Scott’s ‘Homemade’ Meat+Vegetable Spaghetti Sauce is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

I was never able to find the spaghetti sauce that I wanted, so I decided to figure out making it for myself.  You see, I wanted a combination of a meat sauce and a vegetable sauce, and could not find a restaurant or a recipe that fit the bill.  Note that this is ‘homemade’ only in part, as it includes marinara from a jar.  I have made it completely from scratch, and it’s good, but it’s wayyyy too much work and it takes wayyyy too much time, and it’s only slightly better/different, so the marinara from a jar is simply a nod to the realities of a hectic lifestyle.

This recipe makes enough for four people, plus a healthy helping of leftovers – as with all spaghetti sauces, it’s better reheated the next day.  Ingredients as follows:

3 jars Newman’s Own Marinara sauce
2 lbs. lean hamburger
1 sweet onion
8 cloves garlic
1 bunch asparagus
2 green squash
2 yellow squash
2 cups mushrooms
8 tbsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Heat a large skillet on medium, add 2 tbsp olive oil, and saute half the garlic and onions (both diced) for 4-5 minutes, then add the ground beef, and salt and pepper to your tastes.  Let the meat continue to brown while chopping the rest of the vegetables.

Finely dice the rest of the garlic and the other half of the onion, and keep them separate from the rest of the vegetables as they will be cooked separately.  Cut the asparagus into .5″ to .75″ lengths, making sure not to include the woody base of the stalks, which can be tough.  Slice each squash in half lenghtwise, and then slice each half in half again lenghtwise, so it is in long quarters, then thinly slice making little pie-shaped chunks.  Slice the mushrooms thinly.

Heat a large pot on medium, add the remaining 6 tbsp of olive oil, then add the onion and garlic and saute for 4-5 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables.  Continue cooking the vegetables for another 10 minutes, until they begin to get soft.  At this point the meat should be close to done browning – when it’s browned, drain any fat, then add to the vegetable pot.  Add the three jars of marinara, and stir.

Reduce head to medium-low, so that it cooks at a slow simmer, cover, and cook for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.  That’s it.  I occasionally juke it up with fresh basil or oregano, but it’s not strictly necessary.  I also sometimes add broccoli, but only some of the time since it turns it into a much chunkier, more vegetable-ier sauce.  We have taken to eating over Barilla Pasta Plus spaghetti, which has protein, omega-3s, and fiber, but tastes like regular old empty-calorie pasta.  And don’t forget some freshly-grated parmesan!

There’s nothing magical here, but I can say that this sauce is universally popular, and we always end up eating all the leftovers as well.  It is also a unique combination, in my experience, of a meat sauce and a vegetable sauce, and it’s something I had to figure out myself since I’d known for years that I wanted something like this.

If you end up giving this recipe a try, please post back your results here, as well as any jukes/variations of your own.  Buon appetito!

Related posts:

1. Homemade breakfast muffins
2. Homemade Cat Food
3. Homemade breakfast taquito recipe

The coming Muslim-Christian coalition in the US? is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Can't we all just get along? Probably not any time soon...

Disclaimer: the article below represents the noodlings of a dumbass who is talking about things way over his head, but which he nonetheless found interesting as a mental exercise.

James Buchanan was the first bachelor US President.  JFK was the first Roman Catholic President.  Richard Nixon was the first to resign from office.  Barack Obama was the first African American President.  That leaves some interesting milestones still ahead of us, such as first female, first (openly) gay, and first (openly) atheist/agnostic.

I think there’s a good chance that we’ll hit all of those milestones, at some point, and that it’s just a matter of ‘when’.  I also think we’ll hit them in that order (female, gay, secular).  And I also think that as we hit each milestone, it will create a greatly increasing disturbance among conservative US voters.

The first milestone, female, will not have any overtly negative reaction at home or abroad.  There have been plenty of female heads of state, and anybody who publicly takes issue with that will be nearly universally condemned as a backwards nincompoop.

However, the next one (first gay) would set up the beginnings of a political holy war, as the groups who are anti-gay are really committed to being anti-gay.  These are people who put the behavior of same-sex consenting adults in the same category as child molestation or bestiality.  They will see a gay US President as the beginning of the end of the world, and will fight against it appropriately.

But the last one (first secular) would potentially set up an actual Holy War (notice the caps).  There was a recent survey that showed that people of faith trust atheists to the same level that they trust rapists.  Yes, really.  And a group with that outlook is going to work diligently (to say the least) to prevent it from happening.

Just as an exercise (not a prediction), I could see the future of Presidential politics progressing thusly (major party candidates, unless otherwise specified):

2012 – Obama re-elected, possible female VP (Clinton)
2016 – female President
2020 – gay VP nominee
2024 – gay Presidential nominee
2028 – secular serious 3rd party Presidential candidate
2032 – gay President, secular VP nominee
2036 – secular President

Yes, that goes 24 years into the future, and that seems like forever.  But consider if we were to look backwards, 24 years ago was the election of George H.W. Bush.  Not that long ago, for some of us.  Again, that is not a prediction as much as one possible future outcome, the likelihood of which is open to debate.

However, regardless of the actual dates and progression, I think we’ll eventually see female, gay, and secular presidents in the US, and that that progression of events will stir ever increasing ire among conservative Christian US voters.

Interestingly enough, there is another group whose reactions would, in my estimation, parallel those of conservative Christian US voters – namely, Muslims.  I am not Muslim, nor am I a student of Islam, but my lay-person’s understanding of Islam is that they generally hold that women should be subservient to men, that homosexuality is unacceptable, and that the faithless can be subject to persecution and even death.

Also, I’ve seen estimates that project the Muslim population will double or triple over the next 20 years in the US.  One thing that has been consistent throughout US history is that while immigrant populations may retain a lot of their cultural heritage, they all usually end up ‘going native’ and seeing themselves as Americans, not as displaced immigrants in a strange land.

So, let’s project to a point 24 years in the future.  There’s a larger, fairly well assimilated Muslim population in the US, and an increasing presence of openly gay and secular candidates on the national election stage.  Both the conservative Christian base and the growing Muslim-American community would have significant opposition to these types of candidates.

And there’s nothing, and I mean *nothing*, that unites groups like having a common enemy.  Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and although in today’s terror-focused, post 9-11 world it seems unlikely that Christians and Muslims would form a political alliance, time heals a lot of wounds.  Arguably, Muslims and Christians believe in the same God, and there are a lot of overlaps in their faiths, as well as a lot of differences.  However, in the face of a common enemy, and a heretical enemy at that, historical differences tend to be de-emphasized, and commonalities highlighted.

So, am I sitting here as a Nostradomus-like seer laying out prophecies?  No, it’s more of a mental exercise, and quite frankly started as a lark, but the more I considered a potential Christian-Muslim coalition, the harder it became to rule it out completely, and the easier it became to consider it as a realistic potential outcome.

How likely is this outcome?  I don’t know – as stated in the disclaimer at the top of this article, I’m just a dumbass with a blog who is noodling on things far outside my area of expertise.  America’s Jewish population and/or our alliance with Israel could be a wildcard.  The non-dogmatic US population could refuse to accept gay and/or secular candidates for a lot longer than is being speculated here.  And it could also be the case that both conservative Christian and Muslim US voters would have an equally vehement opposition to gay and secular candidates, but without forming any sort of alliance.

Dumbassery aside, however, I think it is at least plausible that, if faced with the prospect of an atheist/agnostic US President, the US Christian and Muslim communities could form an alliance to fight against such a candidate.  I’m not hoping this happens, I’m not saying I know it’s going to happen, and I’m not saying it should (or shouldn’t) happen.  However, what I am saying is that as implausible as a Muslim-Christian coalition seems today, I would not be surprised to see it happen in the future.

And just how unlikely is a Christian-Muslim coalition?  Well, consider that, today, the United States’ closest ally is Great Britain, and in the decade after the Revolutionary War I’m sure that would have seemed like an outlandish prospect.  The US also counts Germany and Japan among our closest allies, and that would have seemed unlikely in the decade after WWII and Pearl Harbor.  Think Russia after the Cold War, or China after Korea.  All are now our allies, or at least our economic partners, and such alliances and partnerships would have seemed ludicrous to contemplate in the time period just after the hottest hostilities.

And that’s part of the historical context here.  I can look back over my lifetime and see the birth, growth, and death of many conflicts.  For example, my grandfather was a WWII vet.  In the 60′s, he gave us our first color television, and we couldn’t have been more excited the day it was delivered and set up.  However, my grandfather checked the labels on the back of the set, saw it had been made in Japan, and angrily returned it because he had clearly indicated he would not purchase a TV from our WWII enemies.  However, my father’s and my generation defined material success, in part, as having a Walkman, a Betamax, and an Accord, meaning that my grandfather’s grudge didn’t even last a full generation.

As I continued to grow up in the 60′s and 70′s, I experienced the tail end of the civil rights movement.  I did civil defense drills in school, hiding under my desk in preparation for the nuclear holocaust that was surely coming as we faced down the godless communists during the Cold War.

Then there were the weekly, sometimes daily, reports of violence and terrorism in Northern Ireland.  There was the rise of Japan in the 80′s, when they were an economic powerhouse that was going to take over the US, both economically and culturally.  Today it’s the terroristic threat of ‘radical Islam’ and the economic rise of China that are threatening our way of life.

But, these, too, shall pass.  Old conflicts and enemies fade away, sometimes to be forgotten, sometimes to become friends and allies, always leading to a new reality in the future.  It’s the way of the world.  Does that mean that a Muslim-Christian coalition will definitely come to pass in the US?  Of course not, but it means that, to me, it is a distinct possibility, and I’ll be interested to see how events progress.

Related posts:

1. “President Obama” = I’m Proud to Be an American
2. A Day in the Life of a Typical American, or how I learned to stop worrying and not be hypocritical about ‘socialism’
3. Mourn the dead, honor the heroes, fight injustice, embrace freedom, celebrate life, and, on today of all days, forget to hate.

America’s Economic Bipolarity is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Income Equality (lower is more equal)

I’m a data person, and any time I have conceptions, preconceptions, prejudices, opinions, or assumptions, and there are relevant data available, I like to challenge my own opinions with facts.  One opinion I hold is that the United States is losing ground on being the ‘Land of Opportunity’ from an economic perspective.

I’ll stop here to state that I understand I’m talking about ‘first world problems’, and that the average American has it pretty good compared to the average world citizen.  Also, I’m not an economist, sociologist, futurist, or any other kind of credentialed -ist (other than ‘technologist’), so these are just the noodlings of an interested observer.

That being said, the people that put together the CIA World Fact Book seem to know a lot of things about a lot of things, and they share a portion of what they know via their public site.  The charts you see on this page are direct translations of their data into graphical form, and all credit/blame for that data goes to them.

One of the things they gather and post information about is relative income equality for countries around the world.  They share that information on this page:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html

The chart on the top right shows the Income Equality of the largest 100 countries (by population) from the CIA table, where a larger number is less income equality, and a lower number is more income equality (I know that’s counter-intuitive, but I didn’t develop the GINI scale).  So, the countries to the left-hand side of the chart are the most unequal from an income distribution perspective, and those on the right are the most equal.  The thumbnail view of the chart is pretty small (click chart for larger view), but the red line is the United States, and the green lines are the rest of the G8 countries.  You can see that the US is the left-most G8 member, meaning the one with the least equitable income distribution.

That sucks.  What it means is that the gap between rich and poor is pretty wide.  I think we can all look back over the last few years or decades and see that this has been happening, so although our place in the bottom third of countries isn’t a complete surprise, being the worst of the G8 nations is a bit disheartening.

Income Equality Trending (higher means increasing inequality)

I think that an impartial observer would agree that things are not good from an economic perspective in America today.  However, we have a legacy of bouncing back from adversity and overcoming obstacles.  Are we doing that here?

As you can see in the chart to the right (click chart for larger view), we are not only not improving, but are continuing to get worse.  In fact, only two G8 nations (Italy, Japan) have income equality gaps that are getting larger faster than ours.  Once again, the US is the red bar, and the rest of the G8 are the green bars.

So far all I’ve done is said we’re drowning, and then described the water.  What are the causes and solutions to this problem?  Although I have definite opinions about how we ended up where we are, I am not qualified to make any definitive statements about the economic and political forces that have put us where we are.  Note that I love to share my opinions, and I think that most of them are de facto facts just by virtue of being my opinions, but in this instance I don’t want to have this discussion degrade into partisan politics and bickering.

Also, I’m even less qualified to offer solutions.  I find it challenging to contribute to managing the finances of our household, and my wife does almost all of that work in the first place, with a competency that I can only stand back and admire with awe.  However, I do have opinions about what world economic and political leaders should be doing, but once again I don’t want the point of this discussion to be lost in partisanship and dogma.

And the point of this discussion is simply to point out, as factually and unemotionally as possible, where we are today.  The income gap in the US is one of the widest in the developed world, and it’s getting worse.  Income inequality is not the only factor that plays into quality of life, but consider, for a moment, the two extremes of income equality.

In the most unequal distribution, one single person would control all of the wealth of a country.  In the most equal distribution, everyone would have the exact same economic prospects.  I wouldn’t want to live in either of those countries.  In the most unequal one, there would be no chance to make a living or demonstrate economic worth, and any sustenance or shelter would be based on the largesse of the Grand Poobah.  In the perfectly equal one, the same would be true about economic worth – excellence and hard work would not be rewarded, because everybody would have the exact same standard of living regardless of ability, drive, ambition, or effectiveness.

Unfortunately, the United States is moving closer towards the situation where more and more of the country’s wealth is being held by fewer and fewer citizens.  In fact, according to a recent study: “Even the Roman Empire, a society built on conquest and slave labor, had a more equitable income distribution.”  The article also goes on to explain why the CIA publishes income inequality figures in the first place:  “Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S.”

Does that match your vision of the United States?  That we are as decadent as Rome before the fall?  That China, the land of a billion socialist peasants, has a more equitable distribution of income?  That our immediate neighbors on the chart of income inequality are Uganda, Cambodia, Camaroon, Bulgaria, Jamaica, and Mozambique?  Is that really the economic neighborhood for a nation that considers itself the leader of the free world?  And not only that, it’s only getting worse, instead of better?

I don’t know about you, but none of that matches my expectation of the United States.  We are the land of opportunity.  We are a classless society, where anybody from any background can succeed through sheer force of will.  However, as wealth accumulates with a small group of the super-rich, so does economic and political power.

On a level playing field, I applaud anyone who is able to create wealth for themselves and their family.  However, I think it is clear from the simple charts on this page that the playing field is not level in the US.

And from here on out I will be interjecting opinion – as the rich have gotten richer, they have used their economic and political power to rig the game in their favor.  To protect what they have, and to have the opportunity to accumulate more.  I can understand that impulse, because who doesn’t want to protect and grow what is theirs?

However, every flexing of political muscle by the rich to keep and grow their wealth also has the equal and opposite reaction of denying someone less rich the opportunity for increased economic success.  I don’t know how to solve it, but the first step is admitting there is a problem.  I’m not sure how anyone could look at these figures still not be convinced that something is wrong and needs to be done to restore balance to the economic prospects of all Americans.

That’s where We the People and the government come in.  It should not be the job of the government to redistribute wealth by fiat.  However, it should be the job of government to make sure the playing field is level and that everyone has an equal opportunity.  Given the amount of money it takes to mount a campaign for federal office, the candidates are increasingly either personally rich, backed by the rich, or a combination of both.  What that means to me is that those that have the gold are making the rules.

That has always been the case, to a certain extent, and people with money will always be able to have an outsized impact by buying the cooperation of those willing to sell their influence.  However, it seems that this has become the rule rather than the exception in American politics today.  And although I can’t offer concrete solutions, I think the first step is for We the People to use the polling booth to reject candidates who, by their actions (not words), have shown their support for fostering and increasing the current economic imbalance.

Related posts:

1. The coming Muslim-Christian coalition in the US?
2. Mourn the dead, honor the heroes, fight injustice, embrace freedom, celebrate life, and, on today of all days, forget to hate.
3. The New President Should Immediately Double Public School Teachers’ Salaries

How I Beat Insomnia is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Don't watch this to go to sleep...

First, let me say that I am not a doctor and I make no claims that what worked for me will work for anyone else, or that anyone else should try the things described here.  However, I did want to relate what worked for me so that others who may have had it work for them could see they are not alone, or those thinking about trying it will see that there is at least one case where it worked.  The ‘cure’ described here goes against every piece of conventional wisdom and medical advice that I have ever seen about insomnia, which made me doubly motivated to share it, since I know that it works for me.

When I was in my early teens I had an episode of sleep paralysis, described here. It was very disturbing, and from that time up until my 40′s, I struggled with insomnia.  I tried many things:

Sleeping pills: knocked me out, but I did not feel rested, and I did not want to take pills regularly even if they worked.

Sleep hygiene: trying to sleep in a dark, quiet place simply does not work for me, to this day, and all the wind-down, no-TV, no-computer stuff did nothing more than make me even more unable to sleep.

No caffeine: I would go caffeine free for months, with no effect.

No food after 6pm:  Made no difference.

Diet/exercise: No difference.

Etc.

I tried anything and everything, but I would just lay wide awake, mind racing, then typically fall asleep at 5-6am, then have to wake up at 7am and start all over again.  This went on, to varying degrees, for *decades*.

However, as the years passed I found that there were certain combinations of factors that usually resulted in me falling asleep.  I’m a fairly old fart, and when I was growing up there weren’t VCRs, DVDs, or TiVos, there was just the TV, and what was on, was on, and that was it.  However, once the age of VCRs started, I began collecting movies, usually my old favorites.  And I began to notice that when I couldn’t sleep, and I would go out to my recliner and pop in an old, favorite, well-known movie, I would usually go to sleep in my chair, and usually stay asleep.

And, if I happened to wake up, I could rewind the movie to where I had fallen asleep, start watching again, and fall back to sleep.  And this worked pretty much like clockwork.  Not perfect, but it worked 80%-90% of the time.  In fact, it worked so well that it started to relieve the tension that I felt at bed time, and sometimes allowed me to fall asleep in bed and get a good night’s sleep, because I knew that if I found I couldn’t sleep, I could go out to the living room, pop in an old movie, recline, and go to sleep.

I realized that having the distraction of something to watch, and having it be something that was entertaining (because I already knew I liked it) without being engaging (because it was something I had already seen and knew the story), allowed me to disconnect and drift off to sleep.

Watching something new didn’t work.  Watching the news didn’t work.  Listening to music made my skin crawl.  Reading would rarely work, because I couldn’t force myself to reread books that I already knew, and new books either bored me because they sucked or engaged me because they were good, but in neither case did it put me to sleep.

Then, as cable TV channels proliferated, it became even easier, as all the old shows that I knew and loved were in high rotation on Nickelodeon, TBS, WGN, local affiliates, etc.  So, I didn’t necessarily need to go out to the living room and pop in a tape, I could watch the TV in the bedroom and get the same result, usually.

However, watching TV in the bedroom wasn’t necessarily universally popular either, as the flickering images and sounds that put me to sleep didn’t necessarily work the same magic on my wife.  Also, it was hit or miss on finding something sleep-inducing.

Then along came TiVo, and the advent of cheap, small LCD televisions.  Today, we have a regular TV and TiVo in the bedroom, but I also have a small LCD TV (7″) on my side of the bed, below the level of the mattress where only I can see it, also connected to the TiVo.  I also have a pair of SleepPhones plugged into the little TV, which I can wear to go to sleep.  So, now, my nightly routine is usually to turn on my little bedside TV (on which I have the brightness turned way down to decrease the flicker effect), put on my SleepPhones, put the TiVo on some old show, and then go to sleep.

Just like that.  In fact, many nights I don’t even watch the little TV, I just drift off to sleep naturally.  But, if I wake up in the night and can’t get back to sleep, I can turn it on, put on the headphones, and doze right back off.  Also note that after a while the stretchiness of the SleepPhones starts to wear out (they are essentially a headband with little imbedded speakers that align with your ears), so when I fall asleep and move my head, the little speakers move off my ears so that I don’t hear the TV as I sleep, usually.

So, this has become the nearly perfect solution.  The light from the little TV doesn’t bother my wife, the SleepPhones are comfortable, the TiVo has a nice selection of shows, and I sleep very well every single night.

Note that I have a job where I am frequently awakened in the middle of the night to deal with issues, so being able to wake up and fully engage in work, then disengage and go right back to sleep is critical for me, and this works.

Your mileage may vary, and again this goes against almost all aspects of sleep hygiene.  But it works for me, and works 99.9999% of the time.  It has changed my life to the point where I don’t even think about sleep any more, I just sleep.  After decades of having every single night be a stress-filled struggle, it’s an amazing difference.  And it’s been working for over a decade now, so it’s not something new and novel that is working because of the placebo effect.

For those of you struggling with sleep issues, I can only suggest that you keep an open mind about what the experts might say about dealing with it, as every person is different, and what works for one person, or even the majority of people, may not work for you.  So keep trying, because only by trying new things will you ever find what works for you.  Good luck, and good night!

Related posts:

1. A Day in the Life of a Typical American, or how I learned to stop worrying and not be hypocritical about ‘socialism’

We’ll miss you, Weagle… is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Weagle at the beach

Today was the day we took Weagle to the vet for the last time, after her battle with lymphoma.  The photo here is of her last visit to Galveston, which was yesterday.  She loved the beach, it was her favorite place, so we took her for one last visit.  As you can see, we had the beach to ourselves, down by San Luis Pass, and Weagle strolled in the surf and chuffed at some birds, and had her own Sausage McMuffin as a treat.

Weagle was an extraordinary being.  She came into our lives as a tiny puppy, adopted from the Houston SPCA after Houston was devastated by storm damage and flooding from Tropical Storm Allison.  We knew there would be a lot of dogs hitting the shelters after the storm, and we knew we had to help save at least one.

When we got to the shelter, there were two of cutest little black-and-brown puppies in a crate together, litter-mates.  The sign said they were six weeks old, and that they were Rottweiler/Labrador crosses.  We picked one to bring home, and she fit in my cupped palms, and was the calmest, sweetest dog we had ever met.  That changed dramatically once we got her de-wormed and her true nature as a smart, protective, complex, loving, vigilant, fiercely loyal family member was revealed.

We gave her the name of Princess Buttercup (from the film The Princess Bride), and as she grew her face (and howl) began to look very much like a beagle, so we started referring to her by the nickname of Rottweagle (combination of Rottweiler and Beagle), which was quickly shortened to Weagle, and became her permanent name.  We never did figure out her ancestry.

I wrote more about her protective and loving nature two years ago, which you can read here:  http://www.cleverdonkey.com/1385-wonderful-weagle/.

Was she perfect?  No, but who is?  She barked too much, although it was with the best intentions, as she always wanted us to be aware of any real-or-perceived dangers, and we never could convince her the postman wasn’t dangerous (as far as we knew).  She did not enjoy rambunctious puppies, although she tolerated them with extraordinary displays of benign disdain.  She never fully accepted that she was not part of the committee of humans that ran the household, and although she was never actively mutinous, she did sometimes comply to requests with melodramatic resignation and doggy eye-rolling.

But she was a great soul, and highly intelligent.  We recently watched an episode of Nova ScienceNow, where they asked the question, ‘How Smart Are Animals?‘, and they showed some of the astonishing levels of intelligence demonstrated by dogs (and dolphins and octopuses and parrots).  And while it was a very interesting program, it wasn’t all that surprising to us, because Weagle was damn smart.  Smartness is not always convenient in a pet, because intelligence means that the dog will take your commands more like requests, and they will assess those requests for validity, and then act only when they have thought it through.

That could be frustrating at times, when we just wanted her to do what we said, but it also meant that we knew that no stranger or ne’er-do-well would ever be able to order her around into blind obedience, just because they spoke authoritatively.  Unlike a gun or other weapon for home protection, we knew Weagle could never be disarmed (or taken away and turned against us).  There’s no sleep as relaxing as when you’re being watched over by a benevolent canine Terminator.

But now she’s gone.  We still have her two brothers: Biscuit, our blonde white-shepherd cross of unknown ancestry, and Ruckus, our probably-a-runt-Rottweiler-but-maybe-some-kind-of-hound-mixed-in-there-too.

Biscuit has become Avelynn’s self-appointed protector, which was surprising to us, as he’d always seemed like a pretty laid-back surfer-dude type before this.  He’s older than Weagle, but appears to be going strong.

Ruckus is four now, and while he’s not nearly as smart as Weagle or Biscuit, he has a huge heart full of nothing but love for the family, and he’s happiest when he knows he’s doing the right thing.

We love them both, and we’re glad that Weagle was around long enough to show Ruckus the ropes, and pass down the responsibility for guarding the family to him, so that now she can rest, peacefully.  We’ll miss you, Weags.

Related posts:

1. Wonderful Weagle
2. Miss America 2005 (*)

How To: Get iced-tea stains out of your plastic pitcher is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

The pitcher in question...

I love home-made iced tea, and have gone so far as to post my recipe for it.  As you can see in the picture to the right, I use translucent Tupperware 1-gallon pitchers for the tea, and after over a year of use the pitchers were getting tea-stained.

I did a lot of things to try to remove the stains – scrubbing the hell out of them, letting them soak overnight with dish soap, filling them with boiling water hoping to cook the stains out, etc, etc, etc.  Nothing worked and the stains just kept getting more stainier.

I eventually turned to the web, and many (many) people recommended soaking overnight filled with warm water and a little bleach (yuck!) or OxiClean (double-yuck!!), but using any kind of chemical like that seemed, well, yucky.

Then I found someone who said they also had a problem with tea staining their plastic pitchers, and they solved it by alternating iced tea with lemonade, and the acidity of the lemonade helped keep the pitchers clean.

I like lemonade, but not enough to put it into my homemade drink-making routine, but it got me thinking.  Specifically, it got me thinking about citric acid, which is the part of the lemonade that is, well, acidic, and I started wondering if I could just buy some citric acid somewhere.

The Tea-Stain Terminator

And, as in almost all cases where I’m looking to see if something is available on the web, I turned to Amazon.com, and lo and behold, they had some – quite a few options, in fact.  I ended up ordering the liquid citric acid in a glass jar, pictured to the right.

I took my most stained pitcher, put about 2 ounces of the citric acid in it, and filled it to the brim with hot tap water and let it soak overnight.  The next day I poured out the water, scrubbed and rinsed the inside, and saw a tremendous improvement, although it was still a bit stained.

But, after treating it a few more times in rotation as the pitcher became empty again, it is now very, very clean.  If you inspect it very closely you can still see some slight discoloration, but it isn’t noticeable in normal use, and seems to be lessening over time with regular treatments.

My plan is now to use this treatment every once in a while on my pitchers, to keep them clean.  And, unlike with bleach or detergents, the worst case scenario is that the treatments might impart a slight citrus taste to the tea, which I don’t think I’d mind if and when it ever happens – and I certainly won’t be worried about any side-effects from ingesting a toxic chemical, because it’s just citric acid, which is edible.

So, if you have stained plastic food containers and are wondering how to safely get them clean, you may want to try soaking them in citric acid (or lemonade, if you are so inclined) and let a natural, edible acid do the work for you.

Related posts:

1. Scott’s Perfect Iced Tea
2. Just Say No to Coconut Welcome Mats
3. Chronic Cheapness

Homemade breakfast taquito recipe is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

The basic ingredients

We love breakfast taquitos, usually from Whataburger or a local Mexican restaurant, but also wanted to make them at home from time to time, and have developed this recipe over a few iterations:

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes
• 6 eggs
• 6 scallions, chopped
• 3 oversized flour tortillas
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• Salt
• Pepper
• Optional: shredded cheese, salsa, Tabasco sauce, or whatever else you might want to try putting on a breakfast taco

Start a heavy, large skillet heating (we use cast iron) on medium-high heat (set to 7 on our electric that goes to 10).  Wash the potatoes and shred them with a grater, leaving the skins on.  Spread the shredded potatoes in an even layer on a microwave-safe plate, and microwave them on high for 5 minutes, uncovered.  Remove from the microwave and set aside.  This step is important because to get crispy hash browns requires that excess moisture be removed from the potatoes before frying.

Put the oil in the hot pan and swirl it around to coat evenly, then add the chopped scallions.  Cook the scallions until tender and slightly browned, then add the potatoes in an even layer.  While the potatoes fry undisturbed, start another large skillet heating on medium-low (3 on our stove that goes up to 10).

Crispy, brown potatoes...yum!

Crack the eggs into a bowl, add salt and pepper to taste, and stir them up lightly, as if making scrambled eggs.  Meanwhile, let the potatoes fry without stirring until the bottom layer starts to get brown and crispy, then attempt to flip the whole mess over as a whole potato cake, as seen in the accompanying picture.  Expect some breakage of the potato cake, but try to keep it in largish pieces.

Let the potatoes continue to fry until the bottom starts to brown again, and once it looks like the potatoes are close to finishing, put some butter into the other preheating skillet to melt.  The skillet should be hot enough to melt the butter quickly and with a little bit of sizzle, but not brown the butter.

Once the butter has melted, add the eggs and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook the eggs with intermittent stirring to make scrambled eggs.  While the eggs are finishing up, put the three tortillas in the microwave covered by a moistened paper towel and heat for 30-60 seconds on high (depends on your microwave, but you want them piping hot!).  The moistened paper towel keeps them from drying out and helps prevent cracking or tearing when you put together your taquito.

Tip:  It’s a good idea to pull the tortillas apart from one another before heating, so that there aren’t places where they are stuck together from being packaged together.  If you don’t do this, then after you heat them and try to pull them apart you could create holes and tears in the tortilla where they are stuck together, and now much more delicate because they are heated, so it’s good to separate them while they are still unheated.

The finished product

Now we’re ready to assemble!  Lay one of the tortillas on a plate, scoop some eggs and potatoes into it, put some shredded cheese (and/or salsa and/or Tabasco sauce and/or whatever you prefer!) on top, roll it up, and you’re ready to go!

This isn’t a health food, so we rarely indulge in it, but some Sunday mornings you just need a nice, big, tasty breakfast, and this really fits the bill for us when that happens.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Homemade breakfast muffins
2. Homemade Caramel Corn Recipe
3. Vegetarian Recipe: Stir-Fried Chickpeas and Rice

How To: Create a Ruffled Onesie is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

How to turn a thin utilitarian onesie into an adorable little mini-dress!

Ruffly goodness!

A little rockabilly one

Two more awaiting wearing...

...and modeled

and a variation with smaller ruffles and bias tape trim!

First, gather your materials:

• Your victim onesie – I used a Gerber 12 month onesie that comes in a 5-pack.  Fits my (admittedly monster tall) 2-month old perfectly
• Fabric (I used cotton seersucker but any cotton or cotton-poly should do just fine)
• Thread
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil or marking pencil (I only had pencil, but it didn’t wash out as easily as I’d hoped, so I recommend a marking pencil if you can get your hands on one)

Your raw materials

Wash your fabric.  For me, it’s always frustrating to have to wait to begin the project, but I’ve learned over the years that it’s really worth it.

Wash the fabric

For the approximate ruffle size you see in the picture, cut two 9 inch strips of fabric that go the entire width of the fabric.  If your fabric is more than 45″ wide you may want to trim it at 45″ so you don’t have TOO much ruffle.

Two 9-inch strips of fabric

Fold each strip lengthwise with the right sides together. Stitch the long side with a very small seam allowance as shown here, making the strip into a tube.

Stitch your strip into a tube

Then, zig-zag the raw seam allowance flat – this means the fabric won’t bulk up when you turn it right-side-out to make your ruffle.  Of course, if you’re lucky enough to have a serger (hint, hint, Engineerboy), you can skip this step b/c you will serge this edge.

Zig-zag the seam allowance

What your finished edge should look like

After that you’ll have two tubes of fabric:

Fabric tubes

Turn your tubes right-side out and iron them flat.

Ironed fabric tubes

On each open end of the tube, fold the raw edge under to the inside of the tube (I did about 3/8″) and iron flat.

Iron under the raw edges of your tubes

Peeking inside to see the turned-under edge

Now you have the makings of your ruffles!  Lay them out on your onesie to determine approximately where they should go.  Safety note: I keep the ruffles low on the onesie, like a skirt, so that there’s no way they can flip up to cover her face when she sleeps.

Determine your ruffle placement

Once you figure out where you want your ruffles, mark a line on the onesie for where the top of each ruffle should land.  Remember to keep them at least 1″ apart so that you have room to sew both ruffles on the onesie without sewing them on top of each other.

Mark your ruffle lines

Onesie with ruffle placement marked. Beware: that graphite did not wash out as easily as I thought it would.

Taking your fabric tubes, insert one end inside the other.  Lay that down on the sewing machine and topstitch.  Now your fabric tube is a fabric cylinder.

Topstitch one end of the tube into the other end

Fabric cylinder!

Next come the basting stitches to make the ruffly-ness.   Set your machine on the largest straight stitch possible.

Set your machine on a straight stitch, with as large a stitch as possible

Then sew basting stitches around the TOP edge of each ruffle-cylinder (the top edge is the one without the lengthwise seam).  Leave a large seam allowance on this one; I did about an inch.  Remember not to backstitch!

Sew your basting stitches on a large seam allowance along the top edge of the cylinder

Pull on your bobbin thread to gather the ruffles (technically you should use two strands of basting stitches but heck one works pretty well as long as you pull delicately and don’t break the thread when you gather the fabric).  When you’re done you’ll have two gathered cylinders of fabric:

Two gathered cylinders of fabric

Starting with the lower ruffle, pin your ruffle onto the body of the onesie, aligning the top edge of the ruffle with the line on the onesie.  I aligned the seam of the ruffle (where you made the tube into the cylinder) on one side seam of the onesie. You may have to adjust the gathers to make the circumference fit the onesie.  The ruffle should be just slightly larger around than the onesie, but not a lot.

Pin your ruffle to your onesie

Once your ruffle is pinned, slide your onesie around the arm of your sewing machine and stitch the ruffle to the onesie (remember to make your stitch length smaller than the basting stitches!).   For the bottom ruffle, I slid the onesie on from the bottom, so the ruffle was actually out to the right.  I sewed with straight stitches, aligning the right edge of the presser foot with the basting stitches.  Make sure not to stretch the onesie a lot when you do this, because the knit of the onesie is much weaker than the cotton ruffles – it won’t be able to bring those ruffles back into line and you’ll end up with a garment that makes it look like your little one has a hula hoop inside the onesie.

Sew the ruffle on, with your stitch being between the basting stitches and the top of the ruffle

Now you have a onesie with one ruffle!

Lower ruffle in place

Repeating the same process, pin the second ruffle on the upper line you’ve drawn on your onesie.  Pick the opposite side seam of the onesie to align the side-seam of this ruffle.  (This makes sure you don’t have a “droopy” side where both side seams live).  Then put your onesie on the machine (this time I put it on via the neck opening) and stitch.  Again, stitch the straight seam between the basting stitches and the top of the ruffle.  I aligned the left edge of the presser foot with the basting stitches.

Stitch your second ruffle on

Now all you need to do is use the seam ripper to take out the basting stitches.  It’s often easier to do this from the underside of the ruffle so that you don’t accidentally take out the stitches attaching ruffle to onesie.

Remove the basting stitches with a seam ripper

Et voilà, your plain utilitarian onesie is now transformed into an adorable and easy outfit with an attached ruffled skirt!

The final product!!

And here’s my little angel gamely modeling it for me!

Baby Bootsie in her New Ruffled Onesie

The color combos are endless, and it really only takes 1/2 yard or so of fabric to make this.  You can also dress it up by trimming the end of the ruffle with a coordinating bais tape or other fun trim.  Here’s my other favorite one – retro cherry print on pink gingham.  Next up is leopard print on a pink onesie!

Baby Bootsie in her retro rockabilly ruffles

Related posts:

1. Framing and headerboards – nice!
2. Mynagirl’s Fashion Report Emmys 2010

Mourn the dead, honor the heroes, fight injustice, embrace freedom, celebrate life, and, on today of all days, forget to hate. is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Peace

Mourn the dead, honor the heroes, fight injustice, embrace freedom, celebrate life, and, on today of all days, forget to hate.

.

.

.

.

.

Peace.

Related posts:

1. A Day in the Life of a Typical American, or how I learned to stop worrying and not be hypocritical about ‘socialism’
2. Dawn of the Dead (**½)
3. The Fight Club (**)

Mynagirl’s Fashion Report Emmys 2010 is brought to you by CleverDonkey.com - ...Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel!

Welcome back to the Mynagirl Fashion report, resurrected after many years on hiatus!!  Baby Bootsie has been sleeping peacefully this evening, so I’ve been able to have a nip and quip at the fashion for the 2010 Emmys.  Thanks much to technical crew Engineerboy for giving us these gorgeous images armed with only a remote, a capture card, and some great timing.

Ladies in Nude

Pale neutrals and golds were a definite trend.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw	Mariska Hargitay
Jewel in Zuhair Murad	Claire Danes in Armani Privé
Claire Danes wears the serious sequins

Sofia Vergara from Modern Family brightens the trend a little with a golden yellow Carolina Herrera.  Engineerboy liked that the beadwork looked like the human genome project.

Sofia Vergara in Carolina Herrera

Golden girl

Glenn Close and her daughter wore matching pale patchwork-y dresses that looked like but presumably weren’t vinyl

Glenn Close and her daughter Annie in matching Rubin Singer

Heavy Hardware

There were a couple Greco-Roman looks, some more successful than not.   I have to say, while I like the cut of Kim Kardashian’s Marchesa column, it’s not very flattering on her. Update – I have become a convert of this dress after seeing some better camera angles on it.  I think Kim looks very statuesque and classic.

Kim Kardashian in a white grecian column

Kim Kardashian in Marchesa

Cool of newlywed Anna Paquin to honor and wear Alexander McQueen, but the gown is better up top than on bottom.  Honestly, it looks a bit like she accidentally tucked the hem into her pantyhose.

The Moyers

Anna Paquin in her Alexander McQueen

And I have no idea who this is (gasp.. should I?  Usually my trashy magazine reading serves me so well), but this is a fugly nightmare of a look on her.  The hair is messy, the dress is all over the place, and she’s so bony.  Do not like.

Hot White Grecian Mess

In the Navy

Dark midnight blue was definitely a trend.  I’m sure a lot of these dresses look great in person but they’re nearly as boring as black on camera.  At least some of the shapes were nice.

Lea Michelle in Oscar de la Renta

Jane Krakowski

Julie Bowen in a navy column

Purple People-Eaters

Emily Deschanel in purple ruffles

Emily Deschanel in purple

Christina Hendricks looks like a refugee from Dancing with the Stars in her maribou-adorned lilac mermaid gown.  Oh it’s Zac Posen, that’s why I don’t like it…

Christina Hendricks from Mad Men showing some serious skin (and what's underneath)

Jane Lynch is a little more pulled together in amethyst taffeta:

Jane Lynch, supporting actress nominee in an amethyst one-shouldered gown by Ali Rahimi

Lovely taffeta shape

Classic (or Boring) Black

Boy were there a lot of boring black dresses.

Carrie Ann Inaba in black

Black Tea Length Taffeta and Tulle

..and another black dress

...and another. Kate Gosselin also in black.

Eva Longoria spruces up her basic black column with chandelier earrings and an athlete as her accessories.

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker

Edie Falco wears YAOSBD, yet another one-shouldered black dress.  Yawn.

Edie Falco in black

Statement Jewelry

I especially loved a lot of the statement jewelry at the Emmys.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus rocks the green earrings (chrysoprase perhaps?)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Padma Lakshmi wears a great glittery column necklace

Padma Lakshmi and her statement necklace

Glittery column necklace

Jewel wears some cool large earrings

Jewel in her Jacob & Co jeweled earrings

Lea Michelle’s collar necklace is out of this world!!

Lea Michelle's amazing collar necklace

... and an extreme closeup

Although not my absolute favorite, KK’s big bracelet was pretty fun as well.

Kim K rocks some criss-crossy diamond bling

Julia Ormond is safe from evil laser-wielding bad guys with her gilted Wonder Woman cuffs.

Laser-deflecting goodness!!

Hmmm, we wish you hadn’t

Keri Russell chose vintage and it just didn’t flatter her unfortunately. I want to like it because it wasn’t boring black but wow, it just didn’t fit at all.

Keri Russell in ill-fitting vintage

yeah... no...

January Jones sports the rocker chick black nail polish with a truly unflattering Versace.  It kinda looks like diner seating.  Or plastic plates.  Or the liner to an above-ground pool.

January Jones in Versace

January Jones in that keerazy Versace

Commentator Maria Menounous wore a glittery thing that looks… at first glance… kind of pretty.  Then she turns around.  She makes sure to turn around.

Maria Menounous...

...wears a...

... really backless dress

Lauren Graham sports a truly shapeless dress.  Wow, not doin’ it for her.  And you can’t even say it probably looked better on the hanger, that thing’s a drapey mess no matter what it’s hanging on.

Lauren Graham in shapeless color blocking

Related posts:

1. Golden Globes Fashion Report 2004
2. Oscar Fashion Report 2005
3. Mynagirl’s Fashion Report on the 56th Emmy Awards, September 2004