CoffeeBear.net

Portal Page

*whew* I just finished setting up my portal page. It has links to all the blogs, web comics and news sites that I like to read. For the record, I know there's really more on there than I should be spending time reading but... some (most?) days I get really bored at work.

For the curious, most of blog links I found via the WordPress Support Forums. The web comics, news (including tech news) & other sites came to me through friends, links and hearsay.

Tags: coffee, friends, IM, Link, Links, PHP, portal, reading, WordPress, work

Welcome to CB.net!

Hi, I'm Mark (aka Manzabar¹). If you want to know more about me; well, you'll just have to keep reading this blog and see what you can learn as I go along.

I've had this domain for a short time now and finally plunked down the moolah to get a proper host for it (thank you Digital Sense Hosting).

I imagine if you've probably got some questions about the who/what/why of CoffeeBear.net, so here are some of the answers. If you have a question that's not answered in this post; contact me and I'll reply. Though if your question is too personal, then the reply might be no more than "I'm not going to answer that."
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Tags: annoyed, Apple, Car, chocolate, cli, coffee, comment, Computers, con, corporate, crap, drink, family, friends, geek, home, IM, iTunes, Life, linux, Love, movie, moving, MySQL, notes, office, offline, photo, PHP, problem, radio, reading, RPG, Sci-fi, Software, sound, tea, tv, Upgrade, video, Video Games, war, windows, WordPress, work, working, writing

Dynamic Text Replacement Plugin

Dynamic Text Replacement Plugin

Just posting this link here because I think I might want to use this in my site redesign.

Tags: IM, Link

Vanilla Monkfish

I found this tasty recipe in a comment over at The Amateur Gourmet.

Vanilla Monkfish

Ingredients (Serves 2)
• 1 monkfish tail (you can do it with filets of any plain cheaper fish too, but monkfish is much better, and if you can afford vanilla, you might as well go for the expensive fish too)
• 1 lime (clean it well to rub all the chemicals away as we want to use the zest)
• cr�me fraiche
• aluminum foil
• half a vanilla bean

Directions
1. Heat your oven to about 180C (about 350-360 degrees F).
2. Cut the aluminum foil into 2 big squares.
3. Cut the monkfish into 2 pieces and put one on each sheet.
4. Open the half vanilla bean and scrape the seeds onto the fish.
5. Then grate the zest of the lime onto the fish (doesn't it smell nice?).
6. Sprinkle with a bit of salt.
7. Then pour a big spoon of cream on each portion of fish.
8. Fold the aluminum around the fish until you get 2 airtight bundles (what's the English for Papillotte?).
9. Put them into the oven and bake for probably about 10 minutes (I'm being totally random there, but it should be all right).
10. Serve with white rice, and maybe a couple of slices of mango

Tags: dinner, fish, Food, recipe

Avgolemono

I saw this over at mediatinker and decided to copy here because I really want to try making this some time.

Avgolemono

Ingredients (serves 3-4)
• 4 chicken filets, or 1 skinless breast diced
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1/2 can water
• 1/2 c rice
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 Tblspn milk
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions
1. In a stock pot, cook the chicken quickly over high heat until seared. Pour in the stock and water.
2. Add the rice, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
3. In a bowl, beat together the eggs and milk until very well blended.
4. When the rice is cooked, pour the egg mixture into the boiling soup in a thin drizzle, stiring to form egg threads.
5. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and parsley.

Variation 1: use 10 finely sliced shiso leaves instead of parsley.
Variation 2: add some diced carrot with the rice. Add 1/2 cup chopped spinach after the rice is done and allow to cook down, then do the egg threads.

Tags: chicken, dinner, Food, recipe