How To Do Everything

I’m always stunned when I meet someone who says they don’t like Sweet Potatoes.  I mean how could you not enjoy the sweet, nourishing, yellow-orange root?  Some people like them cooked just like a regular baked potato, with just a bit of butter, salt, and pepper.  While others love it in a sweet, tantalizing casserole.  These casseroles are usually laden with sugar, spices, marshmallows, and sometimes nuts.  Below you will find an excellent recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole with Praline Topping.

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE WITH A PRALINE TOPPING

• Serves: 12
• 5 lbs. sweet potatoes or yams, cooked and peeled
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 2/3 cup Melted Butter
• 1/3 cup Cream
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• Praline Topping:
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup Flour
• 1 cup Chopped Pecans
• 1/3 cup Butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

•  First you will want to preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Lightly grease a 2 qt. casserole dish.
• Mash up the cooked Sweet Potatoes. (Should yield 6 cups)
• Mix in the Eggs, Brown Sugar, Melted Butter, Cream, Vanilla, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon.
• Pour the mixture into the 2 qt. casserole dish

To Make the Topping:

• Mix the Brown Sugar, Flour, and Chopped Pecans in a bowl
• Work in the butter until it becomes crumbly
• Sprinkle on top of the Sweet Potato mixture
• Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until it is bubbly and browned on top

Nutritional Facts

Calories per serving: 490kcal.

Calories from fat:  240g

Protein: 5g

Carbs: 62g

Total Fat: 26g

Saturated: 12g

Cholesterol: 105mg

Sodium: 200mg

Fiber: 5g

Sugar: 42g

If you are like most people, holiday’s can be a difficult time to manage.  Most people opt to visit more than one place on Thanksgiving.  There have been years where I’ve visited up to 3 different locations in one day.

1. Call everyone you would like to visit

2. Ask each household what time they are holding dinner/lunch/desert

3. If your schedule permits you can possibly visit more than one home for the same basic meal.  This year I had one family that started dinner at 1pm and one that started at 4pm.

4. Come early to one, leave early, arrive late

You can choose to go to one household early, perhaps to help cook, giving you ample chance to bond with your family pre-meal.  If you arrive on time to the next one, you can socialize during the meal and for a bit afterwards.  Finally, if you decide to go later…you may want to opt to go an hour or 2 after dinner officially started to arrive in time for dessert.

5. Just back out of one or more dinners

It happens, sometimes your schedule or energy level just doesn’t permit visiting more than one or two households.  When this occurs, you may have to gracefully back out of one or more invitations.

A good way to rectify any notion of hurt feelings is to offer them an alternative day to visit.  Holidays are important to many, especially the elderly.  Please remember to make sure that if you can’t be with your elderly friends or relatives that some one else will be there for them.

For most families, the Green Bean Casserole is a staple of the Thanksgiving meal.  This well-loved side dish was created 53 years ago and is still enjoyed today.  In fact, about 30 million households serve this side dish each year.

Aside from being a staple at Thanksgiving meals, it is a very versatile dish and can easily be adapted by the ingredients.  The original recipe calls for: green beans, Campbells’ Cream of Mushroom soup, and French’s French Fried Onions.  However, many people change an adapt the recipe to fit their liking. Some of the popular adaptations involve adding; garlic, red pepper, hot sauce, bacon, almonds, pecans, and cheese.

Another great way to serve it is the day after Thanksgiving.  Cut up leftover turkey into small pieces and mix them into the leftover casserole.

Or if you are concerned with the amount of fat or sodium in the meal, substitute 98% fat-free or 25% less sodium Cream of Mushroom Soup instead of the regular.

The Recipe:

Prep: 10 minutes

Bake:  30 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 (10 3/4 oz.) can of Campbell’s Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup.

• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• Pinch Ground Pepper
• 4 Cups cooked and cut green beans
• 1 1/3 Cups French’s French Fried Onions

Directions:

1. Combine mushroom soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper, beans, and onions into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.
2. Bake in the oven @ 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
3. Remove from oven and distribute the remaining onions on top of the casserole.

Substitutions:

• Instead of green beans use 4 cups of cooked broccoli
• Add 1/2 Cup Shredded Cheddar cheese into the soup.  Omit the soy sauce.  At the end add about 1/4 cup more Cheddar cheese when adding the onions.
• Add 1/4 Cup chopped red peppers into soup
• If you want more mushroom flavor opt for Campbell’s Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup instead of the regular Cream of Mushroom.  Omit the soy sauce and stir 1/4 cup chopped red peppers into the green beans.

If your aim is a juicy, flavorful turkey this year, you should consider brining it!

But, what is brine or brining?   Brining is a bit similar to marinating but there are some differences.  While marinades utilize an acid base to tenderize meat with flavors outside of the mean, brining uses a salt base that chemically lets the flavors infuse the cells of the bird to provide added moisture and lots of flavor.

TIPS:

• Avoid turkeys labeled self basting or flavor injected.
• While you can purchase a pre-brined turkey, you would really just be doubling your cooking time.
• Choose a natural turkey that hasn’t been processed.  These are usually labeled, natural, “no additives”, or “minimally processed.”
• Brining does take time, so it’s not something you can do the morning of Thanksgiving

Steps:

1. Prepare the brine and cook it
2. Allow the mixture to cool overnight.  Because if you add the turkey while the brine is hot, it will start to cook the bird.
3.  Let the thawed turkey lay in the brine for 8 hours or more
4. Air dry the turkey for about 8 hours on a rack in the fridge. (0ptional - for crisp skin)
5. Remove the bird from the brine solution, pat it dry, and let it rest for 1 hour prior to cooking.

The Brine Recipe:

The basic ingredients to a brine are some sort of liquid, salt, and sugar.  Below is a basic brine recipe.

• 2 Gallons of Water ( or 1 Gallon Vegetable Stock/1 Gallon cold water)
• 2 Cups Kosher Salt ( or 1 Cup Table salt or 1 1/2 Cups Sea Salt)
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
•  Seasonings

To Make the Brine:

• Bring one Gallon of Liquid and the Salt to a boil in a large cooking pot and stir until the salt is completely dissolved.
•  Remove from the heat and add brown sugar and seasonings. Stir the solution until the sugar has completely dissolved.
• Add one Gallon of Cold Liquid and stir
• Cool the brine in a container that is large enough to hold both the brine and the turkey.  The turkey has to be able to be completely submerged.  A plastic tub or bucket will work fine for this.
• Once the brine is cold, you can add the completely thawed turkey, breast side down with the “spare” parts removed.  Shake the container so that the brine solution goes inside the cavity of the bird.  The brine will cause the turkey to float until it completely sinks in.  You will want to lay something on top of it to make it sink.  Try using a brick that is in a zip-lock baggie.
• Let the turkey rest in the brine for a minimum of 8 hours up to a maximum of 18 hours.  Be warned -you can brine it too long and then you will end up with mushy turkey.
• Remove the turkey from the brine carefully.  Be sure to empty the cavity of brine as well.  Rinse off the turkey and pat it dry.  Place the bird on a rack over a pan and in the fridge to rest for 1-8 hours, uncovered.  If you let it sit for 8 hours it will produce a crispy skin when cooking.

Seasoning Suggestions:

Really you can add any seasoning you want, but here are a few suggestions.

• 1 TBS crushed dried rosemary
• 10 whole cloves
• 1 TBS savory
• 1 TBS dried sage
• 1 TBS dried thyme
• 1 TBS dried savory
• 3 tsp peppercorns
• 1 (1 oz) pack of pickling spice

Bake the Turkey:
After your turkey is brined and is ready to be cooked, you can use a traditional baking method, smoke, or fry the turkey.

 If you are like most people you go to the grocery store at least once a week, maybe more.  Did you know, you can actually save money by reducing your number of trips to the store?  The theory is that when people shop more often, they buy more.

So instead of going to the store  48 or more times a year, you can go 12 times a year.  This will not only save you gas, but will save on your food budget as well.

1.  Make a Shopping List: make a detailed list of everything you need, which can be continually updated. Do this by saving your receipts and planning your meals.

• By saving your receipts from a typical month, it will allow you to go through and see what you normally purchase and how much you generally purchase.  Skip adding any impulse items or special buys.
• By planning your meals you can concentrate on what you really need.  It will also give you a way to plan your meat for example.  If you know you’re going to make shredded chicken sandwiches one night and chicken enchiladas the next, you can buy a larger, tougher cut of meat and put it in the slow cooker to soften it up.

2. Collect Coupons and ads: Look for coupons to save on items you buy frequently.  Then match your coupons up with local shopping ads to find out where the best deals are.
3. Make it a Team Effort:  You can divide your shopping party up into sections, giving meats to one person and dairy to another.  Again, this will allow you to focus only on what you really need.  Also, since this is a once-a month shopping trip it will take longer than you normally would to shop for one week.

4. Visit Different Stores:  One of the best ways to save the most on your food budget is to see where the best sales are on what you need and to visit multiple stores.

TIPS

• Once you get home, prioritize your items.  Fresh fruit and vegetables will probably need to be consumed first to avoid spoilage so clean them and chops them up so they can be easily accessed and used.
• Some foods may need to be frozen like milk, bread, and meats.
• You have several options for milk:

1.  drink fresh milk the first half of the month
2. freeze milk for the second half of the month
3. use powdered milk
4.  use ultra-pasteurized milk (long shelf life)
5. Or use soy milk if you can, it can last up to 2-3 months.  (but it is a bit more expensive)

• Evaluate your approach and adapt it to your needs.  At first you may find it a bit difficult and may forget a few things.  However, do not let “emergency trips” become a habit.

• Start with Small Steps: start by cutting your trips to twice a month then work down to only once a month.

• Shopping once a month can also be less wasteful as it will force you to use up all of your food instead of buying more.

Were you aware that you don’t earn as much as you may have thought you did?  If you are like most Americans you earn an hourly wage, however once you deduct the costs from working you will find that your hourly wage is actually a lot lower than you may have expected.

1 Figure out your work related expenses: There are several factors that go into figuring this step out.  You will need to figure out how much it costs you to commute, your costs for child care, work related clothing, and food costs in excess of what you would consume at home.

• Commuting: Calculate how many miles you travel each day to work.  Multiply that number by how many days you travel to work.  This will equal how many miles you travel to work each week.  Then figure out how much it costs you by mile by using your mpg for your vehicle.  For most small cars it is around $0.38/mile.  EX: If you travel 10 miles to work everyday and you work 5 days a week = 50 miles per week.  Multiply 50 by $0.38 = $19.00 to travel to work each week.
• Child Care:  Sit down and figure out what you spend each week or month on child care.
• Clothing: How often do you have to buy new clothing for work to replace worn out or ill fitting clothing.  You can estimate this.
• Food: Do you bring your lunch from home or do you eat out?  If you eat out, figure how much more it costs you to eat out vs bringing you lunch from home.

2. Subtract work expenses from your annual salary:  This will produce your actual earnings.  EX. So if you made $48,000 per year and had costs of $5,000, you would only make $43,000 per year.

3. Divide your actual earnings by the total hours you spend on work related activities:  This would include business trips, meetings, parties, commuting.  EX.  If you leave your house at 6:30 am and you don’t get home until 4:30 pm, this means you would devote 50 hours per week to work or 2500 hours each year.  $43,000/50 = $860 or $42,140 annual earnings.

4.  Figure out what you make an hour: $42,140/50 weeks per year = $842.80/week, $842.80/50 hrs per week = $16.86/hour.

Here’s another great Altoids Tin Project!  Make a Pintoid or Pinhole Camera using an Altoids tin.  This isn’t a high-tech camera by any means….it will be great for capturing scenery or still life and that’s about it.  But it is a nifty little thing…and it makes a great gift for any photography enthusiast.

1. Drill a hole in the can: you will need to drill a hole about 1/4″ into the nutrition info on the can.  Be sure to file off any sharp edges and to sand the inside of the can.  Then spray paint the inside of the can flat black.

2. Make Pinhole Apparatus: You will need an acupuncture needle, 3 porcupine quills, and a sewing needle that has been glued into a clothespin.

3. Cut some small pieces from a metal pie tin: Using a piece of cardboard as backing, you will want to turn and press while holding the clothespin in a vertical position.  You are creating a round groove in the tin for the next step.

4. Make a Hole: Using the acupuncture needle make a hole in the tin. You will want to check the holes to ensure that they are round.  If the hole isn’t perfectly round, you will want to throw that piece away and start over.  The hole must be perfectly round.

5. Tape the Pinhole: Using Gaffer’s tape you will want to tape the pinhole to the inside of the 1/4″ hole you drilled.  Gaffer’s tape is a special type of black tape, it is cloth-like and flat black, unlike electrical tape.

6. Put tape on the outside of the Pinhole: You will want to make a shutter by placing a piece of black tape on the outside of the pinhole.  You can also use black cardboard.

7. Move to a Completely Dark Room: Next you will want to put the film inside the can.  You will need to move to a completely dark room then tape a strip of film inside the lid to the camera.  The emulsion side should be facing the pinhole so it will capture the image.

8. Close the lid: Now you will want to close the tin and wrap it with black electrical tape to prevent any light from leaking inside.

9. Make a Picture: Holes that are sewing needle size will need about 4 seconds of exposure on a sunny day.  If you are taking the photo inside, you may need anywhere from 10 minutes to hours depending on the amount of light in your home.  Acupuncture needle holes will need more time, about 1 minute on a sunny day.

10. Process and Develop:  If you know how, you can do this step by yourself.  If not, I would suggest going to someone who is familiar with developing film.

You may be feeling proud of yourself because you’re keeping up with the times by learning to text message.  You receive a message, you hit reply, and 5 minutes later you finally send off your reply.  Then before you know it, you’ve received an entire paragraph back from the other person.  Their response was so quick, it has left you wondering how they did it.  Practice, practice, practice!  This along with a few key tricks will allow you to learn to text faster.

1. Get To Know Your Phone:  The numbers 2-9 are associated with either 3 or 4 letter in alphabetic order.  Number 1 is reserved for punctuation and symbols.  Then number 0, *, and # also have other functions like; capitalization, forward to the next letter, and more symbols.

2. Learn to Use Predictive Text (T9, iTap, or Word): Turn on predictive text by going to the messaging settings menu on your phone.  Look for “input method” or “default edit mode” then choose “predictive”.  This may require a bit of getting used to if you’ve never used predictive text.  When using predictive text, you simply press the number on the keypad once for the letter you want, then the phone will guess what word you want and will fill it in.

•  For example: if you wanted to type “wikihow” press 9-4-5-4-4-6-9.  If your phone has choosen an incorrect word, just pick the correct one.  On some phones, they will give you a menu that will allow you to scroll down and select the correct word, and on some you can press the * key until you find the correct word.
• iTap: sometimes you phone will guess the word before you finish typing it.  If your phone has iTap, you can type 3 characters and then choose from the words available.  After you choose your word, the phone will put it in and then give you a space after the word so you can continue typing.
• When using predictive text, be sure to proofread your message before you send it.  Sometimes the phone will guess words incorrectly and you may end up sending a message that makes no sense, or may be inappropriate.

3. Know when to use the forward key:  If your phone doesn’t come equiped with predictive texting you will have to press a button to type the first letter a number represents, 2x for the second letter, and 3x for the third, maybe once more for a 4th letter in the case of s and z, and then again for a number.  Just be careful and make sure what you are trying to insert actually shows up.  One solution is to press the forward key in between letters, it usually looks like this “(|_|),” a square U.  The only other time you need to press the forward key is inbetween words to create a space between them.

4. Learn Texting Language:  This is basically an electronic version of shorthand.  You do not need to memorize hundreds of words, just the ones you use frequently.

• Too or to = 2
• For = 4
• You = u
• Your/You’re = ur
• Are = r
• Be = b
• Be right back = brb
• Talk to you later = ttyl
• Peace = pc/pce
• Nothing much =nm
• Just chillin = jc
• Never Mind = nvm
• Right = ryt
• Probably = prbly
• Ta ta for now = ttfn
• Back to homework = bthw
• What =wat
• Just wondering = jw

4. Make Templates for Common Phrases: Some phones come preloaded with texting templates that are supposed to be the most commonly used messages.  If these aren’t right for you, you can often create your own.  Some of the most common phrases, especially those that come preloaded are:

• What are you up to?
• Just checking in.
• Where are you?
•  I’ll be right there.
• I’ll be home soon.
• Running late.
• Let’s catch up soon.
• Hey, what’s up?

These steps should get you typing in the right direction and as fast as everyone else, if not faster!

Every 4 years on November 4th, we drag ourselves to our designated poling place to vote for the presidential candidate of our choice.  Then in mid-December, the president and vice president are actually elected by the votes of 538 citizens, known as the “electors” of the Electoral College.

BUT HOW DO THEY ELECT A PRESIDENT?

When you cast your vote for president, you are actually instructing the electors that represent your state on how to cast their votes.  If you vote for a Republican candidate, you are actually voting for an elector who has pledged to vote for a Republican candidate. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a particular state, they have won all the pledged votes from the electors of that state.

This system was created in Article II of the Constitution and amended in 1804 by the 12th Amendment.  In this system each state receives electors that are equal to its members in the U.S. House of Representatives plus one for each of its 2 U.S. Senators.

State law governs how many electors are picked and are often selected by the political party committees in a state.  Each elector can cast one vote.  There are currently 538 electors, of which 270 most vote on one candidate to win an election. This also means that states that have a larger population will have more Electoral College votes.

If no candidate wins 270 electoral votes the 12th Amendment will be enacted and the election will be decided by the House of Representatives.  The representatives of each state will get to cast one vote and a simple majority of states is needed to win.  This process has only taken place 2 times.  Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams were both elected by the House of Representatives.

Eventhough the electors have “pledged” to vote for the party that chose them, nothing in the Constitution or otherwise requires them to.  In rare occurrences, an elector will vote faithlessly, but these votes often do not change the outcome of an election and some states have laws that prevent faithless votes from counting.

Do you use Altoids?  Ever look at one of those neatly constructed tin cans and wonder if it may have more uses.  Well, of course they do!  These cans come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are quite sturdy.  Below are 10 uses you may not have thought about for that old Altoids can.

First, you will want to remove any leftover candy and wash the tin using soap and rinsing it out well.  Also, be sure to dry it very well to prevent rust.

USES

1. Make a guitar out of it

2. Make a pintoid camera

3.  Make an Ipod Shuffle case

4.  Make an on-the-go drawing or painting case

5. Make a pocket craft kit

6. Make a travel sewing kit

7. Make a fire starting kit

8. Make a mini first-aid kit

9. Make a pill case

10.  Make a business card case
Here is a link to the main article where you can find links to individual projects:
Altoids Uses