A Wizard Rock Birthday, or How I Now Have an Entry for Cake Wrecks (part 1 of 5)

Thursday through Sunday I spent with Rose, Kathleen, various wizard rockers, and lots of new friends. Overall, the good parts were awesome and amazing and the bad parts were awful beyond belief. By the end, though, it definitely ended up well in the plus column.

Thursday, Rose had a show at her house where Matt (The Whomping Willows) and Justin (Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills) played. Sam Friedman is their merch girl for the tour, and so after seeing her various cameos in the Five Awesome Girls videos, I finally got to meet her. She alternates between vivacious energy and low-key snarky remarks, and she can take it as well as dish it out. A good combination, for sure.

Matt has a new album coming out in May that is mostly about the wizard rock community and touring. One of his songs, titled 'A Brief Repose', features a stanza about Pittsburgh. It even mentions Edgewood in particular. Even though JP wasn't there, Matt dedicated the song to the two of us. Aside from the fact that we're included in there, I really, really dig the song. All of the new songs, actually. Justin wrote an EP with songs inspired from Beedle the Bard that were all new and completely enjoyable, too. I especially love 'Hairy Heart'. It's very quintessentially Justin. The first time I heard them, I wasn't that into JFF, but after a bit, it just grabbed me. Meeting Justin helped as well. His music is exactly what I would expect from him, and that makes me like it even more. Justin in song form! Such a good idea.

Since the next day was Matt's birthday, I had planned for our house afterward to be a small birthday party of sorts, replete with a Hannah Montana birthday banner and a cake that I had ordered. The cake probably could've been much worse, but to quote Tim, "The guitar was clearly drawn by someone who's never seen a guitar before but has only had it described to them, in a language they had a shakey understanding of. Or [they] thought you wanted like a science fiction guitar from the future."



So, we sang happy birthday and drank cocktails until the wee hours.

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

My friend Matt the wizard rocker is turning 30 this Friday. His band is The Whomping Willows. Since he will be at my house Thursday night, I thought I would get a cake for him. I called Giant Eagle to order it, and I believe that the woman there thinks I am insane.

me: I'd like to order a cake to pick up on Thursday.
her: Ok, and what would you like? (goes through cake/frosting options)
me: (I dislike cake usually, so I just pick random things.) Yeah, that sounds good.
her: And what do you want written on that?
me: "Happy Birthday Matt"
her: Ok, and do you want roses on that?
me: Um, well, can you put a guitar on there?
her: Well, we can certainly try to airbrush one on there, but I can't promise anything.
me: (imagining an entry for Cake Wrecks) No, that's fine. It might be funny if it's awful. I'm ok with that.
her: (laughter)
me: Um, is there any way you could also put a tree on there? Is there room?
her: We can put a tree on there, sure.
me: Awesome.
her: (slightly incredulous) Ok, so you want it to say "Happy Birthday Matt" and have a guitar and a tree on it?
me: Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much!
her: No problem, ma'am. We'll see you on Thursday.

4th of July

It has long been a tradition in our circle of friends to spend the 4th of July weekend at Silent Bob's parents' lakehouse, near Scranton. This year was easy, with the 4th on a Friday. I took Thursday off and left after work on Wednesday with Josh and his dog, Zehe. We left Pittsburgh at 8pm, and drove the 6 1/2 hours to the lake. I think I am getting too old to do that. It was exhausting and never-ending, especially since 80 has no lights toward the eastern part of the state. We arrived at 2:30am, and JP, Silent Bob, Brian, and Keiser were already there. The next night we were expecting 9 more people, and then 1 more on Friday, to make us 16 in total.

In the past, we have had to leave the house at least once a day to go pick up beer and food. No one likes to leave the lake, so we decided to get everything ready ahead of time. This meant ordering 2 kegs and making a grocery list for 6 meals for 16 people. I was asked to put together the food list, and Josh and I volunteered to go get food on Thursday before everyone was there. The list included things like 7 loaves bread, 144 hot dogs, 12lbs of pork roast, 8 bottles BBQ sauce, etc., etc. We filled 3 carts with groceries, and the total was around $400. Not a bad deal at all. I kept the receipt to take a picture of, but it's actually too big if it's on the floor, and I didn't feel like hanging it on the wall, so I measured it. 75 inches. That's 6'3" long. It's a good thing I thought to sign up for their discount card - it saved us $50.
So we had pancakes, bacon, and fruit for breakfast on Friday, BBQ chicken, corn, and roasted potatoes for dinner; eggs, bacon, toast, and baked beans for breakfast on Saturday, and pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner. Planning, cooking, and cleaning for 16 is exhausting even with tons of help. I'm glad that JP and I do not have 14 children.

There is so much that I love about the lake that it's hard to pick my favorite thing. Afternoons of reading while there is hacky sack in the background?

Naps on the lawn?


Fireworks set off from our dock and the dock next door? (Which, by the way, rival any that I have seen, especially as you are close enough to have flaming ash rain down on you)


The fires and marshmallows and s'mores?

It might be the stars seen laying on the dock late at night. How many constellations do you know? We could pick out 4 - Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Casseopoeia, and Orion (who can only be seen early since he is low on the horizon in summer).

When JP and I travel, we like to explore. Neither of us wants to spend days laying on a beach. We would much rather wander around an unknown city and eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The lake is the only place that I go to just escape it all. As soon as I see it, there's just this feeling of peace and leaving everything else behind. We call it recess for adults - pure fun that lasts for days and you get to drink.

Crack

I read a couple of cooking/food blogs on a regular basis, so I am constantly inundated with recipes that I set aside somewhere to "try later". However, the entire food blogosphere has been saturated by this one recipe in particular, and I just had to see if the hype was true. I used this version of the recipe, but the original post is here.
Turns out, it's so true that I actually had to get up twice in the past sentences to go eat more of it. What you're essentially making is a Skor bar. Remember them? Dark chocolate and toffee? Yeah, homemade toffee. I know, you're thinking "I don't have a candy thermometer. I have no desire to stand over a hot stove for 45 minutes stirring sugar until it turns into caramel, and then cook it until it will become toffee when hardened." Except that it's not hard. Except for the cooling time and injury time, I had this done in about 45 minutes total, baking and all.

Of course, it's just no fun if I don't change it somewhat, right? So here's what we did:

• For crackers, I used lightly salted matzoh (highly recommended)
  
• I should've trusted my instincts and used dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar. I'll do that next time.
• Instead of the semisweet, I used the semi-pricey bittersweet chocolate chips made by Nestle (they're worth every extra penny, believe you me).
• We didn't have almonds, so I used walnuts and some Frosted Flakes as toppings. We didn't press the walnuts into the chocolate enough, so many of them have fallen off. The Frosted Flakes were an amazing idea.
  
• Instead of fleur de sal, I used French gray sea salt (another finishing salt). DON'T SKIP THIS STEP. If you are even remotely a fan of the sweet/salty combo, you want plenty of salt on the chocolate. It makes everything taste better.
  
• Instead of not touching the molten hot toffee mixture, I swept an errant drop onto my finger, where it immediately fused and caused the most pain I can remember ever having as an adult. This was worse than a migraine, people. Crying from a burn is no fun in many ways. Just look up what happens when your adrenaline pumps like crazy. That's what happens when you cause severe pain to your body. Yeah, it was awesome. After several hours of ice, 4 Advil, and a night's sleep, it seems to be better. Just a little tender and blistered. (It's possible it was totally worth all of that.)
• I would have also refrigerated it after it had cooled a bit, just to help it cool faster. If I hadn't made this at midnight, then this would not have been a problem, but I needed it to be cool before I went to bed.
  

Egads, you need to try this. I'll have some at happy hour today, so if you stop by...

UPDATE: After writing this and sneaking into the kitchen for yet another piece, I decided it might be extra delicious in the fridge, all nice and cold and crunchy. Best idea ever. I just ate a cold piece moments ago, with my third (fourth?) cup of coffee. Heavenly.

chocolate-covered caramel crunch
enough crackers to line a baking sheet
1 c unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 c packed light brown sugar
big pinch of fleur du sel (optional)
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 c semisweet chocolate chips
1 c toasted coarsely chopped almonds

1. Line baking sheet with foil, making sure you have enough to create a tall rim around the pan. Line pan with crackers, breaking up pieces if you have to, to fill in any cracks. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together over medium heat. Stir frequently until the mixture begins to boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add in vanilla. If you are using unsalted crackers, add in salt. Pour caramel over crackers and spread evenly with a silicone spatula.

3. Put the baking sheet in the oven, reducing heat to 350F. Bake for 15 minutes, watching carefully that the caramel does not burn.

4. Remove from heat and cover with chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes until chocolate melts and then spread evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and fleur du sel or whatever toppings you desire. Let cool completely and then break into pieces, storing in an airtight container.

A controversial subject

After seeing this in my RSS reader today and reading some of the abhorrent comments left, I wanted to respond to a lot of what was said.

