Breakthrough, Doo Rag, FN Key, Wallenda’s Shoes, The Yucca

I completely forgot to pass on the message about Stephen Tremp’s book Breakthrough which is being offered by Amazon.com for two days as a free download. Today is the second day. I got my copy yesterday, I already have book 2 which is Opening so I am looking forward to reading them. The books sound very exciting – full of wormhole technology and a discovery seeker called Chase Manhattan who doesn’t want to do anything but settle down as an associate professor of physics. The blurb sounds good to me. I understand it can be downloaded for both Kindle and for an iPad.

I guess I am a bit behind the times, but I was reading a book, one of a series about Detective Stephanie Chalice by Lawrence Kelter, and the book described the heroine as going into an area where she was probably the only person not wearing a doo rag. What on earth, thought I, so of course I had to Google. Here is the information according to Wikipedia. I had, of course, seen these worn, in fact there is a guy in our building who wears one, I just didn’t know what they were called. I cannot really believe they are worn, these days, to protect hair dos!!! If so, there are a lot of very fussy men around .

I have discovered that some of the trouble I have typing on my laptop is caused by brushing the touchpad on the keyboard. The cursor starts jumping all over the place and even decides to delete lumps of text without my permission. Aggravating to say the least. Then I discovered one can disable they touchpad. Finally I discovered that I could do this by holding down my FN key and pressing F9. Didn’t work. I phoned Toshiba and talked to them. They now tell me that the software for my FN key isn’t working and they would have to charge me to trouble shoot. I don’t think the FN (function) has ever worked; never had occasion to use it and didn’t really know what it was for, but I have depressed it once or twice since I have had the laptop and no menu has ever appeared which is what is supposed to happen. So, rather than pay Toshiba, I have called my trusty computer repair man.

By the way, did you hear Wallenda wants to cross the Grand Canyon now? They kept saying he was wearing shoes which had been made by his mother and it sounded as though they were made of elf skin. I knew that wasn’t possible, much as I like to read fantasy books, and I finally found out that it was elk skin. I wonder why elk in particular? Gotta do some more research. I have found an article from Natural Running Centre which talks about the elk skin soled shoes which Nik was wearing and why. There was a lot on TV about the balance points on one’s feet and the elk skin enables the feet to feel the walking surface almost as well as bare feet which would, of course, have been unable to maintain the grip on the wire. More science to this stuff than one realises. I noticed that he spent time, prior to his walk, kind of roughing up the leather on the soles. Helps with the extreme wetness he experienced when he went through the Mist.

Well I’m damned. When we lived in North Carolina the place abounded with Yucca plants. I have seen them here too, but not as many. I have just discovered that parts of them are edible. This page tells you how to eat Yucca, you can apparently eat the petals raw, you can harvest the fruits after they have flowered too. The reason I found all this out was because I received a recipe in my email the other day which came from Cooking.com which immediately peaked my curiosity. It appears that not all yucca are edible, there are different varieties. I guess you have to know which is which. Now I have to investigate how you tell.

Buñuelos (Yucca Fritters)

Source: Saveur Magazine

About 40 fritters

These simple fritters are a favorite Cuban snack.
INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 pounds yucca, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 small white sweet potato, peeled and cut into pieces

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground aniseed

vegetable oil

flour

2 cups sugar

1 cinnamon stick

DIRECTIONS

Put yucca and sweet potatoes in a medium pot and cover with cold water by 2-in. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain, then mash with a potato masher until smooth, discarding any fibrous pieces. Set aside until cool to the touch, then add yolk, salt, aniseed, and 1 teaspoon of the oil.

Rub hands with a little oil, then form dough into 1-in. balls. Roll each ball on a lightly floured surface into 8-in. ''ropes'', then twist into open bottomed figure eights.

Put sugar, cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan and simmer over medium heat until pale gold, 40 to 50 minutes. Set syrup aside.

Pour oil into a large skillet to a depth of 2-in. and heat to 375 degrees F on a candy thermometer over medium high heat. Fry buñuelos in batches, turning them, until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Serve warm, drizzled with a little syrup.

Have a great day.

Urinating Debate, Tourists Found Dead, Reactors Turned On.

Is sitting down to urinate healthier for men? Swedish groups (labelled as feminist) are maintaining that urinating standing is less healthy for men. They are trying to introduce unisex toilets maintaining it is healthier all round and will help to eliminate prostate problems and prolong a healthy sex life. Swedish politicians are arguing about this at the moment. I notice a couple of comments anti unisex toilets, the French and Belgians have had unisex toilets for  years. I remember it shook me the first time I discovered this when I was about 16. I’ve told this story before, but I was wandering around the bar with a beer in my hand looking for the necessary. I found it, saw a long tiled shelf area so put my beer down in it. When I had done what I came to do, I came out of the toilet and found out just what this tiled area was for. Needless to say, I picked up my beer and then left it on the nearest table. A year or two later we were in Belgium and a young English soccer team were over there; they were horrified when a friend and I walked into the toilet where they were relieving themselves. It was funny really.

Saturday there was a news story about two Canadian women who had been found dead in their hotel room on an island in Thailand. At the moment no-one is quite sure what happened to these women but there is speculation that they were poisoned. There were rashes on their skin. Seems they hadn’t been there very long – they checked in on Tuesday, didn’t answer the door on Thursday and were found on Friday. Autopsies are being performed of course. The women were young, 20 and 25. This is a picture of the beach at the Phi Phi Palms residence. Looks a beautiful place to stay, not one you would associate with death.

The Japanese government have approved restarting a nuclear reactor for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami last year which led to a nationwide shutdown. The public is  basically opposed to using nuclear reactors after the near disaster with the Fukushima Dai-Chi plant; all 50 reactors were taken off line for maintenance and safety checks. The government appear to be concerned that there will not be nearly enough power to cope with the high demands of the summer. It is a problem in as much as Japan is prone to earthquakes and reactors being, of necessity, by the water, are vulnerable to tsunamis.

I’ve been hunting around for steak sauces and Saturday night I tried out a new one from cooksunited.co.uk which we enjoyed. Silly me forgot to take a picture and there isn’t one with the recipe. However, the picture I have found looks very much like the final product. I proceeded slightly differently by melting the butter in a pan and adding the flour to make a roux. I used 1 tsp. Coleman’s mustard and I think I should have used at least half as much again. It was a delicious sauce though and we both enjoyed it.

Steak Sauce

Author: Alexia_cu

Ingredients per portions

(This is supposed to be an individual portion, but was plenty for both of us.)

2 tbsp. butter, softened

1 tbsp. flour

50 ml milk

100 ml single cream

1 beef stock cube

some dried mustard (Coleman’s)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 dash whiskey

salt and pepper, to taste

Method

Mix butter and flour until well combined and then spoon into a saucepan.
Stir in a little milk, and then some cream until desired sauce consistency.
Add minced garlic and add the beef stock cube. Cook over low heat until stock cube dissolves.
Stir in lots of mustard and black pepper.
About 5 minutes before serving add a bit of whiskey and Worcestershire sauce.
Pour over steak.

Have a great day