Yay! That Wasn't Too Terrible, After All!

I went to the Energy Innovation Center yesterday for a presentation on Net Zero Energy Buildings.  One of the presenters, Katy Hamilton, was one of my classmates in the first architectural studio I'd taken at MIT!  When she was introduced, I thought to myself, "I wonder if she could be the same Katy Hamilton whom I knew at MIT?"  Turns out she was!  She now holds the position of Architectural Energy VP at a firm called Adroit Solar, an engineering firm that consults and provides design/build services to the construction industry.  They have a number of interesting projects in San Diego and out, including long-term resident/clients.  Katy is their architect of record, I assume.

Their presentation went over many aspects of creating a zero net energy building, and how that is something that is becoming ever more important in society's pursuit of sustainable architecture.

Katy's moved from full-time work to part-time recently because she decided to spend some time with her new baby boy, who is still a baby (barely a toddler, I think).  I asked her if she remembered Liz, who was also in our studio, and she didn't remember, probably because we were not in the same studio subgroup, which makes sense, because the introductory classes at MIT are not small.

This morning, I experimented with a recipe for a very eggy-looking flatbread made with coconut flour.  Well, the recipe calls for coconut flour, but I used coconut powder, instead, having forgotten that I actually do have coconut flour in the freezer.  I can make the recipe again later today if I find the ones I made this morning palatable.

Hmmm...  not bad.  I acquired the recipe from somewhere;  I don't remember where, but it was probably from someone else's blog:

Grain-Free Butternut Squash Flatbread

recipe makes about (4) 3-4" breads

1 T coconut flour (I used my coconut powder, which has a coarser texture)
1/2 T gelatin (about half of an envelope)
3 T well-cooked and mashed butternut squash (recipe says that sweet potato can be substituted)
1 T coconut oil or butter (I used coconut oil)
1 egg (I used a jumbo egg and added about a half teaspoon of coconut powder)
dash salt

Have all ingredients at room temperature.  for the coconut oil or butter, you can just nuke it for several seconds).

Preheat oven to 400F.

Stir together squash and coconut oil until smooth.  In separate bowl, stir together coconut flour, gelatin, and salt.

Sprinkle gelatin mixture over squash mixture, and fold in until completely incorporated.  Mix in egg until it becomes a relatively thick batter.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet (I used foil for the initial bake time, then used waxed paper for the second) and spread each "patty" into desired thickness (these will not rise).

Bake for 12 minutes, then peel the breads from the liner and turn over (it was at this point that I switched from foil to waxed paper).  They might still look slightly moist on their upper sides when you take them out to turn over, but that is okay.

Bake on second side for about 5 minutes (time really depends on how thick you've actually made each bread circle).

Cool on cooling rack.

I took K to school this morning because it was still dark when she was leaving for school and she was wearing her black jeans with the black band hoodie.  I also helped her carry on the beverages (she carried the two cases of Dr Pepper and I carried the 24-pack of half-litre water bottles).

I put the brie with mushrooms back in the fridge, because I don't think I'll be opening it today during the day, and I plan to go to games tonight at Fuddrucker's, so will not be around to have it with dinner.

For dinner, I think I'll prepare a lasagne (of sorts) with ground beef (since we have it), thinly sliced eggplant, and bechamel, since it's easiest to prepare and I don't have any tomatoes to make tomato sauce.  Actually, thinking about the beef, I'm not quite sure the bechamel will work.  Perhaps I will just make an eggplant lasagne with the jarred white sauce that's sitting up in the cabinet over the fridge.  I might take a gander at Smart & Final to look for canned peeled roma tomatoes, in addition to cumin and cinnamon, which I usually buy there because I can get it in the large packages for about twice the price of the small jars at Albertson's when I'd be buying about four times as much product.

Yes, I think it'll be eggplant lasagne with the pre-made sauce-in-a-jar.  The hardest part will be precooking the lasagne noodles before assembling the lasagne, since I'm using less liquid than I typically use, I'll want the extra moisture for the noodles to bake properly.  Or maybe I'll leave them dry and make sure I have them sufficiently surrounded by sauce to provide the needed moisture without making the lasagne a soupy mess.  I can put that in the oven when Kat comes home this afternoon so that I can serve it before leaving for games around 5:15 or 5:30(since I take the bus to games, I'm at the mercy of MTS).

