18 September 2009
A Tribute to Mary Travers
I created my very first iMix on iTunes in honor of Mary Travers' death two days ago. These are my favorite songs that feature her as the prominent voice. All but one are Peter, Paul and Mary songs, and one is a solo recording. I tried to pick a variety of songs from a variety of times - some of the earliest songs that display the "crystalline" voice of her youth, and later, the ones that show the deeper voice of an older woman. Some of the songs are children's songs, and others are protest music only adults would understand, but children still love. For what it's worth, I did include "If I Had a Hammer" but the iMix ignored it for some reason. That's OK - it's one of my least favorites of the bunch. Anyway, here's to you, Mary. "We've missed the train you are on, and we know you that are gone..."
31 August 2009
Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
So today was Garrett's birthday, and he requested apple pie. Knowing he also likes fruit ice cream, Kivi and I went to a you pick place, and bought a bunch of wonderfully fresh strawberries. Then I looked up recipes. All of the recipes called for eggs (either 2 eggs or 3 egg yolks) and because I was uncomfortable serving raw eggs, I opted for one that made a custard. Otherwise, I mixed and matched from various recipes, until I came up with this one, and it's pretty good. Well, delicious, actually. And I don't even like strawberry ice cream.
1 pint fresh strawberries hulled, chopped and pureed (about 12 ounces after prep, or 1.75 c of puree)
1/3 cup sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
zest from 1 lemon
Custard base:
3 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour
Combine egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale.
Combine milk, cream, and vanilla in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly until it reaches approximately 160 degrees, then remove from heat. Spoon cream mixture by ¼ cupfuls into egg mixture and beat between each addition until about ½ of cream mixture remains. Add the eggs/cream mixture back into the saucepan with remaining cream. Return to medium heat, stirring constantly for 4-5 minutes until mixture coats the back of a spoon, and temperature is 180 degrees. Remove from heat and chill thoroughly.
Puree the strawberry mixture (even if starting with puree - need to ensure sugar is dissolved) and add strawberry puree to custard base. Add to ice cream maker, and follow the manufacturer directions.
Yes, it was the best strawberry ice cream I've ever had, but there was one big flaw: Originally, I'd only pureed half the strawberries, and left some strawberry in chunks. The chunks when frozen were flavorless hard bits, and were texturally kind of strange in the ice cream. I learned quickly to puree the entire strawberry mixture. If you want chunks of strawberry, serve some chilled (but not frozen) strawberry chunks in a strawberry syrup on top.
1 pint fresh strawberries hulled, chopped and pureed (about 12 ounces after prep, or 1.75 c of puree)
1/3 cup sugar
juice from 1/2 lemon
zest from 1 lemon
Custard base:
3 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine strawberries, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour
Combine egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale.
Combine milk, cream, and vanilla in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly until it reaches approximately 160 degrees, then remove from heat. Spoon cream mixture by ¼ cupfuls into egg mixture and beat between each addition until about ½ of cream mixture remains. Add the eggs/cream mixture back into the saucepan with remaining cream. Return to medium heat, stirring constantly for 4-5 minutes until mixture coats the back of a spoon, and temperature is 180 degrees. Remove from heat and chill thoroughly.
Puree the strawberry mixture (even if starting with puree - need to ensure sugar is dissolved) and add strawberry puree to custard base. Add to ice cream maker, and follow the manufacturer directions.
Yes, it was the best strawberry ice cream I've ever had, but there was one big flaw: Originally, I'd only pureed half the strawberries, and left some strawberry in chunks. The chunks when frozen were flavorless hard bits, and were texturally kind of strange in the ice cream. I learned quickly to puree the entire strawberry mixture. If you want chunks of strawberry, serve some chilled (but not frozen) strawberry chunks in a strawberry syrup on top.
31 July 2009
Pancakes, Pancakes
No, I don't mean the book by Eric Carle, which is cute and teaches kids the origins of the ingredients for pancakes. What I do mean, is a new recipe that I sort of invented by adapting an existing one.
My family - with the exception of my husband - love pancakes. To his credit, Chris puts up with them without whinging, but when I find a recipe HE likes, then I know it's a winner.
Now, pancakes aside, I was always taught that the best way to cook was to follow a recipe exactly as written the first time, and then monkey with it after that if you like. However, I'm a vegetarian who actually LIKED some of the meat dishes she used to eat (like Chili con carne), and if I want to even try a meat-based recipe, I must vary it some from the beginning, or else not bother. I'm also always looking for ways to improve the nutrient density of a recipe without sacrificing taste, or better yet improve on the taste if I can. So, that means I fiddle with recipes from the get-go pretty commonly.
One of the things I've discovered is that with pancakes, you can pretty much just use the vegetable oil of your choice (though not olive oil, as the flavor is too strong), in place of melted butter. The end result is very slightly healthier, and the taste is pretty much identical. I've also used soy milk instead of regular milk loads of times, but the pancakes don't rise QUITE as well (though still OK). I've also used whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour, and generally that works fine, too - though the cakes are usually a little denser.
Anyway, I stumbled onto a delicious variation of a recipe that I had to share. This time, my changes were caused not by attempts at better health, but by what I happened to have (or not) on hand. I was attempting to make the Four Grain Flapjack recipe in The Joy of Cooking, but I discovered that I didn't have either milk or enough soy milk on hand. What I had was 3 quarts or so (don't ask) of whole milk yogurt.
"Chris, do you think I could use yogurt instead of milk?"
"Yeah, probably. Try it."
"Will it make it sour?"
"I dunno. Try it."
I also, out of habit used 4 tablespoons peanut oil instead of 1/2 stick of melted butter. And, I couldn't substitute whole wheat for the all-purpose flour as I only barely had enough whole wheat to make the recipe as originally written. So all-purpose went in this time. And, I also wanted blueberries in my pancakes. So I added 1.5 cups of them after combining the rest of the ingredients.
And the result was...wow! Delicious, and not sour at all. I had made this recipe once before with my usual substitutions, but it was so much better this time around. The batter was thicker/fluffier than I'm used to - it didn't spread out as much, which means I had to keep turning them to get them to cook all the way through (cooking longer on a lower heat would also work). Anyway, the full recipe looks like this:
Blueberry Yogurt Four-Grain Flapjacks
1 c. whole wheat flour
¾ c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. cornmeal
¼ c. rolled oats
2 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1 ¾ c. plain yogurt (whole milk or low-fat)
4 tbs. vegetable oil (not olive)
¼ c. honey
3 large eggs
1.5 c. frozen or fresh blueberries
Cooking Instructions
Oh, and yes, Chris thought these pancakes were really good. So, a winner!
My family - with the exception of my husband - love pancakes. To his credit, Chris puts up with them without whinging, but when I find a recipe HE likes, then I know it's a winner.
Now, pancakes aside, I was always taught that the best way to cook was to follow a recipe exactly as written the first time, and then monkey with it after that if you like. However, I'm a vegetarian who actually LIKED some of the meat dishes she used to eat (like Chili con carne), and if I want to even try a meat-based recipe, I must vary it some from the beginning, or else not bother. I'm also always looking for ways to improve the nutrient density of a recipe without sacrificing taste, or better yet improve on the taste if I can. So, that means I fiddle with recipes from the get-go pretty commonly.
One of the things I've discovered is that with pancakes, you can pretty much just use the vegetable oil of your choice (though not olive oil, as the flavor is too strong), in place of melted butter. The end result is very slightly healthier, and the taste is pretty much identical. I've also used soy milk instead of regular milk loads of times, but the pancakes don't rise QUITE as well (though still OK). I've also used whole wheat instead of all-purpose flour, and generally that works fine, too - though the cakes are usually a little denser.
Anyway, I stumbled onto a delicious variation of a recipe that I had to share. This time, my changes were caused not by attempts at better health, but by what I happened to have (or not) on hand. I was attempting to make the Four Grain Flapjack recipe in The Joy of Cooking, but I discovered that I didn't have either milk or enough soy milk on hand. What I had was 3 quarts or so (don't ask) of whole milk yogurt.
"Chris, do you think I could use yogurt instead of milk?"
"Yeah, probably. Try it."
"Will it make it sour?"
"I dunno. Try it."
I also, out of habit used 4 tablespoons peanut oil instead of 1/2 stick of melted butter. And, I couldn't substitute whole wheat for the all-purpose flour as I only barely had enough whole wheat to make the recipe as originally written. So all-purpose went in this time. And, I also wanted blueberries in my pancakes. So I added 1.5 cups of them after combining the rest of the ingredients.
And the result was...wow! Delicious, and not sour at all. I had made this recipe once before with my usual substitutions, but it was so much better this time around. The batter was thicker/fluffier than I'm used to - it didn't spread out as much, which means I had to keep turning them to get them to cook all the way through (cooking longer on a lower heat would also work). Anyway, the full recipe looks like this:
Blueberry Yogurt Four-Grain Flapjacks
1 c. whole wheat flour
¾ c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. cornmeal
¼ c. rolled oats
2 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
1 ¾ c. plain yogurt (whole milk or low-fat)
4 tbs. vegetable oil (not olive)
¼ c. honey
3 large eggs
1.5 c. frozen or fresh blueberries
Cooking Instructions
- Heat skillet or griddle over low heat.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in large bowl.
- Whisk together wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients & whisk until just mixed.
- Stir in blueberries
- Increase heat to medium & brush skillet with oil. Pour batter, about 1 rounded tablespoon at a time.
- Flip when set (watching for bubbles didn't work so well with this recipe. Just keep peeking under, and when brown, turn).
Oh, and yes, Chris thought these pancakes were really good. So, a winner!
28 July 2009
My "past lives"
I just created a Facebook account. Cathy and Garrett have them. Lots of friends and acquaintances do. So while Facebook seems vaguely creepy to me, I wanted to know for real -- rather than just having opinions in ignorance.
So, having just opened this account, I've been digging back through my past and looking for people that I've known whom I could befriend. In doing this (as some of you may have seen) I've written notes about gathering friends from my "past lives." An old friend, Tim, asked about that wording. And thinking about it, I decided to catalog them. I'm calling the "lives" blocks here.
My life prior to moving to Missouri (1970-79) is basically one block. The only people I might connect with from this time are family. I'd kind of like to find my two cousins and catch up a bit.
I think the next block is something like 1979-1984. During this time, I lived in Webster Groves, MO. I went to school for one year at Clark and then 3.5 years at Classical Junior Academy in St. Louis and half a year back at Hixson. And I loitered at The Shire and The Dragon's Lair quite a bit. There are people from CJA that I'd like to contact. Tim was the son of my dad's coworker and also a fellow Dragon's Lair orphan. I found him. Shawn, Mark, Steve and Mike are peers from this time also -- we also became acquainted around gaming at The 'Lair and I found all of them on Facebook right away. I suppose Paul deserves some mention here too. I met him in the same way, but I really think of him as being later in my life since we weren't yet BFFs (God, shoot me now).
High School (1985-88) must be the next block. I'm not sure who I'd want to talk to from this time. I was friends with the people from the previous block through this time also and most of the people I knew otherwise from HS were pretty casually acquainted. I bet that's not true for most folks...weird. I guess Josh would count from this block even though I knew him from Shawn, not HS (at first) -- I should look for him. And maybe Dawn. And Melanie.
1989-90 were my lost years. I dropped out of college, had like eight jobs and failed to take my community college load seriously. I think I hung out mostly with Paul and Josh and Inkpen as I drifted away or had falling outs with Shawn and Mike and Steve...and hey, Doug...is he around? Oh and MarkS... I did meet Bill during this time, so that was good.
90-91 were spent in Chicagoland living with Inkpen and Mike and Bill. I found Inkpen on Facebook and Jay -- but she hasn't responded yet to my friend request. No Keith, but I'm not sure of his spelling.
In 91 I moved to Columbia to go to school and stayed there until 99. I guess that's all one block. So that time could include ErikJ, a roommate. And coworkers from the Labs. And theoretically my employees at the labs, later. And my wife. :) And Teresa and Beth and David (who fit into the coworkers category). But also, Edmund and Aaron and James and Charles and Avril and Tim and Tim and ... who am I forgetting? Maybe Cathy's family since I got married during that time. I suppose I should count Garrett in that time though he seems to transcend these blocks in some ways. I guess this was also our first Gathering, so Bruce and maybe others would fit there, or maybe the next block.
My next block is the time lived in New Jersey -- 1999-2004. I worked at BMS -- I'd like to find Mark and Rui, maybe Jim and Bill and John. Who else? And we gamed at The 'Realm. Larry, Diane, Nick, Rob, etc.
And since 2004, we've been in Minnesota. So I have a few coworkers here. And my indie-MN group maybe, though I haven't searched for them yet. I have some online friends from this time too. I have to think about how to process them.
It's interesting, to me at least, that it was totally subconscious to allocate blocks, not only based on where I lived, but on who I was friends with and what I was doing.
So, having just opened this account, I've been digging back through my past and looking for people that I've known whom I could befriend. In doing this (as some of you may have seen) I've written notes about gathering friends from my "past lives." An old friend, Tim, asked about that wording. And thinking about it, I decided to catalog them. I'm calling the "lives" blocks here.
My life prior to moving to Missouri (1970-79) is basically one block. The only people I might connect with from this time are family. I'd kind of like to find my two cousins and catch up a bit.
I think the next block is something like 1979-1984. During this time, I lived in Webster Groves, MO. I went to school for one year at Clark and then 3.5 years at Classical Junior Academy in St. Louis and half a year back at Hixson. And I loitered at The Shire and The Dragon's Lair quite a bit. There are people from CJA that I'd like to contact. Tim was the son of my dad's coworker and also a fellow Dragon's Lair orphan. I found him. Shawn, Mark, Steve and Mike are peers from this time also -- we also became acquainted around gaming at The 'Lair and I found all of them on Facebook right away. I suppose Paul deserves some mention here too. I met him in the same way, but I really think of him as being later in my life since we weren't yet BFFs (God, shoot me now).
High School (1985-88) must be the next block. I'm not sure who I'd want to talk to from this time. I was friends with the people from the previous block through this time also and most of the people I knew otherwise from HS were pretty casually acquainted. I bet that's not true for most folks...weird. I guess Josh would count from this block even though I knew him from Shawn, not HS (at first) -- I should look for him. And maybe Dawn. And Melanie.
1989-90 were my lost years. I dropped out of college, had like eight jobs and failed to take my community college load seriously. I think I hung out mostly with Paul and Josh and Inkpen as I drifted away or had falling outs with Shawn and Mike and Steve...and hey, Doug...is he around? Oh and MarkS... I did meet Bill during this time, so that was good.
90-91 were spent in Chicagoland living with Inkpen and Mike and Bill. I found Inkpen on Facebook and Jay -- but she hasn't responded yet to my friend request. No Keith, but I'm not sure of his spelling.
In 91 I moved to Columbia to go to school and stayed there until 99. I guess that's all one block. So that time could include ErikJ, a roommate. And coworkers from the Labs. And theoretically my employees at the labs, later. And my wife. :) And Teresa and Beth and David (who fit into the coworkers category). But also, Edmund and Aaron and James and Charles and Avril and Tim and Tim and ... who am I forgetting? Maybe Cathy's family since I got married during that time. I suppose I should count Garrett in that time though he seems to transcend these blocks in some ways. I guess this was also our first Gathering, so Bruce and maybe others would fit there, or maybe the next block.
My next block is the time lived in New Jersey -- 1999-2004. I worked at BMS -- I'd like to find Mark and Rui, maybe Jim and Bill and John. Who else? And we gamed at The 'Realm. Larry, Diane, Nick, Rob, etc.
And since 2004, we've been in Minnesota. So I have a few coworkers here. And my indie-MN group maybe, though I haven't searched for them yet. I have some online friends from this time too. I have to think about how to process them.
It's interesting, to me at least, that it was totally subconscious to allocate blocks, not only based on where I lived, but on who I was friends with and what I was doing.
25 July 2009
26 June 2009
More uses for kimchi
Who knew? It worked great! They are astoundingly complementary flavors. It's great that this stuff is easier to use than I had feared.
