How To Do What You Love

January 24th, 2006 by owenam

Never visited Paul Graham’s site before, but no one with such a nice picture on their web site could be bad, could they? Regardless, I appreciated his thoughts on doing what you love:

… most people pre-emptively lower their expectations. For example, if you asked random people on the street if they’d like to be able to draw like Leonardo, you’d find most would say something like “Oh, I can’t draw.” This is more a statement of intention than fact; it means, I’m not going to try. Because the fact is, if you took a random person off the street and somehow got them to work as hard as they possibly could at drawing for the next twenty years, they’d get surprisingly far. But it would require a great moral effort; it would mean staring failure in the eye every day for years.

(My emphasis.)

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Pasta Salad!

January 23rd, 2006 by owenam

Something I’ve been meaning to make for a long time: pasta salad. While reading the newspaper at work I came across a recipe that looked tasty, so I wrote down the basics, stuck it in my pocket, and forgot about it.

A few days later, I deciphered my scribblings into this:

Roasted Pasta Salad

  • 2 medium heads broccoli
  • 2 large red bell peppers
  • ~20 kalamata olives, pitted & quartered
  • 1 lb penne pasta
  • 2-3 Tbs olive oil
  • salt & pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Cut broccoli florets into bite-size pieces. Don’t discard the stalks. Peel the stalks enough to remove the tough outer part, then chop what’s left into bite-size pieces.
  3. Cut peppers into sticks.
  4. Combine broccoli & peppers in a casserole dish (or two, to brown them more) and toss with olive oil to coat. Season with salt & pepper.
  5. Roast the broccoli & peppers in the oven until the peppers start to wrinkle and broccoli tops begin to brown, roughly 30 minutes.
  6. While vegetables are roasting, cook the pasta, drain it, and rinse under cold water until cool.
  7. When vegetables are done, remove from oven, let them cool a bit, and then toss with pasta. Add olives, dressing & serve. Makes 8-10 servings.

 

Roasted Garlic Dressing

  • ~10 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp + 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Peel garlic and cut off tough rooty part at end.
  3. Slice each clove in half lengthwise and remove green shoot from the center of both halves.
  4. Place garlic in a small baking dish and toss with 1 tsp olive oil to coat.
  5. Roast garlic in oven until very soft.
  6. Transfer garlic to small bowl and mash to make a paste. Add a small amount of lemon juice and whisk until combined.
  7. Add remaining ingredients slowly, whisking constantly.
  8. Makes about enough for 1 lb pasta salad.

Posted in Food | 2 Comments »

Zork, meet Bush. Bush, Zork.

January 18th, 2006 by owenam

Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure

Someone out there is very clever. Favorites:





  
PET SEAL
  It's not that kind of seal.

and





  
SAY "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"
  "Mission accomplished."

  
  
EXAMINE MISSION
  The mission is not accomplished.

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

True That

January 12th, 2006 by owenam

Bob: “Did you have to re-IP the system when you moved it from your test network?”

Customer: “Yes…”

Bob: “Good! I know exactly what you broke.”

Posted in General, Work | 1 Comment »

The Infamous Sandwich From Hamburg

January 9th, 2006 by owenam

Friday’s Spurs-Timberwolves game was made all the better by lots of beer (not mine), some fantastic homemade brownies (not mine), and some tasty hamburgers (mine). The burgers went something like this (everything but the beef & egg is approximate):

Spurs Burgers (Spurgers?)

  • 3.5 lbs ground beef (a mixture of chuck & round, I think)
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 C oatmeal
  • 1 T + many pinches kosher salt
  • 1/2 T black pepper
  • 1 T Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 1/2 C grated Edam cheese
Obviously, combine everything (except the many pinches of salt) and mix. Form into patties, tucking a pinch of grated cheese into each one. Lightly salt each side. Grill (I used my trusty George Foreman).

I think what ended up making these so good was the salt — I usually don’t add salt straight to the meat. That got me thinking about adding various salty things as seasoning to hamburger meat, and the most immediately intriguing that I came up with was miso. I’m curious to see how well the miso flavor comes out through the beef & salt, and how the miso changes the texture. Definitely on the to-cook list.

EDIT: John remembered some cheese in these burgers, and of course he’s right. I’ve updated the recipe accordingly.

Posted in Food | 2 Comments »

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