Conner's Blog

First, I should apologize for leaving you all hanging with such a strange and confusing last post. For the record, I’m doing fine, still living life, cooking, and spending more time away from home then at home.

Still, I think I needed last week off, it was good to avoid any self imposed pressure to write. That post gave me the ability to just shrug off any pangs of guilt that creeped into my conscious thinking about all of you readers sitting at your computer hitting refresh every minute or so hoping I would write something new. Don’t lie to me, I know you did this all week.

But after a lot of great conversations with some really awesome friends, hanging out with some of my best friends from college who I don’t see nearly enough, I think I finally at least have a general goal for the next few months in place. As I stated before, I’m working on several projects, all website, that I hope to have launched in the next two months or so. I’m not ready to publicly announce what they are, but if you see me in person and want to know, I’ll give you the inside scoop. I’m really excited about two of them and the third is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I’m not 100% certain I can make it work, but I’m going to try.

I have a few other things I’m working on and also need to do as well, some of which I can post here; others that I have to keep close to the chest for now. Still, I can give you a short list of a few things I’m working on, and am planning on doing in the coming weeks.

• Make ricotta and mozzarella cheese – I recently began getting whole milk from a local farm, and since I don’t drink much milk, I need to work on using up a half-gallon of milk a week. My goal is to try making some different cheeses and see if it’s something I can do weekly.
• The gym – I’ve been awful the last two weeks, and it’s time to remedy that. I enjoy food way too much to not be at the gym three days a week.
• Cook, cook, cook – I’ve been slacking in the kitchen as well and I need to start cooking again.
• Talk to some freelancers – This may be giving somethings away, but I really need to sit down with some people who do freelance work and figure out how one goes about getting started. I have some ideas of what I want to do, I just don’t know what I need to do to do them.

Well that’s a short list, some of which are always on my list, others are new. I like putting things up on my blog because I always feel guilty when I can’t write about how I succeeded. So now I need to get to work on accomplishing some of these things.

Have a great Monday everyone, time to get this week off to a great start.

As usual, I spent my weekend eating and drinking more that I should have. Friday night I went to Barrio and had a pretty good dinner, nothing that totally blew me away, but dang good food. Saturday, I tried Black Sheep pizza for the first time. I was really excited to try finally try their pizza.  I recommend a stop there if you are in the neighborhood, or even if you are not.

That evening, my friend Nicky hosted a sushi making dinner. We were taught by her friend Peter how to put together the rolls and then to roll them. We had some tuna, salmon, and sea bass.  All were really tasty and the rolls were excellent.

My friend Neely who broke her wrist a short time ago even managed to roll some sushi with one hand.

Sunday, I went to brunch at Red Stag Supper Club. I’ve gone there a few times for dinner, but this was the first time I had their brunch. It was excellent. I ordered one of their daily specials which was a crab cake, served with eggs and greens. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, I left my camera in my car and didn’t get a picture of it.

Finally, on Sunday night, Nicky once again hosted a dinner party, this time with our friend Erica. They made some amazing Asian dishes.

We were served bacon wrapped dates.

Spring rolls served with a lemongrass peanut sauce. Yumm

This soup was incredible, the broth may have been some of the best I have ever tried, and the salmon was to die for. We were served creme brulee for dessert, but I was too excited to eat it to take a photo of it.

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend of eating, I’ll hopefully be posting some photos of the Art Sled Rally and the Art Shanties later this week.

Let me start off by saying that I hate the concept of dieting. Diets can be good for some people, but usually only work for as long as they are on them. What you need to sustain your weight is a lifestyle change, and those are hard.

What does that have to do with me? Well I was doing really well at this time last year. I was the skinniest I had been since high school, felt great, was starting to move down to pants sizes I barely remembered. Then I moved into Minneapolis, my social life expanded, and I fell right off the exercise bandwagon. I didn’t notice it at first since I wasn’t weighing myself and I thought all the walking I was doing would keep the weight off. I was wrong.

