Rice cooker cake!

Yes! I’ve discovered a new way to hack a box cake!

I learned about this one when I was researching rice cookers. I bought one off amazon a few weeks ago. it’s a small zojirushi that has settings for rice and porridge. Newer models actually have a cake function built in. Mine doesn’t, but a little googling indicated that others have used more ghetto rice cookers to “bake” cakes, so it should definitely be possible to me to make one using mine.

And guess what! It works! the resulting cake is supremely fluffy and light – probably because it’s actually been steamed rather than baked. In fact, I just finished enjoying a piece right now! I took a photo.. i’ll post it later too.

So here’s the deal:

I have a small 3 cup rice cooker, so I used half a box of normal store bought cake mix. I mixed up the ingredients and poured the batter into the rice cooker. I ended up having to run the rice cooker through 3 cycles in order to bake the cake.

I used the rice cycle the first two times. I’m pretty sure both of these cycles were useless. The batter stayed 100% liquid this whole time. I kind of got curious during the second one and checked in a couple times, and when I found the batter was still raw, I canceled it before it completed its final steaming cycle. Frustrated, I turned to the porridge cycle and tried it. (I had to wait for the cooker to cool a bit though — for some reason, I’m able to run rice cycles one after another but it can’t switch between rice and porridge without cooling down in between.)

Side Note: Interestingly, I don’t think the porridge cycle is meant for normal porridge. Instead, I think it’s for some kind of “congee” like rice-porridge type dish. In other words, it’s for Asian porridge, not for British porridge.

Either way, 1 very long porridge cycle later, I was surprised to find myself with a nicely steamed, very soft, fully cooked box cake! I’m very happy with the results.

The only downside of the whole affair was that the cake mix I selected was on sale at Safeway for $1 and didn’t end up to be very delicious. I’ll probably do one more test with the other half of the mix — this time only using the porridge cycle once to see if it cooks properly. If that works, I’m going to try this with cake batter made from scratch. Box cake is convenient for experimentation but this flavour was just way too weird.

Warning – some recipes I found online suggested you dump an entire can of store bought frosting into the rice cooker before pouring in the prepared cake mix. Apparently this makes for a fudgy kind of topping on the cake. I found this idea a little alarming and didn’t try it. The box cake seems plenty sweet to me…

Karzai is bald and therefore evil

Ah, the distinguished and apparently fishy Hamid Karzai. I always suspected he was fishy. Anybody who wears a coat around their shoulders like that is always fishy.

Anyway, enjoy this “evil” photo of him in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?ref=world

Notice how he’s bald, and the photo’s taken from behind him while he makes some kind of salute to the military. Evil!

In contrast, here’s a sample of how the NY Times has usually portrayed him to-date:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world/asia/18afghan.html?scp=15&sq=karzai&st=cse

Classic messenger of peace look. He’s got the hat, hands are making a gentle peaceful gesture. What a lamb! Our friend!

More visitor stats …

That post on the Ethiopian taxi driver is getting to be almost as popular as the one about the milk jugs. lol. People google the weirdest stuff!

Is it weird to decorate a front door that nobody sees?

Don’t think about this question for too long … you’ll be sucked into one of those “sound of one hand clapping” mental black holes.

Anyway, seriously.  Regarding the front door, please promise me you’ll bonk me on the head if you ever come to my house and find I’ve put up seasonal decorations there that only I can see. If I have a lovely front door on a nice little street then I guess some decor is acceptable, but in any other condition involving a home occupied only by me, I’ve decided that it’s not!

I’ve also decided that IF I’m to end up old and alone, I’d rather be a person who drinks alone (moderately!) then a person who celebrates holidays alone.  I mean, after a couple of drinks, at least I’ll feel warmer, mellower and be assured of a good night’s sleep. Luckily I’ve never really “celebrated” anything alone, but …. even just imagining it sounds lonely :(.  Honestly, even Mr. Bean had his girlfriend that came over that time he tried to cook the Thanksgiving turkey and got it stuck on his head by accident. If Mr. Bean can celebrate with friends, surely I can do at least that much.

…

I made these decisions on my way to do my laundry this morning. The good news is that the decisions got made. The ridiculous news is that … I was so checked out, thinking about this, that I accidentally grabbed somebody else’s laundry detergent and almost used it!!

I know, your first thought here is “she’s stealing internet, and now she’s stealing laundry detergent?”

No!! I did not steal the laundry detergent!! I caught myself just before I actually added it to the machine. I put it back into the bottle and put it back on the shelf.  Shh!

I’m not really in America!!!

I don’t know any Republicans! In fact, I don’t even think i know any conservatives of any sort.

In fact, when I was thinking about it, all American people I’ve met here are practically Canadian. I say practically because even though these practical-Canadians will agree with us on issues like healthcare or whatnot, they’re a bit … I dunno, jumpy? Not sure if that’s the right word, but yes, there’s definitely something different about Americans. In other words, I frequently feel slightly foreign. I dunno. Maybe I’m just not used to seeing the ocean every day yet. She sparkles.

Anyway, going back to the republican thing … I think this is just a reflection of the fact I’m here in SF, which is practically Portland, which is practically Canada.

So yeah, next time you watch US news or read a US paper and some talking head starts going on about “two americas” or something like that, it’s true! It’s very easy to live a life here surrounded by people exactly like you.

The man I steal internet from

… is apparently:

1. my neighbour (the one who has the trendy parties)
2. was the sexiest man at google as voted in a valleywag contest of some sort a couple years ago.

I learned this when I was looking for a document with Finder and  my macbook pro found other macs on this network. His mac identification included his name, so I googled him. I briefly worried whether he might also notice my mac when he’s using Finder, but this being a corporate computer, I’m pretty sure it’s identified with an alien alphanumeric string. I’m safe for now. <puts on dark glasses>

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ps. I’ve seen this guy topless (casually! It was his dog-walking-in-alley garb!) and didn’t notice anything spectacular. It was a few months ago though. I’ll be checking him out more carefully from now on.

pps. He has a gf! She seems nice. i’ve waved to her a few times.

ppps. More recently he appears to have turned into an environmentalist. I feel vaguely guilty taking this free internet from a guy like that. But it’s really fast, and it’s free, so I’m torn.

Why I hate Hilton hotels

Sigh. Once again, I’m reminded of why you should never spend your own money staying at any form of Hilton hotel.

1. Internet is never free and rarely wireless. Thank goodness this time i was at a relatively new Embassy Suites, which at least is designed for a working person… i.e. I could use my laptop and watch TV at the same time. But still! It was wired fricking internet! I couldn’t use it from my bed. I couldn’t even sit on the couch! The wireless situation alone is a massive fail. The hotel I was staying at was built last year, and is in Glendale (hardly a hotbed of tourist activity) which adds to the shockingness of it all.

2. The customer service is robotic, soulless and generally sucks. Always. Companies like this don’t bother to actually hire nice people in customer facing positions. They just take whoever, which means you spottily get stiff people, friendly people, and overzealous juice servers. When I checked out this morning, the robot at the desk printed my receipt 3 times and asked me if I wanted to keep them in a syrupy voice while she tapped her acrylic nails on the counter. It was painful. I took two copies and left the third, in the false hope that this would intrigue her. (Doh! Robots can’t be intrigued!)

3. They penny pinch the small stuff. I left a tank top hanging on the back of a door in my hotel room. I stayed at the hotel for a week, which cost about a grand. Upon arriving in SF and discovering my error, I call up the hotel and ask them if they can mail the clothing back to me. Their response was that they offer a complimentary service of mailing the clothing back to me, but they use fedex and have no idea how much it’ll cost. wtf! What part of this service is complimentary!? I asked the hotel clerk how I was supposed to optimize between the cost of replacing the blouse and having it mailed back. For all I know, they’re charging me a service fee in there as well, or maybe they’re going to opt for the most expensive mailer. Who knows! Due to Issue 2 above, the woman I spoke to was useless in answering any of my questions. I asked her if she could mail it USPS and she was clueless about that too. The thing that really annoyed me during the whole encounter was her condescending tone and the repetition of the word “complimentary”. Complimentary means free. If I’m paying for something, IT’S NOT COMPLIMENTARY!!! @#*&! I got a little more irritated each time she used that word, to the point that I told her I was shocked that the Hilton would be penny pinching in this manner and insisted I be connected with the manager! Unsurprisingly, there was no manager around and I got the runaround and had to call back. This time I got connected with some other person who seemed a little less robotic. This person offered to call FedEx and get a price and then I could approve it. He also asked me which kind of shipping I wanted, which was nice.

The September Issue

Keep your eyes open for this one. Here’s a link to a quick synopsis.

I didn’t watch/read the Devil Wears Prada, which is apparently loosely based around Anna Wintour, but I think it’s clear the main point there is that she’s a scary elitist control freak. Hehe.

In contrast, the september issue is basically a series of fascinating vignettes that are kind of laid out together around a basic story arc about putting out the September 2007 issue of Vogue.

A lot of reviewers are saying that the heroine of the movie is Grace Coddington, the former model turned fashion editor – she was gorgeous in her youth and though she’s had some plastic surgery to correct damage from a car accident, and she doesn’t cut the svelte stylish silhouette of Anna Wintour, there’s a really amazing shot of her gazing out at what I think are the parks behind Versailles where you can still make out how beautiful she still really is.  I agree with that. She is the heroine of the movie, mainly because she’s a real artist in what seems like (and ultimately is), a shallow and ridiculous world. It’s hard to believe somebody with an eye and talent like that works with a guy who packs LV luggage full of water bottles for his tennis lesson.  There’s a great scene towards the end where Anna acknowledges that Grace is a genius.

But I think Anna’s a heroine too.  These people work hard! She’s a soldier! And she has ideas! Anna Wintour is easily the Steve Jobs of her industry.  I think attention to detail and loving your work and being a leader shine through no matter what you’re doing.

It’s true that the art and style elements of fashion are usually eclipsed by the pretentiousness and “let them eat cake” cluelessness of that industry, but even then, I am now starting to wonder if the typical corporate dysfunction and job-security related bottlenecking that goes on in many companies is really any less ridiculous.

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On a slightly unrelated note, the other thing that movie made me think about is COLOUR! Yes. No more black jackets for me. 1 is enough. I have 3. No more black skirts, sweaters or pants either. A line has to be drawn.

3 more important domestic lessons

1. Buying a very cheap shower curtain that’s as thin as one of those el-cheapo plastic grocery bags is ok! I got one for 1.99 in a “dollar store” in nearby chinatown that had aisles so close together that two people of my size can barely squeeze past each other and so crammed with off-brand merchandise from China covering every possible household need that you can spend all afternoon in there marveling at the Engrish and hyper-sketchy packaging and wondering what kind of mainland connections the non-english speaking, middle aged counter clerk/presumable shop owner has.

2. Buying very cheap pot scrubbers from the same dollar store is not ok. They were suspiciously soft when I poked at them in the store, but $6 for $1!? Maybe $1.50? Anyway, that was a big mistake. It’s really gross to use a soft limpy sponge-like blob of foam to actually scrub anything. After a couple attempts I gave up and relied on my dishwasher 90% of the time and only used the scrubby to wash the odd spoon here and there.  Even with such light use, I used them up pretty quickly and just threw the last one out earlier this morning. From now on it’s all about the cute Japanese bear shaped scrubbies. No other scrubby shall enter any kitchen in which I wash dishes.

3. If you squeeze a lemon on a marble countertop, do not leave a mess of lemon juice splashes on the countertop overnight. More importantly, do not put a ceramic plate in the middle of the lemon juice splashes and leave that plate overnight either. In fact, I suspect that lemon juice splashes + overnight = bad situation on any countertop in any situation.  I’ll be googling for marble scarring remedies later. Oops.

Embarassed to be an engineer

The ipod app on my iphone had been stuck playing songs on repeat for the last 2 months!

Somehow I activated the repeat song function and couldn’t turn it off! I lived with it for so long because:
(1) i lost my headphones and didn’t buy new ones for 6 of those 8 weeks and
(2) in the last two weeks since i bought new headphones and had this problem, i was so zoned out walking home that I didn’t even notice the song was on repeat and only had the “doh! that was on repeat!” moment when I was practically at the end of my walk and too lazy to google for instructions on how to un-repeatify the playlist! For example, I listened to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean on repeat for the entire 25 minute walk to work today without noticing it was on repeat. Scary, truly.

Anyway, I just pulled out the silly thing out so I could listen to some music at work and thankfully had an aha moment before I even put the headphones in my ear. A quick google search turned up instructions and I’m proud to report I am now listening to smashmouth repeat-free.