Braisin' Hussy

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

This is pretty much a post only for my parents (and other people who like TV). If you haven't been reading Kenny's blog for the last week, you should. He's got some good posts about the new sitcoms this season.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

How did Iowans elect Steve King as their representative?

"I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy she would realize that he was a hero for America."

WTF? (It's a quote from this article in the San Francisco Chronicle.)

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Sunday, September 25, 2005

Lydia! We're up on the Katamari website!

And... I'm a moron, I misspelled the title of the picture. Should be "spirited," not "spiritied." DUR.

(Here's a direct link if you want to get around all the Flash.)

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Oh, what a satisfactory binge. I met up with Lydia and Zack in San Francisco for FallFest. We ate and drank rather a lot. The whole thing was four hours long, so our schedule was:

12:00-1:00pm Eat and drink
1:00-2:00pm Sit and talk because you ate and drank too much during the first hour
2:00-3:00pm Having regained both sobriety and appetite, eat and drink again
3:00-4:00pm Sit and talk while Lydia regains sobriety (and saves our table), punctuated by Zack and Sarah making solo trips back to our favorite vendors for more food

My favorite food item was offered by Willi's Wine Bar in Santa Rosa. They had this awesome lobster-bacon-corn soup. It was quite delicious. My favorite wine was probably the sauvignon blanc from Pepi Wineries, although my favorite winery was Roshambo. I also enjoyed some champagne from Gloria Ferrer. I'm not usually one for sparkling wines, but this was really tassty and didn't give me a headache (the scourge of sparkling wines).

Let's see... other food items that were good were a cold corn soup with basil oil from... somewhere, a panzanella made with truly excellent tomatoes from... somewhere else, another cold corn soup with a crouton spread with a goat cheese spread from Wente, a crab cake-puff with salad from... look, I'm not even going to try to remember things anymore, a sardine and tortilla crisp thing with a pepper relish, an apple brown betty, various chocolate thingies, chocolate-covered strawberries, watermelon stuffed with goat cheese, spicy pork pasta, various goat cheeses, and other things I can't remember. I brought a notepad to take notes on what I was eating and drinking, but I was too busy eating and drinking to use it.

I have a beef with Grey Goose Vodka. So, it was nearing the end of the festival (there were like ten minutes left), and I decided that I was interested in getting one of the moxed drinks from GG for the road. I go up and start waiting in line, when the guy says that the bar is closed. I am disappointed and go sit back down with Lydia and Zack. Not a minute later, some other women go up and stand in line. And they get served! What the hell? Seriously, what the hell? I then got very angry and wanted to go talk to the guy, but I knew that me+anger+frustration=tears, so I didn't. And now I'm blogging about it. Take that, Grey Goose!

After the Fest, we did some shopping. Jen had mentioned a while back that she loved the hair products at Lush. I've been looking for new products, so while Zack picked up We Love Katamari at EB Games, Lydia and I braved the overwhelming scents of Lush and bought some stuff. We both went with the Jungle conditioner- she has a lot of coarser hair, and I've got enough coarse hair to make me get a weird blond Jewfro on bad days. I went with the Blonde shampoo. I've forgotten what Lydia got. I tried it last night, and I like the shampoo, but the conditioner is too smelly. It makes me want to use Febreeze on my hair. Maybe I just used too much of it. My hair does feel nice, though.

I'm supposed to be cooking today, but I wore impractical shoes yesterday and my feet are paying the price. It hurts just walking over to the kitchen and getting a glass of water. Stupid shoes! You're so cute and so painful!

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Friday, September 23, 2005

On Saturday, I'm going to the Fall Fest with Lydia and Zack. I'm looking forward to gorging myself. Mm, gluttony.

I'm going to be cooking a bunch of Indian food this weekend. For her birthday present, Ryan has asked for a bunch of lunches she can take to work. Sunday will be spent cooking, then.

I bought new rechargeable batteries for my camera (because I was a moron and threw my old ones out), only to find that my charger no longer works. ARGH. (And yes, I bought the correct type of batteries to use in it.) Now I have to go back to Target and buy a new one. Annoying!

We Love Katamari SPOILER!

Holy crap! I rolled up the King of All Cosmos! Now I just have to replay that level, get even bigger (or at least as big), and roll up the Queen. In case you want to compare scores, my Big Bang was 3582m 41cm 3mm. Edited to add that on Friday night, I did roll up the Queen of All Cosmos! But I didn't break my record. Poo.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

This is the most badly compiled list ever. It's terrible. How does Futurama get beaten by the goddamn Jetsons? How are Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Farscape, and The Prisoner tossed aside in favor of shit like the original Batman series? Are you kidding me?

Man, that pisses me off. Screw you, Boston.

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Monday, September 19, 2005

This person scanned in all his mom's recipe cards. That's pretty cool. What is also cool is that he has pictures from Otakon of a couple Katamari cosplayers. Food and Katamari, what could be better? Nothing, that's what. (Link brought to my attention by BoingBoing.)

On Thursday night, the family got together for a birthday celebration for Dad and Ryan. We had a potluck dinner- Mom and Dad made the entree, Jon and Ryan brought the starch and the vegetable, and I brought the dessert. Our theme was Italian, so the entree was eggplant parmesan, the starch was focaccia, the vegetable was a caprese salad, and the dessert was tiramisu. Top to bottom, this meal was excellent. I think it's better than we would have had out.

I made the following pasta sauce last night. I had bought an eggplant the week before to make an Indian dish. Come last night, that eggplant was getting pretty old and I wasn't in the mood for Indian. So I chopped it up and added it to a simple tomato sauce. It was good. Meaty- in fact I thought about calling it a sugo finto (mock meat sauce). I'll be eating it for the next couple of days.

After dinner, I went over to Jon and Ryan's to exchange the last of my tiramisu for the last of their focaccia (which I ate for breakfast this morning). Ian was visiting, which was cool. Ian is one of Jon's friends from high school (in North Carolina- SO LONG AGO). Ryan made us all Mexican spiced hot chocolate which her parents had sent her from Zingerman's, a truly awesome gourmet shop in Michigan. I talked about Katamari (of course, since I have no life outside it) and... cutting my fingernails. We ran out of conversation at one point and I offered some truly awful filler.

Warning! We Love Katamari SPOILERS! Kind of!

OMG, We Love Katamari. It's pretty awesome. The controls are more sluggish than the first game, which sucks. You have to be pretty adept with the dash move in a few of the levels. The stages are many and varied. They're all much shorter than they were in Katamari Damacy. The longest stage is seventeen minutes. Most are under six minutes, and there are a bunch of "do this as fast as you can" levels which should only take you a minute or two (well, ideally they'd take you under a minute, but I haven't done that yet). There are levels under the sea, up in the clouds, in endless gardens, in an increasingly flammable campground, in snow, in darkness, and in space. The "make the moon"-esque level is incredibly awesome. There are tons of places to go and some really cool things to pick up. The world really IS full of things. Like Stonehenge. And the Taj Mahal. And someplace that looks kind of like Cloud City on Bespin. Hardest levels are the cowbear one and the "picking up only 50 objects, make as big a Katamari as possible" one. The fire ones are kind of hard, too. I kept going out, or people kept pushing me into the water. And the underwater one is kind of annoying because of the whole "you don't fall as fast in water" thing. My new favorite cousin is Huey. He's frikkin' adorable. Especially when you put the hair streamers on him.

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Tomato Sauce with Eggplant

Olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 pound eggplant, peeled and cut into roughly 1-cm cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
1/4 cup red wine
1 28-oz. can Trader Joe's whole peeled plum tomatoes with basil, undrained
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
Pinch cumin
Pinch sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste
Grated parmesan and chopped fresh parsley, to serve

Salt the chopped eggplant liberally and place in a colander. Allow to sit for a half hour, then dry with a paper towel. Set a large saucepan over medium heat and add the oil. When hot, add the eggplant and cook, stirring, until the pieces have softened and taken on some color, 5-7 minutes. Remove from pan.

If the pan is looking dry, add some more oil. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the pieces have turned translucent. Add the garlic and cook for about thirty seconds to a minute, being careful not to burn it. Add the wine and scrape up any fond from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the tomatoes and all the sauce from the can. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes. Return the eggplant to the pan. Add the spices. Simmer for ten minutes or up to an hour or until however long it takes you to get the pasta done (could be no time at all if you timed it well, however, taking a little simmer time to let the flavors meld is always a good idea). Serve atop pasta with parmesan and parsley.

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Friday, September 16, 2005

Tiramisu
Altered very slightly from a recipe by Tyler Florence

7 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sweet marsala, plus 2 tablespoons
8 ounces mascarpone, softened to room temperature
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup brewed espresso coffee
1 ounce dark chocolate
1/4 cup brandy
1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
48 ladyfingers
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Cream together egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Add 1/3 cup of the marsala and continue to whisk until mixture is thick and doubled in volume. (This is basically a zabaglione.) Remove from heat. Stir in the mascarpone until completely blended.
In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture, to lighten.

In a small saucepan, combine espresso, chocolate, brandy, vanilla, and remaining 2 tablespoons marsala. Heat gently, and stir to dissolve the chocolate. Then, chill the mixture to cool it down, about 15 minutes. Quickly dip each ladyfinger in the chilled coffee mixture and arrange in a single layer on a 9 by 13-inch glass baking pan. Do not soak the cookies or they will become too moist. Spread 1/2 the mascarpone cream evenly with a spatula on top of the dipped ladyfingers. Repeat with a second layer of dipped ladyfingers and remaining mascarpone cream. Sprinkle top with cocoa powder. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to two or three days before serving.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Can't talk. Too busy rolling.

