Lately, all of the spam seems to be pitching N95 masks … which is great if you don’t have any legit need to discuss these things. One filter on my Exchange system, and it all disappears.
Spam Filtering
Cheesy Baked Cavatappi
Cheesy Baked Cavatappi
Course: DinnerCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: EasyServings
6
servingsPrep time
20
minutesCooking time
30
minutesIngredients
1 lb cavatappi
1 package Beyond Meat sausage
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
28 oz tin petite diced tomatoes
9 oz frozen spinach
1 cup ricotta
1 tbsp sea salt
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 cup mozzarella
Method
- Boil water and cook pasta for 10 minutes
- In a separate pan, sauté sausage in a little olive oil
- Add onion to pan and cook for a few minutes
- Add garlic to pan and cook for a minute, until fragrant
- Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water. Put tinned tomatoes in pasta pot and cook over medium-high heat until most of the water evaporates.
- Remove tomatoes from heat and stir in ricotta. Add sausage/onion/garlic mixture
- Squeeze water from thawed frozen spinach and mix spinach into sauce.
- Stir in 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Add pasta cooking water as needed to make a thick sauce.
- Add noodles and gently stir to combine.
- Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and broil until cheese is browned and bubbling.
Red Lentil Coconut Stew Recipe
Red Lentil Coconut Stew Recipe
Course: DinnerDifficulty: EasyServings
4
servingsPrep time
10
minutesCooking time
25
minutesIngredients
2 T oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 large onion, diced
1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce (adjust to taste)
1 1/2 cups red lentils
1 cup carrots, sliced
1 can coconut milk
2 cups vegetable stock
Method
- Heat a 6 qt sauté pan over medium heat and add oil. Sprinkle salt over oil.
- Sauté onion for three minutes, then add 1 teaspoon of chili garlic sauce
- Stir in lentils and stir to coat with oil
- Add carrots. Stir in stock and coconut milk.
- Simmer for 15-20 minutes until lentils are soft. Add salt and chili garlic sauce as desired.
Notes
- Serve over jasmine rice.
2020 Maple Syrup
Our taps are drying up — some of them were drilled on 03 February. The weather is getting warm; a few trees have leafed out. Our maple season is coming to a close. We’ve got more than five gallons of maple syrup canned:
18 Feb 2020 — 1st batch — ~3/4 gallon, a little scorched and used for cooking instead of canned
25 Feb 2020 — 2nd batch — 6 pints
10 Mar 2020 — 3rd batch — 24 pints
26 Mar 2020 — 4th batch — 10 pints
04 April 2020 — 5th batch — 2.75 pints
Olive Tapenade
Olive Tapenade
Course: SidesCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: EasyPrep time
15
minutesCooking time
1
hourIngredients
1 cup black olives, diced
1 cup green olives, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced finely
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Method
- Use a mortar and pestle to grind 1/4 of both black and green olives
- Mix all ingredients together
- Allow to sit for one hour
Focaccia Bread Recipe
Focaccia Bread Recipe
Difficulty: EasyPrep time
25
hoursCooking time
30
minutesIngredients
6¼ cups bread flour
¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
3+3 tablespoons olive oil
~2 cups water
Method
- Combine yeast, sugar, and one cup of water. Wait until foamy on top.
- Combine flour and sea salt, mix to combine.
- Add yeast/water mixture and mix for a few minutes
- Add 3 tablespoons olive oil and kneed until a shiny dough ball forms, adding water as needed
- Let dough rise for 24 hours
- Coat a half-sheet baking pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt
- Spread dough over baking pan
- Coat with 1 tablespoons olive oil
- Allow to rise for 60 minutes
- Preheat oven to 450
- Coat with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt
- Bake for 25-35 minutes
School’s Out — Books
Well … it doesn’t look like school is going to resume until, possibly, August. Maybe not even then. Our district’s go at distance learning has been quite lacking — they’ve basically taken three weeks off to (hopefully) sort out some content to complete the year. I wanted to get Anya a bunch of books — she doesn’t enjoy e-books in spite of the fact we’ve got an endless supply from the local libraries. She likes physical books. I do not like blowing fifteen or twenty bucks on a book … so that’s not going to work out well 🙂
I remembered Book Outlet, where I got her Lucy and Andy books (they have a referral program – 10$ off your first order of 25$ or more and I get a bonus 10$) — I went through their entire collection of not-yet-teenager books and ordered 43 books for about 150$. That’s about 3.50$ per book, mostly hard covers. There are some reference books, drawing instruction books, science experiments, maker ideas, programming books, and a lot of fiction books to try out. I even found a book about urban animal rescue — she’s rather enticed with the idea of being a vet and rescuing wild animals. This will be a great supplement to whatever the school puts together for the remainder of the year. (I also picked up a 2nd and 3rd grade curriculum — additional work for the remainder of this year and something for the summer).
Science Experiment: Potato Powered
I came up with a bunch of science experiments for Anya’s covid not-a-break. Some are really straight-forward, some are open-ended design challenges, and some are pretty tricky. I thought the potato powered LED experiment was straight-forward. A list of materials, step-by-step instructions, and a clear visual product. Except … one potato generated like 0.8 volts. Cut the potato in half, get some extra clips, and we’re up to 1.6 volts.
I’d read about a research project where energy production was increased by using a boiled potato … I needed to make lunch anyway, so I boiled a bit of potato. I also microwaved another bit of the potato — so we’ve got two raw quarters, a boiled quarter, and a microwaved quarter. All four produced about 0.8 volts. In combination, this was enough to light up an LED.
Reading the article, it looks like Wh capacity is what is increasing … not output voltage. Connecting all four quarters (plus finding more pennies, nails, and clips) produced enough power to light up our LED. Now we’re seeing how long the potato-powered LED lasts. From 3PM on 24 March 2020 until … well, it needed to get cleaned up on 26 March as the potatoes started getting dodgy.
Rules for the Zombie Apocalypse
Rules for the Zombie Apocalypse:
- Don’t let the zombie bite you
- Don’t let the ship full of zombies dock. Anywhere.
-
The zombie apocalypse is the one scenario where walls will work (zombies aren’t that smart or nimble); build a big one
- Don’t get lax about safety just because it is tiring. (Really, don’t!)
Also, Anya is working on a plan to train the raccoons to defend our property.
Commercial and residential demand
The great toilet paper run of 2020 … may not be panicked hording the way it is portraits in the media. I work from home, but Anya is in school (well, was). And used the bathroom there a few times a week. Back when I worked from an office, I used that bathroom once or twice a day. That’s somewhere between a 30 and 50 percent increase in home bathroom usage. Per person, per weekday.
Food is apt to have a simialr shortfall – kids aren’t eating lunch at school, uni kids are staying home, office workers aren’t going out to lunch. Plus people at home have more time to make breakfast … So goodbye eggs at the grocery store.
Now, if I am right, that means there’s a surplus of the one-ply commercial stuff no one likes. There’s not a shortage – there’s a surplus in the commercial supply sector and a corresponding shortage in the retail one. Which is a lot easier to solve – check out Staples or online warehouses that specialize in office supplies. And restaurant supply centers may welcome smaller scale orders.