somniloquence

Hey, cooking side of my flist: In an effort to try to make more things I can have multiple meals of so I don't have to go out as much, I've been dusting off some favorite recipes. The big problem is one I regularly have--I live alone, I don't eat much (which is why it's so infurating that I'm so fat), and I get instantly sick of things once I've had them a couple times in a row. There are very few things I can stand to eat multiple meals of, but I'm trying to minimize trips to the grocery, so this is a conundrum.

I know I can freeze things, but my freezer is small and again, things go bad before I want to eat them once more. I have to regularly throw stuff out because it goes bad in the fridge, gets chunks of ice crystals and gross old-freezer taste in the freezer, or gets rancid in the cupboards. I'm just a terrible cook and easily discouraged, too, which is part of the problem, and I also don't eat meat much at home by myself.

One of my favorite recipes is for this slow-cooker beer braised pork shoulder in black beans, and I bought everything to make it last night, but since I'm trying to go to the store at night, the meat guys are long gone and can't give me a custom amount (my slow cooker is enormous, so that's not where my issue lies). So the smallest pork shoulder I could get was 2-1/2 pounds, but I only need 1-1/2 pounds. If I try to use the full amount, would it mess up the recipe of one pound of black beans and two bottles of beer + water and adobo sauce? Would I have to cook it longer?

I could cut it myself, down to the required 1-1/2 pounds, and freeze the rest, though if I tried to make it again with only one pound, would that also screw things up because I was missing a half pound? I don't know how to adjust things, to be honest, and whether amounts make that much difference in a slow cooker. Basically, I don't know how to handle this giant slab of meat since it's not the correct quantity.

One other thing I was considering is I saw a high end cake box mix for a coconut cake, but they only give instructions for cook times and temps for two round pans, and I don't have round pans. I'm way too poor to buy new round pans, but I was considering treating myself and making a coconut cake, yet I don't know what the temp/cook times would be if I put the batter in a 13x9 pan. Would it be best to follow their instructions, and just get the pans even though I really shouldn't?

It's hard to prep when you're kind of a disaster human with regard to food. Thanks for any advice.

Ugh, I knew this would happen. Whenever I have a book to edit, I fall behind on whatever project I take on. So I have talking meme points 6 & 7 to do today.

sperrywink asked: How about vidding in Buffy fandom: Likes and dislikes?

Buffy fandom actually helped me transition from being a VCR vidder to a computer vidder. I had done a vid on VCRs, Do What You Have to Do, that I decided to remaster as my first-ever computer vid when I got my first iMac. I had to record the dvds onto a digital tape using my dad's camcorder, then load the digital copies on to my Mac, and then the fun of editing in iMovie occurred. It was really hard for me to grok, but I was so happy with the results, especially because I had dealt with one of the worst aspects of VCR vidding -- trying so hard to get an insert edit to work, ruining both the master and source tapes -- on that vid, and I could not fix it. As much as many people I know loved that vid, all I could see was this terrible clip I'd had to use just so I could move on. It tortured me for years, man.

Because I was still working on VCRs, I never got into a lot of the Buffy vidding fandom community -- I came late to the party in that respect, even though I'd been making Buffy vids from a lot earlier than, say, most of the people on Nummy Treat. That was hard, because I felt really isolated and one of the most important aspects of vidding, and of fandom, for me, is being part of a community. When I'm in a fandom of one, or isolated from most of a community, it is really hard to motivate myself. I think that's a lot of why I despair of the level of communication (everything from mailing lists and LJ to comments on stories and vids) in fandom these days; without the community and the participation, my enthusiasm dries up and wafts away.

But anyway, like I said, I came to computer vidding in Buffy later than most, but that's not to say I didn't have a lot of vids in the fandom already. For some reason, it was Spike that got me started in writing fic and most of the vidding. I wouldn't have expected that at all, he's not my usual type of character, but I fell hard for him, and his story once he came back to Sunnydale really made me want to create fannish things.

And that was a whole other problem in itself. I was...kind of shocked at the animosity toward Spike vids or Spuffy vids. Especially after S6 and that whole execrable attempted rape scene. I mean, OK, I get it when a fandom erupts around a character you don't like, especially when said fandom is a lot of people turning a rough character into a woobie. I've been there -- I watched all the excuses everyone made for Krycek, and the way the fans turned him into poor wee ickle Alex. But wow, I still was somehow not prepared for the nastiness you got when you vidded Spike, especially after S6.

Because for me, that was a goldmine of vidding subjects. One vid that isn't online that I should really remaster, I think, was 3 Libras, which was my way of trying to make sense out of the whole wretched season (I really hate S6, if you can't tell), and it made me terrifically happy when I showed it at Escapade and a couple people commented on how it was the first time the season made sense for them. There was just so much you could do with Spike in a way you couldn't always with other characters, and I really loved that flexibility and that depth of creativity I could find in vidding him. His story inspired me a lot.

Not that that was all I vidded, I've done lots of other Buffy characters, but I stopped after a while because of some concerns that I was focusing too much on a couple fandoms. I loved vidding La Femme Nikita and Buffy so much that really, outside of Firefly and the other other fandom, I could have done nothing else and still been happy, but that monomaniacal focus can turn into a joke pretty easily. I still have some songs that I want to do for the show, especially Giles because there never were enough Giles vids. Maybe at some point I will go back to it, even if I do worry that that might seem odd. I miss the show and I would love to see if I can recapture the magic that was lost with the souring of my feelings about Joss.

van asked: The best thing you ever ate!

This is so tough, because I have a really hard time remembering things like this. I mean, I remember lots of wonderful meals and menu items, but I have this nagging feeling that there's something really important to remember out there that I can't. I have been to some amazeballs restaurants and had astounding meals cooked by people I know, but I forget all those things quickly.

One meal I do remember was going to a super-exclusive private club at the top of the Columbia Tower, at that time the tallest building west of Chicago, with our new CEO at the association I worked for, who was a member of the club and who had invited us all to dinner to celebrate his new position. It was an amazing meal, just amazing, but I remember the lobster bisque before dinner -- it was simply incredible and I've been searching for a lobster bisque as good ever since. Never found it. Everything that came after was superb, as well, but that lobster bisque...oh, man, was that fine.

Another really wonderful food night came just recently. When I was visiting therienne, arduinna, and mollyamory last May in Boston, they took me to this basic, nondescript Mexican place near their home. It wasn't a special place or anything, had previously been a chain restaurant, but they made guacamole at your table to your specifications, so I could get it without onions tainting it, which was awesome. It was salty and delicious and fresh, and so wonderfully avocado-y, and I nearly cried when it was gone (which it was, right away). I wanted more and more and more. Then we followed that up with some queso, and I about died and went to heaven -- it was so fresh and tasty, not like what I was used to with queso at all. Really, that was just the best dinner, even though it wasn't some special hard to get into restaurant that would cost you $500 for dinner. (I'm sure the company didn't hurt, either!) I can't find anyplace like it around here, and really, I would consider flying out to Boston just to go to this restaurant again.

I made my first fruit pie today from blackberries I picked last night and peaches M'lyn brought me from Yakima this weekend. I make a mean punkin pie, but I've never made a fruit one, for some reason. It turned out quite well, although I think it needed a skosh more cornstarch, since it was very very wet. But I love the super tartness of the blackberries with the peaches and the little bit of nutmeg on top brings a nice roundness.

I made the top crust out of little stars I cut with a cookie cutter. I saw it in a picture and though my friend Michael discouraged me from going fancy on my first berry pie, I had time waiting for the oven to heat. I think they needed an egg wash to maintain their shape a little better; I'll try that next time.

Overall, not bad. So far, in my very limited summer, I've made cardamom ice cream, fig ice cream, and now a blackberry-peach pie. I will get some more blackberries maybe this weekend and make blackberry ice cream next. Doesn't look like I'm going to get any persimmons on my tree yet again, so I'm not sure if I'll make the persimmon-black pepper syrup ice cream again, though I really liked that one.

Behold, pie!

Is there anything better than a lunch of cherry pumpernickel bread with spankin' fresh goat cheese, after a long walk back from the farmers market? Right now, I think not, as I stuff my face. I constantly forget to go to the farmers market in the center of West Seattle, even though it's walkable for me (though a bit of a long walk, especially when it's hot and you're carrying a really heavy bag), so I made a point of going today before the last of the summer produce gets away. I got some gigantic peaches for making ice cream, the aforementioned bread and chevre, some trailhead cheese (thanks, Alexfandra, for introducing me to that!), some smoked salmon ravioli, summer squashes, and best and most exciting of all, huckleberries. The last bunch of them, to be precise. OMG real huckleberries, not those farm grown lowland ones that aren't really huckleberries.

I'm going to have to get myself one of those carts you see crazy old ladies with, or something. I don't want to drive there, but every time I do go, I end up buying a lot of heavy stuff, and with squash season coming up that will get tiresome, carrying all that loot home. (And Jo, I found someone who actually carries pig lard.) And this guy I talked to told me about a friend of his who makes fresh roasted peanuts for the Ballard farmers market, so I may now have to check that out since I love me some peanuts.

I have to be careful when I go there (maybe that's why I always forget -- my subconscious is trying to protect me), because I always buy way too much stuff. But, I mean... cherry pumpernickel bread! Super fresh handmade inexpensive goat cheese! Heirloom veggies you never see anywhere else, and tree ripened peaches! mmmmmm And you can quench your thirst with a strawberry lavender lemonade that costs a buck.

I'm also posting because I wanted to show off my icon -- thanks to the_red_shoes for the link to this post, with all these great community organizers icons. I had a hard time choosing one -- I mean, there's John Lennon and JFK & RFK and Martin Luther King Jr. and Aung San Suu Kyi and Thomas Jefferson and Cesar Chavez and Sitting Bull and Wilma Mankiller and just... tons of people whose faces you instantly know (Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, etc.) and people whose faces aren't remembered enough (Harriet Tubman, and the woman in my icon, Sojourner Truth). I chose Sojourner because, as many as I wanted to use, she had a huge impact on me as a kid, and I did a number of reports on her throughout my childhood in school, because I was impressed and amazed by her. (In fact, my lame tribute was that I named my first D&D role-playing character Sojourner, after her.) If you don't know who Sojourner is, there's a good history here at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

I'm not so much an Obama supporter, even with this icon, as I am an alternative supporter. I have grave concerns about some issues around Obama, and I still can't shake bad feelings about Joe Biden for a lot of reasons. I have a terrible, terrible feeling that McCain is going to win, and I am so depressed about the future of this country that sometimes I can't even sleep. But I loathe everything the GOP seems to stand for these days, and Palin's remarks, hell, her mere presence, just offends me, so I grabbed this icon, because... yeah. If they want to demean the experience of someone who has been a community organizer, then count me for standing together. I've been a volunteer for so many different groups, and to me, that's the only way we can ever effect change in this country. It's not going to be in the government, where they are too busy stripping the Constitution of everything it stands for.

OMG, Cute Overload posted a YouTube copy of my favorite cartoon ever, Warner Bros.' Feed the Kitty. It's hysterical, and I never watch it but I laugh and laugh, especially when Marc Anthony, the dog who falls in love with the little kitten, sits there grabbing his ankles and rocking back and forth, sobbing uncontrollably. Oh, man, I adore this cartoon. It's here and you should go watch it if you've never seen it before. I think it's even better than What's Opera, Doc?

gattagrigia and hubby are back from Paris, where they picked me up a tin of Mariage Freres' Sakura green tea for 2008. If you've never tried Mariage Freres teas, you should. I am a tea fanatic, and I am amazed at how long I suffered without experiencing this tea. They've been making their classic black tin blends since 1854, though they've been hard to get in this country for a long time. Mariage Freres has a web site you can now order from, but it's probably the most ghastly design I've ever come across, on any browser. (In fact, talkingsock, this would make you laugh and laugh.)

The company has made it difficult to order their basic line here -- you have to call the main distributor because they haven't let them make the teas available online any other way than their own site. But if you're lucky, there may be a store in your city you can find them; it's worth looking around. In Seattle, they're carried by Watson-Kennedy. After I tried some of the divine Montagne d'Or, which has flower petals and a fruity infusion to create this heavenly fruity-flowery black tea that is so mild and softly sweet you don't need any extra sweetener, I couldn't go back to other teas. Nothing is as good! Their blacks are incredibly well-blended, no bitterness, even in the darker leaves. The greens are soft, not grassy or sharp at all like cheaper greens can be. I have yet to try the white blends, because I haven't seen any here on the shelves, but maybe if I can ever navigate that crazy online store, I'll order some in the future. Whites can often taste like hay, so I'll be interested to see how theirs taste.

They're expensive, but worth every penny if you love a good cuppa.

I normally don't post about things like this, but I had to today. This weekend, I tried a new ice cream and it was like having heaven in a little tiny pint carton -- Haagen Dazs's Hawaiian Lahua Honey and Sweet Cream ice cream from their reserve series. I thought I'd give it a try since both the taste and scent of honey are among my absolute favorites, and it sounded kind of unusual (one of the best ice creams I ever had was also the Honey Lavender handmade ice cream at Le Pichet when talkingsock took me there for lunch once).

Now, I have no idea what difference Lahua honey makes, because honey is just honey to me, mostly, but they put it into this super creamy sweet ice cream and there are also little tiny pocket swirls of the honey and OMG is it good. It's so rich and creamy and sweet, too, that a tiny bit goes a long way, which is great since I'm trying to cut back on everything (I don't believe in dieting, but I also know controlling how much you eat of treaty things makes a huge difference). And I've never been a big fan of Haagen Dazs, either, but this may change my mind a bit.

Now that I'm going to get a nice kitchen, I guess I should start a food tag. I'm already starting to think about what cookbooks I want to get.

And that's all I have to say. Kind of a bummer weekend, but at some point, I'll put up some more remodel pics now that I have cabinets.