Oye Como Va

Buenos Dias,

I am here in the heart of TexMex country, Houston Texas. People in Houston are in a hurry so I am going to tell you how to make spanish style rice in a hurry. I am talking instant rice and no, don't go buy a mix packet because that is what it will taste like.

I wasn't in a hurry but I have been using instant rice because it is convenient and also doesn't get a pan all stuck with rice. I used a pyrex bowl and put a glass plate on top of it (in the microwave) Today is the first time I tried adding anything to the rice and I was surprised how well it worked.

Chop up some onion and celery and put it in the bowl with the rice and then add some chili powder, garlic powder and some margarine or butter, whatever it is that you use. I used I can't believe it's not butter light. When you put the butter in, don't melt it first, it will be clumped up but just stir everything togeather. The butter will kind of hold everything so that nothing settles to the top or bottom. Then add some cold water from the tap. The idea is that you do not want the butter to melt until the cooking begins to keep it spread out evenly. Don't overdo it with the chili powder or garlic powder but put enough in to give it the flavor. As far as the chili powder, you can tell if you have enough based on the color.

Thats about it, Microwave it about 4 minutes or so and let it sit (still covered) for another 5 or 10 minutes and you will actually have some authentic tasting rice. Mine came out pretty good if I do say so myself but I was hungry when I ate it so maybe I was biased but I was till proud of myself.

Speaking of being proud of myself, Today I stopped by Home Depot to buy some gate hinges. I have some chain link gates that have been in the back yard for several years and I wanted to put on on the end of a 4x4 post that is part of my patio cover. They sell a "lag bolt" that would work perfect except for the fact that it is a pretty long and good sized bolt and I didn't want to thread that into the 4x4 because it would take away a some of the strengh of the board. It would make it as strong as a 4x3.25 and I didn't want that. I looked around for a while, asked a Home Depot employee for advice and then decided to go over to Lowes. They basically had the same stuff at lowes but I kept looking around and I found a eye bolt. It is made to thread into wood and has a round shaped hoop on the end. I then got a 2 and a half inch long 5/8ths bolt and some nuts and made a holder for the piece that hooks up to the gate. At one point I was about to give up but I kept telling myself that with all the hardware and stuff they had at these types of stores, the solution was there. I even told the cashier how proud of myself I was. She didn't seem overly impressed but she was polite about it.

I took a picture just now with my phone and it is at the top of the page. I found a bolt that was not threaded on the part closest to the part your hook the wrench to and then I used to nuts so I could tighten them against each other so as to be able to lock everything in place. The picture is of the bottom hinge but the top one looks pretty much the same. It actually took me alot longer figuring out how to come up with a plan than actually installing the gate.

I did something else amazing today but I am too humble to keep going on about myself like that so that is going to be the end of the report.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

The One Man Web Log Staff.