dogbowl oven shakedown run (preliminary temperature test)

I assembled the dogbowl oven and heated it gently to watch the internal air temps. This run was limited by my having only a food thermometer that maxxes at 220F. the gear the bowls listed I ordered off Amazon. I used the smaller cooking bowl since it was shorter and would not touch the temp

experiment: laboratory hot plate

[I’m stacking up experiment ideas faster than I can execute them. I’ll catch up, I promise. ] One of the Great Disappointments of van life so far is the realization that hotplates (and other simple resisitive heat sources) typically run at full power and only vary the duty cycle to control heat level. I’d love

bread experiment #3

I am very happy with the existing bread, but did want to see if I could get it to rise more. For #3 I left yeast at 1g and let it bloom in 100def F water for 10mins. increased water by 10g to get a slightly wetter dough. I cooked on LO for 4 hours

bread experiment #2

Kaylee’s original recipe (which I used for loaf #1) is: yeast 0.5g water 150g flour 200g salt 4g For this loaf I am doubling yeast to 1g with a pinch of sugar for starter, and increasing water to 155g. I will be letting it rise right in the crockpot. {next day} I cooked this loaf

Organ Mountains NM / pizza experiment

I got my immediate business done in ELP and withdrew to the Organ Mountains national monument north of Las Cruces, NM. They’ve made some changes since I was last here, putting up a barrier on the north side of this trail. Land recovery, one supposes: This cuts the available spots in half (south of two-track

crockpot experiment: cornbread #1 (accidental whole-wheat)

Cornbread isn’t my favorite bread, but it is my favorite bread I get to eat most often. For the curious: pao de queijo – Brazillian cheese rolls == game over. AFAIK it’s pronounced something like “pow deh kay-jo” although “manna” or “food of the gods” is also acceptable. naan cornbread – either cast-iron skillet style

tax refund / goodwill run

I don’t know if I had mentioned this before, but my tax refund was direct deposited on the Feb 24th. That’s less than two weeks from the Feb 12 e-file date. Interesting, and also timely because it means I can put off the next 457 withdrawal a while longer. It’s going to be close treading

cows, no cows

Muffin and I took a walk up the road yesterday.  Some cattle haulers had gone that way earlier (fast, kicking up massive dust) and I could hear cows bellowing. I am pleased there wasn’t much litter to pick up on the way. There is an old wooden corral on the right side of that pic.  I

MSR Dragonfly fuel line replacement

I took the Dragonfly apart the other day to see what the fuel line was like inside that braid. Today I picked up some replacement Gates fuel line.  This particular example is a rubber line with internal nylon braid, rated for 50psi with fuel.  I looked for the specs on the pressure the MSR hand pump can

Experiment: electric immersion cup heater

I picked up one of of these immersion heaters from Amazon.  I find myself needing to heat small amounts of water for tea, for bathing, etc.    It’s part of the larger experiment to see how I might conserve cooking fuel.  This one is 300w;  I looked for a less powerful one (say 150-200w) but