Do Not Forget About Your Kitchen Blender

You may have forgotten that you even own a blender, but if you dig back far enough in the cabinets, there it is. Often we buy a blender for a special occasion and simply never think of how else they can be used so they get pushed back under the cabinet in the appliance graveyard. It is time to resurrect this appliance and put it back to use. If you found your blender, dig it out and lets have some blender fun. If you did not find a blender, then make the investment in this useful little machine. Blenders are great for babies. They can turn ordinary food into gourmet baby food. Just add the veggies, soups, stews or even meats that you cook for your own family to the blender and puree for great baby food. Avoid spicy foods so that the baby's tummy does not get upset. This is a much better alternative than buying those jars where you do not know what is included. Make your own fruit smoothies. Just add some fresh fruit into the blender and blend. Add a few ice cubes, sugar or artificial sweetener and milk. Blend everything up and serve for a tropical treat. You can use a blender to grind coffee beans. You do not need a special appliance to grind the beans. Use your blender on the low setting and grind to the desired texture. You can have fresh tasting coffee with the beans that you grind yourself. Just be sure that you do not blend too long or the beans can burn. Blenders also make great spice grinders. Freshly ground spices are much more intense in flavor so you may need to adjust your recipes. Black pepper, nutmeg and cloves are some of the whole spices that can be ground freshly. You can use your blender to chop nuts. A short blend time will give coarsely ground nuts, a few more seconds gives the fine ground variety. If you want fresh peanut butter, then try making your own in the blender. Add a some roasted peanuts and grind until they turn into peanut butter. Add a few peanuts after the butter forms and grind a little longer for chunky peanut butter. Try making fluffy scrambled eggs or omelets by using the blender to whip the eggs. You will think you are eating a a really good restaurant for breakfast. If your gravy has lumps, a blender can get rid of them. When using hot foods like gravy, a glass blender container is best. Do not fill the container over half full with hot foods to prevent expansion. Yes, blenders still are great for that occasional mixed drink too. For margaritas or pina coladas, you have to have a blender. Virgin versions will be appreciated by those who do not or cannot drink alcohol. Kids will enjoy slushes made by freezing juice in ice cube trays. Blend the cubes of frozen juice with non-frozen juice. To remind yourself to use that blender more often move it out where you can see it on the counter top. Then as you are cooking or preparing snacks, you can be reminded that this is one of the most useful tools in the kitchen. Clean up is a snap, just add hot water and a few drops of detergent. Blend on high for a few minutes and rinse. On occasion, you may need to disassemble the blender container to clean.

Courtesy of a Corky Fatboy!

Picture yourself as a mature speckled trout basking in the shallows of a barren East Matagorda Bay mud flat. At last, beams of light penetrate wintry clouds and are warming an insulating mud bottom, energizing your lethargic attitude. You start to move, cruising right along the flat until you see it - your favorite spot to feed. The patch of mud with its shell pad is a familiar landmark and you think back happily about years past when you would happily fill up on all you can eat shrimp and finger mullet. Your stomach immediately starts to grumble as you recall these feasts. You take up your favored feeding spot right where the mud meets the shell bed, watching the water above you for signs of a meal. You spot a delicious looking six inch mullet at two o' clock and get ready to spring into action. Immediately, you propel at full speed and attack; exploding the waters surface. The six-inch mullet is devoured instantly and lays to rest in the yellow interior of your mouth. You slowly sink back to the warmth of the mud bottom. Almost as soon as you've swallowed the first mullet, you see a slow moving, wobbly mullet a few feet away. Looks wounded, you think as you watch it's brilliant colors sparkle in the water column as it sinks right towards you. Like a flash of lightning you're on the mullet and it's in your jaws - but this one seems to be stronger than you! A forceful shake dislodges your prey, but somehow you're still being pulled upwards and you become too tired to fight back against the pull of that Boga caught in your lip. "Ten pounds at least!" a man yells. Two other men approach, admiringly looking you over. Is that a camera flash you see? Finally they unhook you and pit you back in the water, exhausted but relieved to have survived the ordeal. As you swim away, you hear a voice in the distance exclaiming "That's a Corky Fat Boy For You." Are they talking about you? You haven't even started to bulk up for the year; but you resolve to look closer at your prey next time around. If trophy trout could have these feelings, they would know someone's dream had come true. After James Wallace caught that famous record breaking speck, the news got out in fishing reports in no time and trout fishers everywhere started to use Corky slow sinking soft baits just like Wallace had used. With their wobbly broken-back motion and a size about that of a topwater, these saltwater fishing lures can be just what a big speckled trout is looking for when used with a slow retrieve. "James Wallace really grew our business with that catch," says B&L Corky founder Paul Brown. "Once the word got out, we were sold out of each and every Corky almost instantly." Of course, Corky saltwater fishing lures are still the hottest item at this family owned Houston shop, as they have been since that famous catch. Captain Mike McBride, a fishing guide in Port Mansfield is a man who knows Corkys well and uses these lures along with his own one of a kind retrieve to land speckled trout on the lower Texas coast. "You work your lures a bit differently based on what part of the coast you're on, but I try to pop the knot off while trying to keep up with the slack if at all possible," says McBride. Contrary to the advice you'll find in many of the fishing reports, Captain McBride doesn't generally go with the slower than slow approach many use. He instead uses more aggressive movements which mimic the behavior of real baitfish, which as he points out is the beauty of a Corky in the first place. Captain Jesse Arsola, a Matagorda trophy-trout guide, swears by a particular science when working Corky's. "When you're dealing with trout who are in an aggressive mood they'll bite just about anything. However, those times when you have to work at it to get them interested, that is when your technique really matters." "If I use a Corky, I'm usually using a counting system. I keep track of how long it takes the lure to hit bottom, then I vary the amount of time I allow my Corky to sink before I pull out the slack. From there, it's just a matter of identifying what count you tend to get bites on. This is a really easy way to figure out just where in the water column the trout are feeding." Captain John Havens, a tournament angler from Clear Lake, Texas favors chartreuse, white, and gold sided Corky Devil and a rather routine retrieve. "The most important thing is to keep in contact with your lure so you can feel even the smallest bites," says Havens. When using Corky Devil saltwater fishing lures, he gives the rod a lift and a quick twitch or two before letting it fall while retrieving.