Where good ideas come from...

A nice TED video by Steven Johnson. I'm always interested and fascinated by how things/ideas came to be. We should all sit around the coffee houses and bat around ideas!

The Coconut Trial

I was at Bi-Lo the other day shopping and while in with the fruits and veggies, I spied a coconut.  I had never messed with a whole coconut, so on a whim, I bought it.  Time to put it on trial.

Before I tell the rest of the story, let me let you in on a secret of James' mind.  My concept of coconut, comes from Gilligan's Island, and the coconut that is in Mounds / Almond Joy candy bars.  That's where I started from.

Last evening, I went online to see how to get into this thing.  Screwdriver to the eye, nice.  Not my eye, the coconut's (it had three).  I drained the water from the inside and strained it through some cloth.  Sip....not what I was expecting.  Not gross, but not like the liquid coconut cream pie I was expecting.

Next, I took a hammer to it and cracked off the outer husk.  Not so hard, the surface is scored to make it easier to crack.  The flesh was bright white, but still had some brown skin on the outside.  I peeled that off with a vegetable peeler and rinsed it off.  First taste....again, not what I was expecting.  Not sweet at all.  At this point, I'm pretty sure I won't be doing all this work again any time soon.  I finished peeling the pieces I had and went back to the internet for some ideas.

Toasted.  I peeled off a bunch of slivers and put them on a baking sheet with a little salt.  Toasted them in the over until they were golden brown.  Tasted pretty good.  Sweet, salty, coconutty...Very edible.

I put some in a bullet blender with some sugar and milk and proceeded to blend away.  What I got was like a coconut smoothy.  Not bad, but not worth the effort.

I was done with the coconut trial. 

Verdict:  I'm glad I learned how to get one open, and did it myself.  I was a little disappointed with the taste, but I'm sure that is from my unrealistic expectation.  I won't do it again any time soon, but I can't say I never will.

This is AWESOME!

I laughed so hard at this, my head hurts.  I feel like I almost vomited!

Wooden spoon prank!  The language makes it even better for me.  I can only imagine what the guy is saying, but I feel as if I know.

Shoes of the Father

I love this photo of my son's feet next to mine.  I don't want him to have feet like mine, they need to stop at size 13 or 14... ;)

For the Love of Sandwich(es)

I absolutely love a good sandwich.  From the classic PB&J to a Muffuletta from McAlister's Deli and most everything in between.  I think it comes from my childhood.  My dad was a sandwich guy.  He would make sandwiches with all these non-white breads, different types of cheese.  Pastrami.  I loved them.  I recently read an article in an old Men's Health that featured 25 different sandwiches.  I was drooling while reading how to make each one.  These were not the run of the mill bread, meat, cheese types of sandwiches.  No, no, how about #23, smoked salmon and dill on pumpernickel? or #12, open-faced prosciutto and asparagus?  I have a copy of the article on my computer now and I plan on trying each one.  In thinking about this, I have to mention another favorite sandwich.  The STP from Groucho's...with Formula 45 sauce for dipping.  BAM!!!!   My only complaint is that I could eat two without batting an eye, and that's cost prohibitive.  I'm going to get me some hoagie rolls, some Boars Head turkey and roast beef, fry up some bacon, a little provolone cheese.  I just have to figure out the Formula 45 sauce.  It's midnight, and now I'm hungry.  Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll dream of sandwiches... :)

First Video Post

My first YouTube video.  Taken with my digital camera. Took longer than I expected to upload.  Need to look into pre-formatting etc. to cut the upload time.  Video is self explanatory.  Makes me laugh!

Why didn't I learn this sooner?

My wife just taught me some fashion sense:

Don't wear black pants with brown shoes.
Don't wear solid blue with solid black.

This was the lesson for today.  I broke both rules this morning.  Apologies to everyone at church who had to look at me. :)

Before anyone responds...even if these are not real fashion rules, they are rules of the Clawson household.

Next post, grammar and spelling rules from my wife.  :)

Post after that will be about why my wife wants no part of this blog!