Costume update!

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

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

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

D&D tonight.

Evening Bread

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

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

Oil
Water

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I’m tired. I’ll finish this tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think that’s all.

Okay, I was going to go to Trader Joe’s and get more information about my grocery picks, but I left my notebook at work and am too lazy to recopy my very short list. It’s such a beautiful day, I feel like sitting on my couch and watching the TV. And making bread.

Well, an hour and a half later, I did go to Trader Joe’s. (I needed to go to Walgreen’s, and it was right next door.) I didn’t buy anything, just stood in front of things copying prices onto the back of a piece of mail. I have a lot of numbers. And I think it’d be pretty boring if I put them next to every item. So I’m not going to. Maybe a couple, but definitely not all.

We’ll see if this bread works. I’m trying Alton’s Basic Bread in a very shortened time period. I mixed the starter after work, let it sit on the counter for two hours, mixed it, let it rise for one hour, shaped it, let it bench proof for an hour, and bake for an hour. We’ll see how it works out. It’s 10:30 now, it should be done by midnight.

So recently, a few of my friends have been putting together “Guides to Buying Things” on their blogs. Zack started it with The Guide to Buying Video Games. Kenny followed with The Guide to Buying Movies. Cynthia then posted The Guide to 99-Cent Stores. I figure I should join this little meme and post a Guide to Buying Groceries. This is just off the top of my head- I’ll elaborate more when I’ve gone to the shops and checked brand names and prices.

Trader Joe’s
Butter
Milk (maybe, I need to check other supermarket prices)
Buttermilk
Cream
Sour cream
Yogurt
Flour
Chocolate chips
Boxed macaroni and cheese
Better-Than-Boullion
Good bacon (best price around for Nieman Ranch)
Italian sausage
28-ounce cans of whole tomatoes
Decent but not great cheese
Green beans, both fresh and frozen
Crimini mushrooms
2-Buck Chuck (mainly for cooking, although it’s eminently slurpable)
Tom’s of Maine toothpaste

Cost Plus
Spices – the ones in the cellophane packages, not the bottles. Buy your own bottles or keep them in baggies. Mexican markets also have cheap spices.
Le Puy lentils
Panko bread crumbs
Coconut milk

Costco
14.5-ounce cans of chopped tomatoes
Canned Tomato Sauce (plain)
14.5-ounce cans of garbanzo beans
Whole Chickens
Parmesan Cheese (big whole chunks)
Tillamook Cheddar Cheese (good for mac & cheese, decent for eating)
Smoked Salmon
Canned Crab (the good, expensive stuff in the refrigerated case- it’s worth it)
Tabasco
Allergy pills/sleeping pills/ibuprofen

Albertson’s
Not-so-good Bacon (if you go in the morning, you can often find packages of bacon ends for ridiculously low prices- not for eating with eggs, but for chopping up and cooking with [mm, bacon fat])

Target
Cereal (at least they used to have good prices- I don’t really buy cereal anymore)
Pop-Tarts (ditto)

Mexican markets
Spices (as I mentioned previously)
Dried chiles
Dried beans
Pretty decent-looking produce

Farmers’ Markets
Fresh produce. Support your local farmers.

Things to scour your circulars for:
Soda – 79ยข to $1 for 2-liter bottles, $2.50 per 12-pack, $5 per 24-pack (Long’s and Rite-Aid often have good coupon deals)
Swanson’s Organic or Low-Sodium (in aseptic boxes) – $2 per 32-ounce box
Eggs – $1.50 to $2 a dozen for large AA (I buy extra large at TJ’s for $1.29, but they’re awkward for baking)

Ross, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx
Kitchen gadgets and bakeware (I picked up some OXO measuring cups for a steal, and found their salad spinner for five dollars cheaper than anywhere else)

Where I live, we get a “20% off one item” coupon for Bed, Bath & Beyond each week. Might be a good thing to look for, if you need to buy anything on the larger size. I don’t think it applies to knives, though.

This is a great pan, if you like eggs, crepes, omelets, quesadillas, homemade tortillas, toasting nuts, bacon, or anything that needs shallow pan frying (my brother uses it for crab cakes and latkes). It’s gone up in price a little (used to be $19.99), but it’s still a good deal. I waited until it showed up in my Gold Box for $16.99, then bought it. Everyone I know who has this pan loves it to bits. Also, make sure to check the Friday Sale for more deals from Amazon. They’ll only have a few kitchenware items, but sometimes you can find really great prices.

See if any stores around you offer knife sharpening. I know Raley’s does it for free, although my dad thinks they do a crappy job; Dittmer’s, the butcher in Mountain View, does it free once a month; Perfect Edge, in San Mateo, does it for a price. It’s like getting new knives. And make sure you hone your blades regularly! A sharp knife is a safe knife!

DVDs of Julia Child’s The French Chef just came out today. You know you want to buy them. If only there were a Jon-related holiday coming up! He’s been wanting these for a long time.

If there were a bloggers edition of Go Fug Yourself, I totally would have been in it today. Dear lord. I was wearing dark grey slacks, black shoes, and a navy blue sweater. I don’t know what I was thinking. Even Jeremy, who is not the world’s leading fashion expert, was all, “Dag, yo.” The dumbest thing about my outfit? I had something else on, then changed because I thought it looked lame. I don’t know why I thought it was a step up. I was washing my hands at work, looked in the mirror, and cracked up, because WOW were those clothes bad.

I need to finish my new D&D character. I’m thinking about naming her Jessa. (Eddie, is that cool? I just think it’s a good name.)

Well, we certainly were productive this weekend. I made three recipes. One was quite good, one was decent, and the last was weird and strange. All had lentils as their main ingredient. It was a weekend of lentils.

Lydia and I made a lot of headway on our Katamari costumes. Unfortunately, we need to go to Joanne’s AGAIN, because now we’re out of red material. Sometimes we don’t estimate things well. My dress/tunic-thing is done, my gloves are done, and I’m making Kuro’s head accents. We still need to cover the head, but we are so on track to finish it next weekend. Look at us, completing things well in advance of our deadline! And now that Lydia’s done some trial-and-error on my Kuro costume, her Prince will take no time at all. Probably.

I finished my scarf! After only… ten weeks or so. I started it on February 13th. Yay, my scarf!

I need to make rice tonight. All the food I have prepared (which is really not much) needs to be eaten with rice. My kitchen’s a mess. I need to clean it so I can cook and make a mess of it again.

Enjoy the soup. It was good. I only wish there had been more!

Lentil Soup
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated by Sarah

3 slices of bacon, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz.), drained
8 oz. white button mushrooms, quartered
1 bay leaf
1 tsp minced fresh thyme
1 cup lentils (preferably Le Puy), rinsed and picked over
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 box (32 oz.) low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or water
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

Fry bacon in large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onion and carrots; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, mushrooms, bay leaf, and thyme; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in lentils, salt, and pepper to taste; cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until vegetables are softened and lentils have darkened, 8 to 10 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to high, add wine, and bring to simmer. Add chicken broth and stock (or water); bring to boil, cover partially, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until lentils are tender but still hold their shape, 30 to 35 minutes; discard bay leaf.

Puree 3 cups soup in blender until smooth, then return to pot; stir in lemon juice and heat soup over medium-low until hot, about 5 minutes. Stir in parsley, taste, adjust seasoning, and serve.

All right. Thinking about the weekend. Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco. Lydia and I are going to make our Katamari costumes. Laundry list of things still needed for the costumes: large bowls for the sides of the heads, or, barring that, plenty of newspaper for papier-mache; red trim needed for Kuro’s head; red and purple slippers.

I need a recipe that involves red lentils and button mushrooms and is served with rice. Any ideas?

Oh yeah, and the new food pyramid? LAME.