Storm Front – Oklahoma Tornado’s

A strong line of thunderstorms setup along the east side of a dryline extending from Kansas south into north Texas area.

Strong and some severe thunderstorms that produced numerous tornado’s fired up on the east side of the dryline and quickly intensified as they moved away from my tiny farm before striking Oklahoma City, Moore and Norman OK. area.

This storm has a confirmed 51 dead and searchers are still sifting rubble for more victims of this storm.

The National Weather Service estimated that the storm that struck Moore, Okla., on Monday had wind speeds of up to 200mph (320kph).

The 1999 storm that struck the same general area of Oklahoma, had winds clocked at 300 mph(480kph), according to the weather service website, and it destroyed or damaged more than 8,000 homes, killing at least two people.

Reference Deadly tornado hits Oklahoma City – Moore and Norman

|———————————————————————————————————————–|

AP Photos: Images from the aftermath of devastating Oklahoma tornado

Oklahomans are a hearty, tough, resilient bunch. In the next few days, weeks and months we will bury and grieve for our dead. Then we will do what we always do. We will rebuild our towns, our cities and our lives..

If you see or read something you like Please Share By Re-blogging or Emailing It To A Friend

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Billions Maybe Trillions Of Cicada’s Will Soon Hatch

Source East Coast about to see power of big numbers in coming cicada invasion Cicada’s or some times they are called locus, will soon be hatching and it’s all about Sex! If you live in the east or northeast U.S.A. try to enjoy this event, it only occurs every 17 years.

Any day now, billions of cicadas with bulging red eyes will crawl out of the earth after 17 years underground and overrun the East Coast. They will arrive in such numbers that people from North Carolina to Connecticut will be outnumbered roughly 600 to 1.

Cicada’s (locus) are harmless and won’t hurt you or other animals. At worst, they might damage a few saplings or young shrubs. They have been waiting 17 years and they’re looking for just one thing, sex.

They will emerge only when the ground temperature reaches precisely 64 degrees. After a few weeks up in the trees, they will die and their offspring will go underground, not to return until 2030.

Experts say that they really don’t have a handle on how many cicadas are lurking underground but that 30 billion seems like a good estimate. At the Smithsonian Institution, researcher Gary Hevel thinks it may be more like 1 trillion.

If you see or read something you like Please Share By Re-blogging or Emailing It To A Friend

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Secret Things Only Grandpa’s Know

Grandpa knows Secret things like fresh eggs come from chickens in the hen house, not from the supermarket, how to clean and store fresh eggs still warm from the hen house. Knowing that milk comes from cows and goats, how to get the milk from cow to table without getting a cows foot in the milk bucket. That butter and cheese is made from milk! Knowing it does not come from the supermarket!

Grandpa knows How to make and cook an omelet or eggs over easy, make pancakes and French toast using OMG only an old cast iron skillet and his old gas stove. He can do it all without a computer, internet, cell phone, texting, microwave or toaster oven! Wow, imagine that!

Grandpa knows How to find those garden fresh potatoes hidden under ground to make hash brown potato’s for breakfast.
How to make ‘real’ fresh pancakes and waffles that don’t come frozen out of a box.
How to plant and grow a garden.
How to pick and cook summer squash, egg plant and okra fresh from the garden.
Grandpa knows when a watermelon is ripe!
Grandpa knows what real vine ripe tomatoes look and taste like!
Grandpa knows when cabbage, lettuce, radishes, carrots and beets are ready for harvest what they should look and taste like ‘before’ they are warped in plastic and set on supermarket display shelf’s for day’s on end.
Grandpa knows How to grow and pick things from the garden to make fresh relish for hotdogs and burgers or salsa How to make fresh homemade bread and biscuits.
How to make popcorn using only popping corn and his old cast iron pan!
Grandpa knows how to bait a hook and clean a fish for the dining table.

These are only a few of the ‘Secret’ things only grandpa knows.

