If you've ever taught a class or TA'ed, you know this look:

"If you just prompt me with some words, I'd be glad to repeat them for you until you just tell me the right answer."

I always liked the response, "go back to your desk and read your book/notes some more."

I have too many tabs open

• This dog.
• Bat bear.
• Hockey.
• That ewok costume looks like the bear costume I saw a kid wearing on a plane once.
• Boring economics that too few people don't understand.
• More economics: if you need a basic definition of a rentier, think of the person who made this.
• Pokemon snap was one of the greatest games ever, and I need to either make my N64 work again, or sort out an emulator so I can play it again.  Here is an example why.
• A common problem with burritos.  Contains the phrases: "FUCKING EMPIRE OF SOUR CREAM," "planet Fucking Disgustingupiter," and "I’M IN THE FUCKING CHEESEOSPHERE" among others.

Tuesday: Apparently Chopped: My Apartment Edition

At least that's what I thought when I sat down to eat and saw Chopped on Food TV and realized that I'd basically just done the same thing they were doing.  It's more a case of having a vague idea while shopping for groceries this week, and seeing what I could do with it.  The ingredient spread:

From left to right:

• Green onion
• Pineapple
• Sriracha
• Mahi-mahi filet, salted and peppered
• Lilikoi/Hawaiian pepper jelly
• Hawaiian "golden bread" roll (hot dog bun, whatever)
• Bag of macadamia nuts.

First step was prep: wash and trim the onion, skin and section the pineapple, slice roll in half (I was going to do it top-split style, but accidentally side-split it.  Oops). Next was the butter: grind nuts in the food processor, and mix in some honey until it's a somewhat smooth paste. Roll under the broiler, slice of pineapple and onion stalks into the pan with a big gob of butter.  When the onion is bright green, remove, and add mahi-mahi to the pan.  Keep the pineapple there, rotating until it's browned on all sides.  Remove roll from broiler when it's crisped, spread on macadamia butter, and return.  When fish is done, remove everything and plate with a wave of sriracha and pool of lilikoi jelly:

The plating could have been improved, partially because I wanted to put the pineapple on top of the fish, but that made the whole thing too tall.  I should have toasted the bread more as well, as I wanted a firmer base, but it never really got fully browned.  The flavor was wonderful, though.  Since this was a super sweet local pineapple, the outside had a caramel flavor on top of the soft pineapple-y center.  That counter balanced the oils of the fish and the spice of the sriracha.  It needed more onion, as I didn't have enough for each bite to get some.  I was also concerned that the sriracha and lilikoi/pepper jelly would be off because it's two different types of spice.  This wasn't the case, and they complemented each other well.

Definitely something to try again.

Monday: Scallop rerun

Basically the same as yesterday, except for a few small changes.  First change was to switch bacon grease for butter in the cooking.  Second was to throw some sugar snap peas into the pan first, and fry them until they turned bright green, and then put them into the salad.  Finally, I added about five squirts of chili oil to the scallops as they were finishing, to increase the spice somewhat over yesterday.

I think this was better than yesterday's attempt, as the chili oil boosted the flavor, and the peas added both textural changes and some sweetness. 

I found this in my email this morning:

Do you know what grouponicus is?  Is it a horrible decapitated snowman that is trying to lure you in with gifts?  Is it a bird-headed gentleman with a snake for a tail?

More serious question: is there anyone working at groupon that isn't completely addicted to crack?

Partially an excuse to post this game

While making lunch for tomorrow, I decided I wanted to try out the mustard I brought back from Austin.  I had thought about making a "things I brought back from Austin that caused TSA to inspect my bag twice" post, but never got around to it.  So, in order to taste it, I made a mini sandwich from the end of the bread.  Good, with a bit of spiciness, but not overwhelmingly so.

It also gave me an excuse to try this "Cider and Spice" stuff I got yesterday at WF.  I looked for a "Cider and More Different Cider" option, but as that wasn't available, I got this instead.  It starts off good, with a proper cider taste, even though it's been processed a lot more than decent cider.  However, it then goes and fucks it up with a super strong cinnamon and nutmeg taste in the finish.  Why not just sell regular cider, R.W. Knudsen, and put on the back a label that says, "Hey, if you hate your mouth, why not fuck this up with some cinnamon and nutmeg?"  It's like people don't know what autumn tastes like if you don't hit them in the mouth with pumpkin pie spice.

