Archive - Sep 2008

Date
Type

September 28th

Fresh Produce Makes Fresh Food

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With all the tomatoes and tomatillos I've harvested over the last few days, I needed to use them or lose them. I choose to make a couple salsas. Here are the recipes I used. One note. When handling the pepper, it is best to use gloves as they will continue to burn your hands for a long time afterwords.

Tomatillo Salsa

  • 1 1/2 lb tomatillos
  • 1/2 cup chopped white onion
  • 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 2 Jalapeño peppers OR 2 serrano peppers, stemmed and seeded. (hold seeds aside)
  • Salt to taste

Remove the husk from the tomatillos and rinse them off to remove all the sticky wax from them.

Cut tomatillos and peppers in half. Place on a cookie sheet (foil can be added for easy cleanup). Broil for 5-8 minutes, until browned to lightly blackened or dark brown.

Place all ingredients into food processor or blender and pulse until desired consistency. Add salt last to taste.

Taste. If too hot, add more tomatillos. If not hot enough, add a few of the pepper seeds you held aside. Let sit several hours for flavor to fully blend.

Tomato Salsa

  • 2-3 medium sized fresh tomatoes (from 1 lb to 1 1/2 lb)
  • 1/2 red onion
  • 1 jalapeño chili pepper - stems, ribs, seeds removed. Hold seeds aside.
  • 1 serano chili pepper (stems, ribs, seeds removed). Holds seeds aside.
  • Juice of one lime
  • 1/2 cup cilantro
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro to the desired consistency. If you want it chunky, cut it chunky. If you want it smooth, use the food processor.

Combine all ingredients. Taste, if too hot, add more tomato, if not hot enough add a few pepper seeds. Let sit a few hours for flavor to fully blend.

September 26th

Moving to Digital or Time For a New TV?

With the government mandating that all television broadcast must be digital by February, it leaves many of us wondering if we need to buy a new television. Our TV was purchased in 1991, so is not digital. Our VCR and DVD players are much newer, but I confirmed that neither of them have digital receivers. So I'm looking for a new TV.

I've looked at the local places and can get a decent one for around $500-$700. A bit more than I want to spend, but if I can manage to save up the money, I will. I thought I'd look at some of the large plasma screens that are available. If I'm going to spend that kind of money, I might as well spend a little more and get a really cool screen.

I found a 46" Sharp Plasma Screen for $750. It is just a little more than the 36" I was looking at for $700 and a lot bigger. But this is really out of my price range. I would love to have a screen like that, it would be awesome to watch Veggie Tales on a big screen TV with Dolby 5.1 surround sound, but I plan on spending that money on stuff I can do to keep Emma active, rather than sitting on the couch. I've sent away for the converter box coupons. The converter box costs about $60 and the coupons are for $40. That means that 46" screen will cost $730 more than the converter box. Maybe some day I'll get the big TV, but we don't watch TV enough to pay for cable, let alone a big TV.

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Seed Catalog

For a while I've been wanting to build a database of plants with seeds and bulbs and whatnot so that if people are looking for a particular plant, they can search in one location and get results from a bunch of nurseries. I'm often seeing people on the various groups I either participate in or just read asking if anyone knows where to find such and such a plant. Well, this catalog would help.

There are numerous on-line nurseries. Each one of them has their own catalog and each of them has different products for sale and different prices. There is no standard id (like ISBN for books) to differentiate the different seeds, but still a search for "June Strawberry" with results for all the plants that say strawberry and June in the title or description would be a lot better than going, individually to 10 different nurseries looking for June bearing strawberries and comparing the prices.

In the results I plan on including links to informational sites, like Wikipedia, the USDA Plant Index, The International Plant Name Index, and more. I will also include results from Amazon on books that match the results, and possibly other places as well (eBay?, YouTube?). Originally I wanted to house an informational index myself, but that is a huge task. There are millions of plants out there to index and even if I just picked a single plant family (say Cucurbitaceae) you are still talking a huge task. Cucurbitaceae has about 125 genera with 825 species. Doing justice to that would take a really long time and other places have already done a good job. I've decided that instead of trying to do it all myself, I'll just be a middle man and connect you to all those places.

