Author: Lisa

Hogie / Sub Roll Recipe

  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup warm water (may need to add more water to get proper dough consistency)
  • 2 Tablespoon sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 Tablespoon cold butter, cubed
Method:
  1. Add the yeast, sugar, and 1/2 cup of warm water in a bowl of a stand mixer.
  2. Mix and let sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast is bubbling.
  3. Add in 2 cups of flour and remaining water. Start off on low. Mix for 4 minutes.
  4. Add in the salt and 1 cup at a time of the remaining flour and mix for 5-6 minutes. If needed, add water a tablespoon at a time.
  5. Add in the butter 1 Tablespoon at a time and mix until almost fully incorporated before adding more.  Mix for 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and shiny. Cover and allow to rise for one hour.
  6. Punch the dough down and place on a very lightly floured board. Divide into 4-8 pieces and shape.
  7. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  8. Place on a baking tray lined with a silicone baking mat. Allow to rise again until almost doubled. ~30-45 minutes.
  9. Slash bread using a lame.
  10. Bake for 16-23 minutes or until golden brown.

DigiBoil Saga

We ordered a DigiBoil (well, we really ordered a DigiMash, but it turns out that’s a DigiBoil with the mashing kit) in November. We’ve still not managed to brew beer. Our first unit looked like it got mangled in manufacture. I rather question KegLand’s quality control process — the two fermenters we purchased had the butterfly valve handles installed backwards. Easy enough to take a wrench and turn them around, but it’s an odd oversight. And upside down doesn’t work since the handle would turn up into the fermenter plastic and stop before being fully turned.

We got a replacement DigiBoil, We washed the unit, then dumped in a few gallons of water to test it out. No leaks – great. Turn on elements — all three work, also great. Water boiling … awesome, except the temp readout was 203 degrees F. I know the temp at which water boils, so the temp  reading was obviously wrong. We measured the resistance on both thermistors and found the original one read lower than the one on the replacement. And the resistance went down as the temperature warmed up … so possibly the original one was better. We swapped the thermistor from the dented up unit — and water boiled at 206 degrees. Scott tried contacting KegLand to see if there’s some calibration on the controller (sealed behind the big sticker with a logo … not something we’d want to pull apart on a whim), but it seemed like they blew him off. We got a third DigiBoil and it, too, either has a bad thermistor or a miscalibrated controller. This is getting silly. They cannot/will not send us a thermistor or provide details about calibrating the controller. That would be a lot less effort for everyone involved. Three out of three thermistors report different, significantly wrong, temperatures at boil.

Increasing message text size in Evolution

Evolution has the most microscopic text. Scott literally picks his computer up sometimes just so he can read the message. You get a lot of text on the screen … I guess. But it’s not really useful if you cannot read it.

(1) There’s a system-wide default font in KDE. Under the Fonts, there are setting for “small”, “toolbar”, “menu”, “window title” … they seem to default to 10 points (8 for small). That’s rather small on a high-resolution monitor.

(2) In Evolution, select Edit > Preferences
Select Mail Preferences from the left sidebar. Untick the box “Use the same fonts as other applications” and then pick a bigger font. This only changes the message text — the from/subject/date and folder structure are still using the system font.

Python — dis

Found a cool method for testing the efficiency of different approaches to a python expression — dis disassembles the call and prints the component steps. Here, we see that there’s not much functional difference between “not a=b” and “a != b”.

New Microsoft Teams Feature – Dragging Attachment from Outlook to Teams

Can’t say I’ve needed to get an Outlook attachment into Teams myself – I try to store my files in OneDrive and e-mail links instead of e-mailing a copy of the file. When I need to update something, there’s no need to send an updated copy; and no one needs to figure out if they’re looking at the “right” version. Click the link now, and you have the right version. But there are certainly scenarios where you’d have attachments to share in Teams – especially if you interact with people outside of the organization. And you used to have to save the attachment and then share it into Teams. Not anymore – you can now drag attachments directly from Outlook into Teams (this works with the Teams web client too – but you cannot use the Outlook web client for this method. The message with an attachment needs to be opened in Outlook).

If you’ve got multiple monitors, this is easier … but, if not, shrink the Outlook window so you can see both the message and Teams. Then drag the attachment icon into the message composition box in Teams. You’ll see text that says “Drop your files here” appear in Teams.

Release the mouse, and the file will be uploaded to Teams.

 

On Socialism

Socialism is only considered bad because we get sold on the idea that The Wrong People will benefit from our hard earned tax dollars. GoFundMe’s for medical bills are acceptable socialism because, by crowd-sourcing funding, you get to individually screen each case to ensure your money only goes to The Right People.

Evidently enough people in the US feel it’s worth risking medical bankruptcy to avoid some undesirable’s bad behavior racking up taxpayer funded medical expenses.

Same with tuition-free state schools. Rich kid might still pay a heap-o money and go to a private Uni. But they also MIGHT go to the state school and then my taxes are covering that tuition. Seriously, if the state school is so awesome that rich folks are sending their kids there, or some small handful of rich misers send their kids to the stae Uni because it’s free … we’re all graduating Uni with tens of thousands in debt to avoid those horrors?!

Maple Candied Almonds

Maple Candied Almonds
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Maple Candied Almonds

Recipe by LisaCourse: Snacks, DessertCuisine: American
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

  • 4 cups raw almonds

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 1/2 cup maple syrup

  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Method

  • Preheat oven to 250 F.
  • Mix maple syrup, olive oil, and salt. Stir in almonds and mix to combine.
  • Line a baking tray with a silicone baking liner. Spread almonds in a single layer.
  • Bake for 30-60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
  • Allow to cool before packaging.

Notes

  • Make sure to check every ten minutes while baking to avoid scorching maple syrup.

Cinnamon Candied Almonds

Cinnamon Candied Almonds
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Cinnamon Candied Almonds

Recipe by LisaCourse: Dessert, SnacksCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs raw almonds

  • 1 cup brown sugar

  • 1 cup granulated sugar

  • 2 Tbsp vanilla extract

  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon

  • 1 1/2 tsp salt

  • 2 egg whites

Method

  • Preheat oven to 250 F. Beat egg whites until soft-peak stage.
  • In a bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, and salt.
  • Mix almonds into egg whites and stir to coat. Add sugar mixture and stir to combine.
  • Line a baking tray with a silicone baking liner. Spread almonds in a single layer. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
  • Let almonds cool before packaging.