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csziggy

csziggy's Journal
csziggy's Journal
November 21, 2014

Brining the Thanksgiving turkey - suggestions?

I went out today and tried to do all my Thansksgiving dinner makings. This will be the first time in a long time I have cooked my own Thanksgiving meal. Usually we go to the in laws, but there has been no invite this year so I'm planning on my own!

On the way home, NPR Science Friday had a segment on the chemistry of cooking the Thanksgiving meal. They dealt with cranberry sauce, making mashed potatoes that are not gluey, and finally cooking the turkey. The chemist who Ira Flato had on said she was in favor of brining the turkey.

I've never brined anything but this sounds interesting. According to the guest it would be moister and actually cook faster. Since I've gotten the turkey early - and found once I got home that there really isn't room in the freezer for it - I have time to thaw out the turkey and brine it before next Thursday.

I've looked at a few recipes for brining - on the Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alexandra-guarnaschelli/thanksgiving-turkey-brine-recipe.html), Good Eats (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe.html) and AllRecipes (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/thanksgiving-turkey-brine/). So far, I'm tending towards the last recipe. The first two seem very sweet and I prefer a more savory bird.

Any suggestions, recipes, links?

November 20, 2014

Interesting - just got my first 2016 polling call

First they asked if I were registered to vote, then party affiliation. Then wanted to know who I would vote in the primaries between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton - I picked Warren. Then they had a longer list of candidates, including Warren, Clinton, Biden, Cuomo, and some guy I've never heard of - O'Malley?

Then they asked who I would vote for Senator - Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Alan Grayson, and somebody else - I said Grayson.

What is interesting is that the survey from 407-205-0191 at the end mentioned Doug Kaplan. The first result in a search from him was from an old DU thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021579317

** A note on my choices during the survey - I have not decided who I will vote for in 2016. I picked the more liberal candidates rather than the standard ones to push the poll more to the left.

November 17, 2014

Bizarro problem! - some sites think I'm in Mexico!

It started out with Lowes.com - I'd be researching products, try to get back to my search results, get a 404 - Page Not Found error page in Spanish. When I left that page, I was on the Lowes Mexican site and unable to get back to their American site. It's happened over and over. I cleared my Lowes cookies, no change. I can search for products, look at a few then with no warning or change in what I am doing, it goes to the Mexican Lowes site.

That started happening about 3-4 weeks ago. Just now, I was trying to price prescriptions at Costco.com and when I clicked on the Pharmacy link from their main page, suddenly I'm on the Costco.com Mexican page - and I can't get back to their US page!



Obviously something on my computer is doing this, I thought - but my husband tried going to Lowes on his computer, same deal. he'd look at a few things, then suddenly he's in Mexico.

Neither of us are Spanish speakers, so we don't have our computers set to Spanish as a language. Then only thing I do in any language other than English is use Google Translate to translate things INTO English. The only time I've been to Mexico is virtually in Geoguessr.com.

I'm using the latest version of FireFox, but it does it in Internet Explorer, too. On my husband's computer, it does it in Chrome as well.

Any ideas on how to find out what is sending us to Mexico and how to stop it?

November 14, 2014

French authorities still looking for "Disneyland tiger"

Paw print found as search continues for 'tiger' on prowl near Paris
Soldiers called in to help hunt for the Disneyland Paris "tiger", with fresh paw prints spotted after beast apparently crossed a major highway and slinked past a petrol station

By Rory Mulholland

12:47PM GMT 14 Nov 2014

Police and soldiers hunting for a large cat believed to be on the loose near Paris have shut down a motorway service station after the beast was spotted there a day after it was first seen near the Disneyland theme park.

<SNIP>

Tiger expert Gilbert Edelstein, from the Pinder circus, said the best response to coming face-to-face with the stripy beast, thought to weigh around 155 pounds, was to "scream as loud as possible."

"Even better, scream in German. The guttural sounds could scare him away," he told AFP news agency.

More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11230870/Paw-print-found-as-search-continues-for-tiger-on-prowl-near-Paris.html


at that last quote!
November 13, 2014

Recalculating ACA subsidies - has anyone here done it?

This question occurred to me while reading another thread about the ACA - a thread I fervently did not want to get involved with.

My husband will be retiring at the end of this year. I've already set up an account at HealthCare.gov and gotten a preliminary look at possible plans and how much our subsidy might be. But we are not sure how much our income will be next year - we have estimates but not actual figures.

I called and talked to one of the helpers at the HealthCare.gov phone lines and she said that at any time during the year we can go onto the site to our account and put in updated figures on our income so our subsidies can be adjusted.

Has anyone here done that? Did it work for you? How complicated was it? Were you happy with the results?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

November 5, 2014

One piece of good news in Florida

Gwen Graham beat Tea Party Steve Southerland!

U.S. Representative, District 2

Steve Southerland.....REP.....122,939.....49.56%
Gwen Graham...........DEM....125,132.....50.44%

It's not much, but I'll take any good news I can get.

November 5, 2014

Crist asks judge to hold some polling place open extra hour - DENIED

No link - on MSNBC.


Broward polls closed, despite Crist campaign effort


Citing those problems, the Crist for Governor Campaign in the hour before the polls closed asked Snipes to extend voting hours in Broward for two hours, until 9 p.m.

After Snipes denied the request, campaign officials said they would file an emergency motion asking the Circuit Court to order the extension.

In a news release, the Crist campaign cited the power outage, the malfunctioning ID scanner and changes in precincts as contributing to "several individual and systemic breakdowns that made it difficult for voters to cast regular ballots."

"We have reports in many cases that voters who were confused about their proper polling location were provided conflicting information and, in many cases, simply gave up attempting to cast a regular ballot," the campaign said in the release.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-election-broward-voting-20141104-story.html
October 30, 2014

Since DU is in a time warp - here's a flashback to 1980

It was December, 1980; Ronald Reagan had just been elected President, Saturday Nite Live was soon to have its worst year of its history, and ABC struck back with a late-night comedy ensemble group of its own "Fridays." With a talented group that included Michael Richards and Larry David, this evenings' show opened with a 16 minute blockbuster sketch.




October 28, 2014

Good news in Leon County! Early voting WAY up!

Just heard it on the WCTV-TV local news - no link yet.

Ion Sancho said the early voting was up more than 3000 votes over the same period last election. That is HUGE for Leon County and good news for Democratic candidates since Leon is very blue!

October 25, 2014

Bill Clinton and Jimmy Buffet to rally for Gwen Graham in Tallahassee!

On the Florida A&M University campus - Sunday's event will take place in FAMU's quad at noon. And Jimmy Buffet will be at The Moon in Tallahassee on Oct 29 - doors open at 5 PM.

Bill Clinton to stump for Gwen Graham, early voting
By Karl EttersDemocrat staff writer @KarlEtters on Twitter 2:29 p.m. EDT October 23, 2014

Former President Bill Clinton will join congressional hopeful Gwen Graham for a Get Out the Vote rally at Florida A&M University Sunday.

Graham is challenging Republican Congressman Steve Southerland to represent Florida's 2nd Congressional District.

This week Graham has turned to star power to encourage people to vote early. Monday, her campaign announced a free Tallahassee concert with beach-inclined singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett.

Democrats typically do not turn out as strongly as Republicans in elections without a presidential pick on the ballot. The event with Clinton looks to highlight the Souls to the Polls movement of providing transportation to people voting after church on Sunday.

"I am so honored to have President Clinton join our campaign as we remind residents about the importance of voting and participating in this election," Graham said in a prepared statement.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2014/10/23/bill-clinton-stump-gwen-graham-early-voting/17766551/


Buffett to campaign for Graham at The Moon
Karl Etters, Tallahassee Democrat 12:58 p.m. EDT October 21, 2014

Beach-inclined singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett will appear at a campaign rally for U.S. congressional hopeful Gwen Graham D-Margaritaville at The Moon in Tallahassee.

The Oct. 29 Get Out the Vote rally will include an acoustic performance by Buffett and friends starting at 6:30. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at Graham's Tallahassee offices at 1584 Metropolitan Boulevard Suite 102 and at 2130 N. Lake Bradford Road starting Oct. 20 at 5 p.m.

The free tickets will be available from 5- 9 p.m. after that and can also be picked up at Graham's Jackson County office at 4435 Lafayette Street in Marianna and in Panama City at 647 Jenks Avenue.

The candidate's mother and father, former Gov. Bob Graham and Adele Graham will also be at the event.
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2014/10/20/buffet-to-campaign-for-graham-at-the-moon/17609105/


Right after I got the call about Bill Clinton coming tomorrow, I got a call from the DCCC polling - I was happy to let them know I had already voted for Crist and for Graham!

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Hometown: Leon County, Florida
Member since: Tue Feb 12, 2008, 10:18 PM
Number of posts: 34,136
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