Guacamole!

  A few days ago Tom began collecting a few ingredients for guacamole. Four large avocados lined our kitchen windowsill. The refrigerator hydrator contained a lone lime (and a lemon which he chose not to use). He bought one red onion, a  jalapeño and a small tomato.

 Even though he had a long day yesterday (he met a fined in Cincinnati for lunch), when he got home at 6:30 PM he got to work making guacamole. And so the bag of tortilla chips he also bought finally had a use.

 Tom added sour cream to the mix making a guacamole that's a little lighter colored than usual. It is delicious.

 Tom sat down on the sofa with a cutting board  and a single jalapeño while I watched the news. He said the pepper cost just five cents.

 Then to the kitchen to cut up the small tomato he bought.

 And the red onion ...

 Finally he cut two large avocados and prepared to  add the juice of a whole lime.

 We record Saturday Night Live on 02/25 and watched it while we dipped our tortilla chips in his homemade guacamole. Great evening with a fresh dip.

Coffee Ring again

  When we stopped at the grocery yesterday (actually two) and I picked up a  jar of maraschino cherries, one thing was sure: I was going to make a Coffee Ring.

 And while it turned out well, both Bob and Tom called it "a little too dry". I blame my oven running a bit hotter than it's set (and the rear of the oven is hotter than the front which adds a further complication). I, in fact, set the oven timer for the shorter baking  time. But next time I'll have to adjust it even further.

 We ate half the coffee ring while playing our usual  Saturday morning cards. I packaged some to share and put the last three slices in our refrigerator for our use later. It makes a large ring.

 In the future I'm going to try making three "logs". I'll roll it out per instructions and then, rather  than form it into a ring, I'll cut it into three logs that will fit on the cookie sheet better. I'll still cut the log into sections so they flare open and show their cinnamon interior. I suppose that will cut the baking time even further. The same could be done with individual rolls ... but why make more work when they'll all taste the same?

 Here's the ring after the first rise. The dough is very delicate and light as air.

 My previous blog entry with the full recipe and instructions can  be found here.

Cheese Popovers

  My sister-in-law gave me a couple of old recipes she found in a box and one looks to be a 1950's era recipe for Cheese Popovers. I tried them today. I do not know the source. First, the  recipe:

Click to enlarge

 I have never made popovers before and was surprised to find no leavening agents: baking powder or baking soda. So I looked at some modern recipes and found the same to be true. I felt safe in trying it as written. It certainly couldn't simpler.

 I'll make them again, I'm sure, and here are two notes for future reference:

1. I made 6, not 12. Because they are larger I figured they'd take extra baking time. But how long? After 25 minutes they were browning nicely (see above) and I figured they were done. They were not. I suppose another 5 minutes would have worked but I'll follow the recipe next time and make a dozen.

2. I used a non-stick muffin pan and thought it was safe to forego greasing  them. Nope. They stuck quite badly and clean-up was a chore. I'll spray oil on next time (or even try a paper cupcake liner).

 I heated the muffin pan per instructions but I think it would have been enough to warm the milk in advance (per modern recipes) to get a head-start on the baking. I, in fact, put the batter in the microwave for less than a minute to warm it before pouring it into the muffin tin. You want to be careful if you do this! Do not warm to the point that you are pre-cooking  the batter. You merely want it warm.

 The popovers are really quite beautiful. My oven is warmer to the rear thus  the back ones browned more quickly.

 Overall,  I think I'd have been better just following  the recipe. Next time, instead of cheese, how about a layer of cinnamon/sugar in the middle and consider them a dessert (or even breakfast) item? I'd fill the tin part way, sprinkle in the cinnamon/sugar and then finish off with more batter.

 But there I go again, making changes.

Mockingbird Visits

  We much more often hear a mockingbird than see one. But for the past couple of days one has been visiting our suet feeder. Yesterday I wasn't able to get the cameras to focus (it's autofocus-only and it often doesn't work for objects fairly close but which still require a telephoto setting).

