And that's all I know.


Strangely, this summarizes my life@work right now.

I REALLY want to go on a hot-air balloon ride over downtown buffalo ->



If I can take one of the earliest balloon rides, I then want to dash to the city hall and watch the rest of the balloons and the sunset at the city hall sunset reception!!!

Who wants to do this with me? It's on Friday, June 24th, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. (e:matthew)? :-)

And OoooooH! Downtown-Buffalo made authentic Cheerio Breakfast on Sunday! Wooohoo! June 26, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Erie Canal Central Wharf.

A mass scale epidemiological investigation into the German e.coli outbreak spread over the past few weeks FINALLY identified organically grown bean sprouts as the source of the offending e.coli strain. People who ate these sprouts were nine times as likely to develop bloody diarrhoea when compared with people who didn't. From:

After wild allegations against the whole Spanish salad produce industry, the unmasking of the organically grown sprouts as the culprits comes as a bit of a eye-opener about the health risks of organic farming. Are we really sure that the human and animal refuse used as fertilizers in organic farms do not leave behind cysts and eggs of sundry virulent bacteria and parasites? Do we always make sure that we wash our produce well before eating it raw?

In the past, I have been guilty of trusting apparently fresh-looking greens and produce too much and eating them after a cursory wash. However it pays by the spadefuls to remember that cysts/eggs are hardy and can survive mild non-abrasive washing. It is up to us to make sure that our food sources are not contaminated.. and even if they are, that we do the utmost that we can to prevent superficial parasitic and bacterial cysts and eggs from entering our system.

Do you think raw applesauce as in
1. Chop apples
2. Blend it like hell.

Will work as well as regular applesauce as a substitute for butter? I have successfully used store-bought applesauce almost completely as a butter substitute but I don't feel like buying those small sealed applesauce plastic cups. And I don't want to take all the time to make "authentic' boiled-in-a-saucepan applesauce.

What do you think? Has anyone tried just using raw applemash as a butter substitute?

---

EDIT:
The Original Recipe of the Speculoos for 6 biscuits contains:
8 oz Unbleached All-purpose Flour
5 oz Sugar Dark Brown
5 oz Butter
4 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp Baking Soda
2/5 tsp Cinnamon Ground
2/5 tsp Nutmeg, Ground
2/5 tsp Cloves, Ground
2/5 tsp Ginger, Ground
2/5 tsp Ground Black Pepper

with these crazy Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 speculoos
Amount per Serving
Calories..................324
Calories from Fat.....168.8
% Daily Value for a 2000 calorie diet
Total Fat..................18.76g (28%)
Saturated Fat...........11.93g (59%)
Cholesterol...............51.46mg (17%)
Sodium..................180.47mg (7%)
Total Carbohydrate...36.22g (12%)
Dietary Fiber..............0.18g (0%)
Sugars....................20.51g

Protein......................2.37g (4%)

Estimated Percent of Calories from:
Fat====52%
Carbs==44%
Protein==2%

That would be like eating 118% saturated fat in ONE biscuit.

Alternative ingredients to the Belgian Speculoos
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg

This is a question for (e:Paul). I wanted to view the full version of the RPCI Microsoft OWA email client in Chrome but it simply wouldn't allow me. I found these IE extensions for chrome:

1. IE Tab Classic:

2. Chrome IE Tab Multi:

The questions is how do these extensions manage to load the fully featured OWA while native Chrome cannot? Is using these extensions as risky as using IE? How are these extensions working?