January 31, 2009
Curried Devil Eggs
This is a recipe that I promised to post. Thank you Melissa for reminding me!
Hard boil eggs – as many as you want. You can see my previous post on “How to Boil Eggs” for directions on hard boiling eggs. Let them cool. They may be stored in the refrigerator (in a baggie or covered container) for a day or two before ”deviling” them. You can even peel them and store them peeled for convenience, which is what I usually do.
I also make this mixture the day before my party and store it overnight in the refrigerator and fill the eggs prior to serving.
Wash hands thoroughly.
For about 6 eggs (12 halves), I take about 2 Tablespoons of Mayonnaise (low/non-fat is OK), and 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard and about 1tsp-1tbs curry powder (depends on your taste), some ground pepper, a little salt, and a dash of nutmeg (my secret ingredient) and mix together. Set aside ( in the refrigerator) while you prepare the eggs. This allows the spices to break open their flavors in the mayo. Don’t worry, you will be adding a lot more mayo to suit your taste.
Make sure your hands are clean. Get out a sharp knife and cut eggs in half lengthwise (long way). You may want to rinse knife off several times during this process.
Put yokes into a bowl. Set the whites on a plate or on a paper towel inside of a plastic container. If you have an egg white half that doesn’t look too pretty, or one that rips, or has a hole in it, put that one into the bowl, too. You will need some egg whites, mixed in with the yokes.
Chop up the yokes and a few whites. I like to use a pastry blender for this process.
Add the prepared mayonnaise mixture to the chopped yokes. Add more mayonnaise as needed to moisten the mixture so it is not too creamy and not too dry. Adjust ingredients to suit your taste.
Fill the egg white halves with your mixture. I have a really cool tube press that fills them beautifully, but you can just put the mixture in with a spoon. You can also put the mixture into a plastic baggie and cut off the corner of the baggie and push the mixture out through the hole. Put on an “egg plate” for serving if you have one. Look for plastic ones at the dollar store around Easter time.
You can garnish eggs with a little parsley, cilanto leaf, or sprinkel curry or paprika over the top of eggs.
Portland Firefly Tip: The eggs get slippery, and I have had success in transporting them by putting a paper towel in the bottom of a plastic container to keep them secure. Enjoy!
January 30, 2009
The 11 Wardrobe Essentials for Every Portland Woman
This morning on AM Northwest, Elizabeth Teater was the guest. She gave her take on the 11 items that every woman in Portland should have in her closet. Because of our weather here, there are 4 coats/jackets in the mix.
I have copied the brief list and given you the link to the web page. Even if you don’t agree with her totally, we can all learn something about enhancing our wardrobe from her. http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/38709882.html
1. Loose-fitting, glamorous overcoat.
2.Trench coat.
3.Warm jacket.
4.Blazer.
5.Button-down shirt.
6.Fitted sweater.
7.Tank top or camisole.
8.Pencil skirt.
9.Classic trousers
10.Versatile dress
11.Jeans.
Card Kings
January 28, 2009
Flight 1549 and the Hudson River
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The aircraft for Flight 1549 is in the water. It looks like a sad little puppy with its ears outstretched on the water, back legs splayed out and tail held high. The forward doors are open and the evacuation slides are inflated on the water’s surface. The slides are also used as a life raft in a ditching situation. The plane is floating on the fast moving current of the Hudson River –an amazing sight –but there is so much more to see.
Portland Firefly cannot take herself away from the television. This former Flight Attendant finds the scenario spellbinding. Then she sees objects floating on the water near the plane. They are all the same size and same shape. The local news commentator makes a guess that the “debris” is luggage and other “plane wreckage”. Portland Firefly feels the tears starting, because she knows exactly what she is looking at and she know the news commentator is completely wrong. The tears are starting because she knows what it means to see those objects in the water. They are tears of happy amazement, because those objects mean that people survived the impact of the water landing – a ditching in airline jargon.
