Priceless Paintings from W7

That whole business about the coffee beans, and the other business about the new kitchen, got me thinking of course. My favourite coffee roasting lady friend sells a kilo of roasted beans for approximately £12 (depending on the bean), roughly twice the price as she charges for the green beans.

So, how about roasting my own?

If you google it, you’ll find many sites dedicated to home-roasting of coffee, and many claim home-roasted coffee has a growing popularity. In terms of freshness, it would certainly be perfect.

I studied this a little. Some people use cheap popcorn makers for home roasting, others (especially decades ago) might have been using a cast-iron frying pan. You can of course also buy a dedicated home roaster, with cooling cycle and thermostat and what-not.

Cost is over £325, leading to a three-year amortization period (assuming the machine lasts three years). Tempting, very tempting.

I would very seriously consider it, if it wasn’t for the extra space needed, and if it wasn’t for the –apparently- smoky nature of the business as the chaff burns off. Something that needs more investigation; ideally, someone can recommend a low-cost yet reliable, reasonably safe and reproducible method?

Food and Drink coffee, home

I mentioned coffee a few times already, so you’d be right to assume that I really like a really good coffee. I normally buy roasted beans from anothercoffee.co.uk, and found the Ethiopian Sidamo just the perfect choice.

When I re-ordered not too long ago, the coffee was lame, so I spoke to the lady who runs the shop in order to find out whether the previous or the current batch were ‘standard.’ Turns out the first batch must have been roasted too dark, and the lame stuff is the norm.

You’d normally expect the story to end here and now, but not so Carolyn. She made a test roast (“Special Dark W7 Sidamo”), overshoot the mark (too dark), and hit the perfect spot in the second attempt.

So, now I get my very special Ethiopian Sidamo W7 Medium-dark Roast. Brilliant, innit? Stop by for a sample.

Food and Drink coffee, food, online world;

The weather has changed from fine and dry sunny skies to a mild but wet blow with showers (and occasional sunny spells), but we won’t care much very soon: the roof windows are in and the tiles are about to follow soon. All the interior walls are down (and you can really see the space now), and some damage found in the old part has been repaired.

We’re in good shape and well on track. Electrical wiring and heating pipes will go in next week, with plastering and the floor screed to follow.

It’s looking great! Almost as good as my new cooking field, which arrived in an unexpectedly timely fashion earlier this week. It’s a Siemens ET675, and it’s beautiful. Two dual-ring zones for small and large pots, fast-cook mode on all four zones, 16 level setting for each zone, and an insane total wattage of 6.6kW. A good thing we were planning to rewire the kitchen anyhow.

Most recent photos are available online right here.

home home, Kitchen

We are now shopping for kitchen tiles, wall and floor. We have our vision, consisting of a natural slate floor and clear glass tiles with a blue-ish hint of bottle green. You know what I mean by that colour; it’s the natural colour of industrial glass, just like you can see at the edges of bullet-proof glass at your bank’s cashier.

So, I google glass kitchen tiles, and get lots of offerings. It’s amazing how many tile retailers are out there, especially in a country where carpets in the bathroom are still not uncommon.

Tile Store Plus. Tile Choice. Tile Centre. Tile City. Tile Town. Tile Stop. Tile Mates. Tile Click. Tile Kraft. Tile Depot. Tile Idea – and these are only some of those starting with the word Tile.

I can’t help leaning towards those showing at least a little inspiration in the choice of the business name.

Thoughts home, inspiration

This week, I’ve been mostly eating minimum-effort home-cooked meals, and been eating out. We certainly didn’t have the pleasure of a home-cooked Pfaelzer Platte, as depicted here. Oh well. One cannot have everything:

Spicy Spaghetti, spiced with Chorizo Picante, chilly peppers, garlic, oil, basil. Always a delight under normal circumstances, but the inconvenience of cooking in the current arrangements takes most of the fun out of it, to be honest.

Lasagne Tricolori, in defiance. Tricolori being red (from tomato sauce), green (from basil) and white (from a spiced mix of parmesan cheese, blue cheese, yoghurt and egg yolk, all in place of sauce béchamel). Nice, and ‘cookable’ in a single small oven.

