Paperfuge

Stanford bioengineers, including Manu Prakash and Saad Bhamla, have created a human-powered centrifuge that separates blood into its individual components for 20 cents of paper, twine and plastic. Called the Paperfuge, it's part of their effort to develop low-cost tools (which they call "frugal science") that can be used where electricity is not an option.

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/01/10/whirligig-toy-bioengineers-develop-20-cent-hand-powered-blood-centrifuge

Beef Taco Burgers

As Samuel L. Jackson's character, Jules, in the movie Pulp Fiction said, "Mm-hmm! This is a tasty burger!".  The level of hotness can be dialed up or down to your particular desires by varying the amount of the two hot peppers involved, but for me, the more the better.  If you're cooking the same burgers the same way, give this a try.  Wake up them taste buds!

Ingredients

  Burgers

• ½ cup crushed corn tortilla chips
• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
• 1 ½ tsp cumin
• ¼ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1 pound ground beef

 Topping

• Cheddar cheese
• ¼ cup ketchup
• Chipotle chili pepper, chopped
• Tomato
• Jalapeno pepper, chopped

Grill

• Vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Combine all burger ingredients in a large bowl. Divide into four burgers.
2. Heat grill to medium-high heat and brush with vegetable oil.
3. Grill burgers for 8-9 minutes, flipping at least once.
4. Melt cheddar cheese on the burgers.
5. Mix ketchup and chipotle chili peppers together, then spread on burgers.
6. Add tomato and jalapeno pepper to burger.

Century Bar

Downtown Dayton is home to the Century Bar, a nationally acclaimed Bourbon Bar, located on the site of the former Kette & Sons Rye Whiskey Distillery, closed after the great flood of 1913.

To be a bourbon, these rules must be followed:

• Made in the USA (95% is made in Kentucky)
• Aged at least two years in a new, charred, oak barrels
• Made with at least 51 percent corn
• Cannot enter the barrel at higher than 125 proof
• Cannot enter the bottle at less than 80 proof
• Nothing can be added but water, and only to lessen the proof when necessary

http://www.centurybourbon.com

Pepperoni Bread Times Five

This is how you feed lunch to a staff of football coaches as they prepare for their upcoming season. Thank goodness for our large double oven. I doubt there will be any leftovers. Drats.

Lucky guys!

Core Ice Cube Trays

The perfect combination of shaped and sized cubes, and the silicone material makes for easy extraction.  Just bend the form and push up from the bottom.  I have several other forms, but this one has relegated all those to the don't-bother pile.

https://www.amazon.com/Core-Kitchen-Silicone-Cube-Trays/dp/B01H9OHCFU

Italian Al Fresco

Last month delivered another fun, educational and tasty class at the Dorothy Lane Culinary Center, this one featuring Italian dishes on the fresh and lighter side, with a little pasta thrown in.  It's amazing all the little tips you pick up, like prepping the gas grill using oil, a paper towel and a part of tongs.

http://www.dorothylane.com/CulinaryCenter/classes.pl?schedule=all

Pints

Our local Pub serves up our favorite draughts in 20 ounce pints, which I thought was just simply a generous, and certainly well-appreciated, pour.  Then just last week I find that this larger size is the international imperial pint, and based on a 160 ounce imperial gallon, 1/8th is the aforementioned twenty.  An extra 25 percent and the division is easier. Winner, winner...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems

Rosemary Ranch Chicken and Pan Seared Zucchini and Corn

The herb garden provided the fresh rosemary for this tasty chicken marinade. While that was hibernating in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, lots of dicing, shucking, mincing and slicing of vegetables occurred. Bring the grill and frying pan up to temp, and alternate between stirring the vegetables and turning the chicken. A delicious, colorful and low-carb feast!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/64513/rosemary-ranch-chicken-kabobs

Pan Seared Zucchini and Corn

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and medium diced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, medium diced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium zucchini, medium diced
• 2 ears white or yellow corn, shucked
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Preparation

• Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the bell pepper and onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables have softened slightly, about 6 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the corn kernels from the cobs.
• Increase the heat to medium high, add the zucchini, season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is crisp-tender, about 3 to 4 minutes.
• Add the corn, stir to combine, and cook until just warmed through, about 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic, turn off the heat and stir in the basil. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Nextdoor

I belong to the North Marshall Nextdoor group, a private social networking service that allows users to connect with people who live in their own and nearby neighborhoods.  Lost and found pets, items for sale and requests for recommendations occur daily. The Ohio Department of Public Safety will be joining soon to share important news and updates, provide preparedness information, and communicate in times of emergency.

https://nextdoor.com

Terro Fruit Fly Traps

What the heck has happened this summer? Did the fruit fly caucus decide to hold their summer convention in Dayton this year? After driving my wife almost batty (because "flyie" isn't a real word and "fruitie" isn't much better), we deployed these cute little, apple-shaped Terro traps with very good success. Given the low stock on the store shelves, at least we don't feel unduly picked upon.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Terro-Fruit-Fly-Traps-2-ct/54778117

Frostie Root Beer

When I saw this 4-pack of Frostie Root Beer at Dorothy Lane Market last weekend their wasn't any chance that it wouldn't come home with me. Frostie takes me back to my childhood, walking to a corner shop with 25 cents pilfered from the loose change my mother collected in the laundry room, which probably came from my pants anyway, to buy a root beer on a hot summer day. Oh that sweet goodness!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostie_Root_Beer

Jefferson Starship

Last Friday was a beautiful night to watch Jefferson Starship perform at the Fraze Pavillion in Kettering, part of the "$5 dollar Friday's" series.  Miracles, White Rabbit, Somebody To Love and Count On Me were some of the hits they played, but even the ones I didn't recognize were very good.

http://www.fraze.com/category/5-fridays

Grill-Steamed Corn with Cilantro and Chile Flakes

I'm a big fan of corn-on-the-cob slathered with lots of melted butter, but this recipe just might cure me of that.  These grilled-steamed ears were spiced up with a brush of olive oil and sprinkled with cilantro and chili powder.  Served with Costco steaks and tomatoes with basil and balsamic vinegar, this meal was another Sunday night feast!

http://www.cookinglight.com/recipes/grill-steamed-corn-cilantro-chile-flakes

Klosterman Bakery

Cincinnati-based Klosterman Bakery has been around for over 100 years, but that doesn't mean they've lost their touch, evidenced by this had-to-look-twice highway billboard.  I'm a big fan of their half-sized loaves, allowing for more variety, and less that gets thrown away.

https://www.klostermanbakery.com

Dayton.com

The daily email from Dayton.com, delivered at noon each day making it convenient to read during my lunch break, typically includes five short articles on happenings around the region, for example, a new restaurant opening, redevelopment plans or an upcoming festival. This is one of the finest and informative emails subscriptions I have.

http://www.dayton.com

PDF iFilter

PDF (Portable Document Format) file contents are not searchable by default in Windows, but install this free (I love free) add-in from Adobe and poof, you can find that document you were searching for. If you have a lot of PDFs, consider indexing both properties and content to speed things up.

http://supportdownloads.adobe.com/detail.jsp?ftpID=5542

From Blogger To Twitter

These blog posts get automagically posted to my Twitter account (https://twitter.com/PaulMoorman) through an IFTTT (an initialism for IF This Then That) applet, one of about a dozen useful automations I employ. Think of these as tiny helpers that do one little thing well.

https://ifttt.com/applets/43022671d-share-your-new-blogger-posts-to-twitter

Old Fashioned Potato Salad

For my wife's retirement party I made this potato salad which goes light on the mustard and mayo to bring out all the tasty potato, celery and onion goodness. The best comment I received was that they had never seen such precisely cubed potatoes before. Yep, that would be me.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16729/old-fashioned-potato-salad/

Amazon Echo Drop In

The latest of the cool new Amazon Echo features is Drop In, which is like calling another Echo but without the need for the other end to accept the call. That also makes it a little spooky, so choose your friends wisely. My best use case, since I have an Echo on the first floor and an Echo Dot in the basement, is to use Drop In as an intercom. Since this also works on the Alexa app on smartphones, my wife can Drop In from the comfort of the living room and tell me to fold laundry in the basement while barely lifting a finger. Maybe I need to rethink this a bit...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202153130

TutorialsPoint

TutorialsPoint contains a large set of self-paced instruction on programming, web and mobile development, databases, scripting, telecom, SAP, Microsoft and many others. I took the lessons on the AWK scripting language and was very impressed by how well-laid out it was, and picked up a couple handy tips. Next up is the lessons on the new SAP Fiori front-end technology.

And it's free (I love free)!

https://www.tutorialspoint.com

UPS, USPS and FedEx

Gotta love "one spot to drop it all" like this trio hidden behind the 7887 Washington Village office building, conveniently located next door to where I work.  Hard to believe the post office needs two boxes here, but they do get picked up at different times during the day.

https://tools.usps.com