Reviewing Logitech’s Revue & Licorice Gummies

I purchased the Logitech Revue on October the 27th, the day after my birthday. I’ve been very pleased with it so far. I can watch a TV program or movie from my set-top cable box and read and post to Facebook at the same time. In fact with the Revue and my Harmony remote I can channel surf and surf the web at the same time! Wow, talk about information overload!

I never had a Web TV – fortunately – but if I had this is what I would have wanted it to be. I had been thinking about getting an iPad or the new Samsung Galaxy Tab. Mostly to be able to read while ‘watching’ TV and so I could look-up things that I became curious about while watching some TV show, documentary or movie. The Revue allows me to do this too. Well, not the reading so much, although I did read a short story on Project Gutenberg just to see if I could. It worked fine. I have two eBook readers (a Sony PRS-505 and the Nook) for that, so I’m fine with reading while watching TV. Now I can wait and see what the Android Tablets will be like next year when they really get going.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Logitech Revue is a Google TV appliance. It turns your current television into a Google TV.

Okay, so now you know what Google TV is. I’ve only had the Revue for two weeks now so I’m still learning about what it and Google TV can do. So far my only disappointment has been that while it can access my 160 GB Western Digital My Passport external hard-disk it cannot access my 1 TB WD My Book external hard-disk. I do have hope though as I learned from reading the Logitech forums that the first version of software would only support external drives up to 40 GB. So it’s possible that the 1 TB drive may someday be reached.

Okay, Okay calm down. I know you’re all wanting to hear about the Licorice Gummies, I never was a big fan of licorice or for cherry flavored candy of any kind. That being said every once in a while I used to enjoy a cherry licorice bite or twist. Today at work someone was eating some licorice and I had a HUGE craving for some cherry flavored licorice. I spent a whole minute, maybe even two, searching the web and found: Licorice Gummies. I bought some sugar-free dark cherry soda, sugar-free cherry Jell-O and anise extract on the way home and made it as soon as I got home. Well, shortly after getting home, had to play-cat Rosie first.

It’s good and has been entered into my BigOven cookbook.

The Last Month or So…

I was going to post more often, really I was. I was even on vacation so I can’t say I didn’t have time. Just couldn’t think of anything much to talk about.

As for my vacation. I didn’t go anywhere, just stayed home and puttered around. Started getting the house, yard and garage ready for winter, that kind of thing. I did almost no cooking during my vacation. Part of it was my arthritis was really bad the first few days so I didn’t really do much of anything at all. Just moaned and complained to Rosie. She got rather short with me about the whole thing after a while.

I did watch three movies on DVD from Netflix in the last couple of weeks: Wanted, Killers and Clash of the Titans (the new one).

Wanted – Don’t you just love movies that have no connection to reality. To me Wanted has less connection to reality than, oh say, No Such Thing (which I also watched while on vacation). Wanted is visually entertaining, but there is no story, not really, the plot is just a thin excuse for the special effects. **

Killers – Don’t you just love movies with Katherine Heigl in them? She’s both charming and witty. But, seriously – or not, this movie is just a fun romantic comedy romp with some action thrown in because what’s a love story without explosions and full auto weapons fire? It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than what it is; which is just good, reasonably clean, fun. ***1/2 (Tom Selleck’s mustache **** 🙂

Clash of the Titans – I seem to remember that when the first Clash of the Titans (1981) came out people made fun of it because it was not very accurate to the Perseus myths. Regarding the new version, I can only say that while the names remain the same the rest has been changed to protect the viewers(?) or someone from something or the other. Aside from the names and a few events the movie bears even less resemblance to the myth than the original. Which it seems is now a classic. When did that happen? It also negates the intent of the myth. Some of the visual effects are interesting, but that really doesn’t make a movie. *1/2 (1981 version **1/2)

No Such Thing (2001) – I watched this one again because I enjoy it. ****

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I did put out my WingScapes BirdCam while I was on vacation. I didn’t capture anything unusual, just the normal suspects: House Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Downy Woodpeckers and a Northern Cardinal. Oh, and a few squirrels, both grey and black, Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy. Yes, Virginia, there really are black squirrels in the area I understand that they were imported (why?) to the Island from the Black Forest in Germany that or they are simply a melanistic variety of the grey squirrel,

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While I didn’t do much cooking while on vacation only a very simple Chicken Tikka Masala. I did do some today. I made my Green Chili Cheese & Chicken Casserole and my Black Bean Brownies. I’ll post them to BigOven.com or somewhere and update this post to link to them in a few days.

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Well, I need to get up for work in six hours give or take. So Good Night all.

PS I did get a Logitech Revue while on vacation. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it is a Google TV box. I’ll try to post a review piece on it in a few days.

That’s a Spicy Meatball!

Made Spaghetti and Meatballs last night. Hy-Vee had 90% lean ground beef for $2.99 a pound so I purchased 2 pounds. I was just going to brown it all and mix half of it with 8 ounces or so of spaghetti and mix in a jar of spaghetti sauce. I ended up making meatballs, actual ball shaped meatballs. You ask what other shape meatballs would be? Usually when I make ‘meatballs’ I actually just make a couple of big patties and then cut them into bite-size pieces. It’s quick, easy and entails less handling of raw meat. Last night though I went all out and used all 2 pounds of ground beef and made a couple dozen meatballs.

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Meatballs ala ec

2 pounds 90% lean ground beef
1 pouch (16g) Good Seasons Zesty Italian Salad Dressing & Recipe Mix
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
2 eggs

Dump all the ingredients into a good-sized mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Shape into balls (about 2 tablespoons of meat each). I cooked mine on the stove-top in a frying pan, but you could bake them.
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Nothing special about the spaghetti or the store bought sauce. I did add about a teaspoon of Tabasco Sauce and a half cup of shredded cheese to the final product.

They are very tasty, but I think I’ll go back to the make into patties and cut into chunks method. It’s a lot easier.

As for today? It’s my ‘day off,’ so I’m doing yard work, mowing, raking and all that. Also taking stuff that shouldn’t be allowed to freeze from the garage to the basement, and stuff from the basement to the garage that’ll be unaffected by freezing. I’ll also probably clear off the deck.