Tuesday, August 31, 2004

I... am terribly lazy.

I haven't cooked anything in a few days. I was at Jon and Ryan's for dinner Saturday and tonight, and I was out with Rob and friends Sunday and Monday. I swear- Thursday I'll make something. (I can't make anything Wednesday night- it's D&D!)

"What has happened to the days, Sarah?" Well, one of my temp agencies pulled through and got me a little mind-numbing gig. So I'm doing that this week. Whee, money. Boo, brain dribbling out of my ears.

The new Greek place in Mountain View is good, and the guys who work there are extremely nice. It's called Gyro's House; we ate there last night. I recommend it. Lord knows why it's taken so long for a Greek restaurant to show up on Castro.
 
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Saturday, August 28, 2004

The cheese bread, while tasty, was a bitch-and-a-half to get out of the pan. It adhered to the sides, and no amount of sliding a knife around it was able to dislodge it. In the end, we got about two-thirds of it out of the pan, and then Jon and I got a fork and ate the stuck bits out of the loaf pan.

Ryan and I were talking about a better way to do this. She suggests a parchment paper sling. I think this is a capital idea. I am also keen on trying the variation Cook's has for Cheese Bread with Bacon, Onion, and Gruyere. I think that sounds really quite good. I won't be trying it for a while, though. This recipe annoyed me too much.

It was so very hot today. Ryan's working on decorating a cake, and she was very worried about the icing melting. She's making something that looks very complicated. It's a "Yay, Engagement!" cake.

I had the carbonara last night. I used a fun pasta- spaghetti rigate. The grooves on the pasta increased surface area and allowed more sauce to be caught and held. I included a clove of garlic in mine, but I wouldn't do that in the future (hence, I did not include it in the recipe). The garlic taste was too strong. I realize that for an Italian purist, the use of cream is heresy. However, I have eggs and cream in my fridge that really need to be used. So I used them both. Nyeah.
 
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Cheese Bread
Cook's Illustrated

1 cup Parmesan cheese
3 cups AP flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 oz. cheddar cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/4 cup whole milk
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten lightly
3/4 cup sour cream

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350. Spray a 5x9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle 1/2 cup of Parmesan evenly in the bottom of the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Mix in the cheddar cubes, coating the pieces completely with flour.

In a separate bowl, combine milk, butter, egg, and sour cream. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry, and fold together with a rubber spatula to combine. The batter will be heavy and thick.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan, smoothing the surface with the spatula. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan evenly over the top.

Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-20 minutes, then de-pan and cool for another 30-45 minutes. Cut into slices and serve warm.
 
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Carbonara for One

3 oz. strand pasta
1-2 tsp olive oil
1 egg
2 strips of bacon, cut into matchsticks
1 shallot, minced
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated, plus more to serve
1 Tbsp cream
Salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare the pasta according to package directions. While waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the bacon and shallot until bacon is slightly browned and shallot is softened. Remove from heat and set aside until the pasta is ready.

Break the egg into a bowl and add the cream and parmesan cheese. Beat together with a fork and season with salt and lots of pepper.

When the pasta is done, drain it and add to the pan with the shallot and bacon. Place over low heat and stir together. Add the egg mixture and stir for a minute. Serve immediately with more parmesan.
 
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Friday, August 27, 2004

These corn frittery things need work, but I think they have potential. It would be good if I could get them less greasy. The solution would be most likely deep frying, but then I'm not sure what I'd do to do the dough to make them more cohesive. It's something to think about. Maybe baking them would work. I don't know.

After we noshed, Jon decided that he was still in the mood for Thai, so he, Russ (his coworker), and I went out to Bangkok Bay in Redwood City. I have a tendency to think that every place I like is the best place, but really? Bangkok Bay is so damn good. We had the Panang Curry Beef, Spicy Pork with Basil, Pork with Garlic and Something Else, and a Thai Pancake for dessert. Jon and I think that the pancake should be easy to make. It's like a slightly thicker crepe with sweeetened condensed milk and sugar.
 
