The Imitation Game | Jim Ottaviani

*This book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

This book is a graphic novel interpretation of the life and research of Alan Turing, told from the perspectives of the people who new him best as well as his own correspondences. 

Review:

I really liked this book. The artwork was well done, the book was well researched, and the story was very intriguing. This isn't just a book about math or logic. This is a book about World War II history,  breaking the German Enigma machines, and the gender bias in British Army. This book even has the first computers! That's how intriguing Turing's life really is, it involves so much world history.

Yes, there are long(ish) segments where Turing talks through his ideas on logic, but they are written in a natural language that makes a lot more sense to a layman than a logic book. What's funny to me is that the artwork for these streams of consciousness, it often shows Turing moving on ahead while his acquaintances are left behind, having problems keeping up with him. Considering how few people seemed to understand him, it makes sense in the moment and overall.

 This is not just a book for mathematicians or logicians. This is a good read for people interested in cryptography, World War II, LGBT history, or even just real life drama. The art style is appropriate for the story and the dialogue is easy to read. I happily give The Imitation Game 4.5 Hoots!

                                          Hoot!Hoot!

                Hoot! Hoot!

                    Hoo

Apple Pie | Recipe

Today's post is going to be my attempt to recreate my Great-Grandma B's apple pie recipe. This is partially in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas when I am the main baker. Fortunately I have some of Grandma B's own tools to help me out! Starting with the rolling mat that she used every time she made pie crusts.

First step is to mix up the ingredients for the pie crust: 2c. flour, 1 tsp. salt, 3/4c. plus a little more lard/shortening (room temp). 1/4c. cold water. Then it needs to be rolled out. I'm actually using the same marble rolling pin that Grandma B used. And yes, it is quite heavy.

So, it's a good thing I'm getting some practice in because I've completely lost my instinct for proper water to flour ratios to keep the crust together without letting it get sticky. If you use too much flour, trying to keep it from sticking to stuff, it'll dry out and become weak. If you try to add moisture to it, it'll become very sticky and you won't be able to roll it out or get it from the mat to the pie pan.

As it is, I'm kinda running low on patience, so I'm just gonna piece together the bottom crust from what I rolled out. Use a bit of water here and there, and you can't tell.

Next up, slice up 4-6 apples (I'm going with granny smith) and mix them up with 1/2c. white sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/3c. flour until all the apple slices are covered. Then put them in the pie pan.

Next comes the top crust. I can't get away with piecing it together as much as I could the bottom crust, but I think I did an okay job for being so out of practice.

Then I bake the pie at 400degrees for 1 hour (or until brown & bubbly).

It doesn't look nearly as nice as Grandma B's, but the taste is spot on. It's a bit tart for Fluxxdog, but Veonoss absolutely loves it and I'm very happy with how it tastes. Still need to work on the crusts, though. 

Fried Apple Muffins | Recipe

As many of you know, I recently switched jobs. Before I left my old job, however, a coworker gave me a new recipe book!

Seriously, thanks Kathy!

In this book there was a recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes and I thought that would be a good recipe to start out with. Something simple. But I wanted to do something special for the frosting since, plain vanilla doesn't always sound good. I wanted something that would mix well with the vanilla flavoring. Long story short, I ended up going for Apple-Vanilla Cupcakes with Apple Spice Frosting. They were a huge hit. However, my taste testers and I noted that these were good even without the frosting. And what do we call cupcakes without frosting? Muffins!!! So I opted to try to make some Apple Muffins this time around.

Naturally, the first step is to slice and dice the apples. I learned with the cupcakes that two apples work better than one. Also, not much of a surprise, but granny smith apples are perfect for this.

Next up were the seasonings. I was tempted to buy some apple spice seasoning from the store, but it was $5 for a tiny jar. I read the ingredients and decided I could improvise my own. It really is just nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon. With the cupcakes I had used these seasonings in the frosting. For the muffins, I'm mixing them into the mix to fry up with the apples.

A pinch (1/16 tsp) of ground nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon on top of brown sugar and regular sugar.

 Then it was time to fry up the apples. I had never done this before, never thought of it before, but Fluxxdog agreed to show how it was done. We melted some butter on the stove, added the apple pieces and then threw in the mix with it. Made the entire apartment smell so good!

In the meantime, I made up a nice, simple batter using the usual ingredients. Though I will admit, there were more eggs in this recipe than I'm used to. After the apples were fried, we went ahead and mixed them in.

Then I spooned the batter into their containers. I always try to be careful, but the darn batter still gets everywhere.

Then after about 8 minutes, the muffins are done! They aren't as big as I would like my muffins, but I ended up getting about two dozen or so of them, so the numbers make up for it.

As for the taste, I was fortunate enough to have guests over that day so I got two additional opinions in with those of Fluxxdog and Veonoss. Apparently, the muffins were good enough that they asked if they could take some home with them! I was pleased with this reaction, but I know I can make them taste better. Next time I go for this recipe, I'm going to add some of the apple spice seasoning mix into the batter and not just the apples.