Strawberry Shortcake Recipe



When I saw this recipe, I was thinking of the Puyallup Fair. Their strawberry shortcake wasn't very good to me, so I wanted to make one that was even better. Alas, mine was awful, but I was glad that I learned a lot along the way.

 

Ingredients:

• "1 2/3 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)
• 4 cups strawberries, hulled and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick
• 1/4 cup sugar
• sweetened whipped cream for serving"

(Dodge 34).

 

 

The recipe said to press the dough onto a lightly floured surface, not knead it. (Dodge 34). The dough was so soft that I kept adding flour to try to be able to grip it better, but I added way too much and after cooking it, it became hard and tasted like flour. Reading this recipe has taught me that if a book has specific, weird instructions, then you should probably follow it as close as you can because they made all the same mistakes when they first tried it too. I now know to listen to the experts, especially when they tell you not to do something.

 

Citation: Dodge, Abigail Johnson. Dessert. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.

Question: Have you ever made strawberry shortcake or another recipe that turned out too doughy and hard? If you fixed it, how did you do it?



Chocolate Pots de Creme Recipe

I love chocolate. That is my sole purpose for making this recipe. It looks and sounds delicious, and also simple. It's also an excuse to eat a bunch of chocolate out of a bowl.

Ingredients:

• "1 1/3 cups heavy (double) cream
• 1 1/3 cups whole milk
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar"

(Dodge 97).

This recipe called for a double boiler to melt the chocolate, which we didn't have. (Dodge 97). We improvised and used two normal saucepans. The most valuable thing I learned from reading and creating this recipe was the concept of using similar objects to simulate the same effect. During my other recipes I was always concerned with following the recipe exactly, but with this recipe I used improvisation and it still turned out delicious! 

Citation: Dodge, Abigail Johnson. Dessert. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.

Question: Do you like chocolate? Have you ever improvised on a recipe and it still turned out great? If not, was it because of your improvisation?

Mental Attitude

Having a positive attitude is good but you also need to have the will to win (Abrahams 44). At the end of the 90 minutes the only thing that matters is the scoreline. Not how well you played or how much possession you had but rather how many times each team could score a goal.

Dan Abrahams brings up this quote from Lionel Messi within his book, "Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win" (44). What he is trying to explain with this quote is how you can't let small things in your life distract you from your ultimate goal. This shows you just how important Mental attitude is to soccer and to life in general. If you have the will and the want to do good and succeed, you will do so. But if you do not have the will and want to succeed then you will fail. You can only get out as much as you put in. This saying is true in many situations but especially within soccer. If you out on the field training everyday and working hard you're more likely to reach your goal of being the best you can then a player that is at home playing video games and eating junk food.

What is talent if it is not accompanied by hard work and dedication?

Day Dreaming

Day dreaming in sports is a key way of mentally preparing yourself for the competition that awaits you (Abrahams 27). Day dreaming is a helpful tool that allows you to map out the tasks at which you need to complete so that you are most prepared for the real test of competition.

In my experience day dreaming has helped me to become motivated to reach my full potential and work harder toward my goals. In order for this tactic to be effective you need to picture yourself as the best, yourself at your maximum potential.

Abrahams says, "I believe that Rooney was sitting on his sofa or lying in his bed picturing how he wanted to play" (30). He is talking about how even the best players in the world still need to do all the simple mental things in order to be best prepared. Preparation is key in any situation no matter who you are.

How does  being mentally prepared effect the outcome of your activity over being physically prepared?

Espresso Granita Recipe

As Washingtonians, coffee is a very important staple to many of us in our daily lives. I personally am not a fan of coffee, but I thought I'd try this recipe because it looked simple and the picture made it look appetizing.

"Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
4 cups hot brewed espresso or double-strength brewed coffee
Sweetened whipped cream for garnish
Ground cinnamon for garnish (optional)"
(Dodge 38).

In the recipe, you're supposed to stir the mixture at 30 minutes intervals after putting it in the freezer (Dodge 38). We fell asleep after only stirring once. When we woke up, we saw that it had completely frozen over instead of just being crystallized. The recipe was ruined, but I learned that not following a recipe's instructions exactly can mess up the entire thing, even if you did everything else just right.

Question: Have you ever messed up a recipe from a careless mistake? If so, were you at least able to fix it somehow?
Citation: Dodge, Abigail Johnson. Dessert. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.

Soccer Mindset

I have been playing soccer ever since I was a little five year old boy in kindergarten. I always had thought that it was the physical characteristics of the players, such as speed, strength, height, agility, quickness, that separated the average players from the great ones. But after reading Soccer Tough by Dan Abrahams it has showed me that there is more to the game of soccer then just the physical aspect.

I have learned many new things that can help me improve my skill level vastly such as the psychological aspect of soccer. One thing Dan Abrahams mentions is that the soccer brain works in milliseconds (Abrahams 4). That the game of soccer is always moving and changing causing your brain to have to function faster. Abrahams states, "Players at the top of the world game today have approximately two seconds on the ball to make a decision before they are challenged" (Abrahams 5). This shows us just how sharp the athletes brains need to be in order to compete at the level they are at.

Abrahams talks about the mindset of a player and how it can affect the way he or she plays and impacts the game. If the player has a negative mindset, always thinking of the bad plays they made or the wrong decisions, it will cause them to be unsure of themselves when the time comes for them to make a key decision that could impact the game. He explains that having a positive mindset will help you to give you the confidence that will allow you to make the correct decisions on the field when needed.

I recently used this new positive mindset tactic in one of my soccer games. It helped me to picture the positive movements and actions in which I needed in order to put my team in the lead and win the game. I will continue to use this positive mindset tactic through out my soccer career.

What kind of impacts can you make throughout your community, rather then just athletics, by having a positive mindset? 

On the Spot Lambada

"There is a good deal of side to the movement when dancing the lambada in the same way as salsa and Merengue."(96)

This dance style actually requires some sort of natural rhythm that needs to be incorporated into the dance. Although the lambada is a dance of movement and rhythm, the basic steps are simple. Since I am guessing you are a beginner, I'm guessing you're going to need to practice this more. (94)

1.)" On the first beat the dancers transfer heir weight to their right side with hip moving out.

2.) In the second beat of the bar; the weight comes back and the hips go across.

3.) Not that in this basic sequence the dancers stay on the same spot throughout.




4.) On the third beat in the bar the dancers should be dancing slow. They lift their knees and the
transfer of weight is done for more deliberately.



5.) The basic routine is then repeated the other way around. This time the transfer is to the right."
(95)



So there you have it, a quick tutorial on how to do spot on Lambada. Have you ever tried to dance the Lambada before, or any Latin American dance? If so, please tell me your experience, and which kind?

Stepping Side to Side

"So to continue our dance lessons on the Merengue in this post I'm going to show you how to do another simple step in the Merengue, which is pretty much stepping side to side" (62) (hence the title). This is going to be a pretty quick and easy one, are you ready? Let's go.

1.) "Keep the hands at waist level when moving. This first step is made to the left with the weight on the right foot." (62)

2.) The feet should touch the floor in time with the beat of the music. Don't worry the more you do it the easier it get.

3.) On the second beat you (the dancer) should bring their feet together. 

4.) You should step to the right. Make sure to transfer the weight from one foot to the other.

5.) The transfer of the weight is best seen by the changing position of the dancer's hip.

6.) On the second beat the dancer should bring their feet together.

7.) These steps should be danced in he same exact way by men and women. The basic rhythm is step, beat, step, beat, with feet coming together. 

So far I'm enjoying myself with Latin American dancing, and I hope to  continue to learn and dance to these styles. 

Quick question, do you dance? And if so, what dance styles to do you dance to?

Dance The Merengue

On The Spot: Let's move on to Merengue.

"Merengue is the national dance of the Dominican Republic and today has found its way all around the Caribbean and Latin America." (56)

Personally I believe that Merengue is an simple dance, with easy movements. Anyone can dance to, even though you may not have any experience what so ever.  Its just based on a two beat rhythm, you're just transferring the weight from one foot to the other foot.(57)
So this post is just the first part to the Merengue, just a little preview for you guys. ;)

Okay first things first let's get the steps down.
1. "Stand with your weight evenly on both feet with your hands at waist level." (56)

2.  Okay, so in this step dancers remain on the same position just changing their weight from one foot to the other.

3. When the first beat hits you must lift you left moving your weight to the right. Make sure to keep
the right hip thrusting out to the side.

4. On the second beat you should carry out the same routine in reverse.

5. The weight has been transferred out to the left, and you should lift your right

6. The right hip is going to be thrown o side. The movement is going to be repeated continuously in the same position.

7. The two beat cycle has finished and you are back in the original position.

What part of the Merengue was easy for you? What part was hard? Let me know if you were confused with anything. I hope you enjoy!

The Salsa Spin

The Spin Move in the Salsa.

The Spin is the basic move that ALL salsa dancers I think should master, so I'm going to break it down for you step by step. (26)

"This move is more fluid than the other basic routines and requires force to rotate the body 360 degrees." (26)

So let's get started!

1.) "Take up the normal salsa position. On the first beat you beat to start the movement. This time the tap is made with your right foot not the left." (26)

2.) Keep your weight on your left leg, and on the second beat move your right leg out as I'm doing, take a small step to the right.

3.) When you have taken the step, move your weight out to the right and stand on your left toe.

4.)  On the third beat push around into the spin. You're going to need to practice this movement because for a beginner it can get pretty difficult. 

5.) Here you need to start rotating through 360 degrees. Keep your left leg flexible

6.) As the spins end bring your right foot around so that it is pointing in the direction your started from.

7.) Last, on the fourth beat the spin is completed, and you bring your feet together into the starting position.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, and that concludes this post on how to do the spin in the Merengue. I hope this was helpful, and detailed. 

Did you like the Merengue? I think the most important question is, did you even try it? If you haven't you're missing out buddy. Go ahead give it try, you have nothing to lose. :) 

Overcoming Procrastination

After trying these new techniques you may find yourself retreating and resisting change. That's natural as Jane B. Burka, PhD & Lenora M. Yuen, PhD state "Change is tough. The body creates neural paths ways with chemically makes habits difficult to overcome". Keep working on your procrastination, always push though. If procrastination is truly a problem for you here are some for helpful tips.

Tips

• If you find yourself getting distracted, remove yourself from that environment.
• If there are other noises that you find respectively distract you from the task at hand, put some head phones on or move to a quieter area.
• Almost everyone these days has a phone, that can be a big source of distraction. Social media can be tempting, but try to put down your phone. Use the excuse, it needs to charge for a bit and don't look at until you're done. Use your phone as a reward for completing your task.

Procrastination by Jane B. Burka, PhD & Lenora M. Yuen, PhD, as increased my knowledge about human phycology and behavior immensely. Interestingly enough, the whole idea of overcoming procrastination is a bit like training a dog. In rudimentary form, we are rewarding ourselves for completing small parts of big tasks, just like your would reward your dog if he/she sat when you told her to sit. We are organisms driven by desire. Dopamine is our dog treat.

I hope you are successful in overcoming your procrastination. Keep trying!

5th (or Power) Chords

 5th (or Power) Chords

The technique I've been working on most recently is 5th notes, also refereed to as power chords on guitar. Power chords are the staple element of punk and metal music, known for their low sound with little to no highs, because, as Jon Buck words it in 10 Easy Ways to Play Guitar, "In a power chord you dispense with the 3rd note, leaving just the 1st and 5th notes, so the sound is very sparse" (80). 

The 5th chord, unlike every other chord, is more or less a shape, that you can re-arrange and put anywhere on the guitar. The 5th note shape looks like this:

Example of a 5th chord, G5

The shape is always first finger on a string, and then two frets away 3rd and 4th finger on the two strings beneath the string first finger is, with any strings besides the one your fingers are on muted. Once you have this shape down you can move it around to literally anywhere on the guitar without even needing to lift your fingers up, just slide it around. This makes songs that consist of all power chords easy to play, as once you have the shape and the hang of moving it around down, you can more or less play the whole thing.

Ironically, despite their reputation of being easy, I've struggled with power chords more than anything else. Originally I didn't have the finger strength to mute the unused chords, so I started only strumming the chords I wanted. This is really difficult, at least for me, and would oftentimes result in me hitting an extra string. To make up for this, I'd use my unused second finger to mute the string directly beneath the shape. You're not "supposed" to do this, and I've never heard of anyone else doing so, but there's nothing wrong with it and I definitely like it more. Even though I've now developed the finger strength to mute these strings with first finger like you're supposed too, I still prefer the sound of my method, because the three muted strings add a really noisy and unpleasant sound to the chord.

Even with this figured out, my chords don't sound like I'd like them too. I'm sure this is because I'm playing on an acoustic with no distortion when, as Jon Buck says it, "The reason these chords work so well with overdrive and distortion effects on an electric guitar is that the 3rd note often makes a chord sound muddy or discordant when played using these effects" (80). 

I've also struggled with actually moving the shape around, which is ironic, because it's supposed to be an easy skill. When moving the shape more than a few frets at a time, my fingers jam together, and the shape gets messed up, and then I have to spend time re-arranging it when I get to the fret I need to be at. I also have a hard time approximating how far I move my hands to get to a desired fret, although I'm sure that comes with time. If anyone else who's ever played guitar is here, what did you do to help with these two things? 

Minor Pentatonic Scale and Improvisation

The Minor Pentatonic Scale and Improvisation 

Scales are a concept used in every instrument. They're basically a group of notes that start with the lowest note in the scale and work down towards the highest. They're designed to be used together for soloing and improvisation. 

The first scale I learned was the minor pentatonic scale, Minor meaning it consists of minor notes, and pentatonic meaning it has five tones. There's six notes in every guitar scale (one played on each string), but only five tones because as How to Play Guitar in 10 Easy Steps by Jon Buck says, "G pentatonic minor scale, for example, contains the notes G, Bb, C, D, F, then returns to G" (84). 

When first looking at a scale, I didn't know what to do. 

Minor Pentatonic Scale

Looking at it, I thought I somehow needed to have my fingers on everyone of those dots at once, which I don't even think would be possible. In reality, you only need to finger one string at a time, which is one interval of the scale. For example to play the C interval, you would place your first finger on the third string behind the fifth fret, and your third finger behind the 7th fret on the third string.

Every note on the scale can be played in two ways, one with only the first finger on the string, and one with first and either third or fourth on the string, depending on which interval it is. When practicing I first learned to play the scale and up and down, and later learned how to incorporate patterns into my playing.

Scales are mostly used for soloing and lead guitar, and it would make for a pretty boring solo just to hear a scale played up and down, which is why we use patterns. Patterns boil down to groups of intervals that sound good together, in the same way that chord progressions could be described as groups of chords that sound good together. When I first started playing patterns I always played the first finger only version of the interval, then the first and 3rd/4th version of the interval, before moving onto a new interval. 

Improvisation is a musical idea, originating from jazz and blues, of musicians making up a part of a song on the spot and playing it. Improvisation is almost always done in solos, or as just a solo and a backing rhythm, because getting two players too somehow improvise in a way that would sound good together would be an insane stroke of luck. 

I tried my hand at some improvisation with the minor pentatonic scale because I've always been interested in more improvisational and bizarre forms of music. Improvising with just one scale was actually really difficult, and I felt kind of limited in my arrangements, especially because you can only play certain intervals after another if you want it to sound correct. When improvising I tried to make use of more complex arrangements featuring as many intervals as I could work in to make it more interesting, although again I felt really limited. Regardless I intend to practice improvising again once I learn some more scales, and encourage other musicians to try it. Has anyone else here tried improvising with scales? What did you find helped you?

Holiday Gingerbread Recipe

For my second recipe, I was in the holiday spirit and decided to bake some gingerbread. This recipe looked both simple and delicious, plus it's festive too!

"Ingredients:
1-2/3 cup all-purpose (plain) flour, plus extra for dusting
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp finely grated orange zest (optional)
1/2 cup light molasses
1/2 cup warm water
Sweetened whipped cream for serving"
(Dodge 65).

This recipe called for light molasses, as you can see in the ingredients section, which I have never cooked with before. We didn't have any so we used dark molasses, which is what we've always used. I was interested in knowing the difference between dark and light molasses, which the book explained. According to the book, molasses is refined in three stages, or boilings. The first boiling produces light molasses, which is dark and very sweet. The second boiling produces dark molasses, which is darker and less sweet than light molasses. The third boiling creates blackstrap, which is thick and bitter-tasting.  (Dodge 65). This information will help me be better prepared for future recipes, since I now know the differences between the three types of molasses.

Question: What's your favorite holiday dessert? What do you think happens if you boil molasses a fourth time?
Citation: Dodge, Abigail Johnson. Dessert. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.

Flourless Chocolate Torte

For my first recipe I chose to bake a flourless chocolate torte because it is on the front cover of the book, so it looks pretty and I thought it must taste good as well. Also, I never knew you could make a cake without flour, so I was very interested in seeing how this would turn out!

"Ingredients:
Unsweetened cocoa powder (for dusting)
10 ozs bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, plus extra for greasing
5 large egg yolks
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp dark rum or brewed espresso (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract (essence)
Pinch of salt
3 large egg whites, at room temperature

Chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup butter, cut into 4 pieces
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp light corn syrup"
(Dodge 10).

At the beginning of this recipe I was instructed to line the pan with parchment paper. I didn't understand why at the time, but at the end of the recipe, after baking, I was instructed to flip the torte upside down onto a plate to cool (Dodge 10). As I was doing this, I noticed how easy it was due to the parchment paper preventing the cake from sticking to the sides of the pan. This taught me a valuable lesson that parchment paper can make baking cakes so much simpler! It reminds me of cupcake liners and how they make baking cupcakes easy. Parchment paper, to me, is like cupcake liners for cakes and other desserts. The torte tasted alright after adding the glaze, but it definitely looked better than it tasted.

Question: Have you ever baked something that looked or sounded great, but didn't taste very good? How about it looked awful but tasted great?
Citation: Dodge, Abigail Johnson. Dessert. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. Print.