experiments.

so, we are moving. and we are moving to a much, much smaller space. which means we have to figure out what to get rid of/leave behind.

in the process of going through my cabinets, i found yeast packets that were way, way, way past their expiration date. i don't bake with yeast much. in fact, i don't bake with yeast at all. i tried once, and the resulting breadsticks, while edible, were all dried out and not really much good. and since i don't bake with yeast, i don't bother to buy bread flour.

but i thought, the breadsticks weren't actually that bad, i mean, they were edible after all, and i do know that bread baking is much a trial-and-error situation. i don't bake a whole lot because baking tends to be fiddly and rely a lot on details, and i'm not big on details. but even though i screwed up my first effort, yeast bread seemed like it might be able to handle less exactness than something like a cake (don't ever ask me to make a cake for you. i don't bake cakes). so i paged through my copies of Fannie Farmer's Cookbook and The Joy of Cooking looking for a yeast bread recipe that didn't require bread flour. and in The Joy of Cooking i found a recipe for pizza dough that said it would also make focaccia. i don't have a pizza stone, but the focaccia seemed like less work anyway. so i made it. and it was actually a success.

but what do you eat with focaccia? here's what dinner was last night:

chicken-pesto panini on focaccia

ingredients:
1 packet instant yeast
2 T olive oil + more for the pans
2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour (optional - i used white whole wheat)
1 2/3 c warm water
1 T salt
1 t sugar
extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary

1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 T extra virgin olive oil
as much pesto as you want (maybe i'll post my recipe for pesto some day too)
mozzerella and provolone cheese

1. combine the yeast packet with the warm water and let sit 5 minutes.

2. pour yeasty water into a large mixing bowl and mix in flour(s), salt, sugar, and oil.

3. stir and then knead until the dough is "smooth and elastic," adding more water and/or flour as necessary.

4. divide the dough in half and push until flattish into well-oiled cake or pie pans. The Joy of Cooking recommends 2 10" cake pans. since i don't have those (see above comment on cakes), i used 2 9" glass pie pans.

5. cover the dough with plastic wrap and set in a warm area to rise ~1 1/2 hours "or until doubled in volume." this didn't happen for me. they barely rose at all. it's possible my apartment isn't warm enough to make the yeast happy.

6. push down with fingertips until the surface is dimpled. drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and rosemary.

7. bake at 400F for 25 minutes or until crusty. this is the stage where mine rose and got fluffy.

8. while the focaccia is (focaccii are?) baking, cut the chicken breast crosswise into slices about 1/8" thick.

9. oil a baking sheet or shallow pan, add the chicken slices to the oil in the pan, and toss them to cover them with oil. spread them out so they will cook evenly.

10. in another oven (i used my toaster oven), cook the chicken breast at 350F until done but still moist.

11. scoop several spoonfuls of pesto into a shallow bowl. toss the chicken breast with their cooking oil in the pesto until well coated.

12. cut a focaccia into quarters and slice two of the quarters lengthwise to make sandwiches. pile the chicken and pesto onto one slice of each quarter focaccia. top with cheeses.

13. put the topped focaccia slices under the broiler and broil on high until cheese is melted and bubbly. wrap the untopped focaccia slices in aluminum foil and put them in the broiler as well to keep them hot.

14. complete the sandwiches with the hot focaccia slices. eat!

this was actually quite delicious. i'm not sure how you can go wrong with anything that involves pesto, but that might just be me.

you're doing it wrong.

i'm sort of, in a rather desultory manner, watching the coverage of the inauguration on television, and i can't help wondering why only the tea party is doing it right.

i voted back in november.  there were at least 5 candidates for president on the ballot in my state (that i remember), representing 5 different parties for president.  but there were only 2 parties represented in all the other races, 3 if you count the tea party separate from the moderate northeast republicans.  i was just watching discussion of the president's stated immigration goal, and it sounds like the republican party is headed for a split between the very far right nutcases and the rest of the conservatives.

what is going on?

for some reason, the tea party is working the system right.  i wish the left in this country would stop chasing their damned egos and start paying real attention to how a multi-party system is working in this country.  it is working because whoever is financing the tea party is smart.  instead of waiting for 2012 and blowing all their money on the ridiculously expensive presidential campaign, they started in 2010 with the congressional races and especially with the house of representatives.

we have this famous check-and-balances situation in this country which forces the president to have to work with the legislative branch.  what would be the point of getting a hard-right president in power, or a green party president in power, and having no support for them in congress?  better to spend your money on those small, unglamourous legislative campaigns that will get voters in your corner and get legislative support in congress so that there is ready-made support for your presidential campaign.  not only that, but it will force true multi-party functioning in this country. 

if the greens and the communists are smart and more than that, serious, about affecting politics in this country, they should start finding house of representative candidates now and fund their runs for the 2014 congressional elections.  stop blowing your money on your presidential run ego, stop being fixated on "the presidency" and "the president of the united states" and get going with really getting the worker bees into the government.

holiday food.

so this blog is suffering from school and everything else.

but it is winter holidays!  time to eat everything made with fat and sugar so we can get through the dark months ahead.

to counter that, i have invented:

ridiculously healthy pumpkin muffins

* this is what i made this morning.  bonus points: use all organic ingredients

1 c organic sugar 
1 c organic canned pumpkin (bonus points: get an organic pumpkin from a local farmer and cook and puree it yourself)
2    organic eggs  (bonus points: local)
1/4  c oil
1/4 c water


1    c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1    t  baking soda
3/4 t  salt
1    t  ground cinnamon
1/4 t  ground nutmeg
1/4 t  ground cloves
1/4 t  ground ginger

minced candied ginger

1.  using an electric mixer, beat eggs with the sugar, pumpkin, oil, and water.

