Comparing Things: Gif Generators

I thought it was time I learned how to make animated gifs.  Here I compare the four top website hits for "make animated gif" with pictures of Morrin's toys: 

makeagif.com 

  • upload all pictures at once
  • 6 speeds
  • no file name 

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gifninja.com

  • upload all pictures at once
  • variable speed slider
  • preview while editing
  • can specify filename and caption
  • download file as .gif.html

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picasion.com

  • select only one pic at a time
  • all options on one page
  • variable speed
  • variable size

Picasion

gickr.com

  • same as picasion, but more ads

Gickr

And the winner is picasion.com!  The first two are too big, and either take too long to load or don't work.  The third and fourth are about the same, but the third was more pleasing to make.  Here come the gifs.

 

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What's for Dinner? (Friday)

Today's dinner was risotto, which, despite being vegetarian, is probably the most expensive thing I routinely make.  It uses my two favourite ingredients in the world: saffron and sun-dried tomatoes. 

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Everyone has their own way of making risotto, and mine involves no measuring at all, so I do not presume to give a recipe.  I do have a tip, though: if you're going to use a stock cube or powder, put it all in at the beginning and boil the water separately in the electric kettle.  The water stays hot enough, and you don't waste the energy or washing to keep a separate pot of stock simmering.

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Jamie has tried his hand at glamour shots, but even in the kitchen our lighting is minimal.

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Baking with Sheena III: Ginger Biscuits

THESE THINGS ARE AMAZING.

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Thursday is Jamie's night out with the nerds, and there were no Poirots recorded that I haven't seen, so I rifled through Gran's recipes and found a tempting one: 

 

42. Peggy (Garpin) Ginger Biscuits

3/4 lb S.R. flour

1/2 lb castor sugar

3 oz syrup

4 oz butter or marg.

l level tsp. Bicar. of Soda

1 tsp gr. ginger

1 small egg

Melt sugar, butter + syrup in pan + add to all other ingredients.  Roll into small balls, place on baking tray.  Bake in mod. oven.

 

That's the recipe as transcribed exactly from her card.  I wish I had them here so I could take a picture of the original.  Garpin is either the name of a family or a farm.  I will consult the in-laws and update you.

 

Garpin Ginger Biscuits (Em's first try)  Yield: 31

8 oz castor sugar

3 oz golden syrup

4 oz salted butter

12 oz plain flour + 1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t ginger

1 medium egg

In a medium saucepan, heat sugar, butter and syrup until just melted.  Leave to cool for a few minutes until you can put your finger in it comfortably.  Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl, then pour in warm mixture and one pre-beaten egg.  Roll into smaller than usual balls, and bake at 350°F for fifteen minutes, or just until the inside of the cracks have turned the same brown as the rest of the cookie.

 

Verdict: Awesome.

 

Part of the delight of these family recipes is that they come with no picture, and also they're from a culture of which I'm not a native.  So who knows how they'll came out.  It was great to watch them through the oven door as they puffed up, then melted down, then formed cracks, then turned a deep golden brown.

 

I think I slightly overbaked the first dozen, and they ran into each other.  So for the second batch I used smaller balls on a bigger pan and took them out sooner.  The best example from the first batch is on the left, and from the second on the right.

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They are flat and crispy and sweet and gingery and just a bit caramelly from the syrup.  Would definitely make again.  Mmm.

 

 

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What's for Dinner? (Another Wednesday)

Today was cold and windy.  I made chilli. 

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I served it with the extra rice that I shrewdly made last night.  I started chopping vegetables (including a home-grown serrano pepper!) at 6 and it was happily bubbling away on its own by 6:30.  I worked on knitting my latest hat while it simmered and called Jamie in for dinner at 7:15.

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I haven't perfected chilli yet, so I'm not providing a recipe.  You'll just have to look at the pictures.  

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This picture does not make dinner look very delicious, but that is because I used my iPad and it gets dark here at 4:30.  Maybe I should get some task lighting.

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What's for Dinner? (Another Tuesday)

This Tuesday's dinner is stir-fried vegetables with steamed rice.

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The refrigerator contained bok choy, carrots, the rest of the red pepper from the pizza, and half a leek.  I stir fried them all in a large pan in a little oil, then tossed in my standard sauce made of arbitrary amounts of soya sauce, vinegar, mustard, honey, ginger, coriander, turmeric and water.  I let that reduce for a bit, then turned off the heat and drizzled a little sesame oil on top. We ate it with sweet chilli sauce.

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And for dessert, rice pudding because the milk was starting to get a bit old, and the extra heat from the oven kept me warm while I was working. 

Rice Pudding

3 oz arborio rice

2 oz sugar

1 oz butter

2 pints milk

1 t vanilla extract

pinch nutmeg

pinch cinnamon

Throw everything into an oven-proof dish that has a lid, and cook it in a 150 oven for 2-2.5 hours, stirring every half hour or so.  It's done when it resembles a pudding, but will keep thickening as it cools. 

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Rice pudding is Jamie's childhood favourite.  It takes so little effort to make him so happy.

 

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What's for Dinner? (Another Monday)

Pizza day!  (It's the best day.)

After a bus ride back from the Borders, errands in the city, an eye appointment, and a cold walk home to a cold house, I pulled a half batch of pizza dough and a dish of sauce from the freezer.  In a few hours it was defrosted enough to throw together with leeks, broccoli, red pepper and mozzarella, and the result was a delicious homemade pizza.  

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Our house pizza dough recipe is based on Billy Reisinger's, but Jamie has done the maths to use up our abundance of digestive crumb "sand."

Digestive Pizza

1.5 cups warm water

141 g digestive crumbs (gold glitter optional)

2 t salt

26 g oil

14 g yeast

413 g bread flour

Mix water, digestives, and yeast in a large bowl.  Let sit for ten minutes. (This allows the yeast to bloom and the crumbs to soften.)  Add salt and oil, then flour, 100g at a time.  When it becomes too hard to stir, turn it out and knead it on the counter until all the flour is combined and the dough is smooth.  Put back in the bowl, cover loosely, and leave to rise for at least an hour in a warm place. When ready to make pizza, knock back and halve the dough.  Put one half in the freezer for next week, and bake the other half in a 200 oven until the cheese is almost about to burn.

I was too excited about to get a picture of the cooked pizza before we dug into it.  It was delicious.

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MAKE-LEARN-GIVE: First Week of November

I MADE a pattern for Pudsey (this was way more work than I had anticipated.)

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I LEARNED that a gill is a unit equal to a quarter of a pint.  It is pronounced like the girl's name Jill and was a standard measurement in the dairy industry. 

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I GAVE my Katamari machine to a very sympathetic gamer from Freecycle.  He was very excited to start rolling things up.

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First Pattern Sold!

Someone bought my pattern!  That's £2 for Pudsey, landmark occasion for me!  This is way more exciting that any of you realise.  

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Signs of Autumn II

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I love when the setting sun lights up the clouds from beneath.

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Baking with Sheena II

Today I finished transcribing all 123 of Gran's hand-written recipes.  The Australian Tea Cake card is my favourite, because of the warning at the top.  

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Recipes 19, 23, 59 and 106 are all for chicken liver paté, which either means that she really loved it, or could never find a recipe she liked.  The recipe for beetroot chutney is covered in purple splatters.

Recipes for Banana Loaf

 

 

 

 

 

14

15

16

Favourite

bananas

3

3

3

3

butter

4 oz

5 oz

3 oz

2 oz

sugar

4 oz

6 oz

4 oz

8 oz

flour

6 oz SRF

8 oz wheat

7 oz SRF

10 oz plain

eggs

2

2

2

2

liquid

2 T milk

1 orange

 

 

leavening

1 t soda 

1 t powder

1/4 t soda

1 t powder

 

There are also three recipes for Banana Loaf, which Gran made often to dispose of overripe bananas. According to Lynne, she latterly preferred the recipe from the Callum's Trust Home Baking Book (marked Favourite), which has far more sugar.  I hate banana bread, but now I'm tempted to make four in the name of science.

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