Pabellón Criollo Venezolano

The plate you see below is a traditional Venezuelan dish that is considered their national dish.  There are avocado slices, tajadas (fried plantain slices), shredded beef, rice, refried beans, and salsa in the middle.  We are hoping this will become a regular entree at Jorrge's, our favorite Mexican restaurant.

Big shout-out to Janet for making us her authentic and delicious plate!

Jubie's Creamery

Jubie's Creamery has retail locations in Fairborn and Troy, Ohio, but I recently found that our local Dot's Market was carrying pints in various flavors, including the Hot Honeycomb you see below.  This flavor won the 2025 Best Flavor award at the North American Ice Cream Association conference in Palm Beach, Florida.  It's decadent, with swirls of hot honey and pieces of Winans uncoated honeycomb candies.  If you look at the menu at the link below, you will find all their amazing flavors.  Oh dear, what should I try next?  Banana Cream Pie?  Cookie Dough?  Mint Chip?  Coffee?  Might take a while...

https://www.jubiescreamery.com/menu

Eyelashes

The headlight eyelashes you see below are from a car in the parking lot of our local Dot's Market.   I've not seen this before, but given the options at the link below, it appears to be a real thing.  If you ever see me doing anything like this, have me committed asap.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=car+eyelashes+headlight

Lavender Butter

Back in 2010, Gourmet Chef Elaine and I spent a week in Napa Valley.  This was her first time in Napa, and I arranged private wine tastings on Monday and Tuesday at 10:00 am.  Monday's tasting was at Matanzas Creek Winery, for which I had made the reservation over six months before.  She did not know, and I had to strain not to tell her, that Matanzas Creek has a large lavender farm, and a tour of the fields and the barn was included in our private tasting.  Getting settled in, our hostess asked if we were ready for the lavender tour, and Elaine looked at me with a puzzled and hopeful look.  I finally had to fess up and admit I had this planned all along.  The tour was wonderful, and scooping up and smelling handfuls of lavender seeds from a large wine barrel was a sensory overload.

One of the products we brought home was the French Lavender Body Butter you see below.  Elaine is in love with it, and I've reordered jar after jar from their online market (link below).  If you have a lavender fan in your life, add this to their gift list.

https://www.matanzascreek.com/lavender-market

Using AI For Paint Color Recommendations

Below is a picture of our kitchen backsplash, and the missus recently asked if we might ever paint the walls in the adjoining dining room.  My reaction was probably not, since I couldn't think of another color that would work.  Turning to AI, I uploaded the picture and asked, "Recommend paint colors for a dining room that would go with the kitchen backsplash in the picture."  Liking the response, I followed that up with "Create an image in the form of a paint strip with the recommended colors," which you see below the backsplash.  The "Saybouk Sage" is a dead ringer for the color the walls are painted now.  The most intriguing is the suggestion of "Whole Wheat", which I wouldn't have thought of in a million years.  

https://gemini.google.com

Cowboy Chicken Spaghetti

Southern Living is our only paid subscription, and it paid off with this recipe for Cowboy Chicken Spaghetti.  Gourmet Chef Elaine's helper (i.e., me) took a Costco rotisserie chicken and carved it up, which he took half of for this recipe.  Its creamy goodness comes from a combination of Cheddar and Velveeta cheeses, and its spicy kick from Ro-Tel and chopped green chiles.  Add spaghetti and the rest of the ingredients you can find at the link below, and the result was a meal that I couldn't stop shoving into my mouth.  If you have some hungry mouths to feed, this could be your winner.

https://www.southernliving.com/cowboy-chicken-spaghetti-11783881

Water Meter

When I remodeled our basement a few years ago, I installed the grey plank flooring you see below.  I didn't like the concrete around the water meter, so after looking for solutions, I landed on using a piece of black foam board.  I measured carefully and cut out the circle at the bottom-right and another at the top-left.   Finally, I cut a slice (which you can't see) so I could bend the foam board around the pipe.  I think I did a good job of making an unsightly mess into a cool cover.

Thankful

Over on my Life Experiences blog (link below), I wrote about six things I'm thankful for during that dreadful year-and-a-half of COVID craziness.  Reflecting back on bad stuff is depressing, and I prefer to look at the brighter side.  Good memories are so much better than bad ones.

https://lifeexperiences.paulishing.com/2026/02/thankful.html

Loose Door Handle

It took me weeks to figure out how to tighten the doorknob you see in the first picture below.  There are hundreds of YouTube videos that purport to help, but it wasn't until I found the video at the link below that I figured it out.  First, I had to remove the handle using an Allen wrench to turn the little set screw you can barely see in the first picture, but which is very clear in the second.  Then I inserted a slotted screwdriver at two different points along the cap, up against the door, and gently pried it off.  I tightened the two Phillips-head screws and put the cap and handle back on.  Seems so obvious now that I know what to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU1cp0JwAdY

Using AI To Find A Specialty Product

Doing traditional Google searches to find an uncommon product can take forever, particularly if you don't know exactly what to call it.  But AI can reduce that search to a single query, for example, "Where can I buy a custom-made window that has a blind between two panes of glass?"  In the response below, you will find that such a window is called "integrated" or "integral" along with several of the top manufacturers and places to buy them.  

I remember the "good old days" when you had an encyclopedia and a library card, and you really, really wanted to know an answer, to spend an hour or two to find it.  Well, it wasn't really all that "good".

https://gemini.google.com

Pork Chops With Apple Sauce

I was searching for a new way to make pork chops and found Pork Chops with Apple Sauce.  Pork and apples seemed to be the perfect combination, so I gave it a go.

The chops are marinated for an hour, pan-seared on both sides in butter and oil, sprinkled with parsley and thyme, and seasoned with salt and pepper.  Slices of Granny Smith apples are sauteed in more butter and oil, and the pan is deglazed with brandy. Add brown sauce and cider vinegar to create a pan sauce, which is poured over the pork chops.  All the other details I left out can be found at the link below.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/pork-chops-with-apple-sauce-recipe-1908736

Drying Mat

The drying mats we bought recently lacked a loop.  Seems pretty obvious that something that gets wet, you would want to hang up to dry.  Fortunately, I had bought a grommet kit years ago, and Gourmet Chef Elaine remembered that I did.  I used it to create a reinforced hole near the top of the mat, and then repurposed the little blue loop to create a solution.  Grommets are really easy to install, as you can see in the YouTube video at the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCfQU32JLDo

Turning Windowed Apps Off

Windowed apps is new feature in iOS for iPads, and it was driving me and the Mrs crazy.  When dragging a finger from the bottom of the screen, it would sometimes create a window instead of returning to the main screen. Some folks like windows and working with two or more at a time, but we never do.  But that's easily turned off by bringing up the Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen) and tapping the icon that's pointed to by the white arrow you see in the screenshot below.  You can also turn it off in Settings, which is explained at the link below.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/123635

Beds Not For Us

We went nightstand shopping a few weeks ago at Morris Furniture and ran across the two beds you see below that we'll never buy.  The one on top has a footboard that consists of a pop-up television and a fireplace.  Gourmet Chef Elaine and I agreed long before we got married that we would never have a television in our bedroom, but even that said, this is just ugly.  

The bottom picture really doesn't do this justice.  There are sparkles galore on the headboard, lamps, and dresser that seem to be inspired by a Taylor Swift production.  We just had to ask if people actually buy it, and the salesperson said it was a very popular item.  Sigh.

If you haven't wandered around a furniture store lately, it's eye-opening to see some of these more "creative" selections.  Just be ready for some sticker shock when you see prices nowadays.

Using AI To Create Riddles

You can use AI to make up your own trivia games.  For example, I asked Google Gemini to "Create a riddle whose answer is Griffin," and it provided the clues you see below.  It then asked if I wanted an image.  I responded yes, and it created the cool picture you see below.  For example, to make a state name trivia game, try "create 50 kid-friendly riddles where the answer is the name of a state. Use all 50 states."  Let your imagination run free!

---

I have a lion’s heart and a kingly stride,

But the wings of an eagle are where I hide.

I rule the earth, and I rule the sky,

With a golden beak and a watchful eye.

I guard the treasures of ancient kings,

On four furry paws and two feathered wings.

---

A few of you will understand why I chose Griffin as the example.  For the rest, that's my grandson's name.

Big shout-out to my daughter for bringing riddle-making to my attention!

https://gemini.google.com

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The smell of homemade chocolate chip cookies filling the house on a chilly December holiday is a memory I like to collect.  The recipe at the link below promises a chewy cookie, and I must have failed at some detail, as they ended up being pretty stiff.  But that really doesn't matter unless you like eating cold cookies.  Me, I pop one in the microwave for 45 seconds, and it comes out warm and chewy.  

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25037/best-big-fat-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookie

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