Simple Stir Fry Sauce Recipe: From Scratch

One of the most important things I keep in my fridge is a sauce I’ve developed that mimics typical simple stir fry sauces I’ve tasted in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the USA. I’ll keep it all as basic as I can, using ingredients you may have in your kitchen already.   Simple Stir Fry Sauce Recipe: Ingredients 1pt corn starch 1pt […]

Five Ingredient English Toffee Cookies Recipe

Growing up, my mother’s English toffee was one of my favorite candies.  She only made it around Christmas, but now I’m grown up and see how easy it is to make, which means I make it more often. The ironically-named English toffee (being a toffee some say is not toffee) is incredibly simple and easy to make.  […]

Four Ingredient Chocolate Fudge Recipe

Chocolate fudge is often seen as an expensive delicacy, rarely consumed and even more rarely made at home. This rich confection can be made at home far easier than most people realize, making it one of my favorite kinds of foods to make: something people associate with high cost that is not that way, at […]

Simple Global Energy Consumption Analysis

Simple Global Energy Consumption Analysis   Here’s a look at how the energy generated on this planet gets consumed: Our planet creates around 500 Exojoules of consumable energy, each year. While only encompassing almost 32% of the overall global population, China, the European Union, and the United States of America use over 50% of its total consumable energy. […]

How Much Do Federal Elected Officials Really Make?

A lot of people freak out about how much money our elected government spends, often choosing to go the route of, “Let’s stop paying them and see what happens to their policy-making!”  First of all, most Representatives/Senators/Vice-Presidents/Presidents made far more money in the private sector than they do in government.  Beyond that, when they were in the […]

A Simple Explanation of Inflation, Minimum Wage, and Value Meals

Many people don’t really understand inflation, so I thought a simple explanation of inflation might help.  One of the more interesting ways is to look at the history of inflation as it relates to the minimum wage, because while only 2% of Americans make minimum wage, almost all of us have been minimum wage employees […]

An Easy Way To Understand The USA’s Budget

Let me give you an easy way to understand the USA’s budget by comparing their numbers to something more familiar to you. Here’s the numbers regarding the 2012 US income/budget/debt:But that’s not easy to understand and appreciate. Because it just looks like such an enormous amount of money. So how about we remove some zeros and […]

Who Are You Voting For, or, A Realistic and Simple Breakdown Between Obama and Romney

So, I get into a lot of historical and political discussions with people.  I find most of them excruciatingly frustrating.  Most people have no idea what they are talking about and, really, I need to find the will-power to just stop talking to them about this stuff.  People don’t argue to share information: they argue […]

Can It Really Be That Simple?

My entire life, I’ve suffered from chronic sinusitis. I have permanent dark circles under my eyes and a constant stuffy nose, thanks to my being allergic to most every kind of grass/pollen/tree/dust/mold on the planet. It sucks, but the worst part isn’t actually the near-continuous sinus infection that is my life; the worst part is […]

Missing Macaroni

One of the things I miss from back in The States is Kraft Blue Box Macaroni & Cheese.  Yes, I know it’s processed crap.  I don’t care.  And I’m willing to bet a lot of people reading this right now feel the same.  After being served it since children, we develop the taste for it, […]

Pesto, As Promised

You have one big problem making a legitimate pesto sauce here in Taiwan: pine nuts.  Everything else is so easy it makes my marinara sauce recipe look difficult. To make a pesto sauce, you need nothing more than basil, olive oil, Parmesan, and garlic…and that elusive pine nut. I’ve only seen pine nuts at Costco and, […]

Eating Italian In Taiwan

Taiwan has a lot of great food. But both Italian and Mexican food are not on the list of things they do well. Traditionally, the Chinese like noodles served in a much more broth-like sauce – even their Italian versions of cuisine are noticeably loose. Think when you go to a bad Italian joint in […]

Homemade Brownies: A Healthier Alternative To Box Mix

I got to thinking about homemade protein brownies as they compared to cost, labor, and nutrition, compared to cooking out of a Pillsbury box. Finding recipes online can be a real frustration. I recently went looking for a homemade brownie recipe, as an alternative to typical store-bought “Box Brownies” that are both not necessarily available […]