Kerner.net

Pineapple Whip Experiment 1

My first Pineapple Whip experiment went fairly well. Sarah thinks it might contain too much dairy, or too much fat in the dairy. It's tasty, about the right consistency right from the ice cream freezer, and still quite good when frozen completely. The texture isn't quite right out of the deep freeze and it is very unscoopable. I've moved it to the normal freezer to see if it is just frozen too solid.

Pineapple Whip Test 1

• 3 cups pineapple juice
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup half-and-half

Combine all ingredients and mix until sugar is dissolved. Heating would probably improve both the flavor and the ease of combination, but I didn't do that this time (if you heat the mixture be sure to chill completely before freezing). Pour mixture into ice cream freezer and freeze until soft-serve consistency (it took about 40 minutes in my freezer). Try some right away -- mmm good -- freeze the rest until solid.

Long Rides

One thing I really like about biking is taking long rides. I haven't done any in quite awhile, but today I pushed myself a bit further than I probably should have with the amount of riding I've been doing lately. Until today I've ridden about 35 miles a week on average for the past 3-4 weeks. This includes 8-10 mile rides and the occasional commute to work (2 miles each way). The longest ride I've done recently was about 12 miles last Monday night. Today I left our house near Second Baptist and rode to the South Creek Trail, out to Wilson's Creek, back to the Sequiota Trail and the James River Trail connector, then back home for a grand total of 30.33 miles. I did the ride in 2h15m with an average speed of 13.5mph. My legs were like jello towards the end of the ride which led to a pedal related mishap that resulted in me and the bike hitting the ground at a stop light.

I've done the South Creek Trail ride several times in the past. It will be quite awhile before I decide to tack on an extra nine miles again.

Washington DC: 2 Amy's Pizza

While we were in Washington we ate at 2 Amys Pizza. 2 Amys is one of the few DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) pizza restaurants in the US. What does that mean exactly? It means that 2 Amys makes pizza that meets the exacting standards for producing authentic Neopolitan Pizza. This involves a specific recipe, wood burning ovens, etc. The pizza is exceptional.

Sarah and I have been simulating this for years on a pizza stone in the charcoal grill. I think we have a cooking technique down, but still need  to work on the recipe. Monday night we attempted to recreate the DOC style pizza with fresh tomatoes, basil, etc. Reproducing this pizza is my second summer goal.

I've come to three conclusions about our experiment. First we really do need to use soft wheat flour for the dough. This will be a new experience for us as we've always used bread flour. Second fresh mozzarella makes a big difference. The shredded stuff in the bag just tastes flat in comparison. Third we need to not make the crust so thin that it won't poof at the edges.

One good note of the Monday experiments is that if you're going to drizzle olive oil on your quick cooked pizza that the quality of the oil makes a huge difference. The first pizza we oiled we just used the oil we have in the oil can on the counter, the second pizza I used a very light, fruity extra virgin oil from Spain and it was outstanding.

Pineapple Whip

In Springfield there is a snack trailer with a hula girl dancing on the top of it. This trailer serves the best frozen dessert - Pineapple Whip. It's sort of a pineapple, soft-serve ice cream. Our first year in Springfield it was very close to our house, last year it was only available at the fair, this year the trailer is near Republic and Freemont. One of my goals for the summer is to reverse engineer Pinapple Whip. I tried a batch on Sunday night and will prepare several before a taste off.

Does anybody know the official recipe?

LUX Tableware

Kitchen Contraptions has a blurb about the LUX Tableware available from Unica Home. These look pretty nice for plastic tableware. It includes glasses, flatware, plates, bowls, etc. They're more expensive than throway plastic dishes, but much more stylish. Not sure how it would be to eat with though. I especially like how the glasses can be held by the plate. I may have to order some.