Category: Savings and Deals

The art of the picnic

Once spring hits and then all through summer, everywhere we go we see people having picnics.

In movies.

And on television.

But in real life — not so much.

Here, in the actual world, a true picnic sighting is pretty rare. In fact, it’s up there with finding a working payphone or a thriving drive in theatre. I mean, once in a while you will see one. But not all that often.

Now, we see people eating outside, al fresco, all the time. The office worker driving to a park to eat their Burger King meal #4 on a picnic table with a paperback opened. Sure. And the road crew at a rest stop throwing back a few sandwiches and gallons of store bought ice tea. Yup. But these are what we call — not-picnics. They are just — eating outside. And they don’t count.

Picnics have been around forever, but they didn’t have an actual word to describe them until the 17th-century. When the French word ‘piquenique’ was formed — which took the verb ‘piquer’, meaning to pick, along with a silly rhyming syllable, ‘nique’. So the alteration of the word followed the same rule and it became — pic-nic.

Originally, the picnic was a large outside pot luck for the gentry, with each guest expected to bring a dish to share. These were elaborate, society events, which lead to those who were involved in them to be referred to as — the picnic-society.

From there, the picnic took it’s true form.

As travel became more common — first with the horse and carriage and later with car — the picnic became a large part of the trip. As you traveled, the need for food on the way would need to be planned in. A trip to visit uncle Earl’s in a neighboring town a few hours away, would require you would to prepare the food — the roads weren’t always paved with drive-through’s and bargain meal deals. So, the picnic became part of the excursion. A piece of the adventure. Halfway through the trip, you find a field or a pond, or a meadow, to spread your blanket out and bring out the basket. The kids would bring a ball, or maybe a kite, and the event, would now have another event in the middle of it. You would stretch your legs, relax and recharge before getting back in the car and continuing.

And that’s what a picnic is. An event. Not just eating — because we do that all day long while we do something else. We eat while we drive. We eat while checking our phones. We eat while watching television. We eat and don’t even notice that we’re eating.

So what makes a picnic, a picnic?

Okay, that’s easy. A picnic has a few fundamental aspects of it.

1. It has to be outside. An inside picnic is called — lunch. It doesn’t count. And a picnic should be in a unique outside area — a park, a lake, a field and even a picnic area at a rest stop counts.

2. It is held on a blanket or a picnic table. Period. You can’t have a picnic on camp chairs while setting paper plates on your lap, while leaning against the car, inside a food court, or inside the car. This is called — eating. It’s not a picnic.

3. It should not contain store-bought food. Picnic food can be extremely simple and easy to prepare, but it has to be yours. It has to have your fingerprint and design on it. The only exception to this rule, is if you bought a rotisserie chicken — not a fast food chicken — and then prepared sides for it. There is something about cold chicken on a picnic that just fits.

4. It has to be cold food. Cooking a meal over charcoal is incredible, but that’s not a picnic. That’s a cookout. And if you are fussing with the fire and getting burgers to cook just right, then you are missing the very crucial element of the picnic. The people you are with and the area you are at.

5. And it has to have some recreational aspect to it besides the meal. Picnics are not to be rushed, but to be enjoyed, even if that recreation is just sitting back after the meal and talking, playing cards or a board game, throwing a frisbee or playing a harmonica — which is why free community concerts are ideal places to hold picnics. Because the entertainment aspect is already provided.

As far as picnic food, you can be as elaborate as you want, but the real aspect of it is to be simple. Simple food to be enjoyed leisurely. Boiled eggs, cheeses, peperoni, hard crusted bread, cold chicken, pickles, olives, pasta salads, grapes, all make amazing and simple picnic food.

So plan a trip. And a plan a picnic smack dab in the middle of that trip. Make it a priority to skip the eleven-dollar hotdog at the water park and pull the kids over to the picnic area instead and open the basket.

You heard me.

Go have a picnic.

August 20, 2018
REVIEW: Vacation Spot. Cambridge, Maryland

My wife and I have never really been vacation people. Not really. I mean, we’ve taken a few vacations over the years. Well — one. We’ve taken one real vacation in twenty-three years. That’s one. We did that, airplane ride, baggage check, reservations through a travel agency, kind of trips when we went to Key West for a week. One time.

And then when the kids came, we started talking road trips — too many to count actually. We went to museums, water parks, zoos, carnivals, cabins, cities, to visit family, beaches, battlefields. In fact, if it’s within eight or ten hours of us, we’ve been there. And we drove.

So although we may not be vacation people. We are definitely road trip people. Which I think is just as good.

And now that the kids are older, Debbie and I try to get away a few times a year, just the two of us. Someplace close — just a quick trip for a few days. And this past weekend — our anniversary — we went to Cambridge, Maryland.

Now Cambridge, Maryland, is this quaint little, brick paved street, kind of town that sits between the mighty Choptank River — which is the greatest name for a river, ever — and the Chesapeake Bay. It has restaurants, shops, fishing, music, dinner cruises, golf and just about everything you would ever want in the entire quaint little town package.

But — and this is where it sounds like a bad movie trailer — there is something a little off about the place.

If you go to Cambridge, the trip will start like this. You’ll drop your things in your room and head downtown — to go to one of the great restaurants, shops or museums that you’ve heard about. And when you get there —.

You’ll walk into a place that calls itself a wine bar. And you’ll see three bottles of wine sitting towards the back someplace.

Then you’ll walk through another door that raves about homemade lunches and the lady will have to go and see if they still have a menu.

Then you’ll decide to try that gastro pub that has such good reviews and you’ll find a dozen college kids drinking around some brewery vats.

Nothing is how it seems — or how it’s portrayed.

Now we are all accustomed to businesses, products and shops that exaggerate on what they have to offer — even the old bait and-switch — but here, it seems like the entire town is in on the deal. Every place is smaller, dingier, or in many cases just completely different, then you expect it to be. And the vibe is very odd too.

In Cambridge, you will see Porsches — and not just any Porsches, models you don’t even recognize — parked next to old Buicks that know people are living in. You’ll see well-dressed tourists and right behind them you’ll see a group of people that spend entirely too much time looking in your car. And there is this extremely strong Stepford Wives kind of feel to the place. As if as soon as you drive out of site, someone will give the signal and they’ll fold it all up and set up shop somewhere else — so when the authorities get there they’ll be harder to find.

Now if you leave the small downtown area and go the big Hyatt resort a few miles away, everything is clean and pretty and homogenized. Manicured lawns, a luxury golf course and beautiful people — we saw former Eagles player Vince Papale in the hallway. There is nothing strange — or actually interesting — about the place because it’s like all overpriced resorts. Scrubbed of any genuine feel and made safe and clean.

Now with that said, if you do ever make it to Cambridge, Maryland, one thing that is absolutely a must is to take an hour’s drive from there to a place called Elliot Island. This is a tiny little patch of land — there are only a few homes, a fire station and a church there — but to get to it you’ll need to pass through hundreds of acres of protected wet lands, and that’s the best part. You will drive for twenty minutes without ever seeing another car — and what few you do see, will wave to you as you pass. We saw bald eagles and huge turtles that sunned themselves on logs and acres and acres of wide open land — which is pretty rare in that part of the world.

And then, you cross over the tiny bridge to the island. And you see all the little houses that sit next to boats and crab pots. And the GPS shows that large blue area ahead of you that keeps crawling closer.

Until you roll to a stop.

At the end of the road.

August 7, 2016
10 old technologies to never throw away

There is one thing about consumer technology that has always confused me. Let’s say you have a toaster. It’s a good toaster. It makes great toast. This toaster looks good on the counter, cleans easily and has been extremely reliable for all the years you’ve had it.

Now let’s say that you just found out that the new toasters are being released. Your version is Toaster-6.0 and the new Toaster-7.0 are now out and being gobbled up as soon as they roll off the assembly line. If you don’t move fast, there won’t be any left.

So you grab your wallet and run to the store — dropping that boat anchor of a toaster at the curb on the way out — to get your new, improved; Toaster-7.0. You stand in line as they count off how many toasters are left. You wait and —. You make it. You get the new toaster.

Whew, that was close. And you get home and display the new toaster on the counter proudly.

Now, as goofy as that sounds, we are actually doing this to items like toasters — not as rapidly as we do cell phones, but that’s the danger in it. It’s more subtle. More gentle of an erosion. And then one day we wake up and we miss our old toaster because this is the third toaster we’ve had since we’ve tossed it.

So here are the ten old technology devices that fit in that category. Here are the ten items we should never throw out.

10. Old cast iron

Yes, you can still buy cast new iron pots and pans. Sure. But it’s pricy and is not as durable as the old stuff. And the thing about cast iron is that it never, ever dies. You can find a cast iron frying pan in a garage sale that is rusty and flaking and looks like it has been through three wars. And within a week you can have it cleaned up, seasoned and ready for eggs on the campfire. These things are great and should be held on to forever.

9. Battery operated radios

In our world of cellular access to everything, battery operated radios are becoming harder and harder to find. But that old boom box in the garage will come in pretty handy if you loose power and cell coverage. These are worth keeping — and keep the batteries out of them so they don’t corrode.

8. Coffee pots

Not coffee makers, but coffee pots, are becoming very rare. If you have one, keep it. If you don’t have one, get one — and I’m not talking about the fancy forty-dollar camping pot, I mean a real stainless steel coffee pot. It will cost you about ten bucks and since it has very few moving parts it will last forever. These are great for camping and fishing trips, if the power goes out, or just when you want to control how strong your coffee is.

7. Metal coffee cans

These are becoming harder and harder to find since most mainstream coffee comes in plastic containers. But if you have the old metal ones, keep them and use them. Display them proudly because they have hundreds of uses.

6. Old landline phones

Again, if you lose power, an old landline phone — one that you can plug into the phone line and doesn’t require power — is a pretty handy thing to have. Keep at least one in your house.

5. Old metal fans

It’s probably too late for these beauties because they have moved from the hard to find to the collectable. But if you find an old metal fan, grab it. They last forever and the motors are much larger than the modern plastic versions.

4. Turn tables/tape decks

Sometime in your life you will come across a collection of cassette tapes from your talent show in 1970 or some of Uncle Walters old 45’s. You’ll need something to play these on. If you have one, display it and use it.

3. Small appliances build before 1970

In my house, I have the milkshake maker from my parents diner in 1956. Besides the constant use it took then, it has been used for decades and still makes amazing milkshakes. These old appliances were replaced by lower quality versions and the old ones will last forever and when they are gone, they are gone.

2. Old Mason Jars

You can buy mason jars anywhere but the new design are thinner glass, cheaper fittings and aren’t designed to last as long. If you come across some of the thick old Mason Jars, grab them. They can be used for a thousand different things and they just aren’t making them any more.

1. Metal fishing reels

I am still in mourning over giving my brother-in-law my old Mitchel 300 fishing reel when I got my new shiny plastic one years ago. He still has mine and I am four reels down the road. The old metal reels last forever, are rugged and can take a beating.

August 4, 2016
The power of the bagged lunch

In the early 1800’s, almost 70% of all American families lived on farms. Most of these were subsistence farms — a few cows, pigs, chickens on some land where corn, wheat and potatoes were planted — and these farms were the family’s main source of food and clothing. So, the farmer would rise early and feed his livestock, repair fences, outbuildings, fix machinery, gather eggs and in the middle of the day, when he would need some food and a short break, he would walk back to his house to visit with his wife and children and eat a small meal. And for hundreds of years the term lunch would simply mean that; to take a break from your work and go home to eat.

As the effect of The Industrial Revolution spread, factories and mills needed more and more workers. Now the small farmer had the opportunity to not only care for his land but to travel to town for day work in order to bring additional income into the household. And because it would not be practical for the farmer to return home for lunch — and because he would need to leave early in the morning and not return until late that night — he would have to take food with him.

So the farmer would put hard-boiled eggs, biscuits, vegetables and meat into a container —often a small basket with a handles — and head out in the morning. He would often meet up with other men who were carrying similar baskets as well as those with meals wrapped in handkerchiefs or placed in metal tins. In fact, workers in more extreme environments — such as coal mines and steel mills — needed something to transport their lunch in that would protect it, so they often used small covered milk pails.

By the 1850’s manufacturers saw this growing consumer need and began to mass produce fitted metal buckets and boxes specifically designed to carry lunches in. They were called lunch pails even though the trend was leaning more towards the box style. They sold well and the need increased.

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In 1904 The Thermos, was introduced as an option to the commercial lunch pail and now a worker could have a cold lunch with a hot drink. And when schools began to regionalize — and the one room school migrating to the larger multi grade school — children were now unable to come home for lunch and also needed to take food with them. And many children who wanted to mimic their fathers, sought out metal pails or buckets to take their lunches in.

In 1935, the first children’s lunch box with a licensed character was produced and the image of Mickey Mouse was lithographed over an oval tin with a handle. And in 1950 the first TV character made the cut, with Hopalong Cassidy being the choice, which was a lunchbox that cost two dollars and sold half a million units in the first year alone.

For decades the metal lunchbox was the symbol of the workforce and the character lunchbox was the symbol of childhood — with millions of men carrying their lunches to work and millions of school children carrying theirs in boxes decorated with their favorite TV shows, bands and sports figures.

But when a child moved from Elementary School to High School the lunch box was often abandoned. In that socially sensitive environment, the need to quickly distance ourselves from childish things became powerful and the brown paper bag became a safer containment choice — as well as the ability to now purchase a hot lunch from a school cafeteria.

Today, the average American purchases his lunch rather than brings it. He spends an average of ten dollars on each trip and the majority of those meals are bought at fast food restaurants. We eat in our car. We eat on the run. And we eat whatever is quickly made and cheaply provided and whether it’s the memories of soggy bologna sandwiches or the still need to distance ourselves from childish things, few of us bring a lunch to work — or if we do it’s a quickly prepared sandwich that we eat at our desk.

But the bagged lunch as an entity, as a creative endeavor, is an amazing thing. It is healthier, far less expensive (we spend almost $1,000 a year on fast food lunches ) and give us this versatile control over our day. It’s a very neat thing.

So the first step is to get yourself a lunch box — and I mean one that fits your needs as well as your lifestyle. A brown paper bag is only temporary but choosing a container to bring your lunch in shows a commitment to seeing it through.

So here are some quick options for lunch ideas.

1. Leftovers. This is an easy and simple. Simply take some of that lasagna from last night or some of that leftover casserole and bring it to work in a Tupperware container. Provided you have access to a microwave, this works well.

2. Soup. There is nothing like a cup of hot soup with a biscuit or some bread in the middle of the day. And the great thing here is you can be working in the middle of the woods and still bring hot soup in a thermos. The only requirement here is, make a pot of homemade soup — very easy to make, tastes better, healthier and much less expensive than canned soup — http://543skills.com/skill-194-how-to-make-homemade-soup/

3. Wraps. Only because sandwiches are so overplayed — and because most store bought bread is pretty tasteless — wraps are a good alternative. You can make a wrap with cold cuts, or a with beans and cheese for a tortilla. They are smaller, can be made quicker and are easier to eat on the run.

And the last option is this amazingly simple thing called a Mason Jar Salad. This is so incredibly simplistic that it’s absolutely brilliant.

So, what you do is take a Mason Jar and in the bottom you put in your wet ingredients; your salad dressing. Then you add in the solid vegetables — anything that won’t get soggy if they touch the dressing — tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, celery, peppers, etc. Then you add your softer items; your pasta, mushrooms, avocado. On top of that you put your protein; your chicken, turkey, beans and then the lettuce and on top goes your cheese and any nuts.

So what you have is this self-contained salad that is separated, fresh and can remain that way for days. In fact many people make these up a week at a time and use them days later. It remains in the jar until you need it then you pour it into a bowl where all the ingredients mix. Genius.

So get creative, get a lunch box and get to work.

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2014/07/mason-jar-salad-inspiration.html

July 27, 2016
10 things to never buy from a dollar store

Dollar Stores are amazing — and by Dollar Store I am referring to Dollar Tree or others like it where everything costs a dollar; not any one of the discount stores where the word Dollar is simply in the name.

I frequent Dollar Tree a great deal and these are great places to get greeting cards, decorations, cheap hand tools and Millar balloons — nothing cheers someone up more than a dozen helium balloons from the dollar store.

But in my experience, I’ve discovered that there are certain things that you should never — and I mean ever — buy from the place. Here are the top ten.

10. Ear buds

How bad can they be right? They’re only a buck and if the sound isn’t that great you can just chuck them. No. First of all these things are designed for some race of ears much larger than humans have and even if you can cram them in your ear holes the sound will melt your brain. Stay away.

9. Glue sticks

A pack of four, Elmer’s glue sticks at Wal-Mart is about five bucks. A pack of four no-name glue sticks at the dollar stare are, of course, a buck. What’s not to like? Except that these are made from one of the few materials in the store that are not sticky and permanent. These don’t work so don’t waste your money.

