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How can property owners and facilities managers in commercial and office buildings improve their recycling systems. This is the topic of an article I wrote which was published in the Oct/Nov 2017 issue of Earthworx, the Green Building Council magazine:
THE consumer society we live in generates waste on a massive scale. However, this 'take-make-waste' approach to the design, management and disposal of materials is steadily being replaced by concepts such as systems-thinking and the circular economy.
These add to the increasing demands to manage material resources responsibly through production, use and re-use so that their ecological, economic and social value can be optimised.
As Tegan Cathrall, sustainability manager at GrowthPoint Properties puts it: "Waste is most likely to become the world's next big issue. There has been a huge shortfall in terms of infrastructure to provide the systems and processes needed to increase waste management in our country."
The Green Building Council's Green Star rating tools recognize recycling and allocate credits in various categories. These include new building projects which offer a credit through design of spaces for collecting recycling waste. Green Star Interiors is more comprehensive and requires a waste management plan during construction and for operation of the fit-out.
The Green Star Existing Building Performance Tool offers credits for a procedure which involves a baseline audit of waste, and includes diversion of all operational waste from landfill. The Green Star system incentivizes design and management for re-use and recycling of materials as all credits gained in this way help achieve grading ratings.
Influencing a complex system
Sustainably managing different waste materials going through occupied commercial and multi-use properties is not simple. The role-players include property owners and developers, architects, building and facilities managers, occupiers and tenants, cleaning and recycling contractors.
As one of the largest retail and mixed-use property owners, Growthpoint Properties uses their influence to encourage greater recycling amongst tenants. As Cathrall says: "What has worked well for us is being able to engage with the tenant and emphasise the importance of recycling. We try to get them to sort at source so that when it comes to recycling, our waste contractor has a simpler and more efficient process. In certain extreme cases, we have liaised with tenants and proposed penalties for not complying with waste sorting for recycling purposes."
Growthpoint's property management team encourages tenants to install bins on their premises for separating recyclable waste. Their cleaning contractors ensure recyclables are not mixed with other waste, and are taken to a main waste area for the recycling contractor to sort further on-site or at an off-site facility. Contaminated recyclable materials – especially paper – reduces their value and re-use, which reinforces the purpose of separating at source.
As for areas of improvement, Cathrall says: "We find that partnerships and communication between facilities team and the waste contractor produces innovative results. However, the biggest shift needed is behavioural change amongst occupiers. If we can instill in them the system's benefits and practices, recycling numbers are sure to improve."
Measurement and reporting are essential for efficient waste management. Growthpoint currently collects figures on waste collected, landfilled and recycled monthly to help plan for improvements. Buildings are also benchmarked against each other based on weights to landfill. Through such measures, Growthpoint has diverted an estimated 5 000 tons of waste from landfill and into the recycling industry over the past 12 months.
Integrating different needs at the V&A
The V&A Waterfront is an extensive mixed-use precinct which attracts thousands of tourists and Cape Town residents day and night. Overseeing waste management is Operations Manager Petro Myburgh. "Our environmental policy has waste management and recycling guidelines for tenants and occupiers. However, we have a large mix of tenants, so integrating their different needs into a system that generates most recyclables is our challenge."
Restaurants and eateries are given colour-coded bins for organic food waste which, through a fly-farming process off-site, is turned into animal protein feed. Glass and cardboard is gathered separately while plastic, paper, tins and other general waste is collected by the waste contractor for sorting at their facility.
To encourage participation amongst tenants, there is a no charge for collection of bins filled with recyclables. Some tenants have reduced their monthly refuse bills by at least half this way. In offices, boxes for paper are made available at low cost from the waste contractor and sited mostly at printing stations.
Eating at desks is discouraged to help reduce contamination. Education and information for separation at source is a focus while new tenants are given special emphasis and must submit waste and recycling management plans.
In all, the V&A generates some 500 tons per month of materials, of which 40-45% is recycled. Motivating tenants to participate in recycling continues to be a challenge. Myburgh sums up their approach: "We create spaces and systems that encourage the appropriate behaviour."
Andrew Mason, projects director at leading facilities management outsourcing group Tsebo Solutions sees the partnership of building and facilities managers with occupiers as essential: "The role of the occupier and their buy-in to the whole process cannot be underestimated. Management needs to provide leadership by ensuring sufficient budget is set aside for proper infrastructure and by appointing an accredited, competent waste contractor who is transparent about the waste management process and provides all the requisite reporting and disposal certification."
Sanlam, one of the largest financial services groups in South Africa, houses some 5 000 employees in their Bellville headquarters which combines five floors of office space with kitchenettes, cafeterias, restaurants and shops. The company's sustainability policy has set a zero waste-to-landfill target which drives diversion and recycling activities across the company campus.
To help meet the stringent year-on-year target, the facilities management team, waste company and cleaning contractors work closely together. Food waste organics from the cafeterias and kitchenettes are kept separate and taken for composting.
Bins for office consumables and e-waste as well as for paper are located at printing stations and along corridors. An efficient sorting area in the basement enables general plastics and paper to be further sorted for recovery and recycling. Education for staff includes posters, intranet e-learning, email reminders and other media to encourage separation at source, and give feedback on progress.
Education for at-source separation
"Getting to zero waste is a tough journey," says Wynand van Rensburg, head of the facilities management team at Sanlam. "Most waste recovery systems are running well, and we have a focus on minimizing contamination of white paper which has a high value. Continuous education and incentives for at-source separation help with making recycling routine behaviour for staff. "
The South African recycling economy provides income for some 84 000 people, the majority in the informal and SME sector where the need is greatest. On average, recycling rates for most materials are still generally low at just 9.8% (DEA, 2012) with much of it coming from industry or scavenged from landfill.
As for recycling by households, CSIR research shows that the percentage of households of a broadly representative sample in large urban areas who regularly recycle paper and packaging waste has risen from 4 percent in 2010 to 7.2 percent in 2015.
Where municipalities such as Cape Town provide free, regular door-to-door recycling collection services to households, participation increases to well over 50 percent especially when communication initiatives are in place to support the service, according to officials. More than 120 000 households are serviced this way.
For many facilities and waste managers with technical backgrounds, enabling the necessary integration amongst the different role-players for an efficient recycling system may not always be easy. Then there are the social psychology and communication skills needed for fostering behaviour change amongst tenants and occupiers.
But where these can be put to work, the environmental and socio-economic benefits are wide-ranging, especially since seven more jobs can be created from recycling rather than landfilling waste. It's well worth the effort for all stakeholders to close the materials loop.
Tsebo Solutions: Facilities management. Andrew Mason. email@example.com 011 577 8772
V&A Waterfront: Petro Myburgh. firstname.lastname@example.com 021 408 7500
Growthpoint Properties: Tegan Cathrall. email@example.com . 011 944 6118
Averda: Waste and recycling contractors. 0861 283 732
Don't Waste Services: On-site recycling contractors. 0861 09273
SANLAM/CWExcellerate: Facilities management. email@example.com
GreenEdge: Communications for behaviour change. Hugh Tyrrell. firstname.lastname@example.com. 083 253 4100
Postwink: Recycling bins/containers. Berenice Westmore. firstname.lastname@example.com . 021 447 8783
Paper Recycling Association of SA. Ursula Hennebury. firstname.lastname@example.com 011 803 5063


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Citizens must be relentless in bringing corrupt attorneys and judges to justice … the health of our country is in peril when we no longer have trust in our "justice system."
Where there are too many policemen, there is no liberty. Where there are too many soldiers, there is no peace. Where there are too many lawyers, there is no justice.
Lin Yutang
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/lawyers.html#1AMsTEiRwjakOUqb.99

subset: commoncrawl


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Colette (2018) (HNR)
Release Date: December 18, 2018.
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as "Willy" (Dominic West), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Keira Knightley) is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris, and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette's fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionizing literature, fashion, and sexual expression. -- (C) Elevation Pictures, 2018, UK/USA.
Starring Keira Knightley, Dominic West.
Directed by Wash Westmoreland.
Genre/Subject: Biography, Drama, History, Writers/Writing, Women.
We Also Recommend


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Seven Relents, As Nine Handed Rights For Tennis 2019 For $48.5 Million
Nine has announced that it has reached agreement with Tennis Australia and the Seven Network to bring forward its rights deal to broadcast tennis by one year.
The new deal means Nine will be the home of Australia's highest rating summer sport for six years, commencing in January 2019.
Under the terms of the landmark agreement, Nine has now secured the exclusive rights to all world-class tennis played in Australia from 2019 to 2024.
The rights granted for the one-year extension are exactly as per the original deal, meaning Nine has acquired all audio-visual rights for broadcast, streaming, mobile, digital and social platforms, starting with the coming summer of tennis.
In return for agreeing to take on the rights one year early, Nine was able to secure the 2019 rights for a cost of $48.5 million, compared to $60 million from 2020.
Hugh Marks, CEO of Nine, said: "There's an air of excitement at Nine about being the new home of tennis, so to be able to start our new deal a year early brings us all much delight. As I said back in March, the timing of tennis and the audience demographics it delivers are a perfect fit for Nine and its advertisers. We're also mighty pleased to have been able to settle on a price for the additional year that is consistent with our original offer to Seven."
Tim Worner, CEO of Seven west Media, said: "We are very proud of the many ideas we brought to our Tennis coverage during our long partnership with the sport. I would like to pay tribute to the hundreds of Seven people who worked with such passion and pride on both sides of the camera over the years.
"This deal is a great outcome for Seven, delivering a profit for our shareholders, and freeing us up to concentrate on making our coverage of cricket the very best that it can be.
"We are now turning our full-time attention to the 70 days and nights of cricket we have coming up, kicking off with the Australian women's T20 test against New Zealand straight after the AFL Grand Final on September 29.
"And then it's into the first of our historic summers of cricket, which will set new audience records, and give us a level of consistency and surety on our content for years to come.
"The combination of Big Bash and Test Cricket, live and free, on Australia's number one network gives us a powerful and unprecedented marketing platform for our own content and our advertising partners."
Craig Tiley, Australian Open tournament director and Tennis Australia CEO, said: "2019 marks a new era for Tennis Australia with a new domestic broadcast partner in Nine. We've enjoyed a 40-plus year partnership with the Seven Network and are glad we could reach an agreement which is in all our best interests.
"Our objectives throughout this process have been to focus on meeting changing viewer habits, bringing the entire AO event experience to life on all platforms and capitalising on the digital wave.


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Tech Tuesday: How To Optimise Your CSS and Javascript For Fast Front-end Performance
11 April 2017 |
Masimba Sagwete | About a 9 minute read
Web performance is important because it affects how enjoyable your website is to use. 'Performance' refers to the speed at which web pages are downloaded and displayed on the user's web browser. It is also now a very strong SEO ranking signal and there is strong evidence that it can dramatically affect ecommerce conversions. As described on this Kissmetric blog, an experiment by Marissa Mayer when she was a Google VP, delaying pageload time by 0.5s reduced traffic by 20%.
Whereas it used to be about factors like network, server response time and CPU usage, the advent of cloud services and broadband fibre have brought it to the front-end. Because as well as managing the objective indicators of speed, we also need to manage the perception of speed.
Starting with objective measures, there are 2 key tactics that need to be employed to achieve better performance on the web and they are:
- Reducing file size i.e. limiting how much the user has to download
- Limiting the number of HTTP requests the browser has to send for the user to view your content
File size
The average web page is now around 2MB which if you went back to the 1980s, is the amount of memory taken up by a copy of the ground-breaking video game, Doom. As the pipe (bandwidth) grows, we tend to fill it up by sending more through it. The current BBC homepage which is a 1.2MB download. There's no real difference in downloading time for bbc.co.uk on fibre nowadays versus on 56k dial up a few years ago when it would have been a lot of text amounting to no more than a few tens of KB.
If you aren't YouTube, the primary consumer of bandwidth on your website will be images. To see this in action, compare the AND Digital homepage which at 2.1MB is nearly 5x smaller than the 11.1MB behemoth that is our Club Ada page which has a photo each for all 80 of us.
Club Ada Page and Homepage comparison
There are several things you can do to limit their size:
- Use the right file format i.e. don't do what the BBC did and use the .jpg file extension for a 5MB uncompressed bitmap of their main website logo
- Use HTTP compression for all uncompressed file formats (TIFF, BMP)
- Get rid of useless file information including thumbnails and EXIF data which can be done through APIs like pngcrush, jpegtran, gif2png, gifsicle which will automatically reduce the file size without any perceptible loss in quality
- Use the more efficient 'deflate' compression instead of LZW compression
Outside of images, serve all files that don't have native compression using HTTP compression. This includes files such as:
- HTC (polypill older IE versions)
- RSS feeds – they're just text!
- XML, JSON, robot.txt; also text!
- Fonts – SVG (fallback for fonts especially on mobile phone; they're XML documents so also… text)
- ICO (favicon which is essentially a bitmap)
It may not seem like it would make a big difference but compressing all of the HTML, JS and CSS needed for the AND Digital homepage means the user only has to download 300KB instead of 1.2MB which could easily be the difference between a bounce and a conversion especially on a shaky mobile network.
Number of requests
With bandwidth being less of a factor – especially on the desktop – latency has become more important. Browsers spend a lot of time waiting for responses to their requests e.g. the delay from the West to the East coast of the US is 80ms (light in fibre is 66% of the speed of light) and this adds up serially as you increase the number of files i.e. ten 10kB requests will always be slower to download than one 100kB request. Bigger files also have more redundant data and are more compressible as a result. There are several ways to reduce request count including:
- Batch requests so you can request one big file rather than multiple small ones e.g. aggregate CSS and JS
- Concatenate scripts using automate build managers i.e. combine JS and CSS into one file
- Reduce redirect chains and use URL rewrites instead e.g. http vs https, non-www to www. and/or trailing slashes
- Use CSS sprites to combine all your background images into one big image and detecting disused background images
Set expiration limits on browser cache requests and use conditional GET so the browser doesn't have to wait for a 304 – not modified server response to find out if a new file needs to be downloaded.
More requests means more waiting time
A lot of these problems will be solved when HTTP 2.0 goes mainstream because of 2 key features:
- Request pipelining i.e. the browser will be able to send multiple simultaneous connections without having to wait for each one to be fulfilled
- Being able to push assets before they are requested by the client
Perceived performance
Once you've tackled objective measures of performance, you need to tackle perception of speed or how quick your app 'feels' to a user. In his 1993 book 'Usability engineering', Jakob Nielssen describes 3 speed the user perceives:
- 100ms – which feels instantaneous
- 1s – which is acceptable but feels detectably slow
- 10s – beyond this, your application won't keep the user's attention
There are 3 simple things you can do to make your site feel faster without drastic re-engineering.
- Progressive rendering of images – the concept is essentially allowing the user to see a lower quality version of an image while the higher quality version is downloading then showing the high quality version when it's available. PJPEGs have been around since 2010 but according to Facebook, mobile apps have been slow on the uptake. PJPEGs use multiple, progressively higher quality versions of an image which update as they stream in real time. Being able to see an image immediately, even if it's of low quality, give the user the impression of speed and responsiveness.
- Google goes one step further and pre-renders the dominant colour before the image even loads…
- Animate transitions – Google's material design guidelines describe animations as 'Distraction from what's happening behind the scenes'. This means that if you know your content will take longer than a second to load, you should animate the transition between states so the user focuses on them rather than the fact you've kept them waiting
- Loading spinner – a loading screen with a spinner that runs indefinitely make cause the user to lose their patience for long operations that might take a long e.g. uploading files. A progress bar with real time feedback on progress might be a bit more complex to implement but it's more reassuring for the user
For more of these, this Treehouse blog has comprehensive advice on areas where you can find improvements.
A disciplined approach to managing performance
While the transition from HTTP 1.1 is underway, there are several habits which will help you stay on top of performance, namely:
- Set a performance budget with targets for key metrics including pageload time, time to first pixel and average page download size
- Benchmark regularly to track how you're doing against your budget and where possible, make running these tests part of your integration pipeline
- Automate as much as you can and this can include concatenation tools for your CSS/Javascript build
- Use a CDN which optimises images on the fly and reduces latency by locating servers close to the use e.g. Cloudflare or Kraken.io
- Make sure you have uniform coverage across the site instead of in key places like just on your homepage
- When you've tackled these, make sure you also address issues with perception
Overall, poor performance is software not behaving as intended so the reasons behind this should be treated like any other bug i.e. test early, test often and triage so you know which bug to work on next. It shouldn't be the last thing on the checklist before releasing to production; it should be baked into your development process.
Find out more about web performance in this great 60-minute YouTube video "Optimizing front end web performance like a rockstar" by Billy Hoffman. And for more on perceived performance, check out this highly-rated talk from Spotify's Tobias Ahlin on animation.Read More From This Author
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Family Pigeons, Doves (Columbidae)
Least Concern
Ring-necked Dove (Streptopelia capicola)
French: Tourterelle du Cap German: Gurrtaube Spanish: Tórtola de El Cabo
Other common names: Cape Turtle-dove
Columbam vinaceam var. capicolam
[sic] Sundevall, 1857,
Rondebosch, Cape Province.
Subspecies and Distribution
S. c. electa
(Madarász, 1913) – W Ethiopia.
S. c. somalica
(Erlanger, 1905) – E & SE Ethiopia, Somalia and N Kenya S to R Uaso Nyiro.
S. c. tropica
(Reichenow, 1902) – SW Ethiopia and C Kenya to Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
S. c. onguati
Macdonald, 1957 – SW Angola and N Namibia.
S. c. damarensis
(Hartlaub & Finsch, 1870) – Namibia, Botswana and SW Zimbabwe.
S. c. capicola
(Sundevall, 1857) – W South Africa.
Descriptive notes
25 cm; 106–200 g. Differs from S. vinacea in bluish grey crown, and also in darker underwing. Forehead and face light bluish grey, crown darker than face, a... read more
Advertising call a continuously repeated, fairly high-pitched phrase comprising a short note... read more
Thrives in woodland and open wooded savanna; also frequents plantations and farmland, and regularly... read more
Food and feeding
Essentially a seed-eater but also takes a variety of invertebrates including aphids, locust nymphs, earthworms, termites and weevils;... read more
Season varies locally, but breeding has been recorded in all months in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Pairs occupy breeding territories of c. 0... read more
Ringing studies indicate that most individuals are sedentary; however, from about Sept to late Jan... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. Abundant throughout much of sizeable range; call is one of commonest and most typical sounds of African savanna. Species probably increasing its... read more
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Real Wedding Album: Crystal and Jason
Few combinations rival New Year's Eve, sparkles, and champagne—except, of course, when you add an "I do" to the mix. And when those nuptials come complete with modern black-and-gold decor, vintage touches, and plenty of glitz? We've just died and gone to wedding heaven. Pop a bottle of bubbly and settle in for these gorgeous images from Crystal and Jason's big day, courtesy of Anika London.


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Privacy Policy
The world wide web has us all running for cover, and for good reason but yet we need to be on the internet. Websites are now required to have a Privacy Policy to share with you the data we as business owners collect on our sites. I'm here to tell you WE DON'T. We only collect information that you share with us to do our job. We definitely do not share with anyone, any of your information. We won't ask you for any private information on this site. You will call, email or chat with us but you do not have to provide anything over any venue that makes you uncomfortable. AND we do not EVER share this with anyone.
With that said here is the required Privacy Statements.
Who we are
Our website address is: http://executivecleaningbydesign.com.
Who we share your data with (We Don't) EVER!
We don't. Period. We live in an area where we live with many HIGH PROFILE individuals. They come to our valley to get away from that rat race and we respect that. NO ONE will discuss with ANYONE else who our clients are. Period. It won't come from us. EVER!!
Our team is required to sign a confidentiality agreement along with a non-compete.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor's IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. We don't allow comments on our site. It is a way to breach website security. Its a back door into your web servers. SO Nope not happening.
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Won't happen
Contact forms
We don't have any – you can email or call us anytime.
firstname.lastname@example.com or 406.260.5761 (we answer)
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. Again we don't allow comments so this is null.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day. Not going to happen.
Who we share your data with (We Don't)
We don't. Period. We live in an area where we live with many HIGH PROFILE individuals. They come to our valley to get away from that rat race and we respect that. NO ONE will discuss with ANYONE else who our clients are. Period. It won't come from us. EVER!!
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, (Cough Cough Nope- no comments) the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
What rights you have over your data
If you contact us we do not share but we would keep your information on file for business purposes only. We do not keep it on this site but we have a locked office that we store it in. This does include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. NO NEED
Your contact information, Additional information that we have, we keep in our office not on this website. The staff is the only people who are allowed to view any of it and only the information that they need to do their job. Account information is not one of those. Our Owner and CFO are the only ones with that information. We do not share ANY information with any out side 3rd parties. EVER!!


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Mayhew Library/Addison
Mayhew Library The Mayhew Library called the "Addison Public
Library" when it first opened on January 30, 1892, the library was renamed in
1897 to honor both Calista Wass Mayhew, the daughter of David and Hadassah Wass,
and her husband, Francis L Mayhew, who had generously aided and supported its
growth during its early years. The first library building was on the North Side
of Water Street, in a building that also served as a shoe shop and telegraph
office. The telegraph operator Minnie Wass, was the first librarian, while her
brother, Frank N. Wass, ran a harness and shoe shop in the same building. In
1915 Calista Wass Mayhew purchased the building and the lot on which it stood,
and gave it to the library association. In May 1938, the devastating fire at
Addison Point destroyed the old Mayhew Library. Herbert and Ross Ward, who lost
their house in the fire, donated their vacant lot to the library association.
The present library building was erected on this site, opening to the public on
December 20, 1939. It located on Water St. across from the fire station.
The library currently houses more than 3500 books, 200 video materials and 100 audio materials. There are also many historical documents. Several computers are available with internet access.
Library hours are Wednesdays 1-5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Contact information: Mayhew Library Association, PO Box 152, Addison ME 04606.
Addison residence are able to use several local libraries
including the Peabody Memorial. This library contributes many programs to the
local community such as music and art. The "Art in the Library" series is a self
supporting program that was founded in 2006. It gives the artists of Jonesport,
Beals and Addison a place to display and sell their art work. It also promotes
the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts in our communities and
stresses the importance of art in our lives and the lives of our children. The
program expands and increases library usage and appreciation. Last but not least
it has given the community the opportunity to see the resources available
through the local artists and it serves to develop a communication between
artists themselves.
For more information on the library: www.peabodymemorial.com
The Gallison Memorial library is located at 1292 Main St.( Rt. 1) in the heart of Harrington. It houses about 6300 books with a large collection of audio and video materials. Hours are Monday thru Friday 2:00 p.m.to 6:00 p.m. Contact: 483-4547
HOME History Town Hall Information Meetings/Minutes Tax Information Town Ordinances and Comprehensive Plan Permits/Licenses Schools Churches Business Listing Artist Listing Recreational Land Town Landings Services Libraries Census Data Tide Charts Organizations Social Activities Addison Photos Addison News


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We're here to help...
We are a qualified vendor by the Capital Region Council of Governments (CRCOG) to replace your crumbling foundation.
We understand and respond to your pressures and time constraints. We are experts in planning and executing every facet of your concrete foundation replacement.
In order to apply for the Type 1 claim, here are some helpful links to help you through the process. We also encourage you to call Peter to assist you with the process.
In order to receive the money for a Type 1 claim for us to replace your foundation, you must complete the following steps:
- Hire a "Structural Engineering Services" firm registered in the State of Connecticut to perform a "visual" inspection of your concrete foundation. Haz-Pros, Inc. can schedule an engineering services firm for you. For a CRCOG approved vendor list vendor CLICK HERE
- You may have to get your concrete foundation tested for the presence of pyrrhotite. Two concrete core samples maybe required to be taken and submitted to a "Materials Testing and Laboratory Analysis" vendor for testing. For a list of approved CRCOG vendors CLICK HERE.
- Fill out the Type 1 online application provided by the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company, Inc. (CFSIC) CLICK HERE
- Once your claim is approved by CFSIC, you must obtain two quotes from the approved "Remediation Services" vendor list. Haz-Pros, Inc. will be here to provide you with one of them. CLICK HERE
The process above to apply for the claim money to replace your foundation seems a bit overwhelming. Please know that Peter is here to guide you and your family through the application process and answer any questions you may have. Peter will also be overseeing the construction of your foundation replacement project ensuring the timely return to your home.
We encourage you to review the following documents:
- "For homeowners" located on the navigation bar on the Connecticut Foundation Solutions Indemnity Company (CFSIC) web page CLICK HERE
- The "underwriting and claims criteria" document provided by CFSIC, in particular, the "Replacement Cost Parameters" and the "Underwriting and Claim Adjustment Process" parts 1, 2, 3 CLICK HERE
"A picture won't exceed your expectations. Integrity and years of experience will win that day."
Peter Grinsfelder
Crumbling Foundation Specialist
We Strive to be innovative
- Fully Licensed, Bonded, And Insured
- Licensed OSHA Trained Employees
- Licensed in Connecticut and Massachusetts
- Professional Standards of Health and Safety
- In Business Since 1988
- Efficient and Professional
- Dedicated and Highly Trained Crews
- Expertise in Project Management


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US transport agency the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has announced it will issue more than $318 million in grant funding for consolidated rail infrastructure and safety improvements.
FRA, a US Department of Transportation (DoT) organisation, will assist in funding projects that improve intercity passenger and freight rail transportation safety, efficiency and reliability, such as level-crossing upgrades and the deployment of non-PTC safety technology.
This programme will direct much-needed investment to rural America by ensuring that at least 25 per cent of available funds go to such communities.
Like this story? Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with rail industry news
Preference will also be given to projects with a 50 per cent non-federal funding match from any combination of private, state or local funds.
The DoT will consider how well the project aligns with its key objectives including: supporting economic vitality; preparing for lifecycle costs; and using innovative approaches to improve safety and expedite project delivery.
US transport secretary Elaine Chao said: "The Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure & Safety Improvements grant program seeks to collaborate with private, state and local investments to boost much-needed rail projects across the country and we hope interested parties will apply by the stated deadline."
Read more: Engineers to reinforce floating bridge in Seattle to prepare for light rail


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thecompassedge.net is a web project maintained by Brian Jones to log his and others' experiences while traveling to and working in regions off the standard travel map.
To contact Brian write to firstname.lastname@example.com
there are plenty more photos on this site. please browse the archives
Hadish in the light
Posted by Brian Jones, Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Rain is a blessed thing, particularly in years that have been designated 'drought years'. On top of that there's always something spectacular about a good storm and so the thump of thunder had people running outside to see the rain come hissing down in great sheets. It rained on and off for hours and the most striking thing was the beauty of the storm light that infused everything with a golden glow.
We were on our way to Sodo, a small provincial town in Wolayta which has a telecom office that we hoped to be able to make telephone calls from. Areka, the town in Boloso Sorie where we were living had had no electricity for more than 4 days and it was time to establish some form of contact with the outside world. I took the photo in one of the rare breaks in the rain storm.
Tukel kitchen
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 22, 2003
In contrast to the picture below with the raw meat, this is a typical kitchen in a tukel where meat of any kind, raw or otherwise, is an unheard of luxury. The pot is made from clay and used to boil sweet potato, yam, taro or amicho the root part of the enset plant. For many, root crops make up the largest proportion of the daily diet.
Raw meat
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 22, 2003
This is for those vegetarians amongst you! Raw meat or tre sega is considered a delicacy here in Ethiopia. The meat is brought in great lumps and people dive in and cut it into small, bite sized lumps before dipping it in a spicy, chilli sauce reminiscent of Japanese horse radish sauce, wrapping it in injera (the bread like pancake you can see) and popping it into ones mouth.
The taste is........ok. It tends to be a bit chewy but the taste itself is not too bad although it took some time to overcome the aversion to eating hunks of raw, quivering, uncooked meat. It's supposed to be bad for the worms though :-)
Proportional piling
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 22, 2003
Proportional piling is a technique used to get people to express the different importance of issues, events and things to a particular community. Here we are using beans to represent the total number of people in the community (100 beans in total) and the participants, who are all from the poorest income group called mangkwa are arranging the beans to indicate the rough proportions of people in the four income strata in Bolosso Sorie.
The arrangement of the beans usually involves lengthy and often heated debate and is an incredibly useful tool for answering specific questions of amount, whilst also allowing you to delve deep into the ways in which people conceptualise the world around them. In other words is the arguments around the basic question that reveal more about the situation than the 'answer' itself.
Enset the 'tree against famine'
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 22, 2003
Here you can see the darkwa or home garden of top most wealth strata in Bolosso Sorie. Firstly you note that the house you can see is not a typical tukel ie circular with a thatched roof but is built of wood and mud and has a tin roof. Secondly the green foliage that looks like banana is the enset tree or false banana, which is so typical of the region. Agriculturally the area is known for the 'enset complex' which is a system that depends largely on the use of enset as a staple food. The complex is reliant on a fine balance between livestock ownership and enset, which is kept around the house and benefits fromt the manure supplied by the cattle.
For the system to be fully functioning the household should have both cattle and enset in its immature and mature forms, which are harvested and replanted throughout the year. One of the important problems of the area is that the traditional enset reserves have been erroded by successive droughts and people no longer have access to the enset and cattle they once had.
The team
Posted by Brian Jones, Wednesday, December 3, 2003
Dejene, Tadewos and Tsadiku all members of the nutrition survey team
Wood chopping
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
The wood chopping was taking place in one village in order to provide wood for a new house that was being built.
There seems to be a lot of pine trees in the area and they are often used as a sort of screen around houses to create a private compound.
Abaynesh smiles
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
This is Abaynesh who lives in the Kabele of Hereje in Bolosso Sorie. She was a great help during the nutrition survey and often had the team laughing.
Threshing Teff
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
This is a typical scene at the moment. A group of boys is in the process of threshing teff by piling it in an area that has been beaten flat and then beating the teff stalks with long sticks to release the tiny grains. Often cattle are brought in to walk over the pile as well.
Stooks of Teff waiting to be threshed
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Teff is an extraordinary grain which is used to make the staple food, injera, here in Ethiopia. It's extraordinary because it's so small and it's difficult to believe that it's possible to farm it viably and obtain a sufficient harvest. Now, November, is the main harvest period and it's possible to see these mounds of Teff waiting to be threshed, all over the place
Malaria is killing thousands in Ethiopia in 2003
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Mekonnen is recuperating at home with his son Tadesse. There is currently a huge malaria epidemic in Ethiopia and there has been for the majority of 2003 and Mekonnen is one of its many victims. Whilst he rests at home he is not able to provide for his family. The malaria has to a large extent defined the emergency in Ethiopia during 2003. In a family of 7 people, AT LEAST 5 of them will have been ill. This inevitably includes the productive members of the family who are unable to work. Malaria has also proven to be a very large economic burden as people have been forced to divert existing funds to obtaining treatment or have been forced to sell their productive assets such as animals and land to be able to get medication. Sadly, for those in the very lowest income bracket like Mekonnen, there is no way to get funds and they often go un treated. They either live or they die and many have and continue to die this year. Mekonnen's fever has passed leaving him very weak, thin and in need of rest but thankfully alive. He is lucky that his wife can go out and get food for the family. Many are not so fortunate.
A barrow load of chickens
Posted by Brian Jones, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
I never really thought of chickens as something you shovelled into a wheel barrow but here they are.........
Main street of Areka town in Bolosso Sorie
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
Areka is a small settlement nestled amongst green fields and hills. It's the administrative capital of Bolosso Sorie and attracts a crowd of people on a market day. The main street is a dusty, unmade up affair bustling with people buying and selling produce. There is a healthy population of street goats and street cows and chickens that offer ever present obstacles to movement as they stand placidly in the middle of the road chewing old papers or the odd plastic bag.
Family shot
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
This is a highly posed shot but I like it :-) It's of Yohannes and his family inside their tukel. I'm always amazed at how accomodating people are when we turn up and ask many impertinent questions and want to manhandle their children.
Yohannes acknowledged that this year has been a particularly bad one but that the situation at the present time had improved slightly. However, there is fear over what the future will bring and with only 0.125 hectares of land to farm, on which he plants teff and sweet potatos, Yohannes struggles to support his family.
Taking an arm circumference measurement
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
The Mid Upper Arm Circumference or MUAC is often used to rapidly assess nutritional status as it has a strong and proven corellation to risk of death.
In this picture Miserich is holding Tadewos for Tsadiku to take his MUAC measurement.
Child having his arm circumference measured
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
MUAC or Mid Upper Arm Circumference is often used as a way of quickly assessing nutritional status as there is a strong and proven corellation between the muac measurement and the risk of death.
In this case Miserich is holding Tadewos whilst he has his muac taken by Tsadiku.
Nutrition survey
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
Another picture of a child being weighed with a 25 kg Salter scale. The scale is being held up by two sturdy assistants and Tsadiku is taking the measurement and calling out the weight to be noted down by Dejene sitting off picture to the left.
child being weighted during a nutrition survey
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
I recently did a nutrition survey in Bolosso Sorie which followed a standard 30 x 30 cluster methodology to estimate the prevalence of acute malnutrition in the area. For the survey we used 6 teams of people to measure 900 children randomly chosen from 44 kabeles (administrative units) in Bolosso Sorie. The survey indicated a prevalence of acute malnutrition of 8.7 % which is in line with previous surveys but still about 2 times what it should be for the time of year.
The photo shows a young child in the weighing pants being weighed. Most of the time children hate being suspended in the pants but this one seems to be not too bothered. He turned out to be a bouncingly healthy child.....
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
It's incredible to see small children encrusted in flies and sadly it's an all too common sight here. It's difficult to advocate for more washing when water is such an issue but it's clear that a frenetic burst of hygiene would go a long way towards solving the fly problem.
Hand dug well
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
Where do you get water from? Well the majority gather it from rivers or springs, both of which are 'unprotected' water sources and are often highly contaminated. Some people have access to wells and this is an example of a hand dug well of around 30 m deep. The well has been capped and a large clay pot used to form the mouth. The woman is dropping a long rope with a tin can on the end to pull up water which has to meet the drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning needs of her family.
What do people eat?
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
It's November and the optimum time for food security in the area. November is the time of the main harvest after the rains of August and September. People have maize in their stores and are harvesting sweet potato and both can be seen in photo, boiled and served for all to dip in and take. The rolls of grey are injera made, in this case, from a mixture of teff and maize. For many this is all there is to eat, day in and day out.
One of the main cash crops of the area is coffee and people are often to be found roasting the beans and making a heady brew which is taken not with sugar but with salt. The first time I got given a cup I nearly spat it across the room! Another interesting variation is the use of butter in coffee which imparts a somewhat decidedly cowy overtone to the whole experience.
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
It's really striking how different the tukels often are inside with some being very dark or very basic and others being light and airy with an inherent sense of order. In fact the light tukels are usually a sign of relative poverty because the family does not have the money to buy the grass or wood to fully insulate the walls and thatch.
This belonged to a man with advanced elephantitis who had been sick with malaria for some time and unable to work. He was sitting at home with his 2 year old son whilst his wife went to the near by market to try her hand at some petty trading to bring in a meagre income.
Inside a tukel
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
This is a picture taken inside one of the tukels and shows the cow tethered in one area of the hut, a chicken wondering around in the other.
Beehive Tukel
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
There is a fantastic collection of huts or tukels in Ethiopia and every region has a distinctive style. In
The tukel houses a family, usually consisting of the head of the household (usually male) and his wife (or ONE of his wives in the case of Bolosso Sorie) and a range of children. It's not uncommon to find 2 or even three children below five in the house.
Each hit is divided inside with a distinct area for a cow or ox and a goat in the richer households. Chickens are also a common household occupant and are perch themselves in the rafters or in special nests attached to the walls.
Green famine
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
It's strange to look at the landscape here in Bolosso Sorie woreda, Wolayta, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples region, Southern Ethiopia, in all its greeness and know that there is a real problem of food insecurity that undoubtedly led to the death of and further impoverishment of the inhabitants of the area this year. When you look at the environment and see green hills and fields with maize, sweet potato or teff (ethiopian grain used to make injera, the uniquely Ethiopian fermented bread), it's difficult to imagine that people could go hungry. However, Bolosso Sorie has one of the highest population densities in Ethiopia and the average land holding is less than 1/4 of a hectare with almost 1/3rd of people not having any land at all. So, depite the apparent greeness of the place people find it incredibly difficult to produce even a fraction of the food they need to sustain themselves and their families...........which means that they must purchase their food, which means you need cash income, and the opportunities for cash income are few and far between........
Sunset in Wolayta
Posted by Brian Jones, Monday, December 1, 2003
Evennings and early mornings are incredibly beautiful, infused with a warm light that flatters everything. This is a typical evenning scene of cows being brought in for the evenning to the tukel, or houses that they share with their human masters. A feature of the area is the dust and everything that moves leaves a tell tale trail behind it often looking like smoke. The picture captures the dramatic scenes of dust trails and evenning light.
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Film preview anyone?
This is the documentary accompanying Sebastian Junger's latest book – War.
I reviewed it recently for The Army Rumour Service
For 15 months, Sebastian Junger followed a single platoon based at remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan. His objective was both simple and ambitious: to convey what war actually feel likes.
This is a bloody, brutal account of soldiers who were born to fight. It made me think about war in a weird way. Bizarrely, I had a lot more empathy for the civilians of Afghanistan than I had thought about before. Not the enemy, not the Taliban but the village dwellers to whom the US soldiers must seem like aliens. The soldiers are thugs for hire with no sense of why or who. They are full of anger and hate if they weren't fighting here, they'd be fighting in the streets, when they are not fighting war they are fighting each other. It's made me realise that there is a part of the male psyche that needs to fight with something or someone; men need war. To some extent sport fulfils these needs on a day-to-day level but I think there is some primitive hunting instinct in males that makes them need to fight. The fighting seems barbaric and futile with no real purpose. It seems to be exacerbating the problem not improving it and I can see why. It makes me think of Star Wars – the USA are the imperial Storm-troopers – and the Taliban are Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance. But what I find most frustrating is that you never see what the enemy looks like and why they are fighting. It's like a terrible horror film where the enemy is so gruesome it is never seen, it jumps out and grabs people and you hear the screams. But for the soldier it's just bullets, fighting, death, grief, anger, sleeping and wanking, no pause, and repeat.
The body count is high. Junger composes the narrative superbly, knitting a continual compilation of fact and observation. It's messy, gritty, dirty and violent. It's a must have read. Hesitate not one moment and purchase immediately.
If you would like to attend RSVP to: Anna Sissons – firstname.lastname@example.com
Me and London City Mum will be there. The more the merrier.


