Cooking and Rambling with Simon
Ambrosia squares inspired by Percy Jackson. I kept to that recipe pretty faithfully and they came out AMAZING. Very dense but oddly light on the palate. Chewy and thick but none of the flavors overpowered any of the others. Slightly lemony, slightly cakey. Sweet but not too sweet from the cream cheese. I highly recommend these. Also there were pretty simple.
Lembas Bread, another recipe I didn't fuck around with, other than the shapes I made them in. That recipe calls for circles or leaf shapes, while I make a 3x3 inch template, cut them out, and used a fork to dot them twice across from corner to corner. They taste, well, like bread. :) They'd actually make a yummy treat to have at a brunch.
We wrapped them in saran wrap and then packed them into Mallorn leaves made from craft foam.
Which I painted to look more leaf-like. This was an excellent tutorial, with a link to another tutorial on how to heat (I used the iron method) and shape the craft foam. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the finished product, because they really looked like something right out of the movies.
Pepper Dates. I took this recipe, and instead of chopping the dates I kept them whole (I used pitted, sun-dried dates). I mixed the spices with the chopped walnuts, and added about... oh, three or four teaspoons of cayenne? (btw I doubled the recipe. DO NOT add that much if you're doing a single batch XD;) It might have been more by the end of it since I didn't want the honey sweetness to overpower the slow burn of the cayenne. Then I added the almonds (mine were slivered) and sent the entire spice and nut mixture through this contraption that I've had for years (large holes) to really blend all the spices with the nuts.
Then I heated the honey so it was just warm and a little runny and set up a dipping station. I used one hand to coat the date in honey, and then the other to coat it completely in the nut/spice blend. I had to work fast so the honey didn't blob up in the mixture, but once I got the rhythm down it was a lot of fun.
The end result was amazing. First you get the richness of the cinnamon and cardamom, slightly tempered with the earthiness of the nuts, then the sweetness of the honey and fruit. Finally the heat of the cayenne slowly creeps up on you. My palate is conditioned for spicier foods (but not like, hey I want to eat that Jolokia pepper, conditioned), so it was just a nice burn for me, Trey on the other hand found it too spicy to eat. So, if you're gonna try and replicate this, TASTE as you add the cayenne little by little. ;)
I fucking love cayenne. You don't taste the pepper flavor at all in this dish, you just get that after note of heat, and that's exactly what I was going for.
And finally I made Turkish Delight. I fucked up a little because I panicked and did one of the steps way too early (brand new candy thermometer, couldn't quite read it at first =/). So they came out way softer than they were supposed to. But! Still tasty. I highly recommend adding much more rose water than the recipe calls for (I used like 2.5 tablespoons, and it was still very very faint). Again, taste as you go. It may smell extremely rosy, but the actual flavor is much more milder than the scent.
Okay, enough Cooking With Simon. XD;
DANI IS COMING TO VISIT TOMORROW OMG~
I am so excited. She's the first guest we'll be having in our new (half at the moment) apartment and I am far too excited. She's taking the bus all the way up here from her sister's in NYC and we're picking her up around 9pm. :D I think that night we're also doing stocking shopping? Which is a tradition Nate and I started when we were younger that Trey and I continue since he lives out of town now. Basically we just walk around Walmart grabbing odds and ends that will amuse those whose stockings we put them in. It's great fun, and even more fun watching the family crack up over them as they pull them out of said stockings.
I'm a little bummed that I haven't had more time to work on my wing!fic the past couple days, but... well the last chapter is supposed to take place on New Years, so I don't think it will be too weird if I continue to post chapters after Christmas. I mean, the main point is HELLO ANGEL not "Oh hey it's Christmas" so, yeah. XD;
Really excited for the Gokaiger Christmas episode. Actually, I've been excited for the Gokaiger Christmas special since we started watching the season (just before episode 12 aired. So long ago~). I remember looking at Trey and going "Omg, the Gokaigers and Christmas in Japan, what will they think?" And then Gai joined the crew and I was like "HE CAN SHOW THEM CHRISTMAS" and that seems to be what's happening. Thanks, Toei, for always living in our heads. o.O;
I finally got a chance to watch a few more episodes of One Piece. I'm up to episode 50 now, to be specific (and chapter 29 of the manga). Between One Piece and Gokaiger I've been having so many piratey dreams. x_x I'm still crushing on Luffy hard, I haven't had this hard of a silly crush on a 2D character in a long time (unless you count book characters, but those are different since they're 3D in my head while I'm reading). It's weird, and nostalgic, and just a lot of fun that I didn't realize I was missing in my life. I've been crushing mostly on musicians and actors since college, and it's nice to just... I dunno. Love a character simply for how amazing a character is, whether or not the art is supposed to be sexy or "bishi" or whatnot.
Hah. I've had a bit too much rum and am rambling on in that tipsy way now. I should probably shut up and maybe check tumblr, since I'm woefully behind on posts there. Anyway. Love you guys. Have a great holiday, whatever it is you're celebrating.
crossposted from dreamwidth