Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Lemon Honey Ginger Tea "Marmalade"

I saw a photo of this on Facebook this morning, so, after getting my roast in the oven, I decided to make it!
This is deceptively simple, and a great idea to have ready to go in the fridge for those days when you've got a sore throat, or just aren't feeling well. At its most basic what you are making is a 'marmalade' of lemon, honey, and ginger? If that sounds familiar, it should, it's the same thing that you make as a tea when you're sick! But, who wants to spend the time doing that when you're sick? I know I don't. So, make this ahead of time, keep it in the fridge and add a teaspoon or two to a glass of hot water and mix.

For this you'll need:
- 1 lemon
- a 1"x1" piece of ginger root (after peeling)
- honey (local is best)
- an 8oz jar (or 250mL, or 1 cup)






Slice the lemons fairly thin, removing the ends, but keeping the rind on the rest of the lemon. Remove the seeds and then cut in quarters.
Slice the ginger very thin. You should be able to get about 12 pieces or more out of the 1" cube of ginger.






Once everything is prepared, pack the jar with a layer of lemon, then ginger, and top that with some honey. Let that settle a little bit. Then add another layer of lemon, and ginger, and honey. Keep doing this until the jar is full (or you're out of lemon and ginger). Make sure the lemon and ginger are fully submerged in the honey.
I actually filled the jar and then added the honey. I think this was a mistake since it took a while for the honey to make it down to the bottom and needed the use of a chopstick to move the pieces around so that the honey could penetrate the mix. It was just a little harder and messier than it needed to be!


Leave it on the counter for a few hours, tap the jar or roll it around a little bit if there is air trapped below the honey. After a few hours, check to see if you need to add any more honey. If you don't, then go ahead and hide it in the fridge for a few weeks at least. Eventually the lemon and ginger will break down forming a marmalade like substance.

Add a teaspoon of that to hot water and you have an 'instant' tea for illness.

Friday, August 17, 2012

What Did I Capture...

On the night of August 12th, I went out to see if I could shoot the meteor shower over the City of Toronto. I didn't even see a single meteor that night before the clouds came in, but I did see 'something'. EXIF data shows that the photo below was taken at 11:03PM, though, I tweeted what I saw at 11:02PM (so, 11:01 - 11:02PM is a likely timeframe). The photo was shot from about 10 feet from the waters edge adjacent to the H20 'beach', shot north over the Skydome.
This was a 10 second exposure, and the light 'flash' lasted approximately 5 of those seconds.

What I saw was what appeared to be a light, growing in intensity, then snapping out. There was no visual movement across the sky, it stayed in the same place. Note, it MAY have been moving, just not visible as such to the naked eye. I've seen something similar to this before, being close to the flightpath of the Island Airport, it's looks similar to a plane coming at you head on, barely being able to see it, then it gradually getting brighter. However, you can see some movement in the airplane headlights that was NOT visible with this.

Photo 1 - Full Shot of Location. (If anyone wants a reference, the CN Tower is 1815' 3" tall)
(Click for Larger View)



Photo 3 - Reference shot, taken immediately after previous photos.

(Click for Larger View)


If you think you know what it is, please leave a comment.

EDIT- Here's a 'better' view of it's location in relation to the stars. The object in question is the white object to the North East of the bottom of the Big Dipper, just to the North East of the smaller reddish star.

EDIT 2 - Removed photo 2 to avoid confusion.