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Sablefish (aka Black Cod) is not all that common; however, it is one of the most delicious fishes I’ve ever tasted!  Do all you can to keep it local.  If you’re lucky enough to be on the West Coast, specifically in Washington, this fish shouldn’t be too hard to find as it’s fished off the coast out here.

If you happen to be in Washington and not far from Olympia, I suggest you go to Olympia Seafood Co in downtown (you guessed it!) Olympia and pick it up there.  It’s always fresh and always delicious.

It’s also good for you!  It’s nearly as high in Omega-3′s as Salmon is and even more tasty in my opinion.  Ok, enough of me, on to the recipe!

Marinade:

1) 2 tbsp. Melted Butter
2) 1 c. Soy Sauce
3)  1/4 c. Sugar
4) 1/4 tsp. Minced Fresh Ginger
5) 3 Cloves of Minced Garlic
6) 4 tsp. Lemon Juice
7) Black Pepper to taste

Now mix it all up!

Fish:

1) 1 lb. Sablefish (Black Cod)
2) Put in glass baking dish and cover in marinade.  Let sit for at least 30 to 45 minuets; however, I do mine overnight in the fridge.  Try to keep the dish small so the fish is as covered as possible.

Grilling:

(If you cannot grill, this can be baked; however, grilling is just too delicious to not do!  I’d presume you’d bake it at 350 for 15 – 20 min or until the fish is the same temp as below.)

1) Heat your grill up nice and hot!  If you are on propane, drop down from high to around medium-high after it’s heated up.
2) Spray Olive Oil on your grilling surface to help prevent sticking.
3) Grill fish side down for 5 – 7 minutes, flip to skin side down and grill for another 5 – 7 minutes or until the inside temperature of the fish is around 135 – 145 degrees.

The outside parts of the fish, that get the darkest, end up being the best.  Feel free to fight over them, they’re that good!

I normally serve this with sourdough rolls and a mushroom rice.

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This year my wife, Jessica, and I decided to split a CSA with one of my coworkers.  If you know me I have a bit of a vegetable aversion; however, I’m willing to try ANYTHING.  We decided a CSA would be a good way to have different things in the house that we would not normally go buy.  This recipe came about due to that CSA.  And what did I find?  Even though I don’t like roasted red pepper other places, I love it in this combo!

As well, prior to the CSA I had no idea what Rapini even was!  Jess ate most of it in the first CSA box and we decided to try it this way in the second, it too was delicious!  As we can, we’ll post more of the things we cook from the CSA.  Now, on to the recipe!

For the toppings:

1) Roast a red pepper any way you wish!  If you don’t know how, I suggest a quick google!
2) Blanch 1 bunch of chopped rapini in 3 quarts boiling water for 3 minutes.   Drain.
3) Heat 1 TBS olive oil and 2 cloves minced garlic in a deep skillet.
4) Add blanched rapini and sauté until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
5) Drain off excess water, Set aside.
6) Remove the casings from 2 hot Italian sausages.
7) Brown the meat on medium-high heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.  Drain excess fat and set aside.

For the dough:

I suggest making your own, it always tastes better!  There are lots of options out there, I’m always a sucker for a good sourdough or wholewheat crust.  If you don’t want to make your own, Trader Joe’s has some great pre-made dough in their cooler section.  Otherwise, a Boboli crust can always suffice in a pinch.

Putting it together:

Once the crust is in the shape to start topping, coat with a marinara sauce (again, home made is best) cover with copious amounts of grated mozzarella cheese, then place toppings on.  Bake at whatever directions are required by the crust.  ~500 for 10 – 12 minuets works for a large number of them; however, stick to your directions and/or gut!

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The gardens are in Victoria, British Columbia.  Quite pretty.

