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August 17th, 2009
08:05 am - Comic Pick of the Day: Dedicated to Icewolf010
You may all enjoy and partake as well, but I think this one goes on  icewolf010's fridge.
Lessons Learned This Week
1. If I am thinking the words "asthma," "difficult," and "breathe" in any order, I need to pull out my nebulizer. If I think any of those words more than once, I need to actually do the nebulizer treatment.
2. Dude! I so totally can handle 50lbs of peaches in a week!!! I'm going to be an idiot and do this again next year I'm sure but I love making jam/chutney/etc so much... We had peach oatmeal pancakes for breakfast on Sunday....
3. Asthma attack (heavy medicine, no sleep, pure exhaustion, fear, paranoia) + PMS is never ever where I want to go ever again. Ever. Everever.
4. Leave a bigger lip on the bottom crust because pinching the top crust on itself, while it worked, is probably not optimal. And use less sugar. You're making pie, not soup.
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April 22nd, 2009
10:04 pm - Baking With Thirdbase
( Or, Can Vegetarians Eat Frog CupcakesCollapse )
As put so eloquently by Bucky Katt, "And those who cannot cook make blueberry crabcakes."
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December 16th, 2008
11:33 am - I Support Headless Dolphins
I got to the Crow's Nest pretty early this morning to find that a friend had beat me here: Agent Spice and his Lovely Wife had left me a bag of cookies! Beautiful sea creatures, decorated in teals and pinks. The first thing I did was bite the head off the dolphin. I felt a bit like Ozzy, really.
The pelagic fish went next (mmm) and the seahorse and the octopus are looking at me fearfully. They too have a destiny with a cup of tea.
I have been woefully remiss in my Baking with Thirdbase posts, but I assure you, it's because I've either been baking or at rehearsal. (Yes, I'll get back to the Baking Soon).
oops, couldn't help it. Now the seahorse has no tail.
( Edit: Our undercover agents have managed to take a picture of the elusive Cookie Fairy's office! We seem to have just missed her! Perhaps she's in her Muppet Labs!Collapse )
Current Location: The Crow's Nest
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July 12th, 2008
04:25 pm - Getting My Bake On
I've been enjoying toast and jam with my tea in the evenings this week, and as a way to calm down from the nebulizer treatments. Nothing forces you to be calm like wielding a bread knife when your entire body is shaking, ya know?
And while I hope to never run out of jam, I did run out of bread. I'd been using the last baguette from my freezer, when I last baked bread a bit ago. Mmm, it was good. So it was time to make more bread.
I almost make the rookie mistake of 1 oz of dry yeast when the recipe called for 1 oz of fresh yeast -- I kept looking at the prospect of 3 tablespoons of yeast to 2 tablespoons of water to put it in, and thankfully, sanity led me to google when I couldn't get Nana on the phone.
1oz fresh yeast = 1/4 oz dry yeast = 2.25 tsp when it's in the plastic baggie in the freezer.
It's called Anadama bread and it's a traditional Massachusetts loaf, and as the story goes, Anna's husband came home to find a molasses corn meal mush on the counter, and finding nothing else (including Anna!), mixed it with flour, water and yeast while cursing "Anna, damn her!"
It's in the second rise right now. ( Clicky for the pickyCollapse )
It feels slightly heavy and might benefit from being in 3 loaf pans next time, instead of 2. Or maybe in the baguette pans. I like that that does to breads. But it worked nicely with a bit of butter and some homemade blackberry jam.
Shaky as craziness right now because I just did a neb treatment right after I put it in for the first rise, otherwise I'd be throwing together another loaf -- either molasses oat bread or a baguette. I love the baguette pan that my wonder Aunt Crumpet bought me but they are upstairs and I am downstairs. So maybe tomorrow.
I have some fruit thawing right now, so tomorrow, if not tonight, I'm going to Get My Jam On. Jars are all set, plenty of sugar in the house. Now I just need the energy.
Pictures coming....
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June 10th, 2008
07:52 am - There's a Double Meaning in That
Finally, I can breathe! Working from home yesterday, I could feel the Code Red Day -- yuck! But the asthma stayed mostly clear - what I was referring to was....
I (mostly) finished the draft congressional testimony just after midnight, having started at 7am yesterday morning! Phew. More on it today though, but it should be out of my hands shortly.
It meant I missed the Rudes Play Selection Committee Meeting, but I have no doubt the best selections were chosen. I just hope they got my email and don't think I blew them off!!
Sailing Log
Last Wednesday -- I sailed on Wildfire instead of Bump because Bump canceled due to the freaky weather that blew through. The Race Committee eventually canceled us as well, when it was thundering and lightninginging. I don't like lightning when I'm on a sailboat.
Last Friday -- I sailed on an Esse 850, Sailing World's 2007 Overall Boat of the Year. It was me, my trimmer from Wildfire, the boyf's best female friend from college (Mike-Anne) and the older skipper, a totally chill native Hawaiian who now drives from Chincoteague every Friday so that he can be on a sailboat. The boyf asked me later how it was and I told him I wasn't sure -- when we sailed past the club, they shot at us!! There was dead silence and then he started laughing -- we got the gun and won the race!! The skipper gave the trophy hat to Mike-Anne because she drove. I got to trim the mainsail and did very well, thankyouverymuch. It was very exciting.
On Saturday -- I helped out with Race Committee, providing the humor, the sunblock for the sailor who forgot his, and the ability to hang off the front of the Boston Whaler and jerk 30lb counter weights out of the water. I was a bit sore the next day. But I was helping the skipper from Bump, and I got a really interesting opportunity out of it. One of the types of boats in this regatta was a laser, and I told the people on our boat about how when my life gets really stressful and out of control, my anxiety manifests itself into dreams where I am on a laser, in the starting sequence and can't remember port from starboard (not farfetched, since I'm not real good with my lefts/rights) and I don't know the rules (true). I laughed and said that what I needed to do what just get out and do it!
The skipper asked me why I didn't and I said I didn't have a boat. He disagreed, saying that I had his boat, his club membership and that the races started at 6pm on Friday.
Oh. So next Friday, I might skip the Esse opportunity and go sail a laser.... Wow.
Sunday -- 2 race regatta with Wildfire. The drama has unfolded on Wildfire and it appears that I am always welcome on the boat but I can't be guaranteed a specific position. SO I did the first race as the mast person -- haven't done that in about 2 years, and I've only helped take down the spinnaker twice ever and once just after a sail ripped, so I didn't actually want to touch the sail, lest I rip it. So the first dowse (taking the sail down) was a complete mess but we didn't rip anything. I couldn't find the open hatch on the bow to stuff the sail, so that was kinda funny. The next one was much better. Finding the place to stuff the sail reaaaaally helps. The second race, I was on the runners (helps keep the mast straight) and we got 3rd overall for the day -- it was great!
I'll be on Bump again on Wednesday and doing whatever they having me doing on Wildfire on Saturday.
My strawberry picking buddy had to bow out of picking this week, but I think the residuals from the testimony assignment will keep me at my desk this week anyways. And maybe I can leverage yesterday's extra work into part of next Friday off to go practice on the laser before the race?
Phew. Busy life lately. But good. real good.
Oh, and I found the best ever peanut butter cookie recipe. Wow.
Current Music: Mike & Mike in the morning
Current Location: Nauset Heights, Code Orange/Red
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December 27th, 2007
07:33 am - Adventures with the new oven
So I was lucky enough to receive a silicone mat for the bottom of my new oven, which meant I really did need to get that spot in the bottom off. The new crisper pan took a bit of getting used to because I forgot that things that have grease in them will drip the grease once the grease is hot.
My new oven has a self-clean feature - I'll use that!
Lock oven. Hit the the self-clean button. Hit the start button once the oven starts beeping at me. Oven is in self-clean mode for the next 4.5 hours.
30min: Phew. Stinks in the kitchen. Turn on oven hood vent.
45min: Eyes watering in the kitchen. Open kitchen window.
1hr: Eyes watering in the living room. Open back door. Take down smoke detector.
1hr 15 min: Dig out and put on diving mask. Go find manual for oven. Open front door. Turn on ceiling fan in kitchen.
1hr 30 min: Shut off HVAC unit. Take off fogged up mask. Turn air purifier in bedroom to high.
2hrs: Go shopping.
3hrs 30 min: Cereal for dinner in the living room, followed by bed. House not burning down considered a success.
Entire house still stinks this morning, but the oven is definitely clean. Silicone mat goes in tonight and will hopefully catch everything in the future. Otherwise, I wait until nice weather, open the kitchen window, shut the HVAC and go hiking.
I sprayed the crockpot with pan, poured in some apple cider, topped it with water, whisked in some cinnamon, turned it on low and left for work. Hopefully my house will at least smell like cinnamon chemicals when I get home.
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December 2nd, 2007
03:52 pm - Baking with Thirdbase: Adventures in Babysitting
I utilized child labor! Martha Stewart, here I come!
I watched the daughters of aramintamd and tacnukesoul today and while they have no recollection of the Cinderella babysitting episode (would take me forever to find it in the archives... ask me about it some time), they had a ball making sugar cookies today.
They started off sorting M&Ms for me: red & green in this bowl, everything else in this bowl. Then they decided that blue was pretty and that all the blue ones should get pulled aside too. And then they unwrapped hershey kisses for me. So when you enjoy my peanut blossoms, remember that you are contributing to the industry of child slaves, and take a big ole bite out of that cookie and love it. (alternately, next time you see the girls, tell them how good their cookies were - they were ecstatic that I told them they were chipping into the annual cookie baking and that everyone would be enjoying their cookies.)
They played the sharing game and the compromise game very well. I am over-sacchrined from just smelling it all, and they kept nibbling. Finally I got at least the older one convinced that if she went home with no appetite for dinner, then Mom and Dad would never let me babysit/bake cookies with them again.
She did misunderstand about when we were going to get to enjoy a cookie - she had decided that cookies would only happen as dessert, so she came looking for dinner at 2:45pm, about 2 1/2 hours after lunch. I suggested that since it was a very long time until bed, perhaps a mid-afternoon snack might work a little better.
They were very eager to start decorating and were not thrilled with the fact that after having to (sigh)wait for the cookies to cool, they would now have to wait for the frosting to be assembled. Get it together, babysitter!!
Lots of fun was had decorating, and because of the new floor in the dining room I heard the M&Ms all hit the floor and skid, I didn't need to wait for the "uh oh..." So that's good.
They're watching/sleeping through a movie and I have a batch of monster cookies that will shortly be Gulf-bound, cooling in the dining room, next to pink snowmen (ooh - my bad, snow WOmen...) with blue M&Ms.
Kids are tiring. I'm glad I have fish.
Current Music: some kids movie singalong
Current Location: Nauset Heights, a very messy Muppet Labs
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December 1st, 2007
02:26 pm - Baking With Thirdbase, 2007
Bienvenue a Cookie Season!
Time to change my answering machine message to reflect the change in status.
Today has been:
New chocolate cookie recipe. Yum. The plan had been to send them with the boyf when he and a friend went to the lego exhibit thingy in Alexandria today but it winds up it's next weekend. Yum, either way, and chewy when baked on the new $10 (on sale from $25 - score!) Calphalon heavy duty jelly roll pans, and slighty more crispy when baked (for 3 minutes longer) on the Airbake cookie sheets.
Banananana bread. With and without the correct number of eggs. The one without the right number of eggs (I doubled the recipe...with one eggception) seems a bit dry but that appears to be the only difference.
Red marshmallow nellopops. Yes, sugar still burns when it splashes up.
Might bang out a batch of monster cookies before heading out to Annapolis for the first holiday party of the season.
Dilemna: I am almost out of flour already and it does seem silly not to buy the 25lb sack at Sam's Club, since I am going to be using...alot. But I have used all my plastic screw top jars to decant the 25lb bag of sugar and have no where to dump this flour. I do have a rubbermaid tub. D'you suppose if I washed it out well and dried it well I could decant into that? Or get a box of large ziploc bags and go from there? I just want to make sure the flour doesn't sit out once I open the sack.
Solutions?
Current Mood: cookilicious
Current Music: "I believe in Santa Claus" -Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton
Current Location: Muppet Labs Cookie Kitchen, Nauset Heights
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June 2nd, 2007
10:22 am - Hummus
There is hummus.
I love my food processor.
(Yes, Butterstick, I still love you more, but this toy is FANTASTIC!)
I made hummus!
I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway. Except I'm talking to you all instead of a volleyball.
Sohrtly there will be hummus and chicken wraps with green peppers in 2 of them and I'll have to find something to put in Paul's. Maybe I still I have a tomato - I think I do.
Of course there's no where to fit it in the fridge, but there will be shortly when I take out the bananas to make the banana bread. And then tomorrow I will have to find space to store the new jars of strawberry marmalade, strawberry jam, strawberry rhubarab jam and sugar free strawberry jam.
After I paint the dining room.
This one's a three day weekend, right?
Current Music: CookieMix
Current Mood:  excited
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May 20th, 2007
02:17 pm - Baking with Thirdbase
Ok, yesterday was the experiment with my first bread, ever, by myself. Nana has stood over me once or twice, and I know I used to bake with her when I was a kid.
Alice & Patrick just sent me their spare copy of Baking With Julia....oh my. I spent Friday night watching baseball, inhaling medication and reading this book. Talk about a gripping book - wonderful plot, great story line, I really empatheize with the characters - certainly a book I didn't want to see end. Luckily, I don't have to! Thank you!!!
Baseball fans, please note: Baking with Julia informs me that my collection of baking pans are in fact my "batterie." *gets chills*
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But when it came to trying my first loaf, I had to open up my special cookbook, filled with recipes I have copied out of my Nana and Mom's special cookbooks. And that is where I discovered the Molassas Oatmeal bread.
Fairly easy - although the yeast had me worried because it wasn't bubbling.
Panicked phone call to California: "Nana, I fed it sugar and it isn't bubbling!!!" "How long has it been?" "Uhhh... a minute?" "Give it a little more sugar and set your timer for 5 minutes. I'll call you back in 5 minutes."
Phew. I rhink the electricity generated over the phone line made it bubble.
I had the new baguette pan from Crumpet that I wanted to try so Nana said it would probably work just as well there as in the loaf pan -- I actually like the shape and size better from the baguette pan, than the loaf pan. Neither pan brought out what you'd call a "pretty" bread, but that's going to take practice.
The pictures:<( Before (ugly) and after <bee-yoo-ti-ful...if a bit sloppy)Collapse )
Wow. I only had 2 tasters besides myself and one of them is putting this bread on his menu for his last meal. I told him if he plays his cards right and gets a stay of execution, he can have it twice. Taster #2 also said it was delicious. I don't think shadowcaptain sees himself potentially on Death Row the way hobgoblinx does. Although i really can't say why hobgoblinx can imagine himself on Death Row. But I digress.
Warm tasting (it's the molassas), moist, firm but soft. The oats are pretty much dissolved, but you can taste them. Brushed with butter on the cooling rack immediately after leaving the oven. Warm or the next morning, very good with butter or Nana's apricot jam. The 2 uncut loaves are in my freezer. I'm sure one will eventually make it to Reception Night, even if I can't make it (damn allergies/asthma).
Current Location: Muppet Labs @ Nauset Heights (aka the kitchen)
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