News You Can Bruise for 2005 November 22 (entry 1)

(3) Tue Nov 22 2005 22:32 PST Christmas List: By Susanna demand, for the people who give me Christmas presents. You'll notice there are actually durable goods on it this year (because I don't have much income at the moment), but I would still be fine with you giving money to charity in my name.

• My CD player/tape player/radio is reaching its age of planned obsolescence and I would kind of like a new one. These probably cost about $6 now that they have to compete with iPods.
• My #$(%* crosscut shredder has basically stopped working so I would like a new one that has some kind of chance in the actuarial tables. Why do home shredders break so easily? I have not been overloading it.
• I have what looks like "mortar" written on this list and I don't know what that means. Maybe it'll come back to me. Do not buy me mortar for Christmas! I'll just end up returning it. Update: Sumana suggests that I meant "a" mortar, along with a pestle. This seems like the kind of thing I would write down on a Christmas list, though I'm not totally convinced I need one.
• Now that I'm writing a book, having space on my desk has become more important than having a big ole monitor, so I would like an LCD computer monitor. It doesn't have to be huge. Nor do you actually have to get me one, since they're a little expensive.
• And of course there is my ginormous wish list, which I went through and gave priorities to some of the items I really want as opposed to the ones I would just like to have someday. Incidentally, the Life Hacks book was cancelled (blah), but O'Reilly might put some other form to the wish list and screen scraping hacks I wrote. I just sent off an agreement to that effect. I am just trying to make this entry kind of interesting for people who don't need to buy me PRESENTS.

I am doing pretty well this year w/r/t acquiring and making awesome presents for people with not much money.

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Comments:

Posted by Steve Dunham at Wed Nov 23 2005 11:25

importfood.com sells some decent mortar and pestles. If you have the time and patience, it's very satisfying to grind up spices by hand. But you can also use a spare coffee grinder or a food processor for most tasks.

I've used the 8" granite one (along with a mini-prep) for making vindaloo, thai curry paste, and oaxacan black mole, so it is rather versatile. I've also used it for making chicken scallopine (that is, pounding meat with the base of the mortar), but there are better tools for that.

For smaller batches, I suspect that Jamie Oliver's Flavour Shaker would be easier to use. But they won't ship it outside the UK.

Posted by Leonard at Wed Nov 23 2005 11:36

I've been using a coffee grinder (which I got last Christmas, actually) but it's a little hard to clean. I think it might still be less total bother than a mortar and pestle.

Posted by Susie at Wed Nov 23 2005 14:52

Perhaps a mortar board?