On my drive to Boston, not last weekend but the weekend before, it was raining pretty hard and I saw all sorts of rainbows. Absolutely gorgeous. I even saw a double rainbow at one point, but couldn't get a picture. Rainbows always make me think of Noah, and God's promise after the flood, and thus they always make me smile. (I also always think of an angle of 42 degrees, after that awful physics proof we had to do junior year in high school with Mr. Rylander.)
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I've been in a baking mood, so this past weekend I made a swiss roll. It's basically a simple sponge cake, with strawberry jam inside, rolled up. Much easier than it looks. It tastes okay, nothing stellar. I have recipes for chocolate rolls, which I want to try, but that requires things like baking chocolate that I didn't have on hand. However, since this was so easy to roll up, I won't be intimidated by the idea of it and might make it sometime.
I joined this website called the Daring Kitchen, and they have a monthly baking challenge and a monthly cooking challenge. I plan on doing both, but we'll see how time works out. It seems like a fun and exciting way to get new recipes. Next week (I think?) I get my first baking challenge, yay!
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I borrowed Joe's ice cream maker to make strawberry sorbato for these floats (which, by the way, were pretty fantastic), and I still haven't returned the ice cream maker (I will, soonish). Ice cream maker has made it on to my list of "appliances I want to own someday". Also on this list are a washer/dryer set, a stand mixer, and a sewing machine. About in that order, I think. Ice cream maker may be before or after sewing machine, I haven't thought it through that much. I made some mango ice cream, which turned out to be ridiculously easy and really really good. (My goal was actually to make a mango gelato, but I still haven't determined what the difference is between gelato and ice cream in terms of ingredients or technique. So I'll just call it ice cream to be safe.)
Recipe:
2 cans (14 oz? maybe?) of tropical mango (in the international foods aisle at Wegman's) in light syrup
1.5 c half and half
1. puree mango (with syrup) in a blender
2. strain to get all the fibery stuff out
3. mix with half and half
4. put in ice cream maker, churn until ready, freeze until firm.
I suppose I could've used fresh mangos, but the other recipes I found (yay google!) told me to take fresh mangos and combine with hot simple syrup, I figured the effect was the same as just using canned mangos in light syrup (which is just sugar and water, same as simple syrup, I checked the ingredients on the can first).
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My latest knitting project is a knitted rug, made out of leftover yarn from the half a dozen (or more?) blankets I've made over the years. I have a small dresser filled with yarn and knitting supplies, I've got to use it up somewhere. I also have a crapload of sock yarn, but I'm not quite in the mood for knitting socks. Must think of other things to do with sock yarn... In the meantime this is keeping me busy, though I'm running out of ideas for color combinations, and I think it needs to be several feet larger in diameter before I'm through.
Safety pins are holding it in place, so that I can see how the colors look as I go. I envision at least a 3 ft diameter rug, but possibly larger if I can make it.
