Half-Mad Creations

Well, just this one, actually, in the approximate style of a lantern.

The prototype is pretty good, though not quite what I’d had on the drawing board. I think it needs more metal, a more distressed look, and possibly a dark finish for contrast.

But it does look nice with a candle in it.

And to think that this little one arose out of my plans to build a portable, candle holder/lantern… which I actually still may do.

As seems to be the norm for me, the wood is from shipping pallets, and the sheet metal is just some that I had lying around from way back when I made the “chalkboard.”

Made following the recipe here: http://momsawitch.blogspot.com/2012/04/beltane-honey-bread.html

It was so delicious, and is also the source for the honey butter used in the previous two posts.

Whole Wheat and Cinnamon Pancakes with an Egg, and a Pinwheel of Apple

1 cup AP flour

1/2 cup Whole wheat flour

1 tbsp. Baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups of tepid milk

8 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled until tepid

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

A few shakes of cinnamon

1 Apple sliced into thin wedges

Beat the eggs, then add the milk and butter. Then mix in the dry until a batter forms. Each topper pancake gets a pinwheel of the apple slices right after the batter hits the pan and is sprinkled with some brown sugar.

This recipe, as plated by me, stowed a single egg, cooked over easy, between the pancakes with a pat of honey butter with another pat spread on the top pancake and another light sprinkle of brown sugar. In addition to the obvious strips of bacon.

Caramelized Apple Slices, Dried Cherries, and Pecans on a Quartered Waffle with Honey Butter

One apple, sliced into strips, wedges, or diced (personal choice)

One handful of pecans, roughly chopped

One handful of dried cherries, roughly chopped

One Belgian-style waffle, quartered

Several pinches of brown sugar, added to look and taste
 (I used about two teaspoons overall)

About two to three tablespoons of honey butter

Cinnamon, to taste

Begin caramelizing the apple over low heat in a pan prepared with about one tablespoon of the honey butter, adding some of the brown sugar. Approximately halfway through, add in the cherries and pecans with another half-tablespoon of the butter and some more brown sugar. Just before plating, add a little cinnamon to the pan and stir, and spread a small amount of the honey butter on the waffle quarters, then plate and enjoy!

Is it smaller than a storage chest? Yes. By quite a lot.

The product of a few days of trial and error coupled with random inspiration:

Geta-inspired tea light/candle holders made from reclaimed pallet wood, currently unfinished.

Times have been moderately busy, and not nearly as much in the workshop as I’d have liked, though some of it was in the kitchen so there’s that.

Part of that time was spent learning that chess/checkerboards are quite difficult to do properly without reliably square stock.

That said, I did just crank out a nice little scrap wood project earlier: tealight holders. The odd one out was done from a cedar piece I had floating around, while the rest are pallet wood.

Previews:

- Pallet side table or island

- Storage chest

- Fun times with s’mores

- Sweet meets Savory

- Working?! For money?!

Pain-wracked spasms
Acid in blood
Screaming in the silent void
King of king and master of universes
On gilded throne now stuck
Bloat of ages fills him, ages yet to see
Rage of time stills him, time he will not see

Walking on while sitting still
Under forest leaves and star-speckled skies
Forgetting his burning blood for a spell
Lost to the world while in his

One million lives, one million worlds
Traversing time in spasming jerks
Jumping from burning worlds to cooling ones
A dying man outrunning death
Carving immortality out of the multiverse
A legacy of silent screams

A lord of time, master of space
Bending both, while they break him
Shaping worlds like clouds and smoke
Growing into his forgotten throne
Time stitching him, and Space tacking

Forgotten eyes seeing worlds of smoke
Smiling for their illusory beauty
Weakened hands grasping mistform loves
Escaping his wanting reach
Worlds forgotten take their toll
The press of time upon him

An Atlas of the Multiverse
Bearing their full weight upon him
Shrugging burning universes into oblivion
Cinders gathering around his feet
Smoke choking him in the void

Melting creations leak searing into his blood
An acid in his veins
Bellowing as Time chokes his spirit
Faltering as Space tears him down

A man of pure creation
Living ideas and breathing thoughts
Trapped in flesh and bound in blood
Etching into the universe all of his
With his own acid-blood
Every beating second
New worlds from the remains of those before
Echoes of creation shaking through

And with my baking update out of the way…

Over the next week or two I’ll be getting back to some carpentry projects I’ve been mulling, including a chess board and some small pallet wood pieces in the vein of chests and/or small end tables.

Finally, the loaf of banana bread, whipped up from a composite of “I’ve done it a million times” know-how and new recipe I wanted to try, which pleasantly enough yielded a bread with a drier, more cake-like interior than usual. Still wonderful with a light drizzle of honey though.

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large, ripe bananas

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (pulsed in a processor for a bit, and were actually leftovers from making some tea cookies earlier in the month)

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and beat thoroughly.

Mix together the dry in a separate bowl, and in another mash the bananas and add the vanilla to them. (I cheated to accommodate needing my other mixing bowls for the biscuits, and just put everything together in one after the creaming step, and I don’t think it harmed a thing)

Pour the batter (I found it to be a little thick for pouring at this point) into a buttered 8.5 x 4.5 inch (21 x 11 cm) loaf pan and bake for about an hour at 350 F (180 C).

Biscuits, ahoy!

First, the mint:

For starters, the mint was a last second change to a recipe which called for freshly cut sage, and for the sake of it’s strength was only put in as about a teaspoon of so, rather than a 1/4 cup. It works fairly well, but I can’t help the feeling it needs to be paired to something else to work best, either a spiced meat (preferably lamb) or else something in the vein of cream cheese or a similar sort of thing.

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, seemed to work quite well)

2/3 cup milk

~1 tsp shredded mint

1 tsp salt

Form everything together into a smooth dough, then place spoonfuls of it onto a greased baking sheet, and bake at 475 F (250 C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

And now, the cheesy:

My one alteration after trying them would be to add either a stronger cheese, or about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more of the cheddar, to achieve a more noticeable flavour. Although, the tomato and basil cheddar I used does come through fairly well in about every other bite.

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup finely shredded cheese

1 medium potato, skinned, boiled, mashed, and then sieved

~1/2 cup milk

Mix the dry together thoroughly, then slowly add in the cheese and potato, blending them in quickly with your fingers. Add enough milk to form a soft, dry dough and shape into balls to place onto a floured baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 450 F (220 C), or until golden brown.