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The best part of the week is Saturday mornings. They're almost magical. The cool breeze, sunshine, birds singing and dew drying on the trees and little Lottie holding my hand as we walk up the road to our new favourite cafe in our new neighbourhood.
The fresh flowers, the children running around, parents enjoying their time together over lattes and chia blueberry muffins. My lovely husband and I restocked our little cellar on Saturday. Sipping Merlot over homemade pizza after the little one goes to bed is just perfection. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
Liz x


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Recently I wrote about a few ways Mac users could track their Wi-Fi networks. The apps I use are time honored and visual methods to check on networks you use and those that are nearby. Here's another way to see your Mac's network traffic.
The app is called NetWorker and it simply displays your local network's incoming and outgoing traffic, both in the Mac's Menubar as a handy utility available from within any Mac app, as well as a fully visual look at what's coming in and going out.
Click For Bandwidth
Every Mac connected to a network functions about the same way. There's incoming traffic from the local network or the internet. There's outgoing traffic from your Mac to the local network or the internet. What NetWorker does is display either one or both so you can see how much bandwidth has passed at any given time with little more than a click.
Behold the geeky version:
Actually, you don't even have to click.
NetWorker resides in the Mac's Menubar so it's always visible. The green arrow pointing down and the red arrow pointing up tells you how fast incoming and outgoing data travels at the moment.
You can also view the incoming and outgoing data over a period of time.
A number of pre-defined widgets let you choose which information is displayed. Whatever network your Mac is connected to at the moment is automatically detected by NetWorker and displayed appropriately.
You can choose to display the graphic window over other app windows on your Mac's screen, adjust the refresh interval as needed, choose between bit and byte modes, and more. But not much more.
NetWorker is mostly self explanatory and a bargain at 99-cents.
In the end, what you get is a simple view of incoming and outgoing data to and from your Mac. What you don't get, and it's unfortunate and worth a few bucks, is which applications are using how much data. iPhone and iPad have such a battery shaming list, but there's nothing that displays bandwidth shaming on a per application basis.
I'd pay extra for that.


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Norfolk Pine
My beautiful Norfolk pine has suddenly drooped. all branches are pointing down but are still green and healthy!!!!! I have not moved it any and its been in the same place for 2 years... I'm afraid to water it or for that matter, do anything to it..... Please help???
Certified GKH Gardening Expert
Has anything recently changed with the environment? Has it been excessively dry? You can take a sample or pictures to your local extension, and they will be able to give you more information on it.
Here is a link that will help you find your local extension service: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/extension-search/
You must be logged into your account to answer a question.
If you don't have an account sign up for an account now.


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It's summer and the vegetables are thriving! Well, at least that's the way it looks like at the local farmers markets! The selection of various vegetables, greens and herbs has been excellent this season. One… More
Torta di farina di cocco – {Coconut Flour Cake}
Recently I was thumbing thru one of my many cookbooks that span the variety of cuisines across Italy. A recipe in Acquacotta from Emiko Davies cookbook caught my eye.
The recipe is a simple bunt cake make from chestnut flour, apparently used within the Tuscany region for this recipe. After realizing I could not find chestnut flour anywhere I decided to improvise and see how things turned out.
I made the cake using coconut flour. The result was a beautiful dense cake that surprisingly was simple to make and even simpler to eat!
Here's what you'll need:
5.5 oz of room temperature butter (unsalted)
7 oz of sugar
Zest of 1 orange
6 eggs (the recipe called for 4 but I found adding two more worked better)
1 – 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 – 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 cup milk (the recipe called for 1/2 cup but I found 1 full cup worked better)
2 tablespoons of rum
Start by taking your butter,coconut flour, all-purpose flour & baking powder, mixing them in a mixer until well incorporated. It's important that your butter is room temperature – having it cold or just out of the fridge will cause you problems.
Add in 1 egg at a time to your mix, allowing your stand mixer to get the mix to a nice, smooth and almost pastel color. Slowly add in your milk until well incorporated.
Zest 1 full orange and add in the mix along with your choice of rum.
Allow your stand mixer to run on slow for about 1 – 2 minutes until you have a thick & dense batter. The batter should not be runny like a cake batter, it should stand on its own and be thick.
Liberally grease a bunt pan. Pour your batter into the pan and go over with a spatula so the batter sits evenly on the bottom.
Set your over to 350 degrees and allow to bake for roughly 20 minutes, or until you can stick a knife thru and have it come out cleanly.
Take out of the oven and allow to cool.
In a small sauce pan put 1 cup of sugar, a teaspoon or two of confectioners sugar and 2 teaspoons of water. Put on the stove on low until you notice the sugar is caramelizing. Carefully pour over top your now cooled cake. Add a slice of orange and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary & some powdered sugar to finish the cake off nicely.
Sarde a Beccafico – {Sicilian Stuffed Sardines}
A while back I came across one of the many food & travel docs-series on Netflix. It just so happened to be Ainsley Eats the Streets. I had never known of him before or seen his shows in Britain. After devouring the entire series he quickly became one of my most favorite television chefs. He exudes joy and it shows both in his television programs and in his cooking.
One of the episodes in the series was his visit to Sicily. During the show he prepared a fairly easy recipe of sardines stuffed with a variety of ingredients. I did a little research on the recipe and it's fairly straightforward and easy to compose. I am not entirely positive there is a single traditional recipe for these sardines so I took the basic elements of what I could find online and on the show.
Here's how I did it:
Before you do anything you need to find fresh local sardines. Obviously you probably won't find them as fresh as in Sicily but local farmers markets should suffice. Fresh ingredients is the key here!
For an appetizer suitable for 2-4 people:
1.5lbs – 2 lbs of fresh sardines (Ask you fish monger or farmers market to scale them – It will save you a lot of extra work at home.)
Start off by cleaning your sardines, removing the head and innards along with the small back bone that runs thru the entire length of the small fish. An easy way to do this is make a small cut underneath the tip of the backbone and use your fingers to pull it out.
You will notice sardines have a lot of small little bones that run alongside the backbone as well. It's up to you if you want to spend the time to remove each one but most are small enough that they will dissolve in the cooking process by itself.
Once your sardines are cleaned, half them with a sharp knife and set aside. I like to run them under cold water again after I cut them in half.
In a non-stick pan you want to lightly toast 1/2 cup of pine nuts along with a 1.5 cup of bread crumbs (preferably seasoned). Add in 1/2 cup of raisins along with another 1/2 cup of finely chopped parsley. Mix together until warm.
In a large bowl add 1.5 cups of EVOO and the juice of 1 lemon. Slowly add your dry ingredients, mixing slowly to incorporate well.
Take roughly 1 spoonful of the mixture and stuff each sardine. Carefully roll each one up securing it with a toothpick placing it carefully in an oiled glass dish. I've found small square glass dishes work the best. Once your dish is full drizzle some EVOO on top and add in a few springs of fresh rosemary and bay leaves. (No salt – remember the sardines have enough saltiness to them already naturally.)
Place in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. (Don't forget to remove the toothpicks!)
You can add a dash of balsamic vinegar for that extra little kick to this lovely little delight from the sea.
Cacio e Pepe
Cheese & Pepper. What could be better? I dare you to find a better, more satisfying combination of simple ingredients when combined with the right technique that make for one of the best and most beloved pasta dishes ever created.
I first tasted Cacio e Pepe the proper way – while in Rome. I remember sitting in a little side street restaurant, the rain pouring down outside and not another patron in the joint. The two waiters huddled in the corner looking anxiously up at the small tv where their beloved Roma futbol club was playing a match. I remember looking around the restaurant after my first bite, as if my head was on a swivel desperately searching for someone else to share in my new found discovery of pasta I had never dreamed could taste as good.
Needless to say I devoured my first experience of Cacio e Pepe during my time in Rome, returning home to eventually attempt the creamy and peppery dish myself in my humble little kitchen.
I'll spare you the details of my first few attempts. I'll just say this – it took me a number of times preparing this dish to get it correct. The term correct could easily be replaced with acceptable. I still cant get the dish to taste as incredible as it did in Rome, nor should I ever expect to.
This dish in theory is super simple, utilizing only a few ingredients. That was the easy part for me. The technique and preparation was the sticking point that seemed to cause me to stumble every darn time. Time after time I managed to make simple mistakes in the preparation of this dish leaving me frustrated and perplexed each time. I pushed on and came up with this technique that seems to work for me the best, with little notes along the way as always.
- 1lb of spaghetti or long pasta
- Fresh ground pepper
- Fresh Pecorino Romano Cheese
- EVOO (optional)
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Some recipes call for adding salt to your pasta water. I've found this to give the overall taste of the pasta afterwards over the top salty. Remember, the Pecorino Romano already has a lot of salt in it and for me that was all the saltiness I needed in the dish overall.
In a separate large bowl mix your Pecorino Romano (about 1 – 1/2 cups) and your freshly ground pepper, incorporating nicely.
Cook your pasta until al dente. Drain your pasta but keep some of the pasta water over low heat. Add a large spoonful to your large bowl of cheese and pepper, stirring vigorously. Continue to add spoonfuls of hot pasta water until your cheese and pepper mix becomes more of a paste. Add in your steaming hot pasta, mixing continuously. Continue mixing everything together until you get a creamy coating on your pasta.
I've found the cheese can lump up if your pasta water/pasta is not hot enough. If this happens, continue to add small amounts of hot pasta water and continue to mix until your result is nice a creamy throughout. Add additional pepper as needed.
Note: The technique you use is where this recipe will come together or get ruined – as I have found out many times before. The crucial aspect of this preparation is to make sure the cheese melts evenly and coats your pasta in a thick and creamy sauce. Don't get discouraged as I did at first, wondering why I was messing up what was supposed to be such an easy recipe. If at first it doesn't come out, simply try again until you work out the kinks in your preparation – because ultimately this dish can easily become one of your most favorite foods to impress your friends with!
Vanilla & Cinnamon Milk Tart
When it comes to anything involved with pastry my anxiousness begins to slowly creep up. I am fairly competent at pasta dough – but pastry dough is another story! That said, I am getting better and learning more each time I set out for another baking adventure in the Salt & Starch kitchen.
Recently I was thumbing thru one of my cookbooks I had admittedly neglected for some time – The Jamie Oliver Comfort Food cookbook. As I flipped thru the pages I really began to fall in love with this book and remembered why I bought it in the first place. The recipes along with the food photography are incredible. I found myself stuck on the Milk Tart recipe as it caught my attention last Sunday. I began to read up on it to see if I could give it a go.
From my research online I found that Milktart or "Melktert" is traditionally a South African pastry that is delicate, sweet and creamy. I was really intrigued and read a number of different recipes online along with the Jamie Oliver recipe from the book. I decided I would give it a try, putting my little personal touches on it as I do with everything I cook (or bake in this instance). In general I followed the Jamie Oliver recipe which was quite simple but I've included notes along the way which were not in the cookbook that I found helpful.
Here's what you will need:
- 1 2/3 Cups all-purpose flour, extra for dusting
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup of 2% milk
- 2 1/2 cups 2% milk
- 1 Vanilla Bean
- 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup superfine sugar (see my notes)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Making pastry dough is fairly straightforward, although I find it difficult at times given the little kneading necessary. I always catch myself kneading it too much.
Pastry Dough:
Start off with running your flour and confectioners sugar thru a sieve into a large metal bowl. Cut your butter into small cubes and then combine your mixture together gently. Add your egg and a pinch of high quality sea salt. (I use Maldon). Mix for another 30 seconds and then add in your milk slowly. Continue mixing together until you have what looks like a very flaky or 'scruffy' ball – as indicated in the Jamie Oliver cookbook. Again, this is where I struggle because I want that dough to look shiny and golden like pasta dough! Remind yourself it is pastry dough and not pasta dough! Set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.
The next part is where I screwed up originally when making this pastry. While my pastry dough was cooling in the fridge I began making the filling. Big mistake! Allow some patience (something I typically do not have much of) with this recipe and let your pastry dough to fully cool in the fridge before you do anything else. This is a recipe you can't skip ahead on and get away with.
Ok, so now it's been 30 minutes and you're chomping at the bit to get this thing moving! Take out a 9 or 10 inch tart pan and spray some PAM into it, making sure the sides are coated well. You can use other oils here as well but the baking PAM spray I have found works well. Remove your pastry dough from the fridge and begin rolling it out to roughly 1/4″ thickness. Remember, this isn't pasta dough so your dough is going to be flaky and crumbly & possibly sticky. Continue to put your rolling pin skills to the test until you have a nice even section of dough rolled out – large enough to cover your tart pan. It's ok to sprinkle all-purpose flour on your surface and dough throughout this process – as your dough is probably a bit sticky. Use the flour to tighten it up if needed.
Roll or place your rolled out pastry dough over top of your tart pan, being sure to push in nicely along all the edges inside. Cut the excess dough around the edge of the tart pan. Take a fork and punch holes through the base of the dough. (A tiny detail I forgot to do my first time making this dish! Poking holes in the bottom will help the dough to cook evenly, prevent it from sticking to the bottom, and will also help the baking process of the filling.) Pop the tart pan into your freezer for 20 minutes to firm up.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remove your tart pan from the freezer and place a sheet of tin foil over top of your tart pan pastry, being sure to push into all the corners gently. Take some rice or baking beans and fill up the tart pan, again putting enough into the pan to get into all the nooks and crannies. I should mention this process confused the hell of me when I read it in the cookbook. The purpose of this process is to cook the pastry dough somewhat before adding the forthcoming filling. This will allow the dough to ultimately be fully cooked. If you do not do this step your dough will not cook fully in the oven the first go around, leaving you with a doughy mess.
Take your tart pan (now filled with rice or baking beans on top of a tin foil sheet) and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove from your oven and dispose of the rice or beans and tin foil. Place back into the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes uncovered.
While your pastry is in the oven for the 2nd time, you can begin working on your filling. Pour your milk into a sauce pan and place on the stove over low heat. Cut your vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds, adding to the milk on the stove. Throw in the bean stalks as well. (You will remove them later). Allow to simmer for roughly 15 minutes.
In a separate bowl beat your eggs, cornstarch, all-purpose flour & superfine sugar.
Note: Superfine Sugar is NOT confectioners sugar. I have found that superfine sugar can be somewhat difficult to find at a local grocery store. If you cannot find superfine sugar you can easily pop it into a food processor and blend on high for roughly 30 seconds or until the sugar is visibly powdery and much more fine. Your food processor blades will not like this but it's a work around if you don't have access to store bought superfine sugar.
Remove your milk & vanilla from the stove which should now be nicely simmering. Remove the vanilla stalks from the sauce pan. Add in your butter, mixing continuously until fully melted. The recipe in the cookbook called for 1 'pat' of butter – which was again confusing to me. What the hell is a 'pat' of butter. The term is subjective from what I found. I used 1/2 cup of unsalted butter cut into small cubes which worked nicely. Most recipes would probably say that is too much but it worked for me.
Next gradually stir in your flour/egg/cornstarch mixture into the milk, stirring continuously until fully incorporated. At this juncture I added my own little personal touch to the recipe and put in a dash of vanilla powder. Vanilla powder can be difficult to get but probably can be acquired at any good spice store or farmer's market.
Place your sauce pan back on stove over med-low heat. Here is another point where your patience will pay off dividends. Continue to stir until your mixture becomes thick. This usually takes 10-15 minutes. Your mixture will get thick and become a pudding like consistency. Once at this point, remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes – or until it is not steaming hot anymore.
Carefully pour your filling into your pastry tart pan, being sure not to overfill the filling above the rim of your tart pan. Sprinkle some ground cinnamon on top and bake for another 20-30 minutes.
*The Jamie Oliver recipe added some glazed caramel to this dish. I gave it a try and after a disastrous first attempt which included ruining the first tart and nearly burning my thumb off from the glaze – I managed to get it right. If you would like to add a little caramel glaze to this tart it is actually fairly easy – but the timing is the important part.
For the optional caramel glaze:
Allow your tart to fully bake before preparing the glaze. Your tart should be cooling comfortably on the kitchen counter before you start your glaze.
Take 1 cup of regular sugar and a splash of water and put into a small sauce pan over med heat. Stir regularly until your sugar begins to thicken both in consistency and color. Continue to stir until you have a beautiful golden brown color of caramel and the thickness is still workable. Once the consistency is thick but still 'pour-able', remove from the stove and carefully pour over top of your now finished tart.
Note: This is where I burned my finger horribly the first time I did this. The glaze might not look hot but it is like lava! – trust me! Be careful during this step!
Allow your tart to fully cool – for a few hours before even thinking about removing it from the tart pan or serving. The best course of action I have found here is to let it cool on the counter for a few hours and then stick it in the fridge overnight. The subtle flavors of the creamy filling will come thru better the next day after it's been cooling for a while. You'll be left with a delicate, creamy and impressive pastry dish which you can add creme fraiche too, decorate with fresh blueberries or simply with the caramel glaze.
Fish Sauce Spare Ribs
This is a go-to dish for me. I absolutely love Fish Sauce Spare Ribs. I'll make a wild guess and say you might have never tried fish sauce spare ribs? Am I right? If so, read on!
Put down the BBQ sauce and give this incredibly easy recipe a try for a super flavorful take on spare ribs you won't forget.
*Some of the recipes I share on Salt & Starch outline exact measurements for cooking certain things. I share what works for me and what doesnt. For this entry I am mostly leaving it up to you to figure out. There are many variations I have found when preparing this dish so what better way to figure out what works for you! When I first cooked FSSR's I used the now defunct Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipe cookbook.
After a few attempts I of course changed up the recipe slightly to suit what I felt made a better result. But that's the beauty of cooking – experimentation with flavors, spices, amounts, and preparation until you get it just right for your tastebuds. So that said, below is a general outline of what you need. Feel free to add, take away and tweak the recipe to make it yours.
*Note: If you are not familiar with Fish Sauce I suggest you read this quick little article first.
It's packs a sweet, powerful and funky flavor to dishes and it can easily be overused on your first few attempts cooking with it – I mention that based on experience!
So, my general rule of thumb with Fish Sauce is 'less is more'. The powerful flavors of the sauce will still come thru in the dish you prepare and as mentioned above – you can always tweak your amounts to your flavor profiles as you get accustomed to using Fish Sauce as a main ingredient.
General Ingredients suggested:
- 2 Racks of Spare Ribs (St.Louis cut if possible)
- 3/4 Cup of Fish Sauce (Found at most Asian supermarkets)
- 1 Cup Sugar
- Lime Juice
- Fresh Ginger, minced
- Kosher Salt
How To:
Mix together in a large bowl 1/4 cup of your fish sauce and 1/4 cup of sugar. Rub each rack of ribs liberally with the mixture. Arrange each rack separately on its own baking sheet, wrapping each rack in foil – crimping the foil at the top.
Now the recipe I followed originally indicated to bake at 350 Degrees until tender but not falling apart, around 90 minutes. For my kitchen and stove I found this to be too long and the ribs were falling apart by then. I cook mine for roughly 70 minutes at 350 degrees, checking them every so often to make sure they are not overcooking.
Remove from the oven and let the ribs rest in their foil pouches for at least 20 minutes.
While your ribs are cooling, finish preparing the remaining ingredients using the general outline below:
Combine the remaining sugar, water and salt into a sauce pan over medium heat. Add some of the lime juice and stir. I like to add just a little bit extra lime juice because I like the 'tartiness' it brings forth in the mix. Continue stirring for roughly 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add your ginger. Gently swirl the pan to incorporate the ginger. (You can also add garlic as an extra kick as well)
Add a bit more lime juice and another 1/2 cup of the fish sauce. Lucky Peach's recipe calls for adding sambal at this stage if you are so inclined to. Add a dash of pepper and allow to bubble over low heat, stirring gently to incorporate. You are making a 'Fish Sauce Caramel'.
Repackage your rack of ribs into new foil wraps, arranging them meat side up on the baking sheet. Take a brush and liberally brush some of the fish sauce onto the ribs. Roast for 5-10 minutes, remove and baste with more of your sauce. Continue this process until you have exhausted all your sauce giving your ribs a shiny glaze with a nice char.
Let cool for 15 minutes, cut into slices and enjoy!
How to make Challah Bread
I am no baker, that's for sure. However, I have made my fair share of bread in the past and I continue to bake bread occasionally all while trying to understand the magical chemistry that occurs between yeast, water, flour, etc.
Challah bread is a beautiful way to start making bread, and it's fun to make! It's rich texture along with a very slight hint of sweetness can be noticed when trying it for the first time. It's recipe is straightforward and the end result is almost always impressive to look at. I particularly like making challah bread on occasion because I can never seem to get it just right. My braids always open up on top but the end result still looks fantastic and most importantly the taste is great.
Here's how to do it:
- Ingredients: 1 loaf
- 1 cup water – best if lukewarm or room temperature
- 2 teaspoons of dry yeast – you can use active dry but I tend to use the instant yeast
- 4 to 4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons of salt (regular salt, not sea salt)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1-2 large egg yolks separated – (Save the egg white in a small bowl, set to the side)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil such as Canola oil – (Do not use olive oil here!)
How to:
The first step you need to do is to dissolve your yeast. Place your yeast in a small bowl with the water, adding a little pinch of sugar. Mix well until all is incorporated. At this point you want to let your bowl stand for 5-10 minutes. The yeast should be doing its magic and you should see a cloudy or frothy layer form across the top of the water. If you do not see this your yeast has most likely expired and you will need to start over.
Mix your dry ingredients: Place your 4 cups of flour, your sugar and salt into your stand mixer bowl. Make a well in the middle of your flour and add the oil, eggs and egg yolk. Pour the yeast mixture into the mix and stir together with a wooden spoon until you get a messy dough.
*You can add sprinkles of dry flour as you go – that will help with the wetness of the mix and will assist in it all coming together. (Don't go overboard however with adding more dry flour at this step – use it sparingly to assist with the dough coming together).
With a stand mixer, fix the dough hook and knead the dough on low speed for roughly 6-8 minutes. If you do not have a stand mixer you can knead by hand for 10 minutes. If the dough feels sticky or wet you can sprinkle dry flour into the mix as you continue to knead. The goal is to get a silky smooth texture that easily forms a ball.
Once the dough is kneaded and form nicely, place the ball of dough into an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for roughly 1-2 hours. The dough needs to double in size – use this visual measure of the indication it is risen enough.
Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Stretch each part to roughly 14-16 inches in length creating 'ropes'. Many times while doing this you will notice the ropes tend to shrink up. If this happens let them rest for 5 minutes or so giving the gluten more time to relax.
For a 3-stranded challah you want to gather the ropes at the top, pinching together. Braid the 3 ropes together (as if braiding hair) making sure your braid is relatively tight.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place your braided challah on top and sprinkle with a little dry flour. Place a kitchen towel over top and let rest for roughly 1 hour in a warm and dry place.
While your braided challah is still resting (roughly 20 minutes before you put it in the oven), add a little water to your egg whites that you set aside from earlier. Whisk the mixture gently. Brush and coat the challah bread with the egg wash making sure you get into all the crevices and especially on top.
Pre-Heat your oven to 350 F.
Bake for roughly 30-35 minutes, checking every so often to ensure the top is evenly being baked. The challah should be browned thoroughly on top.
Let the Challah cool on a baking rack until just warm. Serve & enjoy!
*You can add caraway seeds to the top before baking to add a little spicier flavor if desired.
Verdure Gratinate
Baked vegetables with bread crumbs is one of the easiest side dishes you can prepare. I love this dish because it sets up perfectly for new cooks. It allows for a newbie in the kitchen to practice their knife skills and prepare an incredibly easy and flavorful dish almost every time within minutes.
The other beautiful aspect of this dish is you can use virtually any vegetables you like. You're not bound by only a few certain vegetables. So, that said – pick your favorites and get started! I'll show you how …
Common veggies I like to use:
- Eggplant
- Peppers (Green, Red & Yellow)
- Zuchinni
- Onions
- Tomato
- Fresh herbs of your choice. Parsley, Oregano & Marjoram work wonderfully.
- Salt & Pepper (Try to use high quality salt, not iodized store bought salt. Good salt such as Maldon Sea Salt or other sea salts make a huge difference in cooking. Freshly ground black pepper should also be a staple in your kitchen)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil. (Don't skimp on quality here either. Get the good stuff)
- Bread Crumbs – roughly about 1-1/2 cups
How to:
Take your fresh herbs and put your knife skills to the test, getting them fully chopped finely. Once you have a lovely mix of herbs (finely chopped) add them to your bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl – stirring well to make sure the herbs are fully incorporated with the the bread crumbs.
Cut your veggies roughly 1/4″ in thickness, or a bit thinner depending on your preference. This is another good exercise for your knife skills because you will have a few different vegetables to cut. Make your cuts even focusing on even lengths for all your veggies. This will make your dish look even better when its plated. (see photos)
Place your cut vegetables on a baking sheet that has been drizzled with a little EVOO, spreading them out evenly. Don't overcrowd them on the baking sheet. Sprinkle your breadcrumb mix on top of the veggies but don't go crazy here putting more than is needed. This is a common mistake, one I committed the first time I made this side dish. If you put too many bread crumbs on top you'll be left with burnt vegetables and a mushy breadcrumb pile on top. Less is more in this situation.
Drizzle some EVOO over top of the vegetables to finish. Bake for roughly 45 minutes at 375 F until breadcrumbs are browned on top.
Sprinkle a little high quality sea salt on top and serve!
Smoked Duck with Fresh Herbs
Last week I finally managed to get my garden all taken care of. I planted a plethora of fresh herbs, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and even threw in a couple sunflower plants for good measure. With the weather on the east coast lately I came out to my garden yesterday and had fresh rosemary, basil and cilantro already ready for the picking!
I've had a frozen duck in my freezer for a while now, just waiting for the right time to cook it. I figured it was time to de-thaw it and give it a whirl. I decided to smoke it on my bbq using indirect heat (setting the duck on the opposite side of where the coals are) and let it cook on low for a few hours outside.
This recipe is open to interpretation because essentially you can prepare this duck any way you prefer. A lot of frozen ducks come with a traditional orange glaze you can use for flavor. I used the orange glaze along with some extra soy sauce and a bit of honey to combine for a homemade glaze. I utilized my herbs from the garden and put fresh cilantro, basil and rosemary atop the duck.
I got the charcoals going pretty well, until they were glowing while I set two small foil tins next to them on the lower level of my grill. I filled the tins with apple juice.
I set the duck on the opposite side of the charcoals, on top of the foil tins as shown in the photos. I checked the duck approximately every 45 minutes or so, making sure the temperature stayed below 200 degrees. The total cooking time on this duck was around 3 hours with a couple glazings in between. I removed the now glowing duck from the grill after a nice char formed and I wrapped it in tin foil for roughly another hour to continue cooking.
And there you have it – a nice and easy Sunday dinner prepared and ready to go!
*If you're adventurous you can smoke the neck, liver and any innards left in a small tin foil pouch alongside the duck. *pictured
Funfetti Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Baking doesn't have to be difficult. Many times it is. Many times I've stared thru the little glass door to the oven, nervously hoping I didn't overfill the cake pan with batter. Inevitably when the batter pours over the edge of the pan I reconsider why I even attempted baking a cake in the first place (again).
But it doesn't have to be difficult or nerve-wracking. After a few attempts and failures at making a layer cake I've managed to figure out some easy steps you can use also to bake your next cake.
Today I decided to give the all to popular 'Funfetti' cake a try. It's all the rage on the foodie shows, and perhaps the funnest cake one can bake without too much hassle.
Here are a few easy steps to follow:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Buy 3 boxes of cake mix from the store. (You can make your own but remember – this is the easy recipe option!)
Follow the easy instructions on the cake mix box which usually is 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, cake batter and 3 eggs. If you have a stand mixer use that option, as it's easier to mix together with a stand mixer rather than try to mix it together old school style by hand.
Once the batter is mixed thoroughly add up to 1/2 cup of sprinkles into the batter, allowing the mixer to get them well incorporated within the mix.
Take three 8″ cake pans and coat them liberally with either PAM cooking spray or Crisco.
Pour the batter into the cake pan being sure not to overfill the pan – a common mistake!
(Note: if you overfill the batter into the cake pan you will quickly have a mess in your oven and unfortunately might need to start over after cleaning up the mess)
Bake all (3) filled cake pans in the oven at 350 degrees for 18-23 minutes depending on your oven. (I check the center of the cake with a dry knife every 5 minutes or so after the first 10 minutes in the oven)
The next step is the frosting. Personally I am not a huge fan of over frosting. For this recipe I decided to make a Vanilla Buttercream Frosting – just enough to fill the layers of the cake.
In your clean mixer add 3 cups of confectioners sugar, 3 tbsp of Vanilla extract, 1/3 unsalted butter that is room temperature. Start the mixer allowing the ingredients to incorporate fully. Slowly add a tablespoon of whole milk as your mixture comes together until the texture is creamy and soft. (see photo below). Put the frosting mix in the fridge while your cakes finish off in the oven.
Finally, remove your cakes allowing them to cool for at least 30 minutes before you remove them from their pans. I like to cut the the dome tops off the cakes so everything is nice and even. Take your frosting out of the fridge allowing it to return to room temp. It needs to be room temp to spread on the cake – if it's too cold or stiff you will tear the cake very easily.
Liberally spread the buttercream frosting on the first layer, add the second layer, and if you choose to the top layer. For me, as mentioned earlier, I only like a little frosting so I decided to only incorporate frosting to layer the cakes but not to top the cake or for the sides. Plus I like the open top showing off the sprinkles!
And just like that – you have Funfetti cake. Enjoy!
Pasta – The importance of tradition
This isn't a post about how to make homemade pasta. It's not a post about how much flour or water to add to make the perfect ball of dough. This post is about the importance of tradition when it comes to making things from scratch – in particular fresh pasta learned from those that have made it in their kitchens for decades before me or you ever came along.
So why is making pasta so important? Why not just buy dried pasta from the store? Why not just go out to eat? I think as a cook, at least a home cook, sometimes we ask ourselves "why do things the hard way?" When in reality the hard way is many times the correct way – especially when it comes to making and crafting a dish from scratch.
Bill Buford wrote so eloquently in his book HEAT about the art of making pasta. The art of learning how to make pasta from masters of the craft. The art of basically fucking it up 1000 times before getting it right. Making food from scratch is indeed an art, probably more true with crafting pasta than any other food in my opinion.
With it carries responsibility. Tradition. The ownership of passing along the knowledge to those younger, those willing to listen and learn, those willing to fail time and time again in hopes one day they will get it just right. The cycle continues.
So I leave you today with not a recipe for perfectly made homemade pasta – mostly because I am still fucking it up myself. But instead a few images of the craft itself so beautifully displayed as pappardelle and garganelli.
Everything you see I owe to spaghetti – Sophia Loren
Basted Sea Bass with Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
Spring is finally here and Summer seems just a few weeks away. With the warmer weather I always start to think about fresh fish and the adventures to be had at the local farmer's market. Luckily I have access to a number of incredible farmer's markets, authentic food stores and smaller grocery stores near me. I avoid shopping for ingredients at larger food chains at all costs if I can avoid it.
Last summer I was playing around with Sea Bass, in particular basting it with clarified butter to infuse the fish with a sweet and salty taste.
The result: Basted Sea Bass with Himalayan Pink Salt
Here's what I did:
- Choose a fresh fish from your local farmer's market or fish monger. It does not have to be Sea Bass. Go with a fish you like but choose a fish that will hold its integrity while cooking. Choosing a fish that becomes super flaky will be difficult with this recipe.
- Clarify half a stick of unsalted butter in a small sauce pan.
- Cut your fish into chunks, large enough to hold their integrity.
- In your pan place the chunks of fish in the butter. Make sure the temperature is on low. High heat will ruin this dish quickly.
- Have patience. Slowly baste the fish with the butter until color begins to form on the top side. Flip and repeat.
- Plate atop a garnish of fresh spinach leaves or whatever you prefer.
- I made a homemade pesto sauce to accompany the dish but utilize any sauce that fits your flavor.
- After plating, sprinkle just a tiny bit of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt on top of the fish. Don't use too much, just a touch to add a salty taste to accompany the sweetness of the butter taste.
- Enjoy.
Lemon Lime Shell Pudding
If you're looking to make a good impression on some dinner guests or simply test your culinary fortitude when it comes to presentation – this dessert might be for you!
A while back I started to play around in the kitchen with different presentations of desserts with the goal of making the aesthetics of the dish fun and new. After many failed attempts with cakes, pies, cookies and an unfortunate incident with a creme brulee, I managed to come up with this little gem below.
This is a super easy (for the most part) way to impress your friends.
First: Make the lemon pudding. Here comes possibly your must crucial decision in this whole recipe – instant pudding or fresh made.
The answer to that of course is fresh made lemon pudding! Here's a quick recipe:
Food Network Lemon Pudding Recipe
After you've got the pudding made and it's chilling in the fridge, start on your creme fraiche. I like this one:
Next really comes the pain in the ass. When I first attempted to do this it did not turn out well. I wanted to present the lemon pudding in a hollowed out lime. Turns out hollowing out a lime is not the easiest of tasks. Word to the wise – be careful! I basically used a spoon to hollow out a lime, leaving a little bit of the pulp in the bottom.
Place a dollop of your Creme Fraiche on a 8″ circle plate, placing the hollowed out lime in the middle. Carefully spoon the fresh lemon pudding (which should be cold enough to hold its form) into the lime. Adorn with fresh raspberries and perhaps a sprinkle of crushed graham crackers.
And that's it. A relatively easy and impressive take on lemon pudding.


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Bedtime With Triplets
Bedtime With Triplets
With triplets, bedtime can be a little hectic. To make bedtime more manageable we had to come up with a plan.
The biggest change in their toddler years is that they are a little more rambunctious at night, but we have a real routine going that works.
We take turns brushing teeth. We take turns picking a story each night and that gives them something to look forward to and something to keep track of. If we don't have a lot of time, sometimes I pick the story. We go to the library often and that helps keep them interested in story-time too.
One of the biggest things that helps the children settle in for the night, is that I started singing them a lullaby when they were around 3 years old. For a long time I sang the same song every night, until I finally got tired of it. Now, every night a different child picks a song and that settles them down and it is like a signal that it's time to go to bed. That familiarity is what they need before they settle down for the bedtime routine.


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Holding hands is in fact a universal sign of intimate affection, just like kissing, massages, cuddling, and caressing.
Holding hands may be a small thing, but it holds a lot of meaning as a gesture in a relationship. Holding on to your lover's hand shows that you are thinking about them, that you are there for them and willing to offer them the comfort and security that they need from you.
According to one study on 16 happily married couples, holding hands with someone you love can help to reduce stress.
In the study, the wives were told they were going to receive shocks, and even were able to watch when the shocks were coming.
It turns out that they felt more at ease when they were holding their husband's hands as opposed to facing the shocks alone.
In addition, when holding a stranger's hand, they still experienced more calmness when they were not holding anyone's hand. [Source: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/17/12/1032.abstract]
Nothing in this world compares to the comfort and security of having someone just hold your hand.
It has been said by psychologists that couples that usually interlock all of their fingers while holding hands tend to have a deeper connection.
"I want to hold your hands and be with you until my last day." ~ Gabor Timis


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The nominees for the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this morning, but where did "Emmy" even come from? Or her buddies Oscar and Tony, for that matter?
The Oxford Dictionaries Language Matters blog has a short rundown today of the origins of various entertainment awards, from the Oscars to the Razzies. The latter is pretty predictable—it comes from the "tbbthhh!" raspberry sound—but some of the origins are more curious. Oscar, for instance, likely came from an American wheat and fruit farmer, and non-theater-buffs might not know that the Tonys are named for Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress and producer.
The etymology of "Emmy," while somewhat obscured to time and technology, at least makes sense. According to Oxford Dictionaries, it's an "alteration of Immy, which is itself a shortening of the term image orthicon. Image orthicon refers to a type of television camera tube popular in the cathode ray television sets of the mid-20th century."
You can read more about award etymology at Language Matters.


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Well, so much for "taking a break from comics for a couple of days"! Due to feeling especially inspired, I decided to start my next webcomic mini series (called "Damania Repressed") early 🙂
This is the first comic in "Damania Repressed" and, although I'm hoping that this mini series will be fairly self-contained – it follows on from the events of this mini series (which, in turn, follows on from this one). Links to more mini series can also be found on this page.
But, yeah, Harvey tends to have something of a habit of not really thinking of highly-advanced technology as being "unusual" (however much he might dislike modern technology).
As usual, this comic update is released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence.