tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63050302024-03-15T10:20:35.038-07:00Rhosgobel: Radagast's homeWritten by a California community college biology instructor, this weblog explores biology, college instruction, cooking, and other topics.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.comBlogger1315125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-55051892954334518702010-09-30T09:43:00.000-07:002010-09-30T09:43:41.118-07:00Office hours vs. review sessions: the power of a name and a little prepMy campus requires all faculty members to hold four office hours a week. During these office hours I'm required to be in my office (or some other location), available to any student who wants to come by.<br />
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The idea is a great one: there are many reasons why students might want to come and see instructors outside of class, and office hours give all students an opportunity to do just that. So, in my dream world, I would sit in my cozy office chair sipping tea while student after student came into my office asking thoughtful questions about biology and my advice on transfer possibilities (and bringing me artisan cheese to sample).<br />
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But in reality, office hours quickly turn into just another hour to get work done. Students almost never came by, and when they did it was usually for a few questions that were quickly answered before the student went on their way. Oh, sure, anytime there was a major assignment due a handful of students would come by to ask about it, but that was at most four or five students every few weeks (I tend to have about 70 to 100 students a semester in my courses). <br />
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The lack of student attendance was frustrating, because I knew they could use help (shockingly, they don't all score 100% on my exams, despite my <i>amazing</i> in-class instructing), and I also knew that they <i>wanted</i> help, as there was always a constant chant of "Can you hold a review session?" whenever an exam came up. I often would hold a specially scheduled review session, while in the back of my mind thinking, "Wasn't that what office hours should have been for?".<br />
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And then last year it clicked. Students desperately want to go to review sessions, but most couldn't care less about office hours. A quick e-mail to my dean confirmed that there is no requirement to actually call office hours "office hours", and an idea was born: I no longer hold four office hours a week; instead I hold four hours worth of review sessions each week.<br />
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I hold the review sessions in the lab I teach my courses in, scatter the hours through the week (to minimize scheduling conflicts), and publish the hours on my syllabus. I also don't just sit there and wait for student questions; each week I come with prepared slides that list what I can go over that day (e.g., what I think are tough topics), a few new things to talk about (e.g., a preview of material to come, or another example of something we've talked about), and a set of test-like questions from the prior weeks' content aimed at promoting discussion of core topics. I then ask the students what they want to do, and we go from there.<br />
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The weekly review sessions have been a huge hit. For the primary class I teach (majors' biology), I had four students attend during the first week of the semester (I've never had students come to office hours during the first week to ask about anything other than enrollment issues), in the third week I had seven students attend (even though I had cancelled both review sessions due to being off campus, and only announced that I would be holding one an hour before it was scheduled to start), and last week I had 14 students show up. This week I haven't even held all the review sessions yet, and I've already had 13 students show up. <br />
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In the first four weeks of the semester I had more students come to my review sessions than I typically have come to my office hours in an entire semester. The students are active and engaged; most stay for the entire time asking me questions and working on my sample questions. I'm also getting lots of positive feedback ("These are really helping, Prof. Radagast"). And, as an added bonus, since I hold the review sessions in the lab room, students know that they can use the review sessions to give themselves extra time to look at lab specimens, if they need it. <br />
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One challenge to this concept is that the review sessions must be specialized for each class. So, I had to split up my office hours to target each class I teach (luckily I only teach two separate courses), and I've made it clear that I'm happy to schedule office appointments for anyone who can't make the review sessions for their class. It's not ideal, but the extra attendance and engagement by the students make it worth it. <br />
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I think there are three interacting factors that contribute to the success of the review sessions:<br />
<ul><li><b>The name</b> - Students think about "office hours" in a completely different light than they do "review sessions".</li>
<li><b>The location</b> - Instead of walking into my office and interrupting me while I'm doing some probably meaningless, but important-looking task, students instead walk into a room designed for teaching, and see me sitting at the front doing nothing but waiting for them to arrive<sup>1</sup>. </li>
<li><b>The preparation</b> - While students end up asking me lots of questions, at the start of each session I usually just get blank stares. Having a few slides prepared with sample test questions, extra content, and a list of what I think is tough helps break the ice and get the session going. The sample exam questions are especially liked, and much of our time has been spent going over them.</li>
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As an added bonus, I'm enjoying the time much more. Instead of guiltily doing administrivia during office hours, I'm now interacting with my students and helping them learn the content. Which is, after all, why I'm here.<br />
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<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> <i>Or, more likely, they're waiting at the lab door and see me rushing from my office to the lab 15 seconds before the review session is scheduled to start.</i></span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-33044975471206869732010-09-26T16:20:00.000-07:002010-09-26T16:28:34.408-07:00Plum frozen yogurtIt's hot here in southern California this weekend<sup>1</sup>, and thus on Friday I broke out our ice cream maker and made some plum frozen yogurt. Friends have told me that they haven't had much luck making frozen yogurt at home, as they find it tough to get the yogurt strongly flavored enough with the bits of fruit they add. I've never had that problem with this recipe: by adding more plum than yogurt, this frozen yogurt ends up filled with plummy goodness, peppered with blended bits of purple skin and small chunks of plum. <br />
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This is my favorite homemade frozen yogurt recipe, and it makes an excellent refreshing snack or dessert. <br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">This recipe requires an ice cream maker; for more background on home ice cream makers, see </span><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/07/lemon-lime-sorbet.html" style="font-style: italic;">this post</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br />
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6 plums (3 to 3 1/2 cups coarsely chopped)<br />
1 3/4 cups whole-milk, plain yogurt (unsweetened)<br />
3/4 - 1 cup sugar<br />
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1) Remove the pits from all 6 plums, leaving the skin on.<br />
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2) Peel the skin off one of the plums, saving the skin for step 3. Finely chop the rest of the plum (you should have about 1/2 cup), and set aside. These plum pieces will be added to the frozen yogurt as it freezes in step 5.<br />
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3) Coarsely chop the remaining five plums (you should have about 2 1/2 to 3 cups coarsely chopped) and add them to a blender with the yogurt, sugar, and skin removed from the plum in step 2. Blend until smooth.<br />
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4) Add the plum and yogurt mixture to an ice cream maker and start it up.<br />
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5) Partway through the freezing (once the yogurt has started to solidify), add the plum pieces that were set aside earlier (in step 2). <br />
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6) Once the ice cream maker has finished (~10-15 minutes in ours), spoon the frozen yogurt to a pre-chilled container (or containers) and freeze for at least an hour or two. I like freezing the yogurt in small glasses, as it makes serving easy and helps keep it soft. <br />
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Notes:<br />
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This recipe comes close to overfilling our ice cream maker; be sure that the mixture will fit into yours (remembering that the concoction will increase in volume as it freezes).<br />
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The amount of sugar you should add depends on how tart the yogurt is and how sweet the plums are. I find that around 7/8 of a cup seems like a good amount to make it quite sweet, but that will vary based on your own taste and ingredients. If you have any doubts on the sweetness, add less sugar to start with and then taste the yogurt before adding to the ice cream maker. <br />
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My SO prefers this without the pieces of plum added, but I enjoy them (as they give a burst of plummy goodness every now and then, and add texture to the yogurt). If you prefer a smooth frozen yogurt, just skip step 2 and add all the plums to the blender in step 3. <br />
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<i><sup>1</sup> And no, by "hot" I do not mean 83F. It's actually over 100F in most of the area!</i>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-56550724811141718092010-09-25T10:28:00.000-07:002010-09-25T10:28:14.802-07:00Who knew Paperboy was based on real life?While I teach my favorite course on Friday, I'm basically in the classroom prepping, teaching, or cleaning up all day long. So, come 5:00 I was exceptionally happy to be able to head home (and also exceptionally wiped out). Unfortunately, though, I didn't know that a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperboy_(video_game)">video game</a> was awaiting me on my street:<br />
<div><ul><li>As soon as I turned onto my street, I had to slam on the brakes thanks to two dog owners who were chatting while wrangling their large dogs into the open door of their SUV. Said dogs were on leashes, but extended into the center of the road.</li>
<li>After realizing that said dog owners weren't going to get their dogs into the SUV anytime soon, I moved into the opposite lane to drive past the dogs.</li>
<li>Immediately after passing the dogs, a young teen on a bike rode out from between two cars in front of me, and slowly crossed the road. </li>
<li>Shortly thereafter a woman closed her car trunk while carrying a large bag of groceries. Without looking, she crossed the street right in front of me. (Sadly, there wasn't a baguette or bundle of celery sticking out of the grocery bag)</li>
<li>After avoiding the woman (and now going extremely slowly), I noticed a squirrel a few yards ahead of me on the side of the road. The squirrel darted out into the road as I approached. Luckily the squirrel thought better of it and darted back.</li>
<li>As I neared home, I saw a teenager on a skateboard riding down the sidewalk next to a child on a bike. Said child was clearly just learning how to ride a bicycle. The pair slowly wobbled forward, reaching our driveway just as I was ready to turn into it.</li>
</ul><div>Amazingly, nothing happened when I parked. </div></div>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-68822636267098002792010-09-20T06:00:00.000-07:002010-09-20T06:00:03.647-07:00Cheese!In the past few years my SO and I have been bitten by the artisan cheese bug. We started out sampling the cheeses at Trader Joe's; buying Basque Shepherd's cheese at Trader Joe's was probably the seminal event in our cheese-eating lives. Our friends have learned of our addiction to cheeses, and so for my birthday a few friends went to a cheese store and bought me a selection of cheeses that I'd never tried before. <br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/5005686918/" title="Four delicious cheeses by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Four delicious cheeses" height="500" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/5005686918_7c3773ce68.jpg" width="397" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clockwise from upper left: Beemster extra old (Holland, cow), Lagrein (Italy, cow), Humbolt Fog (California, goat), and Cashel Blue (Ireland, cow) </span></div><br />
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We broke out the cheeses the day before yesterday, serving them with good bread, almonds, and honey. Since I know my friends are dying to know how these tasted, here's a quick summary. Note that I'm no cheese expert, so if you're looking for good descriptions I'd suggest you try another source :)<br />
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<b>Beemster extra old:</b> This is an aged cow's milk Gouda from Holland. It's hard to see in the picture, but the cheese is studded with crystals, and thus is fairly showy. We've had some aged Goudas in the past that were so strong that they were best used for cooking; eating them raw, even with bread and/or honey, proved unsatisfactory. This Gouda, however, is a perfect eating cheese. It's filled with good aged flavor, it's caramelly yet savory, but is mild enough that it's great all by itself or with a piece of bread.<br />
