Wheat Dinner Rolls

New thing today, made wheat dinner rolls. I used the Eating Well Recipe here. I had to shop at Fresh and Easy to find the cake flour. You use 3 cups wheat flour and 2 cups cake flour. It turned out smelling delicious, even in dough form, and cooking very well. I'm not a fan of the wheat taste, so they were "eh" for me, but the texture was really yum - moist and soft. They were a bit dry, but I think it was due to the 2nd reheating - for the actual Thanksgiving dinner. I baked them about 2 hours before we had to eat, and then they were put back in the oven for another 5 minutes about 30 minutes before we ate (not my timing but family and all?). 

For wheat bread, they turned out very well! I had to do the "make ahead refrigerate overnight" version, and it was so easy and not messy. I will do this again, and possibly make sandwich rolls out of them next time :) 

Black Friday Buys

New thing today, Black Friday buys! Also, some interesting observations.

First - smart people, ready to shop. I'm pretty sure this was their loot bag, not luggage they were planning on returning. Saw this at entrance to mall. It's either brilliant, or sad.

Second - Get Jiro comic book. Ordinarily I wouldn't have gotten this, but we were at a comic book store and I started reading through this. It seemed very funny and sarcastic so I picked it up. In the opening scene, there are these obnoxious Americans who go to Jiro's sushi store, and ask for sushi, obnoxiously dip it in wasabi and soy sauce, then ask for California rolls. Jiro then cuts off one guy's head with his sushi knife. There are also two chef warlords in town and a recurring taco cart vendor, so I had to buy and read this, lol.

Third - Saw this cute Star Wars Taun-Taun plush at a different nerd comic store (theme here?). Anyway I'm getting this for a nephew, but was tempted to keep it myself. Alas, the nephew will get it as he would love it.

Fourth - Thor vs Loki Hot Topic shirt. LOVED this when I saw it at the store entrance. Got a men's small size for myself, and got in line. Insanely crowded, but worth it. Also only $10 - deal!

Fifth - Flannel Sheets. Had a JC Penny gift card, and wanted flannel sheets for our place. We picked out a design, and decided to get it :)

And last but not least, a rainbow in our area around the mall. We got caught in a downpour outside an Old Navy, when the power went out and we were unable to shop there. Then later that day, outside in the Northridge CA area, we saw this beautiful rainbow outside :) Need a little rain for the rainbows :)

Happy Black Friday y'all!!!!

Three Stars (2010) - Documentary about Restaurants and Michilin

In honor of Thanksgiving! New thing today, watched Three Stars (2010), a documentary about restaurants who receive stars from the Michelin Guide. As you can probably tell from my blog, I pay attention to food. Anyway sometimes these documentaries about restaurants are fascinating. I always loved the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares. I think the work behind food and running restaurants is fascinating.

Anyway, this documentary was probably about 3 out of 5 stars. It was a lot of subtitles and reading and watching top chefs from around the world talk about food, the Michelin stars, their restaurants, etc. It's all a little superficial. It was a little interesting to watch the dinner performance/service by some of the restaurants, or watching how the different kitchens look or run, and watching how the different chefs act talking about food or how they run their restaurants. It's an amuse-bouches of top rated restaurants, rather than an in depth documentary about the Michelin Guide stars or specific restaurants.

I actually found the Wikipedia article on the Michelin Guide very interesting as I never knew where the ratings came from. Basically it was developed as a way to sell tires, and to encourage people to drive. One star - A very good restaurant in its category. Two stars - Excellent cooking, worth a detour. Three stars - Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey. I love that this is the basis for the guide, but they don't even mention it in the documentary. Some documentary? I suppose it's for chefs or food fans who would be impressed or enjoy watching their idol chefs talk about food. There is a chef from Japan in this documentary, who has a slight "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" way about him. In fact all the chefs have a perfectionist and passionate way about them.

My favorite story might be the Italian laid back family who live and work in the same area, with their own garden, and run the kitchen in a very relaxed manner, with grandma cutting and cooking and son making pasta in the background.

This documentary is just OK. Michelin - One star - very good within a food documentary category. I think I got something out of this though, and enjoyed it.

Gangster Squad (2013)

New thing today, watched Gangster Squad (2013). It was dramatic, stylized and ok. I got bored and wasn't really invested in the story & started playing Candy Mania & Candy Crush in the middle of it. Overall I think the real life story behind it would have been more interesting than the movie. I liked all the actors and they all did a good job. I just think it was a bit much - with more style than substance. It was a lot of flash and bang, and a caricature of the time period. It almost feels like the characters were very Noir one dimensional. Great characters are relatable and dynamic, and the good vs bad guys here were just very cliche. Cool movie though if you're in the mood. Husband enjoyed it and I think I'll look up the real life story behind this.

LA Times - LA Noir - Tales from the Gangster Squad
Gangster Squad - Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles
CriminalElement.com - Gangster Squad

LA Times article Mickey Cohen Wounded
Mickey Cohen - The Life & Crimes of LA's most notorious mobster
Biography.com - Mickey Cohen

Douglas Adams - Deadlines Quote

New thing today, read a great quote on deadlines by Douglas Adams that made me laugh.

From the Wikipedia Article on Douglas Adams

While working on the radio series (and with simultaneous projects such as The Pirate Planet) Adams developed problems keeping to writing deadlines that only got worse as he published novels. Adams was never a prolific writer and usually had to be forced by others to do any writing. This included being locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks to ensure that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was completed.^[18] He was quoted as saying, "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."^[19] Despite the difficulty with deadlines, Adams wrote five novels in the series, published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992.

Thai Lantern Festival - Desktop Photo

New thing today, my new desktop, the Thai lantern festival. This is real. *sigh. I can only dream.

Dominos - Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake

New thing today, tried the chocolate Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake from Dominos. Crazy right? We never go for that type of stuff but we were in the mood and the photo looked interesting. Surprisingly it was quite tasty. I really did enjoy it. Maybe at another time it would be too sweet, but we were in the mood for chocolate and it tasted really really good. I'd order it again. Slightly crunchy and chocolate cakey on outside, with chocolate goo on the inside, sprinkled with powdered sugar. Yum! Probably terrible for the diet but oh well. You have to splurge once in awhile.