Mr. Robato

The first week of practicing golf 3x a week so far has gone well, with 2 days at the range and one day on the course, as planned. I already feel like I'm better at it, so that's good.

In other activities-I-have-no-time-for-but-do-anyway news, I've gotten the Rosetta Stone Courses 1,2 & 3 for Japanese and am through unit 1 of 4 in the first course after a little less than a week. The format is nothing like you'd learn in a classroom- you're not consciously conjugating verbs and whatnot, it's more like you'd teach a baby to speak. "Where's the red ball?" "Yay! There it is! It's that one!" *click*
So the part of me that realizes the most important things when traveling or speaking with a native speaker are things rated to politeness and respect is a little frustrated that I've learned what to call my non-existent little sister, but have yet to have it teach me to say "thank you" and "please"...by far the two most vital bits of communication in *any* language. But if you think about it, those weren't the first things you learned as a baby, either. You learned how to point to a swimming fish and repeat: FISH! So I suspect I'll get there and I'll just need to be patient. It seems a very effective method of teaching though, it reminds me of being at Anneliese's school- where I was "immersed" in Spanish, French and most of all, German. And a lot of that has stuck with my whole life, and I realize that a lot of that has to do with my 2 year old brain more readily absorbing language than it does now, but some of it has to do with the teaching methods too, and this feels like that. So I'm hopeful. Meanwhile, I'll continue to point at the cats and declare: "Neko wa nete imasu!" like an overgrown toddler.
Lance is doing the Spanish one and the funny thing is the lessons are *exactly* the same, so when I peek over his shoulder, the stuff he's been trained to blurt out when looking at a picture is the same as me, so I bet "El gato duerme!" will be exclaimed before long.
I also put together some hiragana flashcards to supplement the writing lessons and am listening to the audio cd's in the car. And you thought singing in the car was weird! Speaking of writing, check out what I got:
Buddha Board
I used to have a nicer version of this in my office at MP3.com and I sure wish I knew where it went, but with all the moving since then, it's probably long gone, hence the new one. Fun for painting and practicing my calligraphy. Yay!
Another note, in case anyone looking for a review of Rosetta Stone finds this- another thing that's frustrating me at this stage is my inability to "check" my understanding of a word. There's nothing you can click or do to make sure that "neko" really means "cat" like you think it does. I'm resisting the urge to look this stuff up on line, sort of throwing myself at the mercy of the program and trusting they did this for a reason so I shouldn't muck with the system. But it's tough to know I can just go look it up online somewhere when I'm confused- but I just...*shouldn't* Obviously, my opinion of the program will change as I progress, so I intend to revisit the topic in the future.

Spellcheck Disapproves of "Snuck"...Too Bad.

The weekend was pretty much awesome, I have to say. For now though, I'll stick to one topic: golf. Lance and I went and played at Presidio Hills on Saturday, and even snuck a round in last week at Lomas Santa Fe. It occurred to us that we need a plan to stick to and Lance has suggested that we do 2 days at the driving range and one day of actual golfing somewhere each week to try to actually get some practice in and improve. So today at lunch we scarfed a sandwich really quick and hit the driving range for an hour. Next week, we'll try to get a lesson in too, but I can already tell this is going to help my game.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

There are a mere 3 ingredients in this "cake":

• 1 lb chocolate chopped into small chunks
  
• 1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted ROOM TEMPERATURE butter
• 6 large very fresh eggs

This absurdly short ingredient list has 2 implications:

1) Start with the best ingredients to set yourself up for success- if your butter smells fridgey or your chocolate is not something you'd want to eat by itself or your eggs are old, you can do everything correctly and still blow this recipe.

2) How do you turn 3 liquid ingredients into something that's cakelike in appearance? It's all about technique. Screw any of that up and you're doomed. So now the recipe sounds hard- it isn't. It's what I make when I'm pressed for time because it comes together very quickly without too much fussing. Just follow the directions and you can't go wrong.

Preheat oven to 425 and set a kettle of water on to boil.

Prepare a 8" springform pan by locking in the bottom, spraying with nonstick cooking spray, and lining the bottom with a circle of parchment paper (not wax paper, or your cake will taste like crayons and that's gross). Then cover the bottom with foil to prevent water from seeping in from the water bath you'll bake the cake in. Don't skip that step, you'll be really disappointed if you do. Put the prepared springform in a larger pan that will act as a water bath- make sure there's enough room for you to comfortably pour the boiling water without worrying you'll get any in the cake.

Melt the chocolate in a big bowl in the microwave by zapping for 30 seconds the first time and stirring, and then 15 seconds and stirring, repeating the 15 seconds and stirring procedure until some lumps of chocolate remain but it's mostly melted.

Add the butter and stir to combine until no lumps of butter or chocolate remain. You may need to zap the butter chocolate mixture for 15 seconds one more time. The goal here is to not f*ck up your chocolate- there's two ways of doing that- getting it too hot (which is not really very hot, chocolate scorches at a temp you'd consider warm) or getting a drop or two of liquid in it. So don't rush and zap for longer because it doesn't seem "hot" to you. Trust me.

You can also do that whole procedure in a bowl over a simmering pot of water, but now you're asking for trouble with the drop or two of liquid thing and you have to stand over it and stir...and this is supposed to be easy. I prefer the microwave.

Once your chocolate and butter are velvety smooth, move on to the eggs. Crack them into the bowl of your standing mixer (cake robot) and set it over a pot of barely simmering water. Whisk by hand until the eggs are warm to the touch, which takes about 6 minutes. Don't leave them alone for a second, you have to whisk constantly or your eggs will have little lumps of scrambled egg in them. Ick.

When the eggs are warm, hook the bowl up to the mixer with the whisk attachment and whip on high for about 5 minutes. The eggs will have tripled in volume and will reach the soft peak stage.

Fold 1/3 of the egg into the chocolate until almost uniform in texture. Then fold in 1/2 of the remaining mixture very gently until almost uniform in texture. Fold in the remaining egg very gently just until no streaks remain. Your goal here is to not lose any loft or volume from the air in the eggs but not to have a cake with streaks of egg or gooey chocolate.

Pour batter into the prepared springform pan and smooth with a spatula. Put the water bath pan/springform combo onto the middle oven rack and pour hot/boiling water into the water bath so that it comes up about 1 inch on the side of the springform, being careful not to get any on the cake.

Bake 5 minutes. Cover loosely with foil and bake an additional 11 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven it will look undercooked. It's fine. Cool on a rack for 30 minutes then transfer to fridge for at least 3 hours before trying to remove it from the pan. Run a spatula/knife around the edge before releasing the spring or you'll crack the cake.
Serve at room temperature with fresh vanilla whipped cream.

Tri Tip Roast

We found a local source for beef and pork at the Farmer's Market (ranch is in Lake Elsinore, about 2 hours from here) and picked up a gorgeous Tri Tip roast on Saturday, and developed this recipe from stuff we had around the house.

Combine:

• 2 Tbsp Chinese 5 spice powder
• 1 Tbsp Kosher salt

Rub onto:

• 4 lb. Tri Tip Roast

And seal in large zip top bag. Refrigerate overnight. In the morning, combine:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• juice from one orange
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed/pressed
• 2 tsp. Sirracha

Pour into the bag with the roast, reseal the bag and refrigerate all day, about 10 hours. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 350 and heat grill or grill pan until very hot. Sear each side of roast for 7 minutes per side and finish in the oven until desired temperature is reached (about 15 minutes for medium rare).

Chile Lime Squash

Preheat oven to 450F. Halve lengthwise, then cut off and discard stem ends of one:

• Acorn Squash

Scoop out seeds and cut squash crosswise into 3/4-inch-wide slices, so the skin-side edges look scalloped from the shape of the squash. Toss squash in a bowl with:

• black pepper
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil

Arrange squash, cut sides down, on a sheet pan. Roast squash until tender and undersides of wedges are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Flip each piece over and continue to roast for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

While squash roasts, whisk to combine in a large bowl:

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or to taste
• 1 to 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot red chile, including seeds
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Transfer squash into the bowl and toss to combine.