Our society today’s young adults, having many more city dwellers than country folk. Two working parent homes, 24/7 supermarkets, satellite TV, computers / internet, cell phones, iphones, ipods in most homes. Our children have come to believe anyone that works more than six or seven hours a day, gets hot and sweaty, gets their hands dirty are uneducated and real hard work is to be avoided.

Never knowing how hard life was way back when homes with a telephone or television was rare, when homes only had ‘one’ telephone and it was attached to the wall. When many people shared a party line.

In the days ‘before’ computers, internet, facebook, ipods, xboxes. When stores closed at night and were closed on Sunday’s. When sales clerks and cashier’s knew your name. When television station started broadcasting at 5am and went off the air at midnight. In the days when families only had one TV and 3 TV stations, when people listened to radio for their news and entertainment. When families eat 3 meals a day ‘together’ at the family dining table.
When kids and parents were forced to talk face to face about school and growing up.

In the days when a fun day out meant a family outing to the creek or lake for fishing and swimming. Chasing and sometimes catching grasshoppers or maybe a lizard.
Listening, watching and learning to identify each bird by it’s call or song, how they fly differently, the difference in the coloring and markings of female and a male birds.
How to identify the numerous different types of insects in their different stages of development. How to recognize a good bug from a destructive (bad) bug.

How hard things were when children and adults were forced to drink water and ‘real’ whole milk, forced snack on fresh home grown vegetables. When getting a coke, chips, candy or a ‘store’ bought burger or pizza was a special once a month event. When kids were forced to drink water or kool-aid, play outside, walk or bike to see, talk and play with friends. In the day’s when drugs, gangs and violence was so uncommon it was headline news in your local news paper. {Do You Remember News papers?}

In the days when growing a home garden was a necessity not a hobby.
When you could not get sea food, bananas, oranges and grapes in the winter.
When every town had an ice house, few people had a ‘real’ refrigerator and even fewer had a deep freezer. Long before microwave ovens, computers, cell phones, GPS navigation systems, On Star, big box stores. In the day’s before Doritos, Redbull, bottled water, cable and satellite dish TV, ATM machines were invented.

These are some of the ‘Secret’ things that only grandpa’s knows.

If you see or read something you like Please Share By Re-blogging or Emailing It To A Friend

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Home Grown Lettuce – Best Salad You Will Ever Taste

leaf lettuce

Source University of Illinois Extension Lettuce is a cool weather vegetable that thrives when the average daily temperature is between 60 and 70°F. Plant in early spring or late summer. Some types and varieties of lettuce withstand heat better than others.

Leaf lettuce, the most widely adapted of all the Lettuce types, produces crisp leaves loosely arranged on the stalk. Romaine types form a upright, elongated head. Butterhead varieties are generally small, loose heading types that have tender, soft leaves with a delicate sweet flavor.

In my opinion, Crisphead varieties like iceberg commonly sold at supermarkets are tasteless, worthless and a waste of time and space to grow.

Some Recommended Varieties
Green Leaf
Black-seeded Simpson (earliest to harvest)
Grand Rapids (frilly edges; good for coldframes, greenhouse, garden)
Oak Leaf (resistant to tipburn; good for hot weather)
Red Leaf
Red Fire (ruffles with red edge – slow to bolt)
Red Sails (slowest bolting red leaf lettuce)
Ruby (darkest red of all – resistant to tipburn)
Romaine
Cimmaron (unique, dark red leaf)
Green Towers (early – dark green, large leaves)
Paris Island (long – standing)

Northern Climates can plant lettuce in both spring and late summer. Southern climates lettuce planting is best done in late Summer or early Fall. Two or more successive plantings at 7 to 10 day intervals provide a continuous supply of lettuce.

Harvesting and Storage
Leaf lettuce may be cut whenever it is large enough to use. Cutting every other plant at ground level gives the remaining plants more space. Leaf lettuce reaches maximum size (6 to 12 ounces) in 50 to 60 days. Butterhead varieties form small, loose heads that weigh 4 to 8 ounces at harvest (60 to 70 days).

To store lettuce, wash, drip dry and place in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Lettuce keeps best at 32°F and high (96%) humidity.

