@Cerberus Because if my brain thinks it is German, it tries to read it. If I keep it in my peripheral vision only and tell the brain it is Turkish, it doesn't direct my eyes at it.
You know- I'll bet if they offered to do the same amount of sweeping in front of someone's house they could make enough money to buy twice as much rice.
@Sobachatina we got new chickens, but these like to visit our neighbor. We just cut their feathers. Do you know when (an estimation) we'll have to recut it?
@dpollitt lol i think i'm gonna be shooting every weekend all weekend between a few things I've got going on. I've got regular clients, living social deal, and i'm trying to break into the actor's headshot market
Heh, if anyone asks, just tell them you're blogging how awesome the pizza is. Just don't tell them the part that zero and negative numbers can be used to answer answer "how awesome"
But it is more of a "believe me, this is a secret which the world doesn't know about and it is soo much easier than the normal way" stance that makes me suspicious than the pressing in itself
The only writer whom I trust with such claims is Kenji - and that only because 1) he describes how he came to that conclusion and 2) I have tested many such conclusions of his.
@yossarian started at it after work and got pinged for two different chat conversations (outside of here) which have been going on since, sorry
What I wanted to ask, do you have in mind what you want to tell the reader about each book, what he wants to hear, or are you just sharing your impressions?
@Sobachatina No, if I ever say something similar and call the object boyfriend, it would be in a situation when it is awkward to say "I appreciate him for the high quality knowledge I find in him, he is a useful tool for finding it. Also, he is good in bed, so he is my friend with benefits." I still wouldn't say that I love him.
@rumtscho, the idea was these are the three best books in my kitchen, one for beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This is why these books are great. Beginner: teach you how to cook. Intermediate: teach you how to start to make up your own recipes. Advanced: all the inspiration you could need.
The examples in the outline are supposed to support those points.
@yossarian yes, that's about the direction I was going to propose
But maybe a bit more structured.
Specifically, I think that your reader will be very happy with the post if after reading your post, he has the answer to the following three questions:
1) Why is this book a good choice (especially when compared to other food books of the same level), 2) If I read this book, what will I know/be able to do which I didn't know/couldn't do already, and 3) What are the limitations of this book? Are there any disadvantages as such, and if not, at least tell me what I won't learn from it.
I think that your approach plans to answer 1)
and partly cover 2)
I was in the middle of explaining why I think why this might be a good idea, and how you can implement it without exposing such a rigorous structure, when I got interrupted
Maybe I should shorten the mail, so I can get it to you quicker, and then you can ask me in chat about anything unclear.
It seems like it is, given the structure of the post. Of course, if there are other limits (e.g., mentioning New Best Recipe's lack of coverage of Chinese cuisine), those can go in to.
Yes, I read the outline this morning, and it looks fine for an outline. Of course, little things like that (making clear that NBR's discussions stop short of Ratio, etc.) aren't apparent from an outline, only from a draft.
@yossarian I am continuing to write it in a mail, will tell you when I send it.
I don't even know how much of it is obvious stuff you already planned to do but didn't dwell on in the outline - so don't be offended if it sounds basic to you
I think I'll structure answers to 3 as: NBR will teach you how to make a spaghetti sauce from scratch, but not spaghetti. Ratio will teach you how to make things where the specific quantities really matter (spaghetti, holandaise), Flavor Bible won't teach you to make anything, but will give you inspiration (hence the advanced rating).
That make sense?
@rumtscho, yeah, fair enough. I know the outline is really basic and missing lots of info.
I'm just getting really behind the gun on work stuff and didn't want y'all thinking that I wasn't working on it.
@yossarian We appreciate it that you are working on it even when you are stressed at your job. It is nice to know you are serious about getting it written.
@yossarian Well, I'm not sure that's true. I'm pretty sure NBR has some baked things where quantities matter a good deal (it's at home, I'm at work, so I can't check). And Ratio has some pretty lose ratios in it, too. Its more, I think, that NBR aims to give you a complete recipe you can cook right away, and that was the best of the many variations CI tried. And it gives a story behind the recipe.
@yossarian Ratio gives an example recipe, sure, but its main goal is to show how you can vary the ingredients to make hundreds of variations, but they'll all be mayo as long as you follow the mayo ratio (and procedure)
@derobert, yeah, that's kind of what I meant. I think the NBR doesn't aim for you to be able to come up with a from scratch pasta recipe, while Ratio does.
yes. But I think that if you read NBR, you learn how to cook by osmosis. That's what makes it a great book. The recipes are bullet proof, which is important. But if you follow them, you'll learn how to start to improvise your own.
@Sobachatina, it's pretty cool actually. Talks about how to get stuff to a point where storing in freezer or fridge won't harm your final product. There's a whole series of recipes where the leftovers become something completely different which is really cool. All the advantages of leftovers without eating the same thing again.
I think the best bet would be to either strike all mentions of the original recipe saying to fry the balls, or alternatively, add a sentence on why she chose not to at first. Could be as simple as "wanted them healthier", "didn't want to clean a second pan", etc.
It sounds strange if she was aware that she is not following the original recipe, her variation failed, and instead of trying the original recipe after all, she started all possible wild changes to hers.
I also would skip the part about discussing her draft with me before making the final version
@rumtscho I shortened that up a fair bit. I'm not sure what you mean by "this just isn't done"—this is an informal publication. No reason you can't collaborate with the editors.
That's OK - the blue text wasn't hers, it was my suggestion.
If you have an even better suggestion, you can give it.
No need for both to exist, and you aren't even destroying something which belongs to the author and her style.
> I'm afraid that the problem was that boiling the dough simply washes out the flavor of the balls, no matter how much seasoning I add to the mixture. It was at this point that
> I realized I needed to find focus and stop trying such wildly different ideas without knowing how they can help.
> Then I remembered my original evaluation of the cheese balls as reminding me of the flavor of the filling for cheese blintzes. Often, cheese blintzes are made with fruit filling as well as the cheese. Perhaps I could go back to the original recipe and simply add fruit.
@rumtscho I did. Like my "with Metric conversions added" is my version of "I give here the recipes as they are in the family cookbook, so they use volume measures. Seasoned Advice endorses measuring by weight, so the post includes a converted version too. "
And I took your idea from the first blue paragraph, and it became a sentence "In contrast to the methodological testing of our previous two posts, I'll explore less rigorous, more common approach."
Designed them on Monday, before I knew about the successful prune version, with the idea to have a happy end - because a blog post with three failed recipes is a bit boring
Yes, I cooked them, and she said she doesn't have the time, but proposed that I add them
I wouldn't do that, mainly because I can't compare them to the other recieps
I think that the perfect happy end would be Martha making them herself when she has the time - it can easily wait several weeks or months I think - and making the follow-up, because she will have tried all versions.
If I do them, completeness would require that I try the bland ones too, and I am not too keen on boiling three batches of bad food on purpose
@rumtscho no, you'd only have to do Martha's final version—no need to compare them to the failures. But yeah, if she wants to do them at some point in the future, that'd be good too.
Do you have a real Photoshop? I could have pushed a bit more the tones in Darktable, getting a somewhat better lighting in the bowl, but the posterization of the hand and shadow became really cruel then.