Thinking about MTS, the service has improved dramatically in recent weeks.  They've introduced the Rapid Lines, which run a lot of the same (or similar) routes as some of the local buses, but they skip a lot of stops and take the express lanes on the freeway instead of the regular lanes, thereby bypassing a LOT of automobile traffic.  I'm relieved and pleased that MTS has decided to go this way, because it definitely helps those of us who live in the northern portion of the City and County, since two of the Rapid lines run up to Escondido and Rancho Bernardo transit stations).  I'm glad I live near one of the new transit stations so that I can take advantage of the Rapid bus by walking only about three-quarters of a mile from home.  If I want to be especially lazy, I can leave home a little earlier and take the local bus, which stops just about across the street from my flat, to the transit station.

I just tasted the paleo flatbread, and it's very eggy and very coconutty, which is fine, though I don't think I'll be using it to accompany my garlicky baba ganoush (recipe in previous post).  For that, I think I will bake some lavash.  When I bake the lavash, I'll put the recipe here to share.

Peter's wanting to go for a night dive sometime this week.  I will need to find a substitute for my torch, which was made by Princeton Tec, but has a broken switch so that the torch is constantly on once the front is screwed onto the body.  I just phoned one of my regular dive shops, where I thought I had purchased the Island Pack, which included a torch, a backup, and a strobe.  Turns out I didn't buy the pack there.  Sport Chalet is not open yet today, but I can phone them when they do open to see if they can look up my purchase of it at one of their locations (I typically go to the one in University City, but have also made purchases at the locations in Mission Valley and Point Loma).

I also can't find my backup light, which I had bought for our trip to Roatan last year and had not used extensively or recently.  I had been keeping it in my drysuit pocket, but it's no longer there, and I have no idea where it can be.  Might have left it somewhere?  Ugh, that'd be pretty bad.  And I'd bought it online, too, so I don't even remember the online store from whom I'd purchased it.  I'll look through my receipts and see if I can find my record of its purchase and see if it has a warranty, and what it covers.  Probably doesn't cover forgetfulness, though, so I think I'm out of the $80-90 that it'll cost to replace it.  Urgh...

Home Again

The dive boat (Horizon) got in around 7:30-ish last night, so I stayed over at Peter's.  We stopped on the way and bought a bottle of red wine (might have been a zinfandel), about a half pound wedge of brie, and some fruit for breakfast, as well as some milk.  We slept very well, and spent the early morning snuggling and sipping tea.  Peter had an 8 o'clock telephone call to take, so I spent some more time relaxing in bed, thinking about our dives this past weekend.

We ended up not going to San Clemente after all because the U.S. Navy was busy shelling the place (how much practice the Navy needs in shooting onshore targets is unknown to me, but it must be a lot, because the island was closed to divers) for the entire weekend.  We did go to the ocean side of Catalina, to Farnsworth Bank, where we'd gone diving in May and enjoyed the hydrocoral.  There were lots of little fish about, including the California State fish, the Garibaldi.  As juveniles, the Garibaldi sports electric blue spots, and are quite stunning in addition to being extremely cute!

After Farnsworth, we went to another site, but I don't remember that one so well because I'd skipped the third dive, and then went on the fourth dive after taking a much-needed nap in the early afternoon.
The next day, we were at Santa Barbara Island, where there is a sea lion rookery and we were greeted and buzzed by several younger sea lions.  On the surface, we could hear the adults calling back and forth, their voices echoing off the rocky shore.

For the third day, we returned to Catalina, but closer to the south end of the island, closer to but not in Avalon's Dive Park.  Visibility was poor on the first dive, so we scuttled our second dive.  Some more adventurous divers went on a second dive while those of us staying on board began packing up our things to return to San Diego.  I was finished packing my dive bag in about a half hour, and my drysuit hung, drying, on one of many hooks meant for hanging dry- and wetsuits.  Peter and I napped a bit while the rest of the divers got back on board and the boat left Catalina for San Diego, a 7- to 8-hour drive.

Today, I've spent a lot of time catching up on my email inboxes, and also checked my postal mail. There is quite a contest between two people in our district for City Council, Carol Kim and Chris Cate.  There is quite a spate of negative ads running from Chris Cate's campaign, which makes me feel much less inclined to vote for him.  Instead of talking about his own character and his ability to serve the public, it appears that Mr Cate is trying to paint Ms Kim as unworthy of the post and therefore people ought to vote for him instead.  Typical Repugnican move, in my not-quite-humble opinion.

I made a shopping trip up to Sprouts to buy dinner ingredients, including quinoa for stuffing the 8-ball squash we'd received as part of our share last time.  We ended with quite a bit of extra filling, so I might spread it into a baking dish and sprinkle it with some cheese and just bake it to eat on its own, or spread it, along with the ground beef I'd bought, also from Sprouts, between some lasagna noodles to bake for dinner.  I don't have any ricotta, but perhaps the vegetable filling will be enough, since I don't plan to make a very large lasagna.  I'm really just using up the remaining lasagna noodles that we have.

I've been toying with the idea of making another ganache, and then making some more puffs to fill with pastry cream, though this time, I will make sure I make the puffs when Kat is home so she can help me fill the piping bag with the pastry batter, as it really does seem to be a two-person task.

Tomorrow, for lunch, I will go to the Energy Innovation Center for a presentation on Net Zero Energy Buildings.  It will be very encouraging to learn about the use of modern technology to tackle our biggest challenges, with energy being our primary concern as our species evolves beyond burning fossil fuels for energy.

Who knows?  I might even feel motivated enough to go to the gym tomorrow, as my visits there have been few and far between of late.

For now, though, I will head to bed to try to get a good night's sleep.

A Weekend Away

Today is looking like a good day.  I baked some mini apple muffins for breakfast, and Kat took the remaining to school with her:

High-Fibre Apple Muffins

Ingredients
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c. coconut flour or powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 t nutmeg, shaved or ground

1 medium-sized sweet apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

1 extra large or jumbo egg
1/2 c. buttermilk

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.

coat a 12-portion mini muffin tin liberally with cooking spray.  Set aside.

In large bowl, sift together baking soda, whole wheat flour, nutmeg, and salt.  Stir in coconut flour or powder (the powder has a coarser texture than flour).

In medium bowl, beat egg, then add buttermilk, whisking until it forms a thick fluid.

Add chopped apple to dry ingredients, stirring to coat.  Add wet ingredients all at once to flour mixture, then stir to mix thoroughly.  Allow the coconut flour/powder to sit for a few minutes to start absorbing moisture.

Pour batter into muffin tin (the cups will be very full), and bake for 15 minutes.  They will brown slightly along the edges, and will likely meet each other, almost completely covering the top of the tin, so it may behoove you to spray the entire top surface of the tin with the cooking spray instead of just the interiors of the cups.

Allow to cool slightly in the pan on a cooling rack, then place in a folded linen teacloth in either a ceramic bowl or wooden bowl (which would allow better air flow for cooling).  Serve with butter.

This evening, Peter and I will board the Horizon, a boat fitted out for SCUBA diving.  It has cabins and bunks downstairs, and a dining room on the deck level which serves as the meeting space for the crew to provide information to passengers prior to departure, before each dive, and at the end of the trip, when passengers will have the opportunity to leave gifts in the tip jar.

The Horizon is a nice dive boat, outfitted well with, from what I've experienced, a good crew.  A dive boat's crew is usually made up of the captain, a cook, a dive master, and one or two deck hands to help keep things running smoothly.

We will dive at San Clemente Island.

I will be leaving Kat for the weekend.  She has activities planned for both Friday and Saturday (no football game on Friday, so they'll have marching practice), and will likely be finishing homework on Sunday.  I just baked some nice crackers for her to snack on over the next few days (garlic-rosemary crackers, recipe below).  They are cooling on racks on the stove at the moment.  I tasted a few of the edge pieces (ones which came out quite irregularly shaped) and can say, with no doubt, that she will enjoy them.  They have just enough salt to bring out the flavors, and the ample garlic and rosemary really pack a punch.

