Into the future

I have been cooking a lot, but not writing about it. Hopefully this will change soon.

Good news. I will soon be gravitating away from my lately boring non-blogishness. My sister and I will be opening a new blog at www.breadsandthreads.com. Check back and the end of February, and something should be up.

She will be writing about fashion, something that I know almost nothing about, but here's a little preview pic for you. Lady Gaga, you are crazy. And your shoes rock.

Just like Lena used to make for Ole

So last week, there was 24 inches of snow on the ground, and today it's supposed to be 70. I do not understand Colorado weather. In other news, I'm keeping busy at school. I'm learning how to clone DNA, working on a term project for each of my three classes, and learning LINUX for various data analysis programs I need for them. I don't bake much these days. Partly because we don't know that many people here to eat it. Not sure why otherwise.

Matt and his side hobby/company just put out another game for android phones this week in preparation for the verizon launch on Friday, and they're working on yet another.

I did made lefse. From scratch. And it's awesome. I tried making it a couple of years ago, and it was pretty good, but it ended up being a little crispy when all was said and done. Not this time. We always have lefse at holidays and family gatherings, even though most of us aren't that Norwegian. We're from Minnesota, and we're proud of the Norwegian we have, I suppose. Anyway, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
6 cups mashed potatoes
6 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
3 cups flour plus a lot more for rolling.

Directions:
1. For the potatoes, chop them up and stick them in boiling water for 20 minutes until they're really mushy. I don't have a ricer, but if you do use it. I just mashed mine with a fork. Stir in the butter and let it cool in the fridge until its a little colder than room temp.


2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and stir/knead a few times. It will feel pretty wet, but should still be malleable. If it's a sloppy mess, go ahead and add more flour.

3. Form into 1/4 cup rounds and start rolling. If you're a Norse grandma, you have a lefse roller and griddle, but I'm not and don't. I just used an ordinary rolling pin. To start, sprinkle a 1/2 cup of flour on the rolling surface and roll, flipping every now and roll as thin as you can. Just make sure you can still pick it up. You'll use a lot of flour for this.

4. Transfer the lefse to a heated 12-inch cast iron skillet (you could probably use any old pan that conducts heat well) over medium heat. No oil needed. Cook until it bubbles (about a minute) and flip. It should have nice brown spots on the cooked side. Cook again until you deem it done. They might be a little crispy when they come off, but if you stack them up on top of each other, they'll soften up.

I froze 3/4 of my batch by folding in half and putting in plastic bags.

Have a lovely November.

Pre-Halloween snow. Lots of it.

I guess that when I moved to Boulder, I had resigned myself to not having snow drifts all over town in the winter. Well, we've had a huge dump of snow the last two days. It's been so gorgeous around town. Everyone seems to be freaking out and complaining that school isn't closing (it did close yesterday afternoon) but I'm content to sit around and watch the snow fall outside. That is, from my office. With a window. I also have a desk as of Monday. As if this isn't exciting enough, our admin assistant has a friend who works at Celestial Seasonings, so we have a vast array of teas available as well. Life is pretty good up there.


In other news, to commemorate the white wonderland outside, I made lazy girl soup. Essentially browned some onions then added all the chopped veggies I had along with some water, stock, spices and tomato paste and simmered it until delicious. Oh, soup.

Best garage sale find of the decade

So Matt sleeps a lot on weekends. This usually results in me waking up at 8, and him sleeping until noon or so. It's boring. So I try to do exciting things, like garage sale-ing. Actually, I've been going to garage sales about every weekend since we moved here. Two months ago.

But today was apparently quite auspicious on the garage sale front. The main objective was to find mugs to put in my office(s) for tasty hot drinks at work. I did find some. But the primary amazing find: a 9-quart copper saucepan. For those not obsessed with food, copper cookware is the best conducting, fastest cooking, prettiest, and most expensive kind. The pot I bought today probably retails about $250. And I got it for $2. I actually bought some Brasso to clean it for $3.79, almost twice the cost of the pot.

Our new apartment

We moved into our new place this weekend and most everything is unpacked and settled. It's a little eerie doing everything here for the first time and knowing that we'll be here for at least a year. I'm happy to have finally gotten out here, and thanks to families for all the moving help. Still need a bookcase for my cookbooks, but everything else seems to have it's place.

Why I love Boulder already

What a lovely town.  It seems to be a funny mix of outdoor enthusiasts, crazy hippies, rich retirees, drunken students, professional athletes, and occasionally a normal person.  Regardless of any previous notions, I'm going to have to pick things up a bit if I want to still call myself an active person.  Everyone here seems to bike 200 miles a week and run marathons several times a year.

The downtown area is very trendy and classy.  The Pearl Street mall has a wide array of cutsie shops and restaurant patios.  My favorite is Peppercorn, a cooking store that has more cookbooks than I have ever seen in my life.  It also has quality cookware and utensils and import specialty foods.  Today I visited the spice shop nearby, which has dried spices and spice mixes from just about every cuisine imaginable.  You can buy them in bags of varying sizes or in jars.  And they have tasters out so you know what you're getting.  And there are various nice bookstores.

Campus is very pretty and everything matches.  And I can't get over having the Flatirons just over your shoulder wherever you are.  Never any confusion about which way is West here.  

Yesterday went hiking with Erin in Eldorado canyon.  There were lots of flowers (including cactus flowers) and stunning views of the rock formations. 

The end of my wanderings

I'm writing from my new hometown of Boulder, CO.  I don't move here officially for a couple of weeks, but I feel pretty good about making this place my new home.  I'll keep posting occasionally when something exciting happens, so don't forget all about me.  This past year has been pretty amazing.  I feel like I have changed so much and have a much better grasp on life and its endless shenanigans.  I should be here pretty consistently for about 5 years until I finish my Ph.D. and I am really looking forward to staying put.