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Thai Corn Fritters

1 can of corn, drained
1 egg
1 small red or green chile
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp water
2 scallions, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
Canola oil, for shallow frying

Place the flour, egg, chile, soy sauce, garlic, and about half the corn kernels in a food processor and process until a smooth, thick batter forms.

Stir the remaining corn, water, scallions, cilantro, and basil into the batter. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wide, heavy pan. Drop generous tablespoonfuls of the batter into the pan (you will probably fit about 4 at a time). Press and smooth out with the back of the spoon. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, and drain on paper towels (or some other sort of draining rig). Makes 12-16.
 
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Thursday, August 26, 2004

Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita

Juice of 1 lime
1 cup tequila
1/3 cup Triple Sec
Crushed ice
Salt (optional)

Combine in a shaker, pour into glasses, and serve. If you are so inclined, before pouring, wet the rim of the glass with lime juice and dip in salt.
 
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Awesome. You all should read this article, in which Ms. Lucianovic (ie. Television Without Pity's recapper Keckler and writer of the foodie blog The Grub Report) speculates on the next Martha Stewart, praises Alton Brown, and slams Sandra Lee. Disses Snadra hard-core.

She's so very cool.

Here's another link for all the Semi-Homemade-Haters out there. TWoP poster InnerCanuck has started an anti-Sandra blog here. She is intending to test the recipes and report on them. I tried three during my testing phase- one was disgusting, one was intoxicating, and one was actually pretty decent provided you used actual ingredients. (Yes, two of those are the same link.)
 
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Oh, the boys sure did like the cookies last night. All 33 cookies were gone by the end of the night.

And, really? So very easy. I don't have either a stand mixer or a hand mixer, so the creaming was done with a fork. It came together really quickly and didn't kill my arm.

No one died last night, although Rob's character, Cooper, did do his best and come close volunteering as a human pincushion. He may die next week, as he's fallen victim to the charms of our enemies. My character got confused and dropped his rage, which meant that he was boned in terms of combat (penalties to armor class, attack rolls, damage, and some saving rolls) for the duration of this fight. I'm thinking we're still going to be in combat at the beginning of our next session.

Oh, crap! The haste bonus to AC is going to be gone when we start next week. That's minus another four. Damn it!

Note to DMs: if you decide to plan an adventure in the astral plane, make sure you are fully up on you trig. And make sure all of your players are, too. Stupid three-dimensional thinking. Floating in three-dimensional space around a small planetoid that has decided gravity is down (not towards the center of the sphere, but just DOWN), fighting on a ship that has crashed into the side of the planetoid with it's own decisions about gravity... oh, it gives me a headache. We had to get out a stress ball and stick pins into it do determine where we all were and which vectors we were taking to get to places.
 
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Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups AP flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside. Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in vanilla and egg. Stir in flour mixture, blending well. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and press to create discs; place on greased/parchment papered baking sheets. With a fork, create the traditional grid pattern on top. (Other ideas for the pattern: use the pointy end of a meat tenderizer or a cross-hatched potato masher.)

Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes.

Yield: about 30 cookies.
 
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

I made peanut butter cookies today. Why? I had all the ingredients, Rob said he liked them, and there's D&D tonight. I would have made oatmeal raisin cookies, but was rather lacking in the oatmeal area. I've got steel-cut, but that wouldn't really have worked (although it's kind of amusing to think about).

They tasted okay to me. If they go over well with the lads, I'll post the recipe.
 
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Well, that was disappointing.

Last night I made Steamed Wonton Bundles, using a recipe from a Thai cookbook I got for the holidays last year. And they were incredibly uninteresting. Very bland and the texture was all off. I will not be posting the recipe.

I guess I'm going to do some experimenting of my own to make these things real. Good thing the ingredients aren't expensive.
 
