Like many libraries, the National Library of Poland has digitized many of its holdings. They also have an interface that allows you to convert text into images based on scanned letters from their collection.
Sure, there are lots of ransom note generators out there (maybe too many; what are people up to?) but I like mine with a bit of history.
The Polona Typo project, based on the new Polona API, makes it possible to type, share and print your own sentences using thousands of letters from the books, posters and maps created over more than six centuries. Enjoy!
Test it out, reload to get a whole new look or click on individual letters to re-roll one at a time. Download and enjoy (responsibly, of course!).
“I have two questions for you,” I said. “One: Do you want to do better?” …
“Here’s my second question: Are you willing to feel the discomfort of putting in more effort and trying new things that will feel weird and different and won’t work right away?”
You may be tired of hearing about chocolatetofupudding, and honestly, I’m a little sick of making it. But! I didn’t go through another five batches of the stuff not to document the results, so here we go.
In the end, I tested five different versions of this chocolate pudding: caramelized white, orange caramelized white, milk, maple milk, and dark.
Pudding flight. Because that’s how I roll.
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Hang on, you may say, you made five batches and each batch made five pudding cups?
That’s right.
That’s hmm, let me think, a *lot* of freaking pudding!
You aren’t wrong. The good news is that it turns out that this pudding freezes quite well. My initial research discouraged freezing, and it’s true that regular tofu undergoes a fairly dramatic texture change when frozen and then thawed. It’s a great way to make a ground meat substitute, but I wasn’t sure what would happen to the creamy texture of the pudding. Fortunately, the silken tofu had no trouble with the temperature change and after defrosting a few hours in the fridge I couldn’t tell it had been frozen.
My favorite variant changes depending on my mood. The orange white has a really good citrus flavor, but there’s something about the acidity that keeps the tofu taste more front and center. I like it anyway, but Mr. Man liked this one least. He wouldn’t eat it straight from the blender but after two days actually liked it. Surprisingly, after a concerted lobbying for the milk chocolate option, his favorite is the dark chocolate. (Also, caramelized white chocolate straight from the spoon.)
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Chocolate Tofu Pudding: The Recipes*
Ingredients vary slightly but the method is the same for all.
Instructions
Caramelize any chocolate that may need caramelizing.
Heat sugar and water or syrup over medium-low heat. Cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then stir in any additional liquid, add chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.
Blend all ingredients together until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Chill for at least 30 minutes, although longer gives a denser texture. Serve straight, or with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
Serves four. Or two. Or one. You’ll find no judgment here.
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Additional Notes:
Chocolate, flavor and related characteristics
the dark chocolate option was much thicker than the other variants, especially after chilling; thin with a little heavy cream if desired.
chocolate quality is front and center with all versions of this recipe, but even more so with the white chocolate
I still want to try mocha, with half syrup and half coffee, but that will have to wait. I’m out of tofu. Again.
Tofu, obviousness of
firm and extra firm tofu both worked well, no discernible difference in the end result.
the tofu flavor was more obvious with the lighter chocolate versions, but mellowed after a day or two
Sweetness, excess of
replacing the simple syrup with maple syrup worked structurally, but wasn’t my favorite. The end result was both more sweet and less maple-flavored than I’d like, and it seemed like waste of good Canadian tree juice. That said, I still want to try it topped with a bit of crumbled bacon.
cutting back even more on the sugar would be possible, particularly with the already sweetened lighter chocolates.
Melding, which is what I’m calling time spent in the fridge for the pudding to think about what it wants from life
given two days in the fridge for flavors to develop, the white chocolate versions had very different flavors, and all varieties gained more depth and complexity.
And that, folks, is all I have to say about this pudding.**
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* Because I scribble notes on scraps of paper and then forget where I put them.
** For now. There’s still mocha to try, and peanut butter, and raspberry basil white, and…
One of the side effects of growing up mixed race and adopted is the (often in-your-face) realization that a lot of how we divide ourselves into “us” and “them” is a matter of choice.
Like so many of you, I’m watching the war in Ukraine and hoping the news will improve.
I don’t know any Ukrainians (or many Russians). They aren’t Americans or Canadians or African Americans or Swedish Americans or Italians or Germans or French or Irish or any of the other categories that I might reasonably be expected to claim as “my” people. But they are people.
“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
I like taxes. I know that may be an unpopular opinion but I like a lot of what they support, such as schools and roads and clean water and fire trucks and social security and air pollution controls and building codes and protection from creatures that howl in the night. (Civilization, you get what you pay for.)
I don’t like doing taxes. I’d be a lot happier about the whole transaction if I didn’t have to pay twice, once in money and once in time.
I’m a less usual case because I pay in two countries, but most people have fairly straightforward taxes. There’s no reason to make those folks jump through all these hoops—the government already knows what most of us are paid.
Many countries use return-free filing. Under that system, most taxpayers get a quick “thanks, you’re good” and that’s it, done. (Changing the US system would take a lot more work than just waving a magic wand, of course, but doesn’t no return sound nice?) I predict we’ll see a lot of articles about this very topic come mid-April.
What would you do with the time you’d save if you didn’t have to fight through filing paperwork or work more to earn enough to pay someone else to do it?
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