Hooping at the Park

For once, it was a nice dry day in MD today so Lemony grabbed the hoops and I my camera and off we went to the park. It was a beautiful 30 minutes, until the rain came back. Here are some pics.

A biscuit, a tasket...

Recently the subject of biscuits was discussed in my family forum, in honor of our late grandma, whose birthday was last weekend.

By the time I came along, Grandpa had passed and Grandma was no longer churning butter, raising vegetables, putting up any canning, or baking anything from scratch, much less biscuits. So "Grandma's Biscuits" are a completely foreign concept for me. The Grandma I knew made us fried bologna or generic beefaroni from a can for lunch, and for dessert we had Little Debbie cakes, which we washed down with technicolor "juice" from a diminutive plastic barrel. Still, I love the idea of the nostalgic Southern biscuit, and have for years made efforts to perfect the recipe that could have been Grandma's, or at least will be a grandma's someday, if my kids have anything to do with that equation.

I must admit that I haven't gone to the trouble of devising my own recipe. The recipe that I turn to most often is Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits and then I tweak it from there. Also notable are the yeast biscuits featured in Out To Brunch: At Mildred Pierce Restaurant (interesting film, by the way--haven't read the book yet.)

Wort saw my post about biscuit techniques and asked me to spread the love. So, here are some things I've learned in my experiments with biscuits:

1. First, a word about shortening. We discussed Spry in the family forum. Spry was a solidified vegetable oil product. Crisco is also a solidified vegetable oil product, but it differs from Spry in three ways. One, Spry is said to have had animal fat (lard) added to it. Two, Spry was non-hydrogenated. And three, Spry was pre-creamed. Crisco is none of these. So apparently, you cannot make Grandma's Biscuits with Crisco, no matter how hard you try. So, I conclude, don't even try. My shortening of choice is Spectrum non-hydrogenated. I buy it at the local health food store. To me, it seems to have a creamier consistency than Crisco. Maybe it is pre-creamed, I don't know. It does make a good biscuit.
2. I've read numerous times that the best biscuits are made with a combination of vegetable and animal fat. So I usually use both butter and shortening. I'm totally open to using high quality organic lard in my biscuits, only I can't find any in my local stores.
3. Grate the butter, if using, into the (already sifted) dry ingredients using a cheese grater, then combine the fat into the flour using just your fingertips. If using just shortening, you still want to blend with your fingertips. Work quickly, so you don't melt the fat.
4. White Lily Flour is said to be the very best for biscuit baking. Unfortunately, I seem to be not far enough south to get it. I have tried to emulate White Lily with with 3/4 parts King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (red label) to 1/4 part bleached cake flour. White Lily is a bleached, low protein, all-purpose flour. King Arthur is unbleached, with higher protein. Cake flour has very low protein. You will get even lighter biscuits if you use an All-Purpose flour that is bleached, but you also compromise flavor. The King Arthur flour has a wonderful, light wheaty taste.
5. Use double-acting baking powder. Make sure the baking powder is fresh. Replace it every 3-6 months, no matter how much you have left in the can.
6. Higher-fat milk seems to make better biscuits. I sometimes use 2% milk mixed with cream. I sour this milk with 1 Tbs. of raw apple cider vinegar per 1 cup of milky liquid. (You can use any apple cider vinegar, I just prefer to use the raw as often as possible.) Sometimes I use lowfat kefir, which is a sour, pourable yogurt. I usually do not use buttermilk, only because I don't keep it around. The kefir lends a nice sour flavor to the biscuits, even more than buttermilk or vinegar & milk.
7. Handle the dough as little as possible, and it will be very sticky. Mix in the bowl just until it comes together (I use a rice paddle), then turn out onto a board and rather than kneading, flatten the dough gently and fold it over itself several times using a bench knife. If you don't have a bench knife, a bowl scraper will work almost as well. Fold no more than 5 times (I usually go for 3). Add only what flour you must to make it possible to handle.
8. Use only a very sharp biscuit cutter, never a drinking glass, and don't twist the cutter when cutting out your biscuits. Cut them just a bit thicker than the recipe calls for.
9. Place biscuits on the baking pan close but not touching, to help them raise better. I sometimes add chives, shredded cheddar cheese, pieces of cooked bacon, or tons of freshly cracked pepper to the dry ingredients just before adding the milk.
10. Sometimes I replace a little of the AP flour with whole wheat (no more than 3/4 part AP to 1/4 part WW).
11. I know that Grandma wouldn't approve, but you can even replace the milk with beer. With beer, you might even get a little more rise out of the biscuits. Use a pale ale, not a stout lager.
12. To make biscuits like Red Lobster's (if you're into that sort of thing), use a tiny bit more liquid, add shredded cheddar cheese, drop batter by spoonfuls onto baking sheet, and brush generously with melted butter (salted for brushing, unsalted for baking) before AND after baking. (If you wanted to be really authentic, you'd use processed cheese and margarine, but let's be honest, you want better biscuits than Red Lobster's, right?)
13. Finally, don't even think about using Bisquick! Ever! (Except maybe in wallpaper paste.)

