Welcome to my musings on whatever topic catches my eye, plus stories, recipes, handyman tips, welding, photography, and what have you. Oh, and analog/digital hardware design, and software. Please comment on the blog post so everyone who visits can see your comments.

Category: Tutorial (Page 2 of 3)

Chai Flavored Iced Tea

My friend and I drink a lot of iced tea, so I make about a gallon a day. I keep two one gallon jugs in the refrigerator and one is always full.

I joke that I make iced tea on a semi-industrial scale so it has to be quick and cheap. While I like plain black tea, I prefer a chai-like flavor and slightly sweet. I use 1/3 to 1/6 the amount of sugar in Southern sweet tea. There are chai tea bags but I can’t always find them and they are more expensive than generic black tea you can get at grocery stores and Walmart for next to nothing. So, I decided to try to get close enough to the flavor of chai by using my own spices. I found a way that’s stupid simple.

You need a 2 quart saucepan. I prefer heavy stainless. You need a 1 cup measuring cup, measuring spoons, allspice, and black pepper. I use tagless bags or rip the tags off of regular bags.

Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil. When it reaches a boil, I turn off the fire and toss in six or eight bags of black tea, or the equivalent. On an electric stove, you should move the pot to a cold burner. I let it steep for 3 minutes or slightly more.

While the tea is steeping, I measure one cup of sugar. On top of the sugar I place 1/4 tsp of allspice and 1/8 tsp of black pepper. Use more if you wish.

When the steeping time is over, I remove the bags and squeeze them out. (I know you’re not supposed to do that.) Then dump in the contents of the measuring cup and stir. I put a lid on it to prevent contamination and set it aside for several hours to cool.

Lastly, I take a gallon jug, stir the pot one more time and pour it into the jug. Add plain water to fill the jug and place in the refrigerator. Done. I’ve done this so many times, I can do it in my sleep.

Try it and please let me know what you think.

Install Fails, Files Out of Date

The other day I was trying to install the software for a digital oscilloscope and ran into a problem.  The software is written in Visual Basic.  The installer said that “certain files are out of date” and offered to update the files before rebooting the system.  If you answer no, the installer quits.  If you answer yes, the system reboots and when you run the installer again it repeats the “files out of date” message.  There’s no way to get past this, but I have found a workaround.  The problem occurs with both the Microsoft and Nullsoft installers, and it happens on Windows 2000 and XP.

How To Fix It

Your installable program will consist of at least a setup program, a CAB file, and a file called SETUP.LST.  SETUP.LST is structured like an INI file so you can open it with a text editor like Notepad.  Don’t use a word processor.  If you open SETUP.LST you’ll see the file organized into sections that look something like this:

[Bootstrap]
SetupTitle=Install
SetupText=Copying Files, please stand by.
CabFile=app.CAB
Spawn=Setup1.exe
Uninstal=st6unst.exe
TmpDir=msftqws.pdw
Cabs=1

[Bootstrap Files]
File1=@VB6STKIT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,7/15/00 12:00:00 AM,101888,6.0.84.50
File2=@COMCAT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,5/31/98 12:00:00 AM,22288,4.71.1460.1
File3=@asycfilt.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,3/5/10 7:37:40 AM,65536,5.1.2600.5949
File4=@olepro32.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:04 AM,84992,5.1.2600.5512
File5=@oleaut32.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:04 AM,551936,5.1.2600.5512
File6=@stdole2.tlb,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(TLBRegister),,4/13/08 10:12:08 PM,16896,5.1.2600.5512
File7=@msvbvm60.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:02 AM,1384479,6.0.98.2

The problem is in the [Bootstrap Files] section.  Several of the files in that section are unnecessary.  If you comment them out (by putting a semicolon at the start of the line) your install will proceed without any problems.  You may have to experiment with how many files to comment out but in general you should keep the first two or three files in the list and comment out the rest.  The configuration that worked for me is below.  Your SETUP.LST file will probably be slightly different.

[Bootstrap Files]
File1=@VB6STKIT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,7/15/00 12:00:00 AM,101888,6.0.84.50
File2=@COMCAT.DLL,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,5/31/98 12:00:00 AM,22288,4.71.1460.1
;File3=@asycfilt.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),,,3/5/10 7:37:40 AM,65536,5.1.2600.5949
;File4=@olepro32.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:04 AM,84992,5.1.2600.5512
;File5=@oleaut32.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:04 AM,551936,5.1.2600.5512
;File6=@stdole2.tlb,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(TLBRegister),,4/13/08 10:12:08 PM,16896,5.1.2600.5512
;File7=@msvbvm60.dll,$(WinSysPathSysFile),$(DLLSelfRegister),,4/14/08 6:42:02 AM,1384479,6.0.98.2

Good luck!

Refilling a Fountain Pen Ink Cartridge


As some of you know, I am a user of fountain pens. There are all sorts of fill mechanisms for fountain pens such as levers, pistons, converters, and cartridges. My usual method is to refill cartridges from bottled ink using a syringe.

From time to time, questions come up about how to refill cartridges so I decided to make a short video of the easy procedure.

I hope this was helpful. Please comment below if you have any questions.

Making Candied Orange Peel

Making candied orange peel is easy once you learn what to watch for. Expect a couple of spoiled batches where you undercook or burn the product, but after that it’s straightforward.

Candied Orange Peel

The number of oranges to use is hard to specify. I eat two oranges a day and save the peel. Since I want as many long 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide strips that are 2 inches long, I cut the oranges in half and juice them or quarter them and carve out the inside (and eat it). Then I wash the peels under running water, and scrape as much of the meat off as I can and then toss the peels into a sealed plastic bin I have in the refrigerator. The sealed bin has a small amount of water on the bottom to keep them hydrated, otherwise the refrigerator will dry them out and they’ll shrivel.

When I have “enough”, I get the cutting board and start slicing as many long pieces as I can and I dice up the odd pieces, and continue until I have enough to fill a small 16 cm stainless saucepan about 3/4 full (but not more).

Next the peels optionally get boiled in the saucepan. Boiling them like I describe here will reduce the flavor and remove bitterness. It will also help to hydrate any peels that have dried and thinned. You can skip the boiling steps here for a stronger orange flavor. If I’m going to use the peels for baking I skip the boiling to get a stronger flavor. To boil the peels, fill the saucepan with water, and boil for 10 minutes or more, dump them into a strainer and hit them with cold water. Then back in the pot to boil again for 10 minutes or so, dump and rinse with cold water.

Next comes the candying step. Put 2 to 2-1/2 cups of sugar in the saucepan and 1 cup of water, bring it to a boil and dissolve all the sugar. Be careful from here on because the sugar syrup will be at 240 degrees F. Treat it with respect because it WILL hurt you–think napalm. Gently add the peels to the boiling syrup, bring back to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and cook them in the syrup (uncovered). I’ve seen recipes that say to cook for 20 minutes. Forget that. It takes 40 to 45 minutes of cooking. The whole time it will be merrily bubbling and foaming. Stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking or burning. When you get to around 40 minutes, you’ll notice the amount of liquid is getting less and less and now is where you really have to pay attention. You want the peels to get that “glassy” candied look–not all the way through, but you want to see the flesh start to get glassy. Some people say to boil until all the syrup is gone. If you do that, you’ll burn the peels. There’s a fine line where they are “just right” and it always seems to come at around 45 minutes.

While it’s cooking, I’ve put out sheets of waxed or parchment paper. When the decision point comes, dump the contents of the pot into a metal screen strainer (remember it’s at 240F which will melt some plastics) and let it drain for a minute. Then spoon them out onto the waxed paper and as quickly as you can spread them out so they are touching each other as little as possible. When they cool they will stick together and it’s pretty easy to unstick them from the paper but not from each other. Then let them cool off and dry for a while, an hour or two, and then you can use them or cover with another sheet of waxed paper. You can stack several batches on top of each other, put a dinner plate on top, and store them like this for several days.

Finally, you can sprinkle them with flour and mix them into a cake. You can dip the long ones in melted chocolate (just like strawberries). You can coat them with powdered sugar, use then to garnish ice cream, whatever.

To try this out I’d recommend starting with four oranges worth of peel. The thickness of orange peels varies a lot so it’s hard to say how many oranges you need. Thick skinned oranges are great for this application. Oranges with very thin skins are not good choices for candying. You can also do this with grapefruit skins for a very different flavor.

For me, candied orange peel is one of the greatest flavors on earth, and it’s extra fun to make because you are using what would otherwise be garbage plus about 20 cents worth of sugar. However, it is labor and time intensive.

Candied Orange Peel

Closeup of finished candied orange peels.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2023 Shuttersparks

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑

Find me on Mastodon