According to the latest Business Week Report. UVA, William and Mary, and VT made it to the top 10 of the highest ROI in terms of tuition and job salary. Thought that was interesting.
LenPenzo writes about this in his blog. He comes to the conclusion that technical degrees are more sought after than liberal arts degrees due to supply and demand. A higher supply of liberal arts students means lower demand for them vs. lower supply of techies means higher demand for them. Who knows.
So for you COLLEGE kids, study HARD while you’re in school… these are your FORMATIVE years (no matter where you go).
An interesting talk about reforming the education system. Looking at an industrial model vs. an agricultural model. Fast food model vs. customized model… How can we “fix” the education system? I think we need a little of both, depending on what one wants to study.
Thought this was funny… a little bit extreme, but funny none the less. Kid faints during a spelling bee, gets back up and finishes with the word. Not really sure what this teaches me as a parent, but…
So my wife bought a jar of black bean paste to make jajangmyeon. This is the Korean version of the Chinese dish: “zha jiang mian” literally fried sauce noodles. It is the black noodle dish that is a staple in Korean “chinese” foods restaurants.
The following recipe came from the jar. She added just a few more ingredients, but it was pretty good.
Ingredients:
300g Roasted Black Bean Paste
2 Potatoes
2 Onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Squash
1 Giant Green onion
250g Pork
1Tbsp Oil
2Cups Water
2Tbsp Corn Starch
Directions:
1. Dice beef and vegetables then pan fry with 1Tbsp cooking oil
2. add Bean paste and mix thoroughly
3. Add 1 1/2 cup water and boil until cooked
4. Mix starch with 1/2 cup water until dissolved and add to mix until boil
5. Pour on cooked noodles or rice to serve.
We strayed from the recipe by adding shrimp and some other stuff. We also cooked the potatoes separately to let it cook faster.
P.S. usually eat with cucumbers and pickled radishes… we did not have cucumbers
Ever since we got married, we have been making fruit smoothies. Thanks to the Magic Bullet. Here’s a simple recipe in which you can use any number of different fruits. This is a quick nutritious yummy snack for any time of the day.
Put in some frozen fruit. Today we froze some bananas that were getting too ripe and strawberries.
Then add your favorite juice, we use orange mango, but if you don’t have juice, we have used water in the past as well. Water doesn’t add any flavor but gets it to the right consistency. Add it to about this level (less than a cup) on the large magic bullet container. The orange mango gives it a great tangy + mango taste.
Add Honey or other sweetener for added taste.
Mix in the magic bullet for a half a minute, make sure the large chunks of fruit are all mixed up. Use the crossblade since this is pretty heavy job. If the blade gets stuck, shake it up a bit.
Other fruit we have used: mixed berries, blueberries, mangoes, watermelon.
So for a yummy snack without all the sugar of a milkshake (or the diary) try a frozen fruit smoothie.
Found this recipe from the April/May 1994 issue of Taste of Home. For some reason my wife kept it from long ago… but for good reason. There is an awesome potato salad recipe that we made again for Memorial Day.
Old-Fashioned Egg Sald
1/4 cup mayo
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
In a bowl combine mayo, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper. Stir in the eggs and celery. Cover and chill.
Mustard Potato Salad
2 cups diced potatoes
1 recipe Old-Fashioned Egg Salad
1/4 cup mayo
1 teaspoon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a saucepan, cover potatoes with water and cook until tender but firm. Drain and cool. In a bowl combine egg salad, mayo, mustard onion and salt.
This time around, we kept adding salt and pepper until it tasted right, left the celery out and used about 4 medium sized potatoes. It came out really good.
Been watching lots of television and movies lately thanks to online streaming. Coming up in the next week:
Series finale of 24
Series finale of LOST
Season finale of American Idol
The Office
Okay, that’s about the extent of our TV and our pop culture. But these shows are too addictive, that’s why I think we’re going to slow it down after the season ends. We’ll need new hobbies once these shows end.
Okay, so we had this at the Light House in Annandale many times and they opened one in Centreville. One of our favorite dishes there besides the Tofu Soup is the octopus stir fry – Korean Style…
Found this recipe at Fishinnards.com. And because we had most of the ingredients at home we decided to go ahead and make it.
It came out pretty good…
Nakji Bokkum (octopus stir fry)
4 T Gochujang (hot bean paste)
2 tsp. Soy sauce
1 T sugar
1 T sesame oil (dark)
2 tsp. lightly crushed roasted sesame seeds
2 T chopped garlic
1” piece of fresh ginger crushed to a paste or finely chopped
3 small octopus
1 medium onion cut in half and coarsely sliced lengthwise
4-5 green chilies cut in half (seeded if you want)
1 bunch of white noodles (Japanese kind) cooked according to package directions (optional)
2 T oil
If frozen, defrost octopus and rinse well. Cut tentacles into 1” pieces. Rub pieces with a handful of course salt (vigorously). Rinse well at least 3 times. Mix together the gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, 1 T of the garlic, and the ginger and mix the resulting sauce with the octopus pieces. Heat wok and add oil (or heat oil in frying pan) and add remaining garlic when very hot. Let the garlic brown and then add the octopus and sauce. Fry for a couple minutes and then add the onions and green chilies. Fry a couple minutes more and then put in a dish. Fold the noodles into nests and add to the dish if desired.
This was the second official gathering of the fellowship, although one of our members couldn’t make it. The first one took place over three months ago when the guys and I decided to visit a local establishment selling cheap buffalo wings. We spent way too much on drinks… as a result, my wife wanted in on the action this time and we decided to do Korean BBQ.
We ended up buying a ton of sliced beef (bulgogi) and short ribs (kalbi). MommyG marinated it in her special sauce earlier that day and we fired up our portable gas grill. Ooh. So good. And so much food and left overs. Contentment. And in keeping with the tradition, we also had buffalo wings.
Thanks for visiting us. We are a family touched by the grace of Jesus Christ. We hope to share this blessing with all who visit here.
May God richly bless you!
