Vandelay Industries Festivus 2007

So the office Christmas party was tonight, and it appeared to be a complete success. As planned, it was at Noble Rot, and as also as planned, there was a gift exchange. I finally decided on "Seinfeld" as the theme for the gift exchange, as it is something that everyone knows at least a little bit about. It's a cultural icon, really.
But I digress. Our appetizers were garbanzo bean fritters and Noble Rot's famous onion tart. Salad was a mesclun mix with apples, cheese, and sunflower seeds. Sorry, no photos of those.
On to dinner. Everyone had a choice of chicken with black lentils:
Or steak with polenta and brussel sprouts:













The most popular choice was lamb with fried potatoes:

Between dinner and dessert, it was time for the gift exchange. Four people were missing, so initially I was afraid the exchange would no longer work out. Fortunately, I was wrong.
Kramer's lollipop, anyone?

















I'm sorry sir, this book has been redlined:





















Pez?





















Teazone for Ahman, and Jeremy got the cash.














Eden will be double-dipping.




















Oh, Mr. Pitt!













Uh, Teazone again.















NO SOUP FOR YOU!














You stopped off for Jujyfruits?


















Excuse me, could spare a square? No! I don't have a square to spare!

















Please help us! My goldfish might die!














Prognosis: NEGATIVE (times three)





























It looked like everyone had a good time. Definitely more laughs than past years.

Whole-Wheat Bread

I was out of bread, and in the interest of economy decided to bake my own, instead of buying a loaf. Then, in the interest of health, I decided to bake whole-wheat instead of my usual New York Times bread. It turned out pretty well, so I'm sharing the recipe I used.

I cut the recipe in half (what am I going to do with two loaves of bread?), and used the dough hooks that came with my mixer for the first time ever to knead the dough. The mixer worked well, but I think if I hadn't cut the recipe in half, it might have burnt out the motor.

Whole-Wheat Bread
Makes 2 Loaves.
3 tablespoons sugar

3 to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons salt

2 ¼ cups milk
2 packages active dry yeast

1/3 cup butter or margarine
4 cups whole-wheat flour

1/3 cup molasses
1. In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast, 2 cups whole-wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. In a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat: milk, butter or margarine and molasses until very warm 120° to 130°F.). (Butter does not need to melt completely.)
2. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in l/2 cup whole-wheat flour and ½ cup all-purpose flour or enough to make a thick batter. Continue beating 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
3. With spoon, stir in 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat and additional all-purpose flour (about 1 ½ cups) to make a soft dough.
4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

Shape dough into ball and place in a greased large bowl, turning dough to grease top. Cover with towel; let rise in warm, draft-free place (80° to 85°F.), until doubled, about 1 hour.
5. Punch down dough; turn onto lightly floured surface; cut in half; cover with bowl; let dough halves rest 15 minutes for easier shaping. Grease two 9” by 5” loaf pans.

6. With lightly floured rolling pin, roll one dough half into a 12” by 8” rectangle. Starting at a narrow end, roll dough up tightly and pinch the edge with your fingers. Seal ends by pressing them with the sides of your hands and fold them under. Place the roll, seam side down, in loaf pan.

7. Repeat step 6 with remaining dough. Cover loaves with towel; let rise in warm place, away from draft, until loaves are doubled, about 1 hour.

8. Preheat oven to 400°F. bake loaves 30 to 35 minutes or until golden and loaves sound hollow when tapped lightly with fingers. Remove from pans immediately so bottoms don’t become soggy, and cool on wire racks. From: The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook: Revised & Expanded Edition, 1989. Page 434.

A Few Thoughts on Stumptown

This posting might be a bit controversial, I fully admit it. Stumptown is Portland's own beloved coffee roaster (but then again, so is World Cup). Everyone raves about how great it is, it has a cult following, blah blah blah.

Here's what I think: the beans are great, but the preparation of drinks at the cafes is terrible. Yes, you read me correctly, I said TERRIBLE.
Today, taking a little break from work, I decided to go to the nearest Stumptown location near my office: the Ace Hotel. I hoped it would be different this time. It wasn't.
I've had overly wet cappuccinos and so-so lattes in the past, so today I decided to order just a plain-jane cup of brewed coffee. They might as well have handed me a cup of piss.
I think it is best described as a cup of brown water. Really, it was incredibly watery. And, a tiny little cup was $2.00. Come on folks, any dumbass can brew a decent, ordinary cup of coffee. Yesterday, at Sip and Kranz, I had a cup of ordinary-brewed Stumptown coffee, and it was great. Same beans, but it was properly prepared, cost less, and came with a free refill. Huh.
I've bought Stumptown beans and made great drinks at home: drip, frenchpress, and cappuccinos. And I have no special coffee training. I've had great cups of Stumptown coffee at Ken's Bakery, Albina Press, and the aforementioned Sip and Kranz. But not at Stumptown's Ace Hotel location. It's been uniformly bad there, no matter what drink I ordered.
So here's my suggestion: buy the beans at a grocery store, or buy the drinks at anywhere BUT Stumptown. Until they train their staff to make a decent cup of coffee, avoid the Stumptown cafes for everything but people-watching.