On an Unrelated Note...

There was a forest fire across the street from my office building yesterday, and about two hours after we first saw smoke the company asked us all to go home, even though the fire department wasn't evacuating us. Half an hour earlier, the head of payroll announced that if anyone was upset and couldn't focus, they could take the rest of the day off with pay. My co-workers agreed with my assessment that we weren't upset, but that didn't mean we could fo-- Hey, look, a firefighter plane! Cool!

Speaking of which, firefighting planes release foam, and since the foam has a non-zero horizontal velocity upon release (since it's dropped out of a moving plane) and is not released instantaneously (because the foam is released in useful amounts, not as single mathematical points), the chunk of foam falls as a triangle. Also, it's more of a thick mist than a foam. Also, the foam is white but glows orange as it reflects the flames below. Very cool. Oh, and nothing happens for about half a minute after the foam falls, and then the flames totally die where the foam landed (though there's still significant smoldering). So, so cool.

Also, it makes me sad to watch actual trees burning. And I don't know how all trees in various weather conditions burn, but the ones in the Jerusalem Forest burn for about 5 minutes and then the flames are gone: not because they've been put out, but because the tree has completely burned. It's nuts.

On an unrelated note, since I left work 3 hours early, I had time both to go grocery shopping and make jellyrolls yesterday. Yup, you heard me right: I made jellyrolls for the first time, and they totally came out fine. Boo-ya!

For their significant contributions to the successful jellyroll experiment, I would like to thank Israeli Cooking on a Budget (easier instructions than Spice and Spirit), parchment paper (easier to use than waxed paper), freezer paper (easier to use than a tea towel), and BSM (who had a glorious time helping me mix the batter and spread the jelly, and was very cooperative about scootching over when I needed elbow room to roll up the jellyrolls).

Notes for next time include (a) get a big enough oven to fit my jelly roll pans (a.k.a. half-size baking sheets)... Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh...

More universally applicable notes are (b) immediately spreading the jelly and rolling up works just fine, there really is no need to roll the cake, let it cool, unroll it, spread the jelly, and roll it back up again. (Seriously, Spice and Spirit? That's how much your Bubby patchkied over these?) Additionally, (c) cleverly sprinkling coconut and powdered sugar on the bottom of the pan before pouring in the batter does not result in a perfectly-coated jellyroll. It tastes fine, but the toppings bury themselves just under the surface of the dough and are nearly invisible. Oh, and (d) the batter really is done when it springs back to a light touch, even if it still looks loose.

I am very proud and pleased about these jellyrolls. And they're totally faster to make than cookies, even drop cookies. Again I say, "Boo-ya!"