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Sledgstone

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Blog Entries posted by Sledgstone

  3. Sledgstone
    I've been having some problems with vibration, noise and pulsating brakes with my blazer for a while. Since I replaced the front brakes, the problem hasn't improved much. Its mostly because the back e-brakes need to be grinded down more and the brake lines need to be bled. Hopefully once I finish those things, my brake problems will be over with. If not, it'll be time to take it into a shop. x_x
    Anyway, I did some more front brake work on the blazer last week. I cleaned off the rest of the leftover grease from the calipers, sprayed disc quiet on the brake pads to stop the annoying squeaking noise (which it did take care of) and I cleaned and liberally re-greased the caliper pins and rubber boots they fit into.
    Disc quiet works by acting as a sticky adhesive on the back plate of the brake pad. It causes the brake pads to stick to the caliper so that when the brake pressure is released, the caliper pulls the brake pads away from the rotor and holds them in place so they don't bang around or continue to slightly rub against the rotor while you are driving.
    Heres a pic of the sprayed on disc brake quiet on the brake pads. Always remember to spray brakleen on the sides of the pads or the metal nub ends if you spray them by accident.

    The brake pads put back on, with grease applied to the connecting points.

    This is the caliper bolt pin I mentioned in my other blog post for the front brake job. I wiped it down and mostly cleaned it up.

    Here it is greased up and ready to go back into the caliper/brake pad mounting piece.

    And if anyone is interested, here is a pic of the hand goop that I use to clean the grease, dirt, oil and grime off my hands. This crap works amazingly well.

  5. Sledgstone
    Instructions to make:
    Sledge's Dry Rib Rub and how to cook some pork ribs with a dry rub, smoke and no sauce!
    Serving size: 1 (or more if you cook more ribs)
    Ingredients for dry rib rub (enough for probably 2 or 3 medium sized racks of ribs)
    - 1/2 cup of paprika
    - 1/4 cup fresh ground black pepper
    - 1/4 cup salt (or fresh ground salt)
    - 2 tablespoons of onion powder
    - 2 tablespoons of garlic powder
    - 2/3 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
    And of course to smoke cook your ribs on your grill you'll need:
    - 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds of pork spare ribs
    - A couple handfuls of flavored wood chips
    - A cast iron smoke box for your wood chips
    - A piece of aluminum foil
    Instructions:
    1) Gather your ingredients for the rub and add them put them all into a bowl.

    2) Mix all the rub ingredients together. Its best to mix it with your hands, a fork, spoon or whisk just wont work as good.

    3) Rinse off your ribs and then pat them dry with a bunch of paper towels.

    4) Use one hand to grab rub and drop it liberally onto both sides of your ribs, and then use your other hand to rub it in. This way if you have extra rub left over you can save it in a baggie and refrigerate it without any contamination from touching the pork. If you don't plan on saving leftover rub, just dump it all over your ribs and put it on thick! You'll want to let it really permeate the ribs now. Cover it with plastic and refrigerate it, or if your ribs are still cold from the refrigerator, let them sit on the counter for a half hour or so while you warm up the grill and soak your wood chips.

    5) Put a handful or two into a bowl of water and let them soak for about a half hour. You can also turn on your grill and let it start heating up.

    6) Now that the grill has heated up, put your smoker box on the far right side. Grab a handful of wet wood chips, let the wood chips drain for a minute in your hand and then put the wood chips in the smoker. Not too many tho! Those wood chips need air to burn once you put the lid on. Also, turn off the left burner. You do not want to cook your ribs over direct flame. And turn the right burner down to about a medium flame.

    7) Before you put your ribs on the grill, lightly tap the ribs on its sides to get any excess rub off. Excess rub will look like dry patches of rub if as long as you let it soak into the ribs like I said. Now put the lid on your smoke box and put your ribs on the grill.

    8) Look at those ribs one more time because you won't be looking at them again for a while Close that grill and walk away for an hour. Within a half hour you'll probably see a light smoke coming out of the grill, you shouldn't have any flare ups because the ribs are not over direct heat. And by leaving the grill down for a full hour the grill will be cooking more like an oven and the smoke from the smoke box will circulate inside the grill filling the ribs with more flavor.

    9) An hour later, I flipped the ribs and added another small handful of fresh chips to the now fully burnt looking chips inside the smoke box. And now close that grill and let it cook for 1 more hour.

    10) After two hours of total cooking time, your ribs should be fully done. You can check with a meat thermometer, pork is well done at 170 degrees. When you take the ribs off the grill, immediately wrap them in aluminum foil and let them sit on a plate for a good 15 minutes. This lets the ribs reabsorb their moisture and allows more flavor to fully saturate the meat. If you don't wrap it in foil, the moisture will evaporate and collect on the plate. So wrap it!

    11) After 15 minutes, look at those ribs!

    12) Cut them into portions and look at the juicy results!

    13) Feel free to use a sauce on the side, but these ribs have all the flavor and tender flavor you need!

    14) Eat!

    This rub is a good sweet and spicy mix, but next time I cook ribs like this, I think I'll use a full cup of brown sugar to sweeten the rub a bit more. These ribs turned out quite good, but I think I still prefer my other rib recipe over this one... probably because its less time consuming and easier.
    Heres a link to my other rib recipe:
    St. Louis style ribs
  6. Sledgstone
    Doritos® Locos Tacos are the perfect combination of Doritos and Taco Bell. I'd say the perfect combination of tacos instead of "Taco Bell", but American tacos are completely different from actual tacos, but lets save that for another time. Currently there are two Doritos Locos Tacos available across the US, the Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese. Some parts of the US have a third flavor called "Flamas", these I have not seen yet in my area. I did however get one Cool Ranch and a Nacho Cheese.

    Its noticeable that these taco shells are large versions of Doritos. I like getting these as Supreme tacos, loaded with cheese and sour cream.

    The Doritos flavor really adds to these tacos. The key word is flavor, these are not full large versions of Doritos, but actually Doritos flavoring imparted upon taco shells. While Doritos are a very hard and crunchy chip, they did not do a full conversion, these are still taco shells. This makes sense because you are eating tacos. If these were full large scale chips, they wouldn't taste right because everyone is used to the taco shell taste when eating Taco Bell. You'll notice that the tacos come with thin cardboard sleeves, thats because these chips will impart their flavor all over your fingers and hands if you are not careful, especially the nacho cheese flavor. Even if you try to keep the tacos in their sleeves, you will still get seasoning all over your fingers.
    I recommend the Cool Ranch over the Nacho Cheese.. the nacho cheese flavor seems to blend in with the cheese of the taco and it doesn't seem to add much to the overall flavor. But the Cool Ranch tacos noticeably and completely change the flavor profile of the taco creating a completely unique taste experience.

    Should you eat these?
    Yes! Especially if you are a fan of Cool Ranch Doritos.
  7. Sledgstone
    Doctor Who has always been one of my favorite shows, but this last series with Peter Capaldi has hit a new low for me. I loved Matt Smith and David Tennant as their own respective doctors, but Peter Capaldi's doctor is so bland. He might be a better doctor if the show actually had decent writers though. In all of time and space to travel to, the doctor has spent about 90% of that season in the school where Clara works.. Surrounded by children, Peter Capaldi's age is even more pronounced and he is often seen as an old cranky man that only listens to his grand daughter's (Clara's) opinion. After talking with my parents, they seem to enjoy him as the doctor, and if anything, that was the goal of this last season.. to appeal to the older, original audience base of the show. But in the long term that won't work out good for the show seeing as the older audience base eventually lost interest and it lead to the inevitable cancellation of the show.
    Also.. Clara.. so much focus on Clara. They should have made the doctor a woman for this series considering how much they have focused on her over the actual doctor. I knew the show was going downhill when, in one scene on the moon, the doctor jumped into a cavern to investigate some giant bacteria.. and just when I thought the episode was going to get interesting, the camera doesn't follow the doctor, instead it goes right back to Clara again.. who is just walking somewhere. Who cares what the doctor is doing.. they should just rename the show "Clara Who?". I was hoping they'd kill off her character so the show could focus on the Doctor again.. but that doesn't seem likely any time soon. Maybe the show will get better, but unless they actually explore space and time again, I'm going to eventually lose all interest.
  8. Sledgstone
    Combos were a favorite snack of mine as a child. I loved the pizza flavored ones with a passion. So when I saw Combos Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzels on the shelf I thought I'd get to relive the pleasant snacking experience of my past with a great new flavor. I was wrong. I love buffalo chicken wings dipped in blue cheese and the art on this bag is misleading. Of course its a pretzel snack and I wasn't expecting it to taste like the image on the bag, so I assumed the filling inside would be a nice buffalo taste with a hint of blue cheese in it. But that wasn't the case at all. I opened the bag and the smell was horrible. It smelled like raw blue cheese and not the creamy kind like on the bag. While thats not so bad, it did not smell right at all coming out of a room temperature bag.

