Graduation Gifts

As graduation approached it didn't even cross my mind that people typically give graduations gifts and that I would soon be the recipient of such. Then my grandpa called me to talk to me about the gift my grandparents wanted to give me: a Kitchenaid.

So now I can certainly say I got the coolest set of graduation gifts I could have imagined. I now own a 475 watt, 5 quart Kitchenaid; the Kitchenaid grain mill attachment for grinding wheat; a 45 pound bucket of 16% protein hard red wheat; an intriguing game of skill, strategy, and magnetic fields called Jishaku; and I'll soon have the Kitchenaid food slicer attachment. Who could ask for more?

It took me a whole 15 minutes from the time my family left on Thursday (leaving me with my new toys) before I had started making a cheesecake with my new Kitchenaid. I'm really pleased with how well it worked. And the cheesecake turned out quite well, too (it deserves it's own post). I was looking through my baking cookbook last night and have lots of recipes I want to try, particularly now that I have my Kitchenaid.

The model I have is the Kitchenaid Professional HD Series. Special thanks to the many people that discussed Kitchenaid colors with me at great length. It took me days to decide on the color, but I finally settled on silver. Mine is quite a step above the base Artisan model (which is only 4 quarts with a 325 watt motor) and features a 5 quart bowl, 475 watts of power, and a solid steel drive and gear assembly. You should click on the pictures so you can see it better. Isn't it beautiful? And doesn't it look good in it's natural habitat and new home?

The Kitchenaid Grain Mill will be really cool. I technically don't have it yet (since it's still being shipped to my parents'), but should get it soon. I've wanted to delve into making homemade stone ground whole wheat bread before. The problem has always been that you need a wheat grinder in order to really do so and they're typically not too cheap. Once I get it I intend to use it promptly.

My uncle followed the theme quite well by giving me a 45 pound bucket of hard red wheat. What's more, the wheat is 16% protein (pretty high for wheat) and is free of rocks and other debris. So now I'm all set for making real whole wheat bread. At least I will be as soon as my grain mill arrives.

Finally, I also got a game called Jishaku. I've played it several times and it is quite fun. It is an interesting balance of skill and strategy. It reminds me a lot of Jenga, but it uses magnets and is much more fun. I remain undefeated so far.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go bake something with my new Kitchenaid.

A Few of My Favorite Books

A friend just wrote on her blog about how she has recently been reading more, and she asked for recommendations of books readers recommend. I posted a few of my suggestions, and decided to post my thoughts here as well. I really should add more to this list, because it is just a smattering of some of my favorite books; it is by no means complete.

I've been reading a lot of the classics the last few years, especially those that I read during high school. I personally hated most of the books I read for school. I think the fact that I had to read them invariably made it a miserable experience. In reading many of them again recently I have almost always found them to be quite enjoyable.

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of my all time favorite books. I read it in 9th grade and hated it; I've read it twice in the last few years and loved it. It is medium lengthened and pretty enthralling from start to finish. You come to know and love many of the characters, while coming to understand the horror of slavery. The book is perfectly balanced with social commentary. I think everyone should read it. Be prepared to cry at least a few times.

Dracula by Bram Stoker is a short read and is extremely enjoyable. You won't be able to put it down. It is written in 1st person from the perspective of all of the main characters in turn and is very well done. It is well worth reading just for the fun of it.

I just finished reading My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor. It is a short, but fascinating autobiographical account of a neuroanatomist that experiences a severe stroke. She describes what it was like to experience the total deterioration of her brain's left hemisphere capacities and functions over the course of 4 hours and her subsequent 8 year complete recovery. It sheds a lot of light on the way the brain works and the distinction between the two hemispheres of the brain. (For more information, read this post.)

I really enjoyed Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, but I think that one is a little more difficult to get through than some others. I found it very insightful in understanding obsession to the point of complete self destruction.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas is well worth a reread if you're like me and didn't get anything out of the books you read in high school. It is lengthy but not too difficult—be sure to read the unabridged version. The themes and messages in the book are much more powerful than those in any of the movies made about it.

The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis is a great book. It is pretty short, but is one of the most quoted nonscripture religious books out there. It's not too difficult, entertaining, and quite insightful.

Continuing the religous theme, another book I've read recently that I wholeheartedly recommend is The Broken Heart by Bruce C Hafen. Elder Hafen discusses what it means to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit and how that relates to the Atonement.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is also on my list of favorites. It is a rather dark psychological exploration of the main character committing a serious crime and the subsequent mental punishment he experienced thereafter. I found it frighteningly similar to my own thought patterns and mental tendencies and quite insightful into the human psyche. I think it is a phenomenal book, though I know many people who hated it and found it quite depressing.

Finally, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is among my favorites. It's very long and a much more difficult book to get through. I don't recommend it early on in your rediscovery of reading, but you should read it later at some point. Hugo goes on a number of long tangents (like 50 to 100 pages each) on what some would say are completely irrelevant topics. When you do read it, it is still worth reading the unabridged version (about 1500 pages) even with the tangents because of the detail, particular in the background and development of each of the characters.

The Complicated Task of Hard Boiling Eggs

I realize that I'm posting a lot about eggs and cooking, but I can't help but mention this.

As I was perusing my new Joy of Cooking yesterday, I came across the fact that the method for hard boiling eggs that the new version recommends is different from the method that the old version recommended and different from any method I've tried myself. Last night my roommates wanted me to teach them how to hard boil eggs, so I decided to try the new method out.

I think many people consider hard boiling eggs to be a trivial kitchen endeavor requiring no skill or precision. I've thought so myself. However, many people use very different techniques. The hard boiled eggs last night were significantly better tasting than most that I have had in my life. So I think there's more to hard boiling eggs than first meets the eye, and I think that it's worth the extra effort to make them perfectly.

So here's the new recipe from the Joy of Cooking website:

Place in a pot in a single layer:
    Unshelled eggs
Cover them by 1 inch with:
    Cold water
Put the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Promptly remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let the eggs stand: 15 minutes for large eggs, 12 minutes for small and medium eggs, 18 minutes for extra-large and jumbo eggs. Eggs that are not room temperature will require an additional 2 minutes. When cooking is complete, run cold water over eggs to stop cooking.

The Joy of Cooking also recommended poking a hole through the end of the eggshell with a pin to prevent the eggs from breaking. I did so and didn't have any break (though I don't usually). The eggs last night were done all the way through and they seemed more moist and had better flavor than normal. I think I'm very accustomed to eating inferior, overcooked hard boiled eggs. When they are not overcooked they are pretty amazingly delectable.

Mobile Blogging

This post was sent from my cell phone. Technology's pretty cool.

The 75th Anniversary of The Joy of Cooking

A couple of years ago in early 2006 I discovered one of the best cookbooks ever published: the Joy of Cooking. If I remember correctly, my roommate Nick checked it out from the BYU library and we both fell in love with it. It wasn't long before we both bought copies. When we bought them then, the newest version was the 1997 edition.

About the Joy of Cooking
The Joy of Cooking was originally published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer. Since then it has been revised and reprinted a half dozen times. It has been in continuous print since 1936 with over 18 million copies sold. It is considered a staple in many kitchens, including many commercial kitchens. A more complete history can be found on the Joy of Cooking website.

The Joy of Cooking is unlike many cookbooks. It is encyclopedic in feel and scope. It is over 1,000 pages and has chapters that cover a very wide variety of topics: sauces, soups, seafood, meat, game, breads, cakes, pies and pastries, vegetables, and candy to name only a few. Each chapter is quite thorough in addressing the entire topic. It talks about the history and customs associated with the categories and subcategories, as well as all of the information you need to become well versed in cooking a particular kind of food. Then it has gobs of tried and true recipes for each variation it talks about. If you need to know just about anything about cooking something, the Joy of Cooking is the place to turn.

There are over 4,000 recipes in the book, and the recipes are organized differently than typical. The ingredients are listed in the middle of the recipes. They are in list format and bold so you can very easily see all of the ingredients in a recipe, but it is far more convenient when you are making a recipe to have the quantity and ingredients right where you are in the recipe. Apparently this also makes the recipes more compact so that many more can be included in the same number of pages.

The Newest Edition
I recently discovered by accident that a new 2006 edition of the Joy of Cooking came out shortly after I purchased my copy of the 1997 edition. I also found out that the 1997 edition was one of the least popular editions because it departed from the historic voice and feel of the historic Joy of Cooking. The 1997 edition was much more formal in presentation and tone. The 2006 edition returns to the informal feel of the older editions, adds back in several sections that were removed from the 1997 edition, adds several more sections that have never been previously included, and has over 500 additional recipes (making a total of 4500 recipes).

Needless to say, I ordered a copy. It arrived today.

The new edition is well constructed. It has 1132 pages and uses a slightly more compact font than the 1997 edition. The layout is much the same, but does have a few tweaks that make it a little easier to find things. I've looked up many of the recipes I've used and sections I've read and find it to be as good or better than my old 1997 edition. There are a number of differences in recipes, though, so I expect to use them both regularly.

