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August 23, 2004
Dough
Over the last few days, I've been a cooking fool. Over the next few days, I will share the recipes that I've enjoyed. This is a basic dough that I've perfected over the years. It is good for basic flat breads, pizzas, and pitas.
Makes three pizzas
1/3 cup warm water 1 package active dry yeast 1 tablespoon sugar 1 egg 1.5 cups of all purpose flour 2 teaspoons salt pinch of pepper warm water extra flour 1 tablespoon olive oil
Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/3 cup warm water. Place egg, flour, salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to mix everything together then, with the processor going, drizzle the yeast solution into the mix. Keep adding water until the dough comes together and is just sticky and coming off the sides of the processor.
Roll the dough out onto a well floured board. Knead for ten minutes, adding flour if needed. Place olive oil in bowl and coat the sides. Place dough in bowl and coat with olive oil. Set aside, covered, in a warm place to rise for at least thirty minutes.
Roll dough back out on to well floured board and knead until oil is well mixed into dough. Shape into a log and, using a bench scraper, cut into three equal pieces (weigh them, probably around 5.3 ounces each). You can use the dough immediately or you can coat the inside of a plastic sandwich bag with a touch of olive oil and place each ball of dough into its own pouch and toss in the fridge for up to a week. If you do that, let the dough come to room temperature before using it.
Posted by Samer at 09:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 22, 2004
DuClaw
I went to DuClaw in Arundle Mills last night. The place was nice, and the beers a mixed bag. In January, at the strong ale tasting, I had the chance to try DuClaw's Devil's Milk. For some reason, I didn't write about the beer then, but I do recall really liking it. I was impressed enough to want to go see what else they have to offer.
I got the sampler and proceeded to go through them one by one. I can tell you I was not thrilled with the lighter beers. They were technically sound, but most lacked that "oomph" that I like in a beer. But their porter and IPA were really nice beers.
A rundown of their beers is after the jump...
kangaroo love is the beer you have if you really don't want to drink beer. At 4.5% abv, this is a light beer that won't challenge your friends who don't want to drink anything stronger than an American light lager.
Ravenwoon is a nice Kolsch-style beer, but is also a lighter beer with little challenge to the palate. It is smooth and has a slight hint of malt. 4.7% abv.
Bare Ass Blonde Ale is a golden colored pale ale. Again, a solid beer, but not a lot of taste. 5% abv.
Funk is their seasonal beer. Billed as an American wheat beer, it is 4.8% abv. Straw colored, it has a slight wheat twang, that I appreciate. But again, a much more subtle beer that is better suited for a hot day outside than sitting in an air conditioned bar.
The Misfit Red is a nice beer and starts to show the character that they can brew here. A clean 5.0% abv beer, with a light hoppiness in the finish.
Finally, their two best beers. The IPA, Bad Moon Porter is a fantastic porter, even if it isn't exactly to style. A big bold beer (stands up well to the burger and smoked bacon) and very complex. It has about 40 pounds of coffee in the brew and is very roasty. 5.1% abv.
Posted by Samer at 09:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
P800
I'm borrowing my boss's P800 for a couple of weeks. What a nice nice phone. I got it set up with internet access and I can use it to check and send e-mail, make calls, surf the web, IM, even SSH into a Unix host!
The downsides to this phone are few, but they tend to be of the annoying type: the e-mail client is not the best, and does not keep the status of a mail message off the server; the phone is generally slow and occasionally an application will freeze up and the phone will need a restart.
Bluetooth support is really good, and it syncs with my Mac flawlessly. The calendaring application is really well done and useful. The camera is not great, but it works. And you can send e-mail with voice, pictures, and other media files.
There's tons of software for this phone, and a lot of it can be found at the my-symbian site under the UIQ section. Even PuTTY is available there. Amazing, really.
This is a pretty nice phone, and I wish I owned the thing.
Posted by Samer at 08:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 14, 2004
Thirty Five
Who would have thunk it?
Thirty five years old, and I never would have imagined making it this far. This last year has been filled with love, hope, despair, triumphs and tragedies. To good friends, new and old, a hearty thank you for keeping me sane (well, sane enough).
Cheers!
Posted by Samer at 02:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Julia
The grand dame of cooking has passed away. Julia Child would have been 92 tomorrow.
She was an amazing force in cooking and on television. I believe, while she was not the first to cook on television, that she was the first woman to do so. And she did it magnificently.
She was so well loved that when she moved from her home some years ago, the Smithsonian Institution took apart her kitchen and put it on display.
Bon appétit and thank you, Julia.
Posted by Samer at 02:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 11, 2004
After the last one, is Toronto really that far?
I met someone new last week. We met at a bar and we hit it off instantly. Lots of fun and games were had over the following week but, alas, she had to go back home.
Yes, that's right: Another long distance one. I know, I know. But, honestly, I did not go searching this time. I was just at a party when she hit me over the head. Apparently I also struck a chord, seeing that she decided to skip a couple more cities on her tour and hang out with me.
All this a mere week before I turn another year older.
Posted by Samer at 09:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 05, 2004
Spam via the mail
I'm going through the mail the other day, and in between the tons of advertisements for clothing stores and credit cards, I see a letter from India. It has a 400 Rupee stamp on it and the return address is obviously from a stamp and says "POST BOX No. 122, AJMER(INDIA)". The other side, the side that does not have the stamp, has my name, address and zip plus four, as well as a "BY SEA/PRINTED MATTER" stamp.
I open it up, curious as to what it might contain, as I no longer know anyone in India since my cousin moved back to London. Inside were four papers and an envelope. The envelope was addressed to "M. Syed Fakhar Rahman Burraqui Chisty" at the above address.
My favorite thing in the envelope was the small yellow piece of paper. On one side is some Arabic script text that I still can't make out and the other side has, well, it has this:
Why Delay on your Problems & Miseries ? If you are worldly unhappy like loss of business, not getting success in your family life by shortage of love & peace or your children misguided by your relative and enemies and not successful in Education or Driving and you suffered from disease and any type of Jadu, Tona, Bhoot Aseb not marriage of your children any suit is going on court against you, you may kindly contact me in Telephone in connection of your problems and tell me your full details. My Phone are :- 0091-145-2431849 & 0091-145-2423759 Mobile No. 0091-98290-09817. I shall do the needfull and try to solve you all problem by prayer, strong Tawiz and type of purified treatment to follow the path of Islam. as my ancestral who solved all problems of suffering people since long time through the meditation and spiritual blessings of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz (R.A). If you are ignored by children please let me know.
I was quite amused by this and for reasons I don't quite get. I might frame that little paper, too. I wonder how many times it ran through Babelfish before it came out that poor?
Posted by Samer at 08:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack