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Stardate: 20250228.2142
Location: The Lab
Input Device: tetsujin28
Audio: air cleaner, typing
Visual: 2 terminals open side by side in ratpoison.
Emotional: here.
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For some reason I have been fixated on gelatin over the past month.
There was a sale at one of the local Asian groceries for assorted
fruit jelly cups. The jelly is like flavored gelatin with nata de
coco, or coconut gel, suspended inside the jelly. The cups are
plastic and single-serving with a plastic cover. There are about
22 cups in 1 plastic container, which is in the shape of a bear
and can be used as a piggy bank afterwards. These are yummy and
reminds me of Jell-O (tm) with fruit that I used to eat growing up.
The only thing I didn't like was the waste. You slurp the jelly
and then toss the single-serving plastic cup and cover. Reminded
me of the waste that I used to see with the K-cups (Keurig) at
work. Good thing reusable K-cups are available.
So I got to thinking about making gelatin with nata de coco at
home. Fortunately, when I went back to the Asian grocery, they had
cans of nata de coco on sale, so I grabbed one. They also had
Knox unflavored gelatin, so I was thinking of making Knox Blox.
When I got home, I realized that I did not have any fruit juice.
OK...I was in the mood for a cup of coffee, so I decided to
brew a pot and make coffee Knox Blox with nata de coco. I drained
the syrup from the can of nata de coco, dumped the nata de coco in
a 9x9 pan, bloomed the gelatin with a cup of cold water, and mixed
the gelatin with 3 cups of hawt cawffee. The cawfee gelatin was
then poured in the pan with the nata de coco and placed in the
fridge to set overnight.
The next morning, I had coffee jelly with nata de coco, yum! It
turned out ok, but I probably should have used the syrup that came
with the nata de coco since the sugar in the nata de coco was not
enough sweetness with the coffee. Instead of adding m0ar sugar, I
decided to try it was the leftover eggnog that was still in the
fridge. So delish! Unfortunately, they stopped selling eggnog at
the grocery. The pan of coffee jelly lasted about 2 days.
Next round was Knox gelatin with sugar-free strawberry Kroger
gelatin (1 box Knox, 2 boxes of Kroger) and nata de coco poured into
ceramic dessert cups. These didn't last long either.
After that was Knox with sugar-free strawberry Kroger gelatin,
nata de coco, and canned fruit cocktail in ceramic dessert cups.
Need to increase the gelatin ratio to nata de coco/fruit. Still
yummy.
Next batch was with Knox, sugar-free lime Kroger gelatin with nata
and fruit. I got creative and tried putting this in large,
silicone ice cube trays. Unfun. The gelatin would not release
intact from the trays, so I ended up just dumping them all in a
bowl with gelatin clumps and particles. Still edible and yummy. I
found out later that I should have put the trays in warm water
prior to trying to release the gelatin. Next round.
With all these trips to the store for gelatin, I wondered if there
was a cheaper way of doing this. I was able to find unflavored
gelatin much cheaper online but in larger quantities.
I also found out that people use this stuff for joint, skin,
hair, and bone health...not sure how effective it is. What I like
is that it is protein and will help in not spiking my blood sugars
if used properly.
I seem to recall having a brain mold for gelatin that we used for
Halloween years ago. I wonder where that went.
So I have stopped running to the store for gelatin and will be
waiting for the gelatin to arrive in the mail. I should have
enough for the time being. Maybe next round will be BBQ ribs
suspended in unflavored gelatin. Or maybe pork rinds!
N A S T I F Y ! ! !
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