nw2s

Last year when barb and I were biking around so much, I think we just missed prime raspberry season before we had everything together enough to notice. Raspberry collecting involves an amount of patience. First, you need to be traveling by a means that’s slow enough to realize you’re passing patch after patch of the bright red berry. Second, you need to have a little extra time to stop and collect them. Lest you forget, you’ll also need something to collect them in — unless you want to gorge yourself on the spot.

Yesterday, we were walking the Briarcliff-Peekskill trailway and took a detour along the road a little ways to avoid some of the muddier sections. We filled up a 1-liter Nalgene bottle… Great excuse to have ice cream for dessert.

I thought I’d take advantage of the short span of sun and 80+ degree weather to make some summery sodas. I’d been wanting to make some sort of tea soda, but it felt a little odd just making green tea alone, so here’s my recipe…

• 1 tbsp (or more to taste) grated ginger
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 4 bags green tea
• 3/4 c white sugar
• 2 liters water
• 1/4 c lime juice

Heat the water to near boiling and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to dissolve the sugar and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Use a few layers of cheese cloth and a coffee filter to strain the tea into a 2 liter soda bottle. I had some trouble with my Chemex filter clogging, so I’d use cheese cloth next time just to make it go a little faster. You don’t want any pulp, though, as it’ll cause the soda to go flat faster.

Chill for a few hours, carbonate, and allow to settle.

There was a great story on NPR a few weeks ago that finally spurred me into buying one more buckling spring keyboard.

Unfortunately, most of my collection of umpteen early 80’s Model F’s and Model M’s, from vintage square logos with the large 5 pin din connectors to Lexmark manufactured ones from the late 90’s haven’t been getting much use. Day-to-day, I’m developing on a MacBook Pro which doesn’t work with the PS/2 to USB adapters, and even if it did, would require remapping almost every single modifier key to be able to work.

Luckily, Unicomp is making them (or at least REALLY good copies) now, including the Apple/Windows key, and putting USB connectors on them. I ordered a couple, and though the quality is about 90% of what it once was, that’s still 90% more than you get with anything else. I do like the Cherry and Alps keyboards in my collection, but nothing beats the buckling spring. Great work guys – please keep it up as long as you can!

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I finally got a soda contraption together. With a 10lb cylinder of CO2, a regulator, ball lock tap, and carbonator, I can carbonate pretty much anything you can put in a plastic soda bottle! I started with some easy stuff that will probably get me through most of the summer including lime and grapefruit soda, but am also trying to push the envelope a little… I’ve been threatening to carbonate milk product as long as I’ve been tracking down the bits to do it with. Here’s my recipe for a vanilla egg cream or just cream soda if you’re not from New York.

• 3/8 c granulated sugar (6 tbsp)
• 1 c whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c  warm water
• cold water to fill a 1 liter soda bottle

Pour the granulated sugar in the bottle and put about a cup of warm water in and shake to dissolve. Add the rest to fill up the bottle with a little space on top. Refrigerate until well chilled and carbonate to about 40psi. Give it some time to rest in the fridge. If it’s settled some, turn over a couple of times to mix it up. Be sure to release the pressure on the carbonator cap before opening as this is likely to foam up.

Good stuff. Here’s a picture of my rented CO2 cylinder and beer regulator under the sink and the finished product.

I had a client or two who I had suggested CloudFront as a viable solution for content delivery that was affordable and had no long-term commitments. I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

Generally my approach is to keep all the images, swfs, silverlight, etc in a folder called /assets and create custom .NET controls that know to look for a config setting that points to the asset root which may or may not be in the same domain. It will take a little time before I do all that on my own sites, but wanted to share an image all the same…

[Edit] I wanted to note that I finally found an MSBuild task for uploading content to S3! SpaceBlock on Codeplex seems to do the trick. I honestly haven’t tried it yet, but if it works will help my automated Cruise Control deployments greatly.

