I made chocolate profiteroles last weekend, subbing in pastry cream for the whipped cream called for in the recipe. Actually, to be fair, B made chocolate profiteroles last weekend, while I read out the directions. About the only work I did was separating the egg yolks for the pastry cream and holding the pastry shells while B filled them using the ( Read more... )

I've been on a pie kick lately.

It started with Taste T.O.'s review of Madeleines, Cherry Pie, and Ice Cream. I'm sadly afflicted with a prominent sweet-tooth, and the thought of a hitherto undiscovered dessert shop in my neighbourhood was very exciting, so B and I paid them a visit one Sunday evening. Unfortunately, it turned out that their ( Read more... )

Do you know what's a good time waster/procrastination technique? Cleaning out three years worth of (primarily) commercial emails from my commercial email account. Blumer remains unfinished, but I'm down to 2 pages from 5 in my hotmail account and I've discovered a bunch of new recipes from Epicurious's recipe flash that I'm now eager to try. Woohoo ( Read more... )

Wow, my blog is dull these days. I read, I read, and I read some more. The lively life of a graduate student! And then sometimes I curse my broken graphics card (I'm definitely taking it in for repairs this week), and I read a bit of the news or check if my flist has been updated, and then I go back to reading theory. I suppose I could post book ( Read more... )

27 essays down, 40 to go. Well, in theory, if you look at the class list. If I count the ones I actually have in my possesion, there are only 29 left. These essays were due six days ago, with a penalty of 10% per day (excluding weekends). Admittedly, there were a couple of extensions granted for illness, and I haven't checked the assignment box ( Read more... )

Inspired by a recent post in cooking, I made some biscotti this afternoon. Four kinds, in total: lemon, vanilla almond, cinnamon, and double chocolate cherry. It turned out better than I expected, flavourwise, considering that I mixed the dough and then added the flavouring agents after separating it. Cookingwise, I toasted it a little too long on the ( Read more... )

I allowed myself to become a pawn of advertising and bought one of the ePac backpacks that have been advertised everywhere in Toronto for the last month or so. And yes, I must admit, I love it. My love does not arise from the quality of the construction or design (both are decent enough, but not substantially better than my last backpack). It's not ( Read more... )

Tonight was Networks Discussion Night II. Three of the invited members couldn't be there, leaving only five of us to discuss. It was a bit small, but as I'm terribly fond of all of the people who did make it, I didn't mind. (I don't dislike the absentees, I just don't know them as well.) We talked a bit about isolation, and the recent discovery ( Read more... )

With the onset of autumny weather, I've begun craving winter foods. B, on the other hand, is trying to get as much use out of his grill as he can. Friday night, in true Canadian fashion (he's learning fast!), he swept his deck free of snow and grilled some steak. On Sunday, in keeping with my desire for comfort food and his southern roots, I made ( Read more... )

I've noticed that cooking is slowly creeping in as my major hobby. I don't even do that much of it, but it seems to be the thing that I think about the most when I'm not thinking about school. It amuses B to no end when we come across a dish in a magazine or show, and I decide we should try to make it ourselves. He doesn't enjoy following recipes, ( Read more... )