Friday, November 26, 2010
For the record.
In case anyone is interested, my time lately has been spent checking the weather at weather.com, and also researching straws (reusable, and made of glass, stainless steel, or silver), USB camcorders, 1 tb portable hard drives, DVD copies of Murder on the Orient Express, European hot chocolate recipes, and train and plane tickets to Connecticut. No links though. Few are still open, and these aren't exactly difficult things to find, and it is past 2 am and I am tired and not inclined to work very hard on a blog that is read by exactly one person. Ta-ta for now.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Things from this weekend:
A most excellent blog about momming which I saw linked...somewhere. Possibly the Heather Cushman-Dowdee facebook page?
I don't want to come across as, and more importantly, don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but I do have some trouble swallowing some of the things that come out of the mouths of medical practitioners. And then, look! An article by a doctor on how doctors sometimes get misinformation from biased or outdated studies! Well imagine that. I will say that I find the article title rather obnoxious and off-putting, but please give it a chance.*
There is a website that sells tomato-scented things! Like cologne! And room spray! And bodywash! How could I ever have doubted that life was worth living? (They have tomato-seed scent, as well. I think I might have died and gone to heaven sometime this afternoon. I want this one too. Apples and geraniums? Yes, please.
This video makes a good point. These stories have all** been "Disneyfied" to remove such offensive themes as murder-by-rape and suicide and heartbreak and all that, and mostly that's okay with me. You can't really remove a lot of this stuff, though, without removing the story from the story. So:
Disclaimer: I love Disney. Also, sarcasm. But I'm not being sarcastic about loving Disney.
*I... haven't finished reading it. I keep getting sidetracked. Thus far, though, it's good.
**I am referring, of course, to the Disney princess canon.
I don't want to come across as, and more importantly, don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but I do have some trouble swallowing some of the things that come out of the mouths of medical practitioners. And then, look! An article by a doctor on how doctors sometimes get misinformation from biased or outdated studies! Well imagine that. I will say that I find the article title rather obnoxious and off-putting, but please give it a chance.*
There is a website that sells tomato-scented things! Like cologne! And room spray! And bodywash! How could I ever have doubted that life was worth living? (They have tomato-seed scent, as well. I think I might have died and gone to heaven sometime this afternoon. I want this one too. Apples and geraniums? Yes, please.
This video makes a good point. These stories have all** been "Disneyfied" to remove such offensive themes as murder-by-rape and suicide and heartbreak and all that, and mostly that's okay with me. You can't really remove a lot of this stuff, though, without removing the story from the story. So:
Disclaimer: I love Disney. Also, sarcasm. But I'm not being sarcastic about loving Disney.
*I... haven't finished reading it. I keep getting sidetracked. Thus far, though, it's good.
**I am referring, of course, to the Disney princess canon.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Two things.
First, I came across this article, posted on facebook, about some of the issues with the hospital system of human birth in the United States. Sad, but definitely worth reading. It isn't long.
Secondly, I (for once) don't have loads of tabs open, because I have instead been spending most of my free time baking an orange-filled cake for my mom. The recipe is from the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking, but I'll post it here for you on the off chance that you're interested. I might as well, since I already typed the whole thing out for Chloe (my younger sister) on gmail:
Orange-filled Cake:
Preheat oven to 375.
Sift before measuring:
3 cups cake flour
Resift with:
3/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp double-acting baking powder
Grate:
rind of 1 orange
Into:
1 1/2 c sugar
Cream until light with:
3/4 c butter
Beat in, one at a time:
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 water
2 tbs lemon juice
Add the flour mixture in 3 parts to the butter mixture, alternately with the liquid. Stir the batter after each addition until smooth. Bake the cake about 1/2 hour in 3 layer pans with greased (and floured) bottoms. When the cake is cool, spread between the layers: Orange Cream Filling, p 698.
Orange Cream Filling:
Soak about 5 minutes:
1 tsp gelatin
in:
1 tbs water.
Combine in the top of a double boiler:
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs all-purpose flour
3/4 c sugar
Add:
3/4 c hot water
Cook these ingredients over, not in boiling water for 8 to 12 minutes. Stir constantly. Cover and cook undisturbed 10 minutes more. Add:
1 tbs butter
Pour part of this mixture over:
2 beaten egg yolks
Beat and pour back into the double boiler. Cook and stir the custard gently, about 2 minutes, to let the yolks thicken. Add the soaked gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Remove custard from heat. Add:
Grated rind of orange
3 tbs each of orange and lemon juice
Cool the custard. Beat until stiff:
1/2 c whipping cream
Fold it into the custard. Chill 1 hour. If spread between the layers of a cake, ice with:
Luscious Orange Icing, p 725.
