lanalucy: (K L happy)
So I did some experimenting the last couple of weeks - not that kind, geez! - and learned a valuable lesson. Bread making machines are wonderful. And dry yeast must be at room temperature to work properly. Yes, you do use science after high school.

Irish Soda bread worked great - I had just opened the jar of yeast.
Sour Cream bread - tasted good, but the middle/top never rose properly - used yeast right out of the jar from the fridge
Banana Oat bread - never rose properly, middle wasn't done (that one, I think I'll have to pick a longer baking time, probably) - used yeast right out of the jar from the fridge
Cinnamon bread - WIN. Technically it's cinnamon raisin bread, but raisins are disgusting, so I don't even buy them, much less put them in something that's going to go in my mouth. I thought about cranberries, and if I do it again, I might add them, but I didn't want to waste them if the bread didn't work again. It did make a very small loaf. Anyway, at four this morning it was delicious hot with melting butter. I think it needs more cinnamon. Landlord says the cinnamon stays with you. Eh. Still think it needs more.

The only thing I did different for the cinnamon bread was I measured out the two teaspoons of dry yeast onto a paper towel and waited a while to put everything into the machine.

These were all made from recipes out of The Bread Machine Baker by Harbison. I wish that was available digitally, because I would totally buy it (well, put it on my wishlist) for my own kitchen, assuming someday I get my own kitchen again. :sigh: Also, I will need a bread machine. Definitely. The only thing I don't really like is digging that little wing thing out of the bottom of the loaf. That's kind of a pain in the ass. And tears up the bread.

The bread can be made with little notice, so when landlord's going to need bread for whatever he's going to eat that week, I can make it myself. Saves money and is healthier. Also satisfies this weird thing I have about baking lately. 

Recipe

Dec. 25th, 2013 03:03 am
lanalucy: (K L happy)
I made Chicken Noodle Soup and it came out great!


ETA:  Several days later, the leftovers are even better!

Baking

Dec. 14th, 2013 01:21 pm
lanalucy: (33)
The gaming group is here again today, so I tried some new recipes:  oatmeal, peanut butter, and spicy cheddar shortbread cookies, and a Russian apple pie.

The first three, I mixed the dough last night and refrigerated them all - for the spicy cheddar shortbread, this is part of the recipe, so I just did them all this way.

I subbed cranberries for raisins in the oatmeal.  Having the dough cool when I started working with it made a bit of difference.  I had an oblong lump, and I cut it into slices, then those slices into three or four pieces.  It made for odd-shaped cookies, but they were no less tasty.

I used chunky peanut butter in my peanut butter cookies.  What is the point of using creamy and then adding chopped peanuts?  That's just ridiculous, if you ask me.  Those came out good, as well, though I need to remember for next time to flour my hands before rolling the dough into balls.  ETA:  I just noticed the second set out of the oven were a little burnt on the bottom.  Need to watch the time very precisely.

The spicy cheddar shortbread was the clear winner of today, though.  It's a fairly simple recipe, as far as number of ingredients is concerned.  It's also a bit of work.  I shredded the cheese myself, because a) the cheese is cheaper in blocks and b) they put weird stuff in shredded cheese to preserve it.  I might try pepperjack cheese next time instead of cheddar.  They were really great the way I prepared them, though.

The Russian apple pie, on the other hand, not so much.  It sounds really good, and the prep is easy, but the end result is just sort of blah.  Baked apples with some coating on them.  I think I'll mark that one as a failure and move on.  Too bad, because the person I got the recipe from raved about how great it was, and how much his dad loved it every time he made it for him.

Three out of four ain't bad, though.  :D

If you want any of the recipes, I've got them in GDocs, so I can share them easily.
lanalucy: (33)
Today's BlogHer prompt:  Name five things in your refrigerator right now and how you feel about them.

There's this chocolate with chili in it that I get at Aldi.  It comes in little flat rectangles that are the perfect size, and the chili gives the chocolate a little bite.  I quite like those.