Heh, I actually did make a dessert on Tuesday night (after I nearly made myself ill playing Katamari- stupid motion sensitivity!), but I don't know if it's good yet. Tonight we're celebrating Dad and Ryan's birthdays with a potluck dinner, and I chose to make the dessert. I really hope it doesn't suck, because man, there's a lot of it.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

AWESOME. I was able to buy We Love Katamari (warning: annoying flash) at the Redwood City Target. There are three copies left, if you want to run over and buy it. Call your local Targets- it's a week until the actual release date, but a bunch of them have it for sale already. I'M SO EXCITED TO PLAY.

Can I go home "sick"?

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Monday, September 12, 2005

Heh, I just submitted our martini picture to the We Love Katamari! fanart contest. It's not technically fanart, I guess, not in the traditional sense, although we are fans and it was art (well, thanks to Lionel, it was). I just really wanted people at Namco to see our costumes. They were so cool. (And seeing how my sewing is just pathetic, the next one won't be so cool.)

Awesome t-shirt. (Link ganked from the Grub Report.)

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Sunday, September 11, 2005

Khatte Chhole
Sour Chick Peas
From Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey

12 oz. dried chickpeas, picked over and rinsed
3 pints water
10-11 oz. onions, finely chopped
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 hot green chile, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, very finely grated
4 Tbsp lemon juice
3-6 Tbsp vegetable oil
8 oz. tomatoes, finely chopped (or a drained 15-oz. can of chopped tomatoes)
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp garam masala
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Soak the chickpeas overnight. Pour the beans and their soaking liquid into a large pan and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours or until the chickpeas are tender. Strain the chickpeas and save the cooking liquid.

Put 2 tablespoons of the chopped onions, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, the green chile, ginger, and the lemon juice into a teacup. Mix well and set aside.

Put the oil in a heavy, wide, casserole-type pan and set over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the remaining chopped onions. Stir and fry for 8-10 minutes, or until the onions bits develop reddish-0brown spots. Add the tomatoes. Continue to stir and fry for another 5-6 minutes, mashing the tomato pieces with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the coriander, cumin, and turmeric. Stir and cook for about 30 seconds. Next, add the drained chickpeas along with 14 fluid ounces of their cooking liquid, plus the garam masala, cayenne pepper, and 2 teaspoons of salt. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to low, and cook very gently for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Add the mixture in the teacup. Stir to combine, and serve. (Good with rice.)

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Thursday, September 08, 2005

My mom is an awesome mom. She has loaned to me her sewing machine so I can make things that will embarass her and make her not what to answer the question, "So, what's Sarah up to lately?"

Mom was astounded that I had never touched a sewing machine before (I never took home ec, nor was I previously interested in learning how to sew [I can hardly handsew]). She taught me a bit about it.

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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Yay, my home.

I made baraziq last night. They are tasty- a good cookie for people who like their desserts less sweet (aka my mom).

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Baraziq
Sesame Cookies
from Mediterranean Street Food by Anissa Helou

4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch salt
1/3 teaspoon baking powder

For the garnish:
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/2 cup quartered pistachio nuts
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted in a nonstick pan until lightly golden

Put the sugar and softened butter in a mixing bowl and work together with a wooden spoon until completely blended. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend with your hands until you have a soft dough. If the dough is too soft to work with immediately, refrigerate it for 1 hour. Divide the dough into 18-20 pieces to make small baraziq or 6 pieces to make the larger size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Shape each ball of dough with your hands until you have quite a thin disk, about 2 1/2 inches wide, and place on a large platter. When you have shaped all the disks, dip each in the egg white, then in the pistachios on one side and the toasted sesame seeds on the other. Make sure you coat them well with the seeds. Arrange on the lined baking sheet with the pistachio side down.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Let cool before serving. Baraziq will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

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Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Well, I did make something new over the weekend. I just don't know if I'm going to post it. It was a filled fried bread. First of all, I forgot an ingredient for the filling. And then the dough was far too wet to work with. I think I burnt some butter. Only the first bread turned out properly crisp. My stove is on a slant, so all the oil/butter pooled on one side. It was a right mess. I have so many dishes to do. Egads. It was overly greasy, but not untasty. I might try it again. Maybe.

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Friday, September 02, 2005

Have you seen these shoes for sale in the Bay Area? Please let me know if you have. I am looking for them in a size nine or ten. They used to sell them at the Park 'N Save in Redwood City, but they're out of stock and are entirely unhelpful in letting me know if they're ever getting any more. Gr! They're cheap as all get out- probably found in an "around a dollar" type store. I have a pair in red for my Kuro costume. Yes, I need another pair. In yellow. Yes, I'm the lamest being alive.

In other, less lame news, I had a wonderful dinner tonight with my parents. Dad made lamb chops, and Mom made these adorable wee potatoes and brussel sprouts. I had forgotten just how excellent brussel sprouts are. I am looking forward to when they come back into season.

Oh yes, and my non-functioning and dangerous wall heater was replaced on Thursday. Now I won't have to choose between freezing this winter and being exploded by a natural gas leak! I can be warm and safe. Huzzah. Now I just need to get my super back in here to paint the wall. It looks ugly.

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