Trust Rachel

App Showdown: Orchestra vs Remember the Milk

I loves me some to-do apps. I’m not a list-checker-off kinda person, you know, the kind that makes lists and lists of lists and delightedly ticks them all off one by one. Those people are weird. For me, it boils down to this: if I don’t write it down, it won’t get done.

You’d think making a good todo app would be easy, but apparently not. Every single one I’ve used falls prey to: easy to use, full featured and pretty. Pick two. 

Orchestra and Remember the Milk (RTM) have been battling it out on my phone for Best App That Keeps Rachel On Task.  Here’s my review of them:

 Orchestra (Free, iOS)

I downloaded it because Lifehacker loooooooooves Orchestra and it’s FREE.  I’ve used it for a couple months now.

Things I like: it’s pretty! Mmm, iOS goodness. It’s dead easy to use. I also like that you can easily share tasks and lists. My husband and I use it all the time for shopping lists assigning each other stuff to do (“buy Diet Coke” “get rid of MacBook box” “bite me”). 

BUT. It’s seriously lacking some basic functionality. Reordering items in a list? Nope. Reordering lists by anything other than creation date? Nope. Reminders? NOPE NOPE NOPE. But hey, there’s a button to “ask for help on Facebook”.  Awesome. Thanks guys.

I’m torn - I like, but find it very unwieldy to use when I have lots of lists or lots of tasks.  You can’t tag items or reorganize all that well - the best you can do is create a new list and move tasks to it. 

Remember the Milk (Free/$25 Pro)

This is todo software that lacks NOTHING in terms of features. I mean it. If I want to make a high priority task due at 8:16pm next Thursday, geotagged with a specific address, tagged with nine different categories AND have reminders set via iPhone app, Jabber and SMS? Bah, I can enter all that in ONE LINE. 

The iPhone/iPad app is not awful - it’s not nearly as pretty as Orchestra, but it’s functional.  A free account allows syncing once a day, which is basically useless and only good to try out what you’ll get with the pro version. 

As for the bad, the web UI leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t know who decided floaty boxes that move with your mouse are the bestest place to do data entry, but that person should be kicked in the shin. Also the name is kind of dumb (and I know at least one person who refuses to use it based solely on that). 

And the winner is….

RTM. I’m not in love with it, but honestly, I haven’t found anything to beat it in terms of features and organization of tasks. I’m looking forward to Orchestra’s next release, which hopefully should be ANY DAY NOW, right guys?

Jam & Laziness

I make jam because I’m lazy.

But, you say, can’t you buy jam from the store? How much more lazy can you get?

Aha, I say, but then you have to put on pants. And find your keys. And find your preeeeeeciousiPhone. And drive to the store. And find the jam. And find the right jam that doesn’t have all that weird coloring and HFCS. That’s work, people. Hard work. 

The solution to this madness?* Freezer jam. You can make it from easily stored ingredients in less time than it takes to go to the store. And I’m only somewhat lying.

There’s no cooking and above all, NO CANNING. I don’t know about you, but the idea of doing a lot of work to give myself botulism…eh.

Freezer jam is so-called because it’s stored in the freezer instead of all that canning nonsense, and it’s not cooked so it actually tastes like fruit. Even with supermarket frozen berries, it’s better than just about anything you can buy in the store. And you don’t even need any pants.

What you will need is:

• Fruit (fresh or frozen, both work great)
• Pectin (the normal powder kind, not the gel or the low-sugar stuff)
• a crapton of sugar (somewhere about 4-5 cups) 
• lemon juice (optional)
• salt (optional)
• some empty jars or tupperware containers

For this batch, I used two 1lb bags of blackberries from Safeway. The better the fruit, the better the jam, but this is what I had on hand. It works.

The fruit needs to be room temperature, so if you’re working from frozen, I recommend defrosting in the microwave. If you just dump berries in a bowl, you’ll be waiting about four hours for them to defrost. Not that I would know.

THEN HULK SMASH BERRIES! GRRRRRRRAAAAAAA!!!!

You can do this in the food processor…but it’s too easy to puree the fruit or make it all choppy. The potato masher approach works best, IMHO. And it’s very satisfying. BERRY SMASH GOOD. 

When you’re done, measure how much fruit you have. 