Garlic-Rosemary Crackers

Ingredients
1 good-sized head garlic, root ends cut off and paper removed
(3-4) 5-6" sprigs fresh rosemary (we'd just gotten some in our CSA share this week)

3/4 c. warm water (just nuke it for several seconds until warm to the touch)
1/3 c. EVOO

1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour, plus a little more if needed

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.  Spray two baking sheets with olive oil or some other nonstick spray.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a large bowl.  Set aside.

Separate garlic cloves and mash them (I use a garlic masher that I'd bought from The Pampered Chef) into a paste.  Separate rosemary leaves from stems, and chop into a fine texture (I used my Ulu knife).

Stir rosemary into the flour mixture.  Add garlic and liquid ingredients all at once.  Fold mixture until a smooth batter forms.  You may need to add a tad more flour if the batter is too sticky/runny to handle.  Form a soft ball with the batter.

Cut batter ball in half, and spread each half, using your bare hands, onto each baking sheet (the batter will not completely fill each sheet, but you want it to be pretty thin).  Cut into cracker portions with a pizza cutter.

Bake in preheated oven for approximately 12-14 minutes (mine took 13).  Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets until ready to handle and eat!

These crackers would go well with the Baba Ganoush I'm preparing next.  Vampire dispellers!

Baba Ganoush

Ingredients
1-1 1/4 lbs eggplant, either a single large one, or two smaller ones
4 small- to medium-sized lemons or limes, or combination thereof
4 large cloves garlic
4 T Tahini

Instructions
With a sharp fork, poke holes all around eggplant(s).  Wrap in foil, and bake on a baking tray at 450F for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, process/chop garlic cloves and juice lemons/limes.  Add tahini, and place mixture into a large bowl.

When eggplant(s) are finished roasting, cool slightly, then cut open and chop coarsely.  Place in food processor and process in bursts until desired texture is reached.  Pour eggplant into large bowl with remaining ingredients, and mix together thoroughly.  Add salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.  

Losing and Finding

This evening, we experienced some panic, worry, and, thankfully, great relief.

Kat had borrowed, from my brother, who lives in Temecula, a library book he had taken out from his local library, to use for a school assignment over the summer.  That book has come due for the final time (no renewals remaining) and he came by tonight to fetch it.  He'd intended to pick it up when they'd visited for Kat's birthday, but had forgotten.

After searching for it all over our flat, Kat concluded, as we all had at that point, that the book was nowhere we knew of (hell, I don't even remember seeing the book at all).  Kat remarked that there is a girl in her English class who has the exact same edition of the book, and she'd noticed it at the time.  I told Kat to try contacting this girl to get the book back, because library books tend to be on the not-quite-cheap side as far as books go, at least.

Luckily, Kat instant messaged the girl and found out that indeed, the girl did have the one that Kat had borrowed from her uncle (my brother), and the girl would bring it into class to return to Kat tomorrow.  So now, there might be a late return fee charged for the book, but at least it will be returned and no lost book fine assessed.

My brother reminded Kat that she needs to be careful with her things (and I emphasized that she needs to be especially careful with other people's things).  Because if something is lost, and it is one's own personal belonging, then it's lost.  However, if that which is lost had belonged to someone else, then not only is the object lost, but then a suitable substitute must be found, and for some things, like library books, suitable substitutes are hard to come by, if they can be found at all.

Out of this little saga, I'm hoping that Kat learns to keep track of things.  She'd previously lost other things.  One such thing was a digital camera which was given to her a couple of years ago by my previous lover.  She'd taken it to Girl Scout Camp, and had apparently left it on the bus when they arrived at the meeting point where they were picked up by their parents.  Of course, the first thing I said to her was not "Where is your camera?" but "Did you have a good time?"  It wasn't until hours later that we realized the camera was missing, and then we figured that she must've left it on the bus.  Of course, the Girl Scouts would have contracted with a coach company to provide the buses, and the drivers are in no way liable for any lost items, including cameras.  Kat was disappointed that she'd lost the pictures she's taken during the trip.  I was pissed that she'd lost her camera!  Granted, it was not an especially expensive camera, but it was the fact that she'd failed to take care of it that pissed me off.  She'd also lost the sunglasses that I'd bought for her to take on the trip.  They did not cost too much, either, but I refused to replace them.  Unfortunately, Kat's grandfather (my dad) gave her his camera to use, and he bought himself another one.  I remind Kat that if she loses this camera, she is NOT to be GIVEN another just so that she can continue to be irresponsible with them.

Less recently, Kat borrowed my swim goggles, which I had purchased at CVS for something around eight dollars.  They were not expensive, but they were perfectly serviceable, and I'd enjoyed using them.  A short while ago, Kat asked me if she could borrow them, and I replied that I had no idea where they were since the last time she'd borrowed them from me, so having lost them, now she's facing the inconvenience of not having them to use.  I just wonder how many times and how many things she's going to lose before it finally dawns on her that there is no infinite supply of stuff for her to squander.

Amidst losing this, that, and many other things, I'm becoming, suitably, less attached to material things.  Some things hold monetary value, and other things hold sentimental value (though those are few and far between these days).  For those things that have some significant monetary value, I have a safe deposit box at the bank.  Also in my safe deposit box are my citizenship certificate and a copy of my birth certificate (I have no idea as to the whereabouts of the original).  But, in the long run, they are all things, when it comes down to it.  Why so much importance?  Why is anything of any consequence?

I suppose that for me, convenience is nice.  It is comforting to know that something is available when and where it is wanted or needed, like bathroom tissue (aka toilet paper).  This is also the reason why I'd favor using handkerchiefs rather than paper tissues most of the time.  A handkerchief is there, and can be used when needed.  When it's not needed, it remains quietly in one's pocket.  The exception is when one is ill with a sinus infection, when one might really want to get rid of all those germs one is blowing out of one's system, hopefully never to return.

Anyway, I think I've written enough about this, at least for now.

Follow-up on the Making of Truffles and Puffs

My hands were, indeed, coated with chocolate ganache after I completed making about a dozen and a half truffles, each measuring about one and a half to two teaspoons.  I coated all of them in unsweetened cocoa, not using the confectioners' sugar at all.  Kat complained that there were none with confectioners' sugar, so I might make some more truffles, using confectioners' sugar to coat them, over the coming weekend, or something like that.  I don't want to keep too many truffles around, though, as they'll just take up space in the fridge...

The puffs came out all right, though not great.  They managed to puff somewhat, but after I told Kat how hard it was to get the batter into the bag for piping, she agreed that it's a two-person job.  Perhaps she'll help me make puffs next time, then.

For now, I've got truffles in the fridge, half of a pecan pie in a tart pan, and flatbreads/breadsticks in a large Ziploc baggie, all waiting to be consumed.  I've also got some food in the freezer, waiting to be cooked and eaten.  I'd purchased them for mornings when I don't have time to prepare something fresh, so Kat can just pop one or two scallion pancakes into the egg pan (20 cm diameter) for breakfast.

We also have, in the freezer (I hope the freezing process doesn't kill their texture), Chinese taro cake and turnip cake, each of is to be sliced up and pan-fried.  They take more time, as they'll need plenty of time to thaw before being sliced, and then the slices need pan frying.  So perhaps I'll thaw one of them, slice it, and then freeze the slices individually so that they'll be ready to cook for breakfast on that odd morning when I don't have time to cook and Kat's not in the mood for the scallion pancakes...

Can you tell I'm in a really big culinarily-inspired mood?

Presence

I have noticed the mental absence on the part of many people whom I see at bus stops and riding the buses.  This has been a phenomenon on my part, as well, as I've had my eyes on my phone more and more while riding the bus along a familiar route, often reaching my stop just as I'm becoming aware of my whereabouts.

I've been trying a few new bus routes because they provide much faster service to places where I would like to go (Poway, to get to Peter's, to and from UCSD, where I had initially started sitting in on  class, and to and from UTC, where I went today to buy a pair of comfortable shoes (imagine that - and they're not even ugly!).

