• Used book JACKPOT

    I’ve put a fair number of old books in our local “Street Library” box over the past few months, but this is the first time I’ve fished one out! #sunny


  • It’s 35C/95F out; all of Sydney is under extreme heat warning; and all I want is a goddamn can of pumpkin so I can make pumpkin pie ice cream. But alas, none to be found, not even for ready money. I will be roasting butternut this evening once the sun goes down…

    Oh, and I asked the butcher how much it would be for a turkey breast to sous vide, and he told me $97 AUD (that’s $62 USD), and I laughed in his face and then bought a couple chicken breasts instead. I think it was actually a turkey crown roast, but whatever. Chicken it is.

    EDITED – ONE HOUR LATER:

    Me: So we’re going to be roasting pumpkin tonight so I can get puree, because I couldn’t find any canned. 😒

    Rodd: You know, we already have some frozen puree from the last time you did that?!

    Whaaaaaaat. THANKS, PAST KRIS!


  • 7-11 Onigiri 🍙 – continued!

    Time to try the other two 7-11 onigiri flavours!

    First up I went with the Teriyaki Chicken, which I think illustrates just how “ungenerous” the filling is in these. It also didn’t really taste of much. Definitely my least favourite of the three.

    Teriyaki chicken onigiri

    Lastly, we have the Sweet Chilli Cooked Salmon. I definitely wasn’t expecting much (Sweet chilli? Really, Australia?!), especially when I saw the little blob of filling. BUT I was very happily surprised. It’s great! Lots more flavour than either of the other two, and if I ever get them again, this will be my choice.

    Sweet Chilli Cooked Salmon onigiri


  • If you like classical music, patchwork quilting, or in-depth explanations of creative design process, you will absolutely love this blog series about 4 Peer Gynt-inspired quilts. The artist Deborah Pickett was inspired by this painting based on Ravel’s Boléro. Doesn’t that just make you want to make some art?


  • Dinner

    Korean Chili-Braised Brisket with Kimchi Coleslaw! I accidentally bought an extra tub of gochujang so this was a great way of using it up. 😍

    The recipe is here. It’s technically for an Instant Pot, but I did it in a traditional pressure cooker and therefore reduced the time a bit. (I think the traditional one gets a bit higher pressure.) You can also use a slow cooker, but that would have required starting the day before to get everything properly marinated.


  • 7-11 Onigiri 🍙

    Rodd told me recently that 7-11 Australia has been bought out by the Japanese version, and that as a result we were likely to finally get some of their awesome food here in NSW. Yesterday I popped into the one at the corner of Pitt and Bathurst in the Sydney CBD and happily found all three flavours!

    Onigiri is definitely my favourite convenience store food in Japan. While I’ve had good onigiri in Sydney, it’s never been quite right. I really like the texture of the crispy seaweed, but none of the fancy places have that. They’re always damp and soft due to the moisture of the rice. The only way to keep them crisp is to use the special wrapper that keeps the seaweed from touching the rice until right before you eat it.

    So I was thrilled to see that the 7-11 onigiri has the special wrapper!

    7-11 Onigiri

    I tried the Spicy Cooked Tuna today. Even after spending the night in the fridge, the seaweed was still satisfyingly crispy when I pulled off the wrapper.

    Crispy seaweed

    Taste-wise, I felt it was pretty good… though the amount of filling could’ve been better. I’m sure an onigiri expert could find more fault, but this ticked my boxes.

    Inside the onigiri

    My only real complaint is the cost. At $3.70 each, these are basically double what they cost in Japan! It’s still cheaper than the fancy ones I’ve had elsewhere in Sydney, but it grates knowing they’re so much cheaper elsewhere.

    Now if they could just bring out the Tuna Mayo flavour!!


  • Dinner

    My turn to cook! Fusilli with sausage, kale, and tomato. The recipe used to be on Serious Eats, but looks like they’ve taken it down. 😒


  • I recently went through the process of setting up custom handles/aliases for myself using my domain name on Bluesky and Mastodon. I figure I’ll share the steps here in case anybody else with a similar setup (WordPress on Amazon Lightsail) wants to do the same.

    Bluesky

    Simply follow the instructions that Bluesky have provided here. In Step 5, you will need to add a TXT record to your domain DNS. If you use Amazon Lightsail, click on the Domains & DNS option and then select the relevant DNS zone (in my case, web-goddess.org).

    Lightsail console DNS zone

    Then click on the DNS records tab and click the + Add record button.

    Lightsail console DNS zone

    Change the record type to TXT record and then put in the name and response provided by you by Bluesky. (The “host” is the “Record name,” and the “value” is the “Responds with.”) Click save.

    Adding a new TXT record

    Wait a little bit — in my experience, 30 seconds is usually sufficient — and then click that Verify DNS Record button in Bluesky. And then you’re done!

    In my case, you can now find me at @web-goddess.org on Bluesky.

    Mastodon

    Mastodon is a slightly more involved process, and it doesn’t change your official server username but rather gives you an alias that you can give out. In my case, my current Mastodon account is @web_goddess@aus.social. However, if I give out an alias instead, then it doesn’t matter if I change servers in the future — you’ll still be able to find me. I was inspired by these posts by Phil Nash and Maarten Balliauw for how to do it.

    First, open up a new browser tab and go to this URL, substituting your own Mastodon account values in there:

    https://{instance}/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:{username}@{instance}

    So in my case, I went to https://aus.social/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:web_goddess@aus.social. What you’ll get back is a blob of text (JSON). Copy that and set it aside for the moment.

    Then go to the Lightsail console and click on the little terminal icon to Connect using SSH to your instance.

    Lightsail console

    A window with a terminal will appear.

    Lightsail terminal

    Now you need to go to where the WordPress files are stored for your site. Type in this command in the terminal and hit enter.

    cd stack/wordpress/

    Important note: The path above is for one of the newer WordPress Bitnami instances. If you have an older instance, the path to where your WordPress files are stored might be different.

    Then you’ll need to create a new directory called “.well-known.” (Note the dot in front of the name.) Type in this command and hit enter.

    mkdir .well-known/

    Then go into that directory. Type in this command and hit enter.

    cd .well-known

    Now you will need to make a special file called webfinger. Type in this command and hit enter to open a text editor in the terminal.

    nano webfinger

    This is where you will paste in the blob of JSON text you copied from your Mastodon server. Copy and paste it straight into the editor, and then hit CTRL-X to exit.

    The editor will ask if you want to “Save modified buffer?” Type Y for Yes, leave the name as webfinger, and hit enter to save.

    You can then exit the Lightsail terminal and close the pop-up window.

    exit

    If everything worked correctly, you should now be able to go to your own domain and receive the JSON blob back by substituting your domain in this address:

    https://{yourdomain}/.well-known/webfinger

    In my case, I went to https://www.web-goddess.org/.well-known/webfinger in a browser tab and verified that the JSON was returned.

    And that’s it! What does this actually mean? It means I can tell people that my Mastodon username is @kris@web-goddess.org, and if they type that into a search box on Mastodon, it will point them to my official account.

    Mastodon search

    If I change servers in the future, I’ll just have to update the JSON blob with the correct values from my new Mastodon server, and people will continue to be able to find me from the alias.


  • Lamb meatballs with feta and lemon (from Smitten Kitchen) and orzo salad (from Recipe Tin Eats), all cooked by the Snook. Very tasty!


  • I’ve been feeling like the site needed a new lick of paint, so I spent some time today installing and customising a new theme. I used the Björk theme from Anders Norén, who made my previous theme. My logo remains the awesome one that my friend Matt Hinrichs drew for me many years ago. I also decommissioned my old krishoward.org personal site, moving some of the relevant content here and then changing that domain to a redirect. Please let me know if you find any broken links or anything that looks weird!