Yes, it’s now the last day of June and I’m just now getting around to continuing to post photos from Whistler in January. Sorry about that.
On Sunday, I skied with the little camera. “Welcome to Canada. Have some mountains.”
Author: doug
Whistler, day 0
January 19, 2013
On Saturday we traveled to Whistler resort, 2 hours north of Vancouver, for a week of skiing. Today’s post is some of the scenery we saw on the journey.
Clearly, there’s some feature kicking up the cloud layer under there. Also note the circular reflection rainbow.
Mount Baker from the air:
From Vancouver, we took the Sea to Sky Highway as the sun went down.
Foyer
January 5, 2012
During our kitchen remodel, we discovered that there is a hollow beside our chimney. I’m turning this space into a small closet with shelves in our foyer, with a built-in bench below it.
In two Saturdays of work so far, I have cut and re-framed the rough opening, patched a hole in the side of the chimney, cut off an old abandoned gas-light pipe, moved some wires out of the way, cased the opening, and built & installed a door. I also put up new coat hooks since I had to take down the old ones.
Many more steps to come, which I’ll update here as I make progress.
Sous vide
January 1, 2013
Sous vide is a method of cooking that maintains a water bath at a constant temperature, just above the target temperature of the food, which is sealed into a watertight plastic pouch. It results in precise control of the final temperature (and thus doneness) of the food, as well as the ability to hold a food at a specific temperature for a long time, allowing precise control of certain processes, such as the breakdown of collagen into gelatin.
The equipment to do sous vide at home has been in the several hundred dollar range, but just recently some more affordable options have come to market. I paid around $100 for a controller that cycles an appliance (in my case, an old multi-cooker) on and off to maintain temperature. And since we already have a FoodSaver vacuum sealer, this small controller is the only extra equipment I needed.
The first experiment was soft-boiled eggs. This link shows the result of eggs cooked to specific internal temperatures. Since an egg is waterproof to begin with, there’s no reason to vacuum seal it. I cooked these for 90 minutes at 145 degrees F.
Unfortunately, I found that while the yolks were perfect, the whites had a funny consistency: both set and runny at the same time. Since I like my white fully set, this is not the result I was hoping for. Next time I think I will cook them to a lower temperature, and finish in boiling water for a minute or so to set the white.
I’m sure to continue experimenting with sous vide, and so you’ll see more photos from this Project as time goes by.
I’m sure to continue experimenting with sous vide, and so you’ll see more photos from this Project as time goes by.
Ferrous
December 24, 2012
This isn’t a Project photo, it’s just Ferrous being adorable by hanging out with Lis while she naps.
Breakfast Stout
December 1, 2012
Here’s the first of the real Project entries. Today I made a breakfast stout from a kit I bought some time ago.
This kit is old enough that the yeast pouch had gone bad and I had to get a new one, delaying things for a week. As you can see, though, the new yeast pack is fine. A “breakfast stout” (at least how I made it) is an oatmeal cream stout with added coffee.
It was rainy out so I brewed inside — perfectly doable with an extract brew. The sparge was entertaining with all that oatmeal in the mash — it made a very viscous wort.
In fact, the wort was so viscous it blew the airlock right off the primary carboy and I had to switch to a blow-off hose.
I don’t have a picture for it, but I steeped 1/3 lb of cracked coffee beans in some rye whiskey and added it to the seconday. This made for a pretty tasty beer.
Rummikub
October 18, 2012
Putting away our Rummikub set after a game tonight, Lis and I realized we’re missing a tile. It could have been missing for some time now.
This is a photo of one of the old tiles, taken so we could send it to the company to see if they still make this style of tile. They don’t so we had to order a whole new set.
Choose Your Own Adventure
September 29, 2012
Lis, Carlos, Greg, Steve D. and I went on a live-action Choose Your Own Adventure today run by a local improv group.
I acquired my superpower in an accident at a nuclear power plant.
Steve looks good in a disguise.
Reboot
I am rebooting this Project 365 blog. But I am changing the format, emphasizing the “Project” portion rather than the “365” portion. I will be posting photos & entries about projects I am doing — around the house, hobbies, big cooking projects, that sort of thing — as well as travels and other themes of interest. What I am trying to avoid is the mundane day-to-day, taking a photo just to have a photo. But I’m trying to have more structure than when I’ve allowed myself to skip days previously.
I do have a few good photos from the past few months that I will post for catch-up. I’ll use today’s date to keep the blog in order, but post the photo’s actual date in the text.
Playing
The kitties are coming along. We had a good play session this evening.
Bonus better action shot of Gandalf, slightly blurry:
