This is an old family recipe that I make from time to time. My written copy of the recipe is getting a bit worn, so I’m immortalizing it here. It’s always been a hit at potlucks. It’s a bit labor-intensive to make, but is well worth the effort.

Dolmades are stuffed grape leaves, and are Greek in origin. Traditionally, they’re made with rice and lemon juice, and they’re not actually all that good. This recipe is pretty non-traditional in that it has meat and other stuff in it. After growing up with these, I’ve been let down by every other dolma that I’ve tried.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2½ pounds ground beef (can use ½-1 lb. ground lamb, if you want it a little gamier)
• ½ cup rice, dry
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced or diced finely
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 large bell pepper (preferably red, but can use yellow), diced
• 2/3 bunch parsley, chopped
• 2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce
• 2 bottles grape leaves in brine (these are usually next to the pickles)
• Salt and pepper to taste (it’ll probably take more than you think)

Mix all ingredients except the grape leaves in a large mixing bowl. Make sure to mix well. Remove the grape leaves from the jars and trim the stems off of them. Now, you’re ready to roll.

Rolling dolma is an art. Rather than go into extreme detail, I’m going to link to this video. The segment is short. Just make sure you wrap them kind of tightly, otherwise they’ll fall apart when you’re eating them.

Once the dolma are rolled, arrange them in concentric circles in a pot. Fill the pot with enough water to cover all of the dolma and put on high heat until the water begins to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for one hour.

How have I not discovered this until now?
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Linking to the new design here. Still a little rough. Feel free to leave comments though.

The nav is huge because Cory wanted it that way. We’ll probably move to a more traditional nav on the internal pages.

We’re documenting our Scrabble game at work. We’re playing the project coordinators, and we each get two moves a day: one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. If you send me any trash talk, I’ll be sure to pass it on to the appropriate people.

I was perusing a site reading some management articles today. At the bottom of the page, I saw this. I can’t help but think that with a few articles on appropriate workplace relationships, we wouldn’t need to list this article.

So I’ve been giving some thought lately to commitment. Here are some phrases I’ve actually uttered today:

“I like it when the donuts are cut into quarters. That way, I don’t have to commit to a whole doughnut.”

“Inu Yasha has 170 episodes? I can’t commit to that!”

So that got me thinking: Why can’t I commit to a whole doughnut? Why can’t I commit to watching all 170 episodes of Inu Yasha? I must have a serious problem. And you know what? It’s time to change that.

I’m happy to say I picked four doughnut quarters this morning equaling a half glazed and half blueberry doughnut. (I like glazed, but they also had blueberry!) And I am committing, right here and right now, to watching all episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist. (Yeah, it turns out 170 episodes was still too much. 51 is much more manageable.)

Never let it be said that I have a problem with commitment.

Ok, so there was a rather famous (or infamous) experiment in the late 90s involving the metaphysical effects of emotion on water crystals. I’ve talked in the past, but let me just reiterate by saying that the study was hardly scientific. The complete set of photographs from the study was never released—only the photographs which proved his point. In addition, he was offered one million dollars in 2003 to reproduce his findings in a controlled scientific environment and he never took them up on it. The reason is that the results are impossible to reproduce. In fact, there’s no proof that they actually happened in the first place. People have tried to reproduce those results in controlled environments and have failed every time.

I’m not one to belittle anyone’s spiritual beliefs, so please, if you want to believe in the metaphysical effects of emotion on water, I will support you 100%. Just don’t claim science as the basis for this. Science is usually a bad basis for matters of faith, just as faith is usually a bad basis for matters of science.

The reason I bring this up now is that there is now a Facebook event to try to use this phenomenon to help the victims of Japanese tsunami.

Again, if you choose to believe in the metaphysical effects of emotions (and there’s no hard scientific evidence against this), more power to you, and thank you for taking a sincere interest in the well-being of the Japanese people. Japan can probably use as much prayer and positive thought as it can get right now. But be very careful that slacktivism does not free your mind from bearing the burden of the Japanese people right now. Even if the metaphysical (prayer or positive energy) is your reaction to the pleas of Japan, one water ceremony isn’t going to cut it.

If you want to help Japan, be relentless. Pray every night for them. Give money to charities that are helping them. If you have skills in influencing others or organizing things, try to get together some sort of organized effort to raise or send money to help them. But above all, don’t forget about them. The pain will probably go on a lot longer than the sympathy will.

I realize that there are probably some for whom this water ceremony is a natural extension of a lot of other caring acts, including some very tangible ones, and I really want to commend those people for coming at this from multiple angles; but I also know the popularity of slacktivism on Facebook, because it’s fun to think that we can take a stand without getting out of our seats. Participate, or don’t—just don’t fall into that second camp.

I had a revelation today. I was driving in my car, listening to “Friday” by Rebecca Black (ironically) while on my way to the thrift store and it hit me that I am a hipster. This is not easy news to take for any person, regardless of how many indie points they have.

This is probably a good time to explain why I love going to thrift stores. Of course, I love the quirky and vintage clothing to be found there on good days. But there’s more to the story. I stay away from stores like the Gap and American Eagle (too mainstream). If someone comments on a shirt and I have to say I got it at the Gap, I might as well just turn in my indie card right there and then. But if something from the Gap is on sale at the Salvation Army, I can say I got it at the Salvation Army, no more questions asked. Indie cred saved!

So, listening to terrible pop music ironically, +20 hipster points. Driving to a thrift store, +10 hipster points. Refusing to step into the Gap, +15 hipster points. Where do I get the rest of my hipster points? (It takes at least 50 hipster points to actually be a hipster.)

Making fun of hipsters, +10 hipster points. Hipsters love pointing at other, even more ridiculous hipsters and saying, “Ha ha, those hipsters!” But only people with hipster tendencies know enough about hipsters to make fun of them. If you don’t follow me on Facebook, you should know that I just added a large photo gallery of pictures making fun of hipsters.

It gets worse. At an Over the Rhine concert a few months back (you’ve probably never heard of them), I was talking with another self-proclaimed music snob. In this conversation, I actually uttered the phrase, “Sunny Day Real Estate isn’t bad. Emo music was good before it became popular.” +25 hipster points.

Did I mention I had an organic apple for breakfast? +3 hipster points.

Developing a point system for detecting hipsters, +10 hipster points.

So, as you can see, I am well over the established limit. The good news is that I am on the path to recovery. If you go back six years or so, I used to wear plaid golf pants and fake glasses. So I’d like to consider myself a recovering hipster. I’d join a recovery support group, but they’re really obscure—hard to find, if you know what I mean.

Here’s the preview link. Critiques welcome.

Some friends and I are starting a record label. There’s been some debate as to what logo we should use. We’re hoping you could help us settle that debate.

Here are the logos:

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