When does twilight arrive?

The sun has risen at McMurdo, we're 800 miles away that station and I was curious as to when twilight will reach us. I began digging around Google and found an ex-Polies blog:

http://www.australyear.blogspot.com/

Keith describes life at Pole is 100% right on. I went to his August posts and my question was answered... twilight has begun and within a few days would should be able to see the first glimmer of light. Well, that realization just killed my curiosity and now I feel rather excited that change is on the horizon.

Astronomical twilight began on August 1st, and the sun doesn't rise until the equinox around Sept. 23.

The Way of the Penguin Ninja

Full Moon #4

The fourth full moon of this long winter has come. It's light reminds me of sunrise and I am getting excited to see the sun again. The sky at McMurdo has turned twilight, leaving us with another month or so before we see any hint of irradiance. Just for a recap... this is my 9th month straight in Antarctica, and I still have 3 months to go. I'm in no hurry, we have everything we could wish for down here... especially great food. Parmesan twisty buns..

Filet mignon.

Garlic bread sticks.

Meat lovers pizza rolls in the making. Next step would be to roll up the puff pastry with filling, egg wash it, bake it.

Brussel sprouts.

The pasta buffet.. three sauces.. bolognese, shrimp scampi sauce and plain veg. marinara.

Outside it is clear and -80 F. By now we are used to the cold. Our knuckles have the texture of snake skin, lips crack and bleed, eyes squint at bright lights, I still eat roughly 3,000-4,000 calories a day... gained 2 lbs. since I been here, and sleeping 10 hours a day is the least I may get in a day.

The greenhouse production has been off the hook lately. tons of chard.

Cucumbers daily.

Tomatoes are frequent.

The few whole onions we have left from the summer cache are being used in stews, breads and vegetarian dishes. Below is a seafood, sausage and chicken gumbo.

Fresh salad from the greenhouse.

Blackened cajun chicken.

Mashed yams and tators the ol' fashioned way.

Irish soda bread.

^ the bread accompanied the Irish lamb stew. The secret ingredients were Guinness beer and barley.

Pumpkin pie is probably my favorite pie. The leftover, uncooked filling is going to be used for pumpkin cheesecakes this weekend. Wish you were here Beaner.

Fresh white bread. Did I ever mention that I love bread?

The 2010 Antarctic Winter Film Festival

A sincere thanks to Michael Christiansen for compiling Antarctica's films. Each video is around 5 minutes long and as you can see there are many from the international stations around the continent. What I suggest is to take a few hours and go through them all, and then maybe, just maybe, you'll get a sense of what it's like to winterover in Antarctica.

Here is the link to the 2010 Film Festival's videos:

http://cid-143586e833b2f7ce.office.live.com/browse.aspx/2010%20Winter%20Film%20Festival

Enjoy!

Still Cooking...

Between all the movies and fame I'm still doin my thang in the kitchen. On weekends now I host several guitar classes. I've told the class members to pick their favourite song and by the end of the year we will learn that song. We sing good vibes to the plants...

And good vibes are what they bring. Here's a trashbag full of Kale.

Yummy cheesecake.

Sweet honey-wheat rolls.

Mellow yellow dill and sesame seed knots.

Cooking off the tofu tenders.

Green beans and FRESH potatoes.

Crab packed empanadas with mozo cheese.

Shephard's Pie.

Eggplant parmiagina.

Honey and tarragon roasted tempeh slivers.

Tofu tenders... taste just like the chicken nuggets you'd find at McDonald's.

Chef Fran's Kansas BBQ ribs. Kids from Kansas know their ribs.

Sword Saint: The Movie

A couple months ago I uploaded some photos of us doing ninja stunts for a video. Well, South Pole's finest video producer JT3 has created the Director's Cut, which is also available here in HD: http://s632.photobucket.com/albums/uu43/codyleemeyer/?action=view&current=SPOpenSwordSaintSmall.mp4

Caveman Steak and Bingo

Whole wheat bread.

Honey and wheat dinner rolls.

Lucky clover leaf rolls.

Vegetarian red bean chili.

Mashed tators and mushroom gravy.

Although our greens are primarily frozen at -80 F they come out pretty good when slow cooked at low temperatures with plenty of moisture.

Grilled chicken..

Turned into The Deep South BBQ Chicken.

BBQ tofu.

Steak fries to go with,

Steak.

Late Friday night I made an Erebus Crystal neclace.

In which I used as a costume prop for Bingo...

And since I gave good honour to the Erebus Goddess I won twice. Anyone want to join me for some Sushi in Christchurch, New Zealand?

Antarctica's Film Festival 2010 - Edit #2

A higher quality video can be found by clicking here.

Every year there's a film festival in Antarctica involving the numerous international research stations. Participants are given a 48-hour notice on the criteria. This year's criteria is:

1. Character: grumpy diesel mechanic

2. Event: siren

3. Prop: a mop

4. Prop: mouthwash

5: Phrase: "Has anyone seen my chicken?"

Everything's so brown...

So, instead of repeating chinese phrases in my head all day while cooking (wo yao yi bei ka fei) I thought about the colour of foods. Brown food is rather common when you think about it... french fries, potatoes, breads, chocolate, coffee, cookies, gravy, muffins, chicken, steak, funnel cakes, doughnuts, pecans, peanut butter fudge, dinner rolls...

Crab and clam empanadas..

Chicken puttanesca... with a little red (spicy marinara) and black (olives) on top...

Ginger snap tofu...

Mushroom roulade...

Crescent rolls...

Pork chops...

White bread...

Poppy seed buttery rolls... 99% brown.

Green bean casserole, now we're getting some more colour..

Back to brown...

Baked halibut...

Finally, yellow. Maize salad.

Wow, red (sundried tomatoes) and white (onions), for the tofu parmesan.

Brown stuff (parmesan breaded tofu fried) again lathered with white cheese, parmesan, and marinara.

Green. Cucumbers from the greenhouse.

And I'll bet ya that tomorrow's BBQ chicken will be brown too.