Pudding Crêpes

You can't tell from the picture, but I filled these with chocolate pudding!

Chips, Guacamole and Habañero Sauce

I made some guacamole with Cotija cheese and some habañero sauce. It was great but I think I'm allergic to habañero because my jaw muscles on one side became kind of paralyzed causing my jaw to become misaligned. After a week I went to the doctor and had it treated. No more habañero for me :-(

Gougères - Pâte à choux with Gruyère

Four accents in the title - a new personal record!

Today I made Pâte à Choux dough for the first time. I was inspired by Chef John's recipe for Gougères on foodwishes.com. Check out his site...he's pretty awesome!

My parents and I ate all but one (the most beautiful of them all) before I thought about taking a picture. Here's what the last one looked like sitting next to my new Thyme plant. I only wish I'd taken another action shot from the side so you could see the height.



I've never used gruyere before, but I really liked it. The first batch of 6 deflated I think because I kept opening the oven door. The second batch I baked directly on foil instead of silpat and left the oven door closed until done and they puffed up perfectly and didn't stick! You shouldn't let them cool on the rack for more than maybe 30 seconds because they're amazing when very warm.

Justice

Those who are blind to the truth, I have forgiven. But those who are meant to be blind for the sake of justice and have forsaken their oath, I can never forgive.

Brazen Obliviousness

What is stupidity anyway? Check out the movie "Stupidity" for an introduction. It points out that there's been very little research on the subject. I have been struggling to understand the rationale behind ignorance for some time. This movie shed some light on why people choose to be stupid and why they're threatened by intelligence and knowledge.

It included an interview with the author of the book "Smart People Can Be Stupid". He described a few fallacies which include: the omniscience fallacy, the omnipotentance fallacy, and the invulnerability fallacy.

They also interviewed Trevor Strong, the author of "Get Stupid" which provides instruction on how to become stupid by following 7 steps. Here are a few quotes: "A mind is a terrible thing.", "When you reach for the stars, you put out your back.", "If you do manage to reach a moment of pure stupidity, you'll actually never know it.".

One person interviewed blamed rigid belief systems for the "learned corruption of learning." "A failure to see things as they really are...This is the mechanism for the creation of stupidity."

The movie had a few other great quotes like this one:
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

For the record, though I consider myself to be a smart person, I'm not above being stupid.

Petaminx

Magnetic Liquid