 |
|
||
|
|
||
What's New? As many of you know we have some great travelogues on our web site, www.runnerduck.com/travelogues.htm. Ken's brother Ron and wife Lolli just got back from their winter break to the Western desert area. They visited the Mojave desert and Death Valley. He did this travelogue a little different with more pictures and fewer words. We think you'll enjoy it.While you are there check out the other travelogues we have listed. They are very diverse and interesting. DigiTalkThere are quite a number of programs out there that will help protect you from spyware. We chose Spyware Eliminator based on a number of reviews we've read. Webroot Spy Sweeper , No Adware and Xoft Spy are a few others. Microsoft has just released an anti spyware program for free but the reviews have not been all that great. I think I'd wait a while before I trusted it to protect me. There are a lot of other programs out there but these are a few we've tried. SITE OF THE MONTH
It seems like mid winter is a great time to talk about the weather. We had a heat wave and Florida was freezing. The northeast turned into a block of ice and California flooded out. We've been watching the weather a lot more lately thanks to a number of interesting web sites. We are all familiar with the big weather sites that cover the entire country, sites like Weather Pulse, Weather Bug and Weather Underground, just to name a few. What we are finding to be more fun are personal weather stations that people have put up on the web.
Two sites that we check a lot are one for Sandy Point, WA where our boat is and the other is Mendocino, CA where Ken's brother lives. These sites are updated every few minutes and really tell you the exact conditions at any given moment. Sandy Point has http://home.comcast.net/~rahknrol/rahknrol.html and Mendocino has www.mendocino.com/mendocino-weather.lasso. Both of these show wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, Barometric pressure, rainfall and much more. The Sandy Point site has so many links and so much weather information I've not even dented the surface.
To find a private weather station in your area just go to Google and type in "Weather Enthusiasts" or "Weather" plus your location and see what comes up. You may have to do a little surfing but it will be worth it if you are really interested in the weather.
MARILYN'S CORNERWoven Bread Bowl
 These look so nice and are really fun to make. You can use them for serving all sorts of things as long as they are not too heavy. They are perfect for rolls and bread.
Here's what you'll need:
Add the flour. Kneed for 5 - 10 minutes until smooth. Place in a Zip Lock bag and let rest for 24 hours at room temperature.
Roll out the dough 1/8" to 1/16" thick. 
Bake at 100 degrees F for 2 - 3 hours.
That's it! Now serve some nice warm rolls at your next meal in your new woven bread bowl. We hope you enjoy Marilyn's Corner and look forward to all the fun things she brings you each week. If you have a fun project that would be suitable for our newsletter we'd love to share it with our readers. Just contact marilyn@runnerduck.com and we'll do the rest. Remember we have all of our past projects archived on our web site at www.runnerduck.com. Just click on the Projects or Kids Only Eggs.
Kids Stuff
The 70% Savings Green Tag Clearance Sale continues! You won't believe the bargains, with savings of up to 70%, you'll find in our Toys Outlet. Check out all the action figures, dolls and plush, games and electronics, outdoor play, and pretend play toys included in this offer. It won't last much longer so check it out today. The Tempos
|
RSS News Feeder
Highlight the XML link (right click and drag over it), select Copy and paste it into your newsreader.  A good free news reader is Awasu and you can download it at www.awasu.com. Don't know what this is all about? Check out our little tutorial HERE!
|
THIS WEEK'S FREE RECIPE
Ingredients: Equal parts
That's it. You can make as little or as much as you like. Pour it over your pork and pineapple and enjoy.
Remember, if you have a recipe you'd like to share please send it to marilyn@runnerduck.com. We'd be happy to post your favorite recipe on our Kitchen site or in our newsletter and give you credit. Just drop a line to marilyn@runnerduck.com.
Every month we post a new recipe on our web page. Be sure and check out the New February recipe at the RunnerDuck Kitchen Store.
While our sweet and sour sauce is really simple there is a lot more to Chinese cooking than that! This cookbook is one of the best on the market for learning how to cook Chinese. The recipes range from simple to quite complex.
