The Starbucks and Yarn swap is almost done (I know, I haven't sent the package yet, but I'm very close- definitely will finish it by Sunday), so I signed up for the Falling For Ewe Autumn Yarn Swap. I saw it and considered, and then Bird signed up, so I thought I really would.
Anyway, the questionnaire.
Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been at your craft?
Knit. I find crocheting extremely awkward. I learned to knit when I was 8, and picked it up again in college because it was popular. I've knit feverishly through all 6 years of grad school.
Do you spin? What type of spinning do you do?
No, but I might get into it in the future.
Are there any other crafts that you participate in?
All my free time is spent crafting ;) Cooking, quilting, cross-stitching (although seldomly these days), card-making with scrapbooking supplies, jewelry
What are your favorite yarns/fibers?
I like soft, natural fibers. I don't have any specific favorites yet.
What are your LEAST favorite yarns/fibers?
um... I hate Lamb's Pride and any similar 1-ply things. It feels awful in my hands, for some reason, it just rubs them the wrong way, like nails on a chalkboard.
Are there any types/brands of yarn that you are dying to work with but haven’t gotten a chance?
I keep hearing about Blue Sky Alpaca, and I haven't been able to find it in my LYS. There are many, many yarns I want to try, mostly alpacas and cotton blends that I just can't afford enough for a good project.
What are your favorite types of projects to knit/crochet?
I love socks... really, I love anything that has minimal finishing to do. I hate blocking things, and sewing all pieces together, and weaving in the ends. Socks have 2 ends, and that's it. They're also easy to fit; same with hats. I'd love scarves if I found some better patterns. I'm trying to do more cardigans, because they'd be easier to fit than pullover sweaters.
What are you currently working on? Anything you plan to start this autumn?
I just cast on my second clapotis, I'm working on a wedding garter for the Ravelympics, I should finish the Papillion sweater I started when the Spring (I think) Knitscene came out, and I cast on the Phyllo Yoked Pullover a couple months ago and have only done a couple inches. I may start a bucket hat to felt, and I'll make some more socks as Christmas gifts.
What is your favorite FO? (Please, post a picture if you would like.)
I love my clap, and the Muscari socks I recently finished (photos on ravelry).
What is your oldest UFO?
heh. Actually, not too bad. I started Tatania by Berroco in 2004, and there's an error in the pattern, on the front shoulders. It's a simple fix, just increase instead of decrease, but I haven't returned to it. I imagine it will be difficult to block because I used cheap acrylic, so subconsiously, I'm not sure it's worth it.
Are their any knitting/crochet techniques that you would like to learn?
I need to learn different ways to cast on, and I still can't figure out toe-up socks.
Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
oooooooh yes. size 10 (big feet are better for weight distribution!)
Do you have a yarn winder and/or a swift?
I have a fiance, he's just as good.
Where/how to you keep you needles/hooks?
Some in a Simon Pearce ceramic vase, and some in a ceramic vase I made in high school. Not very organized, but I can easily see what I have.
Do you collect anything?
Rubber duckies, glass suncatchers, coffee-related doodads, cookbooks, shoes, supplies for making cards and supplies for making jewelry (beads, etc)
What is your favorite type of music? Are you MP3 ready?
I like quite a variety, but probably mostly renaissance and baroque choral music. I prefer Green Day and Alien Ant Farm, etc to play while working. I have a two-year old iPod.
Do you like sweets? What are your favorites?
Yes. I like gummy candy (gum-drop consistency more than gummi bears), licorice, chocolate things (especially caramels), baked goods, cake, pie, ice cream... ooh I'm hungry. I also like cheese. I know it's not sweet, but I love cheese.
What is your living situation like? Any pets? Children?
I have a tiny kitten named Pansy- although she's not a kitten, just looks like one.
Are you allergic to anything?
Fresh pineapple, which shouldn't make a difference, and other things that don't matter (just don't give me any antibiotics, please).
Do you have an online wish list (Amazon, Etsy, Loopy Ewe, etc.)? Please include links for your swap pal.
On amazon.com, under my full name.
Are you having a birthday during this swap?
no, in June :(
What is your Ravelry ID?
wamozart12
Edit: the swap coordinator mentioned she should have added a favorite color question to this. My favorite colors: pink. other shades of pink. also blue, in various shades, and brown is my favorite accent/neutral color.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Ice cream
Oh, my. I was watching the food channel last night, because synchronized diving was on NBC, and 10 minutes of that was plenty. "Unwrapped" was on. I enjoy this show, although Mark Summers annoys me (far more than he did on Double Dare). Anyway, last night was back to back Ice Cream episodes.
Warning: don't watch shows about ice cream when you don't have any in the house. This leads to unnecessary cravings. I usually have at least froyo for my post-gym smoothies, but I didn't even have that. And the nearby grocery store was closed, as was the local ice cream place. Sigh.
What I gather from these episodes were that I must have my own ice cream maker. Soon. I'm planning to register for the Kitchen Aid attachment one, but ugh my wedding is well over a year away. I might just have to get it myself.
A cooking school in Denver goes ice cream classes in the summer. I can't remember all the ones that made me drool, but black pepper was one that made me think. And I thought, I really need to incorporate ice cream into my appetizers. Ice cream does not need to be a sweet dessert concoction, it could easily be a mildly sweet, savory thing! And I then I made my yum/thinking noise, which needs to be put into letters.
Finally, they presented this website: ecreamery.com. Oh, my. You can design your own ice cream, and this clever young man in Chicago will make it for you, and mail it to you. (and then you get dry ice to play with) Check out the site. I'm in awe.
Unfortunately, it costs a fortune. A 1/2 gallon is $55 and shipping is $36.
This is why I need an ice cream maker, so I can make my own basil walnut gelato and pineapple ginger ice cream.
Warning: don't watch shows about ice cream when you don't have any in the house. This leads to unnecessary cravings. I usually have at least froyo for my post-gym smoothies, but I didn't even have that. And the nearby grocery store was closed, as was the local ice cream place. Sigh.
What I gather from these episodes were that I must have my own ice cream maker. Soon. I'm planning to register for the Kitchen Aid attachment one, but ugh my wedding is well over a year away. I might just have to get it myself.
A cooking school in Denver goes ice cream classes in the summer. I can't remember all the ones that made me drool, but black pepper was one that made me think. And I thought, I really need to incorporate ice cream into my appetizers. Ice cream does not need to be a sweet dessert concoction, it could easily be a mildly sweet, savory thing! And I then I made my yum/thinking noise, which needs to be put into letters.
Finally, they presented this website: ecreamery.com. Oh, my. You can design your own ice cream, and this clever young man in Chicago will make it for you, and mail it to you. (and then you get dry ice to play with) Check out the site. I'm in awe.
Unfortunately, it costs a fortune. A 1/2 gallon is $55 and shipping is $36.
This is why I need an ice cream maker, so I can make my own basil walnut gelato and pineapple ginger ice cream.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Anti-social hobbies
One thing I appreciate about knitting, quilting (sans machine) and needlework is they allow you to be around and interact with other people while you're working. Non-crafters often don't understand this, and it seems to cause a lot of discussions among the crafters I know, about why others get so snippy when we knit/etc in certain settings, believing that anyone knitting/etc cannot possibly be paying attention. Apparently many believe we are constantly counting as we knit. Ha! I'm not that good a counter.
Well anyway, I usually just knit during certain types of social get-togethers. Sporting events, anything revolving around a tv or projector screen, that type of thing. Last night I knit at book club, which hopefully was ok. I usually don't say much anyway, because that's just my way, and I can listen quite well while knitting. I actually got a lot done on the clap, woohoo! I think it's about half done... I might need to buy more yarn, I'm not sure if it'll end up long enough by the time I run out of yarn. We'll see.
So that knitting seemed to go well. I can also knit very well while watching tv (except anything with subtitles). One thing I'd never combined, even though I'd considered it, was knitting and reading. I often (no, always) read while exercising, and most books have trouble staying open on the elliptical, so this might be one reason. I read while eating alone, using the remote, with the lovely rubbery buttons, to keep the book open. But reading while knitting? No, never.
Until yesterday. I bought a book (this is all Ann's fault, actually) called Twilight. You've probably heard of it, I think everyone has. It's creating a hype similar to Harry Potter. Well, I can't say I think it's a wonderfully-written book, with complex characters etc etc, but it's a really good page-turner. The kind that I can't put down. So when I realized I was about out of balled yarn for the clap and needed to wind another hank into a ball, I sat down with the book open in front of me, and wound and read. I found that quite easy, really. Almost habit. Then the ball finished (with my cat's help, she loves it when I wind skeins into balls), and I wanted to continue to knit, but I was at such a suspenseful part of the book! So I dove in, and yeah, it's not hard. The trick is to do something with a very simple repeat pattern that you don't even have to think about (forget lace), and have a book that stays open on its own. Also, the large-ish print of Twilight is quite helpful.
