Author: Ed Hart

Categories
Eat

Fried Eggs Over Easy, Kicked up a Notch

Eggs Over Easy

I’ve started complimenting my morning smoothie with a couple of eggs, particularly as my marathon training has intensified and I’ve been trying to intake more protein.

But eggs by themselves can be rather bland in both taste and appearance, and so I like to kick my eggs up a notch with some sea salt, crushed red pepper, cracked black pepper, parsley flakes and (if I have any on hand, some percorino romano cheese) so that I can feel like I’m in a quaint bed & breakfast somewhere cool rather than in a hurry to get out the door to work.

 

Categories
Eat

An Amazing Mango Black Bean Salsa

Mango Black Bean Salsa
Mango Black Bean Salsa

I’m not exactly sure where this recipe originated otherwise I’d give credit to the genius that concocted it!  We had this salsa last weekend and it is totally awesome.  This recipe is the most recent addition to my list of healthy snacks to keep on hand along with hummus and good old regular salsa.

  • 16oz canned black beans, drained & washed (1 can)
  • 2 Mangoes, peeled & coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 Cup finely chopped Red Onion
  • 1 Jalapeno, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
  • 1/2 Cup coarsely chopped Cilantro
  • 1/2 Cup fresh Lime Juice
  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • Salt & freshly ground White Pepper

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl.  Season to taste with salt & white pepper.

This salsa gets better the longer it sits as the flavors blend together.  The hardest part of this recipe is cutting up the mango.  If you’ve never cut one up before, the seed is shaped more or less like a disc and runs up and down, so the best strategy is to peel it first and then slice it lengthwise down the side trying to get as much of the flesh as possible.  It’s kind of like filleting a fish, so get the two sides off then try as best you can to slice the rest of the flesh around the seed.

The other thing that really makes this salsa visually appealing (that’s every bit as important as the taste of the dish itself!) is to wash the black beans after draining them.  Otherwise you’ll end up with a kind of gray residue that takes a little of the vibrancy out of the dish.

The recipe calls for white pepper, but you can use whatever you have on hand.  But the white pepper does have a different taste and compliments this dish perfectly, so if you’ve got it, I recommend using it over black or telicherry.

Enjoy and let me know what you think if you try it!

 

Categories
Live

Sasha Dichter’s Generosity talk on TED

I was intrigued by Seth Godin’s blog post today, so I clicked the link to Sasha Dichter’s TED presentation entitled The Generosity Experiment.  I would encourage you to watch & then peruse the comments.

The gist of the talk was his commitment to saying “yes” for a month to anyone who asks for a handout or financial help.  The video discusses the impact of this experiment on himself in the context of the work that Acumen fund does.

The whole concept hits me squarely in the sweet spot of my own personal quest of investing my own life, passion & skills in something that has a sense of purpose and meaning (granted that the specifics of what that means are different for everyone).

I wasn’t all that familiar with Acumen fund, but am aware of similar investment funds and that’s something that I love to see happening.  I found Sasha’s talk quite inspiring & was curious to the reactions in the comments on the presentation page (again, worth looking at).  There are a number of good points that people brought up that pretty much fit into the typical responses to giving people handouts on the street, many of which I think are totally legitimate questions that people have to work through.  I remember being in church leadership a few years ago and asking a lot of the same when trying to determine how we were going to handle our relatively small ministry budget.

However the point that struck me most was the idea of trajectory.  It seems that the whole idea behind the generosity experiment for Sasha was to change his personal trajectory from habitual avoidance of those around him in need to habitual sensitivity to the issue.  It’s not so much about “should I give some money to this particular person” as it is about cultivating an attitude of generosity.

I think it’s easy, when considering a talk like this or similar discussions in a church or other organization, to hear a “system” instead of a journey.  “Well,” I may argue, “if I give money to someone, I may be inadvertently supporting the heroine trade because all they’re going to do is to buy drugs.”  There are a couple of implicit assumptions in this kind of reasoning.  First, there’s the assumption that if I help a particular person in a particular way, that I’m always going to do it the same way.  Second that the person on the receiving end is going to always do a particular thing and react in a particular way every time (or at least more often than not).  There’s the assumption that there exists a particular right or wrong way to deal with similar circumstances and that there exists some sort of systematized approach or methodology that should be used.

