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  • My parents are moving today. Third move in 47 years they’ve been in Canada.

    → 1:32 PM, Oct 23   •  Twitter, Personal, bowenisland
  • Last BC Day at Millers Landing

    My parents have sold their house on #bowenisland. They move out in October, after 41 years living there.

    This also means shutting down the Seven Hills B&B, which they’ve run for 25 years or so.

    They’re lucky to not have to leave Bowen. They’re building a 4-Plex with 3 other couples, which is just 500m closer to Snug Cove from where they are now.

    It was a lovely BC Day long weekend. But also a bit of an end of an era. My childhood home, that was always there for me, always “home”, won’t be around much longer. I’m lucky to have had it, and of course my parents and Bowen Island itself are still there.

    → 4:04 PM, Aug 3   •  Personal, Blog, bowenisland
  • Treats from Pacific Bread Company for Rachael’s birthday girlfriends gathering. PBC has excellent pastries.

    → 1:17 PM, Jul 25   •  Personal, Rachael Ashe, Pacific Bread Company
  • EverWiki

    EverWiki is a wiki-like structure / interface built on top of Evernote. The goal is to provide an interface to organize and interlink your Evernote notes, as well as to provide a structure to manage permissions, notifications, and comments on those notes.

    Update July 5th, 2020: I have no idea where this little fragment of writing came from. Likely something with an interface to WordPress I was testing, and writing up something I would like to see. Today, we have tools like Roam.

    → 5:05 PM, Sep 9   •  Personal, Blog
  • Leftover turkey curry

    Carrot, potato, turkey curry by bmann
    Carrot, potato, turkey curry, a photo by bmann on Flickr.

    After figuring out the “secret” of curry from the home style recipe I found, I tried again with turkey leftovers.

    The secret is 1) toasting spices in a bit of oil (cumin, peppercorns, etc.) and 2) pureeing an onion or two and sauteing it in the toasted spice oil until the onions brown a bit.

    The pureed onions add a solid backbone to the sauce, both in terms of flavour (sweet + caramelized) and texture (no flour or other thickening agents needed).

    This was served with roti that Rachael made, which also turned out the best yet.

    → 1:41 PM, Jan 1   •  Personal, Blog
  • Photowalk with Ross

    Photowalk with Ross - a set on Flickr

    Photowalk with Ross - a set on Flickr.

    I went for a walk around Gastown with Ross, who lent me his “old” Nikon D90 and a 50mm lens. I definitely want this sort of lens for my camera.

    Thanks, Ross, that was fun!

    → 10:03 PM, Dec 3   •  Personal, photography, image, Nikon D90, photowalk, rosshj, Blog
  • Class Afloat talk at Interesting Vancouver

    Last night I gave a talk at Interesting Vancouver. This picture is the one I used to start the talk - me at 18, half a life time ago, on the S/V Concordia.

    I was really nervous about the talk. I’ve told the story of my Class Afloat trip many times, but it’s so long ago that it doesn’t often come up anymore. In fact, I’m kind of reluctant to bring it up - because it was so long ago.

    But it’s been nice thinking about the time and thinking about the experiences I had.

    I called the presentation Places on a Map. There are so many stories to tell, but with only 10 minutes, I ended up telling a general arc of not only the trip, but what the program is about. Calling it Places on a Map is to have you think about the fact that we have access today to a ton of information about far away places. Wikipedia has highly detailed facts that can let you go as deep as you wish.

    But unless you’ve actually been there, and experienced that place, that’s all they are: places on a map.

    I also talked about regret a bit at the end. Having done this voyage - however long ago - it is a part of me. I can’t go outside myself and think about what might have been if I hadn’t gone. And that’s how I mostly treat regret. You’re on the path you’re on, and you may think about paths not taken. But that’s a different path: the you that is in the here and now is the sum total of all those forks in the road, and only the forks ahead of you are ones you can change.

    One of the many stories I didn’t tell is how I made it on the trip. It’s all thanks to my parents. They supported me in doing this thing, this once in a life time experience, and ultimately supported me financially so I could go. I also fund raised from my local community of Bowen Island, but it’s my parents that I have to thank the most. They were in the audience tonight, so I was glad they got to see my talk, that that experience still resonates with me so many years later.

    Thanks to everyone that came to Interesting Vancouver. If you’re interested, I have  a handful of photos uploaded on Flickr, but I am going through all the photos and will be putting together a mini-site (that link is an older work in progress).

    I’ve also set up a Class Afloat 93 - 94 alumni group on Facebook - you’re welcome to join if you were an actual alumni or a friend or family of alumni.

    → 12:22 PM, Sep 29   •  Personal, Vancouver, Museum of Vancouver, Class Afloat, Events, Interesting Vancouver, IV12, presentation, speaking, Blog
  • Vancity fraud lock means I can't trust Interac

    I’ve just had my Vancity Interac debit card blocked for ‘confirmed skimming’. The last time this happened was about 2 weeks ago.

    Before that, it was about 3 months ago. That last time, I got my card replaced with a new chip & pin version, being assured that it was much less susceptible to fraud.

    My card has been blocked for ‘fraud’ about once a quarter since I’ve been with Vancity. I simply can’t trust my Interac card to be available as a payment tool when I need it.

    I’ve asked for more information, both in person at the branch and on the phone. Front line bank clerks have been all over the place with their answers. When I press for more details, they realize I want actual answers, and fall back to saying they can’t say more because of security.

    Which store was it? We can’t say. Did my card trigger something? Not necessarily, you might have just used your card in the general area where fraud has happened. Which area is that? We can’t say.

    When I went in 2 weeks ago, the clerk told me his own personal story. That before chip & pin, his card got blocked every few DAYS. He said “It completely changed my purchasing patterns” and went on to explain how he switched to using his credit card.

    When I asked if that was what Vancity recommended - switching to credit card usage rather than using the bank’s debit card system - he back tracked, explaining it was just a personal story.

    The adoption of Interac in Canada has been near universal. But I no longer trust using it, or at least not the debit card & associated automatic fraud detection systems that Vancity uses.

    I’ve asked several times in person & on the phone for a manager from Vancity to follow up with me, and it never happened. I’d like an explanation on what Vancity is doing to improve my experience.

    Taking time off work to reset my card, having to make alternate payment agreements, and in general my anxiety every time I go to use my debit card - all of these have lead to a terrible Vancity experience for me.

    Vancity: let me know if I should give up on Interac & just use a credit card.

    → 1:20 PM, Jun 30   •  Personal, Vancouver, Standard, fraud, Interac, Vancity, Blog
  • Wistia gift pack

    20120608-083519.jpg

    I got a really nice gift pack from the folks at Wistia. They do business video hosting, and are a great bunch of people.

    → 8:37 AM, Jun 8   •  Personal, video, image, video hosting, Wistia, Blog
  • The way WP.com supports domain names is messy.

    WordPress.com automatically removes the “www” from all URLs. Mapping the “www” subdomain is not supported.
    via Map a Subdomain — Support — WordPress.com.

    This is weird and messy. Either I can move my DNS / name servers to WP.com (which I am not comfortable doing - best practice is to keep your name servers separate from your hosting, so you can redirect if necessary).

    Or, I can choose a subdomain.

    So, this is now blog.bmann.ca. I will likely move bmann.ca to Octopress & an Amazon S3 bucket as well. Although I’m not sure that I need that top level domain doing anything, so for now, www and the root domain both redirect here.

    Tumblr and Posterous both support root A records (which is messy because it ties into a single IP) as well as subdomain CNAMEs including www. If WP.com supported ‘www’, this would be a non-issue.

    I guess this is another example of picking your use cases / target customers. Either host your full name servers with WP.com and they’ll handle everything, or be OK with the downsides of a non-www subdomain.

    → 11:29 PM, Jun 7   •  Personal, CNAME, DNS, hosting, Tech Rants, WordPress.com, Blog
  • Drupalcon clusters on Flickr

    Screen_shot_2012-01-31_at_1

    See the DrupalCon tag clusters on Flickr just made me tear up a little - there's a Boris cluster.

    Drupal will always be my "first love" when it comes to experiencing a large online community. I miss it a lot, sometimes.

    In any case, if you have more photos hiding somewhere of great Drupalcon experiences in the past, please get them to @pdjohnson. There are lots on Flickr, so creating some galleries of "best of" photos would also be something that anyone can do.

    → 2:34 PM, Jan 31   •  Personal, Flickr, Drupal, DrupalCon, Blog
  • Finally bought an m43 camera: Olympus PEN E-PM1

    Media_httpwwwdpreview_gcgoi
    via dpreview.com

    Rachael and I wandered through London Drugs waiting for our movie to start the other night. Took a brief look at Micro Four Thirds (aka m43) cameras again.

    London Drugs had the Olympus PEN E-PM1 on sale for only $399. It's definitely a "lower end" camera. Rachael and I had talked about maybe buying a kit together. This one was cheap enough to just get going with an m43 system: we can still buy a different body and share lenses, or add more lenses.

    It was time to just pick something. I've done some experimenting yesterday and today, and I'm happy with the purchase.

    The image / link at the top goes to the dpreview entry for the E-PM1. If you go to the Conclusion page, you can compare to other cameras in the same class. Everything gets very close to the same rating, and the price I paid for the E-PM1 makes it the best price / performance.

    Here's to more mindful photography in 2012.

    → 9:45 PM, Jan 1   •  Personal, camera, Olympus, m43, dpreview, London Drugs, Olympus PEN E-PM1, 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.

    → 5:05 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.

    → 3:54 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.

    → 1:34 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.

    → 12:10 PM, 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.

    → 3:24 PM, Dec 22   •  Personal, Christmas, gifts, Blog
  • 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.

    → 1:37 PM, Dec 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:32 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.

    → 9:17 AM, Dec 19   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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

    → 12:05 AM, Dec 14   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:35 AM, Dec 1   •  Personal, camera, photography, m43, Panasonic DMC GX1, Roland Tanglao, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:31 AM, Nov 27   •  Personal, KickStarter, Windowfarms, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:35 AM, Nov 22   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 2:51 PM, Nov 12   •  Personal, Blog
  • Cthulhu + Bunnies

    Media_httpsfarm7stati_afigh
    via whatever.scalzi.com

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

    → 3:16 PM, Oct 18   •  Personal, fun, Cthulhu, bunny, Blog
  • 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.

    → 7:01 AM, Sep 29   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 5:05 PM, Sep 25   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:28 AM, Sep 10   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Raincity Chronicles, GitHub, Blog
  • 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...

    → 1:23 PM, Sep 5   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 8:19 AM, Aug 28   •  Personal, recipe, Andouille, sausage, smoker, Blog
  • 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?

    → 2:03 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.

    → 8:08 AM, Aug 23   •  Personal, cooking, Food, quote, Blog
  • 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 »

    → 10:46 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 »

    → 12:41 PM, Aug 15   •  Personal, Foodtree, #eatlocal, Growing Chefs, eating, local, Blog
  • 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.

    → 4:40 PM, Aug 13   •  Personal, carrot, rosemary, recipe, pancetta, risotto, Blog
  • Pender Island

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    See the full gallery on Posterous

    → 8:55 AM, Aug 11   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 1:26 PM, Aug 7   •  Personal, cooking, recipe, apricot, ceviche, jam, peach, poached eggs, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:40 AM, Aug 6   •  Personal, dino, dinosaur, monster, Blog
  • 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…

    → 10:56 PM, Aug 5   •  Personal, Cthulhu, boris, squid, tentacles, Blog
  • 404 sobriety not found error @trevoro

    Image

    → 8:12 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.

    → 11:02 AM, Jul 28   •  Personal, Google Wallet, iPhone, wallet, Wallet 2.0, Blog
  • Scenes from Penticton: Vajazzling is big

    Image

    → 10:10 PM, Jul 24   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:39 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.

    → 9:19 PM, Jul 16   •  Personal, recipe, cookbook, cowboy, chuckwagon, Deka Lake, donuts, doughnuts, saleratus, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:07 PM, Jul 15   •  Personal, Deka Lake, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:25 AM, Jul 11   •  Personal, disc golf, Maple Ridge, Thornhill, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:02 PM, Jul 2   •  Personal, jam, Canada Day, car2go, Garry Point Park, Hitachino Nest White Ale, rhubarb, Steveston, strawberry, Westham Island, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:21 AM, Jul 1   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Fiji, guavas, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:20 PM, Jun 8   •  Personal, fun, Cthulhu, paleo, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:38 PM, May 29   •  Personal, no knead bread, recipe, bread, Blog
  • Boating with Alex

    Img_0012 Img_0013 Img_0014
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    → 8:19 AM, May 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 9:35 AM, May 12   •  Personal, Vancouver, Burrard Inlet, Orcas, seawall, Siwash Rock, Stanley Park, The Province, Blog
  • 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.

