Coming around
Let's see if I can break this habit of only posting once in a very great while. I'll do my best, at any rate.
I'm currently on spring break, which so far has been the most relaxing week I've had since winter vacation. I look forward to the day when I can just work, and then spend the rest of my time doing whatever I choose.
Take this week. On Monday, I made garlic chicken pasta from a 30 minute recipe I found in a magazine put out by America's Test Kitchen. I love these guys, because they write articles detailing the different ingredients and methods they used in their recipes. I like it because if you aren't picky, you can use some of their discarded ideas as substitutes if you don't have the 'ideal' ingredient.
On Tuesday I felt even more adventurous and decided to make French Silk pie. The eggs and sugar were fluffing up nicely in the double boiler as I mixed them, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. The problem with these recipes, of course, is that I don't really read them ahead of time, so I didn't realize that I should have melted the chocolate first and let it cool before doing the egg part. And also the pie crust should be cool before putting the filling in. Whoops. I grabbed the pie crust dough from the fridge and then realized I didn't have a pie pan. The closest thing I had at hand was a small cake pan with low sides. I mushed the crust in there and put it in the oven to bake, crossing my fingers that it would turn out okay.
I went back to stirring the egg and sugar mixture, which was now billowing out of control. Thankfully I had used a giant glass mixing bowl, so there was room to grow. My, I thought, this is going to be one fluffy pie. It'll probably taste like a cloud! I now had a semi-cooled egg mixture and some warm melted chocolate. Oh, and the pie crust, which had collapsed on one side while baking and was now a golden-bown deformed mass.
The recipe says to combine the cooled chocolate and egg mixture, and then put it in the cooled crust. What I have is warm chocolate, warm pie crust, and no patience to wait for either to cool. I add the chocolate and watch in horror as my beautiful puffy mix is flattened. No matter how much I mix it, the fluff is gone. Aargh! What happened? What am I going to do? I realize eventually that I still need to add the whipped cream, which fluffs it back up a little bit.
I think I forgot to mention that during this whole time, whenever I would lift the mixer out of the bowl, little pieces of chocolate silk would fly in all directions, like a monkey flinging poo. Pippin came in to investigate at one point and I had to chase him away so he wouldn't become too interested in the new wall decor.
Eventually I managed to pour the filling into the pie crust, and also an oreo pie crust I had bought. And yes, they were delicious.
Wow, that turned into a huge story about me making pie. I think I meant to talk more about my job and how I'm settling in and everything is becoming much easier now. My supervisor is actively shifting duties in order to make the PM shift less of a living hell. So far it's working too. BK asked me today if I would have time this summer to learn some benches, which would be pretty exciting. I hope I can make it work.
I'm currently on spring break, which so far has been the most relaxing week I've had since winter vacation. I look forward to the day when I can just work, and then spend the rest of my time doing whatever I choose.
Take this week. On Monday, I made garlic chicken pasta from a 30 minute recipe I found in a magazine put out by America's Test Kitchen. I love these guys, because they write articles detailing the different ingredients and methods they used in their recipes. I like it because if you aren't picky, you can use some of their discarded ideas as substitutes if you don't have the 'ideal' ingredient.
On Tuesday I felt even more adventurous and decided to make French Silk pie. The eggs and sugar were fluffing up nicely in the double boiler as I mixed them, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. The problem with these recipes, of course, is that I don't really read them ahead of time, so I didn't realize that I should have melted the chocolate first and let it cool before doing the egg part. And also the pie crust should be cool before putting the filling in. Whoops. I grabbed the pie crust dough from the fridge and then realized I didn't have a pie pan. The closest thing I had at hand was a small cake pan with low sides. I mushed the crust in there and put it in the oven to bake, crossing my fingers that it would turn out okay.
I went back to stirring the egg and sugar mixture, which was now billowing out of control. Thankfully I had used a giant glass mixing bowl, so there was room to grow. My, I thought, this is going to be one fluffy pie. It'll probably taste like a cloud! I now had a semi-cooled egg mixture and some warm melted chocolate. Oh, and the pie crust, which had collapsed on one side while baking and was now a golden-bown deformed mass.
The recipe says to combine the cooled chocolate and egg mixture, and then put it in the cooled crust. What I have is warm chocolate, warm pie crust, and no patience to wait for either to cool. I add the chocolate and watch in horror as my beautiful puffy mix is flattened. No matter how much I mix it, the fluff is gone. Aargh! What happened? What am I going to do? I realize eventually that I still need to add the whipped cream, which fluffs it back up a little bit.
I think I forgot to mention that during this whole time, whenever I would lift the mixer out of the bowl, little pieces of chocolate silk would fly in all directions, like a monkey flinging poo. Pippin came in to investigate at one point and I had to chase him away so he wouldn't become too interested in the new wall decor.
Eventually I managed to pour the filling into the pie crust, and also an oreo pie crust I had bought. And yes, they were delicious.
Wow, that turned into a huge story about me making pie. I think I meant to talk more about my job and how I'm settling in and everything is becoming much easier now. My supervisor is actively shifting duties in order to make the PM shift less of a living hell. So far it's working too. BK asked me today if I would have time this summer to learn some benches, which would be pretty exciting. I hope I can make it work.