First of all, I have had many friends and family in the service industry. I've never worked any job where tips were part of it, but I've dealt with having to make people's food (Bruegger's) or handle their grievances (Service Desk at The Book Center). I have to say that, in general, the public is a bunch of assholes.

Let's just get one thing straight from the get-go. Do you know what the hourly wage is for bartenders/servers? It does vary from state to state (and I imagine establishment to establishment), but minimum wage for a waitress in PA is $2.83.

$2.83!

This means that most to all of your wages are taken by taxes. I have known servers that actually received a negative paycheck because they had to pay taxes on their tips and the hourly wage didn't cover it.

So, yes, a tip is an indication of the service you have been provided. But do people realize if they don't tip, they are actually costing the server money?
Now, I don't know anyone who doesn't tip, but I have witnessed other people who tip poorly, and I always make sure that I make up for it (while quietly seething and judging them). As a general rule, I leave 20%. Period, end of story. If I get great service, I'll leave more. If I get shitty service, I leave 15%, though I'm not sure that I'm really getting the message across that the service was crap. They probably just think I'm an average tipper. But I am incapable of leaving less, even in foreign countries where 10% is a cheer-worthy tip.

However...I tend to get annoyed at tip jars in coffee places and ice cream shops. I know that Starbucks pays higher than minimum wage. I realize that yes, baristas are part of the service industry. But they're not delivering my coffee to my table. They don't ask me if I want refills. It's the same as when I go to Target and someone rings me up. That is just as much of a service, and I don't think anyone would think that the poor cashier chick at Target deserves a tip for that. I do tip for take out because I know that a server probably put all that together for me. And I definitely tip my hairdresser/manicurist (ok, the one time I got a manicure)/etc.

Many people believe that tips are something that the server should "earn". I understand that to a certain extent. A 25-30% tip should be a reward, not necessarily the norm. So why don't servers just get paid more? Well, think about it. Let's say you make $X an hour. You get a table of 10 obnoxious frat boys. I think that you deserve the higher tip that should come with the higher bill just for dealing with that. If you were paid hourly, you would make the same regardless of the fact that you had a table of 4 or 10 (simplified example, I know. Most servers don't just deal with one table at a time.).

I know that bartending or being a server can be quite lucrative, especially if you're good at it. Honestly, though, who wants to deal with that? Late nights, on your feet the whole time, rare or nonexistent breaks, dealing with the general populace...I'm more than happy to pay an extra 20% solely for that fact that I would never want to do that. The only pluses may be walking out with cash in hand and some free coke from your manager.

What do you guys think? How much do you tip? Does every server deserve a tip?

Rice

I have a lot of heavy shit going through my mind right now, but it's way too much to process into something coherent, so I'm going to talk about rice instead.
I like to think that I'm generally a good cook. I've made awful things, sure, but my standards are generally awesome. I can invent things well, and I cover all sorts of cuisines in my cooking. I'm not afraid to do complicated things or use strange ingredients. And I thoroughly enjoy cooking, especially for people other than JP.

But I cannot, for the life of me, make rice.

I have tried on countless occasions and always ended up with some sort of soupy mixture or 3 inches of burned rice on the bottom of my pot. My mother-in-law took pity on me and bought me a rice cooker, so I thought my problems were solved. Until today. I went to make sushi rice to roll up some quick veggie sushi for Tim's Japanese dinner party. And I failed utterly because stupid me made basmati instead of actual sushi rice and it didn't absorb the mirin or rice vinegar and is now just a soupy mess. Argh.

I promise deliciousness!

on Valentine's Day, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies for me and JP (mostly for me). I decided to double the recipe (who does that?!? cookies for 2...recipe says it makes 50. I'll make 100!). anyways...I screwed up. looking at the recipe, I thought it called for 1/4 c. of butter, which is 1/2 stick. in fact, it was 1/4 lb of butter, which is a whole stick. not a big deal, unless you only have 1 stick of butter, which I did. of course, I had already mixed the sugar in, so there was no going back. I threw in the equivalent of shortening, and the cookies were fantastic. the best chocolate chip cookies ever made, possibly. they were gorgeous, tasted fantastic, and were crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. I got raves. here's the recipe (adapted from fannie farmer. I suggest halving the recipe, unless you're feeding a crowd):

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup dark brown sugar (I used light, but I bet dark is better)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease some cookie sheets. Cream the butter and shortening, then gradually add the two sugars, beating until light and smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together and add it to the first mixture, blending well. Stir in the nuts and the chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets about 1 inch apart and bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. (mine took a bit longer, but I like to make big cookies.)

enjoy!