The World of Scott Mindeaux

Crayons, Pickle Sandwiches and Tomatoes

It’s that time of year again. “Uncle Scott and you buy me some school supplies…” asks my niece. We were at Target and in their “Back-to-School” section. I caught the green and yellow of a familiar box from my childhood. I remember every time we went to the store that I wanted a new box of crayons. But not just any box of crayons. The 24 pack would not do and while the 48 count was impressive, the one I yearned for was the 64 pack. Not only did it have the most crayons but it had that little sharpener in the back when your crayons got dull. I don’t remember that we had the cool names that they have today like “Wild Strawberry” or “Purple Mountains Magesty”. While I don’t think the palette of colors has changed, I think they renamed some of the colors. But some of the old standbys are there like “Burnt Sienna” and “Goldenrod”. I bought a box for myself today and the kids today are more into the markers than the crayons. I couldn’t convince my niece to buy crayons for some odd reason. So the 64 count box of Crayola is MINE!

Earlier, my nieces “Jessica (4) and Toni-Lyn (11) wanted cheeseburgers. So rather than take them to McDonalds or Wendy’s I took them to Fuddruckers where at least I knew that the meat was ground that day and was fresh. I also knew that the ingredients were fresh and you pile them on your budget by yourself. However, Jessica refused to eat the meat in her cheeseburger. She asked for pickles on her burger. When she got back to the table, she took the bun off and started eating the slices of pickles that we placed on her burger. Over the next minute or two I watched her eat 5 slices. She wanted more. I went back to the fixings bar and got here another 6 pickle slices. She didn’t want the meat. So we took the patty off the bread, and placed the pickles on the bread and she had a pickle sandwich – it was hilarious! She is too cute!

So it is August now and tomatoes are at their best. I have been obsessed with yellow and red grape tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes from the Farmers’ Market. While I won’t bite into a beefsteak tomato, I will pop a grape tomato in my mouth. They are so sweet right now. Get out to your local farmers’ market and avail yourself of some of the best tomatoes of the season!

Oh, the sea bass picture you see above was a recipe that was published in the OC Register this past week! It’s a quick and easy dish and the tomatoes really make the fish shine! Visit http://foodfrenzy.ocregister.com/2011/07/30/weekly-roundup-sea-bass-and-tomatoes/44425/

My recipe is the last link at the bottom! Enjoy!

My 4th of July Burger

Well this was my healthier burger. I did splurge on the goat cheese and glad I did!

To see how I made it, visit my food blog here.

Thankful

Hi there! Remember me? It’s me Scott. Yes, you haven’t heard from me in several months and I apologize. Things have been very busy for me at work,  I have literally been consumed with my job. Some changes for me in the near future on the job front, but more on that in a later post. Yes…I am back.

It’s Thanksgiving today. I spent the day getting my place cleaned and running last minute errands for missed ingredients for today’s meal. I didn’t most of my shopping last night after we got off work. This year I decided to break a long standing tradition and I didn’t get a turkey this year. Well, that’s not entirely true…

I opted for a boneless double breast of turkey, stuffed with my Italian Sausage stuffing. I went over to Whole Foods and found the boneless breasts behind the glass. With the turkey, I made whipped Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, sausage dressing, Pancit and Lumpia (a must for any Filipino-American Thanksgiving table).

My sisters’ families came and how everyone has grown. My three eldest nephews have grown into young men and my niece Sade is becoming quite the young lady. My sassy, precocious niece Jessica has really turned around and has embraced what it means to have an Uncle! My mom is here visiting from overseas and it was really nice to have her here for the holidays.

I’m soooo full and can’t move. The meal was a success.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Now unbutton those jeans and slouch on the couch and watch reruns of NCIS!

iPhone 4 – A Camera for Foodies?

This is a reprint from my foodblog, Foodie In Disguise…

So as many of you know, I’m a computer geek by day. I thought it would be appropriate to do some testing with the new 5 megapixel camera on the back of Apple’s new iPhone 4. Previous to the iPhone 4 I had the iPhone 3G. With the 3G, I did not have tap-to-focus capability and this camera didn’t perform well in dark settings. Close up photos of food was even more problematic as the camera could not focus. In fact, I purchased a case that had a built-in macro lens (Griffin Technology’s Clarifi Case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS) that I could slide over the iPhone’s camera and take macro shots. This certainly was much better than anything and for almost 2 years I have used my 3G for photos. If you are a regular reader to FID, a good portion of the food photos are taken with my old iPhone 3G.

So, was I excited when Apple announced a better camera? Oh yes. Below in the photo gallery, I selected some photos that I recently took for some recipe testing I was working on for a client. I was impressed by the quality of the photos, especially up close. I’m sorry I don’t have my old iPhone 3G or I would have done some side-by-side comparisons – but honestly, the iPhone 3G would not have been able to get as close as I did with the iPhone 4.

Now, let me say that the photos in this set were taken under better than average lighting conditions. The burger and onion ring shots were taken after sunset with nearby overhead lighting. I will try to take some photos this weekend in deliberate dark locations and see how the pictures come out.

None of the photo’s below had any retouching or brightness level changes done in Photoshop. These are the raw images as they came off the iPhone 4 directly. No digital zoom was used as the iPhone 4 is capable of 5x digital zoom. The tap-to-focus capability allows you to tap on the screen and the camera will focus on that point. Focusing also adjusts exposure and white balance automatically. If you notice in the Endive Taco shows, there is a shot with the blue chips as the focal and the endives as the other focal point. The brightness levels are different as the lighting towards the back of the dish was different from the front.

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I’m quite happy with the photos. Now I use my iPhone camera when I’m out doing restaurant reviews or pictures on-the-fly. I just bought a Canon Rebel XSi and still have my trusty Canon Powershot G2.

Another Reason I Want an iPad: My Foodie Side

As many of you know, I’m a huge Foodie. I’m also a huge Apple fan. I love it when I can merge my two world together. If you don’t know that I have a foodie website: www.foodieindisguise.com

Wouldn’t it be great if all my cookbook publishers were onboard and I could start buying my cookbooks in digital format!

Just think, I can have my iPad in the kitchen with me. I’d have it on an easel so I can “flip” thru the recipe while I cook.

The other advantage is that the contents of that book will be indexed right? Searching for recipes or ingredients used in a recipe will be easy!

Let’s take it one step further. Can I search for a word and it will look through all my books for me? Just think, I can look up the word “chives” and it will give me a listing of which books uses the word “chives”.

Taking a Little Trip: DC and Vegas

Well Washington DC, you better watch out cuz Scott Mindeaux is coming to town!

I’m taking a few days off in October to attend the National Equality March and to have some Foodie fun in DC. I’m only in town for 4 days which will mean my schedule will be pretty packed. I fly in very, very late on Friday, October 9th and fly back home on October 14th. Saturday I hope to meet up with old friends, but want to start off with breakfast at Kramerbooks & Afterwards Café at Dupont Circle. I know there are a million places to eat in DC for breakfast, but Kramers has always had a lace in my heart for it.

I do need to spend some time with my friend Scott Shumaker. Scott has been my best friend, my Apple confidant and my ear-to-the-wall connection to Washington DC. I also need to see my ex Brian and see how he is doing. Donno and him are still living out in Fairfax. Sunday is the March and the gathering at The Mall. I’m sure the day wil be filled with many emotions. The last “March on Washington” I participated in was back in 1993. It was that pivotal year that I became an activist in the LGBT movement and joined the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Although I was more behind-the-scenes guy as their IT Director and Operations Manager, it was 6 years of my life that I will never forget. I hope to se many familiar faces over the course of the weekend and it will be very emotional.

On the Foodie side of things, I hope to visit Sur La Table and visit with Karen and my old cooking school at Pentagon Row. I do want to see Susan Adler as well as Carla Hall. I’ve been trying to reach her these last few weeks, but I know she has been very busy.  I do also want to meet Clay and Zach of The Bitten Word. I also hope I get the chance to meet Cory of Culinary Cory and hope to land an interview with Jacob at FoodNetworkAddict.com

I fly back to The OC on Wednesday the 14th and that will be a recuperation day. I’m back to work on Thursday and Friday. Then afterwork on the 16th, I’m off to Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas. It’s been awhile since I have been back to Vegas. The goal at this expo is to focus on all the aspectsof blogging as well as using additional media outlets to promote my food blog.