Foodie week

So I was pretty sick for most of this week and there were some other RL problems, but I was determined to make it through a gamut of food-related fun things. In the end, I fine dined, enjoyed a workplace Christmas dinner, and on the weekend I baked, cooked and ate some more. All with tonsellitis, hah.

You can see some evidence of the fine dining above. :) It was nice, which seems a very anaemic word to use about such a meal, but I kinda knew going in that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to be ultra-excited. I couldn't smell a thing due to being sick, and between that and having to socialise I just felt so buggered by the end of the night.

Work Christmas dinner at Rhodes Phoenix was fun and relaxed. We did have chilli lobster, which is a nervewracking thing to eat in front of company anyway since it's so messy and fussy, and then on top of Joey (of FoodiePop started analysing my work practices through the way I tackled the lobster, heh. (I was told I was "logical" in the way I removed all the shell from the pieces of meat before me before I started eating, just like how I sort all the medicines from our daily suppliers alphabetically before I put them away. Logical, or obsessive-compulsive? You decide...)

And then I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen over the weekend. I made choc chip cookies for a fundraiser at church, and then dinner on Sunday night for my parents.



This recipe made about 50 cookies. And my favourite comment was "These are even better than Subway cookies!" Yes, yes they are.

Choc Chip Cookies
originally from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook, via Baking Bites

2 1/3 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
225g butter, , chilled and cut into small pieces and divided equally in two portions
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g chocolate (mix of dark and milk), chopped

Preheat over to 180 Celcius. Grease and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and baking soda and salt.

In a big bowl, beat half the butter with an electric mixer until softened. (Because the day was so hot, I kept the other half of the butter in the freezer just to keep it chilled in the meantime.)

Add in the brown sugar (original recipe called for dark, which I'd run out of - but I think it would make an even more delicious, chewy cookie so I'd love to try it again with the dark brown sugar) and the white sugar and cream with the butter.

Beat in eggs, one at a time. (We had a near-miss at this point as it turned out the first egg I cracked was a bad one!)

Add in the vanilla extract, then beat in the remaining butter at a med-high speed until well incorporated. It's quite a fluffy mixture at this point.

Mix in the flour mixture at low speed on the mixture (or if you want strong arm muscles, fold in by hand).

Stir in the chocolate chunks. (I lessened the amount of chocolate from the original recipe, but was still told by appreciative eaters that there was plenty of chocolate in each cookie.)

Use a tablespoon to drop rougly 1 inch balls (about 1 rounded tablespoon) onto the baking sheet, leaving about an inch and a half between for spreading.

Bake for 13 minutes until cookies are set, matte-looking and lightly golden brown.

Cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to cool on a wire rack.



Tonight's dinner was spaghetti with seafood ragu, herbed mushrooms stuffed with mozarella, and a simple garden salad with a honey-balsamic dressing. The critics at home declared the pasta the hit of the night but rejected the mushrooms completely (I screwed up on that one as I substituted too many things because I didn't have half the ingredients).

But the ragu...oh, the briny, tomato-y deliciousness. Would definitely make again!

Ragù di Pesce
originally from The Wednesday Chef

1 kg seafood/marinara mix, roughly chopped
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup minced herbs (I used basil and parsley)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 can canned tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
450g spaghetti
Chilli flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Finely dice the onion and garlic. In a wide, deep pan, cook over medium heat in olive oil, along with several spoonfuls of the minced herbs. Keep stirring to make sure the mixture doesn't burn.

About 7 minutes later, add the seafood mix and stir well to coat the seafood in the oil, onion, garlic and herb mix. Cook for a few minutes until the seafood takes on colour around the edges.

Add the wine and let it cook down for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes (fresh and canned) to the pan and stir. Throw in a good amount of salt (I used a teaspoon). And a nice pinch of chilli flakes if you want it a little spicy (mmm, spicy).

Let the sauce come to boil, then let it simmer away for about 10-15 minutes until it has reduced and is a little thick. Then turn off the heat, stir in the rest of the herbs and add cracked black pepper for seasoning (and salt if necessary).

Cook your spaghetti until al dente, then drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce and mix well before serving.

Ben Kweller/Delta Spirit - 3 Oct 2010 - Factory Theatre

Having not seen any live music in a while, I was itching to catch a gig when I saw that Delta Spirit, who really impressed me at Lollapalooza last year, would be supporting Ben Kweller. I like both artists, the tickets were cheap - I was sold! And I'm so glad we made such a last minute decision to go because I had a really enjoyable night of country-tinged Americana rock.

picture from Delta Spirit by delta spirit

When I saw Delta Spirit for the first time last year, I hadn't heard any of their songs before, but I was so taken by their great stage presence and their catchy tunes. Frontman Matt Vasquez isn't hard on the eyes either...


Tonight, they launched into a rocking set with so much energy, and it was fantastic. I fell a little bit in love with the amazing drummer and the fact they often had double drums going. The band were multi-talented, switching between instruments with ease (and Matt played the harmonica also!); plus the band played so tightly together, which was all the more surprising when they announced the touring guitarist was only playing his second show ever with the rest of the band.

Their eight song set heavily featured songs from their just-released second album History from Below but it was pretty darn catch and melded well with the dips into their older material. The highlight me for me was the back-to-back pairing of Trashcan and People C'mon, though the rollicking set closer - intro'd as the first song they ever wrote - was also lot of fun with its call and response sing-a-long and the instructions for everyone who was enjoying the gig to 'get low' - and most of the room got to their knees obediently!


Delta Spirit - Trashcan (live @ Factory Theatre, 3/10/10)
It was a great show and surrounded by happy, dedicated fans, the 40 minutes went by too fast.

Bushwick Blues
St Francis
Trashcan
People C'mon
History from Below
VIvian
Children
(?)

Confession time - I haven't listened to a full Ben Kweller album since, oh, 2004. So I wasn't really sure what to expect from his set apart from wanting to hear at least one or two songs from his earlier albums. One thing I really really didn't expect was how young he looked as he came on stage in his black Ramones T-shirt and red jeans. Despite seeming like he's been around the music scene for a long time, he's only 29 and he still looks and sounds like he could be 18.


On stage, he was adorable, throwing in ad-libs about not having played Make It Up in forever and apologising when he messed up the words at one point. I was happy two songs in when he played Commerce, TX and even happier a song later when he played a raucous fun rendition of I Need You Back. He played a mean guitar too - and his small band (a bassist, a drummer and a bare set) jammed well together with a shaggy, shambolic charm.


On My Way
Commerce, TX
Make It Up
I Need You Back
Red Eye
Walk on Me
Wantin' Her Again
...

We left after about seven songs. If there hadn't been a more pressing need to find a sweet supper (a mission which failed) and to get home before the last train, I would've been happy to hear some more from him.

Mixtape (Sad Bear, October 2010)

Long time no mixtape, eh? Let's revive an old tradition around these parts...


Side A

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons - We Should Fight
(indie rock)

I wrote this song inside a paper bag

Dr. Dog - Heart it Races
(indie rock-pop)

And we go back to where we moved out
to the places
heart it races

Jukebox the Ghost - Hold It In
(indie rock pop)

Baby I'm in love and maybe it's not to tell
Only thing that I can do is hold it in, hold it in

Delta Spirit - Children
(indie rock, Americana)

Children shut your eyes
we'll tell you what to see
this world is burnin' down
and you're the ones to lead

Lackthereof - Last November
(lo-fi, experimental)

I'm arriving in style
More importantly, alive
And there's something
To be said for
Surviving

Side B

Arcade Fire - Black Mirror
(indie rock, baroque pop)

Black mirror knows no reflection, knows not pride or vanity
Cares not about your dreams, cares not for your pyramid schemes

Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea*
(indie folk-rock)

In place of the sun
In place of the moon
A terrible light
Will flood every room

* The link takes you to the artist page on their label. I would download not just Red Sea, Black Sea, but everything on this page. The songs are all really good.

Boy & Bear - Mexican Mavis
(indie folk-rock)

'Cos my love's not a limit

Minus the Bear - Guns & Ammo
(indie, experimental, math rock)

Skip the "you don't understand"
Skip the "you're such a petty man"
Skip the way you'll never listen
You never listen

Annuals - Brother
(indie rock, experimental)

I fell down in a creek bed
Brother wept
In his face I met fear
That I could die right there

I know when you haven't posted for a while, the rules are you should come back with actual content, but I couldn't resist this meme.

Here are the rules:

1 - Go to the Superpower Wiki.

2 - Click the “Random page” button on the left hand side once. Only once.

3 - Revel (or dismay) in the fact that this is your new superpower. But I bet it's awesome even if it's crappy because you now have a superpower. Who wouldn't want a superpower? No one, that's who. Unless you're a dude and you get Pregnancy, which admittedly kind of sucks as far as powers go. Sorry about that.

4 - Post the results. No cheating!

Water Manipulation
The power to control water molecules with one’s mind. Also known as Hydrokinesis, Aquakinesis, Waterbending, Hydromancy or Moisture Manipulation.

Oooh. It says I can make water balloons! And known users include Sailor Mercury, Poseidon and Moses, lol.

donuts and muffins and blondies, oh my!

A semi-successes, and a success from a previous failure. Yes, it's time for more baking adventures!

The last time I tried to make snickerdoodles - said to be some of the easiest to make cookies ever - I failed big time. They didn't rise, they were flat and hard and horrible. I still don't know where I went wrong. :( And I've been resisting them since. But then I got a square baking pan (finally!) and read this very simple recipe and took a punt on another snickerdoodle related baking attempt...

Snickerdoodle Blondies
originally from Baking Bites

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

1 tbsp sugar + 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 8×8-inch baking pan (I forgot to do this and it turned out okay).

Cream softened butter and sugar together until light. Add in salt, egg and vanilla extract and combine well. Stir in the flour, mix well, and stir in the choc chips evenly through the batter.

Pour (or push - it's quite a thick dough) into the pan and smooth out the top.

Mix together the extra sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle this topping evenly over the dough.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are lightly brown. Cool in the pan before slicing into bars.

I added the choc chips on a whim, and I should've compensated by dialing back the amount of sugar (which I have done in the quantities listed above).

But I guess these turned out okay as I took them to church for morning tea, and didn't even get to try a piece as it all went quite quickly!

**

And these I made this afternoon. It was ridiculously easy, just a straight combination of ingredients, but they don't really taste like donuts. :(

It made for a decent, quick afternoon snack at least.

Muffins That Taste Like Donuts
originally from tasty kitchen

1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 whole egg
3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Prepare a 12-cup muffin tray. Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon).

Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Pour into dry mix, and stir until just combined.

Pour batter into muffin holes until just below the rim.

Bake for 20-30 minutes until tops are just lightly brown.

Melt the butter in a bowl (I just microwaved it). Combine the sugar with cinnamon in a separate bowl. Dip the still hot muffin in the butter to coat its top, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix.

Let the muffins cool on a rack.

Band of Horses - 29 July 2010 - Enmore Theatre

This was a rather nostalgic show, for one main reason that had nothing really to do with Band of Horses at all: as I stood on the floor of the Enmore with my best friend, we realised it was almost exactly twelve years to the day we saw our first live concert together, at the Enmore. Ah, plus ça change, and all that.

It was also the third time I'd seen Band of Horses in three years, and while it could not reach the same transcedenscent heights as that glorious time two years ago at the Metro, I certainly still enjoyed last night a great deal, and came out with a big grin, the songs ringing in my ears. They really are wonderful musicians, individually and as a band, and they have a really lovely laid-back presence on stage that works well with their music and their audience. During Detlef Schrempf - which sounded utterly beautiful - someone put up their lighter to Ben Bridwell's glee, and soon, with his encouragement from the stage, everyone raised their lighters in their air. For the rest of the song there was a sea of flickering yellow glows in the dark, and it was just perfect (and perfectly old school; it's just so much prettier than a sea of mobile phone glows) in that moment.

I liked the visual component too: they beamed spliced together footage of live shows and backstage antics as a frenetic backdrop to the more upbeat songs, which were fun; while the slower songs, particularly the more country-sounding tunes from latest album Infinite Arms, were matched with quite peaceful, lovely views of empty American landscapes - snow-capped mountains, endless skies, star filled nights.

At times I thought the mix was a little uneven, I couldn't hear Ben Bridwell over the music sometimes, which made me sad because, man, that voice is golden. But it might not be the sound guy's fault, because we were also stuck next to an intensely irritating couple who talked loudly through 80% of the songs. Also, he was saying stuff like, "Play something I know, I paid good money for this!" and "We should've gone to the Strokes instead." I'm pretty sure everyone around us wished they'd gone to there instead too, then we wouldn't have to listen to them whining incessantly, and tempting us to punch his face in. :p

But apart from that annoying blip, the rest of the show was a delight. Highlight of the night for me was the back-to-back pairing of Ode to LRC, stomping good fun as always, and The Funeral, magnificient. I was a little sad that they didn't play Our Swords and they didn't play Monsters, but I couldn't really fault them when they closed with Am I A Good Man, which was so unexpected but so so appreciated. I'm glad they're still covering that, and I loved hearing the interplay of Ryan Monroe and Ben Bridwell's voices on that song live again. :D

I was keeping note of what they played, except after the seventh song I accidentally deleted it from my phone, d'oh. The set list below is from the review by jayhorn5 that I stumbled across.

The Great Salt Lake
Is There A Ghost
Weed Party
NW Apt.
Islands on the Coast
Blue Beard
Compliments
The General Specific
Older
Marry Song
Detlef Schrempf
Factory
Cigarettes, Wedding Bells
(new song)
Laredo
Wicked Gil
Ode to the LRC
The Funeral

No One's Gonna Love You
Am I A Good Man (Them Two cover)


No One's Gonna Love You (video from phlegmphatale", who braved sore arms once again)

baking adventures in June(ish)

It's been brownie-central here! :)

Black and White Brownie Bars
originally from Baking Bites

1 1/2 cups milk and/or dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp Kahlua
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 180C, Grease and line a baking pan with aluminium foil.

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in the egs one at a time, then add Kahlua (or vanilla essence), salt and flour, mixing until there are no streaks of flour, and it is just combined. Take 2 cups of this batter and put it in a separate bowl.

Melt 1 cup of white chocolate in the microwave (in 30s intervals) and stir until all chocolate is melted and smooth. Pour into one of the batter bowls and mix in well. Do this quickly since the chocolate will set again quite quickly and then it's really hard to mix it into the batter!! (says she who FAILED at this step)
Pour this white choc batter into the pan. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of both milk/dark and white chocolate evenly over the surface.

Now melt 1 cup of dark or milk chocolate and add that to the other batter bowl, mixing well. Drop small dollops of this chocolate batter on top of the chocolate chip layer, then use a spatula to gently spread the chocolate batter into an even layer.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in pan, then lift the brownies out with the foil and slice into long, thin slices.

I deviated from the original recipe only because I discovered too late that I didn't have any semi-sweet chocolate, only blocks of milk chocolate; nor did I have any vanilla extract. So I made do. I still got told they were delicious. :)

Turtle brownies
originally from Technicolor Kitchen

Brownies:
55g unsalted butter
90g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup (70g) plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
1 tbsp Kahlua

Topping:
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) heavy cream
1 teaspoon Kahlua
¼ teaspoon of salt

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line a buttered 20cm baking pan with foil.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter and chocolate together and mix until smooth. Let cool slightly. Whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture, milk and vanilla to the egg mix, and combine. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a skewer/toothpick inserted into the centre of brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet (~30 minutes). Let cool on a wire rack.

While brownies are baking, boil 1/3 cup (80ml) water and the sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved. When mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring, and brush the sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to cook, swirling pan occasionally, until medium amber, 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from heat, and immediately add cream in a slow pour (if you're too quick it clumps up!). Add vanilla (or Kahlua) and salt. Gently stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until caramel begins to cool and thickens slightly, about 1 minute.
Pour caramel over cool brownies. Refrigerate until cold, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

The caramel will still be quite runny. I had a hell of a time trying to cut these up. But they were so delicious; soft, almost fudgy batter plus sticky salted caramel - om nom nom!