S'mores pie

In an attempt to revilatilze my blog, I will try to post some about the things I have been up to - like cooking!

I love cooking... most of the time. It seems more like I enjoy baking, which is problematic as I live alone and am not capable of engulfing an entire cake (most of the time...). This makes me ever so thankful for the times that I can 'dispose' of my food via others.

As an example, for Thanksgiving dinner I cooked up THREE pies. Oh yes.

The pie that was the most fun to make was a s'mores pie that I saw on smitten kitchen. I mean, smores are something I always think about having only when camping, but to bring that home?

Starting off filling the pie shell with graham crackers. I think I overcooked mine so might want to do a little shorter next time. On the other hand I do not own an oven thermometer so not sure what my oven is set to.

Piling in the chocolate layer the cake is starting to come together. Mmmmm. I used 60% chocolate because I couldn't find 70% when I went to the store and the extremely dark ones didn't look so appetizing. It turned out well.

Marshmellow layer added in! I did not make my own marshmellows. I would have except I didn't have a candy thermometer. I will try next time. I just melted normal marshmellows and then put them on top. Used almost the whole normal package. 

No photos of the finished product but it was great. Grilled on top shelf of oven. It burned a tiny bit but that was fine. Filled the apartment with amazing smores smell - like you're at a campfire! 

This is a very thick cake. Can only have a small piece before being stuffed. That being said - I loved it and would quite definitely try it again, with real marshmellows this time! It took about five days for this cake to be eaten completely and it lasted well.

Smore Pie
Adapted from Gourmet, November 2006 and originally posted by Smitten Kitchen

For crust
5 tablespoons salted or unsalted butter, melted, plus additional for greasing
1 1/2 cups cookie crumbs (10 graham crackers or 24 small gingersnaps; about 6 oz, pulsed in a food processor until finely ground)
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt (omitted if you use salted butter)
For chocolate cream filling
7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not more than 70% cacao; not unsweetened), finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, at room temperature for 30 minutes
For marshmallow topping
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-oz package)
1/2 cup cold water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Vegetable oil for greasing
Special equipment: a candy thermometer

Make graham cracker crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter pie 9- to 9 1/2-inch pie plate. Stir together all ingredients in a bowl and press evenly on bottom and up side of pie plate. Bake until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes, then cool on a rack to room temperature, about 45 minutes.

Make chocolate cream filling: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put chocolate in a large bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan, then pour hot cream over chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Gently whisk in egg and a pinch of salt until combined and pour into graham cracker crumb crust (crust will be about half full).
Cover edge of pie with a pie shield or foil and bake until filling is softly set and trembles slightly in center when gently shaken, about 25 minutes. Cool pie to room temperature on a rack (filling will firm as it cools), about 1 hour.

Make marshmallow topping: Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup cold water in a large deep heatproof bowl and let stand until softened, about 1 minute.
Stir together sugar, corn syrup, a pinch of salt, and remaining 1/4 cup water in cleaned 1- to 1 1/4-quart heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil until thermometer registers 260°F, about 6 minutes.
Begin beating water and gelatin mixture with an electric mixer at medium speed, then carefully pour in hot syrup in a slow stream, beating (avoid beaters and side of bowl). When all of syrup is added, increase speed to high and continue beating until mixture is tripled in volume and very thick, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and beat until combined, then immediately spoon topping onto center of pie filling; it will slowly spread to cover top of pie. Chill, uncovered, 1 hour, then cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap (oiled side down) and chill 3 hours more.

Brown topping: Preheat broiler. Transfer pie to a baking sheet. Cover edge of pie with pie shield or foil and broil 3 to 4 inches from heat, rotating pie as necessary, until marshmallow topping is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Cool pie on a rack 10 minutes. Slice pie with a large heavy knife dipped in hot water and then dried with a towel before cutting each slice.

Note: Pie (before browning topping) can be chilled up to 1 day.

Trip or vacation?

I just returned last night from a 5 day trip to Hawaii. First time to Hawaii (State #42!).

One question that I have come across a lot at work and etc is 'what did you do there?'. When I start listing, or mention the fact that we drove over 900 miles during the time (the Big Island of Hawaii is huge, so don't stare at me), they are confused. "But this is vacation? What about rest?"

Ryan posted his status after returning last night as "Exhausted. The different between coming back from a trip rather than a vacation." and I felt like that really grasped it. (also major props to him for driving)

I prefer to go on trips... not restful vacations. My need to get away from it all is to travel, not to sit and relax. I am a naturally restless person and grow itchy if I am not always moving. Legs twitching and everything. So doing lots of things keeps me going. The idea of going to some far off place in order to relax.... doesn't make any sense to me. Why would you pay all that money to go somewhere else to do nothing? Or go somewhere else and shop in the same stores you have at home, eat the same food. Got to get out of that box!

