September 5 has Shoestring part 3, then Sep. 12 is now blank (was preserves part 3). Sep. 26 was preserves part 4, but not sure we want those back-to-back.
Mien was considering writing something during summer break - I hope we can get something from her before she starts moving house, I wouldn't bother her then.
@ElendilTheTall Exactly, a blog post. Since you mentioned that you have perfected the technique for macarons, I've been hoping that you can share it with us.
@rfusca thinking obviously a landscape post of some kind, hopefully a street post, perhaps one on my second shooting wedding thoughts. Haven't thought of a fourth yet
@ElendilTheTall That would be great. We have an empty slot for the 26th. You can write it for later too, we also need stuff for October, but September has higher priority right now :)
@rumtscho @derobert I have a first draft on next week's post, but still need pictures, graphics and another edit. Timing may be a bit tight on editing, since I'm going to be editing while on the road. It's long though, might get two posts out of it
We are trying to make it easy on the authors - we don't demand lots-of-words (some of us write them, but that's just a natural predilection), and we help you with editing and getting it layouted.
@waxeagle would you like to create a post for the 12th of September? Will give you a good excuse to have some pulled pork :) (Publishing date would be the 12th, so having the completed text and a few snapshots a few days before is good).
@derobert I'll see about splitting it then. More than 1000 words is kind of excessive anyway. It'll help anyway, since I probably can't manage another blog post mid-September due to moving house (which got changed, don't ask)
@Sobachatina We are planning the second half of September right now. It can happen that other people can write something for then too, but then we have nothing for October :)
@rfusca the water is apparently really good there. But there are several really solid micro breweries in town (Red Brick, Sweet Water, Terrapin is nearby as well).
@waxeagle hm, interesting. I"m not much for drinking...i don't have anything against it, just don't do it much. But I'd not be opposed to checking out a few local brews
@Sobachatina as early as possible, but absolutely no later than the Monday before publication. Depends on how much back and forth is required. Probably best to aim for a week prior on the draft.
@Sobachatina Nice to hear it. I didn't know what reaction to expect from her at all - maybe a "I should have gotten full credits including a link to my own blog", or a "I don't care about them, keep my name out of there".
@mien I'll try to think of something baking-related, but you can also do the rice with a few conditions - 2 grain types, 2 or three methods. (each cooking takes about 30 minutes, but you can cook multiple pots at once).
Once you have cooked and written down some observations, you don't have to write much text. Look at Katie's post, I found it good even though it is rather bare-bones style.
@rumtscho basically you go through life believing the sky is blue, you're certain of it. Someone comes along and tells you that for the purpose of this site, anyone who believes the sky is any color is welcome to express that opinion and that they are right. The sky is blue, but you really can't express that with the kind of certainty that you would other places
@rfusca that's kind of the point of the blog. We're embracing the disagreements within Christian traditions. We're taking the ickiness of our scope and rolling in it
@derobert Yeah. Don't worry, I'm not going to stretch anything. Quite the opposite in fact... I feel like I'm trying to stuff sausages to fit as much as possible into each post.
@derobert I think that @mien agreed for a short rice post. But I will go through my books tonight and see if I can get her a more interesting experiment, one about baking.
@rfusca I don't know how ambitious you are to see it published soon after the writing. Right now, we are counting on everybody delivering on time.
Exactly, what @derobert said. We can use a "safety post" in the queue in case somebody runs late.
I don't think we should keep such a post forever, but it would be good if it can sit written for some weeks, then exchange it against a fresher one and publish it.
@rumtscho she shouldn't oppose it too much (unless it's just that I've done it too often this summer). She hates dealing with whole chunks of meat, yet when I bring that thing in she is tearing off pieces before I can even start to pull it :)
@Sobachatina lol. Sooner or later I'm gonna get around to building a drum smoker...my wife said I could after I got a house. Took care of that this year :)
@rfusca if you make "shoe leather" next time, you can also mince the overcooked meat and use it as a filling somewhere. Not that tasty, but it doesn't get thrown away, and doesn't offend your teeth.
I have made stuffed rouladen with a meat-veggie mix as a stuffing, made from overcooked meat. It was decent.
@Aarthi are you back from your lunchbreak?
We are discussing the free spots for the cooking blog, and you wanted to do the egg substitution series.
You mentioned a vacation, but I hope you will be back for writing something for maybe early October? We like to set the dates early, because else nobody has time if we ask just a week or two before :)
I'll go home now, see you people in about an hour or so
@Aarthi send an email to cooking.se.blog@gmail.com asking for account setup on the blog. Or log in to the blog somehow, and then I can change your account type.
@Sobachatina LOL, got both an accept and a decline on the calendar invite.
@Mien Slice jalapeño in half, put in jar, cover with brine (1tbsp/cup), put on lid, put fridge. Keeps for 1mo or so. Quick rinse before use prevents from being salty
@aarthi that about the post is great. Please let us know earlier how many parts you are planning, so we can reserve further spots too. If you are comparing 3-5 substitutes (incl. control) across 2-3 recipes, you are looking at multiple parts, we are trying to get each about 1000 words long.
@mien I just mentioned it to note how easy it is to char them, but a camping burner is indeed the better alternative.
This is an answer to the "how to make it faster" portion of your question.
Here's how you make it, quick, easy, and 99% as good as if you'd spent an hour painting each phyllo sheet using a brush made with magical unicorn tail hair.
Take half the phyllo and place on baking sheet
Spread nuts/sug...
@mien I have an idea for your experiment post
If you would like to bake - you could try making a baklava where the nuts are spread between each phylo sheet, and another where there are lots of layers without anything in between, with the nuts all in one place
Just to see if it makes enough difference to be worth the effort with the layering
You can make both at once and bake them at once in the same oven, in two smallish sheets
@Sobachatina I am 90% sure that this answer doesn't make for good baklava - but if it does, it is worth knowing it, because it would save lots of work.