It's been quite some time since I wrote a post answering "So how's life?" I started today's post with the intention of blogging (even more!) about tech hits and misses. Now I'm slightly conflicted about what to write about. *sips some tea, thinks a minute*
Well, I want to do both. I could argue that the last couple days have been largely consumed by a tech quest and therefore explaining that *would* be answering the "So how's life?" question. But I'm not quite ready to admit to geekery of that scale, so a compromise: this post will be about anything that comes to mind that is not tech-related and then I'll tackle the tech in a separate post immediately after posting this post. *sips some more tea, thinks a couple more minutes*
Work has been going well. Students get next week off for spring break but I've got hours tomorrow and next Friday. They'll be interesting (probably boring) hours but good for working on those other work projects that don't involve helping the random person who wanders up to the desk.
A short ... observation, if we will, about the people who visit the library:
Most people are easy to work with, cooperative, and eager to learn how to do or find something. They are willing to raise their voices to an appropriate level when I ask them to speak up - and almost always they recognize that I'm hearing impaired when I ask this question so they adapt other accommodating techniques (even those that attempt to sign to me I appreciate). They understand that it's not my problem if they have class in five minutes and we work together to solve the problem. They respect the attention and time I give them by not holding a different conversation on their cellphones the entire time. They don't get excessively frustrated when I don't immediately know the answer, even after explaining that I'm new this semester.
*sips some more tea*
As for what happens at home, I've gotten lazier with meal planning. For awhile, it was "pizza, pasta, I don't care - something quick," which happens every few days normally. So there hasn't been an excessive amount of experimentation or time spent in the kitchen playing with food. I don't think using up leftover hot dog and hamburger buns as grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today exactly counts.
The big one in the last month was the char siu pork baos (I keep typing "boas"). I had tried them first last summer with Tom and Keegan at Wow Bao downtown. They're Vietnamese steamed rolls with stuffing. The last time we visited Tom and Keegan, they made homemade baos for lunch. So of course I had to try it out myself.
Char siu pork is heavily marinaded and cooked beforehand. Eating some of the pork as a main dinner dish was delicious so if you've got plenty of pork, just make it all into char siu pork. ;)
For me, most of the experimentation came from assembling the marinade and then trying not to have holes in the dough as I wrapped them around pockets of stuffing. And, surprisingly, what to do with frozen baos. Quick note: maltose is easily substituted with corn syrup.
If you read the recipes, you'll notice both call for hoisin sauce. Tom and Keegan mentioned they had a hard time finding any of this, so I was prepared to look for a substitute. I tried to use roughly the same ratios of the ingredients for hoisin sauce that are found in this recipe, but this can be difficult when dealing with things like honey and peanut butter. I did need to buy some hot sauce but I suspect this is found in a wider variety of recipes than the elusive hoisin sauce.
There's also the Chinese five spice powder, but I only needed a teaspoon of it so I wasn't too freaked out about some wild substituting. I don't remember what I ended up using - I googled a bit and then used what I could find lying around. I did get exasperated at the "double" quantities; all three recipes called for honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil. If I was going for scientifically exact, I would write up the actual amounts of each actual ingredient for those without hoisin sauce on hand. But I'm all for inexact science, at least in most recipes.
I froze most of the baos made (8 of 10) and earlier this week I suggested we have some for lunch. Then I was absolutely befuddled with what you're supposed to do with frozen ones. They had already been steamed, as was recommended by the cooking gods of the internets. So I did some more googling and no one seemed to be willing to tell me what to do with them after freezing. Finally I found three different conflicting sources with some instructions. Apparently, you can steam them by wrapping them in a paper towel and sticking them in the microwave for 30 seconds. I wanted to avoid the microwave if I could help it. Or you can let them thaw out and then steam them as you did the first time. Or you can steam them from right out of the freezer for 30 minutes - or 15 minutes. I choose the last option. After 15 minutes I split one of the four open and found the meat was still cold. I didn't have to steam them a whole half hour but at least 5 minutes more (somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes).
*notices the rest of the tea has gotten cool but drinks some more anyway*
Movies I've seen lately: "Despicable Me" was a lot of fun to watch. "Roxanne" (made in 1984 or thereabouts) is very cute. (I now pet Colin's ears and say "I love your nose, Charlie." Makes more sense when you've seen the movie.) Star Trek IV which I hadn't seen before (shocking, I know). "Seven" which Colin owns but I didn't watch until my sister decided to when she was here. We have "The Bucket List" from the library which we need to watch tonight. Still watching TV episodes of various things (Fringe, Bones, Dresden, White Collar, etc.) Hulu but not quite as much anymore and there's also VHS tapes of Monty Python's Flying Circus which I like to tweet quotes from.
*interrupted by needing dinner*
Well, I want to do both. I could argue that the last couple days have been largely consumed by a tech quest and therefore explaining that *would* be answering the "So how's life?" question. But I'm not quite ready to admit to geekery of that scale, so a compromise: this post will be about anything that comes to mind that is not tech-related and then I'll tackle the tech in a separate post immediately after posting this post. *sips some more tea, thinks a couple more minutes*
Work has been going well. Students get next week off for spring break but I've got hours tomorrow and next Friday. They'll be interesting (probably boring) hours but good for working on those other work projects that don't involve helping the random person who wanders up to the desk.
A short ... observation, if we will, about the people who visit the library:
Most people are easy to work with, cooperative, and eager to learn how to do or find something. They are willing to raise their voices to an appropriate level when I ask them to speak up - and almost always they recognize that I'm hearing impaired when I ask this question so they adapt other accommodating techniques (even those that attempt to sign to me I appreciate). They understand that it's not my problem if they have class in five minutes and we work together to solve the problem. They respect the attention and time I give them by not holding a different conversation on their cellphones the entire time. They don't get excessively frustrated when I don't immediately know the answer, even after explaining that I'm new this semester.
*sips some more tea*
As for what happens at home, I've gotten lazier with meal planning. For awhile, it was "pizza, pasta, I don't care - something quick," which happens every few days normally. So there hasn't been an excessive amount of experimentation or time spent in the kitchen playing with food. I don't think using up leftover hot dog and hamburger buns as grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today exactly counts.
The big one in the last month was the char siu pork baos (I keep typing "boas"). I had tried them first last summer with Tom and Keegan at Wow Bao downtown. They're Vietnamese steamed rolls with stuffing. The last time we visited Tom and Keegan, they made homemade baos for lunch. So of course I had to try it out myself.
Char siu pork is heavily marinaded and cooked beforehand. Eating some of the pork as a main dinner dish was delicious so if you've got plenty of pork, just make it all into char siu pork. ;)
For me, most of the experimentation came from assembling the marinade and then trying not to have holes in the dough as I wrapped them around pockets of stuffing. And, surprisingly, what to do with frozen baos. Quick note: maltose is easily substituted with corn syrup.
If you read the recipes, you'll notice both call for hoisin sauce. Tom and Keegan mentioned they had a hard time finding any of this, so I was prepared to look for a substitute. I tried to use roughly the same ratios of the ingredients for hoisin sauce that are found in this recipe, but this can be difficult when dealing with things like honey and peanut butter. I did need to buy some hot sauce but I suspect this is found in a wider variety of recipes than the elusive hoisin sauce.
There's also the Chinese five spice powder, but I only needed a teaspoon of it so I wasn't too freaked out about some wild substituting. I don't remember what I ended up using - I googled a bit and then used what I could find lying around. I did get exasperated at the "double" quantities; all three recipes called for honey, soy sauce, and sesame oil. If I was going for scientifically exact, I would write up the actual amounts of each actual ingredient for those without hoisin sauce on hand. But I'm all for inexact science, at least in most recipes.
I froze most of the baos made (8 of 10) and earlier this week I suggested we have some for lunch. Then I was absolutely befuddled with what you're supposed to do with frozen ones. They had already been steamed, as was recommended by the cooking gods of the internets. So I did some more googling and no one seemed to be willing to tell me what to do with them after freezing. Finally I found three different conflicting sources with some instructions. Apparently, you can steam them by wrapping them in a paper towel and sticking them in the microwave for 30 seconds. I wanted to avoid the microwave if I could help it. Or you can let them thaw out and then steam them as you did the first time. Or you can steam them from right out of the freezer for 30 minutes - or 15 minutes. I choose the last option. After 15 minutes I split one of the four open and found the meat was still cold. I didn't have to steam them a whole half hour but at least 5 minutes more (somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes).
*notices the rest of the tea has gotten cool but drinks some more anyway*
Movies I've seen lately: "Despicable Me" was a lot of fun to watch. "Roxanne" (made in 1984 or thereabouts) is very cute. (I now pet Colin's ears and say "I love your nose, Charlie." Makes more sense when you've seen the movie.) Star Trek IV which I hadn't seen before (shocking, I know). "Seven" which Colin owns but I didn't watch until my sister decided to when she was here. We have "The Bucket List" from the library which we need to watch tonight. Still watching TV episodes of various things (Fringe, Bones, Dresden, White Collar, etc.) Hulu but not quite as much anymore and there's also VHS tapes of Monty Python's Flying Circus which I like to tweet quotes from.
*interrupted by needing dinner*