To give you a feel for the scope that it covers, here's the complete Table of Contents:

1. A History of the Joy of Cooking
   
2. Nutrition
3. Entertaining
4. Menus
5. Beverages
   
6. Wine and Beer
7. Cocktails and Party Drinks
8. Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres
9. Brunch, Lunch, and Supper Dishes
10. Stocks and Soups
11. Salads
12. Sandwiches, Wraps, and Pizza
13. Egg Dishes
14. Fruits
15. Vegetables
16. Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings
17. Grains
18. Shellfish
19. Fish
20. Poultry and Wildfowl
21. Meat
22. Game
23. Stuffings
24. Savory Sauces, Salad Dressings, Marinades, and Rubs
25. Breads and Coffee Cakes
26. Pancakes, Waffles, Fritters, and Doughnuts
27. Pies and Pastries
28. Cakes and Cupcakes
29. Cookies and Bars
30. Icings, Toppings, and Glazes
31. Desserts
32. Frozen Desserts and Sweet Sauces
33. Candies and Confections
34. Keeping and Storing Food
35. Canning, Salting, Smoking, and Drying
36. Freezing
37. Jellies and Preserves
38. Pickles and Relishes
39. Know Your Ingredients
40. Cooking Methods and Techniques
41. Index

The index alone is 60 pages long; taking that into account gives an average of 26.8 pages and 112.5 recipes per chapter. That's about 4.2 recipes per page overall, though there are usually a couple of pages of introduction at the beginning of each chapter talking about the topic.

How to Get It
I don't own many cookbooks: this newest one brings the total to 4 (and 2 of them are the Joy of Cooking). I love and use them all, but the Joy of Cooking is certainly the most referenced. I got it from Amazon. They currently have it for $23.10 with free shipping (if you spend over $25). It's definitely worth the price; it'd be worth the price even if it cost a lot more. If you don't want to wait for shipping (which I can totally understand—the last week has been excruciating) and you are willing to pay a bit more, I am sure that Barnes and Noble and Borders both have it in stock. The list price for the book is $35.00, but they may have it for less. I absolutely recommend purchasing it.

Easter Eggs from Outer Space

This year my family decorated Easter Eggs a little differently. We decided to go with an outer space theme. So we divvied up the planets and other astrological bodies and used a combination of egg dye and paint to create the universe. All the pictures are below. Take special note of how nicely this blog post is laid out—it took me hours to do this. Sometimes Blogger is not very easy to work with. You can click on any picture to see it larger (and it's often worth it).

The complete solar system is shown here:


Here are the individual planets in the solar system and the person who created each:

The Sun William Krohn	Mercury Robyn Krohn	Venus Robyn Krohn
The Earth William Krohn	Mars Bill Krohn	The Asteroid Belt Sheri Krohn
Jupiter Bill Krohn	Saturn Robyn Krohn	Uranus Sheri Krohn
Neptune Bill Krohn	Pluto Bill Krohn	Planet X Robyn Krohn

Here's the earth and the moon together:


I think the Earth turned out really well. It took a long time to do:

North America	Western Europe	Asia
Pacific Ocean	North Pole	Antarctica

My mom did the moon:

Full Moon

Quarter Moon

New Moon

And here are the rest of the astrological bodies:

Nebula Robyn Krohn	Spiral Galaxy William Krohn	Big Dipper Robyn Krohn
Black Hole Robyn Krohn	Black Hole Robyn Krohn	Worm Hole Sheri Krohn
Blue Sun Robyn Krohn	Haley's Comet Sheri Krohn	The Northern Lights Bill Krohn

In light of this year's festivities, I now think just dying Easter Eggs is kind of boring. I still have this year's eggs, but they probably won't last much longer. Next year I think we'll blow out the eggs rather than hard boil them so that we can seal them and keep them longer.

Mathematics Sterling Scholar

My sister Samantha was awarded Sterling Scholar for Mathematics for Granger High School this year. This is one of the very highest awards that can be given by a high school in Utah. Sterling Scholar in mathematics is especially impressive.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Sterling Scholar award, each year one student from each high school in Utah is awarded the Sterling Scholar award for each subject. These students then go on to compete for the state Sterling Scholar award, which is given to one student in each category for the entire state.

Samantha's picture was published in a special insert in the Deseret News in recognition of the award. Here's the insert for the mathematics section. She's in the center of the second row.

This is not the only impressive award in mathematics that she has received this year and she has also received awards in areas other than mathematics. I'm proud to have her as a sister.