Round Up

In this round up: cake not from a box, bread not from a box, churros not from a box, water from thin air (aren't you glad I didn't say "not from a box"?), save the planet by drinking less booze, ironing board cover, comic book shop, vote YES on Prop. 5

I made my own frosting the other day for a belated birthday cake for David. The frosting went over really well. Now I'm contemplating making a whole cake from scratch. Not Martha linked to this awesome recipe (I haven't tasted it, but I know it's awesome because one of the steps is "Wonder at your own glory."), so now I want to try it. I wonder if almond extract would have the same effect on David as an actual almond? I.e., should I substitute vanilla extract or risk turning my husband into The Exorcist baby?

In other, less nauseating, from scratch news, I baked my mom's recipe for yeast rolls for the first time the other day. Awesome. I had the yeast on hand because I was fantasizing about making challah after reading two weeks ago's Sunday New York Times Recipe Redux. Now CHOW has to tempt me with these new and short-cuttier no-kneed bread recipes from the New York Times. But they require a casserole dish with a lid to bake, which I don't have. Might have to go on another bakeware binge at Bloomies.

And how crazy is it that I had Mexican Chocolate Pot de Creme with churros in La Jolla this weekend on the eve of the Sunday New York Times publishing a recipe for churros?

I love the idea of a dehumidifier that produces potable water, via Re-Nest, but I totally wish this worked indoors instead of outdoors. Though if everyone in Georgia used this, that place might be a lot more comfortable to hang outside. Of course, they're in a drought, so it's kind of selfish to drink the humidity that could be made into a helpful cloud.

Mother Jones reports a study describing how food manufacture contributes to global warming and what specific changes to your diet to make to reduce your menu's greenhouse emissions. One suggestion: eliminate "'unnecessary' foods with little nutritional value like alcohol, which it says contributes 1.5 percent of emissions from food." Check. Another suggestion: eliminate chocolate, another "unnecessary" food. Now that's just crazy talk. But here are some other suggestions that some might consider less insane:

using microwaves more often, covering cooking pots for efficiency, shopping on the Internet, and accepting "different notions of quality"—presumably eating bruised peaches.

I have needed to recover my ironing board for so very very long. It's not as simple and intuitive as you'd think. Whip Up posted a link to a tutorial by Make Something. It's in a very pretty photo format. It doesn't seem to mention padding, so I might have to modify it so I can add a layer of Insul-bright batting. Without the padding the pattern of the metal of the ironing board comes through onto my fabric.

Unfortunately the coolest name ever for a comic book shop is already taken, The Secret Headquarters. But I think Bob's dream comic book shop could certainly be informed by the design aesthetic of The Secret Headquarters. Via DesignSponge.

I had the harrowing experience of learning that my in-laws had plain not voted on ballot referenda in their home state because the wording was so unclear, they weren't really sure what they would be voting for or against. If you think you might not vote on referenda in your state because you don't know enough about them, leave a comment with your state and I will do some research for you. Here in California, the Secretary of State has a lovely website with the full text of each proposition, and perhaps more importantly, a pro and con section to show you who supports and who opposes each proposition and why. This was pivotal in clarifying that Proposition 5 is NOT a horrible tough on crime pile of crap, like it sort of sounds from the text. In fact, it's full of smart alternative sentencing options as briefly mentioned by Prof. Berman in his Sentencing blog.

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