Troegs

Nugget Nectar is only available from January through March.  At this point, it is still hard to find in stores, so when Tim came up to visit, we couldn't not drive down to the Troegs brewery so that he could get a case for himself.  So, Tim and I ventured down to Harrisburg where the brewery is located hoping to get a tour, but knowing we would at least get to enjoy some great beer.  For those of you who have never heard of Troegs, this is how the Trogner brothers define Troegs:

TRÖEGS (tr?gs) *v-tröeged, -tröeg'in
The act of tröeg'in, ie "I tröeged it" or {slang} "that boy is tröeg'in" -adj. An aura of complete enjoyment and contentment, ie "My you look Tröegy this morning" -n. a new tradition of Pennsylvania specialty ales {from the brewers of Tröegs}, ie "I'll have a Tröegs!"

 Alas, when we arrived, the tours were all booked, with no cancellations.  So, we grabbed a beer - I chose a Java Head Stout and Tim had a Nugget Nectar - found a seat, and just enjoyed the atmosphere, beer, and conversation.  Instead of each getting a second, we decided to have a sampler ... mmmm.

Since they don't sell food, except for pretzels, at Troegs, we stopped at a Venezuelan restaurant, Arepa City, in Harrisburg before heading home.  Amazing!  I need to find a recipe for making arepas.  If you know of or find any good ones, please, let me know!

January 24-30

I decided to take some pictures of my library since I do spend a huge chunk of my life there.  You'll see my always messy desk, areas where students can sit and relax and/or work and read, a shelf of new books, some book fair displays, and the circulation desk.  These pics will give you a little peak into my work world.  Of course, I can't have any shots with students in them, but just imagine all these areas filled with students.  I always have anywhere from 1 to 50 students in the library at one time.  So, while these may not be the most artistic photos, they are my life.

Here is the link to my 365 project homepage ... all my past photos are available.

So Long, Farewell ...

Tonight was my last night of yoga with my wonderful instructor, Sara, at the OYETD yoga studio/art gallery!  While she will be starting up again in the summer, it will be at a different place, so it won't be quite the same.  Although, I will be happy to be able to practice yoga with her again, wherever that may be.

I love the space so much, and I will really miss it!  I could try to describe a room with jeans on the ceiling, walls painted black and white in areas, bright primary colors in others, and muted shades of blue and green other areas, and interesting artwork and sculptures filling every empty space ... but it just wouldn't do it justice. So, I took a few pictures, which even in isolation don't fully provide the full effect, but it will have to do.

Tonight's session ended with Eric playing the bowls while extremely relaxing music played, which was incredible!  I could feel the vibrations from the bowls through my entire body.  This is truly the ultimate in a relaxing experience ...  even better than being on the beach ...  which to me is the ultimate measuring stick for relaxation!  Of course, part of it too could be that I just worked my butt off for the past hour, so the time at the end to just lay on my mat feels amazing.  I found a video that will give you an idea of what they are, since it was new to me the first time too.


While we cannot attend a yoga studio, my yoga partner and I both bought a yoga video, and we plan on meeting Mondays to do a video together.  We have tried them both out, and, happily, they are both excellent!  Who would have thought that Jillian and Bob from The Biggest Loser would actually create a fairly decent yoga workout video.  Jillian's is a good workout, although I question her claim to help you lose 5 pounds a week, but Bob's video is a more traditional yoga "routine".  So, I do prefer Bob's video, even though the music on his is HORRIBLE.  I think I will have to mute the video, and just play my own music.

 I will keep going through my vinyasa, going into downward dog and blissful baby, and paying attention to my breathing on a regular basis, because there is no workout like yoga :)  Namaste!

Haluski

Haluski is one of those meals that I crave on a fairly regular basis ... luckily it is easy to make!  I like to include kielbasa in mine - there is nothing like cooking everything in meat drippings!
You can serve the dish with egg noodles of spätzle.  My preference is to serve it with spätzle, but egg noodles are a great option if I don't have time to make the spätzle.  I like to double or triple the spätzle recipe so that I have enough (to my liking) to serve with the haluski as well as some extra to heat up with sauteed onions and cheese.

Spätzle
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch white pepper
1/2 tsp salt

1.  Mix flour, nutmeg, white pepper, and salt together
2.  Beat eggs well and add alternately to the dry ingredients with milk
3.  Mix until smooth
4.  Press dough through the spätzle maker (into boiling water)
5.  Drain spätzle for use late
6.  If you would like, you can cook the spätzle in some butter briefly after removing from water


Haluski
1 long chain kielbasa sausage
1 large sweet onion
1 bottle beer
2 T butter
3 T brown sugar
3/4 head of medium green cabbage
1/4 cup sugar
1/3(about) cup chicken broth or water

Mise en place:
1.  Slice kielbasa into thin slices
2.  Slice onion into strips
3.  Cut cabbage into long, thin strips


 Throwing it all together:

1.  Cook kielbasa over medium-high heat until slightly browned.   (Be sure to cook your sausage in a regular pan - not a non-stick - because you will want to create a fond to scape up when you deglaze with the beer)
2.  Remove sausage from pan and place it on a plate - cover with tin foil
3.  Pour in about 1/2 cup of beer (just eyeball it) and scrape the bottom of the pan
4.  Add butter and onions - saute onions until brown and caramelized - be patient
     *Add a bit of brown sugar to the onions as they caramelize
5.  Remove the onions and place them on the same plate as the kielbasa
6.  Add the cut cabbage with some sugar and a bit of chicken broth or water
7.  Cook the cabbage until it still has a slight crunch to it
8.  Once the cabbage is cooked, add the spätzle, onions, and kielbasa

January 16-23

Anyone that knows anything about is completely aware that I love to eat.  So, in the spirit of my love of food, this week's theme is Food and Cooking :)   Link to my 365 Project homepage to view all my past photos.  Enjoy!

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.

~Lord Byron

I love to dance!  I've always loved to dance, but never knew how.  I mean, I can dance in a club ... but to actually dance a dance like salsa, tango, samba, etc. seemed like such a foreign idea that would never be part of my reality.  However, at the end of October I started trekking down to Harrisburg twice a week to dance salsa, bachata, merengue, and cha-cha.  My sister calls it my mid-week weekend:)

I love when Wednesday rolls around and I know I'll be headed to Rueda de Casino lessons, a Cuban-style of salsa dancing . . . such fun!!!  Everyone dances in a circle, and one of the men calls out a move, which everyone then does together.  Some moves are just with your current partner and others require a partner change.  While you don't learn a routine, when the moves begin stringing themselves together, it looks like a well-rehearsed routine.  Some of my favorite times salsa dancing are when there are enough people at the club who know rueda . . . I love that you can dance with people you've never met before and have a spontaneous synchronized dance.  I don't have any videos or pictures of our Rueda practices/dances, but this video will give you a good idea of what it is all about.

Then on Thursday nights I head to a salsa meetup and dance from 8 till midnight.  In addition to the dancing, I love having a reason to get dressed up.  I love having the chance to put on a dressy top or a dress and know that I won't be overdressed.  When I get home from work, putting on a pair of skinny jeans and a fun top, doing my hair and makeup, and slipping on my heels is a complete energy boost.   It's like I get to live two days within one.   

My first time dancing salsa in Harrisburg was not so good.  I didn't really know what I was doing, and all they provide you with is a 30 minute lesson.  Of course, everything fell apart on the dance floor then.  Any turn or cross body lead or slight variation from the basic step threw me off, but I slowly have picked it up through tips from different partners.  The rueda de casino classes have been extremely helpful too.  Merengue and Bachata are much easier to pick up.  The steps are less technical, so they are just easier dances to jump into with no previous lessons.  I think bachata is my favorite of the three.  A friend got a short clip of my dancing bachata, which I was excited about.  The nice thing about this clip is that it is the basic bachata steps only, so it makes it easy to pick out what basic structure of that dance.

Happily, the rueda instructors from Harrisburg are going to be starting a rueda class 30 minutes from where I live.  I'm excited to be able to more easily share my love of dancing with some of my friends:)

When at first you don't succeed . . .

I finally cracked open my bread cookbook on Tuesday.  The title of the book is  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  The reality of the situation is that you need more like 2 hours a day if you want to make a fresh loaf, but, of course, 1 hour and 55 minutes of it is just "wait time".  Once the dough is made, the hands on time is only 5 minutes.

However, this oversight on my part began what has become a string of failures on making bread.  Luckily the dough recipe makes enough for 6 loaves ... so the failures have been disappointing, but relatively painless.

Failure 1
I prepared a chunk of dough, let it sit out for 90 minutes, preheated the oven and pizza stone, did the last minute dough preparations, and placed the bread in the oven ... 5 minutes later I realized I had to leave to meet up with a friend.  So, out came the dough, already slightly cooked, to sit on the counter for several hours before I could try baking it again.  I assumed the whole in the oven, out of the oven, and then back in would not make for a good loaf, but I had to give it a try.  The result was a rock solid, inedible ball of "bread".

Failure 2
This failure was very minor.  As before, I went through all the preparations successfully.  I placed the dough in the oven and was able to take it out the recommended 30 minutes later.  It was still slightly undercooked inside ... this bread was still edible and quite yummy, but I wouldn't want to serve it to anyone.  Lesson learned - I know it needs an extra 5 minutes in my oven.

Failure 3
This failure may be my most disappointing.  My roommate and I were having some friends over for the evening.  I made haluski and thought some rye bread would be a good pairing with it.  The timing for the dough prep worked out well ... the bread and the haluski were going to be done within minutes of people arriving.  Perfect . . .  or not . . .  after the bread baking for over 10 minutes I realized that in my haste, I had just plopped the dough in the oven without the last minute preparations - cutting slits, brushing with water, and sprinkling with caraway seeds.  It all seemed so minor, until I opened the oven door to see if it was still turning out okay and looked at a over-puffed blob of dough.  In the end, it tasted fine, it just wasn't too attractive of a loaf.

I have enough dough for at least 3 more tries . . .  practice makes perfect, I hope :)

Here is the recipe that I have used for my rye bread:

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 3/4 cups rye flour
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 T granulated yeast (or 2 packets)
1 T kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp caraway seeds (plus some for sprinkling on top crust)
4 cups lukewarm water

Mixing and Storing Dough

Whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, caraway seeds, and vital wheat gluten

Add the water and mix without kneading, using a spoon

Cover (not airtight) and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses (or flattens on top) ... about 2 hours

The dough can be used immediately or it can be refrigerated over the next 7 days.  Waiting at least 24 hours will give you better flavor. 

Baking Day

Cut off a 1 pound (grape-fruit size piece) of dough.

Dust the dough with flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.  Elongate the ball into a narrow oval.

Allow the loaf to rest for 90 minutes on a silicon mat prepared with cornmeal or parchment paper.

Preheat the oven and pizza stone to 450F 30 minutes before baking.

Just before placing the loaf in the oven, brush the top with water, sprinkle with additional caraway seeds, and slash the loaf with 1/4-inch-deep parallel cuts using a serrated bread knife.

Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone.

Place a baking dish filled with 1 cup of tap water on the rack below the bread.

Cook the bread for 30 to 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow the bread to cool on a rack

As much as my bread-baking experiences thus far have been less than perfect, I am still loving it.  I love being able to make an amazingly delicious fresh loaf of bread fairly easily.  I also love being able to buy flour.  When I walk through the flour section of the grocery store I always want to buy all the different types - buckwheat flour, corn meal, wheat flour, bread flour, rye flour, etc - but I never have a reason.  Now I do!