Oh you better believe I'm still going on about Etsy.
( Some Etsy things I found amusing....... WE ARE DONE PROFESSIONALLY! )
( Some Etsy things I found amusing....... WE ARE DONE PROFESSIONALLY! )
2 comments | Leave a comment
1560
15 November 2009 @ 06:36 pm
So... what do I wear to survive a Canadian winter?
I've done it once before, but I'm kind of confused by the fact that I didn't get hospitalised with hypothermia or some such, so I'll just put my survival then down to youthful vigour.
This time I might not be so lucky. Advise! Even just hypothetically. Even if you've never left the tropics in your life. Bearskins? Walrus blubber? Many tiny lemmings harnessed together to form a long coat?
P.S. I'm going to Canada. In their coming winter. But only for a little while.
I've done it once before, but I'm kind of confused by the fact that I didn't get hospitalised with hypothermia or some such, so I'll just put my survival then down to youthful vigour.
This time I might not be so lucky. Advise! Even just hypothetically. Even if you've never left the tropics in your life. Bearskins? Walrus blubber? Many tiny lemmings harnessed together to form a long coat?
P.S. I'm going to Canada. In their coming winter. But only for a little while.
07 November 2009 @ 03:51 pm
I FUCKIN' LOVE ETSY!!!!!!
Etsy has taken possession of my soul. I don't believe in souls, so Etsy created one out of the cosmic miasma (Etsy created the cosmic miasma too by crocheting it out of upcycled soy twine), gave it to me, then took it away to leave a hole in me that needs filling. Otherwise how do I explain my need to buy a notepad because it has a bear on a bike on it? A bear on a bike! "A bear on a bike!" I cry shrilly as I place my order with great alacrity.
OMFG A BEAR ON A BIKE MY LIFE IS INFINITELY BETTER NOW.
You don't even know how much power it took to restain myself from adding the DJ raccoon notepad to my order, or the one with a hummingbird being sucked into a phonograph. It's amazing how much stuff you don't need that you actually desperately need (but you can't quite put your finger on why, but the world is a better place now that I've dropped $150 on Etsy in one day, though not solely on bear on a bike notepads). I know I'll still use torn pieces of envelope and the backs of ATM receipts to make notes on, but the mere thought of possession of this bear on a bike notepad is like fantastic insect eggs my brain.
And if I ever need a sense of perspective, to comprehend that a bear on a bike notepad just isn't that preposterous, there's regretsy.com.
A character from Pedobear Family & Friends.
Regretsy certainly brings ample lulz, or you can just search Etsy for Twilight and get a similar result. Or...
28 October 2009 @ 09:19 pm
Do you think your moods are controlled by your brain chemistry or that your brain chemistry dictates your moods? Do you believe people are born with particular emotional temperaments or that they are primarily shaped by environmental factors? Submitted By |
Sorry, this is the worst LJ Writer's Block question in the history of Cthulhu's great green earth.
1. Everything you feel is dictated by brain chemistry. Everything. It's not a matter of opinion.
2. Nature versus nurture. It's a question that can potentially never be resolved into a black and white answer, even if it were a thousand times more accurately and rigorously defined than the above one. Also, epigenetics.
People be needin' some science education, for real. I'm looking at you, graphic designers who make diagrams for Scientific American and think that methylphenidate blocks DAT in a way that makes vesicles of dopamine flow along an axon resulting in post-synaptic receptors firing electrical discharges within themselves. Oh honey, no. If I had my way, everyone in the world would know what was wrong with those descriptions, and also the printer near my desk at work wouldn't squeak so loudly, and people would always give me little chocolate-coated almonds and tell me what an accomplished and highly skilled person I am.
( HILARIOUS PICTURES WITH SOOTHE MY GRIEF. )
07 October 2009 @ 08:24 pm
After being on the waiting list for months and months and after an array of design and production delays and after finally making the purchase and then enduring the time it takes for hand-assembly and shipping... OTTO has finally come to me.
Meet OTTO.
http://www.ottoespresso.com/
I got it as a present for Chris. OTTO is a rather pretty stove-top espresso machine. Stove-top coffee makers can't actually make true espresso coffee because of a lack of pressure, but the OTTO design means that it can build up a heap more pressure than other similar devices (like the Italian Atomic coffee makers) and can therefore do a much better job of producing what is essentially espresso.
One of the two shots of espresso it makes in one go.
The design also includes a water compartment that the pressure converts to steam, which you can then use to froth/texturise milk and make a pretty amazing coffee.
In all seriousness, this is on par with some of the best coffees I've had at cafes. Better goddamn be, for the price.
Wow, now that I've finished what feels awkwardly and terrifyingly like some sort of product endorsement... I'll counteract that with a photo of my parents' new cat, Beatrice, who was adopted from the pound.
Yeah she always looks that wonky.
Meet OTTO.
http://www.ottoespresso.com/
I got it as a present for Chris. OTTO is a rather pretty stove-top espresso machine. Stove-top coffee makers can't actually make true espresso coffee because of a lack of pressure, but the OTTO design means that it can build up a heap more pressure than other similar devices (like the Italian Atomic coffee makers) and can therefore do a much better job of producing what is essentially espresso.
