TEDTalks

I so want to go to TED! Check out this clip from 2006:


~GAC

The Joy of Cooking

I made a great chickpea curry out of my new copy of The Joy of Cooking. Innocent Bystander presented me with the copy on Valentine's Day.

Appropriately, Jonathan Beecher Field wrote an article about The Joy of Cooking for Salon.com today. Check it out - he speaks of internet recipe sites v. good old fashioned cookbooks.

After making the curry from the book last night, I'm on the cookbook camp, but man, I've made some wonderful recipes from epicurious.com as well. Field's point of static recipes is fantastic though - I write in my cookbooks and no matter how many time I look up a particular recipe, it never does change, but when I enter something into Google to look for a recipe, I'm lucky if I can figure out which one to make.

Oh, things are so tough.

~GAC

New England Snow

After getting up early this morning and bringing AArF outside, I put on a pot of coffee and took some time to enjoy watching the snow fall from my third floor apartment windows. It's now 10.30 AM and it's STILL snowing! Probably about an inch has accumulated but it probably won't stay.

I'm going to do more schoolwork in a bit, but the snow is so pretty, it's hard to concentrate. I wish Innocent Bystander was here with me enjoying it as well, but alas, someone has to make the donuts! I wonder if it's snowing downtown as well, or if it's just raining.

On another note (and no pun intended) I took the Ken Burns series JAZZ from the library the other day and have watched two of the ten episodes. AMAZING. I purchased the book from the series a few years ago and got about 1/3 of the way through - something I always wanted to get back to but never think of it. As I was watching an episode last night, I decided to keep a list of musicians whom I would like to add to my music collection. Later, I jumped online and ordered up a bunch of CDs from the library. I can't wait for them all to come in!

Stay warm...

~GAC

Valentine Owl, Part Deux

The roomie and I went over to the little birthday girl's house to give have dinner with her parents (see recipe below for a yummy twist on lasagna) and to give her the crocheted owl I made for her. After dinner, I told her to go into my green canvas bag and get the pink thing out of it. She proceeded to say, "hoot hoot." and look generally excited about it. Until AArF tipped her off that there was something inside the owl (goldfish crackers). Once she unzipped the owl, she pulled out the crackers, and immediately replaced the owl in my canvas bag. She was thrilled over the crackers, and everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

Kids. Makes me want to have five.

Anyway, here's the recipe from Rachel Ray. Allot more than 30 minutes and serve with a simple green salad. To compliment the lemon found in the ricotta, I served the salad with a quick lemon vinaigrette - (1/2 c lemon juice, 1/4 cup white wine vinegar, 2t. sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and 1 c olive oil).

Spinach Artichoke Ravioli Lasagna

• 1 (10-ounce) packages chopped frozen spinach
• 1/4 stick butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 quart milk
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• Salt and pepper
• 3 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 packages large fresh ravioli cheese, wild mushroom or spinach stuffed varieties
• 2 (15-ounce) cans artichoke hearts in water, drained and thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for pasta.

Place oven rack in middle of oven and preheat broiler or oven to 425 degrees F.

Defrost the spinach in the microwave for 10 minutes on high.

While spinach defrosts, heat a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Cut butter into small pieces and melt. Whisk in flour and cook a minute or 2 then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a bubble, as it begins to thicken, drop heat to low and season it with nutmeg, salt and pepper, to your taste.

Combine ricotta cheese, a little salt and pepper, lemon zest and garlic in a bowl.

Cook pasta to al dente, 5 to 6 minutes in salted water.

Remove spinach from the microwave and wring it completely dry in a kitchen towel. Open the towel and separate the spinach with your fingers. Pile up the sliced artichokes on your cutting board.

Drain pasta well. Do not let pasta sit on top of each other or it will harden into a solid mess! Yes, I nearly learned the hard way. Ladle just enough white sauce in the bottom of a lasagna dish to lightly coat it. Top with 1/3 of the pasta. Top the pasta with a layer of half of the ricotta cheese dotted with half of the spinach and artichokes. Thinly cover the veggies with more white sauce then top liberally with grated cheese. Repeat these layers then top your lasagna with the remaining 1/3 of the cooked ravioli, the last of the white sauce and some grated cheese.

Place under hot broiler or into a preheated 425 degree F oven until sauce browns and bubbles, 3 minutes

Don't skip the nutmeg. It really makes the dish. After ladling the last of the cream sauce over the ravioli, I sprinkled more of it on top. It looks really pretty and gives it a distinctive taste.

Enjoy!
~GAC

Facmee & Diaz

My professional responsibility professor asked us to find any outrageous attorney ads and to forward them along to her. I found this parody and it really cracked me up. This is just like a real one!

AArF is Bad-Ass Now

Some might think that AArF has run off to join the local pirate union, but really, it's just a toxic gas warning for a dog who is quite deserving of it.

I made the sweater using the same basic shape as his other one and found the chart for the Jolly Roger on the Bernat website. I just used the chart and not the whole pattern.

Apparently this is his modeling spot as you can see from the last sweater picture.

Enjoy!

~GAC

There's Nothing More Useless...

...than a dollar coin.

Check it out:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/brother-would-you-take-a-dollar-coin-please/

Volunteering at WBUR

Since I'm pretty much broke (but usually can scrape together a few dollars to buy a skein of yarn or two) I decided to donate my time to WBUR - my favorite radio station (possibly ever). I got up at 5.00 to be there for 6.45 and spent three hours answering a few phone calls for people who donated $150 to send Winston roses to a Valentine of their choice. I received a dozen white Winston roses from Innocent Bystander as his company sent them to him in sympathy after his father passed away. IB told my mother he didn't want to be mistaken for one of the Fab Five, so he thought the roses would look better in my apartment. He also deftly asked if that means he was off the hook for flowers on Valentine's Day.

Anyway, I met some very nice volunteers at WBUR and one in particular, whose daughter is thinking about signing up for the hell we folks call law school. I told her that I would be happy having her come to a couple of classes with me to see what it was like. I hope her daughter takes me up on the offer.

After picking up a few of the free books that the station is regularly bombarded with, I took a tour of the studios to see where the magic really happens. I stood in the Car Talk studio, saw Tom Ashbrook, and talked with Bob Oaks, whose voice is the first I hear just about every morning.

When I departed, I felt really good about volunteering and I think I'll be back. Three amusing things:
1. A volunteer was very concerned about not knowing she had to memorize the military alphabet when repeating spellings of names back to callers - it was explained to her that any phonetic list she came up with would be fine;
2. A man asked me to have the gift card on the roses read, "to Little Bunny from Big Bunny;" and
3. On my way out of the parking lot, one of my fellow volunteers was in the garage with his guitar out and proceeded to serenade me with a song he had just written a few days before. Apparently the acoustics were really good in the garage - something I know nothing about.

This weekend I've been very productive. I installed shelves in a cubby corner in my room, which now houses photos, old Martha Stewart Living magazines, a few photography and history books, and of course, my acrylic yarn stash for all of the cute little crochet creatures I plan to make (someday). I also did a bunch of homework, so my Monday won't be a complete cram session, and I finished up AArF's third sweater. The second one I am angry at so I've set it aside and won't look at it. I'll post a picture of this bad-ass sweater tomorrow. I know AArF feels like quite a toughy in it!

The last productive thing I did before Brothers and Sisters took me over, was to make Banana Coconut muffins from Epicurious.com. I'm going to get up extra early tomorrow morning and bring some to Innocent Bystander before he leaves for his first day back at work. I hope he likes them! Here's the recipe:

Banana Coconut Muffins

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup regular - next time I'm going to use all whole wheat flour)
2-3 Tablespoons ground flax seed - again - totally optional - something I decided to add in b/c my mother got me on a flax seed kick (I used my coffee grinder to grind up the seeds) - a T in my oatmeal every morning!
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (3/4 cup)
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar (Next time I'm going to cut down on the sugar and maybe use light brown instead)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut Special equipment: a muffin tin with 8 (1/2-cup) muffin cups; paper liners - NB - I used slightly smaller muffin cups and got one dozen - also I just sprayed the tins with Pam as I couldn't for the life of me find my paper liners.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line muffin cups with liners.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and 1/2 cup coconut in a large bowl until combined well, then fold in flour mixture until flour is just moistened.

Divide batter among lined muffin cups and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup coconut. Bake until muffins are puffed and golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and cool slightly.

All I'm going to say is that these are awesome and the coconut toasts quite perfectly on top of the muffins. Forget banana bread! This is the way to go!

The girls are coming over for 24 tomorrow night - we have decided on homemade pizza. Should be yummy!

Until Next Time,
~GAC

ps. Support your local public radio station - and law school student.

24

Two hours of 24 next week - 8-10 pm. A few friends are coming over and the roommate and I are trying to figure out a Bauer worthy menu to serve them.

Let's see what happens!

Valentine Owl

Made this for a soon to be two-year-old (on Valentine's Day).

A girl can't start too early with her first purse! I got the pattern from Ana Paula - check it out!

~GAC