TinyTall 2.0

Biting through a creamy foil of smooth, creamy, custard-like eggs to find flavorful bits that slide over your tonge before your bite even reaches the crumbly, flaky crust…

Quiche is the kind of seemingly-complicated savory dish that scares away a lot of people. Really, though, quiche is the perfect summer and left-over food. It’s intended to be eaten cold, can hold up to throwing just about any random ingredient, and can even be easily frozen pre-baked.

The basic idea of quiche is the same as custard – egg protein provides structure rather than a starch. Usually baked in a pastry crust, however, it is not nearly as delicate as a custard dessert.

If you are the type to make your own pastry crust, quiche offers a great way to show off those crusts. If you buy the frozen crusts (as I do when I’m in a hurry or it’s too hot to keep the butter solid) – then quiche fills them nicely and easily.

The basics for quiche filling are eggs and dairy. For a nine-inch pie shell, five to six large eggs and about 1 cup of half-and-half or cream. If you’re watching calories or are in a hurry, use milk and add an extra egg yolk for richness.

From there, it’s truly wherever your creativity takes you. Cheese is a standard, and a good addition for the structure it can offer. Cheddar mixes, three-cheese Italian mixture, and CoJack all work wonderfully. If you want to get fancy, then use fancy cheeses. Just remember if you use one strongly flavored cheese (such as feta) stick with milder cheeses to support the flavor.

Veggies can literally be what’s on sale at the local farmer’s market. Remember to sautée them a bit before they get thrown in the filling- onions, garlic, asparagus, even chunks of eggplant – anything that cooks down soft enough to bite through easily.

Meat, similarly, can be just about anything you have in the fridge. Cooked and crumbled bacon, sliced lunch meat, or leftover shredded chicken. The idea you’re going for is small bits and bite-sized pieces, not huge chunks you’d have to cut with a knife. I would recommend avoiding beef and other red meats – eggs and cream simply don’t make a good base for these.

And finally, the spices. Go crazy! Quiche is a great place to feature fresh herbs – tarragon, rosemary, even basil. Garlic is always a good choice. A little salt is usually a good idea, as it brightens the overall flavor.

If you’re baking the quiche right away, about 20-30 minutes in a 350 degree oven will set up the custard, then just cool it for a while in the fridge to solidify everything before serving. If you’re going to freeze it for later use, the best idea would be freeze the filling in the pre-baked crust, and bake from there.

Still worried about making a quiche? Here’s the basic one NT tossed together last night (props to NT, by the way, for doing a great job – and especially since he’s just beginning to dip toes into the wide world of cooking)- but remember, once you’ve got the basics down, it’s the perfect way to experiment with new flavors!

1  9 inch pie shell
6 eggs
1 cup half and half
Olive Oil
1/2 a small onion, diced and sautéed
2 cloves garlic, sautéed
3/4 cup diced lunch meat ham
1 1/2 cups shredded three cheese Italian blend (Parmesan, Asiago, Romano)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Salt
Pepper

Pre-bake and chill the pie crust.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cream.

In a medium frying pan, with a few drops of olive oil, sautée the onion and garlic until soft and fragrant. Throw in the diced ham to heat through.

Stir onion mixture into egg mixture. Stir in cheese and bread crumbs. Season to taste.

Pour egg mixture into prepared pie crust. Place on a baking sheet (in case anything spills).

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until puffed and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Chill 45 minutes to an hour in the fridge.

Slice into wedges and enjoy!

I went on a nocturnal photo shoot a few days ago. I have always liked nighttime photos for many reasons – lights (including my minor obsession with neon lights) show up much more clearly. Longer exposures mean a higher saturation of color we usually see washed-out by sunlight. Directional light is much more visible, and dramatic.

Sure, I had to tiptoe around cops. Sure, I got catcalled by some men (who I’m fairly sure) were buying drugs down the street. NT went along with me, and spent most of the time fairly amused at my constant fear for personal safety – which I think is legitimate considering I was standing in the middle of the street or hanging on a freeway overpass or waiting for cars to pass close next to me.

I have also talked with one of the coffee shops here in town, and they’re willing to show my photography in a few months! However, they made the good point that 8×10 in 11×14 mats is not only fairly boring, but doesn’t show well on wide, open walls. I want to get large prints, ideally canvas prints of some of my photos to “highlight” – but I’m looking $30 – $50 a print there. Really not too bad until you realize I’d like to do at least 8-10 large prints. So, it’s time to save money up for that and pray that I can do it.

Many of these photos are on my Flickr account – and are large enough to set as your background or use in web / digital applications. I won’t charge you for that, but I will ask that if you do so you consider PayPal-ing me $1 or so. It isn’t much, but if 30 of you do this, that’s one of the prints for the show. I can’t seem to get the PayPal link to work… so use the email link below and I’ll send my info your way.

Or, if you’re in the Spokane area, and would like to splurge a bit on yourself, $50 will get you an hour/ hour and half -long outdoor portrait session – complete with basic digital editing and the print-quality digital files on CD.

Email me for more info.

Upon arriving back at work, I discover that the idea of setting aside time for – well – anything except getting caught up was a bit of a pipe dream. I’ve got the rest of the travelouge to write, and at least 3 other posts that I’ve been storing in my head. However, until I get a chance to actually type those out, here’s a bribe, in the form of new photos, to keep you interested. Enjoy!

Even more new stuff at my Flickr Account Comments, criticisms, even requests welcome!

I got linked by the Wall Street Journal, so, hello all those from the WSJ!

However, the post they linked didn’t really say… well, anything about the subject of their article. I’m guessing it was auto-created by an algorithm somewhere.

However, since I got linked as someone talking about the Eye-Fi technology, I figured I might as well do just that. It is true that for most people snapping 300 photos at a go with their digital camera often don’t actually load them onto their computer – or print them – or organize them – or even take them off the memory card before they have an “oh shoot the card is full I need to delete something” moment.

For those casual photographers, this technology will be very useful. However, I see a couple big problems. The first is sign-in information. While most of us are more than willing to sign into our email and chat programs and even “social networking” sites on public wireless connections, those of us that have any concern for safety have put firewalls, virus protection, password scramblers and the like on our machines. To have the information saved on our memory card, automatically sign into whatever wireless network is available, and upload things could get dicey. Forget that you have those naughty photos you took of your significant other on your card and – whoops- they’re uploaded for the world to see.

The other retro-fit issue would be that most cameras don’t have an interface for typing in usernames and/or passwords easily. For anyone that relies on the USB connection rather than the memory card to transfer information from camera to computer, the sign-in information could be difficult to program.

Despite these difficulties, I think Eye-Fi is onto a great idea that will benefit those who are lucky enough to live in a city with reliable, wide-ranging wifi access. For the rest of us, it may be a while before it’s truly useful, and even longer to decide if we want our cameras to go that far in deciding things for us.

I, for one, am keeping my fingers crossed for Eye-Fi. They’ve got a great idea, and if they can get it to work correctly, it should be a good product.

It’s July again, which means it’s travel time! For the sixth year in a row, mom and I are headed to the Utah Shakespearian Festival. For the last four years we’ve been doing the “Summer Six Pack” of all six shows- three Shakespeare and three non-Shakespeare – in three days. It’s theater-packed, it’s seminars and play orientations and show after show after show. It’s overload, and it’s wonderful.

I started my trip on Friday – my car has no air conditioning, and driving eight hours in ninety-plus degree heat just didn’t sound fun. So I headed out Friday evening. Pulled over for a few hours for a nap, and made it to the hometown around nine in the morning. Stopped on I-15 in Montana to take photos of an old church or schoolhouse- I’ll post the pics as soon as I dig my connection cord out of my luggage.

Spent Saturday morning with the parents, then got in touch with GB, my best friend from high school that I haven’t seen nearly enough in the last few years. He’s back in town for a few months, working for my family, making money to spend a year in Germany. We had breakfast, hung out with my parents for a bit, then decided if we were going to go out because both of us needed the fun.

I called a friend of mine who has connections to the local music scene (and whom I really wanted to catch up with as well) and headed to the bar with the band she recommended. Spent a while there, caught up with her and some other acquaintances from my time living at home before Spokane and after Helena. Then we all trooped over to Charlie’s, the one gay bar in all of Southeastern Idaho.

