What’s Happening??!?!?!
January was cake month. I was working with Baked which is a coolio hipster brooklyn baking book that I’m still feeling a little ambivalent about. I want to make a lot of the recipes, but the style is so faux it bugs me. But what can you expect, it comes from one or two ex-ad guys so… But whatever. That’s petty. I made two cakes (and a few other things) from the book. The Sweet and Salty cake is amazing. but it also has like, a cow’s worth of butter in it so… 3 layers of chocolate cake interspersed with fleur-de-sel caramel, whipped caramel ganache frosting, and fleur de sel sprinkles. It took several days, two parties and multiple co-worker giveaways to get through it all (rich!). The other one we made was the malt ball cake. better in theory. White malted milk layers with milk chocolate frosting (actually really light and good) and some malt balls for decoration. It was disappointing I thought and I was a little bummed that I picked it for my bro’s bday dinner, but whatevs. It was ok. The fleur de sel caramel on its own I think is worth the price though. The most on-target caramel recipe I’ve made yet and I’ve tried a few. mmmm salty
Also made carrot cake from Cooking With Jaime (aka the book with the worst cover ever) with a tasty lime frosting. Christopher loves him some carrot cake but we’ve never found a winner til now. I also, just to be me, I went through all my cookbooks and came up with a list of 8 recipes to try for him. So at some point, I will find the world’s best carrot cake recipe right? Can I say that I love the fact that I have 8 recipes sitting on my shelf? Fuck the internet.
I’ve been obsessing on Roxy Music lately. But haven’t managed to get down to the record shop to sift through the old 80s box of records. The problem is that if I go, I just know I’m not going to be able to resist one of those 20$ studio one comps and then I will have spent upwards of $100 this short month on pure treats. It doesn’t seem right. I have to admit that I’ve been engaging in a bit of retail therapy lately, and it doesn’t sit well. So meanwhile I’m getting my fix via youtubes, pandora, and at C’s insistence, groove shark. I’m not convinced groove shark is legal, but he somehow roped me in with sort of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” vibe. Wow, I have real problems. Meanwhile, for several days I’ve been thinking about poking around the basement for the lost in translation dvd to watch bill murray sing more than this. But I sort of want to save that treat for a special occasion or when I really need a treat and christopher hasn’t stocked any take-5 in the junk drawer.
Finally, I just finished Fat of the Land (cf blog), which was a lovely short read that got me all excited about living where I do, and, combined with the return of our phantom fishing buddy (we have spend a lot more time talking about fishing than ever you know, doing it) has me all set for squid jigging. Apparently it’s done with minimal equipment and relative ease when the time is right. Unfortunately the time is right in the middle of the night in the middle of winter. Did I mention my baby is not quite 8 months old? So I’m not sure when my inaugural squid-jigging venture will actually take place (SOME time surely though). In the meantime, some squid reading:
The Tantalizing Squid
How-To
A fun and unique urban cultural experience!
Other miscellany:
- Poutine in Portland – not quite perfect but pretty cool nonetheless. it could have been more salty and less sweet (sweet gravy?) and the cheese curds could have been not freezing, cooling down the fries and gravy. but overall, good show.
- No it’s it in portland (for me) and subsequent sleuthing. still coming up short and blah. but i’ll be in SF next week, and I’m totally going to hit up a corner store like, every day. I am sort of afraid christopher will not understand what all the fuss is about.
- The Egg and I is next.
- Reading books about buddhism, and in particular b for parents/moms. It’s been cool and helpful. Flirting with checking out the temple down the street on one of their public sessions.
- Going out for drinks and scandi treats in a couple days with two blonde ladies and I’m pretty excited. third night out since baby.
- My pile of security envelopes (aka. trash/recycling) is piling up and i have yet to do anything fantastically crafty. bummer.
ok!
smell you later.