Not pictured here: my favorite part of the trip – sampling beers at Saugatuck Brewing, New Holland Brewing, and Bell’s Brewing. :D

Holland, Michigan

Saugatuck, Michigan

View the Flickr Photo Set

Surprisingly, after all that planning, I decided on it in a pretty well spur-of-the-moment move.

It was the day after Thanksgiving. I went out to Ypsilanti for a late lunch and lo and behold – I found myself eating across the street from Depot Town Tattoo, a shop that had been recommended to me by multiple people. The thought of just walking over there and getting a tattoo immediately crossed my mind, and almost just as quickly, I’d resolved to do it.

I’ve been wanting a tattoo for around 10 years now and have toyed with ideas throughout that whole time. This last year, I got serious with it though – setting up multiple pinterest boards with ideas.

So, it was decided, I was going to walk across the street after eating and get a tattoo. Step 2: decide which tattoo idea to get. Something simple, something safe, something meaningful, something relevant. Live. Decided.

I walked in, told my idea to Dawn, and within minutes we were ready to go. The tattoo was done in about 60 seconds. It felt like cat scratches. Not too bad at all. Without further ado, I present to you my first tattoo:

The first of possibly many… I am scheming my next tat(s), they could happen very soon… :P

I read through some quick refreshers prior to heading out and browsed through some google images for pose ideas. We made our way to the little pond / park area in the subdivision across the street from me around 4pm, when the sun was at a great point in the sky. Later we moved to a dirt road just around the corner.

After the shoot, I pretty quickly went through the collection and applied some post effects to the best ones. They’re below, make sure you click on the photo to see the larger version.

I have to say that I’m pretty proud of myself for these. Thanks to Joy & Jason for the opportunity! Let me know what you think!

Wow, the last few months have been pretty intense for Adam and I. We went to New York City, Adam went to Portland, our summer weekends were packed, and WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!!!

That’s right, the day that we left for NYC – we also closed on our new house. We’ve left the dregs of Livonia and have moved to the lovely outskirts of Ann Arbor, in Ypsilanti! It’s a perfect location – SO close to all the awesome things of AA, just down the street from the quaint, hipster downtown of Ypsi, a minute from the main highway (I-94), and in an amazingly awesome neighborhood (coincidentally constructed by a Quicken Loans sister company). It’s in the trifecta of awesome – Ypsilanti location, Ann Arbor schools, and Pittsfield Township taxes. :)

It’s a 2002 colonial model, cathedral ceilings, big kitchen, walk-out basement(!), huge backyard, and so much more. It’s so much of an upgrade from our old house that we can barely believe it’s really ours. The neighborhood has a ton of big, open parks, plus a large wooded park area with a playground, a community pool, plenty of undeveloped lots that make the area seem not very cramped, a variety of wildlife, and friendly, diverse people.

It’s really the best place we could be right now. :)

Here are a few pics of the new place, sorry about the clutter – it’s a work in progress!

Oh, and you might notice, also, that we got a cat!! Her name is Ginger <3

Moroccan week is over and, overall, it was very successful! Most of the dishes I chose to cook were stews, not sure if that’s because those are the dishes I just happened to pick out, or because that is what the majority of Moroccan entries are. The only non-soup/stew that I made was the wonderfully (and sinfully) delicious Chicken B’stila – keep reading for the details!

Moroccan flavors: saffron, sweet Hungarian paprika, cilantro, parsley, turmeric, ginger.

Dinner No. 1: Tagine B’Ga’Raa Sghira Wa Matisha Mieb’sa
Lamb Stew with Zucchini, Potatoes & Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This was a rather delicious stew. Aside from the perfectly tender bites of lamb, I’d say the highlight was the sun-dried tomatoes – they really made the dish pop. This stew was spiced with saffron, turmeric, cilantro and parsley.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 2: Tagine Bil Hoot
Fish Stew

My first go at cooking mahimahi seemed to go rather well. I don’t think I overcooked it (too much)! This stew was spiced with cilantro, sweet Hungarian paprika, saffron, ginger, cumin, and garlic – which gave it a full, rich flavor. But what really gave it a kick was the green olives! One ingredient I left out was a tablespoon of preserved lemon pulp (which I didn’t have 6 weeks to wait on), I’m not sure how much of a difference it would have made, but I tried to substitue with a bit of grated lemon rind.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 3: Sebha Del Hdaree
Ratatouille with Dates

This seemed like a pretty typical ratatouille, spiced primarily with rosemary, a bay leaf, and sweet Hungarian paprika. It contained onion, red bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and the best part – dates. The dates really helped round out the flavors and give it a smooth sweetness.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dinner No. 4: B’stila B’djej
Chicken B’stila

Holy mother of god. This was like eating baklava stuffed with spiced chicken, onion, and eggs. It was like dessert for dinner. The whole pie contained about a cup of powdered sugar! Between the cinnamon’y-sugary, savory slow cooked chicken filling and the flaky phyllo wrapper – it really just melted in your mouth. The pie all by it self was a 5/5 – but! accompanied by Israeli couscous and caramelized carrots – Adam gave the whole meal a record-breaking 6/5!!

