Categories
Etc

Grand Valley State’s New Music Ensemble

Today I stumbled into something new. On NPR (via Dave Winer), I found a wonderful recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians by the Grand Valley State New Music Ensemble.

GVSU is on west side of Michigan and not that well known for their music program, but this recording and the amount of time they put into perfecting it is rather astounding. It’s a bit like listening to live ambient, but amazingly rich and textured. I’m not usually into this kind of thing, but this particular composition is just wonderful. There’s also a much higher quality Quicktime of the trailer available if you’re interested.

Categories
Etc

Noise

In an attempt to cut down on the noise on this blog, I’m starting another one based on Chyrp for all the random crap I find.

Update: I pulled noise back down. Everything is back to living right here in the main blog.

Categories
Food

Truffled

Today we’re making truffles for a neighborhood holiday party. I’d never done it before and I’m a bit shocked at how easy it is to make what’s usually a fairly pricey treat at a store. It’s just twice as much chocolate as heavy cream (by weight), plus a bit of vanilla extract and maybe some liquor (we’re using Grand Marnier).

  1. Bring the cream to a light simmer
  2. Dump over the chopped up chocolate
  3. Whisk until smooth
  4. Add the vanilla and liquor, whisk a bit more
  5. Cover and chill

In a couple hours we’ll pull ’em out, roll them into truffle looking balls and cover in confectioner’s sugar or cocoa power or roasted hazelnuts.

I think “easy as making truffles” is my new saying.

Oh, and Mandy had never had Grand Marnier in a snifter before… I think she likes it. She’s also picking up some barista skills with the Silvia, just needs some more practice steaming milk and I’ll be out of a job.

Categories
Food

Poor Man’s Valencia Mocha

Here’s my just discovered recipe for a quick and easy valencia mocha.

Ingredients:

  • One cafe latte or cappuccino, preferably homemade
  • One chocolate orange, preferably the one you gave you wife in her stocking, but any will do.

Take a bite out of a slice of the chocolate orange and drink some coffee. Damn that’s good.

Categories
Computers

Bigger isn’t always better

Thanks to Paul, I stumbled upon one of the best essays I’ve read this year: Code’s Worst Enemy. If you write code for a living, be sure to check it out.