La Manduca, the blog

Bastille Day Cheesecake

2008-07-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

I made a three layer cheesecake for my friend's Bastille Day party. The picture is an in-progress shot. The cake was huge, and served about 16 people who were also eating from other desserts.

The recipe is a bastardization of about 3 different recipes from Cook's Illustrated, Epicurious and cdkitchen. Here's roughly what I did.

(Cook's Illustrated)
Line bottom of 9-inch springform pan with foil, tuck foil underneath pan bottom, assemble pan, then pull foil around side of pan, (see illustrations 1 and 2, below). Brush bottom and sides with butter.

(epicurious)
In a bowl stir together the cookie crumbs and the butter until the mixture is combined well and pat the mixture onto the bottom and 1/2 inch up the side of a 9 1/2-inch springform pan. Chill the crust for 30 minutes.

(Cook's Illustrated)
Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in food processor until smooth. Gradually add sugar and mix until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes.

(winging it)
Split the cream cheese-sugar combo into thirds. To the first third, add about 1 cup of frozen blackberries. Mix until smooth. if desired, add blue food coloring (The mixture was purple, and adding the blue didn't have much effect. in the future I might omit it.)

Beat two eggs, and from that mixture, pour about 1.3 eggs into the food processor. Add 2 TBS each cream and sour cream. mix until just incorporated (this is why you don't add the frozen fruit at the end; you don't want to beat the eggs or cream much).

(modified from cdkitchen)
Pour blackberry portion into crust. freeze for 40 minutes. meanwhile, prepare the strawberry and vanilla portions in the same way as the first, adding 1/2 tsp vanilla to the vanilla portion only. You'll use 4 eggs in all. refrigerate each portion while waiting to pour them.

When the blackberry layer is firm, remove from freezer and add vanilla layer. In the picture, I've spooned on a little of the vanilla layer to see how well the blackberry level has gelled. Freeze till firm, about 1/2 hour. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. Add red layer when vanilla is firm.

(Cook's Illustrated)
Bake cheesecake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees, leaving oven door ajar until oven temperature reduces. Bake until perimeter of cake is set, but center jiggles like Jell-O when pan is tapped, about 1 hour longer. Remove springform pan and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours. (Can be refrigerated up to 4 days.)

(hard learned lesson)
Note: you really must refrigerate for 4 hours or the center of the cake won't set. You'll be left with a gooey, tasty mess. To make the cheesecake on the day you'll eat it, it has to be started at least 7 hours before.

My country 'tis of bacteria

2008-07-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

At an Independence Day pops concert, we heard a vocal medley of patriotic songs including "America" (recognizable as "My Country 'Tis of Thee"). I was delighted by the line "Microbes and giant trees" in the list of American things we love, but it turns out it's "Thy groves." Oh well. (Microbes available from giantmicrobes.com)

McGee Creek Hike

2008-07-06T22:44:00.001-07:00

A good change from the city. Don't miss the bug eating locoweed and the dog chilling his paws. The snow in July blew my mind although I grew up seeing it in Colorado. The whole trip I was struck by how much the Eastern Sierra reminded me of Colorado, from the mountains and fir trees all the way to the sagebrush.

You may also notice some haze in the pictures. At least part of it is from the prodigious fires in the area. The California Office of Emergency Services has some great maps and data available (that's a 2008 link - parse it if necessary).

TDC Stereo Project-or-view

2008-06-29T18:01:00.001-07:00

TDC Stereo Project-or-view
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

I fell for the design the minute I saw it, and couldn't stop myself from salvaging it from recycling center. I'm still thinking about its future. Meta frame/controller for digital photo frame? If I could make one front dial scan through the photos like Cover Flow and another zoom in and out, I'd die happy. Or maybe it should hold the monitor for my home server. And/or run it off my old iPod Nano, maybe with iPodLinux. Or my NSLU2.

The screen is 7 7/8" x 8 7/8". Here are the internal schematics.

My goals for it are low power consumption and the ability to turn on the whole unit with a single switch, to reduce fuss, and so i can run it off a timer.

Jesus loves destructive, proselytizing renters

2008-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

(The small text says "Go Vegetarian! peta2.com")

My renter left this on the fridge in his apartment when he moved out. I'm not sure what I'm most annoyed by:

Being proselytized to about Jesus
Being proselytized to about vegetarianism
Peta, for freak's sake. I'm an animal researcher! There've been a lot of attacks on animal researchers regionally. I've killed fewer mice than most homeowners, and more humanely, but there isn't necessarily much safety in that: so far, researchers have been targeted apparently randomly.
Leaving a strongly-adhered sticker on a brand new fridge. You can see the marks where I started to try to peel it off.

Escapism

2008-06-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Dreaming about the day I'm not a graduate student anymore. (Desk from boingboing).

The politics of taxi dancing

2008-05-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Lots of NYC cab drivers live and/or garage in Brooklyn. I felt like a
native when I called out to an off-duty cab at a stop-light, "Brooklyn?"
"Where?"
"Park Slope."
"Get in."

My pleasure dimmed when he made two comments that probably indicate
he's got a race problem, and I thought about the many advantages that
accrue from living in desireable, central neighborhoods.

"Direct" flight

2008-05-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

This seems circuitous. Maybe it was an effort to minimize the
turbulence. Even so, it was pretty rocky, and we got the most serious
messages I've ever heard from the pilot about the turbulence.

Hooray for public transit, but...

2008-05-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Could we get some better colors? (The trains have a large stripe of
the fusia and gold.)

White Boston

2008-05-02T04:25:00.001-07:00

Surprised again by how white tourist- and business-Boston is.

Costume, part the first

2008-04-29T09:27:00.001-07:00

glasses
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

W00t!

Oh, the cultcha

2008-04-13T22:03:00.001-07:00

rach 3
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

Fun. I liked the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet. There was an encore piano duo with Michael Tilson Thomas and Yefim Bronfman that was entertaining. While I was listening to the "Rach 3" piece, I was thinking, "do I not like piano concertos?" because I was not thrilled. I liked the lighter parts, but I thought some of the moodier parts would be better distributed across the instruments that were, after all, right there. Happily my company for the concert, much more experienced in these things than I am, basically agreed, and I didn't feel like such a country mouse.

Merrell's fake Uggs (Merrell Yeti

2008-04-13T18:55:00.001-07:00

merrell side
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

These boots turned out to be a terrific purchase. I was planning a trip to New England in late December four years ago when I decided I needed some really warm boots. I bought these (used, I know, that can freak one out) for $75 with shipping, which is still a whole lot of money. I've gotten more use than I expected from them. I take them with me anytime I go anywhere cold. Since they pack down to nothing but sole, I end up taking them more places than I expected. And if they're with me, I always wear them. I also wear them on remotely chilly nights in SoCal. They're too lose to be comfortable for long walks, but they're so easy to slip in and out of that I find myself wearing them a lot. Unsurprisingly, they are truly warm. I think Uggs are aesthetically hideous, and these follow that trend. Still, the high comfort and convenience mean I'm willing to uglify and old-trendify my look on their behalf.

Happy accident

2008-04-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

I took this shot unintentionally, but i find it strangely compelling.

A favorite place

2008-04-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

How could this be a favorite place? Because I can be very alone, sing
to my music and let the dog run.

Tristan und Isolde

2008-03-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

I went to a movie theater yesterday for over five hours to watch the Metropolitan Opera simulcast of their production of Tristan und Isolde. I thought I'd sleep during it, given how long it was and how little sleep I got this week. I didn't sleep much though, and I really enjoyed it. The set, as you can see above, was lovely. The backstage interviews were also fantastic.

One thing I hate is how I easily forget who was involved in productions. I made picture flash cards for this one.

Minor JPL-watch item: lawyer lauded

2008-03-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

Alan Mittelstaedt at the LA City Beat (in the context of criticizing a lawyer):

You should be a lawyer more like Dan Stormer, who for free represented JPL scientists who fought back the invasive forces of the federal government that wanted to do background checks on their credit history and sex lives in the name of national security.

Why?

2008-03-13T00:19:00.001-07:00

buried
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

My dog loves the inside of his soccer ball.

Spinach salad v0.2

2008-03-08T14:38:00.001-08:00

Today's version had the same red pepper, spinach, apples and gorgonzola dressing, but I added canned mandarin oranges and left out the sausages I tried last time. Good, but definitely required the side dish of hummus and pita to make a full meal. I'd like to try to a wilted (i.e. briefly cooked) spinach salad with cheese and walnuts, but the inside of my mouth is too tender for walnuts right now. It was nearly too tender for today's salad.

I experiment

2008-03-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

It's nice when it's pretty too.

State-supported prayer breakfasts?

2008-03-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

Why? Why does an elected figure have to have a prayer breakfast? Can't they envision a broader moral leadership? If Mr. Random Mayor (I don't know of women mayors having prayer breakfasts, although they certainly may) wants very badly to have a prayer breakfast, I say that's your privilege. But use your name, not your title, and don't use city money to publicize the damned thing. Here's my local annoyance, and here's a link to the prayer breakfast network, which asserts that their strategy is to allow breakfasters to "experience a fresh reminder of our country's Spiritual Heritage." They seem a little fringe though, so maybe they're not as much a part of prayer breakfasts as they'd like.

Fashion don't

2008-03-03T08:06:00.001-08:00

One of the first things I saw this morning was a discordant image in the periphery. Turns out even the corner of my sleepy eye is startled by the combination of jammies I was wearing.

Cravings

2008-03-02T23:20:00.001-08:00

spinach salad
Originally uploaded by _buttercup

For some unknown reason I was motivated to make some food today. This salad has spinach, red peppers, apples, chicken-mango sausage, and some kind of gorgonzola dressing from trader joe's. Ultimately I couldn't soak enough of the grease out of the sausage, and the salad is too greasy. Guess I'll have to stick to eating the sausage with pasta and tomato sauce. Maybe I'll use bacon for the salad if I'm planning on making it my whole meal.

Franken-timer

2008-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

I am on a perpetual quest for a better lab timer. Unfortunately the features I want don't seem to live in a single timer. I've thought about buying parts and programming/soldering something with the features I want, but it's not worth the time it would take. Here's my list of needed features:

1) Enter countdown time using number buttons, none of that up/down crap. In other words, it should have a keyboard like this:

1a) The interface for setting the countdown time shouldn't be stupid. For example, I shouldn't have to hold down a "set" button. If I'm pressing a number button, what else might I want to be doing? Obviously, I want to be setting the time.

2) When the elapsed time is finished, if I don't silence the alarm within a minute, it should stop beeping and start counting up so when I come back I know how long it's been.

3) It should show three different countdowns at once, like this:

4) It should have a "lock" slider button that prevents the buttons from responding when I put it in my pocket.

5) It should have a clip so I can attach it the outside of my pocket when I need to take it with me and use it frequently.

6) It should have a magnet on the back so I can attach it to the eye-level metal rail at my bench.

7) It should not be ginormous.

It's this kind of thing that I find to be a ridiculous need given the technology we have today. I can program. I can get a circuit board printed. I can print to a 3D printer. Why can't I make the timer of my dreams easily?

(Image and inspiration from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sdm/examples.htm)

Dynamic memory? Not so much

2008-02-27T23:26:00.000-08:00

A group of researchers found a way to retrieve memory in RAM from a computer: lower the temperature of the RAM chips. One method they used was compressed air. This isn't a real security threat to the merely mortal among us - I'm interested in it because it sounds like an incredibly fun project. Still they are handicapped by researcher-talk: "data written even momentarily to RAM persists for a non-trivial period of time." Here's all the dirt.