Sunday, June 14, 2009

A couple recipes

Its been a while since I've posted any.

I've fried two computers (my old desktop, and my laptop) moved to Missouri, and sewn on staff sergeant.

Man, I've been busy.

Time to throw on some of my recipes I guess
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Curts Oven Baked Fish.

2 boneless fillets. (I use tilapia, but it would prolly work with catfish too.)

Marinate fillets in
1 table spoon soy sauce,
4 table spoons lemon juice.
(you can add some water if that looks too hardcore for you.)

Heat up a cast iron skillet in the oven to 425 degrees.


Prior to placing fillets in preheated skillet, brush with spicy brown mustard, or deli mustard. Pour the marinade in the pan, put the fish in, and place in oven. Pouring the marinade in keeps the fish from sticking to the pan. It'll mostly evaporate by the time the fish is done.

cook at 425 for eight minutes. Remove fillets, dab on some butter if that's your thing, and serve.

What do you wind up with? Some very flavorful and nicely colored fillets.

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Curts' cast iron steak method

Marinate steaks over night in Coca cola. (I recommend you not use anything too sweet like Dr Peper.)

preheat cast iron skillet to 500, on broil.

remove pan from oven, place the steaks on the hot skillet, and flip after one minute so both sides can sear.

Place the steaks in the oven, cooking time runs from 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of the steak, and the preferred doneness.

Remove steaks, and devour.

What you wind up with? Steaks that are nicely seared on the exterior, and still quite juicy on the inside. The acidic coke melts the fat and gristle off the steak, and leaves a hint of caramel to the flavor. Unlike the fish, I do not pour the marinade in the pan with the steaks. I like a little dry sear on the sides of my steak.
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Right now I'm trying something a little different with some topblade steaks I bought at the commisary. I'm marinating in a mixture of water, vinegar, olive oil, garlic salt, and my favorite dry seasoning. my marinating time is only 3 hours, so I'm hoping it turns out well.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Cars cars cars

I was bouncing around one of my favorite forum sites, when the topic of "Whats your opinion on the Auto Industry Bail out?" Came along, I decided to copy/paste my post, and share it here.

The core thing about it, is that you have four groups floating around screwing everything up.

First, you have the physical corporate heads at the big four who couldn't tell a spark plug from a hole in the ground, but can tell you what kind of wine is being poured on the private jet. These money grubbing slimeballs wouldn't know a decent car if they were sitting on it. They're corporate heads know nothing about engineering, manufacturing, or even consumer science. What they do know is how to lobby big government, wow thier investors, and spend cash like it all belongs to them.

secondly, you have vastly overpaid and overcushed union workers who insist on maintaining their bennies come hell or highwater. Compare the UAW to the airline industry unions, who took paycuts and benefit cuts in order to ensure that the airlines wouldn't go under. Airline mechanics can take paycuts, but auto factory techs can't? WTF.

The third trouble group is the government itself. We could have nice cars, like they do in foreign countries, if it wasn't for our own governments safety nazis and enviro weinies. Its the enviro wienies who shoot down diesel powered trucks and cars. Its the safety nazis who shoot down all the small car designs (Why not just make a law banning them from interstates, effectively keeping them on surface roads with a max speed of 55MPH?)

Finally, you have the airheaded consumers who keep buying the crap that the big four roll out. Soccer moms who insist that they need a seven passenger four wheel drive SUV to take Timmy to his ballet recitals. Why do my idiot neighbors drive F-350 Diesel club cabs with dualies on them? They live in an apartment complex for God sakes! I know they don't own a boat or even a trailer. The only thing they ever put in the bed is groceries! The one guy who owns a motorcycle loads it up in the bed of his small size truck when he needs to take it somewhere.

In the meantime, us smart consumers sit with out dreams unfulfilled.....

I want a small diesel truck. Something like a Toyota Tacoma or Chevy Colorado. But even though there are thousands in third world nations, I can't get one. The government enviro nuts say they aren't clean enough, and the big four only sells gasoline. What I'd really like is one of those Japanese mini trucks that has four wheel drive, and tops out at 55 mph. But the safety nuts are afraid I'll wreck it on the interstate, and refuse to allow them to be licensed for highway use.

I personally think that the big three should be cut apart. Let the useless sections die off, let the rest diversify and grow. I miss the time when buying a chevy truck meant you were getting a tough and reliable vehicle, buying a dodge car meant you were getting a cheapy little car that could get you from A to B. Buying a pontiac or mercury meant you were getting a nifty little speedster with just a bit more oomph then you'd expect, and buying a Cadillac or Lincoln assured you that you were riding in the lap of luxury. Now they're all the same cars, with different badges. General Motors has turned into the Electronic Arts of the Automotive world. They assimiliate great companies (Like Saturn and Saab, and even Hummer, in its own wierd oversized way) and force those companies to manufacture Borgish vehicular crap. Then they get confused when the fans revolt and buy foreign.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

I figured I'd do a quick summary of whats' new in my life.
- I've been selected for promotion to Staff Sergeant, (E-5) and will sew on my new stripes in January.
-As part of getting those staff stripes, I have to complete Airman Leadership school. Its not fun. I'm doing pretty good though thus far. I still, unfortunately, suck at marching. I hope I don't injure anyone on the drill pad.
-I'm still single, though half my exes are currently hiding in dark corners plotting means and methods to get me back in their lives.
-My interest in the shooting hobby continues to grow, and my poor computer is still laboring on indefinitely, three year old CPU chip and all.
-My Saturn Ion III just turned over 40K miles.
-I'm still in Louisiana. I'm still hating it for the most part.
-I'm still plotting means and methods for getting a different AFSC.

