2009 US Open Team Championships

Aaah table tennis. This year's tournament was at the Baltimore convention center again. I headed there to watch my dad's team play and to take some photos. One year I'll play again. Here's a shot of about 90% of the tables. The rest were behind me where the top players were....they don't have the privilege of playing on concrete - there's special flooring used that you may notice in subsequent photos.

iso 2500

15mm fisheye

f/4.5

1/100 sec

One of the Chinese teams playing one of the Canadian teams during the quarterfinals...

iso 6400

300mm

f/2.8

1/200 sec

Thanksgiving!

This is basically what dad and I looked like most of the day...

Happy Thanksgiving!

from the Lancaster Farmer's Market

...pieces

Last Saturday on our way to the farmer's market in Lancaster

Dinner night part 2: The results

Rick's menu:

-Meatball subs

-Sautéed zucchini in garlic and butter

-Heavenly purple mashed potatoes

-Arugula salad with breaded goat cheese, roasted walnuts and tomato, with balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Rick was pretty much the Italian version of this...

Cooking up some meatballs...

Torching the goat cheese

Roasted walnuts

Yummy salad

OMG I could eat this daily

Dinner night part 1: The Prep

Rick and I prepared the ingredients for Saturday's dinner night...Rick had me dice the onions and shallots because he always cries wanted my help.
Any guesses on the menu based on this partial ingredient list?

Purple potatoes:

Zucchini:

Onion:

Parsley:

Fresh mozzarella:

Parmesan cheese:

Lancaster Farmer's Market

Anyone need spices??

We took a drive through the country and found a covered bridge and a really old farmhouse

Sous Chef in training

Tonight I was finally able to help Rick make dinner! He took a leap of faith and let me add this to his recipe.
...more to come...

Hanging in the country

Kyle (http://kylehigginbottom.blogspot.com/) picked me up at 7:30am today. With coffee in hand we headed north to dutch country for the U.S.'s oldest farmers market and a drive through the country. Here's a teaser from this morning. Kyle wanted to bring one home with us...

...friends

So Max (http://maximilianlin.blogspot.com/) got me thinking tonight about photography when I should have had a nice relaxing evening, studying partial dentures. So I figured instead of worrying about minor connectors, rests, plates, lingual-bars, I-bars, or just the local bars, I should photograph some friends. I find that in dental school, we hang out with the same friends all the time. Some, as you can see, are harder for all of us to keep in touch with...

Photoshop disclaimer for Max: Only a vignette was added

Top of the world

Back in August, Erica and I took a day trip to the top of Berkeley to go on a train ride. Luckily I made a wrong turn and we found this great spot...

Berkeley Rose Garden

Library

Smiley

Praha Doors

Czech Republic

Peacock!

An oldie but goodie

Yosemite

Iron Chef Gruntz vs. Riach - results!

Chefs were judged on taste, presentation, and creativity. A winner for each category and an overall winner were announced. Lets see how it all played out...

Gruntz's menu:

Pomagranate and honey chicken marsala with roasted herb potatoes and broccoli

Spinach salad with honey roasted sunflower seeds and pomegranate with an olive oil and 6yr old balsamic vinegar dressing

Goat cheese and honey crustini

Riach's menu:

Breaded pan seared pork chop with a pomegranate honey dipping sauce

Spinach salad with pomegranate and gruyere and a pomegranate honey mustard dressing

Spiced crustini

Winners:

Taste: Gruntz

Presentation: Riach

Creativity: Gruntz

Overall winner: Riach!

See you again in Kitchen Stadium...

Charlie

Checking out the scenery at Thai Temple in Berkeley:

THE Iron Chef competition

First up, the taste test. Winner gets an additional 10min prep time.

Rick deciding what he's tasting:

Michelle trying to cheat:

The secret ingredients? Pomegranate and honey.

The chefs deep in concentration:

What'd they make?! Who won?!

Iron Chef Competition! Gruntz vs. Riach

Iron Chef Competition from Dan Gibson on Vimeo.

More from CA

Charlie enjoyed Thai Temple for brunch on Sunday:

After stuffing ourself with homemade Thai food and 5 Thai iced teas, we went to the Berkeley Rose Gardens: