Arduinos Playmate -Raspberry Pi
http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/geek-life/hands-on/arduinos-playmate
Podcast- Listen
African Peanut Stew
A family favorite!
African Peanut-Potato Stew
Servings: 6-8
1 onion, chopped
1 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tsp. salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper(optional if you don’t like it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
2 yams, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
4 14.5 ounce cans chopped tomatoes
4 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 cups vegetable broth or water
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
*Cook over medium heat, onion, jalapenos, and 2 tbsp. water and cook about 8 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally and adding water if needed. Stir in ginger, garlic, cumin, salt, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, and coriander, and cook 1 minute, stirring.
* Add tomatoes with their juice, sweet-potato chunks, chickpeas, broth, and peanut butter. Cook until veggies are tender.
African Peanut-Potato Stew
Servings: 6-8
1 onion, chopped1 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped (optional)2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger2 teaspoon minced fresh garlic4 teaspoons ground cumin1 tsp. salt (optional)1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper(optional if you don’t like it spicy)1/2 teaspoon ground coriander2 yams, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks4 14.5 ounce cans chopped tomatoes4 14.5 ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed4 cups vegetable broth or water1/2 cup natural peanut butter
*Cook over medium heat, onion, jalapenos, and 2 tbsp. water and cook about 8 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally and adding water if needed. Stir in ginger, garlic, cumin, salt, cinnamon, crushed red pepper, and coriander, and cook 1 minute, stirring.
* Add tomatoes with their juice, sweet-potato chunks, chickpeas, broth, and peanut butter. Cook until veggies are tender.
Book binding on the cheap
I was reading a PDF book on my phone and finally got sick and tired of reading on my itty bitty screen. So I printed it out, double sided on a laser printer ( laser printed stuff using toner does not smudge if it gets wet, unlike inkjet which is also very expensive by comparison). I printed the front and back on card stock for a little extra durability.
Except I goofed on of the settings, I chose ‘shrink to printable area’, rather that ‘shrink to fit page’. So instead of a regular 8.5″ x 11″ (A4 size) I got something close to 5.5″ x 7″. At almost 100 pages thick I did not want to reprint it. It was large enough to read and actually looked like a pretty handy size to carry around. I used a staple gun with 1/2″ staples, 5 from the front and three driven in from the rear. They were barely long enough to hold the paper together, that’s why I stapled from the front AND the back. I used a hammer and tapped the sharp edges of the staples down like cleats.
So I figured I need to trim it and didn’t what to do a hack job with a pair of scissors or try to slice through it with a razor blade, too much effort and risk of slicing my fingers up.
So I sandwiched it between two sheets of scrap plywood I had laying around, drove some wood screws to vise them together and then ran the wood/paper sandwich through a table saw.
The screws were too long so I just let them stick out the other side. I set the depth of the saw blade just a bit deeper than the paper. I figured there was no need to cut through the top layer of plywood, it would be safer, and a solid piece would help strengthen the “sandwich” as I cut it up.
I cut too much off the top and bottom edges of the book, no too bad though the page numbers are still there. Then I trimmed the fuzzy bits off of the corners and covered the spine with packing tape. They sell a really nice bookbinders tape, but packing tape is a decent, pretty cheap alternative. Then I covered the edge of the front and back cover with tape as well.
Finland figured out how to educated their children.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/82329/education-reform-Finland-US
MintyBoost USB Power!
Very Cool! Check Out Ladyada’s post on how to build a AA battery charger for an iPhone or practically any USB device.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/
Egg frying pan
My wife likes to have a nice non-stick frying pan to cook with. Typically it has been a Teflon coated pan. They are delicate, should only be used with utensils that don’t scrape or scratch the coating. Washing them also requires some delicacy to avoid scouring and scraping. We go through a pan about once a year, because eventually the pan gets scratched and scraped, and the coating flakes off. Teflon is not safe to consume. I know there are different coatings used in the same way as Teflon and I just use the label to describe the thin coatings typical of non-stick frying pans.
This time, my wife decided to buy one that was a little more expensive, hoping that the quality and longevity would be better. So she spent $15 and brought one home. It was something called Hard Anodized Aluminum’.
I didn’t know what that was so I looked it up. Turns out IT’S AWESOME!
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-hard-anodizing.htm
Cigar Box Guitar
I’ve always wanted to build a guitar but I was intimidated by the woodworking involved, specifically the neck.
When I came across an article in Make Magazine for a Cigar Box Guitar, I could not resist building one for myself.
I had planned to spend a lot of time on it, but since I intended my first CBG to be a Christmas present, I knocked it out (basically) in two evenings. Fully functional and quite beautiful.
I finally finished it nicely in January.
My latest cake
This is my latest cake. It is another chocolate mousse cake. It came out pretty good for a lack of equipment.