text:
Published on January 29th, 2009 | by Jules Yap48
Bedtime for Titina
Paola hacks a snooze corner for her very fat cat. It looks absolutely cushy in the Duktig doll bed.
She says, "My cat Titina is very fat, it is 9 kg and she used me like a bed. Now it is very hot so I was looking for a nice and comfortable place where it can sleep. Looking at the Italian Ikea store, I have found the Bastis Krona at €59 ($69.99) which I thought was very expensive. Looking for something else to adapt I found the
Then I bought two Hedda Rak and sewed them smaller. So I have one cover to use when the other is dirt. I filled it with linen sold with the Duktig bed for upholstery.
48 Responses to Bedtime for Titina
That is so cute ! No further comment
That's so cute. I can see that she is so comfortable with her new bed. I wish I can also make my little kitty a new bed.
I did that too, some time ago
people people….i'm sure you could stand to lose a few pounds, I know I could. Now leave the cute kitty alone and look at how much it likes the bed!
So cute. I wish I could find a dollbed like that but bigger for my dog!!
She is so gorgeous I will make the same, hoping that my boys will like it
That is so cute. Your cat looks super comfy! I can't believe he's perfectly happy there. Ours follows us everywhere including our bed. Hee hee. Not that I mind though.
It is a good idea, they seem to be comfortable. =)
Meow Meow
Excellent bed, excellent kitty. Now can someone please figure out a hack for Anonymous, to turn him/it into something more useful?
Ciao, Paola!
Great idea, however i believe that Titina will keep on choosing you as a mattress…. they always do…
I also have an overweight cat. He is fed years ago only with special food, prescribed by the vet. His brother eats the same food, one cat is 9 kg, and the other is 2.5 kg…
They are 16 years old, and they had the same weight since 5 years old, so I think that maybe some cats are not overfed, just are genetically fat.
Non ti preoccupare, cara Paola!
God, people are mean. That is a very cute cat and the bed is adorable.
what a great idea- maybe I'll make one for the rabbits….
So cute. The cat looks a bit like min. Buth a little bit bigger;)
Cool idea for catbed. I'm shure mine 2 cats could like somtihing like that.
Have a cool day
uh….lazy cat
HUUUUGE cat! Not as big as the one at my parents though… =P
Its a post about an Ikea hack not a post asking for quack vets' opinions.
What A CUTE Cat!!!
Paola, thank you for showing us the little cat bed. It's awesome and Titina is a lucky cat. And to all you cat obesity experts, thanks for sharing but I am sure she has already noticed the cat is fat. A vet once admitted to me that his cat was fat (like mine) and it's extremely hard to get them to shed the weight.
What a wonderful idea! Titina is an absolutely beautiful cat, who is simply adorable facing the camera perfectly from her bed! You should submit that photo in a contest, cause it's a winner!
Ask your vet about trying Science Diet Light Dry cat food for her. Then feed AS DIRECTED on the bag! Something MOST people don't bother to read and do regardless of the brand. It's dangerous for a cat to just be fed less food – it must be a good quality. This brand will keep her healthy, with the proper stuff in it and she will lose weight.
Hello! The healthy cat will eat dry food without harm for свего health.
This is so awesome. That is the life to have!
Pls do not feed your felines kitty-crack aka dry food. Cats should only eat wet or raw food. The meat should be a high quality protein. Watch out for beef, fish, "meat" (of unknown origin), or even a small amount of grains. They may be inappropriate for cats with food allergies or gastro-intestinal disorders. Fish should be fed sparingly, but can serve as an excellent tool for transitioning cats on to canned food. Likewise, liver can be addictive, and should not be fed in large amounts. When buying canned food, check for no grains. You should be *tolerating* vegetables and fruit in order to get higher quality meat, no "meat" of unknown origin, and no "byproducts".
The tabby cat is beautiful and seems to really dig the bed. Feed him wet food twice a day and the pounds will fall off. Dry food=carbs=sugar=fat.
Oh my goodness, that is insanely cute! Kitty looks quite content in the bed
hes a cute cat. looks like seal.
I agree with you Cathy. It's really hard to regulate when there are multiple cats in the house. I've tried so many ways to make my chubby cat lose weight and fail because it will affect the other skinny cats in the house. Please don't be harsh on the owner when you only see the pictures of the cat. You never know what the owner is going through. BTW, the post is awesome. I am totally going to steal this idea. Maybe a bunk bed for brother cats?
I love this idea! And how do y'all know she isn't working on her cat's weight problem? Your energies would be better spent DOING something for animals besides writing responses to blogs.
Not so easy to regulate when you have multiple cats and aren't home all day. Lock each cat up in a separate room with its own litter box and food bowls, when they want to spend the day playing and socializing with each other? Buy (expensive) special food for the diabetic one that all the rest will also eat (and thus run out of it faster, driving up your cost), when you can barely afford the insulin as it is? My large diabetic gets insulin shots 2X a day for the last five years. He seems pretty happy. He is still large. My vet's office thinks he is the coolest, most mellow cat they've ever met. Don't bash someone because their kitty is large – we all have our reasons, our limits, and we do what we can … and in the end, we all love our cats.
Freber: "I had an overweight cat – it's incredibly difficult to regulate"
Er? Choices are:
Medical problem – get it sorted.
Overfed – feed it less.
Seems quite simple to regulate to me. It's worth it for the extra time you can enjoy with your lovely kitty.
(And yes, I've had cats. Plus my girlfriend is a vet.)
To end on a positive note: Very, very cute bed (and cat!)! This is a really fun cool idea.
That cat is overweight. No excuses. Diet time, otherwise you're going to be responsible for it's shortened lifespan.
(I've got my fat bugger down from 9kg to 5kg after vet's advice)
It's easy to cast stones, isn't it people?? I love how the anonymity of the internet gives people the incentive to be rude. I had an overweight cat – it's incredibly difficult to regulate and you don't have any clue what this owner has tried or is trying. So get off your high horses and worry about your own problems.
PS – Love the hack! Cute bed and kitty.
@Chipo, at the risk of getting extremely off topic, I was joking. However, for everyone to jump on this person's case because their cat is fat so them obviously must be overfeeding them and abusing them is ridiculous. I thought this blog was about ikea hacking…
However, it's a great little hack. Maybe a little kitty treadmill next?
my big boned cat would love this! Thanks for the idea
Please don't feed cats like human.
I just painted our doll bed to send off to Grandma for her cat. Thanks for helping me winnow the toy collection.
AWWWWW kitty likes it! Cool idea!
Thyroid problems can be treated., A cat that fat runs several risks, diabetes for example. Stop defending animal abuse, and wake up.
hahaha, that is totally amazing. That cat looks like it loves it's new bed.
@FrightenedByPenguins leave that cat alone. Maybe it has a thyroid problem.
The rug is IKEA too, no?
Perhaps I should consider the doll house size for my chil's pet turtle…thanks for the inspiration.
Very cute set up! Almost like a mini pad for the cat.
So very cute we use ikea cushioncovers for our dogs pillows too. Matches the interior better
Whoa! What a chubber!! lol! I wish my cat would have slept in a bed like that. Anything I did for him, he always came back and laid on me in bed.
Good job!
What a snoozer!
Your cat looks very comfy! Proof of a successful hack
I love this blog b/c I learn about Ikea products I never noticed before. Very clever!
But tell the truth…does she exceed the weight limit?
(FrightenedByPenguins, that was unnecessary!)
Nice setup!
Thats a very cute little kitty bed, but you might want to start working on a hacked fat cat coffin.
Either that or get that poor thing on a diet.
Don't be rude its there cat not yours


text:
Emporia State students draw attention to poverty housingMarch 30, 2012
Emporia State students who spent their spring break working with Habitat for Humanity in Alabama was to share their experiences the campus community.
During Act! Speak! Build! Week, a national event April 1 through 7, the ESU students will educate the campus about poverty housing, share their experiences during Alternative Spring Break and invite Jim Stephen, director of Emporia's Habitat for Humanity chapter, to speak about the group.
On Monday, the students plan a display on Union Square west of the Memorial Union. The display will provide a visual representation of families who live in poverty housing, which is defined as homes that are infested with insects and rodents, have poor heating and cooling systems and are poorly ventilated.
On Wednesday, April 4, the students will be on the Memorial Union Main Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. sharing information about their trip to Alabama.
Then, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5, Jim Stephen, director of Emporia's Habitat for Humanity, will speak in Webb Hall.
The first 40 people who pledge to make a difference with Habitat will receive a T-shirt.
Check out our students' achievements and accomplishments on Emporia State's meritpages.com site

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Everybody loves a Parade – and none is more magical, musical and thrilling than Torchlight Night! This magnificent parade included giant helium balloons, precision drill teams representing local communities, equestrian units, comical clowns, swashbuckling pirates, heart-pounding bands, and Mark Christopher, Shellie Hart, Matt Case and the Warm 106.9 Teddy Bear Patrol riding a 100 year-old fire truck, one of the first ever motorized in Seattle in 1913!
Listeners also joined Warm 106.9 for the Torchlight Spectacular at Seattle Center for pre-parade festivities including our fabulous prize wheel, and the chance to win big by getting their picture taken at our tent!
If you can find your photo in our gallery, you could win $250! Just copy the URL of your photo, and enter here!


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Video transcription project
This page describes the video transcription project for the elinux wiki.
The purpopse of this project is to create transcripts of embedded Linux talks, as pages on the elinux wiki, via crowdsourcing. The value of transcripts would be that the material in the talks would be much more accessible to people. It would be searchable, and the talk could be read instead of watched (which is time-consuming). This essentially makes the talk accessible via random access instead of sequential access. There is a lot of very good content that is preserved in the videos that have been made over the years, and the goal of this project is to make that content more accessible and usable.
Instructions for Volunteers
There are three main tasks involved in this project, and as a volunteer you can participate in any of these tasks:
- Creating session pages for embedded Linux talks
- Creating transcriptions for the talks (on the session pages)
- Verifying the transcriptions for the talks
Please find instructions for each of these activities below...
Note: There is a single master page holding all the talks we would like to transcribe, located at:
List of Embedded Linux Presentations
This will be the master list that we build out over time. It is intended to have a link for all talks or sessions that would be interesting to embedded Linux developers, from the last several years.
Creating a session page
The transcript for each presentation, talk or session is held on a session page for that talk. All of the session pages on the wiki are linked to from the master list:
To create a session page for a talk, please do the following:
- Find a talk (that has video available on the Internet)
- find at least the following information about the talk (needed for the list page):
- event where the talk occured
- name of presenter and their organization
- title of the presentation
- In one browser tab, open the Session:Template for editing (so you can copy and paste its contents)
- Edit the List of Embedded Linux Presentations
- Create an entry for the talk in the table of presentation on the list page. Follow the style of linking that is used for other sessions.
- Please select a unique name for the talk (possibly adding a date if needed to distinguish the talk from others with similar names)
- The session page name should always start with the prefix: "Session:"
- Save the List page.
- Click on the link, to create the session page for the talk
- Create the base format for the page by copying and pasting from the Session:Template
- Fill in the page with as much information as you can
- Make sure that you include a link to the slides (if available separately) and the video
- Sometimes, it is possible to get the original description of the talk, or the speaker biography, from the original or archived web site of the event
- Save the session page
That's it. Thanks!
Adding to a transcription
By our estimate, it takes about 10 hours to transcribe a talk, if done by a human. This is based on an estimate of about 10 minutes of transcription work for each minute of video. In order to make this easy an scalable, we have broken down the transcript into 1-minute intervals.
To add to a transcript, please do the following:
- Select a talk from the list - click on the link to get to the session page for that talk
- Click on the video link for that talk
- Scroll to an area of the talk that is not transcribed yet (e.g. minute 17)
- Edit the session page (specifically, the transcription area of the page)
- Listen to the talk, and add the words from the talk to the transcription, under the appropriate minute heading
- Click on "Save page" to save your changes. You can also add yourself to the list of transcribers.
It's that easy! Thanks for your help.
Verifying a transcription
To verify a transcript, roughly follow the instructions above, but instead of adding to the transcript, listen to a section which is not yet marked as verified. When you have listened and verified a particular minute of the talk, please mark the minute-heading for that minute with an 'vx' marker, replacing x with your verifier number.
Eventually, this page will list all embedded Linux talks for the last several years. It in intended that
Stuff below this box is related to the brainstorming and planning of this project.
If you volunteering for this project, please follow the instructions above. If you are developing or refining this project, please feel free to keep reading....
Process and methodology
In order to crowdsource the effort, a structure and method will be developed for:
- keeping track of the completion status of each talk
- managing the transcripts and keeping them in a uniform and useful form
- keeping track of who has worked on each talk (transcript credits)
- reviewing the transcripts for accuracy (and vandalism)
Random idea: Maybe use a different wiki for the talk pages, that allows database operations on the pages (like websed/tbwiki tables).
Process per page
- Check if page is listed in global presentation list
- create a presentation page for the presentation (using a template?)
- add a link to the talk in the global presentation list
- add a link to the talk in the global topic list
Here's a link to the List of Embedded Linux Presentations
- add a status column to each conference's talks page, indicating the transcript status and linking to the talk page.
- add a page for each page, with the presentation's information (title, description, author, transcript, link to video, etc.)
- make a template for a presentation page
- solicit participation in the project
- make a call for volunteer transcribers on celinux-dev and at ELC Europe
Historical work, other references
See All Topics - work done by Devin Flake to categorize past presentation material, from 2008
Development notes
- need to investigate a way to have the presentation pages be consistent. MoinMoin has template pages, what does wikimedia support?
- investigate wikimedia page creation
- This seems to be supported, in a very limited way, and only with plugins, via a "preloading" option.
- MoinMoin is much better here, suggesting at page creation time any page that has a template with a prefix or suffix that matches the to-be-created page.
- I guess we'll have to settle for just trying to be consistent
- Maybe the page creation could be automated
- Should I write a script to create a presentation page, and associated link on the 'list of presentations' page?
- investigate wikimedia page creation
- need to create global presentation list (working on it, decided to add session incrementally)
- have a separate page for presentations by topic?
The first session I tried was the Samsung fragmentation page from ELC - unfortunately, there was no video for this. The second session I tried was for Mike Anderson's keynote from ELC 2012 - setting up the page was a bit of a pain. Very clear instructions are needed for this. It should be as mechanical as possible, with little room for error.
How much time does it take, per minute of video?
Format of YouTube caption file: (See http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&topic=2734694&guide=2734661&page=guide.cs)
0:00:03.490,0:00:07.430 >> FISHER: All right. So, let's begin. This session is: Going Social 0:00:07.430,0:00:11.600 with the YouTube APIs. I am Jeff Fisher, 0:00:11.600,0:00:14.009 and this is Johann Hartmann, we're presenting today. 0:00:14.009,0:00:15.889 [pause]
They use square brackets for comments like [laughter], [music], or [pause], and angle brackets to indicate a speaker change.
Starting and stopping the video is painstaking. Backing up the video is difficult to be precise at.
For Mike's talk, it took me about 6 minutes of transcribing for each minute of video. I was trying to go as fast as possible and timing myself. I think a reasonable estimate for each minute of video is about 10 minutes of time (set up, actual transcription, corrections, saving). This is when done out of context (a single minute session).
At this rate, 6 minutes of video would take an hour to transcribe, so a 60 minute video would therefore take about 10 hours to transcribe. Give another 2 hours for a second pass, and we're talking about 12 hours per video. That's a lot, and clearly outside the scope of what one person would be expected to do.
Note that Mike's talk had very good audio, and Mike speaks slowly and clearly with no accent, so this is probably a best-case scenario.
Mashup resources
Popcorn maker popcorn maker allows you to augment a video on the web?
Video mashup tools (JayCut, JumpCut, MovieMasher, Mix and Mash,
Youtube supports video annotations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGeQKMJIHx8
Session Template
See Session:Template


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Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.
Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.
Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.
The scherzo-like Jubilate has an ABA design in which the A sections are based on a broken arpeggio figure ('O be joyful'). The whole movement is, however, virtually monothematic in its deployment of figure (3) from the Te Deum. The Benedictus is more thematically independent from the Te Deum but nevertheless bears a strong allusion through the tonal organization (C/E flat) of its two abundantly lyrical ideas. The character of a fanfare is assigned to the concluding Gloria (which shows an inventive use of the juxtaposition of root position chords) which also deploys the material of (1), first fragmented ('world without end') and finally as a whole ('Amen') in the last ecstatic utterance.
In the Magnificat Stanford contradicted his standard interpretation of the scherzo (as found in the Services in B flat, A and G) and replaced it with a slow movement (normally reserved for the Nunc dimittis). In addition Stanford chose to apply a quite different structural model. Instead of previous ternary or through-composed designs, the ten verses of the text (Luke 1: 46–55) are divided into four well-defined sections. The first (verses 46–47) acts effectively as a form of exposition in which the opening idea (1) ('My soul doth magnify the Lord') and closing ideas (2) ('For he hath regarded the lowliness') and (3) ('of his handmaiden') are presented. The second section ('for behold, from henceforth', verses 48–49), beginning and concluding in the same manner as the first, varies in its tonal treatment and thematic change. But it is in sections three and four that Stanford brings his more subtle techniques of variation to bear. In section three (verses 50–52) we begin with the characteristic organ gesture, a tonic chord of C, but the choral material ('And his mercy is on them that fear him') is altered. With additional text (three verses instead of two) the sense of tonal development is also more elaborate, shifting to the dominant of E flat. The link with sections one and two is, however, strongly maintained through the clear restatement of the closing ideas, though even here Stanford locates idea (2) in the Neapolitan ('He hath put down the mighty from their seat') before settling on C with the cadential refrain idea (3). The trend of refined variation continues in section four (verses 53–55). The familiar organ chord is sounded once again, but this time it is not the tonic of C but a first inversion of the flat submediant. This signals a departure to more remote tonal areas ('He hath filled the hungry with good things'), the recovery from which is made precipitately with a sudden progression back onto the dominant of C as if to emphasize the Virgin's affirmation ('As he promised to our forefathers'). Furthermore, at this juncture, Stanford rounds off his elegant form with ideas (2) and (3) ('Abraham and his seed for ever') in a manner to correspond closely with that of the first section, thereby creating a sense of recapitulation.
The through-composed Nunc dimittis is essentially one seamless melody which depends principally on sequential treatment for its expansion. In addition to the opening thematic material, which also figures at its conclusion ('of thy people Israel'), Stanford introduces a motif already familiar from the Te Deum and the Jubilate ('For mine eyes have seen thy salvation') which is absorbed into both the accompanimental and melodic fabric of the movement.
from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 1998
extrait des notes rédigées par James O'Donnell © 2006
Français: Hypérion
aus dem Begleittext von James O'Donnell © 2006
Deutsch: Renate Wendel
|Stanford: Sacred Choral Music
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text:
Thanks to all. I am going to watch the recording now to make sure I did not miss anything. Congratulations to my fellow participants and deep bows to the witnesses, to Jundo and to Taigu.
Juki (formerly William)
Thanks to all. I am going to watch the recording now to make sure I did not miss anything. Congratulations to my fellow participants and deep bows to the witnesses, to Jundo and to Taigu.
Juki (formerly William)
"First you have to give up." Tyler Durden
Congratulations to everyone receiving the Precepts. This is a very special time. Gassho Heisoku.
平 息
No words, just heartfelt warm thoughts to each of you!!! Jundo, thank you for asking me to be a spokesperson, I made mistakes but all was still good
Thank you everyone, much honor and respect to each of you!!!
Congratulations to all!
Deep Bows,
As a priest in training, please take everything I say with a pinch of salt
Meido Shugen
明道 修眼
Congratulations to everybody who partook in the Jukai ceremony.
"Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions. They have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma."
- Dogen Zenji
Thank you everyone, it was a very nice ceremony,
Chuck "DaiJo"
Congratulations to all - looking forward to sharing in the recorded ceremony this evening.
Congratulations and welcome to community of the children of Buddha. I am glad to have been able be a witness of this beautiful and touching ceremony.
Le secret consiste donc seulement à dire "OUI" et à se jeter dans le vide. Dès lors, il n'y a plus de problème. Il s'agit d'être soi-même dans l'instant présent, toujours soi-même, sans s'accrocher à son vieux moi.Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Thank you Jundo, Taigu and all of you sangha members for this wonderful ceremony. Now let us lead this life!
Deep bows
MyoHo ( presviously Enkyo)
stich by stich....
I just sat along with the recording to fill in the parts I missed. Now it properly feels like I have taken Jukai. A beautiful ceremony.
Thank you so much to all of you who were with us and all who were not.
Taking the precepts
hesitation falls away
with my greying hair.
Congratulations to everyone. Thank you, everyone. I will be joining you all with the recorded version later.
迎 Geika
Thank you all. Deep bows you all of you.
Passing through this gate, a journey begins as children of Buddha. Wearing the Tathagata's teachings, may we manifest enlightenment in the world.
Eric "Sekishi"
Thank you everyone for sharing this beautiful ceremony. It is the sixth Treeleaf Jukai that I have witnessed and each has its special memories. It is very heart warming to see you enjoying you commitments. I look forward to sitting with you.
gassho ,Shokai
仁道 生開 - Jindo Shokai "Open to life in a benevolent way"
May all of our actions contribute to the harmony of the universe
Hi there,
I have just come back from a family birthday party - two reasons to celebrate today, what a happy coincidence!
Room still filled with scent from incense, Buddha and leaf still in front of me, memories still fresh.
I truly enjoyed the whole ceremony, time flew by, and it was so nice to be with you all. I felt as if we were really physically together in one room.
Thanks to the speakers, Jundo, Taigu, all the Unsui and all others who helped making the whole Jukai experience so unique and beautiful - and another deep bow goes to Seimyo for making the quick user name changes!
Thank you all and Gassho,
Timo/Daitetsu (formerly known as LimoLama)
no thing needs to be added
"First you have to give up." Tyler Durden
Yes! A wonderful event to witness. Thank you for making it available to us all.
Welcome to all!!! It is a joy to walk this walk and get the scent of wet autumn leaves and plum blossoms.
I am especially glad to see that the tradition of sewing is getting through Treeleaf and the right method has been transmitted.
Congratulations to you all on this most auspicious day in your lives. Wishing each and every one of you the best in your journey.
Blessed are the flexible, for they never get bent out of shape." Author Unknown
Congratulations to all! I had to work today but will watch the ceremony later this evening. Next year I plan on being a participant for sure!
Yes, thank you again Seimyo!
And might I ask our folks with new Dharma Names to continue to sign their posts and messages with the earthly name too? At least for awhile so that we can keep track of who is who. **
Gassho, J
** (and even though, in a Zen sense of names not mattering ... who IS ALWAYS who! )
congratulations to those who are always who and new buddhists, to boot!
bows of respect in all your directions.
Last edited by Oheso; 01-13-2014 at 05:21 PM.
and neither are they otherwise.
Congrats to all. Sorry my family life intervened from me seeing this live.
Thank you for your commitment
Glad to hear about the little known treaty. Now, can you find something that could void the need of a token every time I visit
Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk4
仁道 生開 - Jindo Shokai "Open to life in a benevolent way"
May all of our actions contribute to the harmony of the universe
Congratulations all, the Sangha grows, living with vows.
Myoshin 妙 心
"A person who receives the Buddhist Precepts enters the state of Buddha at once. They stand at the same level as Gautama Buddha. We can say they are a child of the Buddha." Jundo
Now I have done the ceremony with the recording to fill in the gapless gaps.
Who was that guy dropping in and out the whole time?
Last edited by Kantai; 01-14-2014 at 11:08 AM. Reason: Typo
Wonderful. Precepts are the gift you give yourself and keeps on giving.
Bows to all in this participating sangha.
"Know that the practice of zazen is the complete path of buddha-dharma and nothing can be compared to it....it is not the practice of one or two buddhas but all the buddha ancestors practice this way."
Dogen zenji in Bendowa


text:
MATCH ABANDONDED28-Apr-2012
12:15pm - Umpires - Jerry Lloyd and Rob Bailey - decide 15 minutes before the revised lunch break to abandon day 4 without a ball being bowled. Torrents of water were seen from the south edge of the square running all the way to the boundary rope at The Sea End. Warwickshire take 8 points and Sussex 5 points from the draw.
West Indies arrive at Hove next Saturday for a 3-day match - gates open from 9:30am each day and play due to commence at 11am.


text:
CB40: Yorkshire at Hove next week and Alcohol Policy Reminder16-May-2012
The Clydesdale Bank 40 under floodlights returns to Hove earlier than ever next week and Sussex Sharks will be welcoming Yorkshire Carnegie in another action-packed one-day affair.
Sussex got off to a flying start on Sunday in the competition against the Unicorns at The PROBIZ as both Matt Machan and Ed Joyce hit impressive centuries. The Sharks will be aiming to go one better this season as they reached the semi-final in the previous campaign and following a trip to Northampton on Sunday in the same competition, they will entertain Yorkshire in a 4.40pm start at The PROBIZ next Thursday (24th May).
Tickets are priced at £20 for Adults and only £5 for Juniors. Click HERE to purchase tickets online.
The Alcohol Policy for CB40 floodlit matches remains that there is NO alcohol allowed to be brought into the ground. Alcohol is of course available from the bars around the ground and in the Spen Cama Pavilion.


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Published on November 25th, 2008 | by Jules Yap35
Mirrored vanity desk
Jule inherited an old piece of furniture which she deftly upgraded into a mirrored vanity. Guess mirrors and vanity do go well together.
Jule says, "I was given an old student desk which my parents bought at a garage sale before I was born. I never liked it, but it was really functional as a vanity in my bedroom. So, one day it occurred to me that it had the right shape to convert into a piece of mirrored furniture.
So, I went to Ikea for mirrors (Lots mirrors: 4 pack for $5) and new knobs (Antik: 2 pack for $5). A few cans of spray paint and some black grout from Home Depot (I was afraid to drill through the mirror, so I left a space for the knobs and filled it with grout.) All totaled it was about a $50 investment. Not including the chair, which I got the Borje chair from the "As Is" department at Ikea for $30 (the white upholstery was dirty, but nothing that a little cleaning didn't resolve.)
I am pleased with the results and even my husband who hates mirrored furniture likes it.
· Remove knobs
· Lightly sand surface (especially the top which was damaged)
· Spray paint with glossy black paint
· Measure and cut mirrors using a mirror cutter (it take a lot of practice – my price includes the 3 tiles I destroyed trying to figure out how to cut it. Then my husband figured it out on the 1st try, so I made him cut the rest.)
· Adhere the mirror with liquid nails made for mirrors
· Fill the seams with black grout
· Put on new hardware
35 Responses to Mirrored vanity desk
Immediate must try I love this Idea.
Fantastic…i want to have one in my room too
Hi Jule,
I recently stayed at a hotel in Chicago and the main focus in the room was a mirrored desk. Gorgeous as it was, I fell in love. Since that time I have been looking for something similar for my home. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find something comparable in my price range. Now that I have seen the amazing transformation you were able to accomplish I have decided to try to 'mirror' your efforts. My local thrift store has a desk in the style I have been looking for. I have purchased it and plan to start my project this weekend. Wish me luck!
This is great! nice creativity!
well done! It looks like Jule did a really good job on putting this together.
nice job. very pretty.
very cool!!
Ohh, LOVE it!!
coolest hack ever
Does anyone else out there understand what they meant by "leaving space and filling with grout" for the knobs? I'm so confused! Left space in between where?
@anon: I am guessing because they used 'tiles' (not full sheets of mirror) the mirror portions used for facing i.e. the drawers; was cut in two separate pieces. Thus, there was a space between each that was grouted and the hole for the handle was drilled in that area. -Brenda-
nice one but ghostly at night
i've never seen anything like this before. I really like how the light plays off the mirrors, funky.
Well done! I'm hoping to do this with a Lack sofa table I've had for years. Thanks!
I am the aforementioned husband…and have some answers for how we accomplished some things. To cut the mirror we spent $5 at Home depot on a glass cutter. The biggest trick there is to make ONE cut putting plenty of pressure on the cutter when doing so (oh, and making a straight line). This took some practice, but once we got the technique it was a snap. The cutters directions wanted you to use some special oil (we read online that you could use cooking oil, which we tried)…however, we were never successful with the oil, so I recommend skipping it altogehter once you get the wheel spinning.
As for the knobs, as mentioned, we did not drill through the middle of the glass and instead just left a space inbetween and threaded the knob screw through and grouted around it. I will say it is totally funcitonal but probably not the most secure (but she has never had a problem with it!)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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I love this! Beautiful.
Could you say more about sawing the mirrors? What's the tool you use?
I'd love to attempt something similar but I've never done much crafty stuff before let alone cutting mirrors into pieces.
For those who want to drill a hole in mirror or plain glass, you just need to keep the glass from rapidly heating up, by running a steady stream of water over the glass or working (slower) underwater. I use a Dremel with a flex-shaft extension to keep the motor away from the water. A tapered diamond wheel point or silicon carbide grinding stone bit works well. Put the glass on a flat piece of wood with the mirror backing facing up. The backing scratches easily so dont place anything on it. Turn the dremel on to full speed and work slowly, kinda tapping at the hole. It should take one or two minutes to grind a hole. Oh and use the water stream to clean off the glass particles, wiping could scratch the backing.
It's totally not my taste, but it looks like you did a good job and it's a great idea.
I would love to try and do this with a malm nightstand or something like that with cleaner lines. (maybe with pieces of mirror that have been etched?)
That is so tacky I love it!
That is totally cool. WEll done.
I love it!
hi, see u @ http://www.plainreviewpage.com
man, that's a lot of mirrors!
what a transformation!
Kind of horrible! Augh! But… nice workmanship?
sooo cute!! love it!! I hope you have a great day!! hugs!! Britt
Nice, I like a lot !
It's gorgeous!
Ooh, nifty.
Wow! One of the best things on here.
I love this! How did you attach the knobs to the mirrors?
now this… is a fantastic idea
That is astoundingly gorgeous!


text:
WEB EXTRA: full transcript from SFR's interview with Larry Hinz from Laureate Education.
Larry Hinz is the senior vice president of business development for Laureate Education, Inc. He has been one of the principal architects of a proposal for Laureate to lease College of Santa Fe facilities in order to continue arts-based higher education in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe City Council is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, July 29 on whether or not to purchase the college land and lease to Laureate.
*Vice president of corporate communication for Laureate Education, Debra Epstein, was also on the line during SFR's conference call with Hinz.
SFR: What's your exact position with Laureate, Larry?
LH: I am senior VP of business development for Laureate Education.
How many vice presidents do you guys have?
I have no idea.
Why did Laureate's attempt to independently purchase CSF last year fall apart?
We had attempted to negotiate with the college's creditors and, after a few months, it became clear that the creditors preferred, at that point, to pursue the college's assets rather than work on a settlement.
The city structured a deal to pay $19.5 million on CSF's debt of over $30 million. Did creditors refuse to come down that low last year?
How was negotiating a lease deal with our small-town city staff for a global dealmaker like yourself? Were they tough or were they pushovers?
I'd say that the city should feel very good about its representation. I'd say the city team has been tough but fair and I was impressed with the depth and knowledge that they had in these kinds of transaction. There were and still are many difficult issues, and it was always a professional person on the other side of the table.
City Councilor Matt Ortiz used the mediator's truism that if each party is a little bit unhappy with the deal, it's probably fair.
I think that would ring true, at least on our side; there are a number of things that we're not entirely overjoyed about, but it's the kind of pain that is just this side of acceptable. I assume the city is also stretching beyond comfort, but I can only speak for myself.
Are you concerned about the accreditation process?
Not really concerned; I wouldn't use that word. There's a final approval that's necessary but I think the [state of New Mexico] Higher Learning Commission has recognized what's going on and they see their role in keeping the college alive. We have had very positive feedback from HLC—which obviously means nothing until we get final approval, but it's a process we've fully engaged and we anticipate a positive outcome.
How many students do you project you'll need on a Santa Fe campus in order to achieve profitability, and what's your timeframe for achieving that?
I'm not sure what our exact forecast for profitability is, but our six-year plan has about 2,000 students. Eventually there may be even more.
How many schools and students operate in the Laureate stables? Or portfolio? Or under your banner? What do you call your schools?
We call it an international universities network. There are 45 institutions in 20 countries, serving about 500,000 students.
Does that include a lot of part-time and night and weekend students? Or online?
Actually about 85 percent of those students are traditional, campus-based students, ages 18 to 24, going to bricks and mortar schools.
Will you be offering graduate degrees at CSF?
Currently we plan to continue with the undergraduate curriculum that was previously offered, but I'm sure we'll be looking at that down the road. Laureate doesn't take one brand and one model and go around the world enforcing that. We look for special, unique universities where we can ensure they keep doing what they do well, connect them to our network and bring in a financial and academic rigor that may not have been there beforehand.
What's one key aspect to Laureate's strategy for attracting students to CSF?
One is a coherent vision and mission. The school has suffered, in our opinion, in the past by having a muddy vision. Having a clear direction and realistic five- to 10-year strategy will help. No. 2 is a serious marketing effort. If you've got something great, and CSF really does, you need to let people know about it in an effective way. We'll identify who the target students are for the mission and vision, make sure they understand what we're offering and continue to improve the product. We'll use direct recruitment, direct mail, web-based advertising, we'll do events, connect with the alumni network, all of that. And, of course, a lot of the students come because of the faculty.
And how will you attract high quality faculty?
Good question. And I think for us it ties into why have a school in Santa Fe? We had a pleasant surprise when we met with existing faculty and found a group of people who are accomplished in their fields, have an absolute passion for education and who really wanted very much to live in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is able to attract people from this kind of intangible gap—if CSF were in X state or city, I don't think there would be the quality that exists and it would be much harder to attract new faculty. Who doesn't want to spend time in Santa Fe? It's not a slam-dunk, but it's a major factor.
What do you think Laureate brings to Santa Fe?
If I'm looking at it from a Santa Fean's perspective, there are a couple different layers. First, we have the experience to bring the discipline, the proven ability to enroll students and to market and to get that institution back to some level of financial stability. The last three or four years, there has just been no way for it to really shine because of its financial situation, and we'll fix that right away. But the city will also have a partner that understands that education is tightly woven into the local communities. Each of our schools has a service mission that is built in. And each of those missions is specific to the unique communities the schools inhabit. But feel free to check it out or call around—You'll find that we have strong community ties and a sense of responsibility to the community, not as an institution that occupies some real estate, but as an active, responsible participant. It's something we take very seriously.
If I'm a Santa Fean, I want 2,000 more young, inquisitive minds in town, walking the streets, sticking around after graduation. That alone is a huge economic boost, especially when you factor in visiting students, parents and faculty from around the world. We'll have much more lively summer programs than have happened in the past, so the campus will be more vibrant in general and more accessible to the community. We know something distinct can be built there, a real center for excellence in arts, creativity and innovation. We see the potential for genuine thought leadership emanating from Santa Fe.
Laureate conducted an informal poll of existing students on other campuses to determine their interest in coming to Santa Fe…
When we were originally looking at the deal, the prospect of what it would mean to the rest of our network was important. I won't claim it was more than it was—just a very informal survey regarding student interest in studying abroad in Santa Fe, but the interest was huge. That doesn't always happen. Of course it wasn't a total surprise; Santa Fe has a global reputation. Students in our Latin American schools were hugely positive about an art school in Santa Fe. And, of course, students at CSF would have the opportunity to study abroad at other schools in the network.
But you don't really have any other art schools currently, right?
We don't currently have dedicated art schools, but we do have 35,000 students studying arts and design programs in 25 of our institutions. We have a school of music, and we have strong programs in fashion and architecture. We have around 130 fields of study in all.
Why is an arts program attractive to Laureate?
I think when you look globally, the US is viewed as a leader in a number of areas including moving image arts, music, visual arts, architecture. When you look at the US as a market, higher education in general is very well served to many students, so we're not coming in with a broad play but with niche creative programs. We own Kendall College in Chicago, a top 10 culinary school, and New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego, for example.
Is former CSF Vice President John Allen heading up arts integration within the Laureate network?
I wouldn't say heading up, but John is working on that effort, and CSF is our number one priority.
Allen negotiated with Laureate on behalf of CSF in a deal that was ultimately unsuccessful. Then he suddenly turned up negotiating with the city of Santa Fe on behalf of Laureate. Tell me why there's no apparent conflict of interest in that scenario.
Yeah, I don't like to comment on individual people, but I can say that John is not on any negotiating team. He's on the academic side, so I don't see any kind of conflict. He just hasn't been at the table in a negotiating capacity, so I can say there is no conflict.
Will other previous administrators be given positions with Laureate? CSF President Dr. Stuart Kirk for example?
It's hard to comment on any future folks coming in. In general, we'd like to retain the best and the brightest that the CSF has. If we get the lease, we'll be looking at all of our options and we'll make those decisions after careful consideration.
What do you say to people who are concerned that the city is jumping into tens of millions of dollars of risk and will be left holding the bag if Laureate turns tail and runs?
No. 1, I understand that concern. I think the dialogue that has gone on so far shows that Santa Fe has a thoughtful City Hall that wants to see a process play out in a way that all voices are considered. But, I would also say there's a danger in focusing too much on a downside without considering the upside. Everything has a risk/return to it. In this case, the return for the city, as I see it, is so tremendous. This is not taking a bet on a big-box retailer bringing in 150 jobs. This is an educational institution with a unique place in history, not only in Santa Fe, but in New Mexico. We were unbelievably disappointed back in November when the first deal fell apart because we could see what a five- to 10-year outcome would be.
There's been a lot of negativity about what happened at CSF and a lot of it is deserved, but it's nothing that needs to prohibit the next chapter in a venerable school's life. It can be a real community education asset and a powerful economic driver. Focus on the risk is appropriate and the city is being responsible, but let's try and make sure that equal measure is given to the reward.
What do you say to previous students of CSF who fear a faceless mega-corporation running their school?
Somewhere in all of this, someone came up with the line, 'keep the College of Santa Fe weird,' and we say 'bring it on.' Art schools and creative practices attract individuals and that's certainly not anything we're going to resist. Every faculty member at CSF is unique in their approach to life and study and teaching, and we know it's their creativity that will build a great program here. The same goes for students. Independent, creative, critical-thinking students will make a successful school. The only thing we're going to do is make that model work financially and that means allowing freedom, not restricting it.
The city is considering a significant redevelopment program for the St. Michael's Drive corridor, which is anchored by the campus. What kind of role might Laureate want to take in such a process?
We're excited about being the anchor for future development of the St. Michael's corridor. We recognize the importance of us being successful. That strategic location will benefit the community. We want to open up the campus to the community in ways that it isn't necessarily open right now. Of course the library, The Screen and other campus facilities, but we'd like to see interconnecting bike paths, public transportation routes, more public events and really bringing the arts community onto the campus and vice versa.
Do you envision more significant relationship with Santa Fe Art Institute than has existed in the past?
Absolutely. That's one of the hidden gems in Santa Fe and the fact that it's right on our campus is amazing. Meeting the artists-in-residence they have there from all over the world has really helped affirm our vision. We've talked at length about cooperation and getting that artificial wall between the entities torn down. The students would benefit so much from what SFAI has to offer—it's just an outstanding asset to Santa Fe and the campus.
Will you be at the July 29 City Council meeting when this deal is decided? And what have you got up your sleeve to convince the council to vote in favor of the deal?
I am planning on attending. But to say we have something up our sleeve is out of character. That's just not how we do it. Just as we've had to assess the risks to our business, our network, our shareholders and have decided the reward is worth it, we hope the city does the same. There's an opportunity here for a fair, co-existing, co-benefitting relationship that I think is pretty unique.
How about promising that despite being a private, for-profit company, you'll hold public board meetings?
Our governance of the college is subject to HLC, the accrediting body and we follow their rules regarding meetings. There certainly will be participation with the community and plenty of opportunity for input. But at the same time, I think everyone would agree that our No. 1 goal is creating a financially stable college and I'm not sure opening up board meetings to public debate would be the most efficient way to do that.
Will you have the students you need to open in a little over a month?
We've moved through some of the more difficult issues, at this point, and the prospects for the college to actually get there are looking very good. So, at this point, we're confident in appealing to parents and students and saying they should consider this to be a real option for the fall. It's not a done deal and we need people to be vocal about their support, but we're reaching out. We're here and if they've been here in the past, we want them to give us a call, take a hard look at what we're offering and think about returning.


text:
I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and it was filled with a heaping serving of refried beans. OK, the spoon may not have been exactly silver, but ever since I can remember, refried beans have been my favorite food. When my parents were young and still in college, we often ate at Pancho's because kids got free rice and beans. And since I was too young to take umbrage at eating what was essentially poor-people food, I fell in love with the refried beans—the texture, the flavor, the way they filled my mouth and belly with a luscious, toothsome bite of beany goodness. I craved them all the time. Even today, while I enjoy the food that sits in between the rice and beans on your typical Tex-Mex plate, I still eat the beans first and regard everything else as secondary. I've even been known to order an extra plate of refried beans just to satisfy my desire.
Some of my favorite refried beans on the planet are served at Las Manitas in downtown Austin, TX. This café is known for its breakfasts, but I could care less about anything but the beans. I recommended the restaurant to my buddy Christine when she made a recent trip to Austin, emphasizing she must try the beans. And as she noted, they did not disappoint. I always suspected they make their dreamy beans by using bacon grease, and after a quick call to the restaurant my hunch was confirmed. The lovely woman I spoke with did not give me a recipe per se. But she did share with me her technique, which is very simple. Just fry up some bacon, remove the cooked meat, throw your beans in the pot and mash away. This is how I've long made mine, and I was pleased that I had been doing it correctly all along. And while many others may use lard for making their refried beans, which also makes them soft and smooth, I prefer to use bacon grease because it has that added smoky flavor.
Robb Walsh has called refried beans the mashed potatoes of Tex-Mex and he's correct. They are our comfort, our staple and our necessity. You can't have a Tex-Mex meal without them. For me, they are the foundation of every great plate. This blog was even founded on that principle—my pursuit of good refried beans. I dare not say great, however, because that's usually too much to ask. But even with my standards slightly lowered, I still rarely find delicious—let alone sublime— refried beans here in the Northeast.
I chalk that up to people trying to be healthy. While you can make a decent batch of refried beans fried in peanut oil, the only way you will achieve the finest refried beans is to fry them up in pig fat. And since so many people have an aversion to porcine products, this crucial step is usually omitted. But as I've so often discovered, spice and care is lacking as well, leaving you with a soupy, tasteless brown pile of mush. So I don't want to put off the heart-healthy or vegetarians out there—you can fry them in peanut oil and add enough onions, garlic and spices to give them a good flavor. But if you want that memorable and authentic bite, it's best to go with bacon grease or lard.
Besides refried beans being one of the first foods I put in my mouth, I had a recent revelation as to another reason why I am so enamored with them. Have a look at this picture:
This is a typical West Texas vista. Look closely at the ground. Does it bring to mind anything? Do you see it? To me, it has the color and texture of refried beans. So it's little wonder I love refried beans so much—it reminds me of the rich soil my state rests upon. They are an edible embodiment of Texas, both our foundation and our heart—a staple and a necessity indeed!
So I'm off to Texas in a few days and while my time there may be short, I plan on indulging in a fair share of my favorite foods. And I'll raise my fork to you, dear readers, for joining me as I muse on life, love and, of course, the pursuit of good refried beans.
Refried beans
1 pound of pinto beans
1/4 pound of salt pork slit with a knife
Half an onion, whole
1/4 cup of onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
4 slices of bacon
Salt to taste
Soak the beans overnight or quick soak by bringing to a boil and then turning off the heat and letting them sit for an hour.
Drain soaked beans and then place back in the pot. Cover beans with fresh water to cover them two inches.
Throw half an onion in the pot and add a couple of dashes of salt. Can also add 1/4 pound of salt pork (if you do this there's no need for extra salt.)
Bring beans to a boil, cover and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
The time it will take to cook the beans will depend on the freshness of the beans and the hardness of your water. If they're not completely cooked after an hour, let them simmer a while longer until they're done.
Remove salt pork and onion and then drain the beans, keeping 1/2 cup of the bean broth.
Chop the slices of bacon and fry them in a skillet on medium until crispy and all the fat is rendered.
Remove cooked pieces (you can either nibble on them while you're cooking or save them for something else).
Fry the diced onion in the bacon grease for a couple of minutes, and then add the minced garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the drained cooked beans into the skillet, adding 1/4 cup of the bean broth.
Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding more bean broth for desired moisture.
Keep stirring the mashed beans in the bacon fat until the texture is a chunky paste.
Notes: You can substitute 1/4 cup of lard for the bacon grease. Or you can use 1/4 cup of peanut oil. If you don't want to cook a pot of beans, two 16 oz. cans of cooked pintos can be used instead. You can also use black beans, just be sure and throw some epazote in the pot when cooking them. I'll write more on epazote later (now that the days are warmer I plan to go foraging for it in Central Park), but for now, check out Lydia's wonderful post on the subject. This recipe makes 4-6 servings.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Refried beans recipe: a life pursuit
I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and it was filled with a heaping serving of refried beans. OK, the spoon may not have been exactly silver, but ever since I can remember, refried beans have been my favorite food. When my parents were young and still in college, we often ate at Pancho's because kids got free rice and beans. And since I was too young to take umbrage at eating what was essentially poor-people food, I fell in love with the refried beans—the texture, the flavor, the way they filled my mouth and belly with a luscious, toothsome bite of beany goodness. I craved them all the time. Even today, while I enjoy the food that sits in between the rice and beans on your typical Tex-Mex plate, I still eat the beans first and regard everything else as secondary. I've even been known to order an extra plate of refried beans just to satisfy my desire.
89 comments:
- Peri said...
yummy! Your post is giving me the idea to use the ham bone that is my freezer to make some beans.
- jerry said...
I hope your visit hits us on a sunny day, hon. right now West Texas is getting hammered with rain and high winds. Thankfully we missed that when we went to Dallas over the weekend, but it's rather nasty outside my windows right now.
I'm going to be giving that refried beans recipe a try next week as well. It looks wonderful!
- christine (myplateoryours) said...
Yay for you! Bacon fat -- of course. You are right that it is the warm and almost buttery mouth-feel that makes beans like those at Las Manitas so good. Fabulous!
- ann said...
oooooh.... I bet refried black beans are gooooood. I've never been a fan of brown beans, of any sort. No refried or boston baked for me. But black beans, now we're talkin'! I can't imagine what the real difference is, other than color. But enough about me... Have a really good trip home! Take lots of wonderful pictures!
- Ari said...
If I want to do it veggie style, any other advice? I could go with peanut oil, possibly pump up the garlic or onion, but what other spices? I've also go liquid smoke... I could try a touch of that... hrm... Just curious what would make something better than what Rosarita can dump out of a can.
- class factotum said...
Doesn't everyone keep a jar of bacon grease in her fridge?
- Lydia said...
I never noticed that the color of refried beans is the color of Texas soil! How cool is that?!
- Brin said...
How ignorant of me. All this time I assumed my all-consuming passion for refried beans was mine and mine alone. How relieved I am to find I'm wrong!
Bob Bullock used to gripe about the state of our state's beans, saying 99 out of every 100 Texas women couldn't cook a bean to save their life. Guess Bob never met you, huh?
Thanks for the recipe, and more importantly, the method. The weather's a little stormy, but great here in Texas. Hope you enjoy the weather... and your trip!
- meeegan said...
Dropping in from the lurking planet to say, Ari, the best veggie sub for bacon's smokiness that I've found so far is smoked paprika. It's good stuff!
- Luna said...
You are SO RIGHT about the beans (and everything else too) DAMN it's hard to stay on my diet! And I don't know how you're not 450 pounds...
- Karina said...
Hey Homesick Texan! I'm with on the whole refried bean thing. Love 'em. Enjoyed your post - you have a beautiful blog.
- Anonymous said...
For those of us who don't have real butchers, only what the not-upscale, chain grocery store puts out for us, what is salt pork and what should I use if I can't get it?
- Freya and Paul said...
Have a wonderful time in Texas! We can't wait to read about your foodie adventures!!
- jerry said...
Salt pork is the same cut as bacon, just salt cured. It should be available in most grocery stores in the ethnic section of the meat aisle. I know it's available in both Texas and California. (Try Albertsons, I know for a fact that Vons and Safeway sell the stuff, if you've got them in your area)
- Sarah said...
Hi Lisa--I made your beans (with the canned variety, this being a work night and all) and homemade flour tortillas last evening for some pressure-cooker pork tacos. They beans were super porky and delicious and the tortillas were a huge hit!
- Homesick Texan said...
Peri--A ham bone is great for putting in a pot of beans.
Jerry--I hope it's sunny as well, but even if it's not, warmer weather will be welcome.
Christine--Yay for bacon fat! And thank you for inspiring me to give Las Manitas a call.
Ann--Refried black beans are also amazing. Give it a try.
Ari--Liquid smoke could work and Meegan below mentions smoked paprika, which Luisa, the Wednesday Chef, has also touted as a terrific veggie bacon substitute. And canned beans straight of the can just taste weird to me, though you can also doctor them up with spices.
Class Factotum--I certainly do but I don't think everyone does.
Lydia--I think I'm a bit obsessed to come up with that comparison, but I also think it's very cool!
Brin--I'm so glad you're not alone! Great Bob Bullock quote!
Meegan--Thanks for the tip...I've been hearing wonderful things about the flavor of smoked paprika!
Luna--Well, I may not be 450 pounds, but this blog has certainly made my jeans a bit tighter!
Karina--Thank you!
Anon--Jerry answers your question below, and he's right, I've seen it in the meat section of chain stores here...if they have hambones, the usually have salt pork. But if you can't find it, you can just omit it or throw a couple of slices of bacon in the pot.
Freya and Paul--Thank you! Hopefully I'll have Internet access!
Jerry--Thanks for the explanation and tips on where to buy it.
Sarah--Hurrah! I'm so pleased they were a hit!
- gilly said...
Hi Lisa! Wow, these look wonderful - I love, love, love refried beans... and I bet they would be fabulous in your delicious flour tortillas!
Enjoy Texas!
- Linda said...
i love refried beans. i haven't had anything tex-mex in a while. i need to make this recipe. thanks for posting it. i love how you can take something i generally dont think two seconds about and make me crave it and even overanalyze my feelings for it. i always just thought refried beans were something for taco dip out of the can... i'll have to go sans meat on this one though -- hope i can still get the true feel.
i once had a close friend from TX tell me we could never marry, based on my veg status and the fact that i don't eat BBQ. he claims it's a religion there.
- Tommy said...
No luck with the Czech embassy. I had a friend in NYC contact them and she said they weren't much help. She spoke directly to the Trade Consul and she was given the impression this dude was into playing foreign diplomat "James Bond style" rather than help foster good relationships through the power of pastry. Oh well, you will get through this.
BTW, thanks for being a gracious blog host. I think your readers appreciate the personal replies and proves you value our comments.
- Caroline said...
Yeah! Thank you for the bean recipe... just what I have been looking for!
- vlb5757 said...
I could not get this blog entry out of my brain since reading it. So in honor of the post, we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant here and instead of rice we had... refried beans. I just love them! I might have to try this recipe so I can have them more often!
- Ivonne said...
Thank you.
I cannot tell you how long I've been wanting to read about refried beans and even more, have a truly authentic recipe for refried beans.
I cannot wait to try this.
- Homesick Texan said...
Gilly--They are indeed perfect in flour tortillas! With lots of salsa!
Linda--BBQ is a religion in Texas, but believe it or not I have Texan friends who are vegetarians. Of course, BBQ tofu just doesn't taste the same as brisket. But if you add enough spices, vegetarian refried beans can be just as tasty.
Tommy--What a sweet thing to say! You're very welcome, it's my pleasure. That's a shame, however about the Czech embassy. Oh well.
Caroline--You're welcome. Enjoy!
Vickie--I often do that myself, order double refried beans instead of rice. They're sooooo good!
Ivonne--You're welcome! We'll make a Southern Belle out of you yet!
- wheresmymind said...
*sigh* I wish my wife liked bacon
- Texas Chef said...
You are soooo right !!! I only go to Tex-Mex restaurants for the rice and beans. I usually ask for extra beans and when I get my plate I start shifting beans to rice and mix then thoroughly and add a big spoon or two of the salsa that there for the chips. I can even eat canned refried beans :-) even tho they are made with "shortening" instead of the real thing LARD - good ole Mexican rendered lard is the beat. TEXAS CHEF
- Garrett said...
Ooh, I've never had them homemade... I want to try now. But where do I find salt pork?
- lindy said...
As I am the proud owner of a giant , apparently bottomless sack of beauteous dried Dove Creek Pintos, I am all over this recipe. Garrett- they have salt pork at the supermarket- even here in Pittsburgh-check by the bacon.
- Moms64 said...
If you ever make it back down to Texas come out to the panhandle region. Leal's is the best place to eat Mexican food. You are right refried beans are the best.
- B said...
...and i thought this was a well-known ingredient. in south san antonio, we use lard and bacon -- lard for creaminess and the bacon fat for the subtle punch of flavor left on the palate. i'm in japan, so the only good refried beans i find are in my kitchen. thanks for the memories.
- Homesick Texan said...
Wheresmymind--Oh that's so sad your wife doesn't like bacon. Sooooo sad!
Texas Chef--Good ole Mexican-rendered lard is indeed the best!
Garrett--As Lindy says, you can find it near the bacon or perhaps in the meat section.
Lindy--Dove Creek Pintos? Very cool! I love the markings on them, they remind me of the Southwest.
Moms64--My Amarillo friends are always singing Leal's praises...I need to make a trip out there!
B--You're welcome! I love Japanese food, but sometimes you want a taste of home.
- Kenyo said...
Your mention of Las Manitas in Austin brought back wonderful memories. Great refried beans and more all served up with a side of refreshingly socially-aware politics.
Sadly the restaurant may soon be gone and the site will be a tiny part of the new downtown Marriott Hotel. I don't put links on other people's blogs but if you do a search you can read all about it.
You have such a great site. Thank you.
- Callie said...
Hurray for bacon fat! I've always noticed that the best tasting canned refried beans list lard as an ingredient.
I've never tried making my own refried pinto beans, but I've made refried black beans from time to time. Some olive oil, the beans, a little garlic, salt, and cumin. Oh and some hot sauce on top to perk it up (preferably Cholula which isn't too vinegary).
- cookiecrumb said...
Aw, jeez, don't take umbrage at eating poor peoples' food. Some of it is the best.
We can't all be puttin' -- what, snails? that sounds poor -- in our mouths.
- Olivia said...
I fell in love with Tex-Mex while I lived in that wonderful state, but I could never get into refried beans...possibly because I do not like beans :P
Ironically, I have just returned from a week in Dallas, and although I ate chicken fried steak twice I didn't get any of the Tex Mex I had been craving. Then, I come back to London, go to a friend's party at a Tex Mex restaurant...and order a chile relleno stuffed with mushrooms, jalapeno and monterey jack, coated with cornmeal and smothered in a spicy asado sauce. It was deeeeelish. And I was 5000 miles away from "Texico"!
- Olivia said...
P.S. I even managed to eat some mouthfuls of the rather nice black beans it came with...
- The County Clerk said...
Don't know if you saw this, or if you follow the garden blogs at all as I do. But here's a post of some Texan wildflowers that an Austin gardener put up. The images really touched me.
I supsect you'll enjoy it too. Texas Wild Flowers at the blog:Digging
- Hank
- nikkipolani said...
I've always hated refried beans and got double helpings of rice whenever possible in rice and bean combinations at restaurants. Then I had home-made refried beans - what a difference it made! So I tried your recipe this weekend with great success (and a lot more added water). Thank you. :-)
- Jerry Allison said...
So sad that Las Manitas maybe forced out of downtown Austin. The horror!
- Julie said...
I like refried beans but I don't share your love for them. Definitely an afterthought for me. However reading this will have me paying more attention to the beans next time I have them, and perhaps appreciating them a little more.
- Homesick Texan said...
Kenyo--I keep hearing about the impending closing of Las Manitas. Very sad!
Callie--Hurray indeed! Lard makes them so smooth. And your refried black beans sound terrific!
Cookiecrumb--Ha! You are so right, and don't worry, I don't take umbrage--I'm an equal opportunity eater which means I'll eat anything!
Olivia--I can't believe you didn't eat Tex-Mex when you were in Dallas! But good to hear you found a decent chile relleno in London. What's the name of the restaurant?
Hank--Thanks for the link! Beautiful!
Nikkipolani--Excellent news! I'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe.
Jerry--I know! Seriously, the people in Austin need to fight this one--Las Manitas is an institution!
Julie--Give them a try--it may be an acquired taste, but for me they're as comforting as mashed potatoes or mac and cheese.
- Ellen said...
A friend of mine in Houston just pointed me to your blog after listening me complain about the lack of good salsa in San Francisco; I just moved here a few months ago from Austin.
I'm wondering -- have you have the Mr. Natural refried beans? I've always wondered how they make them so good and manage to stay vegetarian.
- Tommy said...
I just returned from the Bay Area and was looking forward to eating some fine Mexican food, as we don't have a multitude of Mexican restaurants here in Toronto.
I have to tell you that I walked away kind of disappointed and feeling as though Toronto's Mexican food scene ain't so bad afterall.
You would think that you could get a decent side of refried beans in an area with a high Latino population but is wasn't to be.
Everywhere I went , I was served soupy flavorless renditions. Absolutely unappetizing. Is this type of refried bean a style favoured by Northern Californians?
I was so stoked after reading this post, but really disappointed by the slurry they call refried beans.
Thought you might like to know.
- Homesick Texan said...
Ellen--I've never heard of Mr. Natural refried beans...I'll keep an eye out for them!
Tommy--It's been a few years since I've been there and I can't recall the beans. I wouldn't be surprised if most places didn't use lard or bacon grease, though, it being such a health-conscious place.
- Tommy said...
I can understand the issue about not using animal fat for flavoring, but these beans were so over processed that you had a hard time finding any remnants of the skin.It was pulverized. Not a trace of fiber to be seen. Heck they didn't even give me gas.
Someone needs to start a campaign for real refried beans in the Bay Area.
- Homesick Texan said...
Tommy--Hmmm, I'll have to check that out next time I'm in the Bay Area.
- kenneth.friend said...
Well I eat Tex-Mex almost every day and it drives my wife crazy. In my search for an easy refried bean recipe I stumbled upon a can, yes a can, of super, incredible real, refried beans from Mexico by
La Costena. It's $1.99 for a 20 oz. can and only at Albertsons and worth every penny. Very authentic!
- Homesick Texan said...
Thanks, Kenneth. I'll have to keep an eye out for that brand.
- Another Homesick Texan said...
Wow. Its funny how antivegetarian New York is. Even Texans that come to New York are saying they couldn't marry a vegetarian.
So ironic, the best vegetarian food I've had was in Texas. We have excellent vegetarian restaurants. Stephen Pyles even wrote a vegetarian cookbook.
Shouldn't be hard to imagine, Texas has much more land for farming than New York. Vegetables are expensive up here.. not so in Texas.
- Anonymous said...
I love refried beans also. In addition to the onion add one tbs of minced garlic, 1 tbs of cumin, 1 smoked ham hock and four beef bullion cubes. I agree the lard is the way to go.
- Jeanette said...
It's so great to hear from another expatriot Texan that misses the beans. Of all things...it's the beans that we miss! My husband and I recently made a trip to South Texas and just went bean crazy. That first bite nearly brought tears to my eyes. My grandmother used to make the best refried beans and has since been diagnosed with Alzhiemers. I couldn't figure out the missing ingredient that made them so great. Sure enough, it was salt pork. I just wanted to say thank you for bringing something so simple, yet so cherished back into my life.
- Anonymous said...
As another fellow homesick Texan in France, I can SO relate. My family sends me envelopes of dried refried beans, just add water and reheat and they are out of this world. That saves on shipping costs or room in your suitcase for your return visits. I am so happy to know that I'm not the only one who finds true comfort in refried beans!!
- A Texan said...
I always opt for charro beans instead of refried beans because most places just use canned refried beans
- CTid said...
Hey Homesick,
As a native West Texan, I can only sing my sorrows for you not having the good food we all love so much, at your fingertips on a whim! I had brisket by some mom and pop catering company (-J Catering I think...) that was the best I've ever had in my life! The Amarillo area has many secrets;-J, David's Steakhouse, and my mom's biscuts are just some of them! Hope y'all get back sooner than later!
- Frank said...
reviving the thread... I attempted a variant of a recipe described above. The beans came out well, with few minor issues to sort out, but one big one - my refried beans came out gray. Any suggestions?
I actually cooked them twice, once in a cast iron pan and once in a non-stick, with the same result each time.
- Colorado bean lover said...
Ok, so I completely related to your complete adoration of refried beans! If you are ever in Colorado Springs, the best beans can be found at Senor Manuels! Totally my addiction! I have considered these little tasty morsels my absolute comfort food for 30 years at least! Can't wait to try out this recipe!
- Candace Prosser said...
Once again, you speak my language...first it was the real Texas Nachos post and now real refried beans...man there really is no place like home when your craving chile rellenos and refried beans...especially here in blue crab land.
- James (J) Womack, Esq. said...
Some time ago, a lady mentioned that a friend told her that in Texas, BBQ is something of a religion. I hate to disagree with a lady (no real Texas good ol' boy would do something that rude), but I must say I believe her friend was wrong. BBQ is not a religion here.
It's much more serious than that.
I have not done much traveling to the Northeast, but I can tell you that I have never found really good chicken fried steak or Tex-Mex outside of Texas. And that includes most of the Southern states and virtually every state west of Texas.
- Vixen5895 said...
ok you made me very hungery and i am going to be making them tonight
- Anonymous said...
Salt Pork!.......you really are "Country" (And that's ok!) I wouldn't think of cooking beans without pork meat, be it salt pork, hambone, hamhock, or bacon. Thanks for some great insight.
- Dazy said...
I'm planning to make this tomorrow. I think I'll try to shoot it, but I don't think it will be as pretty as your picture!
- Jo said...
I'm a Texan now in Canada. I was shocked a few weeks ago to see cans of whole pinto beans in the "mexican" aisle, almost all tostitos products, in my store. I decided to grab a can and attempt to make refried beans. I looked up a few recipes for tips and just closed the laptop and tried it. Cooked some bacon cut up bite size with some chopped onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and even a dash of oregano (which one site recommended), and of course topped with cheese. Man, it was sooo good. Made me feel like I was at home. The bacon really is the key to the flavor and the beans were even better the second day. The texture was more solidified. I'm very proud of my attempt and look forward to making more refried beans while away from home. If I can just master making the rice correctly. One day. Love your blogs, don't stop. Maybe a cookbook is in order. :)
- DirtyShame said...
At a very young age, in the 50s, I worked with the guys from Mexico...When they made their refried beans, they didn't cook the beans until tender done..When the beans were about 3/4 done, still a little hard, they would smash the beans..This is still my favorite way..I prefer to smash them...just use the bottom of a can..for the traditional way...the beans will have a little crunchy texture and stay in a tortilla when when folded..anything they could wrap in a tortilla was called a taco..
- Saxe said...
Just came across your blog, quite well done!
I too have been searching for the method to recreate what I consider to be the best beans in Texas, namely Joe T Garcias in Fort Worth. Bacon grease IS the way!
Getting ready to try your bolillo recipe, although they are cheap and plentiful here in Houston, I was gifted a bread machine and am having fun with it.
Diana Barrios also has a no soak bean recipe using onion garlic and bacon grease that works well.
Mucho Gusto!
- Rachael and Jamieson said...
I just read this aloud to my three daughters(ages 18,16 and 10). We laughed and laughed as you perfectly described my middle child. You have made us all feel better about her addiction to refried beans!
- army_wife07 said...
Thank you so much for your blog!! I absolutely love mexican and tex-mex food and I am always looking for new recipes to try and ways to duplicate what I have eaten in TX. I also want to say that Las Manitas definitely, without a doubt, has some of the best beans ever. I am going to be driving through there in June to see my mom and had already planned on stopping in. Thanks again for taking your time to do this, I know I am not the only one who appreciates it!
- Anonymous said...
Wow, I kind of thought that my family was the only ones that made trips to Pancho's for their cheap Mexican fixes. Brings back memories.
If you ever wander over towards Lousiana, not too far across the state line is El Giro, a hole in the wall place in Leesville that serves the best refried beans I think I've had. Creamy, porky (I think they might use bacon and lard), garlicky goodness under a blanket of melted cheese. They also make a very good (red) salsa. Beans, salsa, and some chips or tortillas are I really need for a meal there.
- Kati said...
What a great recipe! I tried one in a crockpot, and it was disastrous...stumbled upon your blog, tried this recipe and WOW! A-MAZING! This is now my go to recipe for homemade refried beans. I doubled the batch and will be freezing some for later use. Served these with homemade Chilaquilles for the hubs on Father's Day.
- gino said...
My mom used to fix pinto's and they ended up like this. Had the onion, peppers but with the xtra lard or mashing.
- Sharon Moorhead said...
This was a very delightful read. Thanks for making me smile. I live all the way over in Russia and I also, have to have my refried beans, having lived in Dallas for awhile and California, as well, where the little "hole in the wall" is the best place to eat!
- Justin in Sacramento said...
This is the first blog I have ever subscribed to. And my first post to a blog. I couldn't help it. As I perused your pages I fell in love with your recipe collection as well as your photos. I tried the refried beans today and they are awesome. Thanks and looking forward to more.....
- RobynBeazley said...
Hands down the most AMAZING refried beans I've EVER had!! My husband (the cook of our house - who happens to be from Texas) discovered your recipe & I fell in love. Nearly an oxymoron - when you reference love & beans in the same sentence. Thanks for sharing Lisa - I'm trying my hands at this recipe on my own tonight ;) Congrats on your upcoming cookbook too - look forward to getting a copy.
- Anonymous said...
Love your refried bean story and the recipe that goes with it. Just what these two homesick Americans living in Finland needed! My daughter loves Tex-Mex food. You can buy tiny cans of refried beans at the supermarket here in Finland, but they're expensive. I was looking for a really good homemade recipe when I found your site. Looking forward to reading more of your blog and trying more of your recipes. Take care, Maureen and Emerald, two homesick Americans living in Finland.
- Neil said...
I am going to try this place in Austin to see how the best beans I have ever had at El Chaparral in Helotes TX (A few mins away from San Antonio) match up.
- Anonymous said...
My only suggestion would be that you should heat the water that you put in the beans after you rinse them. This will actually make the beans even silkier, smoother. Using cold water to cook them in after soaking them, can make the skins tougher and thus less smashable!
This is a great recipe and I love making pinto beans, whether I refry them or not!! I do not use pork in my beans anymore, but I have been known to add adobo peppers to them! yummy and smoky.
- Lexy said...
I live in Laredo Tx, and a friend of mine brought me some Tamales and Refried Beans the other day ( I LOVE REFRIED BEANS..as does my daughter..who's nickname happens to be bean :) )
Anyway. The tamales were good, but the Beans..OMG the BEANS! best Beans I have EVER put in my mouth!!!
- Anonymous said...
Frijoles. Sigh...I'm a bean lover (all kinds of legumes) & very late to this discussion.
As a child, I always skipped the rice & asked for a double of the frijoles con queso.
Don't get me wrong...I love rice, just not with my favorite Mexican food. But then, I was born and raised in southern AZ. My mother's family is south TX and my dad's family is from Cochise County, AZ.
When you're poor, there's nothin' better than a big pot of beans. Add some cornbread (the South...and Texas), or flour tortillas, and you have a filling meal.
I married into a Mexican family and I also learned a few secret tips (1950-'60s) from family friends who owned a coupla famous Mexican restaurants in Tucson. Char (burn it just a bit; not too much as you want smoky not burnt flavor) your bacon before adding the beans and mashing them (with a fork) in the fry pan.
When lard (the best, I'll admit) became "verboten" and hard to find, mexican cooks searched for a substitute to its creamy flavor & texture. Not as good as lard, but buy yourself a small can of evaporated Carnation milk. Add as needed (a little at a time), til you get the flavor or texture you're seeking.
If you can't find salt pork where you're living, just substitute fatty bacon and adjust your seasoning (add salt to taste).
- Kaye said...
Hubby got all excited when I was getting my beans ready to cook, he thought we were having beans, as in "cornbread and" LOL. I said no, refried beans for the enchaladas, rice and guac I'm making for dinner.
My system doesn't get along well with pinto beans anymore, so I order Anasazi beans several times a year from Adobe Milling in Colorado. I order 10# bags and divide them up into vacuum bags, seal and store in the freezer. I love these, they cook up looking just like Pintos, but in half the time. They are a little sweeter than Pintos as well and a lot easier on my system.
I have my beans cooking now to make the refried beans for dinner. I'll store them in the fridge until I'm ready.
And YES I do have a jar of bacon drippings in my fridge :-)
Dear Homesick Texan..ME TOO!! I dream about the Texas Gulf Coast and dinner at the border. I just HAVE to get back to my "Homeland" soon!!
From yet another "Homesick Texan"
- Julie said...
I know this is an ancient post, but was so happy to run across it. I'm a Texan coming up on my 5th year in NJ and miss Tex Mex food so much. I have always sworn to EVERYONE that Las Manitas had hands-down the best refried beans ever. I always figured they put sugar in the recipe because it tasted so good, but apparently it was the bacon. I'll have to try it now!
- Limner said...
Just read your feelings for the refried bean. I feel the same way about pinto beans and cornbread. And, yes, that muddy mess does remind me of mashed pinto beans. Er, I meant to say refried beans.
- Dwayne Selby said...
THANKS for the recipe. All of the commercial canned refried beans have way too much cumin and chili powder. (except Allen's, which are hard to find). All of the companies make gotta be up north and don't know that great refried beans are simple. Don't get me started on TacoHell. I don't eat there because of their terrible beans.
Again thanks for being a great guide out of the bean wilderness. I remember when the cans only contained "Beans, lard and salt".
- Anonymous said...
Thank you for the info on Refried Beans! I've been doctoring the canned stuff for years here in SoCal, 'cause I couldn't find any like I remembered as a kid in the '50's. Finally found a hole in the wall restaurant up in the mountains that used real lard. What a difference! I'm partial to Pinto Beans, 'cause the other types taste like dirt to me (I think it goes back to not being able to get the taste off of my tongue when my brother & I made & ate mud pies in our back yard). Also, back then we got a lot of canned veggies, so I grew up detesting Peas, Limas & Butter beans. I've only recently been able to keep down & enjoy Pea Soup. The other thing is that, as I'm now an old curmudgeon, I look with a very jaundiced eye upon anything now being promoted as "healthy". After the "margarine is better than butter", coffee is bad for you, "eat Bran Muffins", & they took coconut oil out of movie popcorn. Now all of that "science" has been called into question & natural fats are back to being better for you in the latest "studies", I'm severely skeptical of all heath claims nowadays.
Go with flavor, lard & bacon!
Disclaimer: In moderation of course (Including moderation).
- Laura said...
I know this recipe was posted several years ago, but does anyone know if pork belly is an okay substitute for salt pork. The tiny market I went to this weekend didn't have salt pork and I bought the pork belly thinking I could just up the final seasoning on the beans to make up the difference. What do you think? Will this work okay?
- Lisa (Homesick Texan) said...
Laura--I've never tried it with pork belly, but I bet it would be good.
- Anonymous said...
I take my a pot beans and leave enough of the juice to puree with my stick blender. Grab my cast iron skillet and throw in at least 4 strips of bacon that I have cut real small. I get that browning and put in a at least 5 or 6 cloves of garlic and whole finely diced sweet yellow onion and cook till totally translucent. I have also been know to add Hatch green chiles or Serannos in as well.
Add the bean puree and cook down till thick and creamy. Serve with fresh Tortillas and Salsa. Other additions... Longhorn Cheddar or Cream Cheese, a whole slice of crispy Bacon ..... you get the idea ..
Freezer friendly and easy to reheat.
- Anonymous said...
Julie for me, in my version the whole sweet yellow onion cooked till translucent in the bacon grease is what gives you that sweetness and creaminess.
- Unknown said...
Hi Lisa! I live in TX and have full access to Ranch Style Beans. Do you think they would be good as "refried"?
- Lisa Fain (Homesick Texan) said...
Unknown--Ranch Style beans make wonderful refried beans!
- kirkd13 said...
Wow someone else who is crazy about refried beans! I thought there was something wrong with me. Mexican food is at the top of my list(real mexican food), but no matter what the dish is, I always start by eating the refried beans with a chip. Awesome! Thanks for the recipe!
- str8schuter said...
Ironic that I'm in Texas using a recipe written in NY, (using my best East Texas 'twang') "New York City!?"
Thanks for posting!
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