403: forbidden

( Recipe Inside )

The result is hearty, mildly sweet, and ever so slightly smoky.

The experiment: Collect fruit scraps (apple cores, lemon peels, the white bits of a watermelon, etc.) in the 'fridge for whatever length of time is convenient. Add to a solution of 1/4 cup honey per liter of water, in a wide-neck bottle or jar. Cover with a cloth held on by a rubber band, and leave in a cool, dry place for a week. Next week, I'll find out whether watermelon rind makes a decent vinegar.

The science: The first and obvious step of any sugary solution left at room temperature is that wild yeasts will ferment the sugar into alcohol. Once there's alcohol in solution, the naturally occurring acetic acid bacteria will ferment that into vinegar, quickly lowering the pH below that favored by the various species of microbes and fungi that cause spoilage. (If the culture contains Acetobacter xylinium or similar, they'll form a harmless mat that floats at the top of the jar which is known as "mother of vinegar".)

Garlic scapes are the flower buds of hardneck garlic. You cut them off so that the garlic will bulb more. I got mine at a farmer's market, and they taste delicious.

Pesto:
Into a food processor, combine garlic scapes, lemon juice, and olive oil. Run the food processor and adjust proportions to taste.

Serve on pasta or dip bread in it.

This past Sunday, the inevitable happened. zeightyfiv and I were both too tired to make a grocery run, but we didn't have ingredients for our usual 'easy' foods. What we did have ingredients for was salmon chowder.

( Recipe inside. )

If you don't mind the salmon disintegrating into the broth, or larger chunks of potato, this could probably be a good slow-cooker recipe.

And the results are delicious.

I think I've got enough food for a week (finally) without having to spend time cooking random incidental meals. I've been doing a lot of the latter these past few weeks, because I couldn't get it together to make a large batch of anything.

I now have:
* Fettuccini & mushroom alfredo (recipe tweaked in hopes of avoiding sauce separation)
* Vegetarian reverse-spaghetti (adding a big bag of soy crumbles resulted in having more sauce than gnocchi)
* Crock pot lentil dal (beef sage sausage, lentils, garlic, habanero, cooked intermittently for two days and counting)

Single-serving pie in a jar recipe, and how to make flakey pie crust with unsaturated oils. (Note to self: With both recipes, it's important to keep the dough cold.)

Also to try: Baked sweet-potato fries.

Tomorrow, I bake bread.

What does a 403 do with unstructured time? Cook!

( Recipe inside. )

So, I baked bread today. By the time it was cool enough to eat, I was hungry and tired. ( Remainder cut for the squeamish. )

And after all that, I've finally managed to try some of the bread. It's tasty. But on the whole.. Probably not worth it.