Archive for February, 2008

books for thought - February’s readings

Published by kindli on February 28, 2008 in books and reading. 0 Comments

At the very end of January I finished How to Make Love like a Porn Star, a cautionary tale by Jenna Jameson, but I will lump it here with the rest of my February reading. Most of the book was depressing, and although the book ended on a positive note, wikipedia was less cheerful.

Kafka is bad. I don’t know why I picked up a copy of Kafka’s Collected Short stories, but I have again been reminded of why I am not a huge fan of German writers (including Herman Hesse and Bertold Brecht). They are crazy (Kafka wrote about turning into a cockroach). I could give them the benefit of the doubt, and say they were living in some pretty difficult times, but that does not mean I have to enjoy their works now that I am no longer obligated to read them for german lit classes.

Go see the film that was inspired by this book: Marie Antoinette: the Journey. Do not read the book unless you have to for a French history class (or a biography class studying women, even then I can suggest several better books about far more interesting women of that approximate time). The book reinforces the spoiled/sheltered/clueless image portrayed by the movie, and adds historical context (which is only relevant if you can keep your Fredricks, Ferdinands, Louiss, Marias and over-arching European history straight).

I can “make anything!”

Published by kindli on February 21, 2008 in cooking. 0 Comments

This evening for dinner I made orange chicken accompanied by pot-stickers, rice and broccoli.

Although the homemade pot-stickers have only been improvements on my previous attempts, I think I am going to buy them from Trader Joe’s from now on.

I mentioned this to Gavin, and I also mentioned that I would “need to get more chicken” if we were going to have the meal again.

Gavin looked quite confused. “You bought the chicken at Trader Joe’s?” Well, yes. “As in a bag of orange chicken?” Exactly.

Gavin’s logic: “When I came home the other day there was a homemade decadent four layer chocolate cake with a raspberry heart on top straight out of Martha Stewart!”

So naturally he assumed I had made the chicken from scratch as well. After all, I can “make anything!”

I love my Gavin.

the Gavin has Landed, and dinner was fantastic

Published by kindli on February 15, 2008 in cooking and family. 0 Comments

Gavin came home from NYC yesterday. He didn’t bring me a card, chocolates or flowers, but that was OK, he came home and that is what is important. 

Dinner was caesar salad, lasagna, green beans and garlic bread, followed by the decadent four layer chocolate cake. 

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I used Valentines Day as an excuse to use our nice plates, I figured if “I’m bored” and “because I could” are acceptable reasons, a random holiday (like President’s Day, Cinco de Mayo or Flag Day) was a good enough reason to use them as well. 

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It is 0 days, 15 hours, 3 minutes and 33 seconds until Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 11:25:00 AM (San Francisco time)*

Published by kindli on February 13, 2008 in adventures, cooking and family. 1 Comment

Gavin has been in NYC attending O’Reily’s Tools of Change conference, which meant I had to drive from SFO back home on my own. I’m quite proud to say I didn’t get lost, not once!With Gavin in NYC, I’ve been keeping busy: our apartment is spotless, I went into Santa Rosa to get the oil in our car changed, the “express” lube took an hour and forty-five minutes, I’ve done some grocery shopping, baking, and met two candidates for county supervisor. 

With Valentines Day coinciding with Gavin’s return home, I decided to bake Martha Stewart’s Cake of the Month, a rather decadent four-layer chocolate cake with layers of mousse and chocolate ganache. I substituted  raspberry jelly for Kaluha, and skipped the cashew brittle garnish opting for fresh raspberries instead.

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I can honestly say this is quite possibly one of the most difficult cakes I have ever attempted. I had to separate 9 eggs, wash several mixing bowls (multiple times), take the temperature of things, use ice water baths, whisk until “set” (how descriptive), and improvise on ingredients (cream fraise). I am so grateful to have a stand mixer for things like “whisk egg whites until they form medium firm peaks.” I also had to cut a 9-inch cake round (was supposed to be 8 inch rounds) in to four evenly cut pieces with a less-than-great serrated knife.

I have sampled the layers individually and each one is beyond decadent. When I went to assemble it I found the spring form was 1/2 an inch too large all the way around (supposed to be 8-inch, I had 10 inch and 9 inch rounds) and offered no help in assembling the cake. Mousse and ganache oozed from the weight of the cake. It was quite the sight to behold.

Of course I assembled it on the platter, so the bits oozed onto the counter rather impressively. Fortunately once it got in the refrigerator everything firmed up, although some small cracks appeared in the ganache topping. Sad, but I’m sure it will still taste amazing.  

*At the time this was copied & pasted this was how long it would be until Gavin’s flight landed (in an ideal world). 

demon kitty sees you

Published by kindli on February 8, 2008 in townhouse. 1 Comment

Demon Kitty is one of the neighborhood cats who frequently visits our back yard. When we first moved in, he inspected our car, and gave our house a preliminary walk through. 

Today I caught him spying on me through the plantation shutters. It was unnerving to turn and see him intently glaring at me. He did not seem pleased to be on the outside looking in.  

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Sorry Demon Kitty, you have to stay outside, and please stop running behind our car when I back out of the garage. 

Have a fantastic day Mr. Tele-marketer

Published by kindli on February 7, 2008 in California and adventures. 2 Comments

Attention Tele-marketers (or inside-sales people, whatever you want to call yourselves), if you’re going to call be prepared.

I have done inside-sales and worked with people doing inside-sales. There is an art to it, you do your research, you look up your potential person, you have their information, if it is a company or school you look up their website and have some factoids that can support your sale. If its an individual, have some statistics about the product readily available and ask to confirm the information you (should) already have.

Have a phone that works, if your phone connection is bad I won’t be able to hear you. Yes, it is *your* phone that is at fault, ours works just fine. If you say hello five or six times, then clearly your phone has issues. I heard you, but you weren’t listening.

Clearly explain what you’re offering before you start asking for details.

About details, you should know my city, state and zip code. I should not have to give them to you, and if you don’t already know my home address, don’t bother calling. I’m not going to disclose that information over the phone, especially when you haven’t explained why you’re calling.

Don’t sound so shocked when I ask *why* you want the information. The connection on the phone is bad, and don’t be more surprised when I tell you I’m not interested. We already canceled our local paper subscription (grocery cart theft made the front page, thrilling reading let me tell you), and they have crazies who call to try to get us to re-subscribe.

Your 30-day free trial offer sounds sketchy, especially because you don’t seem to know where Sebastapol is, you don’t know my name, and you don’t already have our address.

Have a fantastic day Mr. Tele-marketer, good luck duping someone else out of their information, you will not dupe me!

we had more chicken tonight!

Published by kindli on February 5, 2008 in cooking. 0 Comments

After the roast chicken carcass was picked clean, the remains were tossed back into the pot. I added celery, scallions, carrots, some garlic, and pepper. The mess was covered with cold (filtered) water and brought to a boil. This was the first time I had ever made chicken stock, so I checked on it about every twenty minutes.

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The stock looked interesting and smelled great. Right now it is in the fridge cooling off, I’m hoping the fat will solidify around the edges so it is easier to pick off. Eventually I’m going to use the stock to make chicken noodle soup.

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Dinner was a creative way to use up leftover chicken. Some butter, some cream cheese, some spices mashed up with the chicken and wrapped up in Pillsbury crescent rolls. I’d made them once before (in October?), and Gavin was quite excited to see the flakey little pouch on his plate next to the green beans. 

Gavin commented it seemed like we were going to have a lot of chicken. Well, yes: the little naked organic free range chicken was 5 pounds… it makes lots of leftovers. 

We had chicken tonight!

Published by kindli on February 4, 2008 in cooking. 0 Comments

This evening for dinner I made French Roast Chicken in a Pot. The recipe was from Cooks Illustrated a few months back and the recipe caught my eye, it uses the same pot I used to make my no-knead bread, and I’m going to use it to make chicken stock and chicken noodle soup.

This evening was my first ever attempt at doing anything with an entire chicken. I’ve used boneless skinless chicken bits before, but never a chicken in its entirety. The chicken selected for dinner was a free range organic chicken that probably led a happy life. For what organic free range chickens cost, they had better lead very happy lives.

The little chicken looked quite ugly and slightly sad sitting on the cutting board. The slight salt and pepper rub did nothing to enhance it’s appearance.

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Roasting the chicken was easier than I anticipated. The recipe said to brown it breast down for a few minutes, then rotate it and let the vegetables brown some before putting it in the oven. That was all quite easy. I didn’t burn myself, or harm the chicken in the process.

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so much for the patriots

Published by kindli on February 3, 2008 in California and fun. 0 Comments

The first half of the Super Bowl lasted from 3:30 until nearly 5: each quarter is (theoretically) 15 minutes. Football is one of those sports where 15 minutes magically morphs into forty five, and every three seconds there is a commercial break.

This year the average commercial cost about $2.7 million dollars, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the commercials took longer than the game.

The Super Bowl is the only football game I watch all year, I watch it mostly for the commercials. This year I nearly watched the MythBusters 18-hour viewers choice marathon, but Gavin insisted that we watch the Super Bowl. Yes, I’m from Texas where Football is a religion, I’m a heretic.

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A Weird Louisiana Thing

Published by kindli on February 1, 2008 in cooking and family. 0 Comments

For as long as I can remember, every year in the dead of mid-winter Mom would come home triumphantly carrying a white box from the grocery store’s bakery. The box was usually decorated in purple, green and yellow with harlequins or masks; the pastry inside in the form of a lumpy oblong, and there was usually a little plastic nude seated in the green, yellow and purple sugar and glaringly white icing. Occasionally they were even brazen enough to label it as “authentic New Orleans” King Cake.

Every year Mom would try to explain the significance of the King Cake, and the mid-winter festivities associated with it. Each of the colors meant something, and they were only made for a few weeks a year. She would talk about Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and Lent like it meant something. Then again, she spent what she calls her “formative years” in New Orleans.

I don’t really remember the significance, but I remember the little naked fellow was supposed to be Jesus (as a baby, so it was OK for him to be in the nude). Theoretically little naked Jesus was to be hidden in the cake, and the person that found him was supposed to buy/make the next cake and throw the next party.

Inevitably that never really happened, Mom would invite a half-dozen or so people over and we’d all have cake. A week or so later, another cake would appear, and a few more people would be invited over. Sometimes the “baby” would make it into the cake, but the little nudes usually collected in a container near the cupcake wrappers (no one wanted to misplace baby Jesus and accidently slice him in half, or choke on him).

I am not the sort of person who feels that food should be limited to certain times of the year (with the possible exception of Thanksgiving turkey), so when I came across a recipe for King Cake I decided to give it a try. The fact I am making this cake at approximately the “right” time of year is merely coincidental.

Actually, now that I look at the recipe factoid, I might not be on schedule, but that’s OK.

Served beginning on Epiphany, or Twelfth Night (January 6), it’s enjoyed right on through Mardi Gras, a sweet symbol of this festive season. The sugars decorating the top of the cake mirror the color scheme of many a Mardi Gras parade float: gold (yellow) for power, green for faith, and purple for justice.

When I (rather proudly) told Gavin that I had made a King Cake, I got a rather blank stare. When I tried to further explain it with the wiki entry and some google images, the response came back: So it’s a weird Louisiana thing?

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