Ultimate Cookies

Readjustmentation

2009-11-17T19:11:00.005-07:00

It was a gray, windy, wet kind of day today, the kind you don't get in Denver (or at least hardly ever) and the kind that I have to learn to readjust to along with the gazillion other things going on.
But instead of being sad, it is better to reflect on nice, cozy, yummy things in life. Things like having a CSA box full of goodies to play with every week and time for playing in the kitchen.
Some of the highlights have been: homemade German chocolate cake, lemon bars and more lemon bars, pineapple coconut cookies, stuffed squash with curried wild rice pilaf, cherry ricotta muffins, triple ginger stout gingerbread, Japanese-style beef and squash stew, sweet potato gratin, and cabbage pie. Oh and ham cups with pesto and eggs. I didn't make all of the goodies, but did take some photos of a few things. The rest you will have to use your imagination. Plus I discovered that the trick to successful homemade hummus is an obsessive rinsing of the chickpeas to get rid of most of the skins. That also leads to the least amount of digestive discomfort, if you know what I mean.

Oh and I made a batch of banana oatmeal power cookies and brought some to work. They seemed to go over well. Can't wait for Christmas Cookie Bonanza!

28 Hours and 1000 Miles

2009-10-27T20:29:00.002-06:00

Thoughts from a long drive in 1.5 days:

-A late lunch at Domo is good fortification for a trip.
-The best thing about Nebraska may have been entering Iowa and simultaneously finding the Pats game on AM.
-Less radio stations to choose from actually make listening to music easier.
-Nebraska is Native American for "The flat area of land West of the Mississippi and East of the Rockies."
-A car full of stuff (including a crate of binders, a tub of books and a KitchenAid Stand Mixer) will decrease your MPG by about 5.
-When your ass starts to ache, you are only halfway through your trip.
-When your ass starts to hurt, you are only 3/4 through your trip.
-When the driver asks for a butt massage, you better hope to be 98% through your trip.
-Moisture makes the grass green and the trees plentiful, but it also makes the windshield foggy.
-There are a lot of stars in Nebraska and not a lot in Chicago. The sky is actually pink all night.
-Waiting for Sonic is always worth it, but likely to incur vast amounts of brain freeze.

Recent Foodage

2009-09-24T08:46:00.002-06:00

With the onslaught of harvesting tomatoes and squashes (squashii? squashae?) from Kerry's garden and then the sudden cold front that pushed through, I have been slaving away quite a bit in the kitchen. (Sorry, no food porn pics this time.)
The first question is, of course, what to do with 3 lbs of garden tomatoes (some from Iowa and some from Aurora CO) and 4 summer squash bigger than your arm? First you make tomato sauce and, if you are lazy, you make it without peeling the tomatoes and manage to slice your finger in the meanwhile. Toss in some turkey and beef meatballs and you have a nice go to sauce in your fridge for whatever pasta might be kickin' it on the shelf. You look at the squash and think, these are just going to have to wait...perhaps they will get smaller if I let them rest on the counter for a few days. (Note: They will not. In fact, they might just grow more. Just like difficult people, giant garden squash refuse to disappear if you ignore them.)
Saturday, I went for a late Summer/early Fall harvest dinner theme. Made the Turnip and Potato Soup from Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody. Basically saute leeks, potatoes, turnips and garlic, then cook down and puree. Toss in salt, pepper and cream. A good idea is to not drop and break your blender. Then I tackled the squash: cut it into rounds and either roasted half and slow-cooked the other half them on the stove. Seasoned with some lemon pepper and italian seasoning and tossed with some Feta. It's very sunny looking. Finally, made the Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon and Pistachios. Kept it pretty close, but subbed lime juice which was pretty nice matched with the pistachios. Rounded the meal out with a little bread with roasted garlic spread and smoked sea salt and a peach cobbler.
For the party, I cooked up some chocolate gemelli I picked up at the farmers' market, tossed with some raspberries and strawberries plus some homemade whipped cream for a dessert pasta salad. Also made a coconut rum cake by adapting the Little Lime Soaked Coconut Cakes from In The Sweet Kitchen. Followed the recipe for the cake, used low-fat coconut milk (which worked fine), added an egg for altitude and cooked in a square cake pan. Made the lime soaking syrup by dissolving the sugar and lime juice with rum rather than water and cooked it down to more of a thick syrupy glaze (careful not to burn!!). After the cake was done, drizzled with rum, glazed and then sprinkled toasted coconut over it and drizzle a little more glaze to help the coconut adhere. It's a nice contrast between a sweet cake and a limey tang.
Finally, Monday was a nice day for using the oven since it was freezing out (hail in the AM!). If you are going to spend money on heating the house, you might as well make it smell good and have a tasty meal, too. Made the Moroccan Roast Chicken (my favorite roast chicken recipe, possibly) and a quinoa pilaf with diced summer squash, onions and dill. A nice protein packed meal! Lots of leftover chicken that would be good for pita sandwiches, maybe with some hummus or baba ganoush.
That's all I have for now and with loads of leftovers, there may be a stoppage in cooking for a bit. Discovered that the soup reheats well with some manchego or drunken goat sprinkled over it...the nuttiness is a nice contrast against the sweetness and creaminess.

Things to do in Denver to Feel Alive!

2009-09-24T08:16:00.006-06:00

Had a couple sets of visitors the last few weeks and have spent some time doing the tour guide thing. This last week, it was JW's turn to visit the mile high city and we did it up pretty well.
First up, the new New Belgium Brewery Tour. Now you can reserve a spot online and not worry about getting there way early to hope for tickets! We saw the behind the scenes with our tour guide, Tyler, who may be the coolest beer geek ever. You now get 5 tastings over the course of the tour and the choices are made by each guide. He started us out with a Fat Tire, standard issue, but a must have. Then he moved us into the crrrr-azy world of Lips of Faith beers: Biere de Mars and La Folie (cask-conditioned sour ale that most didn't love, but I rather did and had a smidge extra). I think Tyler liked that I had tried all these exotic (beer geek) beers. :) Then to the twisty slide that I did not take because I was wearing a skirt (boo!) and we got to try the Hoptober (hoppy, but dry and really well balanced so the hops don't stomp on your taste buds; website says it's made from a blend of 5 hops...might be the only hoppy beer I will drink from now on). But the piece de resistance was that we got to sample the Fall Wild Ale before it even was released! You can go to the website for the info - it claims to be "Fall in a Glass" and Joe and I thought it was just plain liquid happiness. Sadly, it was not to be released until Tuesday and will only be on draft so it was such a teaser. We were frantically making room in the schedule for another trip to Fort Collins on Tuesday to grab some more. In addition to the tour beers, you also get a token to taste one more from the taps at the Tasting Room. I had the Dandelion Ale (made with real dandelions!) and Joe tried the 1554 as well as a sip or two of some Mothership Wit. What a great time and this was only Day 1!!!
We also went to Boulder to go to Mesa Labs in the Foothills and then back over to have BeauJo's with Marisa, Sean and Owen. Nice long day.
Other highlights include riding to REI and the Tattered Cover, awesome piratey fun at the 1st Annual Deckhand Dave and Captain Kerri Talk Like a Pirate Party complete with giant pirate beer chest and grog, brunch with T&L (and kiddos), ultimate, the first real snow of the season in the mountains and that lovely Fall-time hail in the city, darts at the Cricket during MNF and a tour of the Mint. Also we went to the Rox game Tue night in the 50 degree drizzle and had a really great time with 10,000 of brave-hearted souls. 2 words...Crazy Nachos. It really wasn't that bad in the rain with the right gear on.... See the rain and the near empty rock pile? So close to the field I could have grabbed Tulo's ass.
The only downside of the week were losing at Scrabble and the Pats losing to the Jets. Guess I am starting Roethlisberger and benching sweet sweet Tom Brady now.
Between this and Rob & Beth's visit, I may be almost tapped out.

Honeycrispin'

2009-09-08T15:33:00.006-06:00

Another gorgeous weekend in Chicago. The primary goal for this trip was to go apple picking in IN and get some delicious honeycrisps. Boy did we ever! 1/2 a bushel or ~52 apples were gotten and at $0.85/lb, it was quite a deal! Since we were having people over for dinner (Sustainable Seafood Paella a la Joe), I clearly needed to make dessert. Made a sour-cherry streusel pie with some of the leftover sour cherries from before and then a double-crusted apple pie with the honeycrisps and a couple grannys laying around. The butter/cream cheese pie crust is much more of a challenge with neither a food processor nor a rolling pin. But a Nalgene filled with water is fairly sufficient. We also had dates stuffed with goat cheese, almond stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and Catalan spinach with Kalamata olives. A ton of food and great company to wrap up the morning apple trip. Hooray! And a nice way to use up pie crust scraps is to dust with cinnamon and sugar and bake up in the oven to make some nice little snacks. Mmmm.
In addition, I made some spiced apple butter and some cinnamon-ginger applesauce with some more of the plethora of apples with still 20 leftover for some good eating/fruit bowl filling. Still a little warm these days to truly feel like Fall so maybe another trip for Fujis and Mutsus later in the season.
Also, we picked up some lovely sweet corn (good enough to eat raw), kettle corn, venison meat sticks, and grape twists at the farm stand/store at the farm. Joe had the good idea of having a picnic in the park when we got back to the city and we had some of our treats while watching some little leaguers horse around the baseball field. All in all, a pretty gosh-darn great day before Labor Day.
(Also over the weekend - 30 miles on the bike for brunch at Frontera, errands and Sox-Sox at Comiskey on Saturday; 19 miles on bike to go to Montrose for beach pick-up in the fog on Monday; 12 miles on the bike to meet Beth for a delicious lunch at Tre Kronor and an apple butter/applesauce for books and keys exchange on Tuesday.)

Dreams of Things to Come

2009-08-27T19:48:00.002-06:00

Thoughts I had during my de-stressing run:
1. Outsoles that split from the bottoms of trail runners mean that the shoes suck, I don't care how fancy and well reviewed the brand might be.
2. Wilting sunflowers and pumpkins that suddenly appear mean that Fall is a-comin'.
3. If your baby lost a pacifier on the sidewalk in a neighborhood full of dogs, would it really ever be worth rescuing?
4. Pink scooter + pink capris + pink leather riding jacket + pink helmet = waaaay too much pink.
5. Guys with long legs who pass me while running really suck.
6. If you interview a person and tell them you will call them next week, you shouldn't wait till Friday of next week. If that. Cuz they'll be unproductive and sit around then have to go for a de-stressing run.

The Empire Strikes Back at the Beach

2009-07-21T22:19:00.011-06:00

So last week I went back to good ol' Chi-town to visit folks and play in Sandblast 2009. I was recruited to the dark side by Cap'n Joe of The Empire Strikes Back and version 2.0 was fabulously fun, spreading the joy of Pimm's and strawberry gin and tonics to all.
The first thing I did when I got to Chicago, however, was make a batch of lemon bars using the excellent recipe a la The Joy of Cooking. Fresh squeezed lemons, mind you...don't be using that bottled nonsense. Using some of the farm fresh eggs that Joe had resulted in the best batch of lemon bars to date. Sorry, no photos of it. Too much excitement for food porn.
Then onto Piece for some tasty pizza and microbrews. Oh Piece, how I have missed you. We were able to catch up with some folks post-league as well which was nice. The kids are getting younger or I am getting older. Or maybe a little from column A and a little from column B.
Thursday was dim sum at Shui Wah (very yummy) and then some serious museuming. We went to the Field and saw the Pirates exhibit. Very interesting and informative. Did you know the pirates went as far north as Canada? Unsurprisingly, Providence was also a haunt of theirs. Interesting to learn that conditions on the pirate ships were actually better than on the slave trafficking ships. Then it was to the astronomatarium (aka, the Planetarium) which is way bigger than I thought. Some cool exhibits and we also got to see a show about COSMIC COLLISIONS narrated by the Sundance Kid. Too tired at that point to hit the Art Institute and we headed back just prior to some major rain so that I could make dinner.
Dinner was homemade chicken lettuce wraps made from a small fryer that I butchered. Jacques Pepin and Julia Child would have been proud, I think. Such cute little breasts. Hah! Add some crusty bread with homemade aioli and some Piece beer and it was a perfect treat for an educational day. There's the lord of the manor with part 1 of his delicious homemade meals. Dessert was a mix of lemon bars, strawberry cake and peanut butter pie. Yummers.
Friday I spent part of the mornign pitting the sour cherries Joe had obtained for 1 of the dishes I wanted to make and headed out later in the day to meet up with Robert and Beth. I got to examine the havoc wreaked on his right thumb from his unfortunate ultimate misadventures. After getting them settled in somewhat, addressing the vehicle snafu and generally harassing JH and Crispy, we went and gallavanted around Chinatown before meeting Crispy at Lao Schezwan for dinner. Very good spicy food and an extraordinarily long menu. They do not skimp on spice or garlic there.
Saturday and Sunday were Sandblast days! Since I had the use of Robert's car but needed to get him in order for him to fulfill his volunteering duties, I was able to get to the beach wicked early both days and relax and strech in the cool summer morning. Got some nice shots of the crews at work.

I must say, however, that I am a big proponent of having 1 tall (6'4") person pace all the fields to ensure adequate length, width and general consistency. Just a thought. The Empire Strikes Back v 2.0 was super-fun with lots of great folks and although we went 0-4 day 1, we went 3-0 day 2 and improved our ranking by 4 or 5 spots. Sweet. We had some great plays and I had 5 scores (including a "sky" over the 1 gal I played that was shorter than me) and some good D's. Even dove a couple times, but I wouldn't call them lay-outs.
Sunday night, I made Little Lamb Meatballs with Sour Cherries from "Good Day for a Picnic" and sauteed some swiss chard with onions. Toss in some toast, more aioli, the remaining Piece beer and some dessert and it was a nice way to end 2 days at the beach. I had forgotten just how pervasive sand can be, however. All that ultimate meant no energy to take any pictures of the meal. Oh well.
Monday was my last full day. I got up and endeavored to make Joe's pre-lated birthday cake and then Joe made some delicious French Toast (the key is in the ratio of milk to egg, I am told) and superb farm-raised bacon. Fortified with a fantastic breakfast (the best meal ever!), we hobbled out to catch the Metra and stroll the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I really love the Japanese gardens and the Fruit and Vegetable gardens there. We even saw borage, the traditional garnish for a Pimm's cup! Although Joe could not decide on a favorite tree, I decided his favorite flower was the dahlia, also known to us as the purple explosion. At the aquatic gardens, we spotted a giant fish hiding among the lilypads, but no frogs jumping on the lilypads. We managed a game of Scrabble by the lake (I lost) and got our achey selves back to the city for some well-deserved burgers, fries and beers at Monk's Pub. I like any place that lets you throw peanut shells on the floor. I iced Lemon-Blueberry cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (a top 5 requested cake these days) and thus concluded my 6 days of kitchen servitude. What a great time....

Holy Whole Foods, Batman!

