Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Recipes for prison time?

Since investigating the bisongrass vodka issue, I saw this post on Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn blog on how to make crema di limoncello at home, with an eye toward Christmas gifts. Sounds yummy! Unfortunately, it's so incredibly illegal. It looks like making bottles of this sort of stuff means you are an unlicensed, unbonded processor of distilled spirits. Apparently unless it's to be sold in single servings for immediate consumption, even bartenders shouldn't infuse their own booze.

In conclusion: sorry, guys, for encouraging you to become felons. Don't make this or these, even if they look delicious. Or if you do, try to drink it all immediately.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I do not endorse this list.

I like how Bujold is listed in this chart as an option for those completely without humor. I cannot recall smiling at anything outside of A Civil Campaign.

The list as a whole is a cheat, since many of the entries are for series, not individual books.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Lard: The other white fat

I made my standby quiche lorraine today but subbed 1.5 ounces of farmer's market lard for the shortening in my usual pie shell recipe. It smelled weird and was a bit more delicate to handle, which did not bode well. But: no cracks, no holes, no burnt bits, just straight up flaky/crumbly magic. Also, $5 for a quart is much cheaper than butter. I highly recommend this to everyone.

In which wedding shopping eats my brain

I'm looking at veils and and having flashbacks of LSAT logic games, except without logic and with insanity. (N.B. I only care about certain wedding things, one of which is my clothes. If every decision was like this, I would explode.)

Bride wants to wear a veil during the ceremony and the reception. What veil(s) should Bride buy, given the following constraints?

Bride must wear a chapel-length (70"+) veil during the ceremony.
Bride cannot wear an unbustled chapel veil during the reception.
Bride can bustle a chapel veil by attaching a clear loop to the underside of the veil comb and pulling part of the veil through it to shorten.
No layer of the veil at any time can be between 18 and 25 inches long.
No layer of the veil at any time can be more than 80 inches long.
Bride can wear a bustled chapel veil or a birdcage veil during the reception.
If Bride wears a birdcage veil for the reception, she can buy either a firm silk or a soft silk chapel veil.
Soft silk looks less like nylon, which is the point. 
If Bride tries to switch veils, there is a significant chance that Bride's hair will get trashed.
If Bride bustles a chapel veil, it should be made of firm silk, lest it wad up like a towel on her head.
If Bride wears a single-layer chapel veil, then the number of layers when bustled is three, with the bustled loop either on top of or beneath the end of the veil.
Unbustled single-layer veils look better with edging than without.
If Bride wears a double-layer chapel veil with blusher, the number of layers when bustled is four, with the (edged?) blusher layer fully covering the bustle.
Four layers sounds pretty much opaque.
But maybe so is three.
Opaque is probably okay with scattered crystals.
Opaque with unseen edging is a waste of money. 
Soft silk cannot have crystal edging or scattered crystals.
Birdcage veils have scattered crystals. 
Bride likes shiny things.
Chapel veils can be gathered or ungathered. Gathered is better with firm silk than soft silk.

Which veil purchases are the utility maximizing choice for Bride? [number of veils, veil length, veil material, number of layers, gathered/ungathered, edging/no edging, crystals/no crystals]