Steve Berkowitz's Blog, page 3
June 8, 2012
Shooting Arrows
In the summers I work at a local day camp, and this year the director was offering to train staff to teach Target Archery. Immediately when I saw the words, “archery,” I did not hesitate to take her up on this offer. Today I was trained by the friendly owner of Ace Archers out of Foxboro, MA.
The training was very professional and informative. We learned not only how to shoot, but how to teach campers how to safely and successfully shoot with a bow. Before the camp starts I feel I need to practice a bit more before I am totally comfortable coaching the campers on the specifics, but I plan on going to the shop to use their range for the reasonable rate of $12/hour for unlimited arrows (including rental equipment and instruction). After today’s class I am now Level 1 Certified to teach Archery! I hope to upgrade to higher levels eventually.
What One Class of 5th Graders are Saying about Chocrotes
I was emailed this from the teacher of the class 
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Chocrotesworld
Made me smile for hours!
June 7, 2012
Fresh Pasta Makes all the Difference
One week ago, my girlfriend’s parents were in Boston for a visit and we decided to go the North End for dinner. While waiting for our table to be ready I ventured over to a cramped little Italian market, Monica’s Salumeria. Originally I was just there to look around, but just looking turned into wanting everything in this amazing store. The walls were lined in Italian specialties and there was a huge variety of meats (dried and fresh), cheeses, fresh pasta, olives, and much, much, much more. I can’t do this place justice with my words, but if you are ever in Boston you should definitely check it out before enjoying a meal in the North End.
I bought a pound of Monica’s fresh pasta and was determined to make a delicious feast for my girlfriend. Today was the day! I was driving around Concord, MA after work one day when I remembered a little farm, McGrath Farm, that has amazing fresh asparagus at this time of year.
This was what I prepared for dinner:
Fresh Pasta with a Spicy Sausage, Onion and Garlic Tomato Sauce
and a side of Pan Fried Garlicky Asparagus
Sauce:
5 cloves of garlic
4 dried hot peppers (Super Chili variety) or 1 tsp hot pepper flakes
3 sprigs of fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
1 pound of ground sweet Italian sausage
1 can of whole peeled/stewed tomatoes
1 cup of Pinot Grigio white wine (or any tasty white wine, a red wine would also work.)
½ jar of your favorite tomato sauce
1 pound fresh pasta of your choosing
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper (amount you prefer)
Asparagus:
1 bunch of asparagus – cut into 1 inch pieces
3 garlic cloves
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper
First sauté the onion, garlic and half of the oregano in olive oil (amount to your preference) for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add salt and pepper (again to your preference). Then add ground sausage to the pot and break the sausage into small pieces/chunks. Cook the sausage until it is almost completely done (no pink remaining, but still not fully cooked). Add one cup of wine and stir, deglazing the bottom of the pan. Allow to deglaze for two minutes, then add the can of whole tomatoes and chop them up to your desired size. Stir in the ½ jar of your favorite tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer for twenty to thirty minutes on medium heat.
While the sauce is simmering, boil a pot of water and cook the fresh pasta for only a couple of minutes, until it is al dente. Drain and set aside, mixing in olive oil so that the noodles don’t stick together.
After the sauce has cooked for twenty to thirty minutes add the pasta to the simmering sauce. Add the remaining oregano, stir and cook for only 1 to 2 minutes. Remove and serve.
After the pasta dish is complete and too hot to eat just yet, sauté the asparagus and garlic in olive oil, salt and pepper (amount of your choosing) for only 3-4 minutes. Remove and serve.
I’m not going to lie, this turned out amazing for me and my girlfriend. Very, very, very, very, very tasty.
Try it yourself and tell me what you think!
June 4, 2012
Nicki’s Wedding
This past weekend my girlfriend and I attended her best friends wedding. The ceremony was beautiful; the banquet was fun; and the atmosphere was joyful. The party lasted through Saturday night and into the early hours of Sunday morning. As the birds started waking up, us revelers went to sleep.
One very interesting and unique part of the wedding was that there was a mall style photo booth for guests to enjoy. Props were provided, and amusement and entertainment was had by all. The booth was set up outside of the ballroom, and was staffed and owned by an old friend of the bride and groom. Not only did guests get to keep two sets of the pictures, but a guest book was also created from the photos. What an excellent idea for a wedding guest book; it created memories that were playful, exciting, and very unique.
A Poll for Ms. P’s and Ms. K’s Students
Hi Ms. P’s and Ms. K’s students! Welcome to my website/blog: Mr. B’s Reads
Prior to coming to visit your school next week, I thought I would set up a poll for your classes to take. The question is one that I want you to think about for a minute before answering. Really ponder the question over and over again in your head; and ask yourself questions the Chickens of Chocrotes’ Egg might ask.
Thank you all for visiting Mr. B’s Reads to take this poll. I look forward to meeting you all next monday!
May 30, 2012
From Chicken to Chocrotes
The illustration of Chocrotes started with my pencil. I freehanded a chicken from a drawing book and my friend and graphic designer/illustrator, Bjorn, took it from there. While my chicken resembled a normal bird, Bjorn’s illustration transformed the chicken into a colorful creation. Here are the results:
My Chicken
Bjorn’s Illustration
May 28, 2012
The Fulong Debacle
“We have to go, now!” I shouted as the wind whipped up the sand around our tents. The sky was darker than I had ever seen before, and the wind above us was howling like a wolf.
My friends: Drew, Lindsey, JD and I had been camping on a beach on the eastern coast of Taiwan, when at 3 in the morning the wind started rattling our tents. A storm was coming… or so we thought. Too early to make rational decisions, we crawled out of our tents and decided to quickly wrap up our gear and make for the bridge leading back to the town of Fulong.
“Why are we doing this?” My friend Lindsey asked in an annoyed and tired voice, “It’s just a little wind. It will pass in an hour or two, just go back to sleep.”
The sky though was getting darker and darker, the night air thick with humidity and the threat of a downpour. My two other friends, JD and Drew, also didn’t want to take the chance of getting caught in a thunderstorm on a wide open beach. After we quickly packed up our tents and belongings, with Lindsey mocking us the whole time for being wimps, we ran for the bridge that would lead us back to town. It wasn’t an easy task though, as the bridge was a good half a mile across the deserted beach.
I was ahead of the pack when we started to panic. The wind was intensifying and the sky darkening even more than before; it felt like an epic tropical storm was rapidly approaching. After a good fifteen minutes of hustling across the barren beach, with the sand whipping our legs, we made it to the bridge that would take us over the river and back to civilization.
Technically the bridge was under construction to fix the worn down banisters, but we had no alternative. Up onto the bridge we ran, quickly crossing it to the other side, under the construction tape and off into the parking lot.
“Was that really necessary?” Lindsey asked, “It probably would have passed.”
“What if it doesn’t? What if we were stuck out there in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm?” Lindsey’s husband Drew questioned, “Better safe than sorry.”
“I’m with Drew,” JD responded, “If it had started pouring we would have been much worse off.”
“Oh you guys are a bunch of babies,” Lindsey shot back in a tired and frustrated voice.
As she said this, the rain started. First came a drizzle, then harder and harder, until we were in the middle of a tropical downpour. We ran as soon as the drizzling began, across the parking lot and up the road to the train station. When we finally arrived we were happy to see an attendant dozing off behind the ticket window.
“Hi,” I softly spoke in Chinese, “We were wondering if there was a train coming anytime soon?”
Confused and groggy from his slumber, the man looked at me like I was crazy, “Where would you like to go at this hour?”
“Taipei,” I responded.
“The next train will be passing in an hour, but there is only standing room available.” He told me, “Will that work for you?”
“Yes, that will have to do,” I answered, “Four tickets please.”
After getting the tickets we walked out onto the platform and sat around, finishing off the rest of our beer. By that time the rain and wind had stopped, and it seemed as if Lindsey was correct.
“Bwah, bwah, bwaaaah,” I mocked myself with a smile, “Whoopsies, looks like I may have over-reacted a bit back there.”
“You suck,” Lindsey taunted with a laugh, “Well at least it will make for a funny story later in life.”
“That it will,” I answered, “That it will.”
None of us were truly upset that we hurried off the beach. Drew, JD and I really thought there might have been a storm coming, and we didn’t want to be stuck on the dunes if it had arrived. Lindsey was right though; there never was an epic thunderstorm that night, just a passing downpour.
My friends and I sat on the platform finishing off the brews until the early morning train arrived at the station. We boarded to find it packed with sleeping people. Locating a little nook in between cars, we settled in for the two hour ride back to Taipei.
I don’t regret running off the beach that morning, nor do I regret the other multitudes of dumb things I have done in life. Life is too short and precious to worry about the times when you could have done something differently. That night on the beach in Taiwan remains a lasting memory that I will never forget.
