nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category food

Tonight’s Beer Purchases. And Not.

November 29, 2007

I went to buy some beer today, but I instead was given a six-pack of Arcadia Jaw Jacker. I don’t particularly care for pumpkin beers, but it’s much appreciated anyway. I also ended up getting a six pack of Brooklyn’s Black Chocolate Stout. I’ve been told that it’s tasty, but I didn’t realize it is 10.1% until I got home. I also grabbed a 2004 (or is it 2005?) bottle of Dogfish Head’s World Wide Stout.

Now I’m going to go make another toasted cheese sandwich. I forgot to mention in last night’s detailing of dinner that I had put the bread in the oven until it was thoroughly hot, cut it open, then filled it with the cheese before toasting it some more. This will be the same, but with hot pepperjack on different bread. Unfortunately I don’t have any side veggies or whatnot to go along with it. Although… I could heat up some fire roasted corn… Mmm!

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Garlic! Cheese!

November 28, 2007

Here’s my dinner tonight. It is 12oz of Magic Hat‘s Circus Boy Hefeweizen, a slab of peppered hot smoked salmon, and a sandwich made of roasted garlic cheese and a piece of herb ciabatta.

It’s too bad Magic Hat’s site is a monolithic piece of crappy flash, else I’d actually link to info about the beer. The smoked salmon is some (non-farmed) Alaskan stuff, and the cheese actually contained roasted garlic, and is just whatever was on sale at Nino Salvaggio.

Sorry about the color on the photo, I just took the photo on my kitchen counter which has crappy warm halogens above it.

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The Turd

November 24, 2007

My Xbox 360 is a turd. I just submitted a request for repair, which means that Microsoft should now be sending me a $0 repair kit so that I can have the privilege of not playing games on it for a month while it is (hopefully) put in the state it should have originally been in. That is, working properly.

Quality control like this is the main reason why Microsot won’t be able to make a hand held gaming device any time soon. If consoles are failing this regularly when they aren’t moved about, there’s no way MS can compete in the DS (and PSP) market of regularly dropped in bags / knocked around devices.

Also, here is sparkly part of the DIA from last night, and here is some tasty aloo gobi I ate at Rangoli Express on the way home from work a few evenings back.

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Rice Pudding

November 21, 2007

I just made some rice pudding, and I expect it to be excellent. Hopefully people at family thanksgiving things tomorrow will enjoy it as well.

If you’d like the recipe, it can be found here: Rice Pudding Recipe

It’s a take-off on an Alton Brown recipe, with the amounts of stuff screwed with, vanilla added, no raisins or pistachios, and more rice. It is currently (while hot) as thick as many store-bought rice puddings, so I expect a spoon to stand in it after chilling. Mmm. Spoons should be able to stand up in anything.

Oh, I’ll add a photo to the recipe once it is cool.

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Batter Blaster

November 20, 2007

What do you do when it is 11pm and you want two pancakes and no mess? Batter Blaster! Sure, I have to work on my pancake cooking ability now, but at least I am able to go to the fridge, get out a spray can of pancake mix, and quickly make up two pancakes.

I think they might be a little sweeter than normal, and they do taste a little flour-y, but they are clearly better than no pancakes.

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Coffee Delight

November 17, 2007

Guess what happens when you mix coffee (Moka), milk, and methylcellulose? You get that. It’s also tasty, but odd… Being from the US I’m conditioned to have slimy, dessert-like things (such as this) taste sweet, but instead it is savory. It tastes just like a slightly starchy cup of cold coffee. Except it’s thick… Very thick… Think personal lube thick, coating the inside of your mouth with coffee goodness.

Next time I think I’ll make it with plain black coffee, just because.

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Vegetarian MREs

September 27, 2007

Well, these should make camping a little more interesting. Based on the descriptions they appear to be from menu year 2006. These are designed to provide 1250 kcal (Calories, as we know them) per meal and taste good enough that they don’t degrade morale. The last time I ate an MRE was in the mid-80s when my dad brought one back from either Panama or Honduras (wherever he was deployed at the time) and I ate a cold patty of what was essentially spam. I always really did like the dehydrated fruit, though.

I suspect these will be better, with the two menus as follows:

(Left) MENU NO. 14: VEGETABLE MANICOTTI

Vegetable Manicotti, Pound Cake, Wet Pack Fruit, Peanut Butter, Crackers, Cocoa (Hazelnut), Hot Sauce, Accessory Packet B, Spoon, Flameless Heater, Hot Beverage Bag

(Right) MENU NO. 12: VEGGIE BURGER WITH BBQ SAUCE

Veggie Burger w/BBQ Sauce, Dried Fruit, Chocolate Banana Muffin Top, Wheat Snack Bread (2), Potato Sticks, Beverage Base (CHO Fortified), Hot Sauce, Accessory Packet B, Spoon, Flameless Heater, Hot Beverage Bag

Of course, ACCESSORY PACK B contains:

Tea (Instant w/ Sweetener & Lemon Flavor), Salt, Chewing Gum, Matches, Toilet Tissue, Hand Cleaner

I don’t expect them to be good, but I think they’ll at least be decent. Unless I intend to eat about a gallon of soup, four Tasty Bite entrees, a pound of oat bran, and a pound of dried blueberries on top of these MREs I’ve way over-packed food wise for camping. That’s okay, at least there will be variety. It all fit within a pretty small box, anyway.

More info on MREs and other pre-packaged military rations from all around the world can be found here. By the way, it’s worthwhile for you to order a few cases of civilian MREs for survival food. mentioned a good idea of eating one every two weeks or so, then order a new case when one runs out, rotating the stock.

In a disaster situation two cases would safely feed you for two weeks, and the waterproof-ness ensures they will last through some pretty awful weather. The only down side is that, unlike the ones pictuerd above, the civilian ones don’t contain the heaters in the pouch.

foodmoved from livejournaloutdoors

Bodum Isis 5500-1

September 22, 2007

Bodum Isis 5500-1 Of Questionable Origin

While perusing Craigslist Detroit Danielle came across a “garage sale” of questionable origin. That is, a supposed garage sale taking place in one of the hangers of a private FBO located at Troy airport. (More info and photo of inside the hanger.) We swung by there this afternoon and while most of the things available were open box / missing item RTA furniture, there were a few interesting things. The only one we found worth purchasing was the Bodum electric kettle seen above. It was US$20, marked Salvage (on a yellow item number sticker on the top), but seemed to be unused. The kettle itself was in great shape, the box was just a bit beat up.

Usually when I heat water for tea or whatnot I use a metal kettle on the stove. This works, but it’s both a bit slow and inefficient. I’ve been wanting an electric kettle, but there only seem to be two varities available: cheap white plastic, non-detachable cord, and a top which can’t be opened much, if at all (<US$20) or expensive (>$50), stainless steel and plastic, and not much better made than the cheap ones.

This one is of the same heating element design, except the top opens up all the way to allow for easy cleaning, it was cheap, seems to have been unused, and almost all of the energy spent is actually put into the water. In the initial test it heated six cups of water to boiling in around three minutes. Not bad at all.

I think tonight I’ll make some valerian root tea to celebrate, and also help take off the edge which the multiple cups of coffee throughout the afternoon have put on me. Whoops.

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Birmingham, MI to Ann Arbor, MI via Train

September 21, 2007

Train Arriving at Birmingham Platform
(Click for more photos (photo gallery retired)…)

Back on July 7th Danielle and I decided to head to Ann Arbor for the evening. However, instead of driving there, we decided to take the train from Birmingham at around 5pm, then back at about Midnight. While the ticket cost was around $80 for the two round-trip first-class tickets and gas would have cost around $18, it was a nice diversion from the normal drive.

Along the hour-ish ride we passed through some rather interesting areas, seeing everything from a state trooper attempting to drive around the gates and TURTL graffiti to someone with a pickup slinking around an abandoned building (stealing copper?) and a giant chicken on KIDZ PLAYLAND. There was also the typical landfill, rail yard, and wetlands.

Once we arrived at Ann Arbor we walked up the stairs and road to Zingerman’s Deli and Next Door where we had dinner. I actually ate a rather substantial bacon-laden sandwich, Zingerman’s lovely Jen’s Pimento Parti.

After eating we wandered around the town a bit, eventually meeting up with and a very tired (and lost) . After a bit more wandering around, including back to the train station, waited until it arrived, then made our way back to the Birmingham station, where we arrived just after 1:30am.

By the way, the Birmingham platform is pretty crappy. It’s nothing but a track-level concrete platform located at the end of a road, and is fitted with a very uninformative information display and a “shelter” which does little but retain heat and stink of urine.

The train itself was decent, but nowhere as nice as UK trains. The ride was smooth, but slow. Staff was courteous, although not particularly friendly. The inside of the train feels like sparse 70s engineering. I’m not sure if I’ll take it to Ann Arbor again, but I’d definitely consider it for transit to Chicago. Without all the hassles of air travel (able to bring whatever you want on board, no security, etc) is rather nice, and the ticket cost is about the same as flying.

(Yes, I did just get these pictures uploaded this week. If you’d like to see all of them, please look here (photo gallery retired).)

foodmoved from livejournaltravel