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  • Whiskey sour test pour

    → 6:37 PM, Dec 31
  • Christmas lizard

    → 12:52 PM, Dec 31
  • Food plans for 2012

    → 9:58 AM, Dec 31
  • Beautiful Dangerous Tigers

    Media_httpcdntheatlan_ecwjh
    via theatlantic.com

    Seen via dangerousmeta. Yes, the tigers ARE beautifully dangerous.

    → 4:20 AM, Dec 29   •  This is Awesome, tigers, Blog
  • More mushrooms on a log + @rachaelashe legs

    → 12:23 PM, Dec 28
  • Possibly shelf fungus

    → 12:18 PM, Dec 28
  • Mossy branches

    → 12:14 PM, Dec 28
  • Fern gulley

    → 12:13 PM, Dec 28
  • Monique & James at rainy Cape Roger Curtis

    → 4:07 PM, Dec 27
  • Salad fixins’

    → 2:08 PM, Dec 27
  • Santa Oyster

    → 10:43 AM, Dec 25
  • Dirty Mermaid Martini

    Rinse a martini glass with Islay, then make a gin martini with kelp pickle ‘juice’. Garnish with a kelp pickle and a smoked oyster.

    Note: concept recipe only - no actual taste test performed.

    → 4:25 AM, Dec 24   •  Food, Blog
  • German Dinner Experience at the Vancouver Alpen Club

    via germandinner.eventbrite.com

    I had been trying to put together an "open house" on the 29th. Multiple friends & acquaintances had told me they had never been to the Vancouver Alpen Club before, so I thought I'd try putting together a "German Dinner Experience" there.

    It's all a bit short notice now, so I'm investigating putting on an event on February 21st (yes, that's the day before my birthday). The cost is a bit high ($50 / person), so I'm asking people to fill out a short survey to see what the interest is.

    Please order a "save me a seat" ticket at Eventbrite if you're interested in having a German dinner experience.

    → 4:05 PM, Dec 23   •  Personal, Vancouver, German, Blog
  • Starting beef stock

    P80

    Beef stock that will be used for other dishes later this weekend. White beans are soaking for cassoulet, too.

    → 2:54 PM, Dec 23   •  Personal, Blog
  • Eggnog Recipe Roundup

    Media_httpcf2foodista_gitgz
    via foodista.com

    I've never made from-scratch eggnog. Might try it this year.

    → 12:34 PM, Dec 23   •  Personal, recipe, eggnog, Blog
  • Christmas pulled pork

    P51

    Trying the Jamaican Firewalk rub - another rub I picked up on my last KC trip.

    → 11:10 AM, Dec 23   •  Personal, Blog
  • "The giving and receiving of presents…[is] no longer part of my culture" /via @Downes

    So, for me, the giving and receiving of presents has never since been a part of the Christmas season. Nor do I exchange gifts for birthdays or other events. It's no longer part of my culture. That's not to say I no longer give gifts; I have on occasion surprised people with my largesse. But I don't give gifts on a schedule; I don't give gifts because it's expected.
    via halfanhour.blogspot.com

    I like to give gifts. Like Downes, I like to give them at odd times, not at "expected" times. I would like to completely exit the gifts on the right occasion cycle.

    I also have a complicated relationship with gifts because there have been many years where money has been very tight. So there is often a high degree of guilt related to buying gifts, whether for myself or others. That it's a splurge (whether it is or not), that it is a bad thing that I am spending this money.

    I am also annoyed with the Coca Cola Christmas that we have in North America. I really enjoy some of the community Winter Solstice celebrations that happen, and I always look forward to Christmas as down time. It's a time to tinker with projects -- which for me is usually a mix of web / tech projects, plus experiments in the kitchen.

    In any case -- have a happy holiday. Enjoy your down time.

    → 2:24 PM, Dec 22   •  Personal, Christmas, gifts, Blog
  • Spices

    → 8:03 PM, Dec 21
  • Dojo4 Porkchetta

    P46

    This is the last of the Dojo4 meats (not counting the maple thyme breakfast sausages & remaining container of duck fat).

    Big Lou's Butcher is famous for their Porkchetta sandwiches. I bought a hunk of uncooked Porkchetta. I cooked it for 4 hours at 250, then added onions and parsnips and cooked it at 350 for another hour or so.

    The pork was dark meat and deliciously tender, with a nice selection of fatty bits. There were some hard indelible pieces of skin.

    Also pictured are traditional German red cabbage and boiled kale with garlic and mustard.

    Not pictured are home made perogies. Yes, definitely a winter meal.

    → 12:37 PM, Dec 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • Lovely #coffee from @neil - Phil & Sebastian are making tasty beans in Calgary

    → 8:21 PM, Dec 20
  • Walking to work

    → 8:37 AM, Dec 19
  • Dojo4 Duck

    P163 P164
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Continuing the Dojo4 meat experience, last night I made duck legs.

    While I'm happy with the plating, not everything worked out as I would have liked.

    The duck legs I marinated in whiskey, orange juice, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, and star anise. Unfortunately, I used way too much kosher salt.

    The spinach spaghetti I finished with olive oil, lemon zest, and fresh cracked pepper.

    I was most happy with the purée. I chopped parsnips & cauliflower and boiled them in lightly salted water until soft. I drained them, leaving behind a little of the cooking liquor. Using a hand blender, I puréed them, adding a Tbsp each of honey & Dijon mustard. I added duck jus until it was salty enough.

    The yellow peppers & onions were sautéed in a little olive oil.

    Oh right - duck preparation! Seared in duck fat in a cast iron pan. Separately I boiled the marinade with some additional orange juice. I added several Tbsp of marinade to the pan & placed the legs fat side up in a 350 oven.

    I do like duck medium rare, but had pulled pork-like consistency in mind. This was well cooked but not falling off the bone, and too salty (although the flavour was nice). I'll actually research duck techniques next time.

    → 8:32 AM, Dec 19   •  Personal, Blog
  • Clown Parade 2011

    P132 P133 P135 P134 P131 P136
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Rachael and I participated in David’s Clown Parade this year.

    → 8:17 AM, Dec 19   •  Personal, Blog
  • #clownparade

    → 7:42 PM, Dec 17
  • Contributing to #wherepost

    → 4:07 PM, Dec 17
  • Help @stv build wherepost.ca by taking pics of mailboxes #Vancouver

    → 2:34 PM, Dec 16
  • Ass over electric kettle #openhouse

    → 5:47 PM, Dec 14
  • Dojo4 Steak

    P51

    I refer a lot of work. My friends at Dojo4 wanted to say thanks. So, they got me a Big Lou's Butcher gift certificate.

    (Saying thank you with meat is *definitely* encouraged)

    Today was the expiry date for the certificate, so I went on a meat buying spree.

    For the record: 1 container duck fat, 8 maple thyme breakfast sausages, 2 thick cut pork chops, a hefty hunk of porkchetta, 2 duck legs, and 2 Pemberton Meadows Dry-Aged Striploins.

    (don't worry - all the other meats had fancy farm sources, too)

    I don't usually buy super expensive steaks. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the most expensive meat I've ever bought.

    I'm more of a ferial* meat eater - give me a hunk of pork, I'll sauce it nicely, and various carbs to soak up the juices and stretch it out.

    In any case, this is me saying I don't cook steak like this very often. The photo is how it turned out - a very nice crust, even pink throughout, somewhere between medium / medium-rare.

    The guidelines I used were from this post: http://www.beyondsalmon.com/2006/09/perfect-steak-at-last.html

    The only change I did was to use butter and canola oil. The smoke and fire alarm going off tells me the pan was hot enough.

    I did use tongs, did cook the steaks one minute on each side, but also held the fatty side of the steak against the pan for about a minute to crisp the fat as well.

    The only change I would make would be to salt the meat more. This is easily fixed at the table - I need to get better at trusting my gut with that.

    Oh right - taste! The steaks were delicious ;)

    *there is a cook book / meditation on eating & cooking whose whole premise is festal (aka festival / special / rich people) vs. ferial (aka everyday / working man) cooking & eating. See my review of 'The Supper Of the Lamb' http://www.allconsuming.net/entry/view/39669

    → 11:05 PM, Dec 13   •  Personal, Blog
  • Final #whiteboard capture - I’m moving down the hall

    → 9:27 AM, Dec 5
  • rachaelashe ready to start #gotcraft

    → 9:37 AM, Dec 4
  • Panasonic DMC GX1 as newest potential m43 option

    Media_httpwwwdpreview_dscbh
    via dpreview.com

    This is the camera that Roland has shortlisted to buy.

    The last time I wrote about this was back in March, where I was really determined to get one with an electronic viewfinder (EVF). Now, I'm thinking I should suck it up and go for the most compact model I can find.

    Back when I was using Quora, I also spent some time gardening the Micro Four Thirds topic, which has lots of useful information.

    → 11:35 PM, Nov 30   •  Personal, camera, photography, m43, Panasonic DMC GX1, Roland Tanglao, Blog
  • Should we replace bulletin boards with digital?

    → 1:25 PM, Nov 27
  • I just helped fund Windowfarms

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/windowfarms/learn-to-grow-and-share-with-new-windowfarms/widget/video.html

    Windowfarms is a project to fund the commercial production of hydroponic gardening kits that hang in your window.

    You can read more about the project in an article on Fastco Design, or head straight over to the KickStarter page to help fund it yourself.

    One suggestion is funding at $10K or more for a custom Windowfarms installation for a restaurant or other venue. I would love to see something like this in Vancouver.

    → 10:31 AM, Nov 27   •  Personal, KickStarter, Windowfarms, Blog
  • KGB #hot1inch

    → 8:32 PM, Nov 26
  • Blue

    → 7:15 PM, Nov 26
  • Finally buying a new mattress

    → 2:22 PM, Nov 26
  • Finger mo’

    → 12:47 PM, Nov 26
  • The #greycup is in town

    → 9:42 AM, Nov 25
  • Closing down the @iqmetrix #greycup open house

    → 8:38 PM, Nov 24
  • #greycup open house at @iqmetrix

    → 4:36 PM, Nov 24
  • Go Riders! #greycup #iqmetrix

    → 9:43 AM, Nov 24
  • Pulled pork with 'Butt Rub'

    P124 P126 P128 P130 P132 P133
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Bad Byron's 'Butt Rub', to be exact http://www.buttrub.com/ . I picked it up in Kansas City on my last trip, at a really great BBQ joint in a (functioning) gas station called Oklahoma Joe's.

