Mrs. Boucher's Snickerdoodles

Alan brilliantly suggested baking cookies this weekend.  When he asked what my favorite cookies are, I immediately responded, "Snickerdoodles!"  My family has an old recipe for them that we've been using since my dad's childhood, when he got the recipe from his kind neighbor, Mrs. Boucher.  She had him start to write out the recipe in his child's handwriting, and then helped him out to write the rest of the directions.  I love that my mom still pulls out the soft, worn, ripped sheets of paper to reference the recipe.

So, when Alan and I decided that we were going to make snickerdoodles, I immediate texted my mom to ask for the recipe, because no other would do!  We were entertained that my iPhone wanted to autocorrect to "snicker doodles," which we imagined to be excessive chortling while drawing.

I love cooking and baking with Alan, because we somehow always manage to break down laughing over something silly, and the results are always tasty.  This was a particularly exciting baking experience because we got to use his fancy stand mixer--so jealous!

I was pleased with how our snickerdoodles turned out, just as good as the ones from my childhood (and, my father's childhood).  We had to experiment with the baking time a little to get the chewiness just right--too much, and they get crunchy; too little, and they are still doughy inside.  Then again, I'm a little picky about cookie consistency, tending to prefer cookies on the chewy/doughy side.

I hope you try out this recipe!  The cinnamon will make your kitchen smell decidedly autumnal.  Mrs. Boucher's recipe requires no alterations, but some clarifications of my own are included in parentheses.

Snickerdoodles for Dale from Mrs. Boucher

Mix together thoroughly...
1 C. soft shortening
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs

Sift together and stir in...
2 3/4 C. sifted flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. (baking) soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Chill dough (1 hour).

Roll into balls the size of small walnuts (1-2 tbsp., depending on how big a cookie you prefer).

Roll in mixture of 2 tbsp. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. (Trader Joe's organic sugar is a little too coarse for this; you'd be better off with a more finely granulated sugar to get it to stick well.)

Bake 2 inches apart on an ungreased sheet.  Bake till lightly brown but still soft.

400° - 8-10 minutes - 5 dozen snickerdoodles.

Uxorious

My office recently started up a book club, which is awesome, even if that means I'm somehow in three book clubs.  (Oops.)  We're currently reading Wolf Hall, which is about Thomas Cromwell. So far, I'm not a huge fan of the writing style--historical fiction in present tense is a bit silly--but, I'll withhold further judgment until I have finished the book.

In reading the book, I learned a new word: uxorious. It means excessive fondness for one's wife. Naturally, I turned to Google to find out what the comparable word is for excessive fondness for one's husband.

First, I learned that the top autocomplete when you type "excessive" is "burping," which is amusing. WebMD is very reassuring that burping, like flatulence, is natural, if a bit uncomfortable or embarrassing at times.  However, I've read Mary Roach's Gulp, so I am privy* to the many ways in which gas can go terribly wrong.

More to the point, however, I learned that while "uxorious" is a relatively common word, the equivalent for excessive fondness for one's husband, "maritorious," is exceedingly rare. That says to me that, at least historically, our society believes a wife's love is almost never "too much," whereas a husband can love his wife too much.  That's lame. I think we should stick to a gender- and relationship-neutral version of this word--"obsequious" comes to mind--because love for one's partner, by a man or a woman, should not be immediately implicated as a sign of weakness.

My diatribe is probably unnecessary, as "uxorious" seems to have fallen out of contemporary usage, likely for the same reasons as those I have raised.  That being said, my spell checker tells me that "uxorious" is a word, but "maritorious" is not.  Stop being so gender normative, spell check!

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* Pun intended, of course.

Check It Out

I recently dusted off my embroidery supplies to make a delightfully nerdy little birthday present for my favorite bibliophile, Morgan:

It was fairly easy to do.  I googled "library book card pocket" for some inspiration, and determined that--aside from the lettering--this project would simply involve a lot of straight lines using the trusty back stitch.

I sketched out the design on paper to get the spacing right, and then lightly drew the design on the fabric itself.  I ended up just winging it on the letters for the most part.  I'm not a huge fan of how the "C" turned out, and would probably try to make it less angular next time.

This was my first time making something meant to stay in the embroidery hoop to be hung on the wall.  I used some fabric glue to try to glue down the fabric in back, which sort of worked.  I think next time I'd cut a bigger piece of fabric so I had more to work with in folding it down.

Spending a morning watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and embroidering reminded me how much I enjoy this craft.  It's very satisfying to make something physically tangible, especially since I spend most of my time thinking, reading, and writing on the computer.  Now, I need to finish the somewhat ambitious squirrel cross stitch tote bag I've been working on for my mom forever!

Bioshock Infinite: My Initial Reaction

Earlier this summer, Alissa was over for dinner at my place, and started telling me about an awesome new game she was playing, Bioshock Infinite.  She showed me the beginning of a walkthrough of the game on YouTube, and it seemed like a really interesting premise.  Here's a trailer for the game:



However, having no gaming console of my own, I wasn't able to even entertain the notion of playing the game.  Fast forward to last week, when one of my favorite Apple blogs, TUAW, posted news of Bioshock Infinite being released for Mac, touting it as the game of the year.  Only then did I begin to seriously consider playing the game.

You see, I haven't played a video game in quite some time.  Sure, I've dabbled on the Wii here and there at parties, but my last serious foray into gaming of any sort was probably The Sims in high school.  And, of the games I've played, most of them were Nintendo, in the Mario universe...  No blood and gore in Paper Mario, the last RPG I played from start to finish (on my family's trusty old N64, good times).

So, the idea of playing a first-person shooter was a real departure from the norm for me.  And, this one is definitely graphically violent, as I had seen from the beginning of the walkthrough.  But, the game's story was too fascinating to pass up.  As TUAW explains:

You play as Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, who is sent to the floating city of Columbia to find a mysterious woman named Elizabeth who has quantum powers. Though the city of Columbia floats in the sky, the game takes place in 1912. Yet many critics have noted that the themes in the game reflect the political, religious, plutocratic and populist divides in America running up to the 2012 elections.

See?  Fascinating.  When was the last time you heard about a video game that employs history and politics in this way?

Still not 100% convinced I should spend $40 on something that was so far afield from how I typically spend my free time, I asked for some feedback from friends on Facebook.  The response was overwhelming--a ton of very passionate comments that I simply must play this game!  Emboldened by the feedback, and always looking for a good excuse to strengthen my nerd cred, I decided to give it a whirl.

Tonight was my third night playing the game, and it is awesome.  I'm playing on easy mode, because I have no idea how to play a FPS, but the game is kindly teaching me what I need to know.  The first two nights, I played using my mouse and keyboard, but I was finding it a bit difficult to handle.  So, I bought myself a used Xbox 360 wired gamepad, downloaded a driver, and was much happier with the gameplay this evening.  If you go this route, I recommend playing with the controller from the beginning, because it was complicated to get used to new buttons and sensitivities for everything after figuring out the gameplay with mouse and keyboard.  Seriously, I had to draw myself a cheat sheet:

I'm slowly but surely getting better at playing the game.  At first, it was just a matter of exploring the city and collecting things, but then the game forces you to make a choice, and that choice had consequences.  Weapons and enemies have been acquired, along with vigors (magic-like abilities), and goals.  I get really tense whenever I enter a room, because I'm anxious about what I might face on the other side, but I'm starting to realize that the repercussions for dying aren't all that dire in easy mode (you lose a bit of money, and your enemies regain some health).  Pragmatic planner that I am, there's something oddly freeing about diving in headlong into a situation over which I have little control, and just going for it.

I haven't met Elizabeth yet, whom I understand to be critical to the game, so I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on the game once I reach that point.  But for now, a few hours into the game, I can at least say that I'm really glad I purchased it, and can definitely see what all the fuss is about.

Noted

The Monday before last, on my way out the door, I grabbed a box of granola bars I'd been meaning to take to work.  I quickly shoved the box in my bag and hurried out the door to face the large number of phone calls I had stacked up for the day.  When I got to work, I pulled the box out of my bag, and discovered this:

 Unbeknownst to me, Alan had left an adorable, punny note on my granola bars because I had mentioned that I was bringing them to work!  Brimming with happiness, I texted Alan to thank him, and this was his response:

And that, dear friends, is how I discovered that my apartment was chock full of these little notes.

Resisting the strong urge to run home and tear my apartment apart searching for them, I instead feverishly brainstormed increasingly improbable potential hiding places.  The kitchen cupboards?  The cookie jar?  Inside a book?  Under the rug?  On Alibi?

By the time I got home, I had remembered that my K-cups had seemed slightly askew when I brewed some coffee that morning.  At the time, I had chalked it up to Alibi playing with them, as she sometimes does, but by then I knew better.  Sure enough, when I pushed the K-cups aside:

Invigorated by my discovery, I conducted a search of my apartment, but couldn't find any more!  Alan was diabolical, and the thought of undiscovered notes was driving me insane.  Part of the issue was that Alan refused (and continues to refuse) to tell me exactly how many notes are hidden, although he has promised to tell me when they've all been found.

By the end of last week, I had relaxed my search, and resigned myself to having to simply happen upon them naturally.  Thursday evening, I was preparing Alibi for a weekend alone (Alan and I went to Bass Lake with some friends).  Imagine my delight as I discovered not one, but two notes, attached to my ice pack to keep Alibi's wet food fresh, and the kitty litter box:

The ice pack was leaning in a way that I couldn't see the note, and I had two kitty litter boxes stacked on top of each other, such that I simply hadn't been looking at the bottom box when cleaning the litter box.  I thought, surely I have now found them all, and texted Alan to confirm, but his response made it clear that he wasn't kidding around:

Only [redacted] more to find!

Seriously, who redacts text messages?!  I spent a relaxing weekend reading books and doing crossword puzzles on the beach, but in the back of my mind, I was still trying to brainstorm more note locations.

Yesterday, I got home from work a little early, so I decided to clean my apartment.  I reached for a paper towel (which, apparently, I use quite sparingly), and discovered this:

My wet hands got the note a bit soggy.  Then, as I was taking the bag out of my little trash can, I found this waiting for me at the bottom:

I still have no idea how many sticky notes remain hidden in my apartment, but I'm growing more comfortable with the idea that I'll discover them in due course.  They are a wonderful little surprise that really brighten my day and make me feel loved.  Now, I just have to think up a good way to retaliate reciprocate.

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UPDATE:

Apparently, I also never use all four of my bowls!  I just spotted this (turned the other way in the cupboard) while working from home and making myself some lunch:

Alan informs me that this is the final sticky note that was hidden.  I'm definitely bowled over.

Summer Happenings

Drafts of four more posts about my trip to Japan sit in a folder, waiting patiently for me to finish them.  I want to post them, really I do, but I never seem to find the time.  And, meanwhile, lots of other things have been happening, with no posts!  So, here's a little summary of what's been going on...

Travel

Please, don't leave me!

I've had to travel for work quite a bit lately.  Four trips to Las Vegas in the past two months, along with trips to Fresno, Sacramento, and Omaha.  Indeed, I was traveling so much, that I had to give my poor cat back to my parents for a month!  The Las Vegas trips were all too packed with work to visit family or friends, let alone do many Vegas activities, but there was one night that my colleagues and I were able to sit at a cafe at Paris and watch the fountains at the Bellagio, which was beautiful.  And, one of our presentations was aired on local television, so I'm pretty much famous now.

There have also been a number of trips for fun with Alan.  We went to San Luis Obispo, Santa Catalina Island, and Paso Robles.  All three trips involved getting to know Alan's college friends better, which has been wonderful. I particularly enjoyed Catalina, which has an adorable golf cart parade for the 4th of July. And, I got to try snorkeling for the first time!

Hiking on Catalina.  No one was going to lose us, wearing those shirts.

At a wedding at the Mountain Winery.

Other Fun

In addition to traveling, the past couple of months has been full of hiking, parties, weddings, and good food.  Morgan threw a lovely Great Gatsby party, Alissa had an epic birthday party, and we threw a retro futurism themed Party of... THE FUTURE!  To paint a mental picture, because apparently I'm terrible at remembering to take real ones, think: silly tinfoil costumes, outer space tablecloths, and, of course, Tang.

Tasty, tasty oysters.

Robert and I went on a day trip to Santa Rosa that I really enjoyed. We grabbed oysters at Tamales Bay, ate them al fresco at a park, and then checked out the truly lovely Charles M. Schultz Museum. I definitely recommend checking it out if you're a Peanuts fan.

Mom came up to San Francisco a few weekends ago, which is always a treat.  We spent the day shopping, visiting my office and apartment, and eating a delicious lunch at the historic John's Grill.

Other fun lately included checking out the Maker Faire, learning how to make okonomiyaki, checking out the J-Pop summit in SF Japantown, playing Hobbit Scrabble, and attending an event with Mother Dolores Hart (the actress-turned-nun).

The Bar

No, this section isn't about all of the new drinking establishments I've checked out lately--although, I am rather impressed by the wine flights and lavender crème brûlée at First Crush, a little wine bar around the corner from my apartment.  Rather, I wanted to share that I was unsuccessful on the February administration of the California Bar Exam.  I did get the highest score I've gotten, only 12 points short of the passing score of 1440, which is rather frustrating.  I decided to take the summer off from studying, because, after four back-to-back attempts, I was starting to feel a little burned out.  I am really glad that I made that decision, and had my first real summer in years.  I'll be taking the exam again next February.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm grateful to have such wonderful friends and family to support me as I switch back into studying mode in the new year.

Reading

I've been doing a fair bit of reading lately.  I finally set up an account on GoodReads, and have been obsessive-compulsively documenting everything I've ever read.  Chris and I are still doing our wonderful weekly Catholic Skype chats; we recently finished The Autobiography of St. Therese, which wasn't nearly as insightful as I thought it was going to be, and certainly isn't as good as what we're now reading, City of God by St. Augustine.  I enjoyed Gulp by Mary Roach, disgusting though it was.  I joined a new book club, and we had a very interesting conversation about Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg--regardless of the critiques some may have of the book, I've found it to be a great launching off point for thoughtful conversations.  Alan and I have been discussing The Five Love Languages, which has been really interesting.  I love things like books and personality tests that help me to articulate the things I know about myself.  And, as has been the case for far too long now, I am still working my way through A Dance with Dragons.  There are so many more things that I want to read, but no time to read them!

Well, that's all for now.  Future posts to be shorter and more timely!

Japan: May 8, Fushimi-Inari, Gion, Kiyomizu, Heian, Ponto-cho, Highball

We woke up early to take the subway to Fushimi-Inari, an incredible temple with hundreds of torii (gates) forming a huge network of paths built into the mountainside. On our way to the train, we crossed the river using an adorable set of stepping stones, some of which are made to look like turtles. Way more fun than using the bridge, if a bit riskier.

Fushimi-Inari is known for its foxes. Fox sculptures were everywhere! I bought a cute little fox charm for good luck, and some rice crackers shaped like fox heads.

I really loved the orange of the torii, contrasted with the green of the mountain scenery. The torii are each individually maintained, so some look very new, while others are old and in need of a fresh coat of paint. The torii are so close to one another that it forms a tunnel pathway up the mountain, with little breaks here and there for snacks and small temples. We didn't have time to walk all the way to the top, but even from our vantage point, we got a great view of Kyoto.

For lunch, we headed over to an awesome curry place that Alan knows. There was a line out the door, and we had to wait for seats to open up at the counter. It was well worth the wait! Our curry had so many good vegetables, including asparagus and bamboo shoots.

We headed over to Gion, thinking we'd do a tea ceremony, but sadly the place we had picked out was closed on Wednesdays. Nonetheless, it was fun to walk around, and we saw the quintessential Gion sight: maiko riding in a rickshaw!

We walked to Kiyomizu-dera, yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. We had decided by this point that our new hobby is World Heritage Site spotting. On our way up the crowded streets lined with shops, we stopped for green tea soft serve, which was delicious and a nice way to cool off.

Kiyomizu is nestled in the mountains, and offers breathtaking views of the city and of its main temple and pagoda. It is known for the Otowa-no- taki fountain with therapeutic waters for hand washing and drinking, and we partook. Alan had brought with him an old little charm he keeps on his bicycle for traffic safety, and traded it in for a new one, as well as giving me one for my bike. Definitely cannot hurt, biking in San Francisco!

We donated 100 yen so we could walk through the Tainai-miguri, a pitch black hall that you walk through, guided by following a rope of prayer beads in your left hand, as you contemplate the Daizuigu Bosatsu, whose womb you have figuratively entered. It was surreal to be in a place so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face.

From Kiyomizu, we went for a long, but leisurely walk to Heian-jingu, a shrine with a spacious courtyard and a gigantic torii. Along the way, we saw some other temples, a nice municipal park, and many more shops. The courtyard at Heian is all sand, and I enjoyed watching a groundskeeper methodically raking the sand as it neared closing time.

For dinner, we had plans to check out a tofu restaurant on Ponto-cho, a tiny street filled with dozens restaurants right along the river. We had some information about the restaurant written on a scrap of paper, but struggled to find it. We found another tofu restaurant recommended by my Lonely Planet Kyoto app, but tragically, it was closed on Wednesdays. We eventually asked an employee of another restaurant for directions to the first tofu place, and they kindly make a phone call for us and then even walked us to its location! For whatever reason, the tofu restaurant turned out to be a bar, so we again took to the street and wandered around until we found a restaurant on the river that did small plates. The fried pumpkin in miso chicken sauce was awesome, but most of the other dishes were just okay. It was a bit chilly out, but we sat outside on the deck, which gave us a beautiful view of the water.

After dinner, we checked out a bar called Highball so we could sit down and do some postcard writing. One of the only things I actively dislike about Japan is that smoking is still allowed indoors. It wasn't too terrible inside the bar, but once we left, we reeked of smoke. Nonetheless, there was something delightfully international about being in a Japanese bar, listening to American pop music, drinking a Moscow Mule.