Why I Oughta...

Vegetable number two for my seed experiment are these Big Max Pumpkins.  As you can see, they're billed as "Competition Size" and the package boasts of pumpkins with 70" circumferences and 100 lbs of weight.  I'm doubtful, but I'm willing to give them a shot!

After having a lot of fun with my first-year garden, I figured year two warranted more attention. Some time last fall, I decided that I was going to try my hand at growing my own crops from seeds.  But, since the little plants are pretty stinkin' cheap, growing vegetable plants from seeds doesn't generally make a lot of sense.  But...the one catch is that plants that they generally sell at most garden centers are hybrids and common varieties that grow well and aren't all that unique.  However, even if they don't make a lot of economic sense to grow,  I still want to grow unique or hard-to-find seedlings.   And that's what I'm going to do!  There isn't a better project that I can think of for mid-February, right? First up?  San Marzano Tomatoes.  You know the ones:  the perfect pizza tomato ! Anyone know where I can get some volcanic ash to add to my soil?

Happy Birthday to me!  Well...not exactly me, rather my blog! Today marks the 7th anniversary of my first blog post .  Some of the older years (2004-2006) archives are scattered across the web and with the help of the Way Back Machine, I've been trying to rebuild them all over here at JakeParrillo.com. Courtesy of said Way Back Machine, here's what it looked like back in 2005 at RhodesSchool (below).  Some of you old timers may remember these days.  Lots of terrible posts, but plenty of laughs along the way. Last year, I used the occasion to debrief my first month back at blogging every day - and I'm happy to say that I've kept at it in 2011.  Here's to another year of living life with a great wife, amazing daughter and a really fun job.

Via Google's new Androidify Android app comes this self portrait.  What's with the turkey leg?  I figured I had to include something fun.  Aside from that oddity, what do you think?  Top-siders and baby bjorn?  Seem about right, don't they?

After our garage was built, I applied a floor coating from Rust-oleum as a DIY project.  For a few hundred bucks, we had a nice, sealed floor.  I never got around to posting these photos - they've been sitting as a draft for MONTHS - but with winter here and our garage floor covered in melted snow, salt residue and grim, it reminded me that (I hope) I'll be able to throw down a little pinesol mop away and then squeejee the moisture out the door and we'll have a perfect floor. The process of actually applying this stuff is easy, but the prep is a pain.  You have to etch your concrete - even brand new bare concrete - with an acid and get it spotless and dust free.  In order to get the chips down, I did one "square" at a time with each container covering 3 "squares".  Since we have a 3 car garage, that meant two kits to get it done.  You also have to cut-in the edges with a brush, but after that, it is just rolling out paint.  Easy-peasy! These are th

I heard from a few different people that my post last year reminding everyone to change their furnace filter helped them out and motivated them to head down to their basement to check the age of their filter.  Being deep in the heart of winter - with everyone's furnaces running all the time - I figured it was time to mention it again.  If you haven't done it in a while.... GO CHANGE YOUR FURNACE FILTER! In fact...if you are like me, and prone to forget when you put one in and when it is time to take one out, our good friends at Menards have the answer:   An automated nag to remind you to change the filter .  You set the date you installed the filter, the duration (how long you want it to last) and viola(!), Menards does the hard part of remembering when you need to head down to the basement.  There is even settings for fertilizing your lawn, too!  (I know...this is a convenient way of selling more products, but at least there is *some* value to the consumer!) Of course,

During my time on the Frankfort Village Board, we often spent time in committees talking about the type of amenities that the government should undertake/build to make our downtown a bit more appealing.  Benches, water fountains, public restrooms all came up.  Those are easy.  They're all things that the local government can build that help bring shoppers down to your downtown.  That's always the goal:  improving the experience, which leads to more sales tax dollars. You know what we didn't think about?  An outdoor fireplace.  Too often, I think, we focused on the warmer months, but shoppers are out and about in the winter.  I saw this one (above) in Holland Michigan.  Theirs is gas powered and just about always on.  While I was standing there waiting for Nat to finish up at Tip Toes , I saw a few different groups of shoppers stop by for a brief warm-up.  The fireplace was working!

I received a pair of these 'Ove' Gloves from my mom back at Christmas and I scoffed at the idea.  My mom persisted and said that they came highly recommended and in fact, the woman at Walgreens (yeah...that's where she bought them!) told her she HAD to buy 2 of them! Guess what?  These have become my go-to oven mitt and I don't even reach for anything else.  For breads, this thing works perfectly as I can pick up the loaf directly.  Same with pizza skins. I know what you're thinking...my oven mitts are fine.  That's what I thought, too!  This is one of those "As Seen on TV" products and, surprisingly to me(!), this one really works well.  Can't recommend it more.  Sounds silly, I know! Go buy it here with the link below:

While it appears I'm safely in the "manly" category on some of my hobbies like gardening and woodworking, it seems that " collecting Christmas Village buildings " and " baking breads from sourdough starter " both fall somewhere off the "Official Manly Hobbies List" .   

*NOTE* Yes...This post is out of order.  We went to Pequod's a while ago, but I forgot to post the pics and review. We drove up to Morton Grove planning on hitting up Burt's Place for some deep dish pizza on a random Tuesday - not heeding any warnings about pre-ordering our pies or any of that jazz.  Pulling up to the place, I was excited:  this place is a dive!  But...being the #8 pizza on the list, I was sure this would live up to they hype.  The place seemed quiet. Eerily quiet.  Turns out...they're NOT open on Tuesdays.  Bummer. But....lucky for us, all was NOT lost.  You see, Burt Katz - the proprietor of Burt's founded a little place called Pequod's - which just so happens to be on the list, too.  And the best part?  The original Pequod's is LITERALLY right around the corner from Burt's.  Off we went. My only experience with Pequod's was their City of Chicago location, but turns out this place was where it all began. Established in 1979,