mbietz September 19th, 2008
I’m organizing (with Charlotte Lee and David Ribes) a workshop at the upcoming CSCW 2008 conference. There’s still time to send a position paper! Here are the details:
Workshop on Designing Cyberinfrastructure to Support Science
At the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Saturday, November 8. San Diego, CA
Recent years have seen the rise of new forms of large-scale distributed scientific enterprises supported primarily through advanced information infrastructures. These advanced infrastructures are called “cyberinfrastructure,” although terms such as grid computing, collaboratories, and eScience are also commonly used. Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Cyberinfrastructure intersect in their aims to support collaboration within heterogeneous groups and across physical distribution. Furthermore the development of CI – or large-scale informational resources – is itself a form of collaborative work worthy of CSCW research. Continue Reading »
mbietz September 11th, 2008
Dan’s in Seattle, and I spent the day in Irvine, so I hadn’t planned on cooking tonight. But by the time I got home, I wasn’t in the mood to go out to eat. The only main ingredient in the fridge was the leftover half of a big butternut squash. A little improvisation, and voilà! Squash pudding. Much better than I had expected!
Here’s an attempt at a reproducible version. The amounts are guesses, but exact proportions don’t matter all that much. The basic squash + eggs + yogurt base could work with several other ingredients. For a Thanksgiving thing I might add pecans and dried cranberries. Or maybe a more Mediterranean flair with feta and red peppers.
Squash Pudding
- 1/2 large butternut squash
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 c. Greek yogurt
- 1 c. frozen corn
- 1/3 c. dried tart cherries
- 1/3 c. grated parmesan cheese
- nutmeg, salt, & pepper to taste
First, cook the squash until it’s soft. I peeled the squash and cut it into cubes, then dumped it in my steamer, but I could have microwaved it or boiled it or baked it. Whateva. Let it cool a bit (you don’t want it to cook the eggs) and mash it up.
Mix squash with the rest of the ingredients. Spray 6 ramekins with non-stick cooking spray, and fill not quite to the top with the mix. Cover with plastic wrap. Steam for about 25 minutes or until they’re set. (You could also bake them in a water bath in the oven, but then don’t use the plastic wrap.)
To serve: hold the ramekins with a towel (they’re hot!), run a knife around the edge, and then invert ramekin onto plate.
mbietz August 14th, 2008
So, not to make light of the situation, but was I the only one who got confused when the news announcer on the radio talked about the Russians going to the Black Sea Porta-Potty?
mbietz August 1st, 2008
I haven’t been particularly wowed by the iPhone. Sure it’s cool, but in the end, the price-to-value ratio seems just way too high. But the new Urbanspoon iPhone application tickles my fancy. You shake your iPhone like a Magic 8 Ball, and it finds a random nearby local restaurant that’s gotten good reviews by their users.
I just love the idea of interacting with a computer by shaking it.
mbietz May 15th, 2008
“We conclude that the purpose underlying differential treatment of opposite-sex and same-sex couples embodied in California’s current marriage statutes – the interest in retaining the traditional and well-established definition of marriage – cannot properly be viewed as a compelling state interest for purposes of the equal protection clause, or as necessary to serve such an interest…. Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional.” -California Supreme Court, May 15, 2008
mbietz April 24th, 2008
“The random nature of quantum physics means that there is always a minuscule, but nonzero, chance of anything occurring, including that the new [Large Hadron] collider could spit out man-eating dragons.” – Dennis Overbye, NYT, 4/15/08
An interesting article about how to gauge the risk of a scientific experiment that just might blow up the world. But now all I can think about is how many of those physicists were D&D geeks in high school, and that CERN’s real mission is to prove that fantasy is reality. Turns out that Hadron is actually the name of a supremely powerful dragon banished to live inside a proton by 20th-level wizard who rolled a 19 in battle in 1982.
mbietz March 9th, 2008
It was Dan’s night to cook. He made Leek and Potato soup:
and focaccia:
Nummy!!!!
mbietz March 2nd, 2008
I needed to use up some leftover roasted pork, and I was in the mood for risotto. I wanted to do something a little different, so I adapted a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for white chicken chili, turning it into a risotto instead of a soup. I think it turned out really well.
The chilis, once they are seeded and the ribs removed, are all quite mild. You can leave in a few seeds if you like some heat, but I didn’t. One of the weird things about California grocery stores is that poblano chilis are called pasilla chilis and the Anaheim is also known as the green chili. The combination of the three different kinds of chilis and two cheeses give a nice depth of flavor.
Here’s what I did:
Ingredients:
For the Salsa:
- 2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 green onions, sliced thin
- squeeze of lime juice
- pinch salt
For the Risotto:
- 6 c. low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 jalapeno chilis, seeds and ribs removed, chopped fine
- 2 poblano chilis, seeds and ribs removed, chopped fine
- 2 anaheim chilis, seeds and ribs removed, chopped fine
- 1 ½ c. arborio rice
- 1 tbsp. ground cumin
- 1 ½ tsp. ground coriander
- ½ c. white wine
- 16 oz. leftover roast pork
- 1 c. frozen corn
- 2 oz. monterey jack, shredded
- 2 oz. chevre
- ¼ c. cilantro, roughly chopped
- ¼ c. flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
- lime juice, to taste
Procedure
- Mix salsa ingredients together and set aside.
- Pour chicken broth in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.
- Heat olive oil in large saute pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering, add onions, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add all of the chopped chilis, and cook stirring occasionally for another 2-3 minutes, until onions are translucent.
- Add rice, and stir for 1-2 minutes until grains turn translucent.
- Add cumin and coriander, and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Add wine, and stir until almost all liquid is gone.
- Add a couple ladles of chicken broth, and stir until most of the broth is absorbed. Repeat until all but 1 cup of the broth has been added and the rice is cooked.
- Stir in pork, frozen corn, and 1/2 cup broth, and cook until heated through.
- Add cheeses and the rest of the broth, and stir until incorporated.
- Just before serving, stir in cilantro, parsley, a squeeze of lime juice, and salt to taste.
Serve topped with salsa.
mbietz January 6th, 2008
My friend Serene posted a mouthwatering photo of Thai Noodle Soup and it looked so good I had to try the recipe myself. It calls for Thai shrimp paste (belachan), which meant a trip to one of San Diego’s many Asian grocers.
We discovered something that’s not clear from the Wikipedia article or most of the other references we found online: there are 2 very different things available called “shrimp paste.”
Our first stop was a Vietnamese store, and the only thing we could find were several brands of the stuff on the left: shrimp paste in soybean oil, whose ingredients include shrimp, garlic, soybean oil, pepper, salt, paprika, and often MSG. However, from what I’d seen online, that didn’t seem right. It smells shrimpy, but it wasn’t the “light pinkish gray” or dark brown block that I was expecting. So then we stopped at a Korean store, and picked up the jar on the right. Ingredients: shrimp and salt. Light pinkish gray. Smells like death. But called “shrimp sauce.”
We made the soup with the stuff on the right. It was great (thanks Serene!). Like fish sauce, it adds a wonderful earthy richness when it’s cooked in the soup. The other stuff seems a bit more like a condiment or stir-fry sauce – it’s still got a strong shrimpy aroma, but nothing like the gut-wrenching power of plain shrimp paste (the recipe calls for “a pea-sized piece”).
mbietz December 28th, 2007
I’m quite sure that most people who say they dislike fruitcake haven’t had good fruitcake. And they definitely haven’t had my mother’s fruitcake. Little bits of candied fruit and nuts enveloped in a moist (because it’s been soaking in cream sherry) dense cake. Nummy.