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<b>Lagrein: </b>This is a cow's milk cheese from Italy, made by the Mila co-op. The cheese is bathed in red wine and spices, and has a very distinctive purplish rind. And, oddly enough, it tastes just like a good salami. I found this cheese to be perfect all by itself; eating it with bread or other sides overwhelmed the moderate flavor, which I wanted to savor all by itself.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5005687006_08514c53d9_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Humbolt Fog and Lagrein cheese" border="0" height="240" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/5005687006_08514c53d9_m.jpg" width="176" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Humbolt Fog (front) and Lagrein (back).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><b>Humbolt Fog</b><b>: </b>This is a classic California aged goat milk cheese, which I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't tried before this tasting. I'm a sucker for ash layers (I've loved the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morbier_%28cheese%29">Morbier</a> I've tried), but the ash seems like it's just for show (I didn't notice much of a flavor difference around the ash). The cheese itself is a delicious melding of two distinct flavors. The gooey outer region has a savory, pungent taste with an almost blue flavor from the rind, while the center has a milder, tangy goat cheese flavor. And since the two flavors are spatially separated, you can decide for yourself which flavor(s) you'll get in any given bite. We both loved this cheese, and we ate the entire chunk in just one sitting. The cheese reminded us of <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.murrayscheese.com/prodinfo.asp?number=00000000111">Le Chevrot</a>, though the outer gooey portion of Le Chevrot we've eaten has been stronger in flavor.<br />
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<b>Cashel Blue:</b> This is a cow's milk blue cheese from Ireland. Until a few years ago I disliked blue cheese; the classic "blue" flavor just turned me off. But, I kept trying them, and my first favorite was <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.kidairy.com.au/Products-Roaring-Forties-Blue.aspx">Roaring Forties</a>, which I had at <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.cubemarketplace.com/t-cafe.aspx">The Cube</a> in Los Angeles (my favorite cheese restaurant). Cashel Blue reminds me a lot of Roaring Forties: it's a creamy blue, and was just delicious on bread either by itself or with a dab of honey. I don't have a lot of experience eating blues, so can't say much more than "I liked it!"<br />
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The cheeses made for an absolutely delicious meal; thanks for the present!Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-10434875151367667452010-09-19T04:30:00.000-07:002010-09-19T04:30:00.335-07:00Follow a chemical oceanographer!A good friend of mine just started a post-doc at <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a>, and for his first week at work they decided to throw him on a month-long cruise aboard the <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=8143">RV Atlantis</a>. He's blogging about his adventures over at <a href="http://thedailybucketonline.blogspot.com/">The Daily Bucket</a>. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r7fHKKbJ1hM/TJT9fwrwdTI/AAAAAAAAABQ/-UKGUK5C4L8/s1600/IMG_2645+Nick+Sunrise+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r7fHKKbJ1hM/TJT9fwrwdTI/AAAAAAAAABQ/-UKGUK5C4L8/s320/IMG_2645+Nick+Sunrise+small.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Image by </span><a href="http://thedailybucketonline.blogspot.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Steven Beaupre</span></a></div><br />
If you've ever wondered what it's like to live and work aboard a research ship sampling water from the depths to analyze for carbon isotope composition, now's your chance!Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-82199163558943246822010-09-18T14:41:00.000-07:002010-09-18T16:10:49.254-07:00Homemade chicken pot pieMy SO and I almost never roast meat, but recently we ended up getting two chickens for free. So, we roasted them and served them with a delicious gravy. By the time a week had gone by, we'd already made a number of delicious chicken sandwiches, so were excitedly looking for another way to use the leftovers. Enter chicken pot pie.<br />
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Before we made this, I was never a fan of pot pies. In fact, I'll admit to having to be dragged kicking and screaming into cooking this. But then I went back for thirds. In my defense, most of the pot pies I've had were either frozen vegetables and bland chicken in a sauce that tasted like unseasoned flour topped with cardboard, or were salt-fests with mushy tops. <br />
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Crust: (this is essentially a three-quarters batch of my standard <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/08/peach-pie-with-flaky-pastry-crust.html">pie crust recipe</a>, made without sugar)<br />
1 7/8 cups white flour (1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons)<br />
3/4 teaspoon salt<br />
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter<br />
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cold water<br />
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Filling:<br />
3 cups cooked chicken, coarsely chopped (we used a mix of dark and light meat)<br />
1/2 pound frozen corn, defrosted<br />
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter (reduce salt added if using salted butter) <br />
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped<br />
2 medium onions, peeled and coarsely chopped<br />
3 medium cloves garlic, peeled and minced or pressed with a garlic press<br />
1/2 cup flour<br />
2 cups chicken stock (we used homemade)<br />
1/2 cup heavy cream<br />
1 cup milk<br />
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt (plus more to taste; we added probably ~1/4 teaspoon more)<br />
pinch cayenne pepper<br />
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper<br />
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To cook this recipe, you'll need to sautee the vegetables, make the white sauce, make the pie crust, and then bake the dish. Try to time everything so that the pie crust has been chilled for at least a few minutes and the vegetables are finished sauteeing by the time the white sauce is finished.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Making the pie crust:<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1) Put the flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl and mix. I typically use a pastry blender to do this, though a fork or whisk also work.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2) Cut the butter into approximately tablespoon-sized pieces, and add to the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender, fork, knives, or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour, stopping when the largest chunks of butter are pea-sized and most of the butter is in very small pieces. Be careful not to melt the butter; if the butter is starting to melt, put the covered mixture in the fridge until the butter has solidified again.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3) Add the cold water and cut the water into the dough with a spatula (or table knife) until the dough starts to hold together. If there is still a lot of dry flour in the bowl, add another tablespoon or two of extra water (I often end up adding 1/2 - 1 tablespoon extra).</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4) Compress the dough together with your hands and pat into a disk. If the dough is relatively warm and sticky, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for a short period (~15 minutes) until it is firmer, though I find the dough is usually cool enough to roll right away if I've worked quickly enough.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5) Use a floured rolling pin on a well-floured work surface to roll the dough into a circle approximately 1 to 2 inches wider than the pan you'll be using to bake the pot pie in. Rolling the dough takes a bit of practice to do well, though I've found that even when I have apparently fatal flaws, they're rarely apparent in the final dish. If the dough develops holes or cracks, you can usually moisten (with water) another piece of dough, press it on top of the crack, dust it with flour, and then continue rolling the crust as normal. I'll slip a rimless baking sheet underneath the dough every now and then, adding some flour underneath the crust, to prevent it from sticking to the countertop. Joy of Cooking has a very useful section on rolling pie crust if you've never done it before.</div>6) Slide the pie crust onto a large, flat surface (I use a rimless cookie sheet) and put it in the fridge. Cover with plastic wrap if it will be in the fridge for more than a few minutes.<br />
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Sauteeing the vegetables:<br />
1) Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a wide pan over medium-high heat.<br />
2) When the butter has melted, add the carrots, onions, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and cook, stirring nearly constantly, until the onions are turning brown and have started to caramelize (~10 minutes). Letting the onions and carrots begin to caramelize is key to the flavor of the dish, so don't rush this step. <br />
3) Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute or so.<br />
4) Remove the onion mixture from the heat and put into a heat-proof bowl.<br />
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Making the white sauce:<br />
1) In either the same pan you used for sauteeing, or in a separate pot, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat.<br />
2) Add the flour to the butter, and cook, stirring constantly, until it starts to become golden and nutty-smelling (~2 minutes).<br />
3) Remove the pan from the heat, and let rest (stirring occasionally) until the mixture (roux) stops bubbling (approximately a minute or two).<br />
4) Add the chicken stock, return to the heat, and stir until well mixed and thickened. <br />
5) Mix in the cream and milk, and continue cooking and whisking (nearly constantly) until the sauce thickens (~5 minutes).<br />
6) Mix in 1 teaspoon of salt, and set aside until everything else is ready.<br />
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Assembling and baking the dish:<br />
0a) Preheat your oven to 400F. <br />
0b) Butter the bottom and sides of the pan you'll be baking the dish in (we used a large oval casserole pan, but a 9x13" pan should work fine).<br />
1) Combine the chicken, corn, sauteed onion mixture, and white sauce in a large bowl; mix thoroughly.<br />
2) Test for salt level by tasting a bit (yummy!), and add more salt if needed.<br />
3) Pour the mixture into the baking dish, and level the surface.<br />
4) Gently slide the pie crust onto the baking dish (I do this by sliding it off of the rimless cookie sheet I used to store it on in the refrigerator). Trim off any portions of the crust that overhang the edges of the pan by more than a few inches, and then tuck the overhanging pieces down the sides of the pan (forming a little outer-edge to the filling). See note about cutting vent holes.<br />
5) Bake at 400F for 25 - 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbling.<br />
6) Remove from the oven when finished, and let rest for at least 20 minutes before serving. <br />
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Notes:<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I did take some pictures of the finished product, pot-pies aren't the easiest subject to photograph. So, if you're curious about what ours looked like, look <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/5001907005/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/5001907289/">here</a>, but I'll warn you ahead of time that it's not the most beautiful thing ever (until you taste it, and then it's just gorgeous). </div><div><br />
</div>I typically make my pie crust by hand with a pastry blender, but you can also make it with a food-processor using frozen butter following the directions in <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/03/plum-galette.html">this recipe</a> (but using the ingredients specified for the pot pie crust). <br />
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I'd recommend using good, homemade chicken stock for this: the stock is one of the primary ingredients that leads the white sauce to turn from a bland flour sauce into a rich, savory sauce that you can't get enough of. We don't salt our homemade chicken stock ahead of time, so if you're using pre-salted stock you may want to reduce the salt added to the white sauce in step 6 (of "making the white sauce"), and then check the salt level of the dish during the assembly (step 2 of "assembling and baking the dish"), adding more salt if needed. <br />
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Joy of Cooking suggests brushing the top with half of a beaten egg to create a shiny top; we could care less about the shine - we just want the tasty crust and filling. Joy also doesn't mention cutting vent holes; we added some halfway through baking once we saw that the crust was poofing up a lot, but they're probably not required. <br />
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We used a mix of milk and heavy cream in the sauce to make it richer; we thought the finished product was just right, but feel free to substitute whatever you prefer for the milk and cream (it'd probably be fine with all milk, all cream, a mixture of milk and light cream, etc.). <br />
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Modified from a recipe in Joy of Cooking.<br />
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Reference:<br />
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Rombauer, I. S., M. R. Becker, and E. Becker. 1997. Joy of Cooking. Scribner, NY.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-54673539683345637982010-05-20T10:52:00.000-07:002010-09-20T09:30:33.464-07:00Relatively easy-to-make crusty peasant loafOne of my favorite features of writing here on Rhosgobel has always been my "<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2004/10/end-of-week-recipe-blogging.html">recipe blogging of the week</a>" posts. Through that little feature my SO and I have posted more than <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html">110 different recipes</a>. While I make no promises about continuing to post one recipe a week, I am happy to return to recipe blogging with the following bread recipe.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4615029098/" title="Peasant-style loaf with wheat germ. by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Peasant-style loaf with wheat germ." height="184" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4615029098_ea4fa25142_m.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
While I've always enjoyed baking bread, the amount of work entailed in making a good loaf relegated bread baking to days when I had lots of free time. My favorite artisan bread baking book is Hamelman's "Bread"; it has incredibly detailed recipes and descriptions of techniques that allowed me to make a few loaves of delicious ciabatta. However, said ciabatta also took me much work across two days, and thus my SO and I found ourselves frequenting our local bakery whenever we wanted bread.<br />
<br />
That all changed when a friend introduced me to a new book, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day". I was extremely skeptical at first, as I'm always suspicious of recipes, books, and cooks that promise that home-cooked, old-world taste in two minutes flat ("and $20 off if you order in the next 5 minutes!"<sup>1</sup>). However, after a few failed attempts, I was able to modify the technique introduced in the book to make a surprisingly good peasant loaf with a minimal amount of work. Here's the basic outline of the technique:<br />
<ol><li>Mix the ingredients in a large container and allow to rise for three hours at room temperature.</li>
<li>Put the risen dough in the fridge, and refrigerate at least overnight, though it can hold for up to two or three weeks.</li>
<li>Take the dough out of the fridge, pull out as much dough as you want to use that day, roughly shape it, and let it rise for about two hours (folding it after the first 20 minutes).</li>
<li>Bake for ~40 minutes, and let cool until ready to eat.</li>
</ol>While I'd hardly call it "bread in five minutes", the ability to have risen bread dough ready to go in the fridge has enabled me to bake bread virtually any day I want it. Whenever I finish up one batch of dough, I immediately start another; my SO and I almost never buy artisan bread anymore. So, if you're looking for a crusty loaf of bread that has a chewy, wheaty interior and yet doesn't take a tremendous amount of work to make, you might want to give this a try.<br />
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Bread ingredients:<br />
3 cups water, ~100F<br />
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast<br />
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt<br />
32.5 ounces (~6 1/4 cups) unbleached white flour<br />
1/3 cup wheat germ<br />
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</div>Supplies needed for baking:<br />
unbleached white flour, for dusting hands and countertop<br />
cornmeal, for dusting baking peel<br />
approximately 1 cup boiling water, for steaming the oven<br />
baking peel<br />
baking stone (see notes)<br />
steaming pan (see notes)<br />
<br />
This recipe has three main parts: mixing the dough and letting it rise; forming the loaf and letting it rise; and baking the loaf. <br />
<br />
<b>Making the dough</b>:<br />
1. Mix the water, yeast, and salt in a container large enough to hold the risen dough (I use a 6 quart plastic container). Let sit for a few minutes (to help the yeast clumps dissolve) and then mix again. (Note: I've found that my hot tap water, which comes out of the tap at a maximum of ~125F, cools to ~100F after measuring it in my room-temperature glass measuring container and pouring it into the room temperature dough container).<br />
2. Mix the flour and wheat germ together, and then mix into the yeast solution. Mix until the flour is completely incorporated into the dough, and the dough has formed into a cohesive mass that resists your stirring and stretches when you pull the spoon out. I do this by hand with a large wooden spoon (wimpy spoons will break); it will take a good amount of force by the end of the mixing, but shouldn't take more than a few minutes. The dough will be moister than your average bread dough.<br />
3. Taste the dough to ensure that you salted it (if you forgot to salt it, you'll know: wet, unsalted flour tastes <i>terrible</i>). It should taste a little salty. <br />
4. Cover loosely (I put a plastic lid loosely on top) and let rise at room temperature (my house is usually around 70 to 80°F) for at least three hours. It should have at least doubled in volume by the time you're done (and will likely double in volume within the first hour or so).<br />
5. Cover so that there is only the barest entrance of air (I leave the aforementioned plastic lid just a bit unsnapped) and put in the fridge at least overnight.<br />
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<b>Forming the loaf</b>:<br />
0. Prepare your workspace: you'll need a container of flour (for dusting hands and countertops) and at least a 2 square foot area of countertop to work with. I also get out a flat baking sheet to let the formed loaf rise on (allowing me to easily move it if needed).<br />
1. Remove the dough from the fridge, dust your hands with flour, and pull off as much dough as you would like to use, returning the unused dough to the fridge. I find that the recipe makes either three small to medium loaves or two large loaves. <br />
2. Form the dough into a rough ball in your hands, choose a point on the dough to be the top of the new loaf, and then shape the dough into a smooth mass by continually stretching the dough from the top to the sides and bottom. To do this, hold the dough in both hands, carefully grab onto a part of it near the top with your thumbs, and then gently pull your thumbs to the side of the dough (stretching out the top part in the process, and using the palms or fingers of your hands both to support the dough and stretch the sides of the dough down onto the bottom). Rotate the dough a bit, reflour your hands if needed (I hold the dough in one hand while I flour the other), and then stretch it again. Continue until you've got a nicely formed ball with a continuous skin running around most of the top and sides.<br />
3. Place the dough onto a flat floured surface, and let rise for 20 minutes.<br />
4. After the 20 minutes, flour a portion of your countertop and "fold" the dough. To do this, pick the dough up and gently turn it upside down onto the floured workspace. With the dough upside down, grab one edge of the dough, stretch it out until it almost breaks (<i>yes yes, how do you stretch it until it almost breaks without first breaking it ...</i>), and then fold that stretched-out piece back onto the center of the dough. Repeat this stretching and folding for each of the other three sides (so, if you superimposed a clock onto the dough, you'd stretch it at noon, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock). Then gently pick up the dough and invert it onto a newly floured piece of workspace (so that the original top of the dough is once again the top).<br />
5. Let the dough rise for another hour to hour and 40 minutes (the lower amount of time if your kitchen is warm, say 80F, the greater amount of time if it's cool, say 70F). By the end of the rising the dough should be noticeably larger, and somewhat jiggly when shaken. NOTE: Start preheating your oven with the baking stone and steaming pan inside 40 minutes before the end of this rising time (as stated in step 0a in "baking the bread").<br />
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<br />
<b>Baking the bread</b>:<br />
0a. 40 minutes before the bread is ready to go in the oven, put your baking stone and steaming pan in the oven (see notes) and preheat it to 460F.<br />
0b. Shortly before the bread has finished rising, put some water on the stove to bring to a boil (if it's not boiling by the time the bread is ready to go in the oven, don't worry - just use it as is).<br />
1. When the bread has finished rising, pour approximately 1/2 cup of the boiling water into the steaming pan in the oven. Caution: this may create splattering, boiling-hot water and large amounts of steam, so wear protection (see notes). Close the oven door.<br />
2. Sprinkle cornmeal onto your baking peel to prevent the bread from sticking when you slide it into the oven. I use a thin, rimless aluminum cookie sheet as my baking peel. <br />
3. Flour your hands, gently pick up the risen bread, and transfer it to the baking peel as close to the edge you will slide it off as possible, maintaining the shape of the loaf as much as possible (it will smush somewhat; that's fine).<br />
4. With a very sharp knife (I use a serrated bread knife), cut gashes into the bread approximately one to one and a half inches apart from each other. The gashes should run the length (or width) of the loaf, be relatively deep near the center of the loaf (~1/2" deep), and shallower near the edges.<br />
5. Blow or scrape off any cornmeal that is neither under the bread nor between the bread and the edge of the pan you will slide it off (if not cleaned off, this extra cornmeal may fall onto the bottom of your oven, burning and creating a smoky mess).<br />
6. Get out a spatula and put it near the oven. When a portion of the bread sticks to the peel as you're sliding it off into a steaming-hot 460F oven, you'll thank yourself for remembering to get the spatula out.<br />
7. Open the oven and slide the bread off the peel and onto your baking stone, being as careful as possible to maintain the original bread shape. If the bread elongates or gets pushed a bit, this is fine. If the bread sticks to the peel, use the spatula to gently help it off. NEVER attempt to reach into the oven and adjust the bread on the stone; once it's on the stone, leave it (the stone is extremely hot, and could burn you very badly).<br />
8. Immediately pour the rest of the boiling water (~1/2 cup) into the steaming pan, and close the oven door. As before, this may create splattering, boiling-hot water and large amounts of steam, so wear protection.<br />
9. Bake the bread for a total of 35-40 minutes (35 minutes for smaller loaves, ~1/4 to 1/3 of the recipe; 40 minutes for larger loaves, ~1/2 of the recipe).<br />
10. About 20 minutes into the baking, briefly open the oven door to let any remaining steam out. If there is still a bit of water in the steaming pan, that's fine. If there's a lot of water left in the steaming pan, add a bit less next time (but don't open the oven door again to let any more out; just leave the extra water there for the rest of the baking). <br />
11. Resist the temptation to open the oven door to check on the bread (it lowers the temperature of the oven drastically, and the crust benefits from a constant high heat, especially near the end of baking); leave the bread in for the total amount of time, opening it only once to release the steam. The exception to this, of course, is if the oven catches on fire, starts smoking, or does something else to indicate impending disaster.<br />
12. When the bread is done the crust should be hard, and a rich, dark brown at its darkest points. Remove it from the oven using your peel, and transfer it to a cooling rack. <br />
13. Bread is supposedly best if you let it cool to room temperature before cutting into it; I can rarely wait that long. But try to let it cool for at least an hour or so before digging in.<br />
<br />
Notes:<br />
<br />
If you're wondering what the bread looks like throughout this process, I've posted a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/sets/72157624104990448/">photo guide to making this bread</a>.<br />
<br />
If you're trying to plan ahead, once you've got refrigerated, risen dough in the fridge it'll take you about 3 hours to complete a loaf of bread (~2 hours for rising and preparation, ~45 minutes for baking), with an extra hour needed for cooling after baking. Note, though, that the bread needs very little tending during this time, so much of that time can be spent doing other things.<br />
<br />
Bread doesn't finish rising until it has gone into the oven. Once the bread starts warming up in the oven, the yeast in the dough start working overtime and carbon dioxide that was in solution in the dough is released to the air pockets inside the bread, causing the bread to rise dramatically (it can easily double in height). If the oven has not been steamed, the outside layer of the loaf will quickly dry out and harden due to the hot, dry conditions, and thus the bread will be locked into its pre-oven shape (and won't rise much in the oven).<br />
<br />
However, by steaming the oven we allow the outer layer of the loaf to stay moist (and cooler), thus allowing it to be flexible and expand as carbon dioxide is released into the air spaces in the quickly-warming loaf. Thus, steaming the oven allows the bread to rise dramatically in the oven, a phenomenon bakers call "oven spring". Steaming also helps the crust brown, as it allows the enzymes in the outer layers of the loaf to break down starches into sugars for a longer period of time (since the crust stays within the optimum temperature range of the enzymes longer), thus allowing more <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction">maillard</a> and <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramelization">caramelization</a> reactions to occur at the end of baking (thus making the crust much tastier). <br />
<br />
To steam the oven I put an old broiling pan in the oven on the shelf below the baking stone. I line this pan with foil, and preheat it along with the baking stone. Then, when it's time to steam the oven I pour water from my tea kettle directly onto the foil in the pan. Until you learn how your steaming setup reacts, I'd advise wearing a long-sleeved shirt and hot-pads that entirely cover your hands when steaming (and if you're really worried, goggles are rarely a bad idea - you only have one set of eyes). It's not as scary as it sounds; if you're at all worried about it, try doing it once when you're not baking bread to see what happens. My steaming pan only splutters a little when I pour in the water, and I've never gotten burned even though I no longer even bother with a hot pad when holding the tea kettle. <br />
<br />
Bread baking is greatly aided by having a baking stone, as they have a large amount of thermal inertia that help bake the bread from the bottom. If you don't have one, just use a thick baking sheet; it'll probably turn out just fine (though I haven't tried it, as I've had a baking stone for years).<br />
<br />
The risen dough does keep for two or even possibly three weeks in the fridge, and keeps pumping out excellent bread throughout that time. You know it's time to give up on it once the top has started to dry out and gotten very dark, and the dough is permeated with a smell of alcohol (the top portion of the dough always starts turning dark after a week or so; as long as it's just a little dark the bread should turn out fine). <br />
<br />
I always purchase my wheat germ from <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.kingarthurflour.com/">King Arthur Flour</a>; their wheat germ has a different look to it than wheat germ I've seen being sold in bulk food stores (King Arthur's is in smaller pieces and darker brown); I don't know how much of a difference variation in suppliers makes. <br />
<br />
Treat this recipe as a starting point, not a finished product. The instructions I've included above are what work for me in my kitchen using my supplies; you may find that ingredient amounts, rising times, baking times, amount of folding, or other things may need to be slightly altered for you. Play, and enjoy some good bread!<br />
<br />
<sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">As far as I know the book has never actually been sold through infomercials, but anything making claims like it does makes me instantly think of an infomercial sales pitch. </span><br />
<br />
References:<br />
<br />
Hamelman, J. 2004. Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. John Wiley & Sons.<br />
<br />
Hertzberg, J. and Z. Francois. 2007. Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. St. Martin's Press.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-10000039713694977462010-05-20T08:54:00.000-07:002010-05-20T11:05:15.273-07:00We read old cookbooks"<i>No, it isn't particularly good, but it may be eaten by the bulging with a clear conscience.</i>" <br />
<br />
Description of the "Dressing without oil" recipe from Joy of Cooking, 1964.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Rombauer, I. S. and M. R. Becker. 1964. Joy of Cooking. The Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana.</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-82792082947502028882010-05-18T16:49:00.000-07:002010-05-18T17:46:20.226-07:00What's it like to create a new Facebook account?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I've deleted my personal Facebook account, but since most of my friends still post on Facebook regularly, I wanted a way to keep up with what they're doing. So I created an empty shell account with a disposable e-mail address that I can use to view what they post (at least until they ditch it as well).<br />
<br />
What struck me during this process was just how privacy-invading Facebook's default settings have become. I found myself thinking "What if my mother-in-law or some other non-net-savvy person was doing this? Would they understand what was actually being shared?" So, in this post I'll summarize what Facebook's sign-up process looks like to a new user, focusing on how privacy is presented.<br />
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<br />
To sign up, users are asked for their name, e-mail, sex, and birthday. Pretty easy. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613129777/" title="Facebook's signup page by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Facebook's signup page" height="186" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4613129777_30d84b939f_m.jpg" width="240" /></a> </div><br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
After clicking "Sign Up", users are immediately asked to enter their e-mail address's password so that Facebook can import contacts<sup>1</sup>. If they skip that, they're asked to upload a profile picture, and after that they're asked to find people by typing in their name. Moving past these steps brings a user to their homepage for the first time, which displays a "Welcome to Facebook" page<sup>2</sup>. <br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613616836/" title="Welcome Steps by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Welcome Steps" height="440" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3302/4613616836_11d671955f.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Homepage of a new Facebook user.</span></div><br />
This homepage has a list of steps on it; one presumes that Facebook is suggesting that users complete the steps in numerical order. In the first step, Facebook again asks the user to enter their e-mail address's password. The second step asks the user to fill out their profile information; clicking on the link brings up the user's basic profile information.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613616914/" title="Profile editing 1: Personal information by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Profile editing 1: Personal information" height="417" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4044/4613616914_5a7007ea27.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Facebook's "Basic information" profile page; users are taken to this page when clicking on "Edit Profile"</span></div><br />
On the first profile editing page the user is asked to enter their location, sexual orientation, what they're "looking for", political views, religious views, bio, and favorite quotes. Nowhere on the page does it say that these items can all be left blank (except sex and birthday, which are not stated as being required). Nowhere on the page does it clearly say that many of these items will be shared with everyone on the internet if they're entered. <br />
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Colorful icons and links on the left side of the page take the user to the rest of their profile, where users are asked to enter a tremendous amount of other information (profile picture, relationships, likes and interests, educational history, and contact information). <br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001353/" title="Profile editing 3: Family and relationships by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Profile editing 3: Family and relationships" height="33" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4613001353_36a118956d_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001411/" title="Profile editing 4: Likes and interests by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Profile editing 4: Likes and interests" height="44" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3565/4613001411_a9fee9c529_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613617138/" title="Profile editing 5: Education and work by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Profile editing 5: Education and work" height="39" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3300/4613617138_3df60411ac_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613617096/" title="Profile editing 6: Contact information by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Profile editing 6: Contact information" height="52" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3318/4613617096_25d8798dd9_t.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The other profile information pages (click for larger versions).</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Users are directed to their privacy settings only as a plain text link underneath all these other colorful links; my guess is that most new users would ignore that little link and happily enter all of the information requested (and the link only takes users to the start of the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001635/">privacy settings</a> area; it doesn't take them to the privacy guide described below).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Once the user is done filling out their profile, they presumably move on to steps three and four of the starter homepage: linking their account to a mobile phone, and finding even more friends. Only if a user is dedicated enough to reach step five of the starter homepage does Facebook give prominent attention to their privacy pages. The link in that step takes users to a privacy guide.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613002265/" title="Facebook's privacy guide by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Facebook's privacy guide" height="500" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/4613002265_6a3253eec5.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An excerpt from Facebook's "A guide to privacy on Facebook".</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here Facebook explains what their privacy terms mean<sup>3</sup>. This is the first time it's been clearly stated that information entered into a Facebook profile could be seen by everyone on the web, and this has only been explained <i>after</i> the user has been prompted to enter all of their profile information. And the user still hasn't even seen what the actual privacy settings are (though they see a summary of them in the "recommended settings" portion of the guide). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
Heading over to the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001635/">privacy settings</a>, the user finds that not only do they have to navigate <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/12/business/facebook-privacy.html">a maze</a> of pages and setting terminology, but also that the default settings are extremely open. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001693/" title="Privacy settings: Personal information by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Personal information" height="350" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/4613001693_f8b035cc6d.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Default privacy settings: Personal information and posts</span> </div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001937/" title="Privacy settings: Friends, tags, and connections page by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Friends, tags, and connections page" height="408" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3409/4613001937_0c875c777d.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Default privacy settings: Friends, tags, and connections</span></div><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001819/" title="Privacy settings: Apps and website information sharing by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Apps and website information sharing" height="437" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/4613001819_83ab76a660.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Default privacy settings: What friends can share about you through applications and websites</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613617528/" title="Privacy settings: Contact informatin page by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Contact informatin page" height="57" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3305/4613617528_c01fa68f40_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001753/" title="Privacy settings: instant personalization by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: instant personalization" height="56" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4613001753_489fbe97ea_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001997/" title="Privacy settings: Apps and websites pages by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Apps and websites pages" height="60" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4613001997_29866b02b1_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613001595/" title="Privacy settings: Search by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: Search" height="34" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4613001595_f9795e0920_t.jpg" width="100" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Other default privacy settings pages (contact information, instant personalization, applications and websites, search settings)</span></div><br />
Here we see that a tremendous amount of information (all a user's posts and pictures, friends, family, relationships, likes, interests, activities, location, education, sexual orientation, favorite quotes, and bio) is, by default, set to be available to everyone on the web. And, of course, this information is also available to Facebook, its partner websites, and any Facebook applications for use as they wish (e.g., to target advertising to the user). <br />
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A lot of other information (political views, birthday, pictures of you taken by other people, etc.) is available to "friends of friends" by default. While the "friends of friends" setting may seem private, it's not really. Given that <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics">the average Facebook user</a> has 130 friends, this means that once a user's account matures, anything that is visible to "friends of friends" will, on average, be visible to around 16,900 people. And among these 16,900 people are probably the ones the user cares the most about hiding information (like, say, sexual orientation, political views, or religion) from: coworkers, bosses, estranged friends, exes, family, nosy neighbors, etc. <br />
<br />
The default settings are even set so that search engines like Google can crawl the user's page, making anything the user sets to "everyone" functionally accessible to all people for a very long time, regardless of how the user changes their settings in the future. Doing something as simple as unchecking the "Public Search Results" box to prevent this gets the user a nasty warning message, making it sound like they're going to make it impossible for people to find them:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613617164/" title="Privacy settings: warning when unclicking the "search" box by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Privacy settings: warning when unclicking the "search" box" height="177" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/4613617164_48f46c8ee0.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Warning message gotten when unchecking the "Public Search Results" box.</span></div><br />
Oh, and don't forget that hidden in the user's "Account Settings" tab is a little setting that makes much of the user's information fodder for Facebook to use in ads they serve to the user's friends:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4613617732/" title="My Account: ad settings by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="My Account: ad settings" height="500" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3412/4613617732_3fcc5ef249.jpg" width="382" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The "Facebook Ads" tab of the "Account settings" page.</span></div><br />
While it is impressive that Facebook has such configurable privacy settings, it's clear that many of their users are confused. For example, a recent <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/consumer_reports_half_of_social_network_users_are_oversharing_endangering_privacy.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">Consumer Reports survey</a> found that while <span class="status-body"><span class="status-content"><span class="entry-content"> 73% of Facebook users report that they only share information with their friends, only 42% of Facebook users report customizing their privacy settings (meaning that 31% of users think they're sharing only with friends, but are actually sharing more broadly; </span></span></span><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://twitter.com/jilltxt">via Jill/txt</a>).<br />
