Yellow-rumped Warbler or Golden-crowned Kinglet? (And Another Unusual Contest Unfolds) CONTEST CLOSED
UPDATE: The Pizza contest is now closed. See May 4th, 2011 entry. We put out the NovaBird (a remote, motion-activated camera) early this morning, and caught the following image. Now is that cool or what?
As we were rummaging through the 200 new pictures on the NovaBird, that one, (as blurry as it is) simply jumped out at us. Natch, a mad scramble for the bird books followed... Looks to be a Yellow-rumped Warbler, though a Golden-crowned Kinglet certainly ain't out of the question. What say you? (Use the "Comment" below to offer opinion.) In any event, we either haven't seen this coloration before (if the bird is a Yellow-rumped Warbler), or, we've never photographed a Kinglet before. Either way, this is exciting for us!
Alright, alright... Setting aside the bird fervor, we need another eBirdsedd.com contest. (Though no one won the last challenge (an encryption puzzle), we still have at least one person plugging away at the mystery. And keeping in spirit with the old contest, if anyone solves that puzzle, I'll still reward them with the old prize and send them chowdah and a signed pic of me wearing a mouseketeer beanie right out there on the clam flats.)
But now... Onward to a completely next contest...
Ok... Someone is going to win this one - the contest is open ended until we have a winner. We're simply looking for a good recipe for a true New York Pizzeria style pizza.
We're talking about that magical concoction of thin, almost crispy, (but NOT "doughy") crust cooked with that fresh tomato/oregano (or tomato/"something") sauce and topped with the perfect cheese. (Read that - no "California" accruements of salmon, tuna, or potatoes.... Just simple New York, cheese, thin-crust, pizzeria pizza.)
So who judges the contest??? Me, that's who... World's greatest pizza-holic! Been making pies for 38 years. (Also spent a couple weekends brewing beer and baking bread...)
The winning recipe should jive with a plain beverage like a Budweiser, or a Sprite.
(Jeez... In retrospect, this contest is tougher than the encryption puzzle!)
Regardless, see you by the feeders...
CapeCodAlan
P.S. So what do you win? Who knows? Somebody is going to win something cool... But what? What do you think the prize should be? (Let's stay on planet earth here. Again... Use that "comment" button!)
Comments
The difference in size -
Kinglet = 4"
Warbler = 5.5"
Can you measure your Suet feeder and figure out that bird's length?
{From CCA: The suet feeder is roughly 5" on the side, and the bird seems smaller than that. So it could be the Kinglet... But we're still leaning towards the Warbler.}
Posted by: jo | February 9, 2008 12:35 PM
Just saw this. I spent about 4 years landlocked in the midwest. The end of that sojourn culminated in construction of Gypsy (the model there, the real thing once I was coastal again.)
Anyway, I could never find the NY style pizza I liked and spent a ton of time researching, experimenting, etc. I spent a lot of time reading on pizzamakingforum.com
There are a couple really basic things that I found made a pretty big difference in terms of quality for me.
The first was using "raw" sauce. Canned tomatoes in a blender - experiment with seasonings (salt, pepper, thyme, basil, "italian seasoning", garlic powder, onion powder etc) and also the time interval between blending with seasoning and using . Not using already cooked tomato sauce (home-made or in a jar) was a huge first step.
Second was cooking on a really hot stone. Some of the people on the other forum advocated a proprietary product called fibrament (I think). I ended up getting a piece of cordierite on clearance from a kiln supply company online. This is the same material bakers pride uses in the deck of their commercial ovens. These are the only kinds of ovens I ever saw in "real NY Pizza" places. And using the oven as hot as you can get it. Some people take this seriously (disable the locking latch and cook using the cleaning cycle!)
Third was cold fermenting the dough (in the fridge; experimenting between 2-7 days). I used King Arthur bread flour (blue bag) (Also, Google Jeff Varasano.)
Fourth was buying bulk mozzarella, pre-shredded (Sam's Club or somewhere where you get more of a wholesale type product.) This somehow always turned out better than buying a block or bag of polly-o from the grocery store and grating it myself (or buying a small bag of shredded from a grocery store). I also have experimented with fresh mozz for more of a Neopolitan.
Since moving back to where I can get NY style, I haven't done much of this lately.
Posted by: CapeCodAlan (For Jefe) | April 28, 2011 10:10 PM