Okay, I seem to have no willpower against self-saucing puddings. Next up: chocolate. I used this recipe as a base. But, instead of water, I made some changes. Oh yes, indeed, I did. The recipe follows:
I will admit that I was a little bit worried. The pudding part was extremely liquid -- almost to the runny batter stage. But, since I have already gone to the effort of making a batch, I carried on.
I came across this plugin for Adobe's Photoshop program. It is called Fractalius. It produces an interesting effect. But is it worth forty bucks? How often would I use it??
How does one improve honey? I am not saying that it needs improvement. But, apparently Popeyes does. Take a look at the ingredients list. Honey is first. Which is good. But then they add sugars. All different kinds. And then because the honey has been watered down, they add color and "natural flavor" back in. Okay I guess. Now what is really confusing is why they add so many different versions of the same thing. Honey contains fructose and glucose. Corn syrup contains glucose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contains more fructose than glucose (making it sweeter and therefore more appealing to consumers). Sugar contains sucrose. Fructose is pure fructose. So it seems that HFCS is redundant. And you can reduce it further because honey contains fructose and glucose. You just need sucrose and perhaps some fractional amount of either fructose or glucose to get the percentages correct.
All of this tweaking is odd to begin with. Isn't honey sweet enough to begin with? If it is a cost issue then ditch honey altogether and just use "natural flavor", caramel color, and what ever sweetener is cheap enough for you.
I came across this recipe for a self-saucing pudding and thought it sounded interesting. The results were disappointing. It was not mangoie enough for me. Perhaps the next time, I should remove the water and use only mango juice (for a total of 1 1/2 cups). And, at the same time, remove the sugar from the sauce. Oh, and some salt too. I don't know why salt is missing here.
However, when I search for "self-saucing pudding" on google, the first couple of hits are for chocolate puddings. Now those sound more enticing than a second try at mango pudding...
I will say that the whole concept of this recipe seems like a fortuitous mistake. You take a cookie recipe, pour a lot of liquid on it, and then bake it. I would have guessed that the cake part of it would not have survived the boiling liquid. But it did.
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Well, given that I was playing around with some Strobist techniques that I recently learned, I wondered how it would hold up for game photography. So I whipped out my metal Tichu box. And substituted it for the can of peanuts place-holder.
Since I was already lighting the background separately, I played around with adding a background Dragon shadow. And I learned that it is surprisingly difficult to cut and place one properly so it it will it would be easily recognizable.
One thing that I learned about the flash was to use the multi-stroboscopic mode (around 30Hz or so) and press the test button. It looks exactly like a flash light and you can get an idea what the shadow will look like. Don't hold the button down too long, it tends to overheat the flash bulb.
It seems that there are a bunch of Christmas scenes that have been painted and placed in Old Settler's Park.
The day was beautiful out. It was nice and warm but overcast. Certainly much warmer than tomorrow would turn out. Only one birdie on hole 17.
After watching the Strobist Lighting Seminar, I decided to apply one of the lessons to see if it could be done with food photography. Since it was a proof of concept, I just grabbed a can of nuts that was just sitting around. I wanted to have two different lighting tasks. Light only the item on display. Light the background separately. My camera gear for this setup is the following:
And this is the final result! How cool! It is the first time that I have used two different zones of light, the first time I have used a color gel on a flash, and the first time that I have used a gobo to block the light from hitting something (in this case, the can).
Here is how it looks when it is lit only with the front strobe.
Here is how it looks when it is lit only with the rear strobe.
By the way, this is how it looks using a white foam core board. Which turned out to be too bright white and not enough magenta.
With the holidays and all, another game day was in order. First up was Steel Driver. In this game, I tried a different strategy. Well, I tried two different things. I saved up my bid so that I could higher and therefore build longer on later turns. I also avoid trying to maximize my build score and focus on cheap routes, but longer term prospects. In the end, since I didn't get two shares a round like everyone else, my score suffered. The number of shares really does matter. And it seemed that building tactically for maximal score was better than encouraging long term planning and cooperation. Which reduces my rating of this game slightly.
