Jeremy's parents (and Connor) recently adopted a new dog, Ekko.  Unfortunately, he got away from Connor while he was taking Ekko for a walk.    I know some of you are still in the Arlington Area, so if you see Ekko, please let them know. 

The find Ekko blog is: http://findekko.blogspot.com/

My bunny spilled coffee on my laptop.  Keyboard now has problems. 

Thinking about a netbook.   Or should I just get a USB keyboard?

Advice?

My stats exam is on Monday and there is this one serious problem that I can't figure out. If you think you might have even the slightest clue--please give call me or drop me a comment or email.

I can send you a copy of the problem and then you can do your math-jedi thing.

For cake layers
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut Added 1 lb here! ½ semi sweet. ½ bitter sweet. Oops!. Also I used chocolate chips all the way through instead of chopping a bar. Much Easier!
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
For ganache frosting
1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut (½ semi sweet ½ bitter sweet)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup—used honey instead. You could probably omit it altogether though.
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
Special equipment
two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans –umm..I used a 9x13 baking sheet and cut it in half. It was an adventure. But it was more or less cake shaped and double decker by the end

For the berry center: About 16oz of frozen berries. Heat them in a pan and then pour them on top of the first layer. Add all the juice too and let it seep into the bottom layer.
Preparation
Make cake layers:
Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.
Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
Make frosting:
Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.
Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency).
Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.
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It's all about the panzerbjorn.

;o)

Suzaku (the red bird) - Red Bird of the south, the ruler of summer; symbolizes the sun, planet Mars, and heart of living beings. Some say that the red bird is more like the phoenix. The phoenix has many miraculous attributes, but does not possess the Arabian phoenix's propensity for self-immolation. It is usually portrayed as a beautiful bird, virtually identical to an ornamental pheasant. It is said to have the front of a swan, the throat of a swallow, and the bill of a chicken. It feeds on bamboo seeds, and drinks from fountains of fresh water. The phoenix is one of the four emblems of royalty. Overtime, the phoenix symbolism has been confused and merged with that of the Red Bird. The color of suzaku is the red of fire. As the god of south, you have the potential of great strength, passion and determination.
Take this quiz!

We made this recipe from the NYtimes last night, with a few replacements. We used sweet onions instead of leeks, and balsamic vinegar instead of cider vinegar. Also, we used dried beans and cooked them after o/n soaking. I would recommend cooking the squash for a few minutes before cutting it apart--it was really hard going.

Otherwise it was pretty good, and very satisfying. I know some of you guys don't like beans--but you could probably substitute potatoes? I'm not sure..

Also this recipe is very delicious, easy to prepare and vegetarian. Also reasonably health..okay, maybe not the cheese. 

This is a surprisingly delicious recipe. I decided to expand my grain horizons and I needed a recipe for Bulgar wheat. This is a great comfort dish and can be easily expand to include extra veggies. So far I have added (not all at once) artichoke hearts, an extra tomato or two, eggplant, zucchini and turnips. I modified this recipe a little from epicurious.com

1 bulb of garlic, sliced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup coarse (#3) bulgur
1 large ripe tomato, cut into bits
2 cups water or chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup crumbled feta (5 oz)
Garnish: chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook onion in oil in a 2-quart saucepan over moderate heat until a little brown. Stir in bulgur until coated. Add tomato, sugar, and water and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, until bulgur is tender and creamy (like risotto), about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 3 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup feta and season with salt. Top with remaining cup feta.

Note: Just about any cheese works well. I have been using a local sage yogurt cheese and it is tasty.

What space craft launched Spirit and Opportunity?

Jeremy and I saw D-Wars (Dragon Wars).  It was certainly creative, but with the same level of filming genius as..Ecks vs. Sever.   

I now know what would happen if World of Warcraft invaded Second Life... 

Near our apartment--a short drive down 4th street  anyway-- there is a ware house full of interesting food stores.  There are some prepared food vendors--a sushi person, a thai place etc--but mainly there are pastry shops, chocolate shops, ice cream places with bizarre flavours like honey and garlic.  It's a little upscale but extremely tasty.  Especially the ice cream place--I had cucumber granita, Jeremy had chocolate with cinnamon and chili pepper.     On saturdays they have a famers market.  I budgeted about 20$ and got a bunch of things that I don't normally see in a grocery store--like concord grapes.  But the best thing was the street art.   

There is metered parking on the street next to north market, but the street was closed off. Each parking space was claimed by some kind of professional-looking artist, talented amateur or OSU art student with chalk, pastels or paint.  They each painted their space according to a internal plan, or collage or whatever.    They were very nice, a lot of different styles--I liked the owl and the sea turtle.  Also there was a pointallistic work that would have been interesting if we shopped for longer.   But Jeremy wanted to get home and taste some of the free-range bacon that we bought.    I will try to find a camera for next week. 

As you know, cooking has become a hobby for me and Jeremy and we have several cook books.  One of the most challenging is General Dorn's Collection of Treasured Recipes.  Ironically, we got it at a yard sale for $.50  
     Anyway, General Dorn, was the quartermaster general for the pacific theatre and thus his recipes are  distinguished by two things: The copious use of hard liquors (usually plural) in just about everything and the superior level of logistics involved in most of the recipes.   Obviously, marinating a baby goat in it's own blood for 48-72 hours is mere child's play for the masterful General Dorn.  But for the rest of us mere civilians, well..we try hard.  

Not the goat recipe. 

That's just too weird.  

But there are some interesting anectodes about war, recipes and the interesting foreigners he met--and later probably tried to kill. 

But even General Dorn isn't crazy enough to try souffle.   We are. 

  So Sunday night, there was no one else around and we were looking for a challenge--so we decide to make a chocolate souffle.  We realize that we are skipping several prequisite food groups--but we had the ingredients and the impudence.   It was pretty good.   It utterly failed to rise, which makes me disparage the chances of my creating undead to do my biddding.   If I can't a souffle to rise, how will I command the dead to rise?   Also, I hope the undead rise for longer than ten minutes. 

Next time:  More agressive heating of the custard mix.  And definately more agressive beating of the whites. They are supposed to like the Alps...we had more mott and bailey egg whites.  Also:  Find a copper bowl or any kind of metal bowl.

I decided that I needed a project tonight--and the benevolent dairy gods brought the NYT article "Curd Mentality"  to my attention.   So I went to the supermarket and bought 4 pints of heavy cream and some cheese cloth.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the organic raw milk heavy cream that the article suggested, but sometimes it works with the hoi polloi brands.   I still haven't forgiven the times for the foodie 'expensive wine in cooking thing--not that I suffered--I usually by inexpensive wine...

but on to the butter...

It was incredibly easy.

You just put it in the mixer and mix the hell out of it.  Then mix it some more.  It does splash--the NYT article suggests putting plastic wrap over the top of your mixer to protect the kitchen, but I was okay with out it. 

It was delicious--perhaps not the dairy estasy the NYT promised--but it was damn good butter.  I think next time I'll 'customize' it with some fresh herbs.  Sweet Majoram maybe?