BBQ By The Pool

We hung out by the pool this weekend, because it is ridiculously hot out. We barbecued burgers and had margaritas. It was a fun time. Photo dump!

 This is the best face ever.

Love you!

Cooking post

Hi! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Here is a brief photo-dump of some stuff we've been up to lately. I was going to call this entry "Random Hello," but Brandon points out there's enough cooking photos to call it a cooking post. And so it is.

I had some weekend lab work, so Brandon accompanied me and took some photos. This is my bench space. 

I sometimes pick up new cooking projects simply to try to make Brandon's head explode. Example: I learned to bake pies from scratch because Brandon loves pie. My latest project: hash browns. Here is attempt #1:

That is a full mouth and a happy face.

Brandon decided to learn to make potato salad (potatoes are kind of a theme this week. *someone* bought a 10lb bag instead of a 5lb bag. But I won't mention names).

It turned out AMAZING. I've never had such good potato salad.

Then he made some pork riblets and a lightly pickled cucumber salad. 

Sometimes Brandon blows me away with his phenomenal cooking talent. My friend Christine said we should open a restaurant together. I'm kind of considering it. 

We also got to use the ice crusher my stepmom got Brandon for Channukah. We made margaritas and had them with a pile of nachos and homemade guacamole. 

Because we've been on such a roll with food this week, I decided on a whim to bake an apple pie. It turned out great, and Brandon has been walking on air all day (seriously, he LOVES pie.)

I referenced my 1950's Good Housekeeping pie manual for design inspiration.

Did I mention we CLEANED OUR KITCHEN!? It's so calming to have a clean kitchen.

I was going to do a twisted lattucework, but the dough was too fragile (it's really hot out), so I opted for leaves instead. 

 Finished product.

Happy customer. 

That's it for now. I swear we do more than cook (homework, mostly), but it's our biggest hobby.  Plus maybe if we make you jealous enough, you'll come to visit for us! Then I can cook for you! You know, if I don't have too much lab work. ^_^

Last Month's project.

Some time ago (October 2009) I replaced my trusty 1st gen Nokia Linux handset with a 3rd gen handset due to a cracked/illegible screen (don't keep them in your back pocket!).  The old device still functioned but with no visual feedback it was essentially impossible to interact with.

However, there was a set of factory test pins under the battery cover which I figured could be used to read out what the device was doing and probably issue commands in turn. With it I could easily reconfigure its wifi connection, connect any number of USB accessories, and essentially transform the old broken handset into a headless TiVo-type media/backup device for the home network. But lacking the correct cable, the broken 1st gen just went back in the box. Waiting for a long weekend for me to tamper with it.

That weekend came this last Febuary when I saw some $0.50 picture frames at the local Goodwill.

I'd remembered this fellow's set up for home-manufacturing aluminum high-fi speakers, and figured I could similarly use fluid adhesion/cohesion to hold household aluminum foil in place against a sheet of glass & cut out very small, thin conductors in sufficient length to reach underneath the Nokia 770 battery cover.

Warm soapy water (surfactant) & a $1 rubber squeegee from Goodwill are used to adhere the foil to the glass for cutting. Alcohol is used to clean the soap from the foil.

Specialized tool kits for accessing FBUS test pads run about $50 from overseas outfits, with an additional $20 or so for shipping due to the size/quantity of the test probes they come with.  For $40 I could buy an entire replacement nokia 770 or HTC g-1, considering how old these handsets were.

But more importantly a bench kit is a tool; not a cable or connector you can just plug in. Hardly appropriate for something you want sitting out next to the cable box in your living room. I was envisioning a flat ribbon cable that could be plugged in with the battery cover closed, and provide plug-n-play access to a notebook PC or what have you for reconfiguring/setting up the salvaged nokiaTiVo.

First attempt at cutting strips, 2nd pane of glass as a guide.

After cutting them free, the strips were picked up off the glass by adhering a strip of packing tape across them. A "cable" was fashioned by cutting the tape backing to size and attaching a second smaller strip to the opposite face, enclosing the conductors but leaving aprx 1mm square exposed on the ends, each.

The 'proof of concept' cable demonstrated that smoothing the foil out perfectly flat is actually necessary - not only to hold the foil still while cutting, but because even a very small wrinkle, and the associated slack as soon as you cut it free, really fouls up your attempts to cut even strips.

Conductivity/resistance was suitable the conductor spacing was close to the target (4x 1mm strips, 0.5mm gaps), but far enough off that I opted to make cable v0.2 out of four independently wrapped strips, rather then trying to tape up all four at once.

Unfortunately electrical contact was hard to maintain, even with a small cube of cardstock pushed into the slot to hold the conductors in contact with the Fbus pads. My friend Mike at this point suggested I just solder them directly to the handset. Unfortunately there really was nowhere adequate (with the exception of Pin J1111 which branched directly off the battery connector) to attach a heatsink here. Without a heatsink attached nearby to the trace - by the time it was brought up to to temperature for soldering a good connection - the heat would likely destroy the delicate electronics on the other side of the trace ie: inside the handset.

Met with that defeat, Strategy B was to make reliable electrical contact - so I could get on with verifying if these FBUS contacts even functioned like my second hand Nokia service schematic indicated they should. A weight (the needlenose) was used to hold four rigid/sharp pins (snipped from a few paper staples) to the pads so I could get on with life & test 'em. 

With Pin 3 as ground, Pin J1111 was able to supply +3.3v directly from the battery, suitable to power an old Nokia CA-42 data transfer cable and make it show up on a PC as a USB device. Pin 1 did display a voltage drop indicative of serial data output being generated from the Nokia handset's startup procedure, but even simplifying Strategy B by powering the CA-42 data transfer cable directly with a pair of AA batteries - the setup was still unable to consistently hold the necessary 2 pins in contact.

-- 

All told about $4 dollars in supplies and about 8 or 9 hours invested in what I would call a partial success. Not bad for a first attempt at fabricating thin-film conductors or messing with an Fbus "connector".

Perhaps some day my dream of a sexy, superthin cable capable of plugging into the data port while the battery case is on will be realized. But for now it seems like the only (stable) way to go is going to involve fashioning a jig or frame that will hold some fairly substantial pins in contact very firmly.

Cookbook

While we're on the subject of Holiday gifts, I have a brief project to share.

We tried out a couple recipes from the cookbook Brandon's parents gave me for Christmukkah.

It's a handy little book that has a lot of really basic recipes that I never learned. It's also not a Kosher cookbook, so I'm trying to use it as an excuse to push myself to develop a taste for - and learn how to cook - pork. As such, the first recipe we tried was for pork chops.

Adding the glaze.

First, they went under the broiler with just salt and pepper on them. Then they came back out, got turned over, and we added the glaze. The glaze was mostly brown mustard and brown sugar, but called for a few other herbs and spices. 

They got ever-so-slightly burnt.

I must have had pork chops before, because they tasted familiar. The glaze went perfectly. It was really yummy. 

We sauteed some vegetables and put the whole thing over rice. 

A pleasant first experience with pork chops, for sure.

The second project I tried from the new cookbook was a simple dessert. I made the classic Nestle chocolate-chip-cookie recipe and shaped the cookies into miniature muffin cups. Then I took some soft cream cheese and added lots of powdered sugar and a little vanilla extract, and filled the cups. 

The cookies on the left are for Mr. Anti-Cream Cheese.

It was a really simple, no-brainer dessert that sort of shook things up from the normal cookies-or-brownies routine that I tend to fall into. I'm seeing a lot of great salad and pasta salad ideas in this cookbook, so I think we're gonna start investigating that...

Care Package

At Christmas, we had to leave a bunch of our gifts behind because they wouldn't all go on the plane with us. My mom has been slowly shipping them to us in care packages. We got one such care package today, and Brandon was so excited to get his gift, he immediately started taking photos and typing up the following:


Amanda's mother sent a third care package, among the left-behind items in the box was the Ice-O-Mat!

It is a hand-cranked ice cube crusher I was given by Amanda's step-mother this last Chanukah.
To receive a gift at all caught me by surprise - but I was completely blown away to receive something so awesome.

It has a plastic stand that detaches/catches the crushed ice, or a bracket/pin assembly to mount the main portion to a counter or wall. And of course the best feature: no electrical cord or batteries required.

I did not know these even existed - The item is at least 40 years old.
Amanda's step-mother said she found it stocked by a seller of such things and had it shipped - and in the end my socks were knocked off.
-B.
------------------------------


I also love the ice crusher because it means we can have blended margaritas (which are a poolside favorite here in Texas), and it goes perfectly with my vintage kitchen theme.
Other contents of the care package include:

Silicone muffin cups.

I am a little too excited about the silicone muffin cups. I've been trying to find some forEVER and haven't found any. I'll show off their amazing bento-organizing powers at a later date.

Valentine's Day goodies.

My mom always sends my brother and I candies and other pink- or red-themed things at Valentines day. Also pictured are some vintage cookbooks from my grandmother. I'm starting to amass a collection. THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT. 

Reading material.

My mother is a page-tearer, a dog-earer, a post-it-note-er, a circler. She sends me pages from magazines with interior design ideas, recipes, interesting articles... You name it. OH! Also pictured is a semi-vintage Martha Stewart book on pies and tarts. I'm starting to amass a collection of pie manuals, as well. Mostly because Brandon goes crazy for pie.

School supplies!

Once again, I am way more excited than is really socially acceptable. I mean, look at all those tabs! There are TRANSPARNCIES in there! No one has transparencies anymore! I could use those to study with dry erase markers!!

From a previous care package.

The second care package my mom sent, before the fire, contained the two vintage teapots she got me for Channukah. They are not on display yet in the new apartment, but I'm looking for a place to put them. I'm simply IN LOVE. 

That's it for the care package! Thanks mom!

At the Club

Christine sometimes goes clubbing with her friends on Saturdays. She had been bugging me to go with for a while, and she finally convinced me. To my surprise, Brandon wanted to come, too. We had a blast.

We ended up going to Coco lounge, after 10PM when they turn into 3 separate bars. The nightclub is as amazing as the restaurant, although it gets really, really crowded.

 

Brandon and Christine hanging out by the bar. This was early, before the crowds started.

All seating is reserved. It starts at $100, and it includes a bottle of grey goose vodka - you get drinks mixed with the vodka for your entire party, until the bottle is gone, and guaranteed seating for the whole night.
But we got there so early, most of the people who had reserved seating hadn't arrived yet, so we were able to sit for a while.

We nabbed a table for a short time.

We actually spent a surprising amount of time dancing. This is strange for me, because I tire easily, and strange for Brandon, because he doesn't dance. But I soon found out Brandon has some amazing moves. And by amazing, I mean a somewhat refurbished version of The Robot (which I managed to get on camera, briefly).

 

 Pure gold. 

I think I'll just leave you with that.