Luscious Orange Icing:
This icing becomes firm on the outside and remains soft inside. Please read About Boiled Icings, p 721
[About boiled icings:
Just as in candy making, success with boiled icing depends on favorable weather and the recognition of certain stages in preparing sugar syrup. If the icing is too soft or too hard, take the corrective steps suggested below. Never ruin a good cake with doubtful icing.
Boiled white icings are based on a principle known as Italian meringue--the cooking of egg whites by beating into them gradually, a hot but not boiling syrup.
For boiled icings, the cake must be cooled before the icing is applied. Have all utensils absolutely free of grease, and eggs at room temperature. Separate the whites, keeping them absolutely free of yolk, and put them in a large bowl. You may start with unbeaten, frothy, or stiffly whipped whites. Have available a stabilizer: lemon juice, vinegar, cream of tartar or light corn syrup; and also a small quantity of boiling water--in case the icing tends to harden prematurely.
Cook the syrup to 238-240 degrees. It will have gone through a coarse thread stage and, when dropped from the edge of a spoon, will pull out into thickish threads. When the thick thread develops a hairlike appendage that curls back on itself, remove the syrup from the heat. Hold the very hot, but not bubbling, syrup above the bowl and let it drop in a slow and gradual thin stream onto the whites as you beat them. In an electric mixer, this is no trick. If you are beating by hand, you may have to steady your bowl by placing it on a folded wet towel.
As the egg whites become cooked by the hot syrup, the beating increases the volume of the icing. By the time the syrup is used up, you should have a creamy mass, almost ready for spreading. At this point, add any of the stabilizers--a few drips of lemon juice or vinegar, a pinch of cream of tartar or a teaspoon or two of light corn syrup. These substances help to keep the icing from sugaring and becoming gritty. Then beat in the flavoring of your choice. When the icing begins to harden at the edges of the bowl, it should be ready to put on the cake. Do not scrape the bowl.
If the syrup has not been boiled long enough and the icing is somewhat runny, beat it in strong sunlight. If this doesn't do the trick, place the icing in the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl over--not in--boiling water, until it reaches the right consistency for spreading. If the syrup has been overcooked and the icing tends to harden too soon, a teaspoon or two of boiling water or a few drops of lemon juice will restore it. If raisins, nutmeats, zest or other ingredients are to be added to the icing, wait until the last moment to incorporate them. They contain oil or acid which will thin the icing.
In high altitudes it helps to add to the sugar 1/8 tsp of glycerin and to allow a longer cooking period.]
Stir over heat until dissolved:
1 c granulated sugar
1 tbs white corn syrup
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 c water
Cover and cook about 3 minutes or until the steam has washed down any crystals that may have formed on the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook to 238-240 degrees without stirring. Pour the syrup in a slow stream over:
2 beaten egg whites
Beat for 10 minutes. Add:
1/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 tbs orange juice or 3/4 tsp vanilla
Beat the icing to a spreading consistency.
(Shockingly they don't note this in the book, but my mom says that with boiled icings you must spread them on the cake immediately, because they harden rather quickly. The Luscious Orange Icing never completely hardened, probably because of the oily, acidic orange peel [judging by what they said in the a/b section above]--but it did become hard enough that we couldn't really spread it anymore. So that's important.)
Secondly, I (for once) don't have loads of tabs open, because I have instead been spending most of my free time baking an orange-filled cake for my mom. The recipe is from the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking, but I'll post it here for you on the off chance that you're interested. I might as well, since I already typed the whole thing out for Chloe (my younger sister) on gmail:
Orange-filled Cake:
Preheat oven to 375.
Sift before measuring:
3 cups cake flour
Resift with:
3/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp double-acting baking powder
Grate:
rind of 1 orange
Into:
1 1/2 c sugar
Cream until light with:
3/4 c butter
Beat in, one at a time:
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 water
2 tbs lemon juice
Add the flour mixture in 3 parts to the butter mixture, alternately with the liquid. Stir the batter after each addition until smooth. Bake the cake about 1/2 hour in 3 layer pans with greased (and floured) bottoms. When the cake is cool, spread between the layers: Orange Cream Filling, p 698.
Orange Cream Filling:
Soak about 5 minutes:
1 tsp gelatin
in:
1 tbs water.
Combine in the top of a double boiler:
2 tbs cornstarch
2 tbs all-purpose flour
3/4 c sugar
Add:
3/4 c hot water
Cook these ingredients over, not in boiling water for 8 to 12 minutes. Stir constantly. Cover and cook undisturbed 10 minutes more. Add:
1 tbs butter
Pour part of this mixture over:
2 beaten egg yolks
Beat and pour back into the double boiler. Cook and stir the custard gently, about 2 minutes, to let the yolks thicken. Add the soaked gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Remove custard from heat. Add:
Grated rind of orange
3 tbs each of orange and lemon juice
Cool the custard. Beat until stiff:
1/2 c whipping cream
Fold it into the custard. Chill 1 hour. If spread between the layers of a cake, ice with:
Luscious Orange Icing, p 725.
Luscious Orange Icing:
This icing becomes firm on the outside and remains soft inside. Please read About Boiled Icings, p 721
[About boiled icings:
Just as in candy making, success with boiled icing depends on favorable weather and the recognition of certain stages in preparing sugar syrup. If the icing is too soft or too hard, take the corrective steps suggested below. Never ruin a good cake with doubtful icing.
Boiled white icings are based on a principle known as Italian meringue--the cooking of egg whites by beating into them gradually, a hot but not boiling syrup.
For boiled icings, the cake must be cooled before the icing is applied. Have all utensils absolutely free of grease, and eggs at room temperature. Separate the whites, keeping them absolutely free of yolk, and put them in a large bowl. You may start with unbeaten, frothy, or stiffly whipped whites. Have available a stabilizer: lemon juice, vinegar, cream of tartar or light corn syrup; and also a small quantity of boiling water--in case the icing tends to harden prematurely.
Cook the syrup to 238-240 degrees. It will have gone through a coarse thread stage and, when dropped from the edge of a spoon, will pull out into thickish threads. When the thick thread develops a hairlike appendage that curls back on itself, remove the syrup from the heat. Hold the very hot, but not bubbling, syrup above the bowl and let it drop in a slow and gradual thin stream onto the whites as you beat them. In an electric mixer, this is no trick. If you are beating by hand, you may have to steady your bowl by placing it on a folded wet towel.
As the egg whites become cooked by the hot syrup, the beating increases the volume of the icing. By the time the syrup is used up, you should have a creamy mass, almost ready for spreading. At this point, add any of the stabilizers--a few drips of lemon juice or vinegar, a pinch of cream of tartar or a teaspoon or two of light corn syrup. These substances help to keep the icing from sugaring and becoming gritty. Then beat in the flavoring of your choice. When the icing begins to harden at the edges of the bowl, it should be ready to put on the cake. Do not scrape the bowl.
If the syrup has not been boiled long enough and the icing is somewhat runny, beat it in strong sunlight. If this doesn't do the trick, place the icing in the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl over--not in--boiling water, until it reaches the right consistency for spreading. If the syrup has been overcooked and the icing tends to harden too soon, a teaspoon or two of boiling water or a few drops of lemon juice will restore it. If raisins, nutmeats, zest or other ingredients are to be added to the icing, wait until the last moment to incorporate them. They contain oil or acid which will thin the icing.
In high altitudes it helps to add to the sugar 1/8 tsp of glycerin and to allow a longer cooking period.]
Stir over heat until dissolved:
1 c granulated sugar
1 tbs white corn syrup
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 c water
Cover and cook about 3 minutes or until the steam has washed down any crystals that may have formed on the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook to 238-240 degrees without stirring. Pour the syrup in a slow stream over:
2 beaten egg whites
Beat for 10 minutes. Add:
1/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 tbs orange juice or 3/4 tsp vanilla
Beat the icing to a spreading consistency.
(Shockingly they don't note this in the book, but my mom says that with boiled icings you must spread them on the cake immediately, because they harden rather quickly. The Luscious Orange Icing never completely hardened, probably because of the oily, acidic orange peel [judging by what they said in the a/b section above]--but it did become hard enough that we couldn't really spread it anymore. So that's important.)
Monday, November 15, 2010
Get ready folks: it's TEA TIME.
Sara announced that she wants tea and/or tea accessories for Christmas, so I've been doing tea research. This evening it's mostly been related to chrysanthemum tea, which Sara mentioned last night and with which I am now fascinated. I mean, as far as that goes. It's just tea. But I'd like to try to make my own, because as far as I have been able to tell, it's just dried chrysanthemum flowers. I'd need to find the right variety, but that is not an unsurmountable obstacle. Actually, this guy has conveniently supplied a link. I could just buy it, of course. I'd rather not spend the money, particularly considering the cost of blooming teas, but that website I just linked apparently sends a surprise tea sampler with each order. So that's tempting.
Delicious teas which I have, unlike chrysanthemum tea, actually tasted:
Turkish tea (Rize). They got me completely hooked on the stuff* while I was there, and we have run out at our house, and this is unacceptable. Everywhere you go in Turkey, somebody comes up with a little tray of filled teacups and offers you some. And then they offer you more. And more. It's probably a conspiracy. It's a black tea, but beyond that my powers of description fail me. I'm not enough of a tea connoisseur (you'd think I'd know how to spell that by now, but it took me several tries and a trip to dictionary.com. /ashamed) to go any further than "delicious."
My other favorite tea, rooibos. Also known as "bush tea," this isn't technically tea. That is, it's made from a plant other than the traditional tea plant, as are most other things drunk as tea. If you want to be completely correct, you're going to have to refer to this and all other "teas" (except black, white, yellow, oolong, pu-erh, and green) as tisanes. Anyway, rooibos is delicious. I am drinking a cup of it right now.
And just for a hint of how much stuff I've been slogging through on this Christmas present research, here's a page giving a sample of tea-infuser paraphernalia. I think the duck is my favorite.
Lastly, this. If only.
*They are really hardcore (and particular) about the way they brew this stuff, too. I searched something related to Rize, I can't remember what, and I came across this site which explains it all in painfulstaking detail.
Edit: a blogger I follow on another website posted a link to this site on her blog, with no explanation whatsoever. I was amused, and also intrigued. It's interesting to see just how many humanistic niches are out there.
Delicious teas which I have, unlike chrysanthemum tea, actually tasted:
Turkish tea (Rize). They got me completely hooked on the stuff* while I was there, and we have run out at our house, and this is unacceptable. Everywhere you go in Turkey, somebody comes up with a little tray of filled teacups and offers you some. And then they offer you more. And more. It's probably a conspiracy. It's a black tea, but beyond that my powers of description fail me. I'm not enough of a tea connoisseur (you'd think I'd know how to spell that by now, but it took me several tries and a trip to dictionary.com. /ashamed) to go any further than "delicious."
My other favorite tea, rooibos. Also known as "bush tea," this isn't technically tea. That is, it's made from a plant other than the traditional tea plant, as are most other things drunk as tea. If you want to be completely correct, you're going to have to refer to this and all other "teas" (except black, white, yellow, oolong, pu-erh, and green) as tisanes. Anyway, rooibos is delicious. I am drinking a cup of it right now.
And just for a hint of how much stuff I've been slogging through on this Christmas present research, here's a page giving a sample of tea-infuser paraphernalia. I think the duck is my favorite.
Lastly, this. If only.
*They are really hardcore (and particular) about the way they brew this stuff, too. I searched something related to Rize, I can't remember what, and I came across this site which explains it all in pain
Edit: a blogger I follow on another website posted a link to this site on her blog, with no explanation whatsoever. I was amused, and also intrigued. It's interesting to see just how many humanistic niches are out there.
Food for thought*.
Frame of reference, in my opinion, is really not taken as seriously as it should be. Spin is everything, and "the norm" often isn't exactly chosen in a logical fashion.
*No pun intended.
*No pun intended.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
I've not been online much lately
I've been house and dog sitting for one of my aunts this weekend, and I haven't gotten online at her house. I have instead been listening to NPR and fending off her enormous dog, Augie, as I drink tea or kahlua and read coffee table books in the evening on her antique sofa.
I did want to post these songs though the other day, as evidenced by the text message I sent to my email address from the Wal-Mart parking lot: "Michael Buble; Layla. leaves: gold became brilliant red, orange, deep maroon, dancing and flying"
Only the first two are directly related to music, of course, but I have this thing about the fall leaves. On to business: I love Michael Buble a little bit, and though I don't love watching this video, I must say that I am impressed by his talent at portraying prominent figures in pop culture.
On an almost completely different tack, here's Clapton singing "Layla," but not the original. I am extremely partial to the slower, acoustic version. This isn't the version I've got on my itunes, but it'll do.
I did want to post these songs though the other day, as evidenced by the text message I sent to my email address from the Wal-Mart parking lot: "Michael Buble; Layla. leaves: gold became brilliant red, orange, deep maroon, dancing and flying"
Only the first two are directly related to music, of course, but I have this thing about the fall leaves. On to business: I love Michael Buble a little bit, and though I don't love watching this video, I must say that I am impressed by his talent at portraying prominent figures in pop culture.
On an almost completely different tack, here's Clapton singing "Layla," but not the original. I am extremely partial to the slower, acoustic version. This isn't the version I've got on my itunes, but it'll do.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Don't Judge Me.
Okay, so I just created a third blog. Not that the second one is getting any views at all, really--that's not actually the point. The point is that I am tired of feeling like I have to qualify every time I post links on the first/real/main one. Usually I'm posting them because I was reading/watching them and don't want to lose them, but I'm too lazy to make use of universal bookmarks. So.
Current open-tab list is as follows:
An article I ran across last week on how the Democrats might be winning the war, though they lost a battle.
Sara's blog post about NaNoWriMo, which I have been meaning to read but haven't yet gotten to.
A photographic list of amusing septic carrier tank slogans, posted on facebook by my uncle.
An article about the rather horrifying and, honestly, utterly counterproductive (economically, sociopolitically, environmentally, and medically speaking) slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Is it just me, or does it almost seem like they're <i>trying</i>* to make people hate them**?
A news clip video about a small town which banded together to keep Westboro Baptist "Church" away from the funeral of a soldier and member of their community. Very hopeful.
A video depicting an attempt to interview Jake Lloyd, the actor who, as a child, played the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. He isn't very charismatic. I think maybe we could be friends.
Lastly, I don't really know much Guster music, but somebody posted this song on facebook (the source of most of my internet reading/time wasting), and I liked it:
I would like to say that it just took me about four tries to get Blogger to actually embed that video, rather than just passive-agressively post the embed code. What did I ever do to you, Blogger?*
*Screw you, Blogger. I type the html code, you translate the html code. That's how this is supposed to work. I don't know what your problem is, but we are going to have to have a talk.
**It occurs to me that this could be taken as a racist statement. Please note that I do not have racist opinions of people of Japanese descent. I just have a difficult time dealing with certain aspects of Japanese culture. I know that there is a lot more to Japan, and that I am poorly educated in this area. I also acknowledge that American culture has a lot of crappy stuff in it too.
Current open-tab list is as follows:
An article I ran across last week on how the Democrats might be winning the war, though they lost a battle.
Sara's blog post about NaNoWriMo, which I have been meaning to read but haven't yet gotten to.
A photographic list of amusing septic carrier tank slogans, posted on facebook by my uncle.
An article about the rather horrifying and, honestly, utterly counterproductive (economically, sociopolitically, environmentally, and medically speaking) slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Is it just me, or does it almost seem like they're <i>trying</i>* to make people hate them**?
A news clip video about a small town which banded together to keep Westboro Baptist "Church" away from the funeral of a soldier and member of their community. Very hopeful.
A video depicting an attempt to interview Jake Lloyd, the actor who, as a child, played the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. He isn't very charismatic. I think maybe we could be friends.
Lastly, I don't really know much Guster music, but somebody posted this song on facebook (the source of most of my internet reading/time wasting), and I liked it:
I would like to say that it just took me about four tries to get Blogger to actually embed that video, rather than just passive-agressively post the embed code. What did I ever do to you, Blogger?*
*Screw you, Blogger. I type the html code, you translate the html code. That's how this is supposed to work. I don't know what your problem is, but we are going to have to have a talk.
**It occurs to me that this could be taken as a racist statement. Please note that I do not have racist opinions of people of Japanese descent. I just have a difficult time dealing with certain aspects of Japanese culture. I know that there is a lot more to Japan, and that I am poorly educated in this area. I also acknowledge that American culture has a lot of crappy stuff in it too.
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