When I call my pie Spicy, I mean it in the literal and not figurative sense...  here's what I put into my pies:



4 different cinnamons, 2 different nutmegs, mace, allspice, ginger and cloves.  The pumpkin puree is really that bright an orange, too.

Whee! :D

Tags: culinary
Current Mood: amused

I have always loved autumn, which marks the beginning of "The Food Season" for me.  It's the time of the year when I bake a lot as the yearly crop of pumpkins appears.  Soups, breads, pies, stews, ice cream ... pumpkin can be used in both sweet and savory ways, and the heirloom varieties of Cucurbita Moschata are fabulous for the task.   As always, I like to buy from my local farmer's market where more heirloom varieties are showing up.  This year, along with my usual purchase of Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, I got a Fairytale pumpkin, which is deep grey-green when immature and cures to a lovely buff orange.  I also picked up a Rouge d'Estampes which is sometimes called "Cinderella" but I'm noticing there's now a different variety also called Cinderella which isn't nearly as red and is more deeply ribbed.  I keep the some of the seeds of each to save, even if I don't get a chance to plant them in the following year (until I own a home instead of renting, I'm never sure if I'll be able to have a full growing season for them).  Here's a picture of this year's Holiday Display on our front steps:



Except for the Munchkin extra-mini pumpkins (light orange, slightly flattened, ribbed), the Tiger mini (mottled orange, flattened, strong ribs), and the Howden (biggest pumpkin), all these pumpkins are edible, with all the flattened heirloom types being excellent for baking.  I'll likely use the Sugar Pie (deep orange, round, smooth skinned) and the Casper (pale white, round, faint ribbing) for Amerind-style stews (I got a couple of recipe books on Native American cuisine).  I'll have to taste the Lil Pump Ke Mon (small, yellow-white with variable striping, flattened, ribbed) before I cook them -- mini pumpkins aren't known for being good cooking, but I've seen some gardener commentary that indicated these are.  The mini Wee-Be-Littles (bright light orange, round, smooth) were specifically bred to be edible and I might try stuffing them.

This year I'm going to try selling my pies.  I have ordered some shipping containers to handle mailing a few out but mostly I'll be making pies for the local Bay Area for "delivery".  I've yet to find out the yield for this year's pumpkins, but as C. Moschata varieties have dense, smooth, fiberless flesh that's naturally very sweet, I usually get a pretty high yield of puree (average is 2 cups puree per pound of raw).  We'll see how the Rouge d'Estampes will do (in spite its flat shape, it's not C. Moschata but actually a variety of C. Maxima).

If I do ship out pies, I'll have to figure out a way to have the shipping box sent back to me -- I might do a "subscription service" where the added cost of the box becomes a value: the customer sends me back the box and I make more pie to ship back to them.  Would anyone be interested in that?

Tags: cooking, pumpkin
Current Mood: bouncy

In spite of my tight financial situation, I have on occassion found a project I'm willing to donate some funds to.  Kickstarter is a website dedicated to helping small projects get financial help, and in particular there's a creative steampunk-oriented MMO that's in development that I'd like to see come to life:  Notch.  It really strikes a chord with my creative inclinations to be able to create worlds (I was an avid SIM CITY and SIM WORLD fan back in the day) and have always regretted that the MMO game the Dreamers Guild was developing for a games-network never got off the ground, so when I see a project like this, I want to cheer them on.  Even if you can only afford to put in $1.00, it'll help them finish the game and afford to add more art, music, sounds and so forth.

Tags: look-at-this
Current Mood: studious

I've done it again, I've gone and had my hair cut to donate to Locks of Love,  This time around I've sent them a ponytail 21.5" long, and got my hair bobbed in the back and overall shorter than my last hair harvest.


Now, my hair grows back pretty fast, so I'll have to decide how long I'll want to keep it this short, because within 2 years of my last trim it'll be back to it's long tailbone-touching length.

Tags: haircut
Current Mood: accomplished

Among my many interests is Egyptology, writings, fonts, and to some extent language.  Recently, a quick blurb on the BBC website got my attention: There is a massive collection of ancient papyrii dated from the Greek Period in Egypt that Oxford has opened to the public after a century of sitting in a storeroom.  Using a sophisticated website and photographing all the various pieces, Oxford University is allowing everyone to get involved in bringing these texts back to life.

The Ancient Lives Project asks for your help to translate the thousands of scraps found from a country town called Oxyrhynchon polis.  The website presents you with a random scrap of papyrus and the tools needed to transcribe and measure each piece.  Using humanity's ability of pattern recognition, you just select a shape and then assign it to one of the greek letters (they even have papyrus examples to show the variations of each letter).  Eventually, if you're lucky, enough letters get transcribed that the system will present you with a translation.  It could be anything: a grocery list, gossip, letters to the editor, literary texts, etc. 

What's fascinating is that you get a glimpse of the average Egyptian life and even something about themselves through their writing.  I've already seen examples of formal and informal writing, greek letters written in a flourish, and even cursive.  And if you can't read a scrap, or want to try a different piece, you can click "next" and a new scrap will appear.  If you have an account (it's free) and start transcribing a scrap, it'll be saved so you can recall it later. No pressure, no complex process, just a simple game of recognizing characters that you can do in your spare time -- or, like me, while something is chugging away at work.

Tags: egypt, greek
Current Mood: curious

I have several friends who will occasionally send me links to things they think I'd like, and recently one of these friends sent me a link to this:



It demonstrates what I call "The Elegant Solution" -- something that is beautiful in both form and function, without anything extra.  Mia Schmallenbach determined the proportions using the Fibonacci sequence, with the average width of a hand as the base.  I love that with the stainless steel base, the set looks like it is etched into the block, and yet it's a fully functional 4 piece knife set.

Of course, something this lovely isn't cheap, but that doesn't stop me from loving this culinary piece of art.

Tags: art, culinary
Current Mood: wistfull

The job I work at often has bouts of do-nothing as I wait for help calls, so I've been doodling puppies and try to get the important aspects of each breed.





I'm interested in *happy* puppies, and some breeds (like beagles) don't lend themselves to looking happy.  I suspect the retriever could work at a logo (with a little tweeking) and the Corgi or Maltese will end up as someone's icon.... but I don't mind, I'm just doodling.

Current Mood: creative

As I listen to the rain outside, it's hard to believe that Summer is supposed to be here....

Just to let folks who watch this silly journal know that I actually have been busy in RL and not just infrequently posting because I'm easily distracted, I've been trying to build a habit of "publishing" photos to my MobileMe Gallery under various project names, with descriptions for the curious.

http://gallery.me.com/khromat#100062 <-- Project SpiceRack, a repurposing project turning a Typesetter's die drawer into a Spice Rack. 

http://gallery.me.com/khromat#100045 <-- My ongoing Gardening project.  We have a substantial back yard that's terraced, and I've been slowly civilizing the wilderness into a bio-intensive eco-happy mini-farm.

(If you go to the main gallery area of mine, you will see there are *two* galleries for each of the above, because I had a harddrive failure on my Macbook Pro and as a result cannot update the original directories-- that's why I'm listing the specific numbers for the active folders here).

I will eventually get stuff onto FA or even perhaps DeviantArt (I had an account there once, but completely forgot it), as I am slowly getting back into drawing, but most of my artistic energy at the moment is focused on helping out Momma Mel. and her Coyote webcomic, which will soon see the light of print!

Tags: crafting, garden
Current Mood: tired

Spacious
Wired
Green
Self-sufficient
Semi-isolated
Gourmet Kitchen
Workshops
Usable Garage.  :)

Tags: writer's block
Current Mood: nerdy

What:  Lisa's 44th Birthday Hangout
Where: Fuddrucker's Union City, CA
When:  Saturday, April 9th starting around 2pm.

Cake will be provided -- and this time, it'll have a better drawing surface! 

Tags: birthday
Current Mood: giggly