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Pardon me for a moment.

Eee! Fourth DVD set of Futurama comes out today! Cannot wait! Must buy! Speak only in sentence fragments! Get! Watch!

Love.
 
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Monday, August 23, 2004

Sorry, all. More "talking about food" rather than recipes. I haven't made anything new lately. I've got one recipe almost ready to go, and I've gotten some recipes from readers that I may make this next weekend. Or whenever my fridge runs out of leftovers.

So, I went to see Alton's show on Saturday. The event ran from 11am to 4:30pm. I think I stayed until about three or so. Alton's segments didn't start until after noon- I think he got there a little late. I was watching from near the back so I wouldn't be crushed by people. I could still see over their heads pretty well. Unfortunately, AB was not wearing his Utilikilt, as he did when he performed at the Orange County Fair (read Cynthia's account here). I think he said it was getting cleaned. Drat, I say.

Alton's first segment was on beef jerky. He used the same idea as when he dried herbs, with a box fan, air conditioner filters, and bungee cords. Unfortunately, the Simon Super Chef Tour did not get caterers' insurance, so none of us could actually taste anything he made. (It's not required everywhere, but it is necessary in California.) You have the jerky dry out for... twelve hours? Seven days? Somewhere in between there. Anyway, apparently every dog in your neighborhood will be drooling at your doors by the end of it. (You have to make sure you point the box fan away from your house or else it'll end up smelling like a smokehouse or a butcher shop or something.)

His second segment was about pâte à choux. I was really quite amazed by how quickly the dough/batter came together. I mean, I'd seen the episode ("Choux Shine"), but still, it was very impressive in person. Ryan said (when I told her about it later) that she'd be interested in trying it. Using the dough/batter (I forget which one it is, or if there's a word that means "kind of both"), he made cream puffs (well, empty ones), a funnel cake, and a doughnut. The doughnut was interesting because he'd just done a show on the more cake-like doughnuts, and these were, I guess, more like the puffy glazed ones you'd get elsewhere. He piped a circle on a little square of parchment paper and then turned the whole thing into the frying oil. When the doughnut fell away, he fished the paper out with the tongs. Messy, but easier than trying to pipe a circle into the oil itself.

I have to say, the Simon Super Chef Tour stage wasn't great. I wish they had installed a mirror over the cooking surface so you could see what was going on. They did have a couple of monitors set up that had video of what was happening, but it was very hard to see. Sun and glare and whatnot. It also would have helped if they had more chairs.

I was so glad that I'd gotten my cookbook signed by him last year (he did a signing at the Draeger's in San Mateo). Wow, was that line long. Lydia met me after the second segment and we hung around for about fifteen minutes, taking pictures of AB. We could actually get pretty close to the signing area.

I didn't stay for the third segment because I had a lot of shopping to do for Sunday. I think I heard it was going to be on turkey.

Oh, yeah, and I got a free loaf of bread at Boudin. The Simon people were giving out some rather excellent coupons at the event.

Finally, a yay to AB and Good Eats for getting recognized as darn good television by Heather Havrilesky in her column, "I Like to Watch," over at Salon.com.
 
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I spent yesterday hanging out with my family. Yay! Jon and Dad played golf, Ryan and Mom completed their lamps from last weekend's craft party, and I made appetizers. Nothing very new and exciting. I was going to make the Steamed Wonton Bundles from my Thai cookbook (so I can post a real recipe and stop feeling horrible about the Sandra Lee monstrosity that I somehow like), but we all decided that we would be too full for dinner. As it was, we had salsa, hummus, bean dip, and chicken liver mousse. It was a very dip-intensive round of hors d'oeuvres. And then I made twice-baked potatoes to go with the lamb we ate for dinner.

I got a chance to try out a new drink with my mom and Ryan. We had tamarind margaritas. These were a lot of work and far too strong for my taste. It took me about three hours to get to the point where I said, "Here, Dad, you finish this." (Because, you see, I nursed it for so long that they returned from their golfing.) Also, not terribly attractive drinks, kind of a tan color.

