July 2011 - Page 6 of 7 - The Rev. Kenneth Allen

An Orange and Almond Tart

July 7, 2011

Editors note: Earlier this year I had started an experimental food blog, before being transferred to my new assignment. I loved it and had a blast. At any rate, here is a post from my old, now defunct (or at least severely languishing,) food blog site. As the title implies, it’s an orange and almond tart. Bon apetit!

This is great. And as usual working through the French Friday’s with Dorie project, I learned a few new things.

The filling is an easy and delicious almond cream. I want to put it in everything.

Wine?! Augh! It’s true that first I made the wrong recipe this week. Here we’re preparing the braising liquid ready for the shortribs project for next week. (There is nothing wrong with having these around the house a week early!)

Blood! Thankfully I had some delicious blood oranges around the house. You section these and let them dry out on paper towels. I love the name ‘blood orange’. It could almost be the name of a novel. It’s probably already the name of a color. I’m going to have to start using it.

Dryness. The tart dough was like a puffy, sandy bag of … flour and butter. The egg yolk was instantaneously absorbed into the extremely dry flour, which just screamed for more, more! More!

I threw it into the refrigerator. Later I added some dribbles of cold water to help bring it together into a semblance of an actual dough, and tasted it thankfully, because it needed some salt. It’s a pretty standard sweet tart shell.

I had zero patience putting this dough into the tart pan. Failure was not an option! And neither was taking too much time! The dough got the picture, behaved very well, blind baked beautifully, and I was thankful the directions called for baking it the amount of time which it genuinely needed to bake. I almost always leave mine in longer, but here I didn’t have to.

Good to go! And so suddenly.

Voila!

Voici?

Mine looks absolutely nothing like the model tart provided by Dorie Greenspan, but thankfully it is incredibly delicious. And the top of mine has a nice sort of, blood orange hue to it.

I dusted it with powdered sugar, then ran it under the broiler to glaze the sugar, then decided not to do that and dusted it again. The by product of rushing a new tart. But the taste… is outta this world! It’s going to be great after those short ribs a little later.

Bon apetit!

Better Gardening Through Photoshop

July 6, 2011

Oh. Yes… This could work.

You know, there’s a lot you can’t write about as a Priest. For instance, a lot of what we do during any given day, be it working with the disenfranchised, counseling, Confessions, etc.

But when I’m not doing any of that, and I’m not reading, and I’m not at the gym, and I’m not in my office, and I’m not intently studying modern Church happenings, or doing laundry or trying to clean my room or sitting around with my feet propped up, or deep in prayer, I’m hard at work in the garden.

(This area needs a lot of work.)

(It’s going to be the Marian area.)

(In case you hadn’t noticed.)

That’s something I can write about. But it’s a work in progress, and definitely needs a bit more time. Still, it’s something to look forward to.

But you know, I just can’t bring myself to post the picture of the actual garden as it really looks. I think I prefer denial and the vision of what might be, what will be, to the cold, harsh realities of life.

On the other hand, what harm could there be in posting a picture of the back garden as a ‘before’ kind of thing, while anxiously awaiting the far off completion and the eventual ‘after’ photos?

Yes, that’s a very good idea. In fact, here is the garden as it actually looks with no Photoshopping involved. It’s very much better than it was before, and it’s a fair start to a kind of… hmmm.. why yes, that’s absolutely a very smart way of doing things.

AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!!!!

::hyperventilating::

OK, yes, that’s much, much better.

Excuse me. If you need me, I’ll be deep in prayer.

Un Gâteau de Crêpes

July 5, 2011

A few months ago I made a crêpes cake.

Basically you make crêpes. Then layer them with whatever you want. Here we have pastry creme and a butter rum sauce, topped with a chocolate ganache and toasted almonds. And of course, more pastry creme.

It was awesome.

And it’s not expensive in the least. Although to be fair, it is supposed to be at least twice as high. It’s just that I had used up half of the crepe batter the night before at a dinner gathering.

That was back when I was photo-journaling about food, and thinking about starting a website about Catholic kitchens.

But then life changed, I got a new assignment with new responsibilities et voila, here I am.

I’m still thinking about that website. More on that later, of course… work beckons.

Fourth of July

July 4, 2011

There’s nothing more American than watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. And there’s nothing more inane than me heading out with my camera trying to photograph them.

But we’re making progress here.

Obviously there’s a ways to go! But, a lesson learned: scout your location with more than a minute to go before the show. Electrical wires in the middle of the photos aren’t quite an artistic advantage.

Aside from that faux pas, I shot on complete manual, with a tripod. I ended up opening the f-stop all the way to 22 at times, then dialing it back down and playing with the ISO a bit for some of the brighter shots.

Also, I increased the contrast in several because I liked the brighter effect. But… that does kind of blow out some of the highlights.

However, I’m not trying to win a prize here, so… might as well have fun with it.

It’s not like we have fireworks shows every day.

And I have to confess, I’ve never really shot on full manual before. Here I did, and varied the shutter speed from 1 second to 5 seconds. It’s not that horrible for a complete rank amateur who knows absolutely nothing about photography, though there are obviously some things I have to work on.

But, the Fourth of July is a special day hereabouts, and fireworks are the order of the day all around.

We grew up with huge stashes of fireworks we’d set off on the front lawn, before they were illegal in the city.

After that, everyone else had them. Hahah, heheheh.

I almost really like this shot, if it weren’t for the wires.

Blowout!

Here is a shot just as the strobes started to go off and light the place up like… like… like daylight, for lack of a better analogy. I played with the aperture a bit, and the ISO setting. I think.

I remember after I had been playing music for decades, and people would tell me they were starting out with piano lessons. I encourage everyone to go for it, and recall the hours and hours and hours of practice that go into technique and artistry. Compared to my time behind keyboards (well, even without that), I’m a complete noob with a camera.

Here are the offending wires. I left for the show at 8:40, and found a spot on the levee a bit farther away than is good for these shots. Especially since it was behind the wires. I got set up right as the show started.

But all in all, a good exercise. I’d post the other hundred shots, but I’d rather go pray night prayer. I pray that the holiday was enjoyed by all.

A Busy Sunday

July 3, 2011

In between Masses today I could be found roaming the gardens looking with a furrowed brow at the ivies growing on fences, weeds taking over rose beds, and the plethora of rocks in the side garden. Utterly beset, I decided to take a picture of this small statue. It used to bother me since it was the center of attention in the main garden (which needs much, much work…) But now, there’s a statue of Mary in the center, and this guy’s off to the side in the cabana area.

Sheesh, spot the euphemisms in that paragraph.

You can see Mary in the background, but thanks to editing software you cannot see the ivies and other fence blight detracting from recent plantings.

Hopefully, I won’t be seeing it soon either. Spectracide and Trellises… come to papa.

Crepe myrtles are good trees, though the constant floating down of their tiny flowers forms drifts all over the patio on a daily basis in heaps and mounds. Still, the trees do provide some nice shade and a degree of privacy. I use a leaf blower to clean the soft carpet of flowers — the deep, deep, soft carpet of flowers, which collects all over the back area each day.

Well, I usually do it every other day. Sometimes every third day. At least once a week. It’s hot outside you know.

Then we have the flowering coleus. I haven’t grown coleus in awhile so I really am not sure wether to deadhead it or just let it be. Any ideas? Sounds like a quick google is in order.

After I watered everything thoroughly this morning since it was dry as could be with not a cloud in sight, we had a torrential downpour in the afternoon. But I had clipped some roses, and stuck them in with this parsley-in-a-glass. Parsley keeps longer with its roots in water, and it was a handy receptacle for the roses, since I had not cut a long stem. I also had been starting some mint and some coleus, which I had just placed in small glasses of water. Both stems sprouted roots fairly quickly (especially the coleus!), and I have them now in small pots so the roots can take in a well structured form for planting.

I made a brief visit to an oasis of a pool deep within the bamboo forests of Old Metairie. But you know how torrential downpours can be with lightening strikes and thunderclaps. This is about as close to the pool as I got today. It’s about as close as I usually get. But, that’s a long story for another time.

And tonight… fireworks!

I’ll probably revisit this in the next few days. It was fun taking pictures of them, since I’ve never done it before.

Which is evidenced here in this completely blown-out photo. I wonder how you prepare for the finale of a fireworks show when everything is bright as daylight, after your camera has been using wide open apertures and high iso’s.

Hmmm…. Something new to study. This could be fun…