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The Carnitas Baja Bowl from Baja Fresh
I went to lunch with my cousin the other day, and the place I wanted to go had closed down, so we went looking for something else. Baja Fresh was in the neighborhood, so we decided that would work.
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Nothing beats a nice juicy Italian Beef Sandwich on a rainy night.
Wednesday nights are busy around our house, as they are in many homes. Carrie often works late, and the kids have youth group, so getting everyone together for dinner is hard. Sometimes that means eating out, but I prefer to cook something in the crockpot that is easy for everyone to eat.
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The folks at WOOT sent me the Stinger R-39Today another package arrived from the folks at Amazon and their sister-site WOOT, and it contained two of these great Crosman R39 AirSoft Gun Kits
We have a father-son airsoft game coming up with the church in a few weeks, so we'll get to battle test these guns, but they are a lot of fun in the meantime.
Memorial Day Weekend is traditionally the first time we Americans break out the BBQ's. These beans will be a great addition to your meal, and are dead simple in the crock pot.
I love baked beans, and I like chili so I came up with a combination of the two that the family loved. These will make a great meal or the perfect addition to your holiday meal. The sweetness of the honey barbecue sauce combined with the spice of the garlic and hot peppers and the wonderful flavors of bacon and ground beef. You all need to try these beans, this is FatBoyHeaven in a bowl.
Read moreWild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is hard to come by, but worth it when you can find it. Follow the link for my review.
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Beef slow cooked in marinara. I served it with Polenta and topped it with grated parmesan
I love italian food almost as much as I love my slow cooker. I had some thin cut bottom round steaks (sold as Carne Asada steaks in these parts) that I purchased on sale a while ago and they were in the freezer. I took them out to thaw last night and spent the morning trying to decide how I was going to use them and decided that Pizzaiola sounded perfect.
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I received a call from my sister-in-law the other day with a request for help that surprised me: the church that she and her husband pastor needed some DVDs duplicated. After having spent most of the last year digitizing and getting rid of physical media in our home, I don't even own a DVD player anymore, much less have the ability to duplicate DVDs.
So I reached out to some folks and got one of them to send me the BestDuplicator 5 Target 24X SATA DVD Duplicator - Professional DVD CD Duplication Copier Machine to review
Operation was dead simple. Drop the source disc into the top drive, insert blanks into as many of the slave drives as you need. Once all the drives are closed, the discs are analyzed and duplication begins. When complete the newly burned discs are checked for accuracy and ejected to be labeled. That's all. No complicated settings, no steep learning curve to make sure nothing goes wrong.
While the modern world is going to digital streaming and instant downloads, some applications still call for physical media. I'm not sure when or if I'll have a need for it again, but I know the BestDuplicator will be here and bullet-proof when I do.
The Karma Wi-Fi hotspot arrives with just a USB power cable and the hotspot itself.
Today I recieved a new 4G wi-fi hotspot with an interesting twist from the folks at Karma Mobility. Karma has an interesting business model. You buy the hotspot for $79US, and the first time you connect you get 100MB free data, which can be linked using your Facebook account. From then on, you can buy pay-as-you-go bandwidth for $14US/GB.
The twist is that you cannot secure your hotspot. Anyone within range can connect, and when they do THEY get 100MB of free data, and you get 100MB of additional data added to your account for providing their access. Karma is banking on the fact that people will start to recognize the Karma brand, and buy additional bandwidth when they need it and are connected to Karma hotspots in airports and at public gatherings. I'm guessing it will work. A hotspot with a familiar branding is more likely to get connections than one that is broadcasting a name like "ID10T B0X" or "D-Link". And knowing that if they connect they will get 100MB of free data to check email or download a new book on their Kindle Fire before catching that flight makes it a no brainer for the consumer.
I averaged 8.17Mbps download and 1.29Mbps upload in my testing. Not stellar speeds but certainly usable for checking email and small downloads. And that is what the Karma is for, not streaming TV shows from Netflix or downloading torrents. For free bandwidth, that isn't bad at all.
You can buy extra bandwidth if you need it, and it never expires.
My good friend at Oregon City Computers asked a question and I checked to verify regarding security. His concern was that the owner of the hotspot would be on the hook if someone who connected to it was doing something illegal using the connection. I checked, and because the Radius server at Karma handles authentication, the IP address is assigned there rather than using Network Address Translation (NAT) in the device itself. In other words, unlike your home Wi-Fi, Karma assigns the IP adress to your device, not the local hotspot that I own.
Today the Xbox team from Microsoft took the stage to set the timeline for the next generation of living-room entertainment.
Their solution - XBOX ONE
Leveraging their work with Kinect, the system recognizes you and your voice, removing the need for logging in to your gamer tag.
Fast voice control using what they call "Instant Switching", demo looking very cool. It will also interact with WindowsPhone 8 devices and use them as remote controls using their SmartGlass system.
Leveraging Skype for video calls, which can be used at the same time as the other apps in what they are calling "Snap Mode". Simply saying "Xbox, snap "application name" which will bring it up along side whatever you are doing.
Hardware:
x86 architecture, 8GB RAM, USB 3.0, Blue-Ray drive, Wi-Fi Direct, 64-Bit, variable power states
Kinect leveraging USB 3.0 to stream 3Gb/sec of audio visual data to speed response. Sensors are sensitive enough to read heart rate while using exercise applications.
Software:
3 operating systems:
1. Xbox OS
2. Windows Kernel
3. Custom switching OS to bridge the two kernels
New Xbox Live system will include personal DVR to record all game play, and allow you to save and share the recordings including a built-in video editing suite.
Developer support:
EA announcing new strategic partnership, more details coming soon (probably at E3). New "Ignite" game engine for sports titles. 10x animation depth and detail, dubbed "True Player Motion". Video demo from EA looks insanely realistic.
Microsoft studios was up next, showing off Forza Motosports 5. Again the graphics look great. Will be available at launch. Huge emphasis on gaming experience and multi-player.
Trailers for other games were shown as well, concluding with the trailer for "Modern Warfare: Ghosts", which looked amazing.
Microsoft promises more details at E3 in 20 days, so stay tuned, this looks like it could knock Sony's PS4 announcement out of the water.
When we were on our recent trip to Kentucky we visited the Brown Hotel for a Hot Brown, a signature of the hotel that has become a state-wide classic. Every restaurant in the state has their own take on the tradition, and it varies from city to city. Some places use country ham instead of bacon. Some use a sharp cheddar in place of Romano cheese in the mornay sauce.
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Yesterday Google opened their I/O developers conference with some big announcements. From a montly music subscription to a new all-in-one chat application called Google HangOuts, Google is taking technology, especially on their Android platform to new highs. They also began the push for new smaller image and video formats to make sharing special events with family and customers more cost effective, reducing file sizes more than 25% with BETTER quality.
Only time will tell how impacting these announcements will be, but the folks at Google sure made a splash. Follow the link below for more details from the folks at Gizmodo.
Google I/O: What's New in Android, Chrome, and Beyond (Updating):
Google I/O: What's New in Android, Chrome, and Beyond
When we were in Kentucky, I wrote about the Ambassador Day at Makers Mark on day two of our visit. One of the great things about that day was the amazing greek food we had from Athenian Grill in Lexington and their booth on the food court there. Now Athenian Grill is working to open a permanent location in Lexington, and has turned to Kickstarter for funding. While most of the awards for backers are only going to be valuable to people in the Lexington area, the $50 reward includes shipping of their scratch-made pastries anywhere in the U.S.
If you are in Lexington, or really anywhere in Eastern Kentucky, I encourage you to consider supporting Illias in getting this restaurant built, you will love his food and his passion.
A traditional Loosemeat (or Tavern) Sandwich served with regular potato chips. Nothing fancy, just good old fashioned comfort food.
Tonights dinner came about because of my son's crazy TV viewing habits. For some reason, he is a huge fan of the old Rosanne Show, which he found somehow on NetFlix. On the show Rosanne and her sister start a Loosemeat restaurant called "The Lunch Box", where they serve only trays and trays of this midwest classic.
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This is one of the most promising crowd-funded projects I've seen in a while. The concept is a rugged e-ink based tablet, which is able to charge fully in 5 hours of sunlight. The e-ink will keep power usage low, extending runtime to an awesome 20 hours between charges. This thing is loaded with features and is almost ready for production, they just need some pre-orders to get them there. With a backer price of $249, this could be a huge hit for those who love the outdoors. Check it out at the link below:
Earl - Backcountry Survival Tablet:
Meet Earl, a revolutionary tablet engineered for the most extreme of outdoor situations. Built for survival, Earl works where today's smart phones and tablets cannot. Style meets efficiency with Earl's intuitive design, fusing Android 4.1 together with an energy sipping E-Ink screen and the latest in GPS, weather sensor, and radio communication technology. With Earl at your side, stay in control of your journey no matter where it takes you.
I had some London broil left over from the Mediterranean salad I made the other day, and decided tacos would be a great way to use it on a warm spring day here in Oregon (a pretty rare occurrence). I found this recipe in my email from PureWow, and decided that with some simple modifications it would work well. The only change I made was due to my meat already being cooked medium rare last night when I started. I sliced it up, tossed it in the rub seasoning from the recipe, and heated it through in the cast iron skillet, making prep time much shorter.
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Some family friends made this a couple of years ago for a gathering, and it has become a spring/summer go to for our family every since. A nice salad of chickpeas, thinly sliced red onions, and feta cheese is dressed with a spicy vinaigrette and topped with thinly sliced medium-rare steak. This can also be made with lamb instead of beef if you prefer, which I sometimes do. Even the kids love this one, and how can a fatboy go wrong with steak on a salad?
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Sausage, Peppers, Onions, and rich tomato sauce combine for a simple comfort. Served here on a toasted ciabatta roll.
I love good, old fashioned comfort food, as anyone who has read this blog should realize. One of my favorite foods is a nice Italian specialty that my Dad used to make once in a while (but never as often as I asked for it), sausage and peppers. He would do it on a flat top griddle, with homemade marinara cooked in a separate pot and served over the sausage and peppers on a hoagie roll.
Read moreI love my crock pot. Like a slow oven, it can make any cut of meat a tender and delicious masterpiece with little effort. I have used this basic recipe for pork ribs in the slow cooker before, but decided to see how it would do with beef spare ribs, as i love how meaty and flavorful they can be.
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Bourbon Balls are a uniquely Kentucky confection
On our recent trip to Kentucky I discovered the perfect candy - Bourbon Balls. A uniquely Kentucky confection, bourbon balls are an amazing mix of a velvety smooth confection and bourbon, always (at least commercially) coated in chocolate, and often served with a pecan half on top.
Read moreBourbon Chicken and Rice was a simple and delicious dinner. Prepare this the night before to let the flavors soak into the chicken, and then put in the oven when you get home from work.
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