Yesterday afternoon, Christian hung the ledger board up against the existing exterior west wall of the house. Today, we muscled the the joists and sub- sub-floor into place. (The joists extend beyond the sub- subfloor because there will be a little walkway around the shed to allow a meter reader access to our meter.
OUT OF THIS WORLD: You may or may not recall back in January or so, our blog mentioning the first cookies baked in space. They were baked aboard the International Space Station in a special convection oven. The goal of the experiment was to study cooking options for long-haul trips.
Sadly, the ISS inhabitants didn't even get to taste those cookies since they were a test. Instead, the cookies were sealed in individual baggies and sent back down to Earth on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on January. (As a consolation, astronauts aboard the ISS were able to enjoy special pre-baked DoubleTree chocolate-chip cookies that were sent up to the ISS on Nov. 2, 2019.)
I can't help but wonder what it smelled like when the cookies were baking up there. According to a Space.com article, "In space, even without gravity, smells travel via individual aroma molecules. In the microgravity environment aboard the space station, these molecules travel in whatever direction they are moved. (On Earth, the aroma molecules move in all directions due to random collisions with air molecules.)"
A closeup of one of the first space cookies - Image credit: NASA
Anyway, when we learned we could order some of the space cookies, we sent a couple of tins to some Earthbound folks. Granted, these were not the actual cookies baked in space. Rather, they were the same recipe that was used up there - dough from the DoubleTree Hotel chain.
One of the recipients of the cookies (hi Nonnie!) said they were so good, she looked on the Internet for the recipe and when she baked them, they were the best chocolate chip cookies she'd ever made.
Ever since then, we've been meaning to make some. What better time than when you're stuck home thanks to a worldwide pandemic!
Last night, CJ, Annabelle and I mixed up the dough at about 9 p.m. The recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for at least four hours or overnight, so that's what we did ... except for two little balls, which we baked in the toaster oven for the kids' dessert.
On Earth, the recipe calls for 13-16 minutes in a standard oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The astronauts baked the first four cookies at 300 F and the fifth cookie at 325 F (165 C). The first cookie they baked was underdone at 25 minutes. They cooked the second one three times longer, and it was at the 75 minute mark that they could start to smell the cookie baking.
The fourth and fifth cookies baked for 120 and 130 minutes, respectively, and they were then left to cool outside the oven for 25 and 10 minutes, respectively.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait nearly that long. This was our test cookie, which baked about 14 minutes. Doesn't it look divine?
The kids report they are, indeed, delicious. This morning we baked the rest of the batch.
The recipe is definitely a keeper. I'm looking forward to making these for an upcoming Teen Feed, that's for sure.
If you're interested, here's a link to a short video about the project: https://www.space.com/first-space-cookies-final-baking-results-aroma.html?jwsource=cl
You can learn more about the baking experiment and the technology behind the oven by visiting www.cookiesinspace.com and www.newsroom.hilton.com/cookiesinspace.
I should point out that baking these cookies was a legit educational endeavor, as the kids read up about the experiment on the ISS. In addition, we checked out the curriculum DoubleTree by Hiltonand Scholastic partnered to develop related to a "hospitality in space" program, "Opening Doors in Space." It includes a lesson and activity sheet, focuses on better understanding the challenges of living and working in space, and encourages students to think creatively about what innovations need to occur to ensure long-duration space travel is comfortable and hospitable.
I had the kids each fill out a worksheet from the lesson plan. They had to pitch an idea they thought would help make space tourists more comfortable at on off-planet hotel.
Annabelle proposed an easy-access system.
Meanwhile, CJ had food on his mind, and figured visitors would want a way to cook up a snack.
SPEAKING OF SPACE: One of our favorite astronauts has some advice about how to spend our time sheltering in place and trying to ride out the big first wave of COVID-19 infections.
Here's one of his suggestions from his interview with Euronews:
"Build your own little spaceship in your house, your own little crew of people, and treat them as members of your crew. All of them are trying to get through this thing together. And that's what we do on board."
Seems like sound advice. I also appreciate what Col. Hadfield has to say about trying to deal with the threat posed by the virus:
"Dig into the actual risk of it. Become expert on what it is about COVID that you need to know. What causes it, how might you catch it, how might you minimize your own chances, what are the symptoms, if you start to get the symptoms what should you do? So that you actually have a way to react — you're not just crossing your fingers and hoping. That's not how astronauts fly spaceships."
You can watch the full interview here. ...
https://www.euronews.com/embed/1064048
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