They’re up on Flickr: Amsterdam July 08. Once I sifted out all the photos of restaurant menus and museum opening times, alas, there was not a lot left. But enough to show some of the city’s finer points…even if I had to be locked in to get the shot.

I feel incredible smugness at the moment for getting my blog all transferred and working again…as long as I blot out the parts where I totally fucked it up and made the job a thousand times harder than it had to be. I guess we cause problems just to solve them…

The most aggravating part of having my blog be down is that I had nowhere to complain about my various idiotic missteps.

Let the complaining commence afresh! (And let me remind you that the comments are back in action. Crap! They’re not! I don’t know what happened. Back to the fucking drawing board. OMG! I did it!)

Good news: After more than six months of quiet, comments are restored! Hooray! Let the interacting begin again!

Bad news: I am so. filled. with. rage. at Yahoo, after I pestered their support repeatedly about the comments problem, after which someone finally admitted it was their fault, and the support staff was “trying its level best” to fix it, but there was no timetable. Of course I never heard from them again.

Turns out all I had to do was upgrade my version of WordPress. Yes, all those feisty comments about the ugly Pistilli buildings are lost, along with everyone else’s bon mots…but that’s OK. I keep them in my heart. Thanks again for nothing, Yahoo support.

The more aggravating part, though, is that in my quest to fix my comments, I decided to move hosts, and leave those stupid Yahoo people and their “level best” in the dust. Now that moving process is underway, which is what caused me to upgrade WordPress. Too late to turn back now. And once I move, I’ll have to redo my whole personal website too because the code will not adapt nicely.

Gnash. Gnash. Gnash.

Upshot is that you probably won’t be seeing this blog for the next few days, while it and the domain are transferred over. Don’t panic. When it’s back, let the comments fly!

We just had a four-alarm moment down in the kitchen: no butter! Fortunately, I’d already buttered our toast, but Peter was wanting more…

I think this is the best evidence of how I’ve really had to shove everything aside to get this guidebook finished. I can’t think of another time in…my whole life?…that I’ve run out of butter.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a little cooking demo at our CSA. The recipe I did was raw zucchini with basil and brown butter. Natch, the first person to wander by and show any interest in what I was doing was a guy who said, “Boy, that sure is a lot of butter you’re using!” in a disapproving tone. Fortunately, some other bystanders noticed the butter-heckler, and started giving him a hard time. “Butter is good!” said another woman, and others nodded. I let them do the talking, because I just could not think of a polite thing to say.

Here’s the recipe, by the way:

Zucchini with brown butter and basil
(serves 4)

* 3 small zucchini (and/or yellow summer squash)
* 1 handful fresh basil
* 3 tbsp butter
* salt
* lemon (optional)

Trim ends off zucchini. With a knife, mandoline or vegetable peeler, slice zucchini lengthwise into thin ribbons. (Impatient? You can also run the squash through the slicer on a Cuisinart, though the results won’t be so pretty. It’s nicer to have long slices, rather than round ones, as they don’t clump together so much, but it’s really only cosmetic.) Mince basil (or chiffonade, if you know/care what that means–again, cosmetic) and toss with the zucchini in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan on high heat, melt butter. It will first foam with fairly large bubbles. As soon as the large bubbles subside and are replaced with a layer of denser foam, pull the saucepan from the heat. There should be dark-brown (but not burnt) toasted bits in the bottom of the pan. (If the butter smokes, you’ve gone too far–toss it and start over.) Immediately pour the hot butter over the zucchini and basil. Sprinkle with salt (to taste) and toss gently, so as not to break up the zucchini slices. (If you like a bit of acid, squeeze half a lemon over the squash and toss again. The lemon goes nicely with the basil, but it’s perfectly good without it as well.)

Serve pretty much immediately. If this sits more than 10 minutes, the zucchini loses a lot of its crunch (and the butter starts to congeal), though it still tastes good.