a redhead, an idea, chocolate sorbet, and being emo…

ya know what sucks about me?  i'm incredibly easily let down by little things.  stupid things.  shit that when you step back and take a look at the big picture don't matter in the slightest.  what's worse is that i realize this, yet try as i might, can't do anything to change it.  my brain simply cannot comprehend "well, why didn't this happen?"  when it tries to it comes up with "well, person x just didn't put a single bit of thought into it."  and that's where i get let down or as a friend says, that's when i get emo.

another problem with me is i have an incredibly hard time not letting the person who just let me down know.  i get sorta down.  or i take lil jabs.  or i just say it directly.  whichever i think will work best to get my desired result.  which is…well, i don't fucking know.  see, sometimes i'm complain enough that the person in question will apologize.  my response, in complete asshole fashion, is "well, if you were sorry you wouldn't have done it in the first place."

what are things that do this?  i'll list some… not offering the group a round when you go up to the bar, not giving a second "courtesy flush" to make sure the toilet is remnant free, not telling someone you're talking to that you're gonna be afk, cutting someone off as they try to enter/leave and establishment,  not doing something you said you'd do, being late without an apology text/call, or worse not showing up at all.  let's stack em all under the "common courtesy" umbrella. 

why do they bug me?  i don't know.  it's really just the "damn had you just put a second of thought into that…" sort of thing.  i guess i take em incredibly personally even if they're not remotely intended that way.  it's sort of selfish, but in my head i ask "well, why didn't you think of me?"  don't get me wrong, i don't expect millions of people to walk around wondering what i think (perhaps a couple hundred as that seems to be my daily hit count).  i don't even expect my friends or family to be constantly aware, but damn, i've known most of them 20-30 years so you'd think by now they'd at least take the path of least resistance?

it may have been different way back when.  hell, even as far back as 10 years ago cell phones weren't exactly prevalent, but now, how fucking difficult is it to shoot off a text to someone you're supposed to meet or do something with/for?  how hard is it to say in your head "well, i told this person i'd do this and i'm not, i bet they'd appreciate knowing."? 

so that's my character flaw of the day.  taking shit too seriously and not properly finding a way to vent it. 

suggestions anyone?

ya know, heather says she's gonna be back on thursday and lauren was asking why she couldn't write on my blog the other day…perhaps we could have shit on chris week?  where the people that know and love me (theoretically) can talk about how horrible i can be when i decide to.  not incredibly certain how interesting it'd be for the public who clearly don't want "an intimate portrait of some random asshole with a blog," but it'd be fun for me.  any takers? 

now onto happier things…

so i mentioned that chocolate sorbet recipe the other day.  i know mik said he was gonna show it to his wifey and i actually got a couple of emails about it.  which i thought was weird.  in any case i'll answer a few questions i got…

no, it's not my recipe per se, but i would have no idea who to credit for it.  like most things i make, i just sort of do it and have been for a while.  i "make it my own" so to speak.  that's not to say anyone should quote the recipe as "chris' chocolate sorbet" because 1.  that'd be silly and 2.  if you do a google search, i'm sure you'd find 15 recipes exactly like it or close. i can say the original recipe i started using also called to melt a bit of dark chocolate into the mix.  i didn't like that part so i stopped doing it.

and yeah, there are plenty of ways to customize it.  i found the particular batch i made to be incredibly rich.  i like rich chocolate taste, but if you don't you could probably mess with it a bit by adding more sugar and water or by using less cocoa.  i don't think sorbet is like baking in the sense that it's not necessarily so exact.  ice cream might be as you're looking to make a custard, but sorbet is basically tasty ice.

as for additional flavours…well, lots of folks like chocolate and orange.  why, i have no idea, but they do.  if you're that sort of person, use 1 cup orange preserves instead of sugar and replace the rum with grand marnier.  see, as alton brown from good eats told me (and by me i mean "said on his television show"), preserves can replace sugar tablespoon for tablespoon.  i trust alton, so why i can't tell you why it works, i can tell you it does.

(speaking of mr. brown here's a recipe of his for key lime sorbet.  i tend to use this to make cherry sorbet (goes great with chocolate!) by swapping lime preserves and lime seltzer for the same ingredients in cherry.  and i'm sure it'd work with most other fruits…)

back to the point, want it minty?  add a splash of peppermint extract and less of a splash (or none at all) or vanilla extract,  replace rum with creme de menthe (white > green unless you don't care about color).  you could simply sub whiskey for rum.  you could add a little bit of cayenne pepper, chocolate and spice works very nice. 

or you could add you could add your favourite chunk type material.  i'd imagine some mini chocolate chips would work best.  perhaps some toasted pistachios?  or some cut up frozen berries?  in any case, hold off until after churning the mixture to put em in.  otherwise they'll just wind up on the bottom.

so yeah, the recipe again…  2 cups water, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup dutch process cocoa powder, a pinch or two of salt.  a splash or so of vanilla extract.  a splash or 3 of dark rum.  bring all ingredient save for extract and alcohol to simmer until sugar and cocoa melt.  let it cool a bit.  add extract and alcohol.

i add the extract and alki after a bit of cooling because heat can burn off the alcohol.  it'll leave the flavour of course, but i like the fact that it keeps the ice from hardening too much.  also, straining it might be useful in case you didn't completely break up all the cocoa. 

oh, and one thing i left out…before you churn it, get it cold in the fridge for a couple
of hours…the colder it is, the faster it'll freeze, the faster it freezes the better the texture. 

well, i feel better now.