screengrab from freshspotify.com
freshspotify is an alert service which will email you whenever music from your favourite bands are added to Spotify. Account creation/log-in is done via your Google account, and it will even suck in your favourite artists from last.fm and add alerts for them. Super nifty or what?
3 more days!, originally uploaded by Annelise Johnsen.
Pepper at 8 weeks old.
Spring!, originally uploaded by Annelise Johnsen.
Test post from flickr
Tonkatsu
On one of the first “dates” I ever had with Pah, we went to a little Japanese/Thai place near the harbour. A tiny place with only four tables, three of them only seating two people, it was intimate and we had it all to ourselves that day. I remember we both ate tonkatsu, which isn’t an impressive display of my ace memory, but rather a statement on how enamoured I’d become with this dish on previous visits. I tried tonkatsu on my first visit to this restaurant, and loved it so much that on every subsequent visit I couldn’t bear to try anything else. I’m a creature of habit, what can I say…
You don’t need much to make tonkatsu (aka Japanese pork cutlet). Just enough pork to feed how ever many bellies you’re filling, a couple of eggs, a little flour, some salt and pepper, oil for deep-frying, and of course some panko. Panko is Japanese breadcrumbs made from crustless bread, and the crumbs are bigger and flakier than the those easily available in “ordinary” shops here. I buy mine at Oliven, and any shop that imports Asian foodstuffs probably offers some kind of panko. I’m not sure that the stuff I buy is officially panko, but it works great and tastes delish, so I’m happy.
tonkatsu ingredients
If you buy a big hunk of pork like we did this time, make sure to pat it dry before starting. Actually it’s probably a good idea to pat any kind of pork dry before starting.
patting the pork dry
Then slice the pork into narrow slices.
slicing the pork
Around 2-3cm/1″ thick is just right.
sliced pork
Then using a meat tenderizer, a rolling pin covered in cling film, or a clean wine bottle, bash away at the slices until they are very thin.
hitting the pork
Now comes the fun, once all the pork slices have been tenderized appropriately, you have to dredge them first in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper.
dredge in flour first
Next dredge the floured slices in some beaten egg. I always need more beaten egg, this time I used two eggs pre-emptively, and I still needed more at the end. So have plenty of eggs available.
pour some beaten egg onto a plate for dredging
Then dip the floured, eggy slices in the panko. It will look like not much panko is sticking, but there will be enough.
dipping in panko
Once you’ve finished all the slices, allow them to rest for 15 minutes. I don’t know why exactly, but it was part of the recipe I was given, so I’m a good girl and do what I’m told.
*ssshhhh* the tonkatsu is resting
While the tonkatsu rests it’s a good time to start the rice, unless you use a steamer like we do and the rice takes 40 minutes, in which case start making rice earlier. Tonkatsu is one of the few dishes we still eat with white rice , but use whatever you prefer.
A couple of minutes before the tonkatsu finishes resting, start heating the oil. Use whichever oil you prefer as long as it can take high heat and doesn’t impart flavour, i.e. no olive oil.
deep-frying the tonkatsu
Very carefully place a couple of tonkatsu slices in the hot oil, and fry until golden brown. This only takes a couple of minutes, so keep your eye on them. Once they are done, fish them out with a pair of tongs and allow to drain on some kitchen paper.
fried tonkatsu
Serve with rice, whichever vegetables take your fancy and sauce. As far as I know, Tonkatsu is supposed to be served with a dark-brown tonkatsu sauce. I can’t really describe the flavour, but suffice to say it never appealed to me. Luckily for me I first tasted it in a restaurant that served Japanese and Thai food, so they served it with both tonkatsu sauce and sweet chilli sauce. Do yourself a favour, even if you absolutely love tonkatsu sauce, and try it with sweet hot chilli sauce. It’s fantastic.
Biscotti with almonds
I’m not really into biscuits or cakes, but these biscotti are simple to make and very, very tasty. They are so good, the word moreish comes to mind.
*looks shiftily at expanding waistline, eats another biscotti*
To make this all you need is some flour, butter, sugar, 3 eggs, some chopped almonds, a little vanilla sugar, baking powder and the zest from an orange.
biscotti ingredients
Start by zesting an orange. I use a Microplane now, and I will never go back. It’s the best tool for zesting I’ve ever owned. There is never any chance of accidentally getting pith mixed in and it’s so quick and easy to use (and clean). I love it!
zesting an orange
Next chop the almonds, a variety of sizes is nice, but you don’t want the bits too big.
chopping almonds
You want the butter nice and soft, room-temperature is good. Mix the sugar and butter until they’re nice and sludgy, like wet sand. Sorry for the awful butter/sugar picture, machine-driven whisks are obviously not what I photograph best.
mixing the butter and sugar
Once the butter and sugar are well mixed, gradually add the other ingredients and mix well. I used home-made vanilla sugar this time and it was delicious, much tastier than the vanilla sugar I can buy in shops here.
orange zest, baking powder and home-made vanilla sugar
When all the ingredients have combined to make a nice-looking dough, plop it onto a floured surface. Speaking of flour, I’ve also made these using spelt flour instead of ordinary flour and they were just as delicious. It was a little harder to manipulate the dough, as the spelt made it more floppy and soggy, but other than that they worked out great.
biscotti dough
Divide the dough into four, and roll into sausages.
roll the dough into sausages
Place each dough-sausage onto a baking tray covered with oven-proof paper, and using your hand lightly flatten them.
ready for the oven
Place the tray in the middle of an oven pre-heated to 200°C, and bake for 15 minutes.
biscotti after first baking
Do not turn the oven off after removing the biscotti. Then, carefully so as not to burn yourself, take each biscotti log from the baking tray, and slice into narrow diagonal slices.
slicing the biscotti
Place the slices back on the covered baking tray, and bake for another 7-10 minutes.
biscotti ready for second time in oven
When they come out of the oven for the second time, they should look much like the first picture of this post. I didn’t have time to do a fancy-schmancy photo of the finished biscotti all stacked up prettily because… well, we ate them. Sorry.
spicy meatballs with pasta
If I’m not mistaken, this is the very first dish I ever cooked for Pah. I found it in a Mexican recipe book about 15 years ago, and gradually over time, it’s been tweaked from the original to what we make today.
This is one of our favourite dishes, and we tend to make it a little more often than we probably should. It’s a perfect dinner party dish, and is our fall-back plan if people are coming to dinner and we don’t know what to serve. You can make it in advance and keep it in the fridge, so when the guests arrive all that needs doing is popping it in the oven and cooking some pasta.
It’s deliciously spicy and so full of flavour, omnomnom!
To make this you’ll need some (whole-grain) pasta, olive oil, yellow and red onions, yellow and/or red paprika (aka bell peppers) a couple of cloves of garlic, a chilli pepper or two, some mince, an egg, a little dried cumin and coriander (aka cilantro) and some breadcrumbs.
most of the ingredients (egg and breadcrumbs overslept and didn't make it to the photoshoot)
Start by chopping some onions and paprika. You can either use 1 large red or yellow one, or 2 smaller ones of each colour, this goes for both onions and peppers. It’s totally up to you. Red onions seem to be a little sweeter, which in addition to using sweeter paprikas allows you to avoid adding sugar to the sauce to combat the acidity of the tomatoes.
chopped paprika, or bell pepper if you will
Once the onions and peppers are chopped, drop them in a pan with some oil and cook slowly until soft, stirring occasionally.
chopped onions and paprikas in the pan with a little oil
Once the onions are nice and soft with a golden hue, add salt and pepper, the chopped chilli, cumin, coriander and garlic. Stir well, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
just after adding spices to the softened vegetables
After you’ve let the spices do their thing for a couple of minutes, add the tomatoes, and stir well. Let the sauce simmer on a low heat for at least five minutes, stirring occasionally.
just after adding the tomatoes
While the sauce bubbles in the pan, it’s time to make the meatballs. They happen to be super-easy to make. Just dump the mince, breadcrumbs, minced garlic, de-seeded and minced chilli pepper, powdered cumin, some salt and pepper, and a beaten egg into a bowl and mix them all together. We use our KitchenAid, but before getting one of them we did it by hand. Doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as it’s well-mixed.
meatball ingredients
Once the meatball ingredients are thoroughly mixed together, it’s time to shape them into 16-20 small meatballs.
making meatballs
Using a new pan, heat some oil and fry the meatballs for about five minutes. You aren’t trying to cook them through, you just want them nice and browned on the outside.
fried meatballs
The sauce should have been simmering throughout the meatball making, and now it’s done! Pour the sauce into a blender and run it until the sauce is smooth. If you prefer chunky salsa-style sauce skip this step.
chunky on the left, smooth on the right
Whether or not you chose to blend the sauce, place the fried meatballs in an oven-proof dish, and pour the sauce over them.
pouring sauce over the meatballs
Place in the middle of an oven heated to 200ºC and cook for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the meatballs and the temperature of your particular oven. Cook some pasta in the meantime, and get ready to eat!