Those objects are the seat cushions. Yes, if you look at the plackard in front of every single seat on every single aircraft, it will say ” Seat cushion usable for flotation”. Some passengers actually “got it”, and they remembered to take their seat cushion with them as they were leaving the aircraft. Once survivors are in a rescue boat, the cold, heavy, wet seat cushions are no longer needed and are discarded overboard into the icy waters of the Hudson River.
As the scene unfolds further, some passengers are highly visible in their bright yellow/orange life vests that they had the presence of mind to retrieve from the pouch under their seat. The life vests are to be put on securely while still inside the aircraft , but only inflated “just as you leave the aircraft” because you don’t want it to get caught on a jagged piece of aircraft and tear. Later I notice some passengers are still wearing their life vests as they disembark the rescue ferries and enter a building. I think I’d keep mine on too!
Next the news shows the most amazing sight– and probably the image that will stick with most of us the longest–the A320 Airbus floating down the river that separates Manhattan from New Jersey– with passengers standing crowded together on the wings. The passengers look like they are walking on water. I know they are cold, but they probably feel like they are walking on air because they are alive.
The Saturday following the ditching, I was listening to Prairie Home Companion on public radio when Garrison Keillor sang a song about the heroes of Flight 1549. You can click on the following links to read the lyrics, or actually hear Mr. Keillor debut it. (lyrics | listen | download mp3) I love the song — it is sort of a folk story, the kind of thing that gets passed down from generation to generation.
Here is a link to a video of the ditching and first 8 minutes of the rescue. It contains footage that I have never seen before and documents the arrival of the ferries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flight1549CrashAndRescue.ogg
It is standard airline procedure that the crew give no interviews to the media until so released by their company and the NTSB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Transportation_Safety_Board, who will be doing the investigation. And so it is with great interest that Portland Firefly will be watching Capt. Sullenberger and his crew at their first public interview on Sunday February 8, 2009.
I have added this link to the NY Times page. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/15/nyregion/20090115-plane-crash-970.html . It tracks the planes progress and also has some passenger stories.
The interview with Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his crew will be shown Feb. 8 on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
January 27, 2009
Inaguration Quartet
There is some controversy over the internationally recognized quartet that played at President Obama’s Inauguration.
This quartet consisted of a racially diverse group of outstanding musicians who played a piece by American composer, Aaron Copeland, which was specially arranged for the inaugural performance by (one of my favorite composers for movies) John Williams.
Everything about the group — from the performers, their instruments, the mix of instruments, the piece chosen, and the man who arranged the piece for this particular quartet for this particular event — could not have been more representative of our great country, The United States of America. In fact, the entire time they were playing, aside from listening to the beautiful music they were making, Portland Firefly was amazed by the amount of talent assembled in such a small group, yet one that in it’s entirety (including composer & arranger) could not have better represented the wonderful melting pot that characterizes Our United Sates of America.
The controversy revolves around the fact that the quartet pre-recorded ( at a dress rehearsal the day before) the music played over the speakers during the actual event while playing along with the recording. Only those sitting very nearby could hear the actual quartet playing at the inauguration.
I am not a music aficionado — I do not read music and only play one very simple instrument – but it is a reed instrument. And I know that reed and string instruments are easily affected by the temperature, especially by bitter cold temps. As you will recall, it was bitterly cold in Washington DC on Tuesday morning, January 20, 2009. And so, since the performance was so important and the performers wanted everything to go as perfect as possible, it was decided that due to the cold, the recorded performance of the day before would be played over the loud speakers.
Portland Firefly has no problem with this decision. There was no attempt to deceive (as proven by MilliVanilli years earlier). The instruments are priceless and the conditions were far from ideal — in fact they were extreme and I wondered while they were playing how they kept their strings from breaking and how they kept their instruments tuned. Now I know that they didn’t have to worry about those things, but could present the performance for us to enjoy. It touched me to see the diversity in this small group of unparalleled musicians and was one of the highlights of the Inauguration for me.
January 26, 2009
Mt Hood
Mt. Hood as seen from Portland by Wikipedia.
