Mac Dhonnchaidh

This.

2010-03-31T18:29:00.002-04:00

Kids in Snow

2010-03-23T17:01:00.002-04:00

Kids playing in the snow from John Duncan on Vimeo.

Done

2009-06-05T14:12:00.001-04:00

Still in San Francisco. JavaOne is almost done. Wish I was back in Connecticut. Miss my cat :P

CommunityOne - Ubuntu In the Clouds

2009-06-01T17:56:00.006-04:00

Presented by Canonical, the vendor in supporting the Ubuntu development lifecycle. Talk begins with background on the Ubuntu development process and new features in 9.04. Ubuntu will not work on a mobile version, but will focus instead on its ability to run Android apps natively.

Moves on to Ubuntu ONE, a service that provides S3 storage for file synchronization. Currently in beta.

Polls by Ubuntu show 90% confidence in Ubuntu as a suitable OS for a cloud. They want to assure the OS can move between cloud vendors, public and private.

Ubuntu favors Amazon's EC3 cloud for a public cloud and says Amazon is preparing to open their APIs.

They prefer Eucalyptus for private clouds as it mimics Amazon's APIs. Eucalyptus has a experimental public cloud that allows free use with some restructions. Eucalyptus is currently available as a technology preview in 9.04 with full integration expected for 9.10(October 2009).

CommunityOne

2009-06-01T14:43:00.002-04:00

In San Francisco for JavaOne. The Monday before JavaOne is CommunityOne, Sun's push for Open stuff.

Not surprisingly, the operative word is Cloud. Virtual everything running in Sun's Cloud. They have the data center virtualized from CPU through Storage and Networking. Their big push here is compatability with other cloud infrastructure via an OpenAPI initiative. They are also shooting for compatibility with existing cloud technology such as the S3 and WebDAV protocols for storage.

The main idea that was pushed at the key note was you can set up and end-to-end data center just by logging on to the Sun Cloud site and submitting your credit card information and buying the capacity you need.

Chicken Tikka Masala

2009-01-24T19:15:00.004-05:00

Image from Serious Eats

I made Chicken Tikka Masala tonight from a recipe at Serious Eats. I went with the cream variation because I had both heavy cream and yogurt in the fridge and yogurt is not really an option when there is cream available:)

It was quick and easy and the kids loved it.

The fun part was when I went to the cabinet to see how much madras curry powder (canned, I am bad) we had left. The answer was zero.

A quick google found this recipe. The amazing thing was that I had all the ingredients in the kitchen. Everything got toasted up in a 12 inch cast iron skillet and then run through the blender. The process was, shall we say, aromatic. The boy was not impressed. I cut the recipe in half and it still made a huge amount of curry powder.

I will make this again.

The Pho Knows

2009-01-14T21:12:00.009-05:00

Last weekend we had Pho Bo made at home using this recipe I found on the interwebs.

Aside from the initial 4 hour chemical warfare assault that the initial stock boil produced, it turned out well. I liked it, the kids liked it. Nom.

Things I would change: skip the cardamon. It is really aromatic and other Pho recipes I found, such as this Vietnamese cookbook from Amazon via a Serious Eats recommendation, do not mention cardamon. I like the cookbook a lot. It makes me miss the multiple Pho Pasteur locations in Boston.

Things I did change: Stop N Shop sells shaved beef for cheese steaks, etc. I used that in place of the brisket because I am a fat lazy individual who was really tired after a six hour stock boil and could not be bothered to slice meat from my fridge when it was right there pre-packaged at the store.

So, you say, three bowls of Pho Bo don't need six quarts of beef stock. What to do with the left over? Thit Bo Vien of course! That is the kids' number one favorite from the years in Boston and Pho Pasteur. That is on the menu for this weekend as well as Goi Con, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls from the aforementioned cookbook.

Which brings up the paucity of Asia markets in south east Connecticut. I would kill for a Super 88. Luckily, there is a tiny Asian market run by a very nice Korean gentleman in Groton. He was totally impressed when I put the jar of Kimchee on the counter today. Probably confused as well as I also bought rice sticks, banh trang (rice egg roll wrappers), potato starch, fresh Udon noodles, somen noodles, and chopsticks. Oh, and Pocky :)

Someday I will have to write up my experience of making Katsu Don from scratch. In Connecticut.