    The pork butt was from J N Z Deli. To my shame, I don't actually know where they source their meat, so this is a reminder to go and ask.

    The pork marinated in the dry rub all day, then I cooked it for 5 hours at 300 degrees AKA the usual method. I'll see about experimenting with a whiskey based BBQ sauce in the next day or so.

    → 11:35 PM, Nov 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • Morris & Humstead - delivery from @humstonstudios

    → 10:51 AM, Nov 20
  • Goblin and a pink elephant #beer

    → 7:54 PM, Nov 19
  • Spicy salty deep fried tofu #foodspotting

    → 7:05 PM, Nov 16
  • Late season apple picking

    → 11:35 AM, Nov 13
  • #deersnare

    → 11:23 AM, Nov 13
  • Bowen relaxing

    P103

    We're finally on Bowen again. The Remembrance Day long weekend is a perfect little recharge before the Eastside Culture Crawl coming up next weekend.

    It's pouring rain, so it's not exactly pleasant to be outside, but I finally have a new rain jacket so I'm dry.

    Short walks between places of refuge are the way to go. My parents' place is always comfortable, with the wood stove throwing off a pleasant heat, unlimited mugs of coffee, and the special pleasure of being warm while the world outside is blustery.

    Rachael and I are at Artisan Eats, looking down the hill and across Howe Sound at a world lost in mist and rain. "that ferry looks like an iceberg", says Rachael. "all it's details lost, and just the bare white outline showing."

    I am sketching out tech designs on paper, writing this blog, and casting my mind forward across near- and long-term time horizons. Could-be's and what-if's swirling.

    → 1:51 PM, Nov 12   •  Personal, Blog
  • #Steampunk and bugs

    → 12:33 PM, Nov 12
  • It’s Mad Men day at the @iqmetrix office

    → 12:11 PM, Nov 10
  • Val Arntzen’s ‘Measure of My Faith’ series - preview show for @CultureCrawl

    → 6:30 PM, Nov 9
  • Amanda Palmer

    → 11:31 PM, Nov 6
  • Eating Apple-made paella with @awesome

    → 12:08 PM, Nov 4
  • Not winning any foodie points today

    → 7:43 AM, Nov 4
  • End of a great #greek meal

    → 9:20 PM, Nov 2
  • Pay for video games with #nfc #googlewallet #sprintosc11

    → 2:04 PM, Nov 2
  • Corporate cafeteria with pizza oven

    → 8:35 AM, Nov 1
  • Butt Rub #bbq

    → 5:48 PM, Oct 31
  • Beautiful, costumed #paradeoflostsouls

    → 10:57 AM, Oct 30
  • When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler!

    → 5:01 PM, Oct 29
  • Three Red Ladies #paradeoflostsouls

    → 4:14 PM, Oct 29
  • Tiger door

    → 5:21 PM, Oct 25
  • 20 year old red wine vinegar from @globalmechanic - I want to start my own

    → 6:28 AM, Oct 24
  • Minotaur

    → 12:27 PM, Oct 23
  • Old teak window

    → 3:22 PM, Oct 22
  • In Season

    → 9:41 AM, Oct 22
  • Sayulita - hot chocolate, tequila, strawberry sorbetto #foodspotting

    → 7:46 PM, Oct 21
  • Tripe, cucumber, skewers - it’s been too long #foodspotting (Nine Dishes)

    → 6:00 PM, Oct 21
  • Pocket market #foodtree

    → 11:06 AM, Oct 20
  • #coffee tears

    → 7:29 AM, Oct 20
  • 3rd row seats at the #hockey - @typicalkay has front row

    → 7:16 PM, Oct 18
  • At a #hockey game

    → 6:24 PM, Oct 18
  • Cthulhu + Bunnies

    Media_httpsfarm7stati_afigh
    via whatever.scalzi.com

    Lord Snuggleston is his name. I'm not connected in any way, but I approve.

    → 2:16 PM, Oct 18   •  Personal, fun, Cthulhu, bunny, Blog
  • Opening night for #neonuglyvan (Museum of Vancouver)

    → 7:06 PM, Oct 12
  • ThisSpace.ca - vote for the business that should be here

    → 1:17 PM, Oct 9
  • Kirsti drinking Russian River ‘Temptation’ #beer

    → 7:22 PM, Oct 8
  • At Eat Wild event

    → 6:01 PM, Oct 6
  • Crown Float at Three Lions

    → 1:37 PM, Oct 1
  • Yellow Point Lodge

    P441 P443 P445 P447 P449 P451 P453 P455
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    It’s been a fun and relaxing trip with Rachael. More to write when I am at a keyboard.

    → 6:01 AM, Sep 29   •  Personal, Blog
  • Arbutus berry at the #beach

    → 10:17 AM, Sep 28
  • Sandstone craters

    → 9:55 AM, Sep 28
  • Arbutus tangle

    → 10:16 AM, Sep 27
  • Outdoor saltwater pool next to the ocean

    → 9:33 AM, Sep 27
  • Good morning #sunrise #nofilter

    → 6:43 AM, Sep 27
  • Mirror in the tree shower

    → 3:22 PM, Sep 26
  • Slightly different view this morning, still awesome

    → 8:56 AM, Sep 26
  • Current status

    P265

    Plus an afternoon coffee, headphones in listening to Andrew Vincent & the Pirates. Old indie music from my time in Ottawa. And writing in a (paper) notebook.

    And after setting up my link blog http://links.bmannconsulting.com, my first post here.

    → 4:05 PM, Sep 25   •  Personal, Blog
  • Vacation: engage

    → 2:31 PM, Sep 25
  • Tako salad looks awesome #foodspotting #sushi

    → 10:59 AM, Sep 25
  • Instanew

    → 5:12 PM, Sep 20
  • Detail of ‘Monster in the Trees’ print I bought #art

    → 8:42 PM, Sep 16
  • Dog Taxi #sovancouver

    → 7:18 AM, Sep 16
  • Flags

    → 7:08 PM, Sep 15
  • Replanted

    → 12:58 PM, Sep 10
  • Intro to Class Afloat Yearbook (and GitHub pages)

    Do you remember sun-drenched Wotje, with the little girl who presses a pretty shell into your hand and laughs? Do you remember Typhoon Kyle, and furling sails in 50 knots of wind and 40 foot waves? Do you remember a week out of Honolulu, already part of the family, when friendly Roger sailes out from Palmyra, sharing his island paradise? Do you remember sailing under the Golden Gate bridge, seeing parents waiting, and having the family scatter across the country, around the world?

    Turn these pages, and remember the ports. Remember also the people. Your roommates, your watchmates, your teachers, the crew, your friends. Remember the ship, her tall masts towering above you. The sails filling with a snap and proud maple leaves billowing out as she leaps forward, dolphins and blue, blue waves her only companions.

    You scurry about on deck, acid-washing your fingers to the bone. Scuppers, deck scrubbing, rust-picking, priming, painting. Scrubbing pots and flipping stir-fry, serving tables and being the juice-person.

    Remember those endless nights on watch? Struggling to keep awake, keeping your eyes glued to the red glowing compass. Staring off at the horizon, watching the first faint rays of the sun creep up.

    It's all in here, so you'll never forget. The voyages of the S/V Concordia, 1993 - 1994.

    via beta.bmannconsulting.com

    I'm revamping bmannconsulting.com. Right now I'm experimenting with putting flat files up on Github pages.

    This is an example of me putting up my Class Afloat Yearbook, which I scanned in many years ago.

    This is a transcription from the scanned image of the first page. I was the yearbook editor, but through a series of mishaps, never ended up with my own copy of the yearbook, so I only have these scans.

    I obviously didn't have much room, so there are no line breaks. I've put some in for readability. And I'm pretty sure "rustpicking" isn't one word, so I added a hyphen.

    Casting a critical eye on this writing, which is now 17 years old, written by my 19 year old self, it's…OK. I'm not emotionally removed enough (still!) from the memory strings it's tugging. As with most of my writing, it's very conversational; and by that I mean, I use the same cadence when writing as when I'm speaking.

    I still haven't applied to speak at Raincity Chronicles, but if I do, it will be about some part of this Class Afloat voyage.

    Cue the switch to tech talk…

    Github pages? Well, it's a funny throw-back to be writing HTML directly in a lot of little index.html pages (never mind having a bunch of files all called the same thing open in your text editor). I need to learn Jekyll to actually build a site.

    It DOES feel great to be "crafting" a site, with the links and organization of naming, file structure, and links all selected, rather than auto-generated. And it feels like work, in a good way.

    → 10:28 AM, Sep 10   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Raincity Chronicles, GitHub, Blog
  • If I had reptiles, I would have Milo care for them

    → 2:40 PM, Sep 5
  • Tastes of summer

    P2602

    It's September and I'm talking about 'summer'. But the long weekend on Bowen has been lovely.

    This is a fresh tomato sauce that we're going to eat with radiatore. Nice and simple and so delicious with the fresh picked tomatoes.

    2 Tbsp butter
    1 Tbsp olive oil
    1/2 cup minced onions
    2/3 cup finely diced zucchini
    1 clove minced fresh garlic
    1 fresh bay leaf
    4 cups diced fresh tomatoes
    1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
    Salt and pepper

    Melt butter and olive oil and add onions, garlic, zucchini and basil. Sauté on low until onions are tender. Add diced tomatoes and turn up heat until bubbling, then reduce to low simmer, stirring in basil. Stir occasionally and cook until reduced.

    More details on a nice Sunday to be added...

    → 12:23 PM, Sep 5   •  Personal, Blog
  • Comfortable Karma the #cat

    → 8:29 PM, Sep 3
  • At the beach on #bowenisland

    → 3:51 PM, Sep 3
  • Everyone loves squid

    → 7:45 AM, Sep 3
  • This is @kpwerker getting the #Flattr treatment

    → 10:13 PM, Sep 1
  • Homemade Andouille sausage

    Media_httpthepaupered_okdez
    via thepauperedchef.com

    This recipe looks simple enough to make at home, without the hopefully-it-won't-go-mouldy dangers of hanging charcuterie in a closet somewhere.

    The one missing piece for me at home is the lack of a smoker. I have a small charcoal BBQ now, that I'm thinking could double as a smoker.

    Delicious experimentation awaits.

