Meatballs, Pastry and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, so this post deals with dinner from a week ago. We have a Jamie Oliver cookbook, which is fabulous. I made spaghetti and meatballs, following this recipe. I didn't really change much except to omit the rosemary and chile because no one in my family likes either. I made dessert with my mom's help using strawberries and raspberries. I used the Jamie Oliver recipe for pastry dough which we made into turnovers and pie. The filling was made from berries and cornstarch to make a gelatin with just a sprinkling of sugar and some orange juice. I overkneeded the dough so it was a little tougher than I would like, but they were still pretty good. The following are the pictures taken during this whole adventure.

The formatting is a bit crazy for the pictures, but the autoformat blog thing is being ridiculous so this will have to do. Enjoy.

Women and Equality in Fantasy Literature

Hello and good morning all! I've just given a presentation in my summer marketing class and am now taking a break to give my first ever writing rant. There are many things that irk me about writing, specifically the fantasy/speculative fiction genre. I'm in school mode right now, so I've given this post an essay-sounding title. This post won't be structured like an essay though, so you don't have to worry about accidental learning.

I am upset about the state of women in the fantasy genre. Because most fantasy tends to be neo-medieval, the authors seem to think they need to portray women as they were in the medieval times. It is like they forget that a fantasy world is a made up one and that it can be whatever they want. The women almost always wear dresses and are seen as aberrant if they wear pants. Put a female character in pants when everyone else is wearing fancy dresses and suddenly oooh, edgy girl appears. Yes, she is breaking stereotypes, which is an important first step towards equality, but the fact remains that this is happening in a made up world. There doesn't HAVE to be inequality; the woman shouldn't have to break stereotypes in the first place. It is true that the authors are reflecting the cultural views of the society they are living in, and are conforming with the standards of the fantasy industry. Sword and Sorcery fantasy as we know it today, which is the dominant kind of fantasy found at your local bookstore, came about in the early 1900's in the form of serial stories, and later found wide acceptance in The Lord of the Rings, written between 1937 and 1949. This is only a few decades after women won the right to vote, so it is understandable that the stereotypes of women in dresses was normal. It is now 2011. These stereotypes are now outdated no longer have a proper place in fantasy literature. The fantasy genre as a whole has become somewhat stagnant in my opinion because of these outdated views, but that is a topic for another rant.

As it stands, sword and sorcery fantasy all tend to follow the same sort of ideas and have similar worlds. As mentioned before, they are neo-medieval, so the women live at home with their parents until they are married. Far too many fantasy novels involve the arranged marriage plot, and the woman is seen as empowered because she refuses and runs away (only to fall in love with the thief, who is also trying to overturn stereotypes). This isn't true of all fantasy, there are many that have unique worlds where the women have roles more equal to the men, like Anne Bishop. Her Black Jewels trilogy has a mix; there are the queens who are in full power and rule, with the men serving under them. There are good queens and bad queens, so there is a fair mix. However it simply replaces men in absolute power with women, so it is not true equality. Her world is very different from sword and sorcery however, which leads me to the conclusion that the more neo-medieval the world, the more likely there is to be inequality. On the low end of the scale are Katherine Kerr's books, which are a historical celtic-inspired world. There is the war, and the quest and so forth, and there is also the arranged marriage and wives who act as chatelaines. In the middle are authors like Terry Brooks and his Shannara series. These are your typical quest narrative; they have the fetch quest and the wars and the armies and elves, all the things you see in your everyday fantasy novel. It is in the middle because the world is more original than a historically based one, but there are still women in dresses and so forth, so it is not all the way there. On the high end of the scale are authors like Robert Jordan, who has a fully functional world that he created from the bottom up; his world operates under the assumption that the sexes are equal, and he is able to not work his cultural stereotypes into his writing successfully.


In conclusion, the authors feel that they are empowering women by putting her in pants and having her refuse her culture trying to arrange her life, but in fact the opposite is true. The authors create their worlds with the assumption that dresses and arranged marriages are normal; if they really wanted to empower women they would create a world where women are equal from the start. In order for men and women to be equal in a world, they must change the underlying assumptions society has by creating a world that assumes everyone has the same opportunities.

In double conclusion, I lied about the accidental learning, that was surprisingly scholarly off the top of my head. It may not have been exactly structured like an essay, but it was pretty close. I think I've gotten most of my women-fantasy rant out of my system. My next rant will probably have to do with Fantasy as a war novel, and another one going more in depth about the pros and cons of creating your own world.

Enjoy!

Pull Apart Bread - Garlic and Parmesan Edition!

I am home after nightshift and am feeling hungry and lazy. I wanted fresh warm bread and the first recipe that came to mind was the Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread I had stumbled upon a couple days ago. The only problem is that the bread needs to rise for 1.5-2 hours, and I am not patient enough for that. So I googled no rise bread and found this recipe for quick bread and combined the two. I made some modifications as well, like using garlic salt instead of regular salt. I added cumin for a little bit of warmth and aromatic, and tumeric to make it yellow. My theory is that yellow bread looks like it has lots of butter, which means it must taste good, so the bread will look extra tasty! I also added minced garlic and parsley straight into the dough instead of just coating the dough with it, because I hate getting that chunk of bread that doesn't have any topping on it. Oh, and I added whole wheat flour to make it a bit healthier too. Anyway, here is my franken-recipe!

It drives me crazy when the spoons aren't put back on the loop

  


            













   Garlic  Parmesan Pull-Apart Quick-bread 

Preheat oven to 350C

2 ½ C warm water
6 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
4 C white flour
2 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp italian spice blend
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp butter/marg
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tsp dried parsley
Parmesan cheese

Stir water, yeast, sugar and oil together. Leave for 5 minutes until it becomes frothy on top. Add flour, spices, garlic and baking powder. Mix well. Knead.

Prepare a bundt pan by coating it with butter or oil then sprinkle flour in it and spread it around by rotating and tapping the pan. This will allow you to get it out of the pan later.
Once the pan is prepared, melt the butter/marg and add the second amount of garlic and parsley. Tear little spoonful-sized balls off from the dough and coat them in the butter mixture and start lining your pan with them. Once you have one layer, sprinkle the balls generously with parmesan cheese, then add a second layer.

Pop into the oven on the middle rack at 350 degrees C for 20-30 minutes. It took mine about half an hour to be ready. Look for golden brown colour on top, and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick. If it comes out clean and easy, its done. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for a couple minutes then go around it with a knife to make sure it will come clean. Turn upside down onto a plate and pull the pan off, it should come off easily if you prepared the pan as above.

My brother and I could barely wait until it cooled down enough to eat them, this is tasty bread. You can dip this bread in marinara or ranch or something, but it is just fine on its own as well :) Enjoy!

Sleep Deprivation and Burgers

I woke up just before 11pm Sunday evening to start the first of five graveyard shifts. Since Sunday evening I've had about five hours of sleep and a lot of caffeine. I'm a little confused about how today is Tuesday. I'd sleep, but I work again tonight and I don't want to mess up my sleep schedule more than it already is. That brings me to why I am here, writing this post. I need to stay awake for a couple more hours so I am distracting myself by passing on my burger recipe! I made these the other night and even my brother who doesn't like burgers really enjoyed them :) As for the recipe itself...its far from exact. I didn't measure so just bear with me, the flavours are worth it.

Awesome Hamburger Recipe! (makes about 1 dozen patties)

Dry Spices: Mix equal amounts in a large bowl;

Italian Spice Blend (Oregano, Basil, Rosemary, Sage) - Gives beef a good flavour
Cumin - Adds a hint of flavourful heat
Lemon&Pepper Seasoning - This spice blend is a bit more zesty than regular old pepper
Tumeric - Doesn't add much to the flavour, but does add nice colour to the beef and is good for you!


Also, add a sprinkle of salt and a little bit of sugar too (which balances the acids of the wet ingredients)

Wet Ingredients: Add to your dry spices and mix;

Dijon Mustard - Add approx. pthbbt amount to your large bowl
Chopped Garlic - A teaspoons worth of garlic. Use real garlic gloves for bonus points!
Soy Sauce - A couple tablespoons or so will do
Worchestershire Sauce - Pronounced wooster if you didn't know, it is essential to make beef extra yummy. A couple dashes is enough, this stuff is strong!
One Egg - To bind it
Optional: Maggi Seasoning - My mom picked this up somewhere, it adds the savoury flavour the Japanese call Umami. The Worchester Sauce basically does this already, the Maggi is a bit sweeter so I like to add both, but most won't have Maggi (which is awesome to dip steak in fyi) so that is why it is optional.

Beef and Breadcrumbs: I think I used 2lbs of beef, it was a pretty large amount but I don't remember the size of the package. It was rectangular, that is about it. Anyway, plop your package of beef into your spice mix and start mixing it together. You can use a big spoon, but I find the easiest way is to get hands on and squish it together. This allows you to break up the chunks more easily and make sure the mixture is nice and smooth, which makes for a nicer texture in the final product. As for breadcrumbs, I used Panko breading, which are Japanese breadcrumbs and are soooo awesome. Breadcrumbs soak up extra moisture, making for a leaner burger, and also add some space to the mix so it isn't as dense. Not everyone likes to add this, so it is optional as well.

Patties: Once the beef is all mixed up its time to form it into patties. A recipe I found online suggested to form a handful of meat onto a small plate, squishing it down so that the whole thing is covered. This allows you to get about the right portion. Once you have the right amount of meat roll it into a ball then flatten it with your palm, making sure the edges are rounded and uniform. The plate helps to get it round, because you can turn it as you shape the patty. Make sure it is fairly flat, because burger patties have a tendency to dome as they cook. They also shrink by about half; keep this in mind if you use the plate method because it results in patties that look way too big.

Cooking: You can cook these patties in the BBQ, or in the oven if you don't have a BBQ (or are out of propane like I was). This first step towards cooking is the BBQ sauce; I used BullsEye Honey Garlic Bonanza, which is bold without being spicy or overbearing. If you are BBQing, cook on medium-high to regular high for about 5 minutes each side, or until done. If you are using the oven, put the patties on a foil lined baking sheet and cook under the broiler for 5 minutes on each side, or until done. If in doubt use a meat thermometer; between 63°C (145°F) for rare, and 77°C (170°F) for well done.

Leftovers: You may have noticed that this recipe makes about a dozen burgers, which is a lot more then most people will eat, unless they have lots of guests. My family ate 6 burgers, which left 5 uneaten. We didn't cook them; instead we put parchment paper between them and froze them for later enjoyment! These are tasty burgers, but they do take a bit of effort, which is why freezing for future use is an awesome idea. Its even better when you forget about them, and then come across them in a couple weeks and get excited
for Awesome Burgers all over again.

While this wasn't the most coherent recipe, it does give you an idea of how to make super tasty burgers, so I hope you enjoyed it, and make your own version!


Elizabeth

We Have to Start Somewhere!

Perhaps my blog should have been called 'Your Logic Broke', because as the reader, you will be the one to suffer from logic breakage if I become too convoluted. Though I suppose if you are reading this in first person it will be the "I" who suffers. Regardless of the perspective we are reading this post from, the Fact of the Matter is that this is a new blog, and you need a reason to keep reading.

There isn't a defined purpose for this blog; it won't be a fashion or cooking blog for example. I am writing mainly for my own benefit so the topics will vary according to my interests that day. This means I will post random cool things I find online, like this website that shows some very creative ads. I like these ads because they are both entertaining and incredibly effective, so that makes them awesome.

There will be these random posts that you cannot predict, but there will also be some kinds of posts you can expect to see here. I like to change my desktop background often, usually some sort of nature scene but other cool pictures will sneak in occasionally. I will post pictures I find particularly inspirational, like this one here, and
so forth.


I will also review recipes I think look tasty. I may not always make what I post, I may just post recipes for a rainy day (usually desserts). If I do try out a recipe, I will tell you how it went, what changes I made, and if we are lucky, I will even remember to take a picture before I devour it. For example, I recently made some cupcakes that were inspired by an online recipe. The cupcakes were cream cheese filled chocolate cupcakes with red creamy icing.

I made them by mixing up a chocolate cake mix (I was cheating) and filling up the cupcake liners 1/3 full with chocolate, then putting a dollop of cream cheese that I had kinda whipped around with a spoon, then covering it with more chocolate batter. They were very yummy :)






Another common topic will be posts related to creative writing. I will post some helpful writing tips as well as some of my own writing. I will also rant about what bothers me about current fantasy fiction (there is a lot that bothers me).

Finally, I will post short philosophical essays on any number of subjects, including epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of mind and the nature of the self. I will also link interesting philosophy stuff I find online, like so!

In conclusion, this will be a cooking/creative writing/philosophy blog with a scattering of pretty pictures and random rants. I will update every time something catches my interest, which could mean 3 posts a day, or 3 in a month. In parting, enjoy some trippy colours! (try mousing over it)

FreyaB