slowfox | Reading

Our greenhouse is filled with perfectly ripe eggplants right now. Too full, actually. While my guy has been making vats of what we call "greenhouse glop," I've been trying to figure out what else to do with them. Luckily, Thug Kitchen had a great idea.

Grilled Eggplant with Soba Noodles

( Read more... )
Would I make it again. You bet! This is the sort of recipe that begs to be mucked with. I thought it wanted some peppers, whatever sort you can eat raw or briefly grilled. My guy wanted chili sauce. Might substitute cilantro for the basil, which disappeared in the mix.

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Penny whistle
Crossposts: http://loupnoir.livejournal.com/511335.html

cofax7

What a week, huh? So exhausting. I swear, this regime is going to ruin my liver.

Remember that guy at Google with the memo? (Seems like months ago, doesn't it?) Well, one of the MetaFilter gang decided to do a comprehensive discussion/analysis of his arguments, complete with citations. The Truth Has Got Its Boots On, which is a lovely Pratchett reference.

Here's a resource for people confused about the Trump/Russia scandal. Amidst all the racism and Nazis, there are still questions about Trump's history with Russia.

This New Yorker article also asks some questions about Wall Street Raider Carl Icahn and his relationship with the Trump regime. Conflicts of interest? Pish.

This article looks at environmental justice from the perspective of the community rather than the regulator or government. It's both devastating and hopeful.

This article from Pro Publica gives a solid historical overview of attempts to incorporate principles of environmental justice at the federal level, and how they have failed. I do love Pro Publica: they do solid investigative journalism.

Politics can make strange bedfellows, as we know: hunters are on the front lines protecting the public lands.

This Lawfare article about private military groups hints at some legal tools that can be used against the Neo-Nazis.

The New York Review of Books has dropped the paywall on James M. McPherson's take-down of the myth of the Lost Cause.

Here's a blackly funny report of a call to a Georgia Congressman's office.

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Alton Brown's fruitcake recipe. It looks tasty, but the volume is far too small. Why make only one fruitcake at a time?!

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I am working on my NFE story, but argh, just realized that book club is this coming Wednesday, and I haven't read the book yet! Argh. Also it took me 4 tries to get started on the story, and then I had to do some background research and realized that I had [redacted] wrong, and also [redacted], and now I have to research [redacted]. I'm not sure if I'm going to get done in time...

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In other news, Help!. Is anyone else using Chrome and having trouble logging into DW? I turned off HTTPS Everywhere, but that didn't make any difference. I simply cannot log in.

And now off to dog class where once again we will fail on the weave poles...

aome

This is what happens when you go away for 10 days, your BIL/SIL only manage to check on the garden on the 10th day (both are workaholics and it also rained a fair amount), and it's another 4 days before you, personally, manage to inspect the garden. And this doesn't even count the zillions of tomatoes that spoiled on the vine.

It took another 2 days (during which I had to toss a few more tomatoes that started spoiling on the counter) but this evening my BIL (with Will's help) turned the cucumbers into pickles, and I blanched/froze the broccoli, cooked the beans for dinner, and made a giant pot of spaghetti sauce (still simmering, which is why I'm up so late). The large peppers can be turned into pickled peppers and Will uses the cayennes in his food. Still have the giant bowl of cherry tomatoes, will have to eat those right quick. (We did manage to give away a few tomatoes and cucumbers, but not that many.)

I spent the entire evening in the kitchen, actually, ( making LOADS of stuff, while Will zoned out )

Of course, the fact that it's now been 2 days since I was last in the garden (well, as of Sat, I mean, which it technically is), this means that produce has had plenty of time to re-spawn, and I can start the process all over again! :P

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/1878/

You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.

https://xkcd.com/1878/

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/1877/

I was thinking of observing stars to verify Einstein's theory of relativity again, but I gotta say, that thing is looking pretty solid at this point.

https://xkcd.com/1877/

aome

We're back! Actually, I've been back for about 40 hours now, but with laundry, errands, unpacking, jet lag and general life, I haven't had much time to sit down to the computer, and when I did, it was mostly mindlessly surfing the 'net. :-P

In general, it was a really good trip. On the Big Island we: saw Kilauea volcano, visited a black sand beach, had some regular beach trips, enjoyed the hotel pool/hot tub, went snorkling, took a glass-bottom boat trip, visited a seahorse farm and Place of Refuge, tried shave ice and had fun wandering through shops and farmer's markets/craft markets. On Oah'u we mostly spent our time at Aulani [luau, character breakfast, more snorkling, beach and pool (which included water slides and lazy river), took a couple of art-and-culture tours of the place], which was marvelous, but we did venture one day to Waikiki (which was largely disappointing, although we did get some inexpensive shirts and other souvenirs there, and enjoyed local ice cream). The whole trip went way too quickly and nobody but Two was ready to come home again.

But we did have some squabbling along the way, largely under circumstances where people tend to be tense - navigating unfamiliar roads, dealing with airports, people being hot and/or tired, or stressed over a new experience, plus some ordinary miscommunications. To me, it wasn't a huge deal (I mean, it was in the moment, because WHY ARE PEOPLE COMPLAINING WHEN WE'RE IN HAWAII? but it didn't color my overall view of the trip) but Two remarked to me that one of the things he was taking away from our vacation was that, in his view, Will and I had fought more than usual. I felt kind of bad about that.

I'll try to find time for more detailed write-ups later, but I at least wanted to pop in here again. There is no way I can catch up on my flist from 2 weeks ago, so ... let me know if I've missed something important in your life?

In the meantime I finished re-reading Stormhaven and also finished reading The Dream Thieves, both on the flights back home.

( Dream Thieves )

Anyway, overall I loved this book, and now I don't know what to read. I started Upside of Unrequited before we left for Hawaii, and would love to finish that. I want to read Cassie's Lord of Shadows, which I've also started (on Ch 3 or something like that). And I really want to dive into Blue Lily, Lily Blue to stay immersed in the Raven King universe. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH HOURS IN THE DAY!!!

auguris

It turns out I'm allergic to neosporin, going by the reaction I had. OH WELL.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/1876/

There were traffic jams for the eclipses in 1970 and 1979, and that was *before* we had the potential for overnight viral social media frenzies.

https://xkcd.com/1876/

auguris

...no, Google, I don't want to know if it's safe to USE neosporin on my cat, I want to know if it's safe to touch him when I'M using it. Sigh.

It does look like it's okay as long as they don't ingest, but still. Don't. Don't use medicine on your cat without a vet's approval.

These must be the same people who suggest using canned air to discipline your cats. Spray that shit in your own face and see how you like it, moron.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/1875/

It's hard to train deep learning algorithms when most of the positive feedback they get is sarcastic.

https://xkcd.com/1875/

loup_noir

I am learning things I didn't really want to know. To wit: even a little bit of beer dribbled into a keyboard will fritz it. Once the perfect keyboard dried out, it was certain that some key was depressed all the time. We did have a real POS keyboard I could use, but it was really a POS. Mostly used it to order a new ergonomic keyboard from Amazon.

Second thing I didn't want to know was that my beloved robe had worn out. How did I discover that? By sticking my hand through the fabric. Once I held the garment up to the light, I'm amazed that it was still in one piece. Amazon to the rescue.

Third thing was discovering how many websites require that comments be turned on to load properly. Look, do comics need a comment trail? Really? The news sites are toxic, with all the vitriol and stupidity that idjits feel compelled to add. There is an add-on for Firefox that will hide all of those. Yay. Well, not so yay, because what the add-on thinks is a comment sometimes isn't, or the webmaster feels that one must be able to see all the BS. Mostly, it's a good thing.

Fourth was the shooting pains in my hands after using the weed-eater and the hedge trimmer for too long. My body wants to be a pampered princess, not a laborer. Might be time to invest in some gel gloves to cut down the vibration, because there's just too much work that has to get done for me to play the poor me card. Nope, get to work, you slacker.

Which leads the thing the last, the hedges. Who knew that it only takes two years for them to get so wide that I can't read the middle with what's basically a four-foot pole that eats branches?

And thus ends the post of things I didn't really want to know.