All Purpose

I’ve been trying to force myself to do a little more cooking and to try some new things in the kitchen. This is probably the second Experiments in the Kitchen, but my first foray (croissants from scratch) happened before I had a name for it.

My second experiment is learning the art of the soufflé. I got Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas this year and that’s one of the main things I wanted to really try. Plus we went to this amazing salon de souffé called Rise while we were in Dallas for my birthday and now I’m hooked on soufflés. The non-dairy thing was stopping me though, but since I took a break from no dairy at Easter it turned out to be a perfect time to try soufflés!

So I actually didn’t use a MtAoFC recipe for my soufflé because I really wanted to do something that was light on the cheese and milk. I used the Goat Cheese and Herb Soufflé recipe from Epicurious.

I halved the recipe and made some other changes, like WAY less Parmesan and goat cheese and used So Delicious Coconut Milk instead of regular milk. For the record, this kind of coconut milk is not like the canned coconut milk you find, it’s much thinner like the consistency of 2% or skim milk and does not taste like coconut at all. I use the cream (non-flavored) in my coffee everyday now.

So when I cook I like to get everything ready and then do the cooking. So I get everything set up and chopped and I might mix some things then everything is ready to go. I guess I watch too many cooking shows, maybe?

I prepped the dishes with maybe a teaspoon of Parmesan for dusting the pans and just a bare minimum of butter to cut the dairy content. Then I got the base ready to go.

I used probably a little less than a full cup of the goat cheese and I barely put any Parmesan into the base. I got the eggs to the right place but when I added the eggs to the base I think the base might have been slightly too hot. Everything seemed fine though and while the soufflés baked I made a Spinach Salad with Raspberry Champagne Vinaigrette.

The dressing was a little tart since I left out the sugar, will remember that next time and add some agave nectar. The soufflés did puff, but not like they were supposed to, but I blame the fact that the dishes I used were a bit too big for the amount of soufflé. I’ll try again soon with smaller dishes.

They were delicious though, really yummy and I’d definitely make this again or some other soufflé variation. So this was a good experiment, but I have not mastered this yet so I’ll be trying again soon.

No Comments | In: cooking, experiments | | #

So every year at Easter my husband’s family makes Easter pies. It’s an Italian tradition and the pies can be savory or sweet. M’s family makes savory pies and I’ve been trying to learn this skill, and though since we were hosting the pie making this year that it would be fun to document the process. So here it goes…

So first thing is the sausage which must be purchased about 2 weeks before Easter. We bought 4 pounds of Italian sausage (3 lbs of hot and 1 lb of sweet) from Central Market, it’s their house sausage. You have to poke holes in the sausage and then put them on a rack in the fridge to dry for roughly two weeks. We did slightly less than two week, about 12 days. Then the day you make pies you cut the sausage into small chunks.

You also need chopped Italian parsley (seen in the above photo) and mozzarella (cubed into small cubes), ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs and of course some dough.

The dough technique is very different and requires flour, salt, water and Crisco and heavy kneading until it’s “soft as a babies bottom”.

Then the dough gets rolled into two pieces (top and bottom crust) while someone mixes the filling.

Then you place the bottom in a pan and fill it, without out pressing or squooshing the filling. Then the top crust goes on and is trimmed.

Then you press the crust into place with a fork to make sure it’s sealed tight. You also dab the bottom crust with water before placing the top crust down so it seals better.

Then the slather the top with a mixture of egg yolk and water and then you do the thing that makes it Easter pie, you cut a cross into the top.

Then there’s baking, and there might be drinking and more pies made.

And finally there’s this:

We made 8 pies, I think, in about 4 hours and we used both the oven and M’s Big Green Egg. I drank a lot of bubbles and it was fun. We capped the day off with dinner at Perla, but that’s another story.

No Comments | In: baking, mahwage | | #

So today is the day that I start preparing to get out of the way, which is just another way of saying quit my job. Today I sat in a meeting and heard how many positions our area has lost and how hard it’s going to be to replace anyone. It makes me feel bad. It makes me feel guilty that I want to leave at this, the worst time.

I know the organization won’t die without me, and in fact if they can hire a replacement then that person might really flourish where I have only floundered.

I guess I’m feeling a little like I’m giving up, or that I’ve failed.

So now I need to give some thought to my project in progress and figure out, what needs to be done to ensure the project is continued and what can I leave behind?

Also, I really wish I had not agreed to speak at TLA this year. I wonder if I can wiggle out of it…

No Comments | In: 9to5, life | | #

So today in a SXSW session someone said, “If you don’t like your job there is someone out there who’d love to have it. And there’s someone else somewhere that has your dream job and probably hates it. We just all need to stand up and move out of the way”.

This, along with a lot of other wise observations from the group made me realize that I need to get out of the way. I need to give someone the chance to do my job and love it. I need to give myself the chance to do what I love, or at least what I think I love right now. I need the chance to be a whole person, not one bound by pain or lack of confidence. I need to give myself a chance at healing.

So how do I do that? How do I do that and have us still maintain our life and continue to meet our financial goals? I am not quite sure, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going to blog about it.

I think SXSW just changed my life.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: change, life, writing. | #

Saints Superbowl Victory Celebration from Cottage Films on Vimeo.

This right here is why I love this city so much.

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: nola whodat saints party. | #

So I’ve been slacking in the blogging department, I know. I’ve got a plan though to make this a more regular blog. I know I keep making promises. I really am trying though to make this part of my week at the least and hopefully I can get to the point I’m posting more than once a week.

