In the first podcast, one of the “hosts” remarks, starting at 3:49, “Like, imagine making a super detailed blog post, like, making your morning coffee.”
Well, here is the post that the “hosts” jokingly “suggested” that I create.
Note that I don’t actually drink coffee because I don’t care for it; I like iced tea (this web page was written somewhere between 1995 and 1997; while the page’s premise still stands some 28 to 30 years later, some of the specific information is rather out of date, principally the beer section: Nowadays, I adore Belgian dubbels, quadruppels, and German bocks — but I digress.) However, I regularly prepare coffee for my mom.
Note that there are a small number of photos which were either taken in a slightly different order, or which were recreated during the session, and one which was taken during a different session, but presented as follows for the sake of the narrative.
Update 20250106: I wrote a post about the trials and tribulations of attempting to make a podcast using Google NotebookLM about this post and its tongue-in-cheek premise.
Making the coffee:
I normally set up a coffee machine for my mom every day, usually the evening before.
Firstly, the coffee machine was taken out:
Coffee machine taken out
Paper coffee filters were taken out:
Paper coffee filters taken out
A single paper coffee filter was taken from the grouping of paper coffee filters:
Paper coffee filter separated from group
The coffee machine’s lid was opened:
Coffee machine lid opened
The paper coffee filter was placed in the plastic basket in the coffee machine:
Paper coffee filter placed in coffee machine basket
Note that my mom finds “medium roast”, fine grind drip coffee machine coffee grounds meets her liking:
Medium roast fine grind drip coffee machine coffee grounds
… which of course has suggested preparation instructions:
Manufacturer’s suggested preparation instructions
We keep coffee in a resealable plastic container in the fridge:
Coffee kept in sealable container in fridge
The coffee container was taken out:
Coffee container taken out of fridge
The coffee container was opened:
Coffee container opened
Three heaping tablespoons of the coffee grounds were measured out:
Coffee measured out
The coffee grounds were transferred to the paper coffee filter in the basket in the coffee machine:
Coffee transferred to paper coffee filter in basket
Coffee transferred to paper coffee filter in basket
Just for fun, a paper coffee filter was placed on a kitchen scale, and the kitchen scale was set to zero:
Paper coffee filter weighed
… then the paper coffee filter was switched out, and the paper coffee filter with the measured out coffee grounds were placed on the kitchen scale, revealing that I’d measured out about 24 grams of coffee grounds:
Coffee grounds weighed, 24g
The paper coffee filter and coffee grounds were returned to the coffee machine (photo from a subsequent setup):
Paper coffee filter and coffee grounds returned to coffee machine
The coffee carafe was taken out of the machine, and brought to the sink:
Rinse water drawn into carafe
A bit of water was drawn into the carafe, and swirled around to rinse out the inside of the carafe:
Rinse water in carafe
The rinse water was poured out:
Rinse water poured out of carafe
Two cups of water — about up to one of the marks on the side of the carafe — were drawn into the carafe:
Two cups of water in carafe
Back to the coffee machine …
Coffee machine with lid open
The water in the carafe was poured into the water reservoir at the back on the coffee machine:
Water poured into coffee machine reservoir
Water poured into coffee machine reservoir
Water poured into coffee machine reservoir
Water poured into coffee machine reservoir
The coffee machine’s lid was closed:
Coffee machine lid closed
The empty coffee carafe was placed into the machine on the hotplate under the basket:
Carafe placed in coffee machine
Since I normally prepare the coffee machine for my mom, I normally place a handwritten sign on top of the coffee machine indicating that all she has to do is turn on the machine:
Sign for my mom placed on top of the coffee machine
I also normally place a coffee mug beside the coffee machine for her …
Coffee mug taken out
… and I normally also place a spoon in the coffee mug for her:
Spoon added to mug
The following morning, a weekend day for me, I prepared the coffee for Mom, and served it to her.
I went up to the coffee machine, which of course was off (and, I noticed in the better morning light, that the machine itself could use a wipe down!) …
Coffee machine ready to be turned on
… and I turned it on:
Coffee machine turned on
The machine started operating, and liquid started flowing through the machine, and into the carafe, fogging up the inside of the carafe in the process:
Coffee starting to drip through the coffee grounds into the carafe
Coffee carafe starting to fill up
Coffee dripping through the coffee grounds into the carafe
After a few minutes, the machine finished, and the coffee was made:
Brewing cycle completed
I reached over to the compost bucket across the counter …
Compost bucket across the counter
… to remove its lid:
Lid removed from compost bucket
The coffee machine’s lid was opened:
Lid opened on coffee machine
… and the paper coffee filter and wet coffee grounds were removed from the basket:
Paper coffee filter and wet grounds lifted out of coffee machine basket
Emptied coffee machine basket
The paper coffee filter and wet coffee grounds were transferred to the compost bucket:
Paper coffee filter and wet grounds placed in compost bucket
Paper coffee filter and wet grounds placed in compost bucket
… and the compost bucket’s lid was placed back onto the compost bucket:
Compost bucket covered with lid
The coffee maker’s lid was also closed:
Coffee machine lid closed
Mom likes to keep milk for her coffee and tea in a plastic container in the fridge:
Milk for coffee and tea in container in fridge
The milk container was taken out:
Milk taken out
Milk was poured into the coffee mug:
Milk poured into coffee cup
For fun, I decided to measure out how much milk I’d poured out, which was a roughly typical amount:
Milk measured for fun
… leading to it being roughly two liquid ounces:
Two liquid ounces of milk
The milk was returned to the coffee cup:
Milk returned to coffee cup
The coffee cup with just the milk was placed in the microwave oven:
Coffee cup with milk placed in microwave oven
… and the milk was warmed for 20 seconds (1100 watts):
Milk warmed for 20 seconds
The warmed milk was brought back to the coffee maker:
Coffee cup brought back to coffee machine
Mom likes sugar in her coffee, so a sugar bowl was taken out:
Sugar taken out
The sugar bowl was opened:
Sugar bowl opened
For fun, I thought I’d find out how much sugar I put in Mom’s coffee, so I took out a kitchen scale, placed the spoon on the scale, and set the scale to zero:
Kitchen scale set to zero with spoon on it
The spoon was placed in the sugar bowl …
Spoon brought to sugar bowl
Sugar was measured out:
Sugar measured out
… and the sugar was weighed, proving to be about 4 grams:
Sugar weighed, 4g
The sugar was transferred to the coffee machine with the warmed milk:
Sugar transferred to coffee cup with warmed milk
Sugar transferred to coffee cup with warmed milk
Coffee was poured into the coffee cup with the warmed milk and sugar:
Coffee poured into coffee cup with warmed milk
Coffee poured into coffee cup with warmed milk
Coffee poured into coffee cup with warmed milk
… until the coffee cup had been filled:
Coffee cup filled
The spoon was picked up …
Spoon picked up
… and the coffee was thoroughly stirred:
Coffee, milk, and sugar thoroughly mixed
The now-filled coffee cup was again placed in the microwave oven, because mom likes her coffee really hot:
Coffee cup with coffee, milk, and sugar placed in microwave oven
The coffee was warmed for 25 seconds (1100 watts):
Note that while this recipe can be easily multiplied several times to make more muffins at once, this recipe is intentionally tailored to a half dozen muffins instead of the usual custom of a dozen muffins, since the original recipe on which it was based allows it to be halved and therefore be baked in a countertop convection oven.
In addition to this recipe, the following recipes can (usually, depending on oven size and specific dimensions) be made directly without adjustment in a countertop convection oven:
As well, here are a number of my other recipes which allow for adjusting by half to be made, or can otherwise easily be made (sometimes in shifts), in a countertop convection oven:
First, my countertop convection oven was turned on and set to 350F (yes, the photo says 86F, it’s preheating!):
Countertop convection oven turned on to be preheated
Countertop convection oven turned on to be preheated
A muffin baking tin and some paper muffin liners were taken out:
Muffin baking tin and paper muffin liners taken out
Paper muffin liners were placed in each of the wells of the muffin baking tin:
Paper muffin liners placed in muffin baking tin wells
A mixing bowl, a fork, and a spoon were taken out:
Mixing bowl, fork, and spoon taken out
Flour and a measuring cup were taken out, and some flour was measured out:
Flour taken out and measured out
The flour was transferred to the mixing bowl:
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out, and some sugar was measured out:
Sugar taken out and measured out
The sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Baking soda and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some baking soda was measured out:
Baking soda taken out and measured out
The baking soda was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and the sugar:
Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl
Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl
Baking soda transferred to mixing bowl
Cinnamon and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some cinnamon was measured out:
Cinnamon taken out and measured out
The cinnamon was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, and baking soda:
Cinnamon transferred to mixing bowl
Cinnamon transferred to mixing bowl
Nutmeg and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some nutmeg was measured out:
Nutmeg taken out and measured out
The nutmeg was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon:
Nutmeg transferred to mixing bowl
Nutmeg transferred to mixing bowl
Salt and a measuring spoon were taken out, and some salt was measured out:
Salt taken out and measured out
The salt was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg:
Salt transferred to mixing bowl
Salt transferred to mixing bowl
A fork was taken out and used to mix the dry ingredients:
Dry ingredients mixed with a fork
Dry ingredients mixed with a fork
A box of eggs was taken out:
Eggs taken out
An egg was taken out of the box of eggs:
Egg taken out
The egg was cracked on the edge of the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients:
Egg cracked into mixing bowl
Egg cracked into mixing bowl
Milk and a measuring cup were taken out, and some milk was measured out, but the milk was not yet transferred to the mixing bowl:
Milk taken out and measured out but not yet transferred to mixing bowl
Vegetable oil was taken out, and some oil was measured out in the measuring cup while the milk was still in it, but the milk and oil were not yet transferred to the mixing bowl:
Oil taken out and measured out but not yet transferred to mixing bowl
Strawberry jam was taken out, and some strawberry jam was measured out into the measuring cup with the milk and vegetable oil:
Strawberry jam taken out and measured out
Strawberry jam measured out
The milk, vegetable oil, and the strawberry jam were transferred to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients and the egg:
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
Milk, oil, and strawberry jam transferred to mixing bowl
The ingredients were mixed together with the fork:
Ingredients mixed with a fork
The batter was transferred to the paper liners in the muffin baking tin, using a spoon:
Batter transferred to paper liners in muffin baking tin
Batter transferred to paper liners in muffin baking tin
The filled muffin baking tin was transferred to the pre-heated countertop convection oven:
Muffin baking tin with batter placed in countertop convection oven
A timer was set to 23 minutes:
Timer set to 23 minutes
While the muffins were baking, a cooling rack was taken out:
Cooling rack taken out
Here’s a picture of the muffins rising while baking:
Muffins rising while baking
At the end of the 23 minutes when the muffins were baked, the muffin baking tin with the muffins were taken out of the countertop convection oven:
Muffins taken out of countertop convection oven
The muffins were taken out of the muffin baking tin and placed on the cooling rack:
Muffins placed on cooling rack
A muffin (in the case of this photo, from a subsequent batch) was taken out to serve to mom:
A delicious muffin is served!
