Bluesky Handle Subdomain Setup

While revamping my Palindrome News Bot, I needed to set up a new account and make sure the handle took advantage of this sweet domain name for which I'm paying a buck a month. The setup for an individual handle without subdomain is straightforward. But was not necessarily obvious to me how to add a second user handle or one that uses a subdomain instead of the domain root.

TL;DR: add your subdomain after _atproto with a period separating them in the TXT record. 

To set up your handle using a custom domain, you go to your Settings, Account, Handle and get a screen like this:

 

 You have a domain you'd like to use instead of bsky.com, so click the "I have my own domain" button. The next screen displays with some DNS changes you need to make (that did is not a secret, don't worry):

 

 The trick here is that these instructions are specialized for domains and not subdomains. If your domain is danlearnssstuff.com, these will work fine to make your Bluesky username @danlearnsstuff.com. Add a TXT record with the name of _atproto and the text portion starting with did (it's unique per user). This publishes an "_atproto.<domain>.<tld>" TXT record that bsky reads.

But for using subdomains, the above instructions will not work. Instead, you need to publish a TXT record with the host of "_atproto.<subdomain>" and the did contents as given. With the correct host, DNS will propagate the full "_atproto.<subdomain>.<domain>.<tld>" For example, here is how my two TXT records look in Cloudflare:

 The top one is for Tobswen, the bottom is for my main handle. Both are verified now.

Finally, not sure if you'll run into this, but it took about 20 minutes to propagate my subdomain TXT record globally in a way that Bluesky could recognize it. Not sure if that's normal. I've read TXT records can take 24-48 hours to propagate, but other records went out way faster.

If you have a wacky handle you'd like to try, check out the ATProto handle spec for more details.

Cooking from Morimoto's "Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking"

I spent two years in Fukuoka and Okinawa, and I cooked for myself a lot. But 19 yr old me could not handle much more than boxed curry and learning how to wash my rice. After refining my cooking skills over the pandemic, I plucked up my courage and picked up Morimoto's Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking. I hoped I could work through classic recipes I'd enjoyed and add meals to my growing repertoire.

This book caught my eye as it uses supplies that are mostly available at your local Asian grocery store or H-Mart, and I wouldn't need to translate units or recipes when my family helped me. The writing style is very conversational with plenty of advice and secrets for making a meal work at home. He's not shy about recommending exotic ingredients but always has a back-up for the less-adventurous or well-stocked. And he is incredibly practical when it comes to home staples. Instead of trying to recommend how to make your own Japanese Curry Roux, he sticks to the practical solution of the Golden Curry blocks available almost everywhere these days in the States. From dashi to rice, he covers the basics as well. With every new technique, he set me at ease and gave me the courage to explore.

Salt-crusted Salmon (塩鮭)

This is the stand-out recipe and technique from the book. I have always wanted to learn how to make Shiozake for an authentic breakfast. I didn't realize it would be so well-received by my family for dinner! I have been exploring fish recipes with For Cod and Country, but they always feel overproduced and underwhelming. Two things made this recipe shine:

• Sake-washing Fish: A quick rinse in sake dissolves some of the fishy smells that can turn off some family members. I do this for all broiled fish now.
• Leftovers: Any of these broiled fish can also be turned into nigiri after dinner. This saves you from re-heating or just having it go bad.

 

Gyoza (餃子)

 Much easier to pull off than I feared. Get the skins from your local Asian grocery store, make enough to fit in a pan, and make the rest to freeze while the first batch cooks. I preferred these over the steamed shumai that also appear in the book. Try ponzu instead of just soy sauce for a citrus kick.

Nigiri (にぎり)

Mentioned above for salmon leftovers, but you can turn canned fish and rice into nigiri for a snack or full meal. For portability, get nigiri wrappers that keep the rice and seaweed separated. The Korean ones work just fine. Add flavor with furikake to spice up plain rice as well.

I've made more recipes in the book to mixed reception (from family and me). They’re not all winners. The above really knocked it out of the park. I'll add more pictures as I repeat my favs.