h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Improvised Kitchen - A80887576
Author: Malabarista - keep calm and carry on - h2g2c3 - U1528154

Not entirely sure about this one - it came out a bit list-y, despite my best intentions. Perhaps it's better split into different, shorter entries.

"The boxes themselves, lined with aluminium foil or plastic wrap, are just the right size for cooling fudge,"

And what about Tablet exactly?

I'm sorry, I have no idea what "Tablet" is in this context; the capital letter is throwing me off, too. A brand name for something?

Hi Mala!

You do have some original ideas for writing for the EG and reading this made for a leisurely start to Saturday morning. I was interested, 'cos I have a sort of improvised lifestyle here.


I know this has nothing to do with reviewing your Entry, but I'd like to say it looks very good in Barlesque although I am replying via alabaster due to the constraints of writing back at the moment in noohootoo.

A bit of proof reading for typos etc.

how to McGyver

d'you know, I've never heard this term before. . .

just that the proportionsof the ingredients are right

---Missing space -----

[Footnote 1] Or several identical ones, if you don't want to clean it in between.

----> Or several identical ones, if you don't want to wash it out in between each measurement.

whiskey ----> whisky
yup I know you're in Ireland

a longdrink or water glass

Can I suggest you just say 'tumbler' or water glass?

especially European ones

Is this bit necessary? I would guess that US or Pacific Fusion recipes may also require yeast for certain cakes and bread, so I would just take it out

Lighter is better, just so you don't have to float quite so much

I read and understood your paragraph on using flotation to measure the weight of things. I might even have a need for this as I am everlasting cooking the wrong amount of pasta, either much too much or not enough However, I am not certain about the phrase I pasted here. Maybe you should just say

'The lighter the better'.


[Footnote 6] Line your cake tin with shortcrust, then pour in the beans - on top of a piece of greaseproof paper -


(otherwise the beans can get attached to the pastry)

As the name implies, the batter can also be spooned

I'm a bear of little brain here this morning, I think I need an extra
word here.

As the name [cupcake] implies, the batter can also be spooned

you can also re-use the bags bread and pastries come in for your sandwiches.

----> you can also re-use the bags [that] bread and pastries come in for your sandwiches.

This is even more true of toasties - the filling is sealed in and hidden, so you'll be safe from funny looks, and re-heated, too.


I think you mean


This is even more true of toasties - the filling is sealed in, re-heated and hidden, so you'll be safe from funny looks.


Apart from these few corrections it looks fine and dandy and has given me a few good tips ( pancake/cakes here I come!)

I can see lots of places for good links to the EG. But these will come later.


Lanzababy

Mala, tablet is similar to fudge but is grainier and harder. It has more of a crunch and melts in the mouth and you'd be able to set it in the same way.

I've not given this my fullest attention yet, recovering from the lurgy of the past week. Will give it more thorough look over later.

Looks good so far, though

Sorry Mala,

As Mags says, Tablet is made using pretty much identical ingredients to fudge, is cooked in an almost identical way, is cooled in the same way, and looks the same. The biggest difference is that when squeezed or eaten, it will crumble rather than squidge. It's my favourite sweet thing.

I really like the "real life - some information to help you live it" sort of entries.

I also wouldn't have known what McGyver meant so perhaps you need a footnote to explain him.

I am not sure if I found myself in the predicament of having no kithen utensils I would have the patience for the water displacement method myself. I would just look on the packet, see how much was in the full packet and then divide it out by tipping it into bowls or jars to get the fraction I needed.

"they are transparent so you can see how far you've filled them, are transparent,"

"has room for a pint, or 570ml" --> 568ml

Wow, I can really tell I typed that last section after midnight

Thanks, will correct. Working on the others, too...

Thanks, all, quite a list! Let's just take these one at a time.

I've changed it to "things like fudge" - that should cover it.

McGyver seems not to be as well-known as I thought, and there's no entry to link to, so I've changed it to "hack".

As far as I'm aware, a "tumbler" is more squat - a whiskey glass, in fact. Is that not so?

The " especially European ones" refers to the fact that they're more likely to measure yeast by sachets, not that they're more likely to use yeast at all. Tried to make that clearer.

I've never had a problem with the beans sticking, but added in a bit about greaseproof paper anyway.

I think the messy/unclear sentences are better now, must learn not to write when I'm half asleep. Also corrected the typos. (My space bar sticks, so lots of those this time!)