This weekend I got on the scale for the first time in quite some time, and I was appalled. I weigh almost 20 pounds more than I did when I first moved to Minneapolis. Now, part of the problem is going out way to much, part is portion control, and a good part is a lack of exercise. These are all things I am aware of and can fix if I put my mind to it.

The problem is that I want to lose those 20 pounds at an accelerated (yet safe) rate. So I’m putting myself on a diet. First of all, I’m going to bring back the no-meat pact that I made in September, only instead of no meat for an entire month, I’m going to stop eating meat during the week.  This means that from noon Sunday (come on, you have to have bacon at brunch), until Friday at dinner time, I will not be eating meat. I’m going to start eating more beans, more dairy, and other alternative protein sources. Secondly, I’m going to avoid eating pasta for the entire month of February (an exception will be made for Mac N Cheese tour). This is going to be one of the toughest challenges for me.  I love spaghetti, ravioli, and every other type of pasta you can think of. It’s my go-to main course and I think that has to change. It just has too many carbs and I tend to eat way to much of it. Hopefully forcing myself to learn to cook alternative dinners will help me expand my cooking horizons and help me cut back on the amount of pasta I cook once February is over.

So I’m technically putting myself on a diet, but I consider it a short term solution with what I hope are long term implications. I think reducing my meat intake to 2-3 days per week will be huge, and of course broadening my cooking horizons will be a fun adventure. I intend on raiding the Minneapolis Central Library for cookbooks this weekend.

Finally, I have joined a gym, and my friend Nicky will be making me go until I start making it a habit. Of course I have been going three times per week without much effort since I joined two weeks ago. I even went to Cycle to the Movies on Saturday and biked for a hour and a half. This is the really important step because I don’t want to have to limit what I eat forever, and I know that once I get myself to where I want to be again, if I keep exercising and eat a reasonable diet I can keep it there.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

I have no idea, I always end up biting. But if I had to guess, I think it’s somewhere around 37.5 licks.

If you started a new blog, what would the topic be?

Well first I should say that I have tried and failed to start many new blogs. Usually it’s an attempt to have a place to write about technology, or politics, or some other topic I convince myself doesn’t belong at my main site. But I generally end up just coming back to Conner’s Blog.

I think if I was going to start a new blog it would be about food. Restaurant reviews, recipes, photography, and other tidbits. Maybe someday I will actually make it happen.

Where would you most like to take photographs? by briannepitt

This is another tough one, there are just too many choices. In the USA I have to say Glacier National Park gets my vote. Of course the fact that I’ve been there a few times kind of sways my vote, I’m sure in two years I will have found at least 2-3 other places I would love to spend time taking photos.
Worldwide, I would have to say the Andes seem like a fantastic place to take photos. I think I would travel to Peru or Argentina if I was going somewhere just to take photos.

If you magically became a chef, which one restaurant in the Twin Cities would you want to chef at?

Wow, this is a tough one. My first instinct is to go for something like La Belle Vie, Vincent, or 2021. After thinking about it for a bit though I think I’m going to have to say Brasa would be my choice.
Part of it is my love of their food, but mainly it’s because I truly enjoying cooking that belly warming comfort food that Brasa makes. I’m not opposed to lighter fare, but when I’m looking for something I know I am going to be happy with, Brasa is definitely in my top two or three places.

Ask me anything.

What is your middle name?

I actually have two middle names, Allen and Frank. I generally only use Allen unless it’s a formal occasion.

What is your favorite snack?

At first I was going to respond and say this one was really tough, but then I realized that was wrong. Popcorn is my favorite snack hands down. I actually consider myself addicted to popcorn. With or without butter, lightly salted, maybe kettle corn, however it’s made, I’ll devour a ton of it.

Have you ever thought about dying your hair?

I once thought I would look good with black hair, thankfully I didn’t go through with it.

What does the color blue taste like?

The color blue tastes like blueberry ice cream covered with blue Skittles. It’s a little bit gross unless you pick the Skittles off.

What would you want your last meal to be?

This is a really tough one, and brings me back to a conversation that I had with a friend earlier this week. I don’t really have any favorite foods. But I guess if I was forced to choose something it would probably ask for a really well done pasta dish with tomato sauce. Lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, or whatever. It would be that or else I would just say, “bring me something I’ve never eaten before”.

Tell me about your worst restaurant experience…

I don’t usually dwell on bad restaurant experiences, I try to forget them and move on. So when I was thinking about this, the worst experience I remember actually happened when I was a kid. It was mothers day(or my mom’s birthday, I don’t really remember) and we went to Plentywood, which was the big town in our county. We went to this new restaurant that had opened and I remember waiting forever to get in, and then something else happened and my dad got mad. All I remember is my mother crying and us going across the street to the Blue Moon for dinner.

It might seem strange that someone who is obviously a food snob can’t come up with a more recent experience, but it’s the truth.

Ask me anything.

I’m certain 95% of my readers are planning on watching the Vikings game this Sunday. It starts at 5, and since the winner of the game goes to the Superbowl, it’s kind of a big deal. I don’t know if I’ll watch the whole thing, but I plan on keeping my eye on the score regardless of what I’m doing.

I can’t say I’ve watched much of the Saints this year, but I know they have a killer offense, and what some call a good defense. I expect all the experts are predicting a Saints win, especially since it’s in the Superdome. I disagree, I think the Vikings will pull off a victory, and not a small one either. I think the final score will be somewhere in the 14-31 point range in favor of the Vikings. Why? Well first off the Vikings defense is playing well again, especially their front four. And no matter now good Drew Brees may be, he can’t do anything when he’s lying on his back. Also Brett Favre won a Superbowl in that dome, and regardless of what I said about him in the past, he’s playing at an unseemly level for a 40 year-old and somehow I think he’ll repeat history this weekend. I still don’t like him, but I begrudging have to say I was wrong about how he would impact the Vikings.

But that’s not the only Minnesota related competition happening Sunday. It turns out that the chefs at Saffron were picked to compete on the Food Network’s the Iron Chef. Guess when the show airs? Sunday! It starts at 8 so there might be some overlap with the game, but since the Vikings are going to crush the Saints there will not be much.

So here is the deal, Azia is generously hosting a viewing party for us. The party kicks off at 7 and the show will be on at 8. Along with that, Azia is purchasing a case of Rogue Brewery’s signature Morimoto Soba Ale. So not only do you get to watch some creative cooking you get to drink some creative beer.

So how about it, can you handle cheering for two Minnesota teams in one day? If you can, make your way to Azia and enjoy some good beer, good food, and have a chance to see Minnesota pull off two victories in one day.

RSVP here.

I took a little blogging hiatus and it was refreshing, but now Friday Five is back with more fun, more randomness, and even more awesome things written by people not named Conner.  Today is a roundup of links that came across my reader that caught my eye. Enjoy.

• If you have a birthday coming up, The Heavy Table has a great roundup of great restaurants that give free desserts on your special day
• Bigboxcar points us to a photo of a giant rubber ducky
• Febgiving has been declared and I’m coming out as a supporter, get your stomachs ready
• MN Headhunter posts a really great writeup of being offered his dream job
• Unclutter showcases the best unitasker items of the year

Have a great weekend all, I’m off to the frozen tundra of Grand Forks to take in a hockey game and catchup with old friends. It should be fun, and I hopefully I don’t have a repeat of last years trip.

2009 was an great year, between my online life and my social life, I’ve expanded my circles in so many ways it’s almost unbelievable.  I’ve posted on this blog 92 times and received 497 comments . I’ve taken 696 photos that I felt were good enough to be posted on Flickr. I’ve made jam, curry, gnocchi, and more than a few pizzas. I’ve met so many new people it’s not even funny, and have made a bunch of new friends.

That being said I didn’t accomplish a lot of the goals I set for myself at the start of the year.  I’ve hardly put a dent in my MN to do list and I only accomplished three of my seven goals for the year. But I’m fine with that. If I had known how my year was going to go, I wouldn’t have set those goals like I did. Instead I would have made the following list.

• Meet close a 100 new people in real life by using the Internet
• Break out of my comfort zone and do some crazy public speaking
• Shop locally as much as possible
• Eat out at many new restaurants
• See more live musical performances than I had in all previous years combined
• Get a photo on Minnpics
• Fall in love with street food
• Discover a ton of new music, including lots of local artists

Yet that’s the beauty of life. You set goals for yourself and even if you don’t accomplish those goals, you usually end up better for it. I’m going to maintain a few of the goals from 2009 going into 2010. I will bike a century and I will look up my relatives. My MN to do list is going to undergo a major renovation and I will try to do more of it.

My major goals for 2009 are to move my career to a place I’m happier with, keep meeting new and interesting people using whatever resources I find, and keep doing what I’m doing. I’m not going to say my life is anywhere near perfect, but it is great. I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings.

Can you believe we are only one full work week away from Christmas?  Shocking, I know. Here are five things that caught my eye this week. Enjoy.

• Some interesting tips for non-writers from a Hugo award winner.
• From what could be my favorite new blog this year, Letters of Note, the message sent immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor commenced.
• A sad but uplifting story of a shop dog from south Minneapolis.
• The Heavy Table posted a delicious looking Gnocchi recipe that I intend to try soon.
• I love this design that includes a great Oscar Wilde quote.

I hope all of you have a fantastic weekend, we are supposed to get to 25 above on Saturday, which is going to feel amazing.

I’ve come to the realization that I hate the term picky, as in “my kid is picky, and would never eat that.” I have no idea why I suddenly made this decision,  I was reading a post on a blog that was an ask the readers type feature.  The title indicated it was looking for menu ideas for meat eaters, vegetarians, and picky kids.

Something just set me off, maybe it was the conversation I had with Erica on Monday about kids who never really gain independence from their parents.  That may have carried over to today when I stumbled on the blog post.  Of course I then brought this to her attention on gChat where we started a long discussion on eating. (Something that is turning into an everyday occurrence with me lately)

Basically I’ve decided that parents who brand their kids as picky are making excuses.  Not for their kids, the kids don’t know any better, but for themselves.  Instead of putting the effort into hunting down something that would broaden their child’s tastes and food preferences they just give up and make them pb&j or whatever it is that they know their kid will eat without a struggle. They use the term picky as a way to rationalize the lack of effort they are putting into the food.

Side Note: I am not a parent, I don’t have any nieces or nephews, and I have hardly any friends with kids older than 1-2. I don’t have to deal with kids every day and I can imagine it’s a struggle many days.  But I’m passionate about food and think that parents should put as much time into helping their kids develop a lifelong healthy eating habit as they do making sure they get good grades and taking them to 2000 extracurricular activities.

Why this drives me as crazy as it does is because our country’s ability to interact with food on any normal level is horribly lacking.  I’ve gotten to the point where I get frustrated when I see a toddler with a bag of cheetos.  Parents of picky kids should strive to find something out of the ordinary that their kid will try.  Maybe more varieties of fruit, cooking meat in a different way that changes the texture, or adding different cheeses to the grilled cheese sandwich.  It’s not about forcing your kid to eat what you cook but about slowly introducing them to the wide world of flavor that is out there.

Our children are inheriting a country/planet that is in desperate need of a new food culture.  It’s going to force a change in eating habits.  And parents that don’t make the effort to introduce their kids to good foods are going to create another generation where support groups like this need to exist. Pickiness is an eating disorder, and it is a horrible way to live, but I believe it stems from parents making excuses, and not wanting to put the effort into opening up their kids minds to new foods.  The ability to eat new foods, especially local sustainable ones that might not be the norm today, is going to be very important in the future.

So the next time you are around someone who uses the word “picky kid” try and figure out a way to help tell parents that if they keep making excuses, their kids might one day be forced to follow one of these suggestions.