Prickly pear

The prickly pear, nature's bounty.

Right?

Baloo says so.

We tried it.  And by "we", I mean I didn't do any work but only documented that it happened. 

So prickly pair growing along sidewalks are plenteous right now.  But they are sharp little things, and obtaining a bucketful was not without some pricks and tears.

 To get rid of the prickliness, the pears were held over an open flame just long enough to singe them all off. 

Prickly pears have good color.

 And a pretty purple juice once you strip off their skin and squeeze it out of the pulp and seeds.

 The juice was boiled with half a cup of sugar.

The yield of twenty prickly pears was a very small amount of syrup.  Less than a cup.

Worth all that work?  Maybe for the wisdom and experience gained?
Perhaps. 
If I really have a hankerin' for it, though, I'll probably let somebody else do the work and buy prickly pear jam at the store.

Let's try lilies

So this is the latest experiment: growing lilies on the balcony.
We'll see how that goes.

Not all of the previous test subjects survived.
That's last year's Christmas tree, you see, heading out with the trash. :(

By the way, that plant #5 that the plant selling man talked me in to buying, well that one has been the healthiest and hardiest of them all.
Go figure.

Egg experiment

Due to the comment on a post from last week, and because I had an egg in the fridge which was so old that it was beyond the point of risk-free eating, I decided to try something.

Is it possible, I wondered, to fry an egg on my balcony?

I began my experiment at 12:12pm. With an egg, a plate, and a thermometer.
At that time it was about 102 degrees F on the balcony.

1:12pm.
An hour later I looked at the egg.
No progress.

2:12.
So the egg no longer looked quite the same. But it also didn't appear to be "cooking".

While this experiment was going on. I tried to get some other things done around the house. You know, some work, or something.
I admit to distracting myself with thoughts of other fun egg memories. :)

3:12pm.
So now the thermometer said something like 113 degrees F. Is that hot enough to start cooking?

4:12pm?
What happened?
Well, this is when life caught up to me and I was sucked in by the tyranny of the urgent. I had to leave the house, and I had to leave right away. So the egg was left to fend for itself while I was away.
During the four hours I was gone, there was a dust storm. "Aw man," I thought from the other end of the city as I licked the dust from my lips, "There's an egg on my balcony."
Then there was a short thunderstorm. Poor exposed egg. Certainly not a sterile testing environment.

8:12pm.
When I arrived home, I checked on the egg.
It was out there in the dark.
It did not look to be cooked, but it was definitely not in a liquid state anymore. The egg white was "crystalized" (what else would you call it?), and the yolk was sort of crispy.
So does that mean it was cooking or got dried out?
Is it a dehydrated egg?

This is perhaps an odd thing to post about, but, uh, now the question is answered.
Maybe.