Braisin' Hussy

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

When Lydia and I are in our Katamari Damacy costumes, we are rock stars. We got mobbed. I had girls launching themselves at me. Glomping, it's called. It was weird.

When Lydia is in her Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles costume, she is a teen idol. Seriously. Girls were swooning and squealing. I may or may not have been one of them.

I'm still getting together all the picture links. For now, enjoy the amazing and incredible pictures Lionel took of us on Saturday night. I can't get over how cool we look. I mean, we look like major dorks, but INCREDIBLY COOL major dorks.
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Pain d'Épices
Adapted from Great Breads

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1/2 cup strong-flavored honey, such as buckwheat honey
3/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp table salt
Nonstick cooking spray

Heat the oven to 375 with a rack in the middle. Spray a loaf pan (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches recommended, although 9 x 5 x 3 works, too) with nonstick cooking spray.

Cream the butter and honey together in a stand mixer or large bowl with a fork or electric mixer. Beat in the milk and egg.

Sift the flours, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients and mix together until combined. Do not overmix.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn out onto a rack. Let the bread cool completely. Wrap tightly in foil, and let sit at room temperature for several days to develop the flavor before eating. Keeps for two weeks. Excellent with tea.
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Friday, May 27, 2005

Okay, I've decided not to take my laptop to Fanime, so this blog is on a break for the holiday weekend. Come back next week for a jillion bread recipes. Or four. They're really the same number.
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Thursday, May 26, 2005

My house is awash in bread. I am downright stunned at how much I was able to make this week. I have five loaves of bread, the last dough rising in the fridge, a recipe's worth of pfeffernussen, and the thought,"Well, I still could make chocolate chip cookies." I'm not sure I'll get around to it, though. Lydia and I are going to be crazymad busy anyway.

Hookslide concert tonight! Fifth anniversary show! Yay!

I'll post the recipes soon. Probably when I'm escaping to our hotel room to get away from the masses of NERDS. Which reminds me of the other time I was at Fanime, in 1999. I ended up skipping some stuff so I could go back to my room and watch Red Dwarf. KTEH was showing four episodes of the seventh or eighth series I hadn't seen (and which, in retrospect, I probably would have been better off not seeing, since they kinda blew). It's just trading one geekdom for another. Then and now, how far I've come.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

I made two bread recipes last night, but I'm not posting them yet because I haven't tried them. I've got a slice of one in my backpack, and the other loaf is supposed to get better after a few days of resting. I may try it tonight, though. The two I made were French Herb Bread and Pain d'Épices (Spice Bread). I meant to make only a half recipe of the herb bread. I put half of all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, and then... I added enough water for an entire recipe. And you can't undo that. So it may very well suck. I yelled at myself and then ran around my kitchen (kind of a feat, considering how tiny my kitchen is) adding the other half of the ingredients. It was so dumb. Seriously. And now I have two huge loaves of this bread. I hope it's edible.

The Pain d'Épices called for some anise, which I like, but Lydia hates, and since I'm bringing this to Fanime for us to snack on, I left it out. I added some cardamom instead. It's a quick bread. I should have used the smaller of the loaf pans that Ryan so generously let me borrow.

I'll be trying the herb bread soon. I'll let you know how it is.
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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Ha! My dear friend Ysabel has started a blog. Keep up with it, yo. It's... well, it's a place to bitch about stuff, if nothing else. And we've all got plenty of that to do.

(Zack, you should feel very lucky that this has happened, for it is likely that I will now turn my constant nagging to her.)

I wonder if her blog will bring me more traffic from people I with whom I went to college. I didn't (and don't) pimp this blog terribly aggressively (although I should, given that I complain about my numbers all the time). Ys's email announcing her blog went out to a lot of people I knew, and her first post links to me. Huzzah!
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Man, onions look terrible right now. I'm looking forward to when they come into season... soon, soon.

Went out for sushi last night with the Mountain View crowd. That ended up being a pricey little evening. We were celebrating Rosy and Quetzal's birthdays. I thought I had calculated my portion out to about $22, but everyone ended up paying $35ish. Oh, well. I had enough money. It's just that... now my wallet's empty. Sorry, I'll stop complaining and/or being a skinflint.

I started bread (of the very basic variety) on Sunday night. I woke up a half an hour early (ew, 6:30am) and made the dough before I went to work, then let it rise in the fridge all day/evening. (Adding to this after I've eaten some toast- damn, I love that bread!)

I have so much baking to do. So little time!
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Saturday, May 21, 2005

So, Lydia and I are planning on baking a lot this coming week. We want to have some decent breads and cookies and things to bring to Fanime so that we can avoid the exorbitant prices on breakfasts and snackage. I've been reading through my copy of Great Breads and getting inspiredish. This is just a list of breads that I wouldn't mind trying, with ingredients I need to buy in the parentheses.

Challah
French Herb Bread (onion, parsley, and wheat germ)
Herbed Cottage Cheese Bread (onion and parsley)
Rosemary and Thyme Bread
Pesto Bread
Cheese and Mustard Bread
Bara Brith (currants, candied citrus peel, and various whole spices that I only have in ground form)
Pain d'Épices

Oh, I keep forgetting. Writing it here hopefully will remind me to ask her later. Ryan, can I have the recipe for your orange-cranberry bread?

I was supposed to make the basil-lime syrup and pate last night, as well as starting some basic bread so the starter could ferment overnight in the fridge, but I fell asleep on the couch watching Full Metal Alchemist.

I figure if I have enough extra limes, I could make lime curd. I don't know if that would be a good idea. Like, if it would be bitter or something. I should look up a recipe instead of just substituting in my lemon curd recipe.
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Thursday, May 19, 2005

God, every time I feel like I have to write a "blah blah, I am lame, I don't have anything to say, but I feel I need to write something" post, I should just go over to the eGullet Food Media & News message board and read. Then I'll have something to talk about.

Like the Observer thing, and now this.

Check out the prettypretty cast for the new FOX series based on Anthony Bourdain's best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential. That guy from Alias is playing Tony... er, "Jack" Bourdain (because there aren't enough main characters named "Jack" on TV nowadays [24, Lost, Alias, Will & Grace, what's one more?]). And there's that guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that guy from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and one of the kids from Freaks and Geeks. And some blonde chicks with prominent boobs. Hm, I may just be blind, but do you see anyone from South America in that cast? Where are the multiple burn scars? Come on!

Here's a little more on the show itself.
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Well, it's nice to know that I have three things done from the Observer's Top 50 Things Every Foodie Should Do. The three easiest and cheapest ones- dismember a chicken, bake bread, and make toast from decent bread. I've almost done #19- I've had a bellini in Venice, but not at Harry's Bar. Same with #17. I've gotten pretty decent gelato in Italy, but not in Sicily (and it wasn't great, so it probably wouldn't count, anyway). Also, I feel that #22 is a bit jerkish, calling our California asparagus "thick 'porn-star'... spears." Yes, there is a lot of it that is too thick. However, there's still a good deal that's wee and wonderful. I've had wonderful duck (#38), but my father made it. I've had both good and disappointing duck out, but the Thanksgiving my dad made duck was the best I've ever had. I've actually never grilled a steak (#35).

Yeah, the whole thing's pretty snobby, but whatever, it's still interesting.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2005

I have nothing to write about. I'm not going to be making any new recipes until next week.

D&D tonight.
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Monday, May 16, 2005

Kick ass.

FOX has decided that there's always money in the banana stand.

Arrested Development will be getting a third season!

Thanks to Nick for tipping me off.

And apparently NBC will be bringing back The Office (huzzah, I had no hope for that) in the fall and Scrubs at... some point. I mean, yay for the only two shows I watch on that crap network, but I wish Scrubs had an announced date. (Oh yeah, the first season of Scrubs is coming out on DVD tomorrow. Let's all buy it!)
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Sunday, May 15, 2005

I cooked yesterday. I made baked beans and Jonsauce. I made the beans in the slow-cooker instead of the oven, since I don't have an oven-safe pot. I forgot to add the last tablespoon of molasses and the apple cider vinegar after they were done. My bad. I hope they're still good. The Jonsauce turned out well, although I feel it has kind of progressed to a point where the pasta is unnecessary. That's kind of sad. But it's tasty enough on its own.

I meant to make challah, but I didn't.

Leigh has arrived! Next weekend is the They're Coming 300 review extravaganza. Leigh and Ryan have told me about the special surprise, but I'm sworn to secrecy. Suffice to say, it will be a horrifying, disgusting, tasty confection. Hopefully it will become as big a meme as the thoracic cake.

Zack graduated this weekend. Go him.

Oh, yeah. Samurai Champloo was pretty cool. If you like anime, pick up one of the reruns this week. Cartoon Network. It's got Steven Blum doing that one voice he does. You know the one.
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Friday, May 13, 2005

Office Party

1 shot tequila
1 lime wedge
Granulated sugar
Freshly ground coffee

Dip one side of the lime wedge into the coffee and the other side into the sugar. Shoot the tequila and chomp down on the lime. Better than it sounds. (Lydia/Zack- let me know if I'm missing anything from this.)
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Wednesday, May 11, 2005

I roasted some broccoli last night. It was vaguely disappointing. I used some of it in an omelet, along with some cheese. I have been attempting omelets lately. I suck at them. Quite a lot. (I just had to change that because I couldn't decide if it was "hard core," "hardcore," or "hard-core." LAME.) I can't make a decent fold, and I end up using too much filling when I try. Also, I tend not to cook them long enough, so they can get a bit runny. I'm too afraid of overcooking. I was going to bake some potatoes, but it turns out all mine are a bit old. They've sprouted. I should not buy bags of potatoes. I should buy one or two at a time.

