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:
For the Salsa:
For the Risotto:
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.
mbietz November 30th, 2007
It’s raining in San Diego. We’ve already had more than 1/2″, including a few moments of near-downpour. To put that in context, our average rainfall is only about 10″. With so little rain, the roads are pretty oil-slick, which makes for a crappy commute. And there are worries of rock and mudslides, especially in the recently-burned areas.
But that’s not what I’m thinking about. This is the first big rain since we moved into the new house. It’s a bit like the first road trip with a new lover. You’ve gotten to know a lot about each other, but now you see all the annoying little quirks. I keep wandering around the house looking at the ceiling for leaks. None so far, but I discovered that the front door doesn’t have weather stripping, and with the wind today, we’ve got a puddle on the floor. The driveway also slopes a bit toward the garage, so there’s a puddle there too (although it’s not right up to the door, so probably not an issue).
But now I’ve got an excuse to go to Lowe’s this weekend. 
mbietz October 26th, 2007
The fires aren’t out yet, but the San Diego Fire Chief announced today that there is no more fire threat for the city of San Diego, and Qualcomm has been emptied. The winds and temperatures are now in the firefighters’ favor. We’ve still got pollution issues – the air is still hazy, and the invisible particulate matter is high. We’ve been keeping the house closed up and we’ve got our small HEPA filter and the air conditioning fan on to help. Dan went in to the UCSD campus today – he said the smell was worse there, and there was some ash in his office around the windows (which don’t seal particularly tightly).
But all in all, we’ve been very lucky. No fires got even close to us, and the pollution hasn’t been as bad here as in most other areas of the county.