Gravy makes such a difference

Dinner last night was amazing. I made bangers and mash and it was better than any I've had in a restaurant. They always try too hard, and add extra things into the mash or make their gravy overpowering. Mine was a perfect blend of buttery mash, salty-spicy sausages and sweet onion gravy. Delicious. I did do the restaurant thing of making a little mound of spuds and standing the sausages around it and pouring the gravy over the top. Nom nom nom.

I also made pumpkin pie yesterday. I was totally excited putting it into the oven, because the raw filling and raw base tasted amazing. What I didn't realise is that pie is not a straightforward thing to bake. So the edge of the crust got burned (badly enough to mean that it doesn't taste nice, but not so bad that you can't eat around it) and the filling didn't cook up properly. It was still quite liquid-y coming out. That didn't stop me nibbling at it while it was still warm, and I was less than enthusiastic about the taste. Somewhere along the way the sweet, rich flavours of the raw things had gone missing. So I put it in the fridge, but didn't forget about it. I had a small slice for breakfast (because even flavourless pie is better than dull cereal) and was pleasantly surprised. I think the flavours must have come back as it all rested together. And possibly pumpkin pie is better cold. So yea. I'm looking forward to eating the rest of it for breakfast over the weekend and next week, and desert and probably lunch, too. A whole pie is a lot to get through by yourself. I would invite friends over to help, but I don't think it's good enough. I don't want people thinking I'm a bad cook (because I'm not).

Did I mention we're off to see deftones in November? I'm so excited. I can't wait to go. I've wanted to see them since 1st year of college. And now it's happening.

I don't think I have any other news.

baking

Some might say I've finally lost it, but I say: this is for me as well.
I made dog biscuits today. They involve 5 different flours, eggs and chicken stock (along with other baking necessities - like yeast). It was the most dough I've ever worked with. I even had to split it into 2 batches to roll it out because the counter space wasn't big enough. The recipe makes 200. I needed 4 trays to fit them all into the oven - thank goodness our oven is truck-sized (okay, not quite). They are in the oven now and will be until tomorrow morning - they get annealed. I can't wait to try them, they sound amazing. And with only 24 calories each, both me and River can snack on them without worrying that we are eating too much.
I also made "biscuits" for the very first time. I feel so American. So, they aren't really like scones. They are more like little nuggets of soda bread. They're dense - not fluffy like scones. And they were so simple to make. Yeay for food processors.

Yeay for baking.

Randomy Random Post

We got to see fireworks last night. They were cool. And we had a perfect view - about as close as you could get, without even realising it when we chose our spot. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I felt kinda bad as we headed out to the fireworks - even though I'd been for a 5 mile walk with River, but I guess I just felt we should have met up with some people. It didn't help that the day was muggy and overcast.

My crackers got finished off today. I'm going to make more, along with some digestive biscuits. I've set myself a challenge to make digestives exactly like McVities, so I started by getting the packet ingredients list and a random recipe for digestives and merging them. My only one bafflement is wholemeal. Is this wheat? Oat? Some other kind of grain? I'm afraid that oats will bake the biscuits turn out more like HobNobs. And while HobNobs are good, they are no McVities digestive. My caramel squares are almost gone too. The last few are in the freezer.

I renewed my driver's licence today. Kind of spur of the moment thing when lordkilljoy reminded me. So, if you get to the office just after it opens, the wait is only a little over an hour, rather than 3 at every other time. So I shouldn't have to do that again because this time it's valid until a year after my visa runs out.

Remember ages ago, I wrote a post proclaiming how I was totally finished Artificer? I totally lied. I've been working on it somewhat constantly since then and am now almost done with it. I'm 3/4 of the way through the final read through and have some 200 notes on changes and corrections that need to be made (a lot of which are simple typos, but one or two are whole scene rewrites).

I restarted the front panel of my crochet robot. I wasn't happy with it and figured it would only take a little while to do again. It will be cool when it's stuffed and sewed up.

I don't think I have much other news. This post was mainly procrastination for not doing the dishes.

San Diego

We've been to San Diego before, for Comic Con, but never got a chance to see anywhere outside the Gaslamp Quarter. So last week we decided to go - booked a hotel (motel?) on Tuesday and drove to it on Friday. I did my first stint of long driving on the interstate. It was really fun. I was way more excited than lordkilljoy who's all "I've done this a million times." Anyway - I didn't crash, which is good. I'm very indecisive, though. I'd come up behind a car going a little slower than me and be all "should I overtake them?" Eventually I got sick of it and just slowed down so that all the cars were going faster than me. Except for some and then they'd speed up when I'd go to overtake and it was all very annoying. I even overtook a truck on a normal road (ie, no divide to keep cars on their own side of things). You have to go well out of your way to find one of them around here - a normal road, not a truck.

