I just noticed something. My WordPress install has auto-corrected every spelling of “WordPress” I have typed into a post, changing the “p” to an uppercase letter. Of course, I love this feature, since I’m a such a stickler for spelling and grammar. Apparently, a filter was added to WordPress 3.0 that auto-corrects all instances of the word. Of course, this “upgrade” isn’t without its detractors. Personally, I think it’s an effective means of keeping a brand name consistent and have no issues leaving the filter in place as long as it doesn’t impact the performance of my blogs. I hope they don’t remove it.
Disabling directory browsing
I had created a subdomain to route to the WordPress login on one of my sites, in order to make it easier to find the login page later on after I removed the link from the home page. However, created the subdomain created two things: a subdirectory within the WordPress install directory, and made it browsable. So if I plugged in www.mydomain.com/login, a browsable index page came up. Since this sort of behavior opens up the website to malicious visitors, I had to find a way to plug up the hole.
Fortunately, there was already an answer out there to the solution. Because I installed WordPress into its own directory, and not the root, I merely had to make some adjustments to the .htaccess files.
For both files located at the WordPress root and the login folder root, I just needed to add the following lines at the end of each file:
# BEGIN Disable Dir Browsing
Options All -Indexes
# END Disable Dir Browsing
I believe this code can be applied to any directory that needs its contents hidden from browsing, as long as an .htaccess file exists.
A quick look at the May front yard
Now we have another Victoria Blue salvia blooming on the far end of the front flower bed. So that makes for two flowering salvia farinacea that have returned from last year. There are yet 2 more young Victoria Blues that have been slow to come up. I don’t mind their slow return, which saves me from purchasing more, but the man wants that extra pop right now.
Talk about slow…the gardenia has new leaf sets, despite that it has lost about 75% of its foliage. It survived the bitter winter frost, which is amazing in itself. I don’t want to prune it back because there is evidence of new life on it. It’s going to be a very slow recovery.
One of the Confetti lantana is putting on a set of buds. Its sibling about a foot away has been more interested in trailing rather than flowering. I also had some criticism for the man for planting the vinca seedlings so close to each other. They grew into monsters last year, and I don’t expect it to be any different this year.
The man trimmed back our centerpiece loropetalum in this front bed, just to give it some shape for the rest of the year. I am interested in seeing it grow higher, but I won’t begrudge it a little width to shade the tiny impatiens seedlings at its feet. The man also hacked down the Hot Lips salvia…that thing has grown into a monster in the front bed and is in constant need of pruning. We did finally get another Hot lips planted next to the Autumn Twist azalea and expect the same vigorous growth this year.
Notice the verbena colors? Maybe I don’t need Mosaic after all. The Dallas Star daylilies are heavily laden with scapes!
Finally, my newest heuchera seems a little lonely in its corner of the shade bed, but I hope it will be happy there. It has a caladium bulb for a neighbor…although I can’t say that I don’t want to plant another hosta next to it.
Flowers & cuttings, pups & kitties
I took about 10 lemon thyme cuttings earlier this week. Made some more cuttings today of rosemary (x2), yellow salvia (x1), and tricolor sage. I got too impatient and yanked out one of the sages from the jiffy pot. It had a nice root on it, less than half an inch long. I should learn to just let it do its thing and give it about a month.
Did I mention the lime basil seedlings I found? They’re taking up residence next to the Thai and Pesto Perpetuo basils in the planter.
Dining Malaysian
Secret Recipe Asian Bistro
The man and I took off for North Carrollton for an adventure in dining to sample the Malay/Singaporean cuisine at Secret Recipe. At first we thought it odd to order our food at the counter, but our host indicated we could take a seat to peruse the menu. We took our menu to a booth to give dinner some thought.
No menu confusion here! It appears that Secret Recipe has consolidated their menu, listing both their American-friendly options plus their Southeast Asian dishes all in one booklet. (Their takeout menu however still lists only the Americanized menu, and consists of Thai, Chinese, and Vietnamese dishes.) In addition, nearly every dish had a brief description and a corresponding photograph, which made decisions a bit easier. Still…too many choices, so little time and tummy-space.
We opted to go straight to the entree choices, ordering nasi lemak, hokkien mee, sambal water spinach and the token eggplant with minced pork dish. Like most ethnic places I’ve eaten at, the dishes came out as they were cooked. We enjoyed the hokkien mee, a wet (not dry) noodle dish: super fine rice vermicelli in a shrimp sauce base tossed with squid, shrimp, and fish cake. Almost every bite hid a tiny sliver of green asian chili, and while it wasn’t a shocking heat, it built into a slow burn as we ate the rest. The dish even tasted better with a squeeze of lime.
Our water spinach and eggplant dishes came out next. I appreciated the water spinach dish; this Malay version was sauteed in sambal sauce, making the sweet greens even sweeter. Bright purple eggplant with minced pork held a hint of gingery sweetness as well; both my man and I were glad that it wasn’t too hot to eat, and happy that it was still firm and not overcooked. What we thought the dish lacked however was garlic, having found more flavorful renditions of this dish at other ethnic Chinese spots.
The last dish that came out was the nasi lemak. The portion size seemed more suitable to a single-serving, but the man and I agreed to split it amicably. I considered this dish the most distinctive of everything we ordered, yet so pedestrian. I liken it to diner or comfort food, home-cooked and unpretentious. Our nasi lemak came with a mound of coconut rice, curry chicken, sambal anchovies, fried anchovies, dry whole peanuts, a hard boiled egg and sliced cucumbers. Mixing the chicken with the coconut rice was something of an eye-opener, producing a “reverse” curry effect that gave me pause. Being the white boy that he is, my man devoured the egg, chicken and coconut rice, but left me with the anchovies, cucumbers and peanuts. I thought I got the better end of the deal, but then again, it’s an acquired taste.
After all the sweet-salty dishes, I had to order some shaved ice to finish the meal. Their ais kecang was too heavy on the ice and light on the ingredients: red beans, grass jelly, sweet corn kernels, and coconut milk. I imagine if it was a hot summer day, I would have enjoyed this dessert more.
Both the man and I agreed that while our orders didn’t produce the contrast in flavors we were hoping for, Secret Recipe’s southeast asian menu is worth further exploration. We’ll back to try out more of their staples.
Rating by epicureasian: stars
