food, and thursdays
Feb. 13th, 2011 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanateWinter, it seems, has become the time to sit curled up on the couch and read cookbooks. Last year was about yeast breads. This year is more theory-of-cooking; as I think I've mentioned before, I have been reading Cooking for Geeks, which I got out of the library on the recommendation of a newspaper review my mother cut out of the Post, subsequently bought, and have been reading cover to cover. It is a bit strange but quite fascinating, and discusses things like how you taste things and how that relates to balancing tastes in food, and what happens at the various important temperature points in cooking. Most of the metaphors are aimed at programmer-types, but on the whole I've found it fairly accessible so long as one has a decent dose of "engineering brain" (defined as an interest in the structure of how things work/go together, or the ability to ask "wait, why didn't this work?" and look for an answer.) Would highly recommend; am considering buying a copy for my brother.
There is also much reading on preserves, and a couple other library cookbooks, and some research into electrifying garments (or at least putting LEDs into them... I have made an order for violet LEDs and conductive thread, of which more is liable to be heard later on.) Two thursdays ago, I caught the Baltimore cupcake truck as I came out of the aquarium, and brought home a cupcake each in "English Rose" and "Smores." The former was white cake with vividly rose flavored pink icing, and the latter was a chocolate with a marshmallow on top and graham cracker bits in the cake which![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grauwulf, who is not a great fan of chocolate, quite liked. Then he gave me half his half the rose cupcake, which was just fine with me. (If we are dividing food weaknesses among the household, I get the sugary baked goods, and he gets the salt & fat snack foods.)
Last Thursday, I finally took my camera with me to the aquarium on a cold day and took pictures of the ice in the harbor, which I've been finding fascinating. There are two kinds of ice that turn up in the sheltered spaces between the piers: there's the ice that looks nice and solid and icy, and there's the stuff that looks kind of like slush and washes up and down with the waves, but is still sturdy enough for the seagulls to stand on it. Very odd. Pictures may get transferred later on, possibly with a brief video clip of ice washing up and down.
Other things have happened that did not take place on thursdays, but a lot of them were variably frustrating and unpleasant, like the fiasco of attempting to exchange the slippers I got forgrauwulf for christmas, which according to the USPS tracking system got as far as my doorstep before disappearing; unfortunately, as the seller is much more coversant in craft fair etiquette than internet & shipping, I didn't find out that the package had been sent until three weeks after it disappeared. Also, I have been knitting this sweater, which will be an excellent sweater when it's done, but I keep tearing out bits. Most recently, I did this because having chosen to knit the sleeves in the round, I discovered when I got to the raglan bit at the top that purling with this yarn (loose single ply) is a study in frustration, since it manages to wind the yarn up into a half-width strand by the end of the row. Fortunately, I had the sudden realization of how to do the whole thing in the round, joining when necessary, so it should be ok eventually, and I am ready to start the second sleeve. Possibly I will go do that now, and come up with anything else I might have to say later.
Experimentally cross-posty from dreamwidth. Comments encouraged in either location.
There is also much reading on preserves, and a couple other library cookbooks, and some research into electrifying garments (or at least putting LEDs into them... I have made an order for violet LEDs and conductive thread, of which more is liable to be heard later on.) Two thursdays ago, I caught the Baltimore cupcake truck as I came out of the aquarium, and brought home a cupcake each in "English Rose" and "Smores." The former was white cake with vividly rose flavored pink icing, and the latter was a chocolate with a marshmallow on top and graham cracker bits in the cake which
grauwulf, who is not a great fan of chocolate, quite liked. Then he gave me half his half the rose cupcake, which was just fine with me. (If we are dividing food weaknesses among the household, I get the sugary baked goods, and he gets the salt & fat snack foods.)Last Thursday, I finally took my camera with me to the aquarium on a cold day and took pictures of the ice in the harbor, which I've been finding fascinating. There are two kinds of ice that turn up in the sheltered spaces between the piers: there's the ice that looks nice and solid and icy, and there's the stuff that looks kind of like slush and washes up and down with the waves, but is still sturdy enough for the seagulls to stand on it. Very odd. Pictures may get transferred later on, possibly with a brief video clip of ice washing up and down.
Other things have happened that did not take place on thursdays, but a lot of them were variably frustrating and unpleasant, like the fiasco of attempting to exchange the slippers I got for
grauwulf for christmas, which according to the USPS tracking system got as far as my doorstep before disappearing; unfortunately, as the seller is much more coversant in craft fair etiquette than internet & shipping, I didn't find out that the package had been sent until three weeks after it disappeared. Also, I have been knitting this sweater, which will be an excellent sweater when it's done, but I keep tearing out bits. Most recently, I did this because having chosen to knit the sleeves in the round, I discovered when I got to the raglan bit at the top that purling with this yarn (loose single ply) is a study in frustration, since it manages to wind the yarn up into a half-width strand by the end of the row. Fortunately, I had the sudden realization of how to do the whole thing in the round, joining when necessary, so it should be ok eventually, and I am ready to start the second sleeve. Possibly I will go do that now, and come up with anything else I might have to say later.Experimentally cross-posty from dreamwidth. Comments encouraged in either location.