Braisin' Hussy

Monday, January 31, 2005

Saturday night was Jon's birthday party. I made the chicken liver pate, which now appears to be my "thing," and focaccia with salt and rosemary. (While the focaccia is baking, wash some rosemary springs and take off a bunch of the leaves. When you go to turn the focaccia after fifteen minutes, sprinkle the rosemary over the top. Bake another eight minutes as directed.) Jon made guacamole and pizzas. Ryan made basil-lime spritzers, mulled wine, and a kick-ass carrot cake. It was SO GOOD.

On Sunday, I went to the White Elephant Preview Sale in Oakland with Ryan and Sara. We bought some excellent things. I got an small, extremely fine-mesh sieve (25¢) , a knife block (50¢), a nicely-turned clay cup that I think I'm going to keep chopsticks in (50¢), the second volume of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking ($10, there were copies for $8 and $6, but it's a first edition and in quite nice condition), The Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated ($10), a 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking ($4), and a copy of The French Chef (50¢), a recipe book from Julia Child's first television series. Ryan got a couple of copper molds (a fish and a lobster, she uses them as wall decorations), a clay roaster, a circular marble slab, a magnet, and some books (my brain has stopped there with its remembering). Sara got a lot of fabric for her crazy schemes, Phyllis Diller's Housekeeping Hints, some frightening Nativities, and a religious plate that makes Jesus look, well, unfortunate. (Sara showed it to me and I asked, "Is Jesus making a booty call?" She then decided she had to have it.) Again, my brain has quit on the list. Anyway, an excellent time was had by all.

I was reading through the Going Bridal Confessions this morning, and came across a woman who described her future husband as "so laid back he's almost comatoast." Mm, comatoast. I wonder if that's a coma induced by eating too much toast, or a spontaneous coma brought on by a piece of really excellent toast, or the kind of toast they feed through your IV when you're in a coma. So many possibilities!

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Sunday, January 30, 2005

It has begun. The first Katamari Damacy cosplayers have hit the web. There are pictures of the Dashing Prince of All Cosmos here, here, and here. Also, there's a Kuro, a Katamari Kousin, at the same event (Ohayocon- it's a pun, get it?). That picture is here. As the King of All Cosmos might say, "It's okay, but you can do better. Well, since you're the Prince, you should do much better." And while it might work in the game, trying to actually make a katamari that collects stuff and gets bigger in real life is tough. Eventually you just look like you're lugging a pile of garbage around.

Why am I concerned with this? Well, as many of you know, Lydia and I will be attending Fanime in May. Lydia loves the cosplay. She's quite good at it. She had been trying to get me to cosplay for this event. I refused, because cosplay can scare me. She told me of her plan to be the Dashing Prince. I laughed. Then I started playing Katamari Damacy. Then I was obsessed with the game. And so, I decided to join forces with Lydia and be a Katamari Kousin. Which one? Well, I'm partial to Kuro. Lydia likes Ichigo. Rob likes Jungle. The only annoying thing about Kuro is that his katamari doesn't match well. I'm struggling to decide whether to make it the colors on the official site, or black, red, and grey, as I think it should be.

I did some calculations based on the game characters and discovered that for the standard cylindrical head, the width is approximately 70% your height. In my case, that's about four feet. Meaning I'm going to have about 20 inches on either side of my head.

Lydia wants her katamari to have stuff stuck to it. I want mine to be pristine. Actually, what I really want is a katamari purse. Like knit the pattern sort of in the manner of this goofy hat here, attach it to some sorta spherical frame, and keep my stuff in it. Streamlining. I think I may ask Sara if she'd take a commission.

Anyway, I'm certain many more Katamari cosplayers will be popping up with each convention. Stay tuned!

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Friday, January 28, 2005

It's Jon's birthday! Yay! I got him the DVDs of the first hundred Strong Bad emails from Homestarrunner.com. When it arrived earlier in the week, I was incredibly tempted to keep them for myself. They would have upped the coolness factor of my DVDs shelves by, like, a million. I may buy them for myself in the future. We may play them tomorrow at the party.

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I know I haven't talked about her in a while, so just to let you all know, I still can't stand Sandra Lee. Ugh. Her latest show, "Comfort Food II" made me want to vomit.

On to lighter subjects. I'm not sure if I mentioned that the Semi-Homemade thread on Television Without Pity was expanded into a whole forum, but it was. It's pretty rare for a show that isn't and was never recapped to get its own forum. The only other ones in recent history were Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Friends, and those have both been taken back down to a single thread.

Food Network personalities have been doing a bunch of appearances lately. InnerCanuck went to an Alton Brown book signing where Sandra Lee was mentioned briefly, to amusing results. Another member, thelifestylist (who trademarked that title a long time ago, and has been in a bunch of legal proceedings over Sandra's appropriation of it), went to an event of Sandra's at St. Anthony's Hospital in Oklahoma City, where, amazingly, they had asked her to make low-fat and heart-healthy dishes... ooooookay. Anyway, read her descriptions of the event here, here, and here.

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Thursday, January 27, 2005

So, I haven't actually made this soup yet, but I know it's good. Ryan makes it sometimes. It is the soup I was talking about here. It looks pretty easy. I should make it. We were talking about how it'd probably be good with a garnish of the roasted cauliflower, as well.

I was talking to Lydia last night and we decided that since there's a song on the soundtrack called "Katamari on the Rocks," that there should be a drink called that, too. (It's the main theme song, in case you didn't know. "Don't worry, do your best! Waaa! Nanana nanana nana nanana nanana nana! Picnic kibun feel so good!" Etc.) It would be kind of a presentation drink, because there'd have to be a good deal of planning to make it. Different colored, possibly different flavored icecubes, made and then sort of melted into each other and refrozen to make kind of a ball. We talked about alcohol icecubes, but those wouldn't freeze totally solid. Maybe that would help, I don't know. Possibly some bright green liquor to symbolize the Dashing Prince, I guess that would be midori, but that's terribly sweet, so we'd have to cut it with something. I don't know. The melting ice cubes would muck up the color eventually. Hm. Work in progress.

(I may be editing this post a little later depending on whether I got those lyrics right. "Katamari" might be "Don't worry", but I don't have the actual album, so I can't check.) (Checked the lyrics- it IS "Don't worry," surprisingly enough!)

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Potato-Leek Soup
Pass the Polenta

3 tablespoons butter
4 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
4 russet potatoes, peeled
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh herbs for garnish

Use the white and light green parts of the leeks only. Peel the pototoes and cut into bite-sized chunks. Melt the butter in a heavy pan over low heat and cook the potatoes and leeks a few minutes until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes until potatos are tender. Remove the bay leaf, take off heat, and puree with a stick blender. Add the cream, but do not boil. Thin with water if needed, and garnish with freshly chopped parsley, tarragon or chervil.

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Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Okay, a post where I have to think a little, not just mindless copying from a cookbook. Hm.

Lydia came over on Sunday. We went to Left Bank, a lovely little French restaurant. We each ordered the soup and split an order of fondue and mussels with fries. The fondue was quite good. The soup was all right, but not exactly what I expected. We were so full by the time the mussels came that we had to get a doggie bag. I was a little worried about eating mussels the day after they were cooked, but they were fine. I ate them cold because I didn't want them to get rubbery with reheating. I froze the broth, just in case I need something to augment a seafood dish in the future. I think we could have gotten just the fondue and the mussels and have been fine. Or we'd have had room for dessert- Lydia was interested in panna cotta, but we were too ful.

I was supposed to go to a TWoP meeting on Saturday, but I got extremely lost in the city and didn't end up making it. We were going to meet at a bar in the Haight, but I screwed up the directions hardcore, and ended up driving through Twin Peaks (which looked vaguely familiar as a place I've gotten to while getting lost in the past) and eventually wound up at the Stonestown Galleria. At that point, I called Jon and told him I was coming over. LAME.

Last night was D&D, woo. Oh, I never wrote about what we did last week. Well, the Piran Sedestal was testing our wizard, Merreck, for entrance into the group. The test they decided to use was to have us all go back to the astral plane and move the planetoid either back to the material plane or to a pocket plane. We met up and fought a bunch of mindflayers- Mynnyd got mindblasted and couldn't move for the entire fight, but Cooper killed two of them (and almost got his brain sucked out in the process) and Merreck disintigrated one. I don't remember how the fourth one died. Once we got to the spheroid, we ran into a gelugon (ice devil) who scared the crap out of everyone except Mynnyd (look! I made a will save!), and they all ran off with brown trousers, leaving Mynnyd to deal with the devil, a hellcat, and an imp. Possibly something else, too. I almost killed the imp as it was running away (I think I hit it for thirteen points twice [it healed in between]), killed the hellcat, and decided it would be prudent to leave the devil when I got down to six hit points. Luckily, Mynnyd has a ring of elemental resistance to cold, which absorbs fifteen points of damage per round, which was useful because this guy liked to use cone of cold a lot. I mean, if I had that sort of power at will, I'd probably use it a lot, too.) I forget what else we killed. Random minions, I think. The devil was very interested in removing an infernal torture device from the planetoid and taking it back to hell with him. (This is the device, that, coincidentally, was used to kill all of Mynnyd's clan members back in the day.) After another confrontation, we decided to talk with the devil. Which takes us to this week's session.

According to him, there's a bunch of gith-yanki on their way to the planetoid to... actually, I don't know what they want, whether it's the machine or the land or what. The devil wants our help in defending the planetoid so he can get the machine and we can do whatever we want with the planetoid. Because it's always a good idea to make deals with devils. We ended up agreeing to this after fighting a bunch of githyanki warriors, a githyanki sorcerer, and a red dragon. Helping out on the devil's side were some kytons. They didn't seem to do much damage, sadly. I don't think we got any hits on the dragon, although I did hit its rider with a couple of arrows. The devil fared better with the dragon, because the devil is immune to fire, and the dragon will take double damage from cold if it fails its reflex save. So, ow.

Our DM, Jer, came up with a very intriguing proposition to rid Mynnyd of his belt of displacement (20% missed chance, and I love it). The devil offered him a chance to free the souls of his clan from the ninth level of hell in exchange for the belt. I don't want to let it go! But I'm pretty sure Mynnyd would do it. After we get some rest (so that Merreck has spells once again- those go FAST in the astral plane), we're going to test his ability to release these souls, and then Mynnyd (most likely, damn it) will give him the belt so the others will go free.

We still don't know what this machine thing does, but Sagittarius feels okay with letting the devil have it. I'm really not sure why.

There's a book signing with Alton Brown tonight at the Books Inc. in Palo Alto. I'd go, but it's going to be packed. Plus, I already have my book signed. Don't want to wait in that line.

I soaked and prepared a bunch of dried cannellini and garbanzo beans over the weekend. I'm planning on using them in soups or something. Garbanzo beans are really quite tasty. I was surprised- I'd never eaten them just plain before.

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Monday, January 24, 2005

Double-Boiler Polenta

4 cups boiling water
1 tsp. salt
1 c medium-grind cornmeal

Bring about 2 inches of water to boil in bottom of double boiler; reduce to simmer and maintain throughout cooking process.

Into the top pan of the double boiler, set over the simmering water, add 4 cups boiling water. Add salt, then gradually sprinkle in the cornmeal, whisking constantly to avoid lump formation.

Cover and cook until polenta is very soft and smooth, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring for several seconds every 10 to 15 minutes. (Once cooked, polenta can be covered and saved up to 4 hours and reheated; stir in a bit of water if necessary.)