Thats pretty much it for now. I think I'm going to go to bed now.

My slowly expanding gun collection.

LR
Its been a while. I figured I'd update my blog, starting with the gun section.

When I last checked in, I had four pistols and three rifles. Its safe to say, my collection has done some expanding since then.



I've got two new battle rifles, my Yugoslavian SKS, and my Yugo German Mauser. Both the Yugos are surprisingly good guns. The Mauser takes top honors as my prettiest bolt action, and my SKS actually gets more range time then my AR-15. I'm currently converting it to feed off of removable Tapco 20 round magazines, some people have problems with them, but my SKS seems to like the Tapcos' just fine. I've also picked up an old dog 22 rifle that I've fitted with a scope.

I've swapped out about half the guts, but I'm still not quite happy with the accuracy, and the tube feeding is getting on my nerves, so I'm pondering buying a new Savage rifle, and retiring the old Springfield 187J. I saw one today at one of the local stores for a mere 119, and I almost threw my credit card on the counter. It took a lot of discipline to walk out with the bag of ammunition I had walked in for.

I'm currently enrolled in Airmen Leadership School, and I'm thinking about giving myself a gun as a graduation/promotion gift. I'm having a hard time deciding whether I want a 5 shot 357 magnum revolver, an AK series rifle, or a new 22 rifle. I'm also considering a 22LR pistol.

Man, gift giving is hard! Especially when you're the one getting the gift!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Where'd all the good food go?

Its been a long time since I've posted anything, so here goes nothing.

I'm a foodie. I love food. I love cooking, I love eating, I love sitting around cooking and eating with friends and family. Folks, its a horrible horrible time to be a foodie.

We live in a nation dotted all over by supermarkets, and restaurants. Food is everywhere. Unfortunately, most of it sucks.

Now I ain't saying it ain't edible, nor at least somewhat nutritious. I'm not blaming Mcdonalds for our nations ever expanding waistlines. Truth is, I've dined at the golden arches on many occasions when I'm in too much of a hurry, or too lazy to cook.

But Lord, I watch the older members of my family working thier special magic in the kitchen, and I want to cry. I want to cry for every kid who's mamma or granny has never, and will never make home made rolls or biscuits. I want to cry for every kid who's never had home made ice cream. I want to cry for every kitchen in the America that has a dirty microwave, and a spotless stove.

I want to cry because I'm not near as good in the kitchen, but I want to be glad that I do know the few tips and tricks out that I do know.

-Real men love heavy metal. Cast Iron in particular. I have a nice sized cast iron skillet, and I've used it just about every day since I've got it. Bacon, ham, sausage, you can't beat a cast iron breakfast. The worlds best treat on a cast iron skillet is Texas toast. cook up some bacon or sausage, and then put a little butter on the hot skilet. When the butter melts, drag both sides of your bread through the melted butter and grease. fry it on both sides for about 30 seconds, and you have toast the way its supposed to be. I'm seriously tempted to throw my toaster out the door after that.

-Dishwashers are for dorks and forks. If you put your cast iron in the dishwasher, you are wrong. If you put your Teflon in the dishwasher, you are definitely wrong. Dishwashers are for utensils, glasses, cutting boards, and any bare metal pans that you have somehow forgotten to throw out of your kitchen.

-If it says "Organic" and its in a chain supermarket, it is wrong. Real organic fruits and vegetables are sold at roadside stands, farmers markets, and come in bags out of your mommas refrigerator. Real organic meat is either shot out in the woods, or found at the local butcher shop. Never trust a butcher shop that doesn't have live animals outside calmly pondering the last few moments of their lives. If the animals don't come in alive and leave dead, it isn't a butcher shop, its a packing facility.


-There is no such thing as organic milk in a carton. If you are drinking "organic milk" and there ain't a cow for miles around, you are wrong.

-No, it is not "all in the sauce". If it was, I'd douse cardboard in barbecue sauce, and save my money. If you're going to cook good meat, you need good meat. And good preperation, and good cooking methodology.

-Thermodynamics is your friend. A couple years welding and cutting steel is how I got my basic understanding of thermodynamics. Its hard to explain without getting into physics, but its basically provides the explanation for why a preheated pizza stone pizza is better then one on a flat cookie sheet, and why cast Iron is so awesome.

-Thermodynamics can be your enemy! Just ask anyone who has poured really cold water into a really hot coffee carafe.

-Preheat. Preheat your oven, and preheat thick cookware such as pizza stones, and cast iron.

-For really good home made ice cream, go to my grandpas house. Theres so many relatives there, they'll never notice that you don't belong. Just try to save me some. I don't know what he does, but he does it right.

-Key to good coffee? Good water first and foremost. Good clean coffeemaker, pot, and cup, secondly. and finally a good sunrise to drink to.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Dental Work and Computer components

My morning basically started at around 8AM with an AF dentist explaining the following;

"Alrighty now. First, I'm going to shoot about half a gallon of Novocaine into the back of your throat and jaw, after that I'm a take this here hammer and chisel and bust out your left upper wisdom tooth. Don't mind that beeping noise, thats just the heart monitor to the kid next door who was anesthetized. The lazy turd refuses to wake up."

BAM BAM BAM, my eyeballs are bouncing around, my sinuses are strumming and humming like guitar strings, and my heart rate picks up to the point that my chest burns. My racing heart demands oxygen. My lungs can't get said oxygen because my throat has relaxed and refuses to expand. The darkness from having a surgical towel over my eyes isn't helping the panic reflexes here. I'm feeling the blood flow race through my extremities as my central nervous system is becoming convinced that I'm about to die.

"Okey dokey, we're done. Ever had penicillin before?" "AHASDOUGSN" loosely translated as "Gee I don't know. Most docs changed their mind about prescribing me that stuff after they find out my mom is allergic to it. No point finding out the fun way right." "Well, we're going to give it to you. Heres a number you can call if it tries to kill you in your sleep."

So yeah, I wander to the base pharmacy, get my baggie o' drugs, and then crash into bed, hoping I don't die or bleed to death in my sleep, but frankly to frazzled to care.

4PM I wake up, grab something to eat, and drive out to Bass pro to look at ammo prices. I suddenly remember there is a computer store and whip into the parking lot for a looksie.

OMG! They have the case of my dreams. No stupid LEDs, no stupid patterns cut out in a Plexiglass side panel, no unnecessary PSU jumping up the price tag. Just a silky cube of black with a light trimming of Silver. A forward fan blowing air over the HDD tray, A massive rear fan, two side fan slots, everything is perfect. Everything I want, nothing I don't. Its beautiful. So yeah, I throw down a good 70 bucks for it and run home, transferring Trixies' guts over to my new box.

So yeah I've officially begun my computers Re-birthing program.

Phase I "Arctic"
New case
New cooling fans
Complied with

Phase II "Lazurus"
Intel Multicore Processor
ASUS Motherboard
1/2 capacity of RAM.

Phase III Colossus
Windows VISTA ultimate
Double the RAM to max capacity.

Phase IV WarpCore
2 ATI RADEON Graphics cards in Crossfire Configuration
Replace 160 gig PATA Ubuntu experimental drive with 500-1K Gig SATA drive
New speakers, Peripherals

I can hardly wait for phase II. I'm pretty certain I'm going to go with an LGA 775 socket Intel chip. I was an AMD fan for a long time, but you can't beat the new Intel multicores. AMDs just can't compete right now, hopefully they'll get thier stuff together. The MOBOS I keep seeing are looking pretty slick. I'm still a little stuck on whether to get DDR2 or 3 RAM. We're kind of hanging in between generations, the old stuff is dirt cheap, the new stuff is pricey and hard to come by. I'm going to have to wait until the actual time I'm ready to purchase before I decide. The RAM format also dictates the overall price of the Mo/bo.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

SCOTUS for the Win!

The Heller Vs DC decision came in 5-4 in favor of not destroying the Constitution! I'm mad, and happy, all in one shot.

Of course, DC still sucks. According to the police chief, residents are only allowed one gun, and semi auto guns are still banned.

So whats a southern boy to do? First off I don't live there. But if you do, I recommend you look at one of these.


The Taurus Judge

That my friends, is a 5 shot revolver chambered for both 45 Long colt cartridges, and 410 shotgun shells. They also have longer barreled versions for those days when you want to tighten up your groups just a hair tad. Speaking of shotguns, I'm personally a big fan of the double barrel coach guns such as this Stoeger Coach Gun

Sure you only got two shots, but the short overall length makes it easier to swing around in teeny tiny apartments and stairwells.

Interestingly enough the DC police are mandating a written test before a license will be issued. Such policy was banned for VOTING because the written test was shown to be racist. ("Ooh, sorry BOY, you misspelled a word. Everyone knows that its E before I. He he he he. Looks like you won't be voting anytime soon.")

The one gun only limit is interesting. "We have freedom of press here in Russia. See we have a newspaper. We only have one. But that means we're free."

Basically, things are still overall fascist in DC, seeing all the legal traps set forth. You can't obey one law, without breaking two or more other less known laws. You can have a gun, but you can't buy it legally. Its entrapment.

But hey, now the NRA and all our allies got what it takes to go on the offensive. Time to take the Brady Campaign to task, and make Shermans March look like a Cakewalk.