The Better Bread Baker Meets the Horizontal Black&Decker BreadMaker

Bread!

Made from

Yeast, the creepiest thing to ever be found in a baked good and an infection.

Sugar

Flour

Milk

Salt

and this loaf

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Vanilla

Sunflower Seeds

Flax and

a few Peanuts.

Better (Off-Off) Broadwat Theatre

http://www.nyneofuturists.org/site/

AMAZING THEATRE ALERT

The kind that makes you want to dance and shout and call foreign area codes with your local phone plan.

Give it a shot, New York or Chicago.

30 (possible) short plays in 60 minutes, written and acted by the troupe on stage.
Funny, poignant, grappling, it's what theater seemingly should become.

Better Broadway Baby: Wicked

Only about a millennium behind the Jones-es and every other Broadway show attending person/family, I finally saw Wicked tonight. Even though I didn't know then name of the performers, and even though I'd already listened to the soundtrack, it was really fucking amazing.

There are of course things that make me cock my head to the side, and I shall list them to you here:

First Head-Cocker: The Un-invisible crew members pulling ropes and Operating Spots

In my high school I distinctly remember my director timing the crew in Seussical so that they would get the field of clovers off stage in under twelve seconds so the audience would not see them, it give my head a theta to realize that Broadway has no need to hide their members in black from the audience.

There are a series of possible reasons for this, some that pop into my mind include that we need to realize that is it a show to like it. Getting lost in all that reality can amaze us, but a sharp jolt of a minute intermission, pulls us from the fantastical lull. With the reminders of reality, we can appreciate with more awe. This is not Brecht.

Second Head-Cocker: The Screaming Plot Points

I know that Broadway is in many ways written for the masses yet it continually amazes me how after 80 years of developing the musical the audience needs to be fed the plot. The show doesn't want to force it down our throats in the last minute, much like we do in movies or comics, where we must believe in Deus Ex Machina, but rather a trivial mention to a little green vial makes it all the better. It seems like at times a multi-million dollar musical is cutting corners.

Third (And Last) Head Cocker: Excess, Excess, Excess

In viewing the show I noticed in one particularly dark scene a series of curtains that made no appearance again. It amazes me how extravagant the Gershwin theatre feels the need to be. Isn't it better to reuse in a creative way then just layer on the gold? It think even Glinda would agree.

All in all the show was amazing, it may take one actress one recording to force it into my head that a role can only be played one way, and then another one ten minutes to reinvent the roll.

The singing was amazing, the dancing not mind-blowing, but the costumes and set could have held my focus for a life time. There are many things I don't feel the need to see again, or experience right away atleast, Wicked is not one of them.

Nothing makes me happier then seeing that an audience loves to be on the inside of a joke

The Better Batter Blog: Shushi and Dessert

Last Night as a Part of One's Cultural Experimentation the Bert Brothers hosted, at P. Bert's new NDG Apartment, a sushi night titled multiple things
First: Shushi
Then: Shushi: More Like Penises
Next: Shushi More Like no Natalies Allowed
Finally: Shushi

After years of culinary experience it is to be known that the Berts are to be trusted when it comes to food far beyond their home town of Wenham Mass.

Out of all the people attending, and let me say that It was quite the group, everyone brought a little something to add to the rolls.

On top of the avocado, carrots, cucumber, peppers, bean curd, there were many other exciting additions: Spicy and not mayonnaises, Cream(ed) Cheese, Salmon, Shrimp, Sprouts. Pretty much the works.

We were coaxed into rolling our own by the aid of L. Bert, and after many successful attempts, we ended up with more sushi than we could eat.

The Batter Baker ended up experimenting, after a mojito or two, with the butter battered shrimp.

It started with dessert.

In the line of my turkish ancestry, and the lime from the I can only assume Caribbean drink, we decided to sugar our losses and go for the gold.

Step 1: Procure Limes
Step 2: Slice
Step 3: Dip in Sugar
Step 4: Eat

I suppose you also need to procure Sugar and a knife, at the least.

I have always been a fan of eating raw lemon and lime, but even that seemed to be too much Logan, so we resorted to sour and sweet.

It was pretty darn good, if not too sugary.

After that we decided, or rather, I did, to also take the mint leaves and repeat the above instructions, substituting leaves for limes, but I really don't suggest this unless you know you have an audience for it i.e. a Natalie Talmi, or someone who enjoys eating Mint Leaves.

Though I am told they resembled bubblegum.

After we ran out of the leaves, and the demand was still there for sucrose experimentation and thus we turned to ice cubes, and then: Shrimp.

After letting a singular Shrimp bathe in the sugar, one might say it tempted us to pour the sugar on it, we heated up the oil and dropped the bottom feeder in.

While that was frying, I mixed up some low end wine and a little (more) sugar, to make some really tangy sauce.

It is and was crucial to poke at the frying shrimp, attempting to see if it was done before it actually was, because I am sure that is what contributed to the wonderful to come taste.

After battering it, we dropped it right in the low-ball tumbler with the 'sauce' and after letting it cool to an edible temperature, we gobbled it up.

It is suggested to cook the shrimp all the way through, though the blue color of the meat against the red sauce did add some nice visual.

Best of luck in your future feasts!

Ps: On a real and interesting cooking note, you can tell if the oil is warm enough to begin to fry by dropping a little sample batter in, and when the bubbles have gone from small to large, the temperature is right. Probably something to do with surface area and the kinetics as you heat up. Enjoy.

The Lemom Poppy Seed Extravaganza

Last year, I swear I could make this cookie.

I don't know where that recipe went, or how I succeeded, but this time it was, as failblog would detail, and epic fail.

I followed the recipe fine, but the 'combine' all ingredients should have read:
Cream the Butter
Add the Sugar
Then the Egg
then the flower and so on.

As the prefects say.

http://bakingforthecure.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/lemon-poppy-seed-cookies/

recipe

I am trying this again tonight. I hope more luck ensues.

Julien/Julie/Julia

I actually worked in a bakery, but there is a good chance that you would never note that.

It was called Polka Dot Bakery an is not a specialty cake store. I can promise you working there was nothing like ace of cakes.

http://www.polkadotcakes.com/aboutus/index.html

I chopped canned apricots and prepped tarts for the MET, and in my spare time drank the vanilla bean lemonade and read my summer reading books, I was 16 at the time.

One of the few things I learned was the concept of Mis en Place, or the idea of placing out the ingredients before you cook, as to not end up S.O.L. half way though.

It turned from a bakery coffee shop into a cake store the summer after I left.

The Bad Baking Blog: Ralph Nader's Two by Two by Two Cookies

Back in October in an attempt to vote and be a tad non-biased in my decision making, I subscribed to Mr. Obama's, McCain's, Nader's, and a few others political news e-mails.

I quickly stopped reading them as the race was much easier to follow through the internet, and as it was widely televised, though I did end up reading an e-mail from Nader's campaign at one point in the race.

Truly underfunded, he was asking for donations, any amount which contained the number 2, which would receive a cookie recipe from him in exchange for the support.

He claimed that the cookies were hearty and strong, just like his vision for America.

I quickly jumped at the offer and gave Mr. Nader my only financial support for the race. $2.

I received an e-mail later that week with, as promised, his families recipe.


I chuckled at it, looked at the ingredients, and kept it in the back of my head.

Much later in the year, I dug it out, and with the help of Logan, my resident chef attempted to first hunt down the odd ingredients, like Orange Blossom Water, and Rose Water, and set out full fledged Two-Two-Two cookies.

Simple to make, rather healthy, and completely disgusting.

Feel free to give it a try.

My roommate took a liking to them, but as I've since learned, he likes a lot of stuff.

I am now not all too sad that Obama won.