Brown Rice Ginger Croquettes

I invented these with my daughter one weekend evening. We just started mixing things together and ended up with these yummy croquettes. The batter is quite runny and chunky so kind of falls apart. I wonder how the Brattleboro Food Coop gets their Indonesian Rice Cakes to stick together? Our secret was just heat--cook one side thoroughly before flipping, and they don't fall apart as much.


Recipe in brief: Mix together in a bowl tamari, cooked brown rice (maybe 2 cups?), grated carrot, grated ginger, 2 eggs, flour (1/2 cup or so), sunflower seeds, and 1/2 onion that you have sautéed. Form into rough patties and put on hot cast iron pan or non-stick pan. Cook one side thoroughly before flipping (peek to see if it's browning). Flip carefully and cook the other side.

Serve with more tamari for dipping.

"Slaughtered": EP from Memory Tapes

You know how some people choose a perfume or cologne, then purposely wear that scent every single day so that it becomes their scent? And every time you get close to them, you can smell it? And every time you smell it somewhere else, you think of them?

Here's what I'd like to do. The same thing, but with audio. I want to hook up tiny speakers and perpetually broadcast music, very softly but very constantly, so that whenever someone is close to me they can hear it. And if they hear something like it elsewhere, they'll think of me. I also have the music selected, it is Memory Tapes. Particularly the new Modular People EP release called "Slaughtered." I just want this on around me all the time, rising off me like a signature scent.

The track is over 22 minutes long, but here's a tiny taste someone posted on Soundcloud. If you like, go download the whole thing! It is delicious! Thank you Memory Tapes for this damn fine free EP.

Memory Tapes - snippet of Slaughtered by jobsmit

How You Like Them Apples?

The death of Steve Jobs, when I consider it from a purely selfish, personal level, feels like the death of John Hughes to me. It feels like the end of an era, and it's my era. I grew up on these computers. My brain is wired a certain way because of them. They are such intuitive, comfortable products that they don't seem like gadgets or accoutrements or "products," they just seem like logical extensions of what I want.

I can never bear to get rid of them. Each Mac is a monumental and significant part of my life when I'm using it, so I keep them around even when I'm not. Do you do that? I think about the papers written, the games played, the fonts selected, the avatar badges built pixel by pixel, the terrible Photoshopping attempted. The flight simulators. The desktop photos I have loved. With the iPod, the miles I've driven and run in its musical embrace. These products are alive--from the 512K to the iMac, from the iMac to the Mac mini, from the Mac mini to the MacBook (wait, I still use both of them, one is for sitting and one is for lounging in bed). I have to keep them, and other family members seem to feel the same. We collected all of the Apple products in the house and did a photo shoot.

Pictured, clockwise from left: MacBook, Macintosh 512K, Applewriter printer, a "dual G5 MacPro" (that silver thing isn't mine so I have no idea what it's called), a ruby iMac, in the middle 2 Mac minis and an iPod.

Not pictured: A blue iMac exactly like the ruby one on the right. An Apple Newton that we decided was un-Jobs. A Touch that is probably lost in a pile of papers somewhere.

The Macintosh 512 K is the most meaningful of these, and was the most useful and fun for years. Like 16 years. We got it in 1984, and this computer got me through high school, college, grad school, chef school, and 3 years after that, until I finally was given a new computer in 2000. (Thanks Mom!) The "p" key on the keyboard was not in good shape toward the end. The 512K still worked the last time I tried it, but I fear it doesn't work any more so I don't want to turn it on again and be crushed. My favorite thing to do on the Macintosh 512K was play this labyrinth game that I could never win. I played it for years and years. In college I also got a copy of Tetris. Of course everything had to be on disc because the thing only had 512K. That was a GREAT COMPUTER. (The printer was great, too.)

Old school.

Woodworking Studio

There's something about autumn and studio tours that goes together so well. If you're driving around looking at foliage anyway, why not stop and visit some creative people in their habitats? I highly recommend the annual Putney Craft Tour, happening every Thanksgiving weekend (this year it's November 25th-27th). Do not miss Ken Pick's pottery studio, where you can trace ceramic finger labyrinths and enjoy hot cider from the top of the wood stove while you chat with the artist.

This weekend the Vermont Crafts Council put on their Foliage Open Studio Weekend and we stopped by Jason E. Breen's woodworking place in the Brattleboro hills. It was a neat place and nice to meet Jason and learn how planes work. Here are a few vignettes.

Tools! That lighting makes it like some olde oil painting.

Clamps (?)

Bits!

Well-used brush, scissors