Baldur

I only first learned of the concept a few months ago but I'm already quite attracted to the idea. It's something that I've more or less done right from the beginning without having any idea that anyone else was interested.

Baldur

I have a friend who has been a cohort in crime for many years. When I got my first apartment it was in a building that his grandmother owned.
That place was a hulking Victorian triple-decker that was blissfully devoid of modernization, but woefully in need of maintenance.
It was in a state of delicate balance, tottering between the issues of glorious original details waiting to be spruced up again and horrifyingly badly neglected features just short of collapsing.

My apartment had lots of cracked and broken windows held together with tape, the back kitchen window had no glass left whatsoever. The most recent tenant had removed the window frames, stretched clear plastic sheeting over them, stapling it in place before reinstalling the frames.
The place also had beautiful oak floors throughout, wonderful mouldings, huge rooms flooded with light and almost an entire dissembled Volkswagon Beetle that was left behind, far in the murky past.

Baldur

Anyway, this friend, Frank, and I taught ourselves a lot about fixing up old houses by taking them apart and putting them back together.
He and I would go scrounging on trash pick-up day and find old brass light fixtures that he would rewire, pieces of molding, doorknobs, whatever people discarded when modernizing their own homes.

When an apartment in the building next door gutted their kitchen I took each piece and doubled the amount of cabinets in my kitchen, once everything was painted the same color you'd never have known they weren't original to my place.

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See, that's what I mean by turning your hand to anything. Qsilv's right ... there are people out there searching for you ... you've only got to put your head above the parapet and your on your way to a new career ... with you in charge.

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Oh, and thanks for the link to Steampunk ... now I know what you're talking about.

IamAnonymous

I think Baldur should publish a book called:
"Everything you need to know - and more!"
Then sit back and watch the money roll in.

Robindcr8l

Baldur, you're already so successful with this "blog", you could become a professional blogger. I'm not sure how one goes about earning money with a blog, but there's probably a way to attract advertisers if you have enough readers. You're already most of the way there with Channel Baldur! LOL

sheftali52

A Baldur blog? Love the idea. It could be called Baldur's Bodacious (+10 for sheftali!) Blog. I, personally, have enjoyed Baldur's cooking, gardening, interior decorating, and other musings (Dr Bear comes to mind). He is somewhat of a bon vivant (+10 again?) who seems to find joy in the simple things in life, yet is a very complex person. Viva Baldur!

Baldur

'All Baldur, All the Time'

A 'profitable' Baldur-blog', I'm liking the sound of that. I wonder how I'd get the money rolling in.

In the meantime.......
It only rained part of today, many of you may not be aware of what New England has been going through because it's just not as dramatic as everyone elses climate problems.
It has rained for 21 out of the last 25 days. Those other 4 days were cloudy and dreary, but at least relatively dry.
This wasn't ark-building rain by any means, but still very damaging as gardens need sunlight and the soil should dry a bit to prevent root rot.
Many of the seeds that Baldur planted in his garden drowned.

Baldur

The established perennials however flourished. It was the best season even for asparagus, peonies, roses and azaleas.

I'm going to try to plant a third round of snow peas at the end of the summer for a fall crop. The few plants that survived the rains aren't doing very well.


It was also finally a good day to mow the lawn. The lawn at Chez Baldur was beginning to resemble a hay-field. But wet grass just cannot be cut, and it's been wet for a month.
Using the noisy gasoline powered push mower one can cut our lawn in about an hour, to go around and edghe everything takes several more.
This is mostly because It needs to be done by hand with clippers. The last time Robert attempted using the weed whacker he took out the front 8" of every flowerbed.
55 minutes into mowing the grass the skies opened up and the deluge began anew.
I quickly got the lawnmower covered up and went to do inside stuff.

Baldur

Well the rain didn't last too long, but it did a great job of saturating the grass. Luckily the sun came out with a blinding brilliance and dried everything within an hour. Baldur was duly impressed.
I quickly got the mower out and finished the job.
Promptly the rain started again.
Whew!

Robert is away at a nudist gathering. He is the resident lawn person,
not because I dislike mowing lawns but because Robert likes playing with machinery. I feel he mows the lawn twice as often as is actually necessary.
The past month has been frustrating for him because of the rains, he was actually upset that the grass was getting so high. Personally I find something charming about the 'hayfield' look. Had I my druthers (+5 points) we would get a goat to manage the lawn work.
This world could do with 1 less combustion engine.
I would enjoy using a human powered push-mower but Robert would still use the gasoline version before I could ever start on my own and the push mower would only gather dust.

Baldur

I decided this evening to bake something.
My house has been fairly devoid of junk food lately, which is good for my waistline but very bad for my soul. Baldur has been trying to see how long he can go between trips to the market.
In addition to saving money which is a rare commodity lately as I've mentioned, Baldur is trying to use the many odd ingredients in his pantry that have sat there for ages untouched.
Really how long can chick-pea flour go untouched? Because of Polenta I have been reading a little about Uruguay, I was amazed at how little I knew on the topic.
One of the things mentioned was a dish called Faina' based on chick-pea flour. Who but Baldur would have not 1 but 2 bags of chick-pea flour in his cupboard? This weekend I will make a pizza Uruguayan style with Faina' on top.

Baldur

But back to the junk-food, which Faina' is decidely not.
I wanted to bake something easy that would make as few pans as possible.
Also the recipe had to not overly tax my kitchen staples, not using eggs or butter would be a great bonus.
So Baldur recalled those old recipes from the Depression and the World Wars that made do without such ingredients.

Baldur

It happens that I had a page of recipes from the local paper. A few years back they featured such culinary nostalgia just for fun and I saved it.

The recipe that I just baked is called:

'WACKY CAKE'

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F
Into an 8" square cake pan sift:
1 cup sugar
1+1/2 cups flour
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

make 3 holes in the flour mixture, into the holes deposit:
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 Tablesppons vegetable oil

Over everything pour:
1 cup water

Stir the mixture together with a fork until there are no more lumps.
Bake for 25-30 minutes

Note: the center of the cake will shrink slightly upon cooling.

Baldur

I have just finished off 2 good sized pieces and the cake is quite good.
Baldur behaved himself and banished the thoughts of having ice cream on the side.

Naturally I didn't leave the recipe alone. Whilst in my cupboard I noticed a long forgotten cannister of carob powder and substituted it for the cocoa.
It is still a very nice cake.

Baldur

Baldur remembers the propaganda from the 70s regarding carob as the world's godsend, as a substitute for chocolate.
Yeah right......
Baldur does enjoy carob, but to claim it's indistinguishable from chocolate is really a load of crap. They do not really taste alike at all.
The similarities lay in that they are both brown in color and combine well with a sweetener.

lilalee

I have made this, but we call it Uncle John's Depression Cake!! My mother in law made it all the time and would tell me stories of how they fed families, with milk macaroni, hamburger gravey and potatoes!! If I have nuts, I do add them to the cake, as we love nuts!! Now I'm going to make one tommorrow!!

Baldur

The recipe I just used with the carob powder in place of the cocoa came out a very deep rich brown, reminiscent of 'Devil's food' but no matter how you stretch your imagination that bit of magic that comes from biting into chocolate is exchanged for something different. It tastes exotic in a way, certainly rich, Baldur is guessing it would be an incredible base for a spice cake, a black gingerbread of sorts.

Baldur

This was my first time with the recipe, as I said it's quite good. Will it still be moist tomorrow?

Baldur has not been a fan of frosting, plain cake is always the way to go.
Sometimes I'll spread a little jam on top for a showier look, for tea perhaps.

lilalee

Have used carob, but missed the cocoa! Love the cocoa!! Don't you love that word .....cocoa? I like to say"cocoa"!!