I planted my lettuce carefully following the seed package instructions.
What went wrong?
Failure of seeds to germinate is almost always caused by insufficient moisture. Take extra care to keep the seedbed moist, but not soggy, until the seedlings emerge.

Formation of seed stalks is caused by warm temperatures. If seed stalks begin to form, harvest your lettuce immediately and store it in the refrigerator.

In overly warm/hot weather Lettuce may become bitter. Harvest wash and store the leaves in the refrigerator for a day or two. Much of the bitterness will disappear.

From my for what it’s worth department.
Nutrition Facts (One cup raw leaf lettuce, chopped)
Calories 9
Dietary Fiber 1.3
Protein 1 gram
Carbohydrates 1.34 grams
Vitamin A 1456 IU
Vitamin C 13.44
Calcium 20.16
Iron 0.62
Potassium 162.4 mg

Don’t ruin the flavor of your garden fresh lettuce covering it with a large amount of strong flavored/tasting supermarket dressings. Try one of these light flavored vinaigrette style dressings.

Red and Yellow Pepper Vinaigrette
1 small yellow bell pepper, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 small red bell pepper, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons warm water
pinch of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
In a medium bowl, whisk together all ingredients until combined well. This vinaigrette will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for 3 days. Recipe may be doubled. Makes one cup.

Citrus Vinaigrette
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (juice of one small orange)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon table salt)
Freshly ground black pepper
Combine the juices and salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in oils until incorporated. A blender or food processor may also be used. Pour into a glass jar and seal. Serve over your favorite salad greens. The vinaigrette will keep, tightly covered, for a week in the refrigerator. To warm cold vinaigrette, place jar in a bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes.

Mustard Chive Vinaigrette
1 tablespoon grainy Dijon-style mustard
black pepper freshly ground to taste
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
Using a whisk or fork, in a small bowl combine all ingredients except the oil. Slowly add the oil, whisking vigorously, until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Pour over your favorite salad greens and toss. Store remaining vinaigrette in the refrigerator, in a tightly sealed glass jar, for up to one week. To warm cold vinaigrette, place jar in a small bowl of hot tap water for a few minutes. Makes 1/2 cup.

If you see or read something you like Please Share By Emailing It To A Friend.

Not from the USA. Please leave me comment about your home town and country.

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your Comment(s)

Garden Fairies To My Rescue

Keep Whining, It Works! I’ve been whining to to anyone what would listen for the past 2 months that I needed to spread and till sort-a compost into my garden plot.
Today I had to go to town this morning early. Got all my running around accomplished.
When I pulled in to my drive, Wow, the Garden Fairies had spread about a ton of cow and donkey manure mixed with longhorn cow bedding hay on my garden plot and had tilled it all in well.
That will be really helpful to prevent this tight clay soil from crusting over after I sprinkle or after a rain and preventing my garden seed pushing through the soil.

I really think it was my (SNL) Son-N-Law1.0 and my grandson. Big Grin … Maybe SNL felt guilty about all the time I invested in this winters Grain Drill restoration project. Now all I need do is a little raking and wait for the soil to warm to plant my summer garden.

If I can find the parts I bought last year, I still have enough time to assemble a drip irrigation system for this years garden plot. Considering my water supply I think a drip system is going to be a must have, worth while spring project.

It’s 8pm, 46 degrees, north wind at about 25mph and feels much colder than 46 degrees.
Time to got to Michelle L’s for my Saturday visit with my daughter, SNL, grandson, grand daughter and great grand son.

Happy gardening.

If you see or read something you like Please Share By Emailing It To A Friend.

Not from the USA. Please leave me comment about your home town and country.

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your Comment(s)

Backyard Poultry Flock From Scratch – Chicken Coops And More

This years poultry hatchlings will soon be arriving at your local feed and farm stores. If you only want a few hens for egg production it it better to pay a premium for sexed birds. Generally you can not find sexed ducks, geese or turkeys and must settle for straight run and hope you get a few females out of the deal. Wing feather Sexing Day Old Chicks

Unless you have a need for fertile eggs, a rooster is not need and should be avoided. Pullets(hens) and ducks are fairly quiet and gentle birds. Roosters, geese and turkeys are loud and can become very aggressive birds.

