drinkumbrella

what kind of beetle is this?

what kind of beetle is this?
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

Freeman and I were in the yard today, and found this beetle. It was maybe 2cm long. Red hard shell with a big black spot towards the back. Based on one acrobatic click/jump, I'm guessing it's some sort of click beetle.

Do you know what it is? Freeman would love to find out more. (For that matter, if you've got a good bugs-for-kids resource, I'd love to find out!)

knife sharpening

Sometime recently, a whetsone appeared in our kitchen. It looked lonely, so I spent some quality time with it and our various kitchen knives yesterday.

I'm sure my technique can be improved, but the results are encouraging. Our 8 inch chef's knife is the knife that sees the most use in our kitchen. I think it went from "I'd be pretty happy to find a knife this sharp at my [friend/family]'s house" before to "oh, that's right, you cut by gently guiding the knife in the direction you want to cut" afterwards. So at least part of the sharpening did the right thing.

Chopping apples later, though, it felt like the direct-chop action was not quite as good as it had been. So I suspect my mid-knife sharpness got tweaked during the process.

So now I need to try it again. More practice and all that. The process seems less indimidating, having done it once.

(And no, I didn't start with the chefs knife. I couldn't cook if I screwed that one up! Before I got my confidence up to do that, I did the paring boning knife and 6" utility knives. I don't remember the last time the paring knife was this sharp.)

fitdeck

For far too long now, I've been a total couch potato. I know I need to get in better shape. Both strength-wise and cardio-wise. But I hate the gym. I had a membership at Toadal Fitness for years, and had basically stopped going sometime between when Freeman and Verity were born. Hard to get in the habit. Even though 24 Hour Fitness is one block away, I haven't ever been able to convince myself to work out there. Swim very occasionally, but never work out.

The last time I spent quality time in the gym, I did the Outside Magazine Shape Of Your Life workout. At least the strength training part. I think I learned a lot about my relationship with the gym during that. I had been migrating since then away from any weight machines, favoring free weights and instability exercises (the exercise ball was incorporated into pretty much everything). When I had finished about 4 of the 5 months of the workout, I was probably in the best shape I've ever been in. The author of the Shape Of Your Life workout put out a book called Outside Fitness, but the workout in that was just too complicated. It had a lot of good things going for it, but I just couldn't get going with it.

That was a while ago. My only ongoing workout recently has been kid-wrangling. Which is better than nothing, but still not much.

So I've been looking for a new workout. Preferably one that was gym-free, easy to do, didn't require buying loads of equipment. A couple weeks ago, I found out about FitDeck. It's a deck of cards. Each card has a bodyweight-based exercise on it. To use, shuffle the cards, and deal out N cards for an N-minute workout, or so the theory goes. Each card has a target set of reps, for beginner/intermediate/expert. The whole thing is so simple, and the lack of necessary equipment is really attractive.

Yesterday I did my first workout. Only 15 cards. Mostly targeting the beginner level. It was spread out over a few hours, due to important things like F needing me to bowl on the Wii with him or something. I think doing them consecutively will be a pretty aerobic workout. No major aches for the rest of the day. Today, though, I can feel it. A good post-workout ache. Nothing too bad.

What I can tell is that, if I keep at it, this workout will kick my ass. In a good way.

So I guess I'm giving it a go. Wish me luck to keep motivated.

request for portlanders: eat at voodoo doughnuts for me

I just watched the "Pacific NW" episode of Anthony Bourdain's series "No Reservations". And now I need a first-hand report about whether the Voodoo Doughnuts maple-and-bacon-bar is as good as it looks.

Because it looks really darned good.

Also, Apizza Scholls, if you have the time.

thanks!

:)

interpreting recipes

One of the biggest challenges about cooking stuff you've never cooked before is figuring out the intent of the recipe -- how to translate some random words into what you see, hear, smell and feel.

For the pots de creme, it's a pretty basic recipe. The one I used had half and half, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. It's a simple custard. Whisk together the eggs and sugar, heat the milk, mix the heated milk into the egg/sugar mixture, add the vanilla. Fill the dessert cups, put in a water bath, bake.

Here's where you learn the true value of your recipe writer, though. I had done everything to this point following the recipe from The Professional Pastry Chef. It says to cook until the custard is set. Ok, great. I've never made these before. What does "set" look like? How do you know?

When cooking a quiche (another custard), if you shake it and you see ripples, not done. If the whole custard seems to shake together, it's done. Knowing what this looks like is something that's hard to convey without seeing it. But for a pot de creme? Who knows what "set" looks like!

So I consulted another nearby reference, the Bouchon cookbook (from Thomas Keller, of French Laundry fame). In that recipe for pots de creme, it explained that when set, it will still jiggle slightly like gelatin.  Now this, I can visualize.

And now I know what it looks like, so next time I'll know.

pot de crème

pot de crème
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

My first attempt at pot de creme. K had a couple and proclaimed success. What I saw looked like it was slightly overcooked... Now they've had some time to get cold in the fridge. I'll try one at lunch.

baklava fresh out of the oven

baklava fresh out of the oven
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

Over the holidays, we met some friends of my in-laws, originally from Bulgaria. Boris and Irina, I think. Irina said that she normally made baklava for the holidays, but didn't have the time this year.

And I got a bee in my bonnet about baklava. It's been several weeks, and that bee was still buzzing.

So, here it is. My first attempt at baklava. I used the recipe from Bo Friberg's The Professional Pastry Chef. I made the filling with pistachios and almonds.

I'm curious how it tastes, but the next step is to let it cool down, and it's bedtime and they're still hot. Maybe for breakfast.

cheesecake with sour cream topping

cheesecake with sour cream topping
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

Certainly the easiest way to deal with a craving is to satisfy it. I'd been craving cheesecake for at least a week.

Made on friday, only two slices left for monday. (I didn't eat them all. Honest.)

fresh loaf of brioche

fresh loaf of brioche
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

The downside of brioche: it takes a lot of time -- the dough gets to rise three times.

The upside: fresh baked bread in the morning makes the house smell great, warms up the kitchen, and, well, brioche has one heck of a lot of butter in it.

Yum!

gingerbread house with squirrels

gingerbread house with squirrels
Originally uploaded by drinkumbrella

Here's our finished gingerbread house. With squirrels.