I'll post the recipe anyway. I need to write to Ryan and ask her for the recipe to my dad's margaritas (which I also think are too strong [although everyone else seems to love them], but they're easier than the tamarind ones). She wrote it down last night, but I was too lazy to grab a pen and paper.

Argh! Well, I was going to post the tamarind margarita recipe, but I can't find it. I was sure I stuck it in Here in America's Test Kitchen before I left last night, but apparently not. That's really annoying.
 
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Does anyone have any suggestions on where to find dried shrimp? My plan of buying some ramen cup-o-soups and fishing them out hit a snag. I guess they don't put as many in as they used to.

Asian market? Mexican market?
 
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Saturday, August 21, 2004

Okay, I attended two out of three demonstrations. I would have stayed for the third, but I had shopping to do. Which I now must do. I'll write about it later. Probably.
 
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Thursday, August 19, 2004

Seriously, I've got no takers for Saturday? No love for the AB?

(Stop it, Sarah! No one likes a petulant blogger!)

In other news, I may be getting an interesting lentil recipe soon.
 
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004

I've got a meatloaf currently cooking. It's the first time I've made one. I asked my mom for the recipe yesterday. Let's hope it turns out okay. I thought I had an onion, but I didn't, so I used some green onion.

I don't know- I just really felt like a meatloaf sandwich. Which I'll eat tomorrow, once the loaf is chilled.

Tomorrow for dinner. Lunch tomorrow is Thai food with my mom and some family friends.

I am very uninteresting today. It's a blah day.
 
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Meatloaf

1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1/2 onion minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup bread crumbs (about)
Pinch of garlic powder
Salt

NOTE: add the bread crumbs slowly until you have the right consistency. You may need more or less.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients together with hands. Form into loaf. Place on a rack over a sheet pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
 
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Hee. I'm watching Sara Moulton cook with Gordon Hamersley, and she's just so wee. He looks like a giant in her kitchen (which I have read was specially constructed for her petiteness).

So they're doing something with artichokes, and I have to ask, is it dangerous to eat the choke? Because I used to. All the time. When I was in college, we were pretty close to artichoke country, so when spring rolled around, you could get them really cheap. I hated halting my eating of them in order to scoop out the choke, so I just ate it. It was a little bitter, that's all. I didn't really run into the problem that gave the choke its name.
 
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Monday, August 16, 2004

Pardon me while I become a gibbering fangirl.

Next Saturday! Alton Brown! At the Stanford Shopping Center! It's part of the Simon Super Chefs tour! Oh my god, I'm SOOO there. Thank you, KCBS (my morning radio station), for having a commercial, or I never would have heard about it.

Copy from the website:
Simon Super Chefs Live! invites local food fans to a free day-long in-mall celebration of food, cooking, wine and shopping. Get up close and personal with some of today's most popular TV Celebrity Chefs, including: Lidia Bastianich, Michelle Bernstein, Alton Brown, Mary Ann Esposito, Sara Moulton, Jacques Pepin, Martin Yan and more.

Eeee! It's listed under San Francisco for some reason, but whatever. We get Alton! Whee! One grumble- the announcer on the radio spot pronounced Alton's name wrong. It's a hard "A," people. I asked AB about that when he signed my book last year.

So who wants to come with me?
 
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Sunday, August 15, 2004

Yesterday, Ryan hosted an AV Fest, during which we covered Ikea lamps with filmstrips and watched Mental Hygiene short films. There was a great deal of food, and some of that was made by me.

I made basil leaves stuffed with goat cheese, pork wrappers, chicken liver mousse, potato cheese sticks, salsa, roasted garlic and caramelized onion dip, and basil lime spritzers. Jon made guacamole, and Ryan made scones and mojitos (as well as cutting up the veggies served with the garlic-onion dip).

