The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
It’s taken me most of the week, but I now have redundant backups of the home computers. The most painful bit was cleaning up the multiple copies of stuff I’d accumulated over the years. I had duplicate media files all over the place. Good news is that I’ve regained something like 100gb of space, and it shouldn’t take as long to sync everything from now on.
Dough
120g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
500ml (2 cups) whole milk, warm to the touch (110-115F/40-45C)
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1 pack active dry yeast
625g (5 cups) flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
Filling
180g (3/4 cup) butter, softened
150g (3/4 cup) light brown sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
Frosting
115g (4 ounces) cream cheese, softened
125g (1 cup) powdered sugar
30g (2 tbsp) butter, melted
30ml (2 tbsp) whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
PREPARATION
1. Generously butter two disposable foil pie/cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together warm milk, melted butter, and granulated sugar. The mixture should be just warm, registering between 100-110F/37-40C. If it is hotter, allow to cool slightly.
3. Sprinkle the yeast evenly over the warm mixture and let set for 1 minute.
5. Add 4 cups of all-purpose flour to the milk mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined.
6. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
7. Preheat oven to 350ËšF/180ËšC
8. After 1 hour, the dough should have nearly doubled in size. Remove the towel and add an additional 3/4 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Stir well, then turn out onto a well-floured surface.
9. Knead the dough lightly, adding additional flour as necessary, until the dough just loses its stickiness and does not stick to the surface.
10. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, about 1/2-inch thick. Fix corners to make sure they are sharp and even.
11. Spread the softened butter evenly over the dough.
12. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Press the mixture into the butter.
13. Roll up the dough, forming a log, and pinch the seam closed. Place seam-side down. Trim off any unevenness on either end.
14. Cut the log in half, then divide each half into 7 evenly sized pieces (about 1.5″/4cm thick each).
15. Place 7 cinnamon rolls in each cake pan, one in the center, six around the sides. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.
16. Remove plastic wrap. Bake the cinnamon rolls in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
17. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, prepare the frosting. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, whole milk, and powdered sugar, until smooth.
18. Remove the cinnamon buns from the oven. While still warm, drizzle evenly with frosting.
Urgh
I made a stupid mistake and took two happy pills by mistake on Sunday night. I don’t remember much of what happened that night – cause, sleeping – but I’ve been feeling like crap all day today, with major f’n anxiety, borderline paranoia. I’m really not enjoying this feeling right now. Hopefully it’ll go away by itself.
Which box has the most pie?
Highlight box to get the answer: They all have the same pie content. Assume that the length of the side of the square is x. Box A has pie area of π(x/2)^2. Box B has pie area of 4*π(x/4)^2. Box C has pie area of 16*π(x/8)^2. All of these equations simplify to the same value (πx^2)/4.
But who is this creature with terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws?
He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose.
His eyes are orange, his tongue is black; he has purple prickles all over his back.
This is a hard lesson to learn in software engineering.
Fresh ricotta&spinach tortellini
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Balsamic vinegar
Mozzarella balls (cubed feta would also work)
Italian seasoning
Red pepper flakes
Sliced salami (or whatever charcuterie floats your boat)
Roasted red peppers, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Fresh basil
Artichoke hearts, drained and chopped into bite-sized pieces
Green olives
In a large pot of boiling water, add 1 tbsp. olive oil. Cook tortellini according to package directions until al dente. Drain and transfer to large bowl. Season cooked tortellini with salt and pepper. Add balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup olive oil and mix to combine. Set aside.
In a small bowl, add mozzarella balls, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and remaining 1/4 cup olive oil. Mix to combine and set aside.
Assemble skewers by layering one piece each mozzarella, salami, roasted red pepper, tortellini, basil, artichoke heart, and green olives.