• 2 acorn squash
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• ½ c. pine nuts (or slivered almonds)
  
• 2 Tbsp. ground unsweetened cocoa
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 3 Tbsp. fresh grated ginger
  
• ¼ c. dried cherries (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used a firm raw goat’s milk cheese)
• Balsamic vinegar

Directions

Halve acorn squash and remove seeds. Cut a small bit off the bottom so they sit up correctly. Place opening up in a microwave and cover with parchment paper or cling film. Heat on high for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat, heat pine nuts until aroma is released. Add ground beef and brown; do not drain. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add cinnamon, cocoa and cayenne pepper. Stir until beef is well coated. Add ginger, and optionally dried cherries. Stir until aroma is released. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill squash with beef mixture and return to microwave for 5-6 minutes on high. Cover with grated cheese and melt in microwave for 30-45 seconds.

Serve, drizzling balsamic vinegar over each squash half. Goes well with quinoa and sweet potatoes.

If guests prefer a more “rich” meal, add brown sugar or butter to the toppings.

Ingredients

• 4 baby eggplant (aubergines)
• 150g ground pork
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 thumb ginger, finely minced (about double the volume of your garlic)
• 1/2 tsp. doubanjiang, aka 辣豆瓣酱
• 1/2 tsp. this stuff (can anyone help with a real English name other than “maaraajyan”?
• 1 tsp. Chinese sweet black miso, aka 甜麺醤
• 1/2 tsp. chicken bone soup boullion dissolved in 150mL water (can substitute chicken boullion or 150mL real chicken bone stock)
• 1 Tbsp. Shaoxing rice wine (or other Chinese cooking rice wine)
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp. hot sesame oil (or more to taste)
• 2 Tbsp. canola oil
• 1 Tbsp. potato starch (or wheat or corn starch, if you absolutely must), dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 green onion, chopped or diced finely
• Some Szechuan peppercorns

Cut the eggplants in half, scoring on the skin at a 45 degree angle to the length of the eggplant. Soak the eggplant in salted water for 5 minutes, then drain. Stir-fry eggplant in hot wok and canola oil. Remove eggplant from pan. Drain oil. Brown ground pork in wok. Add all seasonings, save potato starch/water mixture, green onion and Szechuan peppercorns. Cook for 45-60 seconds to reduce liquid by half. Remove from heat, adding starch/water slurry to thicken sauge. Serve over medium-grain sticky white rice; season at table with freshly ground Szechuan peppercorns and green onion.

This recipe also makes excellent mapo tofu by substituting firm tofu for the eggplant.

Pictures coming soon.

Rather than dive into a solipsistic morose ramble (screw all you self-obsessive types), I think I’m going to focus on the sun, and hope that a weekend of not thinking about work, school, or anything else that’s obligatory “cures” me. If not I will find out what’s behind all of this when I go on vacation the middle of next week.

Even if Twitter solves their reliability concerns, plurk just feels more alive. It’s not a single thread with everyone’s crap mixed in (and hacks like #hashtags). It’s a threaded timeline: part web forum, part IM, and part IRC. And yes, a bit twitter, too. I like the fact that it’s Web 2.0 enough for my friends who won’t get on IRC (still my #1 place for synchronous) and that the web layout is attractive. The “get more points to get more features” thing is a pain, but I’d rather have that than some sort of “pay us $$ to get more features,” I think.

I moved over to plurk when some of my friends followed Leo Laporte over. I’m not a personality cult-er, but I do like keeping tabs on my friends. And I’m finding that plurk’s interface encourages more synchronous collaboration (read: chatting) than twitter ever did. In about 48h on the service I’ve managed 15 “plurks” (microblog entries) and 38 responses; I never hit that level of engagement with twitter.

Once they add some sort of SMS interface (I can’t get their IM interface to work…) it’ll be a sure fire hit, I think.

So you twitter types out there: would you miss me from twitter if i semi-abandoned it?

I am stressed and overcommitted with work, school, programming projects, home construction, home garden, my feline companion, and preparation for conference presentations. I think this is the real cause of my illness.

I’m also committed to travel for the next 3-4 weeks.

I need to ease up on myself; I don’t see that happening anytime soon. :(

Catch me on IRC or twitter if you want to connect.

I can’t stop watching this.

• that even modern dishwashers still come with service technician notes behind the kickplate, though they no longer include exploded parts diagrams,
• that, if a chopstick breaks in half in the washer, it will melt partially, then drop into the chopper assembly, further mangling things,
• that rocks in the chopper assembly are also bad things, though the built-in plastic guard prevents them from becoming horrible things,
• that the rubber valve assembly in the tube that feeds the middle and upper spin arms is horribly specified, and easily sticks open,
• that by turning said valve assembly upside down, you can prevent a large leak (by mating the stuck-open hole with the normal position of the upper drawer - high or low),
• that increasing numbers of parts inside dishwashers are now plastic, grrrr,
• that plastic inlet valves are fragile, and moving them even the slighest bit for purposes of service can cause them to start leaking a bit during inrush of fluids (fixed for now with old absorbant facerag on floor),
• that someone had rearranged most of the hand tools in the basement (shakes fist), and
• that the built-in diagnostic mode for the dishwasher is fun to use.

I am waiting for the Good News that should come when the dishwasher ends its normal cycle in about 90 minutes, I open the door, and the dishes and utensils are actually clean.

• Work: supporting new projects as usual, writing position papers, working on newsletters, technical enablement, beta testing.
• House: cooking every night (pasta from scratch, ramen from scratch, gourmet hamburgers…will try and post some pics soon), planning garden, staring at wall that needs repairing and trying to motivate to fix it, regular cleaning, indoor gardening…
• School: Developing axiology, epistemology, methodology for design research approach. Gave guest lecture on internal Wikipedia politics.
• Other: Dealing with horrendous migraine. Developing novel database application. Attended One Of A Kind show with friends and got fabulous clothing, jewelry, housewares. Reverse engineering synth. Looking at motorcycle today. Petting cat to deal with stress from everything else i listed.

• one 1½ kg chicken, washed and dried, dressed
• one medium onion, coarsely chopped
• one garlic clove, coarsely chopped
• 2 chili peppers (your choice of heat levels)
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 tbsp sunflower or canola oil
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• ½ tsp whole fenugreek
• ½ tsp finely grated lemon rind (fresh or dried)
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine onion, garlic, chili peppers and 2 tbsp coconut milk in blender; puree. Grind all whole spices in a spice mill or mortar and pestle. Heat oil in heavy skillet. When hot, add onions and spices, mixing rapidly and frequently. Remove from heat when puree pulls away from the pan.

Use spatula and puree to spackle the chicken. Place breast up in a baking pan, filled with the rest of the coconut milk. Place pan in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over, basting with the milk. Return to oven for an additional 60 minutes, basting every 15-20 minutes wiht the coconut milk. For the last 20 minutes, increase temperature to 400°F, turn chicken over again, and brown the breast meat. Remove when done (a meat thermometer helps).

(It was so good, I couldn’t help but start eating before taking a photograph…)

Serve with basmati rice and an arugula-and-tomato salad.