Mellow Marsupial

As usual, Alex was up at O-Dark-Hundred, so he was very ready for his soft food by the usual rising time of 5 am.  Next in his ritual is a trip outside, although this morning I stood at the back door and watched since it was wet and misty...and, of course, very dark.  I thought he might want in soon.  I had the patio light on and the motion-activated light in the driveway came on, but most of the backyard was still very dark.

Much to my surprise, Alex did not want in immediately and went wandering off down the driveway.  Then to my panic, a very large opossum came ambling out of the backyard, walked directly over the stepping stone, and made a path directly towards the backdoor.  I was nearly panicked.  I was worried Alex would reappear and make a beeline for the backdoor, which would have surely resulted in an altercation with this very large and primitive looking thing.  In any case, I could not open the door with the opossum only a few feet away and closing.

Sure enough, Alex came back down the driveway, then stopped when he saw the opossum on the patio. He stood frozen and the opossum kept coming.  The opossum then made a 90 degree turn and ambled off under the bushes along the back of the fireplace wall.

With the opossum retreating, Alex felt brave and started charging.  I opened the door and called him. Fortunately Alex is a coward at heart and immediately ducked into the house.

I don't know if the opossum saw me through the door or not, but if he did he was unconcerned.   After doing a bit of research, I am so glad he was not scared.  This is from the Wikipedia:

When threatened or harmed, they will "play possum", mimicking the appearance and smell of a sick or dead animal. This physiological response is involuntary (like fainting), rather than a conscious act. In the case of baby opossums, however, the brain does not always react this way at the appropriate moment, and therefore they often fail to "play dead" when threatened. When an opossum is "playing possum", the animal's lips are drawn back, the teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, the eyes close or half-close, and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. The stiff, curled form can be prodded, turned over, and even carried away without reaction. The animal will typically regain consciousness after a period of between 40 minutes and 4 hours, a process that begins with slight twitching of the ears.

I am so glad this was a more mellow marsupial and chose not to lie "dead" at our backdoor for four hours.  The cats have brought mice and baby rabbits home to share, but a very large, adult opossum is more than I could cope with.

Banana Bread -- Boiled not Baked

Although there has been relatively little to post about recently, that does not mean nothing has been happening...just nothing post-worthy.   I have been busy with teaching two classes and taking an online course from MIT, A Global History of Architecture: Part 1.  Although ostensibly a study of architecture from 100,000 BCE to 1,600 CE, it includes a lot of world history and a lot of introduction to world religions.  It is pretty low level, but I am enjoying it immensely. 

I have also been experimenting with my thermal cooker, including some new "accessories" I received earlier this fall. 


What is a thermal cooker?  It is essentially a crock pot that does not use electricity.  It consists of two pots, an insulated outer pot and a stainless steel inner pot.  By insulated I mean REALLY insulated, as in a vacuum-jacketed thermos bottle.  In fact, mine was actually made by Thermos.  Food is brought to a boil on the stove in the inner pot, then placed into the insulated outer pot.  Assuming there is enough thermal mass in the inner pot, the food continues to cook slowly for up to 10 hours with no additional energy input. 

 
I originally got my thermal cooker (a 4.5 liter Nissan Thermos) several years ago as a low energy way to cook in Silver. It worked great for beef stew, but that was the only thing I had ever cooked in it.  Anxious to expand my repertoire, I began a search for more recipes. 

I quickly discovered that thermal cookers are popular in Australia (think camping in the outback).  However, many of the recipes were in unfamiliar units and for unfamiliar food.  I finally found a place in Utah, Saratoga Jacks, that markets primarily to survivalists.  They did have some recipes and an interesting description of using it while traveling with their kids for eight days on the road.   

Based on that research, I tried a recipe for soy chicken.  It was simplicity itself...a whole chicken, 2 cups of roughly cut shallots, 3 cups of soy sauce and some additional water.  Place everything in the inner pot. Cover and boil for 15 minutes, then transfer to the outer pot.  After a minimum of 1 hour (I think I allowed over 2 hours), remove and enjoy!  I thought it was really good. 

Although the thermal cooker is obviously best for things with lots of liquid, hence lots of thermal mass, it can also be used for "baking".  Bread or cakes can be made with a container placed on a rack in water in the inside container.  The bread/cake container is best if it is sealed to avoid excess water getting into the batter.  To give that a try I ordered a rack and a "steamed pudding tin".  (While I was at it, I also got a "bain marie".)  All of this arrived from Australia over a month ago. 

Inner pot on left with rack, steamed pudding tin on right with its lid in the background.

I was still unsure of how to proceed until I stumbled across a blog entry that indicated any cake mix could be used with my steamed pudding tin with two modifications:  (1) use 1/4 cup less liquid and (2) add a tablespoon of flour.  The reduction in liquid was required since water would not be lost during the cooking in a closed container.

Well all right.  With that in mind, I grabbed a box of banana bread mix from the grocery and gave it a try today.

 


Per instructions for banana bread in the thermal cooker cookbook, I greased the inside of the pudding tin and its lid (actually sprayed with Pam), then put parchment paper on the bottom.  I then added the batter, modified as indicated above.

Pudding tin with batter, then covered with parchment paper

I put another piece of parchment paper on the top, put the lid on, then placed it into the inner pot. I had already put the rack and covered it with water plus about 1/2 inch.  The pudding tin went in and I heated it to boiling.

Inner pot on the stove containing the pudding tin with lid and boiling water.  Immediately after the picture I put the lid on the inner pot.

This was allowed to simmer slowly, with the lid on, for 30 minutes on the stove.  It was then transferred to the outer insulated container. 

Inner pot in the outer insulated pot ready to be closed.

 
Instructions indicated anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours, although longer is never a problem. 

Banana bread "baking" with no additional energy input.

After 6 hours I opened everything up.  It was still very HOT.  The big question, however, was whether the banana bread was done.

Hot banana bread

Success!  The bread had definitely expanded and a toothpick came out clean.  Yes, banana bread, boiled, not baked!!

More Backyard Visitors

The birds continue to enjoy the food and water that we provide for them.  I am not sure whether it is because there are more of them or they are more hungry, but they are going through the seed faster than before we left for vacation.  On days that it is 100 degrees or more, the finches also fight for space along the top of the den window.  I can only assume it must feel cooler to them there.  All of the birds are fun to watch, but there have been a few new developments this week.

Hummingbird

In addition to the large flock of finches, mutliple woodpeckers, many chickadees, brown thrashers and now a very large family of cardinals (just to name a few), we occasionally saw a hummingbird flitting around in the yard.  Of course it was not interested in the seed we offer the other birds, so we added a hummingbird feeder which now hangs from the main beam of the patio roof.  We don't see it often, but the hummingbird usually makes one or two short visits to the feeder each day.  We are guessing it is a ruby-throated hummingbird, since they are among the very few hummingbirds that visit this part of Texas.  It is either a juvenile or a female, since we have not seen the ruby throat.  I talk as if this is one individual, but some research about their migration indicates these might be multiple individuals on their way south for the winter, destination central America.  In any case, the hummingbirds are very camera shy, so no pictures to date.

Hawk

One morning last week the blue jays were making a particularly loud racket.  That is not terribly unusual since the jays in our yard are typically quite noisy.  However this was loud even for them and just kept going non-stop.  I looked out the den window and there was a hawk perched on one of the lower limbs of the ligustrum!  Every blue jay in the area was also in the yard screaming at him.  He sat there looking around, then flew off.  However, he was so big he had to do some maneuvering to get through the limbs of the ligustrum and out of the yard.  While this was happening all of the jays were following him and screaming at full volume.  I don't know if he was big by hawk standards, but he was huge compared to the other birds and to the space available for flying in our yard.  (Typical wingspan for a red-tailed hawk is 43-57 inches.)  He can have all of the rats, mice, snakes and I suppose even squirrels that he wants, but I hope he will leave the songbirds alone.  Needless to say I was so taken aback by this little drama that I did not get a picture.

Little bandits

The opportunity for getting the hummingbird feeder at the wild bird store was a visit to get new sacks of feed, both tree-nutty that we put in the hanging feeder and safflower seed for the pole feeder.  When replenishing the seeds in the feeders late Sunday, we dumped out some of the older feed onto the ground assuming the ground feeding birds (of which there are many) and the squirrels would eat it as they usually do.  Early Monday morning before light, Alex wanted out on the patio as part of his usual morning ritual.  As soon as he went out he did a quick u-turn and desperately wanted in with a look of terror in his eyes.  That alone is not necessarily cause for concern, since the most minor of events can terrorize Alex.  However, as I let him in I caught a glimpse of two eyes looking back at me from under the bird feeder.  Yep, it was a raccoon.  We got another light on and watched.  It turned out there were four racoons, three normal size and one larger.  They were eating the seeds and nuts off the ground.  They also overturned and inspected the bucket on the patio that had contained the seed.  It had been rinsed but not scrubbed, so probably still smelled like peanuts.  They did not make it to a full blown attack on either of the feeders.  When I opened the sliding door to attempt a picture they took off over the fence.  We had to remove seven baby raccoons and its mother from our chimney in April 2001, but have not seen any since then.  Needless to say we cleaned up the yard a bit better before going to bed Monday night.  We have not seen any evidence of their return, but Alex now refuses to go out until it is light.