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Chicken Hum Bao

06 Jun 2013 by KRAG

Simple LivingWhen the going gets tough, the tough get cooking…at least in my case.

Here’s a surprisingly easy recipe for something you may never thought you could make at home: Hum bao (aka hum-bow, aka humbow, aka “one of those big white steamed buns with savory filling you grab off the cart at the dim-sum place”).

If there’s one thing I’d stress for this recipe, it’s that you should knead the dough by hand, not with your mixer or food processor. I have two reasons.

My first reason is practical. Using a machine will overwork the dough and make it chewier than it should be when it steams up.

My second reason is personal. Working the dough by hand is good for you. It connects you to the food you’re preparing, and is an experience to be savored as you feel the dough change from crumbly to tough to pliable. You feel the dough fighting you, resisting you until, through your slow persistence, it begins to relax, agreeing to become what you want it to become.

If you say it’s faster with a machine, I’d say no, it isn’t. You’d have to set up the machine, clean it, and stow it away again. And even if that wasn’t true, if you can’t find the 8-10 minutes to spend on the task of kneading the dough, you probably don’t love cooking enough.

Just sayin’. Continue Reading »

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

One Year In

05 Jun 2013 by KRAG

Mahonia after rainToday begins the second year of this blog. It’s been an education.

Here’s the obligatory breakdown of my first year:

  • This will be the 299th post
  • The blog has garnered almost 7000 hits
  • The blog has been viewed by 137 countries

What fascinates me the most is the variety of search criteria that has sent folks this way.

Factoring out the “miscellaneous” search phrases (like “walking stick heavy end up or down”…hunh?), some things become clear.

  • People are very curious about the relative properties of dishware
    (“porcelain vs. stoneware” — 30% of search hits)
  • People are as interested in my writing as they are in some of the recipes I put up
    (both at 14% of total search hits)
  • People are nearly as interested in what a “peeper’s dry plate” is, as they are in my writing
    (“peeper’s dry plate” — 9% of search hits)
  • Movies, Seattle, and general writing topics each took in 5-7% of the total

It’s all just nerdy gee-whiz sort of figures, but it shows that I’m meeting my two major goals:

  1. I’m writing something on a regular basis
  2. I’m providing a way for my readers and potential readers to learn about my writing

So, my thanks to all of you, both subscribers and passers-by, for your interest, your comments, and your encouragement.

k

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments »

Attention on Deck

05 Jun 2013 by KRAG

To the military command structure and certain senators ([cough-Chambliss-cough]):

Now Hear This.

If you are unable to safeguard our service-men and -women from sexual assault, rape, and forced prostitution from within our ranks then you should be tossed out on your collective brass.

If you refuse to drop the attitude and if you continue to blame the victims–see Gen Welsh’s tissue-thin excuse of the “hook-up culture” of American youth or Sen. Chambliss’s unbelievably ignorant comment about it all coming down to “hormones“–then you should not only be removed from the chain-of-c0mmand you hold so dear, but you should be brought up on charges for dereliction of duty.

Sexual assault and rape are not problems caused by the military “climate.” They are not the result of off-color jokes being taken too far or fraternization gone awry. They are crimes. They are crimes against the women and men (a large fraction of sexual assaults in the military are against males) under your command, by men under your command.

What is part of the military climate is the fact that your service personnel report less than 15% of the sexual assault crimes perpetrated against them. Thousands of assaults go unreported for fear of retaliation or for fear that, after you do nothing, the victim will be “marked” within the ranks (all as stated in your own Pentagon report).

Your past efforts to deal with this wave of assaults have proven ineffective, by any standard, much less a military standard. Your assertion–nay, your insistence–that the only way forward is the path we’ve already traveled flies in the face of reason.

So suck it up, soldier. Do your duty to the men and women under your command. Admit what has been proven already: that you are incapable of solving this through a simple chain-of-command reporting structure. Realize that in this case, if you aren’t part of the solution, you are definitely part of the problem.

That Is All.

k

Posted in Culture, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

My Brain On Agile

04 Jun 2013 by KRAG

If you want to drive me completely bugfrak crazy, here’s what you do:

  1. Set me the task of fixing a system I know nothing about.
  2. Give me just enough time to analyze the system and get to the point where I juuuust barely understand it.
  3. Let me find the flaw in the system, and get an inkling of a solution.
  4. Take me off that task and set me on another.
  5. Repeat.

Do this enough times and I abso-effing-guarantee you I will go completely postal and do something rash. Like…I don’t know…make hum-bao from scratch. Or apply for a transfer to another group. (Trust me. In my case, that’s rash.)

I mean, seriously now, how hard is it to plan resources three weeks in advance?? Continue Reading »

Posted in Hi Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

EarthBox StartUp

03 Jun 2013 by KRAG

EarthBoxesSeattle has rubbish weather for vegetable gardening. It’s grey, it rains frequently, and our sunshine quotient slacks off in spring and autumn. I’m doubly unlucky in that, despite the great feng shui of my house, our little plot of land is not suited to farming, urban or otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my back garden. Mature trees, deep shade, covered deck off the second level of the house, it’s like a treehouse for grownups. But it’s not suited for vegetable gardening. I’ve also finally put the front gardens into shape, and now that Three Trunks has been taken down, the roses, the lavender, and other flowers are loving the extra sunlight.

So, where to plant a vegetable garden?

I do have this little triangular slice of land on the house’s north side, but the soil is just plain awful. Our cul-de-sac is situated on what used to be a sloping hillside. The developers took all the topsoil from our side of the street and dumped it all on the opposite side of the street to create a wide, level space to build houses. Unfortunately, this left our front garden with no topsoil. Dig down two inches (literally, two inches) past the struggling sod, and you’ll find hard-pan: a compacted, nearly concretized layer of diatomaceous soil that takes no water and allows no roots.

Solution? Raised bed gardening. Sure, but that’s one hell of a lot of work, especially if either my talents or the bit of land prove unsuitable to the task.

Solution? EarthBoxes. Continue Reading »

Posted in Gardening, Seattle | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Hard Numbers

31 May 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiReality is a test. Are you going to face it? Or are you going to reject it?

I’ve tried the latter. I don’t recommend it.

Example: for decades I believed I was a dog person. Then I lived with a dog. I’m not a dog person. I’m a “let me play with your dog” person. Don’t get me wrong; I love dogs. I just don’t want to live with them. At least, not at this point in my life. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog.

So, I’ve learned the lesson that facing reality is always the better choice.

Therefore, I took a long look at the hard numbers from my Amazing Free Book Giveaway Weekend (AFBGW). [For those of you just joining, the AFBGW was a three-day event wherein I was giving away Unraveling Time, my time-travel romance/adventure novel, for free in the Kindle Store.]

The results are pretty grim. Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

LinkedOut

30 May 2013 by KRAG

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiWe just passed the six-week mark since the Amazing Free Book Giveaway Weekend, and it’s time to start evaluating the entire process for success or failure. I’ll crunch the numbers later, but right now I want to discuss one of the “softer” aspects of the AFBGW.

As part of the AFBGW, I went out to LinkedIn and joined a few writers’ groups.

I joined these groups because it’s a quick way to reach a lot of people at one time. Writers are (presumably) readers as well, and some of these groups have membership up in the five-digits. With one post, I could (presumably) reach thousands and those posts could (presumably) drive traffic to my blog, my AFBGW promotion, and my books. In addition, the groups can (presumably) provide a venue in which to discuss Things Writerly, and I looked forward to entering discussions on style, debates on the value of writing disciplines, and reading posts on marketing strategies.

What I found was very different. Continue Reading »

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments »

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