A few days ago, I made bread. I was aiming for a focaccia-style crusty flatbread, but completely missed the mark. But that’s not to say the bread wasn’t delicious!
Flatbread fail
New York Day 3
We started the day with bagels from H & H Midtown Bagels East. Then we made chocolate chip cookies following the Cook’s Illustrated recipe. They were pretty good, although in my opinion, a bit too rich and sweet. In the evening, we went over to Koreatown and had dinner at Her Name is Han. After, we wandered around Koryo Bookstore.
New York Day 2
We went to Brooklyn and visited a food fair called Smorgasburg. There were quite a bunch of food stalls selling quite delicious looking food. The prices were a bit on the steep side though.
Then we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was a struggle to find the entrance, but eventually we found our way. I took various pretty pictures of flowers.
For dinner we ordered the omakase at Sushi Yasaka. It was really really good. 10/10, would go again. Continue reading “New York Day 2”
Zero Waste Home Book Review
I recently finished Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson, of zerowastehome.com. This is a book about reducing the amount of waste you produce. It was much more useful to me than Plastic Purge was. The author comes off as extreme, but in ways that are refreshing and helpful to people who are already very into sustainable living.
New York Day 1
I’m in New York for the week! I’ll be posting some pictures of my travels (probably mostly of food).
Airport Udon
Got udon at SFO, it was surprisingly better than I expected.
Plastic Purge Book Review
I recently finished Plastic Purge by Michael SanClements. The end goal of the book, as suggested by the title, is to help you reduce the amount of plastic in your life. But on the way, there is a bunch of other information: the history of plastics, plastic recycling, types of plastic, etc.
Blender woes
I bought a blender from someone on Craigslist a while ago (very convenient! I highly recommend Craigslist; there’s even a free section). It was meant to replace a very low-quality, very hard-to-clean food processor. There are a few blended things I make (hummus, falafel, soymilk) that justified a slight upgrade, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money.
At this point, I can’t even definitively say that the blender is better than the food processor. It does have a glass pitcher and takes longer to smell like burning plastic 🙁 but it doesn’t chop things as finely. Hummus is a struggle; falafel and soymilk don’t get ground finely enough to be even close to correct.
I discovered that the food mill (I don’t have the very useful tripod stand) works great for hummus, but it won’t work for harder things (like falafel, where the chickpeas are still raw) and it seems that the question of the safety of aluminum cookware is still undecided. What is the most versatile tool for my blending/grinding/chopping needs that isn’t electrified, will last forever, and/or can be bought used?
Ideas:
- Mortar and pestle (my sibling finds this very suitable)
- Handcrank food/Grain mill
- KitchenAid stand mixer with grinding attachment (would also replace bread machine)
- Suggestions?
San Mateo County Fair
J and I went to the county fair last weekend. J already wrote his review.
I was mostly interested in going for the crafts and animals. Of course I’ve gone to county fairs before when I was growing up, but I haven’t been since I’ve gotten more into crafts and heritage stuff (which includes livestock breeds!).
There was the requisite quilt competition, along with homemade clothing (not much), and crocheted and knitted items. I was excited to see a group of spinners (the Elkus Ranch Spinners) and a sustainable living section!
Pita, Falafel, and Hummus
We made our own pita bread, falafel, and hummus! It was a great meal!