One of the two shots of espresso it makes in one go.
The design also includes a water compartment that the pressure converts to steam, which you can then use to froth/texturise milk and make a pretty amazing coffee.
In all seriousness, this is on par with some of the best coffees I've had at cafes. Better goddamn be, for the price.
Wow, now that I've finished what feels awkwardly and terrifyingly like some sort of product endorsement... I'll counteract that with a photo of my parents' new cat, Beatrice, who was adopted from the pound.
Yeah she always looks that wonky.
15 September 2009 @ 08:14 pm
More HDR photos I've haven't posted yet. Most of these are from the Border Track through Lamington National Park, on a 20km section of the track that Chris and I walked that took us through the Orchid Bower and out to the Araucaria Lookout (if you really cared you could look at this PDF of the tracks; we're going to go out to Wagawn next time or possibly along the Coomera circuit, that's just how awesome the rainforest is).
07 September 2009 @ 08:02 pm
SUDDENLY, A POST.
So after an exemplary period of inexplicable neglect regarding posting (well not totally inexplicable, I do this to people like a thousand times a week, plus I was totally reading a book, actually, I need to post about it, it's like a Spanish version of The Master & Margarita and it's amazing, elegant, exquisite, capable of causing psychosis, etc.) here are the photos from the baking day that Hel (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
heartswt) and I had something like a month ago.
So after an exemplary period of inexplicable neglect regarding posting (well not totally inexplicable, I do this to people like a thousand times a week, plus I was totally reading a book, actually, I need to post about it, it's like a Spanish version of The Master & Margarita and it's amazing, elegant, exquisite, capable of causing psychosis, etc.) here are the photos from the baking day that Hel (
heartswt) and I had something like a month ago. 
02 August 2009 @ 08:42 pm
As heartswt advised me to do over coq au vin and lapin au Roquefort a few nights ago, here's a pic dump of all the food photos I've been too lazy to post recently.
(Also, I tied for second place in my work's baking competition! Huzzah! The winner made a modest croquembouche so she automatically gets many points just for effort. It tasted really good too, though. And I think I tied with an ice-cream cake with a baked crust. Nice.)
Anyway...
Maccha Japanese green tea and dark chocolate muffins
Wafu supearibu (spare ribs marinated in soy, mirin, sake and sesame oil... lol, supearibu)
Ingen no goma-ae (green beans with sesame sauce)
This and the ribs are from this awesome book, Izakaya.
Chocolate cheesecake with orange-chocolate ganache, which I made as my mum's birthday cake last weekend.
And finally... croissants.
Chris and I went to a pastry-making class on Bastille Day and learnt how to make croissants from scratch; a very laborious process but completely worth it.
That's actually probably less than half of the photos I've got left to post, since we've been rather prolific particularly with the baking lately. If only cooking counted towards my PhD...
heartswt advised me to do over coq au vin and lapin au Roquefort a few nights ago, here's a pic dump of all the food photos I've been too lazy to post recently. (Also, I tied for second place in my work's baking competition! Huzzah! The winner made a modest croquembouche so she automatically gets many points just for effort. It tasted really good too, though. And I think I tied with an ice-cream cake with a baked crust. Nice.)
Anyway...
Maccha Japanese green tea and dark chocolate muffins
Wafu supearibu (spare ribs marinated in soy, mirin, sake and sesame oil... lol, supearibu)
Ingen no goma-ae (green beans with sesame sauce)
This and the ribs are from this awesome book, Izakaya.
Chocolate cheesecake with orange-chocolate ganache, which I made as my mum's birthday cake last weekend.
And finally... croissants.
Chris and I went to a pastry-making class on Bastille Day and learnt how to make croissants from scratch; a very laborious process but completely worth it.
That's actually probably less than half of the photos I've got left to post, since we've been rather prolific particularly with the baking lately. If only cooking counted towards my PhD...
10 July 2009 @ 04:16 pm
The results of the vote regarding what ingredients I should use to produce an awesome baked item that will win me the baking competition at work!
TOP INGREDIENTS
1. Dark chocolate is the obvious winner and will definitely be used!
Now, milk chocolate originally placed 2nd, but I'd like to use something a bit different than just another kind of chocolate when I'm already using dark chocolate (as awesome as multiple types of chocolate combined can be). So 2nd place defaults to...
2. Berries!
3. And third place goes to cream cheese.
So, the recipe I have invented, based on your responses:
Dark chocolate cheesecake brownies!
This is basically a very rich, very dark, very dense, very moist chocolate brownie recipe (maybe using either of my secret ingredients of grated beetroot or potato) with a cheesecake mixture (cream cheese + eggs + sugar) swirled through it. It would be a combination of two recipes I've made before, both of which have worked out incredibly well. Cheesecake and chocolate cake combined isn't as overwhelming as it sounds, plus I would serve it in tiny squares. Thoughts?
Poll #1427672 BAKING POLL CONTINUED!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10
After I get the results of this survey, I will tailor the recipe to fit the results, and I will bake said recipe, samples of which will go to Chris's work for his workmates to try, and if they approve: that's my official recipe for the baking competition!
