P.S. It looks like I may have another (though briefer) Summer of Spandex in the works. With any luck I'll stop working after July and bike up the Rockies from Denver to Kalispell on the way to a family vacation in Idaho.
So I'm really looking forward to both that and a mildly planned trip in late May to the boundary waters with Nate, Mitchell, and Amber. Friends! Canoes! Fishing! Hopefully not too many bugs! And I get to try out a new backpacking tent I picked up on sale from DepartmentOfGoods.com.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
April now
As of a few weeks ago, I am officially an applicant for master's programs in Delft, Netherlands (BME), Aalborg, Denmark (BME), and Zurich, Switzerland (Neural Systems and Computation)... should hear back in two months or so (to start this fall). As of last Wednesday, I have finally renewed my studio membership for ceramics after two months off. As of yesterday morning, I now have a nephew, Ozias. As of right now, I should go clean up my dishes/etc from dinner so I can go to bed soon and get up for work in the morning.
Short post, yeah?
Short post, yeah?
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Bread Time. This is How You Do It.
I made a bunch of bread for the family Thanksgiving feast. Sweet potato, cheddar/mustard, mushroom, beer, carrot, and Irish soda. Nine loaves of six different kinds - doubled up on sweet potato, beer, and Irish soda breads.
Overall they turned out quite well. I put extra cheese in the cheddar bread, which ended up overpowering the subtle flavors normally given by the whole grain mustard and the cayenne pepper. So that was a mistake, though not the worst possible. I will now tell you how to make the Irish soda bread. It caught my eye because, one - it's leavened by baking soda, so there was no double or triple two-hour rising, and two - you put raisins in it... after soaking them in Jameson whiskey.
So here's how you make Irish soda bread.
Step one: Jameson
Step two: Jameson.
Step 3: make the bread.
Step 4: what step four? (that is to say: Jameson)
This bread is really halfway between a bread and a scone, mostly having less sugar and butter than a scone. I was happy with how it turned out. Soaking the raisins in Jameson not only gives them a fuller flavor, but also re-hydrates them to a degree and keeps the surface raisins from burning in the oven.
Here's the pile-o'-bread, courtesy of The Bread Bible, a fantastic recipe book that makes me much better at baking bread than I in fact am.
(beer bread and soda bread wrapped in polystyrene, other breads in tin foil)
Note on Step 3: one possible improvement is to get someone to do it for you.
Overall they turned out quite well. I put extra cheese in the cheddar bread, which ended up overpowering the subtle flavors normally given by the whole grain mustard and the cayenne pepper. So that was a mistake, though not the worst possible. I will now tell you how to make the Irish soda bread. It caught my eye because, one - it's leavened by baking soda, so there was no double or triple two-hour rising, and two - you put raisins in it... after soaking them in Jameson whiskey.
So here's how you make Irish soda bread.
Step one: Jameson
Here's the pile-o'-bread, courtesy of The Bread Bible, a fantastic recipe book that makes me much better at baking bread than I in fact am.
Note on Step 3: one possible improvement is to get someone to do it for you.
Monday, May 23, 2011
SOOUUUUUP!!!!
Share tonight's soup experience? Why of course.
It was inspired by sukiyaki and shabu shabu style foods I ate in Busan a few weeks back - not in the presentation mode so much as general thought - cook up a broth for a while, then add some nice fresh ingredients just a few minutes before eating. Actually cooking it on the table seemed a little overkill. Apart from a vegetable stock I spent an arduous half a day making once, this is certainly the tastiest soup base I've ever done - great basic flavor from the mushroom/onion saute, but a lot of depth is added by the deglazing mixture. But really I haven't made many soups, so there wasn't much competition.
This should make 3-4 modest servings.
the base
Saute half a chopped onion in a little olive oil (1 or 2 T is plenty). Get it well on its way to being caramelized. In fact, if you're not as hungry as I was, go ahead and caramelize it. A little before the onion's done, add a handful or two of thickly sliced mushrooms (any kind but white mushrooms), and throw in a couple teaspoons of salt for good measure.
the rest
Let it continue cooking. Stir frequently but not continuously, and when it's ready (you'll really smell the mushrooms nicely), deglaze with a couple liberal tablespoons of some vinegar. I used garlic-flavored wine vinegar. Balsamic and other wine vinegars - including rice - would work, too. Throw in a couple teaspoons soy sauce and a couple t. fish sauce if you're up to it. Let this simmer for a few more minutes over medium heat, then turn the heat up to high and add 2-ish quarts of water and a bay leaf. I also added a splash of a mushroom broth base gel concentrate thing I found at some grocery store and a few ounces of leftover ground beef (already cooked. with taco seasoning...).
Bring the water to a light boil and throw in a package of uncooked lo mein noodles. When it starts boiling again turn the heat back to medium/medium-high. After the noodles have cooked, throw in some sliced veggies'n'stuff. I put in bok choy, green onions, and fresh cilantro. Let it simmer on medium heat for a couple minutes and you're good to go.
the verdict
lo mein noodles are much easier to eat with chopsticks than udon noodles. also, remember to take the bay leaf out before you spoon yourself a bowl.
It was inspired by sukiyaki and shabu shabu style foods I ate in Busan a few weeks back - not in the presentation mode so much as general thought - cook up a broth for a while, then add some nice fresh ingredients just a few minutes before eating. Actually cooking it on the table seemed a little overkill. Apart from a vegetable stock I spent an arduous half a day making once, this is certainly the tastiest soup base I've ever done - great basic flavor from the mushroom/onion saute, but a lot of depth is added by the deglazing mixture. But really I haven't made many soups, so there wasn't much competition.
This should make 3-4 modest servings.
the base
Saute half a chopped onion in a little olive oil (1 or 2 T is plenty). Get it well on its way to being caramelized. In fact, if you're not as hungry as I was, go ahead and caramelize it. A little before the onion's done, add a handful or two of thickly sliced mushrooms (any kind but white mushrooms), and throw in a couple teaspoons of salt for good measure.
the rest
Let it continue cooking. Stir frequently but not continuously, and when it's ready (you'll really smell the mushrooms nicely), deglaze with a couple liberal tablespoons of some vinegar. I used garlic-flavored wine vinegar. Balsamic and other wine vinegars - including rice - would work, too. Throw in a couple teaspoons soy sauce and a couple t. fish sauce if you're up to it. Let this simmer for a few more minutes over medium heat, then turn the heat up to high and add 2-ish quarts of water and a bay leaf. I also added a splash of a mushroom broth base gel concentrate thing I found at some grocery store and a few ounces of leftover ground beef (already cooked. with taco seasoning...).
Bring the water to a light boil and throw in a package of uncooked lo mein noodles. When it starts boiling again turn the heat back to medium/medium-high. After the noodles have cooked, throw in some sliced veggies'n'stuff. I put in bok choy, green onions, and fresh cilantro. Let it simmer on medium heat for a couple minutes and you're good to go.
the verdict
lo mein noodles are much easier to eat with chopsticks than udon noodles. also, remember to take the bay leaf out before you spoon yourself a bowl.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
The Great Blizzard of 2011
Now won't that be an awkward title if a bigger one hits yet this year? I'll take the chance... really living on the edge, you could say.
It's a pretty cool thing when it snows enough to practically shut down a city. Not everything is closed, obviously, but a lot is. I like to pretend that everything except snow removal has shut down: 2.9 million people, 10 million if you count the greater metropolitan area, united by 24 hours of pounding snow, thundering winds, and thundering, well, thunder. It would be a good day to have cross-country skis. And to know how to cross-country ski.
People are out in the street digging their cars out of drifts that cover their hood, and in some cases everything else. The lucky ones have shovels. Cameron will be using a bucket to dig his car out if he's going to get to work tomorrow. A "bail out" of a different sort, perhaps.
So for today everything has slowed to a walking pace, almost literally. The major streets are more or less drivable, but side streets - plowed or not - are dominated by pedestrians on their way to and from the lake shore. Anyhow, I joined their ranks, camera in hand, and came back with over a hundred pictures (well, 101). These are just a few of them.
It's a pretty cool thing when it snows enough to practically shut down a city. Not everything is closed, obviously, but a lot is. I like to pretend that everything except snow removal has shut down: 2.9 million people, 10 million if you count the greater metropolitan area, united by 24 hours of pounding snow, thundering winds, and thundering, well, thunder. It would be a good day to have cross-country skis. And to know how to cross-country ski.
People are out in the street digging their cars out of drifts that cover their hood, and in some cases everything else. The lucky ones have shovels. Cameron will be using a bucket to dig his car out if he's going to get to work tomorrow. A "bail out" of a different sort, perhaps.
So for today everything has slowed to a walking pace, almost literally. The major streets are more or less drivable, but side streets - plowed or not - are dominated by pedestrians on their way to and from the lake shore. Anyhow, I joined their ranks, camera in hand, and came back with over a hundred pictures (well, 101). These are just a few of them.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A New Year. So many one's!!!1!11!!
1.11.11. Good grief just wait until November! Why not make a new post? It's 2011, Chicago has been home for just over a year, got a few more miles on the bike, watched some more Netflix, done a little more ceramics, and of course the laundry is in terrible need of being done.
