Here’s an easy recipe for rib roast that takes only 10 minutes of prep time and 2 1/2 hours of cooking time (it’s worth the wait).

Ingredients:

4-6 pounds of prime rib roast (with bones and a bit of fat) – yields 5-7 servings

1/2 cup of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of ground black pepper

2 tablespoon of finely chopped garlic

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F while you’re preparing the ribs.

2. Sprinkle a layer of kosher salt on the roasting pan.

3. Make your seasoning mix with 1/2 cup of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper. Rub a generous amount on the fatty top side first, then rub the remaining seasoning mix to the sides. Then cover the fatty side with chopped garlic.

4. Place the seasoned meat on the roasting pan, with the fatty side up and bone side down. Cook for 20 minutes at 425 degrees F. Then reduce temperature to 325 degrees F and roast for an additional 1 1/2 -2 hours.

5. The fatty juices will begin to melt away and sizzle. Check the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer every 20-30 minutes. An internal temperature of about 140 degrees F will produce a medium-rare rib roast. For well-done roast, cook to about 150 degrees F.

6. Here’s the result of a 5 pound rib roast with bones after roasting it for 20 minutes at 425 degrees F, then letting it sit at 325 degrees F (about 2 hours) until the internal temperature was 140 degrees F. The rib roast was juicy, medium-rare, with a slightly salty, crusty top. Yum!

You’re on vacation and want to share with family and friends back home the scenery you’re enjoying. But you don’t have wide angle lens for your camera or simply room to capture the view in one snap.

Don’t give up! Take sequential pictures to cover the entire landscape, overlapping 10-25% of each view with subsequent pictures. It’s helpful if you incorporate a large element from the previous shot, such as a lamp post or cloud.

I downloaded the free Windows Live Photo Gallery to create a seamless panoramic image by stitching multiple images I took on a pier. Once you’ve download your images onto your computer, open Windows Live Photo Gallery and select the images you want to stitch together. Then under Make, click on create panoramic photo. The process is automatic and takes just a few minutes. The result of my panoramic photo is below.

Pier fishing is a great way to enjoy the outdoors with family and friends. All you need are some basic tackle, rod, and some bait. Many states allow one to fish off a pier without a license.

While there aren’t as many piers in New England for fishing compared to other parts of the States, such as California or Florida, Fort Trumbull State Park and Pier in New London, CT is one worth checking out if you happen to be nearby.

The pier juts out from the bottom of the hill that supports the historic Fort Trumbull (built between 1839-1852; open to visitors from May 21 through Columbus Day). It’s over 500 feet long, with 24-hour access to free parking, fresh running water, individual pole holders, restrooms, vending machine, and a short trail for strolling with your pet. The pier also has 24-hour lighting, and during the summer months, some of the best fishing can be done at night. It’s also one of most clean and well-maintained piers I’ve seen.

You can fish the Long Island Sound for porgy, striped bass, bluefish, tautog (blackfish), weakfish (sea trout), or flounders (fluke). Check for the most updated fishing regulations at the CT DEP website.

(several large porgies)

You can purchase tackle, bait (including live bait), as well as get helpful fishing tips at AJ’s Bait and Tackle in New London, CT. It’s just 3 min drive from the pier). Half dozen live sandworms (cost me about $3 and change) is good for about 2-3 hours of fishing for one person.

I found that porgies love live sandworms (cut the head off first, then cut them into 1 inch pieces),

and bluefish strike on cut chunks of bunker. Striped bass will bite on both sandworms and bunker. I’ve seen flounders being caught on strips of squid, but they’re often too small to keep.

Even if you return home empty-handed, you’ll enjoy the scenery of Long Island Sound and the cool ocean breeze at Fort Trumbull. Have fun fishing! And don’t forget the camera and sunscreen!

How many medications do you regularly take? One? Ten? None? Are you sure?

According to the American Heart Association on Statistics on Medication (updated 2008), 22% of Americans take three or more medications daily. Here are a few more surprising statistics from the AHA:

As we increasingly consume more medications to treat every ailment from coronary artery disease to seasonal allergy, it becomes more important for us, as patients, to know exactly what we’re taking, how much we’re taking, how often, and why we’re taking them. It’s not enough just to know that you take three pills-a small yellow pill in the morning, a pink pill with the letter A after lunch, and a purple pill whenever your leg swells. If we spend so much money and time caring for ourselves, at least know what conditions you have and how they’re being treated.

We should be our own advocate for the best medical treatment possible, but that starts with knowing our medical history, including knowing some basic information about what medications we’re taking. If we unexpectedly required urgent orthopedic surgery after a car accident but didn’t know what medications we’re taking, how can we expect our health care providers to avoid potential adverse drug interactions or to provide us with optimal dosing for a medication you’ve been on for years to treat a chronic condition? If we can’t keep track of what medications we’re on, we should at least carry a list of both prescription and non-prescription (over-the-counter) medications, as well as herbal supplements (yes, ginkgo should be on the list as well-it can interfere with normal blood clotting). We should be proactive and know our medical history better than anyone else-after all, it’s good for our health.

There are many ways to help those less fortunate than we are. One of the easiest ways to do this is to make a monetary donation online. But with so many organizations vying for your dollar, how to do you know which ones are most efficient and trustworthy?

Here are several independent websites that can help you find reputable charities.

Charity Navigator

This is an independent evaluator of over 5,000 charities in the US. They provide helpful statistics such as percent of donations used for fundraising expenses compared to program expenses (funds which directly go to help its cause). It provides various other information such as CEO compensations and mission statements, as well as useful tools such as top-ten lists, category of charities, and keyword search for charities.

American Institute of Philantropy

AIP provides a letter-based grading system factoring in objective information such as percent of donations used for charitable purpose and cost to raise $100. They are financed by public donation and membership. The site also provides tips on how to manage unsolicited mailings and phone calls from charities.

Justgive.org

Justgive.org provides a huge searchable database of charities. They also offer unique ways to donate to charities . The site gives you ability to create a wedding registry, purchase gift certificates, or search for organizations looking for volunteers.

Have you ever had a photo op but didn’t have a decent camera handy and had to resort to your camera phone? Pictures are often grainy, hazy, or too dark under suboptimal conditions. Fortunately, there are numerous free photo editors you can download to salvage those pictures. While most editors provide options to manually fine-tune your pictures (which require some time and experience), some also give you the option to automatically improve picture quality dramatically. Below is a comparison of quick auto-enhancing features of 5 free photo editors. Below are links to download them.

MAGIX Photo Clinic 4.5
Paint.NET
Picasa2
VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor
XnView v1.94.2 Standard

Below is a picture I took on a warm, sunny day at the beach. But it’s hard to appreciate that from this picture taken from a Blackberry Curve. Its camera was set to highest resolution and image quality. With a few clicks of the mouse, I was able to transform the dark, grainy photo into one that’s quite spectacular.

Blackberry Curve (original)

MAGIX Photo Clinic 4.5 (Image→Auto color, Auto contrast).

Paint.NET (Adjustments→Auto Level).

Picasa2 (I’m feeling lucky).

VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor (Effects→Color→Auto color correction).

XnView v1.94.2 Standard (Image Map→Automatic levels, Automatic contrast).

All five were easy to install and use and provide many of the advanced photo editing capabilities similar to ones found in Adobe Photoshop. But of the five , MAGIX Photo Clinic and Picasa2 improved the quality of the pictures the best, adjusting most accurately the color of the sky, clouds, water, structures, and rocks that day. A bonus for Picasa2 is that it also incorporates a great, easy to use photo album.

I like strawberry and chocolate. Who doesn’t? But “gourmet” chocolate-covered strawberries are just too expensive. So here’s a poor man’s recipe for chocolate-covered strawberries that takes only 20 minutes to make and cost a fraction of what you’d pay at a chocolate store. And they taste just as great!

Here’s is my shopping list: (none of the items were on sale)

Ghiradelli Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips 12 oz – $2.99

Ghiradelli Classic White Chips 11oz – $2.99

2 pounds of strawberries (about 35-40 strawberries) – $5.78

TOTAL: $11.76

RESULT: several dozen scrumptious chocolate-covered strawberries for under $12 (under $10 if you don’t care for white chocolate)

Step 1: Items purchased (except the parchment paper). If you have parchment paper, it’s easier to get the strawberries off when the melted chocolate has hardened, but not essential).

Step 2: Rinse, then dry the strawberries (only 1 pound shown) with paper towel. Removing excess moisture helps chocolate stick to the strawberries.

Step 3: Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave. It’s important to melt it incrementally on 50% power, checking every 30 seconds by swirling it with a spoon. Be patient or it will burn.

Step 4: Completely melted semi-sweet chocolate.

Step 5: Dip the strawberries.

Step 6: Semi-sweet chocolate-covered strawberries. Chill in fridge for 10 minutes and serve. See page 2 for optional white chocolate swirls.

Step 7: Melt the white chocolate in the microwave very cautiously (top image). They tend to burn rather easily compared to the semi-sweet chocolate. I used 30% power, checking every 10 seconds. If you use too much power or don’t check frequently, you will end up with dry, chalky inedible mess (lower image).

Step 8 (extra): Perfectly melted white chocolate ready for decorating. I used a chopstick to drip chocolate over the strawberries. Chill in fridge for 10 minutes and serve.

Step 9: Wow! They’re so yummy!

After flip-flopping back and forth for months, I finally decided to start a blog on WordPress. And in less than a minute, my blog was born. This is my first post and it documents how easy it is for anyone to sign up and navigate within WordPress.

Step 1: Go to wordpress.com on your browser, then click on sign up now!

Step 2: Use your imagination and create a username. Then make up a password and fill in your e-mail address.

Step 3: Fill in your blog title and click signup.

Step 4: You’ve successfully created an account! This is your Dashboard. It provides an overview of your blog.

Step 5: Click on Write to start blogging.

Step 6: Click on Manage to view your published and unpublished posts.

Step 7: Click on Design to personalize your blog layout with built-in templates.

Step 8: Click on Comments to decide whether or not, and who, can comment on your posts.

Step 9: You can also purchase upgrades such as more storage or the ability to further customize your blog using CSS (cascading style sheets).