Brush Valley Brewer

It seems that as of a few days ago (12/8) Jamie Oliver started a blog. This should be interesting!

Jamie Oliver: “Hey guys, I really hope that you like my new site. This is a temporary site because we are busy working on a much larger version that will have heaps of cool stuff on it. This will be ready early next year. In the meantime we still have some of the goodies available like my Diary, Cooking Q & A and a few recipes for you.”

Well, breakfast was two scratch biscuits, that Gretchen made, with strawberry jam. Lunch was a Double D from the growler we had filled at Otto's last night. I have to say, this is another area where I am disappointed. This is the third time we have gotten a growler of Double D. The first time it was great. As good as straight from the tap. The second time it went flat before we got to it. I gave it the benefit of the doubt because we did not get to it the next day. It was a day later and maybe we did not have the top on tight. This time we got back to it within twelve hours, top on tight, and it was already flat. Disappointing. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/frown.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-(" /> That is all I have to say about it. For dinner Gretchen and I made a wonderful turkey pie. A real, two-crust pie. It was great. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/smile.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-)" />

In HTML 4, you can open a link in a new window using the <code>target="_blank"</code> attribute in your anchor element, in XHTML 1.0 strict and XHTML 1.1, this attribute is not valid. So how do you get this effect using valid XHTML syntax? Javascript!



<code><a href="http://www.burpee.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;">Burpee</a></code>



This method has the benefit of working on browsers that do not have Javascript enabled or do not have the capability to open a new window.



Try it: <a href="http://www.burpee.com/">Burpee</a>



<strong>Note:</strong> You should use this technique sparingly. In general, you should design your site so that the user is in control. If they want to open a link in a new window, they already have the ability to do that.

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal. I forgot to weigh myself. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/embarrassed.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-[" />



<ins datetime="2003-12-12T13:38:00-05:00">Lunch was Panda Buffet&rsquo;s orange chicken with vegetables on chow mien with hot and sour soup and a small sierra mist. I took the shuttle over, but I walked the mile back.</ins>

We went to Otto’s for dinner. We both had a Chicken Caesar Salad and a Double D Pale Ale. Normally the romaine lettuce leaves are meticulously chosen and lightly coated with dressing. These were a mish-mash of wilted, oxidized leaves soaked and swimming in dressing. I tried to rationalize it as being busy on a Friday night due to the popularity of the place. We will give them another chance — maybe on a slower day — but I cannot see paying somebody else to serve me greens that would have ended up on my compost pile.

Breakfast was a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 160 pounds.

<ins datetime="2003-12-11T13:44:00-05:00">I walked the four miles around the university over lunch today. On the way I stopped at the <a href="http://www.hfs.psu.edu/bigonion/" title="Big Onion Web Page">Big Onion</a> and had a slice of cheese pizza and a <a href="http://www.sobebev.com/product_info/lizardline_tsunami.shtml" title="SoBe Beverages - Product Info &gt; Lizard Line &gt; SoBe Tsunami">SoBe Tsunami</a>.</ins>

<ins datetime="2003-12-11T16:22:00-05:00">Dinner was the last of the gratin and three glasses of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=4" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Pinot Grigio</a> and a slice of Gretchen&rsquo;s toasted raisin bread.</ins>

Fillet of Beef in Puff Pastry with Sauce Madeira

Recipe courtesy Wolfgang Puck

Recipe Summary

Cook Time: 1 hour 20 minutes Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

• 6 tournedos, 6 ounces each (fillet steaks, 1½ inches thick)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 shallots, minced
• 1 pound mushrooms, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds puff pastry
• 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water, lightly beaten, for egg wash
• Sauce Madeira, recipe follows
• Watercress, for garnish

In a large skillet, over high heat, saute tournedos in 3 tablespoons butter for 30 seconds on each side. Set aside to cool completely.

In the same skillet, with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, cook shallots and mushrooms until all liquid evaporates. Add cream, salt and pepper. Reduce over moderate heat to a thick puree. Cool.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Divide pastry into 6 equal portions. On a lightly floured board, roll out each portion to a rectangle approximately 6 by 12 inches and ¼ inch thick. Place each tournedo on one side of a pastry rectangle, leaving enough room to fold over.

Top each tournedos with mushroom puree. Brush edges of the pastry with egg wash and then fold it over and shape it to the contours of the meat. Cut away excess pastry and decorate as desired.

Glaze the tops of the pastry with egg wash.

Bake the tournedos 15 to 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown.

Arrange each tournedo on a heated plate and garnish with watercress. Nap the sauce Madeira around the tournedos.

Sauce Madeira:

• 1 cup Madeira
• 2 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves
• 1 cup veal stock
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper

In a saucepan, bring Madeira, shallots, and thyme to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until only ⅓ cup remains. Add the stock; continue to reduce, over medium heat, until slightly thickened. Whisk in the butter. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Yield: Makes about 1 cup

Episode#: WP1B26

Copyright 2003 Television Food Network, G.P., All Rights Reserved

Plastic: Two Paradigms Enter, One Paradigm Leaves — The Philosophy Of Mad Max: ”In preindustrial society, most people spend most of their time simply generating power with human muscles. Energy was expensive, labor was cheap. The five pound sack of rice or potatoes that sells for about $2 at the grocery store (minimum wage for about 20 minutes of work in a modern industrial society) is an excellent day’s pay in preindustrial society. It makes no economic sense to keep a compost heap and grow potatoes in your back yard in an industrial society, but all kinds of sense in a preindustrial one.

The reason we do not recycle most garbage is simply that it’s not worth our time. The time required to create any given item out of scraps (or even repair the item) is far longer than it would take to earn enough to buy the item, even working at minimum wage. Where this equation doesn’t hold true, people are already repairing and recycling.

I do not want to agree, but a friend of mine just discovered that it is cheaper to buy a new inkjet printer when the ink runs out on your existing one than to replace the cartridges in the existing one. He did just that, took it home, and threw the old one away. A perfectly functional, nearly new, inkjet printer now sitting in a landfill because it is cheaper to buy a printer <strong>with ink cartridges</strong> than to buy ink cartridges alone. <em>Go figure.</em>



Then there is this from the same thread:

I watched a blacksmith demonstrate how they used to make nails by hand. [If I recall correctly] he said that a skilled blacksmith could make about 100 an hour. If he worked ten hours doing nothing but make nails, he would have 1000 nails at the end of the day. Go down to Home Depot and look at all the nails they have in stock and think about how many days it would take to hand make those nails. The blacksmith said when they needed to demolish a building, they would burn it down so that they could retrieve the nails.

Definitely a different mindset.



Lest we get to thinking to much of ourselves, there is this (to be read with tongue firmly planted in cheek):

Oh, for those glorious days when someone — someone else, that is — would live from the scraps and castoffs of higher society! How wonderful for them — not me — to wear constantly-mended clothing, to eat thin soup made from scavenged bones, to heat their roadside shacks with dried horse dung! Oh, woe that those halcyon days are lost to this age of machines and degeneracy!

Happy Valley Ranch: Homesteader: “The ‘Homesteader’ is a single-tub cider or wine press with the same basic frame and press screw assemble as our double-tub model. It has been specifically designed as an all-purpose fruit press which is capable of grinding and efficiently squeezing apples and grapes.

“The ‘Apple Eater’ grinding attachment is conveniently mounted on the back of the press – allowing the ‘pulped’ fruit to fall directly into the tub for squeezing”

You cannot use DHCP as a security mechanism. If a DHCP client elects not to follow the protocol, a network administrator can do little, other than to track down the offending device and shut it off. A malicious user who wants to access the network can always simply make up an IP address, send an ARP request for it, and then, if it does not get an answer, use the fabricated address. Access control based on client identification can be very convinient, but it does not prevent unauthorized access to a network. [Droms and Lemon, 2002, p. 16]

Droms, Ralph Ph. D. &amp; Lemon, Ted (2002), <i>The DHCP Handbook, Second Edition</i>, Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.

Breakfast this morning was cereal. I think the scale read 159, though I do not know if I should believe my eyes.



<ins datetime="2003-12-10T15:17:00-05:00">Scott and I walked over to the Carnegie building to check out their network equipment. On the way back, we stopped at the HUB to grab some lunch. I had a salad. The walk was maybe 2 miles, round trip.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-12-11T13:21:00-05:00">Dinner was another batch of <a href="http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1950,159184-233192,00.html" title="Cooks.com | Recipe | BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND VEGETABLE GRATIN">butternut squash and vegetable gratin</a> and a <a href="http://www.sierra-nevada.com/beers/celebrationale.html" title="Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale">Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale</a>. We modified the gratin recipe to leave out the walnuts and to add a breadcrumb and paparika topping more like that on potatoes au gratin. We also salted the squash a little bit before going in to roast in an effort to kill some of its sweetness. The changes were quite successful.</ins>