All posts by Francois Nguyen

My apps-Cozi

geeking

This year with some kid starting middle school, we have three school for as many kids. We need to set some order in this chaos. My wife and I both have android phones.

I thought i would list the apps i use and why i like them.

I’ll start today with the app we use for planning our family events: Cozi
I was looking for a way to handle everyone’s calendar. I asked at work and did some research on my own and tried a few. We ended up going with Cozi. It works as an app and as a website. One can enter school schedules, doc appointments, swim practices etc. It can be easily set up even if it’s something like every tuesday and wednesday from 4pm to 4:30 pm; each activity can be assigned to a set of people. When i update an appointment, my wife can see it almost instantly.

We can also share shopping lists, so she can add milk and bread when she sees we need some and i can check them off when i stop at the store.

Cozi is free, but they have a yearly subscription ($30) that enables a few bells and whistle. i don’t really need them but i went ahead a bought it anyway, hoping it will help them support the product better/longer.

what i like

  • printing weekly calendar
  • easy updates from the computer or the phone.

what i don’t like:

  • There is currently no way to customize printing and it’s always making just over 1 page! also the week starts on sunday in the US, but not in my family (monday). There is a trick they told me about: select the day you want to start printing, then selecting “print current week”
  • i wish we could see the week as busy/free lines similar to outlook.
  • i wish it would integrate with outlook so my work calendar could easily be merged. I think they used to have a plug in but it’s not available anymore.

Brioche

Uncategorized

We are getting close to Epiphany, one of my favorite feast as it’s the occasion of many interesting cakes!

I am not going back to work until monday so i had time today to make a brioche. Two birds with one stone, it’s my wife’s birthday.

Ingredients

  • 500g bread flour ( a little over 3 cups)
  • 125 g sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 100 ml milk (about 3 fl. oz.)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 2 tbsp orange flower water
  • 2 tsp dried yeast

for decoration:

  • candied fruits
  • icing sugar

You can do it by hand or in the bread machine. i used the bread machine on dough program (90 minutes). Put the liquid first, then the dried ingredients, making sure the salt and the yeast are not touching. If doing by hand knead well and let it rest. You can put it in a bowl in a cooler with a tupperware of warm water next to it.

After it has risen for an hour or two, punch it down, add chopped candied fruits, knead it a bit.

Butter a kugglehopf mold and sprinkle it with almond slivers. i also threw in a heat bar. it’s not in the original recipe but it works well.

Flour the dough a bit, shape it as a flat disk, make a hole in the center of the disk and make the hole larger. put the dough in the mold, and let it rise in a warm place for a good hour. it should raise near or above the level of the mold. brush the dough with milk and cook it in the oven a 375 for about 20 minutes.

when reading, get it out of the oven, let it cool a few minutes. slide a knife around the edges to unstick it then unmold it.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, place large pieces of candied fruit on the rim, you can glaze it with a brush dipped in icing sugar and a teaspoon of water.