Life Explained

I was looking for this awhile ago but thought the title was Is Your Hut Burning. I found the other but really liked this one and found it again. I was wondering if anyone knows where this place is, please let me know because I can become a good fisher-person!

                                           

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral of this story is: ......... Know where you're going in life... you may already be there.

Did you know

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little
"stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave
them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh
much longer and not mold!

Peppers  with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the
grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls
of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in
double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful
minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic
and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simple
chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples.
Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the
apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

1. Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set
heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No
soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

2. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all
broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up
mixing thoroughl y, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

3. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with
your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to
frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar
and calories per serving.

4. Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place
them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will
keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

5. Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet
newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with
mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening
plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

6. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you
can't see easily.

7. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

8. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with
cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the
squirrels won't come near it.

9. Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an
empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be
bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

10. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a
clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when
wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static
is gone.

11. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot
water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your
ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right
out.

12. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove
box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better
than a cloth!

13. Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include
something inside , just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an
hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

14. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than
shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way
to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it
in your hair...

15. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with
Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You
will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

16. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it
"home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so,
especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about
pets or small children being harmed!

17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things
around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and
he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean.
(I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He
told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to
the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh
material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like.
well,...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through
it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh
that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's
there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and
static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy
when you take them out of the box, well t his stuff builds up on your
clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer
units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said
the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep
your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot
soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six
months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!
How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know
dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!
Note: I went to my dryer & tested m y screen by running water on it. The
water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the
mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had
it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right Thru
the screen! There wasn't any pudding at all! That repairman knew what he
was talking about!

Leftover Turkey Chili

Whenever turkeys are on sale a usually buy a few. Publix had a decent sale and so did Winn-Dixie. I usually pay less per pound at Walbaums but it's nice to have gas perks from Winn-Dixie.

You could use a leftover chicken roaster. I save parts from the turkey that Gabe and I don't eat, legs and wings.

This recipe is from crockpot guys.com

2 cups of shredded, cooked turkey meat

1 cup chopped onion

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1 chopped red bell pepper

32 oz canned stewed, crushed tomatoes

1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained

1 15 oz can black beans, drained

1 small can tomato paste

1/2 cup chicken or turkey stock

1-2 Tbsp chili powder

1/2 Tbsp ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of sugar

1. Add everything to the crock pot.
2. Cover and Cook on high for 6 hours, serve with a spoonful of sour cream, tortilla chips or over rice.

We like our chili with extra zing so added Tony Chachere's. I picked up Hot Slap ya Mama also. Combine those two and it's plenty of extra zing.

Cell Phones

FIRST
Subject: Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112.
If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network;
and there is an emergency, dial 112
and the mobile will search any existing network
to establish the emergency number for you,
and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed
even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND
Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry?
This may come in handy someday.
Good reason to own a cell phone:
If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home,
call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone.
Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door
and have the person at your home press the unlock button,
holding it near the mobile phone on their end.
Your car will unlock.
Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you.
Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away,
and if you can reach someone
who has the other "remote" for your car,
you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

THIRD
Subject: Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your cell battery is very low.
To activate, press the keys *3370#
Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument
will show a 50% increase in battery.
This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.

FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone's serial number,
key in the following digits on your phone:
* # 0 6 #
A 15 digit code will appear on the screen.
This number is unique to your handset.
Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.
When your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider
and give them this code.
They will then be able to block your handset so
even if the thief changes the SIM card,
your phone will be totally useless.
You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know
that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either.
If everybody does this,
there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally....

FIFTH
Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more

for 411 information calls when they don't have to.
Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle,
which makes this situation even more of a problem.
When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial:
(800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411
without incurring any charge at all.
Program this into your cellphone now.

Sticky Chicken

I have two crockpots going this morning. In the large one I'm making Sticky Chicken from Lynn's Kitchen Adventures

Ingredients:

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce ( used low sodium soy)
2 tablespoon of minced ginger
4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
3 pounds of chicken ( you can use one whole chicken and cut it up)
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste

Directions:

Combine 1/4 cup sugar,  2 tablespoons soy sauce, minced ginger, garlic and the cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken to the  bowl and make sure all the chicken is coated with the sauce.

Place the chicken in your crockpot and cook for 3-4 hours or until done.

When the chicken is cooked place the cooked chicken in a oven proof broiler dish.

Mix the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, rest of the soy sauce, water and tomato paste and brush it over the chicken in the broiler dish and place under the broiler for about five minutes.

Keep a close eye on it. You don't want it to burn.

Sauce is perfect- not to sweet. 

Gabe is diving today with a student at Peacock Springs and will be home late. He calls me on his way home so I can prep the rest of the dinner before he gets back to the house.

The second smaller crockpot I'm making chicken broth. I use so much of it. Useful hint. When the broth cools add it to an ice cube tray. You can remove broth anytime you need it. I usually empty the cubes into a freezer bag and add to the bag whenever I make more broth.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

1 15 ounce can chickpeas
1 1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (didn't use)
1/2 teaspoon paprika ( used smoked paprika)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and dry on a paper towel and set aside.

In a medium size bowl combine all the spices and the olive oil. Toss the chickpeas in the spice mixture and spread the chickpeas on a lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, remove- toss the chickpeas and cook for another 15-20 minutes. You want the chickpeas to be brown and crispy.

Note: recipe from Allrecipes.com

Slow Cooked Sweet Potato Chili

28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
14 ounce can diced tomatoes ( used Hunts hot diced tomatoes)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
15 ounce can kidney beans
15 ounce can black beans
1 pound ground sirloin (optional) ( Gabe added alligator to his and mine was just the vegetables) 

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in your crockpot and stir to mix well. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.
This was a 5 star meal. Easy and we both enjoyed it

Recipe from:http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/

Where is Gabe?

in the cave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poOGL3GIObw

Additional State Park Photos

All taken in December 2011

 The last photo I don't know if you notice but the puddle is shaped like a heart. I was on my way back to the truck, tears filling my eyes and I saw it. It's my puddle of tears for Rip. The puddle was a sign that he loved me with all his heart.

Florida State Parks

We are really lucky to have many parks close to us. Great for trail walking and it's peaceful. When Rip died I needed time to myself away from Gabe and went to  parks around the area to get out of the house. I took a few photos, not as many as I would normally take but I hope to go back again soon .

Cream Cheese Pie

Crust:

1 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs ( you can make the

 crumbs in a food processor or buy them in the

 store)

3 tablespoons Sugar

1/3 cup melted butter



Filling:

16 ounces (2 blocks) softened cream cheese

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 eggs



Directions:

Mix the graham cracker crumbs which are crushed

with sugar and melted better and mix well. Press the

crumbs into a 9 inch pie plate. Chill in the fridge 

before adding the filling.

easy way to do the crust is to buy one in the grocery 

store!


Mix the cream cheese,vanilla, sugar and lemon juice

in a large bowl and mix well. Add eggs one at a time

and thoroughly combine. You want to mix until the 

mixture is thick and smooth. Mix for about 4-5 

minutes.


Pour the mixture into the cooled shell.


Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes

Reduce the temp to 200 degrees and bake for an 

additional 45 minutes.


If you want a sour cream topping add 1 cup sour 

cream, 2 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla to 

a small bowl and mix well. Spread over the pie

and put back in the oven for about 2 minutes.




Take out of the oven and allow to cook and then add 

to the refrigerator.


recipe is from one of my local community 

cookbooks

Our Favorite Recipes

United Methodist Church

1985

Southampton, New York

Grace Aufiero