The pectin box will have a recipe for no-cook freezer jam, and I base how much sugar to add on that. It depends on what your fruit is. For blackberries, it’s 5.5 cups for a quart of berries. This batch was less than a quart so I used only 4.5 cups. It’s fine to use a little less than they say, but don’t reduce it dramatically. You need the sugar for it to jell properly.

Dump the disturbingly large amount of sugar in the berry mixture and stir around.  Leave it to sit for about 10 minutes, or until all the sugar crystals have dissolved. Stirring makes it go faster, but it’s fine to go off and play Angry Birds or something.** 

Usually this is where I add lemon juice (1-2 teaspoons) and a tiny bit of salt (1/8 teaspoon), but it’s optional. When I have lemon on hand, I use it, and if I don’t, I don’t. That’s just how I roll.

Once that’s done, dump pectin in sauce pan, add 3/4 cup water, bring to boil, boil for minute. It’s easy like Sunday morning.***

Then dump the boiling pectin in the fruit and stir around for a couple minutes until you’re really really really sure it’s all mixed in.

Then divide up between your containers. Now you’ve got a use for all those old jam jars you save for no readily apparent reason and your husband keeps asking why you save them and then stealthily recycling when you’re not looking. No. Not today, for today you are vindicated! YES!

Aren’t they lovely?

They’ll need to sit on the counter for 24 hours to set up****, but you should see them start to jell in an hour or so. After that, they keep in the fridge for three weeks or the freezer for up to a year.  (I’ve never had a batch last that long, though.)

