Category: News

Thanks to Jimmy Dean, I’ve got some tips for saving time in the kitchen and some holiday entertaining shortcuts from Lifestyle Expert Sissy Biggers to share with MomCooks readers!

Holiday Entertaining Tips

With the holidays comes the busiest cooking days of the year and the best hosts are those who are able to settle in on the couch and enjoy the quality time with their family. Below are some food prep and holiday entertaining shortcuts from Lifestyle Expert Sissy Biggers to ensure people spend less time slaving over the oven and more time with the people who mean the most.

1. Don’t be afraid to delegate!

– A good guest asks, “What can I do to help?!” Take them up on it! Whether its stuffed mushrooms, or apple pie, ask your friends and family to bring their favorite side dish or to prepare a recipe from their favorite food magazine.

2. Maximize trips to the supermarket by selecting key ingredients and holiday staples that can be used in multiple recipes.

– The same Jimmy Dean Sausage that adds traditional flavor to your stuffing can also be crumbled and stuffed into whole mushrooms for an easy hot appetizer that will keep your guest satisfied.

3. Save time by choosing recipes and side dishes that break down the process with DO-AHEAD steps that can be completed days in advance.

– Blanch green vegetables a day ahead and shock in an ice bath (to stop the cooking) and drain.

– Prepare the sausage topping for a Mushroom Bruschetta appetizer two days in advance, refrigerate and then heat before serving

4. Be sure your linens are table-ready well before the holiday and flatware is matching and polished

– NOW is the time to check your stash of cloth napkins and table coverings to be sure they are not crumpled or stained from last year’s festivities. Keep an eye out for discounted linens and choose a color scheme to compliment what you have on hand.

Holiday Recipes from Jimmy Dean

Click these links to get recipes for an appetizer, breakfast dish, and side dish all using Jimmy Dean sausage!

Sausage Cheese Balls

6 Layer Breakfast Casserole

Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash

Maple Sausage Corn Bread Pudding

In “Menu Mind Games,” William Poundstone dissects this Balthazar menu (full size PDF) and tells you the logic behind its design.

Can you guess the tricks being used here? Click image to find out.

The piece offers a revealing look at how restaurants use typography and layout to drive customers toward high priced items. Also interesting is the strange jargon used by industry insiders, like puzzles, anchors, stars, and plowhorses.

A star is a popular, high-profit item—in other words, an item for which customers are willing to pay a good deal more than it costs to make. A puzzle is high-profit but unpopular; a plowhorse is the opposite, popular yet unprofitable. Consultants try to turn puzzles into stars, nudge customers away from plowhorses, and convince everyone that the prices on the menu are more reasonable than they look.

Related:
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) by William Poundstone [Amazon]
Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill [Amazon]

In Colorado Springs, off Interstate 25, there lies a tent city that’s growing more and more by the day. They call it Obamaville, perhaps due to the relative lack of effort our President has made on behalf of our jobless citizens.

The video, courtesy of Fire Andrea Mitchell, below:

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See Also:

• Tent Cities Take Over As Great Recession Takes Hold
• Would You Rather Live In A Tent City Or A Ghost Town?
• Hey, President Obama, Here’s An Easy Way To Get Banks To Lend!

The U.S. Senate passed the 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill (H.R. 3288) by a vote of 57 to 35.  This was actually a vote on a conference report worked out in House/Senate negotiations.

The bill, passed earlier by the House 221-202, was not amended by the Senate which means it will now go to President Barack Obama for his signature. The president has not indicated whether he will sign the bill. Reporters discussed the bill with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday.

According to Michael Blakeslee, MENC senior deputy executive director, the bill contains two provisions that benefit the cause of arts education: one for model program grants and another for professional development grants.

The model program funding appears to be for programs already in the pipeline, but the professional development grants will be for new projects so music educators may be eligible to apply for those.

Read a summary of the bill 
Follow other policy developments of interest to music educators  

—Roz Fehr, December 17, 2009. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education

My wife asked me last night, “What would you do if I won the Lotto?” I said, “I’d take half, then leave you.” “That is excellent,“ she replied. “I won $12 bucks, here’s $6, now get the heck out.”

Life throws surprises at us all the time, and unfortunately for every single person in this industry, or so it seems, the looming RESPA changes have the potential of bogging down the business. And it is not even a surprise – we’ve known about it for months! Loan agents are confused about the forms, small mortgage brokers are wondering how they’re going to adhere to the changes (even if they can figure out what those changes are), mortgage banks are wondering about their responsibilities, and investors are concerned about both their clients following the guidelines and wondering if loans that fall outside of them will cause a new series of lawsuits. And will their systems be able to handle the new process?! Even when investors notify their clients about RESPA changes, they are quick to note that their announcements are not to be relied upon as comprehensive.

Brokers are, understandably, concerned. (Is that an understatement?) For starters, the form is on HUD’s site. And remember that HUD is on your side: “HUD announced that for the first four months of 2010, the staff of the Mortgagee Review Board (MRB) will exercise restraint in enforcing new regulatory requirements under theReal Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), due to take full effect on January 1. The MRB instructed its staff to exercise such restraint in considering an action against FHA-approved lenders who have demonstrated that they are making a good faith effort to comply with RESPA’s new requirements.”

more news on Citi correspondent, Wells wholesale, Chase Homeownership Centers, Caliber Funding, GMAC Bank correspondent, the Fed, rates, and joke of the day …  <<< CLICK HERE

It’s no secret that General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt song and dance (ignoring the obvious jokes here…) have brought the automaker’s marketing department some much-deserved flack. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, we’ll recap: GM commissioned a song to explain some of the finer points of how the Volt’s high-tech powertrain functions and later decided to add a dance routine to the jingle and let it loose on an unsuspecting public at the LA Auto Show.

According to Green Car Reports, the song was initially written for kids aged seven to 12 years old but wasn’t quite ready in time for GM to use it during presentations given to 120 schools. Instead, the decision was made to add an ill-fated dance routine just ahead of the LA Show’s public access days. Making matters worse is news that former marketing head Bob Lutz originally wanted to borrow the song “Electric Car” from They Might Be Giants. We figure GM would have been much better off going that route.

As irritating as it may be, is the Chevy Volt Dance really that big of a deal? While we’d argue that it shouldn’t be, the real answer apparently depends on whom you ask. Fox News seems to think it’s pretty horrible and GM’s latest recently-appointed head marketer Susan Docherty responded, “Our Chevrolet Volt advertising, marketing and go to market strategy will be as innovative as the car. We may have missed on this one, but we won’t going forward.” We agree… it’s officially time to move on. (Unless you haven’t seen the offending dance yet – and that’s available for viewing after the jump).

[Sources: GM-Volt.com, Green Car Reports]

Continue reading GM: Chevy Volt Dance a major marketing gaffe? Sure. Let’s move on.

GM: Chevy Volt Dance a major marketing gaffe? Sure. Let’s move on. originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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User experience is very much anchored in the technical details of a web app, service or any software out there, but just as important is the presentation and the overall look and feel. Firefox is a great browser used by millions of people around the world and Mozilla wanted to let those people customize their browsing experience to the fullest, a philosophy close to heart at the open-source foundation.

Earlier this year it launched Personas, a project designed to enable users to change the look of their browser in the easiest way possible. It has actually come a long way in the months since it launched and now Mozilla Labs is introducing Personas 2.0.

“The Mozilla Labs team launched Personas 1.0 in March with the idea that it shouldn’t be hard to make your internet browser more fun and personal. Over the past eight months, with your feedback and support, we iterated on the Personas experience fifteen times (10 times on the website, 5 times on the extension) and are now pleased to introduce Personas 2.0,” Mozilla’s Ryan Doherty and Suneel Gupta wrote for the Personas team.

The biggest attention in this latest release was on the site, which got a rather thorough redesign with an emphasis on a cleaner look and easier navigation, but also on the functionality. The landing page got cle… (read more)

Loans, commercial paper – you name it and banks are lending less of it.

And that’s not just in the US. It’s happening all around the world.

Morgan Stanley: It is too early to amend our forecast of an anaemic developed economy recovery just yet. However, given trends in money growth and lending we would expect the monetarists to be warning about the risks of a W-shaped recession. With that in mind, there is a danger that markets and authorities become obsessed about the fiscal implications of the crisis at a time when the real worries should still focus on private sector access to credit and money.

What is there for Monetarists to worry about? We show below charts of the growth rate (year-on-year) of bank lending to the private sector and broad money for the US, Eurozone, Japan, UK and China (Exhibits 1 to 5). What this shows is a rapid implosion of growth rates of lending from normal to negative in the UK, US and the Eurozone, and declining lending growth in Japan (and very high lending growth in China). Broad money growth declined sharply in the UK, Eurozone and Japan (for the US and China broad money growth data is unavailable), and continues to fall in the Euro Area.

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See Also:

• Citigroup Accused Of Predatory Lending… To A Private Equity Firm!
• China’s Big Four Banks Slash Lending In November
• Watch Lending Spreads To See When Shorts Pile Into Stocks

Citi shares have been punted all over the place since August, even breaking $5 at one point. Yet when actually presented to large institutional investors for the latest offering, Citi was only able to price its shares at $3.15. Thus the real money has spoken, and has killed the speculators. Everything above the yellow area shown below represents froth, which has been blown away. Right now Citi shares are down 7.5% to 3.19.

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See Also:

• Citi Underwriters Step In To Prevent Stock From Falling Below $3
• CITI OFF 8%
• Citi's Secondary Prices Weak, Treasury Holds Back On Dumping Stake To Avoid Flooding The Market

Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Etc., Europe, Videos, Lamborghini

Fate is a funny thing. It was our destiny to get a ride with Valentino Balboni in a Lamborghini LP550-2 Valentino Balboni during rush hour traffic in Los Angeles. Lucky? Absolutely, though we may have crested 50 mph once… maybe. Would we have preferred to have been in the passenger seat of this here limeade green Valentino Balboni as Lamborghini’s legendary test driver literally hoons the rear tires off the car? Dear God, yes!!

The following video is actually a pretty good demonstration of the difference between RWD and AWD vehicles. You’ll see the Mr. Balboni flinging the LP550-2 around a corner, the rear sliding out a touch before he applies just a dab of oppo’ to get the V10-powered, rear-wheel drive mini-monster back in line. This is followed by an AWD LP560-4 which simply can’t break traction and sort of gracelessly shunts and shutters its way around the corner. Faster, no doubt — but not nearly as fun to watch. And then there are sparks and smoke and trust us you’ll love this. Watch the video, after the jump.

[Source: YouTube via Jalopnik]

Continue reading VIDEO: Lamborghini’s Valentino Balboni drifting a Lamborghini Valentino Balboni

VIDEO: Lamborghini’s Valentino Balboni drifting a Lamborghini Valentino Balboni originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last April we ran a profile of the leading doomsayers -- the folks who aggressively argued that the economy was going to hell in a handbasket.

Of course, back in April that seemed very possible, and so many of these folks were riding huge waves of fame.

Since then, things have improved markedly, but it's hard to switch gears when you're mostly known for being negative.

And so we've updated our survey to introduce you to the brave holdouts. Despite the rally, they're warning us, Cassandra-like, that all is not well! The recovery is a mirage, and if we don't change our ways fast then we're screwed.

Now, meet the holdouts >>

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See Also:

• 10 Ways A China Blow-Up Will Slam America
• The Doomsayers Inherit The Earth (SLIDESHOW)

There has been an effort made by some to try to connect the totally unrelated issues of network neutrality and unauthorized file sharing together. There is no connection between the two, but that won’t stop busy lobbyists from doing their best to drum up such a connection. Copycense points us to the news that Grover Nordquit’s group has decided to push this line of nonsense by parroting claims by the Songwriter’s Guild of America (SGA) that accepting net neutrality is akin to encouraging piracy. How? That’s not clear, because there’s really no connection at all. The best they can say is that net neutrality would prevent efforts to crack down on file sharing (except, every plan for net neutrality has explicitly had exceptions for such things). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am not in favor of laws mandating neutrality, but the arguments made by those against it are so over-the-top ridiculous that it’s actually making me wonder why. There are reasonable arguments against mandating neutrality, but these groups don’t make them.

That it’s the SGA making these arguments initially shouldn’t come as a surprise. The group has a rather antiquated view of business models and modern technology, and its boss has declared in the past that songwriting would not occur without copyright — an obviously incorrect statement. The SGA has become a caricature of itself in the last few years. Rather than admitting that the market is changing and working with songwriters to help them adapt, it has basically decided the only reasonable strategy is to go crying to the government for more protectionism, and greater mandatory licensing fees. This is an odd group for the anti-net neutrality types to team up with, since most of them claim their reasons for being against net neutrality is to get away from government meddling in the internet industry. And then they go and team up with the SGA, who’s entire purpose is to encourage more government meddling in the music business? Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed…

Separately, it’s probably worth noting that ITIF, a “think tank” in DC and which has been a huge anti-net neutrality voice, has just come out with a poorly researched, poorly argued, joke of a report on “reducing digital piracy.” In it, they promote kicking people off the internet (based on accusations, not convictions) under a three strikes regime, and also that ISPs should filter and monitor their networks to try to stop infringement. Apparently, ITIF is not a big fan of your privacy… but it’s own… well, just try to find out who funds ITIF? That’s secret. Funny how that works. Otherwise the report repeats a bunch of sweeping claims that have no support in reality, and does not back them up. It states, repeatedly, that you can’t compete with free, even as many smart businesses do that every day. The report advocates DRM, and amusingly fails to mention the massive failure of every DRM system to date, and the harm it has done to legitimate users. But, of course, it saves most of its focus on supporting “technical measures” from ISPs to inspect your content and stop you if they think you’re doing anything wrong. Welcome to the big brother state. The report also supports ACTA, even though it admits it doesn’t know what’s included. Basically, it’s “recommendations” straight from the entertainment industry, with no basis in reality. And, with a nice “net neutrality” tie-in. Those ties seem likely to get closer, which is unfortunate. Funny that those who keep claiming they want the government to “stay out” of the internet, are so keen to have them very actively involved when it comes to copyright.

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In Japan, there is a variety of plum called ume. It actually resembles an apricot more than a plum, but it’s called a plum. It’s very astringent and when eaten raw can give a person a stomach ache, so the Japanese infuse them in alcohol and pickle them. In pickled form, these are called umeboshi.

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While Ohio is rusting away, and the New York Fed is saying it sees a backslide, Philadelphia sees an outlook of booming economic times, driven in part through the manufacturing sector.

One can only dream that said manufacturing includes cheesesteaks:

Federal Reserve Board: Activity in the region’s manufacturing sector is expanding, according to firms polled for December’s Business Outlook Survey. Indexes for general activity, new orders, and shipments all remained positive this month. Indicative of improvement, the overall level of employment and average work hours among reporting firms increased this month. The general activity index increased to 20.4 this month from 16.7 in November.

In this month’s special questions, firms were asked about their expectations for changes in various categories of input and labor costs for the coming year. Similar to responses in previous years, the largest annual increase is expected to be for health benefits (8.6 percent). In contrast, other labor costs (wages and non-health-care costs) are expected to rise only 1.3 and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Read the rest of this entry ->

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See Also:

• WaMu Wants Documents From The Fed About Its Talks With JPMorgan and Jamie Dimon
• Roach: The Fed Is Going To Blow The Exit, Get Ready For Another Massive Bubble
• New York Manufacturing Tanks In December After Four Months Of Recovery

The 5th annual Hydrogen Student Design Contest has just been announced by the Hydrogen Education Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the National Hydrogen Association.

The theme of the contest is Designing a Hydrogen Community and this year’s graduate and undergraduate students will be challenged with the task of planning and designing the basic elements of a hydrogen community in Southern California.

Three key areas will be addressed by this contest including hydrogen production, early markets, and fueling stations. Students must come up with a means to supply the community with hydrogen, of which 33-percent or more must come from renewable resources.

Students must also come up with a market analysis to identify potential early adopters in their community for the hydrogen they will be producing. According to the contest rules, “Early markets for hydrogen include back-up power, portable power, and materials handling vehicles. Students will identify at least five businesses or other organizations in the community that could be customers for hydrogen in these early markets.”

The third and last challenge is for students use the “cluster model” for hydrogen fueling stations and plan and design such stations that meet customer demand. One would think that a college campus, corporate campus, business or governmental fleet or master planned home community would all be possibilities for such a project.

The winning team will present their findings before the experts who appear at the NHA Hydrogen Conference and Expo on May 3-6, 2010 at Long Beach, CA.