Is this wrong?

Thanks to a recent order from MyTailor, I am 'off the rack' free as far as my work shirts are concerned. What this means that you will no longer see me wearing a shirt that has enough fabric at the waist to make a sail for a small boat. Let's be honest, the US has basically one shirt size for men for 80% of us - large.

Anyway, due to multiple reasons (few pants in the US, biking to work which requires clothes at work, etc.) - I am now taking pics of my outfits for the week in order to avoid duplication - is that a bit strange?

Cider

It's Fall, which means it's time to make cider.

Thanks to Tim and Chris organizational skills we all ended up heading over to the Whittaker Garage and pressing 20 gallons of fresh apple cider. And yes, we're fermenting it.

With most of these things, it was slow going at first, but once we started to get a system down, we flowed through it. A couple of mishaps on the way - like the stash tipping over in the back seat of the truck and losing a half a gallon - but it all worked out better than I thought. Next step is the fermentation and finding a better press.

Fresh Market

Again, pent up consumer demand from living in a country where it took 100 US dollars to buy a can of Coke has resulted in me starting a subscription to Farm Fresh Delivery. As I pass the ripe old age of 26, I realize more about myself and my unique weaknesses - one of which is the inability to get up on Saturday at 7AM and go the Farmer's markets in Indy. Enter Farm Fresh Delivery.

They delivery organic fruits and vegetables to your door via an online ordering process at regular intervals. I currently have it set up for a delivery once every two weeks - which seems to be working out well. Every Monday they tell you what they have in stock, and you can easily ammend your order. So far the vegetables have been good, but the fruit is even better.

It's still too early to tell, but we think we actually end up saving cash, since it forces us to stay at home and cook - not to mention getting our daily intake of fruit. If we left it to chance, I think Patrick would have an apple about once a month.

Silver

OK, I'm back from Ireland before heading back for the project's cutover - so needless to say there have been a few packages that have been piling up. It was almost like Xmas in Autumn.

So here's the big purchase via EBay while on the Green Isle - a little expansion to my silver flatware. Honestly, you never know when you have to throw a party for 30 of your closest friends where paper products will not do. Besides, I really couldn't pass up on the price - they were practically giving it away.

I was Heim'ed

How is this for scary.

I land in Chicago on my way back from Ireland (yes, I'm going back in a month) - and I see none other than Mike Heim, Chief Information Officer of Eli Lilly.

It was like 24 hours of seeing Lilly executives staring back at me. It all started when I left Kinsale, and there was an advertisement of Dave Urbanek, Lilly Kinsale's Plant Manager.

Ivory Tower . . . again

You know, I really love this place.

The Ivory Tower is one of those restaurants that you only come across a few times. Sure, it's a little eccletic with the decor and you don't know if you're in some Great Aunt's Living Room or not, but you can't deny that Seamus knows how to cook.

This time around Jamie almost burst, he was complaining that it was because of the mammoth-sized california rolls - but for me 8 small vegetarians little doo dads was perfect.

Kirby's: The Italian Matteo's

Not sure what it is about living in a foreign country and always gravitating to a specific restaurant, but Kirby's would have to be the choice. It's a cool little pasta/pizza place about 500 feet from our apartment. We usually end up there on Thursday's, but if the week was particularly bad, then we usually go on Wednesday. Weekends, of course, should be avoided due to the influx of tourists that just generally kill the ambiance.

Coffee Taste Test

Ever being this conspiracy theorist, I have this new theory that Nespresso does not in fact have different coffee flavors, they just put them in different colored capsules and make you think they're different. And if they aren't different, the whole wine-esque descriptions of the coffee tasting like "peach mountain rainbows on a potato sack race weekend" was getting a little out of control.

So to put my theory to the test (and to improve our tasting skills), Jamie and I did a blind taste test of three coffee flavors. We got about 66% right, but I think we were guessing. We need to continue the project until we can taste all the coffees - should take awhile.

Cartman

Couldn't resist, I thought Jamie reminded me of Cartman in this pic. And I could see him now saying "Respect mah authoritah!"

Cheese Farm

Ah this was fun.

I had always wanted to visit an Irish Cheese Farm, so I got some names from the local Cheesemonger in Kinsale, sent out a few emails, and setup a time to visit Fermoy Farms in . . . Fermoy, a small town about an hour north of Kinsale.

Fermoy is run by Frank and Gudrun Shinnick. Frank's family has farmed the land for generations, but now they have mostly cows that they milk for their raw cheeses - apparently there is no money in sheep (probably not in cheese either).

Tons of information, I was there for pretty much the whole day - so I basically saw how they made cheese from beginning to end. They actually do a Swiss type cheese - so that's a pressed, cooked cheese similar to Gruyeres. And since the milk is raw, they have to be super careful on hygiene and controls.

I could go on and on about raw milk, which I'm sure freaks some people out that someone who actually risks eating it. But I have this theory that raw milk products - cheese or otherwise - are safer than pasturized products. The reason is that raw milk producers KNOW they have to be careful, and if they screw up, it's pretty obvious that something is wrong. Whereas with pasturization you get this attitude that I've seen at other farms or factories that says, "Eh, we pasturized, so we don't have to worry about keeping everything clean."

I'll give you an example . . . to cut down on the risk of infection, Fermoy will actually wash the cows before milking so that any dirt or crap (literally) doesn't get into the milk. It takes an extra 10-15 minutes to their twice daily milking routine each time, but it shows up when the milk is tested by the milk truck that comes to pick up the milk every other day. I think they were allowed on one particular test for bacteria 100,000 parts per some unit of measure with the average from most milk producers being 40K-60K - Fermoy consistently scores 100.

You figure pasturization ain't gonna kill everything anyway (you would have to boil the milk under pressure for an extended period of time to do that) - so I'd rather start at 100, than the alternative of 50,000 and hope to get the number down to 10,000.

Anyway, like I said, tons of information - the storage of the cheese itself was cool. We tried tons of cheeses from the area and talked non-stop about all things cheese - including the US market and how it has changed.