Made Red Bell Pepper Hummus

Today I made hummus again. This is a spread (or dip) made from pureed chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, dried basil leaves, ground pepper, and roasted red bell pepper. I then made sandwiches (resembling sliders) using the hummus as a spread on each half of the sandwich bun and loading up with more roasted bell peppers. The result was killer! I also discovered a savory new ingredient called SALT (I think it must stand for "Such A Lovely Taste"). I added a mere 1/4 teaspoon to the batch of hummus and it tasted great. I must remember to make even more use of this key ingredient in the future. The photos here aren't that great, but you can get an idea of how good it looks when sliced in half.

Field Tested Spy Camera in Del Mar

The Patio Area at En Fuego
Cantina & Grill, Del Mar

Harvest Ranch Market

Earth Song Book Store

Sidewalk area at Americana Restaurant

Stratford Court Cafe on 13th

Quite some time ago I purchased a digital camera disguised as a pair of sunglasses. The megapixel rating is 1.3, quite adequate considering the size and craftiness of the camera. Today I decided to field test it in the city of Del Mar, California. Attached are some sample photos. Some were taken outdoors, and many of the interior shots came out quite well.

Points of interest include The Plaza Shopping Center, Harvest Ranch Market, Stratford Square, The Stratford Court Cafe, En Fuego Cantina and Grill (currently my favorite), and Seagrove Park, among other places.

If you want to see the rest of the photos, go here.

As you can see, the stealth capabilities of this camera are more than enough to get by without people knowing pictures are being taken. The shutter is silently released via a bluetooth remote the size of a silver dollar, concealed in the pocket. Taking the pictures is still a bit of a learning curve. Pressing the button results in three audible beeps which only I can hear via the earphones attached to the glasses. The exposure is taken at some point in the middle of those three beeps, but I'm not exactly sure when. Hence, it is difficult to shoot moving subject matter.

With some of the photos, I've cropped them after the fact so that I can zoom in on the subject closer. That is why these appear to have lower resolution.

I shot over a hundred exposures before I got tired of taking pictures. I've included only a few here and on my Mobile Me Gallery.

As a side benefit, the sunglasses are also a digital mp3 player.

Made Chicken Broccoli Fettucini Alfredo

This time I really didn't use a recipe. I did everything kind of from scratch, except for the sauce, which I made by using Bear Creek Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup Mix. For the chicken I simply took breast meat, cubed it, then pan-sauteed it. I steam-cooked the broccoli in the microwave.

Listed 24 new pieces this evening on eBay

This week I've decided to slam eBay really hard. I've got some new pieces listed and I hope they do well, despite the fact that they are scheduled to end on the Memorial Day weekend.

Renaissance Pleasure Faire 2009

Today I went to the Renaissance Faire in Irwindale, California. I try to go there at least once each year. The atmosphere is the raison d’être of the whole experience, but for me the food is at the top of the list as well. I made a point of having the Pork Chop on a Stick, among other things, as well as sampling some meade, apple cider, and lager beer. I passed on the roasted turkey leg this year, because I’ve had my fill of turkey earlier this month.

This blogger lets me upload only five photos at a time, so I will try to include a link to more photos at a later time. Hope to keep up with the Ren Faire tradition in the years to come.

Sometimes Reverse Psychology works well.

The teacher doesn’t want Bart to do it, so it must be a good idea.

Turkey Pizza

I was inspired by the “starter” ingredient to make this dish: Pizza Bread from Loma Linda bakery in Loma Linda. I used the small size pre-baked pizza bread, a variety which—to a degree—resembles foccacia.

To this I added about half a 14-ounce jar of Prego Italian sauce (fresh mushroom flavor). Then about four ounces of shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, followed by close to half a pound of cooked ground turkey, some sliced black olives, and sliced red bell pepper.

I baked it on a cookie sheet in a 425° oven for 15 minutes. I’m thinking I could have gone an extra five minutes for a bit more doneness, although the meat portion was obviously pre-cooked. 

The result was a tasty, “deep” pizza, but definitely not a user-friendly finger food. A knife and fork works best for this dish. I will need to experiment with other ingredients in the near future.

Made Chicken Piccata

A couple of days ago on the Food Network Channel, Ina Garten made a terrific-looking Chicken Piccata, so I decided I’d download her recipe and give it a try.

Well, the results were to die for. It was so darn good that I ate the entire recipe. There were no leftovers. I took no prisoners!

I sided the chicken with steamed broccoli, over which I poured some of the piccata sauce (which by the way is a tasty butter-wine-lemon juice reduction). 

A sprig of parsley added the final touch to this dish, and I ate it with a glass of white wine, a rather unassuming 2007 Douglas Hill Chardonnay which I purchased at Stater Bros. Market for under $3.00 a bottle. You can’t beat that deal with a stick.

Anyway, for how quickly this meal can be prepared, I definitely will be doing it again in the very near future. It is definitely providing stiff competition for my Pakistani Chicken entrée.

Well, I think I must get back to finishing off that bottle of Chardonnay. Later!

Joined Bonanzle

This afternoon I registered an account with Bonanzle.com. Bonanzle is an eBay alternative. For what it’s worth, I will be giving it a shot in the next few days as far as listing an item for sale.

The recent rash of changes at eBay have precipitated an exodus of many eBay users over to Bonanzle. Bonanzle is certainly simpler to use and has lower fees. The problems that I can see with it, however, are:

(1) Much smaller amount of traffic. Currently there are 26,270 users. Compare that to eBay with 10,000,000 users. However, the membership appears to be growing exponentially. Currently there are over 1 million items listed for sale.

(2) There is (as of yet) no auction format. I would need to pick a fixed price for my artwork and hope to sell it for that.

(3) I just might have a problem selling my nude artwork, especially drawings/paintings of celebrity nudes. But I figure that, at this early stage, I have very little to risk losing.

Disney Parks has plans to honor Yours Truly

Venison Chili

Yesterday (Saturday) I made some venison chili, for the first time. I used my regular turkey chili recipe and swapped out the venison, which I purchased ground and frozen at Clark’s Nutrition in Loma Linda. This particular game meat is $7.29 a pound, which is not as pricey as ostrich.

As for taste... There was really very little in the way of a “gamey” taste to this chili, mainly because the proportion of meat to vegetables (as well as grated Monterey Jack cheese to finish it) was too small to make a noticeable difference. I could taste the meat, but not enough to identify it as something different from either beef or turkey. Overall, the result was good and I’ll be having leftovers today.

I swapped out garbanzo beans for kidney beans in this recipe—quite good.

Update on auctions and my rant on the new My eBay

I have auctions which close tomorrow night. They seem to be doing quite well. As a side note, I’d like to discuss my opinion about the new My eBay pages which have rolled out some time ago, are currently optional to use, but will be mandatory on January 20.

My opinion is that the new My eBay totally sucks. Big time. I have read other eBay members’ comments about the new format, and many of them voice the same opinion. Furthermore, we are all deeply disappointed that we will be stuck with the new format whether we like it or not.

Common complaints about the new format are: (1) pages are much, much slower to load, even if you’ve got a broadband connection; (2) navigation is much more difficult to get to where you want to go; (3) features available in the current version are gone in the new version; (4) the new version has abandoned the simple spreadsheet format which would otherwise enable the user to see everything at a glance.

To illustrate how bad the new version is, I’ve included screenshots of each. The top version is the old (current) format. The one below it is the newer, crappier version. With the old way I can see everything at a glance, and more auction items fit on a page at one time. The spreadsheet-style format makes sense of the task of organizing the items.

The newer way places much of the information in blocks of text with wasted empty space to the immediate right of that. Fewer items fit on the page. There is a glaring red notice on one of the items indicating that so far I’ve not answered a “question” which another member asked me regarding that item...when in fact the “question” wasn’t a question at all, but a two-word statement that I currently have chosen to ignore (or not respond to). I don’t need that glaring red flag on the page.

And my favorite item I like to watch, every time I visit my Selling Page, is the total number of bids. This total is clearly visible in the old version (you see it as 137 at the top of the page). In the new version, eBay has decided to omit that total altogether. I was told not to expect to able to find that number anywhere at all. Watching my total number of bids increase was perhaps the most enjoyable part of selling on eBay, and the Powers That Be have decided to take that away from me.

My main concern is that my sales may be affected by the new format (with regard to my buyers having to tolerate its difficulties while doing business with me). eBay claims that 90% of its users are already using the newer format. I don’t believe this for one minute. If it is in fact true, those 90% probably don’t have a choice and are unable to “opt out.”

I’m really trying very hard to figure out what goals the Powers That Be at eBay have. It appears they are trying to reduce the number of their members to perhaps a more manageable level. Perhaps the goal is to get the eBay stock price to drop to such a ridiculously low level so that much of the stock can be repurchased cheaply, thereby beefing up their controlling interest. I suppose there are advantages to alienating the small-to-middle-sized sellers, but I am at a loss to figure out what they are.

I am currently hoping that Mr. John Donahoe gets a stroke, but that is wishful thinking. The damage is already done, and even in his absence, his ridiculous plans will continue to be carried out, until someone with a modicum of intelligence steps in to set things right again.

Rant over.