How To: Soccer Nets and Butter
Sunday was election day, and mayor's offices and senate seats changed parties all over the country. I'm pretty sure my mayor is still the same, which may turn out to be a good thing because he promised to support my ADESCO if the get their act together and get some proposals turned in to build a bridge. I'm holding him to it. The only one I actually was watching was San Salvador, where Nayib Bukele (he was mayor when we were in Nuevo Cuscatlan) won the mayoral seat. He's a genuinely smart and nice guy, and I'm hoping he does as well with San Salvador as he did with Nuevo Cuscatlan because if he does, he will help pull this country in the right direction.
Since Peace Corps is strictly apolitical and the entire week leading up to elections is a mess of parties and raffles and election prep and final campaigning, I peaced out from my community and spent my weekend with Anne, who lives a few towns up the road. I'm basically on a short vacation, and I got a new modem that gives me fast internet, so I've been sending emails and reading the news and checking Facebook and Twitter far more times than is sane. Since Anne had nothing to do either, we spent the weekend baking cookies and peanut butter bars and playing with the neighbors. Also, we're planning a trip to Nicaragua that looks like it will be awesome. Traveling is so exciting, and now that I have real internet I spent hours playing with google flights by putting in dates and destinations and watching all the little airport dots show me all the possibilities and their costs. I found out I can get a flight to Iceland from Denver for $330. I am totally adding a stopover in Iceland to my Europe itinerary.
Anne got me started on The Mindy Project, so all TV and movies have been put on hold until I catch up because it's hilarious and a nice lighthearted fluff show. This doesn't stop me from reading, though, and I finally got ahold of Holly Black's new book The Darkest Part of the Forest. Holly Black writes dark fantasy that I absolutely love - modern faerie tales where the fey are always fairly scary and very tricky, and the real world is gritty and dark. For the moment I am double-fisting it (this metaphor doesn't even make sense now that we're part of the kindle generation) with Holly Black and a series by James S.A. Corey. A good friend introduced me to the science fiction author and I am completely hooked. The first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes, and if you like sci-fi or Firefly or just a really awesome plot with great characters, I highly recommend it.
One of the things we did this weekend was to finally take demo pictures for the soccer net I'm making with the schoolkids next week. I got the idea from Peace Corps Ghana. It's part of a recycling curriculum I'm planning with the school so they can do useful projects and learn to protect the environment all in one fell swoop. The situation with the water bags is out of control, especially after soccer games or meetings, so I'm just creating a little consciousness and encouraging recycling without them realizing it. After that we'll be working with plastic bottles, then maybe chip bags too. Below are the instructions. Also, for those who wanted to learn to make butter and don't want to wait for El Camino to come out, those directions are at the bottom of the post.
Since Peace Corps is strictly apolitical and the entire week leading up to elections is a mess of parties and raffles and election prep and final campaigning, I peaced out from my community and spent my weekend with Anne, who lives a few towns up the road. I'm basically on a short vacation, and I got a new modem that gives me fast internet, so I've been sending emails and reading the news and checking Facebook and Twitter far more times than is sane. Since Anne had nothing to do either, we spent the weekend baking cookies and peanut butter bars and playing with the neighbors. Also, we're planning a trip to Nicaragua that looks like it will be awesome. Traveling is so exciting, and now that I have real internet I spent hours playing with google flights by putting in dates and destinations and watching all the little airport dots show me all the possibilities and their costs. I found out I can get a flight to Iceland from Denver for $330. I am totally adding a stopover in Iceland to my Europe itinerary.
Anne got me started on The Mindy Project, so all TV and movies have been put on hold until I catch up because it's hilarious and a nice lighthearted fluff show. This doesn't stop me from reading, though, and I finally got ahold of Holly Black's new book The Darkest Part of the Forest. Holly Black writes dark fantasy that I absolutely love - modern faerie tales where the fey are always fairly scary and very tricky, and the real world is gritty and dark. For the moment I am double-fisting it (this metaphor doesn't even make sense now that we're part of the kindle generation) with Holly Black and a series by James S.A. Corey. A good friend introduced me to the science fiction author and I am completely hooked. The first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes, and if you like sci-fi or Firefly or just a really awesome plot with great characters, I highly recommend it.
One of the things we did this weekend was to finally take demo pictures for the soccer net I'm making with the schoolkids next week. I got the idea from Peace Corps Ghana. It's part of a recycling curriculum I'm planning with the school so they can do useful projects and learn to protect the environment all in one fell swoop. The situation with the water bags is out of control, especially after soccer games or meetings, so I'm just creating a little consciousness and encouraging recycling without them realizing it. After that we'll be working with plastic bottles, then maybe chip bags too. Below are the instructions. Also, for those who wanted to learn to make butter and don't want to wait for El Camino to come out, those directions are at the bottom of the post.
Recycled Soccer Net
1. Find water bags. Clean and flatten.
2. Fold in half.
3. Cut along the seam.
4. Cut in half. You now have two rings.
5. Pull each ring through itself on your cord, which is the length of your soccer goal. Repeat until the entire cord is covered. This is your first row.
6. Take two rings and pull them through the two adjacent rings on your top row. Pull through to create a knot. You should now have a triangle with two tabs coming off.
7. Repeat until you have created a full second row.
8. Repeat thousands of times until you have a soccer net. Remember to add one bag on the far end of every other row so you have even pairs. Otherwise you will find your net getting smaller each row.
9. String a rope through the bottom so you can tie it to the posts.
10. Play soccer! (Or volleyball.)
BUTTER!
- Buy crema* (cream)
- Put your crema (preferably cold) in a wide-lid jar or tupperware.
- Shake like crazy (or use an electric mixer) to your favorite song until the crema separates into butter and buttermilk. This should take about 5 minutes.
- Strain off the buttermilk then wash with cold water a few times to get rid of any excess. You can do this in a thin piece of fabric if it’s easier.
- Mix in a little salt, crushed garlic, cinnamon & sugar, or herbs.
- Keep refrigerated.
Note: If your butter “sweats,” you didn’t get rid of all the buttermilk. Just press it out and wash it off again. Also, if it costs more for you to buy a pound of crema than it does to buy two sticks of butter, just buy the butter.
*If you don’t have a crema vendor or access to a city, you can make crema by refrigerating raw milk in a clear container for a few days. It will separate into milk (bottom) and cream (top). Spoon off the cream (or make a hole in the bottom to drain out the milk) and use it to make your butter.
New Books Read: 83
Total Books Read: 120
Recommendations: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (scifi), Tithe by Holly Black if you haven't read anything by her before or The Darkest Part of the Forest if you have, or The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis if you want some good old-fashioned beautiful fantasy.
Comments
Post a Comment