malvasia bianca

I frequently lament the lack of crepe stands in Downtown Mountain View, so I was pleased that a restaurant called “Crepevine” was setting up shop; when I noticed it had opened its doors today, I figured I’d go in and buy a crepe to eat on my way home. The restaurant looked pleasant enough once […]

My favorite cookie recipe (and my favorite cookie dough recipe!). Invented by Liesl’s friend Elizabeth Winchell. Betsy Cookies 2 sticks butter 1 c. white sugar 3/4 c. brown sugar 2 eggs 2-3 Tbsp. vanilla 2 c. flour 1/4 c. cocoa 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 Tbsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1 package chocolate chips Cream […]

A few years ago, I was spurred by the book Good Calories, Bad Calories to worry less about fat and to cut down on some of my carb excesses. And, in general, I was happy enough with the results, but it hadn’t had a huge impact on my life after the first year or so. […]

It’s been a while since I’ve done a recipe post here; but this is a recipe Miranda came up with a few months ago, we’ve made it several times since then, and it’s really quite good. (Not good as in “good for a recipe my daughter came up with” but good as in “better than […]

I’m at the Games, Learning, and Society conference for the rest of the week; here are my notes on today’s events. I started the day by finally getting to meet Roger Travis in person! I’ve been hearing his disembodied voice weekly for ages now at the VGHVI gaming sessions that I feel like I know […]

Watch this illusion: Why can’t we make another Shadow of the Colossus? Super Mario World camera behavior. (Via @danbruno.) An Apple //e really does make a good iPad stand. Jupiter loses a stripe. (Via @stephentotilo.) Ruby Ramen? (Make sure to look at the different product pictures.) (Via @yukihiro_matz.) I’m not exactly happy to learn that […]

This is one of Miranda’s favorites, and a couple of her classmates have started coveting her leftovers; at the request of one of those classmates’ mothers, here it is. (It’s really easy, too!) From the excellent Elephant Walk Cookbook. The original recipe says that boneless sirloin is also acceptable, but I prefer flank. If you […]

This year’s Thanksgiving dessert was the Bittersweet Deception cake from Bittersweet. Its texture is actually almost more of a mousse than anything else; very good. It looks a bit long, but it’s actually quite easy to make. (You will want to prepare it the previous day, however.) We used 70% chocolate for it, which worked […]

I can hardly turn down a direct request for a recipe, so: Liesl’s grandmother’s brownies. If you like this, I have several other dessert recipes that are worth trying. (Or ask me for Betsy cookies, or for our standard chocolate cake recipe.) Make sure not to stint on the beating time, it’s important. (Just be […]

A while back, I mentioned that the book Good Calories, Bad Calories had gotten me curious about low-carb diets; here’s an update. On the reading front, I figured I’d take a look at the Atkins book, since he has the most experience with diets of this sort. And, frankly, I wasn’t too impressed: if I’d […]

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe, hasn’t it? Anyways, if you’re looking for a chocolate frosting, you could do a lot worse than this one: one of Liesl’s coworkers used it on a delightful cake last year, we just got the recipe from her (thanks, Amanda!), and tried it out tonight, and […]

I spent the day at this month’s Bay Area Go Players Association tournament. It was my first tournament in recent memory playing as a 1 dan; I had a record of 1 win and 3 losses and got the impression that 1 dan is a more accurate rating for me than 1 kyu, but that […]

I read Good Calories, Bad Calories about a month ago, and it’s thrown me for a bit of a loop. I’ve had reasonably high cholesterol for a while, and one of my grandfathers died from a heart attack at a younger age than I’d prefer to die, so I’ve been vaguely curious about the subject […]

As I have, perhaps, alluded to previously, we spent the second half of April in Paris. Notes: It’s the most wonderful place in the world, but I’m actually not feeling particularly compelled to visit it again any time soon. Some of this has to do with the fact that I’ve been there eight times; some […]

Xanh (warning: web site has completely gratuitous Flash usage), our local excellent upscale Vietnamese restaurant, just moved into larger digs; glad they’re doing well. The new digs are a bit hip for me, and in particular the room that pairs interesting artwork with green ceiling lights (washing out all the colors in the artwork; I […]

As my coworkers can attest, I am a big fan of Trader Joe’s cocoa-covered almonds. So, on a recent trip to the store, I decided to branch out into their other chocolate/almond combinations, and bought a package of chocolate-almond clusters and a package of almonds covered with chocolate, sugar, and salt. The former were quite […]

For future reference: gummi bears are not an acceptable substitute for gum drops when baking. They have a significantly lower melting point.

Some random notes from our recent trip to Boston and its environs: T tokens are no more. Which made me a little sad, but I was very happy that, when arriving Tuesday evening for a trip where we’d be leaving the next Tuesday morning and would spend three days outside of Boston, there was a […]

It’s been more than a year since I posted a recipe: it’s not clear that anybody is interested in them, and while that doesn’t stop me most of the time, it seems particularly pointless in the case of recipes. Still, every once in a while, somebody comes over for dinner and wants the recipe for […]

I didn’t realize it was possible to beatbox while playing the flute. Gyoza stadium sounds awesome. Star Wars in ASCII. I spent a pleasant hour last weekend watching Ben and Fitz’s poisonous people talk. (And then caught myself exhibiting one of those symptoms on a mailing list last week. Sigh…) I suppose you’ve already seen […]