Christina C. Shankar from Chestnut Ridge, NY wrote this about "The Chinese Kitchen":
When you make these wonderful dishes, you will know what Chinese food really tastes like, not the brown garlic-ginger tasting stuff you get at a take-out place around the corner. This cuisine has everything going for it - a heavy reliance on vegetables, using meat in a supporting role, and healthful cooking techniques like stir frying and steaming.
The author has very thoughtfully created a glossary with the names of culinary exotica in both English and Chinese characters, so that I can make a copy of the page, point like an idiot at the words for my friends at the Asian market and they will show it to me.
The recipes ALL WORK. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to pick up a cookbook, place my time and ingredients and trust in the author's hands and have a wonderful meal to show for it. Trust this author. She will teach you, entertain you, and you will know how marvelous real Chinese food is. It would take an active campaign of sabotage to ruin one of her recipes, they are so easy to follow. (but then again, I really like cooking.) This is a cookbook that I will simply never part with, and I will use until its pages are stained with soy sauce and fall out. The recipe alone for Mah Gu Gai Pin is worth the price of the book.
WOOD PROJECT PLANS
DOWNLOADABLE & MAIL-DIRECT
WOODWORKING PLANS
Download WOOD Store® woodworking plans directly to your computer and start building in just minutes! OR, we'll mail them to you, your choice!
DVD Cabinet
The design features of this DVD Cabinet are three drawers to hold DVD's and a large open space in the bottom to hold the subwoffer of our sound system.
This was my first endeavor into making a piece of furniture. There was a lot more to it than I first thought. I copied from existing pieces of furniture that we have so that it would match. The biggest challenge was matching the stain. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out and I think you can make one too.
I ran out of time trying to get the project done and this newsletter out so the plans are not quite up on our web site yet. They will be posted in the next few days. Below are the material list and some comments on the more difficult parts.
Here's a list of materials you'll need to buy. The wood is finish sizes.
(4) 3/4" X 5 1/2" X 8' Wood of your choice, we used spruce.
(5) 3/4" X 3 1/2" X 8'
(2) 1/2" X 5 1/2 X 6'
(2) 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 6'
3/16" Plywood, I used a 4' X 8' sheet and had some left over.
(32) 5/16" X 1 1/2" Dowel Pins
(3) Knobs
1" #6 Zinc plated screws
Glue
Stain
Final finish
The first thing I did was started gluing up all the pieces. I don't have a planer so use a Freud Glue Line Rip Blade to true all the edges. It worked really great.
 Freud Glue Line Rip Blade |
Cut all the pieces so that they are wider and longer than the finished part. We will finish cutting them after they are glued up. All the dimensions will be on my web site in the next few days.
After cutting all the pieces spread glue evenly along the edges and clamp. Be sure the edges are perfectly flush as you clamp them. You may have to tap them with a dead blow mallet to adjust them. I clamped some boards across the panels to help keep them flat. Be sure that there is no glue oozing out of the seam that might stick to the call.
After the glue has cured I used a belt sander to flatten the surface. Don't use too aggressive of sandpaper or you might remove too much material. If you have some ridges between pieces run the belt sander at an angle while moving it straight back and forth with the grain.
A key part of this project is the dividers between the drawers. I made a frame and put plywood in the middle of the frame. This gives it good rigidity and a nice finished look.
I made the frames from 2" X 3/4" pieces on the sides, 1 1/2" pieces on the back and 1 3/4" pieces on the front. To add strength to the frame I use two dowel pins in each corner. I found this neat Dowel Pro Jig at Rockler that help perfectly align them.
 Dowel Pro Jig |
I clamped this jig onto the side of the front or back piece and the ends of the side pieces.
For the complete instructions I will be posting this project on our web site in the next few days. I didn't quite have all the instructions done as of this writing. Keep checking at www.runnerduck.com/dvd.htm.
We hope you liked this project. If you build it and your friends ask where you got such a clever idea, please tell them that you got it at RunnerDuck.com.
|
If you have a project that you would like to share please send us an email and we'll help get it published in the RunnerDuck review. We are looking for woodworking, gardening, crafts and kids projects so send us your thoughts at projects@runnerduck.com.
duckmaster@runnerduck.com
Tell A Friend About The "Duck"
|
