transplog

Two recipes, one healthy and one less so. Care to guess which produced a tastier result?

First up was a kind of chocolate mousse involving avocados but no dairy and no chocolate. The result looked like the real thing; it tasted not at all like the sweet chocolatey goodness. Neither cinnamon nor honey masked the underlying flavor of avocado. So, rather a fail.

Avocados gone wild: avocado mousse with dark cocoa and cinnamon

Second up was an oatmeal recipe that tipped the scales more in favor of taste. Do not let the use of oatmeal fool you into any delusions about the nutritional value of these spongy little pyramids. Healthy they are not. But they are good: nutty and spicy with a dusting of crunchy topping.

Toasted oat muffins with pecan-brown sugar crumble

Click the index above or this link to see the full Flickr set from Brazos Bend.

Onion skins, those frail cast-offs from your culinary adventures, hold all manner of secrets. Who knew that boiled onion skins would yield rich and deep color for egg-dyeing? (Aside from grandmothers of yore, who DID know these things.)

This revelation came after a few years of enthusiastic (initially) but disappointing (eventually) results from using other vegetative material to dye Easter eggs. Coffee, turmeric, cabbage, and blueberries all produced wan if not faintly muddy eggs.

With the right receipt, however, the results are happy indeed. This right recipe was the huevos haminados recipe from The Kitchn.

The group portrait

Similar recipes hint at advanced egg-dyeing tricks. These tricks put the Paas arsenal of decals and glitter and wax crayons to shame. Parsley leaves! Thus we have nature's stencils.

The close-up reveals a marbled swirl of mahogany and umber

Even better news: the eggs stewed in the oniony brew taste like eggs. Dye away!

Replicas of two Columbus ships [web site], the Niña and the Pinta, sailed into Freeport last month with little fanfare.

An eagle-eyed friend, who scans the local papers for such items, found that these floating museums would be in Freeport for just four days.

Exploring these ships takes little time, but they certainly make an impact. Imagine sharing the cramped space with other unwashed mates, cows, goats, provisions, and the frequent blast of stinging seawater. Then those cross-ocean journeys quickly become mind-boggling to the modern human.

The 2012 schedule is here if you're of a mind to take a road trip: [2012 schedule].