Thursday, November 24, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Reptiles and soot
I finally got SOOT & CASSANDRA ready for Calibre (as a first step to making an e-book) and then ran it through the programme. Imagine my horror after days of work when it didn't work... well, back to the drawing board... and now I have a working mobi file. Not too sure about the epub.
I conclude chickens really are the lineal descendants of dinosaurs and just as stupid. I took them some cooked fish this morning, and greedy-guts boss chook stole the biggest piece out of my hands and ran off with it. So I gave the other scraps (less in total than bit she swiped)to the other two, so she drops the big bit and comes to see what she can get -- not much. And forgets the huge bit she's dropped. So I reach into the 'bago and take it... and she does the same thing again.
Then I'm sitting wrestling with this html - yes it is simple, and yes I should find it easy... but there was a cat walking over my foot... only it wasn't a cat
It was this blue-tongue. The box is about 40 cm long.
I conclude chickens really are the lineal descendants of dinosaurs and just as stupid. I took them some cooked fish this morning, and greedy-guts boss chook stole the biggest piece out of my hands and ran off with it. So I gave the other scraps (less in total than bit she swiped)to the other two, so she drops the big bit and comes to see what she can get -- not much. And forgets the huge bit she's dropped. So I reach into the 'bago and take it... and she does the same thing again.
Then I'm sitting wrestling with this html - yes it is simple, and yes I should find it easy... but there was a cat walking over my foot... only it wasn't a cat
It was this blue-tongue. The box is about 40 cm long.
Monday, November 21, 2011
squash-race
Admittedly the next short story took hours, not days. Now to sort out the art.
The summer-squash race is on. The little yellow patty-pan squashes are currently in the lead, with one fruit at the size of my pinkie-fingernail. There is one zucchini too, also developing but it's about the size of a needle-cover. I suspect, longer range, that the zucchini will triumph. At this stage I'm still looking forward to them. I suspect this will last until picking gets to be a chore! We have small fruits developing on the cherry/cocktail tomato... do you think we may actually attain that wild dream - lettuce and tomatoes at the same time? Also have a fruit growing on the mini-capsicum. Most of the tomatoes are just getting bigger (and bigger) with few flowers so far, but there are some exceptions.
The summer-squash race is on. The little yellow patty-pan squashes are currently in the lead, with one fruit at the size of my pinkie-fingernail. There is one zucchini too, also developing but it's about the size of a needle-cover. I suspect, longer range, that the zucchini will triumph. At this stage I'm still looking forward to them. I suspect this will last until picking gets to be a chore! We have small fruits developing on the cherry/cocktail tomato... do you think we may actually attain that wild dream - lettuce and tomatoes at the same time? Also have a fruit growing on the mini-capsicum. Most of the tomatoes are just getting bigger (and bigger) with few flowers so far, but there are some exceptions.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
more breads
It's been a day of tempestuous showers followed by sun followed by hail followed by... yes, well we thought we'd get all the seasons done in one day. I have I hope the Bolg.HTML ready for Calibre - as soon as I get the art for the cover. Guido Henkel reckons he can do a book in 15 minutes... it's taken me 3 days to do a short story and I'm still not sure I like the result. Still, I do understand more of it now, and I'm grateful for the articles.
I've been playing with bread again - a plaited part-rye
and a rhubarb brioche
I've been playing with bread again - a plaited part-rye
and a rhubarb brioche
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Fillets
yet another beautiful sunset!
I have spent entirely too much of today wrestling with HTML to convert my short stories into Kindle type books (yes, you CAN do it from word, but it looks like a word document. I want it to look professional). I'm now stuck on things called entities, which not what I have been calling them.
Anyway, So I thought I'd write about things I know slightly more about. I thought about plants...
My seedlings are a testimony to effort and not to success...
Although we have just harvested our first ever cauliflower. It had a magnificent collection of slugs...
Well, maybe fish. Now I''m not expert or fast, but it struck me the other day filleting is quite basic, and yet buying fillets adds hugely to the cost of fish. And really all you need is a sharp knife. A pair of kitchen scissors also helps.
Methods differ, this works for me and wastes little and does not require much strength or skill. The key I find is cut on the side of the anal fin, to the spine keeping your knife flat against the bone. Then turn the fish over and do the same the other side. Now go to the dorsal fin, and putting your knife parallel to it (along the fish body, not using the point) cut in, using the bones as a guide, cut until you hit the spine. Now I cut with the tip touching the spine all the way to where the meat ends in the head. Turn it over and do the same. The fish is still intact at point. Some people with big fish like to continue over the belly, leaving the bones. I don't. Small fish or if I am feeling strong I simply push the point through the ribs near the head, and slice down through the ribs toward the tail. Lazy -or big fish I cut through the ribs from the belly with scissors. Once you reach the end of the gut cavity slide the knife point out of the cut you made around the anal and pressing against the spine cut down to the tail. Snip through the arch just behind the gill and you have a free fillet. Do the same on the other side. It is then easy to lift the rib bones on bigger fish or just slice off the belly on really tiny ones. The belly is the fattiest and often fishiest tasting area. The dark muscle next strongest flavoured. The trick is to keep the fish together until the last cut so that it supports itself. You should be able to see through the frame that is left - in the picture you can see the cutting board through it.
Skinning is easy - all you need to so is establish if the species you're dealing with skin best from head or tail (Flathead are easiest from head-end). Cut a little tag so you can hold the skin, put the kife at 90 degrees to the fish... and pull.
And you should have little meat left on the skin...
I have spent entirely too much of today wrestling with HTML to convert my short stories into Kindle type books (yes, you CAN do it from word, but it looks like a word document. I want it to look professional). I'm now stuck on things called entities, which not what I have been calling them.
Anyway, So I thought I'd write about things I know slightly more about. I thought about plants...
My seedlings are a testimony to effort and not to success...
Although we have just harvested our first ever cauliflower. It had a magnificent collection of slugs...
Well, maybe fish. Now I''m not expert or fast, but it struck me the other day filleting is quite basic, and yet buying fillets adds hugely to the cost of fish. And really all you need is a sharp knife. A pair of kitchen scissors also helps.
Methods differ, this works for me and wastes little and does not require much strength or skill. The key I find is cut on the side of the anal fin, to the spine keeping your knife flat against the bone. Then turn the fish over and do the same the other side. Now go to the dorsal fin, and putting your knife parallel to it (along the fish body, not using the point) cut in, using the bones as a guide, cut until you hit the spine. Now I cut with the tip touching the spine all the way to where the meat ends in the head. Turn it over and do the same. The fish is still intact at point. Some people with big fish like to continue over the belly, leaving the bones. I don't. Small fish or if I am feeling strong I simply push the point through the ribs near the head, and slice down through the ribs toward the tail. Lazy -or big fish I cut through the ribs from the belly with scissors. Once you reach the end of the gut cavity slide the knife point out of the cut you made around the anal and pressing against the spine cut down to the tail. Snip through the arch just behind the gill and you have a free fillet. Do the same on the other side. It is then easy to lift the rib bones on bigger fish or just slice off the belly on really tiny ones. The belly is the fattiest and often fishiest tasting area. The dark muscle next strongest flavoured. The trick is to keep the fish together until the last cut so that it supports itself. You should be able to see through the frame that is left - in the picture you can see the cutting board through it.
Skinning is easy - all you need to so is establish if the species you're dealing with skin best from head or tail (Flathead are easiest from head-end). Cut a little tag so you can hold the skin, put the kife at 90 degrees to the fish... and pull.
And you should have little meat left on the skin...
Friday, November 18, 2011
long way to a fish...
We didn't mean to go to sea... or at least I didn't think I was off into the wild blue yonder, and not for so long. I got a call from Greg inviting me to come fishing for Stripy trumpeter, and as the cardinal rule around here is if get an offer, accept, and it may come up again,if they like you. If you refuse, it won't. So as we'd only had a few scraps - and previously frozen- of what is supposed to be Tasmania's premium fish, I said yes thank you very much. Until you've done this sort of thing, you just don't know what is involved. I should have done more homework. I assumed it was the two - or maybe three - in Greg's dingy. Well, the boat we went in was 25 foot long, and had two 150 hp motors, and cruised at 53km/h. And it had all the bells, and whistles, and then some whistles on the bells and bells on the whistles, and a bigger screen for it's GPS and depth finder than my computer screen and there were four of us... and we went 30km off-shore to the 70 metre mark... well to a reef we never really found at 70 metres. Anyway, there we were at 70 metres fishing with penn-type reels and braided lines... and catching gurnard (which I've caught in 3 metres with a handline. Those rods and reels are hard work with fish at 70 metres and a brick on the end of your line... and sometimes even a fish too. We caught - for all that trip... two. I got the bigger one in the picture. It was 60 cm and weighed over 3kg, but that's not that vast! Anyway, the dolphin were magnifcent -until one managed to get snagged in someone's line, frantic uplines and following it to free it (it wasn't hooked, just tangled a loop around it's tail). I hope it was OK, poor beastie.
That was followed by coming inshore and diving - which was more successful. Got our quota.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)