Sometimes it is to kill my sourdough. I’ve never been able to kill my sourdough. I will neglect it often… not feeding it for over a week… and then I will feel sorry for my life-form and feed it a little. Sometimes I get sick of it and I will dry it and powder it or freeze it to restore later.

This time I came very very close to killing my sourdough starter that sits in a ziploc container in the refrigerator. Very Very Very close. It smells like alcohol, fermentation mmm. Actually, it doesn’t smell very pleasant at all. AND I was pretty sure it was dead. But I tried to feed it anyway. Like when you come across something that was once living when you walk on the beach and have to poke at it to see if it moves. Well my sourdough moved! So now that I’ve nearly killed it I think I will try to restore it to a healthy sourdough again. The way I put it to my mom, right now my sourdough is my 90 year old senile- can’t remember how many times he’s eaten breakfast today-  grandpa and I’m going to make it my 22 year old surfs-swims-does martial arts-works out alot-  daily brother.  I’m going to make some bread tomorrow.

Changing subjects abruptly… I’m also going to attempt to make mozzerella cheese. I found some raw whole milk and liquid rennet (both in the dairy section) at the Lassen’s (like baby Whole Foods – same company). The other ingredient I need is acetic acid, which I hear they sell at brewing supply stores– and there happens to be one in town. Hopefully it works… with internet guidance and a thermometer… and hopefully successful F to C conversion skills because all my thermometers are in Celsius. Yay cheese.

* note: at the Lassen’s I bought another can of black beans. I think what happened to me and black beans was that when I was in Japan for a year and a half, I ate them once. The one time I ate them, they were ridiculously expensive (but still good), so now when I go to the grocery store I pick up reasonably priced black beans, all the time. It’s a good thing its healthy

I remembered another thing I plan on making tomorrow (You get the inspired (?) part yet). My friend’s birthday is coming up so I’m making her a chocolate cake studded with hazelnuts, soaked in Grand Marnier and covered in dark chocolate mousse. Its not as messy looking as it sounds. If I make it correctly it’s actually pretty exquisite.

Also! I discovered maple butter at the Lassen’s. Its inverted maple syrup that spreads like, well, butter. It’s completely natural and it tastes like butter pecan ice cream (which was my favorite as a kid) (Right now my favorite is spiced rum raisin)

Also at the Lassen’s – because I keep finding cool stuff – is vanilla bean paste, for those of you who are too lazy to scrape out the vanilla specs out of the pod or think vanilla bean pods are too expensive (there are easy ways around the price factor). Vanilla bean paste comes in a jar and it is a million times better than Vanilla essence (vanilla essence is 35% alcohol — vanilla bean paste is not)

also

20 Wines under $10 (supposed to be good wines) After bad wine tasting I’ll give anything that might be good a shot.

This is Joy the Baker’s post on it

This is Alton Browns Chewy Recipe from the Good Eats episode : Chips for Sister Marsha (Youtube link)& Part Two

also featured in the episode

The Thin (Crispy) Cookie

The Puffy Cookie

I use the chewy recipe and add the variation of using browned butter instead of just melted butter (gives the cookies a toffee kind of flavor). To make browned butter melt the butter in a saucepan, keep the heat on until the butter starts to turn a hazelnut color. Turn off the heat and place the saucepan on a wet cloth (or a bowl of water) just to stop the butter from overcooking and burning.

I like to add things like walnuts and cranberries and nix the chocolate chips for a change.

Joy the Baker (Love her and her blog– shes awesome) shows you how to make a basic Caesar Salad from scratch. yum!

1. Near the intersection of Wilshire and Western, about half a block up from the Wiltern Theater on Western Avenue there is this small boba ‘hut’ called I Love Boba, a local chain. Hands down the best boba around. Their boba drinks in their smoothie line are the best. I like their strawberry peach and strawberry kiwi.

2. on West Olympic Ave and Vermont, also about half a block away from Vermont on Olympic Avenue is this really big (kinda old 80’s looking grocery store building with big red korean lettering) Korean grocery store. They have so much seafood and fresh meat and 3 aisles of kimchee, other cool asian products and produce. I always buy all the asian mushrooms you can’t find at your local market like eringi, oyster mushrooms, enoki, shimeji, etc. Everything is so cheap and fresh I can’t resist. They must have amazing turnover because whenever I go its very crowded. You can also buy 10lb (probably bigger) bags of peeled garlic and 10lb bags of bean sprouts. yum! The place may be daunting for first timers but I love the old asian feel to the place. Plus you can’t beat the prices. A pound of pumpkin seeds for under $3. I get excited just thinking about it.

We pick alot of strawberries. I love strawberries. I love to pick them and eat them in the fields, warmed by the sun. Sun-kissed, sun-warmed fruit always makes me feel at home. None of that refrigerated chemically sprayed grocery fruit for me thank you. But going back to my confession. I cannot stop at one strawberry or even a basket of strawberries. I live to eat strawberries until I start feeling sick. I’ll have strawberries as an addition to breakfast. Only strawberries for lunch and more strawberries for snack. And even after I’m sick of them I’ll eat more. And even more the next day. I don’t know how to stop until the strawberries are gone or I’ve put them somewhere. God I want some more, but I’ve put them somewhere…

Many of my several pounds of strawberries have been washed, stemmed and frozen for future use in jams, smoothies, purees, other cooking adventures. All of the damaged strawberries went into jam… Jam is easy… some sugar, some pectin, some fruit, some heat and some time. I accidentally made about a gallon of jam. Maybe more. But I canned it so I’ll have it for a while.

The lesson here is this: while it may be ok to eat strawberries until you get sick repetitively, a gallon of jam is entirely too much jam.

When I need it, I need it; and it will be the only thing on my mind. If I see a purple one or those green ones with the pointy pieces I HAVE TO HAVE IT.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks recently posted a cauliflower soup recipe and now I MUST HUNT DOWN some fresh cauliflower.

The Pioneer Woman, Ree, posts with lots and lots of pictures of each step of each recipe. She uses lots of ingredients that health conscious people would not use in such high volume, but the results sure do look delicious. Her  Onion Strings look amazing. Lots of good recipes to be found

The first time I got the muffin craze I was trying to invent a high protein muffin with protein powder baked inside as an ingredient. The second time around I tried to cut the fat by substituting fruit or vegetable purees like pumpkin, carrot and banana. Both these muffin cycles produced lots of not so delicious muffins. They tasted like healthy muffin and had weird texture.

This time I think I will be aiming for a good texture and taste… and try to make a recipe with whole wheat flour and flax meal. Hopefully it will taste good so I can end my muffin madness before I end up driving around in my car throwing bags of muffins at homeless people. They will wonder why I am giving them bad muffins.