Noffbaughs.net

A couple of months back, our wooden baby gate was broken (apparently, you really *can't* climb on them). The rail on one end was broken completely off and one of the internal wooden pieces snapped so that it wasn't repairable, but I had kept it around my office because it seemed like there should be *some* way to use what was left.

Then inspiration struck.

I made two 8" "I" shaped pieces out of some 1x4 lumber I had around, spread out the gate to fit the ceiling space I wanted to cover, then put the "I"'s through the gaps in the gate and screwed the top bar of each "I" into the ceiling. Now we can hang clothes hangers pretty much wherever we want to in the laundry closet, and I don't have a broken baby gate in my office.

Apparently, I'm now a food blogger - not sure how that happened. In any case, this is one I make about weekly.

Use wild Pacific if you can get it, and avoid anything that claims to be wild Atlantic salmon, which no longer exists commercially. (We get Trader Joe's frozen Alaskan, because it's already skinned and we can stock up!)

You will need:

Salmon (skinless)
Sea salt
Water
Olive oil
Garlic (crushed, diced, whatever)
Black pepper

Equipment:

A deep-ish dish big enough to hold the salmon
A heavy bottomed pan, not non-stick (a 'stick' pan? cast iron works well)
A strong flipping implement

Put the salmon into the deep-ish dish; add plenty of salt (enough to coat the top of the salmon solidly) and add water to cover the fish. Let this soak for about half an hour; if you're using frozen salmon, use very hot water and let it soak for a couple of hours (or as long as you can before the guests arrive).
When you're ready to start cooking, put your (empty) pan onto high heat, then drain the salt water from your salmon. Coat the top of the salmon with olive oil, then sprinkle on garlic, salt, and pepper (save some garlic for the other side!).
The pan should be reasonably hot by now - toss in your salmon oil-and-seasoning side down, Give the newly-exposed side of the salmon the oil/garlic/salt/pepper treatment. When the top of the salmon has started to become opaque (3-4 minutes for a 1" thick piece), flip it over - you'll find that it has stuck to the pan and that the garlic on the underside has burnt a bit, which is what we want.
Cook the second side of the salmon for another 3-4 minutes. When the fish is opaque to the middle at the thickest point, it's done. Serve as soon as possible for maximum awesome.

Since I discovered it, Lifehack's One-Minute Bread has been a favorite in our house. By reducing the salt, I've been able to replace half the flour with whole wheat, or get a white-flour loaf to rise in 2-3 hours. Here's the version I make just about every day:

• 1/4 t. dry yeast
• 2 C. warm water
• 2 C. white flour
• 2 C. whole wheat flour
• 1/4 t. salt

In a large bowl, mix the yeast and water together bit to get rid of any large clumps (pro tip - let the yeast and water sit while you get out the flour and salt and most of the yeast will dissolve on its own). Add the flour and salt, stir until everything is mixed, then cover the bowl with a wet cloth and let it rest overnight (8-12 hours). In the morning, turn your dough out into a floured baking sheet/stone, pop it into the (cold) oven, and turn the oven to 400F (I'm too lazy for preheating). Pull out your loaf 30 minutes later and start eating!

My new favorite (a few days after Christmas, but still awesome):

(Also, Film Riot is one of my favorite shows)

(Cross-posted from http://scs.earlham.edu/drupalcon-dc-day-1).

Sitting at DrupalCon DC 2009; waiting for the keynote by creator Dries Buytaert with 1400 other people!

I'm working from home (to avoid sliding death on the roads), using both my work laptop (12.1" screen, small keyboard, touchpad) and our nice Ubuntu desktop (22" monitor, wireless full-size keyboard, wireless mouse), and was considering hooking up the big keyboard and mouse to my laptop just for the day. Then I remembered Synergy.

I hadn't tried ripping CDs with my Ubuntu machine yet, and discovered that Sound Juicer doesn't do MP3s by default. Once I ran this command (courtesy of Stefan Klopp's blog):
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
I then set Sound Juicer to make MP3s (Edit > Preferences, Output Format = "CD Quality, MP3 (MP3 audio)"). Now the 4-year-old will be able to listen to her newer CDs from her edubuntu machine!

Whatever else happens, Queen Latifah rocks!

I finished a computer with Edubuntu this evening for the 4-year-old, and she dove right in and started working with the various educational games. The Ubuntu Linux base is solid and intuitive, and the educational tools are great (and without the shameless marketing and pandering that so often passes for "educational" software).