NaNoWriMo is over!
Posted By Walkiry on December 1, 2009
And guess what!
I'z a winner!
That’s right, I won! I had to do a marathon on the last weekend (20,000 words in one weekend is quite a bit!), but I managed, go me! 
Welcome To My Notebook.
And the question is, how did you end up here? What were you looking for? Whatever it was - or is -, I hope the bytes you are downloading will give you some of the answers you were looking for. If not, ascribe it to the caprices of the internet and its seach engines, and I wish you luck in your research endeavours. In the meantime, you may as well take a peek since you're here.
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NaNoWriMo!
Posted By Walkiry on November 3, 2009
Also known as “National Novel Writing Month.” November is packed with stuff!
So, I have signed up for it, and I will be writing a “novel” this month. Note the quotes, because I don’t expect it to be too good. See, the whole exercise is aimed at writing fast and furiously, 50,000 words in a month, with little thought of reviewing or careful planning. Write an outline if you want, and then it’s just sitting down and typetypetype…
That’s not a problem for me though. I am never scared of a blank piece of paper, there is always some idea in the back of my head, and I can always just plop something on paper.
What I can’t vouch for is the quality of the writing if I don’t do reviewing and just use what has been aptly described as the “kamikaze approach.” should be fun anyway.
Oh, and of course, linky! http://www.nanowrimo.org/.
Offroad!
Posted By Walkiry on July 4, 2009
No, not a cooking post!
We are in the middle of winter here (shortest day of the year is 21st of June, since we’re upside down and all that). So when the forecast predicted a sunny day for the weekend, I seized the chance, jumped in my WRX, and headed somewhere fun.
I decided to drive East. Hawke’s Bay is usually the sunniest place in the North Island, and it didn’t disappoint!
Of course, it did take a while to get there. It may or may not have something to do with the tasty gravel roads one can travel to get there *cough*
Then again, the number of sealed backroads is surprisingly high, so it kind of alternates between gravel and non-gravel. Still, much fun was had, and I think I may need new brakes soon, I did give them a bit of a workout.
Pictures! I need a better solution to take pictures from the car…
Apple and Quince Tatin
Posted By Walkiry on June 11, 2009
“What’s a Tatin?” You may ask. A Tarte Tatin is a kind of cake made “upside down”. Legend has it (I haven’t bothered verifying if it’s true) that two French sisters wanted to cook an apple pie, but they were a bit on the light headed side, and while they prepared the apples beautifully, they forgot to put the actual pie shell in the oven with the apples. Realizing their mistake halfway through, they put some puff pastry on top to try and salvage the pie, and they came up with a very delicious pie. Well, this is but a variation of that. What will we need?
Ingredients for the Tatin
So, we need:
- Apples.
- Quinces.
- Butter/Margarine.
- Sugar.
- Optionally: Lemon, Cinammon, Anything else you may want to put into the caramel we are going to prepare first.
- Not shown: Your favourite kind of pastry (the traditional uses puff pastry, but I use sweet short pastry because I like it
)
Start with chopping up the quinces and apples:
Chop them apples!
As you can see, The chunks are nicely chunky, we don’t cut the apple finely like it’s done often in other kinds of apple pies. Notice the pot I’m going to use in the oven, and how the bottom is covered with caramel! The caramel is easy enough to make: Put a cup of sugar or two (depending on the size of your tatin) in a pot with some water, stir until caramelized and browned. Add a couple of drops of lemon juice if you want, or anything else you like putting in homemade caramel.
Now, the important part: Arrange the apples nicely so that you leave as little space as possible, you want them to be tightly packed! Also, add a few nuggets of butter here and there because the apples will need butter to cook properly. Buttery goodness!
Pack 'em well!
Now, preheat the over to 150°C and in the apples go. It’ll take 20-30 minutes until they cook as much as I want them to cook before adding the pastry. Yes, the famous French sisters didn’t notice the missing pastry for like half an hour
The apples ready!
Now, we want to cover it with the pastry. Not just cover it, you have to fold the pastry on the sides so that it’s enveloping the apples nicely. Try to make the apples as evenly flat as possible, and make sure the pastry goes well on the sides to wrap them well!
Wrapped pastry.
As you can see, I stabbed the pastry with a fork repeatedly. This way you won’t have steam bubbles forming under the pastry and it will cook evenly. Back into the oven for another 30 minutes or so (it will depend on your particular oven and pastry). I put it to 180°C for the last 10 minutes to cook the pastry well. The result?
Taa-daa!
We’re almost there! An upside-down pie won’t be much good, will it? We have to flip it! First off, very carefully run a knife on the edge to make sure the pastry isn’t stuck to the oven pot anywhere. Afterwards, put a plate on top and flip it! Shake it and hit it a few times (carefully please) to make sure it has all come off, and you’re done! It’s likely that a few of the quince or apple pieces have stuck to the pot, but they’ll come off easily enough, all you have to do is put them back on the pie and clear the presentation. The pyrex glass pots work quite well for this too.
Yummyness!
You can really tell the quince pieces from the apples due to their intense colour. And also you’ll have a bit of quince jelly at the bottom (now the top) to add to the goodyness.
Bon apetit!
Updates!
Posted By Walkiry on June 11, 2009
Whew! Being busy is fun! Well, some of it is fun. Part of the business has been work (when you come home late from work you don’t feel like doing much), part has been doing actual things with my time that don’t involve computers (shocking, I know!).
So what have I been up to? First off, there’s the Reel Earth Festival, which of course is finished now, but I was there with some friends for the closing weekend.
There’s the reading part, I happen to have a whole bunch of new books to go through *cough*.
There’s also the fact that it’s winter, so if by any chance we have a sunny day I take the car and go somewhere. The latest “adventure” was the back road between Woodville and Masterton, a very fun to drive gravel road. Saturday with nobody on the road = win!
So yeah, I’ve kept myself busy. Oh, and it was also Queen’s Birthday not long ago, which is a “sales with lots of % off!” day, so I took the chance to get myself some cheap games as well. Disgaea is fun!
But! There’s some backdated cooking to post about! I’ll get on to it in a bit =)
The Two Europes.
Posted By Walkiry on May 24, 2009
So, today I was reading an interview with Hans-Gert Pöttering, the prez of the European Parliament (EP), at the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. In it, he complains about the low turnout of the European Elections and the rise of the “radical” political parties.
While I was reading, I kept thinking the same thing. Does this guy live so far removed from reality, or is he simply a two-faced cynical hypocrite who’s laughing at us while he shoots his canned “woe is me” responses?
Let’s see, the European Elections have less participation every time around. Gee, would it have something to do, perhaps, with the fact that more and more these elections seem to be completely fucking pointless? Mr. Pöttering (somehow the fact that it looks so similar to “potter” makes me chuckle, and no, I’m not talking about the wizard) goes to talk about how Europeans should not thing about the EP as something far removed from their lives, or how the media is to blame too because they don’t cover things at the European level instead of just local things. He then sleazes out when asked if the politicians of the EP may have part of the blame; colour me surprised.
For a while now, the Europeans have stopped doing things with the (“the”, not “their”) Parliament. Rather, the Parliament has been doing things TO the Europeans. The current European Union has been built by the politicians, that is, Mr. Pöttinger and his cronies, for themselves and their friends/partners/accomplices (hint: it ain’t for the average “European”).
Why the hell would anyone bother voting? The last time anything important was put through a popular vote, the badly named “European Constitution” (the piece of trash that sullies the word “Constitution” with its mere existence, and yes, I’ve read it, it ain’t a freaking Constitution, not even close to one), it was merely passed by as a pantomime, and if there was a possible problem getting it through in some country, then no problem! Have it be “voted” by the country’s politicians instead, and off you go. Well done chaps! Pats on the back for everyone!
The Referendum in Spain was just fucking pathetic. It was sold (because the politicians acted like used cars salesmen, embarassingly so) as a vote to “stay in Europe” pretty much. There was a HUGE vacuum when it came to actually discussing or informing about the contents of the document or what exactly was the objective they were trying to achieve with this, a disgusting exercise in demagogy that left quite a sour taste in my mouth, and of those who bothered to try and inform themselves; for crying out loud, the campaigners offered to send information about the contents of the “constitution” and it wasn’t sent until after the day of the election! Hows that for popular vote, huh? A shame the Internet usage keeps lagging behind in Spain, at least one could get the full text from the EP website.
On a related note: Ireland, you’re our only hope! It’s freaking hilarious that, since it doesn’t seem to get through Ireland, they’ve resorted to subtle and less-than-subtle threats of what could happen if they keep refusing to accept it.
And then he is asked if having the Parliament have a clearer relationship with the Comission would help, and what does he say? Oh, but the relationship is very strong, see, the Council already “takes into account” the opinion of the Parliament, or be “influenced” by it (which is what he claims about the election of the President of the Comission, I bet you a cookie it’s gonna be Barroso no matter what). How wonderful! I always wanted democracy to work by having the politicians “being influenced” by the votes instead of actually having to abide by them. Glee!
Quite frankly, Mr. Pöttinger, the low (and dropping) participation is either a symptom of the kind of Europe that has been built at the expense of the Europeans (in which case, if you’re actually worried, you may want to take a look at all that has been done from your ranks to purposedly remove European politics as far away from the Europeans as possible), or more likely, the exact result of what your kind has been working on for years. Congratulations! You guys have won, “Europe” is yours! Just have the decency of sparing us your hypocrisy and fake concern. Thank you.
Read or Die?
Posted By Walkiry on May 23, 2009
Borrowing the title from Yomiko Readman’s novels/anime/whatnot, today (or, rather, this weekend) is the New Zealand Red Cross’ Book Sale. And, naturally, I was there.
Lots of books!
I ended up with a big mix of things. I should eventually make an index, but off the top of my head:
- 2/3 books of Lord of the Rings (missing the Fellowship, I had this in a single-book edition that I gave away at some point).
- Lots of books from Tom Clancy. I have had contact only with the Splinter Cell games, which I like a lot, so it’s worth checking how good the books are.
- A bunch from Arthur C. Clarke. Hey, I think I’ve only read one book from him before.
- 4/6 Dune books. Same deal as the Lord of the Rings, I had them at some point, but they disappeared here or there.
- Many many thriller books I’ve never heard of. A “lucky dip” kind of thing, at the price they’re going it was worth the try!
- A bunch of Michael Crichton books.
- A random assortment of Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels, including a handful of the Dragonlance and Star Wars novels.
- A couple of cooking books, one for New Zealand dishes.
- Books with pretty pictures of Australia and New Zealand
All in all, this should provide enough reading material for the rest of the year (until the next book sale!). I spent about 150 NZ$, a pittance!
Good stuff all around.
Cookie Pie – With Real Cookies!
Posted By Walkiry on May 9, 2009
Time for something sweet! Actually, I have a few sweet things lined up, just so happens that I feel like posting this one first, as it’s the one I’m om nom nomming now!
So, Cookie Pie! Typically, this pie is made as if it were a cookie, i.e., one makes a cookie-like dough, pours it in a pie shell, and bakes it. However, I have a different take on it, what I do is I take actual cookies, and make a pie with them! To start with, the ingredients:
Cookie Pie Ingredients
- Eggs: 2 of them
- Butter: A good chunk (about 150g or so).
- White and Brown sugar (1/2 cup each).
- Your favourite cookies! Choc chip in my case, you can go for a triple choc of whatever you want.
- Some 100g of hazelnuts, or amonds, or walnuts, whatever you want.
- A pie shell or, in my case, some sweet short pastry – whatever you feel more comfortable handling.
To start with, beat the two eggs and melt the butter (microwaves are handy for this), then add the butter to the eggs. Mix thoroughly, then add the sugar(s). Mix again.
Separately, you want to crush the nuts and the cookies, until the nuts are smaller-than-hazelnut sized, and the cookies are in similarly sized chunks. There’s no need to make them into powder! Note that this pie doesn’t require flour, that’s because we’re making it with cookies!
Once that stuff is crushed, add it to the egg-butter-sugar mix. It’ll look something like this:
Cookie Pie Mix
Pour in the pie shell or whatever you’re using, and into the pre-heated oven it goes! I set mine to fan-bake at 150°C for 40 minutes. Times will vary (mostly, look at the pie shell you have and the type of oven, non-fan baking usually should be a bit higher, 160°C to 170°C and may take a bit longer).
The result?
Cookie Pie Ready!
Presentation may vary depending on the shell you used! Let it cool for a bit, and serve warm! If you put the unfinished pie in the fridge, heat it (or slice it first, then heat the slices) before serving, some 30s in the microwave will do.
Slice me!
Lamb Roast
Posted By Walkiry on April 30, 2009
A very easy lamb roast! Lamb is kind of an institution here in New Zealand. It’s also very tasty ^_^
Here’s a very simple roast I make when I don’t have much energy to be creative (there will be more creative roasts here now that we’ve entered winter, roasted lamb is nice in these cold days, specially if just the slow cooking in the oven is enough to heat the house!)
Simple Lamb Roast Ingredients
What do we have there?
- Lamb Shanks. Rather, whatever piece of lamb happened to be on offer at the supermarket
- Potatoes.
- Onion.
- Garlic (which I apparently forgot to put in the pic).
- Olive oil.
- Pepper.
- Paprika powder.
So, start by putting a bit of olive oil to grease the bottom of an oven tray bigh enough to fit the amount of things you want to cook without much trouble. Peel the potatoes, slice them up in thick slices, and put them at the bottom. Slice the onion in similarly thick slices, and put it on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle generously with pepper and paprika, and throw some pieces of chopped garlic on top. Then put the lamb there too.
Tray of ingredients ready.
If you want, you can do as I did there and make some cuts into the lamb, and insert some pieces of garlic into the cuts as well. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, and put the tray in. A few minutes afterwards, pour a glass of water over the lamb, so that it roasts a bit more slowly and juicily.
We’re going to take an hour to roast this, just turn the lamb after 30 minutes, and keep an eye on it. If it looks too dry, give it a bit more water.
End result? Something like this!
Yummy roast!
Yum yum! The center was still nice and pinky, but without being raw in the least. You can also use wine if you don’t want plain water.
Happy lamb eating!
Time Freaking Flies!
Posted By Walkiry on April 30, 2009
Has it really been a month since I last posted? Oh deary me. I seem to have been busy.
Why yes, I play videogames. They tend not to take that much time though. I happily go watch a movie, or go out for Quiz Night, or go to random places to watch native birds. And make random posts here, or any of the message boards I frequent. But City of Heroes had me sucked in pretty hard these last few weeks, it just appeals to the storyteller in me. It’s too bad I’m not that good at telling the stories even though I seem never to run out of ideas, I think I’m a bit like Ed Wood in that respect.
But I digress. More about Ed Wood on a later date.
(Eventually coming up: The third part of the website, random fiction writings! Just have to put them together in a decent-looking page)
Now that I’ve slowed down on making story arcs and planning missions and whatnot for City of Heroes (it’s been a very fun month anyway!), I’m back to posting stuff! I actually have several batches of pictures and recipes in the pipeline. I went as far as taking the pictures… And eating the food