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Friday, January 21, 2005

Okay, that is a ridiculous recipe to type out. I don't know why I felt compelled to copy the entire thing, instead of simply saying, you know, "Knead the dough for ten minutes." I'm sure there's a reason that Marcella Hazan wants you to do it that way. And she'd probably yell at me for kneading it without a specially formulated plan. I think there's a much easier way to write this. Whatever. That was damn tasty focaccia. Next time, maybe add some garlic and rosemary. Yum.

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Focaccia with Salt
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
6 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp salt
Extra olive oil for smearing the baking pan
A mixture of 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 Tbsp water
About a tablespoon of coarse sea salt

Dissolve the yeast by stirring it into 1/2 cup lukewarm water, and let it stand about 1o minutes.

Combine the yeast and 1 cup of flour in a bowl, mixing them thoroughly. Then add the 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon salt, 3/4 cup water, and half the remaining flour (2 3/4 cup). Mix thoroughly until the dough feels soft, but compact, and no longer sticks to the hands. Put in the remaining flour and 3/4 cup water, and mix thoroughly once again. When putting in the flour and water for the last time, hold back some of both and add only as much as you need to make the dough manageable, soft, but not too sticky. On a very damp, rainy, for example, you may need less water and more of the flour.

Take the dough out of the bowl, and slap it down very hard several times, until it is stretched out lengthwise. Reach for the far end of the dough, fold it a short distance toward you, push it away with the heel of your palm, flexing your wrist, fold it, and push it away again, gradually rolling it up and bringing it close to you. It will have a tapered, roll-like shape. Pick up the dough, holding it by one of the tapered ends, life it high above the counter, and slap it down hard again several times, stretching it out in a lengthwise direction. Reach for the far end, and repeat the kneading motion with the heel of your palm and your wrist, bringing it close to you once more. Work the dough in this manner for 10 minutes. At the end, pat it into a round shape.

(The preceding 2 steps may be carried out in the food processor, but the hand method, aside from the physical satisfactions it provides, produces a focaccia with better texture.)

Smear the middle of the baking sheet (about 18 by 14 inches) with about 2 tablespoons olive oil, put the kneaded, rounded dough on it, cover it with a damp cloth, and leave to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

When the indicated rising time has elapsed, stretch out the dough in the baking pan, spreading it toward the edges so that it covers the entire pan to a depth of about 1/4-inch. Cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise for 45 minutes.

At least 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, put the baking stone in the oven and preheat oven to 450.

When the second rising time for the dough has elapsed, keeping the fingers of your hand stiff, poke the dough all over, making many little hollows with your fingertips. Beat the mixture of oil and water with a small whisk or fork until you have obtained a fairly homogenous emulsion, then pour it slowly over the dough, using a brush to spread it all the way out to the edges of the pan. You will find that the liquid will pool in the hollows made by your fingertips. Sprinkle the coarse sea salt evenly over the dough. Place the pan on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Check the focaccia after 15 minutes. If you find it is cooking faster on one side that another, turn the pan accordingly. Bake for another 7 to 8 minutes. Lift the focaccia out of the pan with spatulas, and transfer it to a cooling rack.

Serve focaccia warm or at room temperature that same day. It is preferable not to keep it longer, but if you must, it is better to freeze than refrigerate. Reheat in a very hot oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

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Thursday, January 20, 2005

So, as you may have read in the comments below, Trader Joe's has indeed gotten rid of the Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes, even though they were, like, the best thing at that store. I may exaggerate, but damn, I'm going to miss them. Enough to blog twice about them, apparently. Wahhh! [/tantrum]

I've got some foccacia dough a-rising and the oven's heating up for roasting cauliflower. I'm eating some of Ryan's very excellent potato-leek soup. I would really like this recipe. It's quite lovely, and good to eat cold or hot.

You know, I've got to say, kneading by hand is kind of theraputic. Clears the head and whatnot. However, there are other times when you want dough done, so yay for the Kitchenaid.

Watched Point Pleasant last night. Wow, that was teh s uck. I'm going to watch the other half of the pilot tonight, but it's going to have to be spectacular in order to overcome the crap that was the first half. I'm certain, though, that I'm not going to be adding it to my season passes. Not even sure I'll read the TWoP recaps. That's baaaaad.

Now that the crapweasel Jonathan has been booted off The Amazing Race, I'm going to be able to start watching it again. He made it so unpleasant that I couldn't watch. That's baaaaad.

Jer got the Katamari Damacy soundtrack. I've been listening to it in the car. It makes me happy to be alive.

Man, that's some awesome soup.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Here's my mini-review of the cooking show "Seasonings with Dede Wilson."

The episode I watched was "A Dinner for Martin Luther King Day." It had some pretty decent looking southern food on it. Dede wasn't actually doing the cooking- Joyce White, her guest, was. There were also two other women on the program- someone to talk about wine, and someone to talk about decorating. Now, I understand that the title of "the next Martha Stewart" is very appealing, but don't make your show too busy.

My main problem was that the amounts of things weren't given. The guest, Joyce, made an orange buttermilk pie that looked pretty tasty, but I have no idea at the amounts of the ingredients. If I paused the show, it looked three egg yolks... maybe. I'm guessing that was a cup of sugar? That was really annoying. The website for the show only has selected recipes. Damn it, I just want to make that pie.

(Yeah, this is a post from the Television Without Pity forums that I wrote earlier today. I was hoping someone would respond with a link to the recipe. No luck so far.)

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Hey all. Feeling all better now. Yay! I haven't really been cooking, though. On Saturday night I was over at Jon and Ryan's, and Sunday and Monday I was in Mountain View. Oh, and I guess Tuesday, too, since D&D is tonight. We haven't played in, like, a month. I've been reading cookbooks, does that count?

Ooh, I have something to add. I'm bringing the spicy bean dip tonight to D&D (which reminds me, I need to leave early so I can stop by a store and get tortilla chips), and WOW is that awesome to make with a Kitchenaid. It blends the cream cheese so well! And I used the Cuisinart to shred the cheese. That also was very cool, using one of the disc attachments. Except now I have things to wash. Eh, whatever.

I didn't have sour cream, so I used plain yogurt. I tried it, it doesn't taste weird. Oh, crap, I didn't put in quite a teaspoon of cayenne, now that I look at the recipe. This is why I should never try to do things by memory.

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Friday, January 14, 2005

Day four. Feeling somewhat like a normal human being, even though I couldn't get to sleep until after 5:30 this morning. I miss one of my nostrils. Aside from that, a pounding headache, and coughing grossly every now and then, I think I'm getting better. Still not that interested in actually eating food, though, which is totally weird.

Went to Trader Joe's to buy macaroni and cheese- they didn't have farina, which saddened me. Anyway, their milk prices have gone up ten cents (boo!), and it looks like they might be getting rid of the Muir Glen Fire-Roasted Tomatoes (double, triple, and quadruple boo!). That pisses me off something fierce, because those are excellent canned tomatoes and they were at such an excellent price. $1.19 for a 28-ounce can. Those are, like, three dollars anywhere else.

Moment of silence, please, for the tomatoes.

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Thursday, January 13, 2005

Day three. Now I want mac & cheese.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Still sick. I totally want farina.

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Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Yep, I'm sick.

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Monday, January 10, 2005

So, I broke in my shiny new gadgets over this last week. I made pizza dough in the Kitchenaid and hummus in the Cuisinart. Unfortunately, the yeast I used for the dough was dead (oldness), so it never rose. Fault of the ingredients, not the recipe or equipment. And the hummus turned out well (No. 1), although I didn't have quite the full amount of sesame seeds. I was going to make up the rest with tahini, but I couldn't find it. I think I left it at my parents' house, so I'll get it when I head over there sometime this week. So I used peanut butter. It was fine.