If only I could send all my dear voters a sample too. I'll give you plenty of photos in lieu!
TOP INGREDIENTS
1. Dark chocolate is the obvious winner and will definitely be used!
Now, milk chocolate originally placed 2nd, but I'd like to use something a bit different than just another kind of chocolate when I'm already using dark chocolate (as awesome as multiple types of chocolate combined can be). So 2nd place defaults to...
2. Berries!
3. And third place goes to cream cheese.
So, the recipe I have invented, based on your responses:
Dark chocolate cheesecake brownies!
This is basically a very rich, very dark, very dense, very moist chocolate brownie recipe (maybe using either of my secret ingredients of grated beetroot or potato) with a cheesecake mixture (cream cheese + eggs + sugar) swirled through it. It would be a combination of two recipes I've made before, both of which have worked out incredibly well. Cheesecake and chocolate cake combined isn't as overwhelming as it sounds, plus I would serve it in tiny squares. Thoughts?
Poll #1427672 BAKING POLL CONTINUED!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10
What are your thoughts on the suggested recipe of dark chocolate cheesecake brownies?
View Answers
Yes please!
8 (80.0%)
I'd consider it... 1 (10.0%)
No thanks (and I'll suggest an alternative or improvement in the comments) 1 (10.0%)
Suggest another awesome way of combining the top 3 ingredients (you don't have to use all 3)
Which of these additions would you most like? Pick as many as you like!
View Answers
Add raspberries on top before baking (I've done this before with both brownies and baked cheesecakes and it has turned out beautifully) 6 (60.0%)
Add a liqueur to the cheesecake mix before adding it into the brownie (the only liqueur I own is Grand Marnier and I only use it for cooking, so it would probably be that) 0 (0.0%)
Add chopped hazelnuts to the brownie mixture 4 (40.0%)
Use coffee-infused dark chocolate so it's a mocha brownie 2 (20.0%)
Put dulce de leche/doce de leito (a caramel-like sauce made from milk) on as a topping (thanks to Jules for this awesome idea) 2 (20.0%)
Don't add anything! The cheesecake brownies are fine as they are! 2 (20.0%)
Other (will explain below) 0 (0.0%)
Other suggestions for additions to the dark chocolate cheesecake brownies (toppings, decorations, additional ingredients of any sort)
After I get the results of this survey, I will tailor the recipe to fit the results, and I will bake said recipe, samples of which will go to Chris's work for his workmates to try, and if they approve: that's my official recipe for the baking competition!
If only I could send all my dear voters a sample too. I'll give you plenty of photos in lieu!
08 July 2009 @ 05:11 pm
UPCOMING BAKED GOODS BATTLE! I AM RECRUITING YOUR HELP, SURVEY-STYLE.
So my work is having a baking competition soonish and I want YOUR advice on what I should bake. Fortunately, with my extensive experience with baking for other people (dinner parties, birthday cakes, lab meetings, etc) I have an arsenal of tried-and-tested recipes that contain particular key ingredients and can elicit an OMG WHAT IS THIS CAN I EAT THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE EVEN THOUGH IT'LL GIVE ME HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES kind of response. I need to choose the best recipe so that I may triumph in this competition which I take way too seriously.
If only I could create something this perfect,
surely I would win.
The key ingredients in these recipes make sense - keep it fatty, rich and sweet to appeal to people's basic gustatory instincts (as much as I'd like to bake something elegant with Japanese green tea powder and ground cardamom, that is just not how you succeed in this sort of context). It's just a matter of choosing the right key ingredients. So below, I want you to choose the key ingredients you would most like to see in a baked item. Based on that, I can select the relevant recipes or try to create unholy hybrid recipes and then perhaps get another vote on those. So...
Poll #1426733 BAKED GOOD POLL!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11
Be as discerning as possible! And choose wisely, because if I don't win, I will immediately blame you all. Please also feel free to leave suggestions in the comments on how you think I could improve my chances of winning other than dusting everything with cocaine.
So my work is having a baking competition soonish and I want YOUR advice on what I should bake. Fortunately, with my extensive experience with baking for other people (dinner parties, birthday cakes, lab meetings, etc) I have an arsenal of tried-and-tested recipes that contain particular key ingredients and can elicit an OMG WHAT IS THIS CAN I EAT THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE EVEN THOUGH IT'LL GIVE ME HEART DISEASE AND DIABETES kind of response. I need to choose the best recipe so that I may triumph in this competition which I take way too seriously.
If only I could create something this perfect,
surely I would win.
The key ingredients in these recipes make sense - keep it fatty, rich and sweet to appeal to people's basic gustatory instincts (as much as I'd like to bake something elegant with Japanese green tea powder and ground cardamom, that is just not how you succeed in this sort of context). It's just a matter of choosing the right key ingredients. So below, I want you to choose the key ingredients you would most like to see in a baked item. Based on that, I can select the relevant recipes or try to create unholy hybrid recipes and then perhaps get another vote on those. So...
