readerjane

January Talking Meme: Favorite Recipe

Wed, 15 Jan 2014 03:49:33 GMT

rahirah asked, What is your favorite thing to cook?

Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. Easy choice.

We were given the recipe, along with the pizza pan to make it in, by some college friends. Hub and I have tinkered with that recipe over time until it suits exactly what we like in a pizza. It's based on Giordano's pizza, but our crust is yeastier and less corn-mealy than Giordano's. We use a little less mozerella. I think our sauce tastes better.

In fact, that's one of the downsides of making The Best Pizza In the World: I'm pretty much spoiled for restaurant pizza. I can enjoy somebody else's thin-crust, but for deep-dish it's gotta be my own.

We usually make two pies: one spinach / black olive for the veggetarians in the crowd, and one with sausage and mushrooms. But there have been variations. Hub likes pineapple / Canadian bacon.

This pizza is a LOT of work. You have to start the dough rising a couple hours ahead of time. The sauce is best if it's also made ahead so the flavors mingle. There's much slicing involved, and then just when you've finally got it in the oven, the kitchen is a disaster zone and you have to clean while the pizza cooks just so you have some place to eat.

But it's worth it. Add a salad and some grapes, and it's one heck of a meal.

The process is also a social one. It's fun to get the family and guests involved: delegate the spinach-chopping, draft somebody into grating the cheese. When the whole kitchen is fragrant and the kids are getting antsy for their first taste, that's the closest we come to grandmother's house at Thanksgiving.

It tastes like homecoming.

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January Talking Meme: Movie Adaptations

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:28:46 GMT

I've run out of questions for the January Talking Meme, so I'm shamelessly raiding my friends' questions.

moriwen1 asked rahirah, "Movie adaptations you've liked better than the original books. Bonus, if you feel like it: fanfics you've liked better than the original work."

I tend to like the original book better than the movie most of the time, particularly if I've read the book before seeing the movie (and I usually have).

One movie I both saw first and liked better was Blade Runner. I watched it for Harrison Ford, but was taken by the movie's gritty, rainy atmosphere and by Rutger Hauer's portrayal of an android who, no matter whether he obeyed or defied his creator, could not extend his brief lifespan.

I looked up Philip K. Dick's story hoping for an expansion of the movie I'd enjoyed. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. What a weird novella! The script writers were wise to trim out the theological dreaming subplot.

On the fanfic side, I'll give a shout out to lightgetsin's A Temporary Inability To Go Either Up Or Down". Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series is wonderful, but it does start a bit slow. I discovered the canon series through the fanfic, and I think I do like the fic better than the first novel. The later novels more than make up for the slow canon start, though.

Can I just say, I'm enjoying this LiveJournal/Dreamwidth renaissance tremendously. So nice to read long posts. Whoever kicked off this meme has my thanks.

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January Talking Meme: Computer Science

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 13:09:32 GMT

ejcaldera also asked, "What put you on the path to working with computers for a living?"

Short answer: because I am a Jedi like my father before me. :-D

( Long answer )

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January Talking Meme: Knitting

Mon, 06 Jan 2014 13:25:47 GMT

ejcaldera asked: What got you started with knitting as a hobby?

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Lots more days open! Getcher questions answered here. If I don't receive more questions to fill the month, I'll start raiding friends' question lists. This is fun. *G*

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January Talking Meme: Core Recipes

Sun, 05 Jan 2014 15:29:47 GMT

lightgetsin asked: What are your core recipes? The things you make when there's no plan but you know you'll have the ingredients in the pantry because they're always ready. Or the things you make when everyone is having a bad day.

Tuna Mac. Chili and cornbread. Chicken Divan. Spaghetti.

It occurs to me that all these recipes are difficult to make in small batches. They're meant for groups around the table - plenty of servings plus leftovers for tomorrow.

They're also pretty flexible in terms of timing. Useful when I don't know exactly when everyone will arrive home.

I've been looking for ways to adapt these recipes and make them a little healthier. The thing about always-available ingredients is, they're not fresh. They tend to have a lot of sodium (canned tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup) and be heavy on the carbs.

I buy whole-grain pasta these days, so there's that. And I can make chili from scratch: soak the beans the night before, buy fresh tomatoes. But then it's not a spur-of-the-minute meal. It's a planned menu.

We're having a Winterpocalypse this week, so I forsee a lot of core recipes in my near future. Ugh, I wish the sun would come out.

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January Talking Meme: Favorite Book at 10

Sat, 04 Jan 2014 23:48:03 GMT

green_maia asked: What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?

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January Talking Meme: If I Ran the World

Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:51:06 GMT

So the fact that I'm one day late with my Jan 1 question means I can breathe easy, because I've already messed up a New Year's resolution so there's no more worry about a perfect record, right? That's what I'm going with.

innocent_lex asked, "If you ran the world, what's the first thing you'd put on your agenda?"

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Lots more days open! Getcher questions answered here.

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Jumping on the meme wagon

Sun, 29 Dec 2013 18:48:27 GMT

Several friends are doing the January Questions meme, and it looks like fun. Also a good way to get me to post every day for a month (or however many questions I happen to get -- I won't be surprised if there are fewer than 31).

Ask me a question, if you like. I'll answer one each day, in an unfiltered DW / LJ post. If a question is personal, I may answer privately.

I'm not inviting folks to pick a specific date because I'm going to crosspost this invitation to several platforms, and it might be difficult for questioners to see which dates are already spoken for. I'll update my list of dates, and the questions I plan to answer, below the cut on this post.

( Read more... )

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