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I really enjoy Alton Brown from the Food Network. His show “Good Eats“, has really taught me a lot about preparing foods over the last few years. I also own his book, “I Am Only Here For The Food”, which is an excellent read and gets into all the reasons why things work the way they do in the kitchen. It’s exactly the way I like to learn–why does it work that way–not just that it does.
Dinner is winding down and we are finishing our plates and Alton’s show is on the T.V. The episode is called, “What’s up duck” A good portion of this show is about thermodynamics–now don’t go changing the channel now, it not what you are thinking. Basically Alton is describing, with examples, the different methods to thaw frozen food, yes in this case duck. The opening question is, “Which method thaws frozen food the fastest (and safest?)?”
a. The refrigerator
b. On the counter top
c. Under cool running water
d. In a 200 degree oven
Well go ahead guess, you’ll get your answer soon enough.
On the show some actor has just made four or five small frozen ducks, and he is quite proud of them. Alton suggests that one goes into the refrigerator, on in sixty degree water, another on the counter, and the last in a two-hundred degree oven. While we watch Alton and this actor play this out my son asked what they are doing or what are they showing us, “How to melt ducks?”
At this point I really couldn’t contain myself and was rolling on the floor laughing. Needless to say after that and having to clean up dinner I didn’t get to see the rest of the show. It doesn’t really matter it will be on again. Most importantly my five-year old son delighted me with his keen observations of the world around him. It may not seem like much through this writing, but it was, you just needed to be there I guess.
Oh yeah the question. The fastest way to thaw the duck is using cool running water. I guess warm or hot water would be even faster, but everyone will be sick from your bacteria laden foul.
Man what a great Summer it has been, as you can tell by the lack of posts here. So it goes. Haven’t done Jack on eve-igbtools.com at all, getting about 20 hits a day still, so at least someone likes the tools. And, no, there not my hits, as I haven’t been gaming either. Spending the Summer with the kids and it’s been great. Hoping to go to Door County this year, weekend after Labor Day. I sure do miss that rally.
I just found out today that Joel Spolsky is going to be in Chicago on September 7th. I can’t believe out of all the dates of his “World Tour”, he is going to be in Chicago when I am in Door. Freak’n figures. I was (still am) really looking forward to seeing his presentation on FogBugz 6.0. Really is just my luck.
This is a kids song/rhyme that my son loves to sing. I was thinking about him and the song just now and thought I would share it.
Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said
“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head.
I’ll give you three chances,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”
The next day:
Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said
“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head.
I’ll give you two more chances,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”
The next day:
Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said
“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head.
I’ll give you one more chance,
And if you don’t behave
I’ll turn you into a goon!”
The next day:
Little Bunny Foo Foo,
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head
Down came the good fairy and she said
“Little Bunny Foo Foo,
I don’t want to see you
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin’ ’em on the head.
I gave you three chances
And you didn’t behave
Now you’re a goon! POOF!!”
The moral of the story is:
HARE TODAY, GOON TOMORROW
[from: http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/l007.html ]
He has never said the moral, but I thought I would include it anyway.
Have a hopp’n day.
I am cleaning up dishes after getting my kids to bed when the phone rings–of course I allow my auto-phone assistant pick it up. Over the machines speaker I hear the voice of one of my oldest friend’s wife. Immediately I am thinking, this can’t be good. She never calls, I really only hear from her husband, specially since they moved down to Florida. As I listen to the message, my initial reaction comes true; My friend Mike Laux passed away Sunday night from an over-dose. So it goes.
Of course I called her back, after a few minutes to let the news sink in. It’s not that it’s unbelievable that it happened, it’s just nothing you ever actually want to hear. The worst part of the problem is that he was originally found by his eldest daughter, who ran to her mother saying that, “Dad is lying on the kitchen floor with blood running out of his mouth.”
Goodbye Mike, you will be missed.
…That the U.S. income tax deadline is on the same day as the Holocaust Remembrance Day?
I am in no way belittling the horrific events of the Holocaust.
Kurt Vonnegut, died on Tuesday, April 10th, in Manhattan at age 84. His death was reported by his wife, the author and photographer Jill Krementz, who said he had been hospitalized after suffering irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.
So it goes.
Global warming has been a really hot topic lately (sorry couldn’t resist the pun). The UN is putting together a letter stated in this news article via Yahoo! (Reuters), explaining that there is little time to avert big temperature changes here on Earth.
I strongly believe they are missing a bigger picture to this, what are we going to do when the average temperature is 10 degrees Celsius higher?
The fact that carbon monoxide causes hot are to be trapped in earths atmosphere is a theory. There isn’t enough proof that its what’s causing our temperature rise. The CO discharge from a volcano is huge, and Earth has been dealing with this for ever.
This is not a statement toward, should we or should we not, cut back our production of greenhouse gases, I am all for cleaner air and a better environment. Its a statement where I really don’t believe that even cutting all greenhouse gas production will make much of a difference and we need to plan on how we will be able to survive in our world with these much higher temperatures.
When my children are my age, this world will be very different. If this warming trend continues, things will be very different. I just hope that some planing is done for when 1/3 or more of America’s grasslands are nothing more than dirt and nothing can really live or grow there. What is the contingency plan for when reduction of the greenhouse gases just isn’t enough to slow the Earth’s warming?
Every year thousands of kids gather here and there to partake in a hunt for multi-colored plastic eggs filled with an array of goodies. This year my family and I went to a local church for a twenty-five thousand egg hunt. Man how would you like to fill all of them eggs, or more interesting, hide them? Well, there isn’t much “hunting” for eggs at these events, unless you consider shooting fish in a barrel, hunting. With so many eggs and so many kids, it’s more of an Egg Dash then a hunt. None the less, it is great fun for all, even in the thirty-five degree weather. Good thing hot chocolate and popcorn was available
Easter Egg Dash
Today is my son’s first birthday. A very special day indeed. I dedicate this day to you as it is your day.
Stuff From an IT Slug 