Thursday, February 24, 2011

sugar in the morning

I don't remember a lot about junior high. Snapshots, for the most part. When I try to drudge up memories from that time period, I get an image of orange and black poms.  The sound of a bunch of 13-year-olds shouting, "Llama, llama, llama! We stand out!"  The feeling of absolute terror that accompanies forgetting the words to the national anthem at a basketball game. Counting the number of times my history teacher ended his sentences with the word, "Right?"  Watching The Matrix too many times to count while eating cheese-filled hot dogs and cosmic brownies washed down with an alarming amount of Mountain Dew.

Maybe I remember some things about junior high.

Junior high was also the time that I was in show choir.  Like Glee. Except without being absolutely ridiculous.

As I was making this week's biscotti, I kept thinking about this song that was part of our show when I was in seventh grade. 

Wouldn't you like to see the cast of Glee perform that one?

I actually...really like the song now. Plus I still remember a significant chunk of the choreography.  Flashback video blog?

Yeah, maybe not. 

Cinnamon-Sugar Biscotti
(modified from allrecipes.com)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2/3 cup sugar
6 T butter
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
Cinnamon chips (Hershey's makes them. They are fantastic. Do not buy unless you have a use for them, or else you will eat them all plain.)

1 t cinnamon
3 T sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

1.  Mix the flour, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Cream the sugar and butter together, then beat in the eggs and vanilla
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir in the cinnamon chips.

So you know how I said biscotti doesn't usually have fat (oil, butter, etc.)?  Well. This one does.  And because of the butter,  when I mixed up the ingredients, it came out a lot more like cookie dough than biscotti dough, which tends to be drier and crumblier.


I think the next time I make this recipe (or stumble across another type of biscotti that uses butter), I will add an extra egg and use less butter.  The end result tastes great, but it has a strange biscookie texture.

Yay portmanteaus.

4. Shape the dough into two logs and bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes (I've found it's best to err on the higher side with biscotti).


6. Let the logs cool, and cut diagonally into strips about 1/2 inch thick.  See my first biweekly biscotti post for a visual example.

7. Mix together the 3 T sugar and 1 t cinnamon, then sprinkle it on one of the cut sides of the biscotti slices.


8. Bake at 325 for at least 20 minutes.

9. Cool and dip in coffee! (Or hot chocolate)

There you have it. Now you, too, can have sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, AND sugar at suppertime.

Though I'm not sure I would suggest it.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

grey ships pass into the west



I've been holding on to these pictures for a few days, because I didn't really have a grasp on what I wanted to say with them. They feel somehow wistful to me, and I wasn't sure what to do with that. I just knew I wanted to do it justice.

I love this scarf. I thrifted it last week, and I had to wear it immediately. It has a great western vibe (without going too far into cowgirl) that I find myself drawn to increasingly when I'm shopping for clothes.

Why is that? What is so appealing about that particular aesthetic right now? It definitely has visual intrigue - just look at the pattern on this scarf. You notice something new every time.


Or maybe it's the colors - the rich browns and oranges and blues and greens (in general, not just on the scarf). Sometimes it feels more natural to dress in colors that come straight from the earth, like the clothes are really an extension of creation, instead of something measured and produced by machines.

Ultimately, though, I think it's about all of the ideas that have become intrinsic to "The West" over time. Despite the fact that it has been mostly settled for a while now, there's still this sense of freedom and adventure and purpose that accompanies our collective mental image of "going out west." In fact, it reminds me of a lot of the concepts that are woven into the practice of pilgrimage - something that I spent a lot of time with last year as I applied for a fellowship to study and practice it.

This year, though, I'm not feeling like a pilgrim. On the contrary, I'm feeling pretty stagnant. I've settled into a daily routine - get up, have some coffee, check facebook, go to work, come home for dinner, go to the gym, watch a TV show, go to bed, with a few variations. I may go to small group instead of the gym, or write a blog post or bake biscotti instead of watching TV.

You would think that moving to a new city would be like exploring a new frontier, but it has mostly magnified my restlessness. I guess I’m searching for my pilgrimage here, for that “west” that I can strive toward - something adventurous and purposeful. And I don’t like the thought of losing that to routine. 

I don’t have any specific thoughts on this, really, just identifying the general longing to find the journey God has set out for me, even if I’m traveling it from my apartment.