That being said, I am looking forward to coming home today and relaxing. =) But as for this weekend...? Already itching to go for a hike, some new restaurants, see friends? So many options! When is the next trip? Where? Always want to have some fun adventure to look forward to.

Do you prefer a real trip or a relaxing vacation?

Spring vs winter

The snow storms of the east coast have been on everyone's minds lately. More than a week off school? Insanity. I think the maximum I got per year was three days in college? Let us make a contrast here.

On the streets of Seattle this week. We have had such a warm winter that the trees have started blooming. The mountains have so little snow we can get up trails that are supposed to be snowshoe only in a light jacket, if that, and not touch any snow. A bit of  a problem for the Winter Vancouver Olympics...

The opposite of an early spring/lack of winter? DC area's snowpocalypse.

My parent's yard this week. Paving the way through the snow for the x-country skiing around the yard. 

So much snow (this is not all, I think they did it in several stages), that it cannot be simpled shoveled. Their solution? Break it into blocks and stack it like an igloo. Love it.

Sad to be missing the snow, but then it seems that after a week of being trapped indoors one could get some cabin fever? I will treasure this mild and rather dry winter of Seattle. =) I guess the city has decided to make me fall in love with it before next year it unleashes the never ending rain. 

What do nerds do at work on Fridays?

I love working in the tech industry. Apart from being on the cutting edge of technology, having smart folk around me, always having something to do, etc... it is a fun work environment. Granted I am still bitter that my team does not own nerf guns and go into spontaneous fights around the clock (*sigh* next team), but there are still quite a few fun things to do.

For example, I love the 'wappy hours' (I am in Website Application Platform division, so WAP) we hold every two weeks. Each week a team hosts the hour, comes up with a theme, and provides food and refreshments for the theme. Well this week the hosts were the Women of our org. The few, the proud. Our theme.... XKCD. The quintessential nerd comic.

Cake shaped like the internet

The cake is a lie. From Portal, the video game. =)

Some references to snapple and candy button paper and beer.

Some of the other things present were tequila, nachos, unfortunate cookies, and etcetera. Overall I think very nerdy and awesome. =)

Also a huge recommendation for Borracchini's Bakery. I was in charge of cake so I got it there per recommendation of my manager and it is amazing. Such a great bakery too - all sorts of breads and pastries. Looking forward to a return trip. =)

In other awesome work news - assuming the snowpocalypse does not strike MD again, I'll be in MD from Wednesday evening through Sunday on a recruiting trip. Amazon is coming to visit! =)

Colombia Gorge

A couple of weekends ago, I went on a trip down to Portland. I'd gone to Portland previously in the fall with Cassandra.... for four hours. Does not really count. So it was great to take an actual trip down. We spent a day in Portland, which was great - went to some Cheese shops, wandered town, Voo Doo Donuts, Powell Books. Great times. But the real highlight of the trip for me was our last day, where we went through the Columbia Gorge on the way out. Magnificent. (well and I guess everyone out here compares the two cities - I will say that Portland has amazing bridges and public transport and does feel a lot more like a city at least in the center, but I love Seattle more - so much prettier, and frankly cleaner).

Not sure what the name of this fall was. We took a couple of mile loop trail along some of the waterfalls in the gorge. Very glad that we did since everyone was crowded around Multnomah falls and large amounts of people always make even the most gorgeous things seem unappealing to me. But the hike was lovely. Wishing that either of us had our SLRs and a tripod to play with photo taking more, but the photos turned out quite well nonetheless.

The most famous waterfall in the gorge is the Multnomah Falls, also the tallest. The parking lot at the bottom of the falls, well seen from the hiking trip (we did a loop so came upon these falls from the top) distracts a little from the view. Yet the falls are magnificent. The first cascade is so long that by the time the water reaches the ground it seems to have gone halfway into the air. 

My favorite waterfall was rightfully called 'Ponytail'. You must hike up for about half a mile from Horsetail Falls, can walk up in the cave behind the waterfall! Amazing! I love the feeling of standing behind a waterfall. Beautiful. The air is filled with water. People brought picnics up there even. The cave was not even wet (sorry no photos), so great place to hide out. 

Driving along the Columbia river is very easy and such a simple trip if you are in the Portland area - the highway goes right along the river, and mot of the attractions are just a hop away. For example, we happened upon an awesome hydroelectric dam, with two man-made islands supporting it. You get security checked to get to the dam, but then get the odd and rather scary experience of driving right behind it, knowing the power of the water that is pushing against the concrete directly to your side. Anyone else think of X-Men 2 after

The spazz that I am, I encouraged driving along the Oregon side of the Columbia river for a while in hope of seeing Mt.Hood. As we neared the town of Hood I kept peering right to see if the mountain was visible. About to loose hope, my hopes were granted when we crossed the bridge into Washington. Mt.Hood is seen! Much 'pointier' tip than Ranier or Baker. I love how the volcanic mountains stand separate from all else. Figures that the view of the mountain will come from not even the state that the mountain is located in.

Driving back, took the more adventurous route - over through the mountains. Always hard to tell if the roads will be open, but in this very very dry WA winter (sorry MD folks, we seem to have switched places this winter), the road was quite clear (well, partially, one road was closed which added at least an hour and a half on to the journey... but let that be forgotten!). No people and there was *shock* wildlife. About five elk crossed the road, and a deer was muching away on some grass. Baffles me how little wildlife is seen out here for such an area.



It is believed that Mt.St.Helens is there in the background. Hard to tell with the moving clouds, but it seems correct from the photos. Did not realize just how blown off the top is. In the excitement of seeing the mountain, signed up for 'climbing passes' to get to the top of St.Helens on July 31st. Hope for beautiful weather! It is not a very long hike, but the whole hiking through ash thing makes it difficult. I may get some hiking poles before that trip to make it easier... or not? I am sort of against having a large amount of equipment when hiking. But then... this IS a volcano. One of my life goals is to hike up a volcano so, looking forward to it!

How NOT to cook steak

Since paying so much for steak at restaurants, it seems like a much more economical solution is to make some steak at home. Right? Not always.

First thing: need to get some steak. For this we go to the most amazing butcher ever. Double DD meats (about 15/20 minutes north of Seattle). They have a huge selection of all sorts of meats, and more sauces than I've ever seen combined in my life. And with the amazing yelp reviews that they have, you better believe they are awesome. Result of step one: two Porterhouse steaks (first mistake, should have picked a simpler steak).

Step two: How to make steak? Well I've made steak before but my method has been to cook until when I cut the steak open, it is not completely bloody. So instead.... following the wise advice of Alton Brown in 'Steak your claim' (first episode ever!)

Step three: Buy a cast iron pan as directed by Alton Brown. Another mistake was going to Fred Meyer and getting their simplest 'pre seasoned' pan. Not trusting that the pan was pre-seasoned, we went through the process of seasoning the pan ourselves just in case.

Step four: STEAK! Instructions are to season the steak with a kosher salt, some ground pepper and a bit of safflower oil. Done. Heat up the pan at in 500 degree oven, and then 5 more minutes on the stove.

And the chaos begins.... Smoke starts going up from the stove. Ryan is opening up all the windows and doors. About 3 minutes into the process... FIRE. Well not a lot of fire, but fire on the burner. I was the one standing next to the pan and knew that water was the wrong thing to do, but ashamed to say my reaction speed could do nothing... instead I started chanting 'fire!'. Ryan had good reaction to tell me to throw some salt at it. Not sure if that is what helped but it went off. Cause of fire.... still not sure. Old burner? Some soap from when we washed the pan? No idea. But panic mode begins. Fire is not what I like seeing in the kitchen.

After the adrenaline dies down a little... have to continue the process. Re-heat pan, check burner for not catching fire again. Check. Now... the steak goes on the pan. Instructions are 2.5 minutes per side. This is a picture of about 30 seconds into the process.

Not so good. A minute or so later the apartment is full of smoke, all the windows open, fans out of the window. Smoke detector has been taken out so that it stops screaming. Ahhh... nothing is helping! Panic mode stuffs the steak into the oven early. At least source of smoke eliminated. Must run outside to breathe properly.

After apartment is livable again, we take the steak out and wash off the pan. (another mistake... not checking temperature of steak before taking it out).

Well... another steak is left. We have made mistakes... but can there be recovery? New plan: only warm up the pan in the oven. No oil on the steak. No pepper. 2 minutes a side, and then into the oven.

While the second steak is cooking we start on dinner... cut open the first steak. First bite.... smoke. Tastes like smoke. Where is the meat? Cutting further in.... it is raw. Um.... instruction following fail?

Phew.... less smoke. After eight minutes in the oven (what we put the first steak in for) we take it out and this time actually measure the temperature. 95 degrees. A rare steak is 110+. This means that the first steak could not have gone over 100. Food poisoning possibility anyone? At least we got the steak from a very credible butcher. Eating of the first steak ends. Not even desire to heat it up more. Back in the oven the steak #2 goes.

Check #2: Steak is at 105. Still not good. Raise the temperature. Back in.

Check #3: 145! YES! Wait.... left the thermometer in a bit longer... now it is 165. Crap.... definitely done. Finally a functional steak... but way overcooked. And another problem... there is no hunger. Adrenaline makes one not hungry anymore.... body has gone into survival mode and all food is rejected. Solution: switch to wine.

Lessons learned: Alton Brown has a crazy industrial fan in his kitchen. Good butchers are amazing if you fail at cooking steak. Smoke smell staying in hair very well. Measuring temperature of steak before consumption is advisable. Cast iron pans are terrifying. And... most memorable for me is that I do not mind paying large amounts of money for my steak in a restaurant anymore. The pain... the horror.... I like my simple joyful piece of meat properly cooked and right before me.

Adventure complete. No casualties. Many lessons.

Good eats

Delicious food... how much I love it. A little bit too much at times... but continuing with the review of some of the places I've visited recently in Seattle.

Dahlia Lounge

Went there for dinner on Thursday for a 'romantic dinner' with Cassandra (amusing how the fanciest places I go are with her, who needs real dates?). A truly fancy place in my opinion. It was an older crowd, and most people there were even dressed nicely. This is a very odd occurrence for Seattle. So a great place for a night out. Rather pricey, but you know what you are getting into when you go to a location with 'lounge' in the title. We ended up feasting upon their amazing collection of seafood, but there are plenty of carnivore and vegetarian options available. Got the seafood appetizer sampler - a success. Out of the six different small dishes, only one was not perfect as it was too far on the side of 'fishy', but was easily fixed by squeezing all of the provided lemon on it. Delightful. The smoked salmon was the real success. For the main dish I got the salmon which was so moist and juicy it was melting in my mouth. With some mashed potatoes and cauliflower on the side... perfect. Cassandra got the ever amazing tuna... ahhh. Fish love. The waiter also accidentally brought her dish with avocados even though she said she was allergic to them (she is not, but hates them), so we got free dessert! Double plus! Overall an expensive dinner out, but well worth it for a once in a while outing. Next time I will dress up. =)

Pasta Freska
Probably my favorite restaurant in Seattle so far. So many of the things I love: not making decisions, amazing food, friendly chef, and long meals. Amazing. It is a small place which from the outside seems like... nothing really. But it is amazing. The chef comes up to you and asks what you eat and don't eat. I eat everything... so simple. But can specify allergies, or what you don't like. Then... thats it! He just brings you food. About seven different dishes. All amazing. And different people at the same table get different meals. Also a wonderful homey atmosphere.

Tango

This is a tapas place by my apartment. I went here at the end of the summer. One thing sold it for me: El Diablo. The most amazingly decadent desert ever. Chocolate, covered in caramel and chili with marshmallow and nuts on the side. Decadent. First time I had it, I did not need any more food for almost 24 hours. Sadly... upon return for the actual meal I found that the rest of the dishes are rather overpriced and not that magnificent. So advice: go there for happy hour and get some glorious Sangria and El Diablo. Well worth it. Skip the dinner.

Metropolitan Grill

Steak. Love it. As I have recently learned.... harder than I thought to cook property. The Met Grill is expensive. Very expensive. Not somewhere I would go except for the amazing 'Have dinner on us' promotion. Truly an amazing steakhouse. Only regret was that the waiter talked me into getting a 'medium' steak instead of 'medium rare'. I prefer a little more moist. Very recommended... but preferably during some sort of price promotion.

Cafe Flora

After several meals in a row of meat, asked my teammates where they like to go for Vegetarian food. As noted by my reviews above.. I love meat. So it is amazing to find such amazing flavors in vegetarian food. The place itself is incredibly cozy-life a cafe, but with beautiful paintings all over the place, and greenery. =) For appetizer we got Coconut tofu with chili sauce. You wrap the tofu in lettuce and then pour chili sauce over the creation. Melts my heart. For main dish I got tacos as pictured above. I had never had vegetarian tacos before and it was love. The feta cheese was an especially delightful surprise. The cherry on the top was a chocolate lava cake which was brought out by sweet pomegranate sauce. Mmmmm. Would 100% recommend this place to everyone. AND they have espresso machines!

PS - This is a showcase over time - I am not an extravagant spender for food. Well... sometimes. Food is my weakness.

I finally have a visitor! Now what...?

I've been trying to get anyone I can get my hands on to visit me. My grandma visited me for a couple of days in December which was awesome, but getting Matthew for a visit this week was the first friend visitor (and hopefully not the last!).

