So this here is yet another beloved product I acquired at Red Apple, located in pleasant Mountain View, Anchorage. These chilies caught my attention because I was in need of some typical "chili pepper" shake-on topping, like what one might typically use on a slice of pizza from Costco.

Well, I got 'em of course and let me tell you what, they are fantastic. Thai chilies, ground into a form factor which makes them "shakeable". I discovered something important, though. You know the ususal "chili pepper" bottle you'd see in a pizzaria? Well, I suppose the manufacturers remove the dust and super-fine particles from those chili pepper "dots" that would otherwise perk up a boring pepperoni slice.

The folks at Dragonfly, the makers of these Thai chilies? They ain't removing nothing. If you look at the photo, you might be able to discern the bottle is full of what looks like red sawdust between the flakes. That ain't sawdust. It is debilitating. Eye-watering. Blinding. Painful. And persistent. Merely opening the bottle releases a bit of invisible particulate matter in the air. This is... the Devil's inhaler. If you breathe in near the bottle during use, you will not forget it. And don't even dream of rubbing your face or eyes. Oh no you don't.

Danger aside, these are great chilies. I've found them extremely handy for cranking up the heat in a stir fry, as it's just a case of shaking on the fire. Oh yes. And for pizza? Absolutely! Wow. Those ordinary "chili pepper" dots? Forgotten. I gotta go with the Thai version, even if it comes with consequences. Well worth it.

	Sambal Olelek. This is where the fire comes from. Plop a big ol' glob of this into a small dish. Maybe a couple of tablespoons worth.
	Rice vinegar. Add in an equal amount of this stuff to the bowl with the Sambal Olelek.
	Splenda. The kind in packets. You'll need a pretty good amount of this, too, like maybe five packets. And why yes, that is a pretty good amount of the stuff.

So what you're concocting here is a three-way battle between fire, tang, and sweet. The recipe is simple, the results profound. Tweak the proportions to suit your tastes. This sauce produces a sneaky hot which will enable you to consume far more Sambal Olelek than you probably ever could otherwise. Prepare to be lit up.

This was just too much fun. Check out http://nekofont.upat.jp/index2.cgi and have fun making words with the Neko Font app! In case you didn't know, "Neko" is Japanese for "Cat."

A few years back when we did a kitchen remodel we picked up an American Standard composite sink, because we liked the big single open sink instead of a typical two-well stainless steel sink.

The sink is made out of a black plastic that one might take to be carbon fiber, but is really just some, well, black plastic. Coated in white enamel or faux enamel. Anyhow, whatever the white finish is, it sure ain't "stain resistant". Or if it is "resistant", it resists about as well as I do against pecan pie.

Okay, so you ask, how do you get rid of stains in a white composite kitchen sink?

Bleach. I tried Ajax. Tried Comet. Tried other "With Bleach" cleaners. And of course, since we're talking cleaners here, you never mix cleaners together. And have plenty of ventilation. And read the manufacturer's warnings. And don't do this if you have a septic system. All that.

So anyhow, here is what I did: Pour bleach into the bottom of the sink on the stained areas. Right out of the bottle. Bleach. Clorox, store brand, whatever. Bleach. Let it sit for about five minutes. You can literally watch the stains disappear. Rinse the sink out like crazy, and when done, rinse it more.

So in this picture, you'll note it is a bit yellow. This is one day after I bleached that thing bone white. So yes, this is the "After" picture, but one day's wear later. So the bleach trick will give you a fabulous looking sink for a day. If you're selling the house and need that perfect look, this is the trick. Oh, and of course seriously ventilating the house so it doesn't smell like bleach. So the thing about bleach is, it isn't actually removing the stains, it is bleaching them. If you could use a microscope, whatever is there causing the stain, be it a rough surface or some other material, it's there. Except now it's bleached white. So now you got your white sink back. For a day. Enjoy.