We do like going overboard with the foodstuffs. Jon's guac, as always, was superlative. The scones Ryan made were fantastic- she has these wonderful dried cherries from Michigan, and she incorporated them into the dough. I don't know how good I'd be at making scones. They require a quick hand, and I tend to dawdle over things. Well, I guess biscuits demand alacrity. Maybe I'll try the scones in the near future. Man, were they good.

Julia Child's chicken liver mousse is amazing. Totally kicks my recipe's ass. Adding an entire stick of butter and some cream really does wonders.

The garlic-onion dip was... okay. It tasted weird with the carrots, but with more bitter vegetables, it was good. I should have thought better than to have the sweetness of both the caramelized onions and the roasted garlic.

The potato cheese sticks didn't really turn out right. The mixture tasted fine- maybe a little overbeaten, but fine. (I don't own a ricer, so I kind of mashed up the potatoes with a fork. Clearly, this was not going to yield the same results.) I could not get them through the pastry tube at all. I ended up shaping them into little patties and baking them. They tasted pretty good right out of the oven, but I had made them the night before, and these were an item that needed to be served fairly soon after baking.

The basil-lime spritzer was kind of a surprise. I've wanted to make it for a while now. I have a binder full of clipped magazine recipes, and the recipe for the syrup was in the middle of the first page. Whenever I went in there to find something, it taunted me. Really, it's not very hard to make, and it's really quite refreshing. Ryan had some lime-mint-sugar mix left over from the mojitos yesterday, and so I went over today and made some more. I made a few changes- added some lemon zest to the first step, and included some mint with the basil during the blender step. It was kind of a "why the hell not?" thing to make, and I was glad it turned out so well.

Yes, I made the pork wrappers for people. And they liked them. Jon even made a little dipping sauce with soy and rice wine vinegar. Seriously, every time I make them, I'm just going to feel dirty. Sandra Lee made a sauce with Cheez Whiz on Semi-Homemade yesterday. CHEEZ WHIZ, people. I fear for our nation's digestive systems.
 
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Bouchées Parmentier au Fromage
Potato Cheese Sticks
Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1/2 lb. baking potatoes (2 medium potatoes)
1 cup sifted AP flour
1 stick softened butter
1 egg
1 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/8 tsp white pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt, to taste

Peel and quarter the potatoes. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain, then put through a ricer. You should have about 1 cup.

Stir the potatoes over moderate heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan for 2-3 minutes until they form a light film on the bottom of the pan, indicating most of their moisture has been evaporated.

Beat the flour into the potatoes, then the butter by fractions, then the egg, cheese, and seasonings. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Preheat oven to 425. Either butter 2 baking sheets or cover them with parchment paper.

With a fluted pastry tube 1/4 inch in diameter, squeeze the mixture into 2 1/2-inch lngths spaced 1/2-inch apart onto the baking sheets. Bake both sheets at the same time for about 15 minutes, or until the sticks are lightly browned.
 
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Mousse de Fois de Volaille
Chicken Liver Mousse
Mastering the Art of French Cooking

1 lb chicken livers
2 Tbsp minced shallots or green onions
2 Tbsp butter
1 stick butter, melted
1/3 cup Madeira or congac
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp pepper
Pinch of thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste

Look the livers over and remove and greenish or blackish spots. Cut the livers into 1/2-inch pieces.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the livers with the shallots (or green onions) for 2 to 3 minutes or until the livers are just stiffened, but still rosy inside. Scrape into a blender or food processor.

Pour the Madeira (or cognac) into the skillet and boil it down rapidly until it has reduced to approximately 3 Tbsp. Add this to the blender.

Add the cream, salt, allspice, pepper, and thyme to the blender. Blend at top speed for several seconds until the liver is at a smooth paste. Add the melted butter and blend several seconds more.

Force the mixture through a fine sieve and taste for seasoning. Pack the mousse into a bowl, cover, and chill for 2-3 hours or overnight.
 
