Data flies, bullets too

Grok Headline matches for Data flies, bullets too

All the bullets fit to shoot

All the bullets fit to shoot 04/16/2004 02:19 PM

Et cetera: bullets for a new day

Et cetera: bullets for a new day 11/05/2003 10:31 PM

Bullets of Butter

Bullets of Butter 02/05/2005 09:44 PM

« Runebergintortut / Runeberg cakes »

February 5th is Runebergin Päivä and every year little bullet cakes topped with jam and rings of icing start appearing a few weeks after the Christmas holidays are over to commemorate the the national poet [who wrote in Swedish] J.L. Runeberg [Lovely website. Requires Flash]. I had never tried the cakes because I'm not particularly fond of cavity inducing sweets and Jarkko had warned me off of them. On a whim I bought a package of them at the grocery one evening and tried one for the hell of it and found it to be not too horribly sweet and rather tasty in spite of the handicap of being mass produced and subsequently a bit on the dry side.

So, I consulted my copy of Kotiruoka and was intrigued by the use of bread and cookie crumbs in the recipe. I looked at other recipes for the cakes and found them suspect by comparison due to many of them using margarine instead of butter. Unless you have serious dietary requirements which bar you from enjoying butter occasionally, any recipe for a confection that calls for synthetic fats [exception for pie crust and pastry dough] should be held suspect since they are not the same as butter and, given I'm a chemist, I consider them to be far worse for you than butter when used in moderation. Many of the recipes also omitted the gingerbread cookie and bread crumbs or tried to tart up the recipe with various other ingredients. The Kotiruoka recipes are decidedly not fancy, very traditional and trustworthy recipes. Considering just how far off the English versions are from the original Finnish recipes, it's a pity there isn't an English translation for the bible of Finnish cooking. I made four different variations, including the original and had a few willing victims taste them and pick the one they liked the best.

The Problem: Runeberg cakes are a traditional confection for Runberg's Day on 5 February in Finland. They are generally regarded to be either too dry or too sweet when rum or liqueurs are added to moisten them.

The Goal: To make a traditional Runeberg cake that is not quite so dry without resorting to adding liqueurs for moisture.

The Solution: Part of the dryness problem stems from the fact that most people rely on bakeries to provide the cakes and, especially if they are purchased in the grocery, they dry out fairly quickly in the winter air if not sealed well. The combination of bread crumbs and gingerbread cookie crumbs also soak up much of the available moisture. I went back to the classic recipe in Kotiruoka and found that it calls for jam topping before and after baking which most of the other recipes and the bakeries don't do. The jam supplies a bit of extra moisture during baking. I also added a bit of fruit juice to complement the jam of choice and to add a bit more moisture without making them soggy.

Runebergintortut - Runeberg Cakes

Makes: 12 regular or 8 large bullet-shaped cakes
Preparation time: approximately 1 hour
Special Equipment: Runeberg forms or straight-edged muffin pan [ dimensions: 5.7cm/2.3in wide and 5.5cm/2in deep ]
Source: Kotiruoka, pg. 411

Ingredients

• 150g | 1.5 sticks butter
• 1.5 dl | 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 dl | 1/2 cup ground or finely chopped almonds
• 1.5 dl | 3/4 cup wheat flour
• 1.5 dl | 3/4 cup bread crumbs [korppujauhetta] (optional: substitute 1/4 cup gingerbread cookie crumbs)
• 1 tl | 1 tsp. baking powder
• .5 dl | 1/4 cup cream
• 2 Tsp. orange juice (optional)

Decoration

• raspberry jam or marmalade
• 1 dl | 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• about 1/2 Tsp. water

Apple-walnut variation

Substitute full fruit apple jam [chunky] in place of the raspberry, apple juice for the orange juice and use finely chopped walnuts instead of almonds.

1. Mix dry ingredients [ flour, bread crumbs, gingerbread crumbs (if used), baking powder ] together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well. Add cream and dry ingredients. Stir vigorously until smooth and thick. Fold in nuts.
2. Pour the batter into muffin cups or greased popover/straight-edged baking pans. Fill the cups 2/3 full [about 1/3 cup]. Press floured fingers into the batter to create a divot in the top and fill with raspberry or apple jam.
3. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 395F/200C for about 15 minutes. Remove the forms/remove from the pan and decorate the cakes when cool. Add more raspberry jam to the top of the cake. Mix the confectioner's sugar with water until it becomes a thick paste. Pour or pipe the icing into rings around the jam.
4. If gingerbread crumbs are used in the batter, you can spice it up with 1 tsp. of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. of cloves.