Dressing the part must be the first step

jeans/target,shirt/gap,jacket&scarf/thrifted,boots/nine west

This has become one of those things that I talked about in my first post, something that I want to fold up tightly and hide in my pocket to keep just for me.  It feels fragile, like a single wrong word will shatter the truth of it, and maybe letting people read it will do the same thing.  But as fun as it is to write about baking pop-tarts and what I'm wearing (and I will continue to do so), these are the kinds of posts that stretch me, that hold the most worth for me, and that share who I am more than the lighter topics.

So despite the fact that I may have a minor panic attack letting this piece of me out, I'm going to let it go anyway.  What about you? Do you have a "west" that you're traveling towards right now?


Friday, February 18, 2011

from a foggy thursday



Yesterday we had the kind of fog where driving anywhere, even down neighborhood streets, makes you feel like you're alone in the middle of a vast, empty field.  A vast empty field where the wind and bugs and birds sound oddly like car motors.

During drives like that, I sometimes like to pretend I'm in the middle of a "dark and stormy night" mystery novel or an X-Files episode.  It makes the ride to work a lot more exciting.  And a little creepy.

Don't worry, though, I have yet to be actually abducted by aliens.


skirt&cardigan/ann taylor loft, shirt&belt&boots/target, tights/gap?

Taking decent pictures was almost impossible with the fog. It was already hard enough to make it look like this skirt wasn't a size too big (and meant to be worn hip level). I did, however, feel pretty good about the fact that I didn't think twice before mixing prints. Look how daring I can be.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

scholarly desserts

The summer that I studied abroad at Oxford, I was ridiculously frugal. The exchange rate was awful, and I was terrified of accruing a giant credit card debt. So I ate the food they served us - which was FANTASTIC, so no regrets there - and I didn't even buy an Oxford sweatshirt. There are some regrets with that. I mean, I lost the opportunity to look all intellectual with the name OXFORD UNIVERSITY splashed across my chest. I kid. Mostly.

There was one thing that I spent money on regularly.  A few steps outside the entrance to St. John's College, where the program was being held, there was this little Greek food kiosk.  I don't remember what it was called, but it was bright blue and always seemed a little out of place on the sidewalk beside the serious, historical stone wall of the college.

Now I'm suspecting it was actually the TARDIS.

My geekery aside, this stand had little pieces of baklava for fifty pence each, which was cheaper than anything else you could buy. Honest.  They were absolutely delicious, and they became the perfect snack for my evening walks by the river.

Someone remind me why I'm not in Oxford anymore?

Anyway, I was thinking of those particular baklava when I embarked on a baking adventure I have been wanting to try for years - which is making my own baklava, of course.



All I have ever heard about making baklava is how really really hard it is. But I soldiered on.

Baklava Filling
(via the box of filo dough)
1 1/2 pounds of walnuts, chopped (almonds or pistachios or another type of nut will also work)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
Zest of one lemon

Pastry
A box of frozen filo or phyllo dough.

Syrup
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 cup honey
1 lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350

I will admit right now - I had to look up what exactly the "zest" of a lemon was.  Despite baking being the most prominent topic on my blog thus far, I am not an experienced baker. (If you, reader, also do not know, it's the yellow part of the peel grated into little pieces. But not the white part of the peel, because that can be bitter.) (Another paranthetical: If you're trying to actually follow the recipe, I added step numbers to my ramblings so you can follow along.)

1. Once I figured out the whole zesting business, I mixed all of the filling ingredients into bowl and didn't get a great picture of it, so we'll move on.

The next step is arranging the phyllo (or filo) dough.  The words "phyllo dough" are met with groans and winces from those who have worked with it before. I learned that this is for a very good reason.


Working with phyllo dough is like taking the pages of a Bible or a dictionary and making them larger and more delicate, then trying to move them one by one from one spot to another without tearing any of them, and then laying them flat on top of each other.  See the photo above for an idea of what you have to work with.

2. With baklava, you first line the bottom of a 9x13 pan with 20 sheets of phyllo. You cannot count them out and plop them in.  You must spray the top of each individual sheet with cooking spray. It's tedious, and a little stressful.  But the end result is worth it, trust me.

3. After the first twenty layers, spread half of the filling across the top.  Then add 5 more sheets of phyllo dough, and on top of that, the rest of the filling.  Fifteen sheets of phyllo top it off.

The filling before the final layer of phyllo:



4. Today in What-Natalie-Forgot-While-Baking:  the pan of baklava should be scored into squares and then triangles before going in the oven.  I remembered about seven minutes in, and only managed to cut it into squares, because it was already getting a little crispy.

