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Life Stuff: Food, Job(?), Crafts
Feb. 16th, 2023 04:00 pmFood
For someone who really hates cooking and doesn't care all that much about eating, I sure do end up watching a lot of shows where food features heavily, especially as a sign of love/care. In a rare occurrence, I've actually been inspired enough by a couple of shows recently to actually *gasp* make stuff.
I joke that if I have a theme in the fics I write, it's "coffee = love," so when our coffee maker broke for the second time in ~5 years, I took that personally. We'd been using super fancy coffee makers with a grinder built into the top, etc., but I was so annoyed by the propensity of new, expensive things to break in irreparable ways that I argued for a French press this time, since I already owned a grinder thanks to the Christmas my dad got really into Aeropresses and gave me all the stuff I needed for single-serve coffee preparation. And I do love M, but not enough to go through all the steps needed for the Aeropress twice just after waking up, so a French press for two it was! Coincidentally, I was watching Would you like a cup of coffee? at the same time, and the apprentice barista mentioned some things about his own research on how to develop a new perfect menu item that made me go read several nerdy articles about French press usage, leading to me adjusting the grinder settings, the water temperature on the adjustable kettle, and the number of minutes before plunging.
Of course, this has now resulted in me being the only person in the house who can make a proper cup of coffee, because despite M following all the steps exactly the same, it does come out noticeably different when he does it. It's fine; I'm usually the first one up anyway.
And then with my group watch I'm still (re)watching Don't Call It Mystery, which always makes me want Japanese curry, and followed that up with The Makanai on my own, both of which led me to Just One Cookbook:
-16 Japanese Curry Recipes You'll Love
-masterlist of recipes made in The Makanai
After a sad attempt by M to make the Instant Pot chicken curry (not a fault of the recipe--entirely the fault of M being the kind of cook who doesn't believe listed recipe proportions should matter), I ended up making my own curry roux brick, which was entirely unnecessary but fun, and I certainly learned things about how roux works, and then made curry udon (twice, to use up the ingredients). I still have 4 roux blocks left, so I need to pick another recipe soon.
*
Job(?) & Crafts
These are really the same topic, because the job stuff is just that I've actually had an interview for a full-time position for the first time in quite a few years (results still pending), and then the folk school released the catalog of classes through the rest of 2023, which of course caused me to immediately have to confront the possibility of not having an infinitely flexible schedule in the near future.
But I did confirm they are running the mokuhanga printmaking class again this fall, and I'm pretty sure they specifically did NOT schedule it the same week I'll be teaching temari this time because I asked for it on my teacher survey last time, and due to the false sense of obligation this has created in me + the fact I've been wanting to take this class for over a year, I signed up anyway. If I have to cancel, I have to cancel. The peace of mind I feel knowing I have a guaranteed space in the class right now is worth it. Things can fill up fast there, in somewhat unpredictable waves, so I really didn't want to take a chance on waiting. The stuff the class made last year was stunning, and as much as I loved the wood engraving class I took a couple of years ago, I would love to learn a method that doesn't require access to a type-high printing press. (I mean, I could go back and take wood engraving again and use the press there, but that's just a special occasion hobby at that point.) There's just something about printmaking I enjoy in a very different way from other types of art.
For someone who really hates cooking and doesn't care all that much about eating, I sure do end up watching a lot of shows where food features heavily, especially as a sign of love/care. In a rare occurrence, I've actually been inspired enough by a couple of shows recently to actually *gasp* make stuff.
I joke that if I have a theme in the fics I write, it's "coffee = love," so when our coffee maker broke for the second time in ~5 years, I took that personally. We'd been using super fancy coffee makers with a grinder built into the top, etc., but I was so annoyed by the propensity of new, expensive things to break in irreparable ways that I argued for a French press this time, since I already owned a grinder thanks to the Christmas my dad got really into Aeropresses and gave me all the stuff I needed for single-serve coffee preparation. And I do love M, but not enough to go through all the steps needed for the Aeropress twice just after waking up, so a French press for two it was! Coincidentally, I was watching Would you like a cup of coffee? at the same time, and the apprentice barista mentioned some things about his own research on how to develop a new perfect menu item that made me go read several nerdy articles about French press usage, leading to me adjusting the grinder settings, the water temperature on the adjustable kettle, and the number of minutes before plunging.
Of course, this has now resulted in me being the only person in the house who can make a proper cup of coffee, because despite M following all the steps exactly the same, it does come out noticeably different when he does it. It's fine; I'm usually the first one up anyway.
And then with my group watch I'm still (re)watching Don't Call It Mystery, which always makes me want Japanese curry, and followed that up with The Makanai on my own, both of which led me to Just One Cookbook:
-16 Japanese Curry Recipes You'll Love
-masterlist of recipes made in The Makanai
After a sad attempt by M to make the Instant Pot chicken curry (not a fault of the recipe--entirely the fault of M being the kind of cook who doesn't believe listed recipe proportions should matter), I ended up making my own curry roux brick, which was entirely unnecessary but fun, and I certainly learned things about how roux works, and then made curry udon (twice, to use up the ingredients). I still have 4 roux blocks left, so I need to pick another recipe soon.
*
Job(?) & Crafts
These are really the same topic, because the job stuff is just that I've actually had an interview for a full-time position for the first time in quite a few years (results still pending), and then the folk school released the catalog of classes through the rest of 2023, which of course caused me to immediately have to confront the possibility of not having an infinitely flexible schedule in the near future.
But I did confirm they are running the mokuhanga printmaking class again this fall, and I'm pretty sure they specifically did NOT schedule it the same week I'll be teaching temari this time because I asked for it on my teacher survey last time, and due to the false sense of obligation this has created in me + the fact I've been wanting to take this class for over a year, I signed up anyway. If I have to cancel, I have to cancel. The peace of mind I feel knowing I have a guaranteed space in the class right now is worth it. Things can fill up fast there, in somewhat unpredictable waves, so I really didn't want to take a chance on waiting. The stuff the class made last year was stunning, and as much as I loved the wood engraving class I took a couple of years ago, I would love to learn a method that doesn't require access to a type-high printing press. (I mean, I could go back and take wood engraving again and use the press there, but that's just a special occasion hobby at that point.) There's just something about printmaking I enjoy in a very different way from other types of art.
