I’ve seen these ceramic graters being sold at every market and festival in Germany for the past year, and yesterday I finally got one.

It mushified a clove of garlic nicely, though getting it out again took some finessing. Rodd worked it out – you have to hold the grater on an angle and use the bristles of the brush to push down the plane of it.

I used it in my homemade ranch salad dressing alongside the Snook’s spicy baked chicken strips. (He used toban djan instead of the curry.) It was delicious!

I never ate Brussels Sprouts growing up; they were just never a thing that my Mom cooked. It may well be that the first time I ever had them was ten years ago at Porteño in Sydney. (They were were charred and tossed with bacon and they were the most delicious thing I’d ever had.) But apparently Brussels sprouts really were a lot more bitter 20+ years ago, before scientists figured out how to get high yields from less bitter heritage varieties. Huh. So if you think you don’t like them, you should give them another try.

A couple recipes I particularly like:

• Easy Roasted Brussels Sprouts
• One-Pan Chicken, Sausage, and Brussels Sprouts
• Brussels Sprouts Hash With Fried Sage and Soft Cooked Eggs
• Brussels Sprout and Bacon Frittata

How did I not know that there are annual Bootie Christmas mashup albums?? They also have a playlist of all the Mariah mashups they can find, updated every year. 🎵🎄

My buddy Phil Nash wrote a useful tutorial on how to alias your Mastodon username to your own domain with Jekyll. Bookmarking in case I want to go down a similar route when I revamp this blog next year.

Also a reminder that you can follow me on Mastodon at @web_goddess@aus.social. And if you’re not on Mastodon yet but still want to keep up with my posts there, you can subscribe to an RSS feed at this URL: https://aus.social/@web_goddess.rss.

Very, very slowly, it turns out.

I’ve never been a big fan of lace myself on garments – mostly because I have sensitive skin and I find it itchy – but I loved this historical overview on types of lace from Broiderie Stitch. Maybe I need to give lacemaking a go? Looks like the Australian Lace Guild have workshops in Sydney…

Note to self: get your glasses/contacts prescription updated first!

(Link courtesy of this great Metafilter post, which has some other lace-related links as well.)

“Everything you wanted to know about pronouns but were afraid to ask” – nice Guardian article explaining why more and more companies, organisations, events, and social networks support the ability for people to nominate their pronouns. I actually covered this very briefly on an internal work meeting recently. It was prompted by someone on our team being asked for their pronouns by a tech conference, and them not understanding that it meant. I think it’s perhaps especially confusing for non-native English speakers (some languages don’t have gendered pronouns at all), and for those folks in cultures where this issue just hasn’t penetrated much yet. I explained that it’s not a big deal – there are people whose gender might not be what you expect, so if you guess their pronouns, you might get it wrong. Our internal staff directory has a place now for people to specify their pronouns if they want to, and our default Powerpoint deck includes it on the title slide as well. At our big events, we also provide stickers or pins for people to put on their name tag to indicate pronouns.

Some folks think their own gender and pronouns are pretty obvious, so there’s no need to specify. And that’s fine; it’s not like there’s any mandate or expectation. But for me, it comes down to politeness and wanting to make people feel comfortable. If me listing my pronouns (she/her/hers, for the record) on the internal staff directory helps to normalise this a bit more – and make it that much less embarrassing for someone who does need to do it – then why wouldn’t I? It’s not like it’s a huge hardship for me. I’m certainly not going to get offended if someone chooses to state theirs.

Of course, there are those who claim the sticking point is grammar. They don’t like people identifying as “they/them,” and they erroneously claim the singular they/them is incorrect. Guess what? English uses singular they/them all the time and you probably don’t even notice. In fact, I used it all through this blog post. Didja catch that? 😃

Someone I know on Facebook made the following image, which might help if you still don’t get it…

Lastly, I know that some folks are very worried they’ll get someone’s pronouns wrong. Honestly, it’s okay. It’s like getting someone’s name wrong. Just correct yourself, apologise to them if they’re there, and try to do better next time. Honestly, it’s probably less of an issue than you think. When you’re talking to someone, you’ll most likely just use “you” rather than any gendered pronouns. It’s really only an issue when you’re talking about someone, or introducing them to a third person.

Super fun cover I’ve had on repeat for a week. Bonus: it taught me what the phrase “down bad” means, which is apparently a thing the kids are saying.

The Best ALDI Wines for $10 or Less – As a connoisseur of supermarket wine, this is very relevant to my interests.

The many lives of Angels on Horseback https://www.snackstack.net/p/the-many-lives-of-angels-on-horseback

I enjoyed this little bit of investigation into the origins of the classic American campfire snack S’mores. Halfway through it turns into the much more interesting discussion of Angels on Horseback, a fancy hors d’oeuvre of bacon-wrapped oysters. I’ve never had those before, but I have eaten (and prepared) the similarly named Devils on Horseback. We usually do dates stuffed with Parmigiano cheese wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven. Really makes it feel like a classy 70’s dinner party…