Posts Tagged ‘Tips’
Use The Crusts As Bread Crumbs [Cooking Tip]
For some mysterious reason, most children will not eat a sandwich unless the crusts have been cut off. Today’s tip: use the crusts as bread crumbs when you are cooking.
This morning, like most mornings, I made lunch for my son. Currently, he will eat a bologna sandwich, on wheat, with the crusts removed. I was about to toss the crusts in the trash when I realized that they would make good homemade bread crumbs.
Here’s what you do:
- Break the crusts apart into smaller pieces.
- Put into a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a bowl. Then go buy a mortar and pestle because they are inexpensive, useful and, in their own way, awesome.
- Add spices. I used herbs du provence, truffle salt, and pepper.
- Smoosh it up until it looks like the bread crumbs you get from the can, only without the additives (or the can).
Bingo! You have homemade bread crumbs. I put mine on some roasted carrots that were in this week’s farm share box. What do you put bread crumbs on?
Mortar and Pestle image from Amazon.com
How Not To Pressure Your Working Spouse [DaddyTips]
Have you ever wondered how not to pressure your working spouse? Or is that a topic you’ve never given a moment of thought?
You should think about it. Because it’s important. Pressuring your spouse, especially when they are at work (say, by sending an email) can cause frustration and also be downright mean.
Nobody wants their spouse to feel pressured and guilty about working when they need to. Well, maybe they do, but if so, you’ve got other problems. That doesn’t mean you can’t talk to your husband or wife and tell them that you would love it if they spent more time at home. But you have to realize that this isn’t always possible.
People who know me — and after my ParentDish opinion piece Dads Can Stay Home With The Kids, Too, even people who don’t — know that I’m the primary caregiver in our house (I prefer that phrase to “stay at home dad”, even though it’s a bit unwieldy). I’ve made some adjustments in how I discuss home-time with my wife when she has to work.
Not to belabor the point, but the key thing thing is to avoid pressuring your spouse and/or making them feel guilty. Some of this isn’t your fault. If your spouse says that they feel like you are being demanding because you emailed to ask time they’ll be home, you may want to sit down and explain that you aren’t trying to stress her out, you just want to know.
That’s the key thing to keep in mind when it comes to talking to your working spouse. Keep these four words in mind — no pressure, just planning. You are asking what their ETA is because that way you can plan dinner, or keep the children awake a little bit longer. Or maybe you want to know because the children are driving you insane, and if you are going to count the minutes until you’ll have some help playing zone defense, you’d like to know just how many minutes you need to count.
If you end your emails with that phrase — no pressure, just planning — odds are you’ll be able to find out what you need to find out without causing undue tension in your relationship. Give it a try. It certainly can’t hurt.
Baby Boom/Mr. Mom Double Feature DVD image via Amazon.com
A Kindle For Mothers Day [Mothers Day Gifts]
Here’s an idea — get mom a Kindle
Why a Kindle? Well, despite the fact that the iPad got all the media attention, the device is not for everyone. The Kindle is much more like a book. The screen has no illumination, and before you say “but that’s a bad thing”, remember what else has no illumination — paper. The reading experience is much closer to the way us old folks have been reading for years, despite the iPad’s nifty page turning animation.
Also, if you’ve waited this long to get your mom or the mother of your children a gift, Amazon is offering free overnight shipping for Mothers Day. So it will actually get there in time. Something to think about.
New Netgear Powerline adapters [DaddyTech]
For some reason no one that I know uses Powerline devices for home networking. And they should, because it’s incredibly easy.
You know all those cool new Blu-Ray players that can stream Netflix? New TVs that have built-in YouTube? They won’t work unless you connect the stupid thing to the Internet. Some home entertainment devices have built-in Wi-Fi, but frankly, Wi-Fi isn’t always fast enough to produce a smooth video stream.
Powerline, also known as HomePlug (the official name seems to be the HomePlug Powerline Alliance), lets you use electrical outlets to stream data. Plug one Powerline/HomePlug adapter into your router, then put another one anyplace you need it. I find that I get the best results using wired Ethernet; there are wireless Powerline adapters, but I think that defeats the purpose — wired Ethernet is stable, but running cable all over your house is very expensive. Even if you have the electrical knowledge to equip your home with Ethernet jacks, that takes a tremendous amount of time. (Does the phrase “I’ll install a drop ceiling and run wires that way!” sound appealing? Try running that one by your wife.) Plugging in a wall-wart-type of device is about as easy as it gets.
The speed isn’t what you get with real Ethernet jacks, but it’s better than wireless, and certainly more than enough for most users needs. You also don’t have to worry about dropped signals, Netgear’s new offerings include the Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit (XAVB5001), which has a smaller form-factor than previous adapters, according to published reports. That’s important, because you can’t plug a Powerline adapter into a surge protector and expect it to work. It wants an outlet of its own, and since most electrical outlets are jammed close together, not blocking one or even two is important. (Note: I’ve read that you can make Powerline work if it is plugged into a surge protector; I’ve never tried it.)
The new stuff isn’t available yet. If you can’t wait, pick up the NETGEAR XAVB101 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit from Amazon.com. Or look for older model adapters from smaller companies, either on Amazon or even eBay. If you prefer to buy new gear, the Actiontec MegaPlug 85 Mbps Ethernet Adapter Twin-Pack is under 80 bucks on Amazon and has very good customer reviews. Remember that no matter what you buy, you’ll need at least adapters — one for the router, one for the device you want to connect to the Interwebs. In my experience, mixing brands doesn’t matter — I’ve used at least three different brands of Powerline/HomePlug adapters over the years and they all worked fine together.
Netgear brings the goods to CeBIT: HD streamers, HomePlug AV adapters [Engadget]
Passing On The Craziness – Moon Landing Hoaxes
One surefire method to ensure that your child grows up to be a lunatic is to expose them to conspiracy theories at a young age.
Children are impressionable. Combine that natural openness with the idea that “Dad is a figure of a Godlike knowledge” and bingo! They’ll believe what you tell them.
Now, we know this is not entirely true. When one of the first couples in my circle of friends had a son, I kept trying to tell him at a barbecue that there were aliens on the roof. He just looked at me and said, “No. You’re wrong,” with a big dopey grin on his face.
Luckily, the Internet offers “proof” of numerous crackpot theories. One the crackpottiest is the idea that the 1969 moon landing was faked.
One piece of “proof” is the “fact” that the flag the astronauts planted on the moon was blowing in the wind. But! There is no wind on the moon! And here is video “proof”!
Here is “We Never Went To The Moon” by UFOetry, or as I like to call it, “Moon Hoax Music You Can Dance To.”
This is all, of course, a load of crap. In the interest of equal time, here is a clip from the show Mythbusters debunking the flag waving business.
There’s lots more from both sides, of course. For anti-hoax material, check out the moontrue channel on YouTube. But what fun is that? Wouldn’t it be much better to have your son or daughter grow up just like Realitysurfer, who actually took the time to confront Buzz Aldrin and ask him: why should we believe that you were on the moon? Where is your proof, sir?
So if you want your kid to grow up to be a crazy person, try showing them all of this “proof.” That way you can support them financially forever! Won’t that be fun?
Image: Archive.org
Policing Versus Judging
A point needs to be made, and this post on Babble gives me the chance to do it.
Judging people is different from policing.
Think about it. The police actually go out and arrest those who they think have committed a crime. Then a judge… passes judgment. (Yes, it’s more complicated than that. Dammit Jim, I’m a blogger, not an attorney!)
In the case of parenting, we all, whether we want to admit it or not, have opinions about how others conduct themselves, particularly when it comes to children. Do some of us (me) have stronger opinions than others? Of course. But I’m highly suspicious of anyone who says that they never, ever judge anyone else and how they choose to live their lives. Read more »
DaddyTips Show and Tell – Holistic Living Edition
We are nothing if not holistic in our house. Wait, I thought “holistic” was the name of a new Wii game. No?
OK, I’m not all that holistic or spiritual or whatever. But I appreciate those who are. And I do eat organic stuff, and just joined a farm share. So maybe we’re a little more ho-ho than I think.
Anyway, here are some links:
- Gorgeous, Healthy Recipes & My Favorite Salad: by Valerie Reiss, via BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. I’ll need to do a better job of actually collecting recipes once the farm share food starts coming in. I don’t think the family will be content with my bacheloresque method of cooking vegetables, which is (a) steam, (b) add olive oil, (c) eat. Yawn. I could do it because taste isn’t as important to me as convenience. When you cook for other people, though, you need to pay attention to what they care about. And frankly, there’s nothing inherently evil about following a recipe. I need to remember that. Maybe I’ll make a sign or something.
- How to Be Persuasive (and Not Get Persuaded): also by by Valerie Reiss from BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. (She’s a friend.) It’s not “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (although I’ve been told that’s a good book to read, despite the cringe/cliche factor). It has more to do with advertising and the things they (THEY) use to get us (YOU! ME! YOUR CHILDREN!) to buy stuff (CRAP! It’s all CRAP!). Valerie takes a couple of the items to another level, such as this one: “Giving someting away makes it less desirable. (This might be a good one to apply to our relationships–if we over-give, we can be under-valued.)” Indeed. This one, “Admitting you’re wrong makes people trust you more,” might be true for everyone except the President of the United States.
- Intent.com is a strange site. There’s a lot of “I intend to” do whatever. Usually it’s positive, as in “I intend on making today my best possible day,” rather than, oh I don’t know, “I intend to transport a hooker across state lines despite the fact that I’m married and am Governor of New York.” Then there’s this one: “My Intent is to breathe in and out all day
” I should hope so! I see these “intend” statements and it makes me think of Yoda. “Do, or do not. There is no try.” (Here’s video if you, for some strange reason, don’t know what I’m talking about.) I mean, who INTENDS to do something bad? Or stupid? Or immoral? I guess the idea is something of a “think positive and good things will happen”/”The Secret” type thing. Whatever gets you through the night is all right, I suppose, but at some point doesn’t it make sense to, like, think in terms of actually DOING something? - Deepak Chopra would like us to “Intend the Return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.” I mean, sure. That would be nice. I’m guessing diplomacy would work better, though.
- Let’s close out with another Deepak post, this one about what the proper age is to teach children meditation. Best advice in there is this: “It’s important that they don’t feel pressured to meditate because the parents want them to.” Can you imagine? “Dammit Jimmy, I gave you a friggin’ mantra! Now close your eyes and chant! CHANT, DAMN YOU!”
Image: Amazon
Read more:
DaddyTips Show And Tell – News and Links
Tip of the Day – Exercising Parental Restraint
There are many things that we want to say but don’t. This is true of everyone but it is particularly true of parents.
For example:
My son says, “I wish you could walk two puffles at once.”
What I want to say:
“I don’t give a crap about Club Penguin. Please stop talking to me about it. I would rather discuss almost any other topic. Stop. STOP!”
What I actually say:
“Oh yeah?”
Sometimes it’s more difficult to keep composure, but it’s worth the effort of course. Still, there will come a day — perhaps five minutes from now — when Club Penguin will be put to bed and I won’t have to hear about it. At least not until tomorrow.
Image: Amazon
(Note: The image has nothing to do with this post, except that it has the word “restraint” in it. I’ve never seen the movie. It looks quite awful.)
Making Lists When You Have Kids
When someone makes a list of things to do, the assumption is that those things will get done. Maybe not right away, but the point of making the list is to remind yourself of things that you want to do.
Passive Resistance
Passive Resistance:
For Ghandi, it was an effective form of protest. Read more »
