Category Archives: Appetizers

Can’t miss reads

07 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in Appetizers, Personal

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One of the sort of exciting, sort of traumatic elements of switching computers — including switching operating systems, web browsers, and storage systems! — is the opportunity to recreate my computer world. It turns out that my former RSS reader doesn’t work in Chrome. This is not so much of a problem really — I wasn’t all that fond of it and I’ve thought for a long time that I should switch to another one. But it’s tough to get motivated to switch something so basic because, ugh, what a lot of work. It’s so much easier to just stick with the familiar, even when the familiar is not so satisfying. But now I have no choice. The question is: do I keep the old computer open while I copy each and every blog over to the new system or do I just start with the few blogs that I remember and let my RSS feed once again evolve organically? Honestly, it feels like a serious dilemma. I haven’t made a decision, but I suspect that not making the decision will turn out to be a decision.

The new RSS reader, feedly, currently with only two blogs in it, seems quite nice, though. I particularly like the simple way that you add new blogs: they get a little icon in the bottom corner that lets you click and add them to the feed. Huh, I should probably check and make sure that my blog has said icon for other RSS users.

But the real question ought to be: what are the two blogs? If I can only remember two blogs off-hand, they must be my favorites, right? They are The Passive Voice, to my mind the single essential self-publishing news site (because he’s a great compiler of other people’s important posts), and Captain Awkward, a great and interesting advice site. I’m sure that I’ll be adding other blogs as I remember them and miss them or stumble across them again, but those are the two that apparently are my “can’t miss” reads.

In other “can’t miss read” news, Robin McKinley has Kindle books on sale for $1.99, including her classic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, as well as Sunshine, the only vampire book that I’ve ever loved. (Vampires = overgrown mosquitoes. Yuck.) If you haven’t read these books — well, any of the books that she has on offer for $1.99 — it’s a wonderful opportunity. And if you have read them, it’s a great chance to add the ebooks to your collection. I’ve been ruthless in paring down paper books in the last decade, but I still own all of the books that she has on sale and yet I bought each and every one of them because I was so pleased to have the chance to get them in ebook version. Then, of course, I wasted my entire afternoon reading. But you should do the same. 🙂

New Year’s appetizers

05 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by in Appetizers

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I didn’t keep track of any of my measurements on New Year’s Eve, just put quantities together that looked right. But here’s what I made:

1) Spicy crab tarts. I mixed crab meat, light mayo, parmesan cheese, siracha and some worcestershire sauce, and put it in phyllo cups, baked it in a 425 oven for about ten minutes. Sprinkled it with some green onion, finely chopped, and some red paprika. (I think it wasn’t really paprika, maybe chili powder of some kind? But some form of red pepper.)

2) Bacon & cheese. Cooked four slices of bacon, chopped it up fairly finely, mixed it with  light mayo, shredded sheep’s milk cheese (petit basque), and a tablespoon or so of Cento diced hot cherry peppers. Spread it on thin slices of baguette, baked at 425 oven for 8 minutes or so.

3) Cranberry & brie. Baked puff pastry cups per the directions on the box, then filled them with a bit of brie, a little green onion, and a dab of cranberry sauce and baked them for another five minutes or so, long enough for the cheese to melt. Best hot.4) Artichoke tarts. Mixed softened cream cheese with chopped up marinated artichokes, some parmesan cheese, some red hot peppers, and honestly, I don’t know what else. I was very much in the cooking zone where I didn’t read recipes or measure ingredients, just assumed that all good things taste good together. Maybe there was some mayo in there, if the spread seemed a little thick. And maybe not. I might have added some salt and pepper, possibly some green onion. Anyway, I tried the artichoke spread in all my breadish options: in phyllo cups, in puff pastry, and on baguette. I think it was best on baguette–toasted cheese spreads are always good on bread–but it was always tasty.

Roasted brussels sprouts and prosciutto bites

28 Saturday Sep 2013

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Roasted brussel sprouts and proscuitto

B came over to dinner last night and C decided we should have an appetizer. B is mostly paleo, although willing to be flexible, so we googled paleo appetizers and found this one: roasted brussels sprouts with prosciutto bites.

C made them so I can’t say if she tweaked the recipe at all, but yum, yum, yum, yum. Would eat again. Would eat often. And the dogs were pretty excited about the little bits of leftover prosciutto!