The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jan
23
This week I thought I’d share my favourite way to cook steaks. Despite the fact that I do marinate the steaks, you don’t have to do any prep work the day before or even a few hours before. You can leave the steak marinating while you prepare the rest of your meal, it only needs about 20-30 minutes.
Since this recipe describes the process per-steak, it’ll yield as many steaks as you make 🙂 As for ingredients, the amounts will vary depending on the size and number of steaks you do, but you’ll need the following:
- The steaks of your choice (I love Strip Loin)
- A few cloves of Garlic
- Lemon Juice
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Olive & Vegetable Oil
- Fresh or Dried Rosemary
- Freshly ground Black Pepper & Salt
Jan
18
Photo of the Week 153 – Ennis Friary
Filed Under Photography | 1 Comment
This week’s photo of the week was taken the summer before last when I was in Ennis for a friend’s wedding. I didn’t have much time for sight-seeing on my visit, but myself and another friend did find a half hour to go pay a visit to the ruins of the old Friary in the town. We didn’t have much luck with the weather though, it was generally cloudy, and we spent quite some time sheltering from the rain within the ruins! Just as we were about to head for the exit the sun burst through very briefly, and I managed to get off a few shots in good light, including this one. You can see the full set of shots from my visit on Flickr.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/1250 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
Jan
15
Mapping Belgium’s Collieries
Filed Under History & Geography | 1 Comment
A side effect of being sick is having a lot of time to kill while avoiding expending energy. Considering I’ve been ill now for three and half months, that’s a LOT of time to kill. On the days that the infection is particularly bad my brain just goes to mush so I melt the day away with some old TV shows (have watched all of the original Star Trek and all of Star Trek The Next Generation already), but on the days that my head is clearer I find Google Earth to be an amazingly interesting way to loose a few hours. It never ceases to surprise me how much of a nation’s history is etched into the very land itself. A canal may have been re-routed decades ago, but it’s old alignment still affects the boundaries of properties and fields all along it’s length. The same goes for that railroad that’s been gone for over a century, or that coal mine that closed in the late 1800s. You can look at the street plans of cities like Antwerp and Brussels, and still see the alignments of the old city walls even though they’ve been gone for hundreds of years. The many wars that have been fought in a country like Belgium also leave their mark, from massive WWII bunkers to beautifully shaped WWI fortresses to Napolionic fortifications to even older castles and towers, to simple things like defensive ditches and banks, and even tank traps. They’re all there to be seen on Goole Earth by anyone with the interest and the patience to seek them out.
Anyhow, the point is, maps fascinate me, and I can stare at then for hours, and satellite photos with map data overlaid on them doubly-so. If you don’t have Google Earth installed on your computer and/or iPhone or iPad yet, you should stop reading now and go download it from earth.google.com.
Jan
13
A Red Pepper Omlette
Filed Under Cooking & Food | 3 Comments
Following on from last week’s Bolognese recipe, I thought I’d share an omelette I often make with left over ingredients the next morning. This is very much a non-scientific thing, just take these amounts as guidelines. This recipe makes one generous omelette, I prefer to use two pans when I do this for two people rather than doubling everything in one pan because I don’t like my omelettes too thick.
Here are the ingredients I suggest:
- 1 Small Red Onion
- ½ Red Pepper
- 2 Large Eggs
- Salt, Pepper & some Herbs
Jan
12
I was looking back through some older shots this week when I noticed this one which I had forgotten to upload to Flickr. I have no idea why I didn’t upload it when I shot it, because it’s one of my best astrophotography shots, nicely and clearly incorporating both the Moon and the Planet Venus into the shot. What at we see here is a view across St. Joseph’s Square in St. Patrick’s College Maynooth (SPCM)looking towards St. Patrick’s House with the spire of the College Chapel also visible. In the top left of the shot you can see Venus, and just above the building you can see a very thin crescent Moon with a lot of Earth Shine. This shot was taken with a tripod because it was dark and a four and half second exposure was needed.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 4.5 sec (shot on tripod)
- Focal Length: 19mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -3.0ev
Jan
5
My Bolognese Recipe
Filed Under Cooking & Food | 3 Comments
This is a recipe I learned from my mother, and then improved on, and now she does Bolognese my way! Sharing at it’s best 🙂
Anyhow, since this is a more complex recipe, I thought I’d start with an ingredient list this time:
- 4 red onions
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1½ to 2 red bell peppers (can use other colours of you prefer)
- 2 400g tins of chopped tomatoes (I like to use organic)
- 500g of minced beef
- ½ a tube of tomato puree (which is about 70g)
- pasta of your choice (I use Gluten Free pasta from the Tesco Free From range)
- A good selection of dried herbs, and fresh Basil and Parsley if possible
This recipe will make 4 generous portions.
Jan
2
Photo of the Week 151 – Small Copper
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Following on form my recent retrospective on 2010 I thought I’d choose a shot for this week’s Photo of the Week that JUST missed out being included in that retrospective. 2010 was the first year that I managed to get some good shots of the Small Copper butterfly (Lycaena phlaeas) in Ireland. I had gotten a few shots of the species before, but in Belgium rather than Ireland. Obviously I’m delighted to have found a colony of Small Coppers along the Royal Canal, but I’m also really happy with the nice warm evening light I shot this in, and the nice dark un-cluttered background.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/1000 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: f/8
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -1.0ev
- Processing: tweaked slightly with Aperture’s built-in Dodge & Burn plugin
Dec
31
Reflections on My Photographic 2010
Filed Under Photography | 5 Comments
Since it’s the last day of 2010 now seems like a good time to take stock and look back at my photographic output from this year to see how its evolved since 2009.
I spent some time this evening looking back over my very best shots from this year, and I’m relieved to see that I’ve continued to hone my skills when it comes to the basics, my shots on average are just that little bit tighter than they were in 2009. The compositions are more finely tuned and imaginative, and the post-processing that little bit more subtle and effective. My HDRs in particular look a lot more natural than they did the year before. There’s absolutely nothing un-expected or interesting here – when you do something more you get better at it! What is interesting is in how my style has changed – how I’ve started to do things I never did before.
Dec
28
Simple but Tasty Pan-fried Chicken
Filed Under Cooking & Food | 4 Comments
This is the first post in what I expect will become a semi-regular series on this blog. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I never thought to blog about it because I consider the food I cook to be very simple and not all that interesting. But, people keep asking me how I cook things, so I figured I may as well share my ‘secrets’ here. If you’re wondering what kind of food you’ll find here, I think I could best describe it as simple and wholesome. I hate processed foods, so I try to cook with as many fresh ingredients as possible. As for the style – it’s very eclectic. I neither like bland food nor spicy food, so I tend to cook things that have a lot of flavour, but aren’t spicy – a little tangy maybe, but never spicy.
I promise I’ll get to the first recipe in a moment, but before I do I want to share my ethos on cooking. For me it’s all about sharing, what’s the fun in cooking a nice meal if you can’t share it? And what’s the fun in sharing food if you don’t also share ideas and methods with people? I’m always changing how I cook things, and I’m always learning from people. I get ideas and I edit them to make them my own. The best thing that could come out of this series of posts for me is that I inspire people to customise and change my recipes and to share their thoughts and modifications with the community here.
Dec
27
Photo of the Week 150 – Yarrow
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I’m so fed up of snow and ice now that I thought this week I’d go for a more summery theme for my Photo of the Week post, a nice flower! To be more precise, a closeup of a Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flower. These lovely white flowers grace Irish hedgerows in the late summer each year.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1/1600 sec
- Focal Length: 200mm
- Focal Ratio: f/5.6
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Bias: -1.0ev