Monthly Archives: February 2011

Barb Wilmer’s Awesome White Chili w Cumin and Clove

Leave a reply
Clove Plant Image from fine art prints

Clove (Source DiscountPosterSale.Com - click on image for their page)

Barb’s one of my “soup testers” and decided to resouprocate after receiving her sample of my Super Bowl 45 Chili.

Hers is a totally different animal, but a wonderful dish, and easy to prepare. I never would have thought to use cumin, cloves, and oregano together, but the result is a definite winner.

Thanks Barb!

White Chili

Barb says: Over the past 18 years I have only once actually found and used a Poblano chili in this recipe. My common substitutions: more green chilis; OR about a quarter of a fresh jalapeno chili, chopped fine; OR more hot sauce; OR use part of an Anaheim pepper; OR ignore the ingredient altogether. 😉 Continue reading →

iPad 2 V The Contenders: Sadly, Still The Year Of The Hare

Leave a reply
[amazon_link id=”0823405648″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]

Apple's early tablet lead may be slowly shrinking, but this racewatcher doubts that either Android or PC tablets will either sneak past the iPad, or spur it to greatness. Book cover: The Tortoise and the Hare, by Janet Stevens

Apple’s head start is nearly a year old, and you’d think that the tortoises, both Android and Windows driven, would be catching up with the hare by this time, but it just isn’t happening. Make no mistake, though my iPad’s been a nearly constant companion since launch day when I picked it up at the Apple Store, I’m not an Apple fan. I don’t like the closed ecosystem that Jobs has created, and consider it a hip version of AOL’s gated community from the 80s. No gated community can really be hip, but I get the utility of it. Job’s is a utopianist, and for those who fit the mold, it’s a great thing to be part of. Continue reading →

Things You Did Not Know About The Garden State

Leave a reply
[amazon_link id=”0762759933″ target=”_blank”][/amazon_link]

I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's full of fabulous secrets about the Garden State!

When people ask me where I’m from, I often say New York City. When they ask me which part, I tell them, “New Jersey.” NJ is a diverse and wacky state about which there is much confusion, and I’m here to add to it.

Q: Why is it called the Garden State, when it looks like an industrial wasteland when you drive through it?

A: I thought I’d explained this already. Some idiot went and named it the Garden State, and people started flocking in from NYC cluttering up the place. So we established a blighted area zone around the major traffic arteries so that everyone would think it was a post-apocalyptic movie set and…just…keep…going. Sort of like the Hollywood western movie towns in reverse. Instead of desert behind the facade, it’s lush greenery and bucolic landscape. Continue reading →

Super Bowl 45 Chili

Leave a reply

Super Bowl XLV (45) was played on Sunday, February 6th between the Pittsburg Steelers and the Green Bay Packers at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. I know because I looked it up on Wikipedia.

While my actual passion for football is pretty near slim, I do like the Super Bowl, which is one of the important American food holidays, along with Thanksgiving (Turkey), the Fourth of July (Hot Dogs) and my birthday (NE Clam Chowder). You can make up your own official birthday food for your birthday, but that’s mine.

The Super Bowl menu includes chicken wings, beer, nachos, several varieties of chips and pretzels…and chili. How chili got to be synonymous with the game I’m not sure, except that football is pretty big in the Lone Star State and they come by their chili honestly.

Continue reading →