Stick a fork in it

You know you are licked when you have to place the white flag in your food.  We tried everything at this resturant in Orlando, Bento Cafe. The price is right and they have a huge variety of foods, Japanese, Tai, Vietnamese and Chinese. They were out of the Udon when we ate there, but everything was tasty.  They do takeout as well.

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Vacation?

Watching my husband stand on an entertainment unit and hang massive pictures.
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Empanadas from Mr. Empanada

    I have to find out of they ship, these are the best empanadas we have EVER tasted. 

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Shrimps with Oyster Sauce

 Yes, I calls em shrimps- I did not get a lot of this dish- as the sides were high and I kept forgetting what was in the dish as it sat at the wrong end of the table.   My husband loved them- so I will have to make them.

Here is the recipe:

• 1 lb. large shrimps with shells and tails on
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp. oyster sauce (Oyster sauce is made with dried oysters, soy salt and brine)
• salt 
• me

Directions

1.  Invite me over for dinner, I will bring the wine or beer.
2. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic and onions until fragrant and translucent.
3. Add fish sauce; stir. Pour in tomato sauce.  Simmer until slightly reduced and thick.
4. Add shrimps; stir. Cook until shrimps are coated with sauce and the color of the shrimp JUST turns pink (Do not overcook this dish or I won't bother eating it!).
5. Add oyster sauce. Continue cooking until shrimps are cooked and coated with sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt as needed.

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Holiday meal

Kare Kare Pata

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I posted this picture of our holiday meal from my cell phone, and now I am going back to tell you about it.  This is oxtail with Bok Choy, green beans and  chinese eggplants. It is a Filipino dish called Kare Kare Pata (Oxtail stew).  Our friends made us the most fabulous holiday meal, we were able to have the traditional Filipino foods that we only get about once a year.  Lets face it, we can eat turkey and ham anytime of the year, but there is nothing like a friend slaving over a hot stove to make you something special and traditional to their culture.  The other dishes are posted separately, but since this is my husband's favorite, I will start with this one.
Everyone has their own special way of making  Kare Kare, this is a fairly mild version where no particular flavor will stand out, it is balanced well.  Of course, by adding the shrimp paste (bagoong) on the rice, you can change the flavor by degrees. I love Baby Bok Choy, so I would add more to this dish than you might. I would also make the eggplant smaller than this photo, they are easier to cut when raw. They are slippery little suckers to cut once they have been in broth.

Ingredients

3-4 pounds of oxtail

(6-8 cups) water

2 beef bouillon cubes Baby Bok Choy

1/4 pound long green beans cute into 2 inch sizes, or just cut in  half

1 Japanese eggplant (cut in bite sized pieces)  or a few small chinese eggplant (brinjal)

1 medium onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp achuete (annatto) powder

1/2 cup peanut butter for thickening (creamy)

Bagoong (shrimp paste) to taste salt and pepper How to make it: 1. Boil oxtail for at least 2 hours in the salt and pepper seasoned water. Add the beef bouillon cubes. Skim off fat as it cooks and at the end. Remove the meat from the broth and set aside. 2. Cook the Baby Bok Choy, long beans, and eggplant in the broth until they are just tender. Season with salt and pepper. 3. In a different large pan, saute the onion in the olive oil and add the peanut butter. Add achuete powder for color and add garlic right at the end so it won't impart a bitter or burnt flavor. 4. Pour in half the oxtail broth and cook 5 minutes. Add the oxtail and cook for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the broth and the vegetables. Serve with brown rice and bagoong(shrimp paste).

Did I at least get an honorable mention?

I was on David Pogue's page today and noticed he had a new book for sale:
The World According to Twitter
By David Pogue and His 500,000 Followers
The wit and wisdom of the Twittersphere captured in a collection of hand-picked tweets.



Now,  I am tempted to buy this book just to see if he gave me credit for sucking him into the twittersphere.  Let me explain...
A few years ago, when I was "into" twitter, I noticed that my favorite tech guru was listed, but had no tweets.  He had many followers, but no tweets.  I emailed him, despite his page-long explanation of why he doesn't normally respond to emails, and asked him why he had not tweeted. Here is my email to him, which I have lovingly saved for 2 years:

On 12/5/08 6:58 AM, "michelle -----" wrote:

By now you know that twitter is like crack for some people, you have  a decent following and you haven't tweeted in a year.  I am just wondering why you stopped using it.  Was a fun toy that couldn't sustain itself, did you not find anyone interesting to follow? Just curious.  There are tons of people who throw up twitpics and the applications are  multiplying day by day.  I think there are a lot of annoying marketing people on there, but there are also some very funny people, i just dump the ones I don't like. I'm a bit of a twitch that way. throw your followers a bone, too lazy to correct this i am drying my hair at the same time.

His response:
I’m glad you wrote... I was just thinking about this last night...

I DON’T GET IT!

I need a Twitter teacher.

I’ve sent out tweets several times, and they just... disappear into the void. How do I know if anyone’s listening? Sometimes I pose a question ... nobody answers.

I once saw a guy with a Twitter program that runs in the corner of his Mac screen, so he doesn’t have to be logged into the Web site to do Twittering. What was that?

Can you help me?

Hope your hair dried OK!


dp

My response:

I think that application is called twitterific, it is for the macs.  I have a

gadget on my blog so when I am workign there I can tweet from my blog and see

what is being posed by the people I am following.  You have a bunch of

followers already so THEY will see what you are tweeting every time you tweet,

you will see the people you are following.  A lot of twitterers talk to each

other, they put an @sign in front of the username they are addressing. then

when you are in your home page you can look to the right and check your @

messages first to see if anyone had something to say directly to you.

you can also DM each other if you are following each other.

Tweets can be general or specific, it depends on your style.  I will email

more later, go to get back to the class.

Michelle -----------

A short relationship followed with questions asked through twitter on DMs, but they were BORING, so I won't share them here. Since he dived back in, Dave has tweeted 3,500 times has 1,327,540 followers, has written at least five columns about the application, and has now written a book.  I think I deserve an honorable mention.

My most successful student...

Test blog from phone<3

Science Fair Jog

After last week's tooltime from Tolis, I was inspired to test out his web2.0 tool, Jog the Web. I have had occasion to use it twice in as many days for two differet teachers.  Thanks Tolis!  Here is the jog we created this morning for teachers conducting science fairs who don't want their students looking at conclusions, just the project ideas and structures.

Science Fair Jog for Ms. DeTullio

Our Science Fair Jog

UPDATE:  Using this resource almost every day now for many different teachers.  I love the organization it offers- just link the jog on their sidebar and students have a ready made webquest or digital map to follow.