No. That is NOT how you cook them!

Ever since I discovered that American iTunes has BBC 4 podcasts, I've been doing more or less the audio equivalent of stripping down and rolling around naked in them, luxuriating in the wide variety and the options.

Until a certain episode of "Cook the Perfect..."

The first problem is the same one all of them have; it's an audio description of a visual experience. Not too bad when you can look up a photo online, but when cooking it's necessary to know what the speaker means by "a little flour."

The episode that undid me was Cook the Perfect American Pancakes. Now, I didn't know until Gally of last year that there was a difference in pancakes between the US & the UK. "Fake Keith" described British pancakes as thin and flat, while the ultimate accolades for pancakes in these parts is "fluffy and buttery."

The speaker in "Cook the Perfect..." dealt with this by using what sounded suspiciously like the British recipe, only separating the eggs and whipping the whites to get the loft, and... no. Just no. Yeah, it will rise and it should taste more or less OK, but that is most emphatically not a proper American pancake, much less a perfect one! We, depending on the recipe and the region, use baking powder, baking soda, or even ginger ale to get that loft and you know the right time to flip it because the bubbles stop rising to the surface you're looking at. Egg whites don't bubble.

The icon is me having a bit of a lie down to get over the shock.


(Look, it was either rant over pancakes or guns and/or the Presidential race. Either way, I feel better for a bit of strop.)

Little Free Library 2778 is Now Open

As of this afternoon, this...


...has been mounted outside, stocked, and listed with the LFL map.


Little Free Library #2778 is now open for business.


Because it took about 10 minutes of hammering to get the mount onto the post I haven't even bothered with screws. I'll probably put a couple in the next time we get news of a potential hurricane, but anything short of that or derecho should be okay.

My little idea is out in the world now. I hope the neighborhood embraces it and treats it well...


ETA: And we've had our first rain. And our first leaks. There's a wet corner of Dr. Strange & Mr. Norrell, but the rest of the books are untouched. The plexiglass edges will be hit with silicon and I'm going to put either a magnet or a proper latch on the door. In the meantime, I've put some unsexy but efficient plastic in to raise the books up from the wet shelving.