book update

Finished:

The improvisational cook

Gear for your kitchen

In Process:

Brilliant food tips and cooking tricks (not really digging it and only at letter O)

How to pick a peach
Not Buying it

The cookbook collector

Call volume still low.  I’m am both grateful they’ve kept me on and grateful I have copius things to keep me entertained while I wait for the calls to come in.

On another note:

Happy FRIDAY!!

housing

For a long long time, I had some serious house lust.  I wanted to buy a house soo badly.  But I think I’m pretty much over that at this point.  Despite seeing my friend’s newly purchased pad, I have no desire to buy.  And even if I could, I wouldn’t.  I am committed to paying off my debt, which will take the better part of the next two years.  Then once that happens, we’ll see.  My husband will need to clean up some of his debt, and we’ll have to amass some serious savings.  But I’m totally comfortable with that.  Although it would be nice to buy, I don’t really see us buying until we have kids.  Maybe we’ll move to a nicer apartment.  Enjoy the single in the city experience a little longer.  I’m really happy for my friend.  But that house just seems way too big for my britches.

Beginner's luck

I love pita bread.  And I like to think I a bit of a culinary wiz.  But there’s something about pita dough that seems to flummox me.  I’ve been using the recipe out of Julia Child’s baking book, and the first time I made it, it was wonderful.  Though lacking the tell-tale pocket.  Each subsequent time, it got worse and worse, even having raw spots in the middle of the pita.  Having recently bought some hummus, and the fact that I go through massive amounts of pita, I decided to make some last night.  And I think it was my worst batch yet.  The Pita feel heave and dense, and although I haven’t cracked them open yet, I’m quite sure they are raw inside.  Bleh.

So I’ve been doing some research online, and I think my issues stem from too high a temperature and not rolling out the dough sufficiently.  I never bothered to roll it out because it would just spring back.  Turns out, I have to let it relax a bit, and then try again.  Hopefully it will work this time.

to try out

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-cookiesrec4dec13,1,4340575.story?coll=la-headlines-food

any chance these could be like the one’s from Rustica?

 

music to download

The missing tracks from that Solid Gold album

Minus the bear-My Time

Check swapacd.com for that josh rouse album.

the bouncer's reading list

Reading List

Here are the last few books I've read:

Spies of the Balkans - Alan Furst

The Tourist - Olen Steinhauer

The Game - Doug Glanville

Broom of the System - David Foster Wallace (3rd time)

Emergency - Neil Strauss

The Game - Neil Strauss

Prince of Thieves - Chuck Hogan

Devils in Exile - Chuck Hogan

(also, some book starting with "Penny loafers and . . . ")

books on my to read list:

Improvisational cook by sally schneider

Gear for your Kitchen by Alton Brown

Brilliant Food Tips

How to Pick a Peach by Russ Pearson

Anyone else seeing a theme here?

p.s. I finished Mary Karr’s Lit.  I’ve come to the conclusion that for memoirs dealing with sobriety, loss, religion and the meaning of life, I prefer Dani Shapiro.  I feel like the vast majority of Ms Karr’s books fly right over my head despite their ease to read.  The Liar’s Club left me underwhelmed despite all its praise from, well, everywhere.  And yet, I still make a point to read her books.  Go figure.

Apparently a little kitchen adventure is just what I need to recover from her sobriety.