Poll #1426733 BAKED GOOD POLL!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11
CHOOSE YOUR FAVOURITES (they don't necessarily have to go together, just choose what ingredients you generally like in baked goods)
View Answers
Dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or more) 10 (90.9%)
Milk chocolate 6 (54.5%)
White chocolate 4 (36.4%)
Coffee (probably in combination with chocolate) 4 (36.4%)
Peanuts 2 (18.2%)
Peanut butter 4 (36.4%)
Hazelnuts 4 (36.4%)
Nutella 3 (27.3%)
Cream cheese (as in a baked cheese cake) 5 (45.5%)
Liqueur/spirits (e.g. Grand Marnier, rum, cognac) 3 (27.3%)
Berries (most likely raspberries or blueberries) 7 (63.6%)
Other (specify below) 1 (9.1%)
Suggest other key ingredients you think I should consider!
Of the options below, CHOOSE ONE FAVOURITE COMBINATION (a single combination of ingredients you would most like to see together in one baked item, e.g. dark chocolate + peanuts, or berries + cream cheese + white chocolate, or whatever!)
View Answers
Dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or more) 7 (63.6%)
Milk chocolate 2 (18.2%)
White chocolate 1 (9.1%)
Coffee (probably in combination with chocolate) 1 (9.1%)
Peanuts 0 (0.0%)
Peanut butter 2 (18.2%)
Hazelnuts 3 (27.3%)
Nutella 0 (0.0%)
Cream cheese (as in a baked cheese cake) 3 (27.3%)
Liqueur/spirits (e.g. Grand Marnier, rum, cognac) 0 (0.0%)
Berries (most likely raspberries or blueberries) 4 (36.4%)
Be as discerning as possible! And choose wisely, because if I don't win, I will immediately blame you all. Please also feel free to leave suggestions in the comments on how you think I could improve my chances of winning other than dusting everything with cocaine.
29 June 2009 @ 08:49 pm
I'm really falling behind in posting all the photos I'm taking of the food we're cooking. I must be breaking your hearts...
Tomato & chorizo acorda
It's a Portuguese soup thickened with torn-up bread. I used German sauerkrautbrot for the bread, just because that's what I had bought that day... ~European fusion cuisine~
Crème brûlée tart
Fecking awful. This recipe traumatised me in deep and scarring ways. I blind-baked the pastry and burnt it because the temperature and time in the recipe were way off. I made the custard and it never thickened, even after stirring it over medium direct heat for 20 minutes (this was after stirring it in a fecking bain-marie for 20 minutes which obviously also did nothing, what a stupid recipe, I have never had trouble making custard before). Then I put the custard in a newly made and unburnt pastry, tried to brûlée the top, and the torch ran out of butane. So I had to cover the pastry edges with foil and put the tart under the grill, which melted the custard, which soaked into the pastry, which went soggy. Then the top of the custard went oily. Then we ate some. Then we threw it in the bin.
Homemade beans on toast
Made from scratch with dried cranberry beans, prosciutto, baby spinach, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce and various other ingredients. Unbelievably good. I had bought some German farmhouse bread that day (can you tell I've discovered a market where a German bakery has a stall?) so the beans were served on that.
Hawt.
Scones
I made star shapes and heart shapes...
Retarded heart scone thanks you for your time.
Tomato & chorizo acorda
It's a Portuguese soup thickened with torn-up bread. I used German sauerkrautbrot for the bread, just because that's what I had bought that day... ~European fusion cuisine~
Crème brûlée tart
Fecking awful. This recipe traumatised me in deep and scarring ways. I blind-baked the pastry and burnt it because the temperature and time in the recipe were way off. I made the custard and it never thickened, even after stirring it over medium direct heat for 20 minutes (this was after stirring it in a fecking bain-marie for 20 minutes which obviously also did nothing, what a stupid recipe, I have never had trouble making custard before). Then I put the custard in a newly made and unburnt pastry, tried to brûlée the top, and the torch ran out of butane. So I had to cover the pastry edges with foil and put the tart under the grill, which melted the custard, which soaked into the pastry, which went soggy. Then the top of the custard went oily. Then we ate some. Then we threw it in the bin.
Homemade beans on toast
Made from scratch with dried cranberry beans, prosciutto, baby spinach, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce and various other ingredients. Unbelievably good. I had bought some German farmhouse bread that day (can you tell I've discovered a market where a German bakery has a stall?) so the beans were served on that.
Hawt.
Scones
I made star shapes and heart shapes...
Retarded heart scone thanks you for your time.
11 June 2009 @ 08:48 pm
OMG U GUYZ more of my cooking. Also, Chris and I have just booked places in a pastry class on Bastille Day at the Black Pearl Epicure cooking school. For serious. It will be epic. And then we will dine on croissants for every meal of the day for weeks and weeks. This is my vision. Anyway.
Muttar paneer served on cauliflower
Paneer is so fantastic. Nothing quite like the "unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or other food acid" of Persia and Southern Asia! Wait, farmer cheese?
Almond and chocolate gugelhopf
I love you, delicious gugelhopf cake-bread. The first time I had a gugelhopf was from one of the bakeries on Acland St in Melbourne, but I still haven't found either a gugelhopf from a bakery or a gugelhopf I've made that tastes like that one. I'm starting to think the Acland St cake was a gugelhopf anomaly...
Now for some gratuitous linkage.
Sociological Images - if you've ever wanted to have your social unawareness rubbed in your face, this is the blog to do it, you ignorant swine. It's amazingly insightful and it isn't some obsessively politically correct feminist diatribe or whatever; it's thoughtful and even-handed and thorough in its dissection of the stereotypes, bias, preconceptions and schemas we can sometimes be completely oblivious to. I spent about four straight hours reading it when I first stumbled across it.
La Tartine Gourmande - recipes and food photos by a professional food stylist. I think of this person as kind of like the Garance Doré of food. I have so much to learn...
Everything Is Terrible - hideous, awkward, embarrassing, kitschy, fantastically awesome awfulness. You know you need it in your life.
Muttar paneer served on cauliflower
Paneer is so fantastic. Nothing quite like the "unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice or other food acid" of Persia and Southern Asia! Wait, farmer cheese?
Almond and chocolate gugelhopf
I love you, delicious gugelhopf cake-bread. The first time I had a gugelhopf was from one of the bakeries on Acland St in Melbourne, but I still haven't found either a gugelhopf from a bakery or a gugelhopf I've made that tastes like that one. I'm starting to think the Acland St cake was a gugelhopf anomaly...
Now for some gratuitous linkage.
Sociological Images - if you've ever wanted to have your social unawareness rubbed in your face, this is the blog to do it, you ignorant swine. It's amazingly insightful and it isn't some obsessively politically correct feminist diatribe or whatever; it's thoughtful and even-handed and thorough in its dissection of the stereotypes, bias, preconceptions and schemas we can sometimes be completely oblivious to. I spent about four straight hours reading it when I first stumbled across it.
La Tartine Gourmande - recipes and food photos by a professional food stylist. I think of this person as kind of like the Garance Doré of food. I have so much to learn...
Everything Is Terrible - hideous, awkward, embarrassing, kitschy, fantastically awesome awfulness. You know you need it in your life.
04 June 2009 @ 07:34 pm
My dear Franzagelicals, can any of you provide me with the Feeling Kind Of Anxious dub remix of Ulysses? I don't have it for some reason but it messed with my mind when I heard it for the first time. In return, virtual baked goods and borscht:
Snickerdoodles
I'll defer to Nigella's description to do them justice: "You can't help wanting to cook a biscuit with a name like this. Luckily, these live up to it. They're verging on cakes, but only in the sense that they're neither crisp nor flat; what they taste like, in fact, are oven-baked doughnuts - small, cinnamony, with a drier crumb than the dunkin' sort, and very, very moreish."
Gateau Breton
A French butter cake from the Brittany region.
Borscht
It's the borscht.
Snickerdoodles
I'll defer to Nigella's description to do them justice: "You can't help wanting to cook a biscuit with a name like this. Luckily, these live up to it. They're verging on cakes, but only in the sense that they're neither crisp nor flat; what they taste like, in fact, are oven-baked doughnuts - small, cinnamony, with a drier crumb than the dunkin' sort, and very, very moreish."
Gateau Breton
A French butter cake from the Brittany region.
Borscht
It's the borscht.
31 May 2009 @ 02:37 pm
Harissa-marinated dory with roasted vegetables
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's beetroot chocolate brownies
I made these to take to work for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea and they completely disappeared within about three minutes. I didn't tell anyone about the secret ingredient being beetroot and nobody had any idea what the secret ingredient actually was (guesses varied between "some sort of fruit?", "maybe ginger?" and "love"). Seriously, the recipe is here, give it a go and be amazed at how the beetroot improves it.
Brown sugar & cinnamon shortbread
My lab had a bit of a party last night and we all had to bring dishes from our cultural background (however far back into that background we wanted to go). I also made Forfar bridies but forgot to take photos. I felt like such a loser when I had to admit that despite making Scottish food because of my mum's Scottish heritage, I haven't actually been to Scotland since I was 6 weeks old. But who cares, I got to eat German pretzels and meatballs, Brazilian cheese bread balls, Belgian chocolate mousse, Indian and Thai curries, Byzantine baklava, Italian roasted rabbit, Argentinian bread, and about 30 other dishes. So awesome.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's beetroot chocolate brownies
I made these to take to work for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea and they completely disappeared within about three minutes. I didn't tell anyone about the secret ingredient being beetroot and nobody had any idea what the secret ingredient actually was (guesses varied between "some sort of fruit?", "maybe ginger?" and "love"). Seriously, the recipe is here, give it a go and be amazed at how the beetroot improves it.
Brown sugar & cinnamon shortbread
My lab had a bit of a party last night and we all had to bring dishes from our cultural background (however far back into that background we wanted to go). I also made Forfar bridies but forgot to take photos. I felt like such a loser when I had to admit that despite making Scottish food because of my mum's Scottish heritage, I haven't actually been to Scotland since I was 6 weeks old. But who cares, I got to eat German pretzels and meatballs, Brazilian cheese bread balls, Belgian chocolate mousse, Indian and Thai curries, Byzantine baklava, Italian roasted rabbit, Argentinian bread, and about 30 other dishes. So awesome.