Mom loves these delicious muffins a lot these days!
… and I froze the rest of muffins in a freezer bag, as I did with muffins from a subsequent batch:
I came to enjoy a type of convenience frozen pizza in the early 1990’s while in residence at university; of course I enjoyed them then, and continue to occasionally enjoy them to this day. However, what really fascinated me was how the manufacturer managed to produce what amounted to a bun stuffed with a filling, in this case pizza toppings, without an apparent seam or other apparent entry point for the contents (such as the small hole one would see on the size of a jelly doughnut). While said fascination remained, it was not strong enough for me to actually try to figure it out.
Fast forward to late 2023, and a snacks table offered bierocks (here’s my archive), which immediately caught my attention. Before I even picked one up and looked at it, including inspecting its bottom, I immediately realized how they had been made. I definitely ate some, and asked the person who had made them for the recipe. Due to delays in setting up a cooking lesson with said person, I eventually just followed the recipe instead of waiting to be shown how to make them.
(And, I am assuming, the manufacturer of the commercial pizza treats uses some kind of mechanical method analogous to the relevant section(s) below, or, a precisely timed continuous dual extrusion system that minimizes seams, and in either case a dough recipe tuned to be susceptible to the process; ultimately, whichever process is used appears to assure that the edges stay sealed, and the filled units are moved along an Archemides’ screw or the like to the next step, in such a way that smooths out any seams.)
Note that in the following narrative, while the photos are principally from a single session, a few are from two other sessions in order to complete the narrative.
Making the bierocks:
One of the common ingredients in bierocks is chopped cabbage; so cabbage was taken out:
Cabbage taken out
A piece of cabbage was cut off to make chopping easier:
Piece of cabbage placed on a cutting board
The cabbage was chopped up somewhere between coarsely to finely:
Cabbage chopped
As the cabbage was chopped, it was placed in a bowl:
Chopped cabbage placed in bowl
I continued to chop cabbage, and froze the excess for future use, since a typical cabbage is far larger than the roughly half pound needed for this recipe.
In the case of this session, frozen cabbage from a previous chopping session was used; as such, a plate was placed on a kitchen scale, and the latter set to zero, so as to only be measuring the cabbage:
Bowl placed on kitchen scale, which was set to zero
About half a pound (about 227g) of frozen chopped cabbage was placed in the bowl:
Cabbage weighed
The cabbage was put aside in order to allow it to defrost.
Frozen ground beef was taken out, and weighed to make sure that the appropriate amount of two pounds (911g) would be used:
Ground beef weighed
The ground beef was put aside to allow it to defrost.
The basket from my bread machine was taken out and cleaned:
Clean bread machine basket taken out
Six ounces of water were measured out:
Water measured out
The water was placed in the microwave oven (1100 watts) …
Water placed in microwave oven
… and heated for 45 seconds.
Timer on microwave oven set
The warmed water was poured into the bread machine basket:
Warmed water poured into bread machine basket
Warmed water poured into bread machine basket
Warmed water poured into bread machine basket
Eggs were taken out:
Eggs taken out
The eggs were cracked into the bread machine basket with the warmed water:
Egg cracked on edge of bread machine basket
Eggs cracked on edge of bread machine basket
Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:
Flour and measuring cup taken out
The measured out flour was transferred to the bread machine with the warmed water and the eggs:
Flour transferred to bread machine basket
Flour transferred to bread machine basket
Flour transferred to bread machine basket
Sugar and measuring spoons were taken out:
Sugar and measuring spoons taken out
Six tablespoons of sugar were measured out …
Sugar measured out
… and transferred to the bread machine basket with the water, eggs, and flour:
Sugar transferred to bread machine basket
Sugar transferred to bread machine basket
Salt and measuring spoons were taken out:
Salt and measuring spoons taken out
The salt was measured out and transferred to the bread machine basket with the water, eggs, flour, and sugar:
Salt transferred to bread machine basket
Oil and a measuring cup were taken out:
Oil and measuring cup taken out
The oil was measured out (oops twice as much as I should have used):
Oil measured out
The oil was transferred to the bread machine basket with the water, eggs, flour, sugar, and salt:
Oil transferred to bread machine basket
Oil transferred to bread machine basket
A little note at this point: Since this recipe calls for using a bread machine, I strongly recommend using bread machine yeast; standard bread yeast behaves differently — although not necessarily badly — and in a bread machine, will produce a strong yeasty odour and taste, no doubt due to different timing required for it to act properly. Should you be making bread dough another way, including using standard bread yeast, of course I do not have any advice on that front. 🙂
Bread machine yeast and measuring spoons were taken out:
Bread machine yeast and measuring spoons taken out
Two teaspoons of bread machine yeast were measured out:
Bread machine yeast measured out
The bread machine yeast was added to the bread machine basket with the water, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, and oil:
Bread machine yeast transferred to bread machine basket
Bread machine yeast transferred to bread machine basket
The bread machine basket with all the ingredients was placed in the bread machine, and the unit was set to the dough only cycle, which in the case of my bread machine is setting #8, with a cycle time of 1h30:
Bread machine set to dough cycle
The bread machine was turned on:
Bread machine turned on
While the bread machine was preparing the dough, baking trays were taken out:
Baking trays taken out
Parchment paper was taken out:
Parchment paper taken out
Sheets of parchment paper were cut off the roll and placed on the baking sheets:
Parchment paper placed on the baking sheets
The baking sheets were put aside for later.
An electric frypan was taken out:
Electric frypan taken out
The electric frypan was plugged in, and the ground beef was placed in the electric frypan:
Ground beef placed in electric frypan, and electric frypan plugged in
The chopped cabbage was placed in the electric frypan:
Chopped cabbage placed in electric frypan
Salt was added to the electric frypan:
Salt added to electric frypan
An onion was taken out and weighed to be sure it was enough (“about” a quarter pound of chopped onion in the end):
Onion taken out and weighed
The onion was placed on the cutting board:
Onion placed on cutting board
The onion was trimmed:
Onion trimmed
The onion was cut in half:
Onion cut in half
The onion half was sliced into half coins:
Onion sliced
The onion slices were chopped:
Onion chopped
The rest of the onion was chopped, and the chopped onion was transferred to the electric frypan, and the ground beef was cut up with an egg flipper:
Onion added to electric frypan
The ground beef was broken up further, and the ground beef, cabbage, and onions were mixed together:
Ingredients broken up and mixed together
Cheese was weighed out:
Cheese weighed
The cheese was grated:
Cheese grated
The grated cheese was transferred to a bowl, and put aside for later:
Grated cheese transferred to bowl
Once the meat mix was cooked, the electric frypan was unplugged:
Fried ingredients cooked
At this point, I took out a large serving plate and a kitchen knife in anticipation of the bread machine dough cycle completing:
Large plate and kitchen knife taken out
The bread machine finished its dough cycle:
Bread machine dough cycle complete
At this point, I started to preheat the oven, set to 350F, and one of the racks was placed in the top position (photo taken after preheating):
Oven preheated to 350F
The dough was taken out of the bread machine basket:
Dough taken out of bread machine
At this point, to get 24 roughly similarly sized balls of dough, I am using what I call the “Jamie Oliver Method” because I saw Jamie Oliver use this method on one of his shows with bread dough:
Cut the dough in half (2 pieces);
Cut each half into three pieces (2 x 3 = 6 pieces);
Cut each “third of a half” into four pieces (6 x 4 = 24).
I concede that Jamie Oliver would have you roll the dough into a long log first to further help with estimating making the sizes relatively even.
The dough was cut in half:
Dough cut in half
One of the dough halves was cut in three:
Dough half cut into three pieces
One of the pieces was cut in four:
Dough piece cut into four pieces
The rest of the bread dough pieces were cut up, resulting in 25 pieces, which eventually were reduced to 24 pieces:
25 bread dough pieces (which will be integrated into 24)
A bread dough pieces was placed on the cutting board, and flattened and stretched out:
Bread dough piece flattened on cutting board
Some shredded cheese was placed in the centre of the piece of flattened bread dough:
Shredded cheese placed on flattened bread dough
Some cooked meat mix was placed on top of the shredded cheese on the piece of flattened bread dough:
Cooked meat mix placed on flattened bread dough
I began to stretch the edges of the flattened bread dough, pulling them together and covering the filling:
Bread dough edges stretched and brought together
All of the edges were brought together and the edges were pinched together:
Stretched bread dough edges brought together
Stretched bread dough edges brought together
The resulting ball of stuffed bread dough was placed on the parchment paper on one of the trays, pinched edges face down:
Stuffed bread dough ball placed edges down on baking tray
The process was repeated with more pieces of bread dough and more cooked meat mix and shredded cheese:
Stuffed bread dough balls placed edges down on baking tray
Stuffed bread dough balls placed edges down on baking tray
The process was continued until there were 24 units:
24 units on baking trays
Margarine, a bowl, and a spoon were taken out:
Margarine, bowl, and spoon taken out
The empty bowl was placed on the kitchen scale, which was set to zero:
Kitchen scale set to zero with bowl on it
Margarine was weighed out, about five tablespoons’ worth, in the area of about 70g to 73g:
Margarine weighed out
The bowl of margarine was placed in the microwave oven (1100 watts):
Margarine placed in microwave oven
The microwave oven was set to 15 seconds:
Microwave set to 15 seconds
The margarine was partly melted:
Margarine partly melted
The microwave oven was set again for 15 seconds, and the margarine was mostly melted:
Margarine melted
A food brush was used to brush the melted margarine on to the bierocks …
Melted margarine brushed onto bierocks
Melted margarine brushed onto bierocks
… until all units had been basted and all the melted margarine had been used:
Melted margarine brushed onto bierocks
The trays of bierocks were placed in the oven:
Baking trays with bierocks placed in oven
The stove timer was set to 22 minutes:
Timer set to 22 minutes
Cooling racks were taken out while the bierocks were baking:
Cooling racks taken out
Pot holders were taken out:
Pot holders taken out
At about halfway through the baking, the trays with the bierocks were rotated back to front within the oven:
Baking trays rotated back to front part way through baking
At the end of the baking period, I turned on the broiler to brown the tops of the bierocks:
Broil cycle turned on at end of baking
… and the oven timer was set to two minutes:
Timer set to 2 minutes of browning
Here’s a photo of the bierocks as they were browning under the broiler:
Bierocks browning under broiler
After the two minutes under the broiler, the bierocks were taken out of the oven:
Baking trays with bierocks taken out of oven
The bierocks were transferred to the cooling racks:
Bierocks placed on cooling racks
A bierock was picked up to check the bottom where the pinched edges of the dough had been brought together to show how it baked (but … not seamlessly! 🙂 )
Underside of a bierock
I bit into the fresh bierock … yummy!
