Booboolina’s Neighborhood

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

I'm experimenting with moving my blog! Hilarious, I know - what blog??? is a valid question.

My main reason is that I never liked that Vox requires membership to post. I used to have some readers who would email me and mention that they kept up with it, but they didn't want to join vox just to comment. And we all know that a blog without comments gets a little lonely.

I may miss some of the Vox tools, though - uploading photos is a real pain on Blogger, so don't delete this blog from your feed (those one or two of you who are linked to it).

I'm keeping my name the same; I've been bookishbiker for a long time now, and couldn't think of anything equally tidy to use instead. The focus will be more of the same and then some. I'll probably write more about food, and my NEW interest, gardening: I'm putting in a garden with others in my apartment building! (I'm nominally in charge, which surprises no one who knows me. Despite my total lack of knowledge about gardening, I'm good at being bossy in a diplomatic fashion.) (I hope it's diplomatic, anyway.)

In order to jump start my life over there, I'm going to pick a challenge - daily posting for a month, perhaps, or some sort of photo-themed challenge.

Please visit. Fear not: I'm not leaving YOU, my neighborhood buds. I'll add your blogs to my feed so I know when you update, because I care!

http://bookishbiker.blogspot.com/

The Amazon Conduit will be working again on October 15, 2009. Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Have a great weekend,

daisy, Team Vox

In my last Team Vox post, I let you know that we're aware that the Amazon conduit is broken and that we're working to fix it. Many of you want to know when it's going to be fixed and I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you about that sooner.

Unfortunately, I don't have an exact date to give you, but rest assured, the Amazon conduit will be fixed in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I'm about to finish my latest book and I could use a few suggestions as to what to read next, so... if you don't mind, let me know in the comments what's on your nightstand and/or what book you think I absolutely must read next.

Thanks! :)

daisy

Some of you may have noticed that right now you cannot add books from Amazon to your Vox library. Giving people a glimpse into what's on your night stand is important to many of you, so I just wanted to reassure you that we are doing our best to get this bug fixed. I'll keep you posted.

So sorry for the inconvenience.

Hope you have a great weekend!
daisy

For lunch last week, I gathered some pasta salad ideas, and then changed them completely.
I bought:

• 1 pound of pasta
• 2 cans of black beans
• 1 can of fire-roasted diced peppers & chiles
• 1 red pepper
• 1 lime
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 ear corn

From my pantry: some shredded cheese (okay, that was in the freezer), some plain yogurt, salt & pepper. Ignore the bottle of vinegar in the picture; I didn't use it in the end.

I dirtied extra dishes for this picture, but I didn't care. If I were not Documenting for Posterity, I would just dump all the bits and pieces into one large bowl.

Wow, am I a good cook.

Cream scones, which were so amazing out of the oven I wanted to marry myself:

Recipe:
Cream Scones from Cook's Illustrated: The Quick Recipe

I doubled the recipe. Makes 8 good-sized scones for each batch, and of course they could be made smaller. Original recipe:

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 T unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1/2 cup currants
1 cup heavy cream

My mods:

• omitted the currants.
• when I made the double batch, I used 5 T sugar total, so maybe 2 1/2 T for a single batch
• added zest & juice of one lemon
• added some recently-dried rosemary. maybe 1/8 or 1/4 tsp total - made for a very (maybe TOO) subtle effect
• for next time, I will not use heavy cream. maybe whole milk?

To make: sift together the dry ingredients (incl the rosemary & zest)
Cut in the butter - it will still be very dry
Pour on the cream and stir til just mixed
Put onto a floured surface, gather into a cohesive lump, knead for just a few seconds to get it all together, flatten out a bit, and cut into ~8 scones (or even more! they're quite big!)
Bake in a 425 oven for 12-15 minutes

Then I made a strawberry-basil topping to smear on the scones. I knew I wanted some sort of basil topping to go with strawberries, and some Google searching led me to this recipe:
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2006/06/strawberry_basil_pesto.php

Here are the original instructions:

Pesto Fraise Basilic

35 grams (1/3 cup) freshly grated Parmesan
35 grams (1/3 cup) whole blanched almonds, toasted
A small handful (about 1/3 cup) fresh basil leaves
5 small strawberries (or 3 large), hulled [be sure to use fragrant and full-flavored strawberries: if they're a bit bland, I'm quite sure they'll get lost in the battle]
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper

Makes about 1/2 cup (the recipe can be doubled).

Blend the Parmesan, almonds, and basil (I have a mini chopper, so I doubled the recipe, but did one batch at a time.)

 

Add strawberries and blend some more. Then add olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. I never got it perfectly smooth, but I liked it kinda chunky-looking. 

My mods:

• I made a double batch. After tasting, I then doubled the strawberries again - I wanted a big strawberry taste
  
• I added a splash of balsamic vinegar (2 tsp total, maybe - definitely to taste)
• I then stirred this into some mascarpone cheese - maybe half of a little 8-oz package

Finally, I made a strawberry topping: I sliced enough strawberries to fill a pint jar. Added 2 T sugar and 1 T balsamic vinegar, and let it stew in its juices.

Here's the yumminess ready to go:

And here's my breakfast this morning:

 Insert self-satisfied belly rub here!