Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I read pulled up Penny Arcade's comic this morning to quite a surprise. (Again, I feel like maybe I am just a half step ahead of the curve.)

Apparently, Sony Exec Jack Tretton made a challenge that will yield $1200 for anyone who can find a PS3 on the shelves. The interview is in the March edition of EGM (Electronic Gaming Magazine). There are some excerpts of it on 1UP.

Thinking back, I remember seeing lots of PS3s in Long Island. And I'm sure that if I mosey on over to the Lakeline Mall I could snap some photos of them.

Course, given the captions made by the guys over at Penny-Arcade. I am not sure I would be allowed to take pictures.

I would like to post a direct link to the web page that has the comic, but there is only a dynamic web page right now. So here is the direct link to the Penny Arcade comic image.

Given the 32 or so PS3s that were in those pictures on gwn.com that would $38,400.

So I wonder if Sony is going to start pulling stock off the shelves, just to keep from going broke on paying out $1200 for each unit on the shelf.

When I was at Cost Co last night I did notice something interesting.

1. They have around 15 or so Xbox 360s.
2. They are all out of DS Lites
3. They have more PSPs than they know what to do with.
4. No PS3s, just PS2s. Why PS2s?

I mean they have had PS2s for quite a while now. But why?

Anyway, I need to go and get ready to go out. I'm making chili today and I need to get some fresh ingredients.

Laterz.

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