after talking about it for ages, i finally cooked some popcorn in bacon fat with our whirly pop stovetop popper. i have to say, it was quite amazing! it was not an overwhelming bacon flavor, but it was definitely there and added a lot.

just throw a little salt on top and serve with cold beer or cocktails, highly recommended! bring some to your next olympic party and you will be a big hit!

– ryan

– don’t forget to try bacon fried pumpkin seeds as well!

check out the amazing sneaker coloring book by designers henrik klingel & daniel jarosch of pknts! it’s fun for both adults and children!

– ryan & gub

this weekend is the 10th annual kirkwood spring fling in our little historic kirkwood. the festival also features a 5k race on saturday morning and an open air artist market with a ton of vendors, good eats, and live bands. admission to the festival is free from 10am-7pm on saturday at bessie branham park, with music lasting until 11pm. tickets for the kirkwood tour of homes can be purchased at the festival or at local kirkwood businesses.

– ryan & gub

kirkwood spring fling
2051 delano drive ne
atlanta, georgia 30317

tour of homes
saturday, may 18th, 2012
sunday, may 19th, 2012
from 12pm until 6pm

5k race
saturday, may 18th, 2012
starts at 8am

artist market
saturday, May 18th, 2012
from 10am until 7pm

after my recent tour of the batdorf & bronson roastery, i went on a quest to brew a better cup of coffee. i learned on the tour that there are many factors that go into a good cup of joe. these range from the quality and freshness of the coffee, to using the proper ratio of grounds/water, to hitting the ideal brewing temperature of 205°. the problem is most consumer coffeemakers never reach such high temperatures. for that, you need a hand-brewed method where you are in full control and as much as i love my french press, it sounded like a pour over coffeepot was the way to go.

after a little research, i decided on the stylish chemex coffeepot. it’s both a great coffeemaker and a beautiful piece of design, even 70+ years after its creation. plus it only set me back $31.95 at dancing goats in decatur. i did have to buy special chemex filters for it, but they were just $5.95 for a 100 pack, which wasn’t that bad.

for my inaugural pot, i picked up some nice costa rica la minita del sol coffee. the description on the bag was “full bodied & sparkling sweet, maple, almond & orange juice,” which sounded interesting. the beans were 100% sun dried instead of fully washed, like most central american beans, so it’s supposed to be fairly unique.

the brewing process was pretty easy to follow. i put a chemex filter into the top of the coffeepot and added a tbsp of freshly ground coffee for each 5 oz cup, 8 tbsp for a full pot. i boiled 40 oz of water and removed it from heat for roughly 20 seconds until it reached ~205°. i then wet the grounds with 4 oz of water and let “bloom” for 30-40 seconds. from there i added the rest of the water, making sure not to overflow, and composted the spent grounds. voilà, the perfect cup of coffee!

the results were definitely worth the effort! the coffee had that fresh, strong taste you get from a french press, but seemed cleaner and less-bitter since the oils and sediment were filtered out. it was a nice, crisp cup of coffee where I could actually distinguish some of the descriptive characteristics. i wouldn’t say i sensed the orange juice, but i picked up some sweet and nutty elements, especially when sampled next to a cup of french roast. it was some of the better coffee i’ve made at home!

on top of that, the actual coffeepot is gorgeous and looks great on the countertop! it’s on permanent display at moma and was featured in the modern by design exhibit at the high museum of art, further proving its elegance.

for more thorough brewing instructions, or to check out some great mid-century illustrations, head to the chemex website. there are also some slightly different brewing instructions offered from dancing goat, although i tried this method and didn’t care for it. it used almost twice the coffee and was a little strong for my taste.

enjoy!

– ryan

dancing goats coffee bar

419 west ponce de leon ave
decatur, ga 30030
404-687-1100

happy leap day! to celebrate, mint gallery is hosting a leap year in the new year fundraising dinner. proceeds benefit their leap year mentorship program, which helps support emerging artists. don’t miss out!

what will you be doing with your bonus day?

– ryan & gub

our friend mike made some tasty luther burgers for the super bowl! for those who never made it to mulligan’s when it was around, a luther burger is a bacon-cheeseburger on a grilled krispy kreme doughnut. it’s an amazing experience to say the least!

– ryan & gub

fans of vinyl records and neutral milk hotel rejoice! jeff magnum recently self-released a vinyl only box set featuring their entire catalogue along with fifteen previously unreleased tracks.

the box set includes the in the airplane over the sea and on avery island lps in new deluxe gatefold packaging, the everything is 10″ remastered with 3 bonus tracks and new artwork, the new ferris wheel on fire 10″ featuring eight previously unreleased acoustic recordings, the little birds 7″ with 2 unreleased recordings of the song, the you’ve passed/where you’ll find me now 7″ with unreleased 4-track demos from on avery island, the holland 1945/engine picture disc 7″ with fold-out poster, and two 24″x24″ posters, all enclosed in a fancy box. they really went all out with on this one!

you can find this amazing box set at current jeff magnum shows or on his new website for neutral milk hotel records. it’s a little pricey at $88, but you could easily have paid more than that for just the holland 1945/engine picture disc 7″ before this repress.

– ryan

we bought a food chopper and started making some baby food for clementine. we have this great book called super baby food, which has been a big help in preparing and storing the food, as well as when everything is age appropriate. so far we’ve made apples, bananas, sweet potatoes and carrots!

– ryan & gub

i tried filming time lapse of one of those mystical gardens earlier this week. it looked pretty cool, although it took way longer than expected. the box claims everything would finish within 10 hours, however after 24+ hours, 10,000+ photos and 3 camera battery changes, the mystical garden was still growing and we had to leave for the holidays. maybe it was too cold in our house or something, but it sure took forever.

– ryan

we picked all of the green tomatoes from our garden this year before the first big freeze and they finally ripened. now we have a bowl full of nice red tomatoes to enjoy!

– ryan & gub