Currently sleep deprived and still jazzed in a hotel in Santo Domingo. I’m wondering what transport the UN is figuring out for me – it did seem funny to walk away from the airport at 2am this morning where some new journalist friends were offering me a seat on a bush leaving just then, or even a seat on a helicopter.

My favourite sandwich of all time has pickled cucumbers (preferably kosher dill) sliced with cheddar cheese on multi-grain bread. Yum.

I have always wanted to make my own and last weekend I saw some Kirby cucumbers at the farmer’s market.

Quick pickled cucumbers

• 1 pound kirby cucumbers
• 1/2 c fresh dill
• 1 tbs dried dill (optional)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
• 1 tbs peppercorns
• 2 tbs salt
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 2 c white vinegar
• 1/2 c ice cubes
• clean glass jar(s)

Cut the cucumbers lengthwise into quarters (spears), salt and leave for 1 hour in a colander.

Bring the vinegar to the boil with the spices in a cheesecloth bag (reserving 1 tbs of the fresh dill). Discard the liquid from the cucumbers, add them to the vinegar. Immediately reduce the heat to low, and cook until the cucumbers go a dull olive colour (~5 min).

Remove from the heat, discard the spices and pour into a bowl. Add the ice, and once everything has cooled off put cucumber spears into jars and cover with liquid. Top with remaining fresh dill.

Ready to eat after a day, will keep for 2 weeks in the ‘fridge.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Emergency Information Service is starting to move ahead. Congrats to Monique Villa and Imogen Wall from TR and the iNSTEDD crew for making it happen. I’m glad to say that I had a very small role in helping move this forward, and, finger’s crossed, will have more to do with it in the future.

Trying to work through with my friends from the IFRC (Red Cross’) Climate Center some ideas for getting decision makers to realize how they might use climate and weather forecasts in their planning and response.

This isn’t as easy as it seems – most meteorologists come out with statements like “there’s a 30% probability of an extreme precipitation event (defined as cumulative 3 day rolling mean in the top tercile of historical events over a 50 year window)”. Ye gods. I have a PhD in complex systems analysis and have worked as a disaster response manager and I can barely parse that (with >50% likelihood).

So what might a game do? It could

• let players see what probabilities and forecasts mean in terms of events
• let them play out scenarios for preparedness and response actions, particularly the impact of setting different levels of indicators as triggers for action
• provide some hints at the cost/benefit tradeoffs that investing in preparedness provide

Now, all we have to do is render this into a game that’s easy to play, is fun, teaches the right things, takes < 15 min a game and can be produced in good looking portable card or board format.

Simple.

Just when you think you’re happily set on a course of action and the kitchen gods take their vengeance for not cooking enough recently. Here was I, happily taking the quince syrup leftover from finally finishing last summer’s botting and just dumping it all together to make sorbet (with just a hint of mint), and the kitchen gods strike me down for hubris.

After 7 years of dutiful service the ice cream machine’s chiller unit seems to have leaked all the fluid that provides the chill. It’s no longer cool. Bugger. Lots of mechanical action and no nice little crystals.

Hmmm…. granita here we come:

Quince and Mint Sorbet/Granita

makes about 500ml/1 pint

• 500ml or 2 1/2 c quince syrup (black cherry etc) leftover after eating all the fruit from last summer’s bottling/canning in syrup.
• 3 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tbs mint ieaves chopped very fine

Mix it all together, and add to ice-cream maker. Process for 20 min until it forms sorbet.

or

Mix it all together, pour into aluminium semi-freddo tin and place in freezer. Stir vigorously with fork ever 30 min to break up big crystals.
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Note for the future: the Cook’s Illustrated website recommends either the Cuisinart ice cream maker or the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment. I’ll pop for the latter.