I have been listening to some great food ideas on NPR during my homeward commute this week. They are running a spot all week where the challenge is to feed a family of four for $10.00 or less. In these fiscally responsible times it’s a great idea, plus it’s nice to get away from spaghetti and meatballs for a while.

Monday night was a Spanish dish, Spinach with Chick Peas. As these are two ingredients we are seldom without and it’s a vegetarian dish I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s served with a fried egg and even the kids ate it!

Last night it was Chicken Fried Rice on Wilted Spinach. I subsituted the chicken for some minced up Quorn Tenders and it was great. I have never seen the kids eat so much spinach.

I’m looking forward to tonight’s recipe, hopefully it will be as good as the first two.

Just wanted to add a note  about Quorn. It’s great, we first ate it back in the UK. The range of products seems a little more diverse over there. It’s actually fermented myco protein, more like beer that soy.

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A few months ago I fell for a fantastic rendering of the Periodic Table of Elements by Theo Gray for my kids to get them interested in science/chemistry.

Well it looks like Theo has a new book called “Theo Gray’s Mad Science“ Which sounds like it’s a whole load of fun. I’m off to buy some Titanium sheet I can anodize with a battery and a can of soda.

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I’ve been searching for this clip, on and off, for a while and I’ve finally found it again. Kevin Spacey on SNL auditioning for the roles of Han Solo ( as Christopher Walken) and Obi Wan Kenobi ( as Walther Matthau) in Star Wars. The Guy that does Richard Dreyfus auditioning for C3PO is a hoot too. You might need to scroll down and stop Rich’s 207 entry……. really

I also found this oldie, Mr Peepers, which made me larf like a drain even with the sound off:

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My co-workers are probably tired of listening to my bleating about a recent intermittent denial of service from Google related websites on my iMac. Sites affected include Google, Blogger and YouTube, possibly others. Service from these sites had become patchy and losing Google in particular was tough. Ask.com? Yahoo? Bah! It was like losing a ‘hyper limb’, a dead end in the information super highway, I was lost. Rebooting did nothing to help neither did renewing DHCP or manually setting an IP address.

After several fruitless forays into the annals of the internet, I finally came across the answer in a MetaFilter post this morning. Without being able to pinpoint the trigger ( I think it may have been a recent software update) the issue seemed to link back to the DNS server(s) set in my Network Preferences. I changed them to the two suggested in the article and Bingo! I was back in business.

So here’s the link to the article again lest this heinous affliction ever affect you, or anyone else. LINK

Also a quote from the post in case it gets lost in the mists of time:

“I see this problem all the time with people’s Macs at home. It’s most definitely a DNS issue. It is always solved by setting your DNS server to a known good DNS server, like 4.2.2.2. To do that, go to Apple menu>System Preferences>Network. Then select your Airport connection, click Configure, then look at the TCP/IP tab. Enter 4.2.2.2, hit enter, then enter 4.2.2.3 on the second line. Then click Apply Now. You may have to restart your web browser for the change to be evident.

I think this is less of a problem with a specific DNS provider and more of a problem with certain wireless routers’ ability to properly share correct DNS information with Macs…..“

Although I’m not using a wireless router it seems to have done the job. Choose your ethernet connection settings instead if you are on a wired network.

A

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It’s back! Boy am I happy webby devvy!

This is the tippest toppest app for obfuscating your email addresses available for the Mac. After a lengthy absence Dan Benjamin has decided to update this little beauty. I was using the Obfuscatr widget for a while, especially when the Enkoder online form went AWOL but Obfucatr won’t allow custom code or additions like subject lines to your mailto’s.

Also available as an online form check it out here

Email harvester bots are shaking in their boots…….

Just thought I’d add that if you are adding email addresses directly through a CMS admin panel you might still have better luck with Obfuscatr. The Javascript generated by Enkoder is a little too much to handle, especially for WordPress. I should also add that it’s necessary to paste in the generated script in code view not WYSIWYG view…….

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This seems to be a real concern even though the distributor is claiming none of these coins made it to the US market. I know I find any in my kids Halloween bags, they’re out!

A warning to parents and kids regarding SHERWOOD BRAND PIRATE’S GOLD MILK CHOCOLATE COINS imported from China.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to eat, distribute or sell the candy.

It is sold across Canada by COSTCO and may also have been sold in bulk packages or as individual pieces at VARIOUS DOLLAR AND BULK STORES.   The chocolate contains MELAMINE which is the same chemical responsible for the death of several young children in China, and the sickening thousands more.

Article here at snopes>>

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Anyone got a Brawny handy? I think I just slimed my keyboard……..

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Yes, mousse cake, chocolate mousse cake, the more you say it, the better it feels.

Actually this post is about the the apparent dissappearance of Foley’s Bakery and my need for a mousse cake. I anyone knows whether or not Foleys is still around somewhere then please let me know because their Chocolate Mousse cake was the pinacle of errrrr mousse cake. I used to frequent their bakery when they were still on Congress Street in Portland near the First Parish Church. At Easter they would make little cakes shaped like chicks (the feathered kind) and I’d buy one for Ollie who was about two at the time. Their mousse cake was the perfect birthday cake. Anyway I’m happy to say that the ‘patisserie’ (I’m calling it that because it looks like one)  at Whole Foods is doing pretty well at filling the gap. If Foley’s CMC was a perfect 10 then I’d say Whole Foods are hovering at about 8. They do some fresh fruit tarts that are mighty fine too. I look forward to slowly working my way through some of their offerings. Pictured, a CMC, probably larger than the one at Whole Foods although they do come in 2 sizes…….

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