Watts Consulting

More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts

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Shrimp and Pasta Dish

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I made a tasty shrimp and pasta dish tonight.It included the following:

3/4 lb fresh peeled and deveined shrimp
1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
large pinch Italian seasoning
red pepper flakes
freshly ground black pepper
salt
olive  oil

2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup sliced sundried tomatoes
splash white wine
olive oil
3/4 pound small asparagus

1/3 lb cooked small penne pasta

shrimp-2.jpgIn a bowl, combine juice and zest of one lemon, 1 tablespoon olive oil, Italian herbs, pepper flakes, minced garlic clove and salt and pepper to taste. Toss shrimp and let marinade for about 30 minutes.

Saute garlic and shallots until soft and golden (about 3 minutes). Add yellow bell pepper. Saute for 5 minutes. Add asparagus and cook for 1-2 minutes. Set aside.

Saute shrimp until done. (I used a cast iron skillet to really sear the shrimp a bit.) Add remaining marinade and let come to boil.

Toss vegetables and shrimp with pasta. Serve with fresh bread. Serves 2 to 3.

Reaching 10,000 People in One Month

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I’ve been busier with newsletters this month even more so than usual. I’ve completed the Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama Spring 2008 newsletter (complete with a redesign), the April 2008 issue of the Sierra Club’s Alabama Sierran, the Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Birmingham Chapters March newsletter, a Your Town Alabama newsletter and CGH Insurance Group’s newsletter. Who knows, I may be forgetting a newsletter.

Some of these go out via mail (about 9,500 of them) and about another 1,000-1,200 go out via email. (Both of the mailed newsletters do get posted on the respective websites, so they get additional views as well.)

Anyway, I was adding up the number of people these go out to collectively and I realized that, probably for the first time, I’ve hit the 10,000 person mark for newsletter communications. It just seems pretty cool to me. No real significance to it, really, but I find it secretly pleasing.

Another Sierra Club Newsletter

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The more newsletters I do, the more I enjoy doing them. I’ve gotten really fast at putting together the Alabama Sierran, though a large part of that comes from constantly looking over information that can go into it and having an idea of what I want to put into it before it comes due. I get more and more submissions for this monthly newsletter (now in year three of production). When we started putting this newsletter together, there were a few pieces devoted to local issues, but much of the information was pulled from national sources–or in the very least from other state sources.

Now, the Sierra Club members seem to have really bought into the concept of the state newsletter and submit everything from articles about some controversial project to photos from their outings.

Three Mushroom Smoked Cheese Pizza

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Wow. I really hate to brag, but last night I made one of my finest pizzas ever. The dough was, as always, my sourdough mix with a bit of whole wheat and a little bit of Italian 00 flour tossed in. There is a recipe for it in a previous entry: www.joewatts.com/blog/2007/12/recipes.html.

But the best part of this pizza was what was on top:
French horn mushrooms (about 6) sliced
Golden oyster mushrooms (about 8) sliced
Portabella mushroom (about 1/4 of one) diced large
3 shallots, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
italian seasoning, salt and black pepper to taste

Saute the shallots and garlic in 1 tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms. Saute until golden and soft.

Brush crust with a little olive oil and prebake the crust for about 6 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove from oven. Turn oven to 475.

Sprinkle shredded Mozzarella cheese  to cover crust. Top with mushrooms evenly. Sprinkle with about 4 ounces of smoked mozzarella cheese and 2 ounces crumbled goat cheese.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes.

Alabama’s Front Porches

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I’m just getting started working on a new site. I didn’t develop the look of the site, but they need help with updating it, examining the design and structure and determining what sort of direction they need to go in to improve the site for visitors. I’m particularly excited about this project because it is a part of the Black Belt in Alabama.

I’ve worked with many of these people on different projects (from Your Town Alabama and Scenic Byways, to Alabama Communities of Excellence and the Alabama Association of RC&D’s). But, I haven’t had the chance to do much work in the Black Belt where I grew up. I’ve made a trip to Thomasville, AL so far, and have several more trips to Clarke County scheduled. Should be fun. In the meantime, check out their site (prior to my working on it) at www.alabamasfrontporches.com. It has some driving tours, a listing of some restaurants and some activities to do while in the Black Belt. We’ll be working on many more. Right now, it isn’t that well developed and it has some issues related to how things have been updated (photos placed in at the wrong size and people not familiar with html making changes to code), but we’ll be working on that in the coming months as well as developing substantially more interesting and significant tours and descriptions of the many wonderful places in the Black Belt of Southwestern Alabama.

I just picked up an interesting new book on community tourism: Destination Branding for Small Cities: The Essentials for Successful Place Branding by Bill Baker. (if you buy it through this link, I’ll get a bit of money from Amazon.com)  I’m looking forward to reading it in more depth and getting some fresh ideas. I’m hoping that this book and a few others I’ve ordered will help me better work with the Alabama’s Front Porches folks and do an even better job of coaching them into a stronger identity.

Blogging–Burf Style

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My friend Ben Burford recently went to Brazil for an extended vacation. He’s started a blog: www.davisdenny.com/bensblog/.

An excerpt: “You know that in order to go to Hell,
you have to go through Atlanta. That was true for us. Through Atlanta,
to Miami for the first mini-leg of the journey.“