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Posts tagged ‘geeky’

May 24

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SciFriday: So long and thanks for all the fish….

Tomorrow is International Towel Day!  For all you geeky folks I need explain no further but to any readers who aren’t officials on their British SciFi—Towel day was started in 2001 to commemorate the passing of author Douglas Adams.  Adams wrote perhaps one of the keystones in geek lit—“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”—which has failed for the most part in making a popular film adaptation and so most folks still haven’t heard of it.  That’s not to knock the film made a few years back; it just hardly reached the same level of non-geek audiences that say Avengers did last summer.

Hitchhiker’s Guide begins with the demolition of earth for the construction of an interstellar highway—galactic eminent domain.  Unfortunately humanity failed to notice the memo (hey it WAS posted) and gets subsequently wiped out.  All humans that is except for Arthur Dent who discovers in his local pub that his good friend Ford of many years is in fact, an alien, and is whisked away just moments before earth goes all kablooey.  Thus begins their travels hitchhiking across the universe.  Along the way they travel with the President of the Galaxy (who has kidnapped himself), a stolen ship operating by Improbability Drive, the last remaining human female in the galaxy (I see where this is going), and a depressed robot named Marvin.  You find out a certain species of whiskered four legged animal is smarter than humans and very, very evil?  Can you guess which animal this is—hint it’s NOT cats.  The second smartest species being Dolphins (humans are third you see) also escape the demolition of earth after thanking humans for all the fish we fed them over the years.

Oh and the earth was actually just a giant supercomputer designed to determine what the ultimate question is after a super computer determined the answer to the ultimate question regarding life, the universe and everything is….42.  It’s pure, delightful space nonsense.    Yet it manages to also pack some really great punches that are surprisingly on point, make you think and will be quotable even in non-geeky circles.

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Tomorrow will also be “Geek Pride Day” which I just always kind of lump into Towel Day.  I mean what could be more geek pride-yer than running around singing So Long and Thanks for All The Fish?  If you planted a geek flag it would be a towel, with the words “Don’t Panic!” waving proud and high for all passing spaceships to see.  Why a towel?  Ah I see you haven’t read the book.  Well did you know that a  towel is the most important thing for a space traveler to carry?

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

Hitchhiker’s Guide is pretty pervasive in our culture even though you might not have noticed it.  I know of a chemistry professor for example that made sure that he always had a question whose answer was 42 out of homage to the book.  Most of the kids in the class didn’t get it….  It’s somewhat sad to me that so few people still seem to have heard of this book—at least in America—when it’s such an international phenomenon.  Originally written in the 70’s, Hitchhiker’s Guide has been made into several radio shows, stage adaptations, lp compilations, films, tv series, comic books….  I’d argue it’s the British culture equivalent to Star Trek except they also have Doctor Who so I’m not sure which one wins out there for most popular, British geeky space epic.  I wonder if they have the animosity competing Star Wars and Star Trek fans do….

If you are looking for something to do to celebrate the holiday tomorrow there are numerous events going on globally if you check the official holiday website.  Me?  What will I be doing?  What do I ever do when I have a day or even to commemorate?  I cook of course!  Since the book is oh so british, and Arthur Dent is always on a quest for that good English Cuppa, and since the dolphin song is so infectious, I offer to you the official dinner of Towel Day: Tea Steamed Mackerel.  Mmmmmmm.  Tea because duh, British and Mackerel because it’s not only one of the fish that Dolphins in captivity are fed, but because they are one of the more sustainable options at your seafood counter.  I love it when all my passions collide on a plate.  While a good solid English Breakfast tea is great, I really wanted something that would stand up to the strong salty flavor of mackerel.  After sniffing my way through the loose leaf tea section at Whole Foods, I discovered this smoked variety: Lapsang souchong.  It is remarkable with the fish.  Really, truly remarkable.  As it turns out this variety of tea was Winston Churchill’s favorite so I officially consider it British enough.  The best part is that this recipe is simple and fast, so you can easily make it with only a few minutes to spare before the demolition of your planet.

Hitchhiker’s Tea Steamed Mackerel

An Olivia Original Read more

Apr 25

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Lembas Bread for Tolkien Reading Day (Vegan, Soy Free and Gluten Free)

We’re going totally topsy turvy this week!  Vegan food!  Gluten Free!  Oh and Fantasy Friday being hosted on a Thursday but it’s for an important reason.  Today is Tolkien Reading Day!  Set on March 25th each year to commemorate the fall of Sauron, fans of the Middle Earth are encourage to read or rather re-read this epic saga.  Since I’m on a journey of my own with this vegan challenge, it seems appropriate to call upon the fellowship.  What did they travel with but the elven Lembas bread–a recipe I had yet to tackle.    I’ve seen a few recipes on the net for Lembas bread but one thing has always bothered me: they were essential just short bread cookies or butter cakes.  Hardly the sort of thing you take on a long journey.  The bread needs to be sweet and delicious but also full of protein, vitamins and fiber.  Challenge accepted!  I totally would imagine Tolkien’s’ elves as vegans…wouldn’t you?  I mean I think the Mirkwood elves in The Hobbit may be depicted as eating meat at their feast scene.  I don’t remember those details and I should try to look it up I suppose.  I’m sure I will later but for now I’m going to stick with my mental image of the elves as vegans.  I could buy that .  Except for one thing: pretty sure the elves eat honey.  Did you know honey isn’t universally considered vegan?  When I first found out, I though okay, it made a modicum of sense—honey is after all an animal product of sorts.  It’s produced by insects which aren’t really classified as animals but I can see the logic path that would leave vegans to opposing honey.

Then I thought about it some more and realized that if you consider insects “people too” you basically have to desist from eating anything manufactured.  In fact even growing a backyard garden and employing some organic tricks for pest control would mean impacting and killing the insect population should be disallowed.  At what point do you draw the line?  In a normal day any plant processing your vegan agave nectar is going to kill a thousand insects simply as a side effect of running the plant.  Bugs get in the gears; bugs get in the food; bugs get everywhere and they get filtered out.  So I can’t really get on board with the anti-honey vegans.  The issue of animal-cruelty hypocrisy has been pretty prescient lately when PETA was exposed for “putting down” up to 96% of the animals they “rescued”.  Having worked with dog rescues for years I’ve known this for a long time and wasn’t surprised.  It’s why I never, ever have supported PETA.  Bunch of money grabbing phonies.

One of the driving motivations behind vegetarianism, and veganism, is the issue of animal cruelty.  Factory farming practices for animal welfare are abysmal.  I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone by saying that.  Most of us are happy to plug our ears, close our eyes and try not to imagine the animal that used to be alive outside that Styrofoam and plastic wrapped non-animal looking pound of protein.  Nevermind that cows are kept crammed together in their own feces and fed diets that make them ill.  Nevermind that hens are kept so close to one another they peck each other out of anxiety.  Nevermind that pigs experience such anxiety in their close captivity that they bit each other’s tails—causing horrible infections.  To combat this farms frequently cut off their tails which actually puts the pigs in more pain because nerve endings are exposed but eliminates the pesky, costly infections.   And yes pigs DO experience emotions like anxiety.  They are highly evolved, intelligent creatures despite the dirty connotations we’ve given them over time.  That being said I don’t have a problem normally with eating them because wild pigs are also really fucking MEAN.  The tiny, human bred teacup kind people keep for pets might be Wilbur-esque but the sort you find on a farm, the natural version?  They’ll eat your kneecaps before you can yell uncle.

I accept that in the natural order of things some animals eat other animals—and that I am one of those predators.  That doesn’t limit my desire to see these animals raised humanely and slaughtered as painlessly as possible.  I think of this way: torture is often seen as something worse than death.  Keeping someone in a state of constant pain and agony until they desire to no longer exist is horrible and overall we tend to object to torture more vehemently than even death itself.  I accept this because, as with the honey issue, finding a way to eliminate any negative effect of our human need to eat on other living creatures is impossible.  I’m not convinced that honey farming, especially the small scale local level, is particularly harmful to the mental state of the insects.  I do buy locally sourced honey and not just because I try to be a locavore, but because eating local honey has been demonstrated to help with allergies—local pollens and all that.

That’s my biggest problem with veganism, and to a lesser extent vegetarianism, if you examine it closely enough you will always find something that is inconsistent with this mindset.  Vegetarians who eat eggs, as an example, if they get eggs from factory farms are still supporting the slaughter of chickens.  In order to raise hens for egg laying farms will have to hatch thousands of eggs and male chickens, aka roosters, get tossed in a grinder upon hatching.  So ovo-vegetarians you ARE supporting this industry unless you buy eggs from small farms that raise their own hens and don’t slaughter baby boys.

In fact…the egg laying hen industry essentially Craster’s Keep of the food world.  Anyway that’s why I’m happy to align myself as this new fangled term “flexitarian”.   I realize that there will always be some impact from my existing and eating–but I can work to minimize that as much as possible.  For that I do applaud those who make the vegan and vegetarian lifestyle choices.  At least they are doing something…minimizing the cost.  Just don’t get too militant about it and recognize that in the end something, whether its a cow or a blade of grass, dies for us to eat.  Let’s give it the respect it deserves and avoid the nasty factory farming practices that really are just unnecessarily cruel and unusual.

Which brings me back to our geeky subject of the day!  So what do you think?  Would the elves of Tolkien’s world be vegans?  I imagine that since they are magical there are ways for the children of the wood to avoid killing even a single bug in the making of their food.  If hobbits are the hippies of middle earth, the elves are definitely the vegan no-soy latte hipsters.  Sorry Legolas.    I’ve made two LOTR/Hobbit recipes already: Beorn’s Twice Baked Honey Cakes and Sam Gamgee’s Potato Dumplin’s… but I still hadn’t tackled the most iconic of all the foods in this world: Lembas Bread.

‘So it is,’ they answered, ‘But we call it lembas or way bread, and it is more strengthening than any food made by Men, and it is more pleasant than cram, by all accounts.’

‘Indeed it is’ said Gimli. ‘Why, it is better than the honey-cakes of the Beornings, and that is great praise, for the Beornings are the best bakers that I know of”

And so without further ado I provide a recipe that is Gluten Free, Soy Free AND Vegan* It’s loaded with protein and fiber to keep you full on your journey.  My genuine original recipe and I’m incredibly proud of it because it’s INSANELY. FRAKKING. DELICIOUS.  One waybread slice is supposed to be enough to feed any man but I definitely went hobbit on these and devoured 4 or 5 though in my defense I cut them smaller than they are shown in the films.  Thanks to the high protein of the garbanzo, amaranth and almonds, this bread is not only going to taste good but it will keep you sustained both with carbs for your glycogen reserves and as a complete source of protein.

*I used honey in my version but if you are a non-honey eating vegan feel free to substitute agave nectar instead.

Lembas Bread

An Olivia Original Read more

Apr 8

Muffin Monday: Bran-ding Mango Fett

I missed my scifriday post last week.  I just got too busy and didn’t manage to get it together but I do have some geeky thoughts on my mind and they are invading my muffin zone!

Once again I find myself at a crossroads where I am both always staunchly defending geek culture to outsiders (the “normies”) and yet also often highly dissatisfied and critical of those within my adopted realm.  It is a strange experience to both be loudly defending and critiquing the world I’m a part of.  It is also strange that I feel totally locked into my role as a geek by non-geeks and yet constantly feel pressure to defend/demonstrate my worthiness of the moniker to my peers.  It’s a not easy to navigate this contradiction of my very existence.

The internal struggle within geek culture to demonstrate how geeky you really are….  Well it’s been on my mind a lot lately for so many reasons.  I was deciding how to decorate my bathroom and trying desperately to find some way to reconcile my desire for a “girly” space with my geekier interests.  I was spending way too much energy obsessing over which shower curtain to buy based on how it could accessorize with geekier objects in the room.  Eventually I sat back and asked myself what the hell I was doing.  I really didn’t want to spend more than $15 dollars on a shower curtain—I’m not actually decorating a home where I plan on living for the next ten years and my lease is month to month.  I could be gone at any moment.  It’s not a situation where I’m looking to nail art to the walls.  I don’t need to spend 75 dollars buying this one shower curtain because it manages to both fit into the more “feminine” styling I want but color coordinates well with lab equipment.  Why do I feel like I have to put my geek on display in a room which is really only used to “shit, shower and shave”?

Then I was spending International Table Top day with my family.  Mom busted out her Star Trek Monopoly game she got for Christmas and had been desperate to play.  Monopoly is a painful exercise to begin with—let’s be real.  It’s wheeling and dealing and any family that doesn’t end the game with someone upturning the board is ahead in my book.  We actually haven’t done that to date but you get the idea.  Anyway add in the Star Trek element and there were moments were I was literally grinding my teeth.  Mom picking on Dad for not getting references proclaiming “see he’s not really a geek” only a few minutes later to turn around and discover that there were cards she didn’t recognize either.  AHA!  See you don’t really know anything either.

When did Star Trek monopoly become about proving who knows more about phaser settings and Theremins?  Shouldn’t we be fighting over the gold pressed latinum and whether or not it’s ego-centric that the Federation be equivalent to Park Place.  We all were whining that the creators of “Continuum edition” were so lazy they couldn’t even rename the Jail to be the Brig.  Seriously guys the Contiuum edition of Star Trek Monopoly blows.  Don’t buy it.  Worst. Monopoly Adaptation. Ever.

But back to my point.  IT was painful at times to have this feeling of “one-uping” over geek cred.  I’ve bemoaned this problem largely as a female in a world predominantly male but it occurs even when you remove the gender part of the equation.  Not as much and not as nastily, but it’s there nonetheless.  Why is this?  Well the pop-culture nerd-splosion in the hipster community is largely to blame I guess.  Lots of 20-somethings walking around sporting Han Solo back packs with absolutely no understanding what the phrase “Han Shot First” actually means. The problem is that now if you don’t know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING in geek culture you are immediately suspected of being a phony.

Which leads back to my bathroom conundrum and my realization that lately I’ve been on a quest to absorb literally everything geeky to avoid this.  Frankly it’s exhausting.  Look I admit it; I didn’t know that Boba Fett was such an icon until late in High School when someone I knew started rambling on about the character.  And Jango Fett?  I didn’t know bantha shit about this character until the abomination of the new films.  I was more into Star Trek and while I’d read a number of Star Trek books, I’d never touched one for the Star Wars universe.  I’d seen, loved and worshipped the films but my fandom ended there.  Why?  There’s just not enough time to do it all.  It’s not fair to expect any of us to.  It’s also not fair to limit ourselves to only engaging in geeky pursuits out of a pressure to constantly demonstrate our involvement in the culture.

If I want a Barbie Bathroom then by Joss, I should be allowed to have a Barbie Bathroom and not have my passion for space aliens called into question.  Actually it’s got more of a floral vibe right now than anything else but you get my point.  It’s just exhausting otherwise and all we do is wind up alienating one another—and that’s not the kind of alien-nation we like.

Mango Bran Muffins

An Olivia Original Read more

Mar 22

SciFriday: Mutant Toxic Spill Cake

The teenage mutant ninja turtles are a joke. No, really, I mean they were created as a joke.  They were initially conceived as an absurd little doodle by creator Kevin Eastman.  Eastman had no idea what he was starting when one night he decided to sketch an animal that he thought would be “the funniest animal to be a martial artist as skilled as Bruce Lee.”  The story goes that Eastman and his conspirator Peter Laird then spent the evening one-upping each other by drawing successively ridiculous images of our shelled reptile friends holding a variety of weapons.  Sounds like the sort of thing my friends did on a Friday night in high school—just sitting around being silly.  Who knew it would turn into a million dollar franchise?

s-TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-largeLeonardo Leads
Donatello does machines (that’s a fact!)
Raphael is cool but crude
Michelangelo is a party dude!

Poor Donatello.  I think he gets forgotten about the most when kids picked their favorite.  No love for the inventor.  Raphael was my favorite…apparently the love of bad boys transcends species.  Friends of mine and I are talking about doing a cosplay at some point for the show.  One girl is spot on for April and the boys scrambled to claim their respective turtles.  Me?  I totally want gender bender Shredder.  I think that would be HOT and insane fun.  What do you think?

 Laird and Eastman developed a comic that sold like hotcakes.  Add in a sly creative marketer who saw the potential and soon toy companies came flocking.  With the success of action figures and merchandise came more comics, television shows and the 90s films which some love and some love to hate.  While there are TMNT comics I have to admit that like most of my generation my original exposure to our heroes in a half shell was the original series cartoon that started in 1989.  Saturday morning cartoons in the 90’s really were, in my not so humble opinion, the pinnacle of television cartoons.  I have some pretty rosy colored memories of early Saturday mornings watching X-Men, Spiderman, TMNT and Power Rangers.  My entire generation seems to be stuck in perpetual nostalgia of those days.  Aside: The other day I was in the gym and heard someone’s phone going off to the sound of the Power Ranger call.  Instinctively I listened to hear Zordon’s voice before foolishly realizing it was a phone.  I totally want that as my SMS notification tone now btw.

I think the turtles are somewhat special compared to these other shows.  Most of the other comic-cartoon adaptations on tv started a few decades before as comics and already had a large following.  The Power Rangers part of a longstanding tradition of adapting and repackaging products of Japanese pop-culture to appeal to Western tastes.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the other hand were entirely American conceived during my childhood.  I think that’s why so many of the late 20-somethings I know proudly deck themselves out in TMNT gear and nostalgia.  It’s ours and it’s pure candy for our viewing pleasure.  The series doesn’t really explore deeper social issues like X-Men did and it doesn’t have the kind of heavy drama that Spiderman or Batman did.  It didn’t try to propagandize us like Captain Planet did.  DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying caring about the environment is bad but seriously let’s at least acknowledge that show was some heavy handed propaganda.  Fern Gully too.  Nope TMNT was just four radical dudes, who happened to be turtles, fighting crime and eating that American delicacy, the pizza pie. And they were a hit.

Why?  I honestly don’t know.  I mean the team of Renaissance ninjas was created purely to be a laugh.  But my generation embraced the pure giddy joy of something delightfully nonsensical.  I know I did and continue to—not just TMNT but anything that is joyous and absurd.

We love them and we don’t know why except that they are awesome.  True the character of April is not the strongest female character out there.  I always just saw her as a kind of a pretty spokesperson for the turtles even though she was supposed to be a “hard hitting” journalist.  Did you know that in the comics her character was originally a skilled computer programmer working the lab where the toxic slime that created the turtles was developed?  I wish that version of April had been retained in the shows.  Nerdy girls are hot and it would have given the girls watching the show a great science minded role model to go along with the ninja menagerie.  Later on the show tried to develop a female turtle, Venus de Milo, but I don’t think her character really caught on. She just never fit in the lineup to me—heck even her name made her stick out.  All the other turtles were named after artists whereas she was named after a work of art.  I could pick that apart in some sort of sexist rant but I’m not going to.  That’s just not the point of TMNT and that’s okay.  Not everything we consume for entertainment has to be part of a social movement.

Sometimes we just want candy.  So in honor of that I present to you a TMNT inspired SciFriday recipe.  Pizza?  Too obvious.  Decorate a cake?  I’ll save that for the movie premiere even though the new film will undoubtedly suck.  Nope instead I had a random inspiration about the origin of the turtles which is why I wrote about the origin of the series today.  What was the origin of the turtles? Toxic slime: that glorious green goo which mutated 4 reptilian sewer dwellers into Ninja Superstars.  You’ve heard of chocolate lava cakes right?  Well how about a Key Lime TOXIC SPILL CAKE.   Kind of a merging of the concept of those Ninja Turtle pudding pies and OOZE- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Jello –neither of which I was allowed to eat at home though I remember having those pudding pies once with my cousin.

Mutagenic Toxic Spill Cake

An Olivia Original inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Disclaimer: this cake will not give you super powers but it might give you cavities Read more

Feb 27

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Cookie Wednesday – or National Chocolate Cake Day!

oreocupcakesHey ya’ll – Do you like muppets?  Do you like geeky and largely inappropriate humor?  Do you like comedy duos that sing folk songs about George RR Martin?  Do you like watching things that are FREE?  I know you have to like at least ONE of those things if you read my blog so please stay with me here.

So you know how I mentioned enjoying acting and doing silly things like that?  Do you remember a certain country music video I got to be in months and months ago?  It’s okay if you don’t, I forgive ya.  BUT just today (or rather yesterday by the time this post goes up) I will have a new video up!  Exciting!  This time I got to spend a weekend down in LA working on a new show for Geek and Sundry’s youtube channel.  The show is called “LearningTown” and it features a folk-singing duo I’ve come to know and love through comic-con and w00tsock.  The brilliant team known as Paul & Storm.  They write hilarious songs about Georges we love to hate and hate to love, as well as inappropriate Sea Shanties and sing acapella about boxing nuns.   Felicia Day managed to rope the team into making a weekly series about a pair trying to save a cancelled, beloved children’s show.  I think this particular series is unique to the youtube channel world because in addition to original programming content, Paul and Storm also write several original pieces of music for each episode.  One word of caution: this is NOT a children’s show by any means.  It’s an adult show about the behind the scenes of a children’s show…got it?  If you let your kids watch and are subsequently horrified don’t blame ME.

oreocupcakes (7)

Of course you could argue my admiration for the series stems largely from the selfish reason that I was background in several episodes and featured most prominently in episode 7 which aired Tuesday February 26th.  I mean you could argue that…and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong.  But I also happen to like the content on the show.  In fact I saved a little rant that the hands down best character, Cookie Tuesday, went off on regarding the nature of what a true princess ought to be:

A princess ought to be not quite so sexist or twee, not defined by looks or labels but by her ability to mix true gentility with unconventionality; her versatility informs her personality earning her equality and true originality but her agree-ability does not imply passivity because if called upon then she can kick an ass or two or three!

It’s cute and while the character development has been slow, I appreciate the fact that the show is following her journey of discovery of self-awesomeness.  As a result I don’t feel so bad that my role was to play one of the showgirls in a fairly sexist little daydream by one of the characters haha.

Feel free to like, share, and comment about how awesome girl #7 is guys.  Just saying….

Anyway the reason I’m also plugging that country music video from before is that the whole reason I got this second paid gig was because Jason Charles Miller is essentially a BAMF and thought of me when they needed girls.  I don’t know what I did to earn kindness and thoughtfulness like that but I’m so happy to have gotten this opportunity.  So help me show him some appreciation back and give the music video a little youtube love?    Both days on set were a lot of fun and the upside to LearningTown was that my group (The Guild of Extras) was there as well for other background work.  Once we finished filming the number music video I got to go play behind the scenes a bit more and I’m sure my blond mop will be in the background of a few other episodes.  I’m only jealous that I missed another day when my friends got to play board games with Paul and Storm during downtime.

I made Jason some Buttermilk  Pancake Oreo Cupcakes last time I was in LA and they were fairly popular.  See we’d been out for breakfast and initially Jason was going to order the oreo pancakes but I think they weren’t offered as an add-on, or the kitchen was out of something, so he ended up not getting them.  I’ve been chastised for not baking more when I’m down south and inspiration struck to make these as I wanted to do something nice for Jason as he’s been such a kind friend to me.  When I realized the video came out today I wanted to share that recipe but since Wednesday is also National Chocolate Cake Day I’m modifying the recipe a little to be Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes.  That’s probably more of a classic flavor combination anyway and less likely to confuse people when you serve them these bowl-licking goodies.  Normally I’m someone who prefers cake to frosting, but since this frosting is essentially just a whipped cream with crushed oreo cookies, I have to say I could eat it with a spoon and leave the cake behind.  Probably not the best message on a day celebrating Chocolate Cake…erm.  Whatever.  ENJOY THE COOKIES…Tuesday.  Except it’s really Wednesday.  Damn I just fail all over this blog.

oreocupcakes (14)

Chocolate Butter Cake w/ Cookies and Cream Whipped Frosting

From the Whimsical Bakehouse Read more

Jan 25

2 Comments

Scifriday: Farewell Fringe

Dr. Walter Bishop: Peter, hold on to these tight. Anti-gravity osmium bullets. Shoot Observers with these and watch them float away like balloons.
Peter Bishop: If we shoot ‘em they’re dead. Why’d we want ‘em to float away?

I love this show so much, I wear it on my head!

I love this show so much, I wear it on my head!

Dr. Walter Bishop: …Because it’s cool.
Peter Bishop: That makes sense Walter.

