kitchenmage

How-to: Add Pinterest Pin-It Button to Typepad Without Advanced Templates

2012-01-26T18:21:32-08:00

Now the way I see things, there are two ways to be in the world: selfish or giving. All snark aside, I choose the latter. With Pinterest, for example, once I was enlightened about it I wanted to share the way of thePin. Being a geek, I wanted to share it here because then even more people could pin my biscuits. (Pin my biscuits! sounds a southern euphemism for...well...something else, doesn't it?)

Going to the source, in this case, Pinterest's Goodies page, yielded some iffy scripts and a distinct lack of "simple" ways to get a freaking Pin it button onto each individual post. (Hard-coding each link and image is a joke, you guys. A freaking joke!)

You know what's not a joke? Look down there. (No not "down there"...jeebus people! The footer of this post.) That looks suspiciously like a Pin it button. Works a whole lot like one, too.

Have a Typepad blog and want one of your very own? It's a quick tweak if you are using Advanced Templates. If you don't code, though, you're pretty much screwed on this. Typepad even says so...

Hey, wait now...what about the post title? Where I promise you that you can have a Pin it button even without advanced templates?

Well, while I haven't yet figured out how to give you a Pin-it button in your post footer (like mine) without Advanced Templates, I can give you a Pin-it button in your Navigation Bar that works for individual posts. Would that work for you? Yeah, I thought so. I am really happy because any time a vendor shrugs their shoulders without getting creative, I wince. (@jaydeflix will be along any moment to tell me this isn't in the header/footer so technically Typepad said NOTHING about what I am doing. I would simply point out the lack of a Pin it button on Cook Local and move on with the installation instructions.)

Here's how it works.

Backup your templates — Go to your blog at Typepad. Click Design. Find your template set in the list (it will have a little icon indicating it is the Current design) and click Actions, Duplicate. Give the copy a clever name/description so you can find it later if you need. (Mine often say "KM-before this or that crazy tweak" or other things that make little sense to normal folk.) This is just in case something goes badly...and because backups are critical to any computer-bound content creator. (Also, #someoneElse is now extra happy because "backup your data" is a sort of mantra with him.)
Create your Image — Right-click the Pin it button in the footer of this post and Save it to your computer. Upload that image to wherever you host site images and snag the URL to the image for your code.
Create your Code — Copy the following (bolded) code to a text editor (Notepad) so you have a copy to work with. There should not be any line breaks in it when you paste it in to your text editor so get rid of any that show up. Replace YOUR_IMAGE_GOES_HERE with the URL to your image.

<a href="javascript:void((function()%7Bvar%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)%7D)());"><img style="margin: 0 0 0 0;" onclick="doPinIt();" src=" YOUR_IMAGE_GOES_HERE" alt="Pin It" /></a>

Install your Code — This depends on the type of templates you are using.

Advanced Template sites can use the code pretty much wherever you want. Move along now...

Standard Templates, login to Typepad and go to Design, Content and click on the pencil to edit your Navigation Bar. Click on Advanced so you can see the actual HTML. The default entries look roughly like this:

<li><a href="someLink">someText</a></li>

If that's what yours look like, just add the LI tags to the start and end of the code, like this:

<li><a href="javascript:void((function()%7Bvar%20e=document.createElement('script');e.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');e.setAttribute('charset','UTF-8');e.setAttribute('src','http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r='+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)%7D)());"><img style="margin: 0 0 0 0;" onclick="doPinIt();" src=" YOUR_IMAGE_GOES_HERE" alt="Pin It" /></a></li>
Decide where on the Navigation Bar you want the Pin it button to show up and find that bit of the code. Insert a few blank lines after the closing </li> and before the next opening <li> tag then paste your Pin it code into that space. (The extra space is just to make it easier to look at later.)
Click Okay. Once you are out at the main Content screen, click Preview to see what it looks like. You may need to tweak the alignment to make it line up correctly. At Not Like Normal People, where I did this, I had to change the margins to "0 0 -10px 0" (the order is: top, right, bottom, left and negative numbers pull the image that direction) but your blog may well need different tweaks.

Note for people using Advanced Templates — Pay attention to page load time changes when installing this. When the sharing service plug-in was on the other side of the Pin it button the layout kept freaking out and page loads were slow and occasionally hung. It's happy here with a couple of non-breaking spaces and margin tweaks for alignment and I really don't know why the weirdness. Just thought I'd mention it in case someone ran into it.

Disclaimer: This has been installed for a few hours, it has not been exhaustively tested, m'kay... If you have trouble, talk to me in comments and lets figure it out together.

kitchenMage has a seemingly eternal site redesign underway and I really want the little count of how many times that post has been pinned. I'll definitely let you know when I figure it out. I am also working on a similar thing for Blogger, though I hear of all sorts of issues with similar code over there.

One more thing. This code is based on the official Pinterest bookmarklet and I would love to give someone credit if only I could figure out who. There are variations of this floating around all over the place so at the moment I will just thank the spirits in the wires for leading me to it.

Join me on Facebook?

2012-01-03T05:17:53-08:00

I may not make New Year's resolutions but my web sites do. This one is determined to get a Facebook page up and running this year. I made one for it but it is very lonely. Downright sad, in fact.

We can't have that—an idle Facebook page is the Devil's workshop or something—so I posted a question designed to inspire rowdy conversation, which will require you to like my page to discuss. Devious, huh?

Come on over and give me someone to talk to. Pretty please?

Join kitchenMage on Facebook.

A Christmas Miracle

2011-12-25T00:42:10-08:00

...being the true story of a Christmas Miracle, for Megan and other foodies at the 'rents for the holidays, with apologies to everyone else...

Come on over and sit with me Megan. Let me tell you a story. Now this is a true story, though some folks doubt it. But I was there that Christmas Eve and it happened just like this...

Way back when your mama was just a wee thing, there was a great storm. You can find mention of it in the history books, things like this:

"On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1945, 20 hours of continuous snowfall blocked roads and required snowplow operators to work the holiday in southern Minnesota."

But they don't tell the true story. Not the whole story.

They don't tell you about The Thing that happened on a dark road, way out of town...

Picture it. A small town in southern Minnesota, Christmas Eve, 1945. It wasn't like now, where you can order everything under the sun with just a click of your mouse. No, in 1945 if you wanted something you had to go to a store, so near everyone in town was out that fateful day.

The war was finally over and the troops were starting to come home to their families. After the last few holidays which, as you can imagine, were not festive affairs, it seemed that the entire town was having a party...

"Dashing through the snow..." red-coated carolers, dusted with snow, as if they had, indeed, been dashing through the snow themselves stood next to a man selling roasted chestnuts and other holiday treats. Parents struggled to control their overly-excited children before relenting and letting them join in the snowball fight outside. "Happy Holidays" and "Good Christmas to you!" rang out in the shops and streets. This year, there was a lot to celebrate and celebrating they were.

Folks were hurrying to finish shopping as night, and the temperature, fell fast. One by one families piled packages and bundles of hats, coats and boots containing children into their cars and headed down the dark road. Near 50 cars full of people left town that evening, most of them with a long drive home on some rough country roads, and by closing time snow was blowing so hard car lights were instantly swallowed by the snow, as if they never been there at all.

The first people came back about half an hour after they drove away, on foot. "Snow's so deep, darned car just stopped. Right in the middle of the road." the driver said, looking towards the snow-hidden road, "None of those people are making it home tonight."

"Santa could save them with his sleigh" his daughter offered. Grim smiles were exchanged by the adults who knew that, even on Christmas Eve, Santa held no hope for those families driving into one of the worst storms that ever happened hereabouts.

Well, one thing small town people are is resourceful, and this town had tractors and sheet metal and a welding shop. They also had a very smart woman, who had gone away to work at the Minneapolis-Moline tractor plant and come back with an engineer's skills and knowing a thing or two about tractors. She made a sketch and had a brief talk with the welder amd in just about an hour, a brand new blade was being welded onto a tractor and a couple of guys were wrapping blankets over their coats so they wouldn't freeze themselves while driving the crazy-looking thing.

While all this was going on, a shop was opened so everyone who wasn't working could get warm. Kids clutched mugs of steaming hot chocolate while adults talked quietly in the corner.

A woman said, "Everyone won't be close to home. Some of them are miles out. Even if they can walk out, it'll take a long time. Maybe we should send food..." She trailed off, looking at the shelves, mostly bare after the holiday rush.

What there was a lot of was Cheerios. The Cheerios salesman lived up the road a bit in Lake Woebegon and he was in a great big hurry to be done with work. He had to get home, pickup his family and get to Tyler's Landing in time to catch the last tobaggon to St Olav before the storm set in. When he got to our little town, he had unloaded the contents of his pickup truck onto the store shelves and called it a day. Some had sold, of course, but more than a dozen boxes remained.

"Wait!" the welder yelled at the plow driver, as a group of people ran out the store door, arms loaded with cereal boxes. Boxes were handed up to the second man on the hastily fitted plow. 1, 2, 3..5...10...15...18 boxes in all. This was followed by a thermos of hot coffee and a round of "Good luck...hurry back..." from the crowd and a quiet "Be safe" from the driver's wife.

Watching them lurch along, we could tell that the weight of the plow-blade made driving that tractor really awkward and it didn't have lights--who drives a tractor at night?--so the guy who wasn't driving was balanced on the edge of his seat, one light in each hand, shining them down that now invisible road.

The rest of the tale, well...I'll have to tell you what the driver told me that snowy night.

Right after we couldn't see you anymore, just where the road runs alongside the creek, we slid sideways and just about lost it. Bobby here fell out of the tractor along with all that cereal. Well, all but one box. I reached out to grab his hand and caught the last one just before it slid out. Everything but Bobby and that one box went into the creek.

When we got to the first car with people in it, I started pushing the snow away on the road side while Bobby went around the passenger side to make sure everyone was okay. There were two small children who were very hungry, it being long past supper time by now, and they had a long walk home so Bobby gave them that last box of cereal. I just shrugged my shoulders, we didn't have enough to feed all the kids we were going to help any more so it didn't really matter which one got the cereal.

Bobby hopped back in the tractor and we continued on until we found the next car, or group of three cars I should say. The Mortons and that new family were sitting in the Swensons car, kids in every lap, carrying on like it was a regular ol' party or something. Only problem was the kids were starving. Bobby and I just looked at each other, knowing that we had lost the food we intended for them.

"Let me run back to the tractor and see if there's anything there for the kids." I said as I turned away. No, I didn't turn away because of the tears in my eyes. (Saying this, he dabbed at the tears that he denied were in his eyes.)

When I got back to the plow, I looked around it, under the seats and all, hoping to find something to give those children for their long, slow, cold drive home. Nothing. Leaning back to gather my thoughts, I noticed something in the shadows that covered Bobby's seat.

Darned if it wasn't another box of Cheerios.

Walking back to the car with it in my hand, Bobby caught my eye and raised a questioning eyebrow. "I dunno, we must have missed it." I told him. "Good thing we did, too. These little guys look hungry to me."

As we headed back to the tractor, Bobby said, "I would've sworn there was none of those boxes left. Just that one."

"Me too." I said, not mentioning that I'd been really sure and in any case, how did it end up where Bobby had been sitting just a few minutes ago? Riddle me that, young'un. How?

When we got to the next car, we did the same thing. Bobby jumped out to talk to the people while I got the snow plowed away from the car so they could drive it out. As I went by, I heard the question I dreaded, "You don't happen to have anything to eat, do you? We were out late shopping and the children..."

I heard a noise behind me. Just a little rustling, like a mouse had snuck into the warm tractor and was looking for a hiding place. Turning around to look, I'll be damned if there wasn't another box of those Cheerios. Just sitting there, plain as day.

"What the hell...Bobby, come here."

I shook the box at him, then tossed it. As he caught it, Bobby opened his mouth and I know he was going to ask a question I couldn't answer so I just told him to be quiet now and give the lady the Cheerios. He did and got back in the tractor.

Next car, same thing. A noise and then some Cheerios appeared. They were mischevious things, too, never showing up in the same spot twice. Under the seat, on the floor. Why the very last one showed up right on top of the snowplow blade!

With that he was silent for a moment before continuing...

I'll never be able to explain it, we only had one box if Cheerios. I know we did. But we gave away 37 of them. Thirty-seven. Now, I'm not one to say this kind of thing, but I do believe I just saw a miracle:

The Cheerios Miracle

Well, Megan, ever since that day, we here in parts of Minnesota have eaten Cheerios on Christmas morning as a reminder that even in the worst storm, there is always something better coming. It may not be the best thing, or the thing your heart desires, but it will be good and useful and just might save your life.

Like Cheerios in a storm.

Debunk of Day: Potato Fixes Too Salty Soup

2011-12-15T22:03:47-08:00

Seems like some old wive's cook's tales just won't die. Like the one about adding a potato to overly salted soup to remove salt and make it palatable. It shows up more than once twice three times four times in the first twenty of Babble's current list of how to fix food failures leading me to think that maybe people aren't actually doing the things they are suggesting.

I mean on the surface, it seems like it should work: the potato sucks up a little water and dissolved salt...why wouldn't it selectively suck all the dissolved salt out of the liquid. (Oh wait, see that's absurd on the face of it...)

Rather than calling bullshit on a crowded twitter—because that just makes people unhappy—I set out to test the theory. I wasn't sure I had a tool better than simply tasting it to check the water but it turns out that my refractometer, which lets me measure the sugar content of fruit, also measures salinity. Who knew?

Not to ruin the suspense but no, potato in oversalted soup does not work.

Here's the test:

Calibrate refractometer with filtered water.
Pour 2 cups water into pot. Take control sample.
Add 35g kosher salt and heat until salt dissolved. Take sample #1.
Add 80g chunk of raw, peeled potato. Simmered gently until potato soft. Take sample #2.

Results?

Control: 0 brix
Sample #1: 9 brix
Control: 0 brix (done to ensure clean surface)
Sample #2: 9 brix

We also tasted the potato and it was definitely salty, perhaps a bit oversalted on the outside though the inside was just about right.

The two samples of salted water tasted about the same.

Conclusion: Adding a raw potato to over-salted liquid does NOT remove enough salt to fix it.

This was a simple thing to test and I always enjoy blowing holes in bad information being spread around so I'm looking for other Old Cook's Tales to test. Got one? Leave it in comments.

Wordy Wednesday: Thoughts on a Failed Recipe...

2011-11-30T00:50:13-08:00

Isn't that a lovely loaf of sweet bread?

I was experimenting one night and swapped a single ingredient around in a quick bread recipe that I use regularly with great success. It wasn't even a big switch, damned near the equivalent of changing beer brands in beer bread, but it was apparently the exact wrong thing.

An overwhelming yeasty one-note 'aroma' gave way to a crumb that was somehow both gummy and dry and a profoundly bitter taste. There was no yeast and nearly a cup of sugar in one loaf, and the gummy/dry thing is just baffling. I literally took one bite and threw the rest away.

A blogger friend saw the photo and said, "You know, some people would just post the recipe...I mean it looks good." I got another note moments later saying "JUST KIDDING! Please don't tell anyone I said that." so I am not naming names. glares at @redacted

This got me thinking about the less deliberate recipe failures that hit print and what heck is the bar for publishing recipes (and other things) anyway and what happens when the inevitable screwups happen. And they will...

In the decades I have been writing professionally, I've had mistakes hit print for a variety of reasons: I slipped on a fact, a copyedit inadvertantly changed meaning, layout chopped an image and (one of my favorites) an editor's last minute global search and replace that went a bit awry. Old-fashioned dead-tree authors have an actual permanent record; worse, other people get to edit what goes into it.

Recipes are fraught with opportunities to go sideways. A typo in the measurements, a vague description of when a baked item is done, or an incorrect oven temperature (few people have a calibrated oven) can derail a recipe entirely. Incorrect assumptions about reader knowledge or availability of ingredients can also lead to failure in the kitchen.

I like the ability to correct those things when they crop up here. No errata or waiting for next printing needed. Another help is the interaction with other cooks who actually made the recipes at home. I have learned over the years that flour in the Pacific Northwest often has an extra bit of moisture, requiring tweaks in bread recipes. When I don't mention when to use an ingredient, someone points it out. I appreciate every comment, be it compliment or critique. My recipes, here and in Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids, are better for the feedback.

The idea behind the failed bread is still a tempting one, though, so it's back to the drawing board. While I do that, you should make sure you aren't taken in by a tempting picture of a failed recipe. Here are a few things I use to judge web sites and their associated recipes:

Get your recipes from sites that earn your trust. Did the last two recipes from that site work? The next one is probably going to as well. From the other side, I give recipe developers ~3 strikes before I bail on them. Ask friends whose recipes they like and pay attention to lesser-known names, they are often great finds.
Educate yourself so you know roughly what the recipe you are looking at should look like. There are, for example, general ratios and methods for baked goods. Are there weird ingredients (or missing ones) that don't fit with the desired end result? Creativity is one thing, but fundamentals of structure and flavor should look right. If you have no idea what a 'standard' version of a recipe is, search and look at a few for comparison.
Adapted recipes are not original recipes. There are a few sites that I read because I like how the writers think about adapting recipes, changing flavors in original ways, for example, while maintaining a great base dish. At least one of those sites also has original recipes, none of which is even the least bit appealing. I don't know why this is the case, but it is a great reminder that people who are not so good at one thing probably excel at another.
Good recipes are not a function of being a well-known writer. There are celebrity chefs and extremely popular bloggers alike with a reputation for recipes that fail and unknowns who turn out one winner after another. Keep in mind that feedback left on a site not controlled by the recipe creator can be extremely useful. For authors, Amazon 2-4 star reviews can be really helpful in that they tend to include nuance, like whether or not the recipes work, rather than love or hate for the entire book.
Comments can be useful but keep in mind that "That looks delicious!" is relatively meaningless compared to "I made this and it is delicious." Funny how once you start paying attention to this difference, there seem to be far fewer relevant comments. (I'm not dissing "looks delicious" and would never delete a friendly "Looks great!" but it doesn't tell me much.)
If there are only positive comments on a site, the site owner is most likely censoring out any negative feedback. This is not only surprisingly common in foodblogging, it is what is sold as "how it is done" by far too conferences and so-called experts. Nobody's recipes work every time, even if only because eventually someone will misread the recipe and use baking soda instead of baking powder. Call me suspicious but if only positive comments are allowed, I start to suspect the censor is hiding something...

How do you tell a good recipe from a bad one? Share your best tips for not getting burned in the comments here; I promise I won't censor you. (Comments are moderated so they don't show up immediately. Don't worry, it got saved)

A Thanksgiving Note to Parents

2011-11-23T20:05:14-08:00

Thanksgiving preparation is in high gear across America this evening. Most of those people are also on twitter so my twitterstreams are full of people, many of whom are parents—mostly moms, but that's another rant—working to get the pies baked, clean house, cook some side dishes and do something with kale. (Seriously, every fourth tweet is "Sous-vided bacon-wrapped kale infused with baby, free-range...") I am getting hungry reading and knowing that there is turkey tomorrow isn't helping much at the moment.

But that's not why I am here. I want to talk to the parents...

I keep reading a variant of "Kids SUUUUCK! Can't get anything done. Crap! I'll wait until they go to bed."

What the hell, y'all?

You had children so they could participate in your family life, right? So let them.

When it comes to helping with party prep (and general household chores) I believe in No Child Left Behind, aka Being a Slavedriver. No wait, make that SLAVEDRIVER. It's a job title more parents should embrace from time to time. Your kids will thank you when they are all grown up and coping with the activities of daily living without undue vapors.

Tweens and older are treated like almostAdults when it comes to work.They are fairly independent, getting some directions to get started but no hovering like I might with a smaller child.
School-age kids are extremely helpful sous chefs. They can read recipes, gather and prep ingredients and do a lot of the actual cooking.Teach them to work with heat and blades safely and
Kids love to stir things. If all your stirrables are simmering away, give the toddler a bowl with a fistful of rice and dried beans and ask them to stir that.
Small kids can do a lot of stuff if you give them a nudge and a wee bit of direction. Get them to pick up toys and other clutter, collect dirty laundry, wash vegetables, shell beans, set the table, load/unload the dishwasher and a thousand other things.
Taster. This one is a double hit because your child is busy and happily eating (mostly) healthy treats. Do it right and you don't have to make them dinner tonight. Triple win!
If all else fails, give your monstrrr a stack of paper napkins and ask them to fold them in Thanksgiving shapes. Praise whatever they do.
Babies are tougher but I decided their job is to be adorable and provide toes to be nibbled. If you have a better job for them, please share it in comments.

How are the kids in your house helping? Give other parents a hand by sharing your secrets in comments.

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Rosemary Fan Dinner Roll Recipe ~ v.Simpler

2011-11-21T21:30:53-08:00

This is a slightly simpler, straight dough version of these Rosemary Fans. (Straight dough is mixed at one time, versus recipes using starters, etc.) If you have the time to do the original version, which requires an extra few hours for the starter to ripen. I encourage you to do so, the bread flavor is a bit richer, somehow more "grainy" in a good way. It's all those lovely enzymes and tasty bits...

Rosemary Fans

These rolls bloom in the oven into charming little fans, each with its own look. The bread dough is simple to make and shaping the rolls is quick, easy and (happily for small hands) not an exact science. You can substitute almost any other savory herb for rosemary, though fresh herbs really do work best for this.

Makes 12 large rolls

1 1/2 cups water (at body temperature)
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 cups flour (bread flour is better, but all-purpose will work)
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary fresh, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil (or melted butter)

Put the water, yeast, whole wheat flour, three cups of the bread flour and the olive oil in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. (Use low speed on a stand mixer.) Sprinkle in the last cup of flour while mixing, stopping when the dough clears the bowl and stops absorbing flour. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Turn the dough out on a well-floured counter and sprinkle the salt on it. Knead the dough 5-10 minutes (stand mixer: 5-6 minutes on medium) until it is firm yet supple and smooth. (You may need to use a bit more flour on the counter.) Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour. (Use the rising amount, not time, to determine if dough is ready for next step.)
When the dough has doubled in size, turn it out on a lightly floured counter and flatten into a rectangle with your hands. Let the dough relax for a minute while you prepare a muffin tin by lightly coating each cup with olive oil.
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12x18 rectangle. If the dough starts resisting and springing back, let it rest for a few minutes and then finish rolling. Brush the dough with olive oil or melted butter and sprinkle liberally with chopped rosemary.
Cut dough in half crosswise and lay one piece on top of the other. Cut that stack in half and stack the pieces to make one four-layer stack that's about 6x9 inches in size. Make three cuts crosswise and 4 lengthwise to give you 12 rolls about 1 ½ by 3 inches. It doesn't matters if the sides are uneven, it's what gives them their charm.
Place in oiled muffin tins, one stack per cup with a short edge facing up. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about an hour. When the rolls have increased in size by about half that amount, turn on the oven to 425 to preheat.
Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown. Cool in pans for 15 minutes and then gently turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling. Don't handle the rolls too roughly; they occasionally fall apart when warm.