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Article posted on Mar 27

Mummified meats

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 27, 2009, 5:45 pm

Much better. Thinner slices, better meat, longer drying and a tweaked recipe made all the difference. It's very peppery, just a little hot, and only a slight hint of worcestershire.

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Article posted on Mar 27

I am weak.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 27, 2009, 11:52 am

I just ordered a Dell 2209WA 22" e-IPS monitor for $207. It'll be replacing my debranded HP w2408h 24" TN monitor, which was fine quality... for a TN. This'll be the the 3rd Dell monitor I've bought (one was returned), and will go next to my Dell 2005FPW (ALL PRAISE THE 2005FPW) 20" S-IPS.

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Article posted on Mar 26

Beef Jerky update

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 26, 2009, 7:53 pm

Following up on yesterday's post, I pulled the jerky yesterday morning before heading to work. It was ok, but not great. I'll try to rationalize why:

1. It wasn't completely dried. I only froze the beef for an hour last night, and ended up slicing it a bit thicker than I wanted. It ended up being about the same thickness as the gas station jerky you get that's sealed between two pieces of plastic. While there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, it does take longer to dry, and 12 hours wasn't enough. It was still a little bit squishy in the middle. Not terrible, but it wasn't totally preserved, and wouldn't have been able to last for more than, say a month.

2. Wrong meat. I got a middle of the road top sirloin from wal-mart, and there was a little too much fat hiding out here and there. Again, doesn't totally ruin jerky, but fat is the first thing to go rancid in jerky, and also would have contributed to only lasting a month or so in an airtight container.

3. The recipe included WAY too much worcestershire sauce. It was a bit of a put-off for me.

So I ate my losses and decided to try again. On the way home today I stopped by a local butcher (Butcher Boy), and got 1 1/2 pounds of "London broil" (flank steak), with very little marbling and very little fat to trim. The price per pound was about the same as I paid for the top loin, too. I froze it for a solid 2 hours, sliced it as thin as I could, and played around with the recipe. I used a full recipe, but only used about 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce instead of the 2/3 cup called in the recipe. I've got 3 teaspoons ground pepper + a handful of whole peppercorns, paprika instead of red pepper flakes (which I did in the previous batch but forgot to mention; that part was good), and I threw in a few drops of Tabasco.

I'll start the fan before I go to bed (about 2AM) and leave it running until I get home from work the next day -- about 15 hours -- and give it a check before deciding on more time.

Oh, and to those who were wondering about the filters -- they worked out very well, and can definitely be used over and over.

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Article posted on Mar 25

Line your air filter with beef, and a fresh, beefy scent throughout the house will be your reward!

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 25, 2009, 9:31 pm

Actually, I'm making beef jerky, according to this recipe (halved, 1 pound of beef). The beef is chilled, cut into thin, long slices, marinated, and placed on accordion furnace filters. A blank filter is placed on top, and the whole thing is bungee corded to a box fan. Here's the final setup, before being placed on my patio:

For the record, the filters are cellulose/poly air filters, not fiberglass. They ran me about $7.50 for a 3-pack, and obviously aren't usable as furnace filters after they're used to make jerky. But they should be reusable for future jerky batches.

I'll let you know how they turn out when they're done tomorrow.

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Article posted on Mar 23

Savings update

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 23, 2009, 12:38 am

As part of my realization of getting out of debt being like a rehab program, I'm trying to be as open as possible. To that end, here's an update on my savings program.

Before 2009, I was transferring a paltry $50 per month into savings. And that was my savings account, at the same bank as my checking account, which was readily available due to ATMs and instant transfers. In short, I didn't save much.

As I mentioned before, I switched my W-4 withholdings from 0 to 2. To the foreigners out there, I was basically overpaying the government in each paycheck, and getting it back in one lump sum at the end of the year. By switching to 2, I'll be pretty close to even on my tax withholdings, so I'll only owe or get back a few dollars at the end of the year. This resulted in a net increase of take-home pay of $76.06 per paycheck (bi-monthly). That money is being transferred to my money market account. I've also switched my regular $50/month transfer to go into my money market account instead of my savings account.

It's worth noting that this account is relatively inaccessible. There is no ATM access (they offer a debit card, but I will not get it), and transfers take a good 3 days to process. Keeping this account at arm's length will help me avoid the temptation to use it. Basically, I'm only planning to make a withdrawal under one of two conditions: if I lose my job, or if I'm ready to buy a home.

So that's $202.12 per month. In addition, I have calculated that I'll be getting an extra $22 per paycheck in take-home pay under the new stimulus changes starting April 1. That money will be going to my regular savings account. All in all, that's $246.12 in savings per month. And the best part is, I didn't have to "sacrifice" anything. The initial $50 is still there, and everything else is either stimulus money, or "time-shifting" money I'd be getting anyway.

(Besides all of that, I also have $500 socked away in an old Sierra Pacific Employee Credit Union account that I would have to physically go to to access. That's literally last-resort, living-in-the-gutter money. (No, I never worked for Sierra Pacific. Long story.))

I'm currently paying $720 per month in credit card debt (yikes). When that is paid off (October 16 is the magic day by current estimates), I'll be splitting that money. Half ($360) will go toward extra principle payments on the car loan, and the other half will go into the money market savings account. So that'll make $606.12 in monthly savings, with an accelerated payment schedule on the car.

Now, I know you're saying, "So if you have credit card debt, why aren't you putting this $250 per month toward it to get it paid off as quickly as possible?" In a good economy, I probably would be. But times are tough. I've got a pretty secure job at a company that doesn't seem to be hurting, but things can change very quickly. I'm paying a low APR on my debt (3.99%), and while that certainly won't be offset by the interest I'm pulling in from savings, I'd rather be unemployed with debt and savings than unemployed with zero debt but no savings.

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Article posted on Mar 18

I also approve of cute puppies.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 18, 2009, 4:17 pm

Dear Lazyweb,

I currently own two 32oz bunny-killing cancer bottles, and I'm considering replacing them. It looks like Nalgene now sells BPA-free 32oz bottles, but there's still the whole bunny-killing thing. So can anyone recommend 32oz, wide-mouth, BPA-free alternative?

And on that note, does anyone own a Tritan bottle? Are they as strong as Lexan?

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Article posted on Mar 18

Get rid of those damn credit card preapprovals

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 18, 2009, 12:52 am

Go here, now. It's legit; it's run by the same cabal (Equifax/Experian/TransUnion) that runs AnnualCreditReport.com. (Which, by the way, is the ONLY legitimate "free" credit report site. The others, like freecreditreport.com are essentially scams where they sign you up for a "service" that bills your credit card after 30 days, and the only way you can avoid getting your card charged is by canceling between the 25th and 29th days.)

I've also heard good things about Green Dimes (which is apparently called Tonic now) for general purpose junk mail removal, but I have not had any experience with it.

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Article posted on Mar 17

BREAKING

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 17, 2009, 5:44 pm

I discovered It's-It ice cream, which I thought was only sold in the bay area, at my supermarket. Well, there goes what's left of my health.

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Article posted on Mar 15

Or that guy. Yeah, that guy could cash it.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 15, 2009, 5:53 pm

I got a rebate check from Gigabyte (a good 6 months after I submitted it). It says:

PAY       TWENTY & 00/100
TO DRAWER
OR        RYAN FINNIE
                                    OR BEARER

So the people who can cash this check are:
* Gigabyte
* Me
* Anybody

In that order.

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Article posted on Mar 14

Chef fo0bar presents: Pad See Ew

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on March 14, 2009, 6:13 pm

I first tried Pad See Ew ("fried with soy sauce") at a Thai restaurant in Seattle about 5 years ago, while staking out the city for potential colonization with friends. It was a few blocks our hotel, and we basically ended up going there every other night of the week. But, while there are many Thai restaurants in Reno, very few if any seem to serve Pad See Ew.

Years later, I decided to give it a whirl myself. This was not an original recipe, so I'll defer to the site I got the recipe from, and just note my experiences:

I did not get thick/dark soy sauce, and instead opted for the "normal" kind. It didn't really affect anything, in my opinion.

I cut the leaves of the Chinese broccoli from the stems, and cooked the stems before the leaves, as the recipe suggested, but I did not cook the stems long enough. The result was a woody, bitter taste that threw off the final product. In the second batch, I simply left out the stems, and it was great.

I used sesame oil for the cooking as well as the marinade, since I had it available for the recipe. The resulting taste was not unpleasant, but was overpowering. I'd recommend sesame oil for the marinade, but something with a lighter taste for the cooking. The recipe recommends grapeseed oil, which I have no experience, but I'd recommend regular olive oil.

If you don't have a wok (I don't), use a large stainless steel frying pan. I did this for the first batch (pictured), which made a horrible mess on the pan (lots of gunk stuck to the bottom of the pan), but in trying to scrape it down as I cooked, the burned bits came off into the dish, and actually tasted great. For my second attempt, I used a large nonstick pan, which was a lot easier to work with, but resulted in a blander flavor.

So, rice noodles. It's literally rice and water, extruded into noodle shapes and dried. As such, there are a variety of shapes. Pad See Ew is traditionally made with broad rice noodles (about an inch wide, and cut into rectangles). However, all of the local friendly megamarts only seem to carry fettuccine-sized rice noodles. The Asian supermarket on Fifth street carries a variety of sizes, but only seems to up to about 1/4", which is what is traditionally used for Pad Thai. This is the size I ended up using.

Rice noodles are my new favorite substitution for rice, can be used pretty much anywhere rice is called for, but preparation is completely different. The normal method is simple: Break the noodles out into a large pot of warm water, and let them sit for 30 minutes. All they need is this re-hydration. They can be boiled, but will come out grainy and sticky, and should only be used in a frying situation (but the soak method is still preferred).

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