Random Thoughts

Processor Pizza

Hm. Mom gave me her food processor, so I figured I'd try using it for pizza dough. I also shredded a huge block of cheese and froze it in little bags for later use.

It's MUCH faster to make pizza dough with the food processor. About 5 minutes, all told. It makes a lot less mess, too. All the flour is contained, so it can't poof everywhere. Also, the dough doesn't seem to stick to the plastic container as much as it does with the metal bowl of the stand mixer - even though sticky, you can kinda jerk out out of the bowl.

The downside? without the long kneading with the dough hook in the stand mixer, the final pizza crust isn't as elastic and chewy. So... I'm not sure if I'll keep doing it with the processor.

Simple Simon

Lately I've been the pie man... I've been making lotsa pies and taking them places. Which I guess is good, because if I was eating them all, I'd be so much fatter. As it is, the pie I'm sharing is still affecting my waistline.

Blueberry pie 1: Melanie, Jen, Dan
Blueberry pie 2: Lisa
Blueberry pie 2: Trevor, Dave

Only the last pie was really good. The first pies were done in with convection on and the filling didn't get hot enough to melt all the sugar.

Peach pie 1: Mom and Dad
Peach pie 2: Dan, Fiona, Martin, Fiona's mom

These were pretty good. Fiona and my father both really enjoyed them. I didn't crimp the edge well enough, though and they boiled up and messed up the bottom of my oven. I'd bake them on a tray, but the metal deflects the heat from the bottom, which makes for a soggy bottom crust.

Pie x: I've got one more pie crust in the fridge. Possibly I'll freeze it.

Update: Nope - mom bought some really tart apples. So I made apple pie with them - they were really flavorful under all that tartness and the pie was really good.

Recipe: No Fail Pie Crust

This pie crust recipe originally came from Cooks Illustrated. It's similar to another recipe from Alton Brown in that it uses vodka (Alton uses applejack) to replace some of the water in the recipe. The dough is fairly wet and pliable, making it easy to roll out. However, the alcohol evaporates, reducing the moisture in the crust. Alcohol also doesn't promote gluten development (ie. the tough elasticity that's so desirable in pizza dough and bread), which yields a more tender crust.

Ensure that the shortening you buy has no trans-fats (ie. "soft" partially hydrogenated oils). New formulations of shortening are made by softening FULLY hydrogenated fats by blending them with liquid fats. Fully hydrogenated fats basically act as saturated fats. They're not great for you, but they won't kill you like trans-fats.

This recipe makes one of the following (it's pretty large):
2 double crust 9 inch pies
4 single crust 9 inch pies
3 double crust 7 1/2 inch pies (my favorite)

Convection

I'm gradually learning when oven convection is beneficial and detrimental. True convection ovens, like mine, blow heated air from a fan in the back of the oven. This results in more even, faster browning and faster cooking overall.

It works well when roasting meat, yielding a much more even roast and more all-over browning of chickens. It's good when doing cookies - the circulating air helps with the large pans that obstruct the movement of heat in the oven. And it seems to do well with bread, which bakes very quickly.

However, for most baked goods, it's better to leave it off. Most recipes are not designed for convection and results are unpredictable as convection is not the same in all convection ovens. Lowering the heat by 25F is only a starting point, and bake time often has to be adjusted as well. So for cakes and pastries, it's better to leave convection off.

Recently I made a blueberry pie with convection - the upper crust browned very rapidly - the sugar sprinkled on top started to burn. Meanwhile, the bottom crust didn't have time to brown and the filling didn't cook enough to dissolve the sugar, yielding a texture that was far from ideal.

The next day I took the same pastry and berries (in fact, from the same batch - I had done a double batch of each and just used one) and baked the same recipe without convection. The difference was drastic. The top and bottom of the crusts were golden and crunchy. The middle was thoroughly cooked. Much, much better.

Poker Night

Aaron, Anthony, Dom, Sean and I met at Rick's house for poker and pizza. It was so nice outside that we started playing outside until it got dark. Then we moved it into the kitchen. It's hard to tell, but I think Aaron and I were the night's winners - though nothing as dramatic as my first session! I think I'm probably even overall...

A good time was had by all. We do need to find some new variants, though.

The variants that we play are:
-kings and little ones
-queens and followers
-hi/low chicago

Other games that we play are
-7/27 (which I'm pretty lucky at, but it's a lot of addition, which stresses me)
-chase the ace (which I really like - it's fun, the pot is large, the risk is low... but I never win)

Fun in Ottawa

So we didn't spend ALL our time working... once it got dark, we partied! Here we are at the Cornerstone Bar. It appears that they hire totally based on looks, as the servers are all very attractive. The guys were ogling away. Sean had already had a whole bunch of beer BEFORE he joined us for shots and dinner. As you can tell from the pic, he's a happy drunk. We called John and his wife to join us to ogle the servers. (The red dress is apparently 25 bucks at American Outitters.) We did assorted shots and snacked on various appetizers. After that we hit the pubs and danced a bit (if you could actually call it dancing...).

Buildings in Ottawa

Click here to view large image

Here's a panoramic view of the Parliament Building in Ottawa. I took this on the last day as we were walking through Ottawa - this building was between the hotel and the office. We were lucky to get some pretty good weather for the entire duration. There are a couple more shots below.

Ottawa Hotel: Albert At Bay

I've mentioned this hotel in passing before, but this time I had my camera! This is the base room at the Albert, and it's awesome. The upgraded rooms, only about 10 bucks more per night, have dedicated dinning rooms and king sized beds. The one time I got upgraded to an 'executive' room, it wasn't much different, other than it had a Neptune air jet tub.

This is the main room, pretty standard, except that every suite in this hotel has the bed in an actual bedroom, not in the main area with the rest of the stuff. It makes entertaining in your room a lot easier.

Anyway... on with the tour below!

Recipe: Strawberry Syrup

Dom asked for the recipe for the Strawberry Syrup that I made. Though, really, it's not much of a recipe... and I usually only make it when I'm out of maple syrup. The ingredient list is simple: sugar, water, jam, lemon, berries (optional), bourbon (optional).

Quick Strawberry Syrup

In a heavy small saucepan boil
1/2 cup of water
3/4 cup of sugar
until the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture is bubbling merrily.

Stir in a few tablespoons of strawberry jam.
Optionally stir in a teaspoon or two of bourbon or rum. (I did this with Dom.)

Take off the heat and add some grated lemon zest and add lemon juice to taste. (Taste frequently as you add drops of lemon juice so that you get it the way you want it!)

Stir in some sliced strawberries (optional ... I forgot to do it, Dom, but it'll taste better!)

Serve warm (reheat in the microwave if refrigerated).

Substitution: seedless raspberry jam would work as well if you're looking for something that looks a bit more sophisticated

Dinner at Sean's

I worked at Sean's house today and went to lunch at Swiss Chalet with Renato and Dom. We used to get 20% off, but now we just get free drinks... Not as good for me, since I usually just get water. I like iced tea, but I slug it back, which probably isn't too good for my waistline.

Jax and Sean invited me for dinner. I bbq'ed some rib steaks that Jax had marinating and Jax made corn (really nice and sweet!). Everything was really good. Their son Brandon (almost 4) is a bit of a picky eater, so he mostly ate noodles and broth. Sarah (15 months) is demanding when it comes to food - and she likes to feed herself.

We player outside for a bit, then headed off to a couple stores with Brandon to find the remote control version of Wall-E the robot. I was impressed by Brandon's reading skills - he can actually sound out words - a bit of trouble with "Indiana" (Jones) but no trouble with "lotto centre". Just like daddy - all about the gambling!

Sarah liked Wall-E too. She would booty-dance along with it when it was playing music and waving its arms. Too much Girlicious on the iMac! She likes me too, now, and will come and ask to be picked up when she's in the mood. She has a toy that makes bubbles which she really likes (she lead me across the house to fetch it from the foyer) and can say "bubble" and "pop!".

Sean and I also played a bit of head-to-head Tetris on the Nintendo DS. Long story short: he sucks!