Ultimate and balls

Ultimate season is here. I played ultimate several days a week all through college, and only sparingly since. I definitely hadn't gone to a practice since 2008. On moving to Colorado for grad school, I thought maybe my ultimate days were over. I know so many people who have been seriously hurt playing. And there are so many other things to do here, right? I didn't miss it until I started playing again. Now I don't think I can stop.

Playing ultimate is one of the only situations in life where I feel like I can be my crazy self with people I hardly know. I'm usually super shy until I know someone for a month or so. Maybe its because I learned the sport with my best friends. Maybe it's just because I'm good at it. Either way, I am happier during ultimate season. And I like myself more. Which rocks.


In other news, I defend my PhD thesis proposal in front of my committee today. Wish me luck! I can hardly believe I'm actually doing this crazy thing.

When I was a small child, I used to eat cake in a most appalling way. I would mush the frosting and cake together into a sweet goopy paste. I did the same thing with a lot of food. Everything is homogenous and even. And it's not gross, because it gets like that in our tummy anyway. Or something. I think I've always been a little obsessed with ratios in my food. Even now, I can't eat lucky charms because I have to worry about having the exact same ratio of marshmallows to cereal bits in each spoon.

Potting soil? Biosolids? Or cake bits?

Anyway, this recipe enables me to connect with my inner cake-mushing self. I used a store-bought chocolate cake mix, because I was feeling lazy and made dulce de leche for the frosting. On that note, I love dulce de leche. It's like magic. Condensed milk into pot; 2 hours later, dulce de leche out. For dipping, I used a package of that funny white candy coating stuff. I didn't look at the ingredients for fear of being creeped out. Sprinkles help too.

Cake Balls
adapted from seemingly everywhere these days

• one 13x9 baked cake, any flavor (from a box or otherwise)
• one batch cake frosting (homemade or store-bought)
• one package candy coating (or tempered chocolate if you're good at that. I'm not)

1. Bake the cake however you like and let it cool completely.
   
2. Mush the cake in a bowl a little bit at a time. Add the frosting and mix.
3. Form the cake goo into little balls of your favorite size and place on a cookies sheet. Stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours.
4. Melt the coating or chocolate over a double boiler. Take your frozen cake balls out and dip them.
   
5. These keep best in the fridge.
   

Madness

I am so excited to spend this summer in Boulder. Last summer was awesome (Cape Cod Micro Boot Camp), but Boulder is such a beautiful place, it seemed a shame to be away. I haven't been out on my bike yet, but I'm playing ultimate again. It's like crack. I know it's not good for my body and I can't play it forever, but it makes me so darned happy. I can't stop. I'm hoping to play with a club team this year and make it to a bunch of tournaments. And practice. I miss practice. Sometimes when the Colorado women are practicing behind my building, I sit and stare. I might look creepy, but I don't really care.

This month has been and will continue to be insane. Thesis proposal defense, getting concrete samples made and into my field site for the summer, conference poster in May, trying to get two different types of sequence data. Etc.

On another note, we saw the Atlas Shrugged movie last night. It was entertaining, though the acting and casting was a little off. It was rough to see my favorite character in all fiction portrayed as shaggy and chubby. But a lot of scenes were pretty good. And the sleazeballs sure were sleazeballs.

Matt likes to make mochas in the morning to take to work, and usually used Hershey's dark chocolate syrup. We happened to run out, and I happened to run across a recipe. I get serious pleasure from making simple things at home that other people just buy. Bread. Jam. Pasta Sauce. And now chocolate syrup.


Chocolate syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix sugar, water and cocoa in a small pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 30 minutes.
   
2. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
   

You can cook it longer or shorter to get the consistency you want. I also added a handful of chocolate chips to make it extra delicious. I put it in a cute squeeze bottle I'd saved.

The bacon bandwagon

I've been thinking a lot lately about all the wonderful things that have just landed in my lap over my lifetime. It's hard to be angry or frustrated when I realize just how good I've had it. I had an older brother to look up to, and he even let me hang out with his friends. I ran into the love of my life at age 16 and am still madly in love. An amazing family has conditioned me to succeed. I've had the opportunity to live abroad in 3 amazing locales. Everything, from school to music to career, seems to have been laid out for me to be the luckiest girl in the world. It's sobering, and I don't deserve most of it. I know Thanksgiving is long past, but thanks. Everyone.


I spent last weekend on an oil-soaked beach in Louisiana sampling for a bioaerosols project. We people so some stupid shit to this world. The oil impacts are still so scary. If you dig 3 inches into the sand, it turns brown and then black. And the liquid seeping through does not look like water. There were clean-up crews on the beach manually cleaning the sand by dragging rakefuls out to the surf and rinsing them in the seawater. Where the heck do they think that oil is going to go?