I decided to forego the gym (again) because my plantar fasciitis is still causing pain when I walk.  Peter suggested that I massage my foot and practice flexing my toes, stretching the fascia gently, slowly, throughout the day.

It's been several weeks now since the fasciitis started bothering me this time (initially, it'd acted up a while back, and I'd tried "running through it," only to cause more damage and resulting in additional scar tissue buildup).  However, it reminded me of the lack of presence on the part of a lot of commuters and others who regularly use public transit, myself included.

While riding, I put my phone away and watched the traffic and passing scenery as I rode along Mira Mesa Boulevard, heading toward the 805.  I noticed the construction that continues at the junction of Mira Mesa, the I-805, and Sorrento Valley.  They are adding in an extension of Carroll Canyon Road, which, as far as I know, runs from Scripps Ranch into Mira Mesa, ending at Black Mountain Road.  However, I know it "continues" on the other side of the quarry.  Whether this leg of Carroll Canyon Road connects to the other a mystery to me.  Time to go to Googlemaps!

Ugh.  I just Googled it, and IT DOES NOT CONNECT!  Why, in the name of cartography, would two roads share a name when they don't connect?!?  How asinine is that?  Or maybe just the result of lazy mapmakers who cannot come up with new names for roads?

Back to my point:  being unaware of one's physical whereabouts can be dangerous, if one is traveling (esp. in unfamiliar or unsafe surroundings), but is, on the whole, a loss of experience, even if that experience tends to be similar from one passing to the next.  There is always something worth noticing, or observing.  I'm going to try putting my phone away from now on, and keep my awareness to that which is around me.  I encourage others to practice this level of presence as well.

Trial Date is Set

Indeed, it is Monday, 24 November, 2014, whose afternoon will find me in Courtroom A of the San Diego Superior Court for my traffic violation trial.  I chose to go to trial because I want Officer Ryan, who gave me the ticket, to tell the court exactly what happened that evening (or at least what he witnessed).  I remember he'd told me, that evening, that he'd come to court and testify, on my behalf, that I was not driving in an unsafe manner, and that although I did not follow the letter of the law, that I surely followed its spirit...

After having spent most of my morning hours yesterday waiting for my arraignment, I spoke to the magistrate (they're called Commissioners here), and told her that I want a speedy trial date set.  I was given an appointment in the cashiers' room, and then left.  I had the chance to stop into the restaurant supply shop down the street to take a look at a few items.  

Peter's looking (casually, I believe) for a bamboo steamer basket for the dim sum that he'd bought, frozen, from the Korean market we visited (on Clairemeont Mesa Boulevard).  I saw a few Chinese-made baskets, but they did not look that well made, so I gave them a pass.  I also looked for a small offset spatula, which would come in handy for frosting cakes and cupcakes, as well as frosting cookies (yum!).  They were out of stock (of course!).  Finally, I searched (in vain) for an Asian-style vegetable peeler, one of which I'd used when I volunteered at a food event preparing vegetables for a festival taking place in Balboa Park.  I saw lot of other things in the store's show- and storeroom that would come in handy, but then I realized that, with a kitchen the size of mine, I've really got no space to store much in terms of additional equipment.

On Monday, and yesterday, I was finally able to successfully make chocolate ganache!  The ganache I made on Monday has the proper consistency for forming truffles, and the second ganache is the right consistency for pastries (like topping eclairs or cream puffs, which I intend to do tomorrow afternoon).  I've tasted both and each is delicious.  The difference between them is the cream-to-chocolate ratio.  For the truffles, it's a ratio of about 1:2 of cream to chocolate.  For the dip, it's the opposite, 2:1 cream to chocolate.  I bought some Ghirardelli's bittersweet chocolate baking chips and shaved & chopped them into small bits with my Ulu knife.  I then placed these bits into a Pyrex bowl, then poured boiling heavy cream over them.  By allowing this to sit, undisturbed, for fifteen minutes, I allowed the heat of the cream to soften and melt the chocolate, which then mixed into the cream perfectly, forming a creamy, smooth mixture...