I've got all the makings for my own trail mix - I'm weird and hate raisins.  Not too fond of almonds or peanuts, either, and both are pretty common in trail mix.  So I've been picking up packages of the kinds of nuts I do like at the local natural grocer, and picking up gluten-free cereal at Aldi, and adding in dried cranberries.  It's a pretty decent pick-me-up when it's not appropriate to eat an actual meal, and it's healthier than something I've bought ready-made, since I can mix raw and salted nuts and mix n match the cereal.  It's a bit time-consuming, but at least it's not cooking.  lol

Fresh-brewed tea - my recipe - in convenient 32-ounce powerade bottles.  I like my iced tea slushy or mostly ice, and these powerade bottles are the perfect size for easy freezing and breaking up the ice for drinking.

Strawberries - the strawberry season is obviously winding down, as there were very few containers without some mold in them, but I got one.  They're just at the edge of going over mushy, but they're still edible, and they're very sweet.

Hard-boiled eggs.  Just did them after we got back from the store today.  One egg is a perfect protein hit, particularly at bedtime - I have a problem waking up with low blood-sugar, so some protein right at bedtime helps me combat that.

Alternatively: You're being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with five foods.  What do you pick?

Hmm.  Provided everything would be supplied at the proper temperature and ripeness/freshness and that freshwater rather than salt water is available on the island....strawberries or oranges; pork tamales with carne sauce; fresh eggs; corn tortillas; ground beef.  I could supplement this with whatever fruit grows on the island, and catch my own fish/crab.  Winnowing it down to five foods is hard, y'all.  
lanalucy: (Fandom)
Decided since I had to turn the oven on for dinner, I'd just keep it on and make cookies.  Frakkin' gas oven heats up the entire neighborhood.  Used a Kitchen-Aid for the first time.  Man, that is a thousand times better than a hand mixer.  Oh, yes.

Baked from a recipe given to me by [livejournal.com profile] texaswillow, and it didn't turn out quite as well as hers usually do.  But you know, that's just because she's got this cookie thing down to a science (pretty much all she does during November and December is bake cookies and work.  lol  Luckily, I'm a taste-tester for her new recipes.  And she lets me lick the paddles sometimes.  While we cackle at the TV and make rude comments on the various attributes of the eye-candy presented for our delectation.  :D

Anyway, I subbed generic splenda for the sugar, and it didn't make any difference to me in taste, so one thing down in the quest for healthier cookies.

Now I haz cookies.  Chocolate chip, of course.  I want to try the oatmeal-chocolate chip next.

Since I had to be in there anyway, I went ahead and made two days worth of tea.  One less thing to do tomorrow.

Now I can finally sit down and eat the dinner that's been cooling for forty minutes.  lol

Landlord:  Have you ever heard the song Bare Necessities?
Me:  From the Jungle Book?
Landlord:  Yes.
Me:  Dude, I'm 48 years old.  Of course I've heard the song.  :starts singing it in my head:
Landlord:  Well, I'm only a year younger than you and I've never seen the movie all the way through.  I'd never heard the song.

No.  He did not just say he's never gotten all the way through Disney's Jungle Book.  Nuh-uh.  Now I'll have to find a copy somewhere, 'cause that just doesn't sit right.  I mean, this new crap they make?  I can take or leave that, but Jungle Book?  No.

Of course, his point was that he'd been listening to the radio and Louis Armstrong had recorded a version of BN back in the 70s (it was 1973 on the radio tonight).  My point is Jungle Book.  lol

Now, back to editing, betaing and writing.  In that order.  And no cookies until I'm done editing. :stern look at self:

Wow.  I wrote a whole post without talking about....that show.  :)
lanalucy: (crazyeclectic)

Thanks to your rec, [livejournal.com profile] callmeonetrack, I got Sins and Needles (even though it wasn't free, how about that?) and quite liked it.  I like the author's writing style and went and found the first two in the other series - one free and one for 99 cents and got those, too, since the sequel to S&N doesn't come out until summer.  There were some places where the wording or sentence structure was awkward and it could have read more smoothly, but at least I didn't find any outright errors.  :sigh:  The love scenes were meh - I like fanfiction better.  lol  Ellie is very complicated, like Kara, though I think Kara is closer to a heroine than Ellie is.  And maybe I identify more with Kara because her background is closer to mine - I was abused, not bullied, as a kid.  I think, like many people, Ellie puts way too much emphasis on her scars and makes them more important than other people would IF they even noticed them.  We all have something like that, though, I think.  I did giggle at the BSG t-shirt reference.  I think I'll skip the prequel - we'll get enough Javier in the sequel when it comes out.  Books that have unresolved endings are tricky in that they have to be cut at the right place, in order to maintain interest in the characters and to keep from pissing people off.  Halle did that.  The big questions were resolved, but there's definitely more to the story, and I'm interested enough to want to read about it.  I'm also OK that this wasn't the HEA - such a complicated story can't realistically end happily in just a few days.  One more comment about Ellie, though - for gods' sake, why didn't they dump the frakking phones and get burners?  That'd probably be the first thing I'd have done - dump the contacts info to a SIM and toss the phones.