Inside of a bierock — Yummy!!!
A bierock was placed on a cutting board with a kitchen knife:
Bierock and knife placed on cutting board
The bierock was cut into four pieces:
Bierock sliced into four pieces for freezing
Several bierocks were cut up into quarters, because bierock pieces have become part of my usual breakfasts:
Bierocks sliced into four pieces for freezing
… and the cut up bierocks were placed in a freezer bag for freezing:
Bierock pieces placed in freezer bag
The bag of bierock pieces was placed in a freezer for future eating as part of my daily breakfasts.
This past weekend, my brother decided to play around with the Google NotebookLM podcast generator, using my recent post about making yoghurt muffins as the podcast topic source material.
Here are the results: “Podcast 1“, the first one I listened to and chuckled at throughout (see below), and “Podcast 2“, which is longer than the first, and a slightly different approach (again, see below).
As a reference, according to Wikipedia (here’s my archive), NotebookLM is a tool by Google that has an “audio summary” feature has the “ability to condense complex documents into engaging podcasts”. As referenced in the article, some of the generated podcasts have indeed been making the rounds on at least the media local to me; the samples played on the radio had the “voices” of two artificial “hosts”, one male and one female, and appeared to greatly impress the real radio host. The real human host on the radio then proceeded to create their own samples with the tool using local news items as source material, resulting in stunningly … seemingly accurate (or at least faithful to the source material) content and banter between the two artificial “hosts”. The voices — and banter — of the artificial “hosts” that were created sounded so real that the “hosts” did not sound obviously artificial in almost any, let alone many, of the usual ways that usually betray the artificiality or synthetic nature of the voices. “They” seemed to bypass the Uncanny Valley (here’s my archive) as well, if only because they weren’t associated with artificially-created “speaking” faces or other cues that might suggest that “they” were artificial.
To wit: My brother came up with two podcasts: Podcast1, and Podcast2, based on the blog page about the yoghurt muffins: The first podcast was roughly what I would have expected, based on the samples I’d heard on the radio, in the form of “entertaining” banter from the artificial “hosts” about the overall post and subject, while the second podcast followed a play-by-play style review of the post and its pictures.
Especially while listening to the first, I was often incredulously guffawing at how “seriously” they seemed to be taking the subject, to the point of “their” calling me a perfectionist; despite, uhm, seriously having approached mounting the post with its pictures and processing the photos for presentation, as well as of course maintaining my recipe archive, and again of course being fairly serious on a hobby level about my cooking, for the overall cooking project I have always had a certain laid back, “enjoying the fun” pleasure to mounting the posts. Which, I must admit, intentionally include a lot of photos detailing usually every last step and even micro-step. I would estimate that the “hosts” got it better in the second podcast by calling me meticulous.
The end result of the two podcasts is so good that except for the knowledge that it’s totally AI generated, I would actually believe that the podcast was hosted by real people and put together by real people providing real feedback. As such, I have a few responses to some of the “comments” that the “hosts” made:
I am flattered in a giggly kind of way that the “hosts” underlined the dirty oven window, which I myself had somewhat sheepishly admitted was the case in the original post;
The “hosts” seem to enthusiastically say it’s like a scientific document with no room for error; I would challenge anyone to compare the blog post against the recipe and say that the two are identical. 🙂
For the record: I did not lick the spoon. 🙂
The “hosts” spoke of how much care I took by freezing them … well, I will go into the “easy” column and say both that baking a half batch or a double batch is roughly as easy as a standard batch, and, that I often try to make recipes that are good for the freezer!
And finally … the “hosts”, in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, pretty much suggested that I make a blog post on making the morning coffee, which I may just do sometimes in the futurewhich I actually have done. 🙂
The “hosts” asked what does “easy” mean in my claim that the muffins are easy to make, such as is it the number of ingredients, the technique, or the cleanup? “They” initially conclude “Let’s find out!” “They” then go on to point out the use of the paper liners, and the reuse of the measuring cup used to measure out the yoghurt to then measure out the oil without cleaning it in between, as examples of the “easy” part.
The “hosts” seem to insinuate at a couple of points that the amounts of sugar and oil used are “generous”, while of course continuing to state that the muffins’ crumb would no doubt be rather moist as a result; yet, when discussing the presence of the yoghurt, the “hosts” wondered whether the yoghurt muffins were just an alternative to the bran muffins I make for my mom, but ultimately seemed to decide that it was obviously a “health angle”. I perceived this as a lack of continuity in the “creation” of the podcast. And to be clear, having adopted this recipe was simply meant to be an alternative to the bran muffins I give to my mom, which is clearly stated at the beginning of the post; further, I am not trying to “match” the sweetness of bran muffins.
The “hosts” say that the kind of yoghurt I use is not identified, ie. firm yoghurt, stirred yoghurt, or greek yoghurt, etc.; “they” are correct that the tub does not say so, at least in the view in the picture. However, “they” do read into it by saying that this lack of information is part of the “easy” claim by letting people trying the recipe to use what they have on hand. Also, “they” did not pick up on the strawberry on the tub as an example of how the “relatively plain” was intentionally a loose interpretation.
The “hosts” say that the kind of oil I used was not identified; again, the photo of the jug plainly says “vegetable oil”, which should tell all bakers that it’s generic vegetable-based cooking oil.
Is this a fun tool? Sure. My brother and I have bandied about ideas — purely in the hypothetical — about using the tool to create large numbers of podcasts that could then be syndicated to AM radio stations for the overnight slot during which a lot of content is often recycled or of what we consider to be of dubious interest.
These easy to make muffins are fairly straightforward, tasty, and, despite being labeled as “plain”, the term is used somewhat loosely since the yoghurt used may be any kind of flavoured yoghurt, which will come across lightly but distinctly in the final product. As well, small amounts of fruits or other flavouring agents could be added without substantial changes.
A tray of muffin moulds, and correspondingly sized paper liners, were taken out:
Muffin moulds and paper liners taken out
The moulds were each lined with paper muffin liners:
Lining moulds with paper muffin liners
Lining moulds with paper muffin liners
The lined baking tray was put aside, and a mixing bowl, a spoon, and a fork were taken out:
Mixing bowl, spoon, and fork taken out
Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:
Flour and measuring cup taken out
The measuring cup was filled with flour:
Measuring cup filled with flour
The flour was transferred to the mixing bowl:
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Flour transferred to mixing bowl
Sugar was taken out, and the measuring cup was taken out again:
Sugar and measuring cup taken out
Sugar was measured out:
Sugar measured out
The sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour
Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour
Baking powder and measuring spoons were taken out:
Baking powder and measuring spoons taken out
Baking powder was measured out:
Baking powder measured out
The baking powder was added to the flour and sugar in the mixing bowl:
Baking powder added to flour and sugar
Baking powder added to flour and sugar
Baking powder added to flour and sugar
Salt and measuring spoons were taken out:
Salt and measuring spoons taken out
Salt was measured out:
Salt measured out
The salt added to the flour, sugar, and baking powder:
Salt added to the flour, sugar, and baking powder
Salt added to the flour, sugar, and baking powder
Using the fork, the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt were thoroughly mixed:
Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt thoroughly mixed with fork
Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt thoroughly mixed with fork
A tub of yoghurt and a measuring cup were taken out:
Yoghurt and measuring cup taken out
Yoghurt was measured out:
Yoghurt measured out
The yoghurt was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt:
Yoghurt transferred to bowl of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
Yoghurt transferred to bowl of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
Yoghurt transferred to bowl of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, with spoon added
Vegetable oil was taken out, and the measuring cup used for the yoghurt was reused, without needing to clean it since I’d only just used it moments before for the yoghurt :
Vegetable oil and measuring cup taken out
The vegetable oil was measured out:
Vegetable oil measured out
The vegetable oil was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and yoghurt:
Vegetable oil transferred to bowl
Eggs were taken out:
Eggs taken out
Eggs taken out
Eggs taken out
The eggs were cracked into the bowl with the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, yoghurt, and vegetable oil:
Eggs cracked into bowl
Eggs cracked into bowl
Eggs cracked into bowl
All the ingredients were mixed together with a spoon:
Ingredients mixed with spoon
… creating a thick paste dough:
Ingredients mixed with spoon
The muffin mould tray prepared earlier was taken out:
Prepared muffin mould tray taken out
The dough was spooned into the paper muffin moulds:
Muffin moulds filled with muffin dough
Muffin moulds filled with muffin dough
The filled muffin tray was placed in the preheated oven:
Filled muffin tray placed in oven
A timer was set to 21 minutes:
Timer set to 21 minutes
Looking through the oven window (which admittedly could use a cleaning!), the muffins began to rise:
Muffins baking and rising
Muffins baking and tops beginning to brown
Muffins baking and tops browning
While the muffins were baking, cooling racks were taken out:
Cooling racks taken out
After the timer ran out and the muffins had baked, the muffins were taken out of the oven, and the tray placed on a cutting board:
Baked muffins taken out of oven
The muffins were transferred from the muffin tray moulds to the cooling racks to cool down:
Freshly baked muffins transferred to the cooling racks
A yummy fresh muffin was served to my mom with another mini-muffin, with the paper linings removed:
Muffins served
Muffins served
… and the rest of the cooled muffins were placed in a sealable freezer bag, to be placed in the freezer:
This decadently rich and scrumptious dessert is another relatively new addition to my collection of recipes. Mom loves it!
