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WP wrangling

I understand why some people just can’t deal with packaged apps like WordPress. If you like your site to look a certain way or use certain fonts, WP is a challenge. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: WP is not for the faint of heart. Being a CSS Ninja helps.

Just now, I spent about 20 minutes ferreting out an offensive character in the search results. Why this guy used a stupid, non-standard character I’ll never know – probably the same reason he chose serif fonts and defined every possible bit of CSS that there is to define. For someone who proclaims himself a “typographer” he certainly screws the pooch in more ways than one. I think he’s too enamoured with his “flair”. But I digress. You do not use stupid characters, serif fonts and 300+ lines of CSS for a simple blog, dude. Get a grip. It’s a nightmare to troubleshoot.

Anyway, unless you’re someone who is content to use a straight up template with no modifications, WP will drive you batshit. This is probably why Kate has had enough and wants me to put her site back to html. ::sigh:: It’s too bad, really. But I totally understand her frustration – besides, all she wants is a portfolio site, not a blog. It’ll allow me to brush up on my scripts usage in any case.

Which reminds me of something funny! All the young 20-somethings are totally in love with that 90s mainstay: the splash page. LOL  They are so cutting edge and artsy, oh my, but in love with that stupid time waster of early web design! Too funny! They think it’s so cool. Gods. I’m positive they’ll be asking for a Flash intro next. The horror!

What comes around, goes around. I doubt that Flash intros or splash pages will ever really come back. They are too annoying to the masses.  But as long as there are people who’ve only been on the web for a few years I suppose that old shit will still keep turning up as cool.  ::rolls eyes::  Hey, at least it’s nice to have something to rag the youngsters about! They think they are so hip about clothes, hair, etc. it’s nice to be able to say “Gods, that is SO outdated!”  The bennies of being on the web for over a decade, I suppose!   :-)

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Italian sausage and seafood sauce

This sauce was inspired by one of my favourite soups: Spicy Clam and Sausage. I had some hot Italian sausage, salad shrimp and pasta leftover from various meals so I decided to use the soup ingredients for a pasta sauce. Nick made the recipe and it’s delicious! Updated Jan 2022.

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Italian Sausage and Shrimp Sauce

This sauce was inspired by my Sausage and Clam soup recipe. You can change up the type of sausage and seafood to your liking. Cajun with andouille and crawfish would be great!
Course Sauce
Cuisine Italian
Keyword italian sausage sauce, red sauce, sausage and clam sauce
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 servings
Author misangela

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbl EVOO
  • 2-3 links Hot Italian sausage, remove casing, crumble adjust amount to your taste; sub mild or another type of sausage about 6-8oz
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp
  • 2 Tbl shallots, finely minced one large or two small
  • 4 oz cremini mushrooms, diced about half a small package
  • 2/3 cup red pepper, small dice about 1/2 pepper, roasted pepper is GREAT here
  • 1 tsp dry basil dry is best here
  • 1 tsp anchovy paste optional, but adds umami
  • 1 Tbl tomato paste
  • 1 Tbl flour any type is fine
  • 1 Tbl butter
  • 1 cup diced or crushed tomatoes about half a 14 oz can
  • 1/4 cup mirin optional
  • 1/2 cup red or white wine if you skip, use chicken stock instead
  • 1 cup salad shrimp (tiny, usually frozen) or 1.5 cups small peeled shrimp
  • 1/2 lemon, zest and juice
  • 1 Tbl capers
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • S/P to taste
  • fresh basil, chiffonade optional
  • 4 portions cooked pasta to serve sauce on I prefer Barilla pasta

Instructions

  • Do your mise en place and veg prep first.
  • In a 2-4qt sauce pan over medium heat, add EVOO and sausage; sauté a couple of minutes.
  • Add garlic, shallots, creminis and red pepper. Cook until softened, about 4 minutes.
  • Add basil, anchovy paste, tomato paste, butter and flour. Raise heat just a little, stirring constantly. This is to make a roux and cook out the flour. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add lemon zest, tomatoes, mirin and wine. Bring to simmer.
  • Turn off heat and add capers and lemon juice. Check S/P levels.
  • Stir in cream to your preferred thickness. Check S/P again.
  • Serve over pasta with fresh basil.

