the boredom of ramfree17

Posting here for Ate Mai. Taken from Cook Magazine (January-Februart 2003 issue).

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo liempo w/ skin, cubed
1/2 kilo chicken parts
2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp ground peppercorn
1/2 cup strong vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 head garlic, pounded
1 pc. laurel leaf, if desired
1-1 1/2 cup coconut milk
about 2 tbsp achuete oil, for coloring, if desired

Procedure:
– Season meat with salt and pepper and leave for about 15 minutes.
– Add vinegar and water, garlic and laurel
– Add achuete oil
– Simmer, covered in a heavy pot
– Reduce till liquid has practically evaporated
– Add coconut milk
– Let the sauce thicken to desired consistency

Knowing me, I’ll just take a look at the ingredients and then create the dish a’la chamba. And add some whole peppercorns at the end for that Adobo-effect.

ciao!

Tags: Fun Stuff // Add Comment »

I came across this Window Farming site which promotes growing some of your food on your home/apartment windows if it gets enough sunlight.

Image courtesy of Britta Riley’s Flicker Account

My gardening interests have grown dormant and my mini-produce plot has grown brown because of a couple of reasons like being away too long, extremities injury, etc. The most notable reason is still that nobody will water the plants when me and the wife are away.

The Window farm is a hydrophonic variant of home gardening and it uses an ordinary water pump (like the ones used in aquariums) to pump the nutrient-rich water into the recycled water-bottles that have been re-purposed as hanging pots. The pump makes sure the owners don’t forget to water the plants but that still means there is an electricity cost involved. I am thinking that coupling the pump with a solar panel would negate the electricity cost if there is ample sunlight and space. I haven’t gone through the manuals yet but in case the hydrophonic plants require 24×7 water flow then it might be a workable compromise to have the water pump working in the day and then adding some water retentive materials in the bottle-pot (e.g. coconut husk threads or rice husks if available) so that the plants would still have some accessible water at night.

I wonder how much solar panel is required to power an electric pump… Btw, watch this video for more information…

Tags: Top of my head // Add Comment »

The Google Nexus One (N1) is currently my “it” phone fantasy as the sub-30K price is pretty reasonable considering the features. However the Philippines is not included in the list of supported countries, it would require a bit of work-around to get it delivered here in the philippines. Yuga has the instructions here if you are interested. He also gave it a pretty decent review rating of a “steal”.

The only problem with the above method is that if the unit breaks then you have to RMA it to the the USA as the local HTC service centers will not accept it for repairs. It is a bit of risk taking that I don’t have the luxury at the moment (let’s assume that I have the money to buy it in the first place ). This problem maybe no more as the HTC Desire (formerly codenamed as HTC Bravo) has just been announced and there is a strong possibility to come to Asia.

The HTC Desire (pictured above) has the same specifications as the Google N1 except that it has replaced the trackball with a trackpad. It also comes with HTC’s Sense UI which some N1 users are missing.

Time to save for the “unfortunate” case that I need to replace my phone. Hopefully the Desire will also be in the 30K or less range when it gets offered here commercially.

More details and pictures here: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/02/htc-desire-andr.php

ciao!

Tags: Gadget // 3 Comments »

Have you encountered an unfamiliar word when reading email or an article in the web? Normally this would require a quick dictionary search but Google may present an easier route. Navigate your internet browser to www.google.com and enter the following in the search box:

define:

If it is popular enough, Google will present the searched definitions.

Popular and upcoming words can also be searched:

Browsers equipped with a Google search bar may offer keyboard shortcuts that will make the process easier. For Firefox, Ctrl+K will send the focus to the search bar.

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Generated from www.batmancomic.info

And it is not meant to be funny.

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