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Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion Dip

Olive oil
1 head of garlic
1 Tbsp butter
3 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium onions)
3 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp cream cheese
3 Tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut the top off the head of garlic, place in a baking dish, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for an hour. Squeeze the garlic from the cloves, mash with a fork, and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add the butter. After it melts, add the onions and some salt and cook slowly for about 20 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Unocver and turn the heat up to medium high. Cook the onions until golden brown, stirring quite frequently. Remove from heat and cool.

Combine the sour cream and cream cheese, stirring well. Add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne. Mix to combine, then add the garlic and onions. Stir, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
 
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Basil Lime Spritzer
Food and Wine Magazine

3/4 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lime, removed in strips with a vegetable peeler
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (2-3 limes)
1/4 cup water
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil

Bring sugar, zest, juice, and water to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let syrup stand, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Discard zest and pour syrup into a blender. Add basil and blend for 20 seconds. Pour through a fine sieve lined with a rinsed and squeezed paper towel unto a bowl or measuring cup, then cool. The syrup will keep for 2-3 days, covered and chilled.

Pour 1-2 tablespoons into an ice-filled glass, top off with sparkling water, stir, and enjoy. Very refreshing.
 
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Saturday, August 14, 2004

I am exhausted. I have done a lot of cooking over the last two days. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. I sleep now!
 
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Friday, August 13, 2004

No! This sucks!

By now, you've probably heard that Julia Child died. She was 91. I am very saddened. She will be missed.

I think I'm going to go cook now.
 
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Thursday, August 12, 2004

Below is the cookie recipe from The Joy of Cooking. The changes I made were that I did not chop the raisins, I toasted the oats a little in the oven while I was getting the rest of the recipe together, and I used a spoon to smush the cookies instead of my hands. I think I also used a smaller drop size, because I got 48 cookies out of the recipe as opposed to the 42 it indicated. Also, the thing about parchment paper was me. I find greasing the cookie sheet to be overkill. Plus, with parchment paper, cleanup is much easier.

The salsa that I made the other day was Number 5 with more chiles. I watched the broiler more carefully this time and pulled them before they became spicy nails. However, with some of the smaller chiles, I will probably add them raw next time. It was too difficult to separate the skin and seed them and have anything less. They were quite small. With the extra chiles, the salsa was much hotter (duh). Still very tasty. After cooling, I found that it needed and extra shot of lemon juice and salt.

The hummus, as I explained in my comment below, was not good. It saddened me, because it was Alton Brown's recipe, and while I have the utmost respect for the guy and adore his shows to bits, his recipes always seem to fail for me. Well, not always. 50/50. I'm not going to crib the recipe from the Food Network site, but here's a link. It had far too much lemon (I would suggest using just the juice, not both the juice and the zest) and was lacking in spice/spicyness. I tried to improve the situation by adding some cumin and Tabasco, but it didn't really work. Also, the final product was very, very loose. I do like a looser hummus for popcorn-dipping, but this was going a wee bit too far. I'd cut back on the oil or the reserved garbanzo liquid.

I should review recipes over at Food Network, but... it doesn't seem right, a positive review for a Sandra Lee recipe and a negative one for AB. (I made the Pork Wrappers again to finish up the wonton wrappers before they expired, and they are actually kind of tasty. Bad Sarah! Bad!)
 
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Classic Oatmeal Cookies
Joy of Cooking

1 3/4 cups AP flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 lb unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins, chopped
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350. Grease a cookie sheet or prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Place the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a mixer and beat on medium speed until well blended. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until blended and smooth. Stir in the raisins and oats.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. With lightly greased hands, lightly press the cookies down to form 1/2-inch-thick rounds. Bake until the cookies are lightly browned all over and almost firm when lightly pressed in the center of the top, 6 to 9 minutes; rotate the sheet halfway through baking for even browning. Remove the sheet (or the parchment) to a rack and let sstand until the cookies firm slightly, about 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool.
 
