technonick

Hello.  I am Technonick.  I make posts about stuff with food and computers and barbequeing and working and school.  But I want to know who actually reads what I write.  If you are interested,  please friend me.  Some of my posts are open to the public,  some are friends only.  So if you want to read the friends only stuff, friend me.

When I was in the military I had a friend who, when we got drunk, would frequently shout at the Moon to crash into the Earth. He was also a big supporter of anarchy and survival of the fittest. I haven't heard from him in a while and I would be interested in his political views now.
What would it be like if the Moon crashed into the Earth? Well, I think it would be a great big global trainwreck. The Earth would become inhabitable and there would be anarchy and chaos (survival of the fittest) for those who survived.
Now, what would cause a global trainwreck without the Moon crashing into the Earth? I think that event would be the election of Cheney/Palin in 2012. Wouldn't that be awesome?
I think I want to troll the highways and biways of this great United States. I need that Bumper Sticker.

Today, I ran around a bunch with my wife. We got rid of the kids and had coffee at B&N. Then over to Sizzler for lunch (the value menu is pretty cheap) and then over to the International Market so I could pick up ingredients for Chana Masala.
See for the past 3 months or so, I have been fantasizing about this dish. At my local International market I saw a premade boxed version that you just add water and chick peas. So I really wanted it, but I could justify the sodium content. Just too high. I still bought it so I could look at it and remember the dish (it was $0.69).
During the holidays, someone posted a recipe for Chana Masala and here we are. I picked up some more chick peas and tomatoes (because they had been eaten by dirty little kids.)
Here's the recipe
( Read more... )

Well,

Thanksgiving is almost here. I'm going to visit family and I will be preparing a mezze in some form, it will probably be more Greek than Middle Eastern, but that's what I can do.

Here's what I'll making from scratch:

Hummus - Just your basic hummus recipe decorated with paprika and pine nuts
Baba Ganoush - Same same.
Tabbouleh - I haven't made Tabbouleh yet. I think I might make a test batch this weekend just to try it out.
Tzatziki - Basic and simple

Now, I am taking falafel with me but I may be making some more falafel from scratch. I'm not exactly sure. Maybe this weekend I'll defrost some from the batch that I made two weeks ago, see how it tastes and determine if it might make sense to make it from scratch (I have a crapload of homework due before Monday so I can't bog myself down.)
I will also have green olives, fresh feta (not store bought, but deli bought), dolma's and I think that might be it. And finally I plan to cut up tomatoes, some lettuce and have the best flatbread (from my area that I know of) to serve with this.

So in preparation, I went to my international market. I picked up more olives, egglant, yogurt, some herbs and some extras. I also dropped by farmer stand, but he **GASP** had no cucumbers. So I got some tomatoes.

Tonight I have to stop by and get a ton of cucumbers.

Reposted from cjkline83. Very nice.



" It reminds me of a refreshed version of "We Didn't Start the Fire""

Yeah, it does.

I have kids. Ten year olds. One of them saw the Hamlet movie, once, but she didn't pick up on the story until the end. But for last weeks Dungeons and Dragons adventure (only two charecters) I threw them a curve ball and allowed them to participate in a Hamlet adventure. 2nd edition.
It was a hit and I think they actually might remember Hamlet when they study it in High School.

The adventure is taken directly from the synopsis of Hamlet's Wikipedia entry, with additions for the roleplaying aspect.

Here's the adventure:
( Read more... )

Reposted from cooking:

So far this weekend has been very busy.
Yesterday we cooked a turkey for dinner, turkey was on sale and we got a 12 lb bird for $8.00. I prepped it at lunch (in an oven bag) and my wife put it in the oven while I was at work. She made mashed potatoes and homemade gravy (from the juices) to go with it. After dinner, we stripped the turkey and put the bones in the crockpot with some water and fresh thyme and other seasonings.
This morning I woke up, filtered the broth from the bones and left over meat, and then refrigerated the broth (to be able to skim some fat.) At noon I cut up an onion, some celery, and carrots and put those in the crockpot and set it on high. After our son's baseball practice, we came home I cut up the left over turkey and my wife made homemade egg noodles to put in the crockpot. Dinner is about an hour away.

So my question is: How else could have we used the turkey? Could we have ground the "bones to make my bread?" Or maybe ground the bones and put them in the noodles? How does one go about grinding bones (a clean coffee grinder perhaps)? Do you have any cool recipes with turkey bones?
How else might we have used other parts of the bird? What about the cartilage, or the skin? Or what about the fat?

"Cape on my back, cable box on my chest, leather pants till my death, hot oil on my breath..."

ALL NEW! Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Chronicles

In another episode they made donner kebab. Wow.

This morning I got up and went for a work out. Chest and biceps. And then I ran on the machine for about 15 minutes and another 10 on the elliptical.

After a shower and some breakfast, I ran a D&D adventure for the kids (they have been asking to play for a few weeks now) based on Hamlet. I reversed some of the names so that it wouldn't be instantly recognized. Telmah in the land of Kramned is a disturbed prince who the kids had to protect because his father was just killed. Highlights:

- The boy got his butt whopped in a fight with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (during their first meeting with these two charecters.) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern jump out of hallway and playfully taunt Telmah and the characters, which turned into a play fight where Guildenstern knocked the boy out with the flat of his blade (critical hit with 99%).

- Later ss Horatio, and the charecters escort Telmah to the land of Dnalgne on a hurried diplomatic mission via ship, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern unexpectedly attack Telmah on the second day of the voyage. During the battle that ensues the girl casts a fireball in an enclosed space that not only injures everyone involved, but also blows out the side of the ship, thereby sinking it (shipped failed it's savings throw.) Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and the crew all drown. Telmah, Horatio, and the charecters were saved by a passing merchant ship.

- The girl figured out the plot after the third time that I slipped and said "Hamlet" instead of "Telmah", but it was at the end right after the charecters were rescued.

http://www.leeners.com/cheese-recipes-mozzarella-video.html

"You can make mozzarella cheese in only one hour. You get all the special ingredients to make six individual batches for a total of almost 7 pounds of fresh American style mozzarella."

That is so totally bad ass. I really want to make my own pizza, from hand selected ingredients. My own mozzarella cheese made from organic milk (from the hippy store), with fresh in season tomatoes, minced garlic, oregano and basil fresh from my garden and my own dough.

Too bad I can't actually flip (or even stretch) pizza all that well.

I'd like to do that and make cheese balls for my son. Throw in some olive oil, some crushed red pepper, grape tomatoes, and a little basil. He would love it.

Daylight savings time ends this weekend and starts at the beginning of April. So, I'm a big dumb idiot.

But, in my defense I will quote the page that I just referred to:

"During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on 6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April."

What a stupid concept, right? We wanted to save energy during an energy crisis so we shortened DST. Why don't we just implement it year round?

Tonight, I will go home and do the following:

1) Update my laptop to Ubuntu 9.10 (with a complete reinstall)

2) Install Ubuntu back onto my desktop. I had installed Windows for a media machine, but it was unwatchable because of the tv output (headaches.)

3) Hang with the fam

4) Eat

5) Sleep

I am eating Kasmir Spinach for lunch. It' sorta like a creamed spinach, but a little spicy, with chunks of paneer cheese.
My Dad would hate this stuff. He has a phobia of spinach. His mother made him eat it all the time as a kid. Canned spinach that she would cook on the stove. She would start it as she prepped the meal, and then it would stay on the stove, cooking, while the rest of the meal cooked. While the meatloaf was in the oven for 40 minutes, the spinach would be cooking on the stove. He would make gagging sounds whenever he talked about it.
I love spinach though, and this tastes awesome.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6408927/Internet-rules-and-laws-the-top-10-from-Godwin-to-Poe.html

The Fark conversation is awesome.

http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=4720732&cpp=1

You might remember this post about my hummus endeavors and costs.

Well, I went to the International Market and picked up some stuff.

1 Plain yogurt 2lbs $3.09
1 Tahini 2lbs $7.99
2 cans of 15oz Garbanzo beans $1.78
1 Persian cucumber $0.19
2 lemons $0.50
1 bunch of cilantro $0.59

I should have gotten a bunch of parsley because it was cheap. I want some so that I can make an authentic Arab Salad (cukes, tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil and parsley (optional mint)).
You'll notice that the tahini is $4.00 cheaper than the Amazon price. Same for garbanzo beans. $0.89 a can versus $1.68 a can.
I thought that the yogurt was cheaper ($0.99) but apparently I got the wrong kind. ( Read more... )

This is the recipe I was using for my hummus I made last night. Good stuff. It's a little more watery than I like. Next time I will not use the water as other recipes.
I kind of cheated and used Trader Joe's tahini, which is too expensive in comparison to the other ingredients.

# 4 garlic cloves, minced and then mashed
# 2 15-oz cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
# 2/3 cup of tahini (roasted, not raw)
# 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
# 1/2 cup water
# 1/4 cup olive oil
# 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Garlic = Cheap
Garbanzo beans = Cheap (12 cans for $20 on Amazon)
tahini = $3.00 (ish) from TJ's but it only makes one serving.
Lemon juice = lemons are like a $1 each
olive oil = you should have that on hand

I know my local International Market store (little store in Vista) has tahini is big jars like this. $12 on Amazon for a 2lb jar.

Also, tahini can be used in many other dishes. Marinades, salad dressings....

It was so awesome. The end.

I am working on a project for a customer. I use Ubuntu as my desktop OS but that sometimes can make working difficult. So, I have VirtualBox installed and it is booted into a Windows XP.
In the XP instance, I have XenCenter running which is controlling my minidemo box that has XenServer installed on it. Inside XenServer (which is a CentOS variant) I have 2 Ubuntu Server instances running.

2 Machines, 5 operating systems running with little performance hit.

I should open my remote desktop to my Windows XP machine that has VMware server installed it. Then I could start FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Windows 2008 server and 2008 server core. (Damn, I can't. Not enough power plugs, I had to disconnect the VMWare Server box to get XenServer installed on the other machine).