Cards game

So I hear you all (or at least some of you) went to a Cards game. Did you have fun? I'm envious.

Randy's Winning Beef Fajitas

Here is the requested recipe. Although it says beef, I add chicken, shrimp ete with much success.

1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice ( l lime)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspon garlic powder
Pico de Gallo
Gaucamole
2 cups mesquite chips or other wood chips for barabecuing
1 large onion, cross cut 1/4 inch slices
2 medium green peppers cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices
1 medium red sweet pepper cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices
12 flour tortillas, warmed
1 8oz carton dairy sour cream
lettuce

Requires covered grill

1. In a large, shallow container, combine cooking oil, vinegar, soy sauce, cater, lemon juice, lime juice, pepper and garlic powder. Add flank steak; turn once to coat. Cover; marinate in refrigerator 6-24 hours, turning once.

2. A few hours before serving prepare PicoDe Gallo and Gaucamole. Cover and chill.

3. Soak mesquite chips in water for 1 hour, drain. Sprinkle mesquite chips over medium-hot coals. Drain steak, reserving marinade. Place onion, green peppers, and red pepper in a foil pan. ( I use an iron skillet).

4. Grill steak and vegetables on a covered grill directly over medium-hot coals for 10 minutes. Turn steak and brush with reserved marinade. Cover grill continue cooking meat and vegetables for about 5-10 minutes more or till steak is medium to medium-well done and vegetables are just tender, turning vegetables occasionally. Slice meat diagonally across grain into 1/4 inch strips.

5. To assemble fajitas, fill each warm tortilla with some meat strips and a few onion and pepper slices. Spoon Pico DeGallo, Guacamole and sour cream over vegetables. Roll up fajitas and arrange on a lettuce-lined platter. Or serve meat, vegetables, and sauces in baskets and bowls for make your own. Yeild 6 servings

Earthquake!

So I'd like to hear a little about everyone's earthquake experience...

The Real Garfield

This cat weighs 35 pounds and lives in Italy. Dolce better watch her back!

Raves (Yes, It’s True) for New Hearing Aid

from The New York Times

By TARA PARKER-POPE
Published: April 15, 2008

Few products are hated as much as hearing aids.

The devices can squeal with feedback and overamplify background noises like the click of a turn signal or whir of a ceiling fan. They must be removed for showering or sleeping, and their batteries die frequently. Many users, out of exasperation, decide they’d rather live with hearing loss.

But now scientists have come up with a different kind of hearing aid. While the device, called the Lyric, is being used in only 500 patients, it appears to have overcome many of the problems associated with traditional hearing aids — without the expense and uncertainty of surgery and anestesia.

The Lyric, made by InSound Medical of Newark, Calif., is hidden deep inside the ear canal, just four millimeters (about one-sixth of an inch) from the ear drum. While doctors for years have been implanting hearing devices in the middle ear, the Lyric is not an implant: it can be removed with a small magnet. It is worn 24 hours a day, and its batteries last one to four months.

Typically, anything that clogs the ear canal would trap moisture and pose an infection risk, but the Lyric is surrounded by a spongy material that allows moisture to escape. Because it sits so close to the ear drum, doctors say that it works more efficiently and that sounds are more natural because they don’t have to be amplified as much.

When the Lyric’s battery dies, the entire device is replaced. Patients do not pay for a new device every time; instead, they pay an annual subscription fee of $2,900 to $3,600 for both ears (less if the hearing loss is in only one ear). Insurance plans typically do not cover the cost of the Lyric, or any other hearing device.

A magnet is used to control the volume, turn it on and off and remove it when the battery runs out. It takes only a few minutes for a doctor to insert a replacement device.

The Lyric does not work for everyone. In particular, some ear canals are too narrow to accommodate it, and the company estimates that it is not suitable for up to half of potential patients. A planned newer version should work for about 85 percent of patients, it says.
Still, it is already getting an enthusiastic reception from patients and from hearing specialists not connected with the company. “There are a certain number of patients who just can’t get over having something in their ear, just as there are a certain number of patients who can’t wear contact lenses,” said Dr. Chester F. Griffiths, chairman of the department of surgery at the Santa Monica U.C.L.A. Medical Center. “But that’s the minority. The patients that have them love them.”

Dr. Griffiths says he has no financial ties to the Lyric, nor does he receive a commission for referring patients.

One patient who swears by the device is Mike Waufle, the 53-year-old defensive line coach for the New York Giants. After a stint in the Marines and regular exposure to the sounds of gunfire, Mr. Waufle suffered hearing loss that grew worse and worse as he aged.

On the football field, he just turned up the volume on his headset. But the locker room was a different story. Some voices were impossible to hear (including that of his last boss, Jon Gruden, the former Oakland Raiders head coach). Players learned they needed to face him when they spoke to him. Using a traditional hearing aid, he found it difficult to control his own voice.
“I teach a lot in a classroom as a coach, but when I would wear a hearing aid my voice pattern wasn’t very good,” he said. “It was all over the place. I just took it out most of the time. I missed an awful lot.”

As it happened, a team doctor was one of a handful of physicians test-marketing the Lyric, which has been available for about 16 months. Mr. Waufle tried it, and he says it has changed his life.
“My voice pattern is so natural, and I hear so much better,” he said. “Obviously, it’s easier to carry on normal conversations without having to always say, ‘Huh? What did you say?’ And it helps just enjoying life over all and being able to hear the simple things like birds and other sounds you take for granted.”

Mr. Waufle says he has no financial ties to the company and receives no benefit for talking about his experience with the device. (The company says none of the people featured in testimonials on its Web site, http://www.lyrichearing.com/, receive any form of compensation for their endorsements.)

Right now, the Lyric is offered only through a dozen clinics in California, Florida and New Jersey, but it should be available at about 100 sites by the end of the year. Some patients who don’t live near a clinic simply fly or drive to a site four or five times a year. InSound is a privately held firm, although the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is a major investor.

Dr. Robert A. Schindler, a co-founder of InSound and chairman emeritus of the department of otolaryngology at the University of California, San Francisco, says he has had hearing loss most of his life and has worn a Lyric since 2005. He says he remembers listening to an orchestra and hearing the light ping of the triangle.

“I realized I hadn’t heard it before,” he said. “That was a very exciting moment for me.”

Crab Rangoon, I love you so!

Dearly Beloved,

I was just reading the latest edition of Sauce magazine when this article rating various St. Louis restaurants' Crab Rangoon brought a tear to my eye. Here's the link...http://www.saucemagazine.com./article/1.

You see, in my adopted country, Crab Rangoon is virtually unheard of. Here the requisite non-Chinese Chinese restaurant appetizer is "Chicken Balls", which actually taste a little better than you might imagine they would. They are, however, a poor, backward, hair-lipped country cousin when held up in comparison to the glories that are Crab Rangoon.

I have seen the Rangoon once in Winnipeg, at Hu's on First (which is, as you might have guessed, a Chinese restaurant at the ballpark), and so of course I ordered it with alacrity. They came out cigar shaped, and full of actual crab. I found this rather disconcerting, since I share this guy's sentiments (http://www.flickr.com/photos/slice/7180444/). A four-horned Rangoon is the way to go, absolutely. And I also prefer my Rangoon to be ironic, containing no crab whatsoever, but with a slightly sweet and salty cream cheese interior, a crispy on the edges, chewy closer-to-the-middle wonton, and green onions for fiber. And for dipping, only a ladle-full of gloppy, heavily red-food colored sweet-and-sour sauce will do.

It is interesting to note that even though I think of the Rangoon as ubiquitously American, it's really a Midwestern phenomenon, so it's not just Canadians who are missing out on the goodness, but right-and-left coasted Americans as well.

So I end by exhorting all you readers in close proximity to a friendly Chinese-American restaurant serving perfectly browned, four-horned Crab Rangoon to go out and indulge immediately in this Midwest flavor sensation on behalf of those of us who are geographically disabled. And rest assured, once the fabled 'Cousin Sarah's House of the South' opens its Winnipeg front doors, Crab Rangoon will be the first appetizer listed on the menu.

Josh's Baseball Blog

Josh is by now well known for writing funny blogs about our favorite team, the Cards (at least, he is well known for this by me). I thought I would share his latest, in which he designates the official 2008 nicknames for all current Cardinals (until he comes up with funnier ones).
Warning! There are some references to male genetalia. You have been warned!

Canada's Oil Boomtown

Thought you guys might find this article interesting. Apparently, they have to pay fast food workers $17 dollars an hour here just to keep them around.

Cape regional responsible farming

This website lists some sustainable farming operations in the Southeast Missouri area. One place has fresh herbs and salad greens year round.

Wonder What the Poor People Were Eating

We had a great time over the week-end. Josh cooked some wonderful wings and pulled pork. Robert, Luz and the kids were down. Wow was it fun. Here is the recipe for Turtle Cake;
1 box German Chocolate Cake
1 lb. caramels
1 stick butter
4 oz evaporated milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix cake according to directions. Pour half into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake until done.

Melt caramels, milk and butter in a pan on medium heat....don't let it burn.

Pour camel mixture over baked portion of cake. Save several tablespoons to drizzle on top.
Pour 1/2 cup chocolate pieces over caramel mixture. Top with remaining cake batter. Sprinkle remaining chocolate pieces and nuts over top of batter. Bake until done in center 15-20 mins.

Drizzles remaining caramel mixture over top. Oh boy is it sweet!

MOM

Saying it Wrong on Purpose

This article from the Lexicographer's Rules blog on words people mispronounce on purpose reminded me of Mom; in particular how she always says Mercy Buckets instead of Merci Beaucoup. Josh frequently adds an unnecessary 's' to words to make them funnier, i.e. butts instead of butt in the following: "Augie move your butts!" I personally enjoy calling the library the liberry, for obvious reasons. Anyone else have a favorite mispronunciation?

Wanna quit sugar?

I enjoyed reading this article in Slate about going on a no sugar diet. Anybody with me?

Also, for your enjoyment, a pic of Josh and myself at Opening Day (before we got soaked).

Also for your interest...

A St. Louisian is a contestant on 'Hell's Kitchen' Season Four, which begins tonight on Fox. Let's hope that if she cooks chicken, it isn't Rooor!

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/tvradio/story/A2855F7C765459898625741D005CE2DC?OpenDocument

Cape's the place for BBQ ovens

from STL.com...

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/2239371C410EE4698625741B001DB75A?OpenDocument

I'll have to buy a unit to open Cousin Sarah's House of the South...