Reasonably Random Rants and Raves

Month: November 2012

  • 25 Random Things About Me

    There was a meme going around Facebook a while back where you were asked to write “25 Random Things About Yourself, Then Tag Someone Else to Do It”. This was one of the posts that got lost in the transaction from my old web host to the new host. So, I thought I might copy this over for the sheer joy of your reading pleasure. So, here’s 25 random things about me (most of which I suspect people might not have wanted to know)

    1. I have stood on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and watched the Sun rise over the Mount of Olives.
    2. I’ve been programming computers for almost 30 years.
    3. I wonder why it took me 15 years to realize that I would be much happier if I finished my Ph.D.
    4. I am allergic to coffee and marijuana.
    5. My mother is amazed by the fact that I like to work in my yard and to garden given how little effort I put into helping in the yard and garden when I was little.
    6. Only one baby picture of me survived the fire that destroyed my parent’s mobile home when I was five years old.
    7. I hate vacuum cleaners as result of my brother always making me vacuum the house when he babysat my sister and I when we were growing up. This explains why I get along so well with the Dust Bunnies in my home.
    8. I am terribly afraid of bees, hornets, and wasps due to an emotionally scarring experience at a family picnic when I was 4 years old.
    9. However, it was that same picnic where I first learned to fear bees that resulted in my fascination to this day with trains.
    10. I was a complete and total emotional train wreck during most of my undergraduate years at Sewanee.
    11. Of all the courses I took at Sewanee, I have found that the acting classes have best prepared me best to work in academia due to fact that I treat every lecture as a performance.
    12. I suspect that I’m like every other graduate of Sewanee who’s is working on or has completed their Ph.D.: I wonder if I could ever join the faculty?
    13. As much as I love to read science fiction novels, I really cannot stand most of the science fiction on television and in the movies.
    14. People always seem to underestimate the comic genius of The Three Stooges.
    15. I spent New Years Eve of the Millennium Year 2000 in a trauma center in my hometown awaiting gall bladder surgery. You see the most fascinating things in a trauma center on the New Years Eve of the Millennium.
    16. I have spent extended periods of time in London, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Mexico City.
    17. I have been to every state except for New Hampshire and Vermont. I intend on rectifying this deficiency once I complete my Ph.D.
    18. I have a great fear of heights.
    19. Someday I hope to be invited to lunch with Nero Wolfe and see the orchids in the greenhouse on the roof of his brownstone.
    20. Someday I hope to be able to play Shakespeare’s merry rogue, Falstaff.
    21. It is difficult to write, it is damned difficult to write well.
    22. Guilty admission time: I really like The Benny Hill Show.
    23. I will continue to practice until I can consistently make a good pan of biscuits.
    24. Someday travel plans: go back to the Holy Land, visit the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, again drink a pint in a country pub in England, ride the train over the Andes in Chile, drink wine in the wineries of South Australia, and see the Taj Mahal.
    25. I have been greatly blessed by all of those whom I’ve had the great fortune to have met over the years, hope to be able to meet the rest of you, and wish you all “Bon Chance” and “Auf wiedersehen” wherever you may go and whatever you may do.

  • How to tide yourself over until someone restarts the Hostess brand

    Well, the maker of Hostess Cupcakes (and other pre-packaged snack cakes that might survive a nuclear attack) has gone to Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is closing down. While it’s pretty clear that someone will buy their brands, it may be a while before you can get the Hostess Twinkie fix.

    The people at America’s Test Kitchen published a recipe for a version of the classic Hostess Cupcake that I’ve used a couple of times. While it may not have the ability to be used as survival food, it’s pretty darn good.

    This is based on the ATK original, tweaked to address some food allergies that I suffer from… There’s a rather neat trick here for filling the cupcake by cutting out a conic section, slicing off half, and then replacing and frosting over the top.

    CUPCAKES
1 cup all-purpose flour
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
0.25 teaspoon salt
0.5 cup boiling water
0.3 cup cocoa powder
0.3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
0.75 cup sugar
0.5 cup sour cream
0.5 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    FILLING
3 tablespoons water
0.75 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
4 tablespoons (0.5 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1.25 cups marshmallow creme

    GLAZE
0.5 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
    • MAKE BATTER: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Whisk water, cocoa, chocolate chips, and espresso in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
    • PREPARE FILLING: Combine water and gelatin in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes, then whisk in marshmallow creme until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Transfer 1⁄3 cup marshmallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip; reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.
    • ASSEMBLE CUPCAKES: Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds. Cool glaze to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Cut cone from top of each cupcake and fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops, frost with 2 teaspoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes.