Category: minutiae

I… am terribly lazy.

I haven’t cooked anything in a few days. I was at Jon and Ryan’s for dinner Saturday and tonight, and I was out with Rob and friends Sunday and Monday. I swear- Thursday I’ll make something. (I can’t make anything Wednesday night- it’s D&D!)

“What has happened to the days, Sarah?” Well, one of my temp agencies pulled through and got me a little mind-numbing gig. So I’m doing that this week. Whee, money. Boo, brain dribbling out of my ears.

The new Greek place in Mountain View is good, and the guys who work there are extremely nice. It’s called Gyro’s House; we ate there last night. I recommend it. Lord knows why it’s taken so long for a Greek restaurant to show up on Castro.

The cheese bread, while tasty, was a bitch-and-a-half to get out of the pan. It adhered to the sides, and no amount of sliding a knife around it was able to dislodge it. In the end, we got about two-thirds of it out of the pan, and then Jon and I got a fork and ate the stuck bits out of the loaf pan.

Ryan and I were talking about a better way to do this. She suggests a parchment paper sling. I think this is a capital idea. I am also keen on trying the variation Cook’s has for Cheese Bread with Bacon, Onion, and Gruyere. I think that sounds really quite good. I won’t be trying it for a while, though. This recipe annoyed me too much.

It was so very hot today. Ryan’s working on decorating a cake, and she was very worried about the icing melting. She’s making something that looks very complicated. It’s a “Yay, Engagement!” cake.

I had the carbonara last night. I used a fun pasta- spaghetti rigate. The grooves on the pasta increased surface area and allowed more sauce to be caught and held. I included a clove of garlic in mine, but I wouldn’t do that in the future (hence, I did not include it in the recipe). The garlic taste was too strong. I realize that for an Italian purist, the use of cream is heresy. However, I have eggs and cream in my fridge that really need to be used. So I used them both. Nyeah.

Cheese Bread

Cook’s Illustrated

1 cup Parmesan cheese

3 cups AP flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 oz. cheddar cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/4 cup whole milk

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 large egg, beaten lightly

3/4 cup sour cream

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350. Spray a 5×9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle 1/2 cup of Parmesan evenly in the bottom of the pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper. Mix in the cheddar cubes, coating the pieces completely with flour.

In a separate bowl, combine milk, butter, egg, and sour cream. Pour the wet ingredients on top of the dry, and fold together with a rubber spatula to combine. The batter will be heavy and thick.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan, smoothing the surface with the spatula. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan evenly over the top.

Bake for approximately 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-20 minutes, then de-pan and cool for another 30-45 minutes. Cut into slices and serve warm.

Carbonara for One

3 oz. strand pasta

1-2 tsp olive oil

1 egg

2 strips of bacon, cut into matchsticks

1 shallot, minced

1 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated, plus more to serve

1 Tbsp cream

Salt and pepper, to taste

Prepare the pasta according to package directions. While waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Saute the bacon and shallot until bacon is slightly browned and shallot is softened. Remove from heat and set aside until the pasta is ready.

Break the egg into a bowl and add the cream and parmesan cheese. Beat together with a fork and season with salt and lots of pepper.

When the pasta is done, drain it and add to the pan with the shallot and bacon. Place over low heat and stir together. Add the egg mixture and stir for a minute. Serve immediately with more parmesan.

These corn frittery things need work, but I think they have potential. It would be good if I could get them less greasy. The solution would be most likely deep frying, but then I’m not sure what I’d do to do the dough to make them more cohesive. It’s something to think about. Maybe baking them would work. I don’t know.

After we noshed, Jon decided that he was still in the mood for Thai, so he, Russ (his coworker), and I went out to Bangkok Bay in Redwood City. I have a tendency to think that every place I like is the best place, but really? Bangkok Bay is so damn good. We had the Panang Curry Beef, Spicy Pork with Basil, Pork with Garlic and Something Else, and a Thai Pancake for dessert. Jon and I think that the pancake should be easy to make. It’s like a slightly thicker crepe with sweeetened condensed milk and sugar.

Thai Corn Fritters

1 can of corn, drained

1 egg

1 small red or green chile

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 clove garlic

2 Tbsp water

2 scallions, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

Salt and pepper, to taste

Canola oil, for shallow frying

Place the flour, egg, chile, soy sauce, garlic, and about half the corn kernels in a food processor and process until a smooth, thick batter forms.

Stir the remaining corn, water, scallions, cilantro, and basil into the batter. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wide, heavy pan. Drop generous tablespoonfuls of the batter into the pan (you will probably fit about 4 at a time). Press and smooth out with the back of the spoon. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, and drain on paper towels (or some other sort of draining rig). Makes 12-16.

Earl Gilmore Memorial Margarita

Juice of 1 lime

1 cup tequila

1/3 cup Triple Sec

Crushed ice

Salt (optional)

Combine in a shaker, pour into glasses, and serve. If you are so inclined, before pouring, wet the rim of the glass with lime juice and dip in salt.

Awesome. You all should read this article, in which Ms. Lucianovic (ie. Television Without Pity’s recapper Keckler and writer of the foodie blog The Grub Report) speculates on the next Martha Stewart, praises Alton Brown, and slams Sandra Lee. Disses Snadra hard-core.

She’s so very cool.

Here’s another link for all the Semi-Homemade-Haters out there. TWoP poster InnerCanuck has started an anti-Sandra blog here. She is intending to test the recipes and report on them. I tried three during my testing phase- one was disgusting, one was intoxicating, and one was actually pretty decent provided you used actual ingredients. (Yes, two of those are the same link.)

Oh, the boys sure did like the cookies last night. All 33 cookies were gone by the end of the night.

And, really? So very easy. I don’t have either a stand mixer or a hand mixer, so the creaming was done with a fork. It came together really quickly and didn’t kill my arm.

No one died last night, although Rob’s character, Cooper, did do his best and come close volunteering as a human pincushion. He may die next week, as he’s fallen victim to the charms of our enemies. My character got confused and dropped his rage, which meant that he was boned in terms of combat (penalties to armor class, attack rolls, damage, and some saving rolls) for the duration of this fight. I’m thinking we’re still going to be in combat at the beginning of our next session.

Oh, crap! The haste bonus to AC is going to be gone when we start next week. That’s minus another four. Damn it!

Note to DMs: if you decide to plan an adventure in the astral plane, make sure you are fully up on you trig. And make sure all of your players are, too. Stupid three-dimensional thinking. Floating in three-dimensional space around a small planetoid that has decided gravity is down (not towards the center of the sphere, but just DOWN), fighting on a ship that has crashed into the side of the planetoid with it’s own decisions about gravity… oh, it gives me a headache. We had to get out a stress ball and stick pins into it do determine where we all were and which vectors we were taking to get to places.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups AP flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375.

Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside. Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars; beat in vanilla and egg. Stir in flour mixture, blending well. Shape mixture into 3/4-inch balls and press to create discs; place on greased/parchment papered baking sheets. With a fork, create the traditional grid pattern on top. (Other ideas for the pattern: use the pointy end of a meat tenderizer or a cross-hatched potato masher.)

Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes.

Yield: about 30 cookies.