On Saturday, I went down to Mountain View and hung out with Rob and Jer. There was much Katamari Damacy and snacking. Jer and I went for pho. I'd never had it before. Big ol' bowl of beef broth with noodles and meat and veggies. Not bad, especially when you glopped a bunch of hot sauce on it.

Last night, I went over to Jon's to witness the making of fromage fort (we were inspired by the recipes of Jacques Pepin and Alton Brown, but this recipe seems closer to what we made). If you've never heard of it, it's what to do if you've got a bunch of different leftover cheeses. You cut them up into chunks (removing the rind and any mold, of course) and put them into a food processor with a bunch of garlic, salt, pepper, and some white wine. Process until creamy, and use as a spread on bread or crackers. However, we learned that maybe you shouldn't just use wine, that you should cut it with a little water. Because our comment while tasting and tweaking seasoning was, "Well, it's definitely got enough wine in it!" So yeah, a little on the boozy side. And I reek of garlic today. ^) ^

I think I might be coming down with something. I've started coughing. Hm, better make some chicken soup. Yay!

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Friday, January 07, 2005

Before I left the company, I got a lovely present from one of my supervisors- Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. She's basically the Julia Child of Italian food instruction (except she yells at you a little more). I'd actually been looking for her books at my local used book stores. So bravo to Tracy! Excellent choice.

Yesterday, I made "A Single Fish Cooked Fish-Soup Style." I described it to my brother as a fish soup, then outlined the ingredients, and he said, "Sounds like cioppino." I described it to my mom as cioppino, and she said, "Without shellfish or fennel or stock?" So it's kind of halfway between the two. Seriously, one of the easiest things I've ever made. I used about a pound each of swordfish steaks and red snapper fillets. When I make it again, I'm just going to stick to one fish- probably the red snapper. I had moments of panic thinking about doneness, because the swordfish steaks were quite a bit thicker than the red snapper. Also, I had too much fish and not enough soup. So, one pound of fish next time. And I'm not quite sure how to reheat it without overcooking the fish. I should have known better and had people over to eat it all up.

Why am I the best sister ever? When Jon and Ryan came back from Hawaii, they had several containers of stock, a loaf of bread, and a batch of cookies waiting for them. Why are Jon and Ryan the best family members ever? They brought me salt. Beautiful red salt.

I think today is going to be spent moving stuff around on my shelves so I have enough space for all my lovely cookbooks.

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A Single Fish Cooked Fish-Soup Style
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (simplified)

1 to 1 1/2 pounds fish steaks or fillets (recommended: sea bass, red snapper, mahi mahi, monkfish, flounder, halibut, grouper, tilefish, mako shark, swordfish)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp chopped parsley (plus extra for garnish)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes, with juice
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse the fish in cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until the garlic has turned pale gold. Add the parsley and cook for about thirty seconds, then add the white wine.

Let the white wine simmer for about a minutes, then add the tomatoes and the red pepper flakes (optional). Adjust the heat so the mixture is at a moderate simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Put the fish in the pan, making sure the steaks or fillets do not overlap each other. Sprinkle liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Adjust the heat to medium low and cover the pan. Cook for 5 minutes, then carefully turn over the fish and cook for another 5 minutes. (If your fish is thick, it may take 7 or minutes per side.)

Transfer the fish carefully to a warmed serving dish and pour the liquid over it. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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Thursday, January 06, 2005

"Hey, Sarah. I'm in downtown Palo Alto and have five dollars burning a hole in my pocket. What should I do?"

You should go to Coupa Cafe and get some spicy hot chocolate. And possibly pick up a few of their specialty chocolates. (I guess their coffee's good, too, but I'm not a coffee drinker, so I couldn't say.) Mm, tasty.

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Tuesday, January 04, 2005

The spoon bread is pretty good, but clearly only something you make, like, twice a year. A cup of cream? Real maple syrup? Wow. Also, I slightly overcooked it. I was doing the knife test, and stuff kept clinging to it. So I changed the knife test in the recipe from "clean" to "mostly clean."

