Tuesday, April 17th, 2001
If you’re looking for low-fat dessert alternatives, look somewhere else… these recipes are loaded with white sugar and butter, and will have you on a list for bypass surgery if you eat them too often. But for those special occasions when awesome cookies are called for, this book will take you where you want to go. (Ironically, the book offers a half-dozen “reduced fat” cookie recipes, although I haven’t tried any of them. Due to my white-chip-orange blindness, I can’t seem to get past page 46.)
The book is hardback, and is nicely laid out with clear text, easily followed recipes, handy baking tips, and large photographs.
Patronize these links, man:
posted to area: Cookbooks
updated: 2004-03-19 19:26:35
(Subtitle: Simple Breads from the Italian Oven)
If you like flatbreads, this book will sing to your soul. Carol Field offers 4 basic dough recipes and over 50 ideas for savory toppings, sweet toppings, rolled, layered and filled focaccias and schiacciatas, and the possible combinations are endless.
Many of the recipes are written with a straight-style dough in mind, so they can be prepared and eaten on the same day. However, as most professional bakers would, Field recommends halving the yeast and relying on an overnight retard in the cooler to bring out the full flavor of the wheat in the dough. A short section on dough technique at the beginning of the book explains the process clearly; even beginning bakers can take immediate advantage of these recipes.
The book is intelligently designed, with flaps on front and back covers for marking pages, and printed on heavy coated stock to withstand repeated dustings with flour or an occasional spill. And it is filled with colorful photographs from Joyce Oudkerk Pool, depicting about one-third of the focaccias.
The recipes I’ve tried so far have all been amazing. I recommend this book to all breadbakers and pizza makers. You won’t be disppointed.
My favorite recipe, thus far: Schiacciata with potatoes and rosemary (p. 68) — surprisingly appealing, given its starch-on-starch nature.
Patronize these links, man:
posted to area: Cookbooks
updated: 2004-04-29 17:56:40
So, PG&E is bankrupt, rolling blackouts are imminent, and energy rates are rising faster than Gray Davis’ bile. What’s a technology junkie to do?
I’ve been researching residential solar power systems. California pays a sizeable subsidy — $3 per generated watt, it turns out, or 50% of the cost of the entire system, whichever is less. Which raises the question: exactly how much would a residential solar system cost?
The first step toward an estimate is to size the demand. Dig out the last year’s worth of electricity bills and add up the monthly Kwh figures. Divide by 12 to find your average monthly usage (and cringe, if you tend to leave lights on or use an electric oven).
I found cost estimates in two places: Six Rivers Solar and SolarDepot.com, with additional figures from Occidenal Power. The concensus is that every kilowatt of generation capacity costs ~$10,000, post-subsidy, and provides ~150 Kwh per month.
Electricity in California, pre-bankruptcy, cost about 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, so over a 20-year period, a 2 kilowatt system would save me (20 yrs * 12 mos/yr * 300 KWh/month * $0.11) about $8000. Given an installation cost of ~$20000 that seems like a very bad investment. Even with a 100% rate increase from PG&E, a $20k PV solar investment would take 25 years to pay off. Can that be right?
I hope these calculations are incorrect… I’d love to take advantage of the state subsidy, and stop relying on PG&E’s shoddy service. But if these figures are accurate, I don’t have any choice but to wait for photovoltaic prices to drop significantly.
The California Energy Commission has a nice site on their subsidy, called the Emerging Renewables Buy-Down Program, but it would benefit from a simple worksheet to assist with system sizing and cost estimating.
In the meantime, I guess all I can do is conserve.
Update: The above numbers are incorrect; the costs are lower, and the rebates greater than described here. For example, as of 2004-2006, a 2.5kW PV system costs $15-$18k and takes 12-14 years to pay itself off. We have since purchased a solar power system.
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posted to channel: Solar Blog
updated: 2006-02-25 17:32:48
Monday, April 16th, 2001
This is an interesting article on how authorities caught Abraham Abdallah, who is accused of forging the identities of, and stealing millions of dollars from, a long list of celebrities including Spielberg, Lucas, Winfrey, Perot, Soros, Icahn, Ellison, Geffen, and more. The crime relied on technologies that didn’t exist a few years ago, such as virtual voice mail and free web-based email, and yet the police relied on old-world techniques (staking out PO boxes, impersonating couriers) to finally make an arrest. Thanks to Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram for the link.
I bet this story ends up on the big screen before too long.
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posted to channel: Web
updated: 2004-02-22 22:49:16
Friday, April 13th, 2001
Our free journal / weblog / diary software system, Monaural Jerk, has a new home: http://monauraljerk.org
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posted to channel: Colophon
updated: 2004-02-22 22:49:16
