Fat and Crafty.com

Earlier in the week I had mentioned the copyright issue with Cooks Country and a potato salad recipe.

Today while reading a community on “poor skills” I found out about mygazines.com . Its a website where people scan in and share magazines they subscribe to. They are then available for the general population to read

Great idea huh? Sure, but its not legal. The terms of service are pretty clear

By uploading, submitting or otherwise disclosing or distributing Content for display or inclusion on the Site, you represent and warrant that either

• you purchased the Content,
• you created the Content,
• you own the rights to the Content, and/or
• the Content is freely distributed by its Creator

While I’m sure these people purchased the content, I’m fairly certain that they don’t  own  the rights to the content and have the right to redistribute it. It’s like a napster for magazines going on here.

One one hand, I love the idea. I wish I could subscribe to a site like this and read the magazines i want to online. I wish I didnt have 8 magazine boxes full of old issues of magazines that I feel the need to hold on to because of the cost. I want a more environmentally friendly option as well.   I think this could be extremely useful if one wanted to promote their home published magazine or journal.

But not a kosher way to distribute someone else’s product. For the time being, my subscriptions are limited to one paper magazine, and both cooks illustrated.com and finecooking.com  the rest I’ll read at the library.

I started and nearly finished a sewing project tonight. I am 99% done with a brand new skirt.  All thats left is the hem, and I want to wait to see if Leah can get me some purple ric rac for it.

See!

Phos of it on me tomorrow. I dont want to go digging through the wardrobe for an appropriate shirt and wake people up. Cuz Im good like that.

In order to make this I 

• drafted a pattern (onto paper so I can repeat it
• made a drawstring
• cut the fabric
• sewed the seans
• sewed a casing for the drawstring
• fed the drawstring through
• Danced around the room wildly.

This is fabric from my trip to Little India in Vancouver BC. The fabric was perfect and there  is so much of it that I can make Miss Bit a matching skirt.  Maybe I’ll try another tomorrow, I’ve got two more pieces of fabric I can use.

I pulled out the stamping supplies Saturday night and took advantage of some quiet time. I worked my way through half a dozen cards and  the beginnings of a set of recipe cards. Despite efforts to clean out the craft area a week or so ago, its pretty clear that I still need to organize what is there.

When I start stamping, I usually have no real goal or design in mind. So I pull out random supplies and heap them on the desk, then try to work. Eventually inspiration strikes and I know what I want to do. So now I need something that I don’t have out, usually this means digging through another drawer of supplies looking for that one thing.

Then there are the missing and misplaced items. I’ve sold off a fair bit of my supply like stuffs. I dont have the full sets of ink pads anymore, I dont have a full set of markers, nor the crayons. It’s not that I wish I had all these items, I just have a hard time remembering what I have and what I dont. And the misplaced items. I have two carl cutters, one mini for travel and one stay at home. The mini one I pulled the blade out of and now can’t find it. The larger one lost its mat and needs that replaced. So I can stamp, but I can’t cut worth a darn.

And last night I realized, I’m starting to run out of basic supplies.  I’m running low on white card stock, the backbone of much of what I do. I also should replace my black ink. Its funny to think that I used to be a Stampin up Demo, after all I still do very simple stamping, and am so very out of touch with what is hot these days.

Yet, my inky fingers made me happy, and i think the cards i did make will be well received.

Way back when last year, when I did Deb’s Dinner Delights. I had decided that I would look for the recipe online, if i found it I would post and link, and if I couldnt find it well then I would just refer you to the source. I was concerned about running foul of those who produce these fabulous recipes I use. However, I was also aware that you can not copyright basic ingrediant lists, only the instructions.

It never occured to me that a publisher would cause a fuss over an adjusted recipe.  Melissa was inspired by a potato salad recipe in an issue of Cooks Country, she made it , adjusting it for her own personal tastes.  She posted about it, giving credit to  the source of inspiration.  Cooks Country balked, claiming it would be fine if she had asked permission, but not with the modifications. While the exchange between the blogger and PR seems a little bitchy, it was very informative for me.

As a food blogger this tells me that I can email the Cooks Country/Cooks Illustrated conglomerate and ask permission to use a recipe, and possibly will receive permission, but I can’t post that I made adjustments to it.  So if a recipe I make is based on a Cooks Country/Cooks Illustrated  recipe, but with modifications to meet my families needs (remember the litany of food issues we have?) I’m better off just claiming the recipe as my own , providing my recipe instructions are my own.

