Month: February 2003

Ben’s Half Yard House

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

On Thursday, we celebrated Never Day at Ben’s Half Yard House (GuideLive review). Bryan organized it, but it was Lyn’s choice (and a great choice it was).

I hadn’t previously thought of Ben’s as a “birthday venue”, but it couldn’t have been better. As always, Ben’s was reasonably lit (not a dark cave like some bars and restaurants) and the music wasn’t so loud as to impede conversation.

The service, too, was better than I would have expected — our server cheerfully arranged for separate checks for each of the dozen-or-so people in our party.

Ben’s has an impressive bar (42 beers on tap!), but the food stood out as well. I’m not normally a fan of cheeseburgers (American cheese? bleh), but I ordered one of their cheeseburgers once I realized that they were available with blue cheese.

Some restaurants sprinkle on the blue cheese, but this burger had a gooey hunk of blue cheese paste that engulfed the top of the patty (and I mean “paste” in a good way). The burger was fairly hot with pleasantly crumbly beef. And, the blue cheese worked so well — they really didn’t skimp on the blue cheese, and its flavor shone through. The bun was above average, though still just a white-flour bun (I keep wondering when rye buns will catch on, HHOS).

Along with the burger, I ordered one of their signature half yards, with Fullers ESB. I was originally going for Fullers Porter (as it’s currently rated #4 among reasonably available beers), but they had run out of that. Still, the ESB was dark and very delicious.

I had good conversation, and a great time. Ben’s is quickly becoming one of my favorite bar-restaurants in the area.

Cute Gym Girl

Ashley Bischoff6 Comments

Is there a protocol for asking people out at the gym? Or, is there no means of achieving that while maintaining etiquette? There’s this cute girl that often uses the treadmills around the time I do, and she’s about my age (25-26, or so). Hmm.

American Dialect Society’s Words of the Year 2003

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The American Dialect Society has released its Words of the Year for 2002 (yes, 2002, since they grant awards for the year just finished). Each year, they select words that recently have become trendy. The numbers you’ll see in parenthesis are votes; the word with the highest votes wins that category. Some of my favorites from this year’s list:

—Most euphemistic: regime change (38 votes). Other candidates: V card, slang term for virginity (14); newater, sewage water purified and recycled into the fresh water system (7); unorthodox entrepreneur, panhandler, prostitute, or drug dealer in a Vancouver park (4); Enronomics, fraudulent business and accounting practices (1); dirty bomb, conventional bomb laced with radioactive material (0). […]

And, related to that, Lake Superior State University released its 28th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The list is spot-on in many cases, though it comes off a bit Andy Rooney-like at times.

Make No Mistake About It — Nominated by many, including Angela Wood of Anchorage, Alaska, for over-use since the 2000 election.

“Generally used instead of ‘don’t underestimate’ or ‘understand,’” says John O’Connell of San Jose, California. Are listeners really going to mistake what the questioner is saying?

“Who’s mistaken, anyway?” asks Barb Keller of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. […]

Thanks also to MetaFilter for its threads on the American Dialect Society’s Words of the Year and LSSU’s Banished Words.

[Dow update: -55.88 to 7929.30]

MP3/Ogg Player for Palm Tungsten T

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Palm InfoCenter reports that Aerodrome Software has released AeroPlayer v1.0, which can play both MP3 and Ogg files:

Aeroplayer only runs on the Palm Tungsten T and requires at least 150k of free memory. Audio files can be transferred through hotsync or with an external card reader. The app is $16 shareware. […]

It’s too bad that it’s not free, but it may be one of the few shareware programs worth paying for (not that I steal shareware — if I find an app too expensive, I simply don’t use the program).

What’s especially nice is the device-convergence angle: with a Tungten T and this app, you wouldn't need to carry around both a PDA and an MP3/Ogg player.

Pleasantly, Palm has also dropped the price on the Tungsten T by $100, to a list price of $399. Not that I can afford one either way ;), but at least I can more easily buy one once my job prospects improve.

Peanut Butter Oreo Cheesecake Recipe

Ashley Bischoff6 Comments

If you’re looking for a peanut butter cheesecake recipe, I’ve found that this one works quite well:

Oreo® Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. (15 oz.) Oreo Double Delight Peanut Butter ’n Chocolate Creme Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided
  • 3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
  • 3 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 container (16 oz.) Sour Cream
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 3 eggs

Preparation

  1. Finely crush 16 of the cookies. Coarsely chop remaining 14 cookies; set aside.
  2. Mix finely crushed cookies and butter. Press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan; set aside.
  3. Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream and peanut butter; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Gently stir in chopped cookies. Pour over crust.
  4. Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around side of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing side of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

I wouldn’t recommend attempting a low-fat cheesecake, but the recipe can be otherwise made slightly more healthy with few modifications. You could switch from “regular” peanut butter to natural peanut butter, and that eliminates much of the trans fat (except for those intrinsic to the Oreos).

And, you can swap out Splenda for the sugar — with this modification, each 1/12 slice has only 28g carbs, which isn’t bad considering that it’s cake. I’ve tried both approaches (substituting both the peanut butter and the sugar), and the cake still turned out well.

Update 2/5: If you’re going to try making a cheesecake, you may also find these cheesecake tips helpful. Among them, they recommend serving the cheesecake at room temperature, which would take about 30 mins out of the fridge (I didn’t know about that one).