Sweet Yet Sour

Freak

Thursday, November 29th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Laura, her sister Kelly and I all took a “High Altitude Baking Class” on Wednesday night at Cookstreet and had a great time.  I think we learned a lot as well; the chef gave us lots of good tips, and we got to play around with our recipes, adjusting to see what worked out best.

It was a “Cakes and Muffins” class that was designed to teach us how to fix and adjust recipes so that they work well at altitude.  The problem with baking here at altitude is the lack of air at this level and here in Colorado, it’s dry as well.  Cakes (and bread and cookies too) fall and become dense at this altitude if you don’t adjust them properly.

Years ago I had a lovely Southern friend in my bookclub who tried making Red Velvet cake for one of our meetings.  She really did not know about high altitude baking, and I’m sure she did not realize what she was getting into when she tried making her Southern recipe here. It was so sad. It was a little 1/2 inch lump of dense red cake with frosting.  Frankly, I can’t really say I like eating blood red cake anyway (let’s all flash back to the armadillo cake in “Steel Magnolias”), but I felt really badly that she had worked so hard to get something that was not as wide as the book we were reading that month.

Eggs, butter, sugar and flour are your four basic cake ingredients.  The chef told us that each of these either weaken or strengthen your cake.  So depending upon your cake problem at altitude, you can adjust accordingly. 

For example, if your cake sinks in the middle, it means that there is too much moisture (eggs or butter that have weakened your cake) and not enough flour in your cake. 

There were several simple things that I was really glad to learn in class:

1. Packing your flour down is not good when measuring it for cake.  You must “fluff” your flour and measure it, otherwise you might get too much flour. And she suggested that we use a scale every time to make sure that we get the right measurements.
2. 1/2 cup (or any measurement) in your liquid measuring cup is not the same as a dry 1/2 cup.  I sort of knew this, but every once in a while when I’ve used all of the dry cups and haven’t washed them, I use the liquid cup.  Never again!
3. When the recipe says “cream the butter and sugar together” they really mean cream, like the texture is not very gritty, everything is mixed in well and the mixture is pale and creamy looking.  We worked very hard (or rather our mixers did) getting the creaming right in our recipes last night.
4. Always beat your eggs before you put them into a cake batter.  I always just throw the eggs in and let the mixer do the work.  Our chef instructor, took all of the eggs in our Pound Cake recipe, beat them together in a bowl, added the milk, and then added it to the mixer in a slow stream. Her Pound Cake was good, so I’m not going to argue with her, and will do it that way from now on.

We were assigned to make a Pound Cake and a Devil’s Food Cake.  We made an “adjusted” Pound Cake recipe, but without the above instructions about creaming and eggs. Later the chef showed us the “better” way to make it, but all of our cakes turned out “perfect” (the chef said “perfect” about Laura’s twice) anyway.

And then we adjusted a Devil’s Food Cake on an experimental level to see which adjustments worked best. The making of the Devil’s food cake was the best part of the class.  I was watching the creaming of the sugar and butter in the mixer, while Laura was working on beating the eggs and the buttermilk.  At some point in the middle of Laura adding the egg and milk mixture, I actually started to pay attention to the recipe and realized we had beaten 4 eggs instead of two.  Oops! So Kelly votes that we start over again and Laura and I voted to keep on with the experiment (2 votes to 1, sorry Kelly!). 

So we stopped adding eggs, added a little more flour, and threw in a little more buttermilk for fun.  I laughed through the whole process, because seriously, what does it matter? If a cake I make in class totally sucks, who is hurt here?  Cooking is 80% experimentation anyway, so why not have fun in your kitchen lab?

We were labeling our cake pans before they went into the oven with our “team name” and so the Devil’s Food Cake was appropriately labeled “Freak”, because we were not sure what the heck we did to the batter.

After the cakes were baked the chef pulled them all out on the counter and discussed the various flaws of each one.  There were some that had some serious cave-ins, and those were the ones that had too much moisture, and then there were ones that were marbeled, where the ingredients had not been mixed in properly. 

When she gets to “Freak”, she asks “Okay, this one is labeled Freak.  Who made this?” I then got to try to explain what happened to our cake and try not to laugh at the same time.  I laughed anyway, it was hard not to do so.

But really, Freak looked like she (I’m going to go ahead and make our Freak cake a girl) had held up pretty well.  Freak had a small cave-in the middle, but not as much as the other cakes on the counter. Whatever we did do to Freak, the cake turned out really well.  A small cave-in, but when we cut the cake in half and looked inside, the chef said that the texture and density were what we were looking for in a good Devil’s Food cake.  Hilarious!

Next time I make a cake, I’m going to be less afraid to mess around with recipe.  What a great experience this class was, I got to make cake, eat it and play with the recipe without fear.  

Grandpa Jones

Sunday, November 25th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

Today is November 25th, the first anniversary of my Grandpa, Les Jones’ death. I loved my Grandpa very much and I miss him today, and most other days of the year. In memoriam, I’m going to share what I remember and what I loved about my Grandpa.

My Grandpa was an auto-mechanic and owned his own garage for most of my life, “Les Jones’ Independent Garage” in Hillsboro, Oregon. I have always associated the smell of auto oil and gasoline with my Grandpa. His hands especially smelled like oil and gas and they were constantly stained with oil. I was always calling my Grandpa for car advice; he was my own “Click and Clack” and he gave out car advice with humor.

Once I called and told him that the heater in my truck (a 1982 Chevy S-10 now junkyard scrap) was making noise. Here’s a summary of the conversation:

Dorrie – “Grandpa, the heater in the truck is making funny noises.”

Grandpa – “Does the radio work?”

Dorrie: “Yes.”

Grandpa: “Well, then turn it up.”

(Later, he told me that I needed a new heat core, so he would eventually tell me what was wrong.)

Another time, I called because the gas meter in the truck always showed a little above “Empty” even when it was full. Grandpa advised that the gas meter was probably stuck at the bottom of the tank and that I could try going over a bump or two to dislodge it. When I called a few weeks later to complain that the problem had not been fixed and that I was now hearing a weird noise when I turned, Grandpa could not stop laughing for a while. He then explained that I shouldn’t have gone over so many bumps; I had now cracked an axle.

I loved my Grandpa’s laugh, so even though I was in for a lot of repairs, it was good to hear him laugh so long.

My grandpa was exceptionally intelligent, funny and could play a piece of music on the piano after hearing it on the radio. When I was a little girl, he taught me to play a song on the piano about a little frog. From then on, his nickname for me was “Little Froggie” and Grandpa would send me stuffed frogs and other frog things for my birthday and Christmas. He was “Big Frog” and I sent him lots of frog things as well.

My Grandpa met my Grandmother when he was working at ammunitions plant here in Denver. They married and soon after he was drafted to go off to World War II. He ended up in an mechanic’s pool that repaired the supply trains and traveled a great deal, including “Persia” as he called it, India, London and Paris. Once I took him out for coffee and I asked him where he had traveled during the war. It was one of my favorite times with him; he traced his route in the war on an imaginary map on the table for me and told me a little bit about each place he had gone.

Last year, my Grandpa had a stroke, and while he survived, my parents advised my sister and I to make the trip to Oregon to see my Grandpa. Grandpa was in a physical rehab center when we visited, so our time with him was limited. He was still my Grandpa, but not the same, slower, thinner and just not the same. I cried the day that we left, knowing that would be last time I saw him.

The day before Thanksgiving I took the day off to prepare for all the cooking I was going to do on Thanksgiving. I went to the store and began experiencing the longest deja vu I have ever had; almost two hours. Everything was as if I had dreamed it before and I always knew what was going to happen next. It was so long I was physically sick after a while and became convinced that something was wrong. When I arrived home my sister called soon after to tell me that my Grandpa had suffered another stroke. I began to wonder if I had told him that I loved him, if he knew I thought he was the most perfect Grandpa. But it was too late, he was in a coma. My Grandpa died a few days later and I have missed his laugh and love ever since.

Weekend Get-Away

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | The Daily Special | No Comments

Mike and I headed up to Laura and Nate’s mountain retreat this weekend to spend some time with them, which is rare, and do some relaxing. We took Cash, since he seems to get along well with Duke and Milan, and he likes getting away from the cats.

We all had a really good time and we ate a lot, which is one of my favorite pastimes. We were up at the house in time for lunch on Saturday and so we headed into Nederland to a place that Laura and Nate recommended for the barbeque and beer. Wild Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery you are my new favorite place for BBQ! I had the most tender beef brisket on a sandwich that I have ever had, with the best sauce! There were several sauce choices, and I chose the “Memphis” because that’s what Nate and Mike were ordering with their pulled pork sandwiches. Spicy, a little hot, but not overwhelming and so good with the beef brisket, I haven’t had any pregnancy cravings, but I could develop one for this stuff!

After lunch we burned a little of lunch off by walking around Nederland and went to visit the used bookstore. It wasn’t anything special, but it could do in a pinch; I wandered by the “Culture Studies” section and I could have sworn that a fellow anthropology major sold off all their books in this store. Come on, why didn’t you keep your book on the Yanomamo?

After that we wandered around while Mike took pictures of an old wagon and strayed into a small furniture store. Beautiful handmade items, all simple and Amish in style and the man who makes most of the stuff was in the store. It’s so nice to know that you can still find places where you can meet the person who handcrafts the furniture. Laura and I are going to get Nate to buy a walnut dining room table from this guy if it kill us, this stuff was so well done.

After that we headed back home, up the “Seven turns of death” road, to sit around and do very little. We ate elk stew and nibbled on the Lemon Cake bars and Cherry Chocolate Pastry bars I had brought up. (I’ve put the recipe for the Cherry Chocolate Bars up on the RRC website.) We played Boggle and Trivial Pursuit (Pop Culture, 80’s and 90’s) until it was very late and those people who can drink (not me) were too woozy to focus on the questions.

We finished the Trivial Pursuit game off in the morning after some excellent bacon and eggs prepared by Nate, with my Sourdough English Muffins as a side dish. I lolled around on the couch with my book while the others walked up the hill with the dogs, and then darn, it was time to head home. All in all, an excellent weekend. I love taking these little mini-vacations where I can take my dog (who spent the entire weekend on a dog bed as if he had never seen a soft place before in his life) and be home in an hour. Thanks Nate and Laura! Did we do anything but eat? Oh who cares! It was all so good!

AFI’s Top 100 Movies – With Additions

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | The Daily Special | No Comments

This is AFI’s list of 100 Top Movies. The new list will be out later this month. Highlight the ones you’ve seen, add 5 more at the bottom, and post to your blog.

1 CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2 GODFATHER, THE (1972)
3 CASABLANCA (1942)
4 RAGING BULL (1980)
5 SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)
6 GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
8 SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993)
9 VERTIGO (1958)
10 WIZARD OF OZ, THE (1939)
11 CITY LIGHTS (1931)
12 SEARCHERS, THE (1956)
13 STAR WARS (1977)
14 PSYCHO (1960)
15 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
16 SUNSET BLVD. (1950)
17 GRADUATE, THE (1967)
18 GENERAL, THE (1927)
19 ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
20 IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
21 CHINATOWN (1974)
22 SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
23 GRAPES OF WRATH, THE (1940)
24 E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
25 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
26 MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
27 HIGH NOON (1952)
28 ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
29 DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
30 APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
31 MALTESE FALCON, THE (1941)
32 GODFATHER PART II, THE (1974)
33 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975)
34 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
35 ANNIE HALL (1977)
36 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE (1957)
37 BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, THE (1946)
38 TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE (1948)
39 DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
40 SOUND OF MUSIC, THE (1965)
41 KING KONG (1933)
42 BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
43 MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
44 PHILADELPHIA STORY, THE (1940)
45 SHANE (1953)
46 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
47 STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, A (1951)
48 REAR WINDOW (1954)
49 INTOLERANCE (1916)
50 LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, THE (2001)
51 WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
52 TAXI DRIVER (1976)
53 DEER HUNTER, THE (1978)
54 M*A*S*H (1970)
55 NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
56 JAWS (1975)
57 ROCKY (1976)
58 GOLD RUSH, THE (1925)
59 NASHVILLE (1975)
60 DUCK SOUP (1933)
61 SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (1941)
62 AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
63 CABARET (1972)
64 NETWORK (1976)
65 AFRICAN QUEEN, THE (1951)
66 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
67 WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)
68 UNFORGIVEN (1992)
69 TOOTSIE (1982)
70 CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (1971)
71 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)
72 SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE (1994)
73 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
74 SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE (1991)
75 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
76 FORREST GUMP (1994)
77 ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976)
78 MODERN TIMES (1936)
79 WILD BUNCH, THE (1969)
80 APARTMENT, THE (1960)
81 SPARTACUS (1960)
82 SUNRISE (1927)
83 TITANIC (1997)
84 EASY RIDER (1969)
85 NIGHT AT THE OPERA, A (1935)
86 PLATOON (1986)
87 12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
88 BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
89 SIXTH SENSE, THE (1999)
90 SWING TIME (1936)
91 SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982)
92 GOODFELLAS (1990)
93 FRENCH CONNECTION, THE (1971)
94 PULP FICTION (1994)
95 LAST PICTURE SHOW, THE (1971)
96 DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
97 BLADE RUNNER (1982)
98 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
99 TOY STORY (1995)
100 BEN-HUR (1959)

I like that there is a lot of Hitchcock on this list and that they have a lot of Katherine Hepburn movies, but clearly they are lacking some really good movies that should be on here.  And frankly, there’s way too many westerns on here. Yuck.  So here are the ones that I would add:

1. Dial M for Murder (classic Hitchcock with Grace Kelly, 1954)

2. Gaslight (husband tries to make his beautiful wife, Ingrid Berman, go insane, 1944)

3. Adam’s Rib (Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn debate about women’s equality, 1949)

4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (”Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government.” 1975)

5. Harvey (Jimmy Stewart and his six-foot tall rabbit/Pooka named Harvey, 1950)

6. Arsenic and Old Lace (Cary Grant and his sweet aunts that kill, 1944) – I couldn’t resist adding another, because I love this movie and I couldn’t limit myself to a list that did not contain one of my favorites.

My Top 5 Movie Endings

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

Okay, I admit it, I have several movies that I really only like to see the endings of, rather than spend the time watching the whole movie.  It’s not that the whole movie is bad and the ending good, it’s just that I really like the ending more than the rest of the movie.  I have a lot of movies where if they’re on t.v., I only watch the last maybe 1/2 hour of the movie, because that’s my favorite part. 

Am I the only one who does this?

Anyway, here are some examples of the movies with the best endings:

1. Shawshank Redemption: Okay, great movie, but it’s painful to watch, especially the parts with the “Sisters”.  But the ending is awesome.  I try to time it so that I only watch from the time that Red goes to his probation hearing to the end. There’s some great writing in the last part (”hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”) and it always makes me cry.

2. The Natural: Wonderful, beautiful, long movie.  The cinematography in this film is so well done, but really, I only like to watch starting from when Roy hits the homer and the lights go out and shower the stadium with stars, and then later he meets his son.  Another tear-jerker.

3. Field of Dreams: Yet again a baseball movie; I have no idea why I like them so much.  Anyway, it’s a great movie, but I try to start watching from the time that Ray’s daughter chokes on a hot dog (saved by Doc. Graham). I love the part where he meets his father and they play catch.  Totally makes me cry everytime.

4. Pride and Prejudice (BBC version with Colin Firth): Admittedly, Colin Firth is so gorgeous in this movie, it’s worth it to watch the whole thing.  But really, if you time it like I do to start watching at the part where Elizabeth is visiting Pemberley, and thus you get to see Darcy go swimming, through to the end, you’re really hitting some of the best parts.

5. It Happened One Night: This is in general, a great classic movie and I have some favorite parts that aren’t anywhere near the end.  Such as the scene where Clark Gable is teaching Claudette Colbert how to hitchhike or when he teaches her to dunk.  But really, I like the end the best, starting from when Peter goes to Ellie’s father to collect his reward.  If you haven’t seen this movie, suck it up and deal with watching black and white and watch the whole movie.  It’s hilarious, well written, and it has Clark Gable in the height of his handsomeness…

3 Years!

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

Today Mike and I have officially been married three years.  He promised me 100 years, so really, 3 years is a drop in the bucket, but still it’s three years.  It’s been good, we laugh a lot, we’ve learned a lot about each other, and we still like each other.  It’s nice being so comfortable with a person, and knowing that they will love you no matter what and you would do the same for them. I will always want Mike by my side, even when he is old and farty.  Of course, he’s half way there now…

The Dirty Dozen – When to buy organic

Monday, November 12th, 2007 | Seriously? | 2 Comments

No, this is not a blog about the movie “The Dirty Dozen”, which I admit I was forced by my father to watch multiple times as a child.  Instead I wanted to share some information that I found surprising, scary and very helpful about organic foods.  

I’m always trying to decide which foods I should spend the extra money on to buy organic. It’s generally a random choice, depending on what I am buying and what I am going to use it for when I cook the item. For example, I started buying organic potatoes only when I am going to leave the peel on; if I’m going to just take the peel off before I cook the potato, I go cheap and buy the conventional potatoes.  It has always sounded good in “Dorrie Logic”.

So I decided to do a little research about this thing my sister keeps mentioning, the “Dirty Dozen”.  I’m learning I don’t have to be so random about what I need to buy organic, and where I can save money.  I can go with the “Dirty Dozen” rules.

The “Dirty Dozen” is a list of foods that you should buy organic when you can afford it, because they contain high levels of pesticides and other nasty things when grown conventionally.

In “Dorrie Logic” if I take the peel off my conventionally grown potatoes, I am eliminating the pesticides, right?  I turn out to be wrong on this issue, and was pretty surprised at some of the foods on the list that contain a lot of pesticides. Apparently, while washing and peeling reduces some pesticides, there is some contamination that can remain, even after you have peeled and washed the food.

Anyway, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has compiled the list of the “Dirty Dozen”, of the most highly pesticide ridden foods.  The EWG actually has a list of 43 fruits and vegetables that ranks them from high to low on their pesticide levels (onions, avocados and corn are at the bottom of the list with low pesticide levels for example).  They also have a handy downloadable “short list” that you can print out and carry with you when you are shopping.

Here’s the link to the full list, and the place where you can download the wallet size list, http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

And here’s the summary of the top 12 foods with the highest pesticide level rankings: 
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Imported grapes (although, seriously, it’s so hard to find out where the food is coming from, how am I going to know if my grapes speak Spanish?)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes

I was surprised by some of these items in the top 12, I mean, celery? I was not surprised by spinach, because we’ve heard a lot about spinach and the bacteria on it lately.  But have you ever heard of someone getting sick from their celery?  I guess that’s probably because it’s loaded with pesticides in the first place!

So I have to re-think my shopping list, because frankly, pesticides and bacteria scare me, and I don’t want to be eating or serving something that is loaded with pesticides or little bacteria beasties.  I’m going to download the wallet guide and stop thinking that peeling and washing my fruit will save me from consuming pesticides.   

Not that I want to be alarmist and “I have to grow everything myself”, but I do like knowing which foods are really high in pesticides, and those foods, like pineapple and onions, where it’s a waste paying the higher cost for me to buy organic. 

Pregers Gift

Thursday, November 8th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

So I have a wonderful friend Rena, who makes jewelry.  Last week I showed her website on ebay - http://stores.ebay.com/Sundance-Moods - to my mom.  My mom just loved all the jewelry and pointed out several pairs of earrings that she really liked.  So of course, I bought a few pairs for her for Christmas. As always, Rena shipped them out lightening fast, so I already have some presents bought for Christmas. 

Anyway, to my suprise and happiness, Rena included a “pregers gift” for me as well.  As seen here… My camera phone does not do them enough justice, but they are really beautiful, and I love them.  They’re little hammered silver discs with a pearl hanging in front of them.  Lovely! Awesome!  It’s the first gift I have gotten for being pregnant and it’s a great one! Thank you Rena!

Welcome to the new blog!

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 | The Daily Special | 2 Comments

So I’ve moved my own personal blog to here.  You’re here, so that’s nice.  Thanks for coming! I will now be using this site as my own place to blog about stuff other than cooking and restaurants, although frankly, that will be hard, since food is a big part of my life.  Anyway, Denver Restaurant Review Club was definitely not the place to put a post like “Hives”.  It looked weird there in between the recipes and restaurant reviews.  Hopefully I can come up with some interesting things to say here as well, but I may stray back to food because I just can’t help myself sometimes…

Hives

Friday, November 2nd, 2007 | Seriously? | No Comments

(This should be called “The Daily Whine” instead of “The Daily Special”.) This is my arm. It is covered with hives, as is the entire rest of my body. I’ve saved you from taking pictures of my legs, which look worse. I alternate between being itchy and hot and wanting to cry and scream. The experiment of “am I allergic to Amoxicillian?” has turned out badly. Although, I didn’t develop these lovely hives until I had been on the meds long enough for them to help get rid of my sinus infection, so I guess that’s good. All I want for Christmas right now is an oatmeal bath…