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Given the volume of personal information Facebook acquires, this is worlds apart from how it should be. Users should be presented with succinctly summarized privacy information (including that their information may be visible to anyone on the web) before being asked to enter any information, and all users' information should be private by default, unless the user explicitly chooses otherwise<sup>4</sup>.<br />
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[<i>Edited to add: And don't forget that it's not good enough for Facebook to ask for private information once. If a user doesn't enter their information the first time, the user sees this big yellow message (including a mostly empty "progress" bar) asking them to enter more information </i><i>when they visit their own profile</i><i>.</i><i></i>]<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4619768343/" title="Facebook nagging new users to enter profile information by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Facebook nagging new users to enter profile information" height="293" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4043/4619768343_9ae1f77d67.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Facebook nags new users to enter profile information, even if they've intentionally left it blank.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Asking for a user's e-mail password seems incredibly invasive, as it gives Facebook the ability to read all of that user's e-mail. </span><br />
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<sup>2</sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">This welcome homepage stays as the user's default page until they add some friends, at which point it reverts to the standard "news feed" homepage regular Facebook users are familiar with. </span><br />
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<sup>3</sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">When items are visible to "Friends", then only those people you directly add as friends can see the information. When items are visible to "Friends of friends", anyone who's a friend of a person you've added as a friend can see your information. When items are visible to "Everyone", then everyone on the web can see your information. </span><br />
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<sup>4</sup> <span style="font-size: x-small;">And these settings shouldn't change every few months; in just the last year Facebook changed my privacy settings at least three times, each time exposing information that was previously not visible to others. </span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-46219527939516261652010-05-17T21:45:00.000-07:002010-05-17T21:54:08.961-07:00Ahhhh, that looks better ...The <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2010/05/housekeeping.html">housekeeping</a> is largely finished, at least for now. I've got a shiny new template, a non-swindling comment service, a reorganized sidebar, and a new home for my "recurring features" pages (they're now hosted here on Blogger using the "<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165955">pages</a>" tool, which will save me a lot of time). <br />
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A few things are missing: I've pared down my sidebar links to what I actually read somewhat regularly (sorry!), I've removed my no-longer-updated <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2010/05/housekeeping.html">delicious page</a> (which I used as a hack to categorize my posts before Blogger came out with its post "labels"), and the old Haloscan comments are gone (sniffle).<br />
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Oh, and I can now use "jump breaks", too. :)<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Very old posts may have some problems: I've switched image and file hosting places a few times over the years (so there are likely a few broken links), and there won't be any post labels on them. <br />
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I even took a picture of the old template, so longtime readers could remember the good old days ...<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/4617913680/" title="Original Rhosgobel template by Radagast, on Flickr"><img alt="Original Rhosgobel template" height="222" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4018/4617913680_99858799a9_m.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rhosgobel's template from 2004-2010</span></div><br />
If you see anything that appears to be broken (especially in old posts), or have any suggestions, please let me know.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-80262598196817010392010-05-16T14:06:00.000-07:002010-05-16T14:07:37.975-07:00HousekeepingA bit of dust has collected here at Rhosgobel over the past few years, and it's going to take me a bit of time to clear it all out. <br />
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I'll be updating the template <sup>1</sup> and whatnot, but the biggest change will be in the comments. Haloscan, the commenting service I've used since starting the blog, has <a href="http://blog.aboutecho.com/2009/12/09/haloscan-is-getting-upgraded-to-echo/">died</a>. Haloscan transferred the comments to <a href="http://aboutecho.com/">Echo</a>, but in a most user-unfriendly way: while the comments are still visible on the blog, the old comments are neither visible nor editable in Echo's user interface, I have no way to export the comments, and they want me to pay $12 a year for this great arrangement. So, I'm going to switch to Blogger's commenting system and close the Echo account. I've saved a selection of the old comments<sup>2</sup>, but won't be able to go through all the old posts to save every last comment. It sucks. Sorry :(<br />
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<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1</span></sup> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm still using the template I picked back in 2004!</span><br />
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<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2</span></sup> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is why there are currently two "Comment" links below each post; I need to have both Blogger's and Echo's commenting links visible to copy over the old comments. I apologize for the confusion. </span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-36406745436120270422010-05-15T16:20:00.000-07:002010-05-15T16:45:18.591-07:00A return to RhosgobelRegular readers will note that ... well, let's be honest: there are no regular readers of this blog anymore. I haven't written anything here for more than two years, and haven't posted regularly for longer than that. <br />
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What happened? Many things. I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, and had to drastically cut back my computer use: computer <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/11/civ-iv.html">game playing</a> has vanished, <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/10/remember-that-online-course-proposal-i.html">online teaching</a> is no more, online reading has been slashed, I'm a slave to <a href="http://tech.inhelsinki.nl/antirsi/">typing</a> <a href="http://www.workrave.org/">timers</a>, and writing for fun got largely eliminated. The pseudonymous nature of the blog also started getting in the way: I found myself wanting to write about items that could lead to someone easily identifying me, and I also wanted to share what I wrote with my circle of local friends, many of whom worked at my campus. <br />
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So the blog fizzled. I was sad to see it go, but I soon replaced it with Facebook, which I enjoyed for the ability to privately share what I thought with close friends without anyone else (students or coworkers) being able to find me. But in the time I've been using Facebook the privacy settings have gotten steadily worse<sup>1</sup> and the company has gotten more and more focused on invading privacy to make money; I've finally gotten tired of it. I'm leaving Facebook, and replacing it with a mix of other information sharing websites. I've missed being able to share things I enjoy with people other than my few dozen contacts on Facebook.<br />
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So, I'm back. I'll still write under Radagast, but will be more open about the site with colleagues and I won't try as hard to hide my identity. However, along with this change will come a separation of public and personal. Don't expect vacation reports, family news, personal pictures, or the like: those will be shared elsewhere. <br />
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Oh, and my wrists are still not great, so I don't promise to post with any regularity. <br />
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<sup>1</sup> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I had the strongest privacy settings possible, yet Facebook still forced me to be visible to "friends of friends", forced my profile pictures to be publicly visible, defaulted all of my (previously private) interests to be public, and started sharing my information with third-party websites without my permission. Many of these changes were "opt-out", meaning that I had to be aware enough to go in and undo their changes to stay at least somewhat private. Facebook's focus on "monetizing" the information they've collected on their users' interests and browsing histories irritates me, especially since many users thought their information would be held privately (and few websites are bold enough to ask people to list their religion, sexual orientation, hobbies, educational history, everything they "like", and all of their acquaintances in one place ...).</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-14380112705506123672008-04-06T19:52:00.000-07:002008-04-06T19:57:31.576-07:00Melinda Bossenmeyer: Plagiarist?Here's a fun evening task: read <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/07/even-limited-exercise-helps.html">this post</a> of mine from July 5, 2007, and then read <a href="http://blog.peacefulplaygrounds.com/2007/07/exercise-some-beats-none.html">this one</a> "posted by Melinda Bossenmeyer, Ed.D." on July 9, 2007 at Peaceful Playgrounds, Inc.'s "<a href="http://blog.peacefulplaygrounds.com/">recess blog</a>".<br /><br />Anything look familiar? If not, I'll point it out for you: Dr. Bossenmeyer's post of July 9 is copied nearly word-for-word from my July 5th post. There have been a number of small changes made throughout the post, but not nearly enough for Dr. Bossenmeyer to call the post her own. Take, for instance, the introduction. Here's mine:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">One of the exercise mantras <a href="http://www.presidentschallenge.org/the_challenge/why_activity_amount.aspx">commonly floated about</a> is that adults should get 30 minutes of moderate activity exercise at least five days a week. While this is a good goal, the majority of Americans don't get this amount of exercise<sup>1</sup>. And, for a lot of beginning exercisers, exercising for 30 minutes a day probably seems like a huge commitment, if not an insurmountable challenge.<br /><br />My SO and I have long viewed exercise in the "some is better than none" category, and thus try to do even little amounts whenever we can (e.g., walking to the store instead of driving, always taking the stairs at work, doing our own gardening). A recent paper (Church et al., 2007) has shown, via a randomized, controlled trial, that even small amounts of exercise are better than no exercise at all (at least for the subset of people they tested).</blockquote>And here's the one posted by Dr. Bossenmeyer:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Most all research indicates that adults should get 30 minutes of moderate activity exercise at least five days a week. While this is a research based recommendation, studies indicate that the majority of Americans don't get this amount of exercise<sup>1</sup>.<br /><br />A recent paper (Church et al., 2007) has shown, via a randomized, controlled trial, that even small amounts of exercise are better than no exercise at all (at least for the subset of people they tested which were post menopausal women).</blockquote>And some of the post was simply copied verbatim. Once again, here's my post:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Church et al. divided overweight, post-menopausal women into four groups:<br /><ul><li>Control: Did no exercise a week (other than normal walking)<br /></li><li>4kcal/kg: Exercised about 70 minutes a week<br /></li><li>8kcal/kg: Exercised about 135 minutes a week</li><li>12 kcal/kg: Exercised about 190 minutes a week</li></ul>Participants were randomly assigned to a condition, and all exercise was performed in a lab<sup>2</sup>. The participants exercised at their given level for six months, at which point physiological data were compared to data taken at the start of the study.<br /><br />Fitness improvement correlated linearly with the amount of exercise:</blockquote>And here's Dr. Bossenmeyer's text:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Church et al. divided overweight, post-menopausal women into four groups:<br /><ul><li>Control: Did no exercise a week (other than normal walking)<br /></li><li>4kcal/kg: Exercised about 70 minutes a week<br /></li><li>8kcal/kg: Exercised about 135 minutes a week</li><li>12 kcal/kg: Exercised about 190 minutes a week</li></ul>Participants were randomly assigned to a condition, and all exercise was performed in a lab<sup>2</sup>. The participants exercised at their given level for six months, at which point physiological data were compared to data taken at the start of the study.<br /><br />Fitness improvement correlated linearly with the amount of exercise:</blockquote>She even included the three footnotes verbatim, the last of which includes links back to my exercise-tracking blog (and which makes no sense in the context of her blog):<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><blockquote>In fact, it was the realization that our fitness was slowly declining (and would continue declining until we would no longer be able to walk when we were 70) that finally motivated my SO and me to start regularly exercising (and tracking <a href="http://rhosgobelgym.blogspot.com/2007/01/radagast-and-sos-2007-exercise-goals.html">our exercise goals</a> and progress <a href="http://rhosgobelgym.blogspot.com/">here</a>) a few years ago.</blockquote></span>There are no links back to my blog (other than the accidental ones to my exercise blog in the footnote), no acknowledgments that I wrote the original post, and she's even added her own copyright notice ("Copyright 2008 <a href="http://www.peacefulplaygrounds.com/">Peaceful Playgrounds, Inc.</a>" is in the footer of the page). I've never had any communication with Dr. Bossenmeyer that I know of, and certainly never authorized the use of my work on her blog.<br /><br />I would expect more of a person who's "spent 27 years as an educator and is the author of six published books on playgrounds and numerous articles on recess, playgrounds and play."<br /><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">Many thanks to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12523329434641725631">monado</a>, whose recent comment on <a href="http://rhosgobelgym.blogspot.com/2007/01/radagast-and-sos-2007-exercise-goals.html">this post</a> led to me finding this plagiarism. And, just in case something should happen to Dr. Bossenmeyer's "original" post, here are some screenshots of it: </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/images/plagiarized-post-1-crop.png">1</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/images/plagiarized-post-2-crop.png">2</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/images/plagiarized-post-3-crop.png">3</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/images/plagiarized-post-4-crop.png">4</a>]Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-77724228975424375632008-02-14T22:40:00.000-08:002008-02-14T23:17:51.787-08:00A most useless doctor visitFor the past few years I've noticed that my wrists have been getting sore after extended periods of computer use. Knowing what this could mean, I attempted to cut down my computer use, and started using programs that encouraged me to take regular breaks<sup>1</sup>. The soreness became more frequent and came on with shorter periods of use (which is, I might point out, one of many reasons why my posting frequency has dropped precipitously), and then recently I started noticing tingling in my fingers and my mouse hand feeling itchy. So, I decided that enough was enough: it was time to head to the doctor.<br /><br />The nurse who first saw me had carpal tunnel syndrome herself, and she shared her experiences. Unfortunately, they boiled down to “don't do what I did - I had to have surgery, and still can't use my left hand all that well.” Practical advice on how not to do what she did was rather lacking from her monologue.<br /><br />So, in came the doctor. He did the usual asking what was wrong, and after my explanation he said, “Well, you've got carpal tunnel syndrome.” He made the diagnosis without ever touching me, or without asking any clarifying questions. Given that after <a href="http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/carpal_tunnel/detail_carpal_tunnel.htm#102493049">reading online</a> I'd found that there are a few possible conditions that have similar symptoms, I was surprised that he didn't. He then proceeded to explain what causes carpal tunnel syndrome (pressure on a specific nerve; it's always interesting to listen to how doctors dumb down explanations) and that if it got bad enough I might have to have surgery.<br /><br />Did he bother to say what I needed to do to avoid said surgery? No.<br /><br />He then asked me whether I used a computer at work, and after I replied with a yes (and that I had a suboptimal work arrangement), he said that that was almost certainly the cause.<br /><br />Did he bother to ask me if I did other activities (like, say, playing the guitar, or blogging) that might be related? No.<br /><br />He did, however, go on to talk about how employers are very worried about carpal tunnel syndrome due to the fact that it's the #1 worker's comp injury, and that I should talk to my HR department about getting something ergonomic for my setup (his primary suggestion was, I kid you not, “a gel wrist-pad”). Did he give me any real suggestions on what to do to make my workspace (at home or work) more ergonomic? No. Did he bother talking about any of the range of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpal_Tunnel_Syndrome#Treatment">possible treatments</a>, and discuss with me which would be most appropriate? Other than suggesting that I take off my watch and get a gel wrist-pad, no.<br /><br />He did ask if my hands tingled when I woke up (which is a symptom of sleeping with bent wrists, an indication that wrist braces may help if worn while sleeping), but then quickly went back to talking about worker's comp.<br /><br />After a nearly useless conversation, he briskly asked me if I had any other questions, and then shooed me out the door. I learned more in a half hour of web-browsing the night before the appointment than I learned from him, and I'm now left to search the web for more information.<br /><br /><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size:85%;">Initially I used Ubuntu's built-in typing break program (found in the “Keyboard” menu, at least for Ubuntu 7.04). While this was an excellent start, it was suboptimal (it didn't have an option for micro-breaks, and it would lock the keyboard without much warning, which was frustrating if I was in the middle of a sentence). I also tried a Google Desktop add-in, but that was even less useful (as it just brought up a popup window, which was easy to ignore if I was busy). Most recently I've started using <a href="http://www.workrave.org/">Workrave</a>, a free Linux and Windows program that appears to be excellent: it has both micro- and macro-breaks, gives plenty of warning when breaks are about to appear (I can finish my sentences now!), and is very customizable.</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-1143790397642053282008-01-13T01:20:00.000-08:002008-01-13T02:53:21.349-08:00Buying a classical guitarLast year I <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/03/true-break.html">started playing the guitar</a>, and since I thought I'd prefer playing rock music, I bought a steel-string acoustic to learn on. While I've loved playing the guitar, I've realized that I prefer playing classical music.<br /><br />Classical guitar music is typically played on guitars specially built for the purpose. Classical guitars have smaller bodies than steel-string acoustic (and steel-string electric) guitars; they have shorter<sup>1</sup> and wider<sup>2</sup> necks; and they use nylon strings instead of steel strings (see Wikipedia for a description of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar#Guitar_construction_and_components">guitar construction</a>). The changes in the neck make fingering somewhat easier (the strings are farther apart, meaning that while the fingers must stretch farther, it's less likely that a finger will accidentally hit multiple strings), and the nylon strings change both the sound (it's mellower) and the pain coefficient (the strings are much easier to hold down without causing pain)<sup>3</sup>.<br /><br />So, buying a classical guitar has been on my to-do list since <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/09/another-semester-begins.html">last summer</a>. Regular readers may recall <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/05/tale-of-two-music-stores.html">my joyful experience buying my first guitar online</a>. To summarize, I ended up having to return two different guitars, and even the guitar I eventually kept had been slightly damaged. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and it drove home the point that online music stores don't seem to quality-check their merchandise before selling it (or, at least, the two stores I purchased from didn't). Additionally, finding comparable sound samples of guitars online is nearly impossible, making comparison shopping difficult. Given that when I started shopping I was considering spending at least $500 on a classical guitar, I didn't want to take the risk of buying it online.<br /><br />Shopping advice I found for buying a classical guitar can be summed up as: "Check the guitar for mechanical flaws (buzzing strings, odd noises when playing, cracks, etc.), play a few guitars, and then buy whichever guitar sounds the best to you." Oh, and "bring an experienced player with you if you're a novice." Unfortunately, I didn't have any experienced players who were willing to go shopping with me, and the advice to "buy whichever guitar sounds best" meant very little to me at first, as I had no clue what to listen for. So, that advice wasn't terribly helpful.<br /><br />To make a long story short, my SO and I made about a dozen trips to different guitar stores over the past six months, and at each store I played as many classical guitars as I could (often about 5-10 different models at each store, until I started narrowing the field). Playing (and more importantly, listening to) all of these different guitars was excellent experience: by the end of the six months my SO and I had both developed better ears, and we felt confident distinguishing different guitars in my price range.<br /><br />Over this time we figured out a few things that might help someone else shopping for a new guitar:<br /><ol><li>If you're not great at tuning by ear, bring an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_tuner">electronic tuner</a> and use it to tune every guitar you play. Even at specialty stores, we found that most of the guitars were out of tune<sup>4</sup>, and even the best guitars sounded awful out of tune. I felt a bit embarrassed about bringing a tuner at first, but it was well worth it.</li><li>If possible, find specialty guitar stores in your area. We went to one of the <a href="http://www.guitarcenter.com/">chain retailers</a>, and were disappointed by the quality of their classical guitars (the guitars tended to be horribly out of tune, some had very old/damaged strings on them, and a surprisingly high fraction had mechanical problems, something we didn't find nearly as often at specialty stores). The specialty stores also tended to have a better ambiance (they were quieter and calmer, which is important when the entire point of the excursion is to listen to the guitar you're playing).<br /></li><li>Play as wide a range of guitars as you can. Even though I knew I couldn't afford the $4,000 guitars, I still played them, and it was by comparing the sound of $4,000 guitars to $200 guitars that my SO and I started learning what to listen for.</li><li>Bring someone with you who can listen to the guitars as you play, even if that person isn't an experienced guitar player. Even though both my SO and I were novice listeners (and my SO doesn't play the guitar), we found it educational to be able to discuss the sound of the guitars (as together we heard more than either one of us individually).<br /></li></ol>While the shopping was a slow and often frustrating process (models that were in stock one visit were often out of stock the next visit, and the different stores all stocked different models, making comparing our favorites difficult), it was fun to play so many guitars, and this past week I finally settled on one. At the start of the process I'd hoped to spend around $500 for a new guitar, but I ended up spending nearly three times that, as I realized that guitars in that price range just sounded better to me. It's the most expensive chunk of wood I've ever bought, but I love it.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><sup>1</sup> The neck of my new classical guitar is 32.5cm long (from the nut to the joint with the body), while my steel-string's neck is 35.5cm long. </span><span style="font-size:85%;">On a classical guitar the neck joins the body at the twelfth fret, while on my steel-string acoustic the neck joins the body at the fourteenth fret. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><sup>2</sup> The width of the neck at the first fret on my new classical guitar is 53mm, while my steel-string acoustic is 44mm wide at the same point.<br /><sup>3</sup> Acoustic steel strings are like little razor blades: they require a lot of force to push down at the frets, and they're so thin that they jab into your fingertips as you do that. When I first started playing on my steel-string acoustic, I couldn't play for more than 15 minutes a day before my fingers started killing me; after a few weeks I built up calluses, but even so it's still mildly painful to play for more than a few hours a day. Nylon strings make fretting much easier - they're thicker and they're plastic, so they don't cut into the fingers nearly as much.<br /><sup>4</sup> While many guitars were just awfully out of tune (and even a simple relative-tuning check would discover the problem), some guitars were relatively in tune (i.e. the strings were in tune relative to each other) but were way off from standard tuning (e.g., the B string was actually playing B-flat). Thus, just checking the guitar by ear to determine if it's relatively in tune wouldn't be sufficient to compare all the guitars on an even footing. </span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-58534089019574839182008-01-05T21:56:00.000-08:002008-02-19T11:55:03.474-08:00Gai Tom Ka (Thai coconut and galangal soup)Both my SO and I have gotten great New Year's presents: little viral bundles of joy. We don't know who gave them to us, but they've certainly been having great fun in our respiratory systems.<br /><br />So, we've been in the mood for soups, and today my SO cooked up our favorite Thai soup. If you've eaten at Thai restaurants, you'll likely recognize this soup (or something similar). This soup is loaded with strong flavors (galangal, lemongrass, chili peppers, and the traditional Thai fish sauce), and thus should always be served with copious quantities of plain rice (we mix the rice right into the soup as we eat). This soup is the perfect dish for a cold winter day, and since it made for a delicious sick-day breakfast<sup>1</sup>, it's this week's <a href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/recurring/recipe-blogging-topic.html">end-of-the-week recipe blogging</a> post.<br /><br />8 cups chicken stock<br />1/2 cup fish sauce<br />4-inch piece fresh galangal (or ginger), roughly chopped (unpeeled)<br />2 4-inch pieces of lemongrass stalk, washed and chopped into 1/4-1/2-inch long pieces<br />10 kaffir lime leaves, torn into several pieces (optional)<br />4 red jalapeños or other chili peppers, seeded, deveined, and cut into strips<br />2/3 cup lime juice (or lemon juice)<br />1 can (~13.5 fl. oz.) coconut milk<br />1/2 - 1 pound chicken (sliced into ~1/4-inch-thick slices) and/or tofu (cut into 1/4 - 1/2-inch cubes)<br />chopped cilantro (optional; as a garnish)<br />cooked white or brown rice (we'd suggest cooking about 2/3 - 1 cup of dry white or brown rice per large bowlful of soup)<br /><br />0. Prepare plain white or brown rice to serve with the soup. We cook up about 2 cups dry white rice for the two of us when we make this soup for a full meal, and have relatively little rice left over but have about half the soup left over.<br />1. Add the chicken stock and fish sauce to a pot and bring to a simmer.<br />2. If you have cheesecloth available, wrap the galangal (or ginger), lemongrass, and lime leaves in a large piece of it and tie into a bundle (to make removing them from the broth easier).