A Strange Day

My mom and I were talking about TV shows. Partly because of my recent post and partly because that’s what people tend to do when they have lunch together and they both watch the same stuff. Mostly we were talking about Grimm.

What I like about it is that it’s not really a supernatural show. It’s a cop show. Nick, the cop, doesn’t have super powers. He doesn’t slay vampires. He relies on detective work and research. Wait, okay, maybe it’s supernatural that he can see what people really are. He doesn’t even kill them unless it’s really, really necessary. About the only thing his ability lets him do is make the connections that are otherwise handwaved away in other cop shows. You know, that moment when you’re sitting there going “They knew it was her because of a dog hair? But they never even mentioned she had a dog!” In the case of Grimm, Nick will recognize someone’s true self and then backtrack to find the elusive clue. “Oh, well, I started wondering if she had a dog. She doesn’t, but on the night of the murder she was at her sister’s house and her sister owns a dog and lives next door to where the murder took place.” And then you’re watching it going “Well that’s a lot more sensible than the method of ‘it was a hair from a golden retriever and we narrowed it down to the one that lives with her sister because we can totes do that because we have super computers that can pinpoint the location of where a dog hair was picked up because of DNA and plant pollen’.”

Actually, “she’s really a snake and went through the air vents” is a lot more sensible than “it was a hair from a golden retriever and we narrowed it down to the one that lives with her sister because we can totes do that because we have super computers that can pinpoint the location of where a dog hair was picked up because of DNA and plant pollen”. Or maybe that’s just me.

The writing is good. The names of the killers or sometimes just the extras are usually puns based on what sort of animal they really are. Sometimes the casting (or maybe it’s exceptional makeup) is amazing — the person who is really a rat or a beaver or a snake actually looks vaguely like that animal. And the conversations between Nick and Monroe are … well, they’re adorable. It’s like the writers are trying to make us ‘ship them. I’m ok with that.

And since I mentioned Monroe….

Cutest werewolf, or cutest werewolf ever?

All the episodes are on Hulu.

It’s official. We’ve been staying together just out of the familiarity, but it hasn’t been the same in years. The joy isn’t there any more.

I am breaking up with House MD.

I should have done this last year (or the year before), but I kept hanging on, living on the little scraps of Wilson that they tossed my way, but I was watching it grudgingly. And there were certainly some good moments early in this season, but they weren’t great moments — no “Moose on a Jew” or “Poker Game” moments. And the medical aspect has been totally lacking. Then last night, when Chase had his “trauma of the season” I decided we were through.

If I hear of any good episodes or any fantastic Wilson moments, I’ll find the episode on Hulu.

I might also be breaking up with Castle. Sorry, Nathan. You personally are still very watchable, but the writing seems to have gone seriously downhill (and let’s face it, it was never the height of great writing to begin with). I was even waiting excitedly for last night’s “1940s” episode and it was… meh.

I’m left with Grimm and I’m afraid that’ll break up with me. The ratings haven’t been great, but I really like it. There’s real potential and a great idea and some really nice writing and acting, but maybe it’s just the timeslot?

Sherlock series 2 will air on PBS in May. And then there’ll be Doctor Who and hopefully series 4 of Being Human… and maybe something good will come around in the Fall?

I might have jury duty tomorrow. Did you know that while pens, pencils, plastic utensils, and jewelry are allowed in the assembly room, knitting needles and crochet hooks are not? I’m not exactly sure how knitting needles are more lethal than a pencil (unless they’re spy knitting needles that are actually hypodermics (and how cool would that be?!)). I’m considering taking yarn and knitting on pencils just to be obnoxious. OK, not really. I’d probably get arrested. (“What are you in for?” “Knitting.”)

Also, the “quiet room” is currently closed. That means the only place to wait is in the general assembly room, where they will show movies.

So I have a dog. My dog, like most dogs, likes to eat cat food. He also (like most dogs) likes to eat cat poo. Because of this, there’s a gate between the dining room and the kitchen. The cats can get between the bars (or jump the gate) so they can get to their food and litter as they need to.

Because the kitchen is blocked off, this means the back door (and the back yard) are accessible to the dog only when we decide he needs to go out. He’s got scheduled bathroom breaks in addition to regular walks because we really don’t want him getting into the cat food (and really not the cat poo).

Occasionally there will be a potty emergency, and the dog usually lets us know that he has to go out by running between the front door and the dining room gate. It used to be that sometimes he would just run to the gate and whimper. This would trick us into thinking that he had to go out right now and once inside the kitchen he would go for the cat food (or litter box) instead. Once we would get him outside he would just stand there in the middle of the yard and looks defeated. We don’t fall for that one quite as often any more.

We don’t fall for that quite as often, so the dog has stepped up his game.

Last night, neither cat ate very much. Cardiff had spent the day at doggie daycare so he was hungrier than usual (playing for 8 hours does that to a guy). He really wanted to get to the cat food. The old “I have to pee” trick failed.

So my dog — my wonderful, smart, evil dog — scooted^* across the living room rug and then went to the gate and whimpered. “Oh shit,” I thought. “This time he really does have to go outside.”

No. No he didn’t. He tried desperately to get cat food on the way through the kitchen to the yard. He stood in the yard for ten minutes (in the rain, with me shouting “poop already!” at him) looking pissed off that it didn’t work. He tried again for the cat food when I brought him back in.

Part of me is looking forward to what trick he tries next time.

—

^* It really was a trick, and he wasn’t actually scooting for legitimate reasons, because as soon as I brought him back in he didn’t do it again. If there were actually something wrong with him, he’d still be doing it.

I made another batch of the Citrus Glitters. This time I used the right kind of shortening. I also added a LOT more zest (one lime, lemon, and orange). I ended up having to add more milk to offset that, but they came out perfect.

I also used aluminum “disposable” cookie sheets (I used parchment paper, so these sheets are good for a few more rounds). All this added up to vastly improved cookies. I wonder what would have happened if I used lemon juice in the dough, instead of adding extra milk…

So what else goes with more cookies? Coffee. I bought a new coffee maker this weekend. The Keurig Elite Brewing System. It replaced a Mini Keurig, and was totally worth the money.

My boss gave me a Christmas present this year. Well, the entire QA team got them.

Since I’ve been having fun with Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar I thought this was the right time to try out the Blackstrap Ginger cookies. I had everything I needed… except, as it would turn out, canola oil. We had corn oil, though. It was either that or the “bold and robust” olive oil, which is very olive-y. How bad could corn oil be, really? Corn goes into baked things all the time!

You can guess the outcome, can’t you.

Yeah, keep reading anyhow.

I mixed the wet stuff.

It looked awful and smelled weird. That’s because of the blackstrap molasses, though, and not the corn oil.

Next… the dry ingredients. Including the most powerful ginger I have ever smelled. Please note that ginger, nutmeg, clove, and allspice are all things I absolutely love to smell. This part of the cooking was the best part. Anyhow, it turns out I actually own a sifter!

So, sifted and folded, and the dough looked like something pretty wonderful.

Gorgeous, isn’t it? And since this is vegan, there’s nothing wrong with eating the dough. Except that’s rude. I made the cookies first and then scraped the dough from the bowl and ate that. It was amazing. REALLY intense ginger. Like mouth-burningly intense. I was looking forward to them.

Start the sad music now, folks.

The dough that was so amazing and intense turned into attractive cookies.

Attractive cookies that taste more like corn muffins than ginger.

I think I’ll do these again in the very near future. I want to know what they really taste like.

Sadly, my boss’ birthday is tomorrow and I was going to take some of these in for her, as a thank you for the spices. It’ll have to wait, though. These are fine for home, but not for public consumption. I kind of wish I had time to make another batch of the Tahini Lime ones to take to work instead.

Summary:
Ease: Very
Time: 20 minutes.
Taste: Three (out of 5) stars. (See substitutions)
Substitutions: Corn oil for canola oil
Result of substitution: Bad idea. The cookies taste more like corn than anything.

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This recipe is also from Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about these. Tahini always seems like sort of a non-flavor to me. Kitti was interested, though, and I really started baking things so there would be cookies and things for him, so I got the ingredients I’d need to make these.

If you’ll recall, the last batch of cookies were too wet. This was because I used vegan margarine instead of shortening. This time I actually bought Earth Balance Natural Shortening and I think it made a difference.
Again, this started with zesting citrus — a lime, this time.

Then there was the usual “blending the sugar and shortening” step.

It doesn’t look as good as it did when it was margarine, but that’s probably because the margarine was wetter.

Add the coconut milk, tahini, zest, and vanilla….

At this point Kitti announced he’d eat it as-is. I didn’t let him. The dry ingredients had to go in.

The dough is then rolled into little balls, smushed, sprinkled with sesame seeds (the recipe called for black ones. I bought regular ones because I couldn’t find black sesame seeds. I did later, but since I already had the regular kind and I wasn’t sure if these were going to even work out, I didn’t want two kinds of sesame seeds cluttering up the shelf) and then baked.

They still didn’t come out very brown, despite the fact that I now have an oven thermometer (Thanks, Mim!) and the oven was the right temperature. I think maybe my baking sheet is too thick. It’s probably time to dig through the cabinets and see if I have thinner ones (that used to be my Nana’s). If I don’t, I might have to buy some, because the cookies come out looking unbaked.

They taste good, though. Better than I expected. They’re not exactly a sweet cookie — it’s more like a peanut butter cookie, only more sesame and less peanut-y. I don’t taste the lime at all.

Summary:
Ease: Very
Time: 45 minutes (including zesting the lime and cleaning up as I baked)
Taste: Better than expected. Four (out of 5) stars.
Substitutions: white sesame seeds for black.
Result of substitution: None noted. Maybe just aesthetics.

If you don’t already know, Kitti (the partner-in-crime) is vegan. It used to mean that he wasn’t allowed to have any fun or eat any kind of junk food, but that’s boring. So I bought Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and made “Citrus Glitters”.

I substituted coconut milk for almond milk because I really don’t like the taste of almond at all. I didn’t know how much the taste would come through after all the ingredients were in, but I didn’t want to risk it.

I started with zesting a lemon and an orange.

Then I did the “blend the shortening and sugar until fluffy” thing. Once that was fluffy, the vanilla and coconut milk went in.

Added the flour, corn meal, corn starch, baking powder and salt….

And then it was time to make the dough into little balls, dip them in sugar, and bake them! Except this is where they went a little weird. I don’t know if the coconut milk was “wetter” than almond milk would have been, if the shortening got too soft, or things got mixed too much, but the dough was way too sticky. It stuck to my fingers, it stuck to the sugar dish, it stuck to my fingers again when I tried to get them on the cookie sheet… basically, they were a mess. Even adding extra flour didn’t seem to help. So I just went on with it…

And I baked them.

There was still dough left because my oven isn’t really big enough for more than one cookie sheet at a time, so the rest of the dough sat there for about 12 minutes while the cookies baked. Apparently the dough needed to “rest” a little, because NOW it was much better. It wasn’t sticky and it did what it was supposed to.

Twelve minutes later.. much more attractive cookies. Not as brown as I thought they’d get… and puffier than expected. I’m not sure what I did “wrong”, but they taste perfectly good. The corn meal gives them an interesting taste and texture that keeps them from being really boring.

I’m absolutely going to make these again. I’ll try to remember to let the dough rest before I start making the actual cookies, and I’ll see if I can figure out why they rose so much — maybe the flour? Something about the way I mixed the dough? Seriously, I make coffee cake that comes out huge, and pancakes that inflate, so I might be doing something that just fluffs up baked goods.

Anyhow, for a first attempt, I think I did pretty good.

Summary:
Ease: Very
Time: About an hour
Taste: Better than expected. Four (out of 5) stars.
Substitutions: Margarine in place of shortening.
Result of substitution: More cakelike, puffier. Wetter dough. Trying to get the dough to stiffen up added to the time.