CSA Box & Projects

[hrj]

Got the new roses in the ground today and printed off the handouts to go with the Dublin-Viking caps class. (I decided to mess around with In Design's templates, so I did it up as a three-fold brochure. It's a bit silly, but it's the only way I ever explore new program features.) Also stopped by the thrift store to pick up a couple of plain white sheets to make into classical scenery backdrops for the gods & goddesses encampment at A&S.

This week's veggie box has the regular potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and lettuce -- I don't normally eat this many carrots, so I need to start being a bit more inventive -- plus strawberries (YAYYYYY!!!!!), basil, and walnuts. The last two items cried out to become walnut pesto, so I picked up a head of garlic on my way home. The lettuce is going into lunches for the next two days. Hmm, if I turn the carrots and cabbage into slaw for next week's lunches, then I've thrown the dinner menus wide open (as long as they include potatoes).

Comments

[ursula]

My two current strategies for "build a meal around carrots" are carrot (and potato?) pancakes, and carrot khoresh with garlic yogurt.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Just curious about what you think of In Design. I haven't looked at it (can't afford to buy it right now) ... it's the successor to PageMaker, which frankly was a PITA to use ... so just kind of curious.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd gotten very used to PageMaker (it was what we used at MZB's Fantasy Magazine ... that is, after we stopped doing actual physical paste-up!) so I wasn't happy about having to learn an entirely new program to do my layout projects. I still can't use it with the same ease -- InDesign is nowhere near as intuitive (and since PageMaker wasn't all that intuitive in the first place, this says something). I should probably actually take a class or something for InDesign -- which I almost never do to learn a program. For several years I kept meaning to learn Quark -- even had a copy of the program. But then the version I had was obsoleted by an OS upgrade and I never had actually done a major project using it. Very annoying.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Okee dokee. Well, I wasn't planning on rushing out and getting anything, and frankly I think with Word 2007 I could just as easily (or really, more easily) created my books there, than PageMaker, or from the sounds of it, In Design. (I have nothing in the works at the moment, but it's always in the back of my head ...)

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Word is really rather clunky if you try to use it to lay out pages -- and Word layouts don't export very well into any other program. But if it produces layouts you like, and your publisher likes them, by all means use Word.

InDesign's advantage is that it gives you much more control and flexibility in your page setups, and saves you a fair amount of work fiddling with where things go. I avoid Word whenever possible, but I see my co-workers putting in lots and lots of time trying to make their pages "look right" that I don't have to do.

And being a professional at it (i.e. I use it 40 hours a week), I can't really speak to the learning curve.

I've also found that InDesign has a pretty good word processor embedded into it -- in fact I vastly prefer it to Word. To a large degree, I think it's a matter of what you're used to.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

You can always ask your friendly neighborhood expert for a tutorial, too. ;)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The layout programs like InDesign or Quark are most useful if you have a lot of major graphics or layout issues: wrapping text around odd shapes, combining multiple layers of elements, layout out text shaped paths. Also, if you're doing a magazine-like layout where you have stories jumping across discontinuous sets of pages. And, of course, they're great for dealing with printing masters for folded booklets, since it handles all the pagination issues automatically, and they have a lot of built-in tools for communicating very precise printing specifications for when you're dealing with something higher-end than a desktop printer..

Carrots

[lapioggia.livejournal.com]

Mmm carrot Koresh. There are so many awesome things to do with carrots beyond the lovely but predictable deviled carrots or carrot cake: carrot thyme couscous, fiery carrot dip with harrissa, scappi's carrots with balsamic, tempura-ed carrots, carrot ginger soup, elizabethan carrot pudding, tzimmes etc etc
I even have a carrot Mac & cheese recipe sitting around that I need to try.

Carrots are my fave :>

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

Carrots in mustard sauce!

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Carrots and walnuts? I'd say, make carrot cake!