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D&D Update

We were able to raise our cleric from the dead, so yay. My armor lost its magical bonus to protect me, so boo, but I was only going to keep it until I reached next level (trying to be optimistic). My armor class has been knocked down by two points, and I'm going to lose money on its trade-in value. My belt of displacement totally proved its worth tonight. I think I missed out on some major hurting because of that.

We ran away from a dreadnought, killed a crapload of umber hulks, discovered our gnome NPC companions were actually good metallic dragons, and failed to kill a nightwight (but we did manage to kill a creature it summoned).

We're not meeting next week. Sadness.
 
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Well, I won't be able to post the recipe for the cookies I made until I get my hands on the second half of The Joy of Cooking. I made oatmeal-raisin cookies, and they turned out quite well (although I don't think they're as good as Ryan's). I'm always a little wary of my baking skills.
 
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Today I made good cookies, good salsa, and disappointing hummus today. I'll expand on this later.
 
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Sunday, August 08, 2004

I made some excellent salsa yesterday. Really, I think it's my best yet. At least in terms of the cooked salsa. I was so sure it was only going to be "meh" that I didn't really pay attention to what I was putting in it. Damn it!

The main thing I did differently was that I used lemon juice instead of lime. I wonder if that simple switch was what made the difference. I used ReaLemon, not noticing that Ryan had bought about twelve limes earlier in the day. Perhaps not seeing three feet in front of me made this salsa excellent. Woo for myopia, I suppose.

Ryan's garden is going gangbusters. I used some of her chile peppers in the salsa. She planted four different kinds- jalapenos, serranos, Thai dragons, and what was named on the tag as "Super Chiles," or words to that effect. I wanted to use them all in the salsa, but the serrano and Super Chiles got incinerated beyond help during the roasting phase. It's probably a good thing, because otherwise it might have been too hot to eat.

Jon and Ryan have crazy mad herbs. The best ones seem to be the mint, basil, and oregano. The only herbs that are not living up to their end of the bargain are the dill and cilantro. Apparently, if the soil in which these are planted gets too hot, they start bolting. On the other hand, soon we'll have coriander.

I'll try and reconstruct the salsa recipe. I was not going for texture in this, so I just whizzed it up in the food processor until smooth.
 
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Salsa Attempt No. 5

6 tomatoes
8 tomatillos
1 onion
5 cloves of garlic (I was using up a bulb, so it was all those wee ones in the center)
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 chipotle in adobo
2 jalapenos, seeded
1 Thai dragon chile
Handful of cilantro
Salt and pepper

Turn on the broiler and move the oven rack to the second to the top position. On a broiling pan, arrange the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion pieces, Thai dragon chile, and one jalapeno pepper. Place under the broiler and cook until pretty well browned or blackened, turning vegetables to cook evenly, probably 10 to 20 minutes.

Seed and de-membrane-ify the other jalapeno pepper. Put this pepper, the garlic, chipotle pepper, lemon juice, and cilantro in a food processor.

Take the vegetables out from under the broiler. Cover for about five minutes. Take the skins off of the tomatoes, tomatillos, and chile peppers. Seed the pepper as well as you can, and then put everything in the food processor. Puree until it reaches a consistency you like. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill before serving.
 
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Thursday, August 05, 2004

If you do a Google search on "sandra lee television without pity," Braisin' Hussy is the fourth site listed. It's before the actual forum thread on Television Without Pity about Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee. That seems kind of wrong to me.

Taking a quick nap is not cool if you have a quick dream about an iguana chomping on your feet.

Lydia, you're awesome. Thanks for the link to McMurray Hatchery. You're right, those baby chicks are way cute. I'm still too much of a wimp to do it now. But someday, oh yes. (And the pictures from Zack's birthday party cracked me up. Even if the pictures of Link put me in mind of that guy who dresses like Peter Pan. Scary!)
 
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D&D Notes

(You're all so excited, I can tell.)

In case you're curious, our party was comprised of:
Mynnyd, a dwarven barbarian,
Cooper, a human fighter/ranger/devoted defender,
Merreck, a human illusionist with a penchant for dragons (his familiar is a wee red dragon named Kethend),
Joanna, a human cleric of Durann (formerly a paladin of Tiphaneron- she lied and lost her powers),
Sagittarius, a pointy-eared human (he's been surgically altered) bard/rogue/ranger/archane archer, and
Phaedra, a human sorceress (I'm not sure if she's anything else- I only played two sessions with her before her player became DM)

Why do I say "was"? Well, we wrapped up our latest campaign last week, and our DM (Phaedra when a PC) left the area for a while. So we switched DMs (Sagittarius) and now have to get used to a party of four instead of five.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is for me to say that I'm terribly sorry, Joanna, for getting you killed. It did not occur to Mynnyd that the red dragon or its rider might actually want to talk to us. He's more of the "shoot first and ask questions later" type of guy. (We did kill the dragon eventually, but the rider escaped.)

This does present some problems, though, since we just lost the person we were counting on to heal us. Damn! Here's hoping the DM decides to be nice and allow her to return on the Astral Plane (where we are) instead of the Ethereal Plane or back in Manifest.
 
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Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Tonight, Rob came over for dinner. I am currently in many dinner debts to him. I decided to try a couple of new things.

First, the Saturday Night Vidalia Onions (recipe cribbed from Paula Deen and the Food Network website). These are ridiculously easy. I couldn't find Vidalias, so I used Walla Walla onions. Paula called for beef boullion cubes, which I didn't have, but Jon did have Better Than Bouillon in his fridge, so I used a teaspoon of that instead. I thought that some roasted garlic might go well with the onions, so I tossed a clove in on top of the bouillon.

Results? Well, the garlic did not work at all. If I want roasted garlic next time, I'm just going to roast a head next to the onions. The BtB was perhaps a little too salty, but I don't think that would go away if I used a cube instead. The broth was very tasty. The onion itself tasted a little... watery or something. Probably it was due to the use of Walla Wallas over Vidalias. I would probably make it again. Interesting to have an onion soup you eat with a knife.

The other dish that I made (which I have not posted a recipe for yet) was Oven-Fried Chicken. I used the recipe from The Best Recipe by the Cook's Illustrated people. But there was a twist! In their recipe, they use melba toast crumbs. I used... Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Nips. (lovelovelove) However, this in turn caused me some difficulties with the rest of the instructions in the recipe. Should I add salt, or will the Nips cover that? (Answer: Add salt.) Will the Nips alone provide enough flavor? (Answer: Not really.) My final analysis is that it needs work, but could be awesome. I will be trying this again. I'm not going to post a recipe until I feel that it is good enough.
 
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Saturday Night Vidalia Onions
Paula's Home Cooking - Paula Deen

4 large Vidalia onions
4 beef bouillon cubes
4 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground black pepper


Prepare a fire in a charcoal grill or preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Trim and slice from the top of each onion, and peel the onion without cutting off the root end. Using a potato peeler, cut a small cone shaped section from the center of the onion. Cut the onion into quarters from the top down, stopping within a 1/2-inch of the root end. Place a bouillon cube in the center of each onion, slip slivers of butter between the sections, and sprinkle with pepper. Wrap each onion in heavy duty foil and place the onions directly onto the hot coals. Cook the onions for 45 minutes turning every so often.

To serve, place each onion in individual bowl because the onions will produce a lot of broth, which tastes like French onion soup.

 
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Monday, August 02, 2004

In case you're wondering why there's a recipe with just ingredients, it's because apparently I spent too long typing the recipe out and got logged out of Blogger, losing my post. I am too annoyed right now to rewrite it.
 
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