phdyogi's Profile

Question: perhaps I am being a bit too obsessive about getting the recipe *just* right, but can I use unbleached flour? I know it says "white" flour, does that imply bleached? I assume unbleached is okay, but I've never baked bread before.

I just bought the first original piece of art (happens to be a painting) that is part of our home! The artist is up and coming, but that's not why I bought it. It definitely helps, cost-wise, if you can make a personal connection with the artist. I'm a graduate student, and I wait tables on the side. My restaurant also has a gallery space and this artist's work is shown every year. Through getting to know him at the restaurant, I was able to get a really nice discount (while still feeling that I was paying him a fair price) for a lovely work of art. And, oddly enough, it does feel like a substantial investment in our home, more so than much of the furniture we've bought.

Oh man, dessert every night for sure. And, if I'm totally honest, sometimes it's dessert instead of dinner. Like brulee'd french toast. But I have the worst sweet tooth of anyone I've ever met.

Very little is banned from our bedroom. We love eating breakfast (or lunch, or dinner, depending...) on our breakfast trays in bed, and enjoying a cup of tea while we read before going to sleep. The cat is most certainly allowed on the bed, and encouraged - she's cozy and sweet. As two English grad students, books are everywhere, including our bedroom and our nightstands might as well be made of them.
No bedroom rules for us. :)

I dislike recipes that call for specific brands of processed foods - "add a can of cream of mushroom soup," etc. I'm cooking at home in order to avoid overly processed foods. (I realize these can be useful shortcuts for some people, but for me, including pre-packaged and processed foods in a recipe doesn't mesh with my philosophy of why it's good to cook at home.)

JMooney:
I also have some nonstick pots, and the Cuisinart immersion blender does just fine - it's got a little protective stainless steel cage over the blades, so there's no reason why the blades would come into contact with the nonstick surface. I suppose you could scratch the nonstick with the stainless steel cage, however, you would have to scrape the blender around the pot, which I haven't needed to do in order to get good results. I suspend the blender in the middle of the liquid and then move it laterally around the pot.

Cooking and baking have become, alongside yoga, the best ways for me to remind myself to breathe. I used to hate cooking, because I had no kitchen gear and no knowledge of cooking, but I've committed the last 8 months to soaking up as much as I can from my grandmother, my boyfriend, and sites like this one, and now I'm proud to say that the money I invested in my kitchen gear was well spent! You can find me in the kitchen, cooking or baking something from scratch, every single day.