2009-06-02T11:08:00.004-06:00

So I made the error of stopping at Whole Foods on my way home from the gym the other night in search of vegetable chips. Alas, those did not seem to exist, but as the store was in the midst of closing up, I was able to meander for goodies without the mad crush of weekend shoppers and was able to replenish the honey container.
One find was the habanero green chili pork sausage that was at the deli. And when I say habanero, I mean it! After poked the sausage to make sure it was grilled to perfection, the juices from the outside were plenty fiery. Definitely did not disappoint.
Then, of course, I wound up wandering to the cheese section. (This might be a good time to mention that I was already hungry before I got to the gym so now I was grocery shopping while hungry, thirty and electrolyte-depleted. Whoops.) Happily the cheese mongers had already left for the day - sometimes I find them to be just a smidge condescending and/or pushy when all I want to do is browse. Well, there was a little basket of what I like to call "trial cheeses" that I love to rustle through to see what little gems I can bring home to try. Well, this time I hit the jackpot. There was a "Legendary Goat Gouda" and with a name like that, how can you resist? It is delicious - a somewhat hard, off-white cheese in a green rind. It is nutty and smells almost like a manchego. Very good snacking cheese. The second one I grabbed was the "Long Clawson White Stilton with Lemon" because, well, I am a sucker for anything citrus. It is more of a dessert cheese, semi-soft and slightly stinky, but much milder and sweet with chunks of candied lemon. Definitely not a savory selection, but a nice way to end a meal and satisfy the sweet taste bud. And since I was refilling the honey jar, I had to grab a wedge of very ripe brie (yes! the runnier the better...) to have with the honey.
One thing that I tried at my friend's house that I will share with is this delicious little appetizer/snack. Get some triscuits, brie and honey. Melt a little chunk of brie onto the triscuit in the toaster oven and serve with a dollop of honey. Also top with a walnut or almond if you are so inclined.

Kona and the Brown Palace

2009-05-25T22:47:00.005-06:00

So I have completed graduate school and just have a couple loose ends to wrap up.
Yay!
Last week, my friend left for a European adventure and left her adorable Bichon frisee, Kona, with us for some dogsitting. He is very cute and a little whiney, but the cuddles make up for it. Unfortunately, the stinker has pooped in the house twice. The first time I forgave him because he was clearly unused to being here; the second time I was much sterner and I am afeared that our relationship has become somewhat strained. The fact that Kona and my laptop do not both fit in my lap appears to be somewhat disconcerting to the little guy.
So in the last week, I have had a plethora of food and drink and a decent amount of sleep. Life is much better post-grad school!
Highlights include popping open my bottle of Krug after my Oral exam with Jess and Beau. Yummers is the only word for it.
On Sunday, I went to Sunday Champagne Brunch at the Brown Palace with classmates and family and it was phenomenal. In short - prime rib, blintzes, oysters, key lime pie and dark chocolate pots de creme were some of my highlights. If you wish to escape brevity, an epic discussion of this meal can be found on the Twin City Breakfast Club blog. Not sure when it will be posted, but it was truly the best breakfast experience I've had and likely in the top 5 meals I've ever had. Awww yeah.
Today, I went over to T and L's for some grilled pizzas and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Oh and I had to give little Mara a sushi play set:She calls the handroll an ice cream cone, the tuna is tomato and the salmon is watermelon. I am confident that when we all go out for sushi, Mara will be the cutest little white toddler in the place. That's multiculturalism, folks! (Is it wrong that I am secretly hoping Mara will become the anti-twinkie? What would that be, anyhow?)
At any rate, you can't go wrong with prosciotto and arugula or carmelized onion and balsamic on pizzas. Mmmm.
That is not to say that I have been going all out for meals, either. I have been balancing out the fancy with things like tater tots and the like.
I also used the time last week to make some homemade garlic and lemon hummus. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to whip up a batch in the food processor! We decided today that the grilled pizza dough brushed with garlic infused olive oil may be the perfect base for some homemade hummus.
That's just a whirlwind highlight of the past couple weeks. There has been much wine and cheese as well. At some point, smoked homemade sausages will be made so stay tuned. Life is much happier when one has time to cook.

Final Four Fever

2009-04-05T23:03:00.004-06:00

I made it back to the gym today after a prolonged 2.5 week absence. This sucks because the reasons that kept me from going have become an ongoing painful drama and also prior to my absence, I was getting back into pretty tip-top form. Oh well. Anyhow, my gym has a basketball court area which is pretty cool. Sometimes non-basketball playing folks invade the parquet and do lunges and other exercises in the space, but I've never dared.
I noticed 2 things today: basketball court usage has significantly increased in the last couple of months and the number of men of the Caucasian persuasion playing the roundball has also increased, effectively changing the demographics of folks on the court. I have dubbed the former "The March Madness Effect" and the latter "The Tyler Hansbrough Effect." Clearly I was not focusing on my workout nearly enough today. This has not stopping me from sipping G2 for rehydration, however. Mmmm.

Oatmeal Cookie Blizzard Hermits

2009-03-26T18:38:00.004-06:00

Today turned into a serious snow day. When I left the house at 6:00 am there was a slight dusting and just enough moisture on the roads for car tires to make that wet pavement sound. When I left school at 11:00 there was a couple inches accumulated and the powder continues. Since I am stuck hardcore studying for the next few days (panic is creeping in), I thought it would be a nice break to make a quick batch of something. Since all this studying and weather is precluding me from getting good workouts in, I decided to try for something somewhat healthier. Oatmeal cookies it is!
I have 2 light recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies - one with applesauce (from Nick Malgieri's "Perfect Light Desserts") and one without (from Cook's Illustrated "Best Light Recipes"). Since all I have onhand is granny smith applesauce and I also did not want to break out the stand mixer, I went the Cook's Illustrated route. They almost always come through anyways. And then went ahead and threw in some chocolate chips. Nutrition content appropriately sabotaged...check. These cookies were just ok, though. Baked up looking pretty good in the oven, but flattening out rather disappointingly as they cooled. (I was a little concerned with the softness of the dough). A little sweet for my taste. So neither thick and chewy nor thin and crunchy. I am not so sure about this recipe, but it will get one more day in court (likely in the distant future as I have 4 bananas browning nicely for a jumbo batch of Banana Oatmeal Power Cookies...after Comps, that is).
Also, I learned today too that a jar of blackstrap molasses will evaporate even with the lid on, thus foiling one's original plans of making hermits.

Layouts, Dumplings and Whiskey

2009-03-15T21:48:00.005-06:00

Sorry about the grand delay in posts - it turns out that grad school became the epitome of time-consuming and things are only ramping up. But a quick update since I need a study break.
We had our Winter League tourney last Sunday in typical Colorado fashion - a beautiful 70 degree day. Team 5 (apparently the most unspirited team, being the only one that was 1 standard deviation below the rest of the teams in spirit score and thus losing the 3 way tie for #1 seed) did fairly well without the bulk of it's players. Apparently our club players all decided to take to the slopes (also in typical Colorado weekend fashion). We managed to pull out a win in the 1st round and a somewhat competitive showing in the semis, but being tired proved to be detrimental against the #1 seed who had a 1st round bye. Oh well. I did invent a new term: the "lady-cup sandwich." I love zone. But highlights of this season include 2 semi-layout scores both in a rough and tumble fashion. If I wind up flashing the sideline, I better come up with the disc. Overall, I got enough play time this winter between league and indoor pick-up that I am psyched for Spring. Woo!
And I did have Chinese New Year again this year - feast of the dumplings. I was pretty happy with how all of them turned out. A traditional pork dumpling (panfried and boiled), a vegetarian chive, egg and beancurd (panfried), mom's healthy turkey and zucchini dumpling (boiled), a scallop and shrimp with sake (steamed) and my latest CO invention: buffalo with waterchestnut, shiitake and cilantro (panfried). That one was a huge hit and I will have to make more. Sorry, no food porn. Rounded out the meal with the obligatory Chinese stuffing (Holzen favorite) and a delicious chocolate whipped cream cake that the Hales brought. Everyone was sated and a good time was had by all.
Finally, yesterday being the Saturday for drinking before St. Patrick's day, we went down to the liquor store after some serious indoor pickup for the fixings for Iriah car bombs. While perusing the selection as I am wont to do, I found and subsequently purchased the following item:

Leopold Brother's Rocky Mountain Peach Whiskey. It is delicious. If dessert wine and port had a party in a barrel and invited the Western slope peaches, this would be the end result. Wicked yummy. Pretty sweet for a whiskey and really this one should be thought of as liquid dessert. The website has a recipe for Peach Whiskey Iced Tea. That sounds like a good idea.
So those are a few of the highlights from the last few months. I know there are more, but it's time to get back to the books. I guarantee that come May, I will likely have all sorts of time on my hands and hopefully a lot more kitchen adventures to report.

Peaches et al

2008-10-10T22:53:00.003-06:00

So the peaches from the Western slope are definitely the most amazing delicious perfumey yummy peaches in the history of the world. They are like candy. So I decided to support my local Rotary Club and get a 25 lb box of them. Which meant putting about 15 lbs of them into the chest freezer. What to do with all those peaches? I tried to make freezer peach jam. And failed, miserably. It is more of a peach sauce as the pectin never solidified. Oh well. So in the spirit of making lemonade and turning frowns upside down and whatnot, I have been having vanilla ice cream with my peach "jam". It's quite lovely.
I do have pictures of a perfectly lovely peach crisp that I made as well, but no idea where it is so it will have to post later.
Other than that, just been a lot of school type activities. It would be lovely if they added PE class to grad school. I would truly appreciate it. After not working out much at all for the last week what with clinics and classwork and prep work and midterms, I felt like crap today. Lo and behold, a trip to the gym at 8:30 pm for some cardio and some weights and everything is great again. I want Grad School Gym class. Bring it.
And along those lines, I finally went to PT last week for my persistent lower right back pain. It's been ever-present since a ill-advised layout 2 Springs ago and has only gotten exacerbated with more collisions and so on and so forth. Turns out I have sacral torsion and now I have these core/back exercises to do and I have to stretch my Piriformis (10 times each leg, 5 times a day). I am horrible at compliance. Plus I think I tweaked my left hammy. Well, at least I have some more appointments at PT. Here's to hoping that by Spring, I will be a lean mean Ultimate machine!
And finally, a shout out to the Nobel winners, especially the HIV discoverers and my personal favorite, the GFP discoverers. Jellyfish...tasty and helpful!

Royal Arch

2008-08-11T22:18:00.008-06:00

Went for a hike today with Pickle and a few of David's friends from CT. Took a few trails off at the edge of Boulder in the Flatirons and the hike was probably a 4 miler, likely 1500 ft elevation change, one way. It was a very long day. But also very rewarding. For a pack of guys who had just arrived at altitude the day before, the boys did quite well. Nothing like trial by fire, I guess, and thankfully no altitude sickness. But the Royal Arch is well worth the hike for the view out, for sure. I didn't get too close to the edge of the rocks because of that whole fear of heights thing, but it was cool to see little specks of Denver way out in the distance. Definitely made up for the pizza the night before at BeauJo's. It's called Mountain Pie and it is an awful lot like Chicago deep dish, but with the toppings in the middle and a less cheese on top which is a-ok with me. And some honey to eat with the crust. Mmmm. Between hanging out with friends in Golden on Friday, tourney on Saturday and BeauJo's Sunday, we managed to have pizza 3 days in a row. Too much for me, but at least they were all different style pizzas.

Calzone-licious

2008-08-05T08:43:00.003-06:00

Made calzones for dinner last night and discovered the awesome wonder that is the dough hook on the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. Is it possible to fall in love with a kitchen appliance? (I have previously stated that I would marry into a loveless marriage if I could register for and keep all the kitchen appliances.) Usually I'm all old school when it comes to pizza dough. Or I am all about the bread machine. But I was tired and I wanted a nice dough to work with and I really didn't want to do too many dishes or flour up too many counters so I tried the dough hook. Holy moly it works fast and well. Since I wanted to give the dough that nice whole wheaty texture, but only had graham flour (whole wheat pastry flour) on hand, this is what transpired:

-1.5 Tbs yeast activated in 3/4 cup 105 degree water for 10 minutes (very important to let the yeast foam away)
-Add in 3 Tbs olive oil and 3/4 cup cold water and a 1-2 tsp salt (unsalted pizza dough is yucky)
-Stir in 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour plus 1.5 cup bread flour plus 1 cup AP flour plus some more graham flour and let the hook do it's thing
-Let the lovely ball of elastic, wheat-flecked dough rest for 15 min with a wet towel over it
-Take 1/2 the dough and divide it into 2, shape it, dust it with flour and pop in freezer for easy pizza dough later (that would be a think ahead tip for all you busy folks out there...)
-Let the other 1/2 rise on the counter for an hour or so with a damp towel over it or o/n in the fridge
-You are ready for calzone magic

We made andouille, mushroom, broccoli and basil calzones with whole milk ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. I would recommend giving the ricotta a quick squeeze with a paper towel to remove some excess moisture and definitely don't be shy with the filling if you have lots of veggies because it will cook down. And don't forget the steam vents. But it only takes 15-20 mins at 475 to cook up these pockets of yumminess (sausage was pre-grilled). Heat up some tomato sauce and doctor it up with some herbs, spices, garlic and fresh tomatoes while they are baking and you are done! Toss up a quick side salad if you so desire. Next time I am going to brush crushed garlic on the outside along with the olive oil for a flavor boost.

The Toffey Men Can

2008-08-05T07:58:00.004-06:00

On Sunday, I went to my first MLS game up here in the Rockies. It's funny that I've been to Dick's Sporting Goods Park on average of about weekly since I've moved here, but it's taken me a whole year to get to a soccer match. It's a nice stadium - new construction so the same layout as Toyota Park in Illinois and a bunch of others, I am sure.
Sunday was Day 23 of the 90+ heat streak here in Denver, but luckily the game was at 6pm and around 3 some wind rolled in along with some clouds. The end result? Perfect, breezy, bone-dry low-80 degree partly cloudy evening. Aaah. Grilled out before the game - some swordfish and halibut that Travis and Elaine brought as well as some tomato bread salad and locally produced Andouille sausage. I made a lemon-blueberry cobbler with pistachio crumble for dessert that was a big hit after the game. Sorry, no photos.
The game was pretty great - a friendly between the Colorado Rapids and Everton, a British Premiere League team that was 5th overall last year. Their goalie, Tim Howard, has been having a great year. Everton scored at 7 minutes while we were still getting to the stadium and then no score until the 2nd half when the Rapids got one in. Pretty exciting. But Everton managed to get one more in, maybe with 7 minutes left in the game which made the last 10 minutes pretty exciting as the Rapids kept attacking. You could definitely tell the different play styles of the American team vs the European team. We had many more attacks/shots on goal and they had fewer, but very well-executed attempts. It was also funny watching the sub squad do drills on the sidelines while they kept one eye on the action. Why do the Rapids have 4 mascots, I wonder? Interestingly, the bar on the south side of the stadium stays open post-game and has drink specials etc. I thought that was pretty cool.
So I am finally mostly unsore today. Last week, I played 2 games savage Tuesday, another savage game Thursday, lifted Friday morning and then went and played an hour or so of pickup...no subs. Lesson learned - when you feel your body aching despite having recently taken ibuprofen, you might want to consider giving your body a rest. I was hobbling around all weekend with quads that refused to function correctly. A little old lady in a floppy sun hat passed me while I was walking to the farmer's market. How demoralizing. Oh well, 2 games tonight. Yay! Then DSUL on Thursday and tourney Saturday. Yay!
Along the weather lines, today will be the first day in over 3 weeks that it won't be over 90 (or over 95 to be more exact, sizzle sizzle). How exciting. There was an errant lightning strike yesterday that hit the hillside on the southwest side of the metro area and a huge grass fire broke out. The pictures are insane - Green Mountain is now Char Mountain. Between that and the tornado warning that evacuated Wrigley and Eduardo making landfall, yesterday was quite the weather phenomena day.

