Aloha Friday Archives - Page 33 of 34

Aloha Friday: Favorite Food Sneaking

November 13, 2009 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Cooking, Food, Sneaky

All this week, I’ve been featuring recipes by Missy Lapine – aka The Sneaky Chef. We’ve snuck yams, carrots and wheat germ into bon bons, cauliflower and zucchini into eggs, and we shall soon sneak yams and carrots into macaroni and cheese.

My question for you is this: What meal would you like to sneak a little extra nutrition into for your child or another picky family member?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #13

Aloha Friday: Apples, Apples Everywhere!

October 30, 2009 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Cooking, Food

As B wrote earlier this week, we went apple picking Sunday morning and picked 35 pounds of apples. I plan on making some into apple sauce using our slow cooker, but that will only use 3 to 6 pounds of apples. Eating apples will use up another few pounds. That still leaves us with many, many, *MANY* pounds of apples left.

Therefore, my Aloha Friday question is: What would you do with that many apples? Do you have any favorite recipes? Feel free to post them (or links to them). If I make and post a "Cooking With TechyDad" using one of the posted recipes, I’ll link to your site.

I’ll start things out with a recipe that I’m planning on using. Every time I make apple sauce, I’m left with a big pile of apple peels. Ideally, I’d compost them, but that’s not a project we’ve felt up to tackling. I hate throwing them out, but I had nothing else to do with them so out they usually went. Instead of tossing them this time, though, I’m going to make crispy apple skins.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #11

Aloha Friday: Your Dream Job

October 22, 2009 TechyDad Aloha Friday

I really like my job. I’m getting paid to do something I love doing (web development) and work with people I genuinely enjoy being around. However, from time to time, I think about other things I’d like to do for a living. Some of these things might not be feasible, but they play to other interests of mine.

For example, you might have noticed all of the "Cooking With TechyDad" segments. If so, it’ll come as no surprise to learn that I love cooking. I love trying out new recipes and techniques to see what succeeds and what doesn’t. There’s nothing better, culinarily speaking, than putting together a dish that people wouldn’t otherwise eat and having them love it. If they want the recipe afterwords, then that’s just makes it even better. I’m constantly seeing shows on the Food Network about people who start up successful diners having never before worked as cooks. I’m not sure if I could do it in real life, but running my own restaurant definitely tops my list of fantasy jobs.

Another fantasy job involves my childhood. Growing up on Long Island, we were (obviously) close to New York City and all of the wonderful food that they have there. Trips to various bakeries, pickle places, etc. were par for the course. The food’s good where I live now, but it’s no New York City. For example, there are no bialys. There are things that kind of resemble bialys and the little tag calls them bialys, but trust me when I tell you that they *AREN’T* bialys! I would just love to run a "New York City Food" import company. I would travel to New York City, make some deals with local shops and transport the food back to where I live. I would then sell it to customers who wanted a taste of the Big Apple.

Of course, I don’t see myself quitting my day job to pursue these fantasy jobs anytime soon, but they do provide for some nice occupational daydreaming.

My Aloha Friday question is: What is your current job? If you had the chance to do anything outside of your current profession, something that you’ve dreamed of doing for years, what would it be?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #10

Aloha Friday: Revisiting the TV Shows of our Youth

October 15, 2009 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Television

Recently, NHL has discovered the wonder that is 80’s TV shows. I put The Super Mario Brothers Super Show and Inspector Gadget on the Roku and NHL just loved them. He loved cheering for Mario as he became “super” (complete with cheesy, oh-so-80’s rhyme: “Star light, star bright, give me pasta power, give me pasta might!”) and kicked King Koopa’s keister. Even more than that, though, he loved the antics of a certain bionic inspector, his neice and their dog. Even JSL got in on the fun, shouting “go go” when he saw Gadget coming on.

On the flip side, I decided to watch a favorite of mine when I was a kid: Voltron. I got through the first three episodes (the ones that introduce the team, Voltron, etc), but there were so many plot holes an inconsistencies that I just couldn’t continue. From everyone knowing so much about Voltron, yet claiming that it was something few knew, to the invaded planet having the keys to a powerful weapon (Voltron) yet not using them until the Galaxy Alliance pilots arrived. There definitely a nostaglia factor involved in my still liking it, but I have to admit that the show just wouldn’t stand up were it premiering today.

My Aloha Friday question is: What shows from your youth would you want to introduce your kids to? What shows from your youth might you steer them away from?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #9

Aloha Friday: Organizing Your DVDs

October 8, 2009 TechyDad Aloha Friday, DVDs, Organization

As mentioned in last week’s Aloha Friday, I’ve been thinking about cutting the cable cord. As part of my thinking, I was considering our DVD collection. Right now, our system is to pile our 100 or so DVDs on shelves in our entertainment center. This might seem like a fine system, but there are only two shelves for the DVDs. In addition, the shelves are behind glass doors that frequently get blocked by kids’ toys. This means that it is difficult to read the titles of the DVDs and it is hard to get to the DVDs themselves.

I first looked into a system to rip our DVDs to our desktop computer and then stream those movies to our living room television, but that proved too tricky. The technology is out there, but it didn’t seem proven enough for me or required too much of a monetary investment. Then I looked at similar systems, but ones that would host our videos in a set top box. These too, exist, but didn’t have good enough reviews to make me feel comfortable in spending the hundreds of dollars to set it up.

I began to think that I was – as usual – trying to cobble together a high-tech solution when a more inexpensive, low-tech solution. So I looked at some shelves, but the sturdy ones were too big for our small living room and the ones that would fit into our living room would be too flimsy around the boys. My current plan is to simply catalog and categorize our movies and print out a list. Then we can look at the list and know exactly what there is to watch.

My Aloha Friday question is: How do you organize your DVD collection so that you know what you have and can quickly select a title to watch?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #8

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