More after the jump..

Okay!

You’re going to need some things. I’m keeping this really loose- I want you to taste, add, experiment.. but, I’ll tell you of a few things that I learned the hard way.

1. Wear latex gloves. DO NOT TOUCH EYE. I got habernero stuck in my contacts once. Way to go, brainiac.

2. Vinegar and salt raises the heat of the sauce. More salt, more heat.

Getting started:
Gather up these few things..

Food processor

Peppers of various heats, get what you like.. I prefer mostly Jalapeno, with Chipolte in equal quantities. Get what you like.

Salt, vinegar. The vinegar will act as a preservative, so this is important. Salt boosts the Scoville rating, but adding a little is good, As it will also aid in preservation.

A plastic or glass container, with tight fitting lid.

Jars to hold the final product.. duh.. be green and recycle whatever’s handy, or be an earth-hating perfectionist like me and buy new ones.

a SPOOOOON! (ala The Tick)

Ph Testing strips: You can get these at the aquarium store. Make sure that they can test below 4.0 on the scale, because that’s when the bad stuff happens- A Ph level of 4 or above is not sanitary and breeds bacteria. Sick diners and exploding bottles are not fun. The lower the number, the tarter it becomes, so, it’s a balancing act- but this is very, very important.

And the extras: You can use all sorts of neat stuff to give your sauce a new sort of kick.. In Florida, when tropical things abounded and farmer’s markets were everyday, I’d use fresh ginger, mangoes, big ol’ banana peppers, whatever looked good. Follow your instincts on this one, alright? I’ve also added wine, bruised fresh herbs, whatever you think will go well with it.. come up with an idea, and follow it- I’ve used a Chianti and basil in the past, with some not-so-hot peppers, and it came out wonderfully. Also, another idea is to use some very, very raw sugar or molasses, too. Garlic, always welcome, just use your brain, okay? And mind the darn Ph!

SO NOW.. you have stuff.

Cut the stems off the peppers, puree.. add to largeish glass container- DO NOT USE METAL. It’ll leave a nasty taste. Throw in a tablespoon or so of salt, to start, and enough vinegar to get down to the below-4 ph level.

Now, you let them sit and ‘ferment’ a while. Tabasco lets their “pepper mash” (which is what you’ve just made) sit for three years. As with most things, the longer the better. This would also be an ideal time to throw in some herbs, garlic, and such. I usually try to let it sit for a week, at least. Or not wait. It’s your sauce, baby.

So, now you have your mash all ready to go.  You could go pretty nutty with the additives, or just try a few different ideas.. let’s not overkill, alright? Just mind the damn Ph! After you do all that, time to prep your bottles. I give them a good boil, personally. Now, you have a choice- to strain, or not to strain? Straining takes out a lot of the seeds, and the heat, leaving more for flavor. I’m not a strainer. I’m lazy.

Funnel into bottles, seal up, hit up kinkos and make some labels, make them as nice as my pretty floral bonnet, and there you go. Enjoy!

If you’re lazier than me: You can order pepper mash & your bottles with neato heatshrink labels and other goodies at leeners.com. (Hey, Leener’s guys! Send over a yogurt maker or a stovetop smoker!)

Of course, if you’ve been reading for any length of time, or know me personally, You already know I’m all about the do it yourself ethic, and especially with food- I really enjoy making everything from scratch. I think my one big “pass!” is with pie crusts- and I think anyone who’s tried to make one from scratch agrees. I’ll gladly fork over two dollars to the man for the convenience of not having to make the things myself! Anyhow, Here’s the buttercream frosting recipe from Magnolia Bakery in NYC- easily the simplest, and best, icing recipe I’ve found. As always, my usual caveat- use poor quality ingredients, get poor quality food. Also, keep in mind that you can easily make this recipe with all hand utensils, I don’t own a blender! And with cupcakes, have even MORE fun with them! That big honkin’ photo to the right is a batch I made- The raspberries, blueberries, and shaved dark chocolate (Freeze the bar, shave with veggie peeler) added a nice touch of bitterness, which was lovely, with all the sugar involved. This is one of those things you can just hop right into and take anywhere you want! By the way, this is the stuff immortalized in the “Lazy Sunday” Saturday Night Live short skit.

Recipe after the jump!

Magnolia Bakery’s Buttercream Frosting Recipe!

Makes enough for one 2-layer 9-inch cake or 2 dozen cupcakes*

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

• 6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar

• 1/2 cup milk

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

* Note from Chris: Add extra powdered sugar to make a stiffer frosting, if needed. It works both ways! And don’t chill it until after it’s on your baking. Otherwise, you’re in trouble!

Tools and supplies, software and a lot of links, after the jump!