It seems that recently bacon + sweet things has been a growing trend. Bacon with nutella, bacon cookies, chocolate-dipped bacon, candied bacon. As general bacon enthusiasts, we had to try this recipe. They are addicting. Brushing them with bacon grease was definitely a brilliant idea.


Bacon and Date Scones
from Bon Appetit

• 10 ounces thick-cut bacon slices
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp coarse kosher salt
  
• 3/4 cup coarsly chopped Medjool dates
• 1/2 cup chilled butter
• 2/3 cup buttermilk or yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Cook bacon in heavy skillet over medium until cooked but not crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels to cool and reserve grease. Chop bacon when cooled.
   
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Stir in chopped bacon and dates. Grate butter into mixture using a cheese grater and stir in. Stir in buttermilk. Mix, then knead briefly.
3. Transfer dough to floured surface and form 8-inch round. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to baking sheet. Cover and shill for 2 hours or overnight. Brush with reserved bacon drippings and sprinkle with sugar.
4. Bake scones until golden brown, 16-18 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp. If storing, cool completely and store in an airtight container.
   

Return to RL

I've been a little too overwhelmed to write lately, partly because I haven't written about our Australia trip. It was awesome. The coriolis effect isn't significant enough to affect toilets. I really can't do the trip justice in words, so I'll just share some pictures.

delicious pavlova

yes. it snow in the rainforest in the middle of summer

serene beach in Queensland

holycrap! It's a wombat

We came home to some glorious skiing last weekend and a new semester for me. My project is getting underway, and I hope to be crawling in confined stinky spaces by next week. We took a weekend to visit friends in Miami and were disturbed to learn that it is the stupidest city in the country. No Cuban food, but we certainly ate well. Are you surprised?

A good friend (who happens to be unable to eat gluten, butter, or most other delicious things) got me the new cookbook from the Baked guys. Baked Explorations investigates American baking classics and re-invigorates them for the modern home cook. I've been ogling and deciding what to make first. This recipe not only facilitates my testing that marmalade is a delicious substitute for orange zest, it enables me to use my kick-ass whisk. It has a ball inside a wire ball inside a whisk and seriously kicks out soft peaks in about 5 minutes.



Mom's Olive Oil Bundt Cake
from Baked Explorations

• 3 cups flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• grated zest of 2 oranges
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 10" bundt pan
2. Whisk flour, powder, and salt together in a small bowl
3. Beat egg yolks until pale and light. Pour in sugar and mix until incorporated. Add yogurt and oil and mix until combined. Add zest and vanilla and mix.
4. Add dry mix to wet in two additions, beating until just combined. Beat again for 5 seconds
5. In a large clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scoop half of whites into batter and gently fold in. Fold in remaining whites.
   
6. Pour into pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating halfway through. Cool completely. If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.
   

Snowpocalypse

No, there is still no snow in Boulder, but the mountains are getting hammered. 2.5 feet in Crested Butte. In one day. How is that possible? We were up for an epic weekend at Vail and ABasin. Previous trips to Vail have been pretty frumpy, but we paid to park in the garage to avoid waiting and hour for the stupid bus, and were glad that we did. The back bowls were big, epic, and very fluffy. I think a day like that on my birthday excuses us from not having snow this Christmas. Matt and I both forgot our alpines at home, so we got a serious thigh workout (on my new fat teles!) Looks to be a good season ahead.


Even though the weather hasn't been festive down here, we're been having a lovely time making ornaments, baking cookies, and being with friends. I had a group of ladies over for a cookie baking party, and was pretty impressed with our output. Cornflake wreaths were the most photogenic, though the mint-frosted red velvets were lovely too. We've recently become enamored of a four-person board game called Blokus, which consistently challenges our spatial skills and our friendships. Somehow, we got the hairbrained idea that we should try to fit all the pieces on the board following the game rules. The boys were enthralled for about an hour until we got this final result:

Pooped from exertion

I'll admit, I'm not really into Christmas. I love spending time with family, but the materialism really gets to me, and the religious appeal blows right by me. It does usually mean empty slopes. We've been trying our hardest to get people to NOT get us presents because our 700 sq. ft. apartment has about reached is carrying capacity. Our tree (which lives in a box of rocks because we don't have a tree stand) adds to the festivity, but it will be alone for Christmas. Off to Australia tonight! We're hitting Tasmania for some backpacking, Cairns for some diving, and Sydney for city culture. And food. Packing camping equipment into two small backpacks has eluded us, so we'll be taking the huge ones. We're bringing 10 pounds of dried foods (hooray for the bulk aisle), as we'll be arriving on Christmas and are not confident that we'll find fuel before we hit the trail.

I've been sending family delicious things in lieu of more formal gifts this year. I've always thought fruitcake was kind of gross, but my sister and dad think its heavenly, so I made a batch to send Amanda for finals week. Even though I'm not usually a fan, I found this recipe pretty delicious (maybe because I accidentally doubled the sugar. . .). Have a lovely holiday.


Fruitcake

• 1 (8 oz) tub candied cherries
• 1 (8 oz) tub candied citron
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup delicious booze of your choice (brandy, rum, etc.)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup almond meal (or grind your own almonds)
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
  
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
  
• 5 cups pecans

1. Preheat oven to 275F
2. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper too.
   
3. Soaks fruits in your booze and let sit overnight or longer.
4. Mix together flour, almond meal, powder, salt, and spices. Pour onto fruit and mix in until coated.
5. Beat eggs until frothy and beat in the sugar and molasses. Add to the dry mixture and stir until incorporated.
   
6. Stir in the pecans.
7. Spoon into the prepared pans and bake for 1.5 hours.
   

Finally the season for our plates,
though we use them all year round.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

The snow has been a little disappointing down here this year. We've only had snow on the ground for a couple of days so far, and this week has been pushing 60 degrees. Unfazed, we took a trip into the woods this weekend to search for the perfect Christmas tree. Matt and I hadn't planned on getting one, but once we got there, all the trees were so charming, we couldn't resist. And thankfully, there was snow. Getting our picture taken with Smokey was a highlight. Amelia is in Uganda, so we had to add her in later.

Our tree is little.

It is a little odd having only two classes, as everyone else is scrambling to get things done and I'm lazing around as usual. We're looking forward to 2 weeks in Australia over Christmas and New Years. Which means no White Christmas again this year. We had a good time at home over Thanksgiving, and visited a lot of family. Amanda is living on the same dorm floor that I lived on my freshman year, so we paid her a visit and enjoyed nostalgic Middlebrook cuisine.

My parents vacationed in Istanbul last month and brought me back some saffron. I haven't used saffron much, but it's pretty and smells good, so I figured I'd better find something to use it in.


I'm not big into raw vegetables. Maybe it's my Chinese side coming out. Unless it's a very well-made salad, I avoid raw vegetables as often as possible. I like my veggies soggy, salty, and warm. So in honor of that sentiment, I made this dish. I served mine with sauteed spinach and a little mushroom sauce. Mmmmm, comfort food.


Creamy Saffron Polenta
adapted from Bon Appetit

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
  
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dry polenta (or cornmeal)
  
• 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Saute the onions until golden.
2. Add the broth, saffron, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir in polenta and whisk constantly until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Simmer for 10 minutes (5 if using cornmeal), whisking occasionally.
   
4. Meanwhile, process the corn in a food processor until chunky. Stir into polenta after 5 minutes. Serve warm.
   

Thermos envy

Matt has had this thermos for years. It's the perfect size to bring a hot beverage to work in, and it keeps your drink warm all day. I have to admit, I've been a little jealous. Until one of my early weekend morning garage sale runs this fall, when I found an epic thermos for $3. This baby holds over a quart of warm deliciousness and probably will keep it warm until the apocalypse. The weather forcast for my Ultimate games last weekend was not too favorable, so I decided it was time to bring the big guy into service.

I've always had a sort of love/hate affair with hot chocolate. As a non-coffee drinker and only occasional tea drinker (because I feel like its good for me), hot chocolate has always been my drink of choice. I grew up drinking Swiss Miss out of the huge carton, and frequently ordered hot chocolate when my family went out to dinner. But unfortunately, there is a wide range of qualities. There's the gas station hot chocolate that tastes awesome for the first half, until you get to the cloying, grainy bits. There's the chalet hot chocolate that tastes good because you're freezing. And there's the hot chocolate at home from a mix that you stir into hot water. I didn't realize just how chocolate-confused I was until I lived with some French girls in Beijing, who were appalled that I made hot chocolate from water and a mix. My friend from Brittany then proceded to make me hot chocolate with whole milk. Epiphany! Milk from dried milk powder is nasty. Thus, hot chocolate made with milk powder (i.e. those from a mix to stir into water) will be nasty as well. My second epiphany occured in a Swiss grocery store, where the only hot chocolate mixes instruct the user to mix them into milk. So mix + milk is ok.

On another note, I think it's a scam that food companies can sell some things in boxes when it is so easy to make them yourself. Salad dressings, brownie mix, spaghetti sauce. Same for hot chocolate mix. So I set out to make my own hot chocolate mix to be mixed into milk for steamy cups of deliciousness. I made this recipe this weekend for my Ultimate tournaments, and it's a winner.


Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• dash cinnamon and/or cayenne

1. Muddle it all up in a bowl or bag and store
2. To serve, mix 2 Tbsp into 1 cup warm milk.