Penn & Teller Rock! Come to think of it Leann too. The support, the strength and friendship the entire Far Point Media family shows on a daily basis amazes me. I have been online for 10 years and seen a few communities of spirit and love often, but they just don't match these fine folks. I am proud to call them friends.

Safe travels Joe where ever the stars guide you. You will be missed here.

I am on Splendid Table's weekly email list, once a week we get a recipe and I keep a good portion of them. Last week we got a recipe for seafood that looked good. I tried it tonight but typical to my form I changed it a bit. You could say I get it from my father but I never take a recipe at face value and I always personalize it. Tonight I didn't even realize I did it until afterwards. Here's what I did...

Ingredient list - Theirs
* Good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
* 1-1/2 pounds fresh striped bass, wild salmon, or Pacific halibut filet frozen and thawed white ruffy (I live in AZ, frozen is my best option)
* 1 medium to large red onion, cut into thin slivers
* 1 jalapeno chile, seeded and cut into thin strips
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 teaspoons sugar, divided
* 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, divided
* 2 tight-packed tablespoons fresh basil leaves, torn (dried)
* 3 canned tomatoes, just a can of diced tomatoes
I added
* garlic clove diced
* a glass or two of white wine
* two spoonfuls of capers

The recipe was saute the onions and peppers, add fish. Cook the fish, then remove. Next take the sugar and vinegar to make a sweet and sour sauce. Not bad at all, but here's what I did:

Onions and jalapeno peppers diced and in the pan with olive oil. Drop in the fish on top of onions and peppers. Cook fish on high for a bit then flip. Should have added garlic in pan here and sauted briefly. Then added diced tomatoes. This is when I added garlic,
but not quite as good as it could have been. Then add a glass or two of white wine. Add the basil, I only had dried, as directed and capers.

When at a simmer cover and drop the heat. Simmer in the wine-tomato mixture for 10-15 minutes. Serve, Yum!

Some how I volunteered to be in charge of our local homebrew club. This year has been spent trying to add real content to our meetings as well get some yearly events established. It's a lot of organizing work, which isn't too bad but we spent at least an hour and half at tonight's meeting discussing activities over the next 6 months various events to raise the profile of the club. Things we will do or organize to make sure we are better known in the Flagstaff community.

A lot of work coming and I hope a lot of fun. But I suspect more of the work...

This article demonstrates a point I have been trying to make. The city is not really interested in making Flagstaff an environment that has affordable living and decent jobs. For all the lip service by the City Council on such issues it really isn't a priority. If it were considered important games in GFEC's funding simply would not happen.

I have been thinking about another blogorama, had so much fun at the last one, but this time take it Westside of the Valley of the Sun, so if you would like to hang out with some Arizona bloggers please drop by.

Where: Glendale Yardhouse
9401 West Westgate Boulevard, Glendale, AZ 85305
When: March 24th at 6pm, let's try 4pm
Who: A cast of thousands, okay don't buy it? How about you and your favorite AZ bloggers.

Update: My Saturday plans were cancelled so let's start the fun a little earlier and if you can't make it until 6pm, not to worry we will still be around.

I have seen RSS tech for a while but only tried it out in the last few months and I am hooked. An inbox for your blog reading or many other things that tickle your news fancy that updates automaticly. This week I noticed a handy feed offered by the Washington Post. If you are a recovering DC politico, like me, or just a political junkie this feed may be for you. The feed offers your Senator or House members votes in DC, just check your feed to see how they are representing you.

Not using RSS? Check it out, I use bloglines myself.

Flagstaff City Council members often say they want affordable housing, up to the point of actually doing something to supporting it. Then not so surprisingly the idea seems to fall on deaf ears. Thanks to Joe Haughey for trying and I suppose we should also give Scott Overton an honorable mention.

Most people no, but you Aaron, yes.

ps - Aaron if you turn your comments off, at least list a contact email address on your blog even if it's a spam account you don't check often. I have no current email for you man.

Had beers with someone over the weekend and he noticed I had been a bit more active about blogging and it's true, I finally got another computer so I am back online. Still need to get the laptop on Ubuntu but I'll get there. I walked into Fry's Electronics and said "I know you have some POS XP laptop that won't run Vista and probably recondition, but I am here to get rid of it for you. Go find it for me." And they did, so here I am.

U.S. Copyright Royalty Board promises the end of modern recording industry with it's actions Friday. Although it's not their intent, they seem hell bent on protecting the fading dinosaurs but all it will do is speed their doom as webcasters and bands drive listeners to new methods of music distribution and new stars. Who is the big winner out of this announcement? Podshow and indy labels.

SWAT Monkey, I had two immediate thoughts.

will they be mounted with frickin lasers?

SWAT Monkey - that funky Monkey
SWAT Monkey - junkie
That funky Monkey...

I am sure Anonymous Mike will have something to say about the City of Mesa's tax dollars at work...watch for it.

ps - One could suppose the reason the city of Mesa is looking to monkeys for intelligence is they don't have enough in the city government *ponder*

I attended the 7th Annual Strong Ale Festival down in Mesa on February 17th. Overall it was a great experience and one of the better festivals I have attended. First a few minor issues and then on to the fun.

Entry into festival - We paid via paypal in advance to minimize the time in line. The day of festival pickup lines for the tickets were long which it would have been worth the trouble to pay on the day of a bit more, because their line was the shortest by far.

Food - Considering the strength of the beer more options for food and having them better mixed throughout the festival would have been more responsible and probably shortened the lines. Safer on the way home for everyone.

When I heard the Mesa Amphitheater was the location it seemed an odd choice with it's sloped bowl shape, but the steps and grass allowed for a relaxed environment where people could sit, relax, and have a good time. The steps allowed the brewers to have a more personalized touch than the trade show markup sometimes too common for such festivals.

On to the main attraction, the beers, the beers were excellent. There was a good diversity of the Southwest Region along with some other regional and international fare to round out the mix. Pointing out the best would be difficult but I'll mention a few favorites.

Oak Creek Brewing stepped up for Northern Arizona with probably the best beer at the festival. His Oak aged cask conditioned Scottish ale simply blows the socks off everyone. I have had it a few times now and it only seems to improve. Jim Strelau is in his element for this beer with a complexity I can't praise high enough. If you ever can con, I mean convince him to give you a sample you won't be disappointed.

Avery-Russian River had their Collaboration not Litigation Ale and it was good as well. But because they served it two and half hours into the festival I suspect that I enjoyed it more if I had sampled it when my taste buds were relatively fresh. Many brewers held off their beers for a particular time to sample which is a great concept, it just means I can't approach those beers as fresh as I'd prefer.

Next up Gordon a big, hoppy IPA in a can, but don't worry it's the same guys who make Dale's Pale ale and Old Chub so they know what they are doing. I think they tend to make the biggest flavor beers currently offered in a can and while Gordon was interesting I was in more of a malty mood for the festival so I would have been better served by Old Chub.

My malt preference is probably why I had and point my friends to Aventinus a Bavarian Wheat-Doppelbock. A great beer when delivered fresh, which it was for the festival, that demostrates when it comes to big beers few people can match a good German brewery.

Last and certainly not least the homebrew clubs stepped up. Both ASH and Brewmeisters Anonymous did a great job of representing the homebrewing community and showing that homebrewers can make beers that can stand proudly with the professionals.

I am missing out many other brewers that had great beers so I'll just say this, you need to check it out for yourself.
If you listen to Speaking of Beer you can get a better feel for what you missed out on. I had a good chat with Charlie the Beer Guy as he did with many people at the festival and you will be able to hear those interviews on his upcoming show. Maybe next time I'll take him up on his offer of following me around the festival with video camera consuming beer after beer. A race to see which will drop first my taste buds, my ability to speak clearly, or just my body (I am betting on the last one frankly).

8th Annual Strong Ale Festival is a year away and I think it's a safe bet to say I'll be there.