I will be posting on some projects that I cannot discuss in detail, but that will result in much frustration and hilarity though. I’ll also be posting more when I travel. My first trip of 2010 is coming up, and it’s a good one.

I’m going to Mardi Gras! Yes, in New Orleans! I haven’t been since 2006, and that MG, while wonderful to experience, was not like the joyful and exuberant celebrations that I remember as a former resident of the city.

The other totally awesome and exciting thing is that I’ll be riding in a Krewe! I guess I’m technically now in a Krewe, which is cool. I’ll be riding with Tucks on Saturday February 13th on the traditional Uptown route. It will be so exciting and I’m really going to try to take photos and capture the fun.

So stay tuned for blogging from Mardi Gras…coming soon.

No Comments | In: life, travel, writing | tags: 2010, mardigras, neworleans, nola, trips, tucks. | #

I did it. I wrote a 50,014 word novel in 30 days, and while it is a very, very rough draft it’s something, something I’ve never done before so it’s pretty awesome.

So yeah, I didn’t really journal here did I? It was hard, really hard, the last week especially, so I didn’t have a lot of time for blogging. Plus, my body? It’s really pissed at me now for all that computer time, and typing (it really hated all the typing). So I needed to rest when I could. I probably shouldn’t be typing now because, frankly, it hurts. I have a massage in my future though so it’ll all be fine.

So I’m going to keep writing every day for 10-30 minutes, but I’m going to stick to exercises for the first couple of weeks and then transition into doing some character and setting work before I read the novel and starting revising it in January.

I have no idea how to revise a novel, but I’m just going to give it shot and I have a deadline for finishing (March 15th) so that should help.

I have a ton of stuff to take pictures of, but it’s so cloudy I’m not sure when I’ll get the chance. I’ll try though.

No Comments | In: life, writing | tags: 2009, fiction, nanwrimo, process, writing. | #

So you are probably wondering where I’ve been, right? I’m deeply immersed in the insanity known as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Yes, a 50,000 rough draft of a novel written over 30 days. Insane, painful, fun, exciting, liberating, frustrating and very, very cool.

So I’m at about 30K words right now and I a little less than 2 weeks to finish. I think I’ll make it, but some days it’s really hard. I know that whatever happens at the end that I have proven I can write every day if I make time for it. I have sparked my imagination again so ideas are everywhere now. And I think I have hit on a great idea for a series, maybe, I don’t want to be too cocky because it might be a totally stupid idea. Since my Inner Editor is away at camp for the month, it’s hard to judge.

I am really looking forward to crossing the finish line though and am also excited about taking this rough draft and whipping something great out of it, maybe in time for the agent conference? That would be pretty cool, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

While the last 20K should be downhill, I do worry about pacing, and being able to time the plot correctly. I mean this is my first novel.

I have other updates, mostly the knitting kind and mostly from last month, but it’ll have to wait until later, but I’ll try to check in more. I realize it would have been nice to journal a little here about the writing process and the frustrations and anxieties it brings up. So maybe I’ll try to do that as I head into the home stretch.

No Comments | In: writing | tags: 2009, nanowrimo, novel, writing. | #

So I made gumbo this past weekend for the first time in like 5 years. It was ok, but I had just totally forgotten how I used to do it. I never had a recipe I used, so piecing it back together was a little rough. It was good though and now I’d like to (re)master that recipe so I’ll probably be experimenting with that over the fall and winter.

I will work on getting a better kitchen photo set up too so I can start documenting these kitchen forays a little better.

In other news I’m feeling ready to finally start running again (yes!). I’m going to start the Couch to 5K program next Monday. I’ll be starting NaNoWriMo on Sunday as well so November is going to be hectic for me. Wish me luck, and I’ll try to keep the blog somewhat updated.

I’ll be doing a knitting update later this week!

No Comments | In: 9to5, life, running | tags: 9to5, cooking, running, writing. | #

I’ve been MIA lately, I know. I’ve been sick since like August it seems. Nothing serious, just allergies but it’s getting old, really old. So I’ve done a few baking things and some knitting stuff and even some yard work.

I made croissants. Real croissants. From scratch. They were really good and our neighbor, who’s mother is French, said they were very close to real French croissants (I need to get a full report about what was missing).

So I got this book, Baking, a few weeks ago and it has great step by step instructions for all kinds of baking stuff. I think it could be a baking course on it’s own. Anyway, I’ve been wanting to do something challenging so I decided to try croissants. It’s a lot of work, and a lot of butter, but they turned out great and the instructions were good and easy and had photographs to go with, which I love. Anyway, croissants!

I also made bread a lot lately, including my Rosemary Olive bread and Chocolate Cherry bread, which I got from this book . I’ve been making these breads for a while so nothing new, but nice to have fresh bread. I hope to make bread a lot more as it cools down for fall/winter here.

I’ve been knitting a lot and just finished a sweater (post to come soon) and started a new one. I’ve also started the long process of cleaning up and preparing the yard for fall/spring gardening. I cleaned out my dead tomatoes and can you believe that the basil I planted with them is still alive and is at least 4 feet, yes feet, tall. We’re planning on harvesting it all over the next week or two and making some pesto.

I’m going to try to do the Sweet Potato biscuits tomorrow (for Tuesday’s with Dorie) because they sound yummy and I need to master biscuits. I’ve had bad biscuit mojo the last few years.

No Comments | In: baking, garden, knitting, life | tags: basil, bread, croissnats, tuesdayswithdorie. | #