Tonight or tomorrow I'm going to start a new batch and document the making of it here.
24 June 2009
Blogging -- how, where and when?
If you're one of our three readers, you've noticed that we're crazily sporadic in our blogging. There's the whole "why am I blogging" question, of course, but also some other issues: When do I have time? Where am I when something blog-worthy happens? How is it best to get the notional information into the blog?
Cathy and I have had iPhones for a few months now. Wow. We love them. I'm thinking they should help us blog on the go. I can Tweet pretty easily from my phone, so why not "real" blogging. But after a few hours of looking around and configuring various services, I think the options are pretty lame just now. At least if you're on blogger/blogspot/Google. They don't have a custom iPhone app -- maybe because that would be unsupportive of Android and the combination of other things doesn't add up to a seamless whole.
Here's what I can do:
I can email to the blog. From the iPhone, this can include a single picture and I have to initiate the process from the image -- I can't just attach it from the email client (can you say stoopid?). But this is actually a pretty elegant solution for simple posting while out and about.
I have enabled the iGoogle widget that lets me blog (among other things) from within Safari. It's also an adequate option for low-complexity posts. The good thing with this is that I can save the draft and edit it later. And I can even do it immediately -- this tool provides a quick link in. But no images without following that link. And the tool is a bit hard to use on the mobile screen.
We have a Flickr account under Cathy's name. And there is an app for the iPhone called Flickit. It does a pretty astounding job of getting images from my phone to Flickr. And I configured Flickr so that we can blog right from an image over to here. That's neat. But again, it only supports a single image. You can add more, but it's a hassle on the phone. And actually, what I do from my desktop PC seems to be impossible. Flickr knows that I'm using a mobile browser and present a simplified interface. One of the simplifications includes not displaying the "small" version of the image and not giving out the URLs. So again, it's a pretty hopeless tool for anything but the most simple use-case.
There's also an SMS-posting tool but we're on a limited texting plan and I don't want to go down that route.
So, with this imperfect array of tools, I'm going to try to blog stuff a bit more. Maybe I'll have to come back and edit things when I have a real keyboard or maybe I'll develop a style around these tools.
I keep thinking about buying a new Mac Mini so that I can write iPhone apps of my own. Here's an amazing example of something that needs to be written.
Cathy and I have had iPhones for a few months now. Wow. We love them. I'm thinking they should help us blog on the go. I can Tweet pretty easily from my phone, so why not "real" blogging. But after a few hours of looking around and configuring various services, I think the options are pretty lame just now. At least if you're on blogger/blogspot/Google. They don't have a custom iPhone app -- maybe because that would be unsupportive of Android and the combination of other things doesn't add up to a seamless whole.
Here's what I can do:
I can email to the blog. From the iPhone, this can include a single picture and I have to initiate the process from the image -- I can't just attach it from the email client (can you say stoopid?). But this is actually a pretty elegant solution for simple posting while out and about.
I have enabled the iGoogle widget that lets me blog (among other things) from within Safari. It's also an adequate option for low-complexity posts. The good thing with this is that I can save the draft and edit it later. And I can even do it immediately -- this tool provides a quick link in. But no images without following that link. And the tool is a bit hard to use on the mobile screen.
We have a Flickr account under Cathy's name. And there is an app for the iPhone called Flickit. It does a pretty astounding job of getting images from my phone to Flickr. And I configured Flickr so that we can blog right from an image over to here. That's neat. But again, it only supports a single image. You can add more, but it's a hassle on the phone. And actually, what I do from my desktop PC seems to be impossible. Flickr knows that I'm using a mobile browser and present a simplified interface. One of the simplifications includes not displaying the "small" version of the image and not giving out the URLs. So again, it's a pretty hopeless tool for anything but the most simple use-case.
There's also an SMS-posting tool but we're on a limited texting plan and I don't want to go down that route.
So, with this imperfect array of tools, I'm going to try to blog stuff a bit more. Maybe I'll have to come back and edit things when I have a real keyboard or maybe I'll develop a style around these tools.
I keep thinking about buying a new Mac Mini so that I can write iPhone apps of my own. Here's an amazing example of something that needs to be written.
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