Rating: 6/5

Dinner No. 5: Chorba B’hodra
Saffron-Vegetable Soup

A hearty beef soup with strong saffron flavor. There were a ton of great vegetables in this one – onion, tomato, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, celery. Thickened up with lentils and Israeli couscous. A rather good ending to the week!

Rating: 3.5/5

—

That’s it for Moroccan week! Only three more cuisine weeks left this year – next up is Thai! I do love me some good Thai food, so it should be a fun week!

1. Vietnamese – DONE!
2. French – DONE!
3. Irish – DONE!
4. Indian – DONE!
5. Jamaican – DONE!
6. Ethiopian – DONE!
7. Greek – DONE!
8. Cuban – DONE!
9. Moroccan – DONE!
10. Thai – NEXT!
11. Polish
12. Japanese

Whew! Cuban “Week” ran a little longer than expected… it lasted a little over 2 weeks actually. A busy month slowed things down… and it turns out plantains take a long while to fully ripen. But it’s all over now, and was good for the most part. Not my favorite cuisine week though… now let’s see if I can remember all the details.

Cuban flavors: dry sherry, bay leafs, pimientos, citrus juices, tomatoes.

Dinner No. 1: Pollo Criollo en Cazuela
Creole Chicken Casserole

This was some good, tender chicken, but not bursting with flavor. The chicken was rubbed with garlic and cumin, marinated in orange, lime, and lemon juice, and then cooked with onion and dry sherry.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dinner No. 2: Potaje de Garbanzos
Chickpea Stew

My second dish ever featuring ham hocks, this was a pretty hearty stew. Not only did it get some smoky flavor from the ham hock, but it also got some kick from some chorizo. But even with the ham hock and chorizo, the flavor was lacking that something special to melt it all together and give it a real punch.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dinner No. 3: Cangrejos con Harina
Crab and Cornmeal Stew

The best meal of the week by far. The most unique flavor of this dish came from a jar of pimientos which sharpened it up and gave it a kick. The cornmeal base was different but worked really well. And the crabmeat was excellent, but I guess that’s to be expected when you inadvertently purchase a $35 can of it. Put all that together and you’ve got a solid and hearty stew.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 4: Vaca Frita
Fried Cow

This was an interesting preparation. First you boil a flank steak in water with a bay leaf for 1.5 hours, then remove it, let it cool, chop it up and shred it. Then you let the cooked, shredded beef marinate in lime juice, lemon juice, and garlic for at least an hour. After that you squeeze the marinade out of the beef and fry it in oil with onions until it’s crispy.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 5: Tortilla de Plátanos Maduros
Plantain Omelette

This was a yummy omellete even thought I burned the plantains a little bit. The first step was to fry up plantain slices, which you then place a layer of in the skillet. After the fried plantains are heated, add whisked eggs and cook until set, then flip. The fried plantains had a syrupy flavor which gave the eggs a light and sweet breakfast flavor.

Rating: 3.5/5

—

So Cuban week has finally ended and so has a lot of the business that made this “week” take so long!

Next month’s Cuisine Week is Moroccan! Looking forward to it!

1. Vietnamese – DONE!
2. French – DONE!
3. Irish – DONE!
4. Indian – DONE!
5. Jamaican – DONE!
6. Ethiopian – DONE!
7. Greek – DONE!
8. Cuban – DONE!
9. Moroccan – NEXT!
10. Thai
11. Polish
12. Japanese

Man, this month’s cuisine week was pretty hard to keep going – more on that in my next blog post – but everything ended up really excellent. The recipes were all pretty basic, using a lot of fresh and flavorful ingredients. It was the perfect refreshing cuisine for the month of July.

Greek flavors: dill, parsley, oregano, tomato, and onion.

Dinner No. 1: Τόνος με Ρεβύθια & Καλοκαιρινη Σουπα με Αγγουρακια
Tuna with Chickpeas & Summer Cucumber Soup

Good timing for this one. Our AC had just died a few days before and it was 90+ degrees in our house all day, so having 2 cold dishes to chill out with was a welcome treat. The tuna and chickpeas were flavored with herbs, lemon juice and olive oil. The cucumber soup had some kick with a fair amount of garlic.

Rating: 3.5/5

Dinner No. 2: Γαρίδες με Σάλτσα & Κριθαράκι με Κολοκυθάκια
Shrimp Scorpio & Orzo w/ Zucchini

This shrimp dish was so tasty! The sauce was slow-cooked with tomatoes, onions, and herbs and topped off with a generous amount of feta cheese. The sauce and cheese melted in my mouth. The orzo and zucchini was a nice combo, as well – lighter and refreshing.

