canal ride

Today we decided to one up our 7 mile bike ride around campus from yesterday. In all honesty, that ride was done as a let's just get out for a while and circle campus but it ended up being tons of fun!

So today we went back at it with a longer ride in mind (yeah jon, you can quit laughing now ;)). Our only faulty planning in this was we decided to go right around noon when it was blazing hot (90 degrees) and super sunny. Regardless we packed up Kristin's car and headed off.

It did require some strategic packing..

We ended up driving to Pittsford which is about 15 minutes away from campus. There is technically a path that goes to the canal that we could pick up right from RIT except I feel more comfortable around Pittsford and I really wanted to see some new parts of the canal without getting super exhausted first (just getting from RIT to Pittsford and back would have added about 15 miles to the ride).

Got our bikes all unloaded and ready to go (Kristin only questioned our sanity once during this...)

It ended up being really nice along the water with a breeze and everything. Made it a good 45 minutes before our first water break.

Kristin was less than pleased.

Our bikes also got a lovely coating of white all over them from the dust. The part we biked along was not paved so the gravel kicked up a lot. In short, we got a wee bit dirty.

And became somewhat discouraged when we saw that others were enjoying the view from the comfort of their large boat.. That was until we passed them with ease :)

Finally made it to Fairport which is about 7 miles from Pittsford. We got there just in time to watch the bridge go down after the boats passed.

And took a quick apple/water break.

And then apparently forgot to take more pictures... Oops! We were so hot by the time we made it back to Pittsford, it didn't help that the wind was working against us on the way back. Did run into Destler & his wife (he's the President of RIT) except they were on their electric bikes which kind of left us in the dust.

At this rate we're going to have to do a 28 mile ride tomorrow ;) Just judging from our energy levels after work last week that's not going to happen.

loaf of bread

Okay, I confess. We may or may not have consumed a loaf of bread.

But in our defense, it was two people and it's technically a 1/3rd of a loaf and it's lunch time. Except, really, I don't feel that bad because man that is tasty. And homemade!

I tested out the Stecca no-knead bread recipe from Jim Lahey's book. It's one that we've made somewhat frequently at home so I thought I'd try it myself.

Let's just say, this might become a frequent occurrence around here. So frequent, in fact, that I have a designated "flour rising" towel. Priorities.

Ingredients
3 cups bread flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups cool (55 to 65°F) water
Additional flour for dusting
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions
1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, table salt, sugar, and yeast. Add the water and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.

2. When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Fold the dough over itself two or three times and gently shape it into a somewhat flattened ball. Brush the surface of the dough with some of the olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the coarse salt (which will gradually dissolve on the surface).

3. Place a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust it with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.

4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C), with a rack in the center. Oil a 13-by-18-by-1-inch baking sheet.

5. Cut the dough into quarters. Gently stretch each piece evenly into a stick shape approximately the length of the pan. Place on the pan, leaving at least 1 inch between the loaves. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt.

6. Bake the baguettes for 15 to 25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then use a spatula to transfer the stecca to a rack to cool thoroughly.

Note: The baguettes may become a bit soggy in just a few hours because of the salt on the surface. If that happens, reheat the loaves in a hot oven until crisp.

Variation
Stecca Pomodori, all’Olive, o al’Aglio (Stecca with Tomatoes, Olives, or Garlic)
Push 10 cherry tomato halves, cut side up, 10 large pitted olives, or 10 lightly crushed garlic cloves into each formed stecca, taking care to space the additions evenly down the length of the dough. Brush each stecca with enough olive oil to create a thin coat of oil on the surface. For the tomato stecca, top each tomato half with a very thin slice of garlic and a couple of fresh thyme leaves, and sprinkle with salt. Sprinkle the garlic stecca with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Do not salt the olive stecca—it’s already salty from the olives.

Summer in Rochester

Summertime in Rochester is arguably one of the greatest things ever. We spend so much time here during the awfully cold months that it makes you look twice when Wegmans is seen selling things like sunflowers, they just look out of place.

Adventuring is a mandatory task that sometimes leads to bouncy ball searching (we refrained from releasing them all).



And nerf gun (sword?) fighting in the aisles.

But best of all there is the Rochester Public Market. Which is open year round but Oct-March offers little outside of the usual onion/potato/apple/insert your root veggie name here. In spring & summer (which feel quite similar up north) there are flowers! And fruits! And lots of tasty things.

Of course, there is the obligatory coffee stop. How else do you expect me to wander around for 3 hours?

Free samples help too. Especially when the apple seller handed us an entire apple to try... Along with the bread samples, vegan mango pudding, farro with tomato pesto and honey. So pretty much you can consume lunch for free if you wander for long enough.

Not to mention bringing home bucket loads of food all for under $25, who needs Wegmans anymore ;) (See the rhubarb mom?)

Three hours at the market spent wandering does leave one rather exhausted which calls for a little outside relaxation and book reading. And potentially more apple samples.

every pretty smile

(via jwitwer)

The Summer of Cooking

As much as I enjoy cooking (and eating) good food, during the school year it's really not always an option. Tons of classes, homework and work time leave little room for cooking, not to mention I'm one person and can only eat one dish so many times before I get tired of it.

Enter summertime.

I've been fortunate enough to get to spend June at home in Maryland eating some good home cooking by my mom :)

With Dad's grill shenanigans thrown in..

And sometime from Sarah & her boyfriend, Sean.

And other times, I get in the baking mood and decide to make two kinds of granola bars & cookies all in one night. But at least there are plenty of people around to help eat them!

I tested out a recipe from my cousin, Erika for Peanut Butter Granola Bars. She had previously sent me a box of these during a really busy week at school. So tasty and much appreciated!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars

1 22-oz. box granola

1 cup nut pieces

3 cups crispy rice cereal or puffed brown rice

½ cup dried cherries or raisins

1 tsp. cinnamon, opt.

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 to 1 ½ cups brown rice syrup

½ cup honey

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix together peanut butter, syrup and honey;

combine with dry ingredients. Press into greased 12 x 18” pan; put a piece of wax or

parchment paper over the bars and roll flat with a rolling pin. Refrigerate until firm.

Keeps best in the refrigerator. Yield: 2 dozen bars

I tried some Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies from BrownEyedBaker

Gingered Carrot Cake Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Bake Time: 16 to 18 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of grated nutmeg
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded carrots (about 3, peeled and trimmed)
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans

1. Position oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and nutmeg.

3. With a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then add the egg and beat for another minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the vanilla. Continuing on low speed, add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 batches and beat only until they just disappear into the mix. The dough will be very thick, but don’t overbeat to incorporate the flour. Using a rubber spatula, mix in the carrots, coconut, raisins and pecans.

4. Spoon about three heaping tablespoonfuls of dough (or use a large cookie scoop, which is what I did) onto the prepared baking sheets at a time, leaving about an inch of space between them. Using your fingers, every so slightly flatted the tops of the cookies.

5. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The cookies should be light brown and only just firm on top. Carefully transfer the cookies to racks to cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

And some Cherry & Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars from Healthy Food for Living. Although apparently I forgot to document those. Oops.

This past weekend we made our way up to New Jersey (after a long 7 hour drive due to flash floods and tons of traffic-- should have taken 4 hours) to spend some time with family and celebrate Father's Day!

Of course, there is the mandatory elevator shots in Eric's fancy Jersey City apartment complex (which by the way, I have decided that I'm going to move into the laundry room of the place if the rest of my life doesn't work out.)

On Saturday morning after breakfast I hopped on the train and headed into NYC to visit Jon for the day. Apparently my picture taking skills have gone down the drain because I failed to document any portion of it. But we spent a good long while wandering through Central Park, eating tasty pizza, and sitting on fire escapes.

Sunday was spent back in Jersey, after picking Eric up, with lots of outdoor patio time.

Tomorrow morning early we're headed off to Wisconsin for Grandma's 80th (belated) birthday celebration. But first a pit stop in Chicago tomorrow night to see Remy (one of my roommates from RIT this past year). After Wisconsin I have a few days at home to pack up -- and steal more of Sarah's clothes ;) -- before headed back up to Rochester for the rest of the summer.

counting sheep

Okay, so this blogging thing has gotten few and far between. Life has finally slowed down and I think I should be all caught up on sleep (ie. 12 hours a night over the past week).

Sarah is all finished up with high school sans the official graduation shenanigans that are occurring next Wednesday.

Been spending lots of time lounging around making up for the lack of free time throughout the quarter of course. But one week of that is about enough so now onto actually being productive and things... while still sitting in my PJ's, of course.

patience, gungor & milkshakes

almost finished! final presentation for a client in marketing at noon and a final for calligraphy at 7 then i'm done! not heading home until this coming saturday though, i need a little time to SLEEP. plus this week went from being relatively open to having lots of meeting and such.

last night i went to a gungor concert at church -- so good! they're a band from denver and just happened to be playing a free concert at church, really glad i went. i don't really pretend to know that much about music but the guitar playing was fantastic. afterwards a couple of us went to jay's to get milkshakes -- which happened to be my dinner, oh hey 5 food groups. dairy?! i think it counts.

wee bit of stuff to wrap up before saturday. still not entirely sure what this summer is looking like-- learning patience!

elephants

Hard to believe there are only 2.5 weeks of school left (+ another one week of finals). But still. That's so SOON. I still have yet to figure out what I'm doing this summer. I did get two freelance offers within the last 4 days or so, so I think I might be alright. Plus admissions. Or perhaps I will go exploring around the US again. So many options, so little time to figure it out.

This weekend is a full day of work on Saturday (we're interviewing 82 new people for spots in admissions. yikes.). Sunday is a potential dodgeball tournament (RIT is trying to set a world record) and an end of the year honors picnic. Weekend after is Imagine RIT. Family is coming up in less than 2 weeks. Yay!

Lots of projects lately.. signage system for a cemetery, personal portfolio website, video for marketing, website for a charter school in rochester, screenprint of peanut butter & jelly, poster for an event, logo for a company, etc... keeps me busy & out of trouble :)

The picture at the top of this post? Elephant animal cracker & iced coffee. What keeps me going during 6 hour homework sessions at Javas. Which has been happening more and more lately.

RIT, early thoughts

Don't ask what odd sequence events led to finding this... but I located a blog post I did way back July 24th, 2007 right after my first visit to RIT...

"RIT was rather excellent. A little nerdy, but I guess that is why they call it the "rochester institute of technology" They have a fairly large graphic design/art department and the computer to student ratio might be close to 2:1. It's an engineering and computer science school too so they have these labs called fishbowls and one side of them is completely glass (they claim it's because the computer geeks need some sunlight once in a while). I think the thing I loved most was the scheduling. For graphic design majors you take almost only art classes-- with some core requirements-- but then you get these PE credits where you can take random stuff like ice fishing, canoe tipping, volleyball or whatever. Random, I know. Only down side is it snows almost constantly-- but they have underground tunnels so it's not that bad-- and it's kind of far away."

So amusing. A long ago.

In other news, I register for senior year classes in about 6 hours. How weird.

spring!

Been a wee bit on the busy side lately.

Spring means everything from internship searching to classes to LOTS and lots of admissions events. We had 1,000 accepted students come on campus yesterday (plus their parents) which makes for a rather busy campus and day. There is an event nearly every Friday from the end of March until May.

In my spare time I have been, well... sleeping! Or trying to anyway.

For some reason despite the craziness of this quarter I haven't been running around going insane too much and I might even get a chance to run around outside today for a bit. 50 degrees & sunny today! Love spring.

I suppose these posts are going to continue to be few and far between but that's called priorities. I've been trying to work on another website/blog for more professional viewing. Ya know, probably don't want to hire me for my dinner-making abilities. Although that would be fantastic.