So we got in and went for dinner in Little Italy (which was just up the hill). Dinner was amazing. I've never been disappointed going out in San Diego. All the restaurants we've been to (this trip and the last) have been top class. We strolled around a bit, me dithering between wanting to live in San Diego because it's beautiful and the weather is perfect and not wanting to live there because it's a bit intimidating at night.

Saturday we went around the USS Midway (an aircraft carrier museum) which was incredible. Huge and full of metal and cool things and stuff you could touch. I spent the whole trip dreaming about being an engineer driving the ship, an enlisted naval person, an officer and a fighter pilot. I don't know if I've ever mentioned that I wanted (along with twenty billion other things (every time we passed a train on the road I'd express my desire to be a train diver)) to be a fighter pilot... I could say when I was younger, but I still daydream about it. Living on a ship, getting catapulted into the air and flying around. I don't think I could deal with the actual killing people part, though. So, we spent 4 hours wandering around and listening to the audio tour - it was a really cool morning.

That afternoon we went to the zoo, which we spent another 4 hours wandering around. It's amazing how you fit stuff in when you only have a short amount of time. The zoo was lovely, though. I'm so impressionable. Every time we go to a zoo, or park or something I wander around going: I want my garden to look like this. And as we sat in the aviary watching the birds flit around, was was like: I could totally build an aviary in my back garden. I don't even have a garden :/ Ah, imagination - I suppose I can have everything I want through you.

So anyway, the zoo was cool. There's a cable car that goes from one end to the other and takes you up above everything for a pretty unique view of the animals. And there were loads of acrobatics and shows on the evening we went (not sure if this is what it's like all the time). That night we went out again, for another amazing meal. Even though we were both exhausted, we still enjoyed it.

And on Sunday morning we went off to the beach for an hour or so. It was packed. We drove up to La Jolla and spent ages looking for parking. The beach was beautiful, though. White sand, blue-green sea, half metre waves. I tried to resist and only dip my feet in, but I couldn't. The water was warm (compared to Irish sea water) and the waves were inviting and with only a little encouragement from lordkilljoy I'd changed into my swimming things and was jumping around in the surf. It was brilliant.

And then we drove home - again I didn't crash. Go me!

I made crackers today. They are delicious - not dry at all. I've eaten about 10 (probably more) since they came out of the oven. And they're so crackery. They snap when you bite into them. And they are lovely with cheese. I'd say they are very successful. I used my new pasta maker to roll out the dough thin enough. Only I'm not very good at it yet, so some of my crackers are more thin and snappy than others.

I think that's it. I'm still playing Skyrim. I've clocked up a rather frightening number of hours at this stage. Still not as many as Oblivion, though and no where near as much as Morrowind or Daggerfall.

I crocheted a doily-coaster for the glass of water that sits on my desk. I was getting a bit fed up of having a water ring where it sits, so I did something about it. Now that I'm done with that I'm making a cute crochet robot.

I definitely think that's that.

P.S. Hey, Lj, what's going on with line breaks not auto-formatting?

Weekly News (or something)

For the first time in 11½ years I cleaned up my friends page. Anyone whose name I didn't recognise is gone (because if I don't know your name it means we didn't interact much). I also got rid of a bunch of old communities that hadn't had activity in 3 or 4 years. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. My profile page looks so much lighter now.

Anyway.

What news? I made caramel squares on Friday night. They are delicious. The caramel is more like toffee, but it is absolutely yummy. They come out of the fridge and they are so hard to bite into. I've taken to leaving them warm up for a bit. They are also horrendously bad for you. I think they are the most fatty sweet I've ever made. So I have to seriously control myself and only eat 1 per day. Yesterday I nibbled away on one square for the whole day and it was great. A nibble is all you need, really, to get the taste and satisfy the desire for yumminess.

What else? I'm back playing Skyrim again and after one day I was totally addicted. I just want to play all the time. I started with a new character (a destruction mage) and she is so much fun to play. I always thought stealth was the most fun way to go, but there's something delightfully chaotic about laying down fire runes (which are like magical traps that set off an explosion when they are triggered) and waiting for foes to walk into them, then shocking them with lightning as they stumble around on fire. That sounded so evil. But it's so much fun. Bethesda are really good at making games. I don't think I've stumbled into any of the same quests as last time and I'm doing things completely differently.

River went to the vet on Thursday to get 3yearly injections. She was fine afterward.

Ooh - last weekend we went tubing on Salt River. It was so much fun. They give you rubber tubes and a bus trip up to the start point, then let you off to drift back to the main area. It sounds really boring, but every so often the water gets shallow and fast and that is when it gets really fun. And just watching the desert drift by was great too.

We went to see Prometheus on Wednesday. I really enjoyed it. There were some super gory bits in the middle, but overall it was a fun story about a girl whose faith is challenged.

nomnible

Banana bread is cooked and cooled and it is so delicious. I think it is the best banana bread I've ever had. It's so moist and delicate. Not at all dense, like most banana breads. There are banana-y pieces and chocolaty pieces and it is oh-so-difficult to have just one slice (but at 250 calories per slice (decent slice - about an inch), that's about all I should eat). I can post the recipe if anyone's interested.

I was just out walking River (in the 36° heat) and thought to myself, "I'd be quite happy if this weather went on forever." We'll see how I feel in five months' time.
I'm still getting up at half five to walk her. I think I've discovered that going back to bed straight after the walk (and sleeping until 9ish) works best for me. Napping in the middle of the day doesn't work because, apart from River barking, I sleep very lightly and wake up every few minutes.

We went to see Men in Black 3 last night. I really enjoyed it. Will Smith is his usual funny self, and the capers and character interaction are fun and harmless.

Did I mention lordkilljoy and I are playing Diablo 3? We're almost finished, just the last act to go. It's fun. I'm playing a wizard and I don't think I'll ever get bored of shooting a massive disintegration ray out of my hands.

beee-na-na

I think I just found the secret to good banana bread (possibly - it's not out of the oven yet, but the batter tastes yummy out). People say to use ripe bananas, but they never quite describe just how ripe they should be.
I've discovered that the best kind of ripe* is when the outside of the banana feels squishy, and the inside has sort of melted a little bit, and there may possibly be the start of some fermentation going on (bananas never tasted of rum before). You don't even need to mash them before throwing them into the batter, they sort of fall apart all by themselves.
I shall update again in an hour when this is cooked.

*I have a suspicion that this kind of ripe only happens at about 30°C (the ambient temperature of our apartment).

I may have thrown some chocolate chips in there too :)

Rye Pita?

I managed to make some kind of rye pita bread today. I've been experimenting with this yeast-free pizza base recipe over the last few days - making it into flatbread and cooking it like a pancake. Today I had the random idea to swap out the semolina and all purpose flours for cornmeal and rye flour. I also left out the baking powder. It mixed up well. I tried kneading it, but I don't know if rye has any gluten to work with the kneading. So I squashed it into a flat circle between 2 sheets of wax-paper and 2 chopping boards. It came out super flat, and super circly. Onto a pan it went and the pan went onto a super-hot cooker and the bread cooked away, until I turned it over, when suddenly it popped. It magically turned into pita bread - which I wasn't expecting at all. In surprise and delight I took it off the pan, tried a bit (acceptable but the dough needs some extra flavour), and proceeded to stuff it with cheese. Nom nom nom (this sentence translates to "I ate it, and it was good"). Now I just need to figure out something I can add to the dough to make it really yummy.

don't bake with dead yeast

I made bread last night. Or I attempted to. I suppose I should have realised something was wrong when the dough could barely absorb half the flour it was supposed to (but having never come across a problem like this before, I just put it down to warm weather). I turned the dough out and let it rise for an hour - in which we went out for dinner - and when I checked on it, it was the exact same size it had been. Now, my brain went something like, "it /has/ risen, surely. It's just that the bowl it's in is so ridiculously over-sized that the bread just looks the same size in comparison." The bowl was not over-sized.

Anyway. Then I remembered that the package of yeast I'd used had been open for a few days. And then I realised the yeast had died sometime over those few days. Poor yeast. And poor me, who had no bread to look forward to. I shaped it into a loaf anyway and left it alone for another hour, hoping something might happen. It didn't. I used the dough as clay to make a very basic duck (which got thrown out today) and threw the rest of the dough in the bin.

Failed bread attempt #1. So, for being baking bread for a few months now, that's not bad at all.

Bread is Delicious

I have a honey-wheat loaf doing in the oven and it smells absolutely delicious. I really need to get myself another loaf pan, so that I can make two loaves at a time. It doesn't really seem justified - all the effort for one loaf (which depending on how scrumptious it is might not even last a day). I love this baking malarkey. It's amazing being able to eat your bread you've made yourself, that you know exactly what went into.

I now have 10 rows done on my string top. I'm a regular speed-knitter I am [sarcasm]. It's going to take months and months to finish at this rate. Though lordkilljoy's going on a wwe stint tonight, so I might get a lot done if I sit on the couch with him (rather than sitting at my desk playing games).

The wwe stint is therapy from a terrible, terrible end of week. Yesterday (was it only yesterday?) he lost the car keys. When they didn't turn up by noon today, he called a tow-truck to come pick up the car. Half way back to the rental place, the keys showed up. So typical, you really just have to shake your head and shrug. That's life, isn't it? Anyway, we have another car now, so it's all good.

I don't think I have a whole lot of other news.

Oat biscuits

On a whim last night I decided to make something nice. Something cakey and chocolaty but not too rich. I would have made chocolate lava cakes, but I didn't have small enough pots to bake them in, so I settled on oat walnut chocolate chip cookies. It was incredible, from taking the flour out of the press to enjoying the first bite of melty, sweet, oaty, chocolaty biscuit took about half an hour. My mixer is amazing. You literally pour everything into it and 1 - 2 minutes later it's ready to go in the oven. If I'd had it over christmas I would have made chocolate chip cookies every day (okay, not really) but I do think they would have come out more like M&S cookies. Because the ones I made last night had an almost identical texture (to M&S ones).


Yummy (even if the first bite does seem excessively sweet - the oats and walnuts quickly balance that, though).

Ooh - and the slow cooker is off the hook. The brisket last night was delicious.

I'm improving, very slightly

"Riveríní, my bread is exploding." The last words out of my mouth. And I'm not kidding. I made ciabatta and it's expanded about 4 times the size it was. I have enough bread for about 12 people or something. It covers a 30cm x 60cm baking tray and is about 5 cm high. And it's still getting bigger. I don't know what I did wrong. Oh well. Hopefully it tastes nice anyway.

I don't have much other news. I made nice butternut squash last night. And I think I've realised that my digestive system isn't the fondest of eggs. I also made some oat croquette type things, but they turned out quite dry. It didn't help that I forgot to make the sauce that went with them - and I had the ingredients and everything.

The ciabatta's out of the oven now. It got a little toasty on top. I think my oven runs hot. I should get an oven thermometer thing so I can check it. Right so. Here's some foody pictures from over the holidays.




calzone - looking at it makes me want to make another


m+s style cookies - so moreish


last night's dinner


ciabatta monster

International Date Line Funnies

My dress is on the way :) (not sure if I mentioned this already...) It's coming from Hong Kong and went through Korea. It left Korea at midnight tonight (this dress is from the future - how cool is that) and it arrived in Alaska at midday today. Somewhere out there in the swirls and spirals of time is my dress - stuck between now and yet to come. It's all very cool, and all because of the date line.

Christmas dinner is a go today. At last. I think it's going to be wonderful... maybe even worth the wait. I browned the chicken in a pot first, then browned the veggies in the same pot after, then put them all in a lidded dish and put the lid on tight. The smell from the pot after doing the veggies in the chicken juice was so good. I can't smell anything more with the mad seal on the dish in the oven right now, but I'm pretty excited.

I made breadsticks last night. They turned out quite like Italian breadsticks, which I wasn't expecting. They are a little too salty, though. I keep forgetting the salt I use (traditionally dried sea salt) is much saltier than normal salt. Making the dough was a bit mad. It starts out really sticky and you're meant to knead it like a mad thing until it's not sticky anymore. I kneaded it for 20 minutes and it was still sticky. So I just put it to rise and while it was kinda hard to work with (form into little lines) I don't think there was much else I could have done.

I don't have any other news, really.

Further to Yesterday

More news. Which conveniently escaped my brain as soon as I started typing. Typical.

So, I got a sunhat. Actually, it's not so much a sun hat as an autumn hat. It's made of black felt and I have an idea that if I wear it out in the sun my head will bake. But it's lovely - 1920s style cloche (there are loads of pictures on google if you want to know what style that is). I'm wearing it now :)

I also got a cake decorating funnel with shaped metal tips - for putting icing on things. Ooh - that was my main news. I made muffins yesterday. I used a kind of modified banana bread recipe and they are gorgeous. This recipe called for egg and butter and they made the muffins come out light and fluffy (well, lighter and fluffier than any other bread I've tried). I got the cake decorating thing, because I think some chocolate frosting on top will make the muffins simply decadent :) nom nom nom. And because I've always wanted to have a go with cake decorating / making cupcakes. And yes, muffins magically turn into cupcakes when you add frosting on top.

I don't have much other news.

I don't know if I've mentioned World of Warcraft on here before, but I've gotten up to level 73 and Wrath of the Lich King stuff, and boy are the quests and storylines amazing. I'm playing alliance (because they feel like a big supportive family, where horde feels like a bunch of selfish individuals) and the storyline involving the 7th legion was fantastic. Totally epic. It's funny, because when it ended, I went on to a new area, and it was back to killing animals and providing food for the local community. It felt so small-time.

However, at the same time I reached the alpine area (can't remember what it's called) lordkilljoy was watching Bear Grylls (Man vs Wild, which is a amazing show - I wish I could be like Bear - he can survive in the wild on nothing but insects and plants he finds along the way) in Alaska, and the terrain was so similar to that in WoW that it almost felt like I'd find Bear just over the next hill. So that helped add some of the missing vitality back into the game.

Yea, I think that's about it.