Mata Hari and a Belly Dancer at Joie de Vivre, St. Mary’s Road, Ealing (in honour of S’s b’day). Nice (but loud) place. Good Mediterranean food – maybe not outstanding but good, flavoursome, varied, and moderately priced. Certainly outstanding through the accomplishment of running all orders through a very tiny kitchen, by a single chef, and still serving our party of 10 at the same time. Well done! We’ll be back.

Defiance Pizza at home. Also easy to make in a single oven of course, once I figured a replacement for the pin, which has temporarily moved into storage. Also in storage is the food processor that normally kneads the dough, but short of kneading by hand, I found the perfect assistant in my Panasonic SD-255 bread maker.

Food and Drink cooking, recipe

Allow me to introduce Leo. Leo completes the Swan Quadryptichon:

Swan Lake, Lost and Found, Gunter, and now Leo. It’s always nice to complete a painting, but to complete a project of four paintings has an extra level of satisfaction coming along with it.

Leo.

Oil on canvas, 12×50”
March 2009

Click here, or click the thumbnail, to reveal the complete painting.

You can see the complete Swan Quadryptichon here, all four of them side-by-side, and in chronological order left to right.

Painting oil painting, paint;

Allow me to introduce the latest exhibit: With Two Geese and a Turtle.

I’ll leave it to you to work it out. The solution can be found on the wall of every second home, or so it would seem. Mystery solved or not, I hope you like it.

With Two Geese and a Turtle
Oil on canvas, 16×20”
March 2009

Painting oil painting, paint;

I can assure you that it is mighty inconvenient to have the fresh water tap outside, the makeshift kitchen in the first floor front bedroom, the sink in the first floor bath, and fridge and freezer in the hall on the ground floor. Oh, and cutlery in the makeshift lounge, downstairs.

I am used to climbing our stairs many times each day, but now I am breaking all records. I must learn the most efficient way of making a cup of coffee.

Talking of which… it’s also mighty inconvenient that nobody seems able to supply my cooker, microwave and hob; apparently, the new range at Neff, Siemens and Bosch is coming up soon, so stock levels of the current range are low. I may need to chose a different oven after all – shame, really. I really liked the idea of Neff’s B1664N0, combined with the H5972 combination microwave oven.

I am not giving up, though. Not yet.

Bamboo flooring is also chosen and on order from Tongling for just-in-time-delivery.

Latest photos are now online and available right here.

[Edit] Many people talk about the recent arrival of Google Map Streetview in the UK. We are right here. The picture must have been taken during last year’s summer, when we had the landscaping work done. The skip shown by Google is not our current skip, and we don’t always have a skip in the front of the house. [/Edit]

Thoughts, home home, Kitchen

Media informs me that you are in a dire situation, with You Tube, iTunes, peer-to-peer file sharing, illegal downloading, and all that. I am truly sorry, for I understand all this modern technology means you are no longer holders of the monopoly of distribution, and you can no longer sell outdated technology in the shape of a flat piece of vinyl or silvery plastic at prices that you dictate.

Now, listen up. Here’s where you’ve got it right for a change:

Recently, I watched a documentary on the telly, telling the story of Genesis’ 2007 European tour. I liked what I saw, and bought an official copy of the Genesis When In Rome DVD set. Three DVDs for £15, featuring the aforementioned documentary, three hours of a very fine concert, and lots of background material and extra features.

I will happily pay the same again for a similar product. This is a good product, well worth its money. Compared to a single 50 minute playtime CD, which you used to sell at the same or similar price, this is a lot of value for the money.

Well done.

Thoughts Internet, music, online world;

This week, I’ve been mostly eating out:

Lots of nice Chinese food at Happiness Gardens, Boston Parade (in honour of J’s visit from Oz),

Lots of nice Polish food at the new Polish place whose name I forget in West Ealing, chiefly consisting of beer, cabbage, meat and herring. Interesting that, judging by this single experience, the Polish cuisine appears to be right in the middle between German and Ukraine. Goes to show that a cuisine is not subject to political borders.

Paella, homemade, and in celebration of our extension work. This was the last “proper” meal before the kitchen went, and oh-so lovely it was. The kitchen, and the paella. Both will be even better soon, so sit tight…

Tortilla picante (which really means nothing but a good and simple way to use leftovers from boiled potatoes, eggs, and spicy chorizo).

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe

Allow me to introduce my little blackbird: Polly.

Nothing much to say about this quickly done simple oil painting, using a pretty good but terribly sticky acrylic medium: Daler-Rowney Alkyd Flow Medium, diluted with 25% of purified linseed oil.

If you are experimenting with oil paint, I surely recommend this medium. Among the acrylic media, this is far superior compared to Liquin or Galkyd.

Polly
Oil on canvas, 10×12”
February 2009

As always, click here, or the thumbnail, for the complete picture. The real thing is on permanent exhibition somewhere in W7.

Painting art, oil painting, paint;

She promised to help anyone address, solve and deal with, any issues you might have – anything. That’s interesting, I think to myself, let’s see what she can do for me.

I notice her classroom audience is entirely made of women, who sit in benches and listen attentively, while being completely naked. Oh, I think, this must be a good exercise in self-confidence, and I am even more intrigued.

She then proceeds to enumerate the many maladies and insecurities her method is guaranteed to cure, and presents us with a little goodie bag. No informative material, but a reusable shopping bag and some body lotion. How nice.

Now she’s talking again. In the manner of a great mathematical proof, she daisy-chains one conclusion to the other and, with the help of a few nice diagrams, flipcharts and whiteboard, tells us just who might benefit from her powerful technique. Some people just aren’t suitable for her plan after all. Turns out she’s focussing on those who don’t have any issues to deal with at all.

I am about to raise my voice in half protest, half mockery, but then three things happen all at the same time: I get stung by a mosquito, one of the builders knocks at the front door, and I wake up.

Lovely. The Kopfkino didn’t play me a real nutcase dream in a long time, but in this case, the nutcase is me.

Thoughts dreams

You won’t believe how much work fun I have with our ongoing building works, even before we enter the heavy-duty knock-through-wall period (the start of which is imminent!). Mostly, it’s just a set of 5 to 10 minute things, and each individual one is perfectly fine, but they add up over the day.

Here’s an example:

8.00 First builder arrives (the one without the key), so I let him in, such that he can get changed and get to work.

8.45 Builder forgot his mobile phone charger and wonders if I could help out…? I can.

9.30 Coffee needs preparing for the 10 am coffee break – fair enough, I prefer them drinking my coffee rather than wander off to buy some somewhere

10.00 Coffee is ready. Do we still have lump-free sugar? Where’s the milk? Three clean mugs?

10.45 Whether they could borrow my circular handsaw again? They can.

11.30 Some delivery is made to the front door. Must answer the door and send the guy ‘round to the back entrance.

12.30 Second batch of coffee needs preparing

13.00 Coffee is ready. Must clean tray from mix of sand, cement, sugar and water, find fresh mugs, etc.

14.30 Builder calls with another question or clarification about something

…

This is my current day-in day-out life. On the upside, we continue making swift progress, so much that I am now under stress to evacuate the kitchen and dining area well ahead of plan. Oh, joy!

Most recent photos are now online. Enjoy.

home home

Some people ban television from their home. They say it enslaves people, and prevents people from using their spare time for things such as talking, interacting, playing, or reading. Not a bad argument, but I admit being lazy, and while I read as much as I can with a head exhausted from work, I do enjoying some amount of mindless entertainment in the evenings.

When looking around the neighbourhood in the early evening hours, that is, at times when my TV set is still off because I am either still at work, writing blog posts like this one, am cooking and preparing dinner, or enjoying any of the activities mentioned above, I can see that tell-tale blue-ish flickering light in many windows.

I thus wonder what would happen if TV broadcasting paused, nationwide, for some while – say, for argument’s sake, a week. Would people actually talk more, play more, read more? Or, would we simply see an increase in domestic violence, child abuse and alcoholism?

One would hope for the former but probably experience the latter, don’t you think?

Thoughts society, television

A salad from tender roast beef stripes, egg and cucumber, with posted potatoes (good old leftovers!),

Fresh toasted artichokes with baby fennel and garlic and chilly infused croutons, (delicious, and to be repeated),

Tongue and head of veal, braised in a vegetable broth (at Brasserie Jura in Neufchatel),

Saucisson Neuchâteloise with green lentils, green salad, and potatoes (at Cafe des Halles, Neufchatel),

Entrecote de Cheval, with herbal butter and pommes dauphinoise, green salads (at Hotel du Marche, Neufchatel),

and an assortment of airport, in-flight and railway station sandwiches.

Food and Drink cooking, food, recipe