Matt Meshulam's Brain Dump

I got a new toy in the mail today:

A Microchip PICkit-3 programmer/debugger and 16F886 demo board.  I’ve worked with PICs and other microcontrollers on a handful of projects (most notably, the EnerJar), but I’ve never owned my own programmer. I’ve got a few projects in mind, and one in particular that I’m sure you’ll be hearing about shortly.

I’m still learning my way around Microchip’s MPLAB development environment, but I’m hoping to get more comfortable with it so I’m not as intimidated to start a new project. Stay tuned…

My mom has had a Sony ICF-CD543RM under-counter CD player/radio for about a year. Recently the CD player has gotten pretty unreliable; at first it had a hard time with burned CDs, but it gradually got more picky with what discs it would play. Once it got pretty much unusable, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to modify the system to give it an 1/8″ line-in, which could be used with an external DiscMan or MP3 player. A saner man might have just put some cheap computer speakers in the kitchen, but my mom uses the radio on the unit, and it’s nice to not have two separate sound systems in the kitchen.

My goal was to trick the player into playing the signal from the line-in when it was in CD mode. I opened up the beast, hoping that the circuitry be clearly labeled.

CD player innards.

The tan circuit board at the bottom is the radio and amplifier. The CD player is the CD player-shaped thing in the center, and the controls and microcontroller are in the front panel (top). The various circuit boards were connected with ribbon cables, and luckily the wires were well-labeled. The first thing I tried was to cut the stereo audio wires coming from the CD player board and to splice in my own cable. Unfortunately, when I pressed the ‘CD’ button on the unit it would see that there was no CD inserted and turn off. When I put a CD in, it would spin up but it wouldn’t start playing (since it’s broken) and no sound could be heard.

Labeled ribbon cable from controls to amplifier board. Note mute and power pins are tied together.

I knew there must be some sort of control signal telling the amplifier that the CD was ready to pass audio. Sure enough, on the ribbon cable going from the control board to the amp, there was a “mute” line. By metering these lines in the player’s various states (radio, cd, standby), I could see that “mute” was held high at 3.3 volts when the radio was playing, but was low in standby mode and broken CD mode. I noticed that the “power” line was high in both playing states and low in standby mode, so I cut the mute wire from the control board and soldered the mute pin to the power pin. See photo at right.

Sure enough, my external audio could now be heard when the player was in CD mode. I picked out a CD that I didn’t care about, and put it in the tray as a permanent “dummy disc” to fool the stereo into thinking it was playing from a CD. Now that I had a solution, I tidied up my work.

External stereo in (left) replacing CD audio; disconnected "mute" wire (right)

Almost done: an external CD player playing through the speakers of the under-counter unit.

I was going to Dremel a little hole out of the case for the line-in cable, but I was able to route it through an existing opening on the back of the unit. As I was reassembling the case, I popped off the plastic “eject” button as a reminder that the built-in CD player doesn’t work, and so that the crucial dummy disc couldn’t be removed. Not too shabby for an hour or two of work, if I may say so myself.

The reassembled unit, sans "eject" button.

Figure 1: Obligatory macro-lens shot

One of my new year’s resolutions is to bake more bread. A few months ago, I received a copy of the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. Brown is a Zen priest who leads retreats and cooking classes at the San Francisco Zen Center. The documentary How to Cook Your Life is a great primer on Brown’s Zen approach to cooking and baking.

Background info out of the way, let’s get floury. The Tassajara book mainly uses a sponge method for making bread, where part of the flour is added to the liquids and yeast, creating a batter or sponge, which sits for a bit before the rest of the flour is added to make the dough. At first I was a little resistant to this method, but once you do it a few times you get much faster at mixing in the flour, and supposedly it produces a better loaf.

The standard Tassajara yeasted bread recipe can be found here via Google Books. I’m not going to bother writing out the whole process; I highly recommend getting a copy of the book if you’re interested in baking bread. Below you’ll find my photos and a few notes from my most recent batch, a sesame bread.

Figure 2: Sponge mixture

Since it’s pretty cold in my house, I turn on the oven for 30 seconds or so and then let the bread rise in it. The warmer the air, the faster and higher the bread will rise, but I wouldn’t go above 85 or 90 degrees F.

Figure 3: Sponge+time+more flour = Dough!

As I said above, this is the sesame  bread variation (recipe #3 in the 25th anniversary edition of Tassajara). I pulsed about 2 cups of sesame seeds in a food processor until pretty much all the seeds were broken apart (a minute or 2). If you make your sesame meal from seeds as I did, be sure not to process them for too long or it will turn into tahini, or sesame paste.

Figure 4: Dough after first rising

Even though I have a pretty good feel for how much a dough will rise, I still get a kick out of taking the first peek and seeing that it doubled in size. Good work, yeast.

Figure 5: Dough in loaf pans

I need to work on forming the dough into loaves. As you can see, it doesn’t quite fill up the whole area of the pan, which leads to a slightly lopsided loaf. It’s just a matter of aesthetics; as long as you knead the dough a bit before putting it into the pans, the bread comes out just fine.

Figure 6: Success

I didn’t use an egg wash on the tops of the loaves, so it has a great rough texture. I’d highly recommend the sesame variation if you like halva or other sesame-flavored things. Lightly toasted, it makes for a delicious breakfast with greek yogurt, sliced tomatoes, and a bit of salt.

I’ve been shaving with a brush and safety razor for about two years now, and have been meaning to make a shaving stand for at least half that time. I finally got around to it, and I’m quite happy with how it came out. I wanted something that would hold both my brush and razor, and I thought it would be cool if it clipped onto the side of my shaving mug. I was afraid it would get in the way when I’m lathering up the brush, but it’s not really an issue.

I made the stand out of brass-colored floral wire and two pairs of pliers. The wire is a little weaker than I would have liked, but it keeps its form well enough and it was super easy to work with. I’ve still got about 2/3 of the spool left, which will be useful if I ever get into steampunk.

In case you’re wondering, the brush is from The Art of Shaving (genuine badger!) and the razor is a vintage Gillette that I inherited from my grandfather.

Another photo, stand only

I like to try new things when I cook, so I tend to use recipes more as a guide than a rulebook. I figured I’d start documenting dishes that are more original, or that I really like.

These stuffed portabella (or portobello, depending on their gender) mushrooms were inspired by a recipe for zucchini-feta casserole from one of the Moosewood cookbooks. The stuffing primarily consists of bulgur, a hearty middle eastern preparation of whole wheat.

Since this isn’t a perfected recipe, I figured it would work better as a set of notes rather than the conventional ingredients-then-steps format.

• Soak the bulgur in boiling water, about  2-1 water to grain. Let sit at least 30 minutes, longer is better. It will get a little softer when it’s added to the stuffing, but you don’t want it crunchy at this point.
• Saute some onion and garlic.
• If your portabellas have stems, cut ‘em off and chop them up. Dice some zucchini. Add these veggies to the pan, and throw in some fresh ground pepper and dried herbs. I used parsley, basil, and oregano. Don’t be shy, the herbs will be responsible for a lot of the flavor of the dish.
• When the zucchini starts to get soft, add a little tomato sauce. At least enough to coat everything, but it shouldn’t be soupy. I also threw in a few cut up grape tomatoes I had lying around
• Drain off any water remaining in the bulgur, and mix it into the veggies. Did I mention you should probably be doing this in a pot or deep skillet? Add more tomato sauce if you think it’s needed.
• As the stuffing is cooking, grill the mushroom tops in a lightly oiled pan. Put them in right side up at first, then add the filling after you flip them.
• Sprinkle the filled mushrooms with grated feta and cover the pan for a few minutes to let the cheese melt. You can top them with more black pepper right before serving.

Portabellas in pan, right after adding stuffing and feta

I think they came out quite well for a first attempt, but here are some changes I’d make next time or things I’d like to try:

• The only salt in the dish comes from the tomato sauce and feta cheese. I was surprised that it didn’t come out bland, but more salt could be added to the stuffing. I would probably also salt the mushrooms themselves as they’re grilling.
• Other veggies to try: spinach, eggplant, red peppers.
• If you are put off by the brown whole grain vegetarian healthy look, use more veggies or even omit the bulgur altogether. Then you’re basically making a ratatouille as the filling.
• Mix the feta with ricotta or cottage cheese for a creamier cheese component, and put it in the mushroom before the vegetable mixture, for a gooey cheese filling.