Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Model Ferrari

1:3 scale model. Amazing. Now to build a full-scale one...

Monday, November 20, 2006

Tangerine sorbet

So since my attempt at a tangerine ice cream didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and I did buy more tangerines than I needed for the ice cream, I went ahead and tried to make a sorbet out of the remaining tangerines.

Peel and separate the tangerines. I had five left, and puréed them two at a time. I also zested one of them.

This was about 1/3 of the way into the purée. The larger blades couldn't get it as smooth as I want, so I switched over to the stick attachment for further blending.

Blend in sugar (I added 3/4 cups, hopefully that's enough), a pinch of salt, and a little bit of lime juice. Then pour into ice cream maker. This is after about 20 minutes of churning. With the camera flash working, you cann't tell from the picture that it was still churning... So I took another pic without flash...

They spinnin', they spinnin'!



Post Script: Shortly after I was "finished" making the sorbet, I recalled that I had read a transcript of Alton Brown's Good Eats episode that talked about making sorbet. So I looked it up. In one scene, he says of making sorbet:

Sugar in frozen desserts is more than just a sweetener. See, once dissolved in the liquid, the sugar molecules actually get in the way of ice crystals forming. [...] Now, too little sugar and you'll need an ice pick to serve your dessert. Too much, and you'll have a syrupy mess.

So, the trick, if you can call it a trick, is in nailing the right amount of sugar. And for that, all you need is your trusty sucrometer. Lent yours to the neighbor? Never got it back? No problem. A few simple rules will do.

Now, when I want a scoopable ice, I go with 7 ounces of sugar, roughly a cup, to every 16 ounces of liquid by weight. Now that's roughly, uh, 30 percent sugar.

In short:
Low Sugar = Rock Hard
High Sugar = Syrupy Mess

30% sugar solution = right amount of sugar

My original solution only had around 20% sugar, and sure enough, it was rock hard by the next day. So I took my giant tangerine ice cube out of the freezer to let it melt, then I'm going to add more sugar, squeeze in a lemon or two to balance the sweetness, and churn again.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Ice cream triple punch

So this week, I made three different flavors of ice cream. Two I've made before (green tea and coffee), and one I'm experimenting with (tangerine).

I bought disposable pint and quart containers, so now I can keep more than just two flavors at a time in my freezer, and since tangerine is my favorite fruit, I figured I'd try making an ice cream out of it, and see what it's like.

The flavor and texture is fine, as far as ice cream goes... however, I feel that the tangerine flavor is not nearly strong enough. I doubt most people could tell the difference between tangerine and orange in this ice cream form. So I guess if I want strong tangerine flavor in frozen (but not solid block of ice) form, I'll have to try a sorbet, instead. Or maybe a sherbet.

Since I am running out of space in my freezer, I'll have to finish up some of the ice cream before I try making the sorbet. Or give some away.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Who rigs every Oscar night?

A rerun of Homer the Great aired on Fox a few nights ago. It featured a parody of the Freemasons called the "Stonecutters"--a secret organization behind events large and small.


Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We Do! We Do!

Who leaves Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We Do! We Do!

Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We Do! We Do!

Who robs cavefish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We Do! We Do!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Maple ice cream

Several years ago, when my aunt Rosa came to visit us from Canada, she brought us some maple syrup. That's when I first found out that the typical syrup we used when having pancakes were actually only "maple-flavored syrup."

A few years ago, I bought some maple syrup while I was at Trader Joe's, but I've never had any chance to use it. After I got myself an ice cream maker, I thought maybe I could try using maple syrup instead of sugar... So here it is--homemade maple ice cream.


The flavor? Well, the maple definitely comes through, having used 3/4 cup of maple syrup. However, it also tastes rather familiar. It seems very similar to the butter pecan ice cream I used to get from Thrifty stores (which are now Rite-Aid stores). Without the pecans, obviously. I guess this explains why so many of the recipes online are for maple pecan ice cream.

Welcome to the new Blogger

New blog template brought to you by Blogger in Beta. Last night I switched over to this newly available version, and chose a new template. Then spent a little bit of time tweaking it, but I was unable to bring the main column's width to a longer width without messing up some other parts of the template.

Oh well. For the most part, it should not make much difference. The only reason I had to adjust the width before was because of some bugs in the template that would cause IE to not display things properly, which I think they've fixed. Some of my older entries also made use of the wider space, but who'd read those backlogs, anyway?

Monday, November 13, 2006

Taking a page from Chappelle's Show

So, in the second season of Chappelle's Show, he did a bit called the "Love Contract."

Recently, a similar, but more drawn out short film was made, called "Consent"...