    → 1:41 PM, May 10   •  Personal, Neverwinter Nights, RPG, Facebook, Blog
  • "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.

    → 8:56 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.

    → 8:00 PM, May 7   •  Personal, funny, Canada, cellphone, comic, maplesyrupcurtain, Blog
  • "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.

    → 11:20 PM, Apr 27   •  Twitter, Personal, bacon, video, funny, Latvian, Blog
  • 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

    → 10:52 AM, Apr 23   •  Personal, Blog
  • 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.

    → 10:19 AM, Apr 18   •  Personal, funny, cowboy, dog, monkey, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:18 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.

    → 6:39 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.

    → 3:56 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, Vancouver, meat, rouladen, banh mi, Big Lou's Butcher Shop, butcher, Downtown Eastside, sandwich, Blog
  • 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.

    → 2:06 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…

    → 1:55 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!

    → 12:04 PM, Apr 17   •  Personal, bacon, fun, bacon roses, Blog
  • Walking in Seattle

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    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.

    → 10:32 AM, Apr 17   •  Personal, Seattle, Blog
  • I found an artist in the window

    P2286

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

    → 4:36 PM, Apr 16   •  Personal, rachael, Bird on a Wire, Blog
  • Zombie Bunnies

    Media_http30mediatumb_oucgl
    via yahooza.tumblr.com

    → 12:42 PM, Apr 15   •  Personal, funny, bunny, zombie, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:12 PM, Apr 14   •  Personal, Bowen Island, dolphins, Howe Sound, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:39 PM, Mar 26   •  Personal, Vancouver, cherry blossoms, Kitsilano, Blog
  • 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.

    → 11:34 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.

    → 10:05 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.

    → 8:49 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...

    → 9:14 PM, Mar 12   •  Personal, gaming, Dragon Age II, Neverwinter Nights, RPG, Blog
  • First meal at Nick's Spaghetti House

    Diptic

    With Rachael and Kai

    → 8:20 PM, Mar 10   •  Personal, diptic, dipticapp, Blog
  • Eierpfannkuchen with mushroom asiago sauce

    Diptic

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

    → 8:14 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.

    → 4:47 PM, Mar 6   •  Personal, Burnaby, Dolphin Theatre, Rango, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:04 PM, Mar 6   •  Personal, gaming, Dragon Age II, DLC, Blog
  • 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.

    → 12:27 AM, Mar 5   •  Personal, Derek Miller, penmachine, Blog
  • 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.

    → 10:19 AM, Feb 22   •  Personal, quote, Bowen Island, Blog
  • Reawaken as Tie-thulu, the most well-dressed of all the Elder Gods.

    Media_http29mediatumb_havdg
    via fuckyeahdementia.com

    I love me some Cthulhu.

    → 10:11 PM, Feb 21   •  Personal, funny, Cthulhu, Lovecraft, Blog
  • 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.

    → 8:13 PM, Jan 16   •  Personal, baking, soup, celeriac, celery root, pretzel, tomato soup, Blog
  • Finished cornbread slice

    Image

    → 10:38 AM, Dec 19   •  Personal, Blog
  • Vancouver Christmas Market

    Img_0004 Img_0005 Img_0006 Img_0007 Img_0008 Img_0009
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    This is the first time I ever used Groupon - to buy some 2 for 1 tickets to the Christmas Market. The things to buy aren’t very interesting, but the variety & quality of German food is excellent.

    → 12:50 PM, Dec 18   •  Personal, Blog
  • No one expects Super German (idea by @RachaelAshe)

    Image

    → 7:17 PM, Dec 14   •  Personal, Blog
  • Yuuki bathing

    Yuuki loves running / pouring water. Here he is right after dinner.

    Yuuki Bathing on Vimeo

    → 8:52 PM, Dec 6   •  Personal, video, Yuuki, Blog
  • Color Splash'd Rachael with fuzzy hat

    Img_0000

    → 1:13 AM, Dec 5   •  Personal, Blog
  • Check your physics books /cc @dshanahan

    What they should tell you is to check your physics books. Balance is not rest. It is not quietude. It is what happens when all of the shoving and tugging and swirling and twisting forces in your life are equally matched, and for a moment there is what seems like deep silence but is really the hush in the eye of the storm.

    via utata.org

    Rachael saw my post on balance and sent this to me and Derek. She’s right, competing forces are a kind of balance.

    And I guess that’s what I meant by finding out what balance means to me. I don’t quite know what forces should be pulling and pushing me.

    → 10:52 PM, Dec 3   •  Personal, balance, Blog
  • The lining is orange

    When your car looks like a car but the doors are gullwing, we notice them. When your suit looks like a suit but the lining is orange, we notice it. When you apply for a job and you don't have a resume, we notice it.
    via sethgodin.typepad.com

    I need to remind myself that fitting in all the way is not the goal. And to keep bringing the crazy.

    → 10:50 PM, Dec 3   •  Personal, Blog
  • Just One Word /via @dshan

    Balance
    via dshan.me

    My man @dshan is someone that I haven't spent nearly enough time with. He's an excellent writer, so I'm really looking forward to a month of posts from him. I really need to get back on the blogging horse. More specifically, the *personal* blogging horse.

    I snipped nothing but the word BALANCE from his post. I think I've said I'm going to do balance THIS YEAR....every year. And I suck at it. I really, really, really suck at balance.

    So maybe I need to reboot the word, the concept. Redefine what balance means, for me. And hold myself accountable to MY definition of it. I keep struggling with, maybe, other people's definition of balance.

    First, define it. Then, live it in the way that is meaningful for me.

    → 7:32 PM, Dec 2   •  Personal, Blog
  • Turtles all the way down

    The most widely known version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:

    A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"[1]

    The origins of the turtle story are uncertain.

    via en.wikipedia.org

    Darren brought this up today - I've used this phrase a lot in the past, although I don't recall where I got it from. I did read and enjoy the Discworld series.

    Yak shaving is another personal favourite.

    → 6:29 PM, Oct 26   •  Personal, turtles all the way down, yak shaving, Blog
  • Super Meat Boy

    via supermeatboy.com

    Hooked Gamers review of Super Meat Boy. I had stumbled on this a while back, and Lauren reminded me that it, uh, was "made for me".

    Apparently I have a reputation regarding meat :P

    It looks fun, but I pretty much suck at platform games.

    → 9:56 PM, Oct 17   •  Personal, meat, game, Super Meat Boy, Blog
  • Why we need email training

    Media_https3amazonaws_ceieg
    via theoatmeal.com

    I should probably remove the Feedburner rotating image bling from my Gmail. I tested it with the new rich text and then just left it turned on.

    Also, I have a disclaimer box being appended by my new office email. It *might* be part of some arcane certification process that it is required, but I haven't figured that out yet.

    I was *just* talking to people about email training being required these days…

    → 2:11 PM, Oct 4   •  Personal, email, The Oatmeal, Blog
  • Delve Deeper

    via gamersgate.com

    I have been sink for 48 hours+. I wandered out of my sickie cave this afternoon to visit Rachael's show at the Granville Island Hotel, and to make a trip to Oyama for fortifying victuals. I am rounding the evening off with some mindless gaming. Fun, so far.

    → 9:53 PM, Oct 3   •  Personal, gaming, Oyama, Delve Deeper, Blog
  • Why Johnny Can't Program /via @rushkoff

    Amazingly, America - the birthplace of the Internet - is the only developed nation that does not teach programming in its public schools. Sure, some of our schools have elected to offer "computer" classes, but instead of teaching programming, these classes almost invariably teach programs: how to use Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, or any of the other commercial software packages used in the average workplace. We teach our kids how to get jobs in today's marketplace rather than how to innovate for tomorrow's.

    …snip…

    As we continue to look at programming as a menial skill to be outsourced to developing nations, we will lose our innovative superiority as well. While this may not hurt American corporations capable of sourcing its code from anywhere, it would certainly hurt Americans looking for a skill set to replace our manufacturing jobs.

    via huffingtonpost.com

    Great piece on digital literacy by @rushkoff. I'm sure a lot of people will be turned off by some of the economic and military references, but look beyond that and think of digital tools as… …well, as tools, rather than as consumption vectors.

    It's just part of the great math & science handwringing in North America: we need to have people actually care about these things, and know how they work. Digital literacy is *important*.

    It's the difference between sitting around a fire and knowing how to make one from scratch when it goes out…

    → 3:42 PM, Sep 30   •  Personal, digital literacy, education, Blog
  • China is investing in multiple "moon shots" - modern airports, high speed rail, bioscience & electric cars

    Kevin Czinger, Coda’s C.E.O., who drove me around Manhattan in his company’s soon-to-be-in-production electric car last week, laid out what is going on. The backbone of the modern U.S. economy was locally made cars powered by locally produced oil. It started us on a huge growth spurt. In recent decades, though, that industry was supplanted by foreign-made cars run on foreign oil, so “now every time we buy a car we’re exporting $15,000 of capital, paying for it with borrowed money and running it on foreign energy sources,” says Czinger. “We’ve gone from autos being a middle-class-making-machine to a middle-class-destroying-machine.” A U.S. electric car/battery industry would reverse that.
    via nytimes.com

    I recently read about a supercomputer that is being built in China as well, so call that moon shot number 5.

    This is targeted at a US audience, and says to bet on electric cars. What should Canada bet on?

    → 10:14 PM, Sep 27   •  Personal, China, electric car, Blog
  • Quick Veal Stock and Remouillage

    Another thing about stock generally: don't think that stock making must be a huge undertaking.  I got an email the other day from a home cook saying she didn’t have the right pots to make stock.  Please, listen to me: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE ENORMOUS QUANTITIES AND MONOPOLIZE YOUR KITCHEN FOR AN ENTIRE WEEKEND IN ORDER TO HAVE STOCK.

    Put two or three pounds of bones in a 2-quart pot, cover with water, bring it to a simmer, skim anything that looks unpleasant off the surface, and put it in the oven set to 190 degrees for as long as you wish, a few hours at least or for beef and veal 10 hours is good.  Add an onion, two carrots and a bay leaf for the last hour of cooking.  Strain (the finer the strainer, the better the stock—I strain through a cloth).  This will give you about a quart of stock.

    For veal stock, see if you can find a veal breast, which has a great mix of bone, cartilage and meat (I know some people have trouble finding bones—if you’re not worried about cost, osso bucco works).  Ask your butcher to cut it into 3 inch pieces for stock (I use a cleaver which does the same work).  Roast them in a 425 degree oven until they are beautifully golden brown and delicious looking.  Then follow the above instructions.  Also add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and some garlic.  Other aromats that are great to use here and in other stocks are leeks, peppercorns (crack them first), parsley and thyme.

    via ruhlman.com

    I started looking at veal stock recipes (like this French Laundry at Home one by Carol) and my heart sunk. For one, I only bought 3 lbs of bones + meat from Cioffi's (Yelp entry), and for two ... it's Sunday afternoon and I want to use it in risotto this evening.

    Luckily, the quoted way of doing it is pretty much what I had planned anyway - roasted then cooked in the oven for a couple of hours with onions, celery, and carrots.

    We'll see if I'm up for doing the remouillage aferwards.

    → 3:07 PM, Sep 19   •  Personal, recipe, stock, Cioffi's, remouillage, veal, Blog
  • Stuffed Squash Blossom Recipe

    082220101859 082220101860 082220101861 082220101862 082220101863
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    These were bought too soon and languished in the fridge for some time, hence the wilted look.

    Filling was ricotta, crushed garlic clove, fresh black pepper, salt, minced & sauted onion and some of the zucchinis.

    Had the leftover stuffing just stirred into linguini the next day.

    → 6:59 PM, Sep 5   •  Personal, recipe, ricotta, squash blossom, Blog
  • My crab picture used in Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings

    The Stormlight Archive PortalBook List

    The Way of Kings

    Book One of the Stormlight Archive

    Purchase


    From Amazon
    From B&N
    From BookSense
    From Booksamillion
    From Powell's

    Content

    • The Way of Kings Sample Chapters
    • The Way of Kings Blog Posts
    • The Way of Kings Articles
    • Fake Twitter Reviews of the Way of Kings
    • The Way of Kings Release Events

    This book will be released August 31, 2010. Description coming soon.

    Brandon wrote an introduction for Tor.com here

    via brandonsanderson.com

    I got an email today that an image of a crab shell that I sold back in April is now in published form, in an EPIC FANTASY NOVEL:


    The book containing the map which uses your image as a partial rough base has now been released. The Way of Kings is an epic fantasy novel by Brandon Sanderson, and if you look on page 94, your crab picture was the basis for the map looking as if it was first scratched into a shell and then made into a charcoal rubbing.

    Very cool. Good excuse to go pick this book up.

    → 5:55 PM, Sep 1   •  Personal, book, fantasy, ClusterShot, epic fantasy, Blog
  • Irish Soda Bread Recipe

    Ingredients

    • 4 cups all-purpose flour
    • 4 tablespoons white sugar
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1 tablespoon baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup margarine, softened
    • 1 cup buttermilk
    • 1 egg
    • 1/4 cup butter, melted
    • 1/4 cup buttermilk

     

    Directions

    1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
    2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
    3. Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

     

    via allrecipes.com

    Had this as a link on FoodLikeThat, which I will be ditching one of these days. Key things with this seems to be use of both baking soda and powder, and lots of buttermilk.

    Made originally for Christmas morning, 2008.

    → 7:58 PM, Aug 23   •  Personal, baking, buttermilk, recipe, bread, Irish, Blog
  • Rouladen

    I have watched my mom prepare rouladen many times, and I'm sure I've even helped in the past. But, this is the first time I made them on my own (aside from Rachael's thread wrapping help).

    080720101790

    Rouladen as I know it is made from beef. You can usually ask the butcher for rouladen cuts, and many butchers will already have it pre-cut (especially the Freybe Outlet Store on Hastings just off Victoria Drive). You don't pound it flat or anything - it comes cut as thin as you need it to be.

    The quantities I mention here are for 16 rouladen. You want to figure about 2 per person and/or to have lots of leftovers, because they are delicious. Aside from the 16 strips of beef for the rouladen, you'll also need:

    • 1 lb of bacon (get something nice, like double smoked European style, but any bacon will do)
    • 4 - 6 large dill pickles (or many smaller baby dills / gherkins)
    • 2 - 3 onions
    • ~8 Tbsp of Dijon or other hot mustard (about a quarter of a jar)
    • something to hold the rouladen together (butcher's string, toothpicks, or random thread from the bottom of your sewing kit)

    Mince the bacon and cook it over medium heat (or stick it in the oven) until it's nice and crispy. You'll want to drain the fat / juices as you go (save them!) to make sure it gets crispy. Mince the onions and saute them (perhaps with some of that delicious bacon juice) on low until translucent / tender. Mince the pickles. Once the bacon & onions are done, drain the fat / pat them to soak up some of the fat and let them cool. Once everything is no longer piping hot you can mix all of these things together.

    Lay out the rouladen on a counter / workspace and spread with mustard. Do a twist of cracked pepper and salt over each piece of meat as well. Spoon on 2 Tbsp or soon onto one end of the piece of meat. Roll up the meat and secure it. If you're using thread, it's easiest if you do all the rolls, and then have someone help you wrap and tie each bundle.

    Remember the bacon juice you saved? Put it in a pan and heat. Brown the rouladen on each side, doing them in batches until they are all browned. Place them in a dutch oven or casserole dish, sprinkling a little flour on them as you layer them in.

    Deglaze the pan with water (or beer or wine) and pour over the dish of rouladen. Stir in a Tbsp or so of mustard for a bit more "tang" to the sauce as well as any leftover minced bacon / onion / pickle bits. Add water / liquor as needed so that the rouladen are mostly submerged. Cover and cook at 350°F for 45 minutes or so.

    I made this for Lauren's birthday party. We ended up serving it as a "meatatizer" - it was lukewarm and we prepped it by cutting all the thread off and cutting it into slices. The cross section of the rolled meat with the stuffing looks nice on a plate.

    Traditionally, you'd have this with potatoes or spätzle, plus some sort of highly cooked vegetable like red cabbage or perhaps some sauerkraut.

    → 9:10 PM, Aug 9   •  Personal, recipe, German, rouladen, Blog
  • Toward a steady-state economy /via @sebpaquet

    I think it is. My view on the matter is that the era of economic growth is over, kaput, finished. If you stop for a minute to think about it, you must admit that we live on a finite planet, that we are rapidly using up the available resources, that we are adding ever more pollution to our air, water and land, and that the distance (in time) between the end of the production line and regional dump is growing ever shorter. This cannot continue. Nature shows us that nothing grows forever. What would it be like if children never stopped growing? What happens as insect or animal populations grow? They either level off or experience a catastrophic collapse.

    So, if we cannot expect the economy to return to what has been “normal” in our past, what can we expect? I believe that we must, and in fact are right now transitioning toward a steady-state economy, one in which overall quantitative growth is supplanted by qualitative development, i.e., an improvement in the conditions of life that really matter,

    via beyondmoney.net

    There are many good quotes, like "the Butterfly economy" or "Use value is becoming more important than market value".

    I learned from reading greaterfool.ca, which is mainly about real estate but also about investing in general, that buying shares in banks that pay dividends earns you more (like 5% more) than sticking that same money into that bank's savings accounts.

    Investing in "real" dividends -- CSAs (community supported agriculture) and other co-op models -- is one way to get value directly.

    One area that I would like to see some focus on, learned from many discussions with Anthony of Farmstead Wines and Foodtree, is that while production is always local, I believe it is important for us to reward / seek out "good" forms of production wherever they are. Carbon footprint aside, we need to link these global local producers.

    → 8:49 PM, Aug 9   •  Personal, co-op, investing, Blog
  • Rendering plant in East Van

    Screen_shot_2010-08-06_at_8
    Through the wonders of Google Maps, I learned that there is a rendering plant a couple of blocks from my house - West Coast Reduction Ltd.

    The picture above is a screenshot from a Flash movie explaining the rendering process. Apparently, rendering is recycling. Also, french fries are a 5th food group? Type of animal?

    I especially enjoyed being able to click through the separate parts of the rendering process, and how everything ends up as Fight Club-style soap or protein meal for "feed". Fun!

    → 8:33 PM, Aug 6   •  Personal, chicken, East Van, rendering plant, Blog
  • A long time ago, before psychiatry and rum /via @kevinmarks

    A long time ago, before psychiatry and rum, I seriously considered a job in intelligence.  Among other things I had some Russian, and I knew another guy who was fluent in Russian and was actively being recruited by the CIA.    He decided not to do it because... his Dad wouldn't let him.  At that time it struck me as curious that you'd be more worried about your dad than the Russians, but I have since understood: we were living in a time where there was no right and wrong, no objective truths, all things were relative except the inviolable Law of Growing Up American:  go to college, then get a job.  Your dad's sole purpose was to make sure you followed that rule.   If you raped a murder victim then your Dad would get you a good lawyer, but if you showed any proclivity towards anything other than a future 9 to 5 in a field he understood, it was your ass.

    I'll grant you up front that Scott probably suffers from a mixture of ennui and myopia and absolutely no chance of STDs, who apparently feels neither shame in nor fear about sabotaging his job prospects by appearing in these photographs, to the fury of every American other American who sees them:

    via thelastpsychiatrist.com

    This is commentary on an article in the NYT about a college grad that hasn't been able to find a job in 2 years since he graduated. Except, he hasn't started anything himself and he turned down the one he was offered.

    Read the whole thing.

    Yeah, I don't think that anyone that uses the Internet as part of job screening is going to be hiring Scott.

    → 9:02 PM, Aug 3   •  Personal, entrepreneurship, Blog
  • We've propped up zombie companies that create McJobs

    We've overinvested in yesterday's industries to the point that they're now the walking dead - but the cost, of course, has been failing to seed tomorrow's.

    We don't have awesome jobs because we've propped up zombie companies that create, largely, McJobs - when they create any at all. Conversely, the incentives for entrepreneurship are drying up, thanks to a broken ventureconomy.
    via bubblegeneration.com

    Feeling like there are connected threads between stuff like this and Dave Pollard's thinking on coop economies. Except, I agree with some of the comments over there. The step 1 of company creation by committee is damn hard.

    → 5:33 PM, Aug 1   •  Personal, Blog
  • Betty Baguette - fresh sandwiches delivered by bike in Vancouver

    Media_httpbettybaguet_irggb
    via bettybaguette.com

    Seen via @nickmolnar and others. Clicking through to the web page, there is only a phone number. No email / contact form makes me sad :(

    → 2:46 PM, Jul 26   •  Personal, Vancouver, Betty Baguette, Blog
  • Strathgartney Provincial Park - Disc Golf in PEI

    via dgcoursereview.com

    I'm hoping that I'll have time during my trip to play some disc golf. I brought a couple of my golf discs just in case.

    → 6:47 PM, Jul 20   •  Personal, disc golf, PEI, Blog
  • European Shopping Tour of Vancouver

    I posted this originally on Urban Vancouver, way back in December 2004. I thought I'd move a copy here to make sure I could keep a copy.

    About a year ago, I put together a collaborative map of places to buy great ingredients in Vancouver over on Foodists.ca. Here's the map:

    http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&source=embed&msa=0&msid=108403776136895878523.00046bf165f8fcf2408b4&ll=49.291993,-123.101807&spn=0.13435,0.273972&z=11&output=embed
    View Foodists Vancouver map of key foody locales in a larger map


    My parents are both originally from Germany. I grew up speaking German, and we originally lived just off "Robson Strasse" as it was then known because of all the Germans that lived there.

    Even today, living in Vancouver, most Europeans don't need to change their diet (i.e. lots of good bread, cheese, meat, sausages, chocolate, saurkraut, etc.) if you know where to shop.

    And that's where this post really starts. Read on for the tour of shops to fill your Euro-diet needs (and just really good stores/food in general)

    First up, the hidden treasures of European Specialty Importers. They're on 220 Prior Street, which is just off Main by the Georgia Viaduct. If you're coming over the viaduct from downtown, take the offramp as if you're going to Main. Instead of turning on Main, cross it (you're on Prior) and it's the warehouse directly on your right, with a big sign with their name. If it looks like you're pulling up at a loading dock, you're at the right place.

    What's there? Well, pretty much any canned or packaged European food -- coffee, tea, saurkraut, mustard (in a tube!), dumplings, etc., etc. There is a small selection of meats and cheeses as well, but we've got another spot for that. Oh yes...did I mention the chocolate? There is an entire cold room (under video surveillance) filled with chocolate (cue Simpson's reference here).

    Next stop, Andy's Bakery. A very small store front at 935 Commercial (at Venables) conceals the best "landbrot" (big, multi-pound loaves of German rye) in the city. Nice buns, and a really good dark multi-grain as well. No foamy insubstantial Wonderbread here! If you need a lot of bread, you can call ahead to order.

    You may have seen the name Freybe before -- they produce a lot of commercially packaged meat stuff. But, they also happen to have a factory outlet store at 716 East Hastings Street. It is sometimes so busy on Saturdays that they have to lock the doors and only let people in as others leave. Cold cuts, sausages, and fresh meat. Have you ever had meat salad? They have it, and it's delicious.

    OK, the car is getting pretty full at this point, but there are still a few bits and pieces we need. Famous Foods is at 1595 Kingsway at King Edward. They bill themselves as "The Original Bulk Food Store", but they have so much more. The "bulk" stuff is nicely packaged dry goods, from great spices to pastas, beans, flour, oats, etc. etc. They have a good selection of meat, seafood, cheese, and even vegetables. The last category is natural products -- environmentally friendly cleaning and hygiene products. Yes, the variety is incredible, and the prices are great, too.

    Now I'm going to throw in a couple of bonus links, both on the drive -- Santa Barbara, a store a bit like Famous Foods. Expect to spend as much as 20 minutes waiting at the deli counter for service, but it's worth it. The other one is Norman's Fruits and Vegetables. The owners have produce from local farms in the valley, and you can get masses of produce for really cheap -- e.g. $2 for a 5lb box of roma tomatoes.

    What are your favourite food shops in Vancouver? Anyone have pointers for shopping for Chinese, Indian, Thai, or other cuisine/ethnicity ingredients?

    → 6:59 PM, Jul 15   •  Personal, European, German, map, shopping, Blog
  • Loaves from the local baker vs. the local hypermarket

    Let me explain - and allow to me to over-generalize for a moment. Let's say you want a loaf of bread. How many of us will pay an extra 15-30% for a loaf from the local baker, versus a loaf from the local hypermarket? Yet, because we won't, the bakery - and its jobs - vanish.

    After all, why would you pay a slight premium, for goods that are substitutes? Except, of course, they're not - really. Your bakery has radically different incentives than your local hypermarket, and might just offer you a significantly higher level of artisanship, skill, service - and trust. Yet, it's exactly those we don't seem to value.

    via bubblegeneration.com

    Tuesday I attended an event at Joel Solomon's place hosting Woody Tasch, talking about the Slow Money Alliance.

    Thanks to Joel for opening his house so everyone could hear Woody share his views, and get some thought and discussion flowing as well.

    A question / comment I expressed to Woody is that I am uncomfortable with the label of investor applied to myself (and yes, with those that know my Bootup context, that is some what ironic). And for many, I think "investor" is not a good rallying cry.

    As per the quoted text above from Umair Haque, making that sort of local, personal _movement_ happen is something I feel more comfortable with.

    Supporter seems too weak a word. Yes, I would like to invest. I would like to invest my support, vs. the local hypermarket.

    → 12:24 AM, Jul 15   •  Personal, hypermarket, Joel Solomon, Slow Money Alliance, Woody Tasch, Blog
  • A sanctimonious diorama about the folly of late-period humanity /via @mezzoblue

    Later on I will stand in one of these stores in front of a pyramid of Coke Zero bottles and consider the fact that a whole infrastructure exists for bringing this substance of no nutritional value from wherever it's bottled in Europe up to a place like this. I happen to love Coke Zero and whatever cyclopyrimidines or butylated phenols give it its weird fake sweetness, but seeing it stacked in quantity after coming off an island where everything has to be carried in by hand gives me pause. I feel like the Burfjord grocery store will someday form part of a sanctimonious diorama about the folly of late-period humanity in someone's well-meaning, sustainably-built museum or alien terrarium, and the thought fills me with irritation in advance. I buy a large bottle of the stuff as my way of shaking a fist at the future.
    via idlewords.com

    Found via @mezzoblue, and wonderful reading.

    Reminds me of when I was on a small atoll that is part of the Marshall Islands. There was one cinderblock construction supply store for both visitors and locals. We all lined up to pay $1USD for… …a cold can of coke. It also seems that $1 is the universal price for a can of pop.

    → 12:54 PM, Jul 13   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Coke, Coke Zero, Blog
  • Damien Rice 9 Crimes (song from the end of tonight's #TrueBlood)

    via youtube.com

    The video is creepy. It's nice and haunting as a credit roll for True Blood.

    → 10:03 PM, Jul 11   •  Personal, video, Damien Rice, True Blood, Blog
  • The murder of nature upon your very soul

    What must it be like to have the murder of nature upon your very soul? To have sacrificed all the world’s creatures for your own kind, and thereby lost your souls more completely than by any evil magic?

    Storm Seed, by Janet & Chris Morris, p 194

    → 5:05 PM, Jul 10   •  Personal, book, quote, Thieves World, fantasy, Storm Seed, Blog
  • The altar that was the shore at the end of time

    The god had been looking for a heart in the city, a heart that was worthy, a heart that knew true worship. And the god had found such a heart, and a voice that called upon Him without greed or demand, without wheedling or whining.

    The heart of the prophecy did Enlil find in the stable while the storm raged, upon the altar that was the shore at the end of time.

    But though the prophecy was fulfilled upon that moment, the humbling of the city had just begun.

    “City at the Edge of Time”, by Janet & Chris Morris, p189

    → 4:58 PM, Jul 10   •  Personal, book, quote, Thieves World, fantasy, City at the Edge of Time, Blog
  • "Learn to do real things and how to create value for other people" /via @rushkoff

    In the meantime, learn to do real things and how to create value for other people. Make friends with your neighbors or, if necessary, neighbors out of your friends.

    This is not a nightmare scenario, no matter what “they” say it is. No need for apocalypse, regression, or guns. That’s all silliness.

    Good times ahead.

    via rushkoff.com

    Good advice. Seen via @jonhusband.

    Today's post has another great quote about the connection between "stuff" and how much we actually need to work to survive - "I believe we could take care of pretty much everyone’s needs – at least in America – with all of us being employed perhaps 10% of the time."

    Good times ahead indeed.

    → 11:29 AM, Jul 8   •  Personal, Blog
  • Woodland Park Disc Golf

    http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
    via flickr.com

    Here's the natural object 9 hole disc golf course I came up with this morning.

    → 5:55 PM, Jul 6   •  Personal, disc golf, Woodland Park, Blog
  • Dinnner Rolls

  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 3/4 cup hot milk
  • 3 tablespoons shortening
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour, or enough to make stiff dough
  • melted butter
  • via southernfood.about.com

    I made these for our Canada Day apartment picnic. What's that? It's when you put out pillows and blankets on the floor of your apartment because it's too cloudy / rainy to have a picnic outside!

    On the second rise in the pan, they all just sort of rose into one large mass. Next time, put them farther apart in the pan.

    I also think I might have over-kneaded a bit and/or worked in a bit too much flour as part of kneading, but it turned out some really nice crumb, almost like a biscuit or something with corn meal in it. This is theoretically a Southern food recipe, so maybe that makes sense.

    → 7:45 PM, Jul 1   •  Personal, baking, recipe, Blog
  • I made a vegan German potato salad

    The key part of German potato salad for me is the lack of mayonnaise and eggs. I make this up from scratch whenever I make it, but my version always includes two essential ingredients: Dijon mustard as part of the vinaigrette (I like the flavour and tang that it adds) and finely chopped dill pickles (a satisfying crunch and burst of vinegary / salty goodness).

    I also usually put in bacon / guanciale / schinken speck, but this time around, knew that there were going to be a number of vegetarians present and skipped the meat products. Hence, I (*gasp*!) accidentally made a vegan potato salad - which I didn't even realize until someone asked what was in it, and it dawned on me that yes, it was indeed a vegan potato salad :P

    The full recipe is on Foodista:

    Vegan German Potato Salad

    → 4:06 PM, Jun 27   •  Personal, cooking, Foodista, recipe, German, potato salad, vegan, Blog
  • Monkey Pirate Robot Ninja: The Game /via @laughingsquid

    Media_httpmarkarayner_khgzb
    via markarayner.com

    I'm done with Rock Paper Scissors as of now.

    → 3:55 PM, Jun 27   •  Personal, fun, game, monkeys, Blog
  • Who wants to dinner swap? /via @trevoro

    A cooking co-op, or dinner swap, is simply an agreement by two or more individuals or households to provide prepared meals for each other, according to a schedule. The goal is to reduce the time spent in the kitchen while increasing the quality and variety of the food eaten.

    It’s not a new idea — dinner co-ops have been around for years — but it was new to me. Mine is based in my apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens, which adds to the convenience. Members of our co-op, made up of four households, including two editors at the James Beard Foundation and Tony Liu, the executive chef of the Manhattan restaurant Morandi, exchange meals weekly.

    It works like this: Once a week, you cook a dish (chicken enchiladas, for instance), making enough to provide at least one serving for each adult member of the co-op. (Children can be assigned half or full portions, depending on ages and appetites.) Around the same time, your fellow co-op members are cooking large batches of their chosen dishes.

    via nytimes.com

    Saw Trevor post this earlier in the day. This well describes what I'd like to try – I find it easier to cook large portions in any case. Leave a comment if you're interested in participating.

    → 12:59 PM, Jun 24   •  Personal, cooking, co-op, cooking co-op, dinner swap, Blog
  • Making pork stock

    062120101586 062120101587 062120101588
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    I followed a combination of #2 and #3 from this site on Chinese soups. Specifically, I used a bunch of pork bones plus a pork hock. The hock had lots of skin and fat as well as bones, so I trimmed the the skin off and then broiled it in a cast iron pan with a couple of cloves of garlic until the skin was crisp and the garlic was nutty brown.

    → 9:00 PM, Jun 22   •  Personal, cooking, pork, Chinese, stock, Blog
  • Mover Dinner Menu

    OK, it's down to the wire, and I think I've figured out the menu for the Mover Dinner I'm putting on tomorrow. Mover Dinner? A thank you to all the folks that helped us move. When I'm short on cash, I pay in food!

    First Course: Laksa a la Boris

    I spent Monday making pork stock. This is going to be the basis for a Laksa-inspired soup - I'll add coconut milk, bean sprouts, noodles and likely some chicken. Fresh green onions and coriander will round it out.

    Second Course: Spinach salad with Guanciale

    I've talked about the beauty of guanciale before - I'll crisp up some cubes of it with garlic and make a honey / mustard dressing to go over spinach leaves and some tomatoes.

    Third Course: Pita Wraps with Chicken

    I'll marinate / grill the chicken in pieces, as well as have some roasted peppers, sautéed onions, a tomatillo-based salsa (maybe sort of like this one?), some fresh tzatsiki, and other fixings for people to make their own wraps.

    Dessert Course

    Some sort of white vanilla cake served with the strawberries & rhubarb that we got last weekend.

     

    → 8:48 PM, Jun 22   •  Personal, cooking, guanciale, laksa, tomatillo, Blog
  • The dark side of the farmers' market boom

    But what if there's a little-known dark side to the farmers' market boom? What if the ruddy man in overalls actually came from hours away, where local residents don't have access to the vegetables grown near their own backyards because farmers prefer selling their produce to city dwellers at nearly triple the price?

    Linda Aleci, a historian and co-founder of the Local Economy Center at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, undertook a three-year study of the farmers' market in her city. Her findings suggested that the local farmers' market -- serving a poor, food-insecure community -- was suffering from the growth of markets in the Philadelphia metro region and in Lancaster County.

    via salon.com

    So, the problem here is treating food / food growing as a purely economic endeavour. I can see "local" markets (in quotes, because the very phrase "local" is problematic -- it's not the only value that is important) needing to work with farmers AND buyers to encourage a great local ecosystem.

    Do we drive out and buy from the farmer's gate? Can local stores stock produce from local farmers? (I'm thinking, here, of a suburban / rural area that has farmers / farmland as part of the community).

    Or should farmers go full steam ahead, and sell in urban farmers markets if it means higher prices for them?

    → 2:42 PM, Jun 21   •  Personal, Food, farmer's market, farming, Blog
  • I realized the internet was stealing the reading of books away from me /via @ebertchicago

    For some days now I have physically left the room with the computer in it, and settled down somewhere to read. All the old joy came back, and I realized the internet was stealing the reading of books away from me. Reading is calming, absorbing, and refreshing for the mind after hectic surfing. Chaz and I have quiet chats where we sit close and she talks and waits for my reply and this is soothing after the online tumult. I like the internet, but I don't want to become its love slave.
    via blogs.suntimes.com

    You should definitely be reading Ebert's blog.

    And yes, I read less. Less BOOKS. In all likelihood, I read many more words. I try and fit in reading as well, as that calmness is necessary, and lets your unconscious do its work figuring stuff out in the background.

    Currently, I'm reading some Janet Morris / Thieves World fantasy stuff.

    → 12:47 AM, Jun 12   •  Personal, book, Janet Morris, reading, Roger Ebert, Thieves World, Blog
  • Micro Four Thirds

    I've been jonesing for a new camera. Specifically, while I take a handful of pictures with my Nokia N95 that is with me everywhere, it's just not the same (obviously) as a great camera.

    I've been quite happy over the years with my Canon PowerShoot "S" Series - I started with the S1, then ended up with the S5. The all in one, super zoom, great macro performance, and regular AA batteries are all great features. BUT. It's big and bulky, especially with the filter adapter that I always end up buying, and there is no upgrade path other than well, buying a newer model :P

    I've been really intrigued by the Micro Four Thirds system - small, compact cameras with small form factor interchangeable lenses. That last link is to Wikipedia, here is the Micro Four Thirds section of the Four Thirds website.

    Olympus and Panasonic came together and are using the same standard to make these cameras, and the lenses are interchangeable. I was initially attracted to the Olympus models, but after trying them out at London Drugs, the lower cost ones are made of plastic and feel cheap, and the metal body ones are more expensive and have less features than the equivalent Panasonic.

    The first third party (Noktor) is also announcing a lens for this standard, so it is likely that a nice healthy Micro Four Thirds ecosystem will spring up over time.

    So, yes, I'm scheming to get back into this game. The fact that R will (I'm sure) be glad to tote around a compact sized camera with DSLR quality doesn't hurt either.

    → 12:31 PM, Jun 5   •  Personal, camera, Micro Four Thirds, Olympus, Panasonic, photography, Blog
  • The "social cost" of renting in Vancouver has increased

    Even though rent-versus-purchase math has long worked strongly in favour of renters, even moreso in the last few years, renters are not looked upon as fiscally wise and prudent, but rather as disadvantaged and unfortunate. This is not to say that this is fair, or right, it simply is the truth of what has happened here through the bubble. A renter confessing to renting in company not uncommonly gets responses ranging from pained grimaces, to condolences, to pity, to thinly veiled scorn. And renters can only imagine the opinions expressed when they are out of earshot.

    Yes, there are places in the world where renting is the norm. And, yes, many of the superficially wealthy Vancouver owners have abused their RE-ATMs and have large invisible debt loads. But the fact of the matter remains that renters are seen as relatively disadvantaged compared to their owner peers.

    via vreaa.wordpress.com

    As I once again move to a rental apartment, this discussion has been coming up again and again. Do we need a "renting is great" information campaign? Or maybe just a "f*ck owning!" campaign…

    → 11:03 AM, May 26   •  Personal, real estate, renting, Blog
  • Come for the sloths, stay for the frogs

    http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11712103&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=&fullscreen=1
    via pinktreefrog.typepad.com

    This women in South America is trying to save amphibians - frogs and other creatures are dying because of a deadly fungus that's sweeping the planet.

    So, she went to a sloth orphanage and took cute sloth videos, hoping it would go viral so you would come to her site, and help save frogs. Pretty awesome (and the sloths are cute).

    → 10:37 PM, May 17   •  Personal, video, cute, frogs, sloths, Blog
  • GINK by DERRICK COMEDY

    via youtube.com

    I shared this on Twitter already, but it is very very very funny, and you should watch it for sure. We've been watching Community, which has Donald Glover from DERRICK COMEDY in it.

    → 4:39 PM, May 17   •  Personal, video, DERRICK COMEDY, Donald Glover, funny, Blog
  • In Vancouver, middle class people can't afford to live middle class lives

    It won’t surprise anyone who’s ever read this blog that I lay most of the blame for this state of affairs on the overheated real-state market. When the average couple – one without trust funds, inheritances, or seven-figure jobs – can’t afford to buy the average home, there’s a price to be paid. In the short-term, that price will be paid (in a cruel irony) by those very same average couples, who will leverage themselves into knots to get into the market. From there, only two things can happen, both of which will prove catastrophic for our average couple: the real estate market can either correct, in which case they’ll be sitting on negative equity and lifetime of crippling mortgage payments, or it won’t, and they’ll just be sitting on those equally debilitating mortgage payments.

    Eventually, though, those average couples will start to look elsewhere, to the Edmontons, the Saskatoons, and the Halifaxes of the country, places where middle class people – teachers, journalists, nurses, and tradespeople, for example – can afford to live middle class lives. They’ll move to places where they can afford to save money, to have children, and to plan for the future, rather than remaining on the economic hamster wheel of places like Vancouver and Toronto, where wages remain stagnant while prices shoot ever higher.

    They might even discover that they like these new cities, too. Certainly, from where I sit, Edmonton looks like a perfectly civilized place to spend some time, and I don’t know when, if ever, I’ll leave. But I do know this: until its economy returns to some semblance of normalcy, and until middle class people can afford to live middle class lives, I won’t go back to Vancouver.

    via maxfawcett.wordpress.com

    I think a lot of people are thinking about adjusting their cost structures – driven in Vancouver almost entirely by rent or mortgages – so that they can experiment and do things differently. "A chance to finally get ahead in life" as Max says earlier in his post.

    This article on Youngstown that I read in Inc. Magazine makes me think along the same lines. People moving back to places that are in rough shape, but where there is the opportunity to build new structures and new ways of doing things (because the old ways certainly haven't worked).

    → 8:59 PM, May 13   •  Personal, Vancouver, real estate, Blog
  • Giving feedback to small business

    050320101414

    Looks pretty good, doesn't it? There are a couple of problems with the meal (mainly the sandwich), and definite problems with the delivery. I tried this at a new cafe / eatery. I have a ton of thoughts on what is wrong with the business, and why they are most likely going to fail.

    My problem comes in providing this feedback. Obviously posting a review of all the stuff that went wrong and what I think could change isn't really that great. Posting about it, and mentioning the small business, won't really do them any good.

    Do I go and talk to them about it? All of this is of course just my opinion, so why should they listen to me? And of course, I'm not prepared to help them implement changes.

    So, do I just watch this small business fail from the sidelines?
    → 9:03 PM, May 11   •  Personal, feedback, small business, Blog
  • Moving to The Drive

    051020101439 051020101440 051020101441
    See the full gallery on Posterous
    Rachael and I are moving to a new place. After only a few rounds of crack-shack-or-mansion, we got accepted to a place at the northern end of Commercial Drive. I have a sad face about the electric stove, but the kitchen is bigger and open to the dining room / open plan living room, which is really nice. I'm looking forward to all the awesome food shopping along the drive (never mind the restaurants). For example, Andy's Bakery, a German / Italian bakery where my parents have been buying European style bread for over 30 years, is only 2 blocks away. Talking to Anthony, it sounds like there are some yardshare opportunities nearby as well, so perhaps we'll get some gardening in as well.

     

    → 8:53 PM, May 11   •  Personal, Commercial Drive, moving, The Drive, Blog
  • making things visible

    050820101422

    nancy white’s session

    → 1:43 PM, May 8   •  Personal, Blog
  • Unplugging on Galiano

    Media_httpfarm5static_kcvis
    via rachaelashe.com

    I'm in transition, so as part of that, Rachael and I headed over to Galiano Island for a short break away.

    The picture above is from the top of Mount Galiano, which we hiked right after getting to the island and having lunch. It's a steep climb, but only about an hour up, and views like this make it totally worth it. The link above leads to Rachael's write up of the trip, with more detail and lots more pictures. Here is my Galiano Flickr set.

    Christian was kind enough to be tour guide as well as lending his car so we could do a bit more exploring -- the island is really long and skinny and a car is basically required to go anywhere interesting (at least to non-long-distance bikers).

    It was a great unplug, although it did once again get me to thinking about knowledge workers and rural Internet usage - it's the only way we are going to make smaller, remoter areas economically self sustainable beyond "just" tourist services (and it can help with those, too).

    → 11:10 PM, May 5   •  Personal, Galiano Island, Blog
  • Recent Meatballs

    http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649
    via flickr.com

    Sharing recent meatballs for the #smprimer class.

    → 4:09 PM, Apr 29   •  Personal, Flickr, meatball, smprimer, Blog
  • Sharing Knife by Bujold cc @kellan @lloydbudd

    Media_httpecximagesam_ncsfy
    via goodreads.com

    I first picked up Bujold on recommendation from Kellan and devoured all the Vorkosigan series. I think I mostly dragged Lloyd into it as well.

    I saw Volumes 1 - 3 of the Sharing Knife series in the library, and here I am almost done Volume 2, and not wanting the series to end.

    The book is linked to GoodReads, a book sharing / recommendation thingie. I've still been using Allconsuming, but thought I'd give GR a try. Can't say as how I like it much better yet.

    → 8:58 PM, Apr 28   •  Personal, book, GoodReads.com, Lois McMaster Bujold, Sharing Knife, Blog
  • The Internet sucks at recipes

    I’d also like to point out that Google is now useless for information about cooking, because almost all Google search results now point to vacuous sites that offer mundane, simplified recipes – often the same recipe endlessly repackaged. Bing is no better. It’s cooks.com and the Food Network ’til the cows come home.

    My recent strategy has been to fool Google by combining the information I want with the name of a serious cook – Ruhlman or Keller or Bourdain – and then to look for results that are not written by that cook. This often gets you results from food blogs and other serious writers, not retreads from 1990’s supermarket magazines.

    via markbernstein.org

    I'd really really like to take this on. I've been dreaming about "the perfect recipe website" for many years. Hint: it involves APIs.

    → 11:15 AM, Apr 25   •  Personal, recipes, Blog
  • Killer Bunnies?

    Media_httpwwwkillerbu_unsfr
    via killerbunnies.com

    Played this last night for the first time, with 7 people that were over for dinner. It was …interesting. Definitely complex, didn't move very fast, and there are way too many different piles of cards and discard piles. Also needs a fairly large table so everyone can organize cards in front of themselves.

    Definitely need to play it with a smaller group to see if it moves more quickly, and thus makes it more fun.

    → 12:42 PM, Apr 21   •  Personal, board game, Blog
  • Cooking Octopus on @Foodists

    Media_httpfarm5static_peimi
    via foodists.ca

    Here's my write up on Foodists of how I cooked the octopus.

    → 11:05 PM, Apr 19   •  Personal, Foodists, octopus, Blog
  • About to broil an octopus

    Media_httpkalofagasca_poqad
    via kalofagas.ca

    I'm about to braise & broil an octopus - bought about a pound of tentacle down at Granville Island. Wish me luck, will have photos of the finished product.

    (Especially ironic because of the "cute" octopus video? Perhaps - they're still damn tasty)

    Update: OK, worked out pretty well. A little chewy, but delicious. Bought it at The Salmon Shoppe on Granville Island - had them hack off one big tentacle for Rachael and I (Rachael had fun taking some close up shots before I cooked it).

    Here's the picture of the finished product:

    Making Broiled Octopus - 6

    And the rest of the "making of" is on Flickr.

    → 3:28 PM, Apr 18   •  Personal, cooking, octopus, Blog
  • Video camera stealing octopus

    via youtube.com

    I really need to re certify in SCUBA and start building my gear again.

    → 12:19 PM, Apr 16   •  Personal, video, octopus, diving, youtube, Blog
  • What I did tonight

    I had an all hands meeting at work and discussed a bunch of upcoming stuff.

    I went home and relaxed by cooking dinner (braised cabbage in mustard cream sauce, boiled potatoes, and a beef / guanciale / mushroom mixture).

    Then the Internet started punching me in the face, and I helped write a quick blog post.

    Then I went off and played dodgeball, which was fun as always (the Internet kept punching over mobile).

    Then we went for team beers.

    Then I came home and tried to sift through all the face punching stuff on the Internet and write something in response.

    Turns out, I'm a real person, a lot like you. Please stop punching me in the face. Thanks.

    → 1:04 AM, Apr 15   •  Personal, Blog
  • I <3 taxes AKA government trapped by an ever-shrinking stream of revenue

    That’s why the push to repeal the HST is more dangerous than it might appear. It’s a Trojan Horse for more general forms of anti-tax sentiment, and if it is somehow successful it would establish a very dangerous precedent, a template that anti-tax groups would use to challenge any and all future tax increases. In such an environment future governments, regardless of their partisan orientation, would be hopelessly constrained, trapped by an ever-shrinking stream of revenue and forced to outsource, downsize, and otherwise remove itself from areas of enterprise and activity in which government currently acts. The danger in rallying against the HST is that it represents another rejection of taxation itself and of the idea that we as citizens have to pay for the services that we receive. From where I sit, in the long run that’s a far more significant threat to our prosperity as individuals, as British Columbians, and as Canadians than a few extra cents here and there in new taxes.
    via maxfawcett.wordpress.com

    No, really, I *do* love taxes. I'm not a huge fan of what various elected political parties do with them, but that's on us as the governed to fix and make better.

    But I'm a fan of the greater good, and a society that supports it. If I wasn't, I'd go live in the US.

    And really, if the 'Zalm is against it…

    /via @sillygwailo

    → 5:14 PM, Apr 13   •  Personal, BC, Canada, HST, politics, Blog
  • Startup drinks April 2010

    Photo

    I'm using Keynote to create a "Startup Drinks" presentation, with Danny looking on in the background. Photo by Weston Triemstra

    → 9:42 AM, Apr 7   •  Personal, me, photo, startup drinks, Blog
  • Dr Teeth tattoo

    Media_httpcraphoundco_gpfif
    via boingboing.net

    My long ago Ultimate team in Ottawa was called Dr. Teeth, and two of my favourite t-shirts feature Dr. Teeth front and center. Gotta love the gold tooth.

