Category: Blog

Ramen 13: A New Bowl

March 11, 2022

Here’s an aside in my enduring ramen series. I got this for my birthday:

It’s a brick ramen bowl! The idea is that instead of cooking the ramen on the stove the usual way, you put the brick and seasoning in the bowl:

Add boiling water:

Until the brick is covered (or in this case, just starts to float):

Then seal the lid and wait a few minutes:

And here’s what I found after I opened and gave a quick stir:

Did it work? Yes it did! Will I use it again? Probably not!

The reason is I like my brick ramen served super hot, and I apparently like the noodles somewhat over cooked. Both of these need stove preparation. KLS loves using the bowl though, so it’s in a good home 🙂

A Few Unusual Things

March 6, 2022

I had a birthday recently, and got a lot of weird and wonderful stuff. Here’s a few of them…

KLS gave me an electronic card, that plays Happy Birthday and then lets you blow out the candle (yes you blow on the card) to trigger a jumping game! It’s smaller than a credit card and very unique.

This dispenser creates a cat paw pattern using foam soap! It works very well, and the soap from this Japanese item is denser than what we get here in America. I reckon this basic idea will be the first of many of its kind…

This is a set of neon/metallic watercolour paint samples, and I’ve showed what they look like on the right. The glitter ones are extremely cool, but apparently look best on black paper. I wonder if I can use these in the ongoing postcard contest?

This sculpture of a one-eyed raven – possibly one of Odin’s ravens – is made of resin, quite heavy and mounts on the wall. We have a few items like this, and he’ll find a welcome home on our walls. KLS purchased this directly from the artist, and mine is #139 of 300 🙂

The above is a set of stamp sheets depicting American wildlife. They were printed one per year between 1998 and 2009, and Bernard gave me the full set!

The artwork on these is fantastic, and they are printed in such a way that it’s not immediately obvious they contain actual stamps! I’ll never use these; they’re certainly ‘for the collection’ 🙂

And lastly another piece of art: a miniature giraffe sculpture! This is also made of resin, and is hand painted. It’s incredibly tiny: that’s my fingertip on the left and a normal size LEGO minifig on the right. I need to find some sort of mini display case to put him in since he’s so weightless he may just drift off on the wind one day!

As I said this is just a selection of what I received for my birthday. The ‘usual stuff’ (model kits, LEGO, trading cards etc.) will eventually get their own posts right here on this very blog!

Let’s Cook Tacos!

March 2, 2022

It’s been a while since I shared a recipe, and the pandemic has taught us all that tacos are easy and delicious. So here’s my preferred method of preparation!

Toss about 90 grams of 93% or higher reduced fat mince into a pan on medium to high heat. Cool until there’s no red.

Add water and taco seasoning. The exact quantity of each doesn’t matter; you want it looking like the above. Turn the heat to maximum.

The water will evaporate off leaving just delicious meat. If it looks like the above, you’re golden!

Heat up the shells in your air fryer. Ideally you’ll use stand-and-stuff types, but we were duped by fancy packaging into buying the above which don’t even stand up! The one at the front is slightly smaller as well, although once again the packaging lied and suggested they were even smaller still! Toss a little bit of shredded pizza cheese into the shells: as for how much, remember the mantra ‘less is best‘!

Add the meat, the heat from which should melt the cheese. Finesse is immaterial here; just stuff it in.

Add the pineapple. This is perhaps the most critical step, since tacos are nothing without pineapple. I used the fancy Dole stuff in the black-and-gold cans, but as you know any pineapple is better than no pineapple!

Add the shredded lettuce and you’re finished. All that’s left is the best step: eating!

Why not make these and let me know what you think?

Robot Claw