On my daily errand trips around town, I often see majestic Mt. Hood, Oregon’s highest point, off in the far distance. There is some sort of a strange optical illusion that occurs as I am driving because the closer I get to the mountain, the smaller it appears. I think it has something to do with the fact that the road I am driving on is higher farther away and lower in elevation the closer you get to Mt. Hood.
The other afternoon, I could not help but notice how beautiful that deadly mountain looked. It was overcast where I was but the sun was shining on the distant snow covered mountain. Because it was late in the day and the sun was at a low angle, there were great beautiful interesting shadows across the west face of the peak with the darkened ridges sharply accented even more than they are in this photo. It was the prettiest that I have ever seen Mt. Hood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hood for more information.
January 25, 2009
Annual Solar Eclipse -Jan 25th (USA)
Annular eclipse.
The annual solar eclipse is happening soon (as I type this post) only we can’t see it here in the states because it is happening on the other side of the world from us! It will occur at 7:55:20 GMT in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Aha! a scientific query comes up from Portland Firefly …what is GMT? I really should make you look it up so you will remember the answer, but…I shall tell you at the end of the post.
Nevertherless, the eclipse is happening. I have copied some info from Wikipedia about this event for you to read.
“The solar eclipse taking place on Monday, January 26, 2009 will be an annular eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 0.92 that will be visible from a narrow corridor beginning in the south Atlantic Ocean and sweep eastward 900 km south of Africa, slowly curving northeast through the Indian Ocean. Its first landfall will be the Cocos Islands followed by southern Sumatra and western Java. It continues somewhat more easterly across central Borneo, across the northwestern edge of Celebes, then ending just before Mindanao, Phillippines.[1]“
Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_26,_2009 for a great map and more information.
OK GMT means Greenwich Mean Time and Oregon’s time is GMT-8 during Standard Time. During Daylight Savings time, Oregon is GMT-7. Right now we are at GMT-8, so subtract 8 hours from GMT to get Oregon time (which is PST - Pacific Standard Time). So…if the eclipse is happening at GMT 7:55am, January 26, 2009 then that means that it will be happening approximately at 11:55pm PST tonight, Sunday night, January 25, 2009 in Oregon. Remember we will not be able to see it because it is happening on the other side of our wonderful world.
PS: For those of my Phillippine readers, would you please comment on this sight ifyou happen to observe it? Thanks. ~~Portland Firefly
January 23, 2009
Brides against Breast Cancer
Friday, January 23,
- Power Hour 9 – 10 am Space is Limited
Order Your Tickets Here Today!
General Sale 10 am – 8 pm
Sunday, January 25, 10 am – 6 pm
and
Executive Meeting Center Portland – Lloyd Center
1000 NE Multnomah
Portland, OR 97232
Saturday, January 31, 10 am – 6 pm Free Admission
Sunday, February 1, 10 am – 5 pm Free Admission
Hilton
300 112th Avenue SE
Bellevue, WA 98004
January 22, 2009
Free Cosmetics
As part of a large class action lawsuit, several cosmetic manufacturers have been ordered to offer FREE items to anyone who purchased certain upscale products at certain department stores during a specific time frame.
There are certain restrictions and this offer ends on Monday OR when the free items are gone. Two of us went today and they were out of everything except for two choices.
As part of the class action lawsuit, you must sign a form (which will be presented to the Grand Jury) that you meet the requirements. Try Macy’s, Saks, or Nordstroms if you think you may qualify.
Free Coffee
Portland Firefly has been made aware of two, not one, but two offers for free coffee!!!
The first is McDonald’s: to promote their new lattes they are giving away free coffee during breakfast hours on Friday.
The second is Starbucks: they will give you a free coffee if you sign a pledge to do 5 hours of community service. Also you get a $.10 discount if you bring in your own reusable mug at any time. Help save our trees and planet – take your own mug.
