triviageek

1. my nanowrimo efforts (on whose forum boards I stumbled across the link to the procrastination-hack technique)


2. or my messy home environment (where I regularly fail miserably to achieve my own vow to tidy up).

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

If you haven't seen Good Night and Good Luck, you must.

 

THREE BERRY BUTTER CAKE

This cake, bursting with berries, is perfect for a picnic. Dress it up for company with unsweetened whipped cream and a simple vanilla custard sauce.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 hr


1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
6 cups mixed berries (1 3/4 lb) such as raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar




Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13- by 9- by 2-inch metal baking pan, then line bottom with wax paper and grease paper.

Heat butter with cream in a small saucepan over low heat until melted, then cool.

Beat eggs, granulated sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on high speed until mixture is thick, pale, and forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted, about 5 minutes with a standing mixer or about 12 minutes with a handheld. Add zest, baking powder, and vanilla and mix on low speed until blended.

Add 1 1/4 cups flour and half of butter mixture and mix on low speed until blended. Mix in remaining butter and 1 1/4 cups flour in same manner. Increase speed to medium and beat 1 minute with a standing mixer or 2 minutes with a handheld, or until batter is thick and sticky. Add berries and carefully fold in with a rubber spatula until barely combined. (Raspberries will begin to fall apart, and batter will look slightly pink.) Spoon batter into baking pan, gently smoothing top. Bake in middle of oven until springy to the touch and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack.

Run a knife around edge of cake, then invert rack over cake and flip cake onto it. Remove wax paper and reinvert onto a platter.

Just before serving, dust with confectioners sugar.

Makes 12 servings.
Gourmet

The emergency DC evacuation plan is to clear the city in 6 hours, something we can't do during a normal rush hour. I figure the first hours, maybe days of a disaster, is that your feet will be your best friends. You may only have to run a block or two. Or you may have to walk dozens of miles. It's happened before. During the riots of the 1960s, during blizzards, during 9-11. And it will almost certainly happen again. Think about New Orleans!

Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security waited five days to tell D.C. health officials that six bioterrorism sensors had detected the presence of a dangerous bacterium on the Mall, where tens of thousands of people had gathered for an antiwar demonstration. So far, there have been no confirmed cases of anyone getting sick.

The change in Indiana law to require marriage as a condition for motherhood and criminalizing "unauthorized reproduction" was introduced at a summer meeting of the Indiana General Assembly's Health Finance Commission on September 29 and a final version of the bill will come up for a vote at the next meeting at the end of this month.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire comes to theatres on November 18th

A British rower has set a record for the slowest-ever Atlantic crossing, coming ashore in southern England Friday, 124 days after leaving North America.

The time was a disappointment, considering the 23-year-old rower, Oliver Hicks, had hoped to break the record of 62 days for the fastest west-to-east crossing.