Miscellaneous

Thistle selfie!


Cricket needed a hug after I killed several mosquitoes in a row:


After she forgives me, she inverts for a bellyrub:


Here is a blueberry-rhubarb cornmeal cake I made for JB's birthday. It uses two cups of wonderful fruit!


I washed my hands, did not breathe on it, and set it on the porch. Then backed away to the top of the driveway and shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I BROUGHT YOU A CAKE!" This is a celebration in the age of the 'rona!


And here is rockfish cooked with collards in black bean sauce.


You guys. I was startled to realize just recently that black bean sauce, famously used in many Chinese dishes such as za jia mian, long beans with black bean sauce, etc, is not in fact made with black beans. I had vaguely wondered where that intense flavor came from, since I'd eaten many a bowl of black beans with cheese, and black beans had never tasted... like.. that? Also, the texture? Was off? Well, my friends, the "black beans" of black bean sauce are actually fermented soybeans. Which also explains the size and texture of those "black beans".


Funnily enough, I was scanning recipes for za jia mian, and I found this one blogger who went on an on about how the "secret" to the taste in the sauce was "a paste made of fermented soybeans", and I thought to myself, psh! I ain't going to the store to look for no fermented soybeans. I've always had these noodles with black bean paste, and that is what I am dang well using! (Silly me!)

Oh, my other exciting recent recipe try was a 7-Up cake! Samantha Irby made a passing reference to it, and I searched through my brain and recalled that 7-Up cake is a thing that exists, although I don't think I'd ever had one. So I went to google and found that the top several hits, including one from the 7-Up corporation itself, were all remarkably similar! It looked like I had a true classic on my hands, so of course I had to try it. It requires three! Cups! Of sugar! Now, I usually reduce sugar in recipes, but thought that for a classic, I'd do it "properly" the first time. It came out beautifully. It's basically a pound cake flavored with lemon and 7-Up:


The 3 cups of sugar was a mistake though. Irma S. Rombauer says that cakes (and may other baked goods) are not just about flavor but about chemistry, and so you cannot alter recipes willy-nilly. However, I have reduced sugar in many a cake recipe, to no detriment, so if I ever make a 7-Up cake again, I will reduce the sugar. This one tasted like diabetes:


I made it ten days ago, and about a third of it is still in the fridge. But it lasts forever, as pound cakes are wont to do, and the texture is nice--dense and buttery. And the 7-Up flavor did come through, although the addition of fresh lemon juice and zest made it even better:


Here is a tomato-beef chow mein:


Thistle has only begun shedding and takes a while to cool down from our morning run:


She has a classic Wise Old Leader look:


Look! A fuzzy bumblebee! They came out about two weeks ago, and this week dragonflies appeared! Time to die, mosquitoes! (Sorry, Cricket!)