Okay! I assume you already have a few things already, if you’ve read this far. I assume you have a soldering iron with some practice with it, a good mini-vise (That bad boy was worth every penny!), your usual assortment of wires, sockets and protoboard, a computer with an USB outlet, and some C for microcontrollers skills- What you’ve learned with your Arduino will help you with this.

Got a cup of coffee ready? Time for some reading.

1. Firstly, You will need an AVR programmer. I use Lady Ada’s USBtinyISP. Limor makes great products, and you’re supporting the community, too. You get the kit for 22 bucks, and it’s a steal at that price. It’s easily the cheapest and best In System Programmer you can get. Buy it, build it. Love it. Make it a special bed out of a cigar box to sleep in. I did!

2. Get to know your AVR microcontrollers, and order a little sampler from Mouser, Digikey, where ever. I ordered these to start, five of each. *don’t forget crystals and sockets! read the white pages for each chip to learn more* The list went: ATtiny13, ATtiny2313, ATmega168, and ATmega48. The ATtiny13 and ATmega48’s have been replaced by newer designs, so you might get lucky and find old stock somewhere, at a really good price. Basically, I went for a variety of chips, with different capacities and pins. I would have a look at the google ads on this page, perhaps you can find a good deal on hardware.

3. Software! You need software, of course, to make it all go. I use a mac, so I installed Crosspack, formerly known as AVR macpack. It includes AVRdude (AVR Downloader/UploaDEr – Kind of a stretch, if you ask me!) good ol’ GCC, and basically everything you will need in one package. Once again, Limor has provided an excellent tutorial on using AVRdude and her programmer in general. Read, learn, love. If you’ve got a windows box, you can use Atmel’s AVRStudio software, but please read Limor’s tutorial in order to learn how to use her programmer with it. I don’t have windows, so I don’t have the experience!

4. Lastly, You’ll need to wire up target boards, to hold your microprocessors while you throw code on them. EvilMadScientist Labs makes a great target board – get the development model with the ZIF socket and don’t forget the crystals for extra fanciness! This is only for a few MCU’s that you may find yourself using often. It’s not needed, really, but hey! It really looks cool, and is very tidy and professional, and ZIF sockets are just sweet! For your target board needs, though, I would like to refer you to this article I wrote not too long ago. They work nicely for me. And at about two bucks per, very inexpensive! I’ve labeled and attached all of my target boards inside small tins for tidiness, and longevities sake.

So, there you are! You now have what you need to start throwing code on AVR microcontrollers, on the cheap.

PS. Here’s something to get you started on using GCC for AVR’s. You’ll need it! GCC Tutorial for AVR

What You’ll Need:

1. A nice essential oil, or Tiger Balm. This is up to you! Use what you like.

2. The following ingredients: Cocoa butter, Shea butter, and Beeswax. Get a little more cocoa butter.

3. A double-boiler- you know, that thing you use in the kitchen to melt chocolate. If you don’t have one, a heavy pyrex mesuring cup in a pot of boiling water will work the same.

4. A suitable mold. A plastic container will work fine. Be sure to use just a little olive oil to ensure that you can get your bar out easily

What to do:

Firstly, BE CAREFUL!!! You’re melting OILS here.

That aside, it’s not my fault if you start a fire or burn yourself. Be safe! Anyhow, melt one part beeswax, one part shea butter, and 1.5 parts Cocoa butter together. After that, add a few drops of your oil in there.. start off with a little, a drop per ounce. This will vary with the strength of your oil. Pour into container, let cool.

You’re done. How easy was that? And from here, you can get creative with it- add more cocoa butter for a softer bar, more beeswax for a harder bar, tiger balm for a muscle soreness remedy, and even decorative elements like flower petals and such. Have fun! (psst! try dried Adzuki beans for texture!!)

Okay, so it’s no big secret that I don’t drink alcohol. But, that doesn’t prevent me from serving wine at dinners, and using it in cooking. There’s something about dumping a bunch of Merlot into a beef stew that makes it just makes it good. But, I do get stuck with partial bottles of wine, and it’s also no secret that one of my pet peeves is wasting food. By the way, Tom, from NYC, taught me this one, along with a lot of other great cooking stuff.

So, what’s a guy to do? Make some wine vinegar! Ok, this is very very simple: Get one of those liquid dispensers with the tap at the bottom. Get a couple pints of unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. You’ll have to order this online, likely. A bit of cheesecloth or an old but clean t-shirt to allow gases out, but keep the uglies out, too. Mix it all up, about 1 part vinegar to 2 parts wine. Let it sit undisurbed for a few weeks, give a taste, let it sit more, if needed. When you’re done, bottle it back up into a wine bottle, recork, and even bruise & infuse with some nice, fresh herbs. And then, marvel at the excellent quality, and the amount of cash you saved yourself. And for crying out loud, have some fun with it! try different things, herbs, whatever- this will work for champagne, too! I seriously have a dozen different bottles right now. Also, it makes an excellent small gift, when bottled in a fancy bottle with your own label.

PS: When you’re making the vinegar, a messy jelly thing may just appear on top. THIS IS GOOD. Don’t get all squirmy and come back to me all cranky because there’s a jellyfish in your wine. Just decant the wine vinegar, add more scrap wine. The goo is bacteria that’s making the process go.

AVR Target Board

I recently outgrew my still-loved Arduino, and desired to learn how to use AVR Microcontrollers in their intended way. So, I started assembling tools and software. I built a AVR programmer from Limor’s USBtinyISP kit, and it was easily the best choice for me. Then, I installed a bit of software, but then the big problem arose: How to interface the unique microcontrollers to this specific programmer. I found very little direction on how to complete this simple task, and I hope to fill in the blanks for you. I am assuming you know how to solder, and have some basic electronics know-how, ’cause you are playing with microcontrollers..

Parts! You need a 2 row, 6 pin connector. (Mouser Part #M22-2580305), a suitable piece of plain old protoboard, some thin gauge wire, and a IC header to fit the microcontroller you wish to use. And for God’s sake, use a marker to indicate which way is up for your chip!

So, for this simple process, you need to link six pins from your IC header to your 6 pin connector. But what goes where?! Good question! Lucky for us, there are standards. The programmer I am using is an ISP programmer, which means that each of the six pins goes to a unique pin on each microcontroller. To find out which pin does what on your microcontroller, simply obtain the white sheets on the chip. They’re on Atmel’s website. For our purposes, we’ll be using the popular ATtiny2313 microcontroller. To cut things short, have a look at the clip from the white pages for this chip.

ATtiny2313 layout

See those six items in red? They’re highlighted for a purpose. It’s because they correspond to the six pins in your 6-pin connector!  Now,  it’s  just  a matter of soldering your wire up to make a connection between the proper pins on both the header and connector. Here’s a little cheat sheet for what goes where on the connector:

6 Pin ISP connector

So, just clip some wire, and make your connections. Use a marker to remember which pin is #1! This will save you a lot of headache later.

Finally! One more step. Take a little more wire, and connect it in series with the Ground and VCC pins on your header. You need to feed your chip a little power. Personally, I leave these wires sticking up and out of the board, so I can take a 2xAA battery pack I’ve attached clips to for easy moving between target boards. And for crying out loud, use different colored wires, so you don’t mix things up.

From here, you’re all ready to go. I don’t want to rewire the same thing all the time, so I used some plastic standoffs, and glued the thing into a mint case, for safekeeping. You can even get extra fancy and use a ZIF socket. Whatever makes you happy, as long as you make those six little connections right and power your chip while programming it.

Have fun!

Coffee Roasting

myself. So, after learning about the finer points of the coffee bean, in the employ of a large coffee chain (HEY! I had a lawyer to pay!) I appreciated it a whole lot more.

There’s an easy and a easier way about this. Really- I spend about two dollars per pound of freshly roasted coffee.. so here are your steps. I’m going to give the easy, beginner instructions.

1. Get a coffee roaster. You can get a nice Iroast 2, which is great- you can program all sorts of stuff into it, and it’ll do the work for you. The key is, with any roasting, to watch, smell, and listen. But I’d go easy your first time out, and get your wok out. This will do fine.

2. Buy some green coffee beans. Some ethnic food stores have these, but you are usually best served online, as you tend to get a better description of what you’re buying. I like beans from Java- low acidity, almost chocolate flavor. Blend, experiment. Get a sampler pack! Sweet Maria’s is the bomb for the new roaster. Pick up a Chemex, too. Total date points for the guys out there. Not that you need one, but they’re pretty great!

3. Warm up that wok! Turn the flame up high, and throw in about two cups of beans after it’s hot. Get a not-plastic implement out, and start stirring constantly.

4. Look, Listen, and Smell. Keep stirring until the beans are a little tiny bit under your desired darkness. There’s going to be chaff and stuff going around, just relax. Listen for “first crack”. You’ll know it. That’s your first sign that your beans will be done soon. Smell! If it smells like somethings burning, it probably is! And don’t quit stirring! Smoke? Probably! And after about ten minutes, your beans will be ready. Throw them in a colander with a lid (improvise!), taken them outside, and shake them, to remove the chaff, and cool them off, to stop the roasting process.

5. Seal up your beans in an airtight container, or bag. Let them “rest” for 24 hours. Grind, use a Chemex, French press, drip, whatever you like. Now, you taste the mess you’ve made. And there your learning begins- the art of roasting coffee. It will taste sweet, and totally different than anything in a store. That’s because it’s fresh- Coffee will only stay fresh for about a week. Too dark? Don’t roast as long. Too light? Roast longer.. Just keep stirring – you want an even roast.

It’s not a science, it’s an art. Eventually, blend! Learn! Impress the heck out of your friends! Have fun!!