Philibuster

I have to say that buying that BMW convertible was a good choice. It is a solid car and awesome to drive. I haven’t had this much fun driving since I had the 280zx. It’s a smooth drive and I had forgotten what toque feels. In fact there are only two problems I have with the car. The gas mileage sucks. It’s about the same as the 280zx but not as fast. To make up for that is the fact that everyday is an on day for the BMW but the zx had a lot of off days.

The second problem is the soft top. It’s nice and easy to put up and down but it has a lot of holes in it. Every time I got in the car after it had rained there were wet spots all over the seats. When driving in the car while raining you got a steady stream of water down your back. So a new soft top was in order. Well I didn’t want to spend the 500 bucks on a new top right away and plus I have had a bunch of stuff going on lately and don’t have the time to install it. Solutions were looked at but not for very long. Most involved time, effort, money, tracking down the right glue, etc. While shopping at walmart I saw a bottle of liquid electrical tape.  Hmmm. Well it said water proof listed a long list of using but nothing about sealing up a soft top. But for two bucks I wasn’t really worried if it didn’t work. I mean it’s not like I was going to really worry about screwing up a soft top that I was resigned to replace anyways. Well, I slapped a little of it on on a couple of the smaller holes over the driver side. Surprisingly it worked not just well but damn near perfectly. It soaked into the cloth soft top perfectly and left it with a nice smooth rubber finish. That is not the same color as the brown soft top but let’s not be picky here. So the rest of the holes got the same treatment. Most were small holes and were no big problem. There largest of them was a bit difficult but in the end also closed up no problems. Around the window at the back they were really holes but more like when your jeans were thin. Most of the stitching had worn away but the liquid tape filled in the missing pieces like a pro. I put a little on both sides just to be sure.

Of course before I filled in all the holes I did want to see how it handled being taken up and down. The soft top bends and I figured this stuff wouldn’t. I was expecting it to start to peel off within a few days. Surprise surprise so far it hasn’t and it hasn’t shown any indication that it will any time soon. Wonderful! Now I don’t have to buy another soft top for at least a few months. Possibly longer if I don’t care about the black patches on the top. Which I don’t.

So yesterday I had the day off and first on the agenda was to pick up some home brew stuff and get to brewing again. I haven’t brewed anything in maybe like 10 months so it was good to get at it again.

I chose a smoked beer recipe and tweaked it a little. My first start at making my own recipes. Oh wait what’s a smoked beer you say? Well a smoked beer is a beer that has a little smokey aftertaste. They smoke the malt or add smoke flavoring into the beer. In my case I’m going easy on the smoke taste and I’m using malt instead of flavoring. It smells great.

I also made a strawberry salsa that could easily kill a baby. Yes, I’m being serious here if you fed it to a baby (or someone with a heart problem) it would probably die a horrible screaming agonizing death. It’s just that hot. This is by no means bragging… Ok well maybe it is a little bit of a brag but still, it’s not the hottest thing I’ve ever had/made but I paid dearly for eating it the next day.

What am I eating right now, oh well more of that baby killing salsa. I’ll probably have to pay for it tomorrow too. It’s just good.

Welcome the newest member of Project Calidity! Carrot Chipolte. It’s pretty spicy and has a strong carrot flavor but is tempered the smokyness from the chipolte. I made it a couple weeks ago and it seems to be a hot item as lots of people have expressed interest in it. I have ten bottles ready to go now. Labled and sealed, I’ll be selling this one for  6 bucks. I do need to get busy making the labels because I have a banna pudding hot sauce waiting to be labeled and a brand new, as of this night, plum rum waiting as well. Anyways here’s a picture because I’m all about the photography and stuff.

So I’ve been making hot sauce like crazy lately. It’s turning into a hobby and what’s the best way to make a hobby even more fun and awesome? To make money doing it. Since the stuff I make is good and more people than just me agree with that statement the most logical end is to sell the stuff. Plus while I like hot sauce and use it quite a bit it’s quicker to make it than use it.

I’ve made about four different batches that are for sale but I seem to have been a little slow on making the labels and stuff. I’ve got two batches labeled and shrink wrapped and ready to go. The first one is a Kiwi mango hot sauce that was actually the first hot sauce I ever made. It’s sweet. The second one is a strawberry tequila hot sauce that turned out exceptionally well. Here’s a picture to show you what the final result is.

I still have two more batches to make labels for. One is a carrot chipotle and the other is a Banana Tamarind. They are all hot but not crazy overwhelming hot.

I was bored today so I took a couple pictures of the hot sauce I made. Here’s the first batch.

First Batch

Second Batch

Well I went and did it. I made my first batch of my own hot sauce. It was a huge mistake. I should never ever have done it, not because it was bad. Oh no because it was good. Too good. I am totally addicted to it. I knew i had a problem when the thought passed my mind about putting it on my cereal. I wasn’t upset about the waffle idea, that actually sounds interesting, but cereal showed that I have a serious problem. Just to be clear I didn’t actually put it on my cereal, I dismissed that thought as being too much but I did think about it, if only for a moment. However I do have to admit that I totally poured some on chicken soup. It was wonderful.

So what did I put in this amazing hot sauce. Serrano peppers, vinegar, chili powder, garlic, crushed red peppers, ( I thought that I didn’t have enough Serrano peppers I cleaned Walmart’s meager stock out) salt, kiwis, mango, and lime juice.

It really is stupid simple to make. If you can boil water, use a blender, pour stuff, and stir you can make hot sauce. Of course picking the right ingredients might require an imagination of sorts.

I already have my next batch lined up. It’s only waiting on the mango and peppers to ripen enough. This time I’m going for heat. I’ve got Habanero peppers this time. The Serrano peppers gave it a little heat in fact it’s quite pleasant the heat comes after the flavor and lingers for a few minutes. I think the second batch is going to hurt.

Well here’s another item to put on my list of stuff to do. I have to make my own hot sauce. I’ve been making my own beer and lately have the urge to make my own stuff. I never really thought about making my own hot sauce but since seeing how incredibly easy it is now it’s on my list. There are some interesting recipes out there and the thought of making my own is very appealing. I got the idea from the post on lifehacker about it but then found a bunch of other websites with recipes.

Well, you know I’ve never really totally been a major fan of bacon. I know, I know… Heresy. Probably of the worse kind. At least since the internet phenomenon of bacon has taken hold. But wait before you try to burn me at the stake and make bacon from my burning flesh let me explain. Firstly I doubt  I do love bacon. I said I wasn’t a fan of bacon because you idiots here in America don’t know how to cook it, or make it. First of all it is much too thin. I think most people would agree with me. Second you burn the bacon. I should not be able to construct things with a meat product as easily as I can with linking logs. I like my bacon when I can grasp one end, pick it up, and the other end slowly sags until pointing straight down. The edges just crispy and the rest soft, warm, greasy, and wonderful. I also love Canadian Bacon, even though there’s really no such thing. Eating bacon that is so hard and crispy you can use them as drumsticks does not appeal.

Well now that I’m done with the fat I can get to the meat of the post. Making bacon! I should have your attention now. I saw this on Make and had to post about it because, well, when bacon is done right it is great. Here’s the direct link to the article on the BS Brewing blog. The blog also has a bunch of stuff about homebrewing. I shall be following this blog now it looks like a good read.