However, I think that line of reasoning, while making good arguments in the abstract, is faulty because they assume consistency of methodology.  Instead, the whole point is that by changing a habit, Sasha felt himself becoming more attuned to the needs of those around him and his own capacity for having a generous heart (at least that’s what I took from it), not that his experiment was going to determine his methodology forever.

Just like a child learning to walk, one has to try and stumble before maturing and accomplishing.  It’s the trajectory of change that’s important.  Because we crave formulas, there’s little room for the idea of organic growth as we engage, attempt, help, are taken advantage of, learn, connect.  The problem is that while we are often well intentioned, it is just as often that it is to a point.  After which it gets messy because you have gone past checking the charity box to engaging another human being with a complex set of issues.  We must each ask ourselves how far we’re willing to go, a question who’s answer is highly individualistic.

Exercising the capacity and desire to help someone is a complex thing.  Our motivations have as much variation as the circumstances in which they manifest action.  Will copiers of the Generosity Experiment do something wrong?  Probably.  Will we get taken advantage of?  Sure.  Will we do some genuine good and make a difference?  There’s a pretty good chance of it.  Will we experience and learn things that we wouldn’t have possibly known without having taken the journey?  We will never know unless we try.

 

Categories
Live Work

Intrinsic Motivation

Since I’m spending a lot of time sitting these days, I picked up Daniel Pink’s book Drive and started to read.  This is the second time, actually, that I’ve tried to read this book.  Picked it up at the library the first time and got a few pages into the introduction before it got buried underneath some other books I was reading at the time.

However, I have gotten past the intro and the first chapter and am realizing what a provocative book this is.  So far, I’m delighted and anxious to continue reading, having much the same emotional response to Pink’s book as I did to Sir Ken Robinson’s book, The Element.

Pink’s assertion up front is that “too many organizations still operate from assumptions about human potential and individual performance that are outdated, unexamined, and rooted more in folklore than in science.”  Those assumptions being based on what he terms Motivation 2.0, the industrial revolution era theories still very much in vogue in corporate America that external rewards and punishments are the principal drivers of human behavior.

Pink posits, based on a number of research studies and experiments in behavioral science, that the nature of our economy is changing the way work is done. To probably oversimplify, outsourcing of algorithmic work tasks and similar automation of others enabled by computer technology is resulting in a rapid growth of more heuristic work (work that requires creative thinking and innovation).  However, the old school system of rewards and punishments, the carrots and sticks that corporate managers love to talk about, actually lead to reduced performance and actually undermine the goals that they are supposedly in place to achieve.

Like Robinson (and Lisa Gansky in The Mesh), Pink is keyed into the revolution happening all around us as years of economic crisis are forcing real human questions about wealth, possessions, the debt it took to acquire them, meaning and purpose of work and social consciousness and how these trends are re-shaping work and business in the 2010 decade.

So far, so good.  Where I’m finding this book most helpful, a few chapters into it now, is in articulating some of what I’ve experienced personally, but not quite been able to turn into words.

Categories
Create Entrepreneurship Starting a Business Work

“Morking”

For the creative professional, whether the entrepreneur, designer, craftsman or artist, working is all about making.  When we go to work, we are going to make something useful, powerful, provoking, beautiful.  Making and working…  we’re morking.

Customer service reps, accountants and doctors don’t mork.  They just work.  And we need them working.  Things don’t get serviced, paid or healed without them.

But it’s the morkers that are additive and create value.  Making something from nothing.  Morking turns an idea into a transmission, a thought into a painting or a hypothesis into a vaccination.

Solving the customer’s latest problem certainly pays a wage.  But creating the customer’s new paradigm changes the world.

Categories
Eat

Another Great Tilapia Recipe

With spring upon us, I’ve been turning my date night meal thoughts to seafood.  For me, the lighter fare seems to fit with the growing southern heat, instead of the heavy dishes I tend to gravitate towards in the fall and winter.  Also, I’m really trying to adjust my diet so that it’s more heavily weighted toward something healthier.  And when I find something that’s both tasty & reasonably healthy, I’m totally stoked since I get that gourmet meal feeling without the guilt of loading up on calories.

I also recently acquired an old counter-top electric grill and I’ve been wanting a good excuse to try it out.  So tonight, fish is back on the menu, specifically tilapia.  Easy to find, versatile, not fishy & relatively inexpensive is a combination that’s hard to beat.  We’re pairing the tilapia with asparagus and for dessert a bistro style dish of roasted pears and blackberries served with Greek yogurt.  Part of this meal is a slight variation of a Bobby Flay recipe and the other I ran across in Bon Appétit, served with my own twist.

Tonight’s Menu

Entreé: Grilled Tilapia with Lemon Butter and Capers, served over a bed of Orzo
Side Dish: Grilled Asparagus with Caper Vinaigrette
Beverage: with Savignon Blanc and, of course, La Croix sparkling water
Dessert: Roasted Pears & Berries, served with Greek Yogurt

The Flow

There are a couple “make in advance” parts to this recipe (my make in advance means before diner while Laree’s getting the kids to bed):  the lemon butter and the vinaigrette.  You’ll probably want to start with the lemon butter since it will need to spend some time on the stove.

You’ll also need a dessert strategy for this meal.  Since this is something you’re going to want to serve hot, you’ll need to decide if you want dessert cooking while you’re eating or if you want to wait and cook this after dinner.  It takes about an hour, mostly cooking time in the oven, so plan accordingly.

This is one of those meals in which there’s a lot going on even though it goes pretty fast, so it really helps to do some ingredient prep up front.  In preparation for cooking, take a stick of unsalted butter and cut it up and leave it out to warm to room temperature.  Go ahead and wash 4 tilapia fillets and pat dry and lay them out in a casserole dish or on a plate big enough to hold them.  Put that out of the way or in the fridge.  Chop up 1/4 cup of fresh parsley leaves as fine as you like & set aside.  This will get mixed in with the orzo for a nice contrast.   Drain 1/2 cup capers and set aside in a ramekin.  Drain another 2 tablespoons of them for the vinaigrette.  Trim enough asparagus for the meal and lay it out on a plate or something that you can pour oil over.  It’s really good so err on the generous side.  Organize your other ingredients.

Zest 1 lemon (I managed about a tablespoon and a half), juice it and one other and chop up a small shallot and combine, along with 1/2 cup white wine (I used the same Savignon we were drinking) in a saucepan cook over high heat until it’s reduced to about half.  Bring it to a medium boil since the highest heat will cause the liquid to froth up and you’ll have lemon zest all over the sides of your saucepan.

While that’s cooking whisk up the vinaigrette by taking 3 Tbs of white wine vinegar, 2 Tsp of Dijon mustard, 1/2 Tsp salt, 1/4 Tsp of (preferrably fresh ground) black pepper in a small bowl, then add 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of olive oil until it’s well mixed and stir in 2 tablespoons of drained capers.  Mix it up real good 🙂 and put the bowl in the fridge to chill.

If the lemon juice & wine mixture hasn’t reduced yet, go ahead and get a larger pot ready to boil the orzo.  If it has, take the saucepan off of the burner to let it cool.  10-15 minutes is fine. Then whisk together a couple tablespoons of heavy cream, the stick of butter and the wine mixture in a small bowl and season with salt & pepper.  Be careful, it splashes if you’re stirring it with a whisk.  Then stick it in the freezer to chill quickly.  Make sure the pot for the orzo is on and heating up and cook the orzo as soon as the water is ready.

Heat the grill to high heat.  I’m assuming you’re using a non-stick grill, but if not or if you’re grilling outside on a BBQ, you’ll want a fish basket for this so your fillets don’t tear up.  Brush the fish on both sides with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.  Toss the asparagus with the canola oil and season with salt & pepper.  Get the vinaigrette out of the fridge, make sure the colander is close at hand for the orzo, get the lemon butter out of the freezer so it can start to warm back up & get plates ready…

We’re going to go quickly from grill to plate.  When the orzo is cooked al dente (about 8 minutes), drain and toss with 3-4 tablespoons of the lemon butter, the parsley and some salt & pepper.  Grill the tilapia fillets 3-4 minutes on each side until they have a nice char pattern or are lightly golden.  Also, grill the asparagus until tender.  It will probably take about as long as the fish.  Plate the meal by making a bed of the orzo and placing the fillets on top.  Top each fillet with some of the lemon butter and some capers.  Serve the asparagus drizzled with the vinaigrette and scoop some capers over as well (they tend to sink to the bottom).  Serve with the beverage of your choice.  I suggest a sparkling water & glass of savignon blanc.

Dessert

The original recipe for this is from the March 2011 Bon Appétit, but I modified it a bit since I liked the concept, but not the actual recipe in the magazine.

Mix the sugar and the vanilla extract until well combined.  You can do this with a bowl and a fork.  Pre-heat the oven to 425°F.  Generously butter a baking sheet or cake pan.  Toss the pears, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the vanilla butter in a bowl or ziploc bag until well coated.  Place pears, 1 cut side down, in the baking dish & roast for 20 minutes.  Turn pears to the other side down, sprinkle with 2 more tablespoons and roast another 20 minutes.  Turn pears skin side down, sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar and broil until they begin to caramelize.  Toss berries with 2 tablespoons sugar, arrange around pears and broil until berries begin to release their juice.

Server pears and berries, with juices, and top with dollop of Greek yogurt.

The Ingredients

Tilapia

Tilapia – 4 fillets, usually about 1-2 lbs
Lemons – 2, zest one of them and juice both of them
Parsley leaves – 1/4 cup
shallot – 1, small, finely chopped
White wine – 1/2 cup
Splash of heavy cream or Half & Half
Butter – 1 stick, unsalted
Olive oil – 3 tablespoons
Capers – 1/4 cup, drained
Orzo – 1/2 lb
Salt & Pepper (preferably freshly ground)

Asparagus

Asparagus – enough to eat, try 1 lb
Olive Oil – 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons
Canola Oil – enough to toss asparagus, try 2 tablespoons
Capers – 2 tablespoons, drained
White Wine Vinegar – 3 tablespoons
Dijon mustard – 2 teaspoons
Salt & Pepper (preferably freshly ground)

Dessert

1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
2 Bosc pears, quartered and cored
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
A handful of frozen berries (Blackberries, Blueberries & Raspberries is common)
Plain Greek Yogurt

Categories
Create Run

Poetry In Motion

There’s poetry in running. Not the oft spoken “runner’s high.”  No, the poetry is in the moment, the sense of place and being that I inhabit on the road, in neighborhoods, in lonely and in-between spaces, through city blocks and along the trail.

It’s in the intimacy of quiet neighborhoods in midday when everyone is at work.

It’s in the intensity of training, with an eye on the goal and a resolve to press on.

It’s in the awakening and the unfolding energy of the early morning city.  Over whitewashed sidewalks, by stirring shops awakening, dodging, unloading of trucks, unfurling of cafe tables and chairs, Running beside beginnings.

It’s in the solitude of the open road through those uninhabited, in-between spaces,  between neighborhoods, along country roads, outside of the city.  I catch a glimpse of that which is still wild, uncultivated and am aware of breathing, rhythm, motion.

It’s in the company of partners, come together, encouraging and competing, all bound up in the strange tension of companionship.  Talking, breathing, silence, measuring.

It’s in the brooding aloneness, yet not loneliness, of a familiar path as the spring storms approach. When sensible people are inside, warm and dry.

It’s in the hot & humid night air, like sediment swirling around the track lights.  Past the evening walkers.  Speed, rest, Faster again.  And again.  And even the water is warm.

It’s in the crunch of snow underfoot, glistening, like little prisms whispering some hidden secret.  Quiet and cold.  Each breath visible, although numb.  Pressing forward for some prize that exists only in my mind.

There it is again.  It’s presence, rhythm, cadence, flow.  Of breathing, of strides, of sounds and sight.  There is a place there, just in front, yet out of reach, but in plain sight.  I focus on it and am drawn toward it, always just a few strides away.  Always moving.  Aware of everything, yet focused.  Moving always forward towards an inevitable end.

Categories
Create

2 Tips for Converting CMYK to Pantone Colors

Convert CMYK to Pantone Colors

Once again, I’ve made another newbie mistake.  When putting together color combinations for our second round of screen printing, I picked my colors using the basic CMYK palette in Adobe Illustrator.  I tried to be extra careful this time by sending both the CMYK values and the Hexidecimal codes for the colors so I touched all bases.  But when I sent the artwork and colors to the printer, I got back the e-mail… “thanks, but can you send the PMS #s?”

PMS #s??  What’s that?

Well after an hour or so on-line figuring out what PMS#s are and trying to figure out how to convert my CMYK colors to PMS, I wanted to share 2 quick tips to help you deal with this and get close.

First… there’s no perfect match between custom colors and PMS.  If there is, then it’s coincidental that you picked just the right color combination.  And there’s no whiz-bang app that will somehow magically do it for you.  But there are a couple helpful things that you can do to keep from having to wade through more than 1,400 swatches (and multiple variations based on the print medium).

Tip #1: A Helpful Website

http://www.netfront.fr/Services/rgb2pantone/

There’s a helpful website that will at least get you in the ball park.  Bookmark this site and then enter either the RGB numbers or the Hexidecimal #s and submit your query.    This will give you a range of colors that are close.  That’s a big time saver there.  This is no substitute for getting color cards or designing using the Pantone palette in the first place, but if you’re in a tough spot, this can help.

 

Note: If you know the CMYK numbers but not the others, just open the color picker in a program like Photoshop or Gimp, plug the CMYK numbers in to get the color and equivalent Hexidecimal and RGB numbers.

Tip #2: Recolor Artwork in Illustrator

Use Illustrator to automatically re-color your artwork.  Before you pull up a Pantone Color Book and spend an hour or more hunting & pecking around for the right color match, use the really helpful “recolor artwork” tool in Adobe Illustrator.

Here’s how it works (see the video for a quick 4 minute example):

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=P5gnRqz1TB0

The Steps

I created a 2 inch square swatch in Illustrator using the CMYK color numbers from my original artwork in Photoshop.  Then I created a duplicate swatch to change that I can overlay on the original to see how close it gets.

From the Edit menu, select Edit Colors, then Recolor Artwork.

Illustrator will give you a dialogue box with a lot of different options.

Select the small icon (the one that looks like 6 small squares) to select which Color Book (there are lots of options here) you would like to use to recolor your artwork.  In my example, I use the Pantone Solid Coated color book.

Then select ok and Illustrator will automatically recolor the artwork making as close a match as possible.  You will see the Pantone color name/number in the swatches palette.  Place your swatches next to each other or overlap them to see how close you are.

Now, go back to your original artwork and start changing colors.

Categories
Create Web Video

A Day Made of Glass

I just watched it… wow, that was cool.  And it’s as if we’re on the verge of it right now.  The YouTube spot is a little long at 5:32, but hey, it’s a day right?  Who would’ve thought something this neat came from a glass manufacturer?  Watch for the moving pictures @ 0:56 (you’ll see them again later).  @ 2:04, “I want that car!”  And I’m especially loving Mr. Metro at 2:56.  Why can’t I look cool like that?  Enjoy tomorrow today.

Now I’m just waiting for the sequel from the company that’s creating the operating system…

Categories
Create Web Video

My First Wedding Video

Just finished my first wedding video ever.  The actual service was pretty long, and is going onto a DVD, but I put together this highlights video that I thought turned out pretty nice.  I’m going for “emotional but not cheesy” and hopefully I did ok on that.  Yes, I know there’s some slo-mo, but I took a somewhat classical approach to the music in order to make up for that. Finished this up late last night.  It’s amazing what a decent musical score can do with very average video footage!

I’m so glad that both the wedding service itself and the highlights video turned out ok.  Since this was the first time I’ve done a wedding, I had that sinking feeling the whole time that I was getting the wrong angles, the lighting was bad, the audio wasn’t picking up, my footage was too jerky… all that stuff.  And honestly, the footage wasn’t that great – there’s quite a few things I’ll do different next time – but all in all with some helpful post production filters in FCP, I am hopeful it will be a nice heirloom for Carmen & Charles.  Congratulations to the two of you.  God bless.

Music (once again) came from my Stock 20 music library.  This is such a great library of stock music and I’d recommend it to anyone out there.  I did all the editing work on this one in Final Cut Pro with extensive use of the ProcAmp filter!