Velcro Blocks

2014-09-12

Thanks to chasing cheerios for this splendid hack.

Little else needs to be said other than - awesome!

Shave Stick

2014-09-12

Following in the foot steps of many before me, the question arose of what to do with ones shaving stick?

When acquired, it comes wrapped in a simple foil wrapper. Ideally it needs some better container to save it from general usage and make more handy.

It feels like it is also in such simple packaging to make users the world over ponder just this very problem.

My initial thought was some kind of tube, large enough to hold the stick, but catch on the green plastic cap. However that was too specific and I found nothing matching that diameter.

Instead the suggestions on the forum proved far more thought out.

The shave stick is very easy to grate and then compact into the chosen container. No heat or microwave needed.

An Aldi Sun Stick worked very nicely providing the obvious retractable mechanism.

An empty glitter pot (or film canister) with a hole drilled carefully in the bottom. Insert a 2p coin to act as a moveable base.

Both approaches work well and were easy to make. The standard 50g stick was split into both containers.

Homemade Vanilla Fudge

2014-08-26

This recipe is based on the one found here, and will be updated after tasting the results.

Note: Like making jam, the boiling mixture will bubble furiously, use a large pot.

Ingredients

• oil, for greasing
• 300ml semi-skimmed milk
• 350g caster sugar
• 100g salted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Grease 18cm square baking dish to store the fudge as it sets.

Warm milk, butter and sugar in a tall pot to dissolve the sugar.

Once dissolved, bring to a rolling boil for 15-20 minutes, stirring continuously. The mixture should end up looking reduced and slightly more viscous.

Allow to cool slightly (5 minutes). Add the vanilla then beat until it becomes thick and glossy.

Pour into the greased dish and allow to cool completely, do not cool in the fridge.

Chop into cubes and enjoy.

Fudge Failures

2014-09-11

In an attempt to make some fudge this evening I discovered two important lessons about working with sugar.

The first was about temperature. When sugar is heated to various temperature our changes state when it cools. in the case of fudge 115C is needed to produce the Soft Ball stage.

The second is the complicated question of chocolate. Adding chocolate to hot fudge appeared to make it seize, but it may have also been a side effect of too high a temperature when cooking the fudge.

Either way, over cooked fudge looks like this...

Admittedly I kept stirring it to get it to this consistency.

So in conclusion I should get myself a sugar thermometer.

Doom Bar (clone)

16-06-2014

This recipe is a clone of a beer that is famous in Bristol and the South West, Sharp's Doom Bar. There are a number of clones of this recipe, the one on Brewtoad I liked the look of is titled How Now Brown Cow?.

The recipe is a simple combination of malts and hops. Brewing it was a delight of solid hoppy smells.

The 1 gallon converted recipe is as follows:

Marris Otter (Pale Malt) - 668g

Caramal Malt - 48g

Roasted Barley - 36g

1/2 Ale Yeast (Safale-S04)

This brew like all non-cloudy ales calls for protofloc (1/4 tablet) which always looks interesting.

Looking forward to bottling this one.

American Wheat Beer (with Orange)

13-05-2014

This recipe was based around the ingredients we had left over from other brews and what I could find on Brewtoad. In this case I found American Style Spiced Wheat which fitted what we had left over.

The recipe I ended up with was:

Wheat Malt - 577g

Honey - 165g

Caramel Malt - 41g

Pale Wheat Malt - 21g

Zest of 1 Orange

1/2 Wheat Yeast sachet

The brew is using honey to provide the extra sugar. On brewing this I thought it was a little on the weak side so I did a little extra sparging.

31-05-2014

Racked it to secondary. There isn't as much of the brew as I would like so added 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to the demijohn to get a little extra C02 to push any air out. Swirling the brew around also appeared to have the same effect. In hindsight, the extra ferment (albeit slight) was not necessary and only served to leave a tiny amount of sediment floating in the brew.

16-06-2014

Bottled into 9 275/330ml bottles. From a brief sample I managed to try it was a very promising taste. Strongly orange, wheat beer flavours. A slightly stronger than usual alcoholic punch as well.

Homemade Chilli Sauce

31-04-2014

This recipe is based off The Hot Sauce Addiction recipe. It is surprisingly simple to follow and is very enjoyable. I made a minor addition of the cinamon and nutmeg to see how that worked out.

Ingredients

400g Canned Tomatoes

5-6 chillis

175ml Cider vinegar

2 tsp Salt

2 tsp Coriander

4 large Brown Onions

1 tbsp Brown Sugar

6 Cloves Garlic

1/2 tsp cinamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Instead of boiling for an hour, I boiled for half the time. Taste is excellent, with a range of flavours and a medium warmth that will make any sandwich more enjoyable.