• Today, gold is USD 1,580.75 / ounce.
• 1,000,000,000,000 / 1,580.75 = 632,611,102.324845801043808318836 ounces
• or 39538193.89530286256523801992725 pounds
• or 19769.096947651431282619009963625 tons
• One troy ounce of gold is 0.098 cubic inches
• 10.204081632653061224489795918367 ounces of gold = 1 cubic inch
• 632611102.324845801043808318836 ounces of gold / 10.204081632653061224489795918367 = 61995888.027834888502293215245973 cubic inches
• 1728 cubic inches in 1 cubic foot
• 61995888.027834888502293215245973 cubic inches / 1728 = 35877.250016108153068456721785862 cubic feet
• Typical 40 foot shipping container holds 2720 cubic feet
• 35877.250016108153068456721785862 cubic feet / 2720 = 13.190165447098585686932618303626 40-foot shipping containers

So right now I am on fire. A half-hour ago I devoured a bunch of baked tofu that was doused in Sambal Olelek, a fiery mix of chili, garlic, and I guess even more chili. So good, but not for beginners. This is not introductory-level hot at all.

So I will provide to you a recipe that will just plain send you into a profuse sweat. Here you go:

Ingredients

• 1 package firm tofu
• 1/4 bottle (2 oz.) Sambal Olelek
• 4 packets Splenda
• 3 tablespoons rice vinegar

Directions

• Cube tofu into bite-sized pieces
• Bake in convection oven at 350°f. for 20 minutes
• While the tofu is baking, mix up the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
• Once the tofu is done baking, you can either dip the tofu pieces into the bowl, or just add the pieces into the bowl

So this will result in what amounts to fire soup. But the thing is, the sweetness and vinegar masks much of the heat, so you end up consuming far more chili than would normally be possible. I'm still sweating a bit. But it is so good. So good. Worth the burn.

So from my mom I did receive a recipe for Pistou Soup, a hearty Olde World soup hearkening to days gone by. What follows is a quick knock-off of that same soup, which also liberated an old vacuum-sealed corned beef leftover I had in the freezer. This recipe here is really a recollection of what I tossed in the pot more than something I'd expect somebody else to follow

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 1 bag 15-bean soup mix
• 1 big ol' slab of leftover corned beef, along with potatoes, onion, and whaterver; sealed in a Foodsaver vacuum sealed bag. Diced. That is, cut up the corned beef into nice bite-sized chunks.
• 1 cube Knorr beef bullion
• 1 cube Maggi chicken/tomato bullion
• 1 onion, diced
• 8 baby carrots, diced
• 3 celery stalks, complete with tops, diced
• Big mess of basil, previously dried and broken up into pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt to taste
• Serious squirt of tomato paste (from tube) or maybe a couple of tablespoons out of a can

Directions

• Get out your big Fagor pressure cooker (what, you don't have a pressure cooker?)
• Add in the water, 15-bean soup mix, and maybe a clove of minced garlic
• Bring to boil, the seal up the pressure cooker and let run under pressure for 25 minutes
• Release pressure using the cold water release method, and return pot to stove, to a not-in-use burner
• With the pressure released, open the pot and add in all the ingredients
• Bring to boil, the seal up the pressure cooker and let run under pressure for 25 minutes
• Release pressure using the cold water release method
• Give it a taste. I found it needed a bit of salt.
• Get a long wooden spoon or something stiff, and carefully dislodge any beans which may have settled to the bottom of the pot and cooked to the pot floor. Carefully. After all, it is a pot full of hot soup, right?

When I cooked this, the entire bottom of the pot had the beans stuck to it, and they burnt slightly. Okay, well, more than slightly. But, they really took on an okay flavor of their own. I used a long spoon to knock the burnt beans loose and stir them into the soup. The soup was really great stuff, the corned beef is something I'd never have thought to add to it.

So, this version of Pistou Soup is missing probably half the ingredients, so that's why I call it Faux Pistou Soup. But, it's easy enough to slap together, especially if you just so happen to have an old hunk of corned beef available, as I did. The soup was too good, and I ate two big bowls of it. As I type this, while sitting on the couch with laptop in lap, my pants are partially unzipped and the belt buckle is undone. Too much Faux Pistou Soup!

