Out of It

Today was supposed to be a day at the Locks and then a crazy cleaning sweep, but I felt sick most of the day.

Yay, Monday is coming.

Late to the Meme

Mush was ready for bed right on time.

Packet

This afternoon and evening was quite relaxing. M and I got the roast prepped and cooking, chilled with some tunes, played some guitar, and even got in a round of cribbage.

The roast smelled great, and there were some really cool flavors, but in the end, it could have used more olives and less vinegar. The texture was ok, but could have been a bit more tender as well. Maybe we'll cook it a bit longer next time as well (we did 3.5 hrs at 190F).

Now I just need to do a bit less of the baked goods, and some more of the healthier stuff.

You Cannot Escape

We went to make sandwiches today and realized that the labels on the cold cuts had ads for new television shows on them.

This is a bit ridiculous. I remember when they put advertisements on egg shells, and now I think it's just a matter of time before each slice of turkey is branded with Jimmy Smits' face.

Fingers

I'm already able to play longer than I could a few days ago, which is encouraging.

I've mostly been working on the TP-Highway Companion and Social D - SLRR albums, all acoustic, and having some fun with it. The Social D stuff is especially sounding good, mostly because it is definitely not originally acoustic.

Anyway, it feels good to be playing again. I wish I had a band.

Get Braised

We're going for an Alton record today. Having done both pancakes and muffins, we're now doing pot roast for dinner. it takes about 4 hours to cook, so we're just getting our braising liquid (onions, garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olives) together and we'll see how things look around 8:30.

Memorial Glass Cup

I need to start meeting people out here. I would love to have a Scotch Tasting Club.

My latest brotherly installment just arrived. I've had the 10, but not the 15 before. I'm looking forward to it. He tells me this is his favorite, more than Ardbeg, which is very exciting.

How does one meet people when you're in your 30s? This is very difficult. I'm not sweating it yet, but at some point I'm sure it will start to bother me a lot more.

Because It Makes Me Happy

I woke up this morning and decided to make pancakes and muffins, although the muffins would not be for immediate consumption.

I used Alton's recipes for each (substituting yogurt for buttermilk though). The pancakes were amazing. M said they were a bit much for "everyday" pancakes (not that we eat pancakes every day), but that they were great for special occasions. So if any of you come visit, I'll make them again.

The pancakes disappeared quickly and I moved on the the muffins. The only "bits" we had were chocolate chips (no berries or anything), so that's what went into the batter. The batter was way more dry than I THOUGHT it should be, but I think that's just because I'm used to more cakey muffins.

Anyway, the texture came out great, drier than what I'm used to (as it was supposed to be), but still very tender. M pointed out that they should have more sugar next time, and fewer chocolate chips, just to even out the flavor distribution a bit. I agree.

So now I've got a lot of muffins. Anybody want one?

Tonight we're making a roast. More pictures to come, and I promise at some point, I will do something other than talk about what we've been cooking, or watching.

My Spoon Is Too Big

There's not a lot that I want to say about today, other than that I need to just learn from it and move on.

I need to reevaluate my goals and expectations (without obsessing over today), and figure out how to get where I want to be. I'll give myself until Sunday to sort that out.

I did not draw this. Bitter Films did.

It's the Flavor That Counts

We were so thrilled with the EMs, that we dove straight into pizza dough (and yeah, we've got a baking stone). The scale we got doesn't seem to give us the granular control of measurement that way we want, so we'll have to return it. Also, the pizza recipe from BBA takes 2 days and we want some now, so we go with a recipe in a book that M has.

The dough got a bit resistant, even when we let it relax, so I think a little more liquid will be better next time, but it made a perfectly tasty, if oddly shaped pie.

Today was a successful baking day.

Kitchen Helper

We had picked up some groceries, and while we ate the muffins, Mush decided to help us unpack.

B.E.M.E.

So we're back on the english muffin horse. M and I are working together on the recipe and I'm trying not to be a jerk about enforcing baking "rules" I'm not actually even good at yet.

We went with milk this time (not buttermilk), and quite a bit more of it. The dough was perfectly tacky and I was able to get really nice boules. M went with the roll-and-smush technique, which produced some rather misshapen muffins that turned out totally fine once we got them in the pan (liberally coated with butter). Maneuvering slippery muffins is difficult, as illustrated here.

Regardless of the technique, they turned out awesome, easily the best EMs we've ever had. The smaller ones were better than the bigger ones, and we'll definitely get 8 instead of 7 next time.

Thanks to Aaron and Eileen (http://webmeadow.com/ - check it out, solar-powered web design) for their expert baking advice.

I Talk TV

Yay, another TV post.

Television continues to be appalling. The new shows are premiering and I won't watch most of them. I do read reviews however, which often make me laugh, probably more than the shows would. I like how much more critical the mainstream is becoming, and yet at the same time, how much worse this makes most media seem. I am really looking forward to the death of Television, and I think it will occur in the not-too-distant future.

This graphic for the Grey's spinoff was a bit weird, not only because it is obviously just being salacious, but because the woman's torso seems seriously abnormally elongated.

Bah Weep Grah Nah Weep Ninny-Bahn.

Not Very Professional

I'm seriously getting tired of these early mornings. Tired, get it? I'm tired.

Mush is not, and he has discovered the playful cat-joys of a broken guitar string. He spends 20 minutes chewing on the broken high E and pawing. He gets a few notes and such, but he could use some practice. Also, it's like 7AM.

I spent almost literally the entire day on the phone, and M went to grab the remaining gear we need for getting our baking on. We now have a baking stone, scale, probe thermometer, and various other miscellaneous stuff. Thanks, M!

Time for cookies (from a tubey thing, not homemade tonight). Tomorrow we'll do something yeast-driven.

Oh, yeah...yeast. Comin' at ya!

Not Epiphany

Another day of not much. I worked and then napped, which was not very exciting, but was necessary...on both points I guess.

Also, we watched Dancing With The Stars, because man, is it fun.

I picked up the guitar to play, but my fingers are still too sore. Tomorrow I suppose...

Not Smart

Another work day is gone in a blink. M had her rock-climbing class, which was cool. While she was gone, I cleaned a bit, rocked out (and played along), and watched some TV.

The toilet paper bears are back. This commercial centered around attempts to remove clumps of "other" toilet paper from one of the bears' fur. There were several techniques employed to this end, but this was my favorite/most appalling. I can't wait to read in CNN about how someone tried this at home.

Also, seriously, ew.

Excessively Euphemismed

We passed this aisle, which I thought was called "Intimacy Planning" (I missed the "/") and thought that was a hilarious thing to call it.

We swung by Whole Foods so we could get some ingredients for bagels, but they also didn't have everything. Amazon, here I come.

Also, CS came by for dinner while he was in town and we hung out for a bit.

Today was nice, but I don't think I've made it sound very exciting.

They Live

We've got more baking projects to attempt, so it's off to Target to get some supplies. Of course, they don't have a good chunk of what we need, so we get some basics, but we'll have to go elsewhere for a probe thermometer and a scale.

I really don't think that anyone needs a ninja pumpkin version of Mr. Potato Head.

Not Dead Yet

I picked up a guitar again for the first time in a long while, and it felt good to play. Of course, with no callouses I could only do about 5 minutes, but I'm just going to try for a few minutes each day until my fingers come back. Hopefully it won't take too long.

We went to the park today and M walked with a friend, while I attempted some pullups, also for the first time in a while.

I like that I can just hang out on this quiet dock and watch the lake. Fall is definitely coming in fast, and days like this are going to be very scarce soon.

Swing and A Miss / Bad People

The recipe tested our boule-shaping skills, which turned out to be not so great. The dough didn't quite rise the way we expected, nor did it hold it's shape, nor did it flatten properly on the griddle, nor did it come out looking or tasting much like an english muffin. They were edible, but kinda burny.

I made some notes at M's suggestion, and we're going to try it again using milk instead of buttermilk, and using a bit more of it. I think the lack of dough sealage was due to not enough liquid.

We also realized that we didn't have anything for dinner, so I thawed some of that huge amount of leftover ground beef from the non-big-grillout on Thursday and quickly made some more burgers. Beef is so interesting to me in that I poured tons of seasonings on it and yet the flavors just didn't come through. Sometimes I think that I need to double what I THINK is the proper amount of seasoning when it comes to beef.

We stayed up late and watched Braveheart and Six Degrees of Separation, which M loved and I was kinda meh towards. M showed me a site that makes fun of the ridiculous names that people come up with for their children, which led us to wander through some baby-naming websites and we had a horribly fun time laughing at the awful names that people come up with for their babies. We also decided that we want to see someone name their boy "Shiraz" and their daughter "Zinfandel". The way I look at it, anyone who thinks these are good names was going to originally go with something much, much worse. Don't believe me? Go here.

Comparative Enthusiam

Returning home it was time for a brief lunch of leftover pizza and then english muffin-ing.

We prepared the ingredients and got ready for some hot baking action.

Total D-Bag

The gardening thing was right near the REI outdoors shop, so we wandered in. The place is ridiculous. There's a full jungle complete with waterfall outside, a huge fireplace, three floors of stuff, and a 60 foot freestanding climbing structure.

For those of you that remember that far back, I took rock climbing at school freshman year and loved it, but haven't done it for a very long time. There's a women's intro to climbing class on Monday, so we signed M up. If she likes it, I would totally love to get back into it.

Unlike a lot of the other people who were in my class, I don't really have much interest in climbing outside. I just like the act of climbing and the exercise. Everyone used to do these day trips to the 'Gunks at school and I never felt like it. On the other hand, rapelling off of the football stadium was kind of awesome. I don't know. Maybe I'll change my mind. What I DO know is that climbing gear is expensive, and that's not somewhere I want to allocate funds right now.

Anyway, that's not the point of this story. After we signed M up for the class, we took a look at the climbing structure and there were a few people going up it. One guy (on the wall at the top left of the photo) was there with his kids (maybe 10 yrs old or something), and he was going up a path while the kids watched. He had some trouble and tried an easier route. Back on the ground his kid asked if he would like it and the dad said "No. You're not ready for it. I was barely ready for it". Dude. That's just some messed up parenting. What the hell is the problem with letting the kid give it a shot? The kid is probably going to do BETTER than you. This is what kids DO. It just pissed me off. It pissed M off too.

Photo by M.

Too Early for Worms

M has been getting more and more into being "green" and that's definitely a good thing. She learned about this Seattle Tilth group that does a lot with local agriculture and recycling and such from some really cool homesteader friends of our friends who had the camp thing recently, and registered for a composting class this morning.

We thought it was going to be more about just plain old composting, but it turned out to be about how to build and maintain a worm bin, which was cool, but not exactly what we were looking for.

In any case, there are worse ways to spend a morning.

It was a bit chilly, though.

I Am Consumed By My Own Artsiness

This metaphor is simply staggering in its implications.

I should get a tattoo of this...

Anyway, the pizza was good, less thin-crust, but still very flavorful and not catchers-mitt like I would expect college pizza to be. Pizza out here is expensive, like $2.75 for a slice. Yeah, a slice. Pies can easily be upwards of 20 bucks. In NYC it is so much more common that the prices just can't be that high for it. This all makes me very glad that pizza dough and bagels (need to get some special ingredients this weekend as well) are my next projects.

Back Door

We walked through an area I hadn't been through before and passed around the back side of the local crematory, cemetary and pancake house (I'll explain that at some point).

I liked this weird, bent-metal and chain gate.

Walkin' in the Rain

The power of the sun is definitely fading, and grey seems more the norm than anything else. After work, M and I chilled for a while and did some reading. The Bread Baker's Apprentice has arrived and it is awesome. There's so much in there I want to try, and I know I need to be patient and get good at the basics before rushing off and getting into something more difficult.

M and I are going to get some needed equipment (scale, probe thermometer, and such) and get started on a couple of these this weekend. Tomorrow will be English Muffins, and then perhaps a pain à l'ancienne (good for baguettes AND pizza) once we get our gear.

M was feeling antsy so we decided to walk a ways to a pizza place we had not tried yet that is near a local university. Ah, college-ish towns. I definitely don't miss that kind of environment, which is funny when you think how much I missed it right after I left.

It was lightly raining on our way to the pizza place, but after a few minutes we didn't even notice it.

Oh, remember how I said I gave the snugglin' (not eatin') pig picture to M for use on her blog? Well, she didn't use it, so here it is.

Granny Smith

In the morning, around 6AM, I get coffee started and look out the kitchen window. For the last few days, as Fall comes in very quickly, there has been a crisp, misty smell in the air. It isn't cold, but it is brisk and bracing, and it reminds me of early summer mornings in Scotland with my brother.

Something about the smell and the feel of the air, the fog, and grey...I wish I could describe it better.

I love Scotland, and I love that every morning for the last few days, Seattle has given me a glimpse (a smell-glimpse) of it.

Spot the Cat

So, we're planning on having everyone we know over for a grill session to commemorate the end of summer. M goes on a cleaning spree, and we temporarily move everything into the office so the main apartment can be cleaned.

Much decides that this layout suits him well. Can you see the sleeping grey blob?

M has found some recipes online for a green bean salad, chili burgers, and an apple crisp, so we prepare. The recipes do not seem to perform well (yes, I blame the recipes), and only the burgers (which we've heavily modified the recipe for) are really excellent. It's fun to cook together like this, and the rearranged kitchen (I'll get pics later) is really conducive to teamwork.

In the end, most people cancel and it just winds up being us and PeterN, which is always a fun evening. Sigh. Rock on, Peter.

I've got some leftovers I need to eat.

Shark, Jumped

Remember how I said we're watching less TV? It's true.

So, I have always been a fan of the fist bump. I was a high-fiver for a long time, and when the fist bump came along I was totally down with that as well, including all the various permutations that the kids are doing nowadays. M and I are frequent users of the FB, especially to lock in a promise or a deal. It's the new pinky swear.

Anyway, this commercial comes on where two bears (Red and Blue) really have to go to the bathroom and are racing for two outhouses, one of which is equipped with "Strong" toilet paper, and the other with "Soft" paper.

Ignoring the blue bear's awkward and disturbing caressing of the soft paper, the two bears are thrilled to have these options and celebrate this event with a fist bump.

I think this means that unless we're discussing the virtues of toilet paper, or celebrating some other toilet-paper-related subject, the fist bump is now dead.

Toilet paper? Seriously? I'm offended.

Atrociouse

M and I have cut back on our TV watching, but she still loves her America's Next Top Model, a.k.a Skinny Bitchy Girls.

One of the contestants this season is named "Spontaniouse".

I'm crying a little inside.

House Hunter

M and I are reorganizing the apartment. M ran some errands on this note (need a new power drill), while I worked.

I heard a commotion and came out to see Mush locked in on a big moth that had gotten inside. He chased it all around the room and up onto the windowsill. He caught it a few times (it escaped), chewed it a bit and batted it around until it stopped responding.

I was hoping he would just eat it so I wouldn't have to throw it out, but no such luck.

Ouch, YouTube

Today is a lonely day. We don't really know anybody here and when work starts to pile up, I just want to get out of the house.

Bothersome

Later than evening, I decided to bother Mush by taking some pictures of him.

He was very annoyed at first, but eventually gave up.

Daywalkers

I needed a break on Monday afternoon, so M and I headed back to Fiore for some relaxing. On the way we passed this sign that said "Beware of Emotionally Unbalanced Dog".

At Fiore, we had some coffee, played a round of cribbage (I got spanked), and read a little.

I know I'm not a big reader, but I've been working my way through Bruce Campbell's novel "Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way", which is quite an enjoyable read so far. I like his style, and he's got a great sense of self and humor.