Regina Noctis

Dear all,

I am in need of some advice from the experts. My mother-in-law and I have decided to get together and cook once a week. She's kind of drawn to the more basic recipes like "pasta alfredo", "stuffed chicken breast". After we decided today to make a pink peppercorn pavlova with strawberries and basil sauce (she/everyone loved it!), she seems to agree that it's worth taking some time now and then to make very extensive, challenging recipes. So I thought: Why not look for a good recipe book with more challenging recipes?

So here is my question for the experts: Can you recommend recipe books or magazines that are known for having more innovative, unusual, challenging recipes? Or web sites?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Tonight was the traditional "Doug and Ann Birthday Taco Spectacular" over at my mom's place. Food was very good, and I managed one taco with shell before the dentures gave up the fight. After excusing myself to the restroom to remove them (I had brought along their container just in case this became necessary) I had plate tacos, which are just as good. We avoided the unpleasant possibility of kshandra and Kylie fighting over the last olive, and Regan told wonderful stories about her day. Alas, her command of English is still somewhat limited, but she got her point across.

The title is a reference to a long-standing tradition in our family. (Which we failed to do tonight, I realize.) Tacos were a special treat growing up (hence their status as a special birthday dinner) and we were amused to learn that in Mexico they're considered somewhat common, the meal of the poor. So "I wonder what the poor people in Mexico are eating tonight?" was a required comment at taco dinners.

After tacos, a wonderful spice cake (which we brought home) and we checked in on ESPN long enough to see that Tim Lincecum led the Giants to an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Tomorrow, we're heading up for the game. Day baseball on the 4th of July, what could be better? How about the team we're playing?

BEAT L.A.!!!
LET'S GO GIANTS!!!

Started an Orc Barbarian in Nethack today (my favorite "hack/slash" combo) and was having a good but unremarkable run until the second level of the Gnomish Mines. There, I found bones I had picked up through Hearse. Good pile of stuff, and I have a blessed scroll of identify.. yes! I'm getting everything identified, and see these two items:

wand of wishing (0:2)
wand of wishing (1:2)

For the non-Nethackers, wands of wishing allow you to wish for just about anything in the game. (You can't get the three items you need to enter the Sanctum, and can't wish for your own Quest Object. Also, the more artifact weapons are in play, the less likely you are to get one from a wish.) The first number there is the number of times the wand has been recharged (WoW can only be recharged once) the second is number of charges left. Once the wand is exhausted, you can keep zapping it to get one last charge out of it. Got it?

So very early in the game I had a complete Ascension Kit. Frost Brand, Gray Dragon Scale Mail, Speed Boots, Gauntlets of Power, Helm of Brilliance, Cloak of Displacement, and a Shield of Reflection. Also managed a Bag of Holding.

Also in this pile is a Wand of Death (0:6). My only thought is the original player didn't know how to identify wands by writing with them.

But now I'm doomed. Because this kind of crazy luck so early in a game, especially on the new moon (game keeps track of lunar phases, during the new moon your luck takes a hit) usually means a really stupid death lurks on the next level. You get hit with a deadly poison. You step onto a sleeping gas trap and get nibbled to death by a newt. A rat steps on a polymorph trap and turns into an Arch-Lich. But you are doomed.

Except, not only has 666 the Orc evaded doom, he's prospered. Found Magicbane in another bones pile. The portal to Fort Ludios was in the first vault he checked. He got two more wishes from thrones! He's current;y 19th level, AC -43, about 200HP, and whirling invisible displaced ginsu of cold death.

Damned if this guy may not ascend.

But there is one stupid death left lurking. A previous bone level has freaking DemonLordCon, complete with Demogorgon.

ATTACK!!!

Jennifer's fingertips are long and slender. She can feel individual molecules with them, which helps when she is performing nanoassembly. Her fingertips can also do that. She can play the harp with precision and passion, read by running her hand along a page, and... well, you get the idea.

Oh, did I mention she's a robot? She is.

I don't mention her fingertips because I want to titillate. I'm weighing a decision, you see. Jennifer asked me to switch fingertips.

"I know this is corny," she said, "but I want to learn to be human, and from what I read, human fingertips are special for that. I'm sure you'd like robotic fingertips, and your brain would graft soon enough. What do you say?"

I think I have to say no, but not for the reasons you'd think.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15913

Oh my...

Ink-Jet Printable DVD+R DL.

Sweet :)

Hello,

I'm here begging for help (again).

I have some zucchini that I need to use, and I would love to bread and fry it but I have no idea how to do this.  Everything I am finding online is mentioning a deep fryer and I don't have one. 

So please enlighten me as to how I might go about pan-frying up some zucchini.  I have numerous different types of oils here. 

Thanks so much!!

EDIT:  THANKS FOR THE REPLIES, EVERYONE! :)

One of my characters did it to me again.

Surprised and shocked me.

And sacrificed himself for the good of all.

I didn't expect this out of this particular tertiary character. He's barely spoken to me in the years he has been part of the Kendrick series. Now he is looking at me and telling me, "I will be the anchor for them all."

I don't want to write this. I don't want to lose him. I don't want his bondmate to suffer this sacrifice. This was supposed to be a victory episode of the series.

But, the character, and the story, are insisting.

Dammit.

Good macaroni salad recipe?? 

Today's ingredient is broad beans.

If you had some that needed to be used, what would you do?

Extra points for using as few other ingredients as possible, since I'm trying to clear my fridge.

kshandra gave me my birthday present a day early, thinking that I'd probably want it for the Giants game tomorrow.

She's right. Expect a lot of pictures from me in the coming days.

While playing with my new toy, the USPS delivered a package from redc1c4. It wasn't ticking, so I opened it. The new hat rocks, dude, and I'm looking forward to listening to So Many Roads after dinner tonight.

AKA "Kinda like pierogi, but not."

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes
1/4 large onion, minced
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp. curry powder
2 tbsp. butter, plus more for frying the potstickers
60 wonton wrappers
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Peel and quarter the potatoes, then boil for about 20 minutes, until they fall apart when you poke them with a fork. Drain.

Rinse and dry the potato pot, then melt 2 tbsp. butter and sautee the onions in it until brown. Remove from heat and add potatoes and coconut milk and mash until smooth. Stir in cheese and curry powder.

Place about 1 tbsp. potato mixture in the middle of a wonton wrapper, then brush the edges with water and top with another wonton wrapper. Repeat 30 times.

Cook the potstickers in fairly small batches in a nonstick pan. Melt a little butter, then add the potstickers and cook about 3 minutes until the bottoms are slightly brown. Add 1/3 cup broth for every 5 potstickers, then cover and cook for 5 minutes, until the broth is absorbed.

Serve with plain yogurt.

More photos and rambling commentary at my cooking blog.

my gallons?? supposedly you can pre-purchase gas at the current price and save it for later?

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15912

Thought Police no longer fiction Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

Thank goodness I have nothing to worry about- oh, wait!

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15911

11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating. Really long NYT article with technical lingo on what foods we should be eating for better health. To save you time, I've condensed the list. Presented without further editorial comment:

1. Motherfuckin' beets.
2. Cabbage.
3. Swiss chard: They protect the Pope and are also green and leafy.
4. Cinnamon: Sometimes spelled cinammon.
5. Pomegranate juice: A type of juice.
6. Dried Plums. The food previously known as pruny prune-faced prune fruit.
7. Pumpkin seeds: These are packed with magnesium. Also available in .44 hollow point.
8. Sardines: Mash them up, use as a spread or as figurines.
9. Turmeric: Sounds like tumor. Don't think about that.
10. Frozen blueberries: a.k.a. "tundra testicles"
11. Canned Pumpkin: i see the big-assed can, but where da seeds at?

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15910

In a story tailor-made for Monkeyfilter a 42-year-old chimpanzee, who eats with a knife and fork but also occasionally bites bits off people, has gone missing in a southern California forest after escaping from his cage.

The owner is the same guy who was hideously mauled a few years ago while bringing the same Chimp a birthday cake (it wasn't the same ape that attacked him). [more inside]

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15909

Metropolis- Complete at Last-

Last Tuesday Paula Félix-Didier traveled on a secret mission to Berlin in order to meet with three film experts and editors from ZEITmagazin. The museum director from Buenos Aires had something special in her luggage: a copy of a long version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, including scenes believed lost for almost 80 years.

It has been quite the week here. Work has been heavy and rehearsals and production have begun in earnest for the latest T-Bird Show. Max is busy directing and I have about a million costumes to make (maybe I am exaggerating a little bit).
It looks like the next month I will holed up at home with the sewing machines. Other than that we are recovering nicely from our week in paradise. I have some pictures up but I understand that looking at other peoples vacation photos is about as interesting as making mud. So let me just post this one to give a general idea and then move on…



While we were gone Cobain had a run in with an unruly dog down the street and needed about 8 stitches in his left ear. He is much better now, and in fact the dog sitter said that as soon as the incident was over he stopped remembering that he was hurt. The dog has always been pretty oblivious to pain. It looks like my sister will take out the stitches tomorrow and we can finally give him a bath. (He has not had one in several weeks and his smell is growing… potent.)

In my mind, at least. Not only do many of my friends here in Live Journal land believe a Theremin is a musical intrument, but Merriam Webster does too. Either way it's really cool and I hope to some day have one. How cool it would be for LARPing. Or joining with folks playing Rock Band!

so she admitted she was at fault. she said that she had been at chemo that morning and should not have been driving. it hurts me to know that she has to drive herself to the doctors and that she (possibly) doesn't have anyone to take care of her. the lady i spoke with at state farm (rose) said that she has lupus so she knows what she's going through. i will bring my truck in on wednesday and get a rental car until it's fixed. this has all dragged on too long and i really just want my truck back to normal. it's a sad state of affairs, but at least it was just me and i was in such a big car. imagine if i had been driving someone or if i had tisa in the truck. **sigh**

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hey all...i'm making some double chocolate chip oatmeal cookies...ones that ive made many times before. i just moved though, and i can't find my handwritten recipe anywhere!!! i looked one up online that looks a lot like the recipe with a few modifications), but i do know that my recipe had baking powder and baking soda and this recipe just called for baking soda. does anyone know how much powder i should put in based on the amount of soda? (i want to have the powder in because it really makes them spread out to be HUGE cookies.

i put the recipe behind the cut so it doesnt take up too much room. thanks so much in advance!!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butter (or margarine), softened
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 6 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Stir in the quick oats, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

the women of the texas FLDS ranch are now in the business of selling clothes for children. i'm torn. while they're beautiful clothes and i think that some children would like them, why are they charging so much for them? and where exactly is the money going? is someone exploiting these people? i looked up the company that's listed at the bottom of the website and can't seem to find anything listed for them on google search (remarkable results, inc).

so...the question is this:
would you buy something like this if you had children? or if you already have children would you buy them clothes from these people?

i know i'm supposed to feel bad that children were being "raped" by old men at this ranch, but if all of the women who were bearing children by these men were over the age of 18 when they were supposedly raped, would we have intruded on them?

Anybody know of any good ways to make Banh Xeo for one or two people? Every time I make them I make enough for a herd. I was wondering if maybe I could freeze the batter?

MY OTHER CAR IS THE SHORT BUS

 

There are many different variations of butter and sage sauce. This is the one I like best, which I cobbled from different recipes using similar techniques. We had this last night served over some mezze penne pasta and topped with a simple herb crusted chicken. It was very tasty indeed, and very rich.

( Recipe, but no pics. We had pretty plates of food, but we eated them )

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15908

Bonne fête Québec!

At about 11 a.m., July 3rd, 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain walked up to Cap Diamant, and founded Québec City, before going on to lose his astrolabe and stuff.
[more inside]

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15907

Digging a hole to China? Use the Map Tunneling Tool to figure out where you'd really end up if you dug a hole through the Earth's core.

Apparently, I'd come out somewhere off the southwest coast of Australia. Antipodean Monkeys, keep watching the waters!

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15906

US President tries to reassure survivors.

I gambled with a cat last night and won his whiskers. I was figuring he was joking about betting his whiskers, and I took it as a good-natured way of saying that he was out of money and wanted a gentleman's bet. (I bet my opposable thumbs in return. Good thing I won!)

When I woke up this morning, though, I had whiskers. Huge whiskers! Like three feet long each, bobbing out way past my shoulders, and so sensitive!

I could feel the room around me. I could feel people coming and going. I could feel WiFi signal strength, and economic trends, and the vagaries of fashion, and peoples' secret opinions of me, and subtle temporal distortions, and how crispy nearby fried foods might be, and the fuel economy of cars, and the rules to a wide variety of card games. All through the vibrations of those big, sensitive whiskers!

But I look funny. Is it worth it?

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15905

Christopher Hitchens

learns about waterboarding. (second link, video. Video of Christopher Hitchens being waterboarded.)

Suffice to say I was replying to a theist troll in alt.atheism...

It's time for Demonaniacs!
Upon your souls we'll snack
So suffer our attacks
You'll scream 'til you collapse
We're Demonaniacs!

Come join the Fallen Angels
And old Nicodemeus too
Just for fun we suck the soul straight on out of you
They lock us in the fiery pit, which really sucks it's true
But we break loose and then vamoose
And come right after you!

We're Demonaniacs!
Ia Cthulhu, F'htagn! Snaps!
Baal sucks away the blood
While Jubilex plays in mud
We're Demonaniacs!

Meet Blind Azathoth at the center of the 'verse.
Legion flocks together; Lilith whacks 'em with her purse.
Pan chases Bacchus, while Orpheus sings a verse.
The end times near; we have no fear
Could things are get any worse?

We're Demonaniacs!
We have drawn-in-blood contracts.
We're evil to the max
There's wormwood in our slacks.
We're Demoninanie,
Totally insaney,
President Dick Cheney,
Demon-ani-acs!

This is, in fact, going to be a spoilerific review.

This was a fun movie. It had over-the-top action, James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. What's not to love?

A lot.

In fact...( the more I think about it, the more I hate this movie. )

http://monkeyfilter.com/link.php/15904

How much do you love your local public transportation?

Not as much as these kids, I'm betting! This made my day.

I am seriously craving a PBJ sandwich.  I am unfortunately allergic to peanuts, so the PB part of the sandwich is out.  (only developed the allergy about a year ago.)  I like soy nut butter, but it is kind of expensive, especially because I can't use up a whole jar before it goes rancid.  I have never tried other kinds of nut butters because of the cost factor, and thoughts of wasting money by not finishing the jar before it spoils.  I had an AHA! moment in the car with a friend today though, and I am asking for input here.  I recently bought a stick blender.  Is it possible to make my own soy or nut butter with it?  Has anyone done this before?  Is it in any way cost effective, or one of those expensive, once in a while treat kind of deals?  Any input or suggestions is helpful.  Thanks!!

(crossposting this to poor_skills)