HOLY BEER BREAD, BATMAN.

Well, yesterday, whilst once again flipping through the Alton Brown cookbook I checked out from the library, I decided I was going to make beer bread. I bought a six pack of beer. The logical thing to do would have been to just buy a tall can, so I wouldn't have to buy an entire six pack for a recipe that only calls for 12oz of beer.

However, I didn't work today, so I decided to imbibe a little last night, saving only what I needed for the recipe. I don't drink a whole lot, but once in a while it's fun to get a little drunk and mess about online. It sounds like some lonely nerd thing to do, but it really isn't. I might just be online but it's still a social thing. It's cheaper than going out, and safer, since nobody has to worry about driving, or any of that.

Anyway, you came here to read about a recipe. Specifically, a beer bread recipe.

So, I did lie a little in that post about the cake. I said I would try to challenge myself. This wasn't really a challenge. I've made bread before (soda bread, banana bread, and cornbread) but not specifically beer bread, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here's the recipe. It's not the clearest photo but I believe you can make everything out.

First, the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and the dill.

In which I try to take a halfway decent photo of a bowl of flour.

Completely unnecessary picture of the baking powder.

Now, we don't have whole wheat flour as the recipe called for, so I went ahead and used the regular all purpose flour we've got. Also, I'm not terribly fond of dill, so I decided to use some Italian seasoning.

Can you tell I'm a fan of macro shots?

Now, for the cheese.

We didn't quite have the amount the recipe called for, but close enough.

Then, the beer.

It was on sale. I didn't want to go with "OMG SUPER EXPENSIVE BEER" but I also didn't want to go with the bottom of the barrel cheapass beer, so I decided on this stuff. It's not my first choice but it's all right, considering I'm not much of a beer drinker.

Cue pouring the batter into the pan. I had the recipe book set on a folding chair (Didn't want it on the dirty counter, seeing as it's still a pretty pristine library book), and in the recipe directions, I misread "batter" as "butter" and spent a good minute or two staring blankly at the page before I went "DUH, I CAN'T READ, THAT SAYS BATTER. LOL. "

I rummaged around in our pantry but we didn't have sunflower seeds, or a viable replacement, so I skipped that bit.

I put it in the oven, set the timer, and then ran off to Netflix to watch another couple episodes of Chobits (which I recently began watching in a fit of really terrible boredom whilst browsing my instant queue). 

About 50 odd minutes later, this was the result.

Cue unnecessary mention of the cute teapot in the background. Got it at the same second hand store where I purchased these lovely, lovely teacups

Japanese ceramicware hand painted in Hong Kong. I paid 20 bucks for the set of 4.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Here's another shot of the bread.

Look at that cheese. NOM NOM NOM

Once it had cooled a bit, I cut myself a piece. I took one bite and just stood there with the bread in my hand, saying "Holy shit. Alton you fantastic bastard, this bread is amazing."

To be honest, it was Alton Brown that made me want to start getting into cooking. A few years ago, when I was in college, I wasn't really a foodie at all. In fact I preferred to avoid cooking because I was too scared I'd burn/cut/etc myself. 

I did enjoy watching the odd cooking show, and (pun intended) if any cooking show fits that criteria it's Good Eats. At first I just watched it because Alton Brown is completely ridiculous/a really huge goofball, and because I had a crush on him (still do, in fact). It was one particular instance when I excitedly baked some pumpkin bars and took them to my friends at college that I realized "Hey, I really like cooking stuff and then having people enjoy what I've made". 

It sounds like a silly fangirly thing to say, but it really was Good Eats that made me want to get into cooking.

Anyway. For the next recipe I make, I will actually challenge myself and select a recipe I've never made before. 

Devil's food cake.

I haven't posted for ages because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this blog, but I thought it could be an outlet for my cooking escapades, the times I actually feel like taking step by step pictures of what I make. I don't want to work in food service but there's a certain charge I get when I make something for people, and they end up eating it and really enjoying it. Even if it's just making dinner.

Anyway. Fast forward to this orgasmic devil's food cake. But first a bit of backstory. If you're not interested in that, scroll down until you start to see pictures.

I'm pretty much a huge nerd, so I spazzed a little when I was at the library and saw that they had an Alton Brown cookbook. I lugged that heavy damn book home in a tiny backpack, while riding a bicycle.

So, while browsing the recipes, I rediscovered that, hey, this guy's a nerd, he weighs out his ingredients. Seeing as we didn't have a small food scale, I was a bit disappointed (part of that magnified by my lovely once monthly mood swings) but I was disappointed nonetheless. Here were all these great sounding recipes that I wouldn't be able to follow because I didn't have a scale. This is convenient, at a time when I will be broke until payday (in a week), need to make 50 dollar payments on two different bills, and need to put money into my savings account ASAP, because you're supposed to have a minimum of 100 dollars in there and I only have half that. So I only had like 3 bucks on me, and some 5 dollars in quarters, and a bit of random change.

Being as it was after 6pm, and I didn't want to drive to the next town, as I had very little gas in my car (and needed to conserve what I had to get to work), I hit up the hardware store in town. I had to search around for a while but eventually I ran across a small food scale for $9.99. This was also convenient because I counted out all my money (twice!) and I only had about $9.50. So I got angry with myself. Not only had I just fallen short, but I'd wasted the gas to drive to the hardware store.

Desperate, I went out to my car and rooted around in the car for change. The foodie gods were smiling down upon me because I found little over a dollar in change. It hit me that I am such a huge nerd that I went scrounging around for change in my car so I could buy a food scale, so I could make recipes in an Alton Brown cookbook.

I was very apologetic to the poor cashier who had to deal with me (having been there myself) but she was extremely nice and patient, so thanks, whoever was working at the Clear Lake Ace hardware last night.

Naturally, the whole scrounging for change situation amused me, so when I got home I naturally did the first thing one would do in that situation. I tweeted about it and tagged Alton Brown's twitter page in said tweet.

Cue more spazzing. I have often tagged celebrities in tweets, knowing full well they get way too many to have a ghost chance in hell of my tweet even being seen by them, let alone replied to. I'm actually still grinning, re-reading that just now.

I decided that even though it was getting a bit late in the evening (cue the Paul Simon song) I was depressed, and when I am in a certain kind of depression, the only way I can cheer myself up is to busy myself with cooking something. I had wanted to make some sort of sweet, and not wanting to fiddle with cupcakes I decided on a devil's food cake recipe. Click on this sentence to get the full size photo. I got lazy and didn't want to type the whole thing out.

Being as we don't have any of those fancy contraptions that hold your cookbook open for you...

This amused me for some reason. Probably because I was caffeinated and I was making a chocolate cake at 9pm

Now, right off the bat, I have never greased a pan and then put parchment paper in. I thought that's what the parchment paper was for, but I trust him so I did it anyway.

At this point I thought it prudent to include a photo of the little cheap food scale that could.

Obviously I hadn't zeroed the thing out yet

It was then that I figured out why people who weigh their ingredients have them all put into little bowls before hand on cooking shows, so while I waited for the water to boil I dumped the cocoa into a bowl.

I then decided to be suchly prepared and put the brown sugar in another bowl. The recipe called for dark brown sugar but I went with what we had, which was the normal stuff.

To tell the truth I was a bit alarmed weighing my ingredients at first. Having used measuring cups my entire life, it was a little strange.

At this point the water was boiling, so I set about whisking the cocoa and water together. 

In which looks are deceiving and it doesn't taste as delicious as it looks. I remembered this as I dripped a bit on my hand and had the bright idea of licking said drip off.

Back to the brown sugar bowl. I set about adding the other dry ingredients (the flours, the baking soda, and salt). Now here's where I deviated a bit. We don't have cake flour. And circumstances being what they were, with me being broke and the nearest open store being 15 minutes away, I went with the regular all purpose flour.

The recipe talks about a stand mixer. We are not fortunate enough to own one of those, and considering that my parents were trying to sleep (and our hand mixer is quite noisy), I sucked it up and used a rubber spatula and old fashioned elbow grease.

Now for measuring out the oil. 

To be honest, it alarmed a little. An entire cup seemed like a lot, but I figured, what the hell. It's a chocolate cake, not health food.

The recipe calls for sour cream. We had barely a tablespoon left in the fridge. After 9pm, making a chocolate cake to cheer myself up, my thought process went "We don't have enough sour cream, so I'll add a mashed banana".

In hindsight, the applesauce in the fridge would have made a better wet ingredient replacement

I added the eggs, and the egg yolks, but I didn't make it a point to snap a photo.

The next bit, step 5? Again, since we aren't fortunate enough to own a stand mixer, cue a whisk and more elbow grease. 

I was a bit worried that the lumpy banana bits wouldn't smooth out enough, but they did.

So the hard part is over. I poured the mix into the pan and set the timer for 30 minutes while I set about cleaning up the huge mess I made.

I had to change the water twice after this.

Naturally, the cake wasn't completely done after 30 minutes, but it was close enough that I put the cake back in the oven. I turned the oven off, but I set the timer for 5 minutes. I figured the residual heat would be fine, since the cake was so close to being done.

I feel like you should know how much self control it took not to just dive right into this boiling hot cake.

I set the alarm on my phone for half an hour (as the recipe calls for the cake to cool in the pan) and messed about on the internet.

I came back after half an hour and decided I wouldn't end up frosting the cake, so I cut it into pieces like brownies and put them in a container. I should note that at this point it was still fairly warm, so I didn't yet put the lid on. Didn't want the condensation to form and drip all over the cake.

Still, I couldn't contain myself and decided to try a piece for myself. Being as it was well past 10pm, I decided to forgo frosting and decided to put on some whipped topping, and to slice a few of the very ripe strawberries we had in the fridge.

I would love to reproduce this kind of scenario in the day time, when I've got the sunlight to work with

The cake is to die for. It's so rich that to be honest I'm not sure I want to slather it up with a bunch of sugary frosting. I liked it really well just with whipped topping and strawberries. In fact, I liked it so much that I'm thinking I should have waited until after lunch to put this blog entry together, because it's making me damn hungry.

So there goes my first foray into an Alton Brown cookbook. I can say with a great amount of certainty this is only the first of the recipes from this book that I am anxious to get made. I've made cakes from scratch before so for the next recipe I choose, I intend to step out of my comfort zone a little

The music of my 2011.

2011 was a year of new and old music for me. I discovered some new music released by old artists, rediscovered music I'd loved in the past, and discovered music that was technically "old" but was new to me.

During the latter part of 2010 and into the beginning of 2011, I discovered a Scottish band called the Proclaimers, who I am most certain you only know for this song

and possibly this song.

I consider that a shame. While those two songs are amazing in their own right, they're nowhere near the band's best work.

If I had to recommend other Proclaimers songs to you, it would be this one

and this one

Of course, it helps that I have an affinity for Scottish accents, but with the Proclaimers being identical twin brothers that are Scottish, and that sing... well that put the icing on the cake really.

In March 2011, Duran Duran released an album titled "All you need is now".

I didn't get a chance to buy the album until the summer, but I found it refreshing. 

I first got into Duran Duran around the release of their 2004 album, "Astronaut". Then was their 2007 album "Red Carpet Massacre". Then, in 2011, "All you need is now".

I think Astronaut was the beginning of a kind of DD movement, where you can hear their roots but they still sound relevant. It was the same on "Red Carpet Massacre", where a lot of production was done by Timbaland. Timbaland's production on that album is good, but it threatens to sound stagnant because it sounds the same as all the other production he does. 

Anyway.

"All you need is now", as an album, continues this movement, where Duran Duran continue to stay true to their roots and pay homage to their classic sound, but without rehashing it or sounding stale. I hope they continue to do so for subsequent album releases.

In the early summer, when I was delivering newspapers, I discovered Peter Gabriel. Well. Rediscovered in a way. I always knew songs like 'Sledgehammer', 'Shock the Monkey', 'In Your Eyes', 'Solsbury Hill' and whatnot. I was looking up songs by another Genesis member, Phil Collins, when I had a thought to look up the few Peter Gabriel songs I knew, and when I started listening to other PG songs of which I wasn't previously aware, I was in awe. I could post you a multitude of songs, from 'Here Comes the Flood', to 'Steam', to 'Big Time', to 'No self control', but there is one I want to focus on for the purposes of this entry.

It's inspirational, and uplifting, and at that point in my life, just what I needed.

Fast forward to mid/late summer, and I had discovered a Norwegian band called A-ha, who you may be familiar with due to this song.

They're pretty much considered one hit wonders in the U.S., which I think is a real shame. They're brilliant. Morten Harket has a gorgeous voice, which was still top notch when A-ha retired in 2010. Butterfly Butterfly (the last hurrah) was, as far as I know, the last new A-ha song to be released before their retirement.

Anyway, my discovering them lead me to purchase their 2002 album "Lifelines".

Other notable album tracks I recommend are "You Wanted More", "There's a reason for it", and this next song, called "Forever Not Yours". Forever Not Yours was among a handful of A-ha songs I knew in college, due to my 80s new wave phase.

