Apple-Soy Sauce

This sauce imparts a sweet and salty Asian flair to vegetables.

1 cup apple juice

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

2 tbsp tamari

zest of 1/4 orange

In a small saucepan, boil the apple juice to reduce by 2/3. Add ginger and zest when the juice is reduced by 1/2. Remove from heat, and add tamari. Use hot as a side sauce for sauted or roasted vegetables.

Hard Cider Sauce for Oranges

This sauce over fruit creates a fragrant, flavorful dessert that is not overpoweringly sweet. Wonderful over oranges - try other fruit, too.

1/2 bottle hard cider (Magners is good)

1 tsp fresh grated ginger

3 tbsp turbinado

3-4 oranges peeled and sliced

Arrange orange slices in individual dessert bowls. In a sauce pan, bring the cider to a boil. Add the sugar and ginger. Remove from heat when the sugar has dissolved. Pour immediately over the orange slices. Serve immediately or after cooling.

New! Recipes Label

This week I added a recipes label. Look here for things I have cooked that were successful and did not come from a cookbook. On that same note, don't look for baked goods - I'm a hacker, not a chemist.

Sweet Potato and Turnip Soup

A light and delicate soup made with only root vegetables, perfect for fall.

1 medium to large yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 T butter
4 oz. white wine
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
2 turnips, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
2 carrots, chopped
vegetable stock (to cover)
1/2 tsp dill
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste

In a stock pot, caramelize the onions in the butter. Add wine to deglaze the pan. Add potato, turnips, and carrots. Add stock, just to barely cover. Season with salt. Add dill, cover pot, and bring to a boil. Simmer just until the vegetables are tender. Remove from heat. Puree, preferably with an immersible blender. The potato and onion should be smooth, there will be small flecks of carrot, and the turnip will look like little bits of tapioca. Stir in the cream. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6-8.

Box Beam Strongback

As if two projects were not enough, I am embarking on yet a third project - the Guillemot Double Kayak.  The Guillemot Double will be a stable, roomy kayak for Renee and me to play and camp with.  At 20' long, it will be relatively fast. It is strip built, and looks like fun project.

The first step in this process is the strongback.  The strongback is a 17' 11" 2x4.  Dimensional lumber isn't stable enough, so I built a box beam strongback out if 1/2" ACX.  It used roughly 5/8 of a sheet of plywood.

I cut the plywood into five 2 7/16" widths and five 3 15/16" widths.  The wider strips were rabbetted on the edges to accept the narrower strips.  The ends were tapered according to the plans.  See The Strip Built Sea Kayak by Nick Schade for more information.

 
 
 

Learning to tie my shoes

Finally, at the age of 47, I have learned to tie my shoes.  No, really tie my shoes.

Last Thursday (4 days ago), I reached down and tied my shoes again.  I wear boat shoes so I can slip them on and off, but still they tie, ideally, not often.  I have to tie my shoes every hour.

At that point the light bulb went off:  I remembered reading on the great Animated Knots by Grog site that the shoelace knot is a square knot.  Now, I had never given any thought to my shoelace knot.  I just tied it when it needed it, but now I am tired of tying them every hour.  So I examined my shoes.

Granny knots!  Ugh!

No wonder they constantly came untied, and every bow I tied was twisted and ugly.  Now to figure out how to fix it.

Simple.  I tied my shoe, and paid attention to the start.  It was a granny knot this time.  Then I tied it again, pausing to reverse the start (the lace on top becomes the lace on the bottom).  Bingo!  Square knot.  I tied both shoes.

So why am I posting this on Monday, 4 days later?  Because this is the first time since then I retied my shoes.

For more info, see the Grog's site, or Ian's Shoelace Site by Ian Fieggen.  There you will learn about far more than knots.

Kindergarten teachers - make your life easier.  Learn this knot the right way so that the 1 or 2 kids in your class without velcro clasp shoes won't need you to tie their shoes more than once a day.

Test Launches

On Sunday, October 26, I took the canoe out for a test launch with the boys.  The canoe is not yet finished.  It has two coats of primer outside, and will receive two more.  Fairing is needed inside.  The breasthooks are not installed, although thwarts are installed at the breasthooks.  After all of that, it needs paint.  We are taking it out because it is ready enough, and we don't want to wait until next spring.

Renee wanted to go, but her work schedule, combined with a little car trouble, bumped her to another trip.  Not only was this a test launch for the canoe, it was a test for my redneck conoe rack assembled from 2x4's and sheetrock screws.  The rack worked well, by the way.

My crew for the day.

The launch site was  Lake Crabtree County Park in Cary, NC.

View Larger Map

I had the boys paddle out for pictures.  These two pictures look calm and peaceful as the canoe makes a turn back to the beach.  The actual scene was much more chaotic as they learned that side-to-side motions in a round bottom canoe cause a lot of tipping.  No one got wet, and no water was taken aboard.

The best picture we'll have until it is painted.

The weather was very calm, as you can see.  We paddled the length of the lake, beached the canoe, hiked a few hundred feet of the greenway there, and found a spinning reel on the beach.  It worked.

I went back out Monday with Renee and her friend Nikki from work.  Another calm day.  We paddled the length of the lake again.

This canoe feels tippy because of the rounded bottom, but has good secondary stability.  It won't capsize or take water unless you panic, or are trying very hard.  The tracking is excellent.  It paddles easily, and two paddlers can achieve good speed.  It steers easily.  If you are considering building a canoe, I would recommend this one.