Whitney Museum of Art
Mostly-free cornbread
I don’t really use cornmeal for anything, so I decided to make cornbread to use up the haul-cornmeal. It had the added benefit of using up the rest of my flour. I’m moving out in a month and am trying to not have any food left. I’m down to my freezer stash of carby foods, like biscuits, brownies, low-tier garlic bread, low-tier baguette (which is gonna be upgraded to banh mi :).
Anyway, my mom provided the Cook’s Illustrated “Northern cornbread” recipe that she likes. (The “Southern cornbread” recipe has more cornmeal and, I believe, less sugar.)
Ingredients
- 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup buttermilk (I used yoghurt)
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to center position and heat to 425°F. Grease a 9-by-9 pan.
- Stir together dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients until just combined.
- Pour batter into greased pan. Bake until top is golden brown and lightly cracked and edges have pulled away from side of pan, about 25 minutes.
- Cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
NSA Building?
Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao (Flushing)
Free food!
I discovered a neighbor was moving out when I discovered trash bags full of dry goods (gasp!) outside their door. I couldn’t keep myself from asking if it was fine for me to take what I wanted (the answer was “yes” and I was even offered my pick of furniture), so I ended up with this haul:
I love getting stuff I wouldn’t normally buy. It’s a treat 🙂 I especially enjoyed the salsa.
The day the neighbors moved out, I dug through the apartment dumpster, and additionally got a chair (for putting my “in use” clothes on), an apparently never-used yoga mat, laundry detergent (never get Gain original scent… On the plus side, I hear Gain is super strong), and a single handkerchief.
NYC+Boston Trip
N and I had an exciting trip to New York and Boston just recently. I flew in from the Bay Area and N took the train from Pittsburgh. Friend J very generously let us stay at his place in New York (thanks Friend J!).
I’ll try to post pictures about the places we visited over the next few {insert unit of time here}.
To start, here’s some photos from SFO.
Hot cross buns
Use the cinnamon roll dough recipe. Add some amount (about 1/3 cup) of diced candied fruit and currants when you are ready to shape the dough and make about twelve rolls. The egg wash is very important to give the right look. Whisk together an egg (whole, yolk, or white) with a bit of salt; this is brushed on just before baking.
Cinnamon roll recipe
Dough for a small batch:
- 1/2 package of yeast (this would be 1 1/8 teaspoon but my mom uses 1 1/4 teaspoon)
- 1 1/2 Tab water
- 1/2 cup milk (can be whole or low-fat)
- 2 1/2 Tab butter
- 1 1/2 Tab sugar
- 1/2 of a large egg
- 1/2 teas salt
- 2 cups (or a bit less) bread flour
- 1/8 teas cinnamon
- 1/16 teas nutmeg
- 1/16 teas ginger
For cinnamon rolls:
- 1 Tbsp (or maybe less) softened butter to spread on the dough
- Cinnamon and sugar mixed — heavy on the cinnamon
- nuts — preferring pecans and preferring cookie-size pieces
- currants
For icing:
- 1 teas butter (this keeps the icing soft)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp milk or cream
Pan:
Well-buttered (glass is good) baking pan about 7×11 inches.
Use a standard bread maker mix cycle to make the dough, or without a bread maker: Make the dough and let it rise until doubled, the punch down and shape. Once the dough is ready, roll it into a rectangle about 14×12 inches. Butter the dough with the softened butter. Sprinkle on the cinnamon-sugar, then the nuts and the currants. Roll up and then slice off the cinnamon rolls. Nine or twelve rolls is about right but this can vary quite a bit, depending on your preference. I like to refrigerator overnight so that the rolls are ready in the morning. In the morning, warm the oven to a low (not yeast-killing) temperature, turn off the oven, and put in the roll pan. I like to cover with a cloth. When the dough is light and the pan warmed, remove the pan from the oven. Then heat the oven to 425°F. (If you like the look of an egg wash, see the Hot Cross bun instructions.) Bake for 15 minutes. If the rolls start to get too dark, make a foil tent to protect them.
After the rolls are done, swirl on icing and serve.
Frankie, one of my favorite musicians, has a new song about ghosting, “breaking off a relationship (often an intimate relationship) by ceasing all communication and contact with the former partner without any apparent warning or justification, as well as ignoring the former partner’s attempts to reach out or communicate”. The song is really good, plus the music video is a gender-swapped allusion to Grease 😀 Enjoy (and listen to Frankie’s other songs)!
Extended Producer Responsibility, etc
Here are more resources related to corporate responsibility and extended producer responsibility:
The Electronics TakeBack Coalition “promotes green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry”. They write various articles on green electronics, including how to recycle and proposed laws.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics campaigns for the removal of toxic and harmful ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products. The website includes information about what ingredients to look out for.
The Environmental Working Group does a lot of different stuff. Broadly, EWG monitors ingredients and contaminants in products that consumers use, including food, water, electronics, etc. The company promotes safe and sustainable products, and they produce many different consumer guides to help do this. EWG is most famous for their extensive Skin Deep cosmetics database, which includes extensive ingredient information and safety ratings.
The Bottle Bill Resource Guide compiles information about regions of the world with current or proposed bottle bills. Bottle bills (or container deposit laws) require consumers to pay a small, refundable deposit for every bottle purchased. When the bottle is returned for recycling or reuse, the deposit is returned. Bottle bills significantly boost recycling rates. Here’s a cool history of the switch from reusable to disposable bottles and cans.