Enjoy!

TED

We were at another homeschool family's house over the weekend, having dinner, talking about an activity that we are all interested in getting the kids involved with. The other dad mentioned a video someone had sent to him from one of the "MythBusters" guys on the Discovery Channel. He mentioned it was a "TED" talk. I had heard of TED from others but never checked it out. The dad showed the video to us and I loved it. I love watching a passionate person speak about an obsession. View and enjoy "Talks Adam Savage: My quest for the dodo bird, and other obsessions".

Beware of robots on the catwalk

So if you have the technology to build a robot, what purpose would you build it for? Maybe pulling people of of burning buildings, or dismanteling bombs, or maybe even as in-home care for the disabled? No that would be a waste, 2 million dollars of development would be much better spent on the catwalk selling the lastest in human fashion.
"Japanese researchers on Monday showed off a robot that will soon strut her stuff down a Tokyo catwalk.
The girlie-faced humanoid with slightly oversized eyes, a tiny nose and a shoulder length hair-do boasts 42 motion motors programmed to mimic the movements of flesh-and-blood fashion models.
"Hello everybody, I am cybernetic human HRP-4C," said the futuristic fashionista, opening her media premiere at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology outside Tokyo.
The fashion-bot is 158 centimetres (five foot two inches) tall, the average height of Japanese women aged 19 to 29, but weighs in at a waif-like 43 kilograms (95 pounds) -- including batteries.
She has a manga-inspired human face but a silver metallic body.
"If we had made the robot too similar to a real human, it would have been uncanny," said one of the inventors, humanoid research leader Shuji Kajita.
"We have deliberately leaned toward an anime style."
The institute said the robot "has been developed mainly for use in the entertainment industry" but is not for sale at the moment. "

FLL 2010 Topic

Short but sweet.
http://www.usfirst.org/community/fll/content.aspx?id=12726

"2010 Season Topic
We have chosen the topic for the 2010 Challenge...BIOMEDICAL. Stay tuned in the coming months for more information."

What did you expect, trumpets? So as they say, stay tuned.

Kids' Poem

Today I was sick, so we did "homeschool lite".

To keep the kids and their brains occupied, I started them on a punny poem. This is what we ended up with:

Madeline is a cookie,
Clementine is fruity,
and Barb is sharp as a tack.

Candy is the sweetest,
but isn't a defeatist,
because Mary Jane is a shoo-in.

Dick has been spotted
Dot has been jotted,
and Penny doesn't make much sense.

The End. (More later--Fairyberry plans to add illustrations.)