Skellington

2008-10-27T19:04:00.010-04:00

I got an Antec Skeleton case from Newegg.com today.

Case out of the box. Cat in the box:

Empty case, front view:

Empty case, rear view:

Full case, up and running Gentoo Linux of course:

Yes, the computer booted in less than 5 tries. Connectors were the main culprit in lack of bootage.

The documentation that came with this case is absolute crap. I had to google and find a review site to find out how the HDD mount system worked. I pity the noob that tries to assemble one of these from scratch.

Total time for disassembly of the existing Linux box and reassembly in the new case and successful boot: 2.5 hours.

Butter!

2008-10-25T13:00:00.006-04:00

I made butter today. Took half an hour including cleanup. Detailed instructions are found at Cooking for Engineers.

I started with 2 quarts of heavy cream and 2/3 cup of cultured buttermilk. The cream and buttermilk mixture fermented for about 12 hours. Into the KitchenAid with the whisk attachment, rinse off butter, and viola!

Yielded 777g of butter and a bunch of buttermilk. I will use the buttermilk to marinate chicken for fried chicken tomorrow. It costs about $6 per pound for butter this way. I am going to see if I can find a raw milk supplier and skip the whole heavy cream purchase next time.

Addendum:

Fresh butter on homemade sourdough bread, 'nuff said.

Brotforms

2008-09-13T19:46:00.000-04:00

I got some brotforms, also known as bannetons, from the interwebs last week and tried them out today. I made David Klatte's recipe for 50% Whole Wheat Sourdough and made it as 0% Whole Wheat Sourdough because whole wheat gives you cancer.

I divided the recipe in half at the loaf forming stage and let each half rise in its own form. I tried a method I found on Slashfood for increasing the steaminess of the oven. I used rocks from the yard. Much steam was made.

It is cooling now. Looks and smells yummy.

My Favorite Liberal Newsperson

2008-07-16T20:18:00.005-04:00

Is the super awesome MSBC guest and guest-host Rachel Maddow. But I am really glad Keith Olberman is back on Countdown.

Vintage Russian Advertising Posters as iPhone Wallpaper

2008-07-15T11:22:00.015-04:00

original images from Dark Roasted Blend

Second Haggis Post!

2008-07-08T18:02:00.004-04:00

Here's a link to whole bunch for haggis recipes. Enjoy!

According to my sister, a large cat can be substituted for a sheep for the constituent innards.

Bonaire, redux

2008-06-27T15:37:00.005-04:00

I put down the deposit and sent in the paperwork for the East Coast Divers Bonaire trip in January 2009. The first trip was in 2003. Seems like I am on track for taking this trip every 3 years. My gear should be plenty dry by now :)

Twitter

2008-06-25T19:43:00.004-04:00

So I am slowly easing into this new-fangled Web 2.0 thing. I joined twitter and added a twitter hoobie to this page. I will prolly just skip the whole 2.0 web and move to the 3.0, the one without the tubes.

Bonaire

2006-01-26T17:04:00.001-05:00

I went diving in Bonaire last week and met an octopus. He was hanging out under a coral head.

Other pictures may be found here.

First Haggis Post!

2005-11-15T00:16:00.002-05:00

From Alton Brown's Good Eats, although not necessarily the most respectful treatment:

1 sheep stomach
1 sheep liver
1 sheep heart
1 sheep tongue
1/2 pound suet, minced
3 medium onions, minced
1/2 pound dry oats, toasted
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried ground herbs

Rinse the stomach thoroughly and soak overnight in cold salted water.

Rinse the liver, heart, and tongue. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook these parts over medium heat for 2 hours. Remove and mince. Remove any gristle or skin and discard.

In a large bowl, combine the minced liver, heart, tongue, suet, onions, and toasted oats. Season with salt, pepper, and dried herbs. Moisten with some of the cooking water so the mixture binds. Remove the stomach from the cold salted water and fill 2/3 with the mixture. Sew or tie the stomach closed. Use a turning fork to pierce the stomach several times. This will prevent the haggis from bursting.

In a large pot of boiling water, gently place the filled stomach, being careful not to splash. Cook over high heat for 3 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes, if you serve it at all.

I need a sheep's stomach and I am all set!

Ach! I'm here!

2005-11-14T23:17:00.000-05:00

And you will probably regret it.