Cool things to tell your friends.

In the United States, odd-numbered highways run North/South (I-35, I-75).

In the United States, even-numbered highways run East/West (I-40, I-30).

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.

What we now refer to as “Google” was originally nicknamed “BackRub” because the system checked back-links on the internet to estimate the importance of a site.

ESPN stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network

Paranormal Activity (horror movie out right now) was made with a $15,000 budget. As of yesterday, it had revenues exceeding 91 million $$$ in the United States.

The President of the United States earns a $400,000 annual salary.

On October 24, 2007 Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.

Hostess makes 500 million Twinkies a year.

A person would need to walk 9 miles to burn off all the calories found in Burger King’s Double Whopper with Cheese.

Craigslist gets over 20 BILLION page views per month. They have no advertising on the site, and their sole source of revenue is from job posting fees and apartment posting services in select cities.

As of 9:43 AM today, around 155,000 people had been born today across the entire world; around 67,000 had died (http://www.worldometers.info/)

Over 6 billion cigs have been smoked today around the world.

Diner’s Club International was the first credit card. It was only accepted at restaurant’s allowing people to dine out without having to carry large amounts of cash out on the town.

Over 80,000 miles of wire support the Golden Gate Bridge. That is enough wire to wrap around the world slightly more than 3 times…

Have a great day!

The Road-Less Traveled

 

I want to highlight the road-less traveled for my one of lifelong friends from Memphis,TN. Lucia Crenshaw and I have been friends since we were about 8 years old. I can remember taking a trip to the Cayman Islands way back when, and I somehow agreed to let Lucia and her sister Wendy put lemon juice in my hair (you know…what the hell can lemon juice to do one’s hair?). An awkward silence came across our 20 person dinner reservation when I entered the restuarant later night… the lemon juice had dyed the front part of my hair blonde, and I was forced to buzz all of my hair at school first thing Monday morning once Spring Break had ended.

Anyways, instead of taking the common college graduate route after graduating from The University of Georgia last May, Lucia decided to follow her dream of helping raise money to build a school for a village of kids way across the globe in Africa. For the past 4 months, Lucia has been living in Moshi, Tanzania helping to build the new St. Timothy’s School – a school that will eventually educate 300 students, 1/4 of which are orphans.  It will also serve as a health clinic, providing basic healthcare and HIV educational and awareness programs to a community that is currently basically invisible in the medical system.

Mama Hope, the American-based nonprofit organization that she has partnered with to help raise money for St. Timothy’s, has entered a competition through Parade magazine and FACEBOOK causes called America’s Giving Challenge. The nonprofit with the largest number of individual donations (not total amount raised) made between October 7th and November 6th ( this coming Friday) wins a $50,000 prize, the 2^nd and 3^rd place winners get $25,000, and 4-12^th place winners get $10,000. The organization with the most donations given in a single day wins a bonus $1,000! 

 As of yesterday evening, Lucia’s organization is in 23^rd place out of 5,386 organizations from all across the world. She has raised most of her money through FaceBook which truly shows the power of this amazing tool.  

I really can’t imagine or even begin to “put myself in Lucia’s shoes” because I have never taken on a task that she has spearheaded over in Tanzania. I know she is very passionate about this school, and she has worked her butt off to get her organization in the running for this $50,000 first place prize.

Check out this video of Lucia asking the student’s at the school what they want to be when they “grow-up” (ha pretty entertaining) :

I am trying to help her raise as much money as possible before the cut-off deadline of this Friday. You do not have to shell out $20 bucks. She wins the competition by the # of participants who get involved not the total amount of cash raised.

Here is an excerpt from an e-mail that Lucia sent me last night:

For the past 2 weeks, I have been gone on safari—no internet, no phones—literally in the bush.  I don’t blame you if this cause seems distant and far away—this is “AFRICA” that we are talking about.  But I have come to realize that while this “place” might be far away on a map, the humanity and the issues that exist here are far more universal than we give them credit for in America. 

