nerdycellist's Profile

Definitely a Church Cookbook cookie and brownie childhood here. I hold a special place in my heart for those peanut-butter/cocoa/oatmeal/cornflake "no bake" cookies. I've learned to make a killer flourless chocolate torte and do layer cakes from scratch, but sometimes I crave a box cake - or on special occasions, a jello poke cake. My questionable taste ends there; canned frosting was always banned from our house.

Thanks for the suggestions! My roommate found out the hard way about the potato starch "dumplings" when she made her first batch of meat pies last month. They're kind of, uh, viscous and alarming. I'll get a container of arrowroot and try that too.

Brilliant! Provided I use the organic powdered sugar, I can make these corn-free for my corn-allergenic friend! (most sprinkles have dextrose, which is a corn derivative.)

After growing up outside of Chicago, having Polish food in Poland was a revelation. I'm telling you, those bland, slimy pockets of flavorless cheese are nothing like actual pierogi. First off, in Poland, they're not afraid to fry them in pork fat. Second off, there are usually several ingredients in the pierogi. The ones with the plain cheese or underseasoned potato show up on menus as "Russian Pierogi". Also in Poland's favor: paczki (krispy kreme, eat your heart out.) and oscypek (curse you, US Customs, for not allowing me to bring this cheese into the country!)

My guess is that I'd like pretty much any country's cuisine, but Polish food is definitely better in Poland than it is here.

We were not terribly rich, but my aunt, uncle and cousins had fallen under even harder times so mom and dad invited the 7 of them them to live with in our basement so they wouldn't be homeless. We had a garden and Mom was a big home canner so we made do. Real milk was supplemented with powdered, etc. etc. But as a kid, there were still things I hated. One dinner, canned peaches were served along with some kind of meat, a rice pilaf and cottage cheese. Instead of passing the food around the table so I could have skipped my least favorite - the peaches - my Aunt plated everything and handed it out. I refused to eat the peaches, as well as the parts of cottage cheese and rice the syrup had contaminated.

Aunt was having none of this, and demanded we eat everything on our plates, lest we waste precious food. I refused. She pulled the "you'll sit here until you finish" card, so I did. All that meant was that by the time I was forced to eat it, the already hated squishy, slimy peaches were now even grosser and more tepid. She shoved them in my mouth (along with the accompanying cottage cheese and rice bits) and as soon as I swallowed them, I bolted up from the table and promptly barfed them up in a closet. I cannot abide even the smell of peaches to this day.

I have issues with texture that made trying fruits a tough sell for me growing up. Most of the fruits and veggies I came into contact with as a pre-teen and teen didn't seem to be flavorful enough to get over the sometimes-weird textures of the food. Now that I live in L.A. and have plentiful access to fresh, local fruit via farmers market, I have found myself craving fruit like Mangoes like they're forbidden chocolate, or wishing I had some cash on hand to get a mixed bag of fruit sprinkled with chili, lime and salt from a vendor on the corner. I still have texture issue and really dislike cooked (mushy!) fruit, as well as a severe aversion to fuzzy stonefruit (good plums get a pass) due to early childhood trauma, but I'm now pretty fruit-friendly. Mediocre fruits and veggies nearly turned me off fruit forever!

The white stuff is actually the fat migrating to the top of the chocolate. This happens when there are changes in temperature. When you temper the chocolate for use in the peppermint patties, the fat will mix back into the chocolate. Enjoy your homemade candies!

I love that my window faces the water feature in my apartment complex, and if I leave the window open a bit I get to fall asleep to the white noise of a little stream and pond. I love my new bed, even if it's way too high - I can store a ton of stuff under it and I feel like I'm sleeping in a cloud. I also love that the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning is my bookcases full of books and my cello hanging on its hanger, ready to be practiced. Unlimited potential!

Love the warmth of this house! But I'm a little concerned about the cello in the corner. I can't tell if there's a hanger or stand for it, or if it's just leaning in the corner on its endpin. If there's not a hanger hiding in the pic, I'd recommend a cello hanger that holds the instrument by the heel of the scroll. That way you can keep the endpin extended for ease of practice, yet also use the cello as a decorative element. They're fairly low profile and cheap (the hangers, not the cellos!) and

If space were no object, I'd go with one of these - http://www.katahdin-online.com/shakincelcra.html - but right now I've got the hanger keeping my practice area from being dominated by a shiny black darth vader cello case.