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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Chicken Mushroom Soup

Came up with this one trying to emulate a soup I had at Chilis once. Not sure how close it is since they seem to have it when I go there anymore.

INGREDIENTS
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can sliced mushrooms
1 boneless chicken breast
garlic powder
black pepper
salt

DIRECTIONS
Cut chicken into 1" cubes & brown. Combine all ingredients in slowcooker and cook on low. Scale up for larger pots of soup.

Italian Beef

Got this one from my Mom. Makes good sandwiches on hard rolls.

INGREDIENTS
6 lbs sirloin tip roast
2 onions
1 stalk celery
1 green pepper
1/2 bottle ketchup
2 T. BBQ sauce
2 T. Vinegar
1 t. Pepper
2 T. Salt
2 T. Chili powder
2 cups water

DIRECTIONS
Cook roast all night in crock pot. Flake meat & take off any fat. Put back in crock pot. Combine all other ingredients pour over meat. Leave on low all day.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
1 package whole mushrooms
pepperoni
sliced salami
sliced ham
grated parmesan cheese
1 egg
either heavy cream, provolone, or mozzarella cheese.

Directions
1. Pull stems from mushrooms.
2. Lay out mushroom caps on baking pan.
3. Put stems, Pepperoni, salami, & ham in food processor to chop finely.
4. Combine meat w/ egg & mix well.
5. Add grated cheese to desired consistency.
6. Pack mushroom caps w/ mixture.
7. Put cheese on the caps, or pour cream over them.
8. Bake (~350 deg) until cheese in bubbly & turning brown.

Beer Can Chicken

This is a yummy treat in the warmer weather. Speaking of warmer weather, who the hell turned off Global Warming? I was starting to enjoy the warm December, but now it's freakin cold!

Anyway, beer can chicken. Slow roasted on an open fire and still tender and juicy.

1. Fire up the grill. I like charcoal and wood chips, but you can use gas.
2. Rub the whole chicken with Montreal seasoning or any other spice you like. Salt, pepper, garlic powder is a nice simple rub.
3. Drink half a can of beer, leave the other half in the can.
4. Sodomize the chicken carcass with the can of beer, making sure not to spill any beer.
5. Prop up the bird on the grill so it looks like he's taking a dump. The can should be fully upright.
6. Cover up and let it sit until done.

Don't worry too much about overcooking, the evaporating beer will keep it moist.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Robb's "Award Winning" Chili Recipe

For printable copy http://frontiernet.net/~nicholson150/Chili.pdf

Instead of duplicating the recipe here, I'll just include it with a handy iframe....

Friday, January 19, 2007

DAO Generator Update

Progress has been somewhat slow, but I fixed some issues with the Velocity templates, as I got a chance to generate the persistence layer for a mini project, which surfaced a few issues.

Also, main bulk of work now is with the custom query generation. At first I started with a custom query tab, then a different tab for each table. That screen got really busy and unusable really fast, so I decided to do more of a popup, screen-by-screen "wizard" type approach.

Click on the table, hit "Custom Method" button...


And it pops up a screen with the current custom methods for that table (if any)....

Then you can edit, delete, or create new. New button launches a screen that will look something like this (but needs some way to display all the parms as they are added, with way to edit or delete parms)....

The DAO generation for stored procedures has been a pain in the butt, so I shelved that chunk for now. One of the databases I ran this against had 2 stored procedures in the same schema with the same name, and as far as I could tell the params looked the same too. That of course puts duplicate methods in the DaoFactory but only generates one DAO class instead of two. Maybe I should just make that whole thing more generic, like the DAO "execute" method takes a single array of parameters instead of being a finely grained typed call. And then the binding is done on the fly. If you sent too many or too few params, you lose, Exception thrown.

Once I get the custom query stuff done, the next chunk of work will be to make this work with other database servers. I can test it against Oracle, MySQL, and SQL-Server without too much effort since I have all those installed on my PC.

HTTP Proxy - BURP Suite

As more and more of our development centers around integrating various systems, we find that troubleshooting issues gets more and more complicated. Instead of just walked through my own code with a debugger or examining log files, you have to involve other groups and application owners. Part of the hassle is convincing other people that there is a problem at all, let alone where the problem might lie. Complicate that with the fact that you may not have as much visibility into the whole transport layer as you might like.

I trace through all my code to the last point before it fails, and that is a call into the SOAP connector. So the request may or may not be getting to the target system OK. The SOAP requet you think you created and the one actually getting transmitted may be different.

Enter the BURP suite, a set of tools to act as an HTTP proxy and capture requests and responses. Now you know exactly what your app is spewing out and what the target system is responding (or not). It can be a simple proxy, showing you all the requests and responses, or you can intercept requests/responses, alter them, and forward that.

Below: Main screen

Below: Detail screen showing a particular request, your altered request, and the response, each in tabs. I did some censoring to take out specific server names and stuff.

There are also other tools in the suite, like spider, repeater, etc. but I mostly find the proxy and intercepter useful for troubleshooting and testing. This thing is definitely worth the free download, esp if you are doing any kind of web services type crap and dealing with less-than-cooperative developers from other teams or systems.

Below is a screenshot of the configuration screen for the proxy. You can configure exactly what to capture and automatically alter some header info, etc.

BTW - You can click on any of the pictures for a bigger view. Closeups aren't just for porn anymore.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Raising Chickens In The Backyard

Well, now that we have two boats, a lawn mower, a snow blower, and a broken down Jeep YJ stored on our property (none of which belong to us, this is all in addition to our lawn mowers and Jeep) we just couldn't deny that we are true 315-ers, even if we do still carry a 585 area code. We are true Wayne County rednecks -- we eat critters from the woods out back, we have a pool that contained thousands of tadpoles this past spring, and now we have a Sanford and Son collection started. The cap it all off, we really need some livestock running around. And hence, our decision to raise chickens for food....

We're starting to move forward on our plan to raise chickens this spring. Our thought is this will be somewhat educational for the girls, as well as a source of meat and eggs. Mmmmm, barbecue chicken!! Doesn't get much fresher than killing it and grilling it 30 minutes later. The breeds we picked are good all around birds that lay a decent amount of eggs but still get to be good eating size.

There is a block building in the back yard, the size of a good size shed. We will turn that building into the coop by adding some perches and nest boxes in there, and adding a fenced in run. We have a very large barn so we really don't need that small outbuilding for any real storage or anything.

Since we live in an area that is known for having rough winters, we will order the chicks closer to spring so we don't have to worry too much about them freezing. We also settled on breeds that are known for doing well in the northeast: Rhode Island Reds and Buff Orpingtons.







We'll be ordering 25 day old chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery, along with a starter kit (water bottles, feeders, brooding light, etc. We will get some feed, grit, fencing, and waterers at local suppliers like Country Max or Tractor Supply Company. In warmer weather we plan to let the chickens free range during the day so they eats bugs and stuff from the yard.

This should be an interesting, fun, educational, and hopefully rewarding experience. I have a smoker that could cook up probably 10 chickens at time and still have room for corn on the cob, so COCK A DOODLE DOO!!

Friday, January 05, 2007

2007 IRS Tax Withholding Calculator

To figure out how to full out your W-4 to maximize in-pocket money year round without having to pay ... http://www.irs.gov/individuals/page/0,,id=14806,00.html