25 May 2009 @ 08:55 pm
Happy towel day, froods. Here are some more photos of my cooking from the past week. Praise the mighty 50mm lens for the thinness of focal depth.
Rhubarb and yoghurt cake
Bread and butter pudding made with brioche and dark chocolate
By now you might be thinking that I must have the most unhealthy, indulgent diet because all I ever do is bake sweet, sweet, sugary treats, which I probably then gorge on like a pregnant spider obtaining nutrients for the thousand-strong brood in her abdomen. So instead of taking photos of just my baking (the baked results of which usually get shared around with whoever is handy), I thought I'd take some photos of the type of food I usually cook for meals.
Sweet potato, carrot and chickpea soup with pain au levain
And I made some tabouleh...
... then I made some harissa and used it to make harissa chicken...
... and then I put it all together with Greek yoghurt on Lebanese bread. OMG AWESOME.
I also made borscht today. I enjoy telling people I made borscht because I like saying the word borscht. It sounds so Soviet. Photos of that bright purple soup to come.
Rhubarb and yoghurt cake
Bread and butter pudding made with brioche and dark chocolate
By now you might be thinking that I must have the most unhealthy, indulgent diet because all I ever do is bake sweet, sweet, sugary treats, which I probably then gorge on like a pregnant spider obtaining nutrients for the thousand-strong brood in her abdomen. So instead of taking photos of just my baking (the baked results of which usually get shared around with whoever is handy), I thought I'd take some photos of the type of food I usually cook for meals.
Sweet potato, carrot and chickpea soup with pain au levain
And I made some tabouleh...
... then I made some harissa and used it to make harissa chicken...
... and then I put it all together with Greek yoghurt on Lebanese bread. OMG AWESOME.
I also made borscht today. I enjoy telling people I made borscht because I like saying the word borscht. It sounds so Soviet. Photos of that bright purple soup to come.
17 May 2009 @ 04:35 pm
Ok kids, let's see if I can post an entry that I don't end up regretting and deleting!
PHOTOS!
Here are some HDR photos that Chris and I did a few months back. We went on a 13km walk through dense rainforest in a rainstorm somewhere around here, and it was awesome. I would be a very happy girl if I could do that relatively frequently.
( HDR ahoy. )
Also, I'm taking a leaf out ofzeolite's book and I'm going to start posting photos of things that I cook. Although I, like all admirers of the culinary arts, aspire to cook like a 1950s housewife (aren't things like this and this just so beautiful and don't you want them in your stomach right now?), you'll just have to tolerate my rather conventional cooking for now.
The labs at work that study bees (studying how an animal with such a tiny brain can perform such amazing navigation and manoeuvering tasks and be able to use scent to discern between mixtures of all sorts of chemicals) have a large bee colony and every couple of months they haul all the honey into work and you can buy 1kg for $5. So now I've got a kilo of honey that I need to use. Sweet honey goods ahoy.
Honey-roasted rhubarb with Greek yoghurt on toasted brioche. Stupidly easy and quite the Sunday breakfast.
Honey and pecan cupcakes with honey glaze. If only I could fit more honey into them somehow...
PHOTOS!
Here are some HDR photos that Chris and I did a few months back. We went on a 13km walk through dense rainforest in a rainstorm somewhere around here, and it was awesome. I would be a very happy girl if I could do that relatively frequently.
( HDR ahoy. )
Also, I'm taking a leaf out of
zeolite's book and I'm going to start posting photos of things that I cook. Although I, like all admirers of the culinary arts, aspire to cook like a 1950s housewife (aren't things like this and this just so beautiful and don't you want them in your stomach right now?), you'll just have to tolerate my rather conventional cooking for now. The labs at work that study bees (studying how an animal with such a tiny brain can perform such amazing navigation and manoeuvering tasks and be able to use scent to discern between mixtures of all sorts of chemicals) have a large bee colony and every couple of months they haul all the honey into work and you can buy 1kg for $5. So now I've got a kilo of honey that I need to use. Sweet honey goods ahoy.
Honey-roasted rhubarb with Greek yoghurt on toasted brioche. Stupidly easy and quite the Sunday breakfast.
Honey and pecan cupcakes with honey glaze. If only I could fit more honey into them somehow...
Current Music: Cash Cow - We Are Scientists
17 February 2009 @ 09:54 pm
So it's my birthday tomorrow and to commemorate the occasion, along with the other occasions of all the other awesome people who have birthdays in February - my boyfriend (who is unfathomably awesome), theforestlights (who won't see this but I'll let her know in other ways), citrikacid (whom I hope will appreciate the crackiness of this post like a true slackerette), my man Charles Darwin (keep on truckin', dude), and select others - I will post some selected images from a very precious folder of mine, the contents of which have been lovingly saved during my long wanderings throughout the interwebs.
If you don't laugh with a laughter that swells seas and cracks earth at each and every one of these images, as I did, consider yourself banished. Or just stand in awe at myappalling deconstructionist sense of humour.
( Do you have dial-up? I sure don't. )
theforestlights (who won't see this but I'll let her know in other ways), citrikacid (whom I hope will appreciate the crackiness of this post like a true slackerette), my man Charles Darwin (keep on truckin', dude), and select others - I will post some selected images from a very precious folder of mine, the contents of which have been lovingly saved during my long wanderings throughout the interwebs. If you don't laugh with a laughter that swells seas and cracks earth at each and every one of these images, as I did, consider yourself banished. Or just stand in awe at my
( Do you have dial-up? I sure don't. )
08 February 2009 @ 08:49 pm
If there is one thing that the internet hasn't taught me (as if it hasn't taught everyone everything, you cry in dismay), it's how to pick my fights. I fight the stupidest fights on the internet, in the wrong places, at the wrong times, with the wrong people, sometimes for the most hilarious and trivial of issues. In fact, those are the issues I usually fight, instead of something I genuinely care about. Internet has been srs bsns for me but it needs to stop! I had always hoped my efforts would come to a gallant end, but I have to accept that it may not be so.
It may not come to this as soon as I had hoped.
Now, I must swear that I will walk away from fights that could not possibly have a useful or constructive outcome. It ends here.
No more fighting with housewives about antibacterial soaps!
My opinion: People generally shouldn't use antibacterial soaps in day-to-day life because (a) most experiments seem to show that they're no more effective in preventing infection than normal soap, (b) exposing bacteria to the weak concentrations of antibacterial agents in handwash will allow the bacteria to build up a resistance, so we're screwed if we ever genuinely need to treat a severe infection with an antibiotic that is similar in chemical structure to antibacterial agents such as triclosan, (c) basically nobody except people with genuine OCD wash their hands thoroughly enough to make a difference (two solid minutes of scrubbing is required!), (d) we should build up our natural immunity by exposing ourselves to low levels of bacteria, and (e) oh my god when was the last time anyone you know got sick specifically because they didn't wash their hands with antibacterial soap?
The housewives' opinion: "It makes me feel cleaner", "I do it just to be on the safe side", "I enjoy making the world a more dangerous place for people to live in because I'm so wound up in my own delusion that there are deadly germs everywhere and I need to sanitise every inch of my home if I don't want to die of... umm... I don't even know what I would die of, but I'm sure I'd get gangrene or tuberculosis or something if I don't wash my phone with antibacterial soap. It just makes me feel cleaner, and that's all that matters to me, not the professional opinion of microbiologists who keep warning me that over-using antibacterials will lead to the generation of super-bugs that will actually be a danger rather than the innocuous bacteria that are naturally found on us and around, but hey, the companies that stand to make money off scaring us into thinking there are bad germs everywhere rather than just accepting that there are generally harmless bacteria everywhere, they've done a good job so I'm happy to give them hundreds or thousands of dollars of my money every year just to appease a worry that is entirely in my own head." Yeah I might have elaborated a bit on that last one.
Decision: Abandon the operation. Housewives aren't going to listen to some random person on the internet in the context of a general purpose lifestyle forum. Even though I can supply them with evidence to back up my claims, they only go on the internet and ask which antibacterial soaps everyone uses because they want to have their pre-existing beliefs confirmed, so they all ignore my comments and they say how they never buy anything except Dettol antibacterial liquid soap and they stock up on it when it's on sale so they can have a bottle in every room of the house. "It makes me feel so much safer." Great, you'll be the first to go when a plague that could have been treated with triclosan sweeps through the world.
No more fighting with psychology students about the validity of intelligence as a construct!
My opinion (and the opinion of 99.9% of professional psychologists and any psychology students who have done a course on psychometrics): Intelligence is impossible to define in any meaningful way. The only true definition of intelligence is: "intelligence is what intelligence tests measure". Beyond that, intelligence means different things to different people, it may have hundreds of different components, it is culturally biased, it scores poorly on a range of validity measurements, and it is an instance of the human tendency to take an abstract concept and then try to measure it quantitatively.
The psychology student's opinion: Intelligence is a valid construct. Seriously, she didn't elucidate any further than that.
Decision: Let her find out the hard way. If she's going to be a professional psychologist, one day she will be attempting to talk about measuring intelligence and a room full of blank faces will turn towards her. Then brows will be furrowed, lips pursed, eyebrows raised, heads desked. Someone will say "Surely you understand the limitations of intelligence as a construct" and everyone will nod their heads slowly. She will suddenly feel very alone, and she will turn around and walk out of the room, go home, sit on a chair for five hours in deep thought, then pick up the phone and arrange a one-way ticket to Mongolia where she will dedicate her time to helping Unicef run that rock-climbing centre for kids and do something valuable with her life instead of being an uninformed shadow of a psychologist. Pft!
Arguments I have successfully walked away from instead of getting involved!
Then BAM! Jason Statham has rung the doorbell of this disagreeable person, the person has gone to the door, looked through the peephole, and Jason Statham has fucking kicked their door down in an explosion of reality-supporting arse-kicking. In my mind, Jason Statham cares very much that opinions be backed up by empirical evidence and research, not misinformation and appeals to emotion and subjectivity. Jason Statham is just fucking like that.
It may not come to this as soon as I had hoped.
Now, I must swear that I will walk away from fights that could not possibly have a useful or constructive outcome. It ends here.
No more fighting with housewives about antibacterial soaps!
My opinion: People generally shouldn't use antibacterial soaps in day-to-day life because (a) most experiments seem to show that they're no more effective in preventing infection than normal soap, (b) exposing bacteria to the weak concentrations of antibacterial agents in handwash will allow the bacteria to build up a resistance, so we're screwed if we ever genuinely need to treat a severe infection with an antibiotic that is similar in chemical structure to antibacterial agents such as triclosan, (c) basically nobody except people with genuine OCD wash their hands thoroughly enough to make a difference (two solid minutes of scrubbing is required!), (d) we should build up our natural immunity by exposing ourselves to low levels of bacteria, and (e) oh my god when was the last time anyone you know got sick specifically because they didn't wash their hands with antibacterial soap?
The housewives' opinion: "It makes me feel cleaner", "I do it just to be on the safe side", "I enjoy making the world a more dangerous place for people to live in because I'm so wound up in my own delusion that there are deadly germs everywhere and I need to sanitise every inch of my home if I don't want to die of... umm... I don't even know what I would die of, but I'm sure I'd get gangrene or tuberculosis or something if I don't wash my phone with antibacterial soap. It just makes me feel cleaner, and that's all that matters to me, not the professional opinion of microbiologists who keep warning me that over-using antibacterials will lead to the generation of super-bugs that will actually be a danger rather than the innocuous bacteria that are naturally found on us and around, but hey, the companies that stand to make money off scaring us into thinking there are bad germs everywhere rather than just accepting that there are generally harmless bacteria everywhere, they've done a good job so I'm happy to give them hundreds or thousands of dollars of my money every year just to appease a worry that is entirely in my own head." Yeah I might have elaborated a bit on that last one.
Decision: Abandon the operation. Housewives aren't going to listen to some random person on the internet in the context of a general purpose lifestyle forum. Even though I can supply them with evidence to back up my claims, they only go on the internet and ask which antibacterial soaps everyone uses because they want to have their pre-existing beliefs confirmed, so they all ignore my comments and they say how they never buy anything except Dettol antibacterial liquid soap and they stock up on it when it's on sale so they can have a bottle in every room of the house. "It makes me feel so much safer." Great, you'll be the first to go when a plague that could have been treated with triclosan sweeps through the world.
No more fighting with psychology students about the validity of intelligence as a construct!
My opinion (and the opinion of 99.9% of professional psychologists and any psychology students who have done a course on psychometrics): Intelligence is impossible to define in any meaningful way. The only true definition of intelligence is: "intelligence is what intelligence tests measure". Beyond that, intelligence means different things to different people, it may have hundreds of different components, it is culturally biased, it scores poorly on a range of validity measurements, and it is an instance of the human tendency to take an abstract concept and then try to measure it quantitatively.
The psychology student's opinion: Intelligence is a valid construct. Seriously, she didn't elucidate any further than that.
Decision: Let her find out the hard way. If she's going to be a professional psychologist, one day she will be attempting to talk about measuring intelligence and a room full of blank faces will turn towards her. Then brows will be furrowed, lips pursed, eyebrows raised, heads desked. Someone will say "Surely you understand the limitations of intelligence as a construct" and everyone will nod their heads slowly. She will suddenly feel very alone, and she will turn around and walk out of the room, go home, sit on a chair for five hours in deep thought, then pick up the phone and arrange a one-way ticket to Mongolia where she will dedicate her time to helping Unicef run that rock-climbing centre for kids and do something valuable with her life instead of being an uninformed shadow of a psychologist. Pft!
Arguments I have successfully walked away from instead of getting involved!
- "The UK has poor gun legislation which will lead to people being less aware of firearm safety and there will be more accidents! It's much safer here in the US where we all know about firearm safety." I guess she only cares about accidental firearm injuries due to being uninformed about proper firearm safety and protocol, rather than, say, the rate for gun-related intentional homicide in the US being more than 33 times higher than the UK, i.e. approximately 10 deaths per 100,000 of population vs 0.3 deaths per 100,00 of population, or 30000 deaths per year versus 200. I walked away from this one because I have a vague inkling that I'm not going to solve the US's deeply entrenched gun culture with a couple of comments on LJ.
- "I've started trying to make Big Macs at home! I've tried lots of different things and now I've gotten to the point where it tastes almost as good as the real thing!" I would have only gotten involved with this one for the lulz. Anyway, I wouldn't even know where to start; the fact that she thought Big Macs were worth trying to recreate at home (good luck trying to source some poor quality meat extender to mix into your low grade mince, the majority of which may or may not be beef) or the fact that she had spent hundreds of dollars on ingredients to try to recreate a $3 burger and then admitted that it still didn't taste as good as an actual Big Mac. Oh lawd.
Then BAM! Jason Statham has rung the doorbell of this disagreeable person, the person has gone to the door, looked through the peephole, and Jason Statham has fucking kicked their door down in an explosion of reality-supporting arse-kicking. In my mind, Jason Statham cares very much that opinions be backed up by empirical evidence and research, not misinformation and appeals to emotion and subjectivity. Jason Statham is just fucking like that.
14 January 2009 @ 04:44 pm
