boat. I kept another bike there which I would ride the 2.5 miles to the shipyard. This went on for a couple of years.

In the late 80's, I — for some reason — took up cycling as recreation. I bought a nice hybrid, half way between road bike and mountain bike and avidly rode it for a number of years. Eventually the head down/ass up position started to hurt my arms shoulders too much and I drifted away from it.

Now, needing more exercise, wanting to take the ferry boat to town for errands, save on ferry fares, avoid the long auto queue, save on gas, and wear & tear on my car, I am getting back on a bike. I am selling my hybrid and getting a Dutch style city bike. See it here at: Republic Bike


I am excited and looking forward to it and that's … well … half the battle!

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Trouble by Cat Stevens

Trouble 
Oh trouble set me free 
I have seen your face 
And it's too much too much for me 

Trouble 
Oh trouble can't you see 
You're eating my heart away 
And there's nothing much left of me 

I've drunk your wine 
You have made your world mine 
So won't you be fair 
So won't you be fair 

I don't want no more of you 
So won't you be kind to me 
Just let me go where 
I'll have to go there 

Trouble 
Oh trouble move away 
I have seen your face 
and it's too much for me today 

Trouble 
Oh trouble can't you see 
You have made me a wreck 
Now won't you leave me in my misery 

I've seen your eyes 
and I can see death's disguise 
Hangin' on me 
Hangin' on me 

I'm beat, I'm torn 
Shattered and tossed and worn 
Too shocking to see 
Too shocking to see 

Trouble 
Oh trouble move from me 
I have paid my debt 
Now won't you leave me in my misery 

Trouble 
Oh trouble please be kind 
I don't want no fight 
And I haven't got a lot of time