Fringe has ended and my heart has broken into a million, red-viney pieces knowing that the last bastion of good scifi tv goes with it.  Especially because this show was so damn good and not just because I got to hear Joshua Jackson lovingly say “Olivia” on a weekly basis.  (I’ve had a crush on him since the days of the Flying V) It really was an excellently written, shot and acted show—while there were rough spots and bad episodes, it was an original and fun series to watch.  Not familiar with this show?  Where have you been for the last 5 years!

Okay so Fringe is a show with a simple scifi premise: a specialized FBI team examines a series of events, ranging from the fantastical to the grotesque, and discovers that these events are linked to the existence of a parallel universe with which “our side” is unknowingly at war.   Intriguing no?  I was hesitant at first when the series began and like any show that is more storyline based, the first season ran slowly.  The initial few episodes were weaker because the show was laying foundations for a spectacular underlying storyline that played out over several seasons and 100 episodes.  What begins with the standard “freak of the week” rapidly becomes far more complicated as the story starts to craft connections between bizarre events and develop the real backstory to our main characters.

This show was essentially like an X-files for the 21st century—and in my humble opinion, had many one-ups that came from learning what worked and what didn’t work on the previous paranormal series.  Where the X-files underlying theme was the existence of extra-terrestrial life, Fringe followed the concept of the multi-verse i.e. alternate realities.  While simultaneously embracing some of the harder elements of sci-fi it also was a show about a much simpler concept: love.   While there is a romantic relationship between the pretty people on the show (Joshua Jackon’s Peter Bishop and Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham) the real examination of love is actually that of a Father and Son.  It’s a beautiful story that begins with the estranged Dr. Walter Bishop and his son Peter Bishop…and it resolved in a serious tear jerker end.

The skills of the actors were especially highlighted through the use of the multiverse concept.  Anna Torv and John Noble played not one, not two but 4 different versions of the same character.  These two managed to capture both the big and subtle changes caused by altered timeline events with real aplomb.  John Noble as Dr. Walter Bishop is easily the fan favorite—he is a villain, a hero, comedic relief and the heart of the show all rolled into one.  Still I think the most beautiful character manipulation was in the version of “our side” Olivia Dunham in a world where Peter Bishop remained dead as a child.  Yes remained dead—take that as you will.  I will never forget the scene where this very quietly harder version of Olivia reveals what the driving distinction is: in this universe she killed her abusive father.  It was a quiet but jaw dropping moment in understanding this version of her character and Anna Torv played it beautifully.

Walter Bishop’s character also explores a concept in science fiction that I find particularly of interest: the question of what can and should be done in the name of science.  Dr. Bishop has a dark past—he has done many questionable things in the name of science with a variety of motivations behind them.  As you explore his character over the series, you still can’t help but love him and fear him and then love him again in spite of some of the awful things he’d done—including using children as subjects in some seriously damaging experiments.

Dr. Walter Bishop : It’s one of the inherent pitfalls of being a scientist – trying to maintain that distinction… between God’s domain and our own. Sometimes, I forget myself.

I hesitate to give much a way in this farewell fringe blog post because I really want to encourage those of you who haven’t seen the show, or who maybe only just discovered it, to watch and love all 100 episodes like I did.  I’ve noticed in general that a lot of shows seem to get picked up by viewers at the end.  It must be something about series end hype.  I know that I only just picked up Breaking Bad in its last season and wow, talk about juxtaposition to Fringe.  Fringe exposes the weaknesses and flaws of its characters but resolves ultimately leaving you loving almost all of them.  B.B. has done the exact opposite—I hate or pity pretty much everyone, but that’s a post for another day.

As if I need another reason to explain why I love Fringe so much there is a foodie element to the series as well.  Dr. Bishop’s many idiosyncrasies extend well into his stomach and we are treated to a reference to some craving of his in every episode of the series.  They range from the everyday, like rootbeer floats and blueberry pancakes, to the highly imaginative like bacon berry frosting and parmesan ice cream.  One food item is mentioned and shown with such frequency that I’m surprised it didn’t get a line in the credits: RED VINES.  Have I ever told you how much I freaking love red vines?  Have I ever told you that during finals weeks when I’d be cramming for microbiology and trying to memorize my amino acid structures for Orgo (organic chemistry) my diet would subsist mainly of diet redbulls, pizza and red vines?  It’s little wonder that I would wind up sick as a dog after finals…I wasn’t exactly taking care of my diet during those high stress times.  Still it thrills me that my favorite scientist was weekly eating the same “brain food” I devoured in college.  So of course when I said goodbye to the show this past week I had to make something featuring this uncredited cast member.  This season one of Walter’s food choices was a 25 year old jelly doughnut he made that he consumed with an almost crazed glee.  And so from there my abominable recipe was born: Red Vine Jelly Doughnuts.

Red Vine Jelly Doughnuts

An Olivia Original inspired by Walter Bishop on “Fringe” Read more

Jan 23

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Butter! Better!

PeanutbutterBananaCake (13)

Remember those ads about whether Butter or Parkay was better?  Yeah well you know what I always thought: PEANUT BUTTER IS BETTER than both ya’ll.  So in the spirit of things that are best I’m celebrating the best woman in Star Trek and the absolute best, most delicious cake in all the verse starring you guessed it, Peanut Butter–better than butter, better than parkay and better than my willpower.

So for the past few months I’ve been re-watching all of Star Trek.  ALL of Star Trek.  Every series, every episode and pondering many important questions and topics like: Why can Geordi never get a girl?  Why is Jake so useless?  Garak is still the most fascinating character of all time.  Damn the Doctor is annoying.  Poor Harry Kim never gets to grow.  Why couldn’t the makeup department figure out how to craft a single flattering hairstyle for the women?  Seriously they all had horrible hairdos.  But mostly I’ve been admiring the myriad of amazing female role models.  Roddenberry really loaded his crews with strong females.  Because I have thoughts like this I’ve examined all the women from the perspective of “who would I date were I attracted to the double XXs” and hands down I’ve determined that Jadzia Dax should be the ideal woman to any man.  Obviously now I need to share these thoughts with you and let the nerdy arguing about how Tasha Yar is better begin….

5 Reasons why Jadzia Dax is the best woman in Starfleet

PeanutbutterBananaCake (14)1)      Jadzia is strong without being “damaged” — She’s not an “Ice Warrior-ess”  This is a phenomenon I’ve written about before in SciFi.  Most of the kick-ass heroines are saddled with a shit ton of baggage and an ice cold personality that needs to be “softened” over time for them to find love.   Take for example Tasha Yar on Star Trek TNG—she’s strong, capable, sexy…oh and totally emotionally crippled by the rape gangs that she had to evade during her childhood.  B’Elanna Torres on Voyager is brilliant, sassy, sexy…and a self-hating half Klingon who won’t lower her walls to admit she has feelings for someone until she thinks she’s about to DIE.  7 of 9…yeah she’s a real hoot.  The girl was raised as a BORG for 20 years.  She might be “well equipped” physically but you will literally have to teach her everything about humanity.  IF you want that in a girlfriend then great but personally I think it would get exhausting to have to explain every idiom, joke and human custom to someone no matter how hot they are.  Jadzia on the other hand will kick your ass with a Bat’leth for fun but she’s not going to freeze off your manhood because she’s a strong enough woman to carry her own baggage.  She also doesn’t need some elaborate soul crushing backstory to explain why she’s so strong.  Jadzia Dax was just born with a backbone—no horrible life altering event needed.

2)     You’d have fun with her: Jadzia has a serious sense of humor and a good sense of fun.  To quote Garak, Jadzia is “vital, alive…she owned herself.”  In the episode “Homefront” we find out that Jadzia is quite the accomplished practical jokester.  She will routinely break into Odo’s apartment and move his furniture by a fraction of a centimeter over the course of several days just to mess with him.  Any lady with a sense of humor and an ability to appreciate the fine are of “fucking with someone” is going to be a great girlfriend.  Plus she loves to gamble and play games!  Jadzia enjoys sitting around with the boys and playing tongo well into the night.  She’ll probably beat most of you and your friends while she’s at it.  How many women want to sit around with cigars on poker night—and how many women would you enjoy the company of when they do?  Jadzia is one of those rare “one of the guys” kind of gals you can date.  Speaking of which….

3)     She’s got a masculine side—literally! Okay now this might weird out some of the less secure heterosexual men in the universe, but Jadzia was once a man.  Or at least technically she has the memories of what it is like to be a man.  While Jadzia is all woman, evidenced by her bikini prowl on Rysa rwoooooowr, Jadzia shares the memories of her Dax symbiont.  Dax has been fused with several men over the centuries and so Jadzia is privy to the unique experiences of life from the view of both sexes.  Why is this a good thing?  She’s going to understand the “guy stuff” that so few girls will get.  That doesn’t mean Jadzia will put up with macho male bullshit, and she’ll call you out on it without hesitation, but she will at least be able to understand where you are coming from in a way most women never will.  Thus the typical “men are from mars, women are from venus” communication issues that plague, oh 99.99% of relationships, will be much easier to mitigate.  You might be from Mars but Jadzia is from the Trill homeworld.

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4)     She’s Kinky: Alright look, you don’t date a Klingon without having a bit of an adventurous side in the bedroom.  None of that “50 shades of grey” nonsense—and I’m not implying that all men want a girl who gets physical, physical.  I’m not saying that a girl is superior if she likes it rough and tumble.  I am saying that what you know for certain about Jadzia is that she isn’t passive in the bedroom—she’s going to be an active and engaged sexual partner.  A healthy sex life is essential to any relationship and with Jadzia you’re getting all the experience that comes from living several different lifetimes—and a girl that can tire out Worf.  I think the only problem is if YOU can keep up.

5)     She’s into your personality: Jadzia engages in various romantic interludes over the course of DS9 with an assortment of…unusual men.  Something about living as long as Dax has tends to broaden your mind past the bias of traditional physical beauty.  This obviously works out in the favor of some of the less athletic nerds in the room.  Jadzia genuinely finds personality and intellect to be more attractive than pretty boy looks.  Where Ezri, who I still can’t stand, falls for the boyish charms of one Julian Bashir, Jadzia isn’t interested.  She wants more substance in her mates.  Heck she actually dates a member of the clear skulled (as in you can see their BRAINS) Galamite race much to Kira’s shock and disbelief.   She also dates the sluggish looking Morn, finds Ferengi attractive and obviously has a fondness for the forehead ridges of Klingons.  Not because she has low standards, but because Jadzia is genuinely more interested in the person than aesthetics and empty charms.

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And what does all this have to do with my recipe today?  Not a damn thing except that just like these things all make Jadzia Dax the perfect women, the ingredients I used in this recipe all add up to the perfect, most desirable delicious cake in the universe.  This was the cake that broke my diet into a million bite sized pieces as I literally ate half of the whole thing all by myself.  In a day.  Not kidding or exaggerating this time guys.  I could not stop eating it.  So I’m warning you right now not to make this unless you fully intend to stuff yourself silly. PeanutbutterBananaCake (8)

Banana-Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Bon Appétit | October 2012 Read more

Jan 16

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Hipster to be squared

Oh oh oh Mr. Darcy
oh oh oh Colin Firth
you wily old bastard, you wonderful specimen
you’ve messed up the hearts of young girls round the earth

lemonbars (12)How many of you subscribe to the cliché that women only like jerks?  Whether you are a woman who loves jerks or a man who thinks this is true—go on admit it, it’s okay to say you do.  The truth is a lot of women do wind up with complete assholes but it’s not an unavoidable situation and it’s also not nearly so confusing to know why we do.  I’m happy to observe that for the most part, people follow up that statement now with an acknowledgement that it isn’t really jerks women go for.  It’s confident men.  The problem is that bravado is often conflated with confidence and indeed it can be hard to tell the difference in some of the more clever bastards out there.

Or it’s all Mr. Darcy’s fault.

This past weekend I was thrilled to find out that a band I first heard at Comic Con last year would be playing in Oakland.  The DoubleClicks!  Oh yes a sister group playing folk music themed entirely around geek culture.  Playing at a store I didn’t even know existed—a store entirely dedicated to table top gaming and they host game nights.  Holy Stan Lee—Batman!  This was a most excellent discovery on both fronts.  Fairfield, the cultural wasteland that serves as a bathroom stop along the way to Sacramento, is not the place where you will find an awesome convergence of supreme nerdgasmry.  Oakland by contrast is definitely not lacking for culture.  Sure certain areas might have a bit too much—gangs and worse, hipsters, roam the streets freely.  I’m not sure which one scares me more but regardless I’ve been trying hard to avoid totally binging on Oakland’s options for nightlife.  Remember this year’s goal: balance.  I have this extremely bad habit of overloading myself so I need to be sure to not take on too many things at once.

