Blueberry Goat Cheese Pie*

Craig Dessert

goatcheesepie

Ingredients

Crust

  • 2 Cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ Cup (1 stick) cold margarine, cubed
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • Cold water

Filling

  • ½ Cup soft goat cheese
  • ½ Cup heavy cream
  • 1 Large egg
  • ½ Cup light brown sugar
  • ¼ Cup all-purpose flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
  • 5 Cup fresh blueberries

Topping

  • 1 Cup sliced almonds
  • 1/3 Cup sugar
  • 1⁄3 Cup margarine, melted

Preparation

Step 1: Crust

Combine the flour, margarine, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Work with your fingers gathering and crumbling until you have a crumbly mixture about the size of peas.

Step 2: Crust

In 2-tablespoon amounts (about ½ cup total), slowly add cold water, gently incorporating by hand. As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Filling

Mix together the goat cheese, heavy cream, egg, brown sugar, flour, salt, and basil in a bowl. Add the blueberries and combine; the texture will be like a thick cake batter.

Step 4: Topping

Mix together the almonds, sugar, and margarine in a bowl and set aside.

Step 5: Assembly

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 18⁄ -inch thickness and place into a 10-inch pie pan. Trim and crimp the edges and prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. Par-bake the crust for 15 minutes, or until fi rm. Let cool slightly. Pour the filling into the crust and sprinkle the topping over the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until slightly bubbling and the crust is browned, rotating the pie halfway through. Let the pie cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack before serving so the filling can firm up.

Austria’s ‘Stairway to Nothingness’

Craig TravelTime

This is definitely on my list of places I would like to see.

Ãsterreich / Dachstein Treppe

Ãsterreich / Dachstein Treppe

Ãsterreich / Dachstein Treppe

An Austrian resort opened a new attraction for andrenaline junkies on July 3, 2013. The suspension bridge and glass platform offer spectacular views of the Alps, but at such dizzying heights that only the bravest are likely to test their mettle.

Anyone with a fear of heights should steer clear of a new attraction on the Dachstein Massif, an Alpine peak in Austria.

The freshly inaugurated suspension bridge near the town of Schladming leads to fourteen steps down a cliff, ending on a glass platform that highlights vertigo-inducing views of the mountain landscape below. The “stairway to nothingness” is only for visitors with “nerves of steel,” the Dachstein Glacier resort’s website reads.

Their reward, however, is the “pure freedom” of hovering above a 400-meter (1,300-foot) drop while taking in the spectacular landscape of the Austrian Alps.

The 100-meter-long bridge, which opened on Wednesday after six months of construction, is the highest in Austria, according to the resort.

Household 3D Printers Can Pay For Themselves in a Year

Craig TechieTalk

Saw this article on Gizmodo.

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If you’ve been pondering over whether a 3D printer is a sound financial decision, here might be your answer: researchers have calculated that they can pay for themselves inside a single year.

The study, conducted at Michigan Technological University, considered 20 common household items—smartphone cases, a garlic press, a shower head, the list goes on—listed on Thingiverse, then used Google Shopping to work out the maximum and minimum cost of buying them online (not including shipping). Then, the researchers also calculated how much it would cost to make each using a household 3D printer.

The results are pretty amazing: it would cost between $312 to $1,944 to buy the items, but just $18 to make using the 3D printer. Clearly, the printers are expensive, but those figures suggest that they can pay for themselves in a time frame of months to years. The research is published in Mechatronics. Joshua Pearce, who led the research, >explains

“With the exponential growth of free designs and expansion of 3D printing, we are creating enormous potential wealth for everyone… [Y]ou don’t need to be an engineer or a professional technician to set up a 3D printer. Some can be set up in under half an hour, and even the RepRap can be built in a weekend by a reasonably handy do-it-yourselfer.”

Of course, there’s a time investment involved in downloading designs, tweaking them, and experimenting with manufacturing—but that could be seen as part of the charm, too. If you weren’t excited about 3D printing by now, this news might be just enough to tip you over the edge.

4th of July, 2013

Craig PhotoOps

 

Took these photos using my Nokia Windows Phone.  The animated GIFs are kind of cool.

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Stuffed Mushrooms

Craig Appetizer

Ingredients

24 Large Fresh Mushrooms – 1 ½” – 2” Diameter
1/4 Cup Slice Green Onions (2)
1 Clove Garlic (Minced)
2 Tablespoon Fine Dry Bread Crumbs
1/2 Pound Italian Sausage

Preparation

  1. Rinse and clean mushrooms.  Remove stems; reserve caps.  Chop enough stems to make 1 cup.
  2. In a medium saucepan cook the chopped stems, green onions, and Italian sausage, until sausage is no longer pink.   Drain fat well.  Stir 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese and the bread crumbs into sausage mixture.
  3. Spoon mixture into mushrooms caps.
  4. Arrange mushrooms in a 15x10x1 inch baking pan.  Bake in 425o oven for 8 to 10 minutes or till heated through.

Old Photo of Family Grocery Store

Craig FamilyTies

In the photo Michaelis Food Store is the building on the corner right across the street from the clock tower (not yet built to the right of the main building) of Ghirardelli.

Old Photo of Michaelis Food Store Building