Sigh.  It’s week 5.  Week 4’s dishes were done last night at the time.  I had hoped to go for a gold star again this week, but I had to spend an hour an a half one the phone with Turbo Tax, trying to figure out why my tax information for last year had up and disappeared, since I’ve been using their online service since my 2001 taxes.  Yeah.  So no No-Pan Pear Pie, that actually has cake and blue berries in it.  Yeah – that’s a weird one.  Instead we had a meal, I’m going to call the Big Hot Mess.  Because really – nothing went right.

19 recipes down, 189 to go. Read the rest of this entry

With three hours to go, I managed to pull this week out.  We may have eaten at 8:30pm at night, but I did do it.  Today I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done.  Today we applied for Dan’s passport, almost ate lunch at IHOP, ate at Arby’s instead, introduced the Kid to the wonder that is the roast beef sandwitch, and Dan and I both had eye exams and picked out new glasses.  And then when we got home, we sat down to watch the documentary about MMOPRG players, which was very cool, but at that point, I wasn’t sure I’d get any cooking done.  It looked like it might be a Gamer Grub night.

But I’d had a plan and shopped while we were out, and the stuff I’d picked were actually pretty simple to make – nothing crazy.  These recipes came from my ‘alternate’ Alton Brown books:  Feasting on Asphalt, and Alton Brown’s Gear For Your Kitchen.  So this week didn’t use use the Grand Trio, but rather the supporting players.  And for the most part it was a success.

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Okay, I know I could be cooking, but the Kid is doing the dishes, so I can start off with a clean kitchen. But overnight, an article on Boing Boing caught my attention.  It appears that Amazon has pulled all of Macmillian’s titles from it’s Kindle Store – because Macmillian wanted the price point of ebooks to be approximately $15, rather than Amazon’s $10.  This is because they are one of the suppliers for Apple’s ebook application for the poorly-named iPad and the almighty Steve Jobs mentioned that ebooks might cost approximately $15.

Now, I have a Kindle, and love it dearly.  Because of it – I probably read a whole lot more last year than I would have.  The iPad doesn’t really interest me, and when I heard that the Apple’s ebook prices would be about $15, I shut down.  See – $9.99 is the most I’ll pay for an ebook.  I just can’t justify anything more – especially for a digital file with DRM on it.  Would I pay more for non-DRM – probably not.  And even at $9.99, I really have to think hard before I push that button to pay.  But with that price point in mind – if I am to get a digital copy for that price or less (or even free), if I really like the book – I’ll pony up to pay for a hard copy.

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I’m an early riser. I get up earlier than anyone else in my family. It’s actually helpful on weekends, I’m most productive in the morning, so if I get up, I can get all sorts of stuff done before the rest of the family rises.

This morning, I had every intention of getting up and doing the much needed cooking on the Project. I found lard at the grocery store today, and was going to work on my Biscuit Progression, as AB shows us in We’re Just Here For More Food. And I was going to make other meals.

Then I started getting my recipes together. I’m out of several key ingredients for stuff I planned to make this weekend (which would be week four and week five of the project. Damn. Now I still could have made biscuits and eggs, but I couldn’t find the shortening, though I know I had some.

So instead, I used my early morning time to record the last part of the next podcast, explaining why the show was cut off. That was a succes, and I should be able to finish the podcast this weekend.

But the cooking – will have to wait till later. We need to go get Dan’s passport, and go get eye examinations for the both of us. So – cooking when I get home. Will I make my goal for this week of the Project? Signs point to probably not. I will try, but this week really kicked my ass. Sigh. I wasn’t hoping to lose momentum so soon. But tomorrow is another day. And another week.

Or rather, a lazy ass Sunday. Other than venturing out to Trader Joe’s and Target, I’ve sat on my ass, wrapped in my Snuggie (don’t judge till you’ve tried one), watched reality TV, and knit on the Jayne hat I’m making for the Boom Effect.

Dan’s making dinner, which is more like appetizers for dinner, and this evening I plan to sit on my ass, wrapped in my Snuggie (it’s has pictures from Kingdom Hearts on it) and finish the Jayne Hat. And maybe play Dragon Age: Origins, because it came from Game Fly.

What I have not done is plan for the Project this week. Could it be I’m already Alton Brown’d out? Well, no – I just didn’t want any complicated cooking today. And unfortunately, most of AB’s recipes can be complicated. and LONG.

So it’s a lazy day. Tomorrow – I go back on the eating plan, start planning for the cooking this week, and cheer myself the hell up. Because I need it.

The final dish of the week, and I wasn’t sure if I would make it or not.  The week just got away from me.  But here it is – the Fruit Tart, which is really an apple tart.  I made this to use up the Puff Pastry from last week’s chicken pot pie.  Not much more to say there – it went together pretty easily.

12 recipes down, 196 to go. Read the rest of this entry

It’s a day off from work for me, but I ended up doing more in the one day than I would if I would have been in the office.  Such is life of the working mother with only a day off every once in a while.  I did take advantage of the time to make some dishes for the Project.   Now there is a bit of a cheat, because the main dish actually include two recipes.  But I thought of it as a good way to knock out two recipes, especially since I needed a pie crust for the Pie.  No real snafus these dishes, thank goodness.  Because also today I stripped the bed, finished the laundry, and made dough for shortbread cookies.  Not to mention dropping off and picking up of the Kid to his day of service.  No new techniques either, just honing of old skills.  There was one FAIL – I forgot to take a picture of the Pie.  And it was a pretty pie.  Just imagine it, with cheese on the top, and the top with a nice, yummy brown crust.  Yum.

11 Recipes down, 197 to go. Read the rest of this entry

So I made cupcakes.  It’s the Fudge Cake recipe from I’m just Here for More Food.  They supposedly are supposed to taste like Hostess Cupcakes.  I don’t think they look anything like them.  In order to keep from having chocolate cupcakes sitting around – I’m going to be taking them to my neice’s birthday party.  After I fill them with icing of course.  Maybe that will make them look nicer.  When they came out of the oven, I thought they looked like something.  I won’t say what that is, but looking at the picture of them uniced, I’m sure you can guess.

8 Recipes down, 200 to go. Read the rest of this entry

It’s our first podcast episode!  Sara and I use a free form format to talk about the new podcast, what being a geek means to us, and my new Alton Brown cooking project.  Notes for the next show will be more extensive

Into The Blender

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The cooking continues today!  And it went very smoothly.  This is probably due to the fact that I actually THOUGHT a bit more about when I was going to cook everything.  But finding dishes to go together I’m finding to be a bit of a challenge.  I had decided I wanted a casserole this week because I’m going to be going away for part of the week, and I thought the left overs might make things easier for the boys.  And the sugar snap peas with dipping sauce – they are supposed to be an appetizer.  But things went smoothly, and that is good because after writing this – I still need to pack for my trip.

7 Recipes down, 201 to go. Read the rest of this entry