So it starts like this: Deanna's mom decided to give basically brand new Subaru Impreza to Rachel. You see, Rachel is starting a co-op internship at Kohler, and will not be at Michigan Tech for almost a year. So, Rachel did need a decent set of wheels, and Grandma was happy to help. But how to get the car down there? We decided to get the car transported to Kent, WA, and drive it across the Mid-West to Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

My Facebook photo gallery
Photo gallery here. Not as fancy, but if you don’t like Facebook, here you go.

So here are some thoughts on the trip:

God was good God was very merciful to my daughter and I. We experienced no bad weather, no accidents, and did not get smacked by a wayward tire; more on that later.

The Snoqualmie Pass is dicey Our journey started in Kent, WA, where we picked up the car. We got on I-90, and headed east. Of the 2600 or so miles we drove, the Snoqualmie Pass was about the worst conditions we encountered. The winds were awful, and there were always big rigs nearby.

Spokane has good Chinese food Gordy's Sichuan Cafe was a spot we discovered via Tripadvisor. While our lunch did cost $42, it was admittedly a delight to chow down on, and the leftovers reheated just fine into dinner.

Coeur D'Alene, why? Coeur D'Alene is a very popular city in Idaho, but I'm just not sure why. Admittedly, we arrived late in the day, and took off by 5:30 a.m., but I just didn't see what all the hoopla was about. They did have Elmer's, a once-popular restaurant in Anchorage. The room we had at the local La Quinta was well-worn, but nice. It had a kitchenette, and only cost $55, including a free breakfast. I'd stay there again for sure. Oh yeah, Coeur D'Alene is located on the West side of Idaho, just a few miles away from Spokane, WA.

Western Montana is nice Our trek took us across the the skinny top of Idaho, so we passed into Montana quickly. The West portion of Montana is quite mountainous, and included some passes which had tire chain-up areas. I'd describe those spots as very "Christmasy" looking.

The rest of Montana is nice, too Pressing on into Montana, we ate lunch at the city of Butte, an old mining town which now hosts a university and some interesting quirky old shops. We each had a slice of "the rail" pizza at the Broadway Cafe, another gem we found using Tripadvisor. Montana is ranch country. You can have any color of steer you like, so long as it is black. The cattle were quite prevalent, it seems that the winter did not bother them at all. I observed a line of cattle, walking single file up a hill. Nobody was leading them. Odd. Another time I saw cattle line up in a huge row, as if they were football players on the scrimmage line. I recall passing through Missoula, Bozeman, and finally, Billings.

Billings Montana - "The Big City" We drove on and spent the night in Billings, Montana; the largest city we came across in the Gold and Silver state. From what we could tell, refineries were the main employment around the area, and the gas was the cheapest we found, I think $2.97 a gallon. Dinner was another Tripadvisor win, Cafe DeCamp. Just Plain Awesome. This is Nativity Lamb. No knife needed. Rachel and I saw so many tempting dishes go by. I could honestly see revisiting Billings just to eat there again. And again.

North Dakota - Bleak Without offending any ND fans, I can honestly say that were it not for the oil discovered there, North Dakota should have been given to the Canadians. We crossed the entire state and I do not recall seeing a single tree, horse, cow, pig, rabbit, skunk, bird, or any living thing outside the cities, which were extremely few and far between. Oddly enough, though, they had really good cell coverage compared to Montana. We had lunch at Bismark, ND, and this is where Tripadvisor failed us. Miserably. The sandwich shop we first looked up and drove to was out of business. The Schlotzky's Deli we drove to instead was also out of business. We ate at Arbys, and then I got a cup of gas station coffee (pictured) that was so bad that I had to throw it out unfinished. If ashtray was a coffee flavor, I was drinking it. I have seriously had better coffee at a Salvation Army shelter. I have. Bismark is so depressing, it looks like the poster child for the failed economy. So many closed businesses. God have mercy on North Dakota. We spent the night at Fargo, ND, right on the Minnesota border. Our stay at La Quinta was quite pleasant, the facility was very recently built and was frankly, nicer than the Hilton Garden Inn we stayed at the previous night. The most remarkable thing about our stay was the man next door to our room. This guy got off the elevator carrying a large sack of liquor, the sack being a translucent plastic. It had many bottles of booze in it, including a bottle of Stoli big as a Clorox bottle. The same guy stuck a Do Not Disturb tag on his room door, so I guess he was settling in for the evening. I pray he didn't drive anywhere for the next 72 hours. If North Dakota ever wants to revisit their state motto, may I humbly suggest "The Bleak State".

