Many thanks to Rethoryke, who knows how much I admire a good moustache, for this wonderful slide show highlighting entrants in the recently held 2012 European Beard and Moustache Championships in Wittersdorf near Mulhouse, Eastern France.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
What am I Sappy Cat Blogging this week?
September 28, 2012You knew it; I knew it. Now here’s proof. Thanks to Robb and Regan.
Sappy bonus: Cmdr. Sam Vimes
What am I celebrating today?
September 27, 2012
It is an important day in science relatively speaking – the 107th anniversary of Einstein’s publication of the Theory of Relativity.
Here is a little video that explains how Einstein came up with the equation:
What is the Navy turning water into?
September 26, 2012
(U.S. Navy Military Sea Lift Command)
No, not wine or grog, but jet fuel, using seawater, and they have a lot of that. . .
Refueling Navy vessels at sea can prove in many ways to be a costly endeavor. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is developing the chemistry for producing jet fuel from renewable resources in theater. The process envisioned would catalytically convert CO2 and H2 directly to liquid hydrocarbon fuel used as JP-5.
“The potential payoff is the ability to produce JP-5 fuel stock at sea reducing the logistics tail on fuel delivery with no environmental burden and increasing the Navy’s energy security and independence,” says research chemist, Dr. Heather Willauer.
How it Works: CO2 + H2 = Jet Fuel
NRL has developed a two-step process in the laboratory to convert the CO2 and H2 gathered from the seawater to liquid hydrocarbons. In the first step, an iron-based catalyst has been developed that can achieve CO2 conversion levels up to 60 percent and decrease unwanted methane production from 97 percent to 25 percent in favor of longer-chain unsaturated hydrocarbons (olefins).
In the second step these olefins can be oligomerized (a chemical process that converts monomers, molecules of low molecular weight, to a compound of higher molecular weight by a finite degree of polymerization) into a liquid containing hydrocarbon molecules in the carbon C9-C16 range, suitable for conversion to jet fuel by a nickel-supported catalyst reaction.
Many thanks to HMS Defiant, who is tolerant of my obsession with polymers, for this reference.
Why am I raising a glass of cider today?
September 26, 2012
Because September 26 is the birthday of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1774.
The popular image is of Johnny Appleseed spreading apple seeds randomly, everywhere he went. In fact, he planted nurseries rather than orchards, built fences around them to protect them from livestock, left the nurseries in the care of a neighbor who sold trees on shares, and returned every year or two to tend the nursery. Although apples grown from seed are rarely sweet or tasty, apple orchards with sour apples were popular among the settlers because apples were mainly used for producing hard cider and apple jack. In some periods of the settlement of the Midwest, settlers were required by law to plant orchards of apples and pears in order to uphold the right to the claimed land. For these reasons, Johnny Appleseed planted orchards made for popular real estate on the frontier. His first nursery was planted on the bank of Brokenstraw Creek, South of Warren, Pennsylvania. Next, he seems to have moved to Venango County along the shore of French Creek, but many of these nurseries were located in the Mohican area of north-central Ohio. This area included the towns of Mansfield, Lucas, Perrysville, and Loudonville.
Okay, here’s another apple recipe – a really easy one for Apple Crisp.
Heat your oven to 350 degrees
Peel, core and slice 4 apples – medium to large in size.
Jonagolds are good for this recipe.
Place them in an 8″ square glass baking dish
Squeeze half a lemon over the apple slices
In a separate bowl mix 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
Take a stick (1/2 cup) of unsalted butter and dice it up into about 1/4 inch cubes
Mix the butter into the flour mixture – use your hands to kind of rub the butter into the flour.
Sprinkle the flour-butter mixture over the apple slices and bake for about 30 minutes – or until the apple slices are soft and kind of bubbly and the top begins to get browned.
The history quote is from Wikipedia; the recipe is from my head.
What did I find A-maze-ing?
September 24, 2012
Crop circles? Messages from space?
Well, sort of. The Derthick family has constructed a corn maze that is an homage to Ohio astronaut and former U.S. Senator, John Glenn. The farm is located in Mantua, Ohio (in this part of the world, the town is pronounced MAN-a-way.)
Derthick’s publicity invites you to “come and be cornfused.”
What am I observing?
September 24, 2012I’m a little slow on the uptake, but September 22 was International Observe the Moon Day. Thanks to Lights in the Dark for recommending this amazing video. I’ve got my bags all packed for the next shuttle . . . oh, never mind.
And for stars of a completely different nature, go read Millenium Conjecture.
What am I sappy cat blogging?
September 21, 2012
New kitty book by Lewis Blackwell coming out October 1.
“As good as Blackwell’s text is (and it’s quite good—an approachable, informative, and appreciative study of cats of all breeds), the true appeal of the book is the stunning images.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
What am I baking?
September 20, 2012
It seems that Oreos are in the air. I was just about to post the following, when I read Butter’s post on Oreo Truffles.
This is another in my series of discoveries on recipes from ingredients that I normally would not consider to be ingredients (such as PopTarts) and now, Oreos.
Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies:
Bon Appetit magazine calls these “the new cupcake.” (Pretending to be healthy? Try this oatmeal cookie-oreo version.)
- 2 sticks softened butter
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 10 oz bag chocolate chips
- 1 pkg. Oreo cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Makes about 2 dozen large cookies.
This recipe is from Yahoo’s observance of Oreos 100th birthday in March 2012. Did you know that the design on the cookie was flowers?
Here’s a list of Oreo flavors from Wikipedia:
- Chocolate Oreo
- Strawberry Milkshake Oreo, introduced in Canada, and sold for a limited time in the United States, is an Oreo cookie with strawberryflavoring.
- Strawberry Oreo, introduced in Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Green Tea Oreo, introduced in China and Japan.
- Lemon Ice Oreo, introduced in Japan.
- Organic Oreo, introduced in 2006, are plain Oreo cookies made with organic flavor and organic sugar.
- Blueberry Ice Cream Oreo, introduced in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia in 2010. Also sold in Thailand.
- Orange Ice Cream Oreo, introduced in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand in 2011.
- Golden Oreo, introduced in Indonesia in 2011. Oreo’s chocolate cookies replaced by milk-flavored cookies
- Double Stuf Golden Oreo, introduced in late August 2009. As the name indicates they are Double Stuf Oreos with Golden Oreo wafers instead of normal chocolate Oreo wafers.
- Golden Oreo series have vanilla biscuits with other fillings like vanilla and chocolate as Uh-Oh Oreo until its rebranding in 2007. Introduced in Indonesia in 2011 with milky cookies and cream.
- Oreo Heads or Tails have vanilla creme filling with a chocolate Oreo wafer on one side and a Golden Oreo wafer on the other.
- Oreo DQ Blizzard Creme, a limited edition Oreo released in April–May 2010, celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Dairy Queen Blizzard
- Double Delight Oreo, introduced in 1987, have chocolate cookies with two fillings, notably peanut butter and chocolate, mint and cream, and coffee and cream flavors.
- Also there are ongoing fruit series: orange and mango, raspberry and blueberry, grape and peach in China.
- Cool Mint Creme Oreo are a Double Stuf Oreo with a slight minty creme filling.
- Peanut Butter Oreo are a Double Stuf Oreo with a peanut buttery creme filling.
- Pure Milk Chocolate Covered Mint Oreo are similar to Milk Chocolate Oreo but have a mint-flavored filling.
- Banana Split Creme Oreo with a light yellow banana flavor filling, were available for a limited time in 2008.
- Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreo were released in April 2011.
- Sugar Free Oreo, introduced in 2006, cost over twice as much as regular Oreos, and had only trace amounts of sugar, 10 fewer calories per serving, 0.5 grams more fat and 450% more fiber.
- Reduced Fat Oreo, introduced in 2006, cost the same as regular Oreos, had as much sugar, 10 fewer calories per serving, about 35% less fat and the same amount of fiber.
- During springtime, around Halloween, and Christmas, special edition “Double Stuf Oreo” cookies are produced with colored frosting reflecting the current holiday (blue or yellow, orange, and red or green respectively).
- Chocolate and Dulce de leche Oreo, sold in Chile and Argentina, has chocolate or Dulce de Leche instead of the usual creme.
- Oreos with red creme, introduced in 2010, as a promotion for the movie How To Train Your Dragon
- Birthday Cake Oreos were a limited-edition release in February-July 2012 to celebrate Oreo’s 100th birthday, made up of two chocolate Oreo cookies with a birthday-cake flavored filling and sprinkles inside. This edition replaced the traditional design on one of the two cookies with a birthday candle and the words “OREO 100”.
- Candy Corn Oreos were a limited-edition release, made up of two golden Oreo cookies with a flavored filling that was half yellow and half orange.
What special day am I observing today?
September 19, 2012Arrrrrgh!
She be Talk Like a Pirate Day and thanks to Artie Smartie-Pants (Black Morty Rackham) for reminding me! Want to find out your pirate name? Take the quiz: http://www.piratequiz.com/
Pirate Social Networking
Recipe for Hard Tack
Mix one teaspoon of salt with one pound of flour.
Add enough water to make a very stiff dough.
Flatten the dough to about 1/2 inch and cut it into about 4 inch circles. Punch holes in each circle with a fork.
Bake in a flat pan at 250 degrees for two or three hours.
If the hard tack should happen to go bad, just remember to choose the lesser of two weevils.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 