Christopsomos

this is a greek celebration bread, and the recipe is from reinhart's BBA. it's freakin' huge. and really, really good. see how shiny it is? the glaze is a simple syrup with honey (and a little free-lance tangerine juice). the bread is sweet and spicy (cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg) and fruity (golden raisins and dried cranberries and lemon & tangerine zest), and the glazes adds a little extra sweet chewiness. the greeks, they know how to celebrate, i'd say.

The Best Pancakes

requested this morning. and they were fine. the best? i don't know about that. again, they were not trying to revolutionize the pancake, or create a great multigrain or pumpkin or eggnog pancake or anything like that. just the best basic pancake. they were good. i'm just not sure there is enough of a difference in good, basic pancakes to elevate one as "the best." nothing wrong with good, though. thumbs upward.

The Best Macaroni and Cheese

okay, next up: classic macaroni and cheese. now, i italicized classic for a reason. they were aiming toward a recipe that would appeal equally to kids and adults alike. so, really, they weren't really after "the best" recipe; they were after "the least offensive." they tried baked or stovetop, custard-based or bechamel, with and without bread crumbs, different kinds of cheeses, various butter-to-flour ratios in the bechamel, etc. their verdict: stovetop, bechamel, breadcrumbs depends on the audience, equal parts of cheddar & jack, equal parts of pasta & cheese, a tad more butter than flour. so there you go (i went without breadcrumbs. mac & cheese just doesn't photograph very well). my verdict: bland. the technique was very good--the sauce was thick & creamy without being grainy. it was good, but too blah to be great, or "the best." now, mac & cheese can either be an entree or a side dish. i personally think only a great mac & cheese (this one from canarygirl being my favorite) can handle being an entree unto itself, and this one couldn't do it. thumbs neutral.

The Best Banana Bread

yeah, so i'm getting a jump on the new year. hey, there's 1000 recipes in this book! 1 down, 999 to go. i had 3 bananas going bad in a hurry, and this recipe called for just that, so this was an easy call. now, their experiments tried milk and sour cream and buttermilk and plain yogurt, nuts and no nuts, toasted and untoasted nuts, pureed bananas, lightly mashed bananas, well-mashed bananas...in short, they say yogurt, toasted nuts, well-mashed bananas. and there you have it. and....they might be right. the banana taste comes through, the nut flavor comes through, the texture is good, it's moist, and not oily. thumbs up!

2009: The Year of...

yes, well, that's the question, isn't it? the year of bread was great. i learned, i developed a new skill/craft, it was photographable and and very blogable, it was sharable and eatable, it was infinite in its varieties and i really enjoyed it. it also made 2008 the year of blogging for me. this entry will be the 110th blog of the year. not bad, really. it's more than the homesick texan or canarygirl or the wednesday chef, so....not too shabby, i think. of course, not all entries were about bread as i dabbled in a little storytelling as well--40 chapters, by the way. hard to believe, isn't it, given all the dry spells? and yes, i realize we are in the middle of a dry spell now. well, i will continue--at least, i plan to continue--writing the stories, if and when i am inspired to do so, but it will only supplement my 2009 activity, which will be....what? le sigh. this is NOT an easy thing to figure out! i was going to do homemade pasta, but...i don't have a lot of pasta eaters in the house. i thought about other food things but, you know, the world really doesn't need another food blog. the three i cited above along with maddog and TNS and peabody and use real butter and culinary in the desert, not to mention literally thousands of other food blogs, well, there are enough. really. but then, my blog hasn't been about the masses and isn't marketed to the masses--it's all about me :) so, i can do whatever the hell i want. and i thought, you know, it doesn't have to be food related at all. i could chronicle my adventures in learning how to....knit, or weld, or saw a woman in half, or some such thing. i could pursue becoming a modern rennaissance man! so, you know, i googled "modern rennaissance man" and realized i had misspelled "renaissance." oops. nice start. but in checking out several sources and checking off descriptions such as weaponry (i qualified expert with the rifle in the army), the outdoors (i geocache), foreign language (check), art (i carve pipes & walking sticks), music (i play guitar), poetry (hey, those weren't really shakespeare's or tucker's verses in those cardigan stories), world travel (check), and knowing how to communicate with the world via the internet (honestly, i saw that in a list, so this blog qualifies, i think)--heck i already am a modern renaissance man! so, plan B: i would dedicate the year to writing ridiculously long paragraphs! bwah-ha-ha!!! oh, henry james already did that? le sigh. plan C: i could learn chinese! oh....er, yeah, i did that already....plan D: steal somebody else's idea. now, why didn't i think of that in the first place?! hmmm....ben started a new blog about how he's reading this book (The Road to Reality: a Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, by roger penrose) to boost his mathemathical & physics IQ. yeah, i could do...that...naw, i don't want to steal ben's thunder. yeah, that's it. that's his project, not mine. thank buddha. but maybe i could....find one of those lists of "10 books every person must read" and work on that! so, back to the google board. oy. what horrid lists. wretched. ain't no way, no how, no mccain i'm gonna read the books on those crappy lists. blech. but...hmmm.....how about forming a list from people i trust? people i admire? people i know? yes, dear readers--YOU! if you're still reading this, that is, here is your charge: give me the name of a single book that you think i should read. no, wait. scratch that--i don't want to read a bunch of diet books. not a book that you think i should read, but a book that you thought was incredibly enjoyable or influential or thought-provoking or whatever. last year, for example, i read a book that mira loaned me that i probably would never have read otherwise, and i'm glad i did. so, that's it: one book each, until i finish them all. it can be fiction, non-fiction (shudder), classic or modern. i will insist on it being in english, though. and one movie each. and one CD each. i will read, watch, listen to them and offer commentary. i will also be cooking this year from my christmas present book "The New Best Recipe" from america's test kitchen. this book is over 1,000 pages, and has 1,000 recipes. they make dozens of variations of each recipe, experimenting with different ingredients, techniques, cooking temperatures and times and everything else to come up with the single best version of each recipe. so, i want each of you to pick a number between 1 and 990. i will prepare the first recipe on that page (or, on the next page if there are no recipes on that page). yes, this is nearly as bad as stealing: i'm making all of you do my work for me :) i will make other dishes from the book, too, but this will make a little more fun and challenging. i'm trying to join a CSA (this one, actually) this year and, if i do so, that will provide a weekly challenge for me as well. hey, i was just wondering about a random number generator and went back to google and, lo and behold! i found one here. i asked for a random number between 1 and 990 and it gave me 590. so, i will definitely be making Grill-Roasted Pork Loin with Barbecue Rub and Fruit Salsa. this summer. so, that's it. 2009 will be the Year of The Best! you are to assign me the following:

The Best Book
The Best Movie
The Best CD
(a page number for) The Best Recipe (you can request a particular food if you like as well)

NOTE: please, no books by roger penrose. or henry james. or mary shelly. and no jodi picoult!
i'll let you know if i've read/seen/listened to your suggestions.

Kolaches

now, ben is probably the only one of you handful of readers who has ever had a kolache before. in short, they are a czech-inspired fruit- (or sausage-) filled sweet pastry popular in the bohemian-settled towns in central texas (the town of West, Texas [which is not in West Texas] being most famous for kolaches). if you want to learn more about them you can go the homesick texan's blog whence came the recipe i used. i chose to only use fruit--the apricot filling i made according to her recipe, and canned cherries for the others; i'll make sausage ones another time. yes, there will be another time. these taste just like the real deal to me.

CYA: Gavin & Foxy Go To Boston 2

NOTE: if you did not jump to this chapter as a result of the Choose Your Adventure story, please go here before reading any further!


there was a hard thud and the whirring noise came to a stop. cardigan & foxy opened their eyes to a small room filled with grey smoke.

"hey, it worked!" gavin said in wonder.

"ugh, yeah," foxy grunted, trying to get her bearings. "i don't think time travel agrees with me."

"are you okay?" gavin asked, concern heavy in his voice.

"i'll be okay," foxy reassured him. "i think i just need some fresh air."

they walked outside and found themselves behind an abandoned warehouse on the banks of the river. the air was cool and fresh, and foxy drew in several deep breaths. "that's better."

"hmmm," gavin looked around. "any idea where we should go?"

foxy nodded. "i got a text from marian. she said the telephone experiment took place at boston university. that should be upriver this way." she pointed to the left.

"you know boston?"

she nodded. "yep, i went to grad school here."

cardigan beamed. "let's go, partner!"

they made their way toward the university, enjoying their stroll under the beautiful fall foliage.

"wait. fall foliage?" foxy looked around, puzzled. "isn't this supposed to be 10 march? the leaves should be green!"

"excuse me, sir," cardigan stopped a passerby. "can you tell me today's date?"

"why, yes. it's october 3rd," the man replied, tipping his hat as he walked away.

cardigan groaned. "i set the date for 10/3/1876 instead of 3/10/1976. we're going to have to try again."

"again?" foxy looked up at cardigan, who looked down at her. as their eyes met, they both felt feelings that they had never felt before.


Click Here If You're A 'Shipper

Click Here If You're Not

Overnight Rosemary Semolina Flat Bread

merry christmas, everyone! i made this nice flat bread today as part of the menu. quite good. i also made the cheddar ale spread on the same page of the link to go with it, and it's very good, too (although i didn't add the tobasco, hazelnuts, or parsely, but i added cayenne, garlic powder, and onion powder). i'm also making dinner rolls based on reinhart's basic white bread recipe #2 (subbing 1 c. whole wheat flour for one of the cups of bread flour), tyler florence's roasted cauliflower soup, a veggie & dip platter, a fruit salad, tyler's braised beef roast, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, dorie greenspan's creme brulee, english toffee, punch, and hot buttered rum. come on over :)

Rustic Sourdough (w/Roasted Garlic & Parmesan)

today's recipe comes from king arthur flour. it's a rustic sourdough loaf--a sourdough bread spiked with yeast. i decided to add roasted garlic and parmesan cheese to one of the loaves (the one on the left). i'm so bloody clever :)

this wasn't a "fed" dourdough--i just used the 1 c. that i was going to throw out to feed the dough with. i let it sit out a while, then used it in this recipe. hey, it worked! who said breadbaking is a proper science? pshaw! i'm winging it! in fact, i used a combination of instant yeast & regular active yeast because i didn't have enough instant. you can see how good they look, and they tasted as good as they look.

oh, and as a "side-dish" for the bread, i made emeril's chicken & dumplings (minus the jalepeno). do you know how long it's been since i had chicken & dumplings? i used a leftover grocery store-rotisserie chicken carcass i had to make the stock. so good. so very, very good.

CYA: Sierra & Henry In A Dr. John Ending

NOTE: if you did not jump to this chapter as a result of the Choose Your Adventure story, please go here before reading any further!



sierra & henry opened the door to dr. bell's office to find and empty room.

"damn!" sierra damned. "did we miss it?"

henry walked over to the desk, opened a drawer and started examining some papers. "damn," he damned.

"what is it?"

he showed her a paper. "it's dated march 21, 1883."

"what the--" she slugged him on the arm. hard.

"ow!"

"you screwed up!"

"i didn't mean to! that's something else i meant to tell you. i don't have control over the when and where that i travel to. i'm actually rather surprised that i was this successful."

"you'd better get me back to my when and where, capice?"

henry sighed. "i'll do my best. you ready?"

"wait a sec." she started rummaging around through the rest of dr. bell's desk drawers.

"bingo!" she pulled out a ripe red apple and ate it down to the core in about four bites. "okay, now i'm ready."

THE END

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Reader,

You have reached the end of your adventure. I hope you enjoyed it! If not, well, you only have yourself to blame because, you know, you chose it yourself. Also, since you--not I--chose this adventure, it did not really take place in the Burkieverse and, therefore, will not have any continuity with the regular Poor Yorick's Pub chapters. Thanks for playing and, if you're in the mood to try another adventure, go back to the beginning and choose a different path!