So.... it's no wonder it took me 18 hours to finish Twilight, which has nearly 500 pages.
The only problem is that you can't interact with other people while you're doing this. I suppose reading in any form is like that, unless you're reading aloud or something, or reading bits and then commenting in that obnoxious way I'm so good at (it's best when the other person is reading his/her own item, and would prefer that you shut it). Since I'm going to see my parents this weekend, I won't have much time to practice reading/knitting. Oh, well. I should cast on something else so I can save the repetitious clap for New Moon (the sequel).
ps. I loooooooove the clap. I have plans for two more, if I ever have enough money for the yarn. I got a raise, though, so maybe that'll help....?
Well anyway, I usually just knit during certain types of social get-togethers. Sporting events, anything revolving around a tv or projector screen, that type of thing. Last night I knit at book club, which hopefully was ok. I usually don't say much anyway, because that's just my way, and I can listen quite well while knitting. I actually got a lot done on the clap, woohoo! I think it's about half done... I might need to buy more yarn, I'm not sure if it'll end up long enough by the time I run out of yarn. We'll see.
So that knitting seemed to go well. I can also knit very well while watching tv (except anything with subtitles). One thing I'd never combined, even though I'd considered it, was knitting and reading. I often (no, always) read while exercising, and most books have trouble staying open on the elliptical, so this might be one reason. I read while eating alone, using the remote, with the lovely rubbery buttons, to keep the book open. But reading while knitting? No, never.
Until yesterday. I bought a book (this is all Ann's fault, actually) called Twilight. You've probably heard of it, I think everyone has. It's creating a hype similar to Harry Potter. Well, I can't say I think it's a wonderfully-written book, with complex characters etc etc, but it's a really good page-turner. The kind that I can't put down. So when I realized I was about out of balled yarn for the clap and needed to wind another hank into a ball, I sat down with the book open in front of me, and wound and read. I found that quite easy, really. Almost habit. Then the ball finished (with my cat's help, she loves it when I wind skeins into balls), and I wanted to continue to knit, but I was at such a suspenseful part of the book! So I dove in, and yeah, it's not hard. The trick is to do something with a very simple repeat pattern that you don't even have to think about (forget lace), and have a book that stays open on its own. Also, the large-ish print of Twilight is quite helpful.
So.... it's no wonder it took me 18 hours to finish Twilight, which has nearly 500 pages.
The only problem is that you can't interact with other people while you're doing this. I suppose reading in any form is like that, unless you're reading aloud or something, or reading bits and then commenting in that obnoxious way I'm so good at (it's best when the other person is reading his/her own item, and would prefer that you shut it). Since I'm going to see my parents this weekend, I won't have much time to practice reading/knitting. Oh, well. I should cast on something else so I can save the repetitious clap for New Moon (the sequel).
ps. I loooooooove the clap. I have plans for two more, if I ever have enough money for the yarn. I got a raise, though, so maybe that'll help....?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Upcoming baking extravaganza
Some baking-related things of excitement will occur in the next couple weeks.
1. My dad's birthday is in one week. His party is Sunday. This is a big birthday, so a big party (relatively). I'm going to bake him a birthday cake. He's not really that big on cakes, but Mom's making a bourbon pie (Maker's Mark-themed party) so I'll make a cake. He loves lemon meringue pie, so I was thinking of a vanilla cake with lemon curd between the layers and frosted with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, to simulate a lemon meringue pie (I could do a real meringue over frosting, but the cooking facilities where we're having the party are sub-par, and I'm not so sure about frosting it a day before and driving it out there).
My question is, is this a bad idea in the heat? We're having the party on Sunday afternoon in CT, so I'm not sure if it'll melt or anything. I made a very similar cake for Michelle's going away party last year (although with regular buttercream instead of the meringue buttercream, which I think would be sturdier) and it was a bit slippy in the car. Should I make a small amount of buttercream to dam the edges so the lemon curd doesn't leak out? Would the meringue buttercream be good enough for a dam? I think this'll be 3 or 4 layers, so leakage would cause a problem if it happens. However, I'm going to bake it Friday, make the curd and frosting Friday or Saturday morning, and assemble on Sunday, shortly before the party, so hopefully that will minimize any potential problems.
2. Peach pie! I made a peach pie one time last year (well, probably more than once), and I cut up all the peaches and I was going so slowly that I worried some would get a bit brown (but do peaches? I'm not entirely sure. Anyway...), but I was about out of lemon juice, so I tossed them with lime juice.
The pie was amazing.
So I have this peach-lime pie everyone loves, and I am going to enter it in a fair. I've never entered anything but quilts in a fair, so this is a little exciting (I'm also entering my duck sauce cookies, but that'll have its own post). I'm baking a peach lime pie tonight because I need practice before I deliver my beautiful award-winning pie on August 14th. I'm going to make everyone in our book club try it tomorrow and see what they think, and I also need some practice making beautiful pies. My pies are decent looking, but it's really the taste that's so good. However, to win a pie-prize, it needs to look and taste wonderful. So, hmm. I used to be able to make lovely pies with fancy crust edges and everything.
One drawback with this is that peaches certainly aren't cheap, so several trials are hard on my checking account.
I'm also on take 2 of the NY Times chocolate chip cookies. I made the dough last night and baked 9 cookies sans refrigeration, and they were a little on the crispy side. They're for my dad's birthday party, so I'll bake some tonight and probably some tomorrow night, and hopefully one night will yield lovely chewy cookies. I used twice as many chocolate chips, 2 12oz bags, one of semisweet and one of milk. But, um, some of the chips baked up weird, they got all hard and grainy instead of melty. It was very odd. I'd wanted to use chocolate chunks, but I couldn't find any.
Bakey bakey bakey.
1. My dad's birthday is in one week. His party is Sunday. This is a big birthday, so a big party (relatively). I'm going to bake him a birthday cake. He's not really that big on cakes, but Mom's making a bourbon pie (Maker's Mark-themed party) so I'll make a cake. He loves lemon meringue pie, so I was thinking of a vanilla cake with lemon curd between the layers and frosted with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, to simulate a lemon meringue pie (I could do a real meringue over frosting, but the cooking facilities where we're having the party are sub-par, and I'm not so sure about frosting it a day before and driving it out there).
My question is, is this a bad idea in the heat? We're having the party on Sunday afternoon in CT, so I'm not sure if it'll melt or anything. I made a very similar cake for Michelle's going away party last year (although with regular buttercream instead of the meringue buttercream, which I think would be sturdier) and it was a bit slippy in the car. Should I make a small amount of buttercream to dam the edges so the lemon curd doesn't leak out? Would the meringue buttercream be good enough for a dam? I think this'll be 3 or 4 layers, so leakage would cause a problem if it happens. However, I'm going to bake it Friday, make the curd and frosting Friday or Saturday morning, and assemble on Sunday, shortly before the party, so hopefully that will minimize any potential problems.
2. Peach pie! I made a peach pie one time last year (well, probably more than once), and I cut up all the peaches and I was going so slowly that I worried some would get a bit brown (but do peaches? I'm not entirely sure. Anyway...), but I was about out of lemon juice, so I tossed them with lime juice.
The pie was amazing.
So I have this peach-lime pie everyone loves, and I am going to enter it in a fair. I've never entered anything but quilts in a fair, so this is a little exciting (I'm also entering my duck sauce cookies, but that'll have its own post). I'm baking a peach lime pie tonight because I need practice before I deliver my beautiful award-winning pie on August 14th. I'm going to make everyone in our book club try it tomorrow and see what they think, and I also need some practice making beautiful pies. My pies are decent looking, but it's really the taste that's so good. However, to win a pie-prize, it needs to look and taste wonderful. So, hmm. I used to be able to make lovely pies with fancy crust edges and everything.
One drawback with this is that peaches certainly aren't cheap, so several trials are hard on my checking account.
I'm also on take 2 of the NY Times chocolate chip cookies. I made the dough last night and baked 9 cookies sans refrigeration, and they were a little on the crispy side. They're for my dad's birthday party, so I'll bake some tonight and probably some tomorrow night, and hopefully one night will yield lovely chewy cookies. I used twice as many chocolate chips, 2 12oz bags, one of semisweet and one of milk. But, um, some of the chips baked up weird, they got all hard and grainy instead of melty. It was very odd. I'd wanted to use chocolate chunks, but I couldn't find any.
Bakey bakey bakey.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Clap
I'm late jumping on the clapotis bandwagon, but I've finally done it. For those of you not in the knit-know, the clapotis is a scarf/shawl/wrap thing. It's all French and stuff. Last winter, our rotation student, who is a fellow knitter (but I didn't know it then), had a really interesting scarf, and I wanted to ask her where she got it, and if it was hand-made.... so I could make one of my own... but I never did. Then I joined ravelry, and found that everyone and their mother has made a clapotis.