Catch-up, not Catsup

2008-08-02T12:48:00.015-06:00

Whoops. Time flies when you are having fun. And it flies even more when you are in grad school. I am going to use my newly sharpened skills of summarization to bring things up to speed since we are now in the longest heat streak in Denver history and my last post was way back in the middle of the record-setting snow season was kicking in.
Highlights in the interim period: New Belgium Brewery tour and the punk rock poodles that were there, Triple Ginger Bundt Cake, seeing John Elway at his son's HS graduation, Brooklyn Blackout Cake (which works well in sheet cake form!), Banana Cream Pie with Toasted Coconut, Ramp-feast at Joe's (mmm - stinky), Easter eggs, and a few weekend trips up at Grand Lake at the cabin. Throw in a visit from Craiggers, a horrible Spring semester and a roller skating birthday and we are just about caught up.
Phew.
Oh and lots of ultimate as well. Waaaaaay too much this past week. Quads very sad. Stairs highly painful.

See the Favre Egg? The Charlie Brown Egg and the Poo Egg? No Brady Egg for me. :(

Ramps from Ramp-feast and Taryne's Jello-Shot Brain

*Tara never put Kona in...just dangled. Promise.

Made a delicious buffalo chili up at the cabin as well. Ground buffalo plus tomatoes, onions, black beans, kidney beans, corn, green chili and a mess of spices. Pretty tasty stuff. And smoked mozzarella is a delicious way to make homemade pizzas a little bit more interesting.

Our herbs are starting to take off on the back porch. Today's activities includes re-potting so I am hoping that we'll have enough basil for pesto soon and there should also be plenty of mint for mojitos! Stay tuned for some tasty blueberry deliciousness. Speaking of which, if you haven't tried blueberry vodka mixed with lemonade, you should.
Oh and last yummy food note. Tried making a BLT Salad the other night inspired by Eating Well's recipe. Really yummy. I did salad mix plus chopped bacon plus blue cheese topped with some smoky tomato dressing from Sunflower. I am happy to report that bacon is still able to make salad taste even better than you thought possible.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation, part III: 14 hours, 4 States and 1 Day in Santa Fe

2008-01-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

So after seeing the family and all the festivities, I drove my mom's car back up to Denver as my car is no longer running and in an unfortunate Cameron a la Ferris Bueller condition. Not good.
Now I like road trips lots, but I didn't like the idea of 14 hours by myself. 1st leg was Vegas to Santa Fe and an overnight stay to recharge. I got really excited when I started seeing snow as I climbed into the mountains of AZ. The couple hours I drove around Flagstaff were particularly nice - mountains and woods and snow. Made me feel like everything was right again in the world. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the W00t Monkey along this time.

After surviving the particularly brutal drive from Albequerque to Santa Fe in the dark and finding a hotel, I had some tasty New Mexican cuisine (carne adovado with red and green chili and sopapillas) as well as a well deserved margarita at Tortilla Flats. Nice little buzz, did a little work and went to bed. The next morning at 6 am, I flipped on the Weather Channel and learned that, in fact, that storm that gave Seattle a white Christmas was bearing down hard on Denver. 6 inches predicted and the tip of the storm came down to Santa Fe to drop an inch there! So I rubbed my bleary eyes, thought about the situation a bit and decided no-go. It just didn't seem like a good idea. Instead, napped till 9:30 and headed into Santa Fe to explore the city since I'd always heard good things about it and I wanted to visit the O'Keefe musem. Santa Fe is a nice little city to go exploring in by yourself and there were lots of people in town for skiing that took the day off to do the tourist thing. Grabbed some breakfast at a local cafe that turned out to be delicious and kept me full for the next 7 hours. Sweet! Walked around the plaza and window shopped, went to the Christmas Store, visited the museum, and wandered around some of the churches/historical buildings in the area as well as Burro Alley. Nice and relaxing. While at the Christmas store, I saw a Darth Vader nutcracker. Wicked awesome! There were also ice sculptures in the town center and it was gorgeous to see the snow on the southwestern style buildings.

I particularly enjoyed the Church because of it's mix of Catholic and Southwestern motifs. And I really loved seeing Georgia O'Keefe's works up close and in person. She has such an amazing sense of color. Especially autumn colors, but my favorite was a painting inspired by seaweed.
The next day, I woke up early to 12 degree temperatures and headed North to get to Denver. I was pretty exhausted of driving at this point and the snow blowing and the high winds prevented me from taking pictures while I drove. It was lovely to see the snow-capped mountains to the left however. By Pueblo, I was just dying to be done and my back was killing me. By Castle Rock, I was excited because I knew the end was near. Of course when I got on 225 to head home, there was traffic. At 2 in the afternoon. The best part had to be when I got home (YAY!) and then had to shovel out a spot to park in before I could unload and unwind (BOO!). 45 minutes later, I was parked, unloaded and napping. I am really bummed about not taking pictures of the 6-9 inches of snow on the ground.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation, part II: Christmas Eve on the Strip

2008-01-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

So mom's birthday is Christmas Eve and, as a Christmas/birthday present, I spent the day cleaning my parents' apartment top to bottom and making banana oatmeal power cookies. Mmmm. My brother brought a delicious mocha whipped cream cake down with him from one of my favorite bakeries ever in Irvine. Lots of fruit on top of a nice light sponge cake. Very yummy.

After dinner, we all went out to the strip as per mom's request to take a look at the decorations put up at the Bellagio. It was a very windy night and there were tons of people all out. It was very strange to see a crush of humanity on the strip at 10pm on Christmas Eve. It was even stranger to see all the folks at the casinos gambling as well. Call me old-fashioned and a New England gal at heart, but I feel like Christmas Eve is best spent with snow on the ground and in front of a fire...roasted chestnuts optional. Maybe I read Little Women a few too many times growing up. Regardless, it was neat to see the decorations put up, but there were way too many people (and screaming cranky children up way past their bedtimes) around for my taste.
The reindeer were covered in pecans and I liked all the shiny sparkley things. The best, though, had to be the montage of the penguins with the little penguin on a ladder putting a star on top of the tree. So CUTE!

It really just feels so wrong to be in Las Vegas for Christmas though, penguins or not and it made me a little cranky and a little sad. But different strokes for different folks, I suppose. I'll take the mountains over the neon any day.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation, part I: Beauty in the Glitz

2008-01-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

So after powering my way through the finish line of my 1st Semester of Grad School, I quickly boarded a plane to the land of neon lights and slot machines to help my parents run the UPS store and deal with what turned out to be a plethora of last minute holiday shippers. Working retail turned out to be not so bad and apparently I have some skills in the packing/shipping/upselling department. Exhausting hours though.
I was finally given a day off the Saturday before Christmas and decided to get out of casino/strip mall central. I drove out to the Lake Mead Recreational area to take a look at the dam that makes Las Vegas possible and also go hiking in the desert. It was fairly chilly in NV that week - below freezing at nights and lots of wind. But pretty sunny and my new ultralight parka made it a wonderful day outside. There was some traffic to get over the Hoover dam and I snapped some photos from the car while we all inched along across. Some interesting statues - very Ayn Rand era. It was really cool to cross time zones as you crossed the dam and there were even clocks up on both sides to keep everyone in the know.

After I got free of tourist central, I had a 7 mile drive into AZ to the start of the 3 mile hike to some hot springs. Unfortunately, the turnoff was very unmarked and so I wound up going way too far - 15 miles or so - before I decided to turn back and head to the random spot where 6 cars were parked. I got some cool pictures at the turnaround spot which was one of those scenic photo opportunity areas.

Because of the misadventures in getting out on time, the traffic etc, it was much later than I'd wanted when I finally started on the hike. It was a 3 miler, 1st across desert then through rocks etc to get to a lake and then to hot springs. I was a little uncomfortable hiking by myself, seeing no one on the trails and the afternoon sun behind the rocks made me a little wary since I had no watch so I only went about 2 miles in. It was still really cool in the rocks, lots of red sandstone and huge cliffs - I felt like a hobbit.

Anyhow, I never made it to the springs (boo!!) so I'll have to try do the hike again next time and start a little earlier. It might even be a nice little trail run in on the gravel/sand. Headed back to town and had to cross the dam again. Of course, there was even more traffic, but I did pull over on the AZ side (where parking is free) and took a look at Lake Mead and the dam. The water line scares me a little. Wonder if things will be better in the Spring with all that snow we are getting up here in CO. There was a lot of work being done around the dam, but I don't really know why.

On the way home, I stopped by the very deserted beach to get a couple more pictures of Lake Mead. It is awfully pretty even though it's not a real lake.

At any rate, it was a nice day to spend outside in the national park and away from Vegas. I really wished I'd brought my road bike with me to get some riding in, especially since the park was so deserted and I'd have the paths to myself. Oh well.

Turkeys to Reindeer

2007-12-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy snowy finals and presentations-filled last couple weeks. But break starts today! Well, as long as I remember to email my last paper to my prof. And in 12 hours I will be in Las Vegas. Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like neon lights up and down the strip. I'm hoping to get to Red Rocks Canyon and hike or bike the loop.

So Susan and I decorated the house a couple weeks ago to fill it up with some holiday cheer. I have to say, her fake Christmas tree is very convincing. I got a Yankee Candle (Balsam and Cedar) to help infuse the house with the olfactory illusion of a real Christmas tree. I guess out here you can apply for permits and literally go up on the mountains and chop your own tree. We also decided it would be funny to stick a couple roses into her snowman soap/lotion dispenser. It looks surprisingly good, right?! I am glad we waited until after Thanksgiving to put up lights and listen to Christmas music.

Also, last weekend was the beginning of so much continuous snow. I think we've had over a foot, but with a couple sunny days in between, there's not that much on the ground. It was helpful, I suppose, to be snowed in Friday-Sunday the weekend before finals week, but I was going stir crazy! Went for a snow-run once the sun came out and the legs were a little unhappy. In a good way.

Because it was a stress-filled finals week, I tried took a bit of a break Wednesday night to do some procrastinative and therapeutic baking. Tried my hand at the 3D Christmas cookie cutters that Eric and Ariel gave me as a gift last year and learned my lessons from last year, so I pulled out the handy dandy ruler. Neatness and uniform thickness counts here big time! The gingerbread recipe from the box is actually quite good - not too sweet and lots of complex spice notes. It feels like a very adult cookie. It looks like a very kid-friendly cookie though. What a great holiday project. Unfortunately, one of the reindeer fell off the table yesterday - we decided that he was a jumper, not a flier. Next year, I'll make an extra effort to get more icing colors which will make them look even cooler. And I'll be making my assortment of Christmas cookies when I get back right after Christmas. It'll be a post-holiday treat!
On a completely unrelated note, I cannot wait for winter league to start for frisbee. I miss ultimate!

Food TV

2007-11-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

This post is directed mostly towards Rob and other foodie types.
I watched Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie yesterday on PBS in the middle of the Bears-Broncos mess and they went to The Fat Duck in England to document what Heston Blumenthal is doing out there. The episode is called "The Science of Deliciousness." Now I'm still out on the idea of molecular gastronomy and the stuff going on at Moto and Alinea back in Chicago - it still seems like you are paying someone a lot so they can have fun with gadgets in a kitchen/lab - but the scientist in me has to respect it a little. And Blumenthal throws in the idea of nostalgia and taste memory as an interesting aspect. At any rate, one of the dishes they make is Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream served with some French toast type thing and some tomato jam type thing. So now we've got beer ice cream and bacon ice cream to work on.
I guess I don't mind molecular gastronomy as long as you get satisfied, or rather sated with your meal. Eating should be for taste and all these other experiences, but also to satisfy hunger and acquire needed nutrients on the most basic level. Take that out of it and it's really just performance art.

Back to the Bears - lucky to win. Just like the Seahawks. And some may argue the Pats.

Flip the Bird IX...not so xs after all....

2007-11-26T08:26:00.001-07:00

First off, sorry folks, but I forgot to take pictures at any of the 3 Thanksgivings I had this year including the 9th annual Flip the Bird at my own place. Oops.
You read that correctly though - 3 turkeys, 3 days, 3 pumpkin pies. And for those of you who think that there can't be too much Thanksgiving, I am here to tell you that you are WRONG.
Last Sunday, Rachel and Susan's friend Cliff made a Thanksgiving dinner but hosted at our house since it's bigger. Turkey, broccoli and velveeta casserole, heaps of stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and biscuits all made an appearance. Interestingly, he put both a stick of butter AND a package of cream cheese into his potatoes - it was the fluffiest, whitest, most coronary-inducing side dish perhaps ever. There was a pumpkin pie with Cool Whip as well as chocolate cake and I made a Pear Cake with Pine Nuts a la Cooking Light (one of the few desserts that I've remade from there). At some point in the evening I described this cake as "an upside down cake, but right-side up" in response to a question about whether is was like a fruitcake.
Thanksgiving Day I went over to Terri and Larry's house at their kind invitation for dinner (just like old times in Hyde Park!) Terri's sister and brother-in-law were there too so it was a nice small dinner. Larry rotisseried a turkey on the grill (mmm, smoked turkey) which was as yummy as I'd remembered and there was bread stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, Green Bean Casserole and Sweet Potato Casserole a la Cooks Illustrated, and garlicky Sauteed Kale. We had some of the 2007 Beaujoulais Nouveau which is pretty good - a little more body and less fruity this year and made some fun white sangria drinks with some Rose champagne I'd brought over from Provenance during the move. That's right, I packed a bottle of Thanksgiving champagne in August to bring with me to Denver. Terri made pumpkin pie from homemade puree and an apple pie - her crusts are so flaky and I was jealously enjoying every bite. Highlight of the evening had to be seeing Mara walking or rather running around and also eating as much sweet potato casserole as her 16 month old belly could take, and then some. That girl is a good eater just like her parents! I can't wait to have them over for Chinese New Year. We digested while watching Live Free or Die Hard and I got quite a bit done on the scarf I'm knitting (for myself).
Finally Friday was my 9th Annual Flip the Bird dinner! (It's actually a pretty funny story how it got that name....) It should be #10, but last year I went over to Eric and Ariel's instead of hosting my own. The challenge this time was to make pretty much everything except for the turkey and 1 batch of chinese sticky rice stuffing vegetarian (Larry was coming after all and it's just not the same without pork and chinese sausage). In true Flip the Bird tradition, the bird was marinated in soy sauce, but instead of sherry, I threw in a can of PBR and used a trash bag and the cooler with some ice since fridge space was at a premium (2 other roommates after all). Does this make my turkey white trash? Just a little? Didn't stuff it this year, instead opting to do the Cook's Illustrated high heat roasting at 400F which worked well, but overly browned the skin since I do a soy and honey glaze on the outside and our heating element is at the top of the oven. Coincidentally, this method involves 3 flips of the bird while it is roasting which seems fitting. Also made Chinese Sticky Rice Stuffing with and without meat, 5-spice Sweet Potato Puree topped with Paprika-Almond Streusel, Cranberry Chutney, Maple Cornbread Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes from The Best Light Recipe, and Jacques Pepin's Butternut Squash Gratin (butternut squash + cream). I think I balanced between the high fat and the lighter recipes pretty well this year. And for dessert a Pumpkin Pie and a Chocolate Pecan Pie from the Pie and Pastry Bible. This time I made the actual recipe for pumpkin pie from there complete with the crushed gingersnap/pecan buffer layer. My pie crusts are still not so flaky but that's ok...my cakes rock! I noticed that the pie filling pulled from the sides of the crust this year which was annoying - perhaps it's a moisture content thing. I'm pretty sure I didn't overbake the pie...next time maybe I'll throw in a pan of water. Anyhow, Larry brought over the Riesling we didn't get into the day before and it is quite tasty with pie. Finished off the evening with stair surfing and sofa jumping with Mara and then some Scattergories.
Next year is Flip the Bird X! It's gonna be wicked awesome! Or it will be tofurkey and tater tots.... Maybe some Chicagoans can make it out - that would be great. I'm thankful to be able to have Thanksgiving x2 with Terri and Larry again in a sunnier location than Chicago. And for new friends, great roommates and a cute little monkey bib wearing girl that I can be "crazy Asian 'aunt' Cathy" to. Oh and the sweet sweet kitchen downstairs.

Fallin' Back

2007-11-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was a pretty packed Daylight Savings weekend and I'm glad I got back that extra hour. Saturday, went down to the Denver Art Museum with some of the gals from school for free day and then hit up a wine and cheese bar as well as Lime XS for margaritas or mojitos. Their mighty margarita packs quite a punch as Jess found out and their "Martini Margarita" (el tesoro silver, patron citronage and some lime) was very yummy. Probably right up there with my fave from Frontera Grill. We didn't have much food there, but I did get sweet corn tamales that were delicious even as leftovers. The gals split a bottle of Pileta 39 Malbec at the wine bar that was good and we got some nice cheeses - my favorite was the triple creme Brillat-Savarin but the Ossau-Iraty (Basque sheep semi-hard) was a close second.
Then came the Sunday League Tournament! I was psyched to play, especially since it was a gorgeous 70 degree sunny day out. Unfortunately, here they don't set up a consolation bracket so you play 1 and if you lose they you're done for the day. Boo!! We had a close game, but lost in the end so that was too bad. I started out poorly - 3 drops, eek - but got those out the system. I think that there is picture of me somewhere doing something cool involving jumping and catching and will post that once I find it. (There were some professional type photogs at the tourney). I did learn about a great post-game cheer though: an Irish Car Bomb out of a disc. Brilliant!

Some of us played a little pick up and then I watched the A league games since I knew some of the folks on a couple of the teams including the team that won it all! It was a great game. I took my sunburnt self home and proceeded to watch the last 3.5 (regulation) minutes of the Pats-Colts game. Again, brilliant!
Now it's back to school school school. But with 2 classmate birthdays this week, I have to set aside time to make a birthday cake (lemon-blueberry with white chocolate cream cheese frosting) and a birthday pie (probably pear-raspberry lattice). But right now I have to take my car back to the shop. Sigh.

Come on Rockies!

2007-10-28T19:39:00.000-06:00

Ok. I love the Red Sox, but tonight I root root root for the Rockies. In the name of baseball: let's make it an interesting series! Last night was a good game, though, just need a bit more hitting from the Rocks. It looks a bit better tonight so we will see. I am so sad that I had to turn down all those World Series tickets I was offered. Ugh. Random observations from OD-ing on baseball:
-Manny = single-speed bike (a BMX according to Beau)
-Is it really better to leave in Ortiz rather than Youklis?
-Youklis is an incredible sweaty man
-The Red Sox are not the most attractive team; the Rockies are pretty easy on the eyes
-Why is it that you can put Fenway inside of Coors and that's cool?
-Why aren't the Rocks hitting everything into the vast wasteland that is a
Manny-covered left field?
-Best nickname of the series (thanks to Britta): "That spidery-haired Motherf***er." Guess who that refers to? (Hint: the only player who flicks his helmet off to simulate incredible base running speed)
-I would have whiplash if I were Okajima
-Tulo Whiskey shots is a play on Tulowitzki shots (it only took me 2 days to figure that out)
-Pop quiz: the Mendoza line refers to what and whom?

So today, it finally happened. One of those totally awful random injuries sustained during a frisbee game. Basically, one of my cleats got caught in the laces of an opposing player running by causing my legs to fly out from under me which then caused a hard landing, impact completely on my lower back. The lower lumbar region for those medically inclined. Of course, we were savage so I played for another hour or so (and scored a couple times!). Needless to say, I chose not to ride home. And now here I am laying on my back on a bag of ice. Prognosis seems poor; 3 ibuprofen didn't do much to dull the pain. Is it better to ice or heat a muscle injury? And this was after we lost one of our men in the 1st game to a knee injury that involved a couple of loud pops and what looked to be way too much pain. Any suggestions for treatment is appreciated. And don't forget about those car names. I've a couple in mind and Janine brought up Cameron a la Ferris Bueller.
Really the main point of this post is to whine about my back. Sorry guys. At least we won both games today despite the savagery and it was beautiful out - 70's and sunny.
Interesting to note that the longer I have ice on my back, the more intense of a headache I have....

Sox-Rocks Rocks my Socks

2007-10-22T21:27:00.000-06:00

Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! In case you haven't heard, Boston is coming to town...for the World Series! Thank you Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek and even you, JD Drew (way to prove The Sports Guy wrong). Dice-K had a decent night last night as well, but I think Beau is right - he doesn't pitch in on the hitters nearly enough and tries to make them chase too much. Manny is still in the doghouse for his antics, though. And it didn't hurt to have Kenny Lofton make up for that grand slam early in the series by making some errors and getting a bad call by the ump over there on second base the other night. He should have been safe.
By now I am sure you have heard of the fiasco that was the online ticket sales for Coors Field. Ridiculous! And how ironic is it that the 5 pm press conference to address the crashing of the servers in the am was delayed due to "technical difficulties"? I still question the fairness of the online ticket sales - one must have access to a computer with internet and good luck if you don't have a high speed connection - but I was also really glad to not be outdoors in line in 20 degree temps this morning. So tomorrow I will try again to get some tickets to see the Red Sox in action up here. Should be a good series, yeah?
So we got a huge snowstorm Saturday night-Sunday morning. Freezing rain after the ballgame Saturday which kept coming down and then turned into a few inches of snow with lots and lots of wind. The wind has been killing my rides lately - 20-40 mph winds really blow you around on the road and make things slow going! Anyhow, games got cancelled Sunday again (BOO!) understandably, but I took a walk Sunday pm and it was sunny and all that snow was melted. Still windy though (perhaps time for some uber-zone?). The only real remnant of that storm is that snowman in that blurry picture i took from outside my window. He'll be gone tomorrow for sure.
I was really glad that my car broke down (multifactorially) Saturday when it was 70's and sunny so I could sit on the grass and wait for a tow comfortably, that's for sure. And who would have thought that the service department at the Honda dealership would be the one place open till 5 pm on a Saturday? At least they had all the parts for the 3 things wrong with my car. I need to name it, by the way and I will take suggestions. It's a 91 Honda Accord, 5-speed and bronze. The blue 89 Accord I had in Chicago was named Lloyd (a la Say Anything). So submit your suggestions please!
One final note to bring things full circle. I managed to find a good Red Sox/Patriots bar here in Denver - The Elm. Menu items include the Fenway Monstah. Awww yeah. In fact, I have definitely met more Red Sox fans out here in a month or so than I did in Chicago over the course of several years. Now I know the argument is that it's fashionable to like the Sox now, but wasn't it fashionable in, say, the 2004-ish period as well? Whatever it is, I like it. And mad props to Tommy for what will hopefully be a record-setting NFL season. Week 9, baby: it's on.
Oh, the Kings of Norway are 2cd for the season (tied for 1st, 2cd because of spirit points) and managed to win in the quarterfinals last week 13-6 after bring down 4-6 at the half (and playing 5-2 savage). Semis and (hopefully) finals tomorrow night and we get back lots of our wayward men. Go orange! ("Go Banana!")

Red Thumb, Red Thumb!

2007-10-22T20:03:00.000-06:00

Beets are quite impressive vegetables. They really just insinuate and impose themselves on you when you are cooking with them. That magenta-ness just oozes into and splatters onto what seems to be every nook and cranny and you think "why do I put up with this headache, this neon mess?" But then you taste some of that delicious root (preferably with a nice bit of goat cheese) and it's sweetness, it's quirkiness somehow makes the stained skin and inescapably stained clothes worth it.
So last week I got some bunches of beets from the farmer's market (last of the year, I believe) and cooked up a beet and potato salad following the recipe from Moosewood's Low-Fat cookbook. I modified it some - used purple potatoes that made an interesting tonal variation and also steamed and chopped the greens and threw them in (inspired by Rob's delicious beet salad from the 4th). Real briefly, it's cooked beets mixed with cooked potatoes, some scallions, dressed with yogurt, cider vinegar, lemon juice and a smidge of horseradish (plus salt and pepper). Threw in a leftover yellow bell pepper for contrast (which got lost) and I didn't have any gherkins on hand so just used a little more vinegar and the aforementioned beet greens. A little goat cheese on top for color. It's yummy - what I imagine the product of an unholy alliance between a German potato salad and Borscht with just a smidge of the South thrown in. But it sure is a dangerous dish to eat when wearing white.
This weekend I made a Triple-Ginger bundt cake out of the Pie in the Sky cookbook - lots of ginger and crystallized ginger and powdered ginger and honey in the cake and the glaze. Mmmm. I decorated with some of those super-expensive candy bees from Williams-Sonoma since it was a cake for my roommate's family. I'm pretty happy with how that turned out - so far so good as far as my mile high baking adventures go. Made an apple cake last weekend out that was just a smidge gooey in the middle, but that might be due to the darkness of the baking pan.
Oh yes, on Friday I made dinner for some classmates: Tofu Curry with Cilantro Rice as well as some Curried Cider-Braised Pork Chops which was surprisingly good, even all the celery. It's pretty nice on a bed of romaine lettuce quite frankly. And Baking Illustrated's apple crumble which is also quite tasty even though I bought the wrong variety of apples to put in (Galas - too mushy). I miss apple picking this year, that's for sure.
After dinner, we caught The Darjeeling Limited at the Esquire. It was pretty good - the metaphors were not too in your face which I appreciated, but overall the movie was a little too...zen for me. Still like Royal Tenenbaums the best. But a good movie with interesting characters.
Oh one last food note - I got some chocolate linguine at the farmer's market last weekend. I am thinking of perhaps making it with a mole? Or perhaps a chocolate noodle kugel? The guy at the stand suggested making a cold noodle salad with some berries and some whipped cream. I am fascinated.

Welcome to Rocktoberfest

2007-10-09T23:49:00.000-06:00

Pretty busy lately - midterm, huge house-party, frisbee frisbee frisbee, and playoffs!
Watched the Rockies tiebreaker game all the way to the 11th inning last week at the bar before heading home and missing the excitement in the end. Even better was that case conference that day was cancelled because 2 of the attending MDs were going to the game which meant Beau and I could hit up Casey's early to get seats at the bar to watch the game. Awesome!
This past weekend, met up with some classmates downtown for Oktoberfest which was pretty much a 4 block Rockies-Sweep pre-party. It was pretty spectacular being downtown around Coors Field with all the fans just going nuts. Saw a sea of purple and have to give props to the guy who not only dyed his hair purple and stenciled CR on the back of his head in silver, but also dyed the soul patch purple to match. Awww yeah. Wish I'd remembered I had my camera with me. Noticed that there are a lot of different fans all representing out here - Cubs, Phillies, Red Sox were all out in form on Saturday. That's pretty cool. Was a little sad not to be at Fenway, though, and I'm still totally jealous of Craiggers who got to go to game 1 vs. LA.
We wound up not only doing the pre-game at a bar right by the field (see that great view above?), but also staying for the entire game (outside on the balcony - brr!) and then the post-game celebrations. It was wicked fun! Plus there was a 7 sec delay to the broadcast of the game so every time we heard the crowd cheer at Coors, we knew to look up at a TV. We decided that it would be spectacular if a giant screen was hung off the stadium that broadcasted the playoff games: the stadium is sold out anyways....
So, in summary, everyone is all amped up out here for a Rocktober to Remember. Hah. I'm pretty much "hearting" Josh Beckett right now and so happy Cleveland beat the Yankees. It'll be interesting if it's Rockies vs Red Sox for the World Series and I will be kicking myself for not getting in line for tickets.
Other highlights of the weekend including all us gals from the program getting hit on by a lot of middle-aged men (drunken, no less) AND getting stiffed on the bill for drinks/food that they were having! Chivalry is dead as a dodo apparently. Still fun times were had by all. Oh we also met an ultimate fighter at the bar downtown. Random stuff.
A new quirk that I've discovered about Denver is that parts of the town smell like the dentist's office. Like up at Dick's Sporting Goods Park (league Tuesday nights) and various points of my ride to the various campuses (not near any actual dentist offices, mind you). Strange. And I'm not really that huge of a fan of the dentist's so it's a slightly unpleasant olfactory sensation.
Oh yeah, we also just moved from the old Children's Hospital to the new and ultra-modern digs which means all the headaches associated with organizational chaos, but also consolidation onto the fancy-schmancy new campus. A little less mileage/week, but I'll deal.
Anyhow, it looks like I'm not going to be able to get tickets for the Great American Beer Festival this weekend (rats!!) despite my valiant attempts Monday in procuring tickets. Boo. Good for the liver and wallet, but bad for morale. On the bright side, this means that most likely I will not be hungover for my Sunday games this week.
I noticed tonight that I jump more to intercept the disc when cutting - hopefully that means I'm reading the disc better, improving my closing speed and teaching my legs to get some ups. Or it means the handlers don't realize that I'm a short gal. Hmm. We practiced taking physical exam measurements in class today and it served to confirm that not only are my legs incredibly short, my arms are surprisingly long proportionally (positive ape index!), and I have a pretty large noggin'. My partner's was even bigger, though, which made me feel better.
Oh and if you are reading this, Liz, a gal on my team told me that when she was just down in Belize(?), she would get fresh coconuts, hack the top off with a machete and mix the coconut water/juice with rum for an instant delicious beverage. And I instantly thought of you. So sharpen your machete and get yourself a coconut tree!
Midterm next week so I'll probably be cook-crastinating this weekend. Stay tuned!

"Schnitzel-Suckin' Globbenheimer"

2007-09-27T19:31:00.001-06:00

I love The Simpsons.
So I have a midterm tomorrow which means I will make this quick:
I've been noticing on my rides to/from class that a. there are a lot of bike lanes in this town; b. I stare down at the road an awful lot (keeping an eye on the traffic ahead, of course, as well as my computer - need for speed, baby!); and c. the weather is somewhat uncooperative on Mondays. The first two facts lead me to my current favorite quirky thing about Denver - the bike lane markers. Some cities use diamond markers to indicate bike lanes; here they use bikers. Well, biker symbols/icons painted onto the pavement within the lanes. The other day I realized that sometimes said biker has a helmet on, other times he (no hair = male?) does not. The change is random at best and I find it amusing that on the busier roads, helmets appear to be optional. But wait, there's more! I also noticed that on another part of my route, said helmetless biker dude grows what can only be described as a Zach Morris (Saved by the Bell) hairdo. You know what I'm talking about - a preppy "mohawk." So amusing! So I have identified the following bike lane mascots: No helmet biker riding aggro out of the saddle; Helmeted biker comfortably recumbent in the seat; Spikey haired biker also riding out of the saddle. If I had to choose one that best symbolized me, it would probably be the latter. Perhaps they can make a pigtailed girl biker to fill my bike lane identification needs? I'll try and remember to bring a camera with me sometime to get some pics.
And point number 3: don't get me started on the weather. Well, all the sunshine is nice and the wind makes for more interesting and challenging rides, but I have been butting heads with some awful riding weather the last few Mondays. Huge cloudburst after class last Monday that lasted from leaving campus all the way till a little after I pulled into the garage. If class hadn't gotten out early, I would've been fine. And this Monday I ran into a hailstorm about 3 blocks out of campus. I managed to take the only route in Denver to go directly through the hail (one of my classmates didn't get a drop of rain let alone ice on her way home!) and again it was sunny outside by the time I'd gotten inside and stripped off my slushy wet gear. 5 miles being pelted is really not so fun, but the worst part was the water sloshing in my shoes and running in my eyes. I was feeling pretty hardcore what with my little red welts and all. Then I watched Man vs Wild and Dirty Jobs and I didn't feel that hardcore anymore. Ah well. That Mike Rowe is a pretty cool guy.
Second best line from tonight's Simpsons: "Time to take out the Euro-trash!"

Peachy Pie

2007-09-23T20:48:00.001-06:00

Well, since I have a midterm coming up, what better things to do than to make peach pie?
Very little, that's what.
I followed the recipe from the Pie and Pastry Bible, making the cream cheese pie crust with just a smidge more water to account for the dryness up here. Since I was under time constraints, that meant that there had to be some speedbumps.
First of all, I pulled out the trusty food processor for the crust pulsing and realized that though the machine ran, the blade wasn't spinning. Figured out that the belt had somehow come off during the move (way better than having the belt break!) and I was able to open up the machine and get things fixed up.
Second of all, I didn't have quite enough peaches so I made a quick run to the farmer's market this morning to get a few more to fill out the pie.
I've been experimenting with pastry flours, having made a crust for a sour cherry pie (I think) this summer with whole wheat pastry flour. It was too graham-ey though and definitely not flaky - a very sandy texture which I don't care for. This time, I did half whole wheat pastry and half AP which seemed to turn out well - somewhat flaky, but not as much as usual. Maybe if I used shortening rather than butter it would be flakier? Any ideas? I like the idea of using whole wheat flour - it is more nutritious after all.
At any rate, this pie recipe is great for altitude because there's a lot more control on the filling having macerated the peaches then coating them with the cooked down syrup, but it also tacks on more time. I also threw in some ginger powder as seasoning. It's hard to adjust to a new kitchen: though I brought over all my spices and baking supplies, I didn't bring cornstarch (an Asian staple!) and there was none to be found at the house so I used some flour instead. It seemed to work fine. I need to figure out baking temperatures etc up here as well to keep from overbrowning the crust while cooking the filling.
If you notice below, I tried to cut out time by not trimming the top crust too much (I did have to get to frisbee at 1 after all) and so there is quite a bit of crust - almost like a deep dish pizza! It's yummy. I'm pretty pleased with how the crimping went - looks pretty decent? That's usually where I mess things up in pie making. Unfortunately, I rushed in the slashing process and didn't get the vents centered. Oh well - still tasty! It was a nice treat after getting back from the games and the gym this evening. Mmmm. (Liz, I wish I could FedEx a piece over to you!)

Games were a little rough today - a little short on folks and both games got off to slow starts, unfortunately. That was a bummer. Still, free post-game beer sure takes the sting away!
The Bears aren't doing so well right tonight. That's an understatement. At some point, they should figure out some sort of effective offensive strategy...too bad about all the new injuries.

Southern-esque Dinner

2007-09-19T21:14:00.000-06:00

Let me get this out of the way: "Seriously, Red Sox? It's bad enough that the Yankees keep winning, but you're going to play like that? Seriously?!?"
Ok.
Sunday morning was a beautiful day of ultimate in the park - perfect weather and games from 9-12. My team wound up playing 5-2 savage women and it was really fun! I found some nice flow with the teammates (always nice) leading to a good amount of assists/scores, a few layouts and even some catches up in mid-air! (Really! Like 5" off the ground!) We won the 1st game and then mounted a steady comeback in the 2cd despite being down 2-8 at the half, final score 13-9(?) after losing our other gal (ankle injury) partway through the second half. I then subbed for a pm game after that, but my feet were tired of being in cleats and stormclouds rolled in so I only played a few points. Plus that morning, I'd already gotten stung by something, run over by some rambunctious dogs and drank some post-game beer before getting recruited.
(As a side note, my Sunday team is "Pretty in Pink" and Tuesday team color is orange...what's wrong with blue or green, huh??)
Anyways, I decided to make a nice dinner as a reward for all that fun in the sun. I was excited to taste the Peach Crumb Cake made on Saturday (not quite brave enough to tackle pie crusts at altitude yet, Liz, but there are plenty of peaches in the fridge), so went Southern, Cathy-style, with some Oven-Fried Chicken and some pan-fried okra. (Thanks a lot, Food Network.)
The crumb cake recipe is quite nice if you are a big fan of streusel topping and it looks really nice sliced, especially with some of the rosiness of the peach skins adding steaks of color. I adjusted again with an extra egg, a little less flour and a little less leavener (I figured out how to spell it, maybe...) for the cake portion and it turned out great. I think the juice from the peaches helps to keep it moist, too. I may cut the topping by 1/4 or so next time or just increase the peaches. It's a pretty nice breakfast/brunch option. The chicken was made in convection oven mode which made it faster and very moist. Though that soak in the buttermilk already prevents the chicken from drying out too much in a regular oven. The crust may be a little crisper though which is nice since you de-skin the legs.

Oh yeah, yesterday I made some buttermilk cornbread to go with the leftover chicken and okra. Yum. I miss Dixie Kitchen.

(1.5 games. It was 14.5. Sigh.)

Gyro Burritos and Japanese Curry

2007-09-15T13:00:00.000-06:00

This morning, I got up after a long night of concert-going (more on that later) and met my classmate, Beau, over at Pete's Kitchen for some brunch/breakfast burrito investigation. He, his wife and some other friends and family regularly investigate brunches in MN and it was time to start looking at the Denver scene! It was a nice ride over, but I got trapped in City Park for a while getting lost and confused due to a special event that closed some streets. Oops.
Anyhow, the draw of Pete's to my brunching companion was the Breakfast Burrito Supreme. It already has all the usual suspects in it and then some: eggs, hash browns, ham, bacon, sausage, PLUS Gyro meat. And then it is smothered in green or red chili, garnished with a haystack of shredded cheddar, tomatoes & onions. That is one meatnormous beast of a breakfast burrito!! (I am sorry I forgot to bring my camera.)
I got the Hunter's breakfast, being unaware, however, that hunters ate ~5 lbs of hash brown potatoes with their eggs. It was a lot of potatoes; many were left on the plate, sadly. Overall, though, the place was fun and very busy and the food hot and tasty. They're 24 hr which is exciting and I really wanted to try homemade pie, but had to consider the bike ride home etc.
After breakfast, I rode down to the Cherry Creek location of the Colorado Fresh Markets to see what the main one is like. The one by me on Sundays is a smaller version of it. This place was pretty amazing - think Green City Market crossed with a Chicago summer street festival. There were a lot of food booths for breads, pastries, tamales, burritos etc on one end as well as a mix of both regular produce stands and organic farms. Also interspersed were booths for fish, buffalo, grass-fed meats and artisan cheese as well as ones with composting info and Colorado State University Gardening Experts. So I learned about potentially making an earthworm composter for my kitchen here as well as what to do about my strawberry plants. Because they are perennials, it's fine to let the runners take hold and just leave them outside for the winter, Rob. Some of the mother plants may die off, but the new plants should be fine until the Spring. Oh - everyone gives out samples here which is just so fantastic (if one is not weighted down with tubers in their tummy) and I tried some spicy chicken curry from the Japanese Curry stand that just about rivaled my mom's chicken curry. Too bad I was full.
So definitely a nice market to go to. I think I still like Green City better in part due to it's mission statement, but also because of the huge varieties of fruits and especially vegetables that the farms have there - much more heirloom varieties of things, the stand specializing in Asian vegetables, and the mushroom stand plus you cannot beat the bread from Red Hen and the pastries from Floriole. I like the diversity of this market and the fact that I got some of my gardening question answered by experts. There is almost too many prepped food stands here, though, which detracts from my main purpose - delicious fresh fruits and vegetables to take home and cook with - more beets, less burritos! I will visit again when I'm not stuffed and perhaps change my tune. I'm glad for the 15 miles or so ride today, though, what with all that carbo-loading in the morning.
I think I will make a peach pie this weekend or something so stay posted!

Recipe Reconnaisance

2007-09-12T21:32:00.000-06:00

Finally get some time to take a look at the new(ish) recipes on Epicurious. I can't believe they are posting the October ones already. Come on now, people! Oh well...it just helps me plan out what I will soon be trying, right? Thank goodness I am pretty much bike commuting daily...just need to get back into lifting as well and I'll be set.
I think before I get to these though, I will make my probably favorite Epicurious search recipe ever, Moroccan Roast Chicken, perhaps with a side of mashed roots or some of those pretty brussel sprouts on the branch at the farmer's market. That's a Fall menu though so maybe I will try and eke out some more late summery goodness.

Apple Goat Cheese and Honey Tartlets
Cheese Flan
Coconut Rum Cake
Double Corn Chowder with Chipotle and Bacon
Mexican Bulghur and Vegetable Salad
Zucchini Blossom Quesadillas
Lobster Scallops and Mussels with Tomatoe Garlic Vinaigrette
Ginger Squash Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
Glazed Apple Lattice Coffee Cake
Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
Carmelized Fresh Pineapple Tiramisu
Pink Grapefruit Tart with Edamame Ice Cream
(I am fascinated about the ice cream, but doubtful)
Griddled Steel-Cut Oatcakes
Kabocha Squash Cake with Brown Sugar Ice Cream
Farmers Market Salad with Spiced Goat Cheese Rounds

Back in the Kitchen!

2007-09-11T13:39:00.000-06:00

So last week I finally got everything mostly unpacked and sorted out and I was ready to explore my new kitchen. Most of my kitchen is in storage in the mud room downstairs since my roommates have most of the standards and my additions are pretty specialized (cherry pitter? cookie scoops? silpats?). The stand mixer currently lives on top of the fridge. But it is a nice nice setup - granite tile countertops, an island, a kitchenaid convection oven and flattop burners. And a dishwasher!
Thursday night, I tried my hand at brownies - see link for the recipe from Epicurious. I subbed in some El Rey semisweet single-origin for the unsweetened, cutting out some sugar and also subbed half of the sugar with honey powder. The batch had a nice color with fruity chocolate flavors and I didn't make the peanut butter frosting. They were a hit with classmates and roomies and Beau told me that they had good "flake" - one of those food descriptors one would pick up while testing recipes for Kraft. I forgot to take pictures before they got eaten so sorry. They sure did look good though!
Had some beers with classmates Friday night and Saturday night: I sure am a cheap date up here! 1.75 Blue Moons and I was at my drunk threshold - made Jess stop by BK for a kid's meal on the way home. On another beer note, the stout at Bull and Bush is quite tasty - not as thick as Guinness, but still very creamy and nutty and a little caramelly.
Since I spent Sunday afternoon playing ultimate (Sunday league, much like Chicago's Spring League, but your fees get you 3 kegs of beer field-side for all players!), I didn't get a chance to cook any. That morning I'd walked over to the farmer's market in the park near me and got a loaf of jalapeno bread, some eggplants, okra, a few tomatoes and a bunch of peaches. Imperfect peaches might not be so pretty, but they are still so tasty and a good bargain! Peach cobbler/pie, here I come! There were some interesting stands for German sausages/wursts and flavored artisan pasta, but it definitely paled in comparison to Green City and even the one in Daley plaza in the summer. I miss Green City Market oh so very much!! Saturday, I will go over to Cherry Creek and check out another market that's supposedly the largest one in Denver (or something like that) to see how that compared.
Anyhow, last night I finally made some tasty treats.
I started with Green Lentils with Wine-Glazed Vegetables from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody." I'll post the recipe in the notes section. Keep in mind that I halved the amounts, cut out the celery and threw in half an eggplant. Oh and cut back a little on the olive oil/butter, but added an extra clove of garlic. It's good warm with bread, cold as a salad and I think I will make some pasta and toss it together for another variation. Mmm.
After that I decided that I needed to bake something. Cookies sounded good because they seem to be most easily adjusted to altitude and I have league Tuesdays and the team deserves some treats. So time for Snickerdoodles! I cross-referenced some cookie baking tips from "Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes" and adjusted my recipe with a little extra flour, a little less sugar, decreased leveaners (sp?) and I added a little more egg for moisture. Oh and used both butter and shortening. At first I thought the cookies were too dry, but they are actually very light and with nice texture. Yay! I did notice that the top tray in the oven yielded darker cookies than the tray below which is partly why there are color variations in the cookies. Snickerdoodles are probably one of the more high maintenance cookies I have in my repertoire, but the end result is so very tasty.

Becoming Traffic

2007-09-07T17:44:00.000-06:00

Today I probably did the most riding (mileage-wise) since I've been here in Denver - Both campuses, baby! My bike computer tells me that I've logged well over 100 miles in the last 2 weeks as well. Sweet! I was going to stop at home in between morning and afternoon classes, but decided to bite the bullet and push through it. So it was 15.5 miles total which isn't a bad ride, especially back in Chicago. Now that I've found some nice routes to take, though, it's definitely way more fun here simply due to the lower traffic volume and the considerateness of the drivers. And the tree-lined streets. But the elevation changes are definitely making things more challenging. I am afeared that my calves are just going to become ridiculous since I like my gear ratios to give me a higher resistance when I'm riding. Oh well - it can only make me stronger!
Also noticed today that I ride much harder/faster when I a. am trying to beat a car off the line; b. am generally riding in traffic; c. spot another biker on the road or d. spy a flashing red "don't walk" hand at the upcoming intersection. What does that say about either my chase instinct or my competitiveness, I wonder? Those were the thoughts I had while urging my tired calves up the incline to Fitzsimmons.
At any rate, I gmap pedometered my route for anyone interested...scroll to the right on the elevation chart - that hill really did feel that huge today since I was also riding straight into a pretty intense headwind. It only reinforces my awe of professional cyclists because this ride would be cakewalk for them. Amazing. On the plus side, I flew home after the p.m. class!

Ways to Score in Denver

2007-09-04T23:31:00.000-06:00

So tonight was Tue Semi-Competitive League again and the weather was just perfect. 90's during the day, but cooling down nicely by 6:15 games. I thought I would post some more pictures of the ultra-lush fields. The Kings of Norway (yes, we do know that Hamlet is the prince of Denmark...it makes it funnier) won again on a universe point after Pray for Mojo made a steady comeback as the sun set. It is quite nice having lit fields, I have to say. The team played well together - we are gelling very well and it's a super-fun group to play with. Tonight, I made my 1st 2 scores in Denver! W00t! Would have had a 3rd on a direction-changing layout, but couldn't quite get my fingers around the disc. Also almost had a great D in the endzone, but just missed the disc by a hair. D'oh! Please keep in mind that I'm probably one of the less talented people on the team so there were just some fantastic plays. And, in the spirit of the team, I have bought my first orange top perhaps ever. So I'll look sickly as I play. Lovely.

Labor Dabor Day Weekend

2007-09-04T23:10:00.000-06:00

So this Labor Day weekend, I actually labored. First of all, on Sunday I moved into my new place which took a lot of work. And I am still slowly unpacking. Prior to that, though, Janine and I decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park and do some hiking.
It was a decently nice day in the mountains, but stormy clouds rolled in towards the end of our hike. I guess the locals call this "monsoon season." Where's the ocean, I wonder? We did about an 8 miler from the lot towards and then around Bierstadt Lake and then all the way over to Bear Lake. The trail we chose wound up being more challenging than we had expected and about half the time was spent climbing uphill. Very exhausting. The pics below should illustrate the verticality of the trek.

Phew! I am a little tired just thinking about it. There were also a couple interesting photos to be had on the trail including moss growing on a rock in the form of a panda face and the most colorful fungi I have seen in a long time! I love how nature uses bright colors as a warning system. Not even close to being tempted by that mushroom.

We finally made it to Bear Lake just as the sky started spitting a little and then took the shuttle back to the car and headed back down to Denver. It was really pouring on the way back so it was a good thing we decided against trekking back. Though, the thought of hurtling downhill after using so much effort on the way up was a little tempting. I'm just imagining the(re-)twisted ankle I'd inevitably wind up with! All in all, a nice way to get out of the city. Oh yeah, and on the way back I convinced Janine to stop at Savory Spice for some curry powder etc. Mmmmm.

Let me make a suggestion, though: don't hike so much the day before you move an entire house's worth of stuff....your calves will thank you later as will your lower back.

Two-Wheelin'

2007-08-31T16:10:00.000-06:00

So I have taken the road bike out a couple times this week for trips to class and back. I think I mentioned that before. Yesterday, I managed to increase my minimum climb velocity on the way home to 11.5 mph, up from the pretty pathetic 9 mph Monday. Sweet! I also got some bike maps for the city from Denverbike.org and I got those today. They included a pretty sweet sticker that I will have to find a place for. It's actually a nice red color, not orange.
Additionally, I just finished up the first week of classes. This full-time student thing is going to take some re-adjusting. Thankfully, there are a couple people in a similar situation as myself in my class so I don't feel quite so lost at sea. Tonight, the 2cd years in the program are having a Back to School party which should be fun - I made another batch of lemon bars for it. Figured I'd stick with something I knew would turn out, though I may have made them extra-tart again. Oh well.
I also made a batch of bread salad with heirloom tomatoes cucumbers etc for dinner Wednesday as well as a quick strawberry-peach cobbler a la Joy of Cooking. Biscuit dough has too much leavener in it to get much affected at altitude which is pretty nice. Terri got another batch of peaches from the food share program this week and good grief do they look and smell and taste good!

That's all for now I guess. I am moving again this weekend into my new Denver home for at least the rest of the school year.

Adventures in Altitude

2007-08-28T22:11:00.000-06:00

So it's been a week and a half give or take since I've been here in the Mile High city. I played my first Colorado Ultimate Tuesday night league tonight with a team (we dubbed ourselves "The Kings of Norway"...we're team #2B...get it?) that was nice enough to pick me up. It was a wicked good time! The folks are really great - fun and good players. The flow was really impressive for a couple of groups of people randomly thrown together and I can't wait for the rest of the guys to show. We've got 7 men and 4 women for a 4-3 format and 60 minute timed games. I like that a lot!
I took a picture of the really lovely fields at Dick Sporting Goods Stadium (the practice/game facility for the CO Rapids), but it might be too dark. They are really really lovely, soft, cushy, unpotholed, unhard, green lush fields. In case the picture doesn't do it justice. I did ok, I think, with the thin air...was able to play 2-3 points in a row at a time. I was feeling the effects on my lungs towards the end of the 2nd half, but nothing too awful. Yes! Plus we won. Double yes! I can't wait for next week's game.
Also, I took the bike out yesterday and rode to class and back. It is about 7 miles each way from T + L's house, and I was flying on my way to class given that the route was pretty much downhill the entire way. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to go home mostly uphill the other way. So 26 mph on the way to class turned into a laborious 9 mph in return. A great workout though, but my legs were jelly for a bit.
So this week I started classes and this weekend I will move into my new place that I'll be sharing with a couple grad students. It will be interesting living with people again. And then next weekend the CO Ultimate Sunday Fall league starts up - pretty much like Spring league in Chicago with individual signups and drafts and all. It's all about the extracurriculars.

MacGyvering up a Panini

2007-08-22T23:38:00.001-06:00

So having made it to Denver, dumped the majority of my junk in storage and taking over Terri and Larry's basement, it's time to return to the food.
For dinner Saturday, Terri had the brilliant idea to put together some yummy sandwiches made of leftover pesto, heirloom tomatoes, roasted eggplant and fresh mozzarella. Then she and Larry decided to try to panini it and we decided that a flat griddle on the stove and a heated cast-iron skillet would suffice. Add in a nice sautee of green beans and fresh picked chanterelles and you've got a lovely summer garden supper! Oh and passion fruit margaritas. Whee!

I also tried my hand at some altitude baking, but started with something fairly safe: the lemon curd bars from The Joy of Cooking. I added a little extra liquid to account for altitude, but other than that, stuck with the recipe. There was a little extra crust on top that I don't remember from before, but nothing a little powdered sugar can't hide. To be fair, I overdid with the lemon juice and didn't add the touch of vanilla like usual, so that could only help things. Sorry the picture is a little washed out.

P.S. I found out after I got to Denver that there is an Aurelio's Pizza here! You can get it with giardinara on top! Amazing! Perhaps all is not lost....

Rollin', rollin', rollin'....

2007-08-19T23:22:00.000-06:00

So the drive through IL and IA, though late-going, was surprisingly scenic upon hindsight. That is because Day 2 of the drive was some of the most challenging and mind-numbing traveling I have ever done.
Rather than get too much into the minute by minute details, I thought I'd post some the more interesting pics from the Trek through the Maize and give some of the more interesting highlights....
First and foremost, the Superfly W00t Monkey was the co-pilot. He didn't scream very much, but he also didn't navigate very well. Mostly he just hung on and enjoyed the road trip. Look at that face....awww!
Since the departure from Chicago began at 5:30, there was a bit o' traffic on the Eisenhower which also slowed things down. And then there was the rain. I contemplated these as signs that I shouldn't move, but then that would have meant many many hours of truck packing for naught. Cutting through the rest of IL (the red part of the state), all I can say is that there was a lot of corn. I'd post a blurry picture of corn, but why ruin it for you'all?
On the way to Des Moines, there were some interesting sights in the night: the world's largest truck stop, some interesting McDonald's designs and strange fog that made driving confusing.

Finally stopped for the night just outside of Des Moines at around midnight. The Holiday Inn was somehow booked and when I asked the concierge what was going on, he looked at me as if I had 3 heads and said "Uh, the IA State Fair." I was too tired to be snippy and politely asked if there were any rooms to be had in the area. Thankfully, the Ramada next door had some. Since it was late and this was a road trip after all, what better thing to do than order some pizza and wings from the only restaurant open at midnight in those parts? The wait was long; the pizza atrocious. Wings were ok though. Here's the pizza below...why yes, that is a pound of cheese on top! Eeeew.

On Day 2, hit the road again around 10 am, but since it was raining, I didn't get a chance to stop and check out the State Fair. Entered into the Nebraska area not too much later since Des Moines is pretty close to the border. Much to my dismay, this was the beginning of the worst 8-9 hours W00t Monkey and I have ever spent in a car. Terri warned me, but I didn't actually understand how incredibly tedious and neverending the Cornhusker State can be. UGH! Highlight was getting lunch at a Cracker Barrel, something I've been wanting to do for ages.

Sooooooo much corn. And as an added bonus, the time zone changes about 2/3 way through and all of a sudden it was 3 pm again and, yep, still in Nebraska. With no cell phone signal and only about 6 radio stations coming in. Unfair. Since it was so excruciating, I wrote down some of the trivia highlights: the cookbook factory outlet (no room in the truck or else I would have stopped!) and the highway was made with 47000 recycled tires. Fascinating.
By around 5 pm, W00t Monkey was looking a little peaked. Not that I blame the guy:

But never fear, we persevered and made it into lovely Colorado. It was an immediate perk in scenery once you cross the border: wildflowers and hills! So nice.

Only 3 more hours to go to get to Denver! My ass hurts.

Prelude to a Truck

2007-08-15T23:47:00.000-06:00

So today I am officially on my way up (down?) to Denver from Chicago. It has been a pretty interesting day (and exhausting) and I am chilling with some free WiFi at the Ramada just outside of Des Moines. I'd hoped to be in Omaha by now, but sometimes life doesn't quite work out as scheduled.
Let's back up.
I had quite the weekend of enjoying Chicago one last time before I departed and the activities only served to aid in procrastination of packing. I hate packing. Don't get me wrong: I'm quite good at it, I just don't like it.
At any rate, Friday I visited with Megan and Marty with Eric and Ariel and we had pizza and I had Patron coffee liquor (mmmmm!) and we watched tapes of Eric on the Discovery Channel and Carla on PubAc. It's amazing, but I always manage to get tipsy oh about 15 minutes after arriving at M + M's. I vaguely recall mentioning that I had a tourney to get to on Saturday and laying on the floor.
Saturday was tourney - a beautifully sunny 90+ and humid day out at the Naperville with no thunderstorms. I rode with Rick and Lisa both ways and watched some of the finals. My team didn't do so great, but we had lots of fun including a silent sideline iPod dance party with Yaya and I made my (now signature?) mojitos. Oh yes, there was also a greatest in the A pool finals. Sweet! After we got back, I basically showered and then proceeded to crash a dinner party in Lakeview with Mike and Wai Gen which was actually pretty fun and (theme of the weekend) drank too much.
Sunday morning, I rode down to Grant Park (training my biking legs!) and played a little pickup before heading home and taking an inadvertent nap before dinner at Weber Grill with Joe H., Rob and Beth. Thanks guys! There was a lot of grilled meat. Though I didn't think that the french fries were nearly as ethereal as others have made them out to be. The whipped sweet potatoes are another story. Then kitty-corner to Rock Bottom to meet up with as many people as possible for 1 last beer-consuming hurray. Lots of folks showed up which was nice and too much beer (4?) was had which meant I was once again unsober. Lots of talk of Rick's ass, ovarian hops and other jokes I have forgotten for now. It was a nice night to drink outside!
You would think that was all, wouldn't you? Oh no. Monday, I packed some in the afternoon after a time-consuming trip to the 'burbs and an awful trip to the dentist. Then rode downtown for a quickie pickup stop and then over to R + B's for dinner. Rob made yummy salmon that was fresh caught Saturday as well as some balsamic purple carrots. Very delicious. And then my liver was perturbed to find out that beer floats were on the menu for dessert. We also discovered that no matter how many bananas Beth puts in her most excellent banana bread, I will still like it and not spit it out. Weird, right?
So that gets us to Tuesday. 1 day to move day. Packing all day with a brief foray into cherry cobbler making to use up the last of the butter and the sour cherries I found in the freezer. Or, as Joe pointed out, just more procrastination. I didn't think the cobbler dough turned out so well - I shouldn't pack and freestyle bake I guess, but Crispin seemed to enjoy it and I sent it home with him.
That just about catches us up, yes?
So Wednesday, move day, was pretty hectic with lots and lots more packing and filling of the UHaul. I must admit that I'm a pretty good truck filler: it's a pity I don't pack trucks for a living! Just think of it like a real life game of Tetris. But having to clean up the condo before I could leave town (what with the showings and all) meant that I didn't hit the road until about 5 pm when the optimal leave time was oh around 2. Oops. That's why I am now in Des Moines rather than the aforementioned Omaha pit stop.
Ok more later with the sights of the road. Get ready for lots of corn and almost as many golden arches! Bleah.

Wine and Cheese Serendipity

2007-07-11T13:55:00.000-06:00

So after working out at the gym Tuesday, I decided to walk home. And then I decided it was way too hot out and I was slightly snacky, what with it being noon and all. So I detoured up to Costco, mostly to see if there were any samples to partake of (just frozen Tropicana smoothie bars), but telling myself that I needed to pick up another bag of the Bear Naked trail mix. I perused the cheese section, just for fun and found a couple interesting cheeses to try. Skipped the French triple creme since it was pasteurized, but found a Basque Ardi Gasna - semi-hard cheese of pure sheep's milk and covered with a layer of Espelette pepper (it is very pungent), as well as an Italian Trugole - semi-hard artisanal cow cheese made in the Asiago region of the Italian Alps (smooth and fruity, like a mix of swiss and asiago). They are very different and very tasty.
And then, as if the foodie spirits were watching me, the newest shipment of wine from Cosentino showed up! Yay! This box of wines was a nice surprise, unlike the wine in a box from Target (not so good). Anyhow, there was a 2005 Legend Chardonnay which is a partnership between Cosentino and Larry Bird. It makes me happy to think about the days when the Boston Celtics were respected and the days when he would dribble the ball up and down the parquet at the Boston Garden (pronounced "gah-den") to find the weird bounces. Also got the 2005 Temp (tempranillo) which I'm interesting in tasting since the one I've had before was pretty tannic. Apparently it is usually blended with grenache etc and rarely bottled alone; the tasting sheet suggests pairing with lamb, beef or venison so it should be pretty hefty. Finally, there was a second bottle of the 2005 Franc which I picked up after really enjoying it at the winery tasting so I'm pretty happy. I'm thinking it'll be a nice glass to have with the cheese finds at Costco. Mmmm.
Cheese course anyone?

Zucchini Runneth Over 'n Stuff

2007-07-10T21:01:00.000-06:00

Saw some lovely zucchini at the Green City Market a couple weekends ago that I thought would be a good experiment. I rather enjoy buying zucchini because it means you can heft and compare the weights of each squash to find the freshest and I think that makes you look cool and discerning. Because how one looks while buying produce is waaaaaay more important than actually taking the time to buy and prepare yummy dishes with said produce.
Anyhow, the traditional zukes got used in a batch of zucchini bread from Cook's Illustrated's "Best Light Recipe." This is definitely rivaling their food processor carrot cake as my favorite quick bread recipe. Ever. I brought a couple mini loaves over to Rob and Beth's 4th o' July Barbeque n' Boccie Bonanza. There are still a few green and yellow 8-ball zucchinis to use up. I am envisioning some sort of stuffed squash dish with quinoa or wheat berry pilaf.
I also made Jeremy Jackson's Little Meatballs with Sour Cherries for the bonanza and it was pretty tasty. I got the ground lamb from Mint Creek Farms from the aforementioned market and picked up more sour cherries there too. I'd just finished reading about meat practices etc in "How to Eat" and so was pretty happy to be able to get some nice, true grass-fed, hormone free, locally grown lamb. It was pretty darn tasty and, I think, had a slightly less gamey flavor than lamb I've had in restaurants. But that might also be due to the liberal cinnamoning of the dish. Or the drive-by nutmeging.
On a final interesting food note, I learned to make risotto from brown sweet rice at a Christmas party at Chef Paul W.'s house. Finally got some at the Korean Mart this weekend when I went to pick up honey powder and made a nice spicy garlicky brown rice risotto for dinner which went really well with a quick garlic chive and shrimp stir-fry. Mmmm.
And if you ever get a chance to try Ace Fermented Perry Cider (pear cider) this or any summer, do by all means. It's tasty. I'm no fan of hard cider and I can't stop drinking this stuff - not too sweet and a good depth of flavor. Really tastes like pear.

Sour Cherry Bonanza

2007-06-23T14:35:00.000-06:00

It has been a very sour cherry day. In a good way. I met Beth and Rob at the market this morning and we shared a Hoosier Mama Cherry Pie. It was pretty good. Beth used her expertise and asserted that it was a butter crust and the filling was quite nice - not too sweet. I also bought 2 quarts of sour cherries to play with - after pitting them all, I made a cherry pie (from the Pie and Pastry Bible) and candied some cherries. Then I decided to curry candy the kumquats that have been sitting in my fruit drawer.