5. The actual baking specs: 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees.

6. Near the end of that, mix up the syrup (ingredients listed at the top), bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Drain (because as much as the lemon peel adds, we don't actually want it in the baklava).


8. Once both pastry and syrup have cooled a bit, pour the syrup over the pastry. 



9. After it's all cooled off, cut into pieces where you scored it earlier.  Cut thoroughly.  With a very sharp knife.  The problem with all the layers is that if you miss cutting just one of them, it's a huge mess.  A huge, delicious mess that you will end up eating.

I have to say, with my apologies to the Greek food kiosk in Oxford, this baklava totally blew theirs out of the water. I had to take it into work just so I didn't eat a plate a day for dinner!


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

come on spring


Happy Valentine's Day!  Yes, two days later.  I hold that one day should not have a monopoly on heart-shaped chocolates. The adorable one above is from a small gift that all of the employees at work received in our mailboxes on Monday. And while, as a non-bitter single person, I feel neither animosity nor particular excitement towards Valentine's Day, I am always appreciative of surprise chocolate.

However, I am even more excited about what Valentine's Day means in terms of the larger picture - springtime!

Or at least that's what it meant when I lived in Memphis. Wisconsin doesn't seem to have gotten the memo.

But I don't really care what Wisconsin thinks.  I am dressing for spring anyway.



Okay, I know I said that I didn't think I would be style-blogging. And honestly, this outfit is not exactly daring or creative (also my hair is slightly wet). But I just couldn't resist the challenge of taking interesting pictures with nothing but a point-and-shoot, my balcony, a table, and about fifteen minutes to edit. And it was a lot of fun. So there you have it.



The crazy thing is, we actually have a high of fifty degrees today.  You know how many degrees above freezing that is?  Eighteen. That's right. We beat you today, winter.  All that snow you can see in the background of the first picture - it might actually melt!

Or, you know, we may end up with five inches left instead of ten. As the optimist that I try to be, I choose to see that as half melted instead of half frozen. Or something

With that kind of thinking, the groundhog's prediction, and the flowers on my shirt, spring might actually be convinced to come visit Wisconsin a little early! I can always hope.

Dreaming of the days when I can ride a bike outside
jeans&shirt/ann taylor loft, cardigan/target, belt/don't know, shoes/thrifted-old navy

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Biweekly Biscotti Kick-off


Last fall, I baked probably ten kinds of cookies in two months. At the time, I was in training at work, so I could just bring the cookies to class and hand them out - I made friends, and I didn't eat 4000 calories worth of cookies every day.  Win/win. 

But when I continued to make them after training, I had a problem.  I began to eat cookies for breakfast. Daily. It was not a responsible nutritional decision..

I wasn't willing to give it up completely, though, because it allowed me to continue with my newfound baking habit without excessive extraneous cookie consumption (check out that alliteration!).  Instead, I began to look for alternatives, including the homemade pop-tarts from last week. Pop-tarts, I thought, are supposed to be breakfast food - surely that's an improvement over eating cookies every morning!

They may indeed have been. But the pop-tarts took hours to make. Not the best option for a regular project, especially if I ever wanted to bake anything else.

My other morning vice is coffee. And what goes best with coffee??

I refer you to the coffee experts.

Lorelai: I ask you. What is a danish without coffee?
Rory: The eternal question springs up again.
Lorelai: There's no point in even eating a danish without coffee. Sad danish. Lonely danish.  Step danish!

Oh, wait. I didn't make danishes. Sorry, Gilmores!

What I did make was biscotti.  I have actually made four kinds of biscotti in the last month and a half, and I don't see it stopping any time soon.  So obviously, I'm going to make it into a series for my poor, direction-less blog.

Today's kick-off post features a classic variation - almond biscotti.

Almond Biscotti
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups almonds (it says whole - I used sliced, because it's what I had.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
My addition: 1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.  Including the almonds.  I forgot those until later. But it still worked.

2. Add beaten mixture of eggs, vanilla, and (in my case) almond extract.  It will be very dry.  I had to use my hands to get it all mixed.  This is partially because biscotti traditionally uses NO FAT. 

Which is why everyone should eat it for breakfast. 

3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough into two "logs." Flatten them a bit on a baking sheet, like so:


4. Bake the logs at 350 for about 25 minutes.  When they're done, let them cool for a while. (Leave the oven on.)

 Don't they look so pretty?