Next up was Le Havre. This game is pretty Agricola-like and I struggle to find reasons to own the two. Le Havre's problem is that the game exponentially bogs down as more and more new cards are added to the mix of available buildings.
In this game, Mike shipped (goods for money) four times and I only did that once. I believe that this was the difference in our scores. I was able to build two luxury liners to his one. But he still beat me in points.
It seems that another Mighty Fine Burger is opening up in Round Rock. It is right next to the new REI and new Specs.
Doesn't that sign seem wrong somehow? What are they really trying to say? They are under new management now. Which is sad. I hope that my favorite lunch time sushi place has a little more stability in its life...
Originally, I had wanted to take a picture of the pyramidic step pattern of the beer foam. But my crappy iPhone had some electronic, drunken hiccup and produced another level of step pattern!
I had another go at experimenting with bread. And ended up with a loaf that looked like a cake!
I tried taking this picture outside. But the stainless steel bowl was creating a crescent shaped blown out area. So I moved it into the shade. However, the colors were slightly off. There was a bluish tint in the shadows.
For the cake bread, I used clamshell lighting. Two light stands pressed as close to the camera and food as possible. At an eight power, I was able to get f/11 at ISO 200. The only weirdness was that one flash was slaved over Canon's IR. This halved my sync speed from 1/250 to 1/125. I would have thought that I could have at least seen one of the flashes light the picture. Maybe the IR communication parted needed extra time to complete. But the picture was black at 1/250 and lit at 1/125.
Recipe follows:
It seems that my garage door has broken! Which was not a surprise, really. A couple of months ago, my neighbor across the street was experiencing problems with his garage door. It would act like the pressure sensor was broken and change directions occasionally. Soon after that the spring broke. Given that our houses were built at the same time, it was no surprise when that happened to me. And it looks like the garage door opener almost ripped out the bar off the door from the now extremely heavy door.
Equals good. Different tasting, that's for sure. I think that the balance is tipped towards the plantain in this equation. So, the next time I will use more sweet potatoes.
I removed the skin of a plantain banana and roasted it in the oven. I also roasted one whole sweet potato until it was a charred and blackened lump. I placed the banana and the scooped out potato into a blender and added some of the left over caramel. And blended it until it was smooth. Or at least I tried that. It seemed like it needed a little bit more liquid to get it blended fully. So I added some of my holiday eggnog (heavy cream, rum, brandy, and whiskey).
We played disc golf at Cat Hollow today. As I was practicing throwing, one of my discs flew off-course. Way, way, off-course, across the street, and into someone's front lawn...
Ugh, it seems that the Cedar (aka Juniper) trees are starting to show signs of blooming. I sense much mucus in my future...
I had a near ace on one of the holes this morning. My disc hit the yellow metal on the basket. Which, sadly, does not count in the least...
I know that Central Texas is in a severe drought and such. But I didn't think that it was this bad. A shredded tire is seen growing out of the ground.
Vacation is running out of time to be used. So we might as well use it on gaming. Ed and Susan brought new games with them which effectively rendered my large collection useless. We started with a new Alea game about collecting ingredients to build potions and score them. Unfortunately for me, this is a blind guessing game. Everyone selects 5 cards from a hand of 12 roles. Then the roles are individually revealed. If no one else picked your role, you lucked out! If they did, the first person very likely to be screwed. The second person must decide to let it pass and get less of the result or try and take over the first person's role. If you are the last person in the chain, the decision is a no-brainer: screw the first person! Otherwise, you must decide if the people downstream of you are likely to have the card.
This type of mechanic immediately puts this game in the the light-weight category. Sure, you might be able to guess what people are likely to go for. But not entirely and not with any surety. Definitely not one for my game collection. And not one to play again any time soon with all of the choices out there...
Next up was a game with more of a perfect information, no luck based design. Thematically, it is set in the gold-rush Old West. It has two major phases: building up your pieces and abilities, and tearing down what you previously built up. The key decision in this game is deciding when to switch from build-up to tear-down. Because you cannot go back!
It was my favorite of the night. And one I would be willing to try again.
