Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2011, wish you all happiness and success this year, another year with blogging, hope you enjoy it, thanks for all supporters and followers and fans, wish me luck ;)

Egyptian "Ful Medames" & Baba Ganoush طريقة عمل فول مدمس مع بابا غنوج

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هل ذهبت إلى مصر من قبل؟ إذا كانت الإجابة لا فسوف تتعرف اليوم على أحد أطباقها الشهيرة، وإذا كانت الإجابة نعم فبالتأكيد أنت تعرف الإفطار الأكثر شعبية في مصر وهو "الفول والطعمية" لطعمه اللذيذ وانتشاره ولما له من فائدة كبيرة، واليوم سوف نتكلم عن الفول وطريقة عمله، والفول المصري له العديد من الطرق والوصفات ولكنني استخدمت اليوم أبسط وصفة لأنها الأروع مع البابا غنوج. الفول هو أحد من البقوليات والذي يتم طهيه لمدة طويلة في إناء خاص بالفول تحديداً، وهو عبارة عن إناء متسع من أسفل ويضيق عند فوهته، وذلك لأن الفول عندما يكون ساخن ويكشف الغطاء عنه يتحول الفول المعرض للهواء إلى اللون الأسود ويجف وبالتالي فالفوهة الضيقة تقلل من نسبة الفول المعرضة للهواء.

 بالإضافة إلى الفول سنتكلم عن بابا غنوج وهو أيضاً من الأطباق المصرية المفضلة التي تؤكل مع الفول أو مع السمك المشوي والمشويات عموماً أو كنوع من المقبِّلات على الغداء أو العشاء، المكون الأساسي في عمله هو الباذنجان المشوي، وهو فاتح للشهية بشكل كبير.

نصيحة الوصفة: 

1- يجب ألا يستخدم الخلاط في خلط مكونات بابا غنوج فهو يغير طعم بابا غنوج ويخرج الماء من الباذنجان، أما الهاون أفضل بكثير من حيث الطعم والقوام.

2- بدلاً من استخدام الفول الجاهز يمكن طهي الفول بالمنزل عن طريق استخدام الإناء المذكور إذا كان متاح لمدة الليل كله على نار هادئة، وإذا احتاج ماء يضاف له ماء ساخن وليس بارد حتى لا يجف، ويمكن إضافة حبة طماطم صغيرة وفص ثوم وقبضة عدس لإعطائه طعم جيد وأيضاً لأن الطماطم تساعد على طهي قشر البقوليات بشكل جيد.

توصية: هذا الطبق رائع مع البيض المسلوق.

الأكلة تكفـــــي: شخصين

وقت التحضير: 3 دقائق

وقت الطهــــي: 40 دقيقة

Have you ever been to Egypt? If the answer is NO, then you will know one of its most popular dishes in it, and if the answer is YES, that means you know the most popular breakfast for sure, which is "Ful & Falafel", it's known for its delicious taste and nutritional value, today you will know how to make it, Egyptian "Ful" or beans has many ways to be done with, but I'm going to show you the simplest one because it's the best with "Baba Ganoush". Egyptian beans is a legume which is cooked for a long time in a special beans pot which is wide in the bottom and so narrow in the top of it, and that's because when the beans are uncovered to the air it becomes black and dry and not well cooked, so that special pot minimize the amount of beans on top.

 In addition to beans, I will talk about Baba Ghanoush which is also a famous Egyptian dish, it's usually been eaten with Egyptian beans or Egyptian roasted fish "Samak Mashwy" and grilled meat in general, or as an appetizer at lunch or dinner, the main ingredient in Baba Ganoush is roasted eggplant, and it's really appetizing.

Recipe Tips:

1 - You must not use a blender or food processor to mix Baba Ganoush ingredients, It causes changes in the taste of Baba ghanoush and get the water out of the eggplant, while using the mortar and pestle gives it a really good taste and texture.

2 - Instead of using canned beans, you can cook your own at home if you have the special pot, beans are cooked over night with the same amount of water on low heat, and if it needs water only hot water could be added to not get dried, you can also add a tomato, garlic, and 1 tbsp of lentil to enhance flavor and also because tomato helps to cook beans well.

Recommendation: This dish is wonderful with boiled eggs.

Serves: 2 people

Prep. time: 3 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Click here for the recipe اضغط هنا للوصفة »

Strawberry Jam Heart-Shaped Pancakes بان كيك القلوب بمربى الفراولة

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   هذا الطبق هو المفضل إلىّ على الإطلاق كطبق حلو أو إفطار وهو مناسب جداً للعشاء الرومانسي أو المناسبات الخاصة. البانكيك هو نوع من الكيك الرقيق يتم تحضيره مزيج مخفوق على مقلاة أو شواية، وهو عبارة عن كيك سريع التحضير بالمقلاة أو الجريدل، البعض يستخدم الخميرة في عمله أو خليط مخمر، ويتم طبخه على جهة واحدة ثم يقلب لينضج على الوجه الآخر، ويمكن تقديمه في أي وقت حسب تقاليد كل دولة بحشوات مختلفة مثل المربى أو قطع الشوكولاتة أو الفاكهة أو اللشراب أو حتى اللحم.

    في انجلترا الثلاث مكونات الرئيسية لهذه الوصفة هم الدقيق والبيض واللبن، ويكون الخليط أخف من العسل ويشكل طبقة رقيقة في قاع المقلاة، وربما يكون بعض الفقاقيع أثناء النضج ولكنه لا يرتفع وهو أشبه بالكريب الفرنسي. أما في أمريكا الشمالية أحياناً يسمى بالهوت كيكس أو الكعكات الساخنة ويحتوي على عوامل رفع مثل البيكنج باودر، والبيض الذي يضرب كل من بياضه وصفاره على حدة، والدقيق واللبن الرائب، مكون بذلك خليط غليظ نوعاً ما. أما في الهند يطلق عليه أحياناً تشيلا أو بودا، ويمكن عمله هناك إما طبق حلو أو مالح، وله قوام متعدد الأشكال حسب المكان الذي يقدمه. أما في جنوب أفريقيا فيسمونه باناكوك باللغة الأفريقانية وهو عادة يقدم في أيام البرد والمطر مع سكر القرفة أو عصير الليمون، وأحياناً يتركوا السكر ليذوب في البانكيك أو يأكلونه فوراً وعندها يكون البانكيك مقرمش. أما في كينيا فيستخدمونه كالخبز في وجبة الإفطار مضاف له سكر إلى الخليط قبل طهيه.

نصيحة الوصفة:
1- يفضل استخدام مضرب اليد في خلط المكونات فهو يساعد على خلط الدقيق دون وجود تكتلات، ويمكن استخدام الخلاط الكهربائي حسب الرغبة.
2- يمكن إضافة الفانيليا(حسب الرغبة) إلى هذه الوصفة ولكنني لا أفضل ذلك فمقدار البيض غير ظاهر للدرجة وأفضل طعمها أكثر بدون فانيليا.
3- استخدمت قالب على شكل قلب خاص بالبانكيك، يمكن عملها بدون قوالب.
4- عند إضافة الخليط للقوالب يفضل أن يكون الخليط للمنتصف حتى لا يفور خارج القالب.
5- إذا خرج بعض الخليط من القالب فلا مشكلة يمكن التخلص من البواقي حوله عندما يُطهى الجزء السفلي للبان كيك.
6- من الأفضل استخدام قوالب غير قابلة للالتصاق أو دهن القوالب بالزبد.

*كيف أقوم بعمل بان كيك على شكل قلوب وليس عندي القوالب الخاصة؟!

- إذا لم يكن لديكم قوالب القلوب المستخدمة هنا يمكنكم بسهولة قطعها بعد طهيها بعمل الآتي:

1- نرسم قلب على ورقة زبدة.

2- نقص ورقة الزبدة بالمقص على شكل الرسمة.

3- نضع ورقة الزبدة فوق البانكيك الناضج ويتم قطعه على شكلها. :)

الوصفة تكفي: خمس طبقات من البانكيك.
مدة التحضير: 3 دقائق
مدة الطهــــي: 10 دقائق

This recipe is my favorite for breakfast or dessert, also it's so suitable for romantic dinners or special occasions. A pancake is a thin, flat cake prepared from a batter and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. Most pancakes are quick breads; some use a yeast-raised or fermented batter. Most pancakes are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped part way through to cook the other side. Depending on the region, pancakes may be served at any time, with a variety of toppings or fillings including jam, chocolate chips, fruit, syrup or even meat.

English pancakes have three key ingredients: plain flour, eggs, and milk. The batter is runny and forms a thin layer on the bottom of the frying pan when the pan is tilted. It may form some bubbles during cooking, which results in a pale pancake with dark spots where the bubbles were, but the pancake does not rise. English pancakes are similar to French crêpes. American  pancakes (sometimes called hotcakes) are pancakes which contain a raising agent such as baking powder; proportions of eggs, flour, and milk or buttermilk create a thick batter. In India the Pooda (sometimes called Cheela) is a pancake. They can be made either sweet or salty and are of different thicknesses in different places. In South Africa pancakes refer to crepes, they are traditionally prepared by the Afrikaans community on gas stoves, and called a pannekoek in Afrikaans, eaten on wet and cold days. Pannekoek are served with cinnamon-flavored sugar (and sometimes lemon juice), the sugar may be left to dissolve onto the pancake, if eaten immediately the pancake is crispy. In Kenya pancakes are eaten for breakfast as an alternative to bread. They are served plain with the sugar already added to the batter to sweeten them.

Recipe tips:

1- It's better to use a whisk to mix ingredients, it helps mixing the flour will with milk, you can also use food processor.

2- You can add vanilla as you like, I just find it better without it so I didn't add it.

3- I used heart mold, you can make pancakes without it.

4- When placing the batter inside the mold make sure you add half of it so it doesn't go out of it.

5- If the batter leak outside the mold it's OK you can remove it after cooked on one side.

6- It's better to use non stick molds, or else you can grease them with butter.

*How can I make heart shaped pancakes without a mold?!

- If you don't have these molds you can cut it heart shape after cooking:

1- Draw a heart on a parchment paper.

2- Cut the paper with scissors .

3- Put it on the cooked pancakes and cut them :)

Makes: 5 pancakes

Prep. time:   3 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Click here for the recipe اضغط هنا للوصفة »

CRT Pixel Shader Filter for SNES Emulation

Update 05/18/2011: More screenshots for more new filters in my new post. :-)

Update 05/02/11: After many changes, it looks like the CRT shader development has settled down, so there's less need for me to maintain the older versions of the shaders. From here on out, I recommend visiting Screwtape's git repo for all of your XML shader needs (my mediafire account will still be there, but Screwtape has all of mine and more).

CRT.OpenGL.shader and CRT-flat.OpenGL.shader are similar to the shader covered in this post, though they run slightly faster and have no visible artifacts. CRT-simple.OpenGL.shader is a simplified rewrite that should be usable on much older, slower machines.

Here is the original post for informational purposes:

This post covers the use of filters to upscale pixel art--specifically as it applies to SNES emulation--with special attention to CRT reproduction. If you just want the pictures and to download the filters, skip to the bottom of the post.

Background:

As everyone who dabbles in old-school emulation knows, artwork that was intended for a 480i CRT television that has been upscaled to an HD resolution looks like absolute garbage on an LCD monitor. The chunky sprites with their often thick, cartoony outlines just weren't designed to be reproduced with sharp edges resulting from nearest-neighbor upscaling.

To get around this ugly upscaling effect, many emulators now include upscaling interpolation filters, which apply complex mathematical algorithms to the original picture to fill in the gaps between things that are impossible to represent in chunky low-res, such as curves and smooth diagonal lines. You're probably familiar with some of the more common and popular interpolating filters, such as SuperEagle, SuperSaI and HQ2x. Unfortunately, none of these filters gets everything quite right, especially numbers and letters, which can look bubbly or overly smoothed (you can learn more about pixel art scaling algorithms here).

Purists have long been turned off by the inaccuracies of interpolating filters and have instead used scanline masks to try and capture the effect of an interlaced display, relying on the human brain's natural ability to recognize patterns and fill in the gaps between lines (you can learn everything you ever wanted to know about scanlines here). However, this too falls short from a true representation of a CRT display, as it ignores the existence of phosphors--the tiny red-, green- and blue-colored lenses that the electron gun in the back of a CRT tube shoots with a beam of electrons to recreate a colored pixel--and the color bleed that naturally occurs in these displays.

Recently, a number of determined individuals have set out to try and capture all of the different effects of a CRT display, warts and all, to truly reproduce classic pixel art the way it was meant to be viewed.

The Comparisons:

(Each of these images is presented as it would be displayed onscreen, at a resolution of approximately 800x600, then again at 400% scale without any interpolation used when scaling; as always, click the thumbnail to embiggen)

First, we should look at the baseline. This was scaled up to size using nearest-neighbor and is otherwise untouched:

Next, we'll add blargg's NTSC filter, which emulates the noise and color bleed of an NTSC video signal (this filter has several presets; I will only be showing the RGB preset, which reproduces the look of an SNES hooked up via RGB connection [not available in the U.S.], and the RF preset, which reproduces the look of the SNES RF modulator attachment, respectively):

(<- Look at that noisy RF signal!)

As a note, blargg's NTSC filter is so accurate that byuu, the author of bsnes, recommends its use along with bsnes' accuracy profile to achieve proper blending on games that use halftones to simulate transparency (Jurassic Park and Kirby's Dreamland, for example).

Next up, we'll look at cgwg's CRT shader, which includes a phosphor mask and barrel distortion to simulate the screen curvature of a CRT television (just look at those RGB phophors!):

Similarly, there is a version of cgwg's CRT shader, which doesn't include the barrel distortion and represents an idealized flat CRT (actual flat CRTs tended to have slight blurring at the edges where the tube curvature would normally be). Incidentally, this version also has no visible garbage pixels (the occasional black specs that are visible in the curved version):

Pixel Shaders vs. Software Filters

cgwg's CRT shader is a special kind of filter known as a pixel shader. Unlike regular filters, which rely on the CPU to do all of the complex upscaling calculations, pixel shaders draw on the awesome computing power of the video card to do the calculations, thereby leaving the CPU to focus on emulating the SNES. Additionally, since the pixel shader is calculated separately from the filter in bsnes, you can stack blargg's NTSC filter with cgwg's CRT shader:

Finally, for non-purists, we'll look at the combination of cgwg's CRT shader with the popular SuperSaI filter, which creates a pleasing--though not quite as accurate--output:

As amazing as cgwg's CRT shader is already, there is still some room for improvement. For example, the current implementation misses the intensity-based bloom effect on individual phosphors that can be seen in a true CRT. DOLLS (J) [!], one of the contributors to the CRT reproduction effort, intends to write a more complete CRT emulation shader in the future that will incorporate these and other idiosyncracies.

Click here to download cgwg's CRT shader (Also includes the 'flat' version for those who don't like the tube-style curvature; UPDATE: fixed dead link), which is compatible with bsnes and the newest release of snes9x. For more information on CRT emulation, you can check out this highly informative thread on the bsnes forum. For other bsnes-compatible shaders that are not included with the official download, check out my mediafire account.

UPDATE (3/4/2011): Themaister did a rewrite of the flat version of cgwg's CRT shader, moving many of the calculations from fragment to vertex, which provides a substantial ~20% increase in speed (making it usable on many older and less powerful video cards). This rewrite also appears to conform more rigidly to the GLSL shader spec, making it compatible with more cards from different vendors. I have labeled it v4 of cgwg's CRT Flat, and it is available in the aforemented mediafire account.

bsnes Phoenix GUI Filter Changes

Byuu has added support for binary filters in his Phoenix GUI as of v073, so we can finally use cgwg's CRT Curved shader in conjunction with blargg's NTSC filter! These binary filters are loaded just like shaders, i.e., via a dialog box in the video options.

You can download the available filters, compiled for 64-bit Linux, here or compiled for 32-bit here. These filters do not appear to work on Windows systems.

Bsnes Special Chips Dumped

Update (4/08/12): All of the special chips have been dumped and emulated. You can download all of the images here. The archive contains images for use with bsnes versions v086 and earlier, as well as images for bsnes v087 and later.


Update (6/28/11): Another chip dumped and emulated! This time, the Cx4 chip (cx4.bin), which is used in Mega Man X2 and X3. The contents of this chip were really just math tables--naturally occurring relationships between numbers--and hence not protected by copyright, so byuu felt comfortable hosting the image on his own site. You can download it here (I'll also mirror it in my mediafire in case byuu's copy disappears for whatever reason).

Update (1/13/11): Dr. Decapitator has dumped and byuu has added low-level emulation for the NEC uPD96050 coprocessor, which is used by the ST-0010 and ST-0011 chips. This allows proper emulation of F1 Race of Champions II and playability for Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi. Click here to download the pair. Click here to download all DSP and ST-00* dumps.

Update (12/23/10): All DSP chips have been decapped and dumped. Click here to download the complete, unpadded (as per byuu's preference) set. Furthermore, thanks to the donations of several generous enthusiasts (and a particularly generous contribution from Mr. Krawczyk), all special chips have been paid for. Now, we wait for Dr. Decapitator and byuu to do their thing. ;)

Update (12/21/10): W00t! The DSP chips are all paid for and the decapping and emulation process has already begun. Click here to download a copy of the dsp3.bin file, which enables perfect emulation of the previously unplayable SD Gundam GX (J)!

While many individuals may think that emulating the SNES is long-since perfected, the truth of the matter is that a number of special auxiliary chips were never properly emulated and instead were approximated using what is known as High Level Emulation, or HLE.

To implement HLE, someone monitors what goes into a chip and then monitors what comes out in an attempt to infer the way the chip works. Using this strategy over the course of several years, 4 emulation heavy-hitters were able to deduce much of how these special chips work. However, they were never able to figure out any timing information, so to paraphrase bsnes author byuu, the chips were treated as magical black boxes that instantly convert input to output.

This is just beginning to change, though. Thanks to donations from emulation enthusiasts, renowned chip decapper Dr. Decapitator was able to shave down to the guts of the DSP-1B chip and see exactly what's going on inside. This breakthrough will eventually lead to the squashing of several bugs and will enable near-perfect emulation of both Super Mario Kart and Pilotwings.

However, to run any games that require the DSP-1B chip, you will now need to put a copy of the dumped image into the same directory as the game ROM image. Click here to download a copy of the dsp1b.bin file.

As awesome as this is, there are still a number of chips that need to be decapped (you can read all about it here) and byuu is running a collection to get things started in this thread. If you would like to contribute, visit byuu's official donations page. It's your chance to be a part of SNES emulation history.

Sausage & Olives Fettuccine فيتوتشيني بالسوسيس والزيتون

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هذه الوصفة تعتبر من أسهل وأسرع الوصفات التي يمكن تحضيرها بالمنزل، حيث لا يحتاج تحضيرها أكثر من 15 إلى 18 دقيقة فقط، بالطبع الكل يعلم أنني مدمنة مكرونة فأتمنى أن تعجبكم أطباق المكرونة الخاصة بي وخاصة هذا الطبق.

وقت التحضير: 3 دقائق

وقت الطهــــي: 15 دقيقة

الوصفة تكفــي: شخصين

This recipe is one of the easiest and quickest homemade recipes, it doesn't take more than 15 to 18 minutes to be done, as you all know I'm a pasta addict, so hope you all enjoy my pasta dishes specially this one.

Preparing time: 3 minutes.

Cooking time: 15 minutes.

Serves: 2 people

Click here for the recipe اضغط هنا للوصفة »

First Impressions of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

I decided to try out the latest build of Ubuntu's next future release, version 11.04 Natty Narwhal, in a VirtualBox VM. I downloaded a pre-alpha daily build and so far have been impressed with the stability and ease of installation.

As with Maverick, the installer is clean, polished and easy, and continues the trend of asking most of the configuration questions once the actual installation process has started to save time. You also have the opportunity to install third party programs, such as Fluendo's MP3 codec, at the time of installation, which is nice.

At this point, I don't think they've switched over to the proposed Unity interface by default, so I can't say whether I'll have a better experience with it now than I did on my netbook a few months back, but I'll update this post with more information as soon as I have it.

As for its performance in a VM environment, everything is stable and the VBox Guest Additions installed just fine, imparting mouse pointer integration and support for arbitrary resolutions. The only thing lacking is 3D acceleration within the VM, but I assume this will be supported at a later date.

Overall, the experience is not significantly different from that of 10.10 Maverick so far, but I expect things to change rapidly in the near future. I'll keep this post updated with any changes I find.