Anyway, this game.  You cut blocks into smaller pieces and they slide around and fall due to gravity, and you're trying to get as much of the blocks to fall away as possible.  I played until I got the 1900%, but then didn't want to bother doing it in two slice mode.

Sunday: Recipe theft!

Julie made this recipe, and posted about it here. She's suggested it to me in the past, but since I've had trouble finding avocados that weren't bricks, I was kind of hesitant to make it.  Then, I saw this video, and it made me think that this would probably work just as well with bay scallops instead of crab.  Then I changed the arugula for regular lettuce, as I couldn't find local arugula at the store.

Workspace. I was going to do monkey plate, but since it's mostly just a sauce, I didn't bother. Copying the recipe from Julie:

Sesame and Wasabi dressing

1 t prepared wasabi

1 t sesame oil

2 T mirin

1 T rice wine vinegar

1/2 t kosher salt (I used sea salt)

juice of 1/2 lime (you can see my juicer in the picture)

 Local avocado! This was super squishy, so it worked great.  Now I know where to get avocados for future guacamole.

Naked avocado:

For the scallops, I cooked them simply.  Big pat of butter in the pan, throw in the green onions up there in picture one, when they look good, toss in a bunch of scallops.  Shuffle shuffle cook cook, test that they're done, and then scoop in two tablespoons of the sauce into the pan, let it sizzle for a moment, and then dump everything over the top of the lettuce.

Then, take a picture too fast:

Try again:

I understand why the original recipe uses arugula.  The sauce isn't very intense, and even with crab instead of scallops (which are light on flavor as well), you kind of need something to spice it up a bit.  Looking at the original recipe again, it looks like it's supposed to have chili peppers.  I wish I had some of those tiny death chilis still.  Maybe a bit of chili oil will perk it up for tomorrow.

Linky time:

• Trojan horse learning. I guess if you're full of shit, you might think it's best to disguise your lies in the facade of reality.
• Squirrels aren't jerks. They're trying to help you, because maybe you don't know where acorns are found.
• Poke-rose!
• Rubber ducky!
• You're the one!
• I've heard all of these sounds.

I'm not the 1%, but...

I went to Foodland today to pick up the ingredients I was missing for dinner tonight.  My hope was that they'd have good soft avocados at R. Field, which is like a mini store within the store.

While there, I looked to see if I could find the Hawaii red veal, as they're listed as carrying it.  I did find it (it's opposite the cheese case, which explains why I've not found it in the past), and at $5.99/pound for ground, it's about the same as the ground beef I usually get.

I continued looking through the freezer case, looking over the duck leg confit, truffle butter, and fancy prepared meals, and found something I've been looking for: Hudson Valley foie gras.  I almost bought some, but since I had the weekly meal plan figured out, I couldn't come up with a reason to.  Then, on the drive home, I remembered that foie gras hot dog I had last weekend, and that hot dogs are on the menu for this week.  Maybe I'll pick some up to try to duplicate that.  It's pretty expensive, obviously ($63.99/pound), but since it comes in 0.1-0.2 pound slices, that's only about $10 per slice.  It also doesn't require too much to make something extra delicious, so that $10 slice would do two days of hotdogs, and still leave half the slice to be used in something else (apple maple foie gras, to recreate that dish I had at Villegas years ago?).  That's only like $2.50 per meal.  It's almost too cheap not to buy.

Random crap

 Pikachu is always on the side of freedom.

 This is a wonderfully simple idea that sounds delicious.  It seems to be a bit more of a party idea, than a dinner idea, though.

 Passchendaele. Probably would have been more appropriate yesterday.

 Damn you, top-hatted crab!

 Occupy Boston!

Squirrel shaking his tiny fist at you.

• 'Bachmann's campaign manager Keith Nahigian stormed through the spin room, where he said, "John Dickerson should be fired. He is a piece of shit. He is a fraud and he should be fired."' Somebody's angry he backed a lunatic loser.
• Hamburglar!
• If you need to warm a quart of butter, you're doing it wrong.
• I kind of wish I could fly Hawaiian to my mainland destinations.  USB plug for every seat? Why don't other airlines have that?
• I really hope they make lots of these Chibi Titans shorts.

Saturday: BC Burrito and crazy people

I've had a craving for Mexican food ever since getting back from Austin.  Since today was also grocery day, I figured I'd try BC Burrito again, as it's on the way to WF.

I splurged a bit and got a regular size burrito and the chips and queso.  I think next time, I'll just get a bigger burrito and ask to get the queso inside.  My original hope was to be able to dip my burrito into the queso.

It's hard to see, but this burrito would have completely fallen apart if I'd tried that.  I went with the chicken mole filling, which has actual flavor, unlike Qdoba chicken.  The salsa is actual hot, not fake hot, and I think next time I'll see about getting just a half scoop to tone that down a bit.  Queso isn't spicy at all, and separates a bit as it sits, but that's pretty much what happens when you use real cheese instead of processed stuff.

End result is that this doesn't really fill the burrito niche, but I think that I can get something close if I just iterate the fillings a bit.

I also saw what I assume was an airsoft marine across the street:

Toys & Joys sells airsoft stuff, that's why .

Storytime: I'm at WF, waiting for Deli Girl to finish slicing pastrami.  While I'm standing there, Guy Who Looks Like A Dad From An 80's Movie comes over with a chunk of cheese that he wants a taste of (it looked like a hunk of cheddar, so I'm not sure what he was unclear on).
Guy: "Getting some good stuff, huh?"
Me: "Um...yeah? Pastrami?"
Guy: "I think this place has the best deli on the island."
Me (in my head): "I miss Zingerman's"
Me (outloud): "Yeah."
Guy: "I'm going to ramble on about other places that used to sell cheese, but are now closed."
Me: "Sure, whatever."
Guy: "Now I'm going to take a ride on the crazy train."
Me: "What?"
Guy: "Is that psoriasis?"
Me: "Yeah, so?"
Guy: "Have you heard of Edgar Cayce?"
Me: "No?"
My brain: "Wait, yes you have. He's that guy who claimed he was a psychic like 70 years ago, and talked about Atlantis and bullshit like that."
Me: "Really? And this random douchebag who doesn't know what cheese tastes like is trying to convince me that a dead charlatan has good medical advice?"
My brain: "Apparently. Wait, what was that?"
Guy: "You need to get your acids and alkalines balanced in your diet because that's the only way to get better."
Me & My brain: "WTF?"
Guy: "Maybe you need to have like a five day apple diet, or orange diet."
My brain: "Wait, I'm going to balance the acids by munching on oranges for five days? Are you even listening to yourself, Crazy Dude?"
Me: "I'm tempted to say that outloud."
My brain: "Probably best not to. I'm sure Deli Girl would help if this guy went crazy, but it's best not to provoke someone who wears his shorts pulled that high up."
Deli Girl: "Here's your pastrami!"
Me: "Thanks!"

Anyway, here's the menu plan for this week:

• Saturday: Just a sandwich or something, since I'm still full from the burrito.
• Sunday: I'm going to steal Julie's salad idea, and tweak it a bit, as I picked up bay scallops.  I'm also swapping out arugula with regular lettuce (I couldn't find local arugula).  And now, looking over the recipe, I realize I don't have half of the ingredients. I guess I'll be doing another grocery run tomorrow. Avacado? Crap, those are never ripe here.  This is looking less like stealing Julie's idea, and more like taking the dressing from that idea and replacing everything else.
• Monday: Fish guy gave me twice the amount of bay scallops that I wanted. So, rerun day.
• Tuesday: I have mahi mahi, macadamia nuts, a pineapple, and sriracha. I'm sure these things can be used together.
• Wednesday/Thursday: I got two buffalo hot dogs, because I had a hot dog craving.  Throw a salad together, and this kind of counts as healthy.
• Friday: No plan. Maybe an eat out day.

