waider

So I was attempting - yet again - to construct a reasonable carbonara, mainly because I had cream in the fridge that needed to be used. And as I stirred it all together in the pot I thought, "this needs some more cheese". So I grabbed the powdered hard cheese I use, and shook it hard, and the top came off. Thankfully it was nearly empty anyway, since there was no hope of me getting rid of the excess cheese. So dinner was more like "tag'n'cheez" than carbonara, but still edible.

refried rice

The queue to beat me with a baseball bat starts over there.

You can, in fact, burn rice in a microwave oven.

Pineapple makes a perfectly good pizza topping, dammit.

Cornish pasty for dinner, except that the filling was some left-over bolognese that I couldn't fit into the lasagne last night. Either the Italians or the Cornices? Corns? Qwghlmians? (or both) are gunning for me right now.

Warren posts a recipe.. And it's not, like, something horrible that will make you gag just by reading it.

I know there are several cooking-fanatical people on my friendslist, so I figure at least ONE should be able to bail me out here: I have a wok. I do not have a gas burner to sit it on. I have a halogen/ceramic electric cooker which has a 0-6 power range, and that’s it. I have made several unsuccessful attempts to do useful wok things, but ultimately I run into one of two problems: (a) smoke and (b) more oil than I’m happy with in the end result. So. Given that I cannot, at the drop of a hat, replace my halogen/ceramic heat source with something that might actually be wok-friendly, I have the following questions:

1. How should I best determine the optimal setting for heating the wok? I am leery of anything that involves smoke generation, due to a hypersensitive smoke alarm that’s hooked into the house upstairs and which I cannot switch off once it’s triggered
2. Is the excessive oil down to too much oil in the wok, or incorrect heating?
3. Should I just give up on the wok entirely, and buy chinese from the local takeaway (it is quite good)?

That is all, thank you in advance for any input (especially useful input)

So, I've signed up for Orkut. I am orkutted, or something. It remains to be seen whether it leads me to any revelations about what I've been missing with the social networks thing, though. I'm already seeing rough edges in what is, admittedly, a self-declared beta-quality product, but hey. Early days yet.

And cookies. Made my third batch of Paula's DSP cookies (without active ingredients, thank you very much) which turned out less carbonised but also not really crunchy enough. I still need to futz with the baking details properly.

There's a certain stereotype about the Irish: we're all drunks, and we favour the "boiled to death" school of cuisine.

So, based on a random comment made at the weekend and the impending visit of a friend, I cycled around for an hour yesterday counting pubs. Well, actually I cycled around for a bit first, then I started counting pubs as an amusement. In the space of its main street, Dalkey contains the following drinking establishments: The Club Bar, In Dalkey, Finnegans, The King's Inn, The Queen's (possibly The Queen's Inn), and Mc(or Mac)Donagh's. Additionally, there's a dedicated off-license, and an off-license attached to a supermarket. Given that Dalkey is a ten-minute walk from my house, I felt it necessary to research the opposite direction - towards Dun Laoghaire - where I encountered two more pubs, Eagle House and Albert House. The latter is the closest pub to my front door, being within five minutes of my front door.

On this trip, some 10km of weaving and wandering (sober) around the area, I passed more eateries than I can recall - something approaching a dozen in Dalkey alone, and another handful in Sandycove/Glasthule, and a bunch more scattered around seemingly at random. Several chinese restaurants, one Thai, one fish-and-chip shop which does the best quarterpounders I've had in a long time (although one of my local barmen tells me the Noggin Grill is better), one Italian, and several mixed-fare; at least two of the pubs do restaurant-class food, and at least two more advertise pub food in the window. Of course, any given restaurant will have an alcohol license, so add them to the list of drinking establishments mentioned above.

Thus, I submit, the stereotype needs updating: we're all WELL FED drunks.