kareina

Yesterday we hosted another music night for folk in our choir. This time there were five us, and over the course of the evening between us we played two guitars, one each violin, nyckleharpa, cello, hammer dulcimer and harmonica, and we all sang. It was ever so much fun! I am getting much better at playing with other people, though I still can't play very many songs on the dulcimer. They arrived around 18:30 and we played till around 21:00, took a break, wherein I fed them some freshly baked rieska with butter I had churned from some cream just before they arrived (I, of course, ate my share when the bread came out of the oven, as I knew I wouldn't be hungry later, and who can resist rieska when it is hot?), and then we returned to playing. One of them (who had biked over) left at midnight, and the rest of us continued to play (interspersed with singing along with youtube videos of songs we might want to add to our repertoire) till nearly 02:00. We agreed to do it again next Friday :-)

Today's home improvement project was hanging a large white board cabinet on the wall in the living room. On of the businesses where lord_kjar was fixing computers last week was tossing it out, so he brought it home. This is one of those things which would have been in a conference room, with a white board on the inside of the cabinet, the doors are lined in cork so things can be tacked to it, there are rings inside one door for hanging notebooks from, and a holder on the other for a pad of paper. We think it will be useful for designing projects together. And we couldn't hang musical instruments on that wall anyway, since it is an outside wall.

This week I had a couple of days of additional work: getting cold feet in the name of science. Some researchers at the uni who do things with winter research had a project to test a variety of winter shoes and anti-slip devices, so they put out a call on the uni email list looking for people in the 40 to 60 year old age range to be the test subjects--we would get paid for our time and they provided lunch and fika. So I volunteered. They had originally planned to do this back in March, and I participated in the first part of the project there, wherein they did tests of our balance and how quickly we walk on clean, dry, indoor surfaces. However, we had really weird weather in March, and it turned out not to be possible to do the walking on ice tests, because it wasn't cold enough to make ice. (This is the first March on record where it was not.) So instead they booked time at an indoor ice arena, but the earliest time that wasn't already booked wasn't till this month.

Inside the ice rink the air temperature is between -5 and -10 C, so we needed to dress warmly. The tests consisted of a set of 40 different anti slip devices or shoes that we were each to try in turn (they had prepared lists for each of us as to which number we should test in what order to make certain that no one had to wait for the one they wanted to use next). For each of the anti slip devices they timed us to see how long it took to put it on, and we had to record if it was "difficult" "a little hard", "kind of easy", or "easy" to put on. Then we did the walking tests, with half of us wearing mobile phones strapped to our ankles that would measure our movement patterns. I was one of that group, so for me each walking test started with the man kneeling at my feet, activating the program for the next recording session, then I would walk the ten meters along the clean ice track, stop, turn around, then start back quickly, stop after two steps, back up to the start line again, then walk "as fast as possible" back to the beginning (the latter to simulate traffic issues). Then we repeat that on track of snow on top of ice (man made snow in this case, since we have none left here (unless you count a few shady places where it had been plowed up into piles). Repeat again on a plain concrete track, and once final time on a packed snow surface. Then time how long it takes to take off the device and record our thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of that device on each surface. It took all day Tuesday and half a day Wednesday to test all of them.

There are an amazing number of uncomfortable things one can attach to the bottom of one's shoes to prevent one sliding on the ice. A few of the devices we tried were actually comfortable. Since it was so cold while we worked (expect for when we were outside for the packed snow--even though it has cooled down again since the unseasonably warm weather we had in April, it is still above zero) I wound up eating nearly twice as much over the course of the day than I normally do (and I really doubt that my weight will go up as a result).

Tomorrow is folk dance, Monday I have Swedish class and a meeting with my Master's student, and Tuesday is the first day of the national exam to be done with the Swedish for immigrants course.

My normal Pound cake recipe calls for 1 lb butter, 1 lb sugar, 1 lb eggs, 1 lb flour, and nothing else. Today archinonlive said that he was hungry for "fluffy pound cake". I commented that normal pound cake is fluffy enough for me even though it has no baking powder. However, this made us wonder, just what happens if you add some.

Off to the kitchen we went...

In the name of science we mixed up a half batch (just over 1/2 pound each, since 4 eggs from that box were just over 1/2 pound--we don't really need a full batch in the house if there is no one but us to eat it!), then divided the batter in half and added 3/4 a teaspoon of baking powder to one loaf before baking.

My hypothesis was that even if the goal was "fluffy pound cake" that the baking powder isn't really needed, that it will taste better without it.



Result: Both are good, but the one with baking powder (the taller one in the photo, on the left side) has a slight metallic after taste. The one without is light and fluffy enough to suit me, but people who are used to modern fluff cakes might like the one with better. I don't think I will bother with baking powder next time I bake pound cake.