Beef Jerky

Today I made my second batch of beef jerky, and I hit the bullseye. I'm going to post the recipe below mainly so I will have it for future use. I used to work with a guy in Pennsylvania who made his own jerky, and he once gave me some he made with Maker's Mark Bourbon. It was some of the best jerky I had ever tasted. So, I did a little research and concocted my own Maker's Mark recipe. I went to Hy-Vee again for the meat. I have used their top round roast now twice and it works well. They have a cut with very little fat and they will slice it for you. This time they did it thinner than the first time. It's a little too thin for me, but it still worked great. Here is the recipe:

2 1/2 pound top round roast sliced thin

8 oz. can tomato sauce

2 1/2 Tbsp. of curing salt

2 Tbsp. of brown sugar

1 tsp. of cayenne pepper

4 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce

4 oz. of Maker's Mark Bourbon

Mix the ingredients and marinate sliced meat at least 12 hours in refrigerator. Make sure you brush the marinade on. You want the meat wet but not soaked in the marinade. If it's too wet it will not dehydrate properly.

Dehydrate the meat for at least 4 hours and enjoy!

If you're lucky enough and you ask nicely I may even let you try a piece. You should hurry though because it won't last long.

Paul Blart, the Library, and Honesty

Yesterday was a full day with Jamel.  We originally were going to the Mizzou Basketball game, but we had to change the plans at the last minute. To begin the day we had a great conversation about honesty.  A situation occurred even before I went to pick him up and the topic of honesty was staring us in the face.  This was the first opportunity we've had to have a real tough discussion.  When it was over, he understood the importance of honesty, and he now knows that no matter what he tells me, I'm not going anywhere. 

We then decided to go by the library. Jamel got his first library card which he was very excited about. He has had a real interest in the World Trade Center since I've known him. Not only about how it came down, but also how it was built. I told him that we should go to the library and find some books on the subject so he could learn about the towers. We found a great kids book about how the terrorists brought down the towers. It explained everything on 9/11 from start to finish, and it was age appropriate for him. We also found a great book about how the towers were built. So, he was pretty excited. The scary part was that on the way to the library, Jamel told me he had one of his teachers tell him that George Bush is the one who made the towers collapse. How do you deal with that? I told him he needed to do some research on his own and then he could make his own decision on what happened. I was glad to find that book!

We decided to go see the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop. It was pretty corny, but it had its moments. It was definitely a good movie for kids to see. If you liked Kevin James in King of Queens, then you'll like this. It was his typical brand of comedy. It also had a pretty good family message in it. The middle of the movie got a little boring. Jamel even took a nap for a while.

All in all, we had a great day. I'm enjoying the Big Brother thing, and I'm looking forward to the next 11 months as we continue our relationship. 

Stimulate Columbia MO Partnerships Finalized

We're down to the wire on the planning of Stimulate Columbia MO. We have made contact, interviewed, and approved our partners for the project. They are as follows:

At-Risk Youth:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central MO

Rainbow House

The Intersection

Low-Income Families:

Voluntary Action Center

Central MO Food Bank

Love INC.

The Unemployed:

Harbor House

Boone County Community Partnership/Re-entry Program

Salvation Army

Our website will be live by the end of the week. Now we just need congress and President-Elect Obama to follow-through on their promise of the economic stimulus package. Our media campaign will begin as soon as the announcement is made that the bill has been passed through congress.

Central MO Aviation

Today Jamel and I visited Central MO Aviation at Columbia Regional Airport. We were very fortunate to run into John, a flight instructor at the airport. He spent time with us explaining lift and drag, and all the stuff that makes airplanes fly. He even took us out to his Cessna 150 and gave Jamel an inside the cockpit tour. Jamel has never flown or been near any kind of airplane, so he was very excited about this opportunity. John explained to him how easy it is to fly and how anyone can do it. He even encouraged Jamel that in a few years he can start flying lessons if he wanted to. Jamel was an eager learner as he sat in the cockpit and asked John question after question. He walked away from the airplane saying that he was sure he could fly after all the information he had been given.

After our Cessna tour, the linemen at Central MO Aviation let us walk down the flight line and look at the airplanes that were parked. There were several airplanes there of all different varieties. We even got to see a couple of large business jets depart and a couple different small airplanes land.

On the way home Jamel commented to me that this was one of the most fun things he's ever done. He also asked me if I could come visit him at school sometime and eat lunch with him. So, this will be something we will try and coordinate soon. It also looks like we'll be going to another Mizzou basketball game this Saturday.

BlackBerry Media Solutions

If you use your BlackBerry's media player, and you use iTunes, then you need BlackBerry Media Sync.  It allows you to copy your iTunes playlists right onto your BlackBerry.  It's fast, easy, and free.  Click here to go get the free download.  

To get the most out of your music experience on your BlackBerry, try using the MOTOROKR S9 Bluetooth Stereo Headphones.  This is great to use at the gym or when you're walking, running or biking because there are no wires to get in the way.  And, it still works for phone calls at the same time.  If you receive a call while listening to music, the BlackBerry automatically pauses the music while you take the call. I've actually had this item for quite sometime and I love it.  It also is a great thing to use when you fly because it is small and easy to throw in a carry-on. It is a quality item and it takes the same car charger as your BlackBerry.

I have recently been testing the MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth Speakerphone.  I was skeptical at first, but this has proven to be a great product.  This Bluetooth includes a digital FM tuner so you can not only listen to music from your BlackBerry media player through your car stereo, but you can also listen to phone calls in stereo through your car speaker system.  The quality of the call is so good that the person you're talking to doesn't even know you're using a speakerphone.  If you spend a lot of time behind the wheel, then you want this product. This item also uses the same car charger as your BlackBerry.

Ben Stein's Answer To The Bad Economy

Ben Stein is someone I admire and respect.  He is a great conservative thinker and uses logic in his commentaries. You may remember him from his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Bueller, Beuller). But, that's not all he's done. He was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon and he was part of Reagan's economic team for a while. He also put out a movie recently that I highly recommend. It's titled Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It was released on DVD a couple of weeks ago. He recently had a commentary on CBS Sunday Morning which I thought was great. You can read it here. In the second to the last paragraph he talks about stimulating the economy by donating money to charity. This is exactly what we want to do with Stimulate Columbia MO. WE can help get the economy going by donating money locally. Government is not the answer. I think if Ben knew about the little project we had going on, he would get behind it. 

Loaves & Fishes

Jamel and I joined the Ballou Community Group from Karis this afternoon to serve dinner in downtown Columbia at the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen. It was fun hanging out and serving dinner with some folks from Karis, and Jamel told me on the way home that he had a great time. He asked a lot of questions about Loaves & Fishes, so it was a good opportunity for some great dialogue. He wanted to know where the people came from that were there to eat dinner, and he also asked why so many of us were there to help serve. Jamel pitched in and worked hard along with everyone else, and with so many there the work was not too difficult. The Ballou Community Group serves at Loaves & Fishes the first Thursday of each month, so I would encourage anyone who is interested to go help them if you can.