I wanna be a rollergirl :(

For those of you who don't know me, I've been dreaming of the rollerderby seriously for five years (I thought it was cool for probably twenty). My sister of 39 has told me many times that it was her dream to be in the derby since she was in elementary school, and well, I've always wanted to be like my older sister. Unfortunately, the closest league, the Harrisburg Area Roller Derby (H.A.R.D.) is two hours away. So I've been attending their bouts for the last year, dreaming of the day I graduate (last monday!!!) and move to a place with a league of its own (San Antonio or Austin?), or my roommate and his work buddies drum up enough interest to start a Centre County league.

So I got this FB update from Neil Gaiman tuesday, where he talks about meeting some derby girls, and I almost shat myself with excitement when I realized he meant Joan Of Dark, a cool chick from LSG. He posted links to her blog, and to when she named a coffee after him.

So yeah, this is me being jealous, and super excited and awed and happy for someone I've never met, and I hope to someday be surrounded by such wonderful events!

Oh, and I am totally going to make that latte!

You down with OPP?

(pictures coming soon, I promise!)

Yeah, I know, bad old song. But I figured I could use the acronym as a new tag: Other People's Projects. I have so many crafty friends that I really need to share! I already blogged about the wonderful roving I got dyed from Nanonukie, and this week I got presents from Nicole ^_^

She made me this wonderful necklace (that can be worn in either direction) and a Capri Sun craft bag that she made out of my addiction.

For now, I finished my Super Sekrit Swap Gift, which I will post pictures of in a month, once I finally get it sent. It was binge knitting while watching Buffy for four days. I'm very proud of it! I brought it to Crafty Bitches yesterday and everybody liked it. I was afraid my gauge was too loose, but everybody preferred it that way. And even though I really, really, really want to get started on my O W L S sweater, I pulled my Skews out of detention and reclaimed the needles from the Vampire Boyfriends. I am so not looking forward to frogging the first sock down to the toe and having to rewind the ball.

Oh! I also spent money at Spinners that I should be saving up for MDSW, but they had my Addi Clicks in!!! Damn, they are sexy. I was really not liking my Knitpicks interchangeables because all the chrome was rubbing off the palms (which is just an aesthetic annoyance) and the key hole on one of the cables was very burry and kept rubbing the yarn the wrong way. I'm planning on keeping them anyway, for when I need spare needles for something tricky.

I also finally got two custom made spindles from Anne Grout: a turkish goat and a mexican jaguar. I lurves them! But I'm afraid to use the goat, since it is much heavier than anything I've ever used before, and I am notorious for spinning stupidly thin.

[recipe] Teriyaki Turkey Triangles

I got home the other day from the gym, to a very boring and very bland pack of ground turkey in the fridge. I asked Dan to mix up some teriyaki while I showered, and he found a great recipe in one of my books! Of course, we completely improvised from there, but here's the gist:

Sauce:
soy sauce, ginger powder, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, probably something I didn't notice.

Cook up the ground turkey for about 4 minutes, stir in the sauce, simmer and hope it thickens a bit.

Meanwhile, pull out a roll of filo dough that has been in the freezer for about a year a nobody knows how it got there, and let it thaw. Since you are going to be impatient and unroll it while it is still frozen, anyway, break it off at the half wrap (ideally at around 2" wide).

Place individual strips of dough on a cutting mat, oint with melted butter (or butter spray) and layer three high. Place a very small amount of meat at the end of one of the stacks and fold the corner over repeatedly until you have a small pastry triangle.

Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper, with the dough flap on the bottom and repeat until you've used up all the meat or dough, or are fed up with the process. Oint with leftover butter and sprinkle on sesame seeds. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

WAIT FOR THEM TO COOL. Nom. These were adorable, and would definitely be well suited as easy to make hors d'œuvres. Filling can be substituted for anything, really, since there is little flavor to the filo dough. I really want to try a broccoli version one day.

OBEY YOUR MASTER!

Stick a fork in me because I am DONE! I finally defended my MS and I am exhausted. And just blank. Like in the Never Ending Story, when the world is completely dismantled and quite. There is just... nothing. And in six weeks, there will be less. Mainly there will be no job.

Firefly and Spinning

So I was informed yesterday that there will be a Firefly (the show, not the bug) themed swap on Ravelry in a month. When I went to sign up, I was presented with the questions of what are my favorite episode and character. Now, I'd only seen Firefly once all the way through (and the first episode five times...) so I figured rewatching it all was in order. And you know what was absolutely wonderful? Last tuesday we got the Netflix Wii disc in the mail, so we are now able to Watch It Now on the televsion without having to connect my computer!!!

And the best news of all? As of three days ago, they have all of Firefly, Buffy(!!!!!!), Angel and Dr. Horrible, along with all of Dollhouse and Doctor Who that has already come out on DVD.

So I spent the past two days watching all of Firefly, and spinning up this beauty on my Hitchhiker.

It is a braid (which I think is superwash merino) that I got from Nanonukie as a christmas present, which she hand dyed herself. It is really nice! You can't really tell the range of colors in the pictures, but it goes from teal to violet, through a really nice rich cobalt. I've managed to spin up 1/4 of what I think is a pound through about 11 of the episodes. It is terribly thin, so I hope that when I 2-ply it, I'll get a decent lace weight. I can definitely say it is a lot more even than things I've done before!

And not that you can tell from the damned pictures, but it matches my sock.

[recipe] Hummus

Happy Ostarra/Pesah/Easter! We aren't very observant in this house, but we always like to provide a venue for all our friends who are. So yesterday, we held our Second Not-so-annual Bootleg Passover. I cooked up a rabbit, provided by my friend Dani in exchange for jerky, in a lemon cream marinade I got at the supermarket -_-;; It came out very nice, though!

(kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!)

But my main contribution was hummus! Ok, backtrack. My main contribution was supposed to be baba ganoush, but the recipe I got from AllRecipes.com required 1/2c lemon juice for two eggplants, and it was really, really too much. I started by coarsely blending the roasted and peeled eggplants with the lemon juice, garlic and tahini, only to taste it and be grossed out. So I strained it as best I could and reblended it smooth with strong a can of rinsed chick peas, strong olive oil, more garlic, black pepper, and salt. The lemon flavor dissipated a lot, but not nearly enough for my taste. Luckily, our guests loved it!

My coup de grace, though, was my hummus (bitches don't know about my hummus!)
The main component is two cans of rinsed garbanzos, garlic, an acid, olive oil, water and seasonings. Ingredients aren't measured, but you should have an idea of how much you like each. Here are the two that came out really well last night.


BLACK PEPPER HUMMUS
Start blending a good amount of garlic (2 TBS? I really like garlic) with some salt, and about a cup of apple cider vinegar.
Add one can garbanzos at a time and slowly add about a cup of water, 1/2 cup good olive oil (and more vinegar if needed) until it is blended smooth.
Season with about a tbs of black pepper and salt to taste.


PAPRIKA HUMMUS
Start again with the garlic and salt, but use white vinegar.
Continue with the garbanzos and water and olive oil, and season with 1 tbs spicy hungarian paprika and 1/2 tbs ground red peppers. You can make this as spicy as you like.


I constantly throw hummus together for parties, get togethers and gaming, since a can of garbanzos has less than 400 calories, and everything else is just seasonings. There is always a lot of garlic, and I'll cycle through apple cider, rice and white vinegars (I'm not too fond of the lemon juice that is so often recommended). Random flavorings to try are black pepper, red peppers, sesame seeds (tahini), bacon drippings/pieces, parsley, mint, chives, black beans... pretty much anything I encounter in the kitchen.


TIPS AND FIXES

Make sure you have an idea of the flavor you want when you start, and balance your acid/oil/seasoning ingredients accordingly. If you want the oil to stand out, go for a mild flavored vinegar (white or rice, or both) and maybe some pepper. If you want to taste the vinegar, use a cheaper (or less of a good) olive oil. If you are like me, go to the maximum flavor extremes with everything and it will still blend in nice ^_^

If you use too much acid or salt, this can be calmed down by adding another can of beans, water or strong olive oil. If it is still course, you might even be able to rinse and strain some of it out. Tahini is a strong, mellow taste, but it is also $8 a jar :/

If you have too much oil, cut it with a strong vinegar or water. Or another can, again.

If you have too much garlic... seriously, is that even possible?