2.  add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with a spoon until blended.  lumps are ok.  do not use an electric mixer for this step, the whole wheat flour will not be happy with you.  unless i guess you have a stand mixer with some kind of gentle attachment, but i don't.

3.  fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups, portioning out the batter evenly.  if making regular-sized muffins, cups will be about 3/4 full.

4.  top each muffin with some of the candied ginger.

5.  bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

yay.  they are yummy.  i would like to look up an ingredient substitute formula and see how they work with molasses, which i think might be even better.  they're like pumpkin pie, except muffins.  spicy, not too sweet.  for moister muffins, either use 100% white flour or more oil.  but then they're not as healthy.

happy (early) birthday to me.

so because he's as much a gadget fan as i am, i got my birthday present a few days after it arrived in the mail, and a few days before my birthday:  a nexus7. 

i have to say, i am loving the thing.  i am on the record (probably, somewhere) as saying tablets are useless, and i'm still divided about his ipad, but the 7" tablet is a great place between a laptop and a phone.  i can get email and actually read the attached documents on it, as well as web.  and google maps are just gorgeous.  it's thin and light and i can hold it in one hand, even with my small hands.

on the other hand, i am now carrying around 3 devices on a regular basis:  my phone, for text messages and email when there is no wifi, the tablet, and my sony reader, which i still see a use case for in the e-ink screen which is nicer on the eyes and the ability to make handwritten notes on articles for class.  if i add my laptop, it goes up to 4.  i don't usually carry my ipod, but this is all getting a little silly.

i never really thought there was a good use for a tablet until i went to japan this summer.  and then i saw how useful it would be to have a device to handle map and be able to show off all your pictures.  and now actually having one, it is being useful in class for looking things up and grabbing the scanned pdfs which are giant images that the reader doesn't like so much.

i am also a fan of these guys.  i finally got one of their wine bottle bags after wanting one forever, and i just got their sleeve for the nexus, which is really nice.

so whee.  stuff.  i guess i'll have to decide what to do on my actual birthday now.

accomplishments.

so about 20 years after i started playing it at a friend's house, i have finally finished loom.

i'm also in my last year (finally!) of my master's program.  whee,

japan trip 2012

japan trip 2012, a set on Flickr.

just got back from a trip to japan for my brother's wedding. here are 33/514 photos *grin*

what's for dinner?

i only get to eat my expensive italian tuna when he's not home.

tuna & pasta

1  5oz  can italian tuna (tonno) packed in olive oil
1 c       uncooked short pasta (elbows, rotini, farfalle, etc)
2 T      pesto (or to taste)
1 c      cut green beans
pine nuts to taste (i like lots of them)
grated parmesan cheese to taste
1-3 T extra virgin olive oil

1.  cook the pasta in water with a little olive oil.  drain the pot thoroughly and return the empty pot to the burner.  turn the burner down to medium.

2.  while the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts:  sprinkle them in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in the oven at 350F, shaking until brown.

3.  pout 1-2 T olive oil in the pan with a little oil from the can of tuna.

4.  add the cooked pasta to the oil and stir to coat.  this will probably spit, so be careful.

5.  add the tuna and break up into small chunks and flakes.  stir.

6.  add the green beans and pesto.  stir again to evenly distribute the pesto.

7.  add the toasted pine nuts, only to warm them up.  since they are already toasted, they will burn quickly (about 30 seconds).

8.  spoon onto plates and sprinkle grated cheese on top.

summer.

so, the solstice was 2 days ago.  and today is the 3rd consecutive day of  >90F degree weather.  welcome to summer indeed.

we have scored free tickets from his boss to a phillies game tomorrow.  neither of us have ever been to a professional/MLB baseball game.  come to think of it, i'm not sure i've ever been to a professional sports game period.  all i know is that you're supposed to eat hot dogs and beer, which is ok with me.  as long as the hot dogs aren't full of cancerous chemicals and mystery meat.  100% beef is good.

and hey, the tickets were free, so if we decide baseball sucks as much in person as it does on tv, we can just go home.

the peppers are coming!

i was quite suprised to see that my pepper plant survived the winter. these are hot lemon peppers, which make awesome salsa.

technical difficulties.

conversation with barclaycard customer support:

me: your website isn't letting me log in; i keep getting an error page

barclaycard guy: oh i think it's a system upgrade, oh my screen just froze, oh my screen just went black and now i can't see anything

me: so i guess it's a problem on your end, then.

good thing i was just trying to check if the card had been charged for a passport renewal and not trying to pay my bill.

the passport is necessary because we are going to japan in a month and a half for my brother's wedding.  whee?