July 30, 2008 by dave.

I’m a huge coffee drinker and have always wondered about all these teeth whitening products.  My wife came home from a friend’s house and said she really liked a pre-brushing dental rinse that has peroxide in it.  There are numerous name-brand products but we picked up a RiteAid brand similar to Listerine Whitening and I’m very impressed.  You rally notice a difference and it REALLY makes your mouth / teeth feel clean.  At first there seemed to be an odd side-effect; it left some sort of slimy film in your mouth…but after a handful of uses that seemed to go away.

I became concerned and curious about the active ingredient (Peroxide) but after doing some research I discovered there’s really nothing to worry about.  Here’s a few good resources for this information:

Peroxide / Tooth Whiteners

Customer Comments / Reviews (Listerine Whitening)

Posted in Health & Environment | 2 Comments »

July 28, 2008 by dave.

The raised bed garden is doing VERY well.  As you may recall, I constructed it with scrap wood and I used a combination of compost from my town’s Transfer Station (I call it our ‘dump’).  My goal had been to have a good producing garden that didn’t require much maintenance / weeding.

Well, I’m very happy with it and am already making plans to add another section next year so I can grow more.  A few thoughts and comments:

** Next year I will plan the layout a bit better.  Example: My lettuce is pretty much gone and now I have empty space.  At the same time my cucumbers are taking over.  Perhaps next year I can design the layout so when the lettuce is used up the room left vacant will be filled by the cucumber plants.

** I will also try to spread some things out a little more.  I left plenty of room for the tomatoes (based on the package guidelines) but the plants are absolutely HUGE!

** I may also try to stagger some plantings of certain fast-growing plants.  For example….I only had spinach for about 3 weeks then it was used up or went to seed.  Next year I’ll try to plant some…wait a week and plant more….wait a week….well, you get the point.

** I have had very few weeds in the garden.  This was my biggest gripe.  I blame the good soil….I’m sure I’ll get a bit more weed infiltration next year but I’m sure it will continue to be manageable.

So in summary I got a good batch of spinach - which is already done.  I’ve been eating fresh lettuce for about 6 weeks now and probably have another week or two of ‘inventory’.  My tomato plants are HUGE and full of green tomatoes.  Some around here have already gotten red tomatoes but not me.  I do have the quantity….we just need more sun.  The carrots are doing very well.  The biggest story is the cucumbers.  I have already pulled 43 cucumbers out of the garden….and the plants are infested with buds so I’m going to get a ton more.  Check out the pictures (they are from a few weeks ago so the realize the cucumber plants have about tripled and the tomato plants are almost doubled:

 Cucumbers in foreground.  Running out of lettuce towards the back.  far back are carrots and sunflowers.

 Some lettuce.  I tried to pick it in a way to open up room….which is why it’s not neatly aligned.

This is an overview of the garden.  The smaller area in the back is a cutting garden for flowers.  On the right you can see the tomato plants.

Posted in Food / Beverage, Household Stuff | 1 Comment »

July 23, 2008 by dave.

Many people acquire a pizza stone in the hopes that they can mimic what is often served in brick-oven pizza restaurants.  Unfortunately people I talk to that have gone this route are often disappointed in the results.  I too was not happy with the outcome of my attempts to create a high-quality thin-crust pizza in this manner so I started browsing the web for advice.  Based on info I ran across on discussion boards and manufacturer’s sites (as well as things I discovered on my own) I came up with a process that works.  The pizza is thin, crispy, and tastes very close to what you’d get from a brick-oven pizza restaurant.

The advice: Preheat your oven for an hour on 475.  Yes - this is probably one of the most important things.  In order to have a crispy, thin crust your stone and the oven must be blazing hot.  Before I discovered this I ended up with a pizza having a crust that was undercooked because the toppings would cook faster than the bottom.  I also believe this cooks the crust faster and doesn’t let it continue to ‘rise’ while cooking….again, resulting in a thinner crust.

Have all your toppings ready and laid out and INSTEAD of assembling and sliding the raw pizza on the stone with a paddle, do the assembly right on the hot stone.  This is easier than it sounds…and easier than trying to put the uncooked pizza in the oven without messing it up.

So when you are ready to ‘build’ your pizza open the oven and slide out the heated stone on the oven rack.  If the stone is seasoned enough you  won’t need to add the obligatory corn meal….but you can if you want.  Lay out a pre-rolled and flattened section of dough.  Now - another key piece of advice: brush olive oil all over the top of the crust.  Logic told me this would make it mushy but my logic was backwards and I discovered this was the key to getting a crispy crust.  See….the oil ‘fries’ the dough and the edge crust….which is what you want.  Add the other toppings….cook…and it should be ready in7-9 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it.

Lastly….what is a good dough?  Well store-bought dough (the kind already in a dough-ball) is too elastic due to the gluten that’s used as a preservative.  The Pillsbury roll-out dough is just ‘OK’…but I’d recommend you really roll it out flat.  I found a good homemade dough that I really like out on the Internet which I adapted slightly.

So that’s it.  The keys are to have a good recipe, really heat the oven, oil the dough, and assemble the pizza directly on the stone in the oven.  For the recipe I referred to click here.

Posted in Food / Beverage | No Comments »

July 16, 2008 by dave.

I handful of years ago I accidentally discovered National Public Radio (specifically NHPR) when I was scanning some stations for ’something different’.  The program that got my attention was Car Talk.  I’ve been a fan ever since.  NPR stations have a lot of terrific programming but this one really stands out.

Car Talk is a show hosted by two Italian Bostonians who just so happen to be brothers (Tom and Ray Magliozzi).  They are also known as ‘Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers’.  The brothers help callers with problems related to car repair, car issues, and quite often some very odd life issues.  The intersperse humor with real advice.  Within the shows they include interesting facts, a weekly ‘puzzler’ for listeners to try and solve, and one of my favorite parts of the show is when they followup with someone they gave advice to in order to determine if the ‘car problem’ they identified was correct.

These guys know their stuff and give listeners some good entertainment.  They are actual mechanics who own their own repair shop and interestingly enough Tom actually has a Ph.D…..yeah folks….he’s a “Doctor” who did some time as a college professor until he realized (these are his words) “teaching sucks”.

Anyway….check them out on your local NPR station or you can even listen to old shows online.

Posted in Fun!, Web Sites | 1 Comment »

July 9, 2008 by dave.

I am reliving my childhood through my own kids.  One of the enjoyable things I remember as a kid was building tree houses and forts.  My wife and I try to keep our kids active and engaged in activities without watching TV so we spend a lot of time outside.  This summer I started building them a tree house.  They try to help but since they are still kind of young they tend to act more as ’supervisors’.  The tree house is triangular shaped (because I had 3 good trees to attach the structure to), it will have 3 windows, a door, and access will be via a ramp.  At this point I have all the walls, floor, and ramp in place.  The roof is going to be tricky due to the triangular shape but I have some ideas.  All of the wood was scrap that I had or got from my father-in-law.  I even have shingles for the roof.  At this point it appears the only costs associated with the tree house will hinges for the door and Plexiglas or screening for the windows.  Check out the current picture below.  Note the ramp is not done yet:

Posted in Household Stuff, Fun!, Parenthood | 1 Comment »