Ernie’s Pralines

 Life  No Responses »
Jun 262011
 

OK, here is the top-secret praline recipe that my father handed down to me (no, really!)…

Ingredients

  • 1 cup regular sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
  • 5 Tbs. water
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 Tbs. butter

Setup

These are just my personal tips for making sure the whole process goes smoothly.

  • Arrange for some open counter-space where you are going to spoon out your pralines. Lay down a sheet of newspaper and then cover that with some wax-paper. The reason you do that is so that when you spoon the (very) hot praline mix onto the wax paper, it doesn’t leave waxy residue on your counter top! :-)
  • You want a bowl of cool water near where you are cooking so you can test the mix to know when it is ready.

Procedure

Use a tablespoon-sized spoon to do the stirring because it is also the size tool you want to use to spoon out the mixture when it is done.

Combine the sugars and water in a pot and put on the stove at medium heat. Stir until it starts to boil then mix in the chopped pecans. Continue to stir the mix as it heats back up. It will start boiling again. You may want to back off the heat just a bit at that point so that things don’t happen to rapidly.

You want to be watching this mixture as it cooks and you keep stirring it. It will start to look less liquid on top and more “fluffy”. You want to start testing the mix to know when it reaches “soft ball stage.”

For the longest time I didn’t really understand what that meant. Soft-ball stage is when you take a small sample of the mix with your spoon. Hold the spoon over your bowl of cool water that you have close by and let a drop fall into the water. Soft-ball stage is when the drop of mixture stays whole and remains circular (almost spherical) when it settles in the bottom of the bowl.

AS SOON AS YOUR MIX REACHES SOFT-BALL STAGE….

Stir in the butter. As soon as the butter melts (and you may have to work quickly now, but carefully) you want to start spooning the mixture onto the wax paper that you have laid out.

Remember this stuff is really hot. Avoid the temptation to taste your handiwork until the pralines have cooled enough so that they don’t break up when you peel them off the wax paper. By the way, the best way to peel them off the wax paper is to lift up the paper and peel it away from the bottom of the praline as you support it with your other hand.

Fat Head

 Life  No Responses »
Jun 122011
 

We just finished watching the movie Fat Head. It was produced by Tom Naughton. From the Fat Head blog:

Comedian (and former health writer) Tom Naughton replies to the
blame-McDonald’s crowd by losing weight on a fat-laden fast-food diet while
demonstrating that nearly everything we’ve been told about obesity and healthy
eating is wrong. Along with some delicious parody of Super Size Me, Naughton
serves up plenty of no-bologna facts that will stun most viewers, such as: The
obesity “epidemic” has been wildly exaggerated by the CDC. People the
government classifies as “overweight” have longer lifespans than people
classified as “normal weight.” Having low cholesterol is unhealthy. Lowfat
diets can lead to depression and type II diabetes. Saturated fat doesn’t cause
heart disease — but sugars, starches and processed vegetable oils do.

Gotta tell you – this movie makes a lot of sense. And it sure points out what a fraud that Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame is. I now consider Spurlock right up there with that evil fat bastard Michael Moore when it comes to purposely deceiving their audience.

Kudos to Mr. Naughton!

2011-06-12 (Sunday)

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Jun 122011
 

TEDxAustin Robyn O’Brien 2011

If you do nothing else today, please watch this. About the author:

Robyn authored "The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We
Can Do About It." A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings
insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that
the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded
allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of "20 Inspiring Women
to Follow on Twitter." The New York Times has passionately described her as
"Food's Erin Brockovich."

Hula-hooping from the hoop’s point of view

From this boingboing article:

Pretty Boy Dutch

OK, I took this one of Dutch while he was sitting on my shoulder with the front-facing iPhone camera. So it is pretty low-res. But even a slightly pixellated Dutch is cute!

Pretty Boy Dutch

2011-06-11 (Saturday)

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Jun 112011
 

365 Project

Mikie just told me about this cool site. The idea is to post one photograph every day for a year. I just signed up today – it doesn’t cost anything – and have uploaded a couple of pics. On weekdays I’m going to post pics of things I see on my commute to or from work. On weekends, anything goes!.

Asian City

We stopped by Asian City today. They have a couple of small, inter-connected Koi ponds out front.

Koi at Asian City

Afterwards we went to the Barnes & Noble to enjoy a cup of coffee and browse the new book selection. I made a pit stop in the men’s room and was surprised to find this pile of clothes in the corner of the handicapped stall. Looks like enough clothing for several people. Mikie suggested the rapture might have come late and these were among the chosen ones…

Pile of Clothes

2010-06-21 (Monday)

 Life  1 Response »
Jun 212010
 

Managed to get up at 04:00 and so was able to make it on time to spin class at the City Centre Lifetime Fitness. Here is a shot of the parking garage when I got there this morning:

City Centre parking garage at 05:20

And this is what it looked like outside as I left the gym:

Walking outside of Lifetime Fitness at 07:00

Beautiful, no? And with a temperature somewhere in the 70′s, still pleasant outside. But not for long my friends. Remember, today is the first day of summer! Continue reading »

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