Superluminal

Roasted Ancho Chile Chowder

2010-05-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

This was an unplanned throwing together of fresh stuff from the farmer's market that turned out really damn well, if I do say so myself. It's not spicy, and if you're looking for something very healthy to eat that doesn't taste like health food, this very flavorful chowder is a winner. Oh, and it's vegan, but don't tell anyone!

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Halve and scrape seeds from

1 Butternut Squash

Place cut side up on a sheet pan or similarly shallow sided thing and roast until very tender and skin peels away easily, about 45 minutes. Set aside to cool and don't try to peel it when it's still so hot. Stupid.
Heat a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium heat, add

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
when hot, add
1 Onion, diced
1 head Green Garlic, diced (It's what I had, substitute 3 crushed cloves regular garlic)

Saute until softened and starting to brown, then scoop in chunks of

Roasted Butternut Squash flesh (try to avoid putting in the skin, but don't stress over it)
3 Roasted Ancho Chiles, roughly chopped (I have been cheating and buying these by the bag, pre-roasted at the farmers market- you can roast your own over the gas burner of your stove or use a blow torch!)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
4 c. vegetable stock

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Buzz together with a stick blender, food processor or blender until smoothish.
Nuke

1 ear corn on the cob, still in it's leafy trappings

for 3 minutes, allow to cool for a couple minutes then shuck and cut off kernels onto a kitchen towel so they don't go bouncing all over. Stir them into the soup, add

Salt to taste

and serve the soup with

A handful of chopped cilantro

This would probably rock with a few toasted pepitas as garnish too. Next time.

Pumpkin Pie

2009-11-11T11:24:00.000-08:00

This recipe makes 2 ridiculously easy 9" pies. If you just want 1 pie (seriously, just make 2, it doesn't take any extra time, especially if you're using pre-made crusts) this recipe halves very easily.

Preheat oven to 425F.

In a small bowl, whisk together
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp freshly ground white pepper
(just skip the nutmeg and white pepper if you're going to use the stuff that's already ground, and be ashamed of yourself because those 2 spices are the best part)
until mixed thoroughly. Using a whisk helps break down any lumps in your sugar and it works great to put the rest of the ingredients together too.

Beat
4 eggs
in a large bowl.

Whisk the sugar and spice mixture into the eggs.

Add
30 oz. canned pumpkin (the big can or 2 regular sized ones)
and mix well.

Whisk in
2 12 oz. cans of evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed milk)
adding a little at a time and whisking well between additions. This will help distribute everything evenly with no lumps.

Pour into
2 9" unbaked pie shells
that are already on a baking sheet (it makes it easier to get them into the oven without spilling the filling).

Bake at 425F for 15 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 350 and bake for 50 more minutes. Don't open the door, you peeker, it lets the heat out! The pie should still be pretty jiggly but not obviously liquid, it will continue to set when it comes out of the oven, so don't over bake it or it will get ugly cracks in it and not be the same silky custard texture evenly throughout.

Let it cool completely before serving with whipped cream.

Superfood Salad

2009-07-24T14:52:00.001-07:00

2 c. kale, chopped
2 Tbsp. sliced almonds
2 Tbsp. dried goji berries
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. olive oil
sea salt & pepper to taste

Toss to combine. Voila!

Mr. Robato

2009-06-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

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

A New Beginning

2009-05-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

I considered just deleting the blog. I really did. But that's kinda silly. So I cleaned it.
Had a *major* life change and just considered starting over on all fronts, but it feels a little defeatist.

So I'm reposting the first blog post I ever posted because it's still valid, and I'm still me:
In the beginning

Chances are, I'm not going to be very diligent about posting to my new blog here, but I'll see how it goes. I wanted a place to keep track of what it is that I do with my life. A recent thread on Glitter about what everyone did with their 2005, broken down month my month, left me with the feeling that I must of done something, but I'll be damned if I can remember what. At the very least, I can probably keep track of basic things, like what books I'm reading and...well...maybe that's it. I don't want to commit to much else.

So, um, the name of the blog here, Superluminal, and the url givemevelocity.blogger.com, the reason they don't match- it turns out someone already took it. Sad for me. Super_luminal has been my nick in pretty much all aspects of everything even remotely technological for about 10 years now. The word superluminal is from super (duh!), as in, the most, the ultimate, more than; and luminal, from the latin lumen, for light. So superluminal generally means faster than light. Somewhat of a tangent: I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's Xenocide and there is a Chinese character who's name translated to English means "Gloriously Bright." See? She's Superluminal, too. The givemevelocity part of the url is a lyric from a song called Luminal, by a band called Covenant that goes a little something like this:

I try to rise in pride, I want to radiate
walk on water and ride the light
I try to break the chains, I want to penetrate
cross the borders and drink the oceans

give me velocity and gasoline
electricity and adrenaline
I want to be superluminal

I need to burn my fuel, I want to detonate
melt the sun and drain the sources
I need to waste my strength, I want to escalate
turn the tide, conquer the stars

I have to go ahead, I want to elevate
rise above, find the path, I have to look beyond
I want to perforate, reach behind, take it back
I must spread my wings, I want to scintillate
blind myself, break away, I must be born again
I want to celebrate, stop the clock and never return

I've always loved those lyrics, they are very "me". Bleah. So on this, my first blog post, consider them my introduction.

2008-08-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to learn to golf. I wasn't sure if it was something I'd really end up liking or whatever, so I haven't really mentioned it to anyone. Like my mom. Who is probably reading this. Hi mom! *waves* My dad loves to golf. My dad also learned to fly airplanes without telling my mom. So now I feel a little guilty I'm 1) taking up a sport that reminds my mom of my dad and 2) I haven't said anything yet. But really? I just don't want to be hassled about it, so I haven't said anything. It's just a dumb game. And I'm really digging getting outside and play with my friends. The boys took me last Tursday? Friday? I don't remember.. to the Loma Santa Fe executive course. It was my first time hitting a golf ball on real grass and I did surprisingly better than I have been at the driving range. I shot 108 on a course with 2 par 4s and the rest par 3s. I even shot par on the seventh hole! w00t! We went again yesterday and I shot a 93 or something, I think.

Perfection

2008-05-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

I've made fish tacos 3 times in 2 weeks at this point and its because I've been refining the recipe to optimize both tastiness and speed of preparation. I think it's ready for publication. It's nothing revolutionary, and that's the beauty of it, because these are the best damn fish tacos evah.

Do all these steps in this order and everything should be ready and you won't have a mad panic at the end.

Take out your fish, (so far, my assessment is that mahi-mahi is better for this than yellowtail or halibut) and rinse and pat it dry. Then cover it with a dry rub of spicy goodness (I use chili powder, cumin, salt and mexican oregano), wrap it back up and throw it back in the fridge.

Make the salsa- stir together:
1 tomato, diced and half assedly seeded
1/4 red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
1 torn off small fistfull of cilantro leaves, chopped
squeeze of lime juice from half of a lime
big pinch of salt
small splash, about 1 tsp, of extra virgin olive oil

GO LIGHT THE GRILL (I use a big green egg with natural hardwood charcoal, which makes the fish taste grilled and smoky)

Make the chipotle crema- stir together:
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 T adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo
(a lot of heat comes from this, so if the tacos are too spicy for you, cut back on the adobo)

Prep the tortillas by wrapping a stack of 6 or so in damp paper towels and put them in the microwave so you can just turn it on once the fish is off the grill...and speaking of which...

Take the fish out and give it the lightest possible coating of oil so it doesn't stick and then go put the fish on what should be a very hot grill at this point. I can't really tell you how long to grill it, but grill it until its flaky. I usually like my fish to be a little underdone, but in this application, its better to have it a little more cooked so that it can flake better- but don't overcook it!

While the fish is grilling, shred:
1/2 a cabbage

And slice up the second half of the lime into 6 wedges.

When its done, take it off and let it rest on a cutting board. Meanwhile, slice half an avocado and zap the tortillas for 30 seconds. Take the tortillas out and plate them up so they're propping each other open and are easy to fill. Cut and pull apart the fish and fill the tortillas as follows:

Fish, salsa, cabbage, avocado, chipotle crema.
Serve each taco with a lime wedge on the side.