 This school alone won’t solve Africa’s problems; that is not why I am here—I did not come to “change Africa.”  I am here, and I am asking for your help because this school, with each child that it educates, with each orphan that it takes in, and with each HIV + person that it welcomes and does not shun, helps to strengthen and give hope to a community who in many cases has been passed by. 

 I know that it is a long shot to win the $50,000 and that there are only a few days left (I have been out of town with no internet for the past 2 weeks), but I feel like we definitely have a chance to win $10,000 and how will you accomplish anything if you don’t at least try?

 

If you would like to help Lucia out with her fundraising efforts for this school, please click here http://www.causes.com/donations/select_donation_method?cause_id=60174

All she wants is $10 bucks (that’s the same amount you would spend on 2 beers at a bar, well atleast at a bar here in Dallas). Hit up the link, make a small donation, and skip out on those 2 beers later this week – it will be well worth it to see the impact your donation can have on this great cause for Lucia and her efforts across the world in Tanzania.

One more video of Lucia talking to the kids at St. Timothy’s School.

 

Small Business Spotlight: The QuickBoard, LLC

Welcome to the speed/agility training device of the future. I predict that this product will be a measure of athletic ability in the NFL combine within the next 5 years. Stay tuned to hear what it's all about...

Meet Kevin Martin - a native Memphian who went to my rival high school back home. We became friends by way of lacrosse, and he was also my trainer at Dean Lotz Personal Training Facility in Memphis, TN. I have known Kevin since I was in 8th grade, and we have been great friends ever since then.

FACT: The QuickBoard is NOT a jazzed-up version of Dance-Dance Revolution.

FACT: Michael Jordan has trained on the QuickBoard. In a 10 second quickness drill, he allegedly scored 165 touches when he stepped on the board at a strength and conditioning convention. A "super-fast out of this world time for any elite athlete" would be somewhere around 135 touches (just to put MJ's score into perspective).

The original QuickBoard training system was invented by Dean Lotz, and it was known as the "Quick Feet" Board. Dean Lotz was a legendary trainer from the University of Memphis who owned his own elite-training facility in the Memphis area. Sports agents from across the country would send their client's to Dean's gym in the off-season to get quicker, faster, stronger, and bigger.Dean had a lot of contributions to the sports training industry before he passed away a couple of years ago. Kevin Martin worked as trainer for Dean upon graduation from Auburn University.

Kevin has been around the QuickBoard training system since the year 2000. When Dean passed away, Kevin decided to step away from the sports training industry; he decided to take a job at a local bank in Memphis. After about 8 months of living the corporate life, Kevin decided he wanted to start his own business. In July 2006, Kevin Martin and Beau Lotz(Dean's son) relaunched the QuickBoard training device.

The video you see above is the drill Jordan scored out of the roof on. Jordan also laid down 63 touches in a 3 second drill or 21 touches a second( a normal freak of nature would score somewhere around 35).  It is a 10 second quickness drill that counts the number of touches your left and right foot make on the QuickBoard.

I sent Kevin some questions last week for him to answer for this interview. He wholeheartedly believes in the future of this product as a mainstay in the collegiate and professional sports training world. Heck - UConn, Rutgers, Kansas, Missouri, the University of Memphis, the Orlando Magic, and the Houston Texans are already incorporating these boards into their training.

What is the QuickBoard?

The Quick Board measures and improves quickness, reaction time and agility.  It also develops strength, balance, proprioception and coordination.  The system is very easy to use and can be used in conjunction with other products like wobble boards or stability disks for rehab or stability training.  The system is a great tool for programs with strength and conditioning and sports medicine departments because it gives them pre injury and post injury data on athletes.  This way the sports medicine staff knows where the athlete was before he/she got hurt and objectively track them back to 100%.Physical therapy clinics will also be able to objectively track a client's progress not only for their sake of implementing proper protocols, but also to prove to the insurance company that the patient has been benefiting from the rehabilitation.   I like to compare the Quick Board to a computer 20 or so years ago.  At first, the market is resistant to change but you have your leaders who welcome innovation then the followers come along and the technology catches on.

What is your target market?

Target markets for the Quick Board are professional sports teams, strength and conditioning departments at universities, high school teams, athletic performance training facilities, sports medicine departments and physical therapy clinics. The University of Memphis Human Performance Labs  currently incorporates the Quick Board in their ongoing research studies.  The labs need reliable and accurate equipment to evaluate pre/post -  test training groups and control groups.  The University of Memphis performed a study on the QuickBoard system, which was published last November in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, to evaluate reliability and effectiveness in a 4-week training protocol.  The results concluded it is highly accurate and reliable for measuring quickness and reaction.To the researchers surprise, the Quick Board significantly increased the training group's overall agility.  This study led to the human performance lab at UCONN to use it to pre and post test quickness in a study which will be published before the end of this year.  I actually had a university in Germany purchase 2 systems to use for training and research.  I would love for the Quick Board to be consistently incorporated into studies worldwide.  In my opinion, there is nothing better to back your product than research and high-profile and/or credible endorsements!

Where can I see more of this product in action?

Kevin has a built a very awesome website that gives you more information about this futuristic product. Go to www.thequickboard.com to see more information or to order a board. Although the board is targeted for a whole team to use, individuals have bought boards for their personal use while training at home. This truly is a great idea, and I am sure you will see it in the limelight in the next few years.

Communication Evolution…

Always changing...

 

Facebook is a household name. If you are not on it, you certainly know someone who is logged in right now. What started as a side project at Harvard University, has become  the most popular social networking website in the entire world!   The site currently has over 300 million active users. Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s founder, created this site in his dorm room, while he was an undergraduate student at Harvard University. The term “FaceBook” was a spin-off of a booklet that was handed out at the start of each school year to aid in the Harvard student’s quest to learn about/recognize other students on campus.

Zuckerberg’s original online network only allowed students with a Harvard e-mail address to create a profile (over half of the student population had joined the network within the first month). The service was then expanded to other Ivy League schools in March of 2004. By mid 2005, the service was expanded to allow high-school kids to create profiles. On September 26, 2006 , all persons with a valid e-mail address over the age of 13 were permitted to sign up for the online networking site.

 I can remember growing up on AOL instant messenger. My friends and I, as I am sure millions of kids my age around the country, would log in every night to chat with buddies and girlfriends over the net. AOL’s core concept of instant messaging is one of thousands of features available on www.facebook.com

What started as a rite of passage for only college students, has now become a social networking mecca for anyone and everyone that wants to join the site. Facebook is very organized and easy to navigate, which in my opinion, has propelled it past its arch rival , myspace.com.

This social empire has also contributed further to the impersonal social world which technology has made mainstream. 15 years ago the only available methods to get in touch with another human were by landline telephone, snail mailllllll, a fax machine or some sort of courier.

In today’s world, I wake up next to my iPhone with my work and personal e-mails, text message friends and business contacts throughout the day, G-Chat, chat on Facebook, exchange e-mails, tweet (www.twitter.com/samhsawyer), and use a landline only when I am in my office. I am sure you can think of other ways we communicate that I didn’t even mention (Skype, Friend Finder, LinkedIn, etc. etc.).

Please post thoughts/comments below of any communication methods you use on a regular basis that I didn’t mention in this post. The future of communication is a scary/exciting thing, and we will (I’m sure) see some huge advancements in this industry over the next decade.

Local guys doing WORK

Taylor and Oliver

 

Last Wednesday I had a chance to sit with down local “College Hunks Hauling Junk”  franchise owners for the DFW area, Taylor Chalmers and Oliver Blodgett. I wanted to interview them about the experiences they have had over the term of their franchise ownership with this rapidly expanding residential and commercial junk-removal business.

The “College Hunks Hauling Junk” national franchise was founded by 2 lifelong buddies, Nick Friedman and Omar Soliman. The venture started out as a way to earn extra money during the Summer of 2002. Soliman’s mother owned a furniture store, and she let the guys borrow her beat up van to get the “hunks” business off the ground. During Omar Soliman’s senior year of college, he submitted the “College Hunks Hauling Junk” (a name coined by Soliman’s mother) business plan into the Rothschild Entrepreneurship Competition. Out of nearly 150 entries, Omar won the whole competition plus a $10,000 prize.

Upon completion of college, Nick and Omar passed up opportunities in the corporate world to let their entrepreneurial spirits shine. They teamed back up and opened the first “Hunks” franchise in the Washington D.C. area. The company has now expanded across the country with more than 24 franchise locations in operation today.

An article that recently appeared in Inc. Magazine highlighted the interesting growth-concept put in place by the founders. The founders encourage inter-company competition to drum up business. The company was founded by frat-stars who like to keep the “fraternity-like” culture alive in their business. “Friendly rivalry, of course, is endemic to college life, and the company’s early employees translated their frat-war sensibilities to the job. Shortly after the [Hunk's] launch in 2005, haulers from its Virginia branch went out to their truck one morning and found it lathered with shaving cream and draped with a University of Maryland flag. They retaliated with a dead fish in the Maryland’s branch truck”(excerpt from article in Inc. magazine).

Nick and Omar loved the friendly competition and have now implemented friendly competitions into their franchise model. Currently, Oliver and Taylor are in the midst of a contest that runs until the end of the year. They are teamed up with the Tampa and Orlando franchisees against other 3-franchise teams within the company. Whoever drums up the most combined biznaz by the end of the year scores some free hotel rooms and a paid trip to the company’s next conference.

After researching a lot of franchise options in the Dallas market, Taylor and Oliver decided to go with “College Hunk hauling Junk” in early 2009.  Oliver and Taylor both agree that “…it was a ground-floor opportunity in one of the bigger markets in the country (they were the 16th Hunks franchise in operation)”. Other reasons for joining with this company included the accessibility and hands on nature of the founders, Nick and Omar. Nick and Omar have been spending a lot more time recently pumping their brand on a national level, and Taylor and Oliver have seen these national promotions definitely benefit their local business here in Dallas.

In the beginning, Taylor and Oliver were wearing many different hats (as most small business owners are familiar with). They were driving the trucks, advertising, meeting with potential clients, building their brand in this market etc. etc. They have just recently taken more of a managerial role. Taylor told me that they now probably spend “50-60% of their time trying to secure more commercial contracts, 20% of the time managing their employees they have hired to drive the trucks, and the other portion of their time taking care of the books,doing some PR, and any other random task that comes about when you start your own business.

They always have 3 or 4 drivers on call. They pay these guys by the hour, and they give them a call to come work whenever a job is booked in their online database (more commonly known as “JunkWare” – software developed by the founders to streamline the whole business)! They currently run the business from a back office at their home. Taylor and Oliver have until February of 2010 to exercise an expansion option into the Fort Worth market. They have considered the possibility of getting some more trucks rolling around the Metroplex, but they have not made any official moves. These 2 guys have been lifelong friends, and they always knew they would start up some sort of business together. They eventually want to open some more businesses together down the road, but they are not sure what direction this will take them in their lives.

Check out their website by clicking here!

Is college a waste of time??

