Things From My Desk: Spock Bobble Head

Spock is not impressed.

Things From My Desk: tiny coffee cup

I have a coffee cup collection from places I've worked at or clients I've worked for.

One day, at Strategic Interactive, Tia stopped by my desk and gave me this cup. I've kept it on my work desk ever since. She said she saw it and just couldn't resist getting it for me.

Things From My Desk: spill art

Something my son made in elementary school. The marshmallows are rather old but it still looks pretty good for its age.

Pop Up Camper

Our second trip out with a "new to us" pop up camper is finally starting to work out. It's a 1993 Flagstaff 618 Limited. It's a small pop up - no bathroom. There's two queen size bed pull-outs and the seating/table area converts to another bed. For an eight foot box it's rather roomy. It was well taken care of by the two previous owners and the canvas is in really good shape.

I spent last Saturday through Tuesday removing the cabinetry, repairing two broken chain drives, replacing a sprocket pin for the roof lift mechanism, realigning the roof posts, and then replacing all the cabinetry. Quite a chore in the heat we've been experiencing. I also removed the sink since we really don't want to use it and it gives us more space. 

Sheared sprocket pin

Yet another in-the-field repair to make

There, I fixed it! (temporarily)

On the 4th of July we arrived at our favorite local campground, Myers Lake United Methodist Campground, in Byron Michigan. The roof cranked up nice and easy. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for rustic camping. We had a nasty but brief thunderstorm the first night that took the electricity out at the campground and about 100,000 other Michigan residents. The canopy suffered some damage that I was able to temporarily "repair" with cable ties and duct tape. I'm afraid it won't last. Power didn't come back until early Saturday morning.

Fortunately for us we only live twenty minutes away. My daughter needed to go back home for her last driver's education test Friday so we all went home for a hot shower and some air conditioning before going back out Friday evening. We avoided the high for the day, somewhere around 100 degrees with winds of around two miles an hour.

Preparing dinner

The heat broke Saturday evening. We have a cool breeze and temps in the upper 80's. Not bad.

We had campfire pizza Saturday night. My large pizza stone split last trip, so I had to use the backup personal size pizza stones. Touchy to work with. You have to get the pie centered just right or it slides off the peel onto the grill.

Tools of the trade

Getting the oven ready

Rounds ready to toss

Pizza in the "oven"

La Parmigiana Di Melanzane (Eggplant Parmigiana)

Nom, nom, nom, ...

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 Eggplants
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 pound Mozzarella (fior di latte)
• large bunch Fresh Basil, chopped
• Flour
• Egg, egg substitute, or egg white, beaten
• Marinara sauce
• Panko and/or Italian bread crumbs

As with all my Mozzarella dishes, I prefer fior di latte. It's mozzarella made from fresh pasteurized or unpasteurized cow's milk instead of the low-moisture rubber you find in zip-loc bags. A foodie will insist it's not real mozzarella, and they'd be technically correct. Real Mozzarella di Bufala, is made from domesticated water buffalo milk. It has to be imported from Italy and will only stay fresh for a day or two. If you can find it in the U.S. it's not going to be fresh and will have a slightly sour taste - don't bother with it. You'll find Mozzarella fior di latte in plastic tubs immersed in water or in a plastic tube with a layer of water around it. 

If you have time, make the Marinara sauce from scratch. I cheated and used some from a jar. I try to get one with the lowest sugar content possible - around 6 grams per serving. I used one with 11 grams today and it was a bit sweet for my taste.

Instructions

Peel eggplant and slice into 1/2 inch rounds. Lightly salt each side of the eggplant slices and place on paper towels, cover with another layer of paper towels. Four eggplants will give you some extra slices to eat before assembling the dish, yummy. Three will give you just enough, but what's the fun in that. Leave to sweat for about twenty minutes.

I peal the eggplant. I don't like how the peal gets tough when coked

Not done yet

Arrange three shallow bowls in a row. Place flour in the first bowl, beaten egg, egg substitute or egg white in the second bowl, and the bread crumbs in the third bowl. I've tried both Panko and Italian bread crumbs. The Panko bread crumbs are low fat and low sodium but a bit plain. Mixing both together gives you a nice crunch and flavor. Cover a large baking pan with aluminium foil and top with a wire rack.

Flour - egg wash - bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place an eggplant slice into the flour, shake off excess flour. Turn, dip, and shake again until all sides of the eggplant slice are covered with a thin coating of flour. Dip the flour coated eggplant slice into the second bowl of beaten egg, turn over to coat other side. A fork will help keep your fingers from accumulating a coating layer. Place the eggplant slice into the third bowl of bread crumbs and shake the bowl a bit to help the crumbs stick. Turn the slice over and coat the other side.

Flour first - the fine grains stick well to the eggplant

Egg wash second - the egg binds to the flour

Crumbs last - the egg can now support the larger bread crumbs

Gently place the coated eggplant slices onto the wire rack. Spray both sides of the slices with olive oil. I use a refillable pampered chef spray bottle. If you don't have a spray bottle, you can use another bowl with a shallow layer of olive oil to quickly dip each side.

Spray with olive oil

Place the pan of eggplant slices into the oven for about thirty minutes. Check after about twenty to make sure they are browning lightly. You can spray them with more olive oil and flip them over if you like. The thick slices of eggplant should start to get spongy, but remain firm. If they get squishy, your final dish will still taste awesome but you'll miss out on the firm bite. I've found that eating one of the eggplant slices after it has cooled a bit is the best way to test them - nom, nom, nom!

Nice and toasty

Cook it too long and the eggplant gets soggy - this was just right.

Now that you have your slices of eggplant ready, you can assemble your dish. Put two or three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a Pyrex dish. Then spoon some Marinara sauce on the bottom of the dish, enough to cover it.

Oil layer

Sauce layer

Put a layer of eggplant slices on top of the sauce, then a layer of cheese, and finally more sauce and chopped basil. 

Eggplant layer

Cheese layer

Sauce and basil layer

Repeat with another layer of eggplant, cheese, sauce, basil, and finally cheese.

Put the dish in a 350 degree oven for about thirty minutes, until it gets nice a bubbly and the cheese melts on top.

Ran a bit short on cheese for the top layer.

You should wait until it cools off a bit. The traditional Neapolitan way of eating eggplant Parmigiana is at room temperature. It tastes even better after it sits for several hours or the next day. If you prepare a day in advance, refrigerate and then bring it back completely to room temperature before serving.

John Scalzi, Redshirts, and frosting

I found out late yesterday that my favorite author, John Scalzi, was signing books at Schuler's Books in Lansing, MI. last night. I didn't really have time to drive out to see him on such short notice but knowing just how geeked I am about science fiction she just said "go." I love my wife.

I started reading Scalzi after "Old Man's War" came out. I'm a big fan of Heinlein, and had heard the style of "Old Man's War" was much like his. Awesome series!

John Scalzi at Schuler's Books

Scalzi's latest book, "Redshirts", is a humorous parody of the tendency for red shirted Ensign's to die on  Star Trek away missions (e.g. Ensign Ricky.) I haven't had a chance to read it yet so a review will have to wait, but from what I've heard it's really funny.

Redshirts
They were expendable...
Until they started comparing notes.

It just so happened that I was fortunate enough to win a free copy of "Redshirts" from Julia Sherred's blog, "Geeky Pleasures." And, the book arrived in the mail the same day as the signing event. And, the event did not require you to purchase a copy of the book to get it signed! Doesn't get much better than that. 


John proceeded to read several selections from his writing and to answer several questions before signing books.


A recent post on John's blog, Whatever, included various statements concerning yummy cake frosting including "NO I AM NOT ADDICTED TO FROSTING I CAN STOP AT ANYTIME STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT" (emphasis is John's, not mine.) He also asked us to please not bring any tasty frosting to the event. So, of course, I did. With sprinkles.

Cake Frosting Bliss

Yours in frosting!

Thank you Mr. Scalzi and Schuler's Books for a memorable event! 

MB2-866 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

SBI is pretty big on Microsoft certifications. The director of IT has at least a dozen and it's one of my quarterly goals. Today I took and passed exam MB2-866 Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, Customization and Configuration.

It wasn't very difficult to study for. I've been reading Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Unleashed by Marc J. Wolenik, Damian Sinay, and Rajya Vardhan Bhaiya and taking practice exams. It's an introductory book and doesn't really go very deep, but it covered the material pretty well. I wish Microsoft would provide a test kit for the CRM exams.

The last time I took an exam (70-100 Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solution Architectures) was about 14 years ago. It's way out of date, but the Microsoft Solution Framework information from it is still relevant.

One of the really convenient things SBI does is pay up front for the exam and provides study material. Sweet Systems did almost the same thing. They would reimburse up to three attempts to pass an exam.