 But today I was able to get several  shots.

 He's a slender, gray bird, often described as "Robin-sized - technically Mimus polyglottos - and I always enjoy hearing one while I'm walking. They have a never-ending song that imitates other birds, one after the other, ad infinitum.

 It is certainly not often when I'm treated to a long view and also rare in the winter. And yet his season is coming soon.

Later [02/19/23]:

 While I was working on lunch a mockingbird again visited our suet feeder. Tom says this is not the same bird. I thought the one above was "heavy" and perhaps pregnant? Sexing a mockingbird is not easy. A male is slightly larger but if they're not seen at  the same time, it's difficult making a comparison. And it is said females have darker tail feathers than males.

 Here's a look at today's visitor:

Franklin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant

  Yesterday (02/12/23) Dan Miller gave Robert King and myself an hour-long tour of the Franklin Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant on Baxter Road. Dan has worked there several years and it's a tour I've wanted to make almost since the beginning. I'm intrigued by the process of the path taken by what seems an innocent toilet flush.

 Owned and operated by Veolia, the city of Franklin's website says, "The Plant provides services for Franklin, Carlisle, Germantown, Franklin Township, Warren County and Montgomery County.  Just recently the Hunter area has started discharging to the Plant."

 As many times as I've driven by it, the plant lies far enough off SR 73 that's it's barely visible tucked in beside  the Great Miami River. But a wide satellite view shows its location:

Credit: Google Maps

And a closer view shows the layout:

Credit: Google Maps

 The following pictures start at the far north of the facility where the wastewater enters via huge pipes. Then they roughly follow the path the water takes as it's cleaned.

 I asked Dan about the many Canada Geese at the facility. Did they actually get into the wet muck? Indeed they do, he said. And also this area where the top layer seems dried but Dan said it's more like quicksand. The geese can traverse it easily and seems not to be bothered by the smell.

 Speaking of the smell, it is minimal and that's quite surprising to me.

 It was a beautiful day for a tour of this sort ... a cool 46° and calm. Probably  the heat of summer would aggravate the situation considerably.

  The size of the pipes and pumps  is amazing to see. Think of what goes into it the next time you flush your toilet.

Chasing ZTF

 For about the last year now we've been hearing about a comet called C/2022 E3  (ZTF). What would happen when it rounded the sun on January 10, 2023? Orbital predictions say it's not been in our neck of the solar system since the last Ice Age 50,000 years ago.

 And then how bright might it be when it came closest to earth on February 2 at a distance of 26 million miles?

 I began preparing for this early, working up a chart of azimuth and altitude numbers starting on January 21. Surely one of those nights would provide a good view.

 Well, in a word: no.

 We've had cloudy skies almost continually since my chart began. And in those few instances when the sky cleared, it was either in the daytime or very briefly in the evening. How many times did I set up my camera on a tripod and  have it at the back door ready to haul it out to the back yard and try to view the comet.

 Estimates were for a magnitude of 5.4 in early February. They've been downgrading it to 6.6 now. Both numbers, being positive, predicted a poor attempt at naked eye viewing.

 So when yesterday arrived at the sky cleared - and stayed clear throughout the evening - I was ecstatic. I knew just where the comet would be at 8 PM local time (just to the left of Mars). Here is a crop from Stellarium which I used as my locator:

Credit: Stellarium

 Mars is always  easy to spot so I was provided with a guidepost. And Aldebaran - often called Taurus the Bull's bloodshot eye - served as another location marker. And then the Pleiades - the Seven Sisters - as clearly visible even to my poor eyes as a hazy cluster of white. There was no doubt where to look.

