Sunday, December 26, 2010

Recipes: Vegetable-ish Stew and Dumplings

Stew n DumplingsThanks to my mum for this recipe, and Larry for spicing it up a bit.
  1. Start by frying off some fennel seeds, cumin seeds and maybe some onion in some olive oil.
  2. Add celery and celeriac.
  3. Chipolatas can be added now if desired.
  4. Brown off small cubes of vegetables such as 1/2 a sweet potato, 1 swede, 1/2 squash, a potato or two, a parsnip and a couple of carrots.
  5. Once the vegetables are brown add enough stock to cover them and some grain type things (tinned or dried) such as lentils, beans and barley.
  6. Season as necessary, maybe adding a bay leaf/cinnamon stick or two.
  7. Cook covered in a hot oven for about twenty minutes.
  8. Make the dumplings by mixing self-raising flour and suet in a weight ratio of 2:1. I use 6oz flour and 3oz suet. Add enough water to combine and divide in to round dumplings, I usually make about 10.
  9. After about 20 minutes take the lid off and add the dumplings and cook for another 20 minutes until the dumplings are browned, adding a little more water/stock if necessary.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Luser Support

From the supportee:
Is there any way we can change the error message to make it a bit more idiot proof?

From me:
I'm sorry, but on the second line it says "XDataProvider:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections.
(provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)"

ie,

1. This is the XDataProvider.
2. This is a network error meaning that I cannot talk to the SQL Server.
3. This might be fixed by checking that the server name is correct and the SQL Server is configured to allow connections.

I really don't think it could be *any* clearer or more idiot proof.

From my colleague:
User error. I'm always right.