Butchart Gardens

Twelve Drummers Drumming

Eleven Pipers Piping

Ten Lords a-Leaping (frogs jumping up from behind the back hedge)

Nine Ladies Dancing

Eight Maids a-Milking

Seven Swans a-Swimming

Six Geese a-Laying

Five Golden Rings

Four Calling Birds

Three French Hens (Eiffel Tower in background)

Two Turtledoves

...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

The Sunken Garden in daylight (it used to be a limestone quarry for the cement plant)

The Sunken Garden

The Sunken Garden at night

The Sunken Garden

 

The Ross Fountain in daylight

The Ross Fountain

The Ross Fountain at night

The Ross Fountain (the water is actually much taller than you can see in the pictures)

The smokestack from the old cement factory

 

 

distant picture of the milking ladies

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dean (Jess' uncle) on his lordly lion on the Rose Carousel

Jess in her lovely mismatched attire

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eight maids

 

Looking across the rose garden toward the main buildings and Italian Garden (the rose in the center is the Garden's logo)

 

The Italian Garden

in the Italian Garden

Looking up from the Italian Garden toward the Rose Garden

 

poinsettia tree display

 

 

 

one of Jess' favorite trees

 

 

 

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Christmas Letter 2009!

Coming to you from a Mac… running Windows 7… that’s just how I roll.

What’s new in the world of the USA Rock Paper Scissors League? (I’m not joking.  It’s a real association.  Rock/Paper/Scissors is serious business.) I don’t know—probably hand cramps!  However, I do know what’s going on in the world of the Lawrences.

First, the big stuff.  We decided to take plunge into the fiscal responsibility that ishomeownership.  In the words of Tom, “It’s keen.” For pictures, wiggle your fingers on over to www.gachis.net.  Our new place is located at 46° 37′ 0.93″ N x 122° 49′ 11.86″ W (a.k.a. Chehalis, WA)!  And before you ask, we’re not in the flood zone.  It’s on three-tenths greater than two acres, approximately 1850 square feet, and in the middle of nowhere!  When I say nowhere, I don’t mean far enough out to not be annoyed others (though I do mean than too).  I mean we’re in the middle of nowhere-we-cannot-even-get-decent-internet nowhere!  I’ve made what adjustments I can to make it tolerable by [insert computery language here].  Otherwise, it’s been a rather mellow year for the big stuff!

Jess continues to teach the in the preschool special needs programs at the Longview School District.  She still enjoys it!  She’s also been giving talks on autism at various places—namely her school district as well as our old church, Messiah Lutheran in Auburn, WA.  They’ve proven to be enjoyable experiences.  Of course, while doing her job + consulting, she’s also started her National Board certification.

She’s hoping to be able to branch out more into consulting as time goes by.  When it comes down to it, her biggest interests are found within research and designing interventions/modifying curriculum to best fit the needs of the child.

As for myself, I’m still with the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.  It continues to be enjoyable and provide an outlet for my crazy computer-related ideas.  I still do lots of random things under the sun: scripts, servers, switches, firewalls, blah, blah, blah.

I also still do some work on the side as the need arises.  In August I flew back to Wisconsin to help out the Holmen School District in preparing for the new school year and opening the new building.  It was fun to see everyone and see how they’ve progressed in the year since I left. They’re doing great!

We spend our time these days NOT on the computers (as we no longer have a game-that-shall-remain-nameless).  We’ve spent most of our time doing all sorts of nerdy-related things: carving nerdy pumpkins at Halloween (also viewable on our website), building floor plans for the house/garden/closet (in Visio!), mushroom hunting, and just having fun with friends (what?!  Alex talks to real people?!  Not just digital representations of real people?!  NO WAY!  For real).

For all of you folk in the digital age, feel free to check the website, www.gachis.net or drop us a line by email/Facebook/whatever your poison!

Let me leave you with this random information à la Tom Volk:

The plural of Octopus is Octopodes.

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What nerds do on Halloween!

Nerdy Pumpkins

All of 'em!

Line up!

Bender from Futurama by Chris Eeds!

Rebel Alliance by Matt Eeds!

The Empire by Alex!

Klingon Symbol by Alex!

Space Invaders by Jess!

Twilight! Edward by Trissan, Jacob by Aimee.

Spiderweb by Scott Onken!

Happy Pumpkin by Kristin!

Scary Pumpkin by Matt Eeds!

The guts!

The carvers! Top: Alex, Scott, Chris, Kristin Bottom: Jess, Trissan, Aimee, Matt

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Designed and built by Alex!

My first time EVER attempting to build something from wood-type stuff.  I blame the PLU-CATS (Pacific Lutheran University – Computing and Telecommunications) department for making me think I can use power tools.

Coat Closet

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pictures of our new home!

112FaunRae

Our first "snow!"

The back of the house, looking from the back corner of our property

 

Dining Room

Looking at the side of the house from the lane

Front of the house from the lane

From the hallway, looking at the Great Room and view from back windows/slider

Guest Bathroom

Hallway (from Master Bedroom)

Hallway looking into front two bedrooms

Looking from the Kitchen to the Mud Room, Pantry, and Dining Room (left to right)

Looking out at the Great Room from the Kitchen

Kitchen (looking from the Dining Room)

Left Front Bedroom

Looking from back sliding door back at (left to right) hall, closet, and front door (Kitchen is just out of sight to the right)

From left to right: Breakfast Bar, Mud Room, Pantry, Dining Room, and Media Room as seen from by the back sliding door

Fireplace in the Great Room

Master Bath

Master Bath

Looking from Master Bath out to Master Bedroom and Hallway

Master Bath

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom (from Master Bath)

Walk-in Master Closet

Media Room (from the Great Room)

Mud Room (W/D hookups against outside wall under window)

Right Front Bedroom

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Mario Road Sign

There’s a new fad out there in the geek world if you hadn’t noticed.  It’s hacking road signs to say things.  Such things as Ninjas Ahead.  Those are great and all, but this, this stands above the rest.

See the full story at: http://i.gizmodo.com/5154285/marioprincess-road-sign-is-the-pinnacle-of-sign-hacking

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So, fun stuff right? We all like the snow (not me, I’m a curmudgeon) right? See what happens when you like the snow and you want more of it to fall? Yeah… this happens. WATER EVERYWHERE.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t block off BOTH ways out of my house to work…

All the photos…

http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#

Here it was at 1:15 today…
http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#5288709922857098306

Here it is now… (3:30pm)
http://picasaweb.google.com/roskozero/Flood2009#5288709953369348178

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So there are two big changes in this year’s roller-coaster-cling-to-the-edge-of-your-seat-non-stop-thrill-ride of a letter… Okay, so maybe it’s not that exciting, let’s just pretend it is. We’ll both feel better about it, really. Change number one: I’m writing this on a (brace yourselves) Macintosh (slowly, Dean Shutt, we’ll convert the world!). Wait! Wait! That’s not a bad word anymore. It’s actually a pretty okay one these days. Honestly, I love it. It’s a great piece of hardware (I know most you can’t believe I’d ever say a Mac product is good! But there you have it). Change number two: I’m writing this in Open Office! Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned Microsoft completely. I still support and own many of their items. Let’s just say… we have a series of on-again-off-again interactions.

2008. It’s been a big year, hasn’t it? For one, it’s gone way too fast (Father Time is going on notice for that one…). As most of you know (if you don’t, sorry!) we moved back to the Pacific Northwest—yay! We both enjoyed our jobs and the people in Wisconsin; however, it just never really felt right. We learned a few things about ourselves: we hate snow (ok, I hate snow; Jess still acts like a 5-year-old when it starts to fall, although even she will admit it got a little tired after 6 months of it), we don’t like it to be sub-zero temperatures for weeks at a time, and we don’t like not having mountains near (quick movie side note: The Hulk just threw an engine at some guy in a field—that was awesome). We were planning to stay in Wisconsin longer but Jess had a great opportunity present itself back in Washington.

We were not looking really, then all at once, we found out that the superintendents were leaving each of the districts we worked in. We figured we had two options: look and see what was available back home or stick it out for a few more years. We figured it couldn’t hurt to look… Well, in the process of looking Jess stumbled across the “gimme-job-now” button and bam! We’re here! She found the job opening on a Friday, emailed about it, got called on Sunday, talked for over an hour with the director of what is now her program, applied on Sunday, interviewed over the phone Thursday, and had the offer by Thursday night. So! It was quick. Everything that has worked out well for us has been quick, so we figured we had to go for it! Once she had the “word” I started to seriously look into the opportunities as well.

I figured I’d stay in school district IT (masochist I know!); however, when I started to really delve in, I found a veritable paucity of jobs at school districts. I was looking into the Tumwater school district when I found a link to the Washington state job search. I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I threw my resume to a few of the offerings; a few weeks later I had a call from the Washington State Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals! I interviewed over the phone a little less than a week later—an interview I was convinced I did HORRIBLE on. A few days later I got a call (while I was in a meeting!) saying they’d like to meet me in person! So I arranged to fly out a week later. I did the second interview in person, had a great time with them, and had a phone call with an offer that evening (the really fun thing was landing in SeaTac at 9:30 am and getting to Olympia by 10:30 am for the interview on a weekday… by the end of the day I had been up for close to 23 hours. At that point Dr. Seuss was an amazing philosopher to me: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish changed my perspective on stuff!).

So Jess is now teaching in the preschool special ed programs at Broadway Early Learning Center in Longview, Washington. I do Systems and Network Administration for the BIIA in Olympia, Washington. We live in Kelso, Washington. Jess has around a 6-mile commute each day. Mine’s closer to 130 (it takes a bit over an hour each way, so it’s not too bad—70 mph half the way there). Before we left WI we sold the Kia (the end of a dynasty, I know) to one of my coworkers (great guy, very fun to work with).
When we got here, I drove the Subaru for a few weeks but we wanted to get something with better gas mileage (this was when gas was over four dollars a gallon) so I looked around for something I would like. I test drove the Jetta TDI, Toyota Prius, and Mini Cooper. Out of them all, I instantly knew the Cooper was for me. It was actually a bit cheaper than both the Prius and the Jetta TDI (crazy right?!) and they were actually in stock! It’s Mellow Yellow, gets 40 mpg highway, and is very fun to drive. So if you’re in the market for a small car, I’d seriously suggest you check one out. You can’t help but smile when you drive it (it’s quite comfy, roomy, and Scott Onken at 6’6” can fit in it! No one can sit behind him but…he fits).

Quick update on the movie: They just popped Edward Norton (The Hulk) to force him to change. He just punched a scientist. His skin can stop bullets, but leather straps?

Since we’ve been back, we’ve spent a fair amount of time catching up with friends and family, which has been fun. A lot of the time, though, we’re working, sleeping, and working… and to change it up, a bit of sleeping. When we can, we watch movies (we just adopted a Blu-Ray player via one of those save the starving PlayStation 3 infomercials staring Barbra Streisand—okay, that was a nerdy joke; but hey, I’m a nerd). We also enjoy paying video games every so often. So really nothing has changed on that front!

Abomination (the bad Hulk) just threw a guy out a window. That was awesome! Don’t worry though: Edward Norton (the good Hulk) is coming to save the day. According to this movie a Humvee will break an axle before it dents the front in a front-on collision. Interesting…

One of the more entertaining projects we’ve taken on as of late was growing mushrooms from a wood brick! They’re quite tasty. Shiitake mushrooms. Mmm… I met a guy though my professor from UWL (Dr. Tom Volk) who is a member of the Oregon Mycological Society named Tony. He was selling three bags for 20 dollars for Christmas as a fundraiser for OMS—normally each bag is 20. So I went for it! Best choice I ever made. I’m sure between all three bags (we gave two as Christmas presents), they’ll net well over $200 in mushrooms by store prices. Quite the value…

Best line of the movie! “HULK SMASH!!!!” Abomination is on the ropes!

While it has been a very busy year, it really hasn’t seemed like it. It’s been fast, that’s for sure! Time just speeds up once you get to be the ripe-old-age of twenty-four. Yup. Oh look! I think I had my first joint ache! Wunderbar. Yup, so old… Really though, when you’re having fun, enjoying your jobs, and making positive progress, things do move fast. But that’s fine! That’s how the world works!

So that’s it! You’ve made it. You’re at the end of the letter. So I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice. Fire up your computer, go to http://www.hulu.com, and search for “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” It stars Neal Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser!). You’ll thank me later. Seriously. Do it. Don’t worry. It’s free and legal.

We hope everyone has an enjoyable new year.

Alex and Jess

Oh look, The Hulk just transformed again. Woo. Fade to black.

(If you want to hear more incessant ramblings, or feel like checking up on us, venture over to http://www.gachis.net. I consider it to be a mildly humorous stop on the web, you might too!)

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