Minnesota Fargo ND is right on the border of Minnesota, so our morning drive took us right into a beautiful sunrise, as we headed what I think was "downhill" until we rolled into Edina, MN; just outside of Minneapolis Rachel had a hankerin' for eating at Panera Bread, so we did just that, at the same Panera Bread location I visited earlier in the year. After that, we hit up Mall of America to get some chocolate at the Lindt store. I don't have any pics of MOA< sorry, but you can see the Lindt truffles we bought. I love that store because the have all the flavors in one shop. Yum. The previous night, while we were in Fargo, ND, the playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers was going on. Minnesota lost, so the sports radio was basically a funeral service mixed with a blamestorming session. The radio in Wisconsin, however, was nothing but jubilation.

Wisconsin Wisconsin is just pain odd. They use letters to designate highways, so you see stuff like "X", "XX", "NN", and whatever other letters they use. It was like they used an Excel spreadsheet to label stuff. There are fireworks stands everywhere. The main industry is cheese, beer, and brauts, so it is Octoberfest every day there. The people are pretty round, so it looks like they're doing their fair share of consuming the state's produce. I can't blame them, the cheese curds are awesome.

We stopped in Green Bay, WI, to take a picture in front of the legendary Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. By evening, we arrived at Sheboygan, Rachel's home for the next few months. After unloading the car, we had a quick dinner at Jimmy Johns. Finally, a night to sleep in a bed that could be called "home".

Michigan The next morning, again at 5:30 a.m., we were out the door and driving up to Ishpeming, MI, to get Rachel's other belongings from her Michigan Tech roommate. The drive was pleasant and without incident. We gassed up at Crivitz WI, where Rachel can recount a story about her and her friends being ran off the road by a big rig. Thank you Jesus for watching over our daughter and her friends, they could have ended up dead. So after grabbing her belongings and returning to Sheboygan WI, we ate at Culvers, a Wisconsin institution. I'd describe Culvers as being on par with In-And-Out or Five Guys. Culvers has fried cheese curds, though. And frozen custard, made right in the store. "Yum" doesn't do it justice.

Kohler Well, Kohler is the reason for this whole cross-country adventure. Rachel will be doing a what, 8-month internship there? Something like that. Anyhow, Kohler-the-factory is located in Kohler, WI. It is literally a "company town" formed back in the early 1900's for the factory. The big attraction there for non-employees is The Design Center. I want to go back and spend a day there just pouring over the historical stuff, which I found incredibly fascinating. Their custom bathrooms and kitchens were just amazing. This is the place where millionaires come to shop. So nice. I do pray Rachel has a fantastic time working at, and for, Kohler. Of course I pray she works for Jesus primarily, and the rest will take care of itself.

Chicago So, it is time to go fly home. Rachel, her friend Hailey, and I believe it was Josh; we all pile into the car and head to Chicago's O'Hare Airport, about a 2-hour drive from Sheboygan, WI. Heading into O'Hare, we had to pay at a toolbooth. Just a few miles to O'Hare, we nearly got smacked by a tire that somebody had left on the roadside. The tire starts rolling right into the freeway traffic! Praise Jesus, we were able to stop without getting rear-ended. So the tire, it is rolling across all the traffic lanes, taking it's time. Amazingly, no accident resulted. At the next toll stop, it was automated, and if you didn't have a prepaid radio badge, you had to pay $1.50 in coins. We had to scramble between the four of us to dig up quarters, two dimes, and a nickel. I kissed my daughter goodbye at the airport, and once inside, had a fine lasagna lunch at Macaroni Grill. Home I came without incident, and that pretty much does up the story on our cross-country adventure. Dear Jesus, thank you for watching over us, and please watch over my daughter as she starts on a new adventure working at Kohler.