not technically on topic

a friend remarked this week that i make cooking look easy. who knows, maybe i do. obviously i often put too much salt in things.

but yeah, i guess the simple rules i keep in mind make some cooking look easy. sauces at least!

sauces and gravies: flour into fat, cornstarch into water bases. [non fat liquids]
yep, wheat and rice flours dissolve into fats: butter, oils, lard but get lumpy in water. cornstarch gets lumpy in fat and dissolves in water.
with fat and flour you add water based liquids after you get a smooth base. with cornstarch you mix the sauce and add the cornstarch/liquid mix as you heat and stir constantly. conrstarch sauces come out clearer.

heavy cream thickens dairy based sauces and soups [cream of chicken, bearnaise] and potato starch thickens stews. [seriously, throw some instant potato flakes in your beef stew next time. mmmm]

a couple of quick cheating recipes that look difficult but are super easy:

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instant cream of potato soup [i make this in the microwave at work in under three minutes]

[all ingredients in the proportions you desire, experiment with it]

chicken broth
instant potato flakes
vegetable base 'better than boullion'
heavy cream

make hot, stir, serve

i like mine topped with a little shredded cheese and some fresh ground black pepper

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beef in buttered wine -

slice beef thin
preheat the pan with butter
montreal/canadian steak seasoning
add beef to pan, brown lightly
add red wine [i like a nice merlot or burgundy]
remove beef, simmer liquid for a few minutes until a little thicker

serve over rice or potatoes with extra sauce


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tomato chicken -

canned or jar tomato based sauce of choice
frozen chicken breast tenderloins or half breasts
optional: cheese, olives, mushrooms, etc

place chicken in single layer in somewhat deep baking dish
add optional veggies/olives/mushrooms
pour sauce on thick enough that it covers chicken
if desired top with grated parmesan or romano or slices of SHARP provolone

put in oven at 350 for 50-60 minutes
walk away and don't mess with it until the timer goes off

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cheatin' chicken pot pie

canned or leftover pre cooked chicken
any mixed frozen or canned veggies you like - peas, corn, carrots, etc.
cooked chunks of potato [i use canned]
canned cream of chicken or other cream soup of choice [mushroom, broccoli, celery, whatever you like] straight from the can, still condensed
biscuit dough - canned, defrosted pre-made or fresh made from your favorite recipe

press 2/3 of biscuit dough into and up sides of baking dish. no more than 1/2 inch thick
throw in other ingredients
crumble remainder of biscuit dough on top
bake at 350 for about 15-25 minutes depending on dough recipe instructions

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teriyaki sauce

equal parts soy sauce, sugar and white wine [substitute white grape juice, sprite or ginger ale for the wine and sugar if you prefer to avoid alcohol]

white wine and sugar, boil until sugar dissolves
add soy sauce

to thicken: add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the soy sauce [cold] before adding to the mix, add it slowly to the wine with constant stirring

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yeah, there's a lot of guesswork. but except for adding too much boullion to the potato soup, it's nearly impossible to mess any of these up. sauce too thick? add more of whatever liquid. too salty? add potato flakes, or water or cream.

the genesis of weird thoughts

last night i was reading a paranormal novel - specifically a vampire comedy. in which the heroine vampire drinks blood from a willing victim who has been eating chocolates all day to make their blood taste chocolatey.

then i read an article online about how to dye chicken embryos in the egg to get multi hued chicks. [ew, by the way, very ew. reminds me of the longwood taxidermist's dryer full of dead chicks at easter]

then i was in the breakroom this afternoon at work and saw a colleague prepping some celery sticks with almond butter. when i first saw the almond butter in the container i thought it was some sort of dipping sauce.

and somehow my mind triggered from the how-to-dye-celery experiment through the previous concepts... and into ...

oh wait, i can't tell you until i try the experiment. and since i can't eat celery i will need to try it on a houseguest in the next week.
i'll let you know.

muahahaha!

-update - i didn't try it.
the idea was to put your celery stalks in vodka and hot sauce before serving them in a bloody mary. can't find anyone who likes bloody marys except my sister and she's not a celery fan.
so sad, let me know if you try it!

mud, cob, clay

yes, i still want a vardo. and i have some interesting plans toward that end [i'm actually making it smaller than it has to be to see how creative i can get!]

but while moving is good, there's also the fun and exciting option of having 2 homes - one that moves and a place to park it.

here in the deep south there's a mighty quantity of kudzu.
i haven't yet figured out how to put kudzu into a mobile house, except maybe as insulation [but i still think denim lint is a better choice, will need more stats on that]
but i know how to use it as a structural fiber in a cob or adobe building. cob really, since cob with more clay is better suited to a humid environment that adobe.

this spring and summer i think i will use the backyard here to experiment with drying and treating kudzu to use as an embedded fiber.

and possibly make a wreath. that's always fun

mental exercise - vardo

i want to make a vardo
a gypsyish wagon
money, time, ability - all current constraints
and it doesn't need to look gypsyish
just the concept

thoughts so far:

how big?
i measured my SUV. it's about 5+ x 14 feet.
ok, i could feasibly tow 6 or 7 x 14 feet [external dimensions]
internal dimensions i figure knock about a foot off that for insulation and structure
there are available options for tandem axle heavy duty equipment trailers in those dimensions
looks like 10 feet tall [above the trailer] would work: would give me 3 feet of sleeping loft, 8 inches of under floor insulation and storage and about 6 feet


what goes in it?
bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and 'awake' living space
i lie down to sleep so i would follow the traditional pattern for tiny houses: a sleeping loft

i would skip the porch - if i'm parked, i can just go outside. if i'm on the move, i can't use the porch anyway

getting ideas together for ways to make things fit into it.

some of the extreme space saving thoughts include:

pullman style folding sink in the bathroom
or possibly a sink-positive
http://www.sinkpositive.com/

either a folding sink, a hughie sink or a yacht galley sink with a fold down faucet in the kitchen

remember what i said about under floor storage? i found an idea from a japanese product site for under floor sliding storage bins. you have one access hatch and bins that you can slide back and forth to overlap the hatch to access the contents.
http://www.monotsukuri.net/japan/yukasita/yukasita.htm
theirs are a little deeper than i would plan [they even have one you can climb halfway into for a semi basement!] but i don't see any reason existing sliding track drawer products couldn't be converted to work the same way at about a 6 inch depth in the center of the floor and still allow for things like water/sewer tanks, electrical and insulation around the edges.

also in the extreme space saving category is a concept i dreamed about [here's the white hot hammer for this week] : a tambour styled pantry.
tambour being the rolling part of a roll top desk or the door that curves back into the wall
more on that when i have developed the idea more, but the vision includes a curved ceiling track and some sort of hanging, connected narrow/shallow shelves that roll back into a deep but narrow wall pocket.

of course the usual folding tables and fold out computer shelving is in order, all apparently available from ikea.

energy efficiency is also a major goal.
being obviously off grid, as any mobile structure must be, i will need power generation and storage.
AGM deep cycle batteries are an option for storage
all that lovely roof can be solar [i'm liking the brunton solar roll for right now, but more efficient options are coming every day]
and of course any moving thing can benefit from the power harnessed by mini windmills. i'd love to come up with some vertical mini turbines that collect any time i take it down the road.

things still to work out:

i want a tub, i want a shower. can i find or build a sitting up style japanese soaking tub with a walk in door that will fit?
the smallest footprint i can find for a walk in tub is 36x34. with a 5 foot interior width, 34 inches takes up most of the room available at one end.
not sure what the tiniest toilet i can find will be - i did see some tiny ones in europe
but i recommend NOT doing a google search for 'tiny toilet' with your safe search filters off. ewwwww

it's bedtime now, more another day

past failures

was just surfing an organizational product online catalog and saw:

http://www.shopgetorganized.com/prodetail~itemNo~25431B.asp

which reminded me of the 'stained glass' window shades idea i had several years ago.

the idea was a pull down window shade with a nice view, or a stained glass window look or a favorite painting.
features:
privacy
dim the light but still let some through
block out an ugly view

never got it off the ground and in retrospect i'm kind of glad i didn't.
it seems like a silly and wasteful idea now.

foodie dreams

here's an old one to start it off:

sometimes i dream in food. rich flavors and vibrant colors. i awake with the taste of them on my tongue's memory.

a few years ago i dreamed of baklava.
mandarin orange and almond baklava.

and i dreamed of the secret ingredient.
not the part about boiling the honey lemon syrup with a mandarin orange spice tea bag, although that is good in any baklava.

cayenne pepper.

yep

just enough cayenne pepper to keep it feeling warm on the tongue. rolling it around in the roof of your mouth gives a delicious hint of heat but not enough to know that someone spiked your brown sugar with capsaicin.
mmmm

and considering that i made some for a friend's party and it all got eaten, i have to guess it was a great idea

not a world changer but they can't all be mind shattering concepts.

like a white hot hammer to the back of the head

when i get a really great idea* it strikes me like a white hot hammer to the back of my head. inspiration is not kind, it's a maddened, frenzied thing that leaps on you and blinds you to reality until you wrestle it into a semblance of rational thought

sometimes ideas get stuck in my head and they crawl around in there until i make something of them or put them down in words.
if they get stuck too long i start to dream them. this is all well and good for a developing story or an ongoing design but eventually i need a place to lay them to rest.

and some ideas should be shared. you know, the ones other people can use.

things seem to be pointing at one central place where the ideas in my head should go, unfettered by unrelated personal stories and uncluttered by the gasps of awe about some shiny new thing that caught my magpie eye.

welcome to the inside of my mind's idea factory

*'great' in my own opinion. i will be the first to admit that making eggnog cookies in the microwave when i was little wasn't a great idea in anyone else's opinion