Author Archives: Jim Vanderveen

About Jim Vanderveen

I'm a bit of a Renaissance man, with far too many hobbies for my free time! But more important than any hobby is my family. My proudest accomplishment has been raising some great kids! And somehow convincing my wife to put up with me since 1988. ;)

New gravy recipe?

Posted on 2011-11-16 by Jim Vanderveen

[SimplyRecipes][] has a [giblet gravy recipe][SRgravy] that looks interesting. I haven’t used mirepoix in my Thanksgiving gravy before, but that certainly sounds like a worthy addition! [SimplyRecipes]: http://simplyrecipes.com/ [SRgravy]: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/giblet_gravy/

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Atari lives!

Posted on 2011-11-06 by Jim Vanderveen

I got one of my two Atari 800’s out and fired it up today. My 30-year-old computer is still kicking! My wife and/or kids started typing on my old computer, and their opinion is apparent! 🙂 The old programming cartridges … Continue reading →

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The Dark Tower

Posted on 2011-10-27 by Jim Vanderveen

Back in September 2011, I (and many other geeks) was introduced to NPR’s “Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books” via [SFsignal’s amazing flowchart][flowchart]. I had already experienced about half of the books, but that still left quite a few … Continue reading →

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Quilt shop update

Posted on 2011-09-19 by Jim Vanderveen

About seven months ago, we got a notice from Sacramento County about our expired permit for the quilt shop. We renewed the permit (to avoid ever-increasing penalties), and now we’re just days away from having to call for an inspection … Continue reading →

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Chicken with peanut sauce

Posted on 2011-09-10 by Jim Vanderveen

This is my adaptation of Martin Yan’s recipe for glass noodles with peanut sauce from [A Wok For All Seasons][wfas], currently out of print. If you like this, I highly recommend that you ferret out a copy of the book! … Continue reading →

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“Terms and conditions”, another observation

Posted on 2011-09-02 by Jim Vanderveen

Back in 2007 I wrote about [RSS feeds for “Terms and Conditions”][tandc_rss] updates. But this week I have been traveling, hooking up to a lot of free wifi hotspots, and agreeing to a bunch of T&C’s, mostly [without reading said … Continue reading →

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Cucumber salad

Posted on 2011-08-30 by Jim Vanderveen

This salad is cool and delicious on its own, and it also makes a great palate cleanser between courses. I used a 2mm (about 1/12 of an inch) slicing disc to cut the cucumber very thin, sort of like pickled … Continue reading →

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Pork baos

Posted on 2011-08-29 by Jim Vanderveen

We make these pork-filled buns for our family Christmas gathering every year. This is an Americanized dim sum recipe from the 1979 Sunset Chinese Cook Book. (Some good recipes in there, buy a copy if you can find one!) We … Continue reading →

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Blue Mandarin martini

Posted on 2011-08-28 by Jim Vanderveen

Add equal parts Absolut Mandarin (orange-flavored vodka) and blue curaçao over crushed ice in a cocktail shaker. “Shaken, not stirred.” Pour into a martini glass, garnish with a half-slice of orange.

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The RBN

Posted on 2011-07-04 by Jim Vanderveen

Bill Meara has a cool [SolderSmoke blog post][SS] about the [Reverse Beacon Network][RBN]. Unlike regular (“forward”?) beacons where a station automatically transmits specially formatted messages, the Reverse Beacon Network listens for real operators calling CQ (“Does anybody wanna chat with … Continue reading →

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