For our friends, family and you

Bloody Strawberry Sundae & Cheesecake Topping Recipe

2010-04-10T04:30:00Z

I've posted my strawberry sundae topping recipe out to the web at http://allrecipes.com/PersonalRecipe/62281952/Bloody-Strawberry-Sundae-or-Cheesecake-Topping/Detail.aspx

But it is also available here:

Ingredients

2 cups sliced strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1/3 cup bakers sugar
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon of Blood Orange Bitters
2 Tablespoons of water
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

In a small sauce pan, combine the vanilla, bitters and water. Add the strawberries and sugar (I like to mix the strawberries and sugar before adding, but it's not mandatory). Over medium low heat, heat the mixture until the strawberries are soft and a slight boil starts, stirring often.
Reduce the to low heat and simmer for five minutes. If you're using frozen strawberries and the mixture is too thin, you can add your cornstarch to thicken it.
Remove from heat and allow to cool in the fridge before topping your ice cream or cheesecake.

DonorsChoose.org - Help Add A Projector to this Classroom

2009-12-17T22:10:00Z

This teacher took the initiative to reach out to the community to seek help in improving the childrens' education. When students know that their teacher and community supports them, I believe they will rise to the challenge and we all just might be surprised at what they will accomplish when we show young and old people alike how much we value education and exceptional educators.

If you're inclined to help, please pitch in.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=320282

DonorsChoose.org - Put A Computer Into the Classroom

2009-12-15T22:12:00Z

I was thrilled to be able to contribute the last small amount this project needed to become fully funded. Now these kids, thanks to the effort of their teacher who took time to ask for help through DonorsChoose.org, will have a computer to aid in their learning.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=347556

An opportunity to give to others this holiday

2009-12-06T21:22:00Z

While the need exists throughout the year, it is near the holidays that we most often think of our neighbors, near and far, who are in need. If you're not sure what to buy for your beloved this holiday season, then an alternative I'd recommend is considering donating either money, new or used items, or best of all, your time, to God's Helping Hands in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

This organization provides, food, clothing and many other household items for those in need in our community. They pre-screen those they serve to ensure that true need exists, and then through the generosity of numerous volunteers, they assist them by providing a safe, no-judgement place to get the essential items our neighbors need.

http://www.ghhmichigan.org/

Consider getting involved on a regular basis. This is an excellent way to spend an afternoon with your friends, your sweetheart or your church group. If you want to learn more, get in touch with me and I'll get you started.

Thank you to veterans throughout the USA

2009-11-11T11:14:00Z

Today we recognize nationally those men and women who, whether through patriotic choice, personal desire to serve or through war time need served in our armed forces. I especially appreciate the time, energy and dedicated that my grandpa Wood and grandpa Sherrill gave to ensure that I and my children would have a safe nation to call home. To all of my aunts and uncles who have served, I extend my thanks to you as well.

For those whom I do not know, as well as their families, thank you for giving of yourselves, your family members and in some cases their lives, to allow us to continue to enjoy the freedom and opportunity that America provides to all of her citizens. I frequently remind myself of the saying that I've heard repeated throughout my life, "Freedom is never free."

Thank you.

DonorsChoose.org - All Kids Deserve To Learn How to Appreciate Books

2009-06-07T19:15:00Z

This teacher believes in these young people and has put forth the effort to go above & beyond to find a way to get the tools necessary to open up the world of literature to them...I'm compelled to reward that effort."

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=269416

Jason Sherrill's Pumpkin Raisin Apple Bread

2009-04-05T21:21:00Z

It's rich, soft and fattening, but it's so tasty you won't care that after 300 loaves you'll be as big as a house.

Mix these ingredients together first in a large bowl until well blended:

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cinnamon applesauce (unsweetened, if possible)
2 1/2 cups of white C&H Bakers sugar (the finely sifted granular sugar)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup water
4 large eggs
14.5 oz of pumpkin puree (unseasoned)
1 cup of raisins

Now in a separate bowl, mix these ingredients:

3 1/2 cups flour (King Arthur's all-purpose unbleached is my favorite)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (regular salt, not sea salt)
1 teaspoon fresh, finely ground cinammon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon finely ground cloves

Now bring it all together and make some awesome "bread":

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (based on Michigan altitude)
Grease & flour three LIGHT COLORED 7 x 4 x 3 bread loaf pans. I prefer Fat Daddio's pans for even baking and super clean-up
Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and blend together by hand. You only need to blend until you see no more dry flour, and then give it another 10 stirs.
Pour even amounts into your three pans. The pans should be about 2/3 full.
Bake on the middle rack for 60 minutes. It's best to check for doneness at 50 minutes with a toothpick.

Substitution Options

Replace pumpkin puree with sweet potato puree
Replace the 1/2 cup of applesauce with 1/2 cup of oil for slightly moister bread
Replace raisins with cranberries
Omit raisins completely, the bread will still be delicious
Replace nutmeg, cinammon, cloves and ginger with 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice

If you want to shut your heart down but die happy, then you can make some sweet icing for the top of your warm bread. Just blend together 2 cups of powered sugar, 3 to 4 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of real vanilla.

Is it even possible to call measuring spoons cool? If you're talking about these spoons, you bet!

2008-11-29T19:36:00Z

If you're like me, you probably own at least one set of round measuring spoons. You've probably also tried at least once to get that big ol' tablespoon inside a jar of garlic powder, onion salt or any other small spice jar, to no avail. The solution I've always used is to very slowly and carefully try to pour the spice into the tablespoon without overfilling and spilling. Not a big problem and certainly not anything I've ever lost sleep over; however, I now own something so painfully simple that I'm now amazed that not all measuring spoons are like this.

RSVP Spice Measuring Spoon, Set of 6

Imagine that...measuring spoons elongated to easily fit into spice jars so that you no longer to do the slow pour routine. Go ahead, buy some, it'll be the best $12 you've spent on your kitchen in a long, long time.

Smoked Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

2008-10-21T22:44:00Z

Yesterday I smoked two 5 lb chickens to feed two adults and two toddlers. Needless to say, we had a lot of chicken left over. I whipped together this crock pot chicken noodle soup recipe that turned out quite well.

64 oz chicken broth or stock
48 oz water
2 cups diced chicken
3 carrots, sliced
3 celery sticks, sliced
8 oz frozen sweet corn
1 large Vidalia onion, chopped finely
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp crushed Rosemary
1/4 tsp crushed Thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp Hungarian paprika
McCormick Peppercorn Medley grinder
McCormick Sea Salt grinder
McCormick Italian Herb Seasoning grinder

Chop your onion & slice your celery and carrots. Heat your olive oil in a sautee pan and then sautee your onion until it's translucent. Take your onion out and then sautee your celery and carrots for five minutes, stirring frequently (you can add a touch of oil if your pan is dry). While sauteeing, add 10 turns of your Italian Herb seasoning into the pan, and also add 5 turns of your Peppercorn Medley grinder, along with two turns of your sea salt grinder. At the end of 5 minutes, add your onion back in and stir for another two minutes.

Add your broth, water, measured seasonings and chicken to your crock pot and turn on high. Add your onions, carrots, celery and corn. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6 to 8 hours.

Prepare whichever kind of noodles you like (I prefer wide egg noodles) and enjoy!

By the way, this will make a LOT of soup, which you can freeze.

DonorsChoose.org - No Color Paper In School? We Can Fix That!

2008-09-10T21:17:00Z

I was shocked to see that this school district did not provide teachers with adequate budget to purchase colored paper. Thanks to the generosity of others, I was glad to be able to help in a very small way to bring some color into these students' lives.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=139630

DonorsChoose.org - How About Learning Some English?

2008-09-10T19:20:00Z

Speaking and understanding English is an essential skill that young people need to succeed and avoid prejudice in today's USA. With the added bonus of the skills these kids will learn using a computer to learn English, this seems like a worthwhile project to fund. Pitch in if you can.

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=196537

DonorsChoose.org - Improving Writing Skills? You bet!

2008-09-05T20:23:00Z

Recognizing the importance - and widespread lack - of writing skills among young people today, I could not pass on the opportunity to fully fund this project. Go kids!

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=180640

Corn starch removes vaseline from hair

2008-02-22T20:26:00Z

The next time you and your sibling decide to empty a tub of Vapo-rub or vaseline on each other's heads, you'll be happy to know that simple corn starch will remove it. Just douse your head with corn starch, rub it in really well and let it sit for a few minutes. Now add some shampoo to the mix and rub it in well. Finally, rinse with warm water.

Yellowstone Day 2

2008-01-26T13:34:00Z

Today started at 6:30 a.m. in the Three Bear Restaurant with a bacon/sausage/ham/egg/cheese mixed skillet. The motel clerk assured us we'd want to be there by 6:30 to beat the crowd that would arrive at 7:00. When we left the restaurant at 7:30, there were about six other people in the restaurant. The restaurant probably seats at least 150. The quality of that advice is consistent with the rest of the service the staff here have been providing.

We got together again at 8:25 in the snowmobile prep room since our paperwork stated to be there and ready to ride at "8:30 PROMPTLY!" To our group of four, they added another group of six, only four of whom were there at 8:30. By 9:15, the other two members of their group arrived. I did not catch the two ladies' names.

Our guide for the day, Aimee, who has been guiding here for 13 years after moving from Pittsburgh, was quite a hoot. She's very comical, provided that you are one of the 99% of people on the planet able to detect obvious sarcasm and humorous statements. Unfortunately, the two ladies who arrived late this morning do not possess this gene. After Aimee finally cleared their confusion and helped them to understand that they really shouldn't actually run from a buffalo, nor should they try to stop wolves from eating young elk, we were ready to get underway, albeit it an hour behind schedule.

Before leaving, it's important that everyone understands the most important rule: be responsible for the person behind you. If that person has trouble, pull over and stop your sled. Each person will in turn stop his sled, and eventually all sleds will stop and your guide will know that something is wrong.

Ok, time to hit the trails.

Riding in Yellowstone is rather boring since you must stay on the trails and there is a 35mph speed limit. The scenery is terrific and does help pass the time, but it's a 30 mile ride up to Old Faithful, so with various stops along the way, it's about a 2 hour ride.

Our first stop was to see this young bison that was separated from it's mother a couple of weeks ago.

The mother is long gone, so as soon as the wolves find him, he'll become a tasty treat.

A few more miles up the road, we ran across these elk grazing along the river.

The rest of the ride to Old Faithful was more elk, then more bison, then more elk, then more bison and, of course, many mountains.

We finally got to Old Faithful about 15 minutes before the next release. It was pretty much just like I'd seen on television. It looked like this:

After watching the steam blow, we ate at the pricey restaurant next to O.F. I had a very dry $9.00 hamburger (no picture available).

After lunch we hit the sleds again to head back from where we came.

About 10 miles down the road, I noticed that the person behind me was slowing down, so I proceeded to do the same. Eventually he stopped, as did I, and everyone else followed suit. I also noticed that the person at the back of the pack, who happened to be one of the late ladies from this morning, was using a hand signal that we didn't cover in class -- a wave.

Aimee, our guide, noticed that everyone had stopped so she circled around and drove back to where I was parked. Late Lady #1 didn't pull over, instead she rode up to Aimee, so I had a front row seat to the conversation.

"Aimee, the two people behind me turned around right after we left Old Faithful," she said.

"What?!?!" said Aimee.

"I've been doing the 'Oh S**t!' signal since we left, but no one would stop," she said.

This is where the possession of that gene I mentioned earlier becomes important. See, it was clear to everyone else in the room that the "Oh s**t!" signal wasn't an official signal. Used in this context, ~~we all~~ almost everyone understood this to be Aimee being humorous. "If a buffalo starts chasing you or you've gone off a cliff, do the 'Oh s**t!' signal, which is waving both arms in the air frantically."

So, it takes at least one hand to drive a snowmobile, so when both arms are up in the air waving frantically, your snowmobile should be stopped. In theory, had this lady just kept waving her arms, we'd have all stopped right away and the system would've worked.

Anyway, Late Lady #2 had left her camera back at Old Faithful, so rather than pull over and stop, which would've triggered a domino stop effect, she and her friend decided to just turn around and go back without telling anyone.

Well, Aimee apparently gets in a lot of trouble if she lets members of her group ride unaccompanied in the park, so she's not a real happy guide anymore. She then tells the rest of the group to just stay put on the side of the road and she'll go back and find the other two people.

About 30 minutes pass and along comes another group of riders. The guide at the front of this group stops and asks Late Lady #1, "Is this Aimee's group? If it is, I've got two of her riders with me."

So now we've got Late Lady #2 and and her friend back, but Aimee is still off searching for them. The other guide says that she'll send a text message to Aimee telling her that she picked up the two lost riders, but that Aimee won't get the message until she stops her sled, which will be back at Old Faithful.

Fast forward another 30 minutes or so, and Aimee is back. Aimee doesn't say a word, but instead just queries the group with the "All ready?" signal and when she gets confirmation from everyone, off we go.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. We stopped to see more bison and a waterfall.

The ride concluded with giving Aimee a gratuity (I decided on $20.00, though I'm not sure what the norm is), taking a warm shower and then heading to the local watering hole. I spent the rest of the evening at the watering hole (drinking water), and finally called it at night at about 7:30 p.m.

Yellowstone Trip - Day 1

2008-01-25T14:40:00Z

I began my day at 4:30 a.m., quickly ate a bowl of cereal, then left the house at 5:10 to drive to the Flint airport to catch my 6:40 flight. In the the past, I've never encountered any check-in or security checkpoint lines at Flint. Today, because I arrived at 5:55 a.m. - less than a hour before my flight - there were lines at both the check-in and security checkpoints. I finally made it through the security checkpoint at 6:38 a.m. and luckily my plane as at the gate immediately in front of the security checkpoint, so I boarded the flight at 6:39 a.m., and they immediately closed the door behind me.

I flew from Flint to Detroit, Detroit to Minneapolis, and Minneapolis to Bozeman, Montana. From Bozeman, I took a 3 hour shuttle ride to my final destination, West Yellowstone, Montana. A few facts I learned during the shuttle ride:

Ted Turner owns the Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, MT. Flying D is the largest ranch in Montana and Ted Turner is the largest land owner in Montana. Ted is also the largest land owner in the United States.
Flying D is one of 15 ranches that Ted owns in the U.S. On all of his ranches, he raises buffalo for commercial meat production.
Ted Turner is the largest buffalo producer in the U.S.
The elevation of West Yellowstone, MT is 6,666 feet about sea level.
It's not uncommon for day time temperatures to be -30 degrees fahrenheit here during January & February
80% of the terrain in Yellowstone is tree covered; 80% of the trees in Yellowstone are Lodgepole Pines
Land and homes in this area are insanely expensive, be prepared to write a seven figure check for a modest cabin

So far, I've seen the following animals:

Bull elk with a monster rack
Two golden eagles eating a dead bighorn sheep
Bighorn sheep
Wolf
Mule deer

Aside from animals, I've seen lots of snow, Jack Pines and rocks. Mac would be in heaven here with all of the limestone formations to climb...the height and width of all the rock formations is impressive, dwarfing any man made sky scraper that I've ever seen. God has some architectural talent, for sure.

Today (Friday) we're snowmobiling inside Yellowstone park with a guide. While I'm not sure exactly where we're going, I know that Old Faithful is on the agenda. I feel like I've seen it enough on television that I don't need to see it in person, but oh well.

The temp this morning at 6:30 was 8 degrees, but it's supposed to get up to 25 today, so that will be comfortable riding weather. It's now 8:10, so I've gotta put on my gear and go pick up my sled.