The guys over at Gizmodo say this is a demonstration of the principle that lets cameras stabilize images and keeps missile guidance systems going. Hmm. . .

I think I’ll just see about this for myself…

via Gizmodo

We went to the city today for a meal at Yank Sing. The very first dish we were offered was a basket of soup dumplings, aka juicy buns aka xiao long bao aka Shanghai dumplings. These were as good as I’ve ever had, the skin only just strong enough to contain the soup and dumpling inside.

A lot more dim sum goodness followed. The last dish was a great execution of don tat (egg custard tart). Look at that flaky flaky pastry!

In the early 80’s a boyfriend gave me a copy of Gourmet. I’ve been reading it ever since(okay, at least looking at the pictures). Tom despairs of the slippery stacks of decades of it that populate our house.

A dependable highlight is the annual collection of cookie recipes in the December issue. Now, the website has a collection of “the very best cookie of each year”.  I am definitely going to try some of the 1940’s selections…Cajun Macaroons anyone?.

Gourmet’s Favorite Cookies

If you’re still reveling in last Tuesday’s victory (and really, who isn’t?) here’s a neat page compiling newspaper front pages from around the world. Each little image is clickable to show a large version (Firefox users be sure to click the image again to get the full resolution).

Obama newspaper headlines

[via Boing Boing]

Some things are best experienced in their analog, physical versions, rather than digitally: a hardcover book printed on good paper in a pleasing font, listening to music performed live without electronic amplification, and The New Yorker magazine.

So as an enhancement, rather than a replacement, you can now read The New Yorker online through their digital reader. A couple of things you might want to do with the digital version versus the print edition: email an article, print an article, search and read anything in the archive going back to 1925(!).

If you’re not a subscriber you can get a trial subscription which will give you the current plus 3 upcoming issues here.

If you’re a subscriber, the digital edition is included and you have full access to the archive. Have an issue with your address label ready and go here. Under “account status” look for the link for the digital edition.

From Tom’s cactus collection, here’s a Turkish temple.

One of the things I did to keep busy while waiting for the returns on election day was to make jam from some lovely post-season raspberries. I don’t know who’s still harvesting them, but they’re from California.

Here’s my recipe which works with many kinds of fruit. The fruit’s flavor is bright and in the forefront, not the sugar. It’s a little thinner than store-bought, so it’s easier to use in baking or making sauces. In the fridge, the consistency gets thicker. If you want to make it thicker yet, don’t cook it longer, just chop some lemon or orange peel, put it in a cheesecloth bag in the first step and take it out before the second cooking. (That’s for the pectin.)

About the fruit: only use well-ripened tasty fruit. Anything larger than a berry (like raspberries or olallieberries) should be roughly chopped unless you want whole-fruit preserves.

Ready?

About pots for sterilizing: Not having a proper canning pot, I use a large stock pot with a clean, not linty dishcloth on the bottom. The towel serves the same purpose as a rack, allowing the water to circulate and to prevent the jars from rattling around. My stock pot will let me do only 1/2-pint jars. To do pints and quarts, I’ve been eyeing a tamale steamer at the local Mexican grocery. It’s inexpensive, pretty tall, has a removeable built-in rack and should accommodate larger jars. Also, an angled silicone spatula is great to use for stirring as it swipe more of the bottom of the pot at once.

The nice folks at MoveOn.org are giving out free stickers with the image you see on the right side of the page. You can get ‘em here. (Hit your browser’s refresh if the page doesn’t load. Limited time offer.)

Of course we’re disappointed, but Tom and I are trying to not let it cloud what is the greatest American moment in our lifetime. And while we wanted to see this issue finally settled in California, there are bigger, more pressing challenges the country faces. We finally have a President who might actually be and do good.

We were glad to see that here in our county, where the fight got kind of nasty, the vote was decisively against constitutional discrimination. When we moved here more than 20 years ago, East Contra Costa County was a bastion of redneck-edness where I was assaulted with racial epithets on the streets and the city was home to the state’s knee-jerk conservative christian movement. In a previous ballot initiative that sought to deny gay civil rights, Tom actually received a death threat! Change does happen, more slowly than we might like, but it is inexorable.

Thanks to everyone for their support and concern.

Dale

update: A few days later, the sadness is being replaced by outrage. It’s a great thing that thousands of people around the state and in Salt Lake City are protesting this phenomenal injustice. The fight is not over, no way, no how, no to hate.

Isn’t it great when our greatest hopes are fulfilled?