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	<title>Michael Barrett</title>
	<link>http://abouthalf.com</link>
	<description>@ Abouthalf.com</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:55:24 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Salty</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A friend of mine told me about a technique he had heard of for cooking hamburgers. The basic idea is that you cook your burger on a bed of kosher salt to create a salty crust on the outside of the meat. I thought this sounded like something I should try, so one day for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/06/20/salty/</link>
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		<title>Catering a bridal shower</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently I admonished the Twitters to fear my salmon log. While perhaps laden with entendre, this does capture a bit of the prep-work I did over the last day and a half catering a friend&#8217;s bridal shower. I knocked off of work early to go shopping. I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing food [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/05/15/catering-a-bridal-shower/</link>
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	<item>
		<title>Sous-vide in a thermos</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve wanted to try out sous-vide cooking methods for a while now. Once the technique was written up in the New York Times a few years ago, it has become the next big thing among home chefs. There are now home sous-vide &#8216;water ovens&#8216; which are within the price range of your average yuppie, but [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/05/06/sous-vide-in-a-thermos/</link>
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		<title>Rails under NW 23rd</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The city of Portland has been slowly, steadily repaving NW 23rd. There are big banners unfurled across the streets to ensure shoppers that, yes, no stores have been paved over and still accept all major credit cards. It&#8217;s been fun to watch the construction. They close down a few blocks at a time and excavate [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/05/02/rails-under-nw-23rd/</link>
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		<title>Congratulations</title>
		<description><![CDATA[You shouldn&#8217;t have. I&#8217;m putting the finishing touches on a new WordPress theme. It&#8217;s still a little rough in places, comments need formatting, lists need sweetening, various twiddles need to be twaddled. But it&#8217;s mostly there, so why not take it for a test run? This theme is fully &#8216;widgetized&#8217; (to use the WordPress nomenclature) [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/04/26/congratulations/</link>
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		<title>Why don&#8217;t they understand computers on TV</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Watching Law &#038; Order with my wife this morning and I don&#8217;t understand why these brilliant detectives can&#8217;t understand how the computerons work, or why they can&#8217;t just ask somebody &#8216;hey can we find out who wrote this blog?&#8217;. FADE IN INT. POLICE DEPARTMENT &#8211; EARLY EVENING &#8211; ESTABLISHING Two detectives concentrating on a computer [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/04/17/why-dont-they-understand-computers-on-tv/</link>
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		<title>Out damned pot</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was recently directed to this article by (national treasure) Roger Ebert: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/11/the_pot_and_how_to_use_it.html In it, Mr. Ebert writes about the humble, yet powerful, rice cooker. I had always shunned rice cookers. When people would talk about how great their rice cooker was I would snark &#8220;I have a rice cooker. It&#8217;s also called a &#8216;pot&#8217;. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2010/03/30/out-damned-pot/</link>
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		<title>Fear my artisan loaf</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been learning about baking bread. This all started by reading (most of) the book Ratio &#8211; which is a fantastic book about the fundamentals of cooking. I bought the Kindle version of this book for my iPhone so I could read it on the train &#8211; which is great &#8211; but it&#8217;s also horrible [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2009/11/11/fear-my-artisan-loaf/</link>
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		<title>Tasting notes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently a friend of a friend generously invited me (and my friend) to join for a whisky tasting at his place. We each brought a bottle or two and our host took a stab at arranging our whiskies from sweet to peaty &#8211; we began with a couple of bourbons, moved to some Irish whiskies, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2009/10/03/tasting-notes/</link>
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		<title>A little afternoon silliness</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I don&#8217;t know anything about the Django web framework. I just know the name sounds like breakfast.]]></description>
		<link>http://abouthalf.com/2009/09/01/a-little-afternoon-silliness/</link>
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