5. Slice the log into diagonal strips and put them flat side down on the baking sheet. This step confused me a lot the first time I made biscotti, so I took a picture of it.  


The strips in the picture are probably too thick.  I have found that they must cool completely in order to make thinner strips that don't break in half, though, and it was late, so in the interest of time, I didn't let them cool completely.

This plan ended up backfiring, because thicker strips just meant longer baking time.

6. Put the sliced biscotti back into the oven (at 350 or 325) for at least 25 minutes.  It's always taken me longer.  It's also a good idea to take them out halfway through the baking time and flip them to the other side.

Let them cool again and dip them in freshly brewed coffee!


I don't think the Gilmore girls would mind switching out their danishes for one of these every now and then, do you?

Friday, February 11, 2011

Why I am Untitled

Every day on the way to lunch, I go through the Indiana Jones tunnel.  And it is epic.

If you touch the statue on the pedestal, you'll hear the noise of a giant boulder rolling toward you from the boarded up alcove, and then you have no choice but to drop your food and run for your life. But then! Then the snakes that are hanging from the vines on the ceiling will coil around your legs and hold you in place while iron gates slam down to block your exits on either end of the hall! As John Williams' triumphant score rises from the hidden speakers, you will break free of the snakes and slide, baseball style, under the gate, with millimeters to spare.

I'm kidding, of course.

I would never leave my food in the hallway.

Themed tunnels and other things like this are not uncommon in my workplace.  If you look out the windows across from the Indiana Jones statue pedestal, you can see the treehouse, Endor, which has its own (cell phone signal-blocked) meeting room and can only be reached by rope bridge.

 
This is all real.

Every building on campus has its own theme, and the newer the building is, the more elaborately the theme is carried out. Put together, they paint a very eclectic and kind of chaotic picture.  Themes include New York City, wild west, dungeons and dragons (seriously), Asia, jungle, Scandinavia, and hi-tech toys. Not to mention the crazy conference rooms - one of them is designed to look like an air hangar.  I may post tours of individual buildings later, but this post has a purpose besides showing off where I get to work every day.

Part of what inspired me to start a blog were the many wonderful blogs that I read from day to day. Two of them, Delightfully Tacky and Selective Potential, both style blogs, happened to team up to put on an e-conference on independent blogging this week, just as I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing. What great timing, right? So I signed up.

Yesterday, Elizabeth and Tieka did a series of "Blogging 101" posts, and while they are sort of aimed at style bloggers, they had a lot of great information for any type of blog.  The first two posts were all about the one thing that has stopped me from starting a blog in the past: establishing a focus.

I do not have a focus. Right now, these are the things I have ideas to write about: British television, biscotti, snow, a style blogging experiment (though I don't really intend to be a style blogger), the movie Black Swan, working out, coffee shops, worship music, and travel, among other things. Tieka mentioned in her post on theme that the title should reflect said theme(s). Well. I think I did that.

So here's where it all comes together: my blogging inclinations are more akin to the entire campus of buildings - eclectic and chaotic (maybe just chaotic), when I should probably try to pare them down to a couple buildings.  (I apologize for the forced metaphor.  But I really wanted to talk about the Indiana Jones hallway. See?  I get distracted.)

This is why the title of my blog is currently "natalie. untitled."  My hope is that as I go along, a pattern will emerge, and I'll sort of....acquire a theme or two that fit well together, and maybe eventually re-title it.  One of the things I really appreciated in Elizabeth's post on focus was the encouragement to allow your blog to shift with you.  The first step of that is, I suppose, to let what I naturally gravitate toward writing in these first few months define my blog, rather than give myself a box that I discover I don't fit into.

Until then, here are some things to look forward to (or to avoid, if you wish):
  • Tonight or tomorrow I will be starting a "Biweekly Biscotti" series.
  • The "style blogging experiment" that I mentioned will probably start up in March and last for one to two months. It will involve a lot of dresses.
  • Tours of buildings at my work.
  • Whatever else tickles my fancy. Just for now.
 a cow from a conference room. because she's adorable.

    Saturday, February 5, 2011

    Pop-Tarts. Crazy good.

    Did you know that there's a wiki dedicated entirely to Pop Tarts? The internet is ridiculous.

