Fall season done, let the fun (and work) commence

Since the middle of August, I've done six events.  One of those was a 1-day, one a 2, and the others were 3-day.  I added a new (to me) convention in Galveston - it was in a con center right on the ocean, so after I was done packing up on the last day, I went for a walk.

Absolutely as relaxing as it looks!

Live bivalves

I think, after several years of doing conventions 'professionally', I'm finally learning just how long everything takes.  Packing, loading, unloading, setting up.  I was only almost late to an event - an hour before they opened - once, and once was enough.  Many other times, I put myself in the situation of not having enough time to set up the day before, and wound up setting up the day of.  It's all gradually coming together.


So now I have a month and a half 'off', which means doing all the other things I otherwise never have time for.  Completing garden projects, like digging the grass out of the nuisance strips and replacing them with xeriscape.  Building more sub-irrigated planters out of buckets, to grow more vegetables.  I've got red bell peppers in right now, and I got them in a little late.  There are a few full-sized green ones, but we're going to need some more sunshine down here before they turn.

The 9" of rain we got in 24 hours did a number on some of the creeks, and killed a couple of people; RIP.  The crest time for most of the creeks and rivers was around 4am.  I got out to our little neighborhood pond around 1am to take what video I could with a flashlight.  The volume and speed of water going over the spillway was tremendous - the solid rock/concrete dam that makes up the very top of the spillway was completely concealed by rushing water.  Though the footbridge that goes over the spillway sits on concrete pilings, I did not want to venture onto it.

This is the first time I've uploaded a video, so I have no idea if the quality will be any good or not.

I usually don't get anything done the day after an event, but today I decided to make sugar cookies, since the 4-year-old I live with came home with a 100-count bucket of cookie cutters.

If you like soft cookies, have I got a recipe for you!  I took this off the net and modded it on the first try to use some white whole wheat flour (doesn't have quite as much protein and fiber as WWF made from hard red winter wheat, but still has way more than regular white flour).  I have been using King Arthur brand white WWF for baking for awhile, and once you know how to use it, it works pretty well.   If you can't find the stuff (available in our grocery chain down here, but maybe only in Whole Foods elsewhere), try whole wheat pastry flour.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 3/4 cup sugar (I used half evap. cane juice)

2 eggs, at room temp

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp orange extract

(this amount of extract makes for a very prominent flavor; for a milder flavor, reduce to 1 tsp total of all extracts)

1 cup sour cream

3 cups all-purpose flour (390g)

2 cups King Arthur white WWF (250g)

1/4 cup cornstarch (30g)

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

I'm going to assume you know the drill with a cookie recipe.  This dough needs chilling for at least 2 hours in the fridge; less in the freezer if you've got a 4yo whose bedtime is approaching.  The dough can absorb plenty of flour during the rolling-out-and-cutting process, and needs refrigeration when you're not working with it.  If you don't like it that sticky, add in another 1-4 tablespoons of flour.   Use parchment paper or grease your cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 12 minutes (large cookies), maybe 13 or 14.  I think I left a batch in for 14-15 minutes and they were fine.  You'll know they've been in long enough when they start to poof up their tops some.  Makes about 3 1/2 dozen large (3.5-4") cookies.

If you don't want to mess with flour types other than all-purpose, the original recipe called for 5 1/2 cups of flour and no cornstarch.

Other projects include building a set of panniers for the motorcycle out of ammo cans.  'Real' aluminum panniers run $500+ for a pair - too rich for my blood.  I should be able to do mine for $100.  The most use these are likely to see is getting groceries, and making the bike more visible and thus safer.  But I want to take some longer-distance camping trips eventually, too.

I also want to organize my Alaska trip images and send some of them off to have a book printed, which I plan on sending to Granddad.