Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

Well sort of...

I don't think that any self respecting Texan would view what I call chili to be a "bowl of Texas red", too many vegetables and beans in there.

To me, it just isn't chili if it doesn't have beans in it. It is well a spicy spaghetti sauce, add some macaroni to it and you suddenly have goulash (minus the vegetables).

Unfortunately, I did what I always do when making chili, I just added the ingredients as I felt necessary, no real measuring again. But I did try to 'eyeball' the amount of stuff that I put in terms of standard measurements.

Here goes....

One 6 lb can of stewed tomatoes. If you have a big enough pot you can use the water/juice in the can too.
1 lb of ground meat (turkey or beef)
1-2 tablespoons of salt
1/2 tablespoon of coarsely ground black pepper
2 cups of diced green pepper (approx 2 medium sized green peppers)
1 diced medium onion (white or yellow, your preference)
1 can of kidney beans
1 can of pinto beans
1 can of black beans
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of paprika
4-5 cloves of garlic
3-5 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or enough to sufficiently cover the bottom of your pot)
2-3 large jalapeño peppers

Note: It is best to use the BIGGEST pot that you have. I should have checked the measurements of the one I used, but I can easily boil like 3 lbs of spaghetti pasta in the one I used.

Step 1.
Add the olive oil to the bottom of your pot. Crush or press the garlic and add to the pot. Allow this to cook for about a minute or two, you should be able to smell the garlic and the olive oil when it is ready to add the tomatoes.

Step 2.
Add approx 1/2 the tomatoes in the can to the pot. I usually try to cut them into quarters (sometimes they are small and just cut them in half). Add these to the pot. Once they have been added. Sprinkle on the salt. This will help break down the tomatoes as the cook. Allow this to cook for probably about 5 minutes or so. Then take the rest of the tomatoes and put them in a blender, you will need some of the water/juice from the can in the blender too. Then blitz the tomatoes into a soupy mixture, it actually will smell a little bit like tomato soup.

Step 3.
Add the blitzed tomato soupy mix to the pot and stir. This should fill your pot approx 1/2 - 3/4 of the way. Turn the heat down to medium and stir regularly.

Step 4.
Brown the meat. I usually add a little soy or Worcestershire sauce to the meat. Just because it gives it more of a brown look, when I doing turkey. I also tend to put some black pepper in with the meat, not a ton just enough to see that it is there. I also add a little cumin to the meat as well.

Step 5.
Add the meat to the pot. I usually just take a slotted spoon or a slotted spatula and put it straight from the pan into the pot. If the meat is extra greasy then you can drain it to your preference before adding it to the pot. Stir regularly

Step 6.
Add the spices pot. Stir regularly.

Step 7.
Add beans, corn, green pepper, and onion to the pot. When it comes to the onion, I usually don't put the whole diced onion, only about half of it or so. Me, I love onion. However, others don't always like it. Thus, keeping it on the side allows folks to add as much as they want per serving. Putting in at least 1/3 of the diced onion will however, provide plenty of onion flavor to the pot.

Step 8.
Time to add some spice. Wash the jalapeños. Then take and cut a 4 lengthwise slits in each jalapeño. The slits will allow the chili to permeate the pepper and release the flavor of the jalapeño, without killing the taste of chili (or the taste buds of those eating your chili).
If you know that the folks who will be eating your chili, prefer to taste almost nothing but that burning and lingering heat. Then dice those bad boys up and make sure the seeds find their way into the pot. I would almost recommend that you only dice up 2 jalapeños and throw them in, keeping the third a side garnish.

Honestly, though by adding the peppers in with the slits and allowing the whole mixture to simmer and come together for about 30 minutes the chili will have a nice bite to it that still allows you to enjoy the rest of the flavors in the pot.

Step 9.
Allow jalapeños to simmer in the pot for at least 30 minutes. Stir about every 10 minutes. Try to keep the jalapeños submerged in the chili. If you have time permitting, I would even simmer it for 45 minutes, this will definitely allow the flavors to all come together.

Step 10.
Remove the jalapeños, give them to someone who wants them or pitch them. Just don't touch your eyes. Burns worse than a face full of mesquite smoke.

Provide shredded cheese and onions for people to dress-up the chili as they see fit.

I would say that this recipe will feed at least 4 hungry folks, with a few servings left over.

Since the wife is away, I will be eating this stuff for the next 3 days straight and still have some left for when she comes home.

I find that drop biscuits go well with Chili. However, freshly made cornbread at the bottom of a bowl of chili is also quite tastey.

If red or yellow peppers are on sale I will buy some and throw them in, for extra color. The corn and black beans add a bit of a southwestern taste and look to the dish.

"... I can stop watching TV..."

In the words of 'Pigman' from PCU, I say that I have finished my quest to watch seasons 3 - 7 of DS9.

I finished up the last 5 episodes Thursday night. I have to say that watching a series that you love on DVD is addictive. Particularly when you are renting them via Netflix. Watching each disc as quickly as possible to allow for the return it to the mailbox as soon as possible. It makes for small marathons when you are lucky enough to have several discs at the same time.

Gina & I worked from the Dallas office this week. I had to drop her off @ DFW for her flight home. She has been making it a bit of a tradition to travel to Michigan for Halloween. This leaves me home along with the dogs. No big worries, I have started to get the hang of feeding all of them raw food. It is only slightly harder than kibble yet easier than canned food.

I say easier only from the stand point that canned food tends to be a hassle to scoop out. Because one can of food isn't enough to feed the four of them. However, two cans is too much. Which means I have to find the plastic topper, that (for me) never seems to fit right. Then there is the fact that the canned food on occasion upsets the bud or Emma's stomach, meaning there can be even messier cleanup that has to be done later.

I have been pestering Gina to post in her blog more and more. One of Gina's latest posts talks about raw feeding, she has been helping her friend Kelly with feeding her dogs.

I am a bachelor for the next few days. I hope to finish this last round of cleaning up of my home office. I have been purging some stuff. I tend to pack rat. You never know when your going to need an IDE ribbon cable, or C programming book.

Given that my quest to re-watch DS9 is now over. I hope to spend time working on some side projects with Jeremy. Plus his weight loss goals will soon hit my own weight. In the spirit of competition I told him that when he hits my weight, that I will throw my hat into the ring. And see if I can't match his weight loss. I am going to need try to setup some tracking logic on the blog here.

I really need to take some time and work on customizing the blog. I am still just using one of the stock templates. Seeing as I am going to have to play around more with RSS feeds for a project for work I have already had a plan for a new technosnobs home page that reads the blog here and posts the latest entry on the main page. The www.jaduka.com home page does this same thing. I had the pleasure of writing up a quick prototype for Devegoodwin to model.

Back on the bachelor subject. I am at the moment torn on what to do for lunch. I am thinking about making chili. However, since I don't have any of the needed stuff to make chili, I think I am going to have to wait until tomorrow. I will try to measure the ingredients so that I can post the recipe up here on the blog. It has turned out really good the last few times I made it. Most likely because of the fact that I make the base of the chili this time the same way Gina makes her spaghetti sauce.

It has been a long month so far. Lots of late nights, some of them working, others watching DS9. So I think I am going to sneak in a nap.

The Alamo Drafthouse is showing 'Man Of The Year' at 3:25. It is a movie I wanted to see and it would mean that I can eat a late lunch. Then I can grab stuff to make chili for tomorrow.

Basic Chili Ingredients:
ground meat (turkey or beef)
stewed tomatoes
onions
garlic
green peppers
1 can of corn
2 jalapeños
chili powder
ground black pepper
cumin
cayenne pepper
Beans (Kidney, Pinto, Black)

well nap time.

laterz

For those of you that have been keeping up with the old blog here. I have been watching the Deep Space Nine, renting from Netflix. I started with season 3, far enough into the series for it to be interesting and at basically the very start of the Dominion conflict.

Now, what does this have to do with Art imitating life?

Not a ton I guess, I mean it is not like we have Klingons roaming around or anything. However, there have been a couple of episodes here and there that were similar to events here in the real world. Which, is funny, because of the fact that the show was made in the past. However, I guess human nature prevails, creature of comfort.

But last night the disc I popped in had an episode on it called, "Once More into the breach". Which reminded me of the entry I did several weeks ago.

I have to admit that I picked the title based upon an episode that I watched for an entry I did a last week, Fortune Favors The Bold.

About six months ago I was talking with a mentor of sorts, about career advancement and what not. I might have mentioned this already, but my mind is a jumble, so I will finish the story. He told me to watch movies and look for leadership characteristics that I felt were good.

As silly as it seems, I have to say that the writers for Deep Space Nine did a good job of making the character Benjamin Sisko into a good role model for leadership.

Watching the series again has been very fun. I have to say that I like the Quark character even more than I did before. I guess he appeals to that inner businessman I have in me.

Oh yeah, I guess before I finish. The new flapperless toilet has been working out well. Doing what it should. Gina asked John to watch the house when we were in Dallas this past weekend. He was intrigued by the toilet. He had to take the tank top off and get a look at how it works.

All for now.

Laterz

Or so I am told. I don't consider myself too bold. However, fortune has favored me more often than not.

A couple of updates.

1. I managed to get the faucet handle fixed. I bought a set of Allen wrenches for about $4. Worked like a charm. Go figure. Hopefully, the handle that is coming is the right part. As I did scratch up the one that is there now. The repair kit should be coming soon from Delta as well.

2. The flapperless tank is not compatible with the old toilet bowl. I ran out to Home Depot at the last minute to pick up the matching bowl. I got there with about 10 minutes to spare before closing.

3. The guest bathroom has a new toilet. It was an interesting experience removing the old toilet. And as I have described recently, removing that old wax is disgusting. Also, the flapperless tank's gasket is quite different than a regular toilet tank gasket. It is flat, it doesn't actually fit into the hole in the bowl. The flapperless tank gasket is supposed to just line up over the hole.

If you aren't careful about this, water will spill out the back. As I found out. Part of the reason for this is that the flapperless bowl has slots vs holes for the bolts. The slots are intended to allow the tank to be positioned at different levels away from the wall, to ensure that the installation of a the whole toilet will fit well with the positioning of the hole for the old toilet.

If it is back too far, then water comes out. If you position it all the way to the front, no problems. It would have been helpful the instructions were more explicit about this. "The gap is normally 1/2" to 1" ..." doesn't really help me. Seeing as I can't see the gap once I put the tank on the bowl, the tank covers everything.

4. Deep Space 9 Season 7 will be waiting for me when I get back from Dallas this week. I have managed to watch seasons 3 - 6 in just about a month using Netflix. I honestly cannot believe that I didn't use Netflix before now. It is an awesome service.

5. I am in Dallas. I have came to Dallas to meet with Bobby Goodwin, about the next phase of developement. I also spent some time with Brent working on the next generation of our billing system. Good stuff, it has been a while since I have had the opportunity to really design something as simple, yet complex as a billing system.

I was going to do some work on our corporate site. But I can't get into the gateway from the hotel. So it will have to wait until morning.

Speaking of which, it is late and I feel the need to sleep the good sleep now.

laterz

ps, yeah another Friday in Dallas.

So I have been playing plumber the last few days.

First the toilet tank in the guest bathroom started to leak. My first instinct was that the tank needs to be replaced. And before I jump too far ahead, always trust your first instinct.

Then there was the fact that the toilet in the master bathroom has been running, constantly. And sometimes it stops filling all together. Thus it was.... OFF TO THE HOME DESPOT!!!!

I bought a "Flush Master Complete Repair Kit" for the tank. It comes with everything you need to replace and thus repair a toilet tank. It worked like a charm on the master bathroom toilet. It stopped leaking, which after examining the old flapper, I probably could have just replaced that. However, that would not have fixed the fact that the floating piece was getting stuck. So the kit was well worth the money.

After that experience, I thought hey. Since the guest bathroom tank is just leaking out the bolt area, I can probably just replace the bolt and rubber washer. So I bought another kit. In part, the tank parts for guest bathroom toilet are old, very old. I mean it still have the floating ball on a stick thing vs the up and down floating cup piece.

Well, I managed to whiz through the install of the 2nd repair kit. I didn't have to read the instructions like I had taken the time to do on the first install.

Unfortunately, I should have trusted my instincts. The tank appears to be cracked or otherwise compromised around that bolt. As even with a new rubber washer and what not, it still leaks.

So I will need to get a new toilet tank.

I am thinking about going with the Niagara Flapperless Toilet. I saw it at Home Depot and I was quite intrigued. The units at Home Depot are selling for about $110 before tax. ($55 for the tank, $55 for the bowl).

I am going to be cheap about it and see if I can just repalce the tank instead of the whole thing. I hope that works or I will be replacing the whole toilet.

Oh yeah, last night I was doing the dishes. And after filling the sink, I went to turn off the faucet. Nope, it didn't turn off. Hmm, ok odd. So I push the handle (lever) back to see if I can wiggle it back into working. Nope, water now starts coming out from underneath the handle. SWEET!!!

That makes item #3 of plumbing for the week.

I thought it was a Moen, nope it is a Delta faucet. And still under warranty, we just put it in around like March. I looked up Delta's website and called their help line. Funny thing, I didn't realize it was a Delta until after I had called the Delta help line. The Moen help line closes at 8pm eastern. The Delta folks were still working.

They said that I should take apart the handle and what not and "flush the lines". I did take it apart, but I didn't flush the lines. That really is a two person job, as you basically pours water out of the top of the faucet where the handle was. Meaning you need one person to control the mess and another down at the turn-stops to turn it off.

So I dismantled it, futzed around with it, and put it all back together. And the leak stopped. However, the nice folks at Delta have shipped me a repair kit. Which I will utilize when it arrives. Mind you, free of charge.

Well, there was a snag. The screw that makes the handle hold onto the stick on the base, is stuck. This is most likely my fault. I was using a Torx screwdriver instead of an allen wrench. However, I had done this before reading the instructions, and because from the angle I was looking at it, it looked like a Torx screw.

I found an allen wrench. And removed the screw. Then I started putting it back into the handle as to complete the repair of the faucet. The screw got stuck, again. And better yet. It is not moving now. I am going to pick up a set of allen wrenches on the way home.

However, I ordered a new handle/lever online. It cost like $23, so hopefully it is the right part. I hope it arrives soon. Since it is pretty ghetto to turn the kitchen faucet on and off using just the little metal stick/spike that comes out of the base.

I am going to pick up the flapperless toilet tank on the way home too.

Now all I need is a turtle shell to shoot at King Koopa

I got rear-ended on the way home from Dallas on Friday. Before you freak out, the Corolla is fine. My boss asked a good question though, "Could you tell if there was any damage?" and not from the perspective of "invisible" damage, more along the lines of the fact that the Corolla is pretty beat up.

My neck is a little stiff. However, I don't think I am any worse for wear really. I think my neck being stiff is probably more from having been drinking every night last week and the hangover setting in vs the accident.

As my last post stated we successfully launched the Jaduka company. Now, we are into the thick of things, producing marketing campaigns, tweaking the sites. It seems to me honestly that we are perceivably busier now than we were a few weeks ago.

Now, about the statement about me shaving my head. I talked it over with the wife first, then I pitched it to the VP of Marketing and the President (my boss). My notion about offering up the mop on top of my head as a reward for reaching a certain number of sign-ups was inspired by two things.

The first thing is that Web 2.0 companies tend to have some sort of zany and crazy thing. Now, we have a number of irons in the fire. I don't want to leak them here just yet, in a week or so probably. Needless to say, they are pretty cool and will be viral. But not zany and crazy. The second thing is my father. While, he never shaved his head. He did have a penchant for standing on it.

I have quite a few old photos of my dad standing on his head. Normally, he would stand on his head after a particular company that had signed up to donate blood had reached their goal. And he even stood on his head at the wedding up north. That was quite a site, dad in a tux standing on his head.

Seeing as I never had stood on my head, I figure I can do the next best thing, shave it.

My hair right now is about the same length it was since right before the wedding two years ago. I haven't really had it trimmed in the last 3 months. However, this is not the longest it has ever been. The longest ever I believe was in '95, I could be very wrong about that. But, I think it was '95.

Regardless, my hair might be a fair bit longer by the time we reach the goal. I figure at least a month's more worth of growth.

Just now, I registered www.illshavemyhead.com. I haven't set it up just yet, but I will work on it tomorrow.

The deal on the table is this. When Jaduka reaches 10,000 users I will shave my head. Note, I am not talking about Mr. Clean style. I am talking about a 1 or 2 blade on the trimmers.

At least then I will be able to wear a stylish Jaduka baseball hat.

I will even sweeten the pot a little bit. If Jaduka reaches 20,000 users by the end of December, I will shave off my goatee. Just imagine, a shaved head with no facial hair.

Now, I realize that I should probably have been posting the play-by-play of the week as the launch of the new company Jaduka has been unfolding. However, there really wasn't enough time to do that. I probably could have mustered a post on Monday or Tuesday night, but the keyboard was a little blurry from the cerveza.

We have officially launched the new company website, storefront, corporate blog, and DevZone. All of the sites look pretty darn good. There are still (and always will be) minor tweaks and edits that have to be made to them. The DevZone at this time is my responsiblity, and therefore the somewhat baren look is my fault. I have been busy configuring and deploying all the apps to our two web hosting clusters.

I plan to fill the DevZone with more information next week.

...

