ghettobodhi

Making my own Condiments.

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:09:55 GMT

My very good friend Jake told me recently about some success he had in making his own mayonnaise. I've always wanted to try this, and because I'm making some salmon for dinner tonight and had no sauce yet, I thought I'd make some and then turn it into a dill sauce for the fish.

So at lunch I tried it...

I can report an unqualified success. I vaguely followed Alton Browns recipe from Good Eats

I rarely measure ingredients, but here is roughly what I did:

Mixed a couple pinches of salt, a couple pinches of very fine ground yellow mustard powder, most of a lemons worth of juice, 2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar, 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk together for a second or two with my stick blender. The egg white is supposed to protect the lecithin induced emulsion action from being blown away by the power of the stick blender. After just a couple of seconds I had a pretty thoroughly mixed base going, very liquidy.

Into the emulsion I drizzled about a cup of corn oil, while keeping the stick blender going the whole time. It stayed very liquidy until about half to 3/4 of a cup of oil was in, then it began to thicken up quite nicely.

Fucking fantastic! It made mayonnaise! I did the whole thing in under 5 minutes. Once it was done I threw in a mess of fresh dill, and hit it a few times with the stick blender.

I used a little too much lemon juice, but it's going on salmon so I think the lemon+dill is going to work. May be weird in chicken salad tomorrow, don't know. Overall very easy to make, QUITE tasty (better than the jar stuff hands down) and a good learning experience.

While I was at it I mixed a little curry powder with some of the mustard powder and a little vinegar, making some awesome super spicy mustard for my spinach salad. Tastes like what I know as wasabi, with curry in it! DELICIOUS!

I highly recommend making your own condiments, I look forward to never buying store mayo (and maybe mustard) again.

almost a quiz

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:57:50 GMT

http://www.typingtest.com/

- Test Name: Strategic Alliances with Competitors
- Date: 2006-01-13 08:51
- Test Time: 01:00
- Gross Speed: 125 WPM
- Errors: 1
- Accuracy: 99%

- NET SPEED: 124 WPM

Third out of 100 for the week, WOOOT! (this was my second try, first was only 114wpm)

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEE

Mon, 05 Dec 2005 19:42:32 GMT

Saturday I had one of the best birthdays I've had in years and years.

I went down to SF to hang out with my son, Galileo. He's 4 and pretty much the best kid on earth. Here is what we did on Saturday, December 03rd, my birthday!

First we went to The Lucky Penny to have some delicious eggs for breakfast. Then we took Muni downtown to start hunting for an arcade. We did find an old arcade on Pine but it seemed to be closed up. We ended up at the clocktower at the end of market, which was like a cross between Portlands Saturday Market and Seattles Pike Place Market. We got some superfood juice and drank it while looking at the bay.

Eventually after a few hours of walking around and climbing on stuff, we had lunch at McDonalds. Galileo got a cool black power ranger that seemed to make his day! Afterwards we got directions to Metreon, and headed over there.

Metreon is pretty amazing, it's the biggest theatre I've ever been in. We watched Chicken Little in 3-D. The movie was pretty ho-hum but the 3-D was most excellent, and we had fun doing it.

After the movie we blew $15 playing video games in Metreon. Not in the little arcade there but just playing some games outside the theatre. Turns out G is good at Tekken! Okay perhaps not THE most appropriate game for a 4 year old to play, but it won't scar him too bad and hey it's not Mortal Kombat. (We also play chess, I'm not a totally bad father!) We got this little souvenir thing that was supposed to etch our picture onto a tiny metal fob, but it had a crappy interface and the results were so bad you couldn't really tell it was a picture of us. C'est la vie, the boy loves it and will play with it so that makes me happy.

It was getting late so we bussed back home, and made some mac & cheese and morningstar farms veggie chikn for dinner. It was delicious! I always add some real cheddar cheese in when I make the M&C and mmmm it's so good.

Galileo and his Mom (and the Babysitter, I heard) all conspired to make me a Carrot Cake. It was just G and I so we put a votive candle on top and he sang me happy birthday solo. I was actually moved to tears, it was such a delightful moment. How cheesy I know, and I can't even really put it into words, but he's so perfect and he has so much love for me that it really is just, uplifting. He makes me want to be as good as I can.

