Cooking and Photography and Stuff
Archive for December, 2009: Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Well, I didn’t take a picture of the yule log that I made, like I said I would mostly because I’m silly and would rather eat food than photograph it most of the time. HOWEVER… in case anyone is interested in making one for next holiday season, here is the one I used and LOVED from AllRecipes.com:
Serves 12
CAKE BATTER:
5 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup cake flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
MOCHA CREAM FILLING:
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
MOCHA BUTTER CREAM FROSTING:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon brewed coffee
2 tablespoons milk
Line a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with parchment paper; grease the paper. Place egg whites in a small mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks on high until light and fluffy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Combine flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to egg yolk mixture until blended.
Beat egg whites on medium until foamy. Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar, beating on high until stiff peaks form. Stir a fourth into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining egg whites until no streaks remain.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until cake springs back (do not over bake). Cool for 5 minutes; invert onto a linen towel dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Peel off parchment paper. Roll up in the towel, starting with a short side. Cool on a wire rack. In a mixing bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add sugar and coffee granules. Beat until stiff peaks form; chill. Unroll cooled cake; spread filling to within 1/2 in. of edges. Roll up again. Place on serving platter; chill.
In a mixing bowl, beat frosting ingredients until smooth. Frost cake. Using a fork, make lines resembling tree bark.
Oh… what else have I been up too? Oh – I made fish n’ chips for the first time at home for my Christmas dinner while my parents ate crab (while gloating about how tastey it was and “OH! THIS IS SO DELICIOUS!” (I can’t eat shellfish of any kind for fear of potential death)) On top of this I made the Butternut Squash, Kale, and Cheddar Bread Pudding dish I ripped from Bon Appetit. Banana pudding also made it in there somewhere… had that for breakfast this morning.
I also developed 2 rolls of film recently. Good ol’ me didn’t realize that I didn’t have enough negative sleeves to put the negatives in, so they’re sort of hanging in my room at the moment looking awesome. But really, they need sleeves. Soon the prints will start happening and I will start trying to sell stuff (one day).
Oh! And day two of my Doctor Who season four marathon continued today. Three more episodes left before I allow myself to watch the ever coveted Christmas Special (possibly the last one before the new Doctor arrives?). Mr. Tennant, I will be sad to see you leave… for real.
Posted in Baking, Cooking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Television Shows | 4 Comments
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Yes, that would be a brontosaurus and a triceratops on top of our gingerbread house. And what you can’t see is the tootsie-roll and twizzler sleigh in the back being pulled by various farm animals. Kate and I made that back in good ol’ St. Louis… it took an entire afternoon and a very large portion of the evening to complete.
What I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned yet is this place. The St. Louis city museum is basically a giant play ground full of fantastic for big kids. Yes, college students are running through caves, the ball pits, and the giant whale structure that allows you to climb and crawl wherever one desires… literally. If you’re in St. Louis, go there. I’m not kidding.
I’ll probably being making a yule log today for Christmas lunch/dinner/dessert tomorrow or whatever. I also want to make banana pudding because, well, who doesn’t want banana pudding? If I’m the only one, then getting fat is my only option.
Expect an update tomorrow or the day after involving cooking, gifts, and general Christmas crazy. It’ll be fun.
Posted in Travel, Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Friday, December 18th, 2009I made it to St. Louis alive and well and have been hangin’ out here for a couple of days with meh friend, Kate. Because the journey was so ballin’… yes, ballin’, I felt the need to post some of my terrible travel photos from the 9 to 9 1/2 hour car ride from Rome, Georgia to St. Louis Missouri. A couple of these photos had some road-trip stories to go along with them… so here it goes. Saturday I will peacing out to head to Bowling Green, Ohio for a couple of days and there’s a possibility that there will be more travel photos in the event that there is no snow.
Nashville, Tennessee in all of it’s rainy-day and rush-hour glory. Although, the rush-hour traffic wasn’t all that bad.
Good ol’ Kentucky border.
Went from Kentucky to Missouri, Missouri to Illinois, and from Illinois back to Missouri. All of this happened within the same 15 minutes and I think I crossed the river, like… four or five times. No joke.
The second time I entered Missouri.
As soon as I crossed the bridge into Missouri again and got on the main highway… it looked like this… FOR TWO HOURS! I could actually let go of my steering wheel and stay straight -it was weird. I also filled up my gas tank around here and got treated like a movie star by some people at the station. Apparently my knock-off Louis Vuitton sun glasses and New York license plates are impressive. And apparently people from New York in southern Missouri are a rare sight. Glad I could entertain.
Posted in Photo of the Day, Travel | 3 Comments
Sunday, December 13th, 2009I can’t remember the last time I posted a totally completed photo of a pot I had thrown. I mean, the 29-inch tall pot displayed earlier had to be “thrown away” (aka. hit with a baseball bat… for real) because the bottom fell out and my professor was convinced that I could throw a better one. So I did… and it ended up being something like 34 inches tall before it got bisqued and glaze fired. Now it’s sitting in the back of my car waiting to get wrapped for Christmas. BUT ANYWAY… here is a photo of a raku pot that I made this semester and got extremely lucky with on the glazing:
Yeah… so it definitely looks better in real life – MUCH shinier.
My cousin and I have also been watching this TV show I’m sure many people have heard of called Alice on the Syfy channel. Pretty much the best show I’ve seen from them since Tin Man, I recommend it to anyone who’s in need of a FANTASTIC remake of an old classic. Both of these mini-series are, by far, my favorites over the first films.
And to continue on with my geekery, I’ve decided that I am going to buy my cousin (the same one who watches the Syfy channel with me) and I one of these so our desktops will be almost completely Doctor Who‘d out when we plug in our printers or cameras or whatever.
So that’s that… another holiday time update.
Posted in Ceramics, Geekery, Television Shows | 3 Comments
Saturday, December 12th, 2009I’m probably posting because I’m sitting in my dorm room waiting to check out so I can go to my friend’s house, unpack a little bit, and get ready for the graduation ceremony. Really, I hate to wait like this. My car, Sheila, is all packed up and ready to go (as am I) but I don’t get to officially leave Rome, Georgia until Tuesday morning. Question of the day is, what am I going to do with myself until then? Practically everyone has gone home for the holidays already.
I was looking at the satellite map for my journey up to St. Louis and basically western Kentucky, a wee bit of Illinois, and south eastern Missouri look gorgeous. It’s going to be fantastic driving through all that farmland and through some state parks. I might even be able to hook up my camera so I can take some shots of the road without inhibiting my driving.
Well… all I can say at this point is that I’m free for about a month and that I will be working on some photography over Christmas break. My darkroom at home needs some final touches and I’ll be running up and downstairs between digital and traditional work spaces… so keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks!
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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Word has gotten around that I, apparently, take good photographs since I took my friends’ engagement photos below. Lynn and Dino are some good friends of mine who wanted some pictures together before Christmas holiday. Instead of putting up one of the conventional “together” photos, I decided I would put up a more candid photo – one that is just so them it’s not even funny.
Seriously, if I ever need remembering of them (which probably won’t happen) I’ll just look at this photo.
I would like to take some more of them when we have time next semester, so expect to see some more Lynn & Dino photos floating around in a few months.
Posted in Photography | 1 Comment