John Green and Other Awesome, Nerdy Things

My always awesome friend C-Monster introduced me to The VlogBrothers, an amazingly entertaining, clever, smart and nerdy video blog by brothers Hank and John Green. Hank is the founder of EcoGeek.org. John is an award-winning YA* author. Upon learning that last bit, I realized I had to read one of his books... if not all of them. So, being kinda broke, I hit up my local library's website and requested one of his titles (yes, at random. I'm not picky). A few days later, in came An Abundance of Katherines for my reading delight.  And a delight is has been thus far. Yes, "thus far", because I'm enjoying the book and the author's style so much that I'm writing about it before I've even finished it!

Here's how it went down. On page 1 the main character (Colin) is thinking about Archimedes shouting "Eureka!" There was also a footnote explaining the Greek translation of "eureka". My thought was something like, "I already knew that, but an informative footnote in a novel colors me impressed".  By page 10, there had been a few more footnotes that were informative, witty (sometimes both) or simply said, "More on that later." It was on this page that I was fairly sure I was going to want to own this book. By 'fairly sure' I mean I had made the majority of the climb up the mountain and was within sight of the summit, but not quite there because at only page 10 out of 215, there is a lot of room for disappointment.  Page 30 sealed the deal by containing a joke about sodomy and a footnote containing a Venn diagram! I laughed myself to tears. While I will likely finish the library's edition, I will be venturing to buy my own copy in the very near future.

On that note, to the right of the previous paragraph is a picture of the cover of the book I'm currently reading. See that? Right there? The one with all the heads on it? Well, while searching for that image to put on here, I also found THIS image of an alternate (?) cover for the book!



I have to say that I like this cover much more. It's my inner design nerd coming out. The color use is more appealing, I don't have some soulless-eyed chick(s) staring out at me and I dig the title-as-a-math-equation relation to the story. Now, I have not done a great deal of searching at this point, but if someone can help me find a copy with this kickin' cover, I would be verrry grateful. Like cookies-for-you grateful.**



Moving right along to other awesome nerdery, I'm getting hooked on The Nerdist podcast. I discovered it in a bass ackwards kinda fashion in that I was watching The Walking Dead on AMC and suddenly there was this fun after-show called The Talking Dead hosted by Chris Hardwick (hot!). I mentioned The Talking Dead in class the following Thursday and a classmate got all excited and told me to check out The Nerdist, which is also hosted by Chris Hardwick, usually with Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, is just freaking hilarious! They have awesome guests (like Wil Wheaton*** (heart) Adam Savage (boom) and Neil Gaiman (brilliant) or when they don't have guests still manage to give my funny bone a hander. Go. Listen. Good times will be had. The podcast was recently turned into a TV show on BBC America and I aim to start watching that regularly... or as regularly one can for a show that's been ordered as "specials" by the channel. In this same vein, my bestie J-bot snagged us tickets to go see them live when the tour comes to town in March. You can't see it, but I'm doing my happy dance.

In the food realm, my instructor A mentioned this thing called Cookie Butter.  I'll type that again for your comprehension, because if you're like me, your eyes just bugged out of your head. Cookie Butter. I made a jaunt to Trader Joe's yesterday and procured some. It's a spread made with crushed biscuits and tastes a bit like gingerbread. It has definite nom factor. I've had it on celery, on chunky cinnamon toast, on matzo (yep, we eat Jew-food in this house) and now...cookie butter on a cookie! Just because I could.

That's all for awesome, nerdy things today folks. DFTBA****


*YA is book industry speak for the "Young Adult" genre. Special, nerdy terms? Yep. Get used to it.
** I was going to go dirty there and say 'blowjobs-for-you grateful', but I realized that A) that's a bit extreme, even for an awesome book and B) if you're a chic who helps me get the book, you're kinda left out of that reward system and that's not fair.
***I'm currently listening to the Wil Wheaton Nerdist podcast and learned that Chris and Wil are long-time friends and used to be roommates. This made me realize that that would make for an awesome, nerdy threesome! HOW have I never come to that idea before?!
**** An initialism (not an acronym because acronyms are pronounceable) used by the VlogBrothers that stands for Don't Forget To Be Awesome.

Random Post #1

Hello. Been awhile, I know. Fall quarter had me going crazy and my "break" was not really due to the holidays and work and such. C'est la vie.

My holidays were nice. For the family portion I made mini cherry pies using a muffin tin. Lessons were learned about using a proper-sized biscuit cutter. The best gift I got from fam has to be a tie between the first two volumes of Good Eats by Alton Brown and a killer fashion ring. I got some awesome gifts from my friends. Jo, Dawn and Heather all did great on our crafting-only gifts for each other. However I do have to say that the best gift by far goes to Chris for the TARDIS mug and Green Day Blue Grass CD. Sorry gals, but it's hard to beat the TARDIS... literally.

I've also been very distracted by YouTube lately.  Here are some of the awesome things I've been watching:

My Drunk Kitchen - Cookery, booze and one seriously funny lady! In her case, I feel it's best to begin at the beginning.


C.G.P. Gray - Smart and entertaining explanations of things. This guy is like the Alton Brown of everything. This is his most recent and I completely agree with him. Fuck pennies.


Vlog Brothers - Two brothers. One channel. Copious amounts of fun nerdery that will leave you smarter than before you watched. Bonus point: John is the John Green of YA literature fame; I haven't read his books, but after viewing this channel, I am definitely going to.


MukPuddy - Some hilarious animations that make me want to be an animator.


Chap-hop - Unquestionably the most entertaining and awesome music genre to arise in some time.


In fact I've been so distracted by YouTube that I've had two discs from Netflix since October. Shit. Gotta get on that this weekend.

Back on the 7th I went to my first viewing of the musical Les Miserables! That was pretty fucking sweet. Big thanks you my friend J for just randomly buying the tickets and telling me we were going. It was pretty sweet. The sets and lighting effects were great. The main men and Eponine we fantastic. Fantine was really warbly though, so I wasn't too disappointed when she died 10 minutes in.  I'm not sure if it was costumer choice or error that Marius blended in with most of the other revolutionary students in the battle scene. Personally, I found that annoying. High point of the night was the pre-show visit to Candyland and getting some sponge candy and key lime kisses (they're like butterscotch buttons, but lime! I never knew those existed!).

Fish Sticks and Custard - er, Mango Sherbet

I finally got into the kitchen.  School is nearing the end of the quarter, work is - well, work - and life... it's all just a juggling act and I only ever learned to juggle two balls at once, so it's been a show for sure.

So happy kitchen time this night consisted of "fancy" fish sticks - they're fancy for a couple reasons, we'll get to that later - and mango-coconut sherbet.  I was excited for this!  Not only because both sounded über tasty from the recipes, but because it'd been a while since I'd had the time to play in the kitchen (last week's chipotlé flank steak with Gorgonzola sauce doesn't count, I was hurried).

Fancy Fish Sticks & Sauce...and beer.

The fish sticks I cut from a fillet of cod mum had picked up late last week.  Yep, that's right, cut them myself - see, fancy.  Then they were dredged first in a flour and black pepper mix, then into an wet mixture (best ingredient of which was lager) and then coated in a mix of Panko bread crumbs, pumpkin kernels and spices.  See, fancy!  Then I faux-fried them - aka put 'em on a heated, oiled sheet in the oven - and voila! Delicious, better-for-you-than-the-originals, "fancy" fish sticks!  Served those babies up with a dip concocted from low-fat mayo and sour cream, spicy brown mustard, fresh lime juice and a Cajun seasoning mix I'd already made myself and I had a great, proud-of-myself dinner.


But what is dinner without dessert? Blasphemy I say!  So I through the whopping 4 ingredients for mango-coconut sherbet into the blender and hit "liquify".  After all was happily blended I flipped the "on" switch on my Cuisinart Pure and poured all that sweet orange goo into the awaiting, frozen tub that was rotating almost as much giddy fervor as I was feeling. 30 or so minutes later the deliciousness was done. Well, sort of; you see it has to be put into a container and then in the freezer to solidify more, so I did that.  While I waited, I toasted up some shredded coconut I had.  Even though it wasn't solid yet, I could wait no longer; so I dished it up, topped it with the now golden  and nutty coconut sprinkles that I'd freed from the oven and spooned my taste buds up some tropical tastiness.

Mango-coconut awesome! I mean sherbet.

Note: I don't have the best camera for this sorta thing, but I do what I can with what I have :)

Pineapple Jerk Pork Chops

One slow day I was working at the e-reader counter and downloaded the (then current) March issue of Everyday Food.  In scanning the contents, I noticed an article about pineapple (one of my favorite fruits); it started with a guide on selecting and cutting the prickly tropical fruit and then had a number of recipes, the first of which was for jerk pineapple pork chops... nom!  Obviously, I snatched up an ink & paper issue of the magazine from the newsstand as soon as I was off work.  After several weeks with school and other life things roadblocking my cookery, I found the time to prepare a delicious din for mum and me (and then took several more weeks before blogging about it.)


Ingredients
2/3 of a whole (4 pound) pineapple, peeled
1 bunch scallions, sliced crosswise into 1-inch piece
1/2 small habanero or 1 large jalapeno, stemmed and seeded (I used two medium ones)
2 tsp dried thyme
4 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled
1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 bone-in pork chops, 3/4-inch-thick and about 6oz each (I bought a loin on the cheap and sliced it myself)
course salt and ground pepper
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Scallions, spices, garlic and jalapenos

Pineapple

1 - Cut four 1/2-inch-thick rounds from the pineapple and set aside. Cut the remaining pineapple into large chunks, discarding the core. In a food processor (or blender in my case), combine pineapple chunks, scallions, chile(s), thyme, garlic, and allspice and pulse until coarsely chopped. Reserve 1/4 cup of this marinade and refrigerate.

It doesn't look like much, but just wait!

 2 - Season pork with salt & pepper and place in a 9x13 glass baking dish along with the pineapple round. Top with remaining pineapple marinade and turn pork and pineapple to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour (up to 4 hours).

3. In a large nonstick skillet, hear 1 Tbsp of the olive oil over medium-high. Working in two batches, brush the marinade off the pork and cook chops until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes per batch, flipping once (reduce heat if pork begins to overbrown.) When chops are complete, add 1 Tbsp oil to the skillet. Brush marinade from pineapple rounds and cook until golden brown in spots; 5 to 7 minutes, flipping once.




4. Serve pork and rounds with reserved pineapple marinade.

A complete meal

Delicious!

The meal was delicious! Tender and flavorful pork with the savory marinade accented with caramelized sweetness of the browned pineapple.   If you dig Caribbean fair, I highly suggest giving this recipe a go.

Fogo de WOW

The other night (March 12 to be specific) I had my first experience dining at Fogo de Chão, an "authentic Brazilian steak house." I'd heard about this place from a few friends, including the three that invited me, and let me tell you, I was more excited than a virgin on her wedding night. Vegetarians beware: this joint is meat paradise...NOM! Honestly, I have never been so happy to be part carnivore.

Do I smell Fogo in there?

The drinks were very well mixed and did not go light on the liquor, always a plus; I had a whiskey sour (my usual) and their feature drink, the Caipirinha (tasty!). To start the meal, we headed to the nice salad bar they have that features imported cheeses, cured meats, artisan breads and other tasty things like artichoke bottoms and jumbo asparagus - I didn't know it came in "jumbo" size - delicious! And the 24 month aged Parmesan was a-mmm-azing. Then came the main event; they offer 15 different cuts of meat. FIFTEEN! I don't think I got to try all of them, but what I did try was exquisite. And they are all served fresh off the spit, by trained gauchos dressed in a gaucho inspired uniform (boots and puffy pants!). At one point I thought, "Guys in uniform with hot accents eagerly hurrying to your table to serve you drinks, food and hot meat off a spit? A lady could very easily get spoiled here." I ended my mouth-gasm of a meal with their key lime pie. Now, I dig lime and you all know my love of pie, so key lime pie is in pretty good with me. This key lime pie though... I think that must be what Adonis' cum tastes like. That pie would be on my last meal menu, no question.

I definitely want to go back within the year. I also suggest that if you get the opportunity to go, take it! I warn you though, it's pricey - including tip I laid down $100 - but sooo worth it. I understand that they do the same thing for lunch, which is not doubt cheaper than the dinner price I paid, so that may be a better option for me (or you) next time around.