2008-2009 Projects

2nd floor before

2nd floor before (2)

2nd floor before (3)


2nd floor before (4)

2nd floor family bathroom / baby room - during










2nd floor baby room - after

2nd floor family bath after


2nd floor master bath - during

2nd floor master bath - during

2nd floor master bath after


2nd floor master bath after (2)


Back yard - before (1)

Backyard - during








Backyard - during

Back yard - after


Back yard stairs - during

Back yard stairs - during



Basement Den - before

Den - after (1)













Den - after (2)

Cincinnati Chili Recipe

I'm attempting to wean myself of Cincinnati Chili seasoning envelopes that I need to have friends and family mail me from Ohio. At first glance, this recipe found on-line looked pretty close, so I'm making some adjustments to match how I normally make Cincinnati Chili. We'll see how it goes.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/CincinnatiChili.htm

Cincinnati Chili Recipe

1 large onion chopped 1 large
onion peeled and scored
1 pound extra-lean ground beef or venison
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon red (cayenne) pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa or 1/2 ounce grated unsweetened chocolate
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce 1 8 oz can of
tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water 3 cups water
1 (16-ounce) package uncooked dried spaghetti
pasta
Toppings (see below)

We usually double this recipe and freeze leftovers in small 1-2 serving containers.

In
a large frying pan pot or Dutch oven over
medium-high heat, combine all ingredients except
for beef and the scored onion. saute onion, ground beef, garlic, and
chili powder until ground beef is slightly cooked. Add allspice, cinnamon,
cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, unsweetened cocoa or chocolate, tomato sauce,
Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, and water. Bring
to a boil and add beef to the liquid separating beef as finely as possible.
Make sure all is combined finely and evenly with a whisk or a fork. Add scored
onion. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, 1 1/2 hours. Remove
from heat.

Cook
spaghetti according to package directions and transfer onto individual serving
plates (small oval plates are traditional).

Ladle
chili over spaghetti and serve with toppings of your choice. Oyster crackers
are served in a separate container on the side.

Toppings:
Oyster Crackers
Shredded Cheddar Cheese Chopped Onion
Kidney Beans (16-ounce) can I prefer Black Beans

Makes
6 to 8 servings.

Audio Palindrome

I was following one of the tbtl topics and decided to look into working audio palindromes. I came across this one, "You're pretty." from Statler & Waldorf of The Muppets. Luke read it on the show and the reverse didn't turn out but the original actually works. I had to generate some silence at the end of the reverse copy for it to play properly in Audacity.

Try it here:
http://www.koktavy.net/tmp/youarepretty(reverse).mp3

------
http://www.iansouter.com/brain/sounds/youarepretty.mp3

http://iansbrain.com/2007/12/19/audio-palindrome/

This is an audio palindrome I found while working on a lipsync animation one
time. It sounds the same whether you play it forwards or backwards. Download
the MP3 and give it a try. The sound files is a clip of Statler and Waldorf
from the Muppets.

Smoked Pulled Pork Recipe (shortcut)

Pork shoulder (also known as Boston butt) is a tough cut of meat that is undesirable to most people other than barbecue cooks. At roughly $1 per pound, typically a shoulder cut in half is sold in a 12-16 pound package. The proper way to smoke pork can take up to 24 hours and requires smoking experience and the right equipment.

My shortcut recipe takes about 10 hours of low maintenance time using a regular Weber grill and a crock pot -- a dish we serve two or three times a year typically for large gatherings. This shortcut does not achieve the balance of crispy and moist that a well smoked shoulder would, but is nonetheless a great dish and introduction to smoking without delving into the time and equipment necessary to maintain a steady 200 degrees F for up to 24 hours.

Ingredients and equipment:

• 1 Pork shoulder
• 1 jar mustard powder
• charcoal
• chunk hardwood (I use mesquite or our native pecan wood.)
• charcoal grill
• foil double loaf pan
• crock pot
• instant read thermometer
• BBQ sauce & buns

Typically I coat and rub the shoulder with mustard powder the night before. Doing so just before smoking will work fine. The purpose of the rub is to help form a "bark" which will seal the moisture in the meat while it's on the grill. There is no noticeable mustard flavor in the final product.

Indirect grilling - Prepare the grill with charcoal. When the coals are ready, place a foil double loaf pan in the center of the grill, surround with coals, and lay the wood chunks over the top of the charcoal.

Place the shoulder fat side up over the pan. Place cover on with vents open and heavily smoke the meat for 2-3 hours. Additional wood need not be added.

Transfer the meat to a large crock pot and cook on high for approximately 7 hours. Check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer. The temperature should reach 175 degrees F and the meat should fall off the bone and be easy to "pull" with two forks. Remove bone, turn crock to low and serve when desired.

Serve on buns with your favorite BBQ sauce.

Summer Projects

Now that the landscaping and Sky Fort project is coming to an end, Summer projects are queuing up.

• Complete the security gate on the alley entrance. (Having a metal shop fabricate something this week.)
  
• Remove trees along East fence line and continue setting fence posts and hanging cedar panels. Build SE kid/dog gate and set another steel security gate.
  
• Reconfigure the built-in media center to accommodate an HDTV.

Side projects:

• Replace glass fronts on McIntosh power amplifier and pre-amplifier.
• Do network and cable wiring for guest room xbox and tivo.
• Move personal computing off of Vista and over to Ubuntu.
• Try to get boxee or some other PC based streaming media server operational for new HD setup.
  

Spring Family Projects

DIY - Sky Fort Playset along with much unwanted landscaping

DIY - Media Server to replace all (or most) of the kid DVDs

DIY - Period appropriate trim

There are several generations of trim throughout the house. My goal was to get the look of the room back to what it probably was in 1910. The house is a Prairie Style American Foursquare.

Before: (Note 1/4" oak flooring, no longer mass produced, was repaired using salvage material from closets and another room.)

Base:
As far as I could determine most of the original base was 1x8 Douglas fir routed
with a shallow round. There wasn't much of this left in the house.
(I won't go into the other generations of trim here.) Routing 1x8 (or
1x10) white pine was my plan B. I wanted something a little more ornate
and I wanted something 8+". I searched high and low at all of the home
improvement places and local trim shops. Couldn't find the base I needed.
It was all short, <8", a dull style, or made of some composite material.

I went with a standard pine base cap and a standard 11/16x11/16 shoe. The
base I decided on was pine exterior siding. The cap sat on it perfectly
and it gave me the marriage of the height I wanted along with the flourish of
the cap and base.

Windows: As far as I could tell the original window trim was 1x6 doug routed with a shallow round. (Again, I won't go into the previous generations of window trim.) The tops of the windows had crown molding. Apparently the old crown was solid where the new crown leaves a void where you don't see it (?) Found something close enough and it looks great. (I believe it is 2 1/4" bed moulding as I have since used this in several areas of the house.

Almost done. Still need
to do door hardware, closet light, and vent covers.

Trooper relaxing in one of his new rooms.

Hello

Most of my banal thoughts and updates are going into Twitter and Facebook.

This may be a place for long-form thoughts or minimally, may serve as my home base.