Traveling with Snuggles

The new year started out with Snuggles traveling along the East Coast from Long Island, NY to the Washington DC area.

One of the first stops this year was to Center Moriches High School in Suffolk County, New York. We went there to see a girls volleyball tournament.

In February, it was off to the Capital Hill Volleyball tournament in Washington DC. While there, he toured the areas of Arlington, VA and Washington, D.C. Here's Snuggles reading the Washington Metrorail map.

Getting the Band Back Together

I'm just going to make a post here that will act like a portal to some of my favorite music and band links. I plan on posting links for guitar tabs, song lyrics, and sheet music.

Guitar Tabs and Chords:
Black Sabbath--Paranoid
Dead Boys--Sonic Reducer
Devo--Jocko Homo
Judas Priest--Breaking the Law
Judas Priest--You Got Another Thing Comin'
Kinks--You Really Got Me
Kiss--Love Gun
MC5--Kick Out the Jams
Rainbow--Man on the Silver Mountain
Rainbow--Man on the Silver Mountain
Ramones
Ultimate Guitar Tabs


Song Lyrics:
Song Lyrics


Sheet Music:


Videos:
Black Sabbath--Paranoid
Cheetah Chrome/Dead Boys--Sonic Reducer
Kiss--Love Gun
MC5--Kick Out the Jams
McRad--Weakness
McRad--Weakness

Cooking with Kenjin

Now that it's getting colder outside and the holiday season has started, it's time to start baking. Here's a recipe based on one that we found on the Internet--Apple Roses by Manuela.

Ingredients to make 6 roses:

• 1 thawed Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry sheet
• 2 red delicious apples
• 1.5 table spoons lemon, juice
• flour, to sprinkle the counter
• 3 tablespoons of apricot preserve
• cinnamon sugar
• powdered sugar for decorating (optional)

Directions:

Cut the apples in half and remove their cores. Cut the apples into thin slices. Put slices into a bowl with water and lemon juice (to prevent browning). Microwave the apples in the bowl for about three minutes to make them soft.

In a bowl, prepare the apricot preserve. Add three table spoons of apricot preserve with two tablespoons of water. Microwave for about a minute and mix together.

Roll out the thawed pastry puff on a lightly floured counter. Cut the dough into six strips. Each strip should be about 2” x 9” in size.

Spread the apricot preserves onto each pastry puff strip and sprinkle cinnamon sugar.

After draining the apples, place the apples on the dough. About half the apple slice should be on the dough and each apple slice should cover about half the slice under it.

Fold over the dough leaving half the apple slices exposed. Roll each slice. Each apple rose should fit into a greased muffin pan.

Cook at 375 degrees F for about 40 to 45 minutes until fully cooked.

Sprinkle with powered sugar when finished.

Developing T-Shirt Designs

Every now and then, my style preferences in T-shirt fashion seems to change. The cycle includes plain shirts, skateboarding brands, sports teams, Ed Roth designs, and surfing culture designs. Now, I’m just interested in designing my own shirts.

I’ve created two stores to create and sell my designs. I originally started by using the Café Press Web site. Now, I’ve been spending a lot of time using the Zazzle Web site. Each Web site has its advantages, and each design on those sites are a little different due to the design applications that they use.

The most important part of the design process starts with my camera, scanner, photo editing applications, and art program. Most of my images are eventually opened in Microsoft Paint for various simple image manipulation tasks. The final image is then used in Café Press or Zazzle. From there, I can add additional text to the designs.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

It’s been a while, but I started baking again. I found my old recipes and I tried some new ones. I’m going to post some of the recipes so that I can always find them in one place. Right now, most recipes are printed out and stuck in one of my baking books. Below is a recipe for pizza dough.

Basic Pizza Dough 
Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen 

Yield:  2 (12-inch) pizzas 

Ingredients 

• 1 3/4 cup warm water 
• 1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) 
• 2 teaspoons salt 
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour  2 cups bread flour and 2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for bowl 
• Cornmeal, for pan 

Directions 

• Preheat oven at 450 degrees F. 
• Measure out 1 3/4 cups warm water (it should be pleasantly warm on your wrist). Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and allow it to activate, about 10 minutes. 
• Put the salt and 2 cups of the flour into a food processor. Pulse 5 times to blend. Pour in the yeast and water and pulse 5 times. Add the olive oil. Add the remaining flour 1 cup at a time, pulsing and scraping the sides of the bowl until well blended. As soon as the mixture is combined, dump it out onto a well-floured board and knead for 15 turns, until the dough is smooth and elastic. 
• Place the dough in a greased bowl and turn to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, until doubled in size, then punch it down. Divide it in half; each half will make 1 (12-inch) pizza. 
• Place on a cornmeal-dusted pizza stone, pizza pan, or cookie sheet. Roll up edge slightly to create a ridge around the pizza. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until crust is light brown. 

If using only half dough, freeze the other half. Place the dough in a resealable freezer bag. To thaw, remove the bag from the freezer and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Roll the dough out while cold then allow it to come to room temperature before adding toppings. 

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/basic-pizza-dough-recipe.html?oc=linkback 

1980s Photography

During the 1980s, I was really interested in photography. I had two SLR cameras--a Yashica and a Minolta. the Yashica SLR had manual settings, but the Minolta SLR had automatic settings. I was always experimenting with double exposures, long exposures, and various filters.

Here are some of my experimental pictures. I'll be posting more soon.

1980s Philly Bands

During the 1980s, I went to a lot of concerts. Of course, you weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the concert. I did manage to get some pictures from small venues and from outdoor concerts.

Of course, the 1980s are a long time ago (even though it still feels like it was only yesterday). My memory and facts may not be as accurate as I would hope. With the help of some scraps of paper that I saved and the hard work of people using the Internet, I have been able to piece together some of my memories from this decade.





Being associated with the student government or student activities board allowed me to get access to many activities. These pictures was probably from fall of 1979 to spring of 1980.










The only thing that I remember is that I was able to watch them play for a few songs before I had to leave. It must have been some kind of event that was organized by the student activities board during the school day.

Quincy (Smash Palace). When they played at Gloucester County College in the spring of 1981, they were known as Quincy. I was even able to have them autograph my copy of their album.

Reesa and the Rooters. This picture is from the spring of 1982. Reesa and the Rooters were playing at Gloucester County College behind the cafeteria of the student center building. Some of the other bands playing that day were The Hens and The A's.

The Hens. This was one of my favorite bands in the early 1980s. We used to see them at places like the Evergreen Lounge in Somerdale, NJ. Here they are performing at Gloucester County College in the spring of 1982.

The A’s. Formed in 1977 or 1978 in Philadelphia, The A’s featured Richard Bush on lead vocals, Rick DiFonzo on guitar, Rocco Notte on keyboards, Terry Bortman on bass, and Michael Snyder on drums. The band’s powerful live show and hooky but aggressive tunes quickly earned them a loyal following in Philly and beyond.

The Ramones. I was able to attend three Ramones concerts during the 1980s. The first one was at Emerald City, which was the former Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, NJ.

The pictures here are from one of two times that I saw the Ramones at Glassboro State College, which is now Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ.

I’m still looking for a few other concert pictures that I took of bands, such as the A’s and Quincy (Smash Palace) at Gloucester County College in Sewell, NJ and of Beru Revue at Cooper River Park in Cherry Hill, NJ.