Iced Tea Forever

The last couple of months or so I’ve been experimenting with chili. Tonight I think I’ve made some breakthroughs, hopefully the recipe is firming up! It sure is good, especially with iced tea.

I’ll post it when it’s ready for the masses.

You know what’s funny. It’s when somebody is writing a promotional blurb, and they obviously don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

The instance I’m thinking of is in the context of a mini-“review.” They go so far overboard on the flattering adjectives it’s downright comical. A typo in the groups name, facts askew, and referring to albums they’ve never heard as “stellar,” and being released “to acclaim.”

I just about split a seam laughing.

Oh well, don’t bite the hand that feeds you!

McCray Dove had a blog for a short while. His writing style was a little rough and unpolished, lots of typos and misspellings and poor grammar. This brought some mild (but public) criticism, the main reason (as I recall) he cited in abandoning the life of a blogger.

The very nature of blogging is stream-of-consciousness. Write whatever’s in your head, let it flow directly to the digital paper, click, publish, the world reads. Don’t sweat the little stuff, it’s not important in this medium. People shouldn’t fuss about typos and misspellings in a blog. Save it for a more formal work.

That being said, I like to play the editor, I like to proofread and correct things. Which I do if I find an error in a previous post. But at the same time, I try not to worry about it.

What a boring post. I apologize. Maybe I’ll delete it. How embarrassing. I should have come up with a picture to redeem this sorry thing.

A little further explanation on the disclaimer. By “pre-launch” I mean I’m not finishing designing this site yet. Blogger doesn’t have that many templates, and they’re all pretty common so I wanted to design my own.

However, it takes me ages to design a website. I like to pound code, but I’m not much of a artistic designer so that’s where the time-consuming hang-up is. If I waited until I had this site all designed before launching, I’d probably never launch. Now that I’ve launched, I work on crafting brilliant and insightful posts instead of doing the graphic design. So maybe it will never be more than a sea of white and a glass of tea.

I’m getting some very positive feedback on using pictures. I’ve said that for a long time, people like pictures.

If you follow my additions to the “To Do” list, you’ll notice I added my intentions of publishing a site feed. The feed is actually there right now, I just don’t have a link to it yet. I need to find some atom button images. Here’s a link now if you want it. Put that in your newsreader and subscribe to ITF!

Currently listening to: Heartbeat – their brand new debut CD. Style: A cappella ladies trio.

I must say, I am a little disappointed. I was really looking forward to receiving my (complimentary!) copy of this CD, and I had been conditioned to expect a certain type and class of recording. I was prepared to rip it apart, but I can’t! It’s quite good.

They have a wonderful light, tight sound. Fantastic unisons (they’re sisters, that can’t hurt!), solid yet unique arrangements, and a nice, varied selection of songs. They’ve pulled material from sources as diverse as Keith Lancaster (Acappella Company), Phil Cross, Mosie Lister, Michael Card, and Point of Grace. But they make each song their own. They’ve done a great job of putting their own twist and identity to the music.

They have a very pure sound that just floats along, unforced, gently soothing and melodic.

And who’s the chick doing the low stuff! You go sister!

All in all, this is a great first project from a group with a lot of potential. I would love to produce/record their next album! I’m definitely going to bid on it and pester them mercilessly.

Contact: heartbeat at gcnetmail dot net

Right now I’m eating soup. I love soup. All kinds of it. I could eat it every day.

Not stews so much though.

There’s just so many wonderful things to eat, but you can only consume so much in one day!

Dirty dishes are a disturbing side effect of eating. They stack up unbelievably fast. I just throw them in the sink until I run out of pots and pans and have to finally wash them (and no, I do not have a dishwasher). What a pain. I just got done doing my “monthly” dish wash, and I’m so glad that’s over with for a while.

But I have formulated some principles and guidelines, which, if adhered to, make a remarkable reduction to the dishwashing load. Being as benevolent and gracious as I am, I shall pass them on to you.

1. Use paper plates. I use Chinet premium strength, they’re very stiff and durable yet economical. What could be faster than just throwing it away when you’re finished eating? No plates to wash!

2. Use styrofoam bowls. I use the Hefty 20oz. (I’m eating out of one right now), don’t mess with anything smaller. They’re just not worth your time, you do nothing but constantly get up and refill the bowl! These 20oz.’ers are strong and also microwave friendly.

3. Use plastic cups. I use the Jack Frost (made by SOLO) 16oz. clear plastic party cups. I would really prefer something bigger, but I like the clear and also I had to strike some economical middle ground. The bigger ones tend to be more expensive. Note: You may notice in my cornbread picture that my iced tea is in a real glass. That is pure photo op, I never do that. I thought about getting a real plate too, but just couldn’t convince myself.

4. Use plastic spoons. As much soup as I eat, if I used regular spoons I’d spend all my free time washing them.

5. Use plastic knives. I really don’t use a knife too often, but when I do it’s sure nice to just throw it away when I’m done instead of washing it.

6. Use plastic forks. See number 5.

The response you often hear to these six points of brilliant common sense is usually along the lines of “That’s a waste of money.”

Hogwash! Is your time worth nothing ! And really, figure the cost of these inexpensive items and calculate how much time you spend doing dishes you wouldn’t have to do. I’ll bet you’d find that you’re saving cents an hour! That’s just not worth it in my book.

One of my ideals for this cutting edge medium was to keep my posts fairly short. But I find that’s hard to do on a subject I feel such passion about.

Long for a taste of the south? Look no further, ITF to the rescue.

What you need:

Procure a mixing bowl, a whisk, an egg, one cup of milk, your box of cornbread, and an 8x8x2 baking pan. Notice the iced tea cold brewing on the right.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (375 for glass pan). Combine one egg,

one cup of milk,

and box of Krusteaz cornbread.

Whisk briskly!

Pour mixture into lightly greased pan.

Slide this slice of the southland into the oven!

Bake for 20-25 minutes (25-30 for glass pan).

Start cleaning up. Lick spoon.

Put bowl and utensils in sink to be washed in the upcoming monthly dishwashing marathon.

When time is drawing nigh, test the cornbread with a toothpick.

If toothpick comes out clean, this dixieland delicacy is almost ready to consume! If cornbread sticks to toothpick, bake a few minutes longer.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Cut into 9 squares, removing one for immediate consumption. Slice in half, apply a liberal portion of butter.

Enjoy with a glass of sweetened iced tea!

Wow! Look at what I got today!

Oh yeah! I told Jewel a week or two ago how that ever since I was a kid I wanted one of those giant chocolate kisses, but I never ever had one.

Now I do!

I always wanted those big heart boxes of candy too, Dad often got Mom one so, you know, the kids always get some of it, but I always wanted a box for ME!

Now I have two!

I’m kind of disappointed. I got a phishing email today trying to sucker me out of my eBay login info, but there weren’t any egregious errors in it. A few little typos, but nothing like “to witch.”

Boy this iced tea is good. So’s the cornbread.