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Yes you could say I’m a little excited…but how does this relate back to my original topic?  I’m getting there, I’m getting there!

The DoubleClicks, in case you haven’t heard of them, are these adorable girls who sing music that will delight both your more traditional geek of yore and have a few great songs thrown in for the English geek in your life.  If like me you are both, then you need to check out their music.  I have to say they first ensnared me with “I fell in love with a Spock impersonator” though currently the song I find myself singing most in the shower is “Oh Mr. Darcy”  As a side note, I keep having this thought recently about how Worf reminds me a bit of Mr. Darcy.  Tall, dark, gruff, obsessed with family status and propriety, a fondness for opera and secretly capable of being quite caring….  I can’t believe I never saw it before.  Star Trek meets Victorian lit.  Come on, someone tell me this fanfic exists somewhere.  No?  Argh okay I guess I have to write it then.

lemonbars (10)When I first saw his furrowed brow
I knew the ideal man had come and found me somehow
I mean, what else could I think
When he looked me in the eyes and told me prune juice is a warriors drink

I fell in love with a Worf impersonator
from his forehead to his baldric and his badge communicator
I thought my search for love was at an end
but being strong and angry did not make him a very good boyfriend

I’ve got to admit that while I enjoyed Jane Austin’s masterpiece, it’s not where I turned for all my ideas about love.  I do know a number of girls who would say that it is—but I found myself swooning over other jerks as a wee lass.  Most notably Rhett Butler.  You want to talk about idealizing an asshole.  Oh “Gone with the Wind” you not only made me fall in love with a man who is a complete jerk but set me up to romanticize tragic, tortured love affairs.  Thankfully I had “Anne of Green Gables” to balance me out a bit.  Gilbert Blythe may have been a schoolyard bully at first, but he’s probably the most anti-jerk romantic figure I’ve ever gone to bed with.

lemonbars (2)I meant that I read the book in bed you pervs.  Sheesh.

But anyway these ladies are very clever…and witty…and pretty…and sweet!  Oh so sweet.  I got their CD, signatures and absolutely awful photos for which I entirely blame the photo taker and not the fact that I look completely HAGGARD.  Anyway check out the links above or their website here: http://www.thedoubleclicks.com/ They are TRUE geeks too.  None of this hipster nonsense.   I get extremely angry actually when people want to lump anyone now who looks like a nerd as a hipster. Urgh like the doubleclick song says:

You love my nerdy glasses — but I need them to see
and it’s not a matter of image that I got a job at the library
no I actually like star trek that was not supposed to be funny
and I’m not pretending when I act like I don’t have any money

Speaking to my soul!  I wear corrective lenses!  I worked in a library all throughout highschool and college!  I LOVE STAR TREK!  Stupid hipsters.

Meanwhile should you find yourself sitting down to tea with your Mr. Worf Darcy anytime soon, you’ll need something to serve to that stalwart and gruff object of your affections and what goes better with tea than…Lemon Squares.  This recipe is kind of a combination of a few recipes I’ve used in the past.  I was looking to use up some lemon curd and had a batch of some pecan shortbread cookie dough waiting for utilization.  Not hard to draw the most logical conclusion.

Lemon Squares

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare an 8 x 8 inch cake pan with non-stick spray, butter or line with parchment paper.

Press the cookie dough into the base of the pan and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.  This will partially pre-bake the dough but you don’t want to bake it all the way through.  Remove and let cool.

Meanwhile whisk the lemon curd with the egg, lemon zest and juice.  Spread over the cooled crust and return to the oven to bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove and let cool fully before dusting with powdered sugar and slicing into squares.

Jan 4

BachelorChow (15)
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Scifriday: Bachelor Chow

BachelorChow (15)Hullo blog-o-sphere.   Didja miss me?  I know I’ve been gone the last two weeks or so and without so much as a warning.  How rude!  It was for good reason though, or reasons rather.  First off I needed a real vacation and while I didn’t get away anywhere I did at least manage to take time to actually rest and remove any pressures on myself to get posts up.  These almost daily blogs were becoming something of a stress in my life because I was so obsessed with getting them up.  It was cutting into my sleep time pretty seriously.  The second reason was that I moved.  Yup!  I found an apartment (with a roommate, not my own place sadly) that is significantly closer to work.

BachelorChow (17)How much closer?  Well I can use public transit now and still get to work in half the time.  How’s THAT for closer?

Moving pretty much swallowed up my entire vacation and it did place an entirely different set of stressors on me which brings me back to point number one.  I hope you, my dear reader, can understand why I needed to eliminate at least one of the demands in my life to balance out the overwhelming task of putting my life into boxes.  It was quite a task too.  Nothing like moving to really make me regret picking a hobby that involves perishable food and a wide array of tiny bottles of spices, extracts and several dozen baking pans…..  It has taken me days just to get my new kitchen sorted out and I haven’t even touched my bedroom yet.  Obviously I had to do the kitchen first though since I needed to get back to business and it’s just much more polite to get the chaos out of the common area as quickly as possible when roommates are involved.  Thankfully the male engineer I’m living with isn’t much of a kitchen person so almost every cabinet was empty.  Noooooooooooot so much anymore.  Once it’s all finished I’ll take some photos and share the new digs.  It’s actually a really nice space in downtown Oakland (the Brooklyn of San Francisco) and much more than I’d ever get living in the city for my price range.  I’m almost entirely thrilled.  I’ll share more on what I’m not so happy about later but for now let’s get to what today is really about: SCIFRIDAY RETURNS.

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I don’t know about you, but when I’m in the middle of moving and packing up my kitchen, I find that I wind up eating a lot of pre-packaged meals for simplicity’s sake.  It’s almost the only time I ever hit the meal area in the frozen food section or load up on canned chili.  Breakfasts were easy since my new building has a Starbucks in it but it closes fairly early so dinner was left to easy meals from the grocery store.  Then there are the nights I definitely didn’t have popcorn and red wine as dinner.  Nope certainly not.  BachelorChow (22)Anyway that’s the only time I ever really eat that way but it always makes me think of Futurama and Bachelor Chow.  Don’t ask me why that two second clip of human dog food always stuck with me from the show but it did.  I’ve got an array of Futurama recipes to do (popplers anyone?) but Bachelor Chow seemed particularly relevant to my life right now.  Though bacherlorette chow is more accurate and again it definitely is NOT a dinner of just popcorn and red wine.  I’d never do that.  Nope.  Not my two favorite food groups.  Definitely not.

I’d always kind of imagined that Bachelor Chow was like a chili that contained questionable meat products but last night when I whipped this up I was really craving something else that I imagine a single man would buy from a can: sloppy joe mix.   It’s got that wet dog food look dontcha think?  Have you had a real, honest to goodness sloppy joe since school cafeteria days?  I know I hadn’t until last night.  I almost bought manwich from the supermarket when I was doing my “out of a can” nights but I decided to wait and make some from scratch as my inaugural meal in the new kitchen.   Apologies to those of you who are embarking on New Year diets by the way.  Sloppy Joes are certainly not on a weight loss friendly meal plan but I am on an “eat delicious” meal plan.  This is the first year I’m not making a resolution to drop weight.  I mean I’m still working on trimming down a little and getting my muscles stronger but last year I lost almost 20 pounds and I’m happy, for the first time, with what I see in the mirror.  At least most days.  It’s hard to break the habit actually of obsessing over every flaw and fat deposit I find.  With that in mind, my resolution this year is to find some balance in my life.  Last year I worked my ass off and I have a lot to show for it which is again, why, my little self-imposed blog break was so essential.  I needed a chance to relax and be a bit of couch potato.  It’s hard for me to do that—relaxing is a struggle for me.  I’m so dedicated to the feeling of accomplishment from setting goals and checking off boxes.  I tend to obsess over even the most unimportant tasks because I feel a need to always be achieving something.  That’s why my resolution this year is for balance.  I am going to try to learn to let go and not always put so much pressure on myself.  Maybe that will mean occasionally eating a frozen meal or two.   I don’t know for sure but it has inspired me and so today I bring you Bachelor Chow…now with flavor!

Bachelor Chow (Sloppy Joe Mix)

An Olivia Original inspired by Futurama Read more

Nov 30

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SciFriday: Commander Adama pullapart my heart bread

Shorter post today or at least one with a little less cohesion.  Just my ranting again about BattleStar Galactica but I do have a valid question: is blood and chrome worth investing in for this little broken heart of mine?  I’d favor answers from other fans who were as disappointed as I was (see below) about the finale of the main series…..

Adama 7Recipe Rewind!  I posted this a few years back but since that was when the only person who read this thing was my mom, and because the photos have disappeared,Adama 2 I thought it was high time to share this recipe again.  It’s one of my absolute favorites and after my step-brother ate 6, yes SIX, rolls of this bread at Thanksgiving dinner I’m pretty confident in saying it’s popular with the family too.  It was a New England style feast this year and this bread is the very epitome of New England flavors.  Almost no one outside of the frigid Northeast has probably ever heard of it which is a real shame.  It’s fermented with cornmeal that provides a very satisfying textural contrast to the soft, flakey bread and the flavor is accented by a small addition of molasses.  This gives the bread just the slightest sweetness and when baked like pull apart rolls, it’s like the New England, less sweet version of the insanely popular Hawaiian bread roll.  I definitely prefer Anadama over the Hawaiian variety—less sweet and a perfect accompaniment to my style of cooking.

The only problem with this bread is that I inevitably wind up referring to it as Commander Adama bread.  Why is this a problem?  Every time I think of Battlestar Galactica I get all worked up into a lather over how miserable I was about the ending.  I mean it stunk.  It really, really stunk.  So much so that I could not bring myself to watch Caprica, not even knowing that in the first episode there is an Easter egg where a Firefly class ship flies across the sky in the background.  (Wait that was in Caprica right?  I don’t remember where actually I just know that it was a BSGverse / Firefly crossovergasm at some point)

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Right now the Blood & Chrome miniseries is out and I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch that either.  I’ve been hearing good things about it from both sources I trust and sources I trust less but I just can’t get over how utterly disappointing the wrap up to the original series was.  Okay yes I mean the reboot of the original series.  JEEZE.

Adama 6Anyone out there watching the show who was as frakking pissed about the finale of BSG as me?  I’d like to get an idea from one of you about whether or not it would be worth getting into a renewed relationship with the series.  I don’t want my heart broken all over again.  Then again it might be time for the healing process to start.  I’d love to put together my Kara Thrace cosplay and not be bitter still about her big reveal as an **SPOILERS SPOILERS** frakking angel.  Are you kidding me?  I had such a better theory about where this was going.  Why make such a big fuss about her father if he WASN’T going to turn out to be the Daniel cylon that they mentioned for all of five seconds and was apparently totally unimportant to the plot????  They could have made her a hybrid along with Baltar.  Yes both from Daniel and therefore arguably siblings which makes their hookup gross but hey if Luke and Leia can kiss in the 70’s they can frak mistakenly one time in 2000.  Adama 4Plus it would explain why both she and Blatar can project, which again, why go into all the detail about cylons being able to do that if Baltar and Starbuck are angels rather than hybrids who have this ability?  YOU MAKE NO SENSE!  Why establish these plot points if they lead NOWHERE?????    To quote my favorite song by the geeky duo the Double Clicks:

You and I are kinda like
Starbuck and Apollo
In that after all this
unresolved sexual tension
and emotional investment
and time and money
this going to end in an anticlimactic way

Anyway while Starbuck might be my cosplay choice, Commander Adama I think was definitely my favorite character with Colonel Tigh being the most interesting to study and Gaeta being the most pity inducing, oh god when will he ever catch a break, role.  And speaking of rolls….back to the recipe!  Happy SciFriday folks!  I’ll be baking this bread a lot in the future and I have some ideas and twists to try out (hint hint: barley malt) so you’ll probably even get a threepeat one day!

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Anadama Bread

From “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart

Makes one 1 1/2-pound loaf and about 15 pull apart rolls Read more

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