It's been quite the past... while for me recently. This week, in particular, has decided to slap me across the face and leave me for a better, younger, more beautiful mistress.
The one day Berkeley decided to actually get cold, the tiny trickle of water I usually bike across on my way down the 1000-ft near vertical drop that lies between my apartment and campus turned into a several-foot-wide patch of black ice. Going down the hill at 20mph on an unfamiliar bike (mine was in the shop), of course, did not help the problem... I went flying, losing half the skin on my chin and acquiring lovely purple accents across various body parts. This, of course, was the first day of the semester.
It was also my first week of teaching, and all that is required to go along with it- planning the first week of class, teaching three discussion sections, holding office hours, answering an unending chain of emails and organizing lab groups et cetera et cetera et cetera... on the bright side, I remembered how much I love to teach.
And then Sunday happened, and among all of my various tasks of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I gave two mini-speeches in both services at my church, trying to drum up more volunteers for the cafe I started with Aimee to provide a community space between services in the morning. It has become a "critical ministry" according to the church staff, and yet, we cannot get anyone to help out. The irony, of course, is that I myself "officially" resigned my position as director at nearly the exact same same time. Maybe they'll actually pay someone to do this now. I also realized the guy I've been dating for a year has never known me without the cafe- and getting up at 7,6, or sometimes far before to cook every Sunday morning.
But in the afternoon, I had a chance to see Rio, who happened to be nearby picking up something off Craigslist. We met in downtown Oakland at a rather sketchy by nonetheless lovely cafe, and had the opportunity to catch up a bit (how fortunate I am to have such wonderful people in my life!). On the way home, however, it was pouring, and I didn't have the chance to swerve to avoid a chunk-o-something in the road. Driving slowly through the streets of downtown, I kept praying my tire wouldn't go completely flat before I reached my mother's in Rockridge. It didn't (I have no idea how), and the neighbors helped me put the donut on and limp over to the nearby gas station to fill it up beyond the 15psi it had sat with since 2003. Hallelujah!
So that was great, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to get it fixed any time in the near future, and there remained something sketchy about the look of my donut. But lo and behold, what did it do on Monday, but rain? And what does that mean? My awesome and amazing brother (who works outside and thus couldn't go to work) arrived gallantly at my house, took the tire to four different tire guys trying to find someone to fix it (being a low-profile tire, and with a puncture on the outer edge, it needed a special type of goo or something).
So it's been quite the week. And on top of it, I've been a little cranky since D's off at a conference in Boulder and has been away since Sunday. But oh wells. My sections went pretty well, by the way. Even though I've recently become disillusioned with academia, I love teaching, so I guess I'd better stick with it.
And now that brings me to bananas. Tonight my ridiculous mother offered to give me a ride home and feed me dinner (!perks of having parents nearby!?!). After section ended at 6 (only six actually showed up), I headed over, only to find a half-baked Zachary's Chicago pizza waiting for me, and a glass of red to go along. How grateful I was, I cannot tell you. Note to self: do this for someone else sometime. As I was heading out the door, I pointed out that she needed to do something about the browning bananas in her fruit basket, to which she suggested composting. Obviously she's caught on to the recycling culture of the East Bay, but apparently not the stinginess of being a grad student (THROW OUT FOOD?!? NEVER!!!!). Of course, those little brown lumps of amazingness came home with me, and I'm currently smelling up the house with noms, which I will in turn feed to my brother, who made my life so much better this week.
Thought I'd throw down the recipe here, because someone asked for it a few weeks ago, and sometimes you just need some unhealthy, delicious banana muffins.
Here's to life relaxing a little, and maybe having time to do this that isn't midnight...
Banana-Walnut Delicious Muffins
Oven 350. Line 12 muffin cups with paper.
2-3 ripe bananers, mashed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1tsp vanilla
1cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour
1-2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, pinch clove, pinch allspice, other tasty spices as desired
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp powder
1/2tsp salt
1 cup walnut halves and pieces
mix bananas, oil, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla well, so eggs are distributed throughout. in another bowl, mix all other dry ingredients to distribute soda and powder well. dump it in to the wet, mix just to moisten (lumps good), then fold in walnut pieces just til distributed. Pour into muffin cups, cook ~30min on convection, remove from oven and cool on rack. nosh.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Moldy Cheese
There are so many wonderful kinds of cheese in the world. Throughout the past several thousand years (since before recorded history), humans have concentrated and preserved milk. Nobody really knows how the first "cheese" was made, though some argue that Bedouins carrying milk in moldy goat-skin bags found their cargo clumped (and delicious!), while others say it was travelers who happened to use calf stomachs for transport. Either way, they started a delicious trend, and I am forever grateful!
The importance of cheese in American society is brought home by the sheer number of websites, blogs, advertisements, classes, tastings, artisanal producers, importers, and events dedicated to the love of our milky friend. According NPR's recent article (via the USDA's recent calculations), the average American ate 31 pounds of cheese in 2011 (along with other scary numbers).
Today while cleaning out my freezer (I figured I've lived here a year, I may as well dig and see what I need to get rid of), I happened upon a not-too-old loaf of sourdough rye bread. The next ten minutes were spent fantasizing about what to do with it, as I pulled out four (four!?!) sleeves of tortillas, a few jars of old pasta sauce, some dehydrated green beans, three tart shells, and a bag of spinach, which ripped and exploded bits of green ice everywhere. Of course, I would make a grilled cheese with tomato, and have plenty of bread left for future endeavors. And yet, when I reached for my cheddar...
Though I consider myself a cheese aficionado, I am often surprised to find several bits of moldy goodness in the place where I thought I had stored my hard-won and hunted-down New Zealand raw milk cheddar and chevre-turned-brie (otherwise referred to as Boucheron). That might be more of a statement about my life (it couldn't have been four weeks since I went to the Cheeseboard!?), but it always pains me to think that most people believe those white fuzzy hunks of amazingness have to be thrown away. Or even worse, that aged gouda 'must be bad' after a few weeks- the stuff has been around for years! It's fine, especially as it doesn't even grow mold... the worst that will happen is the fat will start pearling up on the outside if it's not properly stored.
So let's talk about this mold thing, because I am dying to talk about it, and you might want to know a little more. First off, many cheeses require mold in order to come to their full flavor (think Maytag blue, Camembert, Roquefort, Chevre-Boite, etc). So sorry to break it to you, mold is alive and well (pun intended!) on the blue-cheese-walnut-dried-cranberry salad you ordered for supper down the pub.
At the same time, though, other strains of mold will grow on any food, given correct conditions and enough time. Some of these can produce toxins that you might not want to consume vast quantities of (especially if you have a compromised immune system), but you're not likely to get sick, unless there has been contamination by other nasties (eg salmonella or staph, if it has a high pH). Food molds are fungi, so they spread by latching on to a surface and spreading in a tendril-like manner (imagine a tree setting down roots). The harder it is to break through the 'soil', the more slowly the 'tree' will grow and the more shallow the 'root' system.
Likewise with cheese- goudas, aged cheddars, parmesans, and the like will mold slowly- scraping the mold off these cheeses and taking a bit out below will leave you with a perfectly satisfactory hunk, probably 90% of its original size. But soft cheeses- cottage cheeses, ricottas, up to mild cheddars and Camemberts (besides the fact that Camemberts will become overripe and the flavor will diminish) will provide an easy breeding ground for mold spores (particularly the uber-nasty pink mold). If it's questionable with these ones, you'll want to send them out back to be composted (generally, over a week after they've been opened and you'll see mold).
So ignore the 'best by' dates (they're always so conservative, and lead to so much waste!) and when it comes to moldy cheese, consider the type of mold and the type of cheese before you tuck in... or throw away.
By the way, my grilled moldy cheddar and tomato on rye with Jewish deli mustard was, of course, delicious.
The importance of cheese in American society is brought home by the sheer number of websites, blogs, advertisements, classes, tastings, artisanal producers, importers, and events dedicated to the love of our milky friend. According NPR's recent article (via the USDA's recent calculations), the average American ate 31 pounds of cheese in 2011 (along with other scary numbers).
Today while cleaning out my freezer (I figured I've lived here a year, I may as well dig and see what I need to get rid of), I happened upon a not-too-old loaf of sourdough rye bread. The next ten minutes were spent fantasizing about what to do with it, as I pulled out four (four!?!) sleeves of tortillas, a few jars of old pasta sauce, some dehydrated green beans, three tart shells, and a bag of spinach, which ripped and exploded bits of green ice everywhere. Of course, I would make a grilled cheese with tomato, and have plenty of bread left for future endeavors. And yet, when I reached for my cheddar...
Though I consider myself a cheese aficionado, I am often surprised to find several bits of moldy goodness in the place where I thought I had stored my hard-won and hunted-down New Zealand raw milk cheddar and chevre-turned-brie (otherwise referred to as Boucheron). That might be more of a statement about my life (it couldn't have been four weeks since I went to the Cheeseboard!?), but it always pains me to think that most people believe those white fuzzy hunks of amazingness have to be thrown away. Or even worse, that aged gouda 'must be bad' after a few weeks- the stuff has been around for years! It's fine, especially as it doesn't even grow mold... the worst that will happen is the fat will start pearling up on the outside if it's not properly stored.
So let's talk about this mold thing, because I am dying to talk about it, and you might want to know a little more. First off, many cheeses require mold in order to come to their full flavor (think Maytag blue, Camembert, Roquefort, Chevre-Boite, etc). So sorry to break it to you, mold is alive and well (pun intended!) on the blue-cheese-walnut-dried-cranberry salad you ordered for supper down the pub.
At the same time, though, other strains of mold will grow on any food, given correct conditions and enough time. Some of these can produce toxins that you might not want to consume vast quantities of (especially if you have a compromised immune system), but you're not likely to get sick, unless there has been contamination by other nasties (eg salmonella or staph, if it has a high pH). Food molds are fungi, so they spread by latching on to a surface and spreading in a tendril-like manner (imagine a tree setting down roots). The harder it is to break through the 'soil', the more slowly the 'tree' will grow and the more shallow the 'root' system.
Likewise with cheese- goudas, aged cheddars, parmesans, and the like will mold slowly- scraping the mold off these cheeses and taking a bit out below will leave you with a perfectly satisfactory hunk, probably 90% of its original size. But soft cheeses- cottage cheeses, ricottas, up to mild cheddars and Camemberts (besides the fact that Camemberts will become overripe and the flavor will diminish) will provide an easy breeding ground for mold spores (particularly the uber-nasty pink mold). If it's questionable with these ones, you'll want to send them out back to be composted (generally, over a week after they've been opened and you'll see mold).
So ignore the 'best by' dates (they're always so conservative, and lead to so much waste!) and when it comes to moldy cheese, consider the type of mold and the type of cheese before you tuck in... or throw away.
By the way, my grilled moldy cheddar and tomato on rye with Jewish deli mustard was, of course, delicious.
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