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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries October 29th, 200910:00 am: Omelettes
My mom called, and said, "Turn on channel 9 now,
they're showing Julia Child making omelettes."
Oh, yeah, I have TV now, but that's another story.
Anyway, I switched to the TV input and watched the episode,
it was really inspiring. For the plain omelette, she mixed
the eggs with some parsley, pepper, salt, and water. She
got a pan hot, then added about 1 tablespoon butter, it sizzled
and foamed, and she added the "2-3" eggs. After about 4 seconds,
she started swishing the omelette around in the pan, and then
some number of seconds later, she flipped half of it over onto
itself. To flip it, she did these little jerks where she pushed
the pan away from herself, and then pulled it back sharply.
Once it was flipped, she scooted it around and then flipped it onto
a plate by putting the plate over the pan, and then flipping them
around. Then she fiddled with it a bit to tuck the edge under.
She showed how to tuck it under using two forks, or, "If you're in
the kitchen alone, you can just use your fingers like this."
Then she sprinkled the top with more parsley.
She showed putting various fillings in, and ended with a nice omelette
party setup.
Since watching, I've tried a number of omelettes, both with and without
fillings. And they're delicious! I used to think that I didn't like
omelettes, because I don't like firm, leathery sides. These aren't
like that at all, they're fluffy and flavorful. And even if you mess
them up, they still taste great.
Here's some tips:
- Volume is very important, it's really easy to put in more eggs than the pan can handle
- The pan has to start off fairly hot. The butter should start sizzling and foaming immediately. If the butter doesn't start foaming up right away, it's really easy for it to start to brown or burn. If it does, just wipe it out of the pan and start over.
- Get the fillings set up so you can put them in quickly. If I'm putting in more than one thing, I premix it, because you don't actually have a lot of time.
- The top of the omelette stays runny, you have to have faith that it'll finish cooking once it's flipped in half.
October 24th, 200909:32 am: Tom Kah Kai
I made this last Wednesday:
Ingredients:
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 8 large slices Siamese ginger (galanga or kha) or other ginger (about 5-1/2 ounces)
- 1 large stalk lemon grass, outer leaves discarded, trimmed and slant-cut into two-inch sections
- 12 fresh kaffir lime leaves or peel of one lime
- 2 14-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1-1/2 tbs chili-tamarind paste
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2-1/2 tbs coconut-palm sugar or golden brown sugar
- 2-1/2 tbs fish sauce
- 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
- 5 small Thai chilies, stemmed and lightly crushed
Directions:
Put the stock, ginger, lemon grass, and lime leaves or lime peel in a
stock pot. Gradually bring to boil over medium-high heat. Boil for
one minute, then add the coconut milk. Return to boil, then add the
chicken. Return to boil, and then add the chili-tamarind paste,
the lemon juice, sugar, and fish sauce. Stir until the paste and
sugar are dissolved and blended, then add the mushrooms. Simmer
until mushrooms are tender, about 1 minute.
Float chilies on top and turn off the heat. Serve.
Notes:
This is from one of my favorite cookbooks, True Thai by Victor Sodsook. I've now
made it twice, and it turned out delicious both times. This dish is
among both my favorite Thai foods and my favorite soups.
I used the lime peel option, the galanga, and palm sugar.
The only place I've managed to find galanga is Uwajimaya.
Both times I've been a bit heavy on the chicken, just because
that's what the package was.
I've deviated from and modified the above recipe in the following
ways.
Instead of chili-tamarind paste (which I couldn't find, and didn't
feel like making), I used a mix of sweet chili sauce and
tamarind extract. While this seems to work well for flavor, I'm thinking
about adding something to make the dish hotter.
Since I used stock from bullion both times, I made up the stock first,
and added the galanga, lemon grass, and lime peel to that pan, and then
let it sit while I prepped the other ingredients.
Similarly, I prepped the sugar, juice, fish sauce, chili sauce, and
tamarind extract into a bowl ahead of time, though I'm not sure that
actually saved me any effort.
The second time I made it, I used the juice from the lime instead of
lemon juice, and it worked fine.
The Siamese ginger, lemon grass, and lime peel/leaves aren't meant
to be eaten. Eating the chilies is an option for the hardy.
July 19th, 200912:50 pm: Valhallacon Game Day
Yesterday was Valhallacon's Game Day
at Eagles. It was a lot of fun.
I ran 2 sessions of Paranoia, and played in a game of Corporation that
Echo ran. I enjoyed Corporation quite a bit. It's a somewhat
combat-oriented intrigue/special-ops RPG, which wouldn't be my first
choice for a campaign to play in, but the session was fun.
The two Paranoia sessions were fun, for me at least. The first
session in particular had some episodes where I could just sit
back quietly and listen as the players harangued each other, which
is one of my favorite parts.
I'm still a little sad, though, that Quina-R-IAN stopped the
field lobotomy.
July 17th, 200901:52 pm: Amazon Kindle and 1984
Amazon pulled 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle.Not just from the kindle store, but from individual kindles.
I generally oppose buying DRM-limited copies of media that I might want
to use multiple times, such as books or music, because I'm worried that
the DRM service will stop running and I'll lose access to the media.
This has happened several times with music, where the site that verifies
the DRM content gets taken down.
However, it never occurred to me that whatever service I purchased it
from would reach into my device and delete it. I've been wrestling
with the idea of buying a kindle for awhile now, mostly to try to reduce
the number of physical books we have in the apartment -- or at least
to keep it at the current seven bookcases level (which was quite difficult
to achieve). But now -- no. Oh well, someday I'll find a reader I'm
happy with.
Discussion in the forum gave this explanation
from Amazon:
The Kindle edition books Animal Farm by George Orwell. Published by
MobileReference (mobi) & Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell.
Published by MobileReference (mobi) were removed from the Kindle store
and are no longer available for purchase. When this occured, your
purchases were automatically refunded. You can still locate the books
in the Kindle store, but each has a status of not yet available.
Although a rarity, publishers can decide to pull their content from
the Kindle store.
April 23rd, 200904:50 pm: Race for the Galaxy
So, we've been sick ever since Norwescon. It's not been all bad
though, because last weekend we picked up Race for the Galaxy,
and have been playing it incessantly ever since.
It's a really fun and really fast 2 to 4 person game. There
seem to be a lot of different strategies to pursue, depending
on which cards you draw. It's competitive, but there's almost
no interaction between players, and you do your moves simultaneously.
(There is a given order to go in, if timing becomes an issue, but
it rarely comes up.)
There's only been one thing that's come up that we've disagreed on,
that we couldn't settle by the rule book. That's how the card
Gambling World works.
I couldn't find an errata sheet for the game, but I finally tracked
down some game designer comments, which cleared the matter up. I'm
putting it all here so it'll be easier to look up in the future.
- The two consume powers are totally separate. You can do them both in one consume phase.
- There is no cost associated with the "name a number from 1-7" power. You just name a number and flip the card.
- If the number you name is the same as the cost/defense of the card, you get to keep the card. The chart is provided for reference only, and gives the distribution of costs and defenses of all the cards in the deck.
The game designer was Tom Lehman, posting to this
BoardGameGeek forum thread.
Here are the three relevant comments:
- Yes, you can use both of the Gambling World's consume powers in a single Consume phase (that's why the note on the power in the rules mentions that this card has an "additional" consume power).
- Nope, you keep it if the number you name (1-7) equals the build cost or military defense. The chart is just a reference.
- No, the first of the Gambling World's two consume abilities (Draw if Lucky) does *not* require a good to activate (the standard consume 1 good for 1 VP chip power does).
So, for example, if you settle this world on the first turn and another player consumes, then you can name a number, flip a card, and see if you get lucky even if you have no goods in your tableau.
March 8th, 200909:54 am: The Watchmen
8:10 PM. Was raining. Went to Cinerama. Saw Watchmen. Was good.
November 10th, 200805:55 pm: Movie quote
"It was a nice little house, he'd probably paid four or five thousand for it before houses went up. From all I hear it'd probably bring 15 Gs by now." -- Humphrey Bogard, "Dead Reckoning" (1947)
October 31st, 200805:22 pm: Slacker
Just finished watching Slacker. A day in Austin, Texas, listening to a long string of really annoying people. I liked it.
October 3rd, 200811:07 am: VCON 33
Going up to VCON this evening. So should you! I GUARANTEE* that you will have a great time! I haven't been to VCON in a long time, I'm looking forward to it! And looking forward to getting out of here... *Guarantee: if you should not have a great time at VCON 33, present yourself in front of Ulysses Somers on or before December 31st, 2008, and he will give you an insincere and nonexclusive apology in compensation. Void where prohibited. Cash value 1/20th of 1 cent.
October 2nd, 200805:20 pm: Cleaning
So, I've been cleaning and sorting my office. This always kicks up a bunch of dust, so now my sinuses are stuffed, I have an incipient headache, and I'm a bit woozy. Yes, it's true -- I am allergic to cleaning.
10:34 am: Making money
Why am I still stuck in my current job? I guess I'm not creative enough.
September 12th, 200810:06 pm: Comic
Well, I kind of fell off it for awhile, but I finally posted to it again: Uly's Comics
September 4th, 200804:46 pm: Yay! Summer!
It's hot and sunny today, and scheduled to remain so for several days. Yay! Maybe it'll stay sunny through my birthday!
September 2nd, 200802:35 pm: Bumbershoot
Went to Bumbershoot yesterday, the highlights were Vince Mira and the Roy Kay Trio, Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands, the Offspring, and Black Eyes and Neckties. Lots of fun all day, by the end of the evening I was beat. Probably won't be going to it next year, though, as the North American Discworld Convention is Labor Day weekend.
August 29th, 200806:09 pm: Bumbershoot
Here's a tentative schedule of bands we're planning to see Monday at Bumbershoot. The 3:15 and 9:00 overlaps are because cjot and I are seeing different bands at those times -- can you guess which is which? We almost certainly aren't going to see all of the bands on the list, both because if there are other people we know there we might go see whoever they're seeing, and because at some point we're going to leave for food.
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