Finally, I made the devil's food cake recipe from The Art of Perfect Baking and in 2 of the loaves, folded in the candied sour cherries for a black foresty loaf and the curried candied kumquats into 3 of the loaves for an interesting variation. The cake batter tasted a little too sweet for me, but the technique of making the batter is quite cool. The cake tastes pretty good after baking and doesn't taste as sweet - perhaps since the cocoa powder cooks through and dissipates it's flavor?

Economy of Food

2007-06-22T23:08:00.001-06:00

I have just started reading Marion Nestle's "What to Eat" which is her book basically breaking down the grocery store and answering the question in the title. I had just read her other book - "Food Politics" a little while ago which addressed the development of the USDA and how various food policies are developed in the U.S. That, too, is fascinating. One fact of particular interest that I just read has to do with the cost of eating fruits and vegetables. It is commonly asserted that in many urban and/or impoverished areas, the low consumption of fruits and vegetables (and the high consumption of junk foods and fast food) is due to the high cost of fruits and veggies. Nestle provided details on a study done by economists working for the USDA to assess the average cost of eating the RDA of fruits (3 0.5 cup servings) and vegetables (4 0.5 cup servings). They went to the store, bought produce, accounted for waste and trimming, then measured the # of servings and the final cost. What they found is that it would cost 64 cents (in 1999 dollars) to consume the "full daily complement of servings recommended at that time," (p. 63). She replicated the results herself with green beans. We were discussing this at work and decided that it would be important to also detail how much time and resources would be needed for families in low income situations to obtain fresh produce - I do know it's been documented that there are many areas in the southside of Chicago that have been described as "food deserts." Nestle also provides the argument that it is not the "absolute cost" of foods, but the "cost per calorie" that makes a difference. And to also consider the artificially low costs of meat and corn and soybeans due to government subsidies. I do remember how cheap boxes of very unhealthy mac n' cheese and ramen noodle bowls were in college. It is an interesting issue for sure.
Additionally, she wrote something else that really resonated with me: "When you choose organics, you are voting with your fork for a planet with fewer pesticides, richer soil, and cleaner water supply - all better in the long run. When you choose locally grown produce, you are voting for conservation of fuel resources and the economic viability of local communities along with freshness and better taste." I have definitely been trying (in the last year or so) to not buy produce imported from far away to minimize the waste of fuel sources on food transport. Hard as it is in the winter, I try to ask myself if it's really that important to me to have strawberries flown in from Chile when I can wait for the farmers' markets in June to provide lots of great heirloom varieties that are fresher and usually better tasting. And tomatoes outside of July and August are always hit or miss and never compare to those beautifully ugly heirlooms. I can't wait for grilled corn and bread salad! And for the drinkers out there, Rain vodka is an all organic vodka produced in the midwest using corn grown specifically for vodka production. The guy at Sam's told us that a lot of the "boutique" vodkas from Europe actually produce using grains put up for government auction to producers ranging from fuel to feed production.
Of course, the thing with voting with your fork is also that you are voting with your wallet sometimes.
On a cooking note, I made that poached rhubarb in jasmine tea recipe I linked earlier and used some of it to make some rhubarb muffins. They were a little flat, but lots of flavor. Chris thought they were made of banana!

Adventures in Home Ownership

2007-06-19T14:52:00.001-06:00

So Friday most of the new granite countertop was installed, but someone somewhere somehow messed up and cut the backsplash for the wall behind the sink too short. This is not actually that surprising since it is at an angle between two perpendicular sections and when estimating my square footage, I messed up on that angle and thought I had 19 square feet when, in fact, it is more like 39 square feet. Ooops. Talk about sticker shock.
Managed to talk the company into throwing in a new double bowl sink, an undermount, as part of the deal and that was also installed Friday. Despite the fact that I drew out the old sink along with the correct dimensions, the new sink is quite a bit bigger. Not a huge problem, right? Wrong! I spent the better part of the weekend figuring out how to install the faucet and trying to figure out how to set up a new drain system to fit this new configuration. I wound up getting a new lovely faucet to replace the old one since I had to get a part I couldn't find for the old one to stand up without the eustachian plate (new word!) and it was way too small with too short of a reach for the new deeper and larger sink bowls. All those adverts on PBS before/after the cooking shows must have worked since I got a Kohler. I must say, their intake supply lines set up is really easy to install.
Anyhow, I learned that it takes me no less that 3 trips to Home Depot no matter what project I work on for whatever reason and I have committed the business hours of the local H.D.'s in my area. I love going to the H.D. because every time I go for anything other than buying paint or potting soil (the traditional domain of women there), I am inundated with very helpful personnel. The plumbing department was no difference. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have staff willing to help you and answer questions, but my friend Paul does not get the same treatment when he's shopping in the same departments and we've attributed it to his having a y chromosome. He also probably doesn't do things like camp out on the ground in the middle of the plumbing aisle trying to figure out drainage assemblies. At any rate, I had one very helpful employee hand me lots of things I didn't need along with the one part I did think I needed which I was actually already holding at the time. Unfortunately, I didn't account for having the new drains situated closer to the wall than the old ones and thus I needed to either change the gas trap or figure out a way around it. Consider for a moment, that the two bowls are also of different heights and the drains are just slightly offset from each other. I wound up ingeniously (I think) rotating the gas trap towards one side, but only partially, and then using a variation of angles and pipes, including one accordion-style tube, to eventually finagle out a working drainage system. So far no leaks and I was very liberal with the plumber's putty. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!
Here are some before/during and after pics:

ATK goes healthy

2007-06-18T14:27:00.000-06:00

I love American's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated. It must be the scientist in me, but the thought of testing recipes over and over until you get the definitive (best way to get what you want) "protocol" sounds so great. If I lived in Boston, I would totally apply for a job there. That being said, my use of their magazines and tv show recipes has faltered in the last year due to various factors including the stringency of their recipes (which gives me a little bit of a complex) and lack of novelty. But I totally love that they have equipment tests and taste tests for everything a cook would use and offer not only the best product, but also the best value if applicable.
I caught a new episode on PBS this weekend in between trips out to the Home Depot in my endeavor to install a new faucet and drain for the kitchen. (Sidenote: It's pretty depressing to have a beautiful new countertop and an amazing new sink, but no drain or water hookups. Even more so to have the faucet hooked up, but no drain....) At any rate, I caught the "Lighter Family Favorites" episode and both the recipes were just great. The Chicken Parmesan looked really good (and I am not a big eye-talian fan, aside from neopolitan pizza and calzones) and the Everyday Lighter Mac and Cheese was brilliant - fast and much healthier. I am a big fan of the oven-fried technique that basically calls for breading your chicken and then spraying with just a mist of oil and placing on a sprayed cooling rack over a jelly roll pan into a hot oven. It makes things really crispy and gets rid of both the vat of oil to dispose of and is more mindful of that pesky arterial blockage thing. Not that I have anything against jalapeno poppers and cheese fries, just for the record. Also, I liked that the Mac and Cheese recipe is quick (10-15 minutes?!?) and cuts out fat in the right places, using evaporated milk to replicate creaminess from butter and using sharp cheddar that's reduced fat, not non-fat.
And now that I have a working kitchen again, I can't wait to do more cooking! Yippee!

Granite and Rhubarb

2007-06-15T18:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally got the new granite countertop installed! Yay. But no backsplash. More on that later. What better to do the night before the workers show up than to try out that strawberry rhubarb rose jam? Nothing. Never mind that there is no drain in the kitchen sink! And who cares that the hot water to the entire apartment had to be shut off due to a leaky supply line? At any rate, I am happy to report that it worked! I freestyled the recipe a bit at the beginning, but it came together in the end.

Used 1 pint strawberries, 8 stalks of rhubarb and 4 apriums all mixed with a bunch of sugar. Squeezed the juice of 3 regular lemons and 1 Meyer lemon, saving the seeds and also adding in the zest of 1 of the lemons. Probably 3 lemons would be fine. Tried to counteract the acidic with some nutmeg, cinnamon and a couple pinches of pepper, just for kicks, as well as a 1/4 c of honey powder. I macerated everything for 15 minutes and mashed it a little with a pastry blender. Tossed in the lemon seeds wrapped in cheesecloth and brought the mix to a boil, adding a couple tsp of rose water. Boiled for 3-4 minutes, and put out my emergency package of liquid pectin onto the counter as a visual safety net. Tested a small portion cooled in the freezer - yummy, but more like a sauce. Set it on the stove O/N with the lemon seeds still swimming in the red fruit sea. Next day, brought the whole mix to a boil and let it get up to 220 F (well, 215 F was all I had patience for). The rose flavor disappeared so spiked it with a couple tsp of extra rose water afterwards. Next time, will use a thicker pan, preferably nonstick since mine wound up scorching some of it, as well as a splatter screen. I am happy to report that the 1/4 cup I stuck in the freezer to cool firmed up pretty well into a thick spready jam that you can make lumpy peaks with. It's not gelled like jelly, but it's pretty nice..
I call it a spreadable success.

Rhubarb Redux

2007-06-13T21:41:00.000-06:00

Here are the mini upside-down rhubarb cake/scones I made using the recipe from the Trib I posted earlier. They were tastier than I had imagined. I couldn't get the caramel to cook quite right though - kept crystallizing out of solution on me, but it all worked out in the end.

And I thought I would share the recipe I found for Strawberry, Rhubarb, and Rose Petal Jam from "Prairie Home Breads" by Judith Fertig. The natural pectin from the lemon seeds helps to set the jam.

Strawberry, Rhubarb and Rose Petal Jam
Makes 6-7 half pints

2 lb rhubarb, trimmed and stalks cut into 1" pieces
1 lb slightly underripe small strawberries, hulled and halved
6.75 cups sugar
4 lemons, halved
3 cups fragrant unsprayed rose petals or 1 tsp rose water

1. Place rhubarb and strawberries in a large bowl and pour sugar over them. Squeeze the juice of the lemons over the sugar. Stir to mix. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight at room temp. Remove seeds from lemons and store in refrigerator overnight in plastic bag.
2. Next morning, transfer rhubarb and strawberry mixture to a large saucepan. Put lemon seeds into a small muslin bag or wrap in square of cheesecloth and tie the corners together, and place the bag in the saucepan. Bring mix to boil over medium high heat and boil for 2 minutes, then transfer mixture back into the bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next morning, sterilize 7 half-pint jars and lids, keeping jars warm.
4. If using rose petals, pinch/cut out bitter white part at the base of each petal. Put rhubarb mixture into large saucepan and stir in rose petals or rose water. Bring to boil over medium high heat and boil until the mixture reached 220 degrees on a candy thermometer and coats the back of a spoon (~8 mins). Remove the muslin/cheesecloth bag.
5. Funnel the jam into hot sterilized jars leaving 1/4" headspace. Remove bubbled with sterile spatula and then cap jars according to manufacturer's directions. Process jars for 10 mins in boiling water bath, then let jars cool and check for seal. Store in cool, dark place and refrigerate after opening.

Eating Well Recipes

2007-06-13T10:20:00.000-06:00

Since the countertop is getting removed tonight/tomorrow and the new one is coming in on Friday, I decided last night to make a bunch of food so I'd have easy meals to eat while the kitchen is in complete disarray. Made the Turkey Mini Meatloaves from Eating Well as well as the Potato and Sweet Potato Torte. I discovered that I rarely adhere to any recipe no matter how much I mean to.
The turkey loaves turned into handshaped mini burgers and instead of bell pepper and zucchini, I used frozen roasted corn and lots of spring onions. Half of them, I added green chili powder into (about 2 Tbs); Next time I will use more. And more salt. The torte, too, I wound up slicing a couple cloves of garlic thin and crisping them before adding more spring onions rather than the leeks. I think it will be better with leeks - more interesting texturally. I am trying really hard to use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes due to the discrepancy in nutritional content between to two. I sure do love my potatoes though.
My next endeavor (probably this weekend) is going to be to make curry candied kumquats with ginger and use that as a topping to some dark chocolate cupcakes. And to make something with the remaining rhubarb and strawberries: a jam maybe? I have pectin already, plus I learned that you can use lemon seeds to provide pectin in jam making. Food chemistry is cool.

Rhubarb Recipes

2007-06-06T15:30:00.000-06:00

I saw the recipe below in the Trib and it sounds nice. I really enjoy cooking with rhubarb. The tartness and the color as well as the poisonous nature of the leaves gives it a certain je ne sais quoi. I have a rhubarb muffin recipe that may involve whole wheat flour and possibly applesauce that is quite nice too and a departure from the traditional strawberry + rhubarb = pie/cobbler formula.

Rhubarb and apple upside-down cake

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Yield: 8 servings

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 stalks rhubarb, chopped into 3/4-inch pieces
1 small apple, peeled, cored, chopped
2 Eggs
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon ( 1/3 cup) butter, melted, cooled
1 cup self-rising flour

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook, shaking occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat; cook until mixture turns a very pale caramel color, about 5 minutes. Pour into a lightly greased, deep 8-inch round cake pan with the base lined with parchment paper. Press the rhubarb and apple into the caramel; set aside.

2. Beat the eggs, confectioners' sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until frothy; stir in the melted butter. Sift the flour over the top; stir (the mixture will be soft). Spoon gently over the fruit, being careful not to dislodge the fruit.

3. Place on top of a baking sheet to catch any spill. Bake until set on top, about 35 minutes. Immediately run a knife around the side of the cake; turn out carefully onto a wire rack to cool. Serve warm with cream.

Nutrition information per serving:
265 calories, 30% of calories from fat, 9 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 73 mg cholesterol, 44 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 217 mg sodium, 1 g fiber

Also from some searches:
Rhubarb Poached in Jasmine Tea with Ginger

Rhubarb and Peach Crisp
(I might try it with those apricot-plumcot hybrids I tried in CA - the ones that look like apricots. They have them now at Sunflower, but not quite as tasty.)

Lemon Cloud Tart with Rhubarb Compote

Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp with Pistachio Crust

The 1100+ Mile California Adventure

2007-06-05T11:29:00.000-06:00

Went out to CA Memorial Day Weekend for a week-long odyssey. We flew into LAX Saturday, hung out with my bro in the O.C. for a couple days; saw David Alan Grier perform at a comedy club. Monday morning (8:00 am!) picked up the rental car (a red Chevy something or other) and headed up the Pacific Coast.
Here's an overall map of the time spent sitting on my ass in a car. Thank god the rental got a pretty decent 30-35 mpg rating highway. The PCH is a really beautiful drive.
Day 1: SNA up to Limekiln campsite just south of Big Sur (9am-4 pm). Highlights include Target in the Thousand Oaks area (?) for an iPod input and some ice for the cooler; In 'N Out in Goleta for "breakfast"; and the Hearst Castle, which we just looked at, not wanting to take the time or pay the money to take the bus up to the castle itself. Also saw lots of RVs with surfers catching a last day of waves before heading home. The campsite was really cool - we stayed in the forest camp area and hiked up to see the lime kilns, but couldn't figure out what they were for; walked down to the beach, but saw no whales.
Day 2: Limekiln up to the Skyline Wilderness Park campsite just southeast of downtown Napa (7:30 am-12:30 pm). Found a lovely little coffeeshop in the Prunedale area in a plaza off of the 101 where the coffee is good and the baked goodies are really good and homemade (even the biscotti). I saw a big jug of Nielsen-Massey vanilla on the baker's rack and knew things would be yummy. We got an apricot cheese danish and an olallieberry muffin with a great soft texture and light granola topping. I don't know what olallieberries are, but they make a tasty muffin. Also got artichokes and strawberries at a farmstand 20 min outside of Gilroy and learned that the entire town of Gilroy has the essence of garlic wafting over it.
We then found the campsite, pitched the tent, worried a little about rattlesnakes and went to do some wine tasting. Went to included Cosentino, V. Santtui and Charles Krug. The former and latter were great, the middle has a great deli and cheese section. The Cosentino wines are all good, lots of different types and made well. The rose I tasted was really nice - smelled and tasted like strawberries before you bite into them and wasn't cloyingly sweet. All the Krug wines were full of big fruity flavors, but not too much of the oaky tannin thing that I don't like. I wonder if wineries get more sales of whites in the a.m., reds in the early p.m. and ports and other dessert wines towards the end of the day.
There was a disc golf course in the park so we tried to play a couple "holes." It was too technical for me (the baskets were on really tall hills) and the thought of rattlers in the grass and wild boars freaked me out a little. There were also some turkeys roaming around. So we went back and grilled some artichokes for dinner to go along with the burritos from the Michoacan taco truck near 1st and Soscol. Also MacGyvered a marshmallow toasting stick using a tent stake and tin foil...pretty simple actually once you account for stability and diameter. There were some deer at the campsite that were way too used to getting food from campers. The juveniles weren't that big, but then the momma deer came and we put all the food back into the car.
Day 3: Napa to San Francisco (11:30 am-1:00pm). Dying for a shower! Woke up at the crack of dawn (Chris did first!) and packed up and headed to downtown Napa. The nice thing about coffeeshops is that they are always open early. The Napa Valley Roasting Company seems to be the local equivalent of Intelligentsia with special blends for area restaurants including Bouchon and French Laundry. Hung out for a bit, then went to Target at 9 to kill some time until Copia opened at 10:30. Tasted some free wine, had some free chocolate, went to a seminar on cheese and learned about the history of food and the history of the wineries in the Napa area. Also saw the original installment done by the Hungry Planet people. It's striking to see the differences between the weekly groceries for different cultures. but shocking to see what people survive on in areas like the Sudan etc. Walked around the gardens outside; my favorites are still the two wine gardens where they plant the different fruits, herbs and plants that you taste in various wine varieties. Stopped at Ton Kiang for a late dim sum before checking into the hotel in Japantown. After the best shower I've had in ages, we went out to explore the town before dinner. Went to Chinatown, visited the fortune cookie factory in Ross alley (mmm!), went past the Coit tower, up to Pier 39, saw the sea walruses, went to Ghiradelli, then up to Pacific Heights area where we went to a bar to catch the end of the Stanley Cup game and then to dinner at Betelnut. Had some delicious papaya salad, mongolian beef dish, and Indonesian fish curry among other things as well as a sake flight. Then lugged up a giant hill back to the hotel. Here is the route...the elevation chart is pretty cool. All those miles help to make up for the sitting in the car.
Day 4: More exploration of San Francisco. Moseyed around the Japantown Mall, went over to Union Square and then to Yank Sing where I wanted some of their delicious chili sauce to take home. Then went back for sushi at Isobune (sushi boat!) before heading out. Drove past Golden Gate Park, up through the Presidio and strolled over to the Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts. That is a fun museum: they have a water fountain where when you drink, you complete a musical circuit. I wish the gym had one of those. And this display that can track where you look on a picture. And other cool things. Then we headed out a little north of the city to stay with Chris' sister and brother-in-law and played some frisbee in a park.
Day 5: Back in the car. Boo! San Raphael down to Irvine, but via Route 5 this time (7:30 am-3:30 pm). Faster, but more dusty, less scenery and lots of desert with highly irrigated farms interspersed. Highlights include the stinky meat processing plant, the In 'N Out in Kettleman City with 4 busloads of high schoolers going home from Anaheim/Disneyland, the farmstand next to the fast food places with delicious apricot-plum hybrids and the first batch of good cherries this year, and all the cars overheating in the hills on the way into LA. Oh yes, do not forget about the AWFUL traffic in LA.

That basically is how 1100+ miles was covered in the span of 5 days. The best part? Walking around in San Francisco. Also, for those not in the know, here is the secret menu to In 'N Out. I cannot imagine eating a 4x4 animal style. But you have to like any burger that is cooked in mustard. Unfortunately, the only pictures I took on this trip were of the J-pop hotel room in San Francisco. I'll post those later.

Mojitos on the Line!

2007-05-20T23:24:00.001-06:00

As you can see from above, big day of frisbee on Saturday = Spring Tourney in Naperville/Plainfield. The polo grounds are just lovely especially after the crappy weather and the rock hard fields in the city. Our team lost the 1st game pretty badly, but the team we were playing had lots of veterans and just handled around our zone way too easily. The next 2 games were much better and competitive as well as a good stage for season loss vindication. So we were 2-1 which ain't shabby. Sadly, I started on the refreshing mojitos a bit too early and was a little tipsy during the 3rd game. Oops. I do mix a tasty drink at 7:30 am however. Just for the record.
I wound up making a second batch of brownies (cheesecake brownies with cranberries and almonds) as well as those aforementioned pineapple-coconut cookies. That picture above is Chad having a go at his requested treats.
I have more/better pics on the other computer that I'll prolly add in later and here are links from my teammates for more tourney/spring league photos. I sure do make funny faces when I'm playing frisbee....
Brianna's Picasa Frisbee Album
Royer's Spring Tourney Photos

Prepping for the Tourney

2007-05-18T06:59:00.000-06:00

My 3rd and last Chicago Ultimate Spring League Tourney for the foreseeable future is coming up. I am so glad we did not place in the bottom of the standings and thus have to get out to Naperville for a 8 am game! Thought I would go all out this year and accept requests for goodies. Here are the Caramel Brownies that Chad requested with a QC sample taken out:

I used the turtle brownie recipe found here and I have to say I think that mine look better than theirs! Also looked for other recipes, but they all called for pre-made caramels which kinda turns me off - a. an exta trip to the store and b. it's not that hard to melt sugar, corn syrup and add in cream (basically); I always burn my tongue when I make caramel though: ouch. Next time I will remember to use the recipe from Malgieri's "Chocolate" cookbook as it involved a sizeable amount of liquor in the brownies. I spiked the caramel with a shot or two of Kahlua but I have a feeling it all cooked off.
I think I will make another batch of banana cookies (always a hit and healthy(ish) too!) and maybe try David Lebovitz's Pineapple Coconut cookies again. I liked those quite a lot and it's mostly pineapple with some egg whites as binder and coconut so nothing too heavy and fairly sports friendly. Maybe some cheesecake brownies since I have cream cheese to use up. Spending a nice evening chillin' and cookin' before a big day of running around in the sun is definitely on the books. I just got this cupcake cookbook and I am trying to think of ways to make frisbee decorated cupcakes. But maybe it'd be a better idea to try and design frisbee cookies. Especially if they were aerodynamic.

Looptopia & the Leftorium

2007-05-13T12:02:00.000-06:00

I made the chocolate honey dome cake from Bon Appetit I mentioned earlier. Here it is in all it's glory. I was pretty happy with it: the overpriced sugar bee decorations seemed like a perfect finishing touch. Unfortunately since this was a domed cake, there were no scraps to taste, but I'll get a full report back Monday. Also made the honey spice cake, adding chocolate swirls from the leftover glaze. Pretty tasty, but a little oily for my taste. Maybe cut back on the oil & sugar and use a soaking syrup? Team seemed to like it.

Our frisbee team played really well yesterday despite some, um, adverse conditions. Decent wind and only 2 gals made it a really exhausting afternoon but we pulled off both our games (the 2cd one we played down a man to boot!) Hopefully this bodes well for the tourney. Here is a not so g.l.a.m.o.r.o.u.s. shot I took of Chad and Toby during warm-up. Happy to report this was not the case for the game. Also props to Rob for the Polish pastries that he shared; I think they helped fuel me limpingly through to the end of the games! On the way back I got caught in a traffic jam on Irving from that big warehouse fire. The smoke was really thick and black and toxic. I saw a bird flying near the cloud. I wonder if birds can develop avian emphysema from the soot? Or birdie asthma?

The first annual Chicago Looptopia was Friday night - met up with Rob, Beth, Joe, Crispin and Jon Fergie and saw the Ponys, Mooka pazzo (??) and did not wait in line to get into the party at Macy's, but sat on some comfy leather couches. It was cold and windy, but the music was good. And then Saturday after the marathon afternoon of frisbee, headed to the Bjork show at the Auditorium. We were 13 rows back from the stage! It was a really good show - Icelendic horn section, DJ cams, pyrotechnics, laser light shows, excellent sight lines (the guy in front of me was not the tallest - score!), free earplugs from the Auditorium office staff...the works. I just wished I had the liner notes for her songs as I had a bit of a tough time figuring out all her lyrics.
All in all, I am pooped.

Bon Appetit April 2007

2007-05-09T11:31:00.000-06:00

So I went to a Seder at my friends Eric and Ariel's house last month. It was pretty interesting as I'd never actually learned about what happens at a Seder, just the whole story behind Passover. You eat a lot of symbolic foods and do a lot of readings. The parsley dipped in salt water was not so good (actually and symbolically); the horseradish was very very spicy (but maybe it was supposed to be bitter? I forget); the matzoh was matzoh-like. Eric's cousin Jenny made the Haroseth which was quite nice actually and I just remembered and found a recipe for it from Epicurious:
DRIED FRUIT AND ALMOND HAROSETH
Hers had lots and lots of chopped apples, however, and I don't know if it had any orange.

The April 2007 Bon Appetit also has a nice spread of recipes made with honey which I've linked below and a couple others for fun.
Speaking of honey, I feel bad for the bees that are dying: (Vanishing honeybees mystify scientists - CNN.com). Last I heard, scientists thought it might have something to do with cell phone signals which makes me sad whenever I made a phone call. If only we could use cell phone signals for good like dampening/canceling out the buzzing of the cicadas when they reappear!
On to the recipes:

CHOCOLATE-HONEY DOME CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE-HONEY GLAZE *
HONEY-CARAMEL TART WITH APRICOTS AND ALMONDS
UPSIDE-DOWN HONEY CHEESECAKES

MOM'S BLENDER CHOCOLATE MOUSSE WITH LEMON CREAM

ROASTED BALSAMIC SWEET POTATOES

It's Official!

2007-05-07T14:31:00.000-06:00

As of 9:30 am this morning, I will be matriculating at the University of Colorado-Denver in the Fall of '07.
That's kinda a big deal, right? I'm excited to move, but starting to freak out about leaving the comfort of Chicago behind. Guess I am going to go from knowing about the secret routes to take around the Dan Ryan construction to being the wide-eyed confused person driving way too slowly on the freeways again. But I hear there is ultimate. And lots of parks. And a clone of The Spice House. So it won't be all that bad. But there is also going to be some seriously bad baking going on what with the altitude 'n stuff. Boooooooooo. Sorry future Denver Ultimate teammates: can't guarantee any sort of tasty cookies for games.
I wish I could transport all my friends from here to there. That would be great.

[On a side note, I learned how to make a buerre fondue sauce this weekend AND I learned how to skin and fillet sides of halibut. I thought I would hack the hell out of it, but it turned out great. Sadly, my hands smelled (smelt - hee hee) of fish all day, even when I was at the gym. Bleah.]

German Chocolate Cake a la moi

2007-04-30T17:34:00.000-06:00

Here's the cake I made for Ben (from my frisbee team) for his birthday. It was actually pretty cool - chocolate stout cake layered with dulce de leche type frosting and some toasty coconut. And rum. (aka rum-mmmm). Too bad he had to take off before we could all sample, but I made a mini-cake with the scraps the night before; that's perhaps the best perk of making cakes for others!

And here is the newly painted, re-ceilinged bathroom. The color is "blueberry popover." It pretty much looks like the color of blueberry pie filling when you make it with cornstarch. Painting is hard work though: all that taping and edging and brushing. And please, people, do not skip on the priming! I did on the new drywall part and, uh, well, then I had to duct tape off the bubbled paint, sand, prime and repaint. Yikes.

Epicurious Recipes to try

2007-04-03T15:07:00.000-06:00

Wiiiiiiiii!!!

2007-03-27T15:05:00.000-06:00

A saga...
An epic....
An IM conversation about conquering the obstacles before you.

me (11:13:36 AM): !!!!
bro (11:13:42 AM): ]:O
me (11:13:48 AM): did you get my text?
bro (11:13:55 AM): i can't believe you got a wii before me
me (11:14:05 AM): :-D
let me tell you the saga
last week i went to boston for my interview and i stayed with craig
he bought a house in stoughton
he has a wii
i played the wii and i got wii-initis
since then i have been obsessing about a wii.
what makes it worse is that the week before i left we were out shopping and there was an ACTUAL WII at the gamestop but we didn't get it thinking that everyone had them.
bro (11:15:47 AM): oh man
me (11:15:49 AM): friday i am still obsessed with the wii
so i spend 6pm-7:30 pm driving around town to every game-like store to find a wii
the people at the 1st 2 gamestops laughed at me
the guy at circuit city told me to come back sunday b/c they should be getting shipments
the guy at microcenter was like "we did have some, but they are gone"
the people at target and best buy, they also laughed at me
the guy at the final gamestop told me the rumour is they will be getting some in mid-april so call back next week to see if they have a firm date
i am tired.
sunday morning rolls around and i want to be at circuit city at 10 am to get a wii
well - i look at the ad online and it is there. "Limited quantities?!? Vouchers 1 hr before the store opens?!?"
i go over at 9:45. vouchers gone. 14 wiis taken and i didn't get a fair chance.
bro (11:18:48 AM): sounds about right
me (11:18:59 AM): then we drive to the other circuit city - there is a line for 14 wiis. we are # 18?
then brilliance! decide to drive north to the burbs - rich kids all have the wii already, right? find the circuit city and check
5-6 wiis in a pile behind customer service
bro (11:19:45 AM): lol awesome
me (11:19:51 AM): but they are voucher tagged
bro (11:19:55 AM): doh!
me (11:20:23 AM): we have to call back at noon b/c if they haven't been picked up, they will be released. go shopping at the international mart and call - wiis all gone
(i should have tackled the little girl leaving the store with a wii!)
try 1 more gamestop and target
no wii.
i spend the rest of sunday with W.A.D. wii affected disorder. life is bleak. try to get one on ebay. nope. try on craigslist - get pissed off b/c people who got wiis that morning are trying to sell them for like $1000
BASTARDS
i do find the wii tracker
decide to make the best of it and just try every weekend
this morning, checking email
decide to run the wii-tracker
circuit city 5 miles from my house has it in stock?!!??!? WTF??? FOR SERIOUS?!?
call chris and ask him to call the store and go out there
he says "i am leaving the house! they girl says they have 2!!"
he gets there at 10:05, but there are a lot of people around. he is scared. turns out they are there for the limited edition of happy feet?
huh??
anyhow, he gets the 1 and only wii they have
bro (11:24:24 AM): lol
me (11:24:33 AM): apparently, there was a delivery this morning of 1 wii
no one knows why
they should have only gotten the 14 on sunday
but it doesn't matter
me (11:25:03 AM): because now i have a wii
bro (11:25:04 AM): because now you have a wii
me (11:25:15 AM): that's a good story, huh?

This is how good things happen to those who love Wii.