Family, Personal Care

Refresh Your Garden Design | May Dreams Gardens

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And the winner of the Fiskars loppers and hoe is “BooksandGarden”.  I’ve notified her by email so she can claim her prizes. Many thanks to the hostess of the virtual book party, Rebecca Sweet , for arranging all the prizes and blogger guests. I was honored to be included. I am truly enjoying Rebecca’s new book, Refresh Your Garden Design with Color, Texture, & Form .  It is inspiring me to finish out the areas of the garden that I haven’t quite gotten around to planting yet.   I long for the day when I can take a visitor around my garden and not have to say, “I still need to add plants to this border”. This book is helping me to see how I can do that. In fact… I am so smitten with this book that I’ve decided to do my own giveaway — one copy of Refresh Your Garden with Color, Texture, & Form .  If you’d like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment by Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 11:13 pm EST and include a link or disguised email address so I can reach you.  Winner will be chosen by random drawing. I’ll have Amazon ship the book directly to you, so you’ll have to give me an address if you are the winner.  Open to residents of the U.S., 18 and over, etc. P.S. –  Rebecca is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and she will protest that I didn’t need to do this, but we’ll just not pay attention to her. She’s in California, I’m in Indiana.  We aren’t likely to see each other in person for quite some time. Besides, I want to Garden It Forward !

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Food & Recipes, Vegetables

Skip Thawing Veggies in Pasta & Rice Dishes

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When you’re cooking a pasta recipe that calls for frozen peas, there’s no need to cook the peas before adding them to the pasta. Many frozen vegetables and fruits, like peas, don’t need to be thawed before they can be used in recipes. The same goes for berries, corn, bell pepper strips, broccoli, florets, and cauliflower florets. These can be thrown right into hot woks, skillets, and pots. frozen mixed veggies Try this Kitchen Shortcut with Creamy Shrimp and Pea Pasta .

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Desserts, Food & Recipes

MyRecipes.com Cake of the Week: Beeramisu

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Tiramisu might not technically be considered “cake”, but ladyfingers are made of spongecake, so I’m going to count it. If you haven’t tasted tiramisu, you’ve probably at least heard of it. It’s a popular coffee flavored Italian dessert that’s made of layers of coffee-soaked ladyfingers, mascarpone cheese and cocoa powder. It’s believed tiramisu originated between 1967 and 1969 in Treviso, Italy, but there is some debate about who actually created it first. I’m just glad someone came up with it! Countless variations of tiramisu exist in the world of recipes, cookbooks, magazines and food blogs, but today I want to share a recipe that you possibly haven’t seen before. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… Beeramisu . beeramisu-su-1886179-x As you might expect, this tiramisu is extremely close to the original. It has the ladyfingers, mascarpone cheese and cocoa powder, but this recipe calls for dipping the ladyfingers in a stout beer and mixing some Kahlua with the mascarpone cheese. Are you a fan of Beeramisu yet? Beeramisu definitely sounds more manly than tiramisu, at least to me. I think this spin-off on a classic Italian dessert would not only be a fun choice for any occasion, it would also be excellent for tailgating or a game-viewing get-together with friends and family. I typically think of bringing quick, easy and easily-transportable desserts and snacks to tailgates, and tiramisu is just that. You can buy ladyfingers at most grocery stores, so there isn’t any baking involved. Just layer it up in a loaf cake pan, pop it in the freezer, and whenever you’re ready to go, so is your fancy Italian dessert. Here are a few more variations of tiramisu: Tiramisu Layer Cake Tiramisù Layer Cake Recipe Tiramisu Tiramisu Recipe Brownie Tiramisu Brownie Tiramisù Recipe