Great, now I'm hungry.

I forgot...

2008-04-07T19:47:00.001-07:00

Somehow I managed to forget to mention my favorite orchid I got this weekend...a native orchid (one of our only) to Southern California. Its the Epipactis gigantea, and I bought 2 plants. For anyone that thinks orchids are hard, this plant wants to sit in water, have rocky obnoxious sand for soil and would essentially die if you took care of it with fertilizer. Basically, put this puppy in the worst possible spot and leave it alone and it will double in size every year. We'll see about that. The buds are just about to open up and I'll post pics when they do.

San Diego Orchid Society Show

2008-04-05T18:12:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the San Diego Orchid Society Show and Sale. I spent more than I intended, but wound up getting some really beautiful and unusual plants.
I just spent an hour online doing research and looking into my purchases and rather than lose all of that data to a sticky note, I figured that here would be a good place to post it.

Masdevallia Pinocchio (In bloom now, and should stay that way for a good long while)
Neofinetia falcata (Should bloom late summer)
Brassavola Nodosa (In bloom now, hopefully will stay blooming until May 10)
Cirrhopetalum Elizabeth Ann 'Buckleberry', FCC/AOS
Laeliocattleya Jacquinetta X Cattleya Trimos
Epidendrum Pacific Valley
Cymbidium Mary Green 'Spring Wind'

I have a few others from before
Unknown White Phalaenopsis
Unknown Purple stripey Paphilopedilum
Paphilopedilum Valerie Tonkin St. Louis X Ice Castle "Dreamer" (yellow green)
Unknown Cascading Mauve Cymbidium

The scoop on the dancing...

2007-06-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I was in my first "real" dance competition on Friday- the San Diego Dancesport Championships. My instructor, Martin, and I danced in the Pro-Am International Latin single dance competitions (because I don't do all 5 Latin dances yet- I dance Rumba, Samba, Cha-Cha and Jive, but not Paso Doble) in the Newcomer, Pre-Bronze, and Intermediate Bronze levels. I've been taking private lessons once a week since February, and as many group classes that interest me as I can- usually 3-5 per week. I placed first in all 4 Newcomer dances and second place in all the rest. I felt pretty lousy through the whole thing though because I'd just gotten off of a long flight at 11pm the night before and my first dance in the competition was at 9am. Bleah. Martin says to me as we're warming up, "You're so *quiet*!" Yeah, no kidding, I'm half asleep. Thankfully the competition was just a few blocks from home, at the Westin Horton Plaza, but walking wasn't really an option. I looked absurd. The elevator ride down to my car was painful enough- I looked like I was ready for a very sassy night out on the town, with bright red lipstick, heavy heavy makeup, and a little black dress- all at 8am. So now all my neighbors think I'm a hooker. Fabulous. And I forgot all of my jewelry, had no time to go to the torture chamber that is the Mystic Tan, and my fancy competition dress turned out to be the most drab, forgettable thing on the dance floor. And I thought I looked pretty good until I got into the ballroom. Everyone was so damn SPARKLY! And BRIGHT! Like neon Barbie dolls. The only thing neon about me was my skin next to these women. The dances all went so quickly, I did 12 total. The first 8 were all in a row and the first 8 of the competition. Then I had a 6 minute break and did the last 4 in a row. Unfortunately, I didn't pace myself very well, so my fourth dance, the jive, kicked my butt. I really overdid it, and didn't have any time to recover. My 8th dance was jive as well, and I thought I was gonna die. The only other screw up was that my heel caught in my dress at one point and that was sorta scary and unfortunate, but I recovered pretty quickly and everything worked out ok. All in all, it was lots of fun, went by too fast, and I look forward to the next one.

I needed to chill

2007-05-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

The ballroom dancing has been working wonders for lowering my stress and ridding me of those damn migraines. I actually was in my first little competition a couple weeks ago and had a really fun time. So much so that I'll be in another one the weekend after next. A real one this time. For the curious, I dance International style latin dances- cha cha, rumba, samba, jive and paso doble (the last one I don't yet do in competition).
The weekend before last I went to Palm Springs for Sarah's bachelorette party and the moment Georgia and Brie saw me they laughed out loud at how much more mellow I seemed than ever before. *This* is why my migraines are gone. And good riddance too. The mojito and spicy tuna handroll by the pool probably helped on the relaxation front as well.

Basically, Whining

2007-02-07T17:38:00.000-08:00

I've never been so freaked out with stress ever. Just so much work to do and its hard not to think about it all the time. Thankfully my crazy migraines with aura/ocular migraines are under control, thanks, I think, to my taking up ballroom dancing. The doctor gave me some options to reduce stress and I went with dancing. So far, no headaches since Christmas even though my stress level keeps climbing, except for the one hour or so when I'm dancing, where I'm blissfully too occupied physically and mentally (because, it turns out I am an uncoordinated mess) to think about work.
And no, I do not have a blood clot or a stroke- MOM.

Recipe: Prime Rib of Beef and Accompaniments

2007-01-02T14:04:00.001-08:00

IMG_0035.JPG
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

Plan for 20ish mins per pound for medium rare, and if you want anything other than medium rare, you're nuts. Aim for 130 degrees when you pull it out of the oven. I like to roast it super duper slow- in a 300 degree oven. I don't brown it all over in a skillet first because its an unwieldy monster, so for the last 20 mins or so of roasting I up the heat to 400 to brown it and also get the oven hot for the next stuff to go in (Yorkshire Pudding and roasted carrots).

This roast was 4 ribs and was a little over ten pounds. It would have served 10 or 11 people with no leftovers, but that would just be tragic. It was cut from the small end of the roast and was tied and dry aged (at Whole Foods because I don't have that kind of room in my fridge).

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Smash 10 cloves of garlic with the heel of your chef's knife or something heavy. Cut up 3 Tbsps of butter into half inch cubes.

To prepare the beef for roasting, I covered it in a couple tablespoons of Fleur de Sel (French Sea Salt) and cracked black pepper all over it. Don't go too crazy on the cut ends because then the end pieces will be too seasoned. Then I put it on an adjustable rack in the roasting pan and topped it with a box of thyme and a box of rosemary (10 to 12 sprigs of each) and dotted the top with the garlic and butter.
Put the probe thermometer in the center of the roast and pop the thing in the oven.

Don't baste it. Don't keep looking at it. Yes, the garlic smells like its burning. Its OK.

Remember to turn up the heat to 400 during the last 20 mins until the meat gets to 130 degrees.

Take it out of the oven and transfer the roast to a carving board to rest, preferably something that will catch the juices. When you are ready to serve it, make sure everything else is already on the table before you carve the roast. It should be the last thing to happen.

Au Jus
After taking the roast out and transferring it to a carving board, take the rack out of the pan, dump whatever is in there into a fat separator (I pretty much got 100% fat with burnt garlic bobbing around in it) and set the pan on the stove so it spans 2 burners. Turn both burners to medium high and throw a nearby glass of red wine at the pan to deglaze it. Use a spatula to scrape up all the goodies stuck to the bottom of the pan. Slosh in some beef broth and reduce for a few minutes. Keep throwing wine and broth into the pan and reducing until you're ready to serve or you feel like it tastes good and you've got enough jus. Strain with a sieve and pour into a serving thing.

Fresh Horseradish Whipped Cream

This works just as well with prepared horseradish in a jar, but there were fresh roots at the store, so I picked one up. While reading up on preparing fresh horseradish, I came across a tip: if you grate the horseradish in the food processor, don't stick your face over the bowl when you take the lid off. Good advice. Did I follow it? No.
OMG, it burns.

Grate horseradish, then process fine in food processor. Combine 3 Tbsps of horseradish with 2 tsp cider vinegar, 1 tsp honey and a pinch of salt and pepper. Whip some whipping cream and mix in horseradish mixture. Season and add more horseradish if necessary.

Check out my herb, man

2006-12-27T09:12:00.001-08:00

aerogarden
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

Look at my Aerogarden that I got for my birthday!! Its exactly 4 weeks old and looks terrific, I think! Parsley totally lags though. Slacker!

From the back left, clockwise: mint, basil, dill, cilantro, chives, purple basil, slacker parsley.

That poor cilantro doesn't stand a chance. Once batch of salsa and its done for.

Quilt in a week, but just a little one

2006-12-26T11:07:00.001-08:00

IMG_1534.JPG
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

This picture is just the *back* of the quilt, so click on it to go to flickr and see the rest!
I finished this quilt for a baby just in time for Christmas- he's due on New Year's Day. I started the quilt on Sunday, December 17 2006, and finished on Friday December 22. I worked on it a couple hours every day except for Friday, when I turned, basted and quilted it for about 4 hours. Its a log cabin block organized in a pattern called "wave." It's 100% cotton and quilted with my new Bernina 440 QE with the BSR. Its hard to see from the pictures, but there are waves quilted in each diagonal stripe. You can see them best on the light stripes.
w00t!
I love my new robot.

Recipe: BBQ Succotash

2006-12-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

1 tablespoon extra-virgin or vegetable oil, 1 turn of the pan
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 (14-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (10-ounce) box frozen corn
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup smoky barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and peppers and saute 5 minutes. Add beans and corn and season with salt and pepper. When corn heats through, add barbecue sauce. Stir to combine and serve succotash with cilantro to garnish.

Recipe: Honey Nut Chicken

2006-12-19T15:14:00.000-08:00

4 ounces, 2 small packages, honey roasted peanuts, about 2/3 cup
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1 tablespoon grill seasoning blend (recommended: Montreal Seasoning by McCormick)
2 eggs
A splash half-and-half or whole milk
2 teaspoons hot sauce, several drops
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 (6 to 8-ounce) pieces of chicken breast

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put nuts, bread crumbs and grill seasoning in food processor and pulse grind to combine the nuts into bread crumbs. Pour nutty-breading onto a plate.

Beat eggs and half-and-half or milk with hot sauce in a shallow dish.

Pour flour out on a plastic board or plate.

Dust both sides of the chicken with flour. Dip the chicken into the egg mixture and then coat with the nutty-breading.

Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan with a thin layer, 2 or 3 turns of the pan. Brown chicken pieces 2 minutes on each side in hot oil or until evenly light golden in color. Transfer to a baking sheet and cook in oven until juices run clear and breasts are cooked through, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Recipe: Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce

2006-12-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Combine in a bowl to make marinade:
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp peanut oil
1 Tbsp lime juice
grated zest of lime
black pepper

Marinate for 1 hour in marinade:
Chicken thighs

Peanut Sauce:
1 tsp minced garlic
squeeze of Sirracha
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 c chicken broth
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut milk
1.5 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 tsp light soy sauce
pinch sugar
1.5 Tbsp dry roasted peanuts, chopped

Saute garlic and sirracha in the oil for 30 seconds. Add the broth, coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, and sugar. Whisk to blend. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 minutes to thicken, stirring frequently. Cover and set aside. When ready to serve, place in bowls and garnish with chopped peanuts.

Drain the marinade from the chicken and grill until done. Let stand for 5 minutes then cut into strips and serve with sauce and goodies:

lettuce leaves
spring roll wrappers
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2 c mint leaves
1/2 cilantro

Recipe: Sada Moong Dal (Mung Dal Soup)

2006-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

So flipping good. I don't make this nearly enough. Serve with rice, yogurt and a salad.

2/3 c split moong dal without skins
6.5 c water
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1.5 tsp minced ginger root
1 tsp minced seeded serrano chile
1.25 tsp salt
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter or vegetable oil)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro

Sort, wash and drain the split mung beans
Combine the mung beans, water, turmeric, corander, ginger and chile in a heavy saucepan or dutch oven. Stirring occasionally, bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Reduce heat, cover, and boil gently for 1 hour, until the dal is soft and fully cooked.
Off the heat, uncover and add the salt and blend a little with immersion blender.
Heat the ghee in a little skillet and toss in cumin seeds. Fry until brown. Pour into the soup and immediately cover. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add the cilantro and serve.

Recipe: Fresh Pasta

2006-12-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

Another example of a sad recipe to have to "write down." But to be fair, I don't do this often enough to remember the ratio of eggs to flour. I really love making pasta though. If making ravioli, make 2x the amount of pasta you think you need- example, if making ravioli for 4 people, make the recipe for 6-8.

To serve 2-4
2 eggs, pinch salt
1 c flour

To serve 4-6
3 eggs, pinch salt
1.5 c flour

To serve 6-8
4 eggs, big pinch salt
2 c flour

The method is not something I'm likely to forget, but here it is anyway:
Place the flour on a smooth surface in a pile and make a wide well in the middle. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork. Pour eggs into the well and add a pinch of salt. Beat the eggs with a fork, gradually drawing flour in from the sides of the well. The first time, you'll probably break the walls of your well, just make the best of it. :) When you've drawn in enough flour that the fork just isn't cutting it anymore, use your hands and knead the dough, adding flour until its not sticky anymore. Use a pasta machine to finish kneading. On the lowest setting, run the dough through about 15 times, folding and turning it each time. Once dough is very smooth and pliable, use pasta machine to thin dough to desired thickness.

Recipe: Eggs (how embarassing)

2006-12-17T11:27:00.000-08:00

What kind of pathetic dork puts a recipe for boiled eggs online? The kind that forgets how long to boil eggs for with her magical special method that works for her. If you think about it, everybody has different tricks to do this simple task. Things to keep the shells from cracking, make them easier to peel, keep the yolks from graying, so see? I'm not so lame. I just want to remember what works for me.

Put the eggs in cold water in a pot that has a tight fitting lid. The eggs should lie in a single layer, close enough together to remain steady when the water boils. Bring the water to a boil and immediately remove the pot from the heat. Put the lid on and let the eggs stand until the desired degree of doneness is reached. Immediately immerse the eggs in cold water and let stand at least 1 minute. To peel the eggs, roll them gently on a hard surface to crack the shell and then peel under cold running water, starting at the rounded end. Store the peeled eggs in water to keep them from drying out until ready to use.
Soft boiled- 3 minutes
Medium boiled- 4 minutes
Hard boiled- 12 minutes

Recipe: Mexican Scampi

2006-12-17T11:14:00.000-08:00

A quick note about black beans, if you dump a quarter cup of nice spicy salsa in with a can of beans, top with some sour cream and cilantro, its pretty damn good and you haven't spend all day making beans. yay!

Mexican Scampi
Serves 2

10 large shrimp
stick of butter
2 Tbsps honey
1/4 c. lime juice
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 chipotles en Adobo
1/2 tsp salt

Combine everything except shrimp to make a compound butter (nuke it so its pretty soft but not quite melted). Throw in the shrimp and marinate 1 hour. Throw them on a hot grill pan and cook until they look like shrimp. Serve with salsa over rice and with black beans.

Recipe: Glazed Carrots

2006-12-17T11:08:00.000-08:00

Carrots Glazed with Honey and Brandy

Combine in large heavy saucepan:
1.5 lbs carrots cut into 1/4" slices
1.5 c water
1 Tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain well.

In a large heavy skillet, over medium high heat, cook until butter melts and sugar dissolves:
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp honey
1 tsp brown sugar

Add:
carrots
1.5 Tbsp brandy
and cook for 3 minutes. Toss before serving with:
1.5 Tbsp chopped parsley

(note: I decreased the honey by half a Tablespoon and added 1/4 tsp of brown sugar because the carrots were a little too sweet for my taste.)

Recipe: Sweet Yorkshire Pudding and Puffy Dutch Pancake

2006-12-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Every time I want to make this I end up having to call my mom or dad to dig up the recipe for me from the Pepperidge Farm Cookbook (that I just bought on ebay for a whopping $5.99 w00t!, so I shouldn't have this problem anymore anyway) so I'm putting it online, where it will continue in perpetuity until the internet blows up.
It is not your average Yorkshire, not a flavorless popover type thing, more like a German pancake. Sunken and eggy in the middle with browned edges rising up and out of the pan, buttery, eggy and a little sweet. It kicks ass with salty au jus.

Pepperidge Farm Sweet Yorkshire Pudding
Makes 4 servings (2 loaf pans)

1/2 c milk
1/2 c flour
.5 tsp salt
1.5 tsp sugar
1 egg
4 Tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 450
Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix milk and eggs with hand blender. Add flour mixture and blend until...blended.
Put 2 Tbsps cold butter in each loaf pan and put in hot oven. When butter melts and just starts to brown, pour in batter, 1/2" deep in each pan, and bake for 25 minutes, until edges are puffed and brown.

While I'm on the topic, here's the recipe for the Puffy Dutch Pancake from that freaky little "Quick & Easy Meals for Two" cookbook with the housewife holding a casserole and riding a pig on the cover. Um, yeah.
This pancake is really close to the Dutch Baby/German Pancake they serve at the Original Pancake House and similar to the above Yorkshire recipe.

Puffy Dutch Pancake

Put 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1/4 c flour and 1/2 c milk in a bowl. Beat all together with an electric mixer until very light and well blended. The beating is most important. Heat 1 Tbsp butter in a 9 or 12 inch skillet. Let it get sputtery hot- but don't let it burn. Pour in the batter and cook 1 minute, just to brown it on the bottom. Transfer to a very hot oven, 450-475 degrees F. Reduce heat to 375-400 F after first 5 minutes and bake until it rises well up on sides and is nicely browned- about 10 more minutes. When you remove it to a serving plate, dot with butter while hot and pour a mixture of 1/4 c honey and 1 Tbsp lemon juice over the pancake. (I left the recipe in tact, but I like mine sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with lemon wedges instead of that honey nonsense.)

And that's something you can ride in on your pig with.

Recipe: Spicy Pumpkin Soup

2006-12-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

Before I lose this recipe for the zillionth time, let us blog.

1 finely minced jalapeno
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 c. chicken or veggie broth
15 oz can pumpkin
2 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp maple syrup
toasted pepitas for garnish

Saute jalapeno in olive oil for a minute. Stir in broth, pumpkin and lime juice and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro, syrup and garnish with pepitas. Yay!

I Sew Stuff

2006-11-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

IMG_1483.JPG
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

I made a navy a-line skirt with a back zipper and a blind hem using my new snazzy Bernina sewing machine. It was made from an end bolt piece of designer fabric that cost me about a buck. I put in a zipper for the first time in 10 years, too. w00t!
I'm really happy to find that I can crank out work clothes for so cheap that actually look nice and fit me perfectly. It only took about an hour and a half for this project from start to finish, and i spent most of that time burning my fingers on my iron and sucking on them.

Supergirl

2006-10-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

I got a new laptop on Friday. 15 inch 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro. Her name is Supergirl. Also, she got a gorgeous purse to swank around in. Hotness.
She takes pictures too.

Recipe: Banana Dog

2006-09-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

IMG_1256.JPG
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

Don't you hate cutting up bananas to make peanut butter, jelly, banana and honey sandwiches?

Me too.

Behold the banana dog!

I guess it doesn't really need a recipe, but I highly recommend using my homemade pomegranate jelly, super good dark honey, chunky peanut butter (because creamy is for sissies), and lightly toasted whole wheat hot dog buns.

Crocheted Scarflet

2006-09-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

IMG_1239.JPG
Originally uploaded by super_luminal.

I got back from a big long trip to Boston for VON, Chicago for Glittercon, and a quick dinner with Georgia in Phoenix. I'm exhausted and sick, but I just wanted to show off this scarflet I crocheted from the time I boarded a plane until we took off. We were on the ground probably an hour because of the rain, and this was supposed to be my project for the *flight*, but oh well. I got the yarn at the big craft fair in Chicago, Renegade. Its hand-dyed, hand-spun tencil. Its manmade from soy and it super shiny and soft. Perfect for those brisk San Diego winters. ;)

Squid Etchings

2006-09-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

So there was a squid themed swap recently on glitter and I couldn't post pictures of what I made before my swap partner got her package. But she has her package now and I wanted to show off what I wound up making.

I learned to etch glass!!

Well, "learned" is a bit of a strong word...etching glass is super easy. Step 1, clean glass. Step 2, apply contact paper with design drawn on it. Step 3, cut away contact paper where you want glass to be etched. Step 4, apply goopy etching compound (hydroflouric acid in goop form) with a brush. Step 5, after 5 minutes, rinse, dry and remove contact paper.

I think they turned out pretty well and I hated parting with them. My favorite one is the lurking-at-the-bottom squid.

Learning to Crochet

2006-08-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Knittykat's posts on glitter to learn how to crochet and its going very well so far. She'd sent me a pattern for a doily a while back and I cockily figured I'd have no problem with it. So here I am, months later, and I can crochet a rectangle. But to be fair, one of the rectangles I'm working on is rather large and impressive; an afghan for josh for his birthday. But you don't say afghan when you're giving presents to guys, so he's getting "a big cozy couch blanket." You can see it lounging on the couch in this pic that also shows off my first real attempt at crochet (the white trapezoid), and the washcloth I made that's waiting to have borders put on it (the green rectangle).

Motivational Poster

2006-07-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

They sure have mastered the art of suspense when it comes to the signs in the elevators in my building. If they're not tormenting you with the terrifying number of fonts put to use in a single document, they're subtly suggesting that the elevator you're riding in may....how do we put this gently?....drop you at some point.

I Don't Want West Nile

2006-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

So another mosquito got in 2 nights ago and bit me all over. Twice on my face! One's on my temple and the other one is near my right eyebrow. He also got each of my upper arms twice. I killed him, so who knows how many more times I'd been bitten if I hadn't.

So I've had it. I bought me a Biter Fighter. It works by luring mosquitos with CO2. You dump water in the top and a chemical that slowly reacts with the water and releases CO2. The mosquitos are attracted and get stuck on sticky strips on the trap. We'll see how it goes... It should be here next week.

Kailer and his entourage

2006-07-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Angie and Georgia (with Kailer) came to visit me yesterday. We walked to seaport village and went to Buster's Beach House for tacos and drinks and walked home. That baby is getting too cute for words!

Angie is moving to Cleveland to go to med school at Ohio State in 3 weeks! I'm so proud of her.

Recipe: Cinnamon Ice Cream

2006-07-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

I made cinnamon ice cream to go with the apple and blueberry pies for the fourth of july. Its not super overpowering, in fact, you'd hardly notice the cinnamon unless you were eating it without pie. And if my calculations are correct, you could use this custard base to make creme brulee if you baked it into ramekins.

Bring to a boil in a huge pot so you don't make yourself cry by allowing it to boil over:
3 pints heavy cream
1 c. milk
3 cinnamon sticks
pinch salt
Meanwhile, whisk to combine in a huge bowl:
12 egg yolks
3 c. sugar
When the cream mixture boils, pour one cup into the egg mixture while whisking like crazy. Then pour in another cup while whisking like crazy. Then dump the rest of the cream (the sticks can go in too) into the eggs and whisk until you're comfortable nothing's gonna scramble. Bring the custard down to room temperature- I do this quickly by floating a clean, smaller bowl filled with ice water in the big bowl of hot custard. I stir it every once in a while with the bowl to move the custard around. Once its cool, chill it in the fridge at least 4 hours or overnight. Before you dump it in your ice cream maker (this is a huge batch by the way and is 2 batches for my ice cream maker), stir in:
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Recipe: Super Easy Wild Blueberry Pie

2006-07-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

My pie crust recipe will be blogged here at some point, but for now, use whatever recipe you like- this pie has a top and bottom crust.

Toss together in a large bowl:
8 c. frozen then thawed wild blueberries (4 x 20 oz. bags- after they thaw, drain off the juice)
3 c. sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
pinch nutmeg
2-3 Tbsp. tapioca (if your blueberries are very juicy, use 3 Tbsp)
Let stand for 15 minutes, then pour into unbaked pie shell. Dot surface of the blueberries with:
1 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
Place top crust on the pie and flute edges. Brush with egg wash made by whisking together:
1 egg
2 Tbsp. water
Cut 4 slits in the top crust at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle pie with:
1/4 c. granulated sugar
Bake pie at 425 degrees for 20 minutes and then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for 50 minutes more. Until top is browned and juices bubble.

Recipe: Dutch Apple Pie Recipe

2006-07-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to put my pie crust recipe here, because I'll just post it it's own post eventually so I don't have to keep retyping it. Also, you may already have a recipe that you like, so that's fine too. You need 1 blind baked shell to make a Dutch apple pie. Also, that struesel topping is awesome and I may just put it on everything. Or eat it like granola. Oh, that would be bad.

To make the struesel topping:
Combine in a medium bowl:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar (I used my crazy dark Muscovado sugar, but it will work with regular light brown)
1 Tbsp cornmeal
Drizzle with:
1 stick melted butter
and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms many large chunks with pea-sized pieces mixed throughout.

Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spread streusel in even layer on baking sheet. Bake streusel until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

To make the filling:
Peel, quarter, and core:
5 Granny Smith apples (about 2 1/2 lbs.)
4 Braeburn apples (about 2 lbs.)
Slice each quarter crosswise into pieces 1/4-inch thick.
Toss apples in a large bowl with:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Heat in large Dutch oven over high heat until foaming subsides:
2 Tbsps. butter
Add apples and toss to coat. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until apples are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in:
3/4 c. raisins
Cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until Granny Smith apple slices are tender and Braeburn apple slices are softened and beginning to break down, about 5 minutes longer.

Set large colander over large bowl and transfer cooked apples to colander. Shake colander and toss apples to drain off as much juice as possible.
Add back into now-empty Dutch oven:
1 c. heavy cream
reserved apple juice
Bring drained juice and cream to boil over high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened and wooden spoon leaves trail in mixture, about 5 minutes.

To assemble and bake:
Transfer apples to prebaked pie shell; pour reduced juice mixture over and smooth with rubber spatula. Sprinkle streusel evenly over pie filling. Set pie plate on a baking sheet and bake until streusel topping is deep golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack and serve.

I hope you like jammin' too

2006-07-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

I made jams and jellies on Saturday. 1 batch of Pomegranate Jelly, which turned out super duper clear and is destined to be part of a really good PB & J, 2 batches of Pineapple Jam that's gonna be really good with pound cake, and one batch of Serrano Jelly that's already made a fine snack on Wheat Thins and cream cheese. It will also be used to make the Brie Business. I didn't include instructions for canning because... well, because there are plenty online. I liked Alton Brown's clear instructions that take altitude into account and didn't have any jars that didn't seal.

Recipe: Serrano Jelly

2006-07-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Spicy! If you're too chicken, use jalapenos. If you're too chicken for jalapenos, don't bother. Chicken.

Bring to a boil in a big pot (stirring constantly):
1 and a half cups of finely chopped red bell pepper
1 and a half cups of finely chopped green bell pepper
1 cup extra finely chopped (use the food processor)serrano chiles (I used about 20)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 box sure jell pectin
1/2 tsp butter (optional to prevent foaming)
When rolling boil is reached, stir in:
5 cups of sugar
and return to a boil. When it comes back to a full rolling boil, boil for one minute.

Recipe: Pomegranate Jelly

2006-07-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Bring to a boil in a large pot:
3 and a half cups of pomegranate juice (either store bought or juice from about 5 large pomegranates filtered through cheesecloth)
1 box sure jell pectin
1/2 tsp. butter (optional to prevent foaming)
When full rolling boil is reached, pour in:
5 cups of sugar
and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 full minute.

Recipe: Pineapple Jam

2006-07-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Peel and core:
2 ripe, medium-sized pineapples
Chop in food processor and measure out 4 and a half cups. Place pineapple in a big stock pot/sauccepan with:
1 box sure jell pectin
1/2 tsp butter (optional to prevent foaming)
Bring to a full rolling boil while stirring constantly and add:
5 and a half cups of sugar
Bring back to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute.

Bad Girls of Craft

2006-06-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

So I went to what could almost be called a support group last night....a meeting of The Bad Girls of Craft. Local girls that are all crafty sitting around Coco's discussing the best place to find beads and how in the heck did you make that? can I see it?

It was fun and I got to meet lots of other nice people, some of whom even do weirder crafts that I do. Behold:

Mandy! Creator of plush zombies and the what may be the largest sock monkey in the world, Buttons.

Emily! Creator of the Jumblebugs- beautiful handstitched felt bugs.

Nicole! Creator of rubber stamps in classic tattoo designs. Like skulls and flames and 8 balls.

There are more interesting girls in this group and I totally plan on going to the meetings regularly (once a month). It was very inspiring.

We had a swap too, and I either didn't see the directions or didn't get any but everybody but me and another girl brought mostly a bunch of little things to trade (packets of beads, scraps of fabric, ribbon, etc.). Instead she and I brough one or two of our creations to trade that were already completed. Boy did I luck out. And I hope she feels the same way. We ended up swapping, as suggested by Nicole, so after a few minutes of, "Are you sure you like the necklace?" and "Oh, Its so gorgeous I couldn't possibly take it in return for my little book!" and "You're out of your mind, give me your book, its gorgeous!" we made an exchange. I traded her a double stranded necklace made from silver and all kinds of glass, stone, wood and pearl beads, for a handmade book. She's a bookbinder! How cool is that?! I don't even know the first thing about bookbinding, but her books are BEAUTIFUL. The one I got is teeny tiny, and it's like a Jacob's ladder- it's tricky to explain, but its like it has a spine on both the right and left side and the spines are removable. So if it has both spines in place, you can't open the book, but if you take out the spine on the right, you can open it up like a regular book, but if you slide the spine back in, you can flip the book over and take out the other spine and open it the other way. So you could write 2 stories in it, but only one would be visible at a time. I can't even explain how cool this thing is.

I'm not a super duper programmer

2006-06-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

I took a stab at writing a little script to create popups for my Switchboard on our Switchvox server. So when a call comes in, the Switchvox passes the caller ID name to this little script that i have running on my personal server and then that script smooshes together an xml file that has a URL in it that performs a google search on that caller ID name. So like if you call me from Intercasting Corp, my computer pops up the google search results as if I had googled for you so I can click on the links and see what you do, what news is recent about you or even find a picture of the person I'm talking to using the images link at the top of the results page. Pretty nifty and a good example of how easy it is to use our APIs.

Feel free to use it, but don't make fun of me if my programming skillz are not teh hotness.

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;

my $q = CGI->new();

print $q->header('text/xml');
if ( $q->param('cid_name') ) {
print "http://www.google.com/search?q=", $q->escapeHTML($q->param('cid_name')), "";
}

Recipe: Tristan's IPA

2006-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Ingredients for 5 gallon batch.

6 lbs. Coopers light dried malt extract
1 lb. 60L Crystal malt
1/2 lb. Victory malt
2 oz. Northern Brewer whole hop flowers (boiling)
3/4 oz. Cascade whole hop flowers (finishing)
California Ale Yeast

Add grains to 1.5 gallons cold water, bring to between 150-160 and steep for 30 mins. Remove the grains. Bring to a boil and add the malt extract and the Northern Brewer hops. Boil for 60 minutes. When 1 minute remains, add Cascade hops. Strain, sparge and transfer to the carboy. Add cold water to make 5 gallons. When temperature reaches 80 degrees or lower, shake to aerate wort and then pitch yeast.

Recipe: Steam Beer

2006-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Ingredients for 5 gallon batch.

8 lbs. Cooper's light malt extract syrup
3/4 lb. 80L Crystal Malt
1/4 lb. 120L Crystal Malt
2 oz. Northern Brewer whole hop flowers (boiling)
1/2 oz. Cascade whole hop flowers (finishing 5 mins)
1/2 oz. Cascade whole hop flowers (finishing 1 min)
San Francisco Lager Yeast

Add grains to 1.5 gallons cold water, bring to between 150-160 and steep for 30 mins. Remove the grains. Bring to a boil and add the malt extract and the 2 oz. of Northern Brewer hops. Boil for 60 minutes. When 5 minutes remain, add 1/2 oz. of Cascade hops. When 1 minute remains, add 1/2 oz. of Cascade hops. Strain, sparge and transfer to the carboy. Add cold water to make 5 gallons. When temperature reaches 80 degrees or lower, shake to aerate wort and then pitch yeast.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie #11

2006-06-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Modified from Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookie #10, this is now my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I changed a couple things- I added the salt with the liquids rather than sifting it in with the flour and I used dark Muscovado sugar (don't pack this in the measuring cup, its potent stuff).

