New Testingstan

If it takes, it'll probably be pretty tasty, if hot from all the chipotles.

Onion, sweet paprika, sugar, lemon juice, liquid smoke and salt. (And, obviously, tomatoes)

Glue-up for a stand for my toolchest:


Close up of a set of dovetails:


And of an overall joint:


And my chest sitting on top, full of tools:


Why all the trouble? So I don't have to stoop down quite so far to pick a tool up out of the bottom.

Sweet Tomato Butter:

I'm preserving jars of it in a boiling water bath right now.

Haven't made bread in a while, so:


With some strawberry jam:

"Universal" knife block (mahogany):


I haven't put a finish on it (and will likely only put on mineral oil; food safe, you know) and need to sand it before putting on the finish, but otherwise it's ready to go as you can see in the pic. I'm also going to put little rubber feet on the bottom so that the wood doesn't soak up water that gets spilled on the counter.

This is actually the project that got me started along the woodworking path. The desire to build it, that is. I finally got myself where I felt ready to build it and bought the wood and assembled it today.

Oh, and I have a lesson learned, too. Trying to laminate two pieces of thin stock together doesn't work well on large scale. It's better to do it after cutting the pieces to size.

Applejacked cherries:


It's a variation on the brandied cherries I made last year, but made with Laird's Applejack, a kind of apple brandy made out east for the last 230 years or so.

Knife block sanded, finished and equipped with little rubber feet:

Applejacked Ranier Cherries:

Big(ish) pile of lumber:


Depending on how you count, there's three or six projects there. I'll be building them over the next couple of weeks or so. I also have another project in mind, but I'm holding that one close to the chest until I have it ready to go.

Oh, and the dark wood is a piece of cherry I've made into a straight edge. I need to drill a hole towards one end, then sand and finish it and it'll be ready to go.

Tool tote for a friend's son:




Gonna paint it red and clean up some of the joints. Also need to break the edges so that he doesn't end up with a little cut.

Some baked cavatapi with Italian sausage and that marinara I made back in February. With parmigiano and fresh Mozzarella.:

Holiday Spice Cherries:


I promise there are cherries in there. There's also a ton of sugar and some vinegar to give the cherries some zip.

Edit: Oh, and spices too.

What in the world is tomato butter? It looks like red sauce.

It's a kind of fruit butter. Basically fruit that's been cooked down to a spreadable consistency that's not entirely unlike room temperature butter. Apple butter is the classic fruit to use, but I've also used cherries and you could also use pears or bananas. Among others I think.

In this case, it's a lot like flavored tomato paste. It's good on sandwiches or chicken or pork. It would probably also work in a salad dressing.

This sounds kind of close to jam/jelly. How far off the mark is that? What's the flavor profile?

It's a similar concept but the thickening is accomplished by removing water rather than adding and/or activating pectin or other gelling substances.

The flavor profile for the tomato butter is, well, tomato. I've got two different ones I've done, though. The mesquite tomato butter has a savory/smoky flavor; the other has a sweet holiday spice sort of flavor.

gotchya. Thanks!

Little Boy's Tool Tote complete:


Interior:

Tool tote for me:


Shot of the end joinery:


How the bottom pieces fit together:



What I used to cut the rabbets for the bottom pieces:


The pile of shavings that landed on the floor:


I haven't finished putting the bottom on, but I want to sand everything before I do that and it'll be easier with the pieces off than on. Then I'll rub it down with varnish and then wipe it down with paste wax.

Tool tote with the bottom attached:


I also added a couple dividers to the interior to keep things separated. Then I need to clean up some of the joints and corners and the bottom needs to be leveled where the boards meet. I might do some of that tomorrow.

Leveling a twisted board by hand is exhausting work.

Lesson learned: a board or two is okay, but if I need to move to a large project where I need to do a lot of leveling, I'm getting a damned power planer.

This is what I'm talking about:

So I tried to even up the dovetails and bottom and what not on the tote. I kind of screwed it up....

It's still functional as a tote, but from a standpoint of surface finish it's bad. While I was planing the joints the blade kept digging in and tearing out just a big enough of a chip to where I couldn't repair it. I figured that maybe I needed to sharpen the blade, but that didn't seem to help either.

I'm not sure why this was happening. It might be that the plane isn't set up right or that the red oak of the tote doesn't plane very well or that I was doing something wrong and didn't realize or some combination of all of the above. It's especially frustrating because a planed surface should be superior to a sanded surface, but, of course, that assumes you get it right..

Anyhow, I did what a could and did in fact even the tails up, more or less. Then I resanded it as best I could. Then I put a coat of finish on it. I'll put on another three or four and then wax the whole thing, though I can't decide whether to use the citrus wax I've typically used or to add black paste wax for a finish I just heard about. Either way I'll post a pic of it once I'm done.

Next step will be a dust shield to put over my tool chest and a lid for the tote to keep the dust out.

Oh, and I got dust from the sanding in my eye and my left eye is bugging the hell out of me. I tried eye drops and it just irritated it more.

I think I managed to scratch the surface of the white of my eye.

If it isn't out in the 24 hours following the incident, go to the Hospital. That kind of shit could have consequences.

Yeah, if it's still bugging me after work tomorrow I'll stop by the emergency room.

Better safe than sorry, especially with my vision.

Edit: though I should add that it's already starting to feel better so, hopefully, that won't be necessary.