Oh my deliciousness please eat these brownies. The pics here don’t do them justice as the shots were an afterthought conceived in poor wrappings and bad light, but don’t let that dissuade you. And one dirty pan for exceedingly dirty brownies is such a bargain, really.
Lately I’ve been getting back to perusing food sites and blogs and such after a too-long hiatus. In scrolling through recent Tasty Kitchen posts, I came upon these brownies, a recipe which apparently originated from Food & Wine magazine. Oh, wow, I didn’t know how much I loved those people until right now. But Food and Wine now has a special place in my heart. And on my plate.
(Did anyone see the somewhat-recent Top Chef episode with Jimmy Fallon? The story of his mother’s cheesecake is another reason I won’t forget Food and Wine any time soon. But the brownies take the cake. So to speak. Anyway.)
Because the recipe is finely detailed here and here, I’ll spare you my inferior rendition. But lest you think this is out of your league, I assure you it’s not. Here’s a summary of the process: Melt butter and chocolate on stove. Add ingredients you probably have on hand (eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, cocoa powder) and stir. Pour into foiled, greased, pan. Bake. Serve to people who you want in your debt.
(oh, and I can’t get that fancy salt here so easily. be assured any coarse salt will do.)
I need to write. I need to write because there is always a lot going on in my head and without writing it has nowhere to go. Well, nowhere except YOU in the event you happen to cross my path when I’m in a spell. If this has happened to you you know from first hand experience why I should write.
Over the years I’ve tried to use journaling as an outlet for this, but often my hand won’t move fast enough for my brain. I know this is the case for everyone, but it is really a deterrent to journaling for me. I get started journaling, can’t write fast enough, begin to realize how many more pages I must have ahead of me, and stop.
Thus, I’ve tried to write on the computer instead. I can type MUCH faster than I can print (of course) and if when I find myself going circular, I can reorder ad infinitum. But something about the word processor has never jived with me. It is clumsy, and ugly, and distracting. When I sit with my journal, there is nothing else. When I sit with Word, I can still see other bars and computer goings on. And worse, while my journal absorbs all my idiocies and quirks, Word reminds me (often) that I prefer the British spelling of “traveler” (traveller), use jive vocabulary words that find their origins in the wild forest of hisblackness’s imagination instead of a dictionary, and sometimes use grammar in a way that Word does not approve of. And so there are all sorts of uninvited notations all over my JOURNALING. Um, no thank you.
But a while back I discovered Omm Writer, a software for mac whose purpose is to let the writer write. Having had similar experiences, the developers created a full-screen app with simple backgrounds without spell-check and without distractions. Further, if you want some sort of “ambiance” music, they have that on offer as well. I prefer to play a rain track from my iTunes.
Omm Writer is a wonderful addition to my world. My life often feels all over the map, and the computer is usually a place where I am more than reminded of all there is to do and all I haven’t done and all the people I love but can’t see. Here lives my email and Twitter and my To Do list and all your pictures of things I miss out on like babies and weddings and it all bombards me from one little screen.
But if I want to write, I can open Omm Writer and the rest disappears and inside my brain it is almost like having a pen in hand. A pen that scribbles much faster and neater, but also gives way to more orderly thinking and removes the hurdles and speed bumps that often distract me. I’m currently writing in Omm Writer, and when I’m finished I’ll cut and paste and let Word or TextEdit show me how stupid I was for not capitalizing Mac and choosing to hyphenate “back-grounds”. But for now, I’m free to simply exhale words on the page.
If you can identify with any of this, and own a Mac, I highly recommend giving Omm Writer a trial run. It’s free, so why not?
Perhaps you’ve never heard of “calibrating” a computer battery before. I certainly hadn’t. But then I read an encouragement to regularly calibrate the mac battery which suggested that doing so increases its lifespan and helps the battery indicator be more accurate.
As a person who hates getting frustrated with her computer, and who believes that “ounce of prevention” bit, I began attempting to regularly calibrate my mac battery. I can’t say what would be the case otherwise, but my battery still seems in great shape.
If you’d like to read more about the technical aspects of this (which is beyond my purpose here), check out the information from the mothership. If you’d like to try it out yourself, follow the steps below. Apple recommends doing this every few months, once per month if you rarely operate from battery power.
Because I can never remember a sequence of steps like this from month to month, I printed the steps and placed the paper in my Home Notebook. Sliding the sheet in a file would do just as well. The trick for me is being able to put my fingers on the instructions without a big to-do. Otherwise it will never get done.
So, if you’re interested… Here you go:
To calibrate the battery:
1. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter and fully charge the MacBook or MacBook Pro battery until the light on the MagSafe connector changes to green and the Battery icon in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for two hours or longer. You may use your computer during this time as long as the power adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer on and start using it with battery power. When the battery’s charge gets low, you’ll see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
4. Continue to keep your computer turned on until it goes to sleep. Save your work and close all applications when the battery’s charge gets low and before the computer goes to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or longer.
6. Reconnect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged. You may use your computer during this time.
And… voila! You’re done!
Yes, I realize this post goes a long way to helping the junk drawer live up to the “junk” part of its name. But I need to get rolling with posting in the junk drawer again, and… well, it’s my blog, and I find this interesting. If you don’t, skip it!
Since living overseas we have had several challenging situations arise from the varying nature of bed sizes. The full-size sheets we brought from home wouldn’t fit the bed furnished in our apartment (too small), and then I couldn’t get my twin-sized sheet to fit my twin-sized mattress, ultimately splitting the seam of my then-new sheets trying to force it.
Then came searching for a mattress-topper. Our “mattress” is more like foam-covered granite, and after a single night I knew I couldn’t make it two years sleeping on whatever that was. And the topper search began.
If you’re low on cash or new to the area (we were both), the obvious place to go is ikea. So we went. And became even more puzzled… While I had measured my mattress at 150cm, ikea had only 90, 140, 160 and 180 centimeter varieties. Um, okay. I eventually saw one or two toppers that were 150 inches, but by then I was completely stumped. On what sized bed was I sleeping? A double? A queen? But if I was in a queen, what size would 160 cm be? So confused.
I expected there to be slight deviation between standard sizes measured in imperial and those using metric, and while that is indeed the case, the 140, 150, 160 bit didn’t seem explained by this. So what was the deal?
I looked it up.
From the information provided on wikipedia, bed sizes are standardized by four major areas* of the world; North America, Australia, UK/Ireland, and Continental Europe/Latin America. Each of these major areas has there own standard bed-sizes, even though they all share the same classification names (more or less).
So my twin sheet busted because I tried to put a sheet made for a European twin (90cm) on an American twin bed (100cm). And my wacko 150cm bed? It’s a UK King! Apparently they have a category called “Super King” that is more like “King” in the states. And, regarding my old question of what’s the difference between Full and Double, the answer is: Nothing. Unless they are from different countries.
Ahhhh… it’s all so clear now!
*I suspect there may be other locations with their own bed-size standardization, but if so, it’s likely they don’t have access to wikipedia. So let’s just say there are at least four.
Bonus:
Here’s a breakdown of bed sizes according to about.com:
Did you know Amazon has monthly and daily (yes, daily) special offers from their music store? Every month they feature 100+ albums on sale for only $5 each, and each day they feature an album priced at $2.99 or $3.99.
You may remember that wack Alice in Wonderland picture that stayed on the front page of the site much too long… well, that was when the Alice in Wonderland album was on sale. Among the albums I’ve purchased since then are Greg Laswell’s “Take A Bow”, Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs’ “God Willin’…” and Arcade Fire’s new album “The Suburbs”.
Unfortunately, it seems the only way to know what is being offered each day is to check the MP3 Specials
The Amazon Store is nice in general in that it offers mp3′s (rather than protected file) often at a cheaper price than iTunes. The only downside I’ve found is that Amazon does not offer album completion. So if you’re looking to purchase just a song or two now and think you may later want to go with the album, iTunes still may be a better bet.
Today’s offering is Willie Nelson’s Live From Austin, TX: $3.99.
There’s nothing like opening one’s homepage and seeing a random, month-plus-ago-posted picture of an unrecognizable Johnny Depp to light a fire under a person to generate a new blog post. I mean, that’s downright embarrassing. For him as well, I’m sure.
So… something new for the Junk Drawer. (I guess at at least named it aptly, right? Sometimes you just forget all about what’s in there…)
I’m working on some posts related to travelling (no promises as to when they’ll post), but it’s long past time to tell you about Goodreads.com, so here we go.
With Goodreads, you can keep track of your reads while sharing them with people of your choosing. If you enjoy connecting with people over books or just want to keep track of what you’ve been reading, this is a great way to do it.
One of my favorite features is that if I’m curious about a particular title, once I find it via search, goodreads tells me if any of my friends have read it and what they rated it or what they thought about it (if they supplied that information). I can also see what books my friends are picking up and I love being able to ask what they think of what they’re reading.
I have discovered several good books this way already, and have more deeply connected with many of you as we have been able to engage ideas together over a long distance.
If you get on, let me know (by email or here in the comments section) and I’ll look you up!
Here’s to good reads!
Links:
Goodreads.com