Serves 2

ETA: I didn't have lime juice last night, but I do have some amazing Persian lime olive oil from Stonehouse Olive Oil in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. And I also have some habanero olive oil, so instead of fresh lime juice, I used a combo of mostly lime and a splash of habanero oil in this dish. I also squeezed half an orange into the mix.

I Admit I'm a Twit

Right about the time twitter is scheduled to jump the shark, I start...tweeting. Ugh, how I hate this word.
@super_luminal is me.
I have a good reason though. There's lots of good stuff and fun projects going on at work and telling people about those things, through whatever method they choose to consume that info is not only a good idea, it's pretty much my job. I am swamped and overloaded and think I'm going to die from it some days, but overall, it's good.
The big news today at work is that Switchvox Developer Central launched. It's a collection of documentation, tools, and basically a place for a community to develop around the APIs that are inside Switchvox. I have high hopes.

Pine Phone

I got back two nights ago from a trip with my mom to Yosemite. We left on Saturday, drove up to the Wawona Hotel, where we had reservations for one night and walked up to the desk. I left mom to check in, wandered around back to the bathroom, forgot my iPhone for 5 minutes in there and when I’d returned, it was gone. And not turned in. So in other words, my damn iPhone was stolen during the first 5 minutes of our trip. Nice.

Actually, the rest of it was really nice. I’ve never been and this was my Christmas present from her, mostly due to the fact she regrets not taking me there as a kid. She didn’t go until I’d already left home, so she didn’t *know* it was such a big deal, and I didn’t know either, so I don’t know why she was so upset about it, but hopefully that’s fixed. Because if it’s not, there’s nothing else to do about it.

The next few nights we stayed at the very fancy Ahwahnee Hotel on the valley floor in a room with a view of Upper Yosemite Falls. Highly recommended if you’ve recently been the victim of money falling from the sky. I think next time, I’ll camp and head there for a meal or two- the food and drinks were awesome, especially the focus on local, sustainable foods and the El Capitini, which came served with a twist of orange peel tied in a climbers knot and a colored carabiner standing in as a wine charm.

It’s spring, so lots of waterfalls from melting snow, but too early really for flowers, except the dogwood trees which were blooming like crazy! And there was a free photography class, that was more like a “walk” than a class, but still, got some pretty shots with my uncle’s camera that I’m borrowing.
More pics on flickr

Recipe: Spicy Burgers

This is essentially Lance's recipe and I LOVE it. We've made them a couple times so far and they're always awesome, the picture is of the first time, so some things are different in the recipe listed below, don't stress.

Spicy Burgers

Prep for burger toppings:
Chop a red onion in half lengthwise from root to stem, then slice crosswise into 1/8" slices (think thin half onion rings/half moons) and saute in a little olive oil over medium heat until well caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add some salt and pepper.

Roast 2 big jalapeno peppers (fresh, not those pickled things in the jars, for the love of god!) directly on your stove's burner over a gas flame, using tongs to turn, until blackened all over. Don't stress if it catches on fire, this happens to me all the time. Once it's completely blackened, remove from the burner and immediately wrap in saran wrap to steam in it's own heat for 10 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, unwrap and use a paper towel to wipe off the blackened skin. Do not rinse or you're wasting my time. Chop the stems off, slice the pepper in half lengthwise and slice out the seeds and ribs. Cut into long julienne strips.

Wash and dry your favorite lettuce leaves, my favorite is butter lettuce

Thinly slice 1 or 2 tasty tomatoes, we've been using Romas

Get out 4 slices of pepper jack cheese

Get out your Siracha

Slice an avocado thinly, leave in skin

Mix together
2 lb. 80% lean ground beef
1/2 tsp . cumin
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 garlic cloves, minced/pressed with a garlic press
1 habanero pepper, minced as finely as you can, WEARING GLOVES or you'll be sorry
1/4 c. panko breadcrumbs
1 egg

And form into patties, making sure they're thinner in the middle than the edges, like a frisbee, or they'll turn into your typical backyard bbq baseball shaped burgers. Pop the patties in the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up the fat again after handling.

Meanwhile heat up your grill, griddle, grill pan, whatever and when hot, grill them up! They'll take a while, if you haven't noticed, these patties are HUGE. I think they spent about 10 minutes per side on hi on my grill pan for medium. I can eat about half a burger, FYI- they're big. When they're just about done, squirt siracha on them and top with pepper jack. Remove from the heat and rest (the burgers, not you), residual heat will allow the cheese to melt just enough.

While the burgers are resting, lightly toast 4 big buns however you like to do that...I use the broiler and a sheet pan.

Burger assembly that seems to cut down on topping slipping out, top to bottom: Lower bun, (burger, siracha, cheese unit), avocado, sauteed onions, roasted jalapeno strips, lettuce, tomato slices, top bun.

OMG delicious and crazy spicy. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Full Sails

I feel like I've got a million things to write about and I've just got to start somewhere. I bought a couple of paintings from the Grant Pecoff Gallery that I love...obviously. They're of a ship, The Star of India, that's docked and now a museum a couple of blocks from my house. It's a gorgeous sailing ship and I can see it every day when I drive home and I can see it from the plane usually when I fly in from a trip. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the day and a symbol for me of everything I love about San Diego and our beautiful downtown.

Star of India

Full Sails

And here I am buying the paintings and talking with Grant, the artist.
Oh, and here I am with Lance...my BOYFRIEND! Oh snap!
Yeah, he's awesome. So chew on that for a bit and I'll be back with more details as we go. I don't want to give all the details away all at once, right?!

Recipe: Real Guacamole

This wasn't going to be my post for today, but it is Cinco de Mayo and the world is full of people that are making guacamole incorrectly. With things like mayonnaise in it. Or without cilantro. Good lord!

At it's most basic, I'd say you could get away with calling mashed up avocado and cilantro with plenty of salt "guacamole" and it would be waaaay more authentic than something with freaking mayonnaise in it!
Ok, enough ranting, on to my preferred recipe:

Real Guacamole

• 3 medium Haas avocados, halved and seeded, don't peel it yet
  
• 1 lime, juiced (about 1 tsp)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 medium red onion, small diced
• 1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeded and small diced
  
• 1 Roma tomato, seeded and small diced
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed with a garlic press
  
• 1 jalapeno or serrano, seeded, ribs removed, and diced very fine (totally optional, serranos are spicier than jalapenos and guac is traditionally not spicy, but I like the kick)
  

1. I have a technique for making mashing the avocado into the right consistency (good mix of smooth and chunks) and it involves the way I get avocados for guacamole out of the skin. First, make sure you've got the pit out, (safely please, I've had stitches twice taking pits out of avocados) and then take a paring knife or even a butter knife (you don't want to use anything that's too sharp on the tip) to cut through the avocado flesh in paralell slices lengthwise about a quarter inch apart or smaller, trying not to cut all the way through the skin. Once the lengthwise slices are made, make horizontal cuts in the same fashion, so you should be holding an avocado with a quarter inch grid pattern sliced through it's flesh, with the skin still intact. At this point, do the same to the other half of the avocado. Next, you'll want to squeeze the flesh out into a bowl, by holding on to the skin and basically folding the avocado in half lengthwise and pressing it flat, squeezing out all the flesh. So at this point you should have a headstart on smashing the avocado into the right consistency.

2. Next add the lime juice, and mix in with the avocado, smashing any big chunks with a fork until the guac is about the consistency you want (I like mine pretty chunky).

3. Next add all the rest of the ingredients and stir together. VERY IMPORTANT: Taste it! If it doesn't taste completely awesome, add some salt until it does.

4. Transfer to a serving dish and press saran wrap down on to the surface of the guacamole if you're not serving it right away.

Serves 5 or 6 as an appetizer with tortilla chips