Star Wars - an a capella tribute to John Williams

This is pretty incredible. Whether you like John Williams, Star Wars, or music this is fun to watch. I hope you all enjoy it.

Portraits

By Jon Marrelli

In an attempt to learn a bit more about how the software I recently purchased actually works, I have spent the last few days playing around with some photos in my library. I was able to punch up a few landscapes, and show some details in some architecture.

However, I've never been that great at taking photos of people. I like landscapes and architecture, and as a result I take a lot of photos of them. I am always worried about what people will think of photos I take of them, and as a result, I don't take that many. This is something I really want to fix.

So with that in mind, I have worked on the two portraits below, both to attempt to boost my technical knowledge of my new software and to start learning about taking photos of people. Please leave me some feedback about what you like or don't like about them.

The Greasy Spoon

I've added another family blog to the "Finer Links" located to your right. This is for "The Greasy Spoon" a blog created by our own Chef Chris. According to the blog description, this is the place for greasy gears and recipes, and a place to share frustrations of Ford trucks and delicious recipes. So enjoy the gift of grease, gears, and gustatory goodies.

My Hobby - Photography.

By Jon Marrelli

Today I received my copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, which is a photo organizing and editing software.

I am very excited about this. As most of you know, photography has become a big hobby of mine recently. I have been having a lot of fun taking pictures, which I generally upload to my Flickr account. (see top right corner of the blog for a sample from it.) Moving forward, Lightroom will let me organize much better, and my Flickr feed will be more of a showcase for my best efforts. Right now it is kind of a catch all for my photos. 

Tonight I was able to use Lightroom to take two "okay" photos and turn them into something a bit better. I just wanted to share these, as I'm really excited about getting a little bit better at photography.

This has gotten me wondering what everyone likes to do for a hobby or for fun. Please post about what you have a passion for, and interest in, or just have fun doing. 

In loving Memoriam

On Sunday January 11th around 8pm Dream Marrelli was found dead in his backyard. There is now way to tell why or how he died. He has gone to join his "Mommy" and will forever be in my heart. Dream will be cremated and his ashes buried after the snow melts. He is of course, "survived" by his family and was best described as Truly mans best friend. He was never judgemental and loved all members of his family. His mortal enemies were the deer that ate his familys flowers and other various edibles in their yard. He loved milkbones and rawhide chew sticks.

He will be missed.

Peter Marrelli

A Christmas Post

By Jonathan Marrelli

So my favorite Christmas music is from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I've been listening to this for a few days now at work, and it has really helped me get into the season. 

This album is available right now for $4.99 on the amazon music store. 

The files are high bit rate and DRM free MP3's. That means you can put it on anything, copy it anywhere, and not worry about it not playing. It works on iPods.

This is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and I love when Charlie Brown buys the scraggly little tree. Its a great childhood memory, with some serious messages for adults too. I'd recommend anybody feeling Scrooge-y watch this movie. Or listen to it while your driving, like I do, and avoid holiday related road rage.

Turkey Fry!

By Jonathan Marrelli

Okay, so between one thing and another, I haven't posed after Halloween. In my defence, the mess from Halloween was *huge* and really did take a while to clean up. 

As it is still about 27 hours until Christmas, I think I can get away with a more Thanksgiving themed post. Although turkey is good food for Christmas too.

This year, I fried a turkey. It was glorious and golden brown. My group at work got together the week before Thanksgiving and did a pot luck lunch. For the main course, we had a turkey cook off, between myself and Tim. The rules were simple: two turkey enter, one turkey leave. Or rather, two turkeys are fried, and one is declared a winner by the ever popular drool-O-meter. Tim provided the fryer, and the experience.

Before I talk anymore about this, let me be perfectly clear: 

you can blow up your house if you do this wrong. 

The turkey must to completely thawed (no no no ice!) and the oil must not splash over the top of the pot. Oil, air, and an open flame are a recipe for disaster, not deliciousness. Thank you, now back to the regularly scheduled posting.

My strategy was a simple one. Based on the idea that the 12 pound turkey would cook in only 42 minuets, I had to get any flavor in before the turkey hit the heat. Frying is also able to produce a very moist turkey, and crispy skin. These elements made it clear to me that the best solution was a brine. I soaked the turkey overnight (which also made sure it was completely thawed out) in the brine.

Tim opted for the creole-butter marinade injection, operating on the same theory as I was about pre-heat flavor.

The oil was heated, the bird prepared. My turkey was selected to go first. It hit the oil, and immediately my co-workers began salivating. The smell was incredibly good.

42 minuets later my bird came out of the oil. It was incredibly golden brown. The smell was fantastic. Everything was in place. Mashed potatoes, stuffing (on the side, do not put in the fryer), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls...and now The Turkey.

The brine made the meat tender, juicy and delicious. The hot oil made the skin crispy and delectable. The contest was a tie.

What? a tie! Yes, both turkeys were declared amazingly delicious, in different ways. I guess I believed everybody when 10 people, most of them skinny, ate two 12 pound turkeys at lunch. And almost all the fixings. 

I do feel vindicated however, that three people on my team asked for my brine recipe after eating the turkey, and six people who were *not* on my team asked my for it, based on the recommendation of my team, or maybe just the smell of the cooking birds.

In case anyone wants it, this is my easy-brine procedure:

1 cup of kosher salt (or regular salt if you want)

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 a container of frozen o.j. concentrate (about 6 oz)

1 gallon of water

8 pounds of ice

Combine all these in a cooler, or a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, with the turkey and soak 6-8 hours. I like overnight, cause its easy. This works great for turkey in the oven as well. 

As evidence of the deliciousness, juiciness, and goodness of these turkeys, I will submit one last piece of information:

We forgot to make the gravy

and nobody noticed until that afternoon, when we found the un-made gravy in the clean up.