The serving suggestion is based on our greed. There really should be enough for four, but we are greedy, greedy people. However, there are always a few meatballs left, usually enough for a small lunch portion for Pah.
|
|
pasta with sun-dried tomatoes
Although I’m quite fond of pasta, I’m not big on sauce. I usually eat my pasta Italian style*, i.e. with a light coating of sauce rather than well… sauce with a side-order of pasta as some people seem to prefer it.
P whips up a quick, easy and delicious non-saucy pasta dish that I’m rather fond of, and last time he made it I took some pics, and wrote down what he does.
* I call it Italian style, but I’m pretty sure someone told me a porkie about how Italians prefer to eat their pasta and I’ve believed it ever since
The only ingredients are some (whole-grain) pasta, olive oil, yellow and red onions, a couple of cloves of garlic, a chilli pepper, mince and sun-dried tomatoes.
most of the ingredients needed
We use the dry tomatoes that don’t come bottled in oil. I like eating them, and sometimes I try to take too many and P has to flail at me with a ladle to fend me off in order to have enough to actually cook with. I was good this time, I didn’t steal any.
sun-dried tomatoes
Finely chop the yellow onion, and add to a hot pan with a good drizzle of olive oil. Allow the onion to soften and turn golden while you finely chop half a red onion. Add the chopped red onion to the pan, and allow it to soften.
frying the onions
Dump some pasta into nicely salted boiling water. While waiting for the pasta to cook, de-seed and mince a red chilli before adding it to the onions, let them continue browning, remembering to give them a stir every now and then.
finely chop the chilli
Mince four cloves of garlic, then add half to the pan of onions. Stir well.
microplane the garlic
Finely chop the sun-dried tomatoes, and add a big handful, i.e. about half, to the pan of onions.
chop the tomatoes
Once everything is soft and golden and the pasta is soon done, dump the contents of the pan on a plate and put aside for now. Add the mince, the rest of the minced garlic and chopped tomatoes to the hot pan. Splash on a little more oil and stir well.
add tomatoes and garlic to the meat
Once the meat is browned add the onions that you put aside earlier, and allow everything to get nice and hot while you stir well.
adding the onions to the browned meat
Drain the pasta, before adding the contents of the pan. Mix well and serve.
mix the contents of the pan with the pasta
OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator
I’ve been lusting after the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator since I first read about it after CeBit 2007. Not because I’m under any illusion that it actually works particularly well, but because it’s like the Future is here Now!
Point is, until now it’s been a little too pricey for me to justify the cost of buying it just to play with. However, luverly ps.no just dropped the price a little, so I’ve ordered one as a Valentine’s present for myself and P. Yay! More on the NIA once I’ve been able to clutch it in my grabby little paws.
PEW PEW! – A description of my LASIK experience in six parts:
1 – Before LASIK | 2 – LASIK surgery | 3 – Those LASIK eyes
4 – My LASIK timeline | 5 – LASIK: The Movie | 6 – Life after LASIK
OPERATION DAY
I didn’t get much, if any, sleep the night before the operation, but oddly enough I wasn’t feeling particularly anxious. We arrived at Memira on time, but as they were running a little late we had to sit and wait for a while. I think this was a good thing as it gave the Diazepam tablet they offered me time to work. (I’m not going say no to drugs that help me relax right before someone cuts into my eyeball thank you very much.) The tablet worked nicely as evidenced by the drop in my anxiety levels as surgery time approached.
After about 30 minutes of waiting my surgeon, Dr. Petter Pettersen, came out to have a quick chat and talk me through the procedure. He was very nice and I asked if P could come in and watch, which was fine by Dr. Pettersen. He was even OK with P filming the entire operation.
Three minutes later, the room was prepped, and they came for me. I wore a most flattering green shower cap and was asked to lie down on a rather comfortable bed table, which even sported a wedge-shaped knee-rest. They dripped my eyes with anaesthetic and shielded the left one before work started on my right eye.
First Dr. Pettersen clamped open my eyelids with a tool vaguely reminiscent of a pair of sausage tongs. Then he put a vacuum tool on the eye, which was relatively uncomfortable, before attaching the microkeratome to the vacuum rig. The knife sliced me up, which was an odd sensation as I could feel it happening but it didn’t hurt at all, it wasn’t even uncomfortable.
A few seconds later the whole rig and knife came off and the surgeon took a big needle-like instrument and proceeded to lift away my cornea flap (I didn’t know about this until afterwards!). After that, the laser kicked in and the worst part about being blasted was keeping my focus on the red light, and that it smelt a little like burning hair as the tissue was burnt away. Then the flap was lifted back into place (again with the needle), my eye was doused in some kind of eye-drop and shielded.
My bruises, let me show you them.
My left eye was done in exactly the same way apart from two minor differences. Firstly I was pinched a little by the sausage-tong tool and that hurt a bit, and I sported a tiny little bruise just under my eye for a week or so. Secondly, the vacuum rig had to be placed on my left eye twice, due to some knife-rig fiddling that needed doing. As the vacuum thing was uncomfortable that wasn’t much fun, but all it meant was that I sported a delightfully bloodshot eye for a couple of weeks.
After that, I was asked to sit up and taken to a dark room where I had to spend 30 minutes with my eyes closed. I dutifully did this before being asked to come out to the examination area so they could take a look at my eyes. First he made me read the eye chart, and I could barely make out the 0.3 line. Which was AMAZING!
Before the surgery I wouldn’t have had a chance of seeing the chart, never mind reading it. He looked in my eyes, dropped them with stuff again, and told me they were looking good and that I should expect a little soreness the next few days and that it should take a little longer for me to heal, and get super eyesight than others because the high-grade myopia which was treated for tended to create more oedema than in more “normal” operations.
We went home and I laid on the sofa for four hours straight never once opening my eyes. At 17:45 the same evening we were back for the 1-day check-up. He checked my eyes, and was very happy with the cuts and how they were healing, and thought the low level of soreness was a good sign, though he warned I could easily get more soreness in days to come and that it was completely normal. Then I had to read the eye-chart. I looked at it and it turns out I could read line 0.9 without problems just five hours after surgery. Which is awesome! I basically had 90% vision five hours after surgery, with good prospects of getting even more in the coming days.
After coming home again I was allowed to watch TV, but the soreness started to hit me and I spent most of the evening with them closed. Went to bed early and wrestled with the eye shields I had to sleep in. Not particularly comfortable but better than getting a corner of pillow in the eye.
PEW PEW! – A description of my LASIK experience in six parts:
1 – Before LASIK | 2 – LASIK surgery | 3 – Those LASIK eyes
4 – My LASIK timeline | 5 – LASIK: The Movie | 6 – Life after LASIK
Bespectacled.
Until November last year, I had to wear glasses or contact lenses All. The. Time.
At -9.75, I was quite literally blind when un-bespectacled or de-contact lensed, and had been this way since I was a kid. And I was sick of it.
I hated the way my glasses wore uncomfortable little grooves into the bridge of my nose, or the way wearing glasses always made me feel like I was having a bad face day (just like a bad hair day only worse).
I hated not being able to see on a morning and having to grope for my glasses first thing. Going swimming sucked, because either I wore glasses and couldn’t see once they were splashed, or I wore lenses and ended up blinking them out or getting dry-eyed due to the chlorine. And don’t get me started on emptying hot dishwashers, or coming in from the cold, or walking in the rain, or hugging someone tightly with your cheek pressed against theirs, or falling asleep whilst reading.
There is pretty much no upside to being very myopic. Even glasses as a fashion statement were abhorrent to me, mostly because small face + extreme myopia = NO CUTE FRAMES THAT FIT. I’m not even going to mention the cost of high index glass, ugh.
Anyhoo, I made my mind up to go get examined, and see if I was a viable candidate for the procedure. For me, this was the hard part. Due to somewhat traumatic experiences with eye doctors and examinations in my past, I was terrified by the idea of the examination. I conjured up horrific scenarios involving belladonna drops, and people wanting to put stuff on my eyes. As it turns out, that was what is known as an irrational fear.
I booked an appointment at Memira, and felt at ease as soon as I’d walked in the door. The office space Memira Bergen inhabits is very airy, light and pleasant, and the people who work there are very nice and have an easy-going, comforting vibe. The whole examination took no more than an hour, but I spent at least 30 minutes afterwards cross-examining the optometrist. I’d brought a huge list of worries, and we worked through them one-by-one until I was satisfied. I booked an operation for a week later.