So I finally decided I needed one, too. I bought some Atacama yarn, which is a super soft handpainted alpaca, and it's a delight to work with. Then I cast on.
Now, the clap has a lot of weird stitches, and everything is in knitting code, so it can be confusing. For example: one row is composed of k1 (knit 1, that's very common), k tbl (um... knit through back loop? perhaps- I wasn't sure.) As you can see in the website, there are columns of ladders (yarn that just goes straight across and doesn't have that knit stitch look- you can see what I mean on the bottom of the clapotis pattern page). So when I cast on and worked for a little bit on the increasing rows, I had this:
And there are no ladders and I wasn't sure k tbl was what I thought it was.
Then I went a bit further, and I discovered that I was indeed doing it right, and the ladders are caused by purposely dropping a stitch! oooh clever! k tbl go on either side of that dropped stitch, basically so the one dropped stitch keeps in its own column, and doesn't cause the stitches on either side of it to unravel- k tbl causes a twisted stitch that sort of locks into place. So I go on. And on and on, and I'm so thrilled with this. I'm going to have to knit another for my mom, if only for the sake of using this pattern and yarn again.
Note over there on the right all the ladders from the dropped stitches. As I saw in roton R's scarf, it curls up in a really neat way once it's all done- I'll post a photo once this is finished, which might be a while- I'm making it fairly long, at least 4'.
So I finally decided I needed one, too. I bought some Atacama yarn, which is a super soft handpainted alpaca, and it's a delight to work with. Then I cast on.
Now, the clap has a lot of weird stitches, and everything is in knitting code, so it can be confusing. For example: one row is composed of k1 (knit 1, that's very common), k tbl (um... knit through back loop? perhaps- I wasn't sure.) As you can see in the website, there are columns of ladders (yarn that just goes straight across and doesn't have that knit stitch look- you can see what I mean on the bottom of the clapotis pattern page). So when I cast on and worked for a little bit on the increasing rows, I had this:
And there are no ladders and I wasn't sure k tbl was what I thought it was.
Then I went a bit further, and I discovered that I was indeed doing it right, and the ladders are caused by purposely dropping a stitch! oooh clever! k tbl go on either side of that dropped stitch, basically so the one dropped stitch keeps in its own column, and doesn't cause the stitches on either side of it to unravel- k tbl causes a twisted stitch that sort of locks into place. So I go on. And on and on, and I'm so thrilled with this. I'm going to have to knit another for my mom, if only for the sake of using this pattern and yarn again.
Note over there on the right all the ladders from the dropped stitches. As I saw in roton R's scarf, it curls up in a really neat way once it's all done- I'll post a photo once this is finished, which might be a while- I'm making it fairly long, at least 4'.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Cookies, and consequences of a broken printer
Cookies!
I came across a chocolate chip cookie recipe on ravelry.com that everyone was raving about. I've recently been trying to obtain a recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies, and I made up my own recipe using honey and brown sugar, but they weren't much chewier than the Nestle's Tollhouse recipe I've been using since before I could say "cookie". I decided to try this recipe.
At first glance, this recipe, which was published in the New York Times at some point in the recent past, looks similar to Nestle's cookies. The egg:everything else ratio is low- 2 eggs, but everything else is bumped up. See:
Only.... our printer's broken, so I just jotted everything down. Only..... I didn't do such a good job.
Well, ok, I'll walk you through what happened. I combined the butter and sugars, beat for 5 min, added the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, and then I just dumped all the dry ingredients in there and mixed by hand. (I used all-purpose flour instead of cake and bread). Here's the funny part: I missed that whole part about 1-2/3cup cake flour. I added 2cups minus 2T of flour. And the dough was soft, more like batter. (Finally I added in 1 12-oz bag of chocolate chips- 1.5bags would have been better.)
Now, on ravelry with all the raving and recommendations for this recipe, there was a discussion of refrigerating the dough, and why and how necessary and how long, etc. I think they concluded it's so the flavors can combine and just make it yummier. Well, my practically flour-less batter definitely needed some hardening, so I thought, maybe that's why you fridge it.
But... me being me, I had to bake some! The dough was so tasty, I needed to eat the cookie, just one. So I baked 6 (1-T balls of dough/batter, 350 for 18-22 minutes, per the recipe).
After 15 minutes, I smelled over-done cookies. I went to investigate.
Um.... they're kinda spread out.
Um... they're kind flat.
Well, they never got refrigerated. That must be it. But the next morning, they came out exactly the same, as they did after 24 and 36 hours in the fridge. Hmm. How odd. They also seemed extremely greasy, and the butter:flour ratio was incredibly high. That seemed problematic- but everyone else was so impressed with the recipe! I did not understand.
Then.... I went back to the website. And discovered that I'd forgotten the part about 1-2/3 cup of cake flour (i.e. all-purpose in my kitchen- I would like to try this with part cake and part all-purpose, though). So, I added in more flour to the remaining batter, accounting for what I'd taken out to bake, and baked the cookies.
That's better. Cookie-shaped and chewy. These really are good cookies.
One thing, though- there's part about sprinkling these with sea salt, which seems like a cool concept. I actually think they're salty enough on their own (and I was using unsalted butter), and I like salty things. Try them and see what you think about that.
I came across a chocolate chip cookie recipe on ravelry.com that everyone was raving about. I've recently been trying to obtain a recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies, and I made up my own recipe using honey and brown sugar, but they weren't much chewier than the Nestle's Tollhouse recipe I've been using since before I could say "cookie". I decided to try this recipe.
At first glance, this recipe, which was published in the New York Times at some point in the recent past, looks similar to Nestle's cookies. The egg:everything else ratio is low- 2 eggs, but everything else is bumped up. See:
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.Only.... our printer's broken, so I just jotted everything down. Only..... I didn't do such a good job.
Well, ok, I'll walk you through what happened. I combined the butter and sugars, beat for 5 min, added the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla, and then I just dumped all the dry ingredients in there and mixed by hand. (I used all-purpose flour instead of cake and bread). Here's the funny part: I missed that whole part about 1-2/3cup cake flour. I added 2cups minus 2T of flour. And the dough was soft, more like batter. (Finally I added in 1 12-oz bag of chocolate chips- 1.5bags would have been better.)
Now, on ravelry with all the raving and recommendations for this recipe, there was a discussion of refrigerating the dough, and why and how necessary and how long, etc. I think they concluded it's so the flavors can combine and just make it yummier. Well, my practically flour-less batter definitely needed some hardening, so I thought, maybe that's why you fridge it.
But... me being me, I had to bake some! The dough was so tasty, I needed to eat the cookie, just one. So I baked 6 (1-T balls of dough/batter, 350 for 18-22 minutes, per the recipe).
After 15 minutes, I smelled over-done cookies. I went to investigate.
Um.... they're kinda spread out.
Um... they're kind flat.
Well, they never got refrigerated. That must be it. But the next morning, they came out exactly the same, as they did after 24 and 36 hours in the fridge. Hmm. How odd. They also seemed extremely greasy, and the butter:flour ratio was incredibly high. That seemed problematic- but everyone else was so impressed with the recipe! I did not understand.
Then.... I went back to the website. And discovered that I'd forgotten the part about 1-2/3 cup of cake flour (i.e. all-purpose in my kitchen- I would like to try this with part cake and part all-purpose, though). So, I added in more flour to the remaining batter, accounting for what I'd taken out to bake, and baked the cookies.
That's better. Cookie-shaped and chewy. These really are good cookies.One thing, though- there's part about sprinkling these with sea salt, which seems like a cool concept. I actually think they're salty enough on their own (and I was using unsalted butter), and I like salty things. Try them and see what you think about that.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Vermont Brewer's Festival
This past weekend was the VT Beer Festival in Burlington, VT- right on Lake Champlain, which would have been beautiful, had it not been so hazy.
Now, I don't actually drink beer. I'm more of a wine and froofy girly drinks girl, myself. I went because I've heard so much about it, and some friends wanted to go. I'm also going to be moving before the next Beer Festival, so I thought I ought to go, just once.
The way it works: there are three sessions (Friday evening, and Saturday noon and evening). One buys a ticket (either there or pre-order) for $25, and for the money one is given a small pilsner glass (so cute!) and 10 beer tickets. There were 36 Vermont (ok, and a handful of New Hampshire) breweries set up in tents, each with probably between 3 and 8 types of beer on tap. One ticket, generally, was good for one glass (the small pilsner given at the entrance) of beer. In this way, one can sample 10 different types of beer. Some beers had higher alcohol content, so they could cost more tickets, but extra tickets were available for purchase.
