Treasure hunting

Several years ago I bought a cheap metal detector and periodically went out and found some stuff, nothing big, just quite a bit of nickels dimes and pennies mostly. I sold the cheap radio shack metal detector on Ebay and have been looking for a professional model. There are many places to look, parks, beaches, old home sites etc. check out these videos on this subject, alot of these guys score big, finging 15 lost gold rings on a beach in one day has got to be cool. At any rate this would be a healthy hobby and even quite profitable. The fun thing about it is you always find something, if you spend an hour on a little beach like mine you could find about 40 items, maybe 25% are coins. How many gold wedding rings have slipped off the finger of a swimmers in the last 120 years at a beach? 100's at least, its there for the taking now that we have the technology. I am definately getting back into this.
Treasure hunting america #1
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2728280431872936610&q=treasure+hunting+america+%231

Treasure hunting america #2
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5485941032204068816&q=treasure+hunting+america+%232

Taking more food from Europe!

You can find this in most major grocery stores, its imported from Switzerland, I have made these for years with german meals.

The average american diet can be described as somewhat unhealthy, lots of french fries, potato chips, hot dogs, pizza, pasta and fast food. Most of our foods have evolved from European food but have been cheapened down to fit into the fast paced society, Americans produce more and work more than any other country and our GNP shows that, we have basically sacrificed a quality diet of healthy food for time and convienience. You are exactly what you eat, Mexico is the fattest country on earth due to their extreme consumption of animal fat, contrary to popular propoganda Mexico is not a poor nation but the wealth is in the hands of a few and cheap unhealthy food is where its at, plagued with corruption and brutality America is the safety valve where the bottom of their society flees so america is number two gaining quick. The quality of ethnic food should be judged by its health value, although I may like a BBQ pork taco and deep fried pork skins unless I want to look like "Pepe the huge" I better stay clear of too much of that. So as you search for new foods as I do, I do not believe that every family should have a list of fifteen dinners they rotate endlessly with zero imagination, so I look to Europe to provide some new ideas. I already eat a good deal of German dishes, Americanized italian dishes, some Chinese, Irish and English etc. Its amazing how much great food is out there we never try, and if you think about it, "eating" is a huge part of life, I am going on a crusade to find some new stuff, or better stuff, not too many Americans eat German Spaetzle, its a potato noodle, its fast and easy and better than uhh! "mashed potatoes" blaaah! and real Italian food is far better than the American tomato sauce type dumped on some spaghetti noodles, most Italian food has zero tomatoes. Have to get out of the food rut, most of Europe is healthier than America because they eat far better, I think this is where to look for some new ideas.

I have made these quite a bit in differant variations, I cannot yet match the great taste of the stuff out of the box.
Spaetzle- http://www.germanfoods.org/consumer/pastafacts.cfm

I started making these from scratch last fall, filled with sauerkraut, or potato and onion, or potato and cheese etc. they are killer, you can also fill them with meat or whatever, Polish food is close to German in many ways, its all good.

Pierogi-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi

Whats wrong with the american diet?-http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/usdiet

Cooking with charcoal and wood chips

If you are not using Kingsford charcoal and a variety of wood chips/chunks to cook with then you are missing the boat, you should find the nearest and tallest building and hurl yourself off, because once you experience the exuberant bliss of natural woodsmoke cooking all other methods will fall short. Join the movement, join the charcoal woodsmoke "purests" join the "puritans" ! LOL.....Yes this is a shot across the bow of all of the "gas grillers" out there and the "woodless" the charcoal wood crusaders will hunt down the gas grills from coast to coast and smash them with wooden mallets like a fiery eyed avenger at an out of control southern baptist record smashing convention! HE HE! [DISCLAIMER-The above remarks do not constitute a real and grave threat to your cooking appliances, I have nor have I ever held any brand of twisted, obsessive or sociopathic malice towards gas grills or any other shortcut to culinary satisfaction, furthermore this is not an attempt to educate the vast unwashed masses as to how to properly prepare food in the outdoors, nor does the above statements reflect a general irreverant condescending arrogance when it comes to cooking in general, nor do I have any idea why you are reading this unless you are incredibly bored,lol.]
http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/wood.asp

Dozens of different wood to use, basically I just use Hickory, mesquite and apple, but depending on the meat you could expand and experiment.
http://www.barbecue-store.com/woodchips-2637.htm

Walkers wood jerk seasoning

BUSHA BROWNE'S 4 oz. jar of jerk packs about three times the punch as Walker's, its less sweet and more explosive, I nearly ruined some chicken by using too much once, its concentrated fire, I would recommend trying some, but all around Walker's has the flavor down dead on, but taste's vary, so try a wide variety of seasonings till you find the chosen one!

Ingredients: Scallions, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, citric acid, sugar and thyme.

I have been eating this stuff for years, mostly marinated on chicken breast and grilled over charcoal with mesquite wood. There may be other suppliers but I just grabbed this one. Some other brands are good as well, like Bushka browns, is even hotter. If you have never had jerk seasoning, don't go by the weak stuff in the stores, order from Jamaica. Its also good on fish and pork, I usually make it with black beans and rice, some shredded cheddar on a flour tortilla.

http://www.cosmicchile.com/site/walkers-wood-jerk-seasoning.html

If you are ambitious and want to make your own jerk sauce check this out, video and recipe.

http://www.jamaicatravelandculture.com/food_and_drink/jerk_chicken.htm

This stuff will make you sweat, I have not found anything else that tastes anything like it, its unique, a jar will last a while, I have 2 of these jars of walkers wood in the fridge right now and one Bushka browns, marinade meat with a little extra olive oil mixed in, other wise it's too dry, they sell marinade but don't waste your money, buy the concentrate like above. I tried some jerk chicken strips marinated with homemade seasoning by a chef who used to live in the Turks 'n Cacos islands, cooked on the grill it was comparable to Walkers wood. I must be hungry looking at all this stuff!

Capsaicin cream

Capsaicin, the hot in hot peppers is extracted and made into a cream, a topical ointment for pain relief, it is used commonly all over the world, if it was not a plant, an alternative medicine I am sure the drug companies would grab it and control it, demanding top dollar and a prescription.
Capsaicin shuts down the nerve transmitters, shutting down the pain and the feeling, to much can cause a burn but the right amount kills all types of pain. My personal experience with using the capsaicin in pepper powder to clean out my throat and lungs backfired, although my lungs were perfect, having also killed the bacterial infection of the minor chest cold, I effectively shut down the neurotransmitters in my lungs, I could not feel them, nor could I feel the air moving into and out of them, this caused a drowning sensation which sent a signal to the brain to panic.
After about 10 days the feeling was returning to my lungs, having been put on a powerful anti-panic medication served its purpose in the beginning had some extremely bad side effects which I won't go into. The hot pepper is a double edged sword, use it with caution, gargle some tea with ceyanne pepper and it will completely destroy strep throat etc. but too much could put you into a bad spot. I am going to order some capsaicin cream to try, considering ibuprofen and acetaminophen both have been recently discovered to be very bad at any dose for the liver and kidneys, alternative pain relief options should be explored.

What is capsaicin cream?-http://altmedicine.about.com/od/completeazindex/a/capsaicin_cream.htm

Here is a website where they sell it, I am sure there are hundreds more-

http://avmazon.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=A&Product_Code=no-pain-capsaicin-2oz&OVRAW=capsaicin%20cream&OVKEY=capsaicin%20cream&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=750796521&OVKWID=4165432021

I am going to experiment using Capsaicin, pepper powder mixed into an ointment for mesquito bites this summer, because its not regulated by the FDA it could be marketed I suppose as an "afterbite" type medicine. In fact their might even already be one on the market somewhere.

THE POLISH FARMER mesquito repellant- Cut a lemon in half and rub it onto the skin, it smells good and is natural, mesquitos hate it, the chemical "deet" in the standard repellants absorb into the blood stream through the skin and do no good, I have tried this, its not as sure a thing as drenching yourself with chemicals that stink and poison your blood but it works well.

Scoville heat ratings

When eating hot peppers, if they get too hot, water or soda is the worst thing to drink, it simply expands the heat and distributes it out, alcohol nullifys capcaicin, milk or bread is best, but why put out the fire?
List of Scoville ratings
Pungency values for any pepper, stated in "Scoville units," are imprecise, due to expected variation within a species—easily by a factor of 10 or more—depending on seed lineage, climate and even soil (this is especially true of habaneros). The inaccuracies described in the measurement methods above also contribute to the imprecision of these values. When interpreting Scoville ratings, this should be kept in mind.[2][3]
Scoville rating
Type of pepper
15,000,000–16,000,000
Pure capsaicin[4]
9,100,000
Nordihydrocapsaicin
2,000,000–5,300,000
Standard US Grade pepper spray [5]
855,000–1,041,427
Naga Jolokia [6][7][8][9]
876,000–970,000
Dorset Naga [10][5]
350,000–577,000
Red Savina™ Habanero[11]
100,000–350,000
Habanero Chile [12]
100,000–350,000
Scotch Bonnet [12]
100,000–200,000
Jamaican Hot Pepper [5]
50,000–100,000
Thai Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper
30,000–50,000
Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper [12], Tabasco pepper
10,000–23,000
Serrano Pepper
7,000–8,000
Tabasco Sauce (Habanero)[13]
5,000–10,000
Wax Pepper
2,500–8,000
Jalapeño Pepper
2,500–5,000
Tabasco Sauce (Tabasco pepper) [13]
1,500–2,500
Rocotillo Pepper
1,000–1,500
Poblano Pepper
600–800
Tabasco Sauce (Green Pepper) [13]
500–1000
Anaheim pepper
100–500
Pimento [5], Pepperoncini
0
No heat, Bell pepper [5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

All I need is garlic!

