Sugar and Spice Nuts
I’m not really sure when this recipe showed up in the family retinue, or from which Bruno sister it originated. I can tell by the condition of the index card on which it’s printed that it’s been awhile, though. And these are a fave of mine. I don’t make them every year, but always remember how much I like them when I DO make them.
These are great for holiday entertaining, gift giving, or no reason at all.
3/4 c butter
2 lg eggs @ room temperature
1 c sugar
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t salt
5 c nuts
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ pan with aluminum foil. Put butter in pan to melt while oven is heating. Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in cinnamon and salt. Fold in the nuts.
Spread the nut mixture over the melted butter in the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring 3 or 4 times to keep nuts separated during baking. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
With slotted spoon, transfer nuts to brown paper or waxed paper to cool complete. Store nuts in a jar or tightly covered container.
doPDF – Free PDF Converter
Anyone who uses a computer as a part of his or her day-to-day life — business or personal — will eventually need to send a printed document to someone via email. The options are to attach the original document (not advised, usually), a scan of the document (acceptable, but tedious to the sender), or a pdf (portable document format) of the document. Whenever possible and practicle, the latter is the way to go.
PDF converters are listed as printer. There are many, many options for software to create a pdf. My personal choice is doPDF. It’s free, installs easily, and creates the pdf quickly and accurately from your Windows word processor of choice.
X-Sheet Invoicing – Good starter business finance software
X-Sheet Invoicing is a wonderful little financial management application for business developed by the folks at Development-X to show the flexibility and ease of use of their X-Sheet technology. I use X-Sheet to manage my own consulting finances. I’m a small enterprise and find this app takes care of everything I need easily and cleanly.
It offers invoicing and credit processing, customer management (including accommodation for notes and reminders), extensive reporting, payments and deposit management. When it comes time to compile data for tax report, I’m truly happy I use this software. That data colletion couldn’t be easier.
Oh, and this app is free. That’s right. It’s been free since it’s inception. I’ve been using it for almost 10 years. Thank you folks at Development-X!
Be Cool: A Kusmi Tea Review
Last night, I received a review sample of a fun product. Be Cool. The new addition to Kusmi Tea’s wellness line.
I’ve test driven their teas before and enjoyed them. This one has a fresh flavor that feels light on the tongue after tasting. While we enjoyed it hot after dinner as a relaxing decaffeinated option, I’d also like to recommend the following menu pairing:
Serve the Be Cool tea iced with a few fresh flower petals, or with some flower petals frozen in ice cubes if it’s a fancier occasion. Pair it with cucumber sandwiches and individual chocolates for a light afternoon event in the spring. This is a balcony-worthy menu great for a girlfriend get –together.
You can purchase Kusmi Tea at Amazon. I’m also particularly fond of their lemony Detox tea and their gorgeously feminine Sweet Love blend. Kusmi’s teas always put me in a travel mood, with their various French and Russian blends.
Photo Credit: Kusmi
This article has been submitted to the March 3, 2010 edition of Wanderfood Wednesday.
Fried zucchini flowers
Zucchini plants were always plentiful in my grandparents’ garden. Anyone who grows zucchini successfully knows that, at some point, one can wish there weren’t so many! Here’s a great way to enjoy the zucchini plant and put a little production reduction into place.
The following is the primary ingredients in the breading. Amounts are completely fluid.
Zucchini flowers, rinsed. (use the male flowers…those without a fruit behind the blossom). Also, early in the day is the best time to harvest. The flowers close and wilt as the day progresses. Always beware of bees hiding in the flowers!
In one bowl, mix together egg and milk (start with one egg and enough milk to make the mixture thin)
In another bowl combine flower, garlic powder, salt pepper. Other optional ingredients are dried parsley, basil, and/or oregano.
Heat a small amount of oil in a fry or saute pan until the oil shimmers.
Dredge the zucchini flowers in first the egg/milk mix and then the flour mixture.
Place in the hot oil and cook just until the flower browns, flipping when the first side is finished. Place on paper towel to remove excess oil.
I like these best fresh out of the pan, but they work no matter what. Also, these can be a different, interesting pizza topping… Also, I’ve used flowers from other summer squash and smaller winter squash to good effect.
Photo credit: Allerina and Glen MacLarty
Color Cop – A free color picker
This is a tool that is meant for Windows web designers and programmers, but these days, bloggers who support their own blogs in WordPress, for example, are doing a lot of their own site modifications. Color Cop stays on top and includes an eyedropper to grab a color of interest off any web page. It lists the colors in RGB and hexadecimal. Another cool thing Color Cop includes is a complimentary color palette for any chosen option. Nice for experienced users and rookies, as well.
Also, a quick demo and user forums offer a little more than meets the eye regarding use of this program.
Photo Credit: Color Cop
Hot Pepper Jelly
This is not a jelly restricted to a fruit season. I make this when I find on sale at least two of the three peppers involved. This is actually a recipe from Sure-Jell; it’s been no fail for me. I’ve had recipes that crystalize, and that just makes me cranky. The uses for hot pepper jelly are myriad. It COULD with butter go on an English muffin, but it really goes well with black beans to make a nice sweet and savory side dish. The most recognizable use is as an appetizer — over a block of cream cheese and served with crackers. Also good in burritos and works wonders in a cheese omelet, too.
Ingredients
2 medium red bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
2 medium green bell peppers, seeded and finely chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
10 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (about 1 cup)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 box SURE.JELL Fruit Pectin
1/2 tsp. butter or margarine (optional)
5 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl (See tip below.)
Preparation
Bring half-full boiling-water canner to a simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot, soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.
Place all peppers and vinegar in 6- or 8-quart pot.
Stir in pectin. Add butter to reduce foaming, if desired. Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn’t stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.
Stir in all sugar quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.
Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches; add boiling water if needed. Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 10 minutes. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. (If lid springs back, lid is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.)
Photo credit: Marco Arment
Zip Genius – a file compression option
ZipGenius is a file compression tool that is a perfect companion to anyone’s PC tool box. Sending 10 full sized images and your email client is grousing? Compress the images into one file that’s smaller than the sum of it’s parts, and email will be better able to handle those images. Need to offload some old scanned paperwork? Compress with ZipGenius and get more bang for your buck with off-pc storage.
And ZipGenius handles more than traditional .zip files! In fact, ZipGenius can compress and decompress 20+ file types. It’s easy to use, it’s been around for awhile, and it’s free.
Sweet refrigerator pickles
I love pickles. Finding this recipe has made fresh pickles a staple in my house. The best thing is that I can make one jar at a time using whatever cucumbers happen to be best priced at the time. I’m partial to small pickling cukes or European cukes, so tend to plan these pickles around their availability. I’ve also given these as gifts, and they’ve been received enthusiastically!
3 pickles (cucumbers) unpeeled, slice thin
1 onion sliced thin
Mix:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery seed
Pour 1/2 above mixture into glass container that has a tight-fitting lid. Put cucumbers and onions in jar. Pour remaining liquid in jar. Close lid, turn upside down in dish for 24 hours, turn back for 24 hours. Keep in
refrigerator the whole time.
Photo credit: scubadive67
FileZilla – Simple, Secure, Free FTP Protocol
This open source, file transfer protocol (FTP) is my preferred software for this function. It is available in client and server versions, and it is free. It runs on several platforms (including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) and is available in many languages.
One of my favorite things, beyond ease of use, is the Site Manager tool. For those of us who access many servers via FTP, FileZilla allows the saving of domain name/login/password for easy communication to those servers. . . a BIG time saver.
FileZilla displays a folder/file view on both the client and the server, making navigation more intuitive. File transfer is a snap with drag-and-drop. You bloggers out there will love this tool for picking up or dropping off images from the blog host!
