stuff
1. I'm getting sick of the dumb active x thing on my blog page. What's with that? Why won't it just take my word for it and let the issue go?
2. the bushwa over at Karen Scott's place? Not a lot of interesting arguments put on the table, mostly just indignation. But Karen in a huffy snark is fun. A couple of the nicer writers I know (and that's not snarky, Charl) are worried about the whole sense of writers vs writers or vs readers--the whole kerfuffle feel of it--but I don't think these flare-ups leave a bad taste longer than a week or so.
3. I don't buy the argument put forth that e-books all have rotten covers. Check out I Nefertiti at Loose Id, pointed out by Bam. Yummy! And I like my Learning Charity cover even if Bam thinks she's got a big head and weird hands. I think that was also Bam. I'd go look but I'm too lazy. Threaten me if I got it wrong, okay? Better still, leave a lot of posts about what a bitch I am. I want some traffic to this damn blog and I see that Karen got over 48 posts about that whole Changeling Press thing.
UPDATED: Weird. I'd posted something like this remark at Karen's (using the same examples because damned if I'll go look for nice covers though I know they're out there) and it appeared about an hour later. Maybe Karen's doing some kind of holding the messages to make sure there are no death threats in them?
4. I made hot fudge sauce that's turning into a staple here. Luckily the husband, who runs five miles a day and has a fast moving metabolism, is the one eating most of it. Easy easy:
can of sweetened condensed milk,
couple of teaspoons corn syrup (that seems to help make it hard when it hits the ice cream),
3 oz of unsweetened cooking chocolate.
Some water to make it the right texture for you. Heat it all up. Add some vanilla. Use on ice cream. Yum.
5. I can't help thinking of Doug's recipes that are so complex. He can just bite his b'sarillo if he thinks mine are red neck unsophisticated.
6. Do you think insulting his recipes or assuming he'll look down on mine will create a stir here? and give me some of them sanctimonious posters racing to his defense? One can only hope.
2. the bushwa over at Karen Scott's place? Not a lot of interesting arguments put on the table, mostly just indignation. But Karen in a huffy snark is fun. A couple of the nicer writers I know (and that's not snarky, Charl) are worried about the whole sense of writers vs writers or vs readers--the whole kerfuffle feel of it--but I don't think these flare-ups leave a bad taste longer than a week or so.
3. I don't buy the argument put forth that e-books all have rotten covers. Check out I Nefertiti at Loose Id, pointed out by Bam. Yummy! And I like my Learning Charity cover even if Bam thinks she's got a big head and weird hands. I think that was also Bam. I'd go look but I'm too lazy. Threaten me if I got it wrong, okay? Better still, leave a lot of posts about what a bitch I am. I want some traffic to this damn blog and I see that Karen got over 48 posts about that whole Changeling Press thing.
UPDATED: Weird. I'd posted something like this remark at Karen's (using the same examples because damned if I'll go look for nice covers though I know they're out there) and it appeared about an hour later. Maybe Karen's doing some kind of holding the messages to make sure there are no death threats in them?
4. I made hot fudge sauce that's turning into a staple here. Luckily the husband, who runs five miles a day and has a fast moving metabolism, is the one eating most of it. Easy easy:
can of sweetened condensed milk,
couple of teaspoons corn syrup (that seems to help make it hard when it hits the ice cream),
3 oz of unsweetened cooking chocolate.
Some water to make it the right texture for you. Heat it all up. Add some vanilla. Use on ice cream. Yum.
5. I can't help thinking of Doug's recipes that are so complex. He can just bite his b'sarillo if he thinks mine are red neck unsophisticated.
6. Do you think insulting his recipes or assuming he'll look down on mine will create a stir here? and give me some of them sanctimonious posters racing to his defense? One can only hope.
Damn, Kate. Who has sweetened condensed milk in their cupboard?
ReplyDeleteBut I'm up to a dare. Think I'll do 13 Easy Recipes this Thursday. (Hm. Do I know 13 easy recipes?)