    → 7:19 AM, Aug 28   •  Personal, recipe, Andouille, sausage, smoker, Blog
  • Dragon station made more magnificent by being next to BBQ row #PNE

    → 10:25 AM, Aug 27
  • Sweet-checked innocence #foodtree

    → 7:21 PM, Aug 26
  • Tickets to a restaurant /via @eastgate

    Next is a fascinating Chicago restaurant that serves a single, fixed menu that changes every three months. You don’t make reservations; you buy tickets. The current menu is titled “Tour of Thailand.” It’s full of fascinating ideas.

    …

    By selling tickets instead of taking reservations, for example, Next builds service into the charge and gets rid of tipping. Everyone is on salary, and servers and cooks both receive the service charge dividends.

    via markbernstein.org

    If you click through to Mark Bernstein's full post, you can read his description and reaction to the current Tour of Thailand menu at Next Restaurant (I'm linking to the FAQ, since the "home page" is literally just an invitation to create an account and buy tickets; and they're currently sold out).

    The food is fascinating, but I'm even more fascinated by the model of selling tickets.

    In Vancouver, you might check out the Irish Heather Long Table Series. I really should talk to Sean about switching to using Eventbrite directly, so people can self serve, and he can spend less time wrangling tickets.

    What happens when you start having more ticket buyers than space? That is, people who go to every event you put on? Do you get to be wilder, even more creative? Or do you just cater to the audience that you have? Sounds kind of like the concerns of a music artist.

    I've only done mass food delivery once. I got Mark Busse, Ben Garfinkel and the Industrial Brand gang (pre-Foodists) plus Robert Scales and myself to prepare / cook / serve 150 people for the Northern Voice 2007 pre-dinner / party. With live slide presentation of Lee & Sachi's world travel. Anyway, that was a crazy / fun experience, from which I learned many things, including that delivering food to 150 people without professional prep facilities is HARD.

    I've thought a lot about getting involved with a restaurant/cafe/food enterprise. But I've done it before (dishpig / prep cook a long time ago), and it's a LOT OF WORK. Which is mainly filled with uncertainty, since you have to lose a lot of money waiting for people to show up, then hope they like what you make, and rinse and repeat.

    A ticket / event based food experience is a different ball game. KickStarter for restaurants?

    → 1:03 PM, Aug 23   •  Personal, cooking, Food, restaurant, KickStarter, Industrial Brand, Irish Heather, Long Table Series, Next Restaurant, Northern Voice, nv07, Blog
  • Myth of the Marvelous Ingredient

    [I] remind everyone not to be too hung up upon the Myth of the Marvelous Ingredient. Sure, the fresher the better, and yes, starting out with marvelous ingredients helps, but...you still have to cook. It´s annoying and patronizing and plain stupid to convince people that unless the produce was harvested within a mile of them by vestal virgins they needen´t even bother to start.
    via lobstersquad.blogspot.com

    The hardest part of cooking good food (after you've done all you can to buy good ingredients) is … cooking.

    And there are two parts to that cooking. There is the "I've got extra time on the weekend, let's make something special cooking", and there is "I need to cook tasty meals every day of the week".

    I'm home sick for the second day. I made myself soup yesterday, and it didn't taste very good. A cooking screw up hurts even more when you don't have the energy for a do over.

    → 7:08 AM, Aug 23   •  Personal, cooking, Food, quote, Blog
  • Wooden bunny

    → 11:25 AM, Aug 21
  • ‘Live’ Rock cod

    → 11:43 AM, Aug 20
  • Yarnbomb frog

    → 10:51 AM, Aug 20
  • Local Food Challenge Profile

    The team at Growing Chefs asked me to answer a few questions about why I'm participating. I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and turn it into a full blog post.

    Why did you decide to take the local challenge?

    I decided to take the local food challenge because food is one of my main life passions. The local challenge is really just an excuse to spend slightly more time documenting what I'm eating and drinking this week.

    Foodtree is a company that I advise which is trying to help people know more about their food (they have an iPhone app -- go download it). Getting involved with Foodtree and its founder Anthony Nicalo really opened my eyes another level. Once you start thinking about where food is from, who grew it, whether it's filled with pesticides or hormones … you can't unthink all of that.

    You've turned the corner, and you start asking more and more questions about food. This can lead into all sorts of depressing realizations, but I prefer to think of it as heading into delicious realizations. It becomes a challenge in the sense that a long mountain hike is a challenge - it's the journey along the way that's most interesting, and reaching the summit is just sort of the bonus.

    Now, my bigger challenge is to think about how we can encourage masses of people to think about their food, to try and make lasting changes to our food systems. And we can't do it by making people feel bad - we need to make them feel powerful, inspired, and hopeful!

    What will be the hardest part for you to do this challenge?

    Well, probably a toss up between finding the time and finding the ingredients. The week is busy with a conference and various activities, so we have to fit in more time for cooking or selecting what we're going to eat.

    For instance, I actually forgot that we were starting today (we just got back from a short vacation), so I had to figure out what to get for lunch. Luckily, the Fresh Local Wild food truck is not far from my office, so I had some delicious cod & chips. Now, I happen to know that his potatoes aren't local, because the wet weather has been terrible. But they did the next best thing and sourced some potatoes from Washington state. 

    But finding local ingredients is always hard. Heck, finding BC ingredients is hard. And it shouldn't be. But just this evening shopping at Donald's Market, the majority of the conventional fruits & vegetables were unlabeled (but many of them likely local), and virtually all of the organic ones were from far away (because organic labeling & pricing demands a level of "proof").

    Finding the time is probably a common excuse. I do the majority of cooking at home, and I tend to cook everything from scratch - that is, limited use of processed foods or prepared ingredients. It doesn't take significantly more time to do this than for prepared foods. But, like a diet, it's easy to "slip" when you get crunched for time. Because of where we shop, even the prepared food is often local and/or tends to be made of good for you ingredients.

    One last answer here pertains to how you define "local". Since I know how hard something like the 100 mile diet is, I don't get sticky about things like "if you buy bread, the wheat should also be local" (although I do have some Flour Peddler flour in my cupboards). Similarily, dried pasta that is local is going to be next to impossible - splurge on fresh pasta this week, Duso's on Granville Island is a good start.

    Food memories

    Salmon berries in Maple Ridge

    I think my memories from my childhood are all about food! I grew up on Bowen Island, which has lots of things for a kid growing up to forage. Salmon berries and huckle berries are something that you don't tend to see in stores at all - you need to stop and pick them when you see them.

    My heritage is German, so most of my other childhood memories are various German meat dishes and cakes. And jam. My mom still makes massive amounts of jam every year - she just posted her recipe for currant jelly.

    Shopping locally

    It's been 2 years since I put up a post on Foodists about shopping in Vancouver, which has a huge list of some of the more interesting/ethnic/novel places to shop around Vancouver.

    Today, we get a weekly order from SPUD.ca, visit the farmers market a couple of times a week (Wednesdays on Main, weekends at Trout Lake), buy most of our meat from Big Lous Butcher Shop, and round out the list with various stores along Commercial Drive (East End Coop, Daily Catch), and around Nanaimo at Hastings (Donald's Market, Ugo and Joe's). Famous Foods is a long time family favourite that should definitely be mentioned.

    I decided to call this section "shopping locally" rather than where to shop for local food, because that's how you should think about it. Find a butcher shop, a sausage maker, and a bakery. Find a farmer's market. All of these places have local food by default, for the most part.

    I confess that I find "traditional" grocery stores strange these days. I never go to them, and when I do happen to find myself in one, I just find all the packaged items disturbing. Whole Foods is a slightly better experience, but you just can't afford to shop there regularly, and even they aren't great in the fruits & veggies department (that is, lots of things from California, Mexico, etc.).

    Favourite recipes

    Recipes are tough for me. I tend to improvise a lot of the time, so a lot of my recipes tend to be documenting something that I've made once. And a lot of the very best tasting foods are very simple - asparagus broiled with olive oil, steak with salt and pepper, in season tomatoes popped straight in your mouth, and so on.

    I'll leave you with a basic ingredient list for spaghetti alla carbonara that I made the other day and Kim Werker ended up using for a post on Vancouver is Awesome: guanciale from Oyama Sausage on Granville Island, Rabbit River eggs, and parmesan from Ugo & Joe's. 


    Read the original post and updated gallery about #eatlocal, and you can follow along on my Twitter account where I'm using an #eatlocal hashtag.

    Donate to my Eating Local pledge »

    → 9:46 PM, Aug 15   •  Personal, Foodists, Famous Foods, Bowen Island, Big Lou's Butcher Shop, #eatlocal, Daily Catch, Donald's Market, East End Food Coop, Flour Peddler, Fresh Local Wild, Growing Chefs, SPUD.ca, Ugo and Joe's, Blog
  • Eating Local

    Img_0028 Img_0029 Img_0024 Img_0025 Img_0026
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Growing Chefs is a program that "gets kids excited about good, healthy food". Specifically also how to grow it and cook it.

    I am participating in their Going Local! Local Food Challenge. This means that I'll be eating local this week. I tend to do this in any case, but I'm very specifically going to be keeping track of my buying and eating habits, which is the whole point: to raise awareness of where your food is from and who makes it.

    I've actually got a donation page up where you can help to support Growing Chefs. In return, I'm going to document what I eat, where I buy it, and the occasional recipe. The Growing Chefs crew recommends the 100 Mile Diet as a starting point, but I find that too unrealistic: it's actually hard enough to just look for BC products, never mind 100 miles.

    Of course, Foodtree is another organization I've spent time supporting, and their iPhone app is meant to help solve the problem of knowing more about your food. The team is also participating in this Local Food Challenge Week - check the Foodtree blog for some great resources.


    You can follow along on my Twitter account where I'm using an #eatlocal hashtag, and this blog post is where I'm continuing to add to the gallery of food throughout the week.

    Donate to my Eating Local pledge »

    → 11:41 AM, Aug 15   •  Personal, Foodtree, #eatlocal, Growing Chefs, eating, local, Blog
  • Stuffed mushrooms, zucchini, salmon

    → 5:51 PM, Aug 13
  • Caramelized carrot rosemary pancetta risotto

    P2595

    Based on this recipe: http://t.co/8dDIM1s

    After pulling off this risotto recipe, I'm confident that I'll be cooking risotto more often.

    The recipe was mainly an inspiration to caramelize the carrots - I didn't purée any of them, or really follow the rest of the recipe. The flavour of the caramelized carrots really spread through the dish - rosemary was the other note that came through.

    Make sure you caramelize the carrots - I had put in a bit too much butter & oil and the carrots sweated out some liquid, so I had to spoon some of it out to get the carrots to brown. Reserve that liquid and add it later, it was deliciously sweet & carrot-y.

    The pancetta was very mild in flavour. The more pronounced smokiness of guanciale could have worked, but it would also have competed with the carrots. What was excellent from the pancetta was the fat, which added to the creamy consistency, as well as adding some nice toothsome texture.

    I used Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock paste, which worked well (and in general is my favourite prepared stock base).

    I briefly considered working in some of the other cheeses we had (eg a mild and creamy blue cheese) but was glad I stuck with 'just' a cup or so of grated Parmesan.

    → 3:40 PM, Aug 13   •  Personal, carrot, rosemary, recipe, pancetta, risotto, Blog
  • Caught a coho and a pink

    → 12:22 PM, Aug 13
  • Bridge between North and South Pender

    → 9:49 AM, Aug 11
  • Pender Island

    Img_0015 Img_0016 Img_0017 Img_0019 Img_0020 Img_0023 Img_0021 Img_0022
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    → 7:55 AM, Aug 11   •  Personal, Blog
  • Waiting for #TEDxStrathcona

    → 5:55 PM, Aug 7
  • Weekends are cooking time

    P2580 P2586
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Weekends are time for me to do more elaborate / longer cooking. I'm the primary cook-er in the household, so I do cook most every day, but cooking is also relaxing downtime for me, especially when I get to try new things, or things that I don't cook very often.

    Yesterday was an errand day in general. We bought 10lbs of peaches and apricots coming back from the Okanagan (at the Mariposa fruit stand in Keremeos, to be exact -- recommended by Chris Rich amongst the sea of fruit stands there). By now, it was time to process them in bulk in some way. So I made peach jam and apricot jam.

    I've never made peach jam before. I used this Farmstand Peach Jam recipe, although as always, not exactly. I don't like using pectin, and I don't like to put in too much sugar. I ended up taking out a cup of cut up peaches at the last minute since I wanted to stick them in the freezer, and I think that was the error. Or, just that peaches are quite sweet to start with, and without pectin you can't skimp on the sugar. I had originally intended to also make some spicy peach chutney of some kind - I still have those peaches in the freezer, or I could even just use some of the jam and mix it with savoury ingredients to make it.

    Next I made apricot jam. My mom makes this all the time, so I was reasonably sure the no-pectin method would work, and it certainly did. It turned out nice and tart. It was a pleasant surprise to find and use Jens Alfke's apricot recipe - a long time blogger whose feed fell from my reader at some point. So, score 1 for a great recipe (since it uses a formula for fruit-to-sugar) and for re-finding a great writer.

    This morning I poached a couple of eggs for breakfast. Rachael is a fan of poached eggs, but I usually just find them too fiddly. I took it upon myself to actually look up some egg poaching instructions and they turned out nicely. In short: the water shouldn't be boiling, turn it off as soon as you put the eggs in, put a lid on it, and 3 minutes is about the right time length.

    Wandering up Commercial Drive, I decided today would be a seafood day. So, I've got some Qualicum Beach scallop and side stripe shrimp ceviche marinating in the fridge. Recipe in short:

    • 10 prawns, remove the shell and chop
    • 4 large scallops, chopped
    • 1/2 avocado, chopped
    • 1/3 cup red onion, minced
    • 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
    • 3 tomatillos, chopped
    • juice of 3 limes
    • fresh cracked pepper
    • small red chile, minced
    • 1/3 cup cucumber, chopped

    It's marinating now, it may end up gaining some other bits and pieces as I adjust seasonings when it comes out of the fridge.

    → 12:26 PM, Aug 7   •  Personal, cooking, recipe, apricot, ceviche, jam, peach, poached eggs, Blog
  • Two bikes

    → 8:17 PM, Aug 6
  • Peach jam

    → 6:13 PM, Aug 6
  • Super Dino Monsters

    P2525

    Bought at the Vancouver Night Market. I like the fact that he's supposed to be ferocious, but mainly looks like he wants to hug.

    Plus, look at the dinosaur images: they both (inexplicably) have blue Elvis hair.

    → 8:40 AM, Aug 6   •  Personal, dino, dinosaur, monster, Blog
  • Anonymous poster on Burrard

    → 7:53 AM, Aug 6
  • Cthulhu face

    Media_httpimagesinsta_obvpk
    via instagr.am

    By Sam.

    Went to the night market in downtown Vancouver, rather than way out in Richmond. I'm a sucker for BBQd squid tentacles…

    → 9:56 PM, Aug 5   •  Personal, Cthulhu, boris, squid, tentacles, Blog
  • The East Van with @jonnyjohannes

    → 8:56 PM, Aug 5
  • They finally knocked down that building on the edge of Chinatown

    → 5:28 PM, Aug 5
  • Fish sign

    → 12:19 PM, Aug 1
  • The huckleberry bushes are stacked full

    → 11:28 AM, Aug 1
  • Flowers

    → 11:05 AM, Aug 1
  • Sunset on the west side of #Bowen

    → 7:37 PM, Jul 31
  • The Dogfish Cookbook

    → 10:15 AM, Jul 31
  • Lovely delicious black rice sushi

    → 7:24 PM, Jul 30
  • Waiting for ‘Roman Holiday’ to start (Beaconsfield Park)

    → 7:21 PM, Jul 29
  • 404 sobriety not found error @trevoro

    Image

    → 7:12 PM, Jul 28   •  Personal, Blog
  • iPhone wallet

    Media_httpwwwtwelveso_biywx
    via twelvesouth.com

    We've heard talk about Google Wallet and other platforms wanting to make your phone your wallet.

    Well, this isn't that, but it does mean you can use your iPhone as a physical wallet.

    I already carry around "Wallet 2.0" as I call it - just a thin folding wallet that has room for ID and a couple of cards, and a money clip on the outside for bills. Coins jingle around in my pocket until they get dumped into a bucket of change back at home.

    I'm putting this on my wishlist.

    → 10:02 AM, Jul 28   •  Personal, Google Wallet, iPhone, wallet, Wallet 2.0, Blog
  • Snail friend goes for a walk

    → 9:28 AM, Jul 25
  • Scenes from Penticton: Vajazzling is big

    Image

    → 9:10 PM, Jul 24   •  Personal, Blog
  • Garden gnome

    → 8:29 AM, Jul 24
  • Some nibbles at the Hillside Bistro

    → 5:42 PM, Jul 23
  • Emergency takeout pie

    → 10:31 AM, Jul 23
  • Hitting the road with new Fiat 500

    → 8:28 AM, Jul 23
  • Frog legs

    → 8:02 PM, Jul 21
  • Sprint 4G Hotspot - we’ve got Internet on the road #iQmetrix

    → 11:07 AM, Jul 21
  • Hanging with a bank lion

    → 6:23 PM, Jul 18
  • Chickens

    → 11:47 AM, Jul 18
  • Morning

    → 7:12 AM, Jul 18
  • About to beat the final level in wood tetris

    → 12:45 PM, Jul 17
  • This is Diesel

    → 10:23 AM, Jul 17
  • Breakfast egg

    → 6:54 AM, Jul 17
  • Magic, science, and cryptocurrency; also, book reviews

    I just finished reading "Out of the Black". It's mainly responsible for the magic part of this title, although technically it is set in the far future. You don't really notice the far future part, since you already have to suspend disbelief for the magic bits. Actually, the one technology piece that was interesting (and probably won't age well) was the concept that everyone had a tablet. The unique thing about the tablet was that it could resize. You made it small and stuck it in your pocket, but then you could take it and expand it to some maximize size for mapping or image work or whatever.

    This book is a bit of a variant on The Matrix, in the sense that there is a lot of fighting and there is a "layer" underneath reality that can be accessed and manipulated (the magic bit, which is called the Loom). It has thriller pacing, plus some jumping forward and backward in timelines from different character points of view which doesn't _quite_ work (feels more like a movie script). Regardless, an enjoyable quick read.

    A 2-book series that I finished some time ago was Daemon and Freedom (TM) by Daniel Suarez. I really should be writing a lot more about them rather than tacking them on to review #1, but at least I'm posting something.

    Let's see, where to start. It takes place in present day / near future. An MMORPG game company CEO dies, which sets in motion a bunch of stuff involving a "daemon", or set of computer scripts that the CEO had set up. These set of computer scripts interact with the real world and people through lots of automation and scanning news feeds and bot nets and other fairly believable things (the author has a background in computers and security, which keeps things from getting too Hollywood, which I appreciated).

    And then self-sufficiency in food systems (including an anti-Monsanto interlude), cryptocurrency, and DIY technology making enter the picture. With eBay-style reputation assigned to personal interactions of all kinds, plus a gamification layer where everybody has levels and classes. See, the daemon has been set in motion to kind of shepherd the human race onto a new way of living. Or at least, a new way of socio-economic organizing.

    At the time I was reading the book, the following IRL things were happening:

    • Bitcoin was just hitting main stream media
    • I've been thinking a lot about local / direct food systems with Foodtree
    • our worldwide economic systems have been hitting the crapper
    • The Canadian Federal election put a robot prime minister in power

    So, I tore through the first book and made it straight through into the second. It also has thriller pacing, and I'm sure is in part designed to feed into the gamer / Internet professional brain.

    Fun read, makes you think. If you are at all interested in how technology-assisted collaboration, governance, and economics might work, read the book.

    Thanks to Sean for recommending these books.

    → 8:39 PM, Jul 16   •  Personal, book, Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Daemon, Daniel Suarez, Freedom (TM), Lee Doty, MMORPG, Out of the Black, review, Blog
  • Cookbook find: Cowboys and Chuckwagons

    I'm always on the lookout for regional / unique / church basement cookbooks. I found this Come 'n Get It - Cowboys and Chuckwagons at the "Share Shack" at the Deka Lake dump … sorry, I mean "land fill".

    The image below is the first page of the book. The quote says:

    "Bacon in the pan,
    Coffee in the pot;
    Get up an' get it
    Get it while it's hot."

    Come 'n Get It - Cowboys and Chuckwagons

    The recipes contain a lot of lard, flour, sugar, and beans. Here's the original recipe for Charlie's Doughnuts:

    Two tea cups sugar, 3 eggs, 1-1/2 tea cups buttermilk, 2 teaspoons saleratus, 1 teaspoon salt, 6 tablespoons melted lard, flour enough to roll nicely. Boil or fry in lard.

    To make things a little easier, I'll let you know that saleratus is baking soda. I never have buttermilk in the house, but apparently putting vinegar in regular milk gets you close.

    I'm going to leave the book here for my dad's cabin cookbook collection.

    → 8:19 PM, Jul 16   •  Personal, recipe, cookbook, cowboy, chuckwagon, Deka Lake, donuts, doughnuts, saleratus, Blog
  • BBQing in the rain

    → 6:00 PM, Jul 16
  • Burninating

    → 1:00 PM, Jul 16
  • Silvery Aspen leaves #nofilter

    → 9:20 AM, Jul 16
  • Arriving at Deka Lake

    Arrival at the cabin

    I'm at the cabin with my dad for an extended long weekend. Our cabin is a couple of minutes walk from Deka Lake. Where is that? Well, it's on the Cariboo Plateau. Here's a picture of a map outside the next-closest grocery / liquor / everything store, Interlakes:

    The Cariboo is lake country

    Sometimes I also say "it's near 100 Mile House". OK, fine, here's a Google Map:

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=macabar+road,+Deka+Lake,+British+Columbia,+Canada&aq=&sll=51.609009,-120.853386&sspn=0.04099,0.07596&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Macabar+Rd,+Cariboo+L,+Cariboo+Regional+District,+British+Columbia+V0K+1E0,+Canada&ll=51.618017,-120.849609&spn=8.189808,13.183594&t=h&z=5&iwloc=A&output=embed
    View Larger Map

    As you can see, it's over 500km from Vancouver. It used to take much longer to get here. I know, because we came here all the time when growing up, and I could read up to two books during the trip here. This time, I read an ebook on my iPhone.

    I haven't been up here in quite a long time. I also realized that it's been almost a year since I've been working for iQmetrix. Did you know that when you have bosses and stuff, they give you vacation time? And you're supposed to take time off, like, more than a couple of extra days over Christmas?!?! Yeah, news to me as well. So I'm going to take a couple of long weekends over the summer for various trips and such.

    I'm up here over the weekend, and then my Dad and I drive back on Monday.

    Beer on the porch

    I've got more pictures on Flickr if you're interested.

    → 10:07 PM, Jul 15   •  Personal, Deka Lake, Blog
  • This is what the pine beetle has done

    → 6:33 PM, Jul 15
  • Arrived

    → 4:41 PM, Jul 15
  • It’s dry and hot in cowboy country

    → 2:06 PM, Jul 15
  • Slurpee Day

    → 1:26 PM, Jul 11
  • Disc Golf in Maple Ridge at the Thornhill Course

    Media_httpfs03teamopo_zkbqy
    via mapleridgeultimate.com

    Played this course on Sunday with Travis and some other fun folks. It's a highly technical course - you're playing in a forest, and there are trees everywhere. Reminds me of the old Juan de Fuaca course, except that that one was truly the extreme of technical courses (e.g. the cliff hole).

    I played the "C" tees and came away at 6 under par. Playing more often definitely helps - I played a couple of weeks ago, so didn't feel rusty when starting.

    More adventures to be detailed later. Including the 2 grilled cheeses + hamburger patty sandwich.

    → 11:25 PM, Jul 10   •  Personal, disc golf, Maple Ridge, Thornhill, Blog
  • That’s @masonjars double fisting

    → 3:30 PM, Jul 10
  • Salmon berries in Maple Ridge

    → 12:20 PM, Jul 10
  • Classy

    → 11:21 AM, Jul 10
  • Cats of #eastvan #caturday

    → 8:12 PM, Jul 9
  • Doughnut peaches - so weird!

    → 4:04 PM, Jul 9
  • Red!

    → 12:47 PM, Jul 9
  • Flowers in @rachaelashe old neighbourhood in Kits

    → 6:09 PM, Jul 8
  • People love the picture frames at the Raja

    → 5:29 PM, Jul 8
  • Buses

    → 8:08 PM, Jul 6
  • Crab

    → 4:24 PM, Jul 6
  • Happy tip cat is happy

    → 12:59 PM, Jul 5
  • Frozen strawberries

    → 5:32 PM, Jul 3
  • Solar panels powered the #Foodtree booth today

    → 1:13 PM, Jul 3
  • Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

    Since it's red and my stove is white, this can stand in as a "How I spent my Canada Day 2011 weekend".

    It started on Friday with brunch. Then we headed out to Emma Lea farms on Westham Island, where the strawberries are from. Whenever we go to Westham Island, it also means a stop at the apiary. We now have fireweed honey and some pumpkin / purple loosestrife honey. I still have to figure out something to make that lets the unique honey taste shine through.

    Then off to Steveston, which initially seemed like a mistake, since it was filled with hordes of people for Canada Day. Well, in retrospect, it probably was a mistake, but the sun did come out. As we walked up to a packed Hogshack (which is a BBQ place that I had been hearing a lot about), there just happened to be a table opening up.

    The BBQ was good. I was even more pleasantly surprised by the awesome beer list that they have. I had a Hitachino Nest White Ale, and it was absolutely perfect for a summer day. In fact, my first sip had my face go through various transformations, after which I passed it around for everyone to taste. It's lemony fresh beer witbier that should be mandatory to drink when it is really hot out.

    Then, bellies full, a wander around Garry Point Park. There is a sculpture there called Wind Waves that is great to see in person. This it way off in the distance over open fields

    And then a drive back home, finally a little bit sun-kissed, and with a really full day behind us. Fireworks? Yeah, off in the distance somewhere :P

    Saturday & Sunday was Foodtree's launch of their iPhone app at Trout Lake and Kits Farmers Markets respectively, so Rachael was working for the first half of both days. I got to do a bit of a sleep in and some video game playing each morning, then went off to support the Foodtree team.

    On Saturday, the sun really came out for the first time. Spending just three hours in the sun just caused Rachael and I to really wilt. We came home and napped the afternoon away. Getting back up, I decided to start prepping the jam. Anthony traded some of his backyard rhubarb for strawberries, so I was able to make strawberry rhubarb jam. I like how it turned out, even though I never both measuring anything - 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar, 1 1/2 brown sugar, and some number of cups of strawberries and rhubarb :P The jars all popped, so I'll be gifting them out this week.

    Then, to get out of the house for at least a bit, we experimented with my new car2go membership. We had actually used it on Thursday to get home and parked it outside our house, since we're inside the area where you can leave the cars anywhere. It kind of feels like stealing a car. In any case, the one out front had moved a couple of blocks down to Pender, so we jumped in and went for a drive to go for gelato at Bella Gelateria. From there we went up to Queen E park, just to be out and about and enjoy the view.

    Sunday morning was cleaning up the jam kitchen plus finishing off Dungeon Siege III, which some people mentioned I should never have bothered to buy in the first place. I don't know if I'll bother writing about it. Was fun to play, there is no replay value, and it pales in comparison to DS I & II. And, it was only 12 hours long. Yes, kind of like the contrast between Dragon Age and Dragon Age II. This joystiq review is pretty funny. I guess my id had fun playing.

    Ahem. But I really only played like an hour or so to finish the final game. Then I jumped into a car2go again and went over to the Kits market. This was a one way rental (so I don't have to pay while I'm at the market), and I just happened to park right behind another car2go car, so I was reasonably sure one of them would be available when I wanted it.

    It was another long day for Rachael, so after a short rest we biked over to the New Brighton Pool and went for a dip. It was great to be swimming, and yes, it feels like the west coast summer has arrived (even though it was raining and sunny this morning).

    After biking back I retired to the kitchen and made lots of things from the farmer's market: kale chips, roasted garlic scapes, bacon, bok choy, and some red potatoes. I also decided to make some more jam, so combined guavas with some of the remaining rhubarb. After I wrote that post about my past guava experience, I thought I'd aim for something like that. I've had a taste, and I think I put a bit too much sugar in AND the whole seeds in thing didn't really work out. I need a fine mesh sieve or china hat before I try something like that again. I also have this sense memory of my mom and grandma making rosehip jam which also has tons of seeds in it, so I'll need to try that again as well.

    So there you have it. Canada Day. And Strawberry Rhubarb jam. Hope you had a great weekend.

    → 8:02 PM, Jul 2   •  Personal, jam, Canada Day, car2go, Garry Point Park, Hitachino Nest White Ale, rhubarb, Steveston, strawberry, Westham Island, Blog
  • Statue across the fields

    → 4:10 PM, Jul 1
  • Strawberry fields forever

    → 11:31 AM, Jul 1
  • Guavas

    I bought guavas last night. When I bit into the first one, that flowery perfume flavour wafted out and teleported me back about almost 20 years.

    When I traveled around the South Pacific on a tallship as part of Class Afloat, we stopped in Suva, Fiji. There is an orphanage and school run by Canadian nuns there. We visited and brought some gifts - school supplies, books, etc. - as well as playing the muddiest game of soccer I have ever played in my life. The teachers asked the children to bring in something for us - fresh fruit! So, they gathered tons of fresh guavas. We ended up with giant plastic garbage containers filled with guavas. Nothing like these pale imitations I bought in the store yesterday, but just that little whiff of perfume hinted at that long ago time.

    Even for a boat filled with frsh fruit starved teenagers, we couldn't eat our way through all of the guavas. I spent a lot of time helping out in the galley, and I ended up making a kind of guava jam. I never did get sick of having it for breakfast pretty much every day until it ran out.

    → 8:21 AM, Jul 1   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Fiji, guavas, Blog
  • Morning run

    → 7:40 AM, Jun 28
  • Wolf in progress #papercraft

    → 2:30 PM, Jun 26
  • Orange 8bit skull burst #graffiti

    → 6:46 PM, Jun 25
  • At the races

    → 7:19 AM, Jun 25
  • Awesome Feelings

    Screenshot Disasteradio - Awesome Feelings

    I found this via @awesome, of course.

    You can find other fine songs by Disasteradio, like "Gravy Rainbow", on the Bandcamp page.

    → 10:27 PM, Jun 23   •  video, awesome, music, Blog
  • fling & co at #html5sdf

    → 10:34 AM, Jun 21
  • This is the kind of snack left at my desk #iworkwithfoodies

    → 1:21 PM, Jun 20
  • Balloons #carfreeyvr

    → 11:10 AM, Jun 19
  • It’s fridge pickle time again

    Storing a link to refrigerator pickles was one of my very first posts on this Posterous.

    All the vegetables in here are from the Trout Lake Farmer’s market. I’ll have to create the foodtree for the finished product.

    → 1:11 PM, Jun 18
  • Parking is hard in Deep Cove

    → 12:12 PM, Jun 12
  • Colourful

    → 7:05 PM, Jun 10
  • Trying the Mee Goreng #foodspotting

    → 11:22 AM, Jun 10
  • Morning

    → 8:06 AM, Jun 9
  • Any cult of Cthulhu paleos out there?

    With all these threads on religion, I felt rather left out :( So anyone out there who follows the great Elder gods? How do you deal with the prohibition on eating cephalopods? I miss calamari :(

    What about the commandment to eat as many cute and cuddly animals as you possibly can? I have so much trouble with this one. Yesterday I ate 12 hamsters I stole from a crying preschooler and then devoured a small puppy, but then I remembered I also had a baby bunny wearing a polka dot bow to eat in the fridge. I just couldn't eat any more though.

    via paleohacks.com

    I used to have a Cthulhu obsession in University. Through a strange twist of fate, it has ended up as a codename / meme at work. Cthulhu diets came up, and of course Google found this.

    → 10:20 PM, Jun 8   •  Personal, fun, Cthulhu, paleo, Blog
  • Helping with @rachaelashe daily self portrait

    → 5:54 PM, Jun 3
  • Friday beer found downtown

    → 4:23 PM, Jun 3
  • Trying new Singaporean cafe in #gastown #foodspotting

    → 11:36 AM, Jun 2
  • Dry rub on pork

    → 8:00 PM, May 30
  • Beef bowl - raw egg brought with us #foodspotting

    → 1:32 PM, May 30
  • Sakura style at Well Tea

    → 7:46 AM, May 30
  • Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread

    Ballymaloe brown yeast bread

    This bread has been made by hand every day at Ballymaloe House for more than 60 years – originally for the family, and then for the guests. The recipe is based on one for a nutritious loaf that Doris Grant developed at the request of the British government in the 1940s. I can't really stress enough what a favour you'll be doing your family by baking this bread. The main ingredients – wholemeal flour, treacle and yeast – are all highly nutritious. The ingredients and equipment should be at room temperature.

    Makes 1 loaf

    450g (1lb) strong (stone-ground) wholemeal flour OR 400g (14oz) strong (stoneground) wholemeal flour plus 50g (2oz) strong white flour
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon black treacle
    425ml (3⁄4 pint) water, at blood heat
    20g (3⁄4) or more fresh non-GM
    Yeast
    Sesame seeds (optional)
    Sunflower oil
    1 loaf tin 12.5 x 20cm (5 x 8in)

    Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/ gas mark 8.

    Mix the flour with the salt in a mixing bowl. In a small bowl or Pyrex jug, mix the treacle with some of the water, 150ml (¼ pint) and crumble in the yeast. Leave to sit for a few minutes in a warm place to allow the yeast to start to work. Meanwhile, grease the bread tins with sunflower oil. Check to see if the yeast is rising. After about 4–5 minutes, it will have a creamy and slightly frothy appearance on top.

    When ready, stir and pour it, with all the remaining water (300ml/½ pint), into the flour to make a loose, wet dough. (Don't mix it until all the water is in; otherwise it tends to go lumpy.) The mixture should be too wet to knead. Put the mixture directly into the greased tin. Sprinkle the top of the loaves with sesame seeds, if you like. Cover the tin with a tea towel to prevent a skin from forming and leave the bread to rise. This will take anything from 10–20 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

    Preheat the oven to 230°C/ 450°F/gas mark 8.

    When the dough has almost come to the top of the tin, remove the tea towel and pop the loaves into the oven. The bread will rise a little further in the oven; this is called 'oven spring'. If the bread rises to the top of the tin before you put it into the oven, it will continue to rise and will flow over the edges. Cook for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and cook for a further 40–50 minutes, until your bread looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

    We usually remove the loaves from the tin/tins about 10 minutes before the end of cooking and put them back into the oven to crisp all round, but if you like a softer crust there is no need for this

    via guardian.co.uk

    Even easier than no-knead bread.

    → 10:38 PM, May 29   •  Personal, no knead bread, recipe, bread, Blog
  • Mumbo jumbo

    → 11:54 AM, May 29
  • Not today… But some day

    → 2:39 PM, May 28
  • Reuben with House-made chips #foodspotting

    → 1:35 PM, May 28
  • Shopping cart graveyard #eastvan

    → 7:27 PM, May 26
  • somisguided rows ashore with a wave #bowenisland

    → 5:29 PM, May 25
  • Shell heart

    → 4:08 PM, May 21
  • Boating with Alex

    Img_0012 Img_0013 Img_0014
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    → 7:19 AM, May 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • I’m (about to be) on a boat

    → 6:53 AM, May 21
  • Mr. Sun comes out to visit some flowers

    → 5:08 PM, May 17
  • Radishes from SoleFood #foodtree

    → 7:38 AM, May 17
  • Pink poofs

    → 4:03 PM, May 14
  • Orcas swim into Burrard Inlet

    Media_httpwwwtheprovi_gjceh
    via theprovince.com

    With this, plus the dolphins in Howe Sound, it feels like we're getting a second chance.

    That's Siwash Rock on the Stanley Park seawall in the background.

    → 8:35 AM, May 12   •  Personal, Vancouver, Burrard Inlet, Orcas, seawall, Siwash Rock, Stanley Park, The Province, Blog
  • Raining petals

    → 2:06 PM, May 10
  • Neverwinter running text-based RPG sessions on Facebook

    Tuesday Encounter: Your party has dared to venture to the Ruins of Zhentil Keep in search of lost artifacts, where you find a Temple to Bane, left strangely untouched. You cautiously enter the temple, hoping to plunder it's treasures, and instead find a group of undead Zhentarim in defensive positions, holding off the advances of a group of Shadar-Kai, led by Naramus himself. What do you do?
    via facebook.com

    There is a new Neverwinter video game coming out this year. The Facebook page for the brand is doing an awesome job running role playing "sessions" just by posting to their wall.

    → 12:41 PM, May 10   •  Personal, Neverwinter Nights, RPG, Facebook, Blog
  • Pink

    → 7:38 PM, May 9
  • "It is weird to know where your food comes from" /via @tonynicalo

    The only peace of mind that exists in our current food system seems a kind of Orwellian trick- it is weird to know where your food comes from. By making it normal to not know, you don’t have to worry about it too much. We are beginning to see cracks in the sarcophagus with the occasional beef or peanut butter recall, the fear of food from China and the rise of local food on the fringes. But it is still mainly out of sight out of mind. Foodtree envisions a solution to the ills of our runaway food system by eliminating information asymmetry. It only takes a couple of times for you to be able to choose something you know the provenance of to remind you that it is actually bizarre to NOT know the source of your food.
    via ceo.foodtree.com

    It's great to be working with Tony and the rest of the Foodtree team on this mission.

    While we joke about meeting the chicken that we're going to eat or joke about being "those people" that ask where stuff is from - it's important.

    If you want to hear more from Tony, he's going to be speaking at the Raincity Chronicles this Wednesday - tickets at Firehall Arts Centre.

    → 7:56 AM, May 9   •  Personal, Food, Foodtree, Raincity Chronicles, Blog
  • "They have the wings of a bear and their antlers are made of fangs!" #maplesyrupcurtain

    Media_httphijinksensu_qiwic
    via hijinksensue.com

    Yes, this is how expensive cellphone plans are in Canada.

    → 7:00 PM, May 7   •  Personal, funny, Canada, cellphone, comic, maplesyrupcurtain, Blog
  • → 6:14 PM, May 4
  • Lying in the grass and reading.

    → 3:34 PM, May 1
  • Surf Monkey

    → 12:52 PM, Apr 30
  • → 9:58 PM, Apr 29
  • Doing the San Francisco cafe thing (Epicenter Cafe)

    → 8:57 AM, Apr 29
  • Art Materials

    → 8:15 AM, Apr 29
  • → 11:29 AM, Apr 28
  • → 6:02 AM, Apr 28
  • "A Latvian magazine has enabled real birds to tweet on Twitter thanks to bacon" /via @wired

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juh7ZHNK7Fo]

    A Latvian magazine has enabled real birds to tweet on Twitter thanks to a system involving a pork fat keyboard rigged up to the microblogging platform.

    via wired.com

    This story must have been so much fun to write. Birds, bacon, Twitter - a match made in heaven.

    → 10:20 PM, Apr 27   •  Twitter, Personal, bacon, video, funny, Latvian, Blog
  • → 6:20 PM, Apr 26
  • → 7:57 AM, Apr 25
  • Life is hard for cats

    → 8:46 AM, Apr 24
  • Easter weekend 2011 on Bowen

    Img_0001 Img_0011 Img_0009 Img_0008 Img_0002 Img_0006 Img_0005 Img_0004 Img_0003 Img_0007 Img_0010
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    → 9:52 AM, Apr 23   •  Personal, Blog
  • Plum tree blossoms #bowenisland

    → 9:40 AM, Apr 23
  • Someone stole my iPhone and took a photo of me

    → 8:08 PM, Apr 22
  • Pebbly beach detritus #bowenisland

    → 4:51 PM, Apr 22
  • Easter with Horses

    → 2:30 PM, Apr 22
  • Waffle sky

    → 7:00 AM, Apr 20
  • Lions Gate Bridge #tinyplanet

    → 6:12 AM, Apr 20
  • → 5:01 PM, Apr 19
  • Trolley wire #tinyplanet (Bus Stop 51232)

    → 11:21 PM, Apr 18
  • Cowboy Monkeys Riding Dogs Herding Goats /via @laughingsquid

    Media_httpfarm5static_tpigc
    via laughingsquid.com

    I could probably republish at least half of every Laughing Squid post - often funny, always interesting.

    → 9:19 AM, Apr 18   •  Personal, funny, cowboy, dog, monkey, Blog
  • Four Twenty #vansterdam

    → 7:47 AM, Apr 18
  • Rainbow Chard Recipe

    Captured for posterity, although no picture.

    Chop 2 shallots and sauté in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat.

    Grate half an apple and add to shallots.

    Cut tough stems from chard and roughly chop. Add to shallot apple mixture in pan and stir to mix.

    Juice half a Meyer lemon and add to pan. If using a regular lemon, reduce juice used and/or add a pinch of sugar.

    Stir to mix well and reduce heat. Simmer for 5 minutes or until chard is tender, stirring occasionally.

    Salt to taste.

    → 10:18 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, recipe, chard, Meyer lemon, shallot, Blog
  • Dan Mangan's Smorgasbord

    I attended Dan Mangan's benefit for homeless youth initiatives, aka Smorgasbord, on Saturday night.

    I took my Flip video camera along and captured a handful of songs. The audio is pretty decent (the echo-y quality is because of the acoustics inside St. Andrews Wesleyan Church, I think) but the video is pretty terrible. You can find all the videos in this playlist on YouTube, or embedded below.

    http://www.youtube.com/p/2C0F511D32225835?hl=en_US&fs=1

    Performances are by The Crackling, Aidan Knight, and Dan Mangan. Plus Mayor Gregor on tuba, of course!

    Other than Dan Mangan himself, I was super impressed by Aidan Knight. You can find him on BandCamp.

    → 5:39 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, Aidan Knight, Dan Mangan, Gregor Robertson, smorgasbord, The Crackling, tuba, Blog
  • Big Lou's Butcher Shop and Banh Mi Sandwich

    Img_0288 Img_0289 Img_0290

    This was my third shopping trip to Big Lou's Butcher Shop, on the corner of Powell Street at Gore. Their tagline is "bringing traditional nose-to-tail butchery to Vancouver".

    Pictured in the gallery is Karsten weighing out some freshly made ground beef. He is also the maker of the rouladen pictured in the next image. I've written about rouladen before. My mom told me in a call earlier in the day that she had been to visit Big Lou's and bought some rouladen just to see what they were like. She said they tasted great, and were about the same price as it would cost her to make them on her own. Duly noted the next time rouladen cravings strike.

    The last image is the iPad sitting on top of the old school cash register. It is, of course, a software only point-of-sale system running on the iPad as an app. Which nicely collides with my day job as I think about iPhones and iPads slowly replacing all manner of special purpose proprietary systems like point of sale machines.

    Below is a Banh Mi sandwich that Rachael and I shared. Big Lou's also makes sandwiches fresh to order. The bread is a giant crusty baguette, but the innards are flavourful enough to stand up to the hunk of bread. Half a sandwich was a good meal, so definitely good value for lunch. I'll be back during the week to try some of the other sandwiches.

    → 2:56 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, Vancouver, meat, rouladen, banh mi, Big Lou's Butcher Shop, butcher, Downtown Eastside, sandwich, Blog
  • Banh Mi sandwich #foodists

    → 2:55 PM, Apr 17
  • Me, dancing

    Boris
    In the spirit of making sure that I own the place where the conversation takes place, here is a ridiculous animated GIF of me, dancing. Put together oh so kindly by iQmetrix co-worker Tristan.

    → 1:06 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, funny, Animated GIF, dancing, iQmetrix, Blog
  • Seattle Sounders game opening

    [wpvideo EjM5kk4y]

    <p>
    

    When I went to Seattle last weekend, Lee took me along to see the Seattle Sounders play. It was actually my first MLS game.

    Attached a short video that starts out focused on the Sounders super fan section, just as the game opening ceremonies are going on.

    Thanks for taking me Lee, it was a lot of fun. I’m a lot more interested in the company Whitecaps season tickets now…

    → 12:55 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, video, Lee Lefever, MLS, Qwest Field, Seattle, Seattle Sounders, soccer, Whitecaps FC, Blog
  • Bacon Roses /via @laughingsquid

    Media_httpwwwinstruct_dmgrj
    via instructables.com

    Mother's Day is coming!

    → 11:04 AM, Apr 17   •  Personal, bacon, fun, bacon roses, Blog
  • Walking in Seattle

    P2309 P2325 P2323 P2321 P2319 P2317 P2315 P2313 P2345 P2343 P2341 P2339 P2337 P2335 P2333 P2331 P2329 P2311 P2327
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    I spent half a day on a Sunday in Seattle while Rachael was teaching her book arts course.

    I sat and blogged at the Tully's for a while, then did a walk around the neighbourhood and some parks nearby.

    I was relaxed and specifically had my eyes open looking for interesting things to capture. The fact that I found a plastic Sabretooth tiger toy placed in some rocks was a great bonus.

    I also had a bite to eat in a little mini Main Street down the road a bit. It reminded me a bit of Commercial Drive - lots of great restaurants and coffee shops.

    → 9:32 AM, Apr 17   •  Personal, Seattle, Blog
  • → 9:17 AM, Apr 17
  • I found an artist in the window

    P2286

    Rachael was in the ‘Artist’s Window’ at Bird On A Wire.

    → 3:36 PM, Apr 16   •  Personal, rachael, Bird on a Wire, Blog
  • Other side of the lens

    → 2:49 PM, Apr 16
  • Dog sculpture

    → 2:49 PM, Apr 15
  • Zombie Bunnies

    Media_http30mediatumb_oucgl
    via yahooza.tumblr.com

    → 11:42 AM, Apr 15   •  Personal, funny, bunny, zombie, Blog
  • Robot playing kickball

    → 7:49 AM, Apr 15
  • Why the dolphins are back [in Howe Sound] /via @chriscorrigan

    Scientists are trying to figure out why the Pacific white-sided dolphins are back. But there’s speculation it can be partly contributed to a small group of marine enthusiasts and a fish.
    via bowenislandjournal.blogspot.com

    Dolphins are incredible creatures. It just *feels* great that they are back in and around the waters off Bowen Island.

    I know Stewart Marshall has been seeing them a lot on his ferry commutes.

    → 11:12 AM, Apr 14   •  Personal, Bowen Island, dolphins, Howe Sound, Blog
  • The #Lions

    → 5:13 PM, Apr 12
  • → 4:44 PM, Apr 11
  • To share with Dave?

    → 8:10 PM, Apr 10
  • Coffee Bar at The Woods

    → 7:12 AM, Apr 10
  • Art by Pascal

    → 8:16 AM, Apr 9
  • Yesterday’s eggs

    → 7:05 AM, Apr 4
  • Frog on a photo album

    → 1:57 PM, Apr 3
  • Lights

    → 1:17 PM, Apr 2
  • She’s cute when she laughs

    → 5:43 PM, Mar 30
  • Old #Bryght office

    → 6:17 PM, Mar 29
  • I don’t really understand brand advertising

    → 6:35 AM, Mar 29
  • Bird friendly coffee

    → 3:51 PM, Mar 26
  • Blossom shopping in Kits

    P2011 P2013 P2015 P2037 P2039 Img_0096
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Out for a walk around Kits, checking how far the blossoms are.

    → 11:39 AM, Mar 26   •  Personal, Vancouver, cherry blossoms, Kitsilano, Blog
  • Out blossom shopping with @RachaelAshe

    → 11:33 AM, Mar 26
  • Hi there snowy Toronto

    → 6:30 AM, Mar 25
  • Kick off meeting for the #iqmetrix booth

    → 5:14 AM, Mar 22
  • #Petals and pavement

    → 12:56 PM, Mar 20
  • Seawall walk

    → 12:17 PM, Mar 20
  • The pink explosions are starting

    → 2:07 PM, Mar 19
  • Crab welcomes me home

    → 8:12 PM, Mar 18
  • Got my BBQ last night

    → 12:49 PM, Mar 18
  • Virtual items should enhance the core game, not BECOME the core game mechanic

    Social games and free to play games are, if not the future, a future. We can’t dismiss or ignore them. In fact, we should celebrate those of them, and those elements of them, that do approach things smartly, and in doing so bring worthy gaming to a gigantic audience. But we can make it quite clear that we expect to be treated better than this slovenly, cheating, cynical wolf in in RPG’s clothing. Especially when it’s clothing hundreds of thousands of us were very fond of.
    via rockpapershotgun.com

    Dragon Age II and Dragon Age Legends are a gigantic money grab. I haven't played DA:Legends on Facebook yet, but I have played a chunk of DAII.

    They removed a LOT of the RPG mechanics / depth from DAII. As in, only your main character is fully customizable. It really should have been a different game in the DA universe -- kind of like a DA Light.

    Yes, I like some of the enhanced fluidity of the visuals of the fights. But just make Diablo if that's what you're aiming to make.

    Oh, right, I'm supposed to be ranting on Facebook games :P On both smartphones and Facebook, I think you can make great games. Please focus on great games and content first, let me choose whether to invest time or money. And the invest time only experience should be *great*.

    Paying for virtual items should enhance or shortcut the core game, not BECOME the core game mechanic.

    → 10:34 PM, Mar 17   •  Personal, gaming, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age Legends, social games, Blog
  • I'm leaning towards an m43 camera that includes a view finder

    The Panasonic LVF-1 Electronic View Finder (EVF)  is awkward - The Panasonic GF1 is a beautiful compact camera and the add-on EVF makes it bulkier.  The EVF is useful, especially in bright light, but I did not care for it because of the additional bulk and its low resolution.  If I do use an EVF, it will be on another m43 body such as the Panasonic G2 or Panasonic GH2 which both have high resolution, built-in EVF's.
    via holyfstop.blogspot.com

    The Olympus looks cooler and is more compact, but only has an add on viewfinder.

    The Panasonic G2 / GF2 have a built-in viewfinder, which may just be the thing that tips the balance for me.

    → 9:05 PM, Mar 17   •  Personal, Micro Four Thirds, Panasonic, EVF, m43, Panasonic G2, Blog
  • Chicken and Waffles

    Photo

    This is my first experience with Chicken and Waffles. Probably too fancy for my "first time", but it was tasty.

    → 7:49 PM, Mar 14   •  Personal, chicken, waffles, Blog
  • Starting DAII but apparently I should be more excited by Neverwinter

    http://files.atari.com.s3.amazonaws.com/nno/rollover.swf
    via playneverwinter.com

    So, I'm just about to start playing some Dragon Age II, and people are already telling me that I'll probably be better off waiting for Neverwinter.

    I was a little worried playing the DAII demo, and yup, it looks like they turned it into a mainly action oriented game.

    I'm not happy with how Dawn of War II: Retribution got changed. I *loved* the previous two versions, now they've dialed the RPG down and dialed the RTS up, making it more suitable for online multiplayer, but less fun for me.

    Feels like the "app-ification" of everything...

    → 8:14 PM, Mar 12   •  Personal, gaming, Dragon Age II, Neverwinter Nights, RPG, Blog
  • Pie options in Chilliwack

    → 1:06 PM, Mar 12
  • Snowy Owls

    → 11:21 AM, Mar 12
  • Broken glass

    → 5:59 PM, Mar 11
  • First meal at Nick's Spaghetti House

    Diptic

    With Rachael and Kai

    → 7:20 PM, Mar 10   •  Personal, diptic, dipticapp, Blog
  • Hello Kitty

    → 8:38 AM, Mar 10
  • Eierpfannkuchen with mushroom asiago sauce

    Diptic

    For Shrove Tuesday. Even though I’m a heathen.

    → 7:14 PM, Mar 8   •  Personal, diptic, dipticapp, eierpfannkuchen, image, pancakes, Shrove Tuesday, Blog
  • Rango at the Dolphin Theatre in Burnaby

    Photo1

    This is, of course, not a screenshot from Rango. Which, by the way, is an awesome, awesome, awesome movie that you really should go see. Animated, filled with animals as characters in an old Western style. Lots of in jokes. Dark, and very funny.

    It's "the claw" machine at the Dolphin Theatre, which is in deepest darkest Burnaby. It also has $7 movies, and $2 movies on Tuesdays, and it's where we saw Rango on Saturday night.

    I'll definitely be back.

    → 3:47 PM, Mar 6   •  Personal, Burnaby, Dolphin Theatre, Rango, Blog
  • Murals and barbed wire #eastvan

    → 3:18 PM, Mar 6
  • On pre-launch DLS in Dragon Age II: "The mistake is the appearance of greed, of swindling your initial customer. "

    The mistake is the appearance of greed, of swindling your initial customer. When additional content came out a few months after the release it at least gave the impression that the developers had just kept on making the game after it was finished out of sheer momentum. Revealing that entire chunks of plot, quests, characters and abilities are being deliberately designed in order to not include them in the game just seems like a “fuck you” to the customer. Before DLC was an option, such content would either be artificially held back until it was really too late for people to have it for their first play of the game, or more likely just be contained in the game. Now it’s dangled in front of us, with no other message than, “Sure, you can spend only the £35/$50 on this game, but look what you won’t have.”

    via rockpapershotgun.com

    I have to agree with this. I am a HUGE fan of DLC, especially in the way it has been done recently in the DA series.

    But, I want to see the core game come out with DLC over time that can extend the lifespan of the core game, rather than this nickel-and-diming.

    UPDATE: I had a comment from someone within Bioware get to me that says, in essence "the linked article is mistaken about how downloadable content gets made". It would be great to hear from Bioware directly, via, you know, a comment or something :P The message from me is, regardless of how the DLC is made (or the planning & resourcing for it), from a marketing / user experience perspective, I feel like I'm being nickel and dimed.

    → 11:04 AM, Mar 6   •  Personal, gaming, Dragon Age II, DLC, Blog
  • → 11:28 AM, Mar 5
  • Waking Derek

    Media_httpfarm1static_gkhih
    via flickr.com

    Last night I attended Derek Miller's living wake.

    Coming home and thinking about it last night and today, this is the picture I've had in mind.

    Or rather, this is the moment in time that I had in mind. I thought for sure that Kris had taken the picture that I was seeing in my minds eye. (No, he took this one).

    What I had in my minds eye was the much cooler version of Derek that walked up moments before this photo was taken. Long hair, head phones. Some kind of musician? Pretty cool, pretty "hip" to be coming to this blogging conference.

    We make small talk, and I get him to pose, and he pulls this face. But it doesn't matter, because browsing all those old ("this photo was taken 73 months ago") photos, friends, those experiences at Northern Voice, I see the long haired cool guy in my minds eye.

    And that's the first time I met Derek. It's been a pleasure.

    → 11:27 PM, Mar 4   •  Personal, Derek Miller, penmachine, Blog
  • On my whiteboard at work

    → 6:01 PM, Mar 4
  • Obligatory new haircut #self-portrait

    → 1:59 PM, Mar 4
  • Evening light #eastvan

    → 8:33 AM, Mar 3
  • Fancy hair products

    → 5:12 PM, Mar 2
  • Tempura Katsu Don #foodists

    → 7:42 PM, Feb 28
  • A tale of two lunches

    → 2:03 PM, Feb 26
  • Trying to convince Rachael we don’t need a dragon pet

    → 1:34 PM, Feb 26
  • I got a little beaver for my bday - thx @somisguided

    → 9:32 AM, Feb 26
  • We need to make the FUTURE work, & the best way to do that is to be engaged in the present /via @chriscorrigan

    The most useful conversations to me have been the ones where we kick around ideas, blue sky, dream a little, roll our sleeves up and try and figure out numbers or options.  Not because we need to make a park work but because we need to make the FUTURE work, and the best way to do that is to be engaged in the present.
    via bowenislandjournal.blogspot.com

    I am so glad that Chris is part of my hometown (Bowen Island) social fabric.

    → 9:19 AM, Feb 22   •  Personal, quote, Bowen Island, Blog
  • Birthday card from @rachaelashe

    → 7:55 AM, Feb 22
  • Reawaken as Tie-thulu, the most well-dressed of all the Elder Gods.

    Media_http29mediatumb_havdg
    via fuckyeahdementia.com

    I love me some Cthulhu.

    → 9:11 PM, Feb 21   •  Personal, funny, Cthulhu, Lovecraft, Blog
  • Big Lou’s is open now #foodists

    → 12:29 PM, Feb 20
  • Awesome new Vancouver pizza place #foodists

    → 6:44 PM, Feb 18
  • I’ve got skies of blue #nofilter

    → 8:46 AM, Feb 18
  • A lovely dinner last Sunday

    → 8:35 AM, Feb 17
  • Bottling (last weekend)

    → 12:49 PM, Feb 13
  • Liverwurst from JNZ, Kaiser bun from Fratellis

    → 5:58 PM, Feb 12
  • Alien chandelier

    → 5:06 PM, Feb 11
  • Valentine’s otter

    → 8:43 PM, Feb 9
  • Morning vista

    → 9:10 AM, Feb 7
  • I gave @anneonbowen a cake pan for her birthday, so she had to test it

    → 4:04 PM, Feb 6
  • Boudin noir AKA blood sausage #foodists

    → 12:41 PM, Feb 6
  • Shore Pine Point

    → 12:53 PM, Feb 5
  • Looking back while coming into Horseshoe Bay #nofilter

    → 11:51 AM, Feb 5
  • → 7:03 AM, Feb 2
  • → 1:09 PM, Jan 29
  • Karen’s Room 103 art installation

    → 7:50 PM, Jan 28
  • Working on proposals gives me #crazyhair

    → 3:13 PM, Jan 28
  • Bloedel flower, the app is ColorSplash by @pocketpixels (Bloedel Conservatory)

    → 10:30 PM, Jan 25
  • → 2:53 PM, Jan 23
  • Laksa & Roti Canai

    → 3:14 PM, Jan 22
  • Freybe meats

    → 1:48 PM, Jan 22
  • Beer & prawns with Opa

    → 5:00 PM, Jan 21
  • → 9:36 PM, Jan 20
  • Going up

    → 8:25 AM, Jan 19
  • Go west

    → 8:46 AM, Jan 17
  • Results of soft pretzel making

    These worked out quite well. Recipe found at Beantown Baker via Foodista search.

    The dough was very sticky. Maybe it needed more flour, maybe I needed to knead it a bit longer and work more flour into it. Then came the tricky part.

    The astute amongst you might notice that the items in the photo above don't, in fact, look like pretzels. Well, the recipe was on my iPhone and my hands were full of sticky dough, so I ended up with sort of pretzel, erm, "twists" at best.

    Rachael had requested some tomato soup and buns, and these were the "buns".

    The soup was a mix of a couple of roasted red peppers, celeriac aka celery root, leeks, shallots, a couple of pounds of ugly winter Mexican roma tomatoes (from SPUD, so organic, but still…) and then some ill advised dried chickpeas. That's the second time I've used those chickpeas - they REALLY do need to soak overnight. I made a broth out of simmered chickpeas and some veggie trimmings while I roasted the red peppers. I used the same cast iron pan to then saute the celery root, shallots, and leeks in some olive oil. This all got mixed together with the tomatoes and the broth and the peppers, added some dried basil, a splash of some port that I've decided is best used for cooking, and then simmered down.

    I then took a hand blender and blended the whole thing. Those dang chickpeas were still a little on the crunchy side, so the result was a little gritty, but the taste was really good -- the roasted red peppers came through nicely. This was a quick soap, so a table spoon full of Better Than Bouillon vegetable stock base went in instead of salt to round out the taste.

    I finished it with some flat Italian parsley, and I'm not too sure about that detail. The texture was wrong and the blended soap didn't need it -- I think I was sort of picturing an Italian minestrone with some flat parsley leaves floating in it.

    I am getting better at quantities. A bowlful each for dinner, one portion as leftovers, and froze the rest in a yoghurt container. As opposed to a vat of leftovers and 2 yoghurt containers that I might have made.

    → 7:13 PM, Jan 16   •  Personal, baking, soup, celeriac, celery root, pretzel, tomato soup, Blog
  • Results of soft pretzel making

    → 7:12 PM, Jan 16
  • Sushi accoutrements

    → 3:36 PM, Jan 16
  • Lovely coffee in the window seat at Cittadella

    → 1:29 PM, Jan 16
  • Ramen!

    → 2:28 PM, Jan 15
  • → 11:10 PM, Jan 13
  • Lunch

    → 12:11 PM, Jan 12
  • Cheeky Yuuki

    → 7:27 AM, Jan 11
  • Lovely dead things (Beaty Biodiversity Museum)

    → 9:18 PM, Jan 10
  • Finishing up tour of Beaty museum with @RachaelAshe (Beaty Biodiversity Museum)

    → 2:04 PM, Jan 9
  • Looking at bones (Beaty Biodiversity Museum)

    → 12:39 PM, Jan 9
  • No clean

    → 11:07 PM, Jan 8
  • Brunch is good at Caffe Brixton

    → 11:04 PM, Jan 8
  • Strathcona Rosemary

    → 11:01 AM, Jan 8
  • Makings of a Drupal shooter #d7rp (Bootup Labs - Flack Block)

    → 6:15 PM, Jan 7
  • Misto for @Mortendk

    → 7:53 AM, Jan 6
  • → 7:30 AM, Jan 4
  • Presidential cookbook (Blue Lantern Studio)

    → 6:25 PM, Jan 3
  • Brumelle Family

    → 1:38 PM, Jan 3
  • Lovely old books (Blue Lantern Studio)

    → 1:14 PM, Jan 3
  • Aloo pie is on the menu tomorrow

    → 12:46 AM, Jan 2
  • Ariane’s window

    → 4:41 PM, Jan 1
  • Skillet bacon & eggs

    → 12:17 PM, Jan 1
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