 

 

 I just came across an opinion column published in the Wall Street Journal by Charles Murray. Charles recently wrote an article titled, “For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time”. The opening paragraph of this article is something that irked my thoughts. Charles asks us  to imagine if America had no system of post-secondary education. He goes on to challenge us to imagine that after high school you were assigned to a task force to create a post secondary education (or business opportunity) from scratch. Suppose one of your collegues submits the following proposal published by Charles : “First, we will set up a single goal to represent educational success, which will take four years to achieve no matter what is being taught. We will attach an economic reward to it that seldom has anything to do with what has been learned. We will urge large numbers of people who do not possess adequate ability to try to achieve the goal, wait until they have spent a lot of time and money, and then deny it to them. We will stigmatize everyone who doesn’t meet the goal. We will call the goal a “BA.”

In this day and age, I feel like America is more of a name dropping society than ever before. It is not WHAT you have learned throughout your life, but WHERE you learned all that you know. In this day and age not graduating from college is social (and professional) suicide. Although you may be smarter than your friend who graduates from a lower level college, the distinction of having the degree makes the idiot more credible. We need to have a level playing field to test the true worth of someone’s knowledge. Aside from a select number of very focused skill-set type career fields, (engineering,science,law,accounting etc.) a BA degree says that you may have had easier teachers, cheated better, had better connections than, or a number of other things besides true knowledge.

If graduating college kept you from being respected 30 years ago, many of the most recognizable names in business today would not be around.

I am not saying that graduating from a college is worthless, but for some people who have the knowledge, skills, and know-how to attack this scary world on their own, then I propose we should have another measure to qualify their education aside from which university they received a degree.

Click here to read another article on this topic – http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/risky-business/2008/08/15/is-college-a-waste-of-time-for-entrepreneurs.html

COUNT IT: Jerry Jones’ TV in the Guinness World Records

Wouldn’t you like to play PS3 on the biggest video screen in the world??

If you haven’t been to an event at the Cowboys’ new stadium, you need to get something marked down on your calendar. The stadium itself is a monstrous piece of property, but if you are like me, you will find yourself staring at the largest TV screen in the world (in the world’s largest stadium) more often than you are looking at real people on the field. 

The total viewing area of the display(s) is 11,393 square feet — that’s more than 3,000 52-inch TVs – - – - – the whole screen has over 10 million individual LED lights

That’s right, folks: Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys organization have claimed the official Guinness World Record for  the world’s largest high-definition video display. They made things official last night before the kick-off against Jake Delhomme and the Carolina Panthers.

The mega-screen consists of four Mitsubishi Diamond Vision LED video screens, with the two main sideline displays measuring 72 feet high by 160 feet wide, and two Diamond Vision end-zone displays measuring 29 feet high by 51 feet wide. (Random fact – The St. Louis arch could fit comfortably inside this new piece of real estate)

Weighing 600 tons (roughly equivalent to 300 elephants) , the screens are suspended 90 feet directly over the center of the playing surface and stretch from nearly one 20-yard line to the other. You may recall the Cowboys’ first pre-season game when the Titans’ punter, A.J. Trapasso, struck the video screen during the game. Before the game started, Trapasso was intentionally kicking punts into the screen while hanging out on the field with Jerry Jones. The video screen has not affected play, since this indicent in that pre-season game.

Pre-construction shot of the stadium. Great shot of the 300 ft. tall steel arches that span the length of the stadium.

300 ft. steel arches

The Ultimate Mansion: a look inside the life of Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner in High School

 

The man behind the madness of the most famous mansion in the world (yes I am from Memphis and I like Graceland, but when was the last time someone partied at Graceland?) was born on April 4th, 1926 in Chicago,IL. After graduating from Steinmetz High School in 1944, “Hef” joined the United States Army. He served as a writer and cartoonist for the US Military newspaper until 1946 before enrolling at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After earning his degree in Psychology at the University of Illinois, Hef went on to take a semester of graduate courses at Northwestern University that focused on sociology and U.S. Sex Laws.

Hef got his start in the publishing world working as a copywriter for Esquire magazine. He left in 1952 after being denied a raise, and in 1953 he began chasing his dream to build the Playboy Empire. Hef raised around $8,000 from 45 different investors (including his mother) to launch “Playboy”.

Playboy’s original title was to be “Stag Party”, but an outdoor magazine, “Stag”, informed him that they would protect their trademark if he were to use that name. Eldon Sellers, co-founder and executive vice-president of Hef’s company, suggested “Playboy.”

The first issue, in December 1953, was undated, as Hefner was unsure there would be a second. The first centerfold was Marilyn Monroe( RANDOM FACT: Hef owns the grave-site next to Marilyn Monroe…). The cover price of the original issue was only 50 cents, and it sold out in weeks.  The novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, was serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy magazine.

The bunny logo was designed by art designer Art Paul for the second issue and has appeared ever since. Hefner said he chose the rabbit for its “humorous sexual connotation”.

An urban legend started about Hefner and the Playmate of the Month when the cover showed stars. The legend stated that it was to rate Playmate according to how attractive she was, the number of times that Hefner had slept with her, or how good she was in bed. The stars actually indicated the domestic or international advertising region for that printing.

Hef married Mildred Williams in 1949, but he later found out that she cheated on him while he was away in the Army. Hef was devastated, but to make up for her mistake Mildred allowed Hef to sleep around with other women (weird – huh?). This is where the idea of multiple chics living and sleeping in bed with Hef originated. This practice eventually ran Mildred crazy, and they ended up getting divorced in 1959. This divorce may be the best thing that ever happened for Hef, the Playboy magazine, and the Playboy brand in general. The 1960’s were the roaring times for the Playboy brand. Hef has admitted in the past that “he was probably involved with 10 out of every 12 playmates during a calendar year throughout the 19060’s decade”.

 

Hef has continued with the multiple girlfriends throughout the entire stay at the Mansion.  ”The Girls Next Door” show which highlighted Hugh’s 3 girlfriends at the time showed the American public a glimpse of life at the Mansion. In October of 2008, Hef and these 3 girls “broke-up”, and he is now rumored to be dating Crystal Harris along with some 19-year old identical twins, Karissa and Kristina Shannon.

THE MANSION

The original Playboy Mansion in Chicago is located at 1340 N. State Parkway in Chicago, IL. This mansion included 70 rooms featuring French masonry work and limestone on the exterior. This property was originally built for Dr. George Swift Isham, and it was acquired by Hef in 1959. Hef split time between this Mansion and the now famous “Mansion West” in LA for a short time period in the 1970’s. Hef moved to the Mansion West full-time in 1974. The door on the original Mansion is inscribed with the latin phrase “Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare” which means “If you don’t swing, don’t ring!”

The Original Mansion

The Mansion West which is the actual name of the ever-popular Mansion in Hollywood is a 21,987 sq ft home that sits on 5.3 acres. It was built in 1927 and acquired by Playboy from Louis D. Statham, an engineer, inventor and chess aficionado, in 1971 for $1.1 million. It sits close to the northwestern corner of the LA Country Club, close to UCLA and the ever famous Bel-Air Country Club. $15 million has been invested in renovation and expansion of the Mansion West bringing the market value to around$50 million.

The mansion has 29 rooms including a wine cellar, a game room, a zoo, aviary, tennis courts, a waterfall and a swimming pool area ( which includes a large patio, BBQ pit, sauna, “bath house”, and of course the world-famous GROTTO). The game room is a separate building on the property’s north side. From the fountain in front of the main entrance, there are two sidewalks, running past a wishing-well. The sidewalk on the right leads to the game house and runs past a Hollywood Star of Hefner. Its front entrance opens to a game room with a pool table in the center. This room has vintage and modern arcade games, pinball machines, player piano, jukebox, television, stereo, and couch. The game house has two wings. Left is a room with a soft cushioned floor, mirrors all around, television. There is a restroom with a shower. The right wing of the game house has a smaller restroom, and entrance to a bedroom. This bedroom is connected to another bedroom, which has an exit to the rear backyard of the game house. The game house has a backyard with lounge chairs, and gates on either side.

