Cut The Cheese

One of the habits I got into years ago was buying a block of cheese and cutting it up into bite-sized pieces, as you see below.  I put them into a quart-size, zipped bag and put them front and center in the refrigerator.  Besides liking cheese, I know that most people, and children in particular, will grab the first and easiest thing they see when looking for a snack.  Having a tasty and low-carb option that's ready to eat helps me maintain a good diet.

Cleaning Refrigerator Produce Drawers

The squeaky-clean produce drawer only happened because I YouTube'd how to get the clear plastic front removed to access the trapped crumbs.  I could see that some tabs could be pushed, but the video showed how to wedge a screwdriver to pop it off, something I would be reluctant to try, fearing I would break the drawer.  I guess without YouTube, I would have dirty drawers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_8DjB2N6e8

Greasy Filter No More

The mesh wire screen on the bottom of the exhaust fan over the stove collects a fair amount of grease.  Gourmet Chef Elaine had a lot of problems trying to get it clean until she thought of spraying it with Dawn Power Wash (obviously, after removing it).  She let it sit for a while to work its magic, then used a scrub brush and rinsed it with water.  According to the website at the link below, "Powerwash has 3 cleaning boosters not found in traditional dish soaps that remove food and grease 5X faster."  We just know it really works.

https://dawn-dish.com/en-us/products/dawn-powerwash-dish-spray

Using AI To Design A Logo

I thought it was high time to create a new logo and update the look on all my blogs.  I asked the Gemini chatbot to "Design a logo for paulishing.com that reflects the word polish."  The "polish" idea came from a play on words that I would polish my boss's PowerPoint presentations.  

Gemini produced the logo below, and I thought it was great.  I updated all my blogs, which you can see at the link below, making all their layouts the same, including standardizing the About Me, adding this logo, moving the search field from the top to the right-hand side, and keeping the Blog Archive at the bottom.  I also changed the color to Dark Slate Gray.  

https://www.paulishing.com

Bento Box

A bento is a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal of Japanese origin.  The bento box uses dividers to separate ingredients or dishes, especially those with strong flavors, to avoid them affecting the taste of the rest of the meal.  I had this Thai Basil bento box for lunch at Sky Asian Cuisine, our favorite local Japanese restaurant, and it's a very sizable mid-day meal.  It included shrimp with vegetables and two spring rolls. fried rice, and four sushi rolls with wasabi and ginger.  For $15, it was very budget-friendly as well as delicious.

https://www.skyasiancuisine.com

5-in-1 Wireless Charger

The charger shown below can wirelessly charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, with front-facing USB-A and USB-C ports to accommodate two additional devices.  It's everything Gourmet Chef Elaine needs to handle all her devices and takes up very little of her nightstand space.  At some point in the future, we might consider a second one to pack on our travels, since it neatly folds flat and weighs about eight ounces.  A lot of technical details can be found at the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHL1RD2Y

Low Cut Quarter Socks

I needed some new walking socks, and I like ones made out of a wool blend.  I got a good deal on a 3-pack of gray, ONKE brand training socks, which you see in the picture below.  They cost $5 per pair for the gray ones, but 3-packs in other colors can be had for $10.  They are made of extra fine merino wool, arcylic and spandex, with merino being a breed of domestic sheep.  I think they are very well made, and they are super-cushy-comfortable.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GPG8XHF

Song Sung Blue

Gourmet Chef Elaine and I recently saw the movie Song Sung Blue at the movie theater.  It's the story of the life of Mike and Clair Sardina, a Wisconsin couple who performed as the Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder, based on the 2008 documentary film of the same name by Greg Kohs.

The lead roles are played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, and they do a great job of singing the Neil songs I know by heart, including the film's title song, Play Me, Holly Holy, I Am...I Said, and, of course, Sweet Caroline.  If you're thinking that Jackman, best known as the character Wolverine that he has played in ten Marvel movies, couldn't possibly be as good as Neil, you're right; that's a high bar, but his singing, and Kate's, is a marvel (pun intended) and is wonderful.  Two thumbs up from this occasional movie critic.

https://www.reelasdirt.com/song-sung-blue

Laundry Basket

One of our highest priorities is not falling.  We see too many people, young and old, who suffer serious injuries from a fall.  The older we get, the more we realize how that could wreck our quality of life.  So we're always on the lookout for tripping or falling hazards, and we identified taking our laundry from the second-floor bedroom to the basement laundry room as something we needed to address.

Our old laundry basket is on the right below.  It takes two hands to carry it, leaving none to hold the banister.  After searching on Amazon, I found a great solution, the laundry basket on the left.  It's made with a sturdy iron wire frame sewn into the top edges, which, when you stretch it out, will stand upright on its own.  The handles make it easy to carry in one hand, leaving the other free to prevent falling.

I got a pack of two baskets for $12, a 40% discount off its normal price, at the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B7JGC67R

Jalapeno Honey

Like most folk, we don't vary from our list of regular purchases very often, but when Gourmet Chef Elaine spotted the Tillamook Jalapeno Honey cream cheese spread you see below, she made the impulse buy, and we're glad she did.  When you take a bite, the sweetness of the honey is pronounced, but wait a couple of seconds, and the flame of the jalapeno takes over.  If you like hot, this is for you.  Tillamook makes a few other flavored cream cheeses, and their Chive and Onion is next on my list.

https://www.tillamook.com/products/cream-cheese/jalapeno-honey