And I'd not go through the whole bother of calibrating the scales for a one-off use, either - unless it's a fiddly recipe. (That's why the examples I used are all baked goods, they tend to be more sensitive so there's more of a need to get the amounts exactly right.) But I sometimes use that method for baking now; the kitchen in my work flat has neither scales nor much room to store them.

You can also use a milk bottle, of the old fashioned glass variety as a rolling pin, in fact, I have one in my cupboard, which I got .... eight or so years ago, and which I keep for the express purpose of rolling out pastry, as I'm too tight to buy a rolling pin
You really not got room for a set of scales?; Mine are very small (the actual scale bit, side of a couple of paper backs one in front of the other, and about as thick as... a couple of paperbacks, of course there is the bowl for it as well... (and my scales are pretty old now actuallly...)

That water-displacement weight things out thing sounds way too complicated to me... I think, were I to find myself without scales, I'd just guestimate it all... Its what I normally do anyhow... 'half a bag of flour, handful of this, few spoons of that... half a pack of butter...' strangely some of my best baking efforts arrise when I just throw everythign in and forget about weights and measurements and just guestimate 'by eye'

My kitchen is tiny, yes. Mostly, I'm too cheap to buy scales. I was originally only intending to be over here for two months... So most of my kitchen things, furniture, books, etc. are somewhere in Yarreau's barn or attic.

Ahh, good point....

Which reminds me, my Father finally* found my missing box of kitchen things, in his loft... err left there in about 1998 I think. sadly he decided he'd nab the colender and the pyrex bowls (which were about the only two things I thought worth salvaging from the box...)

Oh, and talking of improvised things (it may have been in the entry, I can't remember ) : if you've not got a cooling rack, but do have a grill, with a grill pan, then (with the design of my grill pan at least), you can remove the 'grill' bit, from the pan, and use the 'grill' bit as a cooling rack (strangely, its a better design for a cooling rack than the actual* cooling rack I bought)

And, if your really pushed, and need more cooling rack space for largish things (say bread or baguettes, or rolls or something), you can use an oven shelf (as long as you remember to take it out of the oven before* you turn it on and cook the stuff in it...) Pressuming, of course, that you have more oven shelves than you need to have in the oven to cook what it is you are cooking heck I'm even more of a cheap skate than I thought I was

200G coffee jars (instant coffee ones, Dowe Egbarts are the best), you can rmeove the lables to make really handy jars for storing stuff... err that is probalby info for a differnt entry though

One thing that should not be skimped on is chopping boards. Plates or work surfaces should not be used for this. Any odd piece of formica, wood (not chipboard), or even plastic, can be used, but cutting with sharp knives on plates is not nice for the plate, and using a table or work surface will stain/cut/scratch the surface (obviously!)

Otherwise, I love improvising like this. Especially when camping - it's amazing what you can use. Food packaging that is otherwise thoughtlessly discarded can often prove invaluable for storage, sorting, or temporarily keeping things in the fridge, or storing chopped veg until you're ready to tip them in the saucepan.

And when you're camping with kids - little plastic containers can provide plenty of ideas to occupy them with.

I always chop on plates... (except when chopping bread, for which we hav ea bread broad). none of the plates look adversley affected by this,

Reminds me of student days... cooking hotdog sausages, in* the tin, in a kettle... seriously... probably didn't do the kettle much good... but it worked

Oooh, what a sweet entry

Re yeast - fresh yeast cubes hold 42g. Not sure it's really useful for this Entry, but, well, 42.

I´d like the MacGyver word.
you can say "...how to 'MacGyver' (hack)..."

I find it very funny and it explains very well the gist of your entry. I used to watch the tv series, that´s why I know the man, there are also jokes about him in Spanish.

Homer´s sisters-in-law adore him. Nobody here watch the Simpsons??!!
It something appears in the Simpsons, it means it is general culture, isn´t it?

::

Don´t know if this can be useful, I´ll tell you anyway :
In a kitchen, supposely, you have a first aid box for cuts, burns... What happens if you don´t have it? time to macgyver:

Cuts (sadly talking from experience) put a lot sugar on it and wrap the wound with kitchen paper. (My husband cut his thumb finger, a huge cut that needed several stitches, doctor told me I did well with the sugar. It absorbes and cut the blood, and prevents infection)


Burns: the white of an egg calm it, also helps to regenerates the skin.


Nice entry

>>trying to whip up a cake in a confirmed bachelor's kitchen,<<

Well, I'm just posting below one who makes the most marvellous cakes, so you may want to change that.

I think Maria got in first!

By a few seconds, and if you follow the little tree (which we'll not have in barlesque) you'll see whose post I'm referring to (and Maria can't be a bachelor anyway)