Twitter
I now have a twitter update section on the upper right section of my blog which I use to write updates of mundane and random things I'm doing. I've only been using it for a week and I've decided that my life is pretty mundane and many of my twitter updates are about what I ate, what I'm eating, what I'm about to eat with a few weather updates thrown in there. Nonetheless, I'll be twittering away here and there about things that do not warrent an actual blog post.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Brownie Baking Contest
Last week, we had a brownie baking contest at work. I was originally going to bake some box brownies and enter them, but having won the chocolate chip cookie contest, I thought I should put some more effort into it and bake a batch from scratch. I consulted my friend Laurel, who's a master baker, for a good brownie recipe. She too finds scratch brownies too much of a bother and usually uses a mix, but she recommended the Alton Brown recipe if I was going to the trouble. I came home from bowling Monday night pretty tired and the kitchen was messy, but I decided to use the one square foot of counter space available and bake these brownies. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I'd mixed in all the ingredients that I realized that I'd used a 1/3 measure thinking it was 1/4 and had also used a 1/2 measure mistakenly as well. I felt pretty darned frustrated at this point since all the cocoa powder sifting had left my kitchen even more messy, but I stuck them in the oven and baked them anyways. They turned out pretty good, I added a dash of mint to the recipe and entered them at work. I didn't win, but I came in 2nd which is good because I was dreading having to confess to my inability to measure dry ingredients. As you faithful blog readers may remember, this is a problem I've encountered before when I've used inaccurate amounts of butter in my baking. That said, brownies are very forgiving and taste good even when you aren't quite so accurate.
Last week, we had a brownie baking contest at work. I was originally going to bake some box brownies and enter them, but having won the chocolate chip cookie contest, I thought I should put some more effort into it and bake a batch from scratch. I consulted my friend Laurel, who's a master baker, for a good brownie recipe. She too finds scratch brownies too much of a bother and usually uses a mix, but she recommended the Alton Brown recipe if I was going to the trouble. I came home from bowling Monday night pretty tired and the kitchen was messy, but I decided to use the one square foot of counter space available and bake these brownies. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I'd mixed in all the ingredients that I realized that I'd used a 1/3 measure thinking it was 1/4 and had also used a 1/2 measure mistakenly as well. I felt pretty darned frustrated at this point since all the cocoa powder sifting had left my kitchen even more messy, but I stuck them in the oven and baked them anyways. They turned out pretty good, I added a dash of mint to the recipe and entered them at work. I didn't win, but I came in 2nd which is good because I was dreading having to confess to my inability to measure dry ingredients. As you faithful blog readers may remember, this is a problem I've encountered before when I've used inaccurate amounts of butter in my baking. That said, brownies are very forgiving and taste good even when you aren't quite so accurate.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Chocolate Chip Cookie Contest
We had a chocolate chip cookie contest complete with a blind tasting at work on Tuesday and I WON with the aforementioned chocolate chip cookie recipe from a few weeks back. They were even baked the night before and no longer ooey and gooey so just imagine how good they are fresh out of the oven. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Next week is the brownie contest for which I don't have a good recipe so I have to do some research.
We had a chocolate chip cookie contest complete with a blind tasting at work on Tuesday and I WON with the aforementioned chocolate chip cookie recipe from a few weeks back. They were even baked the night before and no longer ooey and gooey so just imagine how good they are fresh out of the oven. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Next week is the brownie contest for which I don't have a good recipe so I have to do some research.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Magical Convection Oven
Adam roasted a whole chicken for dinner using the convection roast function on our new oven. expecting it to cook in 30 minutes according to the oven manual. Unfortunately, he didn't read the manual carefully enough to see that the timing was 30 minutes per pound. Apparently, convection doesn't cook at warped speeds, but it does promote nice airflow to aid even browning. I was very hungry. That's all I have to say about that.
Adam roasted a whole chicken for dinner using the convection roast function on our new oven. expecting it to cook in 30 minutes according to the oven manual. Unfortunately, he didn't read the manual carefully enough to see that the timing was 30 minutes per pound. Apparently, convection doesn't cook at warped speeds, but it does promote nice airflow to aid even browning. I was very hungry. That's all I have to say about that.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Homecoming
Today, we rented a zipcar to drive out to CT for homecoming at Adam's alma mater. The weather was crappy out and we debated whether or not to make the 2 hour drive. We already had the zipcar reserved so we had to pay for it so I voted to check out the Nordstroms at the new Natick Collections if we weren't going to homecoming. We decided to make the drive after all and I'm glad we skipped the mall. It was cold, rainy and windy for most of the day, but we did get to wander around campus for a little bit before we headed over to a reception for the IVCF chapter there. We tried going to the local Polish place for dinner, but we couldn't find it. The following is a reconstructed conversation at a convenience store where I asked about the Polish place:
plasticann: Hi, I'm looking for a Polish restaurant called blah blah blah.
Young Convenience Store Guy: What? J and M?
plasticann: It's a Polish restaurant, the pierogi place?
YCSG: [pointing at an older woman behind the deli counter] Maybe you should ask my aunt.
plasticann: I'm looking for a Polish restaurant that is on this street?
Older Woman: Oh, that place has been gone for years. The building it was in no longer exists. They're building condos there now.
plasticann: Oh, I guess it has been eight years. I'm getting old.
We're guessing the driving range that was next to the Polish place is also now condos which would explain why we "missed" the place. The young guy probably never knew about the Polish place.
Today, we rented a zipcar to drive out to CT for homecoming at Adam's alma mater. The weather was crappy out and we debated whether or not to make the 2 hour drive. We already had the zipcar reserved so we had to pay for it so I voted to check out the Nordstroms at the new Natick Collections if we weren't going to homecoming. We decided to make the drive after all and I'm glad we skipped the mall. It was cold, rainy and windy for most of the day, but we did get to wander around campus for a little bit before we headed over to a reception for the IVCF chapter there. We tried going to the local Polish place for dinner, but we couldn't find it. The following is a reconstructed conversation at a convenience store where I asked about the Polish place:
plasticann: Hi, I'm looking for a Polish restaurant called blah blah blah.
Young Convenience Store Guy: What? J and M?
plasticann: It's a Polish restaurant, the pierogi place?
YCSG: [pointing at an older woman behind the deli counter] Maybe you should ask my aunt.
plasticann: I'm looking for a Polish restaurant that is on this street?
Older Woman: Oh, that place has been gone for years. The building it was in no longer exists. They're building condos there now.
plasticann: Oh, I guess it has been eight years. I'm getting old.
We're guessing the driving range that was next to the Polish place is also now condos which would explain why we "missed" the place. The young guy probably never knew about the Polish place.
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