Bamboo shoots, Thai dinners, and perspective on age / Baboli Pizza Crust

The Thai dinner at Eric's was great! Chinese Eric and I took the scenic route to white Eric's place, but that was fine. A few minutes after we got there and saw Dallas cooking shrimp, Eric's brother Kieran came out and informed us that he'd been back for a week from Microsoft. The phone rang a while later, and Eric told me that it was my friend Jasmine, whom nobody else really knew. He then reminded me of his friend Anthony's opinion of her: yeah, I know! She arrived a bit later, and prevented Nathan from making a beeline to the washroom... but at least I announced when it was free. ("Hey Nathan, you can pee now!" is perfectly acceptable talk with us! :P) Apparently, she was impressed with the grey (uncooked) shrimp that Dallas was preparing in the increasingly-crowded kitchen... she hadn't seen any grey shrimp before, heh! (just like the fridge...) Alistair arrived after Jen, Jeremy, and Nathan did... I guess he's not that far away after all! Jon called Jeremy to see if he should bring some beer along with the ginger beer / homebrew / Kahlua / Bailey's Irish Cream / White Russians / Corona Extra (it's the PARTY house!): Jer figured that I'd drink some (which I confirmed), so he did bring some on his walk over. I (re-)introduced Jasmine to everyone, and they remembered her from my birthday party last year.. good for them!

We talked about age, perspective on being old / middle-aged (I'll ask Jeremy whether I'm old in ten years, then!), Neko Case, the bugs, OFF spray, skewers, rice, red / green curries, bamboo shoots, recipes ("add more!"), TWU, relationships, transit, being online, WOW, my birthday, creepy people (she'd know better than I would), teachers, money collection, lunch, their cat Heidi, our parents and the bus tour, and their parents being in Cranbrook visiting relatives. Jon mentioned that someone would have to take ownership of the dinner next week since he had another dinner... yup, that family wedding banquet. Dallas said that he didn't like cooking, but someone had to do it... I asked if he'd been the cook at the Delta gatherings, and he said he'd learned from two master chefs: sounds good, then! I got some money matters settled with Jon: apparently, I'd only paid him the bubble tea and not the $7 from last week. Now I only owe Dallas $6, and Nathan $2. Jasmine seemed to have a good time, so that was cool. We'll see about getting more turnout to these things even though it's early days yet, as I told Jen!


BABOLI PIZZA CRUST

Recipe By:
Serving Size: 1 Preparation Time: 0:00
Categories: Breads, Pizza

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

1 pack Yeast
1/4 cups Water -- warm
6 tablespoons Olive oil -- + extra for pan
6 cups Flour
1 tablespoon Salt (Optional)
2 1/4 cups Water -- warm

-----TOPPINGS----
SEA SALT -- OR KOSHER SALT
Pepper -- ground
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
Chopped Rosemary and Thyme
2 tablespoons Water

Mix together the first six ingredients and let rise 30 to 60 minutes. Divide dough into 3 parts and place in 3 olive-oiled pie pans. Dimple dough with fingers. Mix olive oil and water, brush tops with this mixture. Sprinkle on top: sea salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. Let rise 50 to 60 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. May dip in olive oil. Peggy also says that if the herbs are dried, soak them in water 10 minutes and then pat dry with paper towels.