Dinner and other news

[valiha]

Today was the first time I went outside after two weeks being cooped up due to illness (not counting the trips to the doctor to get those very painful shots) in order to get this for dinner:



Both my aunt and me were getting sick of soups and bland dishes, and today while we were trying to decide what we wanted to have for dinner, we looked at each other and said "Ćevapi!" at the same time. :D It was just perfect, and exactly what we needed. I haven't felt so good about a meal in a long time.

There's a place not far from where we live that makes fabulous ćevapi, and I pass it by on my way to and from work. I sometimes stop by on my way home and get some for us. They're quite addictive, so I take care not to get them too often.

In other news, I still tire easily, and often feel exhausted after a couple of hours sitting up. I'm getting quite sick of teas, thank you very much for ruining my enjoyment of them, you nasty flu! I'm done with my medication, and it's been days since I had any fever to speak of. I'm no longer required to wear a mask, but I do need to make sure my mouth and nose are covered by a thick scarf as they don't want me to get a sore throat which might then lead to worse things.

There's been an announcement in LJ news about some changes regarding communities, maintainers and moderators and a new category of comm owners = persons who created the comms.

In order to improve community management, LiveJournal is introducing the role of 'owner' for communities. The owner of a community is the only maintainer who will have the authority to remove other maintainers, rename the community, or delete the community. Over the next few days, community owners will be determined. In most cases, the user who created the community will be the community owner. For communities created after today, the user who creates the community will automatically be the owner of the community. For communities created prior to today, the community owner will be determined as follows... [rest of the text at the original entry - they haven't cut it so I can't link to to the exact section]

There seem to be two major concerns: one is from maintainers who are complaining that this will turn comms into dictatorships instead of communities run by mutual agreement, and the second one is from original creators who have previously been burned by giving maintainer status to friends and then having those friends turn around and seize control of the comms, kicking out the original creators.

I think both sides have some valid arguments, but I think this is something that we'll have to wait and see in order to understand how it will affect us. As a maintainer and mod on a couple of LJ comms, I'm interested in seeing how this plays out. Some threads of interest: Owners?, What exactly is the point, What about an active but absent owner, Bitching about games aside... .

Their other announcement about LJ implementing games on site doesn't bother me as I have no intention to install and play them. They are one of the reasons I loathe Facebook and barely ever use it other than when I have to get in touch with cousins who spend their lives there.

Comments

[pezgirl7.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you're doing better! That dish looks kinda gross, sorry, but if you like it, yay! :)

I didn't know about the Owners thing, so thanks for posting that. I don't think it will effect my comms at all. I think it might be a good thing, because it could prevent other admins from taking control away from the original creator, like you said.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

:gasp: Blasphemy! How can you *say* that? :D It's the most delicious dish ever and it's one of our specialties! It's minced meat, usually beef, formed into small rolls and fried on a grill, then put into warm flatbread. Chopped onions are optional. It's usually eaten with yogurt, but that too depends on your taste.

I'm subscribed to news and lj_releases so I usually catch these changes as they're announced. I like the owner changes and while I understand the protests from people who are running certain communities abandoned by their owners who worry that the owner won't hand them over out of spite, it has the potential to be a good thing indeed. There should soon be a new category under Manage communities marking people as owners, maintainers and mods. Mods got some higher authority too.

[pezgirl7.livejournal.com]

hehe Well I've never had minced meat, but anything that looks like sausage is unappetizing to me. It probably does taste good though. I can't imagine eating meat with yogurt though. That seems like a strange combination.

I've been thinking that I really should get another admin for my two comms, just in case something were to happen to me or my LJ account. I wouldn't want the comms to die because there was no admin.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

Oh, so it's something like with a cousin of mine who dislikes minced meat, but likes it prepared in other ways. That's fine, we all have different tastes. :)

Regarding yogurt, maybe that's because there's a difference in how we perceive yogurt? Most foreigners I talk to presume the yogurt we have is some sort of fruit flavored deal, but we mostly just use the plain kind. We drink it with a lot of dishes, but it's most popular with rice, ćevapi, and various pies - or pitas as we call them, which are again different from what I've seen of American pies. Ours are made of really thin pastry dough filled with meat, spinach (though I personally LOVE when nettle is added - yum!), cheese, or pumpkin and rolled into spirals. This is a good walkthrough on how to make Bosnian-style pie. :)

I actually wanted to talk to you about some ideas I had about comms, but will have to do some careful planning first - I'm overhauling some things. Yes, if you can find a person or two to help out it would be a good idea, and with the recent changes, you'll be insured against any hostile takeovers.

[pezgirl7.livejournal.com]

Yea, I was thinking of American yogurt. But I've had falafel sandwiches with pita bread and a sauce, which is probably similar to the type of yogurt you're referring to. When I hear pie, I think of dessert pie, but we have ones with meat or vegetables that are normally called pot pies.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

Yogurt, kefir and sour cream are all very popular here. My sister has yogurt with *everything*. :)

That's an interesting looking dish, and I'd like to try making something similar, provided it doesn't require pork in the recipe. But yeah, totally different from our pies.

[pezgirl7.livejournal.com]

Well I've never had a curry pot pie. Normally it's chicken, veggies and gravy in the pie, and they're purchased in the frozen food section. More typical:
http://www.moricelawfirm.com/images/banquet.jpg

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

...and a clear photo of the pie before and after it's baked in an oven:

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

(Dang it, forgot the link: Around the world in favorite recipes - Bosnian pie)

[pezgirl7.livejournal.com]

That looks really good and is making me hungry! I tried to make something similar last year using filo dough, but I didn't add enough cheese, so it was pretty dry.

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I think I may have to buy some tomorrow, as I'm hopeless when it comes to making it!

Don't forget you have to oil the dough some too - the additional recipe above very nicely explains the process.