Saccharine Thoughts

Tonight kicked off what promises to be a very busy and friend-filled weekend for me, and what better way to get started than with good food? Good food consisted of grilled pizzas, an idea stolen from A Good Appetite : 1 c warm water (110 to 115 F) 2 1/2 t active dry yeast 1/2 t sugar 4 T olive oil 3 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more if needed 2 t kosher salt Combine the water, yeast & sugar in a bowl & stir until mixed. Let sit 5 minutes until it gets foamy. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Mix the flour & salt together in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture & stir until the dough forms a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface & knead until smooth & elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky, not dry. If more flour is needed, add it in 1 tablespoon at a time. Coat the inside of a large bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Put the dough in the bowl & turn to coat with oil. Cover & let rise until doubled about 1 hour...

I promise I don't have a fixation with bacon. No, really. I'm actually a vegetarian. Sort of, part-time, etc... I DO, however, have friends with pork problems, and I just facilitate their habits :) Just for Kim, here is the candied bacon ice cream from David Lebovitz 's archives. For the candied bacon: 5 strips bacon ~2 tablespoons light brown sugar Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down. Sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of brown sugar evenly over each strip of bacon. Bake for about half an hour. Midway during baking, flip the bacon strips over and drag them through the melted sugar. Remove from oven and cool the strips on a wire rack. Once crisp and cool, chop into little pieces - I used a food processor here. At this point in the process, you'll want to beware of adorable bacon burglars . Just a head's up. For the ice cream custard: 3 tablespoons salted butter ¾ cup ...

As you may have gathered from my latest to-do lists, I bumped a few projects so as to devote time and energy to creating a costume for a friend. Well dear audience, here are the spoils of my labor: Jon's Time Sorcerer costume for a new improv series, Guilds of Steel. I'm especially proud of this because I didn't actually have a pattern to work off of, just a picture from an online costume shop that he'd picked out. Guilds is a serial improv series chronicling the online lives of characters from an MMORPG (World of Warcraft, anyone?) and the offline lives of the players. The show has been playing every weekend since May 22, with recurring characters and all sorts of plots twists and legendary quests. I've been to at least one show each weekend and I am SO proud of my friends who have been involved in this; they were even recognized in the Austin Chronicle last week, which is a pretty big stinking deal! The makeup for the show has again been mastered by Jason Vines...

This year has flown by so fast, I haven't even noticed that it's actually summertime. Well, other than the sweltering Texas heat and the wondrous lack of university students around town... I kicked off my realization of official summerhood with a movie last night. Each summer 101X and the Alamo Drafthouse team up to present Movies in the Park - a series of movies shown on an inflatable drive-in movie screen, sans the cars. Instead, picture a field of Austinites, their kids, their dogs, blankets, lawnchairs and generally a little booze. That's what my Wednesday looked like as we attended this year's first movie of the series, which happened to be Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark . I think I've seen that movie 30 times now, and I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Give me 32, and I might sing a dif ferent tune.

Click for the Onion article . Prepare to chuckle and relate uncomfortably .

Foodie Fridays is my attempt at establishing some sort of structure within my blog; each week I'll be sharing something I've made, and most likely the corresponding recipe. Hopefully it will be delicious. Last week I had 2 opportunities to take a twist on my go-to chocolate cake recipe. This recipe rocks; I've added cofffee, Kahlua, Grand Marnier, chipotle & cinnamon and now peanut butter and bacon and it has yet to do me wrong. Yes, peanut butter and bacon. No, not in the same batch. The peanut butter beauties above were in payment to a friend for dogsitting while I was away reveling it up at the Ren Faire . The dark chocolate bacon cupcakes were made for Jason's 34th birthday on Thursday. They were a great finish to the mountain of barbecue we had at Kreutz's Market in Lockhart. Here is my go-to recipe. For the first batch I added a dollop of peanut butter in the middle of each cupcake before baking, and garnished with the mini peanut butter cups from Central...

I arrive home from work on Tuesday night, like any normal night, around 6:30. I plan to walk the dog, put the finishing touches and alterations on Jon's costume and bake the dark chocolate and bacon cupcakes for Jason's birthday on Thursday. After taking a stroll around the complex with Carmen and checking the mail, I begin my work in the kitchen. I carefully lay a full pound of sliced bacon out on 2 cookie sheets, put them both in the oven to broil and head back to my room to begin my meticulous work on the sorcerer's hood. The smell of applewood bacon starts to drift through my small apartment; a smell not natural to my place being that I was primarily vegetarian until recently. After a good bit of progress on the costume, I take a break to pull the bacon out. I prepare a shallow bowl and begin pulling the sizzling strips off the pans and layering them between sheets of paper towels, ending up with 4 layers of meat-napkin-meat-napkin. I share one crispy piece with Carmen,...

... that Facebook would provide so many reasons to smile in just a few days :)

Here we go again! It's already a new month, time to start new things! There seems to be a lot that I didn't get done in May but really, all those things I didn't complete were replaced by other neat projects like costume making and the doll shoot. Got my computer; have yet to edit headshots and promo pics... Finished From Russia with Love and am nearly done with A Clockwork Orange. Resolved roommate issue and made a commitment to future housing plans. Kept patio flowers alive. Sort of. Released second newsletter at work. Payed off a major credit card! Made tilapia-mango tacos for Chloe and Christin :) Completed Jon's costume for Guilds of Steel, and mine for the Ren Faire. Started counseling. I am well on my way to that magnificent something. June brings us to the 6-month mark, so it's time I take a look at what I thought I wanted for myself back in January , see what projects I need to wrap up and which ones I need to reprioritize or delete completely. This ...