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Technology

7 reasons why a tablet beats a laptop | The Online Mom

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If you are thinking about buying a tablet computer, then you should probably compare it to the productivity and convenience you get from a laptop. After all, your tablet is unlikely to replace your smartphone and it would be great if you could carry one less device, not one more. If people decide to stick with their laptops rather than take the tablet plunge, it’s usually because of the availability of more sophisticated office applications and a perception that laptops provide more processing power. However, newer tablets have made dramatic advances in both these areas, and many people are now choosing the more mobile devices for their everyday business needs. But there are several other reasons why it makes sense to choose a tablet over a laptop. Here are just a few that spring to mind: Take the weight off I have spent years carting around my six pound laptop and have the lower back pain to prove it. Even Ultrabooks weigh-in at an inconvenient 3.5 pounds or more. Most tablets come in under 1.5 pounds, with 7-inch tablets weighing half as much again. Once you own a tablet, you will take it everywhere – starting with the bedroom to read a book or watch a movie! No more burning I don’t know about you, but I am constantly worried about the heat that laptops give off, whether they are resting on my own lap or on my kids’. The different style processors and lower power requirements of tablets mean much less heat, and whatever heat that tablets do produce is easily dissipated through the screen and shell. And less heat means no fan. Cooler and quieter – I’ll take that! Longer battery life If you are taking your laptop anywhere for any length of time, then you will […]

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Gardening, Insects, The Garden

Secrets From The Insect World That'll Make You Want To Hug A Bug

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If you’re one of those people who thinks that insects and worms are nothing but icky, we’re about to blow your mind. 1. When you get up close, you learn that bugs are downright cuddly. Cutest bug ever 2. And that we should spend less time being scared of them and more time being jealous. Take caterpillars for example: their only job in life is to eat. Cute Caterpillar! 3. Oh yeah, and they’re more beautiful than we can even perceive. Insect wings appear transparent to us, but they’re actually full of colors that our eyes can’t detect . Beautiful Wings of Color 4. Some bugs are all about giving. Like ants. They have two stomachs, one for them and one to feed others. c’ANT’ u leave me alone?! 5. They even take care of other species of insects. They’ll sometimes shuttle aphids from plant to plant, and they’re so caring that leafhoppers will often leave their offspring to be raised by ants. Ants and Aphids 6. Then there are some bugs that just want to dance. cute insects 7. Or hang out with a buddy. Sepasang Lantern Bug 8. Or hold hands with their beloved. cute insects 9. Did you know that honey bees are the ultimate team players? They make all of their decisions collaboratively! Bumblebee 10. And that worms communicate via snuggles. 11. Insects are also our helpers, especially when it comes to doing the dirty work. Take dung beetles for example. When vast herds of cattle started ruining the land in Australia with their droppings, dung beetles were called in to manage the problem. Dung Beetle Have Right of Way sign 12. We’re not making this up: Hello Kitty caterpillars exist. cute insects 13. And so does this beetle with a smiling human face on […]

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Food & Recipes, Meat

SPAM Recipes – Hawaii's Favorite "Meat"

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If you think we’re here to hate on Spam, you’re wrong, at least in a historical context. We love the theory behind Spam. Created (and we do mean “created”– Spam does not, in fact, grow on trees) in the 1930s, Spam was big during World War II for obvious reasons. Food shortages weren’t uncommon. Items that didn’t spoil were heavily sought after. Soldiers needed shelf-stable goods and, as a bonus, Spam’s packaging allowed it to be packed easily and shipped in large quantities. By definition we have no problem with Spam. Sold in over 40 countries around the world, it’s arguably pretty darn popular. However, it is also, arguably, jellified meat, to use my newly created technical term. Here’s the catch. You, dear users, appear to like it. Of the recipes calling for Spam on MyRecipes.com, 80% are community recipes, meaning that you liked them so much that you typed them up and added them to our recipe file. Loud and proud you say, “I like Spam!” in your potato salad , in your fries , and even in your sushi . (Psst! We agree with you there. Yea, Spam Sushi! ) We aren’t here to hate! We have our own love for Spam, especially in this delicious burger: hawaiian-burger-su-x   Hawaiian Pig-Out Burger Spam may be one of the only ingredients that you can eat straight from the can at room temperature, chilled, grilled, baked, or fried. And for that, we love it, even if it does make a “slooshing” noise as it slides from its tin home. What recipes do you want to learn about? Come back each Thursday as we revisit the classics in our recipe collection! 

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Food & Recipes, Food Storage, Spices

Bottled Minced Garlic

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Most cooks will agree that freshly minced garlic has the best flavor. However, there are occasions when the convenience of bottled minced garlic is a good choice for recipes, especially those recipes that don’t require any other slicing, mincing, or chopping. Bottled minced garlic has a stronger flavor than freshly minced. One teaspoon of bottled minced garlic is equivalent to two garlic cloves. Most bottled minced garlic is shelf stable and doesn’t require refrigeration. But once you open the bottle, keep it stored in the refrigerator and check the “use by” date before adding it to a recipe. bottledmincedgarlicKS Try this Kitchen Shortcut with Chicken Strips with Blue Cheese Dressing .

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Appetizer, Food & Recipes

Bacon-Wrapped Appetizers | MyRecipes.com

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Long ago, in a far away land, bacon was considered perfectly healthy. It was delicious! Perfectly portioned! Easy to work with! Cooks everywhere served it for breakfast, crumbled it over green beans, stirred it into mashed potatoes, and even wrapped it around other delicious foods and served it as an appetizer to friends. Bacon has gone “in” and “out” in the previous decade. Atkins hit and the people rejoiced. Finally! An excuse to eat bacon! …plus sausage, steak, and, gracious,  anything   but those icky carbs. Then fat fear arrived and people shrunk back. “Turkey bacon,” they said, decreeing that the fairly decent substitute would do. Then Paleo roared onto the scene. Bacon for all! Are you seeing a trend? It’s hard for me to ever deem bacon as being on the outside of the most-desired diet list and, thought it has maintained popularity, the degree of guilt with which it was consumed has varied greatly. Friends, I’m here to bring bacon back. Why did we ever stop rolling shrimp , scallops , potatoes , and figs in bacon? As the bacon cooks, it transforms from thin, wispy meat into a crisp, flavorful treat that imparts all that delicious fatty flavor into whatever it surrounds. Case in point: bacon-wrapped-scallops-gb-x   Bacon-Wrapped Scallops I wrote before that my favorite birthday meal at age nine was, in fact, bacon-wrapped shrimp, and yet I’ve never made it. That nonsense stops today, or at least this weekend, when I have time to break out the toothpicks and get rolling. What recipes do you want to learn about? Come back each Thursday as we revisit the classics in our recipe collection! 

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Earthformed, Workplace

GAWKER: Facebook Is Building Its Own "Resort-Inspired" Factory Town

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Facebook is dipping its big blue thumb into the real estate market, investing in a cushy 394-unit apartment complex that’s a 45-minute walk to its new Frank Gehry-designed Menlo Park campus . The $120 million Anton Menlo will be designed by architects at KTGY Group in a partnership with St. Anton Developers (hence the name) and offer a mix of studios and one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments on a 10-acre site. KTGY’s Keith Labus tells the San Francisco Chronicle the "resort-inspired" complex will have "everything the young professional could want to complement their busy lifestyle." Amenities include a pool, rooftop deck, communal kitchen, bodega, bar, bike repair shop, yoga room, personal trainer, dog day care and a pet spa. A PET SPA, you guys! This all sounds eerily similar to HomeTown, the dorms of a Facebook-like company in Dave Eggers’ new novel The Circle , which was excerpted in the New York Times Magazine last weekend (and is also facing claims that Eggers lifted the story from an ex-Facebook memoirist ): She felt a profound sense of accomplishment and possibility that was accompanied, in short order, by a near-complete sense of exhaustion. It was almost midnight, and she needed sleep. It was too late to go all the way home, so she checked the dorm availability, reserved one, got her access code, walked across campus and into HomeTown. When she closed the door to her room, she felt like a fool for not taking advantage of the dorms sooner. The room was immaculate, awash in silver fixtures and blond woods, the floors warm from radiant heat, the sheets and pillowcases so white and crisp they crackled when touched. The mattress, explained a card next to the bed, was organic, made not with springs or foam but instead a new […]

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Earthformed, Technology

Fingerprint Biometrics – Is It Really More Secure?

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fingerprint-scanner Apple is clearly very pleased with the iPhone 5S and although its new biometric security system TouchID seems like a neat feature at first glance, the use of biometric data for security isn’t necessarily a good idea. The problem with fingerprint scanners is that they aren’t as secure as you might think, it raises some interesting privacy issues but worst of all once your biometric information has been compromised you can’t change it. In terms of security, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has already shown that Apple’s TouchID can be tricked using easy everyday means. Although we are only talking about a $600 smartphone and there are easier crimes to commit than trying to lift someone’s fingerprints just so you can access their phone, the weaknesses in fingerprint scanning are applicable to every situation where they are used including on identity documents (like passports) or scanners at supermarkets. In 2007 the CCC demonstrated how to  trick a fingerprint scanner at a supermarket resulting in a shopping bill being charged to someone else’s account. In 2008 the group included thin film copies of the fingerprints of the then German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble in its club magazine. The CCC’s webpage on how to fake fingerprints was uploaded in 2004, nearly a decade ago and the techniques described remain valid today. You can easily be forced to unlock your phone against your will. Forcing you to give up your passcode is much harder under most jurisdictions than just casually swiping your phone over your handcuffed hands – the Chaos Computer Club. There are also serious privacy questions around the use of biometric data. A senior US senator has written to Apple asking the Cupertino tech giant how the fingerprint data is encrypted on an iPhone 5S, whether any diagnostic data is ever […]

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Earthformed, Technology

Six Revisions: A Complete Guide to VPS Hosting

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Tweet Mar 30 2010 by Blue Derkin | 73 Comments A Comprehensive Guide to VPS Hosting Web hosting is a tricky business – there are a wide variety of options out there designed to fit a wide range of needs, but like with most things, there are trade-offs. Shared hosting is usually cheap and easy, but the resources are limited. Dedicated servers are powerful and customizable, but a certain level of technical knowledge can be required to run them, depending on the hosting company you choose. What happens, then, when your site is too big and gets too much traffic for a shared hosting plan, but doesn’t require the resources (or expenditure) of a dedicated server? If you find yourself asking these questions, then you should look into VPS hosting. Virtual private server (VPS) hosting is a flexible, scalable, and economical hosting solution that can fit the needs of almost any kind of website. It’s a perfect solution for those who have outgrown their shared hosting plans but don’t really need to move to a dedicated server. One thing to note before we dive in to examining the features and benefits of a VPS –  the specs on a VPS vary widely from host to host. To see if a certain host offers a certain feature, make sure to ask the provider. So What IS VPS, Anyway? In answering this question, maybe it’s better to examine how VPS hosting fits in to the overall offerings of most hosting companies. Shared hosting is just that – your site is hosted on a machine with a bunch of other sites, and each of you share the same resources, including RAM, disk space, and CPU.  Your site uses what it needs if it’s available, and if it’s not – well, that’s the […]

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Earthformed, Technology

Android Police: Galaxy Note 3 Deep-Dive Review

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You’ve been warned: the Galaxy Note II was probably my favorite smartphone of 2012, and it looks like its successor, the Note 3, is stealing my heart all over again. With big hardware improvements across the board, as well as substantial additions to software, the Note 3 feels like a true next-generation sort of phone. Samsung has rather effectively ruined every other large-screen device for me, and frankly, probably every other phone released this year. The thing I’ve come to like about the Note phones is their no-compromise approach to the big phone concept. Some large devices will sacrifice on the camera, the quality of the display, the processor, or practical ergonomics (*cough* Z Ultra *cough*) in order to meet a price or size target. Samsung, however, seems dead set on making the Note 3 the very best phone it can possibly be, period. And it’s not just about specifications – anyone can have those. It’s about putting them to good use. While I will be among the first in line to call out some of Samsung’s superfluous software gimmicks, there’s little denying they’ve developed features that have legitimate uses, and that their phones have a degree of functional versatility that remains unmatched by any of their competitors. With the Note 3, Samsung does add a little to the pile of toggles and overflow menus, but it has also refined and honed many parts of TouchWiz NatureUX 2.0 (yep, that’s the name), including some Note-specific features that may be worth a second look. And while NUX still won’t be winning any beauty contests, it still does focus on providing in-built functionality stock Android lacks. wm_IMG_6894 The Note 3 is, to me, is Samsung’s way of saying “here’s what we can do.” It’s the phone that, in my opinion, every […]

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