Ahh, a two-sided game. Good versus Evil. Or, in this Sci-Fi themed game: Humans versus Cylons. You start off the game as everyone being Humans. Or at least claiming to be Humans. There are secret identities that are dealt out. One at the beginning and a second during the halfway point in the game. So, you could start out as a Human only to discover that you are actually a Cylon sleeper agent! Neat. This means that you have to play the game on the edge of a balanced agenda. You don't want to help the Humans out too much because you just might be doing the wrong thing.
Chapel was playing Gaius Baltar, and he had the first move in the game. He plays a card that allows him to look at Susan's (playing Laura Roslin) secret identity. He then loudly declares that Roslin is a Cylon! Hrm, how interesting. It wouldn't make sense that one Human says that another Human is actually the enemy. Or that one Cylon would out a co-conspirator as an enemy. That would mean that either Baltar is a Cylon or Roslin is a Cylon. But who do I believe? And that is the real dilemma here. Susan was pretty quiet so I leaned towards believing Mike. But, as a group, we did nothing. However, Mike's constant accusations did force Susan's hand. She declared herself as a Cylon, switched sides, and started working to help the enemy.
In this game there are two Cylons and three Humans. Who is the second one? And would we have to wait until the second half of the game to find out? But it turned out that Jon was indeed an early Cylon. He declared himself and switched sides as well. Unfortunately, we could do nothing about it.
The Humans at this point were in a world of pain. Critical supplies such as food, fuel, and population were running out. We fought the brave fight, took many risks to try and reach Earth, but, in the end, we failed...
Nowadays, there are many choices for cooperative games where someone (or some group of people) is a traitor. I am not a fan of owning them all, so I would have to pick one. And this one would be it. I like the Sci-Fi theme and the mechanics just fine.
We started out with a filler game of Bunte Runde. It was nice and quick and definitely ranks high on Knizia fillers.
Next up was a quick game of Big Three. We were waiting for a fourth but he never showed. It was quick and brutally one-sided. I ruled them all!
Well, onto the meat for the night. I used the same strategy as I did in my first playing of it: secure Nippur and control a lot of Sumer. And it worked well, putting me way ahead in the game. I was able to score with one completed city and troops as much points as people with two completed cities and no troops. So, when I started scoring my cities, I pulled ahead for the win.
Apparently it snowed in Austin last night! I woke up in the morning an found a little bit of evidence still lurking in a corner of the yard...
Yea! One good thing about a depression...
Wow, its been a while since I have made a loaf of bread. I wanted to make a no-knead bread recipe. So I looked around for it in my Cook's Illustrated magazine. I found the version 2.0 of the recipe in the January/February 2008 issue. But that version uses white vinegar and lager. Which I did not want to use. I wanted it to be a pure sourdough and not a simulated version.
It did start off by mentioning that the 1.0 version used a hydration level of 85%. Which means that, for every 10 units of flour, there are 8.5 units of water. I decided to stop right there with the instructions and see where a pure 85% hydration level would take me. My starter mixture uses 96 grams of flour and 132 grams of water (a whopping 137.5%). I pour the usually discarded starter into a bowl and measure it. It comes out to 207 grams. I then added 300 grams of flour. Next, I needed to figure out how much water to add to bring the resultant hydration down to 85%.
if starter=207g, then w=207*132/(132+96), f=207*(1-132/(132+96))
then w=120g, f=87g
adding 300g flour, then f=(300+87)=387
water is 85% hydration, then w=387*0.85=329
solving for x,
then w=(x+120)=329
x=209
the final weights would turn out to be: w=(209+120)=329, f=(300+87)=387
I put the mixture into a bowl and then covered it with saran wrap. I left the bowl in the oven with the light left on for six hours. After that amount of time, it certainly looked like the yeast is active and working. I floured a kitchen table, scraped the dough out on the table, and rolled it out into a ball. However, the dough was incredibly sticky! So I went off script again and kneaded some more flour into the dough. I should have at least recorded how much was used. Next time, for sure. I can only note that the mixture was still sticky -- just not incredibly sticky.
I completely lined my Le Creuset Dutch oven with parchment paper. A cylinder for the sides and a sheet on the bottom. I placed the ball of dough into the Dutch oven and let it rise a second time in the oven. After a couple of hours, I turned the oven on to 450. And after twenty minutes of cooking time, I dumped the loaf out and removed the paper. I put it back into the oven for another 40 minutes (after turning the temperature down to 350 after the bread was nice and brown).
