Sous Vide Chicken with Pesto

Coat salt-and-peppered chicken breasts with pesto in a airtight bag, clip to the side of a Sous Vide pot set at 140 degrees and go do something else for three hours.  That's all it takes to make this plump, juicy and tender delight that a knife glides through.  Added some curb appeal with pecorino-romano cheese rubbed on a zester.  Plate with a salad and a token piece of crusty bread, with a generous pat of butter of course, and dinner is served.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/sous-vide-pesto-chicken

The Best Of 2019

Over on my Life Experiences blog (link below), I posted my traditional list of my top ten experiences from last year, culled from a list of 34 I built over the year.  As usual, a great year.  I encourage you to keep track of the fun things you do, then reflect on them annually.  Too easy to forget the fun times as the years fly by.

The picture below was from my #1 experience, which involved floating in the North Atlantic Ocean.

https://lifeexperiences.paulishing.com/2020/01/the-best-of-2019.html

Stamp App

I created this little web app as a demonstration and personal learning exercise, combining HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the JQuery and JCanvas libraries, then published it to a new Google Site using my custom domain name at the link below.  After clicking the link, you select a radio button for the proper use case, fill in the five fields presented and click "Generate Image".  The app creates the stamp on the right, which you can right-click and copy to the clipboard.  It can then be pasted on top of an invoice, and with Adobe Acrobat Reader, can be positioned and sized to your liking.

https://stamp.paulishing.com/

Fireplace Refurbish Phase One

My wife transformed our fireplace from a dated look (last picture below) to this modern, chalky white masterpiece.  She used two 'Chalky Smooth Finish" varieties of "Ultra Matte Paint", the base coat in "Aged Gray", then topped with "Linen White".  She applied them with two brushes, a round, bushy one to get at all the stone facing and a narrow, angled brush to get into the seams between the stones.  We have a few more updates before we call this living room update complete, but it's a great beginning!

https://www.amazon.com/Rustoleum-285143-Chalked-Ultra-Matte/dp/B01J44E7LU
https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-285140-Ultra-Interior-Chalked/dp/B010I5D54E

Storage/Filing Boxes

For about $2 per box, I ordered twelve of these AmazonBasics Storage/Filing Boxes.  They come flat-packed and it takes about a minute to assemble each one, although the first one (like always) will take more time.  It's nice to have a set of matching boxes, with lids, to pack away the holidays.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07G15Z64N

Baked Herb-Crusted Chicken

Marinating the chicken in fresh-squeezed lemon juice for an hour adds a delightful tartness.  The coating included both the Good Shit and Aw Shit spices, the latter adding a little heat.  Together with the flavors of the parsley and rosemary, this chicken was exploding on multiple fronts.

http://www.specialshit.com/recipes/BakedChicken.html

Outlet Expander With Shelf

This thoughtful Christmas gift, a six-outlet-extender, serves two purposes.  It gets me several extra electrical outlets in the laundry room where few exist and a handy shelf to set a security camera, which is pointed in the direction of the water heater and furnace.  The LED Night Light comes on at dark to provide some illumination.  And the USB slot came in handy to keep another outlet available. 

https://www.amazon.com/Port-Surge-Protector-Electrical-Extenders/dp/B07GL2WPXH

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QP4QKF7

The Wright Seaplane Base

The Historical Marker below is located at the Miami-Erie Canal Park on Marina Drive in West Carrollton.  It marks the site where Orville Wright flew seaplanes in 1913 and 1914, using this portion of the Great Miami River for its deep water, open sightlines and the ninety degree bend that allowed him to take off and land either north-south or east-west, depending on prevailing winds.

https://remarkableohio.org/index.php?/category/1121

Christmas Socks

Some people like their feet uncovered as much as possible.  They go barefoot, wear sandals or flip flops, even in winter, and sleep with their feet out from under the covers.  Lunacy (IMHO).

I'm not that guy.  I'm the guy that likes his feet covered and toasty warm, and this Christmas present has become my winter favorite.  Bliss!

Penn’ Thai Grille

This wonderful Sweet and Sour Pork was had at Penn’ Thai Grille, located in the Sugar Bell Shopping Center at the southeast corner of Wilmington Pike and SR-725, next to Zemore's Wine Cellar and Bistro, which also serves delicious dishes.  If you haven't heard of these places, it's understandable, as they're blocked from view by the Shell station and with the attention that busy intersection demands, you're past them before you should be looking around.  But do yourself a tasty favor and seek them out.

http://pennthaigrille.com