Preheat oven to 375. Buzz in food processor for 5 seconds:

2.5 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda

Stir together:
1 tsp salt
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. dark Muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)
1 c. unsalted butter (melted and cooled)
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Dump flour mixture into a large bowl, dump sugar mixture on top and stir together with a spatula until almost combined (you should still see a little unincorporated flour).

Mix in:
almost 2 cups of chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli brand because they're big)

Portion 1 oz. scoops out with a disher onto a silpat or parchment paper and bake for 13-15 minutes. These unbaked cookies can be frozen and baked off later if you don't want to do them all now.

Makes 3 dozen.

SQUEEEEEE!!!

2006-06-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

OMG. Look what I got last night.

It is a real actual nice sounding sound thing. A perch for the babygirl. Look at how proud she looks up there! I've never had anything that ever even came close to sounding this wonderful.

Flamingo Cake

2006-06-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

Made a cake for a customer on Saturday and I think it turned out pretty cute- there were flamingos marching all around the thing. It was a white chocolate cake filled with bavarian cream, blueberries and strawberries. When I level my cakes, there are "cake lids" that need disposing of, so I tend to make a little serving of trifle out of them to see how everything tastes together before assembling the thing and delivering it to the client. Yep, I eat cake for you, it's not that I want to eat the cake! I'm taking one for the team.

In other news, my dad came over for father's day and I made some individual beef wellingtons. They turned out pretty darn good, I think. He said they were the best he'd had, but he could be biased.

Also, the mosquitos are back in full force and I'm covered in bites from just one night with the windows open. I'm pretty bummed we've got to close them for the summer but this is ridiculous. I'm happy to report that I killed the little bugger that bit me. Too late, but still satisfying.

Recipe: Baked Ricotta Penne

2006-06-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

Baked Ricotta Penne

The Princess Pub took my favorite thing off the menu, so I've had to figure out how to make it at home. Here's what I came up with:

1 lb. cooked drained penne pasta
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. warm milk
15 oz. ricotta
1 c. grated parmesan cheese
pinch nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cayenne
1 Tbsp. salt
few sprigs fresh sage, coarsely chopped
chicken breasts, (1/2 per person)
favorite chicken spice rub (aim for cajun blackend style)
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips

Preheat oven to 350.

Melt butter in large saucepan and whisk in flour to make a roux. Cook for 3 mins, whisking constantly. Pour in warm milk and whisk until thickened, 3 more minutes.

Add ricotta, 1/4 c. paremesan, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt. Stir until thickened and cheese is melted. Place penne in 9 x 13 pan and pour ricotta mixture over pasta, toss, and sprinkle remaining parmesan on top. Bake 1 hr, or until cheese is browned on top.

Meanwhile, coat chicken in spice rub and grill until cooked through. Also, grill bell pepper strips until the edges start to char and they soften a little.

To serve, cut grilled chicken breast into strips and serve with bell peppers over serving of baked penne. Top with coarsely chopped sage.

Recipe: Watermelon Jalapeno Popsicles

2006-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ingredients & stuff:

Juice from 2 limes (about 3 Tbsps)
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 c. watermelon juice
1 red jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed

Microwave sugar and lime juice for about a minute to dissolve the sugar completely. Pour sugar lime mixture into blender and add about a cup of watermelon juice and the jalapeno. Buzz until jalapeno disappears and add the rest of the juice. Pour into popsicle moulds and add sticks. Freeze 5 hours or overnight.

Because the jalepeno is red and has its ribs and seeds removed, the popsicles aren't "spicy" but have a jalapeno flavor and sorta punch up the sweetness of the watermelon.

More popsicle pics in the gallery.

You're Getting Sleepy

2006-06-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well, thegirl will be fixed by tomorrow afternoon- busted slave cylinder leaked out all of my clutch fluid, but it wasn't the master so they don't need to replace the whole clutch.

Its so dark and cloudy today that it's looked like its about 7pm since noon. This has made for a very long, very sleepy workday.

Girl trouble

2006-06-05T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the day I vowed to get back to posting at least something every day, even if seemingly nothing happened that day. I suppose it serves me right that I should have car problems to blog about. I drove Josh to the Chevy dealership so that he could borrow the girl until his car was done being fixed and it turned into my clutch simply breaking. Not some graceful giving out, but it just stopped working. Lovely.

The consensus is that she's faking sick because she didn't want to be driven by Josh. Honestly, who can blame her?

Recipe: Meat. With Hats.

2006-05-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

Marinate 2 portobello mushroom caps in 2 Tbsps Olive Oil, 2 Tbsps Balsamic Vinegar & 2 tsps Worcestershire Sauce for 15 minutes.

Grill 2 filets mignon and the mushrooms until they're as done as you like. Flip the mushrooms so the gills are face up and top with feta cheese and fresh basil.

To serve, put the mushrooms on top of the steaks and, Voila! Meat with Hats are born.
Good with steamed broccoli. Yummy.

Robot Household

2006-05-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

I got a new robot on Sunday! It cleans the shower. And beeps!
Actually, *I* cleaned the shower, with a mr. clean magic eraser, and holy cow do those things work well! But the robot will keep the shower clean so I don't have to. Robots are the bestest.

2006-05-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm in Baltimore, Maryland. I just met the owner of Diabolical, a horse racing in the Preakness on Saturday, so now I'm all excited because I have a horse to root for. Its pretty here. Like an east coast San Diego- very laid back, the weather is lovely and the conference is fine. I always feel a little wierd being by myself. Its hard to talk to people because they're mostly men, and who the hell knows what's going on there?

Rose Explosion

2006-05-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

I went to my mom's on Sunday for early mother's day since she'll be out of town and the garden is in full swing. There's a fuschia in the front yard that I wish I'd gotten a picture of, but check out the roses. The little crazy ones are called Fourth of July, and I think the big one is a Double Delight. Just to give you a sense of scale, the big one in the back is probably as big as my head.

Fin de Semana

2006-05-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Shawn and Natasha's engagement party. The wedding is to be in Cabo San Lucas and the party was on Seis de Mayo, so the party was all about Mexico- sombreros decorating the front door, a tequila tasting, and the caterers were essentially TJ street taco vendors. Those were some mighty fine tacos. mmmmmm....tacos. Anyway, I made the cake. Here it is. Yay! Chocolate blackberry ganache.
Sunday I took the Surfliner up to visit my mom. Note to self: do not sit in the same train car as the boy scout troop.

The Birds

2006-05-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, my office has a big window. The swallows are going back to Capistrano apparently, and its like a horror movie outside. I'm completely mesmorized by the bird swarm that's been going by for the past couple days. Someone needs to explain about the whole "shortest distance between two points is a straight line" thing to these little critters. It looks like they're flying in a blender, but slowly slowly heading north-ish.

iflyswa

2006-05-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

I went to Artwalk this weekend, and not just because I tripped over it when I left the house. I apologize for the cruddy cell phone pic, but look at those crowds! My friend Barclay Osborn was exhibiting his photography at the True Art Walk, up India, just a couple of blocks from home. Barclay is insanely talented at everything and photography is no exception. Also, he's a ninja. Ok, maybe not a ninja, but some kind of ass-kicker in black. I bought a little bit of an airplane from him.

In other news, a feature article I wrote for Internet Telephony magazine was published today. I haven't gotten my print version in the mail yet, but I found it online. Yay! Don't get too excited though, its fairly dorky jibber-jabber to most of the population. I won't be offended if you don't make it to the second paragraph.

Woo-Woo2

2006-05-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

My swap partner, kate, received the quilt that I made for her so its safe to post pictures without spoiling the surprise now. Its the second quilt I've finished, the first quilt I've designed myself, and the first quilt I've actually quilted with a machine (the first one was tied because everything I read psyched me out about quilting being too hard for beginners), and also the first quilt top I've done with mitered corners for the same reason. The design is of a St. Brighid's cross because of her spiritual woo-woo connectedness to Brighid. I'm pretty proud of the thing because its my own design and it came out exactly how I'd sketched it- and its square and everything. I really expected it to be pretty messed up because I'm so terrible with figuring out seam allowances and angles and that's pretty much the most important thing about successfully executing the design. She made me a really beautiful wall hanging and I'll post pics in a bit.

Potato Chip of Sauron

2006-03-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of selling it on eBay with some Jesus toast and elvis pancakes.

Sparklepuff

2006-03-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

When I was going to register a domain for my little online jewelry store a few years ago, I was having trouble finding anything reasonable that was available, dotster, in its infinite wisdom, recommended I name my jewelry store Sparklepuff, as sparklepuff.com was available. Such a catchy word this robot discovered, I've never forgotten it- and looking at my cool new earrings from my imaginary internet friends, I find myself saying it under my breath.
*sparklepuff*
Aren't they great?

I'm not even that good of a swimmer

2006-03-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

I went shopping for a new swimsuit this past weekend and shorts and other beachy accoutrements and figured a few things out. First of all, the first day of swimsuit shopping after a long bleak winter in front of a computer is depressing no matter what, but even more so if you don't go somewhere with 80 billion suits to look at. I went to Nordstrom, mostly because it was there, and that was just really awful. Their dressing rooms don't really make you feel very beachy and they just have a terrible selection.

Also, I've noticed that when I think I'm shopping for cute shorts, what I'm really after are cute legs. No pair of shorts can correct the underlying problem, I simply hate my legs. Cute shorts will not look cute when I put them on even though I can picture them on and they should be cute. Problem is, I'm not picturing them on me.

I did wind up finding some really cute suits in Mission Beach. Too many of them. I am bad. I now have 4 swimsuits.

A River Runs Through It

2006-03-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Saturday night I went to what was billed as Natasha's birthday party. I'm seated next to the birthday girl and little way into dinner, I look down at her hand and see a ring. I pull my own hands above the table and look down to assess which hand my ring is on. Sure enough, she's wearing a diamond ring on her left hand. I look back down at my own to check again. Hrm. Shawn is seated on the other side of her, so I stealthily swung myself behind her back so I could jab at his shoulder with my finger. I point to my hand. I point to Natasha. He nods. Yay! Shawn and Natasha are getting married and Shawn won a bet that I'd be the one to notice first. So the birthday party turned into an engagement party / strategy meeting to decide where the destination wedding will be. I'm backing Spain.
I'd never been to the restaurant, but it was sounding familiar- Jack's. Jack's. Jack's. Why do I know this name? Oh yes, its the monstrosity that swallowed the shopping center where my favorite yarn store was. This restaurant is HUGE. 3 or 4 stories, huge. I recognized it because I spent 10 minutes wandering lost inside it looking for yarn.
But anyway, we sat at the centerpiece table. It's a long glass table in the middle of the whole place with a lit up "river" running through the middle of it to the sparkly fire pit thing at the end. Spiffy. And the food was good too.

So...How was VON?

2006-03-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

VON was good, thanks for asking.
The show seems to have found a niche with the VOIP service provider crowd. I think as the Internet telephony industry grows and there are more conferences to go to, they will start to specialize like this. We got to meet with a lot of our partners and resellers so that was very valuable. The All Conference party was spiffy, even though I only caught the tail end of it. The Counting Crows were the headlining band and although it's not really to my taste, it was a good time.

Escape from VON

2006-03-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

I'm in San Jose at the airport, stupidly thinking I can get on an earlier flight home, but its pretty hopeless. I'm gonna be sitting here for another 3 hours until I get on my actual flight home. Bleah. Who thought it would be a good idea to stick a Cinnabon and a Burger King next to each other? There's nothing quite so gross as a sitting in the aromatherapeutic stink of meaty icing.

Hard Day

2006-03-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Today was rough. I'm still sick but I dragged myself out of bed and into work, where I started my morning routine. Hot tea and settle in to check glitter. I sometimes refer to the people there as my imaginary internet friends. Turns out, these are actual friends, actual acquaintences. It really hit home when I read this morning that Maxbaby died and I burst into tears at my desk. I don't really "know" his mom, but she organized the first swap I participated in on glitter and that's when I found out about Max- she had apologized for not getting back to me sooner, but her baby was undergoing heart surgery. Holy crap! So I checked out her site, looked at the pictures, followed the story of all of his ups and downs with everyone else online. Its months later. Everything seemed fine. Then he got sick. And he just...died. Its just too horrible and I feel so stupid being upset about it, like what right do I have to grieve over her baby? I'm just some imaginary internet friend.

Imaginary Internet Earrings

2006-03-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

Here are the finished earrings I made for the swap...I hope no one sees these early, but I guess it doesn't really matter. I had some questions about how this works, so here's the scoop. I signed up to be in an earring swap with my imaginary internet friends. I make 5 pairs of earrings, and send them in to the swap organizer. I get 5 pairs back, each pair made by a different participant in the swap. Yes, I know there's more than 5 in the picture- I like to throw in an extra whatever as a thank you gift for the organizer. She can keep the pair she wants. Get it?

Squiddy and Robot Bee!

2006-02-24T18:17:00.000-08:00

I bought Squiddy! And got a robot bee as a bonus prize!
This is, quite possibly, the best package ever- it combines the best of giant squid (I've decided they're giant) and robots all into one glorious box.
For those of you out there also seeking this type of joy, see stinkycretingurl's etsy shop. She printed the fabric and everything! Yay Squiddy!

Sunsets

2006-02-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

If you look past my filthy windows and the hundreds of FedEx trucks in the lot on the other side of the canyon, the view from my office at sunset is pretty darn good. I have a gallery of all the best sunsets, as viewed from my desk, here.

I'm a lucky duck.

Day in Denver

2006-02-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

I'm home from Denver, but getting ready to go to LA tomorrow night for SCALE, so I'm not getting too comfy. Denver was beautiful- not too cold and perfectly clear, so there was an excellent view of the Rockies that are apparently having record snowfall. I ate a majestic buffalo at the Appaloosa Grill, it came with mushroom sauce and tomatillo potatoes au gratin. If you are in Denver ever, eat yourself a buffalo there.
I've never flown in to DIA, but holy freaking crap, that airport is crazy big. And beautiful. Favorite airport evah. That pic is of one of 4 gigantic buildings that make up the airport on its 53 square miles. There's a mile long train track tunnel thing that takes you between the terminals and there's an art installation in the tunnel that you can only see from the train. It was really a cool thing- propellers, scattered through the tunnel that are blown by the wind of the moving train. See pictures here.

My wrists are warm

2006-02-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

I finished my cabled wrist warmers this weekend. They'd been knitted for a while, but I was avoiding seaming them up to finish them. I'm going to Denver for the day tomorrow and its going to be about 45 degrees, so these should come in handy. (har har)
I went to dwp's for the superbowl and one fine young gentleman said they made me look like a perfectly nice bum huddled around an oil drum fire. Screw that guy.

Snack attack

2006-02-03T17:22:00.001-08:00

Every day this week has felt like it should be Friday. Finally, its actually Friday.
I went to Smart & Final today to replenish our dwindling snack and cup supplies at the office. Usually I am supervised by the miserly joshua, but today, I was totally unsupervised. And hungry.
Big trouble.
We are now completely overstocked with every kind of individually wrapped badness imaginable....Oh look! Cookies!
But I pulled off a total Gatorade coup. You know how normally when you buy stuff in bulk that comes in different flavors, you're stuck with flavors you hate? Who drinks that horrible yellow Gatorade? If you found that in nature, you'd run the other direction and mark the spot so that future tribes would stay away. Anyway, I only like red. And check this- I got a case of ALL RED.
That is teh hotness.

I'm going to dwp's for a texas hold 'em tournament and to watch the super bowl on Sunday. I haven't played poker in a while, so I may just completely blow it. Whatever. It will be a good time.
Go Sparkles!
Tomorrow, I hope to just chill and read.

That is not a sailboat

2006-02-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

I was in Ft. Lauderdale Florida last week for the Internet Telephony Expo, and while I would have had something to report about that, instead I found a sailboat. Truly, it is more fabulous than a tradeshow. When I have 23 million dollars, I'll buy it. I'm not even supposed to call it a sailboat, btw. It is a 163' yacht- with sails. I have never seen anything even remotely like this thing. It was new, like high tech new, so that everything was automated. One person could handily sail this ship. And it was immaculate. Not a smudge or a water spot anywhere.

Perseus.

Happiness is...