We just put our Monopoly game on hold and it looks like I might win. I own the Boardwalk & Park Place (with 4 houses) and I own the greens with 3 houses each.

So it is time for me to post this entry and hit the road.

More on the Jaduka launch later. But before I go I will leave you with this.

Signup for a free account and you might just get me to shave my head. (Details to be posted later)

But I will admit and even proclaim myself as a night owl.

Gina and I had dinner last night @ FireBowl, a great asian diner/cafe place. They have some chinese, japanese, thai. They make a great "Spicy Coconut Soup" it comes with chicken, rice and shitaki mushrooms. They also make some great "Soft Thai Summer Rolls". Those being my two favorites.

We were going to see "Little Miss Sunshine" at the movie theatre next door. However, the heatre nextdoor was PACKED. So we headed over to the Lake Creek Alamo Draft House as they were showing that same movie, but in 45 minutes.

The movie was FANTASTIC. Honestly, one of the funniest and most original movies that I have seen. The characters were great, the plot of absurdly original and it had some subtle social commentary that made fun of all those folks that love to stick their kids in pageants.

So we hit HEB on the way back to the house to pick up some charcoal. I made up the brine for the pork after we got home. I stuck to the known success, Salt, water, garlic and a few spices. I will experiment next time.

I finished cleaning up around 2am and headed to bed.

I woke up at 8:30. I had wanted to wake up around 6. Of course, setting an alarm clock would probably have helped with the waking up part. I got up and went about preparing the smoker and seasoning the meat (after removing it from the zip lock bags I was brining in).

This time around I decided that I wanted to change up the "fire box" in my smoker works. I have a vertical smoker.

Here is a diagram of how the old smoker looks.



This is basically the setup that they recommend in the manual. The only exception is that they say you should use water in your drip pan. This recommended because of the fact that the BBQ is supposed to be indirect heat. And with a vertical smoker design you definitely get good heat flow, but the meat is more exposed to the flame. The drip pan collects the fat that drips out of the meat as it cooks.

By filling it with water this obviously keeps the fat drippings from bonding with the bowl (or catching fire). However, it creates a HUGE mess. Not to mention that the water evaporates while it cooks, so you have to keep refilling it. I found this to be a pain in the ass. There is another side effect of all of the "steam" in the smoker. It does help to cook the food. However, everytime you open the door to add fuel (wood/coal) or water you lose ALL of the steam.

This mean that the temperature in the smoker drops severely and must rebuild.

A few years back when scouring the net for BBQ tips and tricks I read about using sand rather than water. You cover the sand with tinfoil to collect the drippings. This has two benefits. The first is that obviously you don't have to refill the sand, it doesn't evaporate. This means that you will only open the door to add fuel.

The second benefit is that the sand retains the heat. It means that the smoker doesn't lose as much heat when you open the door. This makes controlling the temperature easier and keeps a more constant temp while cooking.




The following diagram is basically how I set the smoker up this morning. The "Fire box" bowl that comes with most of your lower end model smokers is a fine if your only going to be cooking over it for a couple of hours. Which is really never the case when smoking meat. I would say you should be looking at 6 hours minimum, unless your only doing ribs and sausage, then your about 4 hours for the ribs and 1 hour for the sausage. Anyway, the reason it is only good for a few hours is the build up of the ash. There is only a small hole in the bottom of the fire bowl for the ash to get out of. The second thing is that the placement of the bowl is in a bad spot for the air vents. The fire had a hard time getting air. Thus, I took it out of the holder and placed the bowl on bricks.

This still however, left me with the ash problem. In looking at the smoker last time I realized that there was enough room in the smoker (without the bowl) for me to put small mesquite logs in. (The last time I smoked I used only mesquite wood, but it was in chunks. Still hard to fit in the bowl.)

When we were cleaning out the garage I found a bag of mesquite wood, but not chunks, more like split logs. This meant that I needed to be able to put them in there. The bowl had to go. Gina bought me a little charcoal grill a few years back. In it there is this flat, square metal plate that has a grate on it.

As it turns out this was a perfect fit. I could place it on the bricks and it was the perfect hieght for good airflow and to allow me to place the mesquite logs on the fire. I still wanted to use the charcoal, only because after the first 3 hours of cooking in the smoker, the meat gets wrapped in tinfoil. Thus, no need for smoke just heat.

To wrap this post up. Since I didn't get the meat into the smoker until 10:30. This means that I can expect to leave around 8pm rather than 6pm.

From the first hour and a half of cooking, I think the change in the setup is definitely working.

More laterz