    → 2:56 PM, Mar 19   •  Personal, Dr. Teeth, Muppets, tattoo, Blog
  • Trotter Gear

    Trotter Gear

    Trotter Gear

    Trotter Gear

    Anthony and I made Trotter Gear this weekend. Which are, of course, pigs feet, and from Fergus Henderson's "Beyond Nose to Tail" cookbook (which Anthony gave to me for my birthday). Here's a version of the recipe.

    What does one do with trotter gear? Well, it features prominently as an ingredient in about a third of the recipes in that book. The pie described in the linked recipe is definitely something I want to try.

    → 11:09 PM, Mar 14   •  Personal, Anthony Nicalo, pork, trotter gear, Blog
  • Dawn of War 2 Chaos Rising

    Media_httpcdnsteampow_ddxzu
    via store.steampowered.com

    Comes out this Thursday. I really enjoyed the first part of this, and replayed it a couple of times. The "Last Stand" multiplayer is super addictive - you ALWAYS get that "just one more game" feeling.

    → 2:26 PM, Mar 8   •  Personal, gaming, Chaos Rising, Dawn of War 2, Warhammer 40K, Blog
  • Roast Lamb Leg Dinner

    030720101214 030720101215 030720101216
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Last of the Cutter Ranch lamb. Marinated with preserved lemons with bay leaves from my parents' garden, plus turmeric, coriander, garlic, etc. Served with cous cous with grilled peppers.

    → 1:56 PM, Mar 8   •  Personal, cooking, photo, lamb, Blog
  • Spaghetti with Guanciale and Kale

    030620101210 030620101211 030620101212
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    More on the magic of guanciale in the previous post.

    → 1:04 PM, Mar 8   •  Personal, spaghetti, photo, guanciale, kale, recipe, Blog
  • Guanciale - magical pork jowls

    Now that the Olympics are over, Oyama again has guanciale. I picked some up to cook while on Bowen.

    The "traditional" recipes for guanciale are all pasta dishes (Bucatini alla Amatriciana, Spaghetti alla Gricia, Spaghetti alla Carbonara - here are recipes for all three plus instructions on how to cure your own guanciale).

    Here are some non-traditional recipes I found online:

    • Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Ponzu Fried Garlic, Guanciale, and Bonito Flakes - I have my own bacon + mustard recipe for brussels sprouts, so I know this would be yummy
    • Whole-wheat pasta with cabbage, mushrooms, and caraway seeds - I'm not a fan of caraway seeds, but I can see how the whole wheat pasta would mesh with the smokiness of the pork
    • Tiny potato dumplings with Tomato Onion Guanciale sauce - pretty similar to the pasta sauces, but done with potato dumplings aka gnochetti instead. Mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and guanciale would also be stellar, I think …
    • Seattle Shellfish Stew with Kale and Guanciale - there are a variety of recipes that mix mussels with guanciale. Lots of bacon + mussel recipes out there, so this makes sense. The kale has a bitterness to it that goes with the smokiness, which is what I'm hoping for with my recipe.
    • Sautéed Ramps in Guanciale - I've never had ramps, which are a sort of scallion/leek/onion/garlic - but are apparently wild leeks

    My recipe? I'm doing pasta with a bunch of Red Boar Kale.

    Spaghetti With Guanciale and Kale

    → 6:40 PM, Mar 6   •  Personal, recipes, Foodista, pork, guanciale, kale, Oyama, Blog
  • Living on Bowen

    The waters of Howe Sound and the ferry across it are not only a physical barrier, but also a psychological one. Of course, many people say this about islands. With Bowen, and the commuter culture - which starts with high school - there is on island, and off island mindsets. The gearing up and gearing down happens every day.

    You leave your home, make your way to the ferry to go to work or school. You step out the door, you watch the sun rise over the mountains crossing the Causeway. You are still on island. You make it to the ferry, wait with the "usual suspects" (those commuters on the same schedule as you), take your assigned seat with your regulars. The conversation shifts towards the morning radio tidbits, the wider news of the day. You are leaving the island, your home life, behind. On the commute, you become immersed in city and work.

    You look at your watch, gather your things, and calculate which combination of trains, planes, and automobiles will get you on "the next ferry". The gathering of things may include a few files or artifacts that you need to bring home, but you are mentally as well as physically packing them away. Your thoughts turn towards this "next ferry", and you think about the weather, and what's for dinner. Arriving at the ferry terminal, you mentally pack work and stress away. Whatever happens, you will be on the next ferry. Crossing the water, you are facing home. Are you being picked up? Are you looking for a ride? Are you walking home in the dark and rain? There is a warm home at the end of the journey, time for a few last chats about politics, or development, or whether it's time to plant a few radishes.

    via bowegover.ning.com

    I left a comment on a new online forum for Bowen Island, being setup and run by many people I respect, including the newly-moved-to-Bowen Dave Pollard.

    I guess I didn't really answer the part of what do I appreciate about Bowen, rather a feeling I have about it. I appreciate that it is "home", and it is a home I can go to.

    → 3:31 AM, Mar 2   •  Personal, Bowen Island, commuting, Blog
  • Setting up Rachael's show at Waterfront Theatre

    022820101185 022820101186 022820101189
    See the full gallery on Posterous

    The show is called "Trees I have Dreamed", and you can find out more on Rachael's site about it. It runs until April 11th, and there will be some sort of exhibition. In the mean time, make sure to come visit the Altered Books at Bootup this Thursday (Facebook - Little Stories: Transforming the Book).

    → 2:27 AM, Mar 2   •  Personal, photo, rachael, Waterfront Theatre, Blog
  • Ground Pork Ragout

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    See the full gallery on Posterous

    Trying for something vaguely like Anthony's ragout. I remember it had carrots and pork, and the nutmeg seemed a good direction to go.

    Ground Pork Ragout on FoodistaGround Pork Ragout

    → 12:39 AM, Mar 2   •  Personal, Foodista, photo, pork, recipe, ragout, Blog
  • Brunch as a meal to have people over for is neglected

    Ingredients

    12

    eggs

    12

    ounces jar of salsa

    1 ½

    cups grated cheese

    Preparation

    Step 1

    Pre-heat oven to 400°F

    Step 2

    Grease a 12 cup muffin pan with a little oil

    Step 3

    Crack an egg into each muffin tin

    Step 4

    Spoon about a tablespoon or so of salsa over each egg (don't worry if it slides to one side or the other of the yolk)

    Step 5

    Top each egg / salsa mixture with grated cheese - cheddar, monterey jack, or other flavourful melty-cheese works (mozzarella is too bland)

    Step 6

    Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes - cheese should be melted and bubbly, and egg should be cooked through

    via foodista.com

    Huevos Rancheros a la Muffin Pan on FoodistaHuevos Rancheros a la Muffin Pan

    We had brunch today. I was browsing through my New York Times cookbook earlier in the week thinking of something fancy, and then went in the completely opposite direction and made this super simple version of huevos rancheros.

    Baked another no knead to go with this, which was 2 parts white, 1 part rye, 1 part rolled oats. The oats kind of just disappear after the kneading, second rise, and baking, but they definitely improve the crumb. Also put in a can of Rickards Red beer.

    Potatoes were boiled briefly last night, then sat in the fridge with fresh ground coriander, fennel, paprika, and olive oil, and then hung out in the oven on low heat for a couple of hours this morning.

    Lastly in this post, but firstly served, was a “fruit salad” made of grated pear, Granny Smith apple, Pink Lady apple, and zest + juice of one lime.

    Brunch as a meal to have people over for is neglected. I will do it more often.

    → 5:09 PM, Feb 27   •  Personal, Foodista, no knead bread, recipe, breakfast, brunch, eggs, huevos rancheros, Blog
  • Duck Tongues Dim Sum

    Media_httpfarm3static_eltyv
    via flickr.com

    Thanks for everyone that came out for my birthday dim sum today. It was fun to sit and eat amidst the hustle and bustle of Sun Sui Wah, and then to gambole along Main Street in the sunny weather.

    → 7:44 PM, Feb 21   •  Personal, birthday, dim sum, duck tongues, Sun Sui Wah, Blog
  • Spicy Coconut Tumeric Beef

    022020101165

    I was going for the Banana Leaf's Rendang Beef curry - which is a completely different dish, but I think I got the coconut right, as well as the sweet + tang + spice.

    Spicy Coconut Tumeric Beef on FoodistaSpicy Coconut Tumeric Beef

    → 9:41 PM, Feb 20   •  Personal, cooking, Foodista, recipe, beef, coconut, tumeric, Blog
  • Finished reading: The Last Light of the Sun (Guy Gavriel Kay)

    Media_httpecximagesam_weggf
    via amazon.com

    I've actually read this book before. I immediately devour any book that Kay releases.

    It was great to go back and read this one again. There is a lot of depth to Kay's books - glimpses of the fact that any minor character has a full history behind them.

    Many people feel that this is not as strong as some of Kay's other books. The pace / plot is a bit more sedate - like the sun going down, there is an inevitability on display as it rolls to conclusion.

    There is a bit of fantasy / magic thrown in, but the theme is in part about the end of paganism and superstition, so the whole thing can be read as historical fiction.

    → 2:52 PM, Feb 20   •  Personal, book, Guy Gavriel Kay, Blog
  • S/V Concordia sinks off Brazil

    The Canadian tall ship SV Concordia, a sailing school vessel, heads past downtown Halifax in this July 24, 2000 file photo.
 The Canadian tall ship SV Concordia, a sailing school vessel, heads past downtown Halifax in this July 24, 2000 file photo. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)

    A Nova Scotia-based ship carrying dozens of students has sunk off Brazil, but everyone is safe and there were no serious injuries, officials say.

    The Brazilian navy said the tall ship SV Concordia went down about 550 kilometres southeast of Rio de Janeiro in rough seas.

    West Island College International of Lunenburg, which runs the Class Afloat program, said all 64 people aboard were rescued from four life-rafts by merchant vessels early Friday.

    The 48 students, eight teachers and eight crew had to abandon ship and spent the night in the life-rafts equipped with blankets and some food. A Brazilian navy helicopter spotted the rafts and dropped medical supplies.

    via cbc.ca

    I went on the Class Afloat program right after I graduated from high school, in 1993 / 94. I spent 11 months on board, starting from Vancouver and then sailing around the north and south Pacific Ocean.

    It was an incredible experience, and one I've always encouraged other people to take part in.

    The ship was custom built in Gdansk, Poland, specifically for this program. They're going to have to raise millions of dollars to try and replace it, if they intend to continue.

    → 5:24 PM, Feb 19   •  Personal, Class Afloat, Concordia, Blog
  • I made a video at Canada's Northern House

    via canadasnorthernhouse.sayshello.ca

    Looks like it may not support embeds, so you'll have to follow the link. Long live muk muk!

    → 11:28 AM, Feb 19   •  Personal, video, Canada's Northern House, muk muk, Olympics, Blog
  • Simple Ethiopian Berbere Kuri Squash Soup

    I had a large kuri squash, and used it over several days. The small amount of cubed squash that I had leftover ended up being this single serving soup.

    Monsoon Coast Spices on Salt Spring Island makes a wonderful Berbere: http://www.monsooncoast.com/spices/ethiopian_berbere.html

     

    Simple Ethiopian Berbere Kuri Squash Soup on FoodistaSimple Ethiopian Berbere Kuri Squash Soup

    → 9:21 PM, Feb 8   •  Personal, recipes, Foodista, Berbere, Ethiopian, kuri squash, Monsoon Coast, soup, spicy, squash, Blog
  • Refrigerator Pickles

    Media_httpawaytogarde_euqqi
    via awaytogarden.com

    Storing this recipe link so I can find it again. Someone else on Twitter pointed out that it was my recommendation for the best recipe for refrigerator pickles :P

    → 5:12 PM, Feb 8   •  Personal, recipes, pickles, Blog
  • Black and hairy, very small aka Boris the Spider by The Who /via @dbarefoot

    via youtube.com

    The Who were at the Superbowl today, so lots of their old songs got looked up again. Thanks, Darren.

    → 9:45 PM, Feb 7   •  Personal, video, Boris the Spider, Superbowl, The Who, Blog
  • Used Cookbook Haul

    Today I went to Thomas Haas.

    Mocha and Aztec Chocolate @ Thomas Haas

    The drinks were nice, as were the pastries, but it was incredibly loud, there was nowhere to sit, and the energy in the room was frantic / hectic. So R and I wandered the streets of Kits sipping our drinks and ended up at the Salvation Army.

    I always look for used cookbooks that are ethnic, or old, or from the women's auxiliary of some church in some county from a long time ago.

    British Columbia Heritage Cookbook

    This first book is interesting because the author gushes about BC regional cuisine. Many of the recipes have place or people names from around the province.

    Bowen Island Salmon Pie from BC Heritage Cookbook

    It had a Bowen Island (where I grew up, and where my parents still live) recipe, so I definitely had to get it.

    Lots of the recipes have canned goods of various kinds, even if they are things that can be sourced from BC (e.g. smoked oysters). I bet, back in the day, that lots of canned things were more local, so if you made something with a tin of tomatoes, it would taste different in BC because they were local BC varietals. Provenance for canned goods? Of course…

    Cooking in Switzerland

    Cookbooks that focus on regional cuisines are also of interest to me. This one is a hardcover, and the pages are a rough type of paper, and the whole book seems to be covered in grease spots. Well loved!

    I could eat this everyday from Cooking in Switzerland

    Also, there are little notes like this - "I could eat this everyday" - scattered throughout the book. Again, a must have because of this alone. That, and every recipe seems to call for potatoes and bacon - at least, the ones that aren't calling for whipping cream and butter!

    New York Times Cook Book (1961)

    The New York Time Cook Book was another no brainer. Why? Well, because of this next recipe photo…

    Roast Suckling Pig from New York Times Cook Book

    Why yes, that is a roast suckling pig! The book is great, with lots of multicultural recipes from around the world, as well as good versions of lots of "basics".

    I'm very pleased with my used cookbook haul.

    → 8:19 PM, Jan 30   •  Personal, cookbook, Salvation Army, Thomas Haas, Blog
  • Austrian (pig) Cuts /via @rtanglao

    Media_http4bpblogspot_kzbfz
    via woolypigs.blogspot.com

    I think it's about time to order a whole pig and schedule a butchery / charcuterie class again.

    → 2:10 PM, Jan 30   •  Personal, meat, pig, Blog
  • I accidentally bought the fourth in a series /via @akalsey

    No wonder this book is full of unexplained backstory. I accidentally bought the fourth in a series.
    via twitter.com

    → 10:25 PM, Jan 29   •  Personal, book, quote, Blog
  • A Winter WonderMEATland! /via @RachaelAshe

    Media_httpevenmoreleg_reytc
    via evenmorelegendary.com

    I'm sure Sarah will love this post, too.

    → 5:01 PM, Jan 29   •  Personal, bacon, meat, fun, Blog
  • I'd like to make blood sausage

    via charcuteriesundays.blogspot.com

    Also, the Charcuterie Sundays blog is amazing. It has kicked back into high gear. This alone is a good excuse to head east.

    → 12:26 PM, Jan 26   •  Personal, meat, blood sausage, Blog
  • flaky biscuits

    012320101031

    I've been continuing on the baking kick. Biscuits are great because
    they take only 20 - 30 minutes from start to finish.

    New Flaky Biscuits

    → 11:12 AM, Jan 23   •  Personal, Foodista, baking, biscuits, Blog
  • Ask the Internet about Pho in Vancouver, and get responses like @trevoro did

    Best Pho in Vancouver

    4 Au Petit Cafe
    3 Hanoi Pho (Hastings and Dunleavy)
    2 Pho Tang
    2 Thai Son (Chain)
    2 Pho Huang
    1 Le Do
    1 Sung Huong (Surrey so it doesn’t really count)
    1 Hai Phong
    1 Pho Thai Hoa

    via trevoro.ca

    I used to go for pho a lot more in Ottawa, where I lived a couple of blocks down from a "Little Vietnam" area of town. There are lots of pho shops in Vancouver, maybe I should pick a new place to live based on pho proximity?

    → 12:05 PM, Jan 21   •  Personal, Vancouver, pho, Blog
  • Missing days…

    I thought I might make it all the way through 2010 with one personal blog post per day. Nope!

    I can probably cheat and go back and show the picture of my second no knead experiment (which also turned great, even though I let it rise for way over 24 hours) for Monday.

    For yesterday? Nope.

    I won't stress about not posting every single day, but I am enjoying the better "flow" that I have here and on my asides.

    → 12:36 AM, Jan 21   •  Personal, Blog
  • No Knead Bread first result

    No Knead Bread (inside)

    No Knead Bread

    01/17/2010

    01/17/2010

    via flickr.com

    This is my first attempt at No Knead Bread (wrote about it previously with links to recipes).

    This was a bit of a mashup with something from Cooks Illustrated that recommends a *little* bit of kneading, and the addition of beer and vinegar.

    I didn't have any beer, but I did add the vinegar, and I did knead for about 10 minutes. I let it sit yesterday at 5pm, and started working with it at around 9am this morning, so it sat for 16 hours. The modified Cooks Illustrated plans on anywhere between 8 and 18 hours.

    1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 white (both unbleached organic all purpose from Spud). The crust is nice and substantial, the crumb is bit too light for me: will have to experiment with heavier grains, maybe some rye flour. Will have to see how it tastes when it's cold: fresh out of the oven all bread is fantastic.

    → 3:20 PM, Jan 17   •  Personal, cooking, baking, no knead bread, Blog
  • Cider Vinegar BBQ Sauce for Pulled Pork

    Cider Vinegar Barbecue Sauce:

    • 1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
    • 1 cup yellow or brown mustard
    • 1/2 cup ketchup
    • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
    • 2 garlic cloves, smashed
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon cayenne
    via foodnetwork.com

    This is a good basic recipe for pulled pork made in the oven. I pretty much wing the dry rub these days, but the cider vinegar BBQ sauce ingredients above are good proportions that I always forget.

    → 1:34 PM, Jan 16   •  Personal, recipes, BBQ, pulled pork, Blog
  • A stylist with hats

    Media_httpfarm5static_llpcd
    via flickr.com

    This smiling lady has been my hair stylist (aka cut it short when it gets unruly) for many years, and she has ended up cutting the hair of many friends, family, and even business colleagues. Her shop is Pome Studio.

    → 6:46 PM, Jan 15   •  Personal, hats, photo, smile, Blog
  • Happy Trogday to you! /via @haggaret

    Media_httpwwwtelltale_fyiui
    via telltalegames.com

    Apparently today is Trogday, celebrating the creation of the Strong Bad character Trogdor, way back in 2003. Click through to get a free Trogdor game.

    → 1:11 PM, Jan 13   •  Personal, Strong Bad, Trogday, Trogdor, Blog
  • Trying on hats

    Media_httpfarm3static_djahh
    via flickr.com

    Fur hats are fun!

    → 10:48 AM, Jan 12   •  Personal, hats, photo, Blog
  • Making Cheese

    Making Cheese is as easy as…pie…?

        <span class="date">September 2nd, 2009</span>
         <span class="edit"></span>  
    
    <p />
    
    <div class="entry">
        <p>A few months ago I read the wonderful book <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Animal-Vegetable-Miracle-Barbara-Kingsolver/dp/155468188X">Animal Vegetable Miracle</a> written by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s an entertaining and inspiring recounting of the year she and her family spent growing their own food. The book includes meal plans and recipes at the end of each chapter that are based on what is available by season. Some of these, like the asparagus and morel bread pudding, sound mouth-wateringly good.<br />
    

    Cheese making-4

    About three quarters of the way through the book there is a chapter where Barbara describes making her own cheese. And not only does she make her own mozzarella but she does it in just thirty minutes! Boris and I were really excited about this (Cheese in half an hour!! WE CAN MAKE OUR OWN CHEESE!!!!!) and I started to track down the ingredients. This ended up being the most complicated part because though the cheese is made with only three ingredients – milk, citric acid and rennet – I had no idea where to look for two of those three. In the end it was Anne who found everything for us and we owe her a cheese of her own in thanks.

    For future cheese makers based in Vancouver here’s where to get ‘em: citric acid can be found at most pharmacies and rennet is sold at Bosa Foods. After that it was easy-peasy and we ended up with delicious cheese, fresh and hot. The mozzarella was tasty and went beautifully with the heirloom tomatoes we’ve been picking up at the Farmers Market throughout the summer.

    Cheese making-2

    The 30-minute mozzarella recipe is available as a PDF download from the Animal Vegetable Miracle companion site. Boris and I have made the mozzarella twice now, the first time with friends and the second as a tag team effort. Two key things we discovered: resist the impulse to keep stirring the milk because it’ll separate into curds and whey faster when still, and add a bit more citric acid when the milk reaches the highest temperature mentioned in the recipe.

    Cheese making

    We’re still both AMAZED that cheese making can be this easy and this fast. And thanks to the recipes included within the box of rennet tablets there are more cheese experiments we’re hoping to try in the near future.

    Cheese making-3

    via rachaelashe.com

    Ready for editing and reposting on Foodists.

    → 12:22 AM, Jan 12   •  Personal, Foodists, cheese, Blog
  • Anything but elves and trolls /via @rtanglao

    the epic quests set in Tolkien-inspired fantasy universes have gotten really boring to me.  Give me sci fi, superheroes, or asian animism, anything but elves and trolls.
    via terranova.blogs.com

    A long post on looking for more new NEW in games. I think gaming is still catching up to the wild creativity of the web, and yes, some sort of Second Life-level piece of player interaction is going to be the more interesting space.

    All the comments about City of Heroes makes me want to kick the tires on it.

    Incidentally, gaming isn't going to go on my tech asides, it's going to go here.

    → 9:26 PM, Jan 11   •  Personal, quote, City of Heroes, gaming, Blog
  • If eaten, my body would taste like SPICY BEEF /via @RachaelAshe

    What would you taste like to a cannibal?

    Created by Recipe Star

    → 6:46 PM, Jan 11   •  Personal, fun, cannibalism, quiz, Blog
  • Make your own Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Beets, etc. /via @sarahfelicity

    Live Fermented Food & Organic Raw Dairy Making Workshops at The Urban Ashram - 2290 Saint George Street, Vancouver, BC V5T 3R2  604 708 9058 farmertomas@gmail.com

    Food is the new black. Everybody wants to connect to food again, whether in festivals like Fork in the Road, Taste of Health, Vancouver Health Show...or shopping at local farmers markets, growing their own food at home or in community gardens. Food is once again taking its primacy as what truly nourishes us and our Earth. Food also roots us and gives us a truly spiritual connection to our place here and now on Earth.

    Fermenting one’s own food at home is truly a wondrous and if alchemical experience produced by lactic acid bacteria, that exist all around us and within us. The process gives us a greater appreciation for all those beings we never see yet are reliant on: a lesson illustrated so beautifully by Dr. Seuss in Horton Hears a Who and Well(es) versions of War of the Worlds. Simply put, our sense of self is broadened and we appreciate and experience the interconnection that David Suzuki so frequently speaks of.

    Learn to make your own Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Beets and Fermented Fruits and go home with them! $40. Wednesday January 13 at 7 pm, at The Urban Ashram, 2290 Saint George Street.

    In this workshop you will learn how to work in harmony with some of these invisible friends while making Sauerkraut, Kimchi and fermented Fruits, along with the delicious fermented tea Kombucha. You will go home with your own vegetable and fruit ferments to continue at home, along with your own SCOBIE to make Kombucha.

    Lactic Acid Fermentation requires no energy other than ones own, for the production, fermentation and storage of the food: no heating, cooling in fridge, canning etc. LAF also adds many nutrients to our food, pre-digests it thus making the nutrients more absorbable and keeps the food alive, raw as it has not been cooked at all. In our era of rising consciousness of our energy usuage, LAF fits beautifully into the Kyoto Accord Ethic, sorely lacking at many governmental levels, so we can set the example in our own homes, bellies and lives!

    Wednesday January 20, 7 pm - Learn to make your own Yogurt, Butter, Buttermilk, Buttermilk Scones, Ghee, and Hard Cheese Curds using Vegetable Rennet, Whey Based Soup and enjoy chocolate ghee!
    This is a very hands on workshop and you will both have a meal around the foods and go home with many samples and yogurt starter. $40. At The Urban Ashram  2290 Saint George Street Organic RAW Whole Certified Organic Milk Used

    Get five people together for either a fruit/veg fermentation workshop or a dairy workshop and we can arrange a time and date that suites you. Please watch the YouTube video from a Dairy Making Workshop ~ [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTqdb8HlDmA?wmode=transparent]

    via urbanashram.ca

    This looks like something we could organize a group around. Anyone interested?

    → 4:55 PM, Jan 11   •  Personal, cooking, event, Urban Ashram, Blog
  • They're tunnelling TCP/IP over AD&D!


    Halting State

    by <a href="http://www.allconsuming.net/item/view/3189644/search/query?product=book&amp;q=Charles+Stross">Charles Stross</a><br />
    

    → See this at Amazon.com

    via allconsuming.net

    “They’re tunnelling TCP/IP over AD&D!” is one of the most amazing quotes I’ve ever read in a book. And the book is very good, covering ARGs and a future networked world very believably.

    → 9:12 AM, Jan 11   •  Personal, book, quote, Charles Stross, Halting State, Blog
  • Rosemary Tomato Soup

    1

    cup chopped onions

    ½

    cup finely chopped celery

    1

    tablespoon olive oil

    28

    ounces cans of canned tomatoes

    14

    ounces can of coconut milk

    1

    cube chicken bouillon

    1

    cup water

    1

    stalk of fresh rosemary

    1

    tablespoon brown sugar

    salt

    pepper

    edit Preparation

    Step 1

    Pour olive oil in a large soup pot and saute onions and celery until onions become translucent.

    Step 2

    Pour in tomatoes and coconut milk, dissolve the chicken bouillon cube in the cup of water and add it as well. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat.

    Step 3

    Add the stalk of rosemary and let simmer for 30 - 45 minutes.

    Step 4

    Remove the rosemary stalk and use a hand blender to puree the soup.

    Step 5

    Add the brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

    edit Tools

    • Hand blender

    edit About Rosemary Tomato Soup

    This was a very on-the-spot made up recipe. I was thinking that the stalk of rosemary would add some rosemary flavour, but I ended up simmering it quite a long time, so the resulting soup was

    If you substituted vegetable stock for the chicken stock, this would actually be a vegan recipe.

    via foodista.com

    I was configuring servers and it simmered a LOT longer than 30 minutes.

    → 12:33 AM, Jan 11   •  Personal, recipes, Foodista, rosemary, tomato, Blog
  • Me as a Lego chef /via @counti8

    Media_httpepyimgcomca_abavi
    via ep.yimg.com

    Karen thinks this is me.

    → 3:50 PM, Jan 10   •  Personal, LEGO, Blog
  • Parsnip and apple coleslaw

    Parsnip and apple coleslaw
    Serves 2 as a main meal, 4 as a small side dish

    2 tbsp cider vinegar
    1 tbsp good olive oil
    1 tsp clear honey
    1 tsp wholegrain mustard
    175g parsnips
    100g carrots
    100g red cabbage
    1 Cox’s apple, or your preferred eating apple, weighing approximately 150g
    Handful of fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
    25g walnuts, roughly chopped

    1 Place the vinegar, oil, honey and mustard in a small jar and season with a small pinch of salt and a good grinding of black pepper. Screw on the lid and give it a shake until it’s pale and combined. Taste, adjust the seasoning if necessary, and set aside.

    2 Peel the parsnip(s) and slice out the woody core – you’ll end up with about 100g parsnip. Coarsely grate and place in a large bowl. Peel and coarsely grate the carrot(s) and add to the parsnip. Very finely slice the red cabbage and add to the bowl.

    3 Quarter the apple and slice out the core. Coarsely grate the apple, discarding any large pieces of skin. Add to the vegetables with the parsley leaves and half the walnuts.

    4 If the dressing has started to separate, give it a shake again, then pour over the coleslaw. Toss the salad to coat in the dressing and then divide between two plates. Scatter over the remaining walnuts and serve. For a more filling meal, serve it with a chunk of blue cheese and warm crusty bread (it’s also good with a greasy pork chop and apple sauce if you’re not vegetarian).

    via ginandcrumpets.wordpress.com

    Used 2 parsnips and 4 small carrots. 1/4 of a small / medium head of green cabbage. 1 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp dijon, only a splash of cider vinegar. Zest from one lemon, plus used the fresh lemon juice from the whole lemon. No parsley, no walnuts (so it's very plain and orange / green looking).

    My version is definitely more of a side dish version.

    → 3:05 PM, Jan 9   •  Personal, apple, cabbage, carrot, coleslaw, cooking, mustard, parsnip, recipes, Blog
  • Spaghetti Carbonara with Bacon and Turkey

    &frac12;

    package of spaghetti

    &frac12;

    cup of bacon, chopped

    1

    tablespoon olive oil

    ⅓

    cup of minced shallots

    1

    clove minced garlic

    1

    cup diced cooked turkey

    &frac12;

    cup sour cream

    &frac12;

    cup water

    &frac12;

    cup of grated cheese

     

    black pepper

    2

    egg yolks

    2

    tablespoons cream

    &frac12;

    cup minced fresh parsley

    Preparation

    Step 1

    Cook about half a package of spaghetti until al dente, drain the water and set aside. If you have the pasta water boiling and add the spaghetti as you do the next steps, it should be ready at about the right time.

    Step 2

    Cook the bacon in a large saucepan (will need to fit all of the cooked spaghetti). Cook it over medium heat until it just starts to brown.

    Step 3

    Add the olive oil, shallots, garlic and turkey and continue to cook on medium until the shallots are translucent.

    Step 4

    Reduce heat to low and stir in the sour cream and water until evenly mixed. Add the grated cheese and stir until evenly melted. Add fresh cracked black pepper to taste (at least 1 tsp).

    Step 5

    Add the cooked spaghetti to sauce mixture and toss thoroughly.

    Step 6

    Beat the egg yolks with the cream and pour on top of the spaghetti, again mixing thoroughly. Now mix in the fresh parsley and serve immediately.

    via foodista.com

    As I saw in the comments on the recipe, I didn't like any of the carbonara recipes I saw, so I made my own. R doesn't like peas, but they would have gone well with this.

    We had this with the slaw on the side, which cut the heavyness of this dish.

    Spaghetti Carbonara With Bacon and Turkey on Foodista
    → 2:30 PM, Jan 9   •  Personal, recipes, bacon, carbonara, Foodista, spaghetti, turkey, Blog
  • Bloedel Conservatory is slated to be closed

    Bloedel Conservatory

    In spite of our efforts to save the Bloedel Conservatory, and despite the possible illegality of the decision to close or repurpose the Conservatory, it appears that the Vancouver Park Board is moving ahead with a decision to CLOSE the conservatory as of March 1, 2010. They will accept expressions of interest including business cases that allow for use of the Bloedel Conservatory in a new or similar capacity until April 30, 2010. If the Park Board accepts our proposal, Friends of the Bloedel Association will operate as a non-profit society with the following purposes:
    via friendsofthebloedel.ca

    It's been in operation for 40 years. It's been break even for all but the last 5 years of operation. You know, the last 5 years which have included sewer construction and Canada Line construction along Cambie, making the entire area around Queen E park / the Conservatory a giant pain to be around.

    The trees and the entire ecosystem have grown inside the dome, and would need to be cut down and dragged out in pieces. The birds and other animals have spent their entire life in captivity, and they have no idea what they're going to do with them. I've gone there several times -- it's a fantastic escape in our fall/winter/spring, to go inside and bask in the tropical warmth, take pictures, and enjoy the bird life and surroundings.

    They need to raise $250K to keep the conservatory open (that's their budget for an entire year), and they clearly need some help with their web presence & fund raising. This sounds like a job for Fundrazr…

    Here are photos I've taken at the conservatory in the past:

    http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

    → 11:57 AM, Jan 8   •  Personal, Bloedel Conservatory, Friends of the Bloedel, fundraising, Fundrazr, Vancouver, Blog
  • Me sawing off a pig's head /via @ecstaticist

    http://s.ytimg.com/yt/swf/watch-vfl139942.swf
    via youtube.com

    Also features James in the background.

    → 12:45 PM, Jan 7   •  Personal, cooking, Foodists, me, video, Blog
  • Social Crafting at MOV - Jan 21st

    Image001

    More info and tickets here.

    → 8:02 PM, Jan 6   •  Personal, Vancouver, event, MOV, Museum of Vancouver, social crafting, Blog
  • Burned down Slickity Jim's is going to be replaced by a Tim Horton's and a Wendy's /via @nep

    Restaurateur Mike Zalman, who lost Slickity Jim's Chat 'N Chew in November, is painfully aware that the cost of opening and operating a business in South Main will increase dramatically as the neighbourhood gentrifies.

    "I enquired about the building at the southwest corner of Main and Broadway and found out it's going to be a Tim Hortons and a Wendy's," he said. "It hurts. The gods of progress have started to smite Main Street."

    via vancouver.24hrs.ca

    Well, that sucks. Cambie at Broadway is already feeling pretty soul-less. Having the same thing happen to Main would be very sad.

    → 6:05 PM, Jan 5   •  Personal, Vancouver, Main Street, Blog
  • Granola bars

    Ingredients

    2

    cups shredded coconut

    1 &frac12;

    cups rolled oats

    1 &frac12;

    cups raisins

    2

    cups sunflower seeds

    &frac12;

    cup sesame seeds

    &frac34;

    cup chopped peanuts

    &frac12;

    cup chopped cried fruit, like apricots

    &frac14;

    cup mini chocolate or carob chips

    &frac12;

    teaspoon salt

    1

    cup honey

    1

    teaspoon vanilla

    1

    cup peanut butter

    Preparation

    Step 1

    Mix all the dry ingredients well in a large bowl. Blend honey, peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Add to dry ingredients. Mix with your hands (grease hands first).

    Step 2

    Press firmly into a greased 9 x 13" pan. Bake at 275 F until golden brown. Time varies but anywhere from 8-16 minutes. Cool on a rack. Cut when cool.

    via foodista.com

    Healthy Granola Bars on Foodista

    Ending up making these tonight. I've had oats and shredded coconut haunting the cupboards for a while, and have been thinking about an on-the-go eat in the morning sort of thing. The Orange Ginger Granola bars look good, too.

    When I went to look for recipes, they're all very similar, and in fact don't seem to matter *what* you put in them.

    I left out sunflower and sesame seeds, and did crystallized ginger and some candied lemon peel for the fruit. The chocolate chips were white chocolate chunks. No honey, but half a cup of turbinado sugar and dark molasses. I like the dark, slightly bitter flavour of molasses, so we'll so how that turns out.

    The peanut butter was aged and sticky, so I added a bit of water to dissolve the sugar / molasses / peanut butter. No salt because I forgot about it.

    Needed to bake much longer (~30 minutes) and a little hotter than listed. Didn't stick together as well as I had hoped, but did end up being tasty.

    → 10:31 AM, Jan 5   •  Personal, recipes, Foodista, baking, granola bars, Blog
  • Annals of mistaken voicemail, part 1

    msg_d4ae89a0-d827-4df8-a96e-45db0ccf99ba.mp3 Listen on Posterous

    I have a variety of phone numbers and automatic voicemail-to-email recording items setup. This one involves a trucking company with a 1,032 pieces of something heading for Des Moines, Iowa.

    → 6:30 PM, Jan 2   •  Personal, Des Moines, Iowa, voicemail, Blog
  • The Happiness Project: How To Be Happier – in Four Easy Lessons.

    First Splendid Truth
    To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

    Second Splendid Truth
    One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
    One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

    Third Splendid Truth
    The days are long, but the years are short. (click the link to see my one-minute movie)

    Fourth Splendid Truth
    You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.
    corollary: You’re happy if you think you’re happy.

    via happiness-project.com

    Actually seen on Fred Wilson's blog. I'm usually pretty good about these things. I need to focus on not getting trapped in a downward spiral - often times a sign of a) not enough 'me' time and/or b) not enough friend time. But some times I confuse (b) with (a) and spend too much time locked in my own head.

    → 7:14 PM, Jan 1   •  Personal, happiness, Blog
  • Ianiv's stuff works for WP

    Joining us at the OSCMS Summit? You can meet people like the developer behind the new, cross-platform version of Qumana -- Ianiv Schweber.

    Powered by Qumana

    → 3:54 PM, Jan 10   •  Personal, Blog
  • Nabbed it!

    Here is Boris on WordPress. If I haven’t said it enough before, I really do recommend WordPress if you just need a solid blogging tool.

    → 11:12 AM, Aug 17   •  Personal, Blog
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