And that sums up the past six months. Hm. That was supposed to be a joke, but thinking about it, it's pretty true. Yeah, I jumped out of a plane in September, traveled to Syracuse back in October, shot a couple more deer in Indiana in November, and went to Madison for Christmas. But overall not a whole lot has changed. Thinking about it, I guess I might say that change isn't as natural when you have a routine that lasts for more than two or three months - you really have to be proactive about introducing anything new in your life. It's kinda fun.
Bedtime. Peace.
And that sums up the past six months. Hm. That was supposed to be a joke, but thinking about it, it's pretty true. Yeah, I jumped out of a plane in September, traveled to Syracuse back in October, shot a couple more deer in Indiana in November, and went to Madison for Christmas. But overall not a whole lot has changed. Thinking about it, I guess I might say that change isn't as natural when you have a routine that lasts for more than two or three months - you really have to be proactive about introducing anything new in your life. It's kinda fun.
Bedtime. Peace.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Settled in?
It is July. July 21st, to be specific. One year ago this past Sunday was Nate's and my last day cycling in California. That was a weird thing to realize (and yes, I only know the actual date because of the journal I wrote in last summer). One year ago today, Nate got on his plane and flew back east. One year ago tomorrow, I got on the morning train from San Diego to LA, and then got on the train in LA for the 35 hr trek to San Antonio. I found out on that stretch that a couple pounds of grapes and a big bag of chips really is not sufficient food for that long of a trip. When they're the only thing you're eating, chips and grapes both get old. Fast.
And now here I am - past the six month mark at my job in Chicago working with monkeys and all that. This is the longest I've worked full time in one stretch. So far my only days off have been a few three day weekends that, apart from the holiday weekends, involved working four 10-hour days to make up for the missed day (can't complain about the flexibility to do that, though, can I?). And I'm really not getting tired of it. Occasionally I'll get struck by bouts of wanderlust, not helped by reading my friend Neil Friesen's blog, in which he details the six month, 10,000 mile bike tour he is in the midst of to raise awareness for MDS (the Mennonite Disaster Service, though if you're reading this you probably already knew that). His plan is to touch all of the lower 48 during this stretch following working several years as a resident director at Hesston College in Kansas.
Overall, though I certainly plan to complete further such adventures, I'm content to be in Chicago for a while now. I'm not sure what that contentedness means, but I'm not complaining. Maybe it's just the satisfaction of earning money and being in a state of independent financial stability.
There's not a whole lot new going on. My cousin/roommate Cameron (and, by consequence, me as well) just adopted an adult cat last weekend. Her (new) name is Bella, and she seems to be adjusting to her new home pretty well. We both would've preferred a dog, but the apartment doesn't allow it. The apartment was a good choice, though occasionally things fall apart and we have to go through a bit of a song-and-dance routine to get maintenance to not just come in and say, "oh, it looks fine," but actually fix it. But overall it was a good move.
Here are a couple pictures. Make your eyes useful and appreciate this stuff.
And now here I am - past the six month mark at my job in Chicago working with monkeys and all that. This is the longest I've worked full time in one stretch. So far my only days off have been a few three day weekends that, apart from the holiday weekends, involved working four 10-hour days to make up for the missed day (can't complain about the flexibility to do that, though, can I?). And I'm really not getting tired of it. Occasionally I'll get struck by bouts of wanderlust, not helped by reading my friend Neil Friesen's blog, in which he details the six month, 10,000 mile bike tour he is in the midst of to raise awareness for MDS (the Mennonite Disaster Service, though if you're reading this you probably already knew that). His plan is to touch all of the lower 48 during this stretch following working several years as a resident director at Hesston College in Kansas.
Overall, though I certainly plan to complete further such adventures, I'm content to be in Chicago for a while now. I'm not sure what that contentedness means, but I'm not complaining. Maybe it's just the satisfaction of earning money and being in a state of independent financial stability.
There's not a whole lot new going on. My cousin/roommate Cameron (and, by consequence, me as well) just adopted an adult cat last weekend. Her (new) name is Bella, and she seems to be adjusting to her new home pretty well. We both would've preferred a dog, but the apartment doesn't allow it. The apartment was a good choice, though occasionally things fall apart and we have to go through a bit of a song-and-dance routine to get maintenance to not just come in and say, "oh, it looks fine," but actually fix it. But overall it was a good move.
Here are a couple pictures. Make your eyes useful and appreciate this stuff.
First calzone attempt (last night). Tasty as hell.
Kitty! She's still shy.
First attempt at tofu (stir-fry w/leeks, garlic, spices, and a little chicken). Basically, yeah, I rock.
Sunset from the windows by the elevator bank on our floor after a storm passed through.
The first big storm that came through after we moved in (looking SSE toward more Southside Chicago/some of the lake).
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