January 21, 2009
Ultimate Survivor
Many Portlanders have checked into Portland Firefly’s blog to get info on the auditions for the Ultimate Survivor which will be held today (Wednesday, January 21, 2009) from 4-8 in Beaverton. She would like to wish every one of you GOOD LUCK! in your audition and hopes she was able to help you get on the road to your dream.
PS: Can you make fire?
I hope you visit my website again sometime soon www.pdxfirefly.com and let us know how you do, OK?
January 20, 2009
Venus
Have you seen that bright glow in the sky the last several nights? It is the planet Venus and it is absolutely brilliant! Just look to the South West low on the horizion about 45 degrees. It should be unmistakably bright between 5:30 and 8:00pm; you can not miss it if you look in the general direction South of West and slightly up because Venus is always brighter than the brightest stars.
Venus, the second planet from the sun and similar in size to our Earth, is named after the Roman goddess of love (Aphrodite to the Greeks). Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus for more information about this pretty planet.
January 19, 2009
Are you the Ultimate Survivor?
The following was copied from www.koinlocal6.com. For more information please go to their website. Portland Firefly had to do a search for “ultimate survivor” on the web site to find the info. Good Luck!!!
Are You The Ultimate Survivor?
Wednesday January 21, 2009 4 – 8 p.m.
It’s the original TV reality show – and still the best. Now, you can be a contestant on CBS’s Survivor – if you have what it takes.
KOIN Local 6 is hosting an open casting call for Survivor 19, Wednesday January 21 from 4pm to 8pm at Standard TV & Appliance’sBeaverton store. The first 100 people to audition will take home a free KOIN Local 6 Survivor T-shirt.
You must fill out an official CBS Survivor contestant application prior to the casting call, and bring the completed form with you. CBS also requests that you attach a small photo of yourself. Please do not come to the casting call without a completed application! Applications will not be provided on-site.
Once you get before our camera, you will have two minutes to prove yourself worthy of competing for the title of Ultimate Survivor. Dress the part, and channel your inner Survivor!
Click here to download the official CBS Survivor contestant application. Please read the requirements for eligibility carefully!
The details again:
KOIN Local 6 Survivor Open Casting Call
Wednesday January 21
4pm-8pm
Standard TV & Appliance
3600 SW Hall Blvd, Beaverton
Click here for directions. Please park responsibly – KOIN Local 6 and Standard TV & Appliance assume no responsibility if your car is ticketed or towed. No public restrooms will be available on site, so plan ahead.
Note: The application states a deadline date of January 14. Please disregard this and bring your completed application with you to auditions. Your application WILL be accepted and reviewed by CBS.
Note from Portland Firefly: Please come back and read my blog sometime; I have been told that there are good stories in it www.pdxfirefly.com and GOOD LUCK in your audition! Please let us know how you do; we’d love to follow your progress in the audition process.
NB: This is the information for January 2009. For the December 17, 2009 casting call, please go to www.PDXFirefly.com and read the post of December 13, 2009.
Free TV
I initially had the 12 month Comcast service agreement for TV, Phone & Internet. At the end of 12 months, the price went up —to $140. the next month it was $160 and the following month it was $180. I cancelled the service as fast as I could!
Now what do I do? Make a lot of calls, spend mindless endless hours on the phone trying to discern the differences between the different services available and trying to decide exactly what services I do and don’t need/want.
Days later—- with stacks of notes about the different options, I make a decision. I decide on a 24 month contract (groan) with Dish Network. I am promised all my local channels, CNN & Fox News PLUS I get a $100 gas card, $50 Visa card, three months of this and that for free, 12 months of the other for a penny and all sorts of other incentives. I figured that this will work out great and I wait for the installation date to arrive.
Installation day arrives and they want to put the dishes on the front of the house! Whoa! The Home Owners Association will not allow that and finally we agree on a solution. It is one the installers aren’t thrilled about because, they have to climb up on the roof to install the equipment at the back of the house then run an additional line into the house to connect with the existing cables. Now it is time to install “the box” to the television in the house and show me how to use their remotes. The process hits a major snag when the picture pixilates and turns all green.
The installer decides that the problem is with the “new” box. He calls the office to see if there is another installer in the area with another box he can swap out for this defective one. There is one “nearby” but it takes her almost an hour to get here . He has been here now almost 5 hours. We are all tired and I am wanting to “get cranky” over the entire situation, but I don’t. It isn’t his fault that the receiver box is defective. They swap out the defective box for one that works, give it a quick run through and leave. I happily sit down with the remote to watch a favorite reality show on a local channel. Remember I was promised that I would receive all of my local channels. Well, evidently there is a price dispute between my local channel and the Satellite company and this channel is not available— at all. And I just signed a 24 month contract.
I try to get a hold of the company that night —but end up talking to someone in the Philippines. Great!! Next morning, I am on it bright and early making call after call. It took me all that day and part of the next day, but I got out of the contract and made a decision to just do without TV for a while.
Well, the morning after that, I realized that I enjoy watching the news and since I had heard about free TV, I decided to look into it.
I purchased an antenna, hooked it up and, yeah! there were my local channels — several even in High Definition – already! And what a great picture, too. Now whenever I miss watching CNN or Fox News, I switch to another channel and remember all the money I am saving every month by getting free TV. And no long term contract. And if I decide sometime in the future that I want to have cable or satellite service, then I can take my time in making a decision about which carrier I’ll go with.
Portland Firefly is very happy with her decision to try out free TV. And after February 17, when all stations will be in High Definition, I’ll be very interested to see the content and quality that will be offered. And all for just the (very reasonable) price of an antenna!
January 15, 2009
Curling Iron
The spring on my curling iron broke this morning. I hate that! Why is it that your curling iron only breaks or stops working when you have just started to use it and never breaks when you have just finished using it?
This presents some problems. 1: I’m not able to fix my hair the way I like. 2: Now I must go out and search for another curling iron when I REALLY liked the one I had! And 3: I must undertake this search with my hair looking weird.
Well, I made a careful search of a local store and purchased one that I thought would be fine. After I opened the package and got the iron out, I discovered one big drawback to the particular style I purchased that was not evident prior to removing it from the “iron-like” packaging. I know you know what I mean about those packages! Now what do I do? Return it and continue the search for the type I really like or make do with this one?
January 11, 2009
Ragtime Connection
My Daughter, who has been profiled on the cover of the Los Angeles Times Business section, wrote a post in her blog about Scott Joplin’s ragtime music, specifically The Maple Leaf Rag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B04–XmZiE&feature=related. I was amazed because I had just danced to that very music three days earlier. I had not thought about Ragtime for months (at least) and had not mentioned it to her at all, and she had not mentioned it to me either. What are the odds of that?
Some would say very slim, others would say not so unusual. I am of the latter camp because I know and have experience this unexplained connection that she and I have always had. It just proves to me that we are so much more than flesh and bones — the spiritual part of our beings is very strong.
One thing she may not remember is that when she was a baby, her Daddy would play The Entertainer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cFkae0j_Ns&feature=related on the piano occasionally. When she became a toddler, she would say “Daddy” whenever she would hear that song. More proof of the powerful connection that music has in our lives.
January 10, 2009
January Full Moon -tonight
If skies are clear Saturday, go out at sunset and look for the giant moon rising in the east. It will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers.
Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days.
But the orbit is not a perfect circle. One portion is about 31,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to our planet than the farthest part, so the moon’s apparent size in the sky changes. Saturday night (Jan. 10) the moon will be at perigee, the closest point to us on this orbit.
High tides
Tides will be higher, too. Earth’s oceans are pulled by the gravity of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because they occur when the moon is at or near perigee. (The farthest point on the lunar orbit is called apogee.)
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This month’s full moon is known as the Wolf Moon from Native American folklore. The full moon’s of each month are named. January’s is also known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.
A full moon rises right around sunset, no matter where you are. That’s because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon: The moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so that sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.
At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in the night when it’s higher in the sky. This is an illusion that scientists can’t fully explain. Some think it has to do with our perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.