Rating: 4/5

Dinner No. 3: Μελιτζάνες και Ράις στο φούρνο
Baked Eggplant and Rice Casserole

I got Adam to eat eggplant again!! And he liked it!! …Mostly, sorta. He had a few bites and said it was really good, and then he had a few more bites and asked if the purple stuff was eggplant, and then he said, “yeah… I don’t really like eggplant.” Le sigh. Well, I really liked it – it was a wonderful combination of flavors and fairly simple to put together.

Rating: 4.5/5

Dinner No. 4: Σουβλάκια με Κότα
Chicken Souvlakia

Pretty standard chicken kebabs here. The marinade was good, but didn’t stand up to the grilling so well. Good though, nothing special

Rating: 3/5

Dinner No. 5: Κρεατοπετά
Lamb Meat Pie

Holy awesome sauce. This one was a winner. It took a few hours to make, but I’d say it was well worth the effort. The filling included lamb, onions, celery, tomato sauce, olive oil, eggs, rice, pecorino romano, and herbs. While it was cooking, I was concerned because it was so soupy, but it thickened right up once the eggs and rice were added. It was so good that my team at Quicken Loans devoured the bulk of it at lunch the next day. Win.

Rating: 5/5

—

So Greek week worked out. It was the first cuisine week in the new house :) So we’re off to a good start here.

August’s cuisine week is Cuban! I’ve not really tried much in the way of Cuban food… I think they like ham sandwiches right? We’ll find out in a few weeks!

1. Vietnamese – DONE!
2. French – DONE!
3. Irish – DONE!
4. Indian – DONE!
5. Jamaican – DONE!
6. Ethiopian – DONE!
7. Greek – DONE!
8. Cuban – NEXT!
9. Moroccan
10. Thai
11. Polish
12. Japanese

Quicken Loans launched an open source initiative just a few months ago which has been steadily picking up steam. I get bragging rights since I’m the first one in the IT Team to launch multiple open source projects!

Checkout the Demo

Grandomizr is a jQuery plugin that allows you to randomly generate a number of groups from a list of items. The idea came about while I was working with a new team of people and in order to maximize creativity we wanted to make sure everyone was regularly working with different groups.

This tool allows me to set up a list of everyone on the team, select the number of groups to form, and randomly sort the team into those groups. Check out the demo featuring a list of celebrities.

Grandomizr is currently available for download on github. I do have a few ideas for improvements – alternate methods of inputting the list of items, the ability to remove items from the list, alternate methods of displaying the list of groups, etc.

If you have any ideas or feedback, I’d love to see your comments – either on this post or on github.

I’m going to pretend that this is the beginning of a new segment of my blog, but who knows, maybe this will be the one and only post. In any case, this cocktail is far too fabulous NOT to share with the world!

The Juliet & Romeo. It’s light, refreshing, and deceptively strong. Similar to a mojito, but in my opinion, far more complex and superior.

I first tried this cocktail in Chicago’s Violet Hour. Apparently, the Juliet & Romeo is the one drink that is never taken off their seasonally rotating menu. The description caught my eye right away: Beefeater, Mint, Cucumber, and Rose Water. It was love at first sip.

I immediately began to Google the recipe, and what do you know – The Violet Hour itself shared the recipe, at least that’s what it claims on tablespoon.com. Here it is:

Ingredients

• 3 slices fresh cucumber
• 3 sprigs fresh mint
• tiny pinch of salt
• 2 oz Beefeater gin
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 3 drops rose water
• 3 drops Angustora bitters
• mint leaf, additional rose water and bitters, for garnish if desired

Recipe

1. In a cocktail shaker, muddle cucumber and mint with the pinch of salt. (Crush with the back of a spoon if you don’t have a muddler!)
2. Add rest of ingredients to cocktail shaker. Let sit for 30 seconds.
3. Add ice, shake vigorously and strain into serving glass.
4. Garnish with a mint leaf – place one drop of rosewater on the mint leaf and three drops of bitters on surface of the drink if desired.

I’ve now made this drink 5 or 6 times, so if I have any advice – it’s this: use more like 1/2-1 tsp of rose water and strain the cocktail as you pour it from the shaker (otherwise you get a few cucumber seeds, which are fine, but it’s much smoother and prettier strained). So there you have it.

Oh, and remember how I said this drink was deceptively strong? Well, it is. There’s no harsh alcohol flavor. But, Beefeater is 47% alcohol – so after two shots worth of that, you should be feeling pretty good.

It’s also worth noting that GQ has rated this cocktail as one of the Top 20 Cocktails in America.

Enjoy!