Whew!

Last week I finally received my ice cream maker in the mail.

Lets say there was a little bit of a disaster that came with making my first batch of ice cream.

First of all I couldn't decide on what to make and I finally decided on a creamy Key Lime ice cream. I ended up not having enough Key Limes because they were getting old and it turned out that I didn't buy enough way back when I bought them.

Secondly, while I was juicing my limes, I had the thermometer in the custard that was on the stove. I was keeping my eye on it as I was right next to it. Well I ended up taking too long to look back at it and it was almost 8 degrees over where I wanted it to be. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's just about the difference between a smooth tongue-coating creamy ice cream and chunks of egg forming in that custard.

I freaked out and quickly transferred the custard to a Glad bowl so it would cool faster and began beating it like a crazy-lady with my whisk. I whisked that sucker for about 15 minutes straight so that any lumps that had formed in the custard dissolved, afterwards my arm hurt.

Then I realized I had put my bowl on to the stovetop where the custard just had been cooking. Thankfully the bowl had only minimally melted on the hot stove piece (I've got a gas stove here, woo!). Not enough to actually make holes in the bowl, *sigh of relief*

Once I finally put the juice and vanilla extract into the custard for flavoring I was finally calming down from all the commotion.

I put the lid on lightly so that it could cool faster in the refridgerator.
I picked up the bowl, grabbed it in one hand, and then proceeded to open the door of the fridge...



then the bowl dropped...
then I started laughing histerically because I couldn't believe what had just happened.

The bowl managed to land right side up, but not without splattering my entire kitchen with Key Lime custard. I had to clean my fridge, floor, cabinets, oven door, my favorite pants, and my pretty new shirt. It was everywhere.

After cleaning and waiting for the remenants of the custard to cool, I put it into the ice cream maker and watched as it churned my first batch.

It came out perfect.

I took it to a friend's dinner party and although it was only a little bit, everyone said it was amazing because it was so rich. I was proud of it, despite the fact that it seriously caused me to doubt that I'm actually up to surviving the CIA.


I'm such a klutz.




Since last Thursday I've made two sorbets, a Ginger-Raspberry Lemonade one that came out just a little too tart for my liking, and I froze a can of Jones Berry Lemonade that was pretty good, although it wasn't carbonated at all when frozen like I was secretly hoping. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next, but I think I need to figure it out soon since I'm going to a potluck tomorrow night.

Pancakes

So I just whipped up some pancakes for breakfast.

I used a blini (fried pancakes) recipe because I didn't have any baking soda to use for the regular pancake recipe and the blini used baking powder which I did have.

I chopped up some apple and slathered it with lime juice, sugar, cinnamon , and a pinch of both ground ginger and cloves, and stuck that in the microwave with the butter.

Only I had way too much batter for only little ole me.
I made four pancakes and I could only eat two.
I let my roommate eat the other two since I couldn't.

She gave me one of the best compliments I've ever received in my life.
"These are the best pancakes I've ever had in my life, and my family prides itself on making homemade pancakes! I need to tell my mom that grandma's recipe is no longer the best one!"

To surpass a grandma in her grandchild's opinion....wow.
I don't even know if I'm comfortable having her say that.

well....ok, maybe I am, but still...
:)

Food blog maybe?

So maybe I'll turn this into a food blog?
It is already called pan de dulce....

I've been working on some mexican recipes from my childhood that my grandma would make.
So far I've whipped up:

Gorditas - They're on their way to getting made right, I still need to figure out just how dry they need to be before cooking. They were just right stuffed with cheese and I need to make bigger ones if I'm going to keep on doing the mushed with butter and salt thing.

Nopalitos with beef - Next time I need to use pork. Also I need to cut the nopalito pieces smaller so that the tangy-too-green taste can cook out of them better without over-doing the outside. Also....I need to not burn my onions or garlic. >.<

Carne Guisada - The first day I worked on the batch I did not cook it in the right order or long enough. I need to add the flour after I cook/saute the meat thoroughly. Also less flour. Then cook it for at least 40 minutes after the tomato sauce and seasonings are added. Also no tobasco sauce - it didn't work, maybe instead chile peccin (I don't know how to spell it). Waiting a day to finish cooking it was too long to wait. It already needs so long to stew, why draw it out longer?

and Roasted Corn - I need to not leave the apartment and forget I have corn roasting in the oven. Even if I did remember just in time and the corn came out just right...I need to not be a dumbass in the first place.

On the soon to make list (along with the practice of the above):

Fideo
Frijoles Rancheros (not sure if it's 'Rancheros' or not...I think it might be something else but I can't remember, it's basically beans stewed with bacon, onions, cilantro, tomato, and chile (not chili))
Oatmeal like my grandma would make it (need raisins)
And others that I can't think of just yet.


Oh also....I want my ice cream maker to come in from Texas. I'm getting really upset with my friend for not mailing it to me. I want to make good ice cream sooo badly.

hmmm

I don't know what to write in here. I think I'm going to close this blog down since I have others.
Or maybe just leave it for pointless ramblings that I don't feel comfortable writing in my LJ.

Also I think those of you who used to read this aren't happy with me. I'm not completely sure why, though I do know I acted badly at that one party and I feel bad about it and I apologized to those that I thought needed it.
I'm really am sorry if you weren't happy with my behaviour and took offense from it. I'm not happy with what happened, though I don't think it was enough bad behaviour to not be friends with people anymore.
I honestly apologize.
I had some good times with everyone and I would hate to think that I would be ignored when walking past one of you down the street. While I'm not expecting a full-on BFF status with everyone, I still don't want to lose all the friendship that was built, even if it wasn't as strong in the more recent stages for various reasons.

I know people are busy.
I know people come into your life, move on with theirs, and sometimes that doesn't involve you.
I also know that sometimes, there's just not enough and you can't let yourself be spread too thin.

I hope you can forgive me and at least say hi to me on the street or in the grocery aisle.


Catch you on the flipside,
or whenever I'm in a rambling mood.

So much better

Already my life is looking up. I'm really happy with the way things are going now that I'm back.

Last night I went to a show and saw Andrew Jackson Jihad play and it was amazing and my heart was happy again.
It's odd how someone's (semi-)cynical view on life can totally make me so much more optimistic about it. That band's music is just tremendous to me, it blows my mind how honest they are in all ways.

I also got to visit Dan after the show and he and I had a good talk. It's been awhile since I've had one of those with the opposite sex. It's a good thing to have, it definitely helps to brings things into a different perspective. I'm also excited to try more of his home brews, so far the one I tried wasn't terrible and the one that's going now sounds pretty yummy.

Today I got more settled into my tiny apartment. It's wayyy too cluttered for two people. You don't realize it until you set foot in here, but it's pretty bad. I was expecting more but oh well, I'll live I suppose. I meet my roomie tomorrow, I really don't know what kind of person she is at all, I just know that she's not a total soroity girl like my last one so that's one up.

Yay for food.
Woot for coffee, I got a Kona Blend at Fry's today, we'll see how good it is tomorrow morning I suppose.

My heart hurts.

It's really hard for me to write about it. I'll try the few sentences at a time thing.

I went in.
Sara (new owner) told me she fired me for stealing so she didn't think the law applied to me. I went home, printed out the law, it says 'involuntary discharge' which is defined as the employer letting the employee go for various reasons, including 'cause or misconduct'.
I just wanted my check so I could be done with the shop, they hurt me firing me the way they did.
I just gave ONE friend a ONE dollar discount on a FOUR dollar drink. That's not even my full employee discount. I payed it back and fixed it on the register and everything and all she had to do was just tell me they shop was too behind to be doing that, I only had 2 more mornings left.
When I showed them the printed papers (the Texas Pay Day law says that if an employee is fired the employer is required to give them their paycheck within 6 calender days) they got on the defensive saying that they didn't know how much I could have been stealing.
Yeah, what with ALL the friends I have in San Marcos to give free drinks to.
They said they could file this and take me to court for stealing and whatnot.
Then they said they couldn't give me my paycheck anyways because Wells Fargo is handling it all and they won't have them until Saturday. Why would I steal from this place? I put my heart into this place.
I put up with bullshit because I believed in the shop for what it was. I stayed on for 3 months. 3 months of bullshit (minus Chele, she was pretty much one of the only redeeming people of the shop).
It just hurts knowing that they're always going to think of me as the girl who was stealing, and they're probably going to tell all my regulars about this and they're all going to think I was this terrible person.

I really just wish that they could just give me my paycheck and I can be done with it. I don't even want to file my taxes for this place next year because I don't want to think about it ever again after Saturday.

They're the boyfriend who you put everything into, you stress yourself out over, and then he screws you over right at the end. But they're worse than that.

They really hurt me, a blow to my weakest spot.

Score!

So I did end up breaking up with him.
The day after I wrote that post, he was an ass to me, and I just decided to end it. Everyone told me I should get rid of him, that I could do better. I finally took their advice, though that does sound really mean and makes me sounds like I feel like I'm better than him, but he really was pretty narcissistic and had a bit of a temper, and he didn't have his priorities straight at all.
I'm so incredibly happy. I actually had a good nights sleep last night, I was extra cheery at work today, and I got to laze around after work today and not worry about getting into a fight with him.
Oh yummy day.