<br />3. Add the galangal (or ginger), lemongrass, and lime leaves to the simmering stock, and cook for 10 minutes.<br />4. If you haven't wrapped the galangal (or ginger), lemongrass, and lime leaves in cheesecloth, strain them out of the broth now.<br />5. Add the lime (or lemon) juice and jalapeños, and continue simmering for another 10 minutes.<br />6. If you used cheesecloth (in step 2), remove the cheesecloth bundle now. Add the coconut milk and chicken and/or tofu, and simmer until the chicken is cooked and/or the tofu is heated through (~3 minutes).<br />7. Serve along with plain white or brown steamed rice, garnished with chopped cilantro (if desired).<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />Obtaining the ingredients for this dish requires finding a market that stocks Asian ingredients. In our area, fish sauce and coconut milk can be found in the Asian section of most supermarkets, but items like fresh lemongrass, galangal, and lime leaves are found only in specialty Asian markets that stock Thai ingredients (look in the produce section).<br /><br />Don't despair if you can't find fresh galangal or lime leaves; we've made the soup many times using just fresh ginger in place of the galangal and omitting the lime leaves, and it's been fine. While galangal and ginger don't taste identical, they're fairly similar. Galangal, ginger, and lime leaves store fine for months in the freezer (ginger and galangal don't even have to be wrapped to freeze). However, we would advise against using dried ginger or galangal, as the drying process dramatically changes their flavors. We don't know how using dried lemongrass would affect the soup, as we always use fresh (see below). We've never served the soup with the cilantro garnish, but it is traditional.<br /><br />If you live in the Southern California area and know that you like Thai food, you might consider growing your own lemongrass, as it does well here. We planted a tiny plant a few years ago, and besides rare waterings it's just about taken care of itself (while growing into a nice-smelling, rather attractive 5-foot wide plant). Note that lemongrass leaves are very sharp along the edges, so wear gloves while harvesting.<br /><br />We based this recipe on one in Bhumichitr (1988).<br /><br />Bhumichitr, Vatcharin, 1988. The Taste of Thailand. MacMillan, NY.<br /><br /><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size:85%;">And, since the soup was so strongly flavored, we could actually taste it with our cold-impaired senses!</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-69658639672637816142007-12-27T23:11:00.000-08:002007-12-27T23:53:21.891-08:00A nearly vegetarian Christmas dinner<center><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/2142709933/" title="Christmas dinner by Radagast, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2406/2142709933_b932ed5038_m.jpg" alt="Christmas dinner" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Follow <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/radagast/2142709933/">the link</a> to see a labeled version of this image.</span></center><br />My SO and I <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/12/christmas-2006-menu.html">regularly</a> <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/11/happy-thanksgiving.html">cook</a> <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/12/tasty-weekend-ahead.html">big</a> <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/11/another-home-cooked-thanksgiving.html">holiday</a> <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2004/12/christmas-menu.html">meals</a>. As is traditional, these have typically featured a central meat course surrounded by a number of vegetable-based sides. Upon pondering what we wanted to cook for this year's Christmas dinner we realized, however, that when it came right down to it the central meat course wasn't really all that central. So, this year my SO and I decided to try a Christmas dinner without the central meat course. Here was our menu:<br /><ul><li>Cream of roasted cauliflower soup</li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/10/butternut-squash-soup.html">Butternut squash soup</a></li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2004/11/cran-raspberry-pineapple-gelatin.html">Cran-raspberry-pineapple gelatin conglomeration</a></li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/08/creamy-brussels-sprout-gratin.html">Creamy Brussels sprout gratin</a> </li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/02/buttermilk-mashed-potatoes.html">Buttermilk mashed potatoes</a> </li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2006/04/collard-greens-with-bacon-and-onions.html"> Collard greens with bacon and onions</a></li><li><a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2005/12/baked-sweet-potatoes-with-marshmallows.html">Baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar</a></li></ul>While the relatives we've described this to have been surprised by the lack of meat ("Not even a tofurkey?"), we hardly even noticed it. Our plates and bowls were full of diverse flavors and textures, and we were so stuffed by the time the sweet potatoes finally came out of the oven that neither of us even had any that night.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-20412910753223439542007-12-22T14:45:00.000-08:002007-12-28T17:05:36.822-08:00Homemade grainy mustardEvery year my SO and I send out homemade holiday presents to our families. Our two most requested presents are our fruitcake and our mustard, and since we've made these recipes for nearly 10 years now, we figure it's time to share. I'll be posting the mustard today, followed followed by the fruitcake recipe in a few weeks (once we've had time to experiment some with the recipe).<br /><br />Our mustard is made from whole yellow and brown mustard seeds that have been only partially crushed, and thus you get treated to little bursts of mustard flavor as you eat. The flavor is different from store-bought mustards: our mustard is sharper than most, doesn't taste as much of vinegar or turmeric, and has a hint of onions thanks to shallots. We have reports from family members that even though they've tried, they can't find anything like this in stores. Since we just got finished making our annual batch of mustard a few days ago<sup>1</sup>, it's this week's <a href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/recurring/recipe-blogging-topic.html">end-of-the-week recipe blogging</a> post.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note that this recipe requires a few days to soak the mustard seeds before making, and tastes best if left to mellow for a week or two before eating, so plan accordingly. </span><br /><br />1/2 cup dry yellow mustard seeds<br />1/2 cup dry brown mustard seeds<br />1 cup rice vinegar<br />1 shallot, finely chopped<br />1 tablespoon kosher salt<br /><br />1. Put the brown and yellow mustard seeds into separate containers and add approximately 3/8 cup (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) of rice vinegar to each container. Cover each container tightly and let sit at room temperature for at least 2 days, stirring occasionally. If the mustard seeds end up looking dry during the soaking period, add a bit more vinegar to moisten.<br />2. Grind each type of mustard seed until many of the seeds have broken open (the seeds should start clumping together, and you'll start to see little bits of seeds in addition to whole seeds). For an artisanal feel, you can do this by hand with a mortar and pestle; it's a lot of hard work, and is guaranteed to make your grinding arm sore. For the lazy cook's mustard, put the seeds into a food processor and process with long pulses. It's best to grind the two types of seeds separately, as the yellow and brown mustard seeds grind at different rates.<br />3. Mix the mustard seeds, salt, shallot, and remaining vinegar (~1/4 cup) in a bowl. Add extra vinegar to bring the mustard to a nice paste-like consistency (it may take an extra tablespoon or so).<br />4. Transfer to jars and store in the fridge.<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />Don't use aluminum cookware with this recipe, as it may react with the vinegar.<br /><br />There's no need to use exactly 1/2 cup of each type of mustard seed; as long as you have a total of one cup of seeds you should be fine. The yellow seeds are milder than the brown seeds, so variations in proportions will change the sharpness of the final product.<br /><br />We store the mustard in sealed jars in the fridge, though it may not require refrigeration (and we regularly ship it cross country without issue). The mustard keeps for a long time; we've kept jars in the fridge for more than a year and it still tastes great.<br /><br />The recipe above makes a bit less than 2 cups of finished mustard. We typically make at least five times that amount (2 1/2 cups of each type of seed, ~2 cups of vinegar to soak each type of seed initially, 5 tablespoons kosher salt, 5 shallots, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups vinegar for mixing at the end), and as long as you're using a food processor for grinding you won't go crazy. In the past we've always hand-ground small batches of mustard; we only recently started using a food processor due to making large batches, and thus we're not sure how well a food processor will work with a small batch of mustard.<br /><br />This recipe is based on one in Walden (1995), a book which wins the Radagast and SO award for best food photography.<br /><br />Reference:<br /><br />Walden, H. 1995. Sensational Preserves: 250 recipes for jams, jellies, chutneys, and sauces. Reader's Digest, NY.<br /><br /><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size:85%;">And yes, this means that if you're a family member waiting for your holiday mustard shipment, your mustard is indeed in the mail.</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-48208137812447696602007-12-18T22:50:00.000-08:002007-12-18T22:53:56.980-08:00It is done.I'm pleased to report that the semester is finally over. I finished my grades last night, and this afternoon I finished off all the fiddly end-of-semester work that I'd been putting off. My e-mail has an away message, my voice mail won't be checked for weeks, and I have nothing I need to do for work until January. Ahhhhhh.<br /><br />How did I celebrate? By coming home and taking a nap.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-88504875907960125982007-12-14T22:23:00.000-08:002007-12-14T22:38:32.676-08:00Stay on target ...The end of the semester has proven to be insanely busy. Even though many instructors at my college have already turned in their grades, I still have dozens of papers to grade and haven't even given my last final exam yet. This is even though my SO has been querying me for my name when I arrive home, thanks to me working solid 10 or 12 hour days for at least the last two weeks (including weekends). <br /><br />Making things even more "fun" is that I've had the "pleasure" of turning in more than a dozen different students for plagiarizing this semester, most of them in the past week and a half. I've even set a new personal record for the greatest fraction of plagiarizers in a course: 50% of the completing class. <br /><br />More to come once grades are in.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-43007314297494050012007-11-22T13:31:00.000-08:002007-11-22T13:59:59.535-08:00Happy Thanksgiving!Yes, I am indeed still alive. My <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/10/busy-yet-not-stressed.html">prior post</a> on the topic of why I haven't been posting still applies: my new online course is keeping me insanely busy, and whatever spare time I have is being spent either sleeping, playing the guitar, or shopping for a new classical guitar. The only change I'd make to my prior post is to eliminate the "not stressed" part: I've fallen weeks behind on grading large assignments, and have barely been getting my online course's units created on time.<br /><br />The online course is still going well; I'm learning a lot, and I think the students are learning at least a little something. Right now my completion rate looks like it's going to be around 2/3 of the initially enrolled students, which I consider to be pretty good for my first try (we've reportedly had online courses with completion rates of <25% at my campus). I'm already looking forward to teaching the course again in the spring. I'm also looking forward to winter break, when I'll have time to start writing more here.<br /><br />I hope you have a relaxing, food-filled Thanksgiving!Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-69183201314617419542007-10-28T19:44:00.000-07:002007-12-05T20:29:12.399-08:00Butternut squash soupA few months ago my SO and I bought some butternut squash soup at Trader Joe's. We were impressed by the soup's smoothness and squashy flavor, and thus decided to try making a squash soup on our own. We just did that today, and the results were fantastic: the soup was thick and smooth, and filled with the flavors of sweet squash, spicy ginger, and savory onions. We roasted the squash's seeds along with the squash itself, and they made a great topping for the soup (they added concentrated bits of roasty flavor). This soup also has the benefit of being insanely healthy. Since we enjoyed this so much, it's this week's <a href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/recurring/recipe-blogging-topic.html">end-of-the-week recipe blogging</a> post.<br /><br />3 to 3 1/2 lb. butternut squash, whole<br />Enough vegetable oil to lightly coat the squash seeds and a roasting pan<br />3 tablespoons butter, unsalted<br />1 medium onion, chopped<br />2 scallions, chopped<br />4 teaspoons minced fresh ginger<br />6 cups chicken or vegetable stock<br />1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (plus extra for salting the squash seeds, if desired)<br /><br />To make this recipe you need to first roast the squash, and then let it cool before making the soup.<br /><br />Roasting the squash:<br />0. Preheat your oven to 400F.<br />1. Wash the squash and cut it in half lengthwise. Be careful while doing this, as winter squash skin can be extremely tough.<br />2. Using a spoon, scoop out the squash seeds (and the tissue holding them into the squash) and put them into a bowl.<br />3. Coat a baking pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil, place the squash cut-side down on this pan, and then bake at 400F until the squash is done (one hour or so; the skin should be browned and the flesh should be soft and easily pierced).<br /><br />Roasting the squash seeds (optional):<br />1. Separate the squash seeds from the squash flesh; this is probably most easily done with your hands. After you've separated the seeds, put them into a bowl or strainer and wash until most of the squash goo is gone.<br />2. Mix the squash seeds with enough vegetable oil to coat, and put into a pan that's large enough to hold the seeds in a single layer.<br />3. Bake in a preheated 400F oven until lightly browned, approximately 5-10 minutes. We baked these along with the squash, though if your oven is too small for that, it would be fine to roast them after the squash is roasted.<br />4. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with salt, and stir.<br /><br />Making the soup:<br />1. Once the squash has cooled, scoop the flesh of the squash out of the skin; set the flesh aside until needed.<br />2. Heat the butter in a large non-stick pot over medium-high heat.<br />3. Once the butter has melted, add the onions, scallions, and ginger, and cook until the onions are softened and just starting to brown (about 5-10 minutes).<br />4. Add the roasted squash flesh and four cups of the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.<br />5. Add the salt and the remaining two cups of chicken stock and puree the soup until smooth. We did this using an immersion blender, but a standard blender should work fine. If your blender is volume limited, you might want to blend the soup before adding the final two cups of chicken stock.<br />6. Serve the soup (heating it on the stove if necessary to bring it to your preferred temperature). Garnish with the roasted squash seeds, if desired.<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />Radagast's SO enjoyed the soup with a sploosh of cream stirred into a bowlful, but Radagast preferred the soup without the cream. The cream made the soup creamier (who'd have guessed?), and seemed to mellow the flavor some.<br /><br />The squash seeds make a tasty snack all on their own, so even if you don't think you'll like them in the soup, you may want to try roasting them anyway.<br /><br />This recipe is modified from one Joy of Cooking (Rombauer et al. 1997). The original recipe used two leeks instead of the onions and scallions; we didn't have leeks on hand.<br /><br />Rombauer, I. S., M. R. Becker, and E. Becker. 1997. Joy of Cooking. Scribner, NY.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-13895072306363920632007-10-14T14:30:00.000-07:002007-10-14T14:32:01.860-07:00Busy, yet not stressedAs regular readers can probably guess by my posting frequency, I've been busy lately. As I predicted at the <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/09/another-semester-begins.html">start of the semester</a>, my new online course has been consuming any time it can get its hands on: I'm easily spending at least 15-20 hours each week developing the content for it, and at least as much time in the course interacting with the students and grading their work. Add that to my regular in-person lecture and lab classes, and I'm one busy grasshopper.<br /><br />I'm enjoying the new course tremendously, and even though I've been extremely busy, I haven't been overly stressed. The course is thankfully small, which means that I have enough time to get to know the students, and I can assign regular written assignments and give the students copious feedback on those. Creating material for the new course is a ton of fun; writing the material is much like blogging (all I'm doing is writing general summaries of basic biological content for a non-scientist audience), and finding artwork has been an enjoyable challenge (I'm attempting to build the course entirely from open-licensed artwork). I'm already looking forward to having time in future semesters to revise what I've created.<br /><br />The biggest complaint I've gotten from students so far is that the course is too much work and that the exams are too hard. Since this is likely one of the first college-level science courses these students have taken, and these students have surely been exposed to the "online courses are easy" myth, this isn't surprising. It's hard to explain nicely that yes, this course is in fact challenging, and that no, I'm not going to make the tests easier.<br /><br />Outside of work I'm not doing a whole lot other than taking another guitar class<sup>1</sup>. This class requires far less time than my summer course (thankfully), but it's been an enjoyable distraction, and has helped motivate me to keep playing. It's hard to believe that <a href="http://rhosgobel.blogspot.com/2007/05/tale-of-two-music-stores.html">six months ago</a> I didn't even have a guitar, but now I can (slowly) play a growing number of tunes (the most complex of which are probably Dust in the Wind and <a href="http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_inside.html?item=3598495&cart=34013686104361847&page=01">Vals</a> by Calatuyud).<br /><br /><sup>1</sup> <span style="font-size:85%;">And attending a super-cool Genesis concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was such a good concert that I didn't mind getting rained on for half of the concert, that they ended the concert a few songs early due to the rain (though I sorely missed hearing Carpet Crawlers), or that we got stuck in (non-concert) traffic on the freeway at 1:30am.</span>Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-23536630317551427092007-09-30T15:15:00.000-07:002007-09-30T14:46:30.685-07:00Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's Brazil concertA few weeks ago my SO and I attended the <a href="http://www.lagq.com/">Los Angeles Guitar Quartet</a>'s CD release party concert for their newest album: <a href="http://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title.asp?gsku=0686">LAGQ Brazil</a>. LAGQ is a four-man classical guitar quartet that's been around for more than 20 years, but which I just learned about this summer thanks to one of my guitar instructors. <br /><br />The majority of the concert consisted of the quartet sitting in chairs playing their classical guitars. There was very little showmanship, but they didn't need any; we managed to get front-row seats, and I spent the entire two hours mesmerized by their playing. The group played a range of pieces including Bach's Bandenburg Concerto #6, the Overture to the Barber of Seville, Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo, and a number of tracks from their Brazil album (including Jorge Ben's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mas_que_nada">Mas Que Nada</a>). I'm no expert in classical guitar, but I was amazed by the guitarists' skill: their hands flew over the strings, and the fluidity, speed, and apparent effortlessness of their movements were awe-inspiring. I've started listening to a lot of solo classical guitar music in the past few months, and the complexity of the quartet's music was a refreshing contrast.<br /><br />The quartet ended the concert by playing four songs with Katisse Buckingham and Kevin Ricard, the woodwindist and percussionist they recorded with on their CD. These two musicians made for a great end to the concert, though sadly the group implied that they wouldn't be touring with them. <br /><br />LAGQ isn't going to be traveling to many cities on their tour (see their schedule <a href="http://www.lagq.com/tour.php">here</a>), but if you're lucky enough to be in one of the cities they're going to, and are at all interested in classical guitar, I'd highly recommend attending.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6305030.post-67181092599392889152007-09-30T14:44:00.000-07:002007-09-30T14:29:09.099-07:00Radagast and SO's Summer Bounty Super-Hot Hot SauceMy SO and I decided to diversify our pepper planting this summer by growing some Jamaican Hot Chocolate peppers, in addition to the jalapeños that we usually grow. Jamaican Hot Chocolates are very pretty (they ripen to a nice chocolate brown), but as they're a close relative of habaneros, they're <span style="font-weight: bold;">extremely</span> hot: they score about 100,000 to 200,000 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville">scoville units</a>, whereas jalapeños score around 2,000 to 10,000 scoville units. A friend of ours grew the same peppers, and reported that touching his eye after cutting one pepper in half resulted in hours of searing pain.<br /><br />We, quite honestly, didn't know what to do with the peppers. So, they piled up on our counter; eventually we decided that we had to do something with them, and thus we created "Radagast and SO's Summer Bounty Super-Hot Hot Sauce." We took inspiration from a few <a href="http://www.cheese-burger.net/recipes/habanero-hot-sauce-recipe.html">hot</a> <a href="http://www.grouprecipes.com/sr/31320/garrys-habanero-hot-sauce/recipe/">sauce</a> <a href="http://www.grouprecipes.com/2090/diablo-blazing-sauce.html">recipes</a> we found online.<br /><br />We've never used hot sauces regularly before, but we both love this hot sauce. While it's packed with heat (a tiny dab on a spoonful of rice is enough to make our mouths burn), it has a rich smoky flavor that goes well with many dishes, and it doesn't have the strong vinegar flavor that some hot sauces do. So far we've added it to tuna melts, mac and cheese, roasted asparagus, tomato soup, tomato pasta sauce, and had it on chips, and it's been great in everything (note: we're adding tiny amounts to each of these; often less than 1/8 of a teaspoon to a full serving). We can't wait to add it to a pot of chili.<br /><br />Since we never thought we'd be adding hot sauce to our recipes, this is this week's <a href="http://ossiriand.net/rhosgobel/recurring/recipe-blogging-topic.html">end-of-the-week recipe blogging</a> post.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">CAUTION: See safety instructions before working with the peppers.</span><br /><br />20 Jamaican Hot Chocolate peppers, seeded, deveined, and quartered (habaneros would probably be a fine substitution)<br />18 red jalapeños, seeded, deveined, and quartered<br />1 pound whole tomatoes, peeled and seeded<br />1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, in juice<br />~20 garlic cloves, minced or pressed with a garlic press<br />2 1/4 cups white vinegar<br />1 cup brown sugar<br />1/2 cup dry mustard powder<br />4 tablespoons paprika (we used a mix of smoked Spanish and regular)<br />3 tablespoons kosher salt<br />2 tablespoons ground black pepper<br />2 tablespoons cumin<br />1 teaspoon ground coriander<br />1 teaspoon ground cumin<br />1 teaspoon ground allspice<br /><br />0. Get out all kitchen implements that you may require during cooking before handling any of the peppers. Prepare a vegetable oil rinse station (see below), have plates or other washable spoon rests ready near all work areas, put on your gloves and goggles, and have paper towels at the ready so you can hold non-washable items without getting capsaicin all over them.<br />1. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. This may require multiple batches of blending. Ensure that the top of the blender is firmly attached (and any holes are sealed) to prevent sauce from being flung around the room.<br />2. Carefully transfer the blended ingredients to a pot that is large enough to have absolutely no risk of the sauce boiling over.<br />3. Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, and simmer for 20 minutes on the lowest possible heat that will maintain the simmer. Be extremely careful not to bring the sauce to a full boil, as that will drastically increase the risk that sauce gets splattered all over you and your kitchen.<br />4. Carefully decant the sauce into prepared jars (see notes).<br />5. Thoroughly wash anything that you touched after handling the peppers before removing your gloves; we recommend running items through a dishwasher multiple times.<br />6. Remove your gloves and throughly wash your hands with vegetable oil, followed by soap and water.<br /><br />Safety instructions:<br /><br />The compound in peppers that causes the "heat" is capsaicin. Capsaicin is lipophilic, which means that it can diffuse straight through your skin and cause pain wherever you come into contact with it (hands, face, eyes, genitals, etc.). Capsaicin does not wash off completely with regular soap and water, and thus I would <span style="font-style: italic;">never</span> recommend handing cut Jamaican Hot Chocolates or habaneros with anything but gloved hands (we used latex gloves). In addition, I'd strongly recommend wearing goggles, a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and socks when making this hot sauce. It wouldn't be going overboard to consider a face-shield and a respirator; at the very least make sure your work area is extremely well ventilated, as even the fumes are strong.<br /><br />Probably the best method to get capsaicin off of your skin is to scrub with pure vegetable oil. If you do accidentally get capsaicin on your skin (you'll know if you do), immediately wash the affected area with vegetable oil, followed by soap and water (note, however, that this will not remove all the capsaicin, and there will likely be nothing you can do to stop the pain).<br /><br />Make absolutely sure that all utensils, pots, and other items you touch with capsaicin-tainted hands are washed thoroughly before handling them bare-handed. Even after wearing gloves to cook the entire dish, we wash our hands with vegetable oil first, followed by soap, and try to refrain from touching sensitive parts of our bodies for the rest of the day.<br /><br />Notes:<br /><br />Peppers can vary widely in the amount of capsaicin they contain. We would thus suggest that you assume that you're using the hottest peppers ever grown, and taste only the tiniest dab of your final hot sauce before trying it in larger quantities. We find that, with our peppers, a dab the size of half a rice grain is plenty to flavor an entire chip (though note that we're relative wimps when it comes to spice).<br /><br />This recipe makes more than six cups of hot sauce. To store the sauce, we suggest canning it. While we'll leave it up to other sources to provide full canning protocols, what we do is boil clean jars, their lids, and any implements we'll need to handle the jars and put sauce into them (including tongs and a funnel) for 10 minutes in a covered pot, then turn off the heat and leave the pot covered until we're ready to use the jars. When we're ready to decant the sauce we remove the jars from the pot with tongs, ladle the piping-hot hot sauce into the jars and immediately seal them with lids. We let the jars cool at room temperature before labeling them and moving them to the fridge.<br /><br />And, as a final note, we have no idea how important the various spices are to the final flavor. Given the small quantities of sauce required to flavor items, we're probably approaching homeopathic dilutions for some of the spices; thus, it's likely that at least some of the spices could probably be left out without affecting the flavor.Radagasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419540565463343922noreply@blogger.com1