The bridge to Fulong Beach
The camp sight
The dunes of Fulong
Drew, Lindsey and myself at our campsite on Fulong Beach
Drew passed out by the fire
The Spicy Side of Life
I love to eat spicy food and I love to grow hot peppers. My love for spice has always been present in life, but in the last few years it has grown stronger.
I started growing hot peppers three years ago after returning from Taiwan, and every year since I have grown a different variety of pepper. The first year I kept it simple and grew one type of hot pepper: Super Chilies. These peppers did quite well and yielded a good hundred spicy chilies.
My Super Chilies
Last year I chose to grow the super hots: Habañeros, Super Chilies, Thai Dragon Chilies and Caribbean Red Hots. I had eight pots of these fiery fruits and they produced hundreds of peppers that luckily were eaten and enjoyed by my older brother. While I love their intense heat, I was not a huge fan of the Habañero’s or the Caribbean Red Hots’ flavor. The Thai Dragons and the Super Chilies on the other hand were quite nice; their heat was perfect and I loved the smokiness of the Thai Dragons and the bold and almost sweet flavor of the Super Chilies.
My Habañero’s
My Thai Dragons
I kept four of the plants indoors over the winter, with the two Thai Dragon plants surviving the ordeal. This year aside from the Thai Dragons, I have chosen to experiment with peppers of the milder variety. I’m currently growing: Jalepeño, Poblano, Hot Portugal, Carmen, and Sweet Yellow Bell peppers along side the Thai Dragons. I have taken the level down a notch to see how these varieties grow.
Spicy peppers are great because they provide both flavor to the food I cook as well a myriad of health benefits. There are multiple websites describing the positive effects of spicy peppers. Here are a few:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/253391-health-benefits-of-hot-peppers/
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1020/new-evidence-hot-peppers-are-heart-healthy
May 27, 2012
The Delicacies of Life
I love to cook and I love to eat. Of all the crazy things I have eaten I still have much more to try. Living in Taiwan the smell of stinky tofu has been engrained into my nostrils. Personally I do like the fried fermented treat, though at first smell I would have jumped through a car window to get away from it. I have tried and hated the nastiness that is durian, as well as thousand year old eggs. I turned down the treat of Balut that my good friends from the Philippines offered me, knowing I would not be able to stomach it. I have enjoyed snacks of fried scorpions and crickets at Beijing’s Dong Hua Men Night Market; eaten snake, and drank the blood in Chinese moonshine. Fish cheeks are now a delicacy to me. Cow lung or pig’s blood soup, chicken feet, duck tongue, small squids which popped when bitten; not all were enjoyed, but I figured I should try everything that was placed in front of me. For all of the foods in China and Taiwan that would seem nasty to a Westerner there are many more that would be considered delicious.
A favorite meal of mine while teaching in China was from a restaurant in Beijing. It was the second night of a trip to the capital with my friends, Drew and Lindsey, and we were in the mood for something delicious, cheap, and local. We were staying at a hostel in the heart of Beijing’s historical Hutongs, and were wandering down one of the ancient alleys when we stumbled upon a restaurant packed with locals. This was a very good sign, and after checking out the menu we decided to give it a shot. We ordered a bunch of dishes, but the one dish that has remained in my memory ever since was the delicious traditional Beijing meal of 京醬肉絲 (Jīng jiàng ròu sī), or Beijing Style Pork Wrapped with Tofu Skin.
I had remembered to order this dish after my first trip to Beijing in 2006, and when it arrived memories of the epic deliciousness started shooting into my brain. The flavor was sweet and savory, and when wrapped in the thin tofu skin it would melt in your mouth. Not only did we devour this serving, but we made it a point to return to this restaurant the next night and the following day before catching a train back down to Shanghai.
Hungry yet? Here is a link to the recipe for 京醬肉絲, Enjoy!
http://www.savourasia.com/content/view/281/686/
Beijing’s Dong Hua Men Night Market selections
Enjoying the Crickets in Beijing
May 26, 2012
Chasing Dragons
Photography is one of my favorite hobbies. Out of all the subjects to photograph in the natural world, nothing makes me happier than capturing a macro image of a dragonfly. I sit and wait, watching as the dragonflies fly through the air around me. When they settle and land… that is when I approach them. Slow breaths and movements are key; steadily I creep over with my camera at the ready. I approach the dragonfly like a sloth. With slow breaths and calm thoughts I move closer and closer, until I am inches away from my subject. Inches though aren’t enough to capture a dragonfly with my cheap macro lens, I must be a mere 3 centimeters or closer from the dragon’s body.
Here are the results:
