Tuesday, May 05, 2009
My New 'Things To Get To In Life" List
So far I've got 20 things. And there's nary an errand in sight.
-Overcome fear of baking bread/working with yeast
-Go on a chartered boat to Galapagos
-Perform musical improv regularly and in front of good-sized crowds
-Go back to Hawaii with Fred
-Take Walt and Fred to Tokyo, revisit my old neighborhood and school
-Relearn Spanish
-Host a dinner party for 6
-Spend a summer vacation in Maine
-Enter a fiction writing contest
-Learn how to cut up a chicken
-Enter a recipe contest
-Make another short film
-Make up a series of bedtime stories for Walt, ones I don't write down
-Get a Creative Director title
-Overcome fear of small dress shops/boutiques
-Perform in a Moth Story Slam (thanks, Dave)
-Organize a blogger event
-Become more politically active, know my area representatives and make sure they know me
-Go through the steps again
-Get drivers license
-Find a way to offer a spiritual connection to Walt, perhaps a church, maybe just a practice.
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15 comments:
OMG
-Overcome feat of small dress shops/boutiques
!!! GOD yes.
Are you afraid they are going to treat you like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman too????
That's EXACTLY what I'm afraid of, SaintTL. Not because I'm a hooker, but because I'm a size 10.
You don't have a driver's license? What the hell do you do when they card you at a nightclub?
Oh, right. Guess that's not an issue. Woops. My bad.
xo Kim
PS: Going to California with the girls next week. Maybe we should do after work drinks or something the following week when we get back. Let's put something in our calendars.
Eh. They are just numbers. Stupid numbers at that.
Kim-You're an asshole. But dammit, I love ya. I'll ring you tomorrow and we can plan.
St. TL-You are right at that.
Bread is not hard, Anne - you can do it! As long as the water temp isn't too high, any white bread recipe is pretty fool-proof.
Once I tried to cut up a chicken.
It was a disaster (not really surprising considering my novice culinary skills, but...) MUCH MUCH MUCH more challenging that I expected it would be.
And after I seriously mangled it, I remembered that my Nana had these heavy duty scissors (like the kind you'd use to cut through denim) and when she needed a chicken cut up, she'd just snip, snip, snip.
So that's my tip for the day: Use scissors. (And follow the instructions on page 368 of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.)
love
e
Ah, Lauren...it may be easy for you. I am constantly tripped up with the temperature thing. My problem is I won't buy the right equipment. If I'm gonna master bread, I'm gonna have to just break down and buy an darn thermometer.
Elizabeth-The scissor tip is great, thank-you. You are the 3rd person in 24 hours to suggest something out of Bittman's book to me. I think I know what I want for Mother's Day!
I am also deathly afraid/intimidated by small dress shops/boutiques. I didn't realize it was such a widespread affliction.
I totally relate to the bread thing, especially since I don't have a bread machine!
I've known a very successful hooker who was a size 10.
Exactly what is wrong with a size 10?
Anne:
http://blog.charcuteire.com/2008/10/13/chicken--piece-it-yourself.aspx
Scissors are not really the answer, you would want poultry shears. My wife uses a knive and a cleaver, I most use only the cleaver.
Good way to test water temp for bread - pretend you're drawing a bath for a baby - if the water isn't any warmer than water you would put a baby in (use the inside of your wrist), then it won't kill the yeast.
As for the oven, you can bake bread REALLY hot - like 500F if you're making foccacia or other bread that's more flat than loaf. I usually bake two loaves of sandwich-type bread in glass pans at 425F. Bake them lower in the oven to help avoid burning the top crust.
A tip on rising bread - Put the dough in the oven with a pan underneath or beside it. Fill the pan with boiling water. It will heat the oven up to a comfortable temperature for the yeast, help keep the dough moist, and decrease the rising time without risking killing the yeast with too much heat.
Also, try going to thefrugalgirl.com and look for her recipe for English muffin bread. It's a great recipe to try for your first yeast bread - only one rising and no kneading.
Good luck!
You'd be surprised at how simple baking with yeast is--and now's the time to do it because it's warm enough for the bread to rise but not too warm to turn on the oven.
Chartering a boat to the Galapagos, is so totally on my list too! As is the bread yeast thing. There's just not enough time in the day! -Chris Ann
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