    The inner filling is buffalo flavored and the blue cheese that was so poignant was actually a coating on the outside of the pretzel. When eating one of these the blue cheese flavor is the first taste that makes contact with your tongue. The first couple pretzels tasted fine, but as I continued eating them I realized the blue cheese flavor kept tasting worse and worse to me. As the inside of my mouth started to get coated with the aftertaste, I realized how disgusted I was getting and I had to stop. The blue cheese flavor coating is horrible. After a while it started reminding me of rotten cheese and the smell started disgusting me. The odor is so bad that people around me eventually commented about how horrible it smelled. I gave this snack a second try a couple days later. I opened the bag, caught the scent and basically I got revolted before I even put one in my mouth. After eating another 7 I realized I should have bought a small trial size bag instead. I had to give these away.

    Should you eat these?
    No! I'm a big fan of blue cheese and this flavor is disgusting. In fact, I don't think any snack maker has ever made a blue cheese flavor that tastes good to me. If you see these on the shelf, pass on them and pick up some of their pizza flavored pretzels instead.
  9. Sledgstone
    Welcome to my new Recipe Blog. I will use this blog to post all my new recipes. All of my old recipes can be found in my original blog by following this link:
    http://www.ancientclan.com/search/?tags=Recipe
    Instead of posting any more recipes in my original blog, I have created this one so I can create more specific categories for the recipes themselves. Pork, Chicken, Beef, Italian, Mexican, BBQ, Grilled, etc. As well as using tags, I will have many specific categories just for my blog and some recipes will fall into multiple categories. Tags are useful as well, and will allow us to view everyone's recipes across all blogs on this site.
    I recommend that anyone that wishes to make their own recipe blog to please type the tag "Recipe" without the quotes, in the tag field of blog entries so they can show up in the combined blog Recipe tag link.
    (Edited to fix link to recipes)
  11. Sledgstone
    I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my graphics card. I bought a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 AMP! Edition. So far it's running pretty good. It is a huge upgrade over the 1 GB non gtx geforce stock card that came with my Dell XPS desktop.




    It only needs a single 6 pin power connector and the small profile fits perfectly without forcing me to buy new sata cables to fit around it. This card does run a little hot since the fans are dialed way back from the manufacturer. At idle the temp is 39 degrees Celsius and the fans do not run which works great for me because I work on this pc all day and there is no noise. When under load it'll spike up to 76 degrees Celsius but the fans have never gone over 50% power. Which means I have a little extra heat in my pc but it's still quiet. If I wanted to knock the temps down more I could use an over clocking tool and turn the fans up to full under load, but then I'd have a bunch of noise. Last thing I want is to sit next to a box fan while playing a game. Overall I'm pleased. I'll test it more over the next couple weeks. 
  12. Sledgstone
    Lay's Sriracha is one of the three new Lay's potato chip flavors available as part of the "Lay's Do Us A Flavor" contest. I haven't had the chance to try the other two flavors, but I did get my hands on a bag of these.
    I have to admit.. I have never tried Sriracha sauce before so I have no idea just how spicy the sauce is by itself. I've heard that it is intensely hot and based on the picture on this bag I can only assume its going to be extra spicy.

    The chips themselves are a bit reddish in color compared to regular Lay's. They smell very mild and not powerful enough to indicate any real heat. The flavor is the regular salty lays taste with a nice heat that hits lightly and then burns the tongue a bit. After about 5 chips or so the burn is a bit more noticeable and at its maximum heat. I didn't notice any back of the throat burn or "creeping up on you burn" like you would normally get with cayenne pepper so i can only assume these chips are more mild in heat intensity compared to actually dripping Sriracha sauce directly onto regular lays chips.

    Should you eat these?
    Yes. If you want to try a new kind of spicy potato chip, give these a try. But don't expect them to be the hottest chips out there.
  14. Sledgstone
    Instructions to make:
    Sledge's Sweet and Spicy Rib Rub
    This dry rub can be used on pork or beef ribs, chicken, chicken wings, beef, pork, steaks, etc!
    Ingredients:
    1 1/2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed in measuring cup) 1/4 cup white sugar 1/3 cup paprika 1 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1/4 cup + a little over.. half seasoned salt, half bucks seasoning 2 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 2 teaspoon cayenne pepper Instructions:
    1) Mix all the ingredients together. If you don't have a food processor to mix it with, then use your hands and really work the mix in a larger bowl to break apart the brown sugar so everything is equally mixed in.




    2) This recipe will yield a good sized batch of rub that should last you all summer! Just remember to separate the amount of rub you plan on using ahead of working with raw meats or other foods so you don't cross-contaminate your main batch! So when you are ready to start cooking, set a small bowl of your rub aside and store the rest of your rub in an airtight container. Or do what I do and put your rub mix in a freezer bag and store it out of the way on a refrigerator door shelf. It does not need to be refrigerated, but it will stay fresh longer in the fridge! But keep in mind, regardless of how you store the rub mix, the brown sugar in this rub will cause the rub mix to re-clump after it has sat for a few days/weeks. This is normal, just simply break the clumps apart and its ready to be used again!

  15. Sledgstone
    vBulletin has updated their vBulletin 5 Connect demo.. Heres a prime example of the horrible crap of vbulletin's sofware and one of the obvious reasons we stopped using their product.
    vBulletin custom page example:
    http://www.vbulletin.com/vb5demo/custom_page
    Yay, I could have put text on a page.
    Here is an example of a random test page that I made on ipb:
    http://www.ancientclan.com/test.html
    I have the ability to put anything from the database onto any page I want and in whatever format I want it to appear in. Huge difference. Sure vb allows custom blocks and html, but if it was anything as advanced as IPB, you would think they would have made a better example.
  16. Sledgstone
    I finally got the airburst upgrade unlocked for my UCAV and this is the results. Its a bit overpowered considering that I can get a kill with it every time I use it now. As you can see, that 90 second resupply definitely prevented me from dominating. I often jump around after getting kills with the UCAV because I want people to see where I am. I want them to counter me so I'll know how to counter it myself.
    Shortly after this video I was marked as a High Value Target and I was quickly killed. I have also had the UCAV (either the missile or the launcher) get destroyed by a MAV which caused it to explode in mid air, then I was sniped.
  17. Sledgstone
    vBulletin Suite vs. vBulletin - vBulletin Community Forum
    Once again vb is pissing me off. We spent the extra one time fee of $50 for the blog addon. But since they are changing their packages and price structures around, they are going to dick people over. They still have not announced their price structures or upgrade fees, but now we definitely know that upgrading to vb4 suite will cost us money.
    They will no longer sell their add-on products individually anymore, which means that we'll have to upgrade to the vBulletin suite to continue getting updates for the blog add-on we already have. This is retarded. I wouldn't mind getting the vbulletin cms, I was planning on it actually. But unless it was worth another $50 (or whatever the price they're changing it to now) I wouldn't buy it. But, now we'll have to buy the suite upgrade which includes the CMS, Blog and Project Tools just to continue getting updates for the blog! WTF!? We have absolutely no need for the Project Tools add-on. If we were still a hosting company we could have used it for a support desk, but we no longer have a need for anything like that now.
    So thanks alot vb. I hope to god the cost to upgrade to the suite is low because if the price is to high, I'll be willing to spend the little extra cash to switch over the IPB just to spite your fucking money hungry, non-supportive, no major scheduled updates company. And their CMS better be something fucking amazing and have a gallery built into it, because if its just a page maker or a rip-off of vb advanced (free) like the blog is a slightly better rip-off of wordpress (free), then I am going to be even more seriously pissed off.
  19. Sledgstone
    I've been playing Prince of Persia since way back in the Broderbund days. And just as those classic games broke the barriers of cutting edge gaming back then, the new Prince of Persia does the same. Throwing aside the old side scrolling action and breaking new ground with such entirely unique gameplay, the Prince of Persia series is redifined with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
    The game is played in 3rd person perspective with camera controls so excellent, you will never miss out on any of the action. If you were to watch someone playing this, you would think the controls would be intimidating. But in fact, the controls are simple to learn thanks to the basic tutorial that assists you through the beginning scenes.
    The plot is great because of its simplicity.
    To quote a description from the publisher:
    Basically, everyone is turned into a sand demon, but as you play, you soon realize there are 2 others not affected by the Sands.. a young woman of the Maharajah kingdom named Farah and the evil Vizier. They both possess objects that protect them from the affects of the Sand, such as the Dagger has kept the Prince safe.
    After the Sands of Time are released, you quickly discover that the only way to destroy the sand demons is to absorb their sand into the Dagger of Time. The Dagger also has other abilities, such as if you were to die abruptly by a missed jump, the Dagger can rewind time at your discretion so you can make another attempt.
    The Dagger can do this as long as it has sand reserves. To refill the Dagger, simply kill another sand demon and absorb its sand. As you progress through the game, the Dagger will become stronger with every kill enabling you to do other feats than just rewinding time.
    The game is tied together with action and puzzle solving. For example: Kill all the enemies in the room, then get from point A to point B to progress to the next area. And this is were the Prince's abilities really shine. By doing combinations of wall running, jumping, swinging, climbing, pulling switches, hitting levers and wall jumping.. this game is sure to keep you entertained.
    With no major stage boundaries or level completion notices, Prince of Persia is a constant, fluid, adrenaline rush adventure.
    Graphics: 10 Sound: 10 Control: 10 Camera: 8 Plot: 9 Gameplay: 10 Overall: 10 Platform: PlayStation 2 Genre: Action Adventure Publisher: UBI SOFT Developer: UBI SOFT Released: 11/06/2003
  20. Sledgstone
    A couple weeks ago the Blazer's service engine soon light came on. I went to Advance Auto Parts and used one of their scanners to find out I had a 'Coolant below thermostat threshold' error code. Basically, my coolant needed to be replaced and also my thermostat, then possibly the coolant temperature sensor. A couple days later I went to Valvoline instant oil change and had them do a coolant flush and also replace the serpentine belt. The serp belt I could have done myself, but the guy told me it was a lifetime warranty and they'll replace it free of charge whenever it starts showing alot of wear, so I figured it would be a good deal because I'll probably need at least one more belt in the next 3-4 years and it saved me the hassle of doing it myself in 30 degree temperatures.
    The service engine soon light did not go off. I figured it wouldn't, because I would need to replace the thermostat too. Then I got snowed in at my house after a 2 foot snow storm. The car didn't drive anywhere for a couple days. Then on last Sunday, when I was about to go to the local grocery store, I noticed a gas smell. I went to the store and when I came back I noticed the smell still. Turns out the fuel line near the tank started leaking a steady drip of gas. wtf. I didn't have much daylight left so I got under the car, eventually found the pinhole leak, and I proceeded to patch it by placing a piece of cut hose over the hole and then use hose clamps to tighten it down. I must have over tightened it and it started leaking again which pissed me the hell off because at that point I was soaking wet from melting snow/ice (2 feet of melting snow) and pooling gas. After my hands went numb from the cold gas and my arm was killing me because I was awkwardly positioned under the rear differential, I decided to do a really cheap ass move and cut the finger off a nitrile throwaway glove, wrapped it around the pin hole leak, and clamped it down with four zip ties. Its held for a week now with no additional leaking. I was going to take it off and hose clamp it correctly with my piece of hose, but another issue came up.
    About 3 days ago, the car started making a weird ticking sound after I initially turned the car on. It only lasted for a couple seconds, but I thought it was a bad sign. Turns out it would only do it when the car was sitting for more than a couple hours and the length of time the ticking would last for depended on how cold it was outside. I went back to Advance Auto parts and had them test the alternator and battery because alternators, batteries and starters are all connected to a ticking sound during ignition. The battery and alternator were fine. He couldn't test the started because it would have to be off the engine, and on top of that he said that test would only check to see if the starter can start a car, which is not the problem because the noise only happens after the car is turned on. The guy was pretty knowledgeable and he suggested I do an oil change and use a oil filter with a drain back valve. I guess he meant anti-drain back valve because he told me I probably had oil sludge starting to build up and after the car was sitting for a while, the oil would accumulate in the oil pan and that ticking sound was the thick oil slowly making its way back up to the top of the engine. And that a good oil filter would prevent the oil from draining down completely to the oil pan, which is what an anti-drain back oil filter does. While I was there, I went ahead and bought the thermostat.
    So, today, I did the oil change on the blazer. I spent the extra money and bought a penzoil full synthetic oil with cleaning additives ($28 for 5 quarts, costly), and I bought a Fram Tough Guard oil filter ($8, $5 more than other filters) which has a 'anti-drain back valve built into it'. I just finished the oil change, my coat is soaked because the tarp I put down over the melting snow/ice was a piece of crap and soaked straight through. Anyway, I started the car up after the oil change and no ticking sound. I'll find out tomorrow morning if the ticking sound is completely gone. I still need to do the thermostat, but my coat is soaked, I need a new tarp and I think I'm going to wait until next weekend when its 40+ degrees again. From what I read, a bad thermostat only causes a little worse fuel efficiency, so I figure if its not damaging the car, it can wait another week.
  22. Sledgstone

    Sushi

    By Sledgstone,

    Instructions to make:
    2-3 rolls of sushi
    Ingredients:
    - Sushi Rice - 2 cups
    - Nori (Seaweed sheets) - 2-3 sheets
    - Rice Vinegar -
    - Sliced carrots - 1 package
    - Avocado - 1x
    - Cucumber - 1x
    - Shrimp or imitation crab meat - 1 small package
    Instructions:
    1) Put two cups of rice in your rice cooker and fill the rice cooker to the "2" line with water, put lid on and set the rice to cook. Remember to leave the lid on the rice cooker through the duration of the cooking and and additional 15 minutes after the rice cooker switches over to 'warm' to ensure the rice fully cooks.
    2) While the rice is cooking, prepare your cooking area, get your sushi mat ready, take your nori out of the package so it can air out a bit. Peel your cucumber and slice it into thin length wise pieces (preferably discarding the seed portion or the cucumber but that is not necessary). Peel your avocado and also slice into length wise pieces but keep the avocado thicker for it's texture. Also rinse off and peel your shrimp/crab meat.

    3) After the rice is done, you have to add 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar per 1 cup of rice. Since 2 cups of uncooked rice = 6 cups of cooked rice, add 6 tablespoons of rice vinegar to the rice in the rice cooker and fold the rice to mix evenly. Don't crush the rice while folding the vinegar in! Once mixed together, spread the rice out onto a pizza pan or something else covered in aluminum foil. I cover a pizza pan with aluminum foil because it gives you a flat surface for the rice to cool on and it makes cleanup a lot easier.

    4) Let the rice cool down for a while and finish any other prep work you have to do. Also, place a piece of clear saran plastic wrap on your sushi mat (makes rolling the sushi easier and less messer, also easier clean up). Place your nori, shiny side down on your sushi mat and spread sushi rice in a thin layer on most of the mat. Leave about a half inch at the top of the nori rice free so the roll can stay together.

    5) Place your ingredients length wise at the bottom of your sushi roll. Use a couple large pieces of avocado, a bunch of cucumber, carrots, shrimp/crabmeat, whatever you want to use. Its ok if things overlap too, but you don't want to use much more than what is in this pic or your roll might start falling apart while you cut it or when you pick up the individual pieces.

    6) Next, roll the sushi carefully from the bottom up. Apply some light pressure while you roll and tuck the ingredients in with your fingers if it starts falling apart or not staying in place while you roll it.
    7) Roll it back and forth a little bit and squeeze the roll slightly while wrapped up in the mat to get everything kind of solidified together. Not to hard tho, you do not want to crush the rice and ruin the texture.
    8) The top of the roll had that little empty 1/2 flap of nori, wet your finger and apply a moisture to that flap and push it against the roll. This will make that little flap grip the roll and keep everything together.
    9) Place your roll of sushi on a cutting board and use a sharp wet knife to cut your individual pieces. Sushi rice is extremely sticky, you will need to run your knife under water and gently wipe off any stickyness or rice off your knife before cutting each piece. Cut the pieces to the thickness you want, if the sushi starts falling apart on you while you cut, cut slightly larger pieces or clean your knife/wet it more. Let the knife be pretty much dripping wet even while you cut for easier cutting. The end pieces look ugly but are still edible. I usually give them to my kid or eat them myself before presentation.


    10) Next roll. Repeat steps above. Notice I used more shrimp? mmmmm.

    11) This is the amount of leftover rice I had. I'm pretty certain I made three rolls with 2 cups of uncooked rice, but I probably ate it while making the other two rolls I took pictures off. (I can't remember.)

    12) Finished sushi with leftover ingredients. As you can see, you shouldn't waste your time cutting all of that 1 cucumber and 1 avocado like I did unless you have a guinea pig that likes leftover cucumber like me. Probably half a cucumber and half an avocado is plenty for 2-3 sushi rolls.

    13) Finished sushi pics! Eat and enjoy!


    Don't forget you can use a little wasabi sauce or soy sauce or mix them together a bit for dipping your sushi. I sometimes use duck sauce because soy sauce usually tastes too salty for me just like wasabi is way to friggin hot. I'd rather taste the sushi and the different textures in it than have the dipping sauce overtake my pallet.
    Pickled ginger is usually served with sushi, but its mainly used to 'reset' your taste buds when you have a variety of sushi on your plate. Its best to eat a little piece of ginger inbetween different pieces of sushi or sashimi to fully enjoy the taste and texture of each different piece. If all your eating is just the one sushi roll like I have made here, I'd pass on the ginger and just enjoy the flavor of the sushi.
  23. Sledgstone
    Instructions to make:
    Sledge's Grilled Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings
    Ingredients:
    - Chicken Wings
    - Sledge's Sweet and Spicy Rib Rub
    Stuff you will need:
    - A good knife
    - Aluminum foil
    - Ziploc gallon storage or freezer bag
    - Grill
    - Tongs
    Instructions:
    1) Prepare your chicken wings! I consider one batch of wings to be about 2 or 2 1/2 pounds. This package is enough for two batches of wings.

    2) If you have never cut chicken wings before, start by grabbing the tip and stretching out the wing.. the muscle structure of the wing will stay stretched out while you hold it allowing for an easy cut.


    3) If you do not have a sharp knife that will easily cut through bone, then grab the wing and snap the drumette away from the wingette in the opposite direction you were cutting, like in this pic.. the bone will pop out of the cartilage thus separating the two pieces.

    4) Now just cut the skin/meat that is still connecting the two pieces.

    5) Now cut the wing tip off and discard it.


    6) Cut the rest of your batch of wings the same way and place all the pieces on a paper towel covered plate.

    7) Get a small bowl of Sledge's Sweet and Spicy Rib Rub ready and get a gallon size ziploc bag for shaking your wings in. Now use paper towels and dry each wing individually and place them in the ziploc bag in rows. Drying the wings can take a while, so go ahead and start your grill and get it heated up and cleaned.

    8) Sprinkle one side of the wings with the rub so they are coated, flip the bag over and coat the other side too.

    9) Close the bag with a bit of air in it, and shake that bag to make sure the wings are fully coated.

    10) You will want to cook your wings on the grill with indirect heat. Line up your wings on the grill on one side, then set the burners on your grill to high, except for the burner your wings are sitting on, turn that one off.


    11) After letting them cook for about 20 minutes, you will want to flip them over and let them cook another 20 minutes.

    12) Use a meat thermometer if you unsure if the wings are done or not. Chicken is done at 170 degrees. Depending on your grill and the temperature it is maintaining, you may have to cook them longer or shorter. Once they are done, put them on an aluminum foil lined plate and then cover them with another layer of aluminum foil and let the wings sit for a good 5-10 minutes. This way the wings will rest and retain their moisture.
    And here they are done!

    Additional tips:
    1) You can cook them faster by cooking them over direct heat, but you will have to flip them very often and the more you flip them, more of the seasoning will be burned off onto the grill surface. That is why I cook them slower to retain the most flavor.
    2) You can get the wings crispier by turning the burner underneath them on in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. Just keep flipping them. But because this rub has sugar in it, the wings will want to burn quickly! So keep an eye on them and if they start charring up, lower the heat or take them off the grill!
  24. Sledgstone
    The improvements they are making to IPB look really great. Some of the highlights for me:
    http://community.invisionpower.com/blog/1174/entry-9537-ips-40-editor-part-1-content/
    Embeds will always work. Now that is a huge difference.
    http://community.invisionpower.com/blog/1174/entry-9538-ips-40-editor-part-2-uploads/
    Drag and drop images right into the editor. I've been waiting for this feature. No more having to click attach and then navigate to the right folder where your image is.. just drag it right into the editor.
    http://community.invisionpower.com/blog/1174/entry-9539-ips-40-editor-part-3-customisation-and-bbcode/
    This is a big change and I hope they pull it off correctly. All our custom bbcodes will be negated. But the only custom bbcode we actually use is the spoiler tag, which will now be a default feature. All other custom bbcodes will now have to be created as CKEditor plugins.. but there are already a lot of ckeditor plugins available. So I could technically add a variety of new editor features.
    http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/388306-ips-40-editor-part-4-special-features/
    Very very nice. I like this.
    Good! No more having to click the load saved content option. Simplifying this will make the auto save much better.
    Oh! and the editor will now be fully skin-able! The editor won't have to be glaring white on a dark theme anymore.
    Also, the current skins that we use are going to be upgraded for IPB 4.0. We won't have to change the entire look of the site.
  25. Sledgstone

    Juicy Lucy Burgers

    By Sledgstone,

    Instructions to make:
    Juicy Lucy burgers
    Ingredients:
    - Hamburger meat
    - Seasonings
    - 2 slices of american cheese per burger
    Instructions:
    1) Mix up your hamburger meat with some seasonings like season all, maybe some chopped onions. (look at my other burger recipes in this blog)
    2) Make some small hamburger balls to form into patties, one slightly bigger than the other. You have to make them smaller than normal because you will need two hamburger patties per burger.

    3) Use the larger ball of meat and make hamburger patty, then break up two slices of american cheese per burger and put it in the middle.

    4) Now make another patty and place it over the cheese and work the edges so the two burgers will cook together as one.


    5) Cook those burgers over a medium to high heat to make sure the inner part of the burger cooks all the way through.

    6) The burgers will shrink when cooking and the cheese will get very hot in the middle helping to cook the inside of the burger. One of my burgers busted at the seams. Instead of using 80% I should have gone with a 90% to reduce meat shrinking.

    7) Let the burgers cool a little so you don't burn yourself on the hot inner cheese.

    I spread the cheese around so you can see the cavity in the burger that is created when cooking them like this. If you can eat these burgers at the perfect cheese temperature, the cheese will flow with every bite and taste great.

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