Made blueberry muffins tonight and when I tasted one afterward, it was awful.  I did notice they didn't rise right, but still.  Turns out, when I looked at the box, its 'best by' date was May of 2012.  Ugh.  No wonder.  On both counts.

Sold something on Bonanza, tagged and filed the email, then promptly forgot about it.  Thankfully, I got a reminder email this morning, so I could ship it out.  I have to be more careful about that.  Reputation is everything in online sales.

Last night's Hawaii 5-0 was sort of fun, or at least parts of it were.  I have a friend that used to derby here in Dallas, and I kept meaning to go to a match, but she moved and I got less interested.  The focus wasn't on the derby so much in this episode, but it did make me want to go to an actual match.  What few sports I like to watch, I much prefer to do so in person, just because the energy isn't the same watching on the telly.  Steve was a complete jackass, both to his mother and his girlfriend.  He looks pretty all in black, though.  And I probably wouldn't kick him if he tried to hug me.  :)

Just for giggles, I read through all of Jamie Bamber's tweets, since he just recently joined.  He is silly and a little odd and kind of funny.  Someone made a big deal on one of his tweets, where he let Katee know he was following her, that Katee wasn't following him back and it was surprising that there was so much bad blood between them.  'Cause wow.  He joined like twelve hours ago and Katee hasn't followed him back yet so they hate each other?  Some people just like to stir up trouble, I guess.

Oh, and last but not least, one of the authors I reviewed contacted me and asked if I was available for proofing/editing work.  I'm quietly squeeing over here, because frak, yeah!

lanalucy: (crazyeclectic)
Well, you know, as happy as it gets in December.

The roast I put in the crockpot at 0530 is the best roast I ever made.  From now on, I will always make my roast from a brisket cut!  Plus, it was spiced just right, and the juice was just exactly the right thickness that it was good gravy without me actually having to make gravy.  I had to write down how I made it so I can do it again and again and again.

While I was enthusing over my fantastic roast, the mail came, and my BSG Season 3 from swapadvd was delivered!  I inspected the discs, and two might have to be taken somewhere to be run through whatever it is that smooths out the rough edges (so to speak), but the remaining six discs are pristine.  So I am now the proud owner through the end of season three, with only three questionable discs.  I'm in line for the two parts of season four, but I'm kind way down the list.  I did transfer enough credits from paperbackswap so I can get them, so it's just a matter of waiting now.

I have started using Dr Bronner's liquid soap in the shower (Hemp Almond) and it's making my skin smooth.  I like that.  And though it's kind of a strange thing to be happy about, I hardly even have to dry off after my shower.  Also, my dry skin itchies, which used to be pretty severe in the winter, have hardly made an appearance at all.

I feel asleep smiling last night because I happened to fall asleep during a particularly enjoyable John McClane moment during Die Hard 4.  Yes, I love John McClane and I don't care who frakkin' knows.  lol  I am so anxiously anticipating #5 in February.  I conned a friend of mine into seeing it with me for my birthday.  I figured it I asked now, she couldn't say there was anything else on her calendar.  :D

It is too bad that I don't know anybody who needs gifts wrapped.  The only part of the season I really enjoy is wrapping gifts.  Speaking of the season, I got an email from my stepmother, telling me that a cousin and her husband were coming in to town to visit her mom (my step-maternal aunt), and that I was welcome to come over for dinner.  That it would be good to see me.  My first thought was that she only thought it would be good to see me because it's been two years since she set eyes on me and maybe she just forgot that she doesn't really like me.  I am still debating whether or not I can handle all the negative snark aimed my way, or if I should just decline graciously.  It would be good to see my dad and my sister, and my aunt, uncle and cousin, for that matter.  I guess I should just suck it up and go, but gods I hate listening to her putting me down.

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