I might actually form some truffles this morning, since tonight, I'll either be attending a cheese tasting at the Venissimo Cheese shop located at a small shopping center near the waterfront downtown, or going to the near opposite, Fuddrucker's, here in Mira Mesa, for games, with SDBG.  Each will be fun and interesting, in very different ways.  I invited Kat to come to the cheese tasting with me, so when she comes home this afternoon (I think she might be stopping into Wangenheim to help Ms. Vanderhurst with JMUN today), I'll see if she still wants to go.  If she does, I will plug the address into my phone and set the GPS to give me turn-by-turn directions.  I might make it a completely decadent evening and, after going to Venissimo Cheese, come home and devour some bittersweet chocolate truffles, coated with cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar...  Ooh, I can feel my thighs and belly aching at the prospect! (No, I don't mean to "bellyache.")

I'd watched, on the Food Network, a program in which Alton Brown demonstrated making chocolate truffles.  He used latex gloves (powderless, of course) to prevent his hands from becoming completely chocolate-coated as well as preventing, I would assume, his body heat from melting the chocolate.  I might go to Albertson's and buy some gloves for that purpose, although I'm not especially bothered by the prospect of having my hands coated with bittersweet chocolate...  Might be good to keep my hands from melting the chocolate, though.  My hands tend to be relatively cold, so not as prone to causing truffles to melt during formation.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I may as well form them with my bare hands.  It's a cool enough day so the truffles won't immediately soften and go gooey, and I won't be too pained at licking off the chocolate from my fingers (though I wish Peter were here to do that for me).

So:  I'll fill a couple of small dishes with confectioners' sugar and cocoa (each in its own bowl, of course), and get rolling!  I'll write again after rolling some truffles, and describe the process, if it entailed anything interesting.  Otherwise, I'll just relate the number of tablespoon-sized truffles I was able to make with 168 grams of heavy cream and 248 grams of bittersweet chocolate...

Cranberries, Butter, Fuel Efficiency, and Traffic Law

Stopped into my local Smart & Final to buy butter and heavy cream (yes, I'm a bake-aholic and big, big foodie, if you haven't noticed), and saw that the price has gone up significantly in the past month, from just over $7 for three pounds to over $10.  While I can (still) afford to buy these things, it makes mistakes in cooking and baking much more costly (about 35% more costly!).  The price of a half gallon of heavy cream is almost $5 now, so it's in par with almond milk, which I buy because of our (Kat & my) lactose intolerance.

At least bananas have remained relatively inexpensive at 49 cents per pound, which is far below the price at most other grocery stores, including Sprouts, where I usually like to shop, even if only because their produce is fresher and more reasonably priced than at a lot of other food retailers.  Unfortunately, Sprouts' locations do not include Mira Mesa, so I'd have to travel to University City or La Jolla to patronize them.

I'd gone into Target to buy feminine hygiene products, bobby pins, and hair conditioner.  Maybe I should be thankful that I have a lot less hair now that I used to, but then again, I probably still use about the same amount of shampoo and conditioner as when I had more hair, so scratch that thought...

The other day, I watched a YouTube segment featuring Sarah Silverman, who talks about a "pussy tax" being levied on women because of the unwillingness of the penes in the United States legislature to pass an equal pay bill into law.  It's a funny program, and gets the point across.  Humourists are the people best able to point out Society's many, many idiocies (and yes, I do realize that's putting it rather mildly).  Among my favorites are (currently) Ricky Gervais, Sarah Silverman, Steven Colbert (whether that's his given name or not), Tim Minchin, and my perennial favorite, who has unfortunately died, George Carlin.  Other than Sarah Silverman, all of my favorite humourists are unapologetically atheists.  I don't know whether Sarah Silverman is an atheist or not, but considering the nice acidity of her humour, I'm led to think so.

While at Smart & Final, I looked for the "food service" packages of dried cranberries that I liked to purchase, but saw that they seem to have stopped stocking these larger (2- or 3-pound) packages and now just carry the smaller, more expensive packs of "Craisins."  I'll want to make a trip to Sprouts this week, then, to buy dried cranberries.  It'll probably be one day when I can catch the bus to get there after going to the gym in the morning, even though I'll be fully laden with my purchase, in addition to my gym gear, on the return trip.  It'll help build up my arms and shoulders, I figure, and improve my heat tolerance, even though Autumn is supposed to be here by now...

I'm registered to attend the "Clean & Green" meeting in Solana Beach tomorrow evening (5-6:30), but now am reconsidering it because it's not that close (for driving), and I hate using gas to attend events created to address climate change.  They'll discuss hydraulic fracturing along California's coast, which ought to be interesting, but I've already got a lot on my mind.  I'm going to traffic court on Tuesday to tell the magistrate that I want to go to trial for the minor traffic offense (not that minor, as it's a fine of almost $500!) with which I've been charged.

Hopefully, I'll get my trial scheduled before the end of this calendar year.  I know they'll want to schedule it really far out, but I won't let them schedule it beyond the guaranteed 90 days, because I want to get it out of my hair and mind.  I remember the fellow who wrote the ticket to me, Officer Ryan, had told me that he'd testify at my trial that I wasn't driving unsafely, but that I had not followed "the letter of the law."  I had discussed with him, before he gave me the ticket, that I am a careful driver, but am also mindful of wasting resources, so rather than wait through a long red light, I waited until the opposing traffic passed and it was safe, then made my left turn onto the freeway on-ramp.  From what Officer Ryan told me, he actually agrees with my reasoning, but unfortunately, the law does not allow for personal judgment, which, in my opinion, is probably the single most egregious fault in our legal system in the United States of America.  Because really, especially when it comes to traffic laws, if public safety is the point, then why penalize me for acting safely and in a manner that is conscious of the economic and environmental cost of utilizing my car?

Sentencing guidelines have become mandatory sentencing, taking away any discretion on the part of the judge.  The laws are being written for the "lowest common denominator," and in treating everyone as criminals, the legal system has created criminals of us all.

Frustration Comes Easily to Those Seeking to Live as a Vegan on a Paleo Diet

I don't think there's any way around it:  in order to give this Paleo Diet a good shake, I'd been consuming vast quantities of animal products (mostly eggs and cheese).  Since seeing "Cowspiracy," however, I've been reminded that although I can claim to be an environmental activist, in the eyes of the makers of that particular movie, I am not an environmentalist because I still consume animals and animal products.  I talked with Peter about that, and he researched and wrote about the topic on his blog:
http://ecoscienceblogdotcom.wordpress.com

Like many activists, the makers of this particular film are messianic.  They are on a "mission from god" (apologies to Jake and Elwood):  to convert/convince as many people as possible to follow their creed (veganism).  I admit freely that I was really taken in by the emotional appeal of the movie, and it was well-produced.  However, while watching it, I thought that the filmmakers were not entirely fair to the environmental groups they interviewed and excoriated.

I made a substitution of coconut flour in some muffins this morning.  Unfortunately, I only used half as much coconut flour as I ought to have, because the muffins resembled certain English breakfast puddings that Peter'd had in the past.  They tasted very nice, though.  When I am successful at making them into actual muffins, I'll post the recipe here.  In the meantime, here is a soft cookie:

Chocolate-Cherry Cookies

4 oz. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 oz. candied cherries, chopped well

1+1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. a-p flour
1/4 c. garbanzo bean flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t salt

1 large egg
4 oz. butter, melted and cooled
3 T. buttermilk (I used low-fat)
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract
3 T brown sugar (you can use less, since the cherries and chocolate chips are plenty sweet)

1 banana, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 F.  line baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine flours, baking powder, and salt.  Stir with whisk to blend.

In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly, then add buttermilk, butter, and extracts.  Beat these well.

Add the dry ingredients, half at a time, mixing well and making sure there are no lumps.  Add mashed banana, and mix well.  Stir in chopped cherries and chocolate chips.  The batter will resemble a typical chocolate chip cookie batter, but with red specks of cherries in it.

I used a 2t measuring spoon to scoop the batter into cookies, using a silicone spatula (a small one) to scoop it out and place it in rows on the baking sheets.  I used two 17x12 (residential oven-sized) baking sheets, and made about 51 cookies (I'd made three trays of a dozen each and one with fifteen).

Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set.  These cookies don't seem to brown very much with that amount of time, but they're still fully-baked.