8. Band aids

The Band-Aids at The Dollar Tree must use the same stick-technology as the glue sticks. It’s as if someone printed Google Images of band aids and put them in packs. They don’t work so skip by them.

7. Razors

Okay, we are getting in serious territory now because buying Dollar Tree razors will simply tear your face off. It will. These are dull and dangerous devices and even if you’re traveling and forgot your razor, it’s far better to walk into your meeting with a two day beard, then it is to do it while missing an ear. No.

6. Soda

I’m not even sure that Dollar Tree soda is legally soda. It’s more like Kool Aid with a very slight carbonation sound added when you open it. Horrible stuff. Buying the individual bottles of the brand name soda in the cooler up front is fine, but never get one of these three-liter horrors.

5. Knives

Dollar Tree sells many kind of knives; kitchen knives, utility knives even no name Swiss Army type knives. And the ones that are actually made from a metal — most are silver painted plastic blades — will never hold an edge and therefore are extremely dangerous. You will slice off a leg with one of these things trying to cut something, so don’t buy them.

4. Colognes/perfumes

Again we are getting in an area that is a danger to human life. The only thing worse than cologne from The Dollar Tree is the thought of the long term environmental impact if that same bottle managed to getting in the water supply. These things will set off smoke alarms. Stay far away.

3. Super Glue

Any super glue that is not made by Loctite, is just glue — my humble opinion, of course. And this stuff is barely that. It doesn’t work and don’t buy it.

2. Aluminum foil

Aluminum foil is expensive — especially if your barbecuing or using a smoker, when you’re going to need a lot of it. But there is not enough Dollar Tree aluminum foil in that entire store to do what you need to do. It’s thin, it breaks easily and it’s more like shiny paper than anything even close to aluminum foil. Don’t buy it.

1. Batteries

Right before a battery dies, as its saying goodbye to its wife and children, they unplug the monitors and wheel it into The Dollar Tree. By the time you get the battery out of the store and into your car, the trip will be enough to kill it.

March 22, 2015
How to pack a suitcase
I love the type of movie where there is a tortured soul, filled with wanderlust, who hears the call of the open road and decides to see the world. So he throws a few meager possessions in a small backpack and starts walking. He hitchhikes, he takes the bus, and he meets people along the way. Then we have scene-five. This will be after he arrives in a town — usually to help a rancher or struggling non-profit group out of a crisis — and he meets the girl. Scene-five will be their first date. You know the scene — the darkened restaurant, the candlelit tables, him in a suit and her in a dress, and as you watch, only one thought goes through your head.

Really? You packed a suit in that small backpack? C’mon.

This kid has a daypack that is half full. He carries it from New York City to Provo, Utah, and during that time he has six full changes of clothes, a suit, a raincoat, hiking boots, sneakers and during the date scene he is wearing an expensive pair of Italian loafers.

No. You did not get all of that in your twelve pound pack.

But that’s what we want. We want a bag to be light and small, yet we want it to contain a never ending supply of clothes, coats, shoes, formal wear and a few books — just in case we get bored. We want it to be our house — in a bag.

Type of travel

There are two basic types of travel packing. You are packing for weight, or you are packing for content. You can’t do both.

If you are going to be in three different locations over four days, if you are going to be carrying your bag through train stations, airports or have it on your back most of the time, then you want the bag to be the smallest and the lightest possible.

But if you are going to one location and then back, then you want your bag to contain everything you need, or will ever need, for a specific time period. You want maximum content in a limited space.

The suitcase laws

Half of everything in your bag you will use.

A quarter of everything in your bag you will not use

And a quarter of items that you end up needing — you forgot to pack.

Staging

Most of us pack this way. We open the bag and start stuffing things in. When there is no more room, we’re done packing. But by staging, we can guarantee that we get everything we need.

Spread out the bare minimum you need for the trip — the absolute least you will need. Pretend that this is all you are allowed to take and you could survive the trip if you only had that. Now pack it. When you’re done, the available space is what you have for everything else you think you’ll need.

Over packing is a common — and sometimes costly — mistake. Pack too much and your free carry-on could easily cost you a hundred dollars or more in fees. Remember, laundromats exist in hotels, resorts and in every town or city you’ll be in. You can always wash clothing while you’re away.

And remember if you’re going to be bringing things back — souvenirs, clothing, items purchased while away — you’ll need space for that.

Rules of the road

Try to bring one belt if possible — something that can be used for both casual and dress.

Try to bring two pairs of shoes — or if needed the pair of shoes your wearing, one extra pair and a pair of sandals. No more.

HOW TO PACK A SUITCASE:
1. Use the roll-up method. By taking your clothing — shirts and pants mostly — and rolling them in a tight tube, you can get the best use of space in your bag
2. Underwear. Pack one pair for everyday your away, plus one extra pair. No more.
3. Wear the same clothes on your way out, as you do on your way back in. This will save you one change of clothes.
4. Toiletries. Clean out your toilet kit before you leave — otherwise you’ll be carrying those free shampoos and conditioners you had to have from the last trip out, and then back home again. And if flying, remember the TSA regulations of liquids being 3 ounces or less — unless you are checking your bag.
5. Pack for the weather. The forecasts for your location could change a dozen times before you get there, but it doesn’t hurt to have a rough idea of what the weather will be like so you can pack accordingly.
6. Fill your shoes. Pack socks and underwear in the shoes that will be in your bag. This is wasted space so fill them up.
7. Fill the edges of your bag first. Again, this is where pockets of wasted space often hide, so fill that in first.
8. Use the outside pockets for items you’ll want to get to quickly: phone chargers, books, magazines, etc.
9. If checking a bag it’s a great idea to fill your carry on with all you’ll need to survive a few days — contact lens stuff, change of underwear, toothbrush, etc. That way if your bag gets lost you can stick with the plan while they find it and get it to you.
March 19, 2015
Five great peasant dishes

As far as fun, creative cooking, nothing can compare to peasant dishes. You know, comfort food. The meals that you grandmother made that tasted amazing, cost pennies, and you never, ever got tired of.

Peasant dishes have been given that name because they were made from ingredients that were inexpensive and readily available. These were the meals of the common folk and they usually consisted of one dish, were made from less desired chunks of meat or sausages and used whatever vegetables, grains and starches were easily found.

There is an art to creating great peasant dishes; it being more instinct than cooking. And my Aunt Isabelle — who ran a boarding house and provided a decent living for herself for three decades, after her husband walked out and left her penniless — could make a mouthwatering meal for a dozen hungry men, from a few cheap cuts of meat, some vegetables and a lot of practice.

There are many recipes for peasant dishes but using a recipe here seems almost blasphemous. The cooks that developed these dishes didn’t use recipes. They just looked at what they had to work with and they made it as rich and as flavorsome as possible. And anyway, by following a recipe, you’re just copying someone else style — robbing you of the pleasure of developing your own.

So, here are the top 5 peasant dishes of all time. These are all easy to make, cost pennies and have ingredients that are readily available. But more importantly they have few rules which allows you to experiment and get creative.

Have fun.

5. Shepherd’s pie

Like many classic peasant dishes, there are dozens of variations of shepherd’s pie — some have a brown sauce, some red, but the basics are the same. Ground meat and vegetables covered in mashed potatoes and cheese. What’s not to love?

4. Pot pie

Now, homemade pot pie tends to get some reluctance from cooks, because it involves making a crust. But basically this is just a simple biscuit dough — which is very easy to make. Pot pies are rich, tasty and so, so filling.

3. Goulash

Like shepherds pie there are so many deviations of goulash that there are actually serious arguments about it. What some people call goulash — dark gravy with sirloin mixed with egg noodles — are not what others consider the dish — red sauce, ground beef and elbow noodles. But whatever variation you choose to make, this a great dish to make, easy and cheap.

2. Haluski

Haluski is not only the lowest price dish here — the meatless version will cost you about fifty cents in ingredients — but it is beyond a doubt the most flavorful. My kids, who are pretty picky eaters, love this every time my wife makes it. All haluski is, is cabbage and egg noodles. That’s it. But many people add in bacon for flavor — my wife’s version also includes capers. Amazing.

1. Chili

Chili is, was, and will always be, the mack daddy of peasant dishes. It is easy to make, flexible and includes so many possibilities, that there are countless cookbooks dedicated to just making chili. It’s a great, easy and fun dish to make.

March 5, 2015
10 free things to do this weekend
When the kids were little — probably around age 7 and 9 — we had this Saturday tradition. I’d get them up, get them fed and dressed, and we would head out for the day; just the three of us. No girls allowed. Now, we could do anything we wanted to on those days. Anything. But there was only one rule. We couldn’t spend any money.

Now part of the reason for this was because we were a young family and were trying to be frugal — hey, just an afternoon of bowling or movies with kids will cost fifty dollars or more — but there was actually more to it. When you pay for something — especially when you pay for entertainment — it loses charm quickly. It’s less special, less personal, since it’s easily accessible and available to anyone who will pay for it. But if you have to find the things to do, to locate and get to them; there is a reward at the end.

So those Saturdays had to be free.

And today, if you asked the kids about those times — ten years later — they will tell you, in exciting detail, of all the goofy things we did. Of the battlefields we went to, of the time we took a bus tour of a landfill — which was actually pretty fun. They’ll tell you of open air concerts, of the wars we had in the woods, the street fairs and the concerts of Irish dancers. We went to museums and zoos. We toured churches and synagogues and we caught buckets and buckets of fish.

All fun. All free.

10 FREE THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND

10. Movie festival.

This may seem corny, but home movie festivals are a lot of fun — and can be as large or as an intimate as you want them to be. Break out all the DVD’s in the house and pick the top ten or so and that’s your film selection for the day — an entire guilt free Saturday of doing nothing but watching movies. If you want to open it up to family and friends, a quick post on your favorite social network showing the schedule, and you’re good to go. Or you can pull down the curtains, turn the phones off and just escape for the entire day.

9. Community Calendar.

Community calendars are amazing and much of what the kids and I used to do, came from these sources of information. On any Saturday, there are always little festivals, tours, classes and concerts. Always. And these folks are so glad to see you and to tell you about what they do.

8. Community sports

Professional and college sporting events are pretty pricey and even High School level sports will cost you a few bucks. But there are always community sports that are open to the public. Softball leagues, Little League Baseball and Pop Warner Football, are a lot of fun to watch. But what’s really interesting is to find the less mainstream sports — I just found out that in our area, there are Cricket Leagues. I’ve never been but we’ll be going this year.

7. Create a potluck open house

With a few phone calls, texts or posts, you can invite the world in for the day. Ask everyone to bring a dish to pass and break out the board games, the horseshoes, the video controllers or just sit in the backyard and catch up. People can come and go, arrive and leave, all day long.
1. 6. Learn how to juggle
Okay, hear me out on this one. On Monday morning, when your co-workers ask, “So, what did you do this weekend?” You can answer, “Oh, not much”. Or you can say, “Me? Oh I learned to juggle.” With a few tennis balls, some online videos and a couple of hours of practice, you can learn the basics of juggling — in a single day. And believe it or not, you will use this for the rest of your life.

5. Frisbee golf

Most of the Frisbee golf courses I’ve ever seen are open to the public and are inside parks. A cooler full of sandwiches, a few Frisbees and some friends, and you have another cool story to tell on Monday morning.

4. Pick up game.

With the exception of basketball, you rarely see pickup games of baseball and flag football anymore because organized sports are more the norm. But with a few phone calls you can organize a pickup softball game on Saturday. Bring a cooler and sandwiches and your all set — and if it’s a park where you can bring a charcoal grill, even better.

3. Have a yard sale.

I said you couldn’t spend any money, I didn’t say you couldn’t make any. Yard sales are actually pretty fun to host and can be quite lucrative; depending on the goods you have to sell. And it also allows you to clean out your attic or garage.

2. Habitat for Humanity

There are many organizations that don’t want your money as much as they need your time. Habitat for Humanity is a great example. On any given Saturday they have ongoing projects where they could use your help and the great thing is they don’t care if you’re a carpenter or don’t know which end of the hammer to hold. There’s something for everyone to do — and it’s a great way to learn basic construction skills.

1. A trip to nowhere

Probably the most fun I’ve had with my kids is when we would get in the car and head out with absolutely no destination or plan. Because when you do this, you’re not just focused on the destination — because you don’t have one — you’re enjoying the entire trip.
February 15, 2015
The smart way to spend your tax return money
Around early October — this is when the stores are full of pumpkin carving kits and bite sized packs of Snickers bars — you will see the first sign of the retail Christmas season. In some stores this will be just a peak; a few feet on an aisle where you can buy garland and lights, whereas other retailers will dedicate one side of the Halloween aisle with wrapping paper and bows; just waiting for the first of November when they can evict Halloween and get the inflatable reindeer on the shelf.

Then Halloween which means that Christmas has officially begun — and yeah, there’s Thanksgiving in between and you’ll see displays for Stove Stop Stuffing and premade pie crusts, but Christmas is the real rock star of retail.

Now, if you’re paying attention, this is also when you’ll see the very beginning of the retail tax season. In between the commercials for the hottest door buster bargains, you’ll see the first tax commercials. Small and spread out. Just a few and usually from H&R Block who have significantly bumped up their marketing efforts over the last few years. And these ads will be about how much money you’re not going to get back by using other tax preparers.

These are the teaser adds. Little reminders dropped in amongst the Christmas cheer to get you to start thinking about your taxes.

Then comes Christmas. Then New Years which means that the retail tax season has officially begun. Now the ads will pick up. H&R Block will tell you that you will lose a fortune to the Government if you don’t set up an appointment with them today. Turbo Tax will tell you that it’s so easy to do your taxes at home with their software, any child could do it.

These efforts will increase through TV ads, the internet, those inflatable air dancers you see in parking lots along with guys dressed in Uncle Sam costumes waving large arrows that tell you to hurry up and pull into this shopping center right this second and get your taxes done.

Now what’s interesting is, that at this point in the season the marketing is to get your tax preparations business. After that it begins to switch.

When March comes so does the shift. Now you’ll see new ads migrate from those who want to file your taxes, to those who want to help you spend your tax return. This is when you’ll see car lots offer to do your taxes for you and use the tax money on a new car. You’ll see furniture outlets do the same thing and charitable organizations will ask you to donate a portion of that return. And throughout the month this will get bigger and bigger until the middle of April when the bubble will pop.

Now, the dangerous aspect of these ads — as well as how the retail tax market works — is that all of these efforts are based on one interesting premise. That you look at your tax return money as — found money. As extra money. As money that fell from the sky and now you are looking for a way to get it all and then spend it fast.

Which is perfect. And the retail world is more than happy to help you do that — spend it on a new car, the latest iPhone, furniture, a trip because — well, by gosh, you deserve it.

But here is the boring truth about your tax return.

Ready?

Here it is.

Your tax return is not found money.

What?!

No. It is not.

You didn’t win the lottery. You didn’t find that money on the street and you weren’t given it by a rich uncle. This money, this tax return, is your money that you earned as salary and it was held — in effect, taken from you — until you could document why you should have some of it back.

It’s not separate from your income in any way. It is your income.

Which means that it still falls under the rules of your income.

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR TAX RETURN

Since this tax return is your income in a lump sum form, the rules you’ve established for your income will apply to your return. And the first rule of your income is …
1. Pay yourself first. No, you shouldn’t blow the tax return, but sticking it all in an account is just as bad because it will soon widdle away and be gone. Like your income, there needs to be a purpose and plan to your money. So, like you do with your paycheck, pay yourself first. This is your income and you would have taken a percentage of it from your salary if these taxes weren’t held. So, if your weekly spending money is 10% of your check, then take 10% of the return and pay it to yourself. And no, this doesn’t mean blow it, it means that this portion of it is your money. It would have been yours if taxes weren’t taken out so it’s yours once they were given back.
2. Start, or add to, your emergency fund. What happens if you get in an accident and need to cover your deductible? What if you lose your job or get hurt? The general rule of thumb regarding an emergency fund is that it should be six to eight months of your salary. Now your tax return may not be that much and that’s fine, all you want to do is add a portion of the return to the fund to build it up. Create an interest bearing savings account that is only used for emergencies and then add to it each paycheck.
3. Pay off or pay down, high interest debt. If you are carrying high interest debt, your emergency fund will be eaten up pretty quickly. Create a plan to eliminate this debt. Again, if your return can’t pay it all off, pay it down and create a plan to not acquire any additional debt and pay it off.
4. Buy what you need. Do you need new tires or is your water heater on its last legs? This is the time to get what you need; those things you’ve been putting off. Pay cash and get that new car battery or replace the broken washing machine.
Stick to these basic rules and treat the return for what it is. Part of your income given back to you in one lump sum.
January 31, 2015
The 10 most amazing abandoned places of the U.S.

They’ve always amazed and intimated us; those great empty houses, abandoned factories and forbidden structures that lie just beyond the fence. The ruins of a previous time. There are so many to choose from but here are our top 10.

10. Glenwood Power Station, Yonkers, NY

On the banks of the mighty Hudson River, the closed Glenwood power plant closed in the 1960’s and is an abandoned industrial monster in one of the larges cites in the world. .

9. Fort Caroll, Baltimore, MD

You can see it as you drive across the Francis Scott Key Bridge, A weeded island on the water, that was once a defense against possible attack during the Civil War. The irony is that so many generations of birds have made the fort their home that it is now protected from development by US environmental law.

8. Mispillion Lighthouse, Mispillion, Delaware

Built in 1831 it served until 1929, when it was deactivated and replaced by a steel tower at nearby Cape Henlopen. The lighthouse had fallen into an extreme state of disrepair, and was considered by Lighthouse Digest magazine to be America’s Most Endangered Lighthouse.

7. Francisco Morazán shipwreck, South Manitou island, Michigan

Wanting to make one last trip before winter, the Francisco Morazan left Chicago on November 27, 1960 bound for Holland. Blinding rain and snow forced the shop aground at of South Manitou Island. The crew abandoned ship and was taken by the ice-breaker Mackinaw to Traverse City. The owners of the ship could never be found and nothing was done about removing the ship.

6. Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan

Built in 1913, it was the tallest rail station in the world. By the late 1970s, it was falling under disrepair and the last train left the station in 1987. Restoration projects and plans have gone as far as the negotiation process, but none has come to fruition.

5. Hushpuckena, Mississippi,

Hushpuckena is a small community of abandoned buildings that lies behind Highway 61 north of Shelby, Mississippi. that includes stores and a small hospital. Old clothing an still be found in the stores as well as piles of medical records from in the small hospital.

4. Chippewa Lake Park – Medina, Ohio

Chippewa Lake Park was an amusement park that operated from 1878 through 1978. It was closed due to lack of attendance. The rides and structures were left largely untouched and unmaintained for almost 40 years.

3. Brookfield Air Force base, Brookfield, Ohio

Brookfield Air Force Station was opened in 1952 as a Ground-Control Intercept and warning station. The squadron’s focus was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit’s radar scopes. It was closed in 1983 due to budget cuts.

2. Roseville Prison – Roseville, Ohio

The prison at Roseville is just across the county line Muskingum Ohio. Good behavior inmates were sent there to work in the ovens and make bricks. The prison was closed in 1977.

1. Palace Theatre. Gary Indiana.

The Palace Theater was built in 1924 and featured live stage shows, vaudeville acts and motion pictures. But when the US Steel plant went into decline, so did the town. The theatre closed in 1972 and has been abandoned ever since.

January 17, 2015
Couch surfing
The process of personal travel — whether it’s a European tour or a weekend getaway — is all pretty much the same. The location doesn’t matter. The time of year doesn’t matter and neither does the budget — you could have a thousand dollars a day to blow or you could need to stretch a few bucks for the entire week.

Whether New York or Paris; whether it’s a cruise to the Bahamas or a camping trip in the Adirondacks; the process, the plan, the results, will always follow a specific path. The core will remain constant which means the results will be similar.

Here is an example.

Let’s say you’re taking a trip to a place that you’ve never been. You arrange transportation. You pay for a place to stay — a hotel room, a houseboat, campsite, it doesn’t matter. You research things to do and see while we you are there. You arrive and you head out to do and see as many of those things as possible in the allotted time you have.

Now, when the trip is over, this is what will have occurred.
1. The place you stayed during this trip will most likely be your biggest expense, transportation often being a close second, which means that you are paying someone to allow you to sleep
2. Since you’ve never been to this location before, you are relying on guides, websites and reviews to guide you to locations and activities that are in the business to get you to their service or their location.
So this means that, in theory, three different groups can go to, let’s say New York City, at different times of the year, from different locations and stay and different places. And they could all come home with the similar photographs in front of the same areas of the city and — and here’s the big part — probably not have any experience that involves other human beings besides the ones that they went on the trip with,— or developed new relationships with anyone other than those they traveled with — in spite of the fact that they are in a city of nine million people.

Oh sure, they’ll have a great story about the waiter and that couple they spoke to on the bus, but pretty much all their photographs, all the video, all the Facebook posts will be of the group they went with; seeing the places someone else wanted them to pay along with the standard tourist attractions.

Okay, so here is option two.

You decide to go to a place that you’ve never been to. You make contact with a person, family or couple that have the same values as you, the same interests, who live in the place you want to visit and who love having house guests. You visit their home — as their guest, at no charge — and they show you the area from the perspective of someone who lives there. Sure they take you to the touristy areas but also to the local haunts that you would never find on your own. They introduce you to their family, to friends, to coworkers and you have a trip that not only involves a new place but a new group of people that you didn’t start out with. Which means this set of photographs, these pieces of video and these Facebook posts will be completely different than the first group.

Oh yeah I forgot — and since you’ve taken lodging out of the budget this trip could cost half of a traditional one.

And then let’s flip that. What if you found a person, family, couple who had the same values as you who wanted to visit your area from a different country, different city, or different coast. Think about how unlike the average week it would be at your home if you had someone from France, Belgium, Africa, the Netherlands or even just another part of the country, staying in your guest room or crashing on your couch? And what’s interesting about that is that most people have only a few weeks of vacation but by having people stay with you, you in effect have a vacation with each batch of visitors.

And yeah, I know, it’s not for everybody. And yes, you’re right, there is some safety and background steps that are built into the process and absolutely you need to take precautions, but this option, this manner of travel — changes everything.

This is called Couch Surfing — or hospitality exchange or it has many names with many different databases to choose from. And it makes travel an adventure — and a low cost one — rather than a destination. (Oh, and even though it’s called hospitality exchange there is no requirement to host in order to be hosted or visa versa. You can just travel or you can just host or a mix).

Which brings us to Kenny Flannery. Kenny is a young man who in 2007 decided to walk away from his New York City office job and see the world and for seven years he has been hitchhiking, bumming rides and sleeping on strangers couches all over the country and parts of the world. Now Kenny is the extreme example of this but it does illustrate that the guy without a job probably has been to most of many of the places on your bucket list.

Why?

Because money has nothing to do with travel. Absolutely nothing. And by tapping into this worldwide collection of people who just want to meet you — it changes everything.

Couch surfing website —- http://about.couchsurfing.com/about/

Kenny Flannery’s site — http://www.hobolifestyle.com
January 7, 2015
No knead bread

In November 2006, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman wrote an article for his Sunday feature—it was just an interview with a baker who came up with a new method to bake bread, no big deal. Except that this baker claimed he had not only developed a manner of making absolutely amazing bread at home without the headaches of kneading and working the dough, but that his process was so easy, a four-year-old could do it.

Wait.

Why would a commercial baker develop a way to make his product at home? This seemed a little self-defeating. But this baker—his name was Jim Lahey—stated that his goal was for anyone to be able to create bakery-quality bread—you know, that bread with the hard crust and the rich center, not the squishy store-bought stuff—as often as they wanted.

So, Mark Bittman met with Lahey and the two baked this new bread together. Bittman wrote the piece and that article launched an entire bread-making movement. There were videos, additional articles, online pieces, cookbooks—all about this new method of baking bread easily.
Now, baking bread had always been a daunting and intimidating task, one only taken on by the serious home baker. It was time-consuming, required a lot of attention, and was easy to mess up—which is why homemade bread has always been so revered.

The traditional process of baking bread requires dissolving yeast and sugar in water, then adding in lard, salt, and flour. Then the kneading starts. After that, the bread has to rise for an hour. Then you punch the dough and allow it to deflate and sit for another hour. Then you bake.

Then, in the 1990s, bread machines came along. These things were great. Now there was a machine where you could load in all the ingredients and allow the device to do all the kneading, punching, waiting, and cooking. You just loaded it up, pressed a few buttons, and walked away. But the bread was still the soft, squishy store-bought kind—a much fresher, preservative-free version of it, but still not that artisan, bakery-style bread we all love.

Then came Jim Lahey’s method, where we can not only make the most amazing artisan bread ever, but it is so incredibly easy that—yes, a four-year-old can do it.
It’s cheap—an average loaf will cost you about thirty cents to make—incredibly crispy, tasty, and easy to do.

What Jim Lahey came up with was a way to allow time to do all the work—up to twenty-four hours. It takes a minute to mix the bread, uses only a quarter teaspoon of yeast (most recipes call for a full teaspoon or more), and allows the yeast to ferment very slowly. The dough is so sticky that you couldn’t knead it even if you wanted to, which is good because you just leave it alone and let it do its thing.

His method creates a great cracking crust and flavor and is the kind of bread that you get from professionals’ steam-injected ovens. And it does this by allowing the pot you cook it in to act as a steam oven and get the same results. Over the past year, I’ve made dozens of loaves of this bread and with a few tweaks, it’s pretty bullet proof.

So how do you make no-knead bread? It’s pretty easy.

First, you will need:

1¾ cup of warm water
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of yeast

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients, then add your water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit. Jim Lahey’s recipe calls for between eighteen and twenty-four hours, but I would say eight hours is a minimum. I make a batch up at night and we have it for breakfast the next day. I also use a Sharpie and write on the plastic wrap the time that I started it, so I don’t forget. If you like a larger loaf and less dense bread, wait longer, toward the twenty-four-hour time frame.

Place flour over a cutting board and place the dough on it. Fold it into a ball—don’t knead it or work it; just fold it—place back in the bowl and cover back with plastic wrap for thirty minutes.
HINT: What I do here is, while the dough is on the cutting board, I wash out the bowl, dry it, and place a layer of olive oil on the bottom. Then when the dough goes back in the bowl, I’ll add a little olive oil on the top. This will add flavor and allow the bread to easily slip into the pan when you cook it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a Dutch oven, casserole dish, or anything that has a heavy cover and seals, into the oven to preheat—empty—for ten minutes. You want the pan to be hot when you start.

Place the bread inside the Dutch oven. I used to cut vent holes on the top of the loaf, but found that they don’t do much and the look of the bread is nicer without them. Cook for thirty minutes.
Remove the lid and cook for an additional five minutes or so to get the top get crusty.
It’s tempting to cut it right out of the oven, but you get a better result if you let it cool for ten minutes or so.

Now, I might add that with this recipe is everything depends on the Dutch oven or pot that you use to cook it in. With mine, I can’t get the crust extremely crusty, without burning the bottom of the bread, so I settle for a medium crust. I’ve seen others do it where they can cook and extra five minutes or so and get it crusty all over. You can try adding parchment paper to the bottom of the pot; that will give you some additional cooking time.

And that’s it. No-knead bread. Fast, easy, fun, and costs probably around thirty cents a loaf. Obviously, there are no preservatives in it like there are with store-bought bread, so it won’t stay fresh for more than a week or so, but you won’t have to worry about it. This bread goes fast. We’ve never had a loaf make it to three days.

Two days is our record—two days, five hours, and sixteen minutes.

October 25, 2014