Projects
Dr. Umfoofoo, the local witch doctor has "asked" you to dinner. To keep him happy and to keep yourself from becoming the main course, you must work in his hut sorting his collection of shrunken heads. His pet alligator, along with past victims, Ted and Fred will keep you company.
Headache is a column matching game with a twist. As the shrunken heads come down the screen, swap and maneuver them to line up three or more of the same color vertically or horizontally. When you do, the heads disappear making room for the next set to come down. Features great graphics and fun commentary by the "talking heads"
Headache was created as an entry in the 2002 uDevGames contest. It was runner up for best graphics.
Snowflakes is a little application that puts the beautiful sight of falling snow on your Mac's screen while you work.
Very small - less than 200k. As a novelty item, it is not yet really optimized, so don't run this at the same time you need all of your CPU power! Have fun with this. If you like it, please drop us a line (gooddoug@gmail.com).
Holiday lights for MacOS X. Just launch and find yourself getting into the spirit of the season. The lights hang from the menu bar and will stay just above the desktop and under everything else. Adds a festive mood to any computer.
Very small (just over 300k), very process friendly (won't slow you down) and very festive.
To add new light styles, simply name the new lights <name >1On.png and <name >1Off.png. Then put these image files into ~/Library/Application Support/XMas Lights and they will be found when you open the preferences panel. You can string together multiple lights by naming them sequentially as <name > <n >On and <name > <n >Off. As an example, I have two lights to string together, and I name them MyCoolLights1On.jpeg, MyCoolLights2On.jpeg, MyCoolLights1Off.jpeg, MyCoolLights2Off.jpeg.
If this makes you smile at all, drop me a line at gooddoug@gmail.com and let me know! And thanks to our users for providing more light styles. Thanks also to Jason Hayes (jhayes@willamette.edu) for his enthusiastic help with ideas, code and artwork.
Idea from the great Classic 68k Control Panel from Robert L. Mathews - "Xmas Lights 1.1" which was last updated in 1993. Thanks, Robert, for the inspiration.
Recipes
I don't know whether to call this a pot roast or a stew. It cooks like a pot roast, but serves like a stew. Excellent on these cold winter nights.
Ingredients:
- 7 bone roast
- 1/2 to full bottle red wine
- 3 T flour
- salt
- pepper
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3-6 cups beef stock
- 4 potatoes cut into 1-2 inch pieces
- 4 carrots cut into 1/2 inch thick coins
- 8-10 pearl onions
- 1T olive oil
Instructions:
Start this dish in the morning to give it a lot of time to cook slowly in the oven.
Set a large dutch oven on the stove with some olive oil, and cook the sliced onions low and slow until they are just turning color. Remove them from the pan and reserve them in a bowl.
Mix the flour with salt and pepper (and any other spices you think might be nice) and use that to coat the seven bone roast really well. Turn the heat on under the dutch oven to medium high, add more oil if needed and set the roast in the pan. You're not trying to cook the meat through, just cook the flour and get some color from the meat and juices. Flip it once (carefully, it's heavy and unwieldy) and cook the other side as well.
Preheat your oven to 300ºF
Remove the meat to a plate for a moment. Up the heat to high and add the wine to deglaze the pan. Expect some sputtering. Stir up all the yummy bits and return the roast to the dutch oven. Add the root vegetables and pearl onions. Crush the garlic cloves and add them along with the bay leaves and any other herbs you might want to add (rosemary would be nice). Throw in the reserved cooked onions. Cover with the beef stock and bring to a simmer.
Once it has simmered a couple of minutes, cover and throw the whole thing into the oven. After it's been in there at least an hour, you can cut the temp to 250ºF and let it cook all day. You'll know it is done when the bones come out without any effort. If you don't want the root vegetables to be that mushy, feel free to add them an hour or so before you intend to serve it.
I remove the bones and use a spoon to make rough portions of meat and serve it as a stew in bowls with a slice or two of crusty bread slathered in butter.
If you've participated in a farm share or are growing greens in your garden then you know what this is about. There is some green that you've never really used before and now you have a ton of it.
Ingredients:
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1-2 T olive oil
- 1-2 garlic cloves, minced
- salt
- pepper
- 2 t vinegar (balsamic, champagne or some other fancy vinegar)
- 2 handfuls of greens (spinach, bok choy, chard, broccoli rabe, cabbage, orach, beet greens, anything else that you get that is leafy and green)
Instructions:
Heat oil over medium heat in a pan large enough to hold the greens mounded high. Add the minced shallot and a little salt and the pepper. Once that just starts to cook, add the garlic and let that just get fragrant before adding the greens and a little more salt.
The greens should wilt and cook down nicely. The thickness of the leaves will determine the cooking time, you just want them wilted nicely and almost cooked through before adding the vinegar and tossing well before taking off the heat.
This recipe works with any leafy greens that you might have, and acts as a satisfying side to any meal in the spring and summer.
When beets are in season, we could have this every day. You'll be surprised how many greens this can work with.
Variations:
Use rice wine vinegar and add a splash of fish sauce, serve sprinkled with sesame seeds for an asian tang.
Sauté onions and carrots, add the greens and finish with the juice of one lemon for a different twist.
Rich and creamy, this is perfect as a hearty warming soup or as the base of a chicken pot pie. Using top ingredients makes this dish sing.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 onion, minced
- 6 chicken thighs
- 2 carrots, cut into rounds or cubes
- 2 stalks of celery, cut into 3/8 inch pieces
- tarragon (2t fresh or 1/2t dried)
- thyme (1T fresh or 1 1/2t dried)
- parsley (1T fresh or 1 1/2t dried)
- 3t flour
- 1/4c white wine
- 2+c chicken stock
- water
- butter
- olive oil
- juice of ~1 lemon
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions:
In a large dutch oven or soup pan, heat a little bit of olive oil and cook the chicken thighs until just cooked through. Remove them to a plate and keep warm in the oven.
Add a little more olive oil to the pan with about 3 T of butter. Turn the heat to medium low and add minced onions with some salt and pepper. Let that cook low and slow until the onions get really soft and just turn color. Turn up the heat to medium and add the herbs, give it a stir and then add the carrots and celery, stir to coat the veggies in the oil. Add the flour, stir and let the flour just get cooked. It should smell really good at this point.
Add the white wine and scrape the pan, add the chicken stock while stirring well. Once it is completely stirred in, start adding water until it is just a little runnier than you would like. Taste for salt and pepper. At this point, you need to decide how thick you want it. You want it quite a bit thicker for use as pot pie filling or for a gravy.
Throw the chicken thighs back in with any juice they've given off, bring back to temperature, stir in the lemon juice.
Put the egg yolk in a bowl and give it a quick beating. Add a little hot soup to the bowl with the egg yolk and continue beating. Add hot soup until the yolk mixture has gotten pretty hot and then add it all back into the soup and let it cook for a few minutes before serving.
Notes
This goes great with a hunk of crusty bread. The lemon juice gives it a surprising tang.
