The Happy Homo Homemaker

Photo of the Day - Walkin the dog

Walkin the dog
2/1/10

A gentleman and his dog on Ocean Beach, taken during a hike to our favoritest of places in San Francisco, the Sutro Baths and Sutro Heights Park.

Adventures in veggie bacon

Before and after. Looks equally unappetizing, dudn't it?

The fact that I'm married to a non-meat eater doesn't pose a problem most days.  

At home I'm pretty content to stick to cooking fish and pasta and vegetables and, don't tell anyone, but even the occasional meat substitute. (Okay, full disclosure: veggie burgers is as far as I go.) But there are some things I miss.

Like bacon.

Not that I have the DT's if don't eat slabs of cured pig every day, but, you know, it's nice to be able to have just a touch of bacony goodness here and there. Like in New England Clam Chowder or sauteed Brussels Sprouts or donuts from Dynamo. A hint of crunchy, briny bacon can be like a ray of sunshine in an otherwise rainy, crappy day of a dish.

Not afraid of a good culinary challenge, I recently picked up some Morningstar Farms Veggie Bacon and cooked some up earlier just for giggles.

Overall, its whole appearance is just unsettling.  From the distinctly fake coloring ("Red #3" according to the packaging) to the way it blistered as I heated it, everything about it is just "off."  I mean, there's nothing better than the smell of bacon wafting through the house on a lazy Saturday morning, right?  Yeah well, my entire apartment smells like burnt, hickory-smoked Goodyear tire. And I just don't think bacon should have the thin papery texture of a Pringles potato chip, so fragile that it shatters if you drop it.

That all said, I do need to give credit where credit is due: the finished product actually does taste like bacon.  It really does... if your idea of bacon is those baco-bits you find under the sneeze guard at a Red Lobster salad bar.  

I have to go now. I'm gonna go make a batch of New England Clam Chowder in a nice light shade of Red #3.

Finished piece

At long last, I can finally post a shot of my first "finished" piece of glass (since I literally have a PILE of pieces waiting to be finished), a 12-inch square plate that was my Christmas gift to my mother. After taking the slow boat to China via the Pony Express, it finally arrived in Brooklyn today, only 17 days after Christmas. Merry Christmas, Mom!  (okay, to be fair, I sent it late. Don't judge.)

I originally called this "Windows," for the three little windows of translucent blue glass in the middle of a sea of opaque white. But after reviewing the photos, I'm thinking a more apt title might be "Sting Ray." Crikey!

Photo of the Day - Buttons

Buttons
12/30/09

Detail on a new glass piece I'm working on. 

The Baking Season: A Retrospective

I had a dribbly tip.
  
I seemed to have had one baking mishap after another this holiday season, and I'm not sure why. I'm The Happy Homo Homemaker for god's sake! I can do ANYthing Martha can do... only better and with more S'sssssss.

But as with any experience, good or bad, I learned quite a bit. 

I learned that no matter how many times I make a recipe--for example, my very own Cranberry Orange Oatmeal cookies, a recipe I developed myself--somehow, some way, I will still screw it up occasionally. Last year, I accidentally added twice the amount of orange extract to one batch. Not entirely bad, but still wrong. This year, one entire batch had to be dumped due to a too-much-dry-ingredients catastrophe.

I learned that I need to take a class in Pastry Bag Technique 101 (see above). My very first attempt at making French macarons, while not at all a disaster, was a total comedy of errors. From realizing that "almond flour" (read: ground almonds) will simply NOT sift properly and will give you tennis elbow if you try to force it all through, to filling the pastry bag while not noticing that the batter was pouring straight out the tip.

On the plus side, the macarons, whether cracked and imperfect or smooth and gorgeous, were DEEElicious. Two big thumbs up.

I learned that substituting Splenda for sugar in a recipe as simple as Pink Grapefruit Sorbet could very well be to blame for turning said sorbet into a solid, inedible block of ice. Sorry, Splenda. I tried to validate you, but you suck.

And I learned that, inevitably, each year, one of my last-minute, after-thought creations will turn out to be the hit of the season and wind up earning a spot in the Happy Homo Homemaker Sweet Treat Hall of Fame. This year's inductree was: Candied Pink Grapefruit peel dipped in semi-sweet Scharffen Berger chocolate. [drooling uncontrollably]  These are seriously OOTW. 

Chocolate-Dipped Candied Pink Grapefruit Peel
By the Happy Homo Homemaker
 

 
4 pink grapefruits (or 6 oranges – whichever citrus you prefer really)
4 cups sugar
4 cups water
Additional sugar for coating
5-6 oz (approx) good quality semisweet chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger 62%)

Under cold running water, scrub the outside of the fruit to remove any dirt.

With a sharp paring knife, score the peel vertically, by slicing about ½ inch deep from end to end, making about 4-6 cuts in each. Work your finger gently underneath each slice, peeling it away from the fruit in one piece.

Place rind in a pot of cold water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes. Drain and repeat twice more. (This will soften the skins and make the white pith easier to scrape off.) After the third time, rinse rind under cold water until cool enough to handle. Using a soup spoon, gently but firmly scrape the fleshy pith off each slice. Slice into 1/2 inch wide strips.

Place the sugar and water in a large saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved. (Ratio should be 1 cup sugar/1 cup water to each cup of rind.) Stir in rind and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until syrup is nearly absorbed and rind is looking translucent – this will take a couple of hours, but keep an eye on it towards the end.

Using tongs, remove pieces from the syrup and cool on a rack or wax paper. When cool enough to handle, scrape off excess syrup using your thumb and index finger, roll in sugar, and allow to dry completely overnight.

Place chocolate in a small-to-medium sized heat-proof bowl and place on top of a small saucepan of gently boiling water. Stir chocolate until completely melted. Dip each piece of peel into the chocolate, covering about ½ to ¾ of it, and using a spatula to make sure it’s completely coated on all sides. Gently scrape off excess chocolate and place on sheets of wax paper until chocolate has hardened.

The best Christmas gift evah

Granted, I'm biased, but...

Since I couldn't be with my family in New Jersey today, I wanted to send them a little something they could open on Xmas Day.  Something special, something they would get a kick out of, something that would be fun to do....

So I made this:


... a 1,000 piece puzzle of our old family photos.

Shots of mothers and grandparents, and our seemingly endless list of great aunts and uncles, some of which we never even knew.  First Communion shots, wedding shots, shots taken annually during the once-a-year trip to Coney Island. It's a fantastic collage, if I do say so myself!  I just wish I had been there in Pequannock today, doing the puzzle with everyone else! :-(

Photo of the Day - San Francisco City Hall

Our City Hall is merrier than your City Hall.
12/24/09 

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Dam glass!

Dam
12/13/09

A few weeks ago, in my infinite quest to become a multi-talented hyphenate, I joined Public Glass, a studio and school devoted to glass arts. I took a class there on kiln-formed glass--i.e. "warm glass," as opposed to blown glass which is known as "hot glass"--and really enjoyed it, so I became a member... a FULL YEAR after I actually took the class.

I spent my Sunday learning a technique called stacking-and-damming from fellow member and glass artist extraordinaire Herb Dang. Hours were spent cutting strips of glass of the exact same length and width.

This is how my piece looked as I loaded it into the kiln, all dammed up to prevent the molten glass from running all over the place. We'll see how it turns out... in about 30 hours.

Christmas memories

The Happy Homo Homemaker, demonstrating his early love of balls.
Christmas 1974

I LOVE this outfit.  I look like one of the Partridge Family, with the embroidered velvet pantsuit and the collar that's wider than I am. 

I also enjoy the Shop Rite box in the background. Either Shop Rite (a NJ chain of grocery stores) once made toy trucks or someone sent me canned goods for Christmas. 

Photo of the Day - Mini Castro

 
A mini Castro Theatre (complete with an actual recording of the mighty Wurlitzer playing "San Francisco") with the Transamerica Pyramid in the background -- two of the many miniature San Francisco landmarks seen in the Golden Gate Express Garden Railway at the Conservatory of Flowers through April 18, 2010.