Protectors of Universe Remix #6

Above the fold this time, since this one is less inappropriate than most of these. Is anyone even reading this?

The Year in Preserves: March

It’s been a pretty stressful month, but I still managed to find the time for some pickling. This time around I didn’t even try to be seasonally appropriate:

Now the official name for this recipe is “Fiesta Corn Relish” (another recipe from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserves), but it’s not much like a relish in my opinion … what it really is, is pickled corn niblets with some red pepper and onion for color. And I love corn ^_^.

There’s also a small jalapeno, garlic, cumin and cilantro in there, so the flavor is sweet and sour with just a little bit of heat. The cilantro blends in well, too, and I say this as someone who hates cilantro. Or used to hate it, at least; this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve developed a taste for something that I previously hated. Mixing it in with corn probably helped.

The year in preserves: February

Once again, it’s a month with plenty of fresh snow and not so much fresh fruit, which is why I chose to make this apricot butter, which calls for dried apricots, along with lemon, honey and crystalized ginger. I had a few unforseen problems with this one, namely,  a neighbor came to the door while I was making it, we got to talking and the honey scorched. Oops. Luckily, it wasn’t enough to affect the flavor (or at least not add a bad flavor) and only darkened the end result a little. Here it is:

Apricot Honey Butter.

Chopping all those dried fruits was a bit of a pain, since either they’re tough and leathery, or they’re soft and stick to the knife. Oh well; I had my revenge later when I pureed it all with the hand blender. Raargh!

This butter has a very rich flavor and it’s a bit strong for just eating on bread, but it’s excellent in yogurt or over ice cream. It would probably be good as a pastry filling or with meat (like pork roast or something).

Protectors of Universe Remix #5

Time for another installment of this bizarre and immature attempt at humor. Maybe someday I’ll try writing some clean jokes to go with these screenshots This page is slightly less NSFW than the others, but still, behind the fold just to be safe.

The Year in Preserves: January

So this is a new project of mine for 2011 that will hopefully have me posting a bit more regularly. My plan is to make a batch of preserves every month and post pictures of them; I’ll try to make them seasonal as best I can.

Mind you, there isn’t much produce that is in season when there’s a foot of snow in the garden. But citrus fruits are, hence, this marmalade:

I like this recipe because it’s made from mandarin oranges (which my family eats by the crate during the winter), and the only other ingredients are a lemon, sugar and water. All of the pectin comes from the mandarin skins. This is the first preserve I’ve made where I had to check the gel point, and to my surprise I got it right.

(protip: when using the spoon method to check the gel point, use a cold spoon, not the one you were stirring with.)

I also got to try out my new canning funnel. I think it’s my new best friend No more mess! This recipe is from The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving. As you can see, the marmalade came out a very nice shade of orange, very fresh looking. The flavor is not as sharp as regular Seville orange marmalade; it kind of reminds me of orange lollipops, actually. My mom, who loves marmalade, says it’s excellent.

Blogging: I am no good at it.

You know, maybe if I posted more than once every few months, more people would be reading this. It’s not just blogging, either; I tried keeping a diary for a while and ended up writing entries a month after something happened (I believe the last entry isn’t even finished). When I’m on a trip, I forget to take pictures even when my camera battery is full. I guess I prefer doing things over telling about things I did? Meh, whatever. I need some new material …

The Crossoverlord

So lately I’ve been reading quite a lot of crossover fan fiction. Apparently Harry Potter has been crossed over with everything in the known universe, and the stories are mostly in two veins:  either the cast of whatever series attend Hogwarts on some pretext, or Harry Potter is raised by someone other than the Dursleys.

One good story that is neither, is the Yu-Gi-Oh crossover, King’s Jackal (incomplete, but still worth reading).

In the let’s-all-go-to-Hogwarts theme, I recommend The Best Defense, in which the cast of Yu Yu Hakusho investigate the unscheduled death of Cedric Diggory.

And finally, in the raising Harry category, I direct you to a fic which dares to contemplate the question, What if Harry Potter was raised by Deadpool? Awesomeness ensues.

Enjoy.

Even Lamer Anime

In honor of Anime North last week (and in honor of repaving my hard drive), I present here the next strip of Protectors of Universe: Remix. As usual, NSFW-ish and below the fold.

Anime North has grown large and unwieldy since I first went there, and the place was bursting at the seams, but one thing that’s gotten better is Totally Lame Anime. Hats off to the presenter for finding such obscure and awful material. Seriously, how did this stuff ever get dubbed?

eggspertise

This easter, my mom and me discovered a new egg dyeing technique! Now, we’ve been hard-boiling eggs in onion skins for years, but making a resist is tricky — wax just melts off, glue (which I’ve seen used online) isn’t foodsafe, rubber bands only make stripes. Well, last week my mom was making solid-colored eggs, and one of them had some egg yolk crusted on the end. When she cleaned it off afterward, it had kept the dye off.

Crack an egg and break out the paintbrushes!

Eggsellent! (ok, I’m done now.)

We discovered that you need a fairly thick coat of yolk, and that you should let the eggs cool and dry completely before scraping the yolk off, or you end up taking the dye off as well.

top 10 swiss foods (besides cheese and chocolate)

1. Biberli (gingerbread with marzipan filling)

2. Rösti (giant hash browns)

3. Sauerrueben (pickled turnips … like sauerkraut, without the gas)

4. Rivella (whey soda. Seriously, it’s awesome.)

5. Landsjaegerli (smoked beef sausages)

6. Rotkraut (stewed red cabbage)

7. Dörbohnen (dried green beans)

8. Zopf (braided bread … probably not solely swiss, but still.)

9. Hirshpfeffer (venison stew)

10. Birebrot (pastry stuffed with dried pears)

now that my jet lag has worn off, I should be posting more. Maybe.