I hope this is a tool that people will be interested in. I've started work on it and should have an alpha version ready in a week or so. I am trying to have it ready for you to see, in beta, in a month. If you would be interested in testing this product for me, let me know and I'll give you a link to the test site. Right now it does nothing useful, but when it does anyone who wants to be a tester will get first crack at using it.

September 23rd

Moved to new server

in

I've moved the site to a new server. I've not been happy with my previous host, so I've moved. In the move I also upgraded the software and started to move to a new theme. I've just got the basics in and it is late tonight. I'll get the correct image into the header tomorrow and check to see if anything is missing (I see that the tag cloud is missing).

I've also gotten rid of a couple of advertisement blocks that I was getting no income from. The Project Wonderful and Entrecard widgets. This will hopefully make the site load a little faster and I can live without the $1.00 a month I was making off the two ads.

If you have any comments, or would like to see something else in those spots, let me know. I'm always interested in what my readers like.

Tired and Out of Shape

I'm not in great shape. I'm about the right weight, but I have very little muscle mass. With my arthritis, I should exercise daily, get some muscle mass, especially in my trunk. I do want to be able to dance at Emma's wedding.

The problem is that exercise is often boring. You can spend a lot of money on equipment that you might use as a clothes drying rack. There are also many videos out there, like the XFLOWSION series.

The nice thing about exercise videos is that you have a little excitement, if they are interesting videos. But after watching the same exercise video 20 times, is it still going to be interesting to you?

With the XFLOWSION series, you get several videos, which would be nice, but they cost $59.85. That is still a lot of money to be spending on something you may let sit on your shelf and collect dust. If you think you will use it, it would probably be worth it. I've not watched it, but from the short bits of it I have seen, it looks more fun that a lot of exercise videos I've seen. It seems like he has you doing multiple things, instead of the same type of thing every time. My library doesn't have it, so I can't try it out.

I think that the best exercise is one that you will enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, you will not continue doing it. If you really like riding your bike, ride it. If you like gardening, that is good exercise. If you like jumping rope, jump away. There are lots of good exercises that can be a lot of fun for everyone. I like gardening, but I don't think that I get enough out of it. I think I need more. What works for you?

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As The Site Turns

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If you have been reading here long, you may have noticed that the content has changed over time. I thought I'd talk about that a little.

I started this site mainly for sustainable tips and tricks. I, however, am just learning about this and while I'm learning a lot and pass things along when I get something good, my family is also important. I'm writing a lot more about family things and memories. I'm also planning on adding more fiction, but don't expect a lot.

Do you have something you want to hear about? Make a suggestion with a comment and I'll take it under consideration.

September 22nd

Bingo Fun

When I was 13 when I got my first computer. A Commodore 64. It was a lot of fun. Along with it I got a 300 bps modem and the first thing I did was to connect to the an on-line chat service called Q-Link. This company later became known as AOL when they moved their services to the PC world.

I didn't stay with Q-link long, I found another service called Playnet. Playnet was a little more personal. It was smaller. It was actually older than Q-link and I was told that Q-link "stole" the software from Playnet. It was very similar, but Q-link did better marketing but getting Commodore to include their software with the sale of the modems. Playnet later went under and I had to move services again.

While I was on Playnet, one of my favorite things that we did regularly was bingo. I played regularly and had a lot of fun with friends from around the US. I've not played much bingo since, but now that I have a child, it might be fun to take up playing again. Especially if it is something that we can do as a family.

Disney Bingo could be a lot of fun. Emma is a big fan of the princesses. She loves all of them, but right not her favorite is Ariel. No, Sleeping Beauty. No Cinderella. Well, she really likes them at any rate. I like some of the other Disney products as well. Elizabeth came into our marriage with a large collection of Disney movies.

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Hooked on 24

in

Do you watch 24? I don't watch much TV. In fact, last year I barely got to watch anything other than cartoons. I do like 24 though. I got last season on DVD, since I did not watch it two years ago, when it was on. With the prequel coming out in November and the next season in January, I wanted to be up to date so that I could watch it.

I stayed up way to late watching it, several nights in a row, but I got through the entire season. I don't recommend doing that. Screwing with sleep patterns is not good for you and sleeping is very important. Besides, spending that much time on a tv show means that I spend less time playing on the internet :D.

I've also noticed that watching a show like 24 causes me to be a little more grouchy. All that violence and fear effects me. Even if I know it is all fiction, thinking that something like that could possible happen is scary enough that it makes me a bit more grouchy. Maybe I shouldn't watch it, but I'm hooked. Of course, thinking that there might be people like Jack around makes me feel better.

Memories of Paintball

When I was a teen I used to play paintball every few weekends. Paintball is a lot of fun, a group of us would all cram our paintball gear into my car, don our battle dress uniforms and drive out to some forest land where a guy, we called sarge ran a paintball site. I'd grab my paintball gun, buy a box of paintballs, load up my rifle and sidearm, and two pouches of extra paintball ammunition. I'd pull my mask down over my face and I'd run out and shoot people, and get shot myself.

I no longer remember if I used a spyder paintball gun, or a tippman, or some other brand. The paintball weapon to me, is unimportant, what mattered was getting out with friend, enjoying the woods, and of course, shooting people. It was a blast and I highly recommend trying it.

If you are going to do paintball, I recommend getting a few basics to protect yourself. You have to have a mask. They make masks specific for paintball. Anyone who does paintball without eye protection is asking to be blinded, but I recommend more than eye protection. There are a few other sensitive places on your head. Getting a paintball in the ear, nose, temple or mouth is not pleasant. I used a mask that covered all of these and I still got hit in the face once (a shot came from underneath me, hit me in the chin.) It stung a little.

If you bruise easily, you might want to wear two layers of clothes, and this is a good idea until you know what it feels like to get hit by a paintball. You don't want to be always on guard, expecting to get hurt by a paintball shot. The extra layer gives you some padding, then you can learn what it feels like and as you play, you may find you don't need the extra layer.

The paintball gun you choose is less important. A paintball gun can range from junk to really good. If you are playing just once or twice, the paintball gun you choose will depend on what is available for rent. If you buy your own paintball gun, but the best you can afford and you will have a better paintball experience.

Where you play paintball determines what you wear. If you paintball in the woods, like I did, then you want camouflage. If you don't have camouflage clothing, either head to your local Army surplus, ear wear comfortable black pants and a dark shirt. If you paintball in an indoor park, then dark clothes are best as indoor paintball parks are often dim. Check out the venue before deciding on the proper attire.

September 20th

God Is Love

in

Throughout Christianity, and most other religions, it is said that love is the most important thing. It does not matter if you a a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Budist, all talk of the love of God. We may not all agree on what God looks like but we all agree on the importance of love.

Not only is love all that matters, but so is God. If love and God are both all that matters, then God must be love. If you want to love, you must have God in your life. He must be there, even if you don't know it. God believes in you, even if you don't believe in Him. You are His child and He is love.

In the world today, it is more important than ever to show love. Love thy neighbor recures throughtout both the new and old testament (Leviticus 19:18, Romans 13:9, Matthew 5:43, 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:31-33, and more). We know that neighbor does not mean the person who lives next door to you, but everyone. Your neighbor in the country next door. Your neighbor in the terrorist cell, the freedom fighters fighting against your government, the government oppressing your people, the person next door who plays their music too loud, the murderer who killed your friend, the child who bit your daughter, your father who molested your friend before taking his own life.

All these people have my love. I may not be able to forgive some of the things they have done, but I have to love them. I am told I should forgive, but for me, loving is easier. I can hate the things they do, but still have love for them. I have trouble hating a person. That for me is hard. Hate is painful. Can you love the hated?