Try this trick, though: Using a pencil eraser or similar object held at arm’s length, gauge the size of the moon when it’s near the horizon and again later when it’s higher up and seems smaller. You’ll see that when compared to a fixed object, the moon will be the same size in both cases.
More lunacy
If you have other plans for Saturday night, take heart: You can see all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Friday night and later Sunday night.
January 7, 2009
Middle East Conflict
I have been struggling to understand the recent Middle East conflict as well as the war between Israel and Palestine. This led me to Google it.
This is what I have discovered. This conflict has its basis in biblical times. The time of Abraham, his barren wife Sarah, and her maidservant Hagar.
Short version … Hagar becomes pregnant with Ishmael and becomes proud and rude to Sarah who sends Hagar away. An angel tells Hagar to return, which she does, subsequently behaving politely toward Sarah.
Next, Sarah becomes pregnant with Isaac.
God promises that both boys would be leaders of nations.
The descendants of Hagar’s children are today’s Muslims. Ishmael’s children became the Bedouin tribes that were to be the seedbed for Islam when Muhammad came upon the world scene 600 years after the life of Jesus of Nazareth
Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah is Abraham’s second born son. It is through Isaac and his son, Jacob and all their descendants that the covenant with the Jewish people will unfold throughout history.
We need to recognize that Christians, Jews and Muslims all trace their heritage to Abraham. The Torah, Koran, and Bible all have this same story. Fascinating, isn’t it?
And so, centuries of hate have fueled this conflict and it is far more complicated than Portland Firefly has laid out before you, but I have done so in an attempt to vastly simplify and understand the events.
January 6, 2009
European Hot Chocolate
One of my readers asked if I knew where she could purchase some more of the Perugina Dark Hot Chocolate that I discovered at Tuesday Morning.
When I was exploring another Tuesday Morning store, I discovered that they had BOXES and BOXES available. So, I would suggest that you call the different Tuesday Mornings to see if they have the Perugina you want. Some stores will be closed for inventory until Thursday, Jan 8, 2009, so try calling then. Good Luck! And sweet hot coco!!! M-m-m-m it is so-o-o-o good.
January 5, 2009
On The Wing Update
On The Wing will make its broadcast premiere on Oregon Public Broadcasting Wednesday January 7 at 8 p.m. If you’ve been watching OPB recently, you may have seen the preview. The filmmaker, Dan Viens says “I am so grateful that OPB chose to air the film and hope you can catch it if you live in Oregon and haven’t seen On The Wing yet.”
This acclaimed documentary filmed entirely here in Portland (you may recognize yourself or your neighbors) tells the story of the flight of the Vaux Swifts who use the Chapman School Chimney as a migration stopover. The birds migrate from Alaska to Mexico each September.
Not only educational, but also entertaining, this is the first documentary by the filmmaker Dan Viens, who is currently in Bamako, Mali, Africa filming a new documentary. You can follow his “African Filming Expedition” on his blog at www.danviens.com/blog.
Portland Firefly encourages anyone who has not seen “On The Wing” to do so; it is totally appropriate for families with children of all ages.
Wed. January 7, 2009 8 p.m.
Fri. January 9, 2009 2 a.m.
Sun. January 11, 2009 1 p.m.
Just type in “swifts” in my search box to read my other posts about this film.
Icicles
Icicles by PDXFirefly
These are the icicles that were dripping off my roof last week. Did you have any icicles at your house?
Big Icicle by PDXFirefly
January 4, 2009
Snow Talk School
We have had a lot of snow here in Portland, which is very unusual for us. In fact, our students had an entire extra week of Christmas “Vacation” due to the school closings because of the snow.
More snow is in the forcast for us on the Sunday night prior to school opening after Christmas break. Here is the snippet I overheard at a party by an exasperated Father “I WILL find a school open somewhere tomorrow!” I guess he knows it is time for the children to go back to school.
January 3, 2009
Portland Quote
I recently heard this (true) quote about our lovable city:
“New York is a city with a park in it;
Portland is a park with a city in it.”