Why wouldn’t they want credit for inspiring someone?  Why wouldn’t they want a potential consumer to turn to their website for the original  recipe?  All of this copyright talk has made me hungry, and honestly I was going to share my potato salad recipe this week anyway, so why not now.

Seattlejo’s potato salad.

4-5 Big Russet potatoes

1/2 lb bacon chopped

4 hardboiled eggs chopped small. (I pus them through the tines of a square cooling rack)

1 rib celery chopped small

1 small onion chopped small

1/2 c mayo

1 small lemon

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Cook potatoes, skins on, whole.  While they cook fry up the bacon until its just beginning to crisp. In a big mixing bowl mix together onion, eggs, celery and bacon. (green pepper is nice here if you don’t have a night shade allergy in the house.)  When the potatoes are done, drain them, then peel and chop while they are still hot. You will burn your fingers a bit, but its worth it.   Add to the vegetables and give it a good stir.  In a smaller bowl mix  lemon juice squeezed from your lemon with the mayo. Add to the potato mixture, along with salt and pepper to taste . Sprinkle on the top with paprika.

Serve well chilled with burgers or some other grilled meat.

(Not inspired by Cooks Country or Cooks Illustrated or anyone but my Mom and her Potato salad that had to be adjusted for the family I have today)

I know the chemistry of bread to know it was a dumb mistake. I did it anyway.

I’m playing with the bread recipes from Artisean Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I did the No Knead bread recipe from Jim Leahy when it it was all the craze , and this new book seems to have caught my friends interest. So I shelled out the $27** for it retail and am now  on my second recipe. I wasnt over excited by the results I got with the olive oil dough, and decided I would try the beginners recipe their boule.

Since we’re a large family I opeted to double the recipe. The book said to use a 5 quart bread bucket for a single batch and 9  or 10 quart for a double batch. I opted to use  a 6 quart bucket. Its what I had and its what fit in the fridge.

I popped the top on and placed it in the fridge placing a tupperware bowl on top because the fridge is a full place.  Three hours later i pulled the bucket out to use some of the dough for dinner.  The lid that normally has a dip in it was now domed up. The yeast had given off gas and the lid had been on to tight , hence the dome.

Whoops. I gently tug on the lid and POP! The sound of bread explosion filled the room and the bucket lifted off the counter and fell on its side. Luckily no bread escaped, and the only thing bruised was my ego.

**The book was $27 retail and honestly, it seemed kind of expensive. I guess I’m used to paying $20 or so for cookbooks.  I honestly like shopping locally, but  looking at Amazons price  it seems like it makes more sense to order online.

Dear Reader,
I hope you realize that i think of you all the time. Whenever I cook something new, different, fun or interesting I pull out my camera and snap some photos. The problem? I’m much better at snapping photos of the beginning phases then i am of the end. So today you get a peek into a half photographed post.

Goat it’s what’s for dinner
The goat came from the University District farmers market. During the drizzly rainy March “We have more proccessed goods then fresh goods” season at the University District farmers market things are a little be slower. There are fewer vendors, there are fewer customers. There is no need to run to your dairy purveyor to get th eggs before they sell out, and there is time to linger and talk to the farmers a little longer then the brisk sales of summer allow.

People paused at the Goat stand, took a look and moved on. Goat doesnt have the best reputation. i stopped for a few minutes to talk with her and look over the price list. The meat was local, and fairly well priced The only problem is that goat doesnt have the best reputation at my house either and i knew the easiest way to get folks to eat it would be stew. The purveyor promised that in a couple of weeks she would have stew meat for me

I went back in early April, though it sure felt like Februrary. It was rainy and wet and gross. I picked up my 2 lbs of stew meat and while i bent over to write th check was drenched with ice cold water draining from the tent, Gah.

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It took even longer for me to make the stew. I don’t work as a short order cook very often, and I knew at least one person would be giving it a pass. (With 6 people in the house this happens occasionally. Very rarely do I turn into a short order cook.)

So I gathered my ingredients together, see?

And started a very basic stew recipe. Brown the meat, brown some fresh garlic and onions. Add carrots and potatoes, then the meat, finally some beef broth and cook
. And then, I got so into the cooking of it and the biscuits meant for it, that i forgot to take pictures! Sure I thought about it when it was all over and after I had eaten , but before that i was just too busy.

And that fact makes it hard to share with you dear readers, I feel odd sharing only the beginning of the story and not letting in come to yummy fruition.

I only hope that you will forgive me dear reader and i promise I’ll work harder in the future.

(The stew? Was fantastic. Lower in fat then beef, i cooked it slowly and it was mouth meltingly tender.)

I’m a decent cook and a decent baker. Enthusiastic as all get out for both of them. I’ve done my share of bread. From making Cinnabons at a job out of highschool, to just playing around and making our home bread, pizza , rolls and so on. That sad, this recipe I’m using has me baffled.

But first there is a story. You see my beautiful girlfriend has a graving. Sourdough with Jalapeños. All she can find is Sourdough with Cheddar and Jalapeños . Not the same thing. So she asks around and Safeway says “Sure we can do that” She orders three special loaves to bring home and enjoy. What did they do to interject jalapeño goodness into the bread? Well nothing really, they just rolled the bread in jalapeños. No Jalapeno yummyness inside the bread. This made my girlfriend sad. I dont like having a sad girlfriend.
See she’s much cuter when happy.

So I said I’d bite the bullet and try to make it. I got a packet of Goldrush while at Mrs Cooks and have been nursing the starter along. Today I started making it. Note I said started because well this recipe is long and convoluted. I’m going to summarize the steps for you.

1. Take 1 cup starter, add more flour and water, let sit 12 hours.
2. Take what you need out of that mixture, stir the rest of that into the mother starter.
3. Add flour, salt, water, starter. No yeast. Knead 15 minutes.
4. Let sit 8 hours
5. Add yeast, knead
6. Let sit 4-5 hours.
7. Bake

Seriously long times in there and the adding of the yeast so very late in the game. How the heck is my yeast going to hydrate and become part of the party? I dont understand that. And all this time. Make a baby starter, let sit, knead, let sit, add yest, let sit. Those are some crazy long proofing times, and i wonder if thats really practical in the real world.

Also, the recipes call for the starter to be kept at room temperature 80-90 degrees. WTF??? Who keeps their house at 80-90 degrees??

We’ll see tomorrow. I’m on stage four today

So we ended up at the Nortgate Mall last night, and after a nice dinner at Red Robin, we wandered a little bit. A stop in Bath and Body Works was more fruitful then the trip to Lush.
Apparently its  that time of year that everything goes on sale. I was able to stock back up on bubble bath. You see the only bubble bath I had at home was Mr Bubble  for the Bit. So for $30 I ended up with this haul 5 bottles of bubble bath, 3 bottles of bubble bath, shamppo shower gel combo, 1 bottle of shower gel for Miss Thing and  2 devil duckies.

Not bad huh? Yeah its not all  natural as other products might be, but for now it serves my purpose.

I’ve been a Lush fan since my first trip to Canada in 2000. I had forgotten shampoo and ended  up stopping at Metrotown and getting some Antiphilitron. From there it was Flying Sauces bubble bars, and bubble bath, and eventually Ibiza shampoo. I loved Ibiza.   I even remember assaulting a hotel bath tub with a karma bath melt. Gold goodness and a yummy scent. 

Lately, I’ve been feeling pretty disappointed with Lush though. Too expensive, over scented and just too much crap. When I went shopping for the thank you gifts for Miss Bits teachers, I opted for Lush gift cards (and coffee gift cards too)  While there I picked up two bars of soap and a bar of deodorant and it was $50.    Then I began using them, the first bar  Sea Veg  was no big deal, it’s got a fair bit of melting as a typical melt and pour soap will do . (Note the instructions, store well drained away from water between uses. After all why would  you store soap in the shower?)

Then I unwrapped the Sultana yesterday . The sheer number of nuts and raisins dotting the top of this drive me dotty. I like  the lather it produces, but I also dont need freaking raisins in my shower.   Last time I’d asked for a sample cut off and it worked fine. This time I just grabbed a wrapped bar and can’t be more dissapointment.

Has my romance with Lush ended? Likely not, it’s just fading. I think perhaps we need to see other people for a while. And Once Miss Bit is down in California, I think I’ll make up some of my own soap, Its been far too long.