Weekly New's, Week 1
This week I had a couple of unintended culinary firsts due to circumstance. First, I had a whole mess of Meyer lemons that I'd picked off of the portion of my neighbor's tree that falls into my yard, and they needed to get used before they got moldy. Therefore, I made my first lemon bars (using this recipe: http://www.humblebeanblog.com/2010/02/meyer-lemon-mochi-bars/) which were delicious... and immediately got shipped off to the teacher's lounge before I singlehandedly devoured the whole pan.
Next, I got invited to a German dinner/potluck, for which I learned how to make kaesespaetzle (here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/kaese-spaetzle/), which is effectively German mac 'n' cheese with homemade noodle-like objects. I chose this recipe because it looked so easy... please permit me a moment while I go cry by myself in the corner. Theoretically, one mixes together flour, milk, and eggs with a couple of basic spices, squishes the mixture through the holes in a colander into a pot of boiling water, and - tada! - you have spaetzle! Mix with some sauteed onions and cheese and you're done! This was a fabulous plan until I actually plopped the spaetzle dough in my colander and... it sat there. Try to push it through, and it would re-configure as a thin slime on the bottom of the colander. Obviously the holes in my colander were too small. In desperation, I instead spent the next 45+ minutes holding a small plastic funnel over a pot of boiling water while painstakingly squeezing the dough, spoonful by spoonful, through the spout on the bottom. To add insult to injury, the dinner was then cancelled due to illness. Screw you, spaetzle.
Finally, I learned how to mock-lead climb! So fun, and not nearly as challenging as I'd imagined!
For those of you not familiar with rock climbing, there are three basic styles of rock climbing (safely):
1) Bouldering: Climbing without ropes, with maximum heights usually around 10-12 feet (otherwise it no longer counts as "safe")
2) Top Rope: A rope is threaded through a pulley-type device at the top of the rock you're about the climb, with both ends of the rope then dangling back to the ground. The climber ties one end to his/her harness, and the belayer feeds all of the spare rope on the other end through a device that creates friction, so if the climber falls he/she will just hang there. As long as you're tying your knots correctly, this system is pretty foolproof.
3) Lead Climbing: The rope is initially at the bottom of the climb, and the climber must bring the rope up with him/her, clipping it through carabiner-like devices (called quickdraws) which are anchored in the rock at regular intervals. The belayer must feed you more rope as you go up. The idea is that if you fall, you are stopped by the most recent quickdraw that you passed your rope through (and the belayer, who is hanging on to the other end of the rope). There is a lot less friction in this system, though, and you have the potential to fall a lot further before being stopped. It also takes a lot more skill/attention on the part of the belayer, and more strength/knowledge on the part of the climber.
Basically, I learned the basic techniques for both climbing and belaying during lead climbing, and practiced bringing a rope up with me and feeding it through the quickdraws while simultaneously being belayed on top rope (so I wouldn't die if I messed up). I'm all jazzed about lead climbing now :)
Onwards! 51 weeks of "firsts" to go!