personal_mythos

In the francophone blogosphere (I mostly read CanalBlog), I keep hearing about Marmiton.org, a site where users submit and comment recipes. It's not quite as photo-filled and flashy as some of its English-language competitors, but you're not here to learn English, right? And it's pretty good nonetheless, with features about seasonal recipes, categorized recipes, and versions in Spanish, Italian, and English (the English one is called "Let's Cook French"). Because it's all about user-submitted content, the four sites are probably rather different, but if I was studying those languages I might give them a whirl.

There are a few things to know when using French recipes - they (the French) use the metric system, and measure most dry ingredients (sugar, flour, etc.) by weight, not volume, though liquids are usually in mL and cL. The exception is for small quantities, which I'll explain below. All temperaures will be in celcius or (occasionally) refer to the settings on old French ovens.

( vocabulary after the cut )

First off, I graduated with honors in Feminist Studies. Whoo! I'm in consideration for all those types of honors (Magna Cum Laude, etc.) that depend on class standing, too. I got back my grades for the quarter, as well: A, A-, and B+, which is quite good, especially since I had senioritis and procrastinated rather more than I should have. I'm still looking for something for the fall, but I feel good about the one interview I had. I also need to start studying for the GRE, since I haven't taken a class that required any math skills whatsoever for a year and a half or so. I've heard that it's generally like the SAT though, so I'm not really worried.

In other news, I've started making bread. I had previously made pizza dough and sort of cinnamon-y buns (they were supposed to be pan dulce, but I fiddled with them) with pretty good results, but that's it for my previous yeasted bread experience. But for a potluck at the end of the quarter, I made vegan challah, and when my parents and grandparents came up for graduation weekend I made it again. Some people were astonished that it was vegan, and everyone who tried it liked it.

For the potluck. I wrapped a dish towel around it and stuck it in a paper bag, hugging it to my chest so it wouldn't be damaged, since I had another class beforehand. It was really hard not to just eat it!


The second one. Photo taken by my lovely mother. :)

Friday of graduation weekend I spoke at my department's 'senior celebration'. I presented a paper I had written for my senior seminar, entitled "Okinawa: health and militarization in historical context". Afterwards there was a carrot cake with marzipan slugs on top and slug trails made of jam (banana slugs are our mascot) and my advisor came to tell me and my family how well I'd done and that she thought I would make a great librarian, because of my dedication to in-depth research and my curiosity, picking different subjects for the final paper in each class. I was touched, and also surprised - I hadn't realized that most students write their papers on one or several themes rather than using them to explore new things.

That night I made the bread, and served it with a root vegetable bake and a kale-white bean dish. It was really filling, which surprised me a bit. I had the same experience with the tempeh tacos with spicy slaw I made tonight. This leads me to conclude that the ideal mix for a filling vegan or vegetarian dinner (both of these were vegan) is tons of veggies with a decent serving of protein, moderate amounts of starch, and some healthy fat. This is exciting, because one of my main problems as a vegan was that I felt hungry most of the time, perhaps due to not much veggies and too little good fat. If I can fill up this well on vegan stuff, I can reduce my dairy and egg consumption no problem (I have been doing so lately, especially since I decided I didn't want to buy milk so often after a bunch went bad).

I made a batch of cupcakes today, and as you can see in the photo below, they turned green during baking.

We named them, top to bottom, Blorp (or The Holy Blorp), Guinevere, and God. This lead me and a friend to invent a new religion in which God is a curiously green cupcake, Guinevere is his father, and so forth. I commented at one point that if anyone read what I was writing, they'd think we were high.

Anyway though, what I really want to know is what on earth could have possibly caused them to turn green. The batter was pinkish when I put them in the oven, and contained the following ingredients, baked about twenty-one minutes at 350°F (modified from the Golden Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World):
all-purpose flour
soymilk
lemon juice
blood orange juice and zest
sugar
canola oil
corn starch
baking soda
baking powder
salt
vanilla extract

It doesn't seem to have affected the flavor or texture any, as far as we could tell, and I think it doesn't look too bad with blood orange buttercream frosting (it was going to be vegan, but my margarine went bad so I used butter). It was also my first time frosting anything from a bag (I used a star tip, then a rose tip when that got clogged) and that's why it looks really messy.

Not much to photograph or write about today, since I was really lazy in the morning and then I spent most of the afternoon watching DVDs, listening to podcasts, and so forth. I did, however, make lasagna.


Yum. It's vegetarian - the sauce is the marinara from Veganomicon (fabulous cookbook, go buy it), and it's layered with noodles, a ricotta/egg/parmesan mix, mushrooms sautéed in olive oil, spinach, and red bell pepper. I topped it with more parmesan, skipping the traditional mozzarella because I don't like it. So there. The housemate (a meat-eater, gasp!) approves. It was only her second time eating vegetarian lasagna (the first was Annie's frozen one with rice noodles).

The parmesan was tasty, but neither as hard nor as sharp as some. It was a U.S.-made one, aged ten months, from Safeway, that bastion of fine cuisine. I've been thinking about cheeses more lately, and I'd like to be more adventurous and try new kinds.

Tomorrow classes start, and I'm feeling a mix of excitement, laziness, and dread about that. I worked it out so that I have only afternoon classes, and only Monday-Thursday, but I don't get to take French Oral Fluency again because my only real required class is at the same time. :( Tomorrow I'll get to sign up for section for Feminist Studies and maybe get an idea if statistics is going to blow or not.

I know it's sort of a bland image, but this is what I'm excited about right now.

In case you couldn't guess, this container (formerly used for yogurt) now contains my first attempt at a sourdough starter. It's half flour, half warm water. After some debate, I used all-purpose flour. A few minutes later I found a French site (in French it's called levain) that claims that whole wheat is better and that you ought to boil tap water first. *le sigh*

Anyway, a few days from now I'll see if it works out. A few minutes after I took this picture, I moved it to sit next to the heater - apparently the yeast grows best at about 70˚F.

I also labeled the container, because I can't put it in the fridge for three or four days and if all goes well, it'll bubble and smell yeasty. The labels read "This is a sourdough starter. Do not throw it out." and «C'est du levain. Ne pas le jeter.»

Apparently this kind of starter was traditional in Europe for a long time. I didn't realize that baker's yeast is a new development. Anyway, you can make all kinds of things with it, though they'll rise more slowly and taste more sour than baker's yeast versions.

I decided to make an apple tart for the French Oral Fluency potluck. That was almost a month ago... sorry for being so late with the blog entry.
( Photos as promised )
In other news, there are a few things I'm thinking about doing soonish (starting with the new year, probably). They include:
-The Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together aka BFS, in which participants set goals for the year and get a winner's certificate at the end if they meet any. Basically New Year's Resolutions, but more fun and with a great community
-National Blog Posting Month aka NaBloPoMo, where you post every day for a month on your blog (good news for you folks, I guess)
-101/1001 in which you set 101 goals for the next 1001 days
-Project 365 (take a photo per day for a year)

Of these, I'll probably do BFS and NaBloPoMo, but maybe not 101/1001. I'm not sure how I do with long-term challenges like that. Project 365 sounds interesting, and would probably result in me taking less sucky photos, but it has a similar problem.

Also thinking about working on my cooking skills by trying dishes I've always wanted to know how to make. I might write an entry about that, but if you have any thoughts on the matter, I'm all ears. :D

Ok, not all in French, but I'm going to link to some stuff in French, so that's how I'll start. Scroll down for English, k?

Je suis un cours de français et pour la dernière classe il faut soit faire de la cuisine, soit apporter quelquechose de français qu'on a acheté, soit parler d'un repas super (ou bien terrible) qu'on a mangé. Je ne sais pas si l'on peut faire de la cuisine allemande par exemple, si la recette est en français, mais bon moi je veux faire quelquechose de français.

J'hesite entre:
la tarte aux pommes
la tarte au chou-fleur
ce gateau à la mélisse et à la menthe mais où trouver de la mélisse?
le clafoutis à l'abricot et aux pistaches mais où trouver des abricots fraîches maintenant?

Ok, English

I'm taking a French class and we have to either cook food, bring French food we bought, or talk about a meal we had (good or bad). I don't know if we can make something say German if the recipe is in French, but I want to make something French.

I'm thinking of:
an apple tart
a cauliflower tart/quiche (?)
this mint and lemon balm cake but where do I get lemon balm?
an apricot-pistachio clafoutis but where can I get apricots this time of year?

So yeah, I made the switch on 6/24 (a sunday). It's been almost a month (about 3 since I stopped eating meat), and I miss:
pepperoni
cheese on pizza (mozzarella)
mac and cheese
chorizo
baked beans (they usually have bacon in them)

I tried Yves' pepperoni... it was okay, but too moist and wheaty. Wheatier than baked seitan... I suspect the wheat bits may have been boiled, since boiled seitan is damper and wheatier than the baked kind.

I tried Follow Your Heart mozzarella (soy-based). It was okay, but didn't melt at all. But it kind of smelled like mozzarella.

I tried making a vegan mac and cheese recipe... it was totally miserable. Way too nutritional yeasty. But the consistency was good, and the color was good... of course then I added turmeric, and it looked like mustard.

There's a product called Soyrizo out there, but I haven't tried it. I also have a cookbook which contains a TVP-based chorizo recipe, which I want to try. I also have a baked seitan pepperoni recipe.

Baked beans I bet could be made vegan with a little liquid smoke and maybe some fake bacon.


Fortunately, I made some discoveries for all you doubters out there (most of whom I probably don't know):
It's very possible to make good vegan cupcakes, and not particularly harder than nonvegan if your recipe is good.
Ditto for vegan pancakes.
Tofu scrambles are things of wonder. Sautee some onions in a little vegetable oil. Add the mushrooms at this point too if you mean to use any. When the onions are clear and the mushrooms have shrunk, add some crumbled firm/extra firm tofu and spices to taste: cumin is good, as are Mexican spices in general; turmeric will make it yellow and is reportedly good for you. After a few minutes, add other veggies. Add spinach, if any, right at the end. Serve with red salsa or salsa fresca and optionally avocado or guacamole.
It's easy to sub for sour cream as a topping: silken or soft tofu food processed with vinegar, lemon juice, and a touch of oil.


On the other hand, I have had some cooking failures. For one, the TVP meatballs were icky.