Wouter's Blog – Page 52 – Who said it was your cheese in the first place?

Gnocchi

This is a recipe from Jamie, which I scribbled down from a book my mom had. Simple, but great, especially if you have a vegetarian daughter who lurves mushrooms.

Thinly slice a punnet of brown mushrooms, fry in oil, add salt, pepper, maybe a bit of marjoram or rosemary, maybe a bit of chilli powder. Add one cup vegetable stock, bring to boil.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water with a lot of salt, then slowly (as to not douse the boil) add gnocchi. When they float, remove with slotty spoon, add to mushroom sauce.

And that’s it. OK, you can add a couple of tablespoons of Creme Fraiche if you’re feeling decadent.

2009-08-13 by wrm Foooooood 1

Amazon-mass

Father Amazon dropped by.

Looks like I have something to read this weekend.

2009-08-07 by wrm Geek 1

Time sink

LabRat pointed me at fukung.net. This is a horrible waste of time. And not safe for work, which means it’s your own time you’re wasting.

But this one made me laugh:

2009-08-07 by wrm Farting around 0

My scale is trying to kill me.

If you have a Boardman’s BF103 Digital Scale, take note.

This symbol denotes female,

and this one denotes male.

If you get it wrong, the POS will look things up in the wrong table, and pronounce you, the guy, underweight, and her, SWMBO, the love of your life, the one you promised to love and cherish,Â and the person most likely to kill you if you Don’t Watch Your Step, as obese.

You Have Been Warned.

2009-07-28 by wrm Farting around Geek 0

Scalzi rocks

Marko pointed me to Scalzi. Being of the opinion that Marko knows what he’s talking about most of the time :-) I ordered a copy of Old Man’s War from Amazon. Just finished it, and it rocks.

A bit rough around the edges, couple of things he (in my opinion, of course) missed, but not bad for a young ‘un (Mr Scalzi is two years younger’n me :-)

I can’t help but to compare OMW to Neal Stephenson‘s first book, The Big U. I really really like Stephenson, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon are highly recommended [1] — but The Big U, while having excellent ideas, is way shaky.

But let’s face it — I expect that from a first novel. And that’s why Scalzi rocks. If he improves like Stephenson improved, or for that matter like Pratchett improved [2], it’s going to be phenomenal. If he just maintains, it will still be good.

The other three books in the trilogy immediately found themselves on my Amazon wish list.

Now I’m into Parker’s Devices and Desires, the first of a trilogy. Someone recommended it, but I can’t remember who. Looks like it might be good.

[1] You have to be really into Stephenson to read the Baroque cycle :-)

[2] Go read The Colour of Magic again — it’s shakey :-)

2009-07-19 by wrm Geek 0

End of an Era.

Giovanni came to South Africa some 45 years ago [1]. He was one of the first people to cut my hair, at Salon Etna, on Thibault Square in Cape Town (my grandmother worked next door, in the Medical Centre).

Over the years Giovanni became a Cape Town landmark, to the point of briefly appearing in a Vodacom advertisement (13 seconds in).

Well, I went there this morning, and Giovanni is now called Eleanor… he retired in May, sold the place to her. She tells me he still checks in every week, and that one of the two barber’s chairs is on loan from him (he imported four chairs from Japan, waybackwhen, and vowed to give one chair to each of his sons and to keep one chair to himself [2], leaving Eleanor with a solitary chair — she will have to make a plan sometime).

Anyway, I shall toast the memories of his haircuts at sundowners tomorrow.

[1] My father can tell the story in the comments if he feels like it [3].

[2] Pieter can tell the story in the comments if he feels like it.

[3] Pieter can help my father figure out how to :-)

2009-07-16 by wrm Farting around 0

Bloggers come and bloggers go…

Alosha decided to hang up her blogging gloves. Fortunately I managed to save some of her recipes from the google cache.

On the other hand, I ran across Vanilla Basil (divine looking carrot cake) and the Pioneer Woman (I’ve made lasagna almost her way, it does rock).

And Pioneer Woman runs Tasty Kitchen. I think recipe books are essentially obsolete.

2009-07-15 by wrm Foooooood 0

My twin brother came by for a visit

His name is James and he’s been building satellitesÂ in Surrey for more than a decade.

And he’s not really my brother, people just mistook him for that at my (first) wedding, which is pretty much when I saw him last.

Anywayz, sounds like he might be coming back to SA, but that would still put him 1500km north of me… at least I’ll see him slightly more often :-) Also, he can collect the six huge boxes of crap he stored at my place before he left.

2009-07-09 by wrm Farting around 2

It’s like power-assisted chess

The TDi Golf I drive has been giving starting hassles. The auto-electrician gave it a clean bill of health, and the agents changed a fuel filter and said it was fine. Still, it doesn’t always start in the mornings. After charging the battery for half an hour everything’s fine, so I suspect an intermittent charging system.

Meanwhile, last week Friday, Tanya phoned to say her car (Opel Astra Classic) won’t start. Jumped it off the Golf and it started easily. Made a note that I need to take the car for a new battery next week Monday (being, today).

So this morning Tanya says I’d better check that all the cars start. Opel, dead. Golf, dead.

So the trusty Rand-Lover gets started up. Hmmm, cables won’t reach. Reverse out the front gate, turn around, reverse in, wire up Opel, get that started.

OK, now the Golf is on the front lawn. And it’s too heavy for Tanya & me to push. Land-Rover out the front gate, around and in the other gate, bit of back-and-forth, get the Golf started.

I proceed to bugger off to work with the Opel, except around the first circle I realise that my work keys are still in the Golf. So I turn around, and the Opel dies. It has an electrical power steering pump, see, and the sharp turn with the engine cold and idling slowly was just too much for the system.

So I call Tanya to bring the Golf, jump start the Opel…

2009-06-08 by wrm Farting around 6

A Tale of two Quiches

On the left, Liz’ Self-Crusting Corn Quiche (thanks, Stuart, appreciated) and on the right, Brigid’s Bacon Cheddar Quiche.

Two quiches, because we have a vegetarian in the family.

For the corn quiche, I used two mielies, microwaved for a few minutes. I also nuked the potatoes at the same time. Next time, I’ll caramelise the onion (make that “onions” — I’ll use two).

Of course, I can’t improve on Brigid’s recipe, what’s to improve on a recipe that uses a pound of bacon and a cup of cream? (I don’t know where to get half-and-half. I had cream left over. So there. Deal with it, arteries, deal). The crust is commercial puff pastry, and it works well.

2009-05-28 by wrm Foooooood 1