2008 Morroco & Spain

I am in the process of sorting, editing, and uploading photos from Morocco & Spain! Click above to get to the gallery.

Cheers!

Moonscope was a special exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford from 24 May - 16 September 2007 and now the web version of it is available - Web Version of Moonscope. It showcased the work of two artists, Rebecca Hind (a local Oxford watercolorist) and John Russell (an 18th century painter/polymath). John Russell was both a royal portrait painter and a keen amateur astronomer, with very good connections - including to Sir William Herschel and Nevil Maskelyne. The Russell material was a selection of pencil drawings made of the moon, his main astronomical interest, and the large 5ft pastel of the moon that normally hangs in the stairwell of the MHS.

The web version has the full complement of watercolors and pencil drawings that were on exhibit in the Old Ashmolean.

PDF version of the Broadsheet that went with this exhibition (John Russell Material)

Okay, I signed up to help the Mango people with punting but because of the weather, we went ice skating. It was a lot of fun and was the first time that I had gone skating for about a decade! Luckily, I did not fall and was actually able to help some of the Mango students.

Click on the photo to go to the album of all the photos!

Jill and I may go back to the rink again sometime soon … it was a fun experience and was reasonably cheap going at ‘tea-time.’

When it comes to food, he is a smart puppy! He has mastered eating apples and we are working on teaching him how to eat corn on the cob … the first couple of tries, he kept biting them in two, but he finally got the hang of it!

I have a new favorite all-around oil to use when cooking: Farrington Oils’ Mellow Yellow. It is a cold-pressed rapeseed oil - in the USA, you find rapeseed oil labeled as Canola but it is hot-pressed (meaning above 40C). More importantly, the canola oil does not have the flavor that Mellow Yellow has! Also, it is high in both Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, plus it has a high smoke point with the added benefit that heating does not affect the flavor or other characteristics. This means that it can be used for a whole range of things that you cannot use nicer olive, nut, or other seed oils to do. One of my favorite uses for it is to make roast potatoes, and it can also be used as a butter replacement when baking.

Rapeseed oil is better known as a source for making bio-fuel because many of the standard varieties are slightly toxic to humans - they contain erucic acid. Beyond that, it is still one of the most widely used sources of standard vegetable oil and is a high-protein animal feed.

Like with other types of oils, it all depends on how it is processed. Mellow Yellow, like extra virgin olive oils, is cold-pressed which helps to guarantees that it is only the best oil that comes out of the seeds … but what does this mean? It produces an oil that is one of the most versatile cooking oils around and it takes a proud place in my kitchen arsenal!

For more information (and suppliers) of cold-pressed rapeseed oil, see The Time’s Food Detective on it

Yes, unfortunately, we had to come back from our vacation to Morroco & Spain! We had a great two weeks (or nearly that) of vacation in two amazing countries - they are places that both Jill & I want to visit again. Here is a brief summary of the trip:

Highlights:

• Riad Bayti in Marrakesh
• Badi Palace in Marrakesh
• Freshly squeezed OJ
• and many more …

• Essouira
• Delayed ferry from Tangiers to Algercias
• Tajines

Cheers!

Honestly, this is one of my favorite whiskies and is always my choice when I want a shot of peat! Read the rest of this entry »

Aberlour 10 Year Old starts with a light nose, but presents some traditional Speyside spicy malt, and finishes with a long fruity note. Overall, this is a very solid Speyside malt that shows it sherry butt aging and spicy malts to great effect. (originally written on 16 Jan 07)

Link to Distillery

The Beeb has a new long term project called The Box … and it looks like it could be a great idea, to track a cargo container around the world to see where it goes and what it carries (see the map). Read the rest of this entry »

Tasting whisky is more about the nose than the tongue! Which is why the correct terminology for a whisky tasting is actual a “nosing” and the best tasters are called “noses.”

Tasting is easy, you can only taste four things: sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. On the other hand, your nose can detect about 35,000 different smells and is sensitive enough to detect those aromas when diluted to one part per million. Therefore, when determining the qualities of any whisky, your nose can provide you with a lot more information and even when you are drinking whisky, it is your nose that is providing you with most of the information. Try to hold your nose when you take a sip and see how much you can taste! Read the rest of this entry »