dameargyle

Just hopping on quickly to post this must-share link:

"Making of the Hogwarts gingerbread castle."

TT y'all L!

Just randomly, have a recipe. I made this up last week (out of things I had around the kitchen) for an informal movie night with friends. It was very popular, and thus worth writing down. Vegetarian but not vegan, gluten-free but not soy/legume-free.

( Recipe, under the cut. )

Looking for a historically accurate 15th c. soup recipe that's easy, tasty, inexpensive, vegan and pretty darn healthy? Here's one of my fave Medieval recipes, and it answers yes to "all of the above!"

( Recipe and discussion, under the cut! )

Heh -- at honoria's enthusiastic request, I'll be posting some historical recipes here, as I get them written up. First, the torta bianca!

( Medieval Italian Cheesecake, under the cut! )

I've been making variations on this soup over the last couple weeks, on evenings when we have company 'round to Area 51, and I got enough requests for the recipe to type it up; I figured I might as well c&p it here, for reference (and in case anyone else would like to try it). It's fairly inexpensive, could be made vegetarian/vegan easily (skip the sausage, maybe add sliced mushrooms or tofu as an alternative) and it goes over well with a wide range of people. It's also gluten-free if you use gluten-free bouillon and sausage, though it's right out for folks with soy/legume sensitivities, unfortunately.

AUTUMN SOUP

1 1/2 c. brown or green lentils
1 1/2 c. red lentils
9 c. water
1 med. or 2 small onions, chopped
1 med. or 2 small carrots, sliced
1-1 1/2 tbsp garlic granules
(Optional 1-2 tsp of Italian herb mix)
1/2 Celifibr brand vegetable bouillon cube (or equivalent)
3 links of your fave sausage, sliced (I like the bratwurst our local food co-op makes)

Fresh-ground black pepper for garnish at serving

Makes: lots. Good for a crowd. Recipe can be scaled down if you don't need so much.

Pick over lentils, rinse well, dump everything into a slow cooker till it's done, starting on "high" and turning down to "low" once things are up to speed (I usually start this in the morning and let it cook while I'm at work), check and stir periodically, add more water if necessary.

Note that you can substitute 3c. of split peas (green or yellow) for the lentils, or, really, have any mix of peas and lentils so long as it totals 3 cups (lentils and split peas are pretty interchangeable). Shouldn't need salt with the bullion and sausage in the mix, but go with whatever tastes good; as the above indicates, the seasonings are pretty freely variable.

Well, maybe not useless, but rather redundant, since I already have a pizza cutter:

Star Trek Enterprise Pizza Cutter

Talk about the perfect accessory/implement for a geek movie night . . .! :D

(Via Topless Robot.)

Too funny not to share -- a bit of Photoshoppery from foalen, based on a comments thread that went *very* strange: Rassilon as Chairman Kaga.



I simply cannot stop giggling over this. There must be SOMETHING one can do with that idea, but I don't know if I'm cracked enough to follow through. XD

(It was all the Master's idea. Really. Don't ask . . .)

Heh. Have a badly scorched pan I need to clean (long story), and for the life of me I couldn't remember if you were supposed to boil either water and baking soda (base) or water and vinegar (acid) in it to take off the burnt-on crud. My inability to remember which was yet another sign of approaching dementia, I figured.

So, off to Google . . . where I found a link that said, hey, you can use *either one*. No wonder my brain was offering up both possibilities. XD I guess you just have to take the pH away from neutral or something, and it doesn't matter in which direction. But it's nice to know my memory isn't *that* scrambled -- yet. :D

"15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee"

Ganked from buffologist. :) (ETA_ Fixed the HTML!fail, link works now.)

Here's a roundup of all the items I sent in yesterday for the Support Stacie "Homemade for Christmas" auction. Note that the original dates have been revised, and the auction will be held Nov. 28th and 29th.

I already posted about the two geeky Doctor Who "inspired" necklaces I put together here.

My second round of auction items, the hand spindles and cookie stamps, are featured here, under the cut. The auction thread page is here (not everything is up yet, since today is the submission deadline -- but you can bookmark early for future reference!). ;)

( Huge piles of pics and info here! )