So, what do you think? Is this sponge past its prime? Or does it have more washing in store for it? Sure, it has been almost cut in half. It has lost chunks of its nylon scrubbing surface. And its spongy interior is degrading. But it is not ready to be put out to the pasture yet!
I made another batch of apples again. More for the excuse of trying a different style of food photography than anything else. This time I set up a tripod for the camera and used the 100mm macro lens. Behind the camera, I set up a light stand and placed a 580EXII on it. I set its light beam to be focused at 105mm. And, to help contain the light, I wrapped a snoot around it as well. It was set into manual mode at 1/16 -0.3 strength. And it was driven by a Pocket Wizard.
The strength of the output of light was determined by trial and error. My target was f/4.0, 1/250sec, ISO100. At this setting, there is no other light in the picture but the flash. Which is a good thing in my kitchen. It has a smorgasbord of choices: the light above the stove is a yellowish incandescent light, the big light in the kitchen is a varying color fluorescent light, and in the eating area, there is a fan with compact fluorescent lights and dark brown reflective blades.
In my other hand was a TC-80N3 remote controller. Fortunately, my hand was centered enough in the frame. But the auto-focus did seem to concentrate on my fingers instead of the apple.
I even took a picture looking back with the G-10. The G-10's picture is passable. It decided on a shaky f/5.6, 1/2sec, ISO 200. At least it has image stabilization in the body. Using the 580 flash on that camera only lights up the pan. Everything else in the scene is pitch black. Flash lighting has thin depth of field it seems.
I made extra caramel as usual. I intend to use it to sweeten some more roasted sweet potatoes...
Wow, this is my first time playing this game. Which I bought back in June of last year. How sad. It was interesting, if a bit one-sided. I was attacked by everyone. Yet, no one was attacking anyone else. Which is strange since your final hit points is your score. Not that I mind. I like it when people play sub-optimally. Hopefully, they will continue playing the same way when I am in the lead the next time.
Instead of finishing up the night with Tichu, we played Tichu next. I guess that the priority was get in a full game of Tichu. And, if we still have time, then play another game.
| GT/T | Team #1 | GT/T | GT/T | Team #2 | GT/T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MarkH & Jon | Nick & MikeCh | ||||
| 50 | T+ | 150 | |||
| 50 | 350 | ||||
| 85 |
415
|
||||
|
140
|
T+ | 560 | |||
| 285 | T+ |
615
|
|||
|
350
|
T+ | 750 | |||
|
440
|
T+ | 860 | |||
| 460 | T+ |
1040
|
|||
| 485 |
1115
|
Next up was Nick's copy on poker chips. He had printed out a bunch of stickers that someone had made for a version on wooden disks. He was even generous to send the game's author some money via paypal. This version is intended for people who have difficulty shuffling cards. Because that is what you spend most of the game doing.
Since Nick didn't have any bags yet for the game, I gave him some lunch bags. This inspired Chapel to put a bag over his head. The unknown gamer strikes again. If only I could have gonged Chapel out of there...
I tried out another Sushi restaurant in Austin. This one is currently lunch only. And roll only. Which sounded like an interesting draw. But they failed in execution. You only get to chose one roll. You start out with the wrapping (I chose the seaweed). Next is the main meat (for me, the smoked salmon). And then you chose three items to go with the main selection. There are many different things on the menu. Some of them seem weird for sushi (like strawberries and mandarin oranges). I went with avocado, cream cheese, and jalapeno peppers. You can even add toppings (I went with sesame seeds and salmon row).
The did have some interesting machines in use. There was one that spits out a evenly rice covered roll. And they cut the roll with another machine.
I would rate this restaurant thumbs down. I suspect that the turn-over on the fish will be low as it is lunch only. Also, I had wanted multiple small rolls rather than one big one.
...orbit stuff. But hey! They are close together! From this one angle. On a tiny blue speck in space.
But I am sure that it features strongly in astrology.
I need to work on my astronomy photoing skills it seems.
