Author Archives: Mark

Caramel apples

Caramel Apple

I was inspired by this recipe. It is representative of fall for me (although I never eat them). This morning was the first cool morning for Austin (with a low of 36 degrees Fahrenheit). Perhaps that put me into the mood? Anyways… So I went to the store and bought the necessary ingredients (forgetting, of course, the Popsicle sticks): honey, heavy cream, salt, and apples. I spied some Grāpples and thought that they smelled good. Just like grapes! Stupid me though, did not fully read the label or ingredient list. Afterward, I notice that the second and third ingredients are “natural grape flavor” and “artificial grape flavor.” WTF?! I mistakenly assumed that it was an apple/grape hybrid. Sigh.

Also, does H.E.B. carry unwaxed apples? I scrubbed them down with a sponge and hoped that I removed all of the wax. But it didn’t feel that way. Sigh redux.

I normally make caramel by first melting dry sugar until it browns and then by adding the cream to it. Which is a rather extreme and time-consuming method. That sugar locks up solid from the temperature shock. But it eventually melts back into a liquid. This recipe starts with the cream and honey added together, boiling the water out of the mixture, and stopping when it reaches hard-ball stage.

I don’t know which method is easier. The liquid mixture has a lot of proteins in it. So it can boil over if you don’t watch it. In fact, it boil over as you watch it. Just to spite you. And it takes a while to fully cook. At least thirty minutes. Of stirring.

This picture was challenging. I am still not satisfied with it. I took twelve different frames and I messed with the light meter before I got all of the settings correct. There are so many variables to account for! I ended up with an ISO of 50, a shutter speed of 1/80 second, and an aperture of 5.6. I wanted to reduce the depth of field down to f/2.8 or even f/1.4, but my setup was pumping out too much light! If only the camera had an ISO value of 12.5.

Also, my off-axis flash highlight was too harsh. I needed to use a softbox. But I didn’t want to go through the effort to make that happen.

All those pictures took 24 minutes. Which is a lifetime in food photography. A pipping hot apple turns into a cold, and sagging apple with condensation on it…

Disc Golf 11/15/2008

Jon's long birdie

Since OSP was closed again thanks to a track and field meet (how can a rather large park be entirely closed?!), we decided to abort to the Rivery. And Chapel decided to abort because of the wind and cold. But it turned out to be not as cold as I dressed for.

Jon made an extremely long putt for a birdie! After his initial throw hit an early tree.

Hole 1

I birdied that hole as well, but my putt was much closer.

Hole 11
Hole 15

I also made two other birdies! On holes 11 and 15. Which I think is a record for me.

Lime in a Corona

Afterward, we ate at Dos Salsas. And we had to settle for Coronas (with limes forceably stuffed in them) instead of Mojitos.

D&D Shadowfall Keep (part 5)

Group

After a long hiatus, the group finally got back together and finished the first module. Sadly, Jeff did not show up. And, also sadly, he was our cleric. Coincidentally, Ed did show up to see how D&D compared to Descent. He played meat-puppet (a Paladin that our DM made when the unhelpful NPC gnome was ditched).

It was a little tough without a cleric. We all had used our second winds. And a couple of us were close to death. But we survived! And kicked some ass.

Our D.M. was rather generous at the end. He had bought a new book of magical items and he gave us four of them. He also let us reroll when the dice rolled badly during the treasure generation.

I did not do so well on the luck side. I kept falling down in blood. Repeatedly. Fortunately, I could still long range attack with my magic. And I rolled a couple of 1s. One of the 1s gave me a -1 (?) penalty for four days! Ouch! Another caused my Eldritch Blast to instead hit Jon at a natural-20 strength! Ouch!

Game Day 11/13/2008

Game #1a
Game #1b

Steel Driver

First up is a new Essen and Wallace game called Steel Driver. This is an interesting game that is full of trade offs. You bid for control of laying railroad routes. But there are twists to this. The first is that you get paid off in the end for your shares in the different companies that you have owed. However, losing control of them is not a bad thing as long as they pay out well at the end (ala Imperial). Second, while you make money by connecting expensive routes, in the end, you score more money by collecting complete sets. You want your railroads to connect to each of six colors. You shouldn’t really get distracted by connecting the first trans-continental railroad route either. Third, there is a trade off to how much you bid to control and operate a railroad versus how many railroads you can get control in. Unless the few railroads that you did control also did very well in the scoring. Fourth, railroads which build quicker operate sooner during the next round. This can be beneficial in avoiding being cut off. But you score more for building more tracks rather than fewer tracks.

Tichu

With four people, we ended the night with Tichu. On the second to the last hand, Jon got a little nervous of calling a risky Tichu when we were 50 points from the win. I’ve been there before…


11/13/2008 The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed
GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon Nick & MikeCh
T+
205
  T- -105  
  405     -105  
  415    
-15
 
 
505
    -5  
  525   T+
175
 
  525     475 T+
 
620
    480  
  920 T+   480  
  950    
450
T-
  950    
550
 
 
1135
T+   565  

Monument Cafe has moved!

To its new location just up the street to the north. The new restaurant is twice as big. Although they do not have the big blackboards listing veggies, meals, and desserts. Which loses part of the charm, in my opinion.

Game Day 11/06/2008

Game #1

Duck Dealer

First up, a new Splotter game called Duck Dealer. I was very lucky to get this. It sold out in Essen rather quickly. This is an interesting game of building up a bunch of action points and then spending them all in a burst of activity. The only negative aspect to this game is that the said burst is awful hard to keep track of in a way that guarantees undoing it quickly and correctly. Other than that one bit, it is a great game that I look forward to playing.

Game #2

Dominion

Next up is Dominion. A deck building game. At some point in the game, you want to focus on victory points. But they take up space in your hand by acting as dead weight.

I Voted!

I voted

Because of my two week trip, I was forced to vote today. Man, the place was busy. There was a line of fourty plus people. But, first, I had to find my voting place since I usually vote early at the public library. It was also interesting that almost everyone took the paper voting option. There was only one electronic voting booth.