Cooking and geeking

[altivo]

But in separate rooms, honest. Notably, a Raspberry Pi, even running fully loaded, doesn't generate enough heat to cook with. This is definitely in contrast to some Intel processors I've used.

Made ratatouille in the slow cooker today. Smelled great for six hours while it cooked. Here's a photo of how it looked at the beginning:


Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, sweet pepper, onion, seasoned with garlic and hot paprika, a little olive oil and wine added.

Meanwhile, I finally got the Raspberry Pi (now running Raspbian, the Linux OS customized for its specific hardware features, including hardware floating point processor) going with the HDMI to VGA conversion box that arrived on Saturday. That converts the HDMI video and sound output from the Pi to separate VGA (analog) video and audio signals. Hooked up an old VGA CRT monitor and was surprised to find that it was capable of 1280 x 740 resolution without straining. That aspect ratio was wrong though and everything was distorted to tall and skinny proportions. Some quick changes to config.txt and the screen opened at 1024 x 768, which is more appropriate and also needs less memory to process for Xwindows.

Here is the screen, with keyboard and cheap (freebie) speaker at left:


The speaker is in the top of the Pringles can to the left of the keyboard. These are given away as a promotional prize and seemed appropriately cheap for use with a $35 computer.

Actually there's more than $35 invested in the project now. The HDMI to VGA converter box was $33. Assorted cables, about $10 total. 8 MB SDHC was about $8, and serves as the system disk. Surge protector with two USB charging ports to power the Pi was about $9. The keyboard, mouse, and monitor were supplied by spares that I had lying around. Total cost, a bit over $100. The resulting system performs as well as any small home computer in the $300 or so price range today. However, it is infinitely smaller than one of those "minitower" desktop units. The Raspberry Pi fits in a plastic enclosure of about 2 x 3 x 4 inches. The processor is a 700 MHz ARMv6, with two USB ports, ethernet, HDMI and composite video outputs. There is a serial port and other interfacing available through an expansion header, but you have to provide a ribbon cable and connector, and break those out for yourself.

Oh, and it looks like we have a recipient for our sheep. Friend of a friend came by to see them, asked questions, went home to talk to his wife, and called to say they will take them. They have horses and cows, so are used to dealing with hay buying. He has a border collie that he wants to train for sheep herding, and I think it sounds like a suitable home for our little flock.

Comments

[schnee]

That ratatouille looks lovely; I should get a decent slow cooker myself. (I say "decent" because I have one, sort of, but in retrospect, I think I fell for crap.)

The Raspberry Pi seems like an interesting device, too. Did you get it for a specific purpose, or just for the fun of tinkering?

Oh, and good news about the sheep! And that border collie should enjoy actually getting a flock to herd, too. :)

[altivo]

The ratatouille was good, though the eggplant was bit more mature than I like. (It had lots of little seeds in it, but still tasted fine.)

I got the Raspberry Pi to experiment with, but I'm a big backer of the simple and unpretentious when it comes to electronics. While others seek the biggest, fastest, and showiest, I'm much more interested in a minimalist approach. Often that means using "antique" equipment, but in this case the idea of a machine that is so small and weighs 6 ounces or so doing the work of a full-sized desktop was irresistible, and especially since the price is so low. It's an amazing feat of minimalized engineering, and thanks to USB, quite capable.

[schnee]

*nod* I'm not actually sure if I've ever eaten eggplant. My mother never made it; perhaps she doesn't like it herself, and as a result of my never being exposed to it, I never tried it myself, either.

I may have to change that, though, so since you probably know more about this than I do, is there anything I should look out for when buying them? Is there an easy/reliable way of telling how mature they are?

I've also seen different varieties for sale — the regular purple ones, white ones, and "marbled" ones. Are these just superficially different, or do they actually have different tastes etc., too?

Thanks. :)

[altivo]

The different colors of eggplant all taste much the same.

I think the more mature eggplant has a shiny skin, while the ones with immature seeds are satiny but not as shiny. (I could have it backwards, this always confuses me.)

If you can get the Japanese eggplants (long and thin, like cucumbers) they are less seedy than the large purple ones commonly found in American markets.

My favorite way to have eggplant is Eggplant Parmigiana, in which the eggplant is cut into slices, dipped in egg and then breadcrumbs, and fried in oil until crispy. After that, you layer white cheese (mozzarella or Swiss) and Italian seasoned pasta sauce on each slice, add grated Parmesan or a similar hard grating cheese on top, and bake just long enough to melt all the cheese. Serve with linguini or spaghetti. There are reduced fat versions that can be made in the microwave or by baking in the oven.

We also like the slices marinated and grilled over charcoal. Ratatouille is good too, and easy to find recipes. Cut into cubes or small strips, you can make a vegetarian version of Stroganoff by treating the eggplant much as you would the beef. This last is delicious but a bit fussy and time consuming.

The English and the French call eggplant "aubergine," by the way, so depending on your cookbooks, you may have to use that term to find recipes.

[schnee]

Ah, yeah, they're called "Aubergine" in German, too.

Thanks for the suggestions! They all sound nice, especially the eggplant parmigiana; I may have to try that. Of course, marinated, grilled eggplant sounds good, too, as does ratatouille.

And substituting eggplant for beef? Interesting; that never would've occurred to me, but I may have to try that, too.

Thanks again. :)

[altivo]

Oh, and another eggplant trick is to make it like lasagna, just substituting thin slices of eggplant for the flat pasta. You can also make a dish similar to Greek moussaka, where the slices are baked in a sort of egg custard.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

It looks more like a monochrome disco light ball than a raspberry.
Don't they know what raspberries look like? ;-P

[altivo]

Hey, they're British. Probably only see raspberries after they're made into jam, if then.

(You should have seen it when I had the aspect ratio of the monitor configured wrong. At 1820x740 resolution, it looked like a warty banana, or maybe a hand grenade.)

[casey382]

Cool, the sheep will do something other than grow wool. It would be interesting to see the dog work the flock. We could film it and put it on Ewe-Tube.

[altivo]

*groan*

Actually, watching dogs work sheep is pretty amazing stuff. There's a good opportunity for that up in Jefferson, Wis. but it's on the same weekend as IFC. ;p

[farthing]

Been wanting to get one of those Pi thingies myself, they're pretty powerful considering the small size of the board. And I could think all kinds of nice little applications for that too.

Here's a rather interesting podcast with the founder, Eben Upton:
http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/61
Apparently it's been under design for years already, with the original intent of creating a device that would interest the future electronics engineers to tinker with.

[altivo]

It's pretty clever little gadget. I'm sure you'd find stuff to do with it. The board itself is cheap enough, but watch for what you might have to spend on accessories or peripherals.