El Origen Cafe

El Origen is the closest cafe to my departmento.

Plus, they offer Service a Domicilio, so I get a great lunch delivered on Tuesdays!. How lucky can you get?

El Origen's menu has a vegetarian influence. The menu choices are great from stuffed peppers to various chicken or vegetable dishes that are served with vegetable soup, rice, and salad.

Casa Maryposa

If you have never lived in a city, it's great to roll out of bed in the morning and walk to any number of cafes to get breakfast and coffee.

Merida is bustling. More buildings are being renovated as residences, rentals and businesses.

Casa Maryposa is part of these changes. It is a new cafe on Calle 62. The owner, Mary, and her family make all their own recipes from fresh ingredients. It is important to Mary to make food that has the best flavors at reasonable prices. Personally, I love her sweet breads and pies.

Smashwords Forum Writers Anthology 2015 -- Seeking Submissions

Muy Sano (Mai Tai) Mocktail

I found this combo of juices delicious.

Muy Sano (Mai Tai)

Ingredients:
Pilsner glass
4-5 Ice cubes
Orange Juice
Pomegranate Juice
Lime juice concentrate
Garnish: a lime slice, or a cherry

Process:
Add 4-5 ice cubes to Pilsner glass.
Fill glass 2/3rds with orange juice.
Fill glass 1/4th with pomegranate juice.
Add one shot of lime juice concentrate.
Do not stir.
Add garnish.

Let's Thank Johannes Gutenberg for Desktop Publishing, eBooks & more

In my opinion, the name of Johannes Gutenberg is probably as well known as Albert Einstein.

Gutenberg revolutionized the printing process by creating moveable type around 1439 and his methods were used in the printing industry until the prototype Linotype hot-metal typesetting machine was introduced in 1886. (Note: the Linotype inventor, Ottmar Mergenthaler, is less well-known than Gutenberg.)

The Linotype typesetting machine revolutionized and dominated the print industry until the invention of phototypesetting around the 1940s.

You can learn about the history of the Linotype hot-metal typesetting machine in the marvelous movie: Linotype Film at http://www.linotypefilm.com.

Learn about the development of phototypesetting in Hot Metal to Cold Type, a film in the online history of the printed word at PrintngFilms.com

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a film history of The Compugraphic 7500 phototypesetting machine which was one of several phototypesetting machines popular with small newspapers and graphic shops in the 1970s.

Compugraphic introduced a modular typesetting unit just as personal desktop computers were being introduced by Apple and IBM in the 1980s. Eventually, typesetting and some printing functions became the mainstay of personal computers.

More links:

History of Compugraphic

http://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1970-1979

My First Curbside Find

It's not much, just a clothes hanger, but it's my first curbside usable find.

I have friends who find marvelous curbside items, so I keep trying to improve my ability to see value in items other people don't want.

My First Crepes with two different outcomes

I had probably read the recipe below several times. But, when it came to making the crepes, I forgot some of the steps, like refrigerating the batter. Plus, I don't have a blender.

I won't mention the other mistake because things turned out ok, sorta.

Basic Crepes
Adapted from: http://www.chow.com/recipes/28467-basic-crepes

Ingredients:
1 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp of sugar
1 1/2 cups of milk (I used light)
2 eggs
butter or olive oil as needed.

Process:
Mix dry ingredients.
Add milk slowly.
Stir with a fork to smooth lumps of batter.
Add 2 eggs.
Mix thoroughly.

Lightly coat bottom of small skillet with butter or olive oil.
Pour about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of batter into skillet.
Tilt skillet to make batter cover entire bottom of skillet.
Cook on medium-high until crepe edges brown.
Flip crepe and cook the other side for about 30-45 seconds.
Slide the cooked crepe onto a dinner plate.
Make crepes until batter is used up.

Here's where my recipe went awry. Sometimes I added a little too much batter and got a thick crepe. Sometimes, I got a very thin crepe. Cooking time for each crepe varied.

I got 6 large crepes of varying thicknesses. If all the crepes had been thin, I would probably have gotten a few more crepes.

Fillings:

Sliced Strawberries mixed with Whipped Topping
In a bowl, add tbspn of sliced strawberries, mix in a tbspn of topping.
Add 1-2 spoonfuls of mixture to center of crepe.
Fold each side of crepe over the filling.

Sliced Mushrooms (canned) and Grated Cheese
Add tbsp of canned sliced mushrooms (drained) to one side of crepe.
Top with 1-2 tbspns of grated cheese.
Sprinkle with ground black pepper and a few shakes of paprika.
Warm up in microwave for 10 seconds on high to melt cheese a bit.
Fold crepe in half.

Surprisingly, I used a thin crepe with the strawberry filling and it tasted okay. Then, I tried a thicker crepe with the mushroom and cheese filling and it tasted great.

There is an art to cooking and it takes practice. So, my crepe recipe needs tweaking, a lot.

Update on new hot plate: I can control the temperature better with this new hot plate. It has six temperature settings, though I still think in terms of simmer, medium, medium-high temperatures.