A secret room known as the “Elvis Suite” is kept out of the public view. In a March 2007 television interview, Hefner explained the suite is special to him because of one night in the early seventies, when Elvis stayed in that suite along with no fewer than eight girls. Hefner confirmed that whenever movie stars, sports stars, or rappers come there, they always request the “Elvis Suite”, but that it remains, and will most likely remain, off limits.

The neighboring house to the Mansion West is a mirror image of the Mansion – only smaller. Hefner purchased the neighboring building in 1996 and it is now  home to his separated wife(2nd wife) Kimberley Conrad and their children. Hefner and Conrad married in 1989 and separated in 1998.

In 2002, Hefner purchased a house across the street from the mansion for use by Playmates. 

According to Playboy Enterprises’,  Hefner pays Playboy rent for “that portion of the Playboy Mansion used exclusively for him and his personal guests’ residence as well as the per-unit value of non-business meals, beverages and other benefits received by him and his personal guests.”

Dude food: good food, no experience required

So it’s 7:3o on a week night, you just got home, you’re tired as sh*t, and you don’t feel like going anywhere to get some food ( and you may have never cooked anything besides a pop-tart in your life)… These simple recipes can be prepared by anyone with a few ingredients, a decent kitchen, and a skillet or two.

Cooking weapons: a skillet, some measuring cups, and some simple spices

“One-Dish Dinner: Skillet Lasagna” : I know you may look at this name and think that lasagna is something only served at a restaurant or from your mom’s oven, but this version is very easy to prepare in a skillet right on the stove in your house or apartment.

Ingredients

 

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling on then finished product
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, diced
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil and/or parsley, plus more for garnish
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese, plus more to sprinkle on top before serving
• 6 sheets no-bake lasagna noodles ( in the pasta section at any normal grocery store)
• 1 carrot, peeled into ribbons
• 1 zucchini, peeled into ribbons
• 3 1/2 cups baby spinach
• 1/3 pound mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Directions

Heat the 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic; cook until golden, 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste; cook until saucy, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a blender and puree. Return 1 cup of the sauce to the skillet and reduce the heat to low; reserve the remaining sauce ( You can also just buy some sauce at the store, heat it up, and call it a day – this section is only if you want to create your own masterpiece in the tomato sauce department).

Meanwhile, mix the ricotta, egg, parmesan, the remaining 3 tablespoons herbs, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a bowl.

Place 2 lasagna noodles over the sauce in the skillet. Layer half of the carrot and zucchini on top; drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with half of the spinach, half of the ricotta mixture, a few pieces of mozzarella and 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved tomato sauce. Repeat the layers, ending with noodles. Top with the remaining sauce and mozzarella. Cover and simmer until the lasagna is cooked and the cheese melts, 20 to 25 minutes.

Let rest for a few minutes before slicing. Garnish with more parmesan and fresh herbs.

NEXT DISH—>>>

Some Asian-inspried cuisine straight from the skillet : Simple Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients

Game Plan:

• Marinate the chicken while you prepare the rest of the ingredients
• 1 pound chicken breast (about 2 breasts), cubed
• 3 scallions, whites only, thinly sliced on an angle
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece peeled fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
• 1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
• About 1/3 cup water
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 to 6 cups broccoli, trimmed sliced stalks and medium florets (keep the 2 cuts separate)
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon red chili flakes, optional
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• Garnish: toasted sesame seeds, optional
• Serving suggestion – Get a microwaveable bag of Brown or White Rice to throw in with this delicious stir-fry dish

Directions

In a medium bowl, toss the chicken with the scallion whites, about half the garlic and ginger, the soy sauce, sugar, 1 teaspoon of the cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of the salt, the sherry, and the sesame oil. Marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes. Mix the remaining cornstarch with 1/3 cup water.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat. Add the broccoli stems, and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the florets and the remaining garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons of water, and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Stir-fry until the broccoli is bright green but still crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Get the skillet good and hot again, and then heat 2 more tablespoons oil. Add the chicken and chili flakes if using. Stir-fry until the chicken loses its raw color and gets a little brown, about 3 minutes. Add the hoisin sauce, return the broccoli to the pan and toss to heat through. Stir in the reserved cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil to thicken. Add more water if need to thin the sauce, if necessary. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if you like. Mound the stir-fry on a serving platter or divide among 4 plates and garnish with sesame seeds; serve with rice.

NEXT DISH —–>>>>>

Crabcake recipe by my lifelong friend from the early days in Memphis, Rob Baird. REMEMBER THAT NAME(ROB BAIRD) - my buddy just signed a record deal with Carnival Records out of Nashvegas. Check him out on iTunes or click here to visit his MySpace page – http://www.myspace.com/robbairdmusic

Anyways, here is a time tested-recipe that we have cooked together many a time, for a many a person. Let us know what you think…

1 lb of crab meet
1 red bell pepper
1/4 of white onion
1 teaspoon of tabasco
1 teasponn of worcestershire
1 teaspoon of dry mustard
1/4 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of saltine crackers
1 tbl of canjun seasoning or old bay seasoning
1 cup of panko breadcrumbs

preheat oven to 450…combine everything in a mixing bowl except for the panko breadcrumbs. Form the cakes, roll them through the Panko breadcrumbs, and then place in skillet. Saute crabes cakes in 1 tbl spoon of  olive oil and 1 tbl of butter for a bout two mins of each side. Then pop them in the over for 5 mins.

Serve with some rice and a salad (or whatever the hell you want).

Check back next week for a video tour of my Grand Canyon hike this coming weekend. I’ll be departing this Friday to take on a Rim to Rim to Rim hike of the Canyon – www.gotguts09.com

 Cheers,

Sam

A home: a bigggggggg asset

The post below draws from a post I published on May 16th. I feel like it is worth posting again because the First-Time Home buyer tax credit is approacing its end very soon. In order to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit, you must close on a residential property before December 1st of this year. With the changes in the mortgage business, it is a solid idea to get a home under contract in the next couple of weeks to insure a timely close on your property. You must meet the following criteria in order to qualify for this tax credit:

First Time Home Buyer- Must not have owned a home within the last 3 years.

Income- If you are single,  you must make less than $75k/year. If you and your spouse are purchasing together,you all must make less than a combined income of  $150k/year.

 Terms- You must own this particular property for 3 years or more or you will be required by the IRS to repay this tax credit.

 Money- If you buy a home that is $80k or more, then you will get the full $8,000 back. If the home is less than $80k, then you will get 10% of the home’s purchase price back as your tax credit.

           The current state of the economy and the real estate market in general has many people stuck in limbo, especially first time home buyers. The Obama adminsitration is offering an $8,000 tax credit to first time home buyers who purchase a house in 2009. This offer is very attractive, but one must evaluate their own local market before deciding to purchase a home. The national media paints a very dark picture for real estate on the national level, but some local markets present some very promising purchasing opportunites!

A quick indicator I like to use to evaluate a property’s potential  as a purchase is the PR Ratio, or the Price to Rent Ratio.

For example, let’s say a house you are interested in purchasing is listed for $517,000. And let’s assume you can purchase the property for $500,000. Comparable houses in the area are fetching $3,600 per month in the rental market.

To calculate your PR ratio for this property, you divide the home’s purchase price ($500,000) by the annual rent payment ($43,200) which equals a PR Ratio of 11.57.

The benchmark indicator for this ratio is 15 – if you are below 15 you are in a great buyer’s market. If you are well above 15, you are in a great renter’s market. The current national average for the PR Ratio is 18.3.

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend,

 Sam