Was quite afraid of my first visitor getting a horrible rainy impression of Seattle-it was insanely rainy and disgusting on Friday. To top that off, Matthew managed to get trapped in Bellevue while biking around... quite an accomplishment. But provides great forms of exercise. I should attempt this sometime. I did meet up with him for lunch in the International District. Green leaf is one of my favorite restaurants by work now-large portions and something about lemongrass sauce makes me very, very happy.

Friday evening, per Samantha's recommendation, we headed over to Bizarro's. The wait was about half an hour, not too bad for a 'top rated' Friday night restaurant. The thing that sticks out about the place, as can be inferred from the name, is the curious decor. Bicycles on the cealing, odd paintings on the walls, a spider off the chandalier. Quirky to the extreme. It is a type of place you can spend almost the whole evening (we were there for about two hours). I would give it an A+ for fresh bread and oils - magnificent combination and great presentation. I complimented this with a delightful glass of port. Mmmm. The main dish for me was elk. Yes, elk the animal. Whenever I see an animal that I have not tried on the menu, it must be consumed. I will give elk a B. Chewy and tasteful, but not something I would go out of my way to have.

Saturday, for a second time for me, we went over to Wallace Falls State Park. I went on this hike previously in October and loved the waterfalls so decided it was worth a repeat visit. The trail climbs very steeply and through quite an array of vegetation: fields, rain forest, and pine forest. The rapid river gushes several hundred feet below the trail at most points. The falls come in three stages- the middle one being the most impressive. If you are tired, the top falls is not even worth the trek in my opinion.

The middle falls are amazing in their two-teir cascade, and the magnificent view on the valley. We were lucky that the clouds left right as we got to the look-out point. In a matter of minutes, the view of a giant cloud faded into the blue sky, mountains, and cozy valley. Perfect timing. =)

Also great luck with weather - both of the weekend days were partly cloudy and beautiful. A sunset on the coast is one of my favorite things ever. We watched Saturday's from 'Golden Gardens'. 

A day trip that I would really recommend most visitors is to Bainbridge Island. Seattle is famous for it's ferries and this is just a 35 minute ride with amazing views of the city and possibility of wildlife spotting (apparently some people saw sea otters on our trip there...). The trip can be done by car, foot or bus. Both of the times I have gone has been on foot, so I think next time I will bring some other form of transportation to get a better look at the island, but it is great. Quiet and quaint.

And once again, I will make a plug for my favorite farmers market in the city-Ballard farmers market. Sunday mornings. It has all of the things I love most about markets: good mix of food, arts, and produce stands. Live music. Cute shops around the market. =)

And no trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to the Space Needle. Well it could be... but we went up anyways. Great view.

And as I vow to continue documenting my cooking adventures, I would like to give an A+ to the Trader Joes pizza dough. Cheep and amazing. Also adding lots of cornmeal on the pizza peal is essential to success. Still to come: trying to make my own pizza dough.

First visitor to Seattle was, at least for me, a success. Great to see somebody that I have known for a while, and show off what I have learned about the city so far. Here's to many more!

Resolutions

Looked around and apparently I did not make any last year, but I have become more of a goal-driven person in the past year so I decided that setting up some resolutions, or more like 'goals' for this year can keep me on track. I am still adjusting to 'real life', so it is great to have something pushing me forward.

Sooo in no particular order, some goals-edits may come.

• Succeed at work. =)
  
• Visit two new states
• Visit a foreign country (Canada does not count...)
• Do not gain weight+get more arm strength (hey, I'm being realistic here)
• Figure out work/life balance. 
• Keep in touch with all
  
• Figure out how to use SLR camera
  
• Figure out how to do rubiks cube (finally...)
• Boulder a V3, climb a 5.10 (single one is fine!)
• Personal finance management - figure it out
• Finish one of my art projects
• Learn to cook better! (vague but well... a goal)
  

Should I try to do something else this year? What are your goals? Short term or long term?

2010! Start!

Well a couple of days late, but.... Happy New Years!

Welcomed new year at a friends place from a balcony that faces right at the space needle. Great friends, lots of fun and great way to start off the year. =)

So far, great start. Of the recent successes, I would really like to recommend this chicken marsala recipe. Made with Zinfandel wine this time, which was a little too sweet, but still amazing. Also great recommendations for Boat St Cafe. Amazing mimosas combined with mushroom scramble and divine honey/butter biscuits. Wonderful brunch location.

Also, waiting with great anticipation for summer, when I can go on a hike and actually get a view from the top. Though hiking Rattlesnake Ledge was delightful, it is nice to see something other than a pillow of cloud at the top. At least you could see the Olympics from the city yesterday evening and some today. =)