Hooray for lazy!

~~~~

* This line was “How to get out of this jam?” in the first draft. Don’t worry, I already slapped myself.

** Who wants to bet when this reference will seem old and absurdly dated? I call July 2012.

*** OF COURSE this popped into my head while writing and now it won’t leave. If I have to suffer, you have to suffer. 

**** Thus the “kind of lying” part. I suppose it doesn’t take 24 hours to get to the store unless you’re Pa Ingalls. 

The MacGyver Kit

The inspiration for this project was simple: I rubbed my eyes. For those of you who don’t wear contact lenses, you’re not aware of the peril I was in. Contact lenses are amazing little beasties, but if your eyes are dry (and mine were) they’ll pop off and instantly dry up into expensive, transparent raisins. You then have about 45 seconds to fumble about and find saline or water to have any hope of getting them back in.

No problem…if you’re at home. If you’re twenty miles away on campus, not so much. Thankfully I found a drinking fountain and spent the rest of the day with one gritty, filmy contact lens and a headache.

Thus the MacGyver Kit was born.*

This kit fixes things that’ll ruin your day: headaches, backaches, colds, bad breath, blisters, cracked lips, unexpected trips to the beach, hangnails, parking meters and loud people. It fits in almost any bag and goes in carry-on luggage. 

First, you need a container. I made my own box pouch using this pattern, but you can use a makeup bag or other travel case. My bag measures 5” long by 3” wide by 2” tall - about the size of a can of soda. 

And here’s what’s on the inside (slightly bigger image here):

My current rev of the kit contains (starting from front left):

• Bandaids (5)
• Knuckle bandaid (1)
• Blister pads (3)
• Sewing kit with:
  • needle
  • black and white thread
  • black and white buttons
  • safety pins (3)
• Excedrin
• Throat lozenge
• Benadryl
• Dayquil
• Prescription medication
• Ibeprofin
• $1 in quarters
• $20 bill 
• Contact lens case containing:
  • lip balm
  • suntan lotion
• Spare set of contact lenses
• Saline eye solution
• Floss
• Nail clippers
• Tweezers
• Hair bands
• Toothpaste
• Deodorant
• Sacred tokens of my people
• More sacred tokens of my people
• Earplugs
• Cotton string

The medications are in plastic wrap. I wrote what they are on a scrap of paper and put it under the final fold of wrap:

The sewing kit is DIY too. It’s made out of a scrap of fleece leftover from another sewing project, and closed by the safety pins:

Inside

The thread is wrapped around a notched piece of paper. 

Would you believe I still have a couple square inches of room in my kit? I’m considering adding:

• Instructions. First aid, emergency numbers, knot tying, card games, submarine plans, you name it. Print it out in tiny tiny print and shove it in. 
• Superglue.  Never know when you might need to stick a thing to another thing. Or fix your pantyhose.
• Duct tape.  Or tape a thing to a thing.
• Thumb drive. With a TrueCrypt drive, I can carry all my important documents around with me. You never know when you might need your 2007 taxes. 

Cost? That’ll vary by how much you have on hand. I think I spent about $20 on items specifically for the kit. It’s more than worth it - the bandaids, blister packs and womanly things have already been replaced.  

And I never have to be afraid of rubbing my eyes again.

~~

* Alternative, less family friendly name: The Oh Sh*t Kit.

More crazy laser cutter action

Crazy Crap We’ve Made Vaguely Recently Week continues, with our wedding invitations. I love showing them off (to a rather scary degree) since I think they turned out awesome.

Like the glassware, we also made ‘em on the laser cutter. 

The edging is all laser-cut. We were trying for wood bark but it turned out more abstract. I like it: 

Detail of one of the monograms: 

If you turn the invitation over, this is the only thing on the back. I think that’s all you need.

The inside. It’s an oak tree (a coast live oak, ubiquitous in this area) and leaves, drawn by my husband.

Detail of the oak leaves. I really liked those oak leaves, we used them as motifs on everything. Note the scorching from the laser on the edges, which I think is a neat effect and makes it look more organic. 

Once we got a design down, it didn’t take too long to power through them all. Especially since our wedding was fairly small.  It took a couple days to nail down a design, four hours to cut them all, one afternoon to spray glue them together and one afternoon to assemble and mail them.  They were a big hit.

It was the only really insanely crafty thing we did for the wedding, I promise. 

Secret Weapon: Balsamic Vinegar

I’d like to introduce you to the patron saint of cooking science:

This be-bearded man is Harold McGee, and he wrote a book called On Food and Cooking.  This book is awesome.  It reads like a really good textbook, and while that sounds like damning with faint praise, it’s not.  A good textbook is easy to follow, full of useful information, and readable.  He packs an amazing amount of information in this book.  Why is bread chewy? Page 290.  Why is beef red and fish white? Page 92.  Farting astronauts?  Page 257. *

This book didn’t make me a cook, it made me a better one.  Knowing what I’m doing and more importantly, why I’m doing it lets me to replicate results exactly, and if I need to make changes, I know what effect the changes will have. 

Knowing the physiology of taste and smell also helps me cook.   The traditional five tastes are: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, and umami (savory).  An interesting meal balances all of these flavors.

Which brings me to the secret weapon.  Have you ever tasted a dish and thought, this needs something, but you don’t know what?  It probably needs more sour.  Or if you want a nicer word, “brightness”. 

Anything acidic will add brightness - I’ll usually reach for dijon mustard or lemon juice, but today’s secret weapon is balsamic vinegar.

This recipe really highlights acidity.  It goes from flat and boring to amazing with a tablespoon of vinegar.  For reals, yo. 

Corn, Tomato, and Zucchini Soup with Basil

This is pretty much the only recipe I make from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Half the reason for doing this post is to record the recipe, as the page it’s on is falling out and I’m afraid I’ll lose it.

• 4 cups chicken stock
• 4 ears fresh corn
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 2 cups cored, peeled, seeded and chopped tomatos (I’m too lazy for this and use Muir Glen diced, it’s fine)
• 1 medium zucchini (about half a pound), diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, minced
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar (I’m pretty sure I use a tablespoon)

Heat the stock in a large, deep saucepan.  Strip the kernels from the corn and add the cobs to the stock (break them in half if necessary);  let them simmer while you prep the other veggies.

Heat the butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add the tomatos, zucchini, garlic, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.  (Don’t let the zucchini turn to mush, you want it soft but with texture.)

Remove the corn cobs from the stock and add the veggies to the stock.  Cook until the zucchini is fully done (tender but not mushy), about 5 minutes.  Add the corn kernels and basil. 

ADD THE VINEGAR. BE AMAZED AT THE DIFFERENCE. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

—

* It’s part of a discussion on why beans cause flatulence.  We know a lot about flatulence because of the space program, because it was feared that a really farty astronaut could asphyxiate himself.  Yes.  To win the Cold War, we had to study farts.