November 24th, 2009
What the hell Williams & Sonoma?!
October 21st, 2009
Work in Progress” Grandma’s Unmatchable Cookies
I have the recipe for my Grandmother’s awesome chocolatey cakey cookies. I’ve made them several times and I’ve called her several times because they just don’t taste the same. I think she’s keeping something from me. They are still very good cookies with lots of possibilities. Enjoy!
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup buttermilk
-Cream shortening and sugar until light.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
-Add vanilla.
-Add dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition.
-Drop by teaspoons on to a cookie sheet and back at 350F for 12-15 minutes.
October 5th, 2009
Caution: Cookie Work In Progress
I’m looking at a stack of paper, notebook rippings, scrawled on napkins, and shopping lists beside me that consist of all sort of recipes marked as “in progress”. Today’s project was to organize and bound them all together. Pen, hole punch, and binder in hand: I cranked up some Beyonce and dove at the pile. Once I was done, I thought it might be fun to share some of the recipes with everyone. Please bare in mind that they are in progress. I’ll make notes of what I’m still looking for in them and maybe you can solve what I haven’t in your own culinary adventures!
First up, Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies! I’ve made two batches of these now and sent them over to my taste testers at Three Rings Design. Most of the reviews were a long the lines of “I don’t like to mix sweet and savory”; but the folks that mash all their food together thought that the bacon was a little to subtle and abrupt because it just had bacon bits in it. This is the recipe that has bacon bits in it. Next time around I think I’m going to also substitute some bacon fat for butter.
5 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups butter
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 packs of smoked bacon
22 oz. dark chocolate chips
4 eggs
3 tsp. vanilla
-cream room temperature butter with sugars.
-add eggs one at a time, allowing each to incorporate fully.
-add vanilla. Scrape the bowl and paddle.
-add dries. Scrape the bowl and paddle.
-cook, drain, cool, and crumble bacon then add to the mix.
-add chocolate chips.
-bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
-This yields a lot of cookies, so maybe cut it in half.
August 5th, 2009
Flight Delight
This past weekend we had the pleasure of heading to Hartford, Connecticut for Connecticon. I often long to be back on the East coast and think fondly of it’s falls and winters. Stepping off the plane in Hartford I immediately remembered why I do not remember so fondly of it’s summers! The humidity made if feel like I was walking around in a very thick, wet, warm quilt. Being the wuss that I am, it actually took me awhile to adjust. The east coast was nice enough to make it up to me by providing me with rain over the weekend, a weather pattern I much miss.
We were greeted by the smiling face of good friend George Rohac and proceeded to pile everything in his vehicle. The ride to our accommodations past pleasantly with the sounds of Richard Cheese in the background as we were filled in with all the latest tidbits of enjoyableness.
Getting settled into our hotel room, we then quested for food and, because of the lateness of our arrival, found that only a Denny’s was available for “food”. I put food into quotations because I am not entirely sure that something containing that much salt can be considered food. Denny’s at 4am was a rare treat for me because it was the first time that I had been to the franchise, let alone it being the first time I had been to the franchise at 4am. I suspect that the service would not have been much better had we arrived at a more reasonable hour, however the company was wonderful!
After a few hours of sleep George and I shlept over to the convention center where I was met with our inventory already at the booth! This was a lovely convenience! I was also met with the friendly faces of many a colleague that I had not seen in three or so years, a few I had only seen a few months ago, and a few I had not met before. Hawk, Ananth, and Yuko were the first to greet me and make me feel like it had not really been three years since we’d last convened together. I would say that you will never find a more friendly bunch of folks; but that would not be entirely accurate as webcomic folks, in general, tend to be a pretty friendly bunch. After hearty hugs I went to go through my inventory.
While folding and counting my way through shirt Brain came by to arch an eyebrow at me followed shortly by Tim who looked in far better spirits than I had seen him in three years ago. It was nice to see them in such good sorts and I very much enjoyed watching them torment each other over the weekend!
Dave (who was sporting very awesome shirts as per usual) came soon after and Chris came by to shake hands and welcome us back. Later in the weekend he also bestowed upon us some very rad surf board necklaces! Thanks!
I also had the pleasure of chatting with Steve Napierski while the guys were off doing panels and a few big hugs from Mookie.
Day one past with much enjoyable conversations with friend and fans.
I saw very little of day two for I had been to put the task of making awesome things for the awesome George. Well to be far, he only asked me to make some cookies and brownies. *pffft* After gathering up all my supplies and donning my chef’s jacket I went to work in the kitchenette in George’s room. Six hours later I’d come up with vegan peanut butter cookie, cherry oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies, a fruit tart, an almond lemon berry cake, and chocolate-peanut butter-caramelized banana brownies. People arrived and much food, alcohol, and conversation was enjoyed. I was given the rare pleasure of talking to interested people about food. I also apparently made an impression on them as well. Flattering to be sure.
Full of food and happiness we adjourned for the night for the melancholy of the final day would soon be upon us.
Goodbyes and hugs having been exchanged, we hulled the remaining merchandise back to our room with the help of Ananth and were invited to enjoy a meal made by the talented Karian later that evening. What a meal it was. I am such a huge fan of casseroles that I could not have hoped for better. All of the ingredients were distinct and gave life to each bite. Thank you Karian for the wonderful food! Slipping into a food coma I sat to chat with the rest of the company there and embarrassed Yuko by going utterly fan girl on her, something I had been more or less able to reign in the first part of the weekend. I got to see her sketchbook….it was amazing! Thanks to everyone for the marvelous company!
George drove us back to the airport the next morning and we journeyed back to sunny San Francisco.
I should also mention that with the considerable amount of travel time this past week I was able to start and finish Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. A Jane Austen book to be sure; but with a quirk.
July 26th, 2009
Occasions for cake.
This month has left me with many a reason to make cakes, making it a good month. I started out with a birthday at the OOO Office. I always enjoy doing cakes for them because they just give me a theme and let me run with this. The first was a cake for a gentleman named Tim who worked on the Corpse Craft game. This was a great one because I had just recently started into painting with royal icing. I think the end result turned out well. The flavors were red velvet and vanilla bean buttercream.
Next up I stepped up to the plate to make Cephalopod another squid-type cake. Last year I went the 2-D route, so this year I was determined to make it 3-d. I started with a standard 10″ cake (flavors were vanilla lime with keylime curd) then built on top of that. The squid was made of poundcake and the ship piece made of marzipan. Other than that it was buttercream and fondant.
This cake helped me transistion into my next cake for a coworker George, who moved to Greece a week ago. I was assigned the task of making a going away cake for him. Again it was a standard 10″ cake. The flavors were carrot cake with vanilla cream cheese filling and a Swiss buttercream frosting. I used what I had learn from making the squid to make and texture a sheep. I don’t know Greek, so it was interesting trying to figure out how to write “Happy Shepherding” on the cake. I apparently got shepherd right. That’s better than nothing.
Next up with a 20 Year Anniversary cake for our general manager. I was given a invitation to design it after. I wish I’d done more on it; but I also think that if I had, then it may have ended up too busy. This was the first time I had used stencils on a cake and it was a great learning experience. The flavors were white cake with lemon curd and fresh berries.
Though I do not have a picture, the final cake of this month went to a good friend, Danny. Who’s birthday was this week. We celebrated with some wonder Afghan cuisine, tiramisu, cthulhu Munchkin, Blazblue, and Zombies. I’m still a bit bitter that I’ve still yet to win a game of Munchkin ever since I learned it at Connecticon a million years ago. Anyway, cheers Danny!
This week we are off to Connecticon! See you there!
May 25th, 2009
Anime Central ‘09
Earlier this month we travelled to Rosemont, IL for the illustrious convention, Anime Central. This was our first time at this particular convention and I have to say, we were really treated like kings. They set us up with non-stop flights on Southwest. This alone was awesome! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a non-stop flight; but it was awesome! This was also our first time flying Southwest. Aside from the mess that is getting on the plane, the flight staff really cracked me up. I’d like to fly them more just for that. We arrived in the area the day before the convention and were taken to see Star Trek that night. Not only was it a great movie; but the theater we saw it in was so posh! Everyone had their own reclining love seat. The convention staff was particularly helpful in every way, especially a gentleman named Kevin. Thanks Kevin! The days were filled with panels and fans. The nights were filled with awesome and food.
A few highlights:
I got to meet the voice of Lord Zedd.
JM showed up to hang out.
My family came and they got to experience their first anime convention.
We made a new drink called “The Steve”.
Lots of great food.
A poor fan dressed in white got an epic nose bleed in front of our table.
We got to see Dave, Scott, and Karian.
March 24th, 2009
Food of note.
I’ve been spending a lot of time on my weekends now broadening my culinary horizons. That’s not to say that they aren’t fairly broad for your average 25 year old. I cannot say in absoluteness that I know an entire facet of food. For example, I know much about pastries; but in the entirety of pastry I know, maybe, 1/100th of what there is out there. That’s a daunting thought.
I’ve had the pleasure to work with a man who knew and had tasted nearly every culinary petit four out there. I will forever envy him. I man so passionate about food that for his final journey of gastronomic discovery he travelled to Egypt, where he is today.
While I have a perhaps a serving of sugar’s worth of knowlegde (1 serving of sugar being 4 grams) in a bag of 5670 servings, I like to think that in perhaps another 5 years I may have 3 or more servings under my belt.
I’m attempting to do this slowly on my own. My recipe rolodex for what I make at home tends to revolve around an axis on meat, potatoes, and Italian. Having decided in this new year to making things I’ve never made before or never made successfully, I have started my slow trundle up Culinary Everest. Last weekend I made salmon successfully for the very first time. Next I’ll try and successfully break down a salmon instead of letting the butcher do it for me. I’ve also revisited Learning the Art of French Cooking Volume One. We’ll see what happens in the future. For now though, Julia Childs is far to imposing for me.
March 2nd, 2009
The big wedding post #1: Pre-wedding
I’ve finally finished compiling all I can remember from the wedding. Also, all the pictures are in. I’m going to be posting about it in segments. It is a little too much information for one post. So please enjoy part one.
I am not sure how I can possible begin to organize the last two weeks into a coherent string of syllables. I beg your patience with the grammatical and punctuation errors to follow.
After countless phone calls, months of Sunday pow-wows, and asking every living thing “what am I forgetting?”, six months to the day of Ian proposing to me, we finally got married at 2:30 P.M. on December 20th in Millersburg, Ohio. At 3 A.M on Sunday, December 21st, we finally got to sleep.
Backing up a bit though, we actually arrived in Ohio on December 13th. I don’t remember much of that week. I know that we racked up 1000 miles on the rental and I listened to the same MC Frontalot CD an absurd amount of times. On Monday, Matt arrived. I explained many times just how far in the middle of nowhere my parents lived; but even Matt sounded surprised to admit at I grew up in the BFE. On Tuesday, Dom arrived and a stronghold to WoW was erected in my parent’s livingroom. I think my parents were bemused by this, even though my mom plays WoW and, in most cases, is better at it than me. On Wednesday, we got our marriage license and met with the DJ. He had no idea what half the music we requested was. I still do not think he does. On Thursday, we rested. Friday was a fun flurry of activities between decorating the reception hall, rehearsal lunch, rehearsal, getting car sick going to pick up one of my bridesmaids, and trying to get back to bed at a decent hour. I think I went to sleep around 1 AM and got up around 6 AM. Not a stellar rest. Really, don’t sleep on a couch the night before you get married. It may be the most comfortable couch in the world and you might have slept like a million babies on it countless times before; but you won’t the night before your wedding.
Please enjoy some post wedding pictures.
February 23rd, 2009
Sorry Dad.
Remember how I said I would post about the wedding and put up pictures this weekend? Well it’s almost Tuesday and I haven’t. I will! I promise! Eventually…..
I don’t have a good reason for not properly posting anything. Really I spent all weekend grinding pointless reputations in World of Warcraft (the game Mom plays) and cussing at a game called Dokapon Kingdoms. Though today we actually got Mac Hall’s taxes started.
If you want, then you should have Mom subscribe to the S-Words Podcast and listen to it. It’s a talk show done by Dom and his friends at our kitchen table where they talk about topics that begin with S’s. This week was SEGA. Remember the first handheld game thing I had that took like eight AA Batteries and needed a magnifying glass to see the screen? Yeah, that was a SEGA thing. I’ll be on the show one day. I think Ian is on next week’s show.
Really, for everyone, go listen to S-words. I think it’s really interesting. Join its Facebook group! Talk in the forum!
February 18th, 2009
Trials and tribulations of a fan girl.
Most people don’t have to spend much time with me before they discover that I have unique tastes. For example, I will pretty happily eat raw ramen, and I prefer sitting upside-down in a chair as opposed to the proper way. This weekend my longest running example of unique taste was tested at Animation on Display.
We were fortunate enough to be asked to be guests at AOD this past weekend. Maybe it was because Three Panel Soul really is a convention draw; but I’d rather think it was because we live 20 minutes from where the convention is held in San Francisco and we’re friends with the staff. In any case, we were there with the likes of Ken Pontac, Richard Epcar, and my ultimate crush, Jonny Yong Bosch (JYB for future references….and there will be lots of them).
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came out in 1993. I was 10 or so and had never really seen an Asian in television. Then the Black Power Ranger, Zach, was replaced by Adam, the new cute Asian on the block. I was smitten on sight….or about as smitten an 10 year old can be. After three or four reincarnations of the Power Rangers I stopped watching. It had gotten a bit too ridiculous even for me and they took Adam away. *By this point I still had not received the Zords as a Christmas or birthday present (something to this day that I’m a little miffed about and should rectify with Ebay; but this is actually totally irrelevant to the point I will eventually make.)
I lost sight of JYB at this time and was forced to love Ensign Harry Kim from Star Trek Voyager instead.
In 2002 I met my husband Ian and somehow convinced him to let me come to Otakon 2003 with Mac Hall. I didn’t actually know anything about anime at the time and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I think Trigun must have also been very popular at the time because who else was at the convention? JYB, that’s right. Unfortunately, Mac Hall got slammed that year and I was unable to see him. I sat down at my terminal at the airport to go home sad and dejected, Trigun card and silver sharpie in hand, when a friendly gentleman who had also attended Otakon asked, “Isn’t the JYB over there?” pointing to the adjacent terminal. After a bit of hyperventilating and adjustment of my DigiCarat hat, I shuffled over, sharpie and card in hand and blurted out
“MR.BOSCHYOU’REMYFAVORITEPOWERRANGER
CANIHAVEYOURAUTOGRAPH?!”
I think he must have thought that I was special; but I got an autograph and a picture none the less.
Many cons have come and gone since then, many with JYB at them; but this year I finally got my head together to talk to him like a normal person. After all, we were guests, he was a guest. Equal terms right? Nope. I couldn’t muster up a single word to him until a friend on staff at the convention, Albert, conveniently placed him beside me at the guest dinner. (Ian was on the other side of me and is well aware of my crush.) I realized where I had been placed and shot Albert a nasty look as he smiled largely at me. (My crush is pretty well known amongst my friends.) I really spent most of the dinner talking with Ken Pontac, who is a real treat to talk to if you get the chance. Occasionally JYB would share a story or have a bit of input; but for the most part I really only talked to him while explaining the food on the menu. I left that night saddened by the realization that JYB is just a guy.
All my friends on staff couldn’t wait to hear how my dinner went and whether or not I actually talked to JYB. I told them with a sigh that I had and that he was really just a guy. I’m sure this sounds silly; but I’ve been crazy about him since I was 10, so this realization was ruff for me. I felt though that this was maybe better for me to know. JYB is just a guy. I don’t need to hyperventilated around him and can talk to him like a normal person; but I still wanted him to be the Power Ranger I was smitten with. Now my image of what I wanted him to be was lost.
Sunday night I listened to the special podcast by S-Words interviewing JYB. It was an interesting interview and quite amusing; but the end is what really made me smile. At the end of the podcast everyone did a sound off of things related to JYB. I only wanted to hear one thing all weekend at the convention. Those three little words that would rekindle my love of JYB….that’s it…..just three little words….then JYB yelled into the microphone…
IT’S MORPHIN TIME!
I’m smitten all over again. ^_^
Here’s some pictures from the convention.
