The Domesticated Man

Watch TV from the Internet

domesticman — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:21:08 +0000

For those of you how love to watch TV, but really don’t have the time to watch the shows when they are on there is a new website that just launched that just might be for you. Plus if you are at work and bored it’s a good place to pass the time. The site is called hulu and it just launched today. Right now there isn’t a whole lost of material on the site, but they do have a decent selection of shows up right now. There are also movies too. I recommend the site for anyone looking to catch up on a few shows. Hulu has some room to grow and once it does this will be one of those media changing sites it they get more content. Happy clicking!(Update: I forgot to mention that there are some ads while you are watching the shows. The only run about 30 seconds every 10 or 15 minutes.) Here’s a link to an episode of the office

Brewing beer counts as cooking right?

domesticman — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:54:10 +0000

I recently picked up the hobby of home beer brewing. Let me tell you it is a blast. Surprisingly it is incredibly simple to do and does not cost a whole lot. A starter kit usually runs about $80 and includes pretty much everything you need to brew a simple ale. All you need to buy after that is a 3-5 gallon stockpot, you might have one. There are other kits you can get with more equipment if you have a little bit more money to spare, but they aren’t needed for just starting out. I recommend buying your equipment and supplies at Midwest Brewing. If you look around you can find a local brew store. We have two in Albany. After the initial startup cost you can buy a brew kit which has all the ingredients for the style of beer you choose and you are ready to brew your first batch. Kits usually anywhere from $25 to $35. So now you have all the necessary equipment and ingredients (costing about $150) you can now brew your first batch. Usually the brewing process takes about 3 hours, lots of boiling. The only thing you need to do is make sure you sanitize everything. After you boil everything and place it in the fermentor bucket you just need to let it ferment for about 2 weeks. After 2 weeks you bottle it and let it carbonate for another week or 2 and yo have you first batch of beer. Most batches make about 52 bottles of beer, that’s 4 12-packs! Not to bad right. After an initial start up cost, which includes the first batch, you can brew 52 bottles of beer for about $30 a batch, which is cheaper and more fun then just buying it at the store. Plus its fun to do and the beer tastes better then store bought beer because you made it yourself. So if you like drinking beer, like myself, this is a great hobby to pick up. If you want you can even make your own labels for you bottles. I’ll explain a easy to make solution that doesn’t cost nearly as much as buying label making kits in stores in another post. Until then here’s a picture of my custom beer label I made in my spare time. Happy brewing!!!

Rice Warmers

domesticman — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:11:38 +0000

So the other day Courtney was talking about how cold her hands get in the morning on the way to work. Having a lot of spare time on my hands I decided to do something about that. I had read somewhere a few months ago about how you can make a simple hand warmer out of rice. Having watching countless episodes of MacGyver I knew I had the skills to build them. Here is my list of materials:

Rice
Socks (New!)
Sewing Materials

I needed something to hold the rice in. I figured a pair of old socks wold be perfect. So I cut off the elastic part of the sock and used it as a pouch. I sewed one end shut and filled it with about a half cup of rice, maybe a little bit more. Then I sewed the other end shut. Repeat with the other sock and you have a pair of hand warmers made of socks and rice. All you have to do is put them in the microwave for about a minute and they stay hot for about 15 to 20 minutes. Slip them in your coat pocket and you are good to go. I mentioned earlier that you should use new socks. I learned this the hard way. If you use old socks when you microwave them they smell like warm old socks. So if you know someone who had cold hands make them some hand warmers. Here’s some pics of the home made warmers.

(Updated: Spelling Fixes, I suck at spelling, thanks Courtney)

East/West Expansion

domesticman — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:05:18 +0000

So this morning Courtney and I had a nurse come to our apartment because we just got life insurance and they have to check our health to adjust our rates. After an array of questions about my health and family history. If Mom and Dad are reading this she commented on how young you guys are. Then came the height and weight measurements. The bad news is after 6 years of holding off the “freshmen 15″ in college it finally hit, I gained 10 pounds. You can say it was “man-a-fat destiny”. I figure it was bound to happen. Here’s a manifest destiny painting to tie that bad joke together.

So after coming out of shock that was induced by my recent weight gain the nurse rubs some salt into the wound by telling me that I was only 5’7″. I’ve been living my whole life thinking I was a mammoth standing at a proud 5’8″. The nurse told Courtney that there would be more of me to love, which I laughed at. So long story short, no pun intended, getting married makes you shorter and wider.

Man Candy

domesticman — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:32:34 +0000

So you’re a man and you do a lot of cooking right? This doesn’t mean that you always have to make normal food. Brewing beer is considered cooking right? (More posts on brewing later!) Not every dish you make has to be family friendly. I stumbled upon this recipe on Digg and figured it would be perfect for any domesticated man to whip up in his free time. So I’ve got two words for you, Vodka Candy! It’s really easy to make and all you need is sugar, water, corn starch and vodka. You’ll also need a kitchen scale, but you can find one of these pretty cheap. I got mine for $3 at a TJ Max Home store. What they have cheap dress shirts and good deals on kitchen supplies. The original link to the recipe is here (Link) if you want to go to the source. There is pictures if you want to see the process, but I’ll just copy and paste the text to this post. Hope you enjoy the adult candy.

Vodka Candy Recipe

250g granulated sugar
84g water

Cook the syrup until it is ready at 112C. Once the sugar is dissolved, reduce the heat and bring it down to 85C.

52.5g vodka

At 85C, add the vodka by pouring it slowly using the side of the pot. Transfer the syrup by pouring it slowly into another pot. Do this 4 times to prevent any crystallization. Let the syrup cool.

I’m not sure if other starches will work as well of the corn starch, but you will need a lot of it so keeping with a relatively cheap product makes sense. The first step is to make a cast for the syrup. Do this by sifting enough cornstarch to support the cast. The one above is made inside a sheet pan cake mold.

The cornstarch must first be dried at 120C for an hour or more. Fill the mold as high as necessary, level it off, and make the ‘pill’ holes. This can be done with a dowel with the desired shape.

Carefully check the holes for smoothness, then apply the syrup. This is done easily with a squeeze bottle. Fill each hole almost completely, allowing a little room on top to cover the syrup.

Immediately afterwards, sift cornstarch over the syrup casts to completely cover. Anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 inch cornstarch cover is enough.

Now you must wait! 24 hours is the key here. Other processes may take less or more time, but one day is not bad at all. You will need a small sifter and a soft dry brush. Scoop out the ‘pills’ with a spoon and use the brush to carefully knock off any excess clinging corn starch. That’s it. You’re ready.

The ‘pill’ is now a thin hard layer of solidified flavored sugar filled with a liquid burst of sweetened alcohol. Serve the same day unless you can keep it in a humidity free environment.

Daily Routine

domesticman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:37:44 +0000

I have to admit I have a lot of spare time these days. I don’t start my job for another 2 months and I haven’t had one for the last 2 months. I know that sounds like I’m a huge bum, but it’s mostly because I just moved to a new city and it took a few months to find a job. Like I said early my job doesn’t start for another two months, which means I have a lot of time to sit around and grow slightly wider around the midsection. I figured I would spend a little time to outline my daily routine.

7am-8am (Sometimes 9:am): Wake up. I know its kind of early for someone who doesn’t work but I’m a teacher so I’m use to getting up early.
8am-10am: Usually the first thing I do is turn on my computer and tv. I usually watch a few hours of CNN, ESPN or some mix of the two. During this time I check various websites. I might play video games for a little bit too. After about an hour I make breakfast for myself. Usually this consists of oatmeal. If eating another bowl of oatmeal makes me feel too old I’ll have a bowl of cereal or some toast. Here’s a fine example of a normal morning news story that I usually see.

10am-2pm: This is the worst part of the day. I like to call it the doldrums. There is nothing good on tv and by that time I have already gone through the news cycle twice and I really don’t want to see the same reports again. If I’m lucky I catch an episode of “How It’s Made” or “Mythbusters” I haven’t seen before. Who would have thought that midday is a horrible time for the 20-30 year old male demographic on tv. Let’s just say I’m up to date on current birth control options and geriatric life insurance now that I watch tv in the time period. After a 10 minutes of frantically trying to find something to watch I just give up and do my housekeeping activities. Most of the time this consists of doing the dishes, vacuuming or doing the laundry. Sometimes I’ll prep food for dinner too. If we have a Netflix movie that we just watched I’ll take a walk around the park and drop it off at the mailbox. Sometimes I run errands also.

2pm-8pm: This is the bread and butter time period. At 2pm Law & Order starts. I love Law & Order and TNT shows two episodes back to back at 2. Then I watch an hour of King of Queens on TBS followed by an hour of Seinfeld. This brings me to 6pm. From 6 to 8 I watch another 2 episodes of Law & Order. If I’m lucky there is a mini marathon of L&O at 8pm on TNT, but I better have something to do the next day at 2pm because those are the episodes I watch.

8pm-Whenever: This is when I watch whatever prime time tv is on that is good. I might play some more video games or Courtney and I might watch a movie. We’ll also eat dinner. This is kind of free time. Bedtime is at 10pm.

Adventures in Cooking (First Post)

domesticman — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:48:38 +0000

I’ve always wanted to get into blogging but I really didn’t have anything to blog about. Well, now I do and I happen to have lots of time on my hands. I got the idea of this blog during my attempt to make something for myself to eat. I usually just make a turkey or ham sandwich. Pretty normal meal for a huge guy right. I opened the fridge and gathered the required materials; bread, cheese, lettuce, mayo. I go to find the last and most important part, the meat, and low and behold no meat. I had to move to plan B. I scavenged the cupboards and couldn’t find anything I would microwave or heat up in under 5 minutes. Oh crap! Good things I remembered about a wonderful site I found for my wife. The site is called Supercook. The site is designed to find recipes based on what you have on hand. Useful when you live in a single income home and you usually don’t have much. The site has a great interface and is really easy to use. All I did was type in rice, chicken stock and a great recipe for egg drop soup popped up. Lucky for me I had eggs. 15 minutes later I had a wonderful lunch. I even packaged some in some tupperware so my wife has lunch made for the next few days. I will definitely use this site more often.