MSN occasionally has some interesting articles. Here's a recipe from this article on low-fat holiday treats.
I'm reproducing the whole recipe because I'm not sure the link won't vanish, and I'll probably make these to go in a gift basket for my parents this year.
Biscotti means twice baked. Packed with hazelnuts and chocolate chips, these are perfect with coffee or a cappuccino.
Makes: 2 Dozen
Per Biscotti: 125 cal, 0 g pro, 21 g carb, 4 g fat, 1 g sat. fat, 10 mg chol, 1 g fiber, 87 mg sodium
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Baking Time: 60 minutes
2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 c sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
½ tsp salt
¼ c strong coffee, cooled
1 Tbsp 1 percent milk
1 lg egg
1 lg egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ c hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and coarsely chopped
½ c chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. In separate bowl, stir together coffee, milk, egg, egg white and vanilla extract. Add coffee mixture to flour mixture. Stir by hand just until dough is soft. Stir in hazelnuts and chocolate chips.
4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. With floured hands, shape into two 8" logs. Place logs 2" to 3" apart on baking sheet coated with cooking spray and flatten each into a rectangle about 3" wide.
5. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and firm. Transfer logs to rack to cool 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 275°F.
6. Place logs on cutting board, trim ends and cut each log diagonally into ½" to ¾" slices using a serrated knife. Place slices cut side down on baking sheet. Return to oven, and bake 20 minutes. Flip cookies over, and bake 20 minutes longer. Transfer to rack to cool.
Variation: For a shiny finish, brush the tops of the dough logs before baking with a glaze made with 1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water.
Ok, this video of a guy solving a 6x6 rubik's cube is impressive.
There's also a 7x7! [much bigger file]
H/T: JP
A person sent out this essay on a mailing list I'm a part of. Not surprisingly, lots of people agreed with it.
This was my response:
Hmm. I've been trying to come up with a "moderate" response to this, and I'm not sure I can.
"Live and let live?" Great. I have absolutely no problem with that.
Want to worship your particular rock, or no rock at all? Fine.
Want to tell me about why you worship your particular rock, hoping that I will also want to worship your rock? No problem. Want to tell me the same information over and over, convinced that if I just hear of the greatness that is your rock, I will worship it? Something of a problem.
The real problem comes in, there's a group of people who want me dead, because I'm gay, I'm American, and because I don't worship their particular rock. And over the past 10, maybe 20 years, that group of people has gained the ability to kill more and more people like me. Abilities that until recently required the resources of a state, and more particularly of a well functioning state, to gain.
Self defense is a right. Defense of its population is a basic reason, if not the basic reason, a nation exists.
I want to either remove the ability of that group of people to kill me, or do something so that they won't kill me, or won't want to kill me. While preserving my ability, my right, to be gay, to be American, and not to worship their particular rock.
Now, there's still lots of unanswered questions. How big is that group? Are there particular grievances that group has, that if fixed, will remove their desire to kill me? What I think the answers to those questions are, is quite likely different from the answers a lot of you reading this would give.
The real problem is, history will be able to give definitive, or pretty close, answers. These are not issues that we can vote on. No matter how large currently the number of people who want a particular answer, or who believe a particular answer, an answer currently exists.
So, who's a moderate? How do I know if I'm one or not?
Penny Arcade is amusing, but sometimes they also have useful or at least interesting information.
Accoring to this Billboard article, Universal Music Group demanded a percentage of the sales of the Zune from Microsoft, in addition to fees per song, etc. They are the only major label to sign an agreement with Microsoft. Why? " "These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it," UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. "So it's time to get paid for it." "
And the vote for most deluded buggy whip maker goes to...
I hereby swear that I will never buy another major label CD, or download their music from any service, legal or illegal, until they get a freakin clue. Now, since I've never illegally downloaded music, and since I buy at most 1-2 full price major CDs a year, it's not going to be a big deal.
I can usually find a DVD I'm interested in for ten bucks or less. I don't need movies that were just released. If I start looking for some specialized Anime or gay themed movies, I may pay more. Why, exactly, do record companies expect me to pay 10 bucks or more for an album that I might know has one song I like, and might take a gamble on 1-2 more.
I've got most of the CDs I own converted to MP3s on my computer now, and might at some point buy another MP3 player to listen to them on walks. But I'm getting tired of DRM interfering in large and small ways with my ability to do so.
There's got to be a way to sell music, that bypasses the payola of the radio stations, that bypasses the huge advertising budgets for TV and magazines that don't actually influence people. Someone who figures out how to do so will make quite a bit of money, and will drive various record labels, music stores, and "famous" music groups bankrupt. But it's not going to happen today.
Rocket Jones links to part of what may be the greatest episode in the history of sitcoms.
Haven't updated this for a while. Been rather angry over the last few weeks, I think I need more friends who aren't married, with children.
Anyway. Went on the St Arnold's pub crawl, went to my parents' for Thanksgiving [and my mom made a special recipe of stuffing, so there was almost no cooking for me to do]. My parents and brother are coming down tomorrow and staying a couple of days in town. This could be a moderately large mess, but we'll see. I've been trying to clean the apartment and decorate over the last few days, only mildly successful.
Kingdom of Loathing has been really fun recently. Online flirting with guys I know I'll never see in real life may be silly, but it can't hurt.