Notes

Image Credit: allrecipes.com 
This sauce base can be used for any meat/seafood combo and flavour profile you like. Here are a couple of examples:
Cajun - use andouille and crawfish with Cajun seasoning (skip anchovy paste)
Spanish - use merguez and shrimp, add olives and use oregano rather than basil
The options are endless! 
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The Anti-Painting class

Well. We went to the class that Nick’s art teacher is doing over at Binders. It’s an oil painting class, but he wanted to start us off with some charcoal exercises just to get the concepts established. I was not happy about this at first.

As it turns out, I kinda get it. Who knew? The piece I worked on actually looks like what I was looking at! The charcoal is to learn the concepts of light and shadow and it really works. That part was cool. But. You knew there’d be a but, didn’t you? But, the class overall was stodgy and not very interesting. Granted, we are coming in at the halfway point, so the others are working studiously on their still life paintings, but I found the class too slow and it felt as though the teacher was having a hard time changing gears between the n00bs and the more advanced students.

The truly funny thing is that now I think I’d get more from a drawing class than a painting class! And I’m the one who was grousing about being forced to draw rather than paint! LOL The thing about this charcoal technique is that there is no drawing. It’s all manipulation of light and dark. And I’m pretty good at it. So now I want more of that. I also think that gesture drills and other fast sketch drills would be fun to do.

The thing for me is that I need to be engaged in classes I take. I need to be challenged. I need to leave the class feeling like I’ll never get it. This class is none of that. It was more like, ok, I’ve done what you asked! Now what? I ended up waiting for further instructions and was quite bored. The subject matter doesn’t help either. Sorry, but if I had to look at that vase for 6 weeks I’d drop the class.

So, we’ll see how the other 2 classes go. I’m going to ask the teacher if he’d mind sticking to the charcoal for the other 2 classes. I really don’t want to spend $100 on oil paints and stuff for a couple of classes – or at all if I don’t like the pace of the class. Hopefully he’ll be ok with doing several charcoal pieces and working on light/shadow. Never hurts to ask, right?

Today I think I’ll get out of the house and run some errands. Perhaps get a cuban sammy from Havana over on Buford Hwy. Kool Korners on 14th is the best, but I don’t want to drive all the way over there with the construction. Maybe do some leche vitreaux (window shopping) over at Loehmanns… Replenish vitamins at Toco Hill… Buy booze at Toco Giant…Booze that I should stop drinking to lose weight but won’t cuz I’m a lush…
Anyway, I need to get OUT. It’s spring and I need to get my fat ass more active. Speaking of spring, the time changes this weekend. That’s right, we lose an hour – my cats will be jubilant! Yay, we get to eat earlier!!

Also: I’ve decided that I’d like to go to the Sia show at Variety Playhouse on Monday. Sia has worked with Sector 9, Zero 7 and various acid jazz bands in Australia and the UK. I know her mostly from her solo works, particularly Colour the Small One and Healing is Difficult. I’ll run over to the Variety and pick up the tix tomorrow when I go get Kate’s check from Adaptation. :-)

Everyone have a great day!

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Busy geek!

I woke up with my geek on today! I updated MINT, Heather & IndigoDragon. I also created Restaurant Operations Advisors (my latest gig w/ Rob) and Regency Homes (a site for my brother’s home building biz in Knoxville) [edit: I found out that they are retiring that name, which means I’ll have to redo the domain to some form of my brother’s name. I’ll point regencyhomesknoxville.com to the proper site. -A]. W00t!

Now I’m geeked out and ready for beer. :-)

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Avenue Q!

Who wants to go to a show?  We’d love to get a group together to go. I’ll buy the block of tickets. They are here March 25-30 (Tue-Sun) at the Fox. I did a search for tickets in the best location (Dress Mid Upper Level) and they were $51 + Ticketbastard charges, fees and other bullshit: add $15. So budget around $65 per ticket.

We want to go Tuesday or Thursday to avoid the weekend crunch. Send votes for day ASAP.

Deadline to get back to me is this Friday morning. I’m buying our tickets on Friday afternoon (for the Thursday show if no one steps up).

Some of you will get this message via email.  :-)