Get your spice on! Ghost Pepper Salsa.

So are you craving some spicy salsa? This salsa will definitely tingle your taste buds. Made with some seriously hot Ghost Peppers, a.k.a. Naga (Bhut) Jolokia, one of the worlds heavy hitters on the Scoville Scale.

Here’s the video on how I make the salsa, following is the ingredients.

Ghost Pepper Salsa:

• 1 – 10 Ghost Peppers (Naga Jolokia)
  • HOT:  1 – 3 peppers
  • REALLY HOT:  4 – 6 peppers
  • STRAIGHT OUT OF HELL:  7 – 10 peppers
• 10 tomatillos
• 2 avocados
• 1/4 whole onion
• 1 – 2 garlic cloves
• juice of one lime
• salt to taste

Remember to use caution!

These peppers are hot and can cause skin to burn on some people. 

It will hurt if you get it in your eye no matter who you are, avoid doing this.

Vapors coming out when blended are strong, DO NOT stick your nose over the blender and take a big whiff.

Never Forgotten.

I often wonder what little pieces of information my boys will always remember from their childhood.  At some point I know someone has impressed them with some piece of advice that will stay with them forever.  Here’s one that has always stayed with me:

I remember when I was about 9 years old, I was sitting next to my Grandpa Anthony in a lawn chair looking out on the Columbia River from his yard in The Dalles on W. 10th street.  It was a hot afternoon so we were sitting in the shade on the east side of the house.  He was cutting the skin off an apple with his pocket knife and explaining to me the importance of having clean fingernails.

He said, “It doesn’t matter how little money you have, you can always have clean fingernails.”

Clean fingernails, simple enough.

The picture above is one of my all-time favorites.  That is my Grandpa working on a truck with his dog holding the work light.  He was a mechanic, working mainly on diesel engines.  For him cleaning his hands wasn’t as easy as just sticking them under a faucet, it took some time and effort.  Lava soap and a stiff brush was usually involved in the task.

At the time I was more interested in getting a slice of the apple than getting advice on hygiene.  I wonder if he was sharing his thought because my hands were dirty at the time, or because he really felt it was important.  I imagine it was because of both.

He never went anywhere without combing his hair, washing his hands and face and making sure he looked presentable.  ‘Getting ready to go’ meant more than checking for the wallet, keys and going to the bathroom.  Even if he never planned on getting out of the car, he was presentable – just in case.

To this day I remember that afternoon and the words of wisdom he shared.  He died about a year and half later, but that day and what my grandpa said is always with me.  Never forgotten.

Amazing, isn’t it?  Our words can have such an impression and lasting effect.

I’m sure you have similar memories, can you feel that moment like it just happened?

More than a book.

A lot of time has passed since my dad left a book for me to read. He thought I would enjoy it and set it with some other books in my downstairs hallway.

The book just sat there. I really didn’t have any interest in reading the book. The book was written by an author I was unfamiliar with, was lengthy and I was sure the story would not be very interesting…even though I never even read the jacket cover to find out what it was about.

I never thought about moving it. I would notice it and just as quickly disregard it. I was certain the book was of no interest to me.

Last week I finally picked it up and started reading it. I found it hard to put it down. The book was really good.

It’s strange that the book I assumed would not interest me, consumed me.

It makes me think of other times that someone has left me something, for my benefit, that I completely ignored. Whether that ‘something’ was a book or an idea or an observation, I’m sure there have been many that would have had a positive effect if I had just taken the time to trust.

There are so many people who are willing to help out with the journey, but it is so easy to pretend I’ve already arrived. I know it was just a book that sat around for long time, but it is amazing how something so trivial can provide such insight to me.

It’s with others that life is truly lived, and the journey without them would be just wandering. I do appreciate the insight.

Waist sizes lie. Right Muffintop?

I’m not sure what exactly I was thinking when I thought my waist size is the same, so not a big problem.  Then I measured, no surprise my waist was 34 inches.  But my gut, my expanding bulge is an embarrassing 39 inches.  Ugh!  I’m a muffin top, just like the lady in the picture above.

I don’t spend any time googling over myself in the mirror, maybe I should start though.  I could invest in a full length mirror and spend a little more time checking myself out.

I have never had someone tell me I am overweight.  I don’t look overweight in the clothes I wear either.  But with a girth of 39 inches and body fat hovering around 25% it’s time for me to make some changes.

Last weekend I measured.  Measuring inches was one of three measurements, with body fat % and actual weight being the other two ways.  I have a baseline and I’m motivated to improve my lean mass to body fat% ratio.

Right now I’m closing out week #5 of my nicotine cessation.  I have read that when people stop smoking they gain weight.  I don’t want to gain weight, I don’t want to maintain weight, I want to lose weight.  If I’m going to reinvent myself I figure I should do all I can right now.  Why spread this over a longer period of time by giving up one thing, then changing another and later another.  I can go through all the crap at the same time.

What amazes me is this:  I really thought my weight was not an issue.  I figured I could lose a few pounds and feel better.  I was shocked to discover the muffin top phenomena happening less than 2-feet from eyes…shocked.  I guess there is a lot of truth in the saying “you only see what you want to see”.  There also is this, I don’t spend any time googling over myself in the mirror, maybe I should start though.  I could invest in a full length mirror and spend a little more time checking myself out, of course to avoid shocks like in this in the future.   Maybe those people that always take time to steal a glance of themselves in a mirror, or their reflection in glass are really just monitoring their well-being?  Smart.

It’s been a challenge for me to sit down and write out posts lately.  The quitting nicotine has made some tasks a little more challenging.  I will be posting more on how the quit is going, and specifics on my health goals.

Hope your 2012 is going great!

2 iPhones, 2 Apps, 1 Seven Year Old

Last night the lil guy was anxious to get his hands on my iPhone and my wife’s. It was about 7:30pm and his ploy was that they both probably needed to be charged and he was more than willing to bring them upstairs and charge them for us. Okay, I’ll bite.

After about 20 minutes I went to check on him and see what he was doing. Walking up the stairs it was apparent to me that he was having a lot of fun, all I could hear was giggles and funny voices.

When I opened the door I found him on my bed with both iPhones in hand. On one phone he had recorded him talking with pauses on a voice changer app and was playing it so the talking Tom app on the other phone would listen and repeat. There had been significant thought that went into doing this, it really Impressed me.

He experimented with different voice changes, causing his giggles to grow.

I wish I had video-taped it. I might try to later this week, but I’m sure it will be hard to capture that pure joy he was experiencing last night. It never gets old hearing a child giggle and be lost in the moment. Never.

In the end he was able to once again hijack my iPhone, and his mom’s. Although he got close to the charger they were never plugged into one. But as for me? I got recharged.

Our children are experts in knowing us. They know exactly how far they can go, what actions cause certain reactions and usually know when they’ve crossed a line. For the past 2 years my iPhone has been a desired object to play with, and although I have banned him from time to time, he always ends up getting to use it again. I like to think I’m the one calling the shots, but really I’m not so sure.

I can’t wait to see what he thinks of next.

Day 22: Measuring for success

December 11th was the day I chose to stop using smokeless tobacco (equivalent to 4-packs of cigarettes a day) and start improving my health.  It’s not been an easy 3 weeks, but I’m still free from tobacco.  I really stopped in a great time of year, Christmas, New Years, long dark days…ugh.

I’m constantly feeling like I need to do something, but I’m lacking the desire to do anything.  It’s a strange place and I’m going to change that.

This week I am doing base measurements of weight, fat %, body measurements and resting heart rate.  Why would I do this?  I’m going to create a better me and keeping track of the data is key to being successful.

Last Spring I followed the slow-carb diet outlined in the book by Timothy Ferris “The 4-Hour Body”.  Honestly, I liked the diet and had some great results.  The problem was, I got busy with work and lazy with food choices.  Now it’s time to get back on track and improve my health.  I’m starting the diet again on Sunday, 8-Jan-2012.

If you haven’t yet read the 4-Hour Body, I’d recommend it.  Timothy really has packed a book full of health ideas based on his life long experimentation on himself.  Only downside of the book is that is reads like it was written by someone with a serious case of ADHD, so if you’re going to follow any of the ideas it requires some serious note taking.

Here is a loose list of health goals I want to achieve in 2012:

• Reduce resting heart rate
• Decrease Fat% | Increase Muscle%
• Run 5k in 20 minutes (I have not ran in literally decades)

Over the next few weeks I’ll better define the goals, adding some measurements.

I’m not wishing for this to happen, I’m making this happen.

2012 is going to be a great year!

See previous post on quitting nicotine:  Day11:  No More Ninja

A Simple Act of Kindness.

This morning I went to Dutch Bros on 4th & Harrison in Corvallis.  I ordered a large 911 for me and a not-so-hot chocolate for the lil guy, the Barista told me the charge was $1.75.  He said, “the car in front of you paid for your drink.”

What?!?  That is so cool.  And I have to admit it’s nice being the recipient of a random act of kindness.

I was paying with a debit card, and thought putting $1.75 on the card would be strange, so I decided to up the anti and paid for a few more drinks for the cars behind me…à la Pay it Forward (or in this case backward).

What was really cool is how it just changed my day for the better.  It wasn’t going bad at all anyway, but I think my smile got a little more brighter and it was fun explaining to the lil guy what just occured.

So to whomever paid for my drink this morning, THANK YOU!

Have you ever had someone just randomly pay for something you were purchasing?  How did it make you feel?  Or, have you been the one randomly picking up a stranger’s tab?  Share in the comment section below: