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Happy 2010! Although it is 2010, I will continue to blog about 2009. There is so much to cover! First off, Christmas. As many of you are aware, I am the special kind of person who gets to tick the box labeled "Asian/Asian-American/Pacific Islander" on my SATs if I so choose. Of course, I definitely took the opportunity to let The Man know my race to throw a wrench in those national statistics. YES, that's right. My verbal WAS higher than my math score. Take that, Asian stereotype and the College Board.
My family does not celebrate Christmas in the sense of throwing a party for baby Jesus. Mostly we celebrate Christmas by taking advantage of the holiday time off work and the funness of buying presents--of the technological sort of course. You can lead my dad to cheap subpar electronics, but you can't make him buy them, so the saying goes.
Christmas Eve is usually when we open all our presents to each other from my immediate family. Then Christmas day we pack up the car, go shopping in Chinatown on our way to visit all my cousins, aunt and uncle, and most recently, my cousin's kids. In Christmases past, we have had large home-cooked Chinese meals. We have also eaten out (Chinese food and one year, sushi). This year, we had HOT POT.
You guys. I LOVE hotpot. Ever since I was a kid I always thought this kind of meal was super fun. Sometimes, this is called Mongolian hot pot or steamboat or Chinese fondue, etc. (Japanese people have a version called Shabu shabu.) But you get the idea. Basically you have boiling water or some kind of broth, chicken broth, spicy broth, beef broth, seafood broth, etc. You have lots of raw meat, fish, vegetables, tofu and noodles that you cook in the broth and eat. Usually the cooked food is dipped into a delicious sauce made from sa cha sauce (essentially Chinese BBQ sauce), raw egg, chili paste and soy sauce.
Also, if you are cheap and you don't want to turn the heat on in your house, having 3 separate stations of hot pot makes for an extremely warm room. Pretty nice and tropical in the winter.
There are a few restaurants that serve hot pot, mostly in big cities due to the larger Asian populations. But if you don't live in a big city, hot pot is really easy to prepare if you can buy fresh food and operate a knife and the dinner itself is super fun and social--much like cheese fondue. You can serve a lot of people without having to worry about basting the turkey or burning the green bean casserole. All you need is a pot and a good single burner tabletop range which are all mostly in the $30 level of appliances. The items that you decide to serve are totally up to you. If you don't like seafood, you don't have to have it. And if you don't like chicken or spiciness, then get rid of that too and sub in something that you do like. The possibilities are endless. HOTPOT! Do it.
I finally decided to try this "no-knead" bread of New York Times/Williams Sonoma/Mark Bittman (The Minimalist) fame. I have heard a lot of good things about it and I love real bread (as opposed to that crap they try to sell you in plastic bags at Stop and Shop--my apologies, France). So this weekend right before The Snow Dump of '09 East Coast Edition, I picked up some fresh rosemary and yeast and got to work.
Here is the recipe, as reproduced in the NYT and in the Williams Sonoma catalog trying to market their beautiful Le Creuset cast-iron cookware. It is an adaptation of Jim Lahey's recipe from the Sullivan Street Bakery.
3 cups flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 5/8 cups water
cornmeal as needed
Then you add things as you like. I used about 2 tsp of chopped fresh rosemary in one loaf. I hand picked off all the rosemary needles from the wood stalk. And about 4 drained chopped whole peeled tomatoes for the other loaf. They both came out delicious.
The dough is super easy, and you just stir it in a bowl with a wooden spoon. I don't have amazing Le Creuset cookware (covet) but I do have Pyrex glass dishes with covers and I have some "French white" bakeware. You have to let the dough rise overnight, which I did in two big metal bowls in the oven. They rose for about 16 hours and they were nice a bubbly. What I did was preheat the oven to the lowest setting possible, about 170F. Then I turned the heat off, made the bread, and then placed the dough in, covered with plastic wrap. This was so they could rise in a nice warm environment that would cool slowly overnight.
This is followed by some folding and resting, 15 minutes. Then it is shaped and I dusted them with a combo of cornmeal and flour. They are they placed on flat cloth (not towels, nothing that will shed) and you let them rise for 2 hours. I actually probably let them rise for about 3 hours, because that's how long I was outside shoveling the snow.
Preheat the oven to 450F, placing whatever bakeware you are using inside to heat up for 30 minutes. You then just plop your bread into the warmed cookware and then bake with a cover for 30 minutes, then bake for another 30 minutes with the cover off. I baked tiny tomato buns for 50 minutes total without covering them and they came out great. But I also baked them close to the door, so away from the really high heat in the back of my oven.
The tomato bread rose a lot more because it had a little more yeast and it had a lot more moisture because of the tomato. I made the extra buns because the tomato dough had so much more volume.
I added a little bit more salt than the recipe called for, but I think the best would be 1.5 tsp. I like my bread a little more salty, but that's a personal preference. The tomato bread is amazing just on it's own, but I made a grilled cheese with the rosemary bread and it was redonk. I ate it way too fast before I even thought of photographing it. Sorry. Here are some more pictures of the rosemary loaf though.
Making bread in general is very time consuming and work heavy, but this particular recipe is the most simple with the best results. It still takes a while, so it's a good weekend project. If you want to attempt bread making for the first time, this is probably the best thing to start with. We have a "bread maker" too but, these machines tend to knead way too much and the holes come out so uniform and the bread is generally really tasteless. You will never get rustic artisan bread from your bread maker. I love that crusty bread with soft yeasty insides--just not possible with a machine. Also, if you make fresh bread in your oven your kitchen will smell amazing. Nothing like eating fresh warm bread while there's a shit ton of snow falling from the sky.
Look at those irregular holes!!! Thank you, yeast. Delish.
One day, I like to imagine that I will make real bread, with a yeast starter and kneading and all that jazz, but it's a lot of work. I even have bread books!! BOOKS, people. From someone who doesn't love cookbooks, this is big. This no-knead bread is super easy and accessible on a weekly/month basis so I think I'm going to experiment with more flavors. Parmesan and black pepper, anyone? Hells yes.
Finally finished some knitting that I have been working on for a while. I was suffering from a little "second mitten syndrome" where I was really motivated to knit the first one, but the second one was delayed by another project due to the DREAD of knowing how much work was required to complete it. BEHOLD, the completed Swedish fish mittens:
I love the fish. They are super cute. I like the detailing of the eyes and that each row of fish swim in a different direction. If you're a knitter with A LOT of patience and you're pretty good with stranded/colorwork/intarsia knitting, then you can find the pattern here (but it costs $$). That's a Ravelry link so if you're not part of Ravelry you won't be able to pull it up.
Knitterly details:
I changed a few things in the pattern. Right up front, I didn't use the same yarn as she did. I used some different colorways of Claudia Hand Painted Sock yarn. At first I didn't like the variegated look, but now I really like it because it looks like little scales or that the fish are reflecting different kinds of light as they swim (go, go gadget imagination!). For the main color (off white) I used this new line of yarns from Blue Sky Alpaca called "Spud and Chloe." Not gonna lie, people. This yarn kind of blows. I'm not sure if it's because I was using size 1 needles and that's the lower limit of the yarn (it's recommended for size 1-3) or what, but it pulled apart like CRAZY and was really irritating if I ever had to rip back any mistakes. Anyway, just a note for the future. The Claudia Hand Painted, on the other hand was DREAMY to work with. Such a nice yarn. But I guess you get what you pay for seeing as the Spud and Chloe was much cheaper than the Claudia Hand Painted. The CHP was super expensive, but I bought enough for at least 2 pairs of mittens.
The pattern recommended DPNs, but I kind of despise DPNs so I used the magic loop technique and just bought a long size 1. SIZE 1. OMG. It was crazy. The pattern knits quickly because it's fun, but oh man, 80 stitches per round gets to be a pain in the wrist. Also, the color changes? Just imagine when you finish and you have to WEAVE IN all the ends. It literally took me an hour to weave in all the ends of the first mitten. Much faster with the second because I knew what I was doing, but that was crazypants. Thank you Hulu queue and awesome time-difference friends on the phone for getting me through that.
I also changed the ribbing at the bottom because 1x1 ribbing wasn't going to do it for me, so I did 2x2 ribbing with no increases, just flat out 80 stitches. I think it came out fine, it's not a huge noticable difference. The 2x2 is still stretchy enough that it will hug your wrist and help keep the cold out. However, the fact that it is sock yarn means that these are pretty light mittens and are probably better for fall and the warmer of winter days.
The thumbs came out weird. I'm not sure why. I think they just need to be wider at the bottom to make the thumbs more comfortable. But I like when the fish line up EXACTLY on the thumb and the mitten.
Some details are on my ravelry.
So that's done. There will be more knitting posts coming up, once I can finish up more present knitting. Fish!
I made my ultimate apple pie:
Oh man. Not only did the lattice come out AWESOME, but it was super delicious. Better than the crap pie I made a little while ago. (Never again, Courtland apples! You tricked me into thinking you would make a good pie, but you do not.) I made this with a delicious CHEDDAR CHEESE crust. Mmmm. Salty and sweet and sour, soft and flaky and crunchy. I love fall.
Here is a hilarious photo session outtake:
In other news, I really really really want a kitchenaid. Specifically the Williams Sonoma 90th anniversary red one with the glass bowl. No pressure.
I made this pie as a thank you to a friend of mine who let me borrow his kitchen aid. I was super productive with it. I made a big batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, froze some (cookie at any time!) and baked some. And I made an apple pie and TWO tomato pies. All of that baking was in TWO days. The other days the kitchenaid sat on the table, practically humming with potential to help create delicious foods.
One day, kitchenaid, when I have a real job, you will be mine.
In a fit of culinary demonic possession, last night I made the most bangin' salad EVAR.
Behold, the curried couscous salad. Do not be fooled by the crappy salad recipes online that feature raw onions (I don't hate onions, but I openly and blatantly hate the inclusion of too many raw onions in salads). This salad is pure delicious lettuce and tomatoes with cucumber raita dressing and curried couscous. Colorful and yum.
Raita dressing
3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 tbl. rice vinegar
2 tbl. olive oil
½ cucumber, peeled, seeded and minced
Mix liquids until smooth and combined.
Then add cucumber and stir well.
Then the CURRIED COUSCOUS. MMMMMM. I was worried about the curried couscous because I thought that i might come out too dry or tasting like curried cardboard, but I was really excited and pleasantly surprised when it came out like curried tummy lovin'. Here's the breakdown:
Curried couscous
½ cup plain couscous (best to be purchased for cheaps at a local Indian or Middle Eastern food store)
½ tsp of the following spices:
coriander
garam masala
tumeric
cumin
fenugreek
½ tsp powdered garlic
½ tsp powdered ginger
½ tsp powdered onion
½ tsp salt
1 tbl olive oil
2/3 cup boiling water
Mix spices with couscous until evenly spread.
Pour in boiling water and let sit covered for 5 minutes.
Fluff with fork and then cover again for another 5 minutes.
Then use some romaine lettuce (I used one head, enough for a huge salad or two medium salads.) chopped into ribbons. One pint of cherry tomatoes, halved and lightly salted to sweat them out and make them taste crisp. I coated the lettuce with raita dressing, then added the tomatoes, then topped with the nice warm couscous. Mmmmm.
You know you want some.
4 out of 4 PhD students (and one lab tech) agree, it is delicious.
"Fox News leans further to the right than a man who's just had his right leg blown off!"
I was reading this article and noting how creepy it was when my friend emailed me about it. Notably, we are both creeped out by this photo.
First of all, who takes a picture like this? Second of all, who SMILES while taking a picture of this? It's so strange and inappropriate.
And of course, Dan Savage says it the best. (For extra funness, look at comment #8 and then the reply at comment #10. Thanks for picking up on that, Al!)
I'd just like to second and third and fourth what Dan Savage is translating for these people who think they they are pious by letting "God do what He's going to do":
What? If you were gonna let God do what He's going to do, you shouldn't have sought out fertility treatments. Here's what God was gonna do: God was gonna make you infertile. God did that, actually, and then you thwarted God's plan for you—that you be infertile—and availed yourselves of the latest medical technologies and sought the help fertility specialists. Then you ignored the advice of your doctors and refused to reduce the number of fetuses you were carrying and now four premature infants have died in great pain and two more will very likely die—but, hey, you'll get another smug, self-satisfied, just-letting-God-do-what-he's-gonna-do photo op out of it, so it's not a total loss. And it's all material for the blog you're writing about "your journey," and there'll probably be a book deal in it for you when it's all over ("Thom & Amanda Minus 6").
Yeah, I would have felt bad for them. Would have.
Yesterday I was catching up on my TeeVee watching (Bones, Glee, Dollhouse) on Hulu. I'm terrible at watching my shows when they are actually on tv. I was desperately watching Dollhouse, hoping and praying that it gets better and up to the miraculous television that I have now come to expect from Joss Wheadon (re: Firefly, re: Dr. Horrible, re: Buffy) and who do I see but this actor in episode 3, Belle Chose:
My Flickr was super cute today:
In other news, here are some interesting links I'd like to share.
#1. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. These people are seriously unfit to parent. They deserve a harsher punishment. I know they are thinking of the kids, but seriously. Come on, now, Judge. Also, does this set a precedent? Oh, I just want to LET MY KID DIE, I'll just blame it on God and get off easy. Ugh, disgusting.
#2. Maureen Dowd's column from a couple of days ago has this GREAT gem in it:
HA! I HATE GLENN BECK.In an ideal world, bosses would refrain from sleeping with subordinates, so as not to cause jealousy and tension in the office. But we’re not in an ideal world. Otherwise, we’d already have health care for everyone and Glenn Beck wouldn’t have any influence over the White House.
#3. This NYT article talks about an interesting way that the brain may work. I like this section:
I think this explains so much...Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends — and when told they’ve done poorly on a trivia test, they even identify more strongly with their school’s winning teams.
#4. This has been all over the news, but I really like what Dan Savage had to say about it. This is probably because I have an unhealthy obsession with Dan Savage and I worship him. Reading stuff like this reminds me that at one point I want to try out begin vegetarian and/or vegan. I think it would be a good experience. I think my life is too crazy at this point to try this out, but once I become a real adult (read: graduate, move out, live life like a normal human being at age 29) I think I will do this. Not because I think eating animals is wrong. To be honest, I don't think it's THAT wrong. I just don't trust the food industry. Which, is probably the more sad reason.
In happier news, I made these cute wrist warmers for a friend in Paris:
But probably not the kind you're thinking of...
I'm glad that sometimes having mutantly small feet pays off.
