Rags Time

Sometimes people tell me I have cat eyes.

I beg to differ.

I think certain organisms of the "feline persuasion" have Karen eyes. Including Rags Parker (pictured above)

Hubble Rubble

Would it surprise anyone to find out that I am a big enough nerd to have a Hubble Wall above my bed in my room?

I think not. You all know me way too well to be surprised at something like that.

When Nancys Fly

My roommate Brittany has many, many talents. She plays almost every string instrument I've ever heard of. She uses this musical talent in a Celtic band called "The Flying Nancys." They recently played a concert in Pleasant Grove, and it was fantastic. I only had my cell phone camera with me, so the picture is a little low-res...

Brittany is the one in the turquoise shirt playing the cello on the far right. She also plays Banjo and Mandolin in some of the songs. She is amazing! (and so is the rest of the band)

Listen to some of their music HERE.

My Kind of Graffiti

Found on a bench at the Penny Playground in Centralia, WA.

Aguacate Experimentation

It's no secret that I love food. And I love science. As a professional I do experiments in the lab. For fun I do experiments in the kitchen.

I follow a few food blogs, partially for the ideas, and partially for the pretty pictures. One of my favorites is Smitten Kitchen. Deb always has great recipes, beautiful pictures of her food, and an amazingly cute baby boy.

Awhile back she made mango curd, and it looked tasty enough to give it a try myself. So I made the mango curd late one night, and when I got done, I found myself eying a couple of ripe avocados that I'd almost forgotten about. As sometimes happens after midnight, I decided to indulge my whimsy and try the recipe with avocado instead of mango.

My avocados were a bit over-ripe, so I ended up using only about two-and-a-half of the avocados after cutting out the brownish spots I found after I cut open the avocados.

The puree was a lovely 60s-era shade of green. After adding the egg yolks and whisking over a double-boiler for 10 minutes, the avocado puree darkened just a bit and ended up taking on a sheen that the mango didn't. Probably because avocados have more oil than mangoes. It didn't look oily, just different.

The avocado curd also ended up thicker than the mango curd. It didn't set up totally solid, but I'd probably add a few more tbsp. of lime juice to the avocado to loosen it up a bit.

The colors of the two actually ended up complementing each other really well.

I got to use my little tartlet shell molds to make shells to put the curd in. I have tons of random kitchen toys, but as it turns out, I don't have a pastry blender. Huh. I used a fork to cut the butter into the flour and it worked surprisingly well.

Aren't they cute! I put quite a bit of lime juice in the mix because I was a little nervous about the avocado puree browning. It ended up tasting like key lime pie. Tasty!

 Here's the recipes in case you want to make your own!


Avocado Curd
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen adapted from Bon Appetit, June 1998
Makes 1 to 1.5 cups
3 Medium-sized, ripe avocados
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I ran out of lime juice. Next time I'll use all lime juice)
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Puree avocado, sugar, lime/lemon juice and salt in processor, scraping down sides of work bowl occasionally. Add yolks; puree 15 seconds longer. Set metal bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened and thermometer registers 170°F., about 10 minutes. Remove from over water. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time. Cover and refrigerate overnight.


Pie Crust for Tartlet shells
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold shortening, lard, or butter, in 1/2 inch pieces (I used butter)
scant 1/4 cup vinegar water, ice cold

Wisk together flour and salt. Cut the butter/lard into the flour with fork or pastry blender until the fat/flour forms very small crumbs that looks like coarse corn meal.

Splash a little bit of vinegar (I used apple cider) into the bottom of a 1/4 cup measuring cup. I put just barely enough to cover the bottom of the measuring cup. I then filled the cup with ice-cold water up to just below the brim.

Sprinkle the water/vinegar over the butter/flour mixture and mix gently with your fingers until it just begins to stick together in a ball. It's OK if it seems a bit wet. You'll use flour when you roll the dough out. Flatten the dough ball into a disc shape and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Flour counter and rolling pin, and roll out to 1/8 inch. Fill tartlet shells, and pierce bottom and sides with fork. Bake shells in preheated 400 degree oven until golden brown, 10-12 minutes. Let cool in molds before removing.

Party Like It's Your Birthday

I have an amazing friend who had a birthday this weekend. Lawanna is always a party, but this time she made it an organized event.

There was a big tent with tables, 3 BBQs going full throttle, a full size cotton candy machine, a slurpee machine, a 100 foot slip-n-slide down a hill in the park, and a beautiful, tasty cake made by yours truly!

It was a water-themed party. We were warned to come prepared to get wet, and it was a good thing we were warned...

A full-blown water fight broke out, and no one was safe...

Even the bishop (above in slacks and button-up shirt) got soaked! Brother Miller was like a giant 3 year old with that super soaker. He even "autographed" my back.

Robadile Dundee kept soaking people with bowls full of water.

There was a big tupperware thing full of water balloons that were originally meant for water-balloon-volleyball that all got used for "payback" instead. There was a good 20 minutes of people running around getting everybody wet. Good times.

Lawanna asked me to make her cake, but let me do whatever I wanted. I decided to use my flower-shaped pan to make a giant pink flower. Lawanna is currently fighting breast cancer, so pink is her color these days. I decided that a plain flower was boring, so I made little bugs out of color-flow icing to put all over it.

It was a crazy-fun party that had over 100 people in attendance, and lasted 5 hours. It all made for a perfect summer evening!


Happy birthday Lawanna! I'm so glad we're friends!!

Brisling

I love science, and I love food. So I really love when people combine the two. There are fun books like "How Baking Works" that I've read that explain stuff, but sometimes it's nice to have some person explain things to you. No one does this better than Alton Brown. He really knows his stuff and demonstrates it in a really fun way. Good Eats is one of my favorite cooking shows. I never fail to learn several food-related things with every episode. Seldom has his advice led me astray. The popovers were delightful, the fan-made beef jerky was tasty and intriguing, and though my English Muffins didn't look as pretty as his, they were still pretty good. He had built a relationship of trust with me. I admired him. I trusted him. I even bought the book.

But then he convinced me that eating Brislings was a good idea. I should have known better.

You see, there was this episode where he used Brisling sardines as a topping for toast, and he made it look like it was the best thing he had ever eaten. I distinctly remember him saying that he could eat this particular snack for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was sold. I went to the store and bought me some Brislings of my very own.

 I assembled the ingredients he said I'd need: Toasted sourdough, lemon zest/juice, avocado, parsley, salt, pepper, and sherry vinegar.

I combined the ingredients as directed, and smoshed the little fishes in a bowl.

 Then I toasted and assembled.

The idea of this dish didn't necessarily repulse me, but the reality kind of did. It actually looked kind of pretty. I mean, really... Anything involving fresh avocado should be delightful...

Something about chomping down on little fishy tails almost made me ralph. They weren't bony or chewy or anything, but they were still definitely little fish tails. In my mouth.

Out of sheer pig-headedness, I managed to choke it all down. I wasn't about to let a little can of fish get the best of me. I can't really say that I enjoyed it. I took all of these pictures hoping this would be another Alton-Brown-Inspired success story...

Well, now I know. I'm now going to take any future food recommendations with a grain of salt.

I can have my own opinion, and that's OK.

Fish tails. Blech.