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...