I used 8 of my tickets, 3 on cider (Woodchuck, which I know I like, and Harpoon, which I know I'm iffy about) and the rest on beers, and I sampled many of fiance's beers and a few of D's, so I did try quite a few. I discovered that I tolerate Sam Adam's Blackberry Witbier and Forbidden Fruit (by..... .... I can't remember!) quite well- the former tasted like blackberry iced tea with beer aftertaste, and the latter like raspberry juice with beer aftertaste. One that was interesting and worth noting was by a Quebecois brewery (again, can't remember the name- I'll try to edit this later once I look this up in the pamphlet we picked up) and was called Aphrodite, and labeled as a "dessert beer". It was said to be mildly hoppy (so more likely I'd like it, hops are what promote the beer face- see my facebook photos for info on that) and have cocoa and vanilla. While I didn't exactly like it, I found it quite interesting, and definitely worth trying. Fiance thought it was quite awesome and was very happy to finish off my glass. Another interesting one was the summer gruit by American Flatbread (and something-or-other), which lacks hops. This was another I happily tolerated- so it's the hops that I don't like.
Aside from all the beer (check out the website for more info, if you like beer or would consider going next year- which I highly recommend!- ), there was food. Much of it seemed to be from local VT food places, such as VT Smoke house (serving bacon sandwiches- and no wishy-washy BLTs! Thick slabs of grilled bacon (which looked like a fatty slice of ham to me) on nice artisan-y white bread), a Burlington-based Kettle corn company, a local ice cream place, among many others. It was kind of like county fair food, but without the cotton candy and carnies. I think the best (i.e. most interesting) food I sampled was Long Trail Coffee Stout Ice Cream. I actually stopped and stared when I saw the sign (this may have been after several beers, though, can't quite remember), and fiance and I went back later to indulge. I've forgotten who made the ice cream (I know, I'm so useful), but the ice cream itself was wonderfully perfect. They were also making waffle cones right there in the tent (oh the smell of those waffle cones!!! >drool<). We unfortunately realized that after we asked for a cup, because it was easier to share. Anyway, the coffee stout ice cream. It was kind of like a beer float with coffee ice cream- amazing coffee ice cream. At first it was coffee-and-dairy sweet, with a hint of bitter, but then the beer taste developed after the ice cream coated your mouth. So at first, I thought it was amazingly good, but after several spoonfuls, the beer aftertaste became too much for me. We're iffy on whether we'd ever have it again, but definitely, definitely are glad we tried it. (plus the awesome ice cream! Maybe it was just becuase it was so hot and sunny, but I thought it topped Ben and Jerry's, and I've always thought they're the best).
Then (still more good eats!) we went to the Single Pebble, a chinese restaurant in Burlington. Now, I don't really like Chinese. In fact, I usually avoid it at all costs. But G said it's great, and I haven't had to force it down in a while, so I was fine. Well. This was actually quite good- nothing like your regular chinese restaurants. Everything was served family-style on a giant lazy susan in the middle of the table, so we shared: Spicy Three Rivers soup (coconut milk-based spicy soup with strips of mild white fish), peking duck, mock eel (shiitake mushrooms fried and doused in a teriyaki-type sauce), lemon crispy chicken (kind of like chicken strips in a lemony sauce), chow fun with all types of meats, and kung pao chicken. The soup and mock eel were SO GOOD omg. I would have been happy just eating those. The rest was all quite good, as well, the kung pao and chow fun were just what I'm used to from regular chinese restaurants, but less greasy and sad-looking. The kung pao was actually quite pretty, the colors of the sauce and veggies in it were quite striking.
To end the evening, we visited Lake Champlain Chocolates. Yum. I got white chocolate bark with cherries and apricots, and a caramel cashew turtle- type confection to take home. Fiance got a lemon ginger truffle that was disappointing (the lemon, ginger and chocolate flavors didn't marry well, we all think it should have just been a ginger truffle or a lemon truffle). I think the others got other basic chocolate goodies.
All in all, yum. And we were definitely stuffed.
Now, I don't actually drink beer. I'm more of a wine and froofy girly drinks girl, myself. I went because I've heard so much about it, and some friends wanted to go. I'm also going to be moving before the next Beer Festival, so I thought I ought to go, just once.
The way it works: there are three sessions (Friday evening, and Saturday noon and evening). One buys a ticket (either there or pre-order) for $25, and for the money one is given a small pilsner glass (so cute!) and 10 beer tickets. There were 36 Vermont (ok, and a handful of New Hampshire) breweries set up in tents, each with probably between 3 and 8 types of beer on tap. One ticket, generally, was good for one glass (the small pilsner given at the entrance) of beer. In this way, one can sample 10 different types of beer. Some beers had higher alcohol content, so they could cost more tickets, but extra tickets were available for purchase.
I used 8 of my tickets, 3 on cider (Woodchuck, which I know I like, and Harpoon, which I know I'm iffy about) and the rest on beers, and I sampled many of fiance's beers and a few of D's, so I did try quite a few. I discovered that I tolerate Sam Adam's Blackberry Witbier and Forbidden Fruit (by..... .... I can't remember!) quite well- the former tasted like blackberry iced tea with beer aftertaste, and the latter like raspberry juice with beer aftertaste. One that was interesting and worth noting was by a Quebecois brewery (again, can't remember the name- I'll try to edit this later once I look this up in the pamphlet we picked up) and was called Aphrodite, and labeled as a "dessert beer". It was said to be mildly hoppy (so more likely I'd like it, hops are what promote the beer face- see my facebook photos for info on that) and have cocoa and vanilla. While I didn't exactly like it, I found it quite interesting, and definitely worth trying. Fiance thought it was quite awesome and was very happy to finish off my glass. Another interesting one was the summer gruit by American Flatbread (and something-or-other), which lacks hops. This was another I happily tolerated- so it's the hops that I don't like.
Aside from all the beer (check out the website for more info, if you like beer or would consider going next year- which I highly recommend!- ), there was food. Much of it seemed to be from local VT food places, such as VT Smoke house (serving bacon sandwiches- and no wishy-washy BLTs! Thick slabs of grilled bacon (which looked like a fatty slice of ham to me) on nice artisan-y white bread), a Burlington-based Kettle corn company, a local ice cream place, among many others. It was kind of like county fair food, but without the cotton candy and carnies. I think the best (i.e. most interesting) food I sampled was Long Trail Coffee Stout Ice Cream. I actually stopped and stared when I saw the sign (this may have been after several beers, though, can't quite remember), and fiance and I went back later to indulge. I've forgotten who made the ice cream (I know, I'm so useful), but the ice cream itself was wonderfully perfect. They were also making waffle cones right there in the tent (oh the smell of those waffle cones!!! >drool<). We unfortunately realized that after we asked for a cup, because it was easier to share. Anyway, the coffee stout ice cream. It was kind of like a beer float with coffee ice cream- amazing coffee ice cream. At first it was coffee-and-dairy sweet, with a hint of bitter, but then the beer taste developed after the ice cream coated your mouth. So at first, I thought it was amazingly good, but after several spoonfuls, the beer aftertaste became too much for me. We're iffy on whether we'd ever have it again, but definitely, definitely are glad we tried it. (plus the awesome ice cream! Maybe it was just becuase it was so hot and sunny, but I thought it topped Ben and Jerry's, and I've always thought they're the best).
Then (still more good eats!) we went to the Single Pebble, a chinese restaurant in Burlington. Now, I don't really like Chinese. In fact, I usually avoid it at all costs. But G said it's great, and I haven't had to force it down in a while, so I was fine. Well. This was actually quite good- nothing like your regular chinese restaurants. Everything was served family-style on a giant lazy susan in the middle of the table, so we shared: Spicy Three Rivers soup (coconut milk-based spicy soup with strips of mild white fish), peking duck, mock eel (shiitake mushrooms fried and doused in a teriyaki-type sauce), lemon crispy chicken (kind of like chicken strips in a lemony sauce), chow fun with all types of meats, and kung pao chicken. The soup and mock eel were SO GOOD omg. I would have been happy just eating those. The rest was all quite good, as well, the kung pao and chow fun were just what I'm used to from regular chinese restaurants, but less greasy and sad-looking. The kung pao was actually quite pretty, the colors of the sauce and veggies in it were quite striking.
To end the evening, we visited Lake Champlain Chocolates. Yum. I got white chocolate bark with cherries and apricots, and a caramel cashew turtle- type confection to take home. Fiance got a lemon ginger truffle that was disappointing (the lemon, ginger and chocolate flavors didn't marry well, we all think it should have just been a ginger truffle or a lemon truffle). I think the others got other basic chocolate goodies.
All in all, yum. And we were definitely stuffed.
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