Author Archives: Garrett Wollman

Chocolate chip cookies two ways

Posted on 2014-04-13

A few weeks ago, I made chocolate-chunk cookies from Joanne Chang’s Flour cookbook. I was disappointed, since I had had these at the actual Flour bakery numerous times, and mine weren’t nearly as good. I discovered two significant issues. First, … Continue reading →

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A useful trick when photographing food in the kitchen

Always buy plain white paper towels. When you want to photograph something you’re preparing, just crumple up a paper towel and make sure you get it in the frame. Then you have an accurate reference for white-balancing your photograph, without … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2014-04-02 | Tagged ,

Jeff Smith’s “Serbian Pork Seasoning”

Posted on 2014-04-01

People my age or older who have been cooking for a long time probably remember Jeff Smith, the Methodist minister known as “The Frugal Gourmet” in PBS television series and related cookbooks. He was perhaps the last of the “old-style” … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Is there a photo gallery app that doesn’t suck?

Posted on 2014-03-31

I’m looking for a new photo gallery application, and I’ve been having terrible trouble finding one that is worth the disk sectors it’s written on. I know something about writing such things, because I wrote the one I’m using now … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia, Broadcasting & Media, Computing | Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

On canned tuna and tuna salad

Posted on 2014-03-30

Canned fish is an odd thing in general, a relic of a previous era when there was no practical way of transporting highly perishable foods over long distances, so it had to be preserved (by drying, salting, or smoking) or … Continue reading →

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Fun with SQL: The U.S. city with the most AM stations

Posted on 2014-03-27

A friend asked me a radio trivia question with a surprising answer: what U.S. city has the most licensed AM radio stations? (This question had apparently stumped him when a friend asked him, and now he was trying to stump … Continue reading →

Posted in Broadcasting & Media, Computing | Tagged , , ,

PSA: How to make buttermilk from regular milk

My blog stats are showing a lot of people ending up here after searching for “how to make buttermilk from regular milk”. You can’t. Buttermilk — real buttermilk — is made from cream, not milk. You can only make a … Continue reading →

Aside | Posted on 2014-03-19 | Tagged , ,

Diane St. Clair’s Old-fashioned Spicy Gingerbread

Posted on 2014-03-18

There are two very different desserts going by the name “gingerbread” in this country. One is a stiff, rolled-dough cookie, which is commonly used around Christmastime to make gingerbread houses and other constructions. The other, far less common (at least … Continue reading →

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A very frustrating day of (not) cooking

Posted on 2014-03-16

I had planned to post here tonight about two different recipes from Diane St. Clair’s The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook: a gingerbread and a lasagna. I never had time for the first, and the second was a near-complete failure. Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Making your own (cultured) butter is crazy simple

Posted on 2014-03-15

(With apologies for the click-bait post title — I just couldn’t resist.) Continuing my series of food posts from Diane St. Clair’s The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook, I was going to be making her buttermilk lasagne today, but ran out … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment