How to cook sherried onions.
Have you ever had onions sautéed in butter then reduced with sherry wine? It’s heaven!
Step 1: Butter, lots of it.
This is the crimsoning of my newest scanpan… There’s no better way than with some delicious grass fed butter from Ireland! The old scanpan kinda bit the dust – That’s okay, they have a lifetime replacement warranty. Amazon has great prices on scanpans, pictured is the Scanpan Professional 12.5-Inch Fry Pan
Love my scanpans
Step 2: Add onions.
Step 3: Add more onions… Seriously, keep the onions coming.
Oh, maybe this is a good time to mention my onion cutter thingy.
It’s basically awesome. It’s a Folding Mandoline Slicer I got off amazon for pretty cheap. Click on that link to read all the good reviews and get one for your kitchen. For the cost, this slicer is fantastic. It comes with 6 different slicing modes and a case that it all fits in very well (I didn’t know about that when i bought it, it was a nice perk).
That onion was sliced in about 10 seconds. Where has this slicer thing been all my life??
Here’s a better pic of the awesome slicing device.
Step 4: Stir occasionally for even browning
Don’t forget to accidentally knock a a few rings out of the pan – it’s kinda mandatory.
Brown them like this:
AND ADD MORE BUTTER!!!!
Step 5: Queue up next sick of butter from the freezer
…. because you just polished off the first stick.
Remember kids, vegetables are simply vessels for butter delivery
To Be Honest – This is actually a recipe for butter with a side of onions…
Step 6: Add your favorite sherry
Turn up the heat for a bit as well and let that mixture boil down.
Step 7: MORE BUTTER!
It’s a slow boil and at this point I’m usually sampling a little bit.
Step 8: Reduce down to preferred level and grab a bowl full!
Step 9: Oh wait, add some salt!!!
Garlic powder at this point is pretty tasty too (optional!).
Consuming copious amounts of onions may result in densely foul flatulence possibly capable of melting pure cobalt.
How to add name to attendee list table for Wootickets.
I’ve got to say, WooTickets is a pretty terrible plugin for being a paid (and expensive) plugin. I was hoping for more functionality but the description was very vague and I thought it would just have more to it. It’s still new(ish) and I’m hopeful that they will add better features in the future.
When you view the attendees list, you can find ticket holders by order id, ticket id, or security code. What about people that show up without a printed ticket? Are they suppose to have these obscure numbers memorized? I know I wouldn’t! So I added the ticket buyer’s full name to the attendees table.
This still isn’t the best solution, but it works. It is possible for one person to buy 20 tickets for other people. With my following workaround, if one of those 20 people shows up without a ticket, you can at least look them up if they know the name of the ticket buyer.
Step 1: Add name to table
Edit file wp-content\plugins\the-events-calendar\lib\tickets\tribe-tickets-attendees.php
Add line 25 to function get_columns()
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | function get_columns() { $columns = array( 'cb' => '<input type="checkbox" />', 'order_id' => __( 'Order #', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'order_status' => __( 'Order Status', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'ticket' => __( 'Ticket', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'name' => __( 'Name', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'attendee_id' => __( 'Ticket #', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'security' => __( 'Security Code', 'tribe-events-calendar' ), 'check_in' => __( 'Check in', 'tribe-events-calendar' ) ); return $columns; } |
Step 2: Add column method to lookup name
Same file
Add this method anywhere. It looks up the buyer’s full name from the WooCommerce order id.
function column_name( $item ) { $order = new WC_Order( $item['order_id'] ); $items = $order->billing_first_name . " " . $order->billing_last_name; return $items; } |
Step 3: Make it searchable
Edit file wp-content\plugins\the-events-calendar\resources\tickets-attendees.js
Line 12 grabs the full name from the column. Notice at the end of line 14, I’ve added “fullname.indexOf( search) != -1″. This allows the search to match and letters in the full name. This allows last names to be found as well as first names.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | jQuery( document ).ready( function ( $ ) { $( '#filter_attendee' ).on( 'keyup paste', function () { var search = jQuery( this ).val().toLowerCase(); $( 'td.column-security' ).each( function ( i, e ) { var attendeeobj = jQuery( e ); var attendee = attendeeobj.text().toLowerCase(); var orderid = attendeeobj.prev( 'td' ).prev( 'td' ).prev( 'td' ).prev( 'td' ).prev( 'td' ).children( 'a' ).text(); var ticketid = attendeeobj.prev( 'td' ).text(); var fullname = attendeeobj.prev( 'td' ).prev( 'td' ).text().toLowerCase(); if ( attendee.indexOf( search ) === 0 || orderid.indexOf( search ) === 0 || ticketid.indexOf( search ) === 0 || fullname.indexOf( search) != -1) { attendeeobj.parent( 'tr' ).show(); } else { attendeeobj.parent( 'tr' ).hide(); } } ); } ); |
There ya go. Leave suggestions in comments. Of course, don’t attempt this if you haven’t backed up your wordpress site. I’m not liable for damage or data loss to your site if you edit source files.
Hello world!
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Wood Fired, Arduino Controlled Food Dehydrator Idea
This is just an idea I dreamt up in my head. I’ve been pondering ways to make food dehydrators that don’t require tons of electricity. Solar dehydrators are of course the first go-to in this case. The designs I’ve seen for some solar dehydrators have been fantastic! But what about drying meat? Namely beef jerky, or sausage. Can the solar dehydrators reach 165 degrees F and stay there? I don’t know.
So I thought, what about a wood fire powered dehydrator? Sure, why not? There’s always plenty of small sticks and branches around that could power something like this; it doesn’t take much. Think: rocket stove on steroids with a large clamber on top to house foodstuffs.
It would work like this. On the bottom, a metal combustion camber. It’s designed to easily add more sticks and scrap wood randomly throughout the drying process. The camber is under the drying box. The drying box is full of racks to place food items on. The exhaust from the fire is channeled through a metal pipe that goes through the drying box, towards the back so it’s not in the way of the drying racks. Heat from the exhaust is convected through the metal tube and it warms up the drying box. The smoke from the exhaust just vents out the top (from the same tube it’s always been in). Perhaps the metal pipe could be a linear straight shot from the burner into and out of the drying box venting into the open air. Maybe it would need a few heatsinks to make sure the thermal energy goes into the drying box as well. The smoke doesn’t actually contact the food, although that could be arranged with a valve if you wanted this thing to be a convertible smoke/dryer. Inside the drying box is a series of simply fans to keep air moving and help with the evaporation process.
So, how do you regulate temperature? You obviously don’t want it that hot when drying a load of fresh herbs. Well. We have fans already. Why not add more fans and make them Arduino controlled? This set of fans would push in new outside air, on demand, instead of just mindlessly circulating inside air. My idea is this. You fire up the oven. Turn the Arduino on, and set the desired temperature with buttons and an LCD. The Arduino then monitors air temp and when it gets too hot, it kicks on a outside-air fan or two to cool off the drying box. This also circulates air at the same time.
Also, why not add a cheap humidity sensor too? I think it would be interesting to note the current humidity and if it makes progress.
Also also, why not make this a hybrid solar AND stove dehydrator? I don’t see why you can’t have both. Solar for when the sun is good, and stove for quicker drying, meats or when the sun don’t shine.
Have feedback on how to make this idea better?
moving blogs!
I’m moving to another blog. I’ll have it up in a week or so.
I don’t think anyone reads this one anyways 
Review: Merrel True Glove Cross-Training Shoes.
Why did I buy these shoes? Parkour, Running, Spartan Race, and Outdoors/Hiking.
They really fit like a glove! But a glove that you have to break in. For the first few days, they will hurt badly!
Pain? Yeah these were definitely some of the most painful shoes I’ve broken in. Yeah they fit well, except they dig into the back of my heel; To the point that one day of wearing them I was missing a chuck of skin. Perhaps it’d be better to break them in just an hour at a time or so. Bring a backup pair of shoes to work in case your co-workers want to walk to a restaurant half a mile away for lunch. You wouldn’t want to dread taking every step the whole way there… Or you can do as I did and truck through the pain until there is no more pain. Okay, I did take several days off from wearing them after the first painful day.
Flexibility? Not quite like my Vibram Five Fingers. I can easily flex them by hand, but they are still pretty stiff. Maybe they will loosen up over time. Notice in the picture below how my VFFs are so loose, they fold under their own weight.
Durability? It’s to early to tell. I suspect they will not live up to my ultra high durability expectations. I do predict they will be pretty decent. I’ll report back in roughly 6 months to see if they are still in one piece of not. As you can see, my VFFs were not exactly all that durable. We’ll see…
Can you feel the ground? Not as well as my VFF. 
Maybe it will get better as I wear them down and they get more flexible.
In Conclusion, do I like them? Yeah, once you get past the break-in hurtle, they become your best friends. For me, it’s worth not having to deal with toe-slots and loosing expensive toe-socks. (yes, $12/pair) to the hungry washing machine monster..
Random Ideas
Once a month or so, I post random ideas. You are free to enjoy reading my ideas, but keep in mind not all of my ideas are necessarily good ideas. Perhaps, you will like an idea and want to expand on it. That is highly encouraged by me, but keep in mind I assume no responsibilities for my ideas.
All Robot Band.
Develop life like robots that play in a band. The robots are the ones that actually hit the drums and pluck the guitars. Hell, the instruments can even be built in. During a live convert, there are no humans on stage.
Tree Watering Barrel
Build a simple and cheap device that effectively waters trees with limited user interaction. Sell them at central Texas nurseries for 400% cost.
My thoughts would be to get 55 gallon drums and have them painted with an image like the one to the right (so they look good in front yards!). There would be an included hollow stake you hammer in the ground. Attached to the bottom of the drum is a drip regulator. 1/2 gallon per hour or maybe 1 gallon per hour into the hollow stake. Slow flow rate means less runoff, less wasted water, and better saturation deeper into the tree’s roots. User refills 2 or 3 times a week.
Tree Watering Hoses
Sell a kit from existing drip irrigation components. Kit screws into faucet, and splits into 6 different ports. Run cheap drip lines to trees and connect 1/2 gallon drip regulators at each tree. User just leaves outdoor faucet on.
Decorative Wedding Invitations
This would start as a part time, occasional job, but perhaps it is scalable.
You make a portfolio of 5 very impressive wedding invitations, and I mean really high-end. Make sure they are reproducible just in case you have to make more. Setup a nice website, go back to your daily life. When someone finds you, you can show them the portfolio and if they order something, then you have a side-project to work on for the next few weeks. Also, you could make an initial batch of invitations and setup your site to sell the “sample package” of all 5 designs for $29 or so. you basically set this business up to have a high profit margin to make it worthwhile and don’t waste any time on it unless someone finds your site and wants an order.
Pneumatic Sandwich Delivery
The Jimmy Johns air cannon. In areas where there are no trees, power lines, or tall buildings, the Jimmy Johns will have large air cannons on the top of the roofs. You buy a sandwich from your smartphone which gives them your coordinates. Using modern technologies, the cannon shoots your sandwich in your direction adjusted for wind. A parachute opens and the sandwich pod gently lands in your front yard. How’s that for ridiculously fast? You have to be standing in a clearing in your front yard while you order so that the sandwich doesn’t land in a tree. There is also a $25 delivery surcharge.
Farmer’s Market… Store
Indoor farmer’s market/consignment store. Gardeners, food makers, and farmers bring items into the store, set them up in available space, and set a price for their items. One employee works a cash register and collects moneys for the items people collect. OR to by-pass laws, each un-manned booth/table has a collection jar so that the transaction is direct from producer to customer, which in some cases can be unregulated. Either shoppers pay a membership fee to shop in the store, or producers pay for space to setup items to cover 1-2 employees and lease/rent… or the co-op of farmers take turns working the store.
LEGIT Food Labeling
Food certification label called “LEGIT”. Because paying for USDA “ORGANIC” is cumbersome and impossible for most farms. There are many other organic-type certifications like OMNI, but no one can used the word organic unless they pay the USDA. So a lot of brands resort to using terms like “natural”, “hormone-free”, “cage-free”, and “pastured”. Also, just because something is USDA organic, it doesn’t mean the animals are free-range, pastured, cage free, etc. The LEGIT label would be used to backup these claims of cage-free and pastured.. The problem is that a carton of eggs can say “free range” but that could mean that 100 birds get 10 square-feet of outdoor space.LEGIT labeling would verify all claims on packaging are true. With a good name like LEGIT, you quickly become a recognizable label to consumers. They will associate the brand name LEGIT with good feelings as well, and be more inclined to buy the product listed.
Easy Touch-Free Water Faucet
A power-less automatic faucet that just drops into your current sink. Ok it’s not powerless, it just doesn’t require external power so that you don’t have to have an electrician run wire or mess with changing batteries. The auto/motion faucet has an IR scanner and a solenoid that turns on when your hands wave in front of it. It recharges a small battery pack every time it turns on with a little generator powered by the water pressure inside the faucet. The whole package just drops in like you’re replacing a normal faucet. Easy Peasy.
CMS For Conferences
A website CMS that is geared for conferences. Allows for easy signup and fee-collections. Additional tools/plugins allow admins to setup workshops/breakout sessions and for users to RSPV for the workshops they wish to attend during the conference.
Austin Gym.
A series of pocket gyms scattered throughout the city. A slogan can be that you’re never more than 5 minutes from the gym. Warehouses are so cheap and there isn’t anything wrong with using them, because you’re attracting customers on availability, not on sexy store-fronts. The membership allows access to all gyms, of course. Gyms could be badged access and automated so that they don’t require many employees (maybe just one to maintain it). Like I said, they are micro-gyms, though. It allows you to spread out easier. So being small means they could get kinda busy. You have to have a nice website that allows people to see how busy the locations are. It would be a green to yellow to red light like you’re checking on traffic.
Or, Austin Gym Network.
A membership card in which you pay a monthly fee. It is not linked to any gym in particular, but all that have associated with the network program. Say you’re monthly fee is $35, and you visit 24hr 4 times, Gold’s 2 times, and Hyde Park Gym just once, they money would be distributed at the end of the month proportionately. So 24hr would get $20, Gold’s gets $10, and Hyde Park gets $5. Minus your fees, of course. You’d have to make it as effortless as possible. I imagine a drop-in badge system appliance that sits on the receptionist’s desk. The host gym literally doesn’t have to do anything.
Simple Aquaponics Growbed From Recycled Materials
I built a simple aquaponics system today and I thought I’d share a few pictures. The awesomeness about aquaponics is the ability to recycle/upcycle so many old materials into your aquaponics system; the possibilities are limitless! Junk yard aquaponics onward!
I got this used fish tank from a hydroponics shop called Brite Ideas (What a great place, even for second hand materials). I gave it a quick wash and I’ve now been using it for about 2 years.
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| Stay hello to some big gold fish! (and fathead minnows) |
I cut out a piece of old plywood. I figured 2ft by 4ft would be a good size for this fish tank (110 gallons).
You may want to weatherseal any non-treated lumber to be used in outdoor aquaponics systems…
I completely forgot to take a picture of the 2×4 support framing that was used under the plywood. Basically, you just make your 2×4 cuts and lay them out on the plywood to make sure everything is square. Screw the 2×4 piece together and then flip it all over to screw the plywood down to the frame. To get an idea of what the frame looks like, imagine 2×4 pieces around the outside edges of the plywood and a center support piece in the middle.
I did however snap a picture of one of the frame corners… Better than nothing I guess.
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| Square it up |
Once the entire base was finished, I installed some old 2×10′s (we found them in a flood) for walls. I put a bunch of screws into the side walls because the weight of the water will be pushing them apart and I don’t want them to separate over time. Set screws into the bottom 2×4 frame (not the plywood) and also on the corners you can place about 3 screws joining the side walls together.
I previously got some recycled pond liner from someones old backyard water feature. It’s important to preform a leak test on used pond liners to make sure there is no holes. I let water sit for about 2 hours monitoring for leaks. I did find a few smalls holes but I had enough excess length to slide the pond liner around and find a good continuous spot with no leaks. It may be that some of my trimmings will end up in the land field, but at least I was able to save the bulk of the pond liner from the dump. My eco-work for the day has been accomplished. Do I get a green badge or something?
With the pond liner all sorted out, it was time to drill a hole for the bulkhead. This is where a good holesaw kit comes in handy.
Oops, the hole was too small! I didn’t account for how thick this pond liner was. No worries, Dremel tool to the rescue. I just needed to carve out the hole a tiny bit. While I was at it, I got to thinkin’ bout how someday someone will dismantle this aquaponics system. It may be me in 2 years or maybe it will be someone else in 10 years. Who knows. I still thought it’d be nice to leave them a message.
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| =) |
How about some trim? We saved this stuff from going in the dumpster at church well over a year ago. I’m so very happy it’s finally getting used Unfortunately it was only 4ft long and earlier in the day I decided to make the aquaponics system 4 foot 2 inches. Doh! So, the walls hang out of the trim a tiny bit… but hey, this is junkyard aquaponics right? It can’t be perfect! It does look good for what it is though.
I installed the stand pipe for the bell siphon and my favorite part is testing out the siphon action. Of course I always build the bell siphon last and it takes forever for the stinky silicone to dry/cure. Actually, that stinky smell may be me.. considering I have been sweating out in the sun all day with my power tools gettin-ir-done.
Kittehs love construction!
I’ll add more pics this week when I finish testing the bell siphon, gravel guard, and filling with medium and transplants from an old system.
Neon Trees
Quite a while back in the Woot Music Mondays Turntable room, I played a Neon Trees song when it was my turn to DJ. This started a discussion which led one listener to state that the Neon Trees concert he went to was one of the best shows he’s ever been to. Interesting. I had been wanting to see Neon Trees, but the only time they came to town was to play in SXSW. The tickets to that are way too expensive to just see one or two bands, so I’ve never bit the bullet. Finally the came to town for a show and I knew I couldn’t pass it up. I was a little worried about the venue being a little subpar for an act like Neon Trees, but it turned out pretty good.
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| Sound Check. Mic. 1. 2. 3. |
… yeah I’ll finish this post later.
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