I started my website in 2003. At the time it was hosted by the University of Michigan, where I was a graduate student. They gave all students some space for a personal website. It was really great, though it did come with some limitations, like no php or cgi allowed. I managed to kludge some … Continue reading →

I recently downloaded the vimcolor plugin for wordpress so my code samples could look nice and spiffy, with the syntax highlighting I am accustomed to seeing. There were of course a few problems. The most notable was some path problems. It was trying to use these values: <?php $in_file = tempnam($GLOBALS[‘conf’][‘file_directory_temp’], ‘pl’); $out_file = tempnam($GLOBALS[‘conf’][‘file_directory_temp’], … Continue reading →

The building where I have my server which runs this blog lost power on Wednesday, June 4th, and it finally got restored this morning. Fortunately, I am pretty religious about making backups on an external hard drive, so I had a day-old backup, and was able to upload most stuff to my dreamhost account, and … Continue reading →

I’ve been making hummus off an on since 1998, with many techniques and recipes. For awhile I got lazy and started buying store bought – I became particularly fond of 40 spice hummus by Tribe, and then they stopped carrying it, which prompted me to start making my own again, and to try to replicate the recipe. I used to use canned chickpeas, but have decided that starting with dried chickpeas is worth the effort to produce really smooth hummus. Another trick is to add a little baking soda while cooking the chickpeas – that seems to make them break down and end up really smooth. This recipe only has about 25 spices if you count the individual spices in the garam masala, but it’s close enough in my book.

This is another recipe which is mostly my wifes idea. She used to do something similar with chicken, and wanted to try it with tofu. Although the prep is quick on this one, it does take a while to bake. It makes very good leftovers for lunch though. To make good tofu, it is imperative to press it.

This dish was mostly cooked up by my wife, Clare, who undoubtedly was inspired by some recipe she found online. It is pictured here with lentil bolognese, the combination of which makes a very tasty meal.

This recipe originally comes from The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld and George Minot, in which it was originally called Chocolate Pudding. It turns out that the consistency was not much like pudding, and for awhile I tried to make it more like pudding, but my girlfriend said she liked it as it was. So I then figured out a nice way to serve it, added a little brandy for some extra flavor, and a little bit of that magic xanthum gum to thicken it up. Trust me, it’s a real hit.

Clare gets most of the credit for this recipe. The combination of corn, beans, and vegetables makes a tasty, healthy, and quick meal. It is particularly nice in the summer, since it does not require any cooking.