Making the squares:
Before beginning, some cream cheese was taken out of the fridge and put on the counter to warm up to room temperature:
Cream cheese taken out before beginning in order to soften it
Parchment paper and an 8″ baking pan were taken out:
Parchment paper and baking pan taken out
A parchment paper larger than the baking pan was torn off the roll …
Parchment paper cut off of roll
… and the baking pan was lined with the parchment paper, with a little bit left over the edges of the pan:
Baking pan lined with parchment paper
The pan was put aside for a few moments, and a countertop convection oven was set to 325F and turned on:
Countertop convection oven turned on
Oven set to 325F
Graham cracker crumbs were taken out:
Graham cracker crumbs taken out
A cup and a half of graham cracker crumbs were measured out:
Graham cracker crumbs measured out
The graham cracker crumbs were transferred to a mixing bowl:
Graham cracker crumbs transferred to mixing bowl
Graham cracker crumbs transferred to mixing bowl
Margarine was taken out:
Margarine taken out
Margarine was scooped out of the tub:
Margarine scooped out of tub
The margarine was placed in a bowl, previously placed on the scale and the tare set to zero:
Margarine measured out
The margarine was melted in the microwave oven, 15 seconds at a time:
Microwave oven set to 15 seconds
Margarine being melted 15 seconds at a time in microwave oven
Once fully melted, the margarine was taken out of the microwave oven:
Melted margarine taken out of the microwave oven
The melted margarine was poured over the graham cracker crumbs in the mixing bowl:
Melted margarine poured over graham cracker crumbs
Melted margarine poured over graham cracker crumbs
An electric blender was taken out and used to fully mix the graham cracker crumbs and the melted margarine:
Graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine mixed with electric blender
Graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine mixed with electric blender
The baking pan with the parchment paper lining was brought back and the fully blended graham cracker crumbs and melted margarine were transferred to the baking pan.
Graham cracker mix transferred to baking pan
Graham cracker mix transferred to baking pan
The graham cracker mix was flattened with an egg flipper:
Graham cracker mix flattened with an egg flipper
The baking pan with the graham cracker crust was placed in the pre-heated countertop oven:
Graham cracker crust placed in oven
A timer was set for six minutes:
While the graham cracker crust was baking, a cooling rack was taken out (and placed on my stove):
Cooling rack taken out
After baking for six minutes, the graham cracker crust was taken out of the oven and placed on the cooling rack:
Graham cracker crust placed on cooling rack
Another bowl was placed in the scale and the tare set to zero:
Small bowl placed on scale and scale set to zero
More margarine was taken out and measured out:
Margarine measured out
The mixing bowl had been washed while the graham cracker base was baking, and the margarine was transferred to the mixing bowl:
Margarine transferred to clean mixing bowl
Margarine transferred to clean mixing bowl
Brown sugar and a measuring cup were taken out:
Brown sugar and measuring cup taken out
The brown sugar was measured out:
Brown sugar measured out
The brown sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the margarine:
Brown sugar transferred to mixing bowl
Table sugar and a measuring spoon were taken out:
Sugar and measuring spoon taken out
Table sugar was measured out and poured into the mixing bowl with the brown sugar and margarine:
Table sugar added to mixing bowl
Table sugar added to mixing bowl
Salt was taken out and measured out:
Salt measured out
The salt was added to the mixing bowl with the two kinds of sugar and margarine:
Salt added to mixing bowl
Vanilla extract and a measuring spoon were taken out:
Vanilla extract
The vanilla extract was measured out and added to the mixing bowl with the two kinds of sugar, margarine, and salt:
Vanilla extract added to mixing bowl
Vanilla extract added to mixing bowl
Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:
Flour taken out
The flour was measured out:
Flour measured out
The flour was transferred to the bowl with the two kinds of sugar, margarine, salt, and vanilla extract:
Flour added to mixing bowl
Flour added to mixing bowl
Two kinds of chocolate chips were taken out:
Two kinds of chocolate chips taken out
Half a cup of milk chocolate chips were measured out:
Half a cup of milk chocolate chips measured out
… and half a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips were measured out:
Half a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips measured out
The chocolate chips were added to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients:
Chocolate chips added to mixing bowl
Chocolate chips added to mixing bowl
A hand held electric mixer was taken out and the ingredients mixed to make a powdery dough:
Ingredients mixed with electric mixer
Ingredients mixed with electric mixer
The cookie dough was transferred to another bowl and put aside:
Cookie dough transferred to another bowl
Cookie dough transferred to another bowl and put aside
The package of cream cheese placed on the counter earlier to warm up to room temperature was taken out and opened with a pair of scissors:
Package of cream cheese opened
Package of cream cheese opened
The cream cheese was transferred to the mixing bowl, the latter of which again was washed in between mixing jobs.
Cream cheese placed in mixing bowl
The table sugar was taken out again and measured out:
Sugar measured out
The table sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the cream cheese:
Table sugar placed in mixing bowl
Table sugar placed in mixing bowl
The electric mixer was taken out again to cream the cream cheese and table sugar together:
Creaming cream cheese and sugar
Creaming cream cheese and sugar
Creaming cream cheese and sugar
Eggs were taken out:
Eggs taken out
Last egg taken out
The egg was cracked into the bowl with the cream cheese and sugar:
Egg cracked in bowl with cream cheese and sugar
Egg cracked in bowl with cream cheese and sugar
Vanilla extract was taken out again:
Vanilla extract taken out
The vanilla extract was measured out and was added to the bowl with the cream cheese, sugar, and egg:
Vanilla extract added to bowl
Vanilla extract added to bowl
The egg and vanilla extract were mixed into the cream cheese and sugar:
Egg and vanilla extract mixed into cream cheese and sugar
Egg and vanilla extract mixed into cream cheese and sugar
The now-cooled graham cracker crumb base was taken out:
Cooled graham cracker crumb base taken out
The cream cheese mix was transferred on top of the graham cracker crumb crust:
Cream cheese mix transferred to base
The cream cheese mix was spread evenly over the graham cracker crumb crust:
Cream cheese mix spread evenly over base
The chocolate chip cookie dough was taken out:
Cookie dough taken out
A bit of the cookie dough was picked up in my hand …
Cookie dough picked up
… and the ball of dough was flattened between my two hands:
Cookie dough flattened
The flattened cookie dough was placed on top of the cream cheese mix:
Flattened cookie dough placed on top of cream cheese mix
… and repeated with more cookie dough:
Flattened cookie dough pieces placed on top of cream cheese mix
… until all the cookie dough was used and the whole surface of the cream cheese mix was covered:
I picked up making stewed rhubarb because my mom always liked using the rhubarb grown in her garden to make stewed rhubarb and rhubarb chutney. (Ironically, for this post, and often enough, I use rhubarb purchased from the grocery store!)
Note that this recipe effectively needs to be done over two days, or at least with a pause of several hours (roughly equivalent to a minimum of “overnight” ) between preparing the rhubarb, and beginning to stew the rhurbarb.
Note that I also am using the “packing in mason jars and heat-processing” method to preserve the stewed rhubarb, and to allow for the making of larger amounts of stewed rhubarb at once; once the heat-processed jars have cooled, the stewed rhubarb is ready to eat.
Making the Stewed Rhubarb:
Day one:
After buying some rhubarb at the grocery store, some mise-en-place was done by taking out a cutting board, a mixing bowl, a measuring cup, a kitchen knife, and a kitchen scale:
Cutting board, mixing bowl, measuring cup, kitchen knife, and kitchen scale taken out
To avoid confusion a bit later on, the tare weight of the mixing bowl was measured and noted (instead of using the tare function on the kitchen scale):
Tare weight of bowl measured
The rhubarb purchased earlier was taken out (yes, it is a bit shabby!)
Rhubarb taken out
The elastics and labels were removed from the rhubarb bunches:
Elastics and labels removed
I began to wash and rinse the rhubarb:
Washing and rinsing rhubarb
Washing and rinsing rhubarb
The rinsed rhubarb stalks were brought to the cutting board:
Rhubarb brought to cutting board
The rhubarb stalks were trimmed:
Trimming rhubarb stalks
Trimming rhubarb stalks
The trimmings were placed in a kitchen waste bucket for later disposal in a municipal composting programme:
Trimmings placed in bucket for composting
If the rhubarb isn’t completely fresh, or especially typical (in my experience) for commercial rhubarb purchased at the grocery store, sometimes there is some minor damage to the stalks to be removed:
Stalk damage to be removed
The stalk damage was removed (and while my name can be found on my — this — website in several places, I have blacked it out from my knife, on which I had inscribed my name years ago):
Stalk damage removed
The trimmed rhubarb stalks were piled up …
Trimmed rhubarb
… and the rhubarb stalks were rinsed again to remove the last of the bits:
Rhubarb rinsed again
Some stalks were laid on the cutting board for chopping:
Rhubarb laid out for chopping
The rhubarb stalks were chopped using a slicing motion against the grain:
Rhubarb chopped
As chopped rhubarb started piling up on the chopping board, it was transferred to the mixing bowl:
Chopped rhubarb transferred to mixing bowl
The rest of the rhubarb was chopped, and transferred to the mixing bowl as it was produced:
Chopped rhubarb transferred to mixing bowl
The bowl of chopped rhubarb was placed on the kitchen scale and weighed:
Chopped rhubarb weighed
The weight was noted, to be used in a moment:
Chopped rhubarb weighed
A large pot and wooden mixing spoon were taken out:
Pot and wooden spoon taken out
The chopped rhubarb was transferred to the pot:
Chopped rhubarb transferred to pot
Chopped rhubarb transferred to pot
A calculator app was started, and the net weight of chopped rhubarb was calculated by subtracting the bowl tare weight from the weight of the bowl filled with the chopped rhubarb:
Net weight of chopped rhubarb calculated
Since my recipe is based on the Imperial system, the weight of 0.895kg (above) was converted to pounds, giving a result just barely shy of two pounds of chopped rhubarb:
Rhubarb weight converted to pounds
Next, a multiplication factor for how many “recipe units” was calculated by dividing the weight of the chopped rhubarb by the base amount of three quarters of a pound:
Multiplication factor calculated
The multiplication factor was multiplied by the required amount of sugar and lemon juice for per “recipe unit” of 3/4 lb of chopped rhubarb: Half a cup of sugar, and half an ounce of lemon juice, resulting in 1-1/3 cups of sugar, and 1-1/3 ounces of lemon juice:
Multiplication factor applied to sugar and lemon juice required
Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out:
Sugar and measuring cup taken out
Measures on measuring cup
Sugar was measured out:
Sugar measured out
The sugar was poured onto the chopped rhubarb:
Sugar poured into pot of chopped rhubarb
Sugar poured into pot of chopped rhubarb
The chopped rhubarb and sugar were mixed with the wooden spoon:
Chopped rhubarb and sugar mixed
Lemon juice was measured out:
Lemon juice measured out
Extra sugar was added to the lemon juice:
Extra sugar added to lemon juice
The lemon juice and extra sugar were mixed:
Lemon juice and extra sugar mixed
The lemon juice and sugar mix were added to the chopped rhubarb and sugar:
Lemon juice and sugar added to chopped rhubarb and sugar
The chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice were mixed some more:
Chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice mixed
Chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice mixed
A lid was placed on the pot of rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice:
Lid placed on pot of chopped rhubarb mix
The pot of chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice was placed in a fridge overnight:
Pot of chopped rhubarb mix placed in fridge
Day two:
Early the next morning, I checked on the pot of chopped rhubarb:
Pot of chopped rhubarb checked
As can be sort of be seen above and better in the following photo, a good amount of liquid had been drawn by the sugar from the pieces of chopped rhubarb:
Liquid drawn from chopped rhubarb
The chopped rhubarb was mixed again with a spoon:
Chopped rhubarb mixed
The pot of chopped rhubarb was returned to the fridge until later that evening (after coming home from work.)
That evening, a jar wrench, a jar funnel, tongs, a ladle, and a stainless steel flipper were taken out:
Jar wrench, jar funnel, tongs, ladle, and stainless steel flipper taken out
Mason jars, a few more than I expected to need, and new lids and lid rings, were taken out, but kept aside for the moment:
Mason jars and lids taken out
A pot and trivet were taken out, to act as a boiling water bath soon:
Pot and trivet taken out
The trivet was placed in the bottom of the pot:
Trivet placed in pot
The pot was filled with water:
Pot filled with water
Pot filled with water
The pot of water was placed on a burner on the stove:
Pot of water placed on stove
The stove was turned on:
… and the lid was placed back on the pot:
Lid placed on pot of water
Since I had placed the pot of water on a smaller burner, which proved to be a mistake, I still waited a bit before taking out the pot of chopped rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice, and placing it on the stove:
Pot of Rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice placed on stove
After waiting a bit more, having gauged the heating up of the pot of water, the burner under the chopped rhubarb mix was turned on:
Burner under chopped rhubarb mix turned on
The lid on the pot of chopped rhubarb mix was removed:
Lid removed from pot of rhubarb mix
As the rhubarb mix was heating up, I of course mixed it to avoid burning:
Rhubarb mix being mixed while heating
Rhubarb mix being mixed while heating
The rhubarb mix began to boil:
Rhubarb mix beginning to boil
At this point, the rhubarb mix was taken off the burner, and since the water bath had not yet reached the boiling point, I brought it forward to the larger burner to bring it to a boil more quickly:
Water bath brought forward to larger burner on stove
Fortunately, it was obvious that the water bath was “hot enough” to dip the (clean) bottle funnel to sanitize it:
Sanitizing bottle funnel
The bottle funnel was placed in the neck of a jar:
Jar funnel placed in neck of jar
The ladle was dipped in the hot water to sanitize it:
Ladle sanitized
I started ladling the boiled rhubarb mix into the jar until it was filled:
Ladling boiled rhubarb mix into jar
Jar filled
A lid and ring were brought to the jar, and screwed onto the jar (oops, I forgot to take a picture of this second part):
Lid brought to filled jar and screwed on
The rest of the boiled rhubarb mix was transferred into jars, and lids were screwed onto the jars:
Filled jars with lids screwed on
At this point, the water in the water bath was finally starting to boil:
Water bath starting to boil
Using the jar wrench, the filled jars were transferred to the water bath:
Filled jars transferred to water bath
Filled jars transferred to water bath
Once the water had come to a rolling boil …
Water bath coming to a rolling boil
… a timer was set to 15 minutes …
Timer set to 15 minutes
… and the lid was placed back on the pot with the water bath and filled jars:
Lid placed on water bath
At this point, the water was boiling so vigorously, that water was splashing out of the pot!
Water splashing out of boiling water bath onto stovetop
After 15 minutes had elapsed, the filled jars were removed from the water bath using the jar wrench:
Removing filled jars with jar wrench
The now heat-processed jars were placed on the the cutting board:
Heat-processed jar placed on cutting board
Heat-processed jars placed on cutting board
Hot water collecting on the jars was soaked up with a towel:
Water on jars soaked up with towel
The jars were moved apart from each other to allow for some ambient cooling for a few moments:
Jars separated to facilitate ambient cooling
Then, the still-warm jars were moved to a fridge to complete cooling.
Jars moved to fridge
At this point, I changed tack a bit and printed out some labels for the jars, modifying another label template I have for my pickled eggs:
Printed labels for jars of stewed rhubarb
Scissors, a hole punch, and some elastics were taken out:
Scissors, hole punch, and elastics taken out
Four labels were cut from the sheet:
Label cut from sheet
Label cut from sheet
Labels cut from sheet
A date code (in this case for 09 August, 2023, the day I filled and processed the jars) was written on the back / inside of each label:
Date code written on backside of label
Date code written on backside of labels
The labels were folded over onto themselves:
Label folded over on itself
Label folded over on themselves
I should note at this point at which the print is more legible, that I live in Montreal, where French predominates, hence the labels are in both English and French. As it happened in the picture above, the folded labels with the English showing were upside down because that’s how I inadvertently happened to flip them over. 🙂
I then picked up the labels, piled them one on another, and crimped the folds:
Labels brought together and folds crimped
A hole was punched through the labels on the end opposite to the fold:
Hole punched through labels
Hole punched through labels
On each individual label, the end near the hole was folded over:
End near hole folded over
Ends near holes folded over
Ah here, the English labels are right side up. 🙂
An elastic was threaded through the hole of a label:
Elastic threaded through hole in label
The elastic was looped into itself, and loosely tightened to allow for it to at once hold the label, as well as have a loop to use to go around a jar’s neck:
Elastic looped into itself
… which was repeated for the other three labels:
Elastics looped into themselves
The following morning, the cooled (and fully sealed) jars were removed from the fridge, and brought to the workspace where the labels were:
Cooled bottles brought out
Labels were looped around the jars:
Label looped around jar
Labels looped around jars
These jars will be kept to be donated to my church’s fall fair, along with a few jars of my pickled eggs! (And, Mom will receive any which don’t sell. 🙂 )
This post is a bit of a gratuitous post to pass the time during my holidays, while showing a bit how I leverage freezers as useful tools for day to day cooking and eating, and highlight how, beyond the strictly obvious (or conversely, as an example of the obvious, whichever you prefer 🙂 ), my cooking efforts actually do fit into and serve everyday life — literally!
Yes, the breakfast shown at the end of this post is a very typical daily breakfast for me these days, barring the days, often on weekends or holidays, when I might choose to make other breakfast foods from my collection of recipes (or of course, something else completely.)
After coming home from the store and having bought bagels and a cream cheese spread flavoured with “herbs” and roasted garlic, I took out a cutting board:
Cutting board taken out
A bagel slicer, basically a serrated edge attached to a wooden guide, and a table knife, were taken out:
Bagel slicer and knife taken out
A bag of commercially produced bagels, purchased earlier in the day, was taken out:
Bag of bagels taken out
The bag clip was taken off the bag in order to open the bag of bagels:
Bag clip removed from bag
The bagels were taken out of the bag:
Bagels taken out of bag
The empty bag was kept and put aside:
Bag kept and put aside
A bagel was sliced (be careful, some industrially produced bagels may be partly pre-sliced):
Bagel being sliced
Sliced bagel
… and the rest of the bagels were sliced:
Bagels sliced
A 227g (8oz) container of a commercially prepared cream cheese spread, in this case flavoured with “herbs” and roasted garlic, purchased earlier in the day, was taken out:
Flavoured cream cheese spread taken out
The lid was removed from the cream cheese container …
Plastic seal to be removed from container
… and the plastic seal was also removed from the container:
Plastic seal removed from container
Plastic seal removed from container
The knife was used to pick up some of the cream cheese:
Picking up cream cheese with knife
Cream cheese picked up with knife
A couple of bagel halves were placed on the cutting board, and the knife holding the cream cheese was brought to them …
Cream cheese brought to bagel halves
… and cream cheese was spread on one of the bagel halves:
Cream cheese spread on bagel half
Cream cheese spread on bagel half
The two bagel halves were put back together:
Bagel halves joined back together
Bagel halves joined back together
Cream cheese was spread on a few more bagels, and after spreading cream cheese on half of the bagels, the container was about half empty:
I continued to spread cream cheese on the rest of the bagels; I scraped the last of the cream cheese out of the container, and I spread the last of the cream cheese onto the last of the six bagels:
Scraping the last of the cream cheese from the bottom of the container and spread onto last bagel
At this point, all six bagels were filled with cream cheese:
Bagels filled with cream cheese
At this point, a clean knife was taken out, and a bagel was cut at a single point:
… and then the bagel was cut in two other places, resulting in three pieces:
The bagel pieces were placed back in the bag:
Piece of bagel placed in bag
Three bagel pieces placed in bag
… and as I continued cutting up the rest of the bagels, I placed the bagel pieces in the bag:
Half the bagel pieces in the bag
… until all the bagel pieces were in the bag:
All bagel pieces in bag
A tie wrap was taken out:
Tie wrap taken out
The tie wrap was used to seal up the bag again:
Bag sealed with tie wrap
The bag of bagel and cream cheese pieces was placed in the freezer:
Bag of bagel and cream cheese pieces placed in freezer
The next morning, I took out a bagel and cream cheese bite, and defrosted it along with a mini raisin bran muffin, made earlier in the week using my mom’s bran muffin recipe, a pickled egg, some cheese, and some peanut butter scooped from the jar:
Incidentally, while this page follows the preparation of beer from beer concentrate kits, the process is almost identical for making wine from wine concentrate kits.
