• 13 Posts
  • 37 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: January 31st, 2022

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  • gyrfalcon@beehaw.orgtoLinux@lemmy.mlLooking for a "couch laptop"
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    8 months ago

    I bought a used HP Elitebook on eBay for a similar purpose. I can browse and do video calls on a bigger screen when the fancy strikes. Pretty much any used business laptop should work. I think I paid about $300 for mine and I paid extra for particular hardware I thought was neat but you don’t have to. Only thing to keep in mind is the battery will likely be pretty worn.


  • Other than the two attempts at caramel making I did not accomplish anything else, but I am still pretty pleased with that. I had a lot of other things going on, and making something was good. I may try another batch this weekend in hopes that I can get the last refinement in before the holidays. Overall, I enjoyed running and participating in the event, and I am looking forward to next year!






  • I retried my recipe as a dry caramel and got improved results! I got a good color, as you can see in this picture. I think I got a little impatient and turned the heat up too high, because it was a bit burnt, although that might also have been because I forgot to prep my pan to pour into until it was almost done. The fats also went in later and were much better incorporated. I’m hoping to get one more attempt before the end of the month and have something I will feel good about making for the holidays.




  • I haven’t gotten to make more caramel, but I did eat my last batch. Definitely the right chew, but so pale it looked like raw chicken, and the fat didn’t emulsify so it was, as my SO immediately described it, “gweasy.” Picture: https://postimg.cc/qtY5kV6g

    Recipe was as follows:

    • 192g sugar
    • 65 ml canned coconut cream
    • 28g vegan butter
    • Salt and vanilla to taste
    1. Put sugar in a pot with just enough water to fully wet it, along with the coconut cream
    2. Heat over medium heat to firm ball temperature
    3. Remove from heat, add butter, salt, and vanilla.
    4. Pour into pan lined with parchment paper

    I’m going to try again with the same ingredients but try melting the sugar dry, then adding the coconut cream. That would at least help with the color of nothing else. Failing that, I have another recipe I can try that uses corn syrup and brown sugar along with sweetened condensed coconut milk.—



  • I did manage to spend a bit of time today making caramel. I followed a recipe I had written down on a sticky note last time I tried this. Currently it is chilling in the fridge to be cut tomorrow. The bit that I scraped out of the pot after definitely has the right texture, stuck to my teeth and very chewy. That said, it didn’t really get a caramel color, I’ll try to take a picture and add it here along with the recipe, but it stayed almost white even though it reached firm ball temp. I have another recipe that I tried before, so I might go to that and maybe use it as a starting point for experimentation if I can get better color out of it.






  • I was not terribly successful on this last year so I have two ideas, both aiming to scale back a bit:

    1. Complete my project from last year, which was a round shield inspired by Viking round shields
    2. Hammer out a good dairy free caramel recipe. I already have a dairy free fudge recipe which I make at Christmas every year. There’s also caramels, but my SO has a dairy allergy so she cannot partake, so I would like to work out a good caramel recipe. I have made previous attempts at this, but they all fell victim to various mishaps, ranging from becoming overcooked into burnt hard candy to having a fly nosedive into the cooking caramel

    This will be made a little more complicated by having a week of business travel as well as a family visit at the end of the month, but I am hoping to accomplish something fun without setting too high of expectations for myself.



  • gyrfalcon@beehaw.orgMtoTechnology@beehaw.orgFucking hell
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    10 months ago

    Hey this is a great contribution, just wanted to request that in the future you try to have a more descriptive title. Totally understand that it might have slipped your mind on this one, this is a charged topic to say the least, just a note for the future. Thanks!