Tag Archives: postaday2011

Java Jolt

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Are you a little melancholy about summer’s end? Maybe all those projects you earmarked for summer didn’t quite get wrapped up? What you need is a coffee break. Here is a recipe to cheer you up and give you energy to make a brand new list.

Cold-Brewed Ice Coffeeiced coffee
Makes: Two drinks or enough for you to have more.

1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse) Milk (if you want)

In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.

Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If you want, add milk.

There is a big taste difference between left-over coffee and this cold-brewed concentrate. Make up some and  keep in the refrigerator for your next drop-in guests. They will think they died and ended up in Starbuck Heaven.

Seen on Smitten Kitchen from The New York Times

How they roll

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Change. It drives me nuts. It weighs me down. It’s way too high maintenance. And to top it off, it costs 10% of the total to convert it to paper if you use one of the Coins to Cash machines that have popped up in grocery stores.

I’ve tried pretending that coin sorting was a fun thing to do while watching mindless TV. But I wasn’t fooled. I tried bribing myself by promising to spend all of money in my Hippopotamus bank on a new Coach bag. But I wasn’t tempted. I’ve put it on a To Do list and starred it several times. No matter.92830FL-2

Then finally I got it. The perfect solution.

I ordered a $30 motorized coin sorter. It takes 2 C batteries for it to rev up so that it can go to work sizing up each coin and putting it in the proper chute. It comes with assorted paper coin wrappers and you can order more. I can hardly wait for the Big Brown delivery truck and the gift-wrapped package for Sig.

Half a Head

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I didn’t have one thing to do with this joke. It’s all over the place, but I can’t find the person who wrote it.  So, laugh anonymously. I did. Or maybe it was enormously?

A man walked into the produce section of his local supermarket and asked to buy a half head of lettuce. The boy working in that department told him that they only sold whole heads of lettuce.

The man was insistent that the boy ask his manager about the matter.

Walking into the back room, the boy said to the manager, “Some ass-hole wants to buy a half head of lettuce.” As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added,  “And this gentleman kindly offered to buy the other half.”

The manager approved the deal and the man went on his way. Later the manager said to the boy, “I was impressed with the way you got yourself out of that situation earlier. We like people who think on their feet here. Where are you from, son?”

“Texas , sir.” the boy replied.

“Well, why did you leave Texas ?” the manager asked.

The boy said, “Sir, there’s nothing but whores and football players there.

“Really?” said the manager “My wife is from Texas ..”

“Get outta here!” the boy said. “Who’d she play for?”

Labor Day

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This is a holiday with one shaky past. Pullman_strikers_outside_Arcade_Building

In 1894 the country was in a recession. The owner of the Pullman Palace Car Co. decided to up his bottom line by cutting wages without cutting hours or  cutting prices he charged workers for rent and goods.

The 3000 workers in Pullman, Illinois said enough was enough and started a wildcat strike. That pulled in the American Railway Union. They began a nation-wide boycott; union members refused to run trains with Pullman cars. There were 250,000 railroad workers in 7 states, in days, half of them quit rather than handle Pullman cars.

The workers’ solidarity forced factory shutdowns and lockouts well beyond Pullman.

Management hired replacement workers and conflicts escalated. President Cleveland  ordered federal officials to intervene citing strikers for anti-trust violations. When it was over, 13 workers were dead, 57 wounded and damages totaled over 8 million in today’s dollars.

So what did Congress do? Hugely concerned of a backlash, they scurried around and in 6 days came up with Labor Day, a national holiday to honor workers.  “Communities will host street parades to show the strength and esprit de corps of labor followed by a festival for workers and their families.”

Hmmm, is it just me? Or do you think Debt Ceiling Day will be next?

Source: Wikipedia including image of striking workers, 1894

Labor Day Sunday

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Labor Day Sunday is when you knock yourself out cooking so that you can rest and relax on Labor Day Monday. So here’s a thought. Try my mother’s potato salad, it’s best if you make it the day before you plan to eat it, anyway.

potato-recipesI know, I know — you like the potato salad your mother makes, just like you like the custard pumpkin pie she makes for Thanksgiving rather than the more solid version, which is far superior. Or the meatloaf. Or the spaghetti sauce.

As I was starting to say, this is the world’s best potato salad in case that’s important.

My Mother’s Potato Salad
(Serves 6 so double it if you need more.)

6 potatoes, 1 medium onion chopped, 3 TB oil, 3 TB vinegar, ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp celery seed, mayonnaise, (Start with a cup and add as you like.) 4 hard-cooked eggs, 4 sweet pickles

Cook potatoes. Mix oil, vinegar, salt and celery seed with chopped onion. Drain potatoes and when cool enough to touch, peel and cut in points. (It is hard to explain cut in points but if you are cubing, slicing or mashing — you are probably not cutting in points.)

Pour oil/vinegar/onion mixture over potatoes and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Chop eggs except for one. Cut up pickle. Add both to potatoes. Mix in mayonnaise. Slice reserved egg and put on top, sprinkle with paprika.

Check in next year for a recipe for strawberry shortcake from my mother in law. I know, I know — you like the strawberry short-cake your mother makes…

Rune the day

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Wait ’til M.S. gets a load of these. She’ll be marching all over her place, directing her minions to plug in the generators for a holiday party nestled in the meadow.

Rune GuneriussenRune Guneriussen

guneriussen 002Picture 007

The photographer is 34-year-old Rune Guneriussen, a native of Norway. I can imagine  while he was growing up, he drove his parents nuts by dragging everything he owned outside to see how it looks in the backyard. Along the way he honed an imaginative way of looking at nature through the most ordinary of lenses. Extraordinary.