    Here are some of the things I learned from the Pop Tart wiki:
    • There are more than 85 different flavors of Pop Tart. I had no idea that high-fructose corn syrup could be manipulated in so many ways.
    • The newest flavor is Frosted Rainbow Cookie Sandwich. It was released on Tuesday.
    • There are a number of perplexing discontinued flavors, many of which I assume were discontinued because no one knew what they were supposed to taste like. They include: Hello Kitty Meowberry, Disney Princess Jewelberry, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Wild Magic Burst, and Pirates of the Caribbean Treasure Map. 
    • Pop Tarts have some of the most disturbing commercials. They reel you in with cute minimalist animation and giggly voice actors, and then BAM you're suddenly smiling about cannibalism. Evidence:


    Clearly, there is something wrong with the commercial Pop Tart industry.

    So I decided to make my own pop-tarts. Non-cannibalistic ones. With a hyphen, because that makes more sense.

    I found my recipes at Brown-Eyed Baker and From Scratch, two blogs that I have just discovered and will likely be perusing often for future baking endeavors.

    Pastry Crust
    For the crust, I used Brown Eyed Baker's recipe:
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    1 tablespoon granulated sugar
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 cup (2 sticks, or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
    1 egg
    2 tablespoons milk (I used almond milk, because it was what I had in my fridge.)



    Directions, quoted directly from her blog:
    "Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, work in the butter until it is the size of peas and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. Whisk together the egg and milk and add to the dough. Mix together with a fork until everything is evenly moistened. Knead briefly on a floured surface, if necessary, until the dough comes together."

    I don't have a pastry blender.  I used my fingers.



    This is the dough after I mixed it with my bare hands.

    I think it worked out alright.

    After the dough was made, I split it in half.  I refrigerated it overnight, but it's not necessary to do so (so says the recipe).  This morning I took out the dough and let it thaw for about fifteen minutes.  Then came the fun part.

    My first lesson learned during this baking experience:  If there are specific measurements for cutting a crust, they're probably there for a reason. I was supposed to roll out the dough to a 9 1/2 by 12 1/2 inch rectangle, cut the edges straight, then cut the dough into nine 3 by 4 rectangles.

    Well, I guessed for the first part. And then I decided I wanted mini pop-tarts, because they're cuter and fewer calories than big pop-tarts, so I cut it into 12 (unequal) rectangles, as you can see.

    My 12 uneven rectangles.

    No big deal, right? 

    I'll get back to you on that.

    First, let's take a break from the crust for the filling.  I used the cinnamon filling from Brown-Eyed Baker and the pumpkin filling from From Scratch. (The former also has a recipe for fruit filling.)

    Cinnamon Filling
    ½ cup light brown sugar
    1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
    4 teaspoons all-purpose flour

    Pumpkin Filling
    3/4 cup canned pumpkin
    1/4 cup brown sugar
    1 large egg
     1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
     1/8 teaspoon cloves
     1/8 teaspoon all spice

    Both are just mixed together and then spooned onto a pastry sqaure (about a tablespoon per square, maybe a little less with the smaller sqaures).  I actually only made half the recipe for the cinnamon filling, and had leftover of both.  

    Cinnamon and pumpkin fillings

    Then I ran into my roadblock. The next step is rolling and cutting the second half of the dough. For the top layer.  Which should match the bottom layer.

    Which I did not measure.

    I ended up taking measurements from one point of my rolling pin to another to guess the right lengths.

    Then I matched the tops to the wrong bottoms.

    Fortunately, dough is pretty pliable.  I made it work, and got all of the filling covered.  Okay, most of the filling.  I used a fork to create grooves on the edges of the pop-tarts and poked holes in the tops.  Then they went back into the fridge for another half hour.

    Into the fridge!

    While they were in the fridge, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and made the cream cheese glaze from From Scratch.

    Cream Cheese Glaze
    1/3 cup softened cream cheese
    2-3 tablespoons cream or milk (again, I used almond milk out of necessity)
    3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar

    I whipped all of that together and set it aside.




    The recipe says to bake them for 25-30 minutes, but I think I had a little too much filling, so it took closer to 35 or 40.

    Then I set them on my makeshift cooling rack (actually the rack from my microwave set up over the sink) and drizzled them with the cream cheese glaze.  My drizzling skills leave something to be desired, but the end result is the same - deliciousness!



    By the time it was all finished, it was almost noon.  So I had a pop-tart and coffee for lunch!

    This is what happens when I put my camera on the table and set a 2 second delay.