2006-01-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

Saturday night I went to a super dooper secret lan party and can't really post pics except this one of me that doesn't show anything interesting, but it does illustrate what makes me happy: My new sneaks, my little girl (the laptop), my widdle smooshy earbuds that don't hurt my tiny widdle ears, decent beer, a bag full of knitting, and being surrounded by my very dorky friends (not pictured).

I'm glad that Saturday was good, because Sunday was really truly terrible. I sometimes get migraines when I'm particularly stressed, but usually my symptoms do not include the classic headache. I say usually because the last half of Sunday was spent in big bad pain. Bummer. I'm fine now, but I'd be thrilled if that never happened again.

Learning Cables

2006-01-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

This sounds really stupid, but my hands get really cold at work because they're "out" typing all day. So there's this cute wrist warmer pattern I found and thought that it would make a good first try at cables. I finished one yesterday and now I have to start on the next one. I'm going to have the cables turn the other way for the second one. The pattern just has you do both exactly alike, but I'm thinking it might look cool to have one twist to the right and the other to the left. I was knitting the ribbing on the first one at Peet's yesterday at lunch and this really old woman from Poland came up to me to compliment the cables and ask questions and fondle the soft cashmerino yarn. She wound up sitting and having a cup of tea with me and telling me about how she used to knit but couldn't any more because she had arthritis and couldn't see so well. Sad. Anyway, I think she enjoyed sitting and talking with me while I knit. She said that she could tell I was Polish. I wonder what that means.

Knitting Overhaul

2006-01-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

It turns out that I've been knitting incorrectly the whole time I've been knitting. My knitting always looked weird, not bad, but not right. I've been knitting into the back of my stitches, causing them to twist. Now that I've gotten that figured out, I'm also taking this opportunity to learn to knit "Continental" style, which I've read is faster. I figure, while I'm retraining myself in one respect, might as well just overhaul my whole knitting style. Hopefully, I'll be a better, faster knitter.

In other news, I found the fancy new feet I needed for quilting with my sewing machine. Yay! And I sorta half-assed learned to crochet this weekend. I still need some more time doing basic stuff and getting comfortable before I embark on le project doily, but I'll get there.

Crafterrific Weekend Planned

2006-01-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

So I've got a lot "scheduled" for this weekend. Knittykat from glitter was nice enough to send me a crochet pattern in the mail. (I love mail!) So I'm supposedly going to teach myself to crochet. Also, I'm supposed to find the stupid feet for my sewing machine that will allow me to finish the quilt I've been working on for my mom. I suspect this will involve a lot of driving to the boonies where all the little craft/sewing stores are, so hopefully the weekend will stay gorgeous and the girl and I can zoom around with the top down. In other glitter news, Pretendingsanity needs guinea pigs to test the new beanie pattern that she'll be using for a class she's teaching. It looks great. I hope I can knit it up fast enough to be useful to her. I'm a slow poke when it comes to knitting.

Its been a particularly difficult day at work, though I can't really pinpoint why. Lots of semi-important writing that needs to get done is the likely culprit. I probably just need to go for a drive, come back and try again.

Recipe: Fall Dinner

2006-01-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

Another recipe post today since I've been asked for this recipe a couple times recently because I've made it so much recently.
There's a few components here, so I'm gonna break it down (*beatbox is heard in the distance*)...

Pork Tenderloin
I prepare this with 3 different glazes, I'll give all 3 recipes, but the tenderloin stays the same.

Ingredients:
2 Pork Tenderloins
olive oil
salt & pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Heat a big ovenproof skillet over medium high. Slather the freaky tenderloins with olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Sear until nice and dark brown on all 4 sides, sometimes 3, you gotta roll with it. Pop the pan in the oven and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the pork feels done. Poke with tongs to check, it should give, don't overcook it! This isn't the 70s and our pigs are pretty darn free of harmful nonsense these days.

Maple Glaze

Ingredients:
1 c. Apple juice
1 c. Maple syrup (real, like out of an actual tree)
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Cayenne pepper

Directions:
Once the pork is out of the oven, take it out of the pan and let it rest on a cutting board. Put the pan back on the burner on low heat and throw in the apple juice and scrape up all the goodness. Combine the syrup and spices and add to the pan. Reduce until its thickened
a bit, but if you go overboard and it starts to get snotty, add more apple juice. You can either spoon this over the pork, or roll it around back in the pan first and then spoon it over the pork.

Port *or* Balsamic Reduction, otherwise known as Twenty Dollar Sauce
I should note that these 2 reductions are wonderful on pretty much anything, beef, lamb, chicken, foie gras (!!!!), even some fishies.

Ingredients:
1 bottle of either Port or Balsamic Vinegar. (make it good or you'll concentrate cheap-o bad stuff into extra special cheap-o bad stuff)

Directions:
Pour almost the whole bottle in a saucepan (reserve about a 1/2 cup to deglaze the pork pan later) and boil it down to almost nothing. For a while you can just let this do its thing, but once it gets down there, start checking it frequently and turn it down to low. If you let either port or balsamic reduce too far, the sugars will boil into a freaky thing out of a sci-fi movie that ruins pans and cooktops. If this happens, turn off the heat and add some water. When the pork comes out of the oven, take it out of the pan to let it rest and deglaze the pan using the reserved 1/2 c. of vinegar/port. When you've scraped up all the goodies, pour this into the pan where you've been reducing your vinegar/port. Once your reduction gets to be the consistency of syrup, you're done. I either pool this on the plate and plate up the sliced meat on top, or drizzle it down the middle of the meat and around the edge for the sexy look of restaurant nonsense.

The mashed potatoes in the picture are a weird little specialty of mine. They're pretty much normal mashed potatoes, but instead of my standard butter, milk, and salt and pepper, I add yogurt and a Tbsp. of madras curry powder. This goes really well with all the sauces/glazes, but I love it with the balsamic reduction best.

Oh, also in the pic- I topped the pork with a chunky quince and apple sauce. This one is super easy too. Peel and core apples and quinces (I think I did 2 apples and 1 quince) and chop them into half inch chunks. Put them in a microwave safe bowl and put a couple Tbsps of water in there. Cover with a plate or something so steam doesn't escape and nuke them for a minute at a time 'til they're soft. Then just smash them up a bit with a fork.

Recipe: Brie Business

2006-01-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

I reverse engineered an appetizer from Kemosabe and then simplified it for ease of use. Yeah, you heard me. They have this fried nut-encrusted brie thing that's really fantastic, but its requires a lot of assembly the way they plate it up. My way is served in a fashion that didn't require instructions to the eater. I shoulda taken a picture. Lame.

Brie Business Recipe

Ingredients:
1 head of garlic (you might want to splurge and get an extra because you'll probably kill the first one)
1 Tbsp honey
2 whole wheat flour tortillas (par-cooked, if you can find them)
2 Tbsp hot pepper jelly (I like habanero)
1 wedge of brie
3 Tbsp pistachios
a little cilantro for garnish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
1. Make the honey roasted garlic:
Cut the top quarter of the head of garlic off so that its flat and you can see all the cloves and feel confident that you can squish them out of their little garlic wrapper hidey-holes once they are soft. Once you ruin the first one, try again with your back up head of garlic. :)
Put the garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle the honey onto the cut top, and close up the foil so that the honey won't leak. It will leak anyway, so put it on a baking sheet or something and then stick it in the oven for an hour and a half.

2. Prepare the tortillas:
Put the tortillas in a hot pan and let them cook until they're blackening and stink up your house like burning. Char both sides. Cut them into eighths while they're still a little warm and not too crispy yet.

3. Prepare the pistachios:
Just throw them in a pan on medium heat and give them a shake every once in a while until they smell toasty. Let them cool and then chop them up- I like to pulse them in a food processor, but don't let it run or they'll get too fine and turn into pistachio butter.

4. Assemble the business:
Once the garlic is soft, let it cool so you can handle it and squeeze out all the cloves. They should be spreadable, so spread a clove on each of the tortilla triangles. Put about a tablespoon of brie on top of the garlic, in the center of the tortilla. Spread a little hot pepper jelly on top of the brie and place them on a baking sheet lined with foil (drippy cheese is no fun to clean). Put them in the oven for a few minutes, until the brie looks melty. Take them out and sprinkle each one with a little pistachio and top with a nice big cilantro leaf.