Lazy Luddite Log

24.3.07

Homemade Lemonade

Summer has just past and I made some homemade lemonade a few times. It has been a while since I put any recipes here so I will now describe my version of this old favourite.

Utensils & Ingredients

A glass bottle, juicer, strainer, funnel, knife, chopping board, kettle, mug, spoon, several lemons, honey, tonic water

Preparation

If I have access to a lemon tree (even an overhanging branch from next door) then naturally I will choose hand-picked lemons. However if they have to come from a shop so be it. Several lemons should do to provide the needed juice. Slice the lemons in half and juice them (using the knife, chopping board and juicer). Pour the juice into a one litre glass bottle. I have been using a spare Bickfords Lime Cordial bottle that was a limited edition with one of those wireframe stoppers. I use a strainer and a funnel to get all the juice in while removing the pulp and pips. However to contribute to the homemade feel of the drink I then separately add a token pinch of the pulp back into the lemon juice. Several lemons should fill approximately a third of the bottle. Or to be more distinctive one of those lemons can be replaced with a lime.

Next I fill the bottom of a big mug with a generous helping of honey. Then I fill the mug to the top with boiling water and stir till the honey is dissolved. This honey-water is now funnelled into the glass bottle till the bottle is two thirds full of both juice and honey-water. This provides the drink with a degree of sweetness to reduce the sourness of the citrus somewhat (but in a more interesting way than had I used sugar).

Finally I funnel in some tonic or soda or minaral water till the glass bottle is full. I do this because I cannot entirely get over the Australian childhood notion that lemonade is the bubbly sweet drink that has nothing to do with lemons except for a hint of tartness. The last ingredient provides some carbonation to the mix and its own tartness helps to mediate between the flavours of the lemon and honey. Hoever it tends to make the whole mix go bubbly and overflow somewhat. I am yet to find a way of preventing this from happening but can minimize it just by adding slowly and intermittently.

The last thing to do is wipe the bottle down to get any residue off it and pop it in the refrigerator to get nice and cool. Then come back later and have some. It tastes intensely so do warn friends that they can always dilute it further. The bottle will provide half-a-dozen serves so is best for small gatherings in warmer weather (like a picnic or barbeque).

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16.3.07

Bad for Good

I was remarking recently that pool (aka 8-ball) was something I enjoy despite my poor performance in it. This seems an unusal thing. To my way of thinking it is natural to enjoy things one is good at and not for things one is bad at. However pool is an exception to this.

Just the other day at work I realized that I have another exception to this in answering the phone. Within the context of an office job I think that handling phone calls is the task in which I perform the best. And yet I still always look forward to the end of the call. This partly arises from the satisfaction of having completed the task well but arises much more from the fact that the task is simply over with and I can get back to some other task.

So I like but am bad at pool. And I am good at but dislike handling phone queries. Both these things seem contradictory to me. What am I missing here? Any observations on this one for me? Hey - to help facilitate responses to this entry I may even turn it into a meme - here it is:

1. Name something you are good at and enjoy. Do you like it because you are good at it?

2. Name something you are poor at
and do not enjoy. Do you dislike it because you are poor at it?

3. Name something you are poor at
but enjoy. Why do you like it?

4. Name something you are good at
but do not enjoy. Why do you diskike it?

All responses welcome.

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9.3.07

Blog Housekeeping

Some minor changes have been made to my blog recently. Some changes were imposed by the changeover to The New Blogger while I have made changes to other content.

The imposed changes affected my profile page. My age was suddenly listed as something close to that of Aphra Behn! I have fixed that particular mistake. The other thing is that now my profile lists both my occidental and oriental astrological designations. I want to state here for the record that I think of such stuff as nothing more than superstition. While I am at it I may as well add that I am agnostic on the topic of the existence of anything supernatural (including God) and skeptical of any suggestions that the supernatural impinges on the everyday world. I am also something of a secular humanist.

There are also other changes of my own making: The biggest change is that I have added a link to the Monash University Choral Society (MonUCS) in the sidebar under Things I Am Involved In. I have been active in the group (most recently) for over 12 months now so figure it is time to recognize that here. They are a nice bunch and the music can be a lot of fun.

Also I am now using labels for posts thus making subject-oriented hunting a cinch.

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