Short Film - Charlie Gets A Shave

Nate and I created this silent film as an instructional/informational video for our soap company's website. We filmed the clips using our digital camera (not video camera), and edited the film in Windows Movie Maker. It was fairly straightforward software, and I think the finished product is pretty great!

Beef Jerky

I saw this episode of Good Eats (I love Alton Brown!!!) on the Food Network a long time ago and have wanted to try making jerky ever since. I finally procured the basic equipment (box fan, furnace filters, bungee cords) and gave it a try. I found the recipe on the Food Network's website and went to work. It was actually really easy.

I used 1.8 lbs of flank steak, slightly frozen to make it easier to slice. I marinated the meat for about 4 1/2 hours (used less red pepper in the marinade) and then put it in the filters. Strapped the filters to the fan and let it blow. I let the meat dry for about 4 hours then turned the filters over. Then I let it go overnight, so it dried for a total of about 18-20 hours (I wanted to make sure it was really dry since we were dealing with raw meat). Here is a photo of the finished jerky in one of the filters:

It turned out AMAZING! Nate even thinks I should start making it to sell. You never know I suppose. Next time I'm going to replace the soy sauce with teriyaki and up the honey to make it sweeter. My yield was about 12 oz, which was about 36 pieces. Not too shabby.

Best Banana Bread

I realize that this blog is supposed to be Homemade Everything and I've been focusing mostly on food. I guess I'm on a food kick. That and food is such an important part of our daily lives. I promise to include more variety in the coming months, as the inspiration strikes me.

That said, here is another food post.

I have sampled dozens of banana bread recipes, as there is no better way to utilize a pile of blackened bananas (in my humble opinion). My criteria for the recipe were simple. I wanted a loaf with a rich banana flavor, therefore, the more bananas in the recipe, the better. I also wanted a very moist loaf, which means those healthy recipes were out of the question. Finally, I wanted to be purist - no nuts or dried fruit or chocolate pieces - just plain delicious banana bread. After many attempts to find this, I hit the jackpot with a recipe I found on recipezaar, called The Best Banana Bread. I think the key to its rich flavor is the use of butter instead of oil.

It is a large recipe that can make one big loaf, or be divided into smaller loaves or muffins. I like to do 2 loaves. I use regular-sized loaf pans and the loaves are only about 2 1/2 inches thick. This is nice because it decreases the baking time (I bake for 4o minutes) and then I usually keep one loaf for us and give one to a friend (hooray for good karma!)

As far as modifications to the recipe I really only have one and a half. The "one" is to omit the chocolate chips, which you are welcome to leave in if you'd like. The "half" is really just me being lazy. I don't keep buttermilk around, so I make my own by mixing 1 tsp lemon juice with enough milk to make 1/2 cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes and the milk will curdle a bit. Voila!

Oh, and make sure you use very ripe bananas - the blacker the better!

Cinnamon-Roasted Almonds: Take 2

So the first batch of almonds I made turned out pretty good, but with my modifications...WOW! Nate and I both agreed that the second batch was far superior to the first. Here are the modifications to the recipe that I went with: decreased nuts to 2 cups (to concentrate coating), used dark brown sugar instead of white, increased cinnamon to 2 tsp, and decreased salt to 1/8 tsp. Bake for 1 hour and allow to cool most of the way before eating (so coating can harden). Double yum!!!