I keep forgetting about this video

Hoodies make you feel like a kangaroo

I forgot that fact.  When I first went out to walk to the sushi place, I noticed that it was windy and sprinkle-y.  I didn't want to have to carry an umbrella in my hand the whole way, so I grabbed the hoodie I didn't pack to Austin, and tucked the umbrella in that.

I really miss not having anything but summer all year long.

Sushi Man

My leftover discontent struck again today, and I decided that I didn't want to eat leftovers anymore.  That led to a only slightly less annoying state: indecision as to what I did want to eat for dinner.  I eventually decided that sushi sounded good, and that I should probably take advantage of my Walkability 82/100 apartment.

Yes, google, I was planning on walking. You don't have to be a jerk about it.

The yelp reviews seemed pretty good, although with the usual "OMG I was treated badly, so I'm giving it one star."  In any case, I just wanted some quick sushi that I could walk to.  I was a bit concerned they were closing when I got there, as there were no other customers.  Then I remembered that it was 8, and most people had probably already eaten by then.  Still, it feels a bit weird to be the only person there.

Three piece ahi nigiri, spicy tuna and unagi temaki (well, they called them hand rolls on the menu, even if they aren't cone shaped).  This is probably the best ahi I've had for three dollars.  It's possible the conveyor belt place has better a fish/price ratio, but this is still pretty good.  Nice firm flesh with a fresh taste, and no nasty connective bits.  Unagi was warm and rich, and the spicy tuna is still spicy on my tongue right now.

Definitely a good place for a "I don't want to make food but want food" dinner.  It's also nice to know that I have sushi within walking distance.

Friday: Veteran's Day

Plan for today: solve science problem on relaxing day off. Actual results of the day: wake up, read internet, watch part of MSU basketball game, wake up again, remember that I don't actually like basketball because it's incredibly boring, try to figure out dinner that doesn't involve me eating leftovers or cooking anything.

I'm still working on the last one.  This is the time that I miss Fazoli's and Noodles.

• Then again, I could make Italian Mac & Cheese. It's unfortunate that Food TV can't be bothered to actually teach people how to cook, or show them how to combine food to make their own recipes.  It seems that would be more helpful than telling them to buy processed foods, and then dump other shit into it to dress it up like it's fancy. This leads to another FNH post today. I don't think I've watched Food network in months at this point.  I don't want to watch "cake challenge" or "fat douchebag eats junk food." I would watch old school style cooking shows, but I guess those aren't popular anymore.
• More places need bunny inspektors.
• Seals? Also jerks.
• Have I called a nun a stupid fucktard before? Oh, well, I guess I have now.
• Oh, objectivists, you're so easy to laugh at.
• WAMPUG!

Thursday: Not Friday

Even though it's felt like it is all day, since tomorrow is a holiday.  Food:

"Whatever, that's the same..."

"Whoa!"

I did remember to defrost some lamb stew last night, so I was able to turn the colcannon leftovers into the roof of a personal shepherd's pie.  The most important thing about doing this is that you have to make the mashed potatoes extra loose so that they spread smoothly.  I've had problems with having too chunky thick potatoes before.

I noticed when I went to google reader today that they've added an actual sharing thing now that goes to google plus.  I didn't try it out, but at least they're slowly trying to make it not suck.  However, this revamp added unnecessary side margins that eat up even more screen space with white nothingness, even in "full screen" mode.  I wish they'd get their act together.

• Holy shit, somebody else remembered Elastica.  Admittedly, they didn't choose one of the songs I would have gone with, but the fact that they mentioned them at all counts for something.
• These are kind of impressive.
• Phil has interesting statistics, even if he did have to do a followup clarification.  However, I think he ignores a reasonably important aspect of things: barring funding issues or unusual external pressure, most grad schools try hard to place their students before they graduate.  This helps suppress the unemployment rate somewhat (while also allowing that grad school to claim high placement numbers during recruitment).  It also helps that astronomy has the job register that provides a centralized way for  hiring to procede.
• I thought this was a cool story on homeschooling.  The hippy kind, not the crazy religious kind.

Wednesday: Holy shit, I still have a cookie!

I totally forgot about it.  I know what I'm eating once I finish this post. Thanks, yesterday's post I just saw.

No food fun today. I was lazy and tired and hungry when I left work, and didn't want to wait an hour to bake leftover colcannon.  Also, I'd intended to pull a bag of lamb stew from the freezer to use as a shepherd's pie base, but totally forgot about it.  Instead, I just stopped and did the drive through fast food thing. Woo.

On that subject: this isn't shepherd's pie. Stop ruining things, vegetarians. This isn't shepherd's pie either. It'd be cottage pie, since it uses beef, but it's mostly just a mistake. Stop making terrible fusion recipes, television.

One piece of good news: Rick Perry will never ever be president (the video is worth watching):

• Why would anyone make this? See also: above comment about fusion recipes.
• You shouldn't eat "squril" either.
• Some pandas are jerks.
• I guess if you need to sous vide an entire animal...
• Dogs shouldn't wear sweatbands. Or dresses. Yeah, this is pretty much all wrong.
• Sad T-Rex is sad.
• No, bunny! It's a trap! They'll make you eat celery flavored jello!
• I wish I lived somewhere where it would occasionally be hoodie weather.

Tuesday: Cookies!

Dinner was the same as yesterday. The important thing is that I spent most of the afternoon wanting cookies. I solved this problem with the chocolate macadamia nut cookie from the bakery. Om nom nom cookies!

Other than that, not much exciting to talk about today. Art deco, maybe?

• Spring
• Summer
• Autumn
• Winter

I wish google reader would bring back sharing

• As do these people.
• Fucking ice machines.
• Where would we be without Monsanto? Maybe buying meat from an actual person?
• SQUIRREL!
• And no, you stupid stoners, you didn't "almost get rabies from it."
• This is pretty cool. I like the Europe map best (because it's colorful).

Monday: Leftovers and Lunch

First, the leftovers:

Oven reheating worked well, and I did use the cider and cream to make sure the colcannon was smooth before putting it in, and I covered it with foil to ensure it didn't dry out.  Om nom nom.

For lunch, I tried Island Manapua Factory again, after being disappointed in them previously.  This time, however, I skipped their plate lunch/panda-style Chinese, and went for the manapua, in the hope that they'd fill the kolache niche for me.  I got four, as I wasn't sure how filling they'd be.  I think in the future, three is probably a more reasonable lunch portion:

They're all about four inches in diameter, with a pretty decent amount of filling inside.  They have both steamed and baked manapua, although the baked ones aren't warm (which is kind of disappointing).  The steamed ones have regular bao dough, and the baked ones a sweet Hawaiian bread. 

Steamed pizza manapua. Not as good as a proper pizza, but pretty decent.  A pile of these would make a good movie watching/Superbowl snack.  Kind of like a big fluffy pizza roll.

Steamed chicken curry.  Yummy Japanese style curry with lots of meat.  Mine had a bone in it, which wasn't too surprising, since almost everytime I get boneless skinless thighs at the store, they're only 97% bone free.  Still, probably good to watch out for.

Baked char siu. This one got a bit cloying towards the end, as the sweet bread and overly sweet pork kind of got too much.  Still, the meat was moist, and a quick trip through an oven or microwave wouldn't have hurt it any.

Baked kalua pork.  This was more BBQ-y than I was expecting, but that wasn't a bad thing.  As you can see, this one kind of had structural issues, which was disappointing.  A lot of the others had thin bottom crusts, this one just took it to extremes.

All in all, this was a good idea.  Four big yummy buns for $7 make this about the best lunch deal around.  I'll have to try some of the other flavors next time.  It's a bit of a shame they don't have a sweet bun to eat for dessert, but I guess lunch isn't supposed to be multi-course.

Did I mention the ChocoHigos?

"Can you tell me how much the figs are?"
"Yeah, they're $10. Wait, let me open a package so you can try one."
"Um...ok?"
"Besides, then I can eat the rest of them and it's ok."

