Pear sorbet

The ice cream maker is whirring away. This is another "kludge together recipes," in part because when I was looking the other day I found all these recipes that wanted canned pears, and today most of what I found wanted fresh.

1 small (15 ounce) can of pear halves in pear juice
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon
a bit of ground cardamom

Mash the pears with a fork to break them up; stop when your shoulder starts to hurt. Meanwhile, bring the sugar and water to a boil, to approximate a simple syrup. Grate the lemon peel. Mix the pears and pear juice, using an electric mixer on the lowest setting, until the remaining lumps are few and small. When the water comes to a boil, turn the light way down. Mix in the lemon rind. Juice the lemon, and mix in the lemon juice. Add the quasi-syrup, try not to worry about thin it all looks, and mix some more. Toss in a half-spoonful of cardamom. Mix.

Pour the result into your ice cream maker. Notice that the cardamom all seems to have settled to the bottom of the mixing bowl, and try to pour it in anyhow (it's a bunch of dark gray specks).

Now, I will wait for it to finish whirring, then freeze it, and maybe run out for heavy cream so I can make lemon ice cream as well.

Later: The result is a bit lumpy, but tasty. I can't taste the cardamom, but I'm not sure if that's because I only used a little, or because it had gotten somewhat old. I think I'm going to try pear juice/"nectar" next time, though.

Pear sorbet

The ice cream maker is whirring away. This is another "kludge together recipes," in part because when I was looking the other day I found all these recipes that wanted canned pears, and today most of what I found wanted fresh.

1 small (15 ounce) can of pear halves in pear juice
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
1 lemon
a bit of ground cardamom

Mash the pears with a fork to break them up; stop when your shoulder starts to hurt. Meanwhile, bring the sugar and water to a boil, to approximate a simple syrup. Grate the lemon peel. Mix the pears and pear juice, using an electric mixer on the lowest setting, until the remaining lumps are few and small. When the water comes to a boil, turn the light way down. Mix in the lemon rind. Juice the lemon, and mix in the lemon juice. Add the quasi-syrup, try not to worry about thin it all looks, and mix some more. Toss in a half-spoonful of cardamom. Mix.

Pour the result into your ice cream maker. Notice that the cardamom all seems to have settled to the bottom of the mixing bowl, and try to pour it in anyhow (it's a bunch of dark gray specks).

Now, I will wait for it to finish whirring, then freeze it, and maybe run out for heavy cream so I can make lemon ice cream as well.

Later: The result is a bit lumpy, but tasty. I can't taste the cardamom, but I'm not sure if that's because I only used a little, or because it had gotten somewhat old. I think I'm going to try pear juice/"nectar" next time, though.

Okay, it was a bad idea--bed salesbeings

I have gotten three automated calls from Sleepy's today, all of the form "please call us at this special number," because they don't put a human on their outgoing autodialer calls.

I called back after the second, and got someone who explained that they were the "open order center" and said she'd put me on their do not call list. Within an hour, I'd gotten a third. This time, I got a machine when I called that 800 number, so I left my number again and reminded them that I'd asked to be put on their do not call list.

This doesn't fall under federal do not call rules--they can reasonably claim an existing business relationship--but it's a very good way to make me want to buy my bed somewhere else.

Okay, it was a bad idea--bed salesbeings

I have gotten three automated calls from Sleepy's today, all of the form "please call us at this special number," because they don't put a human on their outgoing autodialer calls.

I called back after the second, and got someone who explained that they were the "open order center" and said she'd put me on their do not call list. Within an hour, I'd gotten a third. This time, I got a machine when I called that 800 number, so I left my number again and reminded them that I'd asked to be put on their do not call list.

This doesn't fall under federal do not call rules--they can reasonably claim an existing business relationship--but it's a very good way to make me want to buy my bed somewhere else.

Feeling futuristic

In between working at home doing online research--google is everything I dreamed of when I was ten, and then some--I exchanged IMs with r_ness, who began with "Hello from Lufthansa flight 404, at 36,000 feet!" and may be spending the night on my couch. In keeping with this, the research results are sent off to the client(s) by email, and I called cattitude on his mobile phone to tell him I'd offered Leon the couch.

The whistling tea-kettle and gas stove are lower-tech (pilot lights, not electronic ignition, on the latter--which does mean that I can cook during blackouts), because this isn't the Plokta Cabal, and the point of the tech is to get things done.

Feeling futuristic

In between working at home doing online research--google is everything I dreamed of when I was ten, and then some--I exchanged IMs with r_ness, who began with "Hello from Lufthansa flight 404, at 36,000 feet!" and may be spending the night on my couch. In keeping with this, the research results are sent off to the client(s) by email, and I called cattitude on his mobile phone to tell him I'd offered Leon the couch.

The whistling tea-kettle and gas stove are lower-tech (pilot lights, not electronic ignition, on the latter--which does mean that I can cook during blackouts), because this isn't the Plokta Cabal, and the point of the tech is to get things done.

(no subject)

Sometimes, you just have to googlebomb something: in this case, the vile woman-hater Bill Napoli, who seems to think that rape isn't traumatic unless the victim is a devout Christian virgin.

(no subject)

Sometimes, you just have to googlebomb something: in this case, the vile woman-hater Bill Napoli, who seems to think that rape isn't traumatic unless the victim is a devout Christian virgin.

(no subject)

Ken MacLeod has posted his Boskone Guest of Honor talk to his Weblog, with the heading "where I get my other ideas": some of the roots of his thinking and writing. He starts off by saying that he's tired of talking about Trotskyism, libertarianism, and cyberpunk, so instead he's going to talk about landscape, religion, philosophy, and real science and technology. (If you prefer it as an LJ syndicated feed, it's at http://syndicated.livejournal.com/kenmacleodblog/38723.html.)

[I went to post this to my "real" Weblog <http://www.redbird.org/yawl.html>, added an entry for a cool science result cattitude pointed me to, and realized that I seem to consistently write my Weblog entries in the present perfect, as above.]

(no subject)

Ken MacLeod has posted his Boskone Guest of Honor talk to his Weblog, with the heading "where I get my other ideas": some of the roots of his thinking and writing. He starts off by saying that he's tired of talking about Trotskyism, libertarianism, and cyberpunk, so instead he's going to talk about landscape, religion, philosophy, and real science and technology. (If you prefer it as an LJ syndicated feed, it's at http://syndicated.livejournal.com/kenmacleodblog/38723.html.)

[I went to post this to my "real" Weblog <http://www.redbird.org/yawl.html>, added an entry for a cool science result cattitude pointed me to, and realized that I seem to consistently write my Weblog entries in the present perfect, as above.]