Home Graffiti FavTools ShortList About Sitemap Visual DevWork Email Brian GPG Key

GRAFFITI -- July 20, 2009 thru July 26, 2009 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 20, 2009

2055 - Happy Birthday, Apollo 11. 40 years! Is this where I sign up?

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 21, 2009

Whoops..

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 22, 2009

Tonight's harvest

1957 - I was too busy last night whinging in public about the disconnect between instructor, required text book, and online course modules to be bothered to post here. I'm actually pretty steamed about the whole thing. However, on the happy Karma front, the vegetable garden is doing pretty nicely. The recently hot weather has encouraged lots of growth on the pepper plants - that should translate to lots of spicy dishes next month. And tomatoes are starting to ripen in more than ones and twos. And would you look at that? I turn my back for two days, and get cucumbers bigger than keeper large mouth bass. Holy Cow!

In a vote for insanity by computer, I have 67 of my 120 units now towards my BS, which I intend to finish one of these years at UMUC. Although I took AP English and got ... I think 710 in English/Comp on my SAT test ... I don't qualify to sign up for Writing 101 at UMUC. I was waived out of writing courses at UC Santa Cruz - but then, they had all those records in front of them. I imagine that my adviser will be able to fix this. It's just that without the right database field in your record, the computer can't enroll me. Maroons.

Extra backups are running, and I have other work to do. Ciao!

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
July 23, 2009

2117 - Thunder and lightning. A bit of rain. We've doubled our take for July, up to over .25" ... Yeah, not enough. So the advisor is incapable of seeing that the coursework that I have under my belt already surely at least qualifies me to TAKE freaking Writing 101. Nope. I'm gonna have to take a placement exam. I sure hope the place doesn't go all Stephen King on me, because this is just too weird. You'd think that someone with a brain ... oh, wait, there I go assuming things again. Sigh. Some more tomatoes out tonight. I'm thinking tomorrow night is the first big happy salsa night. Can't be here? Sorry, I'll have yours, too, then. Ciao!

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
July 24, 2009

2029 - Friday. Pizza. Nothing else to say, really. Ciao!

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
July 25, 2009

No Post......

Top  /  Email Brian

Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
July 26, 2009

1412 - I'm staying busy. The good news is that we added another .25" of rain last night. Big help, there. Today's fun was harvesting a few more tomatoes out of the garden, enough to make a large batch of "salsa". Chuck wrote, "Any chance of your salsa recipe getting posted? We're over here in Germany and store-bought salsa is ketchup with some very mild horseradish added." Gah! My condolences!

My salsa starts life much more like a pico de gallo, or perhaps more correctly, a salsa picada. The ingredients are, in descending volumetric order:

• Tomato (any variety, must be fresh)
• Onion (I prefer yellow)
• Peppers (Vary your spice and heat)
• Garlic
• Cilantro
• Dash of salt
• Pinch of sugar
• Squeeze of lime or lemon juice (I don't have any of that today, but it's nice)

The last three ingredients are optional. The ratios of all of the ingredients have to be based upon your palate, your tolerance for spicy/heat, and your tomatos. For enough tomatoes to make a 3/4 to a gallon of salsa, I'll use one large yellow onion, four garlic cloves, and about 4 tablespoons of cilantro. The peppers are trickier. Off of one plant I can get peppers that are mild and easy to eat as is, and peppers that are hot enough to make your eyeballs bleed (I like that, too). I'll return to that in a moment.

Clearly, the largest quantity ingredient is tomato - I have in today's batch Beefsteak, Early Girl, Large Roma, and Roma varieties. I start by rough chopping two large or four smaller tomatoes. Add to that half of the onion, chopped. Then, make your best guess about how much of which peppers to use in your salsa, and put HALF of those, chopped, in the food processor with the rough-chopped tomato and onion, along with all the garlic, crushed and chopped. Add also half of the cilantro. Puree.

Peppers: Today, I had one cayenne pepper and several serrano and immature yellow hot peppers. The serrano peppers tend to add more spicy flavor along with their heat. I put in the cayenne, one large serrano, and two of the yellow peppers in. Turns out that was just about right. I can take it hotter, but it's already almost too hot for Marcia and for Linda, who'll be visiting today.

Chop the other half onion into 1/4" or smaller dice. Turn those into a mixing bowl with the puree. Finely chop the rest of the cilantro and add to the bowl. Then dice the rest of the tomatoes to about the same consistency as the onion. Add salt, sugar, and juice very sparingly. Mix and let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir again, and taste for spice and heat. If it's a comfortable mild, and that matches your preference, stop there. Otherwise, jar some of it for those around you that like mild, then add more finely-diced peppers in increments until you're in a happy place. Remember to stir, wait, and stir again after adding peppers, as that distributes the heat and mellows it a little bit as the capsaicin interacts with the tomato acids.

It's probably a good idea to stop adding peppers before you reach the point where you can't taste your lovely fresh tomatoes anymore. An additional note, after handling peppers, wash carefully and wash again. Then keep your hands away from your eyes or any other mucous membranes/sensitive areas for a good long while. You might want to glove up and dispose of the gloves after preparation if you're prone to touching your face a lot ... unless you like stinging eyes and uncontrolled tearing.

There you go, Chuck. Hope y'all enjoy this. I will. I have two bags of chips: if things go well, there will be no salsa left to take to work tomorrow.

Obama says "We're not dealing with nation states at this point. We're concerned with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Al Qaeda's allies." The story on FoxNews continued the quote, "So when you have a non-state actor, a shadowy operation like Al Qaeda, our goal is to make sure they can't attack the United States." Which, while true, makes it harder to set firm goals on which to base battle plans. Armed Forces are good at breaking stuff until someone surrenders. The tricky bit here is that the "opposition" is equally happy to bomb and mistreat its own people. Afghanistan's a tough place. Our men and women in uniform are doing stellar work under harsh circumstances. And right now, the ops in the south are eating up lives. Our condolences to the families and units of the fallen.

• Lance Cpl. Brandon T. Lara, 20, of New Braunfels, Texas, died July 19 while supporting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq.
• Cpl. Benjamin S. Kopp, 21, of Rosemount, Minn., died July 18 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington of wounds suffered July 10 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.
• Sgt. Gregory Owens Jr., 24, of Garland, Texas, died July 20 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle followed by an attack from enemy forces using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires.
• Spc. Anthony M. Lightfoot, 20, of Riverdale, Georgia, died July 20 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle followed by an attack from enemy forces using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires.
• Spc. Andrew J. Roughton, 21, of Houston, Texas, died July 20 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle followed by an attack from enemy forces using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires.
• Pfc. Dennis J. Pratt, 34, of Duncan, Oklahoma, died July 20 in Wardak Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle followed by an attack from enemy forces using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires.
• Spc. Raymundo P. Morales, 34, of Dalton, Ga., died July 21 in Methar Lam, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over.
• Sgt. Joshua J. Rimer, 24, of Rochester, Pennsylvania, died July 22 in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Spc. Randy L.J. Neff, Jr., 22, of Blackfoot, Idaho, died July 22 in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
• Sgt. Ryan H. Lane, 25, of Pittsburgh, Pa., died July 23 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Lance Cpl. Jeremy S. Lasher, 27, of Oneida, New York, died July 23 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
• Cpl. Nicholas G. Xiarhos, 21, of Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, died July 23 of wounds suffered while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Top  /  Email Brian

Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week

Visit the rest of the DAYNOTES GANG, a collection of bright minds and sharp wits. Really, I don't know why they tolerate me <grin>. My personal inspiration for these pages is Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I am also indebted to Bob Thompson and Tom Syroid for their patience, guidance and feedback. Of course, I am sustained by and beholden to my lovely wife, Marcia. You can find her online too, at http://www.dutchgirl.net/. Thanks for dropping by.

All Content Copyright © 1999-2011 Brian P. Bilbrey.


Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.