We appear to be having problems with openID authentication. This should be fixed within the next few days. For now, I may be the only one who cares anyway.
Tags: metapostNo Comments.
Cranberry Tofu with Coconut Cream Asparagus
January 13th, 2010 by
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Though recipes aren’t subject to copyright, I will mention that I got this from The Vegan Cook’s Bible, and what is listed here has only minor modifications. Meatatarians can probably substitute chicken breast for the tofu with good results.
This may also be the meal that sealed the deal on my three-month vegan experiment. Recipe below the jump.
Total prep time: about an hour.
[Read more →]
Tags: recipe · things that are shiny · vegan · vegetarianNo Comments.
Enchilada Sauce: Sooo easy!
December 22nd, 2009 by
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Forget the can of enchilada sauce and the complicated recipes you find online — this is easy!
Ingredients:
1 28-ounce can of plum (Italian) tomatoes or tomato puree, or 1.5 pounds fresh tomatoes.
1 can tomato paste (optional)
3 chipotles in adobo sauce
Salt
Ground Cumin
Garlic (4-6 cloves, smashed or minced)
Method:
If using whole tomatoes, put in blender with 1/2 can tomato paste and chipotles and blend until smooth. If using puree, consider pureeing the chipotles, or mince and skip to the next step.
Set tomato puree and paste to boil in an open pan. Be prepared to wipe down your range later. Do not cover–you need the evaporative thickening here!
After a while, whenever you feel like it, add the garlic.
Add a bit of salt, say 1/4 tsp. But really, don’t bother measuring.
Add cumin continuously until it tastes right.
Tags: recipe · vegan · vegetarianNo Comments.
Hefeblaueweizen!
August 10th, 2009 by
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Grain Bill:
4 lbs 2-row base malt
5.6 lbs flaked wheat
8 oz Münchenmalz
7 oz CaraMünchenmalz
1 oz Chocolate malt
Hops: 3.2% Saaz, 2 oz
Yeast: White Labs WLP302 American Hefeweizen liquid yeast tube
Equipment:
50 quart mash tun, of my own fabrication (with the aid of Zymeco Kewler Kitz, and a lot of screwing up along the way)
21 quart water bath canner/lobster pot, which transfers heat to the fluid remarkably well
12 quart aluminium stock pot, which leaks at the top and doesn’t do nearly as well (so it’s more like a 10 quart pot, functionally)
1L Erlenmeyer flask
5 gallon carboy
6.5 gallon food-grade plastic brew bucket, with grommeted hole in the lid
3 airlocks and 2 bungs
Protocol:
Cleaned and sanitized carboy, bucket and flask
Cleaned all other equipment
In large stock pot, brought 20 quarts H20 to 45ºC. Meanwhile in small stock pot, brought ~8 quarts H20 to 100ºC.
Mixed all grains together in mash tun
Stuck mash with 20 quarts @45ºC (should have been 10 quarts!)
After 20 minutes, added 8 quarts @100ºC (this was too much heat–it got the mash temperature up to 75ºC, at which point desirable enzymes begin to denature.) Beteween the screwups in the above two steps I ended up with a much weaker brew than I wanted.
Left lid open and added ice cubes to reduce heat to 65ºC
Closed lid and mashed at 65º for 1 hour
Noted only insignificant dripping from imperfect pipe fittings in mash tun bulkhead
Lautered first runnings at 1.044 OG (1.0636 adjusted for temperature)
Added 3 gallons sparge water at 70ºC, allowed to dissolve sugars for 15 minutes
Lautered second runnings into separate vessel at 1.025 Og (1.047 adjusted for temp)
Boiled first runnings with 1.0 ounce of hops for 60 minutes, adding 0.5 ounces at 30 minutees
Boiled second runnings with 0.5 ounce of hops, 60 minutes
Diverted 800 mL of boiled second runnings to Erlenmeyer flask, and pitched 1/10 of yeast tube, affixed airlock
At 60 minutes, chilled both boils to ~26ºC. Due to ambient temperature, was unable to achieve further immersion chilling (maybe next time will run cold water line through an ice bath!)
Decanted first runnings (with some second runnings added, for an OG of 1.033) to bucket. Pitched remaining yeast affixed lid and airlock.
Decanted second runnings to carboy, affixed airlock
Day 2:
Bucket not fermenting well. Added 1 Tbsp di-ammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient) to bucket, re-aerated
Pitched starter in flask to carboy, added 2 tsp of DAP, re-affixed airlock
Picked 6 pounds blueberries
Both carboys fermenting vigorously by evening.
Tags: brewlogNo Comments.
Why do motorists honk at cyclists?
July 13th, 2009 by
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I had a lot of time to think about this during the ten mile stretch of my Friday Commute that took place on city roads and secondary highways.
A lot of time to think, because I just kept getting honked at.
I’m an experienced road cyclist. I ride on the right, as close to the fog line as safe and reasonable; I signal my turns and stops, and generally crank a straight line. I do not ride with an iPod or anything else in my ears. So I don’t think the honk is meant as scolding, unless it’s scolding for daring to be a cyclist. In which case, the sound of your horn, while unpleasant, will not cause me to stop cycling, or stop cycling on the road. [Read more →]
Tags: cycling · looking for america · things that are not shiny · trafficrantNo Comments.
Biking from Lowell to Somerville
July 11th, 2009 by
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Yesterday’s adventure: I strapped my bike to my car in the morning, and after work changed into cycling clothes and rode home. I have been wanting to do this for months, and finally got the perfect opportunity.
Details, and map, after the break
Tags: cycling · looking for america · rail trails · things that are shinyNo Comments.
Hops!
May 11th, 2009 by
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Saturday: Planted 4 Hop Rhizomes along the north fence of my back yard
Sundy: Found signs of rabbit digging in disturbed soil where I had planted two of the rhizomes. It had dug straight down to one of the rhizomes, but not actually bothered it. Perhaps it was going for the bits of clover and dandelion that I dug up? Re-buried the rhizome.
Tags: garden · hops · symbiosisNo Comments.
Planters! From repurposed plastic bottles
May 9th, 2009 by
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With a shout out to Dancinglights, and Inside Urban Green for the idea, I have been hard at work making planters out of repurposed soda and gatorade bottles, and takeout containers.
I’ve been asked for pictures, so here they are, using a gatorade bottle as an example:
Tags: garden · locavoracious · process oriented · things that are shinyNo Comments.
The Annual Sunscreen Reminder
May 8th, 2009 by
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This is your annual reminder to read the label and do the research on your sunscreen.
If you think that anything off the shelf with the letters SPF on the front will protect you from sunburn and skin cancer, you may be dangerously wrong.
If you think that the FDA or any other government agency is doing rigorous scientific testing of sunscreens on the market to make sure that they are safe and effective, again, the data may not support that hypothesis.
The Environmental Working Group’s study of 1,097 sunscreens found only 15% to be both safe and effective. Their gripes: many active ingredients in sunscreen either degrade in sunlight, or are themselves known or suspected carcinogens. They also found that of “high-SPF” sunscreens, advertising an SPF of 30 or higher, only 7% protect against UVA rays. EWG didn’t do experimental testing of the susncreen ingredients, but what they did do was read published, peer-reviewed research on various ingredients in sunscreens, and cross-reference ingredient lists against their research.
You can go to their web site, and look up your favorite sunscreen or their list of recommended safe-and-effective sunscreens. For each sunscreen that they list, they go through the ingredients and provide citations to various studies on each ingredient.
Because this research activity appears not to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, I looked to see if I could find some intelligent criticism of their work, or something to suggest that they are wrong. The best I found was from the industry, saying that they “obviously have a very low-level understanding of how sunscreen works.” The industry comment did not elaborate any further or make any attempt to rebut EWG’s claims. Then again, no scientific argument can hold a candle to calling your adversary stupid. One thing the industry seems to be right about: this doesn’t mean you should stop using sunscreen. It just means you should be a smarter consumer and not rely on the government to protect you.
I’m not a dermatologist or a chemist. I can read the language in these studies, but I’m not really qualified to evaluate the quality of the science. My only concluding thought is this: most of the sunscreens in issue are synthetic chemical compounds, made in a lab, that I am asked to put in direct contact with my flesh in fairly high concentrations. When a serious question is raised about their safety and effectiveness, I put the burden of persuasion on those who tell me that it’s safe. Until such time as they meet that burden, I’m going to use one of the products that *everybody* agrees are safe and effective.
Tags: fact check · sunscreen · Things that are not okay1 Comment