eve’s Neighborhood

Mixed Berry Crisp

anna
Yesterday
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This quick and delicious Mixed Berry Crisp is a terrific ending to any meal. The warm berries coupled with the crisp slightly spicy topping (use gingersnaps!) make for a wonderful fall dessert. You can use whatever berries you like, I used a blueberry, blackberry, raspberry mix. To add a little extra flavor I mixed a few tablespoons of orange liqueur in with the berries before baking. My dad helped me out by chopping the nuts and grinding up the gingersnaps!

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Thanks Dad! Here is how you can make your own Berry Crisp:
You can find the whole recipe here. Start by placing 4 ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To make the Crisp Topping stir together the flour, sugar, chopped nuts and crushed gingersnaps

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(crush the cookies quickly in a food processor) in a bowl until combined. Work the butter into the dry ingredients until it becomes crumbly and kind of sandy. Set the Crisp Topping aside.

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In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the frozen berries, sugar, cornstarch, 1/2 cup of the crisp topping and 2 or 3 tablespoon of orange liqueur (if using).

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Divide the mixture evenly between the four ramekins. Top each of the ramekins with approximately 1/2 cup of the remaining crisp (You will probably had some topping left over.

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Just store in a ziplock baggie in the freezer to use later). Place the ramekins on the sheet pan and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes until browned and bubbling.

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Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a real treat!

and now, sleep

bunny land
6 days ago

zzz

Oh right this

matt
6 days ago
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I haven't used Vox for quite some time -- come find me over at http://mattbaume.com.

ONE MORE DAY

bunny land
7 days ago

Ten hours from now, the last day, day 60, commences.

Day 59 was long, everyone scrambling to get all of the things they forgot, or didn't have time to get.

We got a lot done, and are in good shape going into the last day. I am continually struck by how film is a business in los angeles. It's not like this is a secret, but it is something that I never really thought about.

This has been a fun excursion for me, but for everyone else, this is what they do. After this, i will have some time off to re-adjust to sunlight, then I will go to an office for a fairly normal 9 hour day. All of these people will go on to another show, on inhospitable locations, and overly catered stages. Someone was complaining yesterday about wondering if they would go to another show, because she had lost her life, working so many shows.

We had an unusually late call today. The parking lot was over full, and I was instructed to park in Sony Plaza, or some such. This is the very corporate brass-glassed building at the exact opposite side of the studio. I felt very out of place, in my dusty jeans and t-shirt. People were in suits. Nice suits.

It was valet parking, but he told me to take my keys.

After midnight when we wrapped, I walked down the pleasant fake main street, onto the older columbia studios buildings. It's kind of charming, Human scale. There is a George Burns building. It's kind of like a museum, kind of like a college. Or a mall, with a collegiate theme.

The gates at the very end, down in the older, corporate part, were locked. There wasn't a soul around. My feet hurt, and after the third locked gate, I contemplated climbing over the 12 foot spiked topped iron fence. I started yelling for security. No one was around to hear me.

I ended up at the "police station." But was it a real police station, it looked like Mayberry. One of the doors was unlocked, and i went into what seemed to be the security office where I got my badge the first day. All of the lights were on, but no one answered when I yelled hello, multiple times. I was getting pissed, I was tired, my feet hurt.

I went back out, and a golf cart had pulled up next to the building, and I started yelling hello, and I caught a guy before he went into the side door. He had a clipped accent that I can not figure out. He showed me the button next to the unlocked door. The voice in the button said that they would send someone to the gate to unlock it.

A few minutes later, a bike rode up and unlocked the huge gate.

In the plaza, there were no lights on, but the only elevator was inside. The guard at the gate told me to go into the lobby. At the top of the stairs, they had strung a dark blue nylon ropes that are used to control a line. I didn't see it until I reached the top of the stairs, and I tried to go under it, but my knees were stiff, and my backpack got caught on the rope. It knocked over a few of the poles on stands, and they started rolling down the stairs.

I scrambled to catch them both, and got it all back in order. There were two cones in front of each set of glass doors, and I realized that a security guard was standing watching me. He started to walk away and I sprung forward, and went to rattle the door with the cones in front of it, but they were't locked, and I almost smashed myself in the face with the door.

He asked me if i was okay, as if he thought I was blind drunk.

I said that I needed to get to my car, that it had been a long day, and that it had "taken me three hours to get out of the gates." I used the work fuck multiple times, but I was pleasant.

He asked me something like "what did I think my next course of action was." And I told him that I needed to get to my car, and that I needed to get the fuck out of there and go to bed.

He pointed to the elevators, explained which gates were open, and how to get out. i thanked him and waltzed into the elevator bank of a building in the middle of the night, with the blessing of the guard. Even though i had every right and reason to be there, i felt like I was getting away with something.

It turned out that the parking lot was full was because it was Wheel day, the day they tape Wheel of Fortune. I got there after the audience. A group of white haired ladies in casual warm weather attire watched me eat my hamburger today, as part of their tour.

And now comes the bed part.

ONE MORE DAY

Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

anna
Nov 19, 2009
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Maple, Walnuts and Oatmeal: sure sounds like the perfect fall combination to me, especially when they are mixed together into a delicious cookie! When I came across this recipe for Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies in the special Martha Stewart Halloween Magazine I couldn't wait to give them a try with all the toasted walnuts, real maple syrup and brown sugar. The twist in this oatmeal cookie is the addition of shredded coconut. The recipe calls for unsweetened coconut but all I had on hand was the sweetened variety. To off-set the sweetness I toasted the coconut along with the walnuts. The toasted coconut provided a great texture and nutty flavor element that wasn't overly sweet. I also added a little sprinkle of sea salt on the top of each cookie before baking. After mixing the dough together I let it "rest" in the fridge for a good 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle before baking. These cookies bake up moist and tender in the center and slightly crispy around the edges with a terrific walnut/maple flavor. The oatmeal and toasted coconut add nice texture and heft to the cookie. Here is how you can make your own with a few change that I've made along the way. All the changes I made are in italics:

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Maple-Walnut Oatmeal Cookies- adapted from the Martha Stewart Halloween Magazine
Makes 12 cookies (I made mine smaller so I ended up with around 20 cookies)
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cups unsweetened finely shredded coconut (I used sweetened coconut, toasted in the oven)
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
sea salt for sprinkling (i used this for sprinkling on the top of each cookie)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or silpat. In a bowl, combine oats, toasted coconut, flour, salt and sugar.

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In a saucepan over medium heat, mix butter and maple syrup together until melted and combined. Hint: spray measuring cup with Pam before filling with maple syrup. The syrup will slide easily out of the measuring cup! Remove from heat. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and boiling water. Immediately stir into the butter mixture until combined. Stir into the oat mixture and fold in the toasted walnuts.

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At this point I covered the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and chilled in the fridge for around 30 minutes. The recipe doesn't call for doing this but I feel it really helps the wet ingredients fully incorporate with the dry ingredients creating a better tasting baked cookie.

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Form dough into 1/4 cup balls (I used a medium sized scoop and got a smaller cookie) and place on cookie sheet about 3 inches apart, 6 to a sheet. Flatten each ball slightly.

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I added a little sprinkle of sea salt to the tops of each cookie. Bake until golden brown and set, around 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool

Exciting News from Six Apart (and the YouTube Conduit is Fixed)

Team Vox
Nov 17, 2009
42 comments

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

2 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

YouTube Conduit

Team Vox
Nov 16, 2009
10 comments

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

pink doughnut

bunny land
Nov 15, 2009

Friday, like most days, I had a doughnut. Maybe not most days, but a few times a week. There is a metal cabinet on wheels, it has three doors. In the morning, opening any of these door envelops you in the smell of doughnuts, and they are inches from me, free for the taking.

So, I've been eating more doughnuts that I would in the wild.

Friday, there was a good selection, I was reaching for the vanilla cruller, but then I saw the strawberry has little pieces of strawberry. It was good.

While I was eating it, a guy pointed out that I was eating the pink doughnut. He said it as if I must have been asleep, and hadn't looked at the doughnut. Like there was a lizard on my doughnut, and I hadn't noticed it. I was like " yeah, pink doughnut, it's good."

And then another guy looks over, and he's like, "you're eating a pink doughnut!"

At which point I was done with the doughnut.

How homophobic do you have to be to have your masculinity threatened by strawberries and food coloring?

Self Diagnosis

brad
Nov 13, 2009
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Finally. I think I have found what is causing the pain in my lower back, SI joints and hips. It also may explain my fainting episode and continuing episodes of feeling close to fainting. Just the other day I was feeling a little fainting spell coming on and I was thinking it felt like my breathing was to shallow. This is what I have:

Ankylosing spondylitis

Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats

anna
Nov 12, 2009
2 comments

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I have several adult friends that LOVE Rice Krispy Treats, you know the ones with melted marshmallows and margarine mixed with Rice Krispy Cereal? Well, I'm not quite a fan of the Rice Krispy Treat, I think they taste overly sweet with a plastic-like texture, so when I saw this recipe on the SmittenKitchen blog for a more "sophisticated crispy treat" I had to try it out! The key update on the old classic is in the browning of the butter before adding the marshmallows. Brown butter takes on a rich almost nutty flavor that is very distinctive and appealing. Add in a little coarse salt and you've taken lowly rice crispy treats and made Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats! I have to say, my Dad hates marshmallows and rice crispy treats....but he loved these! I bet you will too. Here is how you make them:

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You can find the entire recipe for Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats here. Start by buttering an 8x8 inch pan or you can do like I did and line the entire pan with aluminum foil and spray with Pam for super easy cleanup. Set the pan aside.

In a large pot melt a stick of butter on medium-low heat stirring frequently making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. The butter will become foamy and then start to get golden brown. Watch the butter carefully and stir constantly because it goes from golden to burned quickly! When the butter looks nice and golden brown remove from the heat and quickly stir in the 10 oz. of marshmallows until they become all melted and smooth. Add in 6 cups of Rice Krispies Cereal and 1/4 tsp. of sea salt or you can use coarse kosher salt like I did. Mix well to coat and spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.

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Using a oiled spatula (or you can just spray some Pam on your hands like i did) press the mixture evenly into the pan. Make sure to press down very firmly as this will help ensure that your treats don't fall apart when you try to cut them. Let the treats cool completely in the pan.

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When cool, remove from pan and cut into small squares. To package mine for gift giving I simply cut some small squares of colored wax paper and placed in between the treats.