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Penne pasta with grilled courgettes and pine nuts
This pasta dish is a great one for when I’m stumped for something to cook. Other than the courgettes the rest of the ingredients are usually in the cupboard. It’s reasonable simple to prepare as well - not to mention really tasty.
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New look, now to get busy writing!
Back at the beginning of February I Threw away my previous design (if you could call it that!) and stripped things back to a bare bones, wireframes look. I then added a little css to at least pretend I cared. I then managed to get a few recipes and other bits ‘n bobs up. Then came a little downslide in production due too being busy, not to mention a little bored of the dull look the site had.
Well, that’s all now changed with a new look! A splash of colour and some sense to the the way it’s laid out and here we are. It’s still work in progress, but I couldn’t hold off any longer. I trust you all like it (that’s if anyone actually reads my blog!) - anything had to be better than the last monstrousity
Now all that’s needed is for me to write more! Watch this space…
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What is Twitter? And what’s all the fuss about?
With Twitter becoming more and more popular with celebrities it is now getting some very public coverage. Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) was interviewed by the Beeb recently and explained very neatly and succinctly what Twitter was for him. He was also a guest on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (@wossy) which has helped Twitter further reach the masses.
Accordingly last week I was posed the question by my mother: “What is Twitter? And what is all the fuss about?”. Now, my mother is a bit of a luddite when it comes to computers and the internet, even referring the mouse as a ‘rabbit’! So imagine my difficulty in explaining Twitter to her!
Fortunately some of my collegues at Made By Many along with BBH labs have put together a beautiful slide share presentation on what Twitter is all about. It is released under the Creative Commons license so free to use it in any presentations about Twitter - all they ask is that you give credit where credit is due.
Twitter… what’s all the fuss about?View more presentations from madebymany. -
Oven temperature conversions
I’ve been caught without a gas mark conversion chart too often so I decided to put one up on here for reference.
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Custom fonts in your webpage using Cufon (canvas and VML)
For years designers have wanted to use custom fonts in their web page designs, this however has been problematic. Until now there’s only really been one option - sIFR - which unfortunately requires the Flash plugin. It also comes with its own set of problems, aside of requiring the Flash plugin, too many sIFR objets on the page have been known to cause problems in the browser - not to mention how tricky it can be to set up. Now, however there is Cufon - from Simo Kinnunen.
The main aims behind Cufon were to avoid proprietary software in favour of the open standard <canvas> and VML. Essentially Cufon acts as a web interface to fontforge to create an a JavaScript version of your font. There’s also a neat little online genertaor that allows you to upload your own font and generate the required JavaScript.
It’s incredibly easy to use, once you’ve created your JavaScript version of your font simple reference it along with the Cufon js (making sure you load cufon first!) then apply it to the element you want rendered. The following will render the text in an <h1>:
<script type="text/javascript"> Cufon.replace('h1'); </script>For full instructions and downloads visit Cufon on Git Hub.
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Steak with honey-glazed root vegetables
As I walked past the butchers this evening I first reveled in the fact that they were still open and then at the wonderful looking piece of ribeye steak (you can tell a good piece by the amount of ‘marbling‘, the fat is where the flavour comes from), I thought some root veg, glazed with honey and thyme - Nice! And not much fuss either.
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Roast sirloin of beef
When it comes to a traditional joint of roast beef nothing beats a good piece of sirloin. It is a little extravagent at £20 the kilo, but well worth it in my opinion! For this roast you’ll need a joint of at least 1.5 kilos to cook properly - this should be easily enough for 4 or 5 people. Read full post
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Yorkshire pudding
This is a recipe that I have adapted from Jane Grigson’s English Food - I can’t recommend this book highly enough as a wonderful celebration of English cooking. It is true that, as a nation, we did once have something to shout about when it came to food.
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And for my next trick
You got it, another design. Well, design is one word for it - in fact what I’ve done is thrown yet another design away and stripped everything right back to a bare-bone/wireframe approach, having at least sussed the theme out. Now to customise my new theme and at some point both add the makeup and the content!
