Posted by Carl on Mar 16, 2009 in
Good Going
Since we now better understand the nutritional properties of tea any extra way to take it to your diet is positive. One additional advantage of seasoning with tea leaf is that it is an efficient technique to add or enhance the taste of a dish without contributing unenviable elements like sodium, fat or calories, that sometimes are a part of different flavor amplifiers.
Although cooking with Camellia sinensis may seem to be a different movement, it has actually been about almost as long as the beverage itself. The renowned wu long tea itself boasts a tale as vibrant and interesting as the individuals who developed it.
The Chinese have been using black tea to simmer and smoke meals for hundreds of years. The Japanese have been savoring a meal that is made by streaming green tea all over rice before serving. Additionally, the British have been utilising tea leaf to flavor tea cakes and to stew dried fruit for years.
Numerous Asian civilizations have employed tea leaf to facilitate maintaining a nutritious balance in their dieting in addition to simply seasoning their delicious dishes. For example, employing the wulong tea weight loss properties or green tea as an anti-oxident.
Popular cooks have been broadening these functions of tea and determining that just little additions are able to lend a richness to meals without overcoming the true flavor of the dish. For example attempt to a tablespoon of English Breakfast tea to a dressing, or a Jasmine tea serving or two to rice as it is cooking. A wulong tea of formosa can bring an exotic flavor to otherwise ordinary meals.
Cooking with tea doesn’t need to be limited to the appetizer or essential course. Camellia Sinensis can likewise lend a sophisticated taste to dessert. Full black teas such as Darjeeling have deep tones which help fortify the flavor of chocolate desserts. Green teas are able to add a pizzazz to creamy desserts while they also are inclined to smooth the tart flavor of a citrus sorbet. While sweet-smelling teas such as chai are able to impart a pleasant flavor to rich dishes like frosting or cake.
Posted by Carl on Mar 16, 2009 in
Good Going
By using the principles of Square Foot Gardening it is possible to reduce by 80% the area required to grow the same vegetables using the standard row method. One of the aims of intensive gardening is to reduce the space between plants. To ensure you understand your garden and learn about plants you should keep a square foot garden diary to have a log of your failures and successes to improve your results.
The practice of square foot gardening is not just for those with small gardens; rather square footgardening allows you to concentrate your work effort to create an ideal plant environment, to give better natural yields.
The are many people who like the idea of digging for victory. They enjoy the sight of long, straight rows in their gardens and the hard labor that goes with digging and hoeing the land, whilst others prefer machine cultivation.
Owning a square foot garden still means weeding by hand but because the raised bed is filled with peat, compost and vermiculite there are fewer weeds and they can easily be seen and removed in a few minutes.
If you like the idea of all your vegetables being ready to harvest in one go then square foot gardens are not for you. The idea of square foot gardens is to have something growing all the time so you can have fresh vegetables growing in your garden for most of the year.
To benefit you need to have a good square foot garden plan which requires to be thought out early in the year, thorough planning to make the best use of your time and space. Before you start planting, you must consider the interrelationships of plants with each other and their needs and how to protect them from bugs and insects.
Square foot gardening is based on 1.2m by 1.2m raised beds. If you have more space then the length of the bed can be increased to 3.6m. The width should not be more that 1.2m so that you can easily reach the middle with out standing on the soil.
Posted by Carl on Mar 16, 2009 in
Good Going
Only the smart and strong can survive the years to come as we enter a global depression the likes of which the world has never seen before, be smart and make wise choices. Why trouble yourself with the pains of financial downturn, enjoy what you have instead of vain attempts to make money online Make sure to spend some time reading international news everyday and position yourself as best you can for the years ahead.
There are programs that will let you make a quick dollar like project payday and me2everyone but unless you invest your money wisely it will quickly disappear due to inflation. More and more, the population is starting to realize that fiat money is not a safe bet and they are investing in precious metals. Take some time to think about what types of things people will stop buying and what things they will buy more of as their bank account gets lighter.
When you have the president on the television telling people to stay calm and buy stocks, I usually think that whatever they say your best bet is to do the opposite. I read an interesting article recently about the large number of US citizens moving outside the country in order to find work as TEFL teachers. Probably not a bad idea while the economy is in shambles…Now is the time to become both fit in body and mind, not diet loss but rather the development of healthy eating and reading habits.
A strong mind and a good heart are two things that are priceless when dealing with the obstacles of this century.
Just keep in mind that things will improve eventually as we stick together and help each other in regard to our continued survival. Cross your fingers and hope for the best, that is really all you can do other than prepare yourselves as best you can for the upcoming years ahead.
Posted by Carl on Mar 16, 2009 in
Good Going
You can now find a lot of great techno songs at JonLeger.com. In case you’re interested in creating music yourself, here’s how he does it:
FL Studio
His primary tool for creating electronic music is FL Studio. FL Studio has it all: a mixer, a sequencer, loads of special effects and filters. Truly fantastic. He strongly suggests you purchase a copy! It takes a while to get used to using it, but it really makes music-making a digital breeze.
MAGIX Music Editor 2.0
When Jon needs to modify, cut and paste the sounds he uses in his songs, he uses MAGIX. It was cheap — he got it at Best Buy for $30. It’s very handy for the wave-editing that FL Studio can’t do. He looked at their site (magix.com), but I couldn’t find it. Maybe they don’t sell it anymore?
Bink Video’s RAD Video Tools
He’s started making songs based on movies and TV shows that he likes, and sometimes it’s useful to extract sounds from the movie trailers and movie clips that are available online. To accomplish this he uses the RAD Video Tools from Bink Video. They’re donationware, so be sure to give them a few bucks if you find their stuff useful (he did).
Loops and Samples
Jon has purchased thousands of loops, samples and instruments for use in FL Studio. Two of the places he’s gotten the sounds from are PlatinumLoops.com and PeaceLoveProductions.com. Both have a large selection at reasonable prices.
Hardware
He uses an audio-technica studio microphone for vocals (AT3035), and an Edirol UA-25 USB Audio Capture device to record from the microphone. He loves the Edirol because it’s very small (perfect for my desk) and supports two studio microphones and has a digital output for headphones.
If you’re interested in creating your own music, he wants to tell you this: it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) than you might think. You don’t need a studio (even for vocals). He records vocals in his office at home. All of the software and equipment costs came to around $1,250 (including the loops). The equipment all fits on my desk, and the software runs on my home PC. FL Studio needs a good bit of memory, so Jon suggests you don’t have less than 1GB of RAM (that’s how much he has and it works fine).