edible charcoal

And yet another recipe from the Trib, which turned to Homaro Cantu, noted chef and host of Planet Green’s “Future Food,” for a little help in coming up with something to fool your friends.

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons squid ink (available from gourmet retailers or online)
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
1 loaf unsliced white bread
4 cups vegetable oil

What to do:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the squid ink, rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a medium saucepan to 325 degrees.
3. Cut all of the crust from the bread.
4. Cut rounded cubes to resemble charcoal briquettes or rip the bread to resemble natural charcoal.
5. Toss the bread in the squid ink mixture until fully coated. Lay on a cooling rack with a tray under it to drip dry for 10 minutes.
6. Carefully drop your “briquettes” into the hot oil and cook 2-3 minutes until crispy.

yum, bleh, yum, bleh...

$5 Amazon card for survey

Saw this on Hip2Save and completed the first few questions on their survey:  apparently they’ve already reached their quota of old, white broads…  Click here and see if you qualify.  Click on the right side at the edge of the card to get to the survey.

and whoever heard of detergency.  and Invigorate. for what, underperforming cars?

Obese Ohio Man Found Fused to Chair

Wow, and here I thought I was gonna be stuck posting more of those “found dead/decomposed under piles of garbage” stories about hoarders…better news stories ahead, thanks to Fox!

A morbidly obese Ohio man was in the hospital Tuesday after police found him fused to a chair he had not moved from in two years and were forced to cut a hole in the wall of his house just to get him out, WTRF-TV reported.

The unnamed man lived with two able-bodied roommates — including his girlfriend, who officials said fed him since he never got up — in a home in Bellaire, Ohio. The roommates called police upon finding the man unresponsive on Sunday.

Officers who responded to the scene said that the man’s skin was fused to the fabric of chair and that he was sitting in his own feces and urine with maggots visible.

One officer said it was the worst thing he had ever responded to. Another told the local TV station he had to throw away his uniform after helping remove the man from the chair.

“The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It’s unbelievable that somebody lives in conditions like that,” Jim Chase, a local city code enforcer, told WTRF.

“I instructed the landlord this [Monday] morning and the two people, the tenants at the house, they had to get it cleaned, there’s no way they can live in something like that, and so they are working on it,” he added.

The landlord told WTRF that the man used to be an active person and said she had no idea how bad his condition was since he covered himself with a blanket every time she came to visit.

Note: picture is random, don’t know/care to know what the actual guy in the article looks like…shudder…

Phone Sex

Man gets 7 years for forcing modems to call premium numbers

Click here to find out more!March 01, 2011 — IDG News Service —

A New Hampshire man who made US$8 million by installing unwanted dial-up software on computers and then forcing them to call expensive premium telephone numbers was handed down an 82-month sentence on Monday.

Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2007, Asu Pala and others put together a lucrative business by setting up premium telephone numbers in Germany — similar to the 1-900 numbers used in the U.S. — and then infecting German PCs with software that would automatically dial the numbers for short periods of time.

The guy was only caught after he bought his second Lamborghini for cash…numbnuts…

Honey, I have no idea where those 900 phone calls came from?  Read the entire article here.

Fun people I’m glad I don’t know…

Cops:  Restaurant owner hospitalized by customer unhappy with his bill

The 55-year-old owner of Outriggers in Tinley Park was hospitalized with eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung Friday after an intoxicated customer unhappy with his bill allegedly attacked him Friday night.

A 40-year-old Mokena man faces a charge of battery after allegedly attacking the restaurant’s owner, police said. He was arrested at 10:37 p.m. Friday at the restaurant, 15917 S. Harlem Ave., after police responded to a call about a fight in progress and found the man being restrained by two employees.

The attacker cursed at police and resisted arrest, but was eventually taken into custody.

The owner was found in the restaurant’s office, sitting on a chair, slumped over his desk and complaining of chest pains. Before being taken by an ambulance, he told police that he had asked the customer to leave the store when he began to argue about his bill. He was walking with the customer toward the exit when the man stopped and slapped him in the head and punched him in the upper chest.

Others in the restaurant told police they saw the man hit the owner in the face with an open hand several times and then punch him in the chest. They also told police the man choked the owner by putting his arm around his neck before kicking his legs out from under him and slamming him to the ground.

After the incident, the attacker’s ex-wife and her 8-year-old son approached an officer outside of the restaurant and said they were with the man earlier, but had left before the incident occurred. Police transported the woman and her son to the police station to arrange a safe ride home because the woman was intoxicated, police said. The man was released after posting bail and is scheduled to appear in Cook County court April 27.

So this newspaper story earns this couple today’s Good Parenting Seal of Approval...

and yet another good reason to read the Trib!

My readers are odd…

and I wouldn’t have it any other way!  Christina write:

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! I had to move quite a few (free) items out of the way for the head to fit in the fridge, but the 8 year old wanted it there to say Happy St. Pat’s to the older girls, for when they awoke this morning.  The heads have a long history of the warped-ness of our humor over here. But, you have to admit, it is a unique greeting!  Those are cookies they all took to school today.  We also made ‘cereal’ (like rice crispy treats) bars out of some of the 93 packages of fruity pebbles from last week. (And free butter and free marshmallows… gee, do you see a theme here?!)

Here’s the “head” she talks about – imagine waking up to that in your fridge!

Forecast for higher food prices

This headline is run on an annual basis, methinks.  Here’s the article headline, which pretty much sums up a rather long-winded article:  Cheap food may be a thing of the past in U.S.  Americans spend only about 10% of their annual incomes on food, compared with as much as 70% in other countries, but with prices climbing, some economists wonder whether the nation’s abundance of affordable food is history. Here’s the Trib link to the entire story, if you don’t believe me.

Glen Ellyn Walmart

Just returned from that black hole of intelligence, aka Walmart.  You have to understand that I don’t have a long-term relationship with Walmart; I don’t equate various life stages with shopping trips.  In short, I’m not a WM diehard.  But if they’re taking RRs and giving me cash back, well, then, they’re my new BF.

Since I’ve gotten a number of emails asking about local WMs accepting coupons, cats and RRs, I decided to print out a copy of the new coupon policy and head over to the Glen Ellyn store on Rte 53.  I think the last time I was there was to pick up the free Gain dish soap – it’s been a while

Stopped first at the customer service counter to make certain that 1) they had knowledge of the new policy and 2) there would be no problems with using RRs.  CS guy has never seen/heard the new policy, it’s not posted anywhere, but since it’s corporate, he’s fine with it; calls over another young man (who must be acting in some sort of mgr capacity) to also approve it.  Other guy has no problems with it or the RRs.  It’s looking promising.

Nothing in stock at a price I’d ever want to pay.  Purex Complete 3-in-1 for $5.47?  i think not.  Found three things – and then DH dropped a couple of oil filters into the cart – so headed over to check out.  Five items, 3 coupons and then I handed over a $5 RR.   Cashier calls over the same mgr guy from earlier encounter at CS … No we can’t take these.  You have to use them at Walgreens.  So somehow the RRs he saw a few minutes earlier have now traveled from the approved side to the RUnutz? part of the WM equation.  Told them to cancel the transaction and give me back my coupons and, no, I didn’t want anything except the mgr’s head on a stick.  (well, that last part I was only thinking, real hard thoughts, though).

cause you cain’t fix stupid…

Reader brags post

I’m sharing a picture I just got from Christina who says:   I sent a photo from my phone to my email, cuz I am technologically challenged. (And I can’t type as fast on those tiny keys!) I got all that for under $5! There is chap sticks and gum missing, because we used them, and threw them in our purses! My daughters were so ecstatic, as they only get like NEW socks and underwear. (We got four more pairs [of jeans] after that picture.)

I ran around yesterday and today, I scored big on Fruity Pebbles! AND the first lady used the ‘additional blue’ pebbles (FOR BOXES!) coupons too—as it spit out of the machine! I was like what?! She said if it scans, I figure go for it. I am still so green, I was like cool, but whatever… I only paid $1.95 for my sets of five and didn’t know it till I got home!!! No wonder I couldn’t get the damn fillers to fill up my orders!!! Guess which Walgreen’s is my new favorite!? Actually, I always liked my store, but some of the other stores have sooooooooooo much more room/merchandise! AND they just got approved for a new one like a mile from the closest to my house!

Life is Good!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Thank you for sharing your post and picture, Christina.  I know how excited your girls must be to have so many new, “stylish” jeans and jeggings to choose from.

Anyone want to share their brags, email the Goddess.