24-Hour Leg of Lamb

I have never seen a leg of lamb before, and I was stunned when Wes brought one home from the Handymart, a small market with its own butchershop in Burbank.  Thankfully, it actually fit into our fridge.  As I hurried to make room for it, Wes told me of his extravagant plans for this bone-in, six-pounder of meat.  To get that tender, fall-off-the-bone, medium rare action, sous vide was the best route to go.  After a full 24 hours in the sous vide machine, it went into the oven.  Then, it was glazed in its juices and showered with glassy deep-fried herbs and caraway seeds.

And then, we feasted.  (Well, not before Wes took a few minutes to fashion a photo studio out of our dining table)

I know what you're thinking... how the hell did we sous vide this huge-ass piece of meat??  So, I always thought that the gallon-size Ziploc bag was the biggest that they make them.  Wes proved me wrong when he brought back a box of Ziploc bags half the size of a pillow case.  They looked so ridiculous, but it is the only non-restaurant supply store thing that you could sous vide a whole leg of lamb inside of.

Chilling in Iceland (Part 3): Lava Tubing and Ice Caving

Possibly what struck us the most about Iceland was the fact that we could witness firsthand the impermanence of it all, while at the same time being able to appreciate the enduring geological processes that formed its landscape long ago.  We went into both a lava tube and a glacier cave--the former was born thousands of years ago, and the latter took shape literally over the past year by glaciers melting over the summer and solidifying in the winter.  With layers of volcanic rock and endless blue ice directly over our heads, it felt like we were being let in on some of our planet's best-kept secrets.  Of course, we had guides - there's no way we could have done any of this on our own.  Both of these tours were nearly cancelled because of temporarily unsafe environmental circumstances, so we felt really fortunate to have been able to go into these caves and have some pictures to show for it.

Huge props to the knowledgeable and laidback tour guides of Arctic Adventures and Local Guide for getting us off the beaten path and into the depths of these natural wonders.