I once had heartburn so bad that I had to go to the car and lie down while my father went to the drug store to get me some antacids. I always blamed the pesto I had for lunch, and have avoided large quantities of it (in pasta, on pizza) ever since.
In reality, I was probably freaked the hell out because I was going to my college orientation.
I need to find a big bowl of pesto and test this on a stress-free day.
After watching Memphis (the musical) today, I finally looked into season tickets. Just for kicks, you know? And I'll tell you a secret something that most people probably already know:
Musicals can be cheap! I always equated season tickets to old stuffy people (or diehard sports fans) with plenty of money. Although most of my brain knows that buying in bulk is cheaper, I never thought to apply that to say, $80 theater tickets (or $115 main floor tickets for fricking Lion King!).
At the Paramount Theatre, I can get an orchestra seat for 7 shows on a Wednesday night for $274. That's 39.14 each!
At the 5th Avenue Theatre, you can get 4 shows during the previews for 258.50, or 64.63 each. But they have a deal for people under 30, where I can get tickets for 32.50 each!
If I saw a show once a month, or once every other month, I could totally justify that expense. Hmmm. Someday.
For Valentine's Day, I got G a Deathcake Royale, a chocolate cupcake from Cupcake Royale with a curly ganache frosting from Theo's Chocolate and an espresso chocolate truffle center from Stumptown Coffee. I also bought one for G's brother, and one for myself. (Well, I bought two for me: the deathcake, and a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel frosting.)
G's brother got him an XBox 360.
Sheeesh.
We went to the Pike Pub and Brewery for Ra's birthday party. (Dammit, Shodoshima Ra has the same initials as G's brother.) The Reuben was good but the bottom bread was soggy, and it was served with chips. (The fries looked better.) Decent sized portion (I only ate half), and good enough that I ate the rest around midnight while watching Steve Martin host SNL. (Not that exciting.)
Current Favorite:
Three Girls Bakery - Pike Place Market
Giant sandwich, warm and consistent.
Great
Elysian Brewing Company - Tangletown
There's a caramelized sweetness that I couldn't identify after one bite. I need to try my own.
Good
The Pike Pub and Brewery
Soggy bottom bread (hee hee), nothing special but still delicious. Wish I had fries or a salad instead of a half plate of chips. $10 for the smaller Son of Reuben (1/31/09)
I just finished season 2 of Ugly Betty (I stopped watching when the strike put everything on hiatus), and now I'm all excited about jumping into season 3, the current season. And then I do some googling, and it turns out that Ugly Betty is being shelved in late March and won't be back until June. Lame. Well, at least that gives me most of a season.
Now I know how it felt when you (aka, L) lost Firefly...and Pushing Daisies. Booo.
Edited to add: What the hell? Ugly Betty will be replaced by some show with Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?, not interested) and a show with Megan Mullally, "where she will be acting out real-life stories submitted by mothers." WHAT. IS. GOING. ON. First the Homeland Security show (not kidding), now this. Boo.
I repeat, TV is stupid.
I was getting ready to start some bread dough for no-knead bread at the perfect time this afternoon. Unfortunately, I think I'm about a cup short on flour. Boo! I could've substituted some of it with whole wheat flour, but I was too annoyed, and that would require de-crystallizing the honey and bleh, nevermind.
Read more...Twitter is perfect for all the little random thoughts I have. Usually I would try to throw them into a conversation, or flesh out a blog entry, but that would require a backstory, some good transitioning, so screw that. Especially for something simple like how much I miss well-ripened beefsteak tomatoes. That was twitter #100, by the way. Between my airport tweets and my inaugural tweets, I'm almost caught up with the tweet a day non-goal. And twitter makes it seem more casual, because 100 twitters is probably not a big milestone for normal people.
Read more...Today I was bored and I made kumquat-orange curd. I've never made it before, although I suspected it would resemble the lemon filling in my mom's lemon meringue pie. I was right.
Unfortunately, because I strongly associate that flavor and smell with meringue pie, the serving suggestions weird me out--on scones, biscuits, toast...It's good though, I think. We'll see how it tastes after it's chilled. And after I bake some biscuits.
After that, I made a pale omelet with the whites and some shredded chicken from dinner a few nights ago. Very oyako-esque, but mid-quality egg whites plus bland mid-quality chicken tasted kind of icky and metallic, so I drowned the sucker in salsa and parmesan and resolved to never try that combination again.
I've been wanting to make no-knead bread recently, but I always remember the day before I have to do something, and the timing's off. With an 18-hour resting period (I know, I need to just start making normal bread), it gets tricky. I've finally relaxed enough to realize that letting it rest for more than 18 hours is usually a good thing in my cold kitchen, but that doesn't help when I have to be somewhere in less than 18 hours. And it's worth waiting (for me, I think).