The classic shape of the cakes are squat and bullet-like from the straight-edged forms [5.7cm/2.3in wide and 5.5cm/2in deep] but those less fussy about how they look may use a muffin pan with paper cups, bake-proof ceramic coffee cups/small souffle cups or even small tomato paste cans [they're smooth] with the bottom removed. Finding these special forms locally in the country where they are traditional at this time of year is surprisingly difficult. I did eventually find them at Stockmann for 2.50 euro/ea. Apparently few bother with making their own or making them with the forms. Outside of Finland/the Nordic region, the closest ready-made pan is the Nordic Ware Crown Muffin Pan. The advantage the forms have over the muffin/popover pan is that they lift off of the cakes instead of having to tease them out of the muffin pan, 6 at a time, without mangling them. If using the muffin pan, allow extra time to cool since they are a bit more fragile when they are warm.

Creaming the butter and sugar together and then adding in the eggs is, perhaps, the most important step in this recipe. I reluctantly purchased one of those Braun hand held mixers last year and have rarely used my standing mixer since. It's perfect for this job as the purpose of creaming the butter and sugar together is to get a bit of air into the mixture. The original recipe doesn't state how much of the gingerbread cookie crumbs to use but I found a 1:3 ratio of cookie to bread crumbs to be the best. After adding in the dry ingredients you will have a thick, porridge-like batter that won't ooze out from beneath the cake forms. Add the fruit juice last.

Grease the pan and forms well and pour about 1/3 cup of batter into each form. Press the batter into the form with a moist spatula and smooth the top and edges since the batter retains much of the shape after baking and it will look ragged if not smoothed out before. Place a small blob of jam on top of the batter in each cup. The directions in the original recipe call for using floured fingers to make a depression for the jam, but I didn't find that this worked very well and used a wet spoon with some success or just shoved the spoon with jam into the batter without bothering to make a divot first. I found the latter to work better since the jam didn't bubble up quite as much during baking. Once they're done baking and have cooled, decorate and eat. The cakes do travel well if packed properly and I will note that the square clear plastic boxes that some of the butter cookies are sold in [in Finland] will hold 9 cakes perfectly.

My attentive assistant and discriminating taste-tester seemed to prefer the cakes where I used the gingerbread cookie crumbs from the original recipe version although claimed that the batch I made without gingerbread but with added orange peel and orange juice tasted 'more like the Fazer' version of the cakes. I subjected 8 test subjects at work to a blind tasting with 4 samples; 3 of mine and one from a Fazer control. Again, the gingerbread cookie crumb variety was popular as was the apple variation. Interestingly, several picked the Fazer control which may be due to baseline normal for this annual traditional cake as they liked the variations very much as well. The apple variety could also be good to make all year as it's not so closely associated with Runeberg's day.

Words, not bullets

Words, not bullets 08/16/2004 10:05 AM
The long-awaited national conference begins in Baghdad despite a dangerous security situation.

Keep those bullets away from Sistani!

Keep those bullets away from Sistani! 05/18/2004 07:46 PM

Bullets sent to councillors

Bullets sent to councillors 05/08/2004 04:57 AM
Bullets are sent in the post to three SDLP members of a County Down policing body, the party says.

Bullets sent to DPP members

Bullets sent to DPP members 08/05/2004 07:37 PM
Bullets are sent to three nationalist councillors who are members of district policing partnerships in County Down.

Bullets sent to SDLP office

Bullets sent to SDLP office 05/04/2004 11:03 AM
SDLP leader Mark Durkan condemns an attack in which ammunition was sent to an assembly member.

Post-holiday bullets

Post-holiday bullets 07/08/2004 06:55 AM
The iPod Mini makes its worldwide debut, Microsoft loses on the ergonomic keyboard patent, and Starbucks claims people are actually using the T-Mobile Hot Spots in it US stores.

Et cetera: a hail of bullets

Et cetera: a hail of bullets 12/09/2003 05:01 PM
Bullets: Microsoft drops distribution of products affected by Sun Java ruling, spam and the Mob, and ATM viruses

Man jailed for bullets on plane

Man jailed for bullets on plane 04/19/2004 08:16 AM
A former airport security worker is jailed for nine months for carrying live bullets on a plane which landed at Heathrow Airport.

In Max Payne 2, the bullets fly and the
story unfolds

In Max Payne 2, the bullets fly and the
story unfolds 01/25/2004 01:52 AM
Boston Globe Jan 25 2004 6:03AM GMT

Science Tracer Bullets online

Science Tracer Bullets online 01/23/2004 02:21 PM
Science Tracer Bullets Online
http://ww w.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/tbs.html

The Library of Congress SCIENCE TRACER BULLET SERIES contains research guides that help you locate information on science and technology subjects. With brief introductions to the topics, lists of resources and strategies for finding more, they help you to stay "on target." This Index lists the most recent Tracer Bullets, but they are adding online versions of the older ones as well. Older Tracer Bullets, especially valuable for historical research, can also help you to find current information.

Xbox deflects real bullets

Xbox deflects real bullets 12/04/2003 07:13 AM
man shoots xbox

gamespot.com/all/news/news_6084935.html
track this site | 4 links

Et cetera: cold, wintry bullets

Et cetera: cold, wintry bullets 12/15/2003 04:29 PM
Swastikas in Office 2003, computer garbage in India, and online retailers can't handle the traffic

Et cetera: silver-tipped bullets

Et cetera: silver-tipped bullets 12/12/2003 12:01 AM
Apple stores tracking their customer's behavior, SCO under DDoS attack, and JenniCam to go dark.

Smart Bullets Phone Home

Smart Bullets Phone Home 05/29/2004 12:09 PM

Stored Bullets Explode in Wis. Oven (AP)

Stored Bullets Explode in Wis. Oven (AP) 02/18/2004 05:22 PM
AP - A man and his wife ducked behind a refrigerator when bullets began exploding in their oven, authorities say.

Dodging Internet e-mail bullets

Dodging Internet e-mail bullets 11/04/2003 04:56 PM
Washington Times Nov 4 2003 3:25PM ET

Airport bullets 'were grandma's'

Airport bullets 'were grandma's' 08/11/2004 01:35 PM
A man tells a court 12 bullets found in his luggage at an airport were given to him by his grandmother.

Et Cetera: start the week off right with
bullets

Et Cetera: start the week off right with
bullets 06/07/2004 10:24 PM
Today's monday mystery round up has news just to tasty to pass up. Check it out.

Bombs, Bullets and Kidnappings: Just a
Quiet Day in Iraq

Bombs, Bullets and Kidnappings: Just a
Quiet Day in Iraq 06/02/2004 03:24 PM
By the standards of most modern societies, today's events would have been labeled horrific. Iraqis saw it as a breather.

Somebody in the Pentagon forgot to order
extra bullets for the war

Somebody in the Pentagon forgot to order
extra bullets for the war 05/30/2004 10:18 PM
We're running out of bullets .. says the Financial Times .. troops .. :

news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStor y&c=StoryFT&cid=1084907850631&p=1012571727085
track this site | 7 links

U.S. Army told not to use Israeli
bullets in Iraq (Reuters)

U.S. Army told not to use Israeli
bullets in Iraq (Reuters) 06/25/2004 12:57 AM
Reuters - Israeli-made bullets bought by the U.S. Army to plug a shortfall should be used for training only, not to fight Muslim guerrillas in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. lawmakers have told Army generals.

Teen Brings Wrong Bullets, Ruins Robbery
(AP)

Teen Brings Wrong Bullets, Ruins Robbery
(AP) 01/22/2004 10:23 AM
AP - A teen trying to rob a convenience store was thwarted when he tried to load a rifle with the wrong-sized bullets.

How to Catch Fish in Vermont: No Bait,
No Tackle, Just Bullets

How to Catch Fish in Vermont: No Bait,
No Tackle, Just Bullets 05/11/2004 02:10 AM
Every spring in Vermont, hunters break out their artillery and head to the marshes to exercise their right to bear arms against fish.

Porn star tells U.S. military "bullets,
not boobs" (Reuters)

Porn star tells U.S. military "bullets,
not boobs" (Reuters) 08/18/2004 10:08 PM
Reuters - A group supporting natural breasts has staged a street protest in Hollywood against a U.S. military policy offering free breast implants to female soldiers.

Use Ballots Not Bullets, Iraq President
Tells Sadr (Reuters)

Use Ballots Not Bullets, Iraq President
Tells Sadr (Reuters) 06/15/2004 06:40 AM
Reuters - Fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr can join Iraqi politics after the U.S.-led occupation ends on June 30, Iraq's interim president said on Tuesday.

keeps the flies at bay

keeps the flies at bay 09/10/2004 09:30 AM
New Scientist

newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996366
track this site | 6 links

Zeppelin Flies Again

Zeppelin Flies Again 06/14/2004 10:09 AM

Boy, Time Sure Flies

Boy, Time Sure Flies 07/30/2004 03:56 PM

Sorry about the lack of posts lately.  It wasn't that I was busy.  There just wasn't anything to post about.  Having my wife and son revolving and evolving around me again put my mind off my blog also.  It's amazing how fast the days go by when I am not posting.

Wi-Fi idea flies

Wi-Fi idea flies 12/19/2004 03:28 PM
Usatoday.com - Wed Dec 15, 08:05 pm GMT

Expedia Flies Away

Expedia Flies Away 12/22/2004 01:10 AM
Investors seem eager to let the untangling begin.

Xeni Flies Zero-G

Xeni Flies Zero-G 09/10/2004 02:08 AM
Xeni Jardin: Next week, on Wednesday September 15, I'm going on a zero-gravity flight about 32,000 feet above earth.

The company operating this flight is ZERO-G, whose founder Peter Diamandis is also the man behind the Ansari X-Prize competition. I invited Dr. Diamandis to speak at Wired Magazine's NextFest earlier this year, met him there, and learned he'd been working on this program for more than ten years.

The flight I'm taking next week (for NPR and Wired News) is part of ZERO-G's five-city media launch. Soon, they'll begin a commercial service on specially-equipped Boeing 727-200s. For about $3,000 US, passengers will be able to experience about 20 doses of parabolic weightlessness during a 90-minute trip.

Nothing like this has ever been offered to American consumers before. ZERO-G is the only company with FAA approval to conduct weightless flights for the public within the US.

NASA operates flights similar to this for training astronauts (Link), but not to the public. Space Adventures -- the company that made space tourists out of Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth (and, almost, N'Sync's Lance Bass) -- sells "vomit comet" flight experiences to paying passengers, but they cost closer to $10K and depart from a remote location in Russia. The combined costs of the flight, the prep, and getting to the departure site add up to a hefty five-figure sum. With the launch of this new service in the US, zero-G above the earth will now only cost a few G.

I've never done anything like this before. What will weightlessness feel like? A rollercoaster? Or floating in water, but without the water? When I was little, I used to have lots of recurring dreams about flying -- the dream-sensation of weightlessness felt so vivid, once I half-woke-up and sleep-jumped right off a flight of stairs. How is it that our bodies already know what zero-g feels like? Are we remembering what it felt like to float in utero? That waking dream of flight and floating -- it's something each of us physically understand. I'm looking forward to feeling the real thing.

My grandfather was an amateur astronomer. He taught me a lot of things about stars and space when I was a kid. He was there, downstairs in the living room, when I realized I couldn't fly that day -- about halfway down the stairs. He picked me up, held me in his arms, wiped my tears, and probably had to work really hard at not laughing.

Later, after lots of band-aids and kleenex, he explained what gravity was. I remember feeling really sad and crying all over again when he told me, "Honey, people just can't float like that." I wish he could still be here now, and float with me next Wednesday.

FedEx Flies

FedEx Flies 08/23/2004 02:34 PM
The company packs up an upbeat outlook.

Captain Grunge Flies Again!

Captain Grunge Flies Again! 04/14/2005 03:50 PM
Captain Grunge Flies Again!
The first trailer for Gus Van Sant’s “Last Days” has just been posted (with sub-titles). “Last Days” is inspired by the tortured final days in the life of Kurt Cobain. Of the film, Van Sant says, “There are a lot of hypotheses about what happened, but I don't know of any full eyewitness account, just tiny momentary ones. Everyone has a different opinion, but there's not one true, authoritative account. He was just kind of missing." Much like the Cobain biography “Heavier than Heaven,” the film takes the stance that Kurt, who has grown increasingly uncomfortable with his fame, is resigned to his death, not accelerated into it by a chain of events concluding with his suicide. Leonardo look-alike Michael Pitt (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”) plays the lead role, with Asia Argento playing the Courtney Love-like character. And here’s a good article about the film.

Remote-Controlled Flies

Remote-Controlled Flies 04/11/2005 08:21 PM

Britannia Flies High With Wi-Fi

Britannia Flies High With Wi-Fi 07/20/2004 01:06 PM
How Britannia tapped iAnywhere Solutions, its channel partner for in-flight updates.

Flies of Refined Taste

Flies of Refined Taste 07/02/2004 01:16 AM
Abcnews.go.com - Thu Jul 1, 07:58 pm GMT
Grok Description matches for Data flies, bullets too
GrokA matches for Data flies, bullets too

Data flies, bullets too

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: