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

Category food

Speakers and Stuff

November 21, 2006

All previous speakers returned, original speakers reinstalled. Played with the amp enough to realize that the ‘High Cut’ setting is not a low-pass filter as I would have expected, but is instead a high-pass filter. Therefore, having it set too high basically keeps appropriate bass from going to the speakers at all.

I’d had some difficulty adjusting this previously, but after replacing the speakers and retuning things, everything is MUCH better. I’ve got the filter letting everything possible go to the rear subs and the missing bass is now there. The rear levels have also been adjusted at the amp to be appropriate, although these may need a wee bit more tweaking. This remains to be seen, though.

Other tasks I have successfully completed tonight:

· Returned both pairs of crappy Pioneer speakers.
· Acquired Thai food.
· Ate Thai food with Belgian beer.
· Watched Frontline’s A Hidden Life
· Balanced my checkbook.
· Washed my sheets.

I guess that’s a plenty full night.

automotivefoodmoved from livejournal

Dinner

September 10, 2006


Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, Roasted Michigan Sweet Corn, and Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Here’s what I made for Danielle and I for dinner. Except she had a glass of Yates cider (from the same batch as what I’m currently fermenting) instead of the beer. That’s some sweet corn from Boyka’s on 23 Mile somewhere around Romeo Plank, baked mac and cheese from the Alton Brown / Good Eats recipe (except made with a vidalia onion and Clancy’s Fancy), and an amazingly smoky beer which only becomes available around this time of the year.

Mmm.

beerfoodmoved from livejournal

Stuff!

September 6, 2006

The Casio SK-1 MIDI Mod PCBs are in, and they look good.

The cider is fermenting.

I’ve got a MIDIbox SID-NUXX to fix and two PCBs to check over.

The new hard drives for my G5 just came in.

I need to clean my office and kitchen.

Yes, lots to do. I guess I know what I’m doing tonight / this weekend. At least there’s some good thai food waiting for me in the fridge. It’s this stuff, Pad Namprik Pow. Mmm.

Now, to work!

electronicsfoodmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot

August 27, 2006


A mass of sprouted seeds and shoots covered in tomato gunk.
(Click for more…)

Earlier today I had to go to the ER because my foot was hurting. It was amazing. The result was that this mass of stuff was cut out of the bottom of my big toe. I can’t really walk right now, but… this is a lie. ;)

Actually, that photo is part of the result of a rather interesting experiment. About a month ago I purchased some tomatoes. To give you some idea of how long ago, I don’t really remember when they were purchased.

Anyway, I had two leftover tomatoes sitting on the counter and after a week they both formed some small bumps on them, almost like something was pushing out from under the surface. Cutting the first one open I found that some of the seeds had begun to sprout, so I decided to let the other be. I’d regularly set it in a place where sun through the skylight would shine on it, and generally just let it sit. About a week and a half ago the one of the shoots had finally punctured the skin of the fruit and it all was beginning dramatically soften.

Still, it hadn’t rotted. Taste tests during dissection showed that the pulp of the tomato was still very tomato-like, only lacking a bit of the normal sweetness and flavor which generally comes with a tomato. I figure that this was because a bunch of the sugars and such were used up by the germinating seeds.

At this point I decided it would be best to dissect the tomato, and that one above is part of what I found. The rest of the photos can be found here, in an album entitled The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot (photo gallery retired). These include:

· The tomato before I went poking around in it.
· Upon initially breaking the tomato open.
· A bunch of the sprouted bits on a paper towel.
· The leftover tomato-y remains. This is the part I tasted.
· The base of the stem, where something which looks like roots had begun to appear.
· Detail of the root-like mass at the base of the stem.

So, yeah. Definitely check out the whole gallery for The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot (photo gallery retired) if you’d like to see more photos. And yes, it’s now in the trash. Not that it was beginning to smell or anything, I just wanted it gone.

Irradiation or something is likely to blame for the lack of rotting, I think. Or maybe my house is just especially clean.

I doubt the latter.

foodhealthmoved from livejournal

Tomorrow’s Lunch

July 31, 2006


Tomorrow’s Lunch, and a few other meals…

Yeah, I know, the photo is crap. Right there is where a daylight fluorescent, two halogen cans, and some normal incandescent converge. I think I should have turned off the incandescent, but I wanted to get them wrapped up and sort of forgot the importance of decent light. Then I stuck the grey card at the wrong angle… etc.

Anyway, that will hopefully be tomorrow’s lunch, and maybe a few other meals. It’s a baguette which I first brushed with olive oil sprinkled with freshly ground pepper. Then I added brie slices, basil chiffonade, and topped with seeded roma tomatoes.

Hopefully it’ll be good, and hopefully the oil will keep the bread from getting too soggy, even though the cheese and tomatoes aren’t especially moist.

UPDATE: I played with the white balance a bit… I think the food itself was lit more by the incandescent lights and reflections from the living room, so when it is colored appropriately the countertop looks off. Ah well.

foodmoved from livejournal

Busy, busy day. Papadums, samosas, electricity, water, oh my!

July 19, 2006


Freshly cooked black pepper papadum, straight from my microwave.
(Click for more papadum photos…)

So. Today. Wow. I take the day off, I’m busy almost the entire day, and everything goes rather well.

I already mentioned the air conditioner installation and the [first] plumbing repair and the Thai food. So, what else did my day hold?

Well, after the aforementioned things my parents stopped by to visit with their friends Jim and Mattie from Scotland. Jim and Mattie are here visiting for a few weeks, and my parents wanted to see things with the air conditioner, so it all worked out well.

Before they arrived I had just finished up installing four outlets on the lighting circuit in my basement so I can plug the studio lights in more easily. I also replaced the light socket above my workbench because it was becoming really flaky, occasionally flickering and popping.

After that I went to replace the valve seat washer in the faucet outside (it was dripping) and in the process discovered that the shutoff for it was dripping into a closet. Fortunately the only thing ruined was an old Intel Pentium die shot mousepad. Anyway, I took care of the inside shutoff (packing nut needed to be tightened), visited a hardware store for a bolt and washer for the faucet, and all of that was then declared good.

On the way home from the hardware store I stopped at Meijer, but the groceries I picked up there ended up not being eaten. That’s okay, they’ll be good later.

Instead I had two samosas acquired from the Pakistani grocery (Spice Shop) located next door to Bangkok Cuisine Express. It seems I have a thing for questionable samosas. However, whether purchased from a small stand in the Gloucester Road Tube station or from a counter in somewhat dirty shop in Troy, I’ve yet to be disappointed. At $0.60/each for vegetarian samosa, Spice Shop fits nicely with this trend, and those made for a great dinner.

Along with the samosas, dinner included the first papadums I’ve ever cooked at home. I must say, I’m impressed. After paying US$0.99 for this package of black pepper papadoms, I must declare them an incredible value. Simply setting one on a piece of paper towel and microwaving it for 35 seconds turns it from this raw-ish piece of semi-cooked dough to this absolutely wonderful, crispy snack. I can see myself keeping these around the house to ‘cook’ whenever I want something crispy with a meal. It’s far better, and far cheaper, than traditional chips. And actually spicy, and without MSG. Oh! And you can watch them change shape while cooking them. Woo! (More papadum photos here. (photo gallery retired))

I also finally photographed a rather tasty beer right before I began sipping it, but I’ll save that for another, more cross-post-able post.

tranquility base · tranquility base · tranquility base

around the housefoodmoved from livejournal

Lunch + Plumbing

July 19, 2006


Pad Namprik Pow
(Click for food photos…)

There’s my tasty lunch, an order of Pad Namprik Pow from Bangkok Cuisine Express in Clinton Township, MI. Unfortunately its consumption was interrupted by the guys from Roncelli & Sons Plumbing coming by to fix the leak in my basement. Hopefully that’ll be all set… The connector which was used by the plumbers can be seen here. I’m not sure what I think of it, but I can say that it’s not leaking… for now. I’ll keep an eye on it for a few days.

Thus far this has been a nicely productive day… Hopefully it’ll continue. Perhaps I’ll go work on the synth some more now and try to get the LCD displaying exactly as I desire.

Oh, I also bought red chili papads, and some random other ones. And some desserty things. Hopefully they will all be good.

around the housefoodmoved from livejournal