Posted in slow food on 07/30/2010 12:04 pm by mblavos
Is your garden overflowing with tomatoes? Mine isn’t. But if your’s is, here’s a great recipe for you! It’s simple and fresh, and allows you to flex your crust making skills. Making this on Sunday means tasty lunch for the next few days.
Savory Tomato Tart
from a Vegetarian Cookbook which I can’t find a link for
You’ll need:
Flour, Veggie shortening, a Stick of butter, iced water,3 sliced tomatoes, 3 thinly sliced onions, a bit of olive oil, goat cheese, kalamata olives
Do this:
Pre-heat to 350 degrees. In your food processor, mix a cup of flour, a stick of butter, and 2 generous tablespoons of vegetable shortening. While it’s mixing, drip in ice cold water until the dough starts to form. Best practice is to chill it for 30 minutes, but if you’re tight on time, roll out the dough and gently place it in a tart plan. I lined the pan with foil, filled it with beans, and very very gently patted the beans to ensure the pastry filled out all of the edges. Bake it for 12 – 15 minutes while you caramelize 3 thinly sliced onions in some olive oil. When the tart is ready, ditch the foil and beans, dump the onions in, take half a log of goat cheese and crumble it in, call on your artistic side to alternately circle sliced tomatoes (yellow and red, if you got em), and crumble the other half of the goat cheese on top. Broil it for 8 minutes or so, then toss chopped kalamata olives.
Posted in No Television on 07/30/2010 11:37 am by mblavos
When I think about life in the South, I think about sweetened tea, glistening in a mason jar with clinking ice. A swimming hole that only the locals know about. Butter. Oh yeah, and guns. A woman cannot live in the South without ever having shot a gun. I randomly ran across an article in the Raleigh N&O about a Ladies Only Handgun lead. Naturally, I had to investigate.
First question I was asked when I walked into the class – “Are you carrying a loaded weapon?” I almost walked back out. Almost. The next three hours, I learned about the parts of a gun, how a gun works, and how to hold a gun. The class was taught by 3 NRA certified instructors who really knew their stuff. The last hour was the fun part. We walked towards the back of the building, past where the County sheriffs practice. Dummies riddled with bullet holes, prop doors, and shells littered the floor. We were all seated at a long table where handguns, a box of bullets, a cartridge, and a benchrest were all provided. My thumping heart guided my wobbly arms to the benchrest with my .22 Ruger. Images of Full Metal Jacket flashed through my mind. I took a breath, exhaled slowly, and squeezed. I’m proud to say the first bullet I ever shot was a bullseye. Yeehaw, mofo!
To learn more about the Ladies Handgun League, check out their website.
Posted in No Television on 12/09/2009 04:32 pm by mblavos
After a month long stretch of late nights at work, I came home to find an Amazon Kindle wrapped neatly in a red and green bow. An early Christmas present! My husband is awesome.
Lots of hype about the Kindle. It’s been plastered all over Amazon’s homepage. Just for that reason, I probably would have never bought one. That and the price point. But as a gift, sure! And after using it for a stretch, I would recommend it to others. Here are the high points:
- Visibility: It uses e-ink, which is e-z on the eyes. My job requires heavy use of computers, so I’ve always enjoyed reading as a way to unplug. Reading the Kindle isn’t like reading on a computer screen at all.
- As compared to a book: I love books – the feel of the pages, the sound of pages rustling together. It’s all relaxing to me. Surprisingly, so is the Kindle. There is no electronic hum, and it doesn’t get hot. Most surprisingly, the best thing about the Kindle is the LACK of the page flip. When you’re reading right before you go to sleep, you often times have to switch your hand position. If you’ve just started the book, you have to hold the entire book flat with two hands to read both pages. Once you’re pretty into the book, you can fold one side of the book over on itself and hold the book in one hand. Now, I can find a comfortable position holding the Kindle and push a button to advance to the next page, without adjusting my hands at all.
- Extra features: Wireless capabilities are great. I can think of a book I want to read RIGHT NOW, click a few buttons, and it’s ready for me to read RIGHT NOW. I don’t have to plan trips to the book store or library, or wait for the book to be shipped from Amazon.
- Drawbacks: OK, I still like the feel of paper. There’s a cool Kindle cover, which feels like a book, but it’s just not the same. Also, I like the wireless capabilities, but since that door is open, I want to use it like my laptop, or at least my iPhone. Maybe next time.
Posted in Uncategorized on 12/03/2009 01:53 pm by mblavos
I watched an interesting show on the History Channel called the Nostradamus Effect. It basically hit all of buzz topics for conspiracy theorists – Egyptian pyramids, Mathematics, Astronomy. What does it all mean? Fun fact from this segment is there is a belief amongst some that the pyramids were built in a very purposefully way. Using the pyramid inch, the perimeter of each pyramid equals 366 and the length of the interior main corridor is 365.4, roughly the number of days of the year. Though I don’t claim to believe the world will end in 2012, there is satisfaction in finding patterns in unexpected places.
Posted in Uncategorized on 09/01/2009 03:46 pm by admin
Maybe I was spurred by the awesome Ford Ka ads, but I made my move on the small car purchase. I commute about 30 miles every day, so I felt like it was time to give up the VW Turbo for something more fuel efficient. Sorry, VW, but this VW vs. Hybrid commercial, while funny, did not change my mind.
I narrowed my options to the Honda Fit, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight, and Toyota Prius. After no less than 3 test drives in each car, I eliminated the Fit based on some bad mojo (my friend just had his totaled), eliminated the Prius based on the cost and waiting period, and narrowed my choices to the Civic Hybrid and Insight. I visited 2 dealerships, neither of which had plans of restocking the Civic Hybrid, so I missed my opportunity there. The Insight was go.
Based on my own findings, I think the Prius and Insight are comparable. Initially, my feelings toward the Insight were not favorable. If you model the body style to look like your *only* competitor, what are you saying about the value of the new product? It immediately conjures images of those seedy guys on street corners who have knock off Kate Spade and Fendi bags spread out on blanket. Not good. However, after many visits to the dealer, here’s are my conclusions:
- Navigation: Both Prius & Insight have a Navigation System. I really did like the backup camera on the Prius, which the Insight doesn’t have.
- Ipod Connectivity: Three of the salesman from the Toyota dealership told me there was connectivity, but no one showed it to me. Seeing is believing, guys. And since you didn’t have any in stock, I’m still a disbeliever. The Insight has an auxiliary cable that hooks up to my iPhone. The display on the navigation controls the menu nicely. There is a bit of a lag, but kind of like the self-scanner at the grocery stores, you learn the patterns and can navigation quickly.
- Bluetooth Controls: Again, seeing is believing. Insight wins. I successfully paired my phone. It’s not as intuitive as I’d like it to be, but once you familiarize yourself with the Voice Commands, you’re good to go.
- Availability: One month for a Prius? And with options I didn’t want and maybe one of my top three color choice? Bitch, please.
- Costs: A Prius III with Navigation compared to the Insight LX with Navi was going to be about a $5,000 difference. Insight’s 40/43 mpg compared to Prius’s 50/48? Well, I drive Highway, so the difference of an extra 5 mpg does not outweigh the $5K difference. Check out this graph:
| Car |
$/Gallon |
Fuel Tank Capacity |
Cost/Tank |
Estimated MPG |
Miles/Tank |
Cost/Mile |
| Honda Insight |
$2.50 |
10.6 |
$26.50 |
45 |
477 |
.056
|
| Toyota Prius |
$2.50 |
11.9 |
$29.75 |
48 |
571 |
.052 |
It was only after my Insight purchase that I saw this article where Consumer Reports totally shredded the Insight. I’m not really sure why CR is such an Insight hater, because after looking at the competition, I can say I drew very different conclusions. My advice to consumers is to test it out yourself.
Posted in Uncategorized on 02/12/2009 07:22 pm by mblavos
We exchanged names at work and took the afternoon to craft some swappable lovelies. I checked out the Etsy scene and settled on using Play-Doh as my weapon of choice. Check it out.
Posted in slow food on 02/05/2009 03:19 pm by mblavos
from this
to this
half pepperoni/mushroom/mozzarella + half BBQ chicken/onion/cilantro/green onion/asiago/ mozzarella = nice weekday dinner
Dough making is a funny thing. All of the recipes I’ve read offer guidance on measurements with the caveat that you should add more liquid or flour as needed. What the hell does “as needed” mean? That’s nearly as useless as “to taste.” The first time you make any bread or dough, that’s probably going to be your nastiest batch. It gets better each time.
This recipe is from my Cuisinart handbook. There’s one in the back of my Kitchenaid cookbook, too, but it makes 2 crusts to Cuisinart’s 1. I did substitute bread flour for all-purpose flour. I wouldn’t recommend that you do the same. The bread flour absorbs more liquid, and in the end, the flavor of the olive oil did not come through. Next time, I might brush the dough with olive oil in addition to mixing it into the dough itself. I’m also a fan of Papa John’s sweet dough, so I probably should’ve added a smidge of sugar to the mix.
Posted in slow food on 01/29/2009 11:52 pm by mblavos
Feeling not-so-hot from this head/chest cold, I settled on baking a whole wheat bread loaf, with the help of my breadmaker. It sounded like a few folks were bringing in some tasty sounding stews, so I thought this would be a good accompaniment.
Out of the best intentions, I tried making the loaf vegan friendly by replacing the milk in the recipe with some soy milk. Yes, I love kitchen tools. Note the shiny SoyaJoy.
I’d say I’m at a 90% success rate. Had to use the honey (from Cameron, NC) and a tablespoon of a butter blend.
Taking advantage of the timer option on the breadmachine, I set the loaf to complete at 7am. Fingers crossed that my measurements and altitude are forgiving, since I won’t be awake to babysit it during the knead cycle.
Posted in uncool sites on 08/28/2008 03:59 pm by mblavos
Or not. I was skimming RSS headlines on igoogle and was very excited to see this headline. I clicked on the how-to-sew-an-ipod link, and the excitement went away. Wiki-Blah.
Posted in cool sites on 08/28/2008 02:18 pm by mblavos
Check out McDonald’s promotional website targeted at froo froo coffee drinkers. While I’m not a fan of their too sugary java concoctions, I did enjoy playing their Hot Shot game. Reminds me of sitting in front of my old commodore 64.