I have been buying fresh garlic bulbs for years and chopping them fresh to cook with, it lowers the blood pressure, prevents cancer and many other things, plus it adds real life to food. It might be a good idea to eat fresh garlic, and fresh{cooked} as well as aged, from what I gather to reap all the benefits. You are what you eat, people feel like crap because of what they put in their bodies, if we were as picky about what we eat as the music we listen to we would be better off. I still eat stuff I should not, it is hard to avoid, but I am trying to increase the % of stuff I know is "clean". I had a huge salad with blue cheese, croutons, bacon bits and olives with dinner, If I dumped the blue cheese and bacon and just used vinegar and olive oil dressing it would be about perfect. I made some garlic noodles, two fat cloves of garlic sauteed in about half a cup of olive oil, with basil, oregano, black pepper and sea salt, when it starts to brown throw in the spaghetti noodles and some fresh grated parmesan and romano and sea salt to add some twang, I may smell like a Cambodian farmer but it tastes great and its a good way to ingest some fresh garlic. Processed foods make me fell like crap, so little by little I am working towards natural clean foods, people scrape crap out of a can for decades and then wonder why they feel like cow manure. Next time your at the store grab the big bulk pack of garlic bulbs, it keeps at room temperature for a long time, and tastes ten times better than the stuff in the jar and you will not have to worry about vampyrs coming near you, or anybody else for that matter. Check out this medical article on garlic---
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/garlic-000245.htm

Trying different plants this year

STARTED PLANTING TODAY!

I Bought some Poblano pepper plants from the local greenhouse, they are mild but can get up to four feet tall so I figured I would give them a try. I have bought them at the store before , they are mild but spicier than a sweet bell pepper, 12,000 scoville heat units is very mild, they are the main pepper in Mexico. Jalapenos are 60,000 units so these are more for flavor than heat.

http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/ancho.html

I also bought just one plant of each, Cayenne pepper, Italian basil, Jalapeno pepper, Hungarian hot wax pepper, Green pepper, Big boy tomato, just wanted to get some stuff in the ground. Now that the frost is over I planted some seeds in pots, so we planted a ton of parsley and sage, they grow fast.

Still clearing out the main garden area of a huge pile of trimmed tree branches ready to bundle into kindling. Was just going to burn it all but I decided it is "fuel" so why waste it. Next week I will run a tiller, going to expand the existing area by 25% or so.

After a while when all the stuff is in the ground and growing I am going to take pictures and post them, so others can see what grows well. This should be interesting because I am transferring my well known maniacal obsessive compulsive behavior into something positive, growing as much edible vegetation as possible! lol, I am going to scrape the grassy thatch from under all of the fence lines and dump some soil and lay about 100" of pole bean seeds, in about 8 weeks they should completely take over the fence and start putting out massive quantities of huge beans, why waste a perfectly good vegetable fence.

Anyone have any thoughts on using that miracle grow stuff?

Ceyanne Pepper, the miracle drug

Ceyanne pepper is one of the most powerful of all hot peppers, It has wide ranging effects on the body and my inclusion of many hot peppers into my diet in the past has been very positive, coupled with raw garlic these two together have many benefits. Keeping your blood more on the acidic side makes the development of cancer nearly impossible, something society has come to accept as a disease is really more of a result of poisoning ourselves with all of the processed garbage most shovel into their pieholes from coast to coast with little question. I am going to grow a few of these plants and what I dont eat fresh I will dry out and grind into powder, use some of that for cooking and also I am thinking of buying those empty capsules you fill yourself, so if you don't want super hot and spicy food that day just dump a couple ceyanne capsules. They sell them of course, but better to just make your own.
http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/content.asp?id=133

"Cayenne pepper - prized for thousands of years for its healing power. Folklore from around the world recounts amazing results using cayenne pepper in simple healing and in baffling health problems. But cayenne pepper is not just a healer from ancient history. Recent clinical studies have been conducted on many of the old-time health applications for this miracle herb. Again and again, the therapeutic value of cayenne pepper has been medically validated."Dr. Patrick Quillin---click link here---> The Healing Power of Cayenne Pepper

I want fresh Vegetables, no chemicals please!

Time to get moving on a garden, thinking about Pole beans, Roma tomatoes, regular tomatoes, Ceyanne peppers, hungarian hot wax peppers, maybe some squash, jalapenos.

Green peppers and onions, potatoes, carrots etc. do not do the best and are rather cheap to buy so I want to concentrate on the good stuff that grows well.

I am going to go with a vertical set-up, growing upwards on wire supported by posts, I have seen pole beans get 12" long doing this!, also tomatoes do well on tall round wire set-ups.

Jalapenos and ceyannes do good in pots you can move around on the deck. Looking for some new ideas, might put a stone path down the center and side, do it all in a box set-up.

I tried , garlic and onions and it did not work well, potatoes were like golfballs last garden, I think the best plan is to concentrate on the ones I know do well.

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/vegetables.html