For our friends, family and you

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

jason — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:36:00 GMT

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

jason — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:44:00 GMT

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.

Smoked Venison Recipe (a whole hind quarter)

jason — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:02:00 GMT

Last weekend, I smoked an 18 lb venison hind quarter for my friend, Larry. I tried a small chunk after smoking it and thought it was quite tasty. I then froze it and gave the remaining 17.5 lbs to Larry. Today Larry told me that he whacked it in half and served it at a card party. Not only did Larry say that it was scrumptious, but one of his guests said, "That is the best venison I've ever had!" So, for anyone else who might want to try it, here's what I did.

Ingredients

Venison hind quarter, 12 to 20 lbs, trimmed, but with some fat left on
16 oz package of uncooked bacon
2 tsp of ground black pepper
1/2 tsp of Chipotle chili powder
2 Tbsp of ground sea salt
1/2 tsp of ground white pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon of Morton Tender Quick (optional)
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Mix all of the rub ingredients above together in a small bowl or a shaker. Sprinkle all over the top of the venison and then, using your hands, rub it firmly into the surface of the meat.

Now lay strips of bacon across the entire top surface of the venison. Make sure each bacon slice overlaps the previous one slightly. Since venison is so lean, this will help to keep the moisture in the venison, add a little flavor and keep the outer skin of the venison from becoming too tough. Use wooden toothpicks to hold the bacon in place.

Now let the venison sit on the counter for about an hour to reach room temperature.

Load 3 to 4 oz of hickory wood into your smoker's wood box. Smoke it to the following schedule

110 degrees - 1 hour
130 degrees - 1 hour
150 degrees - 1 hour
165 degrees - 4 hours
180 - 4 hours
200 - until the internal core reaches 165 degrees

I use a Cookshack Amerique electric smoker with the temp probe set to put the smoker into hold mode when it reaches 165 degrees. I smoked this piece of venison for 30 hours. It was juicy and tender inside, but nicely smoke-sealed on the outside.

Hint: I use the Maverick RediChek Remote Wireless Smoker Thermometer to keep an eye on my smoker and food temperature while sitting inside the house.

Corn starch removes vaseline from hair

jason — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:26:00 GMT

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.

Results of my Personality ID test

jason — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:44:00 GMT

Here is a link to the results of a Personality ID test I took tonight. While not 100% accurate, it is pretty darned close, especially this part:

"To maximize your talents, you look for situations in which you can have a high level of independence, with obstacles to overcome, challenges to meet and solve, without many details to handle."

Details....yuck!

View my Career Direct personality profile

Yellowstone Day 2

jason — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:34:00 GMT

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. That 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, but Dumb and Dumber would turn out to be suitable nicknames.

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, Dumb and Dumber 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, Dumb, 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. Dumb didn't pull over, 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," said Dumb.

"What?!?!" said Aimee.

"I've been doing the 'Oh Shit!' signal since we left, but no one would stop," said Dumb.

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 shit!" 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 shit!' 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 Dumb just kept waving her arms, we'd have all stopped right away and the system would've worked.

Anyway, Dumber 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 Dumb, "Is this Aimee's group? If it is, I've got two of her riders with me."

So now we've got Dumber 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

jason — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:40:00 GMT

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.

The World Through Two Year Old Eyes - False Advertising

jason — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:19:00 GMT

This morning the girls sat down at the table to enjoy their breakfast. Erin brought to the table a box of Life cereal & some milk.

Kassidy looked at the box and proclaimed in her excited, yet sweet tone, "Strawberries! I want the strawberries!"

It took me a minute to figure out where the comment came from, but when I finally followed her eyes, I saw that she was looking at the cereal box. Shown in the spoon and in the bowl on the front of the box are lipstick red strawberries, floating gingerly on the top of the cereal.

It's surprisingly sad to see a young child learn the reality that the message doesn't always represent the product behind it.

The World Through Two Year Old Eyes - Citrus In the Toilet

jason — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:44:00 GMT

I've gotten into the habit of taking my vitamins at night before I go to bed. One of the vitamins I take has a high concentration of B2. B2 has a unique ability to make urine a very deep yellow.

Like most people, one of my first priorities after getting out of bed in the morning is to relieve my bladder. This morning, Kassidy burst into the bathroom as I was finishing my duty, peered into the toilet and proclaimed, "Orange juice!"

"Daddy, why are you flushing the orange juice down the toilet?", she asked.

And I've always just looked at pee as a useless waste to deserving only of a flush.

Give Less Trashy Gifts This Christmas

jason — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:51:00 GMT

We (you, I and the rest of America) will generate an additional 25 million pounds of trash this year between Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day. A large portion of that trash is in the form of product packaging, wrapping paper and Christmas decorations (trees, wreaths, crappy garland that we have to toss after one year of use, etc.). When I learned that fac tonight on NPR (National Public Radio), I thought it worthwhile to share the commentators ideas, as well as a few of my own, on ways to reduce trash this Christmas:

Buy a live potted Christmas tree and plant it outside in the spring
Wrap gifts in something you're going to throw away anyway, like paper grocery bags (kids would enjoy making those ugly brown bags look festive). Heck, I wouldn't care if my presents (presumptious, aren't I?) come wrapped in newspaper.
Give gift cards. :)
Use gift bags instead of wrapping paper since many people (Grandma, I'm thinking about you) like to reuse them
Forego Christmas cards for 1/2 the people on your regular list and call those people instead. They'd probably rather talk to you anyway.

That is the list of ideas I came up with in the final two miles of my commute home tonight. Here are sights with a few other ideas:

http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/PublicEd/Holidays/NoWaste.htm - Some decent tips, some dumb ones, too

http://use-less-stuff.com/ULSDAY/42ways.html

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/index.html (Wow, extreme, but maybe worth a try?)

http://www.etsy.com/ - A cool site for people to buy (and sell) handmade products of all types. Who wouldn't want a couple of these guys for Christmas?

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_occasions_december/article/0,,HGTV_3472_5565877,00.html - Some decent tips that are more practical for those who might just want to dip their toes into the green Christmas water

Peanut Butter Cups

jason — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:08:00 GMT

As a kid, and even a college student (and even at that point I was still a kid by Henry Link's definition), my Grandpa & Grandma Wood always had peanut butter cups at their house when I visited. I love peanut butter cups.

I never gave it much thought as a youngster and I suppose that I just assumed my grandparents always kept peanut butter cups in their house. I think I know better now.

Thank you for all of the peanut butter cups, G&G. But more importantly, thank you for the memories that always bring a smile to my face.

When will I know I've succeeded raising my kids right?

jason — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:58:00 GMT

I don't have a clue, really. But one quote that I recently read provides at least a beginning foundation upon which I can define some goals:

"Psychologically I should say that a person becomes an adult at the point when he produces more than he consumes or earns more than he spends. This may be a the age of eighteen, twenty-five, or thirty-five. Some people remain unproductive and dependent children forever and therefore intellectually and emotionally immature.” - Henry Link

Christmas gift ideas

jason — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:56:00 GMT

Since several of you have asked for gift ideas for the girls, I've put together this short list of ideas.

http://www.jasonsherrill.com/articles/950.aspx

Christmas tree fun

jason — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:20:00 GMT

I shed my scrooge cap and decided to host a dead tree in my house this Christmas season. We burned a few gallons of gas to drive to a tree farm in Applegate, MI with Sammy & family on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The farm is for sale, so I think they're letting the trees grow wild since few of them appear that they've been pruned recently, but we did end up finding one that passed Erin's criteria. What else can I say about cutting down a Christmas tree? You're right, nothing interesting, so here are the pics.

First Halloween outing for the girls

jason — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:52:00 GMT

Halloween 2007 is now officially over and the girls are now recovering from their sugar hangover (is it possible to have a hangover from the one Hershey's Kiss that I let them eat tonight?). They (we) trick-or-treated in Dryden with Mary Rose and while expected they'd be bored after two houses, they surprised us by visiting about 20 houses. Kassidy wore out before Sydney, so Sydney's candy bucket weighs a bit more, but there's plenty of butt fertilizer for us all to enjoy for the next week.

Here are some pics: