The downside of ease of use

The ease of use of the mac really opens you up to have a truly disabling drinking problem.

-paraphrased from merlin mann's "most days" daily video project 2009/01/04

Overheard: quality or cost?

Overheard boarding airplane out of Burbank:

"Pick the one with the four stars, I mean the four dollar signs.

Bacon cup with toast and egg

After lots of big talk, I finally got around to making bacon cups. Mostly I was motivated by the departure of my fantastic cook friend, whom I wanted to make some food for on his moving day. I had read about them here and learned about microwaving them here, and of course I was goosed by the recent Bacon Explosion mania. I'm really sold on the microwave version - the speed makes the whole thing very quick. Here's a description of how I made them. The "egg sandwich in bacon cup" was a huge hit, and really yummy. I made the bacon cups before I made the eggs, and I reheated the cups in the microwave for 5 seconds before putting the warm egg and toast in it. The toast works well to fill the holes in the bottom - I couldn't eat all the bacon it would take to make a solid bottom. The best way to eat it was like a sandwich, although it was messy. I'm thinking of doing an oatmeal version, and experimenting with maple syrup and brown sugar on the bacon.

Science Tattoos

There's a whole collection.
atom-future

Thank goodness that's over

bye, 43.

Michelle Obama fangirl

I'm a fan of Barack Obama, but I'm wild about Michelle Obama. I've never actively liked a first lady before - I think Barbara Bush was the most personable of presidential wives during my conscious civic life. I was musing on whether the Obamas would get any criticism for going "too black" with Aretha's musical interpretation. But then I looked at the religious speaker and their manner and clothes, and I thought: "they will be given all the room in the world: they out-WASP the WASPs with their poise, reserve, and dignity." Plus, Michelle dresses like a house on fire.

Lab coats: the Kathryn Heigl Collection

There's also a "Grey's Anatomy" line. The scrubs themselves are nothing special. How big is that market, anyway?

I find this comforting

All you are is a bag of particles acting out the laws of physics -Brian Greene

(from the Multi Universe(s) episode of Radiolab)

skeleton sweatshirt

more from street anatomy

from The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art

(by Karen Norberg)

Click the image for a big pretty version.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Twice the size of Texas, it's small and large pieces of plastic gathered by ocean currents.
Wikipedia entry
NYTimes article Sea of Trash
Image from Greenpeace animation. Link is halfway down this page.

Leek soup

leek soup
Originally uploaded by manducasexta

I meant to take a picture before I ate it. My failure to do so is a testament to how yummy it was.

The recipe, loosely derived from cooks illustrated:

Cut and wash 6 leeks

Melt 6 TBS butter in stock pot

When butter is foaming, add leeks

Give it 15 minutes or so until leeks start to become translucent. (I also added 2 potatoes 5 minutes later, but I think I should have waited longer)

Add 1 TBS flour, stir until mixed

After a few minutes, slowly add 4 c chicken stock with stirring (salty stock is ok - this soup needs salt)

Let cook 20 min or so (until potatoes are done)

Let cool a bit

Blend with immersion blender - with more foresight I would have moved the soup into a pot with a smaller diameter to make the blending easier. I didn't blend to homogeneity - I like a little texture left. with yet more foresight, I might have poured some out and then poured it back after blending most of it.

Taste, add salt & pepper, repeat

I couldn't find any herbs or spices I was very inspired by - I smelled the ones I had and wasn't moved

I let the soup cool even further and stored most of it away in the fridge.

I poured the rest (~1 cup) into the pyrex bowl in the picture and added a couple tbs of heavy cream and gobbled it up before I could remember to take a picture.

I'm not sure if i'll put cream in the rest. It's pretty good as is, but cream is pretty good too!

My biggest weakness

Click for larger image.


Horrible to have it laid out so clearly.

XKCD is often brilliant. This is another of my favorites.

New roommate

New roommate
Originally uploaded by manducasexta

Thanks Jason.

Burda twist dress

This dress looks fun to make. People report that it's easy (!?). The pattern is from Burda's World of Fashion magazine (2008 number 103). The picture is a version of the dress made by Melissa Fehr, but many other people have written about sewing it too.

I want to like ThreadBanger.com

But the truth is that there are many better sewing websites. Stodgy patternreview.com and european-leaning burdastyle.com are stuffed (stuffed!) with highly skilled sewing enthusiasts, and even craftster.org, which covers many areas other than sewing, has higher quality projects and information. When ThreadBanger raved about the movie Bride Wars, our relationship ended. We still talk, but not regularly.

Jonathan Gold reviews Noodle Island

Adding Noodle Island to my list of Place to Eat Before I Leave. Yum!

Street Anatomy

A lovely new find. Thanks Jordan!