God, I haven't even talked about last weekend yet. So behind! (So sleepy.) Well, the recipe below is from when I attempted to make frosting and ended up with sauce, because it never firmed up correctly. I was going to wait until it was slightly firm, then whip it into a frosting-like thing. Unfortunately, that never happened. We tried putting some onto a couple cupcakes, but it ran off the sides and looked unappealing. Tasted good, though. So it was chocolate sauce, not chocolate frosting.

The mojito-like drinks were good. People seemed to like them. Wow, does Lydia mix some strong drinks. If she offers you a Long Island, you might want to stick to... I don't know, grain alcohol or something. I think it'll be safer that way.

I think I left my limes behind. We never had any Office Parties. Lydia/Zack/whoever actually thought up that drink, would it be okay if I posted the recipe here?

I finally met Cynthia! As well as Matt and Meli! We did have fun at our little Cupcakes & Cocktails party. There was much Karaoke Revolution, in which I showed off my mad skills at thinking I knew a song, but only actually knowing the chorus and sucking at the rest of the song (ie. Broken Wings). I did okay at Billie Jean, Under Pressure (with Lydia), and some song I hate. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed your early birthday celebration, Cynthia. It was lovely meeting you, and I look forward to seeing you down in L.A. in July!

D&D tonight.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Pardon me while I have a little fangirl moment.

Veronica Mars, you totally win at TV.

Thank you.
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Chocolate Fros... no, Sauce

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips

Combine the cream, butter, and sugar in a large microwave-safe bowl, and stir to combine. Microwave until boiling, about 3 minutes (watch it, don't trust your microwave). Stir in the chocolate chips, and keep stirring until the chips are completely integrated. Cover, let cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate.
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Monday, May 09, 2005

Yellow Cupcakes
Cook's Illustrated

1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt (1 tsp kosher)
8 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg (room temperature)
2 large egg yolks (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin/cupcake tin with paper or foil liners.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolks, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain.

Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin using 2-ounce ice cream scoop or heaping tablespoon. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Use skewer or paring knife to lift cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature, about 45 minutes.
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Friday, May 06, 2005

Made cupcakes for tomorrow's party over at Lydia and Zack's. I made twelve chocolate and twelve... yellow. The yellow ones did not turn out as large as the chocolate ones. I am thinking it's because the chocolate ones have both baking powder and soda, while the yellow ones just have baking powder.

I also made the basil-lime syrup, using mint instead of basil. I figure we could make vaguely mojito-like drinks with it.

I still need to make frosting. Eh, tomorrow morning. Do I want to start some bread? No... not really. Lazy, lazy Sarah.

Here's hoping it's all good.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Costume update!

Lydia took some very goofy pictures of me in my not-yet-finished costume. I sent one out to Jon, Ryan, Rob, and Jer, who all agreed that a) we were freaks, and b) that it will be awesome. Rob even photoshopped me into a Warhol-ish kind of thing.

During lunch today, I sprayed bowls with aerosol adhesive and stuck batting to them. Later today or tomorrow, I will be cutting the batting and respraying them bowls to get the batting to conform more the the curves of the bowl. I still need to secure the red flannel to the head accents (shouldn't take too long) and cover the head tube with black flannel (this scares me).

I made another loaf of bread last night. It took me five hours. It should take between five and six hours, start to finish. It's awesome how much better I am at slashing loaves now. It looks fairly attractive. Very different from my tumor-bread. I'm thinking about bringing the new loaf over to Jon and Ryan's tomorrow. Jon hasn't tried my bread yet. Ryan thought it was pretty good. The recipe up is with Alton's ingredients (well, mine has more salt), and my own instructions.

D&D tonight.
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Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Evening Bread

Starter
5 oz. AP flour (recommended: King Arthur)
2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp instant yeast
10 oz. water (use bottled or filtered if your tap water sucks)

11 oz. AP flour
3/4 tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp kosher salt

Oil
Water

Combine all the starter ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk thoroughly to combine. Let it sit on the counter for 2 hours.

Add the next three ingredients. Using the dough hook, knead on low for 2 minutes. Turn the machine off and let it sit for 10 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl. Fill a roasting pan about halfway with hot tap water and place on the bottom of your oven. Turn the mixer to medium (or 4 on a Kitchenaid) and knead for 10 minutes. Place the dough in the large bowl. Put the bowl in the oven, and let it rise for 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Flip a cookie sheet upside-down and put a decent-sized square of parchment on it.

Empty the dough onto a work surface. It will be sticky. Press it out into a rectangular shape, and fold the two sides into the center. Flip the dough, repress, refold. Do this a couple times. Take the dough and fold it in on itself, making a spherelike shape. Continue stretching the outer membrane by continuing to fold it in on itself. Once you have achieved a shape that pleases you (or you're tired of the dough sticking to your hands), put the dough sphere on the parchment. Cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and put the cookie sheet and dough back in the oven for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the cookie sheet and dough out, put a pizza stone on the center rack, and heat the oven to 400.

Once the oven has finished preheating, sprinkle the top of the dough with some water. Slash an X on it with a sharp knife or razor blade. Open the oven, and slide the parchment off the cookie sheet onto the pizza stone. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or when an internal temperature of 205 is reached. Cool on a rack.
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Sunday, May 01, 2005

Woo, weekend. The quicker bread turned out all right, not great. I may try it again. More kneading and more rising time are needed. But that'll bring it to over six hours. Gr.

I sewed batting onto Kuro's head accents on Thursday, and Lydia and I covered them with red fabric on Sunday.

I'm tired. I'll finish this tomorrow.

Dear lord, it's been hard to motivate myself to write this.

I've got bread in the oven. I really don't think this is the kind of recipe that you shorten the times on. I had a hell of a time dealing with the ubersticky dough. I guess the long, slow development of the starter in the fridge is really necessary. I like this bread, I just wish it didn't take so long. Oh, well. Weekend-only bread it is.

Spent the weekend at Lydia's... again... well, I'm glad her couch is comfy. We went to see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Saturday. I strategically covered up the "Faculty/Staff" title on my Stanford ID and got the student discount. We enjoyed it. I think it's worth seeing. There will be purists who complain about things being dropped and things being added. To this I say, well, Douglas Adams changed a great many things in each variation of the Guide. Characters and plotlines were dropped (who remembers Lintilla from the radio series?), new non-sequitur-y bits and plotlines were added. It seems to me that if it had been an exact translation from page to screen, it wouldn't have been in the same spirit as the other Guide iterations. And about Trillian. Adams didn't really write good female characters. There was Trillian, Lintilla, Fenchurch, and Random (whose character note was "angry existential teenager"). Out of these, the only one with really even the slightest bit of personality was Fenchurch. Lydia and I were talking after the movie, and we decided that what the writers had tried to do was combine the good aspects of Fenchurch with Trillian. And it didn't really work, but they tried. (I really didn't understand the inclusion of Zaphod's vice-president, but I guess they needed him to have some sort of ending outside of the whole Trillian thing.)

Oh, and we both really want Marvin figurines. He's desperately adorable.

Watched the fourth episode of Tsubasa Chronicle on Sunday. This show is making me sad. They've got pretty good source material, and they're mucking it all up with pointless filler. It's the fourth episode! It shouldn't be filler! I really want to like the series, but they're making it difficult.

Also watched a couple episodes of Bleach. I actually had been prepared not to like it- it's been overhyped to me. But actually, I enjoyed it and would not object to reading/watching more of it.

I brought Lydia and Zack a loaf of my bread plus a loaf of challah that I got at a bagel place while waiting for my hair appointment. Unfortunately, there wasn't a new Yakitate! episode out. I was annoyed. This time, I was prepared!

Before the movie on Friday (yeah, I know, I'm skipping around a lot), Lydia and I ate at a place called Zao in Emeryville. Disappointing. I had coconut soup as an appetizer, and it was quite good, but my main dish (Ginger-Garlic-Chili Chicken & Prawns) was bland and unexciting. They didn't overcook the shrimp, though, so I guess that's a plus for them. Lydia stayed basic and got chicken pho. I felt bad for her when I tasted a bit- the broth was just awful. Not recommended.

And speaking of not recommended, I have to mention where we ate lunch the next day. Joe's Crab Shack is a seafood restaurant that Lydia quite liked when she went to their location in L.A. We went to their Fisherman's Wharf location in San Francisco. I hate to be critical of a friend's favored eatery, but it was not worth it. Terribly overpriced for mediocre food. I was astonished at the prices on the menu, and ended up going for a crabcake sandwich. It was good, but not $10.99 good. Maybe $7.99. It would have helped if they hadn't chosen the squishiest bun available. It practically disintigrated in my hands. (And sidenote: my brother makes better crabcakes.) Zack got a large platter of shrimp and a starter of clam chowder. The chowder was $6.49. Ridiculous. We could have gotten better (and bigger) for less at one of the many Boudin stalls that line the piers down there. The place just screamed "tourist trap" to me, and I would prefer not to go back there again.

I think that's all.
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