Back Yard Chickens has a lot of useful and not so useful information. The best thing about this site is that it has many pictures and free plans for building brooders, chicken coop’s and chicken runs.

Hint: What ever your building, make it covenant for ‘You’ to access. To clean, gather eggs and so on without the need to stoop low or crawl around on your hands and knees.
Make all gates and doors wide enough to get your wheel barrow in and out of the hen house and chickens runs.
Use salvage (recycle) windows and doors from home remodel projects.

Choosing the best coop wire. 1X1 or 1X2 welded wire is a much better choice. 1/2X1/2 utility wire is also a good choice. They cost a bit more but in the long run will be a cheaper and better choice. Poultry netting will rust and become useless in just a few years and is not as effective in keeping small chicks in nor is it a big obstacle to keep determined animals like cats, dogs, coyote, fox or racoon’s out of your hen house.

Hint: Use a light dimmer switch to control your heat lamp in your brooder. This makes setting and weekly readjustments in brooder temperature much easier. 2 heat sources on a light dimmer are much better than 1 heat lamp. If your light bulb burns out on a cold day/night you can loose all your chicks to the cold.

Medicated Chick Starter is much more expensive but well worth the added cost to get your chicks off to a healthy start in life. After the first 2 or 3 weeks you can start feeding chicken crumbles or lay mash.
Do Not feed medicated chicken feed to ducks, geese or turkeys. Start them out on chicken crumbles or lay mash.

Do Not mix chickens and baby turkeys. Chicks can carry diseases that do not harm chickens but will kill your turkeys. It is OK to mix your turkeys with ducks or geese.

Hint: If you have 4 foot tall poultry runs fencing keep your birds wing flight feathers clipped short to prevent them from flying over your poultry run fence.

You are their last line of defense from predictors. Close your hen house securely ‘every’ night after your flock has gone to roost. Use good quality snap hooks and latches. A determined dog, fox, coyote or raccoon will soon defeat a cheap latch or poorly latched door.

** Chick Brooder ** for up to about 6 chicks.
Here’s a few sample brooders and chicken coops with building plans. Check out the main website Back Yard Chickens for many more pictures and plans.

Raise Baby Chicks – The First 60 Days
Jbarichivich Homemade Plastic box brooder
Wolfscout’s Homemade Plastic box chicken brooder

Manufactured coop and run about $1,800.00

** Chicken Coops **
La cage mahal Estimated cost is {grinning} only about $1,050.00 construction cost. I think you can build your coop for much less than this eye pleasing hen house/coop.
Trictles chicken coop with plans

Not from the U.S.A. Leave a comment telling us about your home town and country

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Butter …… Fly In My Garden

{New} Picture of the week

Black Swallowtail butterfly

Source: University of Kentucky, Department of Horticulture
So there is no misunderstandings. I am not a fan of Butterfly’s or having them any where near my vegetable garden. That pretty little yellow butterfly fluttering around my garden today, was a caterpillar (worm) eating my cabbage and lettuce yesterday!

It is unlikely that you will be successful in having both a butterfly garden and a vegetable garden anywhere near each other.

Nectar Preferences Different species of butterflies have different preferences of nectar, in both colors and tastes. A wide variety of food plants will give the greatest diversity of visitors. Try staggering wild and cultivated plants, as well as blooming times of the day and year. Groups of the same plants will be easier for butterflies to see than singly planted flowers.

Attract adult butterflies to your yard offer places (food plants) for females to lay their eggs. Some females are pickier about which host to lay their eggs on than others.

All insects are cold blooded and cannot internally regulate their body temperature. Butterflies will readily bask in the sun when it is warm out, but few are seen on cloudy days. It is a good idea to leave open areas in a yard for butterflies to sun themselves, as well as partly shady areas like trees or shrubs, so they can hide when it’s cloudy or cool off if it is very hot.

Butterflies like puddles. Males of several species congregate at small rain pools, forming puddle clubs. Permanent puddles are very easy to make by burying a bucket to the rim, filling it with gravel or sand, and then pouring in liquids such as stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Overripe fruit, allowed to sit for a few days is a very attractive to them as well.

Butterfly Nectar Preferences and Larval Food Plants
* Buckeye Butterfly
Larval food plant:snapdragon
Nectar: aster, milkweed chickory, coreopsis
* Comma
Larval food plant: nettle, elm
Nectar: rotting fruit & sap, butterfly bush, dandelion
* Great Swallowtail
Larval food plant: citrus trees, prickly ash
Nectar: lantana, Japanese honeysuckle, milkweed, lilac, goldenrod, azalea
* Great Spangled Fritillary
Larval food plant: violet
Nectar: ironweed, milkweed, black-eyed susan, verbena
* Monarch
Larval food plant: milkweed
Nectar: milkweed, butterfly bush, goldenrod, thistle, ironweed, mints
* Mourning Cloak
Larval food plant: willow, elm, poplar, aspen, birch, hackberry
Nectar: rotting fuit & sap, butterfly bush, milkweed, shasta daisy
* Painted Lady
Larval food plant: daisy, hollyhock
Nectar: goldenrod, aster, zinnia, butterfly bush, milkweed
* Red Admiral
Larval food plant: nettle
Nectar: rotting fruit and sap, daisy, aster, goldenrod, butterfly bush,
milkweed
* Tiger Swallowtail
Larval food plant: cherry, ash, birch, tulip tree, lilac
Nectar: butterfly bush, milkweed, Japanese honeysuckle, phlox, lilac, ironweed
* Viceroy
Larval food plant: willow, poplar, apple
Nectar: rotting fruit, sap, aster, goldenrod, milkweed

Source: University of Minnesota – Butterfly Gardening
Reference: The Butterfly Site(Butterfly Gardening)
Reference: The Butterfly website
Reference: Wikipedia
Butterfly’s in the UK: Primary species found in the UK
UK Butterfly’s British Butterflies
Butterflies of Australia Wikipedia
Australian Butterflies and Moths Australian Butterflies and Moths

Not from the U.S.A. Leave a comment telling us about your home town and country

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Fruit Trees, Berry and Grape Vines – Insect Spraying Program For The Home Garden

It will soon be time to start your insect and fungus control treatment plan for 2013. There is a ton of websites and books available describing when and what you need before your plants set fruit this spring.
The University of Missouri has a Free PDF that you can read on line or download. It is broken down by plant type as well as containing a really good list of insecticides/fungicides that describes when and how to apply chemicals to protect your fruit trees, berry’s and fruiting vines to get the best crop possible from you home orchard. This fact sheet Does Not contain ‘Natural or Organic’ control methods.
Homeowner Fruit Spray Program A PDF downloadable file from University of Missouri.

University of Missouri fact sheets are well organized and easy to understand with good information on identifying insects and fungus that you need to look for and if present apply chemical spray program to control or eliminate these pest and diseases.

Pesticide safety

Pesticides are poisonous to people and animals. Handle with care. Read the label. The label is the most important piece of information you will find on both the proper use and the hazards of the material. Follow these precautions with all pesticides used:

Read the label
** Avoid applying insecticides or miticides during the bloom period when bees may be pollinating flowers.
* Be aware of the toxicity of the material you are using and wear appropriate protective clothing.
* Observe any days-to-harvest or re-entry precautions
* Store pesticides only in their original labeled containers
* Keep all pesticides and utensils used to measure them in a locked storage area out of reach of children and pets.
* Wear rubber gloves and protective eyewear when measuring chemicals, preparing spray mixtures and applying pesticides
* Accurately measure the amount to be used each time
* Do not prepare more spray mixture than is required for the job
* Do not attempt to store unused mixtures for later use.
* Spray small amounts of excess spray mixture onto the fruit tree(s) being treated
* Keep Rinse water from the sprayer away from food plants, water supplies and children’s play areas.
* If a pesticide concentrate from a bag, can or bottle is spilled on you or others, wash it off immediately. Change and wash clothing if it becomes contaminated.
** Save the bees, Bees are very sensitive to pesticides. Avoid applying insecticides or miticides during the bloom period when bees may be pollinating flowers.

Not from the U.S.A. Leave a comment telling us about your home town and country

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Testosterone Season – A Natural Cure Fresh From Your Garden

Testosterone Treatment: American potato salad
Man cave potato salad
Serve with Football, Buffalo Hot Wings and Cold Beer
2 pounds potatoes, cut into bite size cubes, boiled until fork tender – Cool to stop cooking with running ..cold water
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 small or medium size sweet white or red onion, diced
1 large de-seeded dill pickle, diced
Optional – 2 or 3 sweet pickles diced -replace dill pickle with sweet pickles
Optional – 1/4 to 1/2 cup Red and or Green sweet bell pepper
4 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 rib celery finely sliced
salt & pepper to taste
Garnish with a sprinkle of fine ground sweet red Paprika
Carefully Mix potato salad in large bowl, cover, chill and serve cold.

Re-post News Years Day! Buffalo Wings
Basic Buffalo-wings recipe
Serves 4 (normal people) you may need more, much more!
Ingredients
12 whole chicken wings
3 ounces unsalted butter or(BBQ sauce)
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup hot sauce (Your choice, mild, hot or smoking hot)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Place a 6-quart saucepan with a steamer basket and 1-inch of water in the bottom, over high heat, cover and bring to a boil.

Remove the tips of the wings. Using kitchen shears, or a knife, separate the wings at the joint. Place the wings into the steamer basket, cover, reduce the heat to medium and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the wings from the basket and carefully pat dry. It’s important to do this step, Lay the wings out on a cooling rack set in a half sheet pan lined with paper towels and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Replace the paper towels with parchment paper. Roast on the middle rack of the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the wings over and cook another 20 minutes or until meat is cooked through and the skin is golden brown.

While the chicken is roasting, melt the butter(BBQ sauce) in a bowl along with the garlic. Pour this along with hot sauce and salt into a bowl large enough to hold all of the chicken and stir to combine.

Remove the wings from the oven and transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce. Serve warm.

Wimpy city boys choose Louisiana hot sauce 9 out of 10 times.
Serve Buffalo wings with a large bottle of Louisiana hot sauce on the side.
Be sure to provide ice cold beverages of your choice.
Louisiana hot sauce has a wonderful taste but is rather mild tasting, but, hot enough for most wimpy city boys.

Tough guys may choose Tabasco hot sauce Tabasco sauce has a wide assortment of hot sauce styles and flavors. It’s a bit hotter than Louisiana hot sauce. If you are unfamiliar with using Tabasco sauce, taste a ‘small’ amount ‘Before’ dousing your Buffalo wings with this hot sauce.

Do It Your Self Hot Pepper sauce for the Mans – Man!
*Makes about 1 1/2 cups of hot sauce.
** Caution: Wear rubber/latex gloves when handling hot peppers.
1 teaspoon salt
4-6 cloves garlic
1/4 – 1/2 medium size onion
20 habanero or scotch bonnet peppers (use any hot pepper you like and can tolerate)
3/4 cup vinegar
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro
4 mild peppers (Banana, Cubanelle, Hungarian Yellow, Biscayne Sweet.. etc. Do Not Use Green or Red Bell Pepper in this recipe…)

DIY Hot Pepper Sauce

Wash and remove the stems from the peppers and chop roughly (wearing gloves is recommended)
Then do the same with the garlic, onion and cilantro so it’s easy to work with in the food processor.
Add everything to a blender or food processor and process for a couple minutes. Try to get a smooth consistency but try not to overwork it, you don’t want to add too much air and risk it getting foamy.
**Using caution, taste for salt (if you’re getting a sort of raw taste with no flavour except the heat of the pepper, add a little more salt)
*Fresh squeezed lime juice also add another level of flavor to this sauce.

Not from the U.S.A. Leave a comment telling us about your home town and country

Happy New Year

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)

Holiday Easy DIY Projects – Homemade Microwave Popcorn

DIY Microwave Popcorn

Easy Homemade Microwave Popcorn
Caution The USDA doesn’t recommend cooking in brown paper bags. Here’s what they say: “Do not use brown paper bags from grocery or other stores for cooking. They are not sanitary and may cause a fire. Instead, use microwave safe cooking bags.

Brown paper bag microwave popcorn. Put 1/4 cup popcorn in a brown paper bag. Fold top over a few times and tape it.
Place in microwave folded side up for 2 to 3 minutes or until there is 5 seconds between pops.
Eat plain or add flavors (such as salt, butter, sugar, etc.)
** Hint:With this system of microwave popping, you can:
(1) control the amount of salt and butter
(2) reuse the paper bag again and again
(3) save money from buying the corn kernels, which yields a lot more popcorn

Another way to DIY microwave Popcorn.
A microwave-safe bowl if you use a glass bowl, make sure it is tempered glass and can handle the high heat. Use a 2.5 quart mixing bowl.
A vented microwave food cover. Again you may already have one they’re widely available. They’re great to have for containing heat and splatters with all kinds of microwaving. The one I have can be used flat, or the sides pop up to make a dome. It is essential that the lid has vent holes. As the popcorn kernels heat, the steam generated is extremely hot. If the lid isn’t vented, intense heat can build up and cause the bowl to explode. If you don’t have a vented cover, you can cover the top of the bowl with wax or parchment paper, secure it with a rubberband, and poke vent holes in the top with a knife.

Popcorn kernels. If you have some that have been sitting in your cabinet for a long time, toss them and buy fresh. The moisture in the kernels makes them pop. Old kernels loose their moisture.
Storage tip: Store popcorn in an airtight container in the cabinet. Refrigeration is not recommended, because many refrigerators will dry out the kernels.

Source The yummy Life 2 ways to make microwave popcorn.
Plain Microwave Popcorn (no oil, butter, or salt)
Step 1. Assemble these items: A microwave safe bowl, vented lid, and popcorn kernels.
Step 2. Add 1/3 cup popcorn kernels to bowl, put on the lid, microwave for 3-4 minutes, until 1-2 seconds between pops. Warning: the bowl will get hot use hot pads or oven mitts.

Microwave Popcorn with Light Butter and Salt
Step 1. Assemble these items: A microwave safe bowl, vented lid, popcorn kernels, kosher salt, butter.
Step 2. Add 1 tablespoon butter and 1/4 teaspoon salt to bowl. Microwave 20-30 seconds, just until butter melts. The salt dissolves in the butter in bowl.
Step 3. Add 1/3 cup popcorn kernels and stir it so that the kernels get completely covered with the melted butter and salt mixture. Even them out in the bottom of the bowl. This results in every piece of popcorn having the butter/salt flavor on it as it pops. The flavors distribute and stick better than adding them after the popping. They get cooked on so they stay put on each kernel.
Step 4. Cover the bowl with the vented lid and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, or until there are 1-2 seconds between pops. The time will vary depending on your microwave and bowl, so you may need some trial-and-error on the first batch or 2 to figure out how long it takes the popcorn to cook. Mine took 3 minutes, 40 seconds. If you pop a second bowl right away, it won’t take as long because of the residual heat in the microwave and bowl.

1/3 cup of kernels made about 8 cups of popped popcorn. One of the benefits of this method is that you can eat the popcorn right out of the bowl you popped it in fewer dishes to wash. The butter and salt get cooked into each kernel as it pops. You can adjust the butter and salt to suit your tastes.

Still low in calories and salt! Even with the butter added, it’s such a small amount that a 3-cup serving of this lightly buttered popcorn only has a total of 130 calories. The small amount of added salt makes a big difference in the taste, too, without coming close to the amount of salt in the pre-packaged supermarket microwave popping corn.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Why is common sense so uncommon?
Don’t be Shy. Leave me your comment(s)