Mark Hamzy's website

For the first side, I experimented with a pickled dish. I fell in love with the pickled beets at Jack Allen's Kitchen. So I tried recreating it at home. I sliced up beets and parsnips. I then marinated them in apple cider vinegar. I should have added some nutmeg and clove. They were good, but they fail as a frozen dish, I think. Too bad I can't figure out a way to fit in the frozen dish, but only be defrosted and not cooked.

For the next side, I created a spinach and artichoke dish. I mixed one package of frozen spinach leaves, one sealed package of sliced artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, 4 ounces of Crema Agria, 4 ounces of cream cheese, 4 ounces of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano, smoked sea salt, and pepper. This turned out excellent!

For the last side, I wanted to create an onion sauce and mix it with miso paste. I sliced up a large onion and poured 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda on it. The baking soda will break down the cellular walls of the onion and turn it into a soup. I then browned it in a pan and added miso paste to taste. The only problem with this dish was with the garbanzo beans. I had soaked them overnight with split peas, but ran out of time to make the dish. So I put them in the fridge (still in their water). Then, when the next weekend came around, I dumped them into this dish. However the garbanzo beans were still a little tough. I wonder what went wrong? But otherwise, this was not a bad first attempt.

I came home to this nightmare. A bottle of home brewed kombucha exploded sometime during the day. There was dried sour cherry kombucha covering the entire ceiling, cabinets, walls, and floor of my kitchen. It even spurted out onto the carpet if there wasn't something blocking the explosion.

All I can say is OMFG!

I have placed "buying a blast chamber for bottles undergoing secondary carbonation" to my todo list. I wonder if The Container Store employees would look at me weird if I ask them how blast proof a large plastic box of theirs is?

I volunteered at Jester King again. Read on, if you are interested...

Three weeks ago, at the Whip In, I bought a pint of Kombucha on draft for $4.00! It was the seasonal brew called Tart Cherry Melon from Buddha's Brew. When I looked at their web site, I saw that they filled corney kegs! How awesome is that?! Unfortunately, when I contacted them, they quoted me a price of $80 for 5 gallons. This is more expensive than the beer I buy at Black Star Coop! Crazy.

So I investigated brewing my own...

Today, I volunteered to help bottle beer for Jester King. I had a fun time!

I am considering brewing Kombucha and had an idea. I needed a 1 gallon fermentation chamber for the kombucha. What if I could use the one gallon container that the apple juice comes in for the kombucha? And before I empty the juice, why don't I make some apple cider with that juice? Maybe I can use the same equipment afterwards for the kombucha.

So I went to Austin Homebrew Supply and bought three items: Fermentis Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast, 3-Piece Airlock, and Drilled Number 6/5 Stopper.

The process was pretty easy. I sanitized the airlock and the stopper with Saniclean Sanitizer. I then uncapped the lid, poured less than half of the yeast in, and the placed the airlock on top. Now the waiting begins...

Looking back at my repair history, my brand new, German engineered, BMW 335i has been the most problematic car I've owned. My repair history follows:

This is a picture, not taken, of a sea of faces bobbing above a concrete pool deck horizon, while an instructor on the deck pantomimes different choreographic routines, the older people seemingly disinterested in the slow, repetitive, dance moves, and instead, talking amongst themselves or disdainfully looking around, as young children enthusiastically run around in the background during a swim meet...

I made lunch for 5 days from three leftovers (from front to back): collard greens, cauliflower dal with panch phoran, and taco meat.

This is a picture, not taken, of a thin contrail in the azure evening sky, depicting a meandering  turn towards the distant southwest,  and happenstantially positioned  just above a tall radio antenna on the horizon, completing the image of an idyllic ocean highway...

I got together with two friends and held a Jester King sour beer tasting. Which composed of...

This is a picture, not taken, of a half-liter water bottle sitting in a Les Mills RPM bike, doggedly kept in view while my body cycles to a pounding, metronomic backbeat, various overhead lights reflecting off the plastic ribs along the bottle and through the water create an oscilloscopic display in sync with the music, which distract me through the intense workout regimen.

I finally ran a triathlon!

Well, let me qualify that.

This is a picture, not taken, of a dried up spot on the bathroom mirror, normally a nagging eyesore in my peripheral vision, a sign of an untidy room, and a constant reminder of a chore needing to be preformed, but, when viewed from an alternate angle, while standing in front of the sink, a twin reflection of the spot emerges, both superimposed into a hovering image over the cold water handle, completing a smiley face...

This is a picture, not taken, of a young man in a threadbare suit, wearing a V for Vendetta mask, and silently standing in the hot afternoon sun on top of a fire hydrant, while holding a sign claiming that nothing conceals tyranny better than elections, at the same time a woman drives by in an air-conditioned car with a loudspeaker on the roof, asking for people to vote for Bridget Shay...

This is a picture, not taken, of rows of beer foam along the inside of a shaker pint glass, the brewer's logo on the glass providing a convenient watermark, showing a timeline recording of the recent seismic activity during the drinking of a session beer at a local pub, each foam line placed there from the high tide line of a tsunami, as the glass earth periodically upends and crashes back down to the back of a wooden table that this world rests upon...

This is a picture, not taken, during civil twilight, as flocks of grackles perch along power lines, packed tightly enough together to create the illusion of monstrously thick cables, their tails slowly swinging down then up as they maintain balance in the breeze, unwittingly acting as conductors orchestrating the beat to my radio...

This is a picture, not taken, of a finger print on a glossy cell phone screen, normally considered an annoyance, but given a sinister appearance with two coincidentally located specs of red chilli pepper, serving as eyes for a ghostly specter, balefully staring into my soul...

This is a picture, not taken, of tiny, circular tracks crossing a snow covered sidewalk, breaking me out of a highly focused brisk walk, and causing me to wonder what possible animal could possibly create such a track, only to belatedly notice the tiny crystal in the middle of each footprint, forcing me to come to the conclusion that this animal was part of the kingdom of de-icing salt, and therefore not a threat to my survival...

This is a picture, not taken, of a stately motorcycle rider, wearing a bright yellow Cheerios jacket, his shadow projected solidly on the road towards the left side, except for his quickly flickering head as it matched the varying contours of the grass median...