Harmonic Oscillation Pancakes

It's occurred to me that I haven't posted here about my attempt on the Third Day of Christmas to make Harmonic Oscillation Pancakes! 

I've seen pancakes where the batter is dropped onto a griddle to make letters or the Eiffel Tower or a smiley face.  What I wanted to do was load pancake batter into a pendulum, set it swinging over a hot griddle, and have math-artsy pancakes with harmonic curves on them.  

I was aiming for a family-friendly of mad-science-cookery, something that the entire family could eat and appreciate.  So it needed to be gluten-free.  After a failed attempt at making batter from an American Test Kitchen cookbook, I went out and got a gluten-free pre-mix.  

My first thought was that I could have a dual spout pendulum by using two plastic bags like frosting bags, hung far enough on a stick so that there would be two lines of batter spiraling around a common pivot point, which itself would be swinging back and forth over the griddle.  

The pendulum apparatus ended up looking like a found art installation from a beach-side hospital.  I hadn't really put the thickness of the batter into my calculations, so instead of a steady stream of batter coming out in a line, it was more like a dribble of Jackson Pollock-esque micro-pancakes. 

Part of the difficulty was that the batter was adhering to the sides of the bags and not really coming out.  I abandoned the plastic bags for a yogurt container with a hole drilled through it.  I had to drill the hole several times to widen it, and I ended up adding some more milk to the batter to try to thin it.  The end result was closer to what I was aiming for, but still didn't deliver pancake batter as quickly as I would have liked.  

By this time several hours had elapsed from initial pendulum setup to final yogurt container swing, and I could tell the mad-science cookery was getting on my family's nerves.   

The batter that did come out spread on the griddle more than I expected; so I didn't get a narrow, brown, and overlapping curve.  Instead, I got a twisted ring of batter that was fairly featureless.

I think if I'd turned up the heat on the griddle a little more, the batter might have cooked and browned more quickly.   I'll have to try with a larger hole in the pendulum, too -- or possibly a pendulum with two off-set holes that will allow me to have more interesting compound curves.   Or maybe a balloon or air pump to provide pressure that would expel the batter out more quickly....

I can neither confirm nor deny that I might have eaten all the results myself.

Queer Eye Fish Sticks

 Ages ago, I tried a Queer Eye Recipe for home-made fish sticks.  The idea was to make something that was gluten-free and marginally healthier for you than batter-breaded cod.

I went to the fish store and made a New Best Friend when I told them I was trying a new Queer Eye Recipe.  They didn't have the fish I was looking for--I think it was mahi-mahi--but found a suitable replacement. 

I cut the fish into strips and then coated them with egg (peers at photo to refresh memory... yeah, looks like two whole eggs).

The idea was to substitute macadamia nuts for the bread crumbs.  I ground them up in a food processor and put them into a bowl. 

Then it was a kind of assembly line:  pick up a fish strip, dunk it in the egg, flip it into the macadamia nuts, put on a plate.

Then fry them in canola oil.

I think next time I'll chop the nuts more finely because they had a tendency to fall off of the side of the fish during the frying process.  Also, the egg worked its way off of the fish and onto the chopped nuts, which made them clump up and harder to make stick to the fish.  I think next time I'll reserve some of the nuts so I can freshen the mix as I do the coating.

They came out okay.  Between the fish and nuts, it was a rich dish.  The family liked them, at least, and devoured them fairly quickly.  I think they'd go well with greens, and maybe a sweet mashed potato.

Produce at Fort Vancouver

Here's some photos of the plants grown at Fort Vancouver.  Since it was winter, there weren't a whole lot.  

There was a formal English garden at the fort.  Reading from the beds, they grew barley, kale, roses, and scarlet runner beans (there was more, but I didn't write things down).  Additionally, they used cold frames to extend the growing season.  

The folks in the 1820-1840s would keep carrots, celery and apples in cold cellars to eat during the fall and winter months.  They dried herbs like savory, thyme, and sage.   I asked about lavender, but there wasn't any hanging from the rafters when we were there.  I wish I'd asked about mint or hen-bane or other herbs; I guess we'll have to visit when there's produce growing.

The kitchen was dark; even with lots of windows, the dark timbers sucked up the light of the six or so candles in lanterns.  The volunteer who cooked said the thing he missed the most was a thermometer and that he had to learn how to cook by feeling how hot the inside of an oven was by how long he could hold his arm in it, or by how long a pinch of flour would brown in it, or by watching how water acted.  There were recipes and measurements by weight and by table-spoon, but there was a lot of taste-testing as one went along.

Domesticity

Today was a deep-cleaning day.

Actually, it's been a deep-cleaning few days.

Domesticity began Thursday night, when Mark and I planted a magnolia tree. Okay, Mark did about 90% of the digging and I helped move the tree from the back of his truck and into the back yard. We're pretty pleased with the tree, which is evergreen, and which should provide some extra privacy between our breakfast nook and the backdoor neighbor's house.

When I haven't been gardening (or writing), I've been cleaning up my office. My office is a closet. Literally. I moved my grandfathers old oak desk out of the closet, and it made a big difference. I suppose when I get around to replacing the ancient Windows98 desktop and its mondo CTR, I'll have even more space. I suppose that I should retire the machine, but I have a ton of old Illustrator files on it that wont run on any of my other machines. Oh well, it's there and available, and I am looking forward to more writing sessions actually in my office.

Sunday was cleaning day. We cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room. Well, okay; Mark did most of the work while I moved things around. And did dishes. And vacuume out the fireplace (we only light candles in it, so I don't know how it got so dirty).

And then it was time to cook. I started the rice. Just as I'd turned the burner on, I got a phone call from a friend. We were discussing the logistics of next our next visit. As I gazed across our clean living room, I became aware of a layer of haze floating about four feet off the ground. It was like the fog was trying to come into the house. I excused myself from the phone conversation for a moment, walked into the smoke-filled kitchen. A white plume rose from the cast iron pan filled with boiling bacon grease on the front burner (note to self, RR and RF mean two different thing).


I picked up the pan. It was still smoldering, so I naively blew on it to try to stop the smoke.

With a foom and a whoosh, the bacon grease burst into flame.

 I laughed, because it was kind of funny, and took the flaming pan outside.

Eventually, I did get back to my phone call.