 I took about 25 pictures (and noise images) and stacked them with Sequator. Then I cropped out an area about equal to the predicted view  above. This is what I got:

 The two agree very well. But where is the comet? I've marked a "smudge" at about the location I'd expect it, but it's neither green nor does it have a tail:

 Frankly, all the  stars look a little fuzzy. But I'm using a Canon SureShot SX10 IS and that's certainly a poor choice for astrophotography. But it's what I have so it's my only choice. I had the camera make 15 second exposures at f/2.8 (as wide open as the lens will go) and with the camera set to its higher ISO (1600) and the lens set to wide angle (20mm). It's no wonder the results are so poor.

 Here is the stacked image converted to a  JPG to make it a manageable size for posting here:

Click to view a higher-resolution image

 I also used my 10x50 binoculars hoping I'd have a chance with some magnification. Mars was a beautiful sight but scanning to its left showed me nothing I'd identify as a comet. Just stars and more stars.

 I then used my Pixel 4A w/ 5G cell phone and set it up on a tripod and had it take about a 4 minute stack of images. It produced this result:

 And here's the Pixel image as a one minute video:

Four minutes condensed into one second

 I spent about an hour in the cold (it dipped to 18° overnight) but at least it was calm. The sky was gloriously clear and I can't complain about a single minute I stood there. I wish I could have seen the comet without any doubt.

 But I can't.

Pinehaven Gingerbread

  I was thinking of what dessert I might make yesterday and saw that I had a little dark molasses left and thought a pan of gingerbread would fit the bill. But I had very little molasses  - no more than a quarter of a cup - but I also saw that I had some leftover  Karo syrup. And just enough to make a full cup if the two were combined. Why not?

 This modification, of course, makes a much lighter colored cake and also one less intensely flavored. Tom called it "more of a spice cake". I actually prefer it to the gingerbread I've made in the past. Here's how I made it:

Pinehaven Gingerbread/Spice Cake

1/2 cup shortening (I used those blocks of Crisco)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
3/4 cup Karo Light Corn Syrup
2-1/2 cups bread flower
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup boiling water

 I mixed everything in the order shown  except the flour which I added last.
This makes a very liquid batter.

Bake in a greased 9x9" metal pan; 350° for 40 minutes

Test after 40, minutes (use a toothpick). I've found the center might take a little longer. Even so, the center tends to drop a little for  me as the cake cools. This would normally indicate it's not quite done  and yet a day later it seems fine to me. I'd err towards a slightly longer baking time, especially if your oven runs a bit cool.

 Here's how the pan looked as I took it out of the oven.

 If you want a lighter gingerbread with a less pronounced taste, this is a good option. The cake is also more moist than previous gingerbreads I've made. I think the  Karo might be the reason.

How Long Can it Go?

  Back in the 1960's when I was a teen and the Beatles had just conquered the world, there's nothing I would have liked more than to grow my hair long. The trouble was I had curly hair and my parents were dead against long hair.

 But now, on the other end of my life, I find my hair much less curly (though now white) and my parents, long gone, offering no objection. The few times I've asked Tom whether he minded me letting my hair grow he'd always say "do whatever you want. I don't care".

 So with the objections all gone I got a haircut on 9-7-2021 and decided to see how long I could go.

 I'll answer that question right off: 506 days.

 I got no haircuts in 2022 but finally decided after  72 weeks and two days that I'd had enough.

 And here is how the growing went ...

03-12-22

04-02-22

04-09-22

04-13-22

04-18-22

04-25-22

05-07-22

06-05-22

06-25-22

07-02-22

07-29-22

08-07-22

09-06-22

10-04-22

11-07-22

11-30-22

12-19-22

01-04-23

01-11-23

01-26-23

 Finally in late January I'd had enough (and probably those seeing me had had enough, too). I have no plans to ever do it again but I'm happy to say I once had long hair.

 And I saved money. I normally get a haircut every 13 weeks so I missed five cuts in that period. I usually pay $14 (+$2 tip = $16) so I saved $80. Was it worth it? Hard to say. But it was a safe experiment  I was able to perform on my own  body and no one was harmed.

 I think I last used that argument in 1963 with my parents  and it didn't work then.