(no subject)

I was right about my favorite David Bowie song, Kooks. It was about his kid, and not "just" a generic kid/idea.

Oooh, it was also released on 12/17/71...I was born 11/18/71...maybe it was for me, too. ;-)

~~~

I used to like Christopher Kimball (of America's Test Kitchen & Cook's Illustrated fame) very much. After reading this interview, I think he's a twit. And arrogant to the point of ridiculousness.

Bummer.

I do enjoy the fact that he complains about people making substitutions and then, in the next answer, talks about a time he made a substitution. Apparently, it's okay for him, just not mere mortals.

So, pie dough, for example, is huge because nobody in America can make pie dough anymore.

I really dislike it when people make sweeping statements like this. Especially since I can make pie dough. And have been doing so for quite a few years. It's dead easy, if you take your time, make sure all the ingredients are cold (and the water is icy) and realize that, if you screw it up, it's okay. You can either start over or go with something else. But mainly it's the icy water.

Until you know that recipe inside out and you really get it and you can make it without looking at the recipe, don't play with it.

Oh *please*. I could agree with this, at least partially if he was only talking about baking. Because there are times when you have to do it the way it's written, or there will be sadness. But, you don't have to know a cake recipe inside and out to change it. You have to know *baking a cake* inside and out to change it. You have to know that substituting pecans for walnuts will be just fine, substituting Splenda for sugar may not. Because sugar does more than sweeten. When creamed with butter, aerates it and helps tenderize the crumb when baking. This doesn't mean you can't substitute Splenda, but you have to do something to provide the sugar's role, or the cake will be dense in an unfun way.

When I first look at/hear a recipe, I'm changing it in my mind. Not always, but a lot of the time. Especially if it has one or two ingredients I don't like (cilantro and annise immediately come to mind). Using those ingredients would make me not able to enjoy what I'm cooking, substitutions do.

And, I really do prefer the people who teach treat me like a thinking being, not someone who has to be led by the hand all the time.

If we did enchiladas, it's going to be nothing like Rick [Bayless] does. It's going to be an Americanized version that is reasonable.

Enchiladas are unreasonable? I never knew. They're labor intensive, but so's lasagne. Ooops! Sorry! There's that unreasonable foreign cooking again.

I think the gourmet cooking thing is over. That happened in the '70s.

Oh, screw you.

~~~

Via officialgaiman, Little People, a tiny street art project. Very cool and remarkably high on the nifty scale.

~~~

Woo-HOO! My 'puter has sound again! Of course, there would have been sound some time ago if I'd done one simple thing.

See, I actually have two sound cards, one that's part of the motherboard and the dedicated one I actually use. When I discovered I didn't have sound, I reseated the dedicated card and poked the motherboard card, then tried hooking the sound system to each of them. *Nuthin'*. Checked the software, everything was fine. Made sure the speakers were actually plugged in to the sub-woofer. Yup.

So, what didn't I check? That the line-out cord was plugged into the line out *jack* rather than the headphone jack.

*sigh* I think they're gonna temporarily rescind my geek card.

~~~

Sleep is, once again, a problem. I can't find a reason. But, I will find my sleeping pills and then, hopefully, I won't wake up at three or four each morning for several hours. That is, in a word, inconvenient.

~~~

I mowed the front and side lawns on Saturday, and while my right arm felt like it was going to fall clean off for the rest of the day, it was only a little achy in bed (I sleep on my side with an arm under the pillow) and hasn't hurt since I woke up yesterday. Yay!

~~~

Kind of exhausted right now. For some insane reason. I see some sort of nappage in my future.

(no subject)

I was right about my favorite David Bowie song, Kooks. It was about his kid, and not "just" a generic kid/idea.

Oooh, it was also released on 12/17/71...I was born 11/18/71...maybe it was for me, too. ;-)

~~~

I used to like Christopher Kimball (of America's Test Kitchen & Cook's Illustrated fame) very much. After reading this interview, I think he's a twit. And arrogant to the point of ridiculousness.

Bummer.

I do enjoy the fact that he complains about people making substitutions and then, in the next answer, talks about a time he made a substitution. Apparently, it's okay for him, just not mere mortals.

So, pie dough, for example, is huge because nobody in America can make pie dough anymore.

I really dislike it when people make sweeping statements like this. Especially since I can make pie dough. And have been doing so for quite a few years. It's dead easy, if you take your time, make sure all the ingredients are cold (and the water is icy) and realize that, if you screw it up, it's okay. You can either start over or go with something else. But mainly it's the icy water.

Until you know that recipe inside out and you really get it and you can make it without looking at the recipe, don't play with it.

Oh *please*. I could agree with this, at least partially if he was only talking about baking. Because there are times when you have to do it the way it's written, or there will be sadness. But, you don't have to know a cake recipe inside and out to change it. You have to know *baking a cake* inside and out to change it. You have to know that substituting pecans for walnuts will be just fine, substituting Splenda for sugar may not. Because sugar does more than sweeten. When creamed with butter, aerates it and helps tenderize the crumb when baking. This doesn't mean you can't substitute Splenda, but you have to do something to provide the sugar's role, or the cake will be dense in an unfun way.

When I first look at/hear a recipe, I'm changing it in my mind. Not always, but a lot of the time. Especially if it has one or two ingredients I don't like (cilantro and annise immediately come to mind). Using those ingredients would make me not able to enjoy what I'm cooking, substitutions do.

And, I really do prefer the people who teach treat me like a thinking being, not someone who has to be led by the hand all the time.

If we did enchiladas, it's going to be nothing like Rick [Bayless] does. It's going to be an Americanized version that is reasonable.

Enchiladas are unreasonable? I never knew. They're labor intensive, but so's lasagne. Ooops! Sorry! There's that unreasonable foreign cooking again.

I think the gourmet cooking thing is over. That happened in the '70s.

Oh, screw you.

~~~

Via officialgaiman, Little People, a tiny street art project. Very cool and remarkably high on the nifty scale.

~~~

Woo-HOO! My 'puter has sound again! Of course, there would have been sound some time ago if I'd done one simple thing.

See, I actually have two sound cards, one that's part of the motherboard and the dedicated one I actually use. When I discovered I didn't have sound, I reseated the dedicated card and poked the motherboard card, then tried hooking the sound system to each of them. *Nuthin'*. Checked the software, everything was fine. Made sure the speakers were actually plugged in to the sub-woofer. Yup.

So, what didn't I check? That the line-out cord was plugged into the line out *jack* rather than the headphone jack.

*sigh* I think they're gonna temporarily rescind my geek card.

~~~

Sleep is, once again, a problem. I can't find a reason. But, I will find my sleeping pills and then, hopefully, I won't wake up at three or four each morning for several hours. That is, in a word, inconvenient.

~~~

I mowed the front and side lawns on Saturday, and while my right arm felt like it was going to fall clean off for the rest of the day, it was only a little achy in bed (I sleep on my side with an arm under the pillow) and hasn't hurt since I woke up yesterday. Yay!

~~~

Kind of exhausted right now. For some insane reason. I see some sort of nappage in my future.