Heidi's Journal

12/27/2008 21:11 #47202

Cookies!!!!
Category: cooking

To celebrate the end of my first semester in law school, I invited A and Nisha up from Tioga County and (e:TinyPliny) over from the Mayflower and we made cookies and cholay! It was certainly a cross-cultural experience - (e:TinyPliny) got to lick the beaters for the first time ever and we got to saute cumin seeds in peanut oil! ((e:heidi) is a dork!)

Cholay and pulao - mmmmm now I understand how to make a proper garam masala. My apartment smells like an Indian restaurant! :-)

We made my great-grandmother's molasses cookie recipe and made oodles of tiny cookies, perfect little bites of yummy goodness. A and (e:tinypliny) rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies.

(e:tinypliny,47194) was horrified by the amount of butter and sugar involved in making cookies - this recipe calls for 1 cup butter, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar AND 1 cup molasses, then sprinkle sugar on top before baking. She requested that some cookies be left naked (see cows below).

We also made molasses crinkle cookies, someone else's great-grandmother's recipe, which uses very similar ingredients but has a very different result - a sharper cookie, less cakey. They get rolled into little balls of dough, then dipped in sugar before baking. Here (e:tinypliny) becomes enthusiastic about butter and sugar :-) I've spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to make these ones without butter and sugar - honey & applesauce seem like the best substitutes for the white sugar and butter - does anyone have any other suggestions?

(Nisha was pretty good and stayed on her turtle most of the time. (e:heidi,45816))

tinypliny - 12/31/08 20:45
Actually, (though I LOVE coconut - not coconut milk btw), it scares me more than butter does...

james - 12/31/08 20:36
Peter, I used to make cookies with coconut oil instead of butter and stevia instead of sugar. The coconut made them very expensive but zomg were they delicious.

tinypliny - 12/31/08 11:18
I LOVED IT ALL!!!! THANK YOU for the culture exchange! :D

pssst: your cookies are ALL gone!

fellyconnelly - 12/29/08 06:36
mmmm cookies!

metalpeter - 12/28/08 11:12
I'm a picky eater so nothing is ever safe for my liking but those first cookies with both regular and brown sugar sound awesome. One Question why would anyone want to make cookies with out Butter and Sugar?, ha.

12/26/2008 18:46 #47191

Cute pet pix

Here's China Cat checking us out from her temporary basement home (basement kitteh!)

Nisha considers any available lap an appropriate place to perch.

theecarey - 12/26/08 22:41
basement kitteh!

watching out for ceiling kitteh!

tinypliny - 12/26/08 21:37
Nisha is So cute! :)

fellyconnelly - 12/26/08 20:15
awww cuteness!

12/23/2008 12:42 #47151

what's up with the plowing?
Category: weather

I'm so confused about the snow removal situation in Buffalo. Allen Street got plowed about once a day Friday to Monday. Most of the sidewalks did not get shoveled, or just to the top layer got taken off. Irving didn't get plowed at all. Is this typical? It seems awfully dangerous to me!

Until Friday I had been telling folks at home that the weather in Buffalo is pretty similar to Tioga County - it snows, it's cold, Buffalo is windier. Oh my! Windy!!! I took Nisha outside sometime Sunday evening and she almost blew away!

metalpeter - 12/23/08 19:23
What happens most of the time is that the first streets to be plowed are the main streets like (Elmwood, Richmond and streets like that). Then there are also what might not be quite as busy like bus routes or streets that are used by lots of cars. The side streets are last and how they decide when and where I think is just kinda random I'm guessing. Today I got to shovel out the driveway again oh so much fun trying to figure out where to toss the heavy snow.

janelle - 12/23/08 13:18
They have plowed our street, but only one side of the street, the opposite side than me. So I had to dig an entrance ramp, so to speak, to the side that was plowed so I can get out of the drive through the street to the plowed side of the street.

The lazy bums on Lexington who have to park their cars on the street also did not feel like digging out their cars in time to move them. Last night was switch night. So this morning I had to carefully back out of my driveway (with some pushing help from a neighbor) and gingerly slide my way down a street with cars lined on either sides of a street that is intended to be two way.

On my way home, the cars had all finally moved so hopefully the other side will get hit with the plow. That would be nice.

james - 12/23/08 12:58
I live on a two block side street and we have ben graced with a plow only once on Monday afternoon. Sidewalks, however, are the responsibility of the owners of the building next to the sidewalk.

Hope you are enjoying the murderous weather.

12/17/2008 16:07 #47093

Homicide in Tioga County
Category: crime

Since y'all were talking about crime in the downtown area (e:paul,47085)

The last time there was a murder in Tioga County was about 1984, a love-triangle murder-suicide. Last gun-related homicide was in 1997. (Last homicide: a woman riding her new horse down Main Street in Blossburg got hit by a drunk driver, both woman and horse were killed.)

tinypliny - 12/17/08 18:57
She was riding her new horse down Main St.

That sounds like a story. Wow.

12/12/2008 18:01 #47045

Google Maps Transit: Now in Buffalo!
Category: bus

fellyconnelly - 12/14/08 09:25
oh man that is so cool!

tinypliny - 12/12/08 21:59
OMG! I am over the moon~~~~~~~! Thanks for breaking the best news today. :D

paul - 12/12/08 20:16
That sure beats my :::link::: - it was about time.