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So, all those cheap artichokes you have hanging around...
Another recipe, naturally. My corner store has been selling high-quality artichokes for $1 each, and slightly imperfect ones for fifty cents. So I started playing around with roasting/braising/gratineeing them. Tonight was simple, with thyme from the garden and lemons from the corner store. ( Recipe after the cut ) -
braised oxtails
So I got a deal on a couple pounds of oxtails. I braised them; It turned out very nicely. ( Recipe behind the cut ) -
PSA -- computer broken, eta one week.
So a few days ago, my computer stopped working. The preliminary diagnosis is a defective NVIDIA graphics processor failing. The good news is that I won't be charged for the new motherboard this fix entails. The bad news is that my computer will be in the shop for a week, possibly more. I should be able to send and receive email -- but I won't ( Read more... ) -
Two or Three Vegetables
I've been feeling the lack of vegetables the last little while, so I went a bit wild tonight. First, baked potatoes are easy. Wash 'em, stick 'em in the oven, and wait around an hour. I had cheap n' cheerful Safeway potatoes, and ended up washing them with a kitchen scrubber -- but they got clean ( Read more... ) -
An October Toddy
We all need something after reading through the voter guide, right? So I faked this up ( Read more... ) -
California Premises -- Day 2
OK -- an easy one this time. Prop. 21: $18 annual vehicle license surcharge to fund state parks. Vehicles given free admission to state parks.
( I'm voting Yes, but here's the background ) -
California Promises, Day 1
So the elections are in nine days, more or less. As a good California voter, it's time for me to start cramming for the elections. This is, of course, a mid-term election -- you still can't skip your homework. We have 127 pages of state voter guide, covering state offices and 9 state propositions. We also have 192 pages of local voter guide, ( Read more... ) -
Am I a heel or not?
Well, I'm sure you all have your opinions... but I'm puzzling through a moral quandary. I was out in the car, driving to visit the drugstore. A Mercedes convertible ahead of me pulled past a stopped bus and ignored the stop sign, pulling through the intersection without a pause. He then drove really slowly to the shopping center, where he ( Read more... ) -
Good things.
I think I come across in this space as an awfully grouchy person. People who know me in person will undoubtedly have their own opinions, but I *think* that's partly selection bias. It's easy to work up the energy to post about something that has just now pissed me off -- but good things tend to get short shrift. So, in no order whatsoever, some ( Read more... ) -
No, we're not raising a generation of nincompoops.
They're already here, and they're writing for news magazines. Today I read another of those scare articles (are we raising etc.) somewhere or other. It doesn't actually matter where -- more will come along if you wait a bit. If you're in a hurry, you can find previous years' (decades', centuries') editions with no trouble ( Read more... )