Kindle and Text-to-Speech

We recently purchased a Amazon Kindle 2. I must say I was interested when the first Kindle came out, but I like to read reviews and find out how people use things before I plunk down that kind of money. The reviews looked good, but the consensus seemed to be that version 2 would be better. So I waited and was rewarded for my patience. The Kindle is great. I love the screen, it is as easy to read as a book. Its not too heavy, and I love that now I can make any book a large font. For someone with bad eyes, this is great.
But one feature that really sold me on the Kindle 2 was the Text-to-Speech feature. I learn best if I read and hear. Since I learned this about myself, I used to read aloud to myself, until I could get audio books. Then later I would look for books on PDF and convert those to audio using free programs on my computer. I once converted a 600 page book to 12 CDs when studying for an exam. It was all worth it, not only did I pass the test, but I have retained more of the information than I ever would of had just reading.
But once again, greed stands in the way of usability. Like the movie, TV and music industries before it, the Writers Guild is more worried about getting royalties from audio books than people reading, learning and enjoying literature people have written. When will people understand that technology WILL change the way most people consume: whether it be video, music, or literature, people want it accessible and fairly priced. VHS, DVDs, the internet and now Netflix and iTunes show this. The movie industry first fought VHS because they saw it taking away from box office sales. They were afraid of DVDs because people would learn to copy them and make perfect copies. The music industry is still scared of digital music. They see CD prices falling steadily, because they can't come up with a way to sell to consumers and get the money they used to, so Apple stepped in with iTunes. Now the Writers Guild wants to fight people listening to a computer read a book.
Didn't anyone learn how to share when they were kids? I agree that everyone from writer, actor, to musician should be able to make a living off their work, but do we need to always fight change? This was discussed before briefly. I have to end this post now before I get too mad. Bah.

Out with the new...

Please note that the http://www.kavalsky.com/ blog is no longer "new". This is explained here.

Adobe Lightroom

Sorry, I know its been almost 2 weeks with no posts but work got crazy. What you going to do. Can't complain though, everyone tells me I just sit on my but for a living. The curse of a digital life.
I thought I would share what I got for my birthday, speaking of digital. I have about a terabyte of pics that I have yet to properly catalog, and got tired of jumping from program to program touching up photos so I finally decided to get myself a treat and purchased Adobe Lightroom off Amazon.com. The only regret I have is I didn't get it sooner. If you are at all familiar with photoshop I would highly recommend it. It places your pics into a library with keyword search, allows you to do basic editing, or smooth integration with photoshop if you own that. A big sell for me is it supports dual monitor so I can edit the photo in zoom on one screen and view the changes almost instantly on the other. Many print options and web publishing as well. Check out the reviews on amazon.com, they will probably answer any questions if you have tens of thousands of pictures like me.

Nintendo DSi

Nintendo has announced the DSi release date! April 5th, is the day. Now with a music player, camera, and SD memory slot. If you want one, I strongly suggest pre-ordering.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents... A Cure for Insomnia

"An idiot can operate it, and indeed, many do."




Disclaimer: Don't be an idiot.

The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo

I heard about this a week or two ago on XM and found it on Amazon tonight. Thought I would share. "Multi-talented Steve Martin has just released a bonafide bluegrass album, featuring the likes of Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs, and others." One song is free to download off Amazon. Enjoy!

David Bar-Tzur

David Bar-Tzur passed away suddenly on January 13, 2009, at age 60. I read of this news in the same paper that printed my grandma's obituary. I never knew him, but recognized his name because I have been an admirer of his work since I began my studies in ASL.

David Bar-Tzur worked in ASL interpreter education, and hosted a very informative website called The Interpreter's Friend. He lived and worked near Rochester, NY.

I hope that David's website will remain on the internet and continue to be a valuable resource for sign language interpreters. I have admired his dedication to ASL and the Deaf community.

Grandma

When I grow old I hope to be
As beautiful as Grandma
Lee.
Her hair is soft and fluffy white.
Her eyes are blue and candle
bright.
And down her cheeks are cunning piles
Of little ripples when
she
smiles.

by Rose Henderson

My sweet and feisty grandma celebrated her 89th or 90th birthday (she's not sure) a few months ago. She has had some health problems this past week that have really been a struggle for her. She is such a special lady, and I have missed her greatly since I moved from my hometown, where she lives.

Over the years, here are some things I've fondly remembered from growing up with Grandma so close by:

She taught me how to play cards, and the secrets to a number of impressive card tricks. We used to call her the Card Shark Lady.

She made bread & butter pickles every summer, and now I can't even eat pickles, because none can compare to the ones she made.

She often babysat my sister and me, and once when I was bored and fidgety, she cut up some rags and sewed a doll for me, on the spot. Now my daughter sleeps with that very same doll, who has consistently survived the washing machine like nothing you can buy in a store.

On Christmas Eve when I was a kid, Grandma often slept at our house, and since I had a bed big enough for two, we'd lie there together half the night, telling stories and jokes and having a fine time. My mom would yell up to the bedroom, "You kids go to sleep, now!" and Grandma would giggle like a mischievous little girl. In the morning, we'd sit around the Christmas tree and eat the cinnamon rolls she'd brought over the night before. A few years ago, I revived the homemade cinnamon roll tradition for our own holiday celebration.

She let us believe that she had two birthdays: one in September and the other in November, because really, she's not exactly sure when she was born anyway.

When she was in her 70's, she dressed up as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark for a Halloween party, and used empty jumbo sized margarine tubs to achieve a more busty appearance.

She taught her pet bird to say objectionable things.

A keen quilter, in her later years she scaled down the size of her sewing projects, and soon earned a reputation as the Pot Holder Queen. My kitchen drawer pays homage to that legacy. She once asked me how the pot holders were working for me, and I told her I'd been using them as trivets but was nervous that they might get ruined. She said, "Oh, just flip them over and use the back side! Then you don't have to worry." So now I use them every day, because I don't dare to argue with Grandma.

She taught me the value of things made with two caring hands. I thought of Grandma when I watched a documentary about quilts about ten years ago, and the words from the diary of a pioneer woman have stayed with me:

"I made quilts as fast as I could to keep my family warm... and as pretty as I
could to keep my heart from breaking."

She loves the color blue and the scent of lilacs, and I think when spring comes, I will finally plant that lilac tree I've been meaning to get.

It's sad to watch my grandma's generation fade. They've seen and lived through so many things, and I think my generation could use more than a bit of their wisdom in the years to come.

Update: Grandma passed on January 20th, during her sleep. Dad brought home cinnamon rolls from the supermarket on the morning of the funeral. She looked very peaceful.

More Goodness in one little Box!

A while ago I blogged about the Roku device that allowed you to Stream Netflix (Caution, pointless advertisement; Netflix lets you rent, watch and return DVDs from home - Try free for 2 weeks) to your TV. I personally have loved the little thing. Only a few glitches and most of the time, when my Internet connection behaving, I can't tell the different between the Roku Picture and Comcast Cable.

But Wait, It Gets Better! And how you ask?

1. HD - Roku has upgraded the boxes for 720p to support Hi-Definition TVs. Most won't care about this, and yes, it is not true HD (no 1080p yet) but this is great for those of us with a HD TV.

2. Amazon Video-On-Demand - Roku will start streaming content for Amazon in the next few weeks according to there web site and emails they have sent out. Amazon has much newer movies for download and it is VOD (Video-On-Demand, or pay for each view.) I personally have not tried the service but I do know several who have used their Xbox to stream the content to a TV and said it works really well. I will hold my comments on the service until I try it, but more options are always a good thing.

Khan and No. 6 RIP

Ricardo Montalban has passed at the age of 88. Most will probably remember him from Fantasy Island. I will always remember him as Khan in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (The best Trek movie ever). I wonder if the casket was in soft Corinthian leather? (Sorry, couldn't help it)

Patrick McGoohan also passed. He was in a long list of TV and movies including "Secret Agent", "Danger Man", "Scanners" and "Braveheart". I was recently introduced to a series he did in the late 60's called "The Prisoner" where he did his most famous role as No. 6. A co-worker of mine mentioned it and I threw it into my Netflix Queue. Now I have another series that will take me years to get through.

Rest in peace to both.