Dude. I was just thinking how much I wanna try your fudge recipe because it's so easy and good-looking, and how funny that I began a rant in an email earlier today - all about how the foodie blogs are so fucking intimidating and pretentious and WRONG about the whole spirit of cooking, if you will. (I didna send the email, but I saved it and will perhaps blog it.)
ReplyDeleteSo you n me, we're like great minds thinking alike and all. How cool is that?
And I like Charity's cover, actually. And everyone should have weetened condensed milk in the cupboard, are you kidding? And how hard is it? Like $1.99 at any grocery store.
Sweetened condensed milk. Check
ReplyDeleteCorn Syrup. Check
Evaporated milk. Check
Cream of Mushroom soup. Check
Grated cheese. Check
(I can now make any 1950s casserole I desire and add in an easy candy/sauce recipe to boot.)
Four million exotic Aisan ingrdients in bottles gathering dust over the microwave oven. Check
Rosewater. Check
Whole cardamom pods. Check
(I can now watch my exotic ingredients get paler and dustier, month after month, as I figure out when I'll ever have time to make a complicated recipe again. I used to enjoy cooking. Not so much anymore.)
And Doug, I'll defend your honor, never fear.
ReplyDeleteJust toss me that epee, would you? I bent mine while stretching.
Hey, Suisan, I'll unbend your epee any day of the week. And when I unbend it, it stays unbent.
ReplyDeleteThat would have worked much better with something less phallic than an epee.
Kate, Beth, you just don't understand the motivation behind a guy who makes b'stila. It's not about foodyism, it's about getting laid. I'd make timpano if it would mean getting laid.
Sexmuse, I'm Doug, and you need to meet me. Howdy do!
*gasp* how dare you insult Doug?
ReplyDeletepsst: an even easier hot fudge sauce: nuke a container of chocolate fudge frosting. [ducking]
Good point, Doug--it explains why I'm occasionally (okay, often) lazy about cooking--if I can get laid for a Jello cake, why spend hours making something fancy? ;)
milady, but doesn't the corn syrup make it not hard but kind of goopy/chewy when it hits the ice cream? Something in that recipe does. Maybe it's the condensed milk heated way up.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot I sometimes add butter when I remember.
My grandmother made this same hot fuge recipe, but without the corn syrup. She boiled hers for exactly 2.5 minutes. but never tested the temperature.
ReplyDeleteChewiness is really just a function of how *hot* it gets, rather than what mixture of sugar molecules you get. Hot--soft ball; chewy when hits cold stage. Really hot--hard crack; shatters when hits cold.
So the syrup is in there to prevent the sugar from reforming crystals when it's boiling. (corn plus cane also gives you fewer bubbles in a finished candy.)
Sugar chemistry is some strange stuff.
I also add corn syrup because I use unsweetened chocolate (that's what we keep on hand).
ReplyDeleteBut Suisan, at least once I've spaced out and wandered away to come back and find the mess bubbling happily (usually I just heat it until everything melts--only because the boys are standing around with their bowls, waiting to scoop the ice cream)...and the texture is the same no matter what.
How come?? Might it be a matter of the condensed milk?
13 easy recipes it is. You're gonna love my dad's Bull's Eye. (The rest of the world knows it by a different name, but I can't remember what it is!)
ReplyDeleteOoops. I never responded to this.
ReplyDeleteThe range for soft ball is very large. Once the sugar gets up into thread stages, the ranges for each stage are very small. So it can boil for a long while before changing texture.
And yes, I think the protein in the condensed milk affects the sugar chemistry too. Soft ball, etc., are all based on pure sugar. I remember learning at one point that making a true caramel hard candy, as opposed to its common chewy relative, was difficult because of the fat and protein.
Think about it though--a lot of old-fashioned homemade candies are chewy. When you start out making a chewy candy, you have a greater fudge factor.
Which is where we get the term.
Except that I also goofed and called the crack stages "thread stages".
ReplyDeleteNo.
Thread (jellies)
Ball (fudge, sauce, divinity)
Crack (Taffy--although hard ball works too, brittle, and lollipops)
The sugar takes longer to move from one temperature to another in thread and ball. Zooms through temperatures through crack into carmel.