better late than never
way, way back in the day (may 6th), i saw the a’s battle it out with the rangers for an unfortunate 3-2 loss. with barely anyone in the stands, i sat in the 3rd row, which gave me a great view of the bullpen munching on my homemade gran’ ol’ a’s crunch (get it? granola?) while also ducking for cover as foul balls whizzed over my head (one woman caught two separate balls. she had some speed!).
for the granola, i used dried dates, mango, and cranberries, and instead of cutting the mix up into bars, i cracked it into smaller pieces. with the leftovers, i found the mix pairs well with greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and even ice cream. oh, and i added a tiny pinch of salt to the granola for a slightly savory feel.
he’s no rivercat
i never made it to last tuesday’s game b/c my cat fell out of our 4th story window. the details are quite sketchy, as i don’t speak meow, rwow, werr, or coo, but a totally sweet and amazing neighbor found him the next day (i was literally in tears the previous 24 hours, so this was a huge relief). after tons of veterinary care and orthopedic surgery, he’s starting to heal, both emotionally and physically. but with everything happening, i just haven’t had the head or the heart to post about the last game, which i’ll try to do tomorrow before the matchup with the diamondbacks… oh, and tomorrow night’s delivery will be centering around dried fruit–yum!
we’re currently experiencing technical difficulties
i’m living out of boxes next door while the floors in the apartment get redone (yippee!), and my laptop at work won’t recognize my camera’s memory card (this has been a common occurrence ever since my platform was reinstalled a few months ago); this means that i can’t upload photos from wednesday’s game.
in the meantime, i’d like to cheer on dan giese for performing admirably in his (potentially temporary) promotion from the bullpen to starting pitcher.
but geers go to the concessions peeps who, during the sixth inning, informed me that, after i waited in line for 15 minutes, they had run out of veggie dogs because of the large crowds demanding dollar dogs. um… right. those massive crowds. at a game where the attendance wasn’t even announced because it was so palty (my guess: 5,497 max). but why does the availability of $3.50 veggie dogs, made of no meat products whatsoever, have any relation to the handfuls of a’s fans who are racously demanding beef franks? receiving only blank stares and offers of “10 dollar dogs for $10,” which i obviously didn’t want, i scoured the only other stand that sells them, leading todd and me to share the very last tofu wiener, complete with a rock hard bun, the coliseum had to offer. coliseum folks, please remember to feed the vegetarians. we’re pretty friendly until we’re really, really hungry.
the magic touch
dear billy and bob,
i’ve got two magic words for you:
andrew bailey
note that they aren’t “dana eveland.”
b.
baking and bundting
for the past few years, before each game, i’ve racked my brain about what to bake. being the nerd i am, i like puns and good tasting treats, so baking this weekend combined the best of both worlds.
my grandmother makes this incredible (yet totally simple and easily available recipe) rum cake. i devoured it as a child–yes, i developed a taste for rum at an early age. blame good ol’ fashion midwestern values–, and she snuck one to me when, as a freshman in college, i was living in substance-free housing (the premise of a rum cake in an alcohol/drug-free residence hall perturbed my roommates a tad, but they still gobbled it down…). this weekend, i modified the recipe a tad and, ta-dah! andrew bailey’s irish cream cake!
now, you’re probably thinking, becca! you can’t serve baseball players alcohol. ah, but you can! when you bake things with alcohol in them, the actual alcohol bakes out, leaving the sweet, luscious flavor behind. and even with the glaze heating for just a few minutes, if, after a piece, you’re drunk off the cake, you’ve got a whole other problem and may require a special intervention get-together with some of your closest pals and family members.
being a slave to my art, i tasted the goods saturday night (and sunday
morning), and lo and behold, everything tasted just dandy (although note to self: next time, when baking for non-athletes, more irish cream and less water in the glaze…). after sitting in the fridge overnight (the flavors deepen over time), i sliced the cake into palm-sized pieces, layered with wax paper, and boxed. and off we went!
watching thousands of little leagers slowly circle the field(could heelys puh-leaze sponsor little league days? the walking part would go soooo much faster), i conceded that i wouldn’t be delivering cake at the end of fielding practice. and i feared delivery would be tough during the game, as i was sitting in the second portion of the lower level. thankfully, about 15 minutes pre-game, i breezed right by the security dude and down to the bullpen. and who better to present these to than andrew bailey himself? our scintillating conversation went something like this:
me: andrew!
AB: hey, it’s you! you’re back!
me: yes! and this week, these are in honor of you.
AB: whoa! cool! thanks!
and with the exclamation points all hopping about, i tip toed back to my sunny seat amongst the sweethearts. but could the day get any cooler? not weather-wise, and i slapped suncreen on every hour, on the hour. but yes, the coolness factor rose a percentage or two, when the dot race began. but not any dot race. this was live dot racing! way cooler than that CGI thing they presented last week. now my only question is, how do i become a dot? and can my dot resemble a chocolate chip cookie? and would i be required to wear smurf shoes?
get cher coffee heeeere! hawt, toasty coffee!
comcast sportsnet bay area moved in to the empty sbc building next door to my office a few weeks ago. it’s neat to leave work and walk up 3rd street while seeing the big comcast sportsnet signage on their inside wall and huge lcd tvs overhead showing evening baseball games. i’m not a huge comcast fan (i’m just cringing to see our cable bill after our introductory year’s agreement is up), and i prefer the clarity of direct tv (but our landlord won’t have a dish ruining the look and feel of his “pristine” 1920s-style building), but comcast sportsnet is heaven, thanks to their HD game feeds (at least locally; the Toronto games didn’t look so hot, but neither did the Blue Jays’ powder blue, retro atari-like uniforms). so comcast, how about a little meet and greet? or maybe a cup of the best coffee in town down the block at the epicenter cafe (where even the decaf gives me a slight, 8-hour buzz), on me? we can talk all things A’s, some things giants, and all about SOMA. i’ll even bring dessert.
lessons learned
tuesday night’s long, butt-numbing game shed light on a few things.
1. kevin youkilis wiggles his tush at the plate. next time you watch him, quietly sing “copa cabana” while he shakes it to and ‘fro. better yet, start a conga line and shake some maracas as you shimmy through the stands.
2. mark ellis could have been a diver. not olympic caliber, but still, he’s graceful and barely makes a splash. golden glove peeps, take note!
3. even when you’ve lost all feeling in your toes, do not shell out $5 for the watered-down mush the coliseum bills at “hot cocoa.” first, it’s not hot, and second, it tasted more like tap water than cocoa.
4. the old-school dot race kicked heinie. yes, as in past tense. the new one looks like dots on speedracer acid.
5. the in-game announcer woman lacks the small amount of rhythm necessary to pump her arms in sync with the bleacher chicks during the “moulin rouge” cancan dance mix. many thanks to the random bleacher dude who waved his arms like windmills to distract us. but next time, keep your shirt on.
6. during warm-ups, jonathan papalbon kept having trouble tossing balls to the fans. and he calls himself a pitcher!
red beans & red sox
during the off season, i’d sort of forgotten about the whole “electric, warm camaraderie, giant cement block in the east bay” feeling. until last night, that is. on my BART trip over, i saw two girl friends debate back and forth whether the a’s fan (tall, brunette girl) was deserving of the right to wear her a’s cap in front of her (red sox cheering, short, blond girl) friend. according to the sox fan, if the friend couldn’t name a current roster member, she couldn’t don her green and gold headgear. luckily, the amazon friend could have easily stomped out the east coaster with one kick of her knee-high boots, and she sported her cap by the time we arrived at the coliseum. but everyone seemed pumped as we exited the station and made the hike across the bridge, braving the blustering wind.
i entered the coliseum to loud cheers of “let’s go oakland,” friends smiling and hugging after a 6-month hiatus, and kids screaming (nicely) for balls. and there i was with a new treat in tow. in the past, i’ve bonded with my oven the day before a game, turning my tiny 6×8 kitchen into a sweltering sauna covered in flour and sugar, but this week, i took my baking/cooking/experimenting to work. see, i needed a microwave, and being the environmental and health conscious people that the mister and I are, we don’t have one. but microwaves, you’re probably thinking, and baking? well. yeah. sort of.
this week’s creation is. wait for it. wait for it. wait for it. mochi! or more accurately daifuku. that’s mochi (sweet rice flour-based dough) filled with red bean paste. i got the idea from one of my favorite blogs, and have been waiting for the right moment to break out some mochiko (sweet rice flour). monday, i did a test run, where i learned a few things.
1. if you do anything other than re-heat leftovers or cook a frozen dinner while reading a 2-week old “TIME” in the work kitchen, everyone and anyone will be curious.
2. and if you tell them you’re making treats for baseball players, they may, just for second or two, think of reporting you to HR for questionable mental status.
3. you need to have every single thing that you can imagine nearby. like saran wrap. pot holders. a hair tie. and lidocaine.
4. yes, lidocaine. the mochi, covered with plastic wrap, creates steam, and duh, steam burns, leading me to burn my left hand’s middle finger. but all the better to point at the red sox fans the following day. it’s even color-coded appropriately.
monday’s test included green mochi filled with strawberries. they tasted ok, but i had overcooked the dough, burned my fingers, and then cut the mochi pieces too big. thankfully, i had tuesday to make my real, presentable daifuku.
an aside: many, many thanks to Lolo at veganyumyum.com (she’s been featured on martha stewart!!!) for her clear, concise directions and super-handy internet video re: daifuku. i don’t think i would have gotten anywhere without these! and she always has such inspirational photos. one day, i hope my creations look half as good as hers!
and now, moving on…
tuesday proved a whole lot better. 24 hours of constant burn gel application helped a ton, and i held back on overusing the food coloring. the “gold” daifuku could have used more color, but at least they didn’t resemble a 24-hour neon sign like the green ones the day before. this time, i used red bean paste (this and the mochiko can be found at most well stocked asian groceries. i found mine at super mira in japantown).
tuesday evening, i waited along with a few fans by the bullpen and successfully delivered a box of billy red bean(e) daifuku to andrew bailey. after explaining that i’m not crazy (well, not certifiably) and that i deliver baked goods to the bullpen when i attend games, he gladly accepted on behalf of the bullpen. later, between innings, a few players, including bailey, popped up with daifuku in their hands, eating away as the game progressed (at a snail’s pace), which was cool! what wasn’t cool was my slowness at getting out the camera, which means that i have no evidence of daifuku consumption. but really, the guys ate them.
and with this baking season kicking off to a good start, i’m starting a new statistic: the bullpen baker’s bullpen ERA. tuesday’s bullpen held a 0.00 ERA over 7 1/3 innings–not too shabby! and i give most of the credit to the bullpen, with a smidgen to their box of red bean chewy treats. now play ball!
next up, starting pitcher:matt holliday!
yikes. normally, getting to first base in any relationship is just the tip of the iceberg. but landon powell as our starting first baseman today? this is either the start of a beautiful friendship or a disaster waiting to happen.
becca
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