The photos shown below cover a period of nine weeks, starting in early March, 2023, through to bottling the beer three weeks later at the very end of March, and taste testing the beer about six weeks after that — nine weeks total — in mid May, 2023. Normally, my “official” answer to “How long does it take to make beer?” is “A minimum of six weeks. Don’t believe the instructions when they say two, or three, or four weeks. Just don’t.” (Wine from kits takes about eight to nine weeks minimum.)
Making the beer:
The following is showing a very detailed progression of making beer using two kinds of beer concentrates, a blonde beer, and a brown ale. The narrative of this page will be primarily following the preparation of the blonde beer.
Day one:
First, a couple of kinds of beer concentrate kits were purchased, for a brown ale, and for a blonde beer.
Two beer concentrate kits purchased
Since beer concentrate kits often do not contain fermentable sugars, 1kg bags of dextrose were also purchased at the same time; in this case, about a bag per batch will be used, to produce a bit less than 5% alc/vol given the amount of beer I will be making (although I am not particular at all on this point beyond not wanting the alcohol content to be significantly different either way.)
Bags of dextrose purchased
Having brought the beer concentrates and dextrose home, the first thing I did was take out a beer from a previously brewed batch of beer:
Beer and glass taken out
The beer was poured into the glass:
Beer poured into glass
… and the beer was enjoyed:
Beer enjoyed
On to making new beer:
The aerator on the tap in the laundry tub was removed:
Aerator removed from tap
A five (imperial) gallon water jug was placed under the tap:
Water jug placed under tap
The water was turned on, and the jug filled with water …
Filling jug with water
While the jug was filling with water, a plastic cloth was laid out on the floor:
Plastic cloth laid out
A fermentation bin was taken out (incidentally, the original bin I bought back in late 1990 when I started making wine):
Fermentation bin taken out
A large stirring spoon, pliers, a large spoon, and a can opener, were taken out:
Tools taken out
The now-filled water container was brought out to the plastic cloth:
Filled water jug brought out
A kettle was filled with water …
Kettle filled with water
… the kettle was plugged in …
Kettle plugged in
… and finally the kettle was turned on:
Kettle turned on
Kettle turned on
A jet washer was taken out …
Jet washer taken out
… and the jet washer was attached to the tap in the laundry tub:
Jet washer attached to tap
The tap was turned on again:
Tap turned on
The aforementioned fermentation bin was brought to the laundry tub …
Fermentation bin brought to laundry tub
… then the fermentation bin was placed over the jet washer …
Fermentation bin placed over jet washer
… and I used a finger to activate the jet washer to rinse out the (previously cleaned) fermentation bin:
Fermentation bin rinsed with jet washer
Rinse water draining from fermentation bin
At this point, I took advantage of the moment to jetwash the emptied beer bottle from earlier:
Beer bottle jetwashed
… which was then placed in the dishwasher along with my other dishes, to clean for future bottling purposes (see later on).
Scissors were taken out:
Scissors taken out
The scissors were used to open a bag of dextrose:
Bag of dextrose cut open
The full contents of a bag of dextrose were poured into the fermentation bin, which was brought back to the plastic cloth:
Dextrose poured into fermentation bin
Dextrose poured into fermentation bin
Dextrose poured in fermentation bin
A can of beer concentrate, for the blonde beer, and the can opener, were taken out.
Beer concentrate and can opener taken out
The plastic top was removed from the can, revealing a yeast packet and the kit’s instructions.
Yeast packet and instructions revealed
The yeast packet was taken out …
Yeast packet taken out
… as were the instructions:
Instructions taken out
Instructions opened up
Note that while I generally follow the instructions, I apply my own fine tuned procedures. 🙂
The can opener was used to open the can of beer concentrate:
Beer concentrate can opened with a can opener
Beer concentrate can opened with a can opener
A spoon was used to remove the top of the can:
Spoon used to open can
Can opened up
… and the top of the can was finally properly removed:
Can top removed from can
The viscous beer concentrate was poured into the fermentation bin:
Beer concentrate poured into fermentation bin
The spoon was used to scrape out the rest of the concentrate from the can:
Beer concentrate scraped out of can
Beer concentrate scraped out of can
The kettle of water, while still hot, was reboiled, and boiling water was poured into the can:
Boiling water poured into beer concentrate can
The hot can was picked up with the pliers …
Can picked up with pliers
The hot water was swirled around in the can to dissolved the last of the concentrate from the can walls, and the water was poured out and into the fermentation bin:
Hot water poured out of can into fermentation bin
The rest of the boiling water was poured into the fermentation bin:
Hot water poured into fermentation bin
The large plastic stirring spoon was quickly rinsed under the tap at the laundry tub:
Plastic spoon rinsed with water
The spoon was brought to the fermentation bin:
Spoon brought to fermentation bin
… and the hot water, beer concentrate, and dextrose were thoroughly mixed:
Hot water, beer concentrate, and dextrose thoroughly mixed
The plastic tap placed on the water jug was removed:
Tap seal removed from water jug
The water in the jug was poured into the fermentation bin with the other ingredients:
Water poured into fermentation bin
At this point, all the ingredients are called wort (pronounced “wurt”), and the wort was mixed with the big plastic spoon:
Wort mixed
Wort mixed
The temperature on the thermometer stuck onto the side of the fermentation bin was checked, and the wort temperature had not yet risen come up to fermentation range (one of the temperature ranges would be highlighted were it the case):
Temperature not yet in range
Despite this, and knowing that the water temperature was below optimum range, as opposed to too warm and dangerous to yeast, the yeast packet was taken out:
Yeast packet taken out
The yeast packet was cut open with scissors:
Yeast packet opened with scissors
Yeast packet opened with scissors
The yeast was pitched into the wort (ie. sprinkled onto the surface of the unfermented beer):
Pitching yeast
Pitching yeast
The wort with the yeast was lightly stirred, in order to moisten the yeast and reactivate it:
Wort and yeast lightly stirred
A plastic shopping bag — in fact, one of the bags I’d received when the beer kits had been purchased earlier in the afternoon — was taken out:
Plastic bag taken out
The bag was partially cut so as to allow it to be used as a cover for the fermentation bin:
Bag cut to make plastic cover
Elastics and paper clips were taken out:
Elastics and paper clips taken out
Elastics were looped together:
Elastics looped together
The ends of the looped elastics were joined together with a paper clip to make a “belt”:
Ends of looped elastics joined together
The plastic bag was placed on top of the fermentation bin, covering the wort:
Wort covered with plastic sheet
The elastic loop was wrapped around the plastic sheet to keep it in place on the top of fermentation bin:
Elastic loop wrapped around plastic sheet
At this point, I had to clear the bar so that I could place the fermentation bin, full of wort, on it:
Bar cleared
A chair was placed beside the bar, so as to help in raising the heavy fermentation bin full of wort:
Chair placed to help lifting the bin full of wort
The heavy fermentation bin full of wort was lifted off the floor and onto the chair, in order to allow me to get a better hold on the bin while lifting it up to the level of the bar:
Fermentation bin full of wort lifted onto chair
The fermentation bin full of wort was then lifted up to the level of the bar:
Fermentation bin full of wort lifted up to bar level
… and finally, the fermentation bin full of wort was moved to the end of the bar, against the wall:
Fermentation bin moved to end of bar
The instructions, principally used as piece of paper on which to identify the type of beer in the fermentation bin, were placed within the elastic loop:
Instructions identifying beer placed in elastic loop
The whole process was repeated for the brown ale beer kit, and producing a second identified fermentation bin filled with wort, placed beside the first bin:
Second fermentation bin filled with wort placed on bar
Day two:
Fourteen hours later (the following morning), I peeked into the fermentation bins, and could see signs of the beginnings of fermentation:
Yeast growth after 14 hours
That evening, after about 27 hours had passed, the wort temperature was checked again, and it was barely up to 68F:
Wort temperature up to 68F
… and, at the same time, I peeked again at the wort, noticing more yeast growth:
Yeast growth after 27 hours
Day three:
After about 39 hours, I peeked once again at the wort, and the yeast was bubbling away:
Yeast growth after 39 hours
Day six:
After six days, secondary fermentors were taken out; in this case, a large five gallon plastic bottle, a one gallon jar, and, just in case, a soda bottle for last little bits:
Secondary fermentors taken out
The jet washer was again installed on the tap in the laundry tub:
Jet washer installed again
The secondary fermentors were rinsed out with the jet washer:
Secondary fermentor rinsed
Secondary fermentor rinsed
Racking equipment — items used to transfer the now-fermenting liquid easily — were taken out: Plastic tubing, a stiff plastic racking cane, a cone shaped holder to hold the racking cane (including this item was an oops, since I wouldn’t be needing it on this day), and a clip to hold the plastic tubing in place on the edge of the secondary fermentor:
Racking equipment taken out
The racking tubes were rinsed with water:
Racking tube rinsed
The secondary fermentors were placed on the floor of the bar next to where the fermenting beer was located:
Secondary fermentors placed on bar floor
The racking tube was placed in the fermentation bin with the fermenting beer, and leading all the way down to the floor where the secondary fermentors were placed:
Racking tube placed in fermentation bin and leading down to secondary fermentors
The flow of liquid beer was started by sucking on the end of the flexible section of the racking tubing (avoiding to leave any spit!), which was then secured in the neck of the secondary fermentor using the black clip, allowing for the flow of beer from above down below:
Beer flow begun and tubing secured to secondary fermentor neck
Here is the neck of the racking tube in the fermentation bin, with beer flowing through down to the secondary fermentor:
Beer flowing out of the fermentation bin
And here’s a photo of the secondary fermentor as it was filling with fermenting beer:
Secondary fermentor filling up
At a certain point when the secondary fermentor was almost full, foam formed up to the top of the secondary fermentor …
Secondary fermentor foaming up
Secondary fermentor foaming up
… and the racking tubing was transferred to the gallon jug:
Racking beer into gallon jug secondary fermentor
At this point, I should explain that during the primary fermentation, the fermentation was sufficiently vigorous to avoid air getting back in, while during secondary fermentation and the following period during which solids drop to the bottom of the secondary fermentor, the rate of gas production is insufficient to protect the beer from oxidation and contamination from the air outside the fermentor.
Therefore, airlocks, plugs for the secondary fermentors which allow gas — in this case, carbon dioxide produced by the yeast fermenting the dextrose into alcohol — to escape the secondary fermentors while keeping air from getting back in, were taken out:
Airlocks taken out
Airlocks were filled with water:
Airlock filled with water
Airlocks filled with water
Water-filled airlocks were fitted onto the now-filled secondary fermentors, which were raised up to the level of the bar:
Airlocks fitted to secondary fermentor
Airlocks fitted to secondary fermentors, and secondary fermentors raised to bar level
At the bottom of the fermentation bin, there was a sediment of dead and dying yeast:
Sediment at bottom of fermentation bin
The fermentation bin was brought to the laundry tub, and the sediment was drained out:
Sediment drained from fermentation bin
The fermentation bin was washed and rinsed with the jetwasher and a rag (not shown):
Fermentation rinsed with jetwasher
Washed and rinsed fermentation bin
The airlock was already bubbling at this point:
Airlock bubbling
The whole process was repeated for the other beer, the brown ale, and at this point, a second set of identified secondary fermentors filled with beer was placed beside the first set of secondary fermentors:
Two sets of secondary fermentors with two kinds of beer
Day nine:
At this point, sediments had formed in the secondary fermentors:
Sediment in secondary fermentor
You should start this now if you haven’t already:
Normally, I have a collection of cleaned and de-labeled beer bottles in storage. Should you not have an adequate number of bottles for bottling your beer — 23 litres requires about 66 or thereabouts 341mL bottles, or equivalent — by now you should begin collecting them.
Normally, I get beer bottles from city streets; as I am walking about in the streets, I am continuously on the lookout for empty beer bottles to reuse for my beer; fortunately for brewers like myself, but in more general terms unfortunately, in the general area where I live, they are far more common and abundant than I might want to admit, and, surprisingly, most are in excellent condition! In the following few pictures, I show the cleaning of larger 1.18 litre bottles, since I use them as well as regular 341 mL bottles for beers I produce sometimes.
Other places to get beer bottles are to buy beer at stores, consume the beer, and then clean the bottles; or, ask friends and family to save beer bottles for you; and, be really nice with the bottle return clerk at the store and politely ask them if you may pay the bottle deposits on empty returned beer bottles.
Hence, an empty bottle was taken out:
Empty beer bottle to be cleaned and delabled
The cap was unscrewed from the bottle, and kept:
Cap removed from bottle
The bottle was inspected for chips, cracks, and any other defects:
Bottle inspected for defects
A plastic bucket was partly filled with water for soaking off the labels:
Bucket filled with water for soaking labels
The bottle was placed in the bucket and filled with water …
Bottle filled with water
Once filled, the bottle was turned over (in order to properly soak the label on the neck), and the bucket was almost fully filled with water:
Bottle turned over and bucket filled with water
Bottle turned over and bucket filled with water
After a while, the label was carefully removed from the bottle:
Label removed from bottle
Label removed from bottle
Label removed from bottle
Label removed from bottle
An old vegetable scraping brush was taken out:
Brush taken out
The brush and partially delabeled bottle were brought together …
Brush used to scrape off vestiges of label from bottle
… and the vestiges of the label were removed …
Vestiges of label partly removed from bottle
Vestiges of label mostly removed from bottle
… including the glue:
Vestiges of label glue scraped off
Yet again, the jet washer was installed onto the tap in the laundry tub:
Jet washer installed
… and the bottle’s interior was rinsed with the jet washer:
Bottle interior jet washed
The bottle’s cap, which for these bottles and cap model can be reused if in good condition, was removed from the soaking water:
Cap removed from soaking water
The cap was jet washed:
Jet washing cap
The bottle and cap were placed in the dishwasher with other dishes, to be washed and sanitized before storing for bottling day:
Bottle and cap placed in dishwasher
After the dishwasher had been run, the clean bottle was taken out, ready to be stored in anticipation of bottling day:
Clean bottle ready for storage
After three weeks:
On bottling day, clean bottles were taken out to bottle the beer:
Clean bottles taken out
The dishwasher had been previously run to clean dishes, and then the clean dishes were all taken out, leaving an empty and clean dishwasher:
Clean and empty dishwasher
Large, 1.18 litre beer bottles were placed in the dishwasher:
Large bottles placed in dishwasher
Small, 341 mL beer bottles were placed in the lower rack of the dishwasher alongside the larger beer bottles …
Small beer bottles placed in dishwasher
… as well in the dishwasher’s upper rack:
Small beer bottles placed in the dishwasher’s upper rack
The dishwasher racks were rolled into the dishwashwer …
Dishwasher racks rolled into dishwasher
The dishswasher door was closed, and the dial set to start running the dishwashwer (without any soaps):
Dishwasher set to operate
At this point, with the dishwasher running, I took out another beer and glass:
Beer and glass taken out
The beer was poured into the glass:
Beer poured into glass
And the beer was enjoyed:
Beer enjoyed
Various supplies and equipment were taken out for bottling, such as more dextrose to mix into the beer (to carbonate the beer once bottled), a racking tube, a large plastic mixing spoon, a measuring cup, a cone used to hold the racking cane in place in the secondary fermentors, a measuring cup to measure out the dextrose, some bottle caps for the smaller bottles, and the bottle capper for securing the caps on the smaller bottles. Missing: Caps used for larger bottles.
Supplies for bottling the beer
The racking tube and cane were rinsed with water:
Racking tube and cane rinsed
The long plastic spoon was rinsed:
Mixing spoon rinsed
The jet washer was installed again:
Jest washer installed
The original fermentation bin was taken out:
Fermentation bin taken out
The fermentation bin was rinsed with the jet washer:
Fermentation bin rinsed with jet washer
The rinsed fermentation bin was brought over to the bar:
Rinsed fermentation bin brought to bar area
Dextrose was measured out:
Dextrose measured out
The dextrose was brought to the fermentation bin:
Dextrose brought to the fermentation bin
The dextrose was poured into the fermentation bin:
Dextrose poured into fermentation bin
The conical cane holder was placed on the racking cane:
Conical cane holder installed on racking cane
The airlock was removed from the secondary fermentor whose beer was going to be racked:
Airlock removed from secondary fermentor
The racking cane was carefully placed in the secondary fermentor whose beer was about to be racked:
Racking cane placed in secondary fermentor
I sucked a bit on the end of the tubing to start the transfer of the beer from the secondary fermentor …
Beer transferring from secondary fermentor
… which allowed for the beer to be siphoned off and transferred to the primary fermentor with the dextrose, which was on the floor of the bar:
Beer transferring to fermentation bin
Beer level in secondary fermentor becoming lower
As the beer was transferring to the fermentation bin at floor level, I stirred the beer a bit to dissolve the dextrose:
Beer stirred to dissolve dextrose
As the beer was being transferred, the level in the secondary fermentor kept on dropping:
Beer level in secondary fermentor becoming lower
Once the liquid had been fully transferred from the secondary fermentor, I transferred the racking tube to the gallon jug:
Racking tube transferred to gallon jug
… until it too was empty:
Both secondary fermentors emptied
The large secondary fermentor was jetwashed …
Secondary fermentor jetwashed
… as was the gallon jug:
Secondary fermentor jetwashed
At this point, the original fermentation bin was filled with the beer, and was thoroughly mixed again:
Fermentation bin filled with beer, and beer mixed
While the beer was still being racked, a section of the bar was cleared again …
Section of bar cleared
… the plastic cloth was placed on the floor beside the cleared section of the bar …
Plastic cloth placed on floor
… and the fermentation bin with the beer was raised up to the bar again, with the racking cane and tubing having been placed in the bucket and draping down to floor level:
Beer raised to level of bar
At this point, the dishwasher had finished operating, so the bottom rack with the large 1.18 litre and some 341 mL bottles were brought downstairs to the bottling area:
Rack of sanitized bottles brought to bottling area
Large 1.18 litre bottles were taken out of the rack and stood upright for filling:
Large bottles stood upright for filling
The racking tube was primed (flow started) and used to fill bottles one by one:
Filling beer bottles
Filling beer bottles
Filling beer bottles
Filled beer bottles
The clean caps were taken out:
Clean caps taken out
Clean caps taken out
… and the bottles were capped, and moved out of the bottling area. And here is my cat helping out with the beer bottling!
Bottles capped and cat helping
All 1.18 bottles capped
Smaller 341 mL and a single 750 mL bottles were taken out of the dishwasher rack and stood upright for bottling:
Regular beer bottles stood upright for bottling
The regular-sized beer bottles were filled with the racking tube:
Regular-sized bottles filled with beer
The filled beer bottles were moved out of the filling area as they were filled:
Regular-sized bottles filled with beer
At this point, the level of beer in the fermentation bin had gotten low, however it still contained several bottles of beer:
Beer still left in fermentation bin
Also at this point, all the bottles from the lower rack of the dishwasher had been filled with beer:
Dishwasher rack empty
The upper rack from the dishwasher was brought down to the bottling area:
Upper rack brought to bottling area
The rest of the beer was bottled, and the uncapped bottles were placed in beer cases in order to facilitate moving them over to where I capped the bottles:
Filled beer bottles placed in beer cases
At this point, I had set up my capping station, and had moved the cases of filled beer bottles there:
Bottle capping station
My beer bottle capper was taken out, along with a wooden booster to accomodate “modern” beer bottles, which are shorter than the tall bottles for which the capper seems to have been designed:
Beer bottle capper with wooden booster
Uncrimped beer bottle caps were placed on bottles one at a time …
Uncrimped beer bottle cap placed on bottle
Bottles with caps were placed in the bottle capper, starting with a tall bottle not needing the wooden booster …
Bottle placed in capper
… and the plunger was pushed down over the cap, in order to crimp it onto the bottle:
Bottle cap crimped
… producing a capped and sealed bottle of beer:
Capped and sealed bottle of beer, showing crimping around edges
Capped and sealed bottle of beer, showing the depressed top of the cap
The wooden booster was placed back on the base of the capper:
Wooden booster placed in capper
The bottles of beer were all capped:
Beer bottles capped
A permanent marker was taken out:
Permanent marker taken out
The tops of the bottles were identified, in this case with “BL” for the blonde beer, and 2023 … for the year 2023. 🙂
Bottle caps identified
Bottle caps identified
The bottles were placed back in beer cases:
Beers placed back in cases
Here are all the bottles of beer of the blonde beer:
All bottles of blonde beer
The bottling process was repeated for the brown ale:
Bottles of blonde beer and brown ale
After nine weeks:
Of course, the beer had to be taste tested, so a bottle of the blonde beer, as well as a glass, were taken out:
Blonde beer and glass taken out
The bottle was held up to the light of a window to check that it had cleared on its own:
Beer checked for clarity
The blonde beer was poured into the glass …
Beer poured into glass
… and the beer was enjoyed:
Beer enjoyed
The beer is now ready to be consumed on … well, poor weather postponed the Canada Day festivities where I live, so it will be ready when Canada Day is rescheduled!