I remember reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a kid, and being fascinated by the maple candies she made (I think in Little House in the Big Woods) by pouring syrup on snow and letting it harden. I tried that once. With crushed ice and Mrs. Butterworth (or maybe it was Log Cabin). Needless to say, it really didn't work.

No D&D tonight.

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Sunday, January 02, 2005

Custard-Topped Spoon Bread
Joy of Cooking

1 cup AP flour
3/4 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups milk
4 Tbsp melted butter, separated (2/2)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar
1 cup cream
Maple syrup, for serving

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Place an ungreased 8x8 baking dish on that rack. Heat the oven to 350.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, and baking powder. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, 2 tablespoons of the butter, sugar, salt, and vinegar. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir together until smooth and free of lumps. Don't overmix.

Place the other 2 tablespoons of butter in the heated baking dish and tilt to coat the bottom of the dish. Pour the batter into the baking dish. Place the dish back on the oven rack. Over the batter, pour the cream slowly and evenly.

Bake until the custard on top is puffed and golden brown but still quivery and a knife inserted in the center comes out mostly clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sstand for about 10 minutes before serving. Serve with maple syrup.

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Basic White Bread
Great Breads

2 tsp active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
4-5 cups AP flour
2 tsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in the water in a large bowl and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes, or until creamy. Mix together 3 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt in a medium bowl. Gradually beat the flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, unto the liquid mixture, with a wooden spoon; the dough should be stiff enough to turn out onto the work surface.

Dust the work surface with flour and turn out the flour. Knead, using a pastry scraper to facilitate folding, for 10 to 15 minutes, adding flour to the work surface and to your hands as needed. At first the dough will be sticky, but it will become resilient after the first 5 minutes, and by the end of the kneading, it should be smooth and elastic. Sprinkle the work surface and your hands with more flour and shape the dough into a ball.

Rinse, dry, and lightly oil the large bowl. Place the dough in it and turn to coat with the oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

Punch down the dough and let rise a second time for another 1 1/2 hours, or until nearly doubled in bulk again.

Turn the dough out of the bowl, moisten your hands, knead it a couple of times, and shape it uinto a ball. Cut the ball in half and shape into 2 balls. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

Oil or butter two 8x4-inch loaf pans. Form the loafs by flattening the balls of dough into rectangles. Roll the long ends up tightly and pinch the seam. Take the short ends and fold them into the center, pinching those folds as well. Place the loaves in the pans, first seam-side up, then turn over with the smooth side up (so the loaves are coated with oil). Let rise until the tops curve up above the sides of the pans.

Heat the oven to 375 when the loaves are almost done with their final rise. Move a rack to the middle. Slash the loaves across the top with a razor blade or sharp knife. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the loaves are brown and respond to tapping with a hollow sound. Remove from the pans and cool on a rack.

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Saturday, January 01, 2005

Woo! New year. My resolution is to blog more this year than last year, which won't be very hard, considering I have an extra three and a half months. I made stock today, as well as a couple of loaves of white bread. Yes, there are more interesting breads out there, but I'm new to that area of baking and decided to start out simple. They are currently baking. I am very excited to try them- I hope they don't suck.

I've been spending my free time over at Jon's so I can play video games. Katamari Damacy, more accurately. I had been planning to try and beat Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal in a week, but I put in the Damacy disk and it's just stayed there. What a hellishly fun game. It's not hard to beat, but it's got excellent replay value, at least in my opinion. My moon's 845 meters in diameter (The King was extremely happy), and I suck at the constellations where you have to pick up the biggest one of anything (Ursa Major and Taurus). So fun! I am really looking forward to seeing Lydia's costume for the Prince of the Cosmos.

Oh! I feel it! I feel the cosmos! The timer has gone off, and I need to go take my bread out of the oven.

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