He was starting to get a little tired by this time.
Greta spent her Sunday afternoon relaxing with the IC and getting a ton of human attention all to her little self, which she enjoyed tremendously.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Kip Goes to the Dog Park
He was starting to get a little tired by this time.
Greta spent her Sunday afternoon relaxing with the IC and getting a ton of human attention all to her little self, which she enjoyed tremendously.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Abraham Lincoln
My favorite president, now a vampire hunter.
This is so utterly ridiculous and I am absolutely going to go see it, in 3D if at all possible.
Also, there is a more serious movie about Lincoln coming out in December, and the IC and I just had a moment of profound history-geekery:
The IC: Yes, this is the one where Daniel Day-Lewis is playing Lincoln.
Me: That's an interesting choice.
The IC: And Jared Harris is playing Ulysses Grant... and Tommy Lee Jones is playing Thaddeus Stevens!
Me: Thaddeus Stevens? Thaddeus Stevens is a character in that movie?
The IC: Yes! Thaddeus Stevens!
Me: I LOVE Thaddeus Stevens!
The IC: I know! He has the best epitaph ever. He was kick-ass.
So yeah, we'll probably go see that one, too.
This is so utterly ridiculous and I am absolutely going to go see it, in 3D if at all possible.
Also, there is a more serious movie about Lincoln coming out in December, and the IC and I just had a moment of profound history-geekery:
The IC: Yes, this is the one where Daniel Day-Lewis is playing Lincoln.
Me: That's an interesting choice.
The IC: And Jared Harris is playing Ulysses Grant... and Tommy Lee Jones is playing Thaddeus Stevens!
Me: Thaddeus Stevens? Thaddeus Stevens is a character in that movie?
The IC: Yes! Thaddeus Stevens!
Me: I LOVE Thaddeus Stevens!
The IC: I know! He has the best epitaph ever. He was kick-ass.
So yeah, we'll probably go see that one, too.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Your Passel Of Schnauzers in Blankets is Here
Schnauzers love being in blankets as much as I love looking at Schnauzers in blankets.
Monday, February 13, 2012
NOW Will You Be My Valentine?
I was mostly thinking of my very dear Intrepid Companion when I saw this collection of bizarre, perplexing, odd and inexplicable valentines. But really, lots of people would probably enjoy these. Here are three of my favorites...IC, these are for you. Happy Valentine's Day!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
It's Cold
It finally got really, truly cold, and the wind is gusting and howling furiously outside. Greta has decided that she is going to stay indoors, all bundled up, until the weather improves. And the wind is making Kip all crazy.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Cake Encounters
Cake! It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve blogged about it, but please know that cake is never far from my mind. Now I’m about to explain something that might seem like a little bit of a tangent, but I promise we’ll get back to cake soon.
I have been reading Frank Tallis’ Liebermann Papers series of mysteries, and generally I really like them. If you read and liked The Alienist, you might enjoy these as well, as they have numerous interesting things in common with that extraordinary novel, although they are lighter, and since they are a series, there is a recognizable pattern to each story – a formula, yes, but I don’t think that’s always necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway, Tallis sets the series in early 20th-century Vienna, and among all the other delightful details of daily Viennese life he regularly features pastry. Not in that throwaway, idle reference kind of way like Stieg Larsson and his Swedish sandwiches. Oh no. Each book features horrifying murder, explorations of the human psyche and the outer limits of the early 20th-century's forensic sciences, music, Sigmund Freud telling (usually) some rather awful jokes, and multiple trips for coffee at some charming café or other, which is inevitably accompanied by something sugary and fabulous.
Apfelstrudel, germknödel, topfenstrudel, millirahmstrudel, Sacher torte, punschkrapfen, Esterhazy tortes, Kuglof cakes, and Linzer tortes are practically characters in the books. And this is no joke: Vienna, which was then the capital of Austria-Hungary, LOVES its pastries and cakes. The Austrians do not mess around when it comes to dessert, is what I’m saying.
In one of these books, Rheinhardt, one of the primary characters, enjoys a transcendently delicious slice of Dobostorta at a café. I had never heard of Dobostorta, so I looked it up. Here is a picture of it:
Perhaps, like me, you immediately thought of Maryland’s Official State Dessert, the Smith Island Cake?
As a Marylander of partial Hungarian ancestry, I must point out that Smith Island cake includes crushed candy between its layers, has a cooked chocolate icing, and generally has between 9 and 11 layers.
Dobostorta (aka Dobos cake, Dobos torte, Doboshtorta and several other variations) has between 5 and 7 layers, is filled with chocolate buttercream and has a layer of caramel-glazed cake on top. So see? Completely different things.
Dobostorta was invented in Hungary in 1884 or 1885 by superstar food impresario József C. Dobos.
Dobos owned a specialty food shop in Budapest that featured a spectacular array of gourmet foods: at a time when shipping food over distance was unreliable at best, his shop routinely featured as many as sixty imported cheeses, as well as foreign wines, breads, and occasionally (and notably) cakes.
The fame of the Dobostorta is due, at least in part, to the inclusion of chocolate buttercream in the recipe – at that time, most cakes were iced or filled with cooked creams, whipped creams, or custards. Dobos had brought the buttercream recipe back with him from a trip to France, and shortly thereafter introduced the cake at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885.
Dobostorta became crazily popular after it was embraced as a favorite by the Emperor and Empress of Austria-Hungary, but Dobos refused to reveal the recipe. I think this was part of his plan, actually: the Dobostorta was ideal for shipping: the frosting layers and the layer of caramel on top kept the cake fresh longer than most desserts of the day, so he created a special shipping container and the Dobostorta started appearing in all the great European capitals.
Dobos went on an international cake tour with the Dobostorta, personally introducing it in city after city, until the early 1900s. He finally presented the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry to ensure that the recipe would survive him and be widely available. Dobostorta became so famous that the people of Budapest threw a citywide party to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The celebration went on for three days.
I felt a little thrill as I imagined the parade of Budapest chefs marching to Dobos’ grave and solemnly placing wreaths in honor of his magnificent contribution to the Hungarian pastry arts. These are my people, I thought. We understand things about cake.
I have been reading Frank Tallis’ Liebermann Papers series of mysteries, and generally I really like them. If you read and liked The Alienist, you might enjoy these as well, as they have numerous interesting things in common with that extraordinary novel, although they are lighter, and since they are a series, there is a recognizable pattern to each story – a formula, yes, but I don’t think that’s always necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway, Tallis sets the series in early 20th-century Vienna, and among all the other delightful details of daily Viennese life he regularly features pastry. Not in that throwaway, idle reference kind of way like Stieg Larsson and his Swedish sandwiches. Oh no. Each book features horrifying murder, explorations of the human psyche and the outer limits of the early 20th-century's forensic sciences, music, Sigmund Freud telling (usually) some rather awful jokes, and multiple trips for coffee at some charming café or other, which is inevitably accompanied by something sugary and fabulous.
Apfelstrudel, germknödel, topfenstrudel, millirahmstrudel, Sacher torte, punschkrapfen, Esterhazy tortes, Kuglof cakes, and Linzer tortes are practically characters in the books. And this is no joke: Vienna, which was then the capital of Austria-Hungary, LOVES its pastries and cakes. The Austrians do not mess around when it comes to dessert, is what I’m saying.
In one of these books, Rheinhardt, one of the primary characters, enjoys a transcendently delicious slice of Dobostorta at a café. I had never heard of Dobostorta, so I looked it up. Here is a picture of it:
Perhaps, like me, you immediately thought of Maryland’s Official State Dessert, the Smith Island Cake?
As a Marylander of partial Hungarian ancestry, I must point out that Smith Island cake includes crushed candy between its layers, has a cooked chocolate icing, and generally has between 9 and 11 layers.
Dobostorta (aka Dobos cake, Dobos torte, Doboshtorta and several other variations) has between 5 and 7 layers, is filled with chocolate buttercream and has a layer of caramel-glazed cake on top. So see? Completely different things.
Dobostorta was invented in Hungary in 1884 or 1885 by superstar food impresario József C. Dobos.
Dobos owned a specialty food shop in Budapest that featured a spectacular array of gourmet foods: at a time when shipping food over distance was unreliable at best, his shop routinely featured as many as sixty imported cheeses, as well as foreign wines, breads, and occasionally (and notably) cakes.
The fame of the Dobostorta is due, at least in part, to the inclusion of chocolate buttercream in the recipe – at that time, most cakes were iced or filled with cooked creams, whipped creams, or custards. Dobos had brought the buttercream recipe back with him from a trip to France, and shortly thereafter introduced the cake at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885.
Dobostorta became crazily popular after it was embraced as a favorite by the Emperor and Empress of Austria-Hungary, but Dobos refused to reveal the recipe. I think this was part of his plan, actually: the Dobostorta was ideal for shipping: the frosting layers and the layer of caramel on top kept the cake fresh longer than most desserts of the day, so he created a special shipping container and the Dobostorta started appearing in all the great European capitals.
Dobos went on an international cake tour with the Dobostorta, personally introducing it in city after city, until the early 1900s. He finally presented the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry to ensure that the recipe would survive him and be widely available. Dobostorta became so famous that the people of Budapest threw a citywide party to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The celebration went on for three days.
I felt a little thrill as I imagined the parade of Budapest chefs marching to Dobos’ grave and solemnly placing wreaths in honor of his magnificent contribution to the Hungarian pastry arts. These are my people, I thought. We understand things about cake.
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