Three things to prove that one should not be overly selective regarding sources of science reading

Three different sources, all entertaining.

Thing one: Three British universities are about to start a project that looks to harvest re-usable material from human faecal matter. The “material” will include water, methane, electrolytes, etc. and the machine to do that harvesting – a lattice-like filter – should be portable when finished. (The Engineer)

Thing two: Britain and Belgium counts the largest population percentages who suffer from hay fever. Birch trees are earliest out to produce pollen during the hay fever season, and sufferers should also avoid “trigger-foods” like celery. (Daily Mail)

Thing three: “Sexual deprivation increases ethanol intake”… in fruit flies. This can apparently be mapped to humans. What gives? (Science)

Seen anything interesting? Let me know!

Food Diary – June 24, 2011 – and… Swedish Midsummer (apologies for deviation from science)

Midsummer is an actual holiday that is gleefully celebrated in Sweden, with lots of shellfish, herring and potatoes, berries and cream, and ‘snaps’. The key element however, is good company. Personally, I left my good company when I left work, but I did stop by the supermarket, tiredly, on my way home, to see what I could find…

Friday = feast day. No? Fine.

Fruit'n'fibre cereal with semi-skimmed milk.

Forgot to prepare lunch.

Provisions for morning-in-office: Milky Earl Grey and a banana.

No breakfast complete without extras.

Imitation Twix.

Tea just isn’t the same.

Coffeeh.

Shop bought sandwich. Not bad, actually.

Chicken salad sandwich on malted, grainy bread.

Nice and polished.

Apple.

Then, I went on a field trip, my first, from my desk to the office biscuit tin. Perhaps I will bake something for it someday.

Syrup biscuit.

Unfortunately, I got more biscuit cravings as a result.

Brownie biscuits.

Then, dinner!

Miscellaneous steamed shellfish. With, er, malt vinegar. And back olives, obviously.

I know the margarine looks rank, but those muffins are so good!

Severely buttered oven bottom muffin.

Then, improv-dessert. Amazing.

Dessert buns, diced and toasted, with whipped cream and raspberries.

Water count: ~1.75l. I did sneak some olives just before bedtime.

Home-baked bread and home-grown vegetables 2

The plants look a little bit wilted. Yesterday they were still growing nicely. Is this what the new British government will bring us? Okay, I shall not take it out completely on politics; I planted the crops outside during a nice warm spell around a week ago, and last night we had sudden chill. It may be time to buy seeds and clear out the greenhouse to provide a certain, warm climate for the vegetables.

Rather devastated, but determined to try a rescue mission. The cucumber, which is planted in the ground, I will put an upside-down de-topped 2 litre bottle on top; and I shall cling film the top of the pot holding the tomato. At least it is lovely and sunny today. Hopefully there will be some progress later!

Home-baked bread and home-grown vegetables 1

A chill-pill was lined up for bank holiday weekend, and work-in-the-garden was top on the to-do list.

Other family members have previously successfully grown leafy greens in the garden. This year is the year of the salad.

Due to slight impatience, tiny 9 cm crops were purchased (seedlings to be planted when the next chill-pill moment arrives), and digging started.

The little crops! Cool cucumber to the left; livelier tomato on the right.

Then it hailed. Fortunately there was a lack of compost, and the crops had not been planted into the ground yet.

It was decided that the cucumber and tomato crops would be planted in pots, placed amongst other vegetation, like a thorny bush, in attempt to throw off living creatures who may come foraging for a snack.

This is my first first-hand experience of gardening, and I would like to share it with you here on the blog. That means regular updates (hint hint).

Inspired by the manual-labour-is-good-for-the-soul high that all the gardening gave me (we spring cleaned our whole back yard before starting digging), I decided to bake some bread.

The slight issue that arised was that the recipe was conceived as a loaf; the actual finished products were rolls, so they became rather substantial (and gave me hiccups the first two times I ate some). In that sense, they make perfect sandwich rolls, in particular because I used stoneground wholemeal flour, which fills you up nicely. Here is a skimmed over version of my adapted version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 sachet of instant, freeze dried, powdered yeast (most supermarkets make their own brand)
• 750g flour (strong breadflour or some variation of it WITHOUT leavening)
• 2 tsp salt (table)
• 1 tsp sugar (granulated is fine)
• 450 ml lukewarm water

Procedure:

1. Mix all dry ingredients, but the yeast, in a large bowl.
2. Empty the sachet of yeast on the bottom of another bowl (this is to avoid it coming into contact with the water too soon, and becoming active), add the mixed dry ingrdients, and pour the water on top.
3. Mix into a dough. Add a little bit of flour if it feels too sticky.
4. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes (by hand), or 5 minutes (with a food processor or other appliance)
5. Return to bowl and leave to rise (or “proof”…”prove”?). Alternatively, shape your dough into desired breadform (either rolls on a greased baking tray or into a greased loaf tin), and leave that to rise. It takes about 30 mins in a warm dry place, like an airing cupboard, or longer in a cooler place.
6. Halfway through rising, preheat oven to 200 C for a fan oven, 220 C for a conventional oven.
7. The dough should double in size. To check if it is done, press two fingers horizontally, firmly into the dough; it should return to its rounded surface fairly quickly. If not, leave for a little longer.
8. If the dough proofed in its final shape, pop it straight into the oven. Otherwise, shape it now, but try to agitate it as little as possible to retain the internal air-bubbles (for nice, soft bread).
9. 20-30 minutes should do the trick. Of course, this is a large margin, but every oven is different.
10. The bread should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom if it is baked through.

Dough. Pre-rising. I ended up with 6 fairly large rolls.

My wholemeal rolls! The only question is... cheese or ham?

Happy baking!