As far as 80s A-ha goes, I recommend the album "Hunting High and Low". I believe 'Take on me' is on that album.

During the summer, I discovered an Australian band called Icehouse, who you may be familiar with due to this 80s hit.

I knew this song several years ago, when I was in my 80s new wave phase, but I never bothered to look into other songs by them until this summer

When my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up other Icehouse tracks, I was amazed and I loved what I heard.

This was another semi-big hit for them, and unless you're from Australia, it's probably the only other Icehouse song you know, sadly.

This is another Icehouse song I highly recommend, from the album of the same name.

It's a shame that Icehouse weren't more widely recognized. Also, since I live in the US, it can get pretty expensive to acquire any physical media by Icehouse, since everything is pretty much being imported from Australia.

I recommend the entire "Man of Colors" album, as well as a few random songs like "No Promises", and "Don't Believe Anymore".

In October of 2011, Thomas Dolby released "A Map of the Floating City", his first studio album in 20 years, leading me to rediscover his music for the umpteenth time. I have been discovering and rediscovering his work since my first exposure to his music, when I was a child. In my 80s new wave phase in college was when I first got really into him.

My first exposure to his music was the work he did for the random computer animation film, The Gate to the Mind's Eye. If you have the free music program Spotify, you can listen to the album in full, but it's nearly impossible to find on youtube. If you do look it up, I would lead you to concentrate on "Valley of the Mind's Eye" and "Nuvogue".

I can't embed the video, but I can link you to "Valley of the Mind's Eye". 

http://www.artistdirect.com/video/valley-of-the-minds-eye/39999

It's a safe link, I've watched it there myself dozens of times.

Those are two notable tracks from "A Map of the Floating City". I also highly recommend the first four songs on the album... as well as the entire album. Again, if you have the free program Spotify, you can listen to the entire album for yourself.

I would also direct you to the 1992 album "Astronauts and Heretics".

I recently found out that Thomas Dolby will be touring the US in the Spring of this year, 2012, and I have decided that I WILL be at one of those concerts. Even if I can't technically afford it, I am going to be there. Thomas Dolby has consistently been one of my favorite musical artists for a very long time. He still has his beautiful voice, but honestly, as a man in his 50s, I don't know how much longer he'll be doing the whole touring, releasing music thing, and I don't want to lose my chance to see him play live.

As for the rest of my year in music, it's been more or less discovering and rediscovering all the music I posted you above.

As for predictions for my 2012 in music, I will probably continue to look into the artists I mentioned above, and who knows, I may discover another foreign band from the 80s to add to my list of loves.

A different purpose.

As you can see, this blog hasn't turned out to be anything. I was going to keep it as a chronicle of all the trash I pick up and remember to take pictures of, but...it's trash. I can tell you how much I pick up. It's not like I have to have photographic proof. I mean, when I see a rubbermaid food container or a super old beer can on the lake shore I'll probably still take pictures of those, but... this blog is going to be a random little blog with a random little purpose.

I enjoy cooking greatly, so you'll probably get my food exploits; my favorite recipes, new recipes I try, all that sort of thing.
I'm not sure what else I'll give you here. My every day random thoughts are usually not coherent enough to form an interesting blog entry. Hardly anyone reads anything I write so I could pretty much bash my head on the keyboard and that would get as much attention as when I take the time to sit and think about what I'm going to say, but this is a blog.

It's not a life changing newscast. There are millions of people who keep blogs. Not everyone's is going to be read.
Although... I have to say. I have a wordpress.com blog, and every so often a bunch of blog entries get "freshly pressed" and featured on the homepage. After seeing what kind of boring crap sometimes gets featured there, there's no reason I can't come up with something interesting that people will actually read here.

An introduction to trash.

As I said in my first entry, I've found a great deal of trash in the lake.

Only recently have I begun to chronicle what I pick up. What you're seeing here is most of the garbage I've picked up since I started documenting it.

Now, if I see a random bent drinking straw, or a bottle cap or something, I'm going to pick it up and not give much thought to whether I've got my camera with me or not.

Most of what you're going to see here are the numerous times I head to the lake with three or four plastic grocery bags in my purse, with full intent to fill up at least two of those bags with trash I find.

Right now, I regularly pick up trash within the same sort of two mile or three mile radius.
This summer I hope to expand that area to include more of the lake shore. I mean, come on. It's a big lake.

Anyway, enough of that. If you decide to stick with this blog you will come to find that I can be somewhat long winded when the mood strikes, so I ask you to bear with me about that. XD

Here are the pictures I have for you so far.

The first picture is a torn up coffee cup from the local coffee shop, Cabin Coffee. 

The second, a couple of old tires sitting very close to one of the public access docks scattered around town.

Near these things. That's right; *#&@^!#$% rusty paint cans. I'd really like to knock on the door of the expensive house I found these behind and ask them if they plan to do something about these, but I'm shy and non confrontational.  I'll probably just end up disposing of them on my own, once I find out what the proper measures are that I need to take.

{I have something of a potty mouth elsewhere online, but I'm trying to keep it classy and family friendly here. With the exception of damn, and hell, I'll be trying not to swear, and I ask you to do the same should you choose to leave me a comment}

Litter! Love it to bits!

Litter=happiness, apparently.

I am disgusted by how long some of the cans I find manage to have avoided proper disposal. Once I found a pepsi can that was so old the contest advertised on the can ended in 1991. I've found cans that appear to be much older than that, but I couldn't manage to see a date on those.

I'll have a mocha frap with a side of "I'm a huge *$&#^@! with no respect for the planet" please.

I find a lot of plastic bottles in/around the lake. Like these things aren't bad enough for the planet. And they're so damn easy to recycle... Clear Lake has twice monthly curbside recycling pick up. Not to mention, you can redeem a lot of them for 5 cents a bottle.

Which doesn't sound like a lot until you consider it's the equivalent of chucking a nickel on the ground because you're too lazy to wait until you get to your piggy bank.

Lighters, of all things. Now, being something of a pyro, I appreciate lighters as much as more than the next person but. come on. 

Does anybody know what this stuff is? I find tons of it around the lake and I'm really sick of seeing it.

Yes, that's a glove and a blanket you see above. I had to exert a fair amount of effort to fish them out of the lake. Mainly because the public access docks haven't been put up yet this year, so I had to stand in sandals in ice cold water with my pant legs rolled up.

Litter! Only $2.49! Get yours today!

Yet another reason I hate fishing

Things not pictured are a rusty bottle cap, a smashed ping pong ball, a small pair of gloves, and a hostess snacks wrapper, because this entry has too many pictures in it already.

That's pretty much all I've got for you right now. 

"Oh geez, done already? We wanted MORE!"

Oh I know you did, but I can only throw so much at you at a time. Trust me, people are disgusting so there will sadly be much, much more where this came from.

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog, C/o Clear Lake.

I've lived in Clear Lake Iowa for ten years now, and I've always loved this town. There's so much going on, with the Surf Ballroom, and our lake that only in the winter do I get marginally bored. XD

One thing I've noticed is that... there's a lot of trash around. That bothers me. It's like people don't appreciate this place enough or something. The range of trash I've found is quite incredible, but only in the last couple years has it really started to get to me.

I enjoy walking the lake shore. There are a number of ducks, geese, and seagulls around the lake at any given time. It bothers me to see these beautiful wild animals in such close proximity to so much garbage and other random crap that has made its way into the lake. Trust me, you will be shocked to hear some of the stuff I've pulled out of the lake.
These things include:

• An attachment brush for a vacuum
• a chunk of carpet
• elastic to a pair of underwear
• an entire pair of underwear
• a pair of underwear that had been there so long they had completely unravlled, except for the elastic
• a fishing license receipt from 2006 (found in 2010)
• a movie ticket from 2009 (found in 2011)
• A huge television (I'm not kidding). The police had to deal with that.

I could go on, trust me. That is just a sampling of what I've found in the lake. Not to mention all the sea glass. I love collecting the smooth pieces of glass but it pains me to see just how much of it I can pick up in a single outing. Just earlier tonight I came home with both my jean pockets full of glass.

Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to start this blog to chronicle the sheer amount of trash I've found in the lake. It's my hope that, towards the end of the summer, I write an editorial to the local newspaper, the Clear Lake Mirror Reporter, and possibly even Mason City's paper, the Globe Gazette because I think people need to be more mindful of what they do with their garbage. They need to stop being lazy and just chucking their trash on the ground because there's no bin around. Also... I think there need to be more permanent trash cans around town, but that's a different issue for a different day.

Anyway, I'm going to get on with posting some pictures in forthcoming entries, so stay tuned.