This is a relatively new addition to my collection of recipes, after having looked through an old community cookbook given to me by a neighbour. It is based on a near-identical recipe obviously (and expressly) intended to use up leftovers from a roast pork Sunday dinner; however, after trying the original recipe, which called for the use of brown sugar and apple slices, I decided to omit the sugar, which made the dish too sweet, and the apples, which didn’t suit us, and replaced them with cooked carrots.
This cooking session occurred in early April, 2023; for a variety of reasons, including the sheer number of photos to organize and prepare for this post — I went into overdrive! — it has taken a bit more than three weeks for me to build this blog post. Also, for the sake of the narrative, the photo progression presented here occasionally differs from the precise progression of when the photos were taken, either because of some mise-en-place activities, actual progression of the food preparation, photo shooting (and occasionally its impact on progression), several operations occurring concurrently, and the like.
Preparing the dish:
Firstly, a countertop convection oven was turned on:
Countertop oven turned on
Countertop oven turned on
A roasting tray was taken out:
Roasting tray taken out
A package of (frozen) pork loin, defrosted prior to the cooking session, was taken out:
Defrosted pork loin taken out
Scissors were taken out to open the vacuum pack sealing the pork:
Scissors taken out
The pork loin’s vacuum pack was cut open:
Packaging cut open
The pork loin, removed from the vacuum pack, was placed in the roasting tray:
Pork placed in roasting tray
Garlic salt was taken out:
Garlic salt taken out
Garlic salt was liberally shaken on top of the pork loin:
Garlic salt shaken onto pork
Garlic salt shaken onto pork
The pork loin was placed in the countertop convection oven:
Pork placed in countertop convection oven
A timer was set for an hour as a reminder for how long to cook the pork loin:
One hour set on timer
A pot was taken out for boiling carrots:
Pot taken out for boiling carrots
A scale was taken out to know roughly measure out the right amount of carrot:
Scale taken out to measure carrots
Carrots were taken out:
Carrots taken out
About a quarter pound of carrot — in this case, a single carrot — was taken out of the bag:
Quarter pound of carrot measured out
The carrot was cleaned and rinsed:
Carrot rinsed
The cleaned carrot was placed on a cutting board:
Cleaned carrot placed on cutting board
The carrot was trimmed:
Carrot trimmed
The carrot was sliced lengthwise:
Carrot sliced lengthwise
… and again sliced a few more times to make carrot spears:
Carrot sliced lengthwise to create spears
The carrot spears were chopped:
Carrots chopped
Carrots chopped
The chopped carrots were transferred to the pot:
Chopped carrots transferred to pot
Chopped carrots transferred to pot
Water was added to the pot of chopped carrots until the carrots were covered:
Water added to pot of carrots
Water added to pot of carrots
Salt was added to the carrots and water:
Salt added to water and carrots
A stove burner was turned on:
Stove burner turned on
The carrots were brought to a boil …
Carrots brought to a boil
Once the carrots were boiled for about ten minutes, the boiling water was drained off:
Boiling water drained from pot
A mixing bowl was taken out in which to transfer the carrots:
Mixing bowl taken out
The boiled carrots were transferred to the mixing bowl:
Boiled carrots transferred to mixing bowl
Boiled carrots transferred to mixing bowl
The carrots were put aside for a bit.
A microwave-safe cooking vessel was taken out, ready for a few moments later when the sweet potatoes would be peeled:
Microwave-safe cooking vessel taken out
Microwave-safe cooking vessel taken out
A bowl was placed on the scale, and the scale set to zero:
Bowl placed on scale, scale set to zero
A bit more than four pounds of sweet potatoes were measured out:
Sweet potatoes taken out
A potato peeler was taken out:
Potato peeler taken out
The sweet potatoes were peeled, with the peels placed in a bucket to keep for later disposal in a municipal composting programme:
Sweet potatoes peeled
Peeled sweet potatoes were placed in the microwave-safe cooking vessel:
Peeled sweet potato placed in cooking vessel
Peeled sweet potato placed in cooking vessel
A kitchen knife was taken out:
Kitchen knife taken out
The sweet potatoes were sliced and quartered:
Sweet potatoes sliced and quartered
Sweet potatoes sliced and quartered
… and placed back in the microwave-safe cooking vessel:
Sweet potato quarters placed in cooking vessel
Water was added to the cooking vessel …
Water added to cooking vessel
… to about a bit below the surface of the sweet potatoes:
Water added to cooking vessel
The vessel was covered …
Sweet potatoes covered
… and placed in the microwave oven:
Sweet potatoes placed in microwave oven
The microwave oven (1200 watts) was set to 18 minutes:
Microwave oven set to eighteen minutes
… and the microwave oven was turned on:
Microwave oven turned on
While the sweet potatoes were cooking, a package of dried gravy mix — turkey gravy, which is what I had on hand, and in a package that makes a cup’s worth of gravy, as called for in the recipe, was taken out:
Gravy mix taken out
The gravy packet was opened and its contents transferred to another pot that was taken out:
Gravy mix added to pot
A measuring cup was taken out:
Measuring cup taken out
A cup of water was measured out:
Water measured out
The water was added to the pot:
Water added to gravy mix
The gravy mix and water were mixed with a spoon:
Gravy mix and water mix
The gravy was put aside, since the time on the roast pork ran out:
Pork taken out of oven
A meat thermometer was taken out …
Meat thermometer taken out
… and stuck into the pork, giving a temperature reading just right for fully cooked pork:
Meat thermometer reading of cooked pork
The pork was removed from the roasting pan:
Pork removed from roasting pan
… and the juices in the roasting pan were drained into the bowl with the cooked carrots
Pork juices drained into bowl with cooked carrots
The roast pork was sliced thickly:
Pork sliced thickly
Pork sliced thickly
The roast pork was cut into cubes:
Pork cut into cubes
A small blender with chopping blades was taken out …
Blender with chopping blades taken out
… and the blender was plugged in:
Blender plugged in
Cubes of roast pork were placed in the blender …
Cubes of pork placed in blender
… and the lid placed on top of the blender:
Blender lid installed
The pork was ground finely without creating a mush:
Pork ground
The chopped pork was transferred to the bowl with the cooked carrots and pork juices:
Ground pork transferred to bowl with carrots
Ground pork transferred to bowl with carrots
Larger bits of pork which did not get ground finely enough were removed from the bowl, to be ground again with more pork cubes:
Larger bits of pork removed from bowl to be reground with the rest of the pork
The rest of the pork was ground and transferred to the mixing bowl.
Returning to the gravy, a burner on the stove was turned on, in this case, the smaller inner part of a larger burner which has two settings:
Stove burner turned on
Gravy being heated
The gravy was constantly mixed while being heated, to avoid burning:
Gravy constantly mixed
Once the gravy came to a boil, the timer was set to a minute …
One minute set on timer once gravy boiling
… while the burner setting was reduced to just about minimum to only allow for simmering:
Stove burner setting reduced
Once the minute ran out, the gravy was poured over the ground pork and carrots:
Gravy poured into bowl with pork and carrots
Gravy poured into bowl with pork and carrots
The gravy, ground pork, and carrots were mixed with the spoon:
Pork, carrots, and gravy mixed
At this point, oven-proof dishes were taken out, for filling:
Oven-proof dishes taken out
The meat mix was spooned into containers to about half full, and spread out evenly:
Meat mix transferred to oven-proof dish
Meat mix transferred to oven-proof dish
Oven-proof dishes filled with meat mix
At this point, I came back to the sweet potatoes, which had long since finished cooking in the microwave oven:
Cooked sweet potatoes taken out of microwave oven
The sweet potatoes were checked with a fork to see if they were properly cooked through, which they were:
Cooked sweet potatoes checked for degree of cooking
The water was drained off of the sweet potatoes:
Cooking water drained
A container of margarine was taken out and opened:
Margarine container taken out
Margarine container opened
A dollop of margarine was taken from the margarine container with a spoon:
Dollop of margarine taken from container
The margarine was added to the sweet potatoes:
Margarine added to sweet potatoes
Margarine added to sweet potatoes
A measuring cup and milk were taken out:
Milk and measuring cup taken out
Milk was measured out:
Milk measured out
The milk was added to the sweet potatoes and margarine:
Milk added to sweet potatoes
Milk added to sweet potatoes
Measuring spoons were taken out:
Salt was taken out:
Salt taken out
Salt was measured out:
Salt measured out
The salt was added to the sweet potatoes:
Salt added to sweet potatoes
Salt added to sweet potatoes
An electric mixer was taken out, to mash the sweet potatoes:
Electric mixer taken out
The electric mixer was plugged in:
Electric mixer plugged in
The sweet potatoes were mashed with the electric mixer:
Mashing sweet potatoes with electric mixer
Mashing sweet potatoes with electric mixer
Sweet potatoes mashed
A plastic icing spreader was taken out:
Plastic icing spreader taken out
Mashed sweet potatoes were picked up with the icing spreader …
Mashed sweet potato picked up with icing spreader
… and, back to the containers with the pork, gravy, and carrots mix, the mashed sweet potatoes were spread on top of the meat mix :
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Mashed sweet potatoes spread on top of meat mix
Plastic bags were taken out and identified and dated:
Bags taken out and identified
The dishes were placed in the individual bags:
Dishes placed in bags
And finally, the bagged dishes were placed in the freezer: