On Baking, Bread, and The Precious

I've been baking.

On its own, that statement is not a cause for concern. Or rather, not much concern.

I've been baking since I was very little, at first helping my mom out, and then making a total mess out of the kitchen All By Myself. A few years ago, however, I started baking in earnest. This is right around the same time I started knitting again as well as sewing. In all honesty, I think I probably picked up handicrafts again as a tribute to my grandmother who passed away last year and also as a form of procrastination. Regardless, I do a little of everything but baking is one of my new loves.

I have slowly been acquiring gizmos and whatsits over the course of a few years and I have an interesting collection now...I think. Some Williams-Sonoma cookie cutters - the Marvel superheroes faces and the Star Wars vehicles - some pretty nifty food colors, all sorts of muffin tins, a cookie-scoop, and The Precious.

What is The Precious, you ask? Why my good fellow:

Me and The Precious at my birthday last year.

The Precious is the 6 quart capacity, bright red,  KitchenAid Stand Mixer I received for my birthday last year. This year one of my goals is to add the tengwar found on the One Ring to it in order to more properly connote its name, but until I do, that's just what I call it.

C'mon, you knew exactly what I was referring to when I said the tengwar. ...^^it's this.

So of course, upon receiving The Precious the first thing I did was baptize it in mocha and chocolate.

I'm not going to lie, having a stand mixer is a marvelous step up from using a hand mixer and my own brute strength. Paramount among the awesomeness is the ability to leave the mixer running while I melt/whip/add things. It just smooths everything out. ...I love my mixer, okay?

The problem with the Precious is it doesn't really help me with bread. I've decided that baking a decent loaf of bread is right up there with making a passable Apple Pie on "Things I Want to Do" but it's been...difficult. To that end I picked up a copy of 100 Great Breads from the Barnes and Nobles at school when I went to the bookstore to buy socks...long story...

Unfortunately, the man is a master baker and I just started making bread without the Bread Machine so mine came out all lumpy and weird. :| Going to try soda bread until I can make passable loaves.

Anyhoo. Because I made A Commitment to this blog and its general upkeep, I've decided to go ahead and start keeping better track of the things I bake. I won't make any promises as to the state of the pictures I'll take (synching my phone for pictures is enough of a hassle) but I will be doing more upkeep. And as soon as I figure out how, there will be a nifty "Baking" tab at the top of the blog where these posts will be housed.

But for tiding over, here are some pictures of stuff I've baked lately.

(Left to Right) Apple Pie, Vanilla cupcakes w/ chocolate comic book sayings, Kahlua cookie bowl with ice-cream, mocha cupcakes, apple cinnamon muffins, Star Wars cookies and blue milk.

Summer of Horror: Dragon Tears

Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Yes, Mr. Koontz. The 90s are a crazy time full of crazy goings on and off the wall capers. Arguable there was no "moral fiber" no "law or justice" and the youth were obviously "revolting" (in every sense of the word). Yeah. I got it. Wait 'till you get to the ots...


While I always enjoy a good paranormal horror (and Mr. Koontz's are usually top-notch) this one just had me rolling my eyes. Creepiness came from the rare moments when TickTock (our antagonist...worst name for a bad guy ever. It's like naming him 'Fluffy' frankly...) appeared in the next line where he hadn't been anywhere in the scene. When you picture it happening, it is terrifying and Mr. Koontz utilizes this device to its fullest extent. But that was one of the only creep-inducing things to come out of the entirety of this far-too-long novel.


As well, I feel like I shouldn't be noticing all the research the author has done in pursuit of realness. I don't really care about the specific plant types found in this neighborhood, or the precise medical effects of ecstasy (called 'E' now, not 'X'...sign of the change in times?).


I don't think horror books should feel dated but Dragon Tears fairly dripped of the early 90s as well as a huge dissatisfaction with the era. Plus: the whole "disparate characters seem to be completely unrelated but then meet-up and save the day" trope was not really utilized to its best potential here. The story would have read just as well without the frequent side-trips into the minds of other characters it was hard to feel anything for. In this case, these "other main characters" really only served to corroborate the sanity of the Real Main Characters. Something we knew wasn't in question.


The Dog was infinitely more useful.


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Book Review

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book.  I don't know if it was because I was reading it while in the midst of a class on post-modernity, or if I would have liked it before this class, but I do know that I thought it was phenomenal. The matter of fact tone of the protagonist, the ease with which I could fall into this world... no complaints on the world-building or even on the multitude of characters. Actually, there aren't very many characters, if just feels as if there are.  What with various temporal versions of the author, different versions of his parents, and the constant internal monologue, I was never lonely.

The only complaint (and the reason for my one star demotion) was the convoluted-ness of the ending.  I actually did re-read the last few pages multiple times to try to get it - the twist. I ended up not being able to (and being alright with that) but it was a tad frustrating.

All in all, I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys science fiction, meta fiction, or post-modern fic. This fits into all of the above while also being completely different.

A great first showing from an author I'm excited to read more from.


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