And that's how the WF deli guy convinced me to buy the chocolate covered figs that I had (and will have this week) for dessert.  Without trying them, I probably wouldn't have splurged on them.  Unfortunately, they're kind of insanely delicious, so I didn't have much choice.

Did you click on that amazon link?  Did you see how one of the features is "Cheese, Foie Gras, Truffles, Wagyu Steaks, Baking Products, Spices, Oils, Balsamic Vinegars and more"? LOL.

Sunday: Colcannon

First, how delicious does this sandwich I made for lunch look? Toast, BBQ sauce, turkey, cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, toast. It was yummy.

Ok, dinner. While on vacation, I saw an episode of "Tyler Florence Cooks Food While You Debate His Douche Factor." It was fairly old, so I think his factor was still "not that bad." In any case, he went to Ireland, and made colcannon.  It looked like one of those dishes that's super simple, and uses simple ingredients to come up with something filling and delicious.  I briefly looked at his recipe, and then threw it away and decided to do my own take on it.

Step one: scoop probably two tablespoons of bacon grease into your dutch oven.

Step two: salt and pepper a poundish pork loin, and brown the sides.  You'll notice I cut my loin in two so it would fit better in the pan.  If I had any access to Irish bacon (back bacon, etc.), I would have used that instead.  This version is obviously going to be less salty, so you may need to correct that (I didn't that much, but for other reasons).

Step three: Dump in a bottle of cider, and cover, and let the pork loin braise for ~two hours.

This was the cider I used.  I'm not a big fan of it, but it's basically the only cider that's available here.  It's very dry, but has a good cider-y flavor that I was hoping would be imparted into the pork.

Step four: This is where you just have to stick with me. I poked at the pork at this point, and it was fully cooked, and reasonably tender.  Next I had to deal with the potatoes, and wanted to steam them instead of boiling. To do so, I dropped a ramekin into the pot, and then put my steamer on top of that.  This allowed the pork to continue to braise while the potatoes steamed.

I used this many potatoes.  Um...5 it looks like? They were big chunky Yukon gold ones, too. This is probably the important thing.  I wouldn't really do this with russets, but I'm picky like that.  I also dumped most of a second bottle of cider into the bottom, as I wasn't sure if I had enough liquid to steam the potatoes.  I turned up the heat a bit, and covered them, and let them cook for an hour.

Blammo. Steamed potatoes, all ready for mashing.  I think this is my new favorite way to make mashed potatoes, as steaming didn't soak the potatoes like boiling does.  This means that the final mash was sweet, like a nicely baked Yukon gold is.  This was a surprise, but was a large part of what made this dish work so well.  It also explains why I didn't add lots of salt, as I didn't want to cancel the sweetness.

Step five: Forget to take a useful picture, while you mash the potatoes, and remove the pork to the cutting board.  While doing this, add a salad spinner (mine is the smaller one) full of shredded cabbage to the cider left in the pan, and try to keep an eye on it to pull it when it turns bright green (or, ignore that sign because you're too busy mashing).  I used almost a cup of cream on the potatoes, along with a chunk of butter, and a few ladlefuls of cider from the pan.

You should also chop the pork at this point.  Mine shredded perfectly as I cut it, with the grain separating into smallish chunks as I sliced.

Step six: Realize your mixing bowl isn't going to be big enough, so drain the pan, dump the pork and potatoes back in, and strain out the cabbage from the cider.  Mix and mix, and fix the moisture with the cream and cider.  Add a bit of salt after tasting.

Step seven: Plate in a bowl.  Make a hole in the middle for a tablespoon or so of butter, and then top with green onions and add a slice of cheese (Red Leicester, I believe. As an afterthough, Cotswold would have been delicious with this).

This works out to be basically a big bowl of comfort food.  It'd really be better if it wasn't 80 degrees here, but if we had "cold autumn evenings," this would be a good thing to make.  I also have plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week, although reheating mashed potatoes is always a bit touchy.  I reserved some of the cider, and I have a bit of cream left.  I think the plan is to rehydrate it a bit, and then put it in my big ramekin and bake it in the oven with a foil cover.  We'll see how that goes.