cauliflower soup

Making a veggie soup is easy. You can use whatever veggie you prefer. Today its cauliflower because local cauliflower is cheap and tasty this time of year.

Ingredients
1 cauliflower
1 small onion
1 liter of water
1/4 dl cream
salt, pepper
a pinch of curry
Garam Masala


Instructions
I usually use my own stock. I keep it in ice trays in the freezer. But with cauliflower i prefer to make the stock right away for 2 reasons:

1) Cauliflower often dominates veggie stock.
2) There is plenty of material in a cauliflower to make what we need now.

I put EVERYTHING from the cauliflower, you would normally throw away, into boiling water. If you have any veggie leftovers, throw them in as well. I had some mixed salad from yesterday. Let it simmer for 45 minutes, and discard all the veggies.

This is how my stock ended up. Depending on what veggies you use, the color may vary. The brown color in mine comes from some onion peelings.

Now put the cauliflower and chopped onion into the stock and let it simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on. Now its Bamix time! Blend the soup with the multipurpose blade until it looks like this:

Now its time for the whisk blade. This will make the soup silky smooth. Season the soup with salt and pepper, ad a pinch of curry and Garam Masala if you like your soup with an indie touch.

Just before serving i ad in a bit of cream. A tablespoon or maybe a bit more is sufficient to get that creamy taste.

I like to serve with light toasted rye bread. You could make rye bread croutons instead.

Easy, tasty and healthy dinner. 10 minutes of work.

Leftovers go into the freezer. This kind of plain veggie soup is perfect for adding into sauces, lasagna, meatballs etc.

Lamborghini Espada Series 1

The Lamborghini Espada has been one of my favorite cars since i was a little boy. Favorite cars are usually connected to events, experiences or feelings.

Aged 8 i saw one of these in real on board a ferry. My dad worked on the ferry and i was with him at work. I was amazed and just stood there looking at it. It looked like a spaceship. The German owner was in the car and he couldn't help noticing me stare.

He winded down the window and asked if i liked the car. I nodded. He got out and gave me the grand tour. He was obviously proud of the car and kept telling me technical stuff like only a German can.

My father had arrived, and i was sitting in the drivers seat when the German asked my father if it was okay to have me in the car while he drove it off the ferry. My dad said yes, and thats why this car is so special to me even today.

That day would change my thoughts on Lamborghini's for the rest of my life.

This particular car is a Series 1. The most beautiful one. Later Series 2 and 3 had improved engines, but bigger bumbers and bigger uglier mirrors.

The Espada was a Lamborghini for the family man. The boot had plenty of room for luggage.

Its a big car, but the side view is still very harmonic.

The car featured Lamborghini's 4 liter V12 with 325 horsepower. It had a topspeed of +250 km/h, and was the fastest 4 seater of its time.

Classic Italian interior. Later versions where available with automatic transmission. 

Plenty of room for 4, though it was designated as a 2+2.

If i ever win the lottery, i would consider getting one of these. A good car will set you back around +50.000 US D. That's quite cheap for at car of this type. A Ferrari 365 GT from that time will easily cost you twice as much.

My favorite kitchen tool

This little beauty is the only kitchen appliance i use every day. It chops, blends, grinds, minces, everything!

I don't use a food processor anymore. i use my Bamix for everything.

It's very economical, easy to clean and handy to use. Quite expensive to buy though, but it will last forever. I had the smallest Bamix for 6 years, but when i wanted to buy some accessories for it i got a good deal on the whole package including a new and more powerful Bamix. Now my mom has my old Bamix (still looks brand new).  

In the middle is the Bamix itself. This one has a 160W motor, which doesn't sound like much, but trust me... these Swiss made engines are powerful and long lasting. My old one was only 140W and i never felt the need for more power. I tried the top of the line Gastromix with 350W and that's a powerhouse! A tool for pros.

To the left is the processor. It chops and grinds whatever you like. With the powder disc it even turns spices and coffee into powder.

To the right is the SliceSy. It grates, chops and cuts, vegetables, fruit and cheese. This is the most disappointing part of the package. Its big enough for me, but when my kids are here its too small and it gets tedious to use. Cleaning is still easy though.

In front you see the 5 inserts for the SliceSy, and the 4 blades for the Bamix. The first blade is the beater. With that you can beat eggs, cream etc. Its actually possible to make a smoothie with skinned milk! People have trouble achieving this, but ill show you how in a later post.

The second blade is the whisk. It stirs and batters mixtures for pancakes, omelets, salad dressings, creams up whatever you like and makes fresh mayonnaise! Again, i noticed people have trouble making mayo, but i'll show you how later.

The third blade is the multipurpose blade. Mince and puree soups, puddings, chop frozen fruit and crushes ice (though its not that good at it).

The last blade is the meat blade. With this you can actually mince small amounts of meat or vegetables. I have tried it once and it worked, but since the blade is razor sharp its easy to cut your fingers when (un)mounting the blade. I'm not sure i will ever use this blade again.

There you have it! Saves time. Saves energy. Fun and easy to use. What more do you want?

How low can you go?

I own a rooted Nexus One Android phone with CM7.

I travelled to South Africa alot for a period of my life, and really needed a device to connect to the internet on the go. First i used my laptop, but it was bulky, heavy and batterylife was a joke.

So as a start i bought a big battery for my N1 and was happy. 2 full days of average use. But since i have experimented alot with my phone, and this is where i am right now:

5 mA when idle. Thats 11 days of standby time on the standard battery or a whopping 26 days with the extended battery! With standard Android and no tweaks i got 28 hours.

I will post later how i achieved these amazing results.