August 26th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
Yes, they are now making “smart mugs”…
Scientists Develop Intelligent Coffee Mug
The idea came to the researchers at the Christmas market in the Bavarian town of Rosenhiem. “We got upset because the mulled wine” — Glühwein, in German — “was always either too hot or too cold,” say Klaus Sedlbauer, the head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics (IBP), and his colleague Herbert Sinnesbichler. “We had to find a solution.”
Yep, gotta have that mulled wine at the correct temperature! I guess the substance they are using keeps things at the right temp, I’m just trying to figure out how it knows what that temp is. After all, how often have you gotten a drink that is too hot and needs to cool a bit… if this keeps it from cooling, that would be a problem. Now if something is “too cool” does it warm it up? Still seems to be a bit vague.
If they figure out these issues and it works, I will then know that my coffee mug is smarter than I am.
August 23rd, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
I am reminded once again how happy I am that we have well water now that we’ve moved to the Northeast. I swear they have the weirdest stuff happening here. Stuff I never saw happen in the Midwest.
Boil-water order issued for Gloucester
Gloucester Health Director Jack Vondras said the problems began because the historic port city is performing maintenance at its main water treatment plant. With the summer’s normally high demand and the recent heat wave, the two other water plants couldn’t keep up. That allowed water pressure to drop and contaminants to seep into the system.
Then there’s this.
Milford boil-water order completely lifted
Officials say the crisis was solved through patience and aggressive action, including taking the compromised Congress Street water storage tank off-line and pumping chlorine into the system and waiting for it to kill the bacteria.
Good Grief! This is something that happens several times a year up here in various towns. I’m stunned. The only time you heard boil water orders in the Midwest was when there was a water main break. I’m just thanking my lucky stars we didn’t decide to buy a house that was hooked up to all the local utilities. I’m finding it to be much more in our best health interest in having our own well water.
Whew!
August 20th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
Since I still don’t have the energy to go looking for good food bloginess, I’m going to wimp out and throw you some recipe links from the last couple of days. These bloggers have done all the heavy lifting for me. Okay I like that.
First we have Red Pepper Risotto from the Pioneer Woman – oh my goodness yes! I love risotto, although I usually pay people at restaurants to make it for me. I may give this a try when the weather cools off. Yum!
Then head over to the Rev Paul’s place and check out the Sour Cream and Cheddar Halibut and the Cranberry Chicken. Both of which look outstanding.
I just finished dinner and my mouth is watering. My goodness there are so many excellent recipes out there. I think I need to hire a chef. Heh.
August 18th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
I haven’t forgotten my little blog here, I’ve just been very busy of late and haven’t had time to look for interesting food articles. However, after having some wonderful sushi for dinner I am feeling very happy with the world at large and decided to see if I could find anything food related to blog (besides the fact that I love sushi).
I decided to go look up Mustard in wikipedia. I must say I was rather disappointed. Considering the type of intenseness that goes into making Balsamic Vinegar, I fully expected mustard to have the same type of following. However, such is not the case. *sigh – how sad*
I mean look at this statement:
Dijon mustard is not covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) under the auspices of the European Union; thus, while there are major mustard plants in Dijon and suburbs, most Dijon mustard is manufactured outside of Dijon.
That’s just not right! There should be mustard cults and daggers drawn over who gets to label their mustard with certain names.
It’s all highly disappointing and rather dull. The only thing of real interest in the entire wiki was this:
One of the factors that determines the strength of a prepared mustard is the temperature of the water, vinegar, or other liquid mixed with the ground seeds: hotter liquids are more hostile to the strength-producing compounds. Thus, hot mustard is made with cold water, while using hot water results in milder mustard (other factors remaining the same).
It sounds backward to me, but I guess they know what they’re talking about. Oh well. Hopefully things slow down a bit as the week goes on and I can find some fun stuff to blog here. We shall see. In the meantime – enjoy your mustard, be it yellow, dijon, or spicy.
August 13th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
Ran across this on my news feeds today:
Customer spots poison stems in salad
BERLIN (Reuters) – A customer shopping at a discount supermarket store in Germany found stems of a poisonous weed in mixed salad bags, triggering concerns about potential health risks, the store said.
Oops!
Of course the best part is this:
Minister for consumer protectionism in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Margit Conrad, warned shoppers to be vigilant.
That’s right she’s not telling the food producers they have to be careful, she’s telling the consumer. Therefore I have to think that it’s a good idea to only eat foods you know well when in Germany.
The funny thing is, if it happened here, there would be an incredible hue and cry. The company would be out of business if the media could make it happen. There would be a swarm of reporters at the local chain grocery. And to completely underscore the seriousness, the same 20 second film clip of people looking at bagged salad in a grocery store would be shown over and over again.
Funny how that doesn’t happen in Germany.
Wow.
August 10th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there is a diet to combat jet lag, but being rather tuned out most of the time, I hadn’t heard of anything.
Tonight my husband sent me a link to a blog by a photographer and as I was reading down the page I ran across this
An Anti Jet Lag Diet Experience
Wherein James Duncan Davidson gives us a quick and easy version of Argonne’s very extensive diet page. If you travel, you will want to hit the link to his blog and read the whole thing and maybe even the other links too. But basically, it worked for him beautifully.
Now if I EVER get a chance to travel to other interesting places. I will certainly be giving this a try. However, since my travel to date has consisted of trips from Boston to Chicago or Boston to Tennessee, it hasn’t been necessary. If anyone else has tried this, shout it out and tell us your results.
My only problem is… I am so not a morning person and seldom eat breakfast. Does this mean I should wait for lunch like I do at home? Hmmmm….
That reminds me, I still need to make some reservations to go to Chicago in September and Tennessee in October… international travel still eludes me. Heh.
August 06th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
Elisson is writing about them and you need to go read about them!
Mercy! I really really want to find some nice ripe apricots now… however, as far as I know it’s too early.
*deep sigh* Maybe soon.
August 05th, 2009 | Author:
Teresa
Wow – I get so behind with 2 blogs to work on!
Once again WordPress is telling me to UPDATE NOW! But when I try, it fails, telling me it can’t install some file or other. I haven’t been sufficiently interested to figure it out, so I guess I’ll have to live with it being un-updated.
***
I’ve made myself a new snack (well new for me – I know lots of people have done this before me, but I was never fully motivated to make my own snacks) So here goes:
2 bags roasted nuts (no peanuts) – salted
1 bag sesame sticks
1 bag chocolate covered almonds (mmmmm…. chocolate!)
1 container dried cranberries
Mix together, store in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator, pull out a handful when you want a snack or after pilates when one is low on sugar. Yum.
I know – lame – I’ll try to come up with something better if I can motivate myself at some point this week. I’ve been very blah the last few days.
Nibbles at the Table