My Organic Chemistry is So Rusty.

One of the funny things about being in a long-term, live-in relationship is how you can manage, sometimes, to do a single thing that manages to simultaneously irritate your partner and make them happy. I did so recently.

On a whim, I signed up for an online class. But not just any online class. A free, college-(senior)-level chemistry class. Prerequisite of “organic chemistry” listed. My friends JP and Jason are taking the class, and encouraged me to sign up. So I did. Then I tweeted about it.

Which is how poor Bill found out I was suddenly enrolled in this class. And was, understandably, a bit grumpy that not only did he find out about this via twitter and not, say, from me, he also was suddenly married to a woman who had homework again.… Continue reading →

I Wish I Had Smoked Pasta Sauce Again.

I haven’t really ever developed a recipe. I don’t know what goes into recipe development. I mean, I assume some research happens if you know you want to make a specific kind of food/recipe, but I know that’s not how amazing recipes always start. Often, I know, they start with throwing some stuff you have on hand together with no real plan and low expectations and it coming out amazingly.

That’s the kind of recipe development I’m looking for help with right now. Because I’ve learned and heard that usually these one-off meals cannot be replicated. Which is frustrating and unfortuante. It also bothers my innate desire for replication as a scientist-type.

But, more immediately, I have a pasta sauce I wish to replicate for here on my blog.… Continue reading →

Visiting D.C. Jan 2014

Bill and I have been traveling again. 

Once a year, there’s a conference in Washington, D.C. that he always attends. We have friends in the area, particularly up in Baltimore, MD and so I usually accompany him. Typically, we land at BWI and he heads down to the con hotel and I head straight up to Baltimore for four days or so of putzing around with our friends up there before he joins me for about a week.

This year, it’s been different. A friend of mine has just moved to D.C. with her family. I have made numorous friends on Twitter, mostly (but not entirely) fellow beer bloggers. All of them wanted a chance to meet me, and I them. And staying in D.C., I had the chance to have a breakfast or dinner or two with Bill in those four days.… Continue reading →

Travel Kitchens and Cooking Withdrawal.

Every time I eat an apple, I’m reminded how much I enjoy apples and how rarely I eat them. It’s kind of bizarre, honestly.

It occurs to me that the same is often true, for me, of cooking. As I’ve mentioned before, I really hated cooking as a kid & refused to let my mother teach me how. I’m sure that’s the root of this oddball behavior of forgetting how much I enjoy cooking.

Well, let’s be honest, that and the fact that sometimes my house after a cooking binge looks like these photos. Or worse.

And, in further honesty, everything in that post about really tasty food “out.”

But, it turns out, I get antsy with not enough time in the kitchen. I hadn’t really realized that before the last couple of days.… Continue reading →