[Another Edit] I really need to make a Flex version of the satellite tracker!

This is my version of a couple of different cakes we had when we were in Argentina. I’d link to the cafes, but Barb’s not here and I have no idea which places they were. It’s a little involved, but worth it. It’s essentially a yellow bundt cake with butter rum sauce poured over it and served topped with dulce de leche whipped cream. MMMmmm… it’s in the oven right now.

Cake

• 426g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

• 1 c butter
• 396g sugar
• 4 tbsp powdered buttermilk
• 4 eggs
• 1 c water (subst. real buttermilk or plain milk + lemon juice depending on availability)
• 2 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream sugar and butter. Add powdered buttermilk. Beat eggs in a bowl and add vanilla. Slowly add egg mixture, allowing to incorporate completely. Alternate adding dry ingredients and water until just combined. If you can’t find the powdered buttermilk which is super handly to have around, use real buttermilk, or worst case, use milk with some lemon juice, as you need a little extra acid.

Grease a bundt pan – with melted butter to work into all the crevaces. Bake at 325 for 55-65 minutes.

Butter Rum Sauce

• 1 c sugar
• 0.25 c water
• 0.25 c butter
• 3 (or so) tbsp dark rum

While the cake’s in the oven, combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and take off the heat. If you want more of the alcohol flavor, don’t add the rum until you take it off the heat. I like the rum taste, but don’t like the alcohol, so cook most of it off.

While the cake is still warm, poke it with a skewer (a lot) and pour the sauce over it. Allow it to soak in for an hour or two and then turn the cake over to allow it to fall out of the pan. If you have a torch, a hit with that will help, otherwise let it sit as long as you can stand it and the give it a few good shakes. Don’t try too hard or it’ll come apart.

Dulce de Leche Mousse

• 1.75 c whipping cream
• 12 oz dulce de leche
• 1 tbsp dark rum
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp gelatin powder

Chill bowls, cream, and mixing implements thoroughly beforehand.

Gently melt the butter and add the rum and dulce de leche to soften. Allow to cool a bit.

Combine 1/4 c cream and gelatin in a small metal bowl or measuring cup to allow the gelatin to dissolve. Genltly warm on a burner to complete, but do not bring to a boil. Stir into the dulce de leche.

In a mixer, beat the cream to medium peaks. I never can tell… do it till it looks good and tasty. Combine some of the whipped cream with the dulce de leche mixture to lighten. Then fold in that into the whipped cream in two stages. Don’t over mix, if it’s not perfectly combined, that just adds character.

Allow to chill covered for at least 8 hours before you get your grubby hands in it.

Serve the cake slices with heaping portions of the mouse. Sleep well.

I’m selling my 109″ project. I’m splitting it into two pieces since not everyone is interested in both the chassis and the engine.

Most everything I brought over from the UK 3 years ago and kept garaged the entire time. Almost everything is new or newly rebuilt.

• NEW Designa 109″ coil chassis – The galvanizing is still shiny! RHD
• NEW rebuilt 4 bolt power steering box
• NEW vented front rotors
• NEW rebuilt front calipers
• Range Rover classic front axle
• Disco rear axle
• 4 7.5″ XZLs on Discovery steel wheels
• NEW OME 764 front and 762 rear springs
• NEW OME MD front shocks
• NEW shock towers
• NEW IN BOX Fox 2.0 shocks for rear
• HD drag link
• HD adjustable panhard rod
• stock radius and trailing arms

SOLD see more pictures

• 200tdi – Taken out of a runing disco with about 40k on the clock. Includes alternator and other ancillaries, but could probably do for some new hoses and belts.
• LT-77, LT-230 – short bellhousing so you can keep the recessed breakfast on your 109. Cable operated handbrake.
• Radiator and intercooler from the donor vehicle

SOLD see more pictures

Soundcloud.com just launched. I have never made a myspace page, but this seems like a little more music-centric and less “hey look at my band’s crappy HTML”.