Cheese filled burgers.

Okay, so maybe this is a little random, was just explaining this and didnt want to forget to make it later this week, so this is like a self reminder....

Apologies for the rambling...
 you just get your mince add some seasoning if required - i find finely chopped up peppers always go nicely. Add egg if you have any - helps bind the mince. Flatten into 2 burgers with a raised edge - does that make sense?(make sure they are about half thickness of normal burgers)

Add cheese into the middle of one

add the other burger on top and press round the edges to seal

Gril (turning may cause to leak) so either grill half and oven half or grill then fry it a bit

and wait till it looks goood. then EATTT

How to make felt

How to felt your own clothing, or pretty much anything using nothing other than wool, water, warmth and a little elbow grease.

Tools you will need:

An old wooden blind

Dust sheets

Washing up liquid

old milk carton with small holes in the lid.

A towel

Spread out the dust sheet on your blind.

Next pull your wool apart into thin strands of around 6 inches and layout horizontally overlapping like tiles.

Lay out a second layer vertically in the same manner.

Continue alternating until required amount of layers is done. (few layers = thin felt, more layers = thicker lumpy felt.)

Scarves require 2-3 layers, bags or shoes require around 5 layers.

You can decorate your felt using the following methods:

Add strands of yarn (ideally natural fibbers or if synthetic you can attach by trapping with a thin layer of wool.)

Layout layers of different coloured wool

To make 3D items like bags/jackets add a layer of dust sheet after wetting down and then lay wool over the top joining at the edges (and wet down top layer) so two layers don't felt together.

Add soft prefelt (semi felted pieces)

For a textured finish, during the felting process gently agitate the felt in your hands between rolling.

Wetting down.

Mix up a warm weak soapy mixture of washing up liquid in your milk bottle. 

Sprinkle a good layer over laid out fibres.

Cover with dust sheet.

Press the fibre down and rub working in the soapy mixture and removing any air bubbles.

Felting.

Roll up the felt in the blind and roll back and forwards applying pressure. Do this around a hundred times then un roll.

Turn the felt a quarter turn clockwise and re roll 100 times again.

Keep doing this around 4 times and check to see how the felt is holding together.

Turn the felt over and do the process again.

Keep reshaping the felt to make sure it hasn't lost its shape.

Rinse in warm water then roll into a ball and throw the felt against a table to firm and shrink it.

Finally roll the felt in a towel and roll to remove excess moisture. Shape the felt and leave to dry in a warm place.

Notes:

Felt shrinks about a 1/3 when making so layout your wool about 3 times of what you want it to be.

As you get further through the process increase the temperature of the water to speed up the process.

It is advised to rinse with a weak vinegar solution to neutralise the ph of the wool.

This is a simple explanation, so if you need more depth feel free to email me with any questions: in.wonderland@live.co.uk

Picture of the process http://www.feltbetter.com/feltMaking.asp

How to make your own Still for distilling rum.

The Final Still

 Where the pipe comes through the bucket.

It is very important to keep an eye on the temperature.

 The compression coupling joint.

 The still viewed from above.

A bit of legal garbage… Distillation is illegal in some countries and states without a license.  You also need to do research into Methanol and distillation, as Methanol is a not very nice chemical. Nevertheless I've explained what to do in this tutorial:

What you need:

1 Pressure Cooker

1 old bucket

Compression Coupler

2cm of 8mm Piping

3 metres of 10 mm Piping**

1 Bag of ice

A thermometer

A container to Catch your rum.

Directions:

Take your pressure cooker and remove the Whistle, now take your 8mm piping and it should push into where the whistle was. It should be half way on. (1cm in)

Bore a hole in the side of your bucket, it must be large enough for the 10mm pipe to fit through. 

Take one end of the 10mm pipe and fit the 10mm pipe through the whole in the bucket.

 Coil the 10mm pipe from the bottom up to the top of the bucket,  leaving around a metre out the top of the bucket.

Bend the rest of the pipe so it can attach the other end of the pipe to the compression coupler.

Attach the compression coupler to the 8mm pipe.

it is advisable to try it out with water to check for any leaks, and to sterilise the pipes.

__

Now you have tested your still, add your fermented mixture to the pressure cooker.

Now you can add the ice to the bucket, keep it in a  bag so it doesn't leak through the whole where the pipe comes out.

Make sure everything is tightly done up, before using the Still.

Turn your hob on, and keep an on the temperature, 

Ethanol boils at 78°C, Where as Methanol boils at 65 °C, so boil at 70-75 °C and throw away the first 100ml or so as this is most likely to contain Methanol. (although the amount is minimal for this recipe.)*

Next raise the temperature to 78-85°C and catch the liquid that comes off in your container.

Always take care when making Rum, and whenever there is Methanol involved. And do research, as this tutorial is in no way perfect, and its always better to be safe than sorry, happy Brewing.

You should get about 500ml from 2 litres of Mix,

*Some people just turn the heat up high initially, and throw away the first amount still before lowering the heat to around 78.

** Read instructions and measure your pressure cooker before buying piping as pressure cookers sizes may vary.

The ideas behind this tutorial from:

http://shonari.net/tutorials/homemade-rum/

Playing with QR codes.

A QR code for CatwalkRoulette.com. At Catwalk Roulette we used http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ to create a quick easy QR code to direct people to our site, try making a QR code for your site organisation!