sadrhino

15July2010

Something I like to call “things I learned about peppers the hard way.”

Posted by toner under: Recipes.

Two recipes focused around peppers. Both came with painful lessons. The first one involves chipotles which I forgot to seed and through a bunch into the food processor and then took a big heaping spoonful. The second, jalapenos, which I seeded, but forgot to use gloves and then later that night removed my contact lenses. Oh dear god.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Nice smokey/sweet pepper sauce you can put over chicken or as a topping to beef/turkey burgers.

First off brush a little olive oil on two red peppers and roast them on the grill or use your oven’s broiler. Once the peppers are all good and charred up, put them in a bowl and cover so they steam and you can easily peel off the blackened skin (you also want to seed and take the stems out of the peppers too btw).

Next take the following and throw them (and the peppers) into a food processor:

1. 2 tables olive oil
2. 1/2 6oz can of chipotle peppers seeded (for the love of God)
3. 2 garlic cloves
4. 2 tablespoons honey
5. pinch brown sugar

Salt and pepper to taste and you are done!

Cucumber/Mango Salsa
Nice for the summer, good on pork or fish.

1. 2 cups mango
2. 1/3 cup red onion
3. 1/2 cucumber (peeled and seeded)
4. 1 jalapeno (seeded, don’t touch your face!!!)
5. Juice of one lime
6. 1 tablespoon olive oil
7. 1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Mix everything in a bowl and salt and pepper to taste. I like to refrigerate it a bit before eating.

Enjoy!!!

22June2010

Something I like to call, “Kinda Cuban Flank Steak Thing” with Beans and Rice

Posted by toner under: Recipes.

This was based on something I originally found on Foodtv.com. Like a lot of their food, making it according to recipe turned out to be fairly bland so, the next go around I decided to modify it

Ingredients:

• 1 Package Near East Spanish Rice
• 1 Can Black Beans
• 1 Can Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies
• Flank Steak or London Broil
• 1 Lime
• Brown Sugar
• Dry Mustard
• Ancho Chili Powder
• Montreal Steak Seasoning

Directions:

Okay, lets make the beans and rice first:

I like Near East Spanish Rice Pilaf (why start from scratch?)
Make it according to the box, then I throw in some diced tomatoes with green chilis and some sauteed onion, little bit of cumin and some thyme leaves.

When it’s nearly done I stir in the black beans and let it cook a little bit just to warm the beans through.

Now the meat.
Heat yer grill.
Place flank steak in a shallow dish and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil to coat – about 2 tablespoons

Mix the following:
Montreal Steak Seasoning
Brown Sugar
Dry Mustard
Cumin
Ancho Chili Powder
Zest of 1 lime

Coat the meat thoroughly. Don’t be stingy.
Place the steak on hot grill or in hot pan and cook 4 to 5 minutes, turn and cook 3 minutes longer. Remove from heat and let juices redistribute 5 minutes.
Squeeze some lime juice over the meat before you serve it.

Enjoy!

9June2010

Things you may have forgotten about that could still kill you…

Posted by toner under: Pop culture.

A walk down a veritable memory lane of disease, panic attacks and natural disasters that were once the darlings of the evening news and have now all but faded from memory… But remember kids… Ever vigilant…

1. The terror-alert: Remember this gem? A handy info-graph to let us know when the world was about to be blown up. Today we are yellow by the way, which means “significant” chance of terrorism. Though, I don’t know, it is really warm out and it may rain later… Not really a good day for it… You can even get a desktop or web widget now, which I bet is a big hit with the kids.

2. Monkeypox – This was by far my all time favorite name for a virus. It apparently originated in laboratory monkeys (who would think animals kept in cages and fed shampoo until they died would develop viruses?) and eventually spread to all sorts of other critters. In 2003 a bunch of people who raised prairie dogs came down with it. The CDC claims it is all but off the radar at this point. I’m thinking any disease that rids us of people who raise prairie dogs is probably okay.

3. Swine Flu- Ahhhh 2009 H1N1, where have you gone? Remember the stampede to get that damm vaccine? And the rumors that it was really the Zombie plague come to kill us all. Like it’s monkeypox brethren, instances of ol’ H1N1 continues to decline (I’m sure to the chagrin of Fox news anchors everywhere ). As of today the CDC says “flu cases are pretty much what you expect to see in the summertime in the US…”

4. Bees- Ever since I saw “The Swarm” way back in 1978, (which btw, the Anchorage Post said “was almost as good as “the hand”–how’s that for a stunning review…) the fact that someday bees would rise up and destroy us seemed to be a sad inevitability. Ever year the local news would air at least one story about the “bees being on their way.” Though, it turns out, bees are a lot more like the dolphins in Douglas Adams books (who one day announce “so long and thanks for all the fish” and promptly leave the planet in their hidden spaceship) and have decided instead to simply vanish.

5. AI – Actually the movie AI, not really intelligent robots… As long as we have Keanu we’re pretty safe from that. No AI, was a doozy of a movie, that was part Kubrick part Spielberg. This feel good hit of the summer had a plot that went something like this;

In a dying earth suffering from overpopulation a family has to apply for a license to have a child. Couple has a child, but the child is sick so he goes into deep freeze until they can figure out how to fix him. Dad goes out and buys mom a robot child to take the human ones place(which of course is a perfectly normal thing to do).

These robots kids can feel emotion and the robot bonds with the mom. Human child gets better, thinks his robot brother is a little creepy and frames him a few times. Mom and dad decide TO LET IT GO IN THE WOODS… The boy then waits 2000 years — THROUGH AN ICE AGE – in hopes of finding a magic fairy that can make him real so he can win back his parent’s love… Okay, now, if you weren’t already prepared to slit your wrist, it gets really sad… So, now, the earth is actually run by robots and they thaw out the poor kid who still wants to see his human mom. They tell him they can bring her back to life, but the way their technology works, she can only live for one day. The movie ends with the little boy curled up next to his mom in bed but you and I know, come morning, mom is all corpse city…

WTF??? REALLY? Why don’t they just shoot a god damm puppy while they are at it too? Please be careful when watching this movie.

1June2010

What I don’t get about the oil spill…

Posted by toner under: User Experience.

For the last twelve years or so, maybe longer, I’ve been a user experience designer. Over the course of this long, slow road to retirement, I’ve designed all sorts of things and though you could argue a few, like medical devices and PDA applications for use by doctor’s could be considered important, I don’t think I’ve ever had the type of job where the phrase “we’re saving lives here,” was remotely applicable.

A big part of what I do focuses around a central event commonly referred to as the “technology review.” This is when you take what you think is your elegantly crafted solution to the business problem at hand and sit down with the folks who have to actually build it.

Now, in nearly every place I’ve had the pleasure to work, small artsy boutique shop, big lumbering corporate dinosaur, this is almost always utterly awful. I believe Prof. Gene Spafford, a pioneer in information security, once said “It’s like being pecked to death by ducks.” That’s pretty much what a technology review is like. Actually, that’s exactly what a technology review is like.

See, technology people have to worry about things designers don’t. Like “What happens if the person using the system is a Hopi Indian? They perceive time differently than us. Will our drop-down for time zone include Hopi Indian time?”

At my current job we worry a lot about Hopi Indian time. Or at least things of that nature.

So, this is what gets me about the oil spill. Because, at my current job, we again may very well design products that are (arguably) important. But, are we sitting around, up to our elbows in blood reattaching someone’s spine? Well, not so much. But the reviews we have with technology very much make it seem that way…

Ok, now I can just imagine if we were to build a giant pipe, sink it in the deepest part of the ocean and pump a couple million metric tons of oil through it. I’m pretty sure one of the guys I work with, probably a technology type, would say something like “hey, nice pipe, but, um, what happens if it leaks?”

Where as we wouldn’t be able to release it into the world until someone had a solution as to what we’d do if this thing starts spewing forth oil like water out of my kid’s Elmo sprinkler on a hot summer day.

I’m pretty sure BP, like all companies, has some sort of “research, design, build, test” process. I bet there’s even power points with nice gradient fills explaining how all these smart people are supposed to work.

Hmmm…

28May2010

Something I like to call, “green stuff I put on meat (and/or fish).”

Posted by toner under: Recipes.

The other day I had every intention of making a Jerk paste to put on some pork chops. However I wasn’t really happy with the recipe so I kind of went off and made something that didn’t really taste like Jerk seasoning any more, but was pretty damm good. Please keep in mind that I am one, a man, and two, Italian, so, I don’t really measure when I cook. All measurements are a guess.

1. Poblano pepper. (seeded, stem removed, chopped up)
2. 6 scallions (green part only)
3. 2 or 3 garlic cloves
4. 3 tablespoons soy sauce
5. 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
6. 1 tablespoon peanut butter
7. 2 tablespoons canola oil
8. 1 teaspoon ginger
9. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
10. 1/2 teaspoon all spice (maybe less, this stuff is freaking powerful)
11. smidge nutmeg (even less than the all spice. Very overpowering).
12. little less than a tablespoon ground thyme.
13. Juice of one lime

Put all those things into a food processor and blend. Use to marinate pork, chicken or fish. Not sure how it would be on beef. Also baste with it while cooking.
An additional suggestion might be to roast the pepper before throwing it in.
I could also see maybe throwing in some cilantro and giving it more a Mexican flavor.

Enjoy!

20May2010

Education disguised as games.

Posted by toner under: User Experience.

Neat post about work being done around how gaming can be used as an educational tool.

“This doesn’t mean we need to put games in school, but instead what do games teach us about learning and how we like to learn… and game designers have good ideas how people work through difficult situations and work through those.”

Really, they should just let designers have a crack at everything…

I thought particularly interesting was Scratch which is “a new programming language tool and website that allows for kids to create their own animated stories and games. It has inspired some users to not only create interactive art but to act as consultants, offering to draw unique characters at the online community’s request. Some users also use the open source space to teach others tutorials on how to create new characters, encouraging interactive and collaborative gaming with other kids.”

Very cool stuff.

14May2010

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options – Graphic – NYTimes.com

Posted by toner under: User Experience.

Nice info graph showing the complexity of facebook’s privacy policy. Especially like the bit about how its actually longer than the US Constitution.

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options – Graphic – NYTimes.com.

14May2010

Pasta with Meatballs, Sausage and Peas

Posted by toner under: Recipes.

This is just dirty. Two kinds of meat, homemade sauce.

First, the sausage.
Take about four sausage links (Sweet Italian should be fine) out of their casing, brown the meat in olive oil and set aside.

Okay, now you’re gonna make the meatballs

Momma Toner’s Meat Balls:

• 1 Pound Ground Beef (85% lean)
• 1 Cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 Cup good Parmesan cheese
• 1 Egg (possibly two if it seems dry/doesn’t mix well)
• 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning
• 1.5 Tablespoons Garlic Pepper
• Good amount of salt

Directions:

1. Mix all the above into small, meaty balls. That’s right. Small meaty balls.
2. Get yerself a stainless saucepan (you want stainless, not non-stick, trust me).
3. Put about two tablespoons good olive oil. Heat and throw the meatballs in.
4. Brown your small meaty balls until they are no longer pink. Ahem.

Remove your balls and put them someplace to cool. I throw them in a colander so any excess grease can drain. DONT clean the pan. It’s okay to toss a little of the surface grease, but there should be little meaty bits all stuck to the bottom. You want these! Now take some red wine and de-glaze the pan. (This is a fancy way of saying, throw some wine on the meat stuck to the pan, reheat, and scrape).

Okay, now you’re ready to make sauce.

Toner’s Homemade Sauce:

• 3 cloves garlic
• half vidalia onion
• 1 Cup good grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 14oz Can diced tomatoes (I like Huntz with sweet onion in it)
• 1 28oz Can Huntz Crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 small can tomato sauce
• About tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 cup cheap red wine
• Good amount Italian seasoning
• Little less than a tablespoon garlic pepper
• Lil’ salt
• lil’ pepper
• lil’ sugar
• Frozen peas.

Directions:

1. Add some olive oil to the pan you de-glazed, heat and throw in the garlic and onion. Sautee until soft.
2. Start throwing in ingredients and stirring.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce to LOW, simmer as long as you want. Sauce doesn’t really need to cook all day. Maybe ten fifteen minutes.
5. Throw your meatballs and sausage into the sauce.
6. About ten minutes before you serve, throw in some frozen peas give them a few minutes to cook thru.

In total, my sauce probably cooks about a half hour.

Boil some pasta and you’re good!

13May2010

Just Show Me The Screens!

Posted by toner under: User Experience.

Recently I started reading Search Patterns by Peter Morville and Jeff Callendar. There’s a lot of cheesy analogies, “Search is like Jazz” “Search is like a veal cow flying a Mig28” etc.,  that you have to let fly (okay I made that veal cow one up),  but, otherwise, it seems a fairly useful book with lots of cool diagrams that will eventually end up in power point presentations the world over. Once you get to chapter four, there’s some good examples of useful patterns and best practice stuff.

One interesting tidbit, Morville makes mention of the fact that human beings developed pictures and decorative art (mainly pigments for paint and body tattooing) some 400,000 years ago. Written words on the other hand, only came along about 5000 years ago.  So, I’m pretty sure this is incontrovertible proof that, since the earliest times, human beings have always preferred some nice screens shots to a functional requirements document.

8March2010

Hello world!

Posted by toner under: Site Announcements.

Hi! I think my long break-up with the Internet may be over. Time to start blogging again.