When I got home to Portland on Sunday, Aurora had made me TWO, TWO spinach+bacon+onion quiches. They are the tastiest quiches I've ever had, and it was the best birthday present I could ask for. I'm such a lucky SOB, I really have everything anyone could want in the world.

Quiz: What Ayurvedic Type are YOU?

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 21:21:53 GMT

The Pitta Type

* Pitta types are determined and strong willed with good digestion.
* The Pitta's primary organs are the small intestine and stomach.
* Pittas tend to be hot, oily, and light.
* Pitta is associated with the fire element, and tend to have a fiery quality.
* When a Pitta becomes imbalanced, he or she may notice skin rashes, burning, inflammation, fever, ulcers, anger, jealousy, copious urine.

In order to be balanced, Pittas should remain cool, avoiding excess heat, steam or humidity.

They should also avoid excessively oily food or fried foods as well as caffeine, alcohol, red meat, hot spices, or salt, choosing instead to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

Pitta types should also try to get plenty of fresh air. Expression of emotions is also important.

http://altmedicine.about.com/library/quiz/bl_quiz_ayurveda1.htm

I gotta go make some PITTA BREAD now!

ayoooo.

I found this out because I'm trying to get my detox on and one of the pages I read suggested finding out this info would help.

Not so much but it was fun and I thought WHAT BETTER TO SHARE ON MY LIVE JOURNAL!!!!!

LIVE ON!!!

Exploring in the woods with Aurora.

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 03:55:06 GMT

Today Aurora and I went adventuring down the train tracks near our apartment. The tracks run along the northern banks of the Willamette. We went from near the St. Johns Bridge, up to the University of Portland. It was really fun, here are some things we discovered:

Lots of people party on the banks of the river alongside of train tracks. Numerous little firepits. Lots of garbage along most of the banks.

Large stretches of these banks are being held together by giant sections of large slotted concrete bricks, held together by strands of 1" stainless steel cable. Imagine a cinderblock wall, knocked over onto it's side. Then rotate each individual cinderblock around its long axis 90 degrees. That on a government scale. At least a mile plus of the beach is reinforced this way!

Some things I found on the beach were:
* A decent club, that I carried around and beat lots of things with.
* A roll of teflon tape, that made a nice handle on my club.
* A single white wax candle, unlit.
* A clear superball that Raisin Maker bounced the fuck out of.
* Numerous lighters that would not light, a dog toy, condoms, shoes, lots of closed cell foam, lots of boring trash.

An abandoned factory is back along the beach. It looks really old, and it's pretty big. It's got a _really_ tall old smokestack, and lots of large concrete buildings, pretty much like visiting one of those old WWII forts, but only a factory.

There is lots of graffiti everywhere and numerous piles of spray cans, spray can lids, random bits of clothing, random soft things like pillows and old mattresses, rubble, and empty alchohol containers.

The only portions we weren't able to explore were the really spooky basement areas.

Skaters have made one of the outbuildings into a sometime hangout, there is a small vertical ramp and evidence of a half-pipe having existed there at some point. There is lots of pretty flat uninterrupted asphalt. Some great (probably illegal) uses for the place would include:

* RC Car Racing
* Model Rocketry
* Paintball
* LARPing
* PFing

There is also the most amazing giant hulk of a steel crane, that is floating on a mini barge. There is no _easy_ way onto this vessel. Next to it there is a dock about 50' above sea level. It looks like it's possible to climb down some decent looking footholds from this dock onto the deck of the crane barge. We didn't try to use it today because Aurora was wearing a nice outfit and it really would have gotten messed up. The crane is several stories tall with lots of wicked looking ladders and whatnot. The really desolate nature of the place makes getting caught monkeying around on it really unlikely. Numerous tags on the crane are evidence of this.

All in all it was really fun.

I propose a furthur expedition to the floating crane barge, bringing along proper equipment to explore both it and the basement of the factory.