It was PACKED. I became part of a dancing competition. GB got drunk and showed off the fact he’s incredibly flexible and a dance instructor to boot. I got a kiss from a beautiful woman that still has my brain buzzing in happy ways. GB had such a good night, the lesbians were taking cell-phone video. We made it home at 3am.

The next morning, it was up-and-at-em by 7am. Thank god that was for breakfast and lots and lots of coffee. Mom and I piled into the car and were out of town by 11. I wanted to meet up with some other people for coffee in Salt Lake, but that didn’t quite work out. I’ll hopefully catch them on the way back through.

This, however, turned out to be a good thing. We got a call from my grandpa that they were closing down I-15 at Cove Fort. We ended up detouring around what, we found out that night on the news, was and is A gigantic grass fire that was jumping the freeway. By detouring early, we managed to avoid a giant back-up of the “official” detour. It was still slower going, and added an hour to the trip, but we got to drive by (and I’m not kidding) Big Rock Candy Mountain. (Again, photos coming soon).

Made it into Cedar City and checked into our hotel by evening, and then I slept for 12 hours. More to come tonight

It seems my commentary on the arrests has been the popular post lately (hello, 50+ new readers that found this blog yesterday!), so here’s the link soup of some more information:
This page is being updated as I’m linked to and/or find more information.

Videos

Spokane KXLY interviews police and arrested protester
Spokane KXLY news story on the 5th
15 second cell phone video during arrests
15 second cell phone video during arrests #2

Newspaper/NetNews Coverage

PDF of the incident report from police
Spokesman Review article on the legality of asking protesters to disburse
S-R article on felony assault charge

Blogs/Firsthand

Firsthand narrative of an arrested protester
Spokane 7 blog including commentary
S-R editor talks about the coverage
Report and pictures from the protesters

Misc.

Flier advertising the protest

Originally uploaded by TinyTall
Photo: Spot as a puppy. Taken three years ago on my film Canon. An example of about how I feel at the moment.

Perhaps the famous Curse of Spokane has worked it’s way into my photolife.

You see, I finally got my camera (a Canon Rebel EOS Digital 6 megapixel SLR) back from the repair shop. I bit the bullet and got it fixed after almost a year of it being broken. The battery door just needed a new spring. Incredibly excited, I got it back – and realized the battery was dead. No big deal- borrowed a charger from work (the new one is on it’s way from Ebay) and charged up the battery. Loaded up my new memory card… and realized that while the battery door was fixed, the battery itself wasn’t sitting in the compartment correctly. It works, but every once in a while it will slip out of place and randomly turn off. A jerry rig with business cards reduced how often this happens, but it still does.

So I take my camera out on an evening, and take over 300 photos. This is because I overheard a coffee shop I frequent saying they might need new art to put on the walls in a month or so. Since all my negatives from the last 8 years got lost in a move, I need to get some new stuff to *crosses fingers* put in my “art” portfolio and perhaps show.

I get some good photos. I take the camera home, load all of them onto my computer. Do some preliminary editing on a few. Resolve to, the next day, finish editing after work.

Go to turn on my computer. Lo and behold. The hard drive has died. It’s dead. There’s no resurrecting it. Luckily I hadn’t deleted files off my memory card yet, but now I have no computer, no Photoshop, and no way to retrieve or work with my new photos.

I can’t use my work computer – even off the clock – because I don’t have the “privileges” to install the driver for my camera. I get my camera back and my computer dies – it’s practically poetic.

There is a bright spot- my brother, whom I must have done some wonderfully karmic act in a previous life to have been blessed with, may be able to save the computer by Frankensteining an old hard drive into the shell of the computer. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If not, it’s time to belly up and find the cash for a new laptop (which I should do anyway – but I’d like some amount of time to save for that)

So, keep your fingers crossed – and there should be a slew of new photos on their way!

P.S.- Ten points if you can name the movie reference of the title.

Protesters speaking out against police brutality are attacked by police. From The Spokesman Review (emphasis added in bold and my comments included in italics):

(Photo from the Spokesman Review)

In the Inland Northwest, it was a Fourth of July to celebrate freedom – or clash over the freedoms Americans have.

Under the Clocktower in Spokane’s Riverfront Park, 17 people protesting police brutality were arrested about 6:45 p.m. as people gathered in the park for Neighbor Day and the annual firework displays.

Officers charged the group, which included self-proclaimed anarchists and other teens and young adults, after ordering them to disperse. One arrest was after what police say was an assault on an officer. Protesters dispute that. (Anybody have video of this? That would answer the question pretty quickly)

Spokane Police Sgt. Jason Hartman said the gathering was halted in part because it was interfering with a nearby concert sponsored by Clear Channel Communications Inc. He noted that the protesters hadn’t obtained a permit. (How DARE you not respect the Giant Radio Conglomerate? Also – did they need a permit? They were just passing out literature. This was not something a permit would be required for.)

“It was interfering with their event,” he said. The arrests “were based on their failure to comply with our order to lawfully disperse from the park.”

Others saw it differently.

“They were assembled peacefully,” said Jorgi Martin, who witnessed part of the protest. “They were having a picnic, just like everybody else in the park was having a picnic.”

About 50 people, from a group calling itself Alternative Solutions and Possibilities and mostly dressed in black, (OK, bad fasion choice when it’s 99 degrees out. However, why is this important enough to be included in the story? And why does this matter? Is wearing black suddenly a threat to society? There goes half my wardrobe. ) had assembled next to the tower after marching through Peaceful Valley and downtown Spokane in a planned event. (Planned event. This means they had a permit.)

While some in the group began to picnic, sitting on a large American flag, a few others held signs and distributed fliers. Some asked police, who were beginning to congregate around them, if they wanted a copy of their literature on police brutality. Officers declined. (This drips with so much irony I don’t even know where to start)

Police soon began to assemble around the group, and a couple with cameras photographed those in the crowd (an interesting method – I’m not sure in this situation a camera could legitimately be considered a weapon – at least until the next events happened), who responded by chanting, “We are not afraid.” One officer began walking within a few inches of some protesters to take their pictures. A few protesters tried to block the camera with their signs.

A scuffle began, and a protester was taken to the ground and arrested. Police allege the male pushed and tried to choke the officer. Protesters said the officer shoved the man to the ground without provocation.

After the man was dragged off, more officers assembled, and remaining protesters stood tightly together holding a sign that read “Those who hold power must be targeted.”

More officers gathered, and one read an order telling the protesters to disperse. Moments later, police charged the group, ripping down their sign and pushing protesters to the ground. Those who were arrested were forced onto their stomachs. Their hands were tied behind them with plastic ties.

Police and some working at the event formed a circle around those who were arrested. Periodically over the next half hour or so, police went into the crowd and dragged people into the circle to detain them. Many in the crowd cheered as police made arrests. (Cheering as arrests are made makes me think perhaps the protesters were going over the edge a bit.)

But the spectacle, which lasted for about an hour, also created a debate between those who felt police were overreaching and infringing on citizens’ rights of assembly and speech and those who felt the protesters were desecrating the flag and disturbing the peace of those who were there to watch fireworks. Police broke up some of the debates that became overly heated.

Those arrested were taken to jail on charges of failure to disperse and trespassing. Hartman also said one was booked on charges of assaulting an officer.

There isn’t really enough information to make an educated assessment on what “Really” happened. Long story short- something happened. It definitely fits into the definition of “irony.” Were the police provoked? Maybe. Was the reaction far over the top, on both sides? Most likely.

Edit: I was talking with Shea about this (probably one of the most level-headed, logical people I know) – with more of a police perspective on things – and she brought up two good points:
* I do know that riot police are trained to squash anything that can turn into a mob riot as quickly as possible. one scuffle can turn into a street-wide battle. mob mentality is a powerful force.

*[09:35] Andrea: which, I would think, in a park full of 4th of July celebrators, that SOMEONE had a video camera or cell phone video or something
[09:36] shea: no joke. it’ll probably surface eventually.
[09:37] shea: which also says something about how we perceive these things. if a video existed that clearly showed an officer starting it, it’d already be out and all over the place. Rodney king-like videos create a lot of media excitement.