some blathering, and a recipe
Jan. 27th, 2011 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardI am still madly in love with my Winnow sock -- it's so clever! I really love the side panels and this little twisting vine bit that's worked with alternating yarnovers, SSKs, and K2togs; it makes me so happy everytime I see it. It's harder to see the wheat heads as they're worked over more stitches and tend to bunch up, but I'll think they'll look pretty cool when I've got a bit more of the leg worked and can stretch it out and see.
I'm making friends in Latin, which is nice -- I don't make friends easily; my current roommates I made friends with freshman year and basically haven't gone outside that group since then. Last semester I had two semester with another girl I'd lived with freshman year, which was great; she's a classics major too and so she got the sheer awesome that is classics, which mostly tends to net me blank looks from other people. No classes with her this semester, though, and I've never quite worked out the etiquette for hanging out with people you don't already live with or see every day. (I didn't hang out with people in high school. I was a weird kid. I had friends and all, but I saw them every day, you know? In school. Not outside of school, unless it was for a school-related purpose, except for one friend, who is also the only one I keep up with on a semi-regular basis when I'm home.) Like, can you really just call or text people and say, "Let's hang out!" Don't you need an occasion? And what if they wonder why you want to go, I don't know, rock-climbing with them or something? I am really bad at the socialization thing. I never had that kind of training.
Anyway, friends in Latin. I like having friends in language classes, as it's helpful for making groups. (My lecturer brought in stuffed animals yesterday and distributed them to groups, in order to give them personalities so we could work in out adjectives. We named the tiger Scipio, because I'm a nerd and the other three girls thought it was cute.) Interesting to see who takes Latin: since it's a 1020 class, it's mostly underclassmen, and I'm the only one I know for sure is a classics major. (Which meant when she was writing the animals' Latin names up on the board, I was the one who went, "Man, I wouldn't make the wolf a girl, as then she'd be a prostitute (lupa)," and my teacher started snickering.)
Love Roman history, love, love, love. I'm heavier on MEMS this semester than I am on Classics, and it looks like my honors thesis is going to be on -- well, what I want to write it on is the use of classical literature by Renaissance authors in their own work, specifically Edmund Spenser or William Shakespeare; I'm leaning towards Spenser and the Faerie Queene right now over Shakespeare, just because Shakespeare wrote so much stuff, how would I ever pick and choose? (Not that the Faerie Queene is exactly light reading.) Partially because I swear to god, every historian I've ever taken a class with at Tulane is either currently on sabbatical or is going to be on sabbatical next semester. (Not technically true, but damn, it feels that way.) Mostly because I really am sincerely interested in it; I can pick up the references on a brief read through, but there clearly has to be something going on there. Er, I was getting into this to talk about how my medieval and Renaissance religion classes are working out for me. Interestingly. I made the mistake on Monday of doing the reading for my Medieval Religious Culture class, then for my Age of Reformation class, then got totally confused on what happened when. I really did want to take Ancient Christianity this semester, but the scheduling didn't work out. The other two girls in my tutorial are both pretty Catholic, so I feel like I stick out a little -- but I also have a completely different viewpoint on the subject. (Also, it's probably about time I studied Christianity, as it bewilders me in ways that Greco-Roman and Scandinavian paganism really doesn't.)
*
In conclusion, a recipe, since I made Dutch babies today:
I have no idea how Dutch babies got their name. It's a little morbid, isn't it? Fun to say. "I'm going to eat me some Dutch babies!" I've also seen them called "Dutch baby pancakes" or "Dutch baby bunnies." Usually this recipe is tripled and baked in a large pie pan or cast-iron skillet, then sliced up to make a nice fancy breakfast for a crowd (like this), but I've always made it in single servings, which you can do with a muffin tin, the way I do at school; I've also done it in souffle cups or in mini-loaf pans, it doesn't really matter.
If at this point you're still going, "Yes, Bedlam, but what the hell is a Dutch baby?", a Dutch baby is a kind of baked pancake, I suppose. Similar to a popover, I've been told (I've never had a popover), but when you take it out of the oven it immediately starts to collapse in on itself, forming a little crater where you can put fruit, jam, sugar, whatsoever you please. It's light and eggy and not particularly sweet on its own (in its most basic form, it only has three ingredients) and makes a nice breakfast or filling snack. It's very simple to whip up, though it takes about ten minutes of prep time and about twenty minutes of baking time. There are various add-ins, a few of which I've tried. I believe that one traditionally serves it with powdered sugar and lemon juice; I've had it with jam, powdered sugar, and fresh fruit (not usually all at the same time, usually I just stick to powdered sugar), and I'm sure it would be good with maple syrup, too.
Ingredients
1 egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 milk
1-2 Tbsp butter
see below for optional add-ins
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Whisk together egg and milk, then add in flour and mix until smooth. Put the butter in a muffin tin, souffle cup, or mini-loaf pan (or other small baking dish). If using a muffin tin, cut butter in two and put in two muffin cups. Put into the oven until the butter is melted. (You can also melt the butter separately and just put it into the baking dish once it's melted, but this way gets the dish nice and hot, which helps with rising.) Pour batter into baking dish (if using a muffin tin, divide between the two buttered cups).
Bake for about 20 minutes. This is the point where having an oven window you can actually see through is helpful, as ideally you don't want to open the oven until the Dutch babies have reached their full rise. Sometimes it only takes fifteen minutes for this to happen (basically, the point where they just stop rising and start to brown on top), but with my oven, it's about 20 minutes. With yours, could be more, could be less. Take them out of the oven and pry them out with a fork (they should come out pretty easily: all that butter) and serve with the toppings of your choice. (I recommend powdered sugar). Don't be worried if they fall: they're supposed to fall. They rise, and then fall, like the Roman Empire. Be more worried if they don't fall.
Optional add-ins (add when mixing ingredients)
splash of vanilla extract or scraping of vanilla bean
dash of nutmeg or other spices of your choice (I once tried to make a gingerbread Dutch baby with about 1/8 tsp each of ginger and cinnamon and a dash of cloves. I might try increasing the spice content next time, as it didn't come through very well.)
Enjoy your Dutch baby! This makes one in a souffle cup or mini loaf pan, or two if you make them in regular size muffin cups.
I'm making friends in Latin, which is nice -- I don't make friends easily; my current roommates I made friends with freshman year and basically haven't gone outside that group since then. Last semester I had two semester with another girl I'd lived with freshman year, which was great; she's a classics major too and so she got the sheer awesome that is classics, which mostly tends to net me blank looks from other people. No classes with her this semester, though, and I've never quite worked out the etiquette for hanging out with people you don't already live with or see every day. (I didn't hang out with people in high school. I was a weird kid. I had friends and all, but I saw them every day, you know? In school. Not outside of school, unless it was for a school-related purpose, except for one friend, who is also the only one I keep up with on a semi-regular basis when I'm home.) Like, can you really just call or text people and say, "Let's hang out!" Don't you need an occasion? And what if they wonder why you want to go, I don't know, rock-climbing with them or something? I am really bad at the socialization thing. I never had that kind of training.
Anyway, friends in Latin. I like having friends in language classes, as it's helpful for making groups. (My lecturer brought in stuffed animals yesterday and distributed them to groups, in order to give them personalities so we could work in out adjectives. We named the tiger Scipio, because I'm a nerd and the other three girls thought it was cute.) Interesting to see who takes Latin: since it's a 1020 class, it's mostly underclassmen, and I'm the only one I know for sure is a classics major. (Which meant when she was writing the animals' Latin names up on the board, I was the one who went, "Man, I wouldn't make the wolf a girl, as then she'd be a prostitute (lupa)," and my teacher started snickering.)
Love Roman history, love, love, love. I'm heavier on MEMS this semester than I am on Classics, and it looks like my honors thesis is going to be on -- well, what I want to write it on is the use of classical literature by Renaissance authors in their own work, specifically Edmund Spenser or William Shakespeare; I'm leaning towards Spenser and the Faerie Queene right now over Shakespeare, just because Shakespeare wrote so much stuff, how would I ever pick and choose? (Not that the Faerie Queene is exactly light reading.) Partially because I swear to god, every historian I've ever taken a class with at Tulane is either currently on sabbatical or is going to be on sabbatical next semester. (Not technically true, but damn, it feels that way.) Mostly because I really am sincerely interested in it; I can pick up the references on a brief read through, but there clearly has to be something going on there. Er, I was getting into this to talk about how my medieval and Renaissance religion classes are working out for me. Interestingly. I made the mistake on Monday of doing the reading for my Medieval Religious Culture class, then for my Age of Reformation class, then got totally confused on what happened when. I really did want to take Ancient Christianity this semester, but the scheduling didn't work out. The other two girls in my tutorial are both pretty Catholic, so I feel like I stick out a little -- but I also have a completely different viewpoint on the subject. (Also, it's probably about time I studied Christianity, as it bewilders me in ways that Greco-Roman and Scandinavian paganism really doesn't.)
*
In conclusion, a recipe, since I made Dutch babies today:
I have no idea how Dutch babies got their name. It's a little morbid, isn't it? Fun to say. "I'm going to eat me some Dutch babies!" I've also seen them called "Dutch baby pancakes" or "Dutch baby bunnies." Usually this recipe is tripled and baked in a large pie pan or cast-iron skillet, then sliced up to make a nice fancy breakfast for a crowd (like this), but I've always made it in single servings, which you can do with a muffin tin, the way I do at school; I've also done it in souffle cups or in mini-loaf pans, it doesn't really matter.
If at this point you're still going, "Yes, Bedlam, but what the hell is a Dutch baby?", a Dutch baby is a kind of baked pancake, I suppose. Similar to a popover, I've been told (I've never had a popover), but when you take it out of the oven it immediately starts to collapse in on itself, forming a little crater where you can put fruit, jam, sugar, whatsoever you please. It's light and eggy and not particularly sweet on its own (in its most basic form, it only has three ingredients) and makes a nice breakfast or filling snack. It's very simple to whip up, though it takes about ten minutes of prep time and about twenty minutes of baking time. There are various add-ins, a few of which I've tried. I believe that one traditionally serves it with powdered sugar and lemon juice; I've had it with jam, powdered sugar, and fresh fruit (not usually all at the same time, usually I just stick to powdered sugar), and I'm sure it would be good with maple syrup, too.
Ingredients
1 egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 milk
1-2 Tbsp butter
see below for optional add-ins
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Whisk together egg and milk, then add in flour and mix until smooth. Put the butter in a muffin tin, souffle cup, or mini-loaf pan (or other small baking dish). If using a muffin tin, cut butter in two and put in two muffin cups. Put into the oven until the butter is melted. (You can also melt the butter separately and just put it into the baking dish once it's melted, but this way gets the dish nice and hot, which helps with rising.) Pour batter into baking dish (if using a muffin tin, divide between the two buttered cups).
Bake for about 20 minutes. This is the point where having an oven window you can actually see through is helpful, as ideally you don't want to open the oven until the Dutch babies have reached their full rise. Sometimes it only takes fifteen minutes for this to happen (basically, the point where they just stop rising and start to brown on top), but with my oven, it's about 20 minutes. With yours, could be more, could be less. Take them out of the oven and pry them out with a fork (they should come out pretty easily: all that butter) and serve with the toppings of your choice. (I recommend powdered sugar). Don't be worried if they fall: they're supposed to fall. They rise, and then fall, like the Roman Empire. Be more worried if they don't fall.
Optional add-ins (add when mixing ingredients)
splash of vanilla extract or scraping of vanilla bean
dash of nutmeg or other spices of your choice (I once tried to make a gingerbread Dutch baby with about 1/8 tsp each of ginger and cinnamon and a dash of cloves. I might try increasing the spice content next time, as it didn't come through very well.)
Enjoy your Dutch baby! This makes one in a souffle cup or mini loaf pan, or two if you make them in regular size muffin cups.