I've also decided that I want to make more Japanese food this year. Over the last year and a half, I conquered no-knead bread, buttermilk biscuits, scones, macaroni and cheese (baked and stove top), carnitas, pot roast (way too rich), a couple easy shredded salads, easy enchiladas (you're supposed to rub the tortillas individually with oil? damn, I didn't know that.), pasta e fagioli...I meant to make a list, and maybe I will someday, but you get the picture. I've been cooking from my America's Test Kitchen cookbook. So now it's time for Japanese food. I've got the time.
So far, I've made gyoza (pretty good), and I've finally figured out bacon fried rice. I know it's easy, but I could never figure out the timing, so the bacon ended up being limp and pale. And I bit the bullet and used the チャハン function on the rice cooker instead of using cold rice. Go me.
Next on deck: nikujaga, or maybe takoyaki. I've got the pan, it's just intimidating. And a bit decandent, considering I'm still not working full time (picking up odd jobs here and there, favors from friends).
Oh, and funny story. I had G's mom pick up some black vinegar from the store for me, just to try. Annnd, I accidentally asked for sweetened, because I didn't know better. Tell me if I'm wrong, but it looks like sweetened black vinegar is primarily used for pigs feet, which is mostly a confinement food. Whoa.
I often have problems remembering the names of supporting cast actors. This is probably because I don't watch many movies (and I'm trying to fix that). But they're good actors, and they keep popping up, so here's a few that I've seen lately:
William Sadler
He played Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption (along with a few other Frank Darabont movies), was in Deep Space 9, and best of all, played the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.
William Fichtner
Remember that banker in the opening scene of Dark Knight who pulled out a shotgun and tried to be all badass? He was also in Contact, but I think he's more famous these days for Prison Break. Oh, and he was in The Longest Yard remake, along with Bob Sapp.
I am reading a cookie recipe that calls for a boiled egg yolk. I get all excited because if I were making those cookies right now, I'd get to eat the cooked egg white. Maybe I'm just craving eggs right now. Mmmm.
Read more...I will keep track of my Reubens here.
Current Favorite:
Three Girls Bakery - Pike Place Market
Giant sandwich, warm and consistent.
Great
Elysian Brewing Company - Tangletown
There's a caramelized sweetness that I couldn't identify after one bite. I need to try my own.
I have 3 and a half days to cook, eat, or freeze everything perishable in my fridge. Why? Yes, I'm leaving for 2 weeks, but it's also because I know no one will cook or eat leftovers while I'm gone. Depressing.
But on a better note: baking bacon, and then using the bacon grease to oil a roasted kabocha was the best idea EVER.
It's snowing! Not that exciting, but I don't remember it snowing this hard last year, ever. So, I'm excited. Here's your creepy night shot photo:
I can't wait for tomorrow!
I eat slowly, I cook slowly. Latest example: Lasagna.
3:45pm, start making sauce.
6:22pm, into the oven.
It's worth it because I know I'm not doing anything else tonight, and I don't like being rushed, but still. I need to speed things up a little.
He's stumbling through "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" on his piano. It's 11:45pm. I wonder if he needs to learn it by tomorrow? I don't really mind, because I like listening, and his mistakes aren't that bad. (He also plays the violin.)
Read more...A few days ago, I was informed that for an upcoming get together, I was to provide 4-8 dozen cookies and a side dish. It's now been bumped up to 5-10 dozen cookies. (We're doing a cookie exchange, and 2 more people got invited.) At first I panicked, but then I realized that I had a quick broccoli dish I could make, and there are two cookie recipes I've been meaning to try. It's so nice having a (small) trusted recipe collection for situations like this. The recipes are below, just in case you're curious.
Garlicky Sesame-Cured Broccoli Salad (New York Times)
Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties (Smitten Kitchen)
Caramelized Matzoh Crunch with Chocolate (David Lebovitz)
Also, I've decided to follow David Lebovitz's twitter. Why? Because it contains gems like these:
I just found the other half of the banana I started eating for breakfast. It's now 2:34pm.Read more...
Peanut buttter, photographed with a Canon 430EX Speedlight, looks remarkably like dog food.
some bird took the hugest dump on my window last night & I'm procrastinating cleaning it up. can you blame me?
LOOK AT THIS AWESOME MEAT:
So. Awesome!
This is probably a little bit less than half. Straight from the pot, it was fantastic.
See, this is why I didn't originally include pictures. Gross.
You really can't tell with the steam and the terrible flash, but there was easily a 1/2 inch of oil and liquid fat kicking it on top. Wow.Track 10. You can here it at ruembarrassed.com if you hurry.
Now I just need to learn to play the trumpet.
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