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shellybean99
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Name: Shelly
Country: United States
State: Louisiana
Metro: New Orleans
Birthday: 8/15/1981
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading, Shopping, Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, Writing, Dogs, Astronomy, Movies, Cooking, Science, Jimmy Buffet, Expatriot writers of the 1920's, People-Watching, Sewing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Wine, Perfume
Expertise: Humor, Cooking, Writing, Engineering
Occupation: Chemical Engineer
Industry: Consulting
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/30/2004
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| Lord I was born a ramblin' (wo)manSo this month is turning out to be a fun, travel-filled month! This weekend, Benjy and I are going to Memphis to visit his friend Dan. This month I am also going for a girls weekend to Ft. Walton with Steph, Anne, and Ashely; and then to Savannah with Benjy to visit his friends Matt and Kelley (and their baby daughter). I'm sure by the end of the month, I'll be totally pooped, but right now I'm just psyched to have so much to look forward too. I've never been to Savannah or Memphis, so I'm really looking forward to those trips. And on the Memphis trip, I get to see my old roomate Laura and my other college friend Christina. And of course, I get to have some Memphis BBQ!!!! | | |
| Part III'm making my second batch of no knead bread today (I didn't get a chance to bake last week). This time, I mixed it all up around 10 and put it in the fridge at 7 this morning. I'll probably punch it down and fold it around 6 tonight, before I go to Pilates and let it rise until 8 or 9, then bake it right before bed so it can cool overnight. This morning it hadn't risen as high as the first time I made it (but I started it earlier and ended up adding more flour b/c I added too much water at first), but there were plenty of bubbles on the surface. I'm hoping that by not overproofing it, I'll have a better oven rise this time. We'll see!
edit: sigh! My over rise was almost non-existent. :( I think my dough was too slack this time. Also, baking bread on the day my air conditioner stopped working was not such a good idea. At least this way Benjy will have something to mock me about for the next 450 years or so....
And on the plus side, the dinner I made was really tasty: whole wheat spaghetti with tomato (from Mom's garden), spinach, artichoke and shrimp. Yum!
edit edit: Since I thought the bread was not going to be any good, I went ahead and cut it after a mere 3 hours. The crust was chewy and easy to cut through (which I actually like, b/c I am a bread philistine) and the crumb was moist and wonderful and full of holes, just like the last loaf. So it wasn't a complete failure after all! I do think that my dough may have been too slack, but upon further consideration, I think the other thing I did that made a difference was not preheating the lid to my dutch oven. (Last time it didn't want to come off the dutch oven itself, I think trapped heated air did weird "lid sticking to the pot" stuff.) Also, I think that the longer non-refrigerated rise of the first loaf worked out pretty well. Next time, I will start the loaf earlier than 10 and put it in the fridge before I go to work (kind of splitting the difference between this loaf and the previous one). Also, the dough will be less slack and I will preheat the lid. I'm also thinking of trying to do 30% whole wheat flour.
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|  | Currently Watching
The Goonies
By Jeb Stuart Adams, Steve Antin, Sean Astin, Bill Bradley, Josh Brolin
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PinkySo I did a teeny bit of shopping on Friday and Sunday (sum total: 4 shirts, 1 dress, and 1 pair of earrings) at Lakeside in Metairie, and at the outlet mall in Gulfport with my mom. I ended up with 2 pink button down shirts (one is pink and white checked, the other is pink with a white collar and thin green, white and navy stripes) and a pink dress. So I guess I'm in a pink mood! :P This weekend was fun. I didn't do very much on Friday. I went to the mall just b/c I really felt like wandering around the mall and I needed a pair of silver hoop earrings b/c the pair I wear every day had broken. I ended up with the earrings and the first pink button down (which was $12 at the Gap, not bad!) After that I came home, read Coraline by Neil Gaiman and watched the movie Teeth. I started reading Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins, but didn't get very far before I went to bed. Saturday Benjy and I drove to Gulfport and went boating with my parents. We went up the Biloxi River. It was really relaxing and very fun. We got caught in a downpour on the way back, which wasn't fun b/c the rain was really cold, but overall it was a great time. After we went home and got cleaned up, we went and got sushi with Lauri, which was also fun. :) Sunday morning I picked blueberries with Mom and in return, she sent me home with 6 quarts of blueberries and a bunch of tomatoes. Thanks Mom! Anyone have a good blueberry chutney recipe, by the way? I'm searching for one but haven't settled on one I like. The ones I have found call for either cinnamon or cranberry sauce. I normally love cinnamon, but the idea of cinnamon and blueberries is pretty unnapealling to me and I think using cranberry sauce would be cheating. After the blueberries, I did something I've been putting off- I went through all my old pictures that have been in a box at my parent's house for 2 years and threw away all the pics of my ex. Good riddance! Now I can look through my college pictures without cringing! After that I went to the mall with Mom and then Benjy and I went back to NOLA. Sunday evening I went over to Steph's for girls night. We ate snacks and watched The Goonies b/c several of us had not seen it. It was a lot of fun! This week I'm looking forward to getting my hair done (Finally! Due to scheduling mishaps, its been over 2 months since I've been to the salon, which is not good for us bottle blondes!), going to Commander's Palace with the girls for their summer special (2 courses for $16- its an amazing deal- and I must try their boar and blackberry pie entree), and going to Memphis with Benjy to celebrate the 4th of July. :) | | |
| My chauffeurThis week I worked in Houston on Tues. and Wed. It went really well b/c we were doing a final review of a manual that my coworker and I have been working on for about a year and a half. Its so great to be nearly done with my part! The meeting went really well and we flew back to NOLA on Wed. evening. I was carpooling with my coworker b/c he lives near me, but when I walked past the gate into the main part of the airport, there was someone in black pants, a white shirt, black tie and a black baseball cap holding a sign with my last name on it. My coworker said "I think your ride is here." It took me a second glance to realize it was Benjy! (I was tired and distracted b/c my suitcase handle was messing up, and he almost never wears a hat, so he looked kinda different. :P) It was a very sweet surprise! Thursday was nice b/c I got some good feeback from our clients about the manual in the form of a glowing thank you email. My boss forwarded the email to the owner of our company who came by and congratulated me and my coworker on a job well done. Its nice to be appreciated for my work! After work I went to a happy hour event called Sippin' in Stiletto's. It featured $5 martini's, and male models walking around carrying really expensive shoes for us to drool over. That is probably the closest I will ever get to $700 shoes! It was fun to go out there with my girlfriends though. :) This weekend, I am looking forward to going to my parents house to go out on my Dad's boat, pick blueberries, and see Lauri. Yay! | | |
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