Toadfish Monastery

I wish I had the same view outside my window! Here, everything is just grey and raining. 

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon , sourdough bread. It's time for the long and lazy saturday breakfast.

Yes, but is a bug snugged in a swimsuit as snug as a bug in a rug?

We had very nice winter weather, -10, snow, clear skies,  until last week.

Now, we have +2 degrees, rain, fog and completely overcast skies. And feet-deep pools of grey slush to wade through. Bleergh...

A hurriedly thrown together chicken Korma curry, with lots of little pieces of various sad vegetables from the fridge. Sometimes, cleaning out the cupboards can be pretty tasty!

Quote from: Opsa on February 03, 2014, 04:04:17 PM
Julia Childs' kitchen recreation among other things. It may sound boring, but it was very interesting to me what good vibes this old kitchen held. It was definitely a happy workshop, filled with Julia's love of the art of cooking. It was like an artist's studio- all her tools were all over the place- there were no blank walls! In the middle was a long table with some fascinating handmade three legged chairs at the ends. I could just picture the place filled up with steam and people hanging out at the table, tasting things.

Now that's a shrine where I could imagine myself worshipping! 

Me, I was out driving trains. It's something that I do so rarely nowadays that I consider it a therapeutic activity, so it was really nice to get out and about a bit.

In retrospect, choosing the two days this week with winds of 15-17 m/s for the outdoor practice sessions with the trainees was perhaps a smidgeon too character-forming. Or perhaps not, since those who didn't dress for the weather certainly got extensive feedback on why that was a stooopid idea.

By the way, you get amazingly dried-out by standing outside in the cold winds and talking for a full day.

Boiled salt beef, roasted root vegetables and horseradish sauce.

Since I had been out working all day in 15m/s winds in the winter, something warming was quite welcome.

I sometimes make a very slowly braised chinese beef dish that could perhaps be adapted for your slow cooker.

Grab some beef, preferrably some sort of tougher and more flavourful cut that stands well up to longer cooking temperatures. Cut into large dice and brown all over, then transfer to the boiling pot.

In the same frying pan or wok, add a splash more of oil if necessary and an absolutely unbelievable amount of garlic cloves, peeled but whole. I'd use about four to six whole heads of garlic, maybe eight if they are small. Lightly fry them until they start turning translucent on the edges, then transfer to the boiling pot.

Deglaze the frying pan with some water and chinese rice wine (Shaohsing) or other nice booze -dry sherry and vermouth both work OK- and transfer the liquid to the pot. Add dark mushroom soy, some star anise, some brown rock sugar/jaggery and perhaps a piece of cassia bark or cinnamon, perhaps a little bit of dried bitter orange peel, bring to the boil and let simmer for quite a few hours -say three to four-ish on a stovetop, on low and gentle heat.

You have to stir the meat every now and then, and add a extra splash of water, to prevent it from sticking to the bottom, at elast when doing it on the stovetop.

When done, the meat should fall apart easily and the garlic fairly mashed. There ought to be a notable garlic aroma, but the garlic itself should be pretty mild and nutty in flavour. There should be quite a bit of pan juices, but the meat shouldn't be swimming around in it either. Thicken with cornstarch slurry if you so desire, but it shouldn't really be necessary with the mushy garlic and all.

Add a bunch of sliced scallions and perhaps some sugar snap peas , let them heat through and enjoy.

When Darlica told me about what had happened, I could only gape and say buh? But, but, but?

Pieces was a warm and very human person, I suppose what a New Yorker would call a mensch, with a finely-honed intellect and a lovely sense of humour.

I will miss her.

I don't think they have a functioning online shop yet.

You can order it from Swedish retail supplier Naturkompaniet,
www.naturkompaniet.se, and, apparently, a US chain called REI.
I do know that Naturkompaniet ships to most EU locations, but I suspect they might be quite pricey.

Still, it is a very nifty thing, isn't it? 

Maybe you have already seen this, and I am late tot he party, but I just felt that I had to share these links.

Someone has made a very, very good homage to Calvin and Hobbes, making four comic panels depicting them and their life 26 years later. I feel that these comic strips are among the very few "covers" that manage to successfuly blend both a faithfulness to the original and at the same time doing something new with the material, putting a personal interpretation on things. And the comics are very, very good, too -enjoy, and perhaps get something wet in the corner of your eye, too.

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/archive/2011/05/10/hobbes-and-bacon/

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/archive/2011/05/12/hobbes-and-bacon-002/

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/archive/2011/10/11/hobbes-and-bacon-03-2/

http://www.pantsareoverrated.com/archive/2011/10/13/hobbes-and-bacon-04-2/

OK, this is a thing that really makes me want to have it, just because it is such a cool thingie, not because I have a real need for it.

Swedish company myFC has launched their PowerTrekk portable hydrogen fuel cell/handheld device charger. It's a little plastic thing in which you put a power pod in one slot, and a splash of water in another slot, and then it starts using the hydrogen in the water to produce electricity which is stored in an on-board battery, thanks to some very nifty power control electronics. Apparently, the designers have done some clever things with membranes that strip protons and push them back and forth, in a extremely small package.

Not cheap, but for someone who works in the field a lot, I am sure that this could be a very, very helpful thing. For me, there's also the aspect of having read about portable fuel cells in various SF role-playing games I played when I was younger, and now, there is actually one available that's both smaller and more efficient than the ones posted in the equipment lists of the supposed scinece fiction far future... 

Available in Sweden and USA for now, but might get more widespread distribution later on. SEK 1800 (€ 195, USD 255) for the charger/battery itself, and SEK 150:- (€16, USD 21) for a packet of three single-use power pods, supplying about 4Wh of energy per pod.

http://powertrekk.com/

...and that's what a life of heavy carrot abuse leads to. Remember, kids: Just Say No!

Congratulations!