Category Archives: Food

Food, General, morethanageek

Birthday Blender & Poached Eggs

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KitchenAid 5-Speed Custom Metallic Blenders

If you follow my tweets, you will have noticed that I’ve been obsessively trying to learn to cook poached eggs — and eating a lot of not-quite-poached eggs in the process. My results were much improved by an awesome YouTube video showing a poaching technique that uses a bowl and vinegar. What is an egg poacher? And how does albumin in the egg white cause it to coagulate? I’m still not sure, but I’m now eating properly poached egg in ramen and on english muffins. Yay!

So, with that success, I decided it was time to make hollandaise sauce. Crazy for a girl who doesn’t cook, but I’m on a roll. My friend John suggested a recipe that requires a blender, so with my birthday coming up, I decided to order one.

I looked in a few stores and finally ordered a Kitchenaide from Amazon. I was a little afraid to get one sight unseen because it is hard to judge quality from a photo, but it came today and it looks like the iphone of blenders. It is a sexy blender. W00t!

I also got a slotted spoon, because I was in a kitchen gizmos kind of mood, and, it really is difficult making poached eggs without one.

Surprised to see me posting about non-tech stuff? Check out my post about being shy and being myself on the internets. When the blender came in the mail today, I was inspired to write my first non-tech post in a long time.

Food, France, General, Salsa

El Diab’litho Latino

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The last two Fridays I met Christophe and his friends at El Diab’litho. It is a cool bar, friendlier than most in Paris, with a young crowed and good dancers. On Friday nights they have two courses, beginner and intermediate starting at 8h30 and 9h30 (verify times if you go because I’m not 100% sure). I did the second course. It was fun lively cuban rueda style. The teachers dance really well and they have a man and a woman working together which I always find really helpful.

They also have a buffet which is surprisingly good. And it has a VEGETARIAN OPTION. Wheee! Good veggie food is rare enough in Paris that I would love this place for that alone, but it is also a really fun spot to dance.

The entry is 10€ which includes either the soiree, buffet, and a drink or the classes and the soiree.

EL DIABLITO LATINO
Restaurant latino-americain
46, rue Saint Sebastien
75011 Paris
Tel: 01 43 55 18 78

Art, Food, France, General

Madhat Kakei

Julien and I went to the Swedish cultural center where we had a brunch of soup and split a sandwich. My orange saffron cake was delicious and the surprise of meeting le vieux et Yolene (sp?) was very pleasant. Hugo was incapacitated at home with a terrible flu that he would pass to me just after getting better himself.

There were some strange, not quite uni-colored paintings above the bar and table area. One in particular caught my eye. Julien m’a dit que c’etait une partie d’une exhibition de la galerie danoise, alors apres le brunch nous avons marches la pour voir tous le tableaux. C’etait une exhibition de Maadhat Kakei. Je n’ai pas aimee tous le painture, mais il y a quelleques une qui sont tres interessant.

Je trouve difficile son technique qui donne les resultats simple mais avec un process qui est pas du tout. Je vais essayer a recreer sont technique pour m’aprendre.

Carpentry, Food, General

Granite Pastry Island

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Granite Pastry IslandJennifer loves to bake, and everyone loves to keep Jennifer baking. She is a wonderful cook, and her pastrys are particularly tasty. Last year I made a granite pastry island to keep her crusts cool as she works the dough.

We bought a basic island from Kitchens etc. to keep the project economical. I then tiled the top with granite tiles from Roma Tile Co. in Watertown. We used a strong dark gray sandless grout with silicone to seal the tiles to one another. I then put a white maple border around the top and routed a 45 degree angle to give a lighter feel to the edge.

The